Source: Hollywood Reporter

Film starring Michelle Monaghan, Willem Dafoe, and Stephen Dorff is in jeopardy over alleged breaches of screenwriter’s rights.
The screenwriter behind the forthcoming film Boot Tracks is asking a judge to issue an injunction to prevent the release of the psychological thriller.
In a lawsuit filed last week in California federal court, writer Matthew Jones alleges that producers of the movie breached promises against making significant artistic changes to his screenplay, which was based on his own novel published in 2006.
Boot Tracks is about an ex-con who seeks vengeance for his jail-house mentor by going on a road trip with a woman he meets along the way. The film stars Michelle Monaghan, Willem Dafoe, and Stephen Dorff.
According to the complaint, after the novel came out, Jones was “courted” by defendants David Jacobson and Larry Rattner with assurances that the film would be consistent with the authenticity of the novel. In November 2010, Jacobson, who directed the film, and Rattner, who produced it, allegedly gave the writer authority over any script changes in the “Option Agreement.”
Jones alleges that the defendants fraudulently made such promises “so they could misappropriate (his work) and use it in the way they wanted.”
The film is said to be materially different from the screenplay in order to secure a financing and a distribution deal. Allegedly, principal photography was completed without the producers ever actually exercising the option to purchase Jones’ work.
After Jones learned of this, he says he confronted the defendants, who were allegedly unresponsive to his concerns until they learned that Jones planned to file a lawsuit. At which point, they purportedly exercised the purchase option.
Now, Jones is suing for copyright infringement, breach of contract and fraud. He’s demanding $500,000 in compensatory damages, $1 million in punitive damages, further statutory damages, an injunction against the film’s release, and dissolution of the defendants’ film company, Dirt Blossom.
The defendants couldn’t be reached for comment.

Source: Slashfilm

Officer Down is to be directed by new filmmaker Brian A. Miller. Stephen Dorff will star alongside David Boreanaz, Dominic Purcell, Stephen Lang, James Woods and AnnaLynne McCord.

When a doctor and security guard dream at night, their dreams consist of what the other person did during the day. They meet when the security guard murders his wife, is then hit by a car and brought into the doctor’s emergency room. Boreanaz will play a humorless and ambitious rival detective to another cop played by Dorff.

Walton Goggins will be “the prime suspect in the sexual assault of a young woman, a case being investigated by a gruff detective (Dorff).”

Stephen is currently filming The Motel Life along with Emile Hirsch, Dakota Fanning and Joshua Leonard. The film is directed by Gabe Polsky and Alan Polsky. No release date has been set yet but as information is released we will keep you posted.

Synopsis:
After Jerry Lee Flannigan drunkenly kills a boy in a hit-and-run accident, he and his brother Frank ditch their Reno motel. The grief-stricken, working class, self-described “losers” do their best to keep each other’s spirits up, but all signs point toward more tragedy.

The people at Reelz.com had the opportunity to talk to Stephen about making Somewhere and what his mother thought of the movie. Watch the video HERE.

In a lengthy but interesting interview with New York Magazine, Stephen talks about everything from “Somewhere”, to living out of hotels, to his upcoming film “Immortals”.

Stephen Dorff wants an Amstel Light and an afternoon cigarette, but as we head out to the courtyard of the Chateau Marmont — the famous Los Angeles hotel where he spends the bulk of Sofia Coppola’s new film, Somewhere — one young woman in the lobby won’t let him go. “Stephen Dorff!” the blonde repeatedly exclaims. A casual acquaintance named Holly (at the Chateau, everyone is a casual acquaintance of everyone else), she is insistent that Dorff adopt an animal from her and has the disconcerting habit of always addressing him by his full name. “Stephen Dorff, are you going to take the dog?”

“Maybe,” says Dorff, flashing the amiable half-smile of his Somewhere character, the dissolute but softhearted actor Johnny Marco. “I have to meet a dog before I take him.”

“Well, when are you gonna meet him, Stephen Dorff?”

“I dunno. Let me get through the next few days.” Like Marco, who’s ushered from event to event by a phalanx of publicists and agents, Dorff is in the middle of a crowded schedule of press obligations. He’s just arrived at the Chateau from a luncheon that he and Coppola attended with awards bloggers and industry pundits, and he’s beaming, proud to be front and center in such a well-received movie (Somewhere took home the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion).

How was the awards luncheon?
The “Pundits Express”? It was good. I’ve never really done this before. I’ve never done the Academy dance … I’m happy to do it, though. My biggest thing is I was just so stoked when we won Venice. I was so happy and humbled to be included in the mix, because you’ve got great movies there, great filmmakers. To just be there was awesome.

Were you still there when it won?
No, I was back in L.A. Sofia was in Paris, and usually if you win the Gold Lion, the director comes back. She still didn’t know we had won the big one, but me, of course, I knew all the awards you could win and how the rules worked — you can’t win Best Actor if you win Best Movie, things like that. She said, “I think we won, but I don’t know what we won.” I said, “Look, I’ll tell you what it could be. Best Director, Special Jury Prize, or the big one, the Gold Lion.” So then when she got there, she was like, “We got the big one!” We had a Champagne celebration from Malibu to Harry’s Bar.

What was the screenplay like when she sent it to you? So much of it feels improvised on the day.
She’s kind of famous now for writing shorter screenplays. Lost in Translation was 60 pages?

And this one?
This one was about 48. They’re usually about a 120, and this script was a pamphlet, almost. I felt the whole movie there, but I had a lot of questions. Obviously, I completely wanted to work with Sofia going in, so if she had given me something that was two pages, I would have said, “Let’s do it, I’m down for this experience,” but I’ll give you an example. The script was completely laid out as far as the dialogue that’s there, but the Guitar Hero sequence was scripted in one line: “Scene 48, Johnny and Cleo play Guitar Hero, sun’s blasting through the windows of the hotel room, Sammy’s on the couch.” So in shooting, we start playing our songs, we start vibing and making things up, she’ll say, “Ooh, I like when you said that thing about the whammy bar, but go back and do it earlier.” Though I would say that of the whole thing, maybe only 20 percent was improv. The rest was there.

She’s not interested in telegraphing things. Your character has an arc of being transformed by the presence of his daughter, but you have to underplay it in the extreme.
She never states the obvious, she wants to have it all said with one line. I found it the most raw and naked performance I ever had to give, so in that way, it was the most challenging thing I’ve done. I find that if you give me makeup or a machine gun and there are explosions going off … I mean, there are a lot of cheats with acting. I can mimic anything, and if I sat with you for a few hours, I could mimic the hell out of you. When I played Candy Darling in I Shot Andy Warhol, that was easy to play that part. They made me into a woman, I’m in heels, I’m waxed, I’m gonna find the femininity and lay on the bed and take the voice of an old movie star. This part, I had nothing. No tricks, no accent, no game, nothing — no prop, really, except for my smoke and my beer, sometimes.

Sofia asked you to move into the Chateau to prepare for the role. How much of what we see in the movie sprung from that?
Ultimately, she knew that by living here, that things would happen to me as Stephen the way they probably would for Johnny. Sofia would come in the morning and say, “Any gossip from last night?” I’d say, “Funny enough, I had a dry rehearsal of our elevator scene. I was in the elevator with that actor Olivier Martinez, and I didn’t know him all that well — I’d just met him once. We were riding in the elevator and he had scripts under his arm and he said, ‘What room are you in?’ And I said, ’69.’ He said, ‘Oh yeah? I had a party in 69 once… ‘” And she said, “Oh I like that, let’s use that in the scene with Benicio [del Toro, where he shares an awkward elevator chat with Johnny Marco].” I don’t think there were any lines written in that scene — originally, it was supposed to be Vin Diesel in the script. Then he decided he didn’t want to do the part — he didn’t get the joke, I guess.

Elle Fanning plays your 11-year-old daughter in the movie. Is this the first time you’ve ever been a father onscreen?
Oh yeah. It’s the first time I’ve ever been around kids this much. My friends are having babies, I’m a godfather to one of my friend’s babies. It’s like, “Wait, man, when am I gonna have a baby?” One day, hopefully… The movie, to me, is about an adolescent father becoming a dad. Elle’s character is way more sophisticated than her dad, and ultimately through her, the end of the movie is his beginning. It’s been so special and unique, man. I’ve made 30-some movies, and nothing’s ever been made and executed the way this film was. I mean, it’s on another level for me, creatively.

Read the rest of the interview at NYMAG here.

In a new interview with ELLE magazine, storied heartthrob Stephen Dorff tells Andrew Goldman the rules for non-regrettable tattoos, and why you should never open a FedEx in public.

For actors, the word comeback can be so harsh, implying a rebound from a career reduced to car dealership openings or shilling Ozarks time-shares on cable. Since his big break in 1994’s Backbeat, Stephen Dorff never actually went anywhere; just last year, he could be seen wielding a tommy gun beside Johnny Depp in Public Enemies. So instead of “comeback,” let’s call what Sofia Coppola has given the 37-year-old a “brand repositioning.” Over the years, Dorff’s roles have often been overshadowed by his reputation as a raffish Hollywood boulevardier who parties on weeknights, dates scads of beauties—Pamela Anderson, half the Elite Models roster—and once famously did verbal battle with Jeremy Piven in a bathroom line. (It all started when Dorff allegedly cut in front of Piven. Seriously.) Now with Coppola’s gorgeous film Somewhere, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, we remember why Dorff was famous in the first place: He delivers a mesmerizing performance as Johnny Marco—an actor, Chateau Marmont resident, and, well, Dorff-esque Hollywood boulevardier who finds his life and career at a crossroads.

ELLE: You took time off to take care of your mom before she passed away three years ago from cancer. Is there anything you wish she could have lived to see you do?

STEPHEN DORFF: I would have wanted my mom to see me settle down and to be a grandma to my kids. After I did Blade, everybody just wanted me to play a bad guy—my mom would always be saying, “Why can’t you play a nice guy, like those Steve McQueen–type parts?” Johnny Marco is everything my mom wanted me to play. I would have loved for her to have been with me on this journey, but more than that, I would have loved for her to know that I’m doing good.

ELLE: Was she worried you weren’t okay?

SD: Growing up, I was this rambunctious psycho boy, so she was always worried. I remember shooting in London and getting a FedEx from her. I thought it was my favorite American snacks, and I open it, and it’s 1,500 condoms in all different colors.

ELLE: If you think of your mother when you look at a condom, I’m not sure if she was pushing safe sex or abstinence. You’ve got a storied history as a Hollywood bachelor. If I made you commit to an age when you’d get married, what would it be?

SD: Forty-five. I still need a few more years.

ELLE: Does a future of monogamy scare you?

SD: I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.

ELLE: Fifteen years ago, your S.F.W. costar Reese Witherspoon said, “I wouldn’t date Dorff for all the money in the world,” because not many women were able to hold your attention for long. Have you changed?

SD: I don’t know. I do love girls, I’m not going to lie. I think at that time in my life I was as all over the place as any young guy would have been in my situation. I was thrown into the fashion world, dating models—and you’d read about me dating a new starlet every month. That’s just where my life was. But I’ve grown up a lot.

Continue reading the full interview at ELLE.

Stephen Dorff loves being “cool again”.

The actor has seen interest in career take off again following his role as lonely rockstar Johnny Marco in Sofia Coppola’s new film Somewhere but is upset his mother is no longer around to witness his success.

“The reaction has been massive. I’ve done more interviews than ever before,” he said.

“Sofia and I have been friends for a long time and she approached me. She rediscovered me — she made me cool again.

“Now I have amazing roles coming to me, all because of her.

“And it’s weird, I lost my mum two years ago and now here I am finally playing a role she would have loved to see me play. That broke my heart.”

The 37-year-old star has been out of the spotlight for a long time since his 90s hey day, but insists he has continued working throughout his years in the Hollywood wilderness.

“I’ve been here – I’ve been working my a*s off. The ups and downs of the business are hard. At one point there was so much hype about me. Then I made a bunch of movies for the money that I didn’t like and nobody saw,” he said.

“Then I did ‘Blade’ and Hollywood started to see me as the bad guy, but that soon gets old too.”

source

Stephen attended the New York screening of “Somewhere” at the Tribeca Grand Hotel on December 12, 2010. He looked dashing as always in a suit from Tom Ford while co-star Elle Fanning looked stunning in a dress by Rodarte. I have added 36 images from the event to the gallery.

Appearances 2010 > “Somewhere” New York screening

‘Somewhere’ Showcases L.A. Style

“I have one problem with Elle,” admitted Stephen Dorff of his “Somewhere” co-star, 12-year-old burgeoning “it” girl Elle Fanning.

“She’s nearly perfect, but she’s just growing too tall. I’m not the tallest guy, and she’s like 6 feet tall in heels, so it feels like the time I went out with a supermodel (Milla Jovovich) years ago,” said Dorff, who was wearing Tom Ford. “I feel like Mini-Me sometimes on the red carpet with her.”

Of course, at last night’s screening of Sofia Coppola’s film at the Tribeca Grand, Fanning’s 5-inch Nicholas Kirkwood for Rodarte wedges probably didn’t help her cause with Dorff.

“I was asking Elle, ‘How are you losing your baby teeth now? You’re already so tall?‘” Dorff continued. “She said, ‘I know, but I can’t slow down!’”

Fanning (whose sister, Dakota, 16, is another young starlet) is taking it in stride. While others might get a big head about joining the ranks of Coppola’s other leading ladies like Scarlett Johansson or Kirsten Dunst (who was at the screening), Fanning’s charming youthfulness is winning her rave reviews across the board.

Like her sister before her, the fashion world has embraced the younger Fanning; her ensemble for the screening was custom-created by Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy. “They made this for me, which was just incredible!” raved Fanning of her gold minidress.

source

Stephen Dorff is recalling the time Oliver Stone tried to fob him off. Stone was casting “World Trade Center”, looking for an actor to play the cop who finds Nicolas Cage buried alive in the rubble. Dorff wanted the part, but Stone wouldn’t give it to him. “He said, ‘Stephen, I like you, you’re a good actor, but you don’t look like a cop. You’re too cute.’” The actor was outraged. “Oliver,” he countered, “what are you talking about, man? I look like this now cos I’m not playing the part! If you give me the part, I’m gonna look completely different, I’m gonna sound completely different. That’s my job. Are you telling me that I can’t do my job?”

Dorff’s impassioned plea earned him a second audition. “So I really went for it,” the actor recalls. “I grew a moustache, got the Long Island accent down, and Oliver gave me the part. But the movie’s so dark – you can’t even tell it’s me!” He laughs: “But it was a turning point. I worked hard and I totally disappeared into the role. And I said to myself then, ‘I’ve gotta get back into this.’ Forget about taking a pay cheque to play a villain, I’ve done it. It’s dead. It’s boring. And I don’t wanna do it any more.’”

At just 37, Stephen Dorff is about to make his first comeback. His TV career began in the mid-80s, his film career in the mid-90s, when his artistic decline began almost immediately. No matter that he was the smart, sexy star of youth-orientated movies like the Beatles biopic Backbeat or co-starred with such heavyweights as Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine in Blood And Wine, by 1996 he was already in grade-Z genre fare with titles like Space Truckers and Quantum Project. Two years after that, he almost sealed his fate by playing the bad guy in vampire thriller Blade; it killed his career almost stone dead, and for a full decade – in which the only high point was a berserk John Waters comedy, Cecil B Demented – it seemed he’d never get a serious role again.

With Sofia Coppola’s new film Somewhere, however, Dorff is getting a second chance, much like the character he plays. More than a little similar to Coppola’s breakout film Lost In Translation, Somewhere is about a hotel, a girl and a father figure, although this time the father figure really is the girl’s father. Not that you’d know it. Played with heartbreaking sincerity by Dorff, Johnny Marco is a suburban lost boy wrapped up in a Hollywood star persona. He drinks too much, pops pills, screws any woman with a pulse, and has next to no interest in his 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning). But when his estranged partner leaves the preternaturally grown-up Cleo with him for a long weekend, Marco’s dormant conscience starts to stir.

Like Marco, Dorff comes with a lot of baggage, but he’s also very hard to resist. His pretty-boy, leading man face now bears a few more interesting character-actor lines, and his body language is alpha male but loose and friendly. He slouches in his seat, squints like Columbo when he’s thinking, and makes a lot of eye contact.

Read the rest of the article at the source