Johnny Depp is getting into the publishing biz. Called Infinitum Nihil, meaning “Nothing is Forever,” the same name as his production company. Depp’s imprint will be a part of HarperCollins Publishers. The imprint will seek what it calls “authentic, outspoken and visionary ideas and voices.” And a Bob Dylan book is the first to usher in Depp’s foray into the book world. The Unraveled Tales of Bob Dylan will “set the record straight” on the legendary songwriter’s life and career. It is based in part on interviews with Dylan by best-selling historian Douglas Brinkley, A.P. reports . Brinkley recently wrote a Dylan cover story in Rolling Stone and noted that he and Depp thought the book was perfect for the Infinitum Nihil launch. “I pledge, on behalf of Infinitum Nihil, that we will do our best to deliver publications worthy of peoples’ time, of peoples’ concern, publications that might ordinarily never have breached the parapet,” Depp said in a statement released by HarperCollins. “For this dream realized, we would like to salute HarperCollins for their faith in us and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship together.” Said Brinkley via a statement: “Bob has been very warm and forthcoming with us. His music has inspired us both deeply since we were teenagers.” The Unraveled Tales of Bob Dylan will be ready in 2015. Dylan and Brinkley are also working together on a previously announced novel by Dylan hero, folk musician Woody Guthrie, who died in 1967. Completed by Guthrie in 1947, the novel, House of Earth was only recently found. It is slated to come out in January. Depp was a close friend of author Hunter Thompson and starred in film adaptations of his work, Rum Diary and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . Depp also narrated the audio version of Keith Richards’ memoir Life . [ Source: A.P. ]
Also in Monday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs: Hip-hop artist Kid Cudi is joining a romantic comedy; Ben Stiller teases Zoolander ; Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders gets a new gig; And Shiloh Fernandez joins Gregg Araki ‘s latest. R.I.P. John Clive John Clive, who appeared in films including A Clockwork Orange , the Pink Panther and The Italian Job , has died at the age of 79. The actor and author, who was also the voice of John Lennon in Yellow Submarine and went on to become an international bestselling author, passed away following a short illness, his family said on Monday, The Guardian reports . Mike Epps to Play Richard Pryor in Nina Simone Biopic Mike Epps will play Richard Pryor in Nina , the Nina Simone biopic starring Zoe Saldana. In a supporting role, Epps will play Pryor, who opened for the singer when they two were starting out in the early 1960s. Pryor had terrible stage fright and Simone, in her autobiography, recalled how she regularly rocked him into calmness, THR reports . Kid Cudi Boards Romantic Comedy Two Night Stand Hip-hop artist Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi has joined the cast of Two Night Stand , the indie romantic comedy starring Analeigh Tipton and Miles Teller. The story centers on two people who meet online and get together for a one-night stand. The couple get snowed in the next morning and are forced to spend more time together, THR reports . Ben Stiller Reprises Zoolander Role The actor, 46, showed up alongside designer Tommy Hilfiger and Daily Show host Jon Stewart at Comedy Central’s Night of Too Many Stars: America Comes Together for Autism Programs at New York City’s Beacon Theater. Stiller announced earlier this year that a Zoolander sequel is in the works, Yahoo reports . Rupert Sanders to Direct The Juliet Sony Pictures and New Agency have tapped the Snow White and the Huntsman director to lead The Juliet , an adaptation of the Alfred Bester short story, Deadline reports . Shiloh Fernandez Joins Gregg Araki’s White Bird The Red Riding Hood actor will play a lead part in the film which revolves around a young woman who sees her life spin out of control after her mother disappears. Fernandez will star opposite Eva Green and Shailene Woodley, Deadline reports .
Alluring. International. Deadly. The so-called Bond Girls are, let’s face it, the fetish objects the producers hope will keep us coming back to the 007 pictures . (After the watches — the sweet, sweet watches.) While the internet is loaded with glamour shots of Bond ladies from Ursula Andress to Michelle Yeoh, these women are more than mere pin-ups. Indeed, here are some oddball facts about the women in James Bond ‘s life that ought to do you well at a dinner party — provided, of course, that you don’t order red wine with fish. Ursula Andress , the ur-Bond Girl (and not just because it is a pun), became an instant screen icon when she emerged from the Caribbean in her white bikini holding… something, I dunno, I never focused on her hands. But did this Swiss ingenue show any gratitude to the official EON James Bond productions? No! Just a few years after her debut as Honey Ryder in Dr. No she turned around and appeared in a legal loophole “unofficial” James Bond production, 1967’s Casino Royale . Andress wasn’t the only one to make a mockery of her Bond Girl status. The woman who played Tatiana Romanova in From Russia With Love , Daniela Bianchi (who came from the Russian section of Italy, apparently), took part in the mockery known as OK Connery , also known as Operation Kid Brother . In it, Neil (brother of Sean) Connery plays a spy called-up as a replacement when his big brother isn’t available. The movie has never been released on DVD. Mie Hama , who played Kissy Suzuki in You Only Live Twice , is notable for what she did before being a Bond Girl. Prior to Hama, most of the women were European models or aspiring actresses who managed to marry well. Hama was a bus conductor. I’m not even 100% sure what a bus conductor is, but I can totally picture her in her native Japan being constructive and forward in modern society. And probably wearing a sharp outfit.
Politicians have long appropriated pop culture to lend their campaigns relevancy and catchy hooks, so it wasn’t unprecedented when Republican nominee Mitt Romney began using the popular Friday Night Lights catchphrase “Clear eyes, full heart, can’t lose” in his bid for the Presidency. That doesn’t mean filmmaker Peter Berg has to be happy about it. In an open letter to Romney, Berg — who directed 2004’s Friday Night Lights , adapted from H.G. Bissinger’s book about a small Texas town obsessed with football, and created its subsequent spin-off television series — slammed the former Governor of Massachusetts for using the now-famous FNL line. “Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series,” wrote Berg, who described the citation as plagiarism. Via EW : Governor Romney: I created the TV show “Friday Night Lights” and came up with the phrase “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose.” I was not thrilled when I saw that you have plagiarized this expression to support your campaign by using it on posters, your facebook page and as part of your stump speeches. Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series. The only relevant comparison that I see between your campaign and “Friday Night Lights” is in the character of Buddy Garrity — who turned his back on American car manufacturers selling imported cars from Japan. Your use of the expression falsely and inappropriately associates “Friday Night Lights” with the Romney/Ryan campaign. Mitt, we all wish you and your family all the best. We are grateful for your support of our beloved show, but we are not in any way affiliated with you or your campaign. Please come up with your own campaign slogan. Sincerely, Peter Berg. To be fair, President Obama ‘s campaign also used the slogan, albeit less overtly and on Tumblr . I guess that was at least football-related, and therefore more closely aligned with the themes Berg & Co. portrayed in their series. [E W ] Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Since On The Road hits theaters today….even though I never do this kind of thing….you know promoting new releases I am not paid to promote…even if they are movies I want to see….or am interested in….but figure why not, since Kristen Stewart flashes her tits in it….. Not that I am a fan of Kristen Stewart….or going to the movies….but I might as well start the day beating that dead horse with my dick…or is the expression beating a dead whore with my dick….either way, I’ve posted them there titty flash screenshots before … they are old news….but for today….a reminder that she’s not any better in video than she is in pictures of said video….isn’t quite erotic unless you, unlike Paul Ryan, like incest that didn’t end in abortion….cuz that’s what she look like
The Sean Penn , Ryan Gosling , Josh Brolin starrer was initially set for an early September release, but the tragedy in Aurora, CO at a The Dark Knight Rises showing at a multiplex threw the title into a tailspin. The Ruben-Fleischer-directed film about the L.A. police department’s war against organized crime in the ’40s and ’50s. Gangster Squad is now set for a January release. The original trailer, which played some TDKR showings, depicted a scene in which mobsters open fire at a crowd of moviegoers. The scene was reportedly pivotal to the feature’s plot and producers delayed the pic to re-work film and eliminate the possibility of touching a raw nerve. The trailer opens within explosion and a few shoot-outs. The period piece appears to have gangster Sean Penn up against cop Ryan Gosling, but is there a woman they both share? Who will ultimately rule L.A.? Warner Bros. is now planning a roll out on January 11th. The film also stars Emma Stone, Michael Pena, Anthony Mackie, Nick Nolte and James Carpinello.
While I hate to quibble over the details, Martin McDonagh ‘s Seven Psychopaths really contains only six of the nutjobs promised promised in the title — unless you want to count the main character, Marty ( Colin Farrell ). Marty, an Irish screenwriter living in Los Angeles who likes to drink but wouldn’t say he has a drinking problem (though others might disagree) and considers himself an observer of the increasingly and often hilariously crazy events that unfold in the film. But the film, which is half ’90s-style violent comedy and half an meta-critique of that genre, makes a pretty good case for writing as its own breed of pathological behavior — one that tends in its nature to be solitary and that leads you to prey on the experiences and stories of others, to assimilate them as your own to tell. Seven Psychopaths is set in a bright, rambling Los Angeles in which even the people who aren’t employed in the film industry know how to give notes. Marty is working on a screenplay also titled Seven Psychopaths , though mostly he’s staring at a blank page and getting sloshed. His best friend Billy ( Sam Rockwell ), an unemployed actor who makes cash on the side by kidnapping dogs with his partner-in-crime Hans ( Christopher Walken ) and then returning them to their grateful owners, tries to provide support, while his girlfriend Kaya (Abbie Cornish) stews in exasperation. A series of events involving a masked man who’s been killing mobsters and leaving a jack of diamonds as his calling card, a stolen Shih Tzu and an ad in the LA Weekly brings all the inspiration Marty could want into his life and a lot more. Despite his chosen subject matter, Marty claims “I don’t want to do another film about guys with guns in their hands.” Instead, he’d prefer something about love and peace. McDonagh, an acclaimed playwright as well as a filmmaker, has fewer qualms about the appeal of gleeful carnage and wild-eyed swagger, though he also explores the balance between wanting to create something universal and profound and taking a less complicated joy in things blowing up. As a mixture of bloodshed and philosophy, Seven Psychopaths is a step up from and a smoother ride than McDonagh’s 2008 feature debut In Bruges , which also starred Farrell and which studied the interactions of its two gangsters for meaning like they were tea leaves. In its Adaptation. -esque interrogations of its own developments — Marty’s thoughts on where his screenplay is going echo what’s happening in the movie, and he and Billy tussle for control over what type of ending they’re going to get — Seven Psychopaths presents a clever if largely surface-level argument about cinema as art versus cinema as a delivery system for more immediate gratification. Despite Marty’s wishes, it’s the immediate gratification aspects of Seven Psychopaths that win out, by way of the jubilant gore, the crackling verbal back-and-forths and the fact that the cast is stacked with actors who in any other film would be playing the scene-stealing oddball but here raise the ensemble average to something deliciously quirky. Even Farrell, as the least wacko of the men, is interesting — the Hollywood preener toppling into destruction. Walken, playing the mild-mannered, cravat-wearing Hans, cranks up his signature inflection and transforms every other sentence into an odd laugh line. Woody Harrelson, as insane dog owning gangster Charlie, is amusingly and smirkingly scary, following rules that only he understands. Tom Waits turns up as Zachariah, a man who carries around a pet rabbit and who has a hell of a story to share, while former Boardwalk Empire co-stars Michael Pitt and Michael Stuhlbarg pop in for a thoroughly enjoyable discussion of eyeball shooting. But it’s Rockwell’s demented Billy, grinning like a jack-o’-lantern through the escalating chaos, who reigns over the film’s greatest moment when he offers up a suggestion for a climactic scene in Marty’s movie that uproariously fills the screen as he narrates and provides sound effects. Set to a score by Carter Burwell that takes breaks for tunes like P.P. Arnold’s “The First Cut Is The Deepest” and Linda Ronstadt’s “Different Drum,” existing in a start contrast from what’s unfolding on screen, Seven Psychopaths is a ball. But there is a hollowness to some of its self-critiques: when Hans tells Marty “your women characters are awful,” with little to say and usually meeting a bleak end, he’s offering the same jab at the movie he’s in. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s true. And given the Tarantino-worthy antics the characters get up to, the musings about what these things all mean sometimes seem just that — empty musing. Marty may be offered a vision of how violence can transcend into something more powerful, but the movie he’s in can’t quite follow the same path. It’s a good thing that psychopathy is so entertaining. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Tom Hanks will make his Broadway debut in a play written by his friend, the late Sleepless in Seattle director Nora Ephron. Hanks will play the late tabloid columnist Mike McAlary in Lucky Guy , Ephron’s play about the charismatic and controversial newspaperman, who worked for both the New York Post and its rival the New York Daily News during the gritty 1980s. According to the New York Times , Ephron, who died in June, first developed Lucky Guy as a movie but later decided to adapt it to the stage. (She last worked on Broadway in 2002 when Imaginary Friend s, her play about the writers Mary McCarthy and Lillian Hellman, opened.) An announcement put out on Thursday by the play’s producers described Lucky Guy as the “rise, fall and rise again” of McAlary who, shortly before succumbing to colon cancer at the age of 41, won a Pultizer Prize in 1998 for his coverage of the Abner Louima police brutality case. Earlier that decade, McAlary came under fire for three columns he wrote questioning the story of a former Yale University student who claimed she’d been raped in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. The 29-year-old woman hit McAlary with a $12 million libel suit claiming that he damaged her reputation by writing that she fabricated the rape claim to publicize a feminist rally. A judge cleared him of the charges in 1997. Lucky Guy will be directed by George C. Wolfe (Angels in America) and will open on April 1, 2013 at the Broadhurst Theater on West 44th Street for a limited engagement. (Previews will begin March 1.) The Times also reported that, although Hanks has never appeared on Broadway before, he made his professional theater debut as a servant in a Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival production of The Taming of the Shrew . The two-time Oscar winner worked with Ephron in Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. [ New York Times ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Argo is the story of a film that never existed, a Star Wars rip-off set in a sci-fi world with a conveniently Middle Eastern feel. If the movie ever actually made it into production, it looks like the kind of thing you’d stumble upon while doing some insomnia-fueled TV-channel flipping in the small hours of the morning: a forgotten space opera featuring sparkly costumes and melodramatic dialogue. But when CIA agent Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) options this script, what he has in mind is not a genre movie but a rescue operation. Argo, Affleck’s third outing as a director, heads far away from the Boston crime stories of Gone Baby Gone and The Town — to Tehran in 1980, where six American diplomats who escaped from the taking of the American embassy have been hiding out in the home of the Canadian ambassador in an increasingly perilous situation. There are no good ways of getting them out of a country roiling with rage against the U.S. decision to grant asylum to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the recently overthrown Shah of Iran. The State Department suggests giving the six bicycles and pointing them toward the Turkish border, or passing them off as NGO workers in the country to inspect crops that aren’t growing because it’s winter. The plan Tony comes up with, to pass them off as a Canadian film crew, is as his boss Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston) puts it “the best bad idea” the agency has. Argo plays out like an unlikely heist movie in which all the suspense comes from unexpected corners. It’s a con in which the ultimate tense sequence involves getting through airport security, in which we root for the American “house guests” to escape while never being allowed to forget that the mess they’re in is a consequence of U.S. actions. It’s more fine filmmaking from Affleck, though it feels less personal and soulful than his previous hometown genre exercises. The movie’s poignance comes primarily from the opportunity it provides for show business to save the day, and John Goodman and Alan Arkin as Hollywood vets John Chambers and Lester Siegel provide a wry, seen-it-all counterpoint to the aura of melancholy that colors the main storyline. The primary weakness of Affleck’s film is the actor himself, who can’t seem to find much in “exfiltration” specialist Tony aside from a dedication to his work and sorrow over the potential breakup of his family. He is separated from his wife, who has taken their son with her to Virginia. The ’70s shaggy Tony is the protagonist of the story (and the real life Mendez provided some of the film’s source material in his book The Master of Disguise ), but the film places him as the too-still center, as if it would be in bad taste to give too much color to his character. “The whole country is watching you, they just don’t know it,” he’s told early in the runtime, and that sense of his being a secret hero seems to extend into Argo as well. It’s left to the rest of the cast to fill in the liveliness, and Cranston and Chris Messina manage that well in the CIA, while Kerry Bishé, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall and Scoot McNairy do an able job fleshing out the six American stowaways. As Joe Stafford, the ambitious embassy worker who challenges Tony’s plan as unsafe, McNairy is a stand-out, portraying a character in denial about how few options their group now has and filled with guilt about placing his wife in danger. But it’s Goodman and Arkin who are uncomplicated great fun, and the scenes in which Tony travels around Burbank arranging a fake production with their characters are the movie’s most enjoyable outside of the taut finale. Beneath a crumbled Hollywood sign, Tony dips his toe into the film world, quaffing wine at a press event for his nonexistence movie as costumed actors do a table read. That scene, which cuts between the lavish event and the situation in Iran, would suggest a critique of the entertainment industry and the escapism it represents. But a later sequence finds one of the characters giving the pitch of his life to members of the Revolutionary Guard, and inadvertently affirming the power that the movies hold over everyone. On a studio lot thousands of miles away from Iran, Chambers and Siegel may be joking about Groucho Marx while the world is in turmoil, but the power of show business holds sway even amidst Iran’s militants, whose own actions demonstrate an awareness of the importance of theatricality. Argo is a subdued thriller about a small triumph in a troubled moment in time, but it’s not without its sting. The side storyline of a local girl who was employed at the embassy provides a biting reminder of what it really means to be an unacknowledged hero. Not every gets to celebrate and drink champagne at the end. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Jennifer Lawrence may star in The Hunger Games , but she’s glad she isn’t hungry in real life. In a revealing interview with Vogue UK , the actress – who has somehow been referred to as overweight by ridiculous critics – comes down on the Hollywood culture and many rail-thin bodies out there. “I’m so tired of the lollipops,” Lawrence says of other stars out there. “It’s hilarious, the way I’m supposedly the overweight one? Like, they got me at the movies yesterday and the caption read something like ‘Curvy star cannot wait to dig into tub of popcorn.’ I mean, C’mon!” Due to the scrutiny of signing on for this mega trilogy, Lawrence explains her reaction the day The Hunger Games premiered. “I was really upset the day that The Hunger Games came out. I was shaking all day wrapped in a blanket. Dude, have you seen what they’ve done to Britney Spears ?” Don’t think Jennifer isn’t grateful, however. She’s quick to say how “lucky” she is to make a living as an actress. But she also makes some pretty great points, doesn’t she?
