“Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?” Indiana Jones might not enjoy the apparent hobby Noah has of collecting them, but in this new image from Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, we get our first look inside the Ark that the biblical character built in order to save his family from the massive flood. Instructed by God to take two of each breed of animal, it appears Noah took God quite literally. Aronofsky’s cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, posted this picture to twitter, and referring to Yom Kippur stated: “Pre lighting on the holiest day of the year.” Have a look inside the Ark after the jump…
Read more on Snakes on a Boat: Look Inside Noah’s Ark…
 Much like I mused around a month ago about who could direct the sequel to ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ if Marc Webb doesn’t wind up returning, I’m back again discussing potential directors for a superhero project…this time, the open slot for the ‘Justice League’ film. This is a much different project, and obviously Warner Brothers is so far looking at the A-list for their filmmaker. Christopher Nolan distanced himself from the project pretty much as soon as asked during his publicity for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and I’d expect any day now to hear an official no from Ben Affleck’s camp after the studio set their sights on him. There are certainly plenty of interesting filmmakers who could do a great job with the gig and after the jump I’ll get into the names who might be in contention, along with who I’d like to see get the job. But this is mostly about seeing who you’d like to see sign on. That’s what I’m most interested in, but we’ll get the conversation started with my take on things below.
Read more on Choosing A Director for “Justice League”…
Categories: Article Tags: Alfonso Cuarón, Ben Affleck, Christopher Nolan, Darren Aronofsky, David Yates, Guillermo del Toro, Joe Cornish, Justice League, kathryn bigelow, Man of Steel, Marc Webb, Matt Reeves, Peter Jackson, random, superhero movie chatter, The Amazing Spider-Man, upcoming projects
 Perhaps no movie far down the pike has me as excited as Darren Aronofsky’s film ‘Noah’. A true passion project that the filmmaker has been working years to get off the ground, it’s currently in production (scheduled for release in March of 2014) and Aronofsky has been tweeting out fun little updates to tease us even more. In a USA Today story on his tweets (found here) they also managed to debut the first image of Russell Crowe in the title role. You can see the full image after the jump, but it looks more or less like you’d expect one who builds an ark to look, especially when played by Crowe. Take a gander below at the larger look.
Read more on First Look at Russell Crowe as ‘Noah’…
Our frontrunner?
Trying to sand down the rough slate that is the Actress categories is an intimidating task. The past few years, the category has produced the likes of Natalie Portman in her career-topping performance in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Marion Cotillard’s transformation like no other in the Foreign Language film, La Vie en Rose.
It’s August. Summer’s coming to an end. Eight months have passed and we have one, count, one, Best Actress contender on the chart. Quvenzhané Wallis is more and more looking like the little engine that could for her heartbreaking turn in Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild. While many are shouting from the rooftops that she could be the one to hold the Oscar, barely reaching the microphone, and being a Cinderella story for the millennium, there’s no one to challenge her as of now.
In the past week, Carey Mulligan has dropped off due to the “sudden” push of The Great Gatsby to summer 2013. Was that telling of something? We’ll discuss on this week’s episode of Power Hour if it was. With Mulligan out, we are struggling to find spots filled from performances coming down the pike.
Read more on “Best” Actress Award or “Whatever We Have Left Over”…
Categories: Article, Editor, Oscar Circuit Tags: Amy Adams, Anna Karenina, Anne Hathaway, Carey Mulligan, Darren Aronofsky, david cronenberg, emily watson, Emmanuelle Riva, Greta Gerwig, Halle Berry, Helen Hunt, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Joe Wright, Julianne Moore, Keira Knightley, La Vie En Rose, Laura Linney, Lost in Translation, Maggie Smith, Marion Cotillard, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Michael Haneke, naomi watts, nicole kidman, olivia colman, Olivia Williams, Oscar, Paul Thomas Anderson, Pride & Prejudice, Rob Marshall, Robert Lorenz, Rose Byrne, Scarlett Johansson, The Great Gatsby, The Weinstein Company Holdings LLC, To the Wonder
 Taking a break from all this Bat-talk. Trekking through the year 2000 was a daunting task. There were many films I hadn’t seen in years, while others I’ve never feasted my eyes on before. Naturally this brings on a dilemma. A 15-year-old Clayton watching movies is very different from a now, 28-year-old Clayton. I like to think there is a maturity there that lacked before. I realized that after re-watching Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In 2000, I found the film immensely overrated and couldn’t understand what people were so mesmerized by. Naturally, I’ve never officially appreciated it or thought it to be among Ang Lee’s best. Enter last weekend. Talk about being fantastic a second-time around, the film was nearly hypnotic in its style and approach. Do I consider it the best of the year? Not really. One of the best? Definitely so.
With our ACCA 2000 closing up on Friday, and winners being announced on Sunday’s podcast, I have to let you in on my favorites of the new millennium. Please include yours in the comment section and let’s see what commonalities or differences we have. Bold denotes winner. Enjoy after the jump: Read more on Davis Awards 2000 Announced!…
Categories: Article, Community, Editor Tags: Almost Famous, American Psycho, Awards Circuit Community Awards, Benicio Del Toro, Billy Crudup, Cast Away, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Christian Bale, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Darren Aronofsky, Davis Awards, Davis Awards 2000, Ellen Burstyn, Frances McDormand, Gladiator, Jennifer Connelly, Joaquin Phoenix, Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, Laura Linney, michelle yeoh, Requiem for a Dream, Ridley Scott, Robert Zemeckis, Russell Crowe, Scary Movie, Steven Soderbergh, tom hanks, Traffic, Ziyi Zhang
 Darren Aronofsky, Academy Award nominated director of “Black Swan,” and recently nominated by the Awards Circuit Community for his direction on 2000′s “Requiem for a Dream,” has released the first photo from the set of his upcoming film, “Noah.”
Full size photo is after the jump. Read more on Darren Aronofsky Tweets First Photo from “Noah”…
 It seems that hardly a month goes by without some new casting news for Darren Aronofsky’s long gestating passion project ‘Noah’. It’s been a little quieter of late, but now we have a big new bit of casting to share with you. Darren Aronofsky himself took to Twitter (here) to confirm the casting of Anthony Hopkins in the film. He’ll be playing Methuselah, and I think it’s a fine choice. After the jump you can see Aronofsky’s tweet about Sir Anthony, but for now, just enjoy the fact that this film now has Hopkins joining Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Ray Winstone, and more. This could very well wind up being something special…
Read more on Anthony Hopkins joins the cast of ‘Noah’ as Methuselah!…
 I’ve been following the casting chronicles of Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming epic ‘Noah’ for a few weeks now, and it seems that even though about half of the actors mentioned for parts wind up being replaced, the film still seems impeccably cast. The big role I’d been waiting to hear about being filled was the antagonist character, and Deadline is reporting here that Ray Winstone is the man tapped by Aronofsky. Winstone is certainly a solid pick for a villain, and I’m very curious what he’ll do with the part (though I’ll confess to being even more curious what Val Kilmer would have done, as he was in contention as well). After the jump I’ll remind you all who ‘Noah’ officially has in its cast, but keep checking back here for updates as they come!
Read more on Ray Winstone will try to foil ‘Noah’ for Darren Aronofsky?…
 Only a few days after reporting on the casting of Logan Lerman (along with Douglas Booth), we’re back again today with more ‘Noah’ news. Deadline has announced here that Emma Watson is the latest actress to join up with Darren Aronofsky for his biblically based epic (though it seems like it’ll be more science fiction than anything else). She’s an interesting addition, and after the jump you can see who she might be playing, along with a bit of news on Jennifer Connelly’s involvement in the project (hint…she’s not quite as solidly cast as we previously thought her to be), but I know I like where this flick is potentially headed, but that’s me. Read on below…
Read more on Emma Watson is next to join Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Noah’!…
 It’s no stretch to say that Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming project ‘Noah’ is rather high up on my “most anticipated” list. I’ve loved literally everything he’s done to date, and the idea of him painting on his biggest canvas yet has me pretty excited at the possibilities. Well, the film is a long ways off, but it’s casting more actors currently, and Deadline says here that Douglas Booth and Logan Lerman are the latest to join the flick. After the jump you can see who they’re playing, and especially in the case of Lerman, I’m excited to see what they can do. Read on below for a bit more on their casting…
Read more on More join the cast of Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Noah’!…
 It was a rather safe bet that Darren Aronofsky’s next film ‘Noah’ would not be a one man show, so it was only a matter of time until the cast expanded beyond leading man Russell Crowe. There were (and still are) rumors of Liam Neeson taking the part of an antagonist/villain of some sort in this post-apocolyptic take on the biblical tale, but for now he remains on the sidelines, though Crowe is no longer alone. Joining the production are actresses Jennifer Connelly and Saorise Ronan, with Connelly working a second time now with Aronofsky after ‘Requiem for a Dream’ earlier in their careers. After the jump I’ll speculate a bit on their potential roles, but I like how this movie is shaping up quite a bit…
Read more on Jennifer Connelly and Saoirse Ronan join ‘Noah’…
 Darren Aronofsky is turning into a director with about 3 times as many projects in the hopper as he can realistically make (Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott are currently two of the very worst offenders, but honestly I’m just happy when they pick a project). I have no real issue here with his cinematic greediness (since I love his work), but I wish he wound up making more of them instead of just talking about them. I’m still waiting for his adaptation of ‘Flicker’ that’s never going to happen, as well as his aborted remake of ‘Robocop’, and he’s currently got 7 projects he’s involved with right now (including ‘Noah’). Well, you can make it 8 now (including a television project), as Variety reports that he’s potentially going to be directing a film about George Washington possibly called ‘The General’, one that’s in the vein of ‘Unforgiven’, to boot. After the jump, I’ll talk about his current projects and where this fits in, but I must say…Washington as a badass could be a lot of fun, and Aronofsky is one of my 5 favorite filmmakers working today, so in Darren I trust.
Read more on Aronofsky to direct a George Washington Biopic!…
 If Darren Aronofsky is involved with a project, it has my attention. Even when he was going to direct ‘The Wolverine’, I had high hopes for the flick due to his involvement. Thankfully though, he moved on and will be getting to make his dream project instead. ‘Noah’ isn’t a film that I’d be pumped for without Aronofsky at the helm (as a lapsed Jew with Agnostic leanings, Noah’s Ark is hardly a tale that I give a lot of thought to in my day to day life), but with his artistic sensibilities at sail, I’m down for whatever this turns out to. Well, The Playlist has spotted a release date over at Box Office Mojo, and it appears we’re going to have to wait until March of 2014 to see the flick. This could change, but for now, mark your calendars. You can read their post after the jump, but while we wait for 2014 to arrive, please enjoy Ricky Gervais’ take on Noah’s Ark here…
Read more on Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Noah’ gets a release date!…
 If there’s apparently a rather surefire way to be a box office failure these days, it’s to involve the red planet of Mars. We all know how much coverage the underwhelming box office (to date) is for Disney’s expensive would be tent-pole ‘John Carter’ (a film I happened to enjoy, as you can see in my early review here). As disappointing as the take so far must be for the mouse ($55 million domestically as of me starting this article, though the foreign numbers are better…hang tight, I’ll cover all of this in a bit), it was even worse last year for their motion capture flick ‘Mars Needs Moms’, which GLOBALLY was only able to manage $38 million in box office from a budget of $150 million. I’m not actually writing about mars related box office failures (though ‘Red Planet’ was a pretty big bomb and the international markets saved ‘Mission to Mars’, but I digress) or the woes of Disney (which could actually lose $200 million in the end over ‘John Carter’), but actually about how sometimes we get box office failures that don’t deserve their fate. Yes, sometimes bad movies fail at the box office (I’m looking at you ‘The Adventures of Pluto Nash’, ‘Battlefield Earth’, and others), but more often good ones do. I decided to sift through the best of the lot that were labeled “bombs” and to find which financial failures were the greatest creative successes. This is obviously on a sliding scale, so don’t expect masterpieces all around, but here are 10 good to great films that didn’t make their budgets back and lost the studios quite a bit of money. Some were victims of their time, some of their bloated budgets, but all are movies that deserved bigger audiences (or better handling), so in a way, they’re all cautionary tales. Let’s dive right in though and see what the best bombs of all time are!
Read more on Best Box Office Bombs…
 It’s somewhat unlikely that I’d be interested in a film about the biblical character Noah. I’m about as much a fan of religion and the bible as I am a fan of the Transformers films (or apparently Meryl Streep, as some less than thoroughly researched readers have attested to), but at the same token, I do happen to love the work of Darren Aronofsky. He’s never made a bad movie in my eyes and even got me into a movie involving ballet, so he certainly gets the benefit of the doubt here, and as his film Noah begins to shape up, I’m only into it more. Deadline has a quick little post that posits that Russell Crowe could be in line for the title role…
Read more on Could Russell Crowe be Darren Aronofsky’s Noah?…
 Acclaimed German director Wim Wenders directs the first 3D art-house film, Pina, that pays homage and tribute to a recently deceased Ballet choreographer, the legendary Pina Bausch, who died two days prior to the initial shooting of the film. Despite Wim Wender’s apprehension and sadness over the loss of Pina Bausch, the Tanztheater Wuppertal theater dancers who performed in Pina’s Ballet routines convinced him to continue with the documentary. It is not surprising why the dancers made this decision, as Pina’s repeated mantra stated in the film is “Dance, dance…otherwise we are lost.” Had the documentary not continued, Pina’s message would have been for naught. The dancers that pay tribute dance not just to express themselves but also to keep a part of Pina alive in every free-flowing movement that she taught them. Instead of being an exposition of her famous ballet routines, the film becomes a kind of eulogy for Pina and the legacy she left behind that touched so many of her dancers, who were able to release themselves from the inner turmoil in their own lives and be free through dance. The problem with this film does not lie in Pina’s dance routines in and of themselves. The real problem with the film is Wender’s direction that relies on an exhibitionist style that makes us long for Pina and not continuous dance numbers where the students become the focus instead of the legend herself. Read more on Pina (**½)…
 We finally know what will be Darren Aronofsky’s follow-up to the massive hit that was ‘Black Swan’. While he was attached to ‘The Wolverine’ for a long time before ultimately pulling out, he had always kept amassing other projects that seemed more interesting. None are more intriguing than the epic ‘Noah’…but who would be willing to pay for a risky and expensive film like that? Well, Deadline is reporting that we now have an answer as to who will pay for Aronofsky’s vision. Here’s their article:
Paramount and New Regency have formalized a deal to partner on Noah, the Biblical epic that Darren Aronofsky will direct as his followup to the Oscar-nominated smash Black Swan. Deadline told you in late June that Paramount was going to win a project after a bidding battle with 20th Century Fox to partner with New Regency. Apparently it takes less time to build an ark and survive a Biblical flood than it does to close a deal like this, but the partners have also locked in Gladiator scribe John Logan to rewrite the script by Aronofsky and Ari Handel. Aronofsky and Scott Franklin will produce it.
Read more on Darren Aronofsky is going to get to make Noah!…
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