Getting Edgy With Kill Bill Sword Choreographer Tetsuro Shimaguchi
I’m standing in a dimly lit bar located two floors below street level in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, while a man clad in black is rapidly approaching while swinging a Samurai sword directly towards my neck.
I’ve had interviews go better.
The weapon of note is being welded by expert swordsman Tetsuro Shimaguchi, best known for his featured role as Crazy 88’s “Miki”, the right-hand minion of Lucy Liu’s character O-Ren Ishi in Quentin Tarantino's 2003/2004 opus Kill Bill Vol...
The Next Han Solo Will Have to Live up to These Star Wars Moments
The ingredients for the recently announced standalone Han Solo film include two proven co-writers and directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 & 22 Jump Street, The Lego Movie), who know how to stage witty, exciting action, a good combo for a film about the most beloved rogue in the Star Wars galaxy (yes, even more beloved than Boba Fett).
Kill Bill’s Sword Choreographer Critiques 5 Iconic Star Wars Lightsaber Battles
Playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton believed that “The pen is mighter than the sword.” back in 1839, but if he’d stuck around to pick a fight with Tetsuro Shimaguchi, he might’ve have reconsidered that stance.
As the drumbeat of anticipation grows for the Dec. 18th release of J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens with the latest news about the film soon to be revealed at Comic-Con this Friday,...
Here’s How They Created Minionese, the Language of the Minions
In Universal Pictures' Minions, the three lead Minions are Kevin, the “big brother,” protector and leader, Stuart, the rebellious “middle brother,” and Bob, the innocent, eager “little brother” who loves everyone and everything. They're on a mission to find a new master (this is a prequel to Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, so they haven't met Gru yet), a mission they've been on,...
New Ant-Man Featurette: Marvel’s Biggest Avenger May Come in its Smallest Suit
He may not be as sexy a character as billionaire geinus (and narcissist) Tony Stark, as irresistibly rococo as the Hulk, or as satisfyingly kick-ass as the Black Widow, but you could argue none of these beloved Avengers are more important than Dr. Pym (Michael Douglas), the original Ant-Man, and the man he puts in his miraculous suit, thief-turned-hero, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd).
As one of the original founders of the Avengers, and “one of the smartest people in the Marvel universe,”...
A Q&A With Sam Elliott, Whose Career, Like his Mustache, is as Strong as Ever
Veteran actor Sam Elliott, known for his impressive mustache and that velvet-in-gravel voice, at age 70 is experiencing a late-career resurgence.
Not only did he star in the final season of FX’s critically acclaimed series Justified (playing the clean-shaven Markham), Elliott was feted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for three films: Digging for Fire, directed by Joe Swanberg; I’ll See You in My Dreams, directed by Brett Haley; and Grandma,...
Celebrating the Fourth of July Through Film
Since its beginning, film has been a lens into the American identity and soul. It is a vehicle for depicting how we collectively define ourselves, and how others across the planet understand what gives us our unique character as a nation. Perhaps no holiday provides as strong a backdrop for the American experience, in film, as the fourth of July. Just about every genre of film has used Independence Day as a backdrop – dramas, political commentaries, underdog stories, comedies,...
Michael Fassbender Channels Steve Jobs to Startling Effect
A great opening monologue, a great beat beneath it, and images of the legions of Apple fans (and worshippers) starts yet another fantastic new trailer released this week. In this new trailer for director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs, Apple’s tech genius Steve Wozniak, played by Seth Rogen, asks his mercurial, infuriating mastermind of a partner, Steve Jobs (Fassbender), the question we have all wondered about Jobs – “What do you do?” He goes on to list what Jobs'...
Writer/Director Patrick Brice on the Late Night Intimacies in The Overnight
Over the years, plenty of films have featured over-the-top parties that slowly spiral out of control, but there have been few movies like Patrick Brice’s new comedy The Overnight.
The film tells the story of two sets of parents who come together for a pizza party in a Los Angeles home. The couple played by Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling have recently moved to L.A. from Seattle and are looking for new friends in the neighborhood...
New Creed Trailer is a Mike Tyson-in-his-Prime Knockout
“A great fighter once said, ‘it ain’t about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.’”
This reference to the 2006 film Rocky Balboa by the eponymous protagonist Adonis Johnson Creed says it all about the future of the “Rocky” franchise. This first Creed trailer has come out swinging and is definitely moving forward. The music, the first rate editing, and a irrefutably dynamic leading man in Michael B...
Terminator Fight Scorecard: The T-850 vs. the T-X
With the release of Terminator: Genisys today, we’ve looked at how the filmmakers aligned past, present and future to create their recent take, and presented you with a fight scorecard for the melee between Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 vs. Robert Patrick’s T-1000 in the first Terminator-on-Terminator battle in T2.
Today we’re looking at the battle between Arnold’s T-850 (improved dramatically from the 1.0 T-800 version) and Kristanna Loken’s T-X (dubbed 'The Terminatrix') in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. ...
Terminator Fight Scorecard: The T-800 vs. the T-1000
The Terminators—you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them. That’s the way the world James Cameron created began to work in the second installment in the franchise, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 was not the villain (as he was in the 1984 original), but the savior, coming to protect Sarah (Linda Hamilton) and John Connor (Edward Furlong) from the new, liquid metal T-1000 (Robert Patrick).
Since T2,...
Will Legend be the Best Gangster Film in Years?
The premise is pretty fantastic—identical twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray aim to takeover the London underground, with a little help from the Mafia. The twins are both played by Tom Hardy, an actor of singular intensity who can hold the screen with anybody (as he did with the incredible Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road). The writer/director is Brian Helgeland, the man who wrote 1997’s L.A. Confidential, one of the best cop dramas of that decade...
Maya Forbes on her Highly Personal, Illuminating Infinitely Polar Bear
Behind the scenes, writer/director/producer Maya Forbes has helped directors and filmmakers tell a lot of stories, but in her directorial debut Infinitely Polar Bear, she’s telling her own.
Her new drama chronicles the eighteen months that Forbes and her sister lived with their bipolar father in Boston in the 1970s while their mother attended graduate school in New York. Although that period was sometimes tumultuous, it also gave her a lot of beautiful memories about her dad—...
From Bigelow To Scorsese: 7 Music Videos & Commercials By Iconic Directors
There’s something profound to appreciate when it comes to renowned film directors who’ve pursued telling stories with images beyond the silver screen. For many, this has meant moving into the world of the music video or the high-end fashion commercial. You’re probably already familiar with some of these high profile collaborations—from Tim Burton directing “Here With Me” and “Bones” for The Killers to Sofia Coppola directing a risqué video for The White Stripes or even several of Martin Scorsese’s ad campaign ventures with brands such as Dolce &...
Dana Nachman on the Phenomenon of her Doc Batkid Begins
When Miles Scott told the Make-A-Wish Foundation that he wanted to be “the real Batman” no one could have predicted how epically his dream would be fulfilled. The documentary Batkid Begins, which premiered at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, goes back to November 15, 2013, when, with the help of the Mayor, the Chief of Police and thousands of volunteers, San Francisco became Gotham City, to the delight of a five-year-old boy battling leukemia. A few hundred people were expected to come out that day to cheer on Miles*,...
Thomas Haden Church Talks War Dogs, More in Max
Here’s a little known fact about actor/director/writer Thomas Haden Church: Following memorable turns on television (Wings) and in film (Free Money), he stepped away from acting in late 2000 and left Los Angeles for his 2,000-acre cattle ranch in his native Texas. It was director Alexander Payne who lured him back to the screen with a plum part in 2004’s sleeper indie hit Sideways, which paired him with Paul Giamatti on an eventful road trip through the California wine country...
Dope Debuts in Theaters After Smashing Sundance Premiere
One of the buzziest crowd-pleasers to come out of Sundance, Dope tells the story of Malcolm, a 90s hip-hop obsessed geek from Inglewood with dreams of studying at Harvard. After a wild night there’s suddenly a backpack of drugs standing in his way and only his two nerdy friends to help him offload them. (Hint: their plan involves bitcoin).
We talk to writer-director Rick Famuyiwa, who grew up in Inglewood, about making his fourth feature film and how he recruited Pharrell Williams for the soundtrack...
How Inside Out Writer Meg LeFauve Created An Emotional Battle Inside The Mind
Inside Out comes with all the classic marks of a great Pixar movie. An all-ages storyline? Check. Beautiful animation paired with an unexpected, off-kilter premise? Check. Tears? Check and check.
The story takes place inside the mind of Riley, a pre-teen girl whose family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco, a transition that unleashes a flurry of upheaval among her five main emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust.
Before the move,...
Battle of the Titans: Robert Gordon on William Buckley vs. Gore Vidal in Best of Enemies
Playing at the BAMcineamaFest in Brooklyn and AFI Docs in Los Angeles tonight, Magnolia Pictures' Best of Enemies is a riveting behind-the-scenes account of the explosive 1968 televised debates between liberal Gore Vidal and conservative William F. Buckley Jr., where these two intellectual heavyweights clobbered each other over their views about God, sex, and politics.
We spoke with co-director and producer Robert Gordon about how this film came to be,...
