Scans: Juliette talks about 'Clouds of Sils Maria' and Kristen (Femina, France)

        

Q: How did you approach your character, Maria, the big actress that you're playing? It's a role that you already know...
J: it was exhilarating to play this role, like a hide and seek game. I don't think I am as moody as Maria, but one of the common points that I have with her is that I love to throw myself into roles. And this role was a challenge. The love story that she has to interpret in the play and that she repeats with her assistant [Played by Kristen Stewart] is troubling, because it's two different ways of acting, we never know if the feelings between her and her assistant are real or not. It's a theme that I got to explore in "Copie Conforme" by Abbas Kiarostami: two strangers that meet each other for he first time and have to pretend to be married. (...) The films "Sils Maria" has a lot of different themes, but the one that appeals to me the most is the transformation of my character because of the confrontation with the younger actress played by CGM, who plays the role that she played twenty years before. Maria can't act like she used to, she can't hold on to the past, she has to reach a new level, she's confronted to her fear of change and she can only achieve that by accepting her difference.

Q: Kristen Stewart is mesmerizing and really throws everything back to you. Is it a beautiful encounter for you?
J: I saw her in "On The Road" by Walter Salles. She has a natural sensuality and an unparalleled sensitivity. At one point, Olivier hesitated, because he wanted to give her the role of the young actress and Kristen refused, she wanted to play the assistant. At first, she was a bit scared, but with time, she found her place. With Olivier, we shared a complicity by watching her blossom. Kristen has a huge potential, a stroke of genius, a capacity to read a text three times and know it by heart. We loved playing together, we had a lot of fun, because I was playing the star and she was the assistant. We're going to film another movie together in the film in a totally different register, a comedy by Steven Shainberg: The Big Shoe.

Scans and translation thanks to @SomeLostBliss

Juliette Binoche talks about 'Clouds of Sils Maria' & reuniting with Kristen on 'The Big Shoe'

Lina Martins [Juliette's personal assistant] looks like Kristen Stewart? 

(Laughs) No, Lina is Portuguese, has rather my age and almost 20 years ago that is my personal assistant. There has been a hiatus of two or three years, because she wanted to write, and I was already a bit of air. But now he's back home. It is an extremely close relationship that mixes friendship and work . And it's not always easy. It's a bit like a relationship, but now, after all this time, we are more like sisters.

Is it true that 'Sils Maria' was his idea?

Yes, but only the original idea. I was eager to return to work with Assayas, because rolling 'Summer hours' (2008) I found it very shy, distant, and felt that still we could do something good together. So I called him to talk about the characters, and he became her script. It was he who had the idea of turning them into a mature actress, his assistant and the young actress who plays Chloë Grace Moretz.

So this Assayas film is a portrait of Juliette Binoche?

Rather, the idea was that among the four (Olivier, Kristen, Chloe and I), talk of the profession that we know firsthand, with some humor and from an ironic distance. And I don't think that my character is particularly inspired in me. For starters, she has no children and have them changes everything. It forces you to ask yourself for what we are made, and how to participate in the world.

You usually convey much pain through the screen. 

Who does not suffer in life? I think actors are needed to reflect that suffering, and I imagine that's why they call me, to be the catalyst that transforms suffering. In movies where I work, but the end is very tragic, always need a glimmer of hope. He was for example to work on 'The Childhood of a Leader', the debut behind the camera of Brady Corbet, who is a brilliant actor, but it was too dark.  Wear a few very hard, deep and transcendental movies, and I want to take a rotation . So in return I will be in 'The Big Shoe' by Steven Shainberg, the director of ' Secretary '(2002). It will be much more fun, plus I reunite with Kristen. I think I have a comic to discover potential. At 50 I start my second life. 

Please note this article has been translated using Bing Translator from Spanish.

Source Via

New interview with Women's Wear Daily at the Chanel fashion show

COMING UP ROSES: Kristen Stewart turned heads at the Chanel couture show on Monday with her newly shorn locks. The actress, who stars in ads for Chanel’s Métiers d'Art Paris-Dallas collection, said she just got the chop that morning.

“I’m ultimately going to go a little bit shorter for this next film that I’m going to do called ‘Equals,’ but I figured, you know, before I went all the way — might as well just play around with something for the show,” she said, adding that the orange color was a leftover from her most recent shoot, “American Ultra.”

Stewart will star with Nicholas Hoult in “Equals,” billed as a futuristic love story, and confessed she is nervous before each new shoot. “That’s the feeling that I look for. That’s everything that drives me. You know – and a lot of people say this – but if you’re not a little afraid of what you’re doing, it’s probably not worthwhile,” she remarked.

However, the “Twilight” star has gotten over her initial fear of working with French actress Juliette Binoche on “Sils Maria,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The two will be reunited soon on “The Big Shoe.”

“The intimidation level is down a bit, but now I feel like we need to up our games because it’s, like, the second go. I’m so excited. She’s become one of my favorite people in the world,” Stewart said.

Source Women's Wear Daily

Juliette Binoche joins the cast of 'The Big Shoe'

Women's Wear Daily However, the “Twilight” star has gotten over her initial fear of working with French actress Juliette Binoche on “Sils Maria,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The two will be reunited soon on “The Big Shoe.”

“The intimidation level is down a bit, but now I feel like we need to up our games because it’s, like, the second go. I’m so excited. She’s become one of my favorite people in the world,” Stewart said.

@KstewAngel yes she is...
— Anton Ernst (@antonernst) July 8, 2014

Source via @Gossipgyal thank you.

"The Big Shoe" in Pre-Production + more details on the project

New screening poster from Bankside Films: 7 July 2014

Click on pic for larger view.

(Via itsoktobeyou.org)

Update from a casting agency in South Africa: 5 June 2014

Steven Shainberg (Secretary, Fur) paid us [Cast Serve] a flying visit to "chat" to a selection of South African actors, then gave the go-ahead to cast about two dozen delightfully quirky character parts for The Big Shoe. 

While "aarghrrr-arrghing" their way through two years of pirate auditions has been fun, many Cape Town and Johannesburg actors leaped at the chance to strut their stuff with characters from the hidden world of shoe-fetishists. Believe it or not, after our initial round of auditions, a healthy clutch of dead pirates have caught the eye of Mr. Shainberg! 

Cast Serve also have "The Big Shoe" listed on their site as a being one of their 'Current Projects'.

(Via @flippysgardenia/ @Mel452)

Production Weekly Update: 17 May 2014

Status: 18 October 2014
Location: South Africa
Producer: Andrew Lazar - Richard Middleton - Christina Weiss Lurie
Producer/Director: Steven Shainberg
Writer: Mickey Birnbaum - Steven Shainberg
Cast: Jim Sturgess - Kristen Stewart - Elizabeth Banks
Mad Chance/ Tango Pictures
VOX3 Films

Production Weekly Update: 12 April 2014

Status: September 2014

Location: South Africa

Producer: Andrew Lazar - Richard Middleton - Christina Weiss Lurie 

Producer/Director: Steven Shainberg 

Writer: Mickey Birnbaum - Steven Shainberg 

Cast: Jim Sturgess - Kristen Stewart - Elizabeth Banks

Mad Chance/ Tango Pictures

VOX3 Films 

Hanway Films 

( Via @Mel452)

Bankside Films has been confirmed as the new sales company for "The Big Shoe," now listed on their website in Pre-Production. 

London-based sales outfit Bankside Films is the new sales company on board Steven Shainberg’s comedy-drama The Big Shoe.

Jim Sturgess, Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Banks and Klaus Maria Brandauer are set to star in the story of a gifted shoe designer (Sturgess) forced to break free from a family who want to cheapen his art for their own commercial gain. Stewart will play the designer’s muse.

Written by Shainberg and Mickey Birnbaum, new backing for the film comes from Bankside and South Africa’s Azari Media. The shoot is planned for April 2014.

Andrew Lazar (I Love You Philip Morris) of Mad Chance Productions produces, while executive producers are Christina Weiss Lurie, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross and Anton Ernst.

CAA is packaging and reps North American rights.

Bankside’s head of sales and marketing Stephen Kelliher, said: “We are huge fans of Secretary so when the opportunity to be involved in Steven Shainberg’s next feature arose, we knew that we had to do it. It is a highly original story from an extraordinary director who has attracted a sensational cast to the project. We know that international distributors are going to be as excited about this film as we are and we look forward to presenting the film to them here at the AFM.”

More details via Bankside Films:

THE BIG SHOE is a daring and comedic romance about an unusual, creatively stifled shoe designer, Nate and his newfound muse, Delphi, who inspires him to resume his brilliant designs. Denied the chance by his family to design high-end women's shoes, Nate Arbinger, 34, refuses to have anything to do with the family’s industrial footwear business while his father is still alive. Following his death, Nate returns home for the funeral, knowing that his mother, Irene, and older sister, Ellen, 30s, desperately want him to revive and revamp the company but he has little interest in fulfilling their wishes.

His lack of engagement prompts Irene to hire MK, 50s, a therapist who specializes in treating foot fetishists, in order to woo Nate back to work. MK, in turn, hires Delphi, 20s, a foot model and sex worker to act as Nate’s muse. Inspired by the beautiful Delphi with whom he is clearly falling in love, Nate begins to create his most beautiful work. But when the family seizes control of his new line of shoes and separates him from his muse, he suffers a breakdown until MK intervenes to restore an unexpected and surprising harmony to his life and helps him to find Delphi again.

(Via @KstewAngel)

Synopsis via Production Weekly:

A gifted shoe designer, Nate, is forced to break free from a family who want to cheapen his art for their own commercial gain. “The Big Shoe” is a touching an sexy love story and a classic boy-to-man coming-of-age tale, with the colorful backdrop of the fashion/shoe industry. When a muse is strategically ‘planted’ along Nate’s path by his mother, he begins to embrace the mad “logic” of the creative drive, allowing his own deep impulses and wishes to finally be expressed and experienced. He’s revealing to her and to the world his secret. And, while it may make no real practical“sense” to do his art (shoemaking), Nate must.

(Via @Mel452)

Screen Daily / Scan & info thanks to @Gossipgyal 

Video: Jim Sturgess mentions Kristen and 'The Big Shoe'

Jim mentions Kristen at 4.56mins

Later this year Jim Sturgess is expected to start shooting The Big Shoe in which he will star opposite Kristen Stewart. The actor describes it as a film about foot fetishes and shoemaking. He hasn’t yet done exhaustive research on the work of his co-star. He admits he hasn’t seen any of the Twilight series films the brought Stewart to international fame.

When asked if might watch them now he says “probably not.” But he did view some of her independent films and he says: “I thought she was really great."

Source via jimsturgessonline via @rainbowclimber_ via kstewartfans thank you.

Jim Sturgess talks about Kristen and 'The Big Shoe'

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

"It's basically about shoe designs," he explained. "I play a young shoemaker who has a foot fetish, so the whole idea is about foot fetishes and shoemaking, basically. So another Hollywood blockbuster."

Jim has yet to meet co-star Kristen but he is obviously well-aware of her work.

"No, I've never met her, so it'll be exciting," he enthused. "I know who she is. I've seen her in some great movies. She did a film called 'Adventureland' that I really liked."

And how exactly will his character, Elizabeth's and Kristen's all fit together?

"Elizabeth Banks plays a therapist who is trying to coax me—who's been hired by my family to coax me into making shoes again. I'm sort of a retired shoe artist. I now work in, like, a Payless shoe store. I've given up on shoes all together. So they bring in Kristen Stewart's character as a muse, and I fall in love with her feet basically. I don't even look at her from the knee down until [gestures at feet]. I saw some audition tapes, her feet look pretty amazing."

When we told Jim of Kristen's recent foot injury (on display at this year's Oscars ceremony), he was quick to (jokingly) explain the situation:

"She was doing foot training," he said. "Working those muscles."

Source MTV

Kristen to star in Steven Shainberg’s 'The Big Shoe' with Elizabeth Banks & Jim Sturgess

Deadline

Kristen Stewart and Elizabeth Banks are joining Jim Sturgess in Steven Shainberg’s The Big Shoe. HanWay Films is handling international here at the EFM with CAA repping domestic. Secretary director Shainberg is helming from a script he wrote with Mickey Birnbaum. 

Sturgess plays a gifted shoe designer forced to break free from a family who wants to turn his designs into mass-produced knock-offs. The family hires psychotherapist Mary Kay (Banks) and muse Delphi (Stewart) to lure him back to work. 

Shainberg says the film will combine eroticism and humor in a similar way to dark comedy Secretary. Andrew Lazar’s Mad Chance produces and Richard Middleton and Christina Lurie are executive producing.

Variety

Kristen Stewart is set to join the cast of Steven Shainberg's comedy drama "The Big Shoe." Elizabeth Banks is also confirmed for the cast alongside Jim Sturgess.

Marking helmer Shainberg's first feature outing since 2006's "Fur," "The Big Shoe" follows a show designer (Sturgess) whose family want to use his designs to make mass-produced knock-offs for fast profit. The family hires a muse (Stewart) and a psychotherapist (Banks) to lure him back to work when he breaks free from the family.

The film is described by Shainberg as combining eroticism and humor in the same vein as his 2002 film "Secretary."

Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance Productions will produce the film, which is scripted by Shainberg and Mickey Birnbaum. Lensing is set to begin June 17.

HanWay Films handles international sales. CAA are handling domestic rights.

THR

BERLIN -- Kristen Stewart and Elizabeth Banks have joined the cast of Steven Shainberg's The Big Shoe, which European outfit HanWay films is shopping to foreign buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin.

They join Jim Sturgess, who plays a gifted shoe designer forced to break free from a family who want to turn his beautiful designs into mass-produced knock-offs for a quick buck. The family hires psychotherapist Mary Kay (Banks) and "muse" Delphi (Stewart) to lure Nate back to work.

Andrew Lazar’s Mad Chance Productions will produce, with Shainberg (Secretary) directing from a script he co-wrote with and Mickey Birnbaum. Richard Middleton and Christina Lurie are executive producing.

"The Big Shoe gives me the opportunity to explore a playful, romantic, sexy, intimate connection just as Secretary did. Not since that film have I had a script that combines eroticism and humor in such a fun way," Shainberg said. "This is a script dear to my heart, and I intend to make a truly unique film from it."

Added HanWay's Thorsten Schumacher: "The director of Secretary making a film about shoes, fashion and fetishism was a must-have item for our team and to have such a stellar cast on board will make it a great fit for distributors. Georgina Goodman’s incredible designs threaten to steal every scene they're in so we’ll see plenty of great marketing possibilities for the film."

Cannes 2012 article: THR (via @ADarkParadise)

The Big Shoe -- featuring footwear designed for the film by England's Georgina Goodman -- will be financed by a new $150 million equity film fund announced this week by AngelWorld Entertainment.

Shainberg (Secretary, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus) is set to start shooting this fall from a script he co-wrote with Mickey Birnbaum. The project reteams Sarandon and Sturgess, who will be seen in Focus Features' Cloud Atlas, from Tom Tykwer, Andy and Lana Wachowski.

Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance Productions will produce alongside AngelWorld's Darby Angel, Tykwer and the Wachowskis. HanWay Films will handle international sales, while CAA negotiated the deal and is representing North American rights (CAA also reps WorldView).

The Big Shoe follows Nate (Sturgess), a gifted shoe designer forced to break free from a family who wants to cheapen his art for their own commercial gain. His overbearing mother Irene (Sarandon) hires a psychotherapist and a muse to lure Nate back to work.

"The Big Shoe provides the opportunity to explore a playful romantic, sexy, intimate connection just as Secretary did. The script combines eroticism and humor in such a unique way -- where shoes are better than sex," Shainberg said.

Goodman recently designed a pair of wedding shoes commissioned by the Royal Mint to celebrate the Royal Wedding. Only 11 pairs of the shoes were produced, the first going to Kate Middleton.

"The project has all the elements we were looking for to satisfy our financing model. The script is strong, as is the cast and the creative team, and it's great to work with an experienced and reputable producer like Lazar. The Big Shoe ticks all the boxes, especially as our investment criteria are non-negotiable," said Angel.

AngelWorld's new $150 million equity fund -- putting investors in the first position -- will finance six projects. The Big Shoe is the first to be announced.

Production Company, Angelworld Entertainment official synopsis: 

A gifted shoe designer, Nate, is forced to break free from a family who want to cheapen his art for their own commercial gain. “The Big Shoe” is a touching an sexy love story and a classic boy-to-man coming-of-age tale, with the colourful backdrop of the fashion/shoe industry. When a muse is strategically ‘planted’ along Nate’s path by his mother, he begins to embrace the mad “logic” of the creative drive, allowing his own deep impulses and wishes to finally be expressed and experienced. He’s revealing to her and to the world his secret. And, while it may make no real practical “sense” to do his art (shoemaking), Nate must….

IMDB The Big Shoe

Via kstewartnews and kstewartfans thank you.