Helena Bonham Carter (46)
Ashley Massaro (33)
Matt Stone (41)
Kylie Ireland (42)
Lenny Kravitz (48)
Genie Francis (50)
Bobcat Goldthwait (50)
Tarsem Singh (51)
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Hank Williams, Jr. (63)
Stevie Nicks (64)
This weekend sees the release of Dark Shadows, marking the eighth time director Tim Burton has teamed with Johnny Depp, his second-favorite performer on screen. (He no doubt frequently has to tell Helena Bonham Carter as much.) So natural is their pairing that we have come to expect a certain level of quality and/or box-office performance from their combined efforts, and an announcement of a new Burton title has generally come to carry the promise of a Depp appearance. Although Hollywood has long brought us such fruitful and lucrative actor/director relationships — from both Cary Grant and James Stewart’s collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock to Robert De Niro’s legendary work with Martin Scorsese — consider nine other long-term pairings packing a little (or a lot) less luster.
Héctor Elizondo / Gary Marshall
After Marshall cast character actor Elizondo in his feature directing debut, soap-opera spoof Young Doctors In Love, the two became friends to such an extent that the actor has now appeared in every one of Marshall’s 17 movies. Be it the modern fairy tale Pretty Woman, to the retro fairy tales of The Princess Diaries, or Marshall’s latest unwatchableholiday pictures, Elizondo always manages to steer things a bit closer to the side of classy.
Matt Walsh / Todd Phillips
As Phillips rose up the Hollywood ladder with his frat-boy-centric films he has done two things: struck box office gold, and taken actor-comedian Matt Walsh with him. Walsh has the kind of face you note, if not outright recognize, thanks to a long career of comedic appearances. But this co-founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater is arguably best known as the doctor to whom the Vegas revelers turn for information in The Hangover,…
Johnny Depp likely has a lock on the weekend’s new releases with Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows. The movie is set for 3,700 screens. No other new release comes close, but there are nevertheless plenty of other limited roll-outs that may make their way in a theater near you. Check a few of them out in this weekend’s new-release roundup.
Dark Shadows (Opening Wide)
Director Tim Burton
Writers: Seth Grahame-Smith (screenplay), John August & Seth Grahame-Smith (story), Dan Curtis (television series)
Cast: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Helena Bonham Carter, Chloe Grace Moretz, Bella Heathcote
Comedy/Fantasy/Thriller
Distributor: Warner Bros
In 1750 parents Joshua and Naomi Collins set sail to start a new life in America from England with their young son Barnabas. There they build a fishing empire in coastal Maine. Two decades later, Barnabas (Johnny Depp) is a rich, powerful playboy with the world at his feet. But things unravel when he falls for Josette DuPress (Bella Heathcote) and breaks the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) – a witch who dooms him to become a vampire and then buries him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is freed from his tomb and emerges in 1972 to meet his descendants.
The Cup (Limited Release)
Director: Simon Wincer
Writers: Simon Wincer, Eric O’Keefe
Cast: Bryan Martin, Stephen Curry, Jodi Gordon
Drama
Distributor: Myriad Pictures
The film centers on horse race, the Melbourne Cup, described as a “race that stops a nation.” Held the first Tuesday in November, no other Melbourne Cup had as much significance as the 2002 edition. Australians sought refuge in the race held three weeks after terrorist bombings in Bali killed scores of their countrymen. And a grieving jockey’s courage in the face of his own loss…
Full Story »Between Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, and the reliably bizarro fashion statements of Helena Bonham Carter, the Dark Shadows premiere promised a veritable feast of eccentricities. But guess what? The best and weirdest photo ops from last night’s to-do came not from the aforementioned mavens of macabre (granted, HBC was M.I.A.), but from the bizarre antics of an unlikely duo whose red carpet shenanigans made Burton and his cast of lovable weirdos look downright… mundane.
Unexpected smooches, yoga poses, the good ol’ bunny ears photo bomb — if it was slightly awkward or distracting, premiere guests Cloris Leachman and Steven Tyler were involved. Who knew they’d make such an electrifying couple? To quote the film’s tagline, “Strange is relative.” Indeed.
But don’t take my word for it. Browse Movieline’s gallery from the Dark Shadows premiere to see Depp, Burton, co-stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Bella Heathcote, Chloe Moretz, and composer Danny Elfman smile for the photogs as Hurricane ClorVen (Stevris? Leachler?) steals the spotlight. Even Alice Cooper didn’t seem to know what to make of it, and that’s saying something.
Click for images from the Dark Shadows premiere.
So… much… beard! One of your best first non-set spy pic looks at Tom Hooper’s star-studded Les Miserables movie was Tweeted last night by star Hugh Jackman, who debuted his Jean Valjean “convict look” days into filming. After the jump, behold the dirty-faced, hirsute handsomeness on display as Jackman channels Victor Hugo’s noble convict.
@RealHughJackman
Hugh Jackman Very excited about how the first days of filming are going!! Check out my convict look…but its changing soon. http://t.co/SLFHBhfN
Mar 26 via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply
Les Miserables, slated for a December 2012 release, is currently filming with Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert playing foil to Jackman’s Valjean, Anne Hathaway as Fantine, Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, Samantha Barks as Eponine, Eddie Redmayne as Marius, Sacha Baron Cohen as Thénardier, Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thénardier, and original Broadway Valjean Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop of Digne.
[@REALHUGHJACKMAN via THR]
Full Story »The first trailer for Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows was unveiled today, revealing what Burton really has up his sleeve for his adaptation of the cult soap opera. Namely: Gothic guffaws! 1970s humor! Johnny Depp playing vampire Barnabas Collins with that unmistakable Johnny Depp quirk! Seriously, is every Depp role for the rest of time going to feel like some variation on his Hunter Thompson? Anyway: Check out the trailer and unleash your thoughts.
Head to Apple to watch the trailer in hi-res.
I’m sure hardcore Dark Shadows fans will have the most to pick over here, seeing as Burton’s take isn’t quite exactly a straight translation of the ’60s-era melodrama to the big screen. And yet the tone feels so very Burtonesque, the sets and cinematography are lush and vintage, and despite the soundtrack of disco cliches it’s starting to grow on me. Plus, how can anyone resist sardonic teenager Chloe Moretz?
Dark Shadows is in theaters May 11 and also features Eva Green, Helena Bonham Carter, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, Bella Heathcote, Gulliver McGrath, Christopher Lee, and Alice Cooper as himself, because of course.
[via Apple]
Full Story »
Taylor Swift may have been offered a role in Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables film, but has she recently been replaced? According to Broadway World, theater impresario Cameron Mackintosh, who is also producing Hooper’s film, announced onstage at a curtain call for Oliver! that stage actress Samantha Barks has been chosen to play Eponine — the role he cast her in for the 2010 25th anniversary Les Mis concert. Les Mis purists, you may exhale in 3, 2, 1…
According to Broadway World, reports flew in from audience members in attendance:
“He told the cast and audience that he had a big announcement to make before flying to America, and then revealed that Barks would be taking the role of Eponine.
It seems to have come as a surprise to Barks – audience members reported that ‘the look on her face was priceless.’”
The 21-year-old Barks competed on the 2008 BBC reality musical television show I’d Do Anything and played Eponine onstage multiple times previously in London, and she certainly knows the material (see below); she’ll be joining a cast that already includes Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and Amanda Seyfried.
There’s been no word yet on what happened with Swift and her camp, but Mackintosh’s grand gesture in front of a packed house at the Manchester Palace was a pretty public way to break the news. Oh, don’t you worry, Swifties. The busy warbler has a film coming out this year (The Lorax) and is bound to pick up another acting gig sooner or later.
UPDATE: THR confirms the initial report here.
BREAKING NEWS: Samantha Barks To Play Eponine In LES MISERABLES Movie [Broadway World]
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And here I was thinking that nothing could leave me in a state of disgusted confusion like this NSWFish picture of Charlie Sheen working as a cheese cleaner to earn that 8 ball, but this dreadful musical theater news has beat that shit.
Tom Hooper, the director of The King’s Speech, is doing a Les Miserables movie and so far his casting decisions haven’t made my ears cringe themselves shut. Tom cast Russell Crowe as Javert, Hugh Jackman as Valjean, Anne Hathaway as Fantine, Eddie Raymane as Marius and he’s talking to Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter about taking the roles of Thenardier and Mme Thenardier. Not that bad. But “not that bad” has turned into “OMGMYEARSWHYTORTURE!”, because Tom has offered Taylor Swift the role of Eponine. Eponine is that dumb urchin bitch who is in love with Marius, but still leads him to his true love Cosette and eventually gets herself shot up in the end. I know all of this, because I was gay in high school. Musical theater was the only way to deal.
Broadway World has it on good authority that after months of auditions, Taylor Swift beat out ScarJo, Lea Michele and Evan Rachel Wood. Universal has also offered the role of Cosette to Amanda Seyfried. Rehearsals start at the end of the month, so the entire cast should be announced soon.
I’m sure
…
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Happy Friday! Also in today’s edition of The Broadsheet: Helena Bonham Carter has some concerns about Dark Shadows… Hailee Steinfeld is close to playing Ender’s Game… The latest on the quest for the Razzies… War Horse finally finds some awards traction (sort of)… and more.
· Christ, it is dead out there. At we’ll always have Christopher Plummer stealing THR’s actor roundtable — no small accomplishment opposite fellow panelists George Clooney, Nick Nolte and Albert Brooks — with a reflection on his hugely challenging role in… The Sound of Music? “Because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey. You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some miniscule bit of humor into it. […] It’s a very good picture [for] what it is.” Now you know. [THR]
· Discussing her latest collaboration with partner Tim Burton, Helena Bonham Carter had this to offer about the vampire saga Dark Shadows: “This is a thing he raced home to see when he was about age 10, so it’s returning to his childhood roots of what he loved watching. It’s actually a really bad, hilariously bad soap opera, and because it’s so bad, he felt he had to make a hugely expensive movie. […] It’s going to be unlike [anything], I think. It’s dangerous to say that. But it’s very original and it’s kind of uncategorizable. It’s going to be impossible to sell, frankly, because it’s just so … it’s a soap opera, but it’s very, very subtle. I don’t know. We’ll see.” [MTV Movies]
· Hailee Steinfeld is the latest name touched by speculation around Ender’s Game, reportedly close to joining the adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s sci-fi classic that has already locked…
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