Cue collective grumble from cult sectors: Universal has officially nabbed Gore Verbinski to produce a remake of The Host, the much-touted 2006 creature epic from South Korea.
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, film release, gore verbinski, remake, the host, universal | No Comments »
Being a teenager sucks. Being a teenage vampire? Now that’s the sort of misery worthy of an obtusely titled album. But if you just happen to be an adolescent bloodsucker on a Washington peninsula poised to cash in on the (lucrative) intersection of J.K. Rowling and Stephen King, life is actually pretty good right now.
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, books, film release, stephenie meyer, twilight | No Comments »
Although it will doubtlessly inflame fans, Fox has hired Josh Schwartz, the man who brought us Gossip Girl and The O.C., to write the script for a youthful reboot of the X-Men franchise.
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by admin
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John Malkovich is known for a lot of things (good acting, his self-effacing sense of humor, baldness) but less so as an activist or film director. Still, he’s done his fair share of both, being a longtime outspoken Libertarian and directing the 2002 feature The Dancer Upstairs. So the announcement in Variety that he plans to fim a documentary on the plight of migrant children wasn’t totally out of the blue…but it was pretty close.
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, diego luna, film release, john malkovich, triple crossing | No Comments »
Outside of journalists, Katharine Graham still isn’t that well-known. But for those in the industry, she remains a hero if only for her Washington Post leadership during the Watergate Scandal and her support of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during their investigation.
Posted on November 19th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, film release, joan didion, katharine graham, laura linney | No Comments »
According to the Hollyood Reporter, Little Miss Sunshine producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa are set to join their fellow Hamlet 2 producer Eric Eisner in the production of a biopic about Jerry Garcia. The three have just signed on to produce the as-yet unnamed project, which promises a revealing look at the Grateful Dead frontman’s youth.
Posted on November 19th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, Music, News, albert berger, eric eisner, film release, grateful dead, jerry garcia, little miss sunshine, ron yerxa | No Comments »
If the inherently morbid 6,557 mile cross-country trek in Killing Yourself to Live had one lesson for Chuck Klosterman, it was the old trope that the journey is more important than the destination. Still, the destination has been pretty nice for Klosterman; five books into his career, he’s the reigning king of pop-culture addicts. He’ll be adding another feather to his cap (probably a Kiss hat) soon too: Half Shell Entertainment has nabbed film production rights to Klosterman’s rock memoir/romantic confessional.
Posted on November 18th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, books, chuck klosterman, film release, killing yourself to live | No Comments »
After years of talks, Marvel Studios has officially hired Joe Johnston to direct First Avenger: Captain America, part of an ambitious slate of major comic adaptations the studio is set to finance over the next several years.
Posted on November 18th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, film release, first avenger: captain america, joe johnston, marvel studios | No Comments »
Although some have pegged his latest, Changeling, as more or less a horror movie, Clint Eastwood is in talks to direct Hereafter, a new supernatural thriller to be produced by Steven Spielberg.
Posted on November 17th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, clint eastwood, film release, hereafter, peter morgan, steven spielberg | No Comments »
Some things date a movie horribly: rear projection, clearly hand-drawn animation for special effects, Shelley Duvall in a starring role, etc. But there are some films that contain none of these elements but are still, in and of themselves, a piece of pop-culture ephemera from another time and place. This is where Karate Kid firmly lands. Its premise is ridiculous, and pretty much everything about the film seems to exist more for the pleasure of lousy VH1 Remember the __s programs than as an actual attempt at making a movie. That being said, it sure is a fun and quotable flick.
Posted on November 14th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, film release, jaden smith, karate kid, stephen chow, will smith, wtf | No Comments »
In Sept. 2007, we reported on the first news of the next Simon Pegg/Nick Frost collaboration, to be called Paul. At the time, all we knew about the film was that the Hot Fuzz stars’ typical roles would be reversed: Frost would take the lead role and Pegg plays the incompetent sidekick. Or, as Pegg put it in an interview with MTV’s movies blog, “It’s different actually. I’m the bitch in this one.”
Posted on November 14th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, edgar wright, film release, greg mottola, hot fuzz, nick frost, paul, shaun of the dead, simon pegg | No Comments »
You have to hand it to Nicole Kidman. In her career, the Aussie actress has juxtaposed standard Hollywood fare (often box-office disasters) with challenging, non-traditional roles in independent films with little to no commercial appeal. For every Cold Mountain, there’s a Birth, where she played a woman convinced her dead husband had been reincarnated into the body of a 10-year-old boy; or a Dogville, the Lars Von Trier’s three-hour melodrama on human nature at its worst; or a Fur, an “imaginary portrait” of famed photographer Diane Arbus that saw her lover Robert Downey Jr., covered head-to-toe in hair. Even her Oscar-winning role as Virginia Woolf in The Hours was a bit of a gamble.
Posted on November 14th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, anand tucker, australia, baz luhrmann, charlize theron, film release, nicole kidman, nine, the danish girl | No Comments »
There has been perhaps no better match between a comedian and a project this decade than with Jack Black and School of Rock. Sure, Will Ferrell’s been memorable in a number of things, like Old School and Elf. Vince Vaughn was funny in Wedding Crashers, but his wisecracking motormouth shtick has since grown tiresome. Bill Murray found the role of a lifetime in Lost in Translation, but the film was more of a melancholic meditation on life and loneliness than a full-blown comedy. For our money, Black’s infectious and warm performance in Richard Linklater’s film is simply pure, unadulterated brilliance. Anyone who can make the cello joke at the two minute mark work deserves our praise. (Let’s just pray the proposed sequel doesn’t taint it.)
Posted on November 13th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, film release, gulliver's travels, jack black, kung fu panda, school of rock | No Comments »
British director Michael Winterbottom has yet to really break out in the American box office, but that’s probably because he couldn’t care less. His films run the gamut from purposefully difficult (A Cock and Bull Story) to pitch dark (The Road to Guantanamo). However, his next picture, The Killer Inside Me, may be just the thing to pick up more than trifling interest stateside.
Posted on November 12th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Music, News, casey affleck, film release, jessica alba, michael winterbottom, the killer inside me | No Comments »
It’s a bit of a surprise to hear of a new game adaptation being announced so soon after Max Payne flopped both critically and commercially. On the other hand, game-to-film adaptations are becoming so numerous these days it’s becoming almost noteworthy when a gaming company tries to maintain its integrity and not attempt a transition to the big screen. Latest on the slate is Electronic Arts’ Army of Two, which, by all reports, isn’t all that great in the first place. However, the game has sold more than two million copies.
Posted on November 10th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Film & TV, Games, Music, News, army of two, film release | No Comments »