Just two quick observations about Joss Whedon ‘s Zomney political ad, which has gotten plenty of coverage elsewhere. The video has a lot of smart, funny lines in it, but it’s tough to beat the filmmaker’s observation that: “The 1 percent will no longer be the very rich. It will be the very fast.” The other thing that I love about the clip is that Whedon, who, based on the success of The Avengers alone is probably a member of the 1 percent — the wealthy, not the fast version — is doing dishes by hand in the spot. Love that earthy image Joss, and the drying rack. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Doug E. Fresh takes the stage with Smith to perform his ’90s hits ‘Summertime’ and ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.’ By Rob Markman Will Smith Photo: Michael Tran/ FilmMagic
Real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren will finally get their own movie with The Conjuring. The controversial ghost hunters, who found ed the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952 and, most famously, were involved in the Amityville Horror case that led to the 1979 and 2005 movies of the same name, will be played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. Saw filmmaker James Wan is directing. Wan, Wilson and Ron Livingston — who plays the father of a family the Warrens try to help — were all on hand at this month’s New York Comic-Con to talk up the spooky flick which Warner Bros will release in the summer of 2013. Check out the video below to learn how The Conjuring finally got made, and how Livingston feels about making his first horror movie! Follow Movieline on Twitter . Follow Grace on Twitter .
In Julia Loktev ‘s The Loneliest Planet , Gael García Bernal and relative newcomer Hani Furstenberg ( Yossi & Jagger ) play a young engaged couple backpacking through the Caucasus Mountains in the former Soviet republic of Georgia the summer before their wedding. Their stunning journey is guided by a local villager, but the vast terrain crowds an emotional upheaval that threatens to tear down their promising life together. Loktev spoke with ML about her own visit to the country that inspired the film which has won praise at festivals this year and is headed into theatrical and VOD release this weekend. The making of The Loneliest Planet was a journey unto itself though everyone on board were determined to make it all happen. “The shoot was basically like an expedition,” Loktev told ML. “We were based in a village, but a lot of the time we camped. We’d have to get up in the darkness and carry everything on our backs so we could get to our location to get the early morning light. It was sometimes scary…” Loktev first conceived of what would become The Loneliest Planet while traveling in Georgia with a boyfriend. She was off to a film festival there and he planned to bike through the country as well as neighboring Armenia. After one week, their relationship was over and they went separate ways. While on a long bus ride to the capital, Tbilisi, she conceived the story that would eventually take the form of Alex (García Bernal) and Nica (Furstenberg). Travel binds the pair who willingly take on cultural disjointedness, mastering key phrases like “hello,” “thank you,” “please,” “how much?” “cheers” etc. They are comfortable with each other and their shared love of travel. But one fleeting moment could wreak havoc on their future. Their guide (played by local mountaineering hero Bidzina Gujabidze) is with them every step of the way. The couple are haunted with an unsaid tension, but cannot verbalize anything. “I tried to have a natural situation unfold,” said Loktev. “For me, this was a situation in which this couple couldn’t talk about this thing that existed between them. The things that could be said are almost too obvious to be said. So what was interesting to me was how this couple could communicate when they really can’t communicate… This couple is going through the biggest crisis in their relationship while they’re traveling with this guide who is now with them in this vastness. The parallel would be having a fight with your lover or friend and you now have to go out to dinner with someone together. You can’t really work things out in that moment.” An international actor who has worked with veteran filmmakers from North and South America and Europe, García Bernal took on the role of Alex early on. He told Loktev he had a fascination for the Caucasus region since grade school after reading Lermontov’s Hero of Our Time . “Gael has an easy masculinity. He has a playful quality and he’s able to bring all those qualities to his character,” said Loktev. “And I was interested in him doing something in which he couldn’t rely on words so much as doing something very interior and very subtle.” Financing dramas nearly pulled the production away from Georgia to an isolated region in China when a producer from the country offered to give resources after an initial investor pulled out. Loktev traveled to China, saying she was trying to “find Georgia in China,” but then sudden political strife in the area quickly closed down any chance of shooting there. “They had riots that were some of the biggest in years and then the Chinese government cut off internet and cell phone access,” recalled Loctev. “We couldn’t get in touch with people and from there it ended up screwing our production. The last thing they needed was an American crew making a film. That fell apart and I came back from China just devastated. I wasn’t sure if we were going to have to wait another year. But lucky both Gael and Hani stuck with it and the movie ended up where it’s supposed to be – in Georgia.” After finding more financing through Germany and America, Loktev headed to Georgia. The region had had its own conflict in recent years. The short but devastating war between Russia and Georgia came just as Loktev initially scouted the country for her shoot some years before actual production commenced. “Gael joked with me that if I went to scout a location in Switzerland, that they’d have a revolution there. [laughs] I just bring trouble [more laughs] But luckily, by the time we got there, things had stabilized,” said Loktev. “There was still an uneasy peace though. We were in this strange border town about 10 kilometers from Russia. And the border couldn’t be crossed.” [ Sundance Selects roles out The Loneliest Planet in limited theatrical release this weekend followed by other cities. It’s also available via On Demand]
In 1992 Jean-Claude Van Damme was sitting in a splits kick astride the world. The former body building champion and genuine full-contact karate knockout artist (19-1, with 18 KO’s) was riding a string of high-kicking lo-fi gems to his first big-budget affair: the unexpected Roland Emmerich sci-fi hit, Universal Soldier . The film’s $102-million worldwide haul caught the attention of major studios, and faster than a jumping wheel kick, a three-picture deal worth a reported $36 million was steadied in front of the Belgium-born ballerino like a pre-cut breakboard. A shower of cheap pine splinters and expensive champagne should have followed for the action star who was in command of more fighting ability than all of the muscled lunks lumbering through 90’s shoot-em-ups combined. But Van Damme turned out to be his own worst enemy. In an admitted haze of drugs, alcohol and manic self-regard, the ‘muscles from Brussels’ turned his cocaine-tinged nose up at the best offer he would ever see, striking a precision death blow to his promising career instead. In 2004, on the UK TV show, Jean-Claude Van Damme: Behind Closed Doors , he recalled: “After the movie Timecop , I received a huge offer for a three-picture deal and it was $12 million per picture. That’s $36 million. I was wasted. I said, ‘I want 20 million like Jim Carrey’ and they hung up on me. I was not myself.” JCVD may never really have recovered from that error in judgment that cost him a long, lucrative career on the big screen, but there is some consolation. His first foray into major box office success, Universal Soldier, has become a venerable franchise (with and without him) anyway. The fourth Van Damme helmed installation of the zombie-commando series, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, hits the Video on Demand market Thursday, with a small theatrical run set for November 30. In honor of this undead quadrilogy and its still-kicking lead, it’s high time to pay a little homage to four essential classics that set up Van Damme for a fall in the first place – and one newish film that will have you cursing the demons that stole from us more of the man’s best. 1. Kickboxer (1989): Half-baked JCVD fans who never really connected with the actor’s work on the emotional level it deserves will tell you that Bloodsport (1987) — the movie that unearthed the oiled majesty of Van Damme in the first place — is his greatest film, bar none. These people are heretics. Bloodsport is no doubt is a worthy martial arts tournament film, but its premise of fighting — possibly to the death — as sport, violates the warrior-code and undermines the righteous excitement of the inexorable flashback training montage where a punch drunk hero dream-trips his way to a final showdown comeback. Kickboxer has been dismissed as The Karate Kid in Thailand, and maybe it is, but like Daniel-son and Miyagi, there’s a worthy mentor-pupil relationship at heart of this irony-free, persistently charming cheese fest. It’s the kind of low-budget movie-making that doesn’t exist anymore, complete with an original synthy score. The track that plays over the opening credits, “Streets of Siam,” is a genuine jam and accompanies one of the most memorably tone-deaf on-screen jock performances of all time from real-life kickboxing superstar, Dennis “The Terminator” Alexio. Oh, and Van Damme drunkenly disco dances his way into a gratuitous barroom brawl. It’s B-movie perfection.
The Evil Dead Red Band trailer has arrived, and it turns out to be the same one that had audiences at NY Comic-Con screaming in their seats (and, apparently, leaking it on the web) . If you can stomach it, make sure to hang tight for the tongue-slicing scene at the end. It will make you talk funny for hours. I’ve also posted the trailer to Sam Raimi’s original 1981 film, The Evil Dead , so that you can compare elements of the first film with Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez’s remake . As with most contemporary reboots, Alvarez’s moves a lot faster. (He’s even lost the ‘The’ in the title for a more streamlined effect.) That said, the new trailer suggests that his Evil Dead will borrow some of Raimi’s filmmaking flourishes, particularly the way in which the camera would take the perspective of the evil spirit that infects the unfortunate cabin dwellers. Like the original, Alvarez’s version also has scenes involving evil vines and dismemberment by power tools, including what looks like a chain saw. Despite these similarities, when I interviewed Bruce Campbell at NY Comic-Con , he told me that the new Evil Dead, which opens early next year, will actually be quite different. For one thing, Campbell — who starred in the original trilogy and is a producer of the remake — said Alvarez’s version will be “dead serious” and won’t feature an Ash, the character he played. “There are no similar characters whatsoever. And we wanted that. That was intentional,” Campbell explained. “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.” Related Story: Read Movieline’s interview with Bruce Campbell. Read More at: http://movieline.com/2012/10/14/bruce-campbell-interview-evil-dead-remake-fede-alvarez-jane-levy-sam-raimi/#utm_source=copypaste&utm_campaign=referral Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Love or hate his shtick, Kevin Smith dropped some amusingly candid real talk on Larry King Now as he explained to the media kingpin why it is he’s retiring from moviemaking after his forthcoming hockey film, Hit Somebody . “If I can’t bring anything new to the game, and I assure you I cannot, there’s no point in stepping up to the plate,” said Smith, who also charmingly compared his 20 years behind the camera to getting an unexpected blow job. Well, Clerks and the success that followed wasn’t just like any blow job. “It was like hoping for a kiss and getting the most amazing blow job you’ve ever had in your life,” he explained to King, who nearly choked as he nodded in recognition. Somebody here knows what you’re talkin’ about, Mr. Smith. Hit Somebody was previously said to star Red State cast members Kyle Gallner, Nicholas Braun, and Michael Angarano, although the project has yet to begin filming. Meanwhile, Smith’s not going anywhere; he may be moving out of the director’s chair but he’s got his multimedia interests (SModcast podcast, books, live shows, Spoilers on Hulu, AMC’s Comic Book Men, Twitter ). [ Larry King Now via Joblo ]
You’ll hear much of the movie stars and familiar faces that pop up again and again in Tom Tykwer and Lana and Andy Wachowski ‘s sprawling, ambitious Cloud Atlas , from Tom Hanks to Halle Berry to frequent Wachowski Starship performer Hugo Weaving. But the beating heart of the film belongs to Korean actress Doona Bae, who makes her English language debut as the luminous Sonmi-451, a genetically-engineered “fabricant” whose fierce humanity and love for a freedom fighter ( Jim Sturgess ) will change the future. Like Sonmi-451, Bae’s world opened up with an unexpected offer from a stranger. A successful model and actress in her native South Korea, she starred in Park Chan-Wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Boon Jong-Ho’s The Host — two of the most popular Korean crossover hits of the last decade, although the humble Bae is still surprised to hear that American audiences may have seen her work. Courted for the role of Sonmi-451 by the Wachowskis themselves, Bae won the part, then took a crash course in English to film her scenes. Bae’s Sonmi-451 (her name a nod to Fahrenheit 451 courtesy of author David Mitchell) inhabits the futuristic world of Neo Seoul circa 2144, where she’s broken out of capitalist enslavement by Hae-Joo Chang (Sturgess), a rebellion operative. Although the actress, like her castmates, portrays multiple characters through the film’s nested plots (including a pre-Civil War Caucasian belle with freckles and a hoop skirt), Bae commands the screen in one of the most transfixing performances of the year every time the film alights back on her ethereal Sonmi. Movieline spoke with the eloquent, soft-spoken Bae in Los Angeles about her journey with Cloud Atlas and the childhood dream of traveling stateside that she couldn’t follow then, but is living now. How did you first meet the Wachowskis and hear about the vision they and Tom Tykwer had for Cloud Atlas ? They just called me! It was weird because I had no American agent at the time, and I didn’t even have a manager in Korea. I was in between managers, so it was hard to find me. [Laughs] But I got a call from my Korean friend, the film director Pil-Sung Yim [ Doomsday Book ], and he said, “Doona, some famous Hollywood filmmakers want to send you a script – do you want to read it?” I said, “Yes, of course!” I got the script and I found, “Oh my god – this is Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer, this must be amazing.” After you got the script, what happened next? I did some auditions and sent in a self-taped recording – my older brother recorded it, and I just read the Sonmi part at home. Which scenes did you record? The scenes with the Archivist in the interrogation room, and one with Chang after I see the slaughterhouse. Two scenes. Then we met each other in Chicago and had camera tests. Then I got the part. [Laughs] It was like a dream. I’m still dreaming. Were you already interested in doing English-language films or attempting to find Hollywood movies to cross over with before Cloud Atlas came along? Actually, no. I wasn’t looking for any parts – if so, I would have learned English earlier. I think if so, I would have prepared. But I thought it might not be possible. Here, science fiction and foreign film fans have seen your work – Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and The Host in particular played well stateside – so it felt like it would make sense for you to make that move. Really? I haven’t thought about it. Actually, I wasn’t ready, I think – but I worked hard. I worked hard on the language. My favorite subject was English and I wanted to study English abroad when I was young, when I was a kid, but my mom said “No, it’s too dangerous to go abroad by yourself.” So I gave up. Now I’m learning English. I’ve been learning English in London for six months. Jim [Sturgess] says your English has improved quite impressively, and fast. Oh, thank you Jim! So sweet. Had the Wachowskis seen your film Air Doll ? Your character follows a slightly similar path to Sonmi’s. Yes! When I first met Lana and Andy on Skype, I was so curious about it. “How do you know me?” I asked. [Laughs] And Lana said, “We saw Air Doll and The Host and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance .” “Oh, Air Doll !” I see. There is some connection between the two characters. Sonmi has such a big arc – she changes so much, from being naïve and childlike at the beginning of her story to becoming such a powerful and intelligent woman. That’s exactly what I think of her, actually. I like Sonmi because she has both purity and innocence and at the same time she’s got such a strength. When you were playing her, did you feel a moment in her journey when you felt like she changed the most on her way to becoming who she would be? Actually I don’t study the script – I didn’t analyze anything, I just emptied myself and felt Sonmi, let her into my heart. So when I first saw Yoona-939 die, it was a big shock. It was like I realized something at that time. Also when I met Chang and saw the slaughterhouse – it was gradual. There are so many actors in this cast, but beyond Jim who you spent most of your time with, who did you bond with the most ? Ben [Whishaw] . We became good friends. We actually had no scenes with each other but personally we had a good time – and actually, I was very lonely because I went to Berlin by myself, on my own. I was lonely and a little bit depressed and stressed, and Ben was so sweet. He cheered me up. I’ve got some good energy from him. You recently starred in As One , a film about a Korean table tennis team. Did you ever challenge Susan Sarandon to a match? Oh, not yet! She’s got a ping pong club in New York City, I want to go there! I trained for six months with my left hand, so I can play ping pong with both hands. I should challenge her. I can beat her! Read more on Cloud Atlas , which opens Friday . 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Also in Tuesday morning’s round-up of news briefs: Shameless star Emmy Rossum set for Hilary Swank project; Colin Firth is set for a charity gala at the upcoming Dubai International Film Festival; And Oscar submissions for Best Animated Feature are almost due. Oscars: Animated Feature Film Submissions Due November 1st Filmmaker submissions are due in the Animated Feature category for the 85th Academy Awards. Forms, supporting material etc. must be turned into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by 5pm PT Thursday, November 1st. Rules and submission forms are available at their website . Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards will take place January 10th at 5:30am PT. Around the ‘net… Tony Scott Autopsy Reveals Only ‘Therapeutic’ Levels of Drugs L.A. Coroners office said director Tony Scott had a “”therapeutic level of Mirtazipine (Remeron) which is an anti-depressant and zopiclone (Lunesta), a sleep-aid” in his system the day he died on August 19th. The 68 year-old director of Top Gun died from injuries when he jumped from an L.A. harbor bridge. Earlier speculation of possible brain cancer were not detected, Deadline reports . Skyfall Set for Royal Roll-out Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will attend the world premiere in London of the latest Bond installment. Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem will attend the screening at the Royal Albert Hall. Proceeds from Tuesday’s royal gala are going to charities that help members of Britain’s intelligence services. Skyfall is the 23rd official Bond film and Craig’s third turn, A.P. reports . Colin Firth to Join Charity Gala at Dubai Film Festival Firth and his wife Livia as well as Kristin Davis and Rooney Mara will attend a charity event for charity Oxfam at the upcoming Dubai International Film Festival. All proceeds from the black tie gala dinner and auction featuring one-of-a-kind prizes donated by celebrity Oxfam partners will go to the UAE-based philanthropic organization Dubai Cares and Oxfam, THR reports . Emmy Rossum Eyes Hilary Swank Starrer, You’re Not You Rossum, who stars in Showtime’s Shameless is in talks to star opposite Hilary Swank in the drama. She would play a self-absorbed college student whose life is changed when she takes a job caring for a woman (Swank) with Lou Gehrig’s disease, THR reports .
