June 21, 2004
Owen Wilson In The Smoker
Ooh, it looks like Owen Wilson is taking the male lead opposite Natalie Portman in The Smoker, based on David Schickler's short story that appeared in the New Yorker four years ago (read The Smoker here). The Hollywood Reporter also reports that Richard Linklater is directing the film, which seems brilliant to Gothamist, since Linklater has shown a great hand at delicate philosophy and love stories (Waking Life and Before Sunrise) as well as humor (Dazed and Confused, School of Rock). The premise of The Smoker is simple - a thirty-one year old English teacher, Douglas Kerchek, at an all girls school is proposed to by a student - but the casting of Owen Wilson is intriguing. He's lovable and we'd be proposing to him if he taught us, but when reading Schickler's description of Douglas "Also, he had short black sideburns with streaks of gray in them, a boxer's build, a Ph.D. in English literature from Harvard, and no wife or girlfriend," we sort of imagine Colin Farrell, or at least brother Luke. We're willing to suspend the Ph.D. part, because he was great as Eli Cash. Anyway, Gothamist is certainly intrigued, especially since this may be Owen's second movie that involves cats going to the bathroom on toilets, the first being Meet the Parents. As for Natalie Portman, well, yes, she'll be very convicing as a high school student, since she still looks about sixteen.
The Smoker can also be found in Kissing in Manhattan, a collection of Schickler's stories. Here's what looks like Schickler's website for Kissing in Manhattan. And Gothamist is excited about Linklater's sequel to Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, which comes out on July 2.
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Hi Jen,
Thanks for digging out the link to the original story.
Check out Nat Portman in Garden State if you haven't already. Most endearing. I think you'll also like the bottom-less abyss that was supposed to be filled and turned into a mall.
kissing in manhattan is great. i'd totally forgotten about it.. now i want to dig it out and reread it. .. maybe as soon as i get my book shelves assembled.
That story was the exceptional one from Kissing in Manhattan, thanks for the link. Linklater will do good work with it.
Philip Seymour Hoffman with a dye job might have fulfilled the physical specifications (see 24th Hour for Hoffman as a very different, confused prep school teacher) and perhaps made the story appropriately fantastic and more romantic. On the other hand, the beauty and the beast narrative seems overplayed and you have to love Eli Cash.
Actually, I meant Philip Seymour Hoffman in Spike Lee's 25th Hour. (I seem to mix up the title with 24 Hour Party People.)
hi hi fi -
24 hr pty peep, best movie of '00!
"Factory Records are not actually a company. We are an experiment in human nature. You're labouring under the misapprehension that we actually have a deal with, er, with our, our bands."
But I have to respectfully disagree with you on PSH. He's too prickly and porky (sorry).
When I read The Smoker I thought of Douglas as a young Matthew Broderick (yea, Election).
And clearly Linklater can command a classroom and a small apartment, but I was thinking more of Wes Anderson to direct (yea, Royal Tenennbaums).
So what about a compromise?
Hows about for Douglas: Mark Raffalo/ Mathew St. Patrick/ Cillian Murphy/ or Jimmy Kimmel
And to direct, hows about David O. Russell or Zach Braff or Wayne Kramer?
Linklater can graduate from the school pics already.
Yeah, I agree, Hoffman is too prickly and porky. None of his characters have been very self-assured, as Douglas seems to be. I was trying to think of a character actor less hunky than Wilson. I would vote for Broderick or Ruffalo, don't know the others, except Kimmel, who is a doofus. I'd actually like to see what Linklater does with New York, on the assumption that the story is expanded.
If you liked Steve Coogan from 24 hr party people, you should see Coffee and Cigarettes. The bit he does with Alfred Molina is really understated and really funny.
Portman's getting a little old to still be drawing water from the "Lolita" well, isn't she? 10 years ago in Leon, eight years ago in Beautiful Girls - this should be the last time.
(The bright side is that this time I won't be disgusted with myself when I think she's hot.)
Oh I'm definitely going to have to see that... I really liked Kissing in Manhattan alot. It had a very conversational tone and was written in a way I think alot of NY'ers could relate to.
In Garden State Portman seems about 15 (alot of hamsters, alot of crying, alot of girlish innocence and impromptu tap dancing).
And in The Smoker she's supposed to play 19 (in the same hairdo that she wore in Leon, right?).
So, yeah, it all feels very safe. From the director, to the co-stars - sort of safe and vanilla. Let's hope Linklater brings some edge to this and they actually shoot in Manhattan.
Who needs another predictable romantic comedy shot on a stage in Burbank.
Oh my Lord, Kissing in Manhattan just represented the sad state of American Lit, to me, when it came out and got any notice whatsoever. That book sucks eggs-- I can't even think of anything that's come out in recent years that's as bad, to compare. Yergggh.
Could not agree more about Kissing in Manhattan. It's a collection of linked stories that is schematic, thin on characterization, and generally flimsier than a first draft screenplay. And it was so obviously written to be optioned.