THAT’S COLD
Elba, Winslet found a spot colder than Our Town in winter
Chicago used to have a very specific reputation in the mind of Idris Elba — at least until he shot a movie in the mountains of British Columbia.
“You would mention Chicago to me — and considering all of my visits to your city — the first word that would come to mind was, ‘ cold,’ ” the English actor told me during an interview in Toronto. “Until I shot ‘ The Mountain Between Us,’ Chicago took the prize for being the coldest place on Earth, at least ones that I had visited. But not any longer.”
His co- star, Kate Winslet, agreed: “Chicago’s cold. Canada’s colder.”
Yet, reflecting on the city, the Oscar winner said she is still intrigued by a dinner she had at Grant Achatz’s Next restaurant a few years ago. “I went to that amazing molecular gastronomy restaurant in Chicago. I ate something — actually put down in front of me — that only could be described as a cigar, burning in an ashtray.
“Yet, the entire thing was edible. It was totally extraordinary, and to this day I cannot figure out how they did that!”
In “The Mountain Between Us” ( opening Friday), Elba and Winslet’s culinary choices are far less exotic. “We play two total strangers who crash- land in a small plane on the top of a mountain in Canada — with no one knowing where we are,” said Winslet. “As you see in the film, it’s all about a few almonds and eventually a can of baked beans!”
Winslet pointed out that she “could absolutely believe that two strangers could meet in an extreme situation — and life for them could never go back to how it was beforehand — because it happened to me.”
“I met my husband because of a house fire. My life was never the same after that, and hasn’t been from that point onward,” she said. Winslet and her children were guests of Sir Richard Branson at his private Caribbean property, Necker Island, when their villa was struck by lightning and caught on fire during Hurricane Irene in 2011. Winslet’s now- husband, Branson’s nephew Ned Rocknroll, rescued the actress and her kids.
Ford values human element in ‘ Blade Runner 2049’
“Stay human, Chicago! Stay human,” said Harrison Ford, who spent his formative years in Park Ridge. During our interview in Los Angeles, he used Our Town as something of a template for a few messages he tried to convey as he discussed his return to playing Rick Deckard in “Blade Runner 2049” ( opening Friday).
“I’ve heard and read so many things in the past few years that makes me think a lot of humanity is slipping away in large areas of Chicago. Not on the North Side or in the suburbs or downtown or on the Gold Coast, but things are obviously very grim in a number of neighborhoods.
“Yet, that’s true for many cities in America. I’m very concerned about what kids face today in areas of American cities where crime and violence is rampant. Chicago is merely the one getting all the bad press. That’s what I mean by an increasing devaluation of humanity and human values.”
His love for director Denis Villeneuve’s reinterpretation of Ridley Scott’s original “Blade Runner,” he said, is that “it’s a human story. It’s not a message film. … You become immersed in a story, and you’re following characters and quickly become engrossed.”
Director: It ‘ sounds crazy’ to let Aussie make David Ross film
Shane Abbess, the director angling to make a movie about David Ross and the world champion 2016 Cubs, said the former catcher and his producing partners needed some convincing before entrusting “Teammate” to an Aussie best known for science fiction.
“I really went hard for this project when I first heard about it,” said Abbess, calling from his native Australia. “I had to prove to them that I really was familiar with all the different aspects of the game. I know it sounds crazy, this sci- fi guy from Australia wants to direct the movie. I really had to express my love and passion for the game — both playing it and watching it.”
Abbess first fell for American baseball as a kid Down Under, where he was hooked by “the sense of romance to the game. I watched it with a sense of awe.” He and his pals would order World Series recaps on Beta tapes. “It would be weeks after the end of the World Series, but we’d sit down and bingewatch the whole series,” he added. After Abbess moved to New York and Los Angeles, he “went to many, many games of all kinds, including minorleague teams.”
Asked about the rumored casting of Bill Murray to portray team manager Joe Maddon in his film, Abbess joked about the difficulty in reaching the famously elusive Murray but noted “he’s such a huge Cubs fan, and I think he’d be great” if the casting could be finalized.