Also in this Thursday edition of The Broadsheet: James Bond will return with the help of Sony... Bret Easton Ellis is not a fan of Glee... Bruce Campbell talks more Evil Dead... and more ahead.
As expected, the Cannes Film Festival lineup includes new films from a who's who of modern auteurs including Lars von Trier, Pedro Almodóvar, Terrence Malick, Nicolas Winding Refn and more. But hey, The Beaver is also playing, as is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which apparently clocks in at two hours and 20 minutes, not nine like the trailer suggested. Take a gander at the entire list of selections after the jump.
Not only is Peter Jackson taking on the intense, arduous task of bringing another epic fantasy novel to life, but he's still finding time to explain his technical decisions and also make ten-minute video diary entries for each step of the way. He's just posted the first video, but given that production just started shooting, is it safe to assume we'll see about a hundred of these before the movie finally hits?
Who can blame Taylor Lautner for capitalizing on his hard-earned Twilight fandom (those abs don't crunch themselves) by launching a teen-friendly action hero career? Marvel as the erstwhile Jacob Black enters Bourne territory, complete with romance, parkour, and existential identity confusion, in the first trailer for Lionsgate's teen action pic Abduction, directed by John Singleton.
Earlier today, Steven Spielberg announced that Sally Field will star opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln, the DreamWorks biopic of the 16th president of the United States. This is exciting news for everyone including Spielberg, who remarked, "[Field] has always been my first choice to portray all the fragility and complexity that was Mary Todd Lincoln." Lest anyone doubt that Spielberg's "Team Field" sentiment is authentic, let's rewind the clock to four years ago, when the director was first championing the Oscar winner for the juicy role.
The folks at WETA Digital took to the internet Wednesday to unveil an in-depth first look at this August's franchise reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes in a live-stream chat, confirming Charlton Heston's worst fears: Hordes of damn, dirty (and pretty photorealistic) CG apes will definitely be invading the streets of San Francisco this summer. The first Rise of the Planet of the Apes trailer will premiere on Apple/iTunes Thursday, no doubt featuring more of the impressive visual effects shared in the preview; hit the jump for the nine most compelling insights, revelations, and concept art peeks revealed by the WETA effects team and star Andy Serkis.
American Idiot, the Green Day album that birthed a Broadway musical, is nearing a move to the big screen after at least one aborted attempt. Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black is in talks to write the screenplay, and now I'm in talks with myself to realize the potential in adapting albums as films. It's a mystifying and interesting thought; that rumored Candy Land movie is basically Katy Perry's Teenage Dream anyway, right? Here are five more that could make for intriguing cineplex draws.
Adorable Harry Potter costars Jamie Campbell Bower and Bonnie Wright -- who were born in 1988 and 1991, respectively -- are engaged. That's cute and unsettling. Children! They're children! How many Toys R Us Geoffrey dollars will this cost them? Will they take their learner's permits to town hall? Should they dance to their grandparents' wedding song, Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me" (featuring Rik Rok)? I'm confounded! Congrats, though! [GossipCop]
When it comes to movies about relationships -- whether they be boy-girl, girl-girl, mother-daughter, waitress-wedding singer -- Drew Barrymore gets around. So no one was really surprised when the actress and now director announced that she will helm a new kind of relationship movie, How to Be Single -- in which a group of New Yorkers learn how to have relationships with themselves -- for next year. Great! Does this finally mean then that Drew Barrymore will have starred in (or directed) every possible iteration of the relationship genre under the sun? Movieline investigates in the customized survey below.
It's Woody Allen Day here at Movieline! Hot on the heels of the outstanding casting announcement for his next film -- Ellen Page and Jesse Eisenberg 4eva -- comes word that Allen will be the focus of a new American Masters documentary from former Curb Your Enthusiasm producer-director Robert Weide.
Next! Hugh Jackman has followed in the footsteps of Viggo Mortensen and won't star in Snow White and the Huntsman opposite Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron -- TheWrap reports that negotiations between Jackman and Universal broke down. Somewhere, The Brothers Grimm: Snow White is smiling arrogantly. [Wrap]
When the news about Home Premiere -- the DirecTV service that will allow subscribers to watch relatively new movies in their homes 60 days after release for the totally reasonable price of $30 -- leaked during CinemaCon two weeks ago, the National Association of Theater Owners was predictably upset: "[We] repeatedly, publicly and privately, raised concerns and questions about the wisdom [of early on-demand movies]," said the group in a statement. "These studios have made their decision in what they no doubt perceive to be their best interests. Theater owners will do the same." So they have -- and now it affects you.
Looks like Woody Allen is taking advice from our very own Louis Virtel, who just last week suggested the prolific director cast Ellen Page in one of his next projects. Page will join Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin, and Penelope Cruz in Allen's untitled Rome-set film, to begin production this summer. The film will be Allen's 42nd feature film. Will Page play a Mariel Hemingway-type, as Louis suggests, with Eisenberg as Allen's neurotic onscreen stand-in? Cast your own speculations below.[Variety]
Everyone seems to love the retro '60s vibe of Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class. But do we really want to see Professor Xavier, Magneto, and Co. slogging through the not-quite-as-fashionable 1970s and 1980s in potential sequel story lines? (Think hard about this. On the one hand: Magneto in bellbottoms doing lines with Emma Frost at Studio 54. On the other: Dazzler.)
It may have taken over two years of development and some serious finance scrambling, but Brad Pitt's $125 million zombie apocalypse movie World War Z has finally secured a DP. The cinematographer is Oscar winner Robert Richardson, who worked with Pitt on Inglourious Basterds. Marc Forster (Monster's Ball) will direct the adaptation of Max Brooks' bestseller, which is rumored to begin filming this month. Now if only Brad Pitt could jump start production on those five other in-development projects that are clogging his IMDB page. [Slashfilm]
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