DreamWorks' adaptation of M.L. Stedman's acclaimed historical drama The Light Between Oceans caught our eye way back in September of last year, when Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines helmer Derek Cianfrance became attached. Now, we've learned that, after Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, the film will find Cianfrance once again teaming with one of the finest young actors working today, seeing as Shame star Michael Fassbender just signed on for the lead role.
There's scarcely an original thought to be found in That Awkward Moment, the self-proclaimed "modern" romantic comedy debut of Tom Gormican, and that won't matter one bit to the majority of its target audience. With stars as ebullient and zeitgeisty as Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan and Imogen Poots, there was never much need for the film bring anything new to the table. Still, it would have been nice if Gormican, who both wrote and directed, could have relied a little less heavily on genre clichés.
At this point in time, it's pretty easy to make some educated guesses about which movies will be competing on the awards circuit in the fall and winter of 2014. We've got David Fincher's Gone Girl heating up October, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar opening the next month, and Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice and Ridley Scott's Exodus: Gods and Kings actually opening side by side one week in December, to name a few likely contenders. Then there are some less sure things, like Kill the Messenger, Fury, Big Eyes, Into the Woods and Unbroken all opening between October and December. Now, we can add Fox Searchlight's Wild, scheduled to open December 5th, to the list of Oscar hopefuls.
I was very impressed with We Are What We Are helmer Jim Mickle's latest film, Texas-set noir thriller Cold In July. Boasting terrific performances from the likes of Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard and Don Johnson, as well as stylish direction and a devilish sense of humor, it's an excellent, highly entertaining thriller. And in true Mickle style, it's sure to divide audiences when it opens in limited release later this month.
The Cannes Film Festival is always chock full of deal reports, and today we're hearing news about a psychological thriller titled 2:22, being shopped around at the festival by Good Universe. According to Variety, the film has just gained Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter star Benjamin Walker and Warm Bodies actress Teresa Palmer in the leading roles.
This isn't Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. That much should be made immediately clear by the "3D" tacked onto the title of this CGI-fueled fantasy actioner, but any lingering doubts are quickly dispelled moments into I, Frankenstein, when the famed creature (given the name Adam and played by the far-too-handsome Aaron Eckhart) is forced to defend himself against sharp-toothed demons whilst burying his creator.
My favorite dramas are those which manage to immerse me in a world strikingly different from but still (in a vicarious but nevertheless potent manner) comparable to my own. Breaking Bad, which started out by exploring the seedy criminal underbelly of modern-day New Mexico, featured dozens of colorful characters (perennial badass Mike Ehrmantraut, refined sociopath Gus Fring) and a highly ambitious central plot (a mild-mannered chemistry teacher comes to rule the meth business with an iron fist) but was never less than addictively believable. To give a more far-out example, Game of Thrones is set in the high-fantasy world of Westeros, but its inhabitants are shockingly relatable as flesh-and-blood human beings, and viewers are quickly able to look past the show's more fantastical elements to find the compelling, realistic human drama beneath. I'm pleased to say that, for many of the same reasons, I can add Netflix's crazy, brilliant Orange Is The New Black to that list.
If you've been anywhere near Twitter in the past few days, you've probably come across hashtags like #sixseasonsandamovie, #savegreendale and, most interestingly, #netflixsavecommunity. This explosion of social media activity was sparked when NBC canceled cult comedy Community last week, undoubtedly due to its often low ratings. The grief cycle of fans across the 'net has been fairly consistent. First, fury directed at NBC set in, with fans sending out
Shortly after her medical drama Red Band Society got picked up to series by Fox, more good news emerged today for Oscar winner Octavia Spencer. The actress, who won an Oscar for her role in The Help, has just joined the cast of Summit's Divergent sequel, Insurgent.
Though Harmony Korine's neon-soaked crime drama Spring Breakers was one of my favorite films of 2013, I was just as shocked and suspicious as anyone when producers Wild Bunch revealed that they were moving forward with a sequel to the cult favorite, titled Spring Breakers: The Second Coming. One immediate cause for alarm was that Korine, whose bold visual style and brilliantly story made Spring Breakers so fascinating, would not be involved.
