Results tagged “Al Pacino”

Al Pacino will be reprising the role of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in Central Park next summer, as part of The Public Theater's annual free Shakespeare series. (Pacino previously played Shylock in the 2004 film of The Merchant of Venice.) Daniel Sullivan (The Homecoming) will direct, while Michael Greif will helm next summer's other Shakespeare production, The Winter's Tale. According to a publicist for The Public, the two plays will be performed in repertory with the same core company of actors, though "due to a scheduling conflict with rehearsals, Pacino will only appear in The Merchant of Venice." Other cast members announced thus far include Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Solanio/Young Shepherd); Jesse L. Martin (Gratiano/Polixenes); Lily Rabe (Portia/First Gentlewoman); Ruben Santiago-Hudson as (Prince of Morocco/Leontes); and Max Wright (Old Gobbo/Old Shepherd).

Times have certainly changed since the gritty and unsentimental 1971 film The Panic in Needle Park chronicled the downward spiral of Bobby and Helen, two crazy-in-love smack addicts. "Needle Park" is the film’s nom de parc for Sherman Square, which just isn’t the heroin hub it used to be. Though Sherman Square and the adjacent Verdi Square were once filled with anxious dealers, now it’s mostly fluffy dogs in neoprene cardigans. Furthermore, young Al Pacino (who starred as Bobby) is now one of the greatest actors in all of film history.

We'd expect a lack of municipal fealty from most people in show business, but we were disappointed to hear that Al Pacino and Robert De Niro would be turning up a chance to shoot in the city in exchange for a building in Connecticut with a NYC backdrop behind it. The New York Post reported briefly that some scenes of the in-production film "Righteous Kill" will be posing scenes set in NYC in Stamford, CT, with backdrops outside the windows of an actual building illustrating New York. The film has been shooting in New Haven and Norwalk, CT for weeks and was lured to the Nutmeg State by tax breaks for film companies.

TIP: According to Paper's Mr. Mickey, Chloë Sevigny is having a tag sale on her block this Saturday. We're guessing there will be lots of vintage Balenciaga. Check out her apartment in House & Garden...pretty nice!

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on East 79th St. in Manhattan, another bank robbery on East 89th St. in Manhattan, and a police scooter accident at Adams and Tillary Sts. in Brooklyn.
• A parking ticket fixer was sentenced to three-to-six years in jail for arranging false-documented excuses to get people out of parking tickets.
• Robert Deniro and Al Pacino are teaming up as detectives tracking a serial killer in a new film. 50 Cent will join them as a helpful drug dealer informant character.
• Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp. isn't about to cooperate with The New York Times or its China-based correspondent.
• No NYC tryouts for the latest incarnation of American Idol.
• Curbed notes an Upper West Side townhouse that can be yours for just a K-note under a half billion dollars, courtesy of a typo.
• An SUV struck two pedestrians in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, before crashing into a storefront. The female pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene.
• The "limited time only" lobster roll at Cosi gets a Midtown Lunch review: "There’s no way it’s healthy, and if you are not a fan of mayo you will probably hate this sandwich."

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

It really seems like Robert De Niro and Al Pacino have co-starred in a lot of movies together, but they haven't. Sure, they had a couple of scenes together in "Heat", and both starred in "The Godfather 2" (though they never shared screen time) - but that's about it as far as collaborating has gone for these two legends in their own time.

February 10th and 17th, class is in session at the UCB Theater. Welcome to the Al Pacino School of Acting , where you learn from the master, portrayed by Cesar Gracia. Audience members will have the opportunity to pick up some of the tricks of the trade as Pacino calls them onstage and brings out the true auteur in them.

With Tina Fey gone from the writers' staff to primetimier pastures and Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Finesse Mitchell axed from the staff, people were wondering how this season of Saturday Night Live would stack up. And while articles calling it "Saturday Night Dead" are a mainstay every fall, Gothamist wasn't very confident given that the host would be Dane Cook, who already hosted not even a year ago! Here's our thoughts about the season premiere:

- Acela trains

Ah January. That lovely first month of the year which big Hollywood uses as its annual dumping ground. The Awards eligibility period is over, and now is the time to catch-up on all those films being talked about that came out at the same time over the past few weeks. Still, New Yorkers are lucky as we retain many filmgoing options. Sure you can check-out the latest video game adaptation from hackmeister Uwe Boll, but if you heard about last year's which we're sure somebody will find funny.

Steven Beer,
Entertainment Lawyer

Yesterday, people from TV, film, and Broadway, as well as the public, gathered to pay tribute to the dearly missed Jerry Orbach. The attendees included Angela Lansbury, Al Pacino, Benjamin Bratt, Chris Noth, Jill Hennessy, Jane Alexander, Karen Ziemba, and Dick Wolf, plus many regular New Yorkers who cherished Orbach's contribution as an actor. Former Mayor David Dinkins was there, and Mayor Bloomberg spoke to the crowd, saying, "Briscoe exuded the life of the city in all its moxie...Jerry came to personify New York in both body and soul." NBC President Jeff Zucker and L&O producer Dick Wolf presented Orbach's widow Elaine with a $1 million check for Sloane Kettering's Cancer research fund as well.

Circa 7PM: We were pretty excited that Joan Rivers and Melissa Rivers were off Red Carpet duty for E!, because if there's one word we don't care to hear on Hollywood-congratulates-itself night, it's "Missy!" But we have our new Missy: It's "Al," as in Al Reynolds, Star Jones' "fiance." Star, who took over E!'s red carpet hosting duties (with some fashion guy named Robert), kept referring to her upcoming marriage and fiance throughout the evening. Eh. And what Star lacks in the bitchiness that Joan brought, she does make up for it in being able to be "black" with black. But still, hearing about Star watching TV in bed with Al makes Gothamist tempted to scream, "Bring back Joan and Missy, those horse faced, plastic-surgeried bitches!"

Sue Sena, S.W.i.S.H. Founder

Zach and Wen Schieffelin, Vespa Soho