“Do you have any idea what a Thompson submachine gun does to a mortal?” Guy Pearce tells Tom Hardy about midway through this red-band trailer for Lawless . And, well, before you can say, “Swiss cheese!”, Gary Oldman is riddling some poor sap in an old-fashioned automobile with lots of lead. That’s not even the toughest scene to stomach in the promo for this inspired-by-true-life tale about the brutal bootlegging Bondurant Brothers in Prohibition-era Virginia, which also stars Shia LaBeouf, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska. There’s another luckless soul who appears to be force fed about a gallon of gasoline — and they don’t even check his oil! Check it out below:
I suppose it makes sense: According to Vulture rumor-slinger Claude Brodesser-Akner, Disney’s new regime under Alan Horn is developing a remake of 1991’s The Rocketeer — a box office disappointment that nevertheless built a cult following owing to its retro-futuristic vibe, Billy Campbell’s irresistible hair, and Jennifer Connelly ‘s Jennifer Connelly-ness. The Rocketeer told the story of Cliff Secord, a square-jawed airplane pilot who battles Nazis with the help of a rocket jetpack in 1930s California. Audiences rejected it upon release, but the film won dedicated fans (myself included) in subsequent years. The report, based on studio spy whispers, points out that such a reboot might be successful thanks to its similarities with Marvel’s Iron Man properties — both were adapted from comics, both involve a hero in a supercool metal suit flying into action against baddies, etc. One way of updating the Rocketeer property could be to make it slick and high-tech and even more Iron Man -esque… though the idea of Disney courting such obvious parallels to Marvel’s best-loved new Avengers superhero doesn’t make much sense. If Disney reboots The Rocketeer , I can’t imagine fans of the original comics and the Joe Johnston-directed film would accept anything less than a faithful period setting, in keeping with the original story’s spirit and sense for nostalgic idealism; good luck finding a Cliff Secord with hair as phenomenally perfect as 90s-era Campbell. I mean – JUST… LOOK… AT THIS HAIR! YOU GUYS . On second thought, let me put this out there: Armie Hammer as Cliff. Jennifer Lawrence as Jenny. Michael Fassbender as Neville Sinclair. Discuss. [ Vulture ]
‘I’m really excited just to show the world that side of me,’ Pauly says of ‘Jersey Shore’ spin-off, premiering tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on MTV. By Gil Kaufman, with reporting by Sway Calloway Pauly D Photo: Ian Spanier After five seasons of “Jersey Shore,” we know DJ Pauly D pretty well. He’s the ultimate prankster who never beefs with anyone, takes crucial care of his beloved sneaker collection and has a crunchy blowout that defies all laws of physics. But the Rhode Island kid has many more sides to show us, and he plans to put them all on display in his spin-off show, “The Pauly D Project.” When asked what parts of his personality “Shore” watchers are missing out on, Pauly told MTV News’ Sway, “Just how much I am all about my home, my family and my friends — you don’t really see that.” In the show — which debuts tonight (March 29) at 10:30 p.m. ET, right after the reboot of “Punk’d” — viewers will tag along as Pauly hits Las Vegas for his DJ residency at the Palms Hotel and Casino with his whole crew in tow, including turntable inspiration Biggie, bodyguard Jerry and wingman Ryan. They’ll also get to see Pauly go home to visit his friends and family and sign a mind-blowing record deal with the G-Note division of 50 Cent’s G-Unit Records. Oh, and did we mention he also hits the road as the opening act for Britney Spears ? Yeah, buddy. “Now you get to see me take my closest friends on the road with me from Rhode Island, and you get to see Rhode Island,” he said. “I’m really excited just to show the world that side of me.” His hookup with 50 is already paying dividends, as the G-Unit General recently tapped Pauly to help out in the first commercial for the rapper’s Street King energy drink . Pauly jumped in front of the camera with 50 and legendary comedian Joan Rivers for what the MC said was a “real oddball group” intended to target a wide range of potential audiences. Don’t miss the premiere of ” “The Pauly D Project ” tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on MTV, following the reboot of ” Punk’d “! For continuing “Pauly” coverage, be sure to check in with MTV’s Remote Control blog. Related Photos Pauly D Project | Cast Photos Pauly D: The Growth Of The Blowout Related Artists DJ Pauly D
If only all ticket buyers were anthro majors, amirite? “If I were an anthropologist put on Barsoom, I’d try to integrate myself within the Tharks and learn more about their lifestyle. I’d definitely need to know about the current political climate first. That’s always a good idea when you’re thrust into an alien environment , here literally. Political unrest kept me out of Bolivia… On Barsoom, I’d be drawn to the civil war, but I wouldn’t want to become involved. As an anthropologist, we like to keep our heads down in these types of situations. I actually have a shirt from my old archeology club at Boston University that says, “Don’t shoot — I’m an archeologist!” in 13 different languages. Then again, Tharks don’t read.” [ Box Office Magazine ]
This is pure speculation, but it’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend! Let’s connect the dots: Lionsgate and WWE Studios are teaming up on a reboot of the 1993 pic Leprechaun , the creature comedy-horror which infamously featured a young Jennifer Aniston and kicked off a series of terrible films centered on a murderous Irish fairy hell-bent on recovering his precious gold. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), meanwhile, has a diminutive wrestler named Hornswoggle under contract, whose ring persona is that of a mischievous leprechaun. Pure coincidence, or will Leprechaun mark the next screen debut for a WWE star? Granted, it’s a bit of a longshot given that Hornswoggle (real name: Dylan Postl) isn’t one of the major stars in the wrestling world. And beyond its slate of tailor-made wrestling champ vehicles ( The Scorpion King , The Marine , The Condemned ) WWE Studios have been branching out, picking up titles for distribution that don’t feature any of their wrestlers-turned-thespians. But it’s kind of too perfect an opportunity for cross-branding to pass up, don’t you think? No stars have yet been announced for the Leprechaun reboot, so marinate on the possibilities over a mug of green beer this weekend. I mean, who doesn’t want to see Warwick Davis’s shoes filled by an actor who has a finishing move called the Tadpole Splash? [ Variety , @lytrules ]
It wasn’t tough to spot Channing Tatum or Jonah Hill at the after party following the SXSW premiere of 21 Jump Street ; they were the ones, beaming unselfconsciously in the middle of the crowd, wearing bicycle-cop uniforms. More specifically, wearing their costumes from the movie, in which they play a pair of bumbling rookie policemen sent undercover to high school — a set-up that so delivers beyond its premise that the ’80s Johnny Depp TV series adaptation is actually one of the best new films of 2012, comedy or otherwise. Sony’s March 16 release had screened a handful of times for press leading into the SXSW premiere, establishing surprisingly strong word of mouth for months. Catching up with 21 Jump Street directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord after the film’s equally supportive public debut found the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs helmers in fantastic spirits, and with good reason: If audiences follow the lead of critics and SXSWers, then 21 Jump Street could become a deserving critical and commercial hit in the mold of last year’s Austin breakout Bridesmaids . Credit goes to an exceedingly sharp script and great chemistry between leads Hill and Tatum, whose onscreen two-man comedy team rapport carries what might, in a lesser film, have been reduced to a fairly banal by-the-numbers plot (the pair go undercover in search of the source of a powerful and dangerous drug making the rounds in the high school set). The reboot takes its job seriously than, say, the Starsky and Hutches that came before it; if you’re wondering how the hell anyone could justify resuscitating a decades-old idea from the depths of nostalgia, for example, the film beats you to it. If you’re skeptical of seeing Ice Cube as Tatum and Hill’s angry black police captain, Cube’s Captain Dickson clears the air in his very first scene. But 21 Jump Street isn’t just clever in its construction and aware of its own inherent vulnerabilities to criticism — it’s pretty hilarious to boot. Two of the best jokes in my estimation come not from Tatum, who is genuinely funny and, more importantly, comfortable flexing his comic muscles here, or Hill, but from supporting players Dave Franco as the crunchy, Berkeley-bound popular kid and 21-year-old lady rapper Rye Rye as a fellow undercover Jump Streeter. The film even manages to use Rob Riggle well without succumbing to the near-universal rule that almost any comedy featuring the (talented!) Riggle turns out to be kind of terrible. Curse broken! Monday’s 21 Jump Street debut also marks yet another strong showing for a studio release at SXSW after Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods and the surprise horror entry Sinister . Drop back by Movieline on Thursday for Stephanie Zacharek’s review of 21 Jump Street , and catch up on all of our SXSW 2012 coverage here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
These deals-in-the-making stories always carry a grain of salt since nothing in Hollywood is ever so sure just about until the cameras roll, but the trade scoop that The Killing ‘s Joel Kinnaman may be your next RoboCop is just too tantalizing. Joel Kinnaman who , you may ask, and rightly so? The Swedish-American actor’s been in a handful of stateside film projects here and there (including the recent Safe House and, briefly, Fincher’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ) but the closer I look at his work, the more enticing this casting move becomes. According to a Tweet by Variety’s Jeff Sneider (also confirmed by Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter ), Kinnaman has been offered the lead in Jose Padilha’s reboot of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi pic. “Dealmaking is expected to begin imminently,” writes THR’s Boris Kit, whatever that really means. In any case, it’s the first solid movement on a RoboCop lead since those Michael Fassbender fantasy rumors were waved away by the secretive Padilha. Kinnaman’s not an obvious choice to headline a high profile franchise reboot, but he’s been dancing on the cusp of breakout status for a few years. The 32-year-old Kinnaman got his start in Swedish film, most notably taking the lead in Daniel Espinosa’s crime adaptation Easy Money (AKA Snabba Cash ), based on Jens Lapidus’s novel; the film is being released in the U.S. on July 27 and will be remade in English with Zac Efron , while a Kinnaman-starring sequel, Snabba Cash II , is set for release in Sweden in 2012. According to the Swedish website Ostran.se , Kinnaman was once up for the leads in both Thor and Mad Max 4 (the roles went to Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hardy, respectively), so Hollywood filmmakers have already been looking at him to carry a major studio release. But while he’s obviously pretty easy on the eyes, it’s his screen presence — whether speaking English and Swedish — that’s impressed me the most. Take a look at Kinnaman below and weigh in: Is there cause to be excited if this is indeed your new RoboCop? Snabba Cash trailer: In a scene from Swedish franchise entry Johan Falk: National Target (opposite Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol ‘s Samuli Edelmann): Behind the scenes on AMC’s The Killing (via Slashfilm ): In the trailer for Snabba Cash II (via Playlist ):
Robert Downey Jr. is not just a laudable actor who earned the coolest Oscar nomination of the past decade for his performance in Tropic Thunder ; he’s also a damn quotable person . But what happens when he’s asked to speak about Iron Man 3 , a film that Lethal Weapon writer/ Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Shane Black hasn’t finished writing yet and comes out in May 2013? He’s not as revealing or candid (since, uh, there’s nothing to reveal). Instead, he says things like this.
Another August weekend, another genre explosion . As summer slowly ends with a whimper, four new releases are set to crowd multiplexes — three of which will screen in 3-D (with one of those even in 4-D. ( Aromascope , FTW !) Will Conan the Barbarian slay Spy Kids and One Day co-stars Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess with a broadsword slice, or will Colin Farrell and Fright Night jam a stake through the hearts of moviegoers nationwide? Or maybe The Help will clean up all four of them? Wordplay! Click through for the Weekend Forecast.
Fans of Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch , steel yourself: The guy who last put Denzel Washington on top of a runaway train (and made bank at the box office doing so) wants to remake the groundbreaking 1969 Western. Deadline reports that director Tony Scott — whose most recent film was last year’s Unstoppable — is negotiating to reboot the classic Peckinpah film. He also wants to remake his own Top Gun , so clearly nothing is sacred. Read the news after the jump and weep into your cowboy boots.
