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Uh Oh: Terrence Malick’s “Lawless” — with Gosling, Mara, Fassbender–Was “Mostly Improvised”

by Roger Friedman - March 1, 2014 1:38 pm
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In Terrence Malick’s last movie, “To the Wonder,” Ben Affleck said not a word. The movie made 12 cents and is best used as a sleep aid. Now I’m told that one of his two next films, which are somewhere near completion, is completely improvised. “Lawless,” which will need a new title since we just had a movie called “Lawless,” stars a bunch of big names.

Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender are three of them. It’s about — we’ll see if it’s about anything– love triangles. Gosling, Mara, and Berenice Marlohe comprise one of those triangles. Marlohe told me last night at Armani’s cocktail party for Martin Scorsese that she has no idea what the plot is since she only got 20 pages of script. This should be fun.

A lot of stars turned out for Scorsese including Robert DeNiro with wife Grace Hightower; Samuel L. Jackson, and Glenn Close. Scorsese was first to leave, which DeNiro didn’t realize right away. Finally it dawned on him, amusingly, that he was letting strangers chat him up after the honoree was gone. But the party was cool, the people were beautiful, and Armani has the nicest store on Rodeo Drive. It was all good!

No headlines, but Samuel L. Jackson said he will be front and center when wife LaTanya Richardson opens on Broadway with Denzel Washington for “A Raisin in the Sun.” “I said I’d come to the first preview,” Sam told me, “and she said, No no no! But I’ll be there opening night.” Then he heads to Europe for the next “Avengers” movie.

Elsewhere last night: “12 Years a Slave” director was guest of honor at the annual British consulate party branded the GREAT British Film reception. Lots of Brits crowded into a tented backyard. But it wasn’t raining! Yet. Among the guests: Helen Mirren, Jacqueline Bisset, Sally Hawkins, and 20 of the 26 British nominees for the Academy Awards caught up with each other over canapes. I was happy to see the great Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, aka Mr. Eko from “Lost.” He stars in a new TV series called “Odyssey” which we will see soon, and he’s in “Pompeii” and just wrapped “Annie.” Adewale told me he had to go to boot camp for “Pompeii” for three weeks four hours a day of training. He skipped the canapes!