First look at Dakota Fanning and Tom Sturridge on set for Emma Thomspon’s “Effie”

October 26, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Images 2 Comments

UPDATE: Picture of Tom Sturridge on set have surfaced, thanks to Socialite Life.

Thanks go to Just Jared, who have the first images of Dakota Fanning, one of our favorite rising stars, in costume and on the set of “Effie” in London yesterday.

We announced back in August that Fanning had taken on the role of Effie Grey, after Saoirse Ronan dropped out.

Also starring Tom Sturridge (who replaced fellow Brit actor Orlando Bloom), the film is based on the life of Effie Grey, who married young to a much older man, John Ruskin (to be played by Grey Wise), only for him to refuse to consummate their marriage. Effie then turned to Ruskin’s more age-appropriate protege, the painter John Everett Millais (Sturridge).

Emma Thompson has penned the film, and will also star as Lady Eastlake, who takes the heartbroken Effie under her wing. Directed by Richard Laxton, we last heard that the film was hoping to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2012. No word on whether that is still the case.

New release dates: “Silent House”, “Warm Bodies”, “Now You See Me”

October 25, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in General News 1 Comment

Some tiny morsels of news today regarding a few of our highly anticipated upcoming projects: Release dates! First up, horror remake “Silent House”, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and stars hot breakout star Elizabeth Olsen, has been set for a March 9, 2012 release. Surely filmmakers are hoping that date will be coming on the heels of a good night for Olsen at the Oscars, where she is favored to be nominated for a Best Actress statue for her truly revelatory turn in another Sundance debut, “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” In “Silent House”, Olsen will be menaced in a very different way, by ghosts! A remake of the Uruguayan horror “La casa muda,” the film was shot in one long extremely long take, with the camera often positioned within an inch of Olsen’s frightened face.

Over at Summit Entertainment, zombie love story “Warm Bodies” starring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer and Dave Franco has been skedded for August 10, 2012. In Jonathan Levine’s follow-up to “50/50″, Hoult plays a zombie living in a post-apocalyptic world who begins to feel human again after eating the brains of one of his victims, Perry (Franco). Perry floods Hoult’s “R” with memories and feelings to the point where R begins an unlikely friendship with Palmer’s Julie, the human girlfriend Perry left behind.

Summit has also set a date for Louis Leterrier’s magician heist thriller “Now You See Me”, which also stars Franco, along with Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Melanie Laurent and Mark Ruffalo. The actioner, which follows a group of world class magicians who pull off bank robberies during their performances, and the FBI team hot on their trails, will be released on January 13, 2013.

“Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke lands female lead in actioner “Overdrive”

October 25, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

It was only a matter of time before the success of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” began paying dividends to its talented young cast. Jason Momoa, Harry Lloyd and Kit Harington have all began venturing into feature films, and now the arguable female lead of the show is following in their footsteps. THR reports Emilia Clarke, who plays badass dragon-rearing queen Daenrys Targaryen, has landed the female lead in action thriller “Overdrive”, while Ben Barnes and Karl Urban will be taking over the male leads that had formerly been filled by Matthew Goode and Alex Pettyfer.

Urban and Barnes will play handsome, jet-setting brothers who are known for being high profile car thieves. When they travel to the South of France in search of their next adrenaline rush, they are thwarted by a tough local crime boss. The film is a passion project for producer Pierre Morel, who directed “Taken”. Antonio Negret is directing “Overdrive” from a script by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt. Filming begins October 29 in Marseilles.

With only a TV movie and a one-episode guest spot on a British TV series to her credit as of 2010, Clarke won the opportunity of a lifetime when she replaced fellow Brit actress Tamzin Merchant after the pilot for “Game of Thrones” had already been filmed. The show, nominated for 13 Emmys after its first season, is currently filming season 2, which will begin airing in the spring of 2012. “Overdrive” will mark Clarke’s feature film debut.

REVIEW: Tense and gripping “Martha Marcy May Marlene” features a stunning debut from Elizabeth Olsen

October 24, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Reviews 2 Comments

Sundance’s streak continues. For the third year in a row the Utah film festival can boast the discovery of a brand new, undeniable talent, and Elizabeth Olsen can firmly step out from the shadows of her older sisters (those Olsen twins, you’ve heard of them) to take her place amongst the most promising and talented actors of her generation, like Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) and Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”) before her. Sean Durkin’s directorial debut “Martha Marcy May Marlene” is a revelation, a moody, spooky psychological thriller with an absolutely stunning debut from Olsen.

Lily Collins joins Michael Angarano and Julianne Moore in “The English Teacher”

October 24, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

The ever-busy Lily Collins continues to add to her diverse and rapidly filling up upcoming slate, as Deadline reports the young rising star has joined the cast of indie dramedy “The English Teacher” opposite Michael Angarano and Julianne Moore. Charlie Saxton and Nathan Lane co-star.

Craig Zisk directs the film about a small town high school teacher whose world is turned upside down by the return of a former student, whose journey to New York to try to make it as a playwright has ended in failure. Angarano would play the writer, who Moore’s charcter falls for. Collins will play a popular high school student who clashes with Moore’s teacher. Filming begins this week in New York.

Collins recently appeared opposite “Twilight” werewolf Taylor Lautner in the awful actioner “Abduction”, but has plenty of more promising projects on the horizon. She’ll be seen in the title role opposite Evil Queen Julia Roberts and Prince Armie Hammer in Tarsem Singh’s still untitled “Snow White” and will headline teen fantasy romance “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” opposite another “Twilight” star, Jamie Campbell-Bower. She presumably remains in contention for the title role in revisionist Shakespeare tale “Rosaline.”

Brooding TV hunks Kit Harington and Joel Kinnaman front-runners for “Arthur and Lancelot”

October 21, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 6 Comments

Let’s be clear here: I’m a huge Arthurian legend fan and even bigger Lancelot fan. After a string of onscreen adaptations that have seen the marginalizing of Arthur’s best friend, right hand man and ultimate downfall (“King Arthur”, “Merlin”, “Camelot”, I’m looking at you), it’s a relief to hear of a project that has Lancelot’s name right there in the title. No way they can mess him up in this one, right? Comedy director David Dobkin has been tasked with developing and directing “Arthur and Lancelot”, a modern re-imagining of the iconic friendship and rivalry between King and Knight, and the project is one step closer to becoming reality as he has zeroed in on a couple of newcomers for the title roles.

The Playlist reports “Game of Thrones” star Kit Harington and “The Killing” star Joel Kinnaman are the front-runners for the two lead roles, though it’s unclear who’s up for which. The two relative unknowns beat out a legion of other up and comers, some fairly more famous but no A-Listers: Sam Claflin, Dominic Cooper, Hans Matheson, Jim Sturgess, Ben Walker and Liam Hemsworth. Harington and Kinnaman have not officially signed on nor received official offers, but did screen test together for the director in London a couple of weeks ago.

The plot of the film remains vague, with Dobkin seeming to indicate it might be a loose interpretation of the basic structure of the legend (sigh!). “I pulled the legend apart. I only kept a few things. I kept certain characters, I recreated the entire launch of the legend and why it starts the way that it starts, I don’t want to give away too much but it’s always had a flaw,” he told The Playlist. “I pulled the flaws out, I reinvented the characters as grounded characters. I took a much more realistic and grounded approach towards everybody, you know why would this character be this way and why would this character be that way? You know Arthur’s superpower is compassion and vision. I will tell you this, the whole thing is wrapped around the birth of democracy as a concept and it’s positing Arthur as the first man to say all men are created equal.” Ok, that sounds great, but at least some of it is about Guinevere… right?

We’ll get to see when the movie is released on March 15, 2013, but in the meantime, Harington is back at work on season 2 of HBO’s monstrous hit “Game of Thrones”, while Kinnaman is on the second season of the slightly less successful and much more divisive “The Killing”. On film though, Kinnaman’s star should be rising fast after breaking out in hit Swedish thriller “Snabba Cash”; with roles as Daniel Craig and Robin Wright’s magazine co-editor in David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and as the man who operates Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington’s “Safe House.” He’ll next be seen as one of a quartet of young Americans -with Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Rachael Taylor and Max Minghella – who fend off an alien attack in Russia in “The Darkest Hour”, out in December.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt may join Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”

October 21, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s career trajectory is almost as exciting as his movies. Taking unexpected projects left and right, he is about to add another surprising role to his increasingly impressive and diverse portfolio, as Variety reports the actor is keen on taking a role in Quentin Tarantino’s next feature, “Django Unchained”, a spaghetti western set during slavery times.

The trade reports Gordon-Levitt intends to do the film but will have to work out scheduling before it’s official. However, one big roadblock has already been cleared as his bike messenger thriller “Premium Rush” has been pushed back from January 13, 2012 to August 24, 2012. “Django” begins filming in January and there was a question whether Gordon-Levitt’s press commitments to “Premium Rush” would be an issue. If he joins Tarantino’s film, he’ll be in amazing company with “Inception” co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Kurt Russell and Don Johnson. Foxx plays a slave turned bounty hunter who sets out to rescue his wife from Dicaprio’s villainous plantation owner.

Gordon-Levitt can currently be seen in Jonathan Levine’s critically acclaimed cancer dramedy “50/50″, which is garnering some awards buzz for the actor, and is shooting “The Dark Knight Rises”, “Inception” director Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film. He also plays the son of Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” in the currently filming biopic starring Daniel Day Lewis as the most iconic President in history.

Bradley Cooper likely to be “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”

October 21, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

I think we all could have made a lot of money betting on Bradley Cooper to end up as the top choice for any number of high profile projects seeking a star. He’s proving to be continually in demand once again as Variety reports Steven Soderbergh has identified Cooper as his top choice to take one of two male leads of his “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” reboot. Cooper is being positioned for the role of Napoleon Solo, originally bookmarked for George Clooney, who had to drop out due to an injury. The Next George Clooney? Something tells us Cooper is well on his way.

There is no official offer just yet, but once a deal is on the table, it’s likely to happen because Cooper’s agents have worked hard from their end to position him for the part. Last we heard in September, Soderbergh and the studio were whittling down their wishlist of names to take on the Solo role and that of his sidekick, the young Russian secret agent Illya Kuryakin, with names that included Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Alexander Skarsgard and Ryan Gosling. The film will be a buddy cop comedy in the vein of “Lethal Weapon set in the 1960s, following the two agents who work for a top secret government agency called U.N.C.L.E., standing for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

Last seen on screen reprising his most famous role in “The Hangover Part II”, Cooper recently wrapped thriller “The Words” opposite Zoe Saldana Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines” opposite Ryan Gosling. He’s currently filming “The Silver Linings Playbook” opposite Jennifer Lawrence for director David O. Russell and will then segue immediately into 3D battle epic “Paradise Lost”. That will wrap in March, which is when Soderbergh plans to begin shooting “U.N.C.L.E.” Looks like Cooper will be all tied up for the foreseeable future. Sigh of relief, every other young actor trying to snag a big role!

Carey Mulligan lines up roles with the Coen Brothers and Spike Jonze

October 20, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Carey Mulligan received an Oscar nomination in 2010 for her role as an idealistic schoolgirl in 2009′s “An Eduction” and has leveraged that newfound status in Hollywood to pile up an increasingly impressive body of work. Not slowing down for a bit, she has signed on to two more high profile gigs, Variety reports. Joining the recently cast Oscar Isaac, she has snagged the female lead in the Coen Brothers’ 1960s folk music drama “Inside Llewyn Davis”, and has entered negotiations for a lead role in Spike Jonze’s still untitled next feature.

There is no word on her role in each film, though in the former she might likely play a folk musician based on a real person, alongside Isaac’s titular character, based on real-life 60s folk musician Dave Van Ronk, nicknamed “Mayor of MacDougal Street”, whose circle of friends and fellow musicians included Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Patrick Sky, Phil Ochs, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Joni Mitchell. In the Jonze pic, she’ll join Joaquin Phoenix in a tale about world leaders having to work together on impending “cataclysmic events.”

Mulligan currently has two awards season films in play, opposite Ryan Gosling in Nicolas Winding Refn’s ultra-violent arthouse actioner “Drive” (also starring Isaac) and opposite Michael Fassbender in NC-17 sex addiction drama “Shame” from director Steve McQueen. She’s not partaking much in the way of campaigning for Supporting Actress for either film though, too busy playing Daisey Buchanan for Baz Luhrmann’s 3D adaptation of “The Great Gatsby”, currently shooting in Australia. She plans to shoot “Llewyn” next February and then hop onto Jonze’s project by spring.

Elizabeth Olsen, Felicity Jones, Shailene Woodley score Breakthrough nominations at Gotham Awards

October 20, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Awards 1 Comment

The first of many many awards to come have announced their list of nominees honoring the best films of 2011. Some major Oscar players are at play at the Gotham Awards, a small New York awards show that is even more indie than the Independent Spirit Awards. Sean Durkin’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene”, starring Elizabeth Olsen in her big screen debut as a young woman who escapes from a cult, and Alexander Payne’s “The Descendents”, starring George Clooney and up and comer Shailene Woodley as members of a dysfunctional family, lead the pack with three nominations each. Woodley and Olsen are both nominated for Breakthrough Actor, along with fellow Oscar-hopeful Felicity Jones for “Like Crazy” and two lesser known actors, Jacob Wysocki, playing the title role in “Terri”, and Harmony Santana, also nominated for her feature film debut, “Gun Hill Road.”

Perhaps most surprising is the omission of arguably 2011′s biggest breakthrough star, Jessica Chastain, in the Breakthrough Actor category. Her most publicized role, in blockbuster summer release “The Help”, may not be applicable here, but certainly “Take Shelter” should have done the trick, seeing as how it is nominated for Best Feature and Best Ensemble Cast here. But in any case, this may or may not have any impact on her chances at the “bigger” prizes down the line. Last year little-known indie director/writer Ronald Bronstein took home the Breakthrough Actor prize over the heavily favored, heavily publicized Jennifer Lawrence of “Winter’s Bone”, but that didn’t get him any closer to Oscar and she was nominated just as everyone assumed she would be. So it’s unclear just how the small and independent Gotham Awards will impact Oscar, though certainly Olsen, Jones and Woodley received further cementing of major Oscar player status.

Full list of nominees are below. The awards will be handed out at its ceremony on November 28th.

Page 144 of 232« First «...10 20 30...142 143144145 146...150 160 170...»Last »