Last night I saw a work-in-progress screening of the Judd Apatow-produced Paul Feig-directed comedy Bridesmaids.
While he is beloved by television fanatical/Film readers, Feig is probably the last remaining member of the Apatow clan to not have a break-out film career. Feig is probably best known for creating the short-lived HBC television series Freaks and Geeks, which has gone on to become a cult classic (including a spot in Time Magazines’ greatest shows of all time and the 13th best show in the past 25 years according to Entertainment Weekly). Paul has since directed 13 episodes of the US version of The Office, 8 episodes of Arrested Development, and a couple episodes of Weeds, Bored to Death, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation and Mad Men. His 2006 family film Unaccompanied Minors was critically destroyed and failed to attract excitement at the box office.
While this screening was marketed as a work-in-progress (something we don’t usually review), Feig revealed on stage pre-screening that the cut we saw was “the final cut” of the movie, only lacking a sound effect or two and a couple minor color timing tweaks. So what did I think? Read my thoughts after the jump!
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Director James Wan has been on a downward slope since Saw. His ultra low-budget horror debut may not have been a huge hit with critics, but as you have surely deduced from the six sequels it’s spawned, the film performed like gangbusters with audiences. His two follow-up efforts, meanwhile, did not. Death Sentence performed miserably at the box office, and Dead Silence didn’t fare much better. Critics hated both.
James Wan has two strikes against him now, and is in desperate need of a hit if he has any intention of reclaiming his past glory.
Good thing Wan has Insidious, a film he’s been quoted as saying he wants to be “the Poltergeist for this generation”. This time around, he’s teamed up with Paranormal Activity creators Oren Peli, Jason Blum and Steven Schneider — a fact the trailer eagerly promotes, though obviously without acknowledging that they’re only serving in a producer capacity — and reunited with Saw screenwriter Leigh Whannell. Its story revolves around a family looking to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further. Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne star, with Barbara Hershey in a supporting role. The film premiered at TIFF 2010 as one of its Midnight Madness selections, and generated great buzz. Check out the trailer after the break. Read More »
20th Century Fox has released the first movie trailer for Matthew Vaughn‘s X-Men: First Class on Facebook. Based on a story by original X-Men director Bryan Singer, the new film is a Casino Royale-style prequel/reboot of the comic book movie series. The story “charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events.” This first trailer gives a much better idea of what we can expect from this film. And it seems like it should calm fans worried that we wouldn’t see much mutant action.
Hit the jump to watch it now. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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Yesterday, the poster for Bridesmaids hit the web and today we’ve got a full trailer. Both are awesome. The comedy, directed by Paul Feig and produced by Judd Apatow, stars Kristen Wiig as a single woman struggling with the fact that her best friend, played by Maya Rudolph, asks her to be her Maid of Honor. Rounding out the bridal party are Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper.
It’s been a while – if ever – that we’ve seen a broad comedy with a full female cast so I have a feeling that Bridesmaids is going to be a hit. The trailer certainly seems like that’s the case. Check out, along with some new images, below. Bridesmaids opens May 13. Read More »
Here’s the first small image of the assembled cast for Matthew Vaughn‘s X-Men: First Class. Left to right, we see: Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, January Jones as Emma Frost, Jason Flemyng as Azazel, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Lucas Till as Havoc, Zoe Kravitz as Angel Salvadore, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, and James McAvoy as Charles Xavier.
I expect that we’ll see a better version of this image later today — I’d initially held off posting this one because it looks like an early, not quite finished look. And, frankly, I’m a bit disappointed in how this looks. It’s a lot more modern than I’d expected, but perhaps a high-res version will showcase the small costume details in a better way. What about you — is this what you expected to see from the ’60s-set X-Men prequel ? [Originally from MSN; link dead; via TheDailyBlam! and Bleeding Cool]
Briefly: In the wake of the debut of Saw, creator James Wan has worked on additional films (Dead Silence and Death Sentence) but neither has become anything like the phenomenon that was spawned by Saw. But his new film, Insidious, reunites him with Saw co-creator Leigh Whannell, and did quite well in the Midnight Madness program at TIFF last September. The film was picked up by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group (not quite the same thing as being picked up by Sony Pictures) and will now be released on April 1 2011 by the relatively new company FilmDistrict.
April 1 is getting to be a crowded date. Also in that slot are Source Code, Mother’s Day, Super and Hop. But if this film has any of the luck of Saw, it will pull a dedicated horror audience to counter some of the other draws represented by Source Code and the limited release Super. Insidious stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne as “a young family which makes the terrifying discovery that the body of their comatose boy has become a magnet for malevolent entities, while his consciousness lies trapped in the dark and insidious realm known as The Further.” [BOM]
A test screening for the new Judd Apatow-produced Paul Feig-directed comedy Bridesmaids took place tonight in southern California. The film is written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, and tells the story of two feuding bridesmaids played by Rose Byrne and Kristen Wiig. Also starring Maya Rudolph as the bride, and a supporting cast that consists of Jon Hamm, Matt Lucas, Ellie Kemper, Dianne Wiest and others.
And despite the Bridewars sounding logline, the reunion of Apatow and Feig (who worked together on the now cult classic television series Freaks and Geeks) and the hilarious female cast, has many excited. So what is the early word? Find out now after the jump!
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There have been quite a few set pics from X-Men: First Class floating about in the past few days. Most of them, however, haven’t been very good; the first images to come out showed James McAvoy and some of the rest of the cast, but they were blurry and details were difficult to distinguish.
These new images still aren’t terribly exciting, but they’re a lot more clear, so you can get a sense of the film’s 60′s-set style. Read More »
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