Charles Bramesco
Red-Band ‘Death Race 2050’ Trailer Looks Incredible, May Have Cost Twelve Dollars
Does America really need another Death Race movie, considering the fact that America is approximately a year and a half out from living out its own insanely budgeted real-life Death Race sequel? Or do we, in fact, need a new Death Race movie now more than ever? As we rapidly hurtle towards our own dystopian world, can’t we look to the upcoming Death Race 2050 as a guide, a bloody roadmap for the deranged years to come? In order — yes, yes, and yes. (Note: this lede can be easily recycled for news concerning other apocalyptic franchises such as Mad Max, Terminator, and Bad Moms.)
Superheroes Have Ridley Scott ‘Concerned’ About the Future of Cinema
It’s kind of strange, considering the genre’s popularity; interview anyone in the entertainment industry, and you’ll find that just about everyone not actively working on a superhero film considers them to be a pox on the cinema. Ridley Scott’s the latest talent to confess to super-fatigue, in a new interview with Digital Spy where he expresses a larger concern for the overall state of film art. 2016 was a humbling year for the Hollywood studio system, and one of its biggest names can’t help but take notice.
‘Star Wars’ Designer Explains the Process of Creating Darth Vader’s ‘Rogue One’ Castle
Rogue One will have to settle for being the second-highest grossing film of the year — damn you, cultural juggernaut Finding Dory! — but it does have the distinction of being among the better-reviewed films in its franchise. Many critics have praised director Gareth Edwards’ vision of some unexplored pockets of George Lucas’ universe, singling out Darth Vader’s castle lair that appears in the film on a violent, molten-lava planet. (The planet bears a strong resemblance to Mustafar, the magma-covered site of the final showdown between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi in Revenge of the Sith.) Now, one of the key designers from Rogue One has provided a little background on the memorable locale and how it came to be.
Ben Mendelsohn Hints at the ‘Rogue One’ Alternate Versions That Could Have Been
All is right with the galaxy far away: Rogue One has dominated at the box-office, as expected, and earned mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, also as expected. But watching the film, especially in light of the revelations that Lucasfilm ordered massive reshoots that stretched on for weeks, it’s clear that there’s a Rogue One that’s gone unseen. The unused footage from the trailers, Tony Gilroy stepping in with rewrites to the point where he earned a co-writer credit, friction between Lucasfilm and director Gareth Edwards — it all points to an alternate version of the film laying on some Los Angeles editing suite floor.
Revisit Carrie Fisher’s Uproarious Roast of George Lucas at the 2005 AFI Awards
The world’s still stinging from the loss of Carrie Fisher yesterday, and while we will most likely remember her first as Princess Leia, the actress cultivated a long career of comedy after her Star Wars years. Her one-woman show Wishful Drinking was a must-see on Broadway, and her hilarious, often inscrutable Twitter account will stand as a testament to her bizarre wit. In the wake of Fisher’s sad death on Tuesday, one video in particular has begun to pop up again, and it might just be the comic’s most searing public appearance of all.
IMDb’s Top 10 Movies of 2016 List Is… Interesting, Let’s Just Put It That Way
The Internet Movie Database is a fount of helpful information. With a few simple clicks, users can learn who shot the Miley Cyrus vehicle So Undercover (Things to Come cinematographer Denis Lenoir), which sequel in the Hellraiser franchise featured a performance from a young Adam Scott (the fourth one), or how old Taraji P. Henson is (who looks that good at 46?!). As a repository for loose factoids from in and around the world of screen entertainment, it can’t be beat. As a source for critical perspectives on those same films, however... hoo boy. Just take a gander at any comment section for a movie’s page and marvel at the IMDb is the site where rabid anti-Ghostbusters zealots congregated to downvote Paul Feig’s movie into oblivion weeks before its actual release, and the newly-released IMDb Top 10 provides an even clearer view of its user base.
Dogs Beware, ‘John Wick 2’ Will Get the Comic Book Treatment in 2017
Sometimes, the best films are the ones with the simplest concepts. For instance, “just 100 minutes of Keanu Reeves beating the pus out of Russian gangsters” turned out to be a premise worth its weight in gold, as if cinema has never really needed more than Keanu in an all-black suit delivering beatdown after beatdown. In 2014, John Wick effortlessly reminded audiences of how competent, how brutal, how downright fun action cinema could and should be, and the studios responded in kind with news of a sequel. But all dogs would do well to watch their little doggy backs in the months to come, because Wick’s got more than a movie on the horizon.
Zsa Zsa Gabor, Embodiment of Hollywood Glitz, Dies at 99
Before the era of reality television popularized the concept of “being famous for being famous,” Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor elevated celebrity to its own sort of art form. She brought her European sense of sophistication to a handful of big-name films as their star, including John Huston’s Moulin Rouge. (The famed director described Gabor as a “creditable” actress.) Mostly, however, she commanded gossip headlines with her flashy and impossibly ritzy personal life. The revolving door of husbands, the uniform of furs and jewels she was seldom seen without, the way she purred “dahhhhling” to everyone she addressed — even offscreen, she was a larger-than-life character.
‘Mr. Robot’ Creator Sam Esmail Shrinking ‘Metropolis’ for TV Miniseries
Fritz Lang’s 1927 opus Metropolis didn’t just provide the canonized German director with one of his finest works, it all but singlehandedly introduced sci-fi to the then-nascent cinema. The story of a future dystopia separated into a pampered bourgeoisie and threadbare underclass blew open the doors for everything from Blade Runner to Star Wars, and Lang’s grand production values — massive Expressionist sets, scads of cowering extras, the guiding aesthetic of bigness — captivated audiences. Metropolis’ bold style and primal theme of tensions between haves vs. have-nots trickled down to Madonna’s “Express Yourself” video, The Hunger Games, and more literal adaptations stretching from anime to musical theatre.
Jason Momoa Reveals New ‘Justice League’ Behind the Scenes Footage, Loves His Family
How much does Jason Momoa, hulking star of the upcoming Aquaman and eventual Justice League member, love his family? So much that he cut together an 8-minute video about his devotion and commitment to his beautiful children, and then ensured that millions of people would have to watch it by nestling some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from the set of Justice League along with the golden-hued shots of his children playing in what appears to be the wheat field from Gladiator. The things we do for our kid
George Takei Praises Gay ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Character, Says ‘It’s the Way It Should’ve Been Done’
Next May, CBS will play host to Star Trek: Discovery, a spinoff of the landmark sci-fi series about the USS Enterprise’s galaxy-hopping crew. But even with the premiere date still months away, the project has already begun to cause a stir in the industry; Discovery will break new ground in the Trek universe by introducing a new openly gay character with a homosexual Starfleet officer portrayed by Anthony Rapp of Rent fame. And today, Variety reports that none other than George Takei — a man who knows a thing or two about being gay in space — has weighed in on the show’s forward-thinking gesture.
Preview the Movies of Tomorrow with the 2016 Black List
The wheels of progress turn slowly out in Hollywood. Stars can be minted overnight, sure, but the actual process of production can churn along at an extremely gradual pace; a screenwriter, for instance, can spend years trying to sell a script as it floats around the purgatory of studio heads’ desk piles. As such, every showbiz scribe dreams of landing their latest unproduced project on The Black List, an annual roundup of the hottest up-for-grabs screenplays that provides them with a highly valuable bump in publicity. In recent years, such fine films as Manchester by the Sea, Miss Sloane, Spotlight, and The End of the Tour have all begun on The Black List, and yesterday brought the official announcement of 2016’s lineup.