CANNES: Coens and Cast on “Inside Llewyn Davis,” Success and That Cat

May 21, 2013 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Features Leave a comment

The titular character in the Coen brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” appears in nearly every scene of the film and the directors told us at this year’s Cannes Film Festival that they knew that whoever took on the challenge of Llewyn had to be, most importantly, an incredible musician that you wanted to spend time watching. “We were screwed until we met Oscar [Isaac]!” joked Ethan Coen.

This is Oscar Isaac‘s break out role, taking on a character who is flawed and unsure of life and himself and infusing him with heart and soul. “A lot of [the character] was so underplayed and so quiet it needed to be constructed with the full context of the music coming in and I think it’s the music where you really see his soul coming out, but we never really had conversations about his personality” mused Isaac.

CANNES REVIEW: Oscar Isaac Shines in Funny, Melancholy “Inside Llewyn Davis”

May 19, 2013 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Reviews 1 Comment

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“Inside Llewyn Davis” was perhaps our most anticipated film of this year’s Cannes Film Festival and the Coen Brothers latest film did not disappoint, weaving a melancholy yet genuinely funny and enjoyable story of a down on his luck folk singer. It’s essentially a thin plot but it doesn’t matter, as the Coens and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnol have constructed a beautifully woven tale about the failures and successes life throws at us – and the directors cleverly sidestep answering any of those questions.

This is a return to lighter fare for the brothers and it’s a pleasure to watch Llewyn (played by the incredible Oscar Isaac in an awards-worthy performance) travel up and down Manhattan, rotating through friends’ couches, taking a road trip to Chicago and trying to return a cat to his owner, all while trying to make it big as a folk singer.

Garrett Hedlund Replacing Jason Clarke to Join Oscar Isaac in “Mojave”

May 16, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

garrett-hedlund “Inside Llewyn Davis” co-stars Garrett Hedlund and Oscar Isaac are set to work together again as Hedlund is replacing Jason Clarke in psychological thriller “Mojave”, according to Screen Daily.

William Monahan wrote and will direct he two-hander, which follows “an angst-ridden artist who heads into the desert to wrestle with his existential crisis, only to meet a homicidal drifter who happens to be his doppelganger.” Hedlund will play the artist, Isaac his antagonist.

Hedlund and Isaac are premiering the Coens’ 1960s folk music drama “Iside Llewyn Davis” at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday. Hedlund was last seen earning rave reviews for his performance as Dean Moriarty in Walter Salles’ long-gestating adaptation of “On the Road.” He also has indie ensemble drama “Lullaby” set for release later this year and just signed on to star in crime thriller “Violent Talent” with Toby Kebbell and Margot Robbie.

Garrett Hedlund, Margot Robbie and Toby Kebbell Have “Violent Talent”

May 13, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

garrett-hedlund “World War Z” screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan is set to make his directorial debut and has set Garrett Hedlund to play the lead in “Violent Talent”, according to Deadline. Toby Kebbell, upcoming “The Wolf of Wall Street” star Margot Robbie and “Four Lions” star Riz Ahmed have supporting role sin the drama.

Hedlund plays Eamon in the contemporary Chicago-set drama. Eamon and his two best friends Quan and Angel (Ahmed and Kebbell) decide to build a criminal empire, believing “crime might be the most honest job around.” Robbie plays a character named Riley, likely to be a love interest of some kind. Carnahan also wrote the script.

Hedlund most recently starred in Walter Salles’ “On the Road” and will have the Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” as well as indie ensemble drama “Lullaby” opposite Amy Adams out later this year. Australian actress Robbie starred on short-lived ABC series “Pan Am” before landing the female lead opposite Leonardo Dicaprio in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street”, out this November. Kebbell had roles in “War Horse” and “Wrath of the Titans” and will soon be seen in Brit Marling’s “The East.” Ahmed most recently starred in Mira Nair’s “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.”

Watch: Red Band Trailer for Coen Brothers’ Cannes Contender “Inside Llewyn Davis”

May 8, 2013 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Videos Leave a comment

Gearing up for next week’s premiere at Cannes Film Festival, today sees the release of a red band trailer for the Coen brothers “Inside Llewyn Davis”.

There aren’t many new scenes in this new video compared to the trailer we received back in Janaury, just the expected cussing, but the tone begins to feels more melancholic towards the end before finishing with the same scene as the earlier trailer – Oscar Isaac gathering the courage to perform for a nightclub owner.

Also starring Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Justin Timberlake and John Goodman, we’re hoping for a premiere at Cannes early next week so we can bring you an exclusive review, but “Inside Llewyn Davis” will be released to the public this coming December – hoping to be a contenders for next year’s awards season.

Ryan Gosling, Emma Watson, Michael B. Jordan Among Young Stars Heading to Cannes Film Festival

April 18, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in General News Leave a comment

A bevy of rising stars are headed to the Cannes Film Festival next month as Festival director Thierry Fremaux announced the main lineup of the 66th Annual event this morning. Carey Mulligan, already heading to the Croisette for opening night film “The Great Gatsby”, will also premiere the Coen Brothers’ 1960s folk music drama “Insie Llewyn Davis”, also starring Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake and Garrett Hedlund.

The duo of Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling, who previously premiered the beautiful and violent “Drive” at the festival in 2011, have reteamed again and will show “Only God Forgives” in competition. “Saturday Night Live” alum Will Forte has a big potential breakthrough moment as he shows off his serious acting in Alexander Payne’s father-son roadtrip drama “Nebraska”, while James Gray’s “The Immigrant”, previously “Lowlife”, brings Jeremy Renner and Marion Cotillard to the Croisette. Cotillard will also appear in Guillaume Canet’s English-language remake “Blood Ties”, which is playing out of competition and which also stars Zoe Saldana and Mila Kunis.

We already knew Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring” will open the Un Certain Regard section of the fest, and will welcome young stars Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga, Israel Broussard and Katie Chang, and now joining them in the sidebar will be Sundance’s big winner “Fruitvale”, Ryan Coogler’s feature directorial debut starring Michael B. Jordan.

The full lineup can be found below.

Watch: First trailer for the Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” starring Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan

January 24, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos 2 Comments

This trailer has been a long time coming and let’s just say right off the bat, it’s already exceeding even our highest expectations. “Inside Llewyn Davis”, the newest from the Coen Brothers is a drama set in the 1960s about a bunch of folk musicians, led by Oscar Isaac in his first major leading role and supported by the likes of John Goodman, Carey Mulligan, Junstin Timberlake and Garrett Hedlund.

The entire cast does their own singing in the movie, but we don’t get to hear any of that here. Instead, we’re treated to a fierce Mulligan as a scorned ex-lover of Isaac’s Llewyn Davis, who takes off for some (“On the”) road adventures with a very Dean Moriarty-esque Hedlund. The cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel gives the film my favorite glowy, blurry, dreamy quality and all the characters feel like Coen signatures. In other words: Bring it on. There’s still no release date for this, one of our most anticipated films of the year, but with the first screening taking place in just a couple of weeks, hopefully one will be set soon.

Watch the first trailer below in the meantime.

Who will lead the “Guardians of the Galaxy”? Marvel testing Joel Edgerton, Eddie Redmayne and others

November 28, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 5 Comments

Marvel’s busy upcoming slate can only mean one thing: More young actors chomping at the bit to join the lucrative and prolific family. “Guardians of the Galaxy” was announced earlier this summer at Comic-Con, and after setting James Gunn to direct the film loosely tied to the ending of “The Avengers”, casting is now underway. Deadline reports five up and coming leading men have signed test deals for the chance to play the leader of the Guardians, a character named Peter Quill, while still others may be in contention as well.

The actors who have test deals are “Zero Dark Thirty” star Joel Edgerton, “Les Miserables” star Eddie Redmayne, “Cloud Atlas” actor Jim Sturgess and Jack Huston and Lee Pace, both of whom recently appeared in different installments of “The Twilight Saga.” Deadline also reports others who the studio is interested in or have shown interest in the part include the ever-present Garrett Hedlund, “X-Men”‘s Cyclops James Marsden and Edgerton’s fellow Aussie and “Animal Kingdom” co-star Sullivan Stapleton.

Redmayne, known for more serious acting work, seems keen to get a slice of the superhero franchise pie, as he’s also on the shortlist for the role of Harry Osborn opposite Andrew Garfield in “The Amazing Spider-Man” sequel. Edgerton seems made to be a superhero on film, but thus far has not committed to one. We think he’d be great here as Quill, aka Star-Lord, the half-human, half-alien leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, which also includes the characters Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Phyla-Vell, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot. In keeping with the intergalactic nature of this team, presumably not every member will be played by a human actor and much motion-capture and CGI will be involved in this adaptation.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” is already set for an August 1, 2014 release, so filming should begin by early next year.

REVIEW: Walter Salles’ adaptation of “On The Road”, the Kerouac classic, ‘explodes like spiders’ across the screen

October 29, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Reviews 1 Comment

In 1957 American author Jack Keroauc wrote to Marlon Brando asking him to buy the rights to, and star in, Kerouac’s novel “On The Road“. Brando never replied and it took another twenty two years for Francis Ford Coppola to purchase the rights and then spend decades hiring different screenwriters all of whom tried, and failed, to adapt the notoriously tricky spontaneous prose; after all, even Kerouac knew the story could not work on screen, telling Brando “Don’t worry about the structure, I know to compress and re-arrange the plot a bit to give a perfectly acceptable movie-type structure … ” Fifty five years after Kerouac’s letter, Brazilian director Walter Salles has finally succeeded in being the one to take the unfilmable and turn it into a thoughtful character study – one that burns and explodes, but ultimately, still remains too long.

Neither Garrett Hedlund nor Armie Hammer are involved in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”, producer confirms

June 6, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting Leave a comment

Looks like the casting process for “The Hungers Games” sequel “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” is still underway, as reports today confirm that no-one has yet been cast in fan favourite Finnick – and those rumours around Armie Hammer and Garrett Hedlund are in “no way true”.

Taylor Kitsch already took himself out of the running, and despite reports that director Francis Lawrence had “his mind set on” Hammer, Nina Jacobson, one of the producers for the sequel has told 24 Frames that things are “not narrowed things down by any means.”

The character of Finnick is a fan favorite from the entire series, a handsome, charming District 4 victor who becomes one of Katniss’s most trusted allies throughout “Catching Fire” and the third novel, “Mockingjay”.

And Jacobson admits that producers and Lawrence are not taking in to consideration the fan wishes, admitting that “It means something that people can see [an actor] in that light, so you know [the actor] will be accepted by a lot of people [but] the other hand, you have to kind of ignore it.”

Our open letter to director Francis Lawrence back in April featured Hammer and Hedlund, as well as Hunter Parrish, Harry Lloyd and Jesse Williams, five actors “who have demonstrated all the strength and charm and swagger and heartbreaking sadness that would make them more than suited to join Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth and step into Finnick’s shoes”. But with a November 23, 2013 release date and production set to start this summer, there’s sure to be an unveiling soon.

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