Screen Actors Guild Awards go (mostly) to season favorites

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 9:22 AM on January 26, 2009

A low-key event by design, the Screen Actors Guild Awards benefit from a narrow scope—it is for actors, by actors—and an intimacy that allows each winner to thank the crowd in a way that seems at least partly sincere. The annual ceremony, held last night and aired live on both TNT and TBS, had the added benefit of unspoken drama always only a whisper away, even if none of the winners were exactly a surprise. ...  read more

Burma VJ turns Sundance's eye toward government protests

By Matt Goodlett at 12:43 PM on January 23, 2009

Burma VJ, a documentary comprising smuggled footage of the uprising against the military dictatorship in Myanmar, debuted in North America over the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival....  read more

Sophia Loren to star as her mother in TV biopic

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 10:20 AM on January 23, 2009

She has one of the most famous faces in the movies and her overnight-rise biography is widely known, so it’s not a surprise to learn Sophia Loren has a television biopic in the works. Less a given is that once again, she has elected to play her own mother in it. ...  read more

Watchmen soundtrack to feature Dylan, Hendrix, Simone

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 10:09 AM on January 23, 2009

With Watchmen confirmed to open March 6, the full swing of its publicity assault is upon us. Cue the announcement of the movie’s soundtracks, with one version to feature the score by Tyler Bates (Rob Zombie’s Halloween and The Devil’s Rejects) and a separate disc to include a “reinterpretation” of Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row” performed by My Chemical Romance. ...  read more

Warner Bros. planning to lay off 10 percent of worldwide staff

By Matt Goodlett at 8:40 AM on January 23, 2009

Small indie studios aren't the only ones struggling in hard economic times. Warner Bros. announced that it will cut 800 jobs, a total of 10 percent of its staff....  read more

Emmerich lands rights to Asimov trilogy, 2012 delayed

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 2:17 PM on January 22, 2009

The late sci-fi master Isaac Asimov has had a particularly unfortunate run of it in Hollywood. For as prolific a writer and thinker as he was, it’s no surprise the industry has sought to mine his work, but the bloated studio efforts that have resulted so far—I, Robot and Bicentennial Man, most famously—haven’t exactly honored the legacy he carved out for himself. ...  read more

50 Cent buys film company, nabs Nic Cage as first co-star

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 10:53 AM on January 22, 2009

The best stories always seem to tell themselves. 50 Cent has purchased his very own film production company—called Cheetah Vision, no less—and he's wrangled Nicolas Cage to be his co-star in the operation’s first venture, a fact-based parable about a former fighter sent to state prison and the founder of a boxing program who he connects with there. ...  read more

Oscar nominees announced: Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader and Benjamin Button amongst highlights

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 10:15 AM on January 22, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button took their anointed places and talk of a populist uprising was silenced with The Dark Knight largely snubbed as the Oscar nominations were announced this morning. ...  read more

John Cleese adapts A Fish Called Wanda for the stage

By Rachel Dovey at 9:47 AM on January 22, 2009

According to the Telegraph, John Cleese is in the process of adapting his 1988 hit movie A Fish Called Wanda for the stage. And curtain calls won't be the only addition to the original script: Cleese is turning the "smashing comedy" of a jewel heist gone awry into a musical. ...  read more

Tarantino still planning to release uncut Kill Bill DVD

By Jeremy Medina at 5:24 PM on January 21, 2009

Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 were, respectively, pretty damn awesome in their own right, but it's hard not to wonder what it would've been like had Quentin Tarantino released them together, as he originally planned. ...  read more

Office Space 10-Year Anniversary coming to Blu-ray/DVD

By Muriel Vega at 4:27 PM on January 21, 2009

Does your TPS report have a cover sheet? If not, you best get one for it soon, because the cult classic, Office Space, is being re-released on Blu-ray and DVD for its 10 year anniversary on Feb. 3....  read more

Amid grim forecast, Sundance acquisitions move forward

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 2:22 PM on January 21, 2009

As sober financial outlooks continue to soften expectations for the business side of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the events have gone forward at full charge. For critical feedback, keep tuned to our Festivus blog as Paste’s chief film critic Robert Davis continues to provide rolling commentary....  read more

Emma Stone joins Woody Harrelson in Zombieland

By Muriel Vega at 2:19 PM on January 21, 2009

According to Variety, Superbad actress Emma Stone will join Woody Harrelson and director Ruben Fleischer in Zombieland, a comedy about a mismatched couple in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. ...  read more

Patton Oswalt blogs Sundance 2009

By Michael Saba at 12:27 PM on January 21, 2009

Sundance 2009 might be a stripped-down affair, owing to hard times everywhere, but little gems are still popping up here and there. Doubtlessly, a deluge of commentary will follow the festival's conclusion, but for now, some of our favorite boots-on-the-ground observations are coming from Patton Oswalt. He's holed up at Sundance for the premiere of his (thus far well-received) flick Big Fan....  read more

Co-star confirms Spider-Man 4 to shoot next year

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 9:40 AM on January 21, 2009

After all the heat The Dark Knight and Iron Man generated last summer, the Spider-Man brand seems not only to have surrendered its credentials as our biggest comic-to-film franchise but also its place in the public imagination. Iron Man is positioned to take the escapist crown, Batman has the artistic reigns, so where does that leave Spider-Man, which had previously held a viable claim to both? ...  read more

Mad Men creator in for two more seasons

By Muriel Vega at 3:07 PM on January 20, 2009

Matthew Weiner, executive producer and creator of Mad Men, signed a deal with Lionsgate TV and AMC on Friday. The deal includes two more seasons of the Golden Globe-winning series, a development deal, and feature project for Lionsgate. ...  read more

Gossip Girl spin-off headed to '80s L.A.

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 9:31 AM on January 20, 2009

As Gossip Girl developed into a flagship series for The CW, two of its principal architects, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, began to float ideas for a spin-off. The winner: A new series that would trade New York for L.A. and swing back to the ’80s for the debutante days of Lily van der Woodsen (currently played by Kelly Rutherford, above). ...  read more

Philip Seymour Hoffman stakes out directorial debut

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 8:45 AM on January 20, 2009

Although he’s considered one of his generation’s great talents in front of the camera, Philip Seymour Hoffman has long professed a desire to become a director. He’s about to get his chance. The Doubt star will adapt the Off Broadway hit Jack Goes Boating, an offbeat romantic comedy set in New York City. ...  read more

Joaquin Phoenix documentary to track budding rap career

By Matt Goodlett at 8:33 AM on January 20, 2009

Whether Joaquin Phoenix's rap career is successful (or goes down in, wait for it, a ring of fire!) the whole episode will be recorded for posterity in a documentary shot by Casey Affleck....  read more

The battle for Watchmen finally ends

By Muriel Vega at 4:25 PM on January 19, 2009

Watchmen fans, rejoice! The film will hit theaters as planned on March 6. Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox have reached an agreement about the rights to one of the most celebrated graphic novels of all time. ...  read more