Category: Actors (Page 119 of 343)

Saturday morning news dump

December 5, 2009 / Bob Westal

A very busy day and technical problems conspired to keep me from posting last night, so I’m back with what I hope will be the Reader’s Digest condensed version of one of my more typical Friday news dumps…okay, maybe not so much.

* Taylor Lautner, who is apparently playing second fiddle these days to his own abdominal muscles, is nevertheless being thought of as the next big action star and he’ll start out in a video-game adaptation. I’m so excited, my mind is already wandering.

* The popular comic heavy-metal documentary, “Anvil!,” has picked up an award.

* Believe it or not, I once tried to write a screenplay set in Las Vegas using Dante’s Divine Comedy. Now, a film with a cast of outstanding indie stalwarts led by Steve Buscemi and Sarah Silverman, is just taking Dante’s Inferno (the first third of the long work) to Vegas. Better to keep things simple, though I’m totally up-in-the-air about what I think of JoBlo’s trailer.

* I’m not a particular fan of Roger Friedman‘s reporting, and I think it’s a bit less than intelligent to try to make a scandal of a “Precious” being left out of the National Board of Review’s top 10 without some kind of actual evidence or even an indication. As our own Jason Zingale shows, not everyone loves or even likes the movie. Mileage will always vary. On the other hand, any look into the somewhat shadowy organization’s membership is always of interest. The only member I ever met or even heard about before recently, was this man.

Action Movies, Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

An Inconvenient Truth Anvil!Anvil! The Story of Anvil Big Hollywood Carl Foreman Cul-de-Sac Dante Don Reed Greenpeace Headlines High Noon Jean-Luc Godard Las Vegas Lionel Chetwynd National Board of Review Pajamas Media Precious Roger L. Simon Roman Polanski Sarah Silverman Steve Buscemi Taylor Lautner The Divinde Comedy Vegas

The Man Who Would Be Sheldon: A Chat with Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”)

December 4, 2009 / Will Harris

We’re going to go on record right now and say that Jim Parsons got the shaft at this year’s Emmy Awards.

Not that Alec Baldwin isn’t great as Jack Donaghy on “30 Rock,” but in the end, he’s just another guy in a suit. As Dr. Sheldon Cooper, however, Parsons has taken a character that could’ve been just another comic book nerd and transformed him into a comedic force to be reckoned with, and he and his co-stars – Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar – have made “The Big Bang Theory” one of the funniest shows on television. I chatted with Parsons back in 2008, then crossed paths with him again this summer during the Television Critics Association Awards and floated the idea of doing a phoner once Season Three of “The Big Bang Theory” had kicked off in earnest, which he assured me would be no problem whatsoever. Still, when the time came to set up the interview, I decided to refresh Parsons’ memory of the evening by sending him a picture from that night. Fortunately, it worked like a charm.

Here are a few pull quotes from the piece:

* On bringing guest stars to “The Big Bang Theory”: “It’s fun to inject new life into this show, anyway, but when you’re able to get someone who is so talented as an actor in general, it’s not only a coup for the show and the audience members, but for you as an actor, to get to work with them. It’s always a different dance when strong actors come in like that, because they bring their own thing, and you’re, like, ‘Wooooooo!’”

* “(Wil Wheaton) was so fun to have on the set, and he was such a good guy, just in general. He seemed to be completely okay with the fact that his entire name became a mantra of vengeful hate. That didn’t seem to bother him.”

* On the Leonard / Penny relationship: “I really like that they decided to play this kind of true to life. Two friends get together, and you’re, like, ‘Oh, that’s not going to work,’ but then six months into it, one Friday night, you suddenly go, ‘Oh, my God, I’m completely used to them being together! I’m still not sure that it’s going to last, but I’m not thinking about it anymore.’”

* “Looking at Sheldon’s sexuality is like trying to read into a Rothko painting. It’s just, like, ‘Do I see a line?’ ‘No.’ ‘No? Well, I see something…’”

* On the idea of Sheldon falling in love: “What a special person it would take to devote themselves to Sheldon, and to accept him for what he was. Not that he’s a leper or something, but he can be so trying to deal with, and if you were his intimate other, oh, my God, would you have to listen to more workings of his even deeper inner mind? Good criminey!”

Interested…? Check out the interview by clicking here…or, y’know, on that big-arse graphic above. Either one will do the trick.

Actors, External Entertainment, External TV, Interviews, News, TV, TV Comedies

Jim Parsons Johnny Galecki Kaley Cuoco Kunal Nayyar Sheldon Cooper Simon Helberg The Big Bang Theory Wil Wheaton

“New Moon” and “The Blind Side” to have repeat box office bout

December 4, 2009 / Bob Westal

With a number of mostly rather underwhelming looking new films debuting this post-Thanksgiving/pre full-Christmas insanity week in medium-to-wide-release, box office pros like jolly Carl DiOrio of The Hollywood Reporter and Variety‘s Pamela McClintock appear to agree pretty strongly that the battle this week will once again be between the romantic monsters of Summit’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” and the football loving Red State good Samaritans of Warners’ “The Blind Side.” Considering that, as I wrote about last Sunday, “New Moon” dropped by 70% in its second last week while “The Blind Side” actually grew without the benefit of a major expansion — something I’ve never seen in the entire time I’ve been writing these posts — my money’s on the Sandra Bullock feel-good drama.

Of the four new releases said to be appearing in 1,000 to 2,000+ theaters this weekend, the most promising, both artistically and commercially, is “Brothers,” a remake of a widely acclaimed Afghanistan war-themed 2005 drama from Denmark. Distributed by Lionsgate, the movie is an intense love triangle involving the not-actually-dead young Afghanistan war vet played by Tobey Maguire, his not-actually-a-widow played by Natalie Portman, and his black sheep brother, Jake Gyllenhaal — who looks so much like a brother to Maguire that he once is supposed to have nearly replaced him in one of the “Spiderman” sequels. (If they worked Elijah Wood into the cast, they would have achieved the baby-faced, raspy-voiced star trifecta.)

Director Jim Sheridan of “My Left Foot,” “In the Name of the Father,” and “In America” has a real flair for intense tales that dance around the edges of melodrama and then sometimes dive right in. The one-two-three punch of the very well known youngish stars would make you think this should come in with a decent amount of money — at least in the double digits. However, considering the growing news and controversy around the Afghanistan war, the topic might be a bit too timely for audience tastes. Also, a film like this should probably should at least crack 70% on the Tomatometer, especially, but hitting it of with something in the neighborhood of 50–60% of critics will have to do. Worse reviewed films have received Oscar nominations, however.

Next up is another remake of a foreign language hit, this time of an Italian comedy-drama/tearjerker from 1990 that starred the great Marcello Mastroianni and was directed by Giuseppe Tornatore of “Cinema Paradiso.” (Not at all a favorite of mine, by the way.) Disney’s PG-13 “Everybody’s Fine” brings us Robert De Niro as a widower trying to reconnect with his children and grandchildren and costars Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, and Sam Rockwell. A sentimental tale for the holidays with this kind of star power should have some wattage in theory, though apparently the “tracking” is kind of stinking for this film which isn’t really wowing the critics either. Our own Jason Zingale liked it mainly on the strength of DeNiro’s performance but this one feels like the movie you settle for if grandma, or maybe great-grandma, wants to see something nice and you can’t get into the “The Blind Side.”

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Afghanistan war Armored Brothers Cinema Paradiso Disney Drew Barrymore Elijah Wood Everybody's Fine Fred Ward Giuseppe Tornatore Headlines Hill Street Blues In America In the Name of the Father Jake Gyllenhaal Jason Reitman Jean Reno Jim Sheridan Juno Kate Beckinsale Laurence Fishburne Lionsgate Marcello Mastroianni Matt Dillon My Left Foot Natalie Portman National Board of Review Nimród Antal Oscars Robert De Niro Sam Rockwell Sandra Bullock Screen Gems Spiderman Thank You for Smokling The Blind Side The Twilight Saga: New Moon Tobey Maguire Transylmania Up in the Air Warner Brothers

Sundance and stuff

December 3, 2009 / Bob Westal

* The Sundance Film Festival, easily the second most influential film festival in the world, both for better and for worse, unveiled its 2010 schedule this morning. Anne Thompson takes a close look at the impact of Jim Cooper, who is now running the festival after the departure of Geoff Gilmour. At the one and only Sundance I attended back in 2005, I heard a number of catty, though possibly not inaccurate, remarks to the effect that Gilmour had gone a bit Hollywood in a somewhat James Lipton-esque way. Apparently, things are changing and change is often a good thing.

* Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film is supposedly not about Scientology and, therefore, Philip Seymour Hoffman will not be playing a variation on L. Ron Hubbard. Still, sounds cool. Boy, I wish I had time to check out Anderson’s last film and huge creative departure, “There Will Be Blood,” a second time right now. Jason Zingale’s review might have been short of adoring, but that one has really stayed with me. P.T. Anderson might not be the second coming of Orson Welles, but then, Welles wasn’t exactly the second coming of John Ford either.

* Roman Polanski isn’t going to be set free this week, but he is going to the Milky Way — the name of his digs in the swanky Swiss ski resort town of Gstaad.

* Rupert Everett, who made a bit of history a decade or so back as the first borderline A-list actor to be openly gay, has warned younger actors not to follow suit in new book promo interview in The Guardian. Personally, I’d advise gay performers to take his words with a gigantic grain of salt. Everett is a first rate actor I always enjoy watching but he has, to put it kindly, a big mouth and has said many really questionable things over the years while also saying some really smart things. Not being gay or a famous thespian, I’m perhaps not qualified to judge, but being out sure hasn’t hurt Neil Patrick Harris any lately. I guess the real test will be if the highly accomplished ex-Doogie is ever allowed to play a more or less serious romantic lead opposite a female.

Nikki Finke has the thoughts of “coming-out PR guru” Howard Bragman:

There may well have been other reasons Rupert didn’t become the leading man he imagined himself going to be. But this isn’t about your bank account. This is about your soul.

* Bloody Disgusting has word that the remake of Alfred Hitchcock‘s “The Birds” is getting a change of directors and will be heading in a direction that will be, yes, more bloody and disgusting.

* In Michael Powell’s horror classic, “Peeping Tom,” a silent-film era cameraman is driven to become a serial killer by the bizarre, fear-inducing experiments performed on him as a child by his psychologist father. A linguist named d’Armond Speers might have been less cruel than the dad in the movie, but speaking only Klingon to his son for the first three years of his life seems like it’s taking some kind of risk. Fortunately, as passed along by Geoff Boucher, it appears the kid turned out normal, linguistically speaking, anyhow. That’s good. Still, I wonder what the word in Klingon is for “meshugeneh.”

Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

d'Armand Speers Geoff Gilmour Gstaad Headlines Jim Cooper John Ford Klingon language Milky Way Neil Patrick Harris Orson Welles P.T. Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson Peeping Tom Philip Seymour Hoffman Roman Polanski Rupert Everett Sundance Sundance Film Festival There Will Be Blood

Indie awards, viscera in your lap, and the boredom of Alec

December 2, 2009 / Bob Westal

* If you’re looking for any clear Oscar indications from today’s indie awards news, you might want to look elsewhere. “Precious” and “The Last Station” — which I’ve been reading very mixed things about so far — were among the films to make a nominations splash with The Independent Spirit Awards. Meanwhile, the Gotham Awards were held last night and “The Hurt Locker” “swept” things — well, it won two big awards including Best Picture. Close enough. (Kathryn Bigelow’s wartime thriller, a favorite of many, was not eligible for the Spirit Awards this year, but only got a pair of acting nominations last year.)

* There’s something in the air about gross-outs in 3-D today. First, comes news that sequels to both “Zombieland” and, lord help us all, “Jackass,” are planned in the suddenly semi-ubiquitous format because what the world needs now is projectile cow semen in three dimensions. That’s not all, a new remake of George Romero’s seminal “Night of the Living Dead” will be in 3-D digital animation, which actually renders things less gross and scary — to me, anyhow and that’s just fine for this disliker of gross-outs.

By the way, this is will be the third remake of the film and the second in 3-D, though the 2006 attempt seems a bit less classy. I actually like the idea of taking an epic tack with a variation of the original film, but I just hope Romero gets at least a small piece of the action. (In one of the strangest foul-ups in movie history, the original flesh-eating zombie flick fell into the public domain back in 1968. So, anyone who wants to may legally do their own rip-off.)

Meanwhile, jolly Carl DiOrio is here to tell us that the growth of 3-D films will be gradual and mostly limited to genre and concert films for the time being. Good to know.

* Domestic b.o. is up by 8%, and the really good news is that b.o. is short for “box office.”

* Paul Greengrass confirms his “Bourne 4” directorial exit as reported yesterday, but says the divorce is highly amicable, though the fate of the project seems in doubt and, yeah, I’m not sure we really need a fourth outing, either. On the other hand, Bourne fans can protect themselves against speedy video obsolescence on the three films already out early next year. Here come: “flipper discs.”

* Say it ain’t so, Alec Baldwin, say it ain’t so! You may be bored, but we are so not.