Tag: Samantha Morton

JOHN CARTER Trailer To Debut 7.14.11, Concept Art Stills & Official Website Launched

File this one under “just a head’s up.” The first trailer for director Andrew Stanton’s JOHN CARTER will bow this Thursday, July 14. Come back in two days to see the trailer for the film that is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ first novel, “A Princess of Mars.”

Plus, check out these concept art stills from the film.

Helium Airship. In Burroughs’ books, massive airships sail on rays of light on Mars. ©Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Helium at Dusk. The city of Helium, also referred to as “The Jewel of Barsoom (Mars),” is the home of Princess Dejah Thoris. ©Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Synopsis:

From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes JOHN CARTER, a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). JOHN CARTER is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

JOHN CARTER Fun Facts:

  • Edgar Rice Burroughs was born in Chicago and is best known for writing and creating Tarzan – still one of the most successful and iconic fictional creations of all time.
  • Academy Award®-winning director/writer Andrew Stanton directed and co-wrote the screenplay for “WALL-E,” which earned the Academy Award® and Golden Globe Award® for Best Animated Feature of 2008. He was Oscar® nominated for the screenplay. He made his directorial debut with “Finding Nemo,” garnering an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of 2003. He was one of the four screenwriters to receive an Oscar nomination in 1996 for his contribution to “Toy Story,” and went on to receive credit as a screenwriter on subsequent Pixar films “A Bug’s Life,” “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E”.
  • The award-winning below-the-line team includes Production Designer Nathan Crowley, Oscar®- nominated for both “Dark Knight” and “The Prestige,”  and Costume Designer Mayes Rubeo, whose work is showcased in “Avatar” and “Apocalypto.”
  • Michael Chabon, who won the Pulitzer Prize in Literature for his novel “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” is a co-writer on the screenplay.
  • Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino has received numerous accolades for his work on previous Disney-Pixar films “Up” (Oscar® winner, Best Original Score; BAFTA winner, Best Music; Golden Globe® winner, Best Original Score for a Motion Picture; GRAMMY® Award winner, Best Score Soundtrack Album), “Ratatouille” (GRAMMY Award winner, Best Score Soundtrack Album; Annie Award winner, Best Music in an Animated Feature Production; Oscar nomination, Best Original Score) and “The Incredibles” (Annie Award winner, Best Music in an Animated Feature Production; GRAMMY nomination, Best Score Soundtrack Album).

Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, with Thomas Hayden Church and Willem Dafoe.

JOHN CARTER Arrives 3.9.12

Check out the film’s official website: http://disney.go.com/johncarter/

“Like” the film on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JohnCarterMovie and Follow it on Twitter: http://twitter.com/johncarter

JOHN CARTER Teaser Poster Appears

Check out the first teaser poster for Walt Disney Pictures’ JOHN CARTER (OF MARS) courtesy of  iTunes.

Synopsis:

From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes JOHN CARTER, a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). JOHN CARTER is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

Fun Facts:

  • Edgar Rice Burroughs was born in Chicago and is best known for writing and creating Tarzan – still one of the most successful and iconic fictional creations of all time. “John Carter” is based on Burroughs’ first novel, “A Princess of Mars.”
  • Academy Award®-winning director/writer Andrew Stanton directed and co-wrote the screenplay for “WALL-E,” which earned the Academy Award® and Golden Globe Award® for Best Animated Feature of 2008. He was Oscar® nominated for the screenplay. He made his directorial debut with “Finding Nemo,” garnering an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of 2003. He was one of the four screenwriters to receive an Oscar nomination in 1996 for his contribution to “Toy Story,” and went on to receive credit as a screenwriter on subsequent Pixar films “A Bug’s Life,” “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E”.
  • The award-winning below-the-line team includes Production Designer Nathan Crowley, Oscar®- nominated for both “Dark Knight” and “The Prestige,”  and Costume Designer Mayes Rubeo, whose work is showcased in “Avatar” and “Apocalypto.”
  • Michael Chabon, who won the Pulitzer Prize in Literature for his novel “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” is a co-writer on the screenplay.
  • Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino has received numerous accolades for his work on previous Disney-Pixar films “Up” (Oscar® winner, Best Original Score; BAFTA winner, Best Music; Golden Globe® winner, Best Original Score for a Motion Picture; GRAMMY® Award winner, Best Score Soundtrack Album), “Ratatouille” (GRAMMY Award winner, Best Score Soundtrack Album; Annie Award winner, Best Music in an Animated Feature Production; Oscar nomination, Best Original Score) and “The Incredibles” (Annie Award winner, Best Music in an Animated Feature Production; GRAMMY nomination, Best Score Soundtrack Album).

Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, with Thomas Hayden Church and Willem Dafoe

Director: Andrew Stanton
Producers: Jim Morris and Colin Wilson
Screenplay by: Andrew Stanton & Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon

“Like” the film on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JohnCarterMovie and Follow it on Twitter: http://twitter.com/johncarter

THE MESSENGER Makes a Second Round with Oscar

Ben Foster stars in THE MESSENGER as Will Montgomery, a young Army officer recovering from an injury in the line of duty. In an effort to keep in on active duty, Montgomery is reassigned to the Army’s Casualty Notification Service. Woody Harrelson plays Tony Stone, the hardened Army officer that takes Montgomery under his wing and teaches him the rules and intricacies of delivering the bad news to soldier’s next of kin. As first, Montgomery takes this duty no lighter than any other, but the stress of interacting with grieving loved ones builds until he develops a friendship with a deceased soldier’s wife, played by Samantha Morton. The friendship gradually becomes more and Montgomery finds himself torn between his military duty and his need for real human connection.

THE MESSENGER has earned itself a pair of Oscar nominations. Woody Harrelson received a nomination for Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, while the writing team of Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman have received a nomination for Original Screenplay. Oren Moverman also directed the film.

In celebration of such an achievement, THE MESSENGER will enjoy a limited second run in theatres around the country. In Saint Louis, THE MESSENGER will return to screens on Friday, March 5 — Just in time for those procrastinating Oscarphiles to check this one out before the big night. Other locations and showtimes can be found at Landmark Theatres’ website.

Read Tom’s original review of THE MESSENGER.

Review: ‘Synecdoche, New York’

Travis:

I am now “officially” a fan-boy of Charlie Kaufman! I have already immensely enjoyed his work to date, but not that he’s successfully navigated the director’s chair I am thoroughly convinced he is one of the best storytellers working today. Kaufman has been the creatively brilliant writer responsible for films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich and Human Nature, which despite being my least favorite is still a decent film.

Kaufman wrote and directed his newest piece called Synecdoche, New York which is wonderfully complicated masterpiece on the very personal and private matter of accepting that one will inevitably die and the question of what to do with the life you have while you have it to live. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden Cotard, a moderately successful stage director whose life is turned upside down when his wife Adele (Catherine Keener) takes their daughter Olive to Berlin and leaves Caden behind, never to return to him.

Caden’s entire universe is thrown into a surrealist mess of distorted time and extreme diseased manifestations of his personal feelings of loss and regret. Caden has difficulty accepting that Adele and Olive are gone, slipping into a deep depression. When he learns he’s been awarded a very large grant, Caden decides he will use it to create a massive stage production that we be “pure and true”. Enlisting every last one of his actors and stage hands, Caden begins to create a life-size perfectly accurate replica of the world around him in a huge warehouse. This literal recreation of New York will be the stage on which he replays his life through the actors, over and over, constantly making changes as he continues to make choices that lead him further down the rabbit hole of his own philosophical goose chase for meaning in his life.

There are so many great players in this movie, including Tom Noonan who plays a man that has followed Caden for twenty years and is cast to play him in his production, Samantha Morton as Hazel, Caden’s off and on love interest and close companion, Hope Davis as Caden’s therapist, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Maria and Michelle Williams as Claire. The special effects are very effective but remain in their place instead of overshadowing the acting, which is stellar, and the writing. Hoffman is superb, but that’s only to be expected in my opinion. Caden becomes a neurological mess and the years of emotional pain and suffering take a physical toll on his body.

I’ll be honest with you and say that this film is not for everyone. There will be many people who see this movie and hate it, I would imagine most likely because they find themselves either confused or even confronted with the subject matter. This movie dives deep into areas of the psyche that we all deal with at some point in our lives and not everyone is prepared for that. Kaufman decided not to approach these ideas head on, instead choosing to create this elaborately intimate metaphor and I am so glad he did. I urge everyone to see the film, whether you like it or not… it’s a doozy and a dandy! For those who see it, I recommend seeing it a second time. It helps the story to sink in even deeper, as the first viewing can be somewhat emotionally taxing.

[Overall: 5 stars out of 5!]