These deals-in-the-making stories always carry a grain of salt since nothing in Hollywood is ever so sure just about until the cameras roll, but the trade scoop that The Killing's Joel Kinnaman may be your next RoboCop is just too tantalizing. Joel Kinnaman who, you may ask, and rightly so? The Swedish-American actor's been in a handful of stateside film projects here and there (including the recent Safe House and, briefly, Fincher's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) but the closer I look at his work, the more enticing this casting move becomes.
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The WGA nominations have hit the wires, giving awards watchers more fodder for speculation. Does Bridesmaids' inclusion mean the mainstream hit has more traction in the Oscar race? Will Win Win's nomination mean the Fox Searchlight hopeful has a shot at the big leagues? Should Diablo Cody break out the leopard print couture? Check out the full list of nominations and debate away.
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Since we've all watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo like good little people-who-are-trying-to-figure-out-why-the-hell-it's-is-such-a-phenomenon-because-even-my-parents-care-about-it-now, it's the perfect time to reflect on what would've happened if David Fincher ditched Rooney Mara and opted for another ingenue to play Lisbeth Salander. Carey Mulligan? Ellen Page? Anne Hathaway? If I had the MS Paint prowess, I'd whip up renderings of Barbara Stanwyck, Faye Dunaway, and 94-year-old Joan Fontaine in the nose studs and combat boots, but I'll leave that to your imagination. After the jump, check out a bunch of very accurate, wholly hypothetical Lisbeth portraits.
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Truth be told, I don't enjoy ranking films -- especially at the end of a year that disappointingly lacked a single title that moved me to tears, gut-busting laughter or some kind of profound existential realization. (However there were quite a few films that inspired hopelessness for the future of cinema. See Just Go With It and Bucky Larson: Born To Be a Star. Actually, don't see them.) But there were some titles I'd recommend and even some I wouldn't immediately regift if they found their way under my Christmas tree/menorah this season. Behold, my fave films of 2011. As always, let me know how much you disagree with this list in the space below.
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I realize I may have given away some of these choices with my utterly correct listing of the year's ten best performances, but no matter! 2011's finest cinema, specifically the top three choices on my list, gifted us with bleak, but comprehensive glimpses into personal isolation. I love when a movie is resolutely grim -- reminds me of home. Here are my top ten films of 2011.
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If Rooney Mara's fearless turn as Stieg Larsson's goth-punk hacker heroine Lisbeth Salander teaches us anything, it's that you should never, ever cross a woman with fire in her heart and vengeance on her mind. But the titular Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is just the latest in a long history of utterly human movie heroines who remind us how ferocious and unrelenting a woman wronged can be. Celebrate the fictional ladies who have helped teach society not to fuck with the so-called "fairer" sex, and let their righteous fury be a lesson to us all during this warm and fuzzy holiday season.
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Film bloggers and pundits and awards season watchers have pecked this David Denby-Scott Rudin exchange to death with no clear consensus or solution, but one player in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo kerfuffle has a solution. "If it were up to me, I wouldn't show movies to anybody before they were released," director David Fincher told the Miami Herald. "...If I had my way, the New York Film Critics Circle would not have seen this movie and then we would not be in this situation." More wishful thinking from Fincher after the jump!
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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has already established itself as the perfect forum for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's haunting, crunchy musical stylings, but the full breadth of its soundtrack is a bit of a disappointment: It's only three full-length CDs! Damn it. That's barely enough music to occupy me during a four-hour flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. Underachievers. Find out where you can get the soundtrack's Karen O.-led cover of "Immigrant Song," as well as a few clips from the new package, after the jump.
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"I think there's a lot to be said for keeping your own counsel," the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo lead opined in a recent interview when the subject of attention-craved stars came up. "You can't buy your privacy back. Ooh, I want to be alone. F-- you. We've been in your living room. We were at your birth. [...] It is a career; I'm not being cynical. And why wouldn't you? Look at the Kardashians, they're worth millions... I don't think they were that badly off to begin with, but now look at them. You see that and you think, 'What, you mean all I have to do is behave like a f--ing idiot on television and then you'll pay me millions?' I'm not judging it. Well, I am, obviously." [EW]
Ah, Thanksgiving. A time for gathering with the fam, eating turkey, and violently disagreeing with Aunt Sue about the validity of Justin Bieber's paternity suit and a cornucopia of other assorted pop culture-related topics while passing around the cranberry sauce. We're here to help make sure those awkward lulls in conversation don't devolve into interrogations into your actual personal life with 15 movie-related topics to keep the relatives squawking, bickering, and debating... at least 'til the pumpkin pie.
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While at the Austin Film Festival to pimp this week's Hunter S. Thompson adaptation The Rum Diary, star Johnny Depp grabbed his guitar and took to the stage with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top for a surprise rock show. Because that's how you get the kids to come to your new period movie, folks! Viral marketing meets rock 'n' roll! Johnny Depp can do no wrong! Watch the video and stick around for more Buzz Break.
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