Now it’s Courtney Love ‘s turn to tell her story about her husband Kurt Cobain and she’s turning to a medium she knows well, even if it has at times not been to her liking. The Hole musician has approached filmmaker Brett Morgan to do a Cobain documentary, a project that has been under discussion since 2007. “Courtney is the one that brought me into this,” said Morgan, whose Rolling Stones doc Crossfire Hurricane premiered at the BFI London Film Festival last month. “We’ve been trying to find the right time to put tho film together and the time is now.” Morgan, who spoke to the New York Post said they’re eyeing a 2014 release. Rumors swirled that a Broadway musical based on the Nirvana catalogue recently when once close Britney Spears protégé Sam Lufti testified under oath that he and Love were working on a possible stage or motion picture project based on the grunge artist who died of a self-inflicted gunshot in 1994. “There will be no musical,” Love later told The Observer. “Sometimes it’s best just to leave things alone.” Nevertheless, a doc is underway at least for now, and it will take the form of a “third-person autobiography,” Morgan said. “[As] if Kurt was around and making a film about his life…Kurt was not only an amazing songwriter and musician, he was an incredible artist and film-maker.” Kurt Cobain left behind a wealth of recordings even beyond his music, some of which played out in a 2006 documentary, Kurt Cobain About a Son by AJ Schnack, which Love did not sanction. Cobain and Love were both the subjects in the 1998 doc Kurt & Courtney by Nick Broomfield, which Love allegedly tried to axe from the Sundance Film Festival ahead of its premiere. Never-before seen footage of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love in their private life turned up in the 2011 doc Hit So Hard by P. David Ebersole, which followed the story of Hole drummer Patty Schemel, which Love cooperated with. On the non-doc side, Gus van Sant fictionalized a parallel Kurt Cobain story in his 2005 feature Last Days , which starred Michael Pitt as the would-be Nirvana frontman. [ Source: The Guardian ]
Even Jean-Luc Godard , the bad boy of the French New Wave, loved a good car crash. And Mel Brooks loves sitting down with an erudite interviewer just as much as he loves a good fart joke. Together these auteurs climb the peaks and plumb the depths of this week’s High and Low with new DVD releases that belong on the shelf of any film lover who enjoys a good Marxist dialectic leavened with the occasional showtune-singing Nazi. HIGH: Weekend (The Criterion Collection; $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-Ray) WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: Written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Starring Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne, Juliet Berto. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: A fairly despicable bourgeois couple (Darc and Yanne), who are both cheating on and planning to kill each other, travel to the country to attempt to get money from the wife’s dying father, even if that involves patricide. They get stuck in a mammoth traffic jam and auto accident that appears to run the entire length of France. The further along they travel, the closer they seem to get to the end of civilization itself. WHY IT’S SCHMANCY: A brutal satire on capitalism that tests its audiences with repeated musical cues and a lengthy static shot of workmen eating sandwiches while the narrator goes off on a lengthy tangent about colonialism — the “I Am John Galt” speech for the far left — Weekend is one of Godard’s most daring and entertaining movies, with the always-provocative auteur throwing everything at the screen. (The film’s final title card declares “ fin du cinema .”) WHY YOU SHOULD BUY IT (AGAIN): Besides marking the film’s Blu-Ray debut, this Criterion release features a thicker-than-usual booklet with color artwork, an essay by Gary Indiana and excerpts from a 1969 Rolling Stone interview with Godard. There are also archival interviews with cast and crew members, excerpts from a French TV show about Godard that was filmed partially on the Weekend set by filmmaker Philippe Garrel, and other goodies. LOW: The Incredible Mel Brooks (Shout Factory; DVD/CD $89.93) WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: This five-DVD, one-CD collection features some of the many highlights of Mel Brooks’ career in film, television and recordings. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: This is one-stop shopping for fans of Melvin Kaminsky (Brooks’s given name). The set includes a five-part documentary about his filmmaking career ( Mel and His Movies ), interviews (vintage and contemporary) with Dick Cavett, hilarious appearances on The Tonight Show and Mad About You , episodes of programs he created ( Get Smart and When Things Were Rotten ), and much, much more. WHY IT’S FUN: This compilation makes it into “Low” only because Brooks himself famously noted that his work “rises beneath vulgarity.” But while he’s always been a rule-breaker — has anyone dared to satirize racism as sharply and hilariously as Brooks did in Blazing Saddles ? — his comic genius has made him an icon of 20th-century popular culture. WHY YOU SHOULD OWN IT: Like Shout Factory’s recent box set of Steve Martin’s television work, this is a meticulously curated collection of an extraordinary artist. (Where else are you going to find a 60 Minutes segment on the same DVD collection as sketches from The Electric Company and vintage Mad Men –era TV spots directed by Brooks before he took his vision to the big screen?) In addition to all the digital treats, there are also essays by Leonard Maltin, Gene Wilder and Bruce Jay Friedman. Here’s as good a glimpse into the wonderfully warped mind of a director-writer-actor-producer-songwriter as you’re probably ever going to find. Alonso Duralde has written about film for The Wrap, Salon and MSNBC.com . He also co-hosts the Linoleum Knife podcast and regularly appears on What the Flick?! (The Young Turks Network) . He is a senior programmer for the Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles and a pre-screener for the Sundance Film Festival. He also the author of two books: Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas (Limelight Editions) and 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men (Advocate Books). Follow Alonso Duralde on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Bradley Cooper says it wasn’t a stretch to call Robert De Niro “Dad” in Silver Linings Playbook . The Hangover actor plays Pat Solitano, the bipolar son of De Niro’s extremely OCD Pat Solitano, Sr. in the film, and at the New York premiere party , Cooper told us that his prior working relationship with De Niro on Limitless , which blossomed into a friendship, made it easy to channel that familial bond with the Taxi Driver actor. At a press conference for the movie earlier that day, Cooper, who lost his actual father in 2011, told the gathered media that he had trepidations about playing the role of a Philadelphia area man struggling with bipolar disorder. “He really did champion me” to get the part, Cooper said of De Niro, adding that he decided to take the role, in part, because, “I knew that I could say ‘Dad’ and look at him and it would come from a real place.” During the party at the Royalton hotel in midtown Manhattan, I asked Cooper to elaborate upon that comment, and he replied that because of his work with De Niro on their last movie, “We sort of became great friends,” adding: “I love him.” That relationship, he explained, became “a real bonus” when it came to the onscreen dynamic of the two actors in Silver Linings Playbook . With any movie role, Cooper explained, “You need certain anchors, and when I would say say the word ‘Dad’ to him, it just felt very deep and grounded.” In the David O. Russell -directed movie, De Niro gives his most authentic performance as a father since he directed himself in the 1993 picture A Bronx Tale . He even weeps in the movie — an unscripted moment that was caught on the last take of a highly charged scene shot in the attic of the Solitano family home. Russell, who, during the press conference, repeatedly referred to the veteran actor as “Mr. De Niro,” said the emotional moment caught him completely off-guard. “I was behind him in the attic going, ‘What’s happening?'” the director recalled. Russell’s son, Matthew, who plays a nosy teen-aged neighbor with a video camera, struggled with a different emotion while shooting a confrontational scene with De Niro: nervous laughter. The director recalled at the press conference that his son said to him that acting opposite De Niro ” was like waking up in Raging Bull . ” Russell said that he chided his son for the inappropriate outburst, telling him, “You’ve got to stop laughing.” But De Niro, he added, figured out a way to work with Matthew’s anxious laughter to ratchet up tension in the scene. Silver Linings Playbook opens in limited release on Friday. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The 23rd James Bond film lived up to its lofty hopes at the box office, continuing its stellar run Stateside after scoring hundreds of millions overseas including the U.K. where it opened theatrically late last month. The third 007 feature starring Daniel Craig grossed $87.8 million plus $2.2 million from Thursday night IMAX screenings. Skyfall ‘s total pushed the box office’s top 10 to over $159.1 million. Wreck-It Ralph placed second after debuting atop the box office last weekend. Steven Spielberg ‘s anticipated Lincoln , meanwhile opened in limited release at just 11 theaters with a stunning $81,800 per screen average. It should easily be in the upper echelon if not the top grossing film next week when it goes wide. 1. Skyfall Gross: $87.8 million (Cume: $90 million) Screens: 3,505 (PSA: $25,050) Week: 1 Skyfall stole the box office over the weekend with the highest grossing Bond opening in the franchise’s fifty year history. Quantam of Solace opened with $67.5 million which was the previous record. The latest film’s was also double Casino Royale ‘s $40.8 million debut which was the current 007, Daniel Craig’s, first turn as the dashing British operative. In addition to this weekend’s $90 million take, it has grossed $428.6 million worldwide. 2. Wreck-It Ralph Gross: $33,056,000 (Cume: $93,690,000) Screens: 3,752 (PSA: $8,810) Week: 2 (Change: – 32.6%) The pic dropped one spot in its second weekend, remaining in the same number of theaters in its second round. Last weekend it debuted with a $13,070 screen average. With momentum going its way, a $200 million gross is not out of the question. 3. Flight Gross: 15.1 million (Cume: $47,770,299) Screens: 2,047 (PSA: $7,377) Week: 2 (Change: – 39.4%) The film, which debuted at the New York Film Festival last month dropped almost 40% added 163 theaters in its second weekend and remained third in the overall box office chart. Flight ‘s total compares to star Denzel Washington’s $41.9 million total for the 2010 thriller Unstoppable at this point in its release. That film ended up at $81 million. 4. Argo Gross: $6,745,000 (Cume: $85,710,958) Screens: 2,763 (PSA: $2,441) Week: 5 (Change: – 33.9%) The Ben Affleck-directed film held solid in its first month with only incremental declines week to week. This time, it had its most sizable drop. Still, it has held on and in 11 less theaters than last week and it dropped one spot. 5. Taken 2 Gross: $4 million (Cume: $131.2 million) Screens: 2,487 (PSA: $1,608) Week: 6 (Change: – 32.4%) The feature topped the box office in its early October debut, but then skidded heavily in its second weekend. Since then it dropped less severely though its sixth weekend drop at nearly 33% compares to the previous weekend’s 23% decline. Still, the film placed fifth as did last week with 152 less locations. 6. Here Comes the Boom Gross: $2.55 million (Cume: $39,061,095) Screens: 2,044 (PSA: $1,248) Week: 5 (Change: – 27.7%) The pic dropped 270 screens from the previous weekend, though its nearly 28% drop shows the movie is holding solidly going into its second month in release. 7. Cloud Atlas Gross: $2,525,000 (Cume: $22,711,706) Screens: 2,023 (PSA: $1,248) Week: 3 (Change: – 53.1%) The film debuted with a $9.6 million gross, but fell 44% in its second weekend and a much steeper 53% drop in the third. Its reported $100 million production budget will be a huge loss for sources that invested in this ‘independently produced’ feature, which will struggle to top out at $30 million. 8. Pitch Perfect Gross: $2,503,800 (Cume: $59,030,443) Screens: 1,391 (PSA: $1,800) Week: 7 (Change: – 18.3%) The film’s $17 million budget has been more than tripled in the box office. Pitch Perfect dropped only 18.3% after dropping 111 locations from the previous weekend. 9. The Man With The Iron Fists Gross: $2,489,760 (Cume: $12,718,085) Screens: 1,872 (PSA: $1,330) Week: 2 (Change: – 68.5%) Ouch, the title added four locations but dropped a stunning 68.5% and dropped five spots from its opening. Still the pic’s $15 million budget should handily be made up, minus P&A. 10 Hotel Transylvania Gross: $2,350,000 (Cume: $140.9 million) Screens: 2,566 (PSA: $916) Week: 7 (Change: – 46.7%) The animated pic lost 356 theaters vs last weekend. Worldwide, the feature has grossed over $270.4 million. Not bad for an $85 million budget. It has been losing momentum, but it may cross $150 million before all is said and done. [ Sources: Rentrak, Box Office Mojo ]
Lincoln took the spotlight at a rainy premiere Thursday night, closing out AFI Fest 2012. But whispers of Star Wars made their way to the red carpet. Steve Spielberg , however, took the speculation head-on, saying he won’t direct any future Star Wars installments. The long-time colleague and friend of George Lucas gave an emphatic negative about possibly taking on directing the planned Episode 7 , set for 2015. “No, no!” he told Access Hollywood at the Lincoln event. “It’s not my genre. It’s my best friend George’s genre.” Furthermore, he said he’s no longer interested in action-pics (though he has signed on for Sci-Fi thriller Robopocalypse post- Lincoln ). “I knew I could do the action in my sleep at this point in my career,” he said. “In my life, the action doesn’t hold any … it doesn’t attract me any more,” he said recently on 60 Minutes . Star Wars will return courtesy of the sale of Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company for $4.05 billion, which promptly said it will launch a new installment in the huge franchise in 2015 and that a Star Wars 8 and 9 are also on tap. But just how much Lucas will oversee the next Star Wars movies is still a matter of speculation. He said in the official statement about Lucasfilms’ sale that it’s “…Now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.” He also said recently at a post-sale event that he’d like to do “little personal films” going forward and that he’s turning the ship over to another long-time collaborator. “I’ve turned it over to a wonderful producer, Kathy Kennedy, and I’ve known her for years,” he said. “She’s more than capable of taking it and making it better than I did.” He added, “It’s very sad. It’s 40 years of work and it’s been my life, but I’m ready to move on to bigger and better things.” [ Source: Access Hollywood ]
The people behind The Hobbit are no fans of what they perceive as imitators. Warner Bros., New Line Cinema and MGM as well as Hobbit producer Saul Zaentz are taking backers of low-budget pic Age of the Hobbits for trademark infringement. The plaintiffs say that movie label The Asylum, which is behind a slate of “mock-busters” that spoof Hollywood movies, is “free-riding on the marketing campaign of Peter Jackson’s upcoming string of Hobbit pics, beginning next month with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey . Producers of the Jackson film called Age of the Hobbits an “international and willful attempt to trade on the popularity and goodwill” of the filmmaker’s The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, according to BBC. And producers are not looking for any compromise either. They are asking for all “infringing and ad materials and packaging for The Asylum’s Hobbit to be destroyed, claiming it may “divert customers and potential customers away from the Hobbit films.” The Zaentz Co which controls the trademark rights to the Tolkien book has also threatened legal action. Age of the Hobbits is due for a DVD and online release December 11th, just three days before the U.S. opening of Jackson’s Hobbit . “Age of the Hobbits is about the real-life human subspecies, Homo Floresiensis, discovered in 2003 in Indonesia, which have been uniformly referred to as ‘Hobbits’ in the scientific community,” noted Asylum in a statement, adding that it is therefore “protected under the legal doctrines of nominal and traditional fair use.” Aylum also said a Google search of ‘hobbits’ and archaeology would turn up a dozen of disparate articles. Asylum’s previous “mock-busters” include Transmorphers , based on Michael Bay’s big budget movie Transformers , and The Da Vinci Treasure , which took its name from The Da Vinci Code , directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks. [Source: BBC ]
Well, maybe Brad Pitt won’t save all of us. As you can see in the first full trailer for Marc Forster’s big-budget action pic World War Z (via Apple), a few billion Earthlings will kick the bucket (but will probably reanimate, so there’s that) when the undead rise against us. Watch the trailer to get a look at Pitt’s shaggy-maned family man hero, who must to leave his wife (Mireille Enos) and their kids to go fight the zombie apocalypse for the sake of humanity in next summer’s World War Z . Head to Apple for the trailer debut. The full trailer has me breathing a sigh of relief after this week’s rather underwhelming trailer tease ; I can get used to World War Z ‘s superfast undead swarms, pouring through streets and leaping like lemmings off of buildings chasing desperately after Pitt’s delicious, delicious body. I mean brain. Or whatever these zombies eat. It must be high in protein to keep this kind of zombie metabolism going. Despite the departures from the book that will have lit fans up in arms, and the vaguely I Am Legend / War of the Worlds vibe this gives off, World War Z has me excited to see Pitt as an action hero. And how great is it that he’s doing a rare action turn while looking like a long-haired crunchy hippie dad? World War Z hits theaters June 21, 2013. How’s it look to you, Movieliners? Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
In his half-century of cinematic existence, James Bond has been cast and recast, refined, reinvented and rebooted. He’s been declared a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur” and gotten his heart broken, and he’s been dragged into the present, where he’s had to find a new perch somewhere between gritty and ridiculous, between being a stoic modern action hero and a deliberately outsized fantasy remnant of, as one unamused minister puts it in Skyfall , a long gone “golden age of espionage.” Skyfall is American Beauty director Sam Mendes ‘ first turn at the wheel of this venerable spy franchise, and he and screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan have managed what feels like the best possible thing that could have happened to Bond: They’ve made him fun again. When Daniel Craig was put in the lead role and the character was brought back to his beginnings in Casino Royale , it brought a vividly contemporary jolt to the character — this Bond wasn’t going to be off gathering information on al-Qaeda or anything, but his job was just as likely to involve messy killings as suave seductions, and the possibility of death and pain were much more real. It was a welcome revamp, if one that shifted the films into the orbit of the Bourne trilogy and risked stripping them of an essential element of Bond-ness. Chilly, rough-edged and not yet settled into his place at MI6, Craig’s Bond was a little busy with love and revenge to make quips. In Skyfall , Bond is literally reborn. During a mission-gone-wrong, he takes a hit that leaves everyone thinking he’s dead. It’s a misconception he’s happy to let stand while he takes a potentially permanent sabbatical involving beachside booze, sex and brooding over a vague sense of betrayal. He’s lured back by an attack on MI6 and on M ( Judi Dench ) masterminded by a computer genius named Silva (a terribly entertaining and menacingly flirtatious Javier Bardem). Bond ends his retirement because he knows he’s needed. And, oh, he is. Skyfall acknowledges that Bond isn’t a paragon of physical or martial arts perfection, or technologically savvy. In contrast to the newly minted agent he played in Casino Royale, he’s an old hand in this film, neither the fastest nor the youngest but still the best. Skyfall acknowledges our need for some humanity in Bond without overloading him with angst. The film fondly brings back familiar franchise elements, including an entertainingly young Q (a sly Ben Whishaw) and another character whose reveal is best left discovered, along with an exotically beautiful paramour named Sévérine (Bérénice Marlohe) who’s part victim and part femme fatale. Bond gets fewer silly gadgets these days, but he does have his awesomely fly car and a customized gun. And though he travels to such exotic locations as Shanghai, Macau and Istanbul, he also spends an unprecedented amount of time in his homeland, where he reintegrates himself with MI6, which is under political scrutiny, and returns to his native Scotland where a just-enough sliver of backstory is revealed. Skyfall makes explicit that Bond is a child of the United Kingdom. His only consistent relationship is with his country, even though that country is willing to sacrifice him for the greater good should it be necessary. It’s why, despite Bond’s dalliances with Sévérine and fellow field agent Eve (Naomie Harris), the film’s true Bond girl is M. The MI6 director’s complicated role as stern taskmaster and surrogate maternal figure gets played out as Silva, who shares a past with M, targets her and Bond tries to protect her. Like Bond, M is as much a concept as a character, but, beneath their bickering, Dench and Craig find a credible tenderness that suggests their is immense mutual affection behind the bone-dry sniping. Mendes isn’t an exceptional director of action, and many of the set pieces are lavish and forgettable. The car chases through crowded streets and pursuits across rooftops look a lot like other blockbuster sequences that recently graced screens. He’s better with character interactions and small touches: Bond straightening his cuffs after an improbable landing in a train; Bond watching a foe face a Komodo dragon and book-ending his adventure with unwilling dips in bodies of water. Working with the great cinematographer Roger Deakins, Mendes also presents some stunning sequences of beauty in a film where you might not expect such a thing. A fight high atop a Shanghai skyscraper takes place in the dark against the neon advertising backdrop of a shifting jellyfish projected on the building’s glass skin and ends with Bond meeting the gaze of someone in the building across the way, hundreds of feet up. Silva’s high-tech lair is set on an island that’s home to an abandoned city, while MI6 retreats with all its sleek gear to a historical location deep in London. The old and the new, the past and the ever-accelerating present — despite the body count, it’s not death that Bond has to worry about, it’s remaining recognizable and relevant. Skyfall manages to balance both in an uncommonly entertaining fashion. Related: Check out Movieline’s extensive coverage of Skyfall and the 50th anniversary of James Bond here. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
In his half-century of cinematic existence, James Bond has been cast and recast, refined, reinvented and rebooted. He’s been declared a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur” and gotten his heart broken, and he’s been dragged into the present, where he’s had to find a new perch somewhere between gritty and ridiculous, between being a stoic modern action hero and a deliberately outsized fantasy remnant of, as one unamused minister puts it in Skyfall , a long gone “golden age of espionage.” Skyfall is American Beauty director Sam Mendes ‘ first turn at the wheel of this venerable spy franchise, and he and screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan have managed what feels like the best possible thing that could have happened to Bond: They’ve made him fun again. When Daniel Craig was put in the lead role and the character was brought back to his beginnings in Casino Royale , it brought a vividly contemporary jolt to the character — this Bond wasn’t going to be off gathering information on al-Qaeda or anything, but his job was just as likely to involve messy killings as suave seductions, and the possibility of death and pain were much more real. It was a welcome revamp, if one that shifted the films into the orbit of the Bourne trilogy and risked stripping them of an essential element of Bond-ness. Chilly, rough-edged and not yet settled into his place at MI6, Craig’s Bond was a little busy with love and revenge to make quips. In Skyfall , Bond is literally reborn. During a mission-gone-wrong, he takes a hit that leaves everyone thinking he’s dead. It’s a misconception he’s happy to let stand while he takes a potentially permanent sabbatical involving beachside booze, sex and brooding over a vague sense of betrayal. He’s lured back by an attack on MI6 and on M ( Judi Dench ) masterminded by a computer genius named Silva (a terribly entertaining and menacingly flirtatious Javier Bardem). Bond ends his retirement because he knows he’s needed. And, oh, he is. Skyfall acknowledges that Bond isn’t a paragon of physical or martial arts perfection, or technologically savvy. In contrast to the newly minted agent he played in Casino Royale, he’s an old hand in this film, neither the fastest nor the youngest but still the best. Skyfall acknowledges our need for some humanity in Bond without overloading him with angst. The film fondly brings back familiar franchise elements, including an entertainingly young Q (a sly Ben Whishaw) and another character whose reveal is best left discovered, along with an exotically beautiful paramour named Sévérine (Bérénice Marlohe) who’s part victim and part femme fatale. Bond gets fewer silly gadgets these days, but he does have his awesomely fly car and a customized gun. And though he travels to such exotic locations as Shanghai, Macau and Istanbul, he also spends an unprecedented amount of time in his homeland, where he reintegrates himself with MI6, which is under political scrutiny, and returns to his native Scotland where a just-enough sliver of backstory is revealed. Skyfall makes explicit that Bond is a child of the United Kingdom. His only consistent relationship is with his country, even though that country is willing to sacrifice him for the greater good should it be necessary. It’s why, despite Bond’s dalliances with Sévérine and fellow field agent Eve (Naomie Harris), the film’s true Bond girl is M. The MI6 director’s complicated role as stern taskmaster and surrogate maternal figure gets played out as Silva, who shares a past with M, targets her and Bond tries to protect her. Like Bond, M is as much a concept as a character, but, beneath their bickering, Dench and Craig find a credible tenderness that suggests their is immense mutual affection behind the bone-dry sniping. Mendes isn’t an exceptional director of action, and many of the set pieces are lavish and forgettable. The car chases through crowded streets and pursuits across rooftops look a lot like other blockbuster sequences that recently graced screens. He’s better with character interactions and small touches: Bond straightening his cuffs after an improbable landing in a train; Bond watching a foe face a Komodo dragon and book-ending his adventure with unwilling dips in bodies of water. Working with the great cinematographer Roger Deakins, Mendes also presents some stunning sequences of beauty in a film where you might not expect such a thing. A fight high atop a Shanghai skyscraper takes place in the dark against the neon advertising backdrop of a shifting jellyfish projected on the building’s glass skin and ends with Bond meeting the gaze of someone in the building across the way, hundreds of feet up. Silva’s high-tech lair is set on an island that’s home to an abandoned city, while MI6 retreats with all its sleek gear to a historical location deep in London. The old and the new, the past and the ever-accelerating present — despite the body count, it’s not death that Bond has to worry about, it’s remaining recognizable and relevant. Skyfall manages to balance both in an uncommonly entertaining fashion. Related: Check out Movieline’s extensive coverage of Skyfall and the 50th anniversary of James Bond here. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Also in a round-up of news briefs on this U.S. election day, Jared Leto is returning to acting with a Matthew McConaughey starrer; Jonathan Demme to be feted by Cinema Audio Society and Virginia Madsen starrer is headed to theaters. Long Time Gone Heads to Theaters The film by Sarah Siegel-Magness follows Augusta (Virginia Madsen), whose idyllic life in Connecticut is thrown into disarray when she discovers her husband’s extramarital affair. Augusta suffers a nervous breakdown after her husband leaves, and her good-hearted stoner son is determined to comfort her with the help of his estranged older brother (Zach Gilford) and live in girl-friend (Amanda Crew). Phase 4 Films picked up U.S. and Canadian rights to the feature and plans a Spring 2013 release. Around the ‘net… Nicolas Cage Expendables 3 Reports False, Says Sylvester Stallone Stallone said he has no knowledge of Cage joining Expendables 3 . Several news outlets reported yesterday that Stallone had confirmed Cage for the next Expendables 3 movie, citing either a Stallone fan Facebook page purporting to be the actor’s own or comments by Stallone that appeared in Spanish daily El Pais earlier this year, Deadline reports . Jared Leto Eyes Dallas Buyer’s Club He’ll join Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner in the AIDS drama by Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee. This will be his first time in front of the camera in three years, THR reports . Cinema Audio Society to Honor Jonathan Demme The filmmaker will receive the Cinema Audio Society Filmmaker Award at the 49th CAS Awards on February 16 at Millennium-Biltmore in Los Angeles. Demme’s career spans 40 years as a writer-director-producer, and his credits include The Silence Of The Lambs, Philadelphia, The Manchurian Candidate, Married To The Mob and Neil Young: Heart Of Gold , Deadline reports . Election Day Pick: For Spacious Sky And on this election night, check out short film For Spacious Sky on YouTube as you watch the returns. Inspired by actual events and set on Election Day 2008 against the sweeping landscape of rural America, For Spacious Sky is the inspiring story of three lost brothers finding their way back to each other – one from hate, one from addiction, and one from discrimination. Eli, an ex-con white supremacist struggling to start his life over, and Clay, a gay novelist, must set aside their differences for the day to bring their drug-addicted younger brother, Kevin, to rehab.
