December 2007
21 posts
Poehler is Tina Fey's 'Baby Mama'
SlashFilm has the first image available for the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler reunion vehicle, Baby Mama, due out from Universal in the Spring. In what seems like not much of a stretch from her 30 Rock persona, Fey plays Kate, a 37 year-old single executive who’s looking to have her first child. After learning that she’s unable to have one naturally, she pegs lower-class South Philly...
P.T. Anderson, Daniel Day-Lewis, & Charlie Rose
A lot of topics touched on here, but the bulk of Charlie Rose’s 54 minute conversation sidesteps Paul Thomas Anderson in favor of his There Will Be Blood star. Rose, who has interviewed Daniel Day-Lewis a couple of times, was fixated on trying to crack the shell of the tight-lipped enigma, to varying degrees of success. The discussion is probably more valuable as a post-TWBB viewing,...
'There Will Be Blood' Takes Top Spot in indieWIRE...
Opening in selected theaters on December 26th, P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood took 5 top honors in indieWIRE’s annual critics poll, including Best Film. Anderson also won Best Director and Best Screenplay, while Daniel Day-Lewis was handed Best Performance for the film, and Robert Elswit came in number one in the Cinematography category.
Selections from Thailand and Romania...
Trailer: 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'
One thing we’ve all surely absorbed by now: get Judd Apatow to write, direct, produce or cough in the general direction of your movie and you’re golden, box office wise. In the case of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, he produced and shares a writing credit with star Jason Segel, who you’ll remember from every preceding Apatow joint of late, along with the gone but not forgotten...
Trailer: 'Chicago 10'
Directed by Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture) and told through the voices of Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, and Liev Schreiber, Chicago 10 blends archival footage and rotoscope animation to retell the story of the eight anti-war protesters (including activist Abbie Hoffman and Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale) put on trial for charges...
2007: Bottom Sixteen
Of course they compiled a Best of 2007 rundown as well, but there’s not enough schadenfreude to be found there, so we move on. Robert Redford is in the company of Guy Ritchie, Joel Schumacher, and Joe Carnahan in The A.V. Club’s Worst Films of 2007 list. Did you know that Fred Savage directed Daddy Day Camp? And the Wayans Brothers didn’t shit out a film this year - also a...
The Landlord: Criterion Edition
Will Ferrell & Adam McKay. “That line was actually written by, what’s his name…Steve Gaghan, the guy who did Traffic….We had to shut down once again, for four days as he went in the trailer and wrote and wrote and wrote, and came up with ‘I want my money!!!’”
Related: Backlash. Judd Apatow, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Justin Long, and Craig...
Bill Murray's Sweet Nothings
I still can’t make out half of what Bill Murray is whispering in Scarlett Johansson’s ear at the conclusion of Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, even after someone with the time and knowhow took it upon him or herself to take out some of the background noise and digitally process the audio. If what’s spelled out for us is accurate, it doesn’t necessarily add value...
A Retrospective
“And then he made a string of terrible films, films so bad that even his charming side-part could not make up for his lack of wit and charm. (See, also — I mean never — Slackers.) And his shtick sort of ran dry in a way, even in the pleasantly enjoyable The Darjeeling Limited.” - Best Week Ever
'Campfire': Deleted Scene from 'There Will Be...
“Here is a good scene we didn’t need…it won’t spoil anything,” says the note from P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood production team. (Hat tip: Cigarettes and Red Vines and Movieweb.) No fireworks in this one, though it does provide some foreshadowing for things to come between Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis, sitting with son H.W - played by Dillion Freasier) and young Eli...
New Still for Spike Jonze's 'Where the Wild Things...
Cinema Blend has posted the second image made public for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, depicting Max, played by Hollywood newcomer Max Records, admiring a sunlit view amongst his silhouetted Wild Thing friends. (MTV News unearthed the first available image last June.)
Although Wild Things is not scheduled for release until October 3rd of 2008, and production is far from...
Trailer: 'The Machine Girl'
As the poster (via Twitch) says, “From the Creators of “Death Trance” and “Meatball Machine,” comes The Machine Girl. It seems there is an inexhaustible appetite in movieland for limb-stump-mounted weaponry, and who are we to argue with that? If Planet Terror, Takashi Miike, or Troma films are your thing, this is a sure bet, assuming it ever makes it stateside...
Trailer: ‘Semi-Pro’, Will Ferrell
Anchor-Ball Semi-Pro: directorial debut by Kent Alterman. Screenplay by Scot Armstrong (Road Trip, Old School, Old School Dos). Starring Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, and Andre Benjamin. Appearances/walk on’s by Maura Tierney, Andy Richter, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, Rob Corddry, Jackie Earle Haley.
Synopsis: we hold these gags to be self-evident.
Red-Band Trailer: ‘Harold and Kumar 2′
Day two chronicles of John Cho, Kal Penn, and Neil Patrick Harris. Less like a sequel and more like Groundhog’s Day, in as much as everything happens all over again, almost. Trailer is also notable for the best use of a superimposed image (White Castle) since Defamer’s screen capture from the Top Chef finale. Scheduled release: April 25, 2008.
Harold and Kumar Escape from...
What's That, Pussycat?
“Speechless”: Episode 20. WGA strike, week 5. SpeechlessWithoutWriters.com. UnitedHollywood.com
Related: Fred Armisen. Not silent, but with words like, “250 dollars. That’s serious radio contest winner money.” Stick around for the closer.
Trailer: 'Speed Racer'
Speed Racer: directed by The Wachowskis. Emile Hirsch as Speed, Susan Sarandan as Mom Racer, Christina Ricci as Trixie, Matthew Fox as Racer X, Scott Porter as Rex Racer, and John Goodman as Pops Racer. Release: May 9, 2008.
Speed Racer high definition trailer (via The Hot Blog).
Additional first look images: USA Today (via SlashFilm).
'Sweeney Todd' Numbers
Via Anne Thompson, Dreamworks has set free 9 mostly musical clips (Movieweb) from the major Oscar contender and umpteenth Tim Burton & Johnny Depp collaboration, Sweeney Todd. Also present and accounted for: co-star Helena Bonham Carter, plus a Sacha Baron Cohen sighting. Opens December 21st.
Related: “Sweeney makes Silence of the Lambs and The Departed look like Legally Blonde and...
'The Wire' Prequels
Just a week after five promotional shorts for the fifth and final season of The Wire popped up online, HBO has released three new shorts to Amazon.com for their Season 4 DVD page. The videos depict a few characters in earlier, formative times - namely William “Bunk” Moreland and Jimmy McNulty (2000, McNulty’s first day on the job), Young Omar (1985), and Young Proposition Joe...
P.T. Anderson's "Shifty Bait-and-Switch"
File this under “You’ve got to be shitting me,” or a facetious There Will Be [user defined] heading. It would be insulting to the moviegoing public and the P.T. Anderson camp if it weren’t such a daft forehead-slapper. Entitled “‘There Will Be Blood’ is about what, exactly?” - from EW:
When you hear that title, the moniker given to Paul Thomas...
Video: Seth Rogen and James Franco in 'Pineapple...
Written by Superbad co-scribes Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the Apatow-is-only-producing comedy Pineapple Express is set for a summer 08’ release. Directed by David Gordon Green, the feature stars Rogen and James Franco, as pothead and dealer, respectively. Rogen is witness to a murder committed by a cop played by none other than the Great Rosie Perez, and things take shape from there....
Video Selections: 12/3
A good friend to the site, Goldenfiddle’s Spencer Sloan sent over highlights of Shia LeBeouf’s turn in Transformers. To be truthful, I haven’t caught Shia in anything since the long defunct Project Greenlight, so consider me grateful for the opportunity to see firsthand whether the accolades were deserved. Does the kid really have serious chops? Now I know. Yes, yes, a...