Charles Bramesco
Daniel Radcliffe’s Dead-ish Body Saves the Day in Bizarre ‘Swiss Army Man’ Trailer
Among the hottest topics of conversation at Sundance back in January was a picture by the name of Swiss Army Man, or as it was commonly referred to, “the farting corpse movie.” Described by Variety as “Cast Away meets Weekend at Bernie’s as directed my Michel Gondry,” the singularly weird picture casts Paul Dano as Hank, a man marooned on a desert island who has officially exhausted all his option
Study Indicates Racially Diverse Movies Perform Better at Box-Office
Historically, the number-one rationale behind the overwhelming whiteness of Hollywood has been the financial imperative, the dubious claim that movies with predominantly black casts then become “black movies,” which is to say that they are niche movies, which is to say that they are not profitable...
Paramount Sues Fan-Made ‘Star Trek’ Film Over Copyrights on Ears, Klingon Language
The tough thing about using someone else’s ideas to make money is that it’s not entirely legal. This lesson had to be learned the hard way this past weekend by Alec Peters, producer of an independent film titled Prelude to Axanar. The Star Trek fan film drew quite a bit of ire from copyright holders Paramount after a crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo brought this grassroots DIY production over half a million dollars last summer. The promise to make a “studio-quality” film including characters, settings, and other elements from the heavily-licensed Star Trek franchise with no engagement from the relevant studio spelled doom for the Axanar team, and now the chickens have come home to roost.
Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood Turn to a Life of Crime in ‘The Trust’ Trailer
At this point in his long and illustrious career, Nicolas Cage has become more of a force of nature than mere actor. He’s like the weather: always in the process of making movies, with no rhyme or reason dictating which ones will be good, which ones will be bad, and which ones will be bad in a way that makes you feel good. Sometimes it rains, sometimes the sun shines, and while we can try as we may to predict the forecast, you can never tell how much fun a Nicolas Cage picture will be until you’re watching it.
Jesse Eisenberg Grieves in the ‘Louder Than Bombs’ Trailer
English-language debuts from foreign-language auteurs are always a dicey proposition. In the best cases, the director maintains his or her artistic signature and imposes it on actors domestic audiences recognize in language we can speak, creating a more immediately affecting experience — 2014’s Snowpiercer is a fine example, bringing South Korean master Bong Joon-ho to American audiences. Too often, however, what makes a foreign director’s filmography great can get lost in translation, or snuffed out by overbearing studio heads. With his latest film Louder Than Bombs, Norwegian talent Joachim Trier makes the jump, working in English with such familiar faces as Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne, and Devin Druid. (You know, from the episode of Louie where he smokes pot as a teenager?) Having caught the picture back in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, I come today bearing good news: Louder Than Bombs is the real deal.
Bear Witness to ‘Trumped,’ Jimmy Kimmel’s Very Trumpy ‘Producers’ Parody
Last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live pulled back the curtain on a five-minute rework of Mel Brook’s Broadway tour-de-farce The Producers called Trumped: the Musical.
USC Study Exposes Hollywood as Overwhelmingly White, Sky Blue, Grass Green
If you’ll believe it, and all it takes is a quick jaunt into the comments section on any major entertainment-news web site (except this one, whose commenters are perfect and good-looking) to make you believe it, there are some folks out there who remain unconvinced that there’s a problem of homogeneity in Hollywood. These folks stuck to their convictions, unswayed by this year’s all-white slate of Oscar nominees that the American film industry has been giving actors of color the short shrift. But even if we concede that there were no performances from black actors deserving of a nomination this year, which is false and not true, what of the fact that a minuscule percentage of annual studio releases feature black performers in headlining roles? Black-fronted films aren’t moneymakers, and a movie studio is a business above all things, comes the factually inaccurate and vaguely racist reply. (See: The Force Awakens.)
Amazon Will Release Woody Allen’s Next Movie
Amazon is going all in on the Woody Allen business. The streaming-video giant has made some decisive moves in their quest to supplant Netflix as the dominant player in this increasingly crowded marketplace, one of which was landing Woody Allen for an original TV series back in January 2015. Last time he checked in about it, Allen wasn’t doing so hot with the TV format — he told Deadline that he “regretted every second since I said okay” to helming the six-episode series for Amazon — but he evidently enjoyed working with the studio, because Amazon has now announced that they will release Allen’s untitled next film.
Kids Spew the Darnedest Things in New ‘The Darkness’ Trailer
The Taylor family takes a vacation to the Grand Canyon, but they bring back more than cherished memories and sun poisoning; an angry Native American spirit (which is a weak and culturally questionable stock villain we were really supposed to be better than by now, but moving on) intent on first leaving greasy handprints on everything in their otherwise immaculate home, then taking over li’l Mikey’s body and dribbling blood out the boy’s mouth.
See Harry Potter With a Live Orchestra Accompaniment on an Upcoming ‘Film Concert’ Tour
WB and CineConcerts have partnered to produce a series of events at which a full orchestra will provide a live performance of John Williams’ iconic theme music in perfect tandem with the film.