Posts Tagged ‘movie news’

Officially Nominees Announced For 83rd Academy Awards

The complete list of nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards, the most prestigious award in Hollywood, have been announced today (via Oscars.com). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed the nominees this morning live from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. There’s no need to spend any more time introducing this, so let’s get right down to it! This is the second year since 1943 that 10 films are nominated for Best Picture and they’ve revealed an interesting set of nominees, as expected. But there are plenty more great selections hidden within, so without further ado, take a look at the full nominees list.

The 83rd Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 27th at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood with a live telecast airing on ABC starting at 8PM5PM (PST). This year’s ceremony is being hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway. The full list of 2011 Academy Awards nominees can be found below. (EST) /

PICTURE:
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

DIRECTOR:
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
David Fincher – The Social Network
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
Joel & Ethan Coen – True Grit
David O. Russell – The Fighter

ACTOR:
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours

ACTRESS:
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Mike Leigh – Another Year
Scott Silver & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson – The Fighter
Christopher Nolan – Inception
Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg – The Kids Are All Right
David Seidler – The King’s Speech

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy – 127 Hours
Aaron Sorkin – The Social Network
Michael Arndt – Toy Story 3
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – True Grit
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini – Winter’s Bone

ANIMATED FEATURE:
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Algeria)

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Matthew Libatique – Black Swan
Wally Pfister – Inception
Danny Cohen – The King’s Speech
Jeff Cronenweth – The Social Network
Roger Deakins – True Grit

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

ANIMATED SHORT:
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, a Journey Diary

LIVE-ACTION SHORT:
The Confession
The Crush
God of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143

VISUAL EFFECTS:
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2

ART DIRECTION:
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit

COSTUME DESIGN:
Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King’s Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

MAKEUP:
Barney’s Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman

FILM EDITING:
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

SOUND MIXING:
Inception
The King’s Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

SOUND EDITING:
Inception
Toy Story 3
Tron Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

ORIGINAL SCORE:
John Powell – How to Train Your Dragon
Hans Zimmer – Inception
Alexandre Desplat – The King’s Speech
A.R. Rahman – 127 Hours
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – The Social Network

ORIGINAL SONG:
“Coming Home” from Country Strong
“I See the Light” from Tangled
“If I Rise” from 127 Hours
“We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3

Like with the Golden Globes, I’m actually quite happy with this year’s nominations, there were a lot of great films in 2010 and a lot of them are getting recognized. However, as always they’re missing some good noms like Andrew Garfield from Social Network and Daft Punk’s Tron Legacy score. That said, I’m still looking forward to seeing who wins on February 27th. Only 33 days until the ceremony – not too long! What’s your Thoughts?

Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass

Now that you’ve seen it, what did you think? Its been exactly 2 years, 27 days since we first learned that Matthew Vaughn would be adapting John Romita Jr and Mark Millar’s ultra-violent comic book series Kick-Ass. The finished movie arrives in theaters this weekend and it’s time to hear your thoughts about it. How does it compare to the comics? Is it better or worse? Is the movie as awesome as everyone is saying it is? Is Hit Girl the best character in the movie? Was Roger Ebert wrong to give it 1 star in his review? Or is it not that good? If you’ve seen it, then leave a comment below and let us know what you thought of Kick-Ass!

To fuel the fire, Kick-Ass is currently my favorite movie of the year so far. I’ve seen it twice and I completely and thoroughly love it. It packs a punch from start to finish, transcends the family friendly nature of most comic book movies in the wildest of ways, and is just the perfect bit of cinematic entertainment. My favorite scene was the strobe light fighting scene, which blew me away for being both beautifully shot and incredibly intense at the same time. I loved all of the characters, even Red Mist and especially Hit Girl and Kick-Ass, and I can’t wait to see the sequel. Kick-Ass really was one of the best recent comic book movies I have seen!

What did you think of Kick-Ass? One of the best comic book movies ever or one of the worst?

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Chinese Earthquake Movie ‘Aftershocks’

I’m pretty damn sure no one has heard of this film before today, but you won’t forget about it after watching this trailer. Twitch first discovered this extraordinary teaser trailer for a disaster film called Aftershocks coming out of China about the devastating 1976 Tangshan Earthquake that killed over 240,000 people. This trailer reminds me of Schindler’s List with the little girl and the way it uses the red to accent the terror and chaos of the situation. I would say this is China’s big disaster film in response to 2012, but since this is about an event that already happened, it’s very different and much more emotional. Check out the teaser below. 

Watch the teaser trailer for Xiaogang Feng’s Aftershocks:

When a mother is informed by a rescue team that, since her 7-year old twins are buried under the debris close to each other, digging one out would result in the collapse of the wreckage on the other, she is forced to make the most difficult decision of her life. Based around the devastating Tangshan Earthquake of 1976.

Aftershocks, originally titled Tangshan Dadizheng in Chinese, is being directed by Beijing-born filmmaker Xiaogang Feng, of other Chinese films like The Dream Factory, Happy Funeral, A World Without Thieves and The Banquet previously. The film will be released in China in July of this year, but it does not have a US release date. In fact, it doesn’t even have a US distributor yet. We’ll let you know if we hear more about it!

Second Featurette for Nimrod Antal’s Predators

Our very first introduction to Robert Rodriguez & Nimrod Antal’s Predators was through a sneak peek featurette, so it’s only fitting we follow up the trailer with yet another new featurette. The video comes from Germany (via YouTube) but isn’t dubbed, so it is watchable and in high def, too. It mainly contains some interview segments with Rodriguez and Antal as well as some new footage, including dialogue from Danny Trejo. I totally love the Japanese guy too, I can’t wait to see him fight with his samurai sword, that will be badass to watch. The more I see from this, the more excited I get, I think it looks like it could be awesome.

Watch the second featurette for Nimród Antal’s Predators:

Predators is being directed by Nimród Antal, of Kontroll, Vacancy, and Armored previously. The screenplay was co-written by newcomers Michael Finch and Alex Litvak and is based on early draft written years ago by producer Robert Rodriguez, who also worked with them on the script. This is a reboot of the Predator series created by Jim & John Thomas and directed by John McTiernan in 1987. We’re not sure what the actual plot is, but all we need to know is that it’s about a bunch of badass elite warriors who fight a bunch of predators out in the jungle. 20th Century Fox is bringing Predators to theaters worldwide on July 7th this summer.

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James Mangold My Direct Gyllenhaal’s Joe Namath Biopic

Back in 2007, it was announced that Jake Gyllenhaal would play football quarterback Joe Namath in a feature film about his life that was being put together. Jump to today and, well, no progress has been made. However, Pajiba says they’ve heard that James Mangold (of Kate & Leopold, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, Knight & Day) may have just landed this directing gig, which makes them (and us) wonder if Universal may actually be trying to get this into production as Gyllenhaal’s next big film following Duncan Jones’ Source Code (which he is already shooting). It all makes sense, and I won’t be surprised if this actually happens.

The project was originally setup with David Hollander (“Heartland”, “The Cleaner”) attached to write the screenplay. Namath himself approved of the movie after a “strong pitch” from Hollander and a belief that the “athletic” Gyllenhaal was the right actor to play him. This is an approval that the studio doesn’t want to let go of, which is probably why they’re keeping Gyllenhaal out in front while moving forward. Universal does want to take another pass at David Hollander’s script before it moves into production, though, and knowing them this means it could probably get shelved just as quickly, especially if the budget is too high.

Joe Namath was one of the first football players to achieve a “rock star” status in the NFL. This biopic will tell the story of how the golden-armed kid from Beaver Falls, PA became “Broadway Joe,” the New York Jets quarterback who became a ’60s cultural figure. “Most of the stuff you saw in Forest Gump, Joe lived through all of it,” producer and friend Jimmy Walsh said about Namath and his life. Namath played for 11 years with the New York Jets, from 1965 to 1976, and was the first to pass more than 4,000 yards one season. You can read up on all of his stats on his biography at Pro Football Hall of Fame. We’ll let you know what happens.

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1914 Video Game Adaptation In The Works For Paul Verhoeven.

I’ve been waiting to see Paul Verhoeven return to his “roots” with more insanely violent action flicks like those he used to make back in the 80s and 90s, but that hasn’t happened yet. Last we heard, Verhoeven was supposed to working on a thriller called Surrogate, but not anymore. MTV talked with Verhoeven recently who told them: “I am working on a movie now that is… situated in 1914. We are scripting it. It’s an idea that exists already… from another medium, and so we are making it now into a film narrative.” He wouldn’t say the name, but did confirm that it’s a video game that they’re adapting the script from. So what could it be?

Verhoeven adds that the story is “basically, Indiana Jones-ish you could say, but also Hitchcockian.” Well that’s no help. How many games can you even think of that are set in 1914? Peter from SlashFilm seems to think it could be an old 1997 PC game called The Last Express, a real-time adventure game created by Jordan Mechner, the same guy who recently broke into Hollywood with Prince of Persia (he created that game and also wrote the script). The game takes place on the Orient Express days before the start of WWI and was even described at the time as “a mix of Indiana Jones and Alfred Hitchcock.” We’ve got a winner!

So Verhoeven is finally returning to the war genre again, or at least he’s adapting an adventure video game that’s set entirely on a train (I think?) in 1914 before WWI. Sounds like a very unique concept and as long as it’s as crazy violent and fun as Verhoeven’s work from the 80’s and 90’s, then I’m in. I don’t think Verhoeven has lost his touch recently, he just hasn’t been working on any movies that are as risky and, to be honest, as entertaining as his earlier work. And whenever I re-watch an old Verhoeven movie, I always hope that we’ll see more like it again soon. Has anyone played The Last Express? Will it make for a good movie?

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Cast in Kubrick’s Lost Film include Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell

Wait, wait, wait – Stanley Kubrick had a long lost project? Apparently so. The film is called Lunatic at Large and is based on a treatment by pulp author Jim Thompson that was commissioned by Kubrick in the late 1950s, after the two worked together on The Killing and Paths Of Glory. The script was discovered the a few years ago (read a NY Times article on it) and has been floating around for at least a few years. However, Production Weekly is reporting today on their Twitter (via The Playlist) that both Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell are attached to star in Lunatic at Large. They’ve got a few good actors for now. Read on!

Set in New York in 1956, Lunatic at Large tells the story of Johnnie Sheppard, an ex-carnival worker with serious anger-management issues, and Joyce, a nervous, attractive barfly he picks up from a Hopperesque tavern scene. It’s described as “a dark and surprising mystery” about a person who is “the true escapee from a nearby mental hospital.” Kubrick was supposed to follow up Spartacus with this, but the only copy of the manuscript was lost and later found in his library. The latest draft of the script was finished by Stephen R. Clarke in 2006, but we don’t know too much else, including production details (when will it start shooting?).

It’s not surprising that Johansson and Rockwell were interested in this. Any and everyone in Hollywood is probably jumping at the opportunity to work on a project that has the late Stanley Kubrick’s name attached, even if it’s just as a writer. If it’s true that both actors have signed on, I’m sure a director is close behind, as they wouldn’t be this far along without one. Chris Palmer has been attached since 2006, but no word if he’s still involved at this point. This sounds like it could be a great project with touch of Kubrick, who hasn’t left any mark on the big screen since Eyes Wide Shut in 1999. We’ll keep you updated best we can. Stay tuned!

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Joss Whedon to Direct The Avengers!

This a fanboy dream come true. I don’t think anyone thought they’d ever wake up and read a headline saying that Joss Whedon, the geek creator of TV shows like “Buffy” and “Firefly”, would be directing the first big superhero team-up movie to ever hit the big screen – The Avengers. Deadline has confirmed the big news of the day: “Marvel Studios is in final negotiations for Joss Whedon to direct Marvel Studios’ The Avengers.” Earlier this month, it was rumored that Whedon was on the shortlist to direct, but no one seemed to believe it would actually happen. Joss Whedon’s The Avengers will hit theaters the first weekend of May in 2012.

Fleming lists a few confirmed superheroes that will be a part of the team: Iron Man ((Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and SHIELD agent Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson). “Other signature superheroes” will be involved, but haven’t been announced yet. Whedon’s background is perfect for this movie, as he’s worked at Marvel before, specifically on the Astonishing X-Men series and a number of other comics. This is most certainly surprising news, but definitely good news. If there’s anyone who’ll be able to handle an immense cast of superheroes, it’s Joss Whedon. I just hope he doesn’t cast Eliza Dushku in this. What do you think of this? Will Joss Whedon do a good job with The Avengers?

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Official Trailer for Jesse Eisenberg Drug Drama Holy Rollers

First Independent Pictures has debuted the official trailer for Kevin Asch’s Holy Rollers starring Justin Bartha and Jesse Eisenberg as two Hasidic Jews who helped bring millions of ecstasy pills in from Europe. As good as this trailer may look, this is not a good film, as I saw it at Sundance and it’s pretty boring. I was expecting a comedy going in, but it was a straight drama with no direction, and it’s all over the place with its story. Sadly, Holy Rollers is one of those Sundance films you don’t want to admit you saw because it was so bad. I’m featuring this anyway in case a few of you are interested, but I don’t suggest seeing this in theaters.

Watch the official trailer for Kevin Asch’s Holy Rollers:

In Brooklyn, a youth from an Orthodox Jewish community is lured into becoming an Ecstasy dealer by his pal who has ties to an Israel drug cartel. This also features Ari Graynor, Jason Fuchs and rapper Q-Tip.

Holy Rollers is directed by aspiring first-time feature filmmaker Kevin Asch of only the comedy short film Characters from 2005 previously. The screenplay was written by Antonio Macia, of only the drama Anne B. Real previously. This first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and was later bought by the micro-indie company First Independent Pictures for US distribution. They are bringing Holy Rollers to limited theaters starting on May 21st this summer, with an expansion planned, but I doubt it’ll pick up.

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New Iron Man 2 Viral Updates: Fans Buzzing About AccuTech

We’ve been keeping tabs on the Iron Man 2 mini-viral launch this past week, but nothing too exciting has really happened (or so I claim). Earlier in the week, SlashFilm found a website for a Stark Industries spin-off company (aka subsidiary) called AccuTech that has somehow become the primary focus of the entire viral. Packages started showing up with boxes of cheesy AccuTech swag, but then everyone started picking up on the logo, which seemed to be a little too similar to The Avengers logo which also consists of an “A” inside of a circle as well. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but that seems to be the biggest buzz related to this viral.

You can visit the full AccuTech website here: starkexpo2010.com/accutech/. I’m surprised they couldn’t buy their own URL, but that’s besides the point. There’s a video introducing a “HazTech Exoskeleton” on the site, which many believe is another viral hint at something in the movie. You can also read through the rest of the minimal amount of information found there. Marvel.com also posted a new letter from Tony Stark himself that talks about the Stark Expo returning this year (refer to starkexpo2010.com). Other sites buzzing about the logo similarities include CHUD and BleedingCool, so I’ll leave all of that speculation up to them.

So far I’m not really that impressed with this viral campaign for Iron Man 2. The websites are pretty dull and its all about speculation and stuff like “could this be that armor from that scene in that movie?!” I wish they had a more solid direction and more for us to latch onto and interact with as it builds, but that’s all we got, so check out the websites above. As always, if you find anything new anywhere, be sure to let us know!

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