Saturday, June 26, 2010

Helen Mirren Fatigue & Her 2010 Roles

This past award season when Helen Mirren received award accolades for her role in The Last Station, I remember hearing some feelings of fatigued that Mirren "was always a sure thing" and a feeling of exhaustion with the love for Mirren.

I sometimes would laugh a little to myself when I read or heard these things, because Mirren who know has 4 Oscar nominations to her name, 1 of those being a win, certainly doesn't seem to me like she's a sure lock for whatever she does.

The fatigue that people feel seems to stem (in my estimation) from the abundance of award love bestowed on her for her role as Queen Elizabeth II in 2006's film The Queen.

But if people felt fatigue last year when Mirren was up for an awards (Golden Globe, Independent Spirit, Academy Award, Screen Actors Guild) in her role from The Last Station, imagine how they might feel this year.

I feel like Mirren has a variety of novelty projects on her plate this year, and surely some of them are bound to be bust, but it only takes one role to get you in the lime light, and Hollywood is very forging of a bust here and there (ask Sandra Bullock, people forgot All About Steve).

Honestly, there seems to be a lot of room for bust in this upcoming line-up for Mirren, but like I said, it only takes one performance.

Here's a quick look at some of Mirren's 2010 calendar (of course, some of these could get a 2011 bump):

• Love Ranch (June 30, 2010): Helen Mirren plays Grace Botempo in a fictionalization based on the lives of Joe & Sally Conforte, a married couple who opened the first legal brothel in Nevada (Mustang Ranch). Mirren plays the role of the wife, Joe Pesci the husband. Mirren's husband, Taylor Hackford directs.

• Red (October 15, 2010): Helen Mirren's role is more limited in this comic book derived action story about a block-ops CIA agent (Bruce Willis) who in order to survive needs to assemble an old team, which includes Helen Mirren's character (Victoria).

• The Tempest (Anticipated limited December 2010 release): Helen Mirren plays Prospera in Julie Taymor's rendering of William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Shakespeare's version had the lead character Propero as a male role, as usurped Duke and Wizard, Taymor instead changed the role to a woman.

• The Debt (Anticipated 2010 release, no scheduled date): Helen Mirren plays Rachel Singer as an Israeli Intelligence Officer who 30 years earlier had killed a Nazi on a covert mission, only to find out that he has resurfaced. John Madden directs this Miramax picture.

• Brighton Rock (Potential 2010 release, no scheduled date): Helen Mirren plays Ida Arnold in the film adaptation of the Graham Greene novel (previously adapted in 1947 with the title Young Scarface). Ida Arnold plays a key role in this detective story in investigating a proving that a suicide is not murder. Rowan Joffe directs.

Photos from top to bottom: Helen Mirren in Love Ranch (Love Ranch Facebook page). Helen Mirren as Prospera in The Tempest (USA Today).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

As long as she continues to give the quality that she has, she can be in as much as she wants.

mae said...

Yeah... her latest thing where she is pposing naked in the bathtub for New York Magazine...is that for her role in Love Ranch?

Anonymous said...

I can watch Helen Mirren movies every day. She is amazing. Even if the movie isn't all that good, her performance is spot on. I just received "The Last Station" and I can't wait to get it home and watch.