Week of « Prev | Next »
1-20 of 22 articles « Prev | Next »
Lost Tennessee Williams Project Reborn
6 hours ago
There's a baffling lack of fanfare here for something this long in coming. Filming wrapped on The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond in 2008, the first new production of a Tennessee Williams screenplay in 40 years, with a strong cast including Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, Ellen Burstyn and Ann-Margret, yet it's only being released in the States at the end of the year.According to Coming Soon, Williams was due to hand the script over to his A Streetcar Named Desire and Pretty Baby director Elia Kazan, but Kazan moved onto other projects. The script follows Mississippi socialite Fisher Willow (Dallas Howard), who in trying to get one-up on her corruptive and greedy father, hires her father's employ Jimmy (Chris Evans) to be her escort to a swish family party, which she has to attend if she stands any chance of inheriting money. Borrowing her great aunt's (Ann Margret) diamond earrings - priceless, »
Guy Pearce Joins The Hungry Rabbit Jumps
7 hours ago
Production Weekly has Tweeted the news that, with just two weeks before cameras are set to roll, it'll be Guy Pearce stepping aboard the production of The Hungry Rabbit Jumps, the new thriller from Roger Donaldson.Details of the story are still sketchy, but everyone seems agreed that Nic Cage plays an ordinary guy who turns to a vigilante group to set things right when his wife (January Jones) is assaulted.Our first guess is that Pearce would be playing the leader of the vigilante group - he can certainly pull off dangerous as well as he can do charismatic. But then, he could be playing a cop - as we say, a lot of blanks are yet to be filled in on this one.What we can be sure of, is this project's potential: Cage is on so-hot-right-now form with Bad Lietenant: Port Of Call, New Orleans and Kick-Ass, »
Exclusive: Nativity! Goes X Factor
7 hours ago
If the poo and wee bit of the Christmas Brit-flick’s trailer made you feel like gagging, this excerpt with Martin Freeman should go some way to making you feel less sick, being as it is a) cute and b) featuring less of Marc Wootton’s insanely annoying classroom assistant, Mr Poppy.Reuniting Freeman with his Confetti director Debbie Isitt for more improvised comedy, Nativity! follows two rival primary school teachers’ attempts to put on a show-stopping Nativity play and get a five-star review from the local critic, played by love-him-or-throw-him-from-nearest-cliff comedian Alan Carr. Fed up with always coming second in the reviews, Freeman’s teacher tells a giant fib that his Hollywood producer ex-girlfriend (played by Extra’s Ashley Jensen) is coming to film his show, leading to a frantic amount of showing-off, backstabbing and all the other things associated with Christmas. In this scene, little pupil Bobby and »
Wes Craven Back For Scream 4?
7 hours ago
Scream’s post-modern scares are going to need some serious rebooting when it comes to shooting the fourth film next spring – lest we forget, Scary Movie's about to hit number five, God help us – but the good news is that Emperor Of Horror Wes Craven will very likely there to see the blood spillage is in safe hands.The franchise’s main screamer, Neve Campbell – who, after five years living in the UK, is so anglicised that she may well be the last person alive to own a Blockbuster card* – is getting ready to bring her best worried face out of the loft when shooting starts next spring, and told Black Book: “I’m pretty sure at this stage that Wes Craven is back on board to direct and Kevin Willamson is definitely writing it...so it is going to be great.”While Craven had previously said he »
Shrek Forever After Pics Online
9 hours ago
USA Today have the first images from the fourth, and apparently, final big screen Shrek movie, Shrek Forever After. To be honest, they're not all that scintillating (check them out here). Of greater interest though, are the newspaper's quotes from director Mike Mitchell on new plot points and characters.The basic story has not changed - Shrek (Mike Myers) has lost his moj- sorry, roar, and finds himself in the company of slippery deal-maker, Rumplestiltskin (Walt Dohrn - not, you'll note, Paul McCartney; don't believe everything you read on IMDb). The grumpy green one is conned into a deal where by finding out what would happened if he never existed, he finds himself in a skewed, It's A Wonderful Life-gone wrong parallel universe where Donkey (Eddie Murphy) pulls a cart, Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas) is fat and lazy, Rumplestiltskin is king, and, as promised - no-one knows who Shrek is. »
Carla Bruni For Next Woody Allen?
9 hours ago
Folks, what can we say - it's coming up on Turkey Day (that's Thanksgiving, for the uninitiated) over in the States, which we suspect is why news coming out of Hollywood is at less than a trickle. To fill the void in your film news-reading time, we offer the following update on a bizarre non-story from mid-2008, with the report from France that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy - yes, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's missus - has apparently taken Woody Allen up on his offer of a role in a future project.Now, that's not to You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, which the auteur director is currently in post-production on (the one with Anthony Hopkins, Frieda Pinto, Josh Brolin, Antonio Banderas and Naomi Watts), but most likely the one after. If we're adhering to Woody's one drama/one comedy routine, Bruni will be appearing in a funny one.It's not »
Season Of The Witch Trailer Online
24 November 2009 7:37 AM, PST
When Empire first heard about Dominic Sena’s Season Of The Witch, a horror actioner set in the Dark Ages, starring Nic Cage as a knight entrusted with transporting an evil witch to her execution, we immediately knew, in our loins and hearts, that it could very well be the greatest movie ever made. Come on – it’s Nic Cage versus Grotbags. How can this not be ridiculously entertaining?And after seeing the movie’s full trailer, which went online the other day (we know, we know...) we’re sticking to that opinion. Well, sort of. Ok, we’ll make a minor revision. Season Of The Witch will undoubtedly* be the best movie called Season Of The Witch released this year. But it still looks like it could be enormous fun. Let us count the ways:1. It’s got Nic Cage in it, sporting a fright wig that makes him look like Chad Kroeger. »
Exclusive: New Iron Man 2 Image
24 November 2009 6:23 AM, PST
Cue girlish screams of glee from anyone who hasn’t looked at our mag page recently: Tony Stark is back and fully Iron-Man’d up in the supe suit, and the coolest thing to happen to primary colours since Fisher Price is gracing our January cover in this brand new pic.While giant hunks of metal showing emotion is a mite challenging, he’s got his grim on and is literally electrifying. If you’re not as excited about Stark’s comeback as we are then you’re definitely getting coal in your stocking. And if you can tear your eyes away from all that red and yellow goodness, there’s our Iron Man 2 feature bringing you everything you need to know about the big man in the suit to whet your appetite before Christmas: full Iron Man 2 set report plus behind the scenes photos exclusive to Empire. »
Tommy Lee Jones Bails On Lawyer
24 November 2009 1:53 AM, PST
Sayonara Matthew McConaughey and hello law-based punning – Tommy Lee Jones has jumped ship from their planned co-star vehicle, The Lincoln Lawyer.Jones was due to direct and co-star alongside everyone's favourite naked jazz percussionist in the adaptation of Michael Connell’s 2005 novel, but has left the project over creative differences regarding the script. McConaughey was slated to play the lead, a criminal attorney in La who works out of the back of his car while being driven around by a previous client working off his fees – all a bit Driving Miss Daisy with added crims – and while we’d have loved to see Jones in the chauffeur role, he clearly had other ideas.Admittedly Jones is a busy man – he’s in post-production on telefilm The Sunset Limited for HBO, wrapped The Company Men with Ben Affleck and Kevin Costner and is prepping Ernest Hemingway adap Islands in the Stream »
Joss Whedon Honoured
24 November 2009 1:53 AM, PST
Any time Joss Whedon isn’t getting a prize is time wasted in our humble opinion, so a round of applause to the people at sounds-like-golf-but-isn’t PGA – that’s Producers Guild of America, acronym fanciers - for doing him the honours.The Dollhouse mastermind is to be honoured with the PGA’s Vanguard Award, an award for “achievements in new media and technology” (which presumably cocks a salute at the excellent Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog, and his comic work on Fray.)He’s in honourable company: previous awardees include George Lucas, James Cameron, John Lasseter and Tom from MySpace.David Friendly and Laurence Mark, co-chairs of the PGA Awards said: "Joss Whedon has mastered the art of melding the newest technology with inspired storytelling, truly exemplifying the spirit of the Vanguard Award.”Not going to argue with that. Hats off to the man, who’ll get to cradle his statuette »
Thwoar! Kat Dennings Joins Thor
24 November 2009 1:42 AM, PST
Blimey. If the cast of Marvel’s Thor continues to swell at its current rate, pretty soon there won’t be an actor on Earth who won’t have some sort of part in it. Even Joe Swash might get the call at some point.That’s because, hot on the heels of the news that the godlike Idris Elba has signed on to play the ungodlike Heimdall (because he’s, well, an actual god), Kat Dennings has also come on board, joining the already-cast Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Stuart Townsend, Jaimie Alexander, Jedward, Jermain Defoe and the cast of the West End production of Inherit The Wind.No word yet on who Dennings, the lovely and talented indie chick who lit up Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist with her deadpan charms (ok, we fancy her), will play in the Kenneth Branagh-directed epic, »
Judd Apatow Buys Comedy In Bulk
24 November 2009 1:30 AM, PST
Get used to hearing the names Aziz Ansari and Jason Woliner. Probably just like that - in tandem. Now, normally we wait for something a little more concrete to write a story about pitches, but they've just had three of theirs picked up by Judd Apatow, which gives at least one of them a very good chance of making it onto the big screen in the not-too-distant future.Of the three ideas the pair have come up with, only one has a title: Let's Do This; a road movie about two motivational speakers - or should we say, two guys who work for a motivational speaking company. The next pitch (untitled) follows Ansari's character from Funny People - so not a dissimilar spin-off idea to Get Him To The Greek being born from Forgetting Sarah Marshall - also Apatow productions. Oh, and just to complicate things a little further, Ansari »
Beastly Teaser Bounds Online
24 November 2009 12:14 AM, PST
So glazed over were we by New Moon’s midnight screenings on Friday that we completely missed the first teaser for Beastly, the teen reboot of Beauty and the Beast starring Alex Pettyfer and High School Musical’s uber-tween queen Vanessa Hudgens, but any Twihards needing need a new fix of man monsters can get an extra “Squeeeee!” by watching it here.And indeed, from the teaser at least it looks like Alex Pettyfer’s going to be jostling for pole position on the man/monster podium with the Twilight crowd. He plays an egotistical high school kid who’s hit by a curse by Mary-Kate Olsen's witch, but the emphasis on his transformation is on monster rather than fit and a bit naughty. Seed of Chucky’s Tony Gardner is on effects duty and, while we get the obligatory soulful looks into Pettyfer’s eyes, good hair etc, »
Brad Pitt Could Enter The Dark Void
24 November 2009 12:08 AM, PST
Turn your snigger-o-meter up to full, readers, for Brad Pitt is toying with entering the Dark Void.Sniggers out of the way? Good. Then we’ll begin. Dark Void is the latest videogame that Hollywood is threatening to turn into a movie, and Pitt – who we always figured had more taste – is developing the project, with an eye to potentially starring. Maybe. Possibly.To be fair, pretty much every project that passes through Pitt’s company, Plan B, is touted as a possible starring vehicle for the big boss, but it doesn’t always turn out that way. So file this one under ‘Watch This Space’ for now.So, what is Dark Void? Well, it’s a first-person shooter in which humans try to kill hordes of ravenous star groaties. How shockingly original.Of course, this one does have a twist. Ish. Pitt would, could, may, might star as Will, »
Hugh Jackman Likes Real Steel
23 November 2009 10:43 PM, PST
Exciting greenlight news overnight - particularly if you're Empire's Helen O'Hara - as phoenix-from-the-flames studio Dreamworks has announced that it'll be Australian all-singing/dancing/acting/snikting sensation Hugh Jackman who'll star in Real SteelThis is one of those projects which Steven Spielberg, wearing his producer's hat (virtually indistinguishable to the untrained eye from his director's hat), has been quietly developing for some time. Variety informs us that the plot follows a boxer who has little option but to turn promoter after the sport shifts to putting robots rather than humans in the ring. At around the same time as Jackson's character discovers he has an eleven year old son, he stumbles upon a run-down robot which proves remarkably adept at his favourite sport.Quite a lot of the production cogs for Real Steel seem to be firmly in place. The screenplay, adapted from a Richard Matheson short story (he who gave us the brilliant original, »
Enjoy An Up Short Online
23 November 2009 2:18 AM, PST
Feeling drab and dreary this morning? Well, sigh no more ladies and gentlemen: here's a roughly animated but totally delightful Pixar short for ya, called George & Aj and spinning off the two retirement home attendants left behind when Carl and his house take off.This is a short in the tradition of Jack-Jack Attack, Burn-e or Mike's New Car, playing as it does with characters already established in the film. It features the defiantly lo-fi animation of a Your Friend The Rat as well, so don't go expecting CGI slickness here. It was written and directed by Pixar's Josh Cooley. Up is out on DVD on Region 1 already, and in the UK not soon enough. »
New Avatar Quaritch Featurette
23 November 2009 1:34 AM, PST
Another day, another tiny taste of what we can expect from James Cameron's Avatar, with a featurette focusing on Stephen Lang and his character Colonel Miles Quaritch, the sinister head of the Marines based on Pandora to protect the human base there.Quaritch, as had already been hinted and is confirmed by this footage, is a bit of a badass, and is rather lacking when it comes to environmentalist credentials. Instead, he is firmly committed to his mission of stripmining Pandora for its precious mineral, unobtanium. Avatar is out on December 17 here in the UK. »
Joshua Jackson Captains UFO
23 November 2009 12:15 AM, PST
The Robert Evans-produced film adaptation UFO has been moving steadily closer and closer to release, with visual effects guru Matthew Gratzner hired to direct and now Joshua Jackson hired to head up the cast in the feature adaptation of the cult 1970s Gerry Anderson show.Jackson will play Paul Foster, a test pilot who joins Shado, the secret organisation based beneath a film studio and dedicated to fighting aliens. In the TV series, Foster became aware of the existence of both Shado and aliens after his jet was severely damaged in an air battle between the two, and started an investigation that threatened to reveal Shado's existence.The organisation's head, Ed Straker, considered having Foster killed, but was sufficiently impressed to recruit him instead. It kinda seems to us like that particular storyline would make a very good introduction to Shado's world for cinemagoers, so we wouldn't be surprised »
The Howling Do-Over Coming Soon
22 November 2009 11:45 PM, PST
You may well remember Joe Dante's werewolf movie The Howling, wherein Dee Wallace-Stone (the mum in E.T.!) played a woman being stalked by a terrifying killer who turns out to secretly be a werewolf. You probably don't remember its six sequels, but that's Ok because it's being rebooted with The Howling: Reborn, due out next Halloween.Joe Nimziki has written and will direct this new wolf story, making his directorial debut after a career as a marketing executive at studios including Sony and New Line. There's no word on the plot yet, but we're going to go out on a limb and guess that it involves people growing fur and fangs when the moon is full.Werewolves are, of course, so hot right now, and with another Twilight movie and The Wolf Man also due out this year, this is an idea whose time has arguably come. That, »
Chris Weitz Will Direct The Gardener
22 November 2009 11:27 PM, PST
Chris Weitz, riding high on the mammoth success of New Moon, certainly can't be accused of resting on his laurels. No sooner had the printer ink dried on his record-breaking box-office take for the Twilight sequel than he was sat straight back down again in the deal-making chair at the films' studio, Summit Entertainment, where he was signing on the dotted line for his next project, The Gardener. And sorry to disappoint you Twi-hards, but there's nary a mopey supernatural teen in sight. This will mark a considerable change of pace from Weitz's last two films (before New Moon, he was put through the ringer on visual effects Oscar-winning The Golden Compass), involving as it does... well, a gardener. A Mexican gardener, to be specific, who according to Variety, lives in Los Angeles and takes measures to protect his son. At this point we don't even know if this is a thriller, »
1-20 of 22 articles « Prev | Next »
