Author: Fair
Date: 10-08-05 09:20
Haley being a very well known, and a very popular actor around the world... because exceptional talent is exceptional talent in any country or language, and the same can be said about being an exceptional person... I always find it interesting what the media in other countries have to say about our favourite actor.
I find it interesting because the "distant" media tends not to be as influenced by the Hollywood hype, which most articles in the North American press seem to be filtered against. It is also kind of nice to see what other "distant lands" tend to be interested in, and what they find entertaining.
Take for example this recent article from the South African Dispatch news site. The Dispatch newspaper has a very long history that can be dated back to the East London Dispatch from 1872! Such history for the paper to find a home in Johannesburg, South Africa that continues today.
Anyway... one feature they like to offer is to just highlight some good stuff that might be interesting to take part in over the weekend... you know, just to offer up a few ideas. One of their suggestions was to watch a certain wonderful little film on television... a film that included a certain amazing, and truly wonderful young actor. It was from that simple suggestion that they then expanded their thoughts into a nice little article... 
Quote:
Watch this
SECONDHAND LIONS (M-Net, 8pm) - Set in 1960s Texas, this is the story of a timid teenager, Walter (Haley Joel Osment ), forced by his irresponsible mother to spend the summer with his eccentric (and recently rich) great-uncles (Michael Caine and Robert Duvall) on their farm.
Apart from the obvious pleasure of seeing Caine and Duval share screen time, Secondhand Lions also marks the transition of Osment from child actor to more meatier young adult roles.
Osment was catapulted to instant fame through his role in the 1999 film, The Sixth Sense, in which he played a young boy with the ability to see and communicate with the spirits of recently deceased people.
A string of less successful films have followed, notably Pay it Forward (2000) and Edges of the Lord (2001), and one bona fide hit, the 2001 futuristic thriller, AI: Artificial Intelligence.
With a few notable exceptions such as Drew Barrymore, not many child stars have been able to reinvent themselves as successful adult performers.
In fact, the kiddie fame playground is littered with has-beens and also-rans whose adult careers almost invariable end up in TV movie or, worse, commercial deadends.
Remember Macauley Culkin? Or Emmanuel Lewis of Webster?
Osment, however, has the potential to bridge the gap. He is, according to interviewers, intelligent and sensitive, and, perhaps most importantly, extremely level-headed about fame and celebrity.
Future roles, and the people he chooses to work with, will obviously be crucial over the next few years if he hopes to avoid the Macauley trap.
The good news is that Osment's next role definitely seems a step in the right direction.
In Home of the Giants, he plays a young journalist who covers a basketball team as it heads toward a state championship.
"It's important to find roles with characters growing up," Osment has been quoted as saying. "This is one of those characters that moves me along the timeline in my career."
Again... nothing all that Earth-shattering... but just a nice little comment from their point of view on Haley's continued career... and how even in South Africa they do so enjoy his work, and they are quietly hoping he will be able to make the transition into the world of adult actors. Well... stuff like that makes me smile.
Haley is the best.
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