Posted on Monday, October 8th, 2012 by Angie Han
Despite its humble origins as a bit of Twilight fanfiction, E.L. James‘ Fifty Shades of Grey is picking up some interesting talent on its road to the big screen. The Social Network producers Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti signed on back in July, and have been looking for a writer to adapt the erotic novel ever since.
A shortlist revealed in August suggested an unexpected mix of names in the running, and as of today, Saving Mr. Banks writer and Terra Nova co-creator Kelly Marcel has emerged as the winner of the highly coveted gig. Sorry, Bret Easton Ellis. More after the jump.
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Posted on Friday, September 21st, 2012 by Angie Han
Gus Van Sant‘s Promised Land became a surprise awards contender when Focus Features decided relatively late in the game to give it an Oscar-qualifying limited run, but this first trailer suggests it’s more than worthy of the competition. Matt Damon stars as Steve, a likeable corporate salesman who arrives in a small rural town to pick up drilling rights. The locals, struggling to recover from the economic recession, initially appear more than eager to oblige — until a grassroots campaign against the purchase, led by Dustin (John Krsasinski) and local teacher Frank (Hal Holbrooks) starts picking up steam.
OK, I’ll admit that the synopsis sounds pretty dry when described that way. But between Van Sant’s steady direction and Damon and Krasinski’s engaging performances, Promised Land looks like a powerful, thought-provoking piece. Frances McDormand and Rosemarie DeWitt round out the excellent supporting cast. Check out the trailer after the jump.
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Posted on Friday, September 14th, 2012 by Angie Han
By the time fall rolls around, most of the year’s big movie releases are already behind us. But there’s plenty of good stuff coming up on the horizon in 2013, and a trio of projects we’re curious about have just started shooting.
Near Hollywood, the wolf pack (Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, and Ed Helms) has reconvened for The Hangover Part III, with wives (Gillian Vigman, Jamie Chung, and Sacha Barrese) in tow. Across the country in Atlanta, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and franchise newcomer Sam Claflin are getting prepped for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the the Atlantic Ocean, over in the UK, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost are getting their heads back together for The World’s End. Hit the jump to see images from the set of all three films.
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We’ve tracked The Place Beyond the Pines for a couple years now. As the new film from Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance it comes with a lot of interest pre-loaded, and the fact that Ryan Gosling plays a motorcycle stunt driver turned bank robber doesn’t hurt. Bradley Cooper is the cop who opposes him, and their conflict spills down into another generation, as their sons are drawn in as well.
The film turned into one of the hottest tickets at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, and while reviews have been enthusiastic with a few naysayers mixed in, Focus jumped on the film with a 2013 release set. Now we’ve got two video looks at the film. One is a slate of interviews that also has footage cut in, and the other is a straight-up clip from the film, featuring Bradley Cooper’s character as he recovers from what seems to be an arrest gone bad. See both below.
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We’ve run quite a few behind the scenes videos about the creation of Laika’s new stop-motion animated film ParaNorman, but that’s because the creation of films such as this one is an impressive process. Personally, I rarely tire of seeing these animators in action; bringing a film like ParaNorman to life requires a combination of brute force effort and unique ingenuity that is unlike the effort required for other filmmaking efforts.
In this case, the video This Little Light shows the process of creating one of the smallest elements of the film: a desktop lamp. Many disciplines are involved in making just one tiny, incidental part of the film’s world: design, modeling, glassblowing, painting, electrical assembly, and so on. I doubt that anyone thinks all the stuff around the chracters in ParaNorman just springs to life without effort, but this video, which you can see below, is a lovely demonstration of how much effort it takes to make a world. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2012 by Angie Han
Halloween’s still a couple months off, but Laika’s getting the spooky season started early this weekend with ParaNorman. Focus Features has just unveiled the final trailer for the 3D stop-motion animation, which features tiny bits of scenes under some unsettling percussion and an entertainingly creepy voiceover by John Goodman.
Directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, ParaNorman centers around a boy (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) who can speak to the dead. When an old witch’s curse puts his entire town in jeopardy, however, he becomes the only person who can save the day. Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Tucker Albrizzi also lend their voices to the cast. Watch the new trailer after the jump.
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As David Cronenberg does the US press rounds for his new film Cosmopolis, which opens limited this Friday the 17th and expands starting the week after, he’s fielding some questions about his next film. The director often has several projects percolating, and the current time is no different. But one long-mooted film is apparently not going to happen after all, as Cronenberg says that the sequel to the 2007 Eastern Promises is no longer backed by Focus Features, and thus may not happen at all. Read More »
ParaNorman is stop-motion animated zombie horror movie for families. Can you imagine a subject more ripe for different artistic interpretations? It makes perfect sense, then, that the team at Laika, who also did Coraline, would team up with Mondo to do a series of posters for their highly-buzzed about film, which opens August 17. After the jump, check out six different Mondo posters for ParaNorman. Read More »
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