Over the last two weeks, you may have noticed some big changes in the look and functionality of Movieline. In addition to a sweet new logo, we’ve redesigned the home page to give you easier accessibility to a greater array of stories. Top Stories and Hot Topics in the film world and popular culture are now just a click away on the home page, as are the week’s Big Films , the latest trailers and major cinema milestones such as the 50th anniversary of James Bond and the vibrant debate over the plot and symbolism of Prometheus . These are just a few of the improvements, new features and surprises that we have planned in the coming months as part of our commitment to you, our savvy, witty and outspoken readership. On behalf of Movieline’s Executive Editor Jen Yamato and Managing Editor Brian Brooks , I invite you to give us your feedback. In the comments section below, please tell us what you like and don’t like about the changes we’ve made and how we can make your Movieline experience a better one. We’re listening. Sincerely, Frank DiGiacomo Editorial Director Follow Movieline on Twitter and Facebook .
If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath ever since IFC announced the return of R. Kelly ‘s hip-hopera saga Trapped in the Closet , which next month debuts dozens more chapters in the ongoing saga of Sylvester, Cathy, Bridget, Twan, Pimp Lucius, and the various relatives and secret lovers and midgets in their lives. Because 22 chapters weren’t enough! In a recent interview with Time promoting his new “Single Ladies” tour (never mind that Beyonce used the phrase quite memorably herself, this is a man who charted with a song called “Feelin’ On Yo Booty” and whose lyrics can make even the adorable Joseph Gordon-Levitt sound terribly, terribly naughty) and an album of “bedroom ballads,” R. Kelly not only refers to himself in the third person multiple times , he teases that there’s even more Trapped in the Closet to come after Trapped in the Closet: The Next Installment debuts Thanksgiving weekend. “We just shot 20 chapters,” he said. “They’ll be coming out the day after Thanksgiving. Trapped in the Closet is forever. I’ve got like a hundred chapters to come.” You hear that? Trapped in the Closet is forever . FOREVER! Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet , originally recorded in 2005 as a five-chapter single then expanded into a whopping 20+ chapter collection made cinematic in a series of amazing videos, remains Robert Sylvester Kelly’s sole acting project to date though his music has a bona fide cinematic streak. Kelly previously contributed to a number of film soundtracks ( Space Jam , Sparkle ) and, of course, has integrated all manner of film cultural references into his jams. The best-worst of them? A toss up between the Major Payne shout out on Fat Joe’s ” Make It Rain (Remix) ” and his Jurassic Park mention on ” The Zoo “: “Girl I got you so wet/It’s like a rainforest/Like Jurassic Park /Except I’m your Sexasaurus, baby.” So, you know. He’s got movies on the brain. Either Trapped in the Closet does go on literally forever, or perhaps one of these days R. Kelly will make the next logical leap into feature films. (It’s already had its own live sing-along .) I haven’t done the math, but how long exactly would the run time be on a theatrical release of all 50+ chapters? Anyways: Watch this teaser promo for the new chapters, appropriately titled “Oh Shit.” We all have one more reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving. [via Time ] Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in Tuesday morning’s round-up of news briefs: Paramount hosts an interactive event for its Oscar hopeful; Sony sets new release dates for Robocop and Elysium ; And over in India, two of Bollywood’s biggest stars tie the knot. Skyfall is James Bond Back to His Best Say Critics Critics have hailed the latest James Bond film, Skyfall , as one of the best in the series in years, a brave and stylish if occasionally sentimental entry which revives Daniel Craig’s standing as one of the greatest 007s four years after the disappointing Quantum of Solace . The movie, directed by Sam Mendes and with cinematography from Roger Deakins, has a 100% “fresh” rating on the review-aggregator site rottentomatoes.com, The Guardian reports . Jim Carrey Eyes Loomis Fargo for Napoleon Dynamite Director Carrey will star in the action-comedy based on the real-life $17 million theft of an armored car. Jared Hess is directing from a script by Danny McBride and Jody Hill. Carrey would play the ex-military leader of a band of Southern armored car guards who pull off the theft, THR reports . Paramount Mounts Flight Interactive Events for Its Oscar Hopeful Taking place the day after the film’s world premiere as the closing-night attraction of the 50th New York Film Festival, director Robert Zemeckis, writer John Gatins and several cast members including John Goodman, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, and Melissa Leo took part in the interactive post-screening Q&A that featured tweeted questions from the California venues and live queries from the New York audience, many of whom appeared to be industry voters, Deadline reports . Sony Moves Robocop to 2014, Sets Elysium to Summer 2013 Sony/TrisStar moved up Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium , the follow up to the director’s District 9 , from March 1 to August 9. The sci-fi pic set on a space station stars Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley. The pic is taking the spot previously occupied by Robocop which is being pushed back to February 7, 2014, THR reports . Two Top Bollywood Stars Tie the Knot Hugely popular Bollywood stars Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor were married in the Indian city of Mumbai. The pair are known as Bollywood’s “first couple,” BBC reports .
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. ]
In a sea of lumpy Spandex, half-assed Harry Potter costumes and face paint, Bruce Campbell set quite a sartorial standard at New York Comic-Con on Saturday. The square-jawed actor — who’s currently seen in the USA Network cable TV series Burn Notice but built a hardcore following by playing the character of Ash in Sam Raimi’s groundbreaking 1980s The Evil Dead comic-horror trilogy — wore a beacon-like red tuxedo jacket and complementary black-and-red patent leather shoes. The colorfully candid Campbell was on hand at the Javits Center to draw attention to the remake of Evil Dead that he, Raimi and Rob Tapert are producing. (The three were producers of the original films as well.) Set for an April 12, 2013 release by Columbia Pictures’ Screen Gems division, Evil Dead will mark the feature debut of Uruguayan commercial producer Fede Alvarez and feature young cast that includes Jane Levy ( Suburgatory ) and Jessica Lucas ( Cloverfield). The screenwriters include Raimi and hyper-stylist Diablo Cody ( Juno ). Like the original, the remake is about a group of young friends in a remote cabin who discover The Book of the Dead and, one by one, succumb to its evil. But, as Campbell tells Movieline, the comparisons end there. Read on to find out how the movies will differ, what Campbell really thinks of basketball shorts, actress Jane Levy’s performance, CAA agents and George Lucas’ decision to tweak his Star Wars movies. And if you haven’t seen Panic Attack!, the short film that got Alvaraez the Evil Dead job, it’s posted below. Movieline: Those shoes are something else. Do you own them or did you rent them? Campbell : These are mine, baby. They’re beautiful. It’s Comic-Con. C’mon, let’s step it up! I’m trying to encourage other people who go to Comic-Con: Put on a nice shirt –and pants, too. While you’re at it, could you press your fucking t-shirt? And what you think about the basketball shorts? Should we just get rid of those? I’m trying to class this joint up a little bit. How will Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead compare to the original? Higher quality production, better actors, better special effects and a different telling of a similar story. You’ve still got your five kids and a nasty book in an isolated cabin. Is there an Ash? Nope. There are no similar characters whatsoever. And we wanted that. That was intentional. 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. I hear you turned down a cameo in the movie. Nobody said “yes” or “no” to anything, so that’s false. We discussed it as filmmakers: Would it be worth it? Should we do it? But the tone of the movie is dead serious. It’s not jokey enough. This not a funny movie. If there’s laughter, it’s nervous laughter. There will not be ha-ha laughter. None. It’s a full-on old-school horror movie with make-up effects. Alvarez got this gig because of his short film Panic Attack! That’s what got us started. Fede is a Uruguayan filmmaker. He made commercials, Pepsi commercials. He does Panic Attack! in his spare time. He puts it out there on a lark. It went viral. Three weeks later, he was literally in Spielberg’s office. He met everybody. His agents are CAA now. I can’t get those assholes on the phone. How did he get on Sam Raimi’s radar? Sam was one of his meetings. They liked each other. Sam wanted to develop Panic Attack! into a feature, but that got bogged down. Fede was a big fan of Evil Dead , and so he pitched a story that we all liked. The three of us — myself, Sam Raimi and Rod Tapert — decided to get back involved in this and support this guy. He’s a very smart, talented guy. I mean, he really is too smart for his own good. [A man in basketball shorts walking through the conference room distracts Campbell.] See? Basketball shorts. Would it kill him to put on a pair of pants? I hate how right I am. I’m glad I wore long pants. You were talking about how the Evil Dead remake came to be. So that’s how it was born. It could have gone either way, you know. The guy had never made a feature film before. He’s telling a story longer than a 60-second Pepsi commercial. That’s a big challenge, and he succeeded on many levels. His actors are good and solid and give great balls-to-the-wall performances when they have to. Fede was also very mature about the whole thing. He’s very respectful of the genre. He’s not making fun of it. He’s not punking it — he’s just telling his version of it. And he didn’t over-shoot it. He didn’t over-edit it. It’s such a well-edited movie, and that’s pretty rare. Most movies — the editing sucks. Like, they’ll never hang on a full sentence. They’ll come in halfway through. They’ll cut away after ten seconds. There’s a lot of shitty work out there. Where did you shoot the movie? We shot it in Auckland, New Zealand because we did all the Hercules and Xena shows down there. The Kiwis are top-notch workers; great crew members. So, we just gave Fede all the support that we could possibly give him — a better budget, qualified crew members, good actors. We liked his script and we left him alone. You don’t need to sit over a guy’s shoulder. You turning up on the set would probably be pretty intimidating. I sat in on the auditions, and some of the actors that came in were like, Nyaaaaaa! I felt bad because the idea was not to freak them out. It was to let them know that we’re into it and we’re taking it seriously. And I just think we pulled the right actors. Jane Levy — I’m going to crown her the new Ash myself. She’s got it. She’s got it. You never know, either. We thought she was good in the room, but you get on a film set and what are they like? Are they tough? Are they pussies? Are they assholes? Are they crazy? What were you? Tough. And Jane was a tough little shit, too. Really tough. I asked her in the room: “How are you with extensive special effects for an extensive period of time. Have you ever done that?” No. “Well, do you know what that’s going to be like?” What’s it like? It’s the fucking worst experience you can think of. It’s terrible for your skin. You’re an hour and a half, two hours putting it on. You shoot a 14-hour day, and it’s a hour to take it off. Then you start the whole damn thing over the next day. This goes on for 10 weeks. I wanted to hang myself after those movies. And we pushed every actor to the limit. Jane, we pushed her over the edge. So, she’s the new Ash. You said it, not me. You said you were going to crown her the new Ash. If they want me to crown her, I’ll crown her — because I support her. I’m really impressed with what she did. Could this be a trilogy in the way that the original Evil Dead movies were? Easy, but you have to talk to Fede about that because I don’t know if he would do it. He’s got lots of crazy ideas. I want to go to double bills. The original Evil Dead paired with the remake. It would be a great midnight double bill. Alamo Draft House, Austin, Texas. Lines around the block — I’m telling you. I’ll go introduce it myself. If you could fix anything about the original Evil Dead movies, what would you do? I wouldn’t because that’s pussy filmmaking, man. It is. You see the garden hoses shooting shit? Yep, that’s right! We did the best we could, pal. In 1979, we got the movie in the can for $85,000. You’re going to get what you get. We’re not George Lucas going back to fix our effects. Sorry man, you blew it. You got to get over it. You can’t obsess like that. That’s cheating. What’s next for you? I’m finishing Burn Notice . I’ve been six years on that spy show for USA. It’s been a fun show. That’s my day job, and it eats up seven months out of my life. So the other five months I don’t feel like doing anything. The last break I just worked on developing a bunch of new scripts because you can’t do stuff without scripts. I’ve got three new ideas that I got written up last year. I like all kinds of genres. I want to do a few more little low-budget movies. I love low-budget movies. Are there any recent horror movies that you like right now? I don’t watch movies — it’s the weirdest thing — because I feel like I’m going to work. I see actors looking at their marks. I see them cheating to the camera. I see out -of-focus shit. I see a lousy shot. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Also in Thursday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs: Val Kilmer will receive kudos from the Dallas Film Society; Jodie Foster takes on Money for her next directorial project. Also, Tribeca Film Festival names a new Deputy Executive Director and the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) launches a major new initiative; Dallas Film Society to Fete Val Kilmer Kilmer will be honored by the Dallas Film Society at their annual fall fundraiser, “The Art of Film” on November 16th. He will be presented with the Dallas Star Award November 16th followed by a conversation during the event by film critic Elvis Mitchell. Nicholas Apps Joins Tribeca Film Festival As Deputy Executive Director Tribeca named Apps Deputy E.D. effective October 15rh. He will report to Executive Director Beth Janson spearheading individual giving and corporate sponsorship initiatives, and marketing and communications efforts for Tribeca Film Institute, the year-round nonprofit founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff. IFP to Develop and Operate “Made in New York” Media Center Independent film advocacy group Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) will develop and operate a new Media Center in New York City. Bringing together traditional media and emerging technologies, IFP aims to make the Media Center “a hub for filmmakers, content creators, and entrepreneurs to work together under one roof.” Located in DUMBO in Brooklyn, it is set to open in spring 2013. More information can be found at their website . Around the ‘net… Cinematographer Harris Savides Dies Harris Savides, the acclaimed cinematographer who worked frequently with Gus Van Sant and David Fincher, has died at 55. Savides died Wednesday night, his representatives at The Skouras Agency confirmed Thursday. Savides was known for vividly recreating the hazy hues of 1970s cinema in films like Fincher’s Zodiac , Ridley Scott’s American Gangster and Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere , and for mesmerizingly fluid, long takes with Van Sant in movies including Last Days , ‘ Elephant and Gerry , A.P. reports . Ben Affleck Eyes Live By Night as Next Directing Gig The director/actor is in talks with Warner Bros. to make Live By Night which, like Argo , he will write, direct, produce and star in. The story is based on the novel by Dennis Lehane. Set during Prohibition, the focus is on Joe Coughlin, the black sheep son of a police captain who gets involved in escalating levels of organized crime, Deadline reports . Jodie Foster to Direct Money Monster Foster will direct the drama about a TV personality whose insider trading tips have made him the money guru of Wall Street. A viewer, however, loses all his money on a tip from the insider and takes him hostage on air. Ratings soar as the country is gripped by the drama. Production is set for early 2013, Deadline reports .
Also in Thursday morning’s round-up of news briefs: Tim Burton launches the London Film Festival with his latest; Toronto surf pic heads to U.S. theaters and Variety is set to end its pay wall. Storm Surfers 3-D Heads to U.S. Theaters The 2012 Toronto Film Festival documentary is directed by Christopher Nelius and Justin McMillan. The film follows Tom, Ross and surf forecaster Ben Matson’s adventures as they track and chase giant storms across the Great Southern Ocean, braving gigantic waves, freezing conditions and near-death experiences. Using state-of-the-art 3D technology the feature is narrated by Oscar nominee Toni Collette. XLrator Media acquired U.S. rights to the film. Around the ‘net… CBS Films Courts Chris Hemsworth to Play Terrorist Hunter in American Assassin Based on Vince Flynn’s bestselling novel series, CBS Films is offering Chris Hemsworth $10 million to star as terrorist hunter Mitch Rapp in American Assassin It is the 11th book in Flynn’s series of espionage novels, Deadline reports . Sean Hannity to Make Film Debut in Atlas Shrugged: Part II In the film that opens Friday, Hannity plays the host of a TV show similar to his own on Fox News. The film is set several years in the future when the conservative commentator will presumably be off the air. Hannity is a fan of the book Atlas Shrugged and its author Ayn Rand, a fierce defender of capitalism, THR reports . Frankenweenie Opens London Film Festival Filmmaker Tim Burton has said he is “honored” that his stop-motion 3D animation Frankenweenie has opened the BFI London Film Festival. “It was made here, so it has extra special meaning,” the director told the BBC at the film’s European premiere. Variety’s Pay Wall to End One day after the official announcement PMC Media acquired trade publication Variety, its new owner said at a town hall meeting at Variety’s L.A. office that the pay wall will come down. Variety has been mostly inaccessible to non-subscribers online since the pay wall was instituted, Deadline reports . ( PMC is the parent company of Movieline ).
AFI Fest is fast approaching and the event unveiled Centerpiece Gala and Special Screenings details with Ang Lee ‘s Life of Pi (3-D) and Walter Salles ‘ On the Road on tap for their West Coast debuts. Peter Ramsey’s Rise of the Guardians and Jacques Audiard ‘s Rust and Bone will also debut. Bone star Marion Cotillard will receive a tribute during the festival, taking place November 1 – 8. All galas will take place at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. A number of Toronto premieres will be presented as Special Screenings at AFI Fest. Eight titles including The Central Park Five , Ginger and Rosa , Holy Motors , The Impossible , Quartet , Room 237 , TIFF winner Silver Linings Playbook and West of Memphis will screen in the section. As previously announced, the World Premiere of Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock will open AFI Fest, while Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln will close out the event. For the fourth year, AFI Fest will off free tickets for all of its screenings (though packages are available to ensure reserved seats for Galas). AFI Fest 2012 Galas with descriptions provided by the event: Opening Night Gala: Hitchcock : The love story between the iconic filmmaker and his wife, Alma Reville, during the filming of PSYCHO in 1959. DIR Sacha Gervasi. SCR John J. McLaughlin. CAST Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston, Toni Collette, Jessica Biel, Michael Stuhlbarg, James D’Arcy, Michael Wincott, Richard Portnow, Kurtwood Smith. USA. World Premiere. Thursday, November 1, 7:00 p.m., Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Centerpiece Galas: Life of Pi in 3D: Director Ang Lee ( Brokeback Mountain , Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ) creates a groundbreaking movie event about a young man who survives a disaster at sea and is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an amazing and unexpected connection with another survivor – a fearsome Bengal tiger. DIR Ang Lee. SCR David Magee. CAST Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Rafe Spall, Gérard Depardieu. USA. Friday, November 2, 7:30 p.m., Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. On the Road : Jack Kerouac’s seminal pseudo-autobiography arrives on the big screen at the intersection of fact and fiction. DIR Walter Salles. SCR Jose Rivera, Jack Kerouac. CAST Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Amy Adams, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Alice Bragga, Elisabeth Moss, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortenson. France/UK/USA/Brazil. Saturday, November 3, 8:00 p.m., Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Rise of the Guardians in 3D: Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Sandman and Jack Frost are The Guardians – legendary characters with previously unknown extraordinary abilities charged with protecting children everywhere from an evil spirit’s attempt to take over the world. DIR Peter Ramsey. SCR David Lindsay-Abaire. CAST Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher, Jude Law. USA. Sunday, November 4, 4:00 p.m., Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Rust and Bone (De Rouille Et D’Os) featuring A Tribute to Marion Cotillard: An unusual love story between a back alley boxer and a woman who has suffered a profound loss. DIR Jacques Audiard. SCR Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain. CAST Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure, Celine Sallette, Corinne Masiero, Bouli Lanners, Jean-Michel Correia. France/Belgium. Monday, November 5, 7:30 p.m., Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Closing Night Gala: Lincoln : Steven Spielberg directs two-time Academy Award® winner Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln , a revealing drama that focuses on the 16th President’s tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come. DIR Steven Spielberg. SCR Tony Kushner. CAST Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones. USA. World Premiere. Thursday, November 8, 7:00 p.m., Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Special Screenings: Silver Linings Playbook : When a history teacher is cuckolded by his wife and a co-worker, he goes ballistic, lands in jail, then moves in with his sports-obsessed parents. DIR David O. Russell. SCR David O. Russell, Matthew Quick. CAST Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Anupam Kher, Julia Stiles, John Ortiz, Paul Herman, Dash Mihok, Shea Whigham. USA. Friday, November 2, 8:00 p.m., Rigler, Egyptian. The Central Park Five : Ken Burns’ documentary about what was known as the crime of century showcases a group of teenagers who were forced to give false confessions and were wrongfully convicted for raping and beating New York City jogger Trisha Meili. DIR/SCR Sarah Burns, Ken Burns, David McMahon. Saturday, November 3, 3:30 p.m., Rigler, Egyptian. Holy Motors : Denis Lavant plays Mr. Oscar, a shadowy figure who inhabits many roles while fulfilling assignments from inside a white limousine in Léos Carax’s beguiling work. DIR/SCR Léos Carax. CAST Denis Lavant, Edith Scob, Eva Mendes, Kylie Minogue. France/Germany. Saturday, November 3, 7:00 p.m., Rigler, Egyptian. The Impossible : A family is swept up in the monumental turmoil of the 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami along with thousands of strangers. DIR Juan Antonio Bayona. SCR Sergio G. Sánchez. CAST Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Marta Etura, Sönke Möhring, Geraldine Chaplin. Spain/USA. Sunday, November 4, 8:30 p.m., Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Room 237 : Rodney Asher’s documentary delves into the symbols and messages hidden within Stanley Kubrick’s acclaimed film, THE SHINING, revealing more secrets after 30 years. DIR Rodney Ascher. CAST Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, John Fell Ryan, Jay Weidner. USA. Sunday, November 4, 9:00 p.m., Chinese 1. Quartet : A birthday concert for Verdi at a home for retired opera singers is disrupted by the arrival of Jean, a diva and former wife of one of the residents. DIR Dustin Hoffman in his directorial debut. SCR Ronald Harwood. CAST Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins, Michael Gambon. UK. Sunday, November 4, 9:00 p.m., Rigler, Egyptian. Ginger and Rosa : As the Cold War meets the sexual revolution in 1960s London, the lifelong friendship of two teenage girls (Elle Fanning, Alice Englert) is shattered by ideological differences and personal betrayals. DIR/SCR Sally Potter. CAST Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Alessandro Nivola, Christina Hendricks, Annette Bening, Oliver Platt, Timothy Spall, Jodhi May. UK/Denmark. Wednesday, November 7, 8:00 p.m., Chinese 1. West of Memphis : Amy Berg’s film casts a light on the brutal murder of three young boys and the 18-year struggle to exonerate the teenagers who were convicted of the crimes. DIR Amy Berg. SCR Billy McMilin, Amy Berg. CAST Damien Echols; Lorri Davis; Jason Baldwin; Jessie Misskelley, Jr.; Pam Hicks. USA. Date, time and venue TBC.
I woke up today to the New York Times’ eye-opening page-one report on Lance Armstrong’s role in the U.S. Postal Service cycling team’s doping conspiracy, and, after finishing Juliet Macur’s excellent story, I couldn’t help thinking that the disgraced Tour de France winner, who’s been stripped of his seven titles, should have made a very different cameo in Rawson Marshall Thurber’s Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story . If it’s been a while since you’ve seen this 2004 laugh riot — one of my favorite comedies of the last 10 years — Armstrong has a small but pivotal role in the movie in which he inspires Vince Vaughn’s character Peter La Fleur to go back and continue fighting for the Average Joe’s dodgeball team that he has abandoned. According to IMDB.com , this is how the exchange goes: Lance Armstrong: Hey, aren’t you Peter La Fleur? Peter La Fleur: Lance Armstrong! Armstrong: Yeah, that’s me. But I’m a big fan of yours. La Fleur: Really? Armstrong: Yeah, I’ve been watching the dodgeball tournament on the Ocho. ESPN 8. I just can’t get enough of it. But, good luck in the tournament. I’m really pulling for you against those jerks from Globo Gym. I think you better hurry up or you’re gonna be late. La Fleur: Uh, actually I decided to quit… Lance. Armstrong: Quit? You know, once I was thinking about quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer, all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and I won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I’m sure you have a good reason to quit. So what are you dying from that’s keeping you from the finals? La Fleur: Right now it feels a little bit like… shame. Armstrong: Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn’t have anything to regret for the rest of their life. But good luck to you Peter. I’m sure this decision won’t haunt you forever. That dialogue now seems empty and sad in light of the Times report that “hundreds of pages of eyewitness testimony from teammates, e-mail correspondence, financial records and laboratory analyses released by the United States Anti-Doping Agency” paint “a picture of Armstrong as an infamous cheat, a defiant liar and a bully who pushed others to cheat with him so he could succeed, or be vanquished.” In light of the Anti-Doping Agency’s information, Armstrong would have been truer to himself if he’d made a cameo in support of “those jerks from Globo Gym.” [ New York Times ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Quentin Tarantino ‘s Django Unchained had me at hello — or at ” Dj -” if you will (the “d” is silent) — so at this point trailers and clips are just icing on the spaghetti “Southern.” If I’m speaking a foreign language to you, forgive my excitement for Tarantino’s latest neo-exploitation bonanza and just dive right into Movieline’s rundown of the gunshots, dead baddies, and gleefully inside-baseball genre winks in the second trailer for Django Unchained . Dead guys: 3, plus 2 or more offscreen Faintings: 2 Beers: 2 Crash zooms: 2 Glimpses of Sam Jackson in his Benjamin Button makeup: 5 Glee-filled Christoph Waltz quips: 4 Gunshots: 13 Jonah Hill s: 1 Explosions: 2 Inside nods to the original Django : 2 Times I’ll be listening to the Franco Nero Django theme for the rest of the week: 100 Watch it on YouTube. Django Unchained hits theaters on Christmas. Perfect holiday viewing! [via iTunes ]
