Charles Bramesco
Leonardo DiCaprio to Star in Period Gangster Film ‘The Black Hand’
Leonardo DiCaprio’s got quite a bit of experience when it comes to portraying characters on either side of the law. He was a dooly appointed federal mahshal in Shuttah Island, played the Boston mob against itself for Martin Scorsese in The Departed, and took on more dastardly roles in such films as Django Unchained and The Wolf of Wall Street. With an Oscar now under his belt, DiCaprio is on the hunt for new roles, and today brings the news that Paramount has given him one squarely in his wheelhouse.
Turns Out Ben Affleck Won’t Direct ‘The Batman’ After All, But Here’s Who Might
A story, told in headlines: Here’s us on December 18, reporting on Ben Affleck’s voicing of slight misgivings about his tentative gig as the director of the new Batman solo film:
Benedict Cumberbatch Is a Very Serious Thomas Edison in First ‘The Current War’ Photo
Benedict Cumberbatch is a man of many hats. Mainstay of the British theatre scene, unlikely Hollywood heartthrob, prestige-picture leading man, mystical off-beat superhero, and of course, the noted lizard alien’s greatest performance of all has been the years-long charade of human actor “Benedict Cumberbatch...
It’s Official: ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ Is Titled ‘The Last Jedi’
We’ve got 11 long months to go before anyone will get a look at Star Wars: Episode VIII, so Lucasfilm has tried to pace itself with leaking details of the hotly anticipated upcoming release. Today, however, they dropped a big one: on the official Star Wars web site, a new announcement revealed the subtitle for the eighth installment in what the site refers to as “the Skywalker saga.” The post declared, “We have the greatest fans in this or any other galaxy. In appreciation of the fans, we wanted them to be the first to know the title of the next chapter in the Skywalker saga: STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI.”
Jack Nicholson ‘Basically’ Retired From Acting, Says Peter Fonda
The last time was saw Jack Nicholson on the big screen was 2010, in James L. Brooks’ middling dramedy How Do You Know. He played a weaselly white-collar crook who asks his son to take the rap for a crime he committed, in a performance characterized by the usual Nicholsonian deviousness. The movie didn’t make too much of a splash, forgotten after a few weeks taking up space in cineplexes. That film may take on an unexpected tragic air in light of the breaking news that it may contain Nicholson’s swan song.
Shocking Video Leak Reveals Animal Abuse on Set of ‘A Dog’s Purpose’
Forcing audiences to watch a movie in which a dog lives, finds true happiness, and then dies over and over again would’ve been an act of sadism all on its own. But the crew of the upcoming family film A Dog’s Purpose have recently been outed as sadists of another, more stomach-churning sort. TMZ posted a shocking video from a second-unit shoot for the film in which an animal handler forces a reluctant German Shepard into rushing waters, the dog begins drowning, and handlers rush to retrieve the animal amid cries of “cut it! cut it!” PETA has already called for a boycott of the film, with the most shame heaped upon the industry supplier Birds & Animals Unlimited, and the rest of the fallout has been swift.
Brutal New ‘Logan’ Trailer Brings the X-Men Into the Real World
The most jarring line in the new trailer for James Mangold’s increasingly buzzy Wolverine spinoff Logan comes when the gruff mutant informs his young charge, “This is the real world. People die.” He tells her this after seeing one of her vintage X-Men comic books, and informing her that the team’s actual exploits bear little resemblance to what’s on the page. It all sends a clear message: this is a film unlike the solo Wolverine pictures that came before it, distinctive both in its high stakes and self-awareness. It’s a sharply written moment, but the new clip doesn’t linger on it for too long before getting to the good stuff — in this instance, a young girl cutting off an adult man’s hands.
Michael Keaton’s Batsuit and George Reeves’ Superman Suit Going to Auction
Good news: fans are finally getting their shot to lay claim to two highly sought-after pieces of comic book memorabilia, with George Reeves’ original Superman costume and the Batsuit worn by Michael Keaton during his stint as the Batman both up at auction until January 26. The bad news: you’re going to have to part with at least tens of thousands of dollars if you want to get your mitts on that spandex.
Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Laurie to Make ‘Holmes and Watson’ Even Fancier, Britisher
With every new casting update, the gestating detective spoof Holmes and Watson gets a little bit better. Casting former Step Brothers Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as bumbling iterations of Sherlock Holmes and his man Watson was an inspired move to begin with, but landing a supporting cast including Rebecca Hall, Kelly Macdonald, The Trip cutup Rob Brydon, and comedy’s hidden gem Lauren Lapkus s
Sylvester Stallone to Direct a Limbless Adam Driver in ‘Tough as They Come’
Just as Rocky Balboa inspired the world with his perseverance and courage in the face of overwhelming opposition, Sylvester Stallone inspired the people of America last month by not accepting President-elect Donald Trump’s offer to head the National Endowment for the Arts, stating that he’d rather devote his energies to moviemaking. In a gesture alien to Trump and his administration, Stallone has now followed through on his earlier words, bringing increased attention to the plight of soldiers reintegrating into society with a planned new feature. And he‘s going to start by cutting off Adam Driver’s arms and legs.
Did ‘Friends’ Chandler and Monica Move Into the ‘Home Alone’ House?
It’s not uncommon for movie studios to recycle their sets between productions, or for different crews to make use of the same locations. For sharp-eyed viewers, this can create the surreal effect of fictional universes overlapping and coexisting with one another. Take Hogan’s Heroes, for instance: the company behind the popular POW camp-set sitcom put the compound on which they shot most of their episodes up for sale after they had wrapped. It was later used for numerous other shoots, most notably in the pornographic Nazi-exploitation film Ilsa, She-Wolf of the S.S.
Ben Mendelsohn Hints at the ‘Rogue One’ Alternate Versions That Could Have Been
All is right with the galaxy far away: Rogue One has dominated at the box-office, as expected, and earned mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, also as expected. But watching the film, especially in light of the revelations that Lucasfilm ordered massive reshoots that stretched on for weeks, it’s clear that there’s a Rogue One that’s gone unseen. The unused footage from the trailers, Tony Gilroy stepping in with rewrites to the point where he earned a co-writer credit, friction between Lucasfilm and director Gareth Edwards — it all points to an alternate version of the film laying on some Los Angeles editing suite floor.
Revisit Carrie Fisher’s Uproarious Roast of George Lucas at the 2005 AFI Awards
The world’s still stinging from the loss of Carrie Fisher yesterday, and while we will most likely remember her first as Princess Leia, the actress cultivated a long career of comedy after her Star Wars years. Her one-woman show Wishful Drinking was a must-see on Broadway, and her hilarious, often inscrutable Twitter account will stand as a testament to her bizarre wit. In the wake of Fisher’s sad death on Tuesday, one video in particular has begun to pop up again, and it might just be the comic’s most searing public appearance of all.
Go Behind the CGI of ‘Batman v Superman’ with New Visual Effects Featurette
Take a seat, because what you’re about to read may shock and disorient you: many of the images seen onscreen during the motion picture Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice are a sham. While the completed film may appear to show superheroes valiantly flying through the air and shooting lasers out of their eyes and discussing maternal nomenclature, many of those same scenes were created using sophisticated computer programs, and never happened at all! Not to destroy the magic of the cinema, but we’ve all been lied to. Superman’s not real, he’s just some unusually pretty dude who spent a couple months in a room wallpapered with green screen.
Ladies, Gentlemen, and Friends: I Give You Chewbacca Singing ‘Silent Night’
It’s the Friday before Christmas. Those of us who aren’t currently concealing the fact that we’ve slumped over at our desks in a eggnog-hangover-induced nap have glued our eyes to the clock, counting down the minutes to a leisurely holiday break. Everyone just wants to get home, gather with family or other loved ones around a crackling fire, put on the musical stylings of Burl Ives or Bing Crosby, and have a nice mug of hot cocoa. Time slows to a crawl on the Friday before a long weekend, and we both know you’re not getting any work done today, so why not kick back with the soothing sounds of Chewbacca moaning out a classic Christmas standard?
IMDb’s Top 10 Movies of 2016 List Is… Interesting, Let’s Just Put It That Way
The Internet Movie Database is a fount of helpful information. With a few simple clicks, users can learn who shot the Miley Cyrus vehicle So Undercover (Things to Come cinematographer Denis Lenoir), which sequel in the Hellraiser franchise featured a performance from a young Adam Scott (the fourth one), or how old Taraji P. Henson is (who looks that good at 46?!). As a repository for loose factoids from in and around the world of screen entertainment, it can’t be beat. As a source for critical perspectives on those same films, however... hoo boy. Just take a gander at any comment section for a movie’s page and marvel at the IMDb is the site where rabid anti-Ghostbusters zealots congregated to downvote Paul Feig’s movie into oblivion weeks before its actual release, and the newly-released IMDb Top 10 provides an even clearer view of its user base.
Dogs Beware, ‘John Wick 2’ Will Get the Comic Book Treatment in 2017
Sometimes, the best films are the ones with the simplest concepts. For instance, “just 100 minutes of Keanu Reeves beating the pus out of Russian gangsters” turned out to be a premise worth its weight in gold, as if cinema has never really needed more than Keanu in an all-black suit delivering beatdown after beatdown. In 2014, John Wick effortlessly reminded audiences of how competent, how brutal, how downright fun action cinema could and should be, and the studios responded in kind with news of a sequel. But all dogs would do well to watch their little doggy backs in the months to come, because Wick’s got more than a movie on the horizon.
‘Blade Runner 2049’ Will Be One of the Priciest R-Rated Independent Films Ever
The first trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s hotly anticipated Blade Runner 2049 materialized earlier this week, giving sci-fi diehards an eyeful of one of next year’s biggest-name tentpoles. There were appetizing visuals aplenty, a foreboding showdown between stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, reprising his role as Rick Deckard, and yet still so much remains unknown. What will this film’s rating be? How dreamy will Ryan Gosling’s eyes look, on a scale from 9 to 10? Will the blades get runned? Those last two will remain up in the air until the film’s release on October 6 of next year, but we do have a definitive answer for that first one.
Caesar’s Days Are Numbered in International ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ Trailer
As we prepare to polish off the crap sandwich that was 2016, we can allow ourselves some scant crumbs of hope as we look out over the slate of movies for the year to come. There are some exciting prospects on the calendar, with one of the more surprisingly excellent recent franchises making its triumphant return...
Watch Zack Snyder’s Trailer Mashup of ‘Batman v Superman’ and ‘Star Wars’
If you think Zack Snyder’s on the outs after the critical shellacking and box-office underperformance of this spring’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, then think again. For one, Bats v Supes (as we showbiz types call it) still made an unholy crap ton of money, and moreover, Snyder has another prospective mega-blockbuster coming down the pike in the form of April’s Justice League. Snyder’s pretty much unstoppable, in the same way that a mudslide or water cyclone is unstoppable. And now he’s struck again, this time with a faux trailer that mashes up his own Batman v Superman with elements of the Star Wars series.