 Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut DVD at Amazon |
Theatrical release Nov. 24, 2004
DVD release August 2, 2005 USA (May 2005 in Europe)
- --> Bio from the Alexander Program
- --> November 24, 2004, Backstage, Fighting Irish [Colin Farrell's comments about Christopher Plummer]
- --> The Making of Alexander, by Robin Lane Fox, Excerpts - some brief mentions of Aristotle and Christopher Plummer.
- --> Alexander - Final Production Information
- --> October 18, 2004, Save the Date: World Premiere of ``Alexander'' Tuesday, November 16th
- --> September 22, 2004, Variety, 'Alexander's' war delayed
- --> May 10, 2004, Variety, Players: Christopher Plummer
"Warner Home Video will release Alexander Revisited: The Unrated Final Cut on February 27th, 2007. Director Oliver Stone's epic arrives in its third incarnation featuring more than forty-five minutes of never-before-seen footage restored into the tale of the Macedonian conqueror. The film, now clocking in at nearly four hours, will arrive with a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Aside from a free movie ticket to "300," no extras seem to be included in this edition. Retail is $24.98." (DVD at Amazon)
The above three screencaps are from the Director's Cut 
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| From HBO First Look: Alexander and Becoming Alexander, Discovery channel. He's in only a few frames of these promos. |
 Alexander premiere, Nov. 16, 2004, AP |
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Alexander Premiere, Nov 16, 2004 (Wireimage)
More Premiere photos at Getty Images, Wire Image, Yahoo Movies, Yahoo News. |
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| "AXD-4524 In a ruined temple to the goddess Pallas Athena, the great Greek philosopher Aristotle (Christopher Plummer) teaches young Alexander (Connor Paolo) and his friends." Hi-res, from WB | "AXD-4605 Christopher Plummer portrays the great philosopher and teacher Aristotle."
Hi-res, from WB |
 From the trailer |
Bio from the Alexander Program
Nov. 24, 2004 Backstage By Jenelle Riley
Fighting Irish
[Colin Farrell interview, excerpt]
BSW: You were talking about some of the amazing people you've worked with. Do you ever get intimidated?
Farrell: Oh, yeah. I mean, working with Pacino [on The Recruit] was just unbelievable. And it wasn't ... I mean, the piece wasn't exactly The Merchant of Venice, but I'd fucking do it all over again. No regrets; I loved it as well. It wasn't the "high drama at the OK Corral" moments you would dream of, but I just got to be on a set and work with him. Fuck, I got to work with Al Pacino. It was insane. I got to sit in the car with him while they were setting up the cameras and talk to him. I got to ask Al Pacino what his favorite movie was that he did.
BSW: What did he say?
Farrell: It was an indefinite answer, but it was an answer. He took a long beat and said, [imitating Pacino's voice] "Scarface was pretty close." Fucking genius. So, yeah, I was intimidated. But you know, these people, they could inspire intimidation, having met them. They make you pretty comfortable pretty quick. You know? Pacino was great with me. Spielberg was great with me. All these big names. I just worked with Christopher Plummer, who, to me, is fucking almost godlike. Chris became my drinking partner. We stayed in the same hotel, and every night I'd be in front of the bar, and he'd walk into the room and go, "Dahhhling, I've been waiting. Where've you been?" You know, I had such a laugh with him; we just had a great fucking time together. And he'd regale you with stories, and you could ask him various things about different stages in his career and his life. It was just a joy to be around him. It's thrilling; I've gotten to work with these people and have a drink with these people and have a bite to eat with these people. Because I'm a film fan, first and foremost. Before I was an actor. I grew up watching a lot of these people. And, just being an absolute fan of various pieces of their work, to actually meet them and work with them is crazy. So I am very much a fan; I get excited. And then it becomes normal, and you see that they're people, and you never lose sight of the fact that it's an honor and a privilege to be in their company. It's not because of who they are, what they are. Because there are people that I would meet, and they would let me down as people, and I wouldn't be interested in being around them.
The Making of Alexander, by Robin Lane Fox
Excerpts - some very brief mentions of Aristotle and Christopher Plummer.
Photo from the book
page 8
page 11
page 12
page 36
page 39
page 40
page 42
page 45
page 54
page 158
Alexander - Final Production Information
Excerpts
Official production notes (43 pages in pdf)
[From page 5 "Introduction"]
“I first met Oliver three years ago in London,” Lane Fox recalls, “and he bombarded me with questions, a process that went on for months. He wanted to understand everything from how Greeks would behave at a dinner party to what Aristotle meant to Alexander.
[From pages 9, 10 "Finding Alexander"]
For two relatively brief but crucial roles, Stone reached out to two of the world’s most distinguished actors. As the elder Pharaoh Ptolemy, the film’s storyteller and central voice, Anthony Hopkins was only too pleased to reunite with Stone eight years after their fruitful partnership on Nixon. “Oliver Stone is one of the most extraordinary directors, and I’ve worked with some really great ones,” notes Hopkins. “There’s nothing safe about Oliver, and there’s nothing safe about his films. They are brilliant and outrageous.”
“Once Anthony gets it right, he doesn’t let go,” Stone says. “He’s like a dog with a bone. He works quietly, methodically, and as he goes, sucks more and more of the marrow. On his last day in front of the cameras, Anthony worked until three or four in the morning to finish, which means it was an eighteen to twenty hour day. It killed everybody except him – Anthony loved it. He said ‘I love to work hard, and I don’t like to sit and screw around on set. I wish you had come to me with seventy days of pain!’”
“They were pretty intense days,” Hopkins confirms, “but I felt fantastic at the end of it. Working with Oliver is intense, because he drives and needles you in a good, constructive way. But it was the most satisfying time I’ve had on a set for a long time.”
For the role of the immortal Greek philosopher and naturalist Aristotle, who as Alexander’s boyhood tutor influenced the king throughout his life, Stone approached Christopher Plummer, an actor whose remarkably prolific career spans several decades and dozens of films. Although the role would require that he journey from his home in the United States to Morocco to be on camera for just two days, Plummer was excited by the prospect of breathing life into Aristotle, and undaunted by the notion of portraying the great thinker. “He is a difficult creature to play because we can’t really know him,” the actor notes. “It’s impossible to research a character like Aristotle, because there are millions of argumentative thoughts on the chap. So I gave up searching and put myself in the trustworthy hands of Oliver Stone. I tried to infuse the character with as many colors as I possibly could to suggest Aristotle’s intellect, his wit, and also his energy and mesmeric powers of teaching.”
Aristotle’s lectures to Alexander and the boys who will later become his closest companions – including Hephaistion, his lifelong best friend – touches on many subjects: geography, politics, the gods, and sexuality as it was understood in the ancient Hellenic world, a time in which contemporary definitions were meaningless. Alexander deals with the sexual mores of the era naturally, with neither apology nor sensationalism.
[From page 19 "Reconstructing the Ancient World"]
Built on a nearly sheer bluff above the glinting ocean in Morocco was a small, ruined temple to Pallas Athena, which contained the rudimentary map of the world that intrigued a young Alexander, and was the site of Aristotle’s lectures to him and his friends in the Gardens of Mieza.
[From page 32 "About the Cast"]
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER (Aristotle), who has recently completed his Tony nominated performance as King Lear in Sir Jonathan Miller’s much lauded production at Lincoln Center, has enjoyed 50 years as one of the English-speaking theatre’s most distinguished actors and as a veteran of international renown in over 100 motion pictures.
It was in his hometown of Montreal that Plummer began his professional career on stage and radio in both French and English. After Eva Le Gallienne gave him his New York debut (1954) he went on to star in many celebrated, prize-winning productions on Broadway and London’s West End including Elia Kazan’s production of Archibald MacLeish’s Pulitzer winning play J.B., and the title role in Anthony Burgess’ musical Cyrano for which Plummer won his first Tony. Apart from King Lear, his most recent Broadway success was as Barrymore for which he won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award, The Edwin Booth Award, the Boston Critic’s Award, Chicago’s Jefferson Award, and Los Angeles’ Ovation Award as best actor 1997-1998. He was also a leading member of Britain’s National Theatre under Sir Laurence Olivier, the Royal Shakespeare Company under Sir Peter Hall, and in its formative years, Canada’s Stratford Festival under Sir Tyrone Guthrie and Michael Langham. He has played most of the great roles in the classic repertoire.
Plummer’s eclectic career on screen began when Sidney Lumet gave him his movie debut in Stage Struck. Since then he has appeared in a host of notable films which include the Academy Award-winning The Sound of Music, The Man Who Would Be King, The Battle of Britain, Waterloo, The Silent Partner, Dragnet, Daisy Clover, Star Trek IV, Malcolm X, Dolores Claibourne, Wolf, Twelve Monkeys, Murder by Decree, Somewhere in Time, and a host of others. Plummer’s latest successes are Michael Mann’s Oscar-nominated The Insider, playing television journalist Mike Wallace, for which he won the Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas and the National Critic’s Awards, and Ron Howard’s Academy Award-winning A Beautiful Mind, as well as Etom Egoyan’s Ararat. His latest films are Blizzard, Devil’s Throat, Douglas McGrath’s Nicholas Nickleby and National Treasure.
October 18, 2004 Business Wire
Save the Date: World Premiere of ``Alexander'' Tuesday, November 16th
for Tuesday (Nov. 16)
--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
WHAT:
Oliver Stone's "Alexander" is based on the true story of one
of history's most luminous and influential leaders, Alexander
the Great (Colin Farrell), a man who had conquered 90% of the
known world by the age of 25. Alexander led his virtually
invincible Greek, Macedonian, and later Eastern armies through
22,000 miles of sieges and conquests in just eight years, and
by the time of his death at the age of 32, had forged an
empire unlike any the world had ever seen. The film chronicles
Alexander's path to becoming a living legend, from a youth
fueled by dreams of myth, glory and adventure to his lonely
and mysterious death as ruler of a vast Empire.
Warner Bros. Pictures and Intermedia Films present a Moritz Borman production in association with IMF, an Oliver Stone film, "Alexander." Directed by Oliver Stone, "Alexander" stars Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer and Anthony Hopkins. The film is produced by Thomas Schuhly, Jon Kilik, Iain Smith and Moritz Borman. The executive producers are Paul Rassam and Matthias Deyle. The co-executive producers are Gianni Nunnari and Fernando Sulichin. Written by Oliver Stone and Christopher Kyle and Laeta Kalogridis. The director of photography is Rodrigo Prieto; Jan Roelfs serves as production designer; the film is edited by Tom Nordberg, Yann Herve and Alex Marquez; costumes by Jenny Beavan; Vangelis serves as composer.
WHO:
From the film: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer,
Rosario Dawson, Jared Leto, director Oliver Stone and more,
celebrity guests to follow.
WHEN:
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Crew Arrivals: 5 p.m.
Celebrity Arrivals: 6 p.m.
Screening: 7 p.m.
WHERE:
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
6925 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood
- Your coverage of this event is invited -
Press Credentials will be issued at the event
"Alexander" has been rated R by the MPAA for
"violence and some sexuality/nudity."
http://www.alexanderthemovie.com / AOL Keyword: Alexander
"Alexander" will be released on Wednesday, November 24, 2004
by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
Contacts
Warner Bros. Pictures, Burbank, Calif.
Broadcast: Kim Lerner, 818-954-6718
Print: Gina Soliz, 818-954-6705
Photo: Michael Taylor, 818-954-6585
Online: Brenda Falitz, 818-954-6676
International: Johnny Jones, 818-954-1268
September 22, 2004 Variety by Michael Fleming, Cathy Dunkley
'Alexander's' war delayed
Move gives helmer Stone more time to edit epic
Warner Bros. has pushed the opening of its Oliver Stone-directed "Alexander" from Nov. 5 to Nov. 24, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Move was confirmed by Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures, which is releasing the film in the U.S. for Intermedia Films.
When Oliver Stone showed up at the San Sebastian Film Festival days ago to unspool his docu "Looking for Fidel," the director told Daily Variety he was working 100 hours a week editing "Alexander." Speculation was that the date switch was partly to give Stone extra time to lock his film, which features several sweeping battle scenes.
Campaign competition
Fellman said the studio had a variety of reasons for the date switch, but insisted Stone would have had the film ready for the original date.
More pressing reasons for the switch, he said, was the fear it would be difficult to gain marketing momentum amidst a blizzard of final campaign ads before the Nov. 2 presidential election.
Another consideration was a desire by WB to put the film and performances by Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins and Val Kilmer, in closer proximity to other Oscar contenders.
"We took a good look at the movie in rough form, and if it's not the best film he's ever directed, it's close," Fellman said. "It has a lot of Academy potential that will be enhanced by the change in timing, and we will also have the ability to focus better on an adult audience. Our advertising and publicity departments would have had to compete against the elections, and you don't want to lose to the presidential candidates."
Fellman said he was confident Stone will stay close to schedule and deliver the film with enough time to properly screen it for critics. That would have been a closer call with the Nov. 5 date.
Dodging Pixar
The film had been expected to go head-to-head with Pixar's "The Incredibles," and Fellman didn't regret avoiding that battle. He noted that while the G-rated film would seem to pose little competition for an R-rated film, Pixar offerings traditionally dominate their opening weekends, with adults taking their kids to the theater.
"Alexander" now will square off against the Fox drama "Flight of the Phoenix," the Revolution comedy "Christmas with the Kranks" and the national rollout for Miramax's "Finding Neverland." Fellman predicted other pieces on the chessboard might move as a result of the date switch for "Alexander," an epic that will clock in at around two hours and 45 minutes and likely will bowbow on about 2,500 screens.
"Thanksgiving is traditionally a competitive period, but we've given our marketing department a chance to be in the trenches longer and work harder on the picture," Fellman said. "We'll be ready to play in the big game."
The move will affect the overseas openings of "Alexander" in several territories, including Germany and Latin America. Plans to open in those countries in mid-November will be pushed back, since WB has always been guaranteed first crack in the U.S.
May 10, 2004 Variety by Jill Feiwell, Dana Harris
Players: Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer will star opposite Colin Farrell in Terrence Malick's "The New World" for New Line.
Pic centers on the collision between European explorers and Native Americans in 17th century Virginia.
"The New World" is produced by Sarah Green. It is scheduled for a July production start in Virginia.
Plummer can next be seen opposite Nicolas Cage in the "National Treasure" and in Oliver Stone's "Alexander."
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