Trailer Talk: Evaluating What’s Coming out in Three Minutes or Less
The end of this week saw the release of trailers for several of next fall’s most hotly anticipated film releases. Here’s our take on what to expect based on our extensive deep dives into their sub-three minute trailers…
The World’s End
Is it lazy to just write about films in terms of those that have come before them? What about writing about two movies that haven’t come out yet?
The Greatest Gatsby: Before Leo,There was Redford
When Paramount purchased the film rights to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel for $350,000 (more than fifty times what the author earned for the book in his lifetime), studio head Robert Evans had no way of knowing just how different the 1974 film would look from his original vision. For a story that’s all about dwelling on the past, on the eve of Baz Luhrmann’s latest 'Great Gatsby' interpretation, it seems fitting to look back on the making of the Robert Redford-Mia Farrow film,
The Wild, Expensive (and not Always Improbable) Technology of Iron Man
You’d have to be a billionaire to equip yourself like Tony Stark, but it’s not entirely impossible.
Tony Stark is back. After helping his fellow Avengers save the world against a Norse god and vicious aliens, he spent years working on his technology, because at heart, Stark is an engineer. Marvel president Kevin Feige told GeekyTyrant.com that Stark has a whopping 42 new suits of armor in Iron Man 3,
One of America’s Greatest Exports: 2012 a Banner Year at the Global Box Office
With Iron Man 3 set to open wide tomorrow (and having already done brisk business overseas), this year has a slew of giant films that are likely to translate into boffo sales overseas. Those films include Star Trek: Into Darkness, Man of Steel, and Pacific Rim. It would not be a risky bet to pick all three as big-time global performers,
Economic Adrenaline: How Movie Theaters Drive Local Economies
Open the doors of the Park Theatre in McKenzie, Tenn., a tiny town 130 miles west of Nashville, and it feels like you’re in a haunted house — literally. That’s because the lobby is covered in cobwebs, skeletons and plastic bats, the campy leftovers of Halloween’s Nightmare Theatre, one of many fundraising events meant to help restore this historic 1940s movie house that has been abandoned for the better part of two decades.
Iconic ‘ArcLight Hollywood’ Hosts Great Films and Stars: Target Presents AFI Night At The Movies
Tonight, Target and the American Film Institute (AFI) are hosting an idyllic Angeleno event– a celebration of classic cinema alongside the stars born from them, seated before a big screen at the legendary dome-affixed, Sunset Boulevard institution; the ArcLight Theaters in Hollywood. Admit it, the cineaste within you just swooned at the thought.
Unlike many nightclubs on the same street, swoon is not exclusive to well-connected denizens of LA –
Drawing Inspiration: Sketching With the Storyboard Artists of Oblivion
Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) heads down to planet Earth — or what’s left of it anyway — to find a downed surveillance drone that has landed in the charred remnants of the New York Public Library’s Rose Reading Room. It’s only when Harper hits the ground of this cavernous space that he realizes he’s entered a trap. Someone — or something — wants to capture this drone repairman alive.
Whether he’s rappelling into a forgotten old library,
Why the Experience of Seeing Movies in the Theater Will Never Get Old
It’s well past midnight at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn, yet nearly every seat in the theater is taken. There’s a palatable sense of glee in the dark room (likely aided by the cinema’s plentiful bar) as the film reaches its crux: “Run! Go! Get to da choppa!!” screams Arnold Schwarzenegger. The audience breaks into hysterics.
That’s right; we gathered here tonight not to see some newly released Blockbuster but to watch the original 1987 Predator.
CinemaCon Showcase: Twentieth Century Fox’s Upcoming Film Releases
So we’ve gotten a peek at Paramount, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, and Sony Pictures upcoming slate of films during our time at CinemaCon.
Here’s a trailer roundup for you from Twentieth Century Fox, which includes a good cross section of animation, comedies, and big-time action blockbusters.
Epic (May 24)
This 3D animated adventure directed by Chris Wedge and based on William Joyce’s children’s book “The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs”
Extra Butter: How Popcorn Came To Be Cinema’s Most Beloved Snack
In honor of CinemaCon, we are saluting movie theaters everywhere with an entire week of theater-themed content.
For many, a trip to the movies elicits a Pavlovian response: As soon as you walk through the theater doors, an irrepressible craving for popcorn ensues. Since childhood, we’ve been conditioned to—and more importantly, allowed to—consume handful upon buttery handful of salt-dusted popcorn from the moment the theater lights go down until the credits begin to roll.
“Playing the Palace”: A History Of Motion Picture Palaces
Today’s motion picture exhibitors treat the movie going public to the most technologically advanced presentation in the history of the medium. We take a look back to see why this has always been so.
In 1914, Mitchell Mark and his brother Moe, opened what many consider the first movie palace, the one-million dollar Mark Strand Theater in Times Square, New York City. Mitchell Mark hired Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel to manage the theater and bring in the crowds.
By The Book: Literary Icons Flock to Hollywood
Los Angeles, arguably best known for its flagship status as a gateway to Hollywood and the film industry at large, has developed uncountable stereotypes for the culture that populates its traffic-clogged arteries. And while there might be too many LAisms to count (for starters: epic taco trucks, grass-scented juice bars, fuzzed-up band members sauntering down Sunset Boulevard, etc. etc.) those reserved for the film industry are particularly iconic misnomers. Among them, my favorite: the questioningly ambitious,
Are you a Joffrey, a Cersei, or a Jon Snow? Take our Game of Thrones Personality Quiz
Season three of Game of Thrones is finally, mercifully here. Of the many, many reasons to love GOT (dragons, palace intrigue, a Tolkien-esque commitment to mythical cartography with a Cinemax After Dark commitment to carnal relations), we've found that it’s the fantastically divergent (and huge) cast of characters that makes it endlessly enjoyable, week after week. Millions of fans would no doubt agree.These characters!
On the 50th Anniversary of The Birds, the Story of how a Disney Animator Helped Hitchcock fly
On this 50th Anniversary of the premiere of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, we learn how The Mouse House helped the master of suspense realize one of his most technically ambitious and influential movies.
After the global success of Psycho in 1960, the world was anxiously awaiting to see how director Alfred Hitchcock would scare them next. Rather than rest on the laurels of an already legendary thirty-five year directorial career,
Getting Gleefully Lost in The Shining Documentary Room 237
“In all things mysterious, never explain.” – Stanley Kubrick, quoting H.P. Lovecraft in an interview with John Hofsess of the International Herald Tribune, October 26, 1980.
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining was released in the summer of 1980 to tepid reviews but, lucky for him, boffo box office. As with all of Kubrick’s movies since 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, the critics were confounded by what they had seen.
Week in Review: Eight Talking Points from the World of Film & TV From This Past Week
Surely you’ve got more to talk about than Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon…
Back to school: The Weinstein Company has officially confirmed they will release Salinger, a feature length documentary on the Catcher in the Rye author, on September 6th. The film was directed by Shane Salerno (he also co-wrote a companion biography with journalist David Shields, to be published by Simon & Schuster, who is a co-producer on the film).
Veronica Mars Takes Hollywood By Storm: We Imagine The Next Back-From-The-Dead Kickstarter Projects
The wildly successful campaign for the Veronica Mars movie brought in $4 million in mere days, making Kickstarter a viable interest-vetting platform for Hollywood. As rumors continue to volley about the potential resurrection of long-forgotten or ended-too-soon series, sequels, and one-offs, industry insiders have been prophetically asking: does the digital model of supply-and-demand mark a new era of movie-making as we know it?
How'd it happen?
From Game of Thrones to 42: An Epic Spring Awaits
At 7:02 a.m. EDT this morning, the sun crossed directly over the Earth’s equator in a moment called the vernal equinox (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, that is)—when both day and night are, more or less, equal. Spring lasts until the summer solstice, which comes on Friday, June 21st. Although this might sound like a strange intro to a Weather.com report, we’re merely alerting you to this specific stretch of time because, between today and June 21st,
511 Days of Total Darkness: The Incredible True Story Behind the Documentary No Place on Earth
In 1993, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, NYPD officer and caving enthusiast Chris Nicola set out to Western Ukraine to explore Verteba and the Priest’s Grotto Cave, one of the longest cave systems in the world. Inside the caves—dark, damp, and stifling, wholly inhospitable to human life—he found the unthinkable: buttons, shoes, a house key, artifacts of human habitation decidedly recent. Upon returning from the caves, his attempts at discovering the origins of these items led him to only the offhand comment from a local villager that,
Week in Review: Seven Talking Points From the World of Film From the Past Week
Veronica who? While it’s entirely possibly you’ve never heard of the series Veronica Mars, which aired on the CW from 2004-2007, a Kickstarter campaign launched on Wednesday by the show’s star Kristin Bell, and its director Rob Thomas, raised $2 million in ten hours to resurrect the show in film form. Read more here.
There’s little doubt they’ll struggle to raise their goal of $3.2 million by the April 11 deadline,
