Let the Games continue! EW has your first look at the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire , with a peek at Jennifer Lawrence ‘s Katniss and cast newcomer Sam Claflin as returning Games victor Finnick Odair. Katniss and her baker boyfriend Peeta are back in Catching Fire , based on Suzanne Collins’s second Hunger Games book, but things haven’t exactly settled down; with revolution sparking in the Districts, the duo are sent back on the Games circuit and thrust into a new, even more dangerous competition. In the next ten months you’re going to see a lot of Claflin ( Pirates of the Caribbean , Snow White and the Huntsman ), the British up-and-comer who plays charismatic Finnick, a previous Games winner known for his seductive charm… who also has a notable scene in which he’s clad only in a fishing net. Ahem. Joining Claflin in the Francis Lawrence -directed sequel are new castmates Jena Malone as Johanna Mason, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee, Amanda Plummer as Wiress, and Jeffrey Wright as Beetee. For now, enjoy this first image of Finnick cozying up to Katniss in what might be the knot-tying scene. To borrow from the master R. Kelly: Peeta, don’t bring your girl around Finnick because he’s a flirt (with a trident). Catching Fire hits theaters November 21. Synopsis: 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. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Let the Games continue! EW has your first look at the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire , with a peek at Jennifer Lawrence ‘s Katniss and cast newcomer Sam Claflin as returning Games victor Finnick Odair. Katniss and her baker boyfriend Peeta are back in Catching Fire , based on Suzanne Collins’s second Hunger Games book, but things haven’t exactly settled down; with revolution sparking in the Districts, the duo are sent back on the Games circuit and thrust into a new, even more dangerous competition. In the next ten months you’re going to see a lot of Claflin ( Pirates of the Caribbean , Snow White and the Huntsman ), the British up-and-comer who plays charismatic Finnick, a previous Games winner known for his seductive charm… who also has a notable scene in which he’s clad only in a fishing net. Ahem. Joining Claflin in the Francis Lawrence -directed sequel are new castmates Jena Malone as Johanna Mason, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee, Amanda Plummer as Wiress, and Jeffrey Wright as Beetee. For now, enjoy this first image of Finnick cozying up to Katniss in what might be the knot-tying scene. To borrow from the master R. Kelly: Peeta, don’t bring your girl around Finnick because he’s a flirt (with a trident). Catching Fire hits theaters November 21. Synopsis: 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. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
We can all agree that 2012 has been an excellent year for the movies , but the more salacious among us will note that it’s been an awesome year to perv out at the movies. Although we didn’t get another look at the Fassmember and all the conflicting feelings it brought up (Hotness! Confusion! Embarrassment at being psyched to see him naked in Shame when actually it’s really f***ing depressing!) there were some rather interesting trends that reared their heads that invite a closer look. Whether studios are getting braver or filmmakers are getting bolder is a debate for another time — and please don’t suggest that 50 Shades had too much to do with it. Let’s salute all the sexin’ that happened onscreen in 2012. Hair Here, There, and Everywhere Merkin-makers must have been counting their coins this year because going au naturel was all the rage, although I’m sure that the Brazilian waxers weren’t going hungry either. Neither of the leading ladies in Killer Joe kept their pants on the whole time, which wasn’t too much of a shock given director William Friedkin ‘s bold career. ( Cruising , anyone?) The very first scene puts us — and Emile Hirsch — face to face with Gina Gershon’s lustrous bush* as Gershon throws open the door to the family trailer wearing nothing but a T-shirt. Juno Temple is probably the most naked, though, as the uncomfortably young and dotty Dottie, who’s given to Killer Joe (the frequently shirtless Matthew McConaughey ) as a retainer until her brother and dad can pay him for killing their mother. (Got all that?) I’m not sure if Dottie is psychic and otherworldly or, you know, touched in the head, or even if she’s of age, but let’s get back to that later in the “Is This Even Legal?” section. *(Actually a merkin, as per this interview .) In the slightly more matter-of-fact dramedy The Sessions , Helen Hunt sheds her clothes in a professional manner as a sex surrogate hired by a man who’s spent most of his life in an iron lung. Some critics have commented that it seems unfair to show Hunt’s character completely nude while John Hawkes remains covered, but even Hawkes would have a hard time pulling off a nude scene as a paralyzed polio survivor. Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz kept it casual when it came to the full frontal females. After an apparently hilarious incident of pool-peeing, Michelle Williams and Sarah Silverman enjoyed a tête–à–tête in the communal YMCA showers with a whole bunch of other ladies from their water aerobics class. Although I’ve never enjoyed a chill convo with my shower neighbors at the gym, I did appreciate finally seeing a wider variety of female bodies on screen. The extras were different ages and ethnicities, shapes and sizes, and they were just doing what bodies do when they’re not on sexual display. They all seemed a lot less pissed than I would have been if some yahoo had ruined my water aerobics class, too. Coming in Handy Handjobs aren’t just for high school any more, y’all. In fact, some of the most highfalutin films of the year show or imply manual stimulation. There was all sorts of snickering among the less mature among us (ahem) about masturbation in The Master , wherein the sort-of-but-not-really L. Ron Hubbard stand-in played by Philip Seymour Hoffman gets an almost stern handjob from his wife, Oscar hopeful Amy Adams . Seriously: that didn’t look like much fun. Hyde Park on Hudson gives a new meaning to kissing cousins when FDR’s “distant cousin” Margaret Stuckley (Laura Linney) gives a surreptitious hand to the cigarette-chomping prez, played by Bill Murray . The less said about this, the better. It’s not even clear what to call the scene in Holy Motors when Monsieur Merde (French for shit, for those of you playing at home) suffers from some sort of ecstatic priapism in the presence of a gorgeous fashion model played by Eva Mendes. But let’s not leave out the ladies! There was nothing quite as steamy as Gina Gershon subtly but skillfully manipulating Jennifer Tilly in Bound (under the tutelage of Susie Bright, who was a consultant on the early Wachowski film), but it seems practically greedy to ask for that much hotness once every decade or so. However, the sweetly sexy Hello I Must Be Going does have a hot and heavy make-out scene between freshly divorced Amy ( Melanie Lynskey ) and younger man Jeremy (Christopher Abbott of Girls ) that involves some deft fingerbangin’. Sisters don’t always have to do it for themselves, you know. Homoerotic Tension It seems like folks were waiting on tenterhooks to see Kristen Stewart joyfully jack off Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund in On the Road , but the real hotness in that movie is Hedlund’s portrayal of Dean Moriarty’s playful pansexuality. His toothy, mischievous grin reels in not just the ladies but soulful men like Tom Sturridge’s Carlo Marx, a stand-in for Allen Ginsberg. And honestly, I don’t believe for a second that Marylou (Stewart) was the only one who wanted that threesome with Sal (Riley). Movieline has already explored the bondage-y vibe between James Bond and Skyfall villain Silva , which gave many viewers all sorts of naughty thoughts about Javier Bardem and Daniel Craig. I’d be seriously remiss if we left out Ezra Miller , the freaky fashion plate who came out as queer in a delightful Out magazine feature . As Patrick, Miller is the best part of The Perks of Being a Wallflower , and not just because he’s the best Frank-N-Furter this side of Tim Curry. (Those gams!) The tumultuous relationship he has with a closeted schoolmate is heartbreaking and the realest part of this YA adaptation. Also, he is extremely hot, and I don’t care if that makes me a dirty old lady. Plenty of people fall in love at the office, and in About Cherry , their office is a porn studio, filmed at Kink.com ‘s headquarters at the Armory in San Francisco. Young porn starlet Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw) and director Margaret (Heather Graham) feel the heat when Rollergirl gets behind the camera for a movie, but it’s not until they break up with their respective significant others that they become a sexy power couple. Jack and Diane is full of smoldering teen lust, and Riley Keough is fully channeling her grandfather Elvis as a young soft butch falling for Brit pixie Diane, played by Juno Temple. There’s lots of smooching and yearning and whatnot, including an ill-fated attempt at shaving Diane’s pubes, but there’s also a werewolf interlude because teenage lust can be scary or something. NEXT: First timers, role-playing, and Rust & Bone
President Obama interrupted Monday Night Football to give a speech about the Newtown tragedies and it looks like not everyone in America appreciated it…. Northern Alabama Player Kicked Off Team For Racist Tweets Last night’s Sunday Night Football game between the San Francisco 49ers and New England Patriots was interrupted in the first quarter by President Barack Obama giving a speech at the Newtown memorial for victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. Via The Grio reports: Football fans did not appreciate the interruption and instead erupted in numerous racist and offensive tweets on Twitter. One Division II, University of North Alabama player, Bradley Patterson tweeted: “Take that ni**er off the tv, we wanna watch football!” Later in the evening, UNA Athletic Director Mark Linder tweeted that this player was no longer a part of the team. “Thx 2 everyone who brought the inappropriate tweet to our attention. @UNAAthletics does not condone. He is no longer a member of the team,” Linder tweeted. This is absolutely disgusting! The leader of our country gives a heartfelt speech to help comfort an entire nation and this idiot has the nerve to hurl a racial insult because he’s missing some football. That’s what your dumbazz gets!! Hit the flip to peep what the racists around Twitter had to say about Obama during his speech…
She’s not all that hot, but she is naked….and I guess that makes her relevant to perverts like me….even if the typical busty and voluptuous isn’t really my thing, I like my busty girls to be skinny, you know making their tits a mystery or blessing for nature, making me wonder how such a miracle happened, you know like they were my version of the Christ child, ready to be worshipped by my dick…when the girl is built like this…the big fake tits are just kind of a given…not all that impressive, but like all low level Glamour Models who are better suited as strippers, I’m totally down with staring, cuz naked chicks are fun….even when they are fat.
Angelina Jolie is one step closer to another helping of Salt as Columbia Pictures hits the negotiating table with Seven Years in Tibet writer Becky Johnston. Naturally with the 2010 original grossing $293.5 million, including $118,311,368 in the U.S., the studio has incentive to get a Salt 2 underway, especially with its irreplaceable star, Angelina Jolie, threatening retirement in the not-too-distant future . Columbia hired the first Salt ‘s writer Krut Wimmer to write the sequel, but Jolie had apparently scoffed at the script and had not committed to a re-do, according to THR . The studio searched for a replacement who could re-style the story that will satisfy all involved. Johnston’s other credits include The Prince of Tides (1991) as well as Wonder Woman and Brad Bird’s San Francisco earthquake story, 1906 . Johnston’s participation will be a departure from her previous work, though there’s at least one connection. Seven Years in Tibet , released 15 years ago, starred Jolie’s future partner, Brad Pitt. [Source: THR ]
Can’t make it out to Park City, UT for the Sundance Film Festival this year? Let Sundance come to you. The Sundance Institute announced today 10 independent cities that will screen selections from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival this year with the filmmaker present. Ten filmmakers will travel to one of the following cities: Ann Arbor, MI; Boston, MA; Brooklyn, NY; Chicago, IL; Houston, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Nashville, TN; Orlando, FL; San Francisco, CA; and Tucson, AZ. “Sundance Film Festival USA celebrates the theaters and audiences that are an integral part of supporting and encouraging the work of independent filmmakers,” said Sundance President and Founder Robert Redford. “By extending the Festival to these 10 cities, we will create a larger shared experience and dialogue around the issues of our time, as explored in these films.” [ Related: Sundance Film Festival Reveals 2013 U.S. & World Competition Slate ] Titles and locations follow with descriptions and information provided by Sundance Institute: The East / U.S.A. (Director: Zal Batmanglij, Screenwriters: Zal Batmanglij, Brit Marling) — An operative for an elite private intelligence firm goes into deep cover to infiltrate a mysterious anarchist collective attacking major corporations. Bent on apprehending these fugitives, she finds her loyalty tested as her feelings grow for the group’s charismatic leader. Cast: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, Ellen Page, Toby Kebbell, Shiloh Fernandez, Patricia Clarkson. Ann Arbor, MI – The Michigan Theatre . The Lifeguard / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Liz W. Garcia) — A former valedictorian quits her reporter job in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy: her childhood home in Connecticut. She gets work as a lifeguard and starts a dangerous relationship with a troubled teenager. Cast: Kristen Bell, Mamie Gummer, Martin Starr, Alex Shaffer, Amy Madigan, David Lambert. Boston, MA – Coolidge Corner Theatre www.coolidge.org Kill Your Darlings / U.S.A. (Director: John Krokidas, Screenwriters: Austin Bunn, John Krokidas) — An untold story of murder that brought together a young Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs at Columbia University in 1944, providing the spark that led to the birth of an entire generation – their Beat revolution. Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHann, Ben Foster, Michael C. Hall, Jack Huston, Elizabeth Olsen. Brooklyn, NY – BAM Touchy Feely / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Lynn Shelton) — A massage therapist is unable to do her job when stricken with a mysterious and sudden aversion to bodily contact. Meanwhile, her uptight brother’s foundering dental practice receives new life when clients seek out his “healing touch.” Cast: Rosemarie DeWitt, Allison Janney, Ron Livingston, Scoot McNairy, Ellen Page, Josh Pais. Chicago, IL – Music Box Theatre [ Related: Sundance Film Festival Unveils Star-Studded Premieres & Documentary Premieres Lineup ] Ain’t Them Bodies Saints / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: David Lowery) — The tale of an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met. Cast: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker, Keith Carradine. Houston, TX – Sundance Cinemas Houston . Afternoon Delight / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jill Soloway) — In this sexy, dark comedy, a lost L.A. housewife puts her idyllic hipster life in jeopardy when she tries to rescue a stripper by taking her in as a live-in nanny. Cast: Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, Jane Lynch. Los Angeles, CA – Sundance Sunset Cinemas . Mother of George / U.S.A. (Director: Andrew Dosunmu, Screenwriter: Darci Picoult) — A story about a woman willing to do anything and risk everything for her marriage. Cast: Isaach De Bankolé, Danai Gurira, Tony Okungbowa, Yaya Alafia, Bukky Ajayi. Nashville, TN – Belcourt Theatre . A.C.O.D. / U.S.A. (Director: Stuart Zicherman, Screenwriters: Ben Karlin, Stuart Zicherman) — Carter is a well-adjusted Adult Child of Divorce. So he thinks. When he discovers he was part of a divorce study as a child, it wreaks havoc on his family and forces him to face his chaotic past. Cast: Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Catherine O’Hara, Amy Poehler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clark Duke. Orlando, FL – Enzian Theater . In a World… / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Lake Bell) — An underachieving vocal coach is motivated by her father, the king of movie-trailer voice-overs, to pursue her aspirations of becoming a voiceover star. Amidst pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation. Cast: Lake Bell, Demetri Martin, Rob Corddry, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino, Fred Melamed. San Francisco, CA – Sundance Kabuki Cinemas . The Spectacular Now / U.S.A. (Director: James Ponsoldt, Screenwriters: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber) — Sutter is a high school senior who lives for the moment; Aimee is the introvert he attempts to “save.” As their relationship deepens, the lines between right and wrong, friendship and love, and “saving” and corrupting become inextricably blurred. Cast: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kyle Chandler. Tucson, AZ – The Loft .
Howard and Campbell, a schoolteacher and former Eagles cheerleader, announced their engagement in April 2011. She was seen in August on TLC#39;s “Say Yes to the Dress,” which showed Campbell dress shopping at Kleinfeld#39;s Bridal in New York. Congratulations to Ryan Howard and Krystle Campbell who were married Saturday in Maui. Not surprisingly, the Flyin#39; Hawaiian Shane Victorino attended the wedding, as did Ben Francisco and many of Howard#39;s Phillies teammates. The couple had registe
Not so much a traditional sequel as a hallucinogenic riff on an entire franchise, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning plays like the fevered fantasy of a die-hard genre fan who requires only the haziest sort of dream logic to connect extended sequences of hand-to-hand, foot-to-ass, machete-to-arm and bullet-to-head combat. There’s something perversely fascinating about helmer John Hyams’ freewheeling yet deliberately paced mashup of noirish mystery, splatter-movie intensity, first-person-shooter vidgame and Apocalypse Now -style surrealism. But it’s questionable whether the pic will develop anything larger than a cult following when Magnet unleashes it as a late-fall VOD and theatrical release. Franchise mainstays Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren are back in action as UniSols, genetically enhanced and fantastically resilient bionic commandos. But they serve more or less as supporting players here, while most of Day of Reckoning focuses on Brit martial artist/action-pic thesp Scott Adkins as John, a fuzzily defined family man who awakens from a nine-month coma with jumbled memories of having witnessed brutal home invaders kill his wife and young daughter. Left with amnesia, John remembers only one thing with vivid clarity: The leader of the killers was a fearsome fellow identified by a helpful FBI agent (Rus Blackwell) as Luc Devereaux (Van Damme). Devereaux, the agent explains while questioning John, used to work for the government, and now is classified as a deserter. But Devereaux himself more likely would call himself a messiah. With the help of comrade Andrew Scott (Lundgren), the seemingly indestructible special op has been methodically recruiting and deprogramming other UniSols, freeing them of control by government-employed overlords and readying them for revenge. John repeatedly encounters an especially ferocious deprogrammed UniSol (Andrei Arlovski) while following a trail of clues that might lead to info about Devereaux — and, just as important, about John’s own forgotten past. Of course, this being a genre pic, that trail brings him to a topless bar, where he meets a beautiful dancer (Mariah Bonner) who claims to know him. Then things get really weird. Hyams and co-scripters Doug Magnuson and Jon Greenhalgh reference a wide range of sources throughout, with Blade Runner and Apocalypse Now being only their most obvious influences. (That Van Damme is made to resemble a leaner, meaner Col. Kurtz certainly isn’t coincidental.) There’s also a plot twist on loan from a classic Twilight Zone segment in which George Grizzard played another man trying to solve the puzzle of his past. To their credit, however, the filmmakers make mostly clever use of their borrowings, and they play fair: That surprise twist is signaled early on by clues hidden in plain sight. In any event, the twisty storyline serves primarily as an excuse to get the aud from one long stretch of mayhem to the next. Adkins may not be the most emotionally expressive of actors, but his formidable physicality serves him well during impressive action scenes that are additionally enhanced by the extra depth of field provided by 3D lensing. The grand finale is a series of what appear to be single-take sequences of bone-breaking, bullet-blasting violence, almost all of it presented with a practical-effects, minimal-CGI approach bound to impress genre devotees. Better still, the climax allows Lundgren to exuberantly deliver a line that, in this context, comes off as the pic’s only moment of comic relief. Even in their limited screen time, Lundgren and Van Damme demonstrate that you can teach old dogs new kicks. Other supporting players, including Arlovski, a Belarusian mixed-martial-arts champ, are adequate to the tasks at hand. For the record, Day of Reckoning is the fourth pic in a series that began with 1992’s Universal Soldier (directed by Roland Emmerich), and continued with Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) and Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009), which was also directed by Hyams and went direct to video in the U.S. There were two unrelated cable spinoffs ( Universal Solider II: Brothers in Arms and Universal Solider III: Unfinished Business , both toplining Matt Battaglia) that have evidently joined the ranks of Exorcist II: The Heretic ,” Jaws 3-D and just about every Halloween pic between Halloween II and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later as sequels that true fans like to pretend never existed. Related: Check out Movieline’s Fantastic Fest Review of Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning Follow Movieline on Twitter.
