I don't care if you're already sick of the blogosphere's fawning, today is Ryan Gosling's birthday and that is practically an internet holiday. (Not to mention an actual one. Shout out to the veterans out there.) And unlike you Gosling latecomers out there who jumped on the Baby Goose train after The Notebook, some of us have been faithful fans for almost two decades now, and that kind of lifelong dedication warrants an entire post full of internet videos, okay?
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The Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin starrer was initially set for an early September release, but the tragedy in Aurora, CO at a The Dark Knight Rises showing at a multiplex threw the title into a tailspin. The Ruben-Fleischer-directed film about the L.A. police department's war against organized crime in the '40s and '50s. Gangster Squad is now set for a January release.
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Her novels have sold 40 million copies worldwide and the pending film version of the trilogy's first installment has fans guessing worldwide who will play the male lead with nearly every hot young actor in Hollywood a possible contender. So what is a wildly successful author to do as an encore? Well, be in the movie of course! British author E.L. James, the mind behind the ever-so-hot Fifty Shades of Grey series said on the Katie Couric daytime talk show that she is eyeing a possible cameo in the big-screen adaptation of the novel, revealing that one of the smaller characters in the book is actually based on herself.
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I keep coming back to The Place Beyond the Pines, but it was the movie that defined the Toronto International Film Festival for me. More than once, I heard the director Derek Cianfrance describe his ambitious and moving film as a movie about "legacy" and how "sometimes you're born into a world with all of these repercussions that people have made before you" and "have to fight and claw to get out of that." Judging from the features and documentaries I saw during my short stay in Toronto, these ideas of legacy and the sins of our fathers — whether they're our literal or institutional fathers — are weighing heavily on America's collective psyche. more »
It is certainly one of the most anticipated questions in recent casting memory. Who is going to play the role of Christian Grey in the film version of Fifty Shades of Grey. Two of the rumored top contenders for the scintillating part, Ryan Gosling and Alexander Skarsgård seemed a bit blindsided by the question at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, with Gosling giving a mostly noncommittal response, while Skarsgård gave a more thoughtful exchange on the red carpet of the TIFF premiere of What Maisie Knew. Fans can even be heard screaming out, "You have to play him!"
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As a movie title, The Place Beyond The Pines doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but that didn’t stop the latest project from Derek Cianfrance and his Blue Valentine star Ryan Gosling from being one of the most discussed films at the Toronto International Film Festival. The picture — which tells the tale of a bank-robbing motorcycle stunt driver (Gosling), a cop (Bradley Cooper) who fatefully crosses his path and their sons, did not have a distributor when it premiered at the festival on Friday night. That changed when Deadline reported on Sunday that Focus Features had acquired the film for release.
On Saturday, Gosling and Cianfrance met with the press to discuss the making of the film, its thematic exploration of legacy, and Gosling's fantasy about robbing banks on a motorcycle — an idea that figures into the plot of film. The Pines, Cianfrance explained, "is a place where you find your demons but also where you can find your destiny."
As for that title, it doesn't sound so cumbersome when you consider that it could have been called Schenectady. Read on for the explanation. more »
In Monday's round-up of news briefs, a quick look at weekend pick ups at the Toronto International Film Festival including The Place Beyond the Pines, Aftershock, Great Expectations and more that will head to a theater (hopefully) near you. Also Beasts Of The Southern Wild takes a top prize at the Deauville Film Festival in France.
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Call it the zen of Ryan.
During a roundtable interview with Ryan Gosling and filmmaker Derek Cianfrance for their latest film, The Place Beyond The Pines, I asked the actor if he felt that the media focused too much on the superficial aspects of his fame — remember the hubub over Bradley Cooper being chosen over him as People magazine's sexiest man of the year last fall? — when he keeps proving himself to be one of the finest actors working today. more »
The night began with a little celebrity-fueled silliness. As Ryan Gosling arrived at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto for the premiere of his latest picture, The Place Beyond The Pines, a crowd of eager fans barged across traffic-stalled King Street to swarm the object of their affection. But once Gosling's second film with filmmaker Derek Cianfrance — they made the remarkably pure heartbreaker Blue Valentine together — got started, it was clear that the two friends and a remarkable cast that included Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes and Ben Mendelsohn had made a seriously good movie. more »
UPDATE (Sept. 5): Sara Moore, a representative from EL James' literary agency, Valerie Hoskins Associates, responded to my request for comment on Wednesday. "Thank you for your interest in Fifty Shades," Moore wrote, "however we cannot comment on any of this." It looks like James' camp is taking an "ignore him and he'll go away" approach to Bret Easton Ellis, who has yet to respond.
PREVIOUSLY (Sept. 4): How does a media-savvy screenwriter promote his modest Kickstarter.com-financed film when the media is fixated on tentpole pictures?
What if he connected one of his project's actors — who happens to be a porn star — to the seriously sexy and much buzzed-about film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey?
That's what I suspect novelist and screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis is doing with The Canyons, the L.A. noir thriller he wrote.
The Canyons, which Paul Schrader is directing, stars Lindsay Lohan and James Deen, a 26-year-old porn actor and director, who, like Sasha Grey, appears to be looking for more traditional acting work. more »
Ryan Gosling is graduating from actor/coloring book muse to writer-director with his directorial debut, How To Catch A Monster, from his own script - and he's recruited Drive co-star Christina Hendricks to play the lead. So what's the Baby Goose's first foray behind the camera about?
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While the GOP gathers in tropical storm-plagued Tampa to Do That Thing They Do, this week's new DVD selections feature a rallying cry against the status quo and an overblown, flag-waving spectacle based on a board game that, all things considered, is still pretty fun to watch. more »
The 37th Toronto International Film Festival added more titles Tuesday, completing a lineup that includes 289 features of which 146 are world premieres from 72 countries. Among the titles revealed today are Cannes Palme d'Or winner Amour by Michael Haneke, Everyday by Michael Winterbottom, Like Someone in Love by Abbas Kiarostami and Me and You by Bernardo Bertolucci. The festival touted its huge list of directors and actors expected to attend the event, which takes place September 6 - 16.
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"Want" doesn't quite capture the glory of the hottest thing to hit the publishing world this week: The Ryan Gosling coloring book, which yes, you need in your life. As do I. When it comes to the Baby Goose, you deserve to treat yo' self, girl.
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Gangster Squad does not look like it will be coming to a theater near you any time soon.
In the wake of the mass shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colo., an industry insider tells Movieline that Warner executives are expected to decide today whether to reschedule the release of the Ruben Fleischer-directed film about the L.A. police departments war against the organized crime in the 1940s and 50s.
And the insider says odds the picture — which stars Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn and Josh Brolin — will keep its Sept.7 release date are pretty long. more »
