Posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2013 by Angie Han
Winter is slowly but surely inching to an end, so let’s look ahead to what the next season has in store for us. The next few months promise to be an interesting one for indie releases, as both Spring Breakers and Zal Batmanglij‘s The East are slated to open.
Further down the road, The Weinsteins are getting into the paranormal YA game next winter with Vampire Academy, and Universal’s Untitled Illumination Entertainment Project (not the final title, obviously) has been slotted for summer 2015. Hit the jump for all the details, in chronological order.
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Megan Ellison and Harvey Weinstein have reportedly developed a slightly combative relationship, with some tension arising during the production and promotion of Killing Them Softly and Lawless, and culminating in the lackluster financial performance of Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master.
But that hasn’t stopped Harvey from putting down money for another film that was funded by Ellison’s Annapurna Productions. The Weinstein Company has picked up US distribution rights to Wong Kar Wai‘s new film The Grandmster ahead of the film’s Berlin Film Festival premiere. Weinstein has distributed several of the director’s films in the past, so the continued partnership is not a surprise. (TWC also grabbed rights for English-speaking Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.)
New reviews are coming in from Berlin for the film, too. We’ll run down the latest estimations of Wong’s retelling of the Ip Man story, and give you the latest French trailer, after the break. Read More »
First-time feature documentary director Zachary Heinzerling makes a quietly assured debut with the tender and perceptive Cutie and the Boxer. In documenting the 40-year marriage between Japanese “action painter” Ushio Shinohara and his wife Noriko Shinohara, the film paints a keen vision of the ways in which the halves of a life-long couple learns to life with, and often in spite of one another. Read More »
If a movie can be both gentle and scathing, Fruitvale is it. In this simple but stunningly effective film, first-time feature director Ryan Coogler responds to the shooting death of a 22-year old Oakland man at a BART station on New Year’s Day 2009. The writer/director recreates the horrific action in a straightforward manner that is largely free of hyperbole and excess emotional manipulation. The climax of the film is one of the most powerful sequences you’re likely to see on a movie screen this year. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2013 by Angie Han
A dozen years after the release of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Weinstein Co. is getting ready to make a sequel. Though it’s been a while since we heard about any potential follow-up to Ang Lee‘s international hit, it looks like the Weinsteins have quietly been making preparations behind the scenes. Production is on track to begin in May, with a script by John Fusco (The Forbidden Kingdom). Ronny Yu (Fearless) is in talks to direct. More details after the jump.
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Though David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook has been out for 10 weeks, this past weekend was the first time it cracked the box office top five. Those eight Oscar nominations is every single major category certainly helped. Now we have a featurette taking us behind the scenes of the poignant romantic comedy, which stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as two people with mental problems who find solace in each other. Check it out below. Read More »
Posted on Monday, January 21st, 2013 by Angie Han
A few days after the kickoff the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, deal-making is in full swing. The well-reviewed drama The Spectacular Now, by Smashed director James Ponsoldt, is headed to newish distributor A24, while the crowdpleasing comedy Austenland, from Napoleon Dynamite writer Jerusha Hess, is nearing a deal with FilmDistrict. Michael Winterbottom and Steve Coogan‘s The Look of Love had a mixed reception, but that’s not stopping IFC Films from closing in on a deal; the distributor also released the pair’s last comedy together, The Trip. Meanwhile, Anchor Bay has picked up two narrative features so far, the Dermot Mulroney-starring The Rambler and Leland Orser‘s Morning. (The latter is not playing at Sundance.)
Over in the world of documentaries, music-centric films seem to be doing quite well. Showtime has acquired the broadcast rights to the two-part documentary History of the Eagles, which will air on the channel February 15 & 16. Also headed to television is Pussy Riot — A Punk Prayer, which has been snapped up by HBO Documentary Films. Finally, Twenty Feet From Stardom, which follows some of popular music’s greatest backup singers, will get a theatrical release by RADiUS-TWC. And in non-music news, AMC’s Sundance Selects has grabbed Dirty Wars, about America’s covert wars, and The Summit, about climbers scaling the most dangerous peak in the world.
Hit the jump to read descriptions of the films mentioned above.
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Briefly: As if the cast for Robert Rodriguez‘s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For wasn’t impressive enough, three more stars have been added: a Goodfella, Catwoman’s accomplice and Ari Gold. Ray Liotta, Juno Temple and Jeremy Piven have been cast in the film joining the likes of Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dennis Haysbert and Jamie Chung.
Who exactly each will play, or exactly how large each role is, remains unclear. But when the sequel to the 2005 film hits on September 13, they’ll be there. [The Playlist]
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