It's brief, but the newly debuted teaser trailer for the sci-fi romance The Host is here to tantalize you with images of freaky-eyed pod people and star Saoirse Ronan's fierce, unearthly qualities. Adapted from author Stephenie Meyer's non-Twilight novel about a human and an alien symbiote who share the same body, The Host is headed to theaters in 2013 under director Andrew Niccol (In Time), and while this oughta give Host readers a twinge of anticipation, non-fans are likely scratching their heads wondering what Ronan's eyeballs and the vaguely Benetton-like reel of faces has to do with anything.
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Suzanne Collins can start her victory lap now. The film version of her first Hunger Games novel is on the brink of blowing up box-office records – and critics and fans like it, too. Other young-adult fantasy authors haven’t been quite so successful in dealing with Hollywood. Some of Collins’s success was luck and good timing: her first Hunger Games book was released a month after Stephenie Meyer’s final Twilight novel appeared, sending publishers and studios alike scrambling for the next young-adult franchise. But Collins also skillfully played the game with and for the filmmakers, making deliberate choices about how she wrote the novels and how she helped market them to the books’ fierce fans. Forget teenage love triangles or wizards vs. werewolves; here's a far more practical list of dos and don'ts for when your popular young-adult fantasy book is being adapted by Hollywood. (Spoilers for lesser movies ahead.)
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Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, we already know how Albert Brooks feels about this morning's brutal Oscar-nomination snub. But how is the rest of the Academy's snubculture faring? We may never know entirely, but at least their unofficial ambassador Patton Oswalt has the fan-fiction angle covered -- and it sounds like this group has the Governors Ball beat.
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The WGA nominations have hit the wires, giving awards watchers more fodder for speculation. Does Bridesmaids' inclusion mean the mainstream hit has more traction in the Oscar race? Will Win Win's nomination mean the Fox Searchlight hopeful has a shot at the big leagues? Should Diablo Cody break out the leopard print couture? Check out the full list of nominations and debate away.
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Truth be told, I don't enjoy ranking films -- especially at the end of a year that disappointingly lacked a single title that moved me to tears, gut-busting laughter or some kind of profound existential realization. (However there were quite a few films that inspired hopelessness for the future of cinema. See Just Go With It and Bucky Larson: Born To Be a Star. Actually, don't see them.) But there were some titles I'd recommend and even some I wouldn't immediately regift if they found their way under my Christmas tree/menorah this season. Behold, my fave films of 2011. As always, let me know how much you disagree with this list in the space below.
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I realize I may have given away some of these choices with my utterly correct listing of the year's ten best performances, but no matter! 2011's finest cinema, specifically the top three choices on my list, gifted us with bleak, but comprehensive glimpses into personal isolation. I love when a movie is resolutely grim -- reminds me of home. Here are my top ten films of 2011.
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Here's what I've gathered from the new Snow White and the Huntsman trailer: Charlize Theron's Evil Queen is pissed, Kristen Stewart's Snow White is innocent, and the color saturation of this fairytale world looks like a Crayola-dappled Middle Earth. Pretty spectacular.
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This morning, we revisited Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Huntsman and this afternoon, we get to see the Academy Award-winning actress as a suburban ice princess who returns to her hometown in sweats to lie to Hampton Inn employees, blatantly flirt with her married high school sweetheart and drink around the clock. Click through to see the first trailer for Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody's next joint venture, Young Adult.
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Last week during Movieline's Fall Preview, we repeatedly named Young Adult as one of our most anticipated autumn films. The Jason Reitman/Diablo Cody collaboration stars Charlize Theron as a teen-lit author who returns to her hometown to reclaim her happily married high school crush (Patrick Wilson). And judging by the movie's first poster, that hometown mission does not go so well.
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Diablo Cody has her own movie to anticipate with the release of her third feature Young Adult this December (featuring a thoroughly unamused Charlize Theron), but the Academy Award winner took time out tell Movieline which three films she most looks forward to seeing. What will make the cut? The Iron Lady? Carnage? A Dangerous Method? Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip Wrecked? Click through for her adroit (and quite cheeky) observations.
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After nabbing Oscar nods for their first collaboration, the 2007 indie darling Juno, screenwriter Diablo Cody (who won the Academy Award) and director Jason Reitman reprise their partnership in this December's Young Adult, the story of a YA novel author (Charlize Theron) who returns to her hometown to win back her now-married high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). After the jump, get your first look at Theron traveling in a slightly less glamorous getup than we're used to seeing.
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As the YA-addicted world awaits the conclusion of The Twilight Saga, internet storms are a-brewin' over the next teen franchise with Twilight-level potential: Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. But with casting speculation at a fever pitch (director Gary Ross should anoint his chosen ones any week now), it's time for some real talk: Most of your favorite young thespians aren't going to make the cut.
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