NEWS: SUMMER 2006

Home | Latest News | Biography | Filmography | Theatre | Articles/Interviews | Gallery

Taylor Keeps A New Secret

Lili Taylor, who stars in the upcoming supernatural horror film The Secret, told SCI FI Wire that the film offers a Japanese-style take on death and the afterlife. The film, which also stars David Duchovny and Olivia Thirlby and was directed by Vincent Perez, is based on the Keigo Higashino novel Himitsu and the 1999 Japanese-language film it inspired.

"That was really cool," Taylor said in an interview while promoting her latest film, Factotum. "That one is adapted from this Japanese book, and it's got a real Japanese tone in that it's about death and the afterlife and ghosts. But then there's this really kind of quiet, strange, otherworldly tone to it. Basically, my daughter [Thirlby] and I get into a car accident. We're both on death's door. She is about to die, and I reach my hand out to her, and in that moment my spirit goes into her body. But it's done realistically, as if there's a 36-year-old woman inside a 15-year-old's body. My husband [Duchovny] is there. It's dealt with honestly, and so it's very strange. Everyone keeps going on with this absolutely bizarre, unimaginable reality."

Asked if her plot synopsis means she's not in the film very long, Taylor, whose genre credits include an episode of Duchovny's series The X-Files, replied: "I'm in it, and then it's like the essence of me is in it. I reappear throughout. I really liked the director, Vincent Perez. He's just fantastic. I just loved the material a lot, and I liked Vincent." The Secret will be revealed in 2006.

Newcomer Olivia Thirlby, who stars as Lili's daughter in the film, was recently interviewed for Filmmaker Magazine. Her two most recent films include Paul Greengrass’s United 93 and David Gordon's Snow Angels with Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell. For The Secret, she says, "I play two people - a teenager and a 36-year-old mom." New York born and bred, Thirlby grew up on the Lower East Side and, while in high school, studied Shakespeare at the American Globe and acted in school plays. She was going out on commercial auditions when she went in to meet Vincent Perez and, impressing both him and producer Luc Besson, scored what she calls “her first anything.” From then on she’s been working steadily.

The most recent photo of Vincent was taken on July 11th in Italy at the funeral of Virginio Bruni Tedeschi, brother to fashion model Carla Bruni and actress Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. The picture shows Vincent with Carla and her mother Marisa. His wife Karine is actually beside him but is barely seen. Vincent has had a long-time friendship with both Carla and Valeria. Back in the mid-90's, Vincent dated Carla and he has co-starred with Valeria in four films.

It's just been announced at the Monte Carlo TV festival on Thursday that Vincent will reprise Vincent d'Onofrio's role as Detective Robert Goren in the Gallic language version of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent." Comparing the two thespians, L&O producer Dick Wolf remarked, "I'm sure Vincent Perez will make the part his own. Both of them are intense." According to Daily Variety, the long hunt for the right actor is only one of the hurdles that Galic commercial web TF1's production unit Alma has had to overcome in its efforts to reproduce the hit series to everyone's liking. Under the terms of an unusual deal, the U.S. partners have approval rights over artistic elements such as cast and scripts, while NBC Universal will handle international sales of the Gallic show. Wolf adds, "We're pretty involved. I think it is going to be very good." The French show will be an attractive proposition for European TV buyers because it falls within quotas that require webs to air at least 50% European programming. Lawandorder.fr notes that Perez has "unquestionable charisma" and his arrival on the project is excellent news. The series will be aired on TF1 in the spring of 2007.

Vincent is presently filming a Russian spy film called Beautiful. AlloCiné caught up with him last month when he was filming his first scenes in Paris at a tea room near the Place de l'Opéra. Click here for that interview. The action film, directed by Vadim Shmelyov, also stars Anastasia Zavorotnyuk, Vladimir Menshov and Alexei Serebryakov. Entirely financed by Russian funds, the film enjoys an impressive budget called "a director's dream" which allows limitless imagination. Filming will take place in Paris, Malaysia, Italy, Norway, Crimea, Venezuela, the Middle East and, of course, Russia. The story concerns four atomic bombs, ready to explode, which have been placed in four large cities around the world. A female Russian secret agent with the code name "Beautiful" is dispatched to decipher the codes held by three guards disseminated throughout the world to defuse the bombs. Vincent plays Louis Devier, a wealthy French banker who intends to explode the bombs.