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12 articles
Liam Neeson + $20 Million = 'Taken 3'
3 hours ago
In 2009, Taken was a surprise hit, bringing in almost $227 million worldwide on a budget of a mere $25 million. In 2012, the vastly inferior Taken 2 brought in $376 million worldwide on a $45 million budget. Following the release of the second film, star Liam Neeson was asked about the prospects of a third in the franchise and he said, "I can't see a possible scenario where audiences wouldn't go, 'Oh, come on...! She's taken againc'" It seems that scenario only needed another $5 million added to it. Word was Neeson was paid in the area of $15 million for Taken 2 and now Deadline.com reports he's close to closing a deal that would bring him in the vicinity of $20 million for Taken 3 making for one more go 'round as retired CIA agent Bryan Mills and I can pretty much guarantee you the sons of 2's villain, Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija), will be tracking Mills »
- Brad Brevet
Each Cut Was Like a Stab With a Knife
8 hours ago
Vimeo user Brian Carroll uploaded this piece he edited together using interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and Janet Leigh discussing the shower scene in Psycho and it's a fantastic look at an iconic "slice" of cinematic history I believe you are sure to enjoy. Here's Brian's description of the video: "It became what we thought we saw, not what we saw." Janet Leigh. I have always been fascinated with Hitchcock's shower scene in Psycho. I remember the first time I digitized it years ago and went through frame by frame to deconstruct how exactly it was put together. Psycho was edited by the great George Tomasini, a longtime collaborator of Alfred Hitchcock's. Out of all of Hitchcock's films, this scene is the most scrutinized due to it's nature of a young woman being viciously stabbed to death while in a very vulnerable position. In the year 1960, this was truly a groundbreaking moment in film. »
- Brad Brevet
RopeofSilicon Box Office Challenge Officially Underway
9 hours ago
I was surprised how much more interested I was in the box office results this weekend now that we have more reason to evaluate the numbers than merely speculating over the likelihood of a sequel to lackluster franchise starters (or non-starters depending on your perspective) and the drop in week two box office. This weekend we started the RopeofSilicon Box Office Challenge and the final numbers for the weekend have arrived and the leaderboard has been updated. This weekend readers were asked to predict the opening weekend results for Monsters University and World War Z, the second weekend for Man of Steel and the second weekend for Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, which expanded to 650 theaters. And after the first weekend of predictions we have a leaderboard of 17 names. Here's the top five with ties included: Rick (8 points) Driver (5 points) GregDinskisk (5 points) Jack Tyler (5 points) Austin Rains (4 points) Bustray »
- Brad Brevet
Naomi Watts and Robin Wright Hook Up With Each Other's Sons in 'Adore' Trailer
10 hours ago
Adore was titled Two Mothers when it premiered at Sundance earlier this year and I can't say it seemed as if those that saw it were enamored with it. Ultimately it landed in the hands of Exclusive Media, which will release it on September 6, but after watching this first trailer for the film I can't say I feel the need to rush out and see it. Naomi Watts and Robin Wright deliver riveting performances in Adore, a sensual and provocative drama about two lifelong friends who find unexpected happiness in relationships that cross the bounds of convention. An unpredictable tale of misguided love and a heartfelt celebration of the enduring nature of female friendship, Adore is the English-speaking directorial debut of Anne Fontaine. Set in an Australian seaside town, Adore establishes an aura of fable as it follows two women's plunge into uncharted waters. Watts and Wright fearlessly engage with »
- Brad Brevet
Ben Wheatley's 'A Field in England' Sounds Intriguing
10 hours ago
I haven't yet seen anything from Ben Wheatley. Not Kill List or Sightseers. I've heard mixed, but passionate, responses to both, which tells me one of these days I need to make sure and see them. In the meantime, he's already got another film on the way in the form of a English Civil War paranoid thriller called A Field in England. Here's the story: England during the English Civil War. A small group of deserters flee from a raging battle through an overgrown field. They are captured by two men: O'Neil and Cutler. O'Neil (Michael Smiley), an alchemist, forces the group to aid him in his search to find a hidden treasure that he believes is buried in the field. Crossing a vast mushroom circle, which provides their first meal, the group quickly descend into a chaos of arguments, fighting and paranoia, and, as it becomes clear that the »
- Brad Brevet
2014 Oscar Predictions: Best Director, Actor and Supporting Actor Update
12 hours ago
It's about time to start getting a little more serious about these 2014 Oscar predictions and updating a little more frequently as I've just updated my Best Director predictions for the first time since premiering them earlier this year along with updates in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories. I need to take a look at the screenplay contenders and even start working in some thoughts in the craft categories sooner rather than later as well. That said, let's take a look at the two actor categories where the main reason for today's update was a category switch-a-roo between the Nebraska boys Bruce Dern and Will Forte. It seems Dern will most likely be campaigning in the Supporting category with Forte campaigning as lead. Having seen the film (my review here) I guess you can say Dern is supporting, but I don't think that necessarily makes Forte the lead, »
- Brad Brevet
'Repo Man' in Black and White
14 hours ago
Over the weekend I watched Alex Cox's Repo Man for the first time and before even seeing it I knew it employed the glowing MacGuffin a la the nuclear briefcase in Kiss Me Deadly (1955), which was later used by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction. However, like Kiss Me Deadly, Repo Man uses such items as symbolism rather than the simple homage Tarantino uses it for. Cox plays a similar homage to Kiss Me Deadly as he scrolls the closing credits from top to bottom rather than bottom to top and while I wasn't watching the brand new Criterion release of the film, the previously released version from Universal Home Entertainment includes a nearly 30-minute featurette in which Cox and producers Peter McCarthy and Jonathan Wacks contemplate the idea of whether or not the film could be made today. Cox responds by saying you couldn't make a film as political »
- Brad Brevet
Jim Carrey Can't Support the Violence in 'Kick-Ass 2' and Mark Millar is Baffled
15 hours ago
Jim Carrey got all tweet happy on Sunday and tweeted out some thoughts to the effect of: "I did Kick-Ass 2 a month before Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence. My apologies to others involved with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart." Carrey stars in the ultra-violent comic book sequel as the vigilante known as Colonel Stars and Stripes who apparently takes on the film's bad guys with a baseball bat and points a gun at some character as evidenced in the pic above. The film is based on the comic by Mark Millar who also serves as executive producer. Millar took to his blog to tap out a response, which went a little something like this: "I'm baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn't »
- Brad Brevet
An International Teaser for Hayao Miyazaki's 'The Wind Rises'
15 hours ago
The first official footage from Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated feature, The Wind Rises has arrived and while there aren't any subtitles you can still marvel at the animation as the sun rises over a green field and the film's central character takes to the sky. Based on Miyazaki's own manga and the 1937 short novel of the same name by Tatsuo Hori, The Wind Rises is the story of Jirc Horikoshi, the aircraft engineer most remembered for his design work on the Mitsubishi A6M Reisen "Zero", Japan's famous World War II fighter aircraft. During the WWII years, the Miyazaki family business manufactured aircraft parts, including the windshields and rudders used on the Zero. Watch the teaser trailer below. The film arrives in Japan on July 20, but there are currently no details on a Us release. »
- Brad Brevet
Obviously... Talk of a 'World War Zequel' Bubbles Back Up
16 hours ago
To absolutely no one's surprise, there is new talk of sequels to this weekend's big opener World War Z. The film was originally conceived as a franchise starter, but the hope of a trilogy seemed lost once the production ran into trouble and the cost ballooned to nearly $200 million. With an estimated $111.8 million worldwide this last weekend Paramount is putting the bug in audience members' ear that Hey, you better go see this first one, because we might make another one. The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter where most of the talk revolves around the support the film received from Brad Pitt, who not only starred in the film, but produced it through his Plan B productions. I'm not sure why everyone seems to be so thankful the actor/producer would so heavily support a project his company spent millions to produce, but I guess that's... laudablec Interestingly enough, »
- Brad Brevet
Blu-ray Deal: Coen Brothers Collection on Sale for Cheap!
23 June 2013 6:27 PM, PDT
Amazon's Deal of the Week is the Coen Brothers Four Film Blu-ray Collection which includes Blood Simple, Fargo, Miller's Crossing and Raising Arizona for only $19.99, $40.50 off the list price. The collection offers a well-rounded look at the Coens' career including what is one of their most beloved films in Fargo, their first film in Blood Simple, the Nic Cage kidnapping comedy Raising Arizona and one of my favorite Coen films, Miller's Crossing. The deal is available through June 29, so click here to pick yourself up a copy. Four Coen brothers' movies for $4.99 eachc Hard to beat that. Oh, and you can buy a bunch of James Bond books all on sale for $1.99 if you're interested. »
- Brad Brevet
Trailer and Clips from Terry Gilliam's 'The Zero Theorum'
23 June 2013 6:07 PM, PDT
A lot of Oscar prognosticators and fans have contemplated the idea of director Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorum having a shot at this year's Oscars, but given Gilliam's recent history I'm hesitant to add it to the ranks. It's not as if The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Tideland or The Brothers Grimm were burning up the Oscar charts during their given years of release. There is early talk, however, that Zero Theorum may appear at the Venice Film Festival and if that's the case I wouldn't put it past Voltage also bringing it to Toronto as it is still without a domestic distributor and with names such as Christoph Waltz, David Thewlis, Melanie Thierry, Matt Damon, Ben Whishaw, Peter Stormare and Tilda Swinton attached to the project it isn't as if it won't draw a fair amount of attention. The story centers on Qohen Leth (Waltz), an eccentric and »
- Brad Brevet
12 articles
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