Holy Swashbucklers! Rumors are flying that Johnny Depp is considering a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean installment, and the speculation may be overheating. Some international papers including The Sun say the newly single star could make some rather unprecedented cha-ching — to the tune of £60 million (that's about $95 million at current exchange rates). That would be some crazy treasure even the likes of, well, a pirate, could only dream of… But is the super-star actor worth the stupid money even if the rumors were only say, mostly true?
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Alfred Hitchcock may have been, as the folks behind HBO's upcoming Tippi Hedren telefilm The Girl allege, "a monster," but he was also a cinematic genius, a visionary storyteller, an indelible presence on the pop culture landscape, and, perhaps, a ham. (His words — see below.) So today, on what would've been his 113th birthday, how do you best remember Hitch?
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Reports that Target — Target! — will sell a limited-edition $999 Mockingjay pin to coincide with the DVD release of The Hunger Games later this month has visions of P.T. Barnum dancing in my head. If there are movie lovers who are willing to pony up that kind of dough for such a simple bauble, then surely their must be a market for the following memorabilia: more »
Ben Affleck's come a long way since his 1998 Oscar co-win for Good Will Hunting, arguably the first time Hollywood stood up and took notice of the multi-hyphenate as more than just an actor; according to Variety, he's now being sought after to direct WB's Justice League, DC's answer to Marvel's billion-dollar rival franchise starter The Avengers. But even after the successes of modest-scale thrillers Gone Baby Gone and The Town, and with his buzzed-about forthcoming picture Argo poised for awards season, is the writer/producer/actor/director the right filmmaker to helm the superhero studio tentpole?
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Here comes the cinephile debate of the day: After polling 846 film experts, BFI's Sight & Sound declared Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo to be the #1 greatest film of all time, topping Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story, and classics from Renoir, Murnau, Kubrick, and more of your favorite all-timers. It's a triumph long in coming for the Hitchcock pic, which only first made Sight & Sound's once-a-decade list in 1982 and has been working its way up the ranks of critical opinion since. Does the 2012 poll finally have it right?
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The Watch (nee Neighborhood Watch) truncated its title to avoid conjuring the February killing of Trayvon Martin and its plot contains no major similarities to the teen's controversial death. But in the wake of the Aurora, Colorado mass shooting — which may have spawned at least one would-be copycat thwarted today in Maryland — some of the violence-based laughs in the Ben Stiller-Vince Vaughn comedy might hit too close to home for some moviegoers.
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The Twilight world is reeling with the revelation that Kristen Stewart cheated on Robert Pattinson with her Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders, confirmed in a public apology issued by Stewart today. Needless to say, people have questions. What was she thinking? What exactly is going on in those car photos? And, more importantly for the billion-dollar franchise sprouted from KStew and RPattz's on- and rumored offscreen love: With The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 approaching theaters this November, having capitalized on Stewart and Pattinson's recent displays of public PDA, how will the box office-boosting faithful react to the news of behind the scenes infidelity and betrayal?
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Rare is the movie in which every cast member performs at the same level — unless maybe you're talking about the uniformly jaw-dropping performances of everyone in Witless Protection. So, here at Movieline, we'd like to begin a tradition of ranking performances within movies — a sort of intramural Oscars, if you will — and asking you to weigh in with your own. We'll introduce polling and a catchy title soon enough, but we just had to start with The Dark Knight Rises — a movie in which the performances range from sublime (Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to wince-inducing (Marion Cotillard). See how your favorite — or least favorite — character rates below, and then leave your own ranking in the comments section.
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So, The Dark Knight Rises happened. But as much as Christopher Nolan's Batman finale tied the themes of the entire trilogy together with emotion and weight, capping what began in Batman Begins and continued in The Dark Knight with a full-circle completion of Bruce Wayne's journey as a hero and symbol of hope in Gotham City and the world, well, there were just a dozen too many plot holes and contrivances along the way to ignore. Or were there? Let's dive right into spoiler territory and navigate the WTF-iest of TDKR's more perplexing leaps of logic, shall we?
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It's hard to imagine most folks will be eager to rush into cinemas this weekend following the tragedy out of Aurora, Colorado, even those who've been anticipating the release of The Dark Knight Rises for months. While Matt Patches over at Hollywood.com thoughtfully wonders if audiences will return swiftly to theaters, The Wrap reports that Warner Bros. are themselves scrambling to figure out how to balance their multi-million dollar Dark Knight Rises roll-out campaign with common decency and empathy for the victims, their families, and a shaken nation.
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A longtime proponent of gun control, New York City Michael Bloomberg weighed in on the tragic shooting early Friday morning in Aurora, Colorado, that left 12 dead and dozens more wounded at a showing of The Dark Knight Rises. Twenty-four year-old suspect James Holmes was arrested after allegedly opening fire in the crowded theater and carrying a rifle, handgun and gas mask. The tragedy prompted Bloomberg's police commissioner to announce increased security at screenings of The Dark Knight Rises in NYC to prevent any possible copycat incidents.
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Healthcare is grabbing the headlines and the Chattersphere today, but one thing appears to be certain: It's curtains for film. OK, maybe a stretch of a segue, but here's the thing. Sure, there are some high profile holdouts and even digital-converts will attest to the quality and feel of film. But when Martin Scorsese is ready to make the perma-switch, then the slow inevitable demise may have just been given an extra boost.
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The Magic Mike director gave insight into his future endeavors once his hard stop to movie making begins in six months. He told Reuters that a book and even television work may occupy his interests, following in the footsteps of a number of filmmakers who are crossing over to the small screen in the past several years.
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And doesn't it make sense? With the final installment of the mega franchise coming out, how could there not be a ton of cash? Notes the publication, "At this point, could anyone else play Bella Swan in Twilight?" Good point! The publication, which dishes out the super rich and famous wealth numbers annually said Stewart made an estimated $12.5 million plus a share of the profits from the mega-franchise in her last two stints on Twilight, but she also made more cash via Snow White and the Huntsman this past year.
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With a number of The Dark Knight Rises midnight screenings sold out across the country, you might be out of luck snagging a coveted opening night ticket at certain theaters. But who's willing to pay as much as $120 for a single TDKR IMAX ticket just to be among the first to catch the Batman outing this summer? ScreenCrush reports on the recent rise in scalped offerings for Christopher Nolan's latest: "Tickets to the midnight IMAX screenings are popping up on eBay and Craigslist for over $100; at times an almost 80% markup...A few 'entrepreneurs' are even selling groups of seats for $500." Silly spending or essential expense? Sound off, Batfans. [ScreenCrush]
