This end-of-the-Mayan-Calendar crap is starting to get on our nerves over here at Movieline virtual headquarters, but it did give us an idea for a fun question to put to you, our esteemed readers: If the world was really about to end, what’s the one movie you would choose to see before things went all Michael Bay?
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: If the world was ending, I would not be watching no movie, unh-unh. You’d be getting busy or frantically calling your shrink (who’d be frantically calling his shrink) or looting the nearest Best Buy so you could briefly experience the pleasures of the iPhone 5 without having to actually pay for one.
But imagine that panic does not ensue and you have the time and desire to see one last movie before everything fades to black. What would it be? I see it as an emotional choice rather than a critical one: What is the one film that will leave you in the proper frame of mind to say goodbye to it all?
I’ll get the party started. I’d have to go with the 1957 noir classic Sweet Smell of Success, starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. To help give you an idea of why this movie means so much to me, let me tell you a very old joke: An Englishman, a Frenchman and a New Yorker are captured by cannibals. The captives are told they’re going to be killed and eaten and their skins are going to be used to build a canoe.
The cannibals are an empathetic and well-equipped group, however, and they allow each of their victims to choose how they’d like to die. The Englishman asks for a gun and shoots himself. The Frenchman chooses a sword. When it’s the New…
Full Story »The camps are entrenched, the battle lines drawn, and the barbs and quips are flying like cannon shot across the divide. But as the debate rages on Movieline and on other sites across the web over Peter Jackson’s directorial decision to film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 48 frames per second, as opposed to the more traditional 24, no single quip seems to draw the ire of the “traditionalists” more than this one, aimed square in the chest of the old timers: Resisting 48 frames is like resisting color.
As if an argument over aesthetic choice could be so absurdly reduced. Right, four time Academy Award winning legendary SFX master and Hobbit visual effects supervisor, Joe Letteri?
“If you grew up seeing films in black and white and suddenly start seeing films in color, some people are going to have the reaction ‘Wow, that’s great!’ and other people are going to have the reaction, ‘That’s not moviemaking! Films should be made in black and white! You’re losing the mystery of how to deal with tonality, you’re sacrificing that to deal with color!’” Letteri told Movieline in an exclusive one-on-one chat.
“But if you grew up with only seeing color, you don’t know that. Just talking to the people that have seen it so far, and obviously that’s been a very limited audience, the younger ones that I’ve spoken with don’t really have an issue with it because they’re not so ingrained with what 24 frames mean. To them they’re just watching a movie.”
A movie that doesn’t actually look like a movie, opponents might counter, since one of the effects of shooting at 48 fps — which projects 48 individual static shots every second — is to give your brain…
Full Story »We at Movieline HQ were quick to cheer when Matthew McConaughey was named Best Supporting Actor by the New York Film Critics Circle for his work in Magic Mike and Bernie. After busying himself with forgettable rom-coms, the uncannily likable Texan has been on a tear, choosing unique projects in which he can strut his unique and undeniable talents. For the first time in his career, he is a genuine contender for an Oscar nomination.
Movieline spoke to the man from the set of Dallas Buyers Club (the film that required him to drop tons of weight, so if the noms don’t come this year, he’ll be primed for 2014) about awards campaigns, how he’s perceived by fans, some of his classic lines and some possible film sequels. Normally we’d take laser focus in pruning our interviews, but with a guy as wonderfully laid back as McConaughey (who announces himself on the phone as “McConaughey”) you’d be a fool to ignore all the “man”s.
Before we get to this terrific year, I should let you know I’m on the road and actually in your hometown of Austin and, no joke, in the shadow of a Moon Tower.
Where it all began! Great shadow to be in, man. In Texas, that’s the place to be to hang out with your buds and get on a buzz. You gotta get rural on it.
Okay, since we’re talking about Dazed and Confused, I mean, you’ve embraced that role — you named your company after a line from it, right?
Yeah! On the football field when Randall “Pink” Floyd is deciding whether to play football or take a drug test and I say “you gotta just keep living.” That was my first film, and a week…
If you are a previously godless East coaster who’s found himself prostrate and praying for electricity in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, here’s a suggestion: Visualize Denzel Washington when you say those Lord’s Prayers. If God makes his will known through the people, then it turns out that the Flight star would be the top choice to portray Jesus Christ in a movie about the New Testament.
By the way, this does not rule out God being a woman, since we all know that Denzel is so handsome and talented that the female God would want him to play her son so she could get closer to all that hotness. (Memo to God: Do not underestimate the power of Pauletta!)
Washington is far and away the top choice, with 21 percent of the vote, seven points higher than Daniel Day-Lewis, who is the actor of choice when it comes to portraying god-like historical figures. Al Pacino finishes third, which suggests that Jesus says ”Hoo-ah!” a lot, while Ryan Gosling, who evokes the most “OMGs” among the young female crowd would be fourth. (Come to think of it, if Baby Goose grew his hair out, he would look a bit like the Son of God).
The biggest surprise of the poll: Woody Allen, who, cinematically speaking, was the King of the Jews back in the 1970s, beats out Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is generating Oscar buzz for portraying a man who appoints himself the god of a self-invented religion in The Master. Apparently, Americans do not want their big-screen Jesus on the beefy side.
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Also in Tuesday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, Tribeca Film’s War Witch has been selected to represent Canada in the Oscars race. CBS has set a date for the People’s Choice Awards. And Gong Li will star as a Chinese Empress in a new U.S.-China co-production.
War Witch Selected by Canada for Best-Foreign Language Oscar Consideration
Kim Nguyen’s War Witch has been selected to represent Canada in the foreign-language category by TeleFilm Canada, which serves as the pan-Canadian selection committee. Set in Sub-Saharan Africa, War Witch (Rebelle) revolves around Komona a 14-year-old girl who tells her unborn child growing inside her the story of her life since she has been at war. Everything started when she was abducted by the rebel army at the age of 12. Tribeca Film will release the film in the U.S. in 2013.
Around the ‘net…
Clint Eastwood Reveals Social Liberalism and Fiscal Conservatism on Ellen
He joked on GMA, “If somebody’s dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they’re gonna have to take what they get.” And revealed more later on Ellen, “The condition of society right now, with the high unemployment rates and the tremendous debt we’re increasing and the government spending,” he said, “we’d think there’d be [many more worthy issues] to think about [rather] that worrying about gay marriage,” THR reports.
People’s Choice Awards Set for January 9th
CBS will air the fan-chosen nods January 9th in a telecast from the Nokia Theater in L.A. at 9pm E.T., Deadline reports.
Captain America Gets a New Job Title: President of the United States
One of Marvel Entertainment’s best-known heroes will trade in his NYC apartment for the White House in the pages of The Ultimates, a series…
David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook took top honors at the Toronto International Film Festival, winning the Blackberry People’s Choice Award Sunday. Unlike most of its top tier festival brethren, TIFF does not have a formal jury competition. Also taking an audience prize was Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, which won the prize in the Midnight Madness category. The audience winner for Best Documentary went to Artifact by Bartholomew Cubbins.
The Toronto International Film Festival prize winners:
People’s Choice Award:
Silver Linings Playbook, directed by David O. Russell
Runners-up: Argo, directed by Ben Affleck and Zaytoun, directed by Eran Riklis
Documentary People’s Choice Award:
Artifact, directed by Bartholomew Cubbins
Runners-up: Storm Surfers 3D, directed by Christopher Nelius and Justin McMillan, and Revolution, directed by Rob Stewart
Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award:
Seven Psychopaths, directed by Martin McDonagh
Runners-up: The Bay, directed by Barry Levinson and John Dies at the End, directed by Don Coscarelli
Best Canadian Feature Film:
Laurence Anyways, directed by Xavier Dolan
Best Canadian First Feature Film (A Tie):
Antiviral, directed by Brandon Cronenberg
Blackbird, directed by Jason Buxton
Prizes of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Special Presentations Section: In The House, directed by Francois Ozon
Prizes of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Discovery Section:
Call Girl, directed by Mikael Marcimain
NETPAC Award For Best Asian Film:
The Land of Hope, directed by Sion Sono
Award For Best Canadian Short Film:
Keep a Modest Head, directed by Deco Dawson
Also in Monday morning’s round-up of news briefs, Magnolia Pictures’ The Queen of Versailles debuted strong in the specialty box office. Emile Hirsch in talks for Navy role and the Teamsters set contract with producers.
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Among Night’s Big Winners at 2012 Teen Choice Awards
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner picked up the event’s “surf board trophies” as well as its version of a “lifetime achievement award,” THR reports.
The Queen of Versailles, Hara-Kiri, Well Digger’s Daughter Debut; Beasts Expands: Specialty Box Office
Magnolia Pictures’ Sundance doc from lauren Greenfield, The Queen Of Versailles, opened by cashing in among the specialties, grossing $54K with a regal $18K average in 3 theaters over the weekend. has picked up a good amount of attention from morning TV and other shows. The documentary’s subjects — a mega-wealthy couple called “1-percenters” who live a life of reckless luxury but then face a day of reckoning — appear to be the film’s best marketers, perhaps inadvertently, Deadline reports.
Emile Hirsch in Talks to Play Final SEAL Role
Hirsch would play Navy SEAL Danny Dietz in Lone Survivor, a drama set to be directed by Peter Berg. Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster are also set to play the other main roles in the drama centered around four Navy SEALs. Universal Pictures, which developed the movie, will distribute, Deadline reports.
Police Patrol Multiplexes Across U.S.
Police in communities throughout the country made their presence known at multiplexes as audiences headed to The Dark Knight Rises. Their presence is expected to be in place for a couple of weeks in some areas, Variety reports.
Teamsters Local 399 Ratifies 3-Year Contract with Producers
The union ratified a contract with the Association…
