Posts

The Feature Film Version Of ‘24’ Might Not Happen This Year After All By Russ Fischer/March 14, 2012 9:00 am EST Will the movie ever happen? Deadline notes that the key ingredients are ready: the script is there, Sutherland is there, and Imagine Entertainment is ready to run with it. There was even groundwork laid for a three-film arc, established by the script for this first movie. But with every step taken away from the planned 2012 start, 24 could seem less insistent....

The Gang’s All Here In Two New ‘Avengers’ Banners By Germain Lussier/Nov. 17, 2011 9:30 am EST The holidays is a huge time not only for major new releases, but for major movie marketing. In the past few days alone we’ve seen trailers for The Hunger Games, Brave and rumor has it we’ll see new stuff from The Dark Knight Rises and The Hobbit before the year is out. On the print side, Marvel has revealed two very cool banners for their May 4 release, The Avengers....

TV Bits: NBC Picks Up New Sarah Silverman Sitcom, Henson Puppets Get Starring Role In ‘History Of’, Dominic Chianese Joins ‘Boardwalk Empire’, ‘Clone Wars’ Season 4 Trailer Drops By Angie Han/Aug. 19, 2011 5:00 am EST NBC has won the bidding war for a new comedy series by Sarah Silverman, beating out competing networks ABC and Fox. Loosely based on Silverman’s own life, the untitled single-camera show will star the comedian as a woman getting back into single life after getting out of a ten-year relationship....

TV Trailer: ‘Luck,’ Michael Mann And David Milch’s HBO Drama With Dustin Hoffman And Nick Nolte By Russ Fischer/Sept. 26, 2011 11:15 am EST Michael Mann (Heat) and David Milch (Deadwood) have collaborated on Luck, a new HBO series that takes place in the world of horse racing. Dustin Hoffman plays what looks like this series’ rough equivalent to Al Swearingen, and Nick Nolte, Richard Kind, Dennis Farina, John Ortiz, Joan Allen, Ian Hart, Kevin Dunn, Kerry Condon, Tom Payne and Patrick J....

VOTD: South Park’s Tron Parody By Peter Sciretta/April 12, 2010 12:00 am EST Last week’s episode of South Park, titled “You Have 0 Friends” contains a Tron parody. Here is a brief description of the episode (yes, possible spoilers): Kyle, Cartman and Kenny make Stan a Facebook profile against his will and he becomes embroiled and frustrated with everyone asking him for friend requests. After he gets fed up with Facebook, Stan tries to delete his profile but is sucked into a virtual Facebook world....

Warner Bros. Likely To Push ‘Gangster Squad’ To 2013 By Russ Fischer/July 25, 2012 7:30 am EST Warner Bros. is scrambling to rework the Ruben Fleischer film Gangster Squad in the wake of the awful movie theater murder spree that took place in Aurora, CO last week. The tipping point for the film is a climactic sequence in which a mobster fires through a movie screen into the film’s audience. It’s an image that would be provocative no matter the context, but is currently far too similar to the events in Aurora, which is making WB nervous....

What Happened To Netflix’s Recommendation Engine Improvements? By Germain Lussier/April 17, 2012 4:00 pm EST Several years ago, Netflix ran a contest that would pay someone $1 million for improving their already solid recommendation engine. The algorithm, called Cinematch, took how you rated movies on Netflix’s five star system and gave you personalized recommendations based on those ratings. The contest winner only needed to improve the system by a small percentage and a team called BellKor Pragmatic Chaos took the prize....

Who Plays J. Jonah Jameson In ‘Spider-Man’? By Russ Fischer/Jan. 19, 2011 8:00 am EST One of the best bits of casting in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films was the choice of J.K. Simmons as Daily Bugle head honcho and original Spidey hater J. Jonah Jameson. Since Marc Webb’s new Spider-Man was announced we’ve wondered who might take the role. How could anyone possibly stand in for Mr. Simmons? Now we may know the answer, and while some fans might not be happy, there’s an argument for this being the best replacement strategy anyone could come up with....

Will Ferrell Sings About Not Knowing Things In “Yo No Se” Music Video For ‘Casa De Mi Padre’ By Angie Han/March 9, 2012 4:30 pm EST Compared to that other comedy opening next weekend, Jonah Hill’s 21 Jump Street, Will Ferrell’s telenovela-inspired Casa de mi Padre has gone pretty light on the marketing. All Casa de mi Padre has put out so far are a couple of brief teasers and a single full-length trailer released back in January....

‘Contraband’ Review: Too Much ‘Bad Boys 2,’ Not Enough ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ By Germain Lussier/Jan. 13, 2012 10:00 am EST The main issue hindering Contraband is that simply too much happens in the film, which is odd considering the first act is so straightforward. Retired, world-class smuggler Chris Farraday (Wahlberg) is forced to pull off one last job when his brother-in-law, played by X-Men First Class’s Caleb Landry Jones, screws up a deal for an evil ex-con played with delirious vigor by Giovanni Ribisi....

‘Friends With Kids’ Trailer: ‘Bridesmaids’ Co-Stars Reunite In Jennifer Westfeldt’s Directorial Debut By Angie Han/Jan. 12, 2012 9:30 am EST Friends With Kids premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival to favorable reviews; our own Peter Sciretta praised it as “smarter than your average indie romcom” and noted that “it will be hard for you to dislike this film if you like the cast.” Based on the trailer, I’m inclined to agree....

‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’ Teaser - Clive Owen And Nicole Kidman Make Love And War For HBO By Angie Han/March 14, 2012 10:00 am EST The next Emmy Awards ceremony won’t take place until this fall, but if you’re looking to start sizing up the potential nominees early, HBO Films’ Hemingway & Gellhorn is probably one you’ll want to keep an eye on. Even setting aside from the fact that the network has a history of raking in those awards, the film has everything you could possibly ask for in a prestigious made-for-TV project, from top-level movie stars and a respected movie director to a sweeping historical plotline....

‘High School’ Trailer: Adrien Brody And Michael Chiklis Get Loco In Stoner Comedy By Germain Lussier/April 5, 2012 3:30 pm EST Oscar-winner Adrien Brody sports a body full of tattoos, full beard, dreadlocks and a couple crazy eyes in the new stoner comedy High School. Co-written and directed by John Stalberg in his feature film debut, High School follows a valedictorian who smokes pot one day before his school begins random drug testing....

‘Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World’ Announces Full Cast By Germain Lussier/May 18, 2011 2:01 pm EST Billed as a “pre-apocalyptic comedy,” Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World, starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightly is about to go into production. Though the two leads were announced last month, the rest of the cast for the film – written and directed by Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) – has now been revealed....

‘The Incredibles’ Coming To Blu-Ray Spring 2011 By Germain Lussier/Oct. 20, 2010 11:45 am EST As beautiful as Blu-ray is as a format, those HDTV’s shine brightest when they’re boasting computer animation. Pixar, everyone’s favorite computer animation studio, has slowly but surely been releasing their back catalog on the format with two glaring omissions: Oscar winners The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. Well, sorry, no news for you fish fans just yet but buried in the inserts for the soon to be released Toy Story 3 Blu-ray is an announcement that Brad Bird’s superhero family will be flying onto Blu-ray next Spring in a Blu-ray+DVD+Digital copy combo pack....

‘What To Expect When You’re Expecting’ Character Posters: Like Cosmo Covers Without The Sex Tips By Angie Han/Jan. 26, 2012 11:00 am EST At first glance, What to Expect When You’re Expecting doesn’t seem terribly different from similarly star-studded snoozefests like He’s Just Not That Into You and New Year’s Eve. But the marketing folks are clearly hoping to set themselves apart by putting the emphasis on the “comedy” part of “romantic comedy,” and their latest effort is a series of character posters that play up the film’s raunchy sense of humor....

Casting Bits: Alice Eve And Luke Evans Join John Cusack In ‘The Raven’; Philip Baker Hall Joins ‘Mr. Popper’s Penguins’ By Adam Quigley/Oct. 13, 2010 3:51 am EST John Cusack will have company in The Raven, V For Vendetta director James McTeigue’s fictionalized account of the final five “mysterious” days of Edgar Allan Poe’s life, but Jeremy Renner won’t be taking part. His schedule wouldn’t allow it, sadly, as he’s going to be off shooting the fourth Mission: Impossible....

Daryl Wein Is A Motherf***er By Peter Sciretta/Aug. 12, 2010 3:00 pm EST Sounds like it may have the potential to be the indie/politically incorrect version of Meet the Parents. And things seem to be “breaking upwards” for Lister-Jones and Wein, as we learned earlier this week that Searchlight is also in talks to acquire the duo’ other screenplay Lola Versus, with Anne Hathaway possibly attached to star. “a guy who falls in love with a girl....

David Cronenberg Attached To Direct Jonathan Lethem’s ‘As She Climbed Across The Table’? By Russ Fischer/June 22, 2010 12:37 pm EST No one seems to be able to get a movie based on a Jonathan Lethem novel off the ground. The latest attempt may come from David Cronenberg, however, and he’s got a pretty damn good track record when it comes to getting difficult material from the page to screen. (Think Dead Ringers, Crash, and Naked Lunch....

Despicable Me Creators Developing New Curious George Film By Russ Fischer/Aug. 2, 2010 3:30 pm EST Illumination Entertainment is doing well with Universal right now — the company is behind Despicable Me, which gave the studio a solid hit to counter efforts from DreamWorks and Pixar. In addition to quickly putting a Despicable Me sequel into play, Universal and Illumination are developing a new Curious George film, designed and animated in the style of Despicable Me....