William Friedkin Casts Matthew McConaughey and Emile Hirsch in ‘Killer Joe’

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/09/13...w-mcconaughey-and-emile-hirsch-in-killer-joe/

For the past few months, word has been kicking around Louisiana that William Friedkin would be shooting a new film with Matthew McConaughey called Killer Joe. And now the news is official; Friedkin has lined up McConaughey and Emile Hirsch for the film, which will shoot late this fall.

THR says that a November 8 start date is planned and that the shoot will take place in and around New Orleans.

The Killer Joe script is by Tracy Letts, and follows ” a brother (Hirsch) and sister combo who plot the death of their mother for the insurance money and hire “Killer Joe” Cooper, a cop and contract killer (McConaughey) to do the deed.”

Letts won both a Tony and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2008 for the play August: Osage County. Killer Joe was his first play, written in the early ’90s, and his second was Bug, which he also adapted for William Friedkin in 2007. Bug was also shot in Louisiana.

In a 1998 stage review of Killer Joe, the New York Times called the play “a terrifically tasty potboiler,” further saying “The material could easily register as white-trash Gothic with a comic-book spin, a sort of ”Tobacco Road” according to Wes Craven. Yet while ”Killer Joe” is often deeply funny, it is cheap in neither its humor nor its shock effects, some of which run to the X-rated.”

The text of Killer Joe is on Google Books, so you can check it out there.

Here’s a full synopsis of the play, which certainly sounds like great material for Friedkin. I liked Bug, and can’t wait to see who Friedkin lands for the other key roles in this one. Reading the following it sounds like the character structure might have been changed around a bit, but that’s not too much of a reason to worry.

Killer Joe is a brutally funny and disturbing play, a black comedy of deplorable manners. Chris, his father Ansel, stepmother Sharla, and young sister Dottie are planning poor Mom’s demise. Into their world comes Killer Joe Cooper, full-time cop and part-time assassin. But when they are unable to pay up, Joe demands Dottie as his “retainer.”

 

[Project862006]

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church, Juno Temple and Gina Gershon, the plot follows 22 year-old drug dealer Chris (Hirsch) who has his stash stolen by his mother, and has to come up with six thousand dollars quick or else he’s dead. Desperate, he turns to Killer Joe (McConaughey) when he finds out that his mother’s life insurance policy is worth $50,000. Although Joe usually demands cash up front, he finds himself willing to bend the rules in exchange for Chris’ attractive younger sister, Dottie (Temple), who will serve as sexual collateral until the money comes in.

1st Official Clip

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/imageGallery/Killer_Joe/large/hr_Killer_Joe_6.jpg

 

[Paroxysm]

Not feeling it.

 

[Hunter Rider]

The font reminds me of the Vacancy font.

 

[Paroxysm]

The font reminds me of the Vacancy font.

haha totally!

 

[Ultra Lantern]

This looks good.I'll see it when it comes out.

 

[Project862006]

Playlist reviews the film and praises McConaughey's performance

“Killer Joe” was the 1993 play, Letts’ first, that brought the writer to worldwide attention, proving a much-staged hit around the world, and it’s long been a target for film adaptation. The plot begins with Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) deep in debt to a local mobster after his monstrous, unseen mother steals two kilos of coke that he was meant to sell. In order to make up the shortfall, he suggests to his father Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) that they arrange for Chris’ mother, and Ansel’s ex-wife, to be killed; she’s taken out a $50,000 life insurance policy of which Chris’ troubled sister Dottie (Juno Temple) is the beneficiary. Dottie agrees with the plan, Ansel’s wife Sharla (Gina Gershon) is cut in on the action, and a local cop with a sideline in murder, ‘Killer’ Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is hired to do the deed. But they can’t pay his $20,000 upfront fee, so Dottie is put up as ‘a retainer’ until they receive the insurance money. As you imagine, things don’t go too well, and all kinds of bloodiness follows.
The film is introduced with the atypical title ‘William Friedkin’s Film Of Tracy Letts’ “Killer Joe,”’ suggesting that it’ll be a no-frills adaptation of the play, but that’s not quite true; it’s plenty faithful to the stage version, but Friedkin and Letts (the latter of whom adapted the screenplay himself) do a pretty good job in making the play cinematic, certainly more so than either “Carnage” or “A Dangerous Method,” adding some striking locations (including an abandoned rollercoaster) and even a chase scene. Some staginess creeps in during the longer, more significant trailer-bound scenes, but Friedkin (and veteran DoP Caleb Deschanel) always shoots and cuts them with great clarity and purpose, and the scenes themselves are so electric that you don’t particularly notice anything else.

Because, while it’s maybe not up there with the top rank of Friedkin’s 1970s work, the film joins “To Live and Die In L.A” and “Bug” as the highlights of the director’s subsequent output, and we can’t imagine a better film version of “Killer Joe.” Make no mistake, it’s a nasty, grimy, ultra-violent piece of work, and perhaps not the most significant, soul-stirring play-to-film you’ll ever see. But there are depths to Letts’ work, from the hints of Greek tragedy to the depiction of Dottie, the innocent (or is she?) used as a bargaining chip by the men in her life, who finally decides to take her destiny into her own hands.
It’s also very funny (Haden Church and Gershon share a moment that got the biggest laugh we heard all festival long), and suspenseful when it has to be. The latter is thanks principally to McConaughey’s performance. After years of coasting in rom-coms, 2011 has marked, with “The Lincoln Lawyer” and “Bernie,” the start of the rehabilitation of Matthew McConaughey, and it’s more or less come to fruition here: he’s absolutely terrific, serving up a potent reminder of why everyone was so excited about him way back in the mid 1990s. He initially seems to be the kind of smooth Texan gentleman that the actor’s played many times before, but there’s something slightly off; there’s a focus, a stillness, an intensity to Joe that we’ve never really seen before, the actor rarely wasting a movement. And it’s not long before we see exactly what it is that’s off: he’s a monster, and McConaughey is tremendous both on and off the leash, leading to an eye-searing scene of torture and humiliation involving Gershon’s character and a drumstick from ‘K-Fry-C’ that’s unlikely to be forgotten in a hurry.

Gershon, incidentally, gives an incredibly brave performance in a career that’s had a few, and the film serves as a reminder that she should work far more than she does. Haden Church adds another fine turn to his gallery of dimwits (his son asks him “How you gonna kill somebody? You can’t even tell time&#8221, remaining sympathetic and harried throughout, while proving to be a touch sharper than you’d given him credit for. Juno Temple meanwhile demonstrates why her star has been rising so quickly; it’s a tricky part, given the non-sequiturs and sleeptalking, but she’s spectacularly good as a girl more savvy than her partners in crime, who infantilize and sexualize her simultaneously. Hirsch, is perhaps the weakest of the ensemble—not that he’s bad, but he feels a little adrift in places, his trademark intensity meaning he doesn’t always play so well with others.
It won’t change the face of cinema history, and it won’t win any awards (it’s too downright dirty for that), but it’s furiously entertaining, and a very strong piece of drama from a director who hasn’t much luck in the last thirty-odd years. Whether his collaboration with Letts continues or not, let’s hope that Friedkin has more in the pipeline closer to “Killer Joe” than to “Rules of Engagement.” [B+]

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplayl...ler_joe_william_friedkin_matthew_mcconaughey/

 

[Project862006]

Officially Rated NC-17
http://www.studiobriefing.net/2012/03/mpaa-rates-friedkin-flick-nc17/

also new poster

 

[Pink Ranger]

I haven't seen a decent NC17 movie in a long time, so I'll add this to my see list for 2012.

 

[Project862006]

Official Trailer

 

[Hunter Rider]

I liked the trailer, I think you can see the darker surface that lies underneath the quirky exterior.

 

[Nightmare]

Looks way better then I thought it would. Mccanaghey as a murderer? Yesss!

 

[Still Wynning]

"Who wants to say grace?"

*shivers*

Man, that creeped me out.

 

[Project862006]

btw the ending of this film is what warranted the nc 17 rating and from what i hear it is said to be very unsettling and uncomfortable lol

 

[Gianakin_]

Looks way better then I thought it would. Mccanaghey as a murderer? Yesss!

My thoughts exactly

 

[Project862006]

Official Clip

Matthew McConaughey and Juno Temple Conversation

 

[MadVillainy]

I saw this. It was decent. Really good performances from everybody. Especially McConaughey. It's a shame but he'll be overlooked for an OScar nod

But the whole last 30 mins was too weird for me. That brought the film down a few notches for me

 

[Liam_H]

Wasn't sure what to make of this movie. Good performances all around with McConaughey having psychotic crazy down.

 

[Gianakin_]

Amazing film right up till the climax. Then they just resorted to extremeties just to shock the audience (aka almost every theatrical play these days).

But the performances were the best I've seen this year and Friedkin's still a genius director. A shame, 'cause with an ending on the same level as the rest of the movie, Killer Joe would've been elevated to heavens for me.

 

[MadVillainy]

Amazing film right up till the climax. Then they just resorted to extremeties just to shock the audience (aka almost every theatrical play these days).

Agreed. That whole chicken bj scene and the abruptness of the ending brought the film down for me

 

[Project862006]

well thats the ending of the play that film is based off so lol

 

[MadVillainy]

based on the play or not it was bad

 

[Rez]

HAHA Just saw this yesterday and loved it. I dunno why people are dissing the ending, it was a great progression of events and everything built to it nicely.


The tagline is hilarious now, with context..

Murder never tasted so good..

MMM, chicken.

Definitely worth a watch- I'm kind of surprised it got an NC-17 honestly, nothing in it seemed worse than anything on a variety of HBO shows (Boardwalk Empire, Rome, etc etc).

I'm not familiar with the play but I'm betting it's a 5 man play, the scenes in the movie with the mob boss(or bookie or whatever he was) were totally unnecessary- they could have just shown Hirsch beat to **** after the fact. Would have rather spent more time with Joe and Dottie.

Perfect film to sit down with some KFC and the whole family.

 

[Liam_H]

Just the way in which the ******io was presented was quite detailed and lasted for awhile. I know its not the same but she basically got raped by a chicken wing.