This is lovely: Ridley Scott is executive producing the “self-portrait” doc Japan in a Day , in the crowd-sourced collected footage vein of Kevin MacDonald’s Life in a Day , to draw attention to and benefit the survivors of Japan’s devastating 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster. Fuji will donate 200 cameras to the project, which will cull from submissions uploaded to Youtube on March 11 with all profits reportedly going back to the victims. Now that’s how you show support , Hollywood. [ Deadline ]
Grains of salt at the ready! Twitchfilm is reporting that Harrison Ford is in “early talks” to join Ridley Scott’s proposed Blade Runner follow-up — you know, the one that will probably settle into the same limbo as every other rumored Ridley Scott film and which was previously described by its producer as a reboot, not a sequel. Nevertheless, let’s assume for a second that this is a movie that is actually in some phase of development with the nearly 70-year-old actor considering his involvement. And then let’s take all the gossip around a rumored fifth Indiana Jones film starring Ford at face value. I know it’s difficult, but play along: Which movie would you want less? “Neither” is not an option! These matters are too important to leave up to anything but democracy, so let’s put it to a vote: Which rumored Harrison Ford project do you want less?
In 1865, actor and Confederate loyalist John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in the balcony of Ford’s Theatre, committing one of the most notorious crimes in American history. In 2013, Fox News talking head Bill O’Reilly will team up with Tony and Ridley Scott for a two-hour National Geographic documentary exploring the events surrounding Lincoln’s death, adapted from Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever , co-written by O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. But with so many previous Lincoln assassination projects in the ether, what new ground can O’Reilly and the Scott brothers tread in Killing Lincoln ? Lincoln’s death, of course, was so violent, tragic, and significant an event that it inspired many a filmmaker over the years. D.W. Griffith made a film in 1930 — his second screen depiction of the act — entitled simply Abraham Lincoln , that examined the president’s life, taking a few creative liberties along the way. (You can watch it here in its entirety, if you’re so inclined.) In the same decade, John Ford made two movies with ties to Lincoln: The Prisoner of Shark Island , about the doctor who tended to Booth after the attack on Lincoln, and Young Mr. Lincoln , which focused on the future president’s career as a young lawyer. And as the decades went on, scores more depictions of Lincoln’s life and death were committed to celluloid as generation after generation of filmmakers sought to mine the event for the social and historical significance it bore to the shaping of America. Unfortunately, other attempts, like Robert Redford’s recent The Conspirator , proved downright snoozeworthy. Hence, it seems, O’Reilly and the Scott brothers’ attempt to jazz up the Lincoln saga with “feature-like re-enactments, rare historical archives and CGI.” CGI! O’Reilly and Dugard’s 2011 nonfiction book promised “history that reads like a thriller.” Set your DVRs for high intrigue at Ford’s Theatre! (And if that’s not enough Honest Abe for ya, there’s also Steven Spielberg ‘s Daniel Day-Lewis-starring Lincoln biopic and the promising Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter coming up later this year.) Regardless of how much adrenaline the O’Reilly factor pumps into recreating Booth’s dastardly attack in Killing Lincoln , I’m not sure it could stand up to the rollicking menace of this recreation, as seen in the major motion picture National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets : Or: Might it unearth new theories regarding what motivated Booth to pull the trigger, a la Family Guy ? In any case, there’s no way Killing Lincoln can capture the truth of the event quite like this sketch from The Whitest Kids U Know . I’m pretty sure this is totally historically accurate .
Traditionally a “guilty pleasure” is something you’d be embarrassed for the world to know you secretly enjoyed or for your Facebook friends to see you clicked on, but you know what? Around here we embrace the bad-to-godawful movies we love, and besides; what the heck does it even mean to like something ironically, you insufferable hipster? Toss away your pretentious hat, sit down in the circle of trust, take a deep breath, and join Movieline in unabashedly celebrating the inane, misguided, off-the-mark, and downright B-A-D but nevertheless shamelessly entertaining movies of the year – the Top 9 Not-So-Guilty Pleasures of 2011 . Because we all love some terrible things, don’t we?
Less than 24 hours after a messy-looking leak made the rounds, the first trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is officially in circulation. And from Michael Fassbender’s science projects to Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron running for their lives from seemingly any and every threat you can imagine, it is a doozy. That said, it goes by by pretty fast. Read on for shot-by-shot breakdown.
The trailer for Prometheus has arrived, and the latest space odyssey from director Ridley Scott ( Alien, Blade Runner ) looks like it may live up to its considerable hype. From this introductory look, the film bears some resemblance to Alien – not just with its stunning, otherworldly visuals, but its theme of desperation against rising odds. Many think the film is a prequel to Alien , a theory Scott denies, but it could be something of a companion piece, a film that exists in a parallel universe. Just a theory. Starring Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace, the film touches down in theaters summer 2012. Here’s the Prometheus trailer … Prometheus Trailer
If you’re both a movie fan and a consummate statistician, it’s easy to love and appreciate the Oscars for shoehorning the majority of film history into a manageable grading rubric. I’m an Oscar apologist myself, and I still have one bone to pick with the Academy — and all award-spewing organizations: the unnecessary reliance on gender-based categories. Is it not more thrilling to pit all actors against each other? Is there such an objective difference between Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock? Meryl Streep and Robert Downey Jr.? “Actor” is a gender-neutral term, and I think we’d all better off — and better entertained — without the meaningless siphoning. Thus, I’m stacking up the best performances of 2011 without categorical regard for gender or role size. It’s a winner-take-all affair, and this winner definitely wants it all. Here’s my top 10:
Earlier today 20th Century Fox unveiled a shiny new look at Michael Fassbender in Ridley Scott’s 2012 Alien related event pic Prometheus (via Empire ), all blond and space-suited. Exciting! As if that wasn’t enough to get your juices flowing, an unofficial version of the first trailer for the sci-fi thriller oozed onto the interwebs mere hours ago, and although it’s shaky-cammed with fuzzy audio and is even labeled “Leaked”… it’s kind of adrenaline-pumpingly awesome.
Ridley Scott has settled on a tagline for his pseudo-prequel to Alien , the star-studded June 2013 release Prometheus : “The Search For Our Beginning Could Lead To Our End.” Does that sound a little too much like the Breaking Dawn: Part I tag “Forever is Only the Beginning” to anyone? Both are Hallmarkian takes on mortality, which is a shame considering Prometheus should be one of the most original thrillers of next year. Its new poster, along with our musings thereon, follow.
Happy Friday! Also in today’s edition of The Broadsheet: Steven Soderbergh walks from U.N.C.L.E. … Angelina Jolie linked to the latest movie Ridley Scott will never make… I, Frankenstein casts its leading lady… The $775 million opening week… and more.
