After Cloud Atlas's Fantastic Fest debut I caught up with Lana Wachowski at the Alamo Drafthouse's Highball, where she and Andy, AKA Wachowski Starship, were beaming and greeting festgoers. (I'm told they were given a tour of the Highball's private karaoke rooms but didn't partake in Austin's favored pastime.) Conversation landed on Michelle Obama, of course (the two best sets of arms in the biz? Michelle Obama and Lana Wachowski), and that's when Lana dropped a revelation in true Cloud Atlas style: "She went to our high school!" True enough — it happens Chicago's Whitney M. Young High School turned out the First Lady in '81, Lana in '83, and Andy in '86. Everything is connected, indeed. [More from Fantastic Fest...]
An advance screening of Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master brought out the glitterati to New York's Ziegfeld Theater on Tuesday night. Walking the red carpet before show time were cast member Amy Adams, actors Adrien Brody and Edward Norton, plus a few of our favorites from everyone’s latest HBO obsession, Girls.
During the frenzied step-and-repeat, reporters referenced the film's story — which involves an L. Ron Hubbard-like cult founder — to pose questions about Scientology. This didn't exactly go over well, and a lot of those questions went unanswered. Given the film's title, Movieline decided to let our interview subjects be the, um, masters of their own domains and asked them a single question: if you were going to start a cult, what would be its core idea or principle? more »
If you can appreciate a musical that unabashedly uses a 1996 Blackstreet jam as a communal rallying cry, then Pitch Perfect will be the most fun you'll have all year. (Also, we can totally be friends.) Producers Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman, joined at an LA screening by cast members Brittany Snow, Skylar Astin, Alexis Knapp, Hana Mae Lee, Anna Camp, and Ester Dean, revealed how they first saw the potential in a nonfiction book about real life college a capella competitions – or, in the parlance of Pitch Perfect: The a-ca-drama.
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Thanks to the cajoling of a local critic, Chicago cinephiles got an advance look at Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master on Thursday night at a special 70 mm screening of the highly anticipated feature.
The sold-out benefit screening took place at Chicago's Art Deco landmark, the Music Box Theatre, which is the only movie house in the Windy City capable of projecting 70 mm film stock. more »
Some were skeptical that Woody Allen would make an appearance at the opening night of the LA Film Festival, even with his latest Euro-whimsy To Rome With Love premiering in the kick-off slot Thursday night. But show up Woody did, with five of his starlets in tow — including Alison Pill, Greta Gerwig, and a dazzling Penelope Cruz — to debut his 43rd feature film with a few charmingly self-deprecating zingers.
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You might guess most folks flocking to theaters this weekend for Snow White and the Huntsman are the legions of diehard fans of Twilight's Kristen Stewart, who stars in the fantasy adventure as the sword-swinging Snow White. Maybe, even, they'll come for co-star Chris Hemsworth — he of Thor and Avengers fame. But surprise, surprise — who'd have thought the big draw, at least for folks who hit opening day today, would be neither of SWATH's up-and-coming talent?
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About 20 minutes into a 3-D press screening of The Avengers Monday night in Los Angeles, one member of the audience interrupted the superhero theatrics to make it known that all was not right with his viewing experience. “Fix the projector!” the exasperated gentleman bellowed during a conspicuously quiet moment, as Mark Ruffalo’s contemplative face filled the screen. Something was very off, giving the complainant and others in attendance a less-than-ideal, even disastrous presentation. The only problem? There was nothing wrong with the projector.
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Actor George Clooney once confessed to Oscar-winner Michael Moore that he used the filmmaker's debut Roger & Me as a dating litmus test. Or so Moore told an audience at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, where the hit 1989 documentary had a special screening Tuesday night.
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Wednesday night in Austin, Texas the embattled (but cheery) Mel Gibson popped down to the Alamo Drafthouse to premiere his latest film/star vehicle, the darkly comic Mexico-set action pic Get the Gringo. Though his most recent and public feud with Maccabee screenwriter Joe Eszterhas took a notoriously ugly turn of late, Gibson was jovial and in a joking mood – even when moderator Harry Knowles dared to make reference to Gibson’s documented anti-Semitic remarks.
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The cast of Marvel’s The Avengers were a spirited bunch Thursday in Beverly Hills, where the familial vibe amongst the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Samuel Jackson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, and Mark Ruffalo was evident and mutual admiration, inside jokes, and startling revelations abounded. (Scarlett Johansson, alas, was absent due to a scheduling conflict.) Among the highlights: Ruffalo’s youthful Hulk inspiration, Jeremy Renner’s suggestive Hawkeye imagery (“[I] played with Thor’s hammer while he stroked my bow”), and one mysterious, maybe-still legit admission from Downey that the assembled Avengers would be filming a scene… that night. But, pray tell: Which Avenger possesses the best Dance Dance Revolution skills? SPOILERS AHEAD.
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To close out his popular live-reading program at LACMA Thursday night Jason Reitman selected a film that seemed to tie the series and the room together: The Coen brothers’ 1998 noir-comedy opus The Big Lebowski. In the hot seat filling Jeff Bridges’ slippers as The Dude sat Seth Rogen, whose own slacker charm proved oddly suitable, with folks like Hank Azaria (as Donny), Rainn Wilson (as Walter) and Christina Hendricks (as Maude) alongside him re-enacting one of the most quotable films of the past two decades. The cherry on top? Playing the role of The Stranger originated by Sam Elliott and written explicitly for an actor like Sam Elliott, perhaps… was none other than Sam Elliott.
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To close out his popular live-reading program at LACMA Thursday night Jason Reitman selected a film that seemed to tie the series and the room together: The Coen brothers’ 1998 noir-comedy opus The Big Lebowski. In the hot seat filling Jeff Bridges’ slippers as The Dude sat Seth Rogen, whose own slacker charm proved oddly suitable, with folks like Hank Azaria (as Donny), Rainn Wilson (as Walter) and Christina Hendricks (as Maude) alongside him re-enacting one of the most quotable films of the past two decades. The cherry on top? Playing the role of The Stranger originated by Sam Elliott and written explicitly for an actor like Sam Elliott, perhaps… was none other than Sam Elliott.
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You knew The Hunger Games would open big, but this big? Meet your new bona fide box office powerhouse franchise: Taking in $19.75 million at midnight showings around the country, Lionsgate's PG-13 action-romance earned the #1 all-time non-sequel midnight debut, outperforming even The Dark Knight's 2008 $18 million midnight. We've got another true blue four-quadrant blockbuster on our hands, people! If you're sitting bleary-eyed at your desk right now with a happy smile on your face from last night's late night debut, share your reactions after the jump.
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Amid the hustle and bustle of last weekend's WonderCon, Movieline's camera caught the assorted superheroes walking among us giving into those utterly human moments we all share: There was Supergirl seeking respite from the chaos in the powder room; Silk Spectre tagging that one Jedi padawan on Facebook; even that rascally Deadpool photobombing Body-Paint Batman as he posed for a paparazzi shot on the convention floor. After the jump, browse Movieline's gallery for these and more moments at WonderCon that remind us that beneath the superpowers and spandex and tights, superheroes -- like celebrities -- really are just like us.
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Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel Prometheus made the biggest impression on the geek faithful Saturday at WonderCon, where glimpses into the film’s set-up and ensuing space shenanigans were revealed in a new two-and-a-half minute trailer for the sci-fi action film. The trailer (not to be confused with the more truncated one-minute teaser that leaked yesterday) offered more hints at spoilers and narrative threads for fans to try to piece together, not to mention some very interesting new imagery – but how much do Prometheus-watchers really want to know? [Spoiler alert, obviously.]
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