NYFF: In Where to Invade Next Michael Moore Picks Flowers, Not Weeds
After a six year hiatus, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore is back with a kind of travel journal – Where to Invade Next. Moore’s mission was to find the best ideas from each country he visited, claim them as his own, and bring them home to America to help solve some of our biggest problems. The film is not about pointing finger or placing certain nations on a pedestal – its purpose is to serve as idea factory and catalyst for change.
Danny Boyle, Aaron Sorkin & Walter Isaacson Talk Steve Jobs at NYFF
This past weekend we attended a panel discussion of Steve Jobs at the 53rd New York Film Festival (NYFF). Steve Jobs, like The Social Network (about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg), is a masterfully crafted story of one of the most influential men of the last fifty years. The film, directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle, written by Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin (who also wrote the The
Here’s How They Created the Ingenious Structure of Steve Jobs
One of the difficulties of making a film about historical figures or events can be deciding how to remain faithful to the subject but still tell a good story. Real life doesn’t always follow a neat narrative arc. In fact it almost never does. Danny Boyle’s latest film Steve Jobs is an interesting example of a way to approach that predicament.
One way the film avoids the dangers of becoming a plodding account of history is that it’s only loosely based on real events: “We’re deeply indebted to Walter Isaacson’s [biography of Jobs] and the depth of his research,
The Explosive New The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Trailer
Lionsgate is releasing trailers and posters in a furious run-up to the premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 on November 20. Director Francis Lawrence's final dash through the districts and towards the Capitol is one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the fall, and the latest trailer is surely the most explosive yet.
"He turns the best of us against each other" Katniss says of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) in a voice over.
HBO’s New Vinyl Trailer is Fast, Dirty, and Smashes You Over the Head
Back in September we interviewed Boardwalk Empire’s production designer Bill Groom, who was nominated for his fourth Emmy in a row for Terrence Winter’s prohibition era gangland drama. When we spoke, Groom was hard at work on HBO’s and Winter’s next big project, Vinyl, starring Boardwalk Empire alum Bobby Canavale as Richie Finestra, a hard charging music executive in 1970’s New York.
Raging Storm Sets Arlo on his Path in New The Good Dinosaur Trailer
The underlying conceit in The Good Dinosaur is that the asteroid that struck the earth and killed the dinosaurs missed, meaning dinosaurs and humans would walk the earth together. When the young Aapotosaurs Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa) is separated from his father by a wicked storm, he’s united with a young human named Spot (voiced by Jack Bright), who quickly becomes his best friend. This much we already knew,
The Legendary Roger Deakins: A Director’s Cinematographer
In 1995, cinematographer Roger Deakins — a man who had been working in the business for two decades — earned his first Oscar nomination for his work on the beloved Frank Darabont drama, The Shawshank Redemption. Now, twenty years later, Deakins has established himself as one of the most well-known and respected cinematographers in the world.
In the past two decades, he has been nominated for twelve Academy Awards for films as varied as Fargo,
Sicario Reunites Director Denis Villeneuve & Cinematographer Roger Deakins
In Sicario, director Denis Villenueve and cinematographer Roger Deakins have re-teamed after their successful first collaboration on Prisoners (2013). In that film, Villeneuve extended his explorations of morality and violence seen in his earlier Canadian films, but integrated them into conventions of the Hollywood child kidnapping sub-genre. The result was a disturbing and frightening movie that gave equal focus to the semi-abstract, atmospheric environment as it did to the stand out performances of its cast.
A Game of Thrones Movie? Rumors, Rumors…
Editor's note: we were excited by the news reported by The Daily Star that George R. R. Martin had confirmed a Game of Thrones movie was in the works—alas, it looks like that might not be the case. Variety reported this morning that Martin to took his Livejournal to debunk this rather juicy rumor. Below is the initial story, which got our hopes up a tad too much.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Francis Ford Coppola on Finding Vlad the Impaler’s Grave
Sony Home Entertainment is releasing the Blu-ray DVD of Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula on October 6. With that release come some juicy behind-the-scenes footage of the legendary director talking about his beautiful, beastly 1992 film. Here's a refresher for those of you who don't remember (or never saw) this great film:
Starring Gary Oldman as Dracula, it should come as no surprise that the man who brought us
Why is Everyone Dancing on the set of Pan?
Why couldn’t Hugh Jackman cut through this sheet?
And why is everybody dancing on the set of Pan? These are the questions that arise when watching these two 15 second teasers of outtakes from the set of Pan, which opens on October 9.
Directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice),
Watch a Brutal Bear Attack inThe Revenant’s New Trailer
At 50 seconds into The Revenant's new trailer, you see the moment that changes everything for trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio). Glass and his fellow trappers, including John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and Jim Bridger (Will Poulter), are moving through the forest when a huge grizzly attacks, crashing atop Glass. The moment is thrilling, terrifying, and very realistic. Grievously wounded and therefore a burden, Fitzgerald decides to bury Glass alive rather than care for him until he's healed.
New Photos of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy in The Revenant
As we wrote back in July, there is just a ton of reasons to be very, very excited for The Revenant. The film's director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki (we've interviewed both, you can read our chat with Iñárritu here, and and Lubezki here), both took home Academy Awards last year for their work on Birdman (which also won Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay).
Chatting With Mississippi Grind Filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden are a filmmaking duo best known for 2006’s Half Nelson. They’re latest collaboration, Mississippi Grind, is a character driven story exploring addiction and redemption, starring Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn and Sienna Miller. The Credits talks to the pair about recapturing the aesthetic of seventies classics and cracking that elusive on-set chemistry.
What originally drew you to making this film in the south?
New Truth Trailer Recalls the Scandal That Rocked Washington
“Why did you get into journalism?” young reporter Mike Smith (Topher Grace) asks Dan Rather (Robert Redford). “Curiosity” he replies, the trait that would serve him well on a remarkable career that would end, abruptly, in disgrace.
Truth is based on the book “Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power” by his producer Mary Mapes (played by Cate Blanchett). It delves into the drama surrounding CBS’s handling of a incendiary investigative report in 2004 detailing George W.
Found Foot-age: Finders Keepers Directors on Their Insane Doc
In Finder Keepers, filmmakers Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel chronicle one of the strangest feuds in the history of small-town America. John Wood, who lost his foot in a small-plane crash, lost it again when he couldn't pay the rent on the Maiden, N.C. storage unit where he'd stored the amputated, embalmed limb in a BBQ smoker. The contents were sold at auction to Shannon Whishnant, a local entrepreneur with more ambition than shame.
The two men disputed custody of the leg for years,
The Peanuts Movie has a Trailer
They've had Christmas specials galore, but Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Woodstock and Linus have never had a big theatrical film before. Finally, after 65 years and countless adventures (and misadventures—sorry, Charlie Brown), the gang's got a film. The whole bunch is here—along with our aforementioned favorites, there’s Peppermint Patty, Pig Pen, Sally, Schroeder and Lucy van Pelt, to name a few.
Director Steve Martino, writers Bryan and Craig Schulz and Cornelius Uliano look to have crafted a film that’s of our time (a dance interlude starring eternal klutz Charlie Brown set to DJ Khaled’s “All I Do is Win”
Jordan Peele’s Making a Horror Film Called Get Out—YES!
The Hollywood Reporter broke the story and the rest of the Internet (those who have seen Key & Peele, at least) became very excited about the news: Jordan Peele is going to make a horror film called Get Out.
Key & Peele just ended their incredible 5-year run on Comedy Central, and while it's fantastic to see people going out at the very top of their game,
Awesome Theory of how Darth Vader Fits Into Star Wars: The Force Awakens
There’s a theory that’s been floated by very knowledgeable Star Wars fan and journalist Germain Lussier that very intriguing. It sounds credible to us on a lot of levels, not least of which is the fact that Lussier is parsing things said by the very people who made the film, finding nuggets and teasing them out into potential motives.
Because this theory could be true, we have to warn you right now that read no further if you want to go into Star Wars: The Force Awakens without even a chance of knowing what a big character like Kylo Ren might be up to.
Find Out What’s Beyond the Wall in The Divergent Series: Allegiant Trailer
In the new The Divergent Series: Allegiant trailer, we finally get to see what is beyond the wall. The trailer for the film, based on the first part of Veronica Roth’s final book, begins by reviewing the first two films, showing the evolution of Tris (Shailene Woodley) from a selfless young girl to a kick a$$ Divergent. In Allegiant, Tris is no longer timid about her powers, and the few glimpses of the action set pieces reveal a film that's gonna explore what she's capable of by putting her,
