In Wednesday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, Ed Helms may take a Vacation of his own. 1962 classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane may get a re-make. And casting news for Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.
more »
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.
more »
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.
more »
"Inconceivable!" With a single word, unveiled at the close of last month's live-read of The Apartment, Jason Reitman launched AOUS (that's Anticipation of Unusual Size) for the December 15 installment in his brilliant LACMA/Film Independent series. Few films are so magical, so beloved, so instantly and indelibly quotable as The Princess Bride, Rob Reiner's 1987 fantasy-comedy, written by William Goldman, about a princess and her pirate and those involved in and affected by their adventure. And few live-read casting choices could be as inspired as Reitman's: Paul Rudd in the Westley role originated by Cary Elwes, Cary Elwes in the Humperdinck role originated by Chris Sarandon, and, performing the part of the Grandson first portrayed by Fred Savage over two decades ago... Fred Savage.
Part of the wave of initiatives in Elvis Mitchell's rebooted Film Independent at LACMA programming is a series of live script reads directed by Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Juno), who kicked things off last month with a star-studded rendition of The Breakfast Club. Last night's second script read of the 1960 multiple Oscar-winner The Apartment, with Natalie Portman and Steve Carell in the Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon roles, respectively, demonstrated how the marriage of cherished movie memories, live theater, and fresh talent is such an inspired idea to begin with.
Nearly five months after giving birth to her first child, Natalie Portman returns to Hollywood tomorrow night to take part in Jason Reitman's live reading of The Apartment at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Oscar winner will play Fran Kubelik, "the fetching elevator operator" that Shirley MacLaine played (and earned an Academy Award nomination for) in the 1960 Billy Wilder film. J.K. Simmons, Ken Jeong, Nick Kroll, Mindy Kaling and Jake Johnson will round out tomorrow night's cast. [@JasonReitman, Vulture]
For Mark and Jay Duplass, the sibling team behind The Puffy Chair, Baghead, and last year's Cyrus, success came only after years of frustration -- and only by happy accident. "All we were doing in the late '90s, in our twenties, was trying to be the Coen brothers," Jay Duplass laughed to Movieline, "and failing at that, because the Coen brothers are awesome and they're already the Coen brothers." It was only when the brothers Duplass stopped trying so hard, at the end of their creative rope and after years of fruitless attempts, that they found the formula for personal filmmaking that would become their signature.
This morning, we revisited Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Huntsman and this afternoon, we get to see the Academy Award-winning actress as a suburban ice princess who returns to her hometown in sweats to lie to Hampton Inn employees, blatantly flirt with her married high school sweetheart and drink around the clock. Click through to see the first trailer for Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody's next joint venture, Young Adult.
Last week during Movieline's Fall Preview, we repeatedly named Young Adult as one of our most anticipated autumn films. The Jason Reitman/Diablo Cody collaboration stars Charlize Theron as a teen-lit author who returns to her hometown to reclaim her happily married high school crush (Patrick Wilson). And judging by the movie's first poster, that hometown mission does not go so well.
After nabbing Oscar nods for their first collaboration, the 2007 indie darling Juno, screenwriter Diablo Cody (who won the Academy Award) and director Jason Reitman reprise their partnership in this December's Young Adult, the story of a YA novel author (Charlize Theron) who returns to her hometown to win back her now-married high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). After the jump, get your first look at Theron traveling in a slightly less glamorous getup than we're used to seeing.
FILM NEWS 
