Posted on Friday, December 9th, 2011 by Angie Han

There’s still no word on who’ll be playing Éponine in Tom Hooper‘s Les Misérables, but the project has landed yet another well-known star to play her father. According to LondonNet, Sacha Baron Cohen is set to join Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and Eddie Redmayne in the musical, in the role of the villainous inn owner Monsieur Thénardier. Helena Bonham Carter was said to be in talks to play Thénardier’s wife earlier this year, but it’s not clear whether she’s actually attached at this point.
Cohen did a bit of singing in his last big-screen musical, Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and is slated to do still more as the lead of that Freddie Mercury biopic from producer Graham King. In terms of non-singing roles, Cohen recently appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, and already has three more movies scheduled to open next year — The Dictator, Madagascar 3, and Django Unchained. Get used to that face, because you’ll be seeing a lot of it in 2012.
Les Misérables opens December 7, 2012. [via The Playlist]
After the jump, a Disney gal decides it’s time to break into more mature territory, and Diablo Cody’s next project finds a mom for Julianne Hough.
Read More »
.
Please Recommend /Film on Facebook

A movie starring Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer, Frances McDormand and Sacha Baron Cohen could get even the most casual movie fan excited. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is exactly that, and yet I’d be lying if I said I was anticipating this one. The series follows a group of Central Park Zoo animals who were shipped back to their native continent and get into crazy adventures trying to find their way back to New York. In this installment, they’re traversing Europe as incognito members of the circus. Directors Eric Darnell and Conrad Vernon present the third theatrical film in the animated franchise, in 3D, on June 8. Check out the trailer below. Read More »

Here’s the latest update on the ever-growing cast for Quentin Tarantino‘s anti-slavery ‘southern’ Django Unchained. You might recall that Tarantino once directed an episode of CSI, and that link could help explain why Rex Linn, known for playing Frank Tripp on CSI: Miami, is the proud owner of a role in Django Unchained. He’ll be Tennessee Harry, according to Deadline.
More startling is the fact that another actor now in talks for the movie is Sacha Baron Cohen, who is escaping the shadows of his Borat and Bruno characters thanks in part to Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. He’s in talks for one of the best characters in the film, too. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, October 11th, 2011 by Angie Han

Hugo represents unfamiliar territory for Martin Scorsese, being both his first family film and his first 3D project, but you wouldn’t know it from watching the movie. The legendary director has crafted a charming piece of all-ages entertainment that’s absolutely stunning in its use of live-action 3D — even in the unfinished version I saw, a work in progress with visible green screens, some very rough CG, and a temporary sound mix. This is the kind of work filmmakers are talking about when they insist it isn’t just a cheesy, money-grabbing gimmick, but a true next step in cinematic technology, because this is the kind of movie that’s actually worth shelling out the extra bucks and dealing with those uncomfortable disposable glasses for. Read on after the jump.
Read More »

Over the past week there has been word that a major film would have a surprise showing tonight at the New York Film Festival. This morning the film was revealed as Martin Scorsese‘s Hugo, which will be shown as a ‘work in progress’ print.
The film is Scorsese’s adaptation of the young adult book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, and it marks the director’s first foray into family films and 3D. To mark the occasion of the film’s debut, Paramount has released a two-minute featurette in which the director enthuses (with his characteristic energy) about the project. Check it out below. Read More »

Trailers abound this week! But with a bumper crop that includes Contagion, The Thing, John Carter, Pirates!, and soon The Dark Knight Rises, who’s complaining?
Now here is the beautiful trailer for Martin Scorsese‘s new film Hugo. As we’ve said so many times before, it is his first 3D film, and his first family-oriented movie. (Or, his first movie for the traditional family, rather than for the Family.) It is invigorating to see a master like Martin Scorsese turn his tricks to some classic tropes of the family film. When Sacha Baron Cohen, playing a zealous Parisian train station guard, chases Asa Butterfield and Chloe Moretz, it’s like some strange combination of the Keystone Kops and Home Alone. And while many fantasy-oriented family films try for ‘beautiful’ and merely end up with ‘shiny,’ there are truly lovely sights here. Hugo looks like a 3D film to be actually excited for. Check out the trailer below. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 by Angie Han

Ruth Wilson will be breaking into the boys’ club as the female lead of Gore Verbinski‘s The Lone Ranger, starring Armie Hammer as the Texas ranger and Johnny Depp as his sidekick Tonto. Although Wilson’s name may be unfamiliar to most Americans, she’s known in the UK for her work on the BBC’s Luther and the Masterpiece Theatre miniseries Jane Eyre. Wilson was selected over Jessica Chastain and Abbie Cornish, who were also being considered for the part, and is currently in negotiations. Very few details have been revealed about her character, named Rebecca.
Unlike the earlier versions of the property, Verbinski’s Lone Ranger will be told from Tonto’s perspective — “Don Quixote told from Sancho Panza’s point of view,” as Verbinski has described it. The film will hit theaters December 21. [Deadline]
After the jump, B.J. Novak joins The Dictator opposite Sacha Baron Cohen a.k.a. Borat, and Peter Mullan takes on an action thriller.
Read More »

Martin Scorsese has taken his first plunge into both family filmmaking and 3D with Hugo, which adapts the Brian Selznick book The Invention of Hugo Cabret with Asa Butterfield and Chloe Moretz in the lead roles. We’ve got a look at the first teaser poster for the film, in advance of the upcoming trailer release. Appropriately for something arriving the same week as the final Harry Potter film, there’s a serious Potter influence here. But as this is one of the first official images we’ve seen for Hugo, which also happens to confirm the recent title change, I’ll accept that for now. Read More »
Cool Posts From Around the Web: