Well, here's a pleasant surprise: a horror remake that's actually good. I'm speaking of The Crazies, the updating of the 1973 George Romero film about a biological weapons spill that turns the population of a rural town into remorseless killers. For director Breck Eisner, son of controversial former Disney czar Michael Eisner, it's his first feature since 2005's epic dud Sahara disappeared into a sandstorm of legal filings. The Crazies brings a measure of redemption -- it's a taut and beautifully shot horror film that manages to both honor and embellish upon the classic '70s exploitation genre to which it pays homage. We spoke this week with Eisner about staying true to the spirit of Romero, what he learned from Sahara, and the status of his dream project: a huge-budget version of Flash Gordon, based on the original Alex Raymond comic strips.
more »
In The Yellow Handkerchief, Maria Bello plays May, a woman who has to be willing to give out second chances in order to make her relationship work with the conflicted Brett (William Hurt). In real life, Bello's more used to taking chances; after rising to fame on ER, she turned down a lucrative contract to pursue a career that's mixed studio fare with daring independent films, and her passionate advocacy has taken her to places like the devastated Haiti, where she just spent a month on behalf of Artists for Peace and Justice.
Last week, Movieline sat down with the actress for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on controversial Sundance film The Killer Inside Me, the role that reawakened Bello's passion as an actress, and the Best Picture candidate that made her cry.
more »
When you board the William Hurt Express, it's best not to have a destination in mind. The actor is an interesting person to interview specifically because he resists the normal confines of that sort of prescribed conversation, instead taking his questioner on several passionate detours. All this is to say that although I sat down with Hurt in order to discuss his new film The Yellow Handkerchief and his costars Kristen Stewart and Maria Bello, the interview began with him vividly reading out loud from his new favorite periodical, then blossomed unexpectedly from there.
more »
Pierce Brosnan has a unique take on the controversy surrounding Roman Polanski. On the one hand, it's to be expected: Having played the deposed British prime minister Adam Lang in Polanski's new thriller The Ghost Writer (opening today in limited release; going wide March 5), Brosnan is a little too close to the man for mere dogma. On the other, his perspective on the director is so refreshingly, infectiously admiring that it transcends judgment -- a bracing tonic in an era when even the whisper of the name "Polanski" can instantly polarize a room. Despite a resume boasting four James Bond films, the global blockbuster Mamma Mia! and his recent reinvention as a sort of burnished indie statesman, by the end of 20 minutes with Brosnan you can't help but wonder if Lang was the role he knows he was born to play. Not that the influential, embattled man under suspicion by everyone from his biographer (Ewan McGregor) to his equally suspicious wife (Olivia Williams) bore any resemblance to himself. But as Brosnan thoughtfully explained this week to Movieline, the timing and meaning of the thing proved an opportunity almost too good -- and maybe even too valuable -- to be true.
more »
Crime pays for Jacques Audiard and Tahar Rahim. Audiard's newest film, the fluid prison drama A Prophet, has been an overseas sensation; not only is it the most acclaimed movie yet for the 57-year-old director (The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Read My Lips), but it's also served as a launch pad for Rahim, the previously unknown actor who plays Malik, an innocent who's slowly turned into a savvy prison kingpin.
In Park City last month, Movieline sat down with both men to discuss A Prophet on the eve of its American release, and just after it had picked up a host of honors including Lumiere Awards, European Film Awards, and BAFTA nominations.
more »
As much a Hollywood legend as any of the stars she observes through the thin veils of her novels, Jackie Collins has spent more than four decades tracking the foibles of excess and the outer limits of privilege. Her latest book, Poor Little Bitch Girl, continues that quest for what feels like the post-potboiler generation, a vast readership for whom scandal and mischief is the key, not the barrier, to fame. Collins's iconic magnatrix Lucky Santangelo makes a few cameos, but really, Bitch Girl concentrates on a cluster of heirs to the Hollywood kingdom -- Lucky's club-owner son Bobby, A-list hooker Annabelle, power lawyer Denver, knocked-up Washington intern Carolyn -- who dare to consider a different path than the one their parents (not to mention Collins herself) bequeathed them. There's still plenty of sex, corruption, melodrama and other sordid schematics to keep the base happy. Between the lines, meanwhile, there's some subversive stuff for the rest of us.
Movieline recently caught up with Collins to discuss the slow march of scandal, what shocks her about the response to Bitch Girl, and a new role she has in mind for Angelina Jolie.
more »
F. Gary Gray's Law Abiding Citizen was a tidy hit when it came out last fall, hanging in the top ten for weeks until it made $73 million. Still, though the Jamie Foxx/Gerard Butler thriller performed well, it was hit by criticism from some outlets (including Movieline) that suggested the film had inadvertently become a right-wing revenge flick. With Citizen due for its DVD/Blu-ray release february 16, I called up Gray for his take on the controversial notion.
more »
After four previous tries at Oscar glory and even more seminal roles the Academy overlooked (seriously, how did The Dude ever miss the cut?), Jeff Bridges is finally the presumptive front-runner for this year's Best Actor prize. His turn in Crazy Heart as Bad Blake -- a broken-down country singer on the slow rebound to redemption -- has stimulated both the awards cognoscenti and moviegoers alike, and the film enjoyed a successful expansion in its first weekend after its nominations (also including Maggie Gyllenhaal) were announced.
Foreseeable as Bridges's selection was and his likely win remains, Movieline nevertheless caught up with the busy 60-year-old hustling on the Oscar trail. There, he enlightened us on how campaigning has changed over four decades, the difference a great director makes, the tech-y allure of Tron and why reporters sometimes sleep with their subjects -- in the movies, anyway.
more »
When Tilda Swinton told Movieline the other day how eager she was to play Conan O'Brien, that was only the tip of the interview iceberg. The Academy Award winner was at Sundance to promote Luca Guadagnino's romantic melodrama I Am Love, where she stars as Emma, a rich housewife who finds carnal excitement and personal fulfillment outside of her marriage to a wealthy Italian industrialist (if you're unfamiliar with her early work, it might shock you that Swinton speaks fluent Italian throughout the movie; then again, the actress has all but made a career out of such stylish surprises).
I sat down with Swinton in Park City for a lengthy talk about the state of melodrama, her opinion of film festivals (she organizes a rather unconventional one herself), her directorial ambitions, and the boggling thing she'd just discovered moments before.
more »
In America, we'll get our chance to know Sam Taylor-Wood soon, and she's hoping you'll keep an open mind. In her native Britain, the 42-year-old is different things to different people: a famous visual artist (with headline-grabbing portraits of stars like Robert Downey Jr. and David Beckham), a cancer survivor, a feature film director making her debut with the young John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, and a tabloid fixture for dating the movie's 19-year-old-star Aaron Johnson (soon to be seen as the lead in Kick Ass) and becoming pregnant with his child.
Movieline sat down with Taylor-Wood last week in advance of her film's Sundance premiere (Nowhere Boy's U.S. release is thus far undated by the Weinstein Co.) to discuss the scrutiny of Beatles fans, the tyranny of physical resemblance when making a biopic, and the circuitous, fortuitous theft that got her the project in the first place.
more »
Since Lost's third season, Nestor Carbonell has popped up several times on the show as the mysterious, ageless Richard Alpert, but when the sixth and final season premieres tonight, Carbonell will finally join the cast as a regular. It's a sign that Richard (who seems inextricably linked to the island's mythology) is going to prove pivotal in revealing many of Lost's big secrets, but it's also a tribute to the ingratiating slow burn Carbonell's managed while revealing hardly a thing about Richard's true nature.
Movieline spoke with the actor yesterday about what's in store for Richard in season six, what we can expect from a Richard-centric episode, the tragic origin story of his much-discussed heavy eyelashes, and his willingness to play Khan in a potential Star Trek sequel.
more »
Sundance's Park City at Midnight section is always among the most discussed group of films every year the festival, and in 2010, the Sarah Polley-Adrien Brody sci-fi-horror freakout Splice is arguably the most discussed of its peers. Director Vincenzo Natali's film features Polley and Brody as Elsa and Clive, a couple who share a bed, a laboratory and a passion for cutting-edge genetic engineering. Confronted by front-office pressures that threaten to squelch their research, the pair goes for broke with a human-animal hybrid that not only thrives, but also acquires an independence that turns against its ersatz parents in decidedly unpredictable, horrific and shocking ways. Both a single-minded, cutthroat scientist and a doting maternal presence, Elsa represents a fairly radical departure for the 31-year-old Canadian star -- one she spoke to Movieline about before the film's recent Sundance premiere.
more »
After six days slogging through a snowy Sundance, a special kind of exhaustion sets in -- but the brilliant, taboo-busting mind of comedian Louis C.K. was the perfect prescription to shake me out of my stupor. In his first concert film, Hilarious (an ironically boastful title referring to a bit on how the language of hyperbole has lost all of its significance), Louis performs a 90-minute set covering everything from life as a newly divorced dad to our spoiled generation to a -- yes, hilarious -- recounting of a verbal confrontation with his 3-year-old daughter. Comedy Central paid the $200,000 it cost to make the film for the broadcast rights, but hopefully you'll have an opportunity to enjoy it uncut and with an audience. I honestly can't remember the last time I experienced such a long run of sustained, belly-clutching laughter.
Movieline had the honor of being the first to talk to Louis after the screening, still on a high from the raucous response. We covered everything from his grueling training regimen to his favorite comedy topic (gay sex) to his new show, Louie, on FX later this year. And oh yeah -- we got him to open up about Dane Cook and that whole plagiarism brouhaha from a few years back.
more »
Some guys have all the luck. And then there's John Alighieri, the hapless, modestly ambitious insurance adjuster played by Steve Buscemi in this week's St. John of Las Vegas. A one-time compulsive gambler whose unparalleled of run of crap luck thrust him into self-exile from his beloved Vegas, John has since settled well enough into his job that he requests a raise from his mildly sadistic boss (Peter Dinklage). To get it, though, will require John to embark on a quirky, dangerous, Coens-esque road trip inspired by Dante's Inferno, accompanied by his adversarial anti-mentor Virgil (Romany Malco) and greeted along the way by a wheelchair-bound stripper (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a survivalist/nudist hybrid (Tim Blake Nelson), a human torch (John Cho) and other citizens in the circles around the Hell that is Las Vegas. Sarah Silverman rounds out the ensemble as John's smiley face-obsessed co-worker/girlfriend.
Buscemi spoke recently with Movieline about St. John and the glitzy yet sad allure of Las Vegas in movies, his belief in luck, his forthcoming HBO series Boardwalk Empire and the rapidly approaching 20th anniversary of Reservoir Dogs.
more »
If Jonah Hill could tell you one thing, it would be this: You don't know Jonah Hill. That was a point the star of Superbad and Funny People couldn't emphasize enough when I met with him in Park City yesterday to discuss his hilarious and affecting work in Cyrus. In Jay and Mark Duplass's first foray into the semi-big leagues, Hill plays the title character -- a devious, passive-aggressive man-child who makes John C. Reilly's life a living hell when he starts to infringe upon the cozy domestic arrangement Cyrus shares with his young mom, played by Marisa Tomei. We spoke with Hill about the fun of showing fans some creepy new colors, the horrors of Twitter identity-theft, and what is shaping up to be the "proudest year" of his life.
more »
