British super-crooner Adele confirmed via Twitter that she has recorded the theme for the upcoming James Bond installment, Skyfall. The Rolling in the Deep singer posted a photo of the song credits on her Twitter page. The confirmation comes after months of rumors she would lend her talented vocals to the Bond pic.
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Since early 2011, Movieline has been wondering when Lady Gaga would have her Desperately Seeking Susan moment, and finally it has happened.
The Huffington Post reported that the Fame Monster will make her movie debut in splatter-film specialist Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills. Gaga will play a character called La Chameleon in an oddball cast that includes Charlie Sheen, Sofia Vergara, Mel Gibson and Michelle Rodriguez.
A poster depicting Gaga's character, which will soon be adorning the bedrooms of alienated teenagers everywhere, depicts the bare-shouldered pop star holding a smoking gun and wearing what appears to be the pelt of a white wolf around her. more »
Up in Canada, documentary festival Hot Docs gave out its prizes over the weekend, while Stateside, the Tribeca Film Festival unveiled plans for a new event in Italy. Madonna remembers Beasties' Adam Yauch and Morgan Spurlock launches a new production company. Check out more in Monday's Biz Break.
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Kate Winslet broke a PR commandment earlier this week while promoting the release of Titanic 3D: She dismissed the movie's Oscar-winning theme song, claiming that Celine Dion's overplayed ballad "My Heart Will Go On" makes her "feel like throwing up." Citing the inescapability of fans serenading her with the massive hit wherever she goes, Winslet's sentiments are understandable. Frankly, I heard that song enough times 15 years ago to never hear it again, no matter how riveting and powerful Dion's vocals are. To say that song never once gave you chills is probably a lie. But be that as it may, the song hasn't given anyone chills since post-Oscars April 1998, when we'd all had just about enough of it. All we have left for it now is just a reflexive groan of antipathy.
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It's probably one of the best ways to work through your failed celebrity marriage: Air all your dirty laundry in a thinly veiled dance-pop ditty from your hawt new album! Which is what Madonna seemingly does in her new song, "I Don't Give A," which Guy Ritchie is listening to somewhere, shaking his head. Sample lyrics: "You were so mad at me / Who's got custody / Lawyers / Suck it up / Didn't have a prenup." OUCH. Let the divorce therapy rip!
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Even though it's something of a slick mess, Madonna's W.E. is just the kind of movie you'd expect from an artist who once, with a delightful lack of irony, declared herself a material girl. A weirdly sympathetic portrait of Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom a king gave up his throne, W.E. is the story of a life told through stuff: Evening gloves, cocktail shakers, baubles from Cartier, little hats trimmed with netting. It's as if Madonna went back in time and forgot to talk to actual people, to find out how they lived and what they thought -- but she sure did a lot of shopping.
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W.E. wasn't just an undertaking for Madonna, who directed her Wallis Simpson/Edward VIII biopic with all the lavish heft of a gigantic watercolor landscape. It was also a labor of love for Andrea Riseborough, the 30-year-old actress playing Simpson, the American socialite whose romance with Edward led to his abdication of the throne in 1936. The film's most enjoyable asset, Riseborough was saddled with making the polarizing Simpson a wholly charismatic figure -- an Evita without the benefit of torch songs. She succeeds, and with her thoroughly photogenic Edward (James D'Arcy) in tow, she softens W.E.'s melodrama with fantastic ease. We caught up with Riseborough to discuss her fascinating director, her feelings about the subject matter, and the zaniness of the Venice Film Festival.
Over the last week or so, film-culture observers witnessed an odd phenomenon sweep the country: A palpable, recognizable feel of anticipation -- for an awards show. Even rarer was the reason behind it. When the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced that Ricky Gervais would return for a third stint emceeing the Golden Globe Awards, we expected a return to last year’s delirious exercise in blunt-force celebrity accountability.
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I am obviously a thundering shill for Madonna whether she's making terrible movies with her ex-husband or making terrible movies with Griffin Dunne, but there's something about W.E.'s self-serious, accidental telenovela that's not even watchably bad. It's just humorless and overlong -- though Andrea Riseborough is fabulous as the polarizing Wallis Simpson. In a new 24-minute documentary about Madonna's big feature, the director and her cast do their best to sell their watercolored biopic, and I tell you what? They do a good job. Don't ask me to explain it. But James D'Arcy still looks like Anthony Perkins, so shut up and start crying in adoration.
With 2011 drawing to a close, your faithful Movieline editors are taking a look back at the year that was, starting with a catalog of the 9 biggest OMG moments in movies and moviedom. Celebrate the batshit-insane happenings, most shocking screen scenes, death-defying stunts, crazier-than-fiction episodes, and nuclear-level meltdowns of the year... and add your own favorites to the pile. Ah, memories!
The stakes are higher and the villains far more treacherous (Moriarty!), but everything in Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows is of a piece with the 2009 predecessor that introduced Robert Downey Jr.'s turn as the titular OCD turn of the century sleuth. For director Guy Ritchie it's felt like one long evolution from the days of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels; now, at the helm of his biggest film to date -- which features some of the most innovative action sequences of the season -- Ritchie is firmly in his wheelhouse. As he told Movieline recently in Los Angeles, "I enjoy playing in a bigger sandbox... and I enjoy having powerful friends to help me manifest a vision."
There are mere days left until Halloween, and you're still scrambling for a costume that reflects your savvy Movieline-reading film knowledge? The perfect outfit that screams, "Look at me, I watch more movies than you, plebian sexy fill-in-the-blank!" Movieline's staff have culled a litany of costume ideas for you, inspired by indie art films and big Hollywood hits alike, either from this year at the movies or from the future. Dive in to find the greatest relevant Halloween costume ideas of the year!
While promoting Tower Heist during a recent television interview, Eddie Murphy took a moment to forecast that he will be the most awful Academy Awards host of all time. (Has he seen last year's ceremony co-hosted by Anne Hathaway and James Franco?) Click through to watch Murphy repeatedly cut off his Tower Heist co-star Ben Stiller to predict just how bad his Oscars show will be. Spoiler alert: It ends with a powder blue suit and a golden statuette shower.
Since news broke that a Lady Gaga biopic may be in the works, I've fretted. The 25-year-old superstar is ripe for a big-screen toasting, but she's only been a phenomenon since the latter half of 2008. Would you want to watch a Madonna biopic that stopped after the release of True Blue? Of course not. Lady Gaga has a gnarly, couture-bedecked arc ahead of her, and I say if she's destined to be a cineplex draw, why not adapt her eight-track mini-album The Fame Monster into a full-fledged film?
This week we learned a lot of important lessons: First, that no matter how ridiculous something sounds -- like Eddie Murphy hosting the Oscars, what a joke! Oh, right -- things can always get ridonkulouser. Also: Madonna LOATHES hydrangeas, you serf! I mean, really. Pour a scotch and try to relax as we take you back through this increasingly silly week in Movieline news.
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