by Jennifer Tomooka, Mar 12 2010 // 2:00 PM
In the latest The First Avenger: Captain America news, HeatVision is reporting that Hugo Weaving (Matrix, Lord of the Rings) is Marvel Studio’s first choice to star as the film’s villain, Red Skull. In the comic books, Red Skull is Captain America’s archenemy, engaging in espionage and sabotage as Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man.
If Weaving is tapped, it would reunite the star with director Joe Johnston, whom he worked with in this year’s The Wolfman. In other casting news, the list of Captain America contenders appears to have thinned.
We recently reported that five actors were in the running. However, HeatVision and Deadline New York have both reported that John Krasinski is no longer in the race for the coveted role. According to the sites, Marvel is now considering Wilson Bethel (Generation Kill), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) and Garrett Hudlund (Tron Legacy), who have all either read, tested, or received test offers.
The First Avenger: Captain America is slated for a July 11, 2011 release.
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Posted in: Casting · Marvel · Marvel Studios · Movies · News
Tagged: Captain America, Chris Evans, Cloverfield, Fantastic Four, Garrett Hudland, Generation Kill, Hugo Weaving, Joe Johnston, John Krasinski, Marvel, Marvel Studios, Matrix, Mike Vogel, Red Skull, The First Avenger: Captain America, The Lord of the Rings, The Wolfman, Tron Legacy, Wilson Bethel
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by Bob Starr, Mar 11 2010 // 12:00 PM

It was an interesting show for the Oscars this year. From the “Kanye” moment to Sean Penn somewhat proudly proclaiming he’s not part of the Academy. Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role (The Blind Side) the very same year she accepted a Razzie for Worst Actress (All About Steve). And, of course, the gross upset of Avatar at the hands of The Hurt Locker. With 41 million viewers, this year’s Oscars had something for everyone but, perhaps more interestingly, it best reflected the two sides of Hollywood which exist today.
How fitting to have two hosts on the one Oscar night that would truly exemplify both faces of Hollywood. For so long many have seen Hollywood as one massive, filmmaking entity but that really isn’t the case. Now more than ever there’s a division between what I’m calling (for the purposes of this article) “mainstream” Hollywood and “performance” Hollywood. The names pretty much say it all.
Films in the mainstream category are all the summer blockbusters, tent pole movies studios rely on to turn a healthy profit year over year (e.g. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Avatar). In contrast you have the performance pictures, lesser known films with limited release and all too often far less money behind them (e.g. Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, The Hurt Locker). These are two very different types of films, each vying for the attention of movie goers.
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Posted in: Academy Awards · Awards · Box Office · Editorial and Opinion · Movies · Prequels and Sequels · TV Ratings · Transformers
Tagged: Avatar, James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow, Michael Bay, Oscars, Razzies, The Blind Side, The Hurt Locker, The Lord of the Rings, Transformers, Transformers 2, Transformers 3
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by Shannon Hood, Jan 15 2010 // 2:00 PM

Shortly after I read The Lovely Bones in 2002, I started hearing rumblings that it was being optioned for a movie. My immediate reaction was “Why?” The emotionally devastating novel about the rape and murder of a fourteen year old seemed like dubious source material. The murdered girl resides in a self imposed ethereal limbo-land between heaven and earth for most of the book, making it logistical nightmare to film. I just didn’t understand how a filmmaker could pull it off.
In the case of director Peter Jackson, he couldn’t, and he didn’t. Jackson worked his magic with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but he is woefully out of his element here. The most shocking thing about seeing the film is that it is completely devoid of any emotion or warmth, the very characteristics that made the book so beloved. So much consideration is given to unnecessary special effects (that don’t even look good) that the crucial human interactions are lost, and that is a true pity. If you take those away, there is no reason to see this movie.
Oscar-nominee Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) plays Susie Salmon, who disappears on her way home from school one day. A nerdy and harmless looking neighbor, Mr. Harvey, lures Susie to a root-cellar like building in the middle of a field with the sheepish confession he has built a playhouse for the neighborhood kids. Susie feels honored to be the first child to see the playhouse, but she is ultimately raped, murdered, and dismembered in the claustrophobic dwelling.
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Posted in: Adaptation · Books · Drama · Movies · Reviews
Tagged: Alice Sybold, Mark Whalberg, Movies, Peter Jackson, Rachel Weisz, Reviews, Saoirse Ronan, The Lord of the Rings, The Lovely Bones, Thriller
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by Bob Starr, Sep 24 2009 // 2:15 PM

With films like
Resident Evil and
I Am Legend commonplace in Hollywood, it’s hard to imagine a post-apocalyptic tale that isn’t sensationalized somehow. The big screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning best-seller
The Road set out to change all that. The story follows the journey of a father and son as they do whatever they can to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. There is a lot of anticipation for this film and now we can all rest easy knowing we’ll be able to see it November 25th.
Starring Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and relative newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Road seeks to distinguish itself from similar fair by bringing a real look at a post-apocalyptic world. Director John Hillcoat drew inspiration form contemporary tragedies to capture the essence of the film, “…instead of just looking at other post-apocalyptic films, we ended up going to documentaries and photos of actual apocalypses or ones that didn’t go global. Within that small area, it’s the equivalent, so we looked at Hiroshima, Katrina and 9/11.”
The timing of the release cannot be overlooked either and could be somewhat strategic by Dimension Films. A November date puts The Road in Oscar contention for this year. While uncommon for genre type films to get Academy recognition, it wouldn’t be the first time McCarthy’s work received Oscar buzz. The film No Country for Old Men, based on McCarthy’s novel, won four Academy Awards thanks, in large part, to the Coen brothers. Considering the serious tone of the story and Mortensen’s dramatic level of acting, The Road just may lead to more Oscar gold again.
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Posted in: Adaptation · Dimension Films · Drama · Movies · News
Tagged: Coen brothers, Cormac McCarthy, Kodi Smit-McPhee, No Country for Old Men, The Lord of the Rings, The Road, Viggo Mortensen
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by Christina Warren, Jul 22 2009 // 1:00 PM
The release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has reopened discussions about what makes a good book to film adaptation. The Potter series often divides fans, and the latest chapter is no exception. I’ve heard from a number of fans of the book series who are disappointed with the current film’s adaptation, while I’ve also talked to fans who are satisfied. Brad Brevet from RopesofSilicon reflected on some of the more negative fan reactions and he asks, “how faithful should film adaptations be?”
Adapting a book into a film is not an easy process. Squeezing a 300-page novel into a 120-minute film is difficult, especially if the book has lots of exposition or other elements that are not easily cinematic. For books that are rich and deeply characterized, like the Potter books, adaptation is almost always going to mean losing some characters or the minute characterizations that many fans hold dear.
That said, making an adaptation that is too close to the original work can often be just as problematic as making an unfaithful adaptation. Brevet mentions this spring’s Watchmen as an example of a film that while remarkably true to its graphic novel counterpart, still didn’t end up endearing itself to even diehard Watchmen fans. I would argue this was because despite getting the character and plot details correct, Watchmen didn’t effectively bring enough of its own cinematic virtues to the project. In contrast, Frank Miller’s Sin City was a tremendous adaptation of various vignettes from the graphic novel series, and it managed to be both accurate and bring in its own voice.
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Posted in: Features · Movies · Novels · Scripts
Tagged: Fight Club, Gone with the Wind, Sin City, The Godfather, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Watchmen
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