Also in Wednesday morning’s round-up of news briefs, theater chains are OKing Peter Jackson ‘s Hobbit technology; Sundance Channel is developing programs by Robert Redford and Michael Fuchs; And the MPAA gives Obama a congratulations. MPAA Chief Chris Dodd Congratulates Barack Obama “I congratulate Barack Obama on his victory tonight. President Obama has demonstrated a great understanding of the importance of intellectual property to the fundamental strength of the American economy. In an era of partisan discord, there is bipartisan agreement that protecting American creativity and innovation is critical to our competitive edge in the global marketplace. I look forward to continuing to work closely with the Obama Administration to ensure the creative industries have every opportunity to thrive.” Around the ‘net… Theater Chains OK High Frame-Rate Hobbit Despite Format Challenges “Major exhibitors Regal and AMC lined up Tuesday to support Warner Bros. as it readies for the Dec. 14 U.S. release of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in the high frame rate of 48 frames per second. Meanwhile, the studio moves cautiously with its plans to introduce the theater technology, which has encountered a number of problems as it goes through a testing phase,” THR reports . Skyfall Results ‘Beyond Studio’s Wildest Dreams’ So far, Skyfall has exceeded the wildest dreams of even Eon, MGM and Sony, with a stunning £53.44m ($85.36 million) in just 10 days. Previously, no film had grossed £50m in 10 days in the UK. The final Harry Potter film managed an impressive £44.3m at that stage of its run, while Toy Story 3 stood at £39.8m after two weekends, The Guardian reports . Sundance Developing Dramas from Robert Redford, Michael Fuchs, More The AMC-owned network is developing five scripted dramas to join its legal entry from Oscar winner Ray McKinnon ( The Accountant ) hailing from producers including Sundance co-founder Robert Redford, THR reports . Donald Trump Has Twitter Meltdown After Election The Apprentice host said, “We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!” he wrote. “Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us. We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!” Other celebs reacted via Twitter, including Alec Baldwin who wrote: “You trust the voters when they choose The Apprentice . But not now?” Yahoo reports .
“Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place,” the molasses-and-whiskey voice of Sam Elliott says of The Dude in the Coen Brothers’ 1998 cult classic, The Big Lebowski . And thanks to filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig , the time and place for the actual Dude who inspired the Dude will span a good 40 years at least. The Atlantic today posted a link to The Dude (Director’s Cut) , a 2011 documentary (in its entirety) by Feuerzeig ( The Devil and Daniel Johnston , The Real Rocky ) that traces the history of Jeff Dowd, a 1960s antiwar activist-turned-independent-film-promoter, who not only inspired Jeff Bridges’ accidental philosopher character in The Big Lebowski but helped the Coen Brothers distribute their first film, Blood Simple , in the 1980s. Dowd’s first taste of notoriety came in 1970 when he made headlines as one of the “Seattle Seven” — members of the Seattle Liberation Front who were indicted on charges of inciting a riot at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle where 20 people were injured and 76 were arrested. (His arrest is cited in The Big Lebowski .) Dowd and his fellow defendants turned their fall trial into a media circus by hurling catcalls at the judge, and staging a courtroom walk-out. The judge eventually declared a mistrial but cited the Seattle Seven for contempt and they ultimately served three months in prison. In Feuerzeig’s film, Dowd also talks about how he landed in the film industry where he worked with Robert Redford on the embryonic stages of the Sundance Institute. According to IMDB, Dowd served as producer’s representative on Madonna’s breakthrough movie Desperately Seeking Susan and as a producer of the 1992 film Zebrahead . Check out Feuerzeig’s film and the real Dude below: THE DUDE (Director’s Cut) from Jeff Feuerzeig on Vimeo . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The Farce is still strong in Seth Green and Matt Senreich. The boy geniuses behind Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken series joined collaborator Todd Grimes at Star Wars Celebration VI on Friday to unveil footage of their new animated series Star Wars: Detours . IGN reports that the comedic CGI animated series — which depicts the very familiar Star Wars crew in “exaggerated Chibi/super deformed style” (translation for the uninitiated: small bodies, massive heads) — takes place in-between Episodes III and IV of George Lucas’ Star Wars canon and will focus on the what these characters do in their downtime. “Where do Gamorrean Guards grocery shop? Does Darth Vader do online dating? The answer is yes,” Grimes told the gathered Star Wars super fans. ” We answer all these things.” Among the footage fans saw was Obi-Wan using a Jedi Mind Trick on his audience after he bombs at stand-up comedy. (“That joke was hilarious and you all liked it.”) In another scene, Jar Jar Binks asked Dexter Jettster why everyone hates him and Jettster replies by asking the Gungan how honest he wants him to be. According to IGN, the Star Wars: Detours team did not announce a debut date or even if they’d been picked up by a TV network yet, but the site estimated that the show would probably bow in 2013. That sounds promising. Earlier this year , when I spoke to Star Wars creator George Lucas — who was working with Green and his team, on the show — he told me: “We just can’t get anybody to put it on the air” because, he explained, the show doesn’t fit into a neat demographic package. Check out the clips: [ IGN ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Most movies get a soundtrack after they’ve been filmed. Boyd Tinsley doesn’t work that way. On Aug. 30, the violinist for the Dave Matthews Band will premiere Faces in the Mirror a film that was shot after Tinsley and a group of musicians that included Matthews, other DMB members and the groups Maktub and The Silent Comedy. Tinsley, who produced and conceived of the film, tells me that he’s wanted to make a movie ever since the band shot the Dean Karr-directed video to the DMB’s 1997 hit “Crash Into Me.” In December 2008, he explained, he took the first step by going into a studio with a hand-picked group of musicians. He explained to the musical artists that he had a bare-bones concept for a story of a young man dealing with the death of his estranged father. “I knew there was a rift and the father and the son lost contact, but I didn’t know everything about the story,” Tinsley said. “I didn’t know how it ended.” Having expressed this rough outline, Tinsley said, “I told them, ‘Go into the room and play from the heart. Don’t let your head come into it.” The musicians recorded over the next five days, much of it in between sessions for DMB’s 2009 album Big Whiskey & The GrooGrux King. “Everything you hear on the soundtrack happened in the moment. Music just materialized,” Tinsley said. “Things happened that just don’t happen.” First timer Aaron Farrington directed the moody, lushly shot film that was adapted to the music. Ryan Orr plays Ben Fisher, an angry young man who returns home to bury his long-estranged father. On the day of his dad’s funeral, Ben finds himself on a trippy, stranger-guided journey to self-realization, forgiveness and possibly love. “It’s raw and it’s real,” says Tinsley who will take part in a post-premiere concert after Faces in the Mirror premieres in Seattle on Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Snagfilms.com will webcast the film. You can check out the exclusive clip of the film here . There’s also a sizzle reel for the film that includes footage of Tinsley performing . Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Also in Friday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, the New York Film Festival has unveiled plans for an inaugural Midnight sidebar and Transmedia program. Peter Strickland’s latest thriller is headed for U.S. theaters after screenings in Toronto and New York tests. Kodak announces departure from key photo biz areas and The Dark Knight Rises passes an international box office milestone. Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep Heading to U.S. Theaters Sony Pictures Classics has picked up U.S. rights to Redford’s feature which stars Shia LeBeouf, Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Terence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brit Marling, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, and Susan Sarandon. A thriller centered on a former Weather Underground activist who goes on the run from a journalist who has discovered his identity. It will screen at the upcoming Venice and Toronto film festivals. New York Film Festival to Host Midnight Movies and Convergence Program Thrillers will have a section to call home for the first time at the 50th New York Film Festival. The premieres of three films will take place at the festival which opens with Ang Lee’s Life of Pi September 28th. Barry Levinson’s The Bay , Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio and Outrage Beyond by Takeshi Kitano will screen in the festival which continues through October 14th. Additionally, Transmedia will get a two-day focus during the festival September 29 – 30. The event will host panels, workshops and “immersive experiences” designed to be an “intimate gathering for creators, designers, thinkers and fans.” For details on both events, visit The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s website . Peter Strickland’s Thriller Berberian Sound Studio Heads to U.S. Theaters The film stars Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco and Antonio Mancino about a sound engineer’s work at an Italian horror studio that becomes a case of life imitating art. The feature will screen at the upcoming Toronto and New York film festivals. ” Berberian Sound Studio is a dazzling cinematic tour-de-force that brings to mind Hitchcock,Argento and De Palma featuring a brilliant performance by Toby Jones,” said IFC/Sundance Selects president Jonathan Sehring about the film which genre label IFC Midnight will release at a later date. Around the ‘net… Sesame Street Puppeteer Jerry Nelson Dead at 78 He voiced Count von Count as well as many other beloved Sesame Street characters including Snuffleupagus, Sherlock Hemlock, Camilla the Chicken and Kermit’s nephew Robin. He also worked on several Muppet movies, Deadline reports . Kodak Set to Quit Camera Film and Photo Paper Business The announcement means an end to it making films for still cameras, photo papers, souvenir photo products at theme parks, scanners and picture print-out kiosks at stores. It would leave the business focused on printers, cinema film stock and chemicals, BBC reports . The Dark Knight Rises Passes $500M Overseas Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy finale has grossed $501.1 million overseas, making its worldwide total (when combined with almost $414 million in North America) to $915 million, Screen Daily reports .
“Obamacare.” “Romney Hood.” The political name-calling sounds like campaign season is well under-way (though does it ever end or begin?). The art of the possible will get a comical twist this weekend with the release of The Campaign , starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. The pic follows two rivals who clash in an election that will decide who will head to the U.S. Congress from their North Carolina district (Ferrell appears to even flash a not-so-subtle coif similar to former V.P. candidate John Edwards). The film, which opens this weekend, prompted ABC’s Political Punch reporter Jake Tapper to offer up his Top 10 political films of all-time (documentaries were excluded) and “political film” was kept to a narrow definition. See if you agree with this list and let the campaign begin. 10. In The Loop , directed by Armando Iannucci (2009) Starring Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi and James Gandolfini, the 2009 Sundance premiere is a satirical play on the build up to the war in Iraq and the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. In the film both countries are on the verge of launching a Middle Eastern war and the story follows a behind-the-scenes drama in which there are officials trying to promote armed action and those trying to stop it. A British government minister tells a radio interviewer that war may be inevitable, but is then shot down by the Prime Minister’s aide, played by Peter Capaldi. But then, the aide himself makes a further mistake saying there may be a need to “climb the mountain of conflict,” further muddying a delicate situation. 9. The Parallax View , directed by Alan J. Pakula (1974) Based on the 1970 novel by Loren Singer, Warren Beatty plays a newspaper reporter who takes on a dangerous investigation into a corporation that engages in political assassination. Presidential candidate Senator Charles Carroll (Bill Joyce) is assassinated atop the Space Needle in Seattle and one witness, journalist Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss) tells her former boyfriend, reporter Joe Frady (Beatty) that she believes there is more to the killing since six of the witnesses have died and she fears she may be next. The Parallax View is the third in director Alan J. Pakula’s political paranoia trilogy including Klute (1971) and All the President’s Men (1976) (and also the only one not to receive an Oscar nomination or win). 8. Z , directed by Costa Gavras (1969) Also based on a novel, this time the 1966 book of the same title by Vassilis Vassilikos, the French political thriller is a vaguely fictionalized take on the events around the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant as an investigator, the film combines dark humor and a satirical view of politics though it managed to be the 10th highest-grossing film of the year in the U.S. in 1969. It also received both an Oscar-nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture. 7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb , directed by Stanley Kubrick (1964) Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden this black comedy takes on the nuclear scare and the Cold War. Based on Peter George’s novel Red Alert , the story revolves around a rogue U.S. Air Force general who orders a nuclear assault on the Soviet Union. The President of the United States and his staff as well as a Royal Air Force officer attempt to return the planes as they head to deliver their apocalyptic payload, while separately the film follows the crew on one of the planes as it heads to its target. The U.S. Library of Congress called Dr. Strangelove “Culturally Significant” in 1989 and is preserved in the National Film Registry. 6. Bananas , directed by Woody Allen (1971) South American politics take the focus in this comedy in which Allen stars with Louise Lasser and Carlos Montalban. Allen plays Fielding Mellish, a bumbling blue collar guy who wants to impress his activist love interest Nancy (Lasser) by getting involved in a revolution in a fictional South American country. He shows concern for the locals, but after he’s nearly killed by a military chief, he is saved by the revolutionaries and he finds himself in their debt. Soon, he learns to be a revolutionary himself, but when the revolt succeeds and their Castro-esque leader goes mad, he inadvertently finds himself as their new top figure. Back in the U.S., he faces trial and he reunites with his love… 5. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , directed by Frank Capra (1939) This classic has shown up on lists throughout the decades. Starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart and based on an unpublished story by Lewis R. Foster, the film proved a controversy when it was released back in ’39, but received 11 Academy Award nominations and a win for Best Original Story. The story revolves around an unnamed Western governor who by chance chooses Jefferson Smith (Stewart) to serve out a term in the U.S. Senate following the death of the sitting incumbent. The governor believes he’ll be able to manipulate the naive Smith. His good intentions soon collide with an apparatus of political corruption and then all hell breaks loose. 4. Charlie Wilson’s War , directed by Mike Nichols (2007) Aaron Sorkin adapted for the screenplay based on a true story by George Crile III’s 2003 book Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History . The drama recounts how U.S. congressman Charlie Wilson, a Texas Democrat, played by Tom Hanks, teamed up with the C.I.A. to support the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Also starring Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman along with Amy Adams, Ned Beatty and Emily Blunt, Wilson’s political maneuvering and his allies in the spy agency’s Afghanistan task force results in the mujahideen being armed to the teeth complete with stinger missiles which can shoot down Soviet choppers. The result is a Soviet quagmire and ultimately a triumph for the mujahideen, but the unintended consequences imply an unwieldy Afghanistan that was left to fend for itself after the Soviet withdrawal. 3. Wag the Dog , directed by Barry Levinson (1997) This film came out before the Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, though the film is often identified with it. The black comedy stars Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro about a Washington spin-master who hires a Hollywood producer to create a fake war with Albania (of all places) in order to distract the electorate with a sex scandal just days before a presidential election. The caption at the beginning of the film says it all: “Why does the dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.” 2. All the President’s Men (1976) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein The 1976 Oscar-winning political thriller is based on the non-fiction work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, better known as the The Washington Post journalists who blew the lid off the Watergate scandal. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Woodward and Bernstein respectively. The crisis that ensued ended in the resignation of President Nixon, the first U.S. head of state to resign and the subsequent inauguration of Vice President Ford in 1974. 1. The Candidate , directed by Michael Ritchie (1972) Robert Redford also stars in this film about an unlikely and idealistic Democratic candidate from California. Bill McKay (Redford) is initially more interested in espousing his liberal views publicly than winning and decides to take to the campaign trail to vocalize his opinion since his challenger, the incumbent Republican is a given as the victor. McKay wins the party nomination, but then finds out he’s likely to be overwhelmingly trounced in the election. He figured he’d lose, but not by such a humiliating margin. So, in order to avoid embarrassment, he broadens his appeal by dousing his ardently liberal message resulting in a rise in the polls. He also appeals for his father’s help (a former governor) to endorse him since the media is speculating that his silence is a tacit thumbs up to the opposition. As the debate looms, more compromises are made and the result entrenches McKay in the political establishment. [ Sources: ABC News , Wikipedia ]
“Obamacare.” “Romney Hood.” The political name-calling sounds like campaign season is well under-way (though does it ever end or begin?). The art of the possible will get a comical twist this weekend with the release of The Campaign , starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. The pic follows two rivals who clash in an election that will decide who will head to the U.S. Congress from their North Carolina district (Ferrell appears to even flash a not-so-subtle coif similar to former V.P. candidate John Edwards). The film, which opens this weekend, prompted ABC’s Political Punch reporter Jake Tapper to offer up his Top 10 political films of all-time (documentaries were excluded) and “political film” was kept to a narrow definition. See if you agree with this list and let the campaign begin. 10. In The Loop , directed by Armando Iannucci (2009) Starring Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi and James Gandolfini, the 2009 Sundance premiere is a satirical play on the build up to the war in Iraq and the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. In the film both countries are on the verge of launching a Middle Eastern war and the story follows a behind-the-scenes drama in which there are officials trying to promote armed action and those trying to stop it. A British government minister tells a radio interviewer that war may be inevitable, but is then shot down by the Prime Minister’s aide, played by Peter Capaldi. But then, the aide himself makes a further mistake saying there may be a need to “climb the mountain of conflict,” further muddying a delicate situation. 9. The Parallax View , directed by Alan J. Pakula (1974) Based on the 1970 novel by Loren Singer, Warren Beatty plays a newspaper reporter who takes on a dangerous investigation into a corporation that engages in political assassination. Presidential candidate Senator Charles Carroll (Bill Joyce) is assassinated atop the Space Needle in Seattle and one witness, journalist Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss) tells her former boyfriend, reporter Joe Frady (Beatty) that she believes there is more to the killing since six of the witnesses have died and she fears she may be next. The Parallax View is the third in director Alan J. Pakula’s political paranoia trilogy including Klute (1971) and All the President’s Men (1976) (and also the only one not to receive an Oscar nomination or win). 8. Z , directed by Costa Gavras (1969) Also based on a novel, this time the 1966 book of the same title by Vassilis Vassilikos, the French political thriller is a vaguely fictionalized take on the events around the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant as an investigator, the film combines dark humor and a satirical view of politics though it managed to be the 10th highest-grossing film of the year in the U.S. in 1969. It also received both an Oscar-nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture. 7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb , directed by Stanley Kubrick (1964) Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden this black comedy takes on the nuclear scare and the Cold War. Based on Peter George’s novel Red Alert , the story revolves around a rogue U.S. Air Force general who orders a nuclear assault on the Soviet Union. The President of the United States and his staff as well as a Royal Air Force officer attempt to return the planes as they head to deliver their apocalyptic payload, while separately the film follows the crew on one of the planes as it heads to its target. The U.S. Library of Congress called Dr. Strangelove “Culturally Significant” in 1989 and is preserved in the National Film Registry. 6. Bananas , directed by Woody Allen (1971) South American politics take the focus in this comedy in which Allen stars with Louise Lasser and Carlos Montalban. Allen plays Fielding Mellish, a bumbling blue collar guy who wants to impress his activist love interest Nancy (Lasser) by getting involved in a revolution in a fictional South American country. He shows concern for the locals, but after he’s nearly killed by a military chief, he is saved by the revolutionaries and he finds himself in their debt. Soon, he learns to be a revolutionary himself, but when the revolt succeeds and their Castro-esque leader goes mad, he inadvertently finds himself as their new top figure. Back in the U.S., he faces trial and he reunites with his love… 5. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , directed by Frank Capra (1939) This classic has shown up on lists throughout the decades. Starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart and based on an unpublished story by Lewis R. Foster, the film proved a controversy when it was released back in ’39, but received 11 Academy Award nominations and a win for Best Original Story. The story revolves around an unnamed Western governor who by chance chooses Jefferson Smith (Stewart) to serve out a term in the U.S. Senate following the death of the sitting incumbent. The governor believes he’ll be able to manipulate the naive Smith. His good intentions soon collide with an apparatus of political corruption and then all hell breaks loose. 4. Charlie Wilson’s War , directed by Mike Nichols (2007) Aaron Sorkin adapted for the screenplay based on a true story by George Crile III’s 2003 book Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History . The drama recounts how U.S. congressman Charlie Wilson, a Texas Democrat, played by Tom Hanks, teamed up with the C.I.A. to support the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Also starring Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman along with Amy Adams, Ned Beatty and Emily Blunt, Wilson’s political maneuvering and his allies in the spy agency’s Afghanistan task force results in the mujahideen being armed to the teeth complete with stinger missiles which can shoot down Soviet choppers. The result is a Soviet quagmire and ultimately a triumph for the mujahideen, but the unintended consequences imply an unwieldy Afghanistan that was left to fend for itself after the Soviet withdrawal. 3. Wag the Dog , directed by Barry Levinson (1997) This film came out before the Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, though the film is often identified with it. The black comedy stars Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro about a Washington spin-master who hires a Hollywood producer to create a fake war with Albania (of all places) in order to distract the electorate with a sex scandal just days before a presidential election. The caption at the beginning of the film says it all: “Why does the dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.” 2. All the President’s Men (1976) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein The 1976 Oscar-winning political thriller is based on the non-fiction work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, better known as the The Washington Post journalists who blew the lid off the Watergate scandal. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Woodward and Bernstein respectively. The crisis that ensued ended in the resignation of President Nixon, the first U.S. head of state to resign and the subsequent inauguration of Vice President Ford in 1974. 1. The Candidate , directed by Michael Ritchie (1972) Robert Redford also stars in this film about an unlikely and idealistic Democratic candidate from California. Bill McKay (Redford) is initially more interested in espousing his liberal views publicly than winning and decides to take to the campaign trail to vocalize his opinion since his challenger, the incumbent Republican is a given as the victor. McKay wins the party nomination, but then finds out he’s likely to be overwhelmingly trounced in the election. He figured he’d lose, but not by such a humiliating margin. So, in order to avoid embarrassment, he broadens his appeal by dousing his ardently liberal message resulting in a rise in the polls. He also appeals for his father’s help (a former governor) to endorse him since the media is speculating that his silence is a tacit thumbs up to the opposition. As the debate looms, more compromises are made and the result entrenches McKay in the political establishment. [ Sources: ABC News , Wikipedia ]
But he also didn’t want to actually drink during filming — like he had done before — to play Haymitch. By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Woody Harrelson Photo: MTV News Anyone familiar with “The Hunger Games” books knows the character Haymitch Abernathy is mostly memorable for one thing: drunkenness. Sure, his character has a more multifaceted arc over the course of Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, but in speaking of the first book and film adaptation, Haymitch’s most recognizable trait is his near-constant intoxication. When MTV News caught up with Woody Harrelson recently, the man who will be bringing the District 12 victor and mentor to life via the big-screen adaptation on March 23, we him how he approached his character’s inebriation. “It’s an intriguing thing for me to play, because it’s not something I’ve had that much opportunity to play,” Harrelson said. “I was a little bit worried about looking phony, that phony drunk thing. Some Method actors might go drunk onscreen; I can’t do that. I tried it one time,” he admitted. “When I was doing ‘Indecent Proposal,’ I had this one scene, and I was supposed to be really drunk, contesting Robert Redford’s love for Demi Moore, and I got smashed because I was supposed to be, so I rationalized it, and that wasn’t a pleasant experience.” Harrelson said he and “Games” director Gary Ross spent time coming up with the right level of inebriation, a point that suited the character but did not completely detract or distract from the story. “There was a thing with me and Gary trying to decide the level of drunkenness in any given scene, and I was always pushing for more drunk, and he didn’t want me to be drunk in every scene,” he said. “He was always pulling back, and I was always pushing for more just because I think it’s kind of funny and interesting. Knowing Gary, he got the right balance.” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Hunger Games’ Related Photos The Hunger Games
Mickey (Michael Biehn), the paranoid building superintendent unwillingly responsible for allowing the characters in The Divide to survive the apocalypse, didn’t plan for or want company. And who can blame him? These people are awful . Like so many groups left in a survival situations (at least in movies, books and MTV reality shows), they shed their veneer of civilization with alarming rapidity as their lives take a turn for the worse. Written by Karl Mueller and Eron Sheean and directed by Xavier Gens, who earned a place for himself in the New French Extreme movement with his 2007 Frontier(s) before heading to Hollywood to make Hitman , The Divide is a stylish and would-be shocking variation on a familiar scenario, in which the horrors isolated survivors inflict on each other turn out to be worse than those lurking outside. Gens has talent, if also tendencies to steer the visuals into the music video realm, but he treats the characters here like mobile props and nothing more — the curve of a shaved skull or a tear trickling down a cheek just another bit of nice art direction on the gradual path toward the inevitable destruction of everyone on screen. What happened to the outside world is left to speculation — what looks like a bomb hits the city in the first scene, sending the inhabitants of a New York apartment building scrambling downstairs in search of shelter. Eight people force their way into Mickey’s shelter in the basement before he locks the door. There’s angular heroine Eva (Lauren German), her whiny French fiancé Sam (Iván González), Delvin (Courtney B. Vance), Bobby (Michael Eklund), brothers Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and Adrien (Ashton Holmes), and Marilyn (Rosanna Arquette) and her daughter Wendy (Abbey Thickson). Mickey has food and water saved up, though not enough — at least not after strange men in hazmat suits barge into the underground shelter, kidnap the little girl, and weld the door shut on the remaining inhabitants. Hell may be other people, but it can also be scenarios in which people endlessly bicker their way to certain doom (this is why I find The Walking Dead so hard to watch). Power games, alliances and divisions break out as time passes with no hope of rescue or an end, and as the characters grow more unstable and unhealthy, teeth falling out, hair growing patchy as they sit in the dark. Josh establishes himself as the alpha male, sharing Marilyn with Bobby in a scenario that degrades into violent sexual slavery — Arquette deserves either kudos or condolences for the degree to which she surrenders to a role that finds her being chained up, continually degraded and humiliated, treated like a dog, and smearing makeup on her face like some kind of crazed goth dolly. Eva is forced to protect Sam, who’s at the bottom of the totem pole, though she’s drawn to Adrien, who holds on to his sanity as the situation falls apart. These characters are at best doodles, and none of the performances are able to tease more depth out of them — the hints at history between them, like how Sam and Eva met, or the strained relationship between Josh and Adrien, are so sparse that when they’re thrown in they confuse more than they illuminate. The sprinkles of political relevance are clunkier and more problematic. Any film these days that includes the destruction of the New York skyline is going to calls up echoes of 9/11, but The Divide strongly suggests that Mickey was a firefighter working that day whose issues and isolation are all related to that trauma, from his convictions that “the ragheads” are responsible for bombing the city to his creation of the underground bunker, decorated with an American flag. (Admittedly, Gens makes the Frenchman the least likable character — if the film’s a rough metaphor for a world in decline, the U.S. isn’t alone in taking on the chin.) At two hours, with its elegiac tone and deliberate pacing, The Divide may lose gorehounds before it gets around to the finger chopping and corpse dismemberment. While there certainly are moments that will have the sensitive covering their eyes, the film’s most disturbing imagery isn’t actually related to carnage. A segment in which Josh heads outside to attempt to figure out what the suited-up soldiers are up to has a hallucinatory, medical nightmare feel to it, rich with the promise of terrible things going on just beyond our comprehension. Later, two characters shave their heads and eyebrows and transform themselves into near-alien figures out of a Matthew Barney video. Gens’s deftness with these visuals, and with the claustrophobic glide of his camera through the dim warrens of the underground space in which The Divide is almost exclusively set, is undeniable. It’s his apparent disinterest in the people filling it that makes the film such an uphill battle, in which the world ends and you can’t wait for the survivors just kill each other off already. Follow Alison Wilmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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 .
