Frank Miller and Clive Owen Team Up in ‘Trouble Is My Business’
A bit disturbed by the latest news on the Frank Miller front. He is set to make ‘Trouble is My Business’. That is the good news. The bad news is that he has Clive Owen set to star in the picture. Owen, to this viewers eyes, was by far the worst part of the magical film adaptation that was ‘Sin City’. Maybe Miller saw something in Owen when they teamed up.
Back to ‘Trouble Is My Business’. The film a screen adaption of Raymond Chandler’s 1939 novella of the same name. Chandler was a pioneer in the genre of crime fiction. The film version will be set in 1940′s era LA and is a detective story.
Variety wrote that the film was chosen as a star vehicle for Owen because it will give him the chance to do a voiceover of the hard drinking main character Philip Marlowe. In the Variety article Owen sung the praises of Miller saying:
“Frank Miller knows more about noir than anyone I have ever met, and clearly the writing of Raymond Chandler has been an enormous influence on his life and his work. Miller adapting Chandler seemed like a perfect match.”
With Miller in tow, there is no doubt that the film will be a quality piece of work. I am just hoping that Owen doesn’t mope around the screen too much leaving viewers angry at him ruining a Miller classic.
I liked Owen in Sin City, but, to each his own.
Any news on when this movie will arrive in relation to Miller’s work on The Spirit? Do they know when he’s shooting which picture?
No concrete details but Miller sure has a lot on his plate now doesn’t he. I was a bit harsh on Clive, but I just don’t know if he has the ability to carry a movie that will be that grand in scale. I guess we shall see….
Well, you’re not going to like this, Frank, but I’m pretty sure the story “A Dame To Kill For”, a Dwight-heavy piece, is the center-point of “Sin City 2″. But I’m pretty sure that movie was pushed back a bit, so my money’s on “The Spirit”. It seems – right now at least – that comic book movies are getting more priority than film noir, but “The Spirit” is both. Still, the only name bigger in noir than Will Eisner is Raymond Chandler, so who knows?
I think Owen showed is acting chops in Croupier and is more than capable of carrying a movie, especially if it’s playing another brooding type.
Have to agree with the assessment as far as the Croupier, as Owen’s character in that movie is a lot closer to the character of Phillip Marlowe than is the Miller creation. Raymond Chandler’s books are incredible, I just hope Frank Miller can be as faithful to the spirit of Chandler as other director’s have been to his works.
Miller + Owen + Chandler = Noir Gold. Please proceed.
Miller writing – definitely. Owen acting – yes, sure. Miller directing? Hell no. His one solo attempt so far was The Spirit and it was just DIRE. Rodriguez mostly directed the fantastic Sin City, Miller was billed as ‘co-director’ but was in fact only on board so that he could personally make sure the material lived up to his creation. Absolutely fair enough, but the man is not a director, he is a writer and an artist. Marlowe is one of my favourite fictional characters and I’m afraid to see Miller turn the whole thing into another Sin City knock-off like he tried to do with The Spirit (I say tried because Sin City was good and The Spirit awful). So far he has only demonstrated one style in films and it’s cartoon noir, not real noir as befits Chandler’s work.