Also in Wednesday morning’s news round up, Warner Bros. is taking a cue from Marvel’s Avengers with its own superhero lineup, a J.D. Salinger adaptation is in the make for the big screen, a Frozen thriller pick up for North America and the rising fortunes of non-U.S. actors as big budget films target international markets. ARC Picks The Frozen for North America Psychological thriller The Frozen has been picked up by ARC Entertainment. The directorial debut of Andrew Hyatt and starring Brit Morgan, the film centers on two people who take an ill-advised winter camping trip. “After a snowmobile accident, the couple is left stranded in the woods where they are forced to survive the elements while waiting for help to arrive. In a twist of fate, Mike disappears and Emma is left on her own not only to battle the weather, but also to elude a mysterious man (Segan) who has been tracking her through the forest.” Around the ‘net… Dark Knight Rises Ticket Sales Set for Monday The Batman movie still has 45 days before it hits screens, but for those wanting to make extra sure they’re in a theater opening night for the final Christopher Nolan epic can get reserve their tickets via the internet at noon June 11th, EW reports . Hot Writer Pushing Justice League at Warner Bros. The Avengers is a punch out for Disney and Marvel, but Warner Bros is stealthily getting its own superhero brass, with Will Beall set to write Justice League based on the WB-held series of DC Comics, Variety reports . My Salinger Year Set for Adaptation River Road Entertainment has optioned screen rights to Joanna Smith Rakoff’s My Salinger Year and Emma Forrest will adapt the novel. The story centers on the author’s own experience when she took a clerical job at an agency that represented The Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger and their unexpected relationship, Deadline reports . Journey 2 Director Ponders Disaster Movie San Andreas 3D Brad Peyton is in talks to direct New Line’s San Andreas 3D . The plot is secret, but San Andreas is the name of California’s biggest fault lines, so let your imagination go wild… The budget is said to be in the $100 million range (now it can go really wild), THR reports . A Brave New World for non-U.S. Film Stars Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba, Gael García Bernal. Those are some of stars who could capitalize as big-budget filmmaking increasingly targets new markets, The Guardian reports .
Robert Pattinson has a lot riding these days. He traveled to Cannes for the world premiere of David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis in which he plays a multimillionaire on a 24-hour odyssey through New York City (mostly in his limo) and he stars in Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod’s Bel Ami in which he portrays a man grabbing power by manipulating Paris’ most wealthy women. And of course there was his most recent annual win for Best Kiss at the MTV Movie Awards last weekend (he and Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart have taken the “prize” for four years straight – those sexy things). Pattinson spoke with CBC host George Stroumboulopoulos about his latest pursuits and more. The actor talks about Twilight type-casting, how Ryan Gosling inspired him, his feelings about Heath Ledger and his run-in with singer Adele. Cosmopolis opens in Cronenberg’s native Canada in the next few days (it is slated for the U.S. this year) while Bel Ami will debut Stateside this weekend. (Video of the Robert Pattinson George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight interview is below and airs Thursday, June 7, at 11:05 pm on CBC television – Interview re-printed with permission by CBC). You know, post- Twilight franchise , you were trying to go down different roads? Was this legitimately part of your planning? Robert Pattinson : This was not part of the plan at all. I just thought I was totally oversaturated everywhere, I wanted to do little tiny parts or maybe no parts at all. I got this three weeks before I was finishing the last Twilight movie, and I was really, really determined to find ensemble pieces or anything small just so I didn’t have to be in everybody’s face and annoying everyone. And then this thing came up. Is this a new experience for you though, to watch your film back and go, oh wait a minute, how do I promote this movie? RP: Ah, completely. It reminded me, I watched this interview with Ryan Gosling once, and he said when he did The Believer a few years ago, and people were saying – cause he’d done Young Hercules for three or four seasons – and then he did The Believer and everybody was asking about his craft. And it’s the most, most confusing thing. I was in Cannes doing these interviews, and I was really fighting to not look pretentious for years, and someone gives you one inch of the possibility of being pretentious, and you’re like grabbing it so hard, going around being the biggest douchebag. And now I’ve kind of reined it in again. The one thing I imagine that you’re dealing with is aside from your close circle of friends — actual humanity, actual human conversations, the connections we all crave as a person, it’s harder and harder for you to find, isn’t it? RP: Yeah, but I just remember, I think I was pretty similar before. Like I would be one of those people who was desperate to go to a party and then they go to the party and just stand in the corner with the people they came with and refuse to acknowledge that anyone else is there. So I don’t really miss anything. And you kind of, you have all these fantasies if I wasn’t famous I’d meet all these random people in the street all the time. But you don’t meet random people in the street. Most of the time you’re trying to avoid everybody even if you’re not famous. Actually I had this argument with Adele, which is probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever said. I was saying, “you know, you can really just like reach for it,” and she was like, “you do realize I am like the biggest-selling female artist ever?” And I just for some reason just decided to get into an argument with her. How does that happen, at two o’clock in the morning somewhere? R.P. Yeah, and then waking up and kind of really, really regretting every word I said. Do you think much about the fact that when this franchise goes away, that you need that second act to your career? Do you think about that? RP: The only thing I ever thought about was thinking, I don’t want anyone to think that I somehow got trapped by something, you know. And I don’t know if anyone really does, the general public, about Twilight – but the amount of times you get asked, “oh, are you worried about being typecast?” I’m just worried about people saying, like, “What happened to that guy?” And also, you think, you want to do something at least a little bit worthwhile with what kind of power you’ve been given, through luck. And not just keep trying to extend the same thing for as long as possible. I’m not very scared of it going away at all. If I could somehow maintain a career in which I keep making movies like Cosmopolis , than I think it would be amazing, because not very many of them are made. You know, I always thought after The Dark Knight , for instance, it makes tons and tons of money, and Heath is doing something just outside — and people understand what he’s doing, it’s not like he’s not doing something totally crazy, but it’s just slightly outside the box of what people are used to seeing, and I really thought that was going to change everything as to how the big budget movies are made. But it didn’t, at all. If every single actor wasn’t afraid of trying to do something slightly abstract and not concerned about their movie making tons and tons of money, then eventually the industry would change. But then you and other guys in your position, can you make these kinds of films, then? And not just as actors? RP: I think you can once. I don’t know how many other times. I’m desperately trying to get a superhero movie now.
Reports have 1D attached to a 3-D flick set to hit theaters next November, though details on the project are scarce. By James Montgomery One Direction Photo: Uptin Saiidi/MTV News Coming soon to a theater near you (maybe): It’s 1D … in 3-D! Yes, according to a report in the British newspaper The Sun, One Direction are set to star in an eye-popping 3-D film that is slated to begin filming next year. Which means that very soon, 1D obsessives will be able to plumb the depths of Harry’s dimples, explore the peaks of Niall’s mane or slalom down Zayn’s cheekbones … all in three very life-like dimensions. Of course, the plot of the film (as if it really matters) has yet to be determined, with The Sun reporting that it may either be a scripted comedy — “a camper in the style of old Monkees films,” is how a source put it — or a documentary, featuring clips of the too-cute quintet in concert. “It’s early days, but it’s something that their management and label are excited about,” the source is quoted as saying. “All options are open, though they’re unlikely to get cracking on shooting it until next year.” The still untitled (and unscripted) 1D film will reportedly hit theaters on November 8, 2013, and it is intended to be an answer to Justin Bieber’s massively successful 3-D flick “Never Say Never,” which surpassed Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” to become the biggest concert film in U.S. history last year. “U.S. film experts are speculating that the 1D film would be similar to Justin’s movie and will be a big money-spinner for the boys,” the source told The Sun. Just how big of a, uh, “money-spinner” remains to be seen, though The Sun reported that the One Direction guys stand to make as much as &163;10 million ($15 million) each from the film. Of course, there’s still no official word on the project, and a spokesperson for the band did not respond to MTV News’ request for comment by press time. Would you see 1D in 3-D? Leave your comment below! Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: One Direction Related Artists One Direction
Studio has hired ‘Gangster Squad’ writer Will Beall to pen script. By Kevin P. Sullivan Justice League Photo: Everett/Rex Features/Warner Bros With the enormous success of Marvel’s superhero crossover “,” it was only a matter of time before we heard of renewed efforts from DC Comics and Warner Bros. to get their own franchise mashup, “Justice League,” off the ground. So it should come as no surprise that a new report from Variety confirms that Warner Bros. hired ” Gangster Squad ” writer Will Beall to write the “Justice League” movie sometime last year. Beall has become the go-to guy for Warner Bros., which recently hired him to write the screenplays for its “Lethal Weapon” reboot and the “” remake, which has director Nicolas Winding Refn and star currently attached. The report from Variety points out that the Beall hire occurred while Marvel was assembling “The Avengers,” so the move was more “in anticipation of — rather than a reaction to — the box office success.” Though the actual hire took place months ago, Beall has yet to turn in a script. Along the lines of the “Avengers” development pattern, Warner Bros. has also brought in a writer to take a swing at one of DC’s biggest heroes, Wonder Woman. Michael Goldenberg, one of the three writers of “Green Lantern,” will reportedly pen the script. The other two “Green Lantern” writers, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green, are already at work on a screenplay for “The Flash.” Hiring Beall is Warner’s first major step toward producing a “Justice League” film since production stalled out in 2008. Then, “Mad Max” director George Miller was set to helm the film with Adam Brody as the Flash, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman and a relatively unknown Armie Hammer as Batman. Warner Bros. claimed that a lack of tax breaks and the inability to hire a screenwriter to rewrite the script during the WGA strike stalled that version. For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit .
Also up for Tuesday morning’s new round up, Oscilloscope picks up a SXSW selection, MTV Movie Awards suffers a decline in ratings. Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins readies for the camera to play the role of a rock legend and Venice taps an Italian actor to lead its Horizons jury. Oscilloscope Nabs SXSW Doc Tchoupitoulas Pronounced “Chop-Ih-Tou-Less,” the New York-based specialty distributor picked up North American rights to the feature directed by Bill and Turner Ross. The film is described as a “lyrical documentary that follows three adolescent brothers as they journey through one night in New Orleans, encountering a vibrant kaleidoscope of dancers, musicians, hustlers, and revelers parading through the lamplit streets.” The deal was finalized at the recently completed Cannes Film Festival. David Laub and Dan Berger of Oscilloscope negotiated the deal with George Rush on behalf of the filmmakers. The film is produced by the Ross Brothers along with Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, and Josh Penn of Court 13. 1st Look East: Korean Film Festival Takes Shape Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood will be the home of the first annual event celebrating Korean cinema June 23 – 24. A 3D version of cult favorite The Host is on tap to join the roster of ten films, including U.S. premieres Flower in Hell and A Hometown in My Heart . Around the ‘net… Next Up for Ridley Scott: Moses The Prometheus director had some choice words for religion – all religions – and let it slip that he will direct the film about the Biblical figure, noting, “I probably shouldn’t have let that slip out. I’m not supposed to say anything. It’s definitely in the cards though…” Esquire reports . Amazon Studios to Conquer Rome with Zombies The studio has tapped Clive Barker to re-write and direct Zombies vs. Gladiators in which a shaman who faces death in the Coliseum casts a spell creating the world’s first zombies. But a gladiator steps in to try and end the zombie menace and save Rome, Deadline reports . MTV Movie Awards Takes a Hit The zany awards show saw a 28% decline in the 12 – 34 age range, perhaps a victim of the waning Twilight craze, Deadline reports . Foo Fighters Drummer to Play Iggy Pop Taylor Hawkins will play rock legend Iggy Pop in the upcoming rock film CBGB . Also joining the cast are The Big Bang Theory ‘s Johnny Galecki as music manager Terry Ork and portraying Patti Smith will be The Borgias actress Mickey Sumner, THR reports . Favino to Preside over Venice’s Horizons Jury Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino ( Angles and Demons ) will lead the Venice Film Festival’s cutting-edge Horizons section. Venice’s new artistic director Alberto Barbera has tightened the Horizons section’s lineup to 18 feature films, including some docs, representing “the latest trends in global cinema,” Variety reports .
You may look at this first photo from the set of Iron Man 3 and think, “Gee, Tony Stark has a lot of toys.” I look at it — a shot of Robert Downey Jr. as Stark, gazing at his wall of Iron Man suits in a lab/Hall of Ego scattered with gadgets and gizmos aplenty — and remember I need to do laundry. Also, I need a bigger closet. Why does Tony Stark have so many wardrobe options? On the flip side, you could go way into depth surmising what all this hardware means, as EW’s Anthony Breznican does: It’s a big responsibility for whomever — we presume Stark’s automated butler JARVIS — to guard this stuff. Although Marvel Studios hasn’t released details of the plot, if you couple this official image with paparazzi shots last week revealing the Iron Patriot, a character using stolen Stark tech who literally wraps his armor in the flag to justify his actions, we may be seeing the issue of proliferation rising again for ol’ Tony. Sure, sure. But wait… what could this one face-obscured behind-the-scenes shot mean for the meaning of Iron Man 3 ? What comes next could be too powerful even for Stark to control. If rumors are true that Iron Man 3 filmmaker Shane Black ( Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ) is taking his cues from the Iron Man comic series Extremis , which deals with nanotechnology injected directly into human beings to make them more powerful, then it’s no longer a matter of who is inside the weapon than what kind of weapon is inside the person. And that next case on the wall, which looks eerily like a row of coffins now, would have to contain Tony Stark himself . WHOA. Way existential, man. Who agrees? Who’s excited? Who’s wondering if we’re really butt-gazing at RDJ’s stand-in while the real RDJ is over snacking at craft services? [ EW ]
A swarm of celebs including cast members turned out Monday night for the New York premiere of Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener starrer, Peace, Love & Misunderstanding at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The event, which benefited The Women’s Media Center, held its post-screening bash at the Royalton Hotel in Midtown. The party didn’t take a cue from the film’s hippie-vibe, but who needs bohemian when there’s champagne and sliders to guzzle! Along with Fonda and Keener, fellow cast members Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chace Crawford, NatWolff, Marissa O’Donnell and Maddie Corman joined in for the party hosted by Forevermark and The Wall Street Journal. Directed by Driving Miss Daisy director Bruce Beresford, the film, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall (followed by a U.S. debut at the Woodstock Film Festival – natch!) follows Manhattan lawyer Diane (Keener) who drives her teenage son Jake (Nat Wolff) and adult daughter Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen) to visit their Woodstock-bound hippie grandmother Grace (Fonda), who the kids have never met. Grace stages protests, smokes and sells dope, but their weekend getaway morphs into a summer adventure of romance, music and more. “It was amazing to have such veteran actors like Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener working alongside newcomers [at the time] Nat Wolff and Elizabeth Olsen,” Peace producer Claude Dal Farra told ML. “This was actually the first movie-set for Elizabeth and Nat.” Others at the party Monday included Robin Morgan, GloriaSteinem, Carol Alt, Ashleigh Banfield, Joshua Bell, Jewelle Bickford, Sandy Brant, Julie Burton, Ron Claiborne, Jamie Colby, Alan Cox ( The Dictator ), Rebecca Dayan ( Celeste & Jesse Forever ), Aleksa Palladino ( Boardwalk Empire ), Savanna Wise ( Smash ) and Casper Zafer ( The Vampire Diaries ). IFC Films will open Peace, Love & Misunderstanding beginning this Friday. [Photo credit: Amanda Schwab/Starpix]
The film: Telling Lies in America (1997) Why It’s An Inessential Essential: Two years after Showgirls got screenwriter Joe Eszterhas ( Basic Instinct , Burn Hollywood Burn: An Alan Smithee Film ) blacklisted, the wily self-promoter returned with Telling Lies in America . Lies , based on a semi-autobiographical story, is somewhat similar to Showgirls in that they have common themes. Both films treat selling out and deception as an integral part of getting ahead in show business. But Lies , directed by Guy Ferland, is obviously not as garishly sarcastic as Showgirls is (few films are…). It’s refreshing in that sense to see Eszterhas show genuine affection for his con men and hucksters in Lies rather than alternately mock and then half-heartedly show affection for his desperate protagonists. Set in heartland America during 1960, Telling Lies in America stars a young Brad Renfro as Karchy, a high school-aged immigrant that dreams of becoming a disc jockey. Karchy hates the catholic school his father Dr. Istvan Jones (the ever-reliable Maximilian Schell) has sent him to and is, as stiff-necked Father Norton (Paul Dooley) delights in reminding him, on the verge of flunking out. Karchy’s dream of becoming a disc jockey is his ticket away from his mundane troubles and possibly even his means of scoring with older woman Diney Majeski ( Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart). Thankfully, DJ Billy Magic (a winningly sleazy Kevin Bacon) is looking for a young dupe/assistant. Johnny and Karchy, who changes his name to Chucky, are thus able to form a symbiotic relationship. They each lie and take advantage of each other but not necessarily with malicious intent. All praise is due to Eszterhas, whose name is plastered on Lies ‘s opening credits (though “Joe Eszterhas Presents” undoubtedly didn’t mean what Eszterhas wanted it to mean at the time), for giving an ostentatiously moral bildungsroman an appreciable level of sophistication. Everybody cheats everybody else in Lies , even Diney, a female protagonist that Eszterhas allows to be intelligently ambivalent about her relationship with Karchy. Thanks to Eszterhas’s sensitive scenario and Flockhart’s semi-nuanced performance, Diney isn’t a tease but rather just uncertain about what she wants. Magic is similarly complex. He starts out as a loser scrounging for work but never once blows his cool so much that he shouts or pouts his way out of a confrontation. The affection Eszterhas has for his characters is salient and it makes Telling Lies in America proof that he’s not just coasting on the reputation he got from working with Paul Verhoeven. How the Blu-Ray Makes the Case for the Film: The only special feature on Shout! Factory’s Blu-Ray release of Telling Lies in America is a B-feature of Traveller , another 1997 drama about, well, telling lies in America! Bill Paxton and a very young Mark Wahlberg co-star as Bokky and Pat, a pair of grifters that are also members of a community called, “travellers.” Against the advice of his fellow travelers, Bokky takes Pat in and the two form a father-son bond. Bokky and Pat’s relationship is one of several ways that Traveller is more generic than the idiosyncratically thoughtful Telling Lies in America . In Traveller , Bokky makes the same mistakes that got Pat’s biological father killed, including falling in love with one of his own marks (Juliana Margulies!). Pat thus has to save Bokky, his surrogate dad, from his own worst impulses. Traveller therefore suggests that being jaded is a good thing, which decidedly sets it apart from the relatively straight-laced Lies . Still, the two films make a good double feature as they both feature snappy dialogue and similarly polished takes on very seedy characters. Simon Abrams is a NY-based freelance film critic whose work has been featured in outlets like The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Vulture and Esquire. Additionally, some people like his writing, which he collects at Extended Cut .
Spy series continues without leading man Matt Damon, and from the looks of the most recent trailer, it might actually pull it off. By Kevin P. Sullivan Jeremy Renner in “Bourne Legacy” Photo: Universal Pictures Of all the summer’s potential blockbusters, ” The Bourne Legacy ,” the Matt Damon -less continuation of the spy series, has the most to prove. Series tend not to fare well once the star exits, but the latest trailer for “The Bourne Legacy” is making us believe that it could buck the trend. Here are our five key scenes from the new “Bourne Legacy” trailer. Weisz’s Role Revealed Until now, most of the promo material has focused squarely on Jeremy Renner ‘s Aaron Cross and how there was “never just one.” One of the first things this full trailer does is formally introduce us to Marta, the doctor Rachel Weisz plays in the film. (Her hand appeared briefly in the first trailer.) When Edward Norton’s Agent Byer decided to liquidate the operation, both Marta and Cross find themselves in harm’s way. That’s the set-up that eventually brings them together to go on the run. Connections to the Past Perhaps the most intriguing element of the new trailer — besides how badass Renner is — has to be the clear connections to the previous film, “The Bourne Ultimatum.” Both Corey Johnson, who plays the government crony, and Paddy Considine, who didn’t survive the events of “Ultimatum,” show up in the trailer. It appears that the events of “Ultimatum” and Bourne’s appearance in Manhattan spur the events of “Legacy.” Jason Bourne Again Speaking of Jason Bourne, there’s Matt Damon’s face right there in the trailer. The actor has made it clear that he himself won’t appear in the newest addition to the series he led through three films, but his headshot does briefly appear on a newscast in the trailer. Director Tony Gilroy told us during our Summer Movie Preview that Bourne’s presence would be felt in the early parts of the “Legacy.” “What happens in ‘Ultimatum’ is really the spark that’s blowing open the door to this movie because the Jason Bourne story is exploding out into the public,” he said. “Being impossible to conceal any further is causing problems for this much larger conspiracy. ‘Ultimatum’ plays in the background of the very beginning of this film.” Agent Aaron “Moto” Cross As with the teaser trailer, a good portion of the full trailer focuses on the chromosomal enhancements that have been made to Aaron Cross. He heals quickly, and he can grind a railing with a freakin’ motocross bike. Was one of the “inconsistencies” within Treadstone that the characters talk about in the trailer the inability to grind a railing with a freakin’ motocross bike? Matt Who? If this trailer does one thing particularly well, it silences all of Renner’s doubters. His action on display here is definitely on par with the kung-fu antics of Matt Damon. Whether he’s on the bike or sliding between buildings or emerging from freezing water with a full beard, Renner looks poised to take the reins in style. Be sure to see how Renner’s “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” co-star, Tom Cruise, fares when he goes up for two MTV Movie Awards, Best Gut-Wrenching Performance and Best Fight, this Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET live on MTV. Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live this Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET. Related Photos New ‘Bourne Legacy’ Trailer: Five Key Scenes
The Cannes premiere of West’s film was held inside a tented pyramid designed to create an effect of ‘levitation,’ according to designers. By James Montgomery Kanye West and Kim Kardashian attend the “Cruel Summer” premiere at the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival Photo: Getty Images When Kanye West premiered his “Cruel Summer” film last week at Cannes, he did so in his usual, uh, understated manner: projected on seven video screens inside a tented pyramid on the Mediterranean Sea. It was a stylistic choice meant to represent “a post-Steve Jobs, post-Windows era … where your mind puts the screen back together, the way you put memories together … like the experience of life” (so said West in a speech before the premiere). But if you weren’t lucky enough to attend the film’s gala opening — which is to say, if you weren’t Kim Kardashian or Jay-Z — those words probably don’t hold much meaning to you. But now, you can get a glimpse at what it was like to be inside that tented pyramid, as a series of photos of the venue — and the multitude of strategically placed video screens — have hit the Web. Designed by international firm OMA , who have built eye-popping venues in cities like Beijing, Montreal and, uh, Syracuse, the “temporary pavilion” featured seven screens “of cinematic proportions,” and was envisioned as “a constellation of projections that wrap around the audience.” The pyramid itself was created “to create an effect of levitation above the red carpet,” and attendees “ascend[ed] into the pyramid along a continuous red carpet that widen[ed] into the 200-seat auditorium.” The entire projected was site-specific collaboration between OMA, West’s own DONDA collective and Cannes-based production team Ar’Scene. “Cruel Summer,” inspired by West’s upcoming G.O.O.D Music compilation of the same name, stars Kid Cudi as a car thief who falls in love with a blind Arabian princess. The 30-minute film was co-directed by Alexandre Moors, who previously worked with West on his videos for “Runaway” and “N—as in Paris,” and was shot entirely in Qatar in the Middle East. Related Photos 2012 Cannes Film Festival Related Artists Kanye West
