Here’s the trailer for Ethan Hawke’s Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward docuseries
The six-part series The Last Movie Stars hits HBO Max later this month
Aux News Ethan Hawke
It’s been a busy year for Ethan Hawke. The Reality Bites actor menaced Oscar Isaac in Marvel’s Moon Knight series, was a part of The Northman’s stacked cast, and starred in director Scott Derrickson’s latest horror flick The Black Phone. For his latest project, however, Hawke can be found behind the camera.
The Last Movie Stars is a six-part documentary exploring the relationship between Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, one of classic Hollywood’s top power couples. As the director, Hawke compiled archival footage of the actors and conducted new interviews with some of the couple’s children, as well as Sally Field and Martin Scorsese, both of whom collaborated with the duo individually. Scorsese, who directed Newman’s Oscar-winning performance in The Color Of Money, is also an executive producer on the project.
The series completes a project that Newman had planned prior to his death in 2008. Screenwriter Stewart Stern, who penned the actor’s 1968 directorial debut Rachel, Rachel, had interviewed the couple and friends such as Robert Redford, Elia Kazan, Gore Vidal, and Sidney Lumet for Newman’s memoir, which was never published.
While the original audio recordings were destroyed, actors such as Kazan’s granddaughter Zoe, Oscar Isaac, Ewan McGregor, Vincent D’Onofrio, Billy Crudup, and Sam Rockwell are providing voiceovers of the interview transcriptions, with George Clooney as Newman and Laura Linney as Woodward. The new trailer for The Last Movie Stars reveals Hawke’s vision to turn the transcripts into “a play with voices.”
Newman and Woodward co-starred in a number of films, including Paris Blues, The Drowning Pool, From The Terrace, and The Long, Hot Summer. Besides their individual talents, they were acclaimed for bringing their real-life chemistry to the screen. The couple was married for 50 years.
Hawke previously directed the documentary Seymour: An Introduction in 2014. He’s also helmed features including Blaze and The Hottest State. Later this year, he’ll be seen in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
All six episodes of The Last Movie Stars launch on HBO Max on July 21.
6 Comments
Well, this could be quite interesting. I saw Blaze (about Blaze Foley, a singer-songwriter most of you have never heard of) which Hawke directed, and it was really good.Newman and Woodward had actual chemistry when they were onscreen together, unlike a lot of real-life couples. I’m thinking of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, but I guess you could argue they weren’t a real-life couple. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez weren’t great in Gigli but… that was a bad movie. [Lopez and Clooney were great together in Out of Sight, and supposedly did NOT get along in real life…]
Oh hell yes
I’d
watch this in a heartbeat. Those two were both dynamite whether together
and on their own. I just watched “From the Terrace,” Mark Robson’s post-”Peyton
Place” adaptation of the Frank O’Hara doorstop. Pure melodramatic soap but
Newman and Woodward are wonderful as the mismatched couple. For all its faults
the movie did scratch the something-like-”Mad Men” itch I’ve had and the ending
(with the radiant, heartbreaking Ina Balin) is lovely.
I’m in. One of my favorite movies is “The Sting.” Such a charismatic guy. Newman was one of those actors the camera couldn’t get enough of. Mrs. F. is 16 years younger than me. Didn’t really know who Newman was other than hearing the name now and again. When we watched “The Sting” and then “Butch Cassidy” soon after she became a fan … Maybe for different reasons than me though! : )
Paul Newman is one of the best actors this country has ever produced. I think he was actually hindered by his great looks and, specifically, his beautiful eyes (says someone NOT partial to blue eyes!) But when you watch his performances, he’s doing something in each performance that was/is as vital as anything Brando did. He was more disciplined than Brando in his performances, and the full depth of his talent was somehow dismissed because of his looks.Plus, he just seemed like a GOOD person, you know? Same goes for Woodward. Absolutely looking forward to this doc!
I grew up close to where they lived. I knew various people who met them in passing, and they all had good things to say about them. I enjoy his lemonade and salsa too.