Posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 by Angie Han
Olivia Wilde has landed the coveted role of ’70s supermodel Suzy Miller in Rush, Ron Howard‘s Peter Morgan-scripted drama about the real-life rivalry between British Formula One driver James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian racer Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl). Miller married the womanizing Hunt, but then fell in love with Hunt’s friend Richard Burton. Burton agreed to pay the $1 million divorce settlement that Hunt owned Miller, and then married Miller.
Howard is reportedly eyeing Russell Crowe to play the supporting role of Burton, but it doesn’t sound like negotiations are too far along at this time. Rush began preliminary shooting last month, but real principal photography is starting soon. [Deadline]
After the jump, Billy Crudup gets to show off his comedic chops while Helen Hunt, Maggie Grace, and Aaron Paul get to fight breast cancer.
Posted on Thursday, July 14th, 2011 by Russ Fischer
One of the biggest question marks on the 2012 tentpole schedule is Disney’s John Carter, formerly John Carter of Mars. Pixar’s Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) directs the live-action film that adapts APrincess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Now that we’re able to see some footage, it appears that he has done so with a sense of grand, old-school fantasy/sci-fi epics. I had no idea what to expect out of this, and so far, I’m impressed.
Check out the trailer for the film, after the break. Read More »
In June, I visited the editing room of John Carter, the big screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic sci-fi novel A Princess of Mars (you can watch my video blog here). At the event, director Andrew Stanton and producer Jim Morris gave a presentation explaining how they came to be involved with the project, and described the unique process they took to “shoot” the adaptation. After the jump you will find a complete transcript of the presentation and question and answer session, along with some concept art from the film and photos from the event.
On June 20th, I flew to San Francisco to visit Barsoom Studios, in an office building minutes sown the road from Pixar Animation Studios, to see the first footage fromJohn Carter, a big screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic sci-fi novel A Princess of Mars.
In a screening room, Finding Nemo/Wall-E director Andrew Stanton gave us a powerpoint presentation explaining why and how he became involved in the project, and the unique methods they used to “shoot” the film (you can read a transcript of Andrew’s complete presentation and Q&A elsewhere on /Film). We screened a couple scenes from the movie, and the teaser trailer which will be attached to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II (expect to see it online on Thursday, July 14th).
After the jump you can read my brief thoughts, followed by a video blog I recorded with Frosty from Collider (who admits he knows nothing about the source material) and Eric Vespe (better known as Quint from Ain’t It Cool, who knows way way way more than I will ever know about the source material). So we have a good spread of opinions based on a wide range of expectations and knowledge of the source material.
Posted on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 by Russ Fischer
The casting for David Cronenberg‘s adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel Cosmopolis has been an up and down affair, with original talents Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard dropping out. Robert Pattinson is now the male lead — he plays a young billionaire who deals with quite a few problems as he spends a day crossing Manhattan in his limo. Also in the cast are Juliette Binoche and Paul Giamatti.
And now Robert Pattinson tells MTV that Samantha Morton is in the film, and that a new young actress has been chosen to play his character’s wife, but that he can’t yet reveal her name. I’m very interested to hear who that will be, but in the meantime having Samantha Morton in the cast is a great thing. She is reliably excellent, and even without knowing her specific role the fact that she is cast says good things about the movie overall.
After the break. The Coen Brothers-scripted Gambit gets Alan Rickman, and Rick Yune is in RZA’s kung-fu movie. Read More »
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?
More Than A Game Trailer
So, if you’re sitting in the front row when LeBron James tosses his rosin up in the air like some sort of ass clown who wants to have a gimmick, the white dust probably settling somewhere in your twelve dollar Budweiser bomber, are you supposed to feel honored that he’s doing it in your presence? Oddly, most people say yes, you are.
I’ve missed the LeBron boat somewhere but it’s not surprising considering my hobby is film and not hoops. I have a love for documentary filmmaking, though, and have a special affinity for Hoop Dreams, one of the best portraits of kids trying to make it big in the world of professional sports that has ever been put out for public consumption. This trailer, though, rivets as it equally delights. Read More »
Three more actors have joined Andrew Stanton‘s big screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ John Carter of Mars: Samantha Morton (In America, Control), Dominic West (300, Chicago) and Polly Walker (Patriot Games).
Cannes2008 has released thre first three clips from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman‘s (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind) directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. The three clips don’t reveal much. The first screening of the film happened at Cannes on Saturday. Anne Thompson writes that those who have seen it describe the movie as “ambitious, arty and brilliant, if not entirely accessible.” Others have said that like Eternal Sunshine, Synecdoche stays with you for a few days.
Synecdoche, New York stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director named Caden Cotard, whose life in Schenectady, New York is looking bleak. His wife Adele has left him to pursue her painting in Berlin, taking their young daughter Olive with her. A new relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel has prematurely run aground. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his body’s autonomic functions. Worried about the transience of his life, he moves his theater company to a warehouse in New York City. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a growing mockup of the city outside. Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton co-star.
Kaufman described the film to the hollywood reporter: “it’s about people’s losses and death and fear of death and intimacy and relationships. Romance and regret and struggle and ego and jealousy and confusion and loneliness and sex and loss — all those things are in the movie. I wanted it to be an all-inclusive experience of a person’s life. It’s this guy’s world.”
