The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2018)

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hearthesilence
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The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2018)

#1 Post by hearthesilence » Wed Jul 12, 2017 11:40 pm

Three of the men who helped thwart a terrorist attack on a train bound for Paris will star as themselves in Clint Eastwood's upcoming film about the incident, The 15:17 to Paris.

The movie is based on a book written by the trio and author Jeffrey E. Stern, called The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train, and Three American Heroes. This is the first time Eastwood has cast the real-life person or people that inspired the story on which his film is based.

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domino harvey
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Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#2 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jul 12, 2017 11:44 pm

I thought these parts were already cast with actors?

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hearthesilence
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Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#3 Post by hearthesilence » Wed Jul 12, 2017 11:53 pm

This is a very late change. About a month ago, it was reported that Eastwood wanted to cast Kyle Gallner, Jeremie Harris, and Alexander Ludwig but offers hadn't even been sent to their respective reps yet.

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Oedipax
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Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#4 Post by Oedipax » Thu Jul 13, 2017 4:01 pm

I hope Eastwood gives his non-actors a few more takes than his usual custom. Very interesting choice though, I'm more interested in the film now.

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hearthesilence
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Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#5 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Jul 14, 2017 1:28 pm

Oedipax wrote:I hope Eastwood gives his non-actors a few more takes than his usual custom. Very interesting choice though, I'm more interested in the film now.
Just to beat that word into the ground, I expect interesting things to happen with this choice. Gran Torino benefitted greatly from his use of non-actors, but I keep referring back to his lead performance in White Hunter Black Heart, where he was basically doing a John Huston impression. This has been written about many times, but it was a remarkable Brechtian performance. I'm not sure if it was by design, but on the one hand, we never forget that this is CLINT EASTWOOD. On the other hand, we're constantly aware that this is a stand-in for John Huston and that we're watching a fictional story that is still rooted in the making of The African Queen. For a lot of people including myself, it works brilliantly, and I bring this up because some notable comic actors are filling out the cast of this new film: Tony Hale, Tom Lennon, Jenna Fischer and Judy Greer. We're probably not going to get a film where we can lose ourselves in a meticulously re-created reality - most likely we'll have this constant awareness that this is a Hollywood film and yet here are the actual figures involved in the real life story. Could be very interesting indeed - there is an experimental streak in Eastwood's work that isn't always appreciated.

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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2018)

#6 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Fri Aug 18, 2017 5:13 pm

Sounds like this might be out before the end of the year.

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hearthesilence
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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2018)

#7 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Aug 18, 2017 7:00 pm

The guy knocks them out fast like Sam Fuller, rough edges and all.

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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#8 Post by diamonds » Wed Dec 13, 2017 9:32 am


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Luke M
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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#9 Post by Luke M » Wed Dec 13, 2017 6:53 pm

Kudos to Eastwood for trying something different can’t say that about all the other military propaganda films that have come out in the last few years.

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tenia
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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#10 Post by tenia » Thu Dec 14, 2017 2:40 am

Yeah, I'm actually not so sure it will be different from the themes one would usually link to Eastwood's later movies : military men saving the day, "ordinary" men turning heroes, etc etc.

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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#11 Post by davoarid » Fri Feb 09, 2018 11:21 pm

I just got back from this and, ooh boy, this is one of the most staggeringly inept movies ever put out by a major studio. I am stunned. It feels like he not only let the three real-life heroes star in his movie, but handed over the directing and writing and editing reins too. There’s just an astonishing lack of skill at work here—the story plays out in the dullest and most banal way possible, until finally the Heroic Act takes place.

Perhaps it has value to some in the postmodern/experimental crowd, but in terms of just basic entertainment function, this has to be among the biggest failures in Hollywood history.

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tenia
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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#12 Post by tenia » Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:41 am

The worst part is that the making of the movie with the main actors of the actual event is creating massive issues in the events' investigation.

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Ribs
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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#13 Post by Ribs » Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:13 pm

I’m pretty flumoxxed by the decision to have the main character, at age 10 or 11, have a poster for Letters from Iwo Jima on his wall.

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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#14 Post by davoarid » Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:38 pm

Ribs wrote:I’m pretty flumoxxed by the decision to have the main character, at age 10 or 11, have a poster for Letters from Iwo Jima on his wall.
Ha! I laughed out loud when I saw that, to the disapproving glare of the old man sitting across from me.

The fact that the two posters in our future soldier’s childhood bedroom were both for anti-war films (Full Metal Jacket the other) was, sadly, never explored.

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Ribs
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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#15 Post by Ribs » Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:44 pm

It was more that the scene was theoretically taking place around 2002!

The main gimmick of this movie is such that it's incredibly satisfying to see the film end with them actually meeting the president of France, for real, via archive footage. Other than that, this just left no mark on anything, though the climax itself is obviously a pretty exciting piece of business.

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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#16 Post by davoarid » Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:00 pm

Ribs wrote:It was more that the scene was theoretically taking place around 2002!

The main gimmick of this movie is such that it's incredibly satisfying to see the film end with them actually meeting the president of France, for real, via archive footage. Other than that, this just left no mark on anything, though the climax itself is obviously a pretty exciting piece of business.
D’oh! Totally missed that about the years! Ha—what a weird freakin movie!

The scene with Hollande was weird—I thought it was archived footage too, at first (the film stock got a bit grainier), but

1- IMDB shows that an actor named Patrick Braoude played “President Hollande actor” in this,
and of course
2- Jenna Fischer and Judy Greer were visible in the background.

My brain starts to hurt when I think about it too long. (The credits sequence the Sacramento parade—is that “real” (archived) or is Eastwood shooting that too?)

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domino harvey
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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#17 Post by domino harvey » Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:29 pm

This is starting to sound like Larrain's No, only terrible

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Ribs
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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#18 Post by Ribs » Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:38 pm

The scene is predominantly archive footage, but also features insert reverse shots which have a stand-in for Hollande and the fourth guy they didn’t have the life rights for so they can cut to the parents and stuff in the crowd.

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Roger Ryan
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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#19 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon Feb 12, 2018 9:25 am

Astonishingly, an article about the film which appeared in yesterday's New York Times reveals that Eastwood asked the three real-life heroes to play themselves just three weeks before shooting began! The gentlemen thought they were meeting to discuss the accuracy of the final draft of the script when Eastwood offered them the parts. One was quoted saying that they were all too scared to say "no" to Eastwood.

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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#20 Post by davoarid » Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:36 pm

This part cracked me up—
After the director warmed to the inspirational story and the screenwriter Dorothy Blyskal turned it into a script, Mr. Eastwood began auditioning actors for the leads. Mr. Stone, Mr. Skarlatos and Mr. Sadler suggested in jest that they should be played by Chris Hemsworth, Zac Efron and Michael B. Jordan. “I got a crazy idea maybe these guys should play themselves,” Mr. Eastwood said. “They’re genuinely charismatic. I figured I’d roll the dice, what the hell? What can they do to me at this stage?”

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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#21 Post by McCrutchy » Mon Feb 12, 2018 9:28 pm

I was watching the golf this weekend, it was the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and (I think as has been recent custom) Clint Eastwood was there, and eventually, in the commentary booth. In real life, he's certainly starting to look his age, and unfortunately, when they would cut to the booth shot of Jim Nantz, Nick Faldo and Eastwood, the latter was often looking in the wrong direction, away from the cameras, and generally away from Nantz and Faldo, who would scramble to fill the airtime when the three were on screen. I love Eastwood, he is a legend and basically a national treasure at this point, but it must be said that he was also extremely awkward, and almost seemed unwell, often struggling to put a sentence together. About every thirty to forty minutes, though, you would hear a cough, or some scratchy-voiced utterance, and you knew Clint was still there. His biggest contribution was suggesting that Jason Day "will have to replace that" club/putter (don't remember what he called it) after Day had to hit a ball off the pebble beach itself.

I had read the Eastwood was pretty quiet and shy, in stark contrast to his public persona and well-known characters, but obviously, age is becoming an important factor, here, too. It really makes me wonder if in recent years Eastwood is basically pre-prepared for interviews, not just with advanced knowledge of questions, but also with at least partially pre-formulated answers.

Now, with this movie being apparently not that great, the weirdly rushed casting decisions, and Clint's usual expeditious filmmaking nature. I'm getting a bit worried. I mean, the guy is really defying the odds working on such complex and demanding films at his age, and I love that he's one of a few people close to 90 still active in the industry, but I also really feel like I want to make sure he's still okay. I hope there are people at Warner Brothers looking out for him.

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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#22 Post by Big Ben » Mon Feb 12, 2018 10:12 pm

I have a close family friend who was near Eastwood when they were shooting Thunderbolt and Lightfoot here in Montana. When the cameras were rolling he was all business but outside of that he didn't say much. When the shooting was done for the day he went straight to his trailer without talking to a soul. My friend said he's wave and say hello if you made the effort but past that he was adamant that Eastwood was incredibly introverted. He does the motions because that's how you sell your product in this day and age. But he's never, ever been a talker from what I've heard despite his roles suggesting otherwise.

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hearthesilence
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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#23 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:07 pm

FWIW, when Lincoln Center did an Eastwood retrospective in 2010, they were hoping he would make an in-person appearance, but due to some back issue, he ended up doing a Skype conference from his California home, which actually went pretty well - they filled the entire screen at the Walter Reade with Eastwood's Skype window and he seemed to hear the audience without any trouble.

This was following a screening of A Fistful of Dollars so a lot of the conversation focused on that. However, there was a little bit of awkwardness that honestly didn't seem that surprising for someone who's 80 years old, and it made his infamous "chair" speech less of a surprise. For example, he apologized for not being able to make it in-person, partly because of the time difference. While he did exaggerate the meager three-hour difference just so that he could make a joke, it sounded like he thought we were behind his local time rather than ahead. Again, not surprising if you spend enough time around senior citizens - just wait until we get to be 80.

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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#24 Post by willoneill » Tue Feb 13, 2018 9:29 pm

I just got home, so I'm in a hyperbolic mood, but this is without a doubt the most inept major studio film I've ever seen. The three leads have terrible delivery. That said, the script is so terrible that Eastwood could have hired Marlon Brando, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Sidney Poitier and this still would have been an atrocious film. I'm not even sure where to start, but I think my biggest issue is that the film just seems to drift from one nonsensical scene to another, often skipping scenes that one feels should have happened.
SpoilerShow
For instance, the three men plan their big European trip together, but one of them wants to only go to Germany to see an old classmate. So the other two travel throughout Italy, then head to Germany .. where we don't see them meet up with the third friend. Then all of a sudden they head to Amsterdam ... and the friend is with them!
There's other annoying details like a 12 year old kid having a poster or Letters From Iwo Jima on his wall, a kid we've just been told is way behind in his reading, yet we're lead to believe is going home to watch Japanese-language films with subtitles in his spare time. Flags of Our Fathers I would have believed, but that's a Paramount property and Letters is Warner, so there you go. Ultimately, this is a 90 minute film whose sole purpose is to show a 5 minute incident, and I never felt like the build-up meant anything.

Oh, but it does have Jaleel White, so there is that.

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Re: The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2017)

#25 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Feb 14, 2018 1:27 am

It’s funny, because Eastwood did such an amazing job constructing another 90 minute film whose sole purpose is to show a 5 minute incident just a few short years ago

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