Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy Cast in "The Dark Knight Rises"

As I promised, here, is The Dark Knight Rises press release:

Warner Bros. Pictures Announces Anne Hathaway for Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises”

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that Anne Hathaway has been cast as Selina Kyle in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” She will be starring alongside Christian Bale, who returns in the title role of Bruce Wayne/Batman.

Christopher Nolan stated, “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Anne Hathaway, who will be a fantastic addition to our ensemble as we complete our story.”

In addition, Tom Hardy has been set to play Bane. Nolan said, “I am delighted to be working with Tom again and excited to watch him bring to life our new interpretation of one of Batman’s most formidable enemies.”

Nolan will direct the film from a screenplay he wrote with Jonathan Nolan, from a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer. Nolan will also produce the film with his longtime producing partner, Emma Thomas, and Charles Roven.

“The Dark Knight Rises” is slated for release on July 20, 2012. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Review: Blue Velvet (Happy B'day, David Lynch)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 77 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Blue Velvet (1986)
Running time: 120 minutes (2 hours)
MPAA – R
WRITER/DIRECTOR: David Lynch
PRODUCER: Fred Caruso
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Frederick Elmes (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Duwayne Dunham
COMPOSER: Angelo Badalamenti
Academy Award nominee

CRIME/DRAMA/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, George Dickerson, Priscilla Pointer, Jack Harvey, Brad Dourif, Hope Lange, and Dean Stockwell

By the late 1980’s, David Lynch’s film Blue Velvet was a trendy, cult favorite at the university I attended. One associate told me quite flatly that he really couldn’t tell me what the story was about, but that he liked the movie because “you were supposed to like it.” Apparently Woody Allen liked it so much that when he and Lynch were two of the 1986 Oscar nominees for Best Director, he asked Orion, his studio at that time, not to create an ad campaign to support his chances (for the film Hannah and Her Sisters) in competition against Lynch. Allen really believed that Lynch should win. Blue Velvet is not that good.

Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) is home from college because of his father’s illness. While taking a walk on a back road, he discovers a severed ear, which piques his curiosity. He makes a connection to the ear with a troubled and enigmatic singer, Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini). Jeffrey becomes obsessed with Dorothy at the same time he’s chasing Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), a high school girl he has become sweet on. As he digs deeper into the mystery, he discovers a bizarre and dark underworld of drugs and murder beneath the façade of his hometown Lumberton, USA, not the least of which is Dorothy’s sicko paramour, Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper).

At this point in his development as a surrealist, David Lynch was formulating his visual style, but the narrative style that would make the connection between him and his audience was still in the tinkering stage. The story of Blue Velvet is a noir-ish tale of criminals, damsels in distress, girlfriends, crooked cops, and the steady lawman, but these elements are mostly window dressing for the director’s pictorial staging. Out of the story we may get the idea that there is something dark, wet, and nasty behind the white picket fences of small town America/suburbia, but that idea has been done to death, even in 1986. There is usually something kinda brown and squishy behind every pretty façade.

There are a lot of good moments and characters in Blue Velvet. Some of it will make you laugh, and some of it is quite imaginative, as well as shocking. It’s fun to watch Lynch go through the process of staging everything and creating his visual shorthand for his brand of storytelling. However, in the end, this is a baby step towards what he would do in the future. It’s like Martin Scorcese’s Mean Streets in the sense that this is the shape of things to come, or at least the mold for Lynch’s future films.

I heartily recommend it to people who like to watch movies, not just for the sake of watching movies, but who particularly enjoy this form of storytelling for what only it can do. Blue Velvet is special, and because of the way that it tells its tale, it could only be a movie, so you have to watch it to experience it, warts and all.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
1987 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Director” (David Lynch)

1987 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Dennis Hopper) and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (David Lynch)

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Anne Hathaway is Selina Kyle in "The Dark Knight Rises"

There is apparently a press release from Warner Bros. Pictures going around that announces the villains for next year's Batman flick, "The Dark Knight Rises" (July 20, 2012).  Anne Hathaway will play Seline Kyle who is Catwoman.  Apparently, the press release doesn't specifically call Kyle Catwoman.

The press release also announces that Tom Hardy will play the villian, Bane.  In the comic books, Bane is the monstrously muscular behemoth who once broke Batman's back.  Empire Online has more details.  I'll post the press release when I can find an official copy.

Review: Gritty "True Grit" Offers Great Characters and Superb Performances

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

True Grit (2010)
Running time: 110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images
DIRECTORS: The Coen Brothers
WRITERS: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (based upon the novel by Charles Portis)
PRODUCERS: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, and Scott Rudin
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Deakins (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Roderick Jaynes (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen)
COMPOSER: Carter Burwell

WESTERN/ADVENTURE/DRAMA

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper, Candyce Hinkle, Roy Lee Jones, Orlando Smart, and Ed Corbin

The latest film from the Coen Bros. (Joel and Ethan) is the Western, True Grit. It is the second film adaptation of the 1968 Charles Portis novel, True Grit; the first was a 1969 film starring John Wayne. True Grit is the story of a stubborn young woman who convinces a tough U.S. Marshal to help her find her father’s murderer.

After her father is murdered by one of his hired hands, a man named Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) arrives in a small town to collect her father’s body and get his killer. She attempts to hire U.S. Marshal Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to track Chaney into Indian country where he is hiding with a gang of criminals. Mattie tells Cogburn that she chose him because he has “true grit,” but that isn’t enough to convince Cogburn to take the job. When he does accept the offer, Cogburn decides to take a vain Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), with him instead of Mattie. But the young woman is about to show them both that she also has “true grit.”

As they do in all their movies, Joel and Ethan Coen get great performances from their actors. Jeff Bridges gives so many layers to Rooster Cogburn (the role John Wayne played in the 1969 film). The viewer will spend the entire movie peeling those layers back and still not have the whole story on this character that Bridges makes so real. Although LaBoeuf isn’t quite as interesting as Rooster, Matt Damon shows his true grit by making a vain chatterbox and (at best) semi-competent lawman/nincompoop a character that I wish was onscreen more.

Yes, the praise that newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, as Mattie, has received for her performance in this film is not mere hype. She’s a natural, and she makes this movie as much as anyone else does – including the Coen Bros.

The one glaring weakness that keeps True Grit from being a truly great film is how the filmmakers treat the villains. There is potential in Josh Brolin’s Tom Chaney and especially in Barry Pepper’s “Lucky” Ned Pepper, but both are hardly ever on screen. The film spends so much time showing us the tremendous work of Bridges, Steinfeld, and Damon and their characters that everyone else gets shorted.

There isn’t anything really profound about True Grit, except this tidbit at the end: time catches up with everyone. This film is really not about ideas. True Grit, even with the performances at its heart, is a Coen Brothers film. This is about how they do it – their style, their rhythms, their quirks, their directorial trademarks and flourishes. That’s not a bad thing simply because Joel and Ethan Coen do their thang so well.

8 of 10
A

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

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Halle Berry Declines Aretha Role

Recently, I posted about Aretha Franklin stating that Halle Berry would play her in a film about the Queen of Soul's life.  More recently at the Golden Globes, Berry politely declined.  Shadow and Act has the story and some opinion.

"The King's Speech" Leads 2011 BAFTA Nominations

The BAFTAs were announced some hours ago (Jan. 18th).  The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that (as they describe it) "supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public."  Of course, the group is known for handing out an award known as the BAFTA.

In the states, we primarily pay attention to the BAFTA film awards.  The British film, The King's Speech, has the most nominations, 14, while the current American darling, The Social Network, received six.  For those who are not familiar with the BAFTAs, there are two best film categories:  "Best Film" and "Outstanding British Film," and The King's Speech is nominated in both.  The also have a "Rising Star Award," which is voted on by the public.  The awards will be handed out Sunday, February 13, 2011.

2010 NOMINATIONS
(presented in 2011)

BEST FILM
BLACK SWAN Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin
INCEPTION Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
THE KING’S SPEECH Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
THE SOCIAL NETWORK Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Céan Chaffin
TRUE GRIT Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
127 HOURS Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, Christian Colson, John Smithson
ANOTHER YEAR Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe
FOUR LIONS Chris Morris, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Mark Herbert, Derrin Schlesinger
THE KING’S SPEECH Tom Hooper, David Seidler, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
MADE IN DAGENHAM Nigel Cole, William Ivory, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
THE ARBOR Clio Barnard (Director), Tracy O’Riordan (Producer)
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP Banksy (Director), Jaimie D’Cruz (Producer)
FOUR LIONS Chris Morris (Director/Writer)
MONSTERS Gareth Edwards (Director/Writer)
SKELETONS Nick Whitfield (Director/Writer)

DIRECTOR
127 HOURS Danny Boyle
BLACK SWAN Darren Aronofsky
INCEPTION Christopher Nolan
THE KING’S SPEECH Tom Hooper
THE SOCIAL NETWORK David Fincher

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BLACK SWAN Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, John McLaughlin
THE FIGHTER Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson
INCEPTION Christopher Nolan
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
THE KING’S SPEECH David Seidler

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 HOURS Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel
THE SOCIAL NETWORK Aaron Sorkin
TOY STORY 3 Michael Arndt
TRUE GRIT Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
BIUTIFUL Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Søren Stærmose, Niels Arden Oplev
I AM LOVE Luca Guadagnino, Francesco Melzi D’Eril, Marco Morabito, Massimiliano Violante
OF GODS AND MEN Xavier Beauvois
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES Mariela Besuievsky, Juan José Campanella

ANIMATED FILM
DESPICABLE ME Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
TOY STORY 3 Lee Unkrich

LEADING ACTOR
JAVIER BARDEM Biutiful
JEFF BRIDGES True Grit
JESSE EISENBERG The Social Network
COLIN FIRTH The King’s Speech
JAMES FRANCO 127 Hours

LEADING ACTRESS
ANNETTE BENING The Kids Are All Right
JULIANNE MOORE The Kids Are All Right
NATALIE PORTMAN Black Swan
NOOMI RAPACE The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
HAILEE STEINFELD True Grit

SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRISTIAN BALE The Fighter
ANDREW GARFIELD The Social Network
PETE POSTLETHWAITE The Town
MARK RUFFALO The Kids Are All Right
GEOFFREY RUSH The King’s Speech

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS The Fighter
HELENA BONHAM CARTER The King’s Speech
BARBARA HERSHEY Black Swan
LESLEY MANVILLE Another Year
MIRANDA RICHARDSON Made in Dagenham

ORIGINAL MUSIC
127 HOURS AR Rahman
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Danny Elfman
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON John Powell
INCEPTION Hans Zimmer
THE KING’S SPEECH Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY
127 HOURS Anthony Dod Mantle, Enrique Chediak
BLACK SWAN Matthew Libatique
INCEPTION Wally Pfister
THE KING’S SPEECH Danny Cohen
TRUE GRIT Roger Deakins

EDITING
127 HOURS Jon Harris
BLACK SWAN Andrew Weisblum
INCEPTION Lee Smith
THE KING’S SPEECH Tariq Anwar
THE SOCIAL NETWORK Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter

PRODUCTION DESIGN
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara
BLACK SWAN Thérèse DePrez, Tora Peterson
INCEPTION Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
THE KING’S SPEECH Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
TRUE GRIT Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

COSTUME DESIGN
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Colleen Atwood
BLACK SWAN Amy Westcott
THE KING’S SPEECH Jenny Beavan
MADE IN DAGENHAM Louise Stjernsward
TRUE GRIT Mary Zophres

SOUND
127 HOURS Glenn Freemantle, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Steven C Laneri, Douglas Cameron
BLACK SWAN Ken Ishii, Craig Henighan, Dominick Tavella
INCEPTION Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick
THE KING’S SPEECH John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Paul Hamblin
TRUE GRIT Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F Kurland, Douglas Axtell

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Nominees TBC
BLACK SWAN Dan Schrecker
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Ait'Hadi, Christian Manz
INCEPTION Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb
TOY STORY 3 Nominees TBC

MAKE UP & HAIR
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Nominees TBC
BLACK SWAN Judy Chin, Geordie Sheffer
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
THE KING’S SPEECH Frances Hannon
MADE IN DAGENHAM Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

SHORT ANIMATION
THE EAGLEMAN STAG Michael Please
MATTER FISHER David Prosser
THURSDAY Matthias Hoegg

SHORT FILM
CONNECT Samuel Abrahams, Beau Gordon
LIN Piers Thompson, Simon Hessel
RITE Michael Pearce, Ross McKenzie
TURNING Karni Arieli, Saul Freed, Alison Sterling, Kat Armour-Brown
UNTIL THE RIVER RUNS RED Paul Wright, Poss Kondeatis

THE ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
GEMMA ARTERTON
ANDREW GARFIELD
TOM HARDY
AARON JOHNSON
EMMA STONE

http://www.bafta.org/.

2011 Nominations for British Academy Film Awards Announced

Press release:

NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED FOR THE ORANGE BRITISH ACADEMY FILM AWARDS IN 2011

The King’s Speech receives 14 nominations. Black Swan is nominated in 12 categories, Inception has nine nominations and 127 Hours and True Grit are each nominated eight times. The Social Network has six nominations.

Alice in Wonderland has five nominations; The Kids Are All Right and Made in Dagenham have four nominations apiece; and The Fighter, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Toy Story 3 each receive three nominations.

The King’s Speech has been nominated in the categories Best Film, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Make Up & Hair, Original Music, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Sound and Outstanding British Film. Tom Hooper is nominated for Director and Colin Firth is nominated for Leading Actor. His co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush are nominated for Supporting Actress and Supporting Actor.

Black Swan has been nominated for Best Film, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Make Up & Hair, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Sound and Special Visual Effects. Darren Aronofsky is nominated for Director, Natalie Portman for Leading Actress and Barbara Hershey for Supporting Actress.

Inception is nominated for Best Film, Cinematography, Editing, Original Screenplay, Original Music, Production Design, Sound and Special Visual Effects. Christopher Nolan is nominated for Director.

Completing the Best Film line up are The Social Network and True Grit, both of which are also nominated for Adapted Screenplay.

David Fincher is nominated for Director for The Social Network and Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield are nominated in the Leading and Supporting Actor categories, respectively. The film is also nominated for Editing.

True Grit has six further nominations: Cinematography, Costume Design, Production Design and Sound as well as Leading Actor and Leading Actress nominations for Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld.

Danny Boyle is nominated for Director for 127 Hours and the film’s star James Franco is nominated in the Leading Actor category. The film is also nominated in Outstanding British Film, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Original Music and Sound.

Javier Bardem is nominated in the Leading Actor category for Biutiful, which is also nominated for Film Not in the English Language.

Joining Andrew Garfield and Geoffrey Rush in the Supporting Actor category are Christian Bale for The Fighter, Pete Postlethwaite for The Town and Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right.

Mark Ruffalo’s co-stars in The Kids Are All Right, Annette Bening and Julianne Moore, are both nominated in the Leading Actress category. The film is also nominated for Original Screenplay.

Noomi Rapace completes the Leading Actress category, for her performance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which has two further nominations, for Adapted Screenplay and Film Not in the English Language.

In the Supporting Actress category, Amy Adams is nominated for The Fighter, which also has an Original Screenplay nomination. Lesley Manville is nominated for Another Year and Miranda Richardson for Made in Dagenham.

Both Another Year and Made in Dagenham are nominated for Outstanding British Film. Made in Dagenham also has nominations for Costume Design and Make Up & Hair.

Four Lions is nominated for Outstanding British Film and the film’s writer/director Chris Morris is nominated for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. Joining him in that category are: Clio Barnard and Tracy O’Riordan, director and producer of The Arbor; Gareth Edwards, writer/director of Monsters; Nick Whitfield, writer/director of Skeletons; and Jaimie D’Cruz and Banksy, producer and director of Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3 are the nominees in the Animated Film category. Toy Story 3 also has nominations for Adapted Screenplay and Special Visual Effects. How to Train Your Dragon is nominated in the Original Music category.

Alice in Wonderland’s five nominations are for Costume Design, Make Up & Hair, Original Music, Production Design and Special Visual Effects.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 has two nominations: for Make Up & Hair and Special Visual Effects.

I Am Love, Of Gods and Men and The Secret in Their Eyes are nominated in the Film Not in the English Language category alongside Biutiful and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The Short Animation nominations are The Eagleman Stag, Matter Fisher, and Thursday and the Short Film nominations are Connect, LIN, Rite, Turning and Until the River Runs Red.

The nominees for the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award, announced earlier this month, are Gemma Arterton, Andrew Garfield, Tom Hardy, Aaron Johnson and Emma Stone. This audience award is voted for by the British public and presented to an actor or actress who has demonstrated exceptional talent and promise.

The Orange British Academy Film Awards take place on Sunday 13 February at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. This is the fourteenth year of Orange’s sponsorship of the Film Awards.

The ceremony will be hosted for the fifth year by Jonathan Ross and will be broadcast exclusively on BBC One. Red carpet coverage will be hosted by Edith Bowman on BBC Three.


About BAFTA:
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public. In addition to its Awards ceremonies, BAFTA has a year-round Learning & Events programme that offers unique access to some of the world’s most inspiring talent through workshops, masterclasses, lectures and mentoring schemes, connecting with audiences of all ages and backgrounds across the UK, Los Angeles and New York. BAFTA relies on income from membership subscriptions, individual donations, trusts, foundations and corporate partnerships to support its ongoing outreach work. For further information, visit http://www.bafta.org/.