When Harmony Korine’s short film Umshini Wam screened alongside the latest from Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook ( Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Thirst ) at SXSW, both efforts had an unproven element to unveil. For Korine, the wild cards were his stars, the South African hip-hop act Die Antwoord. But for Park, it was something even more groundbreaking: he filmed the mystical, spiritual ghost story Night Fishing entirely using the iPhone 4.
Precious balladeer Taylor Swift landed a voice-acting gig that will test her Seussical mettle — a lead role in upcoming animated adaptation of The Lorax alongside Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Rob Riggle, and Betty White. This comes on the heels of Katy Perry’s Smurfs contribution, which begs the question: Why don’t all pop stars do more voice-acting? Let’s help five others out with suggestions for animated roles.
It looks like for once, a casting rumor may be true. According to “an individual with knowledge of the deal,” Gary Ross and the producers decided that Oscar-nominated Jennifer Lawrence had the right combination of strength and emaciation to play Katniss in the upcoming Hunger Games film, and her deal to star in the film is now confirmed per The Wrap. (Neither Lionsgate nor Lawrence’s reps have spoken officially about this report yet.) Obviously, we have our our own ideas about this, but chime in with your reactions. [ The Wrap ]
Also in this St. Patrick’s Day edition of The Broadsheet: Shia LaBeouf grows Horns … Albert Brooks and Judd Apatow may finally team up… Liam Neeson still a go for Taken 2 … and more ahead.
Summit Entertainment still has the final two installments of The Twilight Saga to bring in untold fortunes , but that doesn’t mean the studio isn’t thinking ahead. The Los Angeles Times reports that Summit is looking to make The Last Witch Hunter its next big franchise. The script — about a man who hunts witches and warlocks — was on the Black List in 2010, and the studio has apparently met with Breck Eisner to discuss directing. No casting yet — though Vin Diesel has reportedly expressed interest — but expect Charlie Sheen to throw his hat in the ring soon. Dude is a real-life warlock hunter. [ LAT /24 Frames ]
With spring in the air on the East Coast — and a little bit of booze; it is St. Patrick’s Day after all — what better time to be reminded that the multiplex will soon be overflowing with summer blockbusters. Of all the studios shopping their wares, Disney seems the most excited to kick-off summertime, as they’ve begun a full court press for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides . Earlier this week, that meant the release of the Johnny Depp-centric character poster; now, it’s time for Penelope Cruz to get into the spotlight.
RPattz will debut an exclusive ‘Water for Elephants’ clip and answer fan questions live Friday at 8:56 p.m. ET on MTV.com. By Eric Ditzian Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage Robert Pattinson later confessed that the kiss “didn’t work,” but there are legions of “Twilight” fans who would surely disagree. That smooch with Kristen Stewart, after all, might just be the closest any fan will ever get to seeing the duo lock lips in a setting where they’re not pretending to be Forks, Washington, lovebirds. It all went down at the MTV Movie Awards in June of last year, when Pattinson and Stewart took the stage to accept the Golden Popcorn statue for Best Kiss and ended up, awkwardly and charmingly, kissing onstage. The moment immediately became one of the most memorable in Movie Awards history, so it’s no surprise that it’s also one of our favorite RPattz moments — a top-five list we’re counting down before the debut of “MTV First: Robert Pattinson” this Friday at 8:56 p.m. ET. To fully understand the kiss, we’ve got to flash back to 2009, when the actors won their first Best Kiss award . Pattinson leaned into the mic and announced that he had to take the gum out of his mouth. He and KStew stared at each other as if readying for a kiss. They closed their eyes, leaned in, brushed noses — but that’s as close as they’d get. “Thank you so much!” Stewart declared, before they scampered backstage. A year later, they found themselves back onstage, once again accepting the Best Kiss win. “So I guess the thing to do — we’re supposed to kiss each other,” Stewart said. “But to be perfectly honest with you, it takes a lot of smoke and mirrors to make us look good kissing. We don’t want to let you guys down. We’ll give it a shot.” Much like the year before, they seemed to be teasing the audience with the prospect of a Robsten kiss without actually delivering one. Until they did. And the Twi-verse imploded. That didn’t stop Pattinson from telling us afterward that he wasn’t all that pleased with how things went. “I had the best ideas last night,” he told us backstage. “And I was telling everyone, ‘Listen, just leave it to me, I’ve got it all under control.’ I was telling everyone all these ideas. I gave them a whole selection and no one thought they were funny, so then we ended up doing something which didn’t work.” RPattz may not have loved the way things turned out, but the onstage bit they went with sounded a lot better than some of those other ideas of his. “He wanted to be hula-hooping with a match in his mouth, and then he wanted to light a match while I was juggling and he was hula-hooping, and he wanted to put it in my mouth and see if we could make our way over to each other,” Stewart told us later . “It didn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me. I was like, ‘I can’t juggle onstage in shoes. I can barely walk up the stairs.’ ” Don’t miss “MTV First: Robert Pattinson” this Friday at 8:56 p.m. ET on MTV and MTV.com. Tune in to see RPattz introduce a new “Water for Elephants” clip, followed by a live 30-minute interview on MTV.com. Tweet questions using the hashtag #askrob to get in the conversation!
On Monday it was announced David Lynch will direct Duran Duran’s live-streaming concert on March 23, which led to a collective, “Wait, what?” across the Internet. Lynch — known for cerebral movies like Blue Velvet and this-makes-no-sense-to-any-rational-human-being movies like Mulholland Drive — may not seem like the go-to point man for an ’80s new wave pop group like Duran Duran. Then again, you may have forgotten just how well orchestrated and bizarre some of Duran Duran’s videos actually are. (Remember, this is a band that got their name from the Jane Fonda movie, Barbarella .) In preparation for whatever Lynch’s version of a Duran Duran concert is going to look like (here’s hoping that it takes a series of 10 clues to interpret), let’s take a refresher course on five Duran Duran videos that already look like they were directed by David Lynch.
Nearly fifty years after the tragic murder of Sam Cooke — the “King of Soul,” whose musical contributions and Civil Rights successes continue to inspire todat — it looks like Hollywood is just one step closer to adapting his story into a biopic. This hesitant pace — when it comes to one of the greatest soul singers of all time — begs the question: “What the hell does it take to get a biopic made these days?” 25 answers to this all-important question lie ahead.
Fox hasn’t forgotten about the idle Daredevil franchise parked in its garage, today reportedly enlisting The Twilight Saga: Eclipse director David Slade to revive the comics-hero series.
