Stuart Townsend may be best known for being fired from the role of Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, but he’s looking to make a new name for himself: director. He’s currently shooting a fairly sprawling movie, The Battle in Seattle, based on the true story of the 1999 anti-WTO protests in … Continue reading
Controversy swirls around Dakota Fanning’s next film, which will play the Sundance Film Festival in January. Officially called “Untitled Dakota Fanning Project” but known as Hounddog (“I’m supposed to say Untitled, but it’s basically Hounddog,” Fanning told me), the movie stars the preternaturally mature child actor as a girl who gets raped and then finds … Continue reading
The remake of The Hills Have Eyes was one of the best horror films I’ve seen in some time. It worked for me on almost every level, and I guess it worked for the audience too, since it made enough money to warrant a sequel. I don’t know if that film will be any good … Continue reading
Last week it was announced that George Clooney would star in Joe Carnahan’s adaptation of the great James Ellroy novel, White Jazz. It’s a perfect fit of actor, director and material, and if the film wasn’t starting in 2008 I would be almost unbearably excited about it right now. Yesterday I spoke with George Clooney … Continue reading
One of 2007’s most exciting films is Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There, a movie about Bob Dylan… sort of. A number of actors play Bob at different points in his career, and in the past couple of weeks I have had the chance to talk to two of them. Ben Whishaw plays the lead in … Continue reading
Bill Condon’s adaptation of the Broadway show Dreamgirls has been a buzzed about Oscar contender for months, and recent screenings have cemented the film’s place in the year end sweepstakes. Paramount/Dreamworks is pushing the picture in a number of categories, including Beyonce for Best Actress and American Idol loser Jennifer Hudson for Best Supporting Actress. … Continue reading
The first full trailer for Hot Fuzz, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s follow-up to Shaun of the Dead, is out now and it is – predictably – excellent. And quite funny. But what I love most is the action stuff; Shaun is a wonderfully funny movie, but it also works completely as a … Continue reading
UPDATED! Ryan Rotten weighs in at the end of this piece. The release of the new DVD edition of The Punisher movie – now with a cartoon in it! – has prompted director Jonathan Hensleigh to give an interview to Newsarama that every now and again seems a touch combative. NRAMA: It was an odd … Continue reading
The only thing keeping a full-fledged 80s revival from happening is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s job as the governor of California. Bruce Willis is filming Die Hard 4, Sylvester Stallone has a Rocky movie hitting in a few weeks and starts on a Rambo film next year, and now Eddie Murphy is returning to Axel Foley in … Continue reading
I watched my DVD of Fantastic Four recently and I stand proud and unswayed: it’s not a bad movie! Tim Story et al actually captured a lot of the spirit of the original comic books, even down to reviled things like Johnny Storm being into X-Treme Sports – the kid was a trendy hot rodder … Continue reading