Check out the official poster for THE GUEST starring Dan Stevens.
From the director of YOU’RE NEXT and featuring a standout, badass performance from Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”), comes THE GUEST: a tense, action-packed and unpredictable film like everything and nothing you’ve ever seen before. Empire Magazine called it “a demented action-horror hybrid of sci-fi conspiracy thriller and gore-fest”, and Vanity Fair said, “THE GUEST is big, it’s bold, it’s badass, full of flavor Hollywood wishes it could pour over its vanilla blockbusters.”
A soldier (Dan Stevens) introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their son who died in action. After the young man is welcomed into their home, a series of accidental deaths seem to be connected to his presence.
Also starring Maika Monroe, Leland Orser, Sheila Kelley, Brendan Meyer and Lance Reddick and produced by Keith Calder & Jessica Calder, the film will show at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Midnight Madness program.
Picturehouse will release THE GUEST in theaters September 17.
Legendary and Universal Pictures have released the spellbinding new trailer for the upcoming film SEVENTH SON.
Starring Oscar winner Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes & Julianne Moore, the sole remaining warrior of a mystical order travels to find a prophesized hero born with incredible powers, the last Seventh Son.
In a time of enchantments when legends and magic collide, the sole remaining warrior of a mystical order (Oscar® winner Jeff Bridges) travels to find a prophesized hero born with incredible powers, the last Seventh Son (Ben Barnes). Torn from his quiet life as a farmhand, the unlikely young hero embarks on a daring adventure with his battle-hardened mentor to vanquish a dark queen (Julianne Moore) and the army of supernatural assassins she has dispatched against their kingdom.
The movie also features Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Olivia Williams, Antje Traue and Djimon Hounsou.
Sergei Bodrov directed SEVENTH SON from a screenplay by Charles Leavitt and Steve Knight and a screen story by Matt Greenberg, based on the book series “The Last Apprentice” by Joseph Delaney. The film will be released in 3D on February 6, 2015.
CHEF, the critically acclaimed hit film written by, directed by, produced by and starring Jon Favreau, will return to theaters nationwide on August 29.
CHEF has taken in nearly $30 million at the box office and has earned high praise from audiences, critics and top celebrity chefs like Mario Batali, Anthony Bourdain and Tom Colicchio. CHEF was the opening night film at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival and was an official selection at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival where it took home the Audience Award. CHEF was also the winner of the Audience Award at the 2014 Newport Beach Film Festival.
Lauded by critics when it hit theaters in May 2014, Scott Bowles of USA Today called CHEF, “One of the most heartwarming of the year. You need not be a foodie to appreciate the film’s reverence for a good meal. More surprising than the great culinary scenes are the moments between father and son. Chef is meant to be enjoyed as a sit-down meal.” The Los Angeles Times said, “Favreau is flat-out terrific.” Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers wrote, “Deliciously entertaining, touching and often bitingly true, Chef is the perfect antidote to Hollywood junk food. It marks Favreau’s triumphant return to personal filmmaking. An artful surprise and an exuberant gift. It’s one from the heart. Foodies will salivate at the kitchen scenes, Jon Favreau makes these moments come vibrantly alive. All the actors are aces… it’s Favreau’s best screen performance to date; Dustin Hoffman is wonderful; Oliver Platt is superb; and Emjay Anthony is terrific. Like the best meal and the best movies, this irresistible concoction feels good for the soul.”
And Food & Wine magazine said, “Chef is our favorite food movie of the decade. Jon Favreau could easily be a Food & Wine Best New Chef!”
For the CHEF soundtrack, Jon Favreau and music supervisor Mathieu Schreyer concocted an eclectic mix of Latin beats, New Orleans grooves and West Coast hip-hop. The album is now available as a digital download, a CD including recipes by Chef Roy Choi (Co-Producer of CHEF), and a 180-gram Vinyl with poster insert designed and signed by Robert Downey Jr.
Written by, directed by, produced by and starring Jon Favreau – CHEF features an all-star cast including Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt, Amy Sedaris, Robert Downey Jr. and young actor Emjay Anthony.
When Chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner (Dustin Hoffman), he is left to figure out what’s next. Finding himself in Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his son (Emjay Anthony) to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen — and zest for life and love.
Director of Photography is Kramer Morgenthau. Production design by Denise Pizzini. Edited by Robert Leighton. Mathieu Schreyer is Music Supervisor. Costumes designed by Laura Jean Shannon.
R for language, including some suggestive references
On September 1 & 2, the two-night scripted miniseries HOUDINI follows the epic tales of Harry Houdini as he emerges as America’s first bonafide world-renowned superstar.
Starring Academy Award winner Adrien Brody as The Great Harry Houdini, Kristen Connolly and Evan Jones, the scripted four-hour event chronicles Houdini’s extraordinary life as he finds fame while defying death with his incredible stunts and illusions.
His ability to escape from handcuffs, strait-jackets and water tanks is legendary – breaking the shackles of his past proved more challenging. HISTORY’s Houdini follows the world-renowned master of escape’s transformation from immigrant into the world’s first superstar. Driven, disciplined and actively chasing the American Dream, Houdini constantly pushed his physical limits to accomplish feats of strength that amazed audiences in an age of spectacle. And though they saw what he wanted them to see, his reality was more elusive than his escapes.
Houdini is based on the book Houdini: A Mind in Chains: A Psychoanalytic Portrait by Bernard C. Meyer, M.D., and written by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Nicholas Meyer (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Best Adapted Screenplay, 1976) and directed by Uli Edel, who directed the Academy Award-nominated film The Baader Meinhof Complex (Best Foreign Language Film, 2008).
Oscar nominee John Debney (Passion of the Christ, Iron Man 2), scored the History Channel’s upcoming mini-series.
In HOUDINI, Debney has created a contemporary soundscape and during our recent phone conversation, he talked about the score for the mini-series, what led him to be a composer, as well as his scores for the upcoming SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS movie and Jon Favreau’s reimagining of JUNGLE BOOK.
WAMG: How would you describe the ‘Houdini’ score?
John Debney: I would best describe it as a contemporary take on magic and everything that is magic. There’s an electric quality to it. We used an electronic score to give the idea that this is the turn of the century, electric age. The aggressive music has some gypsy like qualities, hence the solo violin, so I’d say it’s an electronic gypsy-style score.
WAMG: What other types of instruments did you incorporate into this electronic score?
JD: We used a lot of string instruments like zithers and dulcimers. We used accordions. We used a lot of instruments that might give you the flavor of the period while encasing it in a very uber-contemporary sound.
WAMG: When were you brought onto the project and did you visit the set to get a feel for the movie?
JD: I was brought on late into the process by a producer who I worked with before. I saw a rough cut of the film and I discussed with the director (Uli Edel) what type of score should this thing be.
I really didn’t want to do a period piece score – I wanted to do something outside the box. Something you might not expect when you think of Houdini. The idea of a techno, electronic, metal-infused score was interesting to everybody. Lo and behold, when you start experimenting you never know what kind of sound is going to work for a movie. Weirdly enough, the more aggressive some of this music got, the cooler attitude we gave Houdini.
It gestated through experimentation and the score developed from there. We knew we wanted to integrate the gypsy sounds also in the background and it formed that way.
WAMG: It’s very edgy and when most people think Houdini, the first thought is of Tony Curtis in the 1953 movie, along with period piece music. This film is anything but.
JD: That’s exactly what I wanted to create and something that would raise a few eyebrows. It might surprise people in the sense that this type of score would usually be seen in a modern movie setting. It’s from a very elegant age and it was fun to conceive of a score that you wouldn’t normally think would go with something like this.
WAMG: When did you first know you wanted to compose film scores?
JD: I’ve been a musician my whole life. I started playing guitar when I was five or six. I did the whole band thing out here in Southern California when I was a teenager. I would bet somewhere in the high school years, I started to think about how cool music was with visuals. It grew out of that and when I went to college, I studied music. The rest sort of came after that.
I gravitated toward the visual medium because of my background. My dad worked at Walt Disney Studio for forty years, so it was certainly in my blood. I was a musician first and then fell in love with the idea of music against film.
WAMG: Speaking of Disney, it was just announced that you’ll be writing the score for Jon Favreau’s adaptation of JUNGLE BOOK.
JD: It’s very cool and I’m very thankful that Jon asked me back to the party. We’ve done three movies together (ELF, ZATHURA, IRON MAN 2), so this was a wonderful reunion. I was actually a kid when the first Jungle Book was shot and I knew the kid of the animator who did the voice of Mowgli. This new film is very close to home and touches my heartstrings to be a part of something so iconic. Now they’re going to reimagine it and I’m thrilled.
WAMG: Did you find yourself wanting to revisit the original animated film? When you hear any of the classic songs, you know its JUNGLE BOOK.
JD: You do know! I did go back and listen. I’m in the early stages of working on the score, using the similar instruments. Bass flutes and alto flutes and exotic sounds. It’s going to be very interesting and will certainly be a different score than the first one. Without spoiling anything, there might be a tip of the hat to a couple of those wonderful songs from that film.
WAMG: In 2014 you’ve done DRAFT DAY and have STONEHEARST ASYLUM as well as the new SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS movie coming out. With all the other past films that you’ve written music for, do you like to go between the various themes – does it become any easier the more you write?
JD: That’s a great question. I actually do. Some artists like to stay on familiar ground and I don’t. I love to switch it up. As a musician, I always feel that I can do something better the second time… or the third time as it were. I love it. It gets my juices flowing to go from a big football movie like DRAFT DAY with an electronic orchestra to what is a very traditional thriller score in STONEHEARST ASYLUM with a love story in there. After recording that in London with a lot of great musicians, I came back here to work on SPONGEBOB with Hawaiian guitars and orchestras with bassoons. It’s a lot of fun and I love wearing the different hats. It helps me to keep it fresh.
WAMG: For fans of Spongebob, will they hear some of the TV themes when the movie is released next year?
JD: Oh yes, they’ll be very happy. We’re blatantly bringing everyone back to it. There will be some very familiar sounds and then there will be some very big and different sounds. I don’t want to spoil it. It will be a lot of fun and a tip of the hat to some 80’s synthesized music – we’re having a ball with it.
WAMG: Your HOUDINI score has so much music that it needed two volumes.
JD: There’s a ton of music. You can imagine two hours each night, there’s wall to wall music. It’s a tremendous amount, so the record company did a very cool thing (Lakeshore Records) to conceive of having a Volume One and a Volume Two. Even the artwork is interesting – it works in conjunction with itself.
The HOUDINI album is available now for download and the CD will be available on September 30.
Anchor Bay Entertainment and RADiUS are proud to announce the home entertainment release of the post-apocalyptic thriller, SNOWPIERCER. Chris Evans leads the all-star cast of Song Kang Ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner, John Hurt, and Ed Harris. Visionary director Bong Joon Ho’s “enormously ambitious and visually stunning,” (Scott Foundas, Variety) film has been widely praised as “a superb masterpiece of science fiction” (MTV). RADiUS released the film theatrically on June 27, 2014. A box office success, the film has amassed $4.4 million to date, making it one of the top ten highest grossing independent films of the year. The sci-fi epic, hailed as “a singular and breathtaking cinematic experience,” (TwitchFilm.com) will be available on Blu-ray™ and DVD October 21, 2014.
After a failed global-warming experiment, a post-apocalyptic Ice Age has killed off nearly all life on the planet. All that remains of humanity are the lucky few survivors that boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, powered by a sacred perpetual-motion engine. A class system has evolved aboard the train, fiercely dividing its population—but a revolution is brewing. The lower-class passengers in the tail section stage an uprising, moving car-by-car up toward the front of the train, where the train’s creator and absolute authority resides in splendor. But unexpected circumstances lie in wait for humanity’s tenacious survivors…
SNOWPIERCER has a running time of 126 minutes and is rated R for violence, language and drug content. Blu-Ray™ and DVD special features include a Critics’ Commentary hosted by Scott Weinberg and a second disc jam-packed with special features comprised of The Birth of Snowpiercer, The Characters, Animated Prologue, Concept Art Galleries, Chris Evans & Tilda Swinton on Snowpiercer, The Train Brought to Life: Behind the Scenes of a Special Screening, and TRANSPERCENEIGE: From the Blank Page to the Black Screen.
The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted Tuesday night (August 26) to present Honorary Awards to Jean-Claude Carrière, Hayao Miyazaki and Maureen O’Hara, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Harry Belafonte.
All four awards will be presented at the Academy’s 6th Annual Governors Awards on Saturday, November 8, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center.
“The Governors Awards allow us to reflect upon not the year in film, but the achievements of a lifetime,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “We’re absolutely thrilled to honor these outstanding members of our global filmmaking community and look forward to celebrating with them in November.”
Carrière, who began his career as a novelist, was introduced to screenwriting by French comedian and filmmaker Pierre Étaix, with whom he shared an Oscar for the live action short subject “Heureux Anniversaire (Happy Anniversary)” in 1962. He received two more nominations during his nearly two-decade collaboration with director Luis Buñuel, for the screenplays for “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “That Obscure Object of Desire.” Carrière also has collaborated notably with such directors as Volker Schlöndorff (“The Tin Drum”), Jean-Luc Godard (“Every Man for Himself”) and Andrzej Wajda (“Danton”). He earned a fourth Oscar nomination for “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” with director Philip Kaufman.
Miyazaki is an artist, writer, director, producer and three-time Oscar nominee in the Animated Feature Film category, winning in 2002 for “Spirited Away.” His other nominations were for “Howl’s Moving Castle” in 2005 and “The Wind Rises” last year. Miyazaki gained an enormous following in his native Japan for such features as “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,” “Laputa: Castle in the Sky,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” before breaking out internationally in the late 1990s with “Princess Mononoke.” He is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, a renowned animation studio based in Tokyo.
O’Hara, a native of Dublin, Ireland, came to Hollywood in 1939 to star opposite Charles Laughton in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” She went on to appear in a wide range of feature films, including the swashbucklers “The Black Swan” and “Sinbad the Sailor,” the dramas “This Land Is Mine” and “A Woman’s Secret,” the family classics “Miracle on 34th Street” and “The Parent Trap,” the spy comedy “Our Man in Havana” and numerous Westerns. She was a favorite of director John Ford, who cast her in five of his films, including “How Green Was My Valley,” “Rio Grande” and “The Quiet Man.”
An actor, producer, singer and lifelong activist, Belafonte began performing in theaters and nightclubs in and around Harlem, where he was born. From the beginning of his film career, he chose projects that shed needed light on racism and inequality, including “Carmen Jones,” “Odds against Tomorrow” and “The World, the Flesh and the Devil.” He was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, marching and organizing alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and often funding initiatives with his entertainment income. Belafonte was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1987 and currently serves on the boards of the Advancement Project and the Institute for Policy Studies. His work on behalf of children, education, famine relief, AIDS awareness and civil rights has taken him all over the world.
The Honorary Award, an Oscar statuette, is given “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, also an Oscar statuette, is given “to an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”
This Halloween, Lionsgate will celebrate the 1oth anniversary of the theatrical release of SAW, the film that kicked off the most successful horror franchise in history, by bringing it back to theaters nationwide for one week only.
The film will open on Friday, October 31, with select screenings beginning Thursday night, October 30th. The seven SAW films grossed $874 million at the box office worldwide and were hailed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Most Successful Horror Franchise” of all time.
“The launch of SAW was a signature event in Lionsgate’s history, establishing our first franchise and paving the way for our growth into a global studio,” said Lionsgate President of Acquisitions & Co-Productions Jason Constantine. “We are excited for our fans to revisit the twisted magic that first blew their minds on Halloween 2004.”
“As part of SAW’s 10th anniversary, we’re thrilled to give new fans and audiences the opportunity to experience this film on the big screen for the very first time,” added SAW’s producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg.
SAW was the first collaboration for co-creators James Wan, who directed the film, and Leigh Whannell, who wrote the screenplay. Together, they also created the successful INSIDIOUS franchise, and Wan has gone on to direct such high-profile films as THE CONJURING and the upcoming FAST & FURIOUS 7.
Directed by Wan from a script penned by Whannell, SAW is a psychological thriller focusing on two men, Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Gordon (Cary Elwes), who wake up in a secure lair of a serial killer, with a dead body lying between them. The killer, nicknamed “Jigsaw,” leaves them tape recorded messages with details of how to make it out alive. The only way for one man to make it out alive is to do the unthinkable. The two men desperately try to find a way out, while also trying to figure out who’s behind their kidnapping.
The film, which was released over Halloween weekend on October 29, 2004, was produced by Gregg Hoffman, Oren Koules, and Mark Burg.
Check out the two photos from FEAST, a new short from first-time director Patrick Osborne (head of animation, “Paperman”) and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
FEAST is the story of one man’s love life as seen through the eyes of his best friend and dog, Winston, and revealed bite by bite through the meals they share.
The film is from the producer of 2012’s Oscar-winning short “Paperman,” Kristina Reed.
Osborne, who joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2008 as an animator on BOLT, took part in the Studio’s Spark program—which invites artists to explore their own unique ideas in a month-long project that is presented to the Studio team. His experimental short “Pet” was a hit among his fellow Disney artists. Osborne, whose credits Disney’s 2010 feature TANGLED and 2012’s Oscar-winning short PAPERMAN, for which he served as head of animation, was later tapped as co-head of animation for the upcoming feature BIG HERO 6. But his plans changed when he pitched the idea for FEAST as part of WDAS’ new shorts program—the project was greenlit with Osborne as director.
The short opens on Nov. 7, 2014, in front of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ BIG HERO 6.
In May, The Academy began the video series “Academy Originals” focusing on the behind the scenes artists and the various creative processes that get a film from page to screen.
Since the launch, AMPAS has released 16 episodes that have covered everything from how Jurassic Park changed the VFX world to an episode about everyday people toiling away at screenplays in coffee shops.
With Oscar emcee Ellen DeGeneres and the re-election of AMPAS President, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the Academy’s diversity abounds.
The videos below highlight women filmmakers and how their considerable contributions inspire young girls to become filmmakers.
“Movie watching is people watching.” Director Ava DuVernay, from the upcoming SELMA, relates how she writes and helms her films.
The independent artist finds that making a low-budget movie like MIDDLE OF NOWHERE comes from “being out in the world. It comes from observing people, asking questions – people want to talk.”
Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter
LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER and SELMA costume designer Ruth E. Carter relates how she is inspired by a film’s director. The two time Oscar nominee for MALCOLM X and AMISTAD says she, “tells the story through color.”
Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna relates her step-by-step process of writing and how the word game Scrabble helps with her own procrastination.
Screenwriter and Director Tina Gordon Chism
DRUMLINE’s Screenwriter and Director Tina Gordon Chism says the stories she wants to tell are of real people characters and how their language can only be told when “experiencing it yourself, you add a layer of realness to the world that people respond to.”
Screenwriters Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith
Writers Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith (10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, LEGALLY BLONDE) show how they plot a scene and where watching movies is inspirational.
Costume Designer Betsy Heimann
“As filmmakers, we’re all there to tell a story, ” says PULP FICTION Costume Designer Betsy Heimann. In her research, Heimann relates how she is grabbed with the character’s voices by throwing herself into their world.
On a related note, if you’re in the Southern California area, The Academy will be presenting the multimedia exhibition Hollywood Costume, October 2, 2014 through March 2, 2015. The exhibition will bring together the world’s most iconic costumes from the Golden Age of cinema to the present. DetailsHERE.
Academy Originals are drawn on the expertise of the organization’s more than 6,000 members, its vast collection of archival material and its position within film conversation.
Composer Jóhann Jóhannsson scores Focus Features’ THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, directed by James Marsh.
World-premiering next month at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival in advance of its November release in the U.S and Canada, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING stars Eddie Redmayne (“Les Misérables”) and Felicity Jones (“The Amazing Spider-Man 2”) in the extraordinary story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde.
Jóhann Jóhannsson’s previous film credits include last year’s thriller PRISONERS, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, as well as the crime drama MCCANICK starring David Morse and Cory Monteith’s final appearance in a feature film.
In THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, once a healthy, active young man, Hawking received an earth-shattering diagnosis at 21 years of age. With Jane fighting tirelessly by his side, Stephen embarks on his most ambitious scientific work, studying the very thing he now has precious little of – time. Together, they defy impossible odds, breaking new ground in medicine and science, and achieving more than they could ever have dreamed.
The screenplay by Anthony McCarten is based on the memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, by Jane Hawking, and is directed by Academy Award winner James Marsh (“Man on Wire”). The film’s cast also includes Charlie Cox (“Daredevil”), Academy Award nominee Emily Watson, Simon McBurney (“Magic in the Moonlight”), and David Thewlis (“Harry Potter”).
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING opens in select cities starting November 7th.
The film boasts a beautifully poignant score by Jóhannsson depicting the ups and downs of their love story as Hawking faces a virtual death sentence from ALS.
Jóhannsson’s lovely score includes his signature blend of acoustic instruments and electronics. A keystone composer in the modern classical movement, Jóhannsson is distinguished by his ability to create soundscapes by electronically manipulating orchestral instrumentation, with an emotional range that spans from inspirational to harrowing. Jóhannsson explains,“It always involves the layers of live recordings, whether it’s orchestra or a band or solo instrument, with electronics and more soundscape-y elements which can come from various sources.”
Named a Top 12 Film Composer “On The Rise” in 2014 by Indiewire, Jóhannsson began his career composing for theater, so transitioning into film was a natural progression, as well as his involvement in scoring experimental video art projects. Jóhannsson compositions have been released through the legendary label 4AD, including IBM 1401: A User’s manual, an album composed of the sounds of an old mainframe computer.
Other recent projects include the indie dramaI Am Here, starring Kim Basinger. He is currently scoring the crime drama Sicario, starring Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro, in theaters 2015.
