The much-anticipated Daniel Radcliffe ghost-story thriller The Woman in Black opens Feb. 3. This calls for a giveaway! But considering what you stand to win (including an iPod Nano and a signed WIB poster), we’re going to make you work for it. (Sort of.) Welcome to Movieline’s Daniel Radcliffe Mini Fan Fiction Sweepstakes! [ UPDATE 2/2: Contest is now closed — thanks to all who participated! Scroll down for the winning submission. ] First things first: The prize line-up!
It’s the biggest, most important question of the season, people: Whom will Reese Witherspoon choose, between pillow-lipped Brit Tom Hardy and confident playboy Chris Pine , in the spy vs. spy love triangle rom-com This Means War ? While you won’t get any spoilers here for the Valentine’s Day release, let Hardy and director McG tease you with the envelope-pushing alternate ending ideas that didn’t quite make it to the final cut. (And no — McG didn’t learn from Terminator: Salvation , which he admitted he “pussed out on.” Hindsight, my friends.) [To the hardcore spoiler-averse who don’t even want to know what doesn’t happen in the film, a mild warning for what follows…] The McG-helmed romantic action-comedy This Means War , written by X-Men: The Last Stand scribe Simon Kinberg, finds Reese Witherspoon dating Hardy and Pine at the same time, unaware that they are CIA spies and best friends. As both men find themselves falling for her she must decide which beau she truly wants to be with. At a press conference today in Los Angeles, McG revealed one idea that was tossed around early on for ending the film in an unconventional way – by releasing two endings into theaters simultaneously, one in which Witherspoon ends up with Hardy and another where she chooses Pine, with no indication to moviegoers of what they were in for. “We wanted to have flexibility and even talked about two endings and releasing it on 3,000 screens — 1,500 have this [ending] and 1,500 have that one, and just not saying anything,” McG said. “But it felt a little gimmicky in the end.” Releasing two endings into theaters in wide release? Now that would have been interesting, possibly even a worthy financial gamble if moviegoers enjoyed the film enough to see it again, either on home video or in theaters, just to see the alternate ending; the most famous predecessor to do this is probably Jonathan Lynn’s Clue , which was distributed to theaters with three different surprise endings. Clue , of course, was a financial failure (though admittedly deserving of its cult status ), so perhaps following this precedent was ultimately unwise for McG and Co., but let’s put it out there: Hollywood, why not try breaking the mold sometime? That said, there was another idea for concluding the film that would have defied Hollywood convention, story-wise. “There’s even an ending where the two boys end up in each other’s arms,” joked McG. “That should have been the ending,” added Hardy from across the podium. “It would have been a really groundbreaking ending! You should have gone for it, really gone for it.” “I know, I know,” McG answered. “I pussed out on the ending of Terminator 4 … so I should’ve gone for the dark ending of this one.” Stay tuned for more on This Means War to come in my forthcoming junket diary, posting next week… Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Paul Thomas Anderson diehards have gossiped for months over reports that the filmmaker is shooting an undisclosed portion of his next film, known as The Master , on 65mm — the IMAX film format used recently, and to great effect, by the likes of Christopher Nolan and DP Wally Pfister on The Dark Knight and Brad Bird and DP Robert Elswit on Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol . In a Twitter exchange yesterday, Pixar veterans Bird, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich geeked out over the joys of 70mm film, dropping a bit of confirmation that Anderson is indeed shooting in the format. In a conversation about 70mm exhibition and 65mm film shooting, Stanton — who just finished his first live-action foray, John Carter , for Disney — Tweeted: ” The Master is indeed in 65. They nearly lost a camera shooting in the Bay.” You’d think Bird would’ve known seeing as Ghost Protocol DP Elswit is Anderson’s longtime cinematographer, but… there you have it. Assuming Stanton is indeed in the know, this would confirm a report earlier this year by the Anderson-watchers at Cigarettes and Red Vines that Anderson was shooting The Master in 65mm with DP Mihai Malaimare Jr., who lensed Youth Without Youth , Tetro , and the forthcoming Twixt for Francis Ford Coppola. Though many speculate that the plot of The Master has ties to Scientology, all that is known officially is that it’s a post-WWII set drama revolving around a charismatic leader of a faith-based organization (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and a drifter who becomes his right-hand man (Joaquin Phoenix). In any case, it promises to be an unusual use of 65mm/70mm than what modern audiences are used to since the scope and visual detail that the format can achieve hasn’t really yet been employed in non-action usage. Surely cause for excitement — right, Anderson fans? (And for you Pixar fans — how amazing was it to witness the Tweet circle between Bird, Stanton, and Unkrich? So nerdy. So awesome.) [@ AndrewStanton , CinemaBlend , Cigarettes and Red Vines ]
Paul Thomas Anderson diehards have gossiped for months over reports that the filmmaker is shooting an undisclosed portion of his next film, known as The Master , on 65mm — the IMAX film format used recently, and to great effect, by the likes of Christopher Nolan and DP Wally Pfister on The Dark Knight and Brad Bird and DP Robert Elswit on Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol . In a Twitter exchange yesterday, Pixar veterans Bird, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich geeked out over the joys of 70mm film, dropping a bit of confirmation that Anderson is indeed shooting in the format. In a conversation about 70mm exhibition and 65mm film shooting, Stanton — who just finished his first live-action foray, John Carter , for Disney — Tweeted: ” The Master is indeed in 65. They nearly lost a camera shooting in the Bay.” You’d think Bird would’ve known seeing as Ghost Protocol DP Elswit is Anderson’s longtime cinematographer, but… there you have it. Assuming Stanton is indeed in the know, this would confirm a report earlier this year by the Anderson-watchers at Cigarettes and Red Vines that Anderson was shooting The Master in 65mm with DP Mihai Malaimare Jr., who lensed Youth Without Youth , Tetro , and the forthcoming Twixt for Francis Ford Coppola. Though many speculate that the plot of The Master has ties to Scientology, all that is known officially is that it’s a post-WWII set drama revolving around a charismatic leader of a faith-based organization (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and a drifter who becomes his right-hand man (Joaquin Phoenix). In any case, it promises to be an unusual use of 65mm/70mm than what modern audiences are used to since the scope and visual detail that the format can achieve hasn’t really yet been employed in non-action usage. Surely cause for excitement — right, Anderson fans? (And for you Pixar fans — how amazing was it to witness the Tweet circle between Bird, Stanton, and Unkrich? So nerdy. So awesome.) [@ AndrewStanton , CinemaBlend , Cigarettes and Red Vines ]
Candidates campaigning for the Presidential ticket usually opt for safe campaign songs carefully chosen to align themselves consciously and subconsciously with certain sets of values, but last night, Ron Paul went a different route: He and his supporters celebrated their second-place victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary to the sounds of “The Imperial March” from Star Wars . Yes, Darth Vader ‘s theme song. Most folks know the Imperial March is not your traditional signifier of wholesome, upstanding goodness. I mean, it’s Darth Vader’s personal theme , the ditty that warns of impending throat crushings and legions of Stormtroopers at the ready to exact all manner of evil for the dark side. But Paul, as the Telegraph noted , knows his demographic. And he gave a rally cry of a speech following his New Hampshire success that explained the song choice, kinda. “I sort of have to chuckle when they describe you and me as being ‘dangerous,’ Paul said to a crowd that reportedly cheered the loudest when the ominous Vader tune played over the loudspeakers. “That’s one thing they are telling the truth, because we are dangerous — to the status quo!” Sure? Over at NPR’s Morning Edition geek props are in order to Robert Smith for his amusing report on the random confluence of Star Wars and Ron Paul, which suggests that Paul is channeling more Skywalker than Vader: “Getting the nomination for Ron Paul is like hitting a 2-meter target from an X-wing fighter.” Which makes New Hampshire voters, perhaps, the womp rats? In any case, just another curious instance of pop culture co-opting after all that superhero chatter and Paul’s Bond villain-esque nickname, “Dr. No.” (He does kind of resemble an impish Joseph Wiseman…) [ NPR , Telegraph ]
Anyone who’s seen Contagion (or, let’s be honest, even just the trailer for Contagion ) knows that Steven Soderbergh is not precious about keeping his biggest stars breathing for the duration of his films. And when you think about it, that is kind of an awesome against-the-tide trend that few directors — okay, few studios — have the wherewithal to attempt. Chatting with the UK’s Independent about Contagion and Haywire , Soderbergh dropped some science on the art of manipulating the very essence of stardom in movies to great effect. “It’s always good to kill movie stars,” he told the Independent. “I think that the two most important things that have happened to that aspect of movies in the last 50 years are Hitchcock killing off Janet Leigh in a way that nobody had ever dreamed of doing – taking his heroine and killing her off after 40 minutes – and… Mike Nichols casting Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate . That changed everything.” “Now it’s back to the way it was before that single decision totally turned the world upside down in terms of what was people’s idea of a movie star. That one stroke ushered in the great actors who followed, De Niro, Pacino and Nicholson.” So how does one shake up audience expectation again in movies chock-full of A-listers? [ Spoilers ] Have them pummeled to a pulp by unknown MMA fighter-ladies! Cut their brains open in the first act! Blame it all on chickens! [ End spoilers ] All hail Soderbergh! Kill your idols! (Figuratively speaking.) [ The Independent via Movie City News ]
It’s the quotidian, almost invisible bits that matter most behind the camera on a movie set. Take the sliver of video newly available on a Tumblr called Mouth Taped Shut , by all appearances another bit of authorized viral marketing for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo — this time featuring David Fincher directing Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer extolling Fincher’s virtues (and leveling a not-so-prescient Oscar-season pledge) and snapshots from the production.
Few films in recent memory traverse the urban terrain of Los Angeles as memorably as Nicolas Winding Refn ‘s Drive , the stylish, sublime (and yes, ultra-violent) September 16 “fairytale” starring Ryan Gosling as a soft-spoken stunt man who gets mixed up with vicious gangsters in the city of angels. Using practical locations from downtown to the Valley, Refn paints a portrait of L.A. seldom seen in even the best L.A. stories — and with nary a glimpse of glitzy Hollywood in sight. Dive into Movieline’s interactive Drive map and explore the landscape of Refn’s Los Angeles, in the director’s own words.
Breaking Sports Video
