The Weinstein Company has just released a new “Ensemble” featurette from their upcoming film, THE HATEFUL EIGHT.
Hear from the all-star cast, including Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Walton Goggins, about what it was like to work together and why THE HATEFUL EIGHT is “Quentin Tarantino at his best.”
Plus watch the Q&A with the Ensemble Cast of THE HATEFUL EIGHT, including Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern. Check it out, and hear from the stars themselves what it was like behind-the-scenes of one of this years most highly anticipated films.
In THE HATEFUL EIGHT, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff.
Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Demian Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern).
As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all… (Trailer)
THE HATEFUL EIGHT hits theaters on December 25, 2015 (70 mm release), January 8, 2016 (nationwide).
Ex Machina was the big winner at the Moët British Independent Film Awards this evening. The film won four awards: Best British Independent Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay for Alex Garland and Outstanding Achievement in Craft for its Visual Effects, by Andrew Whitehurst.
The film will be screened in 74 cinemas across the country on Sunday 13 December as part of a landmark BIFA screening series supported by the BFI. Tickets can be booked at discover.bifa.film
Performance awards were spread across the board: Saoirse Ronan picked up Best Actress for Brooklyn and Tom Hardy won Best Actor for his dual role as Ronnie and Reggie Kray in Legend.
Saoirse Ronan
Olivia Colman won her third BIFA for her Best Supporting Actress performance in The Lobster. Brendan Gleeson made it two years in a row, winning Best Supporting Actor for Suffragette this year after taking away Best Actor for Calvary last year.
Colin Farrell presented the Most Promising Newcomer award to Abigail Hardingham for her breakthrough performance in Nina Forever.
The Special Jury Prize was presented to Chris Collins, the BFI executive who died late last year. Director of the BFI Lottery Film Fund Ben Roberts said, “This is a really wonderful tribute to Chris. He is greatly missed, but his contribution to so many films and filmmakers continues to burn brightly. A heartfelt thanks to the BIFA jury.”
In the closely-fought Best Documentary category, Dark Horse: The Incredible True Story of Dream Alliance won out over Amy, How to Change the World, Palio and A Syrian Love Story.
Room was named Best International Independent Film and Jacob Tremblay, the young star of the film, collected the award with the team.
The team behind Kajaki: The True Story took home Producer of the Year and Stephen Fingleton was named Best Debut Director for The Survivalist. The award is presented in honour of director Douglas Hickox.
Edmond won Best Short and The Discovery Award went to Orion: The Man Who Would Be King.
The 18th BIFA ceremony, which was hosted by Richard Ayoade, was held at Old Billingsgate in London and live streamed on www.bifa.film.
Kate Winslet
As previously announced, the Variety Award, which recognises a director, actor, writer or producer who has made a global impact and helped to focus the international spotlight on the UK, was presented to Kate Winslet. The Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Actor to British Film was presented to Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Photos: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Moet British Independent Film Awards
It’s the holiday season where most are thinking egg nog, fluffy snow, decorating cookies and Santa Claus. But if director Michael Dougherty has anything to say about it with his latest film KRAMPUS, this festive time of year will include a darker Christmas legend whose shadow over pop culture is growing.
Ancient folklore warns of Krampus, a myth that has been traced back centuries throughout European cultures. Santa rewards the nice; Krampus punishes the naughty. Santa brings laughter and joy; Krampus unleashes darkness and mayhem. Santa gives presents; Krampus takes souls.
Dougherty says, “The same way that Americans send out Christmas cards, Europeans have this rich tradition of sending out Krampus cards. I was shown these beautiful illustrations of this creature called Krampus, who stole children, and images of people cowering in fear. Still, they had such a fun, mischievous quality, similar to our Halloween. I found that appealing because it made Christmas more enjoyable to know that there was this dark side to the holiday that we Americans didn’t have yet. It was lurking in the shadows waiting to be rediscovered.”
It’s not the mice, but all the creatures who are stirring, in the new film starring Adam Scott and Toni Collette.
When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max (Emjay Anthony) is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers.
All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family’s home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.
A dark and subversive alternative to the traditional holiday tale, the horror comedy is a fun movie with a fun soundtrack by composer Douglas Pipes (TRICK ‘r TREAT). With his latest score, the KRAMPUS cues are part merry, part monster and one you’ll want to add to both your horror and holiday collections.
During our recent conversation, Pipes and I discussed his KRAMPUS score that’s filled with a whole lot of mischief, including his delightfully terrifying take on such yuletide favorites “We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” “Silent Night” and “Carol of the Bells,” as well as his work on the indie film, LITTLE PARADISE and composing for Alfred Hitchcock’s silent film, THE LODGER.
WAMG: How was the Los Angeles screening and reaction to the film?
Douglas Pipes: It was great and everyone had a really fun time. It was the first time I had seen the final print in a theater.
WAMG: Which genre does KRAMPUS fall into?
DP: It plays well into not just in the horror side but the heartfelt side. It’s a Christmas movie – a dark fairytale of a Christmas movie. At the core of it, its heart is firmly a Christmas movie.
WAMG: You worked with Michael Dougherty on TRICK ‘r TREAT after he heard your score for MONSTER HOUSE. Both are really clever scores that put you right into the Halloween season. Did you immediately say yes when he asked you to score KRAMPUS?
DP: The thing with Mike, he’s so good at what he does – balancing the tones of writing comedy and horror. Plus the characters and emotions are so important to him and he handles all those elements so well.
I had never heard of Krampus and after he pitched the story to me, he sent me the script and I immediately started coming up with ideas. As soon as I read something he’s written, I get so inspired that I start working right away.
WAMG: As with the cult favorite that is TRICK ‘r TREAT, I feel like audiences will discover another unexpected surprise with KRAMPUS. I always suggest TRICK ‘r TREAT to anyone looking for something new on Halloween.
DP: It’s fun to have come across it a little bit more organically and that’s part of the charm of the film. You don’t know what to expect because it hasn’t been marketed to you in a way that creates your expectations.
WAMG: I’ve read Michael Dougherty loves film scores. How was it to collaborate with him again?
DP: He does. He has such an encyclopedia-like knowledge of film scores and it’s one of the joys of working with him. He gets so involved and so excited about the scoring of the music.
WAMG: You can hear Christmas but a distorted Krampus Christmas in your music. It’s an interesting soundtrack to listen to outside of the movie. How much of the pre-visuals did you see prior to scoring?
DP: Before they left to go shoot in New Zealand, Mike and I had a meeting at Legendary Pictures where he showed me this fantastic concept art. The script gave me the tone, but the art gave me a sense of the color of the film and where they were going with it visually.
Once they started shooting, I was sent dailies to get a sense of the feeling of how it was going to unfold. It was a process I had never done before. I had never gotten involved as early as the dailies, but it was great and it gave me the opportunity, as far as the footwork, to begin exploring the sound.
WAMG: Did you see many of these scenes and then realize which instruments you’d have to go with for a Christmas sounding score?
DP: During our initial meeting, we talked about Christmas songs and how we could take everything from using Christmas songs to mangling them, so that the audience might recognize certain themes. We had these Christmas melodies playing out front as well as to the subconscious. I like to create something that is geared to have a clear root and is interwoven, especially the “Krampus Karol of the Bells.”
WAMG: “Krampus Karol of the Bells” contains some chilling lyrics and runs throughout the film. The “Creatures are Stirring” track includes a twisted version of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” – it’s an exciting scene and cue, with some great power chords.
DP: It’s an action cue and a fantasy cue and a horror cue, besides having the Christmas theme. I was able to play around a lot on that.
As a composer you want to bring something to the film that’s so off the traditional map, but you cringe and wonder, “Is this going to work or am I going to be laughed out of the room?”
It has a good mixture – part mischievous, part playful, but it’s horrific. It’s a nice moment finding that tonal transition for what happens in the movie.
WAMG: The vocals are equally creepy, especially your “Elfen” track.
DP: There are vocals throughout the score. I rearranged “Silent Night” (in German, “Stille Nacht”) to “Silent Power” (in German, “Stille Macht”) and I think it really works.
They also say “Gruss vom Krampus,” but in the middle of “Elfen,” there’s a Christmas carol within that cue they sing in German, where the vocals have been changed around.
Weihnachten ist hier – Christmas is here Kinder sehen sich – Children watch yourselves Sie sind in Gefahr – You are in danger krampus weiß alles – Krampus knows all
WAMG: “Bells, Bones, and Chains” track, with the big orchestral motif, especially with the sound of the chains, is so ominous and so scary. The brass section is amazing.
DP: We recorded with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and had a huge brass section. It was six horns, five trombones, two trumpets and tubas, and we asked them to play as loud as they could. The entire score was recorded in New Zealand along with The Tudor Consort Choristers of Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul, and the final “Krampus Karol of the Bells” was recorded in the US with the Brea Olinda High School Singers. That was the very last thing we did.
WAMG: There are some grand, larger than life cues such as “The Shadow of Saint Nicholas” and “Sacrifice.” When did you decide that the film needed these big orchestral moments?
DP: For me, the film musically goes through four arcs. It starts of as a family comedy, then a dark fantasy tale, then transitions into a straight horror film, and then a serious drama where the family is just trying to survive. The score comes full circle by the end. We embarked on a big budget film and wrote to match it.
WAMG: Tell me about LITTLE PARADISE and scoring for that indie film?
DP: One of my good friends, Natan Moss, directed this indie comedy and it just came out on iTunes recently. It’s really funny and an indie film in the truest sense of the word. It stars really talented LA actors and it’s not built on huge names, so it has all the challenges an indie film has of getting the word out and for me the score was fantastic and a complete u-turn from everything else I’ve done.
It’s a 70’s caper-style score with lots of horns and was a ton fun to record. 70’s score had a tighter, focused sound and that’s what I was shooting for on LITTLE PARADISE.
WAMG: What was it like to compose the score for the 1927 silent film THE LODGER?
DP: That was fantastic. It was commissioned by a group in Dallas, through a composer friend of mine, Brian Satterwhite, and he has scored a lot of these silent films for this Dallas Chamber Symphony. He set up a commission for me to do THE LODGER and they gave me the instrumentation where I had six weeks to work on the score, and a little more to orchestrate it.
It’s a uniquely rewarding experience – it’s a concert piece and even though it’s performed live in front of an audience, it is still a film score. It has to follow the tone of the movie, however with one hand in the past while approaching it as if it were scored in the last few decades. It’s not entirely supposed to sound as if it was composed at the time, but there are certainly some elements of the score that are meant to throwback to that period.
Lucasfilm and visionary director J.J. Abrams join forces to take you back again to a galaxy far, far away as Star Wars returns to the big screen with STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS on December 18th.
Today, a brand new featurette premiered at Comic-Con Brazil during a presentation hosted by Producer Bryan Burk.
Check it out below.
The film stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Max Von Sydow. Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk are producing with Tommy Harper and Jason McGatlin serving as executive producers.
The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan & J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt.
Here’s a first look at the red-band trailer for Silver Pictures’ upcoming THE NICE GUYS, directed by Shane Black (“Iron Man 3”) and starring Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling and Kim Basinger.
A total throwback to a 1970’s detective thriller, this preview is NSFW.
THE NICE GUYS takes place in 1970s Los Angeles, when down-on-his-luck private eye Holland March (Gosling) and hired leg-breaker Jackson Healy (Crowe) must work together to solve the case of a missing girl and the seemingly unrelated death of a porn star. During their investigation, they uncover a shocking conspiracy that reaches up to the highest circles of power.
Black directs from an original screenplay he wrote with Anthony Bagarozzi, with Joel Silver (“Non-Stop,” “The Matrix” series, the “Sherlock Holmes” series) producing.
From Warner Bros. Pictures, THE NICE GUYS hits theaters May 20, 2016.
Written and directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, GOODNIGHT MOMMY is terrifying horror film that has been selected as the Austrian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at next year’s Academy Awards.
We Are Movie Geeks has two copies of the GOODNIGHT MOMMY DVD from Starz/Anchor Bay to give away!
In the heat of the summer. A lonesome house in the countryside between woods and corn fields. Nine-year-old twin brothers are waiting for their mother. When she comes home, bandaged after cosmetic surgery, nothing is like before. The children start to doubt that this woman is actually their mother. GOODNIGHT MOMMY emerges an existential struggle for identity and fundamental trust.
Win the movie that critics are raving about!
Colin Covert of the Minneapolis Star Tribune says GOODNIGHT MOMMY is:
“…..is a horror film that features very little screaming, except from the theater audience.”
Alison Willmore of BuzzFeed says:
“The tension in GOODNIGHT MOMMY owes everything to our not knowing who to trust. Things don’t always need to come rushing out of the darkness to be frightening.”
David Keyes at Cinemaphile.org claims:
“Many a motion picture will attempt to pull the rug from underneath us, but seldom is it yanked with this much potency, or with such a lack of obvious foreshadowing as GOODNIGHT MOMMY.
Enter for a chance to winthe GOODNIGHT MOMMY DVD
1. You must have a U.S. mailing address.
2. No purchase necessary.
Just leave a comment below and tell us what your favorite horror movie of 2015 so far is (mine is GREEN INFERNO!)
It’s so easy! We’ll pick the winners next week. Good luck!
Lionsgate Premiere has released the brand new trailer and poster for their upcoming film, EXPOSED.
The new suspense thriller stars Keanu Reeves, Ana De Armas and Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino.
When a detective starts to investigate his partner’s shocking death, he uncovers disturbing evidence of police corruption and a dangerous secret involving an unlikely young woman. The film also features Christopher McDonald and Big Daddy Kane.
EXPOSED opens in theaters and on demand on January 22.
The movie is executive produced by 2014’s St. Louis International Film Festival ‘Woman In Film’ recipient Katie Mustard. Her credits include GROWING UP AND OTHER LIES, I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS and Paul Bettany’s SHELTER.
Composer and songwriter Ludwig Goransson has written the score and original songs for CREED, the seventh film in the iconic Rocky series. The series, long known for its music (“Gonna Fly Now”, Eye of the Tiger”) released the first film nearly forty years ago. This installment brings a new and unique sound to the series with original hip-hop songs from Childish Gambino, Sam Dew, and Vince Staples.
Starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Jordan, and Tessa Thompson, Creed focuses on the relationship between the late Apollo Creed’s son, Adonis Creed (Jordan), and the retired former boxing champion Rocky Balboa (Stallone). After meeting in Philadelphia, Rocky agrees to train Adonis, despite his own declining health.
We’ve got your tickets to the comedy event of 2015 – DADDY’S HOME.
From director Sean Anders, the film stars Will Farrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini and Thomas Haden Church.
DADDY’S HOME follows a mild-mannered radio executive (Ferrell) who strives to become the best stepdad to his wife’s two children, but complications ensue when their freewheeling and freeloading real father (Wahlberg) arrives, forcing him to compete for the affection of the kids.
The movie opens in theatres December 25, 2015.
WAMG invites you to enter for a chance to win a pass (Good for 2) to the advancescreening of DADDY’S HOME.
Sunday, December 13th at 3PM in the St. Louis area.
We will contact the winners by email.
Answer the following:
Mark Wahlberg starred as “Troy Barlow” in what 1999 film?
TO ENTER, ADD YOUR NAME, ANSWER AND EMAIL IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.
2. A pass does not guarantee a seat at a screening. Seating is on a first-come, first served basis. The theater is overbooked to assure a full house. The theater is not responsible for overbooking.
Photo credit: Parrish Lewis, Courtesy of Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios
Spike Lee’s CHI-RAQ re-imagines Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy “Lystrata” as modern plea for peace in violence-torn Chicago. Chi-Raq is a term the director reportedly heard on the streets, used to compare violence-racked Chicago neighborhoods to war-torn Iraq. In the classic Greek play, the women on both sides of warring Sparta and Troy join together to end the war by staging a sex boycott. No sex for the men until there is no war. In CHI-RAQ, the Spartans and the Trojans are opposing gangs in a disadvantaged neighborhood, where their violent warfare is killing children in the streets.
It is a clever idea, moving this ancient comedy to Chicago’s bloody streets, using humor, music, sex and truth-telling to put a spotlight on the situation in these disadvantaged city neighborhoods. Sometimes a person just has to speak out, even if nothing will change, and that is what Lee is doing – expressing his views on gun violence, the lack of economic opportunity, the lousy schools, and the other challenges facing these neighborhoods, all within an entertaining film.
The film is funny, angry, wildly imaginative and hard-hitting. It is not a perfect film but it is a moving one, fired by Spike Lee’s passion to get people to do the right thing. It may be among the director’s best, even if success for its mission seems remote.
The director tells the story through rap, with much of the dialog in rhyme and sprinkled with some terrific musical numbers. The film uses dark, raw, biting humor and a sarcastic, truth-telling tone. There is nothing subtle about Lee’s film. He starts out with a hip-hop song about Chi-Raq, with the lyrics in large letters on screen, in case you might miss some. When the song ends, the word emergency in giant red letters flashes on screen while a voice urgently repeats the word. The film then moves to a club where a hip-hop artist named Chi-Raq (Nick Cannon) is performing the song in front of a packed house – until gunfire breaks out.
Although he denies it, Chi-Raq is associated with the Spartan gang. The Trojans are led by Cyclops (Wesley Snipes), a one-eyed tough guy. Chi-Raq tells his lady Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) he is a musician, not a gang member, but that is not the way Cyclops sees it. When an 11-year-old girl is shot in the street in the middle of the day and no one arrested, Lysistrata organizes the women, including Cyclops’ wife Irene (Jennifer Hudson), to stop the war by staging a “sex strike” – no peace, no nookie (although the director uses a more graphic term).
The same boycott was used in Africa recently, when the women of Liberia organized a sex strike that ended their civil war. Lee makes reference to that real-world event in the film, although neighborhood wise woman Miss Helen (Angela Bassett) is clearly aware of the theatrical/historical roots. Lee has assembled a stellar cast, which also includes a wonderfully sly Samuel L. Jackson as narrator Dolmedes, who provides biting, sarcastic commentary, and John Cusack as a priest who grew up nearby and returned to lead a black church standing up to the violence. If there is a flaw in that cast, it is that it could use a few more young stars to connect more with a younger audience.
The film is clearly Spike Lee speaking out and hoping to do something to stop the violence racking city neighborhoods in Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore, all mentioned in the film. The director makes gun violence a center of his commentary, with gun-profiteers crossing state lines to buy them at gun shows, to evade Chicago’s strict gun laws, and selling them on the street. But he says more, with characters or the narrator commenting on neglected neighborhoods, places gripped with fear of gangs who do not care about innocent life lost as “collateral damage,” and police equipped with military surplus coming out in force to stop a protest but absent and ineffective when a little girl is shot. In one chilling bit of dialog, the narrator notes their children go from “third-rate schools to first-rate prisons,” and “now they are privatized, so it is profitable too.”
At the same time, it is clear Lee sees that chances of success, that the film will prompt real change, are not good. In one scene, Cusack delivers a fiery sermon to his congregation, listing the range of problems racking the neighborhood including the code of silence that protects the guilty, but we also notice he is “preaching to the choir.” In a classic Western, the people in the packed church, whipped into a frenzy of outrage, would pour out of the church and go get the bad guys. Instead, they simply go home. Lee is too good a filmmaker for that not to be a conscious reference. Near the film’s end, the sex boycott has spread around the world, and multinational companies promise jobs for the people in the neighborhood – and not minimum wage jobs. That seems a bit of highly unlikely wish-fulfillment on the director’s part, as well as a dig at those who could do more.
CHI-RAQ is powerful, even heart-breaking stuff wrapped in a dark, hip-hop musical comedy. Even if it seems unlikely to actually change anything, at least Spike Lee had his say.
CHI-RAQ opens in theaters on Friday, December 4th, 2015.
