The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.
In this edition, watch as visual effects artists react to more scenes from Lord of the Rings, including the Battle of Helm’s Deep and the Balrog fighting Gandalf. Plus, an SAS soldier reviews the accuracy of military scenes in movies like Commando and American Sniper, and the cast of the new Star Wars trilogy reveals which questions they never want to answer again. Read More »
Dave and Devindra aren’t fans of Quentin Tarantino’s legal actions, discuss what e-mail filters to set up in the event of an internet mob attack, picture what Speed would look like inside a concert hall, and try to get excited about the next M. Night Shyamalan movie. Amy Nicholson joins us from LA Weekly and the Voice Film Club. Be sure to read why Philip Seymour Hoffman is us and read the sad story of Lindsey Stone.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Also, like us on Facebook!
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Posted on Friday, January 3rd, 2014 by Angie Han
Following SAG and the PGA, the Writers Guild of America has just unveiled its list of nominees for the 2014 nominees. For anyone who’s been watching the awards race, the list won’t contain many surprises. The WGA likes American Hustle and Dallas Buyers Club just as much as everyone else does. Additionally, several of the most notable absences can be chalked up to disqualifications. 12 Years a Slave, considered a favorite for the Best Picture Oscar, was deemed ineligible, as was Golden Globe nominee Philomena.
One that did qualify but failed to secure a nomination nonetheless was the Coens’ Inside Llewyn Davis, which similarly struck out with both SAG and the PGA. And one unexpected outcome was a nomination for Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor, which hasn’t come up in too many awards seasons conversations as of yet.
Hit the jump to read the full list.
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Posted on Monday, December 23rd, 2013 by Angie Han
If you’re both 1) desperate for some distraction from the holiday hubbub and 2) eager to get a leg up on the rest of your office for the annual Oscar pool, here’s a way to kill two birds with one stone.
Over thirty screenplays for some of 2013’s top films have just been made available, legally and for free, through the studios. Highlights include John Ridley‘s 12 Years a Slave, Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy‘s Before Midnight, Terence Winter‘s The Wolf of Wall Street, and many more.
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Normally, the director has 100% final say on a film set. He’s the man. However, that was not the case on the set of Lone Survivor. Director Peter Berg and producer/star Mark Wahlberg were so committed to realism on the set, they hired several Navy SEALs as advisors and told them they could stop filming or call B.S. on anything, at any time.
The film tells the harrowing true story of four Navy SEALS on a mission in Afghanistan who are posed with an impossible decision with unthinkable ramifications. Wahlberg stars as Marcus Luttrell, the real life SEAL who wrote a book about the experience, and he was among the SEALs on set with this unusual filmmaking power. Luttrell, along with Wahlberg and Berg, spoke about this at a recent screening of the film at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, presented by Film Independent. Read the quotes below. Read More »
Here’s the second full trailer for the true war story Lone Survivor, which is based on the book by Navy SEAL Marcus Littrell, who was part of a small group of SEALs that found itself ambushed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Peter Berg directs stars Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster & Eric Bana. Check it out below. Read More »
Peter Berg‘s new film, Lone Survivor, is heading towards theaters with a bit more subdued promotional push than is typical for the director’s last few films. But the first trailer was compelling, as it shows men in the Navy SEAL team who targeted an al Qaeda subject in Afghanistan, and was overwhelmed by an unexpected Taliban force.
Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Ali Suliman, Alexander Ludwig, and Eric Bana all feature in the film, and you’ll see them in some new footage in this featurette. There’s also some explanation from Berg about the mission on which the film is based. In fact, the source for the movie is the book Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell, who was (as the title suggests) the one survivor of the operation. He speaks up here, too, hoping that this feature will get his story out to a bigger audience than ever. Read More »
Director Peter Berg‘s last movie was Universal’s gigantic Battleship. By comparison, his new movie, Lone Survivor, is really sneaking up on us. The first trailer for the film was released relatively quietly today, and it shows Mark Wahlberg in the role of a Navy SEAL on a mission to take out a Taliban figure. It’s a true story, based on the book Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, by Marcus Luttrell. The actual tale has gone down as a dramatic moment in recent military history, and this trailer suggests that Berg is taking it very seriously.
Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, Emile Hirsch and Eric Bana are also part of the story, but as the title suggests, things don’t go super-well for some of them. Oh, and as soon as the trailer really kicks into gear it plays out to the tune of Peter Gabriel mournfully covering David Bowie’s “Heroes.” Check out the trailer below. Read More »
In the wake of this weekend’s successful opening of the ‘real Navy SEALs’ movie Act of Valor, expect to see other similar movies go into action. While we wait to hear that Kathryn Bigelow is actually rolling on her movie about the SEAL Team 6 hunt for Osama Bin Laden, we’ve got word of another Naval special-ops adventure.
Over the past couple years Universal has developed Lone Survivor, based on the memoir of the same name by Marcus Luttrell. The author was one member of a SEAL team ambushed in Afghanistan, and the book tells of the team’s struggle to survive.
Peter Berg has been part of the project since the beginning, and now it looks like Berg will direct the film this fall as his follow-up to Battleship. He’s got Mark Wahlberg in talks to play Marcus Luttrell, and Ben Foster in talks to join Taylor Kitsch as other men on Luttrell’s team. Read More »
Cool Posts From Around the Web:
Director Peter Berg first cast Taylor Kitsch on (the best drama on network television) Friday Night Lights. He then anointed him with leading man status for Battleship, the 2012 mega budget alien invasion board game blockbuster. Their next film, however, makes both of those roles feel insignificant with its potential historical importance.
Berg, the director of Hancock, Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom has just cast Kitsch to star in Lone Survivor, the true story of a heroic SEAL Team who was on a mission to kill a terrorist leader but got ambushed by 250 Al-Qaeda soldiers. Berg had been developing the film before committing to Battleship and wasn’t sure he’d ever get it made. That all changed when SEAL Team 6 killed Osama Bin Laden and now he’s lined the film up as his next project. Read More »
