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Alan Parker: 'Bugsy Malone' financier Rank were a "disgrace"
3 hours ago | ScreenDaily | See recent ScreenDaily news »
Bugsy Malone and Evita director discussed his career during a Brussels European Film Forum masterclass.
Acclaimed UK director Alan Parker discussed his career during a masterclass at the European Film Forum in Brussels last Friday [Dec 2].
Parker was in typically belligerent form as he looked back over a career that saw him direct 14 features, many of which were box office hits. The veteran filmmaker confirmed that he is now fully retired, with no intention to direct any further films.
“It is really the most difficult thing in the world to get a film financed and it is a very debilitating thing to do it,” Parker said. “One of the reasons I stopped making films was because of that. I used to love the camaraderie of the film set, I used to love writing films but trying to get the money…”
Parker likened himself to the man near his home who sits by the cash machine begging. “He always »
- geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
Five things we learned from the first trailer for The Mummy
3 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Tom Cruise is top gun in the new Universal monsters cinematic universe, but he has a beastly side, and Russell Crowe’s Jekyll is just as shadowy
Somewhere in Bavaria, electricity crackles and dead synapses fire instantly back into life. Deep in the Amazon jungle, a loathsome gilled monstrosity emerges from the swamp and sets out on its reign of carnage. In rural England, a hideously bandaged man tries to hide from sight in the remote countryside.
Universal’s classic monsters are all returning to the big screen, and this time they will all be part of a single Marvel-style shared universe – with stars such as Johnny Depp (The Invisible Man), Tom Cruise (The Mummy) and Javier Bardem (Frankenstein) lined up to get their freak on. Here’s what we learned about the studio’s plans from the first trailer for the debut instalment, The Mummy.
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- Ben Child
The Mummy trailer: watch Tom Cruise die in monster reboot – video
3 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
The first in Universal’s planned series of new monster movies, The Mummy sees Tom Cruise amongst a team of military commandos who bring an entombed mummy from the Egyptian deserts to London. But their plane malfunctions and the mummy awakens, in a bad mood. Sofia Boutella co-stars in the title role, while Russell Crowe plays friendly Dr Henry Jekyll
The Mummy is released on 9 June Continue reading »
- Guardian Staff
Cool Stuff: Two Outstanding ‘Batman Begins’ Prints From ApeMeetsGirl
3 hours ago | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »
Every now and then Hero Complex Gallery likes to have secret screenings of movies in Los Angeles, and accompanying those screenings is always a cool new print commemorating the movie in some way. This past weekend brought another one of those screenings, and along with it came not just one but two new prints from […]
The post Cool Stuff: Two Outstanding ‘Batman Begins’ Prints From ApeMeetsGirl appeared first on /Film. »
- Ethan Anderton
Lol: What If ‘The Witch’ Was Directed By Wes Anderson?
3 hours ago | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »
The Witch was one of the most unnerving and masterful horror films of the year. Some complained that they didn’t find it scary, but the terror at the center of this movie felt more horrifying than any of the jump scares that countless other horror movies brought to the table this year. But what if […]
The post Lol: What If ‘The Witch’ Was Directed By Wes Anderson? appeared first on /Film. »
- Ethan Anderton
BBC Earth Films To Screen In China; ITV, Huace In Format Deal – Global Briefs
3 hours ago | Deadline | See recent Deadline news »
BBC Worldwide has closed a series of deals to bring four BBC Earth Giant Screen films to mainland China and Hong Kong in 2017. Tiny Giants, Wild Africa, Earthflight and Incredible Predators will screen in more than 20 science and technology museums beginning in January under pacts with Orient International Holding Shanghai Foreign Trade Co and Wuhan Ddmc Culture Co. The nature docs will be presented in 2D Dome and 3D giant screen formats. Each is 40-minutes long and will… »
Hollywood stars outraged by Bertolucci rape scene confession
4 hours ago | ScreenDaily | See recent ScreenDaily news »
Jessica Chastain, Chris Evans and Scott Derrickson react with disgust to director’s Last Tango In Paris comments.
An old industry controversy has re-surfaced, with the online diffusion of a 2013 video showing Bernardo Bertolucci admitting that actress Maria Schneider wasn’t consulted in advance about the infamous rape scene in 1972 drama Last Tango In Paris.
In the interview at an event held at La Cinémathèque Française in Paris in 2013, Bertolucci said he and Marlon Brando came up with the idea to shoot the scene in which Brando’s character uses a stick of butter to rape Schneider.
“The sequence of the butter is an idea that I had with Marlon in the morning before shooting it,” he said. “I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress. And I think that she hated me and also Marlon because we didn’t tell her.”
At the time Brando was 48 and Schneider was 19.
Bertolucci has made the »
The 50 best Us films of 2016: No 10 – Weiner
4 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
As our countdown enters the final fortnight, Peter Bradshaw welcomes a documentary about disgraced Us politician Anthony Weiner that’s a classic study of self-delusion
• More on the best culture of 2016
Related: Weiner reviewed and the cinemagoers ejected from Ab Fab 'for laughing' – the Dailies film podcast
If this year’s Us presidential election has taught us anything, it is that celebrity or notoriety can be translated into electoral success. But it’s hard to see how that can apply to the imploding anti-star of American politics: Anthony Weiner, immortalised in the year’s most horribly watchable documentary, by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg.
Continue reading »
- Peter Bradshaw
Scandinavian VFX Group Goodbye Kansas Blows Into UK With New London Outpost
5 hours ago | Deadline | See recent Deadline news »
Stockholm-based VFX Group Goodbye Kansas is setting up shop in the UK with a new London studio to help deliver what it calls a “unique smorgasbord” of services to filmmakers, marketers and game developers. The new operation will be led by Motion Picture Company and Prime Focus alums James Prosser and Martin Hobbs, alongside VFX Supervisors Matt Kasmir and Jesper Kjölsrud; and Art Director Rafael Morant. Among the first commissions for the new team is work on the George… »
Tim Roth: my father and I were abused by my grandfather
5 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
The Rillington Place and Reservoir Dogs actor has spoken about the abuse he and his father suffered as children
Tim Roth, the acclaimed British actor who rose to global fame with roles in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, has said that both he and his father were abused by his grandfather.
Roth, who has previously spoken of his own abuse, has not before said who his abuser was, nor that his father was similarly abused.
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- Catherine Shoard
BBC Earth Film Series to Get China Releases
7 hours ago | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »
Four medium length movies from BBC Earth are to get non-commercial theatrical release in China. “Tiny Giants,” “Wild Africa,” “Earthflight” and “Incredible Predators” will have distribution on a network of giant screens at science and technology museums from January.
The move follows a deal between BBC Worldwide and Orient International Holding Shanghai Foreign Trade Co. and Wuhan Ddmc Culture Co.
Each film is 40 minutes long and will enjoy runs of between six months and a year in mainland Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenyang and Hefei, as well as in Hong Kong.
“Visitors to science and technology museums all over China will have access to the four BBC Earth films that will allow viewers to envelop themselves in the larger than life, immersive experience of the 2D Dome and 3D giant screen formats,” said Kelvin Yau, BBC Worldwide’s Gm, Greater China.
“Earthflight” shows some of the world »
- Patrick Frater
The difficult delivery of Nate Parker's The Birth Of A Nation
7 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
This account of 19th century slave rebel Nat Turner has been plagued by changing attitudes towards its creator - but does the film itself stand up to scrutiny?
Related: Nate Parker: director with a back story | Observer profile
As with its notorious, Kkk-celebrating 1915 namesake, the history of Nate Parker’s The Birth Of A Nation is almost more interesting than the movie itself. Written and directed by Parker, and starring him as the 1831 slave-rebellion leader Nat Turner, it was feted at Sundance, and subject of an intense bidding-war. A movie many felt was needed in the post-Ferguson Black Lives Matter cultural moment, it was consequently overrated by a hungry audience, reflecting the hopes and desires of the viewer more than the real qualities of the movie.
Continue reading »
- John Patterson
Aacta awards 2016: Hacksaw Ridge and Rake win early screen honours
8 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
More than 30 category winners are announced in the lead-up to Wednesday night’s main Australian film and TV event
Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge has already taken out four categories of Australia’s largest screen awards, the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) awards.
An “industry luncheon” was held on Monday ahead of the main ceremony on Wednesday, which will be broadcast on Channel Seven.
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- Steph Harmon
Sgiff: ‘Absence’ Adds Audience Award at Singapore Festival Close
8 hours ago | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »
Malaysian documentary, “Absent Without Leave” claimed the Audience Award on Sunday at the close of the 27th Singapore International Film Festival.
Sgiff organizers reported that some 13,000 spectators had attended the 12-day event which ran Nov. 23 – Dec 4.
The final total also included the screening of 161 features and short films from 52 countries. 11 screenings were sold out, including four for Singapore-made pictures.
The previous evening a red carpet event saw Nepal’s “White Sun” claim the best film prize in the Silver Screen awards, which are reserved for the Sgiff’s competition titles. “Live From Dhaka” picked up the best director and best performance awards.
The debut film by Lau Kek-Huat, “Absent” navigates the murky waters of Malayan history that appears far removed from the present as Lau attempts to reconnect with his absent father. What follows is the gradual unravelling of his grandfather’s forgotten story: an absent father to the filmmaker’s own absent father, »
- Patrick Frater
The 50 best UK films of 2016: No 10 Sausage Party
9 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
As our countdown enters the final fortnight, Andrew Pulver hails Sausage Party, the foul-mouthed, sex-obsessed talking-food animation that hits heights of surreal brilliance
• More on the best culture of 2016
Say what you like about Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg: they dance with the ones that brung them. And since the ones that brung them are foul-mouthed, filth-obsessed dopeheads, Sausage Party is well up to standard. It’s an insanely surreal animated comedy about talking supermarket food (who said they’ve been smoking too much?), which is finished with all the polish of a Pixar or Blue Sky production. But it ventures (or should that be staggers woozily) into territory no one else would dare to. The final consumables-orgy scene is the one that got censors in a twist across the globe; and, while the spectacle of food items going at each other every which way is, to put it mildly, »
- Andrew Pulver
Nabil Ayouch’s Upcoming ‘Razzia’ Revisits 1942 Classic ‘Casablanca’ (Exclusive)
9 hours ago | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »
Marrakech — Nabil Ayouch is Morocco’s best-known filmmaker, having directed international hits such as “Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets” (2000), “Whatever Lola Wants” (2007), “Horses of God” (2012).
Over recent years he has played a key role in developing the nascent Moroccan film industry including the production of a slate of over 40 Moroccan telefilms, for public broadcaster Snrt, which launched a new generation of directing and acting talent.
His 2012 pic, “Horses of God,” about the 2003 Casablanca suicide bombers, was sold to 40 countries by Wild Bunch and officially presented in the U.S. by Jonathan Demme, where it was Morocco’s candidate for the foreign-language Academy Award.
However, in 2015 Ayouch became a bête noire for certain quarters of Moroccan society due to his prostitution drama, “Much Loved,” which was banned one week after the film bowed in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, on account of “serious outrage to the moral values of Moroccan women. »
- Martin Dale
Film Review: ‘Sky on Fire’
11 hours ago | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »
Nearly three decades after making his international breakthrough with “City on Fire” — the 1987 cult-fave cops-and-robbers opus that Quentin Tarantino brazenly referenced in “Reservoir Dogs” — Hong Kong auteur Ringo Lam returns to his roots with “Sky on Fire,” a similarly titled non-sequel that, at its infrequent best, plays like a highlight reel culled from the greatest hits of a bygone era. Specifically, this new film recalls that brief but shining heyday when Lam, John Woo, Tsui Hark, and other Hong Kong directors more or less remade action cinema as an exhilarating mashup of operatic passions, automatic weapons, and blow-’em-up, smack-’em-down mayhem.
Unfortunately, that isn’t quite the same thing as being a terrific movie, or even a very good one, that stands on its own merits. Truth to tell, the first half of “Sky on Fire” is more confusing than exciting, as Lam, working from his own screenplay, demands »
- Joe Leydon
‘Silence’: Will Academy Voters Embrace Martin Scorsese’s Passion Project?
11 hours ago | Variety - Film News | See recent Variety - Film News news »
Early Sunday afternoon, “Silence” star Issei Ogata came close to taking the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.’s supporting actor prize for his work in Martin Scorsese’s latest. He ultimately landed in the runner-up spot, deferring to Mahershala Ali from “Moonlight.” But a new name had been added to an already wide-open contest nevertheless.
Scorsese, meanwhile, was finally unspooling his opus for West Coast audiences. “Silence” set up shop first on the Paramount lot and later at the Fox Bruin movie palace in Westwood, packing in audiences of guild members, Academy voters and journalists eager to absorb the final prestige awards season offering of the season.
Did they get a home run contender?
It’s hard to say. A combination of tough subject matter and an inflated running time could make it a dicey prospect. Variety Chief Film Critic Peter Debruge batted it around with me a little in »
- Kristopher Tapley
‘Westworld’ Season Finale Review: We Learned Some Secrets, But Still Have Some Questions
11 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Last Week’S Review: ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’ Goes Down the Rabbit Hole For Answers
Diagnostic Report
Well. That happened. For the record, we have no idea what a Season 2 of this show looks like. We just know that Holy Smokes this finale sure aired.
“Westworld” confirmed a lot of things in its extra-long finale — specifically, the fact that William’s adventures in the park were from an earlier time than the rest of the narrative, and that Maeve’s decision to revolt would lead to her freedom… sort of. One of the most shocking revelations: The rampage Teddy remembers Wyatt going on? That was actually executed by Dolores. Wyatt, it seems, was never truly real.
The other most important plot points: Maeve has made her escape… though she’s looped back to find her “daughter.” The board has made the necessary moves to remove Ford from his position of authority, »
- Liz Shannon Miller
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 trailer starring Baby Groot – video
13 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Just over two years since the release of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the franchise heralds its return with its band of interstellar travellers. James Gunn’s sequel to his blockbuster – the highest grossing film in the Us in 2014 – features Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax and Vin Diesel as Baby Groot, as well as Bradley Cooper, Glenn Close and Elizabeth Debicki. The film is scheduled to be released in Australia on 25 April, the UK on 28 April and the Us on 5 May.
• Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2: first teaser trailer debuts online
Continue reading »
- Guardian Staff
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