It is no surprise that Oliver Stone is an Obama supporter, but he is giving out equal criticism to both candidates for not discussing climate change in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which lashed the Northeast this week. Stone is promoting his documentary series The Untold History of the United States and a new book.
more »
Also in Wednesday morning's round-up of news briefs, director Ben Wheatley boards a project set in the 17th century. Scott Derrickson eyes a paranormal police thriller. And the Toronto International Film Festival's Capital gets a deal.
more »
She received an Oscar and BAFTA nomination for her starring role as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in the aptly titled Frida back in 2002, an Emmy nomination for her appearance in TV's Ugly Betty (where she was also an executive producer) and has been in films from Puss in Boots (ok, her voice), Desperado to Dogma and her latest pic, Savages, directed by Oliver Stone. Yet Mexican-born actress Salma Hayek told a German magazine that she was in fact ready to end her acting career.
more »
The adaptation process is always a tricky one, but Oliver Stone had to make some especially tough choices in editing his big-screen version of Don Winslow’s Savages – and as a result, scenes with Uma Thurman, one of his cast’s biggest names, were left on the cutting room floor.
more »
For the first three hours and 20 minutes, I was totally with Savages. During the middle two hours and 25 minutes, I was reasonably intrigued to see how it would all turn out. But through the final six hours and 48 minutes, I kept sneaking glances at my watch, just wishing that Oliver Stone would hurry up and cap off this wiggly-waggly tale of two marijuana-entrepreneur buddies, their shared girlfriend, and a host of Mexican drug baddies led by Salma Hayek wearing a black bobbed wig that’s half Cleopatra, half Bettie Page.
Some say taking a critical eye is patriotic. Others will flatly disagree or at least disagree when the opinion runs counter to their own. In the lead-up to celebrating the country's 236 years since independence ML is spotlighting the critical eye calling for change - acts that are very American. For every image of the country as that "Shining City on a Hill" there are perceived dissenters over American exceptionalism on screen. War, health care, the death penalty, poverty, racism have all been tackled in one form or another by Hollywood and beyond. Some of course consider these films a political/cultural "attack," while others say they're merely a "call to arms" to right a wrong, lending transparency to perceived ills in an open society. Perhaps some of the most successful films that take on culture and politics straddle both sides of a debate that opposing sides can call their own. Forrest Gump is probably one of the best examples in relatively recent times. But there are others that have taken decidedly more ideological bent and made waves doing so. Here are six we picked - undoubtedly, depending on one's interpretation, the list goes on...
more »
Oliver Stone is certainly not afraid to court controversy. The two-time Oscar winner raised eyebrows with a sympathetic portrayal of Fidel Castro in his 2003 documentary Comandante, a less than sympathetic look at former President George W. Bush in W. and a positive chronicle of Latin America's left-leaning presidents in 2009's South of the Border and he's long been outspoken on issues that win praise from the hard left and venom from the right. On the eve of his latest star-driven bigger budget release, Savages, Stone graced the cover of High Times magazine and over the weekend spoke of his own drug use, how it helped him through Vietnam as a twice-wounded soldier, and about his new movie opening Friday.
more »
Also in Tuesday morning's round up of news briefs, Elissa Greer joins FilmDistrict's exec team, comic book writer Alan Moore is looking to collaborate on film, big-name directors and others come out in defense of Wikileak's Julian Assange and BAFTA revamps its nomination and voting rules.
more »
HIGH Times has been a purveyor of - well - high times for years now and it's high time, apparently, that one high-profile fan of the illegal-ish botanic blazon its cover with his famous image. Oliver Stone will grace the cover of the magazine in the August 2012 issue, just in time for the magazine's new editor-in-chief to settle in at his new post - quite a coup!
more »
Scan the latest from a busy Monday news day in Movieline's newly minted Biz Break. Following this morning's edition of the new column is a slew of casting news from Iron Man 3 to Woody Allen's next project, while the folks at CAA caught a surprise break from the office today thanks to a power outage.
more »
Why would a Berkeley grad weed dealer and his ex-Navy SEAL partner take on a Mexican cartel who wants in on their business? To get their kidnapped shared girlfriend back, of course! Since said shared girlfriend is Blake Lively, I can understand why Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch would risk life and limb to fight off Salma Hayek's gun-wielding goons. I'm not quite as sold on why Oliver Stone would make a movie like this, but after watching the trailer for Savages, hell -- I'm in.
more »
Finally, Dr. Uwe Boll is making a movie America actually wants to see! According to The Hollywood Reporter, Boll will start filming in April on Bailout, his 27th film -- a feature-length thriller that follows an everyman New Yorker "who loses everything in the wake of the 2008 Wall Street financial crisis, and who strikes back by killing investment bankers." I don't know about you, but I think this one's got a shot at gaining the cultural foothold that Ollie Stone missed with Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, nein? [THR]
The five-time Oscar-winning (and 47-time Oscar-nominated) composer and conductor John Williams was born 80 years ago today in Flushing, Queens. Somewhere a concertmaster is no doubt preparing a 100-piece orchestra for a rousing, booming rendition of "Happy Birthday," but for now, we can send our own regards with a discussion of his finest composition for the screen. You only have, oh, 130-something projects to choose from.
more »
"Usually when I hear the words 'family drama,' I run," said Willem Dafoe, who nevertheless found something to savor in writer-director Dennis Lee's Fireflies in the Garden. Little did Dafoe or his castmates Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, Emily Watson, Hayden Panettiere and least of all Lee himself know that their particular family drama wouldn't make it to American theaters only today -- nearly four years after its Berlin Film Festival premiere in 2008.
Of the handful of up-and-comers rumored to be in contention for Tony Gilroy's upcoming spy spin-off The Bourne Legacy, 30-year-old Taylor Kitsch's name was frequently bandied about as a potential front-runner for the action franchise. Speaking with Movieline over the weekend while discussing his upcoming film The Bang Bang Club, Kitsch hinted that his turn in Oliver Stone's Savages might make a Bourne outing impossible.
FILM NEWS 
