You are browsing the archive for August 2012.
“…The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!‘” Sam Riley’s Sal paraphrases the famous Jack Kerouac line, but it works: Watch the jazzy, frenetic first U.S. trailer for Walter Salles’ On The Road and feel your pulse quicken.
The adaptation, which also stars Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, Terrence Howard, and more (phew!) debuted at Cannes but premieres at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival ahead of its December release.
I’d count this as the most effective of the many trailers to debut so far; something about the pace and the energy and abandon glimpsed in snatches and quick edits ratchets up my excitement. Or maybe it’s the looming long holiday. Here’s to everyone out there burning like Roman candles this Labor Day weekend.
Thoughts? On the Road debuts in limited release on December 21.
[Yahoo]
With the out-of-nowhere success of 2016: Obama’s America, the nation could finally have a conservative counterpart to Michael Moore. I say the nation rather than the Republicans, because a balanced box office is good for us all, at least as a reminder of our right to oppose the current government and make a profit in doing so. Similar to Moore’s release of Fahrenheit 9/11 during the summer of 2004, author-turned-filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza offers a one-sided, first-person documentary that challenges the incumbent President during his campaign for re-election. Unlike his liberal predecessor, however, D’Souza, who co-directs with writer/producer John Sullivan (Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed), doesn’t have much to fall back on in the way of entertainment value and so only delivers a transient attraction for the anti-Obama crowd.
You could say that a film like 2016 shouldn’t be entertaining, and maybe it is true that the left’s overdependence on jokesters and satire have hurt their efforts in the past. But while Fahrenheit 9/11 might not have influenced enough voters eight years ago, it remains a popular work of cinema in its own right primarily because of Moore’s appeal to a certain audience both personally and stylistically. D’Souza is neither engaging as a character nor as a storyteller, but even worse here is his lack of intensity. As a pressing piece of propaganda, the film could use a louder voice and edgier tone. To truly be an effective Moore equivalent, frankly, D’Souza could stand to be more of a nuisance.
Basing the documentary on his best-selling books The Roots of Obama’s Rage and Obama’s America: Unmaking the American Dream, D’Souza, retains a very subjective angle for his exploration of the President’s true identity and political motives. In fact, before really even addressing the titular subject, the filmmaker…
There are few things more satisfying in this world than hearing Christopher Walken say the word “fuck.” Yes, his now-classic Saturday Night Live declaration of “I’ve got a fever and the prescription is more cowbell” is one of them, but let’s stay focused here. Walken and his co-star Colin Farrell let their filth flags fly in the Red Band trailer below for In Bruges director Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths.
Indeed, save for their spirited f-bombing, the trailer recycles a number of scenes from the last clip we brought you — but it’s still damn funny. The movie is about a struggling writer, played by Colin Farrell, who finds himself in a whole lot of trouble after his friend, out-of-work actor and moonlighting dog-napper Sam Rockwell and his partner-in-crime (Walken) make off with a canine that belongs to a brutal gangster. The new trailer also gives the barest hint that Tom Waits, who’s also in the picture, definitely qualifies as one of the seven titular psychos. Check it out below.
Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter.
Follow Movieline on Twitter.
How do you get in touch with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who lives with his family far outside the confines of Hollywood “in the woods,” to ask him to be in your film? If you’re like The Possession director Ole Bornedal, you go old school. “The script was sent to me with a really nice letter that Ole had written asking me to be a part of it,” Morgan told Movieline. “It sat on my desk for a couple of days, but I kept reading this letter.” Eventually Morgan read the script and, enticed by the familial relationships at the center of the demonic possession tale, got over his reluctance to take on the “overdone” horror genre to play a father desperately trying to reconnect with his daughter — and, in the process, save her from an evil spirit.
In this weekend’s The Possession Morgan plays Clyde Brenek, a career-focused college basketball coach whose pending divorce is taking a heavy toll on his two young daughters, one of whom — Em (Natasha Calis) — has formed a strange attachment to an antique Jewish box found at a yard sale. (The film is inspired by the real life account of the Dybbuk Box, a Hebrew wine cabinet allegedly haunted by an evil spirit which reigned down terror and ill fortune on multiple owners.)
Movieline caught up with Morgan last month at Comic-Con, where the Watchmen veteran planned on walking the floor to find geek treasure for his son (“Sometimes it gets a little unruly for me down there, but I dig this world”), marveled at the maturity of his young co-stars (“I’ve worked with kids that are just horrendous, and it’s mostly because of their parents”) and discussed Karyn Kusama’s The Rut, in…
Also in Friday morning’s round-up of news briefs, Sylvester Stallone’s son died of ‘natural causes.’ The Academy sets initial deadlines for awards consideration and more…
Academy Sets Deadline for Shorts
Documentary shorts are due by September 4 at 5pm PT. To be eligible, the documentaries must complete a seven-day commercial run in a theater in either Los Angeles County or in the Borough of Manhattan in New York, between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2012. Films completing their qualifying run after September 4 must still complete and submit all paperwork, including legal contracts, by the deadline. Go to their site for more information.
CNN’s Piers Morgan: Clint Eastwood was ‘Hollywood Meets Politics Train-wreck’
“The address, which was slotted in ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, did not quite go according to plan, with Eastwood running over time and going off script — in part to perform a monologue with an empty chair meant to represent Obama.” THR reports.
Michael Pitt Joins Mary Pickford Pic The First
Pitt will appear in the film, The First, about Hollywood legend Mary Pickford will begin production next year. He will play Owen Moore, Pickford’s first husband, Deadline reports.
Sage Stallone Died of a Heart Attack
Sylvester Stallone’s 36 year-old son Sage died due to blockage of the arteries said the L.A. county coroner. The death has been classified as “natural death” and toxicology results turned up only a small amount of the sedative hydrocodone, BBC reports.
50 Cent’s Manager Dead of Apparent Suicide
Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Diddy have been paying tribute to the hip hop businessman on Twitter. Rihanna posted: “Rest peacefully Chris Lighty, my prayers go out to family and loved ones! Dear God please have mercy.” BBC reports.
Clint Eastwood made Twitter’s Day — or at least its night. The veteran actor and filmmaker’s bizarre, aimless speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Thursday night — to a chair that purportedly contained an invisible President Obama — brought out plenty of celebrity tweeters on the social media site.
As of Friday morning “Eastwood” was still trending intermittently on the Twitter, and a number of actors and filmmakers’ comments were among the reactions to the Unforgiven actor’s speech.
Among them was Magic Mike actress Olivia Munn who tweeted: “Clint Eastwood was talking to an empty chair at the RNC…No, that’s not the set-up to a joke. Its not even a joke.”
This Is 40 filmmaker Judd Apatow had fun with the subject on a more oblique level. ”Clint used to be Every Which ‘But’Loose. Tonight he got loose,” Apatow tweeted. The truncated film title was a reference to Eastwood’s 1978 buddy picture with an orangutan, Every Which Way But Loose, which seemed to mystify Apatow: ”How does that title refer to a relationship with orangutans?” He wrote. “Really. How?”
Shaun of the Dead filmmaker Simon Pegg weighed in from the UK, tweeting: “Woken up to excited chatter in the US. Apparently Clint Eastwood had an argument with an empty chair regarding its political standpoint.”
Star Trek actor George Takei also weighed in tweeting: Clint Eastwood’s RNC speech was to imaginary Obama in an empty chair. I’m drafting a DNC speech to imaginary Romney in an empty factory.”
Nice.
Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter.
Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Clint Eastwood has starred in and/or directed some of the smartest, most thought-provoking movies I’ve seen in the last 10 years. And that’s making it very hard for me to get my head around his trite, addled performance at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night.
I’m not bitching about Eastwood’s politics. I’m pretty certain that I don’t share his ideology, but I can’t help but respect someone who’s not afraid to be politically unpopular in largely liberal Hollywood.
I only wish Eastwood’s courage and convictions translated to a more articulate speech and an appearance that didn’t make him look like a GOP pawn. For one thing, what possessed him to let the RNC appropriate the silhouette of his High Plains Drifter character for Mitt Romney’s coronation? The Stranger, as that character was billed in the movie’s credits, ran silent but deep — a far cry from Romney who runs silent and empty.
Then there was Eastwood’s assertion in his speech that there are “a lot of conservative people” and moderates in Hollywood, but that they play their cards “close to the vest.”
They must because the filmmaker could only name one famous fellow conservative: Jon Voight. That Eastwood followed Voight’s name with the statement: “These are all people that are like-minded,” made me wonder if he needed to up his Centrum Silver dosage.
Eastwood, 82, also shot himself in the foot (with a .44 Magnum) when he derisively told the Tampa convention crowd that he wept during Obama’s inauguration. “I haven’t cried that hard since I found out that there’s 23 million unemployed people in this country,” said Eastwood, ploughing past the faulty construction of that sentence and adding: “That is a disgrace, a national disgrace.”
Maybe he believes that, but, Eastwood, who made…
