 Other than history books, Hollywood is primarily responsible for keeping stories about World War II in the public consciousness and war films are often proving grounds for young male actors. Shia LaBeouf is hoping to join in that long history by boarding Fury, the World War II film written and to be directed David Ayer. The film, which also stars Brad Pitt, will follow the commander of a Sherman tank and its five-man crew on a mission behind enemy lines. Story is set in April 1945 as Nazi Germany collapses.
Read more on Shia LaBeouf to fight Nazis with Brad Pitt in WWII film ‘Fury’…
World War Z - the new zombie action thriller starring Brad Pitt – has a new poster in which Pitt’s character assesses the destruction caused by the zombie-apocalypse from the rear of a helicopter. World War Z hits theaters on June 21 and also stars Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz , James Badge Dale, and Matthew Fox. Have a look at the poster after the jump.
Read more on New ‘World War Z’ Poster Featuring Brad Pitt…
 I think it’s safe to say at this point that filmmaker Andrew Dominik has a bit of a following. The director of Chopper (2000), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), and most recently Killing Them Softly (2012) has yet to really find commercial success, but critical success has come early and often for Dominik. I’m obviously a fan of his latest film, and pretty much his whole career, so I jumped at the chance to speak to Dominik for a few minutes in advance of the flick coming to Blu-Ray and DVD. We touched on his work to date, what might be next for him, and just what his place in the world of film is. Dominik was a pretty interesting guy, so I hope everyone takes a listen to this interview. It’s after the jump. Read more on Andrew Dominik sits down to talk ‘Killing Them Softly’ and more!…
 Directed By: Ridley Scott
Written By: Cormac McCarthy
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Dean Norris
Synopsis: A lawyer finds himself in over his head when he gets involved in drug trafficking.
Award Speculation:
It’s so unusual how it seems the internet gets their hands on things even before the studios even do. Cormac McCarthy, the author of “No Country for Old Men” and “The Road,” both of which were adapted into films directed by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen and John Hillcoat respectively. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men (2007) obviously went on to win four Oscars including Best Picture. The Counselor is McCarthy’s first original screenplay that was sold in January 2012 to Nick Wechsler, Paula Mae Schwartz, and Steve Schwartz who were producers on The Road (2010). Nearly two weeks after the selling of the script, three-time Academy Award nominee Ridley Scott was announced to be directing the project. Read more on Awards Profile: The Counselor…
 Directed By: Steve McQueen
Written By: Steve McQueen and John Ridley
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Quvenzhané Wallis, Scoot McNairy, Garrett Dillahunt, Sarah Paulson, Michael Kenneth Williams, Taran Killiam, Dwight Henry, Adepero Oduye, Bryan Batt, Alfre Woodard
Synopsis: 12 Years a Slave is based on the 1853 autobiography of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped in Washington D.C in 1841 and sold into slavery. He worked on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before his release. Read more on Awards Profile: 12 Years A Slave…
Categories: Award Profile, Blog Tags: Adepero Oduye, Alfre Woodard, Awards Profile, benedict cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Bryan Batt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dwight Henry, Garrett Dillahunt, John Ridley, Michael Fassbender, Oscar hopeful, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Quvenzhané Wallis, Sarah Paulson, Scoot McNairy, Steve McQueen, Taran Killiam, Twelve Years A Slave
 It’s March! We get started right away and over the past few weeks after the Oscar ceremony, I took some brief stabs at some categories. Those have been tinkered with and will be reflected on the actual Oscar Prediction pages in the next couple of days. The full listing of predicted nominees is on the sidebar with the list of contenders on the Oscar Prediction pages for Picture, Director, Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, and Animated Feature.
Obviously categories like Original Song are merely speculation because we don’t know what film will have an eligible song attached. Disney and Pixar films are good for a song or two so that’s always a good place to start. Read more on Oscar Circuit – 2014 Films and Minority Contenders…
Categories: Article, Editor, Oscar Circuit Tags: 2014 Oscar Predictions, A Separation, Academy Awards, Adepero Oduye, Angela Bassett, Antonio Banderas, August: Osage County, Berenice Bejo, Black Nativity, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Captain Phillips, Chavez, Christian Bale, Ewan McGregor, forest whitaker, Fruitvale, Gwyneth Paltrow, Idris Elba, jennifer hudson, Julia Roberts, Kasi Lemmons, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Michael Fassbender, Michael Pena, naomi watts, nicole kidman, Octavia Spencer, Oprah Winfrey, Out of the Furnace, Penelope Cruz, Ridley Scott, Rosario Dawson, Saving Mr. Banks, Steve McQueen, Tahar Rahim, The Counselor, The Grandmaster, The Past, the weinstein company, The Wolf of Wall Street, tom hanks, Twelve Years A Slave, Walt Disney, Woody Harrelson, Zoe Saldana
Sacha Gervasi’s much-anticipated Hitchcock was supposed to deliver a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the Master of Suspense’s masterpiece (Psycho) and its improbable success. Instead, this disaster became an outlandish fantasy around the film’s crazed director (Anthony Hopkins) and the strained relationship with his wife (and uncredited collaborator) Alma Reville (Helen Mirren, in one of the film’s few bright spots), as it fabricates that their marriage was saved only by working together on the film.
Read more on Snippet Reviews: ‘Hitchcock,’ ‘Killing Them Softly,’ and ‘Any Day Now’…
Categories: Film Reviews Tags: Anthony Hopkins, Any Day Now, Any Day Now review, Brad Pitt, Helen Mirren, hitchcock, Hitchcock Review, Killing Them Softly, Killing Them Softly review, Scoot McNairy, Snippet Reviews
 In 2007 no one saw the Best Actor nomination for Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah (2007), it was one of those happy surprises that reminded us the acting branch really does watch the films and pay some attention. Way back in 1975 there was another such shock when James Whitmore received a Best Actor nod for his filmed stage show Give ‘em Hell Harry (1975), though it was not quite as deserving as Jones’ nomination.
With the strong reviews coming in for Brad Pitt in Killing Them Softly (2012), could he knock out one of the so-called locks and be in the category come Oscar night? He is well liked, the Academy likes him, critics like him and he has grown substantially as an actor through the years. For my money he should have been nominated for Best Actor for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) and for Babel (2006). Last year he won the New York Film Critics Award for Best Actor for Moneyball (2011) and was an Oscar nominee, and I think discounting him this year is a huge mistake. Read more on The Underestimation of the Lead Actor Brad Pitt in ‘Killing Them Softly’…
Categories: Blog Tags: American film directors, Brad Pitt, Cinema of the United States, Daniel Day-Lewis, Denzel Washington, Entertainment/Culture, Hugh Jackman, Human Interest, In the Valley of Elah, James Whitmore, Joaquin Phoenix, John Hawkes, Lincoln, Michael Douglas, Oscar, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, the LA Film Critics Award, the New York Film Critics Award, Tommy Lee Jones
We have a bit of a slow weekend for new releases this week, with a few stragglers trying to occupy theaters in the calm before the end-of-year, heavy-hitter storm. Killing Them Softly, Andrew Dominik’s mob thriller, is the most notable newbie.
Read more on Weekend Openings: 11/30/2012…
Categories: Weekend Openings Tags: Andrew Dominik, Brad Pitt, China, Christopher McDonald, Dolph Lundgren, Emma Fitzpatrick, Entertainment/Culture, Henan, Henen, Indian films, James Gandolfini, Japan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, John Hyams, Josh Stewart, Kareena Kapoor, Killing Them Softly, Marcus Dunstan, Rani Mukerji, Ray Liotta, Reema Kagti, Scott Adkins, The Expendables 2, Tim Robbins
 As angry as any film you’ll see this year, but also probably as entertaining at the same time, ‘Killing Them Softly’ is a movie that works on multiple levels. Some might only see an effective and enjoyable mob tale, and some filmmakers might have been content to stop there, but others will no doubt notice and likely appreciate the political commentary on display here by writer/director Andrew Dominik. Already with a growing following as a filmmaker, Dominik has made a much smaller flick in scale than his prior work ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’, but like that movie he’s crafted a visually stimulating and unique film. He’s also working again with Brad Pitt and makes the case that they should continue working together for the foreseeable future. Pitt is captivating in one of the crucial roles of what almost is an ensemble film. Dominik is doing a lot of things here, trying to get you to be angry, to be amused, and maybe even shocked, sometimes in the same scene, so it was essential to ground the work with solid acting, and he has that in spades. ‘Killing Them Softly’ doesn’t just want to take on mob warfare and justice, it wants to take on capitalism and politics in America. As Pitt’s character says at one point “I’m living in America, and in America you’re on your own. America’s not a country. It’s just a business”. That quote pretty much sums the movie up, and when the film opens, you’ll just how successful it is and hammering that point home.
Read more on Killing Them Softly (***½)…
Categories: Film Reviews Tags: Andrew Dominik, Ben Mendelsohn, book adaptation, Brad Pitt, Cogan's Trade, James Gandolfini, Killing Them Softly, Oscar hopeful, Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins, Sam Shepard, Scoot McNairy, Slaine, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Vincent Curatola
 What do you get when you combine a three time Oscar nominated actor, a book of first person accounts about the zombie war, and a major studio? A big budget tentpole action film with a brand new trailer! World War Z, based on the book of the same name, had a troubled production with Damon Lindeloff being called in to rewrite the last act and seven weeks of reshoots. Now we get our first good look at the film starring Brad Pitt as United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself. Check out the atmospheric, action filled trailer after the jump!
Read more on Brad Pitt is our last hope in ‘World War Z’…
 We spoke about this possibility on a podcast a few weeks back but it seems that a source as confirmed to Tom O’Neil of Gold Derby that Academy Award Winner Christoph Waltz will be campaigned as a lead actor in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Django Unchained. Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx, who plays a slave-turned-bounty hunter that is searching for his wife will compete against Waltz along with the entire roster of the Weinstein Company. Read more on Gold Derby Confirms Christoph Waltz being campaigned as Lead Actor…
Categories: Editor, News, Oscar Predictions Tags: Andrew Dominik, Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Bradley Cooper, Christoph Waltz, Cinema of the United States, Daniel Day-Lewis, David O. Russell, Denzel Washington, Derby, Django, Django Unchained, Entertainment/Culture, Film, Hugh Jackman, jamie foxx, Joaquin Phoenix, John Hawkes, Kevin Spacey, Lead Actor, Lincoln, Oscar, Paul Thomas Anderson, Phoenix, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Gere, Sacha Gervasi, second Oscar, slave-turned-bounty hunter, the weinstein company, The Weinstein Company Holdings LLC, Tom O'Neil
Potentially marking the fourth collaboration between the pair, David Fincher is reportedly pursuing Brad Pitt for his next project, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Since taking a break from feature films after the past few productive years with The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Fincher has directed the first few episodes of Neflix’s experiment in original programming, House of Cards.
Read more on David Fincher Looking to Cast Brad Pitt in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Remake…
Categories: News Tags: Brad Pitt, David Fincher, Entertainment/Culture, Fiction, Fight Club, Film, Jules Verne, Kirk Douglas, Ned Land, Nemo, Seven, Steven Zaillian, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the girl with the dragon tattoo, The Social Network, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
 OK, I am the studio head and have access to two hundred million dollars. I have been asked to remake ten classics made before 1970, and attach actors to the projects to speed up the casting process. In some cases, I see more than one actor or actress in a role, and I say that. Here are the ten films I choose to remake along with the casting hopefuls. Each film can cost no more than twenty million dollars so much will be said to the actors about being involved in something very special.
Read more on Remaking Cinema – Before 1970…
Categories: Article Tags: Ben Foster, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Cinema of the United States, Denzel Washington, Film, George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson, Jennifer Connelly, Jessica Lange, Julia Roberts, Leonardo di Caprio, Meryl Streep, Remaking Cinema, Sean Penn, Series, Terence Howard
 Ladies and gentlemen, we come now to part 3 of the Sizing up series. This one is as close to an all-encompassing grouping of the hopefuls for Best Actor as possible (excluding some no shot contenders). I’m looking to categorize them by their assumed likelihood of a nomination come the big morning, but clearly there’s plenty of guesswork at play here as well. For my money, this is the most competitive category outside of Best Picture and possibly Best Director. There’s a bunch of top-tier contenders that all could win, let alone get nominated, so this is a bit of a top-heavy category.
Read more on Sizing Up: Best Actor…
Categories: Article Tags: analysis, Andy Samberg, Anthony Hopkins, Best Actor, Bill Murray, Brad Pitt, Bradley Cooper, Colin Farrell, Daniel Day-Lewis, Entertainment/Culture, Hugh Jackman, Jack Black, Jake Gyllenhaal, jamie foxx, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Joaquin Phoenix, John Hawkes, Liam Neeson, Matt Damon, Matthew McConaughey, Oscar hopeful, paul rudd, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Gere, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Sizing up, Sizing Up series, Tom Hardy, TOM HOLLAND
 This year’s race for the Academy Award for Best Actor will have no shortage of worthy nominees; in fact I daresay they could nominate five worthy actors right now. However there are still many more performances to be unveiled, work that will end up in the category, work that will not, disappointing audiences, the Academy and critics. Already I think we have seen a preview of that, though Clay might disagree in Bill Murray’s highly touted work in Hyde Park on Hudson, which after seeing at TIFF I felt would slowly drop out of sight and out of contention. The film’s reception at Telluride was weak, and in Toronto the same thing happened, with a rather shocked audience filing out mumbling about the disappointment they were feeling. I have stated already, Murray is never bad, weak or anything remotely negative, just not strong enough to be an Academy Award nominee. It is merely a good performance and lined up alongside the ones I think have a chance so far, it looks oddly out of place, which of course means nothing. Read more on Lead Actor Overstuffed…
Categories: Article Tags: Anthony Hopkins, Ben Affleck, Bill Murray, Brad Pitt, Burt Lancaster, Cannes, Cannes Best, Christopher Walken, Cinema of the United States, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Director nomination, Dustin Hoffman, Entertainment/Culture, Film, Flight, François Cluzet, Good Will Hunting, Hugh Jackman, Jack Nicholson, jamie foxx, Jean-Louis Trintignant, John Hawkes, Kirk Douglas, Lancaster, legendary director, Liam Neeson, Mads Mikkelsen, Matt Damon, Michael Shannon, Movie Release, Omar Sy, Oscar, Oscars, Peter Fonda, Pilot, powerful actor, President, Promised Land, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Kuklinski, Richard Nixon, robert duvall, Robert Zemeckis, serious actor, the Academy Award, the Oscars, The Polar Express, Toronto, Toronto International Film Festival, United States
Joaquin Phoenix in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master”
Oscar Predictions, how I love thee yet how I hate thee. As I revealed the newest set of predictions this time around and took a look at the next five months, I haven’t dived into serious awards analysis in a while. A lot of the reason was I felt it was too early and we didn’t know enough. I had an epiphany recently however; we never know what the Oscars are thinking. Even after critics’ awards drop, Golden Globes, SAG, Critics Choice Awards are televised; all mean nothing at the end of the day. Oscar will always do what she wants to do, even when everyone is telling her the obvious choices.
Granted, I am one of the few that thinks they can actually pick some great choices among their winners. I was and still am in the camp that Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist was the best film of last year. I couldn’t have chosen a better film. Does that mean everything that accompanied The Artist was the best? Absolutely not. What Oscar often lacks are edgy, loud, or mainstream choices. Could they have found room for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive or for its leading man Ryan Gosling? How about Steve McQueen’s Shame with the best leading male performance of the year, Michael Fassbender? Like I said, they’re not perfect. And here’s a look into the future…they never will be.
I am a firm believer that in ten, fifteen years time, we may have an Academy that embraces films like The Dark Knight or performances like Tang Wei in Lust, Caution. It’s not THAT time yet. Read more on Too Many Actors, Too Little Spaces – A Look at Best Actor…
Categories: Article, Editor Tags: Best Actor, Brad Pitt, Cinema of the United States, Clint Eastwood, Entertainment/Culture, Films, Hugh Jackman, Jack Nicholson, Joaquin Phoenix, John Hawkes, kevin bacon, Killing Them Softly, Leonardo DiCaprio, Les Miserables, Martin Freeman, Martin Scorsese, Million Dollar Baby, Paul Thomas Anderson, Peter Weir, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ryan Gosling, The Master, The Sessions
 Last night, a Trailer we’ve been waiting a while for finally dropped into our laps. Andrew Dominik made a gem the last time out with ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ and now he’s back with the Brad Pitt crime flick ‘Killing Them Softly’. The Trailer can be seen after the jump, and it looks really good, if very different from Dominik’s last movie. This could be too gritty for Oscar (the Trailer doesn’t show it, but it’s supposedly very angry and even a little political), but I have a feeling that it’ll be very popular once it comes out…perhaps even this year’s ‘Drive’, if you will. Take a gander below and see what you think. For me, this one just shot up my anticipated films list!
Read more on Trailer for ‘Killing Them Softly’…
 Back in June word began spilling out about the major troubles that the adaptation of ‘World War Z’ were going through, namely the need for massive reshoots and a new ending, along with confrontations between Brad Pitt and director Marc Forster and a rumor that DP Robert Richardson had tried to quit the project. The stories had Damon Lindelof rewriting the third act, and while that’s true, now Deadline is reporting here that Drew Goddard is actually the man mostly responsible for the new ending (they also mention that Christopher McQuarrie could be next in line as well). I certainly prefer Goddard, especially after ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, but frankly I just want this flick to get saved somehow. After the jump you can see the details, but cross your fingers that these guys can still make this another Brad Pitt film worth seeing…
Read more on Drew Goddard is the latest to take a crack at the end of ‘World War Z’…
 Since winning an Oscar and having a child, Penelope Cruz has been keeping a low profile, but she poised to come back on screens in a big way. In addition to her role in the new Woody Allen film, To Rome with Love, Deadline has reported that Cruz has signed on to costar in the Ridley Scott directed, Cormac McCarthy scripted film The Counselor, alongside Michael Fassbender, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt and husband Javier Bardem. Also announced today was that she would be filmming another movie with long time collaborator Pedro Almodovar. The flick Los Amantes Pasajeros (The Brief Lovers) is about an affair on an airplane and will star other Almodovar regulars like Lola Duenas, Javier Camara and Cecilia Roth.
Read more on Penelope Cruz to star in Ridley Scott’s ‘The Counselor’, reteam with Almodovar…
Categories: News Tags: Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, casting, Javier Bardem, Michael Fassbender, news, Pedro Almodóvar, Penelope Cruz, Ridley Scott, To Rome With Love, upcoming projects
On Monday, June 4th, Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie celebrated her 37th birthday. Born in Los Angeles, California in 1975 to actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand, she is the younger of two children. At age 11, she enrolled in the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute where she attended classes for two years before changing her mind on acting in favor of becoming a funeral director. She spent the rest of her adolescent years rebelling like most teenagers with long periods of depression before returning to her theater studies after graduating high school.
Read more about Angelina Jolie after the jump…
Read more on Circuit 3: Angelina Jolie…
 Steve McQueen is one of the most interesting up and coming directors working today. With ‘Hunger’ and ‘Shame’, he’s made two terrific films (though I like the latter a lot better and actually find the former to be very slightly overrated), and his next project ‘Twelve Years A Slave’ could be his most ambitious one yet. It’s certainly got his highest profile cast to date, with Michael Fassbender again working with McQueen, and the likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Brad Pitt. Well, hot on the heels of Paul Dano joining the cast last week, Variety is reporting here that in demand actor Benedict Cumberbatch has signed up as well. After the jump you can see what the film is about, but it’s currently shaping up to be a really interesting one. I know I’ll be seeing it, hopefully next year sometime…
Read more on Benedict Cumberbatch and Paul Dano join the cast of ‘Twelve Years A Slave’!…
 With Amour taking the Palme d’Or yesterday, another Cannes FIlm Festival was put to rest. As the dust settles, it’s now a little clearer how this year’s Cannes will factor into the Oscar race. While there doesn’t appear to be three Best Picture films in this lineup, there are several highly regarded films that could make some voice with the Academy this year. Check out the contenders after the jump.
Read more on Cannes 2012 Post Mortem…
Categories: Article Tags: Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Brad Pitt, Garrett Hedlund, Killing Them Softly, kristen stewart, Lawless, Marion Cotillard, Michael Haneke, news, On the Road, Oscar hopeful, Oscar hopefuls, Rust &Bone
 If you’re like me, you can’t wait to see more of Andrew Dominik’s new film ‘Killing Them Softly’. Especially after the film screened to somewhat positive reviews and apparently features quite a political undertone, it’s got my attention more and more. Well, those who are anticipating this flick like me can rejoice a bit, as we have a short new clip to share with you from the movie. It shows off Brad Pitt and we see where the flick gets its new title from. You can see it after the jump, and stay tuned for a full trailer hopefully very soon. In the meantime, enjoy the clip below…
Read more on Clip from ‘Killing Them Softly’ hits!…
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