"Kidman stars as photographer Diane Arbus, but this "is not a biopic by any stretch of the imagination," says Shainberg. Instead, he takes a through- the looking-glass approach to the three months leading up to Arbus's snapping her first picture, one "we made up", he adds. Kidman signed on after Samantha Morton bowed out after salary issues and the fact that she did not look anything like Arbus helps," says the director. " The movie immediately shifts into a kind of fantasy." Downey plays the fictional character Lionel, who becomes the first of Arbus's acclaimed "freak" subjects. "It's like if you meet one biker in the hotel lobby and you hit it off, you know you're going to be hanging out with 20 bikers the next day," Downey says about Lionel's influence. Adds Kidman, " I think what Arbus did and said about the people that were considered freaks of the world, that's a beautiful basis for a film." Photographic Memory: Although Kidman was discouraged from doing much traditional research, Downey says she captured her subject nonetheless. "I had gone to the Arbus exhibit in New York the day before ( shooting a scene) and saw a candid of Diane," he says. "And I swear, Nicole deliberately did the exact same look and face and feeling. Steven went crazy behind the monitor- "oh my God, Fantastic.. print! moving on."

nor can i!! this movie is reminiscent of the hours - and i loved that film! those type of films are amazing...    

Repeat with me... OSCAR NOMINATION OSCAR NOMINATION OSCAR NOMINATION... Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh...

Hugh Jackman is clearly the man of the season. Following the whopping success of X-Men: The Last Stand, he's starring in Woody Allen's Scoop, voicing characters in the animated films Flushed Away and Happy Feet, and appearing in two of the fall's most anticipated films, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige and Darren Aronofksy's The Fountain.

Just as Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins) and Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) are young auteurs most A-List actors would kill to work with, Jackman is an actor who most A-list directors would kill to work with: The range he shows in going from X3 to Scoop to The Fountain is astonishing, something we're not used to seeing in someone with such classic movie star looks.

But then again, Jackman is Australian, and something in the water, or the training, seems to produce movie stars (Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe) who are true actors.

The Fountain is also going to be one of the more controversial movies of the fall. It's a dizzying, confounding, and often thrilling meditation on the acceptance of death as part of life, a love story (between Jackman and Aronofsky's fiancee, Rachel Weisz) that spans a thousand years. It's daring and moving filmmaking, and a must-see for people who care about adventurous cinema.

Repeat with me... OSCAR NOMINATION OSCAR NOMINATION OSCAR NOMINATION... Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh...

Here's my dream:

Nicole will be filming the Baz movie with Hugh when the Oscars are given out (Feb. 23).  Hugh is getting buzz for an Oscar nomination for "The Fountain."  Could you just IMAGINE both Nicole and Hugh, working together in a movie at the time, both being nominated and WIN????  That's my dream!

Oh - humility too!

Repeat with me... OSCAR NOMINATION OSCAR NOMINATION OSCAR NOMINATION... Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh...

Repeat with me... OSCAR NOMINATION OSCAR NOMINATION OSCAR NOMINATION... Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh...

Nice idea, dear - but let's reach even higher.  Close your eyes, click your heels and repeat three times:  "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"

There now, that's the way.

Nice idea, dear - but let's reach even higher.  Close your eyes, click your heels and repeat three times:  "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"

There now, that's the way.

no don't die. just " Close your eyes, click your heels and repeat three times:  "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"

*closes eyes, click heels, and repeats, "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman! And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman! And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"* 

Arbus commited suicide in 1971 at age 48. Why is it that the final acts in the lives of so many gifted 20th Century artists (Arbus, Harry Nilsson, Sylvia Plath, Jean-MIchel Basqiat) end on a black note? Suicide obviously lends a quasi-tragic dimension and also gives the biographer or screenwriter an "ending", but there are few cliches as groaningly tiresome as that of the self-destructive genius.

Nice idea, dear - but let's reach even higher.  Close your eyes, click your heels and repeat three times:  "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"

There now, that's the way.

Yes, we just want Nicole's performance to dominate the competition. 

I keep looking at the picture with the article & it sure doesn't look like Nicole.  It seems she really has "disappeared" into the role.

Thanks for the article Skanky.

From Jeff Wells of Hollywood-Elsewhere:

Word around the campfire is that Nicole Kidman's performance as celebrated art-gallery photographer Diane Arbus  is the best thing about Fur. As for the film itself, some are using the A word, as in "arty." Or as in, "It turned out a little artier than what some in the loop were expecting."

In some circles "arty" means index-finger-up-the-butt precious, but shouldn't an Arbus biopic, of all biopics, have a kind of art-gallery feeling? An aura of artified apartness? If I'd directed this puppy I would have shot it in 35mm black-and-white.

The director is Steven Shainberg (Secrretary), who worked from a script by Erin Cressida Wilson and a book by Patricia Bosworth. Picturehouse is releasing Fur sometime in November, following what I'm told will be a debut at the Toronto Film Festival.

Arbus commited suicide in 1971 at age 48. Why is it that the final acts in the lives of so many gifted 20th Century artists (Arbus, Harry Nilsson, Sylvia Plath, Jean-MIchel Basqiat) end on a black note? Suicide obviously lends a quasi-tragic dimension and also gives the biographer or screenwriter an "ending", but there are few cliches as groaningly tiresome as that of the self-destructive genius.

"And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"  "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"  "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"  "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"  "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"  "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"  "And the Oscar goes to...Nicole Kidman!"