Movies

The major broadcasters were nothing if not tightly bunched in the May sweep, with all four separated by about 125,000 viewers in the adults 18-49 demo. The close finish shows that, at least in a month when none of its rivals gets a big boost from sports, ABC can be pretty competitive. The net may... Read more »

Every bit as bold and confrontational as its title and articulate and well researched enough to defend itself from the inevitable backlash, Matthew Cooke's How To Make Money Selling Drugs is a detailed dismantling of the American war on drugs as told by an array of insiders ranging from street dealers to major importers to activists to law enforcement officials.A shockingly candid examination of how a street dealer can rise to cartel lord with relative ease, How to Make Money Selling Drugs is an insider's guide to the violent but extremely lucrative drug industry. Told from the perspective of former drug dealers, and featuring interviews with rights advocates Russell Simmons, Susan Sarandon, and David Simon (creator of "The Wire"), the film gives you the lessons... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

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A week in film news is not complete without another report of a reboot or remake, and since 80s action properties have been thoroughly harvested, Hollywood seems to be plowing through to the 90s. Moving on from remakes of Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicles (for now), the next action hero with a remake in development (without his involvement) is Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Timecop. THR reports that Universal is looking to make a re-designed version of Van Damme’s 1994 time-traveling action movie. Directed by Peter Hyams and based on the Dark Horse comic book mini-series, Van Damme played the eponymous time-traveling police officer (in the future of 2004) tasked with stopping criminals who abuse the technology. He runs afoul a corrupt politician (Ron Silver) who might have had something to do with his ...Click to continue reading Universal Planning To Remake ‘Timecop’ Without Jean-Claude Van Damme

There’s lots of Star Wars trivia, jokes and crazy fandom in this edition of Star Wars Bits. Below, read about the following: A conversation from July 1981 where George Lucas described the prequels, with a few differences. Electronic Arts plans to reveal their new Star Wars games at E3. Luke Skywalker’s pants from A New Hope sold for $36,000. J.J. Abrams promises include a Conan O’Brien Easter Egg in Star Wars Episode VII. The world’s largest Lego creation has been revealed, and it’s an X-Wing Fighter. A fake J.J. Abrams Star Wars Episode VII trailer plays with the mystery box. Awesome new Star Wars art is out next week from Acme Archives. The Huffington Post got an exclusive look at J.W. Rinzler‘s book The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, and chose a very interesting excerpt to run. It’s of a “story conference” in July 1981 between George Lucas, writer Lawrence Kasdan, director Richard Marquand and producer Howard Kazanjian. In the discussion, Lucas describes the prequels in pretty great detail. However, he had some ideas at the time that changed radically two decades later when he actually made the films. Read the full excerpt at the above link, but here’s one small sample: Lucas: Anakin Skywalker starting hanging out with the Emperor, who at this point nobody knew was that bad, because he was an elected official. Kasdan: Was he a Jedi? Lucas: No, he was a politician. Richard M. Nixon was his name. He subverted the senate and finally took over and became an imperial guy and he was really evil. But he pretended to be a really nice guy. He sucked Luke’s father into the dark side. Kasdan: The Force was available to anyone who could hook into it? Lucas: Yes, everybody can do it. Kasdan: Not just the Jedi? Lucas: It’s just the Jedi who take the time to do it. Marquand: They use it as a technique. Lucas: Like yoga. If you want to take the time to do it, you can do it; but the ones that really want to do it are the ones who are into that kind of thing. Also like karate. Also another misconception is that Yoda teaches Jedi, but he is like a guru; he doesn’t go out and fight anybody. Kasdan: A Jedi Master is a Jedi isn’t he? Lucas: Well, he is a teacher, not a real Jedi. Understand that? Kasdan: I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t believe it; I am in shock. Read the rest over at HuffPo; the full book comes out October 1. Authentic, screen-used, Star Wars props are among the most sought-after movie collectibles. So when the pants Mark Hamill wore on Tattoine in the original 1977 Star Wars hit the auction block, you knew the sale was going to be big. The pants ended up selling for $36,000. Hamill himself said they are, basically, just Levis. Thanks to Wired for the heads up. Electronic Arts (via ScreenCrush) has announced that, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo beginning June 11, they’ll first reveal some of their Star Wars plans now that they have the exclusive license to make games. There’s no hint of exactly what they have (though Battlefield is a possibility) but the world of games will be keeping an eye on that. J.J. Abrams was on Conan earlier this week and, obviously, the host brought up Star Wars Episode VII. ComicBook.com has the info, where O’Brien asked Abrams to include an Easter Egg in the film: Conan O’Brien said, “Years ago when I worked for The Simpsons, I put Jub Jub into a Simpsons’ episode. And so I know that if I ask you, because we’re very close, I think you’re closer to me than anyone in the world, I know that if I ask you, you’ll put Jub Jub into a Star Wars movie. I know you’ll get it in somehow.” J.J. Abrams interrupted, “Done.” He even shook Conan O’Brien’s hand to seal the deal. Conan O’Brien added, “What’s going to happen is people are going to see that. You’re a nice guy, you’re going to say ‘Yes,’ and then the Star Wars movies will make no sense.” J.J. Abrams confirmed, “If and when I’m directing Star Wars,

Everything you think you know about Kristin Scott Thomas? Yeah, throw that away. Because Nicolas Winding Refn is about to make you see her very, very differently with this clip from Only God Forgives.Julian (Ryan Gosling), a respected figure in the criminal underworld of Bangkok, runs a Thai boxing club and smuggling ring with his brother Billy. Billy is suddenly murdered and their crime lord matriarch, Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) arrives from London to bring back the body. When Crystal forces Julian to settle the score with his brother's killers, Julian finds himself in the ultimate showdown.Scott Thomas has quite the mouth on her in this clip so do be aware of who is in the immediate vicinity before hitting play. Check the clip below.... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

First-time director Katrin Gebbe makes an intense Cannes debut with reality-based saga of sexual abuse, sadism and self-sacrifice. read more

The latest production from Blue Sky Studios draws inspiration from The Incredible Shrinking Man, A Bug's Life, Antz, Avatar and others to tell a family-friendly tale of environmental harmony. I need to expand my critical vocabulary, though, because "clever and amusing" were the first adjectives that came to mind after watching Epic, and that's what I tweeted, and that's how I intended to begin this review. And then those words started to sound familiar to me, as though I'd read them before, and I checked our archive and was abashed to realize that I used those exact same adjectives to begin a lengthy article about 2012's Ice Age: Continental Drift and Blue Sky Studios. Indeed, Epic is not only cut from same cloth as the... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

I know no one who has emerged unscathed from The Act of Killing. The film might be one of the strangest ever made, as it forces men to confront their actions by recreating them in movie form. But these aren’t just any men — they’re guys like Anwar Congo who, as death squad leaders during the “Thirtieth of September Movement,” staged a coup d’etat in Indonesia in 1965, and then committed genocide through an anti-Communist purge. Estimates of the death toll vary widely, from 80,000 to one million. By any standard, these are heinous crimes. ”War crimes are declared by the winners,” Anwar Congo says, before happily proclaiming “I’m the winner!” Today Anwar and other death squad leaders have not been tried as criminals; rather, they hold positions of some social standing. The Act of Killing features their full cooperation. It invites the death squad leaders to recreate their actions as genre movies — westerns, musicals, and so on — and in so doing bring their past back to life. The trailer below shows you some of the effect, and even in this abbreviated form it is deeply chilling. The Act of Killing hits limited theaters on July 19. Apple has the trailer. In this chilling and inventive documentary, executive produced by Errol Morris (The Fog Of War) and Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), the filmmakers examine a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass killings in the style of the American movies they love. The hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit. Shaking audiences at the 2012 Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals, The Act of Killing is an unprecedented film and, according to the Los Angeles Times, “could well change how you view the documentary form.” No Related Post