The Twilight film franchise may have worked its way through Stephenie Meyer’s books, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s over. Just watch my red-carpet interview with Elizabeth Reaser at Thursday night’s New York premiere of Breaking Dawn — Part 2 . The actress, who plays Esme Cullen, suggests that there may be more life in store for this undead saga. Other stars of the blockbuster franchise get misty over the final film and how awesome their fans are. They also share their thoughts on the movie’s surprise ending, which is different from Meyer’s book. Watch my red carpet interviews below to find out! The premiere, which was hosted by The Cinema Society and Samsung Galaxy, drew cast members Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Dakota Fanning, Peter Facinelli, Maggie Grace and Mackenzie Foy as well as Howard Stern and his wife Beth, Jennifer Esposito and Tony Danza and Diane Neal. After the screening at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, guests partied at a new appropriately named night spot on the Bowery, Finale. Follow Movieline on Twitter . Follow Grace Randolph on Twitter .
Also in Friday’s news round-up, the studio suits are jubilant on Skyfall ‘s box office prospects; Ted passes a b.o. milestone and a quick look at the weekend’s new Specialty Releases including Silver Linings Playbook and Anna Karenina . Helen Hunt to Receive Palm Springs Film Festival Fete The possible Oscar contender will receive the Spotlight Award at the 24th Palm Springs International Film Festival on January 5th. In The Sessions , Hunt plays a therapist who helps a 38-year-old man, who has lived most of his life in an iron lung, lose his virginity for the first time, THR reports . Jane Goldman to Write Pinocchio for Robert Downey Jr. Tim Burton will direct the pic which has been in the works for months. Goldman’s hire will likely bring the “courtship” to a close. The story revolves around the children’s classic. Downey will play Geppetto, the woodcarver who creates the puppet who wants to become a real boy, THR reports . Skyfall to Exceed $800M Worldwide MGM expects the latest James Bond to be the highest grossing film in the franchise of all time. Additionally, the Blu-ray package, Bond 50: The Complete 22 Films Collection was a “tremendous success at retail,” Deadline reports . Ted Crosses $500 Million Mark The R-rated comedy is Universal’s highest rated film of 2012, crossing the $500 million mark worldwide, beating Todd Phillips’ The Hangover which took in $467.4 million, THR reports . Specialty Preview: Anna Karenina , Silver Linings Playbook , Price Check , Mea Culpa Maxima More Oscar contenders are lined up at the specialty gate this weekend, most notably The Weinstein Company’s Silver Linings Playbook ,, whose strategy has evolved in the run-up to Friday’s launch. The title will start with a handful of bookings before expanding gradually into wide release. Focus Features’ hopeful Anna Karenina will also hit the same number of cinemas in its initial outing, targeting women and the art-house crowd, Deadline reports .
If Quentin Tarantino ‘s demonstrative hand gestures don’t distract you too much, here’s an interesting clip in which the Django Unchained director discusses the influence that crime novelist Elmore Leonard had on his formative years as a screenwriter and filmmaker, as well as his appreciation of actress Pam Grier. Rolling Stone posted this exclusive video , which is part of the bonus material included in Tarantino XX , a 10-disc Blu-Ray box set that collects the eight movies from the first 20 years of his career: Reservoir Dogs , True Romance, Pulp Fiction , Jackie Brown , both Kill Bill films, Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds . In what appears to be a Film Independent Q&A on Tarantino’s 1997 film Jackie Brown , which was adapted from a Leonard novel, the filmmaker explains that he used to read the writer’s books and “adapt them into movies in my mind,” asking himself: “How would I turn this into a movie?” He adds that engaging in that mental exercise, “years before I could ever afford to make a movie, really..helped me with my structure.” There’s also a curious moment at the end of the clip where Tarantino talks about wanting “to be Josef von Sternberg” to Pam Grier’s “Dietrich.” While I appreciate Tarantino’s appreciation of Grier’s talent, I think that line says more about him than her. Von Sternberg made the little known Marlene Dietrich a star when he cast her in The Blue Angel and then worked with her for five more films. Grier was hardly an unknown when Tarantino began working with her. Thanks to her roles in Coffy and Foxy Brown , Grier was already a cult icon. Tarantino merely reminded us of that. He also didn’t exactly make her a star. [ Rolling Stone ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
I love horror films , but it’s real life that gives me the heebie jeebies. And when I think about the cinematic moments that haunt my nightmares, they’re rarely from scary movies. Sure, escapism is involved (and a bit of time travel) — just not the supernatural. With that in mind, here’s a list of the top five movie scenes that make my skin crawl. I hope they inspire you to come up with more in the comments section. 1. The Fate of Paul Dano’s Character in Looper : This movie has been out long enough that I don’t feel like I’m breaking any unwritten spoiler rules here, but if you still plan to see Rian Johnson’s smart, dark time-travel film with fresh eyes, then skip to the next entry. I’ve made this number one because it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a filmmaker come up with such a creatively diabolical fate for a movie character that was both original and integral to the plot. (Dreaming up torture-porn scenarios is kid’s stuff.) The most enduring horror is psychological because the brain is so much better at filling in the gory details than any filmmaker, and Johnson, who wrote and directed Looper , leaves a lot to the imagination when Seth is punished for failing to close his loop by killing his elder, future self. Instead of watching Dano methodically being relieved of his extremities (most memorably, his nose), we see his future self being bloodlessly altered before our eyes as he attempts to scale a fence and skip town. A message sent to Seth’s future self via a skin-carving is also a beautifully macabre detail, as is the final shot of that horrific sequence: a barely discernible body covered by blood-stained surgical sheets and the clinical beeping of life-support machinery. Like the doctor who carves away at Seth, Johnson works surgically, but the effect is a shotgun blast to the chest. 2. The Ear Removal Scene in Reservoir Dogs: Obvious, you say? Essential, I reply. This is Quentin Tarantino’s most fiendish scene, and — please argue with me, but all these years later, he has not topped it. I cannot watch it without averting my eyes, and — perhaps Django Unchained will prove otherwise — . Once again, the terror is all in the build-up: The deader-than-deadpan voice of comedian Steven Wright (as deejay K-Billy) introducing “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealers Wheel only ramps up the tension as Michael Madsen dances cheesily with an open straight razor. You know something horrible is coming, you just don’t know what. And when it does come, Tarantino does not actually show the violence. His camera cuts to a hallway that looks like an ear shorn of its fleshy lobe as Madsen’s Mr. Blonde relieves Officer Marvin Nash of his pinna. The purity of Madsen’s onscreen malevolence does not seem like acting — which makes it all the more terrifying — but mad props must also be given to actor Kirk Baltz, who plays Nash, for palpably conveying the pain and terror of a man in a horrifically fucked situation. When Mr. Blonde douses Nash with gasoline, I swear I can feel my skin burn. 3. The Casino Beatings: So, you’re thinking, Wait! What? You’re not choosing the scene where Tony Dogs’ eye pops out because Nicky Santoro ( Joe Pesci ) is squeezing his head in a vise ? Well, if this were a Top 10, Casino would probably get two entries. The beating scene gets top billing because, though I haven’t timed it (compared to the vise scene), it feels like it goes on forever, and the sound of those aluminum bats hitting flesh and bone does not fade easily. Martin Scorsese is celebrated for his mob movies, but he doesn’t celebrate the mob: his La Cosa Nostra is the stuff of nightmares — nightmares in Brioni suits. 4. The Chainsaw scene in Scarface : Leatherface, Scarface , there’s not much difference when you’ve got a crazy gangster with a chainsaw who’s not afraid to use it. The scene is one of the few where Al Pacino ‘s Tony Montana’s say-hello-to-my-little-friends bravado falters when he’s forced to watch his partner in crime undergo some radical deconstructive surgery. The fact that this carnage is taking place in what looks like a decrepit South Beach, Miami location that, today, is probably a $495-a-night hotel makes it all the more more horrific.
This week’s Low(brow) choice may have been a box-office-record-smashing mass-appeal hit, but it’s also a genre classic that sneaks a healthy dollop of wit and even subtlety into its comic-book storyline. On the High side: two swoony love stories from a modern master . With movies this good, labeling almost seems beside the point. HIGH: Wong Kar-Wai Blu-Ray Double Feature: Fallen Angels and Happy Together (Kino Lorber; $49.95 Blu-Ray) WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: Both films: Written and directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Casts: Leon Lai, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Karen Mok ( Angels ); Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung ( Happy ). WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Fallen Angels tells a tale originally designed to be part of Wong’s Chungking Express , about a lovesick hit man (Lai), a mute guy with a talent for breaking and entering (Kaneshiro) and a girl named Blondie (Mok). Although, as with most films by this auteur, what happens to these characters is less important than how they’re lit and what music they listen to. In the ironically-titled gay romance Happy Together , Lai (Leung) and Ho (Cheung) travel from Hong Kong to Argentina in an attempt to repair their thoroughly dysfunctional relationship. It doesn’t help. (The Tony Leung Chiu-Wai of this film starred in John Woo’s Hard-Boiled and Wong’s In the Mood for Love , and is not to be confused with Tony Leung Ka-fai from The Lover .) WHY IT’S SCHMANCY: Wong and his frequent collaborator, cinematographer Christopher Doyle, create heartbreaking visual tone poems that are unique among contemporary movies. These aren’t the kinds of films where you ask “What’s it about?” or “What happens?” Instead, you have to let them take you where they want — on their terms and at their own pace. But if you’re patient enough, Wong will guide you into his characters’ hearts and heads, and the rewards are immeasurable. In this context, a glance, a pop song or even a color can speak volumes. WHY YOU NEED TO BUY IT (AGAIN): Not every director’s work makes a big leap in going from regular DVD to hi-res Blu-Ray, but Doyle is one of the great visual artists in film right now, and the crisper you can see his amazing images, the better. (All the more reason to get psyched about the upcoming In the Mood for Love Blu-Ray coming next month from The Criterion Collection.) This double-feature collection doesn’t skimp on the extras, either: Angels offers three behind-the-scenes featurettes and an interview with Dolan. Happy Together includes a making-of doc ( Buenos Aires Zero Degree ) and a 2008 conversation with Wong from the Museum of the Moving Image. LOW: The Avengers (Walt Disney Home Entertainment; $29.99 DVD, $39.99 Two-Disc Blu-Ray Combo, $49.99 Four-Disc Blu-Ray Combo) WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: Written and directed by Joss Whedon, from a story by Whedon and Zak Penn, based on the comic book by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; starring Robert Downey, Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Oh, like you don’t know: Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finally gets his hands on the Cosmic Cube that’s been bouncing through most of the previous Marvel superhero movies, and it takes the combined might of Iron Man (Downey), the Hulk (Ruffalo), Thor (Hemsworth), Captain America (Evans), Black Widow (Johansson) and Hawkeye (Renner) to save the planet from alien invasion. WHY IT’S FUN: Whedon gets the appeal of superhero comic books in the same way that Raiders of the Lost Ark demonstrated Lucas and Spielberg’s instinctual understanding of what made old-school adventure serials so fun. (For all the successes of the Spider-Man movies, for instance, you’d never know that the comic-book character was a one-liner-spouting sarcasm machine.) While Whedon never underplays the high stakes of the plot, he lets these characters be funny, bitchy and untrusting of each other before they bond through their shared adventures. It’s an epic, breathtaking pop thrill ride that doesn’t spare the smarts or the endorphins. WHY YOU SHOULD BUY IT: Seeing as how it’s one of the most successful movies ever made, The Avengers comes to home video in a number of different incarnations, including a four-disc set that includes a 3D Blu-Ray option. The extras themselves are plentiful, if not earth-shaking, and include a Whedon commentary, star-packed making-of shorts, a look at the visual effects, deleted scenes, a gag reel and a Soundgarden music video. And if you’re springing for the 3D set, you’ll get Item 47 , the first of a promised series of Avengers-related short films. Alonso Duralde has written about film for The Wrap , Salon and MSNBC.com. He also co-hosts the Linoleum Knife podcast and regularly appears on What The Flick?! (The Young Turks Network) . He is a senior programmer for the Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles and a pre-screener for the Sundance Film Festival. He also the author of two books: Have Yourself A Movie Little Christmas (Limelight Editions) and 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men (Advocate Books). Follow Alonso Duralde on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
They’re both behemoth British authors, but that does not necessarily translate into desire to pick up the other’s books for a read. On the eve of J.K. Rowling’s first post- Harry Potter series roll-out The Casual Vacancy , the mega-selling author of the fantasy series, which spawned a mega-multiple movie franchise said she hasn’t read fellow author E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey and probably won’t. The paperback version of 50 Shades managed to surpass the Harry Potter series as the fastest seller of all-time, though naturally the two literary blockbusters target different audiences. Rowling certainly hasn’t done bad with Potter , with an estimated net worth of $1 billion. “I haven’t [read 50 Shades of Grey ], have you?” Rowling told an interviewer from The Guardian , adding, “Well, if I’m truthful, it’s because I promised by editor I wouldn’t.” She quickly added that she was joking, but her editor did say, “Well, don’t read it,” she said. Asked further if she thought she was “missing out” on something, Rowling said, “Not wildly, no,” but added, “It could be amazing, but no I haven’t read it.” Rowling’s latest, however, moves into the adult-themed world that E.L. James’ wildly popular books have dominated of late. The Casual Vacancy reportedly takes on prostitution, drug use and class, according to The Guardian. “The worst that can happen is that everyone says, ‘That’s shockingly bad,’ she said about the pending novel. The Casual Vacancy will be available beginning September 27th. And as has been the focus of attention throughout the recent Summer, 50 Shades of Grey , of course, will now be heading to the big screen and speculation has been a constant over who will play the two leads. The debate and media attention may bode well for the forthcoming film version, though compared to the $2.3 billion Harry Potter franchise juggernaut, 50 Shades will have quite a hill to climb. The Casual Vacancy plot as described by the publisher’s parent company, Little, Brown Book Group: “When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?” [ Sources: The Guardian , Wikipedia , Box Office Mojo , via The Insider ]
Speculation and excitement have been building among Quentin Tarantino fans for the Christmas-day release (in N. America) of Django Unchained , starring Leonardo DiCaprio , Samuel L. Jackson , Jonah Hill , Christoph Waltz and Kerry Washington . But for those Tarantino fans just jonesing for a Tarantino fix ahead of that roll out, Lionsgate and Miramax are teaming up on a massive Quentin Tarantino Blu-ray disc boxed set. There may be a bit of sticker-shock for some, but the $119.99 list price includes eight film in addition to two bonus discs with five hours of extras, according to Home Media magazine. The box set includes titles Reservoir Dogs , True Romance , Pulp Fiction , Jackie Brown , Kill Bill Vol. 1 , Kill Bill Vol. 2 , Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds . Critics; perspectives on the filmmaker’s films and a feature containing interviews with stars and other filmmakers dubbed “20 Years of Filmmaking” highlight the bonus material. [ Source: Home Media ]
Filmmaker receives inaugural Music+Film Award with some help from Ice Cube, Keri Hilson, Adam Levine and Tim Roth. By Kara Warner Quentin Tarantino receives the inaugural Music+Film Award at the 2011 Critics’ Choice Awards Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images With brief yet genuine words of praise from former colleagues, a flashy movie-clip mash-up and a musical tribute in his honor, Quentin Tarantino stepped into the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards history books Friday night (January 14) after receiving the show’s inaugural Music+Film Award. Ice Cube started things off by telling everyone to hurry up and sit down so he could present before introducing an impressive clip reel that included Tarantino classics “Reservoir Dogs,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Jackie Brown,” “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” and “Vol. 2” and “Inglourious Basterds.” Then, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine (who, along with his bandmates, was moonlighting as the show’s house band for the evening) hit the stage with his guitar for a performance of the “Dogs” musical number “Stuck in the Middle With You,” which doubled as a tribute to late Stealers Wheel frontman Gerry Rafferty . That was followed by a saucy version of “Son of a Preacher Man” by Keri Hilson. “Reservoir Dogs” castmember Tim Roth took the stage after Levine’s and Hilson’s performances to officially hand off the award to Tarantino, who was shown smiling from the audience throughout the tribute. Roth noted that no one deserves the award more than Tarantino and that he was happy to help “celebrate Quentin for using music so damn effectively.” Then the man himself graciously took the stage and talked about how he started filmmaking by hanging out alone in his room, playing records like Duane Eddy’s “Rebel Rouser” and writing scenes to go along with them. “I’m kind of still doing the same thing right now,” he joked. What do you think of Quentin Tarantino’s use of music in film? Let us know in the comments! Related Photos 2010 Critics’ Choice Awards Celebrity Candids Critics’ Choice Movie Awards Red Carpet 2011 2011 Critics’ Choice Movie Awards Show
