Even as retirement looms, Steven Soderbergh still has a feature in the pipeline destined for the big screen. But as his theatrical career apparently heads toward its sunset, the Oscar-winning filmmaker is taking a swing at the movie-making machine that has left him - at least now - not wanting to make more pictures.
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This just in from the Academy: This year's Oscars could see the best Best Song race in history. See which original songs are in contention, including unconventional tracks from Django Unchained, Magic Mike, The Man With The Iron Fists, and Casa de mi Padre.
We at Movieline HQ were quick to cheer when Matthew McConaughey was named Best Supporting Actor by the New York Film Critics Circle for his work in Magic Mike and Bernie. After busying himself with forgettable rom-coms, the uncannily likable Texan has been on a tear, choosing unique projects in which he can strut his unique and undeniable talents. For the first time in his career, he is a genuine contender for an Oscar nomination.
Movieline spoke to the man from the set of Dallas Buyers Club (the film that required him to drop tons of weight, so if the noms don't come this year, he'll be primed for 2014) about awards campaigns, how he's perceived by fans, some of his classic lines and some possible film sequels. Normally we'd take laser focus in pruning our interviews, but with a guy as wonderfully laid back as McConaughey (who announces himself on the phone as "McConaughey") you'd be a fool to ignore all the "man"s.
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The Sexiest Man Alive is looking to take an acting break. 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike star Channing Tatum is planning to put the acting gigs on hold next year in favor of working on his directing chops with production partner, Reid Carolin.
"[Reid and I] have about three to four ideas that we love that are all in the hopper. By the end of next year, we’re going to shut things down and write the first thing that we’re going to direct," Tatum told EW. “We’re going to be like, alright, no more acting parts for a minute, let’s take a few and really get caring about that section of our career."
Tatum and Carolin are in the midst of developing a Magic Mike sequel - and with a nearly $166 million worldwide gross from the first installment and a production budget only a fraction of that - then why not? They're also developing a pic on 1970s daredevil, Evel Knievel.
Still, Tatum won't be absent from the big screen in 2013. He's set for Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects in addition to action pic White House Down along with Jamie Foxx and Maggie Gyllenhaal as well as drama Foxcatcher from Bennett Miller.
“I love the steps that I’ve taken acting-wise. That has been a wild sort of exploration," Tatum said. "But I don't want to just keep putting [directing] off for these fun and incredible opportunities."
Tatum gave a shout-out to Soderbergh for showing him and Carolin the filmmaking craft.
"I don’t think Reid and I would have the balls to try to make a movie without learning what we did from Soderbergh and [assistant director] Greg Jacobs," Tatum said about the Magic Mike director. "It was like a crazy crash course Cliff Notes on directing and how to make movies, literally get them done. We had a Matrix-style download, like a plug in the back of the head and bloop! I know Kung Fu now."
People magazine named Tatum its 2012 Sexiest Man Alive last month.
[Source: EW Inside Movies]
All right, all right, all right.
Awards season has officially gotten down in the dirt with a little bit of glorious stank. The New York Film Critics Circle, an august body despite three years of madness under Armond White's leadership, has named Matthew McConaughey the year's best supporting actor for his work in both Magic Mike and Bernie.
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Folks like Steven Soderbergh know it can be a long, long road to retirement. But there are still (at least) two titles to come, including Side Effects. With this year's box office lauded strip down Magic Mike as well as his other 2013 shoot Behind the Candelabra on the make, his segue out from the director's chair may linger a year or two. There are promo obligations post-post production after all…
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Late last week, the box office prognosticators speculated whether The Dark Knight Rises would eek out a triumph over newcomer Total Recall. The pendulum would swing in either direction as the weekend approached, but in the end TDKR easily beat out Total by every measure. In fact, the film only really managed to measure-up to its original, but in 2012 dollars
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Some Moviegoers were said to be hesitant to attend The Dark Knight Rises, but a number of people apparently made the trek over the weekend. The final installment in the Batman trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan grossed over $64 million over the weekend, landing atop the box office for a second week. Another holdover, Ice Age: Continental Drift took second over the weekend, grossing a cool $13.3 million.
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The last pre-Dark Knight Rises weekend at the multiplex came and went without much incident, unless you call The Amazing Spider-Man losing his grip on the No. 1 spot after one week an "incident." You decide! Either way, your Weekend Receipts are here.
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Magic Mike has already scored just under $78 million at the box office since its release in late June and the production budget was only $7 million. Minus the marketing budget, the stripper feature has likely already packaged a hefty sum. But never mind the money, there's plenty of skin to be had, so why not let the strip show go on? Actors flexing their hot bods is a winning formula, and Tatum teased recently that another round of Magic Mike is in the early stages.
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Magic Mike’s Cody Horn probably could have taken a more direct line to acting – her father is former Warner Bros. president Alan Horn, the veteran studio exec who recently took the helm at Disney – but life took her on a more circuitous path. A passion for movies early on (“I read my first script when I was 9”) led to internships and script reading, and she also earned a degree in philosophy at NYU and modeled, but it wasn’t until she met Joel Schumacher that she was cast in her first film, at 22. Now, coming off a turn opposite Channing Tatum as the pragmatic Brooke in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike, Horn has a host of intriguing roles ahead of her – and she’s determined to avoid being the traditional leading lady.
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He may look like an impossibly chiseled slab of flesh – and, well, he is – but this past weekend Channing Tatum proved to America (and that foreign country called Hollywood) that he is capable of much more. With Magic Mike wildly overperforming at the box office to the tune of $39 million, it’s time to acknowledge that this one-time piece of eye-meat has opened the door to a new chapter in his career. It’s widely known that it was Tatum who approached auteur Steven Soderbergh with the idea for Magic Mike, as the film was inspired by Tatum’s own experiences as a male stripper when he was 18. For as long as he’s been entertaining audiences, Tatum has been seen primarily as nothing more than an object, but his aspirations are clearly to have a career that involves some brains, too. Below, we take a look at where one of the most buzzworthy actors in the world is headed, by way of his upcoming films.
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Audiences headed out to theaters to see a foul-mouthed Teddy Bear and some hot man flesh over the weekend. Universal's Ted grossed over $54.1 million over the Friday through Sunday, while Warner Bros.' Magic Mike came in at just over $39.15 million. The two studio newcomers topped the overall box office for the weekend, while last week's newcomer animation Brave held the third spot. Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection landed in fourth place.
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“We're trying to do our part to objectify men for the first time in movies.” Steven Soderbergh’s male stripper pic Magic Mike shimmies into theaters today powered by a charismatic turn by Channing Tatum and a hard-bodied supporting cast — but the tale isn’t all thongs, pelvic thrusts, and bachelorette party thrills. (Well, okay — it's got a lot of those things, too.) What secrets did Soderbergh, Tatum, and co-stars Alex Pettyfer, Joe Manganiello, and Matt Bomer spill about on-set nudity, overzealous extras, cross-dressing, and Tatum’s real life experience as a male stripper?
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Also in Friday morning's news round up, it looks like the next round of Hunger Games cast is shaping up. Psychological thriller Gut gets a digital distribution home and perhaps not exactly film-direct news, but the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the FCC over that Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" back in 2004…
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