Leonardo DiCaprio tried his best to buck Clint Eastwood's reputation as a one-take director but it turns out that his J. Edgar co-star Armie Hammer had a totally difference experience than the leisurely ten-take routine described at last week's press conference. "There would be takes that we did where I was under the impression we were shooting a rehearsal," Hammer told Moviefone. "Or that the cameras weren't even on ... and that's what we used. [...] At one point he was like, "OK, cut, print." And I was like, "Whoa, whoa, Clint, I had my sides in my hands, I thought we were just rehearsing that." [Moviefone]
At the press conference for J. Edgar, which premiered last night at AFI Fest to mixed, often hilarious reviews, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer and Naomi Watts joined director Clint Eastwood, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and producer Brian Grazer fielded questions about the very issues that make the biopic seem difficult to make: the ambiguity surrounding both Hoover and his confidants' personal lives. Movieline culled the best five quotes from the panel, one of which involves 81-year-old Eastwood's on-set brawling.
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It's week three of the 2011-12 Oscar Index, and the latest measurements, readings and conclusions are in from Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics. And aside from a few startling exceptions, they don't look that different than the ones disseminated here last week. But make no mistake: Like it or not, stuff is happening! Read on for the latest developments.
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Oh, great. Just when we thought Armie Hammer's kiss with Leonardo DiCaprio in Clint Eastwood's upcoming J. Edgar Hoover biopic was going to be explosive, Eastwood himself is confirming that he's leaving the first FBI director's sexual orientation "open to interpretation." I know a certain TV personality who might have damning evidence to the contrary.
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Rumor has it that this week the apes will rise. So in honor of our primate cousins and their varied achievements on film, Movieline will honor one great movie ape each day who embodies an admirable quality found in monkeykind. Starting us off is one of the greatest primate sidekicks who ever graced the screen, an animal actor Clint Eastwood once called "one of the most natural actors I ever worked with": Clyde the orangutan.
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Having revealed his inner thespian in 2008's JCVD, Belgian martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme wants to be taken more seriously as an actor. Speaking with Box Office Magazine -- ironically, to promote his latest actioner, the hit man thriller Assassination Games (in limited release July 29) -- the Muscles from Brussels cited Clint Eastwood as a career role model: "I love action films, and my fans expect action films, but I can act! And I really want a chance to show what I can do." Note to Jean-Claude: The first step in being taken more seriously? Stop making movies with titles like Assassination Games. [Box Office Magazine]
Super ancient director Steven Soderbergh recently announced that he'll be retiring after he finishes his next two films: a Liberace biopic and a remake of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (And why shouldn't he go out with a bang before spending his twilight years sitting on the porch swing, cradling his Oscar statuette?) Soderbergh's revelation is cause for contemplation, of course, and so the Guardian UK put the question to its readers: "Should there be a retirement age for artists?"
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Perhaps in response to all those people left stymied by Hereafter's Oscar nomination for visual effects (especially when Tron: Legacy got shut out of the category, poor thing), Warner Bros. have released a shot-by-shot reel showing how VFX supervisor Michael Owens and Scanline VFX put together that nine-minute opening tsunami sequence. And when you see how the live-action parts came together combining CG, green screen, water tanks, and on-location photography -- well, "Oscar-nominated Hereafter" doesn't sound so silly anymore.
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