 Chris Hemsworth is having a fantastic summer at the box office and is using his rising star to chose interesting roles. Deadline is reporting he rising star is attached to star in In the Heart of the Sea, the disaster story that inspired Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Based on the National Book Award-winning book by Nathaniel Philbrick, In The Heart Of The Sea is the fact-based tale of Nantucket whaling ship the Essex, which was stalked and ultimately destroyed by a sperm whale in 1820. Stranded thousands of miles from home, the crew struggled to survive; they were lost at sea for 90 days. The script is written by Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond) and word is that Dreamworks is in talks to produce the picture.
Read more on Chris Hemsworth to find ‘The Heart of the Sea’ for Dreamworks?…
 Disney has built it’s legacy on animated musicals and while they don’t produce as many as they used to, it’s always nice to see them go back to what made them famous. In a press release, the company announced their new movie musical Frozen, loosely based on the 1845 Hans Christian Anderson story The Snow Queen. They’ve enlisted some pretty top notch voice talent in Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, who won a Tony Award as Elphaba in Wicked, to tell the story of Anna (Bell), a young girl who ventures to find Menzel’s Snow Queen and end the perpetual winter that has fallen over their kingdom. The score will be written husband and wife team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Robert has three Tonys for his scores and book from Avenue Q and Book of Mormon. Full press release available after the jump.
Read more on Disney Animated Musical with Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel to arrive November 2013!…
 I wasn’t blown away by ‘Eastern Promises’, but I know it’s a fan favorite for some here at the site. It’s certainly not a film screaming for a sequel, but lo and behold, we apparently have one coming our way, according to Vulture here. What makes this interesting is that Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg (along with Vince Cassel as well) are coming back for seconds, making this suddenly not seem like an overt money grab…not that the film was a blockbuster to begin with. Steven Knight will again be writing the movie like last time around, and after the jump you can see what the story might be. I’m not eagerly awaiting this flick, but I’m a bit curious to see it, I won’t lie…
Read more on Sequel to ‘Eastern Promises’ is on the horizon…
It was a fairly successful weekend at the box office for two new films in release. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted took top honors, hauling in an impressive $60.4 million. Meanwhile, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus finished second with $50 million ($23 of which came out of my pocket after an encore viewing). Between the sale prices of 3-D tickets and the built-in fan base for both franchises, the early success of the two movies is no surprise. How they will each hold up over the next few weeks will be the real test – especially with Disney/Pixar’s Brave right around the corner. You can read Michael’s 3-star review for Prometheus here, Robert’s 1 and a half-star review here, or listen to Terence, Joey, and I discuss the film on our podcast, here.
Check out the rest after the jump…
Read more on Box Office Review: ‘Madagascar 3′ Beats Out ‘Prometheus’…
 You are playing the role of Susan Evans, played by Wendy Crewson in Joseph Ruben’s child thriller The Good Son (1993) starring Macaulay Culkin as the sinister son Henry Evans and Elijah Wood as the young Mark, trying to save the family from Henry’s wrath. At the end of the film, Henry attempts to push his mother off a cliff to a watery grave. After Mark and Henry fight in an “epic” battle, both young boys find themselves hanging off the cliff with Susan holding one in each hand. Susan must make the ultimate choice between her own son and nephew. Which one will she let live and which one will she let die?
Here’s your question:
You have the Oscars of Roberto Benigni for Lead Actor from the Foreign Language Film winner, Life is Beautiful (1997) in one hand and from Cameron Crowe’s sports dramedy Jerry Maguire (1996), Cuba Gooding, Jr’s Oscar hangs for Supporting Actor. You must make a choice and let one of them go and save the other. Whose Oscar will plummet?
Read more on Oscar Question of the Day – “If I l Let You Go, You Think You Could Fly”…
 With top 10 lists from my colleagues here at The Awards Circuit coming at you thick and fast over the past week, the challenge now falls to me to pick out those few masterpieces that I rank above all others. I debated for some time over the whole ‘favourite vs. greatest’ issue, and ultimately realised that I’m unable to set biases aside, these are all films that I love on a very personal level. This said I would happily argue that every film here deserves a place on any list of cinematic greats. I’ve also tried to create a broad and balanced list, incorporating films from eight different decades and numerous genres, that really reflects my own varied taste in cinema, although there are undoubtedly overriding themes that link many of these films. I’m sure at least a couple of my choices will raise some eyebrows, but as the newest of the new guys around here, I hope that this list will at least give you a better idea of who I am as a hopeless film addict.
Read more on 10 Greatest Films of All Time (Daniel Ashtiany)…
 Get ready for another “fangtastic” (couldn’t resist) summer, because HBO’s True Blood is back and biting hard! There was not a moment of pause in the Season 5 premiere episode, “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” with each scene only given a window of five minutes or less before the rapid edits ensued. The editing was a bit much this episode, and while it does appropriately mirror the show’s heightened state of frenzy, I always prefer my favorite guilty pleasure show to sink in a little bit before going on the attack. True Blood‘s notoriety for juggling so many different subplots at once can be somewhat problematic when each of the different stories don’t quite intrigue or engage. Despite what many fans said, I thought last season was a remarkable improvement over Season 3′s silly/bordering-on-repulsive handling of many of our favorite characters. In Season Four, I loved what the writers were able to do with Eric — the brief amnesia spell humanized his malevolent soul — and his budding relationship with Sookie. Their intimate culmination was a high point in the series we won’t soon forget, and I absolutely thought Fiona Shaw successfully mustered through a demanding physical role, playing the Big Bad of the season, Marni the Witch. With both of these plot points no longer relevant now that Season Five has arrived, I was hoping for a new and intriguing storyline to emerge, with new characters to follow that could be as interesting and crazily delicious as former standouts from the past. Unfortunately, only one new character has my attention, but with the news that Christopher Meloni is coming aboard in next week’s episode, I can only hope that the remainder of Season 5 will be far more satisfying than the slightly underwhelming, if still entertaining, premiere episode. Read more on TV Review: True Blood: Season 5 (***)…
 It was poised to be the tight race between the critical darling and the box office smash, but Once dominated the competition en route to winning 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The show, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, breezed through handing out awards and mixed in musical numbers, and even a few selections from nominated plays Peter and the Starcatcher (5 Tonys), One Man, Two Guvnors (1 Tony) and End of the Rainbow. There were emotional acceptance speeches galore from Steve Kazee, Best Actor in a Musical, talking about his mom who passed from cancer, to Audra McDonald, Best Actress in a Musical, talking about her daughter. The best bits came from Neil Patrick Harris, including a joke that saw him hanging like Spiderman behind the President of the Theater Wing and Angela Lansbury, mocking the technical malfunctions that plagued Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. Maybe one of these days the Oscars will take notice and hire him to host. Overall, the show was a success and capped another great Broadway season. The full winners list is available after the jump.
Read more on Tony Awards Recap: ‘Once’ takes home 8 Tonys, including Best Musical…
 Regardless of my thoughts on ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’, it’s hard to argue that it hasn’t been successful at the box office. As we all know, that of course means the talk about a sequel is ramping up again. The studio had commissioned one well before the flick opened, but sort of hedged its bets right around the release date. Now that it’s opened well, Deadline is reporting here that the sequel is full speed ahead. I’m not especially excited about this news, but after the jump I’ll get into what might lead to a better film the next time around. The potential is certainly there. Find out the details of what they could do below…
Read more on ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ is getting the inevitable franchise treatment……
|
Chris Hemsworth is having a fantastic summer at the box office and is using his rising star to chose interesting roles. Deadline is reporting he rising star is attached to star in In the Heart of the Sea, the disaster story that inspired Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Based on the National Book Award-winning book by Nathaniel Philbrick, In The Heart Of The Sea is the fact-based tale of Nantucket whaling ship the Essex, which was stalked and ultimately destroyed by a sperm whale in 1820. Stranded thousands of miles from home, the crew struggled to survive; they were lost at sea for 90 days. The script is written by Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond) and word is that Dreamworks is in talks to produce the picture.
