From the very first announcement of ParaNorman, the new family horror feature from Coraline animation studio LAIKA, the film has seemed like a promising new prospect. The story, animation with stop-motion, is about a young boy who can see the dead and must protect his town from a zombie invasion. The first teaser trailer for the movie didn’t dim expectations at all. Rather, it raised them by demonstrating that the film might have an enviable balance between quirk, comedy and thrills.
Now there is a new UK trailer that isn’t quite as successful, but still paints ParaNorman as a unique, fun kids’ movie that has charm and laughs to spare. Check it out below. Read More »
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The first trailer for Stephen Daldry‘s adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer‘s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close tried to live in the area between quirky, endearing and sentimental. The balance didn’t work for me, especially thanks to the reliance on U2 as the score for the trailer. As a result I think that first look at the movie pegged it as little more than cloying Oscar bait.
Now there is a new trailer that goes straight for the sentiment by opening with the character played by Tom Hanks calling his wife, played by Sandra Bullock, from one of the high floors of the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11. From there, the trailer swirls into minor portraits of some of the film’s characters and situations as it follows that couple’s son (newcomer Thomas Horn) through the turbulent days that follow 9/11, but there still isn’t much explanation of the story. See for yourself below. Read More »
Reading the comments on the piece that ran this weekend, I guess a lot of people aren’t happy with the fact that Justin Timberlake is likely to be cast in Joel and Ethan Coen‘s new film, Inside Llewyn Davis. I don’t really get that — the Coens have shown almost purely impeccable taste in casting throughout their career, and I’m not going to start questioning them now.
Regardless, this current news should be a lot easier for long-time Coen fans to appreciate. John Goodman is strongly rumored for a role in the film, which would make this his fifth collaboration with the Coens after Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. (Or sixth, if you count his small role as a newsreel announcer in The Hudsucker Proxy.) Read More »
I’m eager to see anything that comes out of the animation house Laika. The company’s last major production, Coraline, was a beautiful little film. Laika is following that with ParaNorman, a film written by Coraline storyboard supervisor Chris Butler.
The film has a great voice cast – Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In, The Road) in the lead, with Casey Affleck, Tempestt Bledsoe, Jeff Garlin, John Goodman, Bernard Hill (Titanic), Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Elaine Stritch (30 Rock) — and tells the story of a young boy who has to protect his town against a zombie uprising. The first teaser has just been released and it looks like exactly the sort of movie that would have made me deliriously happy between the ages of ten and, well, now. Check it out below. Read More »
Posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2011 by Angie Han
Robert Zemeckis is collecting quite a cast for Flight, his return to live-action filmmaking. Oscar winner Melissa Leo and Rubicon star James Badge Dale are the latest additions to the project, which stars Denzel Washington as an alcoholic, drug-addicted pilot who becomes a public hero when he rescues a troubled flight. However, his own issues may have contributed to the flight’s problems to begin with. Bruce Greenwood and John Goodman are also set to appear, while Don Cheadle, Brian Geraghty and Kelly Reilly are in negotiations to board the project as well.
Leo would play the role of an investigator who believes the pilot is guilty of negligence, and wants to expose the truth about him. Dale is negotiating to play a dying cancer patient. [The Hollywood Reporter]
After the jump, Kylie Minogue makes a movie with Juliette Binoche and Footloose remake star Kenny Wormald may be up for another ’80s classic.
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Here’s the trailer for Stephen Daldry‘s adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer‘s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, based on a script by Eric Roth. The movie has been a curiosity for me for months in part because the book is a piece of post-modernism that doesn’t lend itself easily to adaptation, and in part because Daldry chose a non-actor, Thomas Horn, to play the central role of 11-year old Oskar Schell. Sure, he’s got established stars like Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock as buffers, but that’s still a ballsy move. Get the first taste of what came of that big risk-taking, after the break. Read More »
Whether you’re a regular Community watcher or not, you might find that the third season, which just began last week, is worth a look just for the occasional presence of John Goodman. The actor plays the smug vice-dean of Greendale Community College’s Air-Conditioning Repair Annex, which brings loads of money into the school, and consequently gives him loads of power. The one appearance we’ve seen was tremendous, and it’s great to see Goodman doing comedy once more.
If you can’t abide Community, you’ll get to see Goodman on the big screen later this year when The Artist and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close hit theaters, and now the actor has been added to Flight, the return to live-action from Robert Zemeckis. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, September 15th, 2011 by Angie Han
Silent films died in the late ’20s with the advent of “talkies,” but it seems they’ve now been gone for so long they feel new again. One of the major stories out of this year’s Cannes was the unexpected popularity of The Artist, a silent film by OSS 117 director Michel Hazanavicius. Set in 1920s Hollywood, the tale revolves around a movie star named George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) at the height of his career who falls for aspiring starlet Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) at the start of hers. John Goodman, Missi Pyle, Malcolm McDowell, Penelope Ann Miller, and James Cromwell also star.
I realize that the concept is pretty unusual in this day and age, and may therefore sound off-putting to some. But all the reviews I’ve seen so far indicate that The Artist is a lively crowd-pleaser that makes fantastic use of an old-fashioned medium. I was utterly charmed by the recently released trailer, and I feel the same way about the six clips that have just been unveiled. Watch them after the jump.
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