Posted on Friday, January 18th, 2013 by Angie Han
Before the doping scandal, Lance Armstrong‘s career seemed like one of the most inspiring stories in all of sports history. Now that he’s finally confessed to his cheating after years of denial, his biography still makes for a pretty great tale — it just isn’t an especially uplifting one.
Paramount and J.J. Abrams‘ Bad Robot have noticed the dramatic potential in this new version of events, and are eagerly preparing to bring it to the big screen. The companies have just closed a deal for the screen rights to Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong, an upcoming biography by Juliet Marcur. More details after the jump.
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The story of Jackie Robinson is one of the most important stories in sports history, but it is also one of the most important social stories of the 20th century. As the first black ballplayer in Major League Baseball, Robinson became one of the focal points at an early stage in the ever-evolving shift in American race relations. Which is to say that he was subjected to the same scorn, intimidation, and attacks as many other black men and women, but on a much larger scale.
The first full trailer for 42 is a dramatic, energetic thing, but it is also infuriating. It recreates some of our worst behavior in broad strokes, and even if the actions seen here are dramatically enhanced, the core attitudes and behavior have an inarguable basis in history. And while 42 sports Harrison Ford grumping and growling his way through some pretty impressive makeup, there’s enough of a sense of reality in this footage to make the intimidation of Robinson (played by Chadwick Boseman) have serious impact. Presumably, that will also make his eventual victory and acceptance pay off with the power of a grand slam. Read More »
Will we ever get to see Metegol, the new film from The Secret in Their Eyes director Juan José Campanella, in US theaters? Hard to say, as the animated film is about a foosball game coming to life, and foosball and soccer just aren’t as popular in the States as they are nearly everywhere else in the world. (They’re growing here, but there’s a way to go yet.)
It would be too bad if we don’t get a chance to see the film theatrically, because it looks like a lot of fun. There have been a couple small teaser clips in the past year (since pulled), and now we’ve got a proper teaser trailer. There’s good animation here, and some character designs that look just right for the story the film wants to tell. Read More »
One of the next animated outings from DreamWorks is Turbo, which features Ryan Reynolds as the voice of a snail who is determined to win the Indy 500. Yeah, seems like that might be difficult.
This first teaser for the film turns out to be pretty cute, as we see the lil’ snail doing a time trail well away from the Indianapolis track. (Complete with music from the soundtrack to Drive.) Suffice to say, he’s got some training to do. Check out the footage below. Read More »
Here’s what looks like the surfer version of Dogtown and Z-Boys. The Australian film Drift is based on a true story of brothers who moved from surfing into the manufacture and sales of surf gear. It’s a ’70s-set tale of enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit, with Myles Pollard and Xavier Samuel in the lead roles, and Sam Worthington in a wig for a supporting role as the photographer who pushes them forward, but might also direct them towards the seductive potential of crime.
Morgan O’Neill and Ben Nott co-directed from a script by O’Neill. The last shot is pretty impressive, but there’s enough in the trailer as a whole that Drift looks like it’s worth a look. Check out the trailer below. Read More »
It’s interesting to me that some of the biggest names from the ’90s indie cinema boom in America are planning to end their directorial careers on television. Steven Soderbergh will close out his run as a director with Behind the Candelabra, on HBO. Quentin Tarantino has suggested that he’s only got a limited number of theatrical features in him, but could see doing a huge Kill Bill-style story as “a six-hour mini-series or something.”
And now Kevin Smith, who was a huge indie success thanks to Clerks in 1994, says his final project, the hockey movie Hit Somebody, originally meant to be two features, will be a mini-series on an unspecified network. Read More »
Earlier this year, Kevin Smith told fans he was hoping to begin production on his final film, Hit Somebody, over the summer aimed at a 2013 premiere at Sundance. That didn’t happen, and the reasons for the delay are plentiful. Smith himself has been incredibly busy, working on books, TV, and a speaking tour. He admits he may have been overly ambitious. The director had hoped to make Hit Somebody an epic two-part send-off for his directing career, and in a new interview he’s updated the timeline.
Smith has decided two films, especially expensive period films like Hit Somebody, would be too much, so he’s currently working at combining his two scripts back into one. He also said there’s currently no timeline on production, mostly because he doesn’t want to rush out an inferior product. Read his quotes after the jump. Read More »
The work of Spike Jonze is all over the map, with the unifying element being an abiding interest in counterculture, and a less than traditional way of looking at the world. Jonze’s early film and video work was in skateboarding videos, but he hasn’t done anything in that world since 2007.
Now, however, Jonze is one of the directors of Pretty Sweet, a skateboarding video now available on iTunes. Along with Ty Evans and Cory Weincheque – the reunion of the trio behind Fully Flared in ’07 – Jonze has put together this new skate video that features the likes of Eric Koston, Guy Mariano, Sean Malto, Marc Johnson, Elijah Berle, Jesus Fernandez, and Brian Anderson, as well as make other notable skaters.
The trailer has some stunning shots; check it out below. Read More »
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