Posted Nov 23rd 2009 12:43PM by Jenni Miller
Filed under: Action, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Releases, Trailers and Clips
"Team Jacob!" roars a trio of dudes in a bar. Drinks are flowing fast. "A typical horrible Monday just became amazing," gushes a woman who's about to go see a private screening of
Twilight: New Moon. The crowd moves from the bar to what looks suspiciously like a high school theater to get amped up for some muscle-bound shirtless werewolf action.
"C'mon, get out of your seats! Are you ready?" The fans, who are all most certainly of drinking age, are definitely out of their seats and screaming. They're so ready!
"Too bad!" cackles the emcee, and the curtains part to show a young comedian named
Skyler Stone who's there to stage an intervention, via
FunnyorDie.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you are not going to see
Twilight: New Moon tonight." For some reason (I think it has to do with alcohol), the audience is still cheering, but this statement brings a solitary "NO!" Stone continues, "This is a vampire intervention because you clearly don't know what the f*ck a vampire is!" Is that male laughter in the background? Wooing begins. Is this real or is it fake? Stone berates the audience and insults Rpatz with aplomb. Still, the cheering continues!
"Why are you cheering?!" he yells at them. "Do you understand you're not seeing
Twilight tonight?"
Will there be a riot? Bloodshed? Will Stone leave the theater intact? Find out what happens after the jump.
Continue reading Watch This: A 'Twilight' Intervention
Posted Nov 20th 2009 3:48PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Classics, Drama, Independent, Romance, Casting, Mystery & Suspense, Focus Features, Newsstand
The Brontes are all the rage for adaptation right now. It's undoubtedly due to Edward and Bella bestowing their favor on
Wuthering Heights, and had they chosen
Great Expectations, perhaps we'd see Dickens adaptations flinging themselves to the big screen. I love corsets and cravats, so I'm not going to complain, and I'm certainly not going to whine if
Cary Fukunaga gets
this cast for
Jane Eyre.
Variety is reporting that
Michael Fassbender and
Mia Wasikowska are in talks to play Jane and Rochester for Fukunaga, and oh, how torrid it would be!
This is actually the second time Fassbender has circled a Bronte adaptation. Last May, he was said to be
in talks for Wuthering Heights, but Ed Westwick stepped into that particular waistcoat. It's a shame. I think Fassbender would have made an excellent Heathcliff, and may have been the first one to actually snarl, bang his head against a tree, and slap people convincingly. But he will make a very simmering Rochester, and is the only actor who could top
Toby Stephens' wonderful turn in 2006.
Wasikowska is still a bit of a dark horse. She's becoming one of those much-discussed names, but most of us have yet to really meet her until Tim Burton's
Alice in Wonderland hits theaters. She's very pretty, but is just "ordinary" (if that doesn't sound too terrible) enough to fit the part of plain Jane, and as an Aussie, she'll be able to turn on an English accent better than Ellen Page. If this is the
Jane Eyre that makes it to the screen, I'll be happy. Let the eerie screams, mysterious fires, and lingering looks commence.
Posted Nov 20th 2009 9:48AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Casting
The rumor mill was buzzing
earlier this month with news that Nicole Kidman was going to, once again, go for the younger guy and star opposite Robert Pattinson in the adaptation of Guy De Maupassant's
Bel Ami. While it turns out that Kidman is
not taking the project on, another famous blonde is.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that
Uma Thurman will star opposite Pattinson, and
Kristin Scott Thomas has also joined the roster.
The film will star Pattinson as George Duroy, an aspiring journalist who finds his success by bedding many of Paris' rich and powerful women. Thurman will play Mme Forestier, the married woman who sparks his ascension and later marries him, while Thomas comes into the picture as "a socialite who falls for Duroy, becoming clingy in the process."
Now, much has been said, or argued, about Pattinson's talents as an actor, and I'd say this will be the ultimate test -- whether he can hold his own against Thurman and Thomas. Pattinson won't be able to hide behind sparkles or quirky, mustachioed mannerisms this time around! Both have considerable talents, although Thurman in particular is long overdue for some meaty and buzz-worthy dramatic fare (it's also about time she got into some retro wordy romance as well, a la
Henry and June). The drama will shoot next year in Paris.
Posted Nov 19th 2009 4:35PM by Peter Hall
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Deals, Distribution
Variety
is reporting that
Brett Ratner has been hand-selected by Reliance Big Pictures to re-edit a forthcoming drama of theirs,
Kites, in order to make the film more accessible to international audiences. Yes, the man who made the
Rush Hour trilogy has been tapped to once again crush cultural barriers (assuming that's what Reliance thinks he did with those films). The production is being filmed in both Hindi and English, so it'll be Ratner's job to make sure that the English-language cut is attractive enough for a sales market outside of India, which will only be getting the Hindi cut.
And as odd as this news seems at first, the
official synopsis for
Kites does seem to fit Ratner's penchant for making broad-appeal films: "In the harsh terrain of the Mexican desert, a mortally wounded man is left for dead in the heat of the desert sun. This is J. Once a street smart, carefree young guy. Now, a wanted man. The only thing that keeps him alive is the quest to find the love of his life, Natasha. A woman engaged to another man, but surely destined for J. ... Kites is a story of love that goes beyond barriers, boundaries and cultures. It is a story of passion that defies every rule, of a relationship that takes two lovers on a thrilling journey filled with precious moments - and unexpected betrayal."
I say broad-appeal because that pitch reads an awful lot like
Slumdog Millionaire, except without the mention of a game show. However it turns out in the end, it looks like this won't be the last time Ratner teams up with Reliance. Variety hints that re-editing
Kites comes with the rights for Ratner to direct
Youngblood, an adaptation of a graphic novel by Rob Liefeld... Ah, more films from the man who made
X-Men 3, isn't that what we all need?
Posted Nov 19th 2009 2:08PM by Jen Yamato
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Fandom, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Trailers and Clips
Ladies, I have important news: we've got another
Robert Pattinson movie to "squeee" over. The
New Moon heartthrob stars in Summit's romantic drama
Remember Me, in which RPattz apparently gets to -- dare I say it? -- act his little butt off. By which I mean, throwing punches and yelling at James Bond and being sensitive and making out with
Emilie de Ravin, all while rocking an American accent! Sigh. I can't wait.
Ok, so
Remember Me is a gimme - of course every
Twilight fan is going to run to buy tickets to watch
Edward Cullen Rob Pattinson be romantic and emo and, most importantly, have a sex scene or two or three. (I'm extrapolating from the one shot of Pattinson and de Ravin with an L sheet covering them in bed in the trailer.) And your boyfriends and husbands probably won't want to be dragged to see it any more than they did the
Twilight films. But judging from the very first trailer,
Remember Me might just offer Pattinson his first big chance to prove his acting chops in a widely seen release, following dramatic but quirky turns in indies like
Little Ashes and
How to Be.
Watch the trailer debut for Remember Me after the jump, stat! Continue reading OMG! Rob Pattinson In the 'Remember Me' Trailer!
Posted Nov 18th 2009 8:10PM by Matt Bradshaw
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Box Office Predictions
Despite what the critics thought, people flocked to the end of the world epic
2012 which pulled in $230 million globally.
Precious expanded into a modest 174 theaters but still managed to land the number three position. Here's the top five:
1. 2012: $65.2 million
2. A Christmas Carol: $22.3 million
3. Precious: Based on the Novel: "Push" by Sapphire: $5.8 million
4. The Men Who Stare at Goats: $5.9 million
5. Michael Jackson's This Is It: $5 million
And moviegoers have three new releases to choose from this weekend.
The Twilight Saga: The New Moon
What's It All About: Do you really need to be told? This, of course, is the hotly anticipated sequel to 2008's
Twilight. Bella's life continues down a dark path after Edward leaves her for her own safety. We've also got hunky bare-chested werewolves this time.
Why It Might Do Well: The first film had a $70 million opening weekend in 3,419 theaters. I suspect owning film rights to the
Twilight series is like having a license to print money.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Some folks don't like their vampires to sparkle.
Number of Theaters: 4,000
Prediction: $86 million
The Blind Side
What's It All About: A homeless teen is adopted by a conservative family and matures into a football star with the potential to turn pro.
Why It Might Do Well: From a strictly personal standpoint, sports films don't really interest me, but this grabbed my attention. Also 67% at
Rottentomatoes.com ain't bad.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Well, there
is that vampire movie coming out this week.
Number of Theaters: 3,100
Prediction: $16 million
Continue reading Box Office: Mooning the Planet of the Blind
Posted Nov 18th 2009 4:02PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Romance, Fandom, Trailers and Clips
Teen icon
Miley Cyrus can't do anything these days without causing a stir of some kind. The only thing I can't figure out is if she does it on purpose or just has a bad case of her mouth running away with her. During a recent backstage interview with the singer/actress, Cyrus was asked the defining question of our generation: "Team Edward or Team Jacob?" Well, it turns out the answer is neither, and she told journalists, "I've never seen [Twilight], nor will I. I don't believe in it. I don't like vampires, I don't like the wolf that pops out of the screen when I'm watching TV at night, I don't want anything to do with it." (Oh snap! There's going to be a tween-off. Just think, it will be like
West Side Story but with glitter and blond wigs!) Personally, I think she was trying to make a joke, and if she was, her comedy skills definitely need a little work.
Now, the cynic in me would mark the fact that this latest headline to spring from the tween sensation is just in time for the release of the trailer of her new romantic weepie,
The Last Song. So what better way to get teen girls' attention than to bad-mouth their hunk(s) of the moment?
Last Song stars Cyrus as a piano prodigy reconnecting with her father (played by
Greg Kinnear) and falling in love, but this is a
Nicholas Sparks story, so I can only assume somebody is going to die or get a horrible disease before the flick is through. The film is Cyrus' latest attempt to shed her
Hannah Montana image and was the next step in becoming a serious actress. But now we'll have to see if she lives long enough to avoid a Cullen-inspired vendetta.
After the jump: the trailer for The Last Song and Cyrus' take on Twilight...Continue reading Miley Cyrus Hates Twilight, Debuts New Trailer
Posted Nov 18th 2009 12:02PM by Jeffrey M. Anderson
Filed under: Romance, Fandom
Welcome to a new series here on Cinematical where we select an actor or actress and the role we think is their all time best.
Last August, "Meryl Streep" wrote an op-ed piece for
The Onion called "Name One Masterpiece Of Cinema That I've Starred In." It was really written by the
Onion staff, of course, but they (and Streep) made a good point. For a woman who is very possibly the finest living actor of any sex, she has made very few truly unforgettable films. Her resume doesn't contain anything quite like
Rear Window,
The Godfather,
Chinatown or
Pulp Fiction. Case in point: the article brings up
Kramer vs. Kramer. "Streep" says "I'd watch it if it were on," but it isn't really a masterpiece. Also, it's more Dustin Hoffman's movie than Streep's movie, and if you look at it that way, it ranks pretty far down on Hoffman's list of classics.
Streep's two best bona-fide classics are without a doubt Woody Allen's
Manhattan (1979) and Michael Cimino's
The Deer Hunter (1978), but she has only tiny roles in both. Despite Streep's excellence, films like
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981),
Sophie's Choice (1982),
Silkwood (1983),
Out of Africa (1985),
Plenty (1985),
Ironweed (1987),
A Cry in the Dark (1988),
Marvin's Room (1996),
One True Thing (1998),
Music of the Heart (1999) or
The Hours (2002) aren't exactly compulsively watchable, nor do they turn up on very many lists of favorite films. You could also eliminate her comedies like
She-Devil (1989),
Postcards from the Edge (1990) and
Death Becomes Her (1992), and her recent string of lightweight hits like
The Manchurian Candidate (2004),
The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and
Mamma Mia! (2008).
Continue reading Their Best Role: Meryl Streep
Posted Nov 17th 2009 5:32PM by Peter Hall
Filed under: Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Lists
Are your pitchforks nice and sharp? Torches soaked in kerosene, ready to burn my house down? If not, I'll wait. Ready? Good, because I'm about to give you five reasons why you should see
New Moon, which you may not be aware is the the latest entry in the
Twilight Saga. Some background, so you know where my allegiances lay.
I've never read a single word of any of the
Twilight books. I found the first film to be a rote exercise in appealing to a demographic that was (and still is) in every quantifiable factor not me. I don't care about supernatural romance novels, and unless it's Jeff Goldblum and Gena Davis in
The Fly, I don't much care for supernatural romances on film, either.
Twilight exists and I exist, but we have little to do with each other outside of sharing the same planet.
I am, however, genuinely enthused to see
New Moon. I'm as shocked as you. Let me explain.
Catherine Hardwicke is Gone.
Attack the source material and the fans all you want, but the biggest problem with
Twilight is that it just was not an interesting film. Plenty of blame for that has been tossed around, but ultimately it lands on the shoulders of the director.
Catherine Hardwicke is not an inherently bad filmmaker (
Lords of Dogtown is a fine film) but she couldn't have taken a less enthusiastic approach to a story about the fantastic (note the order of words, as
Twilight is not, I feel, a fantastic story). Exhibit A, the baseball scene.
Vampires using thunderclaps to cover up their baseball games isn't all that interesting to begin with, but I guarantee you that if Kathryn Bigelow had done it in
Near Dark, it'd be a staple scene in vampire films. Hardwicke, however, either didn't have the vision or drive to elevate the film above the material, which is unfortunate. But now she's been replaced.
Continue reading The Top Five Reasons to See 'New Moon'
Posted Nov 17th 2009 3:20PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Romance, RumorMonger
When
Sex and the City was on television, they tried to balance opulence with frugal flavah. Charlotte was buying a share in the Hamptons, but it meant that she couldn't buy shoes from the likes of James Urbaniak. Samantha had a great job, but still had to shop around for a home she could afford. Miranda had to move to Brooklyn to buy enough space for her family. And Carrie, she had all sorts of financial woes from credit cards cut in front of her to almost losing her apartment when the building went co-op.
But when they hit the big screen, all fiscal responsibility flew out the window. On the cusp of the economic collapse, the
Sex and the City ladies were reveling in lavish lifestyles, spending thousands on this or that, not seeming to have a money-related care in the world. But with tighter times, it looks like the sequel might be going overboard in the other direction.
Hit the jump for the latest spoilers hitting the rounds.
Continue reading 'Sex and the City 2' Spoilers Reveal a Whole Different World?
Posted Nov 17th 2009 9:45AM by William Goss
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Casting, Deals, Universal, Scripts
There's something to be said for those plain old reliable comedies, those that don't bust guts or break records but are always good for a spin in their inevitable cable circulation, stuff along the lines of
Role Models,
I Love You, Man and
Just Friends. That last one has proven particularly endearing (to me anyway) due to the priceless pairing of Ryan Reynolds' perfect snark with Anna Faris' endearing ditziness (they also went at each other in
Waiting..., to much amusement).
It's that combination that gives me reason enough for me to care about
TMI, an all-too-honest rom-com reuniting these two. Hell, their teaming is itself enough for me to hope that they can do right by a screenplay written by the minds behind
Serendipity and
The Ugly Truth; after all, Faris did bring all the funny to co-writer Kirsten Smith's
The House Bunny.
Not sure how much else there is to say, really. It's like hearing that someone's about to get your sexy, funny peanut butter in your sexy, funny chocolate... all over again.
Posted Nov 13th 2009 9:02PM by Todd Gilchrist
Filed under: Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Interviews
While it came as little surprise to the fans of Stephenie Meyers' original books, the success of
Twilight caught Hollywood and the rest of the world by storm when the first adaptation arrived in theaters late last year. A big part of the credit for the movie's crossover success must be attributed to screenwriter
Melissa Rosenberg, who rendered the romance of Bella and Edward in dimensions that more than die-hards (or more accurately, Twi-hards) could understand and appreciate.
The
Twilight sequel
New Moon comes to theaters next Friday and offers even more tortured teenage romance than before, as well as a wealth of mythology about vampires, werewolves and other monsters that inhabit the series' supernatural universe.
Cinematical recently spoke to screenwriter Rosenberg at the film's press day in Los Angeles; in addition to discussing the process of putting together a satisfying sequel, she talked about subjecting Bella to the universal disappointment of a bad break-up, and examined what audiences might take away from this latest installment in the series.
Cinematical: Is there an emotional core or some central theme that was guiding you through writing New Moon, or do you see this more as an installment in a larger narrative? Continue reading Interview: 'New Moon' Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg
Posted Nov 13th 2009 9:48AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Trailers and Clips
Who started the whole cliche where an uptight American woman hits Ireland and finds out how to loosen up by a sexy, foreign man? There's something in the water over there in Hollywood's version of the country that makes every bloody romantic comedy feature this premise. It's not as bad as something like
The Ugly Truth, that's for sure, but it pretty darned blatant.
Following in the footsteps of
Matchmaker, P.S. I Love You, and other romantic fare, MSN has debuted a trailer for
Leap Year (check it out after the jump), the film where
Matthew Goode gets to recover from the trauma of losing his new wife to a female florist (
Imagine Me and You), and steal a desperate
Amy Adams from the likes of
Adam Scott. Now granted, she is on her way to Dublin and meets the man in Wales, but they're still heading to the land of shamrocks.
I guess there's just a strong Irish gene that burrows deep within a man and lets him see when a self-absorbed foreign woman will be the girl of his dreams, allowing him to be the romantic savior showing her untapped inner potential and true romance and security. But why, exactly, is
Anand Tucker -- who brought us
Hilary and Jackie, Shopgirl, And When Did You Last See Your Father?, and
Red Riding: 1983 -- directing this schlock?
Check it out, if you dare, after the jump, and beware: it shows
a lot. Then again, this does look like a typical romcom, so we already know how it turns out, right?
Continue reading Loosening Up More Uptight Women w/ 'Leap Year'
Posted Nov 11th 2009 3:45PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Romance, Deals
Writer
Ann Brashares did a pretty well for herself when she wrote about a pair of magical pants that kept friendships together. And she might do even better on her next go.
Variety reports that her new series has stirred up a bidding battle, and New Regency has come out on top.
My Name is Memory -- which is slated to hit shelves next June -- will be the first part of a trilogy about multi-life romance. It all focuses on a college-age couple that has some serious history. "Turns out their souls have been reincarnated over hundreds of years, but these soulmates keep losing each other. While he remembers the details of their previous lives -- and his often exasperating attempts to connect with her romantically -- she cannot recall the events of those past lives." Initial comparisons are bringing up the likes of
Twilight and
The Time Traveler's Wife.
Things are super-fresh right now; a screenwriter hasn't even been picked for the adapting gig yet. Nevertheless, if that them is such a hot commodity, I'm going to make a prediction. I already wondered about
The Vampire Diaries when Twilight got cooking. And it just so happens that VD scribe L.J. Smith has a story in her
Night World series about a star-crossed vampire and the human he loves, and waits around for, year after year after year. If Brashares new series is such a hot commodity, it's only a matter of time before we get the vamp/human version to add even more bloodlust to Hollywood.
Posted Nov 10th 2009 5:15PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels
In their neverending efforts to cover all things
Twilight related, MTV has been asking cast members who they think should helm the final installment (or two),
Breaking Dawn. (Because, if Robert Pattinson is to be believed, the
movie will film next fall.) Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays the Volturi member Caius, thinks it
should be Tim Burton, while Pattinson himself is also playing the guessing game, and
wishes for Gus Van Sant. Apparently, RPatt heard that filming would take place in Portland, and Van Sant "shoots everything in Portland."
In other words: Everyone has different ideas, which seems to be the big theme of
Breaking Dawn.
Do you guys really want it? Sure, after taking this journey, you want to see it through to the end and see the final (and epically long) book make it to the screen. But let's face it -- it's not going to be as you expect. Is your curiosity for
anything stronger than your desire for a worthy-to-the-source adaptation?
Hit the jump for the spoilery discussion.
Continue reading 'Twilight' Fans: Do You Really Want to See 'Breaking Dawn'?
Next Page >
_thumbnail.jpg)
Exclusive 'Nine' Poster Premiere!
Exclusive: Title Track for 'The Road' Soundtrack
Movie Popcorn is Bad for You? Who Knew?_thumbnail.jpg)
'New Moon' Smashes 'Dark Knight's' Opening Day Record!
Black Friday Movie Deals: Best Buy
_thumbnail.jpg)
