After a barrage of casting news followed by some very basic set photos, all’s been quiet on the Django Unchained front for some time now. That’s because writer/director Quentin Tarantino has been working hard with his amazing cast (Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, Don Johnson, Christoph Waltz, Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony LaPaglia) to complete the film, which is aimed at a December 25 release date.
So while we have yet to see or hear anything from the film, I asked the executive producer Michael Shamberg when that might change. We were on the set of his next film, Dylan Kidd’s Get A Job starring Miles Teller, Bryan Cranston and Anna Kendrick, and he obliged with a small update. Read his quote after the jump. Read More »
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Our apologies. Even if you live in Los Angeles, posting about Jason Reitman‘s awesome live readings at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is torture. The casts are so fantastic, the projects so good and yet it’s virtually impossible to go because they sell out so quickly. In fact, they sell-out weeks before the script or cast is even announced.
I was lucky enough to see The Princess Bride a few months back with Paul Rudd, Mindy Kaling, Patton Oswalt and returning cast members Cary Elwes and Fred Savage. Reitman has also done The Apartment with Natalie Portman and Steve Carell, The Breakfast Club with Aaron Paul and Jennifer Garner and more. It’s super-impressive.
The penultimate reading, long sold out, happens February 16 and it’s Quentin Tarantino‘s Reservoir Dogs. That by itself is insane. But instead of simply casting alternative famous people to play roles actors like Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi and Tim Roth made famous, Reitman and co-curator Elvis Mitchell decided to change the entire race of the project. They’ve selected an all-black cast. Read the list after the jump. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 by Angie Han
Those plans for David Milch’s beloved Deadwood to live on in the form of a TV movie will likely never come to fruition, but fans may yet get an opportunity to revisit the Western town when Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained hits theaters at the end of this year. Actor Garret Dillahunt, who played Francis Wolcott on the HBO series, recently paid a visit to the set of Tarantino’s “Southern-fried spaghetti Western” and couldn’t help but notice that the setting looked awfully familiar. Check out Dillahunt’s TwitPics after the jump.
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NOTE: We ran this article in 2011 and have updated it for 2012.
The Sundance Film Festival is the best known film festival in the United States. Say the word “Sundance” to anyone, film lover or not, and chances are they’ve heard of the festival. As a movie blog though, the problem with covering Sundance is that virtually all of the movies are brand new. We haven’t heard of them, you haven’t heard of them, so why would you even care about them?
More than any of the casting news, trailers or film stills that we post on a daily basis, what happens in that small corner of Utah for a little over a week in January is probably the most important movie event of the year. Even so, talk to the most seasoned movie fan and they don’t spend half as much time focusing on what’s going on at Sundance as they do bitching about movies that came out three years ago. Plain and simple, the best films that you will see in theaters for the next 12 months are being shown at Sundance over the next week and a half. And while you probably haven’t heard of them in January, you’ll definitely have heard of them by December. Don’t you want in on the ground floor?
For the next 10 days myself and Peter Sciretta will be in Park City, Utah at the Sundance Film Festival. And while you might not be eager to click and read about a movie you haven’t heard of yet, we urge you to do so. Some of the films that people hadn’t heard of when they played Sundance in the past are films like Saw, The Blair Witch Project, Donnie Darko, 28 Days Later, Napoleon Dynamite, Memento, Bottle Rocket, Clerks, Reservoir Dogs and The Usual Suspects. Think of all the movies that have been made since because filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, Wes Anderson, Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and Bryan Singer broke out at the Sundance Film Festival. Who is the breakout star this year? You’ll have to follow our coverage to find out.
Still not convinced? We’ve compiled even more films that you know and love that got their start at Sundance after the jump. Read More »
Last year, Quentin Tarantino released a list of what he called the best films of 2011. This year he has repeated the list-making effort, and Tarantino’s list of the best eleven films of 2011 is out now. (Or best twelve films, really, since there is a tie in one position.) Along with that comes a collection of associated lists, from his estimation of the best directors of the year, to a set of ‘nice try’ picks, which includes some peoples’ fave film, Drive.
Check out the main list 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 »
Posted on Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 by Angie Han
Yup, that’s Michael Giacchino striking the goofy pose in the header image, but don’t let the silliness fool you — he’s one of the hottest film and TV composers working today, and one of the main reasons you should be excited about the rest of this post. After the jump:
- Listen to ten minutes of Michael Giacchino’s score for John Carter
- Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained could be getting an unusual take on Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”
- Wes Anderson reunites with Fantastic Mr. Fox composer Alexandre Desplat for Moonrise Kingdom
- The Artist ponders a concert tour with live orchestra
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Posted on Monday, December 12th, 2011 by Angie Han
Each December since 2004, studio executive Franklin Leonard has compiled the best unproduced screenplays of the year, as voted by hundreds of execs, agency guys, and high-level assistants. Titled The Black List, the compendium highlights both established screenwriters and up-and-comers, and has served as a launching pad in the past for projects like Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, and (500) Days of Summer. Last year’s list included Margin Call, Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Hunger Games, and Snow White and the Huntsman.
It should be noted that the headline is somewhat misleading — some of these screenplays have already been acquired and are already in development, though according to Leonard none will have entered principal photography by December 31, 2011. Also worth pointing out is that, as in previous years, there have been rumors that some of the participants have been accused of using the Black List to promote their own clients or friends. Finally, as Leonard reminds us each time, “The Black List is not a ‘best of’ list. It is, at best, a ‘most liked’ list.”
Regardless, we can always rely on the Black List to stir up conversation among both industry insiders and outside spectators alike, so without further ado, hit the jump for the complete 2011 list.
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