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Here’s a shout-out for Naomi Watts, and I am afraid she’ll need it. She’s the sole Oscar nominee from director J.A. Bayona’s The Impossible, and that means she has a real uphill climb for a win. Watts is up against four other nominees in the Best Actress category — Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) and 9-year old Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts Of The Southern Wild) — whose movies have the additional momentum of a Best Picture nomination. It’s a huge disadvantage now that the Academy at large is voting, not just the actors branch.
Although a big hit in Bayona’s native Spain, The Impossible — which tells the story of a family fighting to survive the catastrophic Thailand tsunami of 2004 — underperformed in its U.S. run. The movie’s mid-December opening, which took place the same week that Academy balloting began, didn’t help its Oscar chances either. That Watts made the Best Actress short list at all is a testament to her gritty, visceral performance, which she has described as the most physically challenging movie of her career.
And she’d have a real shot at a statuette if Academy members actually took the time to watch the movie. (Voting begins Feb. 8 and ends Feb. 19.)
The one advantage Watts does have over her fellow nominees is that she is playing a real life person: Maria Belon, a Spanish wife and mother who lived to tell the tale and has enthusiastically endorsed Watts’ performance at various events this season. Chastain’s character, Maya, is also said to be based on an actual CIA operative, but the actress claims to have never met…
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival unveiled its lineup of 109 features including 69 world premieres Thursday. The festival, which overlaps with SXSW’s music and interactive programs, also includes 14 North American and five U.S. premieres. SXSW will screen eight films each in its Narrative Feature and Documentary Competitions.
[Related: 'The Incredible Burt Wonderstone' To Open The SXSW Film Festival]
As previously announced, Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi starrer The Incredible Burt Wonderstone will open the festival, taking place in downtown Austin, TX. The film will screen as part of SXSW’s Headliners section along with Harmony Korine’s Toronto debut Spring Breakers with James Franco and Selena Gomez, Stephen Finningan’s Hawking and Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead.
SXSW veteran Joe Swanberg’s Drinking Buddies will screen in the festival’s Narrative Spotlight section along with fellow vet and Austin-based filmmaker Bryan Poyser’s The Bounceback and John Sayles‘ Go For Sisters with Edward James Olmos.
SXSW’s Festival Favorites section will have a good dose of Sundance offerings this year, including Austin’s Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight, Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon’s Addiction, Yen Tan’s Pit Stop, David Gordon Green’s Prince Avalanche and Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color.
“It’s an incredible privilege to sift through so much exciting work, and every year brings new surprises. Though trends emerge after the fact, not consciously while we’re programming, much of this year’s program embraces love and the need/search/desire for connection,” commented SXSW festival producer Janet Pierson in a statement. “Many films reflect importantly on our culture and include intimate looks at iconic figures, and we’re lucky to have a plethora of hugely entertaining and…
Sylvester Stallone doesn’t just use his cranium for a battering ram. On the red carpet at Tuesday’s premiere of Bullet to the Head, the enduring action star — who wrote his ticket to stardom in 1976 with Rocky — told me that he does keep moviegoers in mind when he approaches a project. “The one thing you have to do is try to be creative with the audience but not be so self-serving,” Stallone explained. “In other words, [don't] get too goofy too far out there. Y’know, you try to give them what they want but give them a little twist on it.”
Bullet to the Head co-star Sung Kang told me he’s happy that Stallone, and Hollywood, are willing to try new things. I asked him what it was like as an Asian actor to forge a career and Kang said “I think the world’s changing. It’s becoming more global, and giving opportunities to actors like me…I think it’s baby steps, but it’s getting better.”
Jason Momoa from HBO’s Game of Thrones is also in the flick but he and Stallone don’t merely have a fist fight – they have an ax fight! Did Stallone have any tips for the up and coming action star? ”Yeah,” says Momoa, “‘don’t hit me’!”
Check out my full red carpet interview below:
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Twenty-six directors devise terrible ways to die, from A to Z, in the horror anthology The ABCs of Death. And in his first foray into the horror-film world, TV animation veteran Jon Schnepp (Metalocalypse, The Venture Bros.) dives headfirst into chaos with “W Is For WTF,” a stoner’s fever dream that mashes zombie clowns, a mysterious chem trail, animated depravity, and Schnepp himself into the most random and, yes, WTF-inducing segment of the bunch.
Movieline spoke with Schnepp about his “W Is For WTF” (behold the exclusive image above!), how he lobbied producer Ant Timpson for the slot, why he poured his own money into his ABCs of Death short, and what he learned from his time editing Adult Swim’s Space Ghost Coast To Coast at the start of his career. He also updated us with the latest on Grimm Fairy Tales, his ambitious Heavy Metal-esque animated project. (Interviews with all 26 ABCs of Death filmmakers will be available to read on The ABCs of Death Tumblr page.)
Your name stands out among the two dozen mostly genre filmmakers because you come from a slightly different world. How were you approached to take part in the ABCs of Death?
I actually contacted Ant [Timpson]. I had heard of The ABCs of Death as I was working on Metalocalypse, and I’ve done a bunch of live-action television shows but they’ve mainly been comedy. After I did those I got into the world of animation, and looking for things outside of animation to do, and that one sounded really cool. I just sent a cold email saying, ‘Hey, this is Jon – I direct Metalocalypse…’ He wrote me back pretty quickly saying ‘I love your work, but we’re totally staffed up. We have all the directors.…
Jessica Chastain is riding high with her critically acclaimed Oscar-nominated performance in Zero Dark Thirty, but her next gig may be a bit of an about-face from her role at the center of covert operations to snuff out Bin Laden.
Chastain will star in a film adaptation of August Strindberg’s play Miss Julie, which will be directed by Swedish actor-director Liv Ullmann. Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton will also star in the film, according to The Guardian.
Written in 1888, Miss Julie helped pave the way in utilizing theatrical naturalism in telling its story of class and power. The story revolves around the daughter of a count who falls for her father’s footman.
Originally set at a Swedish country house in 1874, it is unclear if Ullmann will set the movie version of the story there or if she’ll pick a different period and locale. The last major adaptation of the play was a Mike Figgis-directed version which starred Saffron Burrows and Peter Mullan as the leads.
Ullmann starred in ten of legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman’s movies and took up directing in the 1992 family drama Sophie. Miss Julie will be her fourth feature, though her last film, Faithless was released in 2000.
[Source: The Guardian]
Come off the ledge, Trekkies! I know it’s been a bad few days what with J.J. Abrams trading in your future sequel pleasure for a shot at the Star Wars franchise, but he has not forsaken you. To the contrary, he wants you to know, via this eye-catching featurette that the action and the scale of Star Trek Into Darkness “is light years beyond what we did in the first movie,” and, if that ain’t enough, sparks are still flying between Spock and Uhura.
Abrams and three of his primary cast members, Zachary Quinto (Spock), Chris Pine (Kirk) and Zoe Saldana (Uhura) take turns telling you how special Star Trek Into Darkness will be. Quinto calls it “stunningly beautiful,” Pine says the movie is “relentless,” presumably in terms of its action and excitement levels and Saldana proclaims, “This is the kind of film that 3D was made for.” And then — bam! — in the middle of a pretty relentless series of quick-cut action sequences, Spock and Uhura can be seen sucking face.
Take that, Rebel scum.
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