"I've been acting since I was 13 years old, so I love playing around with different genres of movies...It keeps my profession fresh for me," Ethan Hawke told me on the red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival.
After Midnight, anyone? The Richard Linklater-directed Before Midnight doesn't premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival until 6 pm. on Monday, but an hour before curtain time the filmmaker hinted that a fourth film in a sequence that began with Before Sunrise in 1995 and Before Sunset in 2004, was not out of the question.
Linklater joined the co-stars of the latest installment of his realistic romance, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, at the Tribeca Talks Directors series, and one of the final questions asked of the director was whether the third film was intended to tie up the romance between the American Jesse (Hawke) and the French Céline (Delpy) 18 years after they met on a train traveling to Vienna.
In the third film, Jesse and Celine are not just together they have two daughters in tow as they vacation and bicker in romantic Greece. Watch the trailer and then I'll get to Linklater's response:
Ode to a Grecian Yearn
Linklater answered the festival goer's question by responding that Before Midnight was about capturing "that moment" in Céline and Jesse's lives. "It wasn't a summation. It's definitely not a final vibe," he said, before adding his own twist on a spoiler: "They're both still alive at the end of the movie...There might be another one. Who knows?" But, he concluded that he and his cast didn't have to think about it for at least another five years or so.
This could be good news for fans of the film series, which has a die-hard following thanks to its warts-and-all approach to romance and relationships. If the film is as good as the early buzz indicates, the sequel could be inevitable and not take nine years to come out. Oddly enough, although a nine-year time span separates the first and second and then the second and third movies, Linklater told festival goers that Before Midnight was scheduled to shoot this coming summer but production was moved up when the three collaborators realized that they each had openings in their schedules last summer. The symmetrical nine-year space between the movies "was kind of a coincidence," Linklater said.
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I've never been a huge fan of Richard Linklater's Before Sunset and Before Sunrise for exactly the reason that so many people adore it: the self-absorbed dialogue and debates about life and love that take place between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) are so authentic that I'd much prefer to engage in them myself rather than watch two actors do it for me. (I do self-absorption magnificently, if I do say so myself.)
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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Can a person really be charming enough to get away with murder? Especially if the victim is a super-beeyotch to begin with? That’s the question asked, and almost answered, by Richard Linklater’s Bernie, in which Jack Black plays a Carthage, Texas, assistant funeral-home director who’s so beloved in his community that his fellow citizens are almost willing to look the other way when he breaks the sixth commandment.
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Dazed and Confused often gets lumped in with pot comedies and is celebrated on 4/20, but Richard Linklater’s first studio film transcends mere pot comedy and is still one of the most realistic teen movies ever made. It arrived at a time (1993) when teen movies were out of vogue, and it dared to take a trip down memory lane to a time remembered more with cringes than smiles. It’s arguably the most anti-nostalgia period movie ever, as acknowledged by Linklater himself. Digging in to the Criterion Collection extras (a Blu-ray Criterion release came out in October), here are some bits of evidence of that, tied to some of the movie’s most memorable lines.
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There was no shortage of stars coming through SXSW 2012, debuting films and projects as diverse as Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods to Lena Dunham's HBO series GIRLS. Take a look and see who else dropped in on Austin, Texas for the annual film festival, including: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, and their 21 Jump Street crew, Willem Dafoe, Al Gore, Johnny Knoxville, Melissa Leo, Matthew McConaughey, Jack Black, Aubrey Plaza, Gabrielle Union, Bobcat Goldthwait, new director (!) Matthew Lillard, two Broken Lizards, model-turned-actress Dree Hemingway, and more.
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Richard Linklater's latest film, Bernie, makes its SXSW debut on Wednesday, but Movieline will save you a trip to Austin by showcasing one of its finer highlights here. Take it away, Kay McCabe!
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Each year SXSW plays host to a slate of risk-taking fare of all kinds, from true indie offerings to upcoming studio releases geared to a slightly more open crowd, and the 2012 film line-up features no shortage of movies poised to earn that precious film festival commodity: Positive buzz. But some projects have more at stake than others -- say, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's long-awaited Cabin in the Woods, Will Ferrell's Spanish-language comedy Casa de mi Padre, or the directorial debut of actor Matthew Lillard. On the eve of SXSW 2012 (which runs March 9-17 in Austin, Texas), check out the ten SXSW titles with the most to prove going into their festival debuts.
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Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey kicked things off with Richard Linklater's Bernie. Ryan Gosling, Christina Hendricks, and their Drive co-stars hit the red carpet with director Nicolas Winding Refn. Kate Bosworth & Co. presented the indie rom-com Life Happens the same night that the cast of the vogueing flick Leave it on the Dance Floor turned a rooftop party into a runway ball complete with live performances, drag queens, and wanton fabulousness. The 2011 L.A. Film Fest is in full swing, and so is Movieline's star-studded red carpet gallery! Hit the jump for a peek at the celebs (and divas) who hit the fest this weekend.
"Money makes the world go 'round, but it's not the answer to all your prayers," declared Jack Black at the opening night of the L.A. Film Fest, where he and screen legend Shirley MacLaine hit the red carpet arm in arm at the world premiere of Richard Linklater's new black comedy, Bernie. "It makes the world go 'round, sometimes the other way," quipped MacLaine. That's precisely the lesson at the heart of Bernie, based on the zany true story of a mortician who lived a well-loved existence in his small East Texas town -- until, that is, he committed a terrible crime.
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