News from Get The Big Picture

17 articles

20 August 2008 2:29 PM, PDT

In general, I don't think Philip Roth novels transfer very well to the screen. Certainly, anyone who sat through Portnoy's Complaint had complaints of his or her own, and most recently, The Human Stain was spun from a Roth book, and that didn't end very well, either.

And while it's a risky proposition to put too much weight into a trailer, Elegy looks like an entirely different situation. It's based on the novel The Dying Animal, and even though Ben Kingsley has kind of been all over the road in the past few years (he's popped up in everything from Sexy Beast and The Wackness to Suspect Zero and The Love Guru), it appears that he's giving the kind of thoughtful, intelligent, weathered performances he can be so good at.

Penelope Cruz also looks up to snuff here, and she's usually not very good when she has to speak English.

Colin Boyd

20 August 2008 11:15 AM, PDT

That's funny: We were just talking about the dark tone of superhero movies and how it fits today's moviegoing audience better than indestructible saves-the-day types (think Batman vs. Superman), and now there's a rumor that Fox brass and X-Men Origins: Wolverine director Gavin Hood are having some disagreements over the mood of one of next summer's big tickets.

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere is reporting that Hood and Fox CEO Tom Rothman don't share the same instincts when it comes to Wolverine. Case in point: Apparently, a huge set was constructed for the film and it was designed to be "dark, dingy, and somber" to fit the palette Hood was creating. While the director was away from the set, it was repainted with brighter colors and looked a lot more like the vision Rothman is said to have for the movie.

Uh-oh, Spaghetti-Ohs.

Wells acknowledges that the full story is

Colin Boyd

20 August 2008 9:56 AM, PDT

Last week, we were the first to bring you the phony but exceptional Dark Knight Returns poster featuring The Riddler. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that it was fan made, but still, it's quite the poster and quite the rumor starter.

Now we have fakes for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. G4 got its hands on them yesterday. It might be a little tougher to dismiss these, since the movie is less than a year away and we've already seen a Terminator Salvation poster, but the studio confirms these aren't real. Don't love the first one. Do love the second one.

You know, we talk about marketing a lot, and when we're dealing with movies as huge as The Dark Knight and Transformers, marketing is crucial to their success. I'm not as big on viral video as everyone else, because as soon as you categorize your marketing angle as "viral,

Colin Boyd

20 August 2008 12:46 AM, PDT

When it comes to comic book supremacy at the box office, it's still pretty clear that Marvel has done a better job manufacturing hits than has its rival, DC Comics. Even with the towering success of The Dark Knight, there have only been four DC films to ever gross over $200 million in the U.S., and two of those feature Batman and the Joker. Marvel, on the other hand, has four franchises that have posted a total of seven $200 million flicks since 1997, in the form of Spider-Man, X-Men, Men in Black, and Iron Man.

There has been some question for a while about what DC Comics will do moving forward; Superman Returns was not what everyone thought it could be, and that franchise may now be in for another retooling. Anne Thompson at Variety says that Warner Bros., which has enjoyed all of this Batman success, may want to similarly

Colin Boyd

19 August 2008 11:53 PM, PDT

Remember how Kenneth Branagh helped lead a Shakespearean revival in the 1990s? We had his Henry V, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing, plus a stylish Romeo + Juliet, a more stark Hamlet starring Mel Gibson, Othello (which co-starred Branagh as Iago), Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and that's just the literal adaptations.

There was also the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love and modernized versions of Bard classics with the Julia Stiles tandem of 10 Things I Hate About You and O.

But in the 21st Century, we haven't seen nearly as much light breaking through yonder window. There will be a King Lear next year, and that's exciting and depressing for alternate reasons, and we're now just a couple of years away from an animated Shakespeare.

The Hollywood Reporter says that James McAvoy and Emily Blunt - who I'd pay to see play the star-cross'd lovers in a live action

Colin Boyd

19 August 2008 5:24 PM, PDT

I'm still a big believer in Dakota Fanning's talent, and fortunately for her, she seems to be taking to her teenage years better than a lot of actors who become wildly successful before they're 12. She's an integral piece of the puzzle in The Secret Life of Bees, a new film adaptation of the Sue Monk Kidd novel.

It's 1964 and young Lily Owens (Fanning) is on the run from her cruel father (Paul Bettany). She and her caregiver, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), stumble onto a group of sisters in South Carolina who give them refuge and don't ask any questions. The sisters are played by Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo, and Alicia Keys.

Now, because we mentioned that the movie is set in South Carolina in 1964, you can probably see where some of this story is headed since we have a white teenager living with four black women. Some folks in South

Colin Boyd

19 August 2008 2:03 PM, PDT

I don't remember if it was in an e-mail or in a comment attached to a previous article about the subject, but someone made the point to me that the ad campaign for W. is more in line with the short-lived Comedy Central show That's My Bush than a serious fact-finding mission by an Oscar-winning director. I'm increasingly inclined to agree.

There are two new posters, which we discovered at Worst Previews, that once again go for the obvious Bush-bashing punchline. I never voted for the guy, thought the Iraq invasion was a terrible, unlawful mistake five years ago, consider him the worst President since his distant relative Franklin Pierce, and I certainly am not trying to deflect criticism away from our absolutely inept leader. But I've been saying this about W. and Oliver Stone ever since we saw the first trailer: It's easy to make fun of George Bush,

Colin Boyd

19 August 2008 10:07 AM, PDT

I'm taking comfort in the fact that even though we're entering the darkest time for new releases since January, it's only going to last three weeks. Then, on September 12th, we'll get Burn After Reading from Joel and Ethan Coen. Does that movie officially kick off awards season? I guess so. The Duchess, Blindness, and Appaloosa follow the next week, and I'm certainly interested in each of those for different reasons.

But even though I know Burn After Reading isn't very far away, it still feels like I'm going to have to wait a lifetime. That's probably because in summer, there are so many things on the wish list, and you usually only have to wait 14 days at the max for something you really want to see. So that extra week is going to be murder...

Anyway, Trailer Addict has two new character featurettes: Meet Osborne (John Malkovich) and Meet

Colin Boyd

19 August 2008 1:51 AM, PDT

There's bouncing back from adversity and then there's what Tom Cruise has managed to pull off in the past two weeks. In the middle of a fairly brisk period of headlines for the former top star in the world, his longtime friend and producing partner Paula Wagner bailed on their joint project of running United Artists. He has also seen his name scratched off above the title of the CIA flick Edwin A. Salt (only to see it replaced by the name Angelina Jolie), and his WWII film Valkyrie, which moved from late 2008 to early 2009 a couple months ago, has now moved back to 2008.

And then there's the matter of his borderline brilliant cameo in a recent comedy.

But the news keeps on coming for Cruise, who, separate from his deal with United Artists, has now expressed interest in three upcoming projects operating at rival studios. The Spyglass thriller Tourist was first,

Colin Boyd

19 August 2008 12:51 AM, PDT

Welcome to the world of New York City’s young and privileged Upper East Side. From The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz comes Gossip Girl, based on the popular novels by Cecily von Ziegesar. Fortunately, you don’t have to be familiar with the books to enjoy the series; Gossip Girl quickly possesses you with its seemingly endless glitz and glamour, the traditional markings of Old Money.

The premise for this teen drama is simple enough: Notorious and anonymous blogger Gossip Girl, voiced by Kristen Bell, is our one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan’s prep school elite. Think TMZ-style paparazzi made up of teenagers with camera phones and bad attitudes. 

Spotted: former It girl, Serena van der Woodson (Blake Lively) is back from boarding school after being gone for a year. But why did she leave so abruptly and why has she returned? More importantly, why

Amparo Elizabeth

19 August 2008 12:07 AM, PDT

I was trolling for news on a fairly uneventful Monday night when I spotted three smallish posters for Baz Luhrmann's homeland epic Australia over at First Showing. Sport that he is, Alex Billington pointed everyone who saw the posters to Movies Online, which in turn pointed the way to Reel Suave. So thanks to all of them.

I know it's a recklessly hip thing to consider The Dark Knight a front-runner for every Oscar under the sun (it probably won't be come December), but there are a few movies that are already starting to distance themselves from what looks like a fairly average awards season crop of new releases. Certainly The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has to be high on everyone's list, and I would think if it's as good as it looks you might see nominees for Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay,

Colin Boyd

18 August 2008 5:55 PM, PDT

Warner Bros., which has been riding high this year thanks in large part to The Dark Knight, received some potentially bad news today, when a judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by rival studio 20th Century Fox over the rights to make a film adaptation of Watchmen.

Variety reports that, through a confusing set of circumstances, Fox has retained their original rights even after a 1994 turnaround for the project with producer Larry Gordon. At the time, Fox was to receive a buyout amount plus a cut of the profits if a movie was ever made. Fox has never received any cash, and this is where it gets dicey for Warner Bros.

One very messy solution is Fox attempting to block the release of the film in March of next year. They have, apparently, already filed a motion for an injunction to that effect. More than likely, though, Fox and

Colin Boyd

18 August 2008 2:10 PM, PDT

I expect to have a great deal of fun watching Religulous, the new documentary from Bill Maher and Borat director Larry Charles. If there's an issue I have with it, it's that we already know Maher's thesis and he won't include much in his movie that could make a worthwhile counterpoint. In that sense, it's not really a "documentary," but a fun little exercise featuring real people in which Maher holds all the cards.

Again, I think it's going to be a lot of fun to watch - and I happen to agree with his argument, incidentally - but there's very little chance this movie will be any more objective than the pilloried Intelligent Design documentary, Expelled, which featured Ben Stein.

As you'll see from the following clips, Maher is choosing his targets to fit his arguments, not that that makes the videos any less entertaining.

Religulous angers your God beginning Friday,

Colin Boyd

18 August 2008 11:33 AM, PDT

Harry Potter: Klutz?

Though he has hidden the condition for years, Daniel Radcliffe recently admitted in an interview, with typical self-deprecation, that he suffers from dyspraxia, a neurological disorder in which more severe cases are commonly associated with impaired development, whether it's physical, intellectual, or even in speech and language skills.

London's Daily Mail has a great article on Radcliffe's revelation, and the paper contacted Nyu Medical School's Dr. David Younger, an expert on the condition, who says, "I’m a big fan of the whole Harry Potter series and I am surprised Daniel Radcliffe suffers from dyspraxia." The doctor added, "He clearly suffers from a mild form, but the fact he shows no sign of it at all is a great tribute to his acting skills and makes him a role model for other people with this condition."

Radcliffe credits dyspraxia for helping draw him into acting, because he

Colin Boyd

18 August 2008 1:57 AM, PDT

Who am I to deny the success of Gossip Girl? Along with America's Next Top Model, the vampy New York teen drama is legitimizing CW as a network, at least in terms of ratings and revenue.

The show has made a big star out of Blake Lively, although these things are relative; Jennifer Aniston is a "big star" and she can't navigate a movie career with any more success than she can her relationships. Granted, it's awfully early for Lively, who turns 21 next week, and I'm sure if she did more than Traveling Pants movies and Accepted, her status in the movies might be elevated. You can't really argue, though, that she was the breakout star on television last year, arguably on the breakout show on the tube.

Gossip Girl is gearing up for its second season, which starts Monday, September 1st. The DVD set for season one will be released tomorrow,

Colin Boyd

18 August 2008 1:32 AM, PDT

We've heard that a Voltron movie was coming, and of course, it definitely made sense after the spectacular success of Transformers last summer. Why no Gobots movie yet? It might have to do with Hasbro, which owns Transformers, buyinh out the rights to Gobots years ago and in 2002 a toy series called Transformers: Gobots was released. So, they've been assimilated into that product line, I guess. That's what my research tells me at any rate.

As for Voltron, the plans to make it into a film have apparently been on the table since well before Transformers was announced. But now the film has been put into turnaround by a Fox subsidiary, according to Variety. Usually, that's a bad thing. However, Relativity Media may save the project, although on a smaller budget, "utilizing the type of cost-effective technology employed in films including 300."

Producers Mark Gordon and Jordan Wynn are searching for a director,

Colin Boyd

17 August 2008 6:48 PM, PDT

It seems it was too good to be true. Last week, we were very excited about the prospect of Paul Greengrass directing The Trial of the Chicago 7, taking over the political drama for Steven Spielberg, who is still producing the film. Devin Faraci at Chud sees eye-to-eye with me on this subject: "If you had to name a director perfectly suited to this material, it would be Paul," Faraci proclaims at Chud.

But he had the inside track. Faraci e-mailed Greengrass, who said he thought it was a "wonderful project," but because of the film's schedule and his own, it simply wasn't going to work. (Word has it Greengrass is playing a Nazi hunter in Inglorious Bastards instead. Ok, not really. But how unsurprising would it really be at this point?)

Greengrass does high politics and high drama as well as any director out there, and despite being British, his

Colin Boyd

17 articles