Spotlight Michael

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Star Spotlight: MICHAEL FASSBENDER

This German-Irish actor first caught audience attention as Stelios in Zack Snyder’s 300, the epic tale of the Spartans’ last standing battle against Xerxes and the Persians at Thermopylae, also starring Gerard Butler. Fassbender then moved on to yet another subtle role in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, as the doomed British Pilot Archie Hicox, whose three fingered gesture gave himself away to the suspecting Nazis. He was barely recognizable in 2010’s Jonah Hex, as Turnbull’s (John Malkovich) heavily facially-tattooed henchman; and he re-embraced his historical roots as an ancient Roman general in the more obscure Centurion.

Fassbender has starred in a fresh interpretation of Jane Eyre as Mr. Rochester, opposite Alice in Wonderland’s Mia Wasikowska; as we speak he is one the silver screen once again as Eric Lehnsherr, more commonly known as Magneto, in the Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, in theatres now. Currently, he is filming Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s prequel to his 1979 film Alien, also starring Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, and Noomi Rapace. It is without a doubt that Michael Fassbender is a shooting star on the rise, and one actor you should definitely keep your eyes on in the future.

As always, between us movie buffs,

- Veronika Krivosik

http://blogs.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/06/10/michael-fassbender-newest-hunky-recruit-in-irish-invasion-of-hollywood/

Michael Fassbender: Newest Hunky Recruit in Irish Invasion of Hollywood
By: Leah Rozen Posted: Friday, June 10th, 2011

Michael Fassbender in 'X-Men: First Class'

Michael Fassbender may play a mutant in X-Men: First Class, but we here at Anglophenia know it’s the Irish in him that’s winning over moviegoers. He is just the latest in a long line of irresistible Irishmen to light up the big screen.

Technically, Fassbender is German on his father’s side while Irish on his mother’s. Though born in Germany, he was raised in Killarney, near the Emerald Isle’s western coast.

For the past decade, while mostly based in London, Fassbender has been building an impressive and wide-ranging resume, with prominent roles in Irish and British films such as Hunger and Fish Tank, in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, and in the latest screen version of Jane Eyre.

Fassbender also offered praiseworthy turns on TV in HBO’s Band of Brothers, BBC America’s Hex, and the Channel 4 mini-series, The Devil’s Whore. With his casting in X-Men, which grossed nearly $60 million in the U.S. on its opening weekend, Hollywood was buying shares in Fassbender’s fast-rising stock.

It’s a type of stock studio bosses already knew they liked. Hunksome Irishmen have been visiting their luck on Hollywood films going back to the days when movies were in black and white. In Hollywood’s Golden Age, there was George Brent, a dark-haired charmer who, before making his way to Los Angeles, had earned a tiny niche in history by serving as a courier for Irish rebel leader Michael Collins. In Hollywood during the 1930s and ‘40s, Brent was the go-to leading man at Warner Bros. to play opposite the studio’s femme fatales, including Bette Davis in Dark Victory.

In 1962, Irish-born Peter O’Toole became a huge star when he galloped across the desert in Lawrence of Arabia. Equally at home in drama and comedy, he scored in the next several decades in such films as How to Steal a Million, The Lion in Winter, Goodbye, Mr. Chips and My Favorite Year. He was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2003 after racking up seven Oscar nominations–but never winning–for Best Actor. (He added an eighth nomination for Venus in 2007.)

In more recent decades, Irishmen who’ve become big marquee names include Liam Neeson (Unknown), Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects and HBO’s In Treatment) and, of course, 007 himself, Pierce Brosnan. All have traded on their considerable looks and suave charm, not to mention lilting native brogues.

Cillian Murphy (left), with Leonardo DiCaprio, in 'Inception'

With the new millennium, a fresh crop of dashing Irishmen has stolen moviegoers’ hearts: Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Farrell is the biggest star of the three (including on tabloid covers), though in recent years he has pulled back from making such stultifying big budget bombs as Alexander and Miami Vice to give soulful performances in terrific smaller films, including Ondine and In Bruges.

Murphy, he of the otherworldly blue eyes, seems to have settled into a career in which he nabs leads in arty films (28 Days Later and Sunshine) and supporting roles (often as villains) in pricey Hollywood fare (Batman Begins and Inception).

And Rhys Meyers, after a promising start in Velvet Goldmine, Bend it Like Beckham and Match Point, has gained modest fame after regularly switching wives on the small screen as Henry VIII on The Tudors.

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Who’s your favorite Irish leading man?

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Michael Fassbender in Jane Eyre:

http://crushable.com/entertainment/michael-fassbender-revealed/

Monday, June 13 - 11:52 am ET

Michael Fassbender… Revealed!
6 hours ago by Liana Maeby

Michael Fassbender‘s a pretty big deal these days, eh? What’s that? You don’t know who Michael Fassbender is? Recall: Lt. Archie Hicox from Inglorious Bastards and Magneto from X-Men First Class. Yep, that devastating hunk of a human. Here are five things to know about the 34-year-old actor.

1. Michael was born in Heidelberg, Germany to a German father and an Irish mom His family moved to Ireland when Michael was two, where they ran a restaurant.

2. He’s an altar boy! Michael was raised Catholic and performed altar duties as a child. Man, in Ireland at that — intense.

3. Michael got his start in Steven Spielberg‘s miniseries Band of Brothers. He’s appeared in movies like The 300, Jane Eyre and Hunger — where his performance garnered him several awards. Next up are three films: A Dangerous Method, Shame and Prometheus.

4. He’s so totally dating Zoe Kravitz, daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet. Sorry, ladies.

5. Here’s what Michael has to say about fame:

“To be honest with you, I don’t have to deal with it. Maybe that will change after X-Men. I do find all of that stuff — it’s weird, you know? But it’s part and parcel of it. I don’t like to think that it would change my usual routine of walking down to the coffee shop, or walking down the street or leading my life the way I want to live my life. But I haven’t really experienced it, to be honest. Every now and again, somebody [will say to me], “Oh, you were in Inglourious Basterds! … And all of the time, it’s just a brief exchange, and a nice one. But I don’t have to deal with it the way that somebody like Brad Pitt would … People don’t really recognize me, I don’t think, which is great.”

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/movies/Michael+Fassbender-10218.html

The Return Of Michael Fassbender

03 June 2011

Currently 4.00/5 Stars.

Michael Fassbender shows his versatility once again this week as he steps into the big budget blockbuster for the very first time.

He takes over the role of Erik Lehnsherr from Ian McKellan in the origins story X-Men: first Class - which is set in the sixties as a young Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier are coming to terms with their abilities.

He made his breakthrough in 2001 when he appeared in Steven Spielberg's epic war Second World War drama Band of Brothers as Burton 'Pat' Christenson.

Off the back of this he varied his work as he moved between radio dramas, theatre work and more television appearances.

Over the next couple of years he worked on a string of UK television shows including Holby City, Gunpowder, treason & Plot, in which he played Guy Fawkes, and Murphy's Law.
In the third series of hard hitting crime drama Murphy's Law he took on the role of Caz Miller in five episodes of the series.

But by 2007 he had moved into movies and 300 looked like it was his breakthrough. An adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel Fassbender took on the role of Stelios, a young Spartan soldier.

The movie was a huge hit as it grossed $70,885,301 million, breaking the record held by Ice Age: The Meltdown for the biggest opening weekend in March.

Since his performance in 300 Fassbender has found himself to be super busy as he continued to mix movie and TV work.

But this worked out well for him last year with horror movie Eden Lake and TV drama The Devil's Whore with which he found success.

But it was the movie Hunger for which achieved critical acclaim as is dominated the festival circuit. Directed by Steve McQueen the film followed Irish prisoner Bobby Sands who led the 1981 hunger strike on Long Kesh prison.

It premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, winning the prestigious Caméra d'Or award for first-time filmmakers.

Into 2009 and more praise has come his way for British film Fish Tank, the second movie from Andrea Arnold, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

He then teamed up Quentin Tarantino and an ensemble cast that included Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz and Eli Roth for Inglourious Basterds.

The World War II movie was the most successful film for Tarantino as it went on to be bag a Best Picture Oscar nomination, losing out to The Hurt Locker.

He followed this up with Centurion and Jonah Hex before teaming up with Matthew Vaughn and an all star cast for X-Men: First Class.

Early reviews have already heavily praised X-Men: First Class - the first X movie since Wolverine back in 2009.

And 2011 looks set to be a busy one for the actor as he takes on a more classic role later this year with Jane Eyre.

Fassbender is set to play Edward Rochester in a new adaptation of the popular novel, which sees Mia Wasikowska take on the title character.

He has also finished work on A Dangerous Method, which also stars Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightley, and Haywire - which is directed by Steven Soderbergh.

X-Men: First Class is out now.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

http://www.celebritystir.com/celebrity-news/good-news-two-michael-fassbender-films

Good News: Two Michael Fassbender Films!
Double your pleasure, double your Fassbender. Two films that one of the hardest working men in show business, Michael Fassbender, has had in the can for quite some time have finally been picked up. A Dangerous Method, directed by David Cronenberg and starring Fassbender as Carl Jung, Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud and Keira Knightley as the woman who comes between them, has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics (a very class act, as the name would suggest.) No release DATE, however, has yet been announced. The other film is Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, which has been rescued by Relativity Media. The film involves a black ops ‘super soldier’ looking for revenge after she is betrayed and set up during a mission. The soldier is played by MMA Gina Carano. In addition to Fassbender, the cast includes Channing Tatum, Ewan MacGregor, Michael Douglas and Antonio Bandaras. The cast alone has me curious. I can’t imagine these actors all in the same movie. It sounds like this film might have been part of the same package that has Relativity releasing Marc Forster’s Machine Gun Preacher this fall, since Ryan Kavanaugh’s company is handling domestic distribution for both Haywire and MGP and Lionsgate will handle foreign distribution After bouncing around the 2011 calendar, Relativity has set a January 20, 2012 release date for Haywire. Photo: C. Smith/ WENN Read more »

http://www.thedcmoms.com/2011/08/celeb-crush-michael-fassbender/

Celeb Crush: Michael Fassbender

by Sandie on August 5, 2011
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Welcome to the first of an ongoing series where we DC Moms pick a different celebrity we’re crushing on at the moment, or in some cases, forever, and pay him (or her, because we’ve all had Girlcrushes) tribute. Without further ado, here’s our inaugural, and yes, slightly obscure pick.

Michael Fassbender

Name: Michael Fassbender
Age: 34
Hometown: He’s half-Irish, half-German (born in Germany, raised in Ireland), which is why he was equally at ease playing the German-speaking undercover British soldier in “Inglourious Basterds” as portraying the Irish political prisoner/martyr Bobby Sands in “Hunger.”
Marital Status: Single, but he’s dating Zoe Kravitz (yes, she’s 22, but it’s all good, because her 43-year-old mother Lisa Bonet is in a relationship with 32-year-old Jason “Conan the Barbarian” Momoa.)
You Know Him From: This year he’s played Magneto in “X-Men: First Class” and Mr. Rochester in “Jane Eyre.”
Why Him: He’s the entire package: Old Hollywood handsome with a heavy sprinkling of that broody, intellectual intensity that makes him irresistibly attractive. He seems like the kind of guy that could passionately quote e.e. cummings to you one moment and throw you against the wall for a devastatingly swoon-worthy kiss the next. I hope his Hollywood star will continue to rise, and that we’ll see him in all sorts of roles in the coming years. That would make me a very happy lady indeed.

http://sanfranciscostories.tumblr.com/post/11059126319/foreign-actor-spotlight-michael-fassbender

Foreign Actor Spotlight: Michael Fassbender

Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender is one of the breakout stars from this summer’s X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. Taking over the role of enigmatic anti-hero Magneto from Sir Ian McKellan, Fassbender brought an intensity to the young Erik Lenscherr in the prequel to the series. Fassbender began acting in the UK for the BBC in a variety of roles from a Demon in Hex to a scoundrel in Silk Stocking then as Bobby Sands in Hunger and later as a predatory older man in Fish Tank.

American audiences first noticed Fassbender in Inglorious Bastards and later Jane Eyre as the classic Mr. Rochester before his breakthrough appearance as Magneto that showcased his bilingual ability in English and German.With his piercing Irish blue eyes, Celtic-Teutonic-Viking features, large smile, and tall lean physique matched with a personal charisma, Fassbender’s attractiveness draws in men and women alike.

Fassbender attracts fans for his range as an actor and ability to morph into roles. Formally trained in drama, his next roles in A Dangerous Method as Dr. Carl Jung and in Steve McQueen’s Shame are poised to put him on track for more Hollywood films. Recognizable for his acting chops, sex appeal, confidence, and intensity this actor may in fact be the next Marlon Brando that many have called him.

Time will tell if he wins an Oscar, becomes the next James Bond, or reprises Magento on screen. One thing is clear, he just may be one of those once in a generation kind of actors whose name becomes synonymous with the craft. Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Lawrence Olivier were knighted by the English Queen for their contributions on film. Maybe the man who once played an Irish patriot just may follow in those steps. He already took Magneto from McKellan and made it his own. And Sir Michael Fassbender does have an interesting sound to it. If it ever does happen, hopefully many more well made and brilliant acting will grace the film world before then.