Editor's Note: Filmmaker Jake Scott has been blogging his Sundance experience on /Film. You might not know 42-year-old director Jake Scott yet, but you will. You definitely know his father Ridley, the filmmaker behind such films as Alien, Gladiator, and Blade Runner (Jake worked in the editing room during the school holidays). Chances are, you've…
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UPDATE: Just after I published this, The Weinstein Company was announced as the distributor for Blue Valentine, the drama starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. The film has been one of the critical hits of the fest, but I've got to wonder what TWC will be able to do with it. The company is struggling,…
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One of the short films that I screened at Sundance was a 9-minute hillarious documentary titled The S From Hell. Did you know that some people are terrified of certain logos? One of the most famous is the stylized S from the 1964 Screen Gems logo, which has been termed "The S From Hell" by…
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Earlier this month, Disney revealed the list of tracks/artists for the soundtracks for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. The end credit track “Alice (Underground)” written by Avril Lavigne and produced by Butch Walker, is now online, and embedded after the jump. As always, leave your thoughts in the comments below. ALMOST ALICE is a 16-song…
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Sundance 2010 has seen several actors make the transition into directing. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Diego Luna both have films premiering here, but it was Mark Ruffalo's film, Sympathy for Delicious, that caught my attention with its outlandish premise. In the film, Dean O'Dwyer (played by writer and real-life paraplegic Christopher Thornton) plays a down-on-his…
Read MoreThis Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s. SURROGATES It's bad, no question. But bad doesn't necessarily mean unwatchable. At a scant 88 minutes, Surrogates doesn't linger on a single…
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If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I've been recording audio blogs pretty frequently while i've been attending Sundance. Here's some insight into how these work: I'll strike up a conversation with random people next to me on the bus, or with an actor/director that I recognize, then request their permission for a…
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It's been a crazy few days here at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Collectively, we at /Film have seen dozens of films, as have many other industry and press in attendance. While I've enjoyed most of these films, there haven't been that many that have really stolen my heart. Nonetheless, it's been an absolute whirlwind…
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Lionsgate has made the first major purchase of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, winning a bidding war to acquire domestic distribution rights to Ryan Reynolds one-man thriller Buried. For those of you who haven't been following the project, the film tells the story of a private contractor who is kidnapped in Iraq and buried alive.…
Read MoreEditor's Note: Last week we were approached by a filmmaker who wanted to guest blog his Sundance experience on /Film. You might not know 42-year-old director Jake Scott yet, but you will. You definitely know his father Ridley, the filmmaker behind such films as Alien, Gladiator, and Blade Runner (Jake worked in the editing room…
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I didn't have too much faith when I heard about Adrian Grenier's film, a documentary called Teenage Paprazzo. Grenier's acting has never impressed me on Entourage, and the idea of doing a documentary with a teenage paprazzo seemed like it might be a touch gimmicky. So did Grenier's film impress? Teenage paparazzo Austin Visschedyk actually…
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Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich is personally auctioning a bunch of rare/exclusive Pixar memorabilia to benefit Haiti earthquake victims. Here are the links: Tom Hanks signed Toy Story 3 Woody poster. Toy Story Mrs. Potato Head Figurine Signed by Estelle Harris Lee Unkrich's personal Toy Story Original Crew Jacket from 1995 Lee Unkrich's personal…
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As I've mentioned already, one of my favorite things about Sundance is being able to engage with all the people in the blogger community. I've chatted with a lot of people on the /Filmcast before, but nothing beats sitting around a table in person and arguing about movies and other geek trivia. After the break,…
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Since I'm in Park City, a day before the 2010 Sundance Film Festival officially begins, I thought I'd do a round-up of the films I'm most looking forward to this year at the festival. Attending Sundance, you have to put a list together of the movies you want to see the most. Sometimes you're lucky…
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Yesterday, I arrived in Park City, Utah for my very first Sundance Film Festival. I've only been to one film festival before in my life, but I don't think anything can possibly prepare me for the two weeks ahead. There's a ton of great movies that we at /Film plan to bring you coverage of,…
Read MoreThis Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s. GAMER The ADD-infused style that suited writers/directors Neveldine/Taylor so well on the Crank films doesn't quite work to their benefit in Gamer,…
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A few nights ago Jimmy Kimmel impersonated Jay Leno for an entire episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Tonight Kimmel appeared on Leno's 10 at 10 and launched a few jabs at the former Tonight Show host over rumors that Jay would be replacing Conan O'Brien in the late night spot he gave up only months…
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We've got word on two upcoming documentaries that will reflect on past U.S. tragedies: First up, we've learned that Steven Spielberg will be executive producing an upcoming television documentary about the construction of the One World Trade Center building in New York. The six-part documentary series will be created for the Science Channel, and will…
Read MoreThis Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s. THE HURT LOCKER There's a compelling character moment toward the end of The Hurt Locker that takes place in a supermarket, which…
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Now you've got your Na'Vi make-up on (and you look beautiful, I have to say) let's make sure your passport photo is up to date too. Below the break you can see a Photoshop timelapse video in which Peter Ammentorp Lund makes over an image of himself in the likeness of James Cameron's cat folk…
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I've always found the process of interviewing filmmakers on press tours to be a bit strange. It usually happens at some big fancy hotel, in one of the suites, on an entire floor taken over by a press junket for the film release. You often enter a room as the last journalist is finishing up…
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There will be more and more Oscar race talk over the next couple weeks as the last few big non-Oscar award sets are nominated and announced. But the process of getting the actual Oscar nominations together remains a mystery to many spectators. With an incredibly broad field of possible choices, among which a select few…
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In the past couple months there has been a groundswell of support for Moon, Duncan Jones' great debut film, as an Oscar contender. Sam Rockwell's bravura performance is the aspect frequently cited. But a real Oscar campaign has to go directly to voters, many of whom haven't seen the full field of possible films. Hence,…
Read MoreThis Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s. CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS (DVD available as single-disc and 2-Disc Super-Sized Edition) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is one…
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As part of his thesis in film at the savannah college of art and design, /Film reader Lee Keeler re-imagined The Lorax by Dr. Seuss as a retro grindhouse movie trailer. "A twist on the original text: 'The Lorax: He Speaks for the Tress' is a mock Grindhouse trailer that chronicles the badassssss adventures of…
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Hurry up and put your bid in for MGM will you, because it seems that whole situation will have to be settled before the next Bond film makes any more progress. According to producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, "Well, our timeline's a little up in the air what with the situation at MGM,…
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Well, this is a lousy way to start the year. Over the last few months we've been watching as The Road director John Hillcoat attempted to kickstart a film adaptation of Matt Bondurant's novel The Wettest County in the World, which evidently was to be called The Promised Land on screen. Hillcoat had a script…
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Production Weekly is reporting that Universal Pictures' prequel to John Carpenter's cult classic thriller The Thing, will begin shooing in Toronto this March, and will continue until June. The screenplay, which was written by Ronald D. Moore, and rewritten by Eric Heisserer, tells the story of a shape-shifting alien terrorizes researchers at a Norwegian Antarctic…
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When Warner Bros released the first trailer for Louis Leterrier's remake of Clash of the Titans, I wasn't the only one not-so-impressed by the speed ramps, fast-cuts and loud music used to promote the fantasy film. /Film reader Lukáš Franta (of gorilla.cz) decided to edit a trailer for the original 1981 film using the soundtrack/score…
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Remember a month ago when we were having conversations questioning if Avatar was going to earn its money back? If they film could cross $600 million worldwide? Would the movie be a success? Would audiences really go see this movie with ten foot tall blue cat people? James Cameron's Avatar has crossed the $1 billion…
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For a couple years, we've been featuring Matthew Shapiro's yearly film video montages (you can watch the videos which highlight previous years here: 2008, 2007, and 2006. His latest video, 2009: The Cinescape has been released just in time for the new year. This year Shapiro editted the video to Radiohead's Exit Music (For A…
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It’s a crazy, mixed up world and we are thankful for movies, excluding The Spy Next Door and The Tooth Fairy, that offer proof. /Film’s Weekend Weirdness examines such flicks, whether in the form of a new trailer for a provocative indie, a mini review, or an interview. In this installment, new trailers and a…
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Back in October, it was reported that DreamWorks acquired a screenplay by Memoirs of a Geisha scribe Doug Wright about the life of iconic composer George Gershwin. At the time we assumed that Steven Spielberg would merely be executive producing the project, but now that the announced Harvey remake is off the calendar, speculation has…
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In December, we made a post about a guy named Mike from Milwaukee, WI, who created a 70-minute video review of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. The 7-part dissection tore apart George Lucas' first installment of the prequel trilogy, and was linked by almost every website known to man. In fact, the…
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This rumour comes from a UK gossip magazine, so it's almost certainly just been made-up. All the same, there's an interesting kink or two in the details... According to OK, Efron has been hand-picked for the role of Peter Parker by Tobey Maguire. We'd previously heard that Sam Raimi had personally selected Nimrod Antal for…
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Now playing in NY and LA is St. John of Las Vegas, the debut feature of writer-director Hue Rhodes. The picture gives Steve Buscemi a too-rare leading role as John Alighieri, a man with a gambling problem who is sent to investigate an insurance claim on the outskirts of the Nevada casino capital. Also amongst the…
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The annual success of the Saw films has proven that there's a huge market out there for torture-porn films, or films whose primary function is to allow viewers to revel in the physical destruction of the human body. But what would happen if you took a torture-porn film, made it using classical filmmaking techniques, populated…
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Kathryn Bigelow has become the first woman to win the DGA award for Outstanding Direction of a Feature Film with The Hurt Locker, defeating James Cameron's Avatar. This makes Hurt Locker the favorite for at this year's Academy Awards. As Roger Ebert points out, only 6 times in 60 years has the DGA winner NOT…
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The Wolfman director Joe Johnston recently did an interview with Film Journal, and gave a new update on his next project, the Marvel comic book adaptation of The First Avenger: Captain America. "We're in prep," Johnston says. "Rick Heinrichs is production-designing and we're set up down in Manhattan Beach [California]. It's the part of the…
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The Los Angeles Times has an interview with Sylvain White, director of the big screen adaptation of The Losers. The article comes with a new promo photo, which kinda recreates the drawn teaser poster for The Losers, which was revealed at Comic Con. Check out the full photo, after the jump. If you haven't yet…
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On Friday, the opening scene from the premiere episode of Lost: Season Six leaked online. This weekend, a three minute sequence from the upcoming premiere episode, "LA X", premiered on Verizon and was uploaded to YouTube. The video quality isn't too great A better digital copy is now online, but I know some of you…
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David Michôd has had a pretty big year at Sundance. Hesher, which he wrote along with director Spencer Susser, was one of the most anticipated films of the festival (read Peter's review here). He also directed Animal Kingdom, an Australian crime drama starring Guy Pearce, Ben Mendelsohn, and newcomer James Frecheville. I have no compunction…
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Despite a level of violence that has proved controversial within the context of the Sundance Film Festival, IFC Films has purchased Michael Winterbottom's new film The Killer Inside Me, and will distribute the film within the United States. (Check out David's review of the film.) No release date has been set for the film, though…
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When I hear the name John Wells, I think of paramedics hurriedly rushing onto the scene of an accident, arriving just in time to barely save someone's life. I fondly recall verbose walk-and-talks in the halls of the Bartlett White House. And I remember following the romantic lives of skilled doctors in a Chicago E.R.…
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I'd love to know what the people at Screen Gems have on Matt Dillon. Photos of him naked with a shaved bear and a jar of Vaseline? Maybe a webcam video of him going all out dancing to 'A Stroke of Genie-us'? Could it be Dillon making the image above in Photoshop? It's got to…
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Following on from House of the Devil, his film about a young hipster girl very, very slowly walking up and down corridors and eventually crossing paths with possible 'Special Guest Star' devil worshippers, it seems that Ti West is to make another "truly terrifying" picture. One man's tedium is another man's terror, I suppose. Variety…
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I've become fascinated by the war going on between movie studios like Universal and Fox, Redbox and Netflix. The DVD is such an important part of the studio finance equation that these companies are jumping through all sorts of hoops to control how discs are disseminated to the public. Fortunately for us, those hoops are…
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Pierre Morel has revealed both his aspirations for Dune and some of the practical challenges he'll face in realising it. Apparently, he's keen for the film to be in 3D and he'll push for the format but the decision is yet to be made. So far he's seen Avatar in 3D twice, he says, and…
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Until somebody actually comes out and makes an official announcement, I'm sure there's going to be countless rumours about Sam Raimi's choice of next film. Here's today's. We already knew that Sam Raimi was producing the new feature film version of The Shadow. Apparently, he's now keen to take up the director's reigns too. Doesn't…
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Subtitle this one '12 Angry Gangsters'. Back in December I was excited to report that Japanese writer/actor/director Takeshi Kitano was already well into post-production on his new film Outrage. This is his return to gangster pictures after a string of films that saw him step away from the genre that brought him international acclaim. Branching…
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Directors Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross are premiering a new documentary at Sundance 2010 called The Shock Doctrine, based on the best-selling book by author Naomi Klein. The film posits that governments have used periods of crisis, or "shock," in order to foist Milton Friedman's free-market ideologies onto the people, often to negative consequences (e.g.…
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This might be the first Harrison Ford news that has piqued my interest in quite a while. In a recent interview, Ford says that he's developing a film with Nicolas Winding Refn, director of Bronson, Valhalla Rising and the Pusher films. The director has a few different films on his slate, but of all of…
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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…
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Paramount Pictures has released 20 high resolution photos from Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, which I've included after the jump. [gallery columns="2"] Plot Synopsis: “Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow” – T.S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men” From Oscar®-winning director Martin Scorsese, and based on the best-selling thriller…
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We've featured House of the Devil on the site many times over the past six months. Hunter even called the film the best horror film of the year, and one of his top five movies of 2009. The movie tells the story of "a pretty college sophomore, so desperate to earn some cash for a…
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The first trailer for The Losers has now been unveiled courtesy of MSN. You can see it embedded below the break. What follows is a lightly updated post originally servicing a clip of the trailer, and not the full thing we now have. This film will be a solid rival for The A Team, I…
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Two stories today about filmmakers hitting the stage. (Well, one of them is about a filmmaker returning to the stage, but close enough.) First, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are working with Robert Lopez on what is likely to be the musical about Mormons that the three guys have been working on for ages. Lopez…
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ABC held a sweepstakes which resulted in 815 winners receiving an exclusive message in a bottle, with a digital key containing the opening scene to the final season premiere of LOST, days before it premieres on television. Sl-lost has photos of one of the winner's bottle, and spoilerfiles has the actual 4-minute scene online, which…
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Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse appeared on NPR to offer their DVD recommendations to Steve Inskeep. You can listen to the seven minute broadcast segement here, or listen to the entire extended 26-minute interview by clicking here.
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It appears that a week ago, Paranormal Activity star Katie Featherston auditioned for Danny Boyle, who is currently in pre-production for 127 Hours. Boyle plans to start filming in early March, which leads me to think that he may be interested in Featherstone's improv drama talent for the film. We know that Boyle is aiming…
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Prices on Blu-Ray players have been dropping quickly. Today's Amazon Gold Box Deal of the Day is for a Sylvania NB530SLX Black-colored Blu-ray Disc Player for $89.99, 55% off the $200 retail price. I don't know much about the unit but it is getting 4.5 out of 5 stars with 34 customer reviews. As always…
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If you thought the prospect of a new Muppet film co-written by Jason Segel was exciting, prepare yourself for another potential dose of awesome. Vulture is reporting that Flight of the Conchords co-creator James Bobin may end up directing the project. There's no solid deal yet, but a Disney insider told Vulture "the movie is…
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Back in1983, the Waldenbooks chain recorded a long conversation between David Lynch and Frank Herbert. The occasion was the impending release of Lynch's version of Dune. The final film, as most well know, was often derided as an artistic failure, and it was undoubtedly a commercial disaster. In the years since the film's release, Lynch…
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/Film reader Film Savior screened Hot Tub Time Machine, and while the comedy won't hit theaters until March 19th, he sent us a reader review. Savior calls it "hilarious, retarded, nonsensical, thoughtful, a waste of time, and great entertainment all at the same time." You can read the entire virtually spoiler-free reader submitted review, after…
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Imagine being director Lynne Ramsay watching Peter Jackson's terrible version of The Lovely Bones. Ramsay made two excellent films, Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar, the latter way back in 2002, then was attached for quite some time to film The Lovely Bones. That obviously didn't happen, but for the past year she's been working instead on…
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One of my favorite films this year at Sundance was the Duplass Brothers' film Cyrus (see our review here). While its storyline doesn't do much to transcend the tropes of a standard romantic comedy/dramedy, the Duplass brothers make their characters seem so alive and authentic that you can't help but feel like you're watching something…
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We've featured a bunch of New Zealand artist Glenn Jones t-shirts in past editions of Cool Stuff. This week Glennz released a new Back to the Future parody tee. And anyone who has been following the site for more than a week knows that I'm absolutey obsessed with Back to the Future (yes, I do…
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I'm a big fan of Sarah Polley. In addition to her work developing and promoting film in Canada, she's long demonstrated an ability to choose smart, interesting roles, whether in small dramas or off-center genre stuff. On the occasion where she jumps into a bigger studio film, she adds considerable heft to it; witness the…
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China recently changed the name of their famous "Southern Sky Column" in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province to "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain" in honor of James Cameron's 3D sci-fi epic Avatar. Photographs of the mountain were supposedly used as the basis for Avatar's Hallelujah Mountains in the fictional world of Pandora. Of course, the name change will probably…
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Universal Pictures has released their 2010 line-up, which finally includes a release date for Edgar Wright's live-action adaptation of Brian Lee O'Malley's graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The film, which stars Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh, and Jason Schwartzman, will be released…
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If you search the popular travel bargin site Kayak.com for a one-way non-stop ticket from Sydney to LAX on September 22nd, 2010 and you’ll get an Oceanic Airlines flight as a result. For those of you who don't follow the television show Lost, Oceanic Airlines is the fictional airline which crashed Oceanic Flight 815 on…
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I don't remember when it was I first heard of Brian Michael Bendis but I remember how, and I remember that I was holding a copy of his comic book Fire in my hands at the time. I'd pretty much forgotten it, if I'm being honest, but I do have a faint, fuzzy fondness for…
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Two recently revealed news bit on upcoming Blu-ray releases seem to have particular interest to the /Film readership, I would guess. First of all, DVD Town have run a list of the Warner Bros. 2010 slate and, besides some of my own must-buys like Three Kings, Mars Attacks and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,…
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What a weird teaser this is. Pushed along by an unlikely chugging rock score, bookended by the Fox logo and movie title card (above) that are nearly identical, this is Oliver Stone's return to the world of Gordon Gekko? I wasn't sure what to expect when Stone moved forward with Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,…
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Any time I learn about a new David Fincher project I take the news with a certain degree of skepticism. Fincher is a filmmaker who gets involved with projects left and right, but many never go beyond the development stage. It's the way the town works in general, but Fincher likes to develop a lot…
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It is sadly ironic that, just as this year's Sundance Film Festival comes to a close, Disney plans to close the doors on former Sundance mainstay Miramax for good. New York and LA offices will close today. Eighty staff members will lose their jobs, and the last six Miramax films could well go into some…
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Something tells me that Edge of Darkness is going to do quite well at the box office, and remind us that Mel Gibson is still a viable leading man. We haven't seem him in a lead role since Signs (and I wasn't a huge fan of his roles leading up to that), and Darkness looks…
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The Fine Bros have created a LOST music video parody for the song Downtown, performed and released in 1964 by Petula Clark. Lost fans should recognize the song as it has appeared multiple times in the series. According to lostpedia: The first instance being the opening scene of "A Tale of Two Cities", when Juliet…
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In My Kid Could Paint That, director Amir Bar-Lev followed around the family of child prodigy Maria Olmstead, documenting her rise to fame and its subsequent painful backlash. But Bar-Lev’s film ended up becoming less a document of Olmstead’s life, and more about Bar-Lev’s own struggle to come to terms with the concept of truth…
Read MoreEditor's Note: Last week we were approached by a filmmaker who wanted to guest blog his Sundance experience on /Film. You might not know 42-year-old director Jake Scott yet, but you will. You definitely know his father Ridley, the filmmaker behind such films as Alien, Gladiator, and Blade Runner (Jake worked in the editing room…
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I wish there was a trailer I could share with you to show off Cane Toads: The Conquest. This 3D documentary, which premiered last night at Sundance, is director Mark Lewis' return to the subject of his film Cane Toads: An Unnatural History. I'm a sucker for oddball nature docs, and with the exception of…
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Here's a quick precis of what we told you so far, then a zinger of a punchline. Paramount offered the Paranormal Activity 2 directing gig to Saw 6 helmsman Kevin Greutert. As an underhand measure, Lionsgate have exercised their option on the director and obliged him to direct Saw 3D instead. The two films are…
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Disney have declared that we are in a season of Wonderland Wednesdays, an era of mid-week updates on the upcoming Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie. Each week the studio releasing a new video, some new text copy and a nice, tidy little pile of art work. Wrangling it all into a single post would…
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Every film festival should have at least one controversial film. The outcry so far this year is coming in response to Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of the Jim Thompson novel The Killer Inside Me, starring Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson. Comments so far peg the film as incredibly violent, perhaps on par with previous…
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Not a lot of cast announcements this week, as Sundance has a great deal of Hollywood on hold. But there's one big story and a handful of small ones to report. The big one is that Will Ferrell is reportedly going to star in a remake of I Do: How to Get Married and Stay…
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Last year we posted an awesome fan-made movie trailer for a big screen Green Lantern film, edited together using clips from a bunch of different movies, using composited computer generated imagery. If you haven't seen it before, click the link and watch it now. Editor Jason Pitts is back at it again, this time with…
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News that Brad Bird might direct his first live-action film started to bubble up three years ago. The movie is 1906, an account of the San Francisco earthquake as recounted in James Dalessandro’s novel of the same name. It's been quite some time since we heard anything at all about the film. Last update from…
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When Jon Spaihts was hired to write Ridley Scott's new Alien film, part of the backstory was that he'd landed the gig on the strength of his script Passengers, which landed on the 2007 Black List of best unproduced screenplays. Keanu Reeves has long been attached to the film, with his shingle Company Films trying…
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Making a coherent Avengers film that somehow bridges the styles of the other Marvel universe movies probably won't be an easy job for whoever gets the job. Fans of the comic series are fairly well prepared to see discordant arrangements of characters both crossover and team up, but for a mainstream crowd, the collage might…
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Earlier today I saw a screening of Joel Schumacher's Twelve, which stars Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, 50 Cent, Ellen Barkin and Rory Culkin. Twelve takes place in a similar world as Gossip Girl, focusing mostly on super rich upper east side New Yorkers. "A new drama chronicling of the highs and lows of privileged kids…
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It's worth remembering that the creation of concept art takes place specifically to explore a wide range of possibilities and to see which design routes will best suit the production, and as such, a piece of concept artwork does not necessarily represent the look of the film. Having said that, such images can sometimes reveal a…
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LucasFilm is refusing to comment on this one so far, but THR reports that an "untitled, top-secret CGI-animated" film with a musical bent is in the works over at Skywalker Ranch, with George Lucas producing. The plot is secret, but one element currently known (or thought to be known) is faeries. Hopefully that's more the…
Read More/Film reader "PWH" attended an early screening for the sports drama David O. Russell's The Fighter, and says the film will be an awards contender. The film tells the story of Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), a real life boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded after a run of drugs and crime. Shepherded his half-brother "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark…
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I never thought I'd be interested in a film about the founding of Facebook --- but when you have Aaron Sorkin writing the screenplay and David Fincher directing, how could I not be intrigued? Now we've learned that it's coming two weeks sooner. Originally scheduled for release on October 15, 2010, the studio has pushed…
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DivX and CinemaNow are giving away a free digital copy of Terminator Salvation. I'm sure the /Film readers will be quick to comment that "it's not worth that much", but a deal is a deal. All you have to do is click here, enter coupon code TS201023, and sign up for a CinemaNow account. You'll…
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This week the Sundance Film Festival held a surprise premiere of Exit Through the Gift Shop, the first film by the renowned graffiti artist Banksy. I had heard amazing things about the doc coming out of the public screening premiere, so I decided to check out the film today at a press screening. For those…
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Woot's T-Shirt of the Day is a funny Star Wars parody featuring Admiral Ackba playing with a finger trap. You guessed it, the t-shirt design is titled "It's A Trap!" Available for only $10 with free shipping. But buy now as it will only be available today (unless it gets voted one of the best…
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Lobo fans hoping for Guy Ritchie to bring his talents to the comic series' live action adaptation best look elsewhere. Coming off the incredibly successful Sherlock Holmes, it appears that Ritchie is now looking towards the next entry in the detective franchise instead. LAT's Hero Complex blog had a chat with producer Joel Silver who…
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As James Cameron's Avatar overtakes Titanic to become the biggest box office success of all time, winning Golden Globes and getting ready for a possible Oscar sweep, rumor has it that pre-production might be gearing up on a sequel to his 3D sci-fi epic. I have received word, from a source who has provided /Film…
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Not too long ago, word came that Dan Fogleman had sold a spec script to Warners and it was now being set up as a Steve Carell vehicle. The premise, Russ reported, was simple enough: Carell would be “a father whose life unravels while he deals with a marital crisis and tries to manage his…
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Based on the novel by Jim Thompson, The Killer Inside Me tells the story of Lou Ford, an unassuming sheriff who finds himself surrounded by growing pile of murder victims. The film was directed by Michael Winterbottom, a man whose films have spanned many genres (some of which defy categorization). I was excited to see…
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The scoop belongs to Latino Review but consolidation (to put it politely) comes from The Hollywood Reporter: Sam Worthington, genre movie man of the moment, is in talks for the lead role in Dracula: Year Zero. Alex Proyas' long brewing origin picture is set to mix the story of Vlad the Impaler with familiar vampire…
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Last week Devindra told us about a new initiative to democratise the Sundance experience just a little. In a pioneering move to undercut the elite access of Utah-bound schmoozers and carousers, 2009 and 2010 selections The Cove, One Too Many Mornings, Homewrecker, Children of Invention, and Bass Ackwards were each made available on YouTube for…
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On Monday, I attended a press screening of Lucky, a documentary film about a bunch of lottery winners "as they navigate their newly found riches and a couple of extremely determined hopefuls." Here is the official plot synopsis: "The winners’ lives are undoubtedly changed forever but not necessarily in the ways we may expect. Life…
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Looks like Gavin Hood isn't waiting around for Fox to sign him to direct Wolverine 2. Can't imagine he'd relish the job even if it was offered. Instead, he's looking to jump on a dog sled with Walden Media. The company is looking to adapt the book The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs…
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They say I have clown phobia, but phobias are irrational fears, so they're wrong. My fear is quite rational. Thanks to all the whiteface on display, watching the trailer for off-the-wall western Big Money Rustlas, the second Insane Clown Posse movie, was quite a thrill ride for me. Nothing quite as heart-jabbing as the big…
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With the price of 3D tickets playing no small part in the record-setting performance of Avatar, it's no surprise that other studios are jumping into the 3D tentpole business in a big way. What is a bit surprising is that some, like Warner Bros., are evidently jumping at the chance to convert films shot in…
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Derek Cianfrance's directorial debut Blue Valentine premiered yesterday at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as one of 16 films selected from 1,058 submissions for the dramatic competition. Written by Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis, the screenplay won the 2006 Chrysler Film Project contest, which came with $1 million of funding. The story is…
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The soundtrack to Iron Man 2 at least seems novel. According to a new press release, it's going to feature an awful lot of AC/DC and, presumably, not much else. Pre-orders are open today for the album AC/DC:Iron Man 2, set to shelf on April 19th, 9 days before the movie hits. Below the break…
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Last year the readers of Total Film Magazine voted us "the best Major Movie Blog" of 2009. Last month we told you that we were lucky again to be nominated by Total Film, this time for "Best News Blog". Thanks to you guys, we have again taken home the top prize: Best Movie News Blog…
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There's a surprising little story at Bloody Disgusting which reveals Warner Bros. are in early development of a new Mortal Kombat movie. They've already selected a writer in Oren Uziel, author of the Black List 2009 entry Shimmer Lake. That script was a twisty, suspenseful thriller that combined murder mystery with a bank heist plotline,…
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Over the course of the weekend, James Cameron's Avatar was on track to beat Titanic's record and become the top-grossing film of all time. The numbers have been verified, and Avatar's worldwide gross stands at over $1.292 billion dollars, which tops Titanic's $1.242 billion. The domestic record hasn't yet fallen -- by Sunday Avatar was…
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Of all the world's major film festivals, the Cannes Film Festival is the one where the makeup of the jury is quite notable each year. That's because the personality of the jury seems to have an effect on how awards are doled out. Quentin Tarantino's jury gave Oldboy the Grand Prix, and last year Isabelle…
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Having signed Samuel L. Jackson up for a many, many picture deal to reprise Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD across a whole range of tied-together movies, I can't see Marvel would fail to employ him in a single one. We've know for a while that he's definitely cropping up in Iron Man 2, and it…
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I loved the premise of The Perfect Host: a bank robber (Clayne Crawford) talks his way into the house of a well-to-do man named Warwick (David Hyde Pierce) by pretending to be the friend of a friend, only to find that Warwick is far more dangerous than he seems. So how was the film’s execution?…
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UPDATE: As one might expect, Kevin Greutert isn't happy about this move. Check out his response at the end of the article. This is a crazy development that, if true, sounds like stereotypical Hollywood business and absolutely terrible PR. A report has it that Lionsgate, irked by the fact that Paramount hired long-time Saw editor…
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Universal Studios Orlando have released the first official photo of Hogwarts Castle, the centerpiece of their upcoming new park section The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Click after the jump to see the complete uncropped photo. And click on that image to see it in super high resolution. Here is a press release from last…
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The more we see from Bong Joon-ho's (The Host, Memories of Murder) upcoming film Mother, the more I'm reminded of just how much of a tremendous talent he is. We ran an English-subtitled international trailer for the film over the summer, and now we have the first official domestic trailer. There's some footage that we…
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Amazon has discounted a bunch of Blu-ray movies, priced $6.99 to $11.99: Under $7: Heathers Immortal $8: 2001: A Space Odyssey Dark City (Director's Cut) The Aviator The Searchers Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Wyatt Earp A History of Violence The Perfect Storm Constantine $9-10: Sunshine Cleaning Creepshow Ocean's Eleven Under $12: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang…
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Who knew that reporting on an actor's change of agency could be reason to throw out bare tidbits of info about three upcoming films? In a report about Robert De Niro moving to CAA, Nikki Finke drops three little bombs about future projects for the actor. The biggest one is that he will feature in…
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Consider this photo like a letter from Paramount and Marvel saying, "yeah, we know that Sundance is dominating the movie biz right now, but hey, remember us?" Because, yes, that's a new photo from Iron Man 2, and yes, it's Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) driving his race car. Your guess is as good as…
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On the basis of this trailer it would seem that Alex Cox's Repo Chick is less a sequel to his well-aged cult fave Repo Man as it is a strange, post-modern collage that simply uses the Repo connection as one more reference point in a tangled constellation. It also seems to be an openly disagreeable…
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See a fresh red band clip from Pierre Morel's From Paris With Love after the break, courtesy of My Space. It gives us a pretty good idea of the particular 'types' John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers have been allocated. There's also a bit of swearing, some violence and a bit of business with a…
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Some of the most entertaining moments in the movie business come about when one overbearing personality gets a chance not just to be a total dick to another, but to be relatively justified in doing so. Harvey Weinstein is a master of these moments. When thinking about talking crap about the responsibilities of Mr. Weinstein,…
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Some of the films at this year's Sundance are obviously ones to pay attention to, but that doesn't make them any less interesting. Four Lions, the 'Jihadist comedy' that is also the directorial debut of Chris Morris (more of a name in the UK than in the States) has been one of the must-sees. It's…
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Overture are the film unit of Liberty Starz, itself a subsidiary of the Liberty Media Corp. This year they have Brooklyn's Finest and the horror remakes The Crazies and Let Me In already scheduled for release, with Stone and Jack Goes Boating sure to follow afterwards. Beyond that...? Question marks. It seems that the various…
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Throw what you want, it won't stick anyway - I'm really looking forward to M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender. It seems to me that he's got just the skills, story instincts and appropriate technical discipline to pull off a film of this type. Yahoo have unveiled two banners for the film, one showcasing the…
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Outside of Europe, Lars Von Trier got all the attention for Dogme 95, the film 'movement' that set down a set of naturalistic rules for directors. But the co-creator of Dogme 95 and director of the first film made under the resulting manifesto was Thomas Vinterberg. His film Festen (The Celebration) is a low-key tour…
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Say what you will about the Twilight films, but as they go along and prove to be financially successful, they're able to attract high-profile creative talent. If nothing else, I'm happy to see these films as paycheck gigs for people like Howard Shore, who is now the composer for Eclipse, directed by David Slade. Not…
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Want to see Russell Brand play the Easter Bunny? You won't be able to see him do so, exactly, but you'll hear his voice bringing the venerable Hallmark card company mainstay to life in I Hop. Described as "the world's worst houseguest," Brand's bunny is accidentally injured by an unemployed slacker played by James Marsden,…
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After the past six weeks, there's no surprise that Avatar is in the Monday box office news. Once again the film is making scads of cash, pushing past The Dark Knight's domestic total and closing in on Titanic's box office record. High 3D ticket prices help quite a bit, as Avatar is still way behind…
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AXN Brazil has released this awesome, highly-detailed promotional poster for the final season of LOST. Check out the full uncropped poster after the jump. Click on the image to enlarge. Image found via silost
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The first concept art for Brad Lewis and Pixar's upcoming Cars 2 has been unveiled. That's it above. Okay, I say concept art - it's probably, to be more specific, a panel from a colour script. Already we have a great feel for how thise scene is going to look, what kind of emotional texture…
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There are simple mashups, and there are mind-numbingly complicated ones. This is one of the latter. Youtube user pyram1dhead took it upon himself to recreate Lost's Ocean 815 crash in 24-style real time, complete with split screen. The result is a 10-minute long mashup that perfectly whets your appetite for Lost's return. There are quite…
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At the Sundance Film Festival official headquarters, they have a table filled with movie-related magazines and tradepapers, many of which you've never heard of. When I got back to the Blogger Condo tonight, a copy of MovieMaker Magazine was on the table with a note to look at their list of the 50 Best Blogs.…
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Jason Spingarn-Koff 's documentary Life 2.0 explores four different stories in the virtual online computer world of Second Life. After watching the doc at a Sundance press screening, I recorded a video blog review with Laremy Legel from Film.com, and Brandon Tenney from FirstShowing.net, which you can watch after the jump.
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Here we go again. Talk of a third Gremlins film (or potential remake) has come and gone over the past few years, and now MarketSaw is reporting news that will surely set off another round of speculation. According to their source, Gremlins 3 is currently in very early stages of development, and it's being created…
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It’s a crazy, mixed up world and we are thankful for movies, sans The Tooth Fairy, that offer proof. /Film’s Weekend Weirdness examines such flicks, whether in the form of a new trailer for a provocative indie, a mini review, or an interview. In this installment: the perverse and obscure '60s thriller, Who Killed Teddy…
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Taika Waititi's Boy is another film that I had high expectations for. Waititi's indie comedy Eagle vs. Shark (which featured a pre-Conchords Jemaine Clement) was one of my favorite films from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival (I was even quoted on the international DVD cover). That film had been criticized for being too quirky in…
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Last night I attended the premiere of what I'm calling The Duplass Brothers' experiment, better known as Cyrus. The film is a comedy about a recently divorced depressed guy who meets the woman of his dreams, who he learns lives with her 21 year old son. The film stars John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah…
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I first learned of Buried after the spec screenplay appeared on the Black List, a listing of the top unproduced screenplays of the year. Written by Chris Sparling, the film stars Ryan Reynolds as a U.S. contractor working in Iraq who wakes up to find that he has been buried alive inside a coffin. With…
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It’s a crazy, mixed up world and we are thankful for movies, sans The Tooth Fairy, that offer proof. /Film's Weekend Weirdness examines such flicks, whether in the form of a new trailer for a provocative indie, a mini review, or an interview... For all of the world's fireplaces used to stack skateboard videos and…
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Back in December, Hunter shared an excerpt from The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, a comedy pilot from the UK's Channel 4. Written by David Cross and Shaun Pye and starring Cross, Spike Jonze and Will Arnett, this was unusually heavy with Stateside talent for a British production. Hands across the Ocean, cousins. Contrary…
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I love meeting interesting new people. Thus, Sundance is rife with opportunities to make fascinating new acquaintances and friends. Most of these chance meetings take place on the buses that shuttle viewers from one theater to another. After the break, hear my interviews with Brina Pope (a visual effects artist from Star wars: The Phantom…
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If a male filmmaker desires to throw up grim truth and reality before the eyes of moviegoers and also swoon critics, many of whom subsist on darker themes, he will at some point consider making a film about war or prison. There are no greater immediate settings for tapping perennial sentiments of a mad world,…
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I was a huge fan of John Wells’ work in E.R. and The West Wing, so when I heard that he would making his film directorial debut at Sundance with The Company Men, I was pretty excited. Add to that an all-star cast featuring Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, and Rosemary DeWitt and…
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The first film I saw on Day 2 of the Sundance Film Festival was Nowhere Boy, the feature-film directorial debut of Sam Taylor Wood. Nowhere Boy depicts a brief portion of John Lennon’s life, as he struggles to define his relationships with his estranged mother and his domineering aunt. The film stars Aaron Johnson (who’ll…
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I've been trying to keep abreast of development on the possible Powers TV series for some time now. Okay, well, before February 2009, I thought I was keeping abreast of a possible Powers movie, but the interest has been there whatever the medium. If you don't know the original comics, here's the pitch: homicide detectives…
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In a fresh Variety story about the rebooted New Line, there's one heck of a Hobbit bombshell. Let's just go straight to it: [Warners top dog Alan] Horn won't predict when the first of the two Hobbit films will be out, but says the most probable scenario would be a release in the fourth quarter…
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Despite being under house arrest in Switzerland, Roman Polanski is planning to segue directly from completing The Ghost Writer to mounting a big screen version of God of Carnage. Yasmina Reza's black comedy won the best play gong at the Tony Awards last year. The show relates the heated arguments of two pairs of parents,…
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At Sundance, you never know who you'll bump into. While this can have unforeseen benefits, it can also have some unintended negative consequences. After the break, hear a brief audio blog I did with documentarian and Sundance juror Morgan Spurlock, as well as a video interview with the Safdie brothers, the directors of Daddy Longlegs.…
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Amazon has Wolfgang Petersen's Troy: The Director's Cut on Blu-ray on sale for only $9.99, 60% off the $25 retail price. Brad Pitt picks up a sword and brings a muscular, brooding presence to the role of Greek warrior Achilles in this spectacular retelling of The Iliad. Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger play the legendary…
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When I think "from the director of Remember the Titans" I don't think "supernatural action." But Boaz Yakin is developing Sympathy for the Devil, which just attached Josh Duhamel and Samuel L. Jackson to play partnered cops in Louisiana who are entangled in "a cosmic confrontation between Heaven and Hell." The synopsis, and news on…
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It's been a big week for Tron Legacy news. Director Joseph Kosinski went on the record about a number of different elements in the film, there was a new poster (pictured above, and available in high-res below) and a possible leak of some of Daft Punk's score. All this with nearly a year to go…
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Jason Reitman is this week's guest on ESPN's Bill Simmons podcast, The BS Report (mp3). Amidst all of the discussion of The Golden Globes, how Clooney got involved in Up in the Air, Reitman's second choice casting for the role of Ryan Bingham, and when the director is going to start work on his next…
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Despite the fact that I don't think anyone is much of a fan of the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes remake, Fox has slowly been developing another film in the same vein. Dubbed Caesar, the film was written by Scott Frank, and was only sort of a Planet of the Apes movie. The film…
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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…
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The first trailer for Mitchell Lichtenstein's follow-up to Teeth is finally here, and embedded below the break, ahead of a limited theatrical release on February 19th and a VOD due date six days later. Happy Tears appears to be a kind of The Savages-lite comedy about families, particular child-father relationships, and stars Parker Posey, Rip…
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It's all coming out now regarding the casting of John Landis' Burke and Hare, the comedic horror film about the UK's first acknowledged serial killers. Simon Pegg, the man who will be Burke, broke the news via Twitter that David Tennant is no longer going to play Hare, and that Andy Serkis will be coming…
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Spike Jonze's new half-hour short film titled I'm Here premiered tonight at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and /Film was at the Egyptian on Main Street for the screening. Funded by Absolut Vodka, I'm Here is a robot love story celebrating a life enriched by creativity. The movie is set in contemporary L.A., where life…
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We've been writing about Cyrus, the new film from the Duplass Brothers, for a while -- it was announced last year, shot quickly and is now at Sundance. And until about halfway through this trailer I'd completely forgotten that Jonah Hill was in the film. Then, when he shows up, after just a couple of…
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Hot Toys has announced they will be released a 1/6th scale Lt. Aldo Raine Collectible Figure from Quentin Tarainto's Inglourious Basterds. More information, and tons of photos, after the jump. [gallery order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"] Hot Toys - MMS118: Inglourious Basterds: 1/6th scale Lt. Aldo Raine Collectible Figure ~ Movie Masterpiece Series ~ Hot Toys is delighted…
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Earlier this month there was word, via a couple of European press reports, that Martin Scorsese's next feature might be an adaptation of the young-lit novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Now trade reports are confirming that Scorsese and producer Graham King (The Departed) are indeed looking to reunite to film a version of the…
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The opening night feature film of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival was Howl, a nonfiction drama described as a "movie about a poem." You might recall that we woke up at 6:30am and trenched in four feet of snow to try to score tickets to the premiere, and failed. We somehow got in... and in…
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Don't hurt me, I'm just the messenger. Yesterday, I wrote about Youtube considering rental options for independent films and other content, and now we have another free service looking to charge for content. The LA Times is reporting that Hulu is currently looking for new ways of making revenue, and chief among them is a…
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We reported back in June that Noah Wyle was cast as the lead in Spielberg's untitled alien invasion series for TNT, and now we finally have more information on the project. It still doesn't have a title, but we've learned a few new details --- including some additions to the cast. Moon Bloodgood (Terminator Salvation,…
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Recently we heard that Nu Image/Millennium and Lionsgate were looking at three actors as possible options to be the new Conan the Barbarian in the film to be directed by Marcus Nispel. There was Jason Momoa, from Stargate: Atlantis; Kellan Lutz from Twilight; and a third, then-unnamed actor who turned out to be Jared Padalecki.…
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You never know who you're going to bump into during Sundance. First I randomly had a run in with a /Film reader who was volunteering at the fest on the shuttle bus. Walking up main street, we walked by Colin Hanks, who has a role in the pot comedy HIGH School, which premieres at this…
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There were a couple of big questions raised by the first trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine. Not "how do these guys get back in time?" (Duh. They use a hot tub time machine.) More important stuff like: "is Clark Duke really meant to be the same age as John Cusack?" And does one of…
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I'm always curious to see what happens when a studio looks to prose sci-fi to establish a new film series. That's what Sony is doing by hiring screenwriter Trevor Sands to write a film based on The Electric Church, the first in a series of novels by Jeff Somers. The novels are near-future techno-thrillers, with…
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A couple months ago, when we heard that I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence was eying a movie based on the DC character Sgt. Rock, we noted that before he got to anything else he was likely to adapt Water for Elephants. Now we know that's exactly what he'll do. Scripted by Richard LaGravenese from…
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The end of this week is like a race to keep up with the flood of trailers and clips coming out of Sundance. On deck now is nine minutes of Sympathy for Delicious. It is the first film directed by actor Mark Ruffalo, written by and starring Christopher Thornton, who plays "a newly paralyzed DJ…
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British street artist Banksy has been creating attention-getting stenciled grafitti for years. Over the past decade, as his artistic profile has risen, Banksy's identity has remained almost totally secret. And yet, here he is with a film in the Sundance Film Festival. Exit Through the Gift Shop is...well, we're not yet sure exactly what it…
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We don't usually report of stuff like late night TV talk shows, but they're usually not as entertaining as the past two weeks have been. We've known that this week would likely be Conan O'Brien's last as host of The Tonight Show, and today details of his exit package from NBC were released. Indeed, Friday…
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Spike Jonze's new half-hour short film titled I'm Here will premiere tonight at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Jonze has launched an official website for the movie, which includes a streamable trailer. Funded by Absolut Vodka, I'm Here is a robot love story celebrating a life enriched by creativity. The movie is set in contemporary…
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Update: Simon Pegg has responded "I am NOT in Harry Potter but I am the new Q in James Bond. (FALSE)." So as expected, it is not true, and was just a joke by the Brit comic actor. I know this is extremely speculative (and yes, we're being very up front about that fact), but…
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We've featured a bunch of New Zealand-based artist Glenn Jones t-shirts in previous editions of Cool Stuff. His latest shirt, Lost & Found, is a parody for the television show LOST. Some guy called Desmond told me about a missing plane he once saw on the side of a milk carton. He disappeared, but I…
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Last month it was rumored that Warner Bros was considering converting Louis Leterrier's Clash of the Titans remake into a digital 3D release. Leterrier quickly debunked the rumor, claiming that they tried hard to convert the film to 3D but that the studio "just won't have time" to meet the announced theatrical release. But now…
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Fans of directing duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (the Crank films, Gamer) should be sure to check out their newly launched website at neveldinetaylor.com. Many director sites are just promotional tools, but Neveldine/Taylor have gone the extra mile and also offer up some treats for fans. They point to some Jonah Hex storyboards on…
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The nominations for the British Academy Film and Television Awards have been announced and Avatar, The Hurt Locker and An Education have run up the best totals. At eight nominations each it'd be an upset for any of those films to leave empty handed, which is just the kind of set-up that can add a…
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Nope, the Avatar news hasn't stopped yet. Yahoo recently put up a twenty-two minute featurette entitled "Creating the World of Avatar" which covers a varied assortment of behind-the-scenes info. Topics include casting, animation, and a look at Cameron's 3-D camera technology. The featurette seems to exist mainly to whet your appetite for the impending Avatar…
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We knew that video rentals were coming to YouTube at some point. Back in September, we reported that YouTube was chatting with movie studios about renting films. Now it seems they're going to dabble in renting some independent films before they move on to big studio fair. On their blog today, YouTube announced that they…
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We brought you the red-band trailer for the upcoming MacGruber film just a few days ago, and now the studio has released a safer green-band version to lure unsuspecting families into its R-rated den of sin. The film is an adaptation of the SNL sketches featuring Will Forte as the titular MacGuyver spoof. In addition…
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Back in August we told you that Frank Darabont, the writer/director of such films as The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Mist, was in final talks to write and direct a small screen adaptation of the Image Comics series The Walking Dead. Darabont pitched the concept to AMC and several other outlets, with…
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Peter Dinklage is reportedly in talks to take a role in Joe Lynch's horror/comedy/adventure The Knights of Badassdom. The film was produced and co-written (with Kevin Dreyfuss) by Matt Wall, producer of Dinklage's upcoming St. John of Las Vegas so there's clearly a relationship there and I can imagine anybody lucky enough to get Dinklage…
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According to the latest twitter actions of Production Weekly, it's been all change both behind and in front of the camera with action drama Protection. Luckily for us, they're both changes for the better with original director Simon West out in favour of B:13 Ultimatum's Patrick Alessandrin and Paul Walker traded in for Clive Owen…
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UPDATE: The Simon Pegg tweet from which the Andy Serkis info was 'sourced' has been deleted. Was this a case of announcing too soon and/or without authorization, or is something else in the works? Mark this one as 'uncertain' for now. Original article follows. Sad news if you were looking forward to seeign Dr. Who's…
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We were surprised and interested when word came down that Ryan Reynolds would be the star of what amounts to a one-man show in the movie Buried. As details came out -- Reynolds plays a civilian contractor trapped in a coffin with only a cell phone and a lighter -- the movie got more intriguing.…
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Tron Legacy is still almost a year away, but Disney is already trickling out a stream of images. Take the new landscape-style poster excerpted above which, like the billboard art we ran a while back, shows off the new lightcycle in great detail. This time, it's yellow! With the exception of the one still featuring…
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This isn't a Twilight trailer. If that's what you're hoping for, move along. Instead, this is the trailer for The Eclipse, a ghost story with a literary bent and a solid cast. Ciarán Hinds and Aidan Quinn duel throughout this trailer, focused as they are on the interest and affections of Iben Hjejle. Writing and…
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While there's still not an official online release of the Piranha 3D trailer, the latest version to pop up across the web at least takes us past the shaky-cam bootleg that was doing the rounds last week. You can see the new, stable version embedded after the break. The original Piranha was hardly the most…
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The Wolfman opens on February 12, but until then it seems like anything could happen with the film. For months the project has been beset by news and rumors of alternate cuts, different teams of editors, new effects, reshoots and the fact that Danny Elfman's score was junked in favor of music by Paul Haslinger.…
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Last May we heard that DreamWorks had picked up the rights to create an official biopic of Dr. Martin Luther King, with Steven Spielberg producing. At the time there was no other talent involved. Now, just a day or two late to make the announcement resonate perfectly with Monday's MLK holiday, the studio has announced…
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Just over a year ago it was announced that Ari Folman, director of the exceptional Waltz With Bashir, would next oversee an adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's story The Futurological Congress. The short story, which is only partially being used for the film, is about Ijon Tichy, a man "who is propelled into a world where…
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The Brontë family is coming back to movie screens in a big way. There's the new version of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, to be directed by Sin Nombre's Cary Fukunaga. And now a long in development revamp of Wuthering Heights, the only novel by Charlotte's sister Emily Brontë, has its own director. Andrea Arnold, currently…
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We've featured some of Dutch Southern's t-shirts in past editions of Cool Stuff. Their latest tee is called Shermer, IL and was designed by Evanimal. Film geeks will recognize the name of the town as the fictional suburban location of many of John Hughes' teen comedies. And you may have guessed it, the t-shirt design…
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Let's get this daftness out of the way first: The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is reporting that Quentin Tarantino wants to cast Helen Mirren as a foul-mouthed queen in a medieval-era project. Really, The Sun? What on earth inspired that story, I do not know. Not that I wouldn't…
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Walt Disney Pictures is ramping up promotion on Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland, and have announced they will be releasing new goodies every Wednesday leading up to the March 5th release. They're calling it "Wonderland Wednesdays." Disney has given us an exclusive look at a 4-phase progression of the Cheshire Cat. After the jump you'll…
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Once the word broke that 500 Days of Summer's Marc Webb has been officially inked to direct at least the next Spider-Man movie, if not indeed a whole trilogy, the trades hit with their takes on the story. Firstly, it seems we can discount all of the casting rumours so far pushed forth because "a…
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I'm certain that within the next week, as Sundance 2010 goes down in Park City, UT, at least a handful of new 'must-see' films will crop up for this year. In the meantime, one of the year's big films for me is from last year -- Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void. (Which actually gets a…
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Initially scheduled to hit cinemas this February was Disney's 3D rerelease of Beauty and the Beast. As the months went on and we heard nothing new, and there was definitely no trailer released or official announcements made, it began to seem like the film had just slipped off the sheet completely. A real shame, because…
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Variety's report that True Grit will be released on Christmas Day 2010 reveals two things. One - What I want for Christmas*. Two - that Paramount want to position the film for Oscar glory. Maybe their decision making was as simple as "Coens. Wide open spaces. Sounds like No Country For Old Men, bound to…
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Planning a break to South Korea's Gyeonggi Province in 2014? Fancy seeing an animatronic King Kong while you're there? You might just be in luck. Deadline Hollywood Daily are carrying some details of the Universal Studios Park and Resorts complex set to be built in Korea. We can expect it to contain "a state-of-the-art Universal…
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Now this news came out of nowhere. THR's Live Feed blog is reporting that Fox is developing a U.S. version of the British series Torchwood, which was a spinoff of the recent Dr. Who series. Russell T. Davies, who launched Torchwood and the revamped Dr. Who, is on-board to write the script. The rest of…
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Director D.J. Caruso has come a long way since his days of directing television shows like VR 5, Martial Law, and most notably, The Shield. His latest feature, Eagle Eye, was such a complete mess of a film (reviewed here on the /Filmcast) that it made me dread any potential project that he was attached…
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Edgar Wright's big screen adaptation of the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim vs. The World held a early test screening in Las Vegas tonight, and a few early reviews have hit the interwebs. Of course, it should be noted that these people did not see the finished version of the movie, but an early cut,…
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More than a year ago, we ran a story explaining why Cloverfield director Matt Reeves wanted to remake the beloved Swedish horror film, Let the Right One In. His personal take on the material led me to believe that perhaps Let Me In could actually end up being a worthwhile American take on the material.…
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A 42-year-old Taiwanese man died of a stroke, which his doctor claims was likely triggered by "over-excitement" from watching James Cameron's Avatar in 3D. According to News.com.au, the man began to feel sick during a screening earlier this month and was taken to hospital. Mr Kuo, who had a documented history of high blood pressure,…
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Update: It is official. Sony has released a statement, which is included after the jump. Last week it was reported that (500) Days of Summer helmer Marc Webb was at the top of the list of candidates to helm a Spider-Man reboot. Vulture now has breaking word that Webb is signed on to direct, not only…
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A few weeks ago, we reported on Netflix's plan to delay Warner Brothers new releases for twenty-eight days. While not exactly convenient for Netflix subscribers, the move was thought to put Netflix in a better position with the studio to receive more physical copies of films, and potentially get more streaming rights as well. Hacking…
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This is probably eighty-five percent off the cuff talk, but it's a slow news week, so here's a head-scratching laugh courtesy of Channing Tatum. When he was young, the actor spent a year as a male stripper, and says the experience gave him enough material to come up with a movie about a guy who…
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Variety isn't the only organization that can bury info in reports. Hawaii does it, too! Down at the end of the long press release trumpeting Hawaii as the filming location for Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is a minor nugget about Alexander Payne. The director is currently in pre-production on The Descendants, which will indeed…
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Jonathan Levine made a mark with All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (a solid film that still hasn't been given a proper release in the States) and then got a lot of people on his side with The Wackness. Earlier this month he signed on to direct the film formerly called I'm With Cancer, starring…
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Summit Entertainment has announced that they are teaming with E1 Entertainment to develop a television series based on the superhero movie Push. The pilot episode, which will be written by David Hayter, who penned Watchmen, The Scorpion King, X2 and X-Men, will be an "extension of the film", a science fiction thriller, centered on people…
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There have been rumors (sourced from where, exactly, I couldn't tell you) that MacGruber is a crazy, envelope-pushing action movie. The feature-length adaptation of Will Forte's Saturday Night Live sketches has a great cast (Forte, Kristen Wiig, Val Kilmer, Powers Boothe, Maya Rudolph) and now has a pretty effective red-band trailer to show off most…
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In The Hollywood Reporter's news break on Michael R. Perry being hired to script the second Paranormal Activity picture they also mentioned that his 2009 Black Listed script The Voices has been set up at Vertigo Entertainment with Doug Davison and Roy Lee producing. This picture certainly has an interesting premise: After Jerry Hickfang accidentally…
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Last year, we featured a beautiful zombie short film titled I Love Sarah Jane. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out right now. It was screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and many regional film festivals around the world. And aside from being awesome, it is notable for featuring Mia Wasikowska, who…
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Hawaii loves Disney. ABC (owned by Disney) has spent the past few years adding to the state's cachet as a travel destination by filming Lost there, there's a Disney resort opening next year and now Jerry Bruckheimer & Co. will bring Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides to Kaua'i and O'ahu this summer. That's…
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When Robert Downey Jr. took the stage at the Golden Globes this weekend, he was wearing a rather famous beard, recognizable and beloved to geeks worldwide. Yep - for some reason, he'd come looking just like Iron Man's alter ego, Tony Stark. And this wasn't a glue-on, this was something he'd cultivated over recent weeks…
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It bodes well for Alice in Wonderland that Disney are now reportedly lining up another revisionist re-take on one of their cartoon classics for Tim Burton to direct. Maleficent will be a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story that focuses on the Mistress of all Evil instead of that pretty somnambulist and her slightly creepy…
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Last we heard about a 3-D version of the Star Wars saga, George Lucas mentioned back in August 2008 that he had put LucasFilm to work on developing the technology to make it happen. At that point, he said that the technology worked great, but it wasn't very practical. Now we have word that Lucas…
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Given the explosive response the trailer for The A-Team has gotten, I think director Joe Carnahan will become quite the hot commodity after this summer. And according to Cinematical, we now know what he'd like to do after his first big blockbuster --- a survival drama entitled The Grey. The project comes from his own…
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With Paranormal Activity, the comparisons to The Blair Witch Project films just keep on coming. Like Blair Witch, 2009's Little Film That Could was made on a shoestring budget and cleverly marketed into mega-success. Now, Paramount has hired a writer and director for the film currently called Paranormal Activity 2. Just as when Artisan made…
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Bruce Campbell, in a letter to Quint, has announced that he will be re-teaming with Dark Horse Studios on a sequel to the low budget horror comedy My Name is Bruce. According to Campbell, the sequel will be titled Bruce Vs. Frankenstein, will begin principal photography this fall in Oregon. The sequel was originally said…
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Not long ago there was rumor that Tobey Maguire was high in the running for the pivotal role of Bilbo Baggins in the two Hobbit films. At the time that seemed absurd, given that he had a new Spider-Man film to worry about. Once Sony canned Spidey 4 and Maguire's job playing Peter Parker, it…
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The Onion News Network has a late breaking news report on The Final Season of LOST, which promises to make fans more annoying than ever before. The news segment even features exclusive comments from Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Watch the report now, after the jump.
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Clark Gregg has signed on to reprise his role as Agent Coulson from Iron Man in Kenneth Branagh's big screen adaptation of Marvel's Thor. For those of you who don't remember, Agent Coulson worked for a U.S. government agency called the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, which abbreviates to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headed up by…
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A while back, we took a look at some of the projects that Jason Reitman might direct following Up in The Air. One of the projects was a screenplay written by The Duplass Brothers -- Jay and Mark Duplass, who broke onto the scene as part of the indie mumblecore movement (The Puffy Chair, Baghead...etc). …
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I'm one of the biggest critics of Dreamworks Animated films, and a self confessed Pixar fanboy. Kung Fu Panda is the only movie released from Dreamworks Animation that I'm proud to own on my DVD shelf, and I've found most of their other productions to be filled with unfunny pop culture-infused jokes and uninspired designs/story.…
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The beautiful thing about film as a collaborative medium is that, no matter how much I might dislike any given movie, there is almost always some aspect of the creative process that is interesting. Take Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. In a video interview with Sound Re-Recording Mixer Greg Russell, Supervising Sound Editor Erik Aadahl…
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After last week's flurry of great big casting stories, we're going to start small today. Paul Dano will appear in For Ellen, from director So Young Kim, who last made In Between Days. Dano will be "a struggling indie rocker who, after nearly wrecking his car during an overnight long-distance drive, arrives in a small…
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Principal photography on the big screen adaptation of the DC Comics/Warren Ellis graphic novel Red has begun in Toronto. Summit Entertainment has issued a press release, which includes details on the full cast/crew. You can read the release after the jump. PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY UNDERWAY ON SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT’S “RED” January 12, 2010 --- Toronto, Canada –…
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In our coverage of last night's Golden Gobes award ceremony, Peter highlighted the fantastic montage of scenes from films by Martin Scorsese that was assembled to commemorate his reception of the Cecil B. DeMille award. Now we've got video of the montage, and of the director's acceptance speech, after the break. Leave it to Scorsese…
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It seems like comic book fans are extremely excited for the big screen adaptation of Green Lantern. First there was that awesome Green Lantern fan-cut trailer starring Nathan Fillion, and when ir was announced Ryan Reynolds would be playing the Green Lantern, Josh MC crafted a cool photoshop showing what he might look like in…
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Six weeks ago, we told you that Johnny Depp and his Arizona Dream director Emir Kusturica were negotiating a schedule to have Depp play Pancho Villa in Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman With Six Fingers. At the time the project was a hopeful one for the pair, because Depp's schedule is packed…
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CTU is now located in New York, Jack Bauer is a grandpa, and once again someone is plotting to assassinate an inspiring political figure. Tonight saw the launch of 24's eighth season, which continues several months after the events of the previous season. These first two episodes were mainly about setting up the new conflict…
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/Film reader Keaton M points me towards the first official production photo released from Christopher Nolan's Inception, which was found in the Los Angeles Times movie preview. Of course, with two trailers, we already have a ton of stills from the film (37 screencaptures can be seen here). The film's logline is “a contemporary sci-fi…
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After the jump you can find the entire list of winners from the 2010 Golden Globe Awards, along with a few brief thoughts from myself, which were recorded as the awards were announced. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below. Red Carpet Notes: There is nothing I hate more than the interviewers on the…
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It’s a crazy, mixed up world and we are thankful for movies, sans The Tooth Fairy, that offer proof. Weekend Weirdness examines such flicks, whether in the form of a new trailer for a provocative indie, a mini review, or this... Variations on the utterance, "I wish there was something to do," number in the…
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I haven't been keeping up with Saturday Night Live this season, but a flurry of SNL-related tweets last night piqued my interest. Actress Sigourney Weaver hosted last evening's show, which featured three separate Avatar-related sketches. James Cameron even stopped by to tout his next "game-changing" film, Laser Cats 5. Whether or not you think the…
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Lionsgate has released a new Kick-Ass theatrical poster on the film's official website (found via IMPA). The poster features all the main costumed characters: Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Red Mist, Chloe Moretz as Mindy Macready aka the vulgar and deadly 11-year-old assassin Hit-Girl and Aaron Johnson as Kick-Ass. Check out the…
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Fox has posted James Cameron's script for Avatar online to be read/studied/mocked as you please. The script is dated 2007, and from what I've read includes some Earth-based opening scenes that never made it to the film. It's a shame too, because those scenes actually serve to set up Jake Sully as a character fairly…
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Hollywood Video owner Movie Gallery has struck another blow against the continued viability of brick and mortar video rental stores. The struggling chain could be closing as many as 1,000 stores (out of the 2,700 stores in the U.S.) to help pay off $600 million in debt. That many of these large video rental chains…
Read MoreImages removed at request of Fox There's been a deluge of behind-the-scenes Predators images arrive online today, first surfacing at the AVP Galaxy Forum. I suppose they contain moderately serious spoiler material, so click on with due caution. I've put my selection below the break here, but there's even more on the forum. An eagle…
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In recent times, Adam Scott has sparkled in pop-culture for two masterful performances as manicured, modern cornholios in the Will Ferrell-endorsed comedies Step Brothers and Eastbound & Down. In the former, his character coached an obnoxious wife and kids in a caravan acapella of "Sweet Child of Mine," while faithfully rocking a Bluetooth headset. In…
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We don't really know much about Spike Jonze's next project, a short film titled I'm Here which is set to premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Funded by Absolut Vodka, the half-hour short film has been described as a "robot love story" and stars British actor Andrew Garfield (Boy A, The Imaginarium of Doctor…
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It seems like it was only earlier today that I was writing about George Miller and his Mad Max sequel... oh waitaminute, it was only... et cetera, et cetera. According to (!) Jay Baruchel, Teresa Palmer has the prize part of "main chick" in Mad Max 4: Fury Road - so, move over Charlize, at…
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Walt Disney Pictures has sent out a press release announcing to start of principal photography on Andrew Stanton's big screen adaptation of John Carter of Mars. The release has full details on the cast and crew, including a few new details which hadn't yet been reported in the trades: New cast members include: Ciaran Hinds…
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Casting news on Martin Campbell's The Green Lantern continues to crystallize. While we had heard a rumor awhile back that Jackie Earle Haley might be in talks to play Green Lantern's arch-nemesis, Sinestro, it now looks as though that isn't, nor was it ever, the case. MTV recently caught up with Campbell while during a…
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Now he's had his webby tights ripped off, what might be next for Tobey Maguire? The answer, according to Steven Zeitchik's synidcated article (see it at AZCentral, for example) might hinge on what kind of career Maguire is looking to mold. There's a big-budget franchise-friendly path, and there's a lower road of more 'dramatic' work,…
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When Netflix partnered with the Starz network in October 2008 the deal was a serious coup. Through the deal with Starz, Netflix got access to a large library of streaming movies, and did so without having to negotiate digital rights with individual studios. Some of the Starz content is represented by old, low-quality pan and…
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According to a new post on Yahoo Movies, James Cameron's Battle Angel is already in pre-production for a 2011 release: If the Avatar sequel does happen, it'll be a few years before audiences can lay their 3D-glasses-enhanced eyes on it. Cameron is currently in pre-production on his next movie, Battle Angel in which he'll use…
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Netflix recently released data to the New York Times showing the top rentals of 2009 by various zip codes. The paper plotted a set of the rentals on maps showing twelve American metro areas. Maps of each area are shaded to represent how frequently a film was rented in that area, and the results often…
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Entertainment Weekly is reporting that The Karate Kid remake starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan just held a research screening and earned the second highest test screening score in Sony history, just under 2005’s Hitch, which coincidentally starred Jaden's father Will Smith. Even with our well documented disdain for the project, we found the teaser…
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So the late night wars continue and on Thursday night Conan O'Brien dedicated a segment to putting The Tonight Show for sale on Craigslist. The ad is actually online, and can be found under the for sale/wanted > collectibles category in Los Angeles. Titled “4 SALE: BARELY-USED LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW,” Conan’s looking for the…
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Pretty much every time something crazy or divisive happens in the world of entertainment or on the world news stage, you can be sure that someone, somewhere will write new subtitles to the scene from Oliver Hirschbiegel's film Downfall in which Hitler realizes that he's lost the war. Until now, we haven't heard Hirschbeigel's take…
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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…
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Somewhere down in Australia, work is racing ahead on George Miller's Mad Max 4: Fury Road, even as I type. Not many details are becoming public knowledge, though we do know that Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron apparently have the lead roles and we've even seen some of the car-stars on video. While the film's…
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UPDATE: I'm told by the film's PR firm that the opening date is now March 26, and that "slight changes" have been made. No more specifics yet on the cuts. Original article follows. It's been quite a few months since we last saw any promo material for the Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor comedy/love story I Love…
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Last time we heard anything about Jonah Hill's update of the Fox TV show 21 Jump Street, it was that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were in talks to direct the film. Now Jonah Hill has confirmed their hire, and says that the film will likely shoot this…
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With the release of Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps set for April, its publicity game is just starting to ramp up. Fitting then that Vanity Fair, former mag-home of the late Dominick Dunne, has a new photo shoot for this sequel of modern greed and murder courtesy of flashy, money-strapped photog Annie…
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Toby Kebbell is one of the most fun young character actors working today. I'm always thrilled to see him added to a cast, even when the film in question has the unlikely logline "An angel under the thumb of a ruthless gangster is saved by a trumpet player down on his luck." In this case,…
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Update: Shock Till You Drop have now edited their post to give a locked-in release date of August 27th - or at least that's what TWC are contacting everybody to claim now. Any reference to the film not being in 3D has been removed but on the other hand, there's no confirmation either. It will…
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/Film reader Ken H alerted me that Shirt Woot's shirt of the Day is a Back to the Future parody. And anyone who has been following the site for a week or two should probably know, Back tot the Future is my favorite film of all time -- so yes, I have to feature it.…
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It's been a great year for Kathryn Bigelow; The Hurt Locker is one of the most critically-acclaimed films in a long time, and she's got a chance at being the first woman to take home the Best Director Oscar, even in the face of the juggernaut that is ex-husband James Cameron's Avatar. Hopefully this heat…
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Both Jenna Fischer, from the US version of The Office, and Ricky Gervais, star and co-creator of the UK original, seem to have new acting gigs lined up. Fischer's will be in a Farrelly Bros. comedy, while Gervais' is in... the US version of The Office? Hall Pass is an 'open relationship' comedy in which…
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It seems like a lot of people I know have gotten tired of Michael Cera's same-old-act, and the $7 million opening of his new film, Youth in Revolt, seems to suggest it might be more widespread than just a couple of my friends. High Definite has created an infographic showing the paint by numbers steps…
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Hot off of Quantum of Solace, Marc Forster is now set to direct The Chancellor Manuscript --- an adaptation of the Robert Ludlum thriller of the same name. The film is a potential starring vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio (who's also producing), and Peter O'Brien has been tasked with adapting the screenplay. The story concerns an…
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The movie trailer for the big screen adaptation of Namco's popular fighting video game Tekken is now online. Directed by Dwight H. Little, the guy responsible for crappy bargain bin titles such as Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid and Marked for Death, which starred Steven Seagal, and from a screenplay written by Alan…
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20th Century Fox has released six new production photo from Joe Carnahan's big screen feature film version of The A-Team featuring Liam Neeson as Col. John “Hannibal” Smith, Bradley Cooper as the playboy mercenary role of Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck, Sharlto Copley as Capt. 'Howling Mad' Murdock, and UFC champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as B.A.…
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There are a bunch of new posters this week, and easily the most striking of the bunch is the painted image for The Wolfman, created by legendary Famous Monsters of Filmland cover artist Basil Gogos. CHUD got the image as an exclusive; you can see part of it above, and click through for the full…
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Gizmodo discovered this very cool yet unofficial Iron Man MacBook Pro decal which moviemagicman is selling on Etsy. I love how the Apple logo glows through his chest, replacing the arc reactor that we're use to. Cool Stuff is a daily feature of slashfilm.com. Know of any geekarific creations or cool products which should be…
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I'm excited to see Boardwalk Empire. The new HBO series has a pilot directed by Martin Scorsese (who also serves as exec producer) and I can't wait to see what he's turned out from the relatively short shooting schedule offered a TV pilot. I love seeing good feature directors work within constraints they've long since…
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Marvel Entertainment has announced that Iron Man 2 will be released in IMAX theaters. Sadly, no footage was shot using IMAX cameras, so the entire film will be presented using the digitally remastered blow-up process (which I've never been a fan of). You can read the full press release after the jump. MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT AND…
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The last name touted as front runner for directorship of the new Spider-Man series was 500 Days of Summer's Marc Webb. Okay - there's that infamous Freakonomics theory that your name can shape your life, but maybe it seems this Webb might not stick. Another new name has been put forward, and this time it's…
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The other day when Peter Sarsgaard was cast as Hector Hammond, the primary villain in Green Lantern, a few evidently took this as implicit confirmation that classic Green Lantern baddie Sinestro is not in the film. That isn't the case, and HitFix has a great rundown on what role the eventually villainous Sinestro plays in…
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I remember getting chills after watching the trailer for Rian Johnson's Brick back in 2005, and watching this newly unearthed pre-Sundance trailer for the film is giving me similar vibes. Maybe it's the brilliant use of Ennio Morricone's "Paying off Scores", or the way the trailer is cut to a conversation between Brendan and Brain…
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What does The First Avenger: Captain America director Joe Johnston mean when he says of the film, "it's not going to be a Captain America that you expect. It's something different. It is influenced by the comic book, but it goes off in a completely different direction"? We know a few things about the film…
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Sean Stone's first IMDB credits as director are video featurettes documenting the making of his father's ill-fated epic Alexander. Subsequently, he directed the science fiction short Singularity, again collaborating with the old man- at least in the sense that it's a loose remake of a film Stone Sr. had made in his youth. The film…
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The third (and presumably last) trailer for Breck Eisner's The Crazies has hit, and this one is all about being short and sweet. We covered the first trailer back in October (which featured the Gary Jules cover of "Mad World"), and the second in December, which went a bit more in depth with the setup.…
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I guess Mark Wahlberg really enjoyed making 2005's Four Brothers, because THR is reporting that he has gotten the ball rolling on a sequel entitled Five Brothers. Wahlberg apparently developed the sequel idea with the first film's writers, David Elliot and Paul Lovett (who both also worked on G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra). He's…
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Hey, remember that new Conan movie? Marcus Nispel is directing, and it is meant to begin shooting in about two months. Funny, though...we haven't heard anything about who's playing Conan. Evidently the right actor isn't so easy to find, which is why production is currently slated for March after being bumped twice, first from August…
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When Pierre Morel was announced as director for the new version of Dune, Brendon wondered, "is it reasonable to assume we’re on for a rather ballistic version of the story?" Yesterday the director spoke about his love of the book, and it seemed like he was trying to be right on the same page as…
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Update: Disney has finally gotten back tyo us and say that the film will not be released as a "Pixar" branded film, but instead a "Walt Disney Picture". So basically, the trades messed up. When it was announced that Finding Nemo and WALL-E helmer Andrew Stanton would be directing a big screen live-action adaptation of…
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Amazon has Eastbound & Down: The Complete First Season on sale for only $12.99, 57% off the $30 retail price. Danny McBride stars in this HBO comedy series as Kenny Powers, a washed-up former Major League Baseball star who is forced to return to his hometown to teach P.E. at his old middle school. While…
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Earlier this week when Sony killed off Spider-Man 4 and announced the birth of, um...Spider-Man, I suppose, there was brief talk of directors that Sony might want for the job. Marc Webb was mentioned by EW, which seemed in part like a legacy choice from Amy Pascal's reworking of Steven Soderbergh's Moneyball. (Webb had been…
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Paramount Pictures has released the first five minutes of Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones online. I had a chance to see this film at the Butt-num-a-thon, and was actually quite shocked at how terrible it is. It's a complete mess with a few moments of brilliance. However, you won't notice this in the first five…
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A couple days ago it was revealed that Robert Downey Jr. dropped out of the big screen adaptation of the graphic novel Cowboys & Aliens, being directed by Iron Man director Jon Favreau. Collider has learned that Bond star Daniel Craig is in talks to joint the project, which has been in development for the…
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Boy-oh-boy is the trailer for Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer melodramatic. This is some seriously loud filmmaking. It's embedded beyond the break, but I suspect you can already feel it rumbling from up here. The film is an adaptation of Robert Harris' thriller novel about a British Prime Minister based quite closely upon Tony Blair,…
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I'll probably be waiting a long time to hear that Ken Loach or Joe Swanberg is looking into 3D for their next production, but it seems that stereography really has caught on with franchise-type pictures, genre films and so on. Over the last few weeks there's been explicit discussion of an 'Avatar effect', a redoubled…
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Wes Anderson accepted his special achievement award for Fantastic Mr. Fox from the National Board of Review in character - via a stop-motion animated vignette. Not one to make a mockery of things, Anderson then got up on stage to thank them in person. You can watch the video of the stop motion animated acceptance…
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Reports on Deadline Hollywood Daily are liquid, to say the least. One minute they might say one thing, the next... the complete opposite. As a result, I feel a little on-edge when I report on one of their stories but find curious inconsistencies popping up. The current headline is SOURCES: Halcyon Chooses Lionsgate As Stalking…
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With a bunch of films scheduled to start shooting later this month and into the dregs of winter, we're starting to get some new blasts of casting info. First up, Moon Bloodgood has a new role in Faster, the George Tillman Jr.-directed revenge drama starring Dwayne Johnson. She'll play Johnson's girlfriend; Johnson is "an ex-con…
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After the break lurks the first trailer for Ironclad, comprising un-polished footage from only the first 2 weeks of shooting and originating as a Cinematical exclusive. You can also see a BBC video report from the set that, while considerably less intense and graphic shows just as much mud and medieval might. Jonathan English's film…
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Kristen Bell's cosplay in Fanboys not quite enough for you? Then get set for a trip to LA club Bordello in March when they'll be reprising their successful Star Wars burlesque night. Below the break you can see some images from Saturday night's premiere performance. What a curious spectacle. I think that the snaps of…
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If you need any further proof that Netflix is just going to keep pushing the streaming 'Watch Instantly' service as a primary offering, look no further than the fact that all three major video game consoles will soon be able to deliver movies to Netflix subscribers. Within months, Nintendo Wii owners will be able to…
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Since the script for Ghostbusters 3 is currently being written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, writers of the Harold Ramis film Year One, there has been some speculation that Ramis could come on board to direct Ghostbusters 3. (Though the relative failure of Year One on both a creative and commercial level didn't add…
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Mark Millar's Nemesis is an upcoming comic series that, apparently, I shouldn't really describe with the phrase "What if Bruce Wayne was the Joker?" because the DC legal people really don't like it. That was Millar's great pitch in an interview back in December, and it immediately created a huge surge of interest in not…
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Overlapping slightly with everything from A Life Less Ordinary and Pushing Daisies to Stranger than Fiction and The Truman Show, Demetri Martin's screenplay Will made a few waves when it was recognized by the 2007 Black List. For a while it was set up at Dreamworks, whose interest eventually lapsed and it then set up…
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One of my favorite films is For All Mankind, the documentary edited from footage shot by Apollo astronauts and set to music by Brian Eno. I don't expect that Hubble 3D, the new IMAX-format film about the Hubble telescope and the astronauts who maintain it, will represent the same incredible marriage of image and music…
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Oh, good, here's a way to talk about Inception without really giving anything away. Unfortunately this is pure hype machine stuff, but for those of you who consider writer/director Christopher Nolan the best thing going this will just reinforce the idea that Inception could be the movie of the year. And after seeing that awesome…
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Retro Whale has created a series of art based on the favorite filmmakers of film geeks. She has created quirky little portraits of 20 great filmmakers, which you can purchase as art prints, magnets, or 4x4 clapboard coasters (which are wall mountable). [gallery order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"] The set includes: Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen,…
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Despite the fact that John Carpenter's The Thing is a remake of/sequel to/alternate take on The Thing From Another World, notions of remaking it get fans up in arms. With good reason. Carpenter's movie has a fantastic cast and some of the best practical latex effects seen in any film, period. It's tense and fun…
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Back in November, we reported that Jake Gyllenhaal will star in Duncan Jones' post-Moon feature, Source Code. Now THR's Heat Vision Blog is reporting that Vera Farmiga is in negotiations and Michelle Monaghan is set to to star in the film as well. THR describes the film as one which "centers on a soldier (Gyllenhaal)…
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The ongoing drama between Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, and their NBC overlords reached near-soap operatic levels today when Conan issued a public statement that he won't continue with the Tonight Show if NBC moved it to a 12:05am time slot. We've covered the background of this whole fiasco previously, and I consider that required reading…
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King of Kong director Seth Gordon is in talks to develop and direct Celeste and Jesse Forever, a divorce comedy with Rashida Jones (The Office) attached to star. Jones co-wrote the screenplay with television actor Will McCormack (The Sopranos, Dirt). The story follows a divorcing couple trying to maintain their friendship while they both pursue…
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A simple --- yet very effective --- teaser for David Simon's (The Wire, Generation Kill) new HBO series Treme has just popped online. Even at a mere fourty-seven seconds, it's already giving me goosebumps. Hunter has covered some statements from Simon about the series last month. Here's a primer: Treme is about a group of…
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A teaser trailer/musical montage/sizzle reel for John Wells' The Company Men has been discovered on vimeo (via this article on AICN). The film, which will screen at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Premieres category, tells the story of three men trying to survive a round of corporate downsizing at a major…
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Crank filmmakers Neveldine & Taylor have written a new spec screenplay which is being shopped to all the studios this week called Cash Money Dollars. The story is about an unlikely trio, a shady Los Angeles private detective, a kick-ass New York City female Secret Service agent, and African-American Texas Ranger, who team up to…
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It seems that Transformers 3 is set to start rolling in May. So soon! You'd imagine they'd have a finished script and would have made all of their necessary big decisions too, like whether or not to film in 3D? Yeah... maybe not. The news of the May shoot came from a small aside in…
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Stephen Norrington has been developing his new take on The Crow, but before he gets to that it seems like he'll first do another project that pushes all his 'geek buttons.' The film to break him out of director jail, where he's been chained to a wall since 2003's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, will…
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If you want to take a character like Green Lantern, who in the public eye is decidedly second-string, and make a giant Iron Man-sized success out of him, you've got to have a cast that can make the material sing. So far Warner Bros. is doing well by hiring Ryan Reynolds to play Hal Jordan…
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Buena Vista Records has announced they will release two albums for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, one is a 16-song compilation featuring the end credit track “Alice (Underground)” written by Avril Lavigne and produced by Butch Walker, and the other is Danny Elfman's original motion picture score. The compilation includes songs from Franz Ferdinand, The…
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Here's a brief update on Steven Soderbergh's upcoming spy/fight film Knockout, which has been the subject of several casting breaks over the past week. The latest (and last?) major cast member to sign on is Michael Angarano. Gina Carano plays an operative for a private military contractor who is betrayed by one of her teammates.…
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Antoine Fuqua is interesting proof that, with the right combination of ingredients, a director can really surprise you. Most of his catalog isn't particularly impressive (Bait, King Arthur, Shooter) but then there's Training Day. While we wait to see if Fuqua and his Training Day star Ethan Hawke can do a little alchemy again in…
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The latest, definitely NSFW trailer for Atom Egoyan's Chloe comes from France where they're reputedly a lot happier about nudity and 'sensuality' than in the US. You can see for yourself after the break. It will probably leave you with the impression that the French are quite happy about women kissing each other too. I…
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I'm not too enthusiastic about a Spider-Man reboot, but that's probably not fair. Maybe somebody else can come along and make a film as good as, if not even better than, Spider-Man 2. Maybe. For me, though, immediate focus is shifting from the Spider-Man franchise to whatever else Sam Raimi decides to do next. We've…
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The 3D and motion capture work in Avatar may be the biggest cinematic talking points going right now but don't forget about Robert Zemeckis. He's been in the mocap and 3D trenches, and is moving forward with a remake of the animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine. The film will use mocap and CGI to recreate…
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The remix artist Pogo continues to mess with sound and image, the better to make you shake your ass. (Even if you're just sitting at a desk.) Last time Pogo did some wonderful work with Pixar's Up to produce the bouncy Upular. Now he's remixing sound and video from Terminator 2 to create Skynet Symphonic.…
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It's been some time since Tom Hanks has been in the feature film director's chair, but according to Mike Fleming over at Deadline Hollywood (are they on a roll today, or what?), Hanks is set to direct and star in Larry Crowne --- alongside Charlie Wilson's War co-star Julia Roberts. Hanks wrote the screenplay, and…
Read MoreI love me some James Gunn, so it warms my geek heart to see that he's assembling quite the cast for his post-Slither feature film follow-up Super. The film stars Rainn Wilson as Frank, a man who transforms himself into a superhero named Crimson Bolt --- despite having no real powers --- after his addict…
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Easily the biggest news to hit in recent weeks was the word that Sony has scrapped production on Spider-Man 4 and will reboot the character with a new film (and, presumably, an ensuing series) featuring a new cast and creative team. A general 2012 date has been mentioned, but no specific date has yet been…
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He may have been instrumental in getting director Jon Favreau hired on the project, but Robert Downey, Jr., long attached to the high-concept tentpole Cowboys & Aliens, will no longer star in the film. The issue at hand is one of workload. Between the Iron Man and potential Sherlock Holmes franchises, Downey has a considerable…
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WHOA. As I mentioned earlier, Nikki Finke just recruited Variety's chief newshound Mike Fleming, and now the new duo are coming out of the gate with a massive story. Their first big report is that Sony is scrapping Spider-Man 4 after script and schedule concerns caused Sam Raimi to walk away from the film. The…
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I've got to say, perhaps the best thing about Summit's relentless commitment to making Twilight films is that the whole process is going to rush us towards an adaptation of the utterly crazy finale Breaking Dawn in record time. That means two things. One, we'll get to see the utterly crazy Breaking Dawn on screen,…
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We're just about done with the guild nominations now that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has dropped its list of nominations for outstanding achievement in writing for the screen. While the list mostly conforms to expectations, there are a couple of surprises. Not least among them is that James Cameron has been given a…
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Showtime is going to make Neil Jordan's dreams come true. The filmmaker has toyed with projects involving the history of Renaissance family the Borgias for some time, and now Showtime has ordered a series for which Jordan will be executive producer. The Borgias will star Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia, and Jordan will direct the…
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We've known for a while that Jonah Hex would be going back in front of cameras for reshoots this month. In this case, 'additional shooting' may be a more appropriate term, as the point seems to be adding new material in addition to 'fixing' a few scenes shot last year. Once the reshoot news arrived,…
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The biggest industry story this morning is about the fact that Variety lost its best news reporter, Mike Fleming, to Nikki Finke's Deadline/Hollywood. At Variety, Fleming dug up a lot of interesting news, some of which became proper headline material, and some of which didn't. One of the bits that wasn't is buried down at…
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Old masters never die; they're just endlessly recycled. There haven't been many notable script sales yet this year, but two that went down recently are both being positioned as reflective of the Master of Suspense. Since it's highly unlikely that a film coming out of any Hollywood studio at this point would have the pace…
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Last week when the fantastic slate of name actors was announced for Steven Soderbergh's spy/action film Knockout, we were teased with the info that one more name was yet to be revealed. Now we've got that name, and I'm guessing it's not one that most of you are going to be quite as interested in.…
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Spider-Man 4 has been beset by rumor and delay of late, most of which seems to center around the villain for the piece. Director Sam Raimi reportedly hated the last script draft, and wants to hinge the film on classic bad guy the Vulture. Sony has been said to want any other character as the…
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For years now, we've been reporting on the potential film adaptation of the Konami game series Metal Gear Solid. Last year, we reported that Equilibrium director Kurt Wimmer was talking with the studio about adapting the game, and there were also rumors about Paul Thomas Anderson directing as well (we think they really meant Paul…
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The big news today involves some last minute casting changes for Kenneth Branagh's Thor. Stuart Townsend, who was cast as Fandral, has left the film over "creative differences". In his stead will be Joshua Dallas, a young actor with not much of a profile. Dallas has previously been cast in the sequel to the UK…
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We've talked before about people being discourteous at movie theaters, but this is a whole order of magnitude more severe: Last night, a woman was shot while watching Avatar at the Century Rio 24 theater complex in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The woman was not fatally injured. It's unclear as to whether the gunfire was accidental…
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It’s a crazy, mixed up world and we are thankful for movies, sans The Tooth Fairy, that offer proof. Weekend Weirdness c**ks its disoriented head to examine such flicks, whether it’s a new trailer for a provocative indie, an interview, or a mini review. In this installment: a look at the new DVD Know Your…
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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…
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The search for an actor to play Green Lantern famously came down to a few big names: Ryan Reynolds, who got the job, as well as Justin Timberlake and Bradley Cooper. Trades are now saying that the hunt for a leading lady has been down to a few names as well, which is exactly as…
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Earlier this week, we reported on possible production delays for Spider-Man 4 which pushed the film off of its May 5th, 2011 release date, and to a potential July date instead. That Thor was also scheduled for that May 5th weekend probably also made that date less than ideal. Now we have some details from…
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A high-quality version of the A-Team trailer has finally hit the internet. Hit the jump for the trailer. Let us know what you think in the comments. Things I like about this trailer: Sharlto Copley, showing his face in an American blockbuster and proving he has even more range than just Wikus Van De Merwe.…
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We covered the first three-minute long trailer for the Chow Yun Fat-starring Confucius back in September, and now we have yet another glimpse at the historical epic. There have been several small trailers released since then, so I'm just going to go ahead and call this trailer number two. This trailer has the benefit of…
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ComingSoon is reporting that J.J. Abrams' still untitled Star Trek sequel is now tentatively set for a June 29, 2012 release. The news comes directly from Paramount, and will likely disappoint those hoping for a quick turnaround 2011 date. As the Friday right before July 4th weekend, it's a very strong date, and possibly a…
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I knew nothing about Red Riding until the trio of films played Telluride last year. They generated quite a response, to the point where Columbia snapped up remake rights for Steve Zaillian and Ridley Scott to work on. Meanwhile, IFC is distributing the original films in the US, and the idea of being able to…
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Late last night we ran info about the rumor that Matt Bellamy from the band Muse would be doing supplemental music for the Louis Leterrier remake of Clash of the Titans. Quotes from Bellamy suggested that it wasn't happening. Thanks to an interview Leterrier did today with MTV, we know for certain that Bellamy is…
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It's been slow on the casting front since late December, when Hollywood pretty much shut down for the holidays. Now that everyone is back to work things are picking up slowly. Christina Ricci has joined the cast of Bel Ami, which already stars Robert Pattinson and Uma Thurman. Based on Guy de Maupassant's short story…
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Why did the hardcore/metal band Converge print up a shirt featuring Robocop? I have no idea, but I bought it the moment I saw it. The band's most recent record, Axe to Fall, has been topping year-end lists aimed at fans of extreme music, and seemingly as if to celebrate they released a bunch of…
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We've seen a teaser trailer and a violent red-band trailer for Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass, based on Mark Millar's comic of the same name, but not a proper story-oriented full-length one. Now we've got that, too, and it's pretty fantastic. This new trailer uses some of the same footage as the clips we've seen before, but…
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Here's to a school of dagger-propelled, orange barracuda siccing any listmeister who jumped the gun and failed to consider A Town Called Panic for his or her top ten films of 2009. Undeniably the most entertaining and energetic movie of that now-caput year, I found myself funstruck from film's start to its fireworks-laden finish; ATCP is also 2009's…
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While in Japan to promote Avatar, James Cameron visited Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who until his death this week was the only man to have been officially recognized as a survivor of the bombs dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While visiting Yamaguchi, Cameron pledged to "pass on his rare and harrowing experience to future generations." Because…
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Ask and ye shall receive. Just a couple of hours ago I wrote about the US release date for Roman Polanski's new film The Ghost Writer, starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan. Given that Summit set February 19 as the date, I assumed that we'd see a trailer any day now. In fact, there's one…
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The last we reported on the Ghost Rider sequel nobody wants, David Goyer had mentioned that the studio was using his 9-year old script as the basis. Our good friend Frosty over at Collider recently got a chance to speak with producer Mike De Luca about the sequel, and came away with a number of…
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In the past twenty-four hours a few stories have broken that were either debunked, shown to be partially wrong, or are a bit optimistic. Brendon quickly jumped on top of Universal's denial of alternate cuts of The Wolfman, but here are a couple other items to be critical of. Yesterday, there was news that Taylor…
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As Roman Polanski has been under house arrest in Switzerland, his new film The Ghost Writer is in the final stages of completion and has been picked up for distribution in the United States by Summit Entertainment. Today the company said it would give the film a limited release on February 19, with expansion plans…
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I like Jay Baruchel. Not based on any deep assessment of his work, but more on the fact that I suspect he's more versatile than his more routine roles make him appear. He's got a bit of an edge, and while he's twitchy, he's also earnest in a way that I can appreciate. Sadly, the…
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Adriana Barraza, who was nominated for an Oscar for her supporting performance in 2006's Babel, is in talks to join the cast of Marvel Studios' Thor. Heat Vision doesn't have much information, only that she will be playing one of the human characters on Earth. After the jump, we have a look at the announced…
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On The Jay Leno Show tonight, Jay Leno made a few jokes, mostly at NBC's expense, in response to rumors that the network would be canceling his talk show after a bout of low ratings. While I'm not normally a fan of Leno, as I believe he's too much of a kiss ass and the…
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Gentle Giant's Boba Fett with Han Solo in Carbonite Statue won't be available until May 2010, but sites like Entertainment Earth have already begun taking pre-orders.More photos after the jump. The Bounty Hunter's Prize! Han Solo frozen in Carbonite and floating along side his captor, Boba Fett. The Bounty Hunter is flanked by two accompanying…
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Update: IESB is now reporting the Paramount Pictures has hired Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to pen a sequel to GI Joe: Rise of Cobra. Reese and Wernick recently signed on to pen Deadpool for Fox/Marvel, and might be the perfect scribes to invent some over the top stupid action for a GI…
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When Steven Soderbergh announced that he would direct a spy/action film starring MMA fighter Gina Carano written by his The Limey screenwriter Lem Dobbs, the reaction was positive. Now that the name supporting cast is being revealed, I'm curious to hear what people have to say. Personally, each news item has elevated my interest. There…
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Yesterday we posted the first official photos from Edgar Wright's big screen adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Due to the demand, I've decided to release the super duper high resolution version of the photo, the 2336 pixels x 3504 pixels 5mb digital still.Download it now, perfect for your computer desktop background, after the…
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Playwright/screenwriter Peter Morgan and actor Michael Sheen have teamed for two films featuring former British Prime Minister Tony Blair: The Deal and The Queen. Their third project together is The Special Relationship, which chronicles the working relationship between Blair and Bill Clinton in the late '90s. The photo above is the first look at Dennis…
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Universal Pictures has released nine new photos from the computer animated film Despicable Me. Check them out, after the jump. [gallery order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"] Release date: July 9, 2010 Cast: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, Danny McBride, Miranda Cosgrove, Jack McBrayer, Mindy Kaling, Jemaine Clement and Julie Andrews Directed by:…
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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced on Thursday that it will begin to release 3D movies on Blu-ray Disc worldwide for the first time, beginning this summer with the computer animated release Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. And I'm not talking about the paper red and blue glasses that you might have gotten with some…
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Willem Dafoe is out on the publicity rounds for Daybreakers, and fielding questions from i09 about Andrew Stanton's John Carter of Mars in which he'll be playing Tars Tarkas, a ten foot tall martian warrior. There's some things he would talk about - "I saw [Stanton] recently because we start in London, for studio stuff.…
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The last big bellwether for Oscar nominations is the nomination set for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film from the Directors Guild of America. The DGA nominations are the best indicator of what films and directors will be on the shortlist for the Best Director Oscar. Before the Best Picture Oscar field was widened to…
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The last time George Romero's Dawn of the Dead went out for a reworking, pretty much the entire blogosphere shared my skepticism. Luckily, once Zack Snyder's remake finally came out, most of us were satisfied that while he hadn't ousted the original from it's Best Zombie Movie Ever pedestal, he'd actually served up a film…
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Some people probably saw this coming when Joe Wright signed on to direct, but I have to admit that I didn't. Atonement's Saoirse Ronan is now in negotiations to take the title role in Wright's upcoming action-thriller Hanna. The film is a kind of Nikita-meets-Leon, Kick-Ass-meets-Bourne mash-up about a 14 year old girl who has…
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There wasn't any doubt that Warner Bros.' Green Lantern would be going forward, but the film now has an official greenlight, says visual effects supervisor Karen Goulekas. "Green Lantern got the official green light today," Goulekas announced on her blog. "And not a second too soon - only 10 weeks out from shooting!" While plenty…
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What's a hairline fracture when the entertainment of millions is at stake? Action movies are meant to look like boiling cauldrons of testosterone, but they're not always quite like that behind the scenes. Sylvester Stallone claims that his film The Expendables was the real deal through and through, to the point where he's now got…
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Neill Blomkamp is one of the more interesting new directors working today. His made-for-nothing tentpole-style District 9 has brought him heaps of attention, and no few offers from studios who want his name attached to their big films. But he seems totally disinterested in going the full Hollywood route. He has another film lined up…
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Amazon has a bunch of Blu-ray movies on sale for under $10: $9.99: 28 Days Later Any Given Sunday Batman Begins Cast Away Dark City (Director's Cut) Super Troopers The Descent The Devil Wears Prada V For Vendetta $9.49: The Omen The Pink Panther (1963)
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While we may have dodged a bullet with Spielberg's Oldboy remake, it looks like another film in the Vengeance Trilogy has gotten a visit from the remake fairy. We've learned that Warner Brothers has purchased the rights to Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the first film in the trilogy. They've already tasked writing duties to one…
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Last year, the readers of Total Film Magazine voted us "the best Major Movie Blog" of 2009. We're lucky again to be nominated by Total Film, this time for "Best News Blog". Total Film says that /Film is "a blog so infuential its founder Peter Sciretta was named one of our Most Influential People In…
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Tonight, James Cameron's Avatar will become the #2 highest grossing movie of all time, and in just 20 days of release. The sci-fi 3d film will have overtaken The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King, which has a worldwide total of $1,119,110,941. Of course, Cameron has a ways to go, about $725 million,…
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' visual effects branch announced a list of seven films on the short list for the Visual Effects Oscar. The list includes: Avatar District 9 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Star Trek Terminator Salvation Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 2012 The list will be narrowed down to…
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It seems like just yesterday that industry sources confirmed that script problems would probably keep Spider-Man 4 from hitting the announced 2011 release date. Oh wait, it was just yesterday... Box Office Mojo is now reporting that Marvel's Thor has moved from the planned May 20th 2011 date to Spider-Man 4's May 5th 2011 slot.…
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Universal Pictures has released their 2010 movie preview, which included this first official photo from Jorma Taccone's big screen adaptation of the Saturday Night Live sketch MacGruber, starring Will Forte, Ryan Phillippe, Kristen Wiig, Val Kilmer, Powers Boothe and Maya Rudolph. You will find three photos after the jump, click on each one to enlarge.…
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Universal Pictures has released their 2010 movie preview, which included this first official photo from David Gordon Green's Your Highness, starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel. Check out the full photo after the jump, click to enlarge. Starring: Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux, Toby Jones Director:…
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Universal Pictures has released their 2010 movie preview which includes the first two official production photos from Edgar Wright's big screen adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The photo above appears to feature Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim, wielding a red Flaming Katana (George Lucas is gonna sue somebody...) in a futuristic nightclub, as…
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Disney has released the first official photo of Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and Warner Bros has released a high resolution version of the Entertainment Weekly preview photo for Kevin Smith's Cop Out the we previously featured on the site in low res. Both photos can be viewed…
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Production Weekly is reporting that James Franco has been cast as the lead in Danny Boyle's (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) next film project, 127 Hours, a story of Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who amputated his own arm to free himself after being trapped by a boulder for nearly five days. The industry…
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Google have decided to call their new cellphone the Nexus One which suggests it's a full five... er... Nexuses not as good as those naughty Replicants that gave Rick Deckard such trouble in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, filmed as Blade Runner. This comparison has not been lost on the estate of author Philip…
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Update: Sad news. Tsutomi Yamaguchi has died. A tragic reminder of how important Cameron's promise to honour the victims of this tragic moment in history actually is. Here's the Guardian's report. After years and years of slaving away over Avatar - though most definitely, I think we're agreed, not in vain - what is James…
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Final Destination just hit DVD, and bundled on the disc is a short behind the scenes preview of the upcoming remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, from Platinum Dunes. The clip shows off some new footage, including the creation of Freddy Krueger's knives, and has a few quick interview clips with Jackie Earle Haley,…
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Break out the champers because the short answer appears to be yes. But why the confusion? The story starts on December 28th, when Spanish home video site Zona DVD ran an Iberian equivalent of an April Fools joke and unveiled a spoof trade ad for Blu-ray releases of the Back to the Future trilogy. "5…
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The slumping DVD business has caused a lot of consternation at film studios, which rely on DVD revenue to buoy profit margins. Now Warner Bros. has restructured the deal under which Netflix offers the studio's discs to subscribers. Starting this month, Netflix will wait 28 days after the release of new Warner Bros. DVD titles…
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Overture Films has announced a release date for Matt Reeves' Let Me In, the American adaptation of Let the Right One In. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on October 1st, 2010. Currently shooting in New Mexico, the film directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) stars Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road), Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass) and Oscar®…
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If I were putting together a 'most anticipated films of 2010' list one of the highest-ranked entries would be The Tree of Life, the new Terrence Malick generational family drama that has been simmering in an edit bay for months. Once positioned as a possible release late last year, the film wasn't finished in time,…
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I mentioned Hall Pass in brief yesterday while talking about Sean Penn's reported return to the cast of the Farrelly Brothers take on The Three Stooges. At the time all we had were a few basic details: Owen Wilson is starring the film, which the Farrellys will shoot in Atlanta next month. (With Atlanta standing…
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[Update: Universal has contacted us to confirm that there are no two competing cuts of Wolfman. According to the film's producer, "The movie's been done for a while. We finished the cut, and obviously we are now mixing and scoring and putting in our final effects right now, but the movie's been finished. The concept…
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Hot Toys will be releasing a 1/6th scale T800 collectible figure from the Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The T800 figure is specially crafted based on the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie, "highlighting the newly sculpted muscular body and detailed head." The figure is expected to be released in April/May 2010. More information and…
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Seems premature to be giving Taylor Lautner multi-million paydays based only on New Moon, doesn't it? The film did amazingly well, and he became an instant heartthrob, but how much of that was Lautner and how much was just Twilight? Impossible to tell until he's in a non-Twilight film or two. Which is why he's…
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The sell-off situation with MGM right now seems to be the eye of a film news storm, all sorts of other business swirling around it, crashing and smashing and, sometimes, just whizzing by perfectly intact like that darn cow from Twister. Just last night we found out that Bond 23 is being fast-tracked, despite earlier…
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After delays forestalled the original opening date, Avatar opened in China on Monday and quickly took in about 33.03m yuan (USD$4.8m) to become the biggest-ever film open in the country's history. The previous record holder opened just this past December. Zhang Yimou's A Simple Noodle Story (the director's loose remake of Blood Simple) took in…
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South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced this morning that it will host the official premiere of Matthew Vaughn's big screen adaptation of Mark Millar's comic Kick-Ass. Of course, a rough cut of the film secretly sneak previewed in December as part of Butt-num-a-thon. I was there and can tell you -- believe…
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Brad Bird's The Incredibles has long had many political meanings read into it. Perhaps most controversial is how well the film lines up with Ayn Rand's objectivist movement. It's also quite popular with politically conservative types as well --- the National Review named it number two on their list of the top 25 conservative movies.…
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My favourite YouTube upload of the last week or so is at once a basic guide to Halloween-ready Na'vi makeup - and let's face facts, there's going to be a strong tang of Avatar to All Hallow's Eve come October, not to mention every possible cosplay outlet from here until the end of time/until the…
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Oh how coincidental. I recently purchased the soundtrack for Michael Mann's The Insider, and not long after we learned about his upcoming HBO series with Deadwood and John from Cincinatti creator David Milch. The series is entitled Luck, and THR describes it as "a provocative look at the world of horse racing and gambling told…
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Last month is was rumored that Zombieland screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were writing the script for the big screen comic book adaptation of Deadpool. The Hollywood Trades tonight confirm CHUD's report, adding that Ryan Reynolds will indeed reprise his role as the wisecracking mercenary he portrayed in last year's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. 20th…
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Twilight and Up in the Air star Anna Kendrick has been cast and Wackness director Jonathan Levine has signed to helm the very tentatively titled I'm With Cancer, an autobiographical story based on the experiences of Will Reiser, a producer on HBO's Da Ali G Show and VH1's Best Week Ever. Kendrick joins Seth Rogen…
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Advertising Age (via Comingsoon) has released a list of advertisers for Super Bowl XLIV and we've learned that Paramount will be buying ads for Iron Man 2, Shutter Island, and The Last Airbender. If you want to know when you should stay near your TV, the three ads will air during the first and second…
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Ron Howard will direct Vince Vaughn in an untitled dramedy written by Allan Loeb (21, Things We Lost in the Fire), about a "man who learns that his best friend's wife is cheating and must then navigate treacherous waters to decide what do with that knowledge." Vaughn came up with the idea with Imagine topper…
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Independent films usually screen at the Sundance Film Festival in hopes of gaining positive buzz and snapping up distribution. The process can be long, and some sales don't happen until after the close of the festival. Some films picked up at the fest don't arrive in theaters until sometimes two years later. The distributors of…
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Steven Soderbergh is a freakin' machine. Just when it seems like he's sick of the whole filmmaking game, he knocks out a little film right under everyone's nose. Last month Soderberg directed a play called Tot Mom for Cate Blanchett's theatre company in Sydney. Based on his own script, the play cast local actors in…
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Last month, IESB reported a rumor claiming that Spider-Man 4 had been put on hold due to disputes over an incomplete script. According to the report, director Sam Raimi was at odds with the studio over who the big villain of the fourth film should be (Raimi is fighting for Vulture), and that several department…
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Well we certainly didn't see this one coming. Just yesterday, we reported that Bond 23 was put on hold due to MGM's many troubles. I figured that we wouldn't be hearing much else about the movie for some time, but now we've learned that Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Away We Go) is is negotiations to…
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One of the things I really love about my film festival trips is that I get to discover some great small indie gems to share with you guys. Films that probably wouldn't otherwise get exposure on a mainstream film blog like /Film. The film which most fits that bill from 2009's Telluride Film Festival is…
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We've known for a while that Jon Favreau would likely follow Iron Man 2 with Cowboys and Aliens, which has been in development at DreamWorks for quite some time. Robert Downey, Jr. will star in the film, which jumps off from the idea that warring cowboys and natives might put aside their differences when beset…
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Universal Pictures has announced that three-time Grammy Award winner Pharrell Williams will write original music for Despicable Me. This marks the first time Pharrell has composed music for a film. Oscar winner Hans Zimmer and Heitor Pereira are writing the film's score. This shouldn't come as a huge surprise as the catchy song at the…
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ABC has released their yearly "everything you need to know about Lost" recap. And this one covers everything up until the first frames of Lost: Season Six, or what is commonly known as The Final Season. Watch the video now after the jump.
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The Farrelly Brothers have been developing their new take on The Three Stooges for a long time, and last year seemed to finally have an impressive cast locked down. Before things went haywire, the lineup was Jim Carrey as Curly, Sean Penn as Larry and Benicio del Toro as Moe. Then Penn's marital trouble put…
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And here you thought Martin Scorsese was finally going to get his Sinatra biopic off the ground. Almost three years ago there was word that Warner Bros. had optioned the childrens book The Invention of Hugo Cabret for John Logan to adapt and Scorsese to direct. Now a pair of European news reports suggest that…
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Discovery Communications will partner with Sony and IMAX to launch a cable channel that will be the first dedicated 3D TV network, airing 3D content 24/7. A press release announcing the new joint venture explains: The new 3D network will feature high-quality premium content from genres that are most appealing in 3D, including natural history,…
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We've written briefly before about Killing Bono, a film based on the book by Neil McCormick. The author was a schoolmate of Bono's, and had his own band struggling in the shadow of U2 in megaband's early days. Directed by Nick Hamm, the film stars Ben Barnes as McCormick and Krysten Ritter in a tale…
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I wasn't a huge fan of Michel Gondry's Be Kind, Rewind, but I loved the film's take on "sweded" videos, which had amateur filmmakers and actors recreating iconic scenes from beloved films. My absolute favorite one had to be the Terminator 2: Low Budgment Day video, but Gondry actually created a hilarious sweded version of…
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Reuters is reporting that for the first time since 2002, consumers in the United States spent more to see movies theatrically than purchasing films on Blu-ray and DVD. According to the figures from Adams Media Research, U.S. consumers spent an estimated $8.73 billion for movies on DVDs and Blu-Ray, a drop of 13 percent from…
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Those of you itching for a more detailed look at Joe Carnahan's new A-Team movie need not wait too much longer: According to a report by a movie theater projectionist over at AICN, the trailer should be out for public consumption this upcoming weekend. The same projectionist also provided a pretty good description of the…
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One of the last two serious barometers for the potential Oscar race is the nomination list for the Best Picture award, aka the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures, bestowed by the Producers Guild of America. Ten films are nominated this year, and the shortlist is actually a bit…
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Last Supper-inspired art is beginning to become a tradition for the final seasons of serialized television series. First The Sopranos did it, then Battlestar Galatica, which is probably the most famous. The latest Last Supper-inspired final season art comes for the tv series LOST. After the jump you can see the two new Last Supper…
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Following up on the earlier news about Pierre Morel (District B13, Taken) directing Dune, we now have the second trailer for his next feature, From Paris with Love. The film stars John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and concerns a young embassy worker who teams up with an unruly FBI agent to stop a terrorist…
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Going a bit against the grain when it comes to piracy discussions, Reid Rosefelt over at the Speedcine blog makes an interesting case why Wolverine's unprecedented leak may have actually helped the film. Rosefelt compares the film's $85 million opening weekend gross against other major release openings throughout 2009, and shows that it actually doesn't…
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We've known for some time that Edgar Wright's upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. the World adaptation would be based on all of the Bryan Lee O'Malley graphic novels (the sixth, and final book, is due out this year), but we've yet to hear if that meant there was absolutely no possibility of sequels. In a recent…
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Did you know that James Cameron's Avatar is just Disney's Pochontas in disguise? Of course, this isn't very surprising. If you know anything about screenwriting or storytelling, than you know about Joseph Campbell's Heroes Journey, the mythic structure that has been utilized in many many Hollywood films. You might remember that popular video from College…
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It is pop sulture week over at Teefury (which may explain why you'll be seeing a bunch of their t-shirts featured on the site). Today's T-shirt is designed by Monkey X. Shawarma Initiative is a LOST-parody. Shawarma is a middle Eastern sandwich-like wrap containing of shaved lamb, goat, chicken, turkey, beef, or a halal mixture…
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It seems that Peter Berg's replacement as the director of the new Dune movie has been found and it isn't Neil Marshall. According to Entertainment Weekly, action specialist Pierre Morel, director of Taken, Banlieue 13 and the upcoming From Paris With Love has come on board. That's a real step up in my book. They…
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Okay, first of all, let me warn you: If you haven't yet seen Jason Reitman's Up in the Air: 1. Why haven't you? It's in theaters everywhere... go now! 2. You might not want to read the following story as it contains some spoilers for the film. (the headline is not a spoiler, trust me)…
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Author Stephen King has published his annual listing of the top 10 films of the year. This year King agreed with the mainstream critics in naming The Hurt Locker as the best film of the year, but the rest of his list is the opposite of conventional. His list for 2009 is bound to spawn…
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In much the same way that House of the Devil was an underground sensation in 2009, I expect that the Belgian film Amer will be one of the arthouse talking points of 2010. Like House of the Devil, Amer has a stylish throwback poster and revels in a bygone filmmaking style. This time, the style…
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Filmmaker Kevin Smith has decided to shut down QuickStopEntertainment.com*, formerly MoviePoopshoot.com, and move his popular weekly podcast series with Scott Mosier to its own website -- Smodcast.com. If you've never listened to an episode of Smodcast, I would highly recommend you do. In fact, right now you should go to Apple iTunes and subscribe to...…
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Longtime /Film stalwarts might have already noticed, but the amount of comments on the site is quickly reaching critical mass. On the one hand, it's amazing that the site is growing so quickly, and bringing some fantastic conversations along with it. On the other hand, we can't possibly comb through the wealth of comments to…
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Kenneth Branagh’s big screen adaptation of Marvel Comics' Thor is scheduled to begin filming later this month, and we can't wait to see what this film will look like. Marvel Entertainment President Kevin Feige gives us a mini-preview, sharing his reaction to a recent costume screentest in a Marvel.com retrospective: “To be honest the thing…
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Years ago, I remember using a little site called Flixter that let users rate movies, and thinking to myself that it would likely never take off. I mean, Internet Movie Database (IMDb) had a much larger sample of users to draw from, and it didn't seem like Flixter would ever be able to catch up.…
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For Netflix users, there are a few very good third-party app solutions available to access the service via the iPhone. (PocketFlicks and iPhlix come to mind.) Now Blockbuster has released an official app for the iPhone and iTouch, which offers solid access to the company's rental options. With this app you can quickly see new…
Read MoreNO PHOTOS Life Magazine has a fun photoslideshow showing the cast of Avatar on their worldwide publicity tour. Check out the full spread of over 30 photos on Life.com. Thanks to Alex from FirstShowing for the tip.
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Of all the US film critic organizations, the National Society of Film Critics is the one that is most likely to break from the pack when it comes time to hand out year-end awards. While the group gave out last year's Best Picture nod to Waltz With Bashir, this year the collective was a bit…
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Though nothing now could live up to the excitement of seeing Fantasia on it's original release, when it was a real big event with allocated seating, a dress code, programme booklets and the first ever stereophonic sound in cinema, I'm still getting pretty sparky over the film's imminent Blu-ray edition. Coming to Disney's Diamond Edition…
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If I've heard one author answer the question "Where do you get your ideas from?" with a shrug and a pained face, then I've heard one hundred. Faring somewhat better, however, are the screenwriters talking to The LA Times about the origins of some famous and beloved movie quotes. The paper has compiled anecdotal genesis…
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While a sequel to The Goonies might not be happening (or is it?), director Richard Donner has been trying to turn the property into a Broadway Musical.Who knows if that will ever happen, but we might have a preview of what a Goonies musical might sound like. /Film reader Rob Dean has been writing songs…
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The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly features an all new photo from Kevin Smith's Cop Out. Sharp-eyed readers may recognize Tracey Morgan's costume in the pic from our first look at the film back in June. The Playlist is also reporting that Smith's next feature, the hockey film Hit Somebody, may start filming sometime in…
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Amazon is selling Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines on Blu-ray for only $7.49. Shipping is free for orders over $25, or with Amazon Prime membership (they are currently offering a 3-month free trial). Thanks to /Film reader Mike R for the tip.
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An English-language remake of Juan Antonio Bayona's fantastic horror film The Orphanage has been in the works since that film's release two years ago. At first, we reported that producer Guillermo del Toro had chosen Wendigo director Larry Fessenden to helm the project, but those plans fell apart a few months after they were announced.…
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Albert Pyun's (Kickboxer 2 & 4) notoriously horrible Captain America is now up on Hulu. The film stars Matt Salinger as Steve Rogers/Captain America, who must save the President from his arch-nemesis Red Skull. We recommend watching with friends and beer for optimum enjoyment. I'd say we've learned a thing or two about comic book…
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And here I thought that I have been watching the Inception trailers a bit too much. Filmmaker Jerome G. Villarin has watched the trailers so much that he took it upon himself to re-edit the footage into something that makes more sense. He also proceeds to speculate on the plot, characters, and their motivations. Needless…
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As you probably know by now, Disney is set to finally release Pixar's Toy Story and Toy Story 2 on Blu-ray on March 23rd 2010. Disney has since released a trailer promoting the release, which can be watched after the jump. And for those who want to pre-order, Amazon is offering both Toy Story and…
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Teefury's T-shirt of the day is designed by Raz. Spock, Paper, Scissors is inspired by the geek version of the famous game Rock, Paper, Scissors -- Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock, made popular in the mainstream by The Big Bang Theory (embedded after the jump_. The bad news is that the t-shirt is only being…
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One of the most significant pieces of anime to come out of the '70s was the Space Battleship Yamato series, broadcast in the States as Star Blazers. The US broadcast paved the way for animated series that existed as connected story arcs, and the original three seasons spawned a set of animated films in Japan. …
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Batman and Super Mario aren't the only icons to have their own POW! Apparently an acronym for Purveyors of Wonder, Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment are an output for "new characters and franchises" created by The Man in recent years. At the same time as locking up their acquisition of Marvel this past Thursday, the Disney…
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Amazon's Gold Box Deal of the day is Northern Exposure: Complete Series Collection on DVD for only $75.99, 62% off the $200 suggested retail price. Remember -- with all of the Gold Box Deals of the Day, the price will only be good until Sunday morning.
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Teefuy t-shirt of the day is designed by Sergio37. GandALF is a mash-up of Alf and the wizard Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings series. The bad news is that the t-shirt is only being sold for 24 hours, today (Saturday, January 2nd 2010) only. The good news is that the t-shirt is only…
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Habib Azar directed his first episode of As The World Turns at age 22, and has since directed over 100 episodes of the drama series, winning him a daytime emmy, as well as helming a handfull of plays and composing the music for a couple of operas. His feature directorial debut Armless will premiere at…
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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…
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While there's very little new material in the new Toy Story 3 featurette Drawn to Animation, what little there is has premium fan value. Finally, we're given our first look at Mr. Pricklepants, the pretentious thespian stuffed-toy Hedgehog who seems set to be one of the major additions to the cast. Of course, we still…
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Update: THR's NBC sources are denying the claim, but TMZ has been on top of the good intel on the late night fiasco over the past weeks -- so for right now, we don't know who to believe. TMZ is now reporting that NBC has signed Jay Leno to a new contract that will give…
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[Update: And it's official. Leno will move back to 11:35 p.m. when the Winter Olympics are over at the end of February. Conan's fate is still in flux.] The LATimes has an interesting piece today chronicling the rise and fall of TV executive Jeff Zucker. Just over half a year ago, Zucker's decision to move…
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Director Vincenzo Natali won plaudits for his low-budget 1997 film, Cube, in which he demonstrated an ability to create a moody, atmospheric thriller. This year, his sci-fi film Splice screened at Sundance. Having won some acclaim already at Sitges 2009, Splice was one of my most anticipated movies of the fest. Hit the jump to…
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The Tobolowsky Files is a new podcast from the people who brought you the /Filmcast, featuring a series of stories about life, love, and the entertainment industry, as told by legendary character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. In this episode, Stephen explains what it's like to audition and work on commercials, and tells stories from the set…
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When news of J.D. Salinger's death spread this week, I know that somewhere in Hollywood a producer was rubbing his hands together at the idea of finally being able to make a movie version of Catcher in the Rye. Many attempted to cajole the rights away from the famously reclusive author, but he was never…
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Coming to you weekly from my vantage point in good old Blighty, it’s Slashfilm UK. Anglos and Anglophiles rejoice as every Friday I’ll be bringing you a round up of news, links and coverage specific to the motion picture comings and goings here in the UK. Sometimes we’ll be talking about films that have already…
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Just over a week ago word leaked out that Teresa Palmer might be in George Miller's upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road. That wasn't a huge surprise, as Miller had cast Palmer as Talia Ghul in his aborted Justice League movie. Now we've got confirmation that Palmer is in fact part of the Mad Max cast,…
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The /Filmcast: After Dark is a recording of what happens right after The /Filmcast is over, when the kids have gone to bed and the guys feel free to speak whatever is on their minds. In other words, it’s the leftover and disorganized ramblings, mindfarts, and brain diarrhea from The /Filmcast, all in one convenient…
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Today on Dave's random Sundance encounters: I talk with the director of Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, about why she chose Joan Rivers as a documentary subject. I also bumped into /Film fan and Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers about why /Film ruins the moviegoing experience. Here's director Ricki Stern, whose film about Joan…
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In 2008, I discovered a wonderful short film titled I Love Sarah Jane by commercial and music video director Spencer Susser. I loved it so much, I even featured it on /Film (you can watch it here -- and if you haven't yet, you really need to). The short was a very different kind of…
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The Tobolowsky Files is a new podcast from the people who brought you the /Filmcast, featuring a series of stories about life, love, and the entertainment industry, as told by legendary character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. In this episode, Stephen tells sordid tales from the politics of academia. You can always e-mail Stephen at stephentobolowsky(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or…
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Coming to you weekly from my vantage point in good old Blighty, it’s Slashfilm UK. Anglos and Anglophiles rejoice as every Friday I’ll be bringing you a round up of news, links and coverage specific to the motion picture comings and goings here in the UK. Sometimes we’ll be talking about films that have already…
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In this week's episode of the /Filmcast, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, and Adam Quigley offer up a few reflections on the Golden Globes, try to hold out hope for Marc Webb's upcoming version of Spiderman, and praise The Book of Eli as a decent, post-apocalyptic, B-movie fun. Special guest Katey Rich joins us from Cinemablend.…
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A warning to all actors: be very specific (if you can) when talking about potential projects. Over the weekend a few sites did the LA junket for Edge of Darkness, and one of the first questions to star Mel Gibson was, naturally, about his potential involvement in George Miller's new Mad Max movie. When Gibson…
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The /Filmcast: After Dark is a recording of what happens right after The /Filmcast is over, when the kids have gone to bed and the guys feel free to speak whatever is on their minds. In other words, it’s the leftover and disorganized ramblings, mindfarts, and brain diarrhea from The /Filmcast, all in one convenient…
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The Tobolowsky Files is a new podcast from the people who brought you the /Filmcast, featuring a series of stories about life, love, and the entertainment industry, as told by legendary character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. In this episode, Stephen tells stories from the sets of Single White Female, Thelma And Louise, National Security, and David…
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Coming to you weekly from my vantage point in good old Blighty, it’s Slashfilm UK. Anglos and Anglophiles rejoice as every Friday I’ll be bringing you a round up of news, links and coverage specific to the motion picture comings and goings here in the UK. Sometimes we’ll be talking about films that have already…
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Movies have talent come and go all the time, but most of the movement happens way behind the scenes, often before a film is ever announced. Once the existence of a project is trumpeted to people outside of development, it's pretty much set. A name might come or go, but there won't be a huge…
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In this week's episode of the /Filmcast, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, and Adam Quigley ring in the new year with thoughts on Total Recall, Land of the Lost, and Youth In Revolt. Also, some thoughts on Sam Mendes doing Bond, Spidey IV being scrapped, and the classic Casablanca. Special guest writer/director Rian Johnson joins us…
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The /Filmcast Interview is a series of conversations with actors, directors, and other key figures from the entertainment industry. In this episode, David Chen speaks with writer Rebecca Keegan about the struggles and triumphs of James Cameron, the future of 3-D, and the success of Avatar. Rebecca Keegan's newest book, The Futurist: The Life and…
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The /Filmcast Interview is a series of conversations with actors, directors, and other key figures from the entertainment industry. In this episode, David Chen speaks with Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper about the challenges of being a first-time director, how he achieved the film's amazing sound design, and Jeff Bridges' remarkable physical transformation. Crazy Heart…
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The Tobolowsky Files is a new podcast from the people who brought you the /Filmcast, featuring a series of stories about life, love, and the entertainment industry, as told by legendary character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. In this episode, Stephen explains the joys and the perils of the chaos-driven life. You can always e-mail Stephen at…
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George Lucas was interviewed last night by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, where he addressed the fans who take the Star Wars films too seriously and the haters of the prequels. Watch the seven minute interview after the jump.
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The /Filmcast crew is off this week, but in its place we have a special bonus episode! Dave Chen, Devindra Hardawar, and Adam Quigley chat with Tyler and David from the Battleship Pretension podcast about what you lose/gain in a home theater experience, the potential of Glee, guilty pleasures, and quality film transfers. Plus, your…
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The Avatar stories just won't stop. But to kick off this collection of tidbits about your favorite billion-dollar baby, here's a great little morsel kicked off by criticism of the fact that Sigourney Weaver's character smokes in the film. The director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education sees Weaver's character Grace as…
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What do our movies say about us and the world that we live in? As 2009 has come to an end and 2010 is already upon us, a myriad of "Best of the decade" lists have been unleashed, many of them in the realm of film. Whether or not I agree with their choices, I…
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Coming to you weekly from my vantage point in good old Blighty, it’s Slashfilm UK. Anglos and Anglophiles rejoice as every Friday I’ll be bringing you a round up of news, links and coverage specific to the motion picture comings and goings here in the UK. Well, except for this Friday because hardlty anything has…
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