TFF Blog: Welcome To The 37th Telluride Film Festival By Peter Sciretta/Sept. 3, 2010 3:00 pm EST My friend Alex Billington of FirstShowing has a theory that most of the good film festivals are hard to get to. Alex’s theory is that to see the good films first, you really need to work for it. To attend Sundance, you need to fly into Salt Lake City and drive an hour into the Park City....
The Criterion Collection Hits iTunes By Angie Han/Nov. 10, 2011 7:00 am EST You can already access the Criterion Collection on DVD, on Blu-ray, or through Hulu — and now, as of this month, you can also get some of its titles through iTunes. With very little hype, the Criterion Collection has quietly started to appear on the iTunes movie page, as you can see in the image above. The initial offering is comprised of just a few dozen of the hundreds of films from their library, but it’s a decent start....
Todd Phillips Speaks Out Against ‘Unrated’ Cuts On DVD By Germain Lussier/March 15, 2011 2:30 pm EST These days, it’s common practice. A comedy is released in theaters and, a few months later, is released on Blu-ray and DVD with an Unrated cut. The film has a few extra minutes that make it seem way more outrageous and exciting than the version you saw in theaters and hopefully we all double dip....
Trailer For ‘Arjun,’ A Disney Animated Movie Produced In India By Germain Lussier/May 4, 2012 4:00 pm EST Disney sure loves to buy companies. They own Pixar, they own Marvel and earlier this year they bought UTV, one of the largest media companies in India. A trailer for the first film under this new regime, Arjun: The Warrior Prince, has just been released. The film will be released May 25 in India and is “the untold story of India’s greatest warrior....
‘Ghost Rider’ Sequel Budget Trimmed? By Adam Quigley/Oct. 27, 2010 3:00 pm EST These are tough economic times we’re living, and movie studios are changing their ways in hopes of adapting. Or at least, Sony is. As you likely already know, there’s a Ghost Rider sequel in the works—carrying the tentative title Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance—and Crank directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor are helming it. Now it’s been given the official greenlight, but there’s a snag: it’s projected budget of $135 million has been cut down to a significantly lower $75 million....
‘Norwegian Wood’ Will Finally Hit U.S. Theaters In 2012 By Angie Han/Oct. 15, 2011 10:00 am EST Briefly: It’s taken some time, but American audiences will finally get their chance to see Tran Anh Hung’s nostalgic romance Norwegian Wood. We first wrote about the project way back in 2009, and the finished film hit the festival circuit to positive reviews in fall 2010. But for whatever reason, the movie never quite made it to our shores....
‘Uncharted’ “Family Dynamic” Storyline Debunked? Mark Wahlberg Not Signed Yet By Peter Sciretta/Dec. 28, 2010 11:43 pm EST Fans have not been happy with the plot details and casting David O. Russell’s big screen adaptation of the popular video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Not only did Russell seem like an odd choice as a director (the closest thing to an action movie he’s directed is Three Kings), but Mark Wahlberg seemed like an odd choice to play the lead character Nathan Drake (fans have been campaigning for Nathan Fillion for years now, and fans have even confronted O Russell in person about the casting announcement)....
Aaron Johnson And Mia Wasikowska Cast In ‘Albert Nobbs’ By Russ Fischer/Dec. 7, 2010 10:00 am EST We’ve reported briefly on Albert Nobbs in the past — Glenn Close co-wrote with John Banville, an adaptation of the story The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs by George Moore, and will produce and star as the title character. That’s not a gender mistake — Glenn Close will play a woman who disguises herself as man to get work and escape a life of poverty in 19th century Ireland....
Anna Faris Now In Talks For Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘The Dictator’ By Russ Fischer/May 2, 2011 6:40 pm EST Sacha Baron Cohen is preparing his next semi-improvised, semi-political comedy. The Dictator, which may or may not be inspired by Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (bet on ‘may’) has Borat director Larry Charles set to direct from a script by Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel. The script, which has Sacha Baron Cohen playing dual roles, may or may not be followed to the utmost degree....
Apple Releases iTunes Movies Trailers App For iOS By Russ Fischer/Oct. 12, 2011 1:30 pm EST Last week was a horrible one for Apple, but this week the company is making news for much more positive reasons. The new iteration of the iPhone, the 4S, releases on Friday, and the company’s new mobile operating system, iOS 5, hit today. Along with that new system software comes a number of new apps....
Buzz Lightyear Attends Group Therapy With Mermaid Jane Lynch In New Clip From ‘Toy Story’ Short ‘Small Fry’ By Angie Han/Nov. 14, 2011 2:30 pm EST In case you didn’t already have enough reasons to go see The Muppets, we present to you one more: Theatrical screenings of the Disney film will be preceded by a brand-new short from Pixar, with the Toy Story franchise’s Buzz Lightyear front and center....
Casting Bits: Bill Murray Confirmed And Laura Linney Added To ‘Hyde Park On Hudson;’ Vincent D’Onofrio In ‘Mall’ By Russ Fischer/May 7, 2011 1:26 pm EST The best news in March might have been that Bill Murray was likely to play President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a film called Hyde Park on Hudson, which is a slight fictionalization of the first visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to America....
Casting Bits: Dwayne Johnson Could Be Sinbad In ‘Arabian Nights’; Julia Roberts May Play Meryl Streep’s Daughter In ‘August: Osage County’ By Adam Quigley/Oct. 1, 2010 11:39 am EST Got a couple of casting possibilities for you guys to mull over, starting with Dwayne Johnson playing the character of Sinbad in Arabian Nights, the $70 million 3D ‘spin’ on the classic collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian folk tales and stories referred to outside of the US as One Thousand and One Nights....
Chris Tucker, Dormant No More; In Line For ‘The Silver Linings Playbook’ And ‘Neighborhood Watch’ By Russ Fischer/Sept. 7, 2011 5:29 pm EST The career of Chris Tucker is an unusual one, as movie star careers go. He’s got only eleven feature credits, three of which are for very small roles. He’s primarily a star based on The Fifth Element and three Rush Hour movies. Because those three Rush Hour movies have earned an amount of money that will greatly sadden you (just under a billion dollars globally before licensing, DVD, etc....
Director Marc Forster Discusses Changes In ‘World War Z’ Including Zombie Movement By Germain Lussier/Sept. 14, 2011 2:40 pm EST Similar to the globetrotting plot of the film, excitement for World War Z has been all over the map. Fans were initially jazzed that, after years of development hell, director Marc Forster was finally going to adapt Max Brooks’ book about a global battle between humans and zombies. The early casting of Brad Pitt was another high point....
Elijah Wood Suggests ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Could Eventually Get 3D Re-Release By Germain Lussier/Nov. 23, 2011 3:00 pm EST It makes perfect sense if you think about it. The last video blog Peter Jackson released from the set of The Hobbit was all about 3D and in it you could see his inner geek pouring out. He seems to really be enjoying capturing Middle Earth in 3D. Movies such as The Lion King and presumably Titanic and Star Wars Episode 1 are set for successful 3D theatrical renaissances, so the possibility of a 3D re-release for Jackson’s signature The Lord of the Rings trilogy simply fits....
First Footage From The Congress, Ari Folman’s Follow-Up To Waltz With Bashir By Russ Fischer/April 12, 2010 8:08 am EST Back in January we brought you the first still from Ari Folman’s upcoming The Congress, which adapts (and makes significant changes to) Stanislaw Lem’s story The Futurological Congress. Now we’ve got the first bit of footage, and it looks wonderful. The story follows a man living in a world in which reality has been supplanted by drug-induced hallucinations, but the film will be quite a bit different: Folman has cast Robin Wright as herself (or, more likely, as an analog of herself) to play an actress whose career has waned as her image has been sampled and endlessly reused by movie studios....
Geek Deal: Mission Impossible Trilogy For Only $12.99 On DVD, $17.99 On Blu-Ray By Peter Sciretta/April 9, 2012 7:00 am EST We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
Hayden Panettiere And Nikki Reed To Star In ‘Downers Grove’ By Germain Lussier/Nov. 8, 2010 4:30 pm EST We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. That certainly sounds like something Bret Easton Ellis would write a hell of an adaptation of. And you’d imagine, from the types of roles they’ve played in the past, Panettiere would be Chrissie and Reed would be Tracy. So now, the whole package – director, screenplay, actresses, etc – just needs to find some financing and we’ve got ourselves a movie....
Jay Baruchel To Pen ‘Random Acts Of Violence’ And ‘Exorcism Diaries’ By Angie Han/May 9, 2011 6:00 am EST Jay Baruchel is best known for his acting roles — his respectably diverse resume includes turns in How to Train Your Dragon, Tropic Thunder, Almost Famous and Judd Apatow’s brilliant-but-cancelled Undeclared — but pretty soon, we’ll know him as a screenwriter, too. Baruchel had his first feature screenwriting credit with the upcoming hockey comedy Goon, which he co-wrote with Superbad scribe Evan Goldberg....
