Some people may consider the New York Film Festival a simple "Best Of" sort of event, but the fact that it compiles selections from earlier film fests and merely showcases them in a competition-free program is what I love about it. For those of us New Yorkers who can't always make it to the highlands of Utah and Colorado or the exotic seaside locales of Italy and Southern France, it's nice to know that major festival highlights will likely make their way to Lincoln Center in late September, early October.
This...
'Edwin A. Salt': Tom Cruise Is Out, Angelina Jolie Is In
Remember how we told you about six weeks ago that it looked like Tom Cruise's next project would be an espionage thriller called Edwin A. Salt? In fact, the news was that Cruise was going to do Edwin instead of the political thriller The 28th Amendment. Well, now it looks like he's not doing either one. He's changed his mind on Edwin, and now the star of the film is going to be ... Angelina Jolie.
I'm not sure I would have considered Tom Cruise and Angelina Jolie interchangeable, but that's Hollywood for...
Last night Cinematical's James Rocchi was a guest on G4's Attack of the Show, where he and Chris Hardwick spoke about all those crazy Batman rumors spreading like wildfire across the internet. Ya know, how Angelina Jolie supposedly wants to play Catwoman, Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Penguin and/or Johnny Depp as Riddler.
As James points out, these are all "just rumors" right now and...
Not even two full weeks after The Dark Knight arrived in theaters, we officially have our first Batman 3 rumor! (Speaking of, we have to decide what to call Nolan's next Batman movie. Dark Knight 2? Batman 3? NolanMan 3? Lets get on that ...) But anyway, the rumor actually comes from another Catwoman: Julie Newmar. Speaking to the New York Daily News, Newmar says, "Angelina would own the part. My industry friends tell me [she] has made inquiries about the role."...
Games Galore: 'Wanted,' 'Quarantine,' 'Mean Girls' and More!
Man, has this day brought us news of film-based video games aplenty -- one of which you can play for free right now and the rest of which some of you simply can't wait for.
But you'll have to. Wait, that is. They haven't made the darn things yet. Sheesh, hold your horses already.
Trade publication Variety tells us of these titles over the course of two separate articles. One piece points out Universal's plan to crank out several games based on their properties, but only names their highest-profile property at the moment: Wanted. If any...
After the record-breaking success of Night Watch and Day Watch (and an early film for B-movie maven Roger Corman, Arena), Khazakstan-born, Russia-based director Timur Bekmambetov makes his English-language big-studio debut with Wanted, a bruising, brawny action film starring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. Bekmambetov spoke with Cinematical in Los Angeles about making the jump to big-money moviemaking, the hidden world of secrets behind Wanted's look, the action-film apprenticeship...
In Wanted, rapper-actor Common plays The Gunsmith-- a cool, deadly expert marksman who mostly lets his bullets do the talking. But meeting with Cinematical in Los Angeles, the veteran of films like Smokin' Acesand Street Kings is warm and obviously enthusiastic about his experiences, talking about everything from his preparation process for playing what he calls "a Samurai warrior" in Wanted to the challenges facing African-American actors -- plus what's good to drink in Prague and how holding a real gun to...
Steve Carell scored big this week recreating the role of Agent Maxwell Smart in Get Smart, providing the best opening weekend ever for a film with Carell in the lead. The Incredible Hulk fell into second place for its second week but Hulk and Kung Fu Panda both outdid last week's other new release The Love Guru. Here are the totals: 1. Get Smart: $38.6 million 2. The Incredible Hulk: $22.1 million 3. Kung Fu Panda: $21.9 million 4. The Love Guru: $13.9 million 5. The Happening: $10.5 million
Two wide releases this week, a heartwarming comedy...
This past Sunday, The New York Times featured a popular City-section story about the first-ever prom held for students of Brooklyn's International High School. In case you don't like to read, you can simply watch the video accompaniment here. And if you don't like to read and you don't like documentary-style videos, and have a lot of patience, you can wait for the feature film, which will apparently be hitting theaters some time in the future. According to New York magazine's Vulture blog, a number of producers are interested in optioning the article,...
Mark Millar Liked 'Wanted' -- and Plans for Sequel
The flashy advertisements, the curving of bullets and Angelina Jolie make it pretty difficult to remember that Wanted was originally based on a series of graphic novels by Mark Millar. From early reports (including a review from Cinematical), the adaptation is a loose one, so you might be surprised to hear that Millar actually felt it was an improvement on his work.