TALK ABOUT serendipity. Pierce Brosnan and writer/director Richard Shepard agree that if the scri... New on Dvd...
Foul-mouthed and self-centered, charming and flat-out funny, Julian Noble, the hitman with issues whom he plays, isn't the kind of character agents rally around.
Instead, Shepard was looking for a writing gig when he sent the script to Brosnan's production company. Brosnan's partner read it, called Shepard to see if it would be OK to pass it along and ... "This script found me at the right time," Brosnan says on a lively commentary he shares with Shepard and co-star Greg Kinnear, who plays a struggling businessman who falls into Noble's orbit.
Viewers will be glad it did. Brosnan's a hoot - check out the scene when a badly hung-over Julian struts/staggers through a hotel lobby in black briefs and ankle boots - and so is "The Matador."
[C@abaf8c) just as he does in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," which opens today. The resemblance ends there. Parents, keep your children away from this dark historical tale of the notorious John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester.
The "Making of" documentary is worth watching. Based on the play by Stephen Jeffreys, the film took years to be made. A last-minute loss of funding nearly canned it again, even while sets were being built.
Based on the book by Rafael Sabatini - who also provided the means for "Captain Blood," "Scaramouche" and "The Sea Hawk" - it is directed by Henry King, who gave us "Prince of Foxes," "Captain From Castile," "12 O'Clock High" and dozens of other classics. George Sanders , disguised with a red beard, and a young Anthony Quinn round out a spirited bunch of villains and heroes.
The ironic connection between the films is that both are set during the Restoration. Charles II knighted pirate Henry Morgan, making him governor of Jamaica with an eye toward cleaning up the pirate scourge. Despite the political maneuvering in "The Black Swan," Morgan is now being re-evaluated as one of Britain's great military strategists.
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