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| anafromspain |
 Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 8:59 pm |
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Jen's Obsessed Friend
Joined: 03 Apr 2008
Posts: 338
Location: Denia (Alicante) SPAIN
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| hmmm...(thinking) He might go with her (now that it's "official"), but... we'll have to wait and see... |
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| MegFL |
| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:23 pm |
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Jen's Oldest Fan
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Posts: 3438
Location: Florida
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Making 'Marley & Me' with director David Frankel
Holiday movie preview
BY RENE RODRIGUEZ
[email protected]
BY RENE RODRIGUEZ
[email protected]
When filmmaker David Frankel showed a rough cut of his film The Devil Wears Prada to his boss, Fox 2000 Pictures president Elizabeth Gabler, she was so pleased that she handed him a copy of another best-selling book to adapt into a movie: Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog.
Written by former Sun-Sentinel columnist John Grogan, the 2005 book recounted his and his wife Jenny's experiences with their Labrador retriever Marley, who grew from an adorable, precocious puppy into a hyperactive, relentlessly mischievous dog who discovered altogether new strains of canine bad behavior.
Although Frankel liked the book, he politely declined the opportunity to turn it into a film.
''It's a lovely book, and it made me cry, but I just didn't see the movie,'' Frankel said earlier this month over a glass of wine at Greenstreet Cafe in Coconut Grove, just a few blocks from his home. ``There's no conflict in it. It's charming chapter by chapter, but it's just an account of these people's lives. I didn't see how the pieces fit together to make a movie.''
A few months later, Gabler again pitched the project to Frankel, this time giving him an actual script, by screenwriter Scott Frank (Get Shorty, Out of Sight). And this time, Frankel immediately saw a movie, which wound up being filmed mostly in South Florida.
''What Scott wrote into the script was a sense of longing,'' Frankel said. ``He didn't make it an episodic, literal translation of the book. He made it the story of a marriage -- the whole rollercoaster ride this couple goes through over a period of 14 years. I felt like it was as close to an autobiographical film as I could possibly make, because it's about a happily married writer who lives in South Florida with his dog, and I'm happily married, living in Miami, writing some of the time, and I have five dogs.''
Unlike Marley, Frankel's dogs are all strays. Much like Marley, they are all ''crazy,'' he says. ``You come to my house, and you'll find chairs with holes six inches deep. There are no bedspreads in my home that have not been chewed up.''
More importantly, though, the 49-year-old Frankel, who has two children, connected with something deeper in Frank's script: The restlessness felt by John (played by Owen Wilson) who, despite his love for his wife Jennifer (Jennifer Aniston) and their three kids and his job as a successful newspaper columnist, still yearns for that archetypal, elusive ``something more.''
'I love my wife, and I love my kids, and yet there are always days when I think, `Is this it?' '' Frankel said. ``We all occasionally feel a sense that we haven't realized everything we thought our lives would be.
''That's what I wanted the movie to capture, and that's why the dog is such a beautiful metaphor for happiness,'' Frankel said. 'Dogs don't look forward, and they don't look back. They are all about `How can I be happy in this very moment?' People often forget to do that. My wife called it the most wistful movie she's ever seen.''
In casting an actor to capture that wistfulness, Frankel made a surprising choice in Wilson, previously best known for playing clowns and ne'er-do-wells (Wedding Crashers,Drillbit Taylor).
''This movie is a huge departure for Owen,'' Frankel said. ``He's such a remarkable actor, and no one really knows it. What you see in this movie is who Owen really is. There's a real sweetness to him, but you get the pain, too. He's Jimmy Stewart, although no one thinks of him that way.''
For the role of his wife, the studio suggested Aniston, but Frankel initially thought the actress would not be believable playing a woman from the age of 28 to her 40s. But upon meeting her, it took him two seconds to decide she was ``perfect.''
''And when she and Owen met, their chemistry was so charming, I knew this movie was going to be so easy,'' Frankel said.
Less easy was wrangling the 22 dogs it took to play Marley from puppydom to age 14. The bulk of Marley's scenes as a young adult, which take up two-thirds of the movie, were played by Clyde, a Labrador that Frankel says was trained to be rambunctious.
''The trainers could get him to do whatever we needed, but he's never been taught not to jump up on people or chew whatever he wants to chew,'' Frankel said. 'Basically, he's never been told `No.' He's crazily energetic, and Grogan testified he's the spitting image of the real Marley. The trick was that the actors had to be ready to go on take one, because Clyde was always was brilliant on the first take. But he would get easily bored after that.''
Many of the other dogs that played Marley were cast for their ability to do one specific trick, like howling at the window or circling around in the water. One older dog portrayed Marley as a senior.
Although the potential for melodrama in Marley & Me's last half-hour was enormous, Frankel says he tried hard to make sure he was never being invasive of the audience's feelings.
''Jen and Owen and I talked a lot about giving the movie sentiment but not making it sentimental,'' Frankel said. ``Owen himself is not a sentimental guy, which I think helps when you see someone like that feeling pain. It makes it more touching and powerful. The other thing was to not to underline any of the emotion with the camerawork and the music. I tried really hard never to hammer.''
Even though the real-life Marley's health deteriorated over the span of a couple of years, Frankel condensed the dog's aging to a couple of short moments in the film.
``This is a movie about a man who is now middle-aged and acknowledging -- not confronting, but acknowledging -- his own mortality. We all have to deal with the end of things. Hopefully the movie provides you with a lot of space to project elements of your own life into it. In that sense, the spareness of the story -- the simplicity of it -- is beautiful.
``The surprise audience for Prada was middle-aged men, who turned out in huge numbers. I think the same thing will happen here. In a way, the core target audience for Marley and Me is men in their 40s, because we are at that time in life where we've lost some dogs, and we know there are still more to lose, and we are hyper-aware of the need to celebrate each day.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/movies/story/779629.html |
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| MegFL |
| Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 8:57 pm |
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Jen's Oldest Fan
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Posts: 3438
Location: Florida
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Box Office Mojo posted their weekly MPAA rating updates yesterday. Not much to report. Two noteworthy items do pop out, though. The big news involves Marley & Me. The Jennifer Aniston/Owen Wilson romantic dramedy, that revolves around a troubled marriage and a dog, has acquired a PG (thematic material, some suggestive content and language). The only thing more rare than a live-action non-kid�s flick getting a G is a live-action non-kid�s flick getting a PG. Really, I can�t even remember the last adult drama/comedy that received a PG rating. Was the last one Contact, back in July 1997 (that shocked me too)? The PG is still used for family adventure films (Journey To The Center Of The Earth, Bedtime Stories), kid-centered dramas or musicals (Akeelah And The Bee, Hairspray) and cartoons (Bolt), but it�s use for live-action films aimed at adults is more or less nonexistent at this point. Heck, even Mamma Mia! somehow pulled off a PG-13, although content-wise it probably deserved a G (was the harsh rating just because of the insinuation that Streep slept around in her youth?). Come what may, good for Fox for not tossing in a gratuitous �F-word� just to get the �harder� PG-13.
http://www.filmthreat.com/blog/?p=1280 |
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| cookie jar |
| Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:04 pm |
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Moderator: Veni, vidi, vacatum.
Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 6269
Location: Germany
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Wow, I am also surprised Marley & Me got a PG rating. Not just surprised, pretty shocked, actually.
Thanks for both articles, Meg. |
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Other than that, I'm fine." - Am�lie, Le Fabuleux destin d'Am�lie Poulain |
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| jenniferanistonCA |
| Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:03 pm |
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Jen's Obsessed Friend
Joined: 03 Jun 2008
Posts: 249
Location: Los Angeles, California
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I have to say I was pretty surprised it's rated PG too.
It's annoying that everyone I know thinks it's a stupid dog movie.
I'm like ITS NOT ABOUT THE DOG! It has to do with the married couple AND the dog!
ughhh. |
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| stephanie1811 |
| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:13 am |
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Hey! Where's my individual title?
Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 955
Location: los angeles, CA
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i know
my friends think the same good thing a kid from my school is on my side |
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| MegFL |
| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:19 am |
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Jen's Oldest Fan
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Posts: 3438
Location: Florida
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jenniferanistonCA wrote: I have to say I was pretty surprised it's rated PG too.
It's annoying that everyone I know thinks it's a stupid dog movie.
I'm like ITS NOT ABOUT THE DOG! It has to do with the married couple AND the dog!
ughhh.
Frankel said in an interview that he was trying hard to get a PG rating. Good for him.
Sorry about the stupid dog movie remarks you're running into. I'm sure you can sway them. lol
What I'm running into is great - people who have read the book, loved it and can't wait for the movie. |
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| apothecary06 |
| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:59 am |
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Moderator: Jen's Chi-town Chica
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
Posts: 1830
Location: Chicago, IL
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MegFL wrote: jenniferanistonCA wrote: I have to say I was pretty surprised it's rated PG too.
It's annoying that everyone I know thinks it's a stupid dog movie.
I'm like ITS NOT ABOUT THE DOG! It has to do with the married couple AND the dog!
ughhh.
Frankel said in an interview that he was trying hard to get a PG rating. Good for him.
Sorry about the stupid dog movie remarks you're running into. I'm sure you can sway them. lol
What I'm running into is great - people who have read the book, loved it and can't wait for the movie.
At the signing, John also said that he was hoping for a PG, so it's a good thing. Really, if it attracts the dog-movie crowd, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world box-office wise - there are a lot of dog people out there. I think that the trailer does a good job of conveying that there's something more there, and so far Jen has made a point of mentioning that in her interviews, so I am hopeful that it will transcend the stigma. |
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| jenniferanistonCA |
| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 6:18 pm |
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Jen's Obsessed Friend
Joined: 03 Jun 2008
Posts: 249
Location: Los Angeles, California
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Yes, I've been saying that to many people, and after rewatching the trailers, it is more than clear that they've tried to make it more than that.
Jen's said it herself. |
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| MegFL |
| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 2:31 am |
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Jen's Oldest Fan
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Posts: 3438
Location: Florida
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John Grogan is doing a lot of promotion for the movie. He seems really proud of it. From John�s Blog.
We Now Interrupt This Program for a Public Service Announcement from that Marley Guy...
Saturday, November 15, 2008
As you can imagine, I was excited to be able to hang out on the movie set during the filming of Marley & Me. The one aspect of shooting that made me slightly uncomfortable was the extreme cuteness of the Labradors drafted into service to play Marley. Even when they were being "bad" they were so damn adorable, it was hard not to sigh and think, "Oh, how I'd love to have one of those in my house."
So when the American Kennel Club approached me about doing a public service announcement in conjunction with the movie, warning those who might be smitten by these big, energetic animals what they could be getting themselves into, I gladly agreed. The theme of the PSA is responsible dog ownership. I wanted people considering a dog, especially those drawn by the emotional tug of a heartwarming movie, to pause and think twice about whether they are prepared for everything dog ownership entails. Especially bringing home loving but challenging dogs of the Marley variety.
The sad subtext of Marley & Me is that for every wild, hard-to-control animal like Marley who finds a loving, lifelong home, dozens end up being abandoned. If there is a message I hope readers will take away from my book, and the movie too, it is that dogs are not appliances. They are not fashion accessories. They are not commodities to be blithely discarded when they become inconvenient. The PSA is designed to drive home that lesson while still celebrating the great joys of bringing a dog into a family.
We filmed the PSA on a beautiful farm in rural Pennsylvania about an hour from my home. At my side was my own new addition, Woodson the Lab puppy my family adopted from the movie set. The PSA is being offered to television stations across the country to air as the Marley & Me movie prepares to debut on Christmas day. The PSA comes in 60-, 30-, and 15-second versions, and there is a print ad, too that is being made available to print media around the country.
To view the PSA and see still photos of Woodson and me on the set for the PSA, please follow this link:
http://www.akc.org/press_center/marley.cfm
The PSA (above link) has some really cute clips from the movie and I love this picture from the AKC site.
Puppies who played Marley and his littermates in the film chew on each other... and their AKC/Marley & Me branded rabbit toy |
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| apothecary06 |
| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 2:49 am |
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Moderator: Jen's Chi-town Chica
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
Posts: 1830
Location: Chicago, IL
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It's really weird, I just found that a moment ago myself! You beat me to it, lol, thanks for posting  I'm glad that they're doing their part to emphasize responsibility - those puppies are cute, but it takes work to raise one. |
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| MegFL |
| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:20 pm |
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Jen's Oldest Fan
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Posts: 3438
Location: Florida
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Have we seen this new book cover? I don't remember it.
http://books.sears.com/TRP/actions/searchHandler.do?itemNum=ITEM:4&key=0007801998&nextPage=booksDetails&parentNum=11532 |
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| Dilyana |
| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:26 pm |
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Jen's Obsessed Friend
Joined: 12 Jul 2008
Posts: 391
Location: Bulgaria /Europe/
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I think I saw this but it was a long time ago. They are really sweet !!  |
Last edited by Dilyana on Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
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| tassia |
| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:26 pm |
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Hey! Where's my individual title?
Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Posts: 1091
Location: Italy
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| Awwww thank you Meg, it is just lovely..the puppy is soo cutee |
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| MegFL |
| Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:13 pm |
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Jen's Oldest Fan
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Posts: 3438
Location: Florida
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Hawaii Pet Magazine Celebrates Marley & Me Movie Premiere with LA Giveaway
Posted on: Sunday, November 23, 2008
Hawaii Pet Magazine is proud to be the official Hawaii sponsor of Marley & Me, starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, debuting nationwide on December 25th. To celebrate, they're giving away A Trip for 2 to the Los Angeles Red Carpet Premiere of Marley & Me.
"I've always been a huge fan [of the book] Marley & Me and have been counting the days until the movie premiere," stated Mary Long, Publisher of Hawaii Pet Magazine. "We're excited to be the official Hawaii sponsor of Marley & Me and brighten everyone's holidays this year with our Los Angeles Marley & Me Red Carpet Premiere Package giveaway."
The Marley & Me Los Angeles Movie Premiere Package includes airfare, accommodations and tickets for two to the red carpet premiere of Marley & Me in Los Angeles on December 11th. To learn more, enter and read the official rules, go to www.hawaiipetnetwork.com and click on the Marley & Me links. One entry per person per day. The sweepstakes runs from November 21, 2008, through December 4, 2008 and the winner will be announced KHON Fox2's morning show on December 5.
Based on the best selling novel by John Grogan, Marley & Me tells the "tail" of a really bad dog and the owners who love him through thick and thin. The movie stars Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson as the owners of the world's worst dog.
"We'll also be giving away more local Marley & me items throughout December including 100 passes to the local premiere screening, books, posters and more," added Mary Long.
Hawaii Pet Magazine is the proud to provide its readers with local pet resources, news, events, fashion, recipes, advice and a new community network at www.hawaiipetnetwork.com. Complimentary issues are available statewide at local veterinary offices, pet stores, pet events, public libraries, waiting rooms and select retail locations.
For more information about the Marley & Me Los Angeles Red Carpet Movie Premiere Giveaway and Hawaii Pet Magazine, visit www.hawaiipetnetwork.com.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081123/GETPUBLISHED/811230373/-1/localnewsfront
And check out the home page for Hawaii Pet Magazine. They have a trailer, clips, the poster and lots of nice stuff about Marley & Me. NEATO!
http://www.hawaiipetmagazine.com/home.html
You can read the latest issue online at the below link. Just keep paging forward with the big arrows at the top and you will see the adorable Marley & Me article.
http://issuu.com/kukona/docs/hawaii_pet_magazine_november2008/5?mode=embed&documentId=081124190420-13b7641e10c54d02a73da3c47d22b859&layout=wood |
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