Academy Award nominees Bill Murray and Laura Linney star in a historical tale that uniquely explores the all-too-human side of one of history’s iconic leaders. Blending literate wit and drama, HYDE PARK ON HUDSON is directed by Roger Michell from a screenplay by Richard Nelson.
In June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (played by Mr. Murray) readies to host the King and Queen of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York – marking the first-ever visit of a reigning British monarch to America. As Britain faces imminent war with Germany, the royals are desperately looking to FDR for U.S. support.
But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR’s domestic establishment, as his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams), mother Sara (Elizabeth Wilson), and secretary Missy (Elizabeth Marvel) will all play a part in making the royal weekend an unforgettable one.
Seen through the eyes of Daisy (Ms. Linney), Franklin’s neighbor and intimate, the weekend will produce not only a special relationship between two great nations, but, for Daisy – and through her, for us all – a deeper understanding of the mysteries of love and friendship.
Focus Features and WAMG invite you to enter to win a pass to the advance screening of HYDE PARK ON HUDSON on December 12th at 7PM in St. Louis
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.
2. SEND YOUR NAME AND ANSWERS TO: michelle@wearemoviegeeks.com
3. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:
Name FDR’s dog and what the dog’s nickname was.
The Roosevelts hosted the 1st visit of a reigning British monarch to the U.S. – George VI and his wife Elizabeth. The King and Queen were introduced for the 1st time to what famous American food?
WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PASSES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED. DUPLICATE TICKETS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
A Focus Features and Film4 presentation of a Free Range Film/Daybreak Pictures production. A Roger Michell Film. Bill Murray, Laura Linney. Hyde Park on Hudson. Samuel West, Olivia Colman, Elizabeth Marvel, Elizabeth Wilson, Eleanor Bron, and Olivia Williams. Hair Designer, Norma Webb. Make-up Designer, Morag Ross. Casting by Gail Stevens, CDG, and Ellen Lewis. Costume Designer, Dinah Collin. Music by Jeremy Sams. Edited by Nicolas Gaster. Production Designer, Simon Bowles. Director of Photography, Lol Crawley. Line Producer, Rosa Romero. Executive Producer, Tessa Ross. Produced by Kevin Loader, Roger Michell, David Aukin. Written by Richard Nelson. Directed by Roger Michell. A Focus Features Release.
Yesterday the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) named ZERO DARK THIRTY Best Picture. Wins also went to Kathryn Bigelow, Best Director and Greig Fraser, Best Cinematography. Here’s the latest clip from Columbia Pictures’ film.
The hunt for Osama bin Laden preoccupied the world and two American presidential administrations for more than a decade. But in the end, it took a small, dedicated team of CIA operatives to track him down. Every aspect of their mission was shrouded in secrecy. Though some of the details have since been made public, many of the most significant parts of the intelligence operation – including the central role played by that team – are brought to the screen for the first time in a nuanced and gripping new film by the Oscar®-winning creative duo of Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal.
Their account of bin Laden’s pursuit and capture, vivid yet faithful to the facts, takes the viewer inside the hubs of power and to the front lines of this historic mission, culminating in the special operations assault on a mysterious, suburban Pakistani compound.
But it is the lead-up to the raid that truly distinguishes ZERO DARK THIRTY from other accounts. The quest to find bin Laden was fraught with danger from the start, and not every U.S. operative survived. Some intelligence experts came to believe that the assignment was impossible to carry out, but on the ground a determined team of analysts and interrogators defied the odds and proved them wrong. For the first time, their struggle to find Osama bin Laden is told on the screen in electrifying detail.
The initial, self-imposed creative challenge Bigelow and Boal faced in developing Zero Dark Thirty was how to tell this multifaceted story in the compressed time frame of a motion picture. The film encompasses sweeping events spanning nearly a decade, journeying across multiple countries and involving a precisely chosen cast of hundreds along with a devoted crew whose objective was to capture the on-the-ground reality of this mission as truthfully and viscerally as possible. To that end, it pulls no punches in documenting the moral lines – including torture – that were crossed. The intention was to create a cinematic work with the sweep and human emotion of a historical novel.
ZERO DARK THIRTY (the title is military jargon for the dark of night, as well as the moment – 12:30 a.m. – when the Navy SEALs first stepped foot on the compound) marks Kathryn Bigelow’s most ambitious production to date. Deploying the full arsenal of filmic art, from the naturalistic performances of an ensemble that includes Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, and Edgar Ramirez, to innovative cinematography in extreme low-light conditions, to the painstakingly layered art direction, every facet of the production became a proving ground for Bigelow to make living history come alive on screen.
For screenwriter and producer Mark Boal, a trained journalist and award-winning dramatist, sourcing and reporting the story so that it could be told accurately and fully presented countless unique challenges. He made a commitment to his sources that he would chronicle not only their personal struggles, but also the details and the ramifications of this historic operation, while simultaneously protecting the identities of those he interviewed. Through dialogue and scenes inspired by extensive interviews, Boal crafted characters that captured the essence of the real life people involved in the operation as well as other members of the military and intelligence communities.
At the end of the day, the filmmakers chose to tell the story through the eyes of a little-known participant in the intel hunt: Maya, a young CIA officer and targeter whose job is finding terrorists. In a multifaceted performance by Chastain, the character of Maya, which is based on a real person, became Boal’s vehicle for dramatizing the individual’s role in the larger scheme. In some ways, the portrait of her development, from innocence to horror and grim determination, echoes the evolution of a nation struggling to cope with the ruthless calculus of terrorism.
Unlike Bigelow and Boal’s previous collaboration, THE HURT LOCKER, in which fictional characters were set against the terrifying real world of Iraq, ZERO DARK THIRTY is distinctive and singular in its approach. It is an amalgam of action-film and investigative reporting and drama, neither a work of fiction nor a documentary but an exciting hybrid that tracks closely what is known of the intelligence hunt, while shedding new light on the secretive, dark corridors of the war on terror. It deftly depicts the mysteries of human courage and the ambiguities of a situation in which the usual moral rules no longer apply.
Cinematic story telling became the perfect means to relay the narrative. In staking out this novel territory, Boal’s inspiration was the New Journalism of the 1960s, when major American writers learned to apply the techniques of literature to the description of real events. In this sense, ZERO DARK THIRTY attempts to move the genre of literary reportage forward, offering the audience a unique kind of movie: the reported film.
At its core, ZERO DARK THIRTY offers a cinematic rendition into one of the most discussed but least known events of modern times from creative artists challenging themselves to push the limits of their craft. Events are recreated with a fidelity to the facts, including filming in Pakistan itself, embedding the viewer into the center of the action. The result is a film as profound and provocative as it is stunning and real.
In the storied history of manhunts for international criminals, the quest for Osama bin Laden has no real precedent.
“It is the story of finding a very sharp needle in a very large haystack,” notes director Kathryn Bigelow. “Once bin Laden escaped from Afghanistan, he fenced himself in with a byzantine network that took years and years to unravel. And what I think is so intriguing about Mark’s script is the way it tracks all the minute steps, in a way that’s dramatic yet totally unsentimental, unsparing, and unsettling. This is a very raw account.”
Where would the breakthroughs come? What clues might give bin Laden’s location away? Could Al Qaeda operatives be turned?
While these were all essential questions, for Bigelow and Boal a more fundamental question loomed: who were the CIA operatives who refused to give up and stayed on bin Laden’s trail even when it went cold and the world was distracted by other crises? For the first time, a film focuses on the human dimension of that story, illustrating the internal struggle of the operatives and the overwhelming toll of the mission.
“The question for me as a filmmaker was, how do you tie all the pieces of this epic story together in a way that will be tonally united and all in the same register?” says Bigelow. “Mark’s research and script brought the breadth of it, from Afghanistan to Washington to Pakistan, to life. And then it became a kind of instinctual process, moment-by-moment, scene-by-scene, of telling the story with restraint at every level. It was both a massive undertaking and a very careful, subtle undertaking and there is no way I could have made ZERO DARK THIRTY without all the experiences I’ve had as a filmmaker so far.”
The quest to tell the story of ZERO DARK THIRTY would eventually lead Bigelow and Boal into their own labyrinthine encounter with secretiveness and intense production challenges. But it all started simply and quietly, six years ago,
“This thing is pretty hand made,” says Boal, “and it’s gone through two iterations. It began six years ago as a movie about the failure to capture bin Laden in Tora Bora. I spent a few years on that, researching and writing, and we were in pre-production of that film by 2011, with scouts in Romania. Then, more or less out of the blue, bin Laden was killed, and that film became ancient history. So I had to start again.”
“This story was always personal to me because I grew up in New York City, in the shadow of The World Trade Center and, after 9/11, I really felt I needed to understand more about bin Laden and the U.S. response to him,” notes Boal, who has reported on national security issues and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for magazines as diverse as Playboy and Rolling Stone. “The guy attacked my hometown, and the long aftermath of that day has defined my professional life as a writer. I can’t say I picked the topic. Writers, like children, don’t always get to pick their influences. It picked me.”
At that time, Bigelow was already drawing critical and popular attention as a director with her own uncompromising vision and affinity for meshing taut, involving action with human intrigue in features including NEAR DARK, BLUE STEEL and K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER. In the midst of Boal’s initial research on Tora Bora, he and Bigelow made THE HURT LOCKER, which would win her a place in history as one of the leading chroniclers of 21st Century warfare and as the first woman ever to win the Oscar® for Best Director.
Still, even with acclaim and awards on their side, the topic of bin Laden remained a non-starter in Hollywood and the filmmakers had to find independent financing to get the project off the ground. Boal and Bigelow joined forces with producer and financier Megan Ellison, who funded the picture through her label, Annapurna Pictures.
After the historic events of May 1, 2011, when news of bin Laden’s death stunned the world, Boal moved to Washington for several months, diving into 80-plus hour work-weeks, literally pounding the pavement and knocking on doors. He then travelled to Pakistan and other parts of the Middle East to follow the leads of the story.
“Public affairs at some agencies were helpful, and then a lot of the reporting was done the old-fashioned way, with shoe leather, and sourcing and luck,” explains Boal. “My intention was to get as many first-hand accounts from those who were involved as possible, and I was at the end of the day fortunate to be able to write a script drawn almost entirely from first-hand accounts of the people directly involved in the mission.”
“Obviously, unless you are making a documentary, at a certain point, you have to take off your journalist’s hat and put on your screenwriter’s hat to tell a great story. This is a movie after all. When you are detailing a ten-year manhunt and compressing those facts and that research into a two-hour movie, you have to tell your story efficiently.”
Boal’s approach synched perfectly with Bigelow’s vision for the film. “The public knows very little about what the unsung heroes in the intelligence community go through, which is as it has to be, but here you get a rare opportunity to have a first-hand look at the men and women at the heart of one of the most covert operations in our history,” says the director. “Mark didn’t just ascertain facts; he absorbed the subtle nuances permeating the atmosphere of this world – the personalities, the conflicts, the motivations, the uncertainties – and then brilliantly illuminated them.”
Bigelow concludes, “The ultimate goal for all of us was to bring people into this shadowy, yet vitally important, world that is seen only in the rarest moments, and illuminate its human face.”
ZERO DARK THIRTY has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for Strong Violence Including Brutal Disturbing Images, and for Language. The film will be released in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on December 19, 2012. In theaters wide January 11, 2013.
Columbia Pictures presents a Mark Boal production, a First Light production, an Annapurna Pictures production, a Kathryn Bigelow film, ZERO DARK THIRTY. Starring Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, and Edgar Ramirez. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Written by Mark Boal. Produced by Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, and Megan Ellison. Executive Producers are Colin Wilson, Ted Schipper, and Greg Shapiro. Director of Photography is Greig Fraser ACS. Production Designer is Jeremy Hindle. Edited by Dylan Tichenor, A.C.E. and William Goldenberg, A.C.E. Costumes Designed by George L. Little. Music by Alexandre Desplat. Sound Design by Paul N. J. Ottosson. Casting by Mark Bennett, CSA, Richard Hicks, CSA, and Gail Stevens.
In the wake of the confirmation of its premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) has given fans an unprecedented peek behind the scenes of his directorial debut: The official trailer for his feature documentary film, SOUND CITY, about the legendary Van Nuys, CA studio has just been unveiled via @soundcitymovie and @foofighters.
Grohl, who will travel to Sundance next month along with select artists featured in the film and its forthcoming soundtrack album commented yesterday, “As a first time director, I am humbled to be able to share my passion for songwriting and storytelling with this incredible cast of legendary musicians, as seen through the extraordinary story of America’s greatest unsung recording studio, Sound City. Being included in this group of artists is a true honor, and the Sundance Film Festival is the perfect place to premiere a film about craft, integrity, and passion for art. I am over the moon!”
SOUND CITY, the film, was conceived by Grohl after purchasing the legendary custom-built Neve 8028 recording console from Sound City Studios last year. The board, built in 1972, is considered by many to be the crown jewel of analog recording equipment, having recorded such artists as Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Cheap Trick, Guns and Roses, Fear, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Slipknot, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, and countless other musical legends over the past 40 years.
Through interviews with the artists and producers that created decades of musical history at Sound City, the film showcases the amazing history of the studio, focuses on the albums recorded there that went on to change the world, then explores the human element of music in an age of technology, and features performances of new music created exclusively for the film.
Grohl’s personal connection to Sound City began with the 1991 recording of Nirvana’s breakthrough album, “Nevermind”. Selling over 30 million copies worldwide, “Nevermind” changed the entire musical landscape and forever altered the course of Dave Grohl’s life.
Roswell Films, a division of the Roswell Records label that releases Foo Fighters music, will distribute the film. Key personnel involved with the film include Producer/Director Dave Grohl; Editor Paul Crowder (Dogtown & Z Boys, Once In a Lifetime, Riding Giants); and Writer Mark Monroe (The Cove, Once In a Lifetime, The Tillman Story). The film is also being produced in conjunction with Jim Rota, John Ramsay, and Therapy studios.
In June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Academy Award nominee Bill Murray) and his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams) host King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York – the first-ever visit of a reigning English monarch to America.
With Britain facing imminent war with Germany, the Royals are desperately looking to FDR for support. But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR’s domestic establishment, as wife, mother, and mistresses all conspire to make the royal weekend an unforgettable one. Seen through the eyes of Daisy (Academy Award nominee Laura Linney), Franklin’s neighbor and intimate, the weekend will produce not only a special relationship between two great nations, but, for Daisy – and through her, for us all – a deeper understanding of the mysteries of love and friendship.
Enter for a chance to win a HYDE PARK ON HUDSON prize from Focus Features and WAMG.
One (1) winner will receive:
$25 American Express Gift Card for a night at the movies
Prizing provided by Focus Features
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE A US RESIDENT. PRIZE WILL ONLY BE SHIPPED TO US ADDRESSES.
2. SEND YOUR FULL NAME and ANSWERS TO: michelle@wearemoviegeeks.com
3. What President came after FDR and what Monarch followed George VI.
WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN FROM ALL QUALIFYING ENTRIES. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PRIZES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED.
CONTEST WILL END ON MONDAY, December 17, 11:59pm CST.
BAFTA Award winner Roger Michell (Film4’s Venus) directed from a screenplay by Richard Nelson. The film will bow in select theatres December 7th. Nationwide January 4, 2013. The cast of HYDE PARK ON HUDSONalso includes Elizabeth Wilson (The Birds), Elizabeth Marvel (True Grit), and Eleanor Bron (Help!). Simon Bowles (Centurion) is the film’s production designer; Dinah Collin (The Ghost Writer) is the costume designer. The cinematographer is Lol Crawley (Film4’s Four Lions).
“Finding Nemo” has finally made its way into High Definition with the release of both a 3-Disc Collector’s Edition (2 Blu-rays and 1 DVD) and a 5-disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition (3D Blu-ray, 2 Blu-ray, DVD, and portable media copy) from Pixar/Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
“Nemo” is an underwater adventure film that deals with the tragedy of a parent’s worst nightmare…losing their child. It also deals with overcoming one’s fear and of parents and children learning to grow on their own.
Marlin (Albert Brooks) is a clown fish and Nemo (Alexander Gould) is his son. Marlin, having suffered through the traumatic experience of losing his wife and all of their eggs (except Nemo’s) to a predator fish, is very overprotective and fearful of the ocean and the dangers that hide in the waters. One day, in a moment of rebellion, Nemo swims a little too far out past the coral reef they call home, and is captured by a diver who takes him to his new home—a fish tank in a dentist’s office. Marlin teams up with Dory (Ellen Degeneres), a blue tang fish with short term memory problems, and together the two begin a quest to find Nemo and bring him home. The two encounter everything from friendly sea turtles and reformed sharks, to a school of jellyfish and an underwater mine field. Nemo, meanwhile plots an escape from the fish tank with his tankmates. It is a fun, moving adventure, full of humor and emotion. It deservedly won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2003.
VIDEO: “Nemo” is presented in 1080p High Definition with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and looks fantastic. The images are vibrant and colorful. The animation looks slightly aged in comparison to today’s animated fare, lending a somewhat softer look in some parts, but my issue with that is minimal. The film looks great.
AUDIO: The audio on this disc is perfect. The film is presented with a new 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track and sounds spectacular. I cannot say one negative thing about it. The dialogue is crystal clear, the music is loud and booming, and the underwater noises surround you. Fish swim by, bubbles rise to the surface, seagulls chirp, and whales sing in full surround sound glory.
BONUS FEATURES: Once again, Disney and Pixar deliver a plethora of bonus features that will entertain you for hours. Many of them appeared previously on the 2003 DVD release, but there are extensive new features as well.
I will start with what was my favorite:
Reinventing the Submarine Voyage (15 minutes)- This feature takes us behind the scenes of the Submarine Voyage ride at Disneyland and shows how it was updated and changed a few years ago to the Finding Nemo Submarine Adventure ride. This was A+. It went into the history of the ride from 1959 with footage of its construction and opening, showing us what riders would see through the ride’s portholes, and even had a bit on the real-life mermaids that would sit on the rocks to entertain those standing in line and would dive in the water to entertain those looking out the windows of the submarine.
It then had interviews with the imagineers who were tasked with updating the ride with a “Finding Nemo” theme and show what the ride looks like now. A fantastic bonus feature.
Knick Knack (4 minutes)- This is an early Pixar animated short that was made six years before Toy Story. It’s about a snowman trapped in a snow globe and his quest to hook up with a bikini-clad knick knack on the other side of the glass. Very entertaining.
Finding Nemo: A Filmmaker’s Roundtable Discussion (18 minutes)- This recently produced feature reunites director Stanton, co-director Unkrich, co-writer Peterson, producer Graham Walters, production designer Ralph Eggleston, and technical lead Oren Jacob as they sit around a table 9 years after Nemo was released to discuss the making of the film, recalling fun stories, and talking about how the film has impacted their lives.
CineExplore (101 minutes)- This is basically a modernized picture-in-picture audio commentary track with director Andrew Stanton, co-director Lee Unkrich, and co-writer Bob Peterson. While they are speaking, a second picture appears over the film with storyboards, photos, early concept art, animation tests, etc. This was an interesting way to get you to watch those things. The audio track itself is mid-level, dry at times, yet somewhat informative.
Deleted Scene: Alternate Opening (3 minutes)- An alternate opening presented with voice over and early concept art. Meh.
A Lesson in Flashbacks (8 minutes)- Stanton discusses what he learned about flashbacks while developing “Finding Nemo’s” story and structure. Five flashbacks are presented in concept art form. Again, meh.
Aquarium: A collection of HD ocean floor screensavers.
The rest of the bonus features are carried over on a second disc from the 2003 DVD release. The best of those include Making Nemo (26 minutes), an excellent, yet too-short making of documentary covering various stages of production, and Exploring the Reef (7 minutes), where the voice cast of “Finding Nemo” join Jean-Michel Cousteau on an exploration of the world’s dying coral reefs. Other bonus features carried over include trailers, Studio Tour (5 minutes), a behind-the-scenes look at Pixar Studios, a collection of outtakes and deleted scenes, publicity pieces, Art Review, and Old School, a collection of behind the scenes shorts.
The new bonus features and upgraded video and audio quality (along with the new 3D version) make this new “Finding Nemo” worth owning.
FILM QUALITY: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS
VIDEO QUALITY: 4.5 OUT OF 5 STARS
AUDIO QUALITY: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS
BONUS FEATURES: 4.5 OUT OF 5 STARS
Those who would like to stay connected with the exciting “Finding Nemo” release are encouraged to:
“Like” the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PixarFindingNemo
Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DisneyPixar
Visit the official website: www.disney.com/FindingNemo
Dane DeHaan will join the cast of the next installment of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN along side Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and Shailene Woodley as Columbia Pictures prepares to begin production on the next chapter of the blockbuster franchise, it was announced today by Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, and Hannah Minghella, president of production for the studio.
The screenplay is by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci and Jeff Pinkner based on a previous draft by James Vanderbilt. The film will be directed by Marc Webb and produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach.
The casting of DeHaan as Harry Osborn was confirmed this morning in a tweet by Webb (@MarcW) who wrote “Meet Harry Osborn. So excited to have him on board. @danedehaan.” The new film in the Spider-Man saga is set for release in 3D on May 2, 2014. Production will begin in early 2013. Webb, Garfield and Stone previously teamed on this summer’s blockbuster THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, which has taken in more than $751 million worldwide.
DeHaan caught moviegoers’ attention with his performances in four 2012 releases: Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN, opposite Daniel Day-Lewis and Lukas Haas; John Hillcoat’s LAWLESS, alongside Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, and Jason Clarke; Bradley Rust Gray’s JACK & DIANE, with Juno Temple and Riley Keough; and one of the year’s biggest sleeper hits, the adventure thriller CHRONICLE, directed by Josh Trank. He began his film career with director John Sayles and actor Chris Cooper in AMIGO.
DeHaan next stars in PLACE BEYOND THE PINES alongside Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling. In addition he will star in Atom Egoyan’s DEVIL’S KNOT, with Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth, about the fate of the West Memphis Three; and John Krokidas’ KILL YOUR DARLINGS, with Jack Huston, Daniel Radcliffe, Ben Foster, and Kyra Sedgwick, set in 1944 amidst the Beat Generation.
Mr. DeHaan first came to industry attention with his portrayal of Jesse in the third season of the critically applauded drama series In Treatment, starring alongside Gabriel Byrne. This was followed by a guest arc in the fourth season of the popular horror series True Blood.
In 2010, he received an Obie Award for his performance in Annie Baker’s The Aliens, directed by Sam Gold. The Rattlestick Theater production was cited as “Play of the Year” by The New York Times. Mr. DeHaan made his Broadway debut in with American Buffalo, Robert Falls’ 2008 staging of the classic David Mamet play.
The SundanceNOW channel has released two new films, and we are giving away a chance to view them for free! SAVE THE DATE and CHEERFUL WEATHER FOR A WEDDING are now available to watch now on SundanceNOW.
SAVE THE DATE
Starring:
Lizzy Caplan, Alison Brie, Martin Starr, Mark Webber, Geoffrey Arend
Synopsis:
After an ill-timed and very public marriage proposal, fiercely independent Sarah (Lizzy Caplan) breaks up with her overeager boyfriend Kevin (Geoffrey Arend). Sarah turns to her sister Beth (Alison Brie) for support, but Beth is too busy obsessing over the details of her own wedding to Kevin’s bandmate, Andrew (Martin Starr). When Sarah suddenly finds herself caught up in an intense rebound romance with the adorable Jonathan (Mark Webber), she is forced to examine her own fears of commitment and vulnerability. With honesty, heart, and humor, all five struggle with the trials, happiness, and pain of modern love. In the end Sarah must decide – is it better to stay safely single or to risk it all on love?
Led by rising stars Alison Brie (COMMUNITY, MAD MEN) and Lizzy Caplan (BACHELORETTE, PARTY DOWN), Sundance Film Festival hit SAVE
CHEERFUL WEATHER FOR A WEDDING
Starring:
Felicity Jones, Luke Treadaway, Elizabeth McGovern
Synopsis:
In this lighthearted and steamy romantic comedy, bride-to-be Dolly (Felicity Jones) must choose between her devoted fiancee and the former lover she wants to seduce her.
Led by rising stars Alison Brie (COMMUNITY, MAD MEN) and Lizzy Caplan (BACHELORETTE, PARTY DOWN), Sundance Film Festival hit SAVE THE DATE is a hilarious and sincere story about the familial and romantic bonds that form us all.
SundanceNOW, the digital sister to Sundance Selects, is an online destination where independent film fans can download, watch instantly and discuss a broad range of independent films from around the globe. Offering the option to stream, download to own and download to rent, SundanceNOW provides audiences in search of independent films with an extensive selection covering all genres, including both American and foreign films. SundanceNOW operates independently of the non-profit Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival but shares the overall Sundance mission of encouraging artistic freedom of expression. SundanceNOW is a subsidiary of AMC Networks, Inc.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 85th Academy Awards®. One hundred twenty-six pictures had originally qualified in the category.
First off, here what’s missing:
Amy Berg’s WEST OF MEMPHIS, CENTRAL PARK FIVE (winner of the NYFCC Best Documentary), and Lauren Greenfield’s QUEEN OF VERSAILLES. It was a great year for Docs, but its sad that these three are off the shortlist.
Below are the 15 in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:
“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” Never Sorry LLC “Bully,” The Bully Project LLC “Chasing Ice,” Exposure “Detropia,” Loki Films “Ethel,” Moxie Firecracker Films “5 Broken Cameras,” Guy DVD Films “The Gatekeepers,” Les Films du Poisson, Dror Moreh Productions, Cinephil “The House I Live In,” Charlotte Street Films, LLC “How to Survive a Plague,” How to Survive a Plague LLC “The Imposter,” Imposter Pictures Ltd. “The Invisible War,” Chain Camera Pictures “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” Jigsaw Productions in association with Wider Film Projects and Below the Radar Films “Searching for Sugar Man,” Red Box Films “This Is Not a Film,” Wide Management “The Waiting Room,” Open’hood, Inc.
The Documentary Branch viewed the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.
The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live next month on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network.
Here we go. Heralding the start of the season, the first of the major critics awards began today. The New York Film Critics Circle bestowed their Best Picture award to ZERO DARK THIRTY. The story of the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, helmer Kathryn Bigelow won the award for Best Director. On December 5th the National Board of Review will announces its winners, the LA Film Critics and Boston Society of Film Critics both announce their awards on Sunday, December 9th, followed by the Top 10 films of 2012 from the American Film Institute on December 10th.
A brand new poster for the MAN OF STEEL comes your way via THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Facebookpage. While announcing TDKR’s release on Dec. 4, the page promised to unlock an exclusive MAN OF STEEL reward and here it is. A tad unsettling to see the iconic superhero in handcuffs. Guess we’ll know how director Zack Snyder’s film plays out when Superman flies into theaters this coming June.
The film stars Henry Cavill in the role of Superman/Clark Kent, alongside three-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams (“The Fighter”), Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”), Academy Award winner Kevin Costner (“Dances with Wolves”), Oscar nominee Diane Lane (“Unfaithful”), Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne (“What’s Love Got to Do with It”), Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni, Harry Lennix, Michael Kelly, Richard Shiff, and Academy Award winner Russell Crowe (“Gladiator”).
MAN OF STEEL is produced by Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder. The screenplay was written by David S. Goyer, from a story by Goyer & Nolan, based upon Superman characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster and published by DC Entertainment.
Zack Snyder’s upcoming action adventure MAN OF STEEL will be presented in 3D in select theaters, as well as in 2D and IMAX on June 14, 2013 and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
