Posts

Russell Crowe In Bill Hicks Biopic? By Peter Sciretta/Aug. 18, 2008 7:43 pm EST Russell Crowe revealed to the Sydney Morning Herald, that he might be playing Bill Hicks in an upcoming biopic, which is progressing from “treatment to draft stage with Kiwi writer by Mark Staufer.” Hicks was a successful stand-up/rant comedian in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s, once voted “Hot Standup Comic by Rolling Stone Magazine, and listed at #19 on Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time....

Seinfeld Cast To Reunite For Episodes Of Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm By Hunter Stephenson/March 5, 2009 9:08 pm EST What happens when actor Michael Richards meets The Blacks or Krazee-Eyez Killa? Talk about Trial and Error. I’m pretty sure we’ll be satisfied by the results this fall, as the four cast members of Seinfeld are reuniting for multiple episodes of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. While this marks Richards’s first appearance on the uncensored and legendary sitcom of Larry David (Seinfeld co-creator), Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus have all appeared to play and send-up themselves during Curb’s six-season run....

The Best /Filmcast Moments From 2009 By David Chen/Dec. 30, 2009 7:50 pm EST On the /Film podcast, we produce a lot of audio content on a weekly basis. On a given week, about 3.5 hours of audio gets sent through the /Filmcast feed (occasionally, some of it is even good!). With the sheer volume being what it is, it’s entirely possible that you might have missed some of the most memorable moments of the year, so I thought it would be a good idea to compile some of them for your reference....

The Descent 2 Gets A Director By Peter Sciretta/Aug. 29, 2007 4:51 pm EST The Descent was one of my favorite films of 2005 (maybe not on my top 10, but probably my top 20). And I’m not a huge horror fan, so for me to like a horror film this much it must have offered something more than the typical slasher flick. And that’s the best way to describe The Descent....

The Final Price Of The Jay Leno Shuffle: Over $200 Million By David Chen/Jan. 9, 2010 12:01 pm EST [Update: And it’s official. Leno will move back to 11:35 p.m. when the Winter Olympics are over at the end of February. Conan’s fate is still in flux.] The LATimes has an interesting piece today chronicling the rise and fall of TV executive Jeff Zucker. Just over half a year ago, Zucker’s decision to move Leno into the 10 p....

THE OSCAR RACE BEGINS: Gotham Nominations Boost The Wrestler, Rosemary DeWitt, Rebecca Hall & Melissa Leo! By Steve Mason/Oct. 23, 2008 9:55 pm EST Back in 2004, Gotham voters got behind Maria Full of Grace in a big way giving its Breakthrough Actor Award to Catalina Sandino Moreno, and she landed an Academy Award nomination for her heartbreaking performance as a “drug mule.” In that same year Sideways won IFP’s Best Feature and went on to crack the Best Picture field at Oscar time....

Toy Story 3 Teaser Trailer By Peter Sciretta/May 29, 2009 7:33 am EST [Update: An HD version of this teaser is now online. Hit the jump to check it out] Entertainment Tonight has a preview of the teaser trailer for Toy Story 3. Someone video taped it (literally, with a video camera) and uploaded the 45-second clip onto YouTube. The quality isn’t great, and that Entertainment Tonight voiceover guy is annoying (sorry for stating the obvious) but those of you who are interested can watch it after the jump....

Transformers 2 Movie Already In Development By Peter Sciretta/May 4, 2007 2:14 pm EST Michael Bay’s Transformers won’t hit movie theater screens until mid-summer – two months from today to be exact. Yet, Dreamworks is already planning a sequel. Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told the LA Times that the studio liked what they’ve seen so much so that they are “already developing a Transformers sequel script.” No word on who is involved, but I would suspect that screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman would be involved (if they can find time away from JJ Abrams Star Trek and Michael Bay’s 2010 film 2012: The War for Souls)....

Twilight Power: Taylor Lautner Courted For Max Steel By Russ Fischer/Dec. 4, 2009 10:43 am EST UPDATE: Nikki Finke says this is a done deal; Paramount has hired Lautner and is going full-steam ahead with the film. Original article follows. You knew something like this had to happen: with the runaway success of New Moon, shirtless jailbait Taylor Lautner is naturally going to be the object of many a producer’s casting aspirations....

Two Dark Knight Television Spots By Peter Sciretta/May 12, 2008 2:45 am EST Warner Bros has begun airing television advertisements for The Dark Knight. For those of you whou missed the season finale of “Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites” on Sunday night, we bring you this special encore presentation of the two new television spots. Enjoy! [flv:http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/trailers/tdk-tv1.flv 470 210] [flv:http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/trailers/tdk-tv2.flv 470 210] source: moviebox Two Dark Knight Television Spots By Peter Sciretta/May 12, 2008 2:45 am EST...

Vincenzo Natali To Tighten Splice’s Ending By Brendon Connelly/March 8, 2010 3:00 pm EST After going down well at Sitges and Sundance, Vincenzo Natali’s Splice was picked up for distribution by Warner Bros. through their Dark Castle label. They’ve announced a 4th June release, which simply can’t come soon enough. But what’s this? A fly in the ointment? According to Fangoria, Natali is heading back to the edit room to make some alterations to the film....

VOTD: Ackbar! The Star Wars Talk Show By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 13, 2009 12:00 am EST Ackbar! is the Jerry Springer talk show of the Star Wars Universe, and the Skywalkers are the trashiest family in the galaxy. And that includes the trash monster. In this College Humor animated short, the Skywalker family has decided to appear on the highly rated day-time television talk show, in a galaxy far far away, in an attempt to settle their differences....

What Role Will Kat Dennings Play In Thor? We Know! By Peter Sciretta/Nov. 23, 2009 9:18 pm EST Yesterday, Natalie Portman let it slip that Kat Dennings had been cast in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of the Marvel comic book Thor. Portman didn’t reveal what character Dennings would play in the film, and The Hollywood Reporter, who was quick to confirm the report, was unable to uncover any further details. Portman is playing Jane Foster, nurse to Thor’s human alter-ego Donald Blake, and Jaimie Alexander is the Asgardian warrior Sif, so what role could Dennings play?...

A Sneak Peak At Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 23, 2008 11:42 am EST Last night I was lucky enough to screen 20 or so minutes of the upcoming Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D. Brendan Fraser was in attendance, speaking at snail speed as he was obviously ill. During Fraser’s panel, the actor explained that when he received the draft of the script, it had been rewritten many times by many writers....

Can IMDB Predict The Academy Awards? By Peter Sciretta/Oct. 16, 2008 3:38 am EST I’ve always found the average user ratings on the Internet Movie Database to be the most reliable measure of entertainment, at least when it comes to my personal cinematic tastes. Is it always right? No, but I tend to agree with the average rankings on IMDb more than Rotten Tomatoes (which is sometimes too pretentious), Netflix (five stars isn’t enough) and Flixter....

Captain America Will Be Cast Soon, Is Iron Man 2 A Hulk Prequel? By Devindra Hardawar/Feb. 5, 2010 1:15 am EST Two bits of Marvel news tonight: Director Joe Johnston, who’s helming the upcoming The First Avenger: Captain America, recently told Sci Fi Wire that they need to cast the Cap soon, “We have a very short list, but we’re still juggling actors here. I’d say within the next couple of weeks we’ll have ourselves a Captain America, I hope....

Concept Art For The Cross, Gattaca Helmer Andrew Niccol’s Next Film By Russ Fischer/Sept. 16, 2009 7:27 am EST As we’ve reported earlier this year, Andrew Niccol’s next movie will be The Cross, starring Orlando Bloom, Olga Kurylenko, John Goodman and Vincent Cassel. The $24m ‘sci-fi escape story’ is in production now in Australia, and is said to return Niccol to the sort of serious science fiction approach that characterized Gattaca and his script for The Truman Show....

Cool Stuff: Pixar’s Up Luxo Jr. Limited Edition Collector’s Set By Peter Sciretta/Aug. 24, 2009 5:00 am EST We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Inspired by the Pixar’s bouncy little lamp which appears in the animation studio’s logo (and originates from the 1986 short flm), this Collectible Luxo Jr. Desk Lamp Premium Combo Pack comes with a custom-crafted lamp and base which was specially designed to “hold and highlight your Disney Pixar Blu-ray collection....

By Russ Fischer/Nov. 16, 2009 10:27 am EST The Playlist got a copy of the script and runs down some of the differences between it and the original film. The French My Best Friend is a comic meditation on the nature of friendship. It follows François (Daniel Auteuil), an arrogant and unpleasant antique dealer who was challenged by his business partner, Catherine (Julie Gayet), to produce his best friend (not believing that he had one)....

DreamWorks Animation’s Oobermind Gets New Title By Peter Sciretta/Dec. 2, 2009 9:01 am EST Last night it was announced that Dreamworks Animation had signed a deal with video game company THQ. In the press release, a new name was listed for the upcoming 2010 superhero comedy Oobermind. The new title will be MegaMind, which off the bat is not only a lot easier to say, but gets the point across quicker....