Just two quick observations about Joss Whedon ‘s Zomney political ad, which has gotten plenty of coverage elsewhere. The video has a lot of smart, funny lines in it, but it’s tough to beat the filmmaker’s observation that: “The 1 percent will no longer be the very rich. It will be the very fast.” The other thing that I love about the clip is that Whedon, who, based on the success of The Avengers alone is probably a member of the 1 percent — the wealthy, not the fast version — is doing dishes by hand in the spot. Love that earthy image Joss, and the drying rack. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
It’s official: Sam Claflin , British newcomer and co-star of recent blockbusters Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Snow White and the Huntsman , has been cast as former Games winner Finnick Odair in Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire . It’s a sizable role and a fan favorite, as readers of Suzanne Collins’ novels can attest — so what better way is there to get acquainted with your future Finnick than with a few adorable, worship-worthy photos? [ GALLERY: 9 Ridiculously Cute Photos Of Sam Claflin, Your New Finnick Odair ] Ever since landing the role of the young love-struck Philip in the last Pirates of the Caribbean flick (he’s the one who fell for the mermaid), Claflin’s been setting up his breakthrough potential stateside; his turn as the moony-eyed Prince in SWATH pitted him against Chris Hemsworth for Kristen Stewart’s affections, and while the Finnick role in the Hunger Games saga isn’t a central character, it’s a notable character that offers Claflin the chance to play more than just a pretty romantic figure. As a District 4 career Tribute who became something of a sex symbol after his Hunger Games victory, the flirty Finnick is known for using his charm and beauty to his advantage although there are much deeper layers roiling beneath the surface. Scroll down for the official Lionsgate press release and jump to this gallery of ridiculously cute Claflin pics to get better acquainted with your new Finnick. Click above for pics. Press release: Santa Monica, CA, August 22, 2012- Lionsgate® and the filmmakers of THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE are pleased to announce that Sam Claflin has been cast in the role of Finnick in the much anticipated film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ worldwide smash hit novel Catching Fire. Charismatic and clever, Finnick was a District 4 Hunger Games victor when he was fourteen. After breaking out in his role as the romantic lead in last year’s PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES, Claflin starred in the box office smash SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN playing Prince William alongside Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth. He recently finished filming THE QUIET ONESopposite Jarred Harris, and MARY & MARTHA, in which he co-stars with Hilary Swank. THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) – a competition that could change Panem forever. THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE will be directed by Francis Lawrence, and produced by Nina Jacobson’s Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. The novel on which the film is based is the second in a trilogy that has sold more than 50 million books in print and digital in the U.S. alone. Lionsgate will release THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE on November 22, 2013. Ongoing casting news and information for the film can be found at: www.CatchingFireCasting.com The Hunger Games: Catching Fire hits theaters November 22, 2013. Approve of Claflin as Finnick, Mockingjays?
The demise of film and the seeming triumph of digital has been a hot topic of discussion for insiders and hardcore enthusiasts for a number of years. But Keanu Reeves is taking the topic into the mainstream(ish) realm with his latest project, Side by Side , which bowed recently in Los Angeles and is set to hit cities around the U.S. in the coming weeks. Co-produced and narrated by Reeves, the 98-minute documentary landed the likes of James Cameron , David Fincher , David Lynch , George Lucas , Danny Boyle , Martin Scorsese , Christopher Nolan and Steven Soderbergh to weigh in on movie-making’s (d)evolution. Nolan, he noted, was the most difficult to reach among the people who appear in the doc, which features interviews with 70-plus filmmaking powerhouses. To lure The Dark Knight Rises filmmaker, Reeves went snail mail. “I actually wrote to him on an old-fashioned typewriter,” Reeves told Reuters . “I think he got a kick out of that and we finally shot him in his trailer on the Batman set in LA.” Reeves noted that Nolan’s schedule was “so crazy” because he was in the midst of filming The Dark Knight Rises , but wanted the filmmaker because of his long-standing opinions about the film vs. digital debate, which caught Reeves’ attention in earnest while finishing on a previous project a couple years back. While working on Henry’s Crime , which he also produced a couple of years back, Reeves and the film’s production manager, Chris Kenneally, began talking about the rise of digital technology. “We were sitting in the post-production suite trying to match the photochemical image with the digital image, side by side, and it just hit me – film is going away, and we should document this whole evolution,” Reeves told Reuter. “So Chris and I gradually put a team together to make the documentary.” A champion of film himself, none other than Martin Scorsese said earlier this summer he’ll probably go digital with his upcoming projects including The Wolf of Wall Street . His previous effort, Hugo was a de facto call for film preservation, something near and dear to the filmmaker’s heart. His longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker told Empire magazine at the time, “I think Marty just feels it’s unfortunately over, and there’s been no bigger champion of film than him.” And as Side by Side gets set to expand, Reeves appears to agree that film will continue to disintegrate into the annals of movie history. “Even Chris Nolan admits that film, if not dead, is now on life support, and it’s just going to become more and more difficult to even get film. Personally I’m a big film fan and it’s sad to see it go but the future is digital.” Reeves himself is directing a big screen feature about a a young martial artist set in Beijing titled Man of Tai Chi and he has apparently also accepted – even if begrudgingly – the comparatively cheaper technology. “”We did [go digital],” he said. “I developed this project for five years and we’re shooting on location in Beijing and Hong Kong. I’m having a great time directing and I definitely plan to do it again.” [ Source: Reuters ]
Twi-hards — and the media — have certainly been paying more attention to David Cronenberg since the filmmaker cast Robert Pattinson in his latest, Cosmopolis , but they shouldn’t expect him to reciprocate. Movieline pal Grace Randolph caught The Fly director and his star on the red carpet at the New York premiere of Cosmopolis , where Cronenberg shrugged off the impact of Pattinson’s reported break-up with his Twilight star Kristen Stewart . “Honestly, that doesn’t touch me, and it doesn’t touch the movie,” said Cronenberg. “It’s really irrelevant. Not to [Rob] obviously, but to me and the movie. It doesn’t change the movie at all,” Cronenberg added. “That’s all media stuff.” The media was in full frenzy at the Peggy Siegal Company and Gucci-hosted premiere, which took place at the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan, and Pattinson was their number-one target. Despite the crush, RPatz seemed to be enjoying the attention, and at one point was caught on Randolph’s camera saying: “The only thing I can be scared of is being bad.” Let’s see what the reviews say. Check out Grace’s interviews below. Watch It on YouTube. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Bad news, Charlie Kaufman fans: While some cast members had been hopeful in recent months that Frank or Francis would move ahead, Elizabeth Banks (doing the press rounds for People Like Us ) spilled news to the contrary. “I honestly don’t know where that film is at,” she told AICN. “We were supposed to make it sooner, but it’s been pushed. I think they’re waiting for everybody’s lives to come back together…I don’t really know anything about it.” Speaking with Moviefone, she elaborated that things “fell apart” before the Hollywood satire/musical could move forward into production: “We didn’t get to shoot that movie. It was ready to go, and, as many movies do, it fell apart at the last minute.” UPDATE: Over at The Playlist , the filmmaker’s reps say that the project’s not completely dead — it has just been “postponed.” [ AICN , Moviefone ]
Despite last week’s report to the contrary , it’s not especially surprising to hear that Gary Ross is not quite out as the director of the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire : Various sources have followed up initial word of Ross’s franchise departure with news of predictable-enough salary disputes over ridiculously large sums of money that would push any spin machine into overdrive. So buckle up — first for Deadline’s counterattack explaining why Ross has logical reason to leave the blockbuster series : The Seabiscuit director knows the benefit of riding in a winner and not switching horses midstream. Ross lobbied hard to get The Hunger Games and turned it into the biggest hit of his directing career. Before that, he developed several serious historical dramatic projects under his deal at Universal that didn’t get off the ground. Staying for a sure-fire hit and a sequel that audiences actually want to see makes a lot of sense for Ross, particularly given how active the filmmaker has been in the construction of Catching Fire . Hmm. OK? I mean, of course Ross reportedly backed out on creative and professional terms (whatever), which, if we were to take at face value, would imply that the Catching Fire upside isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But since we don’t take things at face value — particularly after a third consecutive number-one weekend at the box office — let David Poland walk you through the prospective, dizzying economics of it all: [F]or the director/co-writer of four films to be paid, at best, 2.5% of the NET revenues on a franchise like this does not seem excessive or abusively demanding. And if Gary Ross has to settle for 5 years of his professional life going for $20 million… $25 million… well… ya know… he’d have a legacy… he might improve as a director (he’s a decent director, but still a writer first)… he’d have the career lesson of a steady, defined gig, and the money doesn’t exactly suck. In an industry of few sure things, one thing is sure. We know that [Lionsgate] is NOT going to lose money on paying Gary Ross $40 million for the next 3 films. Step up. Stop being greedy pigs. Do it like the grown up studios. And get on with it already. Yeah! Like, now , because as you might have heard , Jennifer Lawrence has an X-Men sequel to shoot: [S]ources say the filmmaker is concerned about an ambitious production schedule that would require shooting to begin in August so that star Jennifer Lawrence can complete her work before she is due to start filming a sequel to Fox’s X-Men: First Class in January. Since Fox’s deal with Lawrence predates her contract for Hunger Games , X-Men is in a priority position. With the script for the second Hunger Games not yet locked, that means all preparations for a sequel would have to be done in four months — a tough schedule to meet. What ever will happen? (Hint: Ross will get paid, and happy fans will go on to push The Hunger Games franchise into a $3 billion juggernaut.) Stay tuned… [ Deadline , The Hot Blog , THR ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Browsing through the photo record of Tuesday’s Titanic 3D premiere in London, one notices immediately the absence of Leonardo DiCaprio. What gives? I mean, if Billy Zane can make time, then lord knows Leo should be able to drop in for at least a few snapshots with James Cameron and co-star Kate Winslet. At the very least, he’d better have a good excuse — which, according to Cameron, he did. Speaking to reporters on the red carpet, the filmmaker/ deep-sea habitué explained that DiCaprio was busy shooting Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained , and thus unavailable to travel. But that wasn’t all: “I didn’t show him the whole film but I showed him 18 minutes of it a few months ago,” Cameron continued, “It was a good reunion for us but great to watch his reaction. He couldn’t believe it. He said to me, ‘I’m such a young punk. Look at me.’ He was practically crawling under the seat. It was a good moment.” I can only presume this was the same clip package Cameron showed Movieline , which wasn’t that bad. Winslet, meanwhile, said she would seek similar refuge — from her nude scenes in particular: “I’m not going to look. I’ll be in the bar by that point or on the floor. I haven’t seen the whole film in a very long time, I’ve seen little pieces of it, but it’s a whole different me and we look much younger and our acting was different, hopefully not as good as now.” Never let go, babe. Now someone tell us where Kathy Bates was. [ OK! via Yahoo! , Metro ; photo via Daily Mail ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
This would never happen in America : “The two main candidates in this spring’s presidential election took a break from their mudslinging to crow. ‘This is a tremendous success for the French cinema,’ exclaimed President Nicolas Sarkozy on RTL radio Monday morning. ‘I adored The Artist of course.’ François Hollande, the Socialist challenger, said on his Web site, ‘Bravo to the entire cast of the film, and bravo to French cinema.'” [ NYT ]
I had vowed to get on with my life and leave the Academy Awards alone today. That all changed when a friend alerted me to an eye-popping moment on the Oscars red carpet that haunted my dreams and now demands reckoning. Dear readers, does anybody knows what the hell is going on here? Seriously, I need to know . Also: Top that, Sacha Baron Cohen . [Thanks to Justin for the heads-up.] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
