You are viewing the archive: Samuel L. Jackson
Ilya Naishuller sounds like the name of a character from The Man From U.N.C.L.E., but he's got a better shot at directing a future entry in the James Bond franchise. The 29-year-old Naishuller is a most interesting hyphenate: he's the front man for the Russian punk band Biting Elbows and a filmmaker who has lit up the Internet — 6 million YouTube views and counting since its Mar. 18 upload — and Hollywood with a remarkable NSFW music video for the band's new single "Bad Motherfucker." more »
Twenty years after John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, as Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield, became arguably the most iconic hitman duo in contemporary cinema, it's hard to imagine any other actors tackling those roles — especially the Royale with Cheese conversation. But the new issue of Vanity Fair serves as a reminder that their Pulp Fiction parts almost went to other actors. more »
You might have heard the shocking news that Django Unchained features copious use of the word 'nigger'. I know! I can't understand why a film set in the antebellum South, featuring numerous unrepentant slaveowners, during a time when black people were considered barely human as a matter of course, would have so many n-bombs. Sure, the word is almost exclusively spoken by villains or by black people to refer to themselves, and sure, it is one of the few aspects of the film that is 100% historically accurate, but come on. How rude of Quentin Tarantino to include it and make the harsh depiction of the slavery era even more uncomfortable.
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A career of playing righteous bad-asses in Pulp Fiction, the Star Wars prequel trilogy and the Marvel superhero movies has made Samuel L. Jackson one of the highest grossing actors of all time. Which makes his decision to play Stephen, the calculating and merciless right-hand man of plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, Jackson's most daring acting choice yet. more »
Earlier this week, Funny or Die tried to answer the question I hoped would never get asked this Oscar season: Who had it worse, slaves or poor, single mothers driven into prostitution? more »
Samuel L. Jackson has created, as he put it, "the most reprehensible negro in cinema history," with his portrayal of Stephen, the slave who runs Calvin Candie's (Leonardo DiCaprio) Candyland plantation in Django Unchained. But, the actor told Movieline that he's even more despicable in scenes that were cut from the final print of Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti southern. more »
Full disclosure right off the bat here, some die-hard Romney fans and those with hyper-sensitivity to the F-Bomb and haters of politics generally may not want to proceed, so if you do, go at your own peril. A tidy little vid starring Barack supporter-extraordinaire Samuel L. Jackson has hit the internet, and though a tad longer than the typical 30 second political spot flooding the airwaves in this election season, it is quite a bit more clever and funnier - though it helps if you're a supporter of the incumbent, naturally. And while it is unabashedly supportive of Obama, the prez does not come in and say he "supports this message" like in most other political ads. In this version, Jackson invades a home of a quiet suburban family of lackadaisical Obama '08 supporters to tell them to, "Wake the F**** Up."
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Also in Monday morning's round-up of news briefs, Cosmopolis lead a weekend of specialty release titles in the box office. Samuel L. Jackson is joining an upcoming Spike Lee project. And remembering Gregory Peck's widow who has passed away.
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The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher weighed in about the brouhaha that flared this week after some passionate Batman fans threw a fit after a spattering of negative reviews, resulting in aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes' decision to disable user comments for the time being. Nolan's final stint in the trilogy is expected to fetch box office records this weekend and so far reviews have been mostly positive, but a few critics gave TDKR a thumbs down and some fans went ballistic. Wednesday night at the film's London premiere, Nolan appeared to defend fans' emotional response.
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In Monday afternoon's round up of news briefs, SXSW is inviting audiences to propose panels for their 2013 event via online. BB takes a quick look at final weekend box office numbers. Samuel L. Jackson will host an upcoming awards show, while Fandango and MSN team up. And which book will be the next box office golden child?
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It’s been 25 years since Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop painted a nightmare vision of a near future in which a cyborg policeman became humanity’s salvation — so how will the upcoming reboot, starring Swedish-American actor Joel Kinnaman (AKA Holder of TV’s The Killing), update the tale? Movieline spoke with Kinnaman, who continues his Hollywood cross-over attempt in Friday’s New York drama Lola Versus, about Jose Padilha’s RoboCop — and the real-world technology that suggests we’re already in a much different future than the original envisioned.
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Although Samuel L. Jackson has played S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and the record-breaking Avengers, his portrayal of the cigar-chomping Marvel Comics government agent isn’t definitive to everyone. Like, say, to David Hasselhoff — Baywatch legend, Knight Rider icon, and star of the upcoming Piranha 3DD — who donned Fury’s signature eye patch and scowl in his own 1998 telefilm, earned Stan Lee’s blessing, and claims that his is the “ultimate” Nick Fury.
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A former grifter gets out of prison after serving 25 years for killing his partner in The Samaritan, and in a tale as old as time (or at least as old as the movies), tries to go straight, only to get pulled in for one last job. His name is Foley, and he's played by Samuel L. Jackson, and this film from Canadian director David Weaver is svelte enough in its reassembling of familiar elements to be, for a while, as comfortably pleasant as sipping on what once used to be your go-to drink — until The Samaritan takes a jarring turn right out of Park Chan-wook, and from there takes a tumble into ludicrousness from which it doesn't recover.
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Cinco de Mayo weekend will surely belong to Marvel's The Avengers, which has already racked up $18.7 million in U.S. grosses courtesy of last night's midnight screenings. The superhero filled adventure has been pegged as possibly this year's biggest box office draw — time will tell. But for those who want to check out something else besides superheroes (or want to resuscitate from its aftermath) there are plenty of specialty releases opening this weekend including Fox Searchlight's India-set The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Sundance Selects' dance doc First Position, ATO's water doc Last Call at the Oasis, Kathleen Turner starrer The Perfect Family. And, if you need a little more Samuel L. Jackson in your life post-Avengers, check out his other opener Meeting Evil.
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This weekend belongs to The Avengers, which brought out crowds for midnight screenings overnight and sparked a Twitter backlash by Samuel L. Jackson against a NY Times reviewer. Those are among Friday morning's highlights in Biz Break along with a BBC denial it's banning Sacha Baron Cohen from its airwaves, a Clooney cash windfall for Obama and more.
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