Fans stormed London's Leicester Square to join the revolution on Wednesday night: the world premiere of Les Misérables. The barricades were up, not to hold back National Guardsmen but to restrain fans who who turned up to salute the movie's lead Hugh Jackman, Londoner (and the movie's Marius), Eddie Redmayne and the rest of the main cast. more »
Photo by Belem Destefani
Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy has amassed nearly $2.4 billion theatrically worldwide to date, but Wednesday night, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker (Memento, Inception) sat down at the Film Society of Lincoln Center giving insight on the nuts and bolts of the series, which ended this summer with The Dark Knight Rises, its classic Bond-esque treatment of terrorism, the late Heath Ledger, and the upcoming Man of Steel.
more »
Gus Van Sant may go from fracking to thwacking with his next film project. At a luncheon for the director's new film, Promised Land, which deals with fracking in a Pennsylvania town, Van Sant said that he's in the process of writing a script to a "martial arts" film that is "a little bit of a superhero movie and a little bit of Stephen Chow," the director, writer and star of Kung Fu Hustle. more »
Quick, name your favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie and scene. With the Master of Suspense getting a lot of attention this fall, thanks to the HBO movie, The Girl, and the theatrical feature Hitchcock, which opens in limited release on Friday, Movieline decided these would be good questions to ask of the celebrity contingent that showed up for the New York premiere of the latter film on Sunday.
Calling the lobby before last night's New York premiere of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet an awkward scene wouldn't do it justice: PR reps ran around, security locked down our electronics and scores of media folk shuffled about as all of our abilities to tell time went dark. But then something magical happened: Eric Lane walked in. He was followed by La Donna Tittle, and suddenly everyone stood around in awe of the two actors who are better known in this strange world as Twan and Rosie the Nosy Neighbor.
more »
Post-traumatic stress syndrome and the epidemic of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are not exactly popular subjects with the military community — or civilians, for that matter — but first-time filmmaker K. Lorrel Manning and actor/producer Michael Cuomo have made a tough, honest film that should spark plenty of debate over these issues. more »
Screams of elation, excitement — and at one point pure, unadulterated horror — echoed down through the rafters at the Nokia Theater last night as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II premiered to crowd of well-heeled industry guests and legions of Twi-hards, all craning for a glimpse of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, who were in attendance alongside dozens of their Twilight co-stars.
Hollywood suits and fans alike seemed taken with the action-packed Twilight finale, which concludes the billion-dollar film franchise with a polished touch, new faces, a welcome dash of humor, and more than a few fan service moments dedicated to Bella and Edward's bloodsucking marital bliss.
more »
Bradley Cooper says it wasn't a stretch to call Robert De Niro "Dad" in Silver Linings Playbook. The Hangover actor plays Pat Solitano, the bipolar son of De Niro's extremely OCD Pat Solitano, Sr. in the film; and at the New York premiere party, Cooper told us that his prior working-relationship with De Niro on Limitless blossomed into a friendship, making it easy to channel that familial bond with the Taxi Driver actor. more »
After a five-year absence from the movie business, comic Chris Tucker makes his return to the big screen this weekend in a quasi-dramatic role in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook. But he's not leaving comedy behind. At the New York premiere party for the film on Monday night, Tucker told me that he's producing a film of his stand-up act. more »
Fans of Jared Leto's band Thirty Seconds to Mars like to refer to themselves as family, but 'apostles' might be a better term. Thanks to their fervent support, Artifact, the Leto-directed (under the pseudonym Bartholomew Cubbins) film about the band's lengthy legal battle with its record label EMI, is making some noise on the indie circuit. more »
You think navigating a press junket after a personal controversy goes public is potentially awkward? Try braving throngs of journalists clamoring for an answer to The Twilight Saga's curious "imprinting" storyline, as Taylor Lautner did today when the franchise-ending Breaking Dawn Part II press tour kicked off.
more »
Disney's 2011 family adventure Mars Needs Moms wasn't just a box office disappointment; it was a box office disaster, one of the worst in movie history. Mars producer Robert Zemeckis, appearing at the Philadelphia Film Fest with his latest Oscar-hopeful, Flight, prefers to remember Mars Needs Moms another way: "It's the best 3-D movie since Avatar."
more »
Despite their enormous successes, the Wachowskis are known for being among the more press-shy filmmakers in Hollywood. But for their latest opus, the sprawling, soul-stirring Cloud Atlas (co-directed with Tom Tykwer), the duo have blazed a trail talking up their ambitious passion project — partly, as Lana Wachowski explains, because of the film’s deeply personal connection to her own recent transformation.
more »
The odds of Matt Damon returning to the big screen as Jason Bourne are looking longer than ever judging from a conversation I had with the actor on Tuesday night. Damon, who's still sporting a shaved head for his work on the sci-fi thriller Elysium, was part of the starry crowd that turned out for a special private screening of Argo, which was beautifully directed by his bud and Good Will Hunting co-writer Ben Affleck. During a dinner at the Porter House steakhouse in the Time Warner Center, I asked Damon if there had been any movement on reports that he could reprise his role after Jeremy Renner's portrayal of Aaron Cross in The Bourne Legacy, another agent in the Robert Ludlum-created universe, this past summer. more »
Tuesday night was a celebrity bonanza at the Time Warner Center in New York's Columbus Circle for the New York premiere of director/star Ben Affleck's acclaimed Argo. Stars Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman as well as producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov were just part of the cortege of A-listers and New York glitterati who dined at the Porter House Steakhouse where Affleck held the spotlight in the bar talking to folks. Guests were divided into two screenings of the Toronto and Telluride film festivals world premiere based on the true story about a CIA agent (Affleck) who rescues six Americans hiding in the Canadian embassy at the dawn of the Iranian hostage crisis that began in November 1979. ML caught up with actor Bryan Cranston as well as Affleck at the event.
more »
FILM NEWS 