Only God Forgives by John ‘Houzer’ Smith
May 21, 2013
May 20, 2013
Django Unchained by Aleesha Nandhra
May 20, 2013
Michael B. Jordan discusses possible Human Torch casting in Fantastic Four reboot
Chronicle star Michael B. Jordan has been discussing a potential reunion with director Josh Trank on the latter’s forthcoming Fantastic Four reboot, and from the way he’s talking, it sounds as though there could be a part with his name on it.
“Nothing is real. Everyone knows we’re good friends,” said Jordan to USA Today of his relationship with the director. “If it happened I would be ecstatic. I’d love to be a part of it.” USA Today went on to say that Jordan gave a knowing wink before joking, “That wink was off the record.” Sounds like he’s got the cocky patter down to a T…
The part Jordan has been linked with is that of Johnny Storm, otherwise known as The Human Torch, with some fans registering their objections over casting an African-American actor in the role.
However, Jordan suggests said fans ought to calm down and move with the times…
“Things change and time goes on,” said the star. “It’s 2013 right now. The characteristics of The Human Torch are his name is Johnny Storm, he’s charismatic, and he’s a playboy. That’s it.”
With filming set to begin later this year, The Fantastic Four will open in the UK on 6 March 2015.
May 20, 2013
Inside Llewyn Davis reaction: Cannes 2013
Inside Llewyn Davis should again see the Coens compete for prizes at Cannes. Melancholy and funny, quirky and touching, it stands among their strongest work.
Set in 1961, the brothers’ 16th movie follows Greenwich Village folk musician Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaacs in a star-making turn) as he crashes on friends’ couches and plays smoky dives for tiny purses and sparse applause.
This is the scene before Dylan a-changed the times, when Elvis ruled and any guys (or gals) who opted to strum guitars while choking their souls onto the sawdust were considered strangulated bums.
Davis schleps around New York with his guitar (and, in an inspired running gag, a ginger cat), then hitches to Chicago for a final fling at catching his break. The response to his impromptu audition is one of the film’s many highlights.
In terms of narrative, that’s about your lot, though there are sub-plots involving Davis having got his friend’s girl (Carey Mulligan) pregnant and his estrangement from his ill father.
The Coens fill in the spaces with beautifully judged observations, wry humour, typically colourful supporting characters (which include roles for John Goodman and Justin Timberlake), bizarro visual flourishes and, naturally, a slew of live stage performances, all of them terrific.
Bruno Delbonnel’s gorgeous visuals are etched on slate, and Ethan’s dialogue is precise and rhythmic but also alive. Like all of the Coens’ movies, Inside Llewyn Davis is crafted and calibrated but it contains a more organic quality than much of their work, placing it, stylistically, in the realm of Fargo and No Country For Old Men.
That said, the long drive to Chicago must rank as one of the brothers’ most controlled, theatrical and memorable scenes: never-ending highway, plummeting snow, red taillights, and Goodman’s Orson Welles-alike oddball alternatively sleeping and orating; it’s as surreal and hellish as the hotel scenes in Barton Fink.
Inside Llewyn Davis is a top-to-tail delight and the strongest movie to play in competition so far.
May 20, 2013
Emma Watson talks The Bling Ring and Noah: Cannes 2013
Emma Watson’s post-Potter career continues to bloom, with her latest role – as fashion-obsessed celebrity burglar Nicki in Sofia Coppola’s crime drama The Bling Ring (read our reaction here) – getting plenty of plaudits from the punters of the film’s official premiere in Cannes last night.
Total Film caught up with Watson this afternoon in the Croisette’s swanky Carlton hotel, where she told us all about the attraction of taking on a role that’s worlds apart from Hermione Grainger…
“It’s so topical, it’s so present – it’s holding up a mirror really,” Watson explained of the film, which tells the (true) story of a group of high-schoolers who use the internet to find and break into the homes of celebs like Paris Hilton and Megan Fox, before posing with their swag on Facebook.
“I think what I liked about [Nicki] is that she’s utterly tragic and very comedic all at the same time. The comedy was easy because the lines are written and they’re hilarious, but I wanted there to be a palpable sense of sadness and loneliness about her as well.”
“I realised very quickly that my biggest challenge was somehow making this surreal, delusional, eccentric character real in some way, because she’s larger than life and also at times very unsympathetic,” she continued. “It was all about somehow trying to get the audience to identify with her, even if it’s just for a second. I talked to Sofia about it for hours and just really tried to figure out how to understand her.”
“I liked that she has this kind of sweet face, which is interesting to play a bad girl,” added Coppola of casting Watson as a bitchy, OMG-a-minute teen. “She seemed to play a character that was so different from herself and she had a serious approach to something that could easily have become a cartoon.”
We also quizzed Watson on her upcoming old-testament epic Noah (in which she plays the hero’s adopted daughter), which sees her teaming up onscreen with the likes of Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins for director Darren Aronofsky.
“It was pretty grueling,” she explained of the shoot. “I had to be really vulnerable in a way that I’ve sort of touched on but never really gone all the way there, and also just physically, the hours we were shooting… The scale of it… I mean, it’s biblical, you know – the world’s ending!”
May 19, 2013
2 Broke Girls by Phil Howell Design
May 19, 2013
Christopher Nolan in talks for Bond 24?
We’d certainly love to see Nolan take on the franchise at some point in the future, so if Bond 24 turns out to be an episode too soon, hopefully Broccoli and Wilson will be able to pique his interest further down the track…
Given his status as the world’s premiere director of large-scale event cinema, it was perhaps inevitable that Christopher Nolan would become linked to the vacant director’s chair on Bond 24, and sure enough, that’s exactly what’s happened.
The Daily Mail’s Baz Bamigboye reports that Nolan is in early talks with Bond bigwigs Barbara Broccoli and Michael G .Wilson, with a view to the director stepping into the position recently vacated by Sam Mendes.
Our instant reaction to this one would be that with Nolan embarking upon pre-production on his forthcoming sci-fi film Interstellar, the likelihood of him jumping straight into another hugely time-consuming property would seem slim.
However, Bamigboye was frequently on the money with his various scoops throughout Skyfall’s life-cycle, so it could well be the case that Broccoli and Wilson have at least sounded Nolan out about his potential availability.
It may be that they’re simply keen to get his take on where the Bond films might go next, with Nolan having previously declared himself a fan of the series.
We’d certainly love to see Nolan take on the franchise at some point in the future, so if Bond 24 turns out to be an episode too soon, hopefully Broccoli and Wilson will be able to pique his interest further down the track…
May 18, 2013
Interstellar by Antovolk
May 17, 2013
The Place Beyond the Pines by Terence Shek
May 17, 2013
Emma Watson announces an undead invasion in This Is The End clip: watch now
The recent behind-the-scenes featurette for apocalypse comedyThis Is The Endmade much of its wide array of celebrity cameos, and the latest clip follows a similar pattern, with Emma Watson shacking up with the boys at James Franco’s house.
With all of LA seemingly a burning wasteland outside, Watson tips up clutching an axe and talking about an impending zombie holocaust.
Naturally, this is disturbing news, although Franco seems more concerned about how the sleeping arrangements are going to pan out…
Take a look, below:
Hopefully the slew of cameos will be as goofily funny and self-mocking as the ones on show here. Top marks to Jonah Hill, incidentally, whose puppyish expression scores a couple of bonus laughs.
Directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and co-starring Danny McBride, Jay Baruchel and Craig Robinson, This Is The End will open in the UK on 28 June 2013.
May 17, 2013
New red-band trailer for The Hangover Part III: watch now
A new red-band trailer has arrived forThe Hangover Part 3, in which Alan reminisces about the adventure so far, before revealing that he must leave the Wolfpack for good.
Naturally, this resolution lasts for all of five minutes, as it isn’t long before the boys are on the road again, in over their heads in another outlandish adventure.
This time, their troubles are all the work of Leslie Chow, who owes a lot of money to some very angry people. One of who, surprisingly enough, is “Black Doug”, from a mix-up in the first Hangover.
Take a look, below:
There’s certainly a risk involved in beefing up Chow’s involvement to that of key protagonist, and there’s a chance that that cackle will become a tad irritating before the film is done. Let’s hope the Wolfpack aren’t just along for the ride in a Leslie Chow spin-off…
Directed by Todd Phillips and co-starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Ken Jeong, The Hangover Part 3 will open in the UK on 24 May 2013.
May 17, 2013
Brad Bird confirms interest in Incredibles sequel
With superhero sequels ten a penny these days, its somewhat surprising that we’ve yet to see a follow-up to 2004’s The Incredibles, although according to Brad Bird, there could yet be a sequel coming our way.
“I have been thinking about it,” admits the director in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “People think that I have not been, but I have. Because I love those characters and love that world. I am stroking my chin and scratching my head.
“I have many, many elements that I think would work really well in another [Incredibles] film, and if I can get ‘em to click all together, I would probably wanna do that.”
Meanwhile, Bird’s name was one that was recently linked to the director’s chair forStar Wars: Episode VII, a position he claims he was forced to turn down on account of his schedule.
“I’ve known Kathy [Kennedy] for a while and I know George [Lucas],” reveals Bird, “and they did come to me. But the problem was, the schedule they had in mind made it impossible to do…unless I droppedTomorrowland.
“And I was just really deeply into this film at that point. It’s easy to say, “Just put it on hold.” But you’re moving now; you don’t know if you’re going to be able to move later. Maybe it’s true of filmmakers like Cameron or Spielberg, but I have to act on momentum. We had reached a critical mass where it would’ve thrown the furniture around from the train stopping.
“I really want to see this movie. I love the Star Wars films, and I can’t wait to see what J.J. does, but it meant I’d have to shut down one dream to participate in another. I feel like [with Tomorrowland] we’re making something that’s really special and unique.”
Tomorrowland will open in the US on 19 December 2014, with a UK release date to be confirmed.
May 17, 2013
Martin Scorsese talks new movie: Cannes 2013
In Cannes to raise funds for his long-cherished project Silence, Martin Scorsese sits on a yacht in his best grey suit, sipping champagne.
“The subject matter is very close to my heart,” he tells Total Film. “I’ve been working on it since I first read the book [Shusaku Endo’s 1966 masterpiece of the same name] in 1989.”
Having finally overcome legal matters and wrangled a workable script by scribe Jay Cocks (The Age Of Innocence, Gangs Of New York), Scorsese hopes to shoot in 2014.
He describes the project as a “smaller film” requiring a “smaller approach, more internal”, but unleashes his famous honking laugh when he admits “there is landscape”.
Quite. Set in the 17th century, Silence deals with two Jesuit priests who face violence and persecution when they leave New York to head for Japan in order to spread Christianity.
For Scorsese, it’s an unquestionably personal film.
“It goes back to growing up in New York, living in an area that was pretty tough, and also the church at the same time,” he says.
“It’s similar to Mean Streets, in a way,” he continues. “It deals with spiritual matters in a concrete, physical world; a world where invariably the worst of human nature is revealed.”
But, tantalisingly, the 71-year-old director also refers to Silence as a “suspenseful film, with elements of a thriller… it combines that with themes that were overt in Kundun and Bringing Out The Dead.”
Scorsese has already cast Andrew Garfield in the lead and has actors in mind for the other key roles. He’s not telling just yet, but he does say, “There’s an older Jesuit, in his 50s, and another young priest. I have to cast the older gentleman before I can cast the younger one.”
We can only pray that Robert De Niro is sitting by his phone…
May 16, 2013
Only God Forgives by YK-MN
May 16, 2013
The Bling Ring reaction: Cannes 2013
Sofia Coppola has made a career out of lensing lost souls blighted by ennui and emptiness, and her fifth film, The Bling Ring, spies the same subject from a different angle.
Playing in the Un Certain Regard section, Coppola’s achingly hip, down-with-the-kids movie takes for its inspiration a Vanity Fair article entitled ‘The Suspects Wore Louboutins’, and recounts the strange 2008-2009 tale of the Hollywood Hills Burglars.
And so we’re greeted with a gang of rich, disaffected teens who aid their lifestyle by ransacking the homes of the rich and famous.
Led by Rebecca (Katie Chang), and with Marc (Israel Broussard) and Nicki (Emma Watson) also playing key roles, they use Google to discover when the likes of Paris Hilton, Megan Fox and Lindsay Lohan are out of town… then crash their empty pads for clothes, accessories and rolls of cash.
Hilariously, the celebs are portrayed as pretty dumb, with Hilton leaving her house keys under the mat, Orlando Bloom failing to lock up, and Fox inviting easy entry with an oversized dog flap.
It’s all a great deal of fun and Coppola’s sweet script, like, literally nails the repetitive teen-speak - ‘OMG’s to these guys are like ‘fucks’ to Scorsese’s goodfellas – but the heady hedonism feels tame after Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers.
And just as viewers never really feel the rush of the drugs, clubs and fast cars, they’ll also have a hard time empathising with any pain the protagonists are burying.
Watson plays grown up and fucked up and does a decent job of it, but she, like the rest of the cast, lack the gravitas or soulfulness of Scarlett Johansson in Lost In Translation or Kirsten Dunst in The Virgin Suicides.
The Bling Ring looks great and is fun while it lasts, but is ultimately not a great deal more profound than the celebrity culture it holds accountable for these wanton waifs.
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