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Archive: November 2011 (21-30 of 187)

Nov 28 2011 10:26 PM ET

'Beginners,' 'Tree of Life' tie for top prize at Gotham Awards

Categories: Awards Season, Movies, Pre-Oscar Prizes, The Tree of Life

The first salvo in the awards season was fired this evening, with Beginners and The Tree of Life tying for Best Feature at the 21st annual Gotham Independent Awards. Like Crazy‘s Felicity Jones took home the prize for Breakthrough Actor, the cast of Beginners (including Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, and Mélanie Laurent) earned best Ensemble Performance, and Pariah helmer Dee Rees won Breakthrough Director. Fox chief Tom Rothman, director David Cronenberg (A Dangerous Method), and actors Gary Oldman (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) and Charlize Theron (Young Adult) also received career tributes. Check out the full list of winners below: READ FULL STORY »

Nov 28 2011 09:45 PM ET

Tom Hanks looking to size-up Hitler in adaptation of bestseller 'In the Garden of the Beasts'

by Adam B. Vary

Categories: Book Adaptations, Movie Biz, Tom Hanks

Image Credit: Andrew Evans/PR Photos

Tom Hanks’ production company Playtone, along with Universal, have optioned the film rights to the nonfiction bestseller In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson, EW has confirmed.

The book chronicles the life of U.S. ambassador William Dodd and his family while Dodd was stationed in Berlin during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. Hanks, who will produce with Gary Goetzman, is also considering starring in the film as Dodd. (The Hollywood Reporter first reported the story.)

Follow Adam on Twitter @adambvary

Nov 28 2011 09:26 PM ET

Summit, Lionsgate explore possible merger

by Adam B. Vary

Categories: Movie Biz

Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment, two of the largest independent film studios in Hollywood, are discussing a possible merger, EW has confirmed. The deal makes a great deal of sense for both parties. Lionsgate has struggled this year with a series of high profile box office disappointments including Conan the Barbarian and Warrior, but has a considerable library of titles and the potential blockbuster franchise The Hunger Games set to launch next year. Summit, meanwhile, is still a relatively young studio with a comparatively smaller stable of titles to its name — but the Twilight franchise still looms large, with the final chapter, Breaking Dawn — Part 2, due next year. The talks, however, are in the very early stages, and other suitors for the studios remain possibly in the offing.

TheWrap first reported the story.

Nov 28 2011 06:35 PM ET

Remembering Ken Russell: Ann-Margret talks about her famous 'Tommy' scene

by Adam Markovitz

Categories: In Memoriam

British filmmaker Ken Russell, who died Sunday at the age of 84, had a knack for creating images that were unforgettable for both their pop-art beauty and their boundary pushing eroticism: Alan Bates and Oliver Reed wrestling naked in Women in Love (1969), Vanessa Redgrave passionately kissing Jesus in The Devils (1971).

But one scene in his work stands out from the rest for its sheer tongue-in-cheek audacity. In Tommy (1975), Russell’s psychedelic adaptation of The Who’s rock opera, a pinball wizard’s emotionally fragile mother (Ann-Margret) suffers a surreal nervous breakdown, rolling in baked beans, bubbles, and melted chocolate after throwing a champagne bottle into a TV set. “The crew members were all wearing high boots,” recalls the actress, who earned an Oscar nomination for her gutsy performance. “And here I was in my spandex catsuit that was shrinking each time I did a take.” Here’s what else the actress tells EW about the scene that brought her Oscar glory — and a trip to the hospital. READ FULL STORY »

Nov 28 2011 02:43 PM ET

Elizabeth Banks talks 'Hunger Games,' a cappella, and more from the set of 'Pitch Perfect'

by Mickey Rapkin

Categories: Movies, On the Scene, The Hunger Games

Image Credit: Andrew Evans/PR Photos

If Elizabeth Banks took a day off in the last year, we’re not aware of it. In the past 12 months, she’s wrapped the first installment of The Hunger Games (love the accent, Effie), shot a movie with the blue guy from Avatar (the Sam Worthington-starring Man on a Ledge), and snuck in What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Speaking of which, she also had a baby. Now she’s hiding out in Baton Rouge, where she’s going behind-the-scenes, producing Pitch Perfect*, a big-screen comedy about, of all things, competitive collegiate a cappella groups, along with her husband, producer Max Handelman. The film stars the Oscar-nominated Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson (otherwise known as Kristen Wiig’s bizarre, tattooed roommate in Bridesmaids). A cappella music? Um, yeah. Banks explains.

*Full disclosure, I wrote the book that Pitch Perfect is based on. More embarrassing: I sang in an a cappella group myself at Cornell.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: A movie about collegiate a cappella? Let’s get this out of the way: Is this a Glee knock-off? How will you respond to those comparisons? READ FULL STORY »

Nov 28 2011 01:49 PM ET

Director Ken Russell, R.I.P. In the '70s, he was the high-trash king of purple passion

by Owen Gleiberman

Categories: R.I.P., Ken Russell, Tommy, The Music Lovers, The Devils, Altered States, Women in Love

Image Credit: David Montgomery/Getty Images

The first review I ever wrote — God help me — was of a movie directed by Ken Russell, the high-trash visionary of over-the-top British psychodrama who died Sunday at 84. It was 1975, the fall of my senior year in high school, and my friends and I had gone to the opening night show of Tommy, the deluxe, star-packed big-screen version of the Who’s rock opera. (Elton John as the Pinball Wizard! Tina Turner as the Acid Queen! Ann-Margret writhing in beans and suds! Jack Nicholson leering!) I thought parts of the movie were amazing, but it had a certain jaw-dropping vulgar psychedelic shamelessness that, to a budding young brat eager to vent his teenage snark, inspired me not only to write about the film for my school paper but to basically ridicule it. I don’t have the review at hand, but I remember, in essence, that I hurled the following sorts of words at Russell’s Tommy: lurid, kitschy, bombastic, overripe, overwrought, overdone. READ FULL STORY »

Nov 28 2011 01:41 PM ET

Is the 'In the Land of Blood and Honey' poster one of the year's best?

by Mandi Bierly

Categories: Angelina Jolie, Movie Posters, Movies

The trailer for Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, conveys her soft touch on a heavy subject — the romance between a Christian Serb soldier and a Muslim woman in war-torn Bosnia. The new poster, pictured, is equally intriguing. The blood spatter suggests graphic violence, but when you notice the shapes of stars Zana Marjanović and Goran Kostić, it reaffirms both that her story is about relationships and that she is a writer/director who appreciates subtlety.

Nov 28 2011 12:59 PM ET

Christian Bale on 'The Dark Knight Rises': He's done with Batman, and he really really means it

by Jeff Labrecque

Categories: Batman, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Fanboys, Summer Movies, The Dark Knight Rises

Image Credit: Stephen Vaughan

Christian Bale confirmed that next summer’s The Dark Knight Rises will be his last outing as the hoarse Caped Crusader. Again.

Recall that last November, he said as much to E!: “This will be, I believe, until Chris [Nolan] says different, the last time I’ll be playing Batman,” Bale said then. “Absolutely, we want to go all out with it.”

But the enthusiasm and anticipation for the third Christopher Nolan Batman film is such that when Bale recently told another reporter the same thing, the Internets buzzed anew. “I wrapped a few days ago so that will be the last time I’m taking that cowl [Batman hood] off,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “I believe that the whole production wrapped yesterday, so it’s all done. Everything’s finished. It’s me and Chris — that will be the end of that Batman era.”

Warner Bros. and Bale’s representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but it’s long been known that Bale had originally signed for three Batman films. And since he’s agreed to film two Terrence Malick films back to back, he might be busy for the foreseeable future. Better check the batteries on the Bat Signal. Bales doesn’t expect to be answering it anytime soon.

Nov 28 2011 07:03 AM ET

British film director Ken Russell dies at 84

by Associated Press

Categories: Film, In Memoriam

Ken Russell, the British director whose daring and sometimes outrageous films often tested the patience of audiences and critics, has died at age 84.

Russell died in a hospital on Sunday following a series of strokes, his son Alex Verney-Elliott said Monday.

One of Russell’s biggest successes came in 1969 with Women in Love, based on the book by D.H. Lawrence, which earned Academy Award nominations for the director and for writer Larry Kramer, and an Oscar for the star, Glenda Jackson. READ FULL STORY »

Nov 27 2011 02:36 PM ET

Box office report: 'Twilight: Breaking Dawn' and 'The Muppets' lead Thanksgiving holiday weekend

by Grady Smith

Categories: 3-D, A Dangerous Method, Awards Season, Box Office, Martin Scorsese, Movie Biz, The Artist, The Descendants, The Muppets, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn

Image Credit: Andrew Cooper

As expected, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 led the box office once again over the extended Thanksgiving frame, but Disney’s The Muppets reboot more than held its own in second place. Meanwhile, newcomers Arthur Christmas and Hugo started modestly, and The Descendants, My Week with Marilyn, and The Artist all impressed in limited release. Here’s how the box office played out over the holiday weekend: READ FULL STORY »