Latest Movie News From Moviefone |
- Martin Freeman Teases Possible 'Sherlock' One-Off Special
- 'Hogwarts Collection' Giveaway: Win the Complete 'Harry Potter' on Blu-ray & DVD
- The New 'Star Wars' Movies Won't Be Connected to the Expanded Universe
- 'Orphan Black' Season 2 Premiere Breaks DVR Record
- William Friedkin on New Technology, the 'Exorcist' Curse, and the McConnaissance
- The 'Boyhood' Trailer Will Make You Cry (VIDEO)
- The 'Twilight' Bad Lip Reading Video Is Spot-on Hilarious
- Neil Berkeley, 'Harmontown' Director, on Hitting the Road with Dan Harmon
- The New Japanese 'Godzilla' Trailer Makes the Wait Almost Unbearable (VIDEO)
- Sorry, America: 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' Will Be Seen by the Rest of the World First
- Cameron Diaz Facts: 23 Things You (Probably) Don't Know About the Actress
- Jessica Chastain in 'Mission: Impossible 5'? Yes, Please.
- Joe Berlinger, Director of 'Whitey' Doc, Tells a Different Story About Whitey Bulger
- Hot Docs 2014: 'The Sheik' Review
- James Spader's Ultron Is a 'Robot Who's Genuinely Disturbed,' Says Joss Whedon
| Martin Freeman Teases Possible 'Sherlock' One-Off Special Posted:  Might we return to 221B Baker Street sooner than we thought? "Sherlock" fans were bummed by the news earlier this year that season 4 of the hit British drama might be delayed two years (!) due to the busy schedules of stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. (And it's not just them: series co-creator Steven Moffatt has this other little series to run. Maybe you've heard of it ... "Doctor Who"?) But Freeman gave us a sliver of hope when he teased a potential one-off special that could film and air before season 4. During an appearance on Alan Carr's Channel 4 show "Chatty Man," Freeman said that co-creator "Mark Gatiss may beat me up, but there is an idea for this one-off special that's such a good idea." "As I was listening to it I thought, 'We've just got to do this,'" Freeman went on. "And I don't know when we are going to be able to do it, unfortunately." And with that, that sliver of hope slips away! Freeman added that it was "a fantastic, really mouth-watering idea." Just twist the knife some more, Watson. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'Hogwarts Collection' Giveaway: Win the Complete 'Harry Potter' on Blu-ray & DVD Posted:
Moviefone is giving away the Harry Potter Hogwarts Collection, a new 31 disc(!) Blu-ray/DVD set complete with all eight films plus hours of bonus features, including the eight-part documentary, "Creating the World of Harry Potter." To enter for your chance to win, leave a comment below naming your favorite "Harry Potter" movie and why by 12pm EST Friday, May 2. Good luck! FLASHBACK: Emma Watson on Kissing Rupert Grint from Moviefone's Unscripted (VIDEO) Official Rules
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| The New 'Star Wars' Movies Won't Be Connected to the Expanded Universe Posted:  "Star Wars" isn't just the six existing movies; the space saga has branched out to comics, novels, animated series, and video games. But when it comes to "canon," the six movies and "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" is it. Lucasfilm announced today the new sequels and standalone movies will have no connection to the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe. It's not a surprise, but just a confirmation that director J.J. Abrams and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan are free to create new characters and storylines, without feeling hampered by the EU. Not only that, from now on, Lucasfilm will maintain complete control over "all aspects of Star Wars storytelling moving forward," according to the press release. "Under Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy's direction, the company, for the first time ever, has formed a story group to oversee and coordinate all Star Wars creative development." But before fans moan and groan, the Expanded Universe isn't being completed thrown out. "Demand for past tales of the Expanded Universe will keep them in print, presented under the new Legends banner," the release states. Lucasfilm also notes that future stories can include elements of the EU, just as animated series "Star Wars Rebels" is doing. The biggest downside to this news? It brings a screeching halt to the all the speculation over the plot of "Star Wars: Episode VII." Back to the theory drawing board! This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'Orphan Black' Season 2 Premiere Breaks DVR Record Posted:  "Orphan Black" is cloning viewers like no show has ever done before. When the acclaimed BBC America drama premiered its second season last Saturday, its ratings improved slightly from season 1 with 785,000 viewers, including 391,000 the coveted adults 18-49 demographic. But factoring in DVR playback, those numbers grow astronomically -- 1.6 million viewers and 746,000 in the demo. That's a huge, 97 percent increase -- in fact, it's a bigger bump than anything received by every other series on television (broadcast or cable) this year. "Orphan Black" has set a new record. It's no surprise, considering the show airs on Saturday nights and draws a younger audience. As BBC America GM Perry Simon said, "Our viewers are some of the most affluent and tech savvy in television, and clearly a huge number of them set their DVRs to make sure they didn't miss it." Clone Club is gonna need a bigger meeting room! This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| William Friedkin on New Technology, the 'Exorcist' Curse, and the McConnaissance Posted:  Without really trying, William Friedkin has been on the cutting edge for nearly half a century.He won Best Picture and Best Director for "The French Connection" (1971), followed it up with the scariest movie of all time (1973's "The Exorcist"), and followed that up with "Sorcerer" (1977), a movie so far ahead of its time that only in recent years has it been acknowledged as an overlooked masterpiece. (A newly-restored print of the allegorical adventure tale, released this week on Blu-ray, should help burnish the film's reputation.) At 78, Friedkin continues to stay ahead of the pack. In his most recent movie, "Killer Joe" (2011), he cast Matthew McConaughey in an unlikely role as a corrupt cop/hitman, thus helping launch the "McConnaissance" that changed the actor's image and led to his recent Oscar victory for "Dallas Buyers Club." For his upcoming projects, he's thrilled to be working in digital and scoffs at those filmmakers and fans who are nostalgic for 35MM celluloid film. He's about to shoot a movie for HBO in which Bette Midler will play Mae West, the original sexual provocateur, who ran afoul of the laws and censors of her day. After talking with Moviefone at length about "Sorcerer" in an interview you can read here, Friedkin continued to discuss the changing landscape in filmmaking technology and distribution, offered advice to up-and-coming filmmakers, put to rest some myths about "The Exorcist," and, paradoxically, expressed nostalgia for the old Hollywood regime that his 1970s movies helped overthrow. Moviefone: You're one of the few veteran filmmakers who is not going to miss 35MM film as digital pushes it to extinction. William Friedkin: No, I don't like 35MM at all. I worked in that medium because it's all that was available. The fact about 35MM is that there never was a perfect print of anything because of the built-in flaws of the process. In every bath of developer, one reel would come off slightly green, another slightly blue, because of differences in the composition of the water or differences in the amoeba that constantly recirculate, or fluctuation in the electricity in the labs. I was always very concerned about my prints. Whenever I made a film that didn't have to open on thousands of screens, I always supervised the prints. I approved about 1 out of every 25 reels. The average film is about 12 reels. Multiply that by 25 and you'll know how many reels I burned to get closer to what I shot. And now with digital, it's all automatic. It looks fantastic. It looks how it's meant to look. Of course, that's assuming that projection quality is up to your rigorous standards. To ignore that is like an airline saying, "We don't care how comfortable our passengers are. We're in the transportation business. We can throw 'em all into the airplane and let 'em go on the floor." The exhibition business is vital to how an audience sees a film, and I care very much about that. Why go through all the time and money to make it a certain way and then see it differently? I just don't believe most theater owners give a damn about that. And I know that the studios didn't care about the prints they send out. They figured somebody else would take care of that. And has digital projection taken care of that? It's totally better. You no longer have dirt on a print, or splices, or scratches. I couldn't watch a film of mine on 35MM anymore. The colors fade, and nothing is the same, and they weren't perfect to begin with. Now, when I hear these guys who are nostalgic for 35MM, I just laugh up my sleeve because they don't know what they're talking about. Right now, the digital projection system and prints are the best they've ever been. If you light the scene well, it'll look like a movie. If you just turn on all the lights, what we call bathtub lighting, it'll look like that, only sharper. A well-lit movie is going to look the best it ever has on a DCP. The other night, I saw this movie, "Under the Skin." It's a very tough picture for audiences, but it's beautiful. The cinematography is world class. It belongs in a museum, every shot. They shot it with digital cameras and released it on a DCP, and there's no dirt, no scratches, just the beautiful lighting and compositions. There's a lot more coverage of what filmmakers are doing now, even in the pre-production phase, than there ever was during your 1970s heyday. Could you and your peers have had the creative freedom you did under that much scrutiny? Of course not. In the '70s, we, the filmmakers, never knew how much money our films made, even though we were on a percentage, often. We didn't get in the daily papers, or from the Internet or magazines, what the box office grosses were. We would only hear if a film was good or great or terrible. All the gossip about this cast change or that, or how much the film cost, didn't exist when I was coming up in American film. To a great extent, it still doesn't in Europe because there's a lot of government financing of film. They still want to make money, but they're more interested in approving projects they think are worthwhile. And that's what the studios were like when I was coming up. There's a constant spotlight on the gossip part of filmmaking, which I don't think really does anybody any good except the media that's putting it out. Still, there seems to be a hunger among the public for that much information. I wonder if it's hunger, or if it's just something the editors feel people should have. So much of commercial television, for instance, is that really what the public wants, or is it what somebody at a network thinks they want? Speaking of TV, you're part of the current migration of top-notch film directors to television. I'm going to be doing a film about Mae West starring Bette Midler. We're doing that for HBO. It probably could not be done as a feature film. It'll be set during one short period in the roaring '20s. Doug McGrath is writing it, he's a great screenwriter. I like this Mae West idea very much because she's an extraordinary character, and I would only do it with Bette Midler. And I like the people at HBO. It sounds like a follow-up to your early feature about burlesque, "The Night They Raided Minsky's." Yes, it draws on the same period and the same world, but a totally different life. In the old days, this would be a movie, but now it's for high-end television. There's a lot of great stuff being done in that medium. You have directors of the quality of David Fincher and others who are working for television now, whether you call it cable, streaming, or whatever. They have fewer, if any, real limitations. I'm happy to do this for HBO because I don't know what the audience would be for one of the major film companies. The only thing I'm conscious of that the major studios are doing are these superhero films, about comic book characters, and that's about it. That's the life's blood of the major studios today, and they're doing well with it. For a while, in the 1990s, it seemed like we were going to get an independent-film renaissance that would bring back 1970s-style filmmaking, but it didn't last. There are a lot more independent films being made now than there were back in the '70s and before. But the real independent filmmaking movement preceded the '70s and continued afterward, people like John Cassavetes, who literally mortgaged his house to make every one of his films. He could have lost his house if he didn't get something back. So he worked very inexpensively and totally independently. What we call independent film today is well-financed. Even an independent film that I admired greatly, "The Hurt Locker," was released by a company that aspired to be a major, and they now are. You know, Summit, they had "Twilight" and other huge successes, and they merged with Lionsgate. So "The Hurt Locker," which was clearly independently financed, was distributed by a company that is now a major. Sony Pictures Classics distributes very worthwhile films, but they are supported by Sony. Focus Features is supported by Universal. The studios have realized that certain independent films can do it better than they can. The Jason Blum movies, which are made for chump change, have done tremendously well. A film like "Paranormal Activity" cost $15,000 and was made in a guy's house in San Diego with no names, nothing. It was the premise and the execution of that film. It made $300 million or more on an investment of $15,000. It seems like Blum and his filmmakers can take greater creative risks because their financial risk is so low. The risk is always high. It's relative. The guy who spent $15,000, if the movie tanked, he would be wiped out faster than the guy who spent $150 million. Do you ever feel like modern horror films like those can't stand up to "The Exorcist"? I don't think that at all. I liked "Paranormal Activity." I liked "The Blair Witch Project." I thought they really delivered. It doesn't matter to me how much a film cost. It's the invention and the idea and the theme and the execution that I respond to. I'm looking at what's on the screen, not what the cost of it was, large or small. Can you address the notion of whether or not there was an "Exorcist" curse, given the way the production seemed to have been shadowed by mishaps and deaths? Jack MacGowran died shortly after he finished "The Exorcist." But as Bob Dylan said, people who aren't busy being born are busy dying. Everyone is dying. You're dying right now. I'm dying. And when our time is up will probably not be at our discretion. He was the only... well, Jason Miller died many years later. Ellen Burstyn and [Max] Von Sydow are still alive and still working. Lee J. Cobb died a few years later. Nothing unusual about that. It's largely a media creation. All of the essential people who were involved on it are still around and working, William Peter Blatty, who wrote the book, wrote the script, and produced the movie. He and I are in touch a couple times a week. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland. He's still going strong. He's in good health, has a nice family. I don't know what they're talking about with the "Exorcist" curse, but it's easy to invent one. Didn't Von Sydow's brother die during the production? His brother died the day he made his first shot. "So what?" as Hillary Clinton would say. There was an accident that happened [a fire that destroyed most of the interior set of the McNeil house except Regan's bedroom]. But to call it part of a curse, this is a media creation. People look at "The Exorcist," because of its subject matter, and assume all sorts of ridiculous things. Some of the cast members in interviews, specifically, Ellen Burstyn, put out stuff like this. The thing to understand is, we don't control, in any way, how we came into this world, and we don't control how we're going to leave it. There was a movie made recently, it hasn't come out yet, and one of the assistant directors, a young woman, died. I don't think anyone's talking about that being cursed. God forbid, that was horrible. Early in my career, on "The Night They Raided Minsky's," one of the stars was the great vaudeville comedian Bert Lahr. And he died during production. Nobody talked about a curse. Bert Lahr was up in years and not in very good health. What effect did "The Exorcist" have on your own spirituality? It strengthened my belief. I'm not a Catholic, but I believe strongly in the teachings of Jesus as set down in the New Testament. I guess I always accepted them, not enough to join the church, but I accept them even more now. I've done more studying of the New Testament. I'm much more fascinated by Jesus the man than the supernatural aspects of Jesus. When you worked with Matthew McConaughey on "Killer Joe," did you have any inkling he'd go on to this new, dark, critically acclaimed phase of his career? It was just my hunch that made me go with McConaughey. I saw him on a television interview I had never seen him for any of the films for which he had become well known, the romantic comedies. I know that he wants to do serious work, and the hope is that there will be enough serious films for him to continue on the path he's chosen. I think the next thing he's doing is a Christopher Nolan film ["Interstellar"]. It's not an independent film. It'll be a mega-millions movie. Matthew is not going to be able to survive forever on these small, low-budget films that are labors of love. I don't know how much he was paid for "True Detective," which was a pretty terrific series, but I don't think he was paid a pauper's fee to do that. That was the most commercial of commercial television, HBO. Are there actors you'd like to work with but haven't? No, not at the moment, but I'd love to have worked with [Humphrey] Bogart, Steve McQueen, Lino Ventura, Marcello Mastroianni, James Cagney. So many great actresses, Susan Hayward, [Greta] Garbo, [Marlene] Dietrich. I can't think of anyone today that I feel that way about. Spencer Tracy, I would have paid money to work with Spencer Tracy. What I wish I could have done, but I didn't come up in the right era, I wish I could have been a director in the studio system. I would have made about four or five films a year. Some would have been good, some bad, and maybe there would have been a few masterpieces. That would be a career like someone like Victor Fleming had, who in the same year directed "Gone With the Wind," "The Wizard of Oz," and a couple of other pictures. Wouldn't you have chafed at the rigid authority of the old studio moguls, as you have during your actual career? It would have been worth it to make the kind of films they made. Michael Curtiz, who made "Casablanca," made three or four other films that same year. They're not all of the same caliber. But I think I would have been a much better filmmaker if I'd worked in the studio system. Sure, people chafed, but look at the work they produced. And a lot of the directors found a way around that, like John Huston. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" was not a typical Hollywood film, and it was not a success, except an artistic success. How much of a role has luck played in your career? I have been asked that question. The most important facets to me of what a filmmaker needs to succeed are ambition, luck, and the grace of God. I am not mentioning talent, you may notice, because there are a lot of extremely untalented people making stupid movies who have been very lucky and very ambitious. And a lot of guys I knew who had great talent never connected, never, and just disappeared into the flow. Ambition, luck, and the grace of God, that's the formula as I observe it. Do you have any regrets over the films that flopped or the ones that you wanted to make but didn't get to do? I have no regrets. How could I? All you need to do is pick up a newspaper every day and see what happens to people's lives, the tragedies that are with us every day. Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The 'Boyhood' Trailer Will Make You Cry (VIDEO) Posted:  Director Richard Linklater is obsessed with time, both in its specificity (like the last day of school, captured so handily in his "Dazed and Confused") and elasticity (hence the three "Before..." movies, filmed in 9-year intervals). Over the last 12 years he's been working, mostly in secret, on a movie that was eventually dubbed "Boyhood," that charts the development of a single child (Ellar Coltrane). It's pretty astounding. Coming out of SXSW, we called it, "the stuff of legend, at once small and delicate and at the same time nearly cosmic in scope." We stand by this claim. And now, thanks to the just-released trailer, you can get a taste of what it's all about. Keep in mind that if you want to go into "Boyhood" pure, do not watch this trailer. Let the movie unfold around you, like wading waist-deep into a river. But if you do want to get a little nibble before the big feast, watching the trailer won't totally spoil things, although you will see the titular boy at different ages, which takes away some of the impact. There isn't a real plot to "Boyhood" as much as it's a series of incredibly relatable, realistic domestic tableaus. The movie costars regular Linklater confederate Ethan Hawke and a wonderful Patricia Arquette, who actors who put vanity and glamour side for the sake of this extraordinary project. But just watching the trailer made us choke up, and I am half robot. Good luck holding back the tears, mere mortals. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The 'Twilight' Bad Lip Reading Video Is Spot-on Hilarious Posted:  Anyone who has seen the "Twilight" movies knows that the dialogue isn't exactly their biggest attribute. (Although the dreaminess of stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner only goes so far.) Thankfully, the talented team at Bad Lip Readings has given the movies a makeover, replacing the original (awful) dialogue with only marginally more awful dialogue. The end result is the seven funniest minutes of your entire day. The entire thing plays like a surrealist mad lib experiment and it's kind of shocking how well the new dialogue fits in with the already-existing lip movements. If you thought that the "Twilight" series would be better if Pattinson's character had access to a tambourine, well, this will scratch that particular itch (his song about dragons is priceless). There was an inherent silliness to the "Twilight" movies as they stood, this just heightens and refines things. It's a gas. Watch the video below and giggle loud enough for someone to tell you to stop. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Neil Berkeley, 'Harmontown' Director, on Hitting the Road with Dan Harmon Posted:
Honesty has gotten Dan Harmon in trouble in the past -- whether you're a fan of his or not, you're likely well-aware of Harmon's much-publicized trials with "Community," his meta-sitcom, beloved by critics and a small-but-diehard fan base. The show was taken away from him in May 2012, but honesty also seemingly ended up being his salvation, and not just because NBC hired him back to run the show's fifth season in June 2013. Somewhere along the way, the "Community" mantra-turned-meme of six seasons and a movie became 20 shows and a documentary. And much like another fan favourite ousted by NBC, Harmon decided to hit the road during the ensuing layoff, taking his nerd-friendly podcast Harmontown on a 20-city, 23-day cross-country tour with a documentary crew, his co-host Jeff Davis, fiancée Erin McGathy and personal D&D dungeon master Spencer Crittenden in tow. Bringing his brand of unfettered candour to the people with a barnstorming tour by way of group therapy, it was Harmon's way of thanking the people who stuck with him throughout it all: his loyal fans. Screening at the Hot Docs film festival, director Neil Berkeley's film "Harmontown" initially started out as a tour documentary in the vein of "Conan O'Brien Can't Stop," but, fittingly, soon morphed into something else: a more meta, more honest, and more dark, but also strangely uplifting look at the relationship between a man and his fans, as well as the perverse, and frequently hilarious, therapy each offers the other. Here's a look at the story behind the story, according to Berkeley. Who is Dan Harmon? It's a question the documentarian asks of Harmon's friends and co-workers, both current and former, early on in "Harmontown" (right after a scene of Harmon asking if this is the part of the movie when Berkeley will play clips of people "saying bad things about me"). There's his "Community" cast, Jack Black, Sarah Silverman -- who recalls their up-and-down time when Harmon was the head writer on "The Sarah Silverman Show" by saying, "I'm his biggest fan, and I fired him." When Harmon asked Berkeley to join him on tour (he had recently watched his previous documentary "Beauty Is Embarrassing"), the documentary filmmaker knew Harmon, but was by no means a super-fan. "I had never listened to Harmontown, I'd read some of his writing online, obviously I knew about the Chevy stuff," Berkeley explains, referring to Harmon's public spat with former "Community" cast member Chevy Chase. "I knew what he was up to, I knew his style, I knew what he was doing. But I hadn't been deeply invested in all things Dan Harmon." "He has this perception of being an angry, mean person, which I know he can be to certain people. But he was a joy to work with," Berkeley says. "He was helpful throughout the process, he would watch cuts and make suggestions, and he was very direct when it wasn't going right. He was very supportive when I needed a pep talk." Throughout it all, however, Berkeley maintained final cut, to ensure his outsider's perspective remained objective. Harmon did fight Berkeley on one thing. When his co-host Davis was being filmed doing some pre-show vocal warm-ups, improvising tongue twisters, Harmon added one of his own: "Pedophilia is an option when you have the gumption." "He fought to put that in," Berkeley laughs. "He wanted that in desperately." And he was willing to go to the mat for it. "We were trying to let people know that he had a lot of anxiety, and I was worried that if he rattled off this hilarious joke, he may appear too confident, when he was very nervous about that show." In the end, the joke -- and Harmon -- won out. "It just shows how real he wanted this thing to be." It's honest. Maybe a little too honest. The filmmaker recalls questioning why Harmon didn't simply make the tour movie himself -- "Why don't you just give the camera to five Channel 101 kids and let them follow you around?," he remembers asking -- but that wasn't what Harmon wanted. Says Berkeley, "He knew that if he's going to put his name on this, it has to be very honest. And very revealing." Sometimes literally. Berkeley started filming "Harmontown" a week after the two first got in touch ("I figured, if I do get involved in this, I'll want as much footage as I can," he explains). Which is how he ended up filming Harmon taking a bubble bath instead of working on pilots for CBS and Fox prior to going on tour. "He said, 'OK, well if you're shooting me today, you're going to shoot me taking a bubble bath, because they just fixed my bathtub, and I'm dying to get in it,' " Berkeley laughs. The way he sees it, it would've been more of a disservice to Harmon to not show him exactly as he is. "His act is honesty, his act is being revealing. That's why people go to those shows, that's why people love him," Berkeley explains. (To his credit, Harmon has agreed, jokingly calling the documentary "a fair and accurate movie about what a piece of s**t I am" in a recent interview with "Rolling Stone".) Don't bother trying to tell Harmon what to do. It's a lesson a lot of his bosses and co-workers have learned the hard way, but Dan Harmon doesn't respond well to being told what to do. "So even if I said, 'Dan, can you take a step to your left? Because you're not in the light,' he would say, 'Well, this is where I am. This is where I'm standing right now, shoot this,' " Berkeley laughs. "Which is great, but to me, it's like, if you just move six inches to your left, you'll be right where I need you." "He wants things to be very natural," explains Berkeley, which is why the famously meta Harmon was quick to call him out on seemingly unnatural parts of the documentary process, like filming Harmon getting into his car with the camera already in the passenger seat. Still, Berkeley says that self-aware streak just made Harmon more interesting, albeit more difficult: "It makes him a better subject because throughout the entire journey, he's always talking about story and where he is emotionally, and what's going on." They literally covered him with cameras. For the most part though, Harmon was game to do whatever the documentarian asked of him, including being hooked up to several cameras at once, which was as much a way of staying loose during the lengthy bus tour as it was of getting more footage. "Covering him in cameras became a funny thing to do," says Berkeley. "I knew right away because Dan's so meta, that it would great if they wore these Looxcie cameras and talked to each other and had conversations and worked out bits." The result, besides an estimated 500 hours of video for Berkeley and his editors to dig through, was a few happy accidents, including an emotional monologue Harmon delivered to the bathroom mirror where he questions his ability to change, and whether he's his own story's hero or villain. "He didn't even give me that footage for six months, he kept it," Berkeley recalls. "He says he thought it was boring, but he may have been just more concerned." In the end, it became an important climactic scene for Berkeley, who says getting the footage changed their whole editing process. The tour was better than therapy. "It was a really hard challenge: how do we show a tour, how do we show his bio, how do we show the humour, how do we show the darkness?" Berkeley says. "It was really, really difficult jigsaw puzzle to piece together in 90 minutes." But things came into focus when he decided to make "Harmontown" less about the endurance test of the tour and more about the emotional release the confessional podcasts offered. "We kind of made these scenes more like therapy," he explains. "Whenever we focused on Dan's emotional journey instead of the physical journey of going on a tour and coming back to LA, that's when it really clicked." "It's one thing to listen to it, but to see it on stage, you realize, Oh s**t, he really is drinking a bottle of moonshine. He really does drink vodka all day, he really does act abusively towards Erin," says Berkeley. But that kind of honesty was exactly what Harmon was aiming for, to show both his fans and the general public a side of himself they haven't necessarily seen before. "On stage, it's always a performance, there's always a joke, there's always a punchline and a laugh," Berkeley explains. "He's saying the same thing on stage as he is backstage, but when we're backstage and it's just me and him and the camera, it becomes so real and so much more honest than if he's entertaining 200 people." Berkeley's understandably reluctant to say the experience made Harmon a changed man. Still, whether it's a result of being rehired on "Community" last June or the success of his new Adult Swim show "Rick and Morty," he thinks Harmon has mellowed in recent years. "I think he had something to prove back then, something to get off his chest, and I think the movie helped do that," says Berkeley. "I think he's in a really good place right now, and probably, dare I say it, happy," Berkeley laughs. "I hope so anyway." "Harmontown" premiered at SXSW, is playing at Hot Docs 2014 in Toronto, and will hit theatres at some point in 2014. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The New Japanese 'Godzilla' Trailer Makes the Wait Almost Unbearable (VIDEO) Posted:  The title character in "Godzilla" is, of course, a big scary monster that stomps on buildings and makes life generally uncomfortable if you are, in fact, a human being. But he began his cinematic journey more as a metaphor than monster, with Japanese filmmakers dealing with the fallout (both literal and emotional) from the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II. The character, down to its radioactive DNA, is a wholly Japanese creation. Which makes the just-released Japanese trailer for the pricey "Godzilla," easily the best bit of promotional footage from the movie, even cooler. Most of the trailer plays like a kind of greatest hits highlight reel of some of the other trailers, but what's so fascinating is that there is still so much of the movie that hasn't been revealed. Unlike "Amazing Spider-Man 2," which feels like every major plot point and action set piece has been telegraphed through its incessant marking campaign, "Godzilla" (both the character and the movie) have remained largely in the shadows. (This new trailer even retains the spooky "2001" music from the domestic spots.) There are some new bits in this one, including what sounds like Sally Hawkins talking to Ken Watanabe, and a shot of the big monster's foot coming down (it's kind of adorable how chubby it is), which was part of the footage that we previewed at South by Southwest earlier this spring. Just watch the trailer... These next few weeks are going to be torturously long. "Godzilla" opens on May 16, and if it opened a day later I'd probably die. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Sorry, America: 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' Will Be Seen by the Rest of the World First Posted:  Bad news for American moviegoers: The rest of the world is going to get to see the "Avengers" sequel first.Marvel has just confirmed that "Avengers: Age of Ultron" will make its international debut on April 24, 2015, one week before it's set to open in the U.S. So far, only the U.K. and Ireland are confirmed to screen "Ultron" on that date, but more territories are expected to join the list soon. While it may seem unfair to American audiences, it's par for the course for Marvel (and other studios) to open tentpole pictures in other countries first. And considering that international box office receipts typically far outweigh North American totals, it makes sense that studios would want to start cashing in on big moneymakers early. Either way, this confirmation only serves as a reminder that "Ultron" is that much closer to its heavily-anticipated release, with only one year -- or one year, one week for Americans -- separating moviegoers from the picture. "Avengers: Age of Ultron" opens in the U.S. on May 1, 2015. [via Coming Soon] This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Cameron Diaz Facts: 23 Things You (Probably) Don't Know About the Actress Posted:  Cameron Diaz has been hard to miss ever since her break-out role, twenty years ago, in "The Mask." Since then, Diaz has starred in both dramatic and comedic hits, such as "Gangs of New York" (2002) and "There's Something About Mary" (1998), and cemented herself as one of Hollywood's top leading ladies. Her versatility has helped her remain on the A-list so many years later, and, this summer, you can find her in "The Other Woman" and "Sex Tape." From her early work for Coca-Cola to her weird connection to Snoop Dogg, here are 23 things you probably don't know about Cameron Diaz. 1. Diaz was born in San Diego, California to Billie Joann, an import-export agent, and Emilio Luis Diaz, a field gauger for an oil company. 2. She has Anglo-German and Cherokee ancestry on her mother's side, while she has Cuban ancestry on her father's side. 3. Diaz is proud of her Latin roots and claims she brings that part of her to every role she plays. She admits, however, that her blonde hair and blue eyes tend to make people question her Hispanic heritage. 4. Before turning to acting, Diaz was a model for Elite Model Management and appeared in commercials for Nivea, L.A. Gear, and Coca-Cola. 5. When she was 17 years old, Diaz also appeared on the cover of Seventeen magazine (July, 1990). 6. To model around the globe under contract for companies such as Calvin Klein and Levi's, Diaz left home at 16. Over the next five years, her international tour included Japan, Australia, Mexico, Morocco, and Paris before settling back in California. 7. After returning to California, Diaz's agency secured her an audition for "The Mask" (1994) -- despite her having no acting experience. After an amazing 12 call backs, she eventually landed the part. 8. Co-starring opposite Jim Carrey in comedy hit "The Mask" successfully launched Diaz's acting career, and she hasn't looked back. 9. In 2003, she became the second actress -- after Julia Roberts -- to join the coveted $20 Million Club for her part in "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle." 10. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Diaz was the highest-paid actress over 40 years old (2013). 11. After huge comedy hits such as "The Mask" and "There's Something About Mary," Diaz also became an international sex symbol. 12. As a result, Diaz has been on many "Hot" or "Sexy" lists throughout the years, even being ranked as high as No. 13 on Empire magazine's list of "100 Sexiest Stars" in film history. 13. Interestingly enough, she told Maxim magazine in 2011 that her favorite word is "sex." 14. Prior to her success, the actress went to Long Beach Poly High School, where she performed as a member of the "Polyettes" dance team during halftime at football games. 15. Snoop Dogg also went to that high school the same time Diaz was there. The rapper has said, "She ran with my homegirls, all my little cheerleading homegirls" and that "she was fly and she was hip." 16. She also has ties to another popular musician. Diaz dated singer and actor Justin Timberlake for nearly four years, but the couple called it quits in 2007. 17. They later starred in 2011's "Bad Teacher" together, but Diaz said it "really wasn't a big deal" because they "always had a good laugh together." 18. Her high-profile relationships don't end there, though. She has dated actor Matt Dillon, actor and musician Jared Leto, and baseball star Alex Rodriguez. 19. She even fed Alex Rodriguez popcorn at Super Bowl XLV, a moment seen live by tens of millions of people. 20. On why she never tied the knot, she told Esquire magazine that "it just wasn't the thing I was drawn to." 21. She was the maid of honor, however, at best friend Drew Barrymore's wedding to husband Will Kopelman. 22. The independent woman isn't afraid to get dirty, either. She broke her nose in a surfing accident in Hawaii in 2003 and has reportedly suffered four broken noses. 23. She believes that her role in "Gangs of New York" (2002) is the pinnacle of her career. [Sources: IMDb, Wikipedia, OTRC] This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Jessica Chastain in 'Mission: Impossible 5'? Yes, Please. Posted:  Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain may be playing the female lead in "Mission: Impossible 5," according to a new report.Schmoes Know writes that the actress has been offered a leading role across from series star Tom Cruise, and studio Paramount is now waiting on Chastain to make a decision about the part. According to the site, sources say it's "an unspecified role (at the moment) but that it will indeed be a starring role," and that if she accepts, Chastain would "become Tom Cruise's right hand woman; whether that means as a love interest or a fellow agent, we don't know the specifics yet." Chastain certainly proved she's got the action chops to pull off a part in the venerable "Mission" franchise, thanks to her Oscar-nominated role as the relentless Maya in "Zero Dark Thirty." She's currently mulling an offer to play Marilyn Monroe in a new feature, though, so that could impact her decision to jump into the next "Mission," which is due out late next year "Mission 5" stars Cruise and re-teams him with his "Jack Reacher" director, Christopher McQuarrie, who joined the project last year. The all-star team behind the film also includes writer Drew Pearce ("Iron Man 3") and producer J.J. Abrams (who'll co-produce along with Cruise). "Mission: Impossible 5" opens Christmas Day, 2015. via: Schmoes Know, h/t First Showing Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Joe Berlinger, Director of 'Whitey' Doc, Tells a Different Story About Whitey Bulger Posted:
Joe Berlinger has made a career of heart-hitting, intellectually provocative documentaries that also manage to be immensely entertaining. The many films he has directed, such as the Oscar-nominated "Paradise Lost" series he crafted alongside long-time colleague Bruce Sinofsky, manage to balance being educational and engaging, providing avenues for advocacy while rarely succumbing to polemicism. His latest solo effort, "Whitey: The United States of America V. James J Bulger," tells the tangled tale of James "Whitey" Bulger, the convicted kingpin of South Boston's notorious Winter Hill Gang. Bulger's exploits were mined for Nicholson's character in "The Departed," and the figure of Whitey seems the stuff of Hollywood concoction -- street thug, gang leader, community Robin Hood, brother of a former State Senator, and fugitive on the run for a decade-and-a-half. Moviefone Canada spoke with Berlinger about the challenges of dealing with such a complicated narrative in a fixed amount of time, the contributions of this film to Bulger's own desire for mythmaking, and the role of the filmmaker in providing perspective while still being sensitive to the many conflicting points of view. Moviefone: What was your own connection to the Bulger case? Joe Berlinger: I have, as you know, a penchant for crime stories and the criminal justice system and I was completely fascinated by the fact that this guy was allowed to rule a criminal empire for 25 years and not even be stopped for a traffic ticket. I've always been fascinated by the criminal history and the corruption that allowed him to operate. As a media maker myself, I can think of no other figure, at least a criminal figure, who has so passed into public consciousness in the cultural myth-making machine like Whitey. We're on a first-name basis with the guy and over a dozen books have been written about him. For these many years of fascination, it never occurred to me to make a documentary about him because I thought with all of this media, what do I have to offer? How could I set myself apart? When he was finally apprehended, [I thought] I [could] bring something to the table and actually explore both of these themes ... to take the present tense of the trial and use it as a springboard, and use it to examine not just the 30 years of history, but how a myth is made. In doing so, you have to be careful not to simply perpetuate the narrative Whitey wishes you to present. Bulger was a vicious, brutal killer who deserves to be behind bars. I was very concerned about perpetuating the myth, but not by presenting Bulger's point of view. [His]point of view shatters a number of the myths about how he was allowed to operate. I was concerned about using some of the voices who've written about certain things that may or may not actually be accurate in hindsight. I had to juggle and really balance what is the myth and how are we going to ask the provocative questions that might shatter the myth, chief among them, was he an informant or not. The defense presents a very compelling case, that he actually might not have been an informant. That story was sold to the media and the truth of the matter may be much more sinister. The second level of corruption that hasn't really been talked about is that if Bulger was not an informant, it's just a myth that has been sold to the public by the Department of Justice, by the FBI. I have to make it really clear that I don't know if this is true of not, I don't possess the knowledge to say that this is accurate, but I'm also saying that these are questions that were not allowed to have their full airing at the trial. Perhaps the goal [of the Justice Department] is a noble one, to bring down the mafia in New England, but the tactics that were used produced a lot of moral ambiguity, in my opinion. From your crime docs to the superb "Under African Skies" about Paul Simon's "Graceland" record, you have an ability to tell multiple sides of a story while still very much presenting your own point of view as a filmmaker. Some corners of the documentary world are confused by my films because they don't have a singular point of view, but I don't think life has a singular point of view. The media tends to reduce things to black and white. Life is much more nuanced and much more gray, and that's why I've taken the controversial position of this film. I truly think that I'm giving all sides their say without taking a position other than what rises in all of my films as a fundamental truth, which is that something deeply disturbing went on in our institutions of justice and these questions have not been answered. This is a man who was enabled by the very institutions that were prosecuting him, and the families of the victims and anyone who cares about retaining trust in our institutions need to have answers. So that is the fundamental truth that rises to the top without taking sides. Despite his claims about getting to the truth, Whitey chose not to testify. On one hand, that was a result of the Judge and prosecution limiting what he could testify about. As Whitey's lawyers present it, this is the Government preventing a defence, and silencing those that would undermine the credibility of the FBI and the Justice Department. How do you come down on this argument? His point of view was that for him to take the stand without the benefit of a foundation having been laid at trial by calling certain witnesses and allowing certain of his defense claims to have been presented, it was a suicide mission to go up on the stand. Every time his defence attorney would have asked a question about the immunity or any of the areas that the government deemed unacceptable, he would have started the question, objection, sustained, and then by the third time, the judge would say to the defence attorney: "Say it again and I'll hold you in contempt of court." I believe he should have been allowed to present any defence he wanted to present. That's a fundamental core value. I'm not necessarily in agreement, but I'm disappointed he didn't take the stand because there's a certain way of introducing information even if you can't fully introduce it. Any defendant, no matter how heinous their crimes, deserves a full and meaningful defence, and there's no reason in my mind that the government limited its inquiry into these areas. "Whitey" is playing at Toronto's Hot Docs Film Festival on various days (visit link for schedule), and will get a theatrical release in June 2014. Additionally, the documentary will be broadcast on CNN later this year. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Hot Docs 2014: 'The Sheik' Review Posted:
The Iron Sheik is one of the most memorable and iconic characters to ever come out of Vince McMahon's WWF/E machine. In a time when caricature (or maybe even racism) was something a little more up-front in the culture, the Sheik and his 'camel clutch' was how the World Wrestling Federation decided to deal with America's disdain for Iran and the Middle East in the 1980s. For the better part of a decade, Vaziri was ubiquitous in the wrestling world, adorned by his trademark Arabian keffiyeh. He fought greats like Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, Bob Backlund, Sgt Slaughter and Hacksaw Jim Duggan, but unlike most of his WWF alumni, The Iron Sheik was more than a trumped-up muscle man. Vaziri was the real deal. The Sheik started wrestling in Iran at age 14. He competed while in the army, tried out for the Olympics, and worked hard to become like his idol, Iranian national treasure, Gholamreza Takhti. Takhti was a celebrated Olympian, but was found dead in his hotel room in the late '60s. Vaziri new that the suspicious death of his hero meant Iran was the wrong place to live, so he made his way to the States. For years he helped Americans learn to wrestle and compete, working with top-tier national contenders. Vaziri was a success, taking full advantage of the American dream, but it would be his willingness to be hated as The Iron Sheik that would make him into a household name. Vaziri's rise and fall is well-told in the film, with Vaziri telling much of the story himself in interviews. If you were brought up on weekend wrestling and Saturday Night's Main Event, you will love to journey back to the great WWF matches, but this doc doesn't stop there. The film documents the Sheik's fall from grace in the ring, his struggles with addiction, and the sad realities a wrestler must face after the big show is finished. The story includes a Canadian connection too. The filmmakers behind "The Sheik" initially met Vaziri in Toronto where he was wrestling for a few dozen people in a dive bar, and befriended him. For fans of '80s wrestling, get ready to be dazzled, if not a little shocked, at the roster and condition of wrestlers who show up in this doc. Director Igal Hecht uses detailed interviews with Jake 'The Snake' Roberts, Bruce 'Brother Love' Prichard, and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. He juices up the rest of the film with cameos from Hulk Hogan, King Kong Bundy, Brett Hart, Koko B. Ware, Mick Foley, Jimmy Hart, The Nasty Boys, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and even The Sheik's former tag-team partner, a very weary looking Nikolai Volkoff. "The Sheik" adds texture and colour to the bigger story of the WWE as we understand it today. His willingness to be a despised Arab in a boiled-down cartoon version of world politics made him a star. His hubris, lifestyle and the fickle relationship between a wrestler and his bosses left him with an ocean of problems. "The Sheik" succeeds in showing us that there are real men in a fake sport. Hot Docs runs from April 24 - May 4 at various venues in Toronto. SCREENINGS Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, Sat., Apr. 26, 9:15 p.m. TIFF Bell Lightbox, 1 Sun., Apr. 27, 4:30 p.m. Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, Sat., May 3, 6:30 p.m. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| James Spader's Ultron Is a 'Robot Who's Genuinely Disturbed,' Says Joss Whedon Posted:
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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