Posted on Friday, August 24th, 2012 by Angie Han
A few titles have lately dropped out of the ultra-competitive year-end release calendar, but now one more has jumped into the fray. Gus Van Sant‘s Promised Land is getting a limited NY / LA release in late December, in order to give it a shot at the next Oscar race. The film will then roll out to additional markets starting in January.
Promised Land has mostly flown under our radar the past several months, but now that it’s set a release date the talent involved should attract some attention. Matt Damon and John Krasinski wrote the script based on a story by Dave Eggers. The pair also star, along with Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt, Hal Holbrook, Scoot McNairy, and Titus Welliver. More details after the jump.
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Posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2012 by Angie Han
Story-wise, it would’ve made perfect sense to end the Bourne series after Jason Bourne’s arc came to a graceful end in 2007′s The Bourne Ultimatum. Money-wise, however, it’s another story. While all three films have done well at the box office, the Ultimatum blew the other two out of the water with a $442 million worldwide gross. There was simply no way Universal was going to let a franchise that lucrative lay fallow.
No matter, even, that star Matt Damon walked away in 2009. The studio just figured out that they could shift focus to a different character in the same universe, and Jeremy Renner was brought in to play the Bourne-esque non-Bourne figure Aaron Cross. We’ll find out next weekend how he does as the new face of the franchise, but in the meantime Funny or Die has something to say about the studio’s decision.
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After what seems like a very long time talking about his impending retirement, Steven Soderbergh is nearly there. He’s shooting his final film now: the made-for-HBO film Behind the Candelabra, which looks at the life of musician/entertainer Liberace. Playing the beringed pianist is Michael Douglas, with Matt Damon on board as Scott Thorson, Liberace’s long-time lover whose book Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace provided the raw material for screenwriter Richard LaGravenese (Water for Elephants, The Fisher King).
The first image of Douglas and Damon in character has shown up, via E!, and it is almost as ’70s spectacular as one might hope. We know there will be some much more outrageous costuming coming up for Douglas, but this is a good start. Dan Aykroyd, Debbie Reynolds, Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe, Cheyenne Jackson, Boyd Holbrook, and Nicky Katt are all in the film as well, which we’ll see on HBO in 2013.
After the break, see an set images of Brad Pitt in Ridley Scott‘s new film The Counselor, scripted by The Road and No Country For Old Men writer Cormac McCarthy.
Ridley Scott is putting together The Counselor as he can for the time being, grabbing actors when and where they’re available. Despite a presumed setting in the American Southwest, Scott is currently shooting scenes with Brad Pitt in London. Pitt plays Westray, who advises the film’s title character (played by Michael Fassbender, still shooting Twelve Years a Slave) as the counselor gets into a drug deal.
The pics above show Pitt in a getup that seems so very suited to a McCarthy story. Also in the cast are Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, and the just-added John Leguizamo. [JustJared and Yahoo]
Posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 by Angie Han
Sequel Bits is more badass than usual this time, with updates on skilled assassins, demonic heroes, costumed villains, and more. After the jump:
- Watch Bruce Willis on the set of A Good Day to Die Hard
- Alex Kurtzman talks about the villain’s central role in Star Trek 2
- Lindsay Lohan is in talks for a part in Scary Movie 5
- Christopher Mintz-Plasse won’t rape anyone in Kick-Ass 2
- Matt Damon isn’t convinced he’s needed for Bourne 5
- Guillermo del Toro still really, really wants to make Hellboy 3
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If you were a fan of Neill Blomkamp‘s District 9, your expectations for his follow-up, Elysium, might be particularly high. Those expectations are going to be shattered. The film stars Matt Damon as a blue-collar worker in a post apocalyptic future who is given five days to live. His only option to stay alive is get to Elysium, a space station utopia for the super-rich, run by Jodie Foster. Obviously, they don’t want him there and things get a little awesome.
Blomkamp presented the first footage from the film in Hall H of San Diego Comic-Con 2012 on Friday. ”I can now die a happy man having seen footage from Elysium. Think District 9 on an intergalactic scale. Pure wow” is what I tweeted. Russ said “Elysium footage looks like the real continuation of the Paul Verhoeven sci-fi approach. Matt Damon looks wild. It all looks nuts.” And Peter simply said “Elysium footage wins Comic-Con 2012 (thus far).”
After the jump, watch a video blog of us describing and discussing the footage, as well as Rian Johnson’s Looper and Len Wiseman’s Total Recall. Read More »
“Can’t Find The Luxury You Deserve On Earth? Look No Further Than Elysium”
Sony’s viral marketing campaign for District 9 helmer Neill Blomkamp‘s second feature film Elysium might have been the most interesting thing I encountered on the show floor on preview night at Comic Con 2012. They had an border checkpoint booth with a human-shaped automated system to find out if you qualify for homes on Elysium — a pristine man made spaceship oasis for the super rich. The film takes place 150-or-so years in the future where the Earth is overpopulated and ruined, and the rich live on this luxury space station protected by intense anti-immigration laws. The booth at Comic Con contained a bunch of photos of what your home on Elysium could look like, and flyers full of sales information. The flyer points to a website, itsbetterupthere.com, which allows you to apply to become a citizen of Elysium. We took photos of the booth and materials, and have included all the images after the jump for you to explore.
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With the exception of a few set photos, Neill Blomkamp shot his District 9 follow-up Elysium in almost total secrecy. We have seen a couple images of Matt Damon, with his head shaved, wearing what seemed to be prison clothes, but that’s just about it for pictures from the film.
Now, just before Comic Con begins, a few films that have maintained a low profile over the past year or two are being glimpsed, and so here’s the first real photo from Blomkamp’s movie. Once again, the subject is Damon, but this time he’s wielding a huge weapon and also wearing some sort of other gear that may or may not be part of the gun.
Check out the full image below. Read More »
Friday is the second ‘official’ day of each San Diego Comic Con, and it’s the day where things start to kick into gear. The SDCC organization and various film studios announced their Friday plans today, and there are some great things happening.
The best are at Sony’s panel in Hall H, where the studio will show off Rian Johnson‘s Looper (with Johnson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Emily Blunt in attendance) and debut the first footage from Neill Blomkamp‘s Elysium (with Blomkamp, producer Simon Kinberg, Matt Damon and Jodie Foster showing up). Comic Con could be said to be Blomkamp’s first home, as that’s where his debut feature District 9 first got loads of attention, back in 2008.
This schedule also shows that television is taking a pole position this year, as Hall H has big presentations for The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, and there are big events for Firefly, Community, Breaking Bad, and many more shows.
There’s a lot more going on during the day, but hit the jump to get some highlights. Read More »
