Assassination of a High School President

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=19977

Source: Los Angeles Times
April 19, 2007


The Los Angeles Times reports that Bruce Willis will play an intimidating principal in Assassination of a High School President, an original script written by first-time screenwriters Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski.

A comedic homage to Chinatown set in a Catholic high school, "Assassination" is replete with surprising twists, duplicitous characters and a wry, hard-boiled voice-over delivered by Bobby Funke, a bullied sophomore investigating the theft of the school's SAT exams for St. Dominick's newspaper.

Yari Film Group optioned Jakubowski and Calpin's screenplay last fall, and Willis has signed a pay-or-play deal to shoot the film in July for video and commercial director Brett Simon, making his feature film debut.

Willis will play principal John T. Kirkpatrick, a Desert Storm veteran fond of recounting pungent anecdotes from his time liberating Kuwait.

The hipness of the screenplay's concept and tone echo the high school environs of John Hughes movies. That, and the popularity of Simon's music videos, have prompted many of the industry's hottest young actors — Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan, among others — to show interest in Francesca, the femme fatale. (Willis' 18-year-old daughter, Rumer, last seen in Hostage, will appear in a supporting role.)

 

[livrule]

I love Willis ... he has made some stinkers in recent years but to me he still remains VERY easy to watch.

This sounds interesting.

 

[SolidSnakeMGS]

Are Nic Cage and Bruce Willis in a race to see who can make the most movies per year? Nic is at 5 while Bruce is at a "pathetic" 4.

Hopefully he won't begin to be in mostly crap like Cage is nowadays.

 

[MaskedManJRK]

A parody of Chinatown in a high school with Bruce Willis in it?

I'm so f**king there. t:

 

[Brian2887]

A noir in a high school?

Seen it.

 

[TNC9852002]

First-time screenwriters, eh?

-TNC

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=21059

Barton Joins Willis in The Sophomore
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
June 15, 2007


Mischa Barton ("The O.C.") has joined Bruce Willis and daughter Rumer Willis (who previously starred together in Hostage) in the dark comedy The Sophomore for Yari Film Group, says The Hollywood Reporter.

In this teenage take on Chinatown, Barton plays the most popular girl in her Catholic high school. She persuades a sophomore reporter to investigate the theft of SAT exams, but after he reveals that the school's president and top jock are responsible, a more sinister conspiracy emerges.

Rumer Willis plays the troublemaking sidekick of Barton's character. Bruce Willis plays the school's twisted principal, a Desert Storm veteran who can't let go of his glory days in Kuwait.

The film (previously titled "Assassination of a High School President") will be directed by Brett Simon and written by Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski, who all are making their feature film debuts. Principal photography is set to begin in August.

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=36569

Kathryn Morris Cast in The Sophomore
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
August 23, 2007


"Cold Case" star Kathryn Morris has been cast in Yari Film Group's dark comedy The Sophomore, starring Bruce Willis.

In the film, which is set at a high school with Willis as the principal, Morris will play Nurse Platt, a vegan/hippie stoner high school nurse. She will shoot the film next month around her "Cold Cast" schedule.

On the big screen, Morris next co-stars opposite Josh Hartnett and Samuel L. Jackson in Rod Lurie's Resurrecting the Champ, which opens Friday.

 

[turtlefocker]

Bruce will do just about anything for money

 

[DocHoliday]

Seagrams golden wine coolers, there wet and their dry! My! My! My! My!



Nothing wrong with making money.

 

[Sebastos]

Looking forward to this.

 

[Green Goblin 1964]

They were using my High school for filming here in Jersey...


Bruce is BAD@$$.

 

[bullets]

Looking forward to this.

yikes. im not

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[The Amazing Lee]

Costumes look a little...generically hollywood spoof.

 

[bullets]

i want to bang micha barton in her school uniform.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35365

Quint is in on the ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT!!!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I just got out of the 8:30am press screening (damn these early mornings!) of ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT, starring Reece Thompson, Mischa Barton and Bruce Willis.

Reece Thompson was the lead in one of my favorite Sundance ’07 flicks, ROCKET SCIENCE that got a limited release later in the year. He plays the geek really well because he’s not really playing the stereotypical nerd in both ROCKET SCIENCE and ASSASSINATION. He’s shy, awkward, but not Napoleon Dynamite or Booger or anything.

In this film he’s a high school newspaper nerd. I’m very familiar with that world and was very much like a fat version of Thompson’s character in the movie. He’s young (everybody thinks he’s a freshman, but he’s a sophomore), he does his own thing, much to the chagrin of the hot editor-in-chief, who he has a little thing for (check, check and check).

Anyway, ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT is a comedy set in a Catholic School. In this case, it’s like mixing THE MALTESE FALCON and ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN and setting it within the world of a Catholic School filled with crazy people.

The craziest might be Bruce Willis, who is the gum-hating Gulf War Vet who might just beat the **** out of his students… and he makes them sing songs about America. You can tell he came in for a few days to do his work, but they pepper him throughout and he’s great.

But not as great as Josh Pais in the bit part of the goofy Spanish teacher. He speaks in a light, effeminate way, always asking for his students to speak to him in Espanol… which of course they never do.

The main thrust of the story is a nerdy high school newspaper writer, who is obsessed with Woodward and Bernstein, is tasked with doing a profile of the student body president, the popular jock Paul Moore (played by Patrick Taylor). As the writer, Bobby Funke (pronounced Funk, but everybody calls him Funky… at some point he just gives up correcting everybody), delves into Moore he finds conspiracy.

The SATs are stolen and Funke is tasked to find out who dun it… by the President’s girlfriend, the hot and popular girl (Barton).

Barton is beautiful, of course, and is totally this movie’s femme fatale. And Mr. Skin better upgrade their servers for the bathtub scene…

If I had any complaint about the film it would be that it seems to be trying really, really hard to be BRICK, but a little less dark. At least that was my worry during the first reel, but thankfully the film finds its own voice as it goes along.

Good stuff here.

-Quint

 

[Sebastos]

Cool article, I liked "Brick", it was a good movie.

 

[turtlefocker]

brickish. hmmm.

 

[Warhammer]

Mischa Barton, I'd hit it. :heart:

Then I'd come back for seconds.

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35423

Kraken loves that smart comedies are returning with THE ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here to introduce Kraken's latest review from Sundance. I too loved this movie. And so shall you all, says me. This one is probably the most commercial entertainment movie I saw at the fest. It'll do really well, methinks. Here's the tentacled one with his thoughts:

I'm really happy to see that "smart" comedies are starting to come back. Last year with SUPERBAD and JUNO it felt like the time when Kevin Smith first showed up on the scene back in the 90's (when I was a teenager) and brought intelligence back to the teen/collage age comedy, not to mention an R rating that didn't insult its young adult audience.

ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT feels like it's cut from the same cloth as these deep thinking comedies. It's witty characters and style make it the kind of film you'd want to visit a few times over just to hang out with it a little more. Like the film BRICK it takes a High School spin on the Film Noir detective genre, but where BRICK focuses on the darker elements and takes a more serious tone, ASSASSINATION is more faithful to its John Hughes comedy roots. It starts out with our sleuth/reporter Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson) looking for his first big story for the local high school paper. He finds it in the form of a robbery of all the completed SAT tests. Everyone seems suspect and interested in this case since it effects all the students, but Funke's clues lead him to the resident super jock and class president Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor) who constantly refers to himself in the third person and spouting about doing things the PM-WAY.

But in classic Noir style, things might not be as they seem. The film is populated by a bevy of insane and super entertaining characters that reminded me a lot of the film CLUE. Bruce Willis's super strict former military principal is probably the most fun I've had watching Willis on screen since Die Hard... and it's no cameo part either, he's an integral part of this film. There is also the Spanish teacher played by Josh Pais that seriously almost steals the film. Honestly, I would almost suggest seeing this film just based on his few scenes. Then we of course have the dame in distress/femme fatale played by Mischa Barton who is sure to have the red blooded males in the audience drooling and shifting uncomfortably in their seat when she's on screen. These characters just scratch the surface of the interesting players in this mystery all tied together by the engaging and clever Bobby Funke.

I know I'm focusing a lot on the characters and not so much the story. I don't want this to give the impression that the story is lacking and the films only strong points are the characters themselves. But writing about a film that is at its roots a mystery, I don't want to give too much away about what happens. But this film is definitely one to be excited about when it comes out. I have a feeling it's going to be a cult hit with High School and College students at the same time being enjoyable for an older audience as well.

The direction and writing is very sharp in ASSASSINATION and I hope the trend for these smarter comedies continues for many more years to come.

Kraken

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/imageGallery/Assassination_of_a_High_School_President

 

[Tempest19]

Been looking forward to this since I heard about it. Glad it's getting good reviews, seriously can't wait.

Based off of the 'Chinatown' poster:

 

[Green Goblin 1964]

Yep, that's my high school