Posted on Thursday, March 7th, 2013 by Germain Lussier
Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful opens Friday and, so far, buzz has been generally good. The industry tracking has been even better, with some outlets projecting a near $100 million opening weekend. So it should come as no surprise that Disney has just signed Mitchell Kapner, who co-wrote the first film with David Lindsay-Abaire, to get to work on a sequel. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 by Germain Lussier
Oz the Great and Powerful, Sam Raimi‘s first Disney film, is oddly two-faced. Here we have a director who made his name with low budget horror, who became a household name when he infused the superhero genre with his do-it-yourself, energetic visual style. And then there’s Oz, a massive film that gives Raimi the most toys he’s ever had to play with, but also the commitment to make a movie that’s fun for all ages. The result is a Sam Raimi movie wrapped up tightly in a Disney package. And the Raimi elements are willing themselves out.
There’s not a frame of Oz The Great and Powerful that doesn’t bear Raimi’s mark. The production design, the camera moves, the pulpy performances, everything screams his name. I mean, the movie is basically Army of Darkness, right? (Normal guy lands in magical land, is forced to go on quest to save that land.) But just when you see that kinetic, signature style starting to unleash, the story forces the film back into its Disney shell to play to the masses. We’re left with a film that’s entertaining, a little scarier than you’d expect, but extremely inconsistent. Read More »
Posted on Monday, March 4th, 2013 by Germain Lussier
James Franco is everywhere. This week he’ll be travelling to Oz with Sam Raimi, and next week he’s heading to Spring Break with Harmony Korine. A few years ago, he was at 30 Rock shooting a documentary about Saturday Night Live. The film, Saturday Night, offered viewers unprecedented access behind the long-running sketch comedy show and garnered rave reviews when it hit the festival circuit in 2010. Since then the movie seemingly disappeared, leaving documentary and comedy fans clamouring for some kind of update.
Franco has finally given us that update, and the news is encouraging. Though the film was wrapped up in some rights issues, it has a new distributor and they’re currently figuring out how to release it. “It will come out,” said Franco. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2013 by Germain Lussier
Four young women rob a store in an attempt to enjoy the best spring break ever. Then they team up with a despicable drug dealer, and things get really weird. Those are the broad strokes of Harmony Korine‘s highly anticipated Spring Breakers, which opens limited March 15 and wide March 22. The film is a colorful, high-octane, ode to excess starring an Oscar nominee (James Franco), two former Disney starlets (Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens) and two more talented young actresses (Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine).
Just watching the trailer for Spring Breakers offers tons of visual stimulation, and the company behind the film is taking that to the next level. They’re holding a make your own Spring Breakers poster campaign. To kick it off, we’re proud to exclusively debut an awesome poster designed by artist Doaly. Check it out below along with more details on the contest. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2013 by Angie Han
The four bikini-clad, gun-toting hotties at the center of Harmony Korine‘s Spring Breakers have drawn quite a bit of attention, by virtue of the fact that they’re, well, four bikini-clad, gun-toting hotties. (And two of them former Disney gals, no less.) But based on festival reviews, it may be James Franco as Alien you really want to keep an eye on.
Franco’s performance is so strong, distributor A24 reportedly even considered giving the film an Oscar-qualifying December release to allow Franco a shot at the big prize. Nothing actually came of that plan, as far as I know, but it’s just another indication that Franco and the movie around him will be worth checking out when it finally comes to theaters. The new red-band trailer puts the spotlight on Alien, and you can watch it after the jump.
Disney isn’t showing off as much new stuff in the Super Bowl commercial for Oz the Great and Powerful as it did for The Lone Ranger , but here’s a quick look at the March release. We know pretty much what to expect from Sam Raimi‘s Oz prequel, but if you need a refresher check out the spot below.
Watch other 2013 Super Bowl spots at these links: Iron Man 3, World War Z, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Lone Ranger, Fast & Furious 6.
Read More »
Posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2013 by Peter Sciretta
In October 2011, I got to visit the wonderful world of Oz and watch director Sam Raimi direct his preboot (prequel/reboot) of the classic L. Frank Baum book series. I learned much on the set of Oz: The Great and Powerful. Most fascinating to me was some of the things Disney had to do satisfy legal concerns over possibly violating copyrighted imagery from the classic 1939 film adaptation, owned by Warner Bros.
And while trailers for the film focus on wholly computer-generated worlds and characters, you might be shocked to learn the lengths that Sam Raimi went through to shoot a lot of the film practically. For example, it was interesting to see Raimi inventing new practical solutions to help the supporting actors create and react to live performances for characters who would eventually be created in CG — and I’m not talking about performance capture.
After the jump you can watch a video blog we recorded talking about the visit, followed by many more things I learned while on the set.
Posted on Friday, January 25th, 2013 by Angie Han
A few weeks ago, Disney dropped a striking poster featuring the Wicked Witch of the West, adding fuel to the ongoing debate about whether it’s Evanora (Rachel Weisz) or Theodora (Mila Kunis) who goes green in Oz: The Great and Powerful. A new batch of posters doesn’t answer that question, but it does give us a closer look at who the individual players in the movie are. Hit the jump to see individual characters for Evanora, Theodora, Glinda (Michelle Williams), and of course, the Wizard himself (James Franco).
