Tag: Biopics (41-50 of 72)

Sep 9 2011 10:50 AM ET

ADL condemns Mel Gibson's involvement in Maccabee film

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The Anti-Defamation League has officially responded to the news that Mel Gibson and Warner Bros. are cooperating to make a film based on the life of Judah Maccabee, the Jewish religious hero whose revolt against the Seleucid Empire is celebrated each Hannukah. In an official statement, the ADL’s national director Abraham H. Foxman says:

We would have hoped that Warner Bros. could have found someone better than Mel Gibson to direct or perhaps even star in a film on the life of the Jewish historical icon Judah Maccabee. As a hero of the Jewish people and a universal hero in the struggle for religious liberty, Judah Maccabee deserves better. It would be a travesty to have the story of the Maccabees told by one who has no respect and sensitivity for other people’s religious views. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 7 2011 10:08 AM ET

Clint Eastwood to unveil 'J. Edgar' at AFI Fest

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Image Credit: Keith Bernstein

Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, will have its world premiere at the opening night of the 25th annual AFI Fest on Nov. 3. The heavily anticipated film, which co-stars Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, and Judi Dench, skipped this month’s festivals in Venice, Toronto, and New York. The movie opens in select theaters on Nov. 9 before going wide two days later.

Read more:
Pedro Almodovar to headline AFI Fest
First Look: Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘J. Edgar’

Aug 18 2011 10:37 PM ET

TRAILER revealed for badass bible-thumping 'Machine Gun Preacher'

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Sam Childers was a biker, a brawler, a drug dealer who sought redemption in Sudan, turning his bare-knuckle and bullet-slinging rage on warlords who were turning kids into child soldiers. Have a peek at this action-drama from director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Quantum of Solace), out Sept. 23.

Childers is one of those rare characters who, if he was purely fictional, nobody would buy this story for a second. But he’s a real-life Rambo type, who still runs an orphanage/mission there — but he’s no angel. Screenwriter Jason Keller describes Childers as “reckless,” “wild-eyed,” and “always looking for trouble.” When Keller first met him with plans to adapt his story into a film, the lifelong tough-guy was characteristically hostile.

See below for how their first meeting nearly turned into a fight, and how Childers later dragged the screenwriter along on a few death-defying vigilante missions, and the one thing in the script that made the preacher’s temper flare … READ FULL STORY »

Aug 12 2011 01:40 PM ET

First Look: Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio in 'J. Edgar' -- EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS

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Image Credit: Keith Bernstein

No kid says he wants to be J. Edgar Hoover when he grows up.

He was America’s Top Cop for five decades, but somewhere along the line, the FBI founder went from protector to tyrant in the minds of many Americans.

Hoover unified the federal police force, helped popularize fingerprints and other forensic evidence… then went sadly astray, abusing his power, manipulating elected officials and, most damningly, wiretapping and intimidating civil rights leaders. That tragic arc is at the heart of director Clint Eastwood’s drama, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the notorious G-man.

“I started to become curious about the ‘why,’” says screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, Oscar-winner for 2008’s Milk. “He did wonderful things for this country, but why did he ended up doing so many things that were heinous and harmful? I think it was all in the name of trying to fill that void, where love goes, with public admiration. This is a guy who from his earliest years was told he could never express the love he felt.”

Was Hoover was gay or straight? The movie leaves it open to interpretation, according to Eastwood, but one thing is undeniable — he was an achingly solitary man. And there was far more to him than that.

See more photos below … READ FULL STORY »

Aug 9 2011 03:26 PM ET

'J. Edgar' to skip Toronto, NY film festivals

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Image Credit: PhamousFotos/Splash News

The Toronto Film Festival is the unofficial launch of Academy Awards season, but one of this year’s most Oscar-friendly films is taking a pass. Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, his biopic of the longtime FBI bureaucrat starring Leonardo DiCaprio, will not screen in Toronto or at the New York Film Festival this September, a spokesperson for Warner Bros. tells EW, confirming a Toronto.com report.

J. Edgar is scheduled for a limited release on Nov. 9 before going wide two days later.

Read more:
‘J. Edgar’ clip premiers at CinemaCon

Jul 19 2011 02:41 PM ET

Sarah Palin's documentary to expand after decent box-office showing

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The Undefeated, the documentary film that highlights the amazing political journey of Sarah Palin, is expanding its release after a solid opening weekend at the box office. Though the movie brought in just $65,132 in 10 theaters, only four other films averaged more than its per-screen average of $6,513 last weekend. Today, ARC Entertainment announced plans to bring the movie to 14 theaters this weekend. “Given the audience response on our opening weekend we now know we have a film that works,” said director Stephen K. Bannon in a statement. “Our objective is very simple — to bring this film to every market and every corner of the country; starting with a limited theatrical release and then through an aggressive broader distribution strategy including streaming video, on-demand access and DVD.”

The Undefeated will roll out in new markets, including Tucson, Ariz.; West Palm, Fla.; Milwaukee, Wisc.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Ontario, Calif. For a complete list of theaters, click here.

Read more:
Sarah Palin proclaims ‘I can win’ on the cover of Newsweek
‘The Undefeated’ trailer
Does the Sarah Palin doc get your vote?

Jul 7 2011 10:57 AM ET

First clip of Meryl Streep as 'The Iron Lady': Watch it here!

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There’s a story about Fred Astaire during one of his first auditions for studio execs. Their terse comments went as follows: “Can’t act. Slightly bald. Also dances.” The first glimpses of Margaret Thatcher in the biopic The Iron Lady have a similar feeling.

We don’t see the indomitable Thatcher for a full 34 seconds of the minute-long trailer as advisers dissect her, demand she abandon her hat and signature pearls, and tell her she needs to lower her voice because it lacks authority. The message is simple: To pull apart someone like Thatcher and treat her like any other politician — a problem to be fixed — is a fool’s errand. And the minute Streep, as Thatcher, comes on the screen, it’s apparent who the fools are. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 27 2011 06:49 PM ET

Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln' casts David Strathairn

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Image Credit: Keadrick D. Washington/PR Photos

Steven Spielberg has cast Good Night, and Good Luck Oscar nominee David Strathairn in a major supporting role in his upcoming biopic Lincoln.

Strathairn will play Secretary of State William Seward, which perhaps sounds a little dry, except Seward was a historical badass.

Not only was Seward a fierce abolitionist and a close ally of the 16th president throughout the Civil War, but he also orchestrated purchase of the land that would become Alaska (known at the time as “Seward’s Folly”). He was at his most ninja when targeted by the same group of assassins led by John Wilkes Booth… READ FULL STORY »

Jun 23 2011 06:17 PM ET

Alec Baldwin, Shia LaBeouf, and Rooney Mara in talks for Warren Beatty's Howard Hughes film

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Image Credit: Dario Cantatore/Getty Images

Earlier this week, Paramount Pictures announced that Warren Beatty is set to direct and star in a film for the studio later this year, marking his fifth time out as director in more than 30 years. Details about the project were scant, and no doubt the famously press-shy and secretive Beatty would have loved to keep it that way. But Deadline has since reported that Beatty will play legendary and larger-than-life business magnate and film producer Howard Hughes, and EW has confirmed that Alec Baldwin, Shia LaBeouf, and Rooney Mara are all in discussions to co-star in the film. Evan Rachel Wood, Andrew Garfield, Jack Nicholson, and Beatty’s wife, Annette Bening, are also reported to be in talks.

Beatty has been interested in making a film about Hughes for a good 20 years. The earlier part of Hughes’ life was the subject of Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, but, aside from Jonathan Demme’s fictionalized fable Melvin and Howard, the story of the latter-day Hughes — who became a near-total recluse, living in penthouse suites and picking up things with tissue paper to avoid germs — has not yet been brought to the big screen.

Read more:
Warren Beatty to direct again for the first time in 13 years
Warren Beatty wins lawsuit over Dick Tracy rights

Jun 20 2011 09:30 PM ET

Penn Badgley to play Jeff Buckley in 'Greetings from Tim Buckley'

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Image Credit: Wild1/PR Photos; Ebet Roberts/Getty Images

One of the two dueling Jeff Buckley movies has found its leading man: Gossip Girl costar Penn Badgley will play the late singer-songwriter in the biographical drama Greetings from Tim Buckley, producers for the film announced today. The film, which director Dan Algrant (People I Know) will begin shooting in New York in August, focuses on the days leading up to Buckley’s now-famous performance at a tribute concert in honor of his father, Tim Buckley, in Brooklyn in 1991. (Buckley, who is perhaps best known for his bare-bones version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” drowned in Tennessee’s Wolf River in 1997.)

Another Buckley film, based on the biography Dream Brother by former EW music critic David Browne, is also in the works, though no star has been announced. (Robert Pattinson is one of several actors rumored to be in the running.) As for Badgley, he’s definitely got one thing going for him: He’s the same age, 24, as Buckley was in 1991, when the film takes place.

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