Dave Markey is an underground legend. A filmmaker who started making Super 8 movies before he hit his teens, by the time he finished high school he and his best friend Jordan Schwartz were the unofficial chroniclers of LA’s hardcore punk scene thanks to their ‘zine We Got Power! . We Got Power! only lasted for a few years, but after a long and totally awesome career documenting and making music videos for bands like Sonic Youth, Shonen Knife, The Circle Jerks, The Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr. as well as making the punk rock girl-gang classic Desperate Teenage Lovedolls (1984), its sequel Lovedolls Superstar (1986), and the award-winning documentary The Reinactors (2008), Dave teamed back up with his friend Jordan to re-visit their old ‘zine. The result is We Got Power!: Hardcore Punk Scenes from 1980s Southern California , the new book from Bazillion Points that combines Markey and Schwartz’s photographs with essays from the people who were there. Illuminating, impassioned, and essential reading for anyone in need of some inspiration, We Got Power! is the definitive document of LA hardcore in the early ’80s. We talked to Dave at home, where he told us about his movies, the LA scene then and now, and the indelible appeal of Russ Meyer. More after the jump!
Taylor Swift, who has performed multiple times in New York this week, will take her act national in a few months. The superstar has announced a 2013 tour through North America in promotion of her album “Red.” “I didn’t think I could be any more excited about my Red album, but then I start thinking about how I’m going to put the new show together for The Red Tour,” Swift said in a statement. “I have so many ideas about how to really bring this music to life, and I can’t wait to share the new show with all my fans!” Last year, the artist’s Speak Now Tour garnered $97.7 million last year, making it the second highest-grossing tour of 2011 behind U2. This time, with Ed Sheeran opening, she will kick off a six-month trek through the U.S. and Canada in Omaha, Nebraska on March 13. Following 45 total cities, 29 states and three provinces, Swift will then wrap it all up with a three-night event in her adopted hometown of Nashville. Those tour dates will be September 19, 20 and 21.
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]
The re-make of Maniac (1980) doesn’t hit theaters until 2013, but this weekend New Yorkers can see a sneak peek courtesy of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Scary Movies series! The masterminds behind this attempt to outdo William Lustig ‘s brilliantly twisted 1980 slasher classic (good luck with that, by the way) are Alexandre Aja and Gr
Here is sexy British glamour model Rhian Sugden at the Merabi Couture Launch Party. I’m not used to seeing her all dressed up, and frankly I don’t think it’s the right look for her. Rhian shouldn’t leave the house unless she’s dressed like this or this. Otherwise, I’m just wasting my time putting up some generic blond on the site.
Everything is connected in Cloud Atlas , a few things more directly than others: actor Jim Sturgess portrays one heroic, kind-hearted soul through its evolution from a seafaring 19th century lawyer to a Korean freedom fighter in the futuristic Neo Seoul, many lifetimes (and some controversy-courting Asian make-up) later. When he first read the script, adapted from David Mitchell’s novel by Lana & Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer , Sturgess understandably had some questions. For starters: Why? “I had a million questions,” Sturgess admitted in a chat with Movieline about Cloud Atlas , which required him to play multiple characters — including the sci-fi hero Hae-Joo Chang, disguised under make-up that set critics abuzz — linked by the same soul. “Like, why would you want me to play an Asian man in your film? What reason did they have — and was that going to be okay?” The very idea of eternal souls traveling from one mortal identity to the next forms the backbone of Cloud Atlas , which waves away those raised eyebrows fairly quickly. Many of the cast play against gender, ethnicity, and even age in the film, though the person underneath always remains crucially recognizable. In the film’s Neo Seoul segment, set in the year 2144, Sturgess turns in some of his finest work to date — nearly unrecognizable under his futuristic Asian make-up, and the better for it — as Chang, a determined rebel operative who falls for his clone charge ( Doona Bae ) and helps her change the fate of humanity. Sturgess spoke with Movieline about his Cloud Atlas soul, the extended Spaghetti Western-style fight scene that didn’t make the final film, his first outing as a bona fide action star, his upcoming sci-fi romance Upside Down , and Electric Slide , an ’80s-set true crime tale by first time feature director Tristan Patterson ( Dragonslayer ) that he’s filming now in Los Angeles. When Cloud Atlas first came to you, when you first read the script, did you feel an instant connection to the material? Did you think, ‘This role must be mine’? It was kind of weird, actually. I was sent the script and was told they were maybe interested in me to play these two parts, Adam Ewing and Chang, which was pretty confusing. I didn’t understand what it was all about. So I read the script — it was while I was shooting another film so it was pretty rare, normally you’re so focused on what you’re doing that you don’t really read other scripts — but it arrived, and it was sort of just sitting in my hotel room where I was filming, and it just said “Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski & Tom Tykwer,” and I thought, this looks interesting. Eventually I couldn’t help but to just have a little peek, and I ended up reading the whole script. Then I met with Andy and Lana who came to London and they asked if it was something I’d be interested in doing. They hadn’t chosen me, I guess they were meeting other people, but we just had a meeting about the ideas. I had a million questions. Like, why would you want me to play an Asian man in your film? What reason did they have — and was that going to be okay? That is an interesting and important question with your portrayal of Hae-Joo Chang — one I think the film itself answers as it explores the boundaries of identity. I hope so. When it first came out that Cloud Atlas would be blurring the lines of ethnicity, the internet had some very heated discussions. Rightly so. I totally understand where it comes from. But yeah, you don’t get the full picture unless you watch the film, so just to get it from the trailer or the images that were put online could be jarring for some people. Which I understand. What were some of the bigger questions you initially had for Lana and Andy? I was just like, ‘Explain to me why I would be playing this character,’ and they explained to me the idea of the souls — that whoever was to play Adam Ewing, it was necessary, absolutely necessary, that that soul develops into the Hae-Joo Chang story. Because essentially they’re telling very similar stories, just in different paths, and Hae-Joo Chang is a progression of a soul, like Adam Ewing, who made very unconscious decisions of human kindness because it was in his make up to know right from wrong. But he had no idea he would change the course of human history. Then there’s someone like Hae-Joo Chang, who is battling the same idea of repression but in a more futuristic landscape but making very clear conscious decisions; he knows what he will do and that what he will achieve with Sonmi will alter the course of human existence. I like the idea of approaching it as an actor playing a soul through multiple lifetimes rather than simply individual characters. And there was a reason for absolutely everything. That’s what was so exciting. It wasn’t just, we want you to play this because it will be cool — no, this is the reason, this is your journey of your soul and this is how it maps out, what it represents. And, you know, Tom Hanks’ represents something very different, and Halle’s character represents something very different for her. Tom Hanks said he had a lot of fun trying to kill you. I know he did, I was there! [Laughs] I didn’t have so much fun having him try to kill me each day. He’s a force of nature, that guy. It was amazing just to meet him and work with him. How did you feel about becoming, in Cloud Atlas ‘s Neo Seoul segment, a bona fide action star for the first time — and not only that, but a Wachowski action star? It felt pretty cool, I’ve got to say! There were moments, little “pinch me” moments, just standing there clutching a gun, flying a space motorbike, knowing you were being looked after by the Wachowskis. They did make you look pretty cool. Or maybe that was you. [Laughs] No, it was all them! But it was cool knowing it could be such a sci-fi experience within a bigger film. It was just a piece of a bigger picture. Doona Bae is such a revelation in Cloud Atlas , partly because we haven’t seen her before in an American film and speaking English but also because when you think of this film, the idea of a relative unknown stealing the spotlight from the famous Hollywood “movie stars” falls right in line with the larger themes. How did you two develop your onscreen chemistry, that connection that binds your characters? I was really nervous to work with her because I was just told that she was a Korean actress who spoke very limited English. You would be amazed at how much her English has progressed since we first met. I’m so proud of her that she could do a press junket really not even using a translator. But we met and even though there was a huge language barrier, we got on instantly. Within five minutes of meeting I knew we were going to get on really well, because she’s got an awesome sense of humor. And the language barrier almost brought us closer together, in a weird way. Instead of being able to talk, we had to sort of try to make each other laugh a lot because it was our only way of connecting. So we’d just mess around most of the time. [Laughs] We grew really close. And you know, it’s about the process of making a film. I grew very protective of her in a strange way — she was so out of her regular comfort zone and she was all on her own, didn’t speak much English at all, and she was in a foreign city… I sort of felt duty-bound to look after her a little bit. We just had a lot of fun. You got a chance to play around with a Scottish accent in one of the film’s more broadly comical scenes, in which you actually get to smash Hugo Weaving over the head during a bar fight. That was cool! They cut that scene down a lot, actually. I mean, I understood why they had to. We actually rehearsed this giant kind of Spaghetti Western bar fight, and there were whole scenes where I was doing shots of whiskey and punching someone, then doing another shot of whiskey and punching someone. I was throwing people over my head! But obviously, it’s a big four-hour movie and they had to start shaving it down. Maybe the eventual director’s cut or extended cut will have all four hours intact so we can see this fight. I hope so! It was fun. I liked doing it. As it happens you have another science fiction romance story coming out — Upside Down , with Kirsten Dunst . What do you think it is that’s drawn you to sci-fi and to so many romantic figures of late? Each choice is sort of a reaction to the last thing you’ve made, and I had just done a film called The Way Back , which was a grueling, really bleak and difficult shoot — it was life-changing and amazing in so many different ways, but it was tough. It was all outdoors, no studio work. No comfort. We were out in the mountains of Bulgaria and the deserts of the Sahara, and it was really, really hard work. So the next script, I didn’t want to do anything like that at all. I’d just had that experience and I thought, what can I do that’s completely opposite to that? Then Upside Down kind of landed on my lap and it was this great, fun love story with this great idea of these two worlds, very much a CGI film but in a cool and artistic kind of way. So I thought, cool — I’ll go for that. I’m a fan of Kirsten Dunst and I knew she was going to be playing the girl, so I was really excited that they asked me to do that. I’m not necessarily drawn to science fiction stuff — I guess One Day was very much a love story, but the draw of that was to play one character that you’d stay with over 20 years, and I thought the character of Dexter was interesting. You seem like something of a natural born romantic. [Laughs] Maybe, I don’t know! There’s another project you’re about to start; how would you describe Electric Slide ? [The film, about Eddie Dodson — the ” New York Yankees Bandit ” — was previously set to star Ewan McGregor .] It’s a film called Electric Slide with a first time director called Tristan Patterson — it’s a true story, and set in the 1980s. It’s a cool period! I have to grow a mustache for it, that’s why I have the beard. Totally ‘80s, in a cool way though. Hopefully it’ll look great. I get to rob some banks! Previously: Korean Star Doona Bae On Sonmi-451 And Her Crossover Journey To ‘Cloud Atlas’ Read more on Cloud Atlas , in theaters Friday . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Eli Roth is going off the grid. For the cannibal pic The Green Inferno , Roth tells Movieline he’s taking a small crew to a remote village up the Amazon River that has “no electricity, no running water, nothing.” Producers recruited many of the 200 native villagers to play extras in the horror film by screening the cult film Cannibal Holocaust . It was the first movie they’d seen in their lives, Roth remarked. “They thought it was a comedy!” Roth was newly arrived from a South American prepping trip for the film when he spoke with Movieline Wednesday in Los Angeles about his work producing RZA’s The Man With The Iron Fists . The Green Inferno marks his first feature since Hostel: Part II , but then Roth’s been busy with a number of projects in the past few years, from acting in and directing a short for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds , producing films for folks like RZA, Ti West ( The Sacrament ), and Nicolás López ( Aftershock , which Roth also starred in), and directing an episode of Hemlock Grove for Netflix, among other projects. (As if there wasn’t enough stacked on his plate, he also recently opened his Goretorium attraction in Las Vegas.) For The Green Inferno , the tale of ” naive do-gooders ” who run into cannibals when their plane crashes in the jungle (co-written by Roth with Aftershock scribe Guillermo Amoedo), Roth is taking a page out of the Werner Herzog playbook by venturing deep into the Amazon for what he excitedly refers to as “as adventure.” “The location that we found is truly spectacular,” he said. “It’s so far up the Amazon, no one has ever shot there. The last person anywhere near there was Werner Herzog for Aguirre, the Wrath of God .” The village is so remote, in fact, that Roth says locals had never seen a film before. “We said, ‘Can we shoot here?’ and talked to them, and our producers said ‘We have to explain to them what a movie is. They’ve never seen a television,'” Roth recalled. “So we brought a generator and set up a television. I thought they were going to show them E.T. or The Wizard of Oz , but they showed them Cannibal Holocaust to see how much they could handle.” 1980’s Cannibal Holocaust saw director Ruggero Deodato brought up on obscenity and murder charges when authorities at the time believed the graphic human violence depicted onscreen was real. How did Roth’s new acquaintances react? “The villagers thought it was the funniest thing they’d ever seen.” Roth found that his new cast members’ unfamiliarity with film technology was an unpredictable benefit. “Because none of them have ever owned a camera or had any photographs of themselves and no conception of what television or movies are, they’re so natural and relaxed. They’re amazing. They’re not even conscious of what [the camera] is doing to them. I have a whole village full of kids that are funny as hell that will have cameras all over and not even think twice about it. They don’t get nervous, nothing.” Deodato himself drew criticism for depicting actual animal deaths onscreen, but another controversial film of the era shot on location with locals, the Italian slavery pic Goodbye Uncle Tom ( a reference point for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Django Unchained ), came under fire for hypocritically exploiting the Haitian actors in its cast. Perhaps a stretch, but I asked Roth about the ethics of tapping an entire village to play natives, using the Goodbye Uncle Tom lesson as exploitation cinema’s most notorious example. ” Goodbye Uncle Tom is a pretty brutal movie about slavery where you show corks being pulled out of guys’ asses and babies being hosed down,” he answered, giving it some thought. “No, because we’re giving these people a boat,” Roth explained. “They have no contact with the outside world and we’re giving them a motorboat — that’s the deal. And we’re giving them medical supplies and school supplies, so they’re ecstatic. The one thing they need is a boat. They were like, ‘This will literally change our lives.'” Roth begins filming The Green Inferno in two weeks. Stay tuned for our full interview for The Man With The Iron Fists , out November 2. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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.
Speculation is mounting in the U.K. over who will take over the reins as 007 post- Daniel Craig . Bond girl Naomie Harris delivered a bit of a news flash, saying that the next 007 may be Idris Elba . If so, the star of The Wire and films Prometheus and Thor would become the first non-Caucasian James Bond in his eternal 50 years. Harris hinted that Elba met with Bond producer Barbara Broccoli about the possibility. Even if he is the eventual heir, he would have plenty of time to hone in on his 007 skills. Current Bond incarnate Daniel Craig has signed on for at least two more rounds as the virile British spy. “I didn’t realize that there was this talk and then I did a film with Idris and he said that he met Barbara Broccoli and that it does seem like there is a possibility in the future that there could very well be a black James Bond,” she told Huffington Post. “And I would have to vote for Idris because I just finished working with him and he’s a great guy.” Idris alluded to the role earlier this year, saying he wouldn’t want to be identified as the ‘black’ James Bond. “I don’t want to be the black James Bond. Sean Connery wasn’t the Scottish James Bond, and Daniel Craig wasn’t the blue-eyed James Bond, so if I played him, I don’t want to be called the black James Bond.” At 44, Daniel Craig said he doesn’t want to carry the 007 mantle beyond his years and said the time will come when he has to step out of the part. “I am not going to outstay my welcome. Someone else will have to have the chance to have a crack at this,” he said. The latest Bond pic Skyfall opens in early November in the U.S. [ Sources: Yahoo! Movies U.K. , Huffington Post ]
Don’t get me wrong, Victoria Justice is seriously cute, but I wish she’d dress her age. Aren’t young actresses supposed to walk around half-naked all the time, or is that just in my mind? Anyway, instead Victoria looks like one of the Jonas Brothers here. Is it weird that I still find her hot? Related Articles: Amazing Victoria Justice Bikini Pictures Victoria Justice Keeps The Hotness Going Victoria Justice Needs A Napkin Victoria Justice Is Maturing Nicely Photos: PacificCoastNews
