‘Suburbicon’ echoes Trump’s US

Clooney on fatherhood, his new film

NEW YORK, Aug 29, (Agencies): Most things have changed in George Clooney’s life since he and wife Amal welcomed twins in July. But as he prepares to unveil his latest directorial effort, “Suburbicon”, some rituals remain eerily familiar.

“I just have to clean the barf off of my tux”, says Clooney. “It used to be my barf but now it’s the twins’ barf. So it all works out”.

It’s a new chapter for Clooney, but one with some old moves. “Suburbicon”, which Paramount Pictures will release Oct 27, marries two twin passions of his: farce (“Burn After Reading”, “O Brother Where Art Thou”) and socially conscious filmmaking (“Good Night and Good Luck”, “Ides of March”).

But despite the comic trailers, it leans a little more to the latter. Clooney believes the film, which peers into the dark racial tensions of 1950s suburbia, is deeply relevant to Donald Trump’s America. It bristles, he hopes, with the spirit of Howard Beale, the truth-telling “Network” newsman who yelled, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore”.

“I last week screened it for my good friend Norman Lear. When it was over, he looked over and said, ‘This is the angriest film I’ve ever seen,’” said Clooney in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “It’s a pretty angry film. There’s a lot of anger out there. I think that’s reflected in the film”.

“The main idea of the film was to pick some fights and I always like picking fights”.

That makes “Suburbicon” potentially one of the more combustible films of the fall movie season. It boasts a starry cast (Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Oscar Isaac) and comes from an unproduced, decades-old script by Joel and Ethan Coen about rampant suburban paranoia and fear-mongering after a home invasion.

For Clooney and his writing-producing partner Grant Heslov, the Coens’ characters were perfect for plans of their own to dramatize 1950s Levittown, Pennsylvania, and specifically the enclave’s

OLD SAYBROOK, Connecticut:

Actress Glenn Close says she is humbled to receive an award named after Katharine Hepburn, given what an inspiration Hepburn response in 1957 to a black family moving in. It’s a tale, they believe, that mirrors today’s political landscape.

“I found it interesting to talk about building walls and scapegoating minorities”, said Clooney. “I think that’s always an interesting topic but particularly when I was hearing these conversations on the campaign trail. I thought: It’s always good to look back and remember that nothing really is new and every time we’re shocked, we forget that we’ve had this behavior time and time and time again”.

Clooney and Amal last week announced a $1 million grant, through their Clooney Foundation, to the Southern Poverty Law Center to combat hate groups. The donation was a reaction to Charlottesville. Clooney, a longtime liberal activist, doesn’t mince his words when it comes to President Donald Trump.

“It becomes increasingly clear how in over his head and incapable this man is of being president of the United States”, said Clooney. “The good news is that our other institutions — meaning press, finally, and judges and senators — have proven that the country works. There is a check and balance”.

But if Clooney sounds unusually pugnacious for a newfound father, he grants his life has changed drastically in the last two months. “Suddenly, you’re responsible for other people, which is terrifying”, he chuckled before heaping credit on his wife. “She’s like an Olympic athlete”, he says. “She’s doing so beautifully”.

Changing

“Right now my job is changing diapers and walking them around a little bit”, said Clooney, speaking from his home in Lake Como, Italy. “I really didn’t think at 56 that I would be the parent of twins. Don’t make plans. You always have to just enjoy the ride”.

“Suburbicon” is Clooney’s sixth film as director and first since 2014’s “The Monuments Men”. Filmmaking remains his focus, at least professionally speaking.

“I’m in an interesting place in my

was to her career.

The Day of New London reports Close received the Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award on Saturday in Connecticut. life. I’m acting almost never — for a lot of reasons, mostly because I don’t have any great interest in it and haven’t read anything (good enough)”, he says. “If somebody showed up with ‘The Verdict,’ I’d jump but it’s not all that often you get ‘Michael Clayton’ kind of scripts. And if you’re not going to get those, there’s no real point at this point in my career”.

“They still let me do what I want to do”, Clooney adds. “As long as that’s the case, then I’m going to keep doing it. For me, you’ve got to keep pushing the envelope until they take everything away — which they eventually do with everybody”.

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Also:

Marc Webb has come on board to direct the upcoming feature film “This Above All”, based on the true-life story of Megan PhelpsRoper, former member of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church.

Producers are Dawn Ostroff and Jeremy Steckler of Conde Nast Entertainment, Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea for Made Up Stories, Marc Webb and River Road Entertainment’s Bill Pohlad. River Road will finance.

The Topeka, Kan, church is one of the nation’s most recognized hate groups, best known its anti-gay rhetoric. The film is being adapted by Nick Hornby from Adrian Chen’s 2015 article for The New Yorker and from Phelps-Roper’s upcoming memoir.

Phelps-Roper is the granddaughter of Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church. She grew up espousing the teachings of her family, preaching God’s power and damning those who sinned.

Phelps-Roper became one of the most powerful voices on social media for Westboro, using picketing and her Twitter handle for multiple cultural events until ongoing conversations with opponents over Twitter led her to question her belief system. She and her younger sister made the decision in 2012 to leave the church, which led to being disowned by their family.

The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center presents the honor to someone who embodies Hepburn’s “spirit, independence and character”.

Close has earned six Oscar nominations. She says she was inspired to become an actress in college when she saw an interview with Hepburn.

She told Hepburn the story when they finally met in 1990. In response, Hepburn wrote a letter saying she was glad she persuaded Close “to join this terrible profession” and “this delicious way to spend your life”.

Hepburn died in 2003 at 96. (AP)

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The Broken Lizard team has officially returned with a wild, redband teaser trailer for “Super Troopers 2”, 16 years after the original.

The trailer — subtitled “Shave the Date” — includes a bizarre comedy sequence involving the shaving of Erik Stolhanske’s Rabbit character by his fellow goofy Vermont state troopers.

The trailer reveals the return of Brian Cox as the commander, Kevin Heffernan’s Farva character getting a uniform that absolutely doesn’t fit and the troopers pretending to be Mounties during a traffic stop.

Fox Searchlight has set an April 20, 2018, release date for “Super Troopers 2” (RTRS)