New Movie: "Million Dollar Baby," boxing themed film by and with Eastwood

[MC]

The new Entertainment Weekly (Holiday Preview Issue, Nov. 12, 2004) has the following blurb on Million Dollar Baby:

December 15
Million Dollar Baby Clint Eastwood directs and costars as a trainer who agrees to take on a female boxer (Hilary Swank). Morgan Freeman (playing the brooding gymnasium guy) rounds out the cast. The script is based on two short stories by gritty boxing scribe F.X. O'Toole

The issue also has an "Oscar Hopefuls" article. It does not list Million Dollar Baby as a contender in the Best Picture or Director categories, but DOES include it for Best Actor (Eastwood), Best Actress (Swank), and Best Supporting Actor (Freeman). Most notably, there's a cool still of Swank that I haven't seen before; she's in her boxing gear standing near the corner of the ring looking forward with an intense look on her face. Unfortunately, it's not posted online.

December 17, 2004 (Los Angeles, Toronto, New York and Chicago)
January 21, 2005 wide release in North America

That's a really long time between such a small limited release and the wide release. My guess is that they'll do a platform release in the interim, gradually adding more cities until releasing it wide on the 21st.

At least, that's what I hope they do, since the 21st is only five days before Oscar nominations are announced. To paraphrase a quote from an Eastwood film, it's late in the game, and Warner Bros. is way behind. Let's hope this most unusual release strategy pays dividends.

[Dreamystar]

oh cool i can't wait to watch this one!!!!!

[AKA23]

I think that the fact that MDB does not appear right now on any lists for Best Director or Best Picture doesn't really mean too much at this stage. All of these predictions probably don't mean too much, as they're bound to be based on very little information, given the fact that very few people have actually seen the film. Certainly, none of these people making predictions have seen it. I think the Acting nominations are far easier to forecast. Hilary Swank in a challenging, powerful, and somewhat tragic role? She's a good actress, let's put her in the category for Best Actress. Clint Eastwood, who has been pretty much ignored for many good performances, who plays an aging trainer in this very powerful story, who is overdue for a Best Actor Oscar, sure, let's put Clint in the running too. Morgan Freeman, a companion to Eastwood's character, in this very powerful story, who is long overdue for an acting award sure, let's put him in the category for Best Supporting Actor. The story itself..well, we don't really know how powerful this allegedly very powerful story has been, and a lot of the descriptions for this story have been very misleading, suggesting a typical girl has a dream, girl overcomes obstacles, girl becomes a boxing superstar type story...well, we're not quite sure about that one yet. I don't think these rationales for MDB as Oscar contender are very far off the real thing.  

[Brendan]

I have a feeling Million Dollar Baby won't be nominated for any Golden Globes since they announce their nominations December 13.

[bigdai]

What's the UK release date?

[ben shockley]

Got that from imdb:

Swank's Boxing Nightmare

Hilary Swank is relieved to have finished filming her latest movie Million Dollar Baby, because it was "the most physically challenging role" of her life. The actress and face of Calvin Klein underwear played a professional boxer in the film, which required extensive fitness training. She says, "The past five months of my life have been consumed with boxing. I had to gain seven kilograms of muscle, which meant boxing for two-and-a-half hours a day, lifting weights one-and-a-half hours a day and also eating 210 grams of protein a day. It was definitely the most physically challenging thing I have ever done."

http://german.imdb.com/news/wenn/2004-11-10#celeb8

[MC]

I have a feeling Million Dollar Baby won't be nominated for any Golden Globes since they announce their nominations December 13.

A few positives to build on from last year's Golden Globe nominations:

1) Cold Mountain, which wasn't released until Dec. 25, tallied eight Golden Globe nominations, more than any other film.
2) Ben Kingsley was nominated for a GG for House of Sand and Fog, even though his film didn't open until Dec. 19 (limited)/Dec. 26 (wide).
3) Charlize Theron was nominated for a GG for Monster, even though that didn't film didn't open until Dec. 24 (New York)/Jan. 9 (limited).

Perhaps MDB can have similar success. The key could be how quickly Warner Bros. can distribute screeners to the powers that be (and of course, how good the film actually is).

[Brendan]

Good point, MC. Hopefully the film can pick up some nods.

[AKA23]

I'm looking forward to the trailer! Where's the trailer? When are we going to see one?! All these stills are being released, so hopefully that means that it will follow soon. I'm seeing reported a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes for MDB. Can anyone confirm that as accurate, or are all of these sites just putting some kind of random running time before the real one surfaces? That seems quite short to me, but that may be correct due to the rush to get the film out for release quickly. I don't know.

[Christopher]

That running time could be accurate since this film, I believe, is based off from two short stories (or is it just the "Million Dollar Baby" story?), and not a 400 page novel like Mystic River.

[vik]

umm thats a shame we ain't getting much of clint

[Christopher]

Of course The Bridges of Madison County was 2 hours and 15 minutes, from a fairly brief book. So maybe that doesn't have a lot to do with it.

[vik]

gee thanks chris - so we might be getting titanic - 3-4 hrs or so - thats cool i'll pack me picnic

[AKA23]

I think that Matt is probably right with regards to the length of the film. I would have liked it to be at least 2 hours, but I'm not the one making the movie, so Clint's judgment I think should be substituted for my own, since he's actually involved in the production..hehe..I think that some of us, and I include myself in this, are a bit spoiled and demanding with regards to Clint's films. We not only want a Clint film, but we want a Clint film where Clint stars, where he directs, and it would be nice if he did a song or two for the score (I'm not sure that he should be doing entire scores without much assistance). We want substantial pictures, and not just feel good films.

One thing regarding Clint's films, at least for me, especially recently, is that I have felt that a lot of them have ended badly. I didn't think Absolute Power had a good ending, True Crime wasn't great, Space Cowboys could have been done better, and even the conclusion of Mystic River I felt could have been done better. The parade scene and Annabeth turning into Lady Macbeth felt a bit forced to me. I think all of these films probably would have benefited from being longer so that there was more time to develop the ending. Even Blood Work could have been better if the ending wasn't  so rushed and ridiculous. Of course, it's only my opinion, but part of the reason I was disappointed by MDB's reported running time is that it leaves yet another opening for me to be disappointed with the development in the conclusion of the picture, but it's probably best not to prejudge the film without having seen it. It's best to go into this film with no expectations, so as not to be disappointed at all, but that's pretty difficult for me to do with a Clint film.

[AKA23]

Hey, me again...don't you guys just love it? HEHE...I just had a few thoughts that I wanted to share. More than a lot of other Clint films, I think that the trailer for this one will be rather important. I think that a lot of people seem to have misconceptions about what the film is actually going to be about, as most of the plot descriptions, other than the official one that we've seen from Warners, which is actually quite good, seems to peg this film as another run of the mill feel good boxing story, which doesn't at all seem to be the focus of the film. The relationship story between Frankie and Maggie seems to be the focal point of the story, and the difficulties that ensue, and the sense of family that is once again found after having been lost long ago. None of these are really conveyed in most of the plot descriptions that I've been reading. I hope that it won't just be a run of the mill story, and that the film is much less about boxing, which I don't really enjoy all that much, and much more about the relationship story, because otherwise I think a lot of us will be disappointed. I don't think it's really about boxing. I think boxing is going to be the vehicle by which the story is told, but the story is going to be about so much more than that, I feel and I really think that the marketing campaign for this movie needs to get that across.

[ben shockley]

This sounds interesting:

An imdb user:

Believe me this movie is not going to be like girl fight.. I was with Hilary first hand while she was training for this movie in NY.. And speaking as a female fighter myself, she looked incredible, she trained hard like a real fighter She worked hard at this part and I am sure it will be seen in her prformance in the movie.. This sport isnt not cut out for everybody but Hilary sure had me fooled ...PS: she has a great left hook!!!


http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0405159/board/nest/13105424

[Perry]

HI GUYS:
                 Just out of curiousity, has anyone read the  short story by F.X. Toole on this movie? it's interesting reading everyone's  ideas about what this movie will be like, but I was wondering if anyone read the story?...I personally haven't, but from a synopsis I have read in some literary feedback on the book is that Rope Burns and Toole' stories are powerful and Hilary Swanks character might have a terrible demise which parrarells Eastwood's relationship from his daughter.

                           Perry

[vik]

if KC were here and i wish she was she would say - read the posts and if you did then cerebus might be able to tell you

thats if KC wos here

[KC]

Well KC is here, now ...  Sort of.

The movie is based on two short stories in the collection Rope Burns, by F.X. Toole.  Here are a couple of quote from GB Hermosa, from earlier in this very thread:

If any are interested, there are two stories out of the collection from FX Toole that are being used to create this film.  Million Dollar Baby and Frozen Water are the stories from Rope Burns.  I have read them and both are quite short and quite good.  Morgan Freemans character is out of Frozen Water while Clint and Hillary's characters are out of Million Dollar Baby.  Morgan plays more of the narrator for the film.  The entire collection is great.  FX Toole writes with great detail.  You will really be able to see why Clint would be interested.  The collection is available at just about any big chain book store or even online.  I would highly reccomend reading at least these stories.  Total pages is maybe 75 for both.

I read an early version of the screenplay two years prior to Clint's people getting it.  It is very faithful to the stories, but definately increases Morgan Freeman's characters relevance.  Danger and Morgan Freeman's character were both taken from Frozen Water.  The story is only 15 pages long.  It is a good, quick read.  As I said before, I would definately read the stories prior to the movie coming out.  It will give a bit of insight as to FX Toole, as well as how these stories will work together.  Paul Haggis- who wrote the screenplay- was able to get a lot of insight  from Toole before he passed away.  So, there should not be too many of the typical boxing cliche's.  Also, Clint's team is running with the film so you know his usual professionalism and high quality will make this great.  His usual cohorts who made Mystic are all working diligently to get this filmed in June so that it can be released this year.  Also of note, it is supposed to be released by Holiday 2004.

I haven't read the stories myself; I prefer to wait until I've seen the movie before I read the literary source. If anyone has read the stories (besides G.B. Hermosa), feel free to post your comments here, but please avoid "spoilers."

[Brendan]

The film has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA for violence, some disturbing images and thematic material.