Brady Corbet Joins Josh Hutcherson in Pablo Escobar Drama “Paradise Lost”

March 25, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

brady-corbet Indie actor Brady Corbet has landed a “key role” in indie Pablo Escobar drama “Paradise Lost”, according to Deadline.

“The Hunger Games” star Josh Hutcherson plays the lead in the film, a young surfer who visits his older brother (Corbet) in Colombia, falls for a local girl and then meets her uncle Pablo.Benicio Del Toro plays the infamous drug cartel kingpin. Andrea di Stefano wrote the script and will make his directorial debut on the film which begins shooting in Panama this month.

Corbet is a steady presence on the indie movie scene, most known for his role as a fellow cult member of Elizabeth Olsen’s in Sean Durkin’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” He also starred in Lars Von Trier’s “Meloncholia” opposite Kirsten Dunst and will soon be seen in “Simon Killer”, which debuted at Sundance in 2012 but will finally be released this year on April 5th.

Elizabeth Olsen joins Aaron Johnson in negotiating to headline “Godzilla” reboot

February 6, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

The script is still being finalized, but Gareth Edwards and the “Godzilla” reboot producers are moving full steam ahead on casting to prepare for a scheduled March production start. Today Variety reports Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Olsen have entered negotiations to join the cast, and previously rumored front-runner Aaron Johnson is in talks as well.

The film is set for a May 16, 2014 release, so despite a messy lawsuit currently playing out in the courts, it will have to begin shooting soon. Frank Darabont is putting the finishing touches on a script and none of the actors’ deals will be finalized until that is done and they get to take a look at the final draft. There are, of course, no plot details, but I think it’s safe to assume our fearless trio will be doing a lot of looking up as they try to save a city from being trampled.

Olsen was one of the darlings of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where she broke out in Sean Durkin’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene”, and she has stuck religiously to the indie scene ever since. She’s been back at Sundance in the two years since, with films like Josh Radnor’s “Liberal Arts”, Rodrigo Cortes’ “Red Lights”, John Krokidas’ “Kill Your Darlings” and Naomi Foner’s “Very Good Girls.” She recently wrapped up shooting on Spike Lee’s remake of Korean horror “Oldboy” and “Godzilla” will mark Olsen’s very first foray into big budget blockbuster franchise territory, which has become an inevitable check mark on every young rising actor’s must list.

Julia Garner joins “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”; Eva Green lands female lead

January 29, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

UPDATE: Eva Green has been cast in the female lead role of Ava Lord, the titular Dame to kill for.

Indie rising star Julia Garner is the latest to join the ever-growing cast of sequel “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”, according to Deadline. She joins fellow newcomers Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Juno Temple, Josh Brolin, Ray Liotta and Jeremy Piven in Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s follow-up to their 2005 stylized hit “Sin City,” based on Miller’s graphic novel of the same name.

Miller and Rodriguez are already underway filming on the sequel to 2005′s “Sin City” based on Miller’s graphic novel, and a large chunk of the original cast is returning, including Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Jaimie King, Jessica Alba and Rosario Dawson. Gordon-Levitt will play a newly created character named Johnny, while Garner will play a young stripper. Green’s Ava Lord is a femme fatale described as “every man’s most glorious dreams come true, she’s also every man’s darkest nightmares.” “Sin City: A Dame To Kill For” will be released on October 14, 2013.

She played a member of the cult Elizabeth Olsen escapes from in “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and a classmate of Logan Lerman’s in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, and Garner was back at Sundance this year, taking the starring role in a gruesome family drama/horror “We Are What We Are”, which premiered in the Park City and Midnight category and was picked up for distribution by Entertainment One.

Tony winner Nina Arianda to play Janis Joplin in big screen biopic

July 10, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Recent Tony winner Nina Arianda has landed a big break on the big screen, and will play legendary folk singer Janis Joplin in a biopic to be directed by “Martha Marcy May Marlene” helmer Sean Durkin, according to Deadline.

The film, titled “Joplin”, will chronicle the final six months of the singer’s life, with flashbacks to earlier times, and Arianda will perform several of Joplin’s best-known songs. Filming is set to begin early next year. “I’ve never in my life seen an actress walk on a stage and convey the duality of vulnerability with overheated sexuality, which is what Janis was all about,” the film’s producer Peter Newman said of seeing Arianda on Broadway.

Arianda made her big screen debut in 2011, in supporting roles in Sundance films “Win Win” and “Higher Ground” and had a more memorable performance as Michael Sheen’s wife in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”, but “Joplin” will mark her first leading role on film. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress last month for her performance in “Venus in Fur.”

Elizabeth Olsen in talks for female lead in Spike Lee’s “Oldboy”

February 28, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Rooney Mara said no, then Mia Waikowska did too, but it seems Spike Lee may have finally found his leading lady for Korean revenge thriller remake “Oldboy.” Twitch Film is now reporting that Sundance darling Elizabeth Olsen is the latest starlet to receive an offer for the female lead role opposite Josh Brolin, while THR updates “early talks” have already begun and a deal is likely.

Olsen, like Mara before her, is no stranger to playing young women with dark and twisted circumstances thrust upon them, so she seems like a great choice for the role of a young chef named Marie, who gets embroiled in Brolin’s character’s quest for answers and revenge after he emerges from a hotel room after fifteen years of imprisonment without any knowledge of why or who put him there. Marie isn’t the only character Lee had trouble locking down, as the villain in the film has also gone through several offers to the likes of Christian Bale, Colin Firth and Clive Owen, but has thus far not resulted in any signed contracts. Meanwhile, production on the film has been pushed back to late summer, buying the filmmakers’ a bit more time to get their cast together.

After a stunning Sundance debut last year in “Martha Marcy May Marlene” (and the less buzzy, releasing soon “Silent House”), Olsen quickly started garnering awards attention and began building up her bright future resume. She signed on for coming of age drama “Very Good Girls” opposite Anton Yelchin and Dakota Fanning, then period piece “Therese Raquin” opposite Glenn Close, then Beat generation origin tale “Kill Your Darlings” with Dane DeHaan and Daniel Radcliffe. She also returned to Sundance last month with two more buzzy projects, Josh Radnor’s sophomore directorial vehicle “Liberal Arts” and Rodrigo Cortes’ sci-fi thriller “Red Lights.” Meanwhile, she also may land one hell of a big budget blockbuster in Akiva Goldsman’s “Winter’s Tale.” If her dance card isn’t completely filled up by now, that is.

Elizabeth Olsen, Dane DeHaan, Jack Huston join Daniel Radcliffe in Beat Generation biopic “Kill Your Darlings”

January 12, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

A trio of promising young rising stars have signed on to Beat Generation origin tale “Kill Your Darlings”, according to Variety. “Harry Potter” himself Daniel Radcliffe signed on to play Allen Ginsberg a couple of months ago, and it looks like Dane DeHaan, Elizabeth Olsen and Jack Huston are rounding out most of the main cast.

Huston will play Jack Kerouac (whose iconic “On the Road” is also getting the big screen treatment), Olsen his girlfriend Edie Parker, and DeHaan will be Lucien Carr, whom Ginsberg called “the glue” at the center of the tight circle of friends that would go down in history as the founders of the New York Beat scene. The fourth Beat icon in the group, William Burroughs, is presumably still yet to be cast, as well as the pivotal role of David Kammarer. John Krokidas wrote the script and will also make his feature directorial debut. Filming is scheduled to begin on March 12 in New York.

Huston, last seen in “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”, also stars opposite Jessica Chastain in “Wild Salome” and Bella Heathcote in “Twylight Zones.” Olsen broke out in a big way in 2011 with her feature film debut in Sundance hit “Martha Marcy May Marlene”, one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year, thanks in no small part to her revelatory performance. DeHaan has a big year ahead with roles in “The Wettest County”, “The Place Beyond the Pines” and “Chronicle.”

Watch: First trailer for Elizabeth Olsen’s other Sundance movie, “Silent House”

January 5, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

While Elizabeth Olsen has been receiving raves for “Martha Marcy May Marlene”, which debuted at Sundance exactly one year ago and which sees Olsen playing a paranoid and tormented young woman, it seems to be a much less talked about fact that she actually stunned the Sundance audience with two performances in two different films. It seems like there’s a lot of parallels to draw between her cult escapee in “Martha Marcy” and Sarah, the young woman at the center of “Silent House”, which will finally see a theatrical release this March. A remake of a Portugese cult horror classic and supposedly based on a real story, “Silent House” sees Olsen’s character arrive at a desolate lakeside cabin with the intention of fixing it up before it goes on the sale market. Told in real time and using one, extremely long take that encompasses the entire movie, the movie follows Sarah’s attempt to leave the house and the many ghostly obstacles that stand in her way.

“Silent House”, directed by the duo behind “Open Water”, opens on March 9, 2012.

Up and Comers Presents: Our Top 10 Movies of 2011

December 31, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge and Rebecca Lewis in Features, Lists 3 Comments

As with all such year end lists, the hardest part may be choosing only a few from many worthy contenders. It’s a fun problem to have, but it can also make writers fickle. Such is the case here with our top 10 movies of 2011. Those of you who listened to our podcast a few weeks back may be slightly befuddled. Yes, indeed, both of our top 10 lists have changed somewhat in the weeks since.

Our lists still remain delightfully different, with 17 movies represented between our two lists of 10. Check them out below and let us know what your favorite movies of the year were!

Click here for Linda’s Top 10 | Click here for Rebecca’s Top 10

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Up and Comers Podcast #8: “Extremely Loud”, “Martha Marcy” redux; Our Top Ten Movies of the Year

December 13, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge and Rebecca Lewis in Podcast 1 Comment

Thank you for joining us again if you listened to our earlier podcasts or if you are new to the program, welcome! Once a week, Linda and Rebecca will take to the internet airwaves to discuss a variety of subjects, including all the latest news, movies we’ve seen recently, the Oscar season and more topics that interest us (or you! Please send us your suggestions for topics to talk about).

This week’s podcast WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS so please read below for the specifics before hitting PLAY.

• 00:00 – 09:00 – Slow news week, so we quickly discuss the “Les Miserables” castings and Armie Hammer’s new role.

• 09:00 – 29:00 Plenty of movies watched this week. We talk about “Moneyball”, “Immortals”, “Martha Marcy May Marlene” (14:30 – 18:00 will have SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING), “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” and “War Horse.”

• 29:00 – END – We each count down our Top 10 Movies of 2011. There are minor spoilers for each film, but nothing too drastic, and we obviously don’t want to spoil the surprise of what movies made our lists, so… just take a listen!

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“The Artist”, “Take Shelter” dominate Independent Spirit Awards nominations; “Like Crazy” snubbed

November 29, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Awards 2 Comments

What award season giveth, award season is just as quick to take away. Felicity Jones scored a big win last night for her performance in “Like Crazy”, but overnight, a little steam has been let out of that film’s tires. The Independent Spirit Awards announced their nominations bright and early – and “Like Crazy” has been left out in the cold completely. The big winners this morning out of the West Coast (the New York Film Critics are still voting over on the East Coast – more on that in a bit) is Oscar heavy hitter “The Artist” and Jeff Nichols’ “Take Shelter”, which tie for the lead in total nominations with five. “The Descendants”, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”, “Drive” and “Beginners” (also a big winner last night at Gotham) follow close on their heels with four each.

One of our personal favorites of the year, Jonathan Levine’s “50/50″, also made a great showing with three nominations, for Best Feature, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Anjelica Huston, while Corey Stoll, who was so memorable as Ernest Hemingway in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”, scored a surprising and welcome nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The winners will be announced on Saturday, February 25, 2012 and we hope to be there to bring you up to the minute exclusive coverage, but hopefully it won’t be so windy this year. The full list of nominations are below.

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