After the stunning one-two punch of Incendies and Prisoners, Denis Villeneuve has proven himself to be one of the most capable thriller directors working today. So, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that A-listers are lining up to work with the guy. He recently became attached to direct Amy Adams in the sci-fi thriller Story of Your Life, which ignited a massive bidding war at the Cannes Film Festival, and is now turning to his next big screen project, a crime drama called Sicario. Today, Josh Brolin and Jon Bernthal both came aboard, joining Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro in the film.
Though Sylvester Stallone hasn't been doing too hot at the box office lately (his last stand-alone, 2013's Bullet to the Head, made a pathetic $4,458,201 in its opening weekend and never even came close to recouping its budget), no one can deny that some of his movies rank among the finest and most iconic action flicks of all time. In particular, his rock-climbing thriller Cliffhanger is rightly thought of as an action classic. And though Sly himself may be sliding, Cliffhanger is ready for a new lease on life, with news that the film is getting the reboot treatment.
Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe that we've just gotten our first look at one of this fall's biggest awards contenders. Kill The Messenger, from director Michael Cuesta (Showtime's Homeland and Dexter), first piqued our interest back in July of 2013 when Michael Sheen, Bary Pepper, Tim Blake Nelson and Andy Garcia joined the cast, and we started to realize just how talented an ensemble Cuesta was working with. Now, a first trailer for the Jeremy Renner-led film has hit the web, and it's definitely a must-see.
Everyone remembers Tim Burton's visually stunning but intellectually flat Alice in Wonderland from 2010. However, what some viewers of that hugely successful fantasy film (it made over a billion worldwide and ranks as the sixteenth highest grossing film of all time) may not be aware of is that Alice in Wonderland 2 is still moving forward, four years later. Officially titled Through the Looking Glass, the sequel has James Bobin (The Muppets) attached to direct and is now filling out its cast.
Anyone who saw this year's 300: Rise of an Empire would probably agree that the film wouldn't have been nearly as fun without Eva Green's voluptuous, promiscuous femme fatale Artemisia. Luckily for filmgoers, Rise of an Empire wasn't a one-off; Green has made a name for herself playing similarly sultry seductresses, appearing as sorceress Morgan le Fay in Starz's short-lived Camelot series and as sexy spellcaster Angelique in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows. However, she'll be taking on her biggest bombshell role yet this summer, when she appears as the titular character in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Now, the most risqué tease we've seen for the seque lthus far has set off some alarms over at the MPAA... which is why I imagine the marketing team submitted it in the first place.
In a summer packed to the gills with studio blockbusters like Transformers: Age of Extinction and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, one of the films I'm most excited about is Get On Up, a biopic sure to be dwarfed by the film it's opening against (a little movie by the name of Guardians of the Galaxy). Regardless of how it fares at the box office, Get On Up looks like it could be one of the best movies of the summer. Directed by The Help helmer Tate Taylor and starring 42's Chadwick Boseman, the film charts the rise of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul himself.
Though the Emmys and Golden Globes are generally better known than the Critics' Choice Television Awards among the general populace, I actually prefer the Critics' Choice Awards (and not just because its voters handed last year's Best Dramatic Actress trophy to the highly deserving Tatiana Maslany for Orphan Black - though that's probably a large part of it). Every year, the TV critics who come together to nominate the best television series and miniseries airing today do a fine job of honoring both the deserving heavyweights and the less familiar diamonds in the rough.
When news broke that NBC had opted not to pick underdog comedy Community up for a sixth season, despite critical acclaim and a devoted (if small) viewer base, many of the show's fans were left struggling to contemplate a world in which Jeff, Annie, Britta, Abed, Shirley, Troy and the rest of the Greendale gang would never fulfill #sixseasonsandamovie, the rallying cry which had propelled the bubble show to renewals year after year. Now, it seems that Community fans may be rewarded for their loyalty to the show after all.
After serving 12 months in prison due to his involvement in the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping scandal - in which he lied to an FBI agent about his history with Pellicano - Die Hard helmer John McTiernan is finally ready to jump back into filmmaking. Though the bankrupt director is still struggling to recover from the prison stint, word is that his DEA thriller Red Squad is gearing up to shoot soon, with Nicolas Cage attached to star.
