One thing I can say about Don Coscarelli's movies is they never remind me of something I've already seen. The Tripoli-born, South California-raised Coscarelli makes mind bending, original films that start trends but never follow them. For instance, there's the not easily classified 1979 horror classic Phantasm, which spawned three sequels and pre-figured the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. His 1982 sword-and-sorcery crowd pleaser, The Beastmaster, was played so often on HBO that the pay-cable's call letters were said to stand for "Hey, Beastmaster is On." And his 2002 comedy horror film Bubba Ho-Tep, is a contemporary cult masterpiece that has some very smart things to say about celebrity culture and aging out in a world that worships youth. more »
Also in Wednesday morning's round-up of news briefs, film critic/festival programmer Scott Foundas joins the Village Voice's publications; Gerard Butler eyes a WWII-era drama; and Bryan Singer is confirmed for X-Men.
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If you thought you were getting any work done during the second part of the day, think again. The good people at Vulture have apparently teamed up with the RAND Corporation and NASA to devise a series of charts with endless permutations that rank today's most valuable movie stars. But, we ask: Who are today's Most Valuable Indie Stars?
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Pattinson said in Cannes there wasn't much in the way of rehearsal before he began shooting the David Cronenberg-directed film and that he "worried" in his hotel room before it all began. Distributor Entertainment One said it will hit U.S. theaters August 17th, well after its release north of the border.
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Moments before David Cronenberg, Robert Pattinson and the rest of the team from Cosmopolis appeared in a packed press conference room, a Cannes Film Festival spokesman said he had one request: "Please keep the conversation focused on Cosmopolis and not on vampires or bats or the such." "But what about blood-sucking capitalists?" a journalist asked.
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Another year, another couple hundred entries in the ever-deepening conversational archive known as The Movieline Interview. They're the collective backbone of our site, and in 2011, it was at its strongest. Look back with us now at the highlights, including the luminary likes of Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jason Segel, Jodie Foster, Paul Giamatti, and a certain honey badger of a director.
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George Clooney's The Ides of March is an actors' movie, a picture that gives performers some provocative things to do without necessarily providing a great story for them to hang onto. It's also a movie made for grown-ups, and Lord knows there are few enough of those around today. But this story of an idealistic young press secretary who finds his principles eroded at the hands of a corrupt Democratic presidential candidate keeps getting in the way of its own chin-stroking: It's carefully designed to make us think it's making us think, but in the end, what's it really telling us? That politics -- and politicians -- can be dishonest and ugly? Please don't stop the presses for that one.
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Things have been a wee bit quiet where Jonathan English's 13th century siege pic Ironclad is concerned, but with the indie action pic's July release right around the corner Movieline's got just the uber-gory clip reel to set your pulse racing. (And, perhaps, your stomach turning.) Watch out, Paul Giamatti! The Knights Templar are coming for you.
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