Tag: Jonathan Levine

50/50 Trailer Features Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anna Kendrick And Seth Rogen

From the director of one of the best films of 2008 – THE WACKNESS (Jonathan Levine), check out the trailer for 50/50.

Based on an incredible real-life experience, 50/50 is a funny, touching and original story of friendship, love, and survival starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anjelica Huston.

From Summit Entertainment and Mandate Pictures, 50/50 will be in theaters September 30, 2011.

Visit the film’s official website: http://www.50-50themovie.com/

Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/5050Movie

Anna Kendrick and Jonathan Levine are WITH CANCER

UP IN THE AIR Oscar hopeful Anna Kendrick and ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE and THE WACKNESS director (and past WeAreMovieGeeks guest blogger) Jonathan Levine have both signed on to respectively co-star and direct the film until recently titled I’M WITH CANCER.   According to a release from Mandate Pictures, they will be joining the project which already has James McAvoy and Seth Rogen attached to star.

Written by Will Reiser, the film stars McAvoy as a young man who learns he has the disease.   The screenplay was based on Reiser’s actual accounts of battling and successfully winning against cancer.   Kendrick has signed on to star as the young psychologist who helps McAvoy’s character cope.

Principal photography is set to begin in February in Vancouver.   We just want to give a hearty congratulations to Levine, a truly gifted director and an awesome guy to boot.

‘Mandy Lane’ Gets Dumped Again

mandy-lane

What does an excellent horror movie have to do to catch a friggin’ break, these days?   Shot in 2006 and making it’s US debut at SXSW in 2007, ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’ is a film that has been getting release dates pushed back as if its actual release marked the end of the world.

Directed by Jonathan Levine, who has guest blogged for WAMG in the past, ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’ was last set to get a release on July 17th by Senator Distribution.   However, word comes today that Senator has pulled the film, and it finds itself in release date limbo once again.   Senator did not give any specific reasons why they pulled the film from their release slate, but rumors abound that Senator is in its finals days.   The New York-based company may be closing shop sooner rather than later.

The film got its UK release over a year ago, and, thus far, it has picked up $1.6 million worldwide.   That’s double the film’s budget, and, with all the hype it’s gotten just sitting on a shelf in some distribution companies closet, imagine what it could pull in were it to actually get a release date.

Amazing to think that ‘The Wackness,’ Levine’s follow-up to ‘Mandy Lane,’ was shot, edited, and released since his first film was completed.   Not only that, we are coming up on the one-year anniversary for the release of ‘The Wackness.’   This is getting ridiculous.

If you are one of the people out there who have seen ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane,’ you can attest to the fact that it is a solid entry into the horror genre.   It is exponentially better than most of the crap that gets half-assed releases straight to DVD or on the Sci-Fi network.   If you happen to be affiliated with a distributor, and you are reading this, please do the world of horror a huge favor and pick this movie up.   You will not regret it.

Source: Shock Till You Drop

Jonathan Levine Jumps On ‘The Sitter’

jonathan_levine

‘The Wackness’ and ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’ directer (as well as guest We Are Movie Geeks blogger) Jonathan Levine has signed on to next direct ‘The Sitter’ for Fox Atomic.

The comedy, much in the vein of ‘Adventures in Babysitting,’Â  follows a college student, suspended for the semester and living back at home with his single mom, who has a night to remember when he gets talked into baby-sitting the eccentric kids next door — two boys and a wild 8-year-old girl.

Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka are writing the screenplay. Â  Levine’s debut film, ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane,’ has yet to see a release, but Senator Distribution is planning a release (finally) later this year.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Sundance 2009: Jonathan Levine talks Sundance

Jonathan Levine, director and writer of “The Wackness” sits down and talks about Sundance with us..

Since Sundance is going on right now, Scott asked me to reflect on my Sundance experience from last year, when my film “The Wackness” premiered. With a year’s hindsight, the experience was pretty awesome.
At the time it was, well, intense. First of all, as soon as we got there and moved into our condo, everyone got sick. Once everyone was good and sick, we had our premiere. As it was the first time we’d screened the movie for anyone, the premiere was nerve-wracking for me. Add to that the pressure of finding a distributor, and the fact that Quentin Tarantino was in the audience, and I was a total mess. Luckily, it went well. The audience seemed to like it, and at the party afterwards a few distributors expressed interest. So we partied. I didn’t think I drank a lot, but the altitude makes you get drunk faster, so I guess I got kinda drunk.

The next morning, after waking up hungover (I think I took my shirt off, and I can’t remember if I said anything inappropriate to Harvey Weinstein), we did a lot of press, walking down Main Street with our cast, having fun with Sir Ben and Method. (the coolest dude in the world, but when an old white photographer lady called him “Mos”, he did not respond well). At this point, we still didn’t have a distributor. I was confused and a little bummed, because my first film (which, ironically, still has not been released in the US), sold the
night it premiered for a lot of dough. This seemed to be a much tougher road. Then came our Eccles screening. It was magical. You could feel a great energy in the room, reverberating all the way to the back of the giant theater. When the movie ended and we got a standing ovation. Â  It was one of the most thrilling things I’ve ever experienced.

That’s the thing about Sundance: if you get caught up in distributors reactions and parties and seeing Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian (I don’t know who she is but I think she’s like Paris Hilston) and all that, you will have a miserable time. But beyond all that, there’s a moment when the lights go down, when an audience is watching your movie—that’s electric. The audiences there are incredible: loving, curious, generous. (I’d like to take a time out from this posting to recognize the fact that Obama became president today. That makes everything better.)

As the days wore on, me and the producers met with some distributors. The tide of public opinion was helping generate more interest in our film, and I was starting to feel a little better, primarily due to the
fact that companies were giving me free shit like shoes and furry hats. So we met a few different companies at our condo. We weren’t in a rush. We wanted to find the right people, because we had been burned
before. Within a few days, we had made a deal with Sony Classics, and we were very happy with them and their intentions for our film. A few days later, we won the Audience Award.

It had been a whirlwind week, and although I felt like we got beat up a bit at the beginning and then drove triumphantly into the sunset, neither of those things were true. We were in a little bubble known as
Park City, where things seemed much more intense than in the “real world”. What was important was that we were there in the first place. We got to hang out with our friends, with festival programmers. We got
to watch and talk movies. We got to connect with the audience, an audience that likes their movies different, challenging, unique. If you look at the weekly box office charts, you’ll see that the rest of
the world doesn’t always feel that way. That’s why Sundance is so important: to remind us that the best of American movies, and of all cinema, are films that have a uniqueness of voice and vision. A year
later, I miss it. I’ve been reading about what sounds like a crop of great films, from “500 Days of Summer” to “Push” to “Black Dynamite” to “Don’t Let me Drown”. I can’t wait to see all the wonderful new voices launched by this festival. That’s why Sundance is essential. And that’s why it’s good. Â  Also people there give you free shit. That is also good.

2009 Independent Spirit Awards Nominations Announced

Every year, the night before the Oscars are handed out, Hollywood stars and starlets go into a tent on the Santa Monica beach and honor the best in independent cinema of the last year.

The nominees for the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards were announced yesterday. Â  Good on Mickey Rourke and ‘The Wrestler’ for scoring nominations for Best Actor and Best Feature. Â  Congrats also go out to We Are Movie Geeks blogger, Jonathan Levine, for ‘The Wackness’ getting a First Screenplay nod.

The nominations:

Feature
‘Ballast’Â  
‘Frozen River’
‘Rachel Getting Married’
‘Wendy and Lucy’
‘The Wrestler’

Director
Ramin Bahrani, ‘Chop Shop’
Jonathan Demme, ‘Rachel Getting Married’
Lance Hammer, ‘Ballast’
Courtney Hunt,  ‘Frozen River’
Tom McCarthy, ‘The Visitor’

Male Lead
Javier Bardem, ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’
Richard Jenkins, ‘The Visitor’
Sean Penn, ‘Milk’
Jeremy Renner, ‘The Hurt Locker’
Mickey Rourke, ‘The Wrestler’

Female Lead
Summer Bishil, ‘Towelhead’
Anne Hathaway, ‘Rachel Getting Married’
Melissa Leo, ‘Frozen River’
Tarra Riggs, ‘Ballast’
Michelle Williams, ‘Wendy and Lucy’

Supporting Male
James Franco, ‘Milk’
Anthony Mackie, ‘The Hurt Locker’
Charlie McDermott, ‘Frozen River’
Jim Myron Ross, ‘Ballast’
Haaz Sleiman, ‘The Visitor’

Supporting Female
Penà ©lope Cruz, ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’
Rosemarie DeWitt, ‘Rachel Getting Married’
Rosie Perez, ‘The Take’
Misty Upham, ‘Frozen River’
Debra Winger, ‘Rachel Getting Married’

Screenplay
Woody Allen, Â  ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’
Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, ‘Sugar’
Charlie Kaufman, ‘Synecdoche, New York’
Howard A. Rodman, ‘Savage Grace’
Christopher Zalla, ‘Sangre De Mi Sangre’

First Screenplay
Dustin Lance Black, ‘Milk’
Lance Hammer, ‘Ballast’
Courtney Hunt, ‘Frozen River’
Jonathan Levine, ‘The Wackness’
Jenny Lumet, ‘Rachel Getting Married’

Cinematography
Maryse Alberti, ‘The Wrestler’
Lol Crawley, ‘Ballast’
James Laxton, ‘Medicine for Melancholy’
Harris Savides, ‘Milk’
Michael Simmonds, ‘Chop Shop’

The 2009 Independet Spirit Awards will be aired live on the IFC network on February 21st, 2009 at 5:00 ET.

Source: Spirit Awards Official Site

how was your weekend?

mine was good.   i did not see the mummy.   i did not see dark knight again. or swing vote. i watched real genius on DVD and went to see Dolly Parton in concert. which seems weird, but both those things were pretty fun.   really looking forward to pineapple express this weekend!

speaking of which, NY Times did this slideshow of stoner movies through the ages:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/08/03/movies/0803-HARR_index.html

of course, nothing can touch dazed and confused–but i was thrilled we were on the list!

this video’s cool:

think that’s all for now.   i’ll hit y’all up in a few days!

jon

Jon Blogged This

I’ve never written a blog before. primarily because i’m not very interesting. But, IÂ  want lots of people to go see my movie (The Wackness, in theaters now and opening in more and more each week) and Scott has given me this forum. So, I’ll do it. Maybe it will be fun .

Since I don’t know much about blogging, I decided to go to my favorite celebrity blog for tips:

http://www.johnmayer.com/blog

For those of you who don’t know John Mayer, he is a musician who gets to have sex with Jennifer Aniston, which makes me jealous but I suppose I’m happy for him and also happy that someone is having sex with Jennifer Aniston, cuz if no one did that would be a shame. But he doesn’t blog about it, which is bullshit.

OK. Now I will just talk about some of the more exciting things that have happened to me over the last few weeks:

I went on a press tour to promote the movie. The press tour essentially includes press days in several cities, meeting and talking to a lot of people, and ordering a lot of room service. Often one says the same things over and over again. Its very exhausting but also a great opportunity to spread the word about the movie. I got to go to cities I’d never been to, like Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago. Now I know that those cities have nice hotels and very similar porn on PPV.

Howard Stern liked my movie. Someone sent me an mp3 of him talking about it. I love Howard Stern, so that really meant a lot to me. That’s a very cool part of making a movie. People actually watch it. And those people include, sometimes, Howard Stern.

The guy from Hardball did not like my movie. He was watching it at the Nantucket Film Festival and walked out because he was supposed to have dinner with John Kerry. I don’t know that he totally hated it but he seemed real grumpy. That’s OK, though. Not sure he’s in the target audience anyway. That said, I like his show and I would read his blog no questions asked.

These days, I take meetings every day about new movies or tv things or writing gigs. I’m trying to make sure I capitalize on the fact that I have a movie out and also trying to make sure I don’t go broke again. Being broke in Los Angeles sucks–and I’m very lucky to have started getting paid for movie work, so I don’t want to mess it up.

I am writing a script for Sony that is an adaptation of the spy novel Echelon Vendetta. I got notes from the studio executives today. I was terrified, but the notes were all really smart. Now I have to be smart enough to incorporate them into the script.

OK. That’s all for today. I will try to keep this updated every couple days with exciting information. thanks for the opportunity, guys. I hope this is vaguely interesting. if not, i will start making shit up, like the fact that i dropped acid with John Mayer last night. seriously.

maximum respect,
Jon

  

Review: ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’

Travis:

Remember back when teen horror films were actually good? Yeah, I’m starting to have trouble remembering that far back as well. Well, hope is here … Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) is here to save the day with his own addition to the genre and he nails it! Oddly, this was Levine’s first feature film, being released [finally] as his second movie, following up the success of ‘The Wackness’. Welcome back to the essence of teen slasher horror … ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ could only dream of accomplishing this!

‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’ sort of tells you a lot about the movie in its title, but doesn’t give away the best bits. Mandy Lane (Amber Heard) is the hottest babe in all of high school … she’s also the hardest catch. Mandy presents herself as a beautiful, but somewhat timid, and if I didn’t mention attractive, blonde hottie that hangs out loyally with her best bud Emmet (Michael Welch). Mandy is sort of the sexy fish out of water at her school, the homecoming queen type that prefers keeping a low profile to being the talk of the town. Emmet, on the other hand, is the typical sweet best friend type of guy that falls somewhere between the jock and the nerd on the personality scale, but hits bottom in the popularity polls. All the boys at school have one thing on their mind, well … yes that, but more soeifically “how to get into Mandy Lane’s pants.”

She does a fairly good job of fending them off, but Emmet occasionally attempts to step up as her noble protector. One day Mandy is invited to a pool party. She accepts, but only under the condition that Emmet joins her. While at the party, the drunken popular boy throwing the party is thwarted by a more clever and less drunk Emmet to avoid his conquering of Mandy’s heart. The result is tragic and Mandy’s friendship with Emmet is destroyed. The fun really begins when Mandy Lane is invited to a weekend party at one of the boy’s ranch. Reluctantly, she tags along. She gradually begins to loosen up, but soon finds herself amidst a group of rowdy teenagers that have all had their numbers pulled. A mysterious killer begins picking them off, one by one, and Mandy must fight to survive. The true mystery, however, is just who exactly is behind the killings?

‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’ is dark, suspenseful, fun, smart, and most important … it doesn’t suck, at all! Cheesiness and over-used cliche’s of the genre are virtually absent. What emerges is the heart of what makes the slasher film tic, the fear of the unknown, the paranoia, the group hysteria, the morbid curiosity of who’s next and who’s responsible. ‘Mandy Lane’ is straight forward and not glitzed up with fancy fluff, but doesn’t pull any punches either. The violence and gore is fully present, but not beyond what is necessary and highly effective. The ending for some, may begin to seem a bit predictable late in the film, but beware your early hypotheses … Levine is clever with his ending, McGuffin-style.

(4 out of 5 stars)

Scott:

Our good friend Jonathan Levine created, in my opinion, one of the best slasher movies of our generation. The movie takes the kinetics of high school, the cliques, and all of the drama that comes with chasing around the unobtainable girl. Mandy Lane is played beautifully by Amber Heard, Her best friend (played by Michael Welch) pulls off the creepy guy feeling and the rest of the cast really falls into its place. Jacob Forman really did a great job not falling into your typical horror stigma’s and threw in a bunch of unique kill techniques. Levine has a great way of getting you into the high school psyche, as he also showed you in ‘The Wackness’.

Travis pretty much said what needed to be said about the movie about, I just wanted to add in my two cents.

(4 out of 5 stars)

[rating:4/5]

Ram Man:

“All The Boys Love Mandy Lane”…yeah because she is gorgeous! Amber Heard is Mandy Lane, the duckling turned smoking hot swan prior to her junior year at highschool. A New Year and she has the looks that kill, why should anyone be suprised when people start dropping dead around Mandy Lane! The past few years filmmakers have forgotten how to scare the audience, so that’s why I’m glad Johnathan Levine (The Wackness) remembers the classics like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, and brings a good scare with some twists to the screen with Mandy Lane.
Mandy and her buddy Emmitt (Micheal Walsh) decide to join the A crowd at school thier junior year. The cool kids Jake (Luke Grimes), Chloe (Whitney Able), Red (Aaron Himelstein), Marlin (Melissa Price) and Dylan (Adam Powell) all welcome Mandy with open arms and take Emmitt along for the ride. The boys have just one goal in mind..to be the first to have sex with Mandy Lane. They fail a swim party, so at a weekend trip to a secluded ranch (less Emmitt) each one attempts to complete the dirty dead. Only this time failure results in death. You may think you know who the killer is, but i asure you Levine has one last suprise for you!
“The Boys All Love Mandy Lane” and I think the girls will to if they can keep thier eyes open during the film. I hope that the hack directors of such tripe films as One Missed Call, Don’t Answer The Phone and Ruins go to the theater and see what a true Horror/Suspense film is suppose to be…TAKE NOTES! Thank Jonathan Levine..your two for two man..Keep up the great work..it makes it fun to be a critic!
(4 out of 5)
[rating:4/5]

Review: ‘The Wackness’

the wackness

Travis:

From writer-director Jonathan Levine comes one of the coolest and most honestly personal films this year. ‘The Wackness’ is a story that’s both bitingly funny and poignantly smart and reflective. Josh Peck plays Luke Shapiro, a teenager about to graduate high school but has little direction for his life. The story takes place in 1994 as Luke spends his time selling dope on the streets on New York. He trades weed for psychotherapy sessions from Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley) who clearly needs more help than Luke ever will. Dr. Squires is unaware that Luke is developing a crush on his stepdaughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby), who herself only wants to be friends with Luke. Luke struggles with this predicament while also dealing with family problems at home. Parallel to Luke’s dilemma, Dr. Squires is also struggling to salvage his own marriage to Kristin (Famke Janssen) while diving hard and head-first into a drug-laden mid-life crisis.

The film also stars Mary-Kate Olsen as Union, a doped out time-displaced hippie chick and Method Man as Percy, Luke’s supplier for his drug dealership. Method man also adds his own music to the very cool, very effective soundtrack. ‘The Wackness’ is an all-around brilliant coming of age story that doesn’t get cheesy or wallow in the typical Hollywood unrealism we see so often. The scenes between Dr. Squires and Luke while in session are memorable, occasionally offering serious bits of life advice that make sense. The chemistry between Luke and Stephanie is genuine and conveys well on screen. “Steph” also has one of my favorite, while simplest, lines in the movie when scolding her dog for peeing on Luke’s Ice-vending cart … “Jesus Christ, NO!” Jesus Christ is her dog’s name. You just simply have to see ‘The Wackness’. ‘Nuff said.

[rating:5/5]

Michelle:

A quirky little dramedy that intertwines the lives of four lonely people who’s only common thread is marijuana. Complications arise when a teen-age pot dealer, Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck), falls for his shrink’s (Ben Kingsley) step-daughter (Olivia Thirlby). The psychologist and the lonely teen form an unlikely bond well past that of buyer and dealer. Although another coming-of-age story from director Jonathan Levine, the most charming scene has to be Luke tripping the light fantastic after leaving his first love on a warm summer night in NYC. Such a jaw-dropping transformation from Peck since his days as the spastic, second banana brother, Josh Nichols, in Nickelodeon’s Drake and Josh. And be on the watch for a kooky, delightful appearance by Mary-Kate Olsen.

One of the most entertaining movies of 2008!

[rating:5/5]

Charles:

This film was excellent! The acting by Josh Peck was really superb; he showed that not only is he a wonderful comical actor, but an incredible dramatic actor as well. He was brilliantly casted for this role, and was able to carry the film with ease. Hopefully we will be seeing a whole lot more of this actor, because he has given the breakthrough performance of the year. Set in New York 1994, a story about a troubled teenage drug dealer Luke Shapiro (Peck) who has struck a deal with his therapist Dr.Squires (Sir Ben Kingsley), swapping him weed in exchange for sessions in which he explains the personal crises that is his life. Along the way he falls for Squires step-daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby). Supporting actor Ben Kingsley was, as usual, great. He provides perfect comedic timing and creates a character so entertaining, you can’t help smiling once he appears on screen. In one hilarious scene (that is easily the best of part of the movie), Squires is talking with Shapiro about lifes obstacles, when Squires just casually lights up a joint like its nothin’, and right in the middle of the streets of New York.So of course the cops start running toward him, in slo-mo, and we hear Squires telling Shapiro to ‘ruuuuuuun’ as he pumps his classic Reeboks in an effort to run away faster from the police, only to run right into their arms because, if you pay attention, HE’S HIGH! The sexy Olivia Thirlby (an up and coming actress to be on the look-out for) worked very well as Peck’s love interest. Method Man also delivers a fine performance as Lukes drug resource and he definatley has the ability to act! The music of 1994 flows perfectly with the film. It has great music from such N.Y. artists as the Wu Tang Clan, Notorious B.I.G, and A Tribe Called Quest. I loved everything about this film and I hope that it becomes the independent film that makes it big this year! It definitely deserves high praise! ‘The Wackness’ has to be one of my favorite and best films of 2008!

[rating:5/5]