Lupita Nyong'o and Gwendoline Christie Join "Star Wars: Episode VII"

(Lupita Nyong'o (left) and Gwendoline Christie (right); Lupita's photo taken by Alexi Lubomiski for Lancome.)

Star Wars: Episode VII Adds Academy Award Winner Lupita Nyong'o and Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie

June 02, 2014 - Lupita Nyong'o joins the recently announced cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. This year, her breakthrough performance in 12 Years a Slave earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Gwendoline Christie, currently starring in the hit television series "Game of Thrones" as "Brienne of Tarth," has also been cast in the production. She can next be seen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2.

"I could not be more excited about Lupita and Gwendoline joining the cast of Episode VII," says Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. "It's thrilling to see this extraordinarily talented ensemble taking shape."

Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the Saga:  Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film.

Star Wars: Episode VII is being directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and Abrams. Kathleen Kennedy, Abrams, and Bryan Burk are producing and John Williams returns as the composer. The movie opens worldwide on December 18, 2015.

"Dracula Untold" Hits IMAX Theatres Starting October 2, 2014

Universal Pictures' Dracula Untold(TM) To Be Released Into IMAX® Theatres Worldwide Starting Oct. 2

LOS ANGELES, May 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IMAX Corporation (NYSE: IMAX; TSX: IMX) and Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), and Legendary Pictures today announced that Dracula Untold, the  origin story of the man who became Dracula, starring Luke Evans (Fast & Furious 6, Immortals), will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX(®) format and released into IMAX(®) theatres internationally starting Oct. 2 and in North America beginning Oct. 17.

Gary Shore directs and Michael De Luca produces this epic action-adventure that co-stars Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Diarmaid Murtagh and Samantha Barks.

"Dracula is perhaps the most iconic horror story ever told, and this new twist on this classic tale is sure to appeal to IMAX audiences around the world," said Greg Foster, CEO of IMAX Entertainment and Senior Executive Vice President, IMAX Corp. "We're excited to have the opportunity to once again partner with the terrific team at Universal and our long time collaborators at Legendary as we present this exciting film in IMAX."

The IMAX release of Dracula Untold will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience(®) with proprietary IMAX DMR(®) (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images, coupled with IMAX's customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio, create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.

About IMAX Corporation
IMAX, an innovator in entertainment technology, combines proprietary software, architecture and equipment to create experiences that take you beyond the edge of your seat to a world you've never imagined. Top filmmakers and studios are utilizing IMAX theatres to connect with audiences in extraordinary ways, and, as such, IMAX's network is among the most important and successful theatrical distribution platforms for major event films around the globe.

IMAX is headquartered in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles, with offices in London, Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing.  As of March 31, 2014, there were 840 IMAX theatres (707 commercial multiplexes, 18 commercial destinations and 115 institutions) in 57 countries.

IMAX®, IMAX® 3D, IMAX DMR®, Experience It In IMAX®, An IMAX 3D Experience®, The IMAX Experience®, IMAX Is Believing® and IMAXnXos® are trademarks of IMAX Corporation. More information about the Company can be found at www.imax.com. You may also connect with IMAX on Facebook (www.facebook.com/imax), Twitter (www.twitter.com/imax) and YouTube(www.youtube.com/imaxmovies).

This press release contains forward looking statements that are based on IMAX management's assumptions and existing information and involve certain risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in IMAX's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

Review: "X-Men: Days of Future Past" - Why So Serious?

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 28 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Running time:  131 minutes (2 hours, 11 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi violence and action, some suggestive material, nudity and language
DIRECTOR:  Bryan Singer
WRITERS:  Simon Kinberg; from a story by Jane Goldman, Simon Kinberg, and Matthew Vaughn 
PRODUCERS:  Hutch Parker, Simon Kinberg, Lauren Shuler Donner, and Bryan Singer
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Newton Thomas Sigel
EDITOR/COMPOSER:  John Ottman

SUPERHERO/SCI-FI/ACTION/DRAMA

Starring:  Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Halle Berry, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, Daniel Cudmore, Bingbing Fan, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Evan Peters, Josh Helman, and Anna Paquin

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a 2014 superhero movie from director Bryan Singer.  It is 20th Century Fox’s seventh film based Marvel Comics’ X-Men comic book franchise.  This new movie is a sequel to 2011’s X-Men: First Class and a kind of sequel to 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand.  X-Men: Days of Future Past finds the X-Men of the future sending one of their own into past in a desperate effort to change history and to prevent the destruction of the world for both humans and mutants.

The film opens (apparently) sometime in the third decade of the 21st century.  By this time, mutant-hunting machines called Sentinels have wiped out nearly all mutants and also the humans that supported them.  The last of the X-Men are about to make a desperate bid to change their apocalyptic future.  Charles Xavier/Professor X (Patrick Stewart) concocts a plan that sends the mind of Logan/The Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back into the past and into the body of his younger self in the year 1973.

In 1973, Logan must contact the younger Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and convince him that they must stop Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from committing an assassination that will lead to the creation of the Sentinels.  However, Wolverine finds that the younger Charles is a mess.  Xavier wants no part of his future self’s plan, especially when he discovers that he must cooperate with Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender), his dear friend-turned-bitter enemy.

Released in 2011, X-Men: First Class was a combination prequel to the original film, X-Men (2000), and a partial reboot of the franchise.  First Class was sparkly, fun, energetic, and even a bit sexy.  X-Men: Days of Future Past is ponderous and takes both its subject matter and its plot way too seriously.  I liked the film, but I only really enjoyed certain moments and a few characters.

Jennifer Lawrence is fantastic as Mystique, making the character’s emotions, mission, and anger seem real.  Nicholas Hoult is poignant as Hank McCoy/Beast; so much of his performance is restrained.  Hoult makes the most of subtle facial expressions, and his expressive eyes convey Beast in a way that gives him weight and depth.

What this film lacks is gravitas.  Days of Future Past pretends to be important serious because it metaphorically or symbolically deals with serious and important real world issues.  However, the movie is tedious instead of being weighty in any meaningful a way.  It is as if this film has so much to cover that it almost ends up sinking under the burden of its moralizing via multiple points of view, characters, and competing timelines.

In fact, after seeing Days of Future Past, I realized that Wolverine is not particularly consequential to the plot, or at least the screenplay does not make him seem so.  For what the character does, just about any other X-Men could have made that trip into the past.  [In The X-Men comic book story, “Days of the Future Past,” upon which this movie is based, Kitty Pryde travels into the past – the year 1983.]  I read a review of this movie in which the writer said that this was a movie about Mystique and Wolverine.  In a way, this movie is indeed most about what Mystique wants, and the movie would be better off if it stayed with Mystique longer than it actually does.

Although I like it, X-Men: Days of Future Past is my least favorite X-Men movie.  I found the future Sentinels particularly scary and chilling, and Evan Peters as Quicksilver is a blast.  Of all the X-Men movies, it has the best production values and the best special effects.  It is, however, full of sound and fury, and even in the universe of X-Men movies, it does not signify much of anything.

5 of 10
B-

Saturday, May 31, 2014


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How to Train Your Negromancer, Too (June 2014)

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Negromancer News Bits and Bites for Saturday, May 31, 2014

The Washington Post began the walk back on Ann Hornaday's May 25th column/rant that blamed in part the recent Isla Vista massacre on the films like those made by Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow.  Hornaday responded to the controversy of her original column.

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Actor Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) will apparently play Thanos in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (due August 1, 2014).

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Apparently, Quentin Tarantino left enough of Django Unchained on the cutting room floor that he wants to re-edit the film:

“My idea, frankly, is to cut together a four-hour version of 'Django Unchained,'” he said on Friday. “But I wouldn’t show it like a four-hour movie. I would cut it up into hour chapters. Like a four-part miniseries. And show it on cable television. Show it like an hour at a time, each chapter.”

Tarantino won a best original screenplay Oscar for the film.  More at Variety.

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Monsters and Godzilla director Gareth Edwards has apparently signed on to direct one of Walt Disney's Star Wars spinoff films.  Garry Whitta (Book of Eli) is writing the script for the spinoff.  Which spinoff: no one knows.

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Edgar Wright has apparently left Marvel's Ant-Man movie.

The directors interviewing to replace Wright are Rawson Marshall Thurber (We're the Millers), Adam McKay (the Anchorman movies), and Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland)

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Bunny Yeager, the pin-up model turned photographer, died Sunday, May 25, 2014.  She was 85.  This New York Times obituary gives an overview of her life and work.  Yeager famously photographed pin-up queen, Bettie Page, in a leopard-print swimsuit.  I recently reviewed the documentary, Bettie Page Reveals All, which has a segment on the Page-Yeager combination.

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Herb Jeffries was a pioneering actor in Westerns that were targeted at African-America.  Best known as the "Bronze Buckaroo," Jeffries died Sunday, May 25, 2014,  He was 100-years-old.

Review: Ken Watanabe Carries "Letters from Iwo Jima" (Happy B'day, Clint Eastwood)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 99 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA; Languages:  Japanese/English
Running time:  140 minutes (2 hours, 20 minutes)
MPAA – R for graphic war violence
DIRECTOR:  Clint Eastwood
WRITERS:  Iris Yamashita; story by Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis (based upon the book Picture Letters from Commander in Chief by Tadamichi Kuribayashi and Tsuyoko Yoshido)
PRODUCERS:  Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Lorenz
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Tom Stern
EDITORS:  Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach
COMPOSERS: Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens
2007 Academy Award winner

WAR/DRAMA

Starring:  Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, Shido Nakamura, Hiroshi Watanabe, Takumi Bando, Yuki Matsuzaki, and Luke Eberl

The subject of this movie review is Letters from Iwo Jima, a 2006 war film from director Clint Eastwood.  Set during World War II, the film is almost entirely in the Japanese language and tells the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers.  Eastwood also makes contributions to the film’s score which was created by his son, Kyle Eastwood, and Michael Stevens.

Letters from Iwo Jima is director Clint Eastwood’s companion piece to his film, Flags of our Fathers.  The films form a two-part examination of the ordinary men who fought on both sides of World War II during the crucial battle for a small island.

As tens of thousands of Allied troops storm Iwo Jima, Japanese General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) knows his men are outnumbered, running low on supplies, and have no hope of troop support or even rescue.  The Japanese troops prepare to meet their fate – to die in battle or to die by their own hands.  Gen. Kuribayashi and a soldier named Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) often pass the time writing letters to their wives, although they realize that the letters may never reach mainland Japan.

Eastwood directs Letters from Iwo Jima with stark simplicity that makes even its bloodiness seem eloquent and the drama never heavy-handed.  For a war picture, Letters from Iwo Jima is surprisingly both quiet and thoughtful.  Even the battle scenes come across as a time for reflection.  If there are still any doubts about Clint Eastwood as a talented director who has the ability to weave intimate character dramas, then, Letters from Iwo Jima should put that hogwash to rest.

Eastwood is also quite good at directing actors and getting strong dramatic turns from both his leads and his supporting cast.  Letters’ cast is strong, but Kazunari Ninomiya and Ken Watanabe stand out, in particularly the latter.  Watanabe has a regal air about him, but there is substance in all his performances.  He’s old Hollywood – a “face,” but he also has the dramatic chops to bury himself in characters and bring them to life.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards:  1 win for “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman); 3 nominations for “Best Picture of the Year” (Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Lorenz), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Clint Eastwood), and “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Iris Yamashita-screenplay/story and Paul Haggis-story)

2007 Golden Globes:  1 win for “Best Foreign Language Film” and 1 nomination: “Best Director-Motion Picture” (Clint Eastwood)

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Updated: Saturday, May 31, 2014


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