Director's Guild of America strikes deal with studios
With all the hubbub surrounding the Writers Guild of America strike, it's been easy to overlook another potential conflict on the horizon. The Director's Guild of America's contract was set to run out in just a few months, and has always been a factor in the WGA strike, since though the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has been able to continue much of its production without writers, standing up to both writers and directors simultaneously would certainly be a different matter. However, an agreement came after a mere six days of negotiations that began last Saturday. Like the... read more
Cloverfield
About half an hour into Cloverfield, the low-budget monster movie... read more
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
One of the central arguments for the legalization of abortion... read more
Sundance short films available for free download
If you're like most of us, you're sadly unable to attend the Sundance Film Festival this year. Fortunately, the festival is putting out its shorts for download so that anyone in the country can check them out and still evade the freezing weather of Park City. The shorts are available for $1.99 each via iTunes or through the Xbox Live Video Marketplace. However, they're also free through Netflix's "instant watching" feature that allows subscribers (as long as they're at least on the two-film plan) to watch unlimited streaming films. For those who don't subscribe or are too cheap to purchase... read more
American Gangster studio sued for defamation by DEA trio
For Ridley Scott, making Gladiator may have had its risks. There were the lions, the weaponry and the Russell Crowe. But at least Sir Scott was confident that no historical figure from the Roman Empire would be suing him or his producers for, say, $55 million. But when you make a movie not set thousands of years ago, litigation sometimes becomes a risk. American Gangster, Scott’s crime epic about all kinds of heroin-related dealings in 1970s-era Harlem, has provoked a defamation lawsuit from three former Drug Enforcement Administration agents. Guess how much they’re suing for? (Hint: see the totally arbitrary... read more
There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson’s first new film in five years... read more
Drew Barrymore snags Ellen Page for Whip It!
Juno star Ellen Page is slated to appear in Whip It!, Drew Barrymore’s upcoming directorial debut, Variety reported recently. Likely to begin filming this summer, it will feature Page as a small-town Texan "alterna-teen" named Bliss who finds herself (and actual bliss, natch!) when she trades one brutal world for another and ditches beauty pageants for roller derby. Admittedly, this writer was initially flummoxed by this announcement. When she thinks of Drew Barrymore, she thinks of Charlie’s Angels, mascara and Jimmy Fallon’s wedding (because this writer was flipping through People magazine last night and read that Barrymore attended said nuptials,... read more
Brad Renfro: 1982-2008
Actor Brad Renfro was found dead yesterday morning in his Los Angeles home. After earning acclaim for the title role in The Client, Renfro continued acting in the years that followed, notably in Sleepers, Apt Pupil, Ghost World and a particularly stirring performance in Bully. Although his career was short, Renfro played a wide variety of roles and was repeatedly praised for the power of his naturalistic acting. Renfro's last role will be in an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' Informers, which he just completed prior to his passing. No cause of death has been announced. Our best wishes go... read more
Update: Guy Pearce joins Theron and Mortensen in The Road
UPDATE: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Guy Pearce has also joined the cast. The Road is tentatively schedule to begin shooting in Southwestern Pennsylvania in late February. -- According to Variety, Charlize Theron is joining Viggo Mortenson for the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's contemporary classic The Road. Theron will be playing Mortenson's wife (the characters in the novel don't have names, they're just referred to as "father" and "son"), a relatively minor part mostly played in flashback due to the work's intense focus on the father/son dynamic. The Road is being directed by John Hillcoat, the Australian director... read more
Dan Clowes writing the Gondrys' animated film
We told you back in October that Michel Gondry was working on an animated feature with his son, but some additional details about the film have started to leak out. Gondry spoke with Slashfilm about the project, saying, "It’s based on [Gondry’s son Paul’s] universe. He’s a sixteen year old. He’s very unique, very funny and very violent in his drawing and his art, showing everything that you could think of that I should have stopped him from coming in contact with, but I failed. He grew up watching Tom & Jerry and Ren and Stimpy, Sponge Bob. If you... read more
Golden Globe winners announced
The Golden Globes were announced Sunday night on television, though the broadcast was more like a press conference than a traditional ceremony. Without further adieu, the winners: Best Motion Picture (Drama): Atonement Best Motion Picture (Musical Or Comedy): Sweeney Todd Best Foreign-Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Best Director: Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Best Animated Feature Film: Ratatouille Best Actor (Drama): Daniel Day Lewis - There Will Be Blood Best Actor (Musical or Comedy): Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men Best Actress (Drama):... read more
Christian Bale makes Public Enemies of Depp, Mann
Variety reports that Christian Bale is in talks to work with Michael Mann on his upcoming feature Public Enemies. For those unused to PR speak, "in talks" is quite a few steps up from "rumored to be in talks" and quite a few steps below "will be in." In a nutshell, it means Bale is negotiating with the studio for more money. Considering that he is Christian Bale and hasn't made a bad film in five years or so, he'll probably get it, too. As we reported earlier, the film is an adaptation of Bryan Burrough’s book that tells of... read more
Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park trailer hits the web
Gus Van Sant's upcoming feature Paranoid Park has been completed for the better part of a year since it premiered last May at Cannes, where it won the 60th Anniversary Prize. Check out the film's trailer below: Once again, Sant's focusing on adolescence, while this time taking a look at skateboarding sub-culture. While the feature looks to continue the trends of his last few independent features, it also seems a little less mumblecore improvised and a little more polished. Probably a good change in his career, especially with Sant moving onto a more professional production on his next feature. Paranoid... read more
Terry Gilliam traveling back to La Mancha?
In the middle of his busy shooting schedule for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (which, honestly, looks like it will be a lot better than its name might imply), Terry Gilliam spoke to Empire about his upcoming projects, and it looks like he's going back to finish some of the films he's been forced to abandon in the past. The first of these is The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the failure of which was documented in Lost in La Mancha. "[Producer] Jeremy Thomas is very close to getting all the pieces of paper signed from all the people who... read more
Fight Club musical in the works (possibly with Trent Reznor)
When you watch Fight Club, do you think muscles or musicals, testosterone or theater, six packs or stage sets? (Really, we could do this all day.) Fear not, dear reader, because you no longer need to file David Fincher’s 1999 classic solely in each of those former designations. This is because Fight Club is slated to become a Broadway musical. In a recent interview with MTV.com, Fincher expressed interest in a truly theatrical interpretation of the film, which would hit the Great White Way in 2009, ten years after the film’s original release. There isn't much else going on with... read more
Karyn Kusama directing Jennifer's Body
With Juno racking up awards, it looks like Diablo Cody's other screenplays will finally getting produced. Jennifer's Body has been talked about for a while, but it's just now making its way out of development hell. "It’s a horror movie, and it’s also about teenagers," Cody told the MTV Movies Blog about the film. "It’s a lot darker [than Juno], and it also has comedic elements. Horror is my favorite genre - and like Juno, I like horror movies." Karyn Kusama will direct the film. Kusama is probably best known for her work on Æon Flux, but previous to that,... read more
Golden Globes telecast cancelled
After weeks of speculation as to what effect the Writer's Guild of America strike would have on the Golden Globes, NBC finally came right out and announced it. While the studio had been attempting some form of waiver for the awards along the lines of what happened to Letterman's Worldwide Pants and United Artists (and seems likely to happen with Lionsgate and the Weinstein Company), these propositions were ultimately rejected by the WGA, which maintained that it would picket the event. "I'm hoping that they see the collapse of awards season and our ability to make interim deals with other... read more
GreenCine DVD rental chart Nov.-Dec. 2007
1. Children of Men (Universal) 2. Sicko (Weinstein Company) 3. Inland Empire (Rhino) 4. The Lives of Others (Sony) 5. Pan’s Labyrinth (Special Edition) (New Line) 6. Knocked Up (Universal) 7. The Science Of Sleep (Warner) 8. Hot Fuzz (Universal) 9. Zodiac (Paramount) 10 (tie) Shortbus (Velocity/THINKFilm) 10 (tie) The Painted Veil (Warner) Copyright © Greencine LLC, based on rentals for November-December, 2007. Visit Greencine.com to explore an unsurpassed catalog of eclectic titles available for DVD rent-by-mail. ... read more
Warner sides with Blu-ray in HD format war
Warner Bros. issued a press release Friday saying that, beginning in May, the company would only be supporting Blu-ray discs in the ongoing HD format war. According to Warner's Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer, “Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want. The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers,... read more
Michel Gondry brings about Return of the Ice Kings
Although his latest film hasn't been released yet and he already has several projects in the works, Michel Gondry told the MTV Movies Blog that he's currently writing The Return of the Ice Kings. Gondry's still at work on the screenplay, but the name alone sounds fascinating, and the content, well: "I’m writing a story about kids who invent a water that makes you hear music when you drink it," Gondry said. "It’s going to be a scientific story, but completely unrealistic." Sounds more whimsical than scientific, but Gondry would probably be the expert on these matters, as he spent... read more
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