If you were to make a list of the greatest actors to have ever graced the silver screen, there’s an enormous chance Marlon Brando will be on that list. He embodies a certain energy when you talk about 1950s cinema, whether it’s from the riotous A Streetcar Named Desire, or his later Oscar-winning work in The Godfather.
Now we’re getting a movie about a specific island-buying period of his life, and it stars a practically unrecognizable Waltzing With Brando, and we just got a first trailer. It’s gonna be something, alright:
Part of Brando’s legend is his eccentricity. He would refuse to learn his lines and made his fellow actors wear cue cards. He loved pranks, too. He would put cockroaches in fake bagels and regularly employed a fart machine with his co-stars. Sadly, he ed away in 2004 at the age of 80, ironically the same year that Napoleon Dynamite came out.
The new movie is based on a book by Bernard Judge covering the time period from 1969 to 1974. Brando was preparing to film what would be two of his signature movies: The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris. He was in the process of filming Mutiny on the Bounty and had just bought an island in Tahiti. Dynamite’s Heder plays Judge, the planner and architect for a vacation resort meant to occupy a space with no electricity or running water. In the trailer, we see his cautious character worrying about how to practically build something that requires that level of infrastructure.
No power? Why not syphon it from electric eels? No water? What if we made some from urine? These are the types of shenanigans these two actors get into to make this whole thing happen. Interestingly, Brando was a bit ahead of his time when it comes to environmental awareness, and he envisioned a truly sustainable retreat.
Fun fact: the resort itself actually still exists! It’s appropriately named The Brando and it has a really spiffy website. A night stay will run you anywhere from $2,500 to $14,000.
Zane, 58, captures Brando perhaps a little too well, at least in the trailer. “I won an island nearby,” he says. “It’s more beautiful than words can describe and cinematography can capture, and I want to move there.” Heder seems to be playing against type in a rare role as the movie’s straight man. “To live out there with even a moderate amount of convenience would be a monumental undertaking,” Heder’s character replies.
Much of the lore discussed in the film is actually based on truth, which is wild. Take the eels, for example. Brando had thousands of them and one time he put them in a swimming pool for storage while he cleaned out their tanks. Unfortunately, his son’s girlfriend wanted to take a dip and received the shock of a lifetime, both literally and figuratively. Other notable actors appearing in the film include Tia Carrere, Richard Dreyfuss, Alaina Huffman, and Rob Corddry. There’s no release date for the film just yet, but it’s expected sometime in 2025.
Published: Nov 5, 2024 05:34 pm