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Wednesday, September 5, 2012
First Look: Chris Pine and Kevin Costner in "Jack Ryan"
Photo credit: David Lee
First look at Kevin Costner (far right) as a legendary CIA Field Agent with Chris Pine (center) in JACK RYAN, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions, currently shooting in downtown Manhattan. The Prequel will be out Christmas Day 2013.
(c) 2012 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
David Chase's "Not Fade Away" Screens for 50th New York Film Festival
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that David Chase’s NOT FADE AWAY will make its World Premiere on Saturday, October 6 as the Centerpiece Gala selection for the 50th New York Film Festival (September 28-October 14).
Making his feature directing debut, David Chase’s (The Sopranos) coming-of-age movie is set in New Jersey in 1964 where a group of friends are inspired to form their own rock band fronted by a gifted singer-songwriter (terrific newcomer John Magaro). The film masterfully captures the era’s conflicting attitudes and ideologies, all set to a dynamic soundtrack produced by the legendary Steven Van Zandt. The film also stars Jack Huston, Will Brill, Bella Heathcote, James Gandolfini, Brad Garrett and Christopher McDonald. To be released by Paramount Vantage, the film’s roll-out will begin on December 21, 2012.
Rose Kuo, Executive Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, said, “It's a privilege to welcome David Chase to the New York Film Festival with his feature film debut. NOT FADE AWAY's fun, music-infused world created by Chase offers an endearing and complex portrait of a young man's coming-of-age in the 60s and features terrific work by an ensemble cast of exciting new talent.”
Chase said, “NOT FADE AWAY is a personal film with a backdrop very important to me, a period in American music that was one of the best. To have the film debut at the NYFF exceeds my wildest dreams and the dreams of everyone associated with the movie. So many of my favorite films have been revealed to the public at the NYFF. I'm honored and thrilled.”
The 17-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring top films from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. The selection committee, chaired by Peña also includes: Melissa Anderson, Contributor, Village Voice; Scott Foundas, Associate Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center; Todd McCarthy, Chief Film Critic, The Hollywood Reporter; and Amy Taubin, Contributing Editor, Film Comment and Sight and Sound.
The New York Film Festival is generously sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, HBO, WABC, Trump International Hotel and Tower, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts.
General Public tickets will be available September 9th. There will be an advance ticketing opportunity for Film Society of Lincoln Center Patrons and Members prior to that date. For more information visit www.Filmlinc.com/NYFF or call 212 875 5601.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Richard Peña, Program Director, the Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, currently planning its 50th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award—now named “The Chaplin Award”—to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. The Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational programs and specialty film releases at its Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.
The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow #filmlinc on Twitter.
The Amazing Spider-Man's Stan Lee and John Romita at 2012 Baltimore Comic-Con
Limited edition print available for purchase by VIP and VIP GOLD Ticket Holders
The Baltimore Comic-Con has announced that John Romita Sr. will join Stan Lee for his panel, to be held Saturday afternoon, September 8th at 4:30pm. John is appearing on behalf of the Hero Initiative.
Best known for his work at Marvel Comics on the Amazing Spider-Man, John began working for the company at Atlas Comics in the 1950s on war, romance, horror, and other genres. He freelanced at DC Comics in the mid-1950s on romance titles and cover art, eventually leaving to work as a commercial artist before being lured back to Marvel full time where he spent time working on Daredevil, Fantastic Four, and eventually his long run on Amazing Spider-Man, defining for many the look of the Spider-Man characters.
In addition, Stan Lee Collectibles announced that they will have a limited edition poster for sale at the show. A small number of these limited edition posters have been reserved for VIP and VIP GOLD ticket holders to ensure they are able to purchase one. Limited quantities are available for purchase by attendees. The posters may be purchased at booth 1507-1508 on the showroom floor.
Stan's Appearance Schedule while at the Baltimore Comic-Con:
Saturday (times are approximate)
10:30 -12:00 - SIGNING
12:30 - 1:30 - PHOTOS
2:00 - 3:30 - SIGNING
3:45 - 4:25 - PHOTOS
4:30 - 5:30 - PANEL
5:45 - TBD - SIGNING
Sunday (times are approximate)
10:00 - 11:00 - PHOTOS
11:00 - 12:00 - SIGNING
1:00 - 4:00 - SIGNING & PHOTOS - EXACT TIMES TBD
The Hero Initiative is a federally charted not-for-profit corporation dedicated to helping comic book creators in their hour on need. By providing financial safety nets for medical aid, financial support for the necessities of life, and an avenue back to paying work, the Hero Initiative, through the support of its donors, has been able to grant more than $500,000 to over 50 comic veterans.
For more information about how to help support the Hero Initiative, please visit www.heroinitiative.org.
About The Baltimore Comic-Con
The Baltimore Comic-Con is celebrating its 13th year of bringing the comic book industry to the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. With a guest list unequaled in the industry, the Baltimore Comic-Con will be held September 8-9, 2012. For more information, please visit www.baltimorecomiccon.com.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
First Look: Chris Pine as Jack Ryan in 2013's "Jack Ryan"
(Photo by David Lee of Chris Pine from the set of "Jack Ryan." (c) 2012 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.)
Chris Pine plays young Jack Ryan, cruising the downtown streets of Manhattan for JACK RYAN, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. The Prequel will be out Christmas Day 2013.
I did not know that Paramont had put into production another Jack Ryan movie. The character, which was created by novelist Tom Clancy, has appeared in the films Hunt for Red October (played by Alec Baldwin), Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger (played by Harrison Ford), and Sum of All Fears (played by Ben Affleck). Now, comes a prequel to all those stories with Chris Pine as a strapping young Ryan.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Actor Michael Clarke Duncan Dies at 54
CNN.com and The Wrap have obituaries.
Duncan is probably best known for his appearance in the 1999 Frank Darabont film, The Green Mile, for which he earned Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. Duncan played John Coffey, a man wrongly convicted of rape and murder. Coffey had supernatural powers in his hands that allowed him to heal and to even bring back the dead, and he strikes up a friendship with the character played by Tom Hanks, Paul Edgecomb. Duncan also appeared in four films starring Bruce Willis, who became Duncan's friend after the two appeared in the 1998 blockbuster, Armageddon.
Negromancer offers ours condolences to Michael Clarke Duncan's family and friends. Rest in peace, Mr. Duncan.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
"We're the Millers" Begins Filming with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis
Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis star under the direction of Rawson Marshall Thurber
BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Principal photography is underway on New Line Cinema’s action comedy “We’re The Millers,” starring Jennifer Aniston (“Horrible Bosses”) and Jason Sudeikis (“The Campaign”). The film is directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (“Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story”).
David Burke (Sudeikis) is a small-time pot dealer whose clientele includes chefs and soccer moms, but no kids—after all, he has his scruples. So what could go wrong? Plenty. Preferring to keep a low profile for obvious reasons, he learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished when he tries to help out some local teens and winds up getting jumped by a trio of gutter punks. Stealing his stash and his cash, they leave him in major debt to his supplier, Brad (Ed Helms).
In order to wipe the slate clean—and maintain a clean bill of health—David must now become a big-time drug smuggler by bringing Brad’s latest shipment in from Mexico. Twisting the arms of his neighbors, cynical stripper Rose (Aniston) and wannabe customer Kenny (Will Poulter), and the tatted-and-pierced streetwise teen Casey (Emma Roberts), he devises a foolproof plan. One fake wife, two pretend kids and a huge, shiny RV later, the “Millers” are headed south of the border for a Fourth of July weekend that is sure to end with a bang.
Thurber directs “We’re The Millers” from a screenplay by Steve Faber & Bob Fisher (“Wedding Crashers”) and Sean Anders & John Morris (“Hot Tub Time Machine”). The film also stars Emma Roberts (“The Art of Getting By”), Nick Offerman (“21 Jump Street”), Kathryn Hahn (“The Dictator”), Will Poulter (“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”) and Ed Helms (the “Hangover” films).
Vincent Newman, Tucker Tooley, Happy Walters and Chris Bender are the producers, with David Heyman, J.C. Spink and Marcus Viscidi serving as executive producers.
Thurber’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Barry Peterson (“21 Jump Street”); production designer Clayton Hartley (“The Other Guys”); editor Mike Sale (“The Hangover Part II”); and costume designer Shay Cunliffe (“The Bourne Legacy”).
Shot on location in North Carolina and New Mexico, New Line Cinema’s “We’re The Millers” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
Review: "A Scanner Darkly" is Amazing (Happy B'day, Keanu Reeves)
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 166 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – R for drug and sexual content, language, and a brief violent image
DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
WRITER: Richard Linklater (based upon the novel by Philip K. Dick)
PRODUCERS: Tommy Pallotta, Jonah Smith, Erwin Stoff, Anne Walker-McBay, and Palmer West
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Shane F. Kelly
EDITOR: Sandra Adair
COMPOSER: Graham Reynolds
SCI-FI/DRAMA/MYSTERY
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Jr., Woody Harrelson, Rory Cochrane, Winona Ryder, Chamblee Ferguson, and Angela Rawna
The subject of this movie review is A Scanner Darkly, a 2006 science fiction thriller and animated film from director Richard Linklater. The film is based on the 1977 Philip K. Dick novel of the same title, and George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh are among its executive producers.
In a future world (“7 years from now” the movie tells us) where drug addiction is rampant, law enforcement will do anything to catch dealers and their suppliers – even turn one of their own into an addict. Fred (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover agent who spies on (or “scans”) a drug addict and dealer named Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves). Through this assignment Fred becomes hooked on Substance D, a hallucinogenic drug that is as destructive as meth is in our own times. However, this tale has a twist on reality for us. Fred is also Bob. Fred finds his sanity splintered as he deals with his duplicitous law enforcement superiors, and, as Bob, with the two addicts who are his housemates: the shaggy dopester, Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrelson), and the conniving James Barris (Robert Downey, Jr.). Barris turns stool pigeon and joins Fred and his superiors in a complicated scheme to catch Bob and tear down Bob’s drug operation. Meanwhile, Bob has fallen in love with another addict, Donna Hawthorne (Winona Ryder), but there may be more to her than meets the eye.
Richard Linklater’s trippy sci-fi film, A Scanner Darkly, is an animated film, but not the kind we usually think of (Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Warner Bros., etc.). For this movie, Linklater shot live-action footage of his cast and the sets. Animators then took that footage and painstakingly drew and painted over it – a process known as “interpolated rotoscoping” or simply “rotoscoping.” There was some rotoscoping in early Disney animated features, possibly Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (the animators animated Snow White by drawing her over footage of a live actress). Linklater used this process in his 2001 experimental film, Waking Life. Here, it’s like watching a film in which the characters, objects, places, and settings are all shifting liquids – living paint-by-numbers pastels.
As for the quality of the rotoscoping in A Scanner Darkly on the performances, the cast largely looks like themselves, and the audience will certainly recognize the bigger names here: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Jr., and Woody Harrelson. Only Winona Ryder seems less like herself, at least until the end, and that may have been a deliberate choice on the part of Linklater. The technique serves the actors quiet well. They seem lively and free to be someone other than their famous selves, even Reeves who can be a bit stiff. It’s the kind of freedom that comes from wearing a masking, and in a sense, knowing that film recording of your performance will be painted over is like acting with a mask.
As for the narrative, A Scanner Darkly is trippy, but Linklater has captured the paranoia and schizophrenia of Dick’s work on screen like no one has ever done before. That’s saying a lot considering that Dick’s short stories have become films such as Total Recall, Minority Report, and Paycheck, and one of his novels became the film, Blade Runner. Published in 1977, Dick’s novel is a sci-fi allegorical recount of his drug experiences going back to the 1960’s, and it’s one of his most beloved works. I’m happy that Linklater was able to make his own film while retaining so much of PKD’s lunacy.
Here, it’s fun to wonder who is really who and if what’s going on is “real” or just drug-induced fantasies or simply paranoia. Linklater adds a counter-culture, post-millennium vibe all his own. The narrative gets a bit soft and slow in the middle and at the beginning of the last act, but otherwise Linklater’s experiment reaches for perfection. This is like watching his classic mid-90’s flick, Dazed and Confused with a David Lynch remix and backbeats from Requiem for a Dream. Occasionally maddening, sometimes confusing, rarely stupefying, A Scanner Darkly is an experimentalist art film that succeeds on the very path the filmmaker set for it.
9 of 10
A+
Friday, August 4, 2006
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