Michael Caine's Current Project - Last updated Monday 28th of April 2008
Dark Knight	Filmed
Is There Anybody There	Filmed
Michael’s comments
Update April 2008
I have just come back from Miami my escape from the English winter it was brilliant sunshine and long walks on the beach. It was a good rest after a busy year. I have finished “Is There Anybody There” then had an extraordinary family Christmas at my house in Surrey with the whole family and some friends. The best time for me is anytime spent with my family and close friends. I had a great birthday celebration in Deia, Mallorca. Deia is a wonderful place with great restaurants in this small town for us all to eat wonderfully at a different place each night. I am on holiday still and I am getting quite good at it, I may take it up as a profession. Dark Knight will be out in July so I have to make a few trips for the showing in America, then will be spending the rest of summer at home. I haven’t found a script yet, there is one I want to do but we are still working on it. I’ll let you know the moment I know.
Summer is coming enjoy yourself.
UPDATE - NOVEMBER 2007
At present I am filming “Is There Anybody There” a small British Film with a wonderful script and a great new Director John Crowley. Set in an old people’s home with some of our best character actors; Leslie Philips, Peter Vaughan, Rosemary Harris, Thelma Barlow, Sylvia Syms plus David Morissey, Ann Marie Duff who has just played Joan of Arc. In this film she plays the lady who owns the Old Folks Home. It is the story of a little boy of 10 who keeps making friends with the old people, and of course, they keep dying so he sets out to find their Ghosts without success, until Clarence the magician turns up, played by me and helps him find his lost friends. Its one of the funniest and most touching scripts I have ever read. I am half way through, I love the Actors I am working with, the Director and my friend Producer David Hayman so I am having a wonderful time. We finish just before Christmas. I shall then go on a long holiday.
I will keep you informed but in the meantime I wish you a Very Happy Christmas and New Year
SLEUTH
Will be in the cinemas on Friday 23rd November 2007
Cained CD
Just to let you know my CD was released 17th September and should be in the shops now.
Update July 2007
I have just got back from my second trip to Chicago where I am shooting “Batman”, my jet lag has gone so I feel like updating this site. I have one more stint in Chicago in a month time, then I will be finished on the 2nd “Batman” the great revelation of working on this is Heath Ledger who plays the “The Joker”. I have seen him on film and I have worked with him and I must say it is quite an extradinary performance. The remake of “Sleuth” which I did earlier in the year with Jude Law, script by Harold Pinter and director Ken Brannon has been accepted in competition at Venice we are also taking it to the Toronto festival. I also have a music video coming out which the record company has called “Cained”. This is a compilation of Chill music from my vast collection. I have to confess that I am a secret disc jockey and have been making tapes and CDs for myself and my friends for over 40 years. My record “Cained” comes out in September. It was weird the way this record came about, I was having dinner with Elton John at his house in Nice and he had on background music and as we were going through the dinner several of my favourite Chill records were played and I kept naming the tune or the artist much to Elton surprise and he asked me how I knew about this kind of music and I told him and he got me a three record deals. As they say in show business it is not what you know it is who you know. Have a listen I hope you like it. Also right now a DVD on film acting that I made many years ago for the BBC has finally come out here it has been on sale in America for 10 years but for some reason it could not be sold here but now it can. If anybody reading this wants to become a film actor it might not be a bad idea to have a look because there are a few good tricks in there you will need to know. If you do want to get hold of this DVD the best way to buy the Acting DVDs is via the Working Arts Library website: http://www.workingartsvideo.com/. They are otherwise available worldwide via the trade distributors, Hal Leonard (USA) or Quantum Leap (UK), further details on the website.
I am on holiday now although I must admit it doesn’t sound like it, I will be in touch soon.
2007 Continued
I have just returned from a long Holiday to get over one of the most exhausting jobs I have ever done, I always knew it was going to be hard work but never knew what a joy it would have been to work with Jude Law, Kenneth Branagh and Harold Pinter. It was really a wonderful experience. I went to Miami with my family for three weeks, then stayed in New York, which I loved for a week, then travelled to Paris and the Loire Valley with some good friends. Very soon I will start working on Batman which I am looking forward to.
I will keep you informed.
Start of 2007
I had a very quiet family Christmas at home just enjoying the simple pleasures of life, then I went straight into preparing for "Sleuth". I am really enjoying filming "Sleuth" at the moment with Jude Law who is doing his best work ever. Kenneth Branagh is a joy to work with, he is one of the best Director's around. We have nearly finished this challenging and very different "Sleuth" from my previous version. More on that soon. My next project will be "Batman" but it still hasn't been decided when we will start shooting. I am, therefore, looking forward to a much needed rest and a good holiday, so I'll be catching up with my sleep, listening to my music, watching films and of course working in my garden.
I'll keep you informed
Summer 2006 and beyond
My summer begins with the "Chelsea Flower Show" and ends with "The Last Night of the Proms". This Summer Shakira and I spent ten days on a boat cruising the Amalfi Coast, and then we went to Paris for a few days, saw friends. We went to Tuscany for a wedding, then we flew to Berlin for the final of the World Cup 2006. After a few weeks back at home, we traveled to South of France for a week to stay with a friend. My summer is over but its not back to work yet, its back to thinking about work which is kind of scary when you are a professional standard Holiday Maker. Very soon I'll do some pre-publicity and attend the Premier of "Children of Men". I only have a small part in this film but I had a lot of fun playing a bearded hippy pot smoking relic of the sixties all things I never was except relic of the sixties. It’s a wonderful film directed by Alfonso Cuaron. The star of the film is one of my favorite young British actor Clive Owen, for me this was a pleasant experience. In October I go to America to do pre-publicity and the Premier of "Prestige" a film about murderous Victorian magicians, the two magicians are Christian Bale and Hugh Jack man. Christian of course was Batman in Batman Begins and the Director is Christopher Nolan also from Batman Begins, so we are all three reunited. Hugh Jackman, who I'd never met, is great and he also gave one of the greatest theatrical performances I'd ever seen in "The Boy from OZ". The girl in the film is Scarlet Johansson a wonderfully enchanting young lady. This film was a great experience, all shot in downtown Los Angeles. The film I might add takes place in Victorian London. That's Hollywood for you. In January I start shooting a remake of "Sleuth" with Jude Law directed by Kenneth Branagh with a very different screen play from the original by Harold Pinter. After that in March I reprise my Butler roll in the second "Batman" again directed by Christopher Noland starring Christian Bale. This one is “The Joker” and the Joker is Heath Ledger. Great casting. After that I shall go back to my true profession, holiday making for the summer 2007.
Watch this space, I'll keep you informed
About Flawless, other 2006 projects and life in general
I have just finished filming Flawless with Demi Moore directed by Michael Radford which was filmed in Luxembourg. It was a great pleasure for me to work with Demi Moore who played my daughter in “Blame it on Rio” twenty-three years ago. She was a joy to work with again after all these years. Before that I spent three months in Los Angeles filming “The Prestige” directed by Christopher Nolan, who directed “Batman Begins. This was with Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johnansen and Christian Bale. It was great to work again with Christopher Nolan one of my favourite Directors. Before that I worked on Children of Men which was a short part only two weeks, where I played an ageing Pot smoking Hippy a refugee from the sixties. This part was so different from anything I have ever done. Afonso Cuaron who directed Ysu Mama T’Ambien, also directed this. I worked with one of my favourite young British Actors Clive Owen. I’ve been very busy since October but I had a year off before that. I am now on holiday for the summer and will not be available until such time I am made an offer I can’t refuse which is the only way I will work these days. I will now be in my garden for the duration of the summer, which starts with the Chelsea Flower Show and ends with the last night of the Proms. I enjoy being in my garden so much I’m thinking of writing a book about my experiences in creating gardens, as this is the third garden I have designed for myself in England. My entire time will not be spent in the garden, there will of course be hours in front of my new HD TV watching the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Test Matches. This will be interspersed with the occasional trip to the South of France as a form of relief from all this hard work at home.
Have a wonderful Summer I’ll keep you updated.
A Christmas Message From Michael
After one year’s holiday which I enjoyed so much, I am going to do it again sometime. At the moment I am working on a film called “The Children of Men”. This is a film set in the future but not in science fiction but the future of absolute reality of 2020. It is directed by Alfonso Cuaron who directed the wonderful Mexican film "Y tu mamá también". This is a wonderful part but a very short one. Only two weeks shooting I’m enjoying this film very much especially as I am working with Clive Owen one of our best young actors and a very nice guy. My next picture will be in Hollywood next year it’s called “The Prestige” which is the name given to the last act of any conjuring trick. It’s a deep dark thriller set in Victorian London. The Director is Christopher Nolan who I worked with on Batman Begins and one of my co-stars is Christian Bale who played Batman and the other co-star is Hugh Jackman. They play two homicidal magicians who are trying to kill each other and I play a character call Cutter who makes their murderous tricks for them. This will take me to April when I will let you know what’s coming up next.
In the meantime, may I wish you all a Healthy and Happy Xmas and a Healthy and Prosperous 2006.
About Bewitched and other 2005 projects
Bewitched is the only movie I ever made where I only worked with women. I never had one scene in the film where I worked with a man. I played Nicole Kidman’s father, Shirley Maclaine’s romance and Kirstin Chenoweth was Nicole’s friend in the film. These are the only people I had scenes with plus the Director Nora Ephrion is a woman so it was the most feminine film I have ever made. All the ladies were wonderful and a joy to work with. This year I also played the Butler in Batman Begins and in November I have another movie coming out called The Weatherman in which I played Nicholas Cage’s father, another great person to work with. We filmed the movie in Chicago a great place to work but as usual when you are filming the weather screwed up. We found ourselves in Chicago in February manufacturing artificial snow. Normally at that time of the year they have 2ft of the stuff. As for my next project I have read a script that I like very much and it is written and directed by the most secretive Director I have ever worked with so I cannot tell you what it is. This project will go in November or January. This is the only project I have found since finishing Bewitched last November that I really wanted to do.
If anything turns up between now and then I’ll let you know.
About Batman Begins
Doing Batman was the first time I ever understood, having seen all the films that have gone before, why he did what he did and why he choose the symbol of the Bat to become Batman. This film makes him a Human instead of a Super Human, therefore, he is as vulnerable as the rest of us which makes for tremendous suspense, when he is in jeopardy. Unlike every other Batman film I have seen when he is invulnerable. As for Albert who is the Butler and Guardian of Batman. He is a very Human core in the centre of the film and I have been told very funny but I haven’t seen the film yet.
About 2004
2004 for me is the year of being Dad In “Around the bend”. I am Christopher Walker’s Dad “The Weatherman”. I am Nicholas Cage’s Dad “The Intimidation Game”. Christian Bale’s guardian and butler “Betwitched”. Nicole Kidman’s Dad So I am suddenly becoming everyone’s dad, although all the characters are all vastly different. I started at this position of Dad in– “Goldmember” when I was Austin Powers Dad.