The stars of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises descended upon NYC — the O.G. Gotham City — to premiere the Batman trilogy finale Monday night, with some surprise guest celebs hitting the red carpet alongside Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Wonder how red carpet guest Donald Trump enjoyed the flick, which sees the hulking villain Bane encourage the 99% to rise up and topple the system into ruin? Or if Hathaway shared the secrets of her Catwoman costume with feminist icon Gloria Steinem ? Those snaps and more in Movieline’s TDKR premiere gallery … Click the happiness below for more images . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The marketing noise at Comic-Con is always such a cacophony, it can be tough-to-impossible to get tiny movies noticed in the chaos unless they’ve got attention-grabbing hooks . Like, say, finding a thumb drive inside a condom that just happens to contain the first-look teaser at Ron Perlman as a transsexual named Phyllis greeting his Sons of Anarchy son Charlie Hunnam (both in town for this weekend’s Pacific Rim and SoA panels) and Bridemaids ‘ Chris O’Dowd with a big, fat kiss. Movieline’s got your first look at the indie comedy Frankie Go Boom ! Hunnam stars as Frankie, O’Dowd as his terrible brother Bruce, and Perlman as Bruce’s terrifying old ex-con acquaintance Phil, now a terrifying ex-con lady named Phyllis. Lizzy Caplan earned raves for her turn as Lassie, whose one-night stand with Frankie leads to complications… involving a sex tape… and, well, I’ll let the film’s synopsis do the explaining: 3,2,1 … Frankie go Boom follows Frank Bartlett (Charlie Hunnam) who has been tortured, embarrassed and humiliated by his brother Bruce (Chris O’Dowd) – usually on film – for his entire life. Now that Bruce is finally off drugs and has turned his life around, things should be different. They are not. 3,2,1 … Frankie go Boom is a comedy about two brothers a girl with a broken heart, a sex tape, an angel and a pig. Since Movieline was the first to debut Frankie Go Boom ‘s poster featuring Perlman as “Phyllis,” it’s fitting that we bring you this glimpse of his post-op vamping. Let Perlman’s ” HER , MOTHAF***A!” terrify you into addressing the trans community with cowering respect. (Fun fact: I’m told it was Hunnam who suggested his Sons of Anarchy father figure play the transgender Phyllis.) Frankie Go Boom (now titled 3,2,1… Frankie Go Boom ), written and directed by Jordan Roberts, will debut on VOD on September 10 with a theatrical release to follow October 12. As for you other would-be attention-grabbers here at Comic-Con: Good luck topping the visceral recoil followed by ” Oh thank God ” relief I experienced when I picked up the Frankie Go Boom viral “package” last night and realized what was (or wasn’t) inside… Read more from Comic-Con 2012. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Richard D. “Dick” Zanuck, a scion of old Hollywood who produced blockbusters like Jaws and such Oscar-friendly fare as Driving Miss Daisy , died today after suffering a heart attack. He was 77. Zanuck took the production reins of 20th Century Fox — which his legendary father Darryl had helped bring to prominence before him — by the time he was 28. He would later team with partner David Brown to shepherd the work of Steven Spielberg to prominence before working with a deep roster of filmmakers including Sidney Lumet ( The Verdict ), Ron Howard ( Cocoon ) and frequent collaborator Tim Burton. Zanuck is survived by his wife Lili Fini Zanuck (with whom he shared Best Picture Oscar honors for Driving Miss Daisy ) and sons Harrison and Dean. [ Deadline ]
Jodie Foster returns to the screen – and to sci-fi – in next spring’s Elysium , the latest from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. Speaking with Movieline today at her first-ever Comic-Con , Foster described the dystopian future of the film, in which she plays a methodical bureaucrat controlling the “border” of an artificially-created space station (a character now named Delacourt – so take note, internet ). The movie-loving polymath also waxed ecstatic about her one-time Panic Room co-star Kristen Stewart, Beasts of the Southern Wild , and her current obsession: HBO’s True Blood . Elysium takes place in a future in which overpopulation has driven the privileged to take up residence on a man-made space station while the poor remain on Earth; contrary to early reports, Foster says her character is named Minister Delacourt, a government official of French descent committed to keeping the “have-nots” out of paradise. There’s been some secrecy surrounding Elysium’s plot, but we now have a synopsis and some additional hints at what to expect. How would you now describe the film and what it’s really about? In the future, the haves and have nots have become more polarized; there are fewer and fewer haves and more “nots,” and the Earth has devolved. A few incredibly rich and powerful people have created their own habitat. It’s about the battle between those two worlds. Your character could be described as the antagonist of Elysium , correct? Yeah, she’s the antagonist. She’s the minister, she’s the person who controls who gets to come in and who doesn’t. She’s methodical, her antagonism has a point. Where is she coming from? She’s French! I speak a little French in there. This is an international place, obviously – there are people that come from all over the earth to be there. It does harken a bit back to the European history and this idea that there was something worth holding onto, something in our past and aristocratic past with class distinctions. She’s very hell bent on saying there’s a lot about the way that it was that’s better than it is now. Between the imagery that we’ve seen and the themes within Elysium it seems to be of a piece with Neill’s previous film, District 9 . Yeah, it has a grittiness to it – more than half, I think 70 percent of the movie has this incredible grittiness, this romantic degradation. Did you get to immerse yourself very much in that on set given that your character is more of a bureaucrat? I’m in the polished world! Our world is very sterile and very inorganic. They’re trying to create a fake organic habitat, but it’s not organic. There’s a bit of viral marketing on the Comic-Con convention floor in the guise of a futuristic Elysium border agent. What issues does Elysium address in its undercurrent of social commentary? Immigration’s a big one. There’s increasing class separation in the world – what’s to become of the Earth when we’ve destroyed our planet, and where are we going to go after that? What initially sold you on this project and this role when you first spoke with Neill? It’s a great script, and him, honestly. I think he’s an incredibly talented director, and a lot of it is conscious but a lot of it is unconscious, too. I think he’s at this really interesting place in his life where he’s old enough and experienced enough to know how to tell the story, but also young enough to understand that there are things that he cares about that he doesn’t entirely understand. The fact that Secretary Rhodes is a woman – Her name is Delacourt now! They changed it. Minister Delacourt. The press kit must be wrong! Are you telling me that everything you read on the internet is not necessarily true? That’s right! Shocking! So, Delacourt – she’s a woman, and the main antagonist here, which is in itself a rarity. Do you feel that the genre world allows for more progressive characterizations of women? I don’t know about that. I’m not sure that’s true. Was the character always written as a woman? It pretty much was. I mean, that’s an interesting idea. But I think genre films, because they have to, usually paint things much more in black and white, whether it’s women or not women, because the storytelling in ways is a lot more primitive. If you look at recent films for example, you see a string of big-screen heroine tales – Kristen Stewart as Snow White, for example. Which I loved! I loved it. To be so bold and so emotional, I just thought she was terrific. They were both great; Charlize Theron was fantastic. I really loved it, and I did not expect to like it. I didn’t think I was going to care, but it really got me. Do you get out to see movies much? Yeah, I go with my kids. I see all the big ones with my kids, but the smaller ones I tend to see on the small screen. I just went to see this movie yesterday that’s just unbelievable called Beasts of the Southern Wild . It’s a life-changing movie. Talk about complexity. That whole ending part, I loved it. I loved her. That’s another recent film revolving around a young heroine – add that to Snow White and The Hunger Games and they’re all stories about young women following the hero’s journey as the Chosen One. That’s right, and that’s always been the domain of men. I remember feeling that about Silence of the Lambs ; you look at that character and it’s a quintessential archetypal character. The young boy has to go find the panacea and they have to go through the Forest of Experience and meet gnomes and demons along the way and then slay them, and then he finds out in some way the things he didn’t know about himself were actually the demons that he had to slay… it’s always been reserved for men, and that’s changing. When you look at Hunger Games , there’s a lot to like, but I will say the thing I liked the most about The Hunger Games was seeing a woman in the number 1 point of view as the protagonist who changes and finds her strength, who you’re rooting for, and who saves the men – it’s fantastic. I’m so happy for her. A few years ago there was word that you wanted to make your own science fiction film. It didn’t work out! I do lots of things and develop lots of movies that don’t get made. It’s hard making personal films and the kinds of movies I like to make – very verbal, intelligent films – are hard to get off the ground. Because we’re here at Comic-Con where fandom is celebrated, are there any geek properties that you’re way, way into? I love True Blood . Are you into vampire stories in general? I like them all – zombies, all those stories. I just like A) that he does it with humor and that the writing is so good, and I think the characters are so fantastic. I just love them. Elysium hits theaters March 1, 2013. Read more from Comic-Con 2012 here. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The Expendables 2 packs a power-punch of action rough ’em up characters including Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Dame, Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liam Hemsworth. In their second outting, Mr. Church reunites the group for what should be an easy paycheck, but things go wrong when one of their men is murdered on the job. Revenge is on their minds, but that puts them in enemy territory up against an unexpected threat. The film hits theaters later this year, but Beyond The Trailer host Grace Randolph received some insider impressions of the new pic courtesy of cast members Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture at Comic-Con. One star gushes about the second installment’s “bigger and better” goods.
There’s a case to be made for the idea that Greece has more ghosts than the average country. This argument would involve space – having relatively little, especially for their dead, Greeks rent out cemetery plots for three years maximum before the body is exhumed to make room – but also the fact that Greece’s is one of the more fully recorded histories we have. And what ghosts exist that are not remembered? Alps , the latest from Athens-born director Yorgos Lanthimos, tells a certain kind of ghost story. Lanthimos is most famously the director of 2009’s Dogtooth , the creepy, Oscar-nominated fable of clannish perversion that made the film world sit up and wonder, “What the fuck is up with Greece?” Alps carries over several of that film’s themes and intensifies its aesthetic mood of earthly limbo: Several of its scenes are set in a hospital, the rest are infused with a similarly antiseptic starkness. The tone is one of deadpan discombobulation, a world turned 45 degrees to the left but presented with a clear, dry perspective. Whether you are willing or able to match that perspective will determine the better part of your response to Alps , which opens with a puzzling sequence and only gets weirder from there. A young woman (Ariane Labed) performs a rhythmic gymnastics routine to a swollen orchestral recording, protests to her coach (Johnny Vekris) that she wants to perform to pop music, and is promptly threatened with a grisly death. Next we meet a paramedic (Aris Servetalis) with an odd way of comforting accident victims: “You may be about to die,” he says to a critically injured teenage girl in the back of his ambulance. “Who’s your favorite actor?” As is revealed at the director’s mischievous leisure, that question is more purposeful than it first appears. As the nurse (Aggeliki Papoulia) who receives the ailing teen girl – an accomplished tennis player – tells the girl’s parents, “Death is not the end.” In fact, she offers, after reminding them of how important it is to remember the deceased, it could be the beginning a beautiful relationship, one that involves her stopping by a few times a week and “substituting” for their daughter, equipped with a costume and a few salient preferences, including the fact that her favorite actor is Jude Law. Papoulia (who played the elder sister in Dogtooth ) knows she is not the intuitive choice for this particular gig. That would be Labed (none of the characters are named), the other female in their four-person troupe (including Vekris and Servetalis) of substitutes. They meet in the gym to debrief, try out celebrity impressions, and agree on their group name, Alps, chosen because no other mountain could stand in for an Alp but the Alps could stand in for any other mountain. Resemblance and age-appropriateness are less important than you’d think, as is acting facility: The Alps know their lines (usually) and hit their marks, but that’s about it. The customers don’t require total fidelity — just bring them a body. The troubled, empathetic nurse emerges as the central character, and through her Lanthimos explores the lonely succor of standing in for what’s been lost. He keeps the focus on the substitutes, the customers are only seen in fragments, blurred, or from behind; only their need is felt. There is no talk of money, though we know the first three visits are free. Client requests are highly specific, and usually involve repeating the same lines over and over again; fights and confrontations are reenacted with mordantly wooden timing. The script (which Lanthimos co-wrote with Efthimis Filippou) feels at once tightly controlled and improvisational — each moment is deeply, almost mechanically constructed, and yet they play out in a sequence that is too lax for too long. The layering at work is so subtle as to seem incidental; Lanthimos resists easy signposts or even a clear demarcation of the lanes, never letting us settle on what to make of this misfit, distinctly patriarchal crew. When a ghost gets ghosted, Alps cracks open and one character’s desperation drives the final third of the film. The climax errs on the side of the overwrought and overdetermined, like an earnest adolescent’s first attempt at a short story. And yet Papoulia’s extraordinary performance lingers, as does the film’s provocative existential fog. Slowly but with terrible surety, Alps reveals the fracture lines within its subjects, their families and the group itself, so that by the end it’s no longer clear who is substituting for whom. Only that the dead are surely better loved than the living. Follow Michelle Orange on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Though The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn director Bill Condon was absent this year from Comic-Con , (he was off finishing the November release but pre-taped tidings), he sent in his stead stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, over two dozen cast members, Stephenie Meyer, and new footage for the thousands of attendees in Hall H Thursday morning that included a slew of fan-pleasing moments – Bella Swan devouring a mountain lion among them. But while Breaking Dawn ’s bright, well-paced clips (including the first seven minutes of the film) impressed, a surprise screening of footage from The Host – Meyer’s other fantasy-sci-fi-romance YA lit adaptation –confused viewers, indicating an uphill battle ahead for distributor Open Road. The good news for Summit is that sharing the first seven minutes of Breaking Dawn – beginning with newly turned Bella (Kristen Stewart) awakening into her bright new vampire future – was a smart move; not only did it drive fans into a tizzy, it highlighted how the Saga and its heroine have matured since previous installments. For starters, Breaking Dawn Part 2 boasts a new and improved Bella – strong, sensual, and utterly confident. No longer the self-conscious, maladroit teenager who spent much of the previous four films worrying/being rescued by/pining over her vampire beau Edward Cullen, Bella awakens at the start of Breaking Dawn Part 2 in full vampire mode (and very, very hungry). Condon speeds adeptly through her initial adjustment at a brisk pace, allowing for a few generous moments of languorous caresses and canoodling with Edward, who coos, “We’re the same temperature now.” (Cue collective Hall H swoon.) Suspense kicks in on Bella’s first hunt; she’s tempted by the delicious whiff of a lone mountain climber, but stops herself in time, instead finding her first meal in an unlucky mountain lion. Returning home with a proud Edward, she encounters old bestie/third wheel Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), but he’s changed, too; “imprinting” on your crush’s infant will do that to a guy. Onetime rivals Jacob and Edward even have a moment together as Bella heads in to meet her newborn daughter for the first time, unaware of what’s transpired while she’s been vampirizing. And thus ends the first seven minutes of the film , which are gorgeously photographed, to boot. A second clip showcased what a difference Condon’s made with his actors. Having been rendered at times cardboard-like by other directors, the cast comes alive, so to speak, in a scene in which the Cullen family teaches Bella how to pass as a human now that super strength and speed – not to mention not having to breathe or blink anymore – have turned her into a blood-sucking bull in a china shop. Stewart in particular shows off her comic side, playing Bella’s preternatural mannerisms with a nuanced sense of humor. She’s matured as a performer, but more to the point, Vampire Bella is simply a better fit for her talents – bold, feline, and assured, she’s the antithesis of Twilight’s Bella Swan, which is really the point of Breaking Dawn and the end game that many critics of the character didn’t grasp with previous sequels. Vampire Bella is who Bella Swan was born to become, and Breaking Dawn ’s final Comic-Con visit drove that point home. Less successful, however, was the clip package presented by surprise guest Andrew Niccol, who’d only recently wrapped filming on the sci-fi adaptation. Based on Meyer’s Twilight follow-up novel, The Host stars Saoirse Ronan as a human named Melanie Stryder in an alternate future in which alien body-snatchers have taken over the majority of the world, possessing their human hosts while attempting to squeeze out the last remaining pockets of resistance. Ronan plays both Stryder and her alien “soul,” Wanderer, who now dominates the body they share. Still following? The Host footage opens as Wanderer awakens in Melanie’s body – glowing blue eyes indicate the converted Ronan, who’s tasked with ferreting out information from Melanie’s memories (including one watery make-out flashback between Ronan and Max Irons’ Jared, shot like a Nicholas Sparks romance). But Melanie’s spirit is so strong she’s still inside her own brain, shouting at her alien parasite via interior monologue. That all works better than it sounds, but then comes the complicated plot to muddle things up as Wanderer is captured by humans. By the time the reel ended with a car chase and stand-off between two rebel-driven trucks and their alien overlords, the crowd had grown restless, pouring disinterestedly out of Hall H. And all without even touching on film’s love quadrangle between Melanie, Wanderer, and their dueling boyfriends! So suffice to say there’s a steep Host learning curve the studio needs to address for non-fans of the book ahead of the film’s March 2013 release. Niccol creates a clear-enough dystopian world onscreen (earthy Western-like settings for the human resistance, sleek high-tech trappings for the aliens), but none of that will matter if audiences don’t understand what the heck they’re looking at. Read more from Comic-Con 2012. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Snoozy but sumptuous, Benoît Jacquot’s quasi-historical drama Farewell, My Queen isn’t going to set the world aflame: The experience of watching it is something like lounging on a satin divan, being fanned lazily with a bouquet of ostrich plumes. But maybe that’s part of what you want in a picture about the last days of Marie Antoinette’s rule: The languorousness of Farewell, My Queen recalls the last days of summer, though in this case the air is quivering not with the chirping of crickets but with a whisper of foreboding. The picture coasts along quite nicely on the strength of its contemplative sensuality, its macaron colors, and the exquisite beauty of its three chief actresses, Léa Seydoux, Virginie Ledoyen and Diane Kruger. Oh, and there’s nudity in it too, not to mention lesbian undertones – or are they overtones? I knew that would get your attention. Kruger plays Marie Antoinette, and in our first glimpse of her, she’s just awakened from what must have been a hell of a beauty sleep: Bedecked in a cream-colored nightie and sitting up in her bed at Versailles, she looks fresh and creamy and glowing, like a prized blond peach. One of her servants, the quiet but astute Sidonie Laborde (Seydoux), has come to read to her. Shall it be a novel or a fashion magazine today? It quickly becomes clear that Sidonie harbors a special fondness for her mistress and seeks to protect her from the gossip of the court — or worse. Meanwhile, the queen lavishes attention and worry on her own special favorite, the regal and somewhat icy Gabrielle de Polignac (Ledoyen). Sidonie hopes that someday the queen will single her out; but her hopes are dashed when she learns that her mistress has a special task in mind for her, one that could demand the ultimate sacrifice. There are men in Farewell, My Queen : Xavier Beauvois plays Louis XVI, and Michel Robin appears as his historiographer. But really, who cares about them? The picture also gives an appropriate sense of the court’s decadence while being only marginally tolerant of the queen’s taste for expensive finery: I suspect that Farewell, My Queen is the movie that many of the detractors of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette wanted that picture to be. Coppola didn’t want to punish her heroine, and her refusal to bow to that kind of moralism turned off plenty of people who thought the movie should have been more politically astute. But Farewell, My Queen — which was based on the novel by Chantal Thomas — is in its own way sympathetic to the ill-fated ruler. One servant claims to understand why Marie Antoinette spends hours staring at her accumulated luxury goods: “That’s how she forgets she’s queen.” She also longs for love, and her ardor for Gabrielle appears to skim lightly over any perceived impropriety of feelings or behavior. Her desire is only partly carnal; it seems that Gabrielle is a kind of sisterly twin to her. Seydoux’s Sidonie registers all of this not with pouty disappointment but with greater resolve, and, ultimately, a resignation that’s a kind of victory. Meanwhile, she’s the most overtly sensuous of the three: Kruger’s beauty is fine-grained and luminous, and Ledoyen’s is cool as pink marble, but Seydoux has both brains and a thumping pulse. The picture’s painterly production design and cinematography (by Katia Wyszkop and Romain Winding, respectively) ensure that everything is gorgeous to look at, but Jacquot never lets the picture slide into total sterility – even the sight of Seydoux scratching her mosquito bites is vaguely libidinous. Farewell, My Queen may move along at a stately pace, and it may not cut very deep. But even if it’s essentially little more than a pretty porcelain figurine, it’s one that at least nods to the glow and warmth of real flesh. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in Thursday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, Strand Releasing and Cinema Guild pick up films for U.S. release. Ashely Judd and Robert Forster take on roles in an upcoming action-thriller and Universal sets a release for The Man with the Iron Fists . Nancy Schafer Departs Tribeca Film Festival Schafer has served in various posts with the festival since its beginning in 2002, including the post of executive director of the Tribeca Film Festival which she assumed in 2009. She will continue in a consultation capacity going forward while she pursues other interests. “Nancy has been a key part of Tribeca since the festival was founded in 2002,” Tribeca co-founder Jane Rosenthal said. “She helped grow the festival into the international showcase it is today and was instrumental in the formation of Tribeca Enterprises, the festival’s parent company. We will miss her immensely–she will always be considered family.” Strand Takes Rights to Dreams of a Life The doc centers on the death of 38 year-old Joyce Vincent who passed away in North London in 2003. Her skeleton was discovered three years later with her heating and television still on. Newspaper reports knew little about her and director Carol Morley seeks to find out who she is and how someone can be so forgotten today. Strand plans to open the film it picked up from Entertainment One August 3rd. Cinema Guild Picks Up The Law in These Parts The distributor nabbed U.S. distribution rights to Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize winner The Law in These Parts , which it will open in November. The film explores the four-decade-old Israeli military legal system in the Occupied Territories. Around the ‘net… Big Movie Musicals are Coming Universal is moving forward to adapt the hit musical Wicked while Jon Favreau is in negotiations to direct Jersey Boys , Deadline reports . Ashley Judd, Robert Forster Board Olympus Has Fallen They join the White House-set action thriller starring Gerard Butler, which is being directed by Antoine Fuqua. Judd plays the first lady, while Butler will play a Secret Service agent trying to stop Korean terrorists who have taken over the White House, THR reports . Universal Sets Date for The Man with the Iron Fists The action-adventure, produced by Quentin Tarantino will be released by Universal on November 2nd. Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA is directing the project starring Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu, Deadline reports .
Also in Thursday morning’s round-up of news briefs, DreamWorks Animation will lend its characters to a new theme park; director Joe Cornish is set to adapt a robot comic-book; James Cameron takes his mini 3-D camera to L.A.’s X Games and China cracks down even harder on internet movie and video content. Darren Aronofsky Tweets a Noah Teaser The Black Swan director tweeted what presumably looks like construction of the ark that carried all life forms to safety from the earthly flood. He said: I dreamt about this since I was 13. And now it’s a reality. Genesis 6:14 #noah: http://t.co/QLaIuqXh. The film is slated for release in Spring 2014. Around the ‘net… DreamWorks Animation Theme Park Heads to New Jersey DreamWorks Animation will bring its movie characters to a planned in-door amusement park in the New Jersey Meadowlands, ten miles west of New York City, Deadline reports . Fangirls Fuel Comic-Con Growth Long lines of women camped out to get into the Twilight panel. The movie has increased attendance to around 40%, which has resulted in Hollywood sending over more femme-friendly fare, Variety reports . Joe Cornish to Direct Graphic Novel Rust Attack the Block director Joe Cornish is set to adapt Royden Lepp’s comic-book robot on the prairies story Rust for 20th Century Fox. Fox’s synopsis reads: “”Life on the Taylor family farm was difficult enough before Jet Jones crashes into the barn, chased by a giant decommissioned war robot!” The Guardian reports . James Cameron Debuts Ultra-Mini 3-D Camera at X Games Cameron used the camera in March when he explored the Mariana Trench and is now taking the device to ESPN’s X Games in Los Angeles, THR reports . Internet Content Faces More Chinese Scrutiny A new push by Chinese regulators will force internet video providers to pre-screen programming including drama series and mini-movies before they’re posted, Deadline reports via A.P.
