Emma Donoghue on Adapting Her Novel Room for the Big Screen
It’s still pretty rare — and usually unadvisable — for a novelist to adapt his/her book for the movie version. Sure, there have been notable exceptions over the years: Carrie Fisher did it for Postcards from the Edge and John Irving won an Oscar for The Cider House Rules, his first and only screenplay. But lately more novelists are defying convention and tackling the screen versions of their hit books.
Writer/Director James Vanderbilt on Turning Recent History Into Truth
In Truth, opening Friday, writer and first time director James Vanderbilt, who wrote, among other scripts, the screenplay for Zodiac, has taken a tough, hard, look at the behind-the-scenes story of the CBS 60 Minutes II news staff that reported on President George W. Bush’s late 60’s and early 70’s National Guard duty in the run up to his re-election in 2004. It’s a compelling procedural which dramatizes the personal and professional costs of news reporting in the already fast paced TV news cycle at the historical moment when Internet blogging entered the political and cultural arena.
The Coen Brothers Return to Comedy With Hail, Caesar!
Joel and Ethan Coen are probably best known for their dark, twisting crime dramas like the impeccable western No Country For Old Men and their brilliant, snowbound Fargo. But as many fans know, and as the enduring legacies of The Big Lebowski and O Brother Where Art Thou? attests, they excel at comedy, too. Particularly comedy with a bit of screwball menace baked in,
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,
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.
With NASA’s Help, The Martian Plumbs Real Science for Thrills
As a genre, science fiction tends to lean more heavily on the fiction side of things than the science. Think Star Wars, The Matrix, and Blade Runner. Ridley Scott’s latest movie The Martian, on the other hand, is an ode to the compelling nature of actual science, with both a plausible plot and realistic aesthetics.
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.
The Brilliant Ta-Nehisi Coates Will Write “Black Panther” Comic Series
National correspondent for The Atlantic, author of "Between the World and Me," a nominee for the National Book Award's nonfiction prize and arguably one of the most important books of the year, and unabashed Marvel Comics geek. These all describe Ta-Nehisi Coates, and they're all reasons to find the news that Marvel has asked him to write the new "Black Panther" comic series very exciting indeed.
The series is set to be published next spring,
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”
Amanda Seyfried & Balthazar Getty Join Twin Peaks
We're patiently, quietly growing very excited about Showtime's upcoming Twin Peaks revival. Written by the creators of the original series, David Lynch and Mark Frost, with every episode directed by Lynch, Twin Peaks will be one of the most exciting shows in television when it premieres sometime in 2017. When we went and listened to Lynch speak at Brooklyn's Academy of Music way back in May of 2014,
Talking to Author James Dashner about Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
The Credits talks to James Dashner, the author of the best-selling "Maze Runner" trilogy, on the eve of the release of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials– the second installment of the blockbuster film series based on his novels- about his cinematic writing style, keeping his fans happy and how the filmmaking process has influenced his work.
Your trilogy and The Hunger Games are both set in a post-apocalyptic landscape and have been hugely popular both as novels and movies for young adults.
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,
The Martian, Spotlight, Sicario, & Room Wow at TIFF
The Toronto International Film Festival is celebrating its 40th year with one of its most diverse and adventurous programming slates, from blockbusters to high-prestige, likely awards contenders to small films from directors from all parts of the globe.
Generating early buzz among the much-anticipated Hollywood films was The Martian, Ridley Scott’s adventure in space that had its world premiere at TIFF. Starring Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars while a dedicated ground crew (played by a cast including Jessica Chastain,
The Martian‘s New Trailer Arrives Amid Great Reviews
You had to like the odds that The Martian would be a very good film. Based on a very good book by Andy Weir, scripted by a screenwriter with major sci-fi chops in Drew Goodard (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Cabin in the Woods), directed by the man who made two of the greatest sci-fi films of all time in Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner), and starring Matt Damon as marooned astronaut Mark Watney,
Room Will Likely Break Your Heart
For readers of Emma Donoghue’s novel of the same name, the idea of watching a film adaptation of a book that was at turns devastating and impossible to put down begs the question; can I put myself through this again, but also, how could I not?
Director Lenny Abarhamson’s Room premiered to some pretty spectacular reviews at the Telluride Film Festival, and as it heads to the Toronto International Film Festival it does so with major buzz.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Surprising Choices While Making The Visit
Much has been made about the odyssey of M. Night Shyamalan’s film career. He had one of the most explosive debuts in modern film history, bursting onto the scene with The Sixth Sense, his 1999 blockbuster that resonated with audiences and had that incredible twist ending. The twist ending became the young director's hallmark, as would his ability to make intimate, uncannily creepy films. He followed The Sixth Sense up with two more hits—his ordinary man who is actually a superhero film,
Things Go Bump in the Night in 1st Victor Frankenstein Trailer
James McAvoy is Victor Von Frankenstein and Daniel Radcliffe is his loyal assistant Igor in 20th Century Fox's Victor Frankenstein. So that’s a pretty good start there. Told from Igor’s perspective, this seemingly kinetic take on Mary Shelley’s deathless classic looks like good fun. At 1:30 in, your first glimpse at a now very much alive monster promises that director Paul McGuigan screenwriter Max Landis are not pulling any deadly punches.
Straight Outta Compton Screenwriter Andrea Berloff on N.W.A.’s Story
They invented gangsta rap and put West Coast hip hop on the map, and in the process triggered a tectonic shift across an entire cultural landscape. N.W.A. was the baddest, boldest, most influential rap band of their era. Coming from South Central Los Angeles in the mid 1980s, N.W.A.'s members—Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, DJ Yella and MC Ren channeled the rage, remorse and bravado of the streets of Compton, a hotbed of police brutality and gang turf wars between the Crips and the Bloods,
Post Apocalyptic Animated Comedy Cassius and Clay Will be Awesome
Have you ever watched Archer? If the answer is no, rectify this situation immediately. Comedy Central’s genius animated comedy, created by Adam Reed, is consistently hilarious. This animated spy thriller follows Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) and his often bloody, absurd exploits with his fellow operatives (which includes Chris Parnell, Aisha Tyler and Jessica Walter, the latter best known as Lucielle Bluth on Arrested Development).
Now Archer creator Adam Reed is teaming up with writer and executive producer Megan Ganz,
