Film

Calling out hits over orchid-farming techniques. That is hardcore.

Watch the new Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues trailer and check out the brand new, mustachioed poster.

"Are you not entertained!?" He's won an Oscar for his acting, fronted a rock band, played Superman's dad and led the hunt for UFOs in Sydney (seriously). Now Russell Crowe, Renaissance Man, wants to add feature directing to his resume, according to reports he's in talks to direct The Water Diviner for Hopscotch Features.Written by Andrew Knight (who was one of the creators behind the brilliant Rake) and Andrew Anastasios, The Water Diviner is set in 1919, and tell the story of an Australian father who travels to Turkey to find his two sons, who are missing after the battle of Gallipoli. More as this news develops.... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Earlier this week we heard the Jury picks for the 60th Sydney Film Festival; Refn and Gosling's Only God Forgives won the Official Competition prize and Buckskin won the Foxtel Documentary Prize. Now comes the Audience Awards.Two Australian films won both prizes. The Rocket, directed by Australian director Kim Mordaunt (Bomb Harvest), won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. This coming-of-age tale set entirely in Laos screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Best Narrative Feature and Best Actor prizes; and was earlier awarded three prizes at the Berlinale, including the Crystal Bear.Meanwhile, The Crossing, directed by Julian Harvey, won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. The Crossing screened in the Foxtel Australian Documentary competition and follows two young Australians, Clark Carter and... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Out of all the movie trailers that leave me hyperventilating with excitement, from stunning teases of Scorsese or Coen Brothers to crazy/awesome looking polish semi-documentaries, you might be surprised that a little film coming out in 2014 from Warner might top them all.For here, for your viewing pleasure, is the brickiest film of next year. Does it have Batman in it? Check. Ninja Turtles? Why not. 1980s Space Guy? BRING IT ON!For this unapologetic Lego nerd ("It's Lego Bricks, dammit, NOT LEGOS!"), I couldn't be happier with this project. It matches the style of a number of really terrific shorts that the Lego group has commissioned, and while I at first worried it'd be some computer animated kiddie fest, the stop-motion animation with real bricks (augmented... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

To comment on Indian cinema growing beyond the Bollywood aesthetic that has defined it for so many years would be almost passé at this point. With films like Gangs of Wasseypur crashing onto the scene with great flourishes of gritty violence and a complete absence of sweeping shots of colorfully dressed dancers, it has become clear that the international perspective on Indian cinema is maturing along with the filmmaking coming out of the region itself. I.D., the first feature by director Kamal K.M. continues this trend of using a stark realism that is antithetical to big Bollywood -- aiming to reveal a very different version of India. I.D. stars Geetanjali Thapa as Charu, a young woman living in Mumbai. At the start of the... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Check out the first six official pictures from Twelve Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen.

Man of Steel box office to reach $150 million in North America today (photo: Dylan Sprayberry as the young Clark Kent in Man of Steel) Directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill in the title role, Man of Steel will undoubtedly pass the $150 million milestone at the North American box office on Tuesday, June 19, 2013. Partly boosted by 3D surcharges, after about four and a quarter days (including $12 million from Thursday evening screenings), Warner Bros.’ $225 million-budgeted Man of Steel has taken in $141.26 million from 4,207 US/Canada locations, including $12.58 million on Monday as per Box Office Mojo. For comparison’s sake: From Friday-Monday, without the advantage of box-office-inflating 3D surcharges, Jon Favreau / Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man earned $105.55 million, or about $117 million today. So, if the 3D surcharges* are deducted from Man of Steel‘s Friday-to-Monday total, the 2013 Superman reboot would be left with $116.34 million. In other words, the $140 million-budgeted Iron Man might — stress might — still remain slightly ahead of the 2013 Superman reboot in number of ticket sales. When it’s such a close call, an exact comparison between actual ticket sales — the true measure of a film’s popularity — is just about impossible without hard data from exhibitors or distributors. And it’s worth noting that in the last five or so years, annual ticket price averages have encompassed both 3D (25 to 40+% pricier) and 2D movies — thus making inflation-adjusted grosses of pre-2009 2D movies somewhat, well, inflated. Anyhow, if it hasn’t achieved that feat already, Man of Steel is on track to surpassing Iron Man in number of ticket sales in the next day or so — even without taking into account the film’s Thursday screenings. Internationally, Man of Steel has grossed an estimated $73.3 million from 24 territories. Man of Steel cast Besides Henry Cavill as Clark Kent aka Superman, the Man of Steel cast features Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Michael Shannon as General Zod, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Ayelet Zurer, Dylan Sprayberry, Antje Traue, Christopher Meloni, Mackenzie Gray, Harry Lennix, Cooper Timberline, Michael Kelly, Richard Schiff, and Richard Cretone. The Man of Steel screenplay is credited to David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises), from a story by Goyer and Batman trilogy filmmaker Christopher Nolan, who also happens to be one of Man of Steel‘s producers. Domestic box-office chart Also of note on the domestic box-office chart, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s apocalyptic comedy This Is the End has an impressive six-day cume of $33.44 million, after adding $3.41 million on Monday at no. 2 on the chart. This Is the End features, among others, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Emma Watson, Danny McBride, Michael Cera, and co-director Rogen. Louis Leterrier’s Now You See Me has a current cume of $82.19 million. The $100 million domestic milestone remains within reach, as the heist thriller featuring Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fischer, Morgan Freeman, and Woody Harrelson continues to add nearly $1.5 million per day ($1.48 million on Monday). Currently with $53.14 million, The Purge, featuring Ethan Hawke, will likely manage to reach $60 million, but it’ll have trouble going much beyond that. On Monday, the cheaply made (but not-that-cheaply marketed) and poorly received horror flick earned $1.18 million. Of note: The Purge will surely end up ahead of M. Night Shyamalan / Will Smith’s $120 million-budgeted sci-fier After Earth, which collected a measly $512k on Monday, for a domestic total of $55.02 million. At no. 5 after adding $1.08 million on Monday, the fast-and-furiously fading Fast & Furious 6 has a cume of $220.8 million, . Directed by Justin Lin, Fast & Furious 6 stars Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and Dwayne Johnson. Iron Man 3 box office: $400 million domestic milestone around the corner And finally, Iron

Spain, France, Italy 117m, Colour Director: Alejandro Amenábar; Cast: Eduardo Noriega, Penélope Cruz, Fele Martínez, Najwa Nimri Remade as Vanilla Sky (2001), Open Your Eyes is a psychological thriller about a wealthy and once handsome young man named César who is unable to separate his dreams from reality after he suffers a horribly disfiguring accident. César’s story is told from his jail cell to a psychiatrist as a series of increasingly surreal flashbacks which we learn to be figments of César’s imagination brought about by his decision to have himself cryogenically frozen until such time as doctors were able to repair his injuries. A fascinating and complex film that plays with concepts of love, reality and morality, we learn that beauty is sometimes only skin deep (Klaus Ming June 2013).

Watch the first Lego Movie trailer as children's building blocks come to life before your very eyes.