One of my favorite Brad Pitt movies is one that is sadly underrated. People often forget about Seven Years in Tibet which, while kind of epically long, was a very good story. I loved the scenery in it almost as much as I loved seeing Brad in it.

This YouTube user set scenes from the movie to the film’s theme song, and it’s quite beautifully done.

If you’ve never actually seen the movie before (and you really should!), here’s the official trailer.

I have to admit, it always distracts me a bit to hear someone speaking with a foreign accent that is not their own, but once the movie gets going, the story kind of pushes the accent aside and I didn’t notice it as much. Still, Brad Pitt speaking with a German accent is quite funny at first!

The movie is almost two and a half hours long, but oh it’s so worth it. It’s incredibly worth it. I can’t believe it’s been 12 years since I saw it in the theater (I feel old now), but I remember being excited to go see it since I was in the process of learning about Tibet and the Dalai Lama.

Perhaps I’ll give this one a watch again this weekend!

I guess there is one decent advantage of having the paparazzi follow you around 24/7 because if you’re Brad Pitt with a broken-down motorcycle it means someone’s always around to give you a hand and you don’t even have to sit around while you wait for AAA to come pick you up.

Today in Los Angeles, Brad Pitt was out riding when his motorcycle completely crapped out on him, which might have left him stranded except that - as usual - paparazzi were tailing him and offered him a rid home. Brad took them up on the offer!

Now see, that’s just nice and kind of cute!

More photos of Brad Pitt getting rescued by the paparazzi below the cut!

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Remember back when we spotted Brad Pitt working with a sumo wrestler in New York, filming some sort of commercial for Japanese cell phone company Softbank?

Well, the commercial’s aired! Check it out below!

Edit: the first one was pulled five minutes after I posted! Let’s try this one now!

I love the way he so nonchalantly picks up that wrestler and carries him so his feet don’t get wet!

What do you think of this ad?

Image: INF

With Inglourious Basterds hitting big screens on August 21st, yet another sneak peek is available. They’ve released the international trailer for Inglourious Basterds and some of it is pretty darn funny.

There are parts that we’ve already seen, but I particularly loved the opening of the trailer, as well as the “Bingo!” at the very end. “You just say “Bingo”.” Ha!

I am so very eager to see this movie!

(source)

The L.A. Times has a fairly informative article up discussing what went wrong with the Moneyball script. It also essentially states that as of now - which should be the second week of production based on the original schedule - Moneyball still sits in limbo, waiting to see if another studio will pick it up.

The movie, based on the bestselling book by Michael Lewis, wasn’t just in pre-production. It was literally five days away from filming when Soderbergh turned in a new version of the script that Pascal and her Sony team found unacceptable. The decision was so abrupt that the film’s producer, Michael DeLuca, got the call about it while on his honeymoon in Paris. As a courtesy to the talent, Pascal gave them an opportunity to try and set the film up elsewhere, but no other studio has shown any interest. So the movie remains at Sony, but will it ever get made? Will Pitt stick with the project? And what exactly went wrong?

What went wrong indeed?

The article basically sums up what we had already surmised so far, that Soderbergh handed in a last-minute revised script that Pascal considered to be far too different from the original story she had agreed to, and that it wouldn’t work for her.

Pascal herself said that she had been very excited to work with Soderbergh, that she had wanted to work with him for a very long time, but that “[...] the draft he turned in wasn’t at all what we’d signed up for. He wanted to make a dramatic reenactment of events with real people playing themselves. I’d still work with Steven in a minute, but in terms of this project, he wanted to do the film in a different way than we did.”

I’m not a studio insider, I’ve never written or directed a script, so I don’t know how it works but I’m a little confused as to how they could have come to an agreement, an arrangement, only to have the director essentially re-write the entire storyline and present it mere days before shooting. I would have thought that all the pre-production arrangements would have laid everything very solidly in “stone” so to speak.

The biggest problem, it seems according to the article, is that Soderbergh wanted the movie to be 100% authentic. Authenticity sounds like a good idea when you’re dealing with a true story but he didn’t want to have any one thing but the absolute truth. The issue with that is that it limits the movie; they couldn’t have shown any scenes, say, with Brad Pitt as Billy Beane at home to give us an idea of his life. Soderbergh wanted everything to be absolute historical fact which makes for a good documentary for those who are hardcore baseball fans but a fairly dull $58 million film.

Reading the article helped me to understand the stand-still right now. What do you think of these details?

Image: Newscom

(Thanks Ligaya!)

Today is another holiday where I live, so first off Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadian PittWatch readers! Since I’ll be offline most of the day to celebrate (here’s hoping the weather holds for our picnic and pool plans!), here’s a fun little Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie video that someone put together on YouTube.

I think part of the reason I love these videos (besides the fact that I love to look at the pictures!) is because I have no idea how to make my own!

Enjoy!

Once again Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are taking a stance for a cause that I personally believe in whole-heartedly. The couple has given use of their names in accordance with an attempted ban on diamonds from Zimbabwe.

Known as “Blood Diamonds” or “Feud Diamonds”, the gems are exactly what you’d expect from the name - precious stones obtained courtesy of a trail of blood-shed. I try to keep my political opinions in a separate compartment of my life, but I am very much against the unethical diamond trade - so much so that my own ring is not a real diamond because I have no interest in contributing. Obviously, you can get ethically obtained diamonds fairly easily with some simple research and information, but I just chose not to. Anyway. The fact that Brad and Angelina are endorsing a stop to the blood diamond trade fills me with so much joy.

Considering some of the most common victims of this particular form of diamond trade are children, it’s not much of a surprise that Brad and Angelina would stand together against it.

Read the full story here.

(Thanks to those of you who commented and emailed about the story!)

Image: Newscom

Over at X17Online there are a few photos of Brad Pitt driving his motorcycle around Los Angeles. It doesn’t say when they were taken, but knowing X17 they were likely from this morning or yesterday.

(Do yourself a favor - go and enjoy the photos of Brad but avoid the comments. It’s unbelievable the trolling that people do when they can hide behind the anonymity of the Internet. Some of them make you wonder if they were ever educated past grade two.)

As much as we were all hoping that Brad and Angelina would head for France or New Orleans for some vacation time, the fact of the matter is that Brad was technically supposed to be working on Moneyball right now and he’s most likely sticking close to L.A. right now while they try to shop the script around to get it picked up by another studio. While Brad doesn’t need the film to secure his income, a lot of other people would have been counting on the work, so let’s hope someone else grabs it soon!

(Thanks Gabriella!)

News is still quiet on the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie front right now. There’s nothing official out as to where things lie with Moneyball. As of now the film is pretty much dead in the water unless another studio picks it up. While it’s a terrible shame for the crew members who were really relying on the income from working on the film, the fact that we haven’t seen Brad or Angelina out and about means that they’re getting a chance to hang out and enjoy life with their family right now.

In light of that, here’s another Friday Flashback for you, a great fan-made video with clips from Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Every time I see anything from that movie I get the urge to throw my DVD in and watch it. I have no major plans for this Friday evening so I think I just might go ahead and watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith!

Happy Friday!

There’s a lot of talk lately about Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and politics floating around the Internet. Nothing is coming from credible sources and most of it seems to be just wishful thinking from some people but it made me start thinking about the possibilities.

First there are discussions of people hoping that Brad Pitt will run for mayor of New Orleans. I don’t know if it’s ever going to happen, but I could actually picture that. Many people think it would be a perfect match since Brad has done so much to help the locals who were left stranded after Hurricane Katrina. With his Make It Right project springing up new housing, so many people will have homes again. We also know that Brad loves New Orleans and so does Angelina; they’ve often referred to it as their real home base. The locals have often protected them from reporters looking for information, and although they’re still photographed there, it’s not usually as invasive as other places like New York.

Personally, I can see it, but I don’t think it’s something that he’s looking into. I’ve never heard him say anything that would suggest that he’d like to get into politics, but you never know. He wouldn’t be the first celebrity to do it, though. The only downside of Brad being mayor is that he wouldn’t be able to travel with Angelina when she films as easily. Then again, if she starts phasing out of movies, that may not be a huge deal.

The stories get even more ambitious with Angie though. The latest rumors out there are that Angelina Jolie would like to run for president of the United States. To me, this is even more laughable than the idea of Brad as mayor. She’s certainly very intelligent and cares a great deal about some serious political issues, but she even said in her recent interview with Ann Curry that she doesn’t consider herself to be a political person.

So, as far as we can tell, these stories are obviously not true, but for fun let’s have a discussion: Whether it’s mayor, president, or something in between, what do you think of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie getting into politics at some point in the future? Can you see it?

I think it would be interesting, but the selfish side of me would really miss seeing them in new movies, and I wonder how the media circus would get in the way. I’m not sure how possible it would be unless the constant paparazzi coverage dies down in the next several years.

Pitt Politics - What do you think?

Image: Newscom