Rama’s SCREEN

Is this what has become of one of the greatest actors of all time. I get it, Robert De Niro can do comedy, I even thought his gay captain performance in Stardust was entertaining but seriously, after Righteous Kill, I think he’s going to have to make THE GOOD SHEPHERD 2 or something just to redeem himself.
The image above is from impawards.com, it’s the new poster (click on it to enlarge) of the upcoming comedy WHAT JUST HAPPENED? directed by Barry Levinson (Good Morning Vietnam, Rain Man) who by the way a few years ago al directed a terrible, un-funny little comedy called Envy.

Watch the theatrical trailer for this movie.

SYNOPSIS:

“What Just Happened” is a winningly sharp comedy about two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a middle-aged Hollywood producer — as he tries to juggle an actual life with an outrageous series of crises in his day job.

Academy Award® winning director Barry Levinson reunites with Academy Award® winning actor Robert De Niro and leading producer Art Linson, who wrote the screenplay based on his bestselling memoir. They all join with an all-star cast in this rollicking, shrewd tale of a man besieged by people who want him to be all sorts of things — a money maker, an ego buster, a bad news breaker, an artistic champion, a loyal husband, an all-knowing father, not to mention sexy, youthful and tuned-in – everything except for the one thing he and all the preposterously behaved people he’s surrounded by really are: bumbling human beings just trying to survive by any means necessary.

Ben (De Niro) is already in over his head trying to balance the tug-of-war of having two ex-wives and two different families with his latest business venture – the boldly “visionary” movie “Fiercely” starring Sean Penn (Sean Penn) – when everything that can go wrong goes completely screwy.

“Fiercely” looks like an audience-offending flop which draws the ire of iron-gloved studio chief Lou (Catherine Keener), who forces him into tangling with the film’s rebellious and drug-addled director Jeremy (Michael Wincott). Meanwhile, he’s confused and bewitched by his ex Kelly (Robin Wright Penn) who can’t make up her mind about him; shocked by his daughter Zoe (Kristen Stewart), who seems to have grown up overnight; infuriated by his screenwriter friend Scott (Stanley Tucci) who’s trying to make a deal with him while making moves on his former wife; horrified by a hirsute Bruce Willis (Bruce Willis) and flummoxed by Willis’ nebbishy agent Dick (John Turturro), who’s scared to death of his own clients.

Somehow amidst all the madness, treachery, deceit, runaway egos, rampant commercialism, personal politics and atrocious behavior of America’s dream-making machinery, Ben has to find a way not just to make it to Cannes with a finished film, but to cope…

WHAT JUST HAPPENED? opens Limited October 17th, 2008