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More images flooding out from The Incredible Hulk, starring Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt and Tim Roth.
Watch the trailer for The Incredible Hulk.
Tim Roth and Louis Leterrier talk Hulk.
Hear from the producer and director of The Incredible Hulk.
Compare and contrast with Ang Lee's Hulk.
Watch full episodes of the classic TV series The Incredible Hulk.
Best Supporting Actor winner Javier Bardem has withdrawn from the production of the musical Nine, in which he would have starred opposite Best Actress winner Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz and the legendary Sophia Loren. Apparently, the great deal of work he's done lately, coupled with award season, has left him exhausted and he's taking a year off rather than playing a film director juggling all the women in his life in a musical adaptation of Fellini's 8 1/2.
Normally, one might say "oh, come on, working at the Fashion Bug exhausts me every day, but I can't take a year off." Bardem, however, is an actor who tends to live as his characters for as long as he's playing them. Living as someone like Anton Chigurh for months would be troubling for anyone, not to mention playing Florentino in Love in the Time of Cholera from ages 24 to 74. As his co-star in Cholera, Giovanna Mezzogiorno said about Bardem: "I can't take that weight for four months. Seeing Javier work - he's a very, very, very method actor, and he never goes out from that. That's very painful and I think it's really hard. Javier may be the only actor I've ever met in my life who gives literally everything to the movie. During the movie, everything he does, everything he says, everything he lives is for the movie. He never cuts from the movie. He's very absorbed by the movie and nothing else matters, and that's very strong to see. That's hard."
Also, "award season" is not just the month between Oscar announcements and Oscar handouts. It starts many months beforehand, and is an interminably long period of self-congratulation, self-aggrandizement and self-promotion that has to take its toll on any soul. Just look at what's happened to Joan Rivers.
Or maybe he's just worn out from reportedly having a threesome with Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz and having it filmed for Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. That'd make any straight man need a year off.
Watch Fever Pitch in its entirety, right here, right now on Fancast.
Jimmy Fallon was once the next big thing. He was the dreamiest of all Saturday Night Live cast members at the time, even if his early guitar-work was trying too hard to be Adam Sandler and he could never, ever complete a sketch without giggling. Unless, of course, he was wearing a beard and hosting the Barry Gibb Talk Show. Then he was comedy gold.
He's been out of the public eye for a while, but he's recently made news as the sure-fire contender to replace Conan O'Brien on NBC's Late Night when Conan moves up a time slot to replace Jay Leno on The Tonight Show (which will create a painful choice between comic geniuses O'Brien and David Letterman while Fallon takes on Craig Ferguson). So what better way to commemorate both this and the fresh pine-tar scent of the beginning of baseball season than with a look at Fever Pitch, the 2005 comedy he made with the Farrelly Brothers about a guy torn between his love of the Boston Red Sox and the love of Drew Barrymore.
This was made, of course, at the tail end of the 86-year Curse of the Bambino, when Sox were as hopeless a prospect for winning the World Series as the Chicago Cubs continue to be. The filming coincided with the Sox suddenly making it to the big dance, and the finale was shot on the actual field after they won Game 4 of the ALCS, then the Farrellys had to rewrite in a rush to incorporate the improbable world championship they never could have guessed. So now Chris Kattan and Heather Graham have to make a movie about the Cubs and see how that works. Then maybe Horatio Sanz and Kate Hudson can do the same for the Cleveland Indians.
So check out Fever Pitch for free right now, and remember the good old days of cheering for a hopeless underdog, and wonder why it's so much less exciting once they actually win the big one.
SNL Clips with Jimmy Fallon or Drew Barrymore:
Celebrity Jeopardy, where Fallon is playing Sandler.
The Barry Gibb Talk Show, with Justin Timberlake.
Jarret's Room
Morning Radio Z-105!
The Real Corona Ad
Drew Barrymore's Body Fuzion
J.J. Abrams is reinventing Star Trek for, well, the next generation. The Huffington Post gives us some insight into his take on the project. Here's what the man said about his goals and how to handle the Trekker contingent.
It was an opportunity to take what I think has been a maligned world - to sound crass, a franchise - and treat it in a way that made it something that I wanted to see. To take the characters, the thoughtfulness, the personalities, the sense of adventure, the idea of humanity working together, the sense of social commentary and innovation, all that stuff. To take it and apply it in a way that felt genuinely thrilling.
The whole point was to try to make this movie for fans of movies, not fans of `Star Trek,' necessarily. If you're a fan, we've got one of the writers who's a devout Trekker, so we were able to make sure we were serving the people who are completely enamored with `Star Trek.' But we are not making the movie for that contingent alone. You can't really make a movie for them. As soon as you start to guess what you think they are going to want to see, you're in trouble. You have to make the movie in many ways for what you want to see yourself, make a movie you believe in. Then you're not second-guessing an audience you don't really have an understanding of.
"It's a chance to see what Kirk and Spock would look like done now. What's thrilling about it is how great the cast is, how remarkably talented and funny and just spot-on they all are."
I feel like this is so unlike what you expect, so unlike the `Star Trek' you've seen. At the same time, it's being true to what's come before, honoring it. I can say the effects for `Star Trek' have never, ever been done like this. I can only tell you the idea of the universe of `Star Trek' has never been given this kind of treatment
Watch the teaser for Abrams' Star Trek.
Watch full episodes of the original Star Trek series.
Watch the trailer for Captain Kirk's first silver screen voyage, Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Watch and learn why Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is considered the best Trek movie.
Check out Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Watch a spot for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Watch a bit from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
Check out the last adventure of the original crew in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
See a bit from Star Trek: Generations.
Watch the trailer for Star Trek: First Contact.
Watch the full trailer for Star Trek: Insurrection.
Watch a trailer for Star Trek: Nemesis.
In the world of behind-the-scenes hullabaloo, Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones is purported to have hit a snafu big enough to halt the production for a while, as Jackson is apparently arguing with his art director about how to properly depict heaven, a major location in the story. This is after Ryan Gosling left the project a few days before filming and had to be replaced with Marky Mark. Then there's a recent quote from Susan Sarandon that could be interpreted a number of ways.
"I play the comic relief, an alcoholic grandmother – my first grandma – but she doesn’t really seem like a real grandmother because she has a lot of hair and jewelery and nails and liquor. I don’t think I ever talk without a cigarette and a drink in my hand."
"Peter Jackson is really a nice guy and very interesting. It was really a very different way of working. We had a good time, I’m really curious to see what it’s like because he kept pushing me to be more and more extreme and sometimes that’s when you make your big mistakes so I’m not sure how it will come off - it will be interesting to see it from the point of view of the audience."
It's likely more self-deprecation than anything else, but scandalous types are suggesting it's a subtle jab. We'll likely hear more soon, as the crew is on break settling creative differences.
Go behind the scenes of Peter Jackson's King Kong.
Watch Susan Sarandon talk about Speed Racer.
Watch Mark Wahlberg furrow his brow in the trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening.
By Gary Goldstein
Fancast.com
[Watch Girl Next Door right now]
The Girl Next Door, a kind of Risky Business for the 2000s, stars Emile Hirsch as Matthew Kidman, an over-achieving, sheltered high school senior who falls for his gorgeous new next door neighbor Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert), unaware she’s an ex-porn actress. Though the film didn’t hit the heights of the sexy 1983 comedy that made Tom Cruise a top gun, it had its own share of stylish, coming-of-age pleasures. As a prelude to watching the full movie on Fancast, Gary Goldstein recently talked teens, proms, and porn with the film’s original writers, David T. Wagner and Brent Goldberg.
Gary Goldstein: Okay, ‘fess up: as teenagers, who was your fantasy “girl next door?”
David Wagner: I’d have to go with Phoebe Cates from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Who can forget that classic pool scene?
Brent Goldberg: The movie that got me through puberty was “Sixteen Candles.” And, although I felt Molly Ringwald was perhaps attainable--at least in my mind--it was the prom queen in that movie who really did it for me.
GG: What was the moment of inspiration for the script?
DW: The germ of it came from some real kid who took a porn star to his prom. From what we know, it was a much more sordid relationship than the one we wrote, but it made for an interesting jumping off point.
GG: How did you develop it all into a full movie?
DW: It's a wish fulfillment movie where the good-natured smart kid gets the hot girl. We also were interested in exploring the dichotomy of the two lead characters--a boy with a future meets a girl with a “past.”
BG: Insert some conflict and great set pieces and voila, you have a full movie.
GG: I’m going to ask you something I’ll bet no one has ever asked about “The Girl Next Door”: how much was it influenced by “Risky Business?” (yes, that first part was a joke).
DW: What's "Risky Business?" Is that a movie?
BG: Never heard of it. Oh, wait--is that the movie with that Scientology guy...John Travolta, right?
DW: Actually, our original draft leaned a lot more toward "Pretty Woman" meets "American Pie."
BG: I remember in one of our development meetings, a high-ranking executive said, "When writing the set pieces, think: fucking the pie.” That’s been my mantra ever since--and it’s never steered me wrong.
GG: Seriously, were you ever concerned it would be too heavily compared to “Risky Business,” which is, after all, a teen classic?
DW: “Risky Business” came out in 1983 so we felt our audience might not remember it too well, even though we knew we might get compared to it. Tonally, though, “Girl Next Door” went a lot more in the direction of “Risky Business” subsequent to our drafts.
BG: I wasn't really concerned about the comparisons until I saw a TV review that showed side-by-side scenes from both movies. I was like, “Yeah, I guess there is a slight resemblance.” In the end, though, all you can do is write the best script you can.
Paramount sent us this fun little music mix using clips from the Iron Man movie. It's cute. I think you'll like it.
Watch the trailer for Iron Man.
Check out The Onion's take on how awesome that trailer looks.
Watch a clip of Tony Stark being interviewed by a reporter.
Watch Stark and his assistant Pepper Potts' debate when exactly her birthday is.
Watch Stark debate Obadiah Stane about the future of Stark Enterprises.
Watch a clip of Tony Stark taking the Iron Man armor on its maiden flight.
Watch Iron Man deal with a pair of fighter jets.
Sam Mendes still hasn't titled his John Krasinski/Maya Rudolph wandering-couple comedy, but he's already had to swap out Toni Collette for Maggie Gyllenhaal in the role of a bohemian college professor, thanks to delays in the shooting schedule. It's a Dave Eggers/Vendela Vida script, though, so by all rights it should be worth the wait.
Watch the trailer for In Her Shoes, starring Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz.
Watch Maggie Gyllenhaal in the trailer for Sherrybaby.
Iron Man: It's unbelievably rare that a comic-book movie has absolutely no bad buzz leading up to its release. Seemingly no one has said 'boo' about this film, save for some people inexplicably pontificating that somehow Robert Downey Jr. as charismatic hero Tony Stark was somehow a risky casting choice. But director Jon Favreau obviously knew the score and learned lessons from Batman Begins - be a movie first, and a comic book second - and to be a movie, you need great actors and a great script... or at least great actors who can help punch up the script into a good one.
Favreau has outdone himself, creating quite possibly the best superhero movie ever made, and easily the most fun. Downey brings his trademark easy charm and fast-flowing improvisational sensibility to the role as a weapons manufacturer who learns a harsh lesson about the reality of global warfare in the modern era at the cost of the proper functioning of his body. This brings about a radical shift in his personal philosophy, which his business partner Obadiah Stane (a bald Jeff Bridges) certainly isn't prepared for, and his faithful assistant Pepper Potts (a quietly charming Gwyneth Paltrow) believes will take him down a dangerous path - which, of course, it does. That's how it goes with superheroes.
But this is no accident of birth or accident of science that brings Iron Man to bear, nor is it a billionaire spending his time punching street thugs in a dimly-lit city. Iron Man's world is international terrorism and corporate corruption, an entirely different setting that serves to revitalize the genre and really show off the new directions that can be taken and need to be taken to keep things fresh and interesting. The burdens of an origin story are deftly handled, since even when things threaten to slow down to much, you've still got Downey shouldering the load, and he could make ten minutes of complete silence compelling.
The effects are beautifully rendered, and the technology is deeply detailed and nuanced, and there's scarcely a moment where we don't believe a guy could really build an awesome exo-suit like this and just go around kicking all sorts of global jerk asses. It's just a damn good time for nerds and non-nerds - although nerds would be advised to stay until the end of the credits. You are hereby promised a nerdgasm.
Just look at all this Iron Man stuff we have on Fancast:
Watch the trailer for Iron Man.
Check out The Onion's take on how awesome that trailer looks.
The Fabulous Life of Tony Stark
Watch a clip of Tony Stark being interviewed by a reporter.
Watch Stark and his assistant Pepper Potts' debate when exactly her birthday is.
Watch Stark debate Obadiah Stane about the future of Stark Enterprises.
Watch a clip of Tony Stark taking the Iron Man armor on its maiden flight.
Pepper finds Tony testing out flight stabilizers.
Watch Iron Man deal with a pair of fighter jets.
Downey and Paltrow "Pump Iron"
Watch an interview with Gwyneth Paltrow
Interview with Robert Downey Jr.
Interview with Jon Favreau
Made of Honor: In a counter-programming effort, Downey's lovely and talented co-star from he brilliant Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Michelle Monaghan, stars as a bride-to-be who, in a fit of progressive thinking, asks Patrick Dempsey to be her maid of honor, not knowing that he's secretly in love with her. So he agrees on the advice of Dwayne Wayne, so he can try to stop the wedding from the inside.
Watch the Made of Honor trailer.
McDreamy talks about his role.
Then he talks a bit more.
Watch Michelle Monaghan in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
In Limited Release:
Redbelt: Chiwetel Ejiofor is David Mamet's samurai Rocky, struggling to maintain honor in a world that conspires to take it from him. The full review is here.
Watch the trailer for Redbelt, a Mamet martial arts movie.
Son of Rambow: A great little story about Will, a sheltered kid from an overly religious family in early 1980s England, who gets mixed up with the school's bratty malcontent Lee and manages to see his pirated copy of First Blood. He then proceeds to become obsessed with the idea of being the Rambo's son, enough that it inspires the two unlikely friends to make their own entry into the burgeoning Rambo franchise. This leads to your standard True Hollywood Story about a young idealistic star who leaves his friends behind for shallow jerks once he makes the big time - at least as big-time as English schoolyards can get.
It's really a surprisngly touching and earnest celebration of how much kids loved those kind of crazy action movies and how much it inspired the imagination. Sylvester Stallone himself approves: "I assumed it was going to be a very broad and stylized joke-a-minute comedy at Rambo's expense. The fact that it was so heartwarming is the result of brilliant filmmaking by its creators,"
Watch the Son of Rambow trailer.
Watch the trailer for First Blood, the original John Rambo film.
Mister Lonely: A strange little story from Harmony Korine about a commune full of unlikely celebrity impersonators - Diego Luna as Michael Jackson and Samantha Morton as Marilyn Monroe, along with Charlie Chaplin, Queen Elizabeth, the Pope, the Three Stooges and a foul-mouthed Abe Lincoln. They live an idyllic life free of judgment and condescension, until they decide to put on their own show in pursuit of recognition. Celebrity = doom.
Watch the Mister Lonely trailer.
Watch Michael Jackson entertain at a retirement home.
Watch Marilyn Monroe chat up Michael Jackson.
Watch Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe take a walk together.
Romantic tension with Marilyn and Michael.
Joel and Ethan Coen are following up their Best Picture win for No Country for Old Men with Burn After Reading, a dark comedy about idiots with secrets that only they could pull off. New photos have surfaced from the film about a pair of gym employees (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand) who find themselves with a disk full of government secrets stolen from former CIA man Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) by his soon-to-be-ex-wife Tilda Swinton, and current CIA man Harry (George Clooney) has to put things in order. See what the Coens themselves had to say about the movie here.
Gifted writer, quirky stand-up comic and occasional Daily Show correspondent Demetri Martin is in talks to take the lead role in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, based on Elliot Tiber's memoir. Martin would play a closeted gay Catskills hotel worker who inadvertently gets the ball rolling for the giant 1969 free love concert insanity that was the original Woodstock.
Watch October Sky for free in its entirely right here, right now on Fancast.
Based on the autobiography of NASA engineer Homer H. Hickam Jr., October Sky stars a young Jake Gyllenhaal as a young man growing up in West Virginia who becomes absolutely fascinated with astronomy when the Soviet Union launches the Sputnik satellite in 1957. This newfound obsession leads him to devour all the knowledge he can about jet and rocket design so he can start to build them himself, much to the consternation of his friends and the disapproval of his coal miner father (Academy Award winner Chris Cooper). But with support from a great teacher (Academy Award nominee Laura Dern) and his fellow enthusiasts in the new Rocket Boys club, Homer may just be able to launch himself toward his dreams..
In honor of scientific geniuses achieving great achievements in aeronautics (such as Iron Man, opening this weekend), watch October Sky, an inspiring story about how far a strong sense of wonder can carry you.
Iron Man topped $100 million at the box office, making it the fourth best May opening on record, although a little behind the numbers for Spider-Man 3. It's the second highest opening weekend for a non-sequel in history, behind the first Spider-Man, and attendance numbers were higher than X2: X-Men United. It's also got an amazingly positive critical consensus as well, rating a fantastic 94% on the Rotten Tomatometer.
1. Iron Man - $100.7m
2. Made of Honor - $15.5m
3. Baby Mama - $10.3m
4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - $6.1m
5. Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay - $6m
6. The Forbidden Kingdom - $4.2m
7. Nim's Island - $2.7m
8. Prom Night- $2.5m
9. 21 - $2.1m
10. 88 Minutes - $1.6m
McG's Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins will be shooting for a PG-13 rating, breaking tradition with the first three R-rated film, apparently thinking what worked for Live Free or Die Hard will work for them. McG is no John McClane, though.
"The ratings have changed," said Halcyon co-founder and co-CEO Victor Kubicek, a broker-turned-writer-producer. "The PG-13 has increased in intensity."
And of course, won't somebody think of the children? Specifically for the toys for the children.
"Our merchandising program will be the largest to date for 'The Terminator,' " said Halcyon co-founder and co-CEO Derek Anderson, ex-owner of ad agency In the Mix, who adds that he had not discussed the possibility of an R-rating with Warners. "We won't force it. We are carrying on in the tradition of the mythology, with an exciting approach to the action. If we can make a compelling film to reach the widest audience, why wouldn't we do it?"
Let's see now. It's being written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris the same guys who wrote the not-beloved Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, albeit with a polish from Casino Royale's Paul Haggis. Still not the most auspicious roots, and then adding Charlie's Angels' McG as the director of a "lighter" film about a brutal futuristic human war against robots determined to exterminate them, it's possible Christian Bale and Sam Worthington might not be able to save it, even if they do finally cast Josh Brolin as a Terminator.
It may all come down to how much damage Terminator 3 did to the faithful fanbase. The upside is that it looks like the franchise has finally outgrown Arnold Schwarzenegger, which it really needed to do in order to get back to where it needs to be. And it is pretty likely that lots of teenagers will go see a movie about an army of robots with guns attacking people, if angry fans don't torpedo all anticipation with loud bad buzz first. It'll be interesting to watch play out, if nothing else.
And it really needs a better name. Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins is about as bad as 4 Terminator 4 Salvation, or Terminator 4: Electric Bangalore.
You did stay until after the credits of Iron Man, didn't you? If you didn't, you should probably drop whatever you're doing and go see the film again right now, because that's what we'll be discussing here.
For those of you familiar with "The Avenger Initiative," that's not just a line from Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury: Director of SHIELD - it's actually Marvel's business plan. Marvel's huge year this year - with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk in June and Punisher: War Zone in December - means they'll be taking 2009 off (save for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, natch) only to come back strong in 2010 with Iron Man 2 slated for April 30 and a new movie based on their interpretation of the Norse God of Thunder, Thor, set for June 4.
This will be followed up with a movie they're calling The First Avenger: Captain America, due out on May 6, 2011 (and, if there's any justice, it will be set entirely during World War II), to be followed by a full-on Avengers movie in July of 2011. The Avengers, of course, being Marvel Comics' premiere superhero team - their version of the Justice League. The "Big Three" Avengers are Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, and considering Robert Downey Jr.'s cameo as Tony Stark in the upcoming Incredible Hulk, it must be noted that the Hulk was one of the founding members of the team (although he left in short order, because he's kind of a surly misanthrope, y'see). Most everyone else around them is somewhat interchangeable - although the door is open for an eventual X-Men crossover, as two of Magneto's children are longstanding Avengers themselves.
A Thor movie might be a difficult thing to pull off, really - along the lines of the troubles in translating Wonder Woman's strange origins to a movie screen (she was built out of magic clay on an island full of Ancient Greek Amazon women. Yeah, you try making that work). A big, burly, mead-swilling, magic-hammer-wielding Nordic god inexplicably speaking in Shakesperean English could be difficult to cast without resorting to a pro wrestler like HHH. Then again, an unsuspecting guy happening across a magical artifact that will transform him into a powerful hero is not unheard of. And it must be done, if for no other reason than to please Sara Anderson of Adventures in Babysitting.
The big upside to all this is that Jon Favreau has stated openly that he wants to direct that Avengers movie, and considering the unbelievable job he did with Iron Man, the fans should want no one else at the helm.
It's a glorious time to be a nerd.
Collider's got a potential scoop: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy director Adam McKay says he's dying to do Anchorman 2: Anchormanner (or some such amusing sequel name) with Will Ferrell.
"I'm looking to do another movie, I might do this other movie called Channel 3 Billion which is kind of this science fiction/Brazil type comedy. Then after that, Will and I are like let's do Anchorman 2…so you're talking like 2 years maybe we'll do it. But we're going to do it, for sure."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're dying to do it. Unless we can't get the cast together, which is always kind of a tricky thing. But, I think, with that cast we're all friends, so yeah, we want to do it."
Anchorman has earned its rightful place among the best comedies of all time, the kind of movie that you can't flip away from if you come across it while channel-surfing - you must watch it all, and it never stops being hilarious. It's possible they could go to this well too many times, but is it even conceivable that these two men as these two characters could somehow NOT make us laugh like hysterical caffeinated monkeys?
Watch Ron Burgundy give his views on:
Charity Work
Tailoring
Elections
Accuracy
Advice to Aspiring Journalists
His Colleagues
Let's take a moment, in the aftermath of the first round of summer movie explosions, to take a look at what may be one of the quieter hits of the summer, Disney/Pixar's Wall-E.
It's Pixar, so you know it's going to be good. It's Disney, so you know kids will love it. And it's an unbelievably cute little robot alone on the remains of planet Earth, still diligently doing his job and cavorting around in a junkpile, yet feeling the soft, sad sting of loneliness, so you know it's going to make your eyes misty.
The film looks beautiful in everything we've seen so far, and if you haven't seen everything we've seen, well, watch it all here and let it tug at your heartstrings.
Wall-E Trailers:
The stars of Toy Story intorduce Wall-E
Teaser
Teaser 2
International Trailer
Wall-E Clips:
Wall-E Discovers a Magnet
Super Bowl Spot
New York Magazine has a massive piece up about Sarah Jessica Parker and how she became synonymous with New York City, where she talks about everything from just how great it is to be married to Matthew Broderick (even though he blames Parker every time he sees an exposed thong over low-slung jeans) to her serious qualms about turning herself into a brand. An interesting nugget revealed is that the original script ideas had the ladies going on separate road trip adventures, rather than schlepping around Manhattan as per usual.
Parker and her collaborator, writer-director Michael Patrick