Ahem! Billy Bob Thornton wants to clear something up: “I would never make a movie about my best friend, either, or any other ex of mine, or something. That’s not my bag. I don’t mind exposing myself, but I’m certainly not gonna make a movie about someone else. If she came to me, or any of my friends came to me, and said, ‘I would like for you to write a film about these experiences I’ve had,’ then I would consider that. But no — we don’t even know how that happened.” Alas. [ Vulture ]
Can’t wait for Sam Raimi’s star-studded, mega-budget Oz: The Great and Powerful ? How about a low-budget, modern-day twist on the L. Frank Baum classic featuring Dorothy as a children’s book author (and Kansas transplant, natch) in Manhattan and co-starring Lance Henriksen, Billy Boyd and Christopher Lloyd? Oh. Well anyway, here’s the latest on Dorothy and the Witches of Oz , the erstwhile little-seen mini-series that by all appearances this weekend should become a little-seen theatrical release. Writer-director Leigh Scott’s film reportedly has one of the more roundabout broadcast/distribution records of any recent movie (save for Margaret , perhaps), but will finally come to theaters Friday. By “theaters,” I mean ” four venues in Arizona ,” with three more to follow Feb. 24 in Kansas and Kentucky. The film itself, meanwhile, appears pretty deeply NYC-centric — because no one’s ever imposed that twist on the Oz legend before: It does kind of look better than This Means War , right? And in “glorious 2D”! Well-played, team. Arizona, you are in luck! [via Big Hollywood ]
The underdog candidate for this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, Undefeated is, fittingly, about an underdog sports team, a group of kids from an underfunded urban school for whom football provides some desperately needed structure as well as a possible route to a better life. There’s good reason the Weinstein Company reportedly coughed up seven figures for distribution and remake rights to the film — Undefeated is Friday Night Lights meets The Blind Side in nonfiction form, examining issues of class and race through the lens of its ragtag athletics program while also reinforcing American mythos of bootstrapping, hard work and community. Its triumphs are bittersweet, but they’re irresistible. That title isn’t literal, however; there are definite losses over the course of the single hard-fought, promising high school football season this film follows, and it’s still one of the best years the North Memphis Manassas Tigers have ever had. Bill Courtney is Undefeated ‘s center, a ruddy-faced, sweaty white guy who serves as volunteer coach at the mostly (if not entirely) black school. We first see him lecturing his team about how their ranks have been decimated by drop-outs, shootings and arrests: “Most coaches, that would be a career’s worth of crap to deal with. That sums up the last two weeks for me.” Bill has a family of his own and a flooring company to run, but coaching is his great love, and the depth of his investment in it and his sincere faith in the potential saving power of football make his gruff character easy to latch on to. He looks to be the closest thing most of the young men he works with have to a male authority figure in their lives, fathers out of the picture, and they latch on to his devotion and to the expectations he has of them with a quiet hunger. Undefeated also follows three of Courtney’s players through the year. The talented, good-natured O.C. Brown stands a good chance of getting a football scholarship if he can pulls his grades up. Montrail Brown, who goes by “Money,” is a good student working towards college until an injury on the field derails him and destroys his confidence. And Chavis Daniels arrives back on the team after a stint in juvie, and has alarming rage issues to manage. The Tigers have never won a playoff game, and they’re so underfunded that they used to raise money by traveling to play other schools for pay as an easy win. Over their season they face teams that are obviously more upscale (and ones whose racial make-up is very different) as well as teams that aren’t — one game against another Memphis school ends with the police on field shooing the boys back onto their bus to head off a potential brawl with the opposing school. Despite some early setbacks, the Tigers are having a good year, and as the team wends its way to a possible playoff spot the film starts to shine as it delves into the personal lives of its players. O.C. is going to become unrecruitable if his academics don’t improve, but tutors won’t go to the neighborhood where he lives with his grandmother, so another (white) coach takes him in a few days a week, O.C. moving into the coach’s comfy suburban set-up with his wife and kids. The matter-of-factness with which this and a later act of startling generosity are done make them heartwrenching, but also provide a reminder of how difficult things like paying for college or getting better at classwork can be without outside help. Money struggles to find motivation to keep going with school after a knee injury possibly ends his season, and flirts with dropping out. Chavis, the most haunting character, seems to have no filter on his emotions, rage seething up without warning and dissipating just as quickly. He chooses the number “0” for himself because he claims he has no sense, and has a clash with another player based on nothing at all. But he keeps coming back, gets off suspension, finds a place for himself on the team, realizing he needs football and has to change if he wants to be allowed to stay with it. “I’ll die for you tonight,” he tells Bill when he’s put in the game, and you believe him. Aside from what looked like a few technical snags in terms of color, Undefeated ‘s look is fluid and vital. It’s shot vérité style, but still finds moments for nods to studio magic — a circling camera around a hugging Bill and O.C. toward the end is unadulterated, completely effective Hollywood. Directed and edited by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin (the pair collaborated previously on 2008’s Last Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong ), the film finds romance in its images of the sport, from the boys walking off the field at sunset to the battles under the bright lights to a close-up that lingers on the Manassas temporary tattoo one player has fixed to his cheek. Undefeated doesn’t have the epic, years-spanning arc of Hoop Dreams , but it finds in its season some unfeigned resonance that, like tears during that final embrace on the field, can’t be eluded. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Band hits the studio on Valentine’s Day to begin sessions for follow-up to 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown. By James Montgomery Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong Photo: Rich Sancho/ MTV News While you were wasting time with flowers, candy and/or restraining orders on Valentine’s Day, Green Day were getting down to business, beginning sessions for a brand-new album. That’s according to frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, who broke the news (and a four-month Twitter hiatus) on his personal account Tuesday — and coined a rather amazing euphemism for recording in the process. “Happy Valentine’s Day!” he tweeted . “Officially started recording the new record today. It’s F— TIME!!!!” Yes, we’re aware “It’s F— Time” is also a song by Green Day’s side-project, the Foxboro Hot Tubs , though it works well in the recording context too, so we’re sticking with it. No word on just who Green Day have brought in to helm said f— time (an email to their publicist was not responded to by press time), but the sessions will bring forth the first studio album since the band’s 2009 effort 21st Century Breakdown. Last year, they played a secret show in California that included a reported 15 new songs, though it’s not known if those songs will make the new album. Of course, as any Green Day fan will surely tell you, Valentine’s Day also holds a rather significant place in the band’s lore: In 2003, the band recorded an entire album called Cigarettes and Valentines, though the master tapes were supposedly stolen, and the band decided to scrap the project in favor of the album that would reinvigorate their career: American Idiot. During the band’s 21st Century Breakdown world tour, they began working the title track from that lost album into their set list, and it made the cut for the 2011 live album, Awesome as F—. And with that, we’ve officially set a new record for most uses of the F-word in an MTV News story. History in the making, people! Are you excited for new Green Day music? Let us know in the comments! Related Photos The Evolution Of: Green Day Related Artists Green Day
Y’all already know how much we appreciate Idris Elba for his ruggedly handsome good looks, incredible swagger and British charm so when we had the chance to chat with him about his upcoming role in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance we jumped at it. Along with the film, we also spoke with Idris about his recent Golden Globes win and how he feels about the role race plays in Hollyweird. Check out our interview below: BOSSIP: You have an upcoming film, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance . Can you tell me about what role your character Moreau plays in the film? Idris Elba: The character is sort of a warrior for hire, he is a priest but he also rides motorcycles, he likes wine, and he’s a monk, but he gets sent on a mission to find the ghost rider in this film. When you meet him, that’s where he has been, he has been trying to find the ghostrider. It’s a fun character for me, a lot of action stuff, I got to dress up, eye color change and I look a little crazy in the film but, it was a lot of fun! BOSSIP: You recently did the Thor movie as well, so, you are getting these Marvel characters down. Do you have your eye on any other Marvel parts like maybe a black superhero? Idris Elba: Yea, Marvel is a huge. It’s interesting, because my characters Moreau and Heimdall are not really related but in my head and my personal space, I think that they are related. I have thought about playing another superhero, like maybe Luke Chase, would be an interesting one to go for. I don’t know, we will see, I think some comic films are good and some are not. I would rather make a superhero character that is really good from scratch than make one that no one is interested in seeing yet. Keep reading for more on Idris’ thoughts about race in Hollyweird… Continue reading →
“We don’t call ours stars ‘Fatty’ anymore, and studios don’t (officially) ban stars from Hollywood. But we do let stars take on our personal anxieties, and shun them when they fail to embody them in ways that please us. We blind ourselves to corporate machinations that allow individuals to take the fall, and we make it easy to associate outsized bodies with the grotesque. Libel laws are more stringent these days, and stars are, in general, more circumspect. But I’m still terrified by what humans are eager to believe of one another, especially when class, gender, and body size intersect.” [ The Hairpin ]
Dang she’s 13 already? Little Malia Obama is growing up and while her mom Michelle seems to accept it and respect her privacy, the FLOTUS says the Prez isn’t taking it so well. The morning after First Lady Michelle Obama appeared on “The Tonight Show,” she headed to the daytime TV circuit for a sit-down interview with “Rachael Ray” (weekdays on ABC). After the ladies discussed healthy cooking, the conversation turned to parenting, and Ray asked if 13-year-old Malia is currently allowed to date. Obama declined to give Ray an answer, citing her daughter’s privacy. “You know Rachael, one thing I’ve learned is that a 13-year-old wants nothing more than to not have her mother talk about her personal life on national TV. It’s like, ‘You said what?’” Unfazed, Ray plowed ahead, asking who would be the tougher parent for a potential suitor to please, when that time comes. “Barack pretends like he’s going to handle this so well when it happens … but it’s going to be fun to watch. It’s already fun to see him squirming when she puts on a dress and she’s got her hair down, and he’s trying to pretend like it’s cool, but he’s freaking out a little bit,” she answered, chuckling. Obama may have been referencing President Obama’s August interview with “Good Morning America,” when he told Robin Roberts that when his daughters got old enough to date, “I might invite [her date] over to the Oval Office, ask him for his GPA, find out what his intentions are in terms of career. Malia and Sasha, if you’re watching this, I’m just joking.” Aw isn’t that precious? But it’s probably okay to lighten up Dad, it’s not like Secret Service is gonna leave her alone. Source More On Bossip! TwitterFiles: Bin Laden’s Ex-Cutty Buddy Kola Boof Says She Rides Kimora Lee Simmons’ Husband Djimon Like A Wild African Animal! Big Papa The Swirl Edition: Has BILLIONAIRE Ted Turner Been Chopping Down RHOA’s Marlo Hampton And Sponsoring Her Lavish Lifestyle??? A Change Of Pace: 10 Upcoming Black Films That Have Absolutely NOTHING To Do With Tyler Perry!! Rain Men: A History Of Men Making It Rain…And Damn Near Ruining Their Lives At The Strip Club
He’s certainly no stranger to the world of entertainment, but Grammy-winning musician Common only recently began channeling his energies into acting. (His first film: Joe Carnahan ’s Smokin’ Aces ). And yet, relative newbie status be damned! The hip-hop veteran, currently seen on AMC’s Hell on Wheels , sat down last week with Movieline to discuss his Sundance pic LUV , a Baltimore-set family/gangster tale from director Sheldon Candis, and his goals for future greatness: “God willing, I’ll become one of the great actors of our day.” It was the first visit to Park City with a film for the self-professed “Sundance virgin,” marking a maturity in his developing acting career: Not only does Common lead the cast of LUV as Vincent, an ex-con shepherding his young nephew (standout newcomer Michael Rainey, Jr.) on a tour along the underbelly of Baltimore, he also earned his first producing credit on the indie production. Movieline queried Common on his filmmaking interests, how his acting career might affect his music, why the media fuss over Maya Angelou and his new record The Dreamer, The Believer was “disappointing,” and how he came to beef with rap upstart (and fellow Sundancer) Drake. How did you become involved with LUV in the first place? It came to me through my agent at the time, and he said it was a cool script, story was great, and he thought this character would be great for me. I read it and was like, I like the story and I know I could really do some things with this character – he’s a human being who’s just trying to do something in life, be somebody in life. I feel like that was a good thing for me to chase after as an actor, because so many people no matter what nationality or age group you are wants to be somebody and to achieve something in life. A friend of mine told me he thought it was like a street version of Pursuit of Happyness . [Laughs] I said ‘Ok, I’ll take that! I like that.’ Why was it important to also come onboard as producer? Once I was asked on as an actor I felt that I could bring some things as a producer, helping to bring cast members and give my creative input and just be in support of Sheldon, the director. It was one of those things where I could network to help bring in more cast members. That can be key to helping many small scale movies get made. Yes – get made, get seen, get attention… and to get a great cast, to make it quality. Who were some of the cast members you helped bring onboard? For me, Michael K. Williams… And he brings an interesting Baltimore connection to the film! Yeah, exactly! We thought it was so great to get him to play a cop instead of a street guy. And a sensitive cop at that – he has a great moment with [eleven-year-old] Michael Rainey Jr. in the film. Yeah! Michael Rainey Jr. is great. This guy is special. We were seeking him out. He’s a special human being, and we searched in a lot of places. It was one of those things where a friend suggested somebody and Sheldon drove up to New York, was waiting in the lobby and met this kid and was like, ‘Man, we got the guy.’ I was really keen on having a little boy who could do everything. You two make quite the dapper pair together. Thanks! You know, even when we weren’t filming we were bonding. He’s a natural. This little guy can sing old rap songs, like Wu-Tang! Everything is probably so new and overwhelming, and he’s just grateful. Some scenes were shot under the gun, with really limited time to capture the best take. What was the experience like for you as an actor under those circumstances and having to find the magic in a moment like that? As much as I always want to do a take over, knowing you only have one or two takes – I like that pressure, too. The last scene, Michael and I were literally in the van at five in the morning and he was asleep, but you’re put in that position and you have to deliver. This is why, if you want greatness and want to be a great actor, you have to deliver when called upon. In those situations you’ve just got to get to the art of things, you’re there as an actor to bring these people to life so you can’t really worry about things. The sun is coming up and we’ve only got two takes and we won’t be able to do this again – you just go for it. It was fun, in a way, the adrenaline, and you have to use your creative minds and ideas. It’s similar to doing an art project, where you’re working with creative people and it’s not somebody who’s not a creative person trying to tell you what to do. So even if you make your mistakes, it’s okay – that’s a part of what art is. There’s something to be said of creativity borne of constraints. There is – literally our crew was doing things that, I mean, there would be scenes where we didn’t have the right amount of extras and one person from the neighborhood would just step in and be in the scene. So there were a lot of natural elements there that I think serve for making good movies. Sheldon wanted you to feel the world of Baltimore; you get real people from Baltimore and you don’t have to try to get them to have a Baltimore accent, they have the Baltimore energy. It’s just there. To me it’s like when you see The Departed or The Fighter , you’re in the world no matter what. Looking at your career overall, you have so many interests and pursuits these days. How do you feel your perspective on your music may be changing the more you immerse yourself in Hollywood and acting? I think my perspective on music becomes a lot more confident and free because the more I grow as an actor the more confident I become in my career. I believe in my career as an actor and it allows me to free up the pressure of doing an album that’s going to be the biggest selling album, or doing an album that has to fit into the format of what’s going on in music. And though I always would go into my own world to create albums, there’s even more of a liberty to create music because acting has shown me more freedom as an artist. Acting has helped me learn more about myself and to be not as inward, to have fun and not be so self-conscious. There’s also the dichotomy of the personal nature of your music vs. acting, in which you become somebody else… Yeah, you do. And when I first began acting I was like, ‘I love getting to be this other person because I get to express things that Rashid – Common – can’t express.’ That was one of the greatest joys about being able to become this other person, but again the way I do things is sometimes within the acting process you’re dealing with your own things. So that’s what I mean in saying you learn more about yourself, even just from acting classes. Acting classes for me were the incubation, the beginning, the seed that made me say ‘I want to act.’ I want to go to acting classes – I mean, obviously I’d rather do films or plays – but I enjoy acting classes, too. Many actors say that the validation is all in the act of doing the work. Yes, and for me obviously you learn certain things in classes and different techniques and you get better, but when you get on a movie set there are new things to learn, too. Like even just learning, ‘Okay, you’re waiting around for 8 hours and they call you do a scene – you’d better be ready.’ ‘Okay, the light broke right when you were in the middle and fired up – you’ve got to chill and get back to the scene.’ I’m looking forward to doing plays and television, too; I mean, I’m doing television with Hell on Wheels ! That’s a role that I’m really enthused about because that character gives me a lot to do. I can develop and evolve with it and I like the responsibility that I possess with that character, because to play an African American in that time is a responsibility. So many times we’ve seen black people from that time as being depicted as downtrodden and oppressed and beat down, and the character I play is strong, a leader, intelligent. In a random Sundance coincidence, both you and Drake are in town during this year’s festival. Can you explain your well-publicized beef with him? I mean, to be honest I feel I said everything I needed to say on the song. I looked at this whole thing as a part of hip-hop [culture], MCs battle sometimes. One person says this, another person says that. That’s what it’s been for me. So it was more of a fun thing for you? It was fun for me, and I’m not personally invested in it. It’s not like I feel anything toward him as a human being. It’s more like, ‘You said something about me? I’m in the boxing ring too, so I’m gonna let you know…’ He felt offended by a song I did, so then he did it. On that record that I did a verse about him, he said some things about me that were more subliminal but I knew they were about me. [Laughs] I just decided to be outward with it and to be direct, and to say, hey – if you’re going to throw some blows at me, I’m about to throw them back. I mean, it’s hip-hop. It’s interesting to see you, at this moment in your career of going forward in a relatively new direction into acting and at the same time reach back to your roots and to hip-hop battle culture. Yeah, it is a dichotomy but it’s also who I feel like I am as a human being. I’m also a warrior, too – I’m a peaceful person, but I’m an MC. I love MCing. God willing, I’ll become one of the great actors of our day. I want to grow to be that type of actor, but I still think I’ll be writing songs even if it’s for a jazz club crowd. You say that one day you hope to be one of the greatest actors, which tells me you’re constantly seeking improvement. How do you see yourself at this point in your acting evolution? Oh yes, definitely. I recognize that I’m a baby in terms of acting. It’s only been a few years; 2007 is when Smokin’ Aces came out. I know that I have a long way to go, but I want to go that way. I’m learning at each time I get a chance I get to do it, and I’m going to keep working to improve and keep working to grow. Do you feel that LUV was an important film in your growth as a performer? I feel like I learned a lot, and we had to shoot in such a short amount of time and in difficult situations. Every day getting new lines, coming up with stuff there. It’s hard to see it just one time to see if it was my best performance, but it may be because it was the performance where I had to do the most, and it had the most emotional depth to it. I played the lead in a romantic comedy, Just Wright , but I didn’t have as much to do. This time I had a lot to do, and I’m a lead. I actually think my character in Smokin’ Aces was a great character, I really loved that character and he had depth too, but he wasn’t a lead so you didn’t see him as much. What films are coming up next for you? I did this film called Pawn , an independent starring Michael Chiklis, Forest Whitaker, and Ray Liotta. It’s a cool suspense thriller about these people who hijack a diner, and I play a negotiator. I’m about to film this movie called Now You See Me , which stars Jesse Eisenberg and Isla Fisher and Michael Caine and Mark Ruffalo – I’d say it’s an action movie, about these magicians. It’s dope. I’m going down to film that soon. And I’m looking to do more great, quality films – independent, studio, action, drama, comedy, animated… and I’m promoting The Dreamer, The Believer , which is my new album. What was your reaction to the fuss made over Maya Angelou’s comments about that album? That was that journalist really twisting things, because basically she doesn’t condone the use of the n-word. She is aware that I use that word; she told me, ‘I would like for you not to use it,’ but she understands. She knows I’m going through a process, people go through a process. She participated in my album with her heart and soul, and the writer wrote something to try to cause dissension but [Angelou] came out publicly and said look, Common is like my son. I love him and I don’t condone the use of the word but you can’t separate or divide us. She was acknowledging that she was happy to be on the album. I really was disappointed, especially because in hip-hop that’s a really profound thing to have Maya Angelou performing on a hip-hop song. So it was kind of like, yo – let us have this. This is something that is great. This is someone who is living history on a hip-hop album. Let’s just enjoy the fact that we have an elder that wanted to participate in hip-hop, reaching out for us. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter . Get more of Movieline’s Sundance coverage here .
