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Academy Award Nominees Announced – ‘Lincoln’ Leads 2013 Oscar Noms

Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards have come in with Lincoln and Beasts of the Southern Wild making strong showings in the initial list of noms Thursday morning. (More to come). Best Motion Picture of the Year “Amour” Nominees to be determined “Argo” Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers “Django Unchained” Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers “Les Misérables” Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers “Life of Pi” Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers “Lincoln” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers “Silver Linings Playbook” Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers “Zero Dark Thirty” Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers Achievement in Directing “Amour” Michael Haneke “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Benh Zeitlin “Life of Pi” Ang Lee “Lincoln” Steven Spielberg “Silver Linings Playbook” David O. Russell Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook” Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln” Hugh Jackman in “Les Misérables” Joaquin Phoenix in “The Master” Denzel Washington in “Flight” Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Alan Arkin in “Argo” Robert De Niro in “Silver Linings Playbook” Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master” Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln” Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained” Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Jessica Chastain in “Zero Dark Thirty” Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook” Emmanuelle Riva in “Amour” Quvenzhané Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Naomi Watts in “The Impossible” Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Amy Adams in “The Master” Sally Field in “Lincoln” Anne Hathaway in “Les Misérables” Helen Hunt in “The Sessions” Jacki Weaver in “Silver Linings Playbook” Animated Feature Film “Brave” Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman “Frankenweenie” Tim Burton “ParaNorman” Sam Fell and Chris Butler “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” Peter Lord “Wreck-It Ralph” Rich Moore Achievement in Production Design ” Anna Karenina ,” Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer ” The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ,” Production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright ” Les Misérables ,” Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson ” Life of Pi ,” Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock ” Lincoln ,” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson Achievement in Cinematography “Anna Karenina,” Seamus McGarvey “Django Unchained,” Robert Richardson “Life of Pi,” Claudio Miranda “Lincoln,” Janusz Kaminski “Skyfall,” Roger Deakins Achievement in Costume Design “Anna Karenina,” Jacqueline Durran “Les Misérables,” Paco Delgado “Lincoln,” Joanna Johnston “Mirror Mirror,” Eiko Ishioka “Snow White and the Huntsman,” Colleen Atwood Best Documentary Feature “5 Broken Cameras,” Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi “The Gatekeepers,” Nominees to be determined “How to Survive a Plague,” Nominees to be determined “The Invisible War,” Nominees to be determined “Searching for Sugar Man,” Nominees to be determined Documentary Short Subject “Inocente,” Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine “Kings Point,” Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider “Mondays at Racine,” Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan “Open Heart,” Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern “Redemption,” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill Achievement in Film Editing “Argo” William Goldenberg “Life of Pi” Tim Squyres “Lincoln” Michael Kahn “Silver Linings Playbook” Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers “Zero Dark Thirty” Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg Best Foreign-Language Film of the Year “Amour” Austria “Kon-Tiki” Norway “No” Chile “A Royal Affair” Denmark “War Witch” Canada Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling “Hitchcock,” Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane “Les Misérables,” Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) “Anna Karenina,” Dario Marianelli “Argo,” Alexandre Desplat “Life of Pi,” Mychael Danna “Lincoln,” John Williams “Skyfall,” Thomas Newman Music Original Song “Before My Time” from “Chasing Ice,” Music and Lyric by J. Ralph “Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from “Ted,” Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane “Pi’s Lullaby” from “Life of Pi,” Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri “Skyfall” from “Skyfall,” Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth “Suddenly” from “Les Misérables,” Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil Best Animated Short Film “Adam and Dog” Minkyu Lee “Fresh Guacamole” PES “Head over Heels” Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly “Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”” David Silverman “Paperman” John Kahrs Best Live Action Short Film “Asad” Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura “Buzkashi Boys” Sam French and Ariel Nasr “Curfew” Shawn Christensen “Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)” Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele “Henry” Yan England Sound Editing “Argo” Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn “Django Unchained” Wylie Stateman “Life of Pi” Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton “Skyfall” Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers “Zero Dark Thirty” Paul N.J. Ottosson Sound Mixing “Argo,” John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia “Les Misérables,” Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes “Life of Pi,” Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin “Lincoln,” Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins “Skyfall,” Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson Visual Effects “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White “Life of Pi” Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott “Marvel’s The Avengers” Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick “Prometheus” Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill “Snow White and the Huntsman” Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson Adapted Screenplay “Argo” Screenplay by Chris Terrio “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin “Life of Pi” Screenplay by David Magee “Lincoln” Screenplay by Tony Kushner “Silver Linings Playbook” Screenplay by David O. Russell Original Screenplay “Amour” Written by Michael Haneke “Django Unchained” Written by Quentin Tarantino “Flight” Written by John Gatins “Moonrise Kingdom” Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola “Zero Dark Thirty” Written by Mark Boal http://www.youtube.com/user/Oscars?v=cM3-uj3rOns

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Academy Award Nominees Announced – ‘Lincoln’ Leads 2013 Oscar Noms

Samuel L. Jackson Talks Slavery, Star Wars & His ‘Sanitized’ Character In ‘Django Unchained’

A career of playing righteous bad-asses in  Pulp Fiction , the Star Wars   prequel trilogy and the Marvel superhero movies  has made Samuel L. Jackson one of the highest grossing actors of all time.  Which makes his decision to play Stephen, the calculating and merciless right-hand man of plantation owner Calvin Candie ( Leonardo DiCaprio ) in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Jackson’s most daring acting choice yet. Fans of the actor who see Tarantino’s spaghetti southern, which opens Christmas day, in the hopes of seeing Jackson in a Jules Winnfield -style role are in for quite a surprise. The 64-year-old Jackson originally wanted the role of the film’s titular hero, but when he learned he was too old for the part, he took the role of one of  Django’s main antagonists and set out to make him, as he says in the interview below, ” the most reprehensible negro in cinema history.”  Although it’s hard to imagine, Jackson told Movieline that he was initially depicted as even more villainous in earlier cut of Django Unchained , but that Tarantino “sanitized” Stephen in the editing room. Jackson also talked about his desire to reprise Mace Windu in Disney’s reboot of the Star Wars franchise and his frustration with America’s refusal to confront its history with slavery. Movieline: Stephen is such a complex character.  He manages to be a villain, a slave and a father figure to Calvin Candie. There are also parallels between Stephen’s relationship to Calvin and Django’s relationship to Dr. King Schultz.  Was all of this in the script? Samuel Jackson:   It’s always been in the script. When Quentin and I were talking about it, he was saying that they were mirrored relationships and by the time Django and Schultz got to Candyland they would have developed the relationship that Calvin and I have always had. Theirs is more mentor/mentee. And ours is more father/son. But it’s still the same kind of relationship. Your character turns out to be the power behind the throne at Candyland. Yeah, I’m the brains at the plantation.  I know what’s going on and I’ve been around longer. And Calvin is not the brightest candle in the room. As I said earlier, I’m the Dick Cheney of Candyland. Given what this movie has to say about slavery and how reprehensible your character is, did you have to think twice about taking this part? Not at all. When I read the script, and realized I wasn’t Django and then who Stephen was, I was like, okay, we’ve seen Uncle Toms, we’ve seen slaves, we’ve seen Stepin Fetchit, but we never seen this guy.  And the potential for him to be the most reprehensible negro in cinema history is there. I think you succeed there. It’s in the film, but like Quentin says, we’re also talking about things that you don’t see.  There are scenes we shot that aren’t in the movie in which I do some things that are way more reprehensible than what you actually see on screen.” Such as? Well in that scene where Django’s hanging upside down, and I give that speech. There’s a whole other section of that speech that goes on where I torture him. ” I burn his nipples off with a hot poker.  I do all kinds of  shit to him in that scene that would have just made people go, ‘ Ahhhhh!” Just for fun? There’s another scene we shot where, when Django first gets to Candyland, he and Stephen have a physical altercation. I show him to his room, and I say something to him and he slaps me down. He actually puts his hands on me. I’m supposed to be old and weak, so I don’t do anything.  He puts his foot in my chest and he says all this shit to me about how fucked up I am and kicks me out of the room. He kicks me in the ass and kicks me out of the room.  And from that point on, I’m on his ass trying to figure out what’s up. So there’s that, and I do some other things to some other slaves that are in the house that you actually see me do on the screen.  I say shit about them, I reprimand them and do shit to them.  So, Stephen is a detestable character who could have been much more detestable. Quentin sanitized Stephen a bit. What’s interesting about this movie is that it’s very entertaining and, yet, I had quite a visceral reaction to the scenes of brutality involving slaves. Yeah, they’re horrific. The guy sitting next to me walked out. Oh did he? And didn’t come back? No, he didn’t come back.  And I got the impression that Tarantino wants moviegoers to really feel the brutality of those scenes.   It’s not an easy time.  You know, every time people do a movie about slavery, you don’t see that kind of shit.  You might see a person get whipped, or you might see somebody get dressed down or shackled or whatever. But, you know, human life was cheap to those people.  If you did something wrong, an example was made to make sure that whoever saw [the punishment] knew this is what could happen to you. We’ll cut your foot off. We’ll cut your hand off.  You know, they used to take pregnant women — take one of them, cut her belly open, drop the baby out and just stomp it to death in front of all the slaves. Good lord. Just to let them know:  I own you. I can do whatever I want with you.  Like Leo says, “I can smash your brains out if I feel like it.” As a poorly informed white guy, by the end of the movie, I certainly felt like I had a greater understanding of why there’s so much lingering anger over that period in American history. Yeah, because we’ve been avoiding really talking about it. Okay, so you fucked over the Indians, and you gave them their land back and tax-free casinos.  You fucked over the Japanese. You interred them during World War II and then you turned around and you gave all of them some money. Well, after you fucked us over, we didn’t get the 40 acres and a mule. You look at us every day and go, “Fuck y’all.” When the subject of reparations is raised, everybody goes: “Well, I didn’t have slaves. Those were my ancestors. Get over it.”  Well you didn’t ask those other motherfuckers to get over it. Why do we got to get over it? When I was in Liverpool doing Formula 51 , that port was one of the first places slave ships stopped on the way over here. And there are huge shipping buildings that used to be shipping corporations and all of them have these slave faces painted on their facades. And people there told me, “Well, you know, there was a lot of slave trade here and this [city] was built on the blood of slaves.  So we have their faces on the buildings.”  And then they had a big apology ceremony while I was there. They owned up to their responsibility and their part in the slave trade. America has never done any shit like that. Do you think it would help or is too little, too late at this point? Fuck no. We’re past all that shit. There’s also been quite a bit of discussion  in the media over the number of times that the word “nigger” is uttered in the movie. There was no other term for who we were. They weren’t talking about African-Americans and Negros. That was the name. That was it. How do you feel about white people using the word, for example in a pop-culture context. I’m kind of over it.  I grew up hearing it. I grew up in Tennessee during segregation, so it was something that was screamed out, of course. When people ask me, ‘What’s the first time you were called nigger?’ I say, probably some time in my house when I was like one or two years old . So, I can look at a person and tell what their intent is, and I deal with it that way. I deal with it in context. Your performance as Stephen is full of surprises beginning with the moment that you first appear onscreen. What is your favorite scene in the movie? My favorite scene is not in the movie.   Seriously?  What happens in it? My favorite scene is the one in the barn where I explain to Django [who’s been captured and suspended upside down] what the problem was between him and me:  He put his hands on me, and nobody has ever touched me in my life. I explain that I’ve been on this plantation 70-odd years and I’ve seen all kinds of shit done to niggers:  hanging, drowning — Some of that does remain in the movie. And after I run through this litany of all this horrific shit that gets done to slaves, I say, you know I ain’t never been touched, and your black ass shows up and slaps me down. I’m doing this because you put your hands on me. Can you see any reason to empathize with the character you play? He’s a product of his environment. His grandfather did that job. His father did that job.  He’d never been in the fields.  He was raised to be Calvin Candie’s right-hand-man and because he’s in that position, not only can he read and write, he writes the checks. He runs the plantation. He makes sure the cotton gets picked. He is the king of a 75-mile radius world, and he knows that if he steps foot outside that, he’s just another slave in the South. So why wouldn’t he want that? As far as he knows, that system has worked all his life. Plus the white people on the plantation take orders from him.  What better world could he be in? You’ve been pretty vocal about your desire to reprise the role of Mace Windu in one of the new Star Wars movies that Disney is making. Has the studio talked to you at all? I’m campaigning.  They haven’t approached me yet.  I’ve been putting my feelers out there, and I’ve got all my people on Twitter talking about it.  So hopefully they’ll hear it and whoever’s writing the story will, you know, write me in as an Obi-wan Kenobi  hologram ghost, or maybe even I can fuckin’ show back up with one hand. He is a Jedi. Right, and Anakin lost his arm in Episode II . Yeah.  I’m down with that.  I’m totally down with it.  And I think they are going to need characters that audiences are familiar with to get [the franchise] going in a direction where people will feel comfortable and familiar with what’s going on. They just can’t bring in a whole bunch of new Jedi — no way. Read More on Django Unchained: Samuel L. Jackson Says He Burned Off Jamie Foxx’s Nipples In Cut ‘Django Unchained’ Scene Quentin Tarantino Says Slavery Still Exists Via ‘Mass Incarcerations’ & The ‘War On Drugs’ Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter.  Follow Movieline on Twitter. 

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Samuel L. Jackson Talks Slavery, Star Wars & His ‘Sanitized’ Character In ‘Django Unchained’

Chicago Film Critics Name ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Best Picture

The group gave Zero Dark Thirty its top Best Picture and Best Director prizes in addition to Best Actress for Jessica Chastain , while Lincoln ‘s Daniel Day-Lewis took Best Actor with the Chicago Film Critics Association Monday. [ Related: Golden Globes Unveil 70th Edition Nominees And ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Takes Top National Board Of Review Honors ] [ Related: LA Film Critics Name ‘Amour’ Best Picture, Boost ‘The Master,’ Jazz Up Oscar Race ] The wins follow: Best Picture: Zero Dark Thirty Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis , Lincoln Best Actress: Jessica Chastain , Zero Dark Thirty Best Supporting Actor: Phillip Seymour Hoffman , The Master Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams , The Master Best Original Screenplay: Zero Dark Thirty by Mark Boal Best Adapted Screenplay: Lincoln by Tony Kushner Best Foreign Language Film: Amour Best Documentary: The Invisible War Best Animated Feature: ParaNorman Best Cinematography: Mihai Milaimare Jr. , The Master Best Original Score: Jonny Greenwood , The Master Best Art Direction: Moonrise Kingdom Best Editing: William Goldenberg & Dylan Tichenor , Zero Dark Thirty Most Promising Performer: Quvenzhané Wallis , Beasts of the Southern Wild Most Promising Filmmaker: Benh Zeitlin , Beasts of the Southern Wild [ Related: NY Film Critics Circle Spices Up Oscar Race With ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Best Picture Pick ]

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Chicago Film Critics Name ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Best Picture

LA Film Critics Name ‘Amour’ Best Picture, Boost ‘The Master,’ Jazz Up Oscar Race

After so much Zero Dark Thirty domination from the New York Film Critics Circle, their West Coast counterparts in the Los Angeles Film Critics Association made a splash with more art house-leaning picks, voting Michael Haneke ‘s Amour the best film of 2012 — technically a foreign language entry, though Leos Carax’s Holy Motors earned that honor. (I see what you did there, LAFCA — and I like it.) LA critics also showed love for Beasts of the Southern Wild , whose non-professional actor/NOLA-area baker Dwight Henry earned a Best Supporting Actor nod, launching his awards season prospects. Get the full winners after the jump along with results from today’s awards announcements from the Boston Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Online groups, both boosters of Kathryn Bigelow and Zero Dark Thirty … LA Film Critics Association 2012 Award Honorees: Best Picture: Amour (Runner-up: The Master ) Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master (Runner-up: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty ) Best Actress: (TIE) Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook and Emmanuelle Riva, Amour Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master (Runner-up: Denis Lavant, Holy Motors ) Best Supporting Actor: Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild (Runner-up: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained ) Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Master (Runner-up: Anne Hathaway, The Dark Knight Rises and Les Misérables ) Best Screenplay: Argo (Runner-up: Silver Linings Playbook ) Best Film Editing: Zero Dark Thirty (Runner-up: Argo ) Best Cinematography: Skyfall (Runner-up: The Master ) Best Foreign Film: Holy Motors (Runner-up: Footnote ) Best Documentary: The Gatekeepers (Runner-up: Searching for Sugar Man ) Best Animation: Frankenweenie (Runner-up: It’s Such a Beautiful Day ) Best Music/Score: Beasts of the Southern Wild (Runner-up: The Master ) Best Production Design: The Master (Runner-up: Moonrise Kingdom ) New Generation Award: Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild Douglas Edwards Experimental/Independent Film/Video Award: Leviathan Not all of LAFCA ‘s picks are watertight, IMO ( Frankenweenie over ParaNorman ? Oh, fine …) but the organization deserves massive kudos for going against the grain with the majority of their awards when every other critics group so far has played it so safe. Among LAFCA’s greater surprises, which please me greatly: Love for Beasts of the Southern Wild ‘s Dwight Henry, who’s magnificent alongside Quvenzhane Wallis (who’s also got some solid Oscar buzz of her own going, at just 9 years old); Roger Deakins’ win for Skyfall , which elicited cheers from his boosters during LAFCA’s 5-hour-plus voting meeting ; the fact that Joaquin Phoenix ‘s snarly, gnarly turn in The Master was recognized amid a season of Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln adoration — and that the runner-up for Best Actor wasn’t even DD-L, but Holy Motors ‘ Denis Lavant. LAFCA also gets points in my book for refusing to let buzz dictate voting, even if Amour ‘s Emmanuelle Riva had to share the win with Silver Linings Playbook Oscar front-runner Jennifer Lawrence , and despite the fact that even in naming Anne Hathaway a Best Supporting Actress runner-up for Les Miserables they also tacked on her turn as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises . Meanwhile, as if one five-hour critics award deliberation live-Tweet wasn’t enough to occupy a Sunday afternoon, the Boston critics also announced their awards , which yielded some surprising love for Perks of Being a Wallflower : Best Film: Zero Dark Thirty (Runner-up: TIE – Amour and Moonrise Kingdom ) Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty (Runner-up: Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master ) Best Screenplay: Lincoln (Runner-up: Moonrise Kingdom ) Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln (Runner-up: Denis Lavant, Holy Motors ) Best Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour (Runner-up: Deanie Yip, A Simple Life ) Best Supporting Actor: Ezra Miller, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Runner-up Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained ) Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field, Lincoln (Runner-up: Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower ) Best Cinematography: The Master (Runner-up: TIE – Life of Pi , Moonrise Kingdom ) Best Ensemble: Seven Psychopaths (Runner-up: Moonrise Kingdom ) Best Animated Film: Frankenweenie (Runner-up: ParaNorman ) Best Documentary: How to Survive a Plague (Runner-up: The Queen of Versailles ) Best Foreign Language Film: Amour (Runner-up: Holy Motors ) Best Editing: Zero Dark Thirty (Runner-up: Argo ) Best Use of Music: Moonrise Kingdom (Runner-up: Django Unchained ) Best New Filmmaker: David France, How to Survive a Plague (Runner-up: Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild ) And over in New York, the New York Film Critics Online (the digital critics group in NYC, not to be confused with the New York Film Critics Circle, which can be confusing), made some very similar picks, leaning a bit more toward Oscar favorites like Tommy Lee Jones, whose supporting turn in Lincoln is a sure thing for an Academy Award nomination. Best Picture: Zero Dark Thirty Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln Best Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables Best Screenplay: Zero Dark Thirty Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi Best Documentary: Central Park Five Best Animated Film: Chico & Rita Best Ensemble Cast: Argo Debut Director: Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild Best Use of Music: Django Unchained Breakthrough Performance: Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild Of note here: Argo winning the “Best Ensemble Cast” award is probably indicative of how things are going to go for Ben Affleck’s real-life political thriller now that Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty has stolen all of its thunder. It’s also interesting to see how both Boston and NYFCO choose to honor film music with the award for “Best Use of Music,” which opens the category beyond just score or soundtrack; Benh Zeitlin’s original Beasts score is a wonderment in itself, but how do you compare it to Quentin Tarantino dropping a Rick Ross track into his Southern slavery exploitation homage? Let’s hear what you have to say, Movieliners. Who’s with me in awarding LAFCA the award for Best Sunday Afternoon Critics Award Voting Results? Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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LA Film Critics Name ‘Amour’ Best Picture, Boost ‘The Master,’ Jazz Up Oscar Race

Bruce Campbell on the ‘Dead Serious’ ‘Evil Dead’ Remake, Crowning A New Ash And ‘P-ssy Filmmaking’

In a sea of lumpy Spandex, half-assed Harry Potter costumes and face paint, Bruce Campbell  set quite a sartorial standard at New York Comic-Con on Saturday.  The square-jawed actor — who’s currently seen in the USA Network cable TV series Burn Notice but built a hardcore following by playing the character of Ash in Sam Raimi’s  groundbreaking 1980s  The Evil Dead  comic-horror trilogy — wore a beacon-like red tuxedo jacket and complementary black-and-red patent leather shoes. The colorfully candid Campbell was on hand at the Javits Center to draw attention to the remake of Evil Dead that he, Raimi and Rob Tapert are producing.  (The three were producers of the original films as well.)  Set for an April 12, 2013 release by Columbia Pictures’ Screen Gems division, Evil Dead will mark the feature debut of Uruguayan commercial producer Fede Alvarez and feature young cast that includes Jane Levy ( Suburgatory ) and Jessica Lucas ( Cloverfield).   The screenwriters include Raimi and hyper-stylist Diablo Cody ( Juno ).    Like the original, the remake is about a group of young friends in a remote cabin who discover The Book of the Dead and, one by one, succumb to its evil.  But, as Campbell tells Movieline, the comparisons end there.  Read on to find out how the movies will differ, what Campbell really thinks of basketball shorts, actress Jane Levy’s performance,  CAA agents and George Lucas’ decision to tweak his Star Wars movies. And if you haven’t seen Panic Attack!, the short film that got Alvaraez the Evil Dead  job, it’s posted below. Movieline: Those shoes are something else. Do you own them or did you rent them? Campbell : These are mine, baby. They’re beautiful. It’s Comic-Con. C’mon, let’s step it up! I’m trying to encourage other people who go to Comic-Con: Put on a nice shirt –and pants, too. While you’re at it, could you press your fucking t-shirt? And what you think about the basketball shorts? Should we just get rid of those?  I’m trying to class this joint up a little bit. How will Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead  compare to the original? Higher quality production, better actors, better special effects and a different telling of a similar story. You’ve still got your five kids and a nasty book in an isolated cabin. Is there an Ash? Nope. There are no similar characters whatsoever. And we wanted that. That was intentional. We didn’t want anything compared to anything. We didn’t want to put any burden on any actor to act like Ash or to imitate him. I hear you turned down a cameo in the movie. Nobody said “yes” or “no” to anything, so that’s false.  We discussed it as filmmakers: Would it be worth it? Should we do it? But the tone of the movie is dead serious. It’s not jokey enough. This not a funny movie. If there’s laughter, it’s nervous laughter. There will not be ha-ha laughter. None. It’s a full-on old-school horror movie with make-up effects. Alvarez got this gig because of his short film Panic Attack! That’s what got us started. Fede is a Uruguayan filmmaker. He made commercials, Pepsi commercials. He does Panic Attack! in his spare time.  He puts it out there on a lark. It went viral. Three weeks later, he was literally in Spielberg’s office. He met everybody. His agents are CAA now.  I can’t get those assholes on the phone. How did he get on Sam Raimi’s radar? Sam was one of his meetings. They liked each other.  Sam wanted to develop Panic Attack! into a feature, but that got bogged down. Fede was a big fan of Evil Dead , and so he pitched a story that we all liked.  The three of us — myself, Sam Raimi and Rod Tapert — decided to get back involved in this and support this guy. He’s a very smart, talented guy. I mean, he really is too smart for his own good.  [A man in basketball shorts walking through the conference room distracts Campbell.] See?  Basketball shorts. Would it kill him to put on a pair of pants? I hate how right I am. I’m glad I wore long pants. You were talking about how the Evil Dead remake came to be. So that’s how it was born. It could have gone either way, you know. The guy had never made a feature film before. He’s telling a story longer than a 60-second Pepsi commercial. That’s a big challenge, and he succeeded on many levels. His actors are good and solid and give great balls-to-the-wall performances when they have to. Fede was also very mature about the whole thing. He’s very respectful of the genre. He’s not making fun of it. He’s not punking it — he’s just telling his version of it. And he didn’t over-shoot it. He didn’t over-edit it. It’s such a well-edited movie, and that’s pretty rare.  Most movies — the editing sucks.  Like, they’ll never hang on a full sentence. They’ll come in halfway through. They’ll cut away after ten seconds.  There’s a lot of shitty work out there. Where did you shoot the movie? We shot it in Auckland, New Zealand because we did all the Hercules and Xena shows down there. The Kiwis are top-notch workers; great crew members. So, we just gave Fede all the support that we could possibly give him — a better budget, qualified crew members, good actors.  We liked his script and we left him alone.  You don’t need to sit over a guy’s shoulder. You turning up on the set would probably be pretty intimidating. I sat in on the auditions, and some of the actors that came in were like, Nyaaaaaa!   I felt bad because the idea was not to freak them out.  It was to let them know that we’re into it and we’re taking it seriously. And I just think we pulled the right actors. Jane Levy — I’m going to crown her the new Ash myself.  She’s got it. She’s got it.  You never know, either. We thought she was good in the room, but you get on a film set and what are they like?  Are they tough? Are they pussies? Are they assholes? Are they crazy? What were you? Tough. And Jane was a tough little shit, too. Really tough. I asked her in the room:  “How are you with extensive special effects for an extensive period of time. Have you ever done that?”  No. “Well, do you know what that’s going to be like?” What’s it like? It’s the fucking worst experience you can think of. It’s terrible for your skin. You’re an hour and a half, two hours putting it on.  You shoot a 14-hour day, and it’s a hour to take it off. Then you start the whole damn thing over the next day. This goes on for 10 weeks.  I wanted to hang myself after those movies. And we pushed every actor to the limit.  Jane, we pushed her over the edge. So, she’s the new Ash. You said it, not me. You said you were going to crown her the new Ash. If they want me to crown her, I’ll crown her — because I support her. I’m really impressed with what she did. Could this be a trilogy in the way that the original Evil Dead movies were? Easy, but you have to talk to Fede about that because I don’t know if he would do it.  He’s got lots of crazy ideas.  I want to go to double bills. The original Evil Dead paired with the remake. It would be a great midnight double bill.  Alamo Draft House, Austin, Texas.  Lines around the block — I’m telling you. I’ll go introduce it myself. If you could fix anything about the original Evil Dead movies, what would you do? I wouldn’t because that’s pussy filmmaking, man.  It is.  You see the garden hoses shooting shit?  Yep, that’s right!  We did the best we could, pal. In 1979, we got the movie in the can for $85,000.  You’re going to get what you get. We’re not George Lucas going back to fix our effects. Sorry man, you blew it. You got to get over it. You can’t obsess like that. That’s cheating. What’s next for you? I’m finishing Burn Notice . I’ve been six years on that spy show for USA. It’s been a fun show. That’s my day job, and it eats up seven months out of my life. So the other five months I don’t feel like doing anything. The last break I just worked on developing a bunch of new scripts because you can’t do stuff without scripts. I’ve got three new ideas that I got written up last year. I like all kinds of genres. I want to do a few more little low-budget movies. I love low-budget movies. Are there any recent horror movies that you like right now? I don’t watch movies — it’s the weirdest thing — because I feel like I’m going to work. I see actors looking at their marks. I see them cheating to the camera. I see out -of-focus shit.  I see a lousy shot. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.

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Bruce Campbell on the ‘Dead Serious’ ‘Evil Dead’ Remake, Crowning A New Ash And ‘P-ssy Filmmaking’

Director Of Von Trier’s Gesamt Says U.S Entries Express ‘Overwhelming Sense Of Estrangement And Anger’

Filmmaker Jenle Hallund has looked into the soul of America, and it sounds like we need a good shrink. Hallund is the intrepid soul who has spent the last weeks watching and, in some cases, listening to the 501 submissions that have come across her desk after controversy-courting Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier invited the world to reinterpret one of six great works of art for a community film project that will be unveiled at the Copenhagen Art Festival on Oct. 12. Participants had to base their entries on one or more of six different works of art that Von Trier admires:  James Joyce’s Ulysses, “which once was banned in the United States because it was seen as obscene and lewd”; August Strindberg’s play The Father , “which still stands as a striking example of a dysfunctional family”; Paul Gaugin’s painting Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? French composer César Franck’s improvisations; or the music of the late Sammy Davis Jr., “who stepped himself into the hearts of people through song;”  and the Zeppelin Field grandstand in Nuremberg, Germany that Hitler’s main architect Albert Speer created. The project is being called Gesamt , which translates to “coming together” or “a joint piece of work,” as Hallund explained to us back in August, and the filmmaker, who is a script consultant on Von Trier’s 2013 project, Nymphomaniac , as well as co-director of Limboland (2010), is now in the process of culling, editing and shaping those submissions into a film that she says will be called Disaster 501 — What Happened to Man?  based on her interpretation and understanding of the material she received. “I think why I decided early on to make it a disaster movie was that most of the submission questioned the fundamentals of our humanity: love, morality and relationships,” Hallund wrote in email correspondence with me. “And nature was depicted as decaying and threatening.” But Hallund explained that now that she is “further in the editing process,” she has worked with “beautiful and tender moments and stunning visuals.  The ache for the sublime and the ideal is still the dream for us,” Hallund noted, adding:  “The most touching element for me is that all of these submissions, all of these people who bravely shared a piece of themselves all take part in creating the painting of the soul of our civilization.” Given this site’s U.S. roots, I asked Hallund what the American entries she received said about the soul of its civilizaton. “The American soul speaks and shouts fear and loneliness, and an overwhelming sense of estrangement and anger — of being disconnected from others and losing purpose and individuality,” Hallund wrote.  “The soul of America expresses  a rootlessness and a loss of humanity.”  And yet, she explained, “A tender but cutting longing for love and meaning,” is  also evident. Hallund, who received approximately 55 submissions from the U.S. and will use “visuals, stills, sound or music” from 10 to 12, said that, “overwhelmingly,” the themes of the American submissions “can be categorized into male and female.” “All the male submissions, regardless of which works of art they reference, are angry, desperate — full of malice and a sense of fear,” Hallund said. “The men address, either verbally or visually, a sense of being trapped inside their skin, of taking pleasure in hurting women.  They are very animalistic and afraid . We have the broken and humiliated man who can no longer walk or love. “The female American soul,” she continued, “is without love — almost resigned to the loss of it. The female voice is very tender and soft. They speak of the love of their fathers, the sadness of the pain they have caused, and their longing for a man to love them.” Or, she said, “it’s the voice of a woman lost and afraid of disappearing….Fighting to assert control over her sexuality.” “Depressing stuff, I know,” said Hallund. But fascinating as well. I asked the filmmaker if traveling to Copenhagen next month is the only way that Americans can see Disaster 501,  and she replied that she is exploring options to put it online. “I haven’t found the right solution yet,” she said. If she can turn 501 submissions of film, music and writing into a single film, she can do anything. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.

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Director Of Von Trier’s Gesamt Says U.S Entries Express ‘Overwhelming Sense Of Estrangement And Anger’

Uncharted Is Re-Charted: Fan Boys Groan As Video Game Adaptation Gets G-Force Writers

On paper, adapting the video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune  to the big screen looks like a no-brainer.  In the character of Nate Drake, you essentially have a young Indiana Jones, who escapes a creative array of baddies and one tight scrape after another while tracking down the golden statue of El Dorado. So why can’t Hollywood get this baby on the screen?  Variety reports that Limitless director Neil Burger — who took the helm of the movie last year after David O. Russell ( The Fighter ) left the project — has departed as well.  Instead of bringing a new director on board,   Dark Knigh t franchise producer Charles Roven’s Atlas Entertainment and   Spider-Man producer Avid Arad’sArad Productions have hired Marianne and Cormac Wibberley to rewrite the script. Once they have that in hand, they plan to hire a director. The Wibberleys wrote the crowd-pleasing  National Treasure movies and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle , but the groaning you hear out there is coming from  some of the game’s incredibly passionate fans who are looking over the screenwriting team’s other credits and deciding that they don’t like what they see.  Much of the wincing is over G-Force , a cutesy movie the Wibberleys wrote about a special forces team of guinea pigs. The fans of Uncharted do not want cutesy. They even bristled when Russell was talking about incorporating a “family dynamic” into his adaptation. (That said, I really wanted to see Russell make this movie. He proved with The Fighter that he can make an thrilling movie with fully fleshed characters.) The fans of Uncharted want to see the game’s off-the-hook stunt pieces recreated on the screen with the taut, storytelling of the Bourne movies.  Oh yeah, and they really seem to want Castle star Nathan Fillion to play the role of Drake. Is that such a difficult challenge? [ Variety ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter. 

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Uncharted Is Re-Charted: Fan Boys Groan As Video Game Adaptation Gets G-Force Writers

Beyond The Blockbuster: Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me, Epic Doc Samsara, Soccer In The Slums And More

Expendables 2 looks likely to top the box office across the U.S. again, but naturally there are others waiting in the wings to capture your hard earned box office dollars and the choices do not have to be limited to studio carry-overs. Sleepwalk with Me is looking like an immediate hit, though most audiences across the U.S. will have to wait (but go for it New York). Samsara took a long, long path to its theatrical roll out this weekend, with an epic that travels the world. And two Latin American films will hit U.S. screens today. Hermano centers on two aspiring football (OK, ‘soccer’) stars who grow up in Venezuelan slums and Neighbouring Sounds won accolades at film festivals about a middle class Brazilian neighborhood that undergoes change once a private security firm arrives… Sleepwalk with Me Director: Mike Birbiglia, Seth Barrish Writers: Mike Birbiglia, Joe Birbiglia, Ira Glass, Seth Barrish Opens: New York’s IFC Center exclusively this weekend with Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Portland, Seattle and more in coming weekends. Indications point to a strong opening for the Sundance film that won an audience prize at the festival. Sleepwalk with Me . revolves around a burgeoning stand-up comedian who struggles with the stress of a stalled career, a stale relationship and frequent episodes of sleepwalking. “We are selling it as the first film from the creators of This American Life ,” an IFC Films exec noted. “We are also capitalizing on the fact that Mike Birbiglia and a cast of up-and-coming and established comics are heavily featured in the film.” Synopsis: Winner of a 2012 Audience Award at Sundance, comedian Mike Birbiglia wrote, directed and stars in this sincere and hilarious film, based on his off-Broadway show and bestselling book. It’s also the first movie co-written by Ira Glass and co-produced by “This American Life.”  The  story: when an aspiring stand-up fails to express his true feelings about his girlfriend and his stalled career, his anxiety comes out in increasingly funny and dangerous sleepwalking incidents. SLEEPWALK WITH ME features Lauren Ambrose (“Six Feet Under”), Carol Kane (“Taxi”), James Rebhorn (“Meet the Parents”), Cristin Milioti (star of Broadway’s “Once”), plus comedians Marc Maron, Kristen Schaal, Wyatt Cenac, Jesse Klein, Henry Phillips and David Wain. Samsara Writer-Director: Ron Fricke Opens: New York and Seattle this weekend followed by Los Angeles on August 31st followed by a national roll out. “I think that the challenges were making a film that doesn’t have a traditional screenplay or structure ahead of time and trusting that you’ll find the film as it’s made,” said writer and producer Mark Magidson. “We had a structural bookend that’s created and destroyed at the beginning and end of the film. Once we had that, it was a big relief. The film came together in the editing process.” Spanning five years with locations in 25 countries, the film travels to sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes and natural wonders. Synopsis: Expanding on the themes they developed in Baraka (1992) and Chronos (1985), Samsara explores the wonders of our world from the mundane to the miraculous, looking into the unfathomable reaches of man’s spirituality and the human experience. Neither a traditional documentary nor a travelogue, Samsara takes the form of a nonverbal, guided meditation. Through powerful images, the film illuminates the links between humanity and the rest of nature, showing how our life cycle mirrors the rhythm of the planet. The filmmakers approach non verbal filmmaking with an understanding that it must live up to the standard of great still photography, revealing the essence of a subject, not just its physical presence. Samsara was photographed entirely in 70mm film utilizing both standard frame rates and with a motion control time-lapse camera designed specifically for this project. This camera system allows perspective shifts to reveal extraordinary views of ordinary scenes. The images were then transferred through the highest resolution scanning process available to the new 4K digital projection format that allows for mesmerizing images of unprecedented clarity. Samsara will be a showpiece for the new, high-resolution 4K digital projection, the HD format, as well as standard digital and film projection. Hermano (Brother) Director: Marcel Rasquin Writers: Rohan Jones, Marcel Rasquin Cast: Fernando Moreno, Eliú Armas, Alí Rondon, Beto Benites, Gonzalo Cubero Opens: In 51 theaters in 12 markets, concentrated in states along the U.S./Mexican border as well as Chicago and New York. This Venezuelan film did not go through official government channels en route to the big screen unlike much of the country’s domestic output. Director Marcel Rasquin attended film school in Australia and wrote the script in collaboration with Aussie, Rohan Jones. “The film has an international outlook,” said exec Ed Arentz from Hermano’s U.S. distributor Music Box Films. “The story is about a family that finds a boy in a slum and the two [brothers] grow up together and aspire to be professional football (soccer) players. They are also drawn back to the criminality of where they grew up.” Synopsis: Raised as brothers, intense teammates and competitors on the soccer field – the gregarious, swaggering Julio (Eliu Armas) and the wiry, focused Daniel/“Gato” (Fernando Moreno) have remained virtually inseparable ever since the newborn Daniel was found abandoned in a trash heap in their La Ceniza slum. The opportunity of their lives arrives when a football scout invites them to try out for the city’s top professional team, just as a tragic act of violence threatens to tear them apart and prevent them from achieving their dreams. Neighboring Sounds Director: Kleber Medonca Filho Cast: Irma Brown, Sebastião Formiga, Gustavo Jahn, Maeve Jinkings, Irandhir Santos Opens: In New York this weekend followed by 10 markets in Detroit, Seattle and Florida locations. Also heading to DVD and VOD in early 2013. Brazilian film Neighboring Sounds debuted under the radar at the International Film Festival Rotterdam last winter, but it picked up a Critics Week prize, elevating its prospects and awareness. “We heard about the film right after Rotterdam,” said Ryan Krivoshey, director of distribution at Cinema Guild. “We asked for a screener and we were totally blown away.” The programmers at New York’s New Directors/New Films series also took notice and slotted the feature that looks at the changes a middle-class Brazilian neighborhood undergoes after the arrival of an independent private security company. Synopsis: A palpable sense of unease hangs over a single city block in the coastal town of Recife, Brazil. Home to prosperous families and the servants who work for them, the area is ruled by an aging patriarch and his sons. When a private security firm is reluctantly brought in to protect the residents from a recent spate of petty crime, it unleashes the fears, anxieties and resentments of a divided society still haunted by its troubled past. Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds is a thrilling debut by a major new voice in world cinema. Wild Horse, Wild Ride Directors: Alex Dawson, Greg Gricus Opens: In limited showings beginning Friday. Synopsis: Each year, through the Extreme Mustang Makeover Challenge, 100 people across the country attempt to tame a wild mustang in 100 days. Following this dangerous and harrowing feat performed by everyday people from every walk of life, is a public showcase that determines whether these horses can be saved from a life in captivity. Complete with first-hand footage and interviews, Wild Horse Wild Ride provides an in-depth look at the incredible relationship that blossoms between man and animal. General Education Director: Tom Morris Cast: Chris Sheffield, Janeane Garofalo, Larry Miller, Maiara Walsh, Elaine Hendrix, Bobby Campo, Mercedes Masohn, Tom Maden Opens: In theatrical limited release as we’ll as iTunes and VOD Synopsis: Levi Collins is set to go to the local University on a tennis scholarship, but he forgot to tell his parents one thing — he didn’t graduate. As a result, he must take summer school before his mom and dad discover he’s failed senior science. At school, Levi falls in love with his classmate, Katie, and learns that he has to make a choice between playing tennis and receiving a proper education. General Education is a quirky comedy about a family learning to grow together. General Education – Official Trailer 2012 from Pelican House Productions on Vimeo .

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Beyond The Blockbuster: Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me, Epic Doc Samsara, Soccer In The Slums And More

A Chat With the Makers of Danish Sex Comedy Klown (Or: Frank and Casper Are Not Pedophiles)

Danish comedy duo Casper Christensen and Frank Hvam would like you to know they are not pedophiles. Not that accusations of creative indecency would stop them from toying with the line of good taste, as they do to hilarious effect in the R-rated Danish sex comedy Klown .   The  Curb Your Enthusiasm -style road trip comedy, which they wrote and co-star in, happens to be the funniest, most outrageous film of the year, and it   has already been acquired for American remake by Todd Phillips and Danny McBride. Klown debuted in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin over the weekend, stirring up a decent opening as it looks to expand to 13 additional markets in the coming weeks. Back home in Denmark, it’s already made $12.3 million; nearly 20 percent of the population reportedly watched it upon release in 2010. That’s a fantastic start for a buddy comedy chock full of explicit sexual gags, nudity, child endangerment and wanton irresponsibility galore — a NSFW comedy of discomfort. After floating down the the Guadalupe River outside of Austin, Texas last month for The Alamo Drafthouse’s wonderfully meta Rolling Roadshow screening series, Christensen and Hvam spoke with Movieline about the planned American remake, their scripting process, and their tricks for pushing the envelope. For instance, why you can’t pop a joke too early (“What would top ejaculating in a child’s face? It’s impossible”), and the gag from their Klown series that rivals the worst transgressions of Klown the Movie. Also: What is cinematic infant terrible Lars Von Trier (whose Zentropa outfit co-produced Klown , and whose Nazi-referencing Cannes controversy the duo dismiss as “a stand-up comedian at an open mic”) really like? You two had a successful run with Klown the TV show, but at what point did you crack the right way to make it into a film? Casper Christensen: We did six seasons, and Frank and I wrote all the episodes. It’s a lot of work. It’s a joyride, it’s a lot of fun, but sometimes in life you’ve got to just come up for fresh air. So after six seasons we just took a break from each other — Frank went on a stand-up comedy tour, I did television, and it felt good just to let go of the Klown universe for a while. But we always had ambitions to write a movie. We got together and said, ‘Let’s write this movie.’ I wanted to get back into Klown because the character was so much fun to act, and we knew the characters so well, that we thought it might be a good idea for the first movie that we wrote, to know something. It would be easier for us. So I convinced Frank that it could be a good idea to write Klown . Frank Hvam: It was a good idea. I have no regrets about that movie. CC: But we started out bouncing around ideas for a completely different movie before we did this one. How different was that concept? FH: It’s always based on some buddy stuff, because that’s our relationship — we are friends in real life. We have this comic dynamic that we know, and we use that. CC: We talked about setting it during the second World War. FH: Because we would probably fail totally in a war situation. CC: We talked a lot about war. FH: On which side would we be? [Laughs] CC: How would we be if we were soldiers? Would we still be friends? Who would really be the hero between the two of us? FH: Every time we see a war movie in Denmark it’s about Danish heroes, and we would like to tell a story about Danish assholes. CC: During the second World War. Maybe you can use that in a Klown follow-up. Do you already have an idea in mind for your next movie? CC: Oh, we have a plan! We’re going to start writing in January. It might be a Klown movie, but it might be something completely different. One of things Klown the film does well is give freshness to a concept that isn’t necessarily unique – the road trip set-up, for example. If you were to give comedy writing tips based on your experience writing Klown, where would you start? CC: You’ve got to have a good story, a story that means something to yourself. Fatherhood is interesting for Frank and I — we’re both fathers, spent a lot of time talking about it, and living not the everyday life, we live a different life than most people in Denmark so of course we talk about things like, what kind of father figure are we? That was most important for us — we had a good story, and we had something we wanted to talk about. CC: Once a story is in place, you’ve got to do good comedy on top of it. You’ve just got to refresh your thoughts — I’ve never seen this, this might be fun — and just believe in it. We weren’t trying to please anybody when we made the movie. We’re not going to go, ‘People might like canoeing.’ Frank and I liked the concept of canoeing, that’s why we did it. FH: Write for yourself. That’s a very important thing, otherwise you get confused. CC: Six seasons on television – there were a lot of characters that people liked and loved from the series that aren’t in the movie. We might disappoint people, but then what? We don’t care. It’s about what we think is important. So there are a lot of good characters that aren’t in the movie. Nudity, especially in R-rated comedy these days and especially involving male genitalia, is used often for shock value. How strategic do you have to be in using it at just the right moment, and for maximum effect? CC: When we wrote it we wanted to make sure one of the biggest laughs was going to be at the end of the movie, because it seemed downhill from there. FH: We also had to make sure it didn’t ruin the story. If we have something explosive and we can’t get on the horse again – our story horse – then it wasn’t worth it. CC: That’s why we don’t show the picture right after we take the picture. We put it late in the movie but early enough that you kind of have forgotten we took the picture. That’s when people go, ‘Oh!’ when Frank goes, “I’ve got Casper’s phone right here.” They’re suddenly reminded. FH: We were discussing having Bo in the bed having a pearl necklace instead of Frank’s mother in law. That would have been fun, but it would have destroyed the story because it would have been impossible for Frank and Bo to get on that canoe trip after that. CC: And what would top it? What would top ejaculating in a child’s face? It’s impossible. FH: Then it’s a skit. CC: No, then it’s illegal! Do you think American audiences will be more shocked by how far Klown goes in the pursuit of humor than audiences back home were? FH: It was a shocking movie at home, too. CC: Let’s not kid ourselves – it’s way too much, even in Denmark. Denmark doesn’t just have the coolest audience in the world, then? CC: Oh, no – that’s why you laugh, because it’s too much. FH: It’s ok that people are a little bit shocked. Otherwise we wouldn’t have a movie! CC: Some scenes get more laughs over here, though; the homosexual themes are much more taboo. FH: The home robbery scene is also a little more [taboo] because running away from a child during a robbery here in the U.S. is a death scene — in Denmark it’s bad, but it’s not that bad because the robbers are probably not armed. Thieves are nicer back home? CC: They’re still thieves! Don’t kid yourself. It’s dangerous, but not that many people have guns so it’s not that dangerous. There’s also a point when Frank is teaching Bo to swim and there’s a beautiful shot of the two characters, the lake is in front of them and the sun is going down, they’re both drying themselves off, and Frank goes, “Let me see that penis… it’s not that small.” It’s funny but it’s a beautiful scene, it’s a loving scene – it’s got feelings in it! In Denmark people laughed, they giggled, but over here it’s like [guffaws] they LAUGH. A grown man looking at a boy’s penis! But in Denmark it’s a beautiful thing. Why bring Klown to Zentropa? Was Lars Von Trier’s involvement part of the appeal? FH: He wasn’t that much involved, but we came to Zentropa because of Lars von Trier. We wanted to get some of the best film workers on our project and we wanted to get close to Lars because he’s a super cool guy. He involved himself in a little bit of the editing at the start. He wrote an episode, he acted in an episode, and he is good at forcing us to push the envelope. He really wants things to go wild, and if you’re close to Lars you just want to impress him. He’s cultivated quite the reputation for himself, and not just through films. CC: Once you get to know him he’s a good guy! He’s got a good sense of humor, he’s a little bit crazy – but in a good way. I’ve been to his house having dinner with his children and my children and it’s all normal… but then suddenly Lars picks up a rifle at the dinner party, stuff like that. Sometimes taking his shirt off during dinner. He wants to see what happens now – what if I did this? And that’s interesting to be around. FH: Basically, he’s just a nice guy. Do you think his detractors took his Cannes comments a little too seriously? FH: We were surprised. We couldn’t see that he’d made any mistake at that press conference. He was just a comedian in an open mic situation – CC: And somebody misunderstood his joke. Lars von Trier as stand-up comedian – sounds about right. CC: That’s what he is! He’s trying out material. FH: We have tried that too. People sometimes are not offended in their heart, but they can use a matter to promote their own cause, and then they start a war just to show who they are. Contined on next page…

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A Chat With the Makers of Danish Sex Comedy Klown (Or: Frank and Casper Are Not Pedophiles)

REVIEW: Step Up Revolution Pops (and Locks) in 3-D But Turns Out to Be Real Wallflower in the Story Department

Although the proliferation of talent shows on TV is proof of just how much audiences have come back around to watching dance on screen,  Step Up Revolution  suggests Hollywood is still conflicted about how to film it. On one hand, the fourth movie in the  Step Up franchise was shot in eye-popping 3-D. In choreographed numbers that grow crazier and more extravagant as the film proceeds, breakdancers kick their legs out toward the camera and hold gravity-defying poses; tracking shots glide across the pavement between cars as kids stride out in time to music; performers on bungee cords leap down a ramp toward us only to snap back. As spectacle, it is resoundingly cool. On the other hand, these sequences tend to be edited to bits, as if the filmmakers were afraid their audience would get bored if either the camera or point of view weren’t constantly in motion. Directed by Scott Speer (of the web series “The LXD”) with cinematography by Karsten Gopinath, the film’s best shots, both in terms of dancing and the 3-D, are usually the ones in which the camera sits directly in front of the performers as their main audience, so that we can see their full bodies as they’re used in impossible, athletic feats of movement. But the film rarely maintains this perspective for more than a few seconds before cutting to a reaction shot, a close-up, then up and overhead, then off to the side. While the editing creates a sense of frantic momentum, it’s also dizzying and disorienting. Step Up Revolution is also not a movie you watch for its incredible story and dialogue. The film doesn’t even share much connective tissue with its predecessors save for an appearance from Adam Sevani as Moose. The plot features a boy, Sean (Ryan Guzman), and a girl, Emily (Kathryn McCormick) — who are both making their feature-film debuts. (McCormick was a finalist on the 2009 season of “So You Think You Can Dance.”) Sean is from the most adorably Epcot Center-worthy “gritty” Miami neighborhood ever, while she’s the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer Bill Anderon (Peter Gallagher) with plans to knock the place down and build skyscrapers on top of it. They meet cute at the beach club attached to the hotel that Emily’s father owns. Sean, who works at the hotel, and Emily form a mutual admiration society after facing off in a deliciously over-the-top dance duel that’s filmed like a fight scene. Emily flings sand at the camera and maneuvers Sean under the outdoor shower so that they can both have clingy wet outfits. As you might expect, both have dancing aspirations. When not waiting tables, Sean and his friends make up a flash-mob dance troupe called The Mob. Emily is auditioning for a place in the prestigious Wynwood Dance Company. Guzman, McCormick and the rest of the cast have generic good looks right out of an Abercrombie catalog and enough range to convincingly project the three sentiments for which the script (written by Jenny Mayer) calls — happy, sad and “dance face.” Guzman is particularly gifted at committing to howlers without a wince or trace of irony. “I can’t just do whatever I want,” Emily says. “There are rules.” Sean gets up close and breathes: “Break the rules.” At first, The Mob stages its elaborate pop-up routines as part of a YouTube competition — the first page to reach 10 million hits wins a cash prize. But when the neighborhood in which Sean and his best friend Eddy (Misha Gabriel) grew up is threatened, Emily suggests they use their growing internet fame to draw attention and build opposition to the development plan (without her father’s knowledge). It’s protest art! It’s the 99 percent! And it’s brutally phony, especially when picture pretends to be about the preservation of local culture. The Mob has essentially been formed out of a broad Google search for subcultures. There’s the DJ, the videographer from the SoCal skate scene, the hacker, the street artist, the parkour dudes. The only Miami-specific concession is that the group hangs out at a salsa bar called Ricky’s. Step Up Revolution is, at least, shot on location in Miami, which looks golden and gorgeous in 3D helicopter shots and ridiculously, stiflingly pretty as a backdrop in others. When Sean and Emily practice a duet on the beach, you expect an “Obsession by Calvin Klein” logo to appear next to their faces in their final pose. And it wouldn’t seem that out of place. The film is such a slick product that its vague anti-corporate ideas keep sliding right out of sight — it takes some effort to situate that Au Bon Pain logo so prominently in the middle background of a dance sequence. The movie ends with a never-explicated, and, frankly, insulting compromise. (Spoiler alert!) The Mob — who, three songs earlier, ended a performance with the declaration, ‘We’re not for sale!” — triumphantly sign with Nike as part of a marketing firm plan. Way to stick it to the man, y’all. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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REVIEW: Step Up Revolution Pops (and Locks) in 3-D But Turns Out to Be Real Wallflower in the Story Department