Updated 7/29/2003


A scene from Rounders
If you would like to contribute news about Matt, please write to Felicity at felix339@homemail.com.au
7/29/2003

  • The first photos of the medieval village built on the backlot at Barrandov for Brothers Grimm have appeared online at this Czech film site, linked by Dark Horizons. The final picture above was not included at the linked article, but is the last picture in the series.

  • More details about the plot for Grimm are at the website for Fangoria magazine here:

    Uma Thurman has stepped into the role vacated by Nicole Kidman in Terry Gilliam's THE BROTHERS GRIMM, taking on the role of an evil, long-dead Queen who is trying to use ancient magic to return to life. Her role will be a small one as the queen doesn't really show up until the end outside of a painting. Another small role to have been played by Robin Williams will now be played by Czech actor Tomas Hanak.

    THE BROTHERS GRIMM is a dark fantasy about the two "Brothers Grimm" (played by Heath Ledger and Matt Damon) who travel around the Napoleonic countryside vanquishing fake monsters and demons (think FRIGHTENERS) in exchange for cash. When the French government figures out what they're up to, they force the brothers to deal with the real thing, a number of murders being committed under mysterious circumstances in the northern woods between Germany and France. It is there that they have to try and discover what's really happening and deal with it before more people are killed or their lack of success leads to the guillotine.

  • Bourne Supremacy producer Frank Marshall talked to about.com during the Seabiscuit junket about the upcoming sequel. Notable is that filming is due to start in November (only weeks after Grimm ends), and that it will now shoot in Germany, Russia and India, far removed from its original Asian plotline.

    "The Bourne Supremacy, which is the second book in the three book series, we'll start shooting in November. The director is Paul Greengrass who did Bloody Sunday and Tony Gilroy is writing the original script. Matt [Damon] will be back. It will take place in Berlin, Moscow and India."

    Why didn't Doug Liman return? "He is off doing another movie."

    The film will have to stray from the novel, just as the original did. "It will be totally different. The stories in all three books are very dated. It's about the cold war and things that have all been resolved and are over with." Marshall would not reveal who the villain of the film would be, but said that Bourne's ultimate enemy is still "himself."

  • And to complete the past, current and future projects update: here's a story on Dennis Kravchenko, who plays the young Matt in Stuck on you here.

  • Information about the potential locations for Ocean's Twelve, from the Las Vegas Sun last Friday:

    "Ocean's 12" is a done deal, but it will be filmed primarily in Monte Carlo, not Las Vegas. George Clooney and producer Jerry Weintraub are staying at the Hotel de Paris in Monaco's capital this weekend, where they are scouring the municipality to scout shooting locations.

    The plot will center on a theft featuring either the British crown jewels or a Vatican icon. Filming is scheduled to start in Rome in February.



  • Thanks to Jennifer for providing the link to the E! True Hollywood Story: Ben and Matt website page here, which includes "True Facts" and other info.

7/27/2003
  • Matt attended a private party for Mick Jagger in Prague Saturday night - details from the Sunday Herald. The Rolling Stones perform in Prague on Sunday.

    He's been famous since the 1960s for living as if there's no tomorrow. But Sir Mick Jagger celebrated his 60th birthday in style last night at a private party in Prague.

    Ahead of the band's sell-out performance to 60,000 at the Czech Republic's national stadium tonight, the Rolling Stones frontman became a sexagenarian at a celebration so secret even the guests were given little warning of the venue.

    Local media had speculated that Jagger would celebrate at the British Embassy but the singer chose to keep them guessing, kicking off his party at the celebrated Four Seasons Hotel, near the historic Charles Bridge, instead.

    The guest list was watertight, with only personal friends and family invited. Celebrity guests included former Boomtown Rat Bob Geldof, actor Matt Damon and maverick film director Terry Gilliam.

    Even former Czech president Vaclav Havel, a friend of Jagger's and an invited guest, was in the dark until yesterday. "We will be told at the last minute," said Havel's aide Martin Vidlak earlier. "This is a private party under full control of Mick Jagger."

    In the early hours of this morning, the celebration moved on to laid-back Prague nightclub Duplex, a retro-styled venue overlooking the city's Wenceslas Square.

  • Another article from the New York Times on Project Greenlight is here.
7/23/2003
  • TV alert: The Matt and Ben E! True Hollywood Story will air from 3 August. Check local guides for times.

  • Thanks to Jennifer for sending in this item from Newsweek, where there is also a picture (included in the SOY trailer) of Matt and Greg on the pitcher's mound.

    "BABIES GOT BACK Poor Matt Damon (left). He finally cuts free from Ben Affleck and--boom!--Greg Kinnear, of all people, sprouts up in his place. "We bonded," says Kinnear of his costar in the Farrelly brothers' new conjoined-twins comedy, Stuck On You. "Now I know what the Secret Service guys feel like when Bush takes a leak."

  • A longer description of Brothers Grimm from the trades:

    Brothers Jake (Ledger) and Will Grimm (Damon), renowned collectors of folklore, have made a career out of traveling from village to village pretending to rid them of "enchanted" creatures. Their bluff is called, however, when they are forced to investigate a haunted forest where girls have been disappearing mysteriously. What they discover leads to a series of adventures involving an actual sorceress that mirrors that of mythology and the fables that the Brothers Grimm would eventually become famous for.

  • The horror that could have been... Casting director Joseph Middleton in an interview for Project Greenlight talked about the conflict in casting Bourne Identity here.

    When we were casting 'Bourne Identity' Doug [Liman] was looking at European actresses and French models to play opposite Matt Damon. I begged Doug to go in a different direction, but the studio really wanted Bridget Moynahan. I told them that if they used Bridget, you have "Sum of All Fears" all over again, and you lose a bit of believability when Bridget [as that character] runs off with Matt the second he offers her money to drive him across Europe.

7/22/2003
  • The MSNBC non-story of yesterday has now appeared in the NY Post's Page Six column here:

    DAMON DROOLING OVER LATINA CO-STAR
    July 22, 2003 -- IS Matt Damon looking for his own J.Lo? Damon, said to be engaged to best pal Ben Affleck's former assistant Odessa Whitmire, has been "fawning over" his "Stuck on You" co-star, Eva Mendes, according to Msnbc.com's Jeannette Walls. "I certainly wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers," Damon told British Esquire. Damon is said to have been bowled over by Mendes' nude scene in "Training Day" and has told people that the atmosphere on the set of "Stuck on You" was "amazing" because of her. Mendes has in the past been compared to Jennifer Lopez. This comes on the heels of reports Damon was hanging with other women in Miami two months ago. His rep denied the account and told Walls the two were "friends." Mendes is said to have a long-term boyfriend.

  • A Czech article describes the Brothers Grimm set at the Barrandov studio in Prague, and this is my translation, from here:

    Within Barrandov studios there is built a fearsome forest with rocks, a river and high tower as well as a middle ages village with a church surrounded by overgrowth and a "live" twelve metre tree. Director Terry Gilliam is here filming Brothers Grimm, a tale of the storytellers, which stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger.

7/21/2003
  • The lead story in Jeannette Walls' column at MSNBC today appears to be based on quotes that I transcribed from the Esquire article about Eva Mendes on Friday. The article has been in circulation for months, and includes many other positive quotes about Eva from directors Bobby Farrelly and John Singleton, and other statements from Matt which I did not include. I'd hate to think this small site had any influence whatsoever on actual news or gossip columns, especially when the news is interpreted incorrectly and given a negative connotation. Or I'm mistaken and the two reports are simply coincidental.

    Co-star catches Matt Damon's eye
    July 21 - Are Matt Damon and long-time love Odessa Whitmire on the outs? The actor has been fawning over his gorgeous "Stuck on You" co-star, Eva Mendes, sources say. "I certainly wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers," Damon told British Esquire.

    Damon is said to have been bowled over by Mendes's nude scene in "Training Day" and has told people that the atmosphere on the set of "Stuck on You" was "amazing" because of her. Mendes has in the past been compared to Jennifer Lopez, a comparison she said she finds flattering.

    Damon's enthusiasm for his co-star comes on the heels of reports, denied by the star's rep, that he was spotted cavorting around Miami with babes.

    The rep tells The Scoop that Damon is still dating Whitmire, who was the personal assistant of his buddy Ben Affleck, until a jealous J. Lo reportedly got her axed. Regarding Mendes, Damon's rep tells The Scoop that they are "just friends."

    Mendes's rep also says the two are not a couple. "She admires his work and likes him as a person," says Mendes's spokeswoman, "but she has a long-time boyfriend."

  • The Australian release date for Stuck on you is currently set for 26 December 2003. A press release from Fox Australia in describing the film also suggests another new celebrity cameo - (scroll over text) "Samuel L. Jackson."
7/19/2003

  • The first picture of Cher in Stuck on you has appeared online, courtesy of Dark Horizons. Larger pictures should be available at a Romanian film site here, but the link is not working at present. I will post the photos on the site when they become available.

  • A note about an encounter with Matt in Prague. Many thanks to Rosy.

    Just wanted to let everyone know that Matt is currently in Prague filming a movie. A friend of mine hung out with him at a bar there about 4 weeks ago. He will be in Prague and Italy for the next 5 months filming there. My friend said that he was cool and really laid back. He actually bummed a couple of cigarettes from him, and of course he was talking to all the girls. He told my friend that he liked Prague because the girls there kept their cool, he said if he were in the US then he would not be able to just stroll in a bar without a mob following him.

  • Thanks to Jules for sending in this link to a blog with satirical commentary about Ben, Jen and third wheel Matt.

7/18/2003
  • A few strange comments from the Ben/Jennifer Lopez interview on "Dateline" Thursday night. From the MSNBC summary.

    O'Brien: Do you think Matt [Damon] will break down when he makes the toast at the rehearsal dinner?
    Affleck: He's a very weepy, weepy man. [laughter]
    Lopez: Well, actually the best man does the toast.
    Affleck: The best man does do the toast. That's true. But it'll probably be my brother as opposed to Matt. Although...
    Lopez: Matt can make a toast if he likes, though. [laughter]
    Affleck: He's welcome. He's made many.


  • I mentioned previously that Matt was interviewed about Stuck on you co-star Eva Mendes for the UK Esquire magazine. Here are some excerpts:

    (On providing comments for the interview)
    Matt Damon said "I never talk to magazines about other actors, but Eva is so great that I'm very happy to do it."

    (On Eva in "Training Day")
    She certainly made quite an impression. I looked at that movie and it was kind of like blah blah blah - really hot naked girl - blah blah blah blah.

    (On Eva's role in SOY, where she plays April, a vapid California starlet)
    There's always one character in their movies that is like a reprise from Dumb and Dumber. They love that character - those guys - so much that they keep bring them back to life in different forms in their later movies. And Eva's got the ball this time.

    It's not that easy to play dumb, especially when you are not dumb. When you're whip smart, it gets a little tougher. But watching the stuff she's doing, Greg Kinnear and I have been both just laughing our asses off at how she is playing it. She is going to be really good in this.

    (On her work on the set)
    There has been an amazing atmosphere on set and that is no small thanks to her.

    (On calling her the sexiest woman in the world)
    You wouldn't get much argument from me. I certainly wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers.

7/16/2003
  • Final video sales and rental figures for the first half of the year have been released, and The Bourne Identity did amazingly well. The Big Matt Fan passed on this note from Variety:

    Universal worked its way to No. 3 by deftly marketing "The Bourne Identity" equally to rental and retail, so that the whopping $151 million in revenues was split right down the middle. (It was the top-renting title of the period.)

  • And from Video Business Online:
    Universal's The Bourne Identity, which earned $121 million in theaters, was the top renter for the first six months, with rental revenue of $74.8 million.

  • More details of Brothers Grimm filming at Ledec, and a similar picture, is available here.

  • Sandi kindly forwarded a scan from the current US Cosmopolitan magazine, seen below. Scroll across to see all of the very large scan.

7/14/2003
  • From a NY Post article on actors who live in New York:

    Matt Damon lives in a Tribeca triplex, and he and galpal Odessa Whitmire are regulars at Thompson St.'s Lupa and Bond Street's Il Buco restaurants.

  • I found two more radio interviews with Matt and Ben promoting Project Greenlight on June 19 or 20. They are available at the station websites: Steve & DC Show and Atlanta Q100.

    In the Atlanta interview, Matt said that he had already been in Prague for a month getting ready to film Brothers Grimm, and that shooting started in a couple of weeks. When asked about his "vague dating status", Matt said it was "Purposefully vague", but that "I have been with the same woman for a couple of years".

7/12/2003

  • Preparations for the filming of Brothers Grimm in the town of Ledčc nad Sázavou are pictured at right. More information in Czech here.

  • A new trailer for Stuck on you, which was expected this week, may have been considered inappropriate at this time and delayed due to the deaths of the Iranian conjoined twins. Let's hope there will be no delay in the film's release. A comment by Greg Kinnear to the Daily Telegraph talking about his role:

    ``Nothing gets you introduced to another carbon-based life form like being harnessed into them every day for 14 hours a day,'' says Kinnear.



7/11/2003
  • I have found a few Czech articles about the filming of Brothers Grimm and the possible attendance of Matt at the Karlovy Vary Festival, but I am unable to translate them. Can anybody help? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Uma Thurman appears to have joined the cast - she previously appeared in Gilliam's Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

  • An article about the filming at Krivoklat Castle: here.

  • The unresolved Karlovy Vary question: here.

  • Thanks to Caroline for letting me know the name of the Celtics mascot.
7/10/2003
  • Harry Knowles from Aint It Cool News will be travelling shortly to Prague for a set report on Brothers Grimm. More details are promised soon on the AICN site.

  • Matt may attend the closing ceremony of this week's Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic. There are conflicting reports on Czech news sites, but I am unable to translate them completely or correctly.

  • Phil reports on the Dreams message board that a behind the scenes book about the making of Brothers Grimm, to be written by Terry Gilliam, is now available for pre-order at Amazon (UK) here. It will not be released until July 2004.

  • TV alert: The episode of Saturday Night Live that Matt hosted (with musical guest Bruce Springsteen) will be repeated on 19 July.
7/09/2003

  • Terry Gilliam was due to accept an award in Paris on 5 July but could not attend due to the filming of Brothers Grimm in the Czech Republic. He sent a note to the organising body instead, partially copied below, and found at the Paris Cinema site. Illustration from an online version of Hansel and Gretel.

    I'm very sad not to be able to be with you tonight. I had made all my plans, but, unfortunately, something very painful and surprising occurred making it impossible for me to come. I HAVE A JOB! I'M SHOOTING A MOVIE!

    Someone has been foolish enough to give me the money.. and I'm stuck in Prague. Tonight we are finishing our first week of filming on The Brothers Grimm. Matt Damon, Heath Ledger and Jonathan Pryce won't let me leave. They think they need a director. I should be with you in Paris saying, "what a great honour it is " but, they insist I stay here, up to my neck in mud and freezing rain while violent enchanted trees attack us from all sides. These are selfish people. But, they can't help themselves. They are actors.

    So from darkest Prague, I wish you well... and hope you survive the ordeal of having to watch all my films. You are braver than me.
    Terry Gilliam

  • Lori and Reba Schappell are conjoined twins from Reading Pa. who assisted in the making of Stuck on you, and were interviewed for a NBC affiliate here. From the article:

    Reba told Banks that Matt Damon has just asked her to sing in a new movie he's making.

7/07/2003
  • Another Brothers Grimm update from Variety:

    Gilliam's 'Grimm' pic Czechs in
    Damon, Ledger starrer lensing on stages, at Barrandov
    By CATHY MEILS

    PRAGUE -- Terry Gilliam's "Brothers Grimm" began filming in the Czech Republic last Monday at the medieval Krivoklat Castle outside Prague. Pic will lense for 17 weeks, mostly on stages and the backlot at Barrandov.

    Matt Damon and Heath Ledger play the title sibs in the romantic action-adventure tale, starting off as a pair of con men traveling from village to village and experiencing a series of adventures that inspire their fairy tales.

    Jonathan Pryce and Peter Stormare play French antagonists, and Lena Headey is cast as the femme lead. Search is still under way for the cameo queen role, which Nicole Kidman turned down, reportedly over scheduling conflicts. Czech production services are handled by newcomer Reforma Films.


  • Ally sent in a link to the Shooting Star site which has photos from a studio series (one shown at right) here.





7/06/2003
  • Matt's name has been added to the IMDB cast listing of The Ugly Americans, a teen comedy currently filming in Prague. If correct, it must be a brief cameo, as other stated celebs in minor roles include Lucy Lawless, Kristin Kreuk and Joanna Lumley. The IMDB page is here, and the details about the film can be found on Greg's yahoo page here.

  • Matt could not attend the annual Shjon Podein celebrity golf tournament in Rochester, but was the subject of this prize in the auction - from the St Louis Post Dispatch article:

    A trip to Prague to see the filming of Matt Damon's current movie and have dinner with Podein's actor pal went for $20,000.
7/05/2003
  • No great news to report, but some items may be of interest.

  • Another radio interview with Matt and Ben to promote Project Greenlight is available at the website of Miami station Y-100. Topics of discussion include the Red Sox, Ben's James Lipton interview, Chris Moore, Blockbuster's sponsorship etc.

  • A new full-length trailer for Stuck on you is likely to be shown in front of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which opens 11 July.

  • From today's Boston Globe:

    FACES ON DISPLAY
    To celebrate the recent declaration of the Union Oyster House as a National Historic Landmark, the downtown eatery's owners, the Milano family, commissioned artist Stan Kotzen to create a piece with portraits of some of the restaurant's most famous diners over the years. Among the notable 50 in Kotzen's painting are: Muhammad Ali, Alec Baldwin, Larry Bird, Carol Burnett, former presidents George Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, Matt Damon, Richard Dreyfuss, Patty Duke, Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Jay Leno, Bette Midler, Bobby Orr, Luciano Pavarotti, Dan Rather, and Tiger Woods and the entire US Ryder Cup team of 1999. The painting is on display at the Oyster House.

  • A spoiler from Eva Mendes, talking about her role in Stuck on you (scroll over text):

    In Stuck on You, Matt Damon and Kinnear play conjoined twins.

    ""I have a romantic scene with Greg that is very funny because Matt has fallen asleep.""

  • At the website of actress and acting coach Eileen Grubba, she has included photos of herself and actor Danny Murphy with Matt on the set of Stuck here.

  • And talking about his role in Stuck to Empire magazine, Greg Kinnear said:

    "I haven't got the time to explain that fully, but let's just say the experience was one I'll never forget for quite a long time!"

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