If there's anyone who has pulled off a wickedly impressive image transformation, it's Angelina Jolie. She used to be the wild child who'd wear bloody tees to her wedding (with Jonny Lee), or bloody vials around her neck (as she did with Billy Bob). Then she did a 180, becoming a goodwill ambassador and starting her own multicultural Brady Bunch with Brad Pitt.
I'm happy for her, but I can't help but miss the good ol' days. She might have been wild, and she might have shocked many -- but she had a great spark, one that seems to have disappeared inside the current carefully manufactured icon she is today.
The gleam might be hidden these days, but luckily we're living in a world of DVD entertainment. We can head back to the past whenever we want to. What follows are my two favorite Jolie gigs. They're far from the best movies, but they definitely embody both the old Angelina, and a certain period of '90s rebellion. I give you: Hackers and Foxfire.
In a natural progression from amateur porn of the Zack and Miri variety, Elizabeth Banks has taken on some a cappella-themed production work. The Hollywood Reporter posts that the actress is going to produce a new film called Pitch Perfect, through her shingle, Brownstone Productions. Kay Cannon (30 Rock) is going to adapt the film from Mickey Rapkin's nonfiction book.
An editor at GQ, Rapkin spent some time covering a cappella college competitions, focusing on teams from the University of Virginia, Tuft University, and the University of Oregon. Oh, but this isn't just a bunch of goofy nerd singers competing. Apparently, it's a world full of "singing, groupies, partying, and rivalries."
A cappella groupies? I just can't wrap my head around this notion. Do the girls put on skimpy outfits and try to sleep with the singers? Do the performers sign breasts and keep score on their bedpost? And to think I thought a cappella wasn't sexy ... maybe it's because of performances like this.
The book will be a comedy set in this world, and so far, I'm itching to see it. It's certainly unique! As of right now, Banks isn't attached to a role in the film, but I imagined that might change once the adaptation is complete.
And when I say ridiculous, I mean "WTF is going on in this flick!?" I'm not sure when this new red band trailer for Tropic Thunderwent off the deep end: Was it when Ben Stiller took a young child who was stabbing him in the back (literally) and threw him off a bridge, or was it when Stiller was holding up the decapitated head of a soldier and sticking his tongue up to its guts. Oh, I'm totally not kidding about any of that, either -- this one looks completely out of control. Kudos to Stiller; for awhile there, it looked like he was way past his prime. With Tropic Thunder, something tells me the entire crew downed a case of "something real good" and said, "Screw it, let's just go absolutely nuts with this one and really freak people out."
Tropic Thunder stars Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. (who's cursing in every scene ... as a black man), Brandon T. Jackson and Jay Baruchel as a group of actors shooting a Platoon-esque war film in the jungle. When that film's director (as played by Steve Coogan) decides these guys need to be "in the sh*t," the gang wind up face to face with an army of real soldiers. I can't even begin to explain this trailer -- it's probably the most disturbing, yet oddly hilarious piece of marketing material I've seen all year.
Go here. Enter your age. Let us know what you think. Tropic Thunder hits theaters on August 15.
I first heard about this film from my friend Aaron, who, honestly, hasn't stopped talking about it for over a year. He caught a screening of it at last year's Tribeca Film Festival, and absolutely fell in love. Another friend of mine was at the same screening and he loved it. Lots of people are loving it. I'm dying to love it. Will you love it, too? Moviefone has debuted the trailer for In Search of a Midnight Kiss (watch above or over on Moviefone), directed by Alex Holdridge. The film, which was shot guerrilla-style in Los Angeles after something like a two-week prep period, tells of a man who's just suffered through one of the most miserable years of his life. When his friend convinces him to post a personal ad on Craigslist (in order to avoid being alone on New Year's Eve), a girl searching for the perfect midnight kiss answers. Thus begins an eventful night that neither one will ever forget.
I'm really diggin' this trailer; definitely one of my favorites of the year so far. Well edited, well scored -- looks like my cup of Friday spiked tea. You?In Search of a Midnight Kiss hits theaters on August 1.
Winstead will play Ramona Victoria Flowers, Pilgrim's dream girl. She's the one with those seven evil boyfriends, all of whom Pilgrim must defeat if he is to win her heart. Her past is shrouded in mystery, as might be expected when you have seven evil boyfriends.
Now, being a girl, I'm no expert on dream girlfriends. The guys I know said it was impossible to cast Ramona, as no actress could possibly match the perfection they had all imagined her as. So, what do you think? Is Winstead the right choice? Does she embody the sexiness that is Ramona? Or is this one of those things you will tell me is all about personality and acting chops rather than looks? Which I will believe, don't worry -- I know you guys aren't that shallow.
There hasn't been much buzz on this flick after Cera's and Edgar Wright jumped onboard, and so hopefully it will pick up with the two leads out of the way. As Wright is clearly casting lesser known actors (at least with on the female end), it's difficult to offer up a choice for the secondary roles -- but hey, do it anyway. I am ashamed to admit that I'm still way too behind on Scott Pilgrim to offer up my own.
Philip (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik (Espen Klouman-Hoiner) are best friends. They're both aspiring novelists. And at the beginning of Reprise, they both stand, hesitant, on the street in front of a mailbox, and put their manuscripts in. And the camera follows their hopes and aspirations into the darkness, and the film rockets forward, a narrator detailing the reception of their novels and what that does to their lives, who finds acclaim and who does not, the setbacks and triumphs of each of their careers, with jump cuts and film clips and rambling elaborations and bizarre left-field concepts and rapid-fire narration piled one atop the other. And then we're back in the here-and-now, as Phillip and Erik stand in front of the postal box, looking slightly abashed, wondering what exactly it is they're supposed to do next. Maybe what we saw was a dream, or a lie; we're going to have to wait and see what happens next, just like they have to.
Directed by Joachim Trier, Reprise is one of the most brilliant, heartfelt, exciting and exuberant feature film debuts in recent memory, and works not just as a demonstration of Trier's substantial talents but also as a superbly-made collaboration. Trier co-wrote alongside Eskil Vogt, and the film's ensemble (including Lie, Klouman-Hoiner and Viktoria Winge as Phillip's gamine girlfriend Kari) is also superb, down to seemingly-minute supporting roles that are nonetheless perfectly cast, like Eindreide Eisvold's all-seeing but hardly certain dry tone as the narrator.
Variety has announced that George Clooney will star in Men Who Stare At Goats, a big screen adaptation of Jon Ronson's scary-because-its-true book. Clooney's Smoke House partner Grant Heslov will direct, while Peter Straughan has penned the script.
Ronson's book is an investigation into the secret wing of the U.S. First Earth Battalion. It was a paranormal research unit created in 1979 with the purpose of creating "Warrior Monks," soldiers who could walk through walls, become invisible, read minds, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it long enough. One ex-Army employee Ronson interviewed claims that he actually did kill his pet hamster and a goat by staring at them for a very long time. While the book is full of kookiness, it does branch out to discuss how the paranormal project has come to play in the current Iraq war. Not only have some of First Earth's research projects been employed as torture, a few of those claiming to have developed superpowers have reportedly been deployed to Iraq. Our tax dollars at work, people.
It all sounds like one of the funnier episodes of The X-Files -- a perfect project for Clooney; the right mix of political activism and screwball humor. Frankly, I'm sold by the title alone. Here's hoping they won't change it to appeal to a wider America.
Did the art department at Fox apply some Photoshop to an actual childhood photo of Rainn Wilson? It sure looks like a young Dwight Schrute to me.
This is the poster for The Rocker (click image to enlarge), a comedy starring Wilson that's due this summer. Wilson plays a guy who got kicked out of a hair band in the 1980s and now, 20 years later, joins his nephew's upstart band as a means of reclaiming his former glory. The director is Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), with a screenplay by Maya Forbes (various Larry Sanders Show episodes) and Wally Wolodarksy (various Simpsons episodes).
The release date is Aug. 1, but it's premiering at the CineVegas Film Festival in June, so we should have a review for you then. The premise is good, the cast (which also includes Christina Applegate) and personnel are good, and August has been a fertile month for comedies in recent years (Superbad, Talladega Nights, 40-Year-Old Virgin), so we're keeping our fingers crossed for this one.
(And is it me, or is this poster a tad Apatow-esque?)
I wonder ... how do you meet the super thieves and spies? How do these cinematic guys always find the people with deep, dark secrets, or law-breaking wild sides? Variety reports that Christian Slater and Cuba Gooding Jr. are starring in a new action comedy called Lies & Illusions, which will be directed by Tibor Takacs. (Will it be able to match the wonder, humor, and intrigue that is Kuffs?!) Sarah Ann Schultz, Christa Campbell, Al Madrigal, and Lochlyn Munro have also signed on to star.
The script, written by Eric James, focuses on "a novelist being hunted by a spy who believes the writer holds millions of dollars in diamonds stolen by his dead fiancee." But it's more than just that. According to IMDb, the writer is "torn between two lovers," and also, "A book editor from New York becomes obsessed with the author of a violent novel. She soon learns secrets about his past." Seeing that Slater gets a first and last name -- Wes Wilson, and Cuba only gets "Isaac," I assume that Slater is the writer, and Cuba is the spy. But I don't see how the editor fits into all of this.
IMDb says that it's now in post, but Variety says the film began shooting this week in Spokane.
Perhaps the best thing about Kung Fu Panda is that it's an action comedy that doesn't skimp on the action. Dreamworks Animation's latest effort may stick out a little on the Red Carpet at Cannes -- where it's screening out of competition -- but it's certainly a well-made kid's film that earns high points for how directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne clearly crafted and contemplated its look and feel with ambition and style. Anyone can make a computer-animated cartoon with fuzzy animals doing kung fu; you have to be at least a little inspired to make a computer-animated cartoon featuring fuzzy animals doing kung fu in widescreen Cinemascope. ...
Kung Fu Panda opens with a rousing, stylish action sequence, as a narrator (Jack Black, in full-on Tenacious D exposition mode) explains how "Legend tells of a legendary kung fu warrior whose kung fu skills were legendary. ..." But then, the heroic panda we've seen unleashing paws of power on the big screen ... wakes up; it was just a dream. Then Po the panda (Black), whose dreams of kung fu glory are the counterpoint to his unsatisfying life, gets ready for his day of helping his father Mr. Ping (James Wong) sell noodles to the people of the Valley of Peace.
No, I don't think this latest feature is a mixture of Buffy and Foxy Brown, where lesbians get tough and hunt vampires. (Has there been a flick like that yet? If not, I'm sure we'll get it one of these days.) Instead, this seems to be about the dudes who kill lesbian vampires, or will be killed by them. Variety reports that James Corden and Mathew Horne, who star in the UK's cult show Gavin and Stacey, are re-teaming to bring down some vamps in Phil Claydon's Lesbian Vampire Killers.
Written by Stewart Williams and Paul Hupfield, this horror comedy focuses on Corden and Horne "stuck in a village where all the women have been enslaved by a vampire curse." This makes it sound like the village was a lesbian commune, or the girls tapped into their gay side after growing the fangs, sort of like Willow on Buffy. However, IMDb fills in some blanks. An ancient curse falls upon this Welsh town, so the "remaining menfolk ... send two hapless young lads out onto the moors as a sacrifice." Talk about drawing the short stick, although I imagine there are worse ways to be sacrificed.
I'm sure there will be lots of skin and all the girlie bits that make horror fanboys salivate. What I don't know much about is Gavin & Stacey. Any fans out there want to weigh in about Corden and Horne taking on lesbian blood suckers? Can they do it?
Our Erik Davis should get a side job as a casting director after his comment about the upcoming A-Team movie. Back in December, he said: "Like, B.A. Baracas (played by Mr. T on the TV show) is listed as a '22-year-old walking steel with two-percent body fat.' Yup, expect Tyrese Gibson in this role."
Unless scheduling problems put a wrench in the whole thing, it looks like Gibson is, indeed, BA. He told Devin at CHUD the other day that while his participation isn't finalized, he's getting excited about taking on Baracus. But it won't be completely like we remember. There could be a mohawk (there best be!), but not the bling that would bury a baby. And get this -- he plans to work out and bulk up even more for the role.
I just don't know about all of this. The charm of the show, which is one of my '80s favorites, was the humor and the quirk. Not only does the casting have to be spot-on, but it just has to keep some of the strangeness. Yeah, it was the '80s, but it's not like BA was following trends. He had his own style. There best be a mohawk, bling, and a whole lotta foo'.
I spent three days at the very first Marfa Film Festival, plus two days in transit -- more than 1,000 hard miles of driving -- and it was worth every effort to get there; even the post-fest illness that felled me for an entire week. I saw wonderful outdoor screenings, enjoyed some good docs and short films, and witnessed the debut of two music videos directed by Heath Ledger. Oh, and met many friendly local residents, talented filmmakers, and visiting film lovers.
Located in West Texas, roughly halfway between El Paso and San Antonio, the town of Marfa (population 2121) has the rare distinction of being the setting for two recent films that won Academy Awards: No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. Some of the sets for the latter film are still standing, and I traveled there on a sunny afternoon with a small group of intrepid friends over a bumpy, curving, tail-bouncing dirt road that stretched for miles across a ranch just south of town. After depositing our load of bottled water for the opening night reception that would begin a few hours later, we wandered around the fictional town of Little Boston.
As authentically aged and real as the buildings look, it's not a real town, of course, it's a set, meant to evoke Bakersfield, California, circa 1911. Check out the gallery for pictures of the Blood set, visiting filmmakers and other sights of the festival. Read on for more about the festival itself.
The deals are already flying fast and furious in Cannes. As befits an international marketplace, most of the action involves far-flung territories, but we're keeping an eye out for US distribution deals too. indieWIRE has a great round-up of the first day's activity, which includes the news that IFC Films has acquired distribution rights to two films.
Good buzz about 24-year-old Joshua Safdie's feature debut The Pleasure of Being Robbedbegan when it world premiered at SXSW in March. Somehow, the Cinematical crew missed seeing it (hey, we're only human, we miss things sometimes), but David Lowery at Spoutraved: "It's pure cinema, and as such it's one of the best films I've seen this year." The comedy revolves around a kleptomaniac, played by co-writer Eleonore Hendricks, with a philanthropic streak. Pleasure is the only US title in the Director's Fortnight this year.
In 2005, Tom Hall declared: "There is not a more important filmmaker working today than Arnaud Desplechin." He previously made Kings & Queen and Esther Kahn, among other critically-acclaimed work. The French filmmaker's latest, A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël), features Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon and Mathieu Amalric "in a contemporary family drama set in France." The film plays in Official Competition and has its first screening on Friday night before opening theatrically in France next week.
We'll have to wait to hear about IFC's specific plans for distribution.
I don't remember the last book that had a viral campaign behind it. I'm not talking about a graphic novel or a comic book; I'm talking a straight-up novel -- one that showcases a flashy website with viral videos, tour dates and erotic images. Furthermore, I'm talking about Chuck Palahniuk's new book, Snuff (which streets on May 20). Palahniuk, as most of us already know, wrote the books Fight Cluband Choke -- the latter of which just pushed back its August release date to September 26 after premiering to some pretty positive buzz earlier this year at Sundance. Snuff, in case you're wondering, tells the story of Cassie Wright; a porn actress who wants to set a record by having sex with 600 guys at the same time ... or something like that. The book itself is told from the perspective of the guys trying to fulfill her wishes.
What I find interesting about this viral campaign is that they've gone ahead and shot mock trailers for Cassie's films, like The Wizard of Ass (posted after the jump for certain NSFW reasons). Not only that, but Chuck himself sat down to interview "Cassie" as well (check out that three-parter over here, toward the bottom of the page). My question is this: Do strange viral videos like the ones being offered here take anything away from the book? Normally, we'll see this sort of stuff when the book is being turned into a movie, but not before the book itself even hits shelves. Could this also be a way to showcase the visual aspects of said book to potential Hollywood buyers, or do you feel snuff, er, stuff like this is simply for the fans and no one else?
In a natural progression from amateur porn of the Zack and Miri variety, .jpg)
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This is officially the greatest movie title ever. 
I wonder ... how do you meet the super thieves and spies? How do these cinematic guys always find the people with deep, dark secrets, or law-breaking wild sides? 
No, I don't think this latest feature is a mixture of Buffy and Foxy Brown, where lesbians get tough and hunt vampires. (Has there been a flick like that yet? If not, I'm sure we'll get it one of these days.) Instead, this seems to be about the dudes who kill lesbian vampires, or will be killed by them. 
The deals are already flying fast and furious in .jpg)
I don't remember the last book that had a viral campaign behind it. I'm not talking about a graphic novel or a comic book; I'm talking a straight-up novel -- one that showcases a flashy website with viral videos, tour dates and erotic images. Furthermore, I'm talking about Chuck Palahniuk's new book, 
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SCOOP: Spider-Man 4 and 5 Might be Shot at the Same Time!
Cinematical Seven: Disney's Awesome Live-Action Kid Adventures
