I have a particular fondness for the Oscars' Best Original Song category. Where else will you find Carly Simon, Eminem, Irene Cara, Marvin Hamlisch, and Keith Carradine together -- other than one fantastic revival of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown? The potential nominees for this year's award have just been released, an I'm already playing favorites with one criminally twee jam. Pick your favorite after the jump.
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Here's one way to deflect attention from NYU GradeGate: Variety reports that James Franco is in talks to play Playboy impresario Hugh Hefner in Lovelace, the porn biopic starring Amanda Seyfried as the titular XXX actress Linda Lovelace, of Deep Throat fame. Unfortunately -- or fortunately? -- Franco's role would be limited to a one-day cameo, which sounds like something along the lines of his blink-and-you'll-miss-it Green Hornet appearance. The film is currently shooting in Los Angeles. [Variety]
Few filmmakers use music as unabashedly and emotionally as former rock journalist Cameron Crowe, the man who turned Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" into an enduring emblem of '80s teen longing and illuminated the power of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" as a late night bonding tune for even the most estranged of friends. Crowe's latest, We Bought a Zoo, is no different; the instant the reverberating beats of Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More" kick in, lonely and sparse, turning increasingly anthemic by the verse as Matt Damon's son is expelled from school and Damon uproots his family to a rural fixer-upper of a zoo with the promise of new beginnings, you know you're in for yet another Crowe Moment.
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Charlize Theron's Best Actress Oscar win in 2003 was hardly unexpected. Roger Ebert had declared her performance as Aileen Wuornos in Monster "one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema," and she cleaned up at the Golden Globes and Independent Spirit Awards. But there's no denying that Theron's win followed in a certain Oscar tradition, and in this funny clip with MTV, Theron acknowledges it as such. Let's compare notes with the Young Adult star and come up with our own recipes for Oscar victories in the big four acting categories.
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The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il this past Sunday inspired hope in some and fear (that Kim's mysterious 20-something son Kim Jong-un will continue his father's tyranny) in others. But for Sacha Baron Cohen -- the comedic actor/writer/producer who reveled in staging uncomfortable situations in his mockumentaries Borat and Brüno -- Kim's death inspired a publicity push for his upcoming comedy The Dictator.
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So, 1961 gave us some of my favorites, including the torrid Splendor in the Grass and the damn swanky One Hundred and One Dalmatians. (Both feature barking, well-pedigreed protagonists in Pongo and Natalie Wood's histrionic Deanie Loomis.) But the staggering dramatic achievement of 1961 was neither teenage melodrama nor an animated canine caper -- it was Judgment at Nuremberg, Stanley Kramer's sprawling epic chronicling the post-WWII war trials. Since the movie came out in theaters 50 years ago this week, let's revisit its staggering scope. What's its best scene?
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I am obviously a thundering shill for Madonna whether she's making terrible movies with her ex-husband or making terrible movies with Griffin Dunne, but there's something about W.E.'s self-serious, accidental telenovela that's not even watchably bad. It's just humorless and overlong -- though Andrea Riseborough is fabulous as the polarizing Wallis Simpson. In a new 24-minute documentary about Madonna's big feature, the director and her cast do their best to sell their watercolored biopic, and I tell you what? They do a good job. Don't ask me to explain it. But James D'Arcy still looks like Anthony Perkins, so shut up and start crying in adoration.
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With 2011 drawing to a close, your faithful Movieline editors are taking a look back at the year that was, starting with a catalog of the 9 biggest OMG moments in movies and moviedom. Celebrate the batshit-insane happenings, most shocking screen scenes, death-defying stunts, crazier-than-fiction episodes, and nuclear-level meltdowns of the year... and add your own favorites to the pile. Ah, memories!
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Kim Jong-il, the reclusive North Korean leader who died Sunday at age 69, was a tyrant, a thug, a meddler, a menace, a fanatic, a spendthrift, a dilettante, and a dangerous visionary responsible for some of the worst abuses witnessed by world civilization in the last half century. But enough about his movies.
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It was an underwhelming weekend at the box office, but that didn't stop Twitter from reacting to the fancy-free stylings of Footloose, the terror of The Thing and even the already-forgotten The Big Year. We've racked up the best five tweets about movies this weekend -- and the most dubious telegrams comes from one of the film's own stars.
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Sylvester Stallone may be the busiest aging action icon today (sorry Chuck Norris). In between adapting Rocky into German musical format and posing for photos on the set of Expendables 2, Sylvester Stallone just finished filming Bullet to the Head. The New Orleans-set action movie stars Sly as a musclebound hitman who teams up with a young NYPD detective (Sung Kang) to investigate a pair of murders and naturally, exact revenge on anyone who stands in their way. Fortunately for us, the first caption-worthy photo from Bullet to the Head has arrived.
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Even after the frustration and angst vented by the franchise's erstwhile star, Matt Damon hasn't given up hope of reprising his role as super-spy Jason Bourne: "I think if [Bourne Legacy] doesn't work, we can just ignore it and pretend it didn't happen, and that'd be fine. But I expect that it will work and only help us if we did another one, which I'd love to do." With Paul Greengrass instead of Tony Gilroy, of course, but anyway. Hang your hopes accordingly. [THR]
Sherlock Holmes may have won the weekend with a modest debut, but was it the real box office winner? Not with Tom Cruise and the Mission: Impossible gang around to flaunt their fab limited release per-screen average in everyone's faces, a precursor to next week's Christmastime blitz. And, yeah. The new Chipmunks is out. A moment of silence for all the poor souls who helped it debut in the number two slot. I'd wager even David Cross feels for you.
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The formidable creative team behind the new adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo reconvened today in New York, where director David Fincher, screenwriter Steven Zaillian, and stars Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skarsgård talked things over with a few dozen members of the press. Movieline was there to capture a range of revealing back stories, true confessions and amusing -- if slightly harrowing -- anecdotes from the shoot. Read on for the full report.
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What is going on out there, people? All these franchises and rehashes at the multiplex, and Hollywood can't interest you in any of them? Last week it was the aromatic anti-charm of New Year's Eve falling flat on opening weekend, and now new installments of Sherlock Holmes and Alvin and the Chipmunks are limping along at the front of the pack? At least Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol showed signs life in limited IMAX release, but ugh. Next week's Christmas harvest couldn't come soon enough, but for now, your Friday Box Office is here.
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