Combine a kind heart and the power of social networking and sometimes, the proverbial mountain will go to Muhammad. That was the case recently when director J.J. Abrams granted a dying cancer patient the chance to see Star Trek Into Darkness months before the feature is set to head into theaters. [ Related: New ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ Teaser: The Wrath Of Cumberbatch? ] Abrams learned of the man’s wish last week on link-sharing site Reddit. A user identified as ideeeyut detailed how his 41-year old Trekkie friend, who has leukemia and other health issues, headed out to a screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hoping to catch a ten-minute preview of the upcoming Star Trek film. The theater, however, did not play the preview, which is showing in most theaters. The disappointment lead Daniel’s friend to give a “passionate plea” via Reddit for help to allow Daniel to see the film, according to CNET via Deadline. After the request hit Reddit, the story found its way onto a number of Trek and geek sites, leading one user to tweet the story to J.J. Abrams and other working on the film, leading to Abrams telephoning Daniel up about setting plans for a personal preview. Ideeyut went back to Reddit a few days later, quoting Daniel’s wife who said, “We saw it and we enjoyed it immensely as a film and as a gesture.” She said further that she hoped the message would spotlight the “heartfelt message of giving.” Star Trek Into Darkness opens May 17th. [Sources: CNET , Deadline ]
The film starring Jamie Foxx , Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio is riddled with the N-word, but that has not turned off African American audiences. Also in Thursday’s news round-up, the Senate Intelligence Committee is set to investigate CIA contacts with the Zero Dark Thirty filmmakers; DiCaprio is headed for Santa Barbara fest honors; and John Turturro doc will bow NYC non-fiction series. Django Unchained Popular with African Americans The debate about the hefty use of the N-word has not turned off the African American audience. Quentin Tarantino’s latest film brought out an audience that was 42 percent black on Christmas day and is consistently pulling in 30 percent. Django Unchained has grossed $77.8 million in North America and may surpass the $120 million made by Inglourious Basterds in 2009, THR reports . Senate to Investigate CIA Contacts with Zero Dark Thirty Filmmakers Senate Intelligence Committee is reviewing CIA records of contacts agency officials may have had with director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, but the committee does not have plans to interview the filmmakers. The CIA’s acting director Michael Morell also criticized the movie as “not a realistic portrayal of the facts,” Deadline reports . Disconnect to Open Santa Barbara International Film Festival; Leonardo DiCaprio to Be Honored Henry-Alex Rubin’s Disconnect will open the 28th Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Starring Jason Bateman and Hope Davis, the film explores the way digital technologies, which aim to bring people together, increase the emotional distance between them. Leonardo DiCaprio will also be honored opening night with the festival’s American Riviera Award on February 1st. Past recipients include Martin Scorsese, Sandra Bullock and Mickey Rourke, Deadline reports . Gerard Depardieu Granted Russian Citizenship The Kremlin has given Russian citizenship to French actor Gerard Depardieu. Depardieu recently said he’d give up his French passport after the government criticized his decision to move abroad to avoid paying higher taxes, BBC reports . John Turturro to Bow NYC Doc Series Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy , a documentary that follows actor John Turturro on a journey to his maternal homeland, Sicily will open the 22nd season of Stranger Than Fiction, the weekly documentary series at IFC Center January 8th. The series, which continues through February 26th, features a Q&A with the filmmaker and other guests. For a look at the schedule, visit their website .
You might have heard the shocking news that Django Unchained features copious use of the word ‘nigger’. I know! I can’t understand why a film set in the antebellum South, featuring numerous unrepentant slaveowners, during a time when black people were considered barely human as a matter of course, would have so many n-bombs. Sure, the word is almost exclusively spoken by villains or by black people to refer to themselves, and sure, it is one of the few aspects of the film that is 100% historically accurate, but come on. How rude of Quentin Tarantino to include it and make the harsh depiction of the slavery era even more uncomfortable. I’m kidding, the fake controversy is incredibly stupid 1 , and feels to me like the rush to blame movies and video games for terrible acts of public violence, because that’s easier than actually facing our demons head-on 2 . Maybe that’s why Samuel L. Jackson had a bit of fun during an interview with FOX Houston’s film critic Jake Hamilton over the issue. About 14 minutes into the the video below, Hamilton started to ask Jackson about the controversy, and this happened: I feel for Hamilton of course. His refusal to use the word and stir up a hornet’s nest of both real and fake outrage is understandable, but of course, it’s just a word. I would hope we’re at a place where we can use it in context – like I did here – without anyone mistaking you for a racist. Perhaps Jackson’s position that the taboo just gives the word more power is the correct one. Either way, this was hilarious. What do you think, readers? Sound off in comments. 1. Speaking of stupid, we’re not giving Drudge hits, but surely you read about his recent Django-inspired N-word tirade. Yeah. 2. BTW, Louie C.K. was right ; being white and male is like winning the lottery. [ Source: Gawker ]
We all know producers can be a bunch of real, ah, prickly people. They kind of have to be, since their job, so long as it’s their actual job and not just a title given to them because they invested a couple of mil into the production, is to make sure everything goes smoothly, the film stays within budget, and the money isn’t wasted on limos when it could be wasted instead on expensive CG effects that look completely dated within 3 years*. As a result, these guys tend to be blunt as hell and not afraid to hurt some mothaf*ckin’ feelings when they rolling deep through the movie hood , as it were. Take Joel Silver , the famously take-no-prisoners producer of the Lethal Weapon and Die Hard films.** Screenwriter Doug Richardson, the guy who Wrote Die Hard 2: Die Harder , and Bad Boys , has shared a story from the making of Die Hard over on his official site , and it’s a most triumphant example of producer due diligence at the expense of expensive furniture you’ll ever hear. Remember the scene in Die Hard when the roof of Nakatomi Plaza explodes, and the penthouse lobby and fountain area is completely trashed? You might have noticed there’s an expensive looking couch in that scene; You might have also noticed that it appears to survive the initial explosion, only to show up seconds later completely aflame. There’s a reason for that — the couch wasn’t just expensive looking , it actually cost $5,000 back in 1988 which in today’s money is about 5 trillion dollars.*** Apparently, the scene drew cheers and high fives from everyone on the crew after they pulled it off during the shoot; except for Silver that is, whose eagle-eyed penny-pinching powers detected something odd, or as Richardson puts it, “possible sabotage.” To set the scene for what happens next, you might want to find a copy of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and check out Silver’s blustery cameo as the director of the Baby Herman cartoon. Joel called for the entire crew to assemble on the nearly-demolished set, gathering the mob around a gorgeous, leather Roche-Bobois sofa. Estimated value, five thousand dollars. The couch, despite the conflagration that they’d all just witnessed, was in showroom condition. Untouched by destructive fire, explosives, or water. “I wanna know,” Joel shouted, “Who just ruined my shot!” You see, Joel had been around more than a few movie sets. He knew how things worked. He understood how the occasional underhanded crew member operated. In this case, he suspected that one crew member had paid off another crew member on the special effects crew to make certain that the five-thousand-dollar sofa survived the wreckage. “Somebody on this crew,” announced Joel, “Decided to furnish their home at the expense of the movie.” Can you blame them though? I mean, this was the ’80s, and we didn’t have Ikea to make giant couches affordable yet. With that, Joel produced a bottle of lighter fluid, doused the expensive sofa in accelerant, and tossed a match to it. The lesson ended as the couch erupted in flame. The set was cleared again. And camera operators were ordered to “roll film.” Five grand must seem a trivial sum for a movie with a $28-million budget, but damned if you can’t respect someone for making sure every dollar spent on the movie ended up onscreen. I just wonder if he hummed “Ode To Joy” while torching some lowly grip’s living-room dreams. No word from Richardson if similar hijinks happened during the making of Die Hard 2. Probably not, I mean, how many times can the same thing happen to the same guy? * I kid, I kid! ** And a jillion others of course. He helped Walter Hill get The Warriors and Streets of Fire made! *** I’m guessing this is the case based on the way people are freaking out about raising the minimum wage. [ Source: Movies.com ] Ross Lincoln is a LA-based freelance writer from Oklahoma with an unhealthy obsession with comics, movies, video games, ancient history, Gore Vidal, and wine. Follow Ross Lincoln Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Come this time next year, could Jay-Z be up for an Oscar nomination? The rapper/record producer/entrepreneur is on board to help score the re-make of The Great Gatsby . Jay-Z, born Shawn Corey Carter, is teaming up with The Bullitts ‘ Jeymes Samuel for the film’s music, which Samuel revealed via Twitter. Samuel was clearly ecstatic over their pairing for the film, which stars Leonard DiCaprio and Isla Fisher, saying through the social networking site, “It is too DOPE for words!” The younger brother of singer Seal, Samuel has left his mark on the music biz on singles Supercool , Landspeeder and Close Your Eyes . He has also written and directed the upcoming single They Die By Dawn starring Idris Elba. This is not the first mash-up Jay-Z has had with Australian-born filmmaker Baz Luhrmann , who is directing the film based on the classic book by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Lurhmann used one of his songs for The Great Gatsby ‘s first trailer. Also starring Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke and Tobey Maguire, the story revolves around a Midwestern transplant to Long Island who becomes fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby and is drawn into his circle of obsession and tragedy. The Great Gatsby opens in May.  [Source: The Guardian ]
2012 brought us two whacked-out limousine-set films from auteurs bearing all the markings of future cult classics. But while Leos Carax’s Holy Motors received universal critical praise, David Cronenberg ‘s Robert Pattinson -starring Cosmopolis left critics a little more divided , although how anyone could dislike a film featuring an R-Pattz prostate exam is one of life’s great mysteries. Movieline spoke with Cronenberg, a man who at this point seems physically incapable of tolerating bullshit, about his career, Oscar hopes and realities, and new advances like the High Frame Rate Peter Jackson used on The Hobbit . Along the way he riffed hypothetical on what he’d do for awards season glory, assessed the comfortable niche he’s carved out for himself on the fringes of the studio system, and revealed what he really thinks about… cats. Happy New Year! The Blu-ray release of Cosmopolis is coming out in the heart of Oscar-campaign season. I get the sense it doesn’t bug you too much that this film isn’t being discussed more as a contender. Yes. Every year I try to be as disconnected as possible. This year it’s been very easy because we haven’t been nominated for any awards. It’s not sour grapes, it’s not compensation; it’s a relief. It’s very easy to get caught up in it if you are nominated. The people who are releasing the movie get excited, they want you to do more, and you understand it because the awards can maybe get more people to see the film. This, on its face, is a good thing. However, it is all bullshit, it is all annoying and it is all very problematical. But it gives people stuff to write about, gives structure, we understand. But I won’t be watching any of the awards shows. It’s not just showing up that night, there’s months of campaigning. Oh, yes. I’ve talked with several people, one of whom was Denys Arcand, a French Canadian director who won the Best Foreign Language Oscar for The Barbarian Invasions — I know him well. He said he would never, ever do it again. He said it was a year, an incredibly intense year, and ultimately rather boring. Because he’s not doing anything creative at all, just selling. For a guy like Denys Arcand, though, does an award affect his bottom line? Does it affect his career? Will he be able to buy a new house after winning? No, not really. On the contrary, it’s caused him to retreat. He’s decided he doesn’t want to be involved in anything remotely Hollywood. He wants to make Quebecois films. He attempted to make some movies in English with emerging stars and it was a disaster — it’s not his sensibility. For an actor, though, perhaps it’s a different story. Viggo Mortensen was nominated for some of your films, Keira Knightley was discussed for A Dangerous Method . But let’s say she had won — would that have elevated her, and gotten her roles she wouldn’t have gotten otherwise? I don’t think so. She’s incredibly sought after — despite the fact that the British critics are often on her, but they like to eat their own, let’s face it. She’s too smart and beautiful and too talented, it drives them crazy. I don’t see [an award] doing anything for her. End of the year lists, though — Cosmopolis did end up placing second in Cahiers du Cinema ‘s top ten of the year. Yes and on Sight and Sound ‘s list, as well. So the snooty-pants Euros are digging the movie. And, it’ll no doubt end up somewhere on my top 20, I think. [Note: it came in at #12.] If I gave you money would you put it higher? No. Well? Depends how much money. C’mon, let’s talk. A hundred grand goes a long way. Would you give me a hundred grand to write that Cosmopolis is the best movie of the year? No! [Laughs.] But it’s a thought. Let’s be honest — at this stage in your career, let’s say you met the most reputable critic in the world, you met him at a bar and he said, “Oh, man, I’m in a real money crunch right now, I will make Cosmopolis my #1 of the year for X amount of dollars,” do you consider it for a second? No. But that’s because I’m too cheap. But… fact is, I have been on those lists, New York Times has been very positive on my last few movies, we got three great reviews from three critics at the New York Times for A Dangerous Method . But we still didn’t get…[laughs]…it didn’t… Still nobody in the States sees your damn movies, it’s Europeans only! That’s right. It doesn’t do much. But, listen, you like the validation, especially when they are intelligent people who write beautifully and when they applaud your movie it is terrific and gratifying. Pragmatically, it doesn’t do much. Better to get good reviews over bad, obviously, but we all know terrible movies that got terrible reviews that made a lot of money. There’s no one to one relationship. You just have to get very ’60s… just go with the flow.
Hollywood.TV is your source for all the latest celebrity news, gossip and videos of your favorite stars! bit.ly – Click to Subscribe! Facebook.com – Become a Fan! Twitter.com – Follow Us! GLEE star Chris Colfer wrote and stars in “Struck by Lighting. The file premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and will open in theaters in January. Chris sat down with Hollywood.TV to tell us about the film. Hollywood.TV is the global leader in capturing celebrity breaking news as it happens. We cover all the major Hollywood events including The Golden Globes, The Oscars, The Screen Actors Guild Awards, The Grammy’s, The Emmy’s and the American Music Awards, as well as all the red carpet movie premiers in Los Angeles and New York. HTV is on the streets 24/7, at all the industry events and invited by the stars to cover their every move in Hollywood, New York and Miami. Hollywood.TV is currently the third most viewed reporter channel on www.youtube.com YouTube with almost 400 million views, and our footage is seen worldwide! Tune in daily for all the latest Hollywood news on www.hollywood.tv and http like us on Facebook!
Though a Paramount release, Flight did not take the trajectory of a typical studio concept plucked from an internal idea bin. Screenwriter John Gatins began working on what would become the feature starring Denzel Washington and directed by Robert Zemekis earlier last decade on his own. While still new to Hollywood, Gatins, who first hit the scene as a writer on sports pics including Summer Catch and Hard Ball , sobered up. He took that experience and his fear of flying, to quietly craft the story that would evolve into Flight . The film, which debuted at the New York Film Festival in the fall and debuted in theaters in early November has cashed in with nearly $91 million at the domestic box office on a relatively modest budget – at least for Hollywood with a big star – of $31 million. On the Awards Circuit the film has won some attention including a Golden Globe nomination for Denzel Washington for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama and he may well be on the road to a nomination for Best Actor next month when the Oscar nominations are revealed. Gatins has also received some attention including Best Original Screenplay by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and a nomination from the Image Awards. Flight ‘s plane crash makes for good imagery in a trailer, but it really serves as a set-up for one man’s personal struggle with addiction and denial, which forms the crux of Flight . Washington plays pilot Whip Whitaker, who successfully guides a plane that experiences a mid-air mishap to the ground, saving nearly everyone on board. He’s hailed for his heroism by the media, but what eventually percolates to the surface during the investigation is missing on-board alcohol and a cover-up that Captain Whitaker, was in fact, legally drunk. Whitaker is a master at concealing his insatiable drinking and cocaine use and as media attention continues to follow him, he deflects what is clearly a hastening descent in his personal life. M.L. caught up with screenwriter John Gatins about what prompted him to start writing Flight who shared the turbulence his script encountered on the way to the big screen. He shares how he segued his way into “the business” after graduating from Vassar and facing his own fears of flying while making the movie. When I first saw footage of Flight before seeing the film at the New York Film Festival, I wondered if it would be a straight-up plane crash story or if there was more to it. Obviously there is much much more to it and was curious how this came about. Was there a personal element to it? I got sober when I was 25 and that was part of it. I think I was 31 when I started writing [ Flight ] and I did it for me really, I didn’t have a boss. I wrote it on spec and I honestly didn’t think it was a movie that would ever get made. I’m a scared flyer, but was flying a lot for work and shooting in Europe. It’s a personal project I’d pick up and put down and then kept working in my normal life, trying to feed my family. It was after I wrote and directed Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story for DreamWorks that they then asked me what I wanted to do next and then I said, “Well, let me show you what I have been working on and I gave them the first 40 pages of this script and they went, ‘Woah.'” Around when was this? This was around 2004 – 2005. And they thought this was pretty heavy-duty considering I had just finished doing this PG-13 movie for them and has a very complicated central character. And it was also at a time in the business when these kinds of stories weren’t just jumping off shelves onto the screens. R-rated grown-up dramas just became anathema. People kept saying that audiences just don’t’ want to see these movies. But clearly you kept going… Yeah, it was a hard time for it and I was trying to also direct the movie. So Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald came on as producers with me and I continued to work on the script and I finally had a version that we could sneak to a few people in 2007. The script had some big agents respond to it and they said there was some great talent that may be interested in [the starring role], but then the writers strike came along. There were so many things happening to go against this movie, but then it all changed when Denzel Washington got his hand on the script and he wanted to meet me. He told me he wanted a bigger director than me to handle this, which was understandable I guess… Some big actors only have a few guys or gals they want to work with. Then Robert Zemeckis got a hold of the script around the same time and those two connected and then the three of us connected. For everything that had gone wrong for so many years there was a moment in time when everything went right. Bob wanted to be very collaborative with me when making the movie. He said to come to Atlanta and I got to really be there and have a creative voice in it and it really was the best of all possible worlds. Talk about how you three collaborated. Did the script evolve much while you were working with Washington and Zemekis? It was kind of great. Before this, I had only known Denzel as his characters, I had never met him. His characters have this intense presence and in life he also has this presence. He does his homework man – he really does his homework. He was really with the 2007 draft he first received, but with every new draft there was, we kept him in the loop. He’s a guy who definitely started to carry that pain around. He was putting on those shoes so to speak to play the part almost immediately. It was great because for a lot of people this is a small movie, it’s a $30 million movie that we shot over 45 days all on location. It was a bit like making the school play at times, we all rolled up our sleeves to get this done. It was a small ensemble of actors and a small filmmaking crew. So there’s something very intimate about it. Denzel has gone out of his way to give credit to the script. And it’s been really nice for me honestly since I did work so long on the movie and he recognized that. What’s on the screen isn’t much different than what’s in that ’07 draft. Bob did some really smart things making me focus on the point of view. Did that ’07 script portray Denzel’s character as so focused despite his dependencies? I’ll tell you what really struck me about the story was how functional he was at least on the outside. Of course things are going south on the inside, but after the crash he receives notoriety and credit for saving lives and despite being in various states of inebriation all the time, he is able to handle himself in such a remarkable way at least publicly. I’ll tell you a story. my guilty pleasure is the New York Post and one day while doing the domestic junket out here I was reading Page 2 and there was this whole article about this huge rock star Cardiologist in New York who was being sued by his two ex-wives and, among a lot of things, they both alleged that he was high on cocaine all the time and that he failed four drug tests at the hospital and was high 24/7. And you think this is the guy you put your life into and he’s blazing on drugs. I mean, it’s remarkable and there’s this parallel to [Denzel’s character] Whip Whitaker who is so high yet functioning and walks this tight rope. Instinctively he’s the best guy to fly that plane, impaired or not. That’s what helped to create that weird conflicted ambiguity in the plane because you’re thinking, ‘Am I rooting for this character or not?’ If I was on the plane and he saved me and I knew he was the only one who could do that, I’d think I wouldn’t care what his mind was all about at that moment. I think that functionality almost made it more difficult for his character to come to terms with the addictions he was facing… They say for most people to want to make a change they have to hit a bottom in their life. For a guy like that to be able to do heart surgeries successfully or a guy to successfully fly a jet, then people continue to skate along in life. People often don’t change unless they have to. That happens sometimes when people wake up in handcuffs, or in a hospital or in a psych ward and they say, ‘what happened?’ It’s like, well all that managing you were doing with all these issues – it ran out. Your ability to pull it off and manage it just quit on you. And he’s an amazing dude that Whip Whitaker, he can do almost anything. Was there a progression in his personality from the original scripts to the final version? Was that functionality fully there? That functionality was always there because I felt that’s the thing that makes us conflicted. I always watch war movies and I would always think that if I was in a war, I’d have to drink every day with that constant drum of anxiety because I don’t know how I’d get through that experience of knowing someone is constantly trying to kill me. The men and women overseas right now, I just don’t know how they deal with that. I think pills or booze would calm my brain… But I think it would have been so easy to go down that path of Whip just being crazed… Yeah, yeah yeah… There are so many people who function at such a high level of – work hard, play hard. You see them Monday through Friday and then you catch that person on the weekend and you’re like, “Whoa!” How did you work in the mechanics of the crash? You must’ve had to research past incidents… Oh man that was crazy, that was crazy because I’m a nervous flyer. Those NTSB records are public record and they’re pretty dense but also equally fascinating. I also spoke to a lot of pilots and they pointed me toward different incidents. That must’ve been encouraging experience helping you to overcome being nervous flyer [laughs]. It was miserable [laughs] but fascinating at the same time. Denzel said something really funny when we were on a panel and they asked him what he thought about Whip being a pilot as opposed to something else and he said, ‘It’s the most dramatic choice John could’ve made. If he worked at the post office, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal. You wouldn’t have gotten your mail. That’s different from being in a plane at 30,000 feet that’s dropping. But the research was fascinating. You can read the black boxes and some of them are very dramatic. Zemeckis is also a pilot and flies so he has a complete understanding. He loves to fly, but I hate to fly. While we were flying to Atlanta and back he’d be like, ‘Let’s work.’ We’d literally be working on the script while on the flight talking about a plane crashing while we’re on the plane. That math is never good for me [laughs]. Was the crash in the film based on an actual accident? There are a couple of accidents that it was based on. But there was a crash off Oxnard, CA in 2000. A pilot told me to look at that and it was fascinating. Air traffic control asked them to take the plane out over [Santa Monica Bay] so as to limit collateral damage on the ground. And they did fly it inverted but they put the plane back over and lost control. It was an un-flyable plane, it wasn’t their fault. They did an amazing job. And this pilot said that had they known what was really wrong with the plane, they might have known their only recourse was to keep it inverted and descend. It was really rough. Is writing one of your first passions? You were a drama major and you mentioned that you did many things including acting when you first moved to California… I think I’ve always been a storyteller. I’m Irish and we like to tell stories and I come from a family of storytellers and in storytelling there’s an element of performance in it. Arguing for ‘air-time’ at big family events requires that performance. So being the youngest of four I felt I had to perform. My first instinct then was that I wanted to be an actor, but when I was at Vassar, it was great because it’s very academic. I read so many plays, which gave me a great foundation which I didn’t realize until I had to access that as a writer. Writing was ‘easier’ because you just write by yourself. It’s not easy, but you don’t need permission. The first script I wrote I wrote on a legal pad, I didn’t even have a computer. What was your big entrée when you first arrived in California that kept you going or encouraged you to maintain that path? I had friends from Vassar who were starting to work in the biz. We were in our mid 20s and we got together for a poker game and this guy said to me, “You’re so funny man you should write a script. I’ll pay you to write this script once you get broke enough.” So the next day I contacted him and said, “I think I’m broke enough.” And he paid me $1,000 – $500 to start and $500 to finish – to write this crazy script about a kid in high school who fakes his own suicide. And that script was sold to Disney and it started it all off. It started my whole career. It was Smells Like Teen Suicide . It was great, it got me into a lot of rooms. People wanted to meet that guy who wrote that dark, dark teen comedy. What other genres would you like to tackle that you haven’t yet? Great question… I want to do a big comedy. It’s funny when I started out, even though Smells Like Teen Suicide was a dark movie, it was a dark comedy reaching for a laugh. Then I got into doing sports movies and was on that road for awhile and there’s comedy in that too. And actually, there’s a good amount of comedy in Flight . Yeah, I’d like to go for a big comedy at some point. I’ve made a family movie, sports movies and perhaps a sort of sic-fi movie. Flight is mostly an adult like grown-up drama. Denzel said, “Look it’s an R-rated movie and there are no guns. It’s different. We don’t make these movies anymore.” But, I have an idea to write a high school movie because I’m about to have a teenager who is going into high school. I feel like I have one more young voice movie in me, so we’ll see…
Director Quentin Tarantino shifted the film’s production dates to accommodate Hill’s busy schedule. By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Jonah Hill in “Django Unchained” Photo: The Weinstein Company
We can all agree that Anne Hathaway ‘s brief but gloriously tragic turn in Tom Hooper ‘s Les Miserables earned her the enviable position as Best Supporting Actress front runner. Now you can listen to her movie-topping number “I Dreamed A Dream” online and pinpoint the exact moment when that Oscar statuette officially writes “Anne Hathaway’s syphilitic whore” on its nameplate, because all you other Supporting Actress hopefuls can just give up and go home already*. I will preface this by saying that Hathaway’s one-take, sung-through rendition of Fantine’s rock bottom lament plays better in the film when you can see the Acting with a capital A she’s doing, because singing while weeping hysterically is harder than it sounds. (We’ve all been there, right? Right?! Guys ??) Microphone drop at 3:40, y’all. And if you’re not entirely impressed based on this listen alone, remember that one time when this happened and appreciate the magic that Hathaway is sprinkling all over us by comparison. *Of course there’s a chance that Hathaway will not win the Oscar, in which case I will eat Russell Crowe’s fancy hat. READ MORE ON LES MISERABLES : TALKBACK: Who Gave The Best (And Worst) Performances Of ‘Les Miserables?’ Tom Hooper Defends His ‘Les Misérables ‘ Close-Ups & Reveals Who’s The Bigger Musical Geek: Jackman or Hathaway ‘Les Misérables’ Hits High Notes, But Also Skitters Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
