Even as they can still look fondly back on his colorful coming-of-age tale Moonrise Kingdom, which succeeded in 2012 both at the box office and with critics, fans of director Wes Anderson can also start getting excited for his newest project, a stylish 1920s-set dramatic comedy called The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Though popular opinion is decidedly split regarding Spike Lee's upcoming remake of the Park Chan-wook cult classic Oldboy, the chances of the new film actually being great are increasing in my estimation. A large part of why I have been growing excited for Lee's Oldboy has been the film's stylish, intriguing marketing campaign, which has so far avoided highlighting Oldboy's brutal action, instead focusing on the film's warped and weird story.
When watching TV, do you ever get the feeling that you've seen this somewhere before? You're not alone; as you'll discover in this feature, Hollywood isn't the only manufacturer of blatant rip-offs in entertainment today. TV network executives have also, time after time, turned to Xeroxing popular shows whenever their creative ink well runs dry. While some of these shows are seen for the second-rate forgeries that they are (see: NBC's disastrous, short-lived Mad Men rip-off The Playboy Club), most of these copycats actually thrive on TV with the same audiences that enjoyed the original product. Unfortunately, this only teaches network heads to eschew original thought in favor of returning to tried-and-true formulas year after year.
Every once in a while, a film comes along that proves innovation is still alive and well in filmmaking. A Hijacking, an extraordinary Danish film by Tobias Lindholm, is one of those movies. A thriller that at every turn defies the conventions of its genre, A Hijacking is a truly stunning achievement.
Who doesn't love Cameron Crowe? The talented American director has made his mark with a filmography of terrific, original, character-driven movies, many positively stunning in the pure sense of joy and optimism they communicate. Lack of cynicism is a rare gift in Hollywood indeed. The director is currently hard at work on his latest film, an untitled romantic comedy starring Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Danny McBride and Alec Baldwin. Now, we have news that This Is The End's Jay Baruchel (pictured above) has recently signed on for a supporting role in the film.
If 2015 is currently scheduled to be the most jam-packed year for cinema on record (with Avengers: Age of Ultron, Batman vs. Superman, the final Hunger Games and new instalments of the Terminator, Jurassic Park and Independence Day franchises already on the calendar) many could say the same thing about 2014 for television.
After Stephen Chbosky received critical raves and awards consideration (though tragically no major nominations) for directing the stellar film adaptation of his landmark novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, it's easy to understand why he's eager to continue working behind the camera in Hollywood. Today, Deadline announced that Chbosky's next gig will be helming an adaptation of Adena Halpern's 29: A Novel, currently titled While We're Young. Emma Watson, who earned a People's Choice Award for her lead role as Sam in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is currently attached as one of the film's two leads.
After Hulk-smashing all competing dramas in its first week with 11.9 million viewers and an astounding 4.6 adults 18-49 rating (ABC's best premiere in four years), Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was widely predicted to earn a pick-up from ABC, and now the network has made it official. With a recently announced back-nine order expanding the length of the freshman show's first season from thirteen episodes to twenty-two, it's safe to say that execs over at ABC are currently raising their glasses to a long, profitable future with Marvel.
Across his long and illustrious career, Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins has portrayed a great many colorful real-life characters, from US President Richard Nixon to horror legend Alfred Hitchcock. Now, he's set to play another figure from history, in the second of two biopics currently in his pipeline. After playing Ernest Hemingway in Andy Garcia's Hemingway and Fuentes, Hopkins will portray Dutch brewery magnate Freddy Heineken for director Daniel Alfredson (The Girl Who Played With Fire), in Informant Media's true-history action thriller Kidnapping Freddy Heineken.
Though this year's Oscar race has been rapidly filling up with forceful candidates like Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity and Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave, one film previously considered an awards front-runner has proved shockingly silent in recent months. Despite direction from Academy favorite Martin Scorsese and a starring turn from Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street has been largely sidelined by some Oscar forecasters amidst rumors of a troubled post-production period that may interfere with its planned November release.
