Monday, September 5, 2011

Payne and Clooney Score Big Wins with The Descendants

Fox Searchlight’s first trailer for The Descendants made Alexander Payne’s return to the screen, after winning best original screenplay (with Jim Taylor) for 2004’s Sideways, look like a well-meaning family drama. It’s far more than that. “Alexander should make more movies,” said George Clooney at the Telluride patron’s brunch Friday. Of course he should, but this is the one he was able to get made, and it’s well worth the wait. Clooney wasn’t right for Sideways, but wanted to work with Payne, who gave him the script two years ago in Toronto. They were shooting in Hawaii by March. At the Q & A after the rousingly received first public showing at Telluride, Clooney admitted that he “worried about my ability to be such a schlub.” While Payne deflected Clooney’s compliments—“you write and you direct really well”—he did admit: “I cast well.”

SEE: Telluride Reviews: Thompson on Hollywood

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