Posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 by Angie Han
Sarah Palin has become such a ubiquitous cultural figure at this point, it’s hard to believe it was just four years ago that John McCain pulled the then-relatively unknown pol into the spotlight by announcing her as his running mate for his 2008 presidential campaign. But as the 2012 race slowly heats up, now seems as good a time as any to think back to what happened the last time we as a nation chose a leader.
Directed by Emmy winner Jay Roach (Recount), HBO Films’ Game Change follows McCain (played by Ed Harris), Palin (Julianne Moore), and their unsuccessful bid for the White House. Whereas the first trailer focused more on McCain and his decision to name Palin as his potential VP, the new one centers around Palin and what happens to her after she agrees to board the campaign. Watch the trailer after the jump.
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One of the most significant advances in the entertainment industry last year was the exponential boom of streaming content. Netflix in particular, originally a disc rental service, was at the forefront of focusing all attention on that front by increasing their catalogs, adding original content and charging more for it all. On a seemingly daily basis, more people are deciding they want to consume content via streaming and several companies are competing for the best product.
Right now, Netflix Instant’s bread and butter is television. They have multiple seasons, or in some case the entirety, of shows like The Wonder Years, Arrested Development, Breaking Bad and Mad Men. However, the one blazing, glaring omission from their impressive collection are the hugely popular shows from HBO.
Shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Sex and the City or Entourage are not available to stream anywhere besides HBO’s latest project, HBO Go. The only way to watch those shows on Netflix is to rent the discs themselves and now reports are that HBO won’t sell Netflix any more copies. What exactly does this mean? Read more after the jump. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 by Angie Han
Though the actual presidential elections are still eleven months away, if you’ve been paying even casual attention to the news you’ll know the Republican fight for the nomination is already speeding along. What better time, then, to look back and remember the high drama of the last time we all went through this as a nation?
HBO has just released the first trailer for Jay Roach‘s Game Change, based on John Heilemann and Mark Halperin‘s bestselling chronicle of the 2008 presidential elections. Though the book covers both the Republican and Democrat sides of the race, Roach’s film narrows its focus to John McCain (Ed Harris), Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore), and their bid for office. Woody Harrelson, Sarah Paulson, and Ron Livingston also star. Watch the trailer after the jump.
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Did you think the dialogue in Deadwood was too dense, perhaps even impenetrable? Then close this browser and run away, fast. For everyone else, especially those who loved the conversations that were the heart of Deadwood, get ready: series creator David Milch is turning his eye to the works of William Faulkner.
Granted, Faulkner’s dialogue, in novels like As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury, isn’t always as dense as his descriptive prose. (And sometimes, as in the stream of consciousness segments of The Sound and the Fury, or the points where the dialogue is the descriptive prose, it is the sort of thing that could challenge even Milch. ) Still, there is something very exciting about the idea of one of our most compellingly bookish TV producers working with stories from one of America’s signature authors. The two seem very well-suited for one another. Read More »
While working on Shutter Island, producer Brad Fischer, writer Laeta Kalogridis and star Leonardo DiCaprio were all taken with Jack El-Hai‘s book The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness. The tome is a history of Walter Freeman, the doctor who was the first proponent of the frontol lobotomy in the United States. He developed the trans-orbital lobotomy method, using a tool derived from a standard kitchen ice pick. (As seen in Brad Anderson’s film Session 9.)
The Fischer/Kalogridis/DiCaprio trio were interested enough that they optioned the book and brought it to HBO as possible fodder for a series. Now a drama is in the works, called The Lobotomist, and Robert Schwentke (Red, The Astronaut’s Wife, R.I.P.D.) will direct the pilot from a script by Daniel Thomsen. Read More »
The term ‘power broker’ is a familiar one, but even now I think a lot of people might not have much of a response to the name Robert Moses. That’s the man chronicled in Robert A. Caro‘s 1974 book The Power Broker, which positioned Moses as essentially the most powerful man in New York, and described how he used that power to shape the city.
Soon many more people might be familiar with Moses’ name, as Oliver Stone is developing a film based on the book. He’ll direct the project, which would air on HBO. Read More »
Posted on Monday, October 24th, 2011 by Angie Han
Actors signing on to play real-life figures is nothing new, but casting, say, Jesse Eisenberg in the role of ordinary-looking dude Mark Zuckerberg is one thing. When the character in question is a larger-than-life icon whose unique looks and mannerisms are recognized all over the globe, that’s something else entirely, whether it’s Michael Douglas playing Liberace, Michelle Williams doing her best Marilyn Monroe — or Eric Bana rocking the King’s pompadour.
The Aussie actor has signed on to star as Elvis Presley in Elvis & Nixon, the directorial debut of Cary Elwes. Bana will also executive produce, through his shingle Pick Up Truck Pictures. Meanwhile, Danny Huston is in final negotiations to play the other title role, of U.S. president Richard M. Nixon.
The story, which was written by Elwes with Joey Sagal and Hanala Sagal, revolves around a real-life visit that Presley paid to Nixon at the White House on December 21, 1970. The meeting came about after Presley wrote Nixon a letter requesting that he be allowed to visit and suggesting that the President make him an agent at large with the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Presley brought family photos and a Colt .45 pistol to give the President as gifts. Elvis & Nixon will begin shooting in Los Angeles and Louisiana at an unspecified date. [The Hollywood Reporter]
After the jump, Robert De Niro also tackles a true-life tale — that of Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff.
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The Liberace movie that Steven Soderbergh has talked about making for a couple years is finally going to happen. Once slated to shoot earlier this year with Michael Douglas playing LIberace and Matt Damon playing his lover Scott Thorson, the project was put on hold when Douglas had to dedicate time to his affliction with cancer. But the actor is in good shape now, and the film is moving forward once more.
Douglas and Damon are still starring. We’ve got a title for the film, Behind the Candelabra, and a financier. In something of a surprise turn, the film won’t be a theatrical feature, as HBO has stepped up to finance. A shoot is tentatively planned for summer 2012. Read More »
