Happy Halloween, you incorrigible ghouls! Since we've already covered the legitimately scary side of film, let's spend Halloween thinking about those movie characters that don't mean to be scary, but very much are. I get the chills thinking about my picks. What's yours?
It's been a while since we brought you the latest set shenanigans from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises; we've seen so much spoilery action spy footage, why ruin the mystique? Oh, that's right. Because we are obsessed. Good, good. Carry on. Here's a picture of Joseph Gordon-Levitt on set in NYC (but not at Occupy Wall Street) as Gotham copper John Blake, in uniform. You're welcome. Stick around for more Halloween Monday Buzz Break!
Word's just in over the Movieline transom about what sounds certain to be the feel-good hit of 2013: Sunlight Jr., the latest gritty indie drama from Sherrybaby director Laurie Collyer. This has everything: Naomi Watts as a pregnant, laid-off convenience-store worker! Matt Dillon as her paraplegic boyfriend! "A generational cycle of poverty and ignorance!" All that's missing in the press release is an invitation to the inevitable Sundance premiere after-party sponsored by Kleenex. Or Xanax. Or both.
When Paramount gave a post-Days of Heaven Terrence Malick $1 million, carte blanche, to make his next film, he began developing a highly ambitious project about the creation of life and the cosmos entitled Qasida (or, simply, Q). Of course, the studio balked at the abstract Malick-ness of it all, the film stalled, and the director took the next two decades off from filmmaking. But! Now you can read Malick's own Q script notes, circa 1979, and envision how his globe-trotting Q eventually morphed into this year's Tree of Life.
Between Puss in Boots, In Time, and Rum Diary, I didn't see much reason to fork over $13 at the movies this weekend. (Though I did see Like Crazy -- or as I like to call it, Jennifer Lawrence Thanklessly Pouts in a Supporting Role.) Instead of paying up, let's read up on Twitter's feelings about these three new films. Prepare to have mixed feelings about Justin Timberlake by the time we hit #1.
After the success of Hugh Jackman's WWE cameo last month, Disney has partnered with the wrestling juggernaut to bring the Muppets to tonight's live Halloween episode from Atlanta. "I can only imagine what will trend this week with the Muppets guest starring, especially when the audience sees what the Muppets are going to do," said a WWE executive. Anything short of Miss Piggy busting a folding chair over Vince McMahon's head will be a failure. Any other dream scenarios? [Variety]
Happy Monday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Arnold Schwarzenegger sets another action comeback... James Franco gets kinky with James Dean... Doris Day draws love from the critics... Michael Shannon teases a bit of General Zod... and more.
Temperatures plunged this weekend -- but enough about the box-office heat foreseen for this week's new openings and even a few holdovers. Grab a snow shovel and let's get to digging ourselves out of the icy trap also known as Weekend Receipts.
Barring a Texas Rangers-esque collapse today and tomorrow, America's favorite spun-off Spanish feline with a sword will scamper away with the weekend's box-office crown: Puss in Boots easily knocked off Paranormal Activity 3, which slid some 70 percent off last Friday's blistering pace. In other news, Justin Timberlake and Johnny Depp opened soft and Anonymous had a Bard time (sorry) on around 250 screens. Your Friday Box Office is here.
So much went down here at Movieline HQ in the week leading into Halloween 2011, including the revelation that nobody loves Halloween more than Heidi frickin' Klum. And nobody loves arguing over the vocal stylings of patriotic Hollywood starlets more than Movieline readers! (We love you. Don't ever change.) Throw on some blue face paint and fangs and six extra arms and reminisce as we traipse into the Halloween weekend!
It doesn't hit theaters until August 2012, but the first trailer for ParaNorman, Focus's animated followup to 9 and Coraline, is a playful stop-motion glimpse into the mind of a boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who can speak to the dead. He's called upon when his town comes under zombie siege. Thus far, it looks about as droll and fun as James and the Giant Peach, which is about the best compliment I can give.
In this weekend's Puss in Boots, Antonio Banderas voices the swashbuckling title cat -- a peripheral Shrek character who became so popular that he earned his own $130 million DreamWorks prequel. So just how did Antonio Banderas transform himself from Madonna's sexual prey in Truth or Dare to a sword-wielding predator in both live-action and animated formats?
"Sean Penn is an outstanding director and I'm betting he gets the best performance we've seen from Robert De Niro in 15 years. Watching De Niro overact in the tradition of his pal Al Pacino has been more than a little heartbreaking. But Penn was able to direct scenery-chewer Jack Nicholson into one of his best performances in The Pledge, a near-masterpiece everyone should see regardless of your personal feelings about Penn. No doubt, Sean Penn is an asshole, but he's an asshole capable of telling superb, character-driven stories that stay with you long after the lights come up." Well, it's something. [Big Hollywood]
I think of Charlie Brown as a movie star since some of his best work is in full-length features like Snoopy, Come Home and Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown. Now I can also call him a Twitter phenomenon since he's subject of the joke meme #RejectedPeanutsSpecials. We love that hashtag so much that we're contributing a bunch of our own ideas after the jump. The Great Pumpkin has never been scarier.
We established long ago, well before Tower Heist was greenlit, that sorting out the many irons in Brett Ratner's directorial fire is something of a fool's errand. New projects seem to come and go from the filmmaker's slate every day, with a few priority projects like Beverly Hills Cop IV hang on for dear life (their stars' disinterest notwithstanding). And now you can add another "dream project" to the list.
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