Movie trailers go the extra mile
The new trailer released last week for The Social Network, the upcoming David Fincher-directed movie about the founding of Facebook, is an example of pure showmanship. A couple of underwhelming teasers helped introduce audiences to the concept — Fincher would explore the personal behind-the-scenes turmoil that accompanied the site’s launch as a networking tool for college students — but didn’t sell the idea as especially cinematic.
But the full trailer crystallizes the film’s themes nicely, and has generated a wave of Internet buzz. Featuring actual footage from the film but relying heavily on a mood-setting chorale version of Radiohead’s early hit “Creep” (essentially an anthem for social misfits), the trailer finally shows how the film may deal in compelling ways with overarching themes of jealousy, betrayal, insecurity, and online identity.
True Spies: Director Phillip Noyce master of spy genre
When it comes to delivering top-notch spy thrillers, Australian filmmaker Phillip Noyce is a veteran of the genre.
His previous credits include Patriot Games, Clear And Present Danger and The Quiet American. And now, with Salt due to arrive July 23, he's come to some firm conclusions about such movies and what they need to be effective on screen.
"I think the greatest hallmark of a spy thriller is that the audience should not be able to predict the outcome," he says crisply. "Spying is about discovering information and hiding real motivations and identities. That's what intrigues us most about spycraft. So a movie needs to mirror spycraft. It needs to keep you guessing."
Redbox Plots Web Strategy in Challenge to Netflix
Redbox, which became the fastest- growing U.S. video retailer with DVD kiosks and a $1-a-day rental price stores couldn’t match, is developing an online strategy to stay competitive with larger rival Netflix Inc.
The company, the biggest division of Coinstar Inc., may use a Web service to expand its library beyond the 200 or so titles crammed into each of its 24,000 or so DVD dispensers, President Mitch Lowe said in an interview from Redbox’s headquarters in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois.
“The way we look at it is, How can it help us deliver to our customers things we can’t do in our kiosks?” Lowe said. “What role might it play in expanding our selection?”
Sylvester Stallone refuses to be expendable
The lights were down low in Sylvester Stallone's Beverly Hills office on a recent afternoon so it was impossible to see the 64-year-old movie star's eyes behind his plum-tinted sunglasses. His snug Italian suit emphasized his still-muscular frame as he sat ramrod straight. His face doesn't move much, either, so he seemed like a statue, until he started recounting the moment when he knew that he was becoming expendable.
"It was that first Batman movie," he said, referring to the 1989 film starring Michael Keaton, an actor never known for biceps. "The action movies changed radically when it became possible to Velcro your muscles on. It was the beginning of a new era. The visual took over. The special effects became more important than the single person. That was the beginning of the end."
Bollywood reveals a dark side
When the censors took their cutting shears to Dibakar Banerjee's latest film, the Indian director was not particularly surprised when they decided to blur and trim a controversial sex scene. But when they chose to exclude an episode in which one of the characters refers to the low caste of another, he was both stunned and disappointed.
"The elephant in the room was caste," said Banerjee, whose film Love, Sex Aur Dhokha (Love, Sex And Betrayal) features Indian cinema's first, albeit shortened, sex scene. "They would rather that elephant is not there, but it is."
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Life as a Hollywood lawyer
Divas populate the walls of Leah Weil's office in the Thalberg building on the Sony lot: Patti LuPone, Alicia Keys, Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand. But a decade into her run as the studio's top lawyer, Weil presides over perhaps the most drama-free operation in town. The senior executive vp and general counsel of Sony Pictures Entertainment is THR's Raising the Bar honoree because she has successfully put out fires for an unusually broad group of divisions -- she oversees global theatrical, home entertainment, digital, television, government affairs, music, acquisitions, compliance, litigation, intellectual property and labor -- all while balancing two kids and a mild addiction to Broadway musicals.
Why Christopher Nolan is not the new Stanley Kubrick
In their eagerness to praise director Christopher Nolan and his new film, dream-thief actioner ‘Inception’, the critics have taken one particular phrase to their collective hearts: he’s the New Kubrick. Their reasoning is simple: both men have been allowed to exercise total creative control over their projects, both explore science fiction concepts, both utilise an often icy, clinical style and seem rather uncomfortable with the vagaries of real human emotion and experience.
But one viewing of ‘Inception’ should be enough for any viewer to find the holes in this lazy, facetious argument. Here are a few to get you started.
NEW MOVIES IN THEATERS – July 16, 2010
INCEPTION
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Ellen Page
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
The Plot: Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) is a thief who specializes in the art of extraction, the stealing of secrets from a target's subconscious. Though his profession cost him everything he has ever loved and has turned him into a fugitive, an offer for a final job -- one that requires him to plant an idea instead of pilfering it -- could be his chance at redemption.
THE SORCERER'S APPRENCTICE
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
The Plot: Master sorcerer Balthazar Black (Cage) recruits a seemingly everyday guy (Baruchel) in his mission to defend New York City from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Molina).
Being an extra on ‘Transformers 3′
New Batman movie to start shooting in April 2011
Sir Michael Caine has revealed that Christopher Nolan's next Batman movie will begin production next year.
Caine, who plays Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred Pennyworth in the superhero series, told said: "I think they're going to do it in April, that's about as much as I know."
Discussing his role in Nolan and Leonardo DiCaprio's upcoming sci-fi thriller Inception, he said: "In this I play Leonardo's father-in-law, but also the professor who teaches him about going into dreams, so I'm really quite clever!"
The next Batman is due in cinemas in summer 2012.