Barry Levinson's "The Humbling" to Premiere at 2014 Austin Film Festival

Austin Film Festival’s Opening Night Selections to Include Richard LaGravenese Presenting The Last 5 Years and the US Premiere of The Humbling

Jon Stewart and Maziar Bahari to Present Rosewater as 2014 Closing Night Film

Edward Zwick to Receive “Extraordinary Contribution to Film” Award

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Austin Film Festival (October 23-30), the premier film festival recognizing writers’ and filmmakers’ contributions to film, television and new media, released their 2014 Opening Night and Closing Night selections, their Extraordinary Contribution to Film Award Recipient, and new programming announcements.

The Opening Night Film will feature the US Premiere of Barry Levinson’s The Humbling on Thursday, October 23rd, based on the Philip Roth novel, starring Al Pacino and Greta Gerwig.

Also kicking off AFF’s 21st anniversary, writer/director Richard LaGravenese will present the Jason Robert Brown musical adaptation of The Last 5 Years starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan.

Jon Stewart and Maziar Bahari will present Stewart's directorial debut, Rosewater, as the Closing Night Selection on Thursday, October 30th.

Edward Zwick will accept the Extraordinary Contribution to Film Award at the 2014 Austin Film Festival Awards Luncheon, held at the Austin Club. Previous honorees have included Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Danny Boyle, Oliver Stone, Sydney Pollack, and John Lasseter.

Zwick’s directorial credits feature About Last Night, Courage Under Fire, The Siege, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, Defiance and Love & Other Drugs, and the Academy® Award winning films Glory and Legends of the Fall. Producing credits include I Am Sam, Traffic, and Shakespeare in Love. Zwick most recently directed and produced Pawn Sacrifice.

Luke Wilson joins the 2014 Retrospective series, presenting The Pope of Greenwich Village alongside his short film Satellite Beach, which he wrote, directed, and starred in.

Scott Haze will present The Sound and the Fury, James Franco’s adaptation of the William Faulkner novel.

Austin Film Festival’s annual staged script-reading will feature the comedy Flarsky, by Dan Sterling (writer The Office, Girls, The Interview) in a live event co-presented by The Black List on Sunday, October 26th.

The full Film and Conference schedule is live on the AFF website, www.austinfilmfestival.com.

ABOUT AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL:
AFF is funded and supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts, City of Austin Economic Growth & Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future. Badges and passes are available for purchase online at www.austinfilmfestival.com or by calling 1-800-310-FEST.

AFF’s 2014 partnerships include Austin Film Society (in association with Rosewater), AGLIFF, OnStory, Texas Book Festival, Harry Ransom Center, Houston Cinema Arts Society, The New Movement, The Wittliff Collections, and many more.

"Interstellar" Gets an Early IMAX Release - Wednesday, November 5th, 2014

Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” on Film November 5th, Two Days Before Its Wide Release

Tickets Are Now on Sale

HOLLYWOOD--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures today announced that the highly anticipated “INTERSTELLAR” from Christopher Nolan will be released in 70mm IMAX® film, 70mm film and 35mm film formats on Wednesday, November 5th, two days ahead of its nationwide release. The advance showings will play in select theaters in more than 225 locations across the U.S. and Canada.

    “From IMAX to traditional film and digital projection, we are pleased that audiences will have the opportunity to see this awe-inspiring film in a wide variety of formats and we are very excited to be making the film available 2-days early for moviegoers.”

“To see Christopher Nolan’s ‘INTERSTELLAR’ on the big screen is an unforgettable movie going experience,” said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman of Paramount Pictures. “From IMAX to traditional film and digital projection, we are pleased that audiences will have the opportunity to see this awe-inspiring film in a wide variety of formats and we are very excited to be making the film available 2-days early for moviegoers."

“INTERSTELLAR” was shot using a combination of 35mm anamorphic film and 65mm IMAX film to maximize the crispness and clarity of the image and give the audience a truly cinematic and immersive experience. These advance engagements highlight those theaters presenting “INTERSTELLAR” in its native formats.

On Wednesday, November 5th, 2014, “INTERSTELLAR” opens in the following film formats:

- Select IMAX theaters will be offering The IMAX Experience® featuring 15 perf/70mm film projection which combines the brightest, clearest images at almost 10 times the resolution of standard projection formats, with powerful, laser-aligned digital sound and customized theatre geometry to create the world's most immersive movie experience. Select sequences will expand to fill the entire screen and will deliver unprecedented crispness and clarity.

- INTERSTELLAR in the 70mm film format offers brighter, clearer image, with three times the resolution of standard projection formats, using the process of projecting light through celluloid to deliver clear images in rich analog color with state-of-the-art digital sound.

- The 35mm film presentations project light through the 35mm frame to deliver clear, high resolution images with rich analog color combined with state-of-the-art digital sound in most locations.

Tickets for these advance showings on November 5th are available today at https://interstellar.withgoogle.com and at participating theater box offices. Tickets are also available for the nationwide release on Friday, November 7th, 2014, when “INTERSTELLAR” opens in theaters everywhere including its digital engagements:

- IMAX digital projection uses dual projectors with sub-pixel alignment to produce clear, high contrast images with powerful, laser-aligned digital sound and customized theatre geometry, creating the world's most immersive digital movie experience. Select sequences will expand to fill the entire screen.

- The film in 4K digital projection produces a clear, bright, high resolution image with absolute stability and cleanliness, combined with uncompressed digital sound for a powerful movie-going experience.

- Digital projection presents a clear, bright, stable image that never degrades in terms of cleanliness or fidelity and uses uncompressed digital sound for a powerful movie-going experience.

“INTERSTELLAR” stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow and Michael Caine. With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history; traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars. Directed by Christopher Nolan, written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, and produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Lynda Obst.

About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA) (NASDAQ: VIAB), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.

About Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures meets worldwide tastes and demands with a diverse mix of filmed entertainment and is a global leader in the marketing and distribution of feature films. The International Division operates offices in 24 countries and releases films in over 125 international territories, either directly to theaters or in conjunction with partner companies and co-ventures. Internationally, the Studio has been the market leader in six of the last 13 years, having surpassed $1 billion in grosses a total of 15 years, 12 of which were consecutive years, and crossed $2 billion five times, including 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

A Negromancer October 2014

Happy Halloween 2014!  It's October 2014!  Welcome to Negromancer 2.0.  This is the rebirth of Negromancer, the former movie review website as a new movie review and movie news site.

All images and text appearing on this blog are © copyright and/or trademark their respective owners.

"Magic Mike" Sequel Begins Production; Due July 1st, 2015

“Magic Mike XXL” Takes Center Stage

Production on Sequel Begins September 29 with Returning Cast, Plus New Stars, for Director Gregory Jacobs

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“Magic Mike” stars Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash, Adam Rodriguez and Gabriel Iglesias are reuniting for the hotly anticipated sequel “Magic Mike XXL,” beginning production on September 29th, for director Gregory Jacobs. The announcement was made today by Greg Silverman, President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production, and Sue Kroll, President of Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

    “‘Magic Mike’ was a tremendous crowd-pleaser, scoring with critics and audiences across the board. We look forward to continuing the magic with so many of the talented individuals who made that film such a success—both in front of and behind the camera—and welcome these wonderful additions to the cast.”

Joining the returning cast, in brand new roles, will be Elizabeth Banks (“The Hunger Games” franchise), Donald Glover (“Community”), Amber Heard (“The Rum Diary”), Andie MacDowell (“Footloose”), Jada Pinkett Smith (“Gotham”) and Michael Strahan (“Live with Kelly and Michael”).

“Magic Mike XXL” is set for release on Wednesday, July 1, 2015.

The new film will be directed and produced by Emmy Award winner Gregory Jacobs (“Behind the Candelabra”), who served as a producer on “Magic Mike,” as well as numerous features in a long-running collaboration with Steven Soderbergh. “Magic Mike XXL” also reunites “Magic Mike” producers Nick Wechsler, Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin, with a screenplay by Carolin. Steven Soderbergh, who directed the first film, will executive produce.

Picking up the story three years after Mike bowed out of the stripper life at the top of his game, “Magic Mike XXL” finds the remaining Kings of Tampa likewise ready to throw in the towel. But they want to do it their way: burning down the house in one last blow-out performance in Myrtle Beach, and with legendary headliner Magic Mike sharing the spotlight with them. On the road to their final show, with whistle stops in Jacksonville and Savannah to renew old acquaintances and make new friends, Mike and the guys learn some new moves and shake off the past in surprising ways.

In making the announcement, Silverman said, “‘Magic Mike’ was a tremendous crowd-pleaser, scoring with critics and audiences across the board. We look forward to continuing the magic with so many of the talented individuals who made that film such a success—both in front of and behind the camera—and welcome these wonderful additions to the cast.”

Stated Kroll, “‘Magic Mike’ delighted audiences everywhere with a fun and fascinating glimpse into a world few people ever see, becoming both a critical and commercial triumph. We’re thrilled to bring these memorable characters back to the big screen, along with some exciting new ones, in a story that will take them even further.”

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Emma Watson's United Nations Speech "We Want to End Gender Inequality..."

(photographic image is courtesy of UN Women.)

From The Huffington Post and Reader Supported News:

The following is an unedited version of the speech delivered by Emma Watson, the British actor and UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, at the launch of the UN Women's "HeForShe" Campaign on Saturday, September 20, 2014, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

'We Want to End Gender Inequality - And to Do That We Need Everyone to Be Involved'
By Emma Watson, Reader Supported News

Today we are launching a campaign called HeForShe.

I am reaching out to you because I need your help. We want to end gender inequality - and to do that we need everyone to be involved.

This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN: we want to try and galvanise as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality. And we don't just want to talk about it, but make sure it is tangible.

I was appointed six months ago and the more I have spoken about feminism the more I have realised that fighting for women's rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.

For the record, feminism by definition is: "The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes."

I started questioning gender-based assumptions when at eight I was confused at being called "bossy," because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents - but the boys were not.

When at 14 I started being sexualised by certain elements of the press.

When at 15 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn't want to appear "muscly."

When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings.

I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.

Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.

Why is the word such an uncomfortable one?

I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights.

No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality.

These rights I consider to be human rights but I am one of the lucky ones. My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn't love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn't assume I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influencers were the gender equality ambassadors that made who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists who are. And we need more of those. And if you still hate the word - it is not the word that is important but the idea and the ambition behind it. Because not all women have been afforded the same rights that I have. In fact, statistically, very few have been.

In 1997, Hilary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women's rights. Sadly many of the things she wanted to change are still a reality today.

But what stood out for me the most was that only 30 per cent of her audience were male. How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?

Men - I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too.

Because to date, I've seen my father's role as a parent being valued less by society despite my needing his presence as a child as much as my mother's.

I've seen young men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make them look less "macho" - in fact in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49; eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. I've seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don't have the benefits of equality either.

We don't often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that that they are and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence.

If men don't have to be aggressive in order to be accepted women won't feel compelled to be submissive. If men don't have to control, women won't have to be controlled.

Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong... It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideals.

If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we are - can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. It's about freedom.

I want men to take up this mantle. So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too - reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves.

You might be thinking who is this Harry Potter girl? And what is she doing up on stage at the UN. It's a good question and trust me I have been asking myself the same thing. I don't know if I am qualified to be here. All I know is that I care about this problem. And I want to make it better.

And having seen what I've seen - and given the chance - I feel it is my duty to say something. English statesman Edmund Burke said: "All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing."

In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt I've told myself firmly - if not me, who, if not now, when. If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you I hope those words might be helpful.

Because the reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children. And at current rates it won't be until 2086 before all rural African girls will be able to receive a secondary education.

If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists I spoke of earlier. And for this I applaud you.

We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen to speak up, To be the he for she. And to ask yourself if not me, who, if not now when.

Thank you.

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Review: "The Act of Killing" Delves into Mass Murder and Mass Murderers

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 44 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Act of Killing (2012)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Denmark/Norway/UK
Running time:  122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Joshua Oppenheimer with Christine Cynn and Anonymous
PRODUCERS:  Christine Cynn, Anne Kohncke,Signe Byrge Sorense, Joram ten Brink, Michael Uwemedimo, and Anonymous
CINEMATOGRAPHERS:  Carlos Arango De Montis, Lars Skree, and Anonymous
EDITORS:  Niels Pagh Andersen, Erik Andersson, Charlotte Munch Bengtsen, Ariadna Fatjo-Vilas Mestre, Janus Billeskov Jansen, and Mariko Montpetit
Academy Award nominee

DOCUMENTARY – History

Starring:  Anwar Congo, Herman Koto, Ibrahim Sinik, Yapto Soerjosomarno, Adi Zulkadry, Soaduon Siregar, and Sakhyan Asmara

The Act of Killing is a 2012 documentary film from director Joshua Oppenheimer.  A co-production of Denmark, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the film concerns the Indonesian killings of 1965-66.  In The Act of Killing,  former Indonesian death-squad leaders reenact the mass-killings in which they participated by imitating their favorite Hollywood films.  Acclaimed filmmakers, Werner Herzog and Oscar-winner Errol Morris, are executive producers of this film.

The genesis of the story told by The Act of Killing began in Indonesia in October 1965.  There is an intra-military dispute that leads to a failed coup.  The army overthrows the government.  It then uses paramilitaries and gangsters to form death squads to lead an anti-communist purge of Indonesia.  Anyone opposed to the new government could be accused of being a communist, and that included union members, landless farmers, intellectuals, and ethnic Chinese (according the the film's foreword).

From 1965 to 1966, death squads killed people, numbering in the hundreds of thousands.  The Act of Killing's director, Joshua Oppenheimer, places the number of deaths between one to three million people.  An accurate count of the actual number of deaths may never be known.

Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn began researching the Indonesian killings of 1965-66 over a decade ago.  Eventually, interviews Oppenheimer conducted led him to Anwar Congo, who had been a “movie theater gangster,” selling black market movie theater tickets to popular Hollywood films showing in Indonesia.  Congo and his partner, Adi Zulkadry, were promoted from gangsters to leaders of one of the most powerful death squads in the North Sumatra region of Indonesia.

Invited by Oppenheimer, Congo and his friends, especially a man named Herman Koto, recount and reenact their experiences killing people for the cameras.  The idea is to turn their memories into a movie in which scenes of torture and murder mimic their favorite Hollywood films.  However, the more he recollects his murderous deeds, the more Anwar is haunted by nightmares and guilt.

The word “shocking” is overused, but The Act of Killing is shocking.  The matter-of-fact and nonchalant way in which the death squad killers recall their murderous work can be off-putting.  The film takes the concept of the banality of evil and makes it mind-numbing.  The Hollywood-style reenactments of interrogation, torture, and murder are a collision of the absurd and the god-awful that could lead the audience to eye-rolling... that is when they aren't being repulsed and infuriated.

The problem for The Act of Killing is that after an hour of watching, all these recollections of the acts of killing become tedious.  At just over two hours in length, The Act of Killing is about a half-hour too long.  Honestly, I can see why some people think of this as a great film.  I think it tells a hugely important story, and the result is harrowing and intense.  I think it is an exceptional film and an important document (as far as documentaries go), but is it truly great? ... not quite.

8 of 10
A

Friday, September 26, 2014

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.


NOTES:
2014 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen)

2014 BAFTA Awards:  1 win: “Best Documentary” (Joshua Oppenheimer); 1 nomination: “Best Film not in the English Language” (Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen)

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Negromancer News Bits and Bites for the Week of September 21st to September 27th, 2014 - Update #16

NEWS:

From YahooTV:  Information about some of the characters in the still-in-development Walking Dead spinoff.

From YahooCelebrity: George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin today, Saturday, September 27, 2014, in Italy.  The marriage will be made official in a civil ceremony on Monday.

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From YahooTV:  "Gilligan's Island" is 50-years-old today.

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From YahooScreen:  Apparently, there will be a third installment of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.  I don't like this movie, but strangely, I really loved Evan Dorkin's comic book adaptation of the film for Marvel Comics.

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From InsideMovies:  Famously (infamously) reclusive writer, Thomas Pynchon, may make a cameo in Paul Thomas Anderson's film adaptation of his novel, Inherent Vice.

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From CinemaBlend:  "Taken 3" gets a new title, Tak3n... seriously.

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From CinemaBlend:  A story about Kenan Thompson of "Saturday Night Live" and "What Up With That?"

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From YahooNews:  Will Smith posts cute birthday pic of he and and wife, Jada.

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From UPI:  Oscar-nominated actress, Kate Hudson, claims that she and mother, Oscar-winning legend, Goldie Hawn, can see ghosts.

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From YahooCelebrity:  Emma Watson, of Harry Potter fame, delivers a stirring speech on gender equality before the United Nations on Saturday, September 20, 2014.

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From TheHollywoodReporter:  New release, The Maze Runner, wins the September 19th to 21st, 2014 weekend box office with an estimated take of $32.5 million.

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From the HuffingtonPost:  Idris Elba's tale of the vampire Nic Cage.


COMICS BOOKS - Books and Films:

From TheMotleyFool:  Five things you might not know about "Batman Vs. Superman."

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From Inquisitr:  "Batman vs. Superman" cast member, Henry Lennix, says that fans of Frank Miller's seminal Batman graphic novel, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, will be pleased about the 2016 film.

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From Vulture:  Bryan Singer will direct "X-Men: Apocalypse" and an update on his legal trouble.

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From CinemaBlend:  If he is in "Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice," what will Aquaman look like.

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From YahooTV:  TV Guide on what works and doesn't work in "Gotham" (FOX affiliates - 8 Eastern/7Central, but check your local listings).


STAR WARS:

From Inquisitr:  Episode 7 concept art reveals a light sabre duel in a snowy forest

From CinemaBlend:  Storm Troopers may have a new look in Episode 7.

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From IBTimes:  Five villains who may be in Episode 7.

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From /Film:  Roger Moore, James Bond and The Saint, talks about his Star Wars Episode 7 set visit.


INTERVIEWS and REVIEWS:

From The Hollywood Reporter via YahooMovies:  Richard Gere talks about playing a homeless man in "Time Out of Mind.

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From YahooTV:  A review of Episode 1 of Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 22

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From TheVillageVoice:  An interview of Terry Gilliam for the release of his new film, Zero Theorem.


TRAILERS:

From 20th Century Fox:  New trailer for Kingsman: The Secret Service.