In an uncharacteristically aggressive move for Fox, the basic cable network announced today that it would be ordering additional seasons of four programs. Included among the lucky few are critically acclaimed comedies New Girl, The Mindy Project and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, along with the Kevin Bacon-starring thriller The Following.
Hollywood's obsession with John Grisham-style courtroom thrillers appears to have petered out over the past few years. The last legal drama I truly enjoyed was 2011's The Lincoln Lawyer, and I can't even name one cinematic entry in the subgenre that has emerged since then. So, it's about time someone put their mind to resuscitating the courtroom thriller. The Whole Truth, which will likely release next year, may be the first project I've seen that could have a real shot at breathing new life into the subenre, especially now that it's gained Oscar winner Renee Zellweger in a leading role.
2014 has been an unexpectedly strong year for the work of late author Ira Levin. In addition to NBC's planned miniseries adaptation of his iconic chiller Rosemary's Baby, which will star Zoe Saldana and hew much more closely to Levin's novel than the Roman Polanski film, TWC-Dimension is steadily moving forward with an adaptation of his creepy play Veronica's Room, which now has The Wolverine writer Mark Bomback on board to pen the script.
Now that the dust has settled after a brutal, highly publicized battle between director Bong Joon-ho and media mogul Harvey Weinstein over the fate of Bong's post-apocalyptic epic Snowpiercer, The Weinstein Company has announced that its on-demand branch Radius-TWC will give the film a limited theatrical run on June 27th. It's expected that Snowpiercer will arrive on VOD either on that same date or soon after.
Wes Anderson is now at that point in his career where his idiosyncratic style has inspired a younger generation of filmmakers to make movies that critics often dub "Anderson-esque." However, as hard as some of his disciples have worked (Richard Ayoade's Submarine comes to mind), not one of them has been able to best or even match the director's flair for candy-colored, giddily propulsive storytelling. As far as we know, Anderson's style is inimitable, which of course means that, at some point in the future, we won't have any more of his madcap adventures to look forward to. That may seem like a somewhat morbid statement, but all it's intended to convey is this: every film Anderson brings us is a gift and should be appreciated as such. The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson's most exquisite and brilliantly realized work to date, is no exception.
After being nominated for a Oscar for his nail-biting true tale of modern day piracy, Captain Phillips scribe Billy Ray has jumped on board another tense, true-history project - The Ballad of Richard Jewell, a drama about the attempted 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing, which currently has Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill attached to star.
Jude Law is one of those rare actors with both incredible dramatic depth and a brilliant knack for comedy. Over the years, he's delivered powerhouse performances in dark fare like Cold Mountain and Contagion but also shown off his funny bone in films like Sherlock Holmes and, more recently, Dom Hemingway. Law's ability to balance both acts makes him a huge asset to every project he signs on for, which is why he's one of Hollywood's most consistently acclaimed stars. Now, we're hearing that Fox has snagged him for a supporting role in their upcoming spy comedy Susan Cooper.
I've been a huge fan of Laika ever since their deliciously creepy, impeccably animated debut Coraline, and follow-up ParaNorman only made me more enthused about the small stop-motion animation company. In fact, it's no understatement to say that their third outing, this fall's The Boxtrolls, is one of my most anticipated films of the year.
It feels like work on Terry Gilliam's existential sci-fi flick The Zero Theorem has been underway for ages now, so fans of his will likely be relieved to learn that the film will finally hit theaters this summer after being acquired by Amplify.
Fairy tale reboots have been all the rage in Hollywood since dueling Snow White projects Mirror Mirror and Snow White & the Huntsman swept the box office back in 2012 and were swiftly followed by last year's Jack the Giant Slayer, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and Oz the Great and Powerful. Major studios aren't over the trend just yet, with films like fairy-tale modge-podge Into the Woods and a Cinderella reboot in the works, but the revisionist fairy tale we're most looking forward to is definitely this summer's Maleficent.
