Hollywood Movies that could be nominated for The Oscars in 2014

via glooce

The 2013 Oscars have come to a close, but that doesn't mean us dedicated followers of the almighty awards season stop looking ahead twelve months from now when a new film will be crowned king of the world amidst all the backlash and hate that swirls around the event.

Instead of focusing on the negative, let's keep positive. Let's look forward to the next ten months of 2013 and ponder what possible great

films we may have in store. While we may second guess the decisions of the Academy and consider them out-of-step with current trends in film, at the very least they give us a chance to consider what may be the best the year has to offer and what will be the most talked about films and performances come this year's awards race.

Pushing the build-up aside, my early year 2014 Oscar Preview begins today with the first ten films in a 40 movie preview. I will dedicated this space to ten new films each day and on Friday reprint the list in its entirety before opening the doors to my 2014 Oscar predictions next week.

In each preview I've included some thoughts on each film's Oscar potential and what categories they may most likely find themselves nominated. I've included the cast, director, studio, synopsis and release date where applicable. Some of these films don't even have distribution yet, how will that effect their award campaign? When will some most likely premiere? What films will we likely see at this year's film festivals?

I hope to get into all of these questions and more over the next four days and then the predicting begins earlier than ever before when I open the doors to my 2014 Oscar predictions next week.

Dallas Buyers Club
DIR. Jean-Marc Vallée / TBA 2013

Jared Leto (left) and Matthew McConaughey on the set of Dallas Buyers Club

This is really a shot in the dark and it largely sticks out because of the lengths Matthew McConaughey went to in order to embody the central character, an electrician diagnosed with AIDS in the 1980s. The film essentially dramatizes a lot of what was seen in the Oscar-nominated documentary How to Survive a Plague and I can't quite tell if that hurts or helps its chances. Right now it's without a distributor and at this point it seems like a good fit for Toronto. Who's to say if it will get picked up and rushed into theaters or picked up and released in 2014? For now I'm keeping it in the game.

POTENTIAL OSCAR CATEGORIES: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Matthew McConaughey), Original Screenplay (Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack)

STUDIO: No Distributor Yet

CAST: Matthew McConaughey, Gael Garcia Bernal, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto and Steve Zahn

SYNOPSIS: A 1980s-set drama telling the story of Ron Woodroof (McConaughey), a Dallas electrician diagnosed with AIDS. Doctors gave him just a few months to live, but he managed to survive for six more years and prolong the lives of countless others by creating a smuggling operation for alternative treatments.

Foxcatcher
DIR. Bennett Miller / TBA 2013

Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo on the set of Foxcatcher

Bennett Miller has given us Capote and Moneyball and now he's got Steve Carell, one of the hottest names around in Channing Tatum and the always-reliable Mark Ruffalo for Foxcatcher, a based on a true story feature from screenwriters Dan Futterman (Capote) and E. Max Frye. This one has a lot of potential in several categories.

POTENTIAL OSCAR CATEGORIES: Best Picture, Director, Best Actor (Steve Carell), Supporting Actor (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo), Adapted Screenplay (Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye), Cinematography (Greig Fraser), Film Editing (Stuart Levy)

STUDIO: Columbia Pictures

CAST: Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Anthony Michael Hall and Vanessa Redgrave

SYNOPSIS: Based on the true story of John du Pont (Carell), the paranoid schizophrenic heir to the du Pont chemical fortune who built a wrestling training facility called Team Foxcatcher on his Pennsylvania estate. David Schultz (Ruffalo) was a longtime friend of du Pont who had repeatedly tried to help him before du Pont shot and killed him in 1996.

Police never established a motive for the crime, which was witnessed by Schultz's wife and du Pont's head of security. After the shooting, du Pont barricaded himself in his mansion for two days while he negotiated his surrender over the phone.

Fruitvale
DIR. Ryan Coogler / October 18

Michael B. Jordan in Fruitvale
Photo: The Weinstein Co.

If there's a film coming out of Sundance with a lot of heat it's Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale and with The Weinstein Co. picking it up you better believe people will be thinking Oscar for this one. Based on a true story and with high marks for up-and-comer Michael B. Jordan the sky is the limit for this one.

POTENTIAL OSCAR CATEGORIES: Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay (Ryan Coogler), Best Actor (Michael B. Jordan)

STUDIO: The Weinstein Co.

CAST: Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Ahna O'Reilly, Chad Michael Murray, Kevin Durand and Octavia Spencer

SYNOPSIS: Oscar Grant was a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who loved his friends, was generous to strangers, and had a hard time telling the truth to the mother of his beautiful daughter. He was scared and courageous and charming and raw, and as human as the community he was part of. That community paid attention to him, shouted on his behalf, and filmed him with their cell phones when BART officers,
who were strong, intimidated, and acting in the way they thought they were supposed to behave around people like Oscar, shot him in cold blood at the Fruitvale subway stop on New Year’s Day in 2009.

The Great Gatsby
DIR. Baz Luhrmann / May 10

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby

Photo: Warner Bros.

Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! was released in June of 2011 and went on to score eight nominations at the 2002 Oscars, including Best Picture alongside A Beautiful Mind, Gosford Park, In the Bedroom and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Yes, Luhrmann hasn't given us much since. Yes, that wasn't a particularly great Best Picture line-up, and yes, The Great Gatsby has already been delayed with not-so-nice rumors swirling around its post-produciton. Nevertheles, I'm not ready to count out an adaptation of one of the greatest books of all-time featuring a cast such as this one, even if I believe Luhrmann has turned into a visual director more than anything else.

POTENTIAL OSCAR CATEGORIES: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio and/or Tobey Maguire), Supporting Actress (Carey Mulligan), Original Score (Craig Armstrong), Cinematography (Simon Duggan), Costumes (Catherine Martin), Visual Effects, Adapted
Screenplay (Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce)

STUDIO: Warner Bros.

CAST: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, Isla Fisher and Gemma Ward

SYNOPSIS: The Great Gatsby follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.

Parkland
DIR. Peter Landesman / TBA 2013

Writer/director Peter Landesman adapted and will direct Parkland based on the book "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" by Vincent Bugliosi and he's got an all-star cast to help him do it. Only problem in terms of Oscar is this one doesn't have a

distributor, but production began at the end of January giving this one time to be sold at the Cannes marketplace and perhaps find itself a nice, late year release and Toronto premiere.

UPDATED: As a commenter has pointed out below, Open Road Films will distribute Parkland.

POTENTIAL OSCAR CATEGORIES: Supporting categories, Cinematography (Barry Ackroyd), Costumes

STUDIO: Open Road Films

CAST: Zac Efron, Marcia Gay Harden, Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton, Jacki Weaver, James Badge Dale, Jackie Earle Haley, Colin Hanks and David Harbour

SYNOPSIS: Parkland recounts the chaotic events that occurred at Parkland Hospital in Dallas on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, November 22nd 1963. Part thriller, part real-time drama, Parkland is the ferocious, heart-stopping story of unexceptional people fighting for survival and reaching for heroism in an exceptional time.

The Place Beyond the Pines
DIR. Derek Cianfrance / March 29

Ryan Gosling in The Place Beyond the Pines

Photo: Sierra Affinity

I don't think Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines has much of a shot at Best Picture, Focus' decision to release it in March more-or-less sealed that deal, but acting wise Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling may have a shot her, though I wouldn't wager too much money on either of them, especially with Cooper having Serena and possibly David O. Russell's Abscam project later this year and Gosling starring in Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives. You can read my review of the film from Toronto last year right here.

POTENTIAL OSCAR CATEGORIES: Best Actor (Bradley Cooper), Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling), Supporting Actress (Eva Mendes)

STUDIO: Focus Features

CAST: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Rose Byrne, Dane DeHaan, Bruce Greenwood, Ben Mendelsohn and Emory Cohen

SYNOPSIS: Luke (Ryan Gosling) is a professional motorcycle rider who turns to bank robberies to support his newborn son, but when he crosses paths with a rookie police officer (Bradley Cooper) their violent confrontation spirals into a tense generational feud. The Place Beyond the Pines is a rich, dramatic thriller that traces the intersecting lives of fathers and sons, cops and robbers, heroes and villains.

Others at Source

Source 2

"The Canyons" controversy: 'cinema for the post theatrical era'

via glooce

Images of decaying suburban movie theaters frame scenes in "The Canyons," the new film by Paul Schrader and Bret Easton Ellis. Cinemas have been destroyed and left for dead in the bleak stills that serve as interstitials for this movie about the movies. One year in the making, the high profile DIY film stars Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen and now a finished cut is ready for its close-up. While WME sales agents are showing it to industry acquisitions execs this week, general audiences will have to wait at least a few more months to see it for themselves.

Set in present day SoCal, the film depicts a dilapidated and disillusioned subculture inhabited by young folks aimlessly trying to make it in the movies. Sitting at an outdoor cafe in Los Angeles in one scene from "The Canyons," Lohan's character and a publicist friend exchange a few words that underscore their relationship to modern cinema in L.A.

"Do you really like movies? Maybe they're just not my thing anymore."

Unlike his characters, Paul Schrader still likes the movies but he seems to be trying to navigate a filmmaking landscape that's left him on rather uneasy footing. He thought he'd cap his career in the independent world but the bottom dropped out of the market for the eight to ten million dollar movies he imagined making. With "The Canyons" he's pinpointed what he calls, "Cinema for the post theatrical era."

Schrader and I first struck up a conversation about the "The Canyons" during a party just before Christmas. Within about an hour I was in the passenger seat of his car heading to his Manhattan apartment for an impromptu screening of a nearly final cut of the movie. Schrader was looking for some tips on digital strategy and weighing the pros and cons of a festival run. We stayed in touch over the holidays and then I read the already infamous New York Times article about the movie and pitched a piece to Indiewire.

The roots of "The Canyons" and the collaboration between Schrader, Ellis and Pope dates back to a year ago when the trio saw the financing fall through for a different project.

In an email to Bret Easton Ellis at the time, Paul Schrader outlined the approach the team would take with "The Canyons." "Given the new economics of filmmaking, I envision this as a relatively micro-budget production," Schrader wrote to Ellis (copying producer Braxton Pope). "To make that work the script has to be multi-charactered, relationship based, full of sharp dialogue, set in contemporary locations and have a certain outre value. In other words, very much like the stuff Bret Easton Ellis writes."

They were motivated by Ed Burns, who has re-booted his brand via a revitalized filmmaking career rooted in low budget work aimed squarely at digital platforms. In remarks that resonated with Schrader, Burns said plainly in a recent interview, "Twitter has fundamentally changed the way I make films."

"I had to figure out how to work with a new economic paradigm," Schrader explained the other day. For "The Canyons," he imagined a filmmaking framework fueled by its social media footprint.

This modern story about the dark side of Hollywood evokes the lurid tales depicted in "Hollywood Babylon," Kenneth Anger's infamous book about Tinseltown scandals. At the center of the "The Canyons" is boy next door adult actor Deen. Dubbed the "Ryan Gosling of porn," Deen portrays the cold, scheming movie producer Christian who - lest he lose his trust fund - is making movies to satisfy his father's demands that he maintain a viable career. Lindsay Lohan stars as Tara, his girlfriend who's hiding an affair with a guy from her past she's about to shoot a film with. Christian and Tara invite various sex partners to their luxurious Malibu Canyon lair in a story rooted in the power dynamics playing out among various characters. Gus Van Sant has a playful cameo near the end of the movie.

For Schrader and Ellis, "The Canyons" is about people with hollow Hollywood dreams.

"These people are all talking about making a movie but they don't really care about movies," Schrader emphasized. There's a lot of sadness and desperation woven into a film that, during production, actually served as a training ground for a new generation of moviemakers.

To keep crew costs down, Schrader said he ran a sort of film class on the set of the "The Canyons." He had a dozen interns offering free labor in exchange for a hands on learning experience making a real movie with a real director. The film was shot with a couple of Arri Alexa cameras using mostly natural or existing lighting. The actors were paid $100 a day and offered deferments for future compensation once the movie generates revenue.

A Sundance or SXSW film festival launch for a new American indie film is de rigeur. Filmmakers set their post-production schedules to coincide with festival submission deadlines. Yet, with the proliferation of digital outlets enabling filmmakers to sell directly to an audience on multiple platforms simultaneously, some have started to wonder how long the traditional sequence will remain a tried and true path.

As they carve out their approach, Schrader and Pope are currently frustrated by negative buzz fueled by widely reported comments attributed to an unnamed SXSW programmer who surprisingly told The Hollywood Reporter that the festival had rejected the film.

Word that "The Canyons" wouldn't be screening at either Sundance or SXSW was reported on websites hungry for snarky celebrity soaked content that could stoke page views, even though no one had actually seen the movie. In the wake of the recent New York Times Magazine cover story that depicted a film set troubled by an erratic leading lady, some declared the movie dead. Buzz that "The Canyons" wouldn't have an early 2013 festival bow fueled speculation that the new film was stopped before entering the starting gate.

"People infer that we have a damaged product just because it was a difficult shoot," Paul Schrader told me on Sunday as we chatted inside a Manhattan restaurant, "Every shoot is difficult."

Having shown "The Canyons" to a few supportive friends who are film critics, as well as filmmakers including Steven Soderbergh and Nicolas Winding Refn, Schrader and Pope are confident that the film will resonate once people see it for themselves. Indeed, "The Canyons" is compelling, despite its cold as ice characters. When Deen and Lohan are on screen, it's particularly hard to look away.

"I thought it was a fascinating meeting of the minds between Paul Schrader and Bret Easton Ellis," said Scott Foundas, lead critic at the Village Voice, who watched the movie with Schrader and some friends last month. "You could almost describe it as as cross between 'American Psycho' and 'American Gigolo'. These are minor characters on the fringe of the Hollywood scene, all equally desperate and engaging in various forms of psychological and sexual manipulation."

"The movie itself, from my perspective as someone who doesn't live there, is a really accurate portrait of a certain stratum of life in Los Angeles," agreed Kent Jones, a colleague at the Film Society of Lincoln Center who is the Director of Programming for the New York Film Festival. Jones was particularly struck by Lohan's lead performance, likening it to Ann-Margaret in 'Carnal Knowledge'. "It's a reminder of what a great actress she is. She's fantastic."



Even with the compliments, Schrader and Pope realize that snarky observers have knives out for their lead actress.

"For all the folks who are eager to critique Lindsay, I take satisfaction in seeing her deliver a strong performance in a mature film helmed by a director, in Schrader, who is a deep thinker about film and a writer, in Bret Easton Ellis, who has been a great collaborator and who has seized the culture twice (with ‘Less Than Zero’ and ‘American Psycho’)," defended producer Braxton Pope. "And I like the transparency of our process. You get a lot of bombs thrown your way, but all those explosions keep things interesting."

Schrader and Pope hope that things go well with buyers this week at a series of New York and Los Angeles screenings orchestrated by Alexis Garcia at WME. As for Sundance and SXSW, though, Schrader isn't looking back.

"As much as you like to be invited to the party, it probably would not have been good for us to to be in Sundance or South by Southwest," Schrader elaborated, "We would have had an explosion of reaction out of Park City and a lot of it would have been very, very snarky and then we'd have to wait four months to exploit that," Schrader explained. "I think by the time we show it [to an audience] we should be able to say, you can see [it] for yourself."

"We set out to make a kind of provocation," Schrader added, "Bret's a provocateur. I am. James by the nature of his profession, Lindsay by the nature of her public persona. If four provocateurs can't provoke somebody, we're not doing our job."

Meanwhile, they aren't phased by sniping that their film would go straight to video. In fact, Schrader actually embraces that notion.

"Let's monetize this motherfucker," he exclaimed, invoking the fictitious Jerry Maguire inside a pub on his New York City block. "We are in a very fluid exhibition world where there are so many platforms and so many price points that theatrical just has to be seen as part of a panoply of options," he continued. "Straight to video isn't even a relevant term anymore. ['The Canyons'] was designed to go straight to video. There will be a limited theatrical, of course."

Indeed, a late spring festival slot timed to a simultaneous premiere on both digital and theatrical platforms could be in the cards for Schrader & Co.

"I think the new trend will be toward lining up a deal and then capturing the press attention from a festival with a concurrent release or shortly thereafter," explained producer Braxton Pope, "The festivals are still a great environment… but, for some films, I think they lose their momentum in the interim between festival sale and release."

Schrader stopped to reflect on momentum in his own career. "I don't think it is an old guy film," he added, "This doesn't feel like an out of gas movie. It feels very much to me in the style and mood of the people who are in it. Not some old fart looking at youth with a wistful eye."

"In the end, the movie will stand for itself. Lindsay's performance will stand for itself and the important thing is to make it available," Schrader said, "I'm more or less at the end of my career and it's just a gas to do this."

source 2

Screenwriter talks Blade Runner sequel

via glooce

 

When it was revealed that Ridley Scott had been working on a Blade Runner sequel for the last couple of years, there was understandably much excitement, with plenty of speculation as to when the film might see the light of day.

Among all the speculation was the suggestion that screenwriter Scott Z. Burns might be in the process of writing a script. That rumour was eventually shot down, but Burns himself has been talking about the project, and suggests that his involvement is still very much alive.

“I talked to Ridley about it at one point as a part of a larger conversation about us trying to find something to do together because I have such admiration for him,” explains Burns.

“I’m as huge a fan of that movie as anybody else who would be reading this or watching it, so what I said to him was, ‘Let’s not do that unless we have something amazing to do or to say,' because I don’t want to touch that idea unless I really feel like I have something amazing to contribute and right now I don’t know what that is.

“I think he and I will probably talk again about it,” continues Burns. “But again it’s less about that specifically and more about he and I wanting to make a science fiction movie together.

“So I hope that that happens, to me I’m not particularly attached to it being Blade Runner. I suspect by the time we would come up with something it would be its own thing and not attached to that franchise necessarily, because it is a franchise, it’s a great piece of work.”

Expect the rumours to run and run on this one…

Good. I don't want a lackluster and floppy sequel to taint the memory of a perfect movie. 

Source 2

What's blocking the "Dragon Tattoo" sequel?

via glooce

Soon after THR reported Jan. 22 that David Fincher is in early talks to direct Fox's adaptation of the psychological thriller novel Gone Girl, questions arose about the fate of another Girl: Sony's The Girl Who Played With Fire.

The studio insists it still plans to make the long-percolating follow-up to its Fincher-helmed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo but declines further comment. Although 2011's Tattoo made $233 million worldwide -- not a bad haul for a hard-R movie that came on the heels of a wildly successful Swedish-language trilogy also based on the books by Stieg Larsson -- the $90 million-budgeted film was not perceived as a runaway hit, and the studio is said to be hellbent on reducing the cost of the next chapter.

Sources close to the project say the biggest holdup isn't Fincher's involvement but star Daniel Craig's. The studio has options on Craig for two sequels, but the actor is said to want a pay raise, not a cut, in the wake of Skyfall grossing $1 billion worldwide. If Sony can't bring Craig back to reprise his role as journalist Mikael Blomkvist, the sources say the studio could write the character out of the sequel. (A Craig source says negotiations have yet to commence but the actor wants to return to the role.)

A Craig write-around wouldn't be impossible given that the second book focuses more on Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). The actress is on board to reprise her role as the heroine with savantlike hacking skills.

Still, Sony would prefer not to be forced to commission a rewrite of Steven Zaillian's script, which is considered production-ready and cost the studio mid-seven figures, one of the most expensive adaptations to date. It is unclear whether Zaillian would be available for an overhaul given that he has turned his attention to the HBO series Criminal Justice, starring James Gandolfini.

As for Fincher, a project insider says don't count him out of the running for Played With Fire. The script for Gone Girl -- being adapted by the book's author, Gillian Flynn -- is far from where it needs to be. In fact, the only film seriously vying for Fincher's immediate attention is Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but the helmer and studio can't seem to find common ground on the budget. For its part, Sony has good reason to bring back Fincher and the final two chapters in the trilogy. Tattoo was a critical hit, nabbing five Oscar nominations including a best actress mention for Mara. And the Larsson books continue to sell worldwide. "Everyone wants to make the next movies happen," says an insider. "There's a great story to tell."


THR 2

Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence Look Out at 'Catching Fire' Shots Final Scenes

via glooce

 

No doubt there's been a Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence look out this week. Catching Fire has made an emergency decision to shoot some finals scenes at Ringwood State Park in northern New Jersey.

Loyal fans of the Hunger Games series had thought all scenes for its sequel had been shot but they were wrong. A permit was filed "for a commercial film shoot at Ringwood State Park and Ramapo Mountain State Forest for GGX Productions under the film name, The Idiom."

There was widespread belief this was a fake title also used for casting calls for Catching Fire.

"The permit called for scouting of the locations on Tuesday and Wednesday with filming Thursday and Friday with any extra days to be determined. State Parks Police at the entrance to Ringwood State Park said the entire park was closed Friday and would re-open Saturday."

There have been previous times when scene locations were leaked and security had to be on hand to deal with onlookers and fans. Chances are the same thing happened this time because "park security would not allow a Record photographer to get close to the set."

Catching Fire has become one of the most anticipated movies and fans love getting behind the scenes or into the scenes when they can. If there's a chance Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence were filming, their following would have on the stake out. They have a chemistry that many wish would grow into a solid friendship that many admire.

Which celebrity would you camp out all night to catch a glimpse of? Would it be Joshifer?

source 2

 

Julian Assange Calls Bill Condon's Biopic The Fifth Estate A Massive Propadanda Attack

via glooce

Benedict Cumberbatch certainly looks the part in The Fifth Estate, in which he is playing notorious journalist Julian Assange, but apparently his subject is none too happy about the film. On Wednesday night Assange spoke during an Oxford Union debate via videolink and took part of his time to slam the upcoming movie, which is being directed by Oscar winning filmmaker Bill Condon.

According to Deadline, when the subject turned to the new DreamWorks film Assange called the project a "massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff." He claims to have read a copy of the script - though offered no evidence that he has one - and said that the project will be “fanning the flames” of international conflict due to the fact that the movie reportedly begins "inside a military complex in Iran with the suggestion a nuclear bomb is being built."

Production on the movie only began earlier this week, the studio also announcing that it will be coming out right in the heart of this year's Oscar race on November 15th of this year. In addition to Cumberbatch the film also stars Daniel Brühl, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Dan Stevens, Alicia Vikander and Carice van Houten.

It's interesting that this would happen now, as just last week Prince Albert of Monaco and the rest of the royal family denounced the upcoming biopic Grace of Monaco, saying that the story is "pointlessly glamorized and contains important historical inaccuracies as well as scenes of pure fiction." I guess now is not the time to be in the business of making biopics.

source

Neill Blomkamp: An Oddyssey Through District 9, and Why Elysium Will Be Brilliant

via glooce

 

After far too long away from the game, Neill Blomkamp returns this year with his highly anticipated follow-up to District 9: the Matt Damon-starring Elysium. Blomkamp exploded from out of nowhere in 2009 with his analogous, modern Sci-fi masterpiece, and it instantly marked him as one to watch for the future. With 4 (count ‘em!) Academy nods and heaps of praise from all quarters, excitement is understandably building for his second feature. Here are a few things we can expect from Elysium…

Turns out it was Earth all along. Blomkamp pulled an interesting little trick by using District 9‘s human/alien segregation to explore apartheid and themes of segregation. Some of the best Sci-fi works as a kind of defamiliarisation, in that it takes a facet of life as we know it and twists it into something simultaneously alien and eerily familiar. Look at something like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – it encapsulates the paranoia of the era (Watergate, anyone?) perfectly, and in a way that is removed enough from its source to make for a non-preachy piece of entertainment. It’s a fine line of course, what with Avatar‘s gorgeous looks and pure entertainment value not quite distracting from its bludgeoning message of “Umm…the war in Iraq is bad mmkay?” It’s made fairly clear that apartheid is the major issue that is being examined in District 9, but it focuses upon the very issue itself, rather than having some gung-ho soldiers with a collective social conscience kicking against the injustices of a brutal ruling regime. Sure, protagonist Wikus (Sharlto Copley) does come around to the injustices, but only because he has been implicated in the alien struggle purely by accident. His transformation into one of the creatures is terrifying and visceral; an exaggerated comment on just how difficult it is for South Africa to face up to its past. It works because it distracts us with its winning combination of body-horror and emphasis on character over theme.

The first half-hour is unsettling to say the least. Forced evictions, slums, murdered non-conformists and the burning of alien spawn paint an uncomfortable picture. It is the novelty side of things that make the film so impressive: found-footage style, alien invaders who don’t really want to invade, and the Johannesburg setting seemingly make things too far removed from reality. Acknowledging the camera serves to heighten the fiction when we see it on a big screen, non-aggressive invaders seem somewhat silly and Johannesburg is so far away that it might as well be Oz. However, the things that initially alienate the film from the real world seem sinister when examined. The found-footage approach mostly gives way shortly after the initial eviction scene, shifting focus from the overarching theme to the human involvement therein, which feels a little more real. Those easily penned-in aliens seem a little too human in their weakness and compliance. Throw a vicious Nigerian gang into the slums of District 9 and you’ve got an analogy for every broken-down neighbourhood and slum ever to exist. Crime moves in and takes advantage, the government leaves things be until the issue gets too close to the “nicer” parts of town, and only then is action taken. You only have to look up District Six in South Africa’s recent history to see the kinds of things Blomkamp is getting at in District 9.

Such an assured approach to his debut suggests that Elysium‘s thematic ideas will be handled in a similarly impressive manner. The plot of Elysium seems loaded with allusion to the whole Occupy Movement, 99%-ers business etc. In the film, the wealthiest of the wealthy live on a space station, far away from the poor who have been left on a decaying planet Earth. That one line of plot screams “WE ARE THE 99%!”, doesn’t it? The issue may be a fairly cheap one to address right now. The Dark Knight Rises, for example, has already had a go at it. The problem with TDKR‘s attempt is simple: it all looks too familiar. Every man and his boy-wonder side-kick knows that Gotham City is just the gritty parts of New York on a bad day. That being said, it’s no stretch to imagine that there is also a “money” element to Gotham; a place where the rich can look down upon the poor with a grimace. You don’t have to squint too hard to make the Gotham Stock Exchange look a lot like Wall Street. The idea is generally undercooked, what with the comic book constraints that must ultimately limit even the greatest adaptations of the medium’s best work, yet it does make for intriguing viewing. With a more concerted effort and a script not restricted by the laws of adaptation, Neill Blomkamp should find himself with significantly more fertile ground to work from than his peers. We could potentially be looking at the first great Sci-fi film to address the financial state of our time.

The foundations that Blomkamp has laid down with District 9 seem to have attracted a veritable dream-team of talent and perks. First off, the reported $100,000,000 budget is a massive step up from the $30,000,000 that Blomkamp managed to do so much with in his debut feature. District 9 succeeded in its attempt at a tricky illusion: making a relatively low-budget Sci-fi look like a genuine Hollywood blockbuster. Just imagine what the people behind the undeniably visually-impressive District 9 can do with a massively inflated budget.

Of course, inflated budget does not necessarily mean a better movie. They gave Richard Kelly almost $20,000,000 to follow up the comparatively cheap Donnie Darko, and what happened? I’ll tell you what happened: the critical and commercial flop that is Southland Tales, which managed only around half a million dollars worldwide during its cinematic run. Personally, I don’t have too many qualms with it as a film, but it certainly is a disappointment when you consider just how good Donnie Darko was. The recent Transformers franchise proves that an ever-expanding budget doesn’t buy you a good movie. The first installment was grounded in humanity, the story of a boy buying his first car is timeless. Then came the robots, you know, that staple of adolescence. An extra $50,000,000 on each of the sequels did more harm than good, with the franchise leaning more upon the jaw-dropping special effects than any kind of humanity. I swear, Revenge of the Fallen had some of the worst character development I have ever seen. Megan Fox stand close to Shia LaBeouf, some moody music plays, then the camera runs around them in a circle. It’s not exactly expertly crafted dramatic framing, is it? Revenge of the Fallen acts as a cautionary tale for Sci-fi/action movies, in that it showed the results of what happens when special effects become the focus of a film. Sure, it’s great to look at, but you just don’t feel invested in the characters. The fact that I cared far more for the machines than any human character is pretty damning.

In contrast, take a look at District 9. Blomkamp has crafted a protagonist with an easily-identifiable persona and enough backstory-heft to make it easy to care for him. Wikus is flawed and very human, but he is also tragic. His Kafkaesque transformation is engaging, and even though the writing is deserving of praise, Sharlto Copley’s grounded and believable performance is the key to success. His dorky office worker is relatable (anyone who has ever worked in an office will know someone like him), and the familial touches – his birthday party, for example – are handled brilliantly by Copley. His desperation is palpable, and even his less-noble acts later on are made understandable by Copley’s natural translation of the character.

The follow-up to a debut hit is always tricky business. I mentioned Richard Kelly earlier, and he’s not the only director to stumble at the second picture. Rian Johnson burst onto the scene with high-school noir flick Brick, then lost a lot of goodwill with the throwaway The Brothers Bloom. He bounced back last year with Looper, but that doesn’t disguise the fact that his second film was not quite up to scratch. Then again, some directors have succeeded in impressively following-up, and even bettering, their debut. Tarantino is a startling example of this – somehow eclipsing the refreshing Reservoir Dogs with Pulp Fiction.

If you’re a fan of Sci-fi, you’ll know that there is some exciting talent out there. Alex Garland, who wrote screenplays for Dredd, Never Let Me Go and the criminally underrated Sunshine is a great example. It is important that new talent is encouraged within the genre. (An interesting note: Garland originally wrote a treatment for the long-awaited Halo movie, whilst Blomkamp has been rumoured as a possibility to direct). It’s genuinely inspiring to see that there are plenty of possible maestros being given their chance. Gareth Evans may be a controversial choice for the Godzilla reboot, but it is a great show of faith in young talent. Similarly, Josh Trank is attached to the latest attempt at a Fantastic Four movie, and after Chronicle, it seems that the sky is the limit for that young man.

Blomkamp has already shown flashes of a special talent, and Matt Damon has said of his director that he may well be this generation’s James Cameron. Hopefully Blomkamp will conduct himself with a higher degree of subtlety than Mr. Cameron, but it is high praise from a man who has worked with his fair share of quality directors. Elysium is, without doubt, a make-or-break moment, but with so much promise shown in District 9, it seems impossible to think that Blomkamp will waste his opportunity. Sci-fi is a genre ripe with potential for social commentary, philosophical debate and some good old-fashioned balls-to-the-wall action. Such a thrilling prospect is not often found in other genres due to their familiarity with the “real world”, and Neill Blomkamp could prove to be the leading light in one of the most talented batches of Sci-fi talent that has ever been.

SOURCE 2

'The Hobbit' expected to gross $1 billion worldwide by March

via glooce

 

The Hobbit is on course to become the 15th movie to earn over $1 billion (£630 million) at the box office worldwide.

Since opening in December, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has already raked in a whopping $921 million (£581 million) at cinemas across the world. Peter Jackson's film is still on general release, and has yet to open in China, so Variety predicts that it will cross the $1 billion barrier by March.

Back in 1998, Titanic became the first film to make over $1 billion at the box office worldwide. Last year, three films joined the so-called "billion dollar club": The Avengers ($1.51 billion to date) , The Dark Knight Rises ($1.08 billion) and Skyfall ($1.04 billion).

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first in Jackson's new trilogy of JRR Tolkien adaptations. The second instalment, subtitled The Desolation Of Smaug, opens in cinemas on December 13 this year, before the series concludes with There And Back Again on July 18 2014.

source 2

SXSW Rejected Lindsay Lohan's 'Canyons' Over 'Quality Issues'

via glooce

 

A festival insider tells THR the Paul Schrader-directed thriller has "an ugliness and a deadness to it."
Are there no film festivals willing to welcome Lindsay Lohan’s The Canyons?

Sources tell THR that SXSW has joined Sundance in rejecting the erotic thriller. A festival insider tells THR that the Bret Easton Ellis-penned, Paul Schrader-directed Canyons — which features tons of nudity, including au naturel shots of Lohan — suffers from significant “quality issues.”
Says a festival insider, “It’s got an ugliness and a deadness to it.” Canyons producer Braxton Pope says the filmmakers are still awaiting official word from the festival.

source  2

Robert Rodriguez talks Sin City 2

via glooce

 

Robert Rodriguez has been a busy man of late, recruiting long and hard for forthcoming sequel, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, and the latest name he's convinced to return is none other than Bruce Willis.

Rodriguez confirmed that Willis will be reprising his role as grizzled cop Hartigan in an interview with MTV, in which he also provided an update on how the production has been progressing.

"The only story we've shot is the intro story, that's completely done," said Rodriguez. "The other ones we've just sort of been piecemealing, shooting as the actors become available. All three stories have a little bit of footage to be shot.

"[Joseph Gordon-Levitt] plays a gambler," he continues. "A very cocky gambler that comes in and tries to beat the biggest villain in Sin City at his own game.

"The story is called The Long Bad Night," he continues. "He beats the wrong guy at a game... bad stuff happens to him."

Co-starring Mickey Rourke, Josh Brolin, Jessica Alba and Rosario Dawson, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For opens in the US on 4 October 2013.


source 1 | 2|3

First Image of Jim Carrey in Kick Ass 2

via glooce

New Movie stills from "before midnight" with julie delpy & ethan hawke

via glooce

 

Could there be any movie at the Sundance Film Festival more anticipated – perhaps with a bit of nervousness – than Richard Linklater's "Before Midnight"? With the third romantic outing for Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, fans are hoping the film honors the remarkable and beautiful "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," and undoubtedly, the picture is easily one of the hottest pictures that distributors may end up battling for. We'll soon know how it plays as the film premieres tonight, but until then, here are some new images from the movie.

Shot on the sly in Greece last summer, the picture catches up with Celine and Jesse nine years later, as once again they use a portion of the day to reignite their relationship. Not much has been given away about the story, though Hawke had previously teased that, "The biggest change between this one and the last one is the Internet" and that, "I feel like in a strange way we may have come to the end of the story." There's no doubt we're anxious to see where these characters go next, and we just hope it's as rewarding an experience as the previous two films.

After playing Sundance, "Before Midnight" will head to the Berlin International Film Festival next month, and hopefully we'll see it open in theaters soon.

source 2

MGM planning Ben-Hur remake

via glooce

 

After nearly folding due to bankruptcy just a few years ago, MGM Studios is back and better than ever, after the success of Skyfall and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The studio is gearing up to take on what may be their most ambitious project yet, a remake of the 1959 classic Ben-Hur.

The studio has acquired a spec screenplay by Keith R. Clarke (The Way Back), which is much more faithful to the 1880 novel by Lew Wallace. While director William Wyler's Ben-Hur focused on the feud between Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and Messalla (Stephen Boyd), this film will explore the characters' formative years, growing up as best friends before the Roman Empire conquered Jerusalem.

This script also features Jesus Christ, who encounters Ben-Hur and whose tale is told in parallel to the title character. Ben-Hur begins to believe that Christ is the Messiah, before the savior is killed by Pontius Pilate.

Sean Daniel and Joni Levin are attached to produce. No production schedule has been released.
Ben-Hur was released November 18th, 1959 and stars Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Sam Jaffe. The film is directed by William Wyler.



source 2

Ray Liotta, Juno Temple & Jeremy Piven Join Robert Rodriguez's 'Sin City: A Dame To Kill For'

via glooce

 

2013 could prove to be the year of Robert Rodriguez. The prolific filmmaker has always been uber-productive, but this year, we'll get a double dose: he'll have two films hit theaters a month apart of each other. The first, "Machete Kills" will land in theaters on September 13th via Open Road and and then four weeks later, Dimension Films' "Sin City: A Dame To Kill For" will follow. And with cameras rolling on the highly anticipated follow-up to "Sin City," three more actors have joined the cast.

Sources close to the production have confirmed to The Playlist that Ray Liotta, Juno Temple and Jeremy Piven have all come on board the picture. Details on their characters are being kept under wraps for now, but the trio join some very good company. 'A Dame To Kill For' is chalk full of talent, including original cast members Mickey Rourke as Marv, Jessica Alba as Nancy, Rosario Dawson as Gail and Jaime King as Goldie/Wendy and newcomers to the fold Josh Brolin as Dwight (replacing Clive Owen), Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Johnny, Dennis Haysbert as Manute (replacing the late Michael Clarke Duncan) and Jamie Chung as Miho. Production is already underway at Rodriguez’s always busy Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas.

Liotta is on a bit of a comeback, fresh off roles in Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly" and Derek Cianfrance's "The Place Beyond The Pines," which audiences will be able to see in the spring. He'll also soon be seen in "The Iceman" opposite Michael Shannon and Olivier Megaton's "Into The Americas." Temple is coming off "The Dark Knight Rises," has "The Brass Teapot" on the way and will be seen in three Sundance films this week: "Afternoon Delight," "Magic Magic" with Michael Cera and "Lovelace" starring Amanda Seyfried. She also has upcoming roles on the horizon in "Maleficent" starring Angelina Jolie and "Horns" with Daniel Radcliffe. Meanwhile, Piven has been busy with his new series "Mr. Selfridge," which is now airing in the U.K. and will hit American TV screens via PBS later this year.

"Sin City: A Dame To Kill For" arrives in theaters on October 4th.

source 2