Tobey Maguire?! Where you been, buddy?
You're watching Beyond The Trailer's review of Pawn Sacrifice...
Y'know, Tobey Maguire hasn't actually made a lot of movies. He shrewdly made his mark
with several impressive supporting roles in The Ice Storm, Pleasantville, The Cider House
Rules and Wonder Boys before graduating to leading man status with Spider-Man! And boy
did fans love him in that role. His trilogy made hundreds of millions of dollars, when
that was tough to do, and during that run Maguire also starred in the solid horse-racing
movie Seabiscuit. But then Spider-Man 3 hit, and it was such a horrifying mess that it
took out everyone in its wake. Kirsten Dunst? Still hasn't recovered. Sam Raimi? He took
a two year break before directing Drag Me to Hell, then Oz the Great and Powerful four
years after that, but these days he mostly produces. As for Maguire, he co-starred in
Brothers in 2009, The Details in 2012 and The Great Gatsby in 2013. The first two were
box office flops - although he was nominated for an Oscar for Brothers - and the third,
well, the spotlight was on Leonardo DiCaprio and the modern soundtrack, not Maguire. But,
like fellow actors DiCaprio - a longtime friend - and Brad Pitt, Maguire is becoming a prolific
producer, and not just on films where he stars. Maguire produced Country Strong with Gwyneth
Paltrow, Rock of Ages with Tom Cruise, Good People with James Franco, Z for Zachariah
with Margot Robbie and the upcoming The Fifth Wave with Chloe Moretz! And now he's also
produced a star vehicle for himself, to ease himself back onto the silver screen, and that's
Pawn Sacrifice. It's a nice little prestige pic with Edward Zwick of Glory and The Last
Samurai directing, and Steven Knight of Dirty Pretty Things and Locke scripting. Liev Schreiber,
Peter Sarsgaard and Michael Stuhlbarg co-star. As I said, a nice little picture, but dare
Maguire dream it could be a little something more...? Newbie distributor Bleecker Street
is launching the film, and while the company was started by the former co-CEO of Focus
Features, it has no track record when it comes to running award campaigns. Plus Bleecker
will have its attention divided as it'll also be campaigning for Trumbo and its co-release
with Netflix, Beasts of No Nation. And then, of course, are people still interested in
cold war chess celebrity Bobby Fischer? To many people today, the 1993 movie Searching
for Bobby Fischer is how they know the name. So, does Tobey Maguire have a real movie here,
just a career building block, or neither?