14 articles
U.S. Box Office: ‘The Revenant’ Chases $37 Million, Likely Topping ‘Force Awakens’
16 hours ago | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »
Leonardo DiCaprio’s survivalist drama “The Revenant” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” are locked in a bitter battle at the multiplex this weekend. Based on Friday night receipts, “The Revenant” appears to have taken a slight lead.
“The Revenant” pulled in $14.3 million as it opened wide on Friday, putting it on track for a weekend haul of $37 million. Directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu, Fox’s R-rated tale of frontier justice is playing in 3,375 locations. It bowed to an impressive $2.3 million in Thursday night preview screenings as it expanded from a fruitful four-screen run that began on Christmas Day, during which it picked up $1.5 million.
Earlier estimates had pegged “The Revenant’s” opening weekend total around $20 million. Tom Hardy and Domhnall Gleeson also star in the pic, which has been earning major awards buzz for DiCaprio’s performance and its cinematography.
“Force Awakens,” now in its fourth weekend of play, »
- Marianne Zumberge
Jesse Eisenberg Got the Role of Lex Luthor by Negging Zack Snyder, Who Wanted to Give Him a Different Part
13 hours ago | Vulture | See recent Vulture news »
Jesse Eisenberg, Oscar nominee and level-six hoodie-wearer, has mastered what the Pick-Up Artist community refers to as “negging,” the art of decreasing someone's self-esteem in order to increase their interest in you. Eisenberg first revealed his nascent Pua skills by negging the world’s film-critic community with a trollsy piece in the New Yorker. We've had other clues, too, like Eisenberg's role in the mysteriously expanding Now You See Me universe. But just like super villain Lex Luthor, whom he is set to play, Eisenberg’s powers are more powerful than the general public may realize. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder unwittingly revealed that Jesse Eisenberg is skilled enough at the neg (is that a noun?) to win major film roles:Snyder originally approached the actor for another part in the film. Snyder won't reveal that character. “Let's call it a secret, »
- Jackson McHenry
How Spider-Man Will Be More Authentic In Civil War
18 hours ago | cinemablend.com | See recent Cinema Blend news »
Sure, Captain America: Civil War will see Tony Stark and Steve Rogers coming to blows over Bucky Barnes’ past, the Sokovia Accords, and all that great stuff, but let’s not forget one of the film’s biggest selling points: Spider-Man. After years of solely being in the hands of Sony, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will finally make his way home and join The Avengers on screen. The problem here is a simple one: Spider-Man is well-tread territory, so how does one make this version different? As it turns out directors Anthony and Joe Russo have a plan. ComicBook.com reports that during an exclusive interview, Joe Russo explained what it takes to make their version of the web-head stand out against prior iterations: We had thought back to the things that excited us about him as a character when we were younger, and one of »
Oscar-Shortlisted ‘The Assassin’ Among Palm Springs Winners
12 hours ago | Deadline | See recent Deadline news »
Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s period martial arts drama The Assassin, Taiwan’s entry for the Foreign Language Oscar race that has made the Academy’s shortlist, picked up the Fipresci Prize at the Palm Springs Film Festival, which announced its juried winners today. The fest, which officially wraps Monday, will announce its audience awards winners Sunday. It has become a must-stop on the awards circuit in the Foreign Language Oscar run-up. Set in ninth century China during a time of… »
Bolshoi Babylon review – offstage war zone of Russia’s ‘secret weapon’
1 hour ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
The Bolshoi may look beautiful from the stalls, but this documentary reveals it as a tinderbox of broiling personal and political rivalries
The opening voice tells us that Bolshoi is one of two brand names that represent Russia, the other being Kalashnikov. There’s certainly something of the war zone about this portrayal of the behind-the-scenes battles that climaxed in a shocking acid attack on the Bolshoi’s ballet director, Sergei Filin, in January 2013. As the film unpicks broiling internecine struggles among performers and management, we learn of the uncomfortably close relationship (physical and political) between the theatre and the Kremlin. Prime minister Dmitry Medvedev calls the Bolshoi Russia’s “secret weapon”, dispatched to foreign countries to “achieve our goals” like some quasi-military intervention. When new general director Vladimir Urin is installed to restore order to the theatre, it’s clear that his appointment comes from the highest office. Despite demands of independence, »
- Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
45 Years; The Diary of a Teenage Girl; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl; Straight Outta Compton; We Are Your Friends; L’enfance nue – review
1 hour ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Shiver to Andrew Haigh’s portrait of a marriage rocked by secrets, while The Diary of a Teenage Girl will make you squirm
December was a month of list-making, weighing up the best films of 2015 in a variety of outlets and metrics. No amount of reconsideration, however, could knock 45 Years (Curzon, 15) from its perch as the year’s finest for me. Andrew Haigh’s slow-developing snapshot of a marriage falling into a late-life crevice is as simultaneously tender and brutal a relationship study as any in modern film, its stiff upper lip trembling and dashed with shaving cuts.
Well-to-do Norfolk retirees Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay) plan their 45th anniversary celebrations under the cloud of resurrected tragedy from Geoff’s past: the discovery of a former girlfriend’s corpse from half a century ago. Haigh fashions their crisis neither as melodrama nor as kitchen-sink realism, but as ghost story, »
- Guy Lodge
A War review – nailbiting tension, suffocating stillness
1 hour ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
This powerful drama about a Danish army officer on trial after his patrol suffers a traumatising loss in Afghanistan blurs boundaries between bravery and blame
“The issue is not what you have done, but what you do now…” Denmark’s entry for this year’s best foreign language film Oscar is a gripping and thought-provoking affair from writer-director Tobias Lindholm that counterposes battlefronts at home and abroad. We open with an arresting, Kajaki-style sequence in which a Danish patrol in Afghanistan suffers traumatising loss.
From here we cut to Denmark, where the family of Pilou Asbæk’s company commander Claus Michael Pedersen are awaiting his call. As the drama unfolds, moving inexorably from conflict zone to courtroom, we shift back and forth between the commander and his wife, Maria (Tuva Novotny), both of whom face potentially life-threatening situations involving the protection/endangerment of children and judgment calls made in haste. »
- Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Partisan review – unsettling tale of a violent Pied Piper
1 hour ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Ariel Kleiman’s disturbing debut explores the grooming of child assassins by a charismatic cult leader
Inspired in equal measure by a New York Times article about child assassins in Colombia and the myth of the Pied Piper, Ariel Kleiman’s debut feature is a haunting, nonspecific fable about corrupt adults and impressionable children. Vincent Cassel is cult leader Gregori, a charismatic outsider and messianic father figure who has gathered around him a Manson-style family of women and children. For years, Gregori has groomed young Alexander (a revelatory performance from newcomer Jeremy Chabriel) to do his bidding. But when the more worldly 11-year-old Leo arrives, Alexander starts to question Gregori’s authority and the acts of violence which he has been raised to view as a little more than a game.
Co-written with long-time collaborator Sarah Cyngler, Kleiman’s Dogtooth-esque dark drama paints a weird and disturbing portrait of stolen innocence. »
- Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Sean Penn interview 'helped locate' El Chapo
1 hour ago | ScreenDaily | See recent ScreenDaily news »
A clandestine interview conducted by the Oscar-winning actor with Joaquín Guzmán aka El Chapo alerted Mexican authorities to the crime lord’s whereabouts in the run-up to his recapture on Friday, according to reports.
Associated Press on Saturday cited an anonymous Mexican official who said Penn’s secret assignment last October for Rolling Stone – which only became known on Saturday when the outlet posted the interview – enabled law enforcement to locate Guzmán in Durango state.
A planned raid was called off because Guzmán was with two women and a child, however they picked up the lead again possibly after the head of the Sinaloa cartel reached out to unnamed film producers and actors to explore a biopic about his life.
Six months after his escape from the Altiplano maximum security prison Guzmán was traced to Los Mochis, Culiacan state, and arrested on Friday following a deadly gunfight.
ABC News reported on Saturday night that Penn himself may now »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Sean Penn interview 'led to arrest' of El Chapo
1 hour ago | ScreenDaily | See recent ScreenDaily news »
A clandestine interview conducted by the Oscar-winning actor with Joaquín Guzmán aka El Chapo alerted Mexican authorities to the crime lord’s whereabouts and led to his recapture on Friday, according to reports.
Associated Press on Saturday cited an anonymous Mexican official who said Penn’s secret assignment last October for Rolling Stone – which only became known on Saturday when the outlet posted the interview – enabled law enforcement to locate Guzmán in Durango state.
A planned raid was called off because Guzmán was with two women and a child, however they picked up the lead again when the head of the Sinaloa cartel reached out to unnamed film producers and actors to explore a possible biopic about his life. He was tracked to Los Mochis in Culiacan state, and arrested on Friday following a deadly gunfight.
ABC News reported on Saturday night that Penn himself is now facing investigation for taking part in the interview with the »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Sean Penn Makes First Appearance Following Controversial El Chapo Interview
1 hour ago | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »
Sean Penn appeared Saturday night in Beverly Hills at his own fundraiser in which he took to the stage numerous times to speak, yet didn’t allude to the controversy that exploded just hours earlier pertaining to his published interview with Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The “Sean Penn & Friends: Help Haiti Home” charity gala went on as scheduled at the Montage Hotel, but he and other celebrities kept the focus squarely on the cause for which he raised more than $7 million.
Before opening the live auction, Penn teared up at the podium recalling the death of a 15-year-old in Haiti, who was refused treatment at hospitals. “So whose fault was it that he died? It was my fault as much as your fault… We can’t depend on governments… We have to make it better now,” Penn said. “Let’s use the cash to stop people from »
- Variety Staff
Golden Globes: BAFTA/La Tea Party Draws Global Crowd
3 hours ago | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »
Proving the international nature of the Golden Globes the BAFTA/La tea party at the Four Seasons on Saturday drew a crowd from Australian Cate Blanchett to Austrian Christoph Waltz, besides of course Americans and Brits.
BAFTA/La chief exec Chantal Rickards thought the party was a hit. “I think so, it’s looking like a success so far. I’m not looking forward to the washing up,” she joked. “But otherwise I think it’s going to be great. We never know who’s going to come. We have this fantastic list and those people come, but then they bring other people.”
BAFTA/La’s Kieran Breen and Peter Morris were pleased the rain held off.
Although Harvey Weinstein wasn’t stopping for interviews, Brie Larson and Saoirse Ronan performed an impromptu jig while Leonardo DiCaprio posed for photos with guests and Mark Ruffalo was told by a guest »
- Shalini Dore
Sean Penn Under Investigation for Secretly Interviewing Mexican Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’
6 hours ago | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »
In a surprising development, Rolling Stone has published the first-ever interview with fugitive Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzman, known as “El Chapo,” conducted by none other than Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn.
ABC News reported Saturday night that Penn is now under investigation for the interview, according to a Mexican official. Since Penn had been in contact with Guzman for several months, authorities are presumably interested to find out why the actor did not earlier share any information on the wanted man.
According to the Associated Press, Penn’s interview helped lead authorities to Guzman, who was captured and returned to prison Friday.
The interview published Saturday evening was conducted in October while the drug lord was on the run from Mexican and U.S. authorities. Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, star of Telemundo’s hit 2011 telenovela “La Reina del Sur,” in which she played a ruthless drug cartel leader, accompanied »
- Pat Saperstein
‘Free State of Jones’ Trailer: Matthew McConaughey Gives the Confederacy Hell
6 hours ago | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »
After fighting for the freedom of illegal slaves in Steven Spielberg’s period courtroom drama Amistad, this time Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey is taking on the Confederacy head-on in Free State of Jones. The film sees McConaughey leading the true story of Southern farmer Newt Knight who turns against the Confederacy that he once fought for […]
The post ‘Free State of Jones’ Trailer: Matthew McConaughey Gives the Confederacy Hell appeared first on /Film. »
- Ethan Anderton
‘Furious 8’: Jordana Brewster Addresses Potential Return
7 hours ago | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »
Jordana Brewster was on a Television Critics Association panel for the second season of Secrets and Lies on ABC, in which she will play a murdered wife seen in flashbacks. After the panel, Brewster spoke with reporters about the status of Furious 8. Since Paul Walker’s death necessitated retiring his character Brian O’Conner, it’s been unclear […]
The post ‘Furious 8’: Jordana Brewster Addresses Potential Return appeared first on /Film. »
- Fred Topel
‘Batman v Superman’ TV Spots: Batmobile Bashed, Lex Luthor Gets Between Them
7 hours ago | Deadline | See recent Deadline news »
So, what would Batman say to Superman if the Man of Steel sent the Batmobile tumbling like it was a Matchbox car? If you guessed, “Tell me, do you bleed?,” you’ve probably already heard about the new TV spots for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Warner Bros. released the footage today from director Zack Snyder’s upcoming tag-team Man of Steel sequel. In TV spot No. 1, Henry Cavill’s Superman stares down a speeding Batmobile (we get a pretty good look at it, too), and… »
Watch: First Trailer For Matthew McConaughey's Civil War Drama 'Free State Of Jones'
7 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
It's not often you see anyone in Hollywood roll the dice on mid-budget movie these days (even Michael Bay says so), but Stx Entertainment are the new players in town hoping to fill that gap. They studio were recently profiled in a piece for New Yorker, which breaks down their approach to greenlighting movies, and serves as a fascinating window in how Hollywood operates. So how does a movie like "Free State Of Jones," a Civil War story, get greenlight? The first thing is getting an actor like Matthew McConaughey in a role suited to his talents. It's “a character fighting injustice, as in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ ” Stx chief Adam Fogelson said about the movie which follows a farmer who rises up against the Confederacy. "...some of it is brand extension, some of it is making an educated bet on trajectory, and some of it is him being the face »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Will Netflix outgun the networks at the Golden Globes in TV’s cultural revolution?
9 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
The season’s first awards ceremony will reveal whether streaming TV is now the industry’s dominant force
On Sunday afternoon, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, the Golden Globes will kick off America’s award season in earnest. In the days leading up to the event, conversation in this entertainment industry-obsessed town has largely centred on which actors host Ricky Gervais, returning after a three-year absence, will manage to offend in his opening monologue and whether this is Leonardo DiCaprio’s year after his punishing turn in The Revenant.
The biggest debate of all, however, concerns television rather than film. This was the first year that the streaming service Netflix won more nominations than the cable giant HBO – by eight to seven – and the first time since 2000 that HBO has not topped the nominations board.
Continue reading »
- Sarah Hughes in Los Angeles
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