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| That loud shriek you heard recently was a million teenage girls rejoicing over their successful efforts to land a release date for "Haven," the long-delayed Orlando Bloom drama that finally hits theaters April 21. "That's cool," Bloom said of fan efforts that included an online petition demanding to finally see the film that first screened at the Toronto Film Festival in 2004. "I love it. That's awesome." Reflecting on the delay, Bloom admitted his frustration while insisting that it's an unfortunate side effect of his chosen career. "It's a part of life, you know. Especially part of the movie business; you just have to expect it. I'm used to making big movies that get made, sold and open straight away. But this was a real labor of love, and the director took it to Toronto, recut the movie, and it's taken a little while to get going. But it's in good shape." Co-starring Bill Paxton and Zoe Saldana, "Haven" tells a "Traffic"-like tale involving an unscrupulous businessman (Paxton) and the two lovers (Bloom and Saldana) who get caught up in his web of violence. ... |
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| Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with MiraJeff who tells us of an ensemble flick with everybody from Bill Paxton to Orlando Bloom called HAVEN. The plot sounds very... involved and complicated. So, here's MiraJeff to explain to you the huge plot of HAVEN! Enjoy! Greetings AICN, MiraJeff here with a look at the long-gestating Orlando Bloom film, Haven. Writer/Director Frank E. Flowers’ ensemble drama made the festival rounds back in 2004, but is only finding theatrical release this week. Reviews have been all over the board for this movie but personally, I’m glad to see it isn’t being given the direct-to-video release because really, it’s better than that really, although it’s certainly not anywhere near as good as Crash, the film it’s compared to in the press notes. (And yes, I loved Crash. Sue me. And please, bear with me through all the parenthesis, plural.) Like Crash, Haven is another non-linear Bob Yari production with an ensemble cast, although this film is set in the Cayman Islands, which are gorgeously shot by director of photography Michael Bernard and native Flowers. Haven begins on Friday the 13th as a crooked American businessman named Carl (Bill Paxton) learns (via mystery fax) that the feds are onto him and his partner, the mysterious Mr. Allen (Stephen Dillane), whose son (Lee Ingleby) is best friends with Orlando Bloom’s character, providing further story linkage, as well as the film’s most awkward subplot. Anyways, Carl packs a bag for his daughter, Pippa, (Agnes Bruckner, channeling Jennie Garth) and hightails it out of the country as the feds (including Bobby Canavale) search his Miami residence for evidence of shady dealings. As soon as Carl gets to the Caymans, he has to immediately find the bank where his dirty money is hidden, since the island’s banks are closing left and right because of illegalities. Meanwhile, the flirtatious Pippa befriends an island native, Fritz (Victor Rasuk), who she finds sleeping in her new bungalow’s bed. When Pippa returns Fritz’s wallet to him later, he makes it his mission to be her personal guide on the island and show her a good time. Fritz takes Pippa to a party, but it’s not long before he’s spotted by some shady people and ditches her. When Fritz is finally caught, he wiggles off the hook by tipping the island’s gang leader Ritchie Rich (Razaaq Adoti) onto Carl, who Fritz saw with a lot of money taped to his stomach when he was picking up Pippa to go out. The party Fritz and Pippa attend is where the first storyline intersects with the characters in the second, which takes place four months after the film’s flashbacks. This story involves one of the gang’s members, an ex-con rich kid name Hammer (a superb Anthony Mackie). Hammer is having a bad day because Shy (Orlando Bloom), the guy who is in love with his sister Andrea (Zoe Saldana), has finally reared his ugly (literally) head in public again since Hammer threw acid on his face because he thought Shy raped his sister. But when we first see Bloom and Saldana, they’re swimming in the blue-green waters of the Caribbean just off an idyllic beach shore that’s out of sight of her father’s armed boat. She looks just like a young Thandie Newton, absolutely gorgeous. His single mother is her teacher and her wealthy father (Robert Wisdom) is his boss. We also get a bit of back-story explaining Shy’s nickname, which he earned when he stopped talking for five years after his father, a fisherman, was murdered. Unfortunately, the acid incident forever alters their relationship and while Shy chooses to hide his scarred face and shun her and his loyal sidekick Kimo (a solid Mpho Koaho), she spirals out of control, becoming a junkie whore who tells one guy to just “take me somewhere and **** the shit out of me.” When Shy witnesses her behavior for himself in a bathroom at the party, it sets something off inside of him, and when Hammer basically tells him that he would rather his sister be a whore than live happily ever after with Shy. He’d rather see his sister waste her life on drugs than on a white, working-class island boy like Shy, who responds with an act of violence that inevitably forces him to turn his back on the only place he’s ever called home and set sail on a boat appropriately named Destiny. Although this love triangle is the heart of the film, it feels like it belongs in a different movie, or at least one that has more time to devote to the proper development of its story. Instead, lumped in with the Paxton story, it feels like a potpourri of ideas, a hodge-podge/mish-mash/whatever-you-wanna-call-it that mostly works, but stumbles at times under the weight of its own self-importance. The acting all around was pretty impressive, especially Orlando Bloom, who wasn’t a whiny pussy for once. That doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven him for Elizabethtown yet. Elsewhere, Paxton’s character falls out of the film for long stretches of time and besides convincingly acting paranoid, he kind of sleepwalks through the role. It looks like he was saving his stronger work for Big Love, which is doing a commendable job of filling the Six Feet Under void for me. In supporting roles, Joy Bryant plays Mr. Allen’s seductive and secretive assistant and Jake Weber is a scary local sheriff who knocks some sense into the mischievous Fritz. Although the scene, which is set in a Laundromat, feels out of place, it is nonetheless effective, as Weber warns him that “if you run with assholes you come out smelling like shit.” After beating the boy with a baton, Weber snaps, calling Fritz “a white-washed wanna-be American.” Of the rest of the cast, Mackie and Rasuk really stand out. Rasuk has come a long way since the days of Raising Victor Vargas and he makes Fritz a street-smart punk who we actually care about. He has a unique energy that really seems to capture the atmosphere of the Caymans. I forgot how much I liked him as Tony Alva in Lords of Dogtown. Even still, the best performance in Haven is Mackie’s. He’s an actor who I’ve noticed before and consider a rising star. He was Papa Doc in 8 Mile, the cocky boxer Morgan Freeman knocks out in Million Dollar Baby, a gang member with a conscience in Spike Lee’s underappreciated Sucker Free City, and most recently shined in Ryan Fleck’s Half Nelson which I saw this past weekend and thought was fantastic. There’s something about Mackie’s unexplained and unrestrained anger here that really makes his commanding performance standout. He’s certainly an actor to watch. Flowers’ debut features some strong writing and visuals, but aside from some cool time-lapse effects, the editing is all over the place and some unnecessary flashbacks interrupt the flow of the narrative, which is more difficult than it has to be to understand. I mean, this movie isn’t rocket science folks. Overall I have to give it credit for being a stylish character piece that is rarely predictable and features a very good score. It’s fairly compelling and engrossing for the most part and Flowers seems to be a promising filmmaker with an ear for dialogue and an international eye. Haven is definitely worth the trip, if only to see Orlando Bloom looking like a young Freddy Krueger. That’ll do it for me, folks. The Tribeca Film Festival will be opening its doors any day now, so keep your eyes peeled for fresh updates from NYC. ‘Til next time, this is MiraJeff signing off… |
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| Oh gosh, you know what? It's a terrible story. That movie screened at Toronto about a year and a half ago. It was a very ambitious project by a first time writer/director by the name of Frank E Flowers that all of us fell in love with the script that all of us got - it was a huge cast - a real who's who cast. It's where I met Stephen Dillane and fell in love with him for "Greatest Game" and me and Stephen came down to Toronto to the festival, we saw the movie, we thought he'd pulled it off, and there were some criticisms that it might be 5 or 10 minutes long. Okay, give it a hair cut, but this works, it's ready to go. Allright, cut to about a month ago, I see the film. It was taken away from the film maker, recut by the producer, Bob Yari, and basically, I've never seen a film so butchered in my life. I mean butchered. I mean, this thing, I won't have anything to do with publisizing it now. I called Frank E, I said 'Frank E, you should have your name taken off this thing'. But for him, he's trying to get on to the next one, but I mean, talk about a debacle. I'm really disappointed in the out come of that film. When I saw they had a pretty good movie, so anyway, anyhow - I don't - I'm kind of staying out of that, that whole thing. I don't think it does me any good or anyone else good to kind of carp about that film, but gosh, I couldn't believe it. That was heartbreaking. |
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| Frank E. Flowers' Haven attempts to bring fresh perspectives on class and racial conflicts, but it just gets tangled up in its overcomplicated plotlines. The idyllic paradise the film sets up only to be torn down loses its impact despite good intentions. A series of intertwining stories that span a four-month period unfold in Haven beginning with the shady dealings of Miami businessman Carl Ridley (Bill Paxton, A Simple Plan) and his Cayman Islands partner Mr. Allen (Stephen Dillane, King Arthur). After being exposed by the feds, Ridley and his disgruntled daughter Pippa (Agnes Bruckner, Murder by Numbers) flee to the Islands in hope of starting over. The plot then abruptly flashes back to a tale of star-crossed lovers. British ex-pat and slacker Shy (Orlando Bloom) falls in love with his rich boss's daughter Andrea Sterling (Zoe Saldana, Drumline). After spending a night together, the sweethearts face the consequences of their actions and spark off a chain of events that end in murder. From there, Flowers throws in a third rendition of the events, a few subplots and a dozen extra characters. By the time the audience filters through all the dead-end leads, it is impossible to focus on the two main stories. A little editing could have gone a long way in preserving the film's smart, non-linear style. Instead, only minor characters and repetitive flashbacks feebly connect the pieces. Each story relies heavily on preconceived notions of utopia and clips any potential development by flat-lining with questions like "What do you know about love?" The frequent chronological jumps undermine the bold issues that the film tries to explore, such as the effects of post-colonization and the power of social norms. Due to its jam-packed agenda, Haven fails to flesh out any of its main leads. Despite Paxton's endearing performance, the relationship between Ridley and daughter is flat and lifeless. However, Victor Rasuk (Lords Of Dogtown), at least, shines as local bad boy Fritz, who lures Pippa away to an island party. As the angst-ridden lover, co-producer Bloom even agrees to pull a Charlize Theron and plays an acid-scarred Shy to no avail. The script refuses to delve further into the tormented character and allows the actor little room to move, despite his best efforts. Luckily, the star of the show is the haven itself. The film's Cayman backdrop is refreshing and the plot sparkles with island culture. The scenic views and earnest performances are the film's saving grace, but cannot account for an overcrowded script. It is disappointing to see such a promising project undone by a fuzzy focus and an anticlimactic ending. As Andrea Sterling says to her lover, Haven is one of those island films "that's always stuck on spring break." It gets off the proverbial plane and lets its intellectual premises fly out the window. |
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| Frank E. Flowers' "Haven" starring Orlando Bloom is coming to theatres September 15th and we have an early look for you. When we spoke to Orlando Bloom about the film and why he did "Haven" his answer was, quote: For me, to get to do a human story amongst all these larger than life characters that I've been playing is awesome and that's what really I want to be doing. What I'm looking for now is really human stories. I did a personal human story with Cameron Crowe. I'm looking for projects like "Haven." It was a first time director. It was the first movie he ever shot in the Cayman Islands by a young Caymanian guy, 23 years old. He wrote and directed it. It was a really great experience. I shot more in one day than I have in six months on "Pirates." Eight scenes a day, it was phenomenal and I just got to do it. And I want that. It gives a spontaneity that you can't get when you've spent six hours in your trailer and then you walk on set and you do three minutes. It's hard to have that spontaneity when you're doing a big movie. I'm not saying you can't get it, but it's a challenge. Once in this movie, we would look at each other and go, ‘Am I a stuntman or an actor.’ I've forgotten. You kind of feel like that, but then you see the end product and you go, ‘Great.’ There is that. The HAVEN story is this; Imagine you just got a fax that the Feds will be at your door in a matter of minutes. The government has remembered the taxes you forgot to pay and it’s time to take an extended vacation. No problem – you can pack light and still get by with a little extra weight strapped around your midsection – 28 lbs. to be exact – the weight of a cool million in hundred dollar bills. Such is the case with corrupt businessman Carl Ridley (Bill Paxton). He let his greed get the better of him, and now he’s on the run, his daughter Pippa (Agnes Bruckner) reluctantly in tow. Just turned 18, Pippa is not happy to leave her friends and comfortable life in Miami, even if it’s for the exotic Cayman Islands, but Dad’s in kind of a rush, so there’s no time for questions. When they get to the islands, Ridley is preoccupied. Banks are rapidly closing and he’s got to find a clean place to store his dirty money. In fact, he doesn’t even notice that the bungalow he rented is already occupied -- but his daughter sure does. She finds native Caymanian Fritz (Victor Rasuk) sleeping off a late night in her bed, and when she walks in on him, he flees out the window, leaving his wallet behind. Suddenly Pippa’s not so sorry about landing in paradise. She tracks down Fritz and discovers that the local bad boy is a real charmer who’s more than willing to show her the island, including its wild parties. But Fritz has a dark side, too. He owes money to island gang leader Ritchie Ritch (Raz Adoti), and when he spies Pippa’s dad handling a lot of cash, Fritz suddenly knows how to get Ritchie off his back. Unaware that she’s leading her father into even more trouble than he had in the United States, Pippa and her innocence are headed for a rude awakening. Also about to have their innocence destroyed are young lovers Shy and Andrea (Orlando Bloom and Zoë Saldana), who finally consummate their passion, only to be discovered by Andrea’s brother, gang wannabe Hammer (Anthony Mackie). Acting on his father’s wishes, Hammer is bent on ending the relationship . . . no matter what it takes. Written and directed by native Caymanian Frank E. Flowers, and filmed entirely in the 100-square mile West Indies paradise, Haven is an edgy, suspenseful, viscerally gripping ensemble film in which unconnected lives intersect and ignite a violent chain of events that turns tranquility into chaos. In an instant, greed collides with innocence and passion goes up against those who forbid it, and all at once an idyllic tropical refuge becomes anything but safe. |
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| The film Haven, directed and written by Caymanian Frank E. Flowers, is planned for limited release from Friday, 15 September. Haven, filmed in Cayman during 2003, was originally due for release in April, however Mr. Flowers said it was put back to September to avoid coinciding with the release of the blockbuster movie Pirates of the Caribbean. Haven, the director’s first full length feature, will initially be shown in eight cities across the US, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Miami before expanding to 40 cities by the end of the theatrical run. Mr. Flowers said that they are also working with the local cinema in Cayman. “It is a big priority for us to have a screening in Cayman,” the director said. Plans are currently under way for a Cable and Wireless sponsored screening to be shown in Cayman during September. At the time of going to press C&W were unable to confirm any details. The film, which cost in the region of US$6 million to make, involves a shady US businessman (Bill Paxton) who flees to Cayman to avoid federal prosecution. At the same time a Romeo–and–Juliet style love affair is chronicled by Orlando Bloom and Zoe Saldana. Haven has had numerous mentions in the international press, thanks to Orlando Bloom. “He has been very supportive of the campaign and is very excited about the film,” the director said. “Obviously he is very proud of Haven and small films need support like this.” Since the filming of Haven wrapped up, Mr. Flowers has branched out into the music industry. He directed the music video Road to Zion, with Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, featuring Nas, and most recently a music video for Ziggy Marley’s latest single Love is my Religion. The director is also working on a script for his second film, The Trespasser, for 20th Century Fox. Both movie making and music videos are proving equally fulfilling to Mr. Flowers. “Music videos are very satisfying as they turn around very quickly – you shoot one week and about 10 days later the piece is on MTV. Movies take a much longer time to reach audiences and have many steps; theatrical, DVD, cable, all of which have their due process.” Commenting on the film, Mr. Flowers reflected: “Haven was especially inspiring as it was such a mammoth undertaking for my first film. To have it out in the world, especially in Cayman, is such an honour, to see a slice of Cayman’s culture on the big screen. I am excited to see how it all goes over.” |
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| Actor ORLANDO BLOOM realised that producing movies isn't all it's cracked up to be when he was left wincing over a scene in his new movie HAVEN, in which his co-star kicks a car door. Bloom makes his producing debut with the indie film, which also stars his PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL co-star ZOE SALDANA, and admits he started worrying about budgetary concerns he usually ignores. He explains, "There's a scene in the movie where Zoe Saldana kicks the door of a Mini... It costs 10 grand ($10,000). "Ordinarily on set you don't think about those things; if you're, like, the actor, it's not my problem, but suddenly it's like, 'Oh my God.'" |
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| Sexy ZOE SANDANA has praised ORLANDO BLOOM for clutching her naked body to his after the cameras stopped rolling as they were shooting love scenes in new indie film HAVEN. Saldana reteamed with the hunky star after playing a pirate alongside him in the first PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN film - and found him to be the perfect big screen love interest. The actress, who plays a wealthy socialite in love with petty thief Bloom in the new film, admits she was terrified about shooting love scenes with him, but he made her feel comfortable. She explains, "It's good to have a familiar face and one you can trust. "Whenever they would say 'Cut' he wouldn't just get up, if I was lying on his chest; he would wait until they would bring me my robe and I find that to be so meaningful for a woman." 11/09/2006 20:32 |
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| Orlando Bloom jetted into Hollywood for the premiere of his new indie movie Haven - but remained tight-lipped about the rumours of his supposed break-up with girlfriend Kate Bosworth. Orlando's publicist was on hand to yank the star away the moment his personal life was brought up. The actor was otherwise in a good mood as he hit the red carpet to promote his latest flick. Set in the Cayman Islands, it sees the former elf as a man called Shy who falls in love with a local girl and suffers disastrous consequences when her angry brother throws acid in his face. And while the hunk does 'uglify' a little for the role, it won't be enough to scare away his female fans - much to the chagrin of the man himself. "I wanted it to be worse," he reveals. "I wanted to lose an eye or something. But it takes a lot of time to have that kind of make-up put on in the morning and I was only there for two-and-a-half weeks. "But hopefully people will love it." |