With Southland Tales finally finished (and set for limited release from Samuel Goldwyn Films on November 9th), Richard Kelly is now free at last, free at last to roll on his long-delayed third feature, The Box. Scripted by Eli Roth, The Box is based on a Richard Matheson short story, "Button, Button", about a housewife … Continue reading
(Impressions from a Thursday, October 11th cocktail reception at Il Cielo in Beverly Hills.) SPOILERS FOR EASTERN PROMISES DIVULGED!David Cronenberg does not look back. He may appreciate the multitude of plaudits he receives to this day for classics like Dead Ringers, The Fly, The Brood, Videodrome and The Dead Zone, but he is too busy … Continue reading
Charlie Wilson’s War is going to be a wittier, zippier film than the timidly political picture being sold by this theatrical trailer, so the question before Universal now is how do they more effectively play up the screwball buoyancy of Sorkin’s screenplay. Because they’ve got to. Otherwise, the film will continue to look like a … Continue reading
When it was announced that Cate Blanchett would reprise her role as The Virgin Queen in a sequel to 1998’s Elizabeth (the film that vaulted her to international movie star status), there was much rejoicing amongst Anglophiles. Not only were they getting the 329th variation on the life of The Queen That Saved England (sans … Continue reading
You need to hop over to the MTV Movies Blog right this very instant and check out this sliver of Josh Horowitz’s interview with Michael Caine and Jude Law – and not just because it’s fun to watch the latter seethe whilst considering all of the superhero roles he’s lost out on. Though Horowitz could … Continue reading
First the bad news: that untitled 1930’s Hollywood noir that Michael Mann was shopping last May? It’s kinda dead. Last I heard, every studio in town had balked at the $120 million price tag, with only New Line offering a reduced-rate greenlight (they asked Mann to knock the budget down to $90 million; that’s $30 … Continue reading
When I graduated from college in 1997, I wanted to be Beau Willimon. Never mind that Willimon was then a sophomore at Columbia University and completely unknown to me; it’s what he’s now accomplishing with an MFA in Abject Poverty Playwriting that closely mirrors my own youthful (and now sadly erstwhile) ambitions. Over the coming … Continue reading
There’s an interesting debate being waged over Brian De Palma’s Redacted, but it’s in danger of being reduced to a art vs. commerce scuffle. At issue is the decision made by 2929 Entertainment’s Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner (Redacted‘s financiers) to censor a series of heart-wrenching war photographs (of slain Iraqi civilians) which are intended … Continue reading
Aside from the Spielberg summit at Universal, the big nerd news of yesterday was Eric Bana getting cast as the villain in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. This would all be much more interesting if Abrams had leaked the surely brilliant screenplay by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman; then, we’d know if Bana’s character, Nero, will … Continue reading
THE POWER OF CRAIG COMPELS YOU! Anytime an extended theatrical trailer has to spend a full three minutes explaining in gratuitous detail its basic reason for being (i.e. its hook), it’s time to worry. That’s why the geniuses at New Line have are taking no further risks with the $150 million-plus investment that is The … Continue reading