Posted on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 by David Chen
This week, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, Russ Fischer, and Adam Quigley discuss some of the best films at Sundance 2011, react to this year’s Academy Award nominations, and deconstruct Kevin Smith’s controversial remarks at the Sundance Red State screening.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us for our next live broadcast on Sunday, February 6 at Slashfilm’s live page at 10 PM EST / 7 PM PST, where we’ll be reviewing Dogtooth.
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The Rite is based on Matt Baglio‘s nonfiction book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, but the film, directed by Mikael Hafstrom and starring Anthony Hopkins, Colin O’Donoghue, Alice Braga, Ciaran Hinds, and Toby Jones, looks like it has taken a few liberties with the text. I hope not too many, because the idea of a young seminary student (O’Donoghue) learning a thing or two about exorcism from an odd older priest (Hopkins) has some promise.
We’ve seen one trailer already; now there’s a second, which gives up a bit more story and a few more thrills. Read More »
A bunch of new movie posters have hit the web over the last 12 hours, including new one-sheets for Greg Mottola‘s sci-fi comedy Paul starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, and Bill Hader, The Mechanic remake starring Jason Statham, Ben Foster, and Donald Sutherland, the computer animated feature Gnomeo and Juliet, the horror/thriller The Rite starring Anthony Hopkins, the Ron Howard-directed comedy The Dilemma starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. Hit the jump to see the posters.
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Since Anthony Hopkins was first cast in Mikael Hafstroem‘s film The Rite earlier this year, I’ve wondered what kind of film it might end up being. The script is based on Matt Baglio‘s book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, which seeks to delve into the real-world practice of exorcism. I was afraid the film would be to the book what Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow was to Wade Davis’ excellent ethnographic book of the same name. That is: a crappy, lurid and not terribly effective gloss on the material.
There’s now a trailer for The Rite, and what we see here looks to be somewhere in the middle of ‘faithful’ and ‘lurid,’ if perhaps skewed towards the lurid side. Read More »
Warner Bros, Walt Disney Pictures and 20th Century Fox have announced new release dates for a sixteen films to be released over the next three years. We have information and dates for all of the films, after the jump.
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Cool Posts From Around the Web:
Since the great success of Mad Men, we’ve been waiting to see Jon Hamm break into movies in a huge way, but with the show still going, he’s primarily taken supporting roles. He’s shot parts for a couple forthcoming projects, like Ben Affleck’s The Town, and Sucker Punch and Howl. Now he’s in talks for the currently untitled wedding comedy that Kristen Wiig wrote and will star in.
Also in talks are Dianne Wiest (lately of In Treatment, in addition to many classic Woody Allen films and more) and Matt Lucas (Little Britain, Alice in Wonderland). Judd Apatow is producing and Paul Feig is directing. Between that re-teaming and the fact that this could be Wiig’s biggest project to date, this was already worth paying attention to. With Hamm and Wiest, it could get even better. [Production Weekly]
After the break, a trio of excellent names for the exorcism film The Rite, and an open casting call for the new David Chase feature project. Read More »
I’m pretty curious about the Anthony Hopkins film The Rite, which is based upon the book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, by Matt Baglio. The book is about the real-world practice of exorcism, and the Michael Petroni script is said to be faithful to it. Hopkins will play “a priest who is an expert in exorcisms and whose methods are not necessarily traditional.”
Now Colin O’Donoghue (The Tudors) is likely to play the seminary student who is tutored by Hopkins in the rites, and finds spiritual growth in the process. Solid casting there; Mikael Hafstrom directs.[Variety]
After the break, news on The Tourist and the Anna Faris comedy What’s Your Number?
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Anthony Hopkins is the first to board a film called The Rite, a supernatural thriller from New Line. The studio has had the property for a while, and casting Hopkins suggests that it is really moving forward. Mikael Hafstrom directs from Michael Petroni‘s script. But what is the film about? Read on… Read More »
