The makers of the latest Bond flick 'Skyfall' have been keeping things frustratingly under wraps. With 'American Beauty' Oscar winner Sam Mendes at the helm and classy new cast additions Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem and Albert Finney joining Daniel Craig's 007, expectations are breathtakingly high.
And now comes a brooding first official image of the spy in... well, not so much action, but intrigue as he grips his trademark Walther PP7 pistol and focuses in on a potential target:
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Everybody's favourite outspoken director Quentin Tarantino has revealed his list of 2011's finest contributions to cinema. The 'Pulp Fiction' filmmaker continues his tradition of starting fires and fanning flames by placing awards favourite 'The Artist' joint tenth with critically mauled comedy 'Our Idiot Brother', but that's Tarantino.
Without his appreciation of schlock and serious classics, we wouldn't have films as varying in texture and tone as 'Inglourious Basterds' and 'Grindhouse', not to mention his scattershot scripting duties for the likes of Oliver Stone's 'Natural Born Killers' and Tony Scott's 'True Romance'.
A great film can take years to get off the ground. Creatively rich screenplays pile up high on executives' desks. Scripts so original that studios are scared no-one will come and see the finished product. The Los Angeles Times has an engaging method of giving these writers the additional push and exposure they need. Their list, selected by 307 industry readers, collects together the best unproduced screenplays of the year.
Past scripts that topped the Black List include 'Juno' by Diablo Cody. She went on to win the Oscar for it. As did Aaron Sorkin for 'The Social Network'. A lot of the names below may mean little right now (aside from Quentin Tarantino's shockingly low entry), but they offer a fascinating early glimpse at what Hollywood could have to offer:
133 votes The Imitation Game by Graham Moore
Anyone who's seen 'Back to the Future Part II' should remember two things: that hoverboards don't work on water, and Marty McFly's self-lacing sneakers. Michael J Fox, who played McFly, wore the trainers for the hit sequel.
Now Nike have confirmed that they will making a limited run of 1,500 pairs and will auction the lot on eBay, will all proceeds going towards the Michael J Fox Foundation, noted for helping to battle Parkinson's Disease which the actor is afflicted with.
Before screen legend Dennis 'Apocalypse Now', 'Easy Rider' Hopper passed away, he apparently inked a deal with clothing/footwear company Vans to release a signature range of clothes.
The resulting items draw from his many years as an artist and photographer. Here's what the company say about the man, the legend. Be sure to check out the link below.
Paramount picked a bit of a dodgy time to debut their new promo image for their forthcoming 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol'...
As riots sweep across Britain after reaching fever pitch in London, this shot of Tom Cruise in a hooded top with a blaze of destruction behind him may give the film a moody edge to its American target base, but considering the wave of similar images of hooded looters dominating the British press, it's a little more awkward here.
The fourth film in the hit spy franchise sees Cruise return to his iconic role as Ethan Hunt, with Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner bagging co-starring role's in director Brad Bird's stab at the series.
Peter Falk, who in the latter years before his death was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, was no doubt best known for his seminal work as Lieutenant Columbo in the 'Columbo' TV series and small screen films. Alzheimer's is a terrible disease to witness close up. It robs people of their personalities which took years to form, creating harsh distances. Falk had a way of bringing his audience in with his quirky warmth and we're lucky to have so many of his performances so readily available to revisit and remember him by.
In addition to other well-known Falk fun facts (he had a glass eye being the biggest), it could surprise some to realise that he was a two time consecutive Oscar nominee for his film work: 1961's 'Murder Inc' and 1962's 'Pocketful of Miracles'. But he was only just getting started.
Those films, and even his 'Columbo' performances pale in comparison to his extraordinary work in his friend John Cassavetes' film 'A Woman Under the Influence' in 1974. Cassavetes' own wife, the supremely talented Gena Rowlands, played the titular character and onscreen husband to Falk's blue collar worker whose wife's mental downfall rests heavily on his shoulders.
The BBFC recently decided that 'The Human Centipede II' was just too "obscene" to be granted a UK home video release (read our initial news story here). For anyone to sell the film that sees a crazed doctor stitch his victims together head to tail (as it were) to create one long centipede would be breaking the law.
The film's director Tom Six hit back with the following statement, which he relayed to Empire Magazine (ironically censoring his own f-words): "Thank you BBFC for putting spoilers of my movie on your website and thank you for banning my film in this exceptional way. Apparently I made an horrific horror-film, but shouldn't a good horror film be horrific?
"My dear people it is a f****cking MOVIE. It is all fictional. Not real. It is all make-belief. It is art. Give people their own choice to watch it or not. If people can't handle or like my movies they just don't watch them. If people like my movies they have to be able to see it any time, anywhere also in the UK."
This year's Oscars were the worst I've ever seen. While I managed to win a princely £4 by betting on my predicted winners, the ceremony itself wasn't quite as rewarding.
A lot of the flak has been sent in the hosts' direction, and rightly so. James Franco and Anne Hathaway, great actors and engaging screen presences as they may be, simply did not connect. Franco played the stoic card while Hathaway was all smiles and energy, presumably for some sort of good cop/bad cop routine to gain a few laughs. Instead it just felt like Hathaway was trying too hard and Franco was too tranquilised to perform. Their appearance aside, the script was lacking. You know it's bad when they introduce past host Billy Crystal for a segment and he gets a standing ovation before he's even said anything. Franco and Hathaway, after a promising opening video skit, just didn't have anything to go by. Then they'd inexplicably cut away to tributes to past film achievements like 'Gone With the Wind'. It was chaos. Dull chaos. Even the Academy Chief wasn't over the moon. But the problem didn't lie solely with the script and the hosts. The winners (a nice spread of results) weren't really up to much either. With the exception of 20-time nominee Randy Newman's self-deprecating rant about his own musical talent and Colin Firth's heartfelt speech that combined genuine appreciation and an "urge to dance", the acceptance speeches were muted and uninspired. And when all the fanfare leading up to these moments misfires, it makes for quite a let down. Bear in mind that for many in the film industry, the Oscar represents the pinnacle of achievement. This is the moment in the sun to be funny or daring or even controversial, instead of just reeling off a list of names. Millions of non-celebrities are watching, awaiting a connection with their stars and then they get singled out of the club. Colin Firth started off well when he picked up his Best Actor accolade for 'The King's Speech' by observing that "my career just peaked" before launching into a well written set of thank yous and pokes at himself. As with most filmic problems, at least we can fall back on the talent of Mr Dustin Hoffman. In his first winning speech, he manages to be funny, thank a few important people and make a stirring rally call for the forgotten people on the set and his fellow nominees. He won for his great work in 'Kramer vs Kramer'. If I was around in 1980, I would've put my money on Peter Sellers for 'Being There', but that's another matter.
Tony Curtis seems to be forever associated with debonair cool - a suave womaniser both on and off screen, famous for wooing Marilyn Monroe in 'Some Like it Hot' regardless of whether the cameras were rolling. The AFI voted Billy Wilder's classic the funniest film of all time and he shared the glory with Jack Lemmon and Monroe. But as a serious actor, he never really gained the recognition that he deserved.
There was a decade that strived to prove otherwise. In 'The Defiant Ones', 'The Sweet Smell of Success' and 'Spartacus' he held his own against screen titans Sidney Poitier, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas with ferocity and an assured depiction of a character far removed from his own highly publicised carefree attitude.
Consider some of these recent titles: ‘The Town’, ‘The Tourist’, ‘The Road’, ‘The Ghost’, ‘The American’… it’s only a matter of time before a studio exec suggests “How about ‘The Film’?”
Surely part of the reason why Robert De Niro won an Oscar for his incredible performance in Martin Scorsese’s 'Raging Bull' was for physically altering his body to the extreme.
In pumping up envious muscle tone for the fight sequences and then contrasting that with severe weight gain for his portrayal of boxing champion turned overweight has-been Jake La Motta, De Niro cemented his reputation as an actor who would go to great lengths for his work.
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