Why do the robbery scenes in Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond The Pines seem so authentic? They're as close as you can get to the real thing without breaking the law! "Derek had this rule that all of those bank heists would be shot in one take," explains star Ryan Gosling. "And so there was just an energy to them that I don't think you could have got if you were breaking it up."
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Also in Wednesday morning's news round up, Warner Bros. is taking a cue from Marvel's Avengers with its own superhero lineup, a J.D. Salinger adaptation is in the make for the big screen, a Frozen thriller pick up for North America and the rising fortunes of non-U.S. actors as big budget films target international markets.
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I know that it's absolute heresy to so much as whisper the possibility that anything at all might be wrong with The Dark Knight, but a new supercut from the folks who brought us The King's Speech: Just the Stammering goes a long way to spotlight one of the blockbuster's weakest links: Heath Ledger.
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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.
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With The Dark Knight Rises release fast approaching, Warner Bros. has launched their latest bit of buzz-driving viral marketing by teasing a brand-new trailer for the July release. But in order to see that trailer, Bat-fans must first "help" the Gotham City Police Department "find" Batman by tracking hundreds of pieces of Bat-graffiti strategically placed around the world; for each bit of graffiti located and tagged via social media, Warner Bros. will unveil the new trailer one frame at a time. Graffiti: it's not just for Oscar-nominees anymore!
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Weekend box-office sluggishness got you down? Oh. Well, either way, fortune tellers around Hollywood are saying the recent Avengers buzz has further heated up an already scorching prospect: Some tracking reports have Joss Whedon's Marvel-hero mash-up sailing beyond The Dark Knight's $158 million three-day mark from 2008, though Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2's all-time record of $169 million seems safe, 3-D and all. Stay tuned to Movieline for more box-office previews and projections — especially your own — as The Avenegers' May 4 release date draws near. [THR]
After years of foisting dashed-off 3-D — and its inflated ticket prices — on movie audiences, studios may have found their most reliable ally yet in shoring up box office: IMAX. And not just the punch and potential of the brand's own 3-D, either, but good old conventional 2-D as well.
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It's easy to pile on Hollywood for its craven cash grabs, sequelitis and other low-hanging fruit harvested and passed off in the name of popular entertainment. It's also fair, after a glance at the top 20 or so openings of all time, to acknowledge that mass audiences have tended to let studios get away with such output over the last decade in particular. But if we're to take anything from the huge opening-weekend success of The Hunger Games, it might be to look at its place on that list — squarely in third place, below even better-regarded cinematic efforts Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and The Dark Knight. With this development, could crowds and critics alike have proven what the sheer volume of lesser hits would seem to contradict — that quality matters?
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You knew The Hunger Games would open big, but this big? Meet your new bona fide box office powerhouse franchise: Taking in $19.75 million at midnight showings around the country, Lionsgate's PG-13 action-romance earned the #1 all-time non-sequel midnight debut, outperforming even The Dark Knight's 2008 $18 million midnight. We've got another true blue four-quadrant blockbuster on our hands, people! If you're sitting bleary-eyed at your desk right now with a happy smile on your face from last night's late night debut, share your reactions after the jump.
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In a step up from previous Skyfall publicity memes like #Banal007 and James Bond's Big Gay Resort brochure, the Daily Mail has a glimpse at Javier Bardem in character as the film's as-yet-unnamed villain. The catch: He's in costume as a police officer. Where have we seen this before?
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Film journalist and biographer David Hughes has long written with authority on subjects from Stanley Kubrick to David Lynch. But few writers know more about the vicissitudes of that uniquely Hollywood phenomenon known as "development hell." Hence the updated, revised edition of Hughes's book Tales From Development Hell, which arrives in store and online today. And Movieline has an exclusive excerpt that you can browse now.
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Earlier this month, Netflix released a list of their ten most-rented movies ever. It was a strange selection that shocked and saddened us -- Sandra Bullock's films The Blind Side and Crash ranked first and second, while the abominable, Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman terminal illness buddy comedy The Bucket List finished third. But weep for America's horrendous taste no more -- TorrentFreak has ranked the most pirated titles of all time and they are much more respectable selections. Can you guess what they are?
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Ryan Gosling may be a real street fight-stopping hero in man capris and the vulnerable getaway driver next door in this week's Drive, but a keen-eyed Movieline reader in Toronto sent in evidence of the one thing hotter than the Goss. No, not those Scarlett Johansson pics. Something even sweeter! Feast your eyes upon this discovery and stay for more in today's Buzz Break!
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