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
Brad Anderson’s next film, Trans-Siberian has just signed on six new cast members. Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Kate Mara, Eduardo Noriega, Ben Kingsley and Thomas Kretschmann are all set to get on the train and cause some mayhem.The film is about an American couple (Harrelson and Morton) traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Things get a … Continue reading
If George Clooney owned his own football team, it would shape up quite nicely. That man has an eye for talent (at least I think so). The closest we’ll ever get to that, though is Leatherheads.For those who don’t know already, Leatherheads is romantic comedy set in the world of 1920s football. Clooney is also … Continue reading
Martin Scorsese has announced another movie he’d like to make in the coming years: The Last Duel. This will be one of the first films Scorsese will do under his four-year first look deal with Paramount Pictures.Though at the moment he is only developing The Last Duel, Scorsese is looking to direct it as well.The … 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