Cinematical

• How Brad Pitt Almost Played The 'Button' Baby
  

  Filed under: Drama, New Releases, Fandom, Newsstand, Brad Pitt

  
  
  This past week, a whole lot of you probably took in a screening of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (I took the girl to see it last night), and you've probably shared your opinions with friends, family and significant others. Some feel it's just way too long, while others argue it needs to be long in order for you, the audience member, to "feel" and adequately "experience" the main character's life-long journey. One aspect of the film a lot of people have discussed was how -- and there might be mild spoilers...
  



• The Rocchi Review with Kris Tapley of In Contention
  

  Filed under: Awards, Podcasts, Brad Pitt, Interviews, Oscar Watch, The Rocchi Review: Online Film Community Podcast

  
  
  Which year-end lists are really worth caring about? What films got a boost from the Broadcast Film Critics and Golden Globe nominations, like Happy-Go-Lucky, and which ones got lost in the shuffle? What's Iron Man doing on the AFI Top Ten Films List, anyhow? And what long, epic films are perfect for enjoying with a turkey sandwich on Boxing Day? Joining James this week to talk about all these topics and more is Kris Tapley of the weblog In Contention. You can listen to the...
  



• Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  

  Filed under: Drama, Romance, Paramount, Theatrical Reviews, Brad Pitt, Oscar Watch

  
  
  I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button weeks ago, and yet every time I tried to think about it -- whether it was to contemplate a decision in David Fincher's direction, a deviation from F. Scott Fitzgerald's story, a moment in Eric Roth's script or a note in the performances of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett -- I would soon find myself, invariably, distracted from the large-scale visions and moments of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and instead contemplating the smaller-scale moments of my...
  



• Tales of a BNAT Newbie
  

  Filed under: Action, Animation, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Disney, IFC, Lionsgate Films, Universal, Warner Brothers, Festival Reports, Fandom, Focus Features, Family Films, Brad Pitt, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, War

  
  
  I don't need much of an excuse to visit Austin, Texas. Find me an event that A) strings more than four movies together, and B) takes place at one of the Alamo...
  



• Brad Pitt Digs Con Men and Meth Heads
  

  Filed under: Drama, Deals, Paramount, Scripts, Brad Pitt

  So before anyone accuses me of pandering to celebrity by putting a picture of Brad Pitt on this news item, I want you to know that I tried to find a picture that was a little more 'newsworthy', but caved when I came up with nothing. So, it's Pitt you get. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Pitt's production company, Plan B, have purchased the rights to the true life tale of local journalist Linda Trest, and her take-down of a conman posing as a federal agent in Gerald, Missouri.
  
  Anthony Walton and Andrew Dresher have already...
  



• Paramount Options a 'Battling Boy'
  

  Filed under: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Paramount, Scripts, Family Films, Newsstand, Brad Pitt, Comic/Superhero/Geek

  One of my tiny, movie-related pet peeves is when literature (be it novel, comic, or graphic novel) gets optioned before any of us get to read it. I long to be part of that secret society that knows (and has already read) everything cool that will be published for the next ten years.
  
  The latest to join the club is Paul Pope's Battling Boy, which Variety reports has been picked up by Brad Pitt's Plan B shingle. (Plan...
  



• First Look: Brad Pitt in 'Inglourious Basterds'
  

  Filed under: Fandom, Brad Pitt, Movie Marketing, Images

  
  
  The first image of Brad Pitt from Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds has just arrived online (see below gallery and click to enlarge). In the film, Pitt plays Lt. Aldo Raine, who leads a group of Jewish-American soldiers during WWII called 'The Basterds'. For these men, their job is to track down and viciously murder Nazis in an attempt to provoke fear in the Third Reich. Basterds is currently in production in Germany, and stars Diane Kruger, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Brühl, Eli Roth, Samm Levine, B.J. Novak, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard, Paul Rust, Michael Bacall,...
  



• Brad Pitt Takes 'The Odyssey' to Outer Space!
  

  Filed under: Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Deals, Warner Brothers, Scripts, Brad Pitt

  It looks like both Warner Bros. and Brad Pitt can't get enough of Homer.
  
  First, we got The Iliad morphed into Troy, with Pitt playing Achilles. Now Variety reports that Pitt is teaming up with Warner Bros. once again to make Homer's next epic, The Odyssey -- with George Miller adapting. Now you might wonder how Pitt can continue on when the story moves over to Sean Bean's Odysseus. First -- Pitt is on-board as producer. Second -- the hope is that Pitt will...
  



• New 'Benjamin Button' Trailer Arrives Online!
  

  Filed under: Fandom, Trailer Trash, Brad Pitt, Movie Marketing, Trailers and Clips

  
  
  A brand new trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has just arrived online via Apple (head there to view it in brilliant HD). Directed by David Fincher, Benjamin Button stars Brad Pitt as a man who's born old and slowly begins to age backwards. The film tells his life story -- one that follows him through a war and a love story with Cate Blanchett (the two also starred opposite one another in Babel). And in true extended trailer fashion, this one gives us a lot more meat --...
  



• TIFF Review: Burn After Reading
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Oscar Watch, Toronto International Film Festival, Cinematical Indie

  

  When the worlds of Washington, DC political intrigue, infidelity, fitness centers and internet dating intersect and collide in a darkly hilarious fashion, you must be watching a film by the Coen brothers. Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan Coen's follow-up to last year's critically lauded award winner, No Country for Old Men, was actually written by the duo as they were adapting No Country, but the two films couldn't be more different.

  The colliding...