Check out Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner in a new poster & clips from Focus Features’ upcoming inspirational drama DALLAS BUYERS CLUB– opening in select theatres on Friday, November 1.
In her review from the Toronto International Film Festival, Anna Tatarska wrote:
“Skin-and-bones Matthew McConaughey uses his cowboy swag to tell death off, proving that even in a story about AIDS there’s some space for a little humor.”
Check out the trailer here.
Matthew McConaughey stars in director Jean-Marc Vallée’s DALLAS BUYERS CLUB as real-life Texas cowboy Ron Woodroof, whose free-wheeling life was overturned in 1985 when he was diagnosed as HIV-positive and given 30 days to live. These were the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and the U.S. was divided over how to combat the virus. Ron, now shunned and ostracized by many of his old friends, and bereft of government-approved effective medicines, decided to take matters in his own hands, tracking down alternative treatments from all over the world by means both legal and illegal.
Bypassing the establishment, the entrepreneurial Woodroof joined forces with an unlikely band of renegades and outcasts – who he once would have shunned – and established a hugely successful “buyers’ club.” Their shared struggle for dignity and acceptance is a uniquely American story of the transformative power of resilience.
A-listers and Oscar winners star in this second trailer for THE MONUMENTS MEN.
Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, THE MONUMENTS MEN is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners.
A vast improvement over the original teaser trailer. Will the film be among the Best Picture nominees in the upcoming Oscar race? We’ll find out when the nominations are announced on Thursday, January 16, 2014.
However this year’s Award Season pans out, THE MONUMENTS MEN, along with it’s star-studded cast, is akin to the old-Hollywood WWII movies THE DIRTY DOZEN, GUNS OF NAVARONE, and THE LONGEST DAY – all of which were big commercial successes and Academy Award winners.
It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys – seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 – possibly hope to succeed?
But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements.
From director George Clooney, the film stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanchett.
The screenplay is by George Clooney & Grant Heslov, based on the book by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter. Produced by Grant Heslov and George Clooney.
Clooney’s crew on THE MONUMENTS MEN includes director of photography Phedon Papamichael, ASC, Oscar®-nominated production designer Jim Bissell , Academy Award®-winning editor Stephen Mirrione , A.C.E., costume designer Louise Frogley , and five-time Oscar® nominated composer Alexandre Desplat. Barbara A. Hall is executive producer.
Look for THE MONUMENTS MEN in theaters December 18, 2013.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for the 86th Academy Awards has been narrowed to eight films, of which three to five will earn Oscar nominations.
Voters from the Academy’s Documentary Branch viewed this year’s 40 eligible entries and submitted their ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers for tabulation.
Here are the eight films with their production companies:
“Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall,” Prison Terminal LLC –
A moving cinema verité documentary that breaks through the walls of one of America’s oldest maximum security prisons to tell the story of the final months in the life of a terminally ill prisoner and the hospice volunteers, they themselves prisoners, who care for him.
The film draws from footage shot over a six-month period behind the walls of the Iowa State Penitentiary and provides a fascinating and often poignant account of how the hospice experience can profoundly touch even the forsaken lives of the incarcerated.
“CaveDigger,” Karoffilms
“Facing Fear,” Jason Cohen Productions, LLC
“Jujitsu-ing Reality,” Sobini Films
“Karama Has No Walls,” Hot Spot Films
“The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life,” Reed Entertainment
“Recollections,” notrac productions
“SLOMO,” Big Young Films and Runaway Films
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
Want more on The Academy and their various events?
Every once in a great while, a movie comes along that leaves you truly riveted to your seat and resonates with you long after you’ve left the theater. ALL IS LOST is unlike any other.
It is one of those rare experiences when simplicity of story and intensity of emotions come together consisting entirely of prose description, with no dialogue. What’s most impressive about the film is that ALL IS LOST does not feature a single shot set on dry land. Camera crews filmed in various parts of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean, including off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico, about 80 miles south of San Diego.
Where it really triumphs is when Chandor occasionally lets his camera linger on Redford and relish his quiet, simple activities in a way seldom seen on film.
Filmmaker J.C. Chandor knew he wanted to make some form of open-water thriller long before his feature writing and directing debut, MARGIN CALL, was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. But it took almost six years for him to finally hit upon the startlingly original idea for ALL IS LOST, a harrowing nautical adventure that takes place entirely at sea and features a single nameless – and nearly wordless – character.
“It’s a very simple story about a guy late in his life who goes out for a four-or five-month sail,” Chandor says. “Fate intervenes, the boat has an accident, and essentially we go on an eight-day journey with him as he fights to survive.”
Two-time Academy Award winner Robert Redford and writer/director J. C. Chandor recently discussed their amazing film at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, CA. The event was moderated by LA Times writer John Horn.
Redford’s two Oscar wins have been for directing (ORDINARY PEOPLE) and an Honorary one at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002. He’s never won gold in the acting categories. Redford received a nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for THE STING (1973).
This could be the year that AMPAS voters give him the statuette.
Robert Redford stars in ALL IS LOST, an open-water thriller about one man’s battle for survival against the elements after his sailboat is destroyed at sea. Written and directed by Academy Award nominee J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) with a musical score by Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), the film is a gripping, visceral and powerfully moving tribute to ingenuity and resilience.
Deep into a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean, an unnamed man (Redford) wakes to find his 39-foot yacht taking on water after a collision with a shipping container left floating on the high seas. With his navigation equipment and radio disabled, the man sails unknowingly into the path of a violent storm. Despite his success in patching the breached hull, his mariner’s intuition, and a strength that belies his age, the man barely survives the tempest.
Using only a sextant and nautical maps to chart his progress, he is forced to rely on ocean currents to carry him into a shipping lane in hopes of hailing a passing vessel. But with the sun unrelenting, sharks circling and his meager supplies dwindling, the ever-resourceful sailor soon finds himself staring his mortality in the face.
In a film so devoid of dialogue, the musical score assumed special importance. Chandor turned to acclaimed singer-songwriter Alex Ebert, leader of the band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, to compose the film’s score – his first such project.
“It’s about beauty,” he says. “It’s emotional and everything that comes along with life and death, and nothing less. I think that’s the primary subject of humanity – and it’s something that you might want to stay away from because it would be overdramatic. But this dude’s in the middle of the ocean on a raft. Let the music be emotional because it is emotional. We followed the movie’s lead.”
Only five days after its record-breaking launch, Warner Bros. Pictures’ GRAVITY has flown past $100 million at the worldwide box office. The film has earned an estimated $68.5 million domestically and $35.8 internationally for a global total to date of $104.3 million.
Following weeks of enthusiastic critical acclaim and huge anticipation from moviegoers, the Alfonso Cuarón-directed dramatic thriller exceeded all expectations on its opening weekend. Taking in $55.8 million domestically, GRAVITY broke a number of box office records, including those for the biggest October opening for any film, the largest IMAX opening in October ($11.8 million), and the highest opening weekend ever for stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.
Academy Award® winners Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”) and George Clooney (“Syriana”) star in “Gravity,” a heart-pounding thriller that pulls you into the infinite and unforgiving realm of deep space. The film was directed by Oscar® nominee Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men”).
Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) in command. But on a seemingly routine mission, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left.
But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.
GRAVITY was written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman (the “Harry Potter” films). Chris deFaria, Nikki Penny and Stephen Jones served as executive producers.
The behind-the-scenes team includes multiple Oscar®-nominated director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki (“Children of Men,” “The New World”); production designer Andy Nicholson (art director “Alice in Wonderland”); editors Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger (VFX editor “Children of Men”); and costume designer Jany Temime (the “Harry Potter” films). The visual effects were handled by Oscar®-nominated visual effects supervisor Tim Webber (“The Dark Knight”).
The music was composed by Steven Price (“Attack the Block”). Read our interview with him HERE.
This film has been rated PG-13 for intense perilous sequences, some disturbing images and brief strong language.
Like David O. Russell’s previous films, AMERICAN HUSTLE defies genre, hinges on raw emotion, and life and death stakes in the new theatrical trailer.
(Yahoo! Movies)
A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock our nation, AMERICAN HUSTLE tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who along with his equally cunning and seductive British partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that’s as dangerous as it is enchanting.
Jeremy Renner is Carmine Polito, the passionate, volatile, New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds. Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down.
Directed by David O. Russell, written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell and produced by Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, and Megan Ellison, AMERICAN HUSTLE hits theaters December 13, 2013 New York / Los Angeles and December 25, 2013 Wide.
Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) goes on the adventure of a lifetime in the new theatrical trailer for THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY.
The American Film Institute announced last month that 20th Century Fox’s film will be a part of the red carpet Centerpiece Galas at 2013 AFI FEST presented by Audi in November.
In a recent review of the movie, Variety’s Senior Film Critic, Peter Debruge, writes:
“From a technical perspective, this is Stiller’s slickest pic yet, demonstrating creative widescreen framing and an inspired blend of dramatic score and recent pop tunes throughout.”
Ben Stiller directs and stars in THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, James Thurber’s classic story of a day-dreamer who escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. When his job along with that of his co-worker (Kristen Wiig) are threatened, Walter takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined.
Also featuring Shirley MacLaine, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, Patton Oswalt and Sean Penn, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY will be in theaters December 25, 2013.
In his Sundance London 2013 review, Kenji Lloyd (Heyuguys.co.uk) wrote,
“THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER AND PETE is a film that stays with you.”
The must-see drama stars Skylan Brooks, Ethan Dizon, Jordin Sparks, Jeffrey Wright, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, with Anthony Mackie and Jennifer Hudson.
During a sweltering summer in New York City, 13-year-old Mister’s (Brooks) hard-living mother (Hudson) is apprehended by the police, leaving the boy and nine-year-old Pete (Dizon) alone to forage for food while dodging child protective services and the destructive scenarios of the Brooklyn projects. Faced with more than any child can be expected to bear, the resourceful Mister nevertheless feels he is an unstoppable force against seemingly unmovable obstacles. But what really keeps the pair in the survival game is much more Mister’s vulnerability than his larger-than-life attitude.
Production has begun in southwest France on THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY, based on the best-selling novel by Richard C. Morais. Starring Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren, and directed by Oscar nominee Lasse Hallström, the film will be released on August 8, 2014 in the U.S.
In THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY, Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) is a culinary ingénue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, the Kadam family, led by Papa (Om Puri), settles in the quaint village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. Filled with charm, it is both picturesque and elegant – the ideal place to settle down and open an Indian restaurant, the Maison Mumbai. That is, until the chilly chef proprietress of Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin starred, classical French restaurant run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), gets wind of it.
Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant a hundred feet from her own escalate to all out war between the two establishments – until Hassan’s passion for French haute cuisine and for Mme. Mallory’s enchanting sous chef, Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), combine with his mysteriously delicious talent to weave magic between their two cultures and imbue Saint-Antonin with the flavors of life that even Mme. Mallory cannot ignore. At first Mme. Mallory’s culinary rival, she eventually recognizes Hassan’s gift as a chef and takes him under her wing.
THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY abounds with flavors that burst across the tongue. A stimulating triumph over exile, blossoming with passion and heart, with marjoram and madras, it is a portrayal of two worlds colliding and one boy’s drive to find the comfort of home, in every pot, wherever he may be.
THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY is directed by acclaimed Academy Awardand Golden Globenominee Lasse Hallström from a script by Steven Knight and is based on the international best-selling novel of the same name by Richard C. Morais. The movie’s producers are Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Juliet Blake. The film’s executive producers are Caroline Hewitt and Carla Gardini. Raphael Benoliel is co-producer.
The filmmakers of THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY also include production designer David Gropman (“August: Osage County,” “Life Of Pi”), costume designer Pierre-Yves Gayraud (“Cloud Atlas,” “Albert Nobbs”) director of photography Linus Sandgren (“American Hustle,” “Promised Land”) and editor Andrew Mondshein (“Safe Haven,” “The Odd Life of Timothy Green”).
DreamWorks Studios is producing, with Participant Media co-financing. Mister Smith Entertainment is handling foreign sales to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, DreamWorks’ partner Reliance will distribute in India, with Disney handling the remaining international territories. Disney will distribute the film theatrically in the U.S
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today that The Walt Disney Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bob Iger, will be honored with the 2014 Milestone Award. The award will be presented to Iger at the 25th Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony on January 19, 2014 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
“I’ve had the great privilege of working with some of the world’s best storytellers,” said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and CEO, The Walt Disney Company. “I am constantly inspired by the creativity and innovation at Disney, as thousands of people around the world work together to tell great stories in spectacular new ways. For 90 years, Disney has redefined what’s possible and raised the standard of excellence in entertainment. We continue to strive to live up to that legacy, and it’s very rewarding to see our efforts recognized in such a meaningful way by the Producers Guild of America.”
The Milestone Award is the Guild’s highest honor recognizing an individual or team who has made historic contributions to the entertainment industry. In the past, the Producers Guild has paid tribute to such industry leaders as Clint Eastwood, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Ron Meyer, Walt Disney, and the 2013 recipients Bob and Harvey Weinstein, among others.
PGA Awards Co-Chairs Lori McCreary (INVICTUS, “Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman”) and Michael De Luca (CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, MONEYBALL, THE SOCIAL NETWORK) stated, “Bob Iger is one of the most respected business leaders in the world. At The Walt Disney Company, his leadership at this pivotal moment in our industry’s evolution has taken the company to new heights and maintained its place at the forefront of entertainment. Over the course of his 8 years of stewardship, he has been a model of dedication and foresight, bringing companies together to create new platforms for storytelling and cultivating creative excellence, innovation and continued growth. It is only fitting that we thank Bob for his contributions to our industry by recognizing him with the Producers Guild’s highest honor.”
