Posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 by David Chen
This week, Dave Chen, Devindra, and Adam chat about the virtues of Downton Abbey, debate the merits of Another Earth, and discuss their most anticipated films of 2012. Special guest Alison Willmore joins us from Movieline.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us at Slashfilm’s Live page on Sunday (1/22) as we discuss Haywire.
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It didn’t take much deliberation at all for me to crown Rian Johnson‘s third film Looper as my most anticipated movie of 2012. After making Brick and The Brothers Bloom, Johnson has penned and directed a sci-fi thriller in which time travel is used as an assassination tool in the not-too-distant future.
A few people have seen the film in incomplete form, and written very positive things about it. But most of us know very little. We know the cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, and we’ve seen a single image of Willis firing a rifle. Unless you read all the reviews that came out of one early screening, that’s probably all you know.
Now, as a New Year’s present, Johnson has offered up a photo of himself sitting in the film’s giant iron womb of a time machine. The image should give you the idea that this is no simple, slick thriller, but hopefully something with a more convincing approach. Check the image in full below. Read More »
Enough about 2011; let’s look ahead to 2012. This past year was good about offering a diverse set of films that catered to many tastes, especially crowds that wanted something out of the range of standard multiplex fare. But 2012 looks like a much stronger year. We can almost always look ahead to a new year and say that there is a great batch of new films from established favorite filmmakers, movies with wonderful casts, giant event movies and promising indies. But 2012 looks like it has more of those than usual. It’s going to be a good year for movie watchers.
After some deliberation (which no doubt has still allowed me to overlook something for which I’ll facepalm later) here is a list of ten films that I’m very excited to see in 2012, followed by a full page of discussion about a whole bunch of other movies that didn’t make my personal cut but are still bright spots on the 2012 calendar for various reasons. This list could change a lot in the next couple weeks, as Sundance (and then Cannes in May) could reveal a good many new films that will be bright spots on the calendar in ’12.
I’ve also exercised a certain hopefulness here, as there are a few films that don’t yet have official 2012 release dates. Let’s hope they don’t slip. Read More »
One of our most anticipated 2012 releases is Looper, which comes from Brick and The Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson. The movie shot some time ago, but will not be distributed until next year, and the wait is one I’m not suffering patiently.
Looper is a time travel movie, of sorts. It stars Bruce Willis (in the first still from the film, above) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as two men on opposite ends of a timeline. The central conceit is that there is a society in which time travel exists and is banned. Time-travel tech is still in use, however, as an execution tool: gangsters send targets back in time. When the target lands in the past, specialized hit men, ‘loopers,’ make the kill. But what happens when a target escapes the execution? And what further complications ensue when the target is the future self of the looper meant to pull the trigger?
New reports from a Looper test screening are not going to make the wait any easier. A few high profile web writers caught the film, and their opinion of the film, which was shown in unfinished form, is extremely high. Read More »
As we’ve said in several pieces in the past, Rian Johnson‘s third film Looper (which follows Brick and The Brothers Bloom) is one of our most anticipated pictures in the next year or so. FilmDistrict and Tri-Star are releasing the film, and we’d hoped to see it sometime early next year. Sadly, we’re going to have to wait a bit longer than that. Tri-Star has set a date for the film: September 28, 2012. Read More »
FilmDistrict, the company spun off from Graham King’s GK FIlms, has been very busy at Cannes. The company has picked up distribution rights to the 3D version of Arabian Nights that we reported on a while back, starring Liam Hemsworth, as well as the Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel romcom Playing the Field.
And now that the lousy announcements are out of the way, there are these, too: FilmDistrict is teaming with TriStar to release Rian Johnson‘s film Looper (we just had the first still from that one on Friday) and Angelina Jolie‘s directorial debut, which now has the title In the Land of Blood and Honey. More info on all four films, after the break. Read More »
We’ve been pretty vocal about our interest in Rian Johnson, whose debut film Brick is (I think) a tremendously entertaining modern noir, and who crafted an engaging and clever caper film in The Brothers Bloom.
So Looper, his third film and one which involves time travel (and the talents of Primer director Shane Carruth!) is something we’re quite keen to see. Here’s your first look at any real stills from the film. It shows Bruce Willis, who plays the older version of a young hitman played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Confused? Don’t be — I’ll explain after the break. (And so possible spoilers are ahead, but they’re not likely any different than you’ll get in the eventual trailer.) Read More »
I suspect this film will never get made with this cast, but you might eventually see A Boy Named Sue on screens in some form. In a piece about Ryan Reynolds forming a TV production company with Allan Loeb, Deadline reports on the film, written by Loeb, which has Ryan Reynolds attached to star as ” a guy who disguises himself as a woman to win his ex-girlfriend back.” So it is kind of Tootsie by way of Johnny Cash, with a little extra romantic comedy? Maybe? Despite the fact that Ryan Reynolds and Allan Loeb are developing this as part of a whole slate of stuff they’ve got cooking, I bet this gets made with someone else in the lead.
After the break, two great character actors, Garret Dillahunt and Walton Goggins, get new gigs. Read More »
