Posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 by Russ Fischer
I’m not sure where the comment section trend of suggesting Joseph Gordon-Levitt for every available male role went from the spirit of genuine fandom to outright jokester parody, but here’s some fuel for the fire: James McAvoy has dropped out of the film formerly called I’m With Cancer, and will be replaced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 by Peter Sciretta
Editor’s Note: Last week we were approached by a filmmaker who wanted to guest blog his Sundance experience on /Film. You might not know 42-year-old director Jake Scott yet, but you will. You definitely know his father Ridley, the filmmaker behind such films as Alien, Gladiator, and Blade Runner (Jake worked in the editing room during the school holidays). Chances are, you’ve probably never seen Jake’s directorial debut was a 1999 British historical action comedy titled Plunkett & Macleane. He’s directed iconic music videos for REM’s Everybody Hurts, Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees, The Cranberries’ When You’re Gone, as well as videos for Soundgarden, The Smashing Pumpkins, Live, Blind Melon, Tori Amos, Lily Allen, The Strokes, The Verve, and U2. Jake’s second feature film, Welcome to the Rileys premiered in Sundance’s US Dramatic competition. The story follows a damaged man on a business trip to New Orleans who is seeking salvation by caring for a wayward young woman. The movie stars James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart, and Melissa Leo.
You can read Jake’s first blog post here. His second blog post, which you can read below, is full of tons of photos and an exclusive one-minute video interview Scot conducted with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Hesher director Spencer Susser.
In 2008, I discovered a wonderful short film titled I Love Sarah Jane by commercial and music video director Spencer Susser. I loved it so much, I even featured it on /Film (you can watch it here — and if you haven’t yet, you really need to). The short was a very different kind of zombie film, nothing like you’ve ever seen before — in the same way Let The Right One In was a different kind of vampire film than you’ve ever seen before. After seeing this short film, I definitely was in to see anything Susser was to produce.
You never know who you’re going to bump into during Sundance. First I randomly had a run in with a /Film reader who was volunteering at the fest on the shuttle bus. Walking up main street, we walked by Colin Hanks, who has a role in the pot comedy HIGH School, which premieres at this year’s fest. And while checking out the press preview of the New Frontier on Main exhibition center, I came across an opportunity to speak with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of my favorite indie actors on the moment.
Levitt appears in my most anticipated film of this year’s festival, Hesher, from the director of the awesome short film I Love Sarah Jane. Levitt is also in Park City to promote his production company/collaborative filmmaking website Hitrecord.org, which is an interesting creative venture. I’ll be interested to see where Joe takes it in the coming years. As I’ve said before, this was in no way a scheduled interview, and thus I made use of the tools available to me and recorded it on my iphone. Watch the six minute video interview, embedded after the jump.
And No, I didn’t ask him about (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb’s Spider-Man reboot (I know a lot of people on twitter asked, but from what I’ve heard Sony wants Peter Parker to be a High Schooler, and JGL might not fit into that age range anymore).
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Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 by Peter Sciretta
Last year, we featured a beautiful zombie short film titled I Love Sarah Jane. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out right now. It was screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and many regional film festivals around the world. And aside from being awesome, it is notable for featuring Mia Wasikowska, who has gone on to become Alice in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
Writer/director Spencer Susser has been working in commercials and music videos , but has finally completed his first feature film, an indie dramedy titled Hesher starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rainn Wilson, and Natalie Portman. Susser has been developing Hesher for the last four years, as well as a feature film adaptation of Sarah Jane (which I hope someday gets made). We previously featured the film on the site in our Sundance Photo Preview, but now the first footage in now online, thanks to Sundance’s Meet The Artists video series (found via Twitch). Watch the video, embedded after the jump. We’ll be on the ground in Park City proving you with the early buzz on this movie, and many other films, premiering at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
Posted on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
When the trailer for Christopher Nolan’s new film Inception began to screen attached to early press screenings of Sherlock Holmes, movie bloggers around the internet (including our own David Chen) attempted, from memory, to recall the imagery from the new teaser. It wasn’t an easy task considering all the craziness that happens in the new trailer, which yes, was released online earlier this week (see it here). Warner Bros has finally released an unwatermarked high definition version of the trailer. And since it is a slow news week (blame the holidays), I thought it might be good to create high resolution captures of some of the moments from the trailer. Check them out now, after the jump.
Well, this is a nice little surprise. If you can stand not knowing the content of the dialogue and voice-over, here’s the French version of the first full trailer for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film Inception. Check it out after the break. Read More »
Posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Last year, we featured a beautiful zombie short film titled I Love Sarah Jane. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out right now. It was screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and many regional film festivals around the world. And aside from being awesome, it is notable for featuring Mia Wasikowska, who has gone on to become Alice in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
Writer/director Spencer Susser has been working in commercials and music videos , but has finally completed his first feature film, an indie dramedy titled Hesher starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rainn Wilson, and Natalie Portman. Susser has been developing Hesher for the last four years, as well as a feature film adaptation of Sarah Jane (which I hope someday gets made). The film, co-written with David Michod, tells the story of a 13 year old boy named T.J.. Full details and photos after the jump.
Posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 by Russ Fischer
This takes some balls. Joseph Gordon-Levitt did his first gig hosting Saturday Night Live this past weekend. He took the stage looking like a guy who could barely contain his excitement, and proceeded to launch into a recreation of one of the most famous song and dance numbers from any film musical: Donald O’Connor’s ‘Make ‘em Laugh’ from Singin’ in the Rain. And he nailed it! Read More »
Posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 by Christopher Stipp
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?
