Latest Movie News From Moviefone |
- 'The Strain' on FX Trailer: It's the End of Our World as We Know It (VIDEO)
- Adam Sandler Doesn't Think He Would Make a Good 'Saturday Night Live' Host
- Danny McBride Returning to HBO in New Comedy
- 'Get on Up 'Trailer: James Brown Shows Us How It's Done (VIDEO)
- Will Johnny Depp Make Magic as Harry Houdini?
- The 40 Best Opening Sequences in Movie History (VIDEO)
- It's Sequel Time for 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'
- 7 Kids TV Shows We Would Love to See Revived (VIDEO)
- 'This Is Where I Leave You' Trailer: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, and Adam Driver Are Grounded (VIDEO)
- 'Mannequin' Director Michael Gottlieb Dead at 69
- Maya Angelou Dead: Renaissance Woman and Cultural Pioneer Dies at 86
| 'The Strain' on FX Trailer: It's the End of Our World as We Know It (VIDEO) Posted:
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| Adam Sandler Doesn't Think He Would Make a Good 'Saturday Night Live' Host Posted:  Adam Sandler may be one of the most famous "Saturday Night Live" alums, but don't expect him to return to host the late night sketch show. Ever. "Why should I?" Sandler told fellow "SNL" alum Norm Macdonald on the latter's podcast. "I don't know how good it would be. I'm slow now." Sandler was fired from "SNL" in 1995 along with the late Chris Farley. He went on to become a huge movie star thanks to "Happy Gilmore," "Billy Madison," and other hits that have netted him over $2 billion at the box office. Many other "SNL" cast members have gladly returned to host the show. "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star Andy Samberg just did it for the show's most recent season finale. Other willing participants included Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jimmy Fallon ... the list goes on and on. But it looks like it will never include Sandler. "There are guys who love doing it -- who are great at doing it," he insisted. "I just don't know how good I'd be doing it. I did what I can do on the show." Are you sure you don't want to reprise your Cajun Man and Canteen Boy sketches, Adam? This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Danny McBride Returning to HBO in New Comedy Posted:  "Eastbound & Down" is down for the count, but HBO isn't about to let Danny McBride go anywhere soon. The premium cable network is picking up McBride's new series, "Vice Principals," for an initial 18-episode first season. McBride and co-creator Jody Hill have "created a smart, rowdy and unpredictable style of comedy that we can't get enough of," said HBO programming president Michael Lombardo in a statement. McBride recently said goodbye to "Eastbound & Down" in the fourth and final season last fall. His new comedy centers on the people who really run high school, the vice principals. A premiere date has not yet been set. And aside from McBride, there's no word on who else might be in the cast. This marks another addition to HBO's growing comedy slate, which includes "Girls," "Veep," "Looking," and "Silicon Valley." Couldn't you see a McBride comedy fitting perfectly with the revival of Lisa Kudrow's "The Comeback" in the fall? Image courtesy of Getty This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'Get on Up 'Trailer: James Brown Shows Us How It's Done (VIDEO) Posted:  Sometimes you've gotta start at the bottom to get on up.The latest trailer for the upcoming James Brown biopic "Get on Up" gives us a better look at the musician's tough upbringing and troubled youth, and illustrates just how the legendary performer became the hardest working man in show biz. Viola Davis plays Susie Brown, the mother who abandoned James as a child and then reappears just as her son is about to take the stage at the legendary Apollo Theater. Chadwick Boseman ("42") stars as the adult James Brown in what looks like a very promising performance, both dramatically and musically. Other notable stars include Octavia Spencer as James's Aunt Honey, Dan Aykroyd as the musician's rep Ben Bart, Nelsan Ellis as musician Bobby Byrd, and the fabulous Jill Scott as James Brown's wife Deedee Jenkins. "Get on Up" hits theaters August 1, which is just in time for the sort of dramatic, inspiring film movie-goers will need after a summer of whiz-bang-boom superheroes. In fact, it just so happens that "Get On Up" director Tate Taylor found a modicum of success with another August release a few years back, a little film called "The Help." Maybe you heard of it? In the meantime, you can catch the amazing Octavia Spencer in the sci-fi stunner "Snowpiercer," which opens in limited release on June 27. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Will Johnny Depp Make Magic as Harry Houdini? Posted:  Johnny Depp is known for disappearing into his roles, but this might take the cake.Depp is in negotiations to star in an adaptation of a Harry Houdini biography that focuses on the performer's real-life adventures. "The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero" will be based on the book by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, which chronicles Houdini's humble beginnings, awesome feats, and his secret life as a spy. That's right. Houdini was a spy. He was also buddies with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle until Houdini ticked off Doyle and the Spiritualists by debunking some of their tricks. The movie is described as "in the vein of 'Indiana Jones,'" so it's entirely possible that this will become more of an action/adventure story. Which would be too bad, as the real story about the son of a rabbi who becomes the most famous magician in the world is pretty juicy by itself! Dean Parisot, who was behind the cult fave "Galaxy Quest" and "Red 2," is directing. Lionsgate is looking to start production this November, in between all of Depp's other projects. He's currently filming "Black Mass," where he plays the real-life mobster Whitey Bulger. He's slated to film the "Alice in Wonderland" sequel "Through the Looking Glass" once he wraps "Black Mass." Depp's also got another go at Pirate Jack coming up with a fifth "Pirates of the Caribbean" flick, although it's not clear if that will film before or after "Houdini." Whatever the case, we're just happy that Tim Burton is busy. [Via The Hollywood Reporter] Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Spike TV This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The 40 Best Opening Sequences in Movie History (VIDEO) Posted:  It's been only five years since Pixar released "Up" (on May 29, 2009), but many critics are already eager to enshrine it in the pantheon of great movie opening sequences. After all, the cartoon's prologue -- a nearly wordless montage that covers Carl and Ellie's courtship, marriage, broken dreams of adventure and family, and old age, ending with a final effort toward taking their dream voyage that's thwarted by Ellie's death. It's a heartbreakingly bittersweet sequence that's both an effective demonstration of the power of pure visual storytelling and a tidy reminder of the film's theme: as long as you're above ground, it's never too late to make your dreams come true.What makes a great opening sequence? Modern Hollywood thinks an opener needs to be grabby and startling, lest the audience lose interest. Critics tend to like openers that show off the director's prowess, though not every movie with a flashy opening can live up to the promise of the first few minutes. (Case in point: Brian De Palma's "Snake Eyes" and "Bonfire of the Vanities," both of which are all downhill after their brilliant tracking-shot first scenes.) So let's agree that an opening should be memorable, should give a sense or at least a hint of what's to come, and should effectively tell a satisfying shorter story while leaving viewers wanting more. In other words, it should work quickly to immerse us in the world of the movie. It's a measure of the "Up" opener's effectiveness that we placed it high on the list below of the 40 greatest movie opening sequences of all time. Read on and see if you agree with our choices, or if there are some missing that you would have included. So much for the prologue. Here, now, comes the main event. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| It's Sequel Time for 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' Posted:  It's been over a decade since we've visited Dancing Zorba's and witnessed the magical healing powers of Windex, but all that's about to change. Nia Vardalos, the writer and star of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," has penned a sequel that's getting big-screen treatment, with help from producers Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks. Thankfully, her co-star John Corbett is also returning; the "Northern Exposure" (and, OK, "Sex and the City") star played her hunky but most definitely not Greek husband in the original film.According to The Hollywood Reporter, there will be yet another giant Greek wedding at the heart of this sequel, as well as a big family secret. Vardalos told THR, "Of course a few jaded folks in the press corps will claim I ran out of money or just want to kiss John Corbett again. One of these things is true." Hey, who could blame her? Vardalos has been busy since the success of the 2002 indie, which was based on her one-woman play. She wrote, directed, and starred in "I Hate Valentine's Day," followed up by "My Life in Ruins." She also co-wrote "Larry Crowne" with Tom Hanks, and is currently promoting her new book "Instant Mom." This sequel doesn't have an official title or director yet, so stay tuned. And keep the Windex handy. [via The Hollywood Reporter] Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 7 Kids TV Shows We Would Love to See Revived (VIDEO) Posted:  Ah, to be a kid watching TV in the '80s and '90s! There were so many now-classic, fun, and often educational programming options available. And not many people know informative children's television quite like LaVar Burton, who hosted PBS' beloved "Reading Rainbow," which ran from 1983-2006. Well, guess what folks? Burton wants to bring "Reading Rainbow" back. The actor has set up a Kickstarter Campaign to help get the series online for a new, web-savvy generation. The show inspired kids to read and taught them about literary themes, skills, and storytelling, and LaVar hopes to bring those ideas back for young audiences everywhere. "Our goal is to cultivate a love of reading in all children, not just those that have tablets. To reach kids everywhere, we need to be everywhere: we need to be on the web," Burton said of his objective. This possible revival got us thinking about other cherished kids shows we would like to see return. These programs were highly entertaining and had some of the best theme songs out there. Check out some of the children's TV shows we would like to welcome back here: This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'This Is Where I Leave You' Trailer: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, and Adam Driver Are Grounded (VIDEO) Posted:  Grief does funny things to people, and sometimes, yeah, it can be pretty funny. Hey, you either laugh or you cry, right? Well, if we had to hang out with a grieving, dysfunctional family, we'd want it to include Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Jane Fonda, Kathryn Hahn, Connie Britton, Ben Schwartz, and Corey Stoll.After the patriarch of the Foxmans' family dies, mom Hillary and grown kids Judd (Bateman), Wendy (Fey), Phillip (Driver), and Paul (Stoll) are forced to spend some time together while they sit shiva for a week. Shiva is the Jewish practice of mourning, and it lasts seven days, which is just enough time for some life-changing moments among the Foxmans and their extended loved ones. Judd's still reeling from discovering his wife in bed with his boss (Dax Shepard), and the other siblings have a whole host of their own problems that lend themselves to all sorts of shenanigans. Ben Schwartz plays their wanna-be cool Rabbi nicknamed Boner, so yeah, this sounds like a match made in shul. Plus, we're psyched to see Rose Byrne flex her comedic chops once again, after stealing scenes in "Neighbors" and "Bridesmaids." "This Is Where I Leave You" is based on the novel by Jonathan Tropper, who also wrote the screenplay. Director Shawn Levy's previous outings include "Real Steel," "The Internship," and the "Night at the Museum" films, but this looks a lot more warm and fuzzy. "This Is Where I Leave You" opens September 12, 2014. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'Mannequin' Director Michael Gottlieb Dead at 69 Posted:  Michael Gottlieb, the writer and director of comedies like "Mannequin" and "Mr. Nanny," was killed in a motorcycle accident last Friday at the age of 69. Gottlieb began his career as a fashion photographer, moved into advertising, and later transitioned into a career as a producer, writer, and director. Gottlieb was also a professor at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design, where he taught screenwriting.Michael Gottlieb's "Mannequin" starred Brat Packer Andrew McCarthy as an artist who falls in love with the fashion mannequin he created. Kim Cattrall, who'd previously appeared in "Porky's," "Police Academy," and "Big Trouble in Little China," co-starred as Emmy, the mannequin that occasionally returns to life to hang out with her new pal. Gottlieb's "Mr. Nanny" starred Hulk Hogan and former New York Doll David Johansen. He also directed the comedy "The Shrimp on the Barbie" under the pseudonym "Alan Smithee," and "A Kid in King Arthur's Court" with Kate Winslet and Daniel Craig. Gottlieb's production credits include a number of video games, such as "Mortal Kombat 4," "Paperboy," and "Fire Blade." Gottlieb is survived by his three daughters. [via The Hollywood Reporter] Photo via Art College of Design This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Maya Angelou Dead: Renaissance Woman and Cultural Pioneer Dies at 86 Posted:  HILLEL ITALIE, Associated PressNEW YORK (AP) - Maya Angelou was gratified, but not surprised by her extraordinary fortune. "I'm not modest," she told The Associated Press in 2013. "I have no modesty. Modesty is a learned behavior. But I do pray for humility, because humility comes from the inside out." Her story awed millions. The young single mother who worked at strip clubs to earn a living later danced and sang on stages around the world. A black woman born poor wrote and recited the most popular presidential inaugural poem in history. A childhood victim of rape, shamed into silence, eventually told her story through one of the most widely read memoirs of the past few decades. Angelou, a Renaissance woman and cultural pioneer, died Wednesday morning at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, her son, Guy B. Johnson, said in a statement. The 86-year-old had been a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University since 1982. "She lived a life as a teacher, activist, artist and human being. She was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace," Johnson said. Angelou had been set to appear this week at the Major League Baseball Beacon Awards Luncheon, but canceled in recent days citing an unspecified illness. Tall and regal, with a deep, majestic voice, she was unforgettable whether encountered through sight, sound or the printed word. She was an actress, singer and dancer in the 1950s and 1960s and broke through as an author in 1970 with "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," which became standard (and occasionally censored) reading and made Angelou one of the first black women to enjoy mainstream success. "Caged Bird" was the start of a multipart autobiography that continued through the decades and captured a life of hopeless obscurity and triumphant, kaleidoscopic fame. The world was watching in 1993 when she read her cautiously hopeful "On the Pulse of the Morning" at President Bill Clinton's first inauguration. Her confident performance openly delighted Clinton and made publishing history by making a poem a best-seller, if not a critical favorite. For President George W. Bush, she read another poem, "Amazing Peace," at the 2005 Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the White House. Presidents honored her in return with a National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor. In 2013, she received an honorary National Book Award. She called herself a poet, in love with the "sound of language," ''the music in language," as she explained to The Associated Press in 2013. But she lived so many lives. She was a wonder to Toni Morrison, who marveled at Angelou's freedom from inhibition, her willingness to celebrate her own achievements. She was a mentor to Oprah Winfrey, whom she befriended when Winfrey was still a local television reporter, and often appeared on her friend's talk show program. She mastered several languages and published not just poetry, but advice books, cookbooks and children's stories. She wrote music, plays and screenplays, received an Emmy nomination for her acting in "Roots," and never lost her passion for dance, the art she considered closest to poetry. "The line of the dancer: If you watch (Mikhail) Baryshnikov and you see that line, that's what the poet tries for. The poet tries for the line, the balance," she told The Associated Press in 2008, shortly before her 80th birthday. Her very name as an adult was a reinvention. Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis and raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and San Francisco, moving back and forth between her parents and her grandmother. She was smart and fresh to the point of danger, packed off by her family to California after sassing a white store clerk in Arkansas. Other times, she didn't speak at all: At age 7, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend and didn't talk for years. She learned by reading, and listening. "I loved the poetry that was sung in the black church: 'Go down Moses, way down in Egypt's land,'" she told the AP. "It just seemed to me the most wonderful way of talking. And 'Deep River.' Ooh! Even now it can catch me. And then I started reading, really reading, at about 7 1/2, because a woman in my town took me to the library, a black school library. ... And I read every book, even if I didn't understand it." At age 9, she was writing poetry. By 17, she was a single mother. In her early 20s, she danced at a strip joint, ran a brothel, was married, and then divorced. But by her mid-20s, she was performing at the Purple Onion in San Francisco, where she shared billing with another future star, Phyllis Diller. She also spent a few days with Billie Holiday, who was kind enough to sing a lullaby to Angelou's son, Guy, surly enough to heckle her off the stage and astute enough to tell her: "You're going to be famous. But it won't be for singing." After renaming herself Maya Angelou for the stage ("Maya" was a childhood nickname, "Angelou" a variation of her husband's name), she toured in "Porgy and Bess" and Jean Genet's "The Blacks" and danced with Alvin Ailey. She worked as a coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and lived for years in Egypt and Ghana, where she met Nelson Mandela, a longtime friend; and Malcolm X, to whom she remained close until his assassination, in 1965. Three years later, she was helping King organize the Poor People's March in Memphis, Tenn., where the civil rights leader was slain on Angelou's 40th birthday. "Every year, on that day, Coretta and I would send each other flowers," Angelou said of King's widow, Coretta Scott King, who died in 2006. Angelou was little known outside the theatrical community until "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," which might not have happened if James Baldwin hadn't persuaded Angelou, still grieving over King's death, to attend a party at Jules Feiffer's house. Feiffer was so taken by Angelou that he mentioned her to Random House editor Bob Loomis, who persuaded her to write a book by daring her into it, saying that it was "nearly impossible to write autobiography as literature." "Well, maybe I will try it," Angelou responded. "I don't know how it will turn out. But I can try." Angelou's musical style was clear in a passage about boxing great Joe Louis's defeat in 1936 against German fighter Max Schmeling: "My race groaned," she wrote. "It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped. A Black boy whipped and maimed. It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy swamps. ... If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help." Angelou's memoir was occasionally attacked, for seemingly opposite reasons. In a 1999 essay in Harper's, author Francine Prose criticized "Caged Bird" as "manipulative" melodrama. Meanwhile, Angelou's passages about her rape and teen pregnancy have made it a perennial on the American Library Association's list of works that draw complaints from parents and educators. "'I thought that it was a mild book. There's no profanity," Angelou told the AP. "It speaks about surviving, and it really doesn't make ogres of many people. I was shocked to find there were people who really wanted it banned, and I still believe people who are against the book have never read the book." Angelou appeared on several TV programs, notably the groundbreaking 1977 miniseries "Roots." She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her appearance in the play "Look Away." She directed the film "Down in the Delta," about a drug-wrecked woman who returns to the home of her ancestors in the Mississippi Delta. She won three Grammys for her spoken-word albums and in 2013 received an honorary National Book Award for her contributions to the literary community. Back in the 1960s, Malcolm X had written to Angelou and praised her for her ability to communicate so directly, with her "feet firmly rooted on the ground." In 2002, Angelou communicated in an unexpected way when she launched a line of greeting cards with industry giant Hallmark. Angelou admitted she was cool to the idea at first. Then she went to Loomis, her editor at Random House. "I said, 'I'm thinking about doing something with Hallmark,'" she recalled. "And he said, 'You're the people's poet. You don't want to trivialize yourself.' So I said 'OK' and I hung up. And then I thought about it. And I thought, if I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in the people's hands - and I hope in their hearts. So I thought, 'Hmm, I'll do it.'" In North Carolina, she lived in an 18-room house and taught American Studies at Wake Forest University. She was also a member of the board of trustees for Bennett College, a private school for black women in Greensboro. Angelou hosted a weekly satellite radio show for XM's "Oprah & Friends" channel. She remained close enough to the Clintons that in 2008 she supported Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy over the ultimately successful run of the country's first black president, Barack Obama. But a few days before Obama's inauguration, she was clearly overjoyed. She told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette she would be watching it on television "somewhere between crying and praying and being grateful and laughing when I see faces I know." Active on the lecture circuit, she gave commencement speeches and addressed academic and corporate events across the country. Angelou received dozens of honorary degrees, and several elementary schools were named for her. As she approached her 80th birthday, she decided to study at the Missouri-based Unity Church, which advocates healing through prayer. "I was in Miami and my son (Guy Johnson, her only child) was having his 10th operation on his spine. I felt really done in by the work I was doing, people who had expected things of me," said Angelou, who then recalled a Unity church service she attended in Miami. "The preacher came out - a young black man, mostly a white church - and he came out and said, 'I have only one question to ask, and that is, "Why have you decided to limit God?'" And I thought, 'That's exactly what I've been doing.' So then he asked me to speak, and I got up and said, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.' And I said it about 50 times, until the audience began saying it with me, 'Thank you, THANK YOU!'" ___ Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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