Sundance will ride into London again this April, showcasing the best of the American indie film festival. A mix of 20 drama and documentary features will be shown alongside music and comedy performances at the O2 arena. The pick of these looks set to be Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color, the follow-up to the visionary writer-director’s 2004 debut feature, the time-travelling head-wrecking science-fiction labyrinth Primer. Read the rest of this entry »
The Academy Awards are upon us yet again, with even more American chest-beating than last time Katheryn Bigelow was nominated, and won, with a controversial war drama. Last time, when Bigelow triumphed with the Hurt Locker in 2009, the atmosphere was pretty patriotic. But this year takes it to the next level, with three dramas about American power all competing for the Best Picture – Lincoln, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty.
So who should win, and who will? Read the rest of this entry »
Two of the most romantic films of all time are set to become part of a trilogy with the release of Before Midnight, a follow-up to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. It will be Richard Linklater’s third film about the fleeting romance of Jesse and Celine, played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Read the rest of this entry »
Hollywood star Bradley Cooper and outspoken Star Trek director JJ Abrams have been in talks about working together on a film about Lance Armstrong’s controversial life.
Abrams told Entertainment Tonight that the two had been talking after Cooper emailed the director expressing his interest in playing the disgraced cyclist. Last week Abrams’ production company Bad Robot and Paramount Pictures secured the rights to Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong, a book proposal by Juliet Macur.
Hollywood is always remaking what it shouldn’t. Rather than tackle films that had great potential but just couldn’t quite get there, they focus all of their attention of films that were amazing, had a cult following and don’t want to see it reborn as a 3D blockbuster starring Kristen Stewart or Zac Efron.
The big news this week is George Lucas’ decision to sign over his film production company LucasFilm, including its flagship brand Star Wars, for $4 billion (around £2.5 billion).
I’ll be honest, I love Star Wars. I’m not a fan enough to dress up, attend premieres or know every single line of dialogue, but I’m a fan enough to know that Han shot first. The original trilogy (that is Episodes IV, V and VI) sat in my living room in a boxet on VHS and my brothers and sister used to sit down with our dad to watch them. Loved it. Even if we didn’t really get it the first time round.
The latest outing from Tim ‘king-of-the-goths’ Burton, Frankenweenie is a remake of his 1984 live-action short that he developed while working as an animator for Disney. The film he made was apparently far too dark to market to children and he was fired for wasting company resources. Now, Disney are crawling back to the legendary auteur. After proving that his own creepy style is one of the most bankable behind-camera efforts in Hollywood, the traditional Disney castle opening even gets a moody black-and-white makeover.
The film itself is everything you would expect from Burton. Well, a younger Burton anyway. Frankenweenie marks a rise back to form after the awkward Dark Shadows and miscalculated Alice in Wonderland. Perhaps it is the return to stop-motion animation that has brought to life everything that makes Burton such a wonderful filmmaker. His doodles and designs are brought to life on page and this story goes even deeper than his previous animation Corpse Bride (which was entertaining but still lacking… something).
Graham Chapman exists as one of the greatest comedic talents that the world has ever seen, and we’re kind of proud that he’s British. Climbing to fame with Monty Python, he quickly situated himself as quick-witted and far cleverer than some of the sillier jokes that the sketch troupe put together.
He was also a troubled man. Openly gay, in a time when the world was far less tolerant, and struggling with alcoholism, his friends described him as a man “constantly trying to find himself”. He was introspective and melancholy in the public eye and sadly passed away in 1989, taking a bit more laughter out of the world.
The new time-travelling sci-fi flick from Rian Johnson (who brought us the fantastic Brick and The Brothers Bloom) features Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a professional hitman called a ‘looper’, who must track down his future self Bruce Willis.
A strange premise, and one that can easily ‘fry your brain’ (as one character puts it) when you think about it too much. Looper is smart and new, while keeping to the same sci-fi tricks that will keep genre fans enticed. Johnson decides to depart from the white, pristine vision of the future for a dirty, almost-apocalyptic and poverty-stricken future that is reminiscent of older sci-fi films like Blade Runner and beautifully done.
Andrew Dominik, the man who brought us the fantastically dark comedy Chopper and the largely underestimated epic The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, brings a new tight and visceral look at the criminal world during the economic collapse of 2008.
Brad Pitt, who had worked with Dominik on The Assassination of Jesse James, returns for a second collaboration (and a producer credit) plays Cogan, a professional mob enforcer called in to find out and kill the two bumbling criminals (played exceptionally by Sam Shepard and Scoot McNairy) who turned over a mob poker game.
