We’re just over a week away from one of the year’s most anticipated movies, Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel.” With Marvel Studios drawing the map for successful superhero franchises as of late, DC Comics is looking to catch up, and in the wake of Christopher Nolan’s self-contained Batman trilogy, the way into developing that world on film — after the stumble of “Green Lantern” — is surely the Boy in Blue. But what of the Superman mythos has been tapped for this new vision?

Screenwriter David S. Goyer and others involved in the project have made it clear that “Man of Steel” is not drawn directly from any one storyline over the character’s towering 75-year history. That doesn’t mean, however, that a number of arcs haven’t informed and inspired the narrative along the way. Last year we charted the various stories that played a hand in shaping Goyer and Nolan’s vision of The Dark Knight, from Frank Miller’s “Year One” to Jeph Loeb’s “The Long Halloween” to the epic “Knightfall.” So, too, have a number of Superman stories found their way into “Man of Steel.”

The key to re-imagining material such as this is compositing and finding the right essences that have worked on the page, but also finding ways to make them your own, molding them to the overall new take on the world. The DC way on film appears to be finding a realistic rhythm (while of course not sacrificing too many of the fantastical elements of the material).

It’s an interesting spot to be in because, unlike Marvel, which has a long history of grounding its superheroes in a sort of hyper-reality, the DC universe doesn’t really come with such a built-in governor. So an overcompensation is called for. It worked for Batman. Will it work for Superman?

From here, DC certainly hopes to spin its universe on film into a larger canvas. The hope is we’ll get more Superman and eventually Batman (whether of Nolan’s universe or not) will join the picture. The road will later be paved for a Justice League movie where Green Lantern, the Flash, Wonder Woman and more can take off on their own trajectories. But first thing’s first: “Man of Steel” has to make its mark.

The gallery story below details 10 story arcs that have inspired this exciting new beginning for Warner Bros. and DC Comics. It’s mostly from a post-Crisis standpoint, so not much from the early days is included. That’s not to say things like Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” or even the early Curt Swan imaginings didn’t play a hand in things, however. Indeed, Goyer has said they absolutely did.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of superb stories to dig into that have deepened the Superman story over the years but aren’t mentioned below, from “The Death and Return of Superman” to “Superman for All Seasons,” “What”s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?” to “For the Man Who Has Everything.”

But these are the ones that would make a great primer before seeing the new film. So click through the gallery to learn more.

“Man of Steel” opens everywhere on June 14.

Cannes is still fresh enough in my mind that the idea of diving into another film festival right now is ever-so-slightly panic-inducing, but I’ve got over three weeks to get in the mood for the admittedly far more relaxed charms of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic, which kicks off on June 28.

For the second straight year, the festival is kindly hosting Hitfix, and I’m looking forward to delving into a programme that, in addition to choice cherry-picking from Cannes and the like, offers an exciting spread of less exposed European and US indie cinema. Last year, it proved a particularly happy hunting ground for smaller films that would eventually be submitted for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar consideration.

Today, Karlovy Vary unveiled the first phase of this year’s programme, including selections for the narrative and documentary Competitions. Many of them are unfamiliar, though the festival has secured a high-profile Opening Film in Michel Gondry’s “Mood Indigo,” a fantastical, dark-edged romantic comedy starring Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou and Omar Sy.

The French-language film, an adaptation of Boris Vian’s cult 1947 novel “Froth on the Daydream,” has already been released at home and in several other European territories — but is still awaiting a US distributor. Considering the arthouse name value attached to it, you’d expect that to change in due course, though “Mood Indigo” isn’t the easiest sell. Though highly celebrated in France, Vian’s novel hasn’t travelled significantly, and its fatalistic tone and dense surrealism — however perfectly tailored to Gondry’s sensibility — sets out to charm and challenge audiences in equal measure.

I’ve seen the film, and am happy to report that it’s a return to form of sorts for Gondry — whose diverting but defiantly minor school-bus character study “The We and the I” premiered at Cannes last year and got a minimal US release in March. This is much more in the richly visualized, melancholy-romantic vein of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and, in particular, “The Science of Sleep.” (It’s not as good as the former, but what is?) Viewer mileage will vary when it comes to its handcrafted whimsy, but most will appreciate the fact that Gondry has left the stifling studio-film disappointment of “The Green Hornet” comfortably behind him.

I’ll write more about the film at a later date, but it’s a suitably bright, starry curtain-raiser for a festival where more austere fare tends to dominate the lineup. Among the higher-profile titles in the narrative Competition are “A Field in England,” an oddball English Civil War drama from up-and-coming director Ben Wheatley (“Sightseers,” “Kill List”). Expected by some to show up in Cannes, it will instead have its world premiere at Karlovy Vary days before its UK opening — an experimental multi-platform release that will see it out in theaters, on TV and on VOD simultaneously.

Also in the lineup is US indie director Lance Edmands’s Maine-set drama “Bluebird,” starring John Slattery and Amy Morton, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. A local entry, “Honeymoon,” comes from veteran Czech director Jan Hrebejk, who scored a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination for “Divided We Fall” in 2000. You can check out the lineup as it currently stands here; look out for my coverage from June 29.

Superman and Batman aren’t the only icons celebrating 75 years in the pop cultural consciousness as of late. Next year, Dorothy, Toto, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion all join in on the fun as Victor Fleming’s classic of Technicolor cinema, “The Wizard of Oz,” pops the cork on its diamond anniversary. And Warner Bros. plans to celebrate on the biggest screens around.

The studio and IMAX have announced that the Oscar-winning film, which was nominated for Best Picture in the annus mirabilis that was 1939, will be converted to IMAX 3D and re-released for a one-week theatrical run in September, USA Today reports. That’s 11 months shy of the the true anniversary of the film’s August 15, 1939 release, but hey, “Oz: The Great and Powerful” kind of went ahead and got the festivities going early already when it hit theaters back in March.

The USA Today story quotes IMAX Entertainment’s Greg Foster regarding the film’s “explosion of color” upon release. Indeed, the Technicolor process used on the film yielded such a vibrant palette that it’s frequently pointed to as a bellwether in the transition to color filmmaking that wouldn’t really take hold for another two decades. I’ve had the opportunity to see a Technicolor 35mm print of the film projected and it is something to behold.

The restoration will feature digitally enhanced sound, and the 3D will certainly be a new (perhaps sacrilegious to some) way to experience the yellow brick road. No matter how you look at it, the chance for audiences to experience such an endearing classic on the big screen has to be considered a good thing.

The one-week run will begin September 20 in IMAX’s 400 theaters nationwide, including those in museums, according to the report. The film will also receive an anniversary re-release on DVD and Blu-ray on October 1.

“The Wizard of Oz” picked up six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It won Oscars for Herbert Stothart’s original score and Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg’s classic melody “Over the Rainbow.” Other films nominated for Best Picture included Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” John Ford’s “Stagecoach,” William Wyler’s “Wuthering Heights” and Ernst Lubitsch’s “Ninotchka.” Fleming beat himself for the trophy, though, with another classic: “Gone with the Wind.”

It may not be out for another 17 months, but Christopher Nolan’s elaborate sci-fi project “Interstellar” is already — inevitably — generating enough excitement that any detail of its production is being seized upon by a ravenous internet. As these details go, the announcement that Hans Zimmer will be scoring the epic isn’t news so much as a virtual given, but it’s good to have it confirmed. 

Also confirmed today (though reported a few months ago): the film’s release date of November 7, 2014. That will make it the first Nolan film to open outside the summer movie season since 2006’s “The Prestige.” “Insterstellar” will surely bring some blockbuster heat to the cooler weather, then, but could that date also make it a more viable awards season play? 

Back to Zimmer, who is on board for his fifth collaboration with the big-thinking Brit. Following the news that Wally Pfister, Nolan’s regular cinematographer since “Memento,” will be sitting this one out in favor of talented Dutchman Hoyte van Hoytema (“Let the Right One In,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”), we couldn’t take all the director’s favorite collaborators for granted. (Pfister, incidentally, is unavailable because he’s working on his own directorial debut.)

Zimmer memorably scored all three entries of Nolan’s Batman trilogy (the first two in partnership with James Newton Howard) and 2010’s fantasy blockbuster “Inception” — the distinctively sonorous soundtrack of which earned Zimmer the most recent of his nine Oscar nominations. (His only win to date was for “The Lion King,” 18 years ago.)

He’s also, of course, scoring this summer’s Nolan-produced “Man of Steel” — we got an impressive tease of his work for that one a month ago. And it was at the press junket for Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot that Zimmer revealed that he’s already begun work on “Interstellar” — though he was obviously reluctant to say any more than that about a project that’s still largely shrouded in secrecy.

We know that the film, written by Nolan’s brother Jonathan, was once slated to be directed by Steven Spielberg, and that it’s based on a treatment by famed theoretical physicist Kip Thorne about a group of explorers who find a wormhole into another dimension of time and space. Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine (another talisman figure for Nolan) are lined up to star.

It should provide a suitably large canvas for Zimmer’s typically robust orchestrations; I personally thought his work on “The Dark Knight Rises” disappointingly rote, but that aside, he’s provided a commanding signature sound for Nolan’s transition into “big” cinema. Quirkier British composer David Julyan, meanwhile, provided the scores for all Nolan’s more modest outings, including “Memento” and “The Prestige.” But a true Hollywood blockbuster king needs a hefty trademark composer: Zimmer, it seems, is to Nolan what John Williams is to Spielberg.

One of the two films besting Will Smith and son at the box office this weekend, surprisingly, is Louis Leterrier’s “Now You See Me,” the magic caper movie that has drawn pretty poor reviews along with those dollars and cents. “This might be the most disposable film of the summer, and as long as you’re not looking for anything deeper, it’s fine,” HitFix’s Drew McWeeny wrote. “But the closer you look, the less there is, and ultimately, there’s nothing real about it.” But what did YOU think of the film? That’s what we’re looking for here, so rifle off those takes in the comments section (if you have them) and feel free to vote in our poll below.

A while back, as 2009 drew to a close, I wrote a piece outlining what were, in my view, the movie-related moments of the year. In the end, I idly suggested that the era of the movie star had seen its end. “When the top 10 domestic grossers of the year are finally sussed…there won”t be a Will Smith or a Tom Cruise on the list,” I wrote at the time. “There won”t be a Jim Carrey or a Julia Roberts, a Tom Hanks, a Johnny Depp or a Brad Pitt. The list will be dominated by sequels and franchises, yes, but none of them with the added benefit of star power to drive the box office.”

Today, with the news that M. Night Shyamalan's “After Earth” starring Will Smith is effectively bombing at the box office, this idea seems worth discussing again. Two years after I wrote that piece, for the first time ever (and somewhat under-reported, though understandable given the overall trend toward this end), every single film in the top 10 domestic box office was either a sequel or based on an intellectual property with a built-in fan base. The answer was clear: People don't go to the movies to see their favorite actors anymore. They go to see their favorite brands.

I don't pretend to be an expert box office analyst. I just look at the data available and make my own observations. And to me, it seems, the last true gasp of the movie star grip on things seems staggeringly long ago. I'd say it was 2000, when we saw Jim Carrey at the top (“How the Grinch Stole Christmas”) and a top 10 with all the highlights of the then dusking age: Tom Hanks “Cast Away” – #2), Tom Cruise (“Mission: Impossible II” – #3), Mel Gibson (“What Women Want” – #5), George Clooney (“The Perfect Storm” – #6) and Harrison Ford (“What Lies Beneath” – #10).

Lingering amid all those movie stars was a stab at a comic book adaptation that we would soon discover was the starting gun of the superhero movement on the big screen: Bryan Singer's “X-Men.” No year since has been so dominated by the chiseled faces of Hollywood. The year prior, in 1999, Julia Roberts was still maintaining her movie star relevance with “Runaway Bride” and “Notting Hill.” But that that was also the year I might argue saw a real shift in Hollywood brand thinking as George Lucas' “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” demolished box office records as a resounding “hmmm” likely hummed across the industry.

Speaking earlier of Tom Cruise, he seems to have been able to navigate the ups and downs of this shift well enough. In 2005, while Anakin Skywalker, Harry Potter and Batman were lighting up the box office, he was enjoying his biggest hit ever with “War of the Worlds.” Just two years ago, “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” though admittedly a brand, nearly bested that. But while he may have led the box office for a weekend this year back in April with “Oblivion,” that film is still cruising (no pun intended) toward an underwhelming sub-$100 million gross stateside. Thankfully American stars still travel very well, as the film is doing good business overseas.

Other movie star misses so far this year include the pairing of Steve Carell and Jim Carrey in “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” as well as Bruce Willis proving he couldn't even push the brand of “Die Hard” past the $75 million mark for the first time in the franchise's history. And now, “After Earth,” which is floundering behind fellow debut “Now You See Me,” of all things, and the second week for a franchise behemoth, “Fast & Furious 6.” Smith's latest looks to open around a very “Wild Wild West”-ish $27 million. That's significant.

These aren't new ideas now, though they seemed that way when I was assessing the year with that piece in 2009. And it's of course time for the progressive thinking that accompanies such epiphanies. Writing in GQ in March, Mark Harris called this a “post-movie-star universe” and suggested that the leading man as we know it is evolving. “We still need movie stars,” he wrote. “And perhaps more surprisingly, we still have movie stars-lots of them, and arguably a more talented and interesting variety than at any time in the past thirty years. But they play by new rules, and they have to navigate an industry that often seems hostile to their very existence.”

Harris's thesis was that modern movie stars need to navigate the currents of Hollywood while eschewing the business's tendency toward manufacturing and packaging what they are and what they have to offer for easy consumption every step of the way. He noted actors like Channing Tatum, Christian Bale and George Clooney, who have curated their stardom with one foot in the corporate-conscious Hollywood system and one foot outside of it.

We may be entering other interesting territory, too, where the snake begins eating its own tail. One wonders, for instance, if the Marvel brand was truly enough to bring “The Avengers” into the $600 million echelon last year or if the charisma of a guy like Robert Downey Jr., who is by now inseparable from the character of Tony Stark, had a healthy hand in it. And it's for that very reason that stars of the film, stoked by Downey, are questioning Marvel's profit sharing from the venture.

Meanwhile, Seth Rogen and his friends made a film called “This is the End,” set for release in a few weeks' time. From the outside, it appears to be a facile bit of spending a studio's money to self-indulgently cut up with buddies on camera. In some ways, that's exactly what it is. But that idea is also very much a part of the film's overall thematic heft, and I would argue that it ultimately flips the concept of “movie star” on its ear. It's also a riotously hilarious film with something smart to say.

At the end of the summer, I wouldn't be surprised if “This is the End” turned out to be a box office story, and we could very well be asking ourselves, “Is this self-awareness the new black?” Someone in a suit somewhere will be wondering if he can get Will Smith and Tom Cruise together for a romp about their daily routine, I guarantee it. But it'll be the wrong thinking, of course.

The days of packaging success with the talent involved could be waning, and that surely sends a shiver up the spines of agents everywhere. But more to the point, the audience's appetite has shifted (or maybe it has BEEN shifted, by a business model that force feeds). However, it's still ever nebulous, even if we can note brand appeal and franchise loyalty as evidence of an evolution. A movie like “Ted” can still suddenly crack $218 million and settle in alongside Iron Man, Spider-Man, Batman, Bilbo Baggins, James Bond and the “Twilight” brats in the top 10.

And perhaps that's the proper final note here. There's always hope that freshness finds a way. “Ted” wasn't a pre-existing property and I don't think one would classify Mark Wahlberg as a movie star on the level of those that tend to bring in that kind of bank. Outside of “Titanic,” Leonardo DiCaprio had never cracked $200 million at the box office until “Inception,” an original idea fully formed from the brain of Christopher Nolan, came along. But the question becomes, was “Inception” sold on the heels of “The Dark Knight”'s success? The marketing sure pushed that point and so the idea lingers.

By definition, there is no formula for those kinds of surprises. And all eyes will be on Guillermo Del Toro's “Pacific Rim” in July to see if original high concept can strike again, though without the benefit of anything approaching a movie star to bring in the audience. But to bring it full circle to that 2009 piece, I noted at the time that, more than ever, we're proving that “material and marketing is king.” Is that so? I guess we'll all find out together, audiences and filmmakers — and movie stars — alike.

I’m very, very curious to see what Zal Batmanglij does with his career. He clearly has the chops to build interesting thrillers and that talent is very much on display in “The East,” which, as I’ve noted recently, I’ve been interested in seeing again since catching it at the Sundance Film Festival a few months back.

The film hit theaters today via Fox Searchlight Pictures and could do some nice business amid the usual blockbuster summer fare. It stars multi-hyphenate Brit Marling as well as Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgård. It’s possible we’ll be talking about it later in the year when the Independent Spirit Awards announce nominations. “Sound of My Voice” found some love there. For now, though, we’re curious to hear your thoughts on the film, so when/if you see it this weekend, let us know in the comments section and feel free to vote in our poll, too.

Little marketing hooks like this are always fun for the geek in us all. Sometimes they’re a stretch, sometimes you can get lost toying with this and that. Confession: I totally “Frankenweenie”-fied my cat last year.

Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pacific Rim” is still six weeks away and it feels like an eternity. At least we’ll have “Man of Steel” to tide us over in the interim but, especially after the most recent trailer hit, I’ve been dying for some awesome Jaeger/Kaiju brawling. In the meantime, though, at least we can settle in and design our own monster sluggers. Yes, Warner Bros. has an application that allows you to build and name your own Jaeger.

Fair warning: This thing crashed my Mac twice and the social media shares were not working at all. But luckily I grabbed a few screen shots before I lost good ole’ Blazer Retcon for good. The film features Jaegers with names like Coyote Tango and Gipsy Danger, etc. (Meanwhile, the lowest rung of the “After Earth” pile-on is all about Will Smith’s character name — Cipher Raige — in the film. Really? We’re at the point of dissing names in sci-fi films?)

Anyway, check out my guy, BLAZER RETCON, below. You can build your own here.

“Pacific Rim” tears into theaters everywhere on July 12.

Heads up, fans of Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy. This is right up your alley. And boy is it awesome.

HitFix has ONE poster from the new film “Before Midnight” SIGNED BY LINKLATER, ETHAN HAWKE AND JULIE DELPY to give away. Ever since 1995’s “Before Sunrise,” this trio has been bringing the story of Celine and Jesse to the screen every nine years. We never know where they’ll be in their life each time we drop in on them, and we certainly hope to see more glimpses of their on-going life together in the future.

When “Before Midnight” premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival, I called the lovers’ story “one of the great romances in all of cinema,” and I don’t think it’s hyperbolic. The singular nature of these projects alone is enough to put it on a certain echelon. With that in mind, I’ll be absolutely jealous of whoever wins today’s sweepstakes.

A few important points about the giveaway:

– The giveaway is only available to US residents (apologies to our international readers).

– No PO Boxes can be accepted.

– Users will only have to give your name and email address to gain ONE ENTRY. The winner will be chosen at random. However…

– To earn other entries, you can get other people to enter by sharing your custom link (which is generated after you enter) via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, etc. You’ll receive FIVE ENTRIES for every friend who enters the sweepstakes through your link. Naturally, the more entries you earn, the better your odds of winning!

– The sweepstakes ends on June 10, 2013 at 5pm PT.

You can keep coming back to visit this page and check on how many entries you’ve earned, as the widget will remember you and keep track of your entries via your special link.

Good luck to everyone. Again — I”LL BE JEALOUS.

“Before Midnight” is currently playing in select theaters. If you haven’t already, tell us what you thought of the film!

I’m pretty slow on the uptake this summer with a ton of movies I still need to see, and one of them is M. Night Shyamalan’s “After Earth.” What’s that, you say? You didn’t know this was an M. Night joint? You’d be forgiven for missing that nugget, since advertising for the film has curiously kept his name low key if not outright out of the picture (it’s nowhere to be found above the title on the poster and the trailers certainly didn’t play it up). As for why, I’ll leave that to you to decide.

The film, like clockwork, is taking a critical beating. But it has a few forgivers, like our own Drew McWeeny, noting that it was “lovely to see something that is sincere, thematically focused, and that ultimately works in a way I didn’t expect.” Then again, maybe it’s just a Scientology indoctrination film. I’ll see for myself eventually, but it would appear Shyamalan is a filmmaker with a lot of ground to cover if he’s going to be back where he was a decade ago. For now, though, if you’ve seen the film (which stars Will Smith and son Jaden) or if you get around to it this weekend, head on back here with your thoughts and feel free to vote in the poll below.

I still remember the moment I found out Heath Ledger was dead. I was driving up the 10 freeway in Los Angeles on the way home and a Variety colleague called. “Did you hear about Heath Ledger?” “No.” I’m thinking maybe there’s some awesome news about the then upcoming film “The Dark Knight.” “Dude, he died.”

Crushing. We were robbed of an incredible talent that day. But one of the other things we we robbed of was the chance to really dissect and investigate Ledger’s choices for his soon-to-be Oscar-winning role as the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” as well as the opportunity to always go back and reflect with the actor as he, and we, spun away from its epic impact over the years. The mystery left as a result is singular and fascinating, serving only to elevate the performance in some ways, but I always felt a pang of sadness that we could never dig into the work with the artist.

A couple of early interviews exist, one in particular at Empire, which give us a glimpse of what Ledger was thinking. His process involved locking himself away in a London hotel for a month and piecing together a diary, he said. But beyond what director Christopher Nolan has referenced then and since, that’s really all we’ve had or will ever have.

At a Film Society of Lincoln Center event last year, Nolan spoke at length in an intimate conversation about his work on the “Dark Knight” trilogy, and particularly opened up about Ledger’s process. “Like a lot of artists, he would sneak up on something,” Nolan said at the time. “So you couldn’t really sit and go, ‘Okay, you’re going to do the Joker. You’re going to show me what it’s going to be.’ You had to sort of say, ‘Let’s read this scene. Don’t act it, just read.’ And he’d sit with Christian and there would be a line or two where his voice was a little different, throw in a little bit of a laugh.

“And then we would film hair and makeup tests and try different looks, and in that, he’d start to move, and we’d have these rubber knives and he’d choose what weapon and explore the movement of the character. We weren’t recording sound, so he felt quite able to start talking and showing some of what he was going to do. And in that way he sort of sneaked up on the character.”

These nuggets are, of course, fascinating. While “The Dark Knight” wasn’t Ledger’s final performance on screen (that would be his brief time in Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”), it was certainly his last significant one. And it was one that saw his family and “Dark Knight” colleagues, from Nolan to co-star Gary Oldman, accepting awards on his behalf throughout the fall of 2008.

The German documentary show “Too Young to Die” has done a piece on Ledger featuring an interview with his father, Kim Ledger. In it, Ledger presents his son’s Joker diary, featuring Batman comic panels, the actor’s hospital monologue, clippings from Anthony Burgess’s novel “A Clockwork Orange” (which Nolan had sent to Ledger in order to give an idea of the director’s vision of the character). The words “BYE BYE” are scrawled across the final page, a chilling farewell indeed. “It was hard to see this,” Kim Ledger says in the video.

Take a look at the clip below. Thanks to Reddit for digging it up (and The Film Stage for finding it there). A translation accompanies it. You’ll briefly see Ledger’s Oscar and the foam packaging that accompanies it via travel. Kim and the rest of the family accepted it on Ledger’s behalf on February 22, 2009, exactly 13 months to the day after the actor died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs at his SoHo apartment. I’ve included their acceptance speech below as well.

“This is the Joker”s diary. In order to inhabit his character, he locked himself up in a hotel room for weeks. He would do that. He liked to dive into his characters, but this time he really took it up a notch.

“The hospital scene is interesting because when he was a kid, his sister Kate liked to dress him up as a nurse. He was really funny like that. He also was in the movie. This is a make-up test which was done eight months before. Before the end of the shooting he wrote ‘bye bye” on the back of the page. It was hard to see this.”

With Cannes but a memory we look forward to the rest of the summer and, soon after, the dawn of the 2013-2014 film awards season. The starting gun will, as always, be the Venice and Telluride film festivals, followed by Toronto soon after, and we’ll be well on our way.

This year Telluride will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in style with an extra day of screenings (though not an expanded slate, just more opportunity to see everything) as well as a new venue, “The Werner Herzog Theatre,” named after the famed director who has made the annual trip to Colorado for decades. Before long there will be plenty of buzzing about what films could pop up there — “Labor Day?” “Nebraska?” “Out of the Furnace?” — but for now, things are just gearing up, and it all started today with the release of this year’s poster art for the fest.

Designed by Oscar-winning production designer Dean Tavoularis (“The Godfather,” “Tucker: The Man and His Dream”), the imagery splendidly plays up the community film-going experience that Telluride is. It’s a nice return to roots for Tavoularis, who started out studying painting. He eventually made his way to the movie business, working on 1954’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and 1955’s “Lady and the Tramp.” His first gig heading up the art department on a film was Arthur Penn’s 1967 classic “Bonnie and Clyde.” As of late he has transitioned back to his work as a painter, coming full circle on the Telluride poster.

“When I was asked by [Telluride co-directors] Tom Luddy and Julie Huntsinger if I would design the poster for the 40th Telluride Film Festival, I was first flattered and then thoughtful of being part of the Telluride film history. In my own way I pondered Telluride”s past and in fact all film festivals. Like the word implies, a festival is a fair; people gathering to show their films. It just as well could be their tomatoes. It”s an exchange. I wanted a poster that was simple and joyful, that looked homemade with pure colors in shapes that symbolize a 1:85 screen and an audience. One cannot exist without the other. I am very happy to be a small part of Telluride”s history.”

Take a look at the poster below. The 40th annual Telluride Film Festival runs August 29 – September 2, and we’ll be there to bring you the latest as it happens.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4912272321001

CANNES – Officially wrapping up our Cannes coverage today, it’s time to really break down the Oscar prospects coming out of the 66th annual fest.

The biggest player would appear to be the Coen brothers’ Grand Prix-winning “Inside Llewyn Davis,” and certainly — as we’ve outlined — when Coen films have landed awards at Cannes, they’ve managed to find their way in the awards season. But what is there to be said of other contenders? Is Marion Cotillard willing to put in the work on the circuit again for “The Immigrant” just one year after missing the target with “Rust and Bone?” Is “Nebraska”‘s Best Picture goose cooked after lukewarm reaction? Can Robert Redford land his first acting nomination in 40 years for “All is Lost?”

Find out the answers to those questions and many more in the video above. More on the Oscar season when we reach the year’s mid-way point in a month’s time. And if you still crave some Cannes discussion, be sure to read through the cheat sheet on all of our coverage.

We all know about Brett Ratner’s unfortunate recent history with the Academy. I guess he’s made amends and whatnot but certainly this will go a long way toward smoothing it all out.

The press release, in part:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today a $1 million gift from director Brett Ratner to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

“Brett has a sincere love of movies and film history, and we are excited to welcome him to our group of supporters,” said Bill Kramer, the museum’s managing director of development…

“I feel blessed to be part of such a magnificent museum. I was blown away by the recent Kubrick exhibit at LACMA, which the Academy co-sponsored. I couldn’t be more excited that our Academy will finally have its own museum that will preserve and exhibit cinema’s greatest work,” said Ratner.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4912281597001

CANNES – Once again from the south of France and the 66th Cannes Film Festival a few days post-fest, HitFix’s Gregory Ellwood and Guy Lodge of In Contention survey the lay of the land, this time focusing on the festival’s second week.

Did the widely dismissed Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Only God Forgives” find a more immediate fan club than last year’s “The Paperboy?” Was bringing “Nebraska” to the fest a good idea? Will James gray’s “The Immigrant” be met with a split reaction? Perhaps most importantly, how did Palme d’Or winner “Blue is the Warmest Color” measure up? Find out in the video above. Click here for thoughts on the fest’s first week of premieres.

Check back later in the week for a final piece of video expanding on Oscar thoughts coming out of this year’s festival.

One has to imagine that the role of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the developing biopic “Rodham” is a bit of a coveted one for the industry’s top actresses. The project is already fascinating from the outside, stemming from a 2012 Black List script penned by Korean screenwriter Young Il Kim spear-headed by “The Twilight Saga” producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen with indie filmmaker James Pondsoldt on board to direct. When the casting news finally does hit, it will be just one more level of intrigue.

Two years ago at the Kennedy Center Honors, the late Nora Ephron quipped of Meryl Streep’s versatility (amid the flurry of the actress’s Oscar-winning work as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady”) that it was only a matter of time before she would play the former Secretary of State and First Lady. Although “Rodham” happens to be set during the height of the Watergate scandal in 1974 when the 27-year-old politician became the youngest lawyer chosen for the House Judiciary Committee to impeach Richard Nixon. The 63-year-old Streep would better compute for a modern-day yarn, but a quartet of Hollywood’s younger stars are keen on the role, The Sunday Times revealed this weekend.

Two of the names are, in my humble opinion, a bit too obvious. Jessica Chastain is at a crucial point in her career and would certainly love to dig in on a role such as this. But coming off of “Zero Dark Thirty,” it feels a touch familiar. Scarlett Johansson, meanwhile, could pull it off (and seeing her raring and charged at the Democratic National Convention in November certainly spoke to her enthusiasm for the world being portrayed). However, it seems to me the role could use a bit of the unexpected.

Reese Witherspoon hasn’t missed a beat since her Atlanta police altercation, grabbing a role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice” recently. I actually think she would be fascinating in the role. Ditto Amanda Seyfried, who is coming off of Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables.” In fact, she could really use something like this to kick-start the next level of her career and I think she has it in her.

Ponsoldt admitted the obvious to The Times, of course. “They”re all wonderful actresses,” he said. “We”re very fortunate that a lot of really great actors are interested in playing these roles. We”re in an enviable position.”

“Regardless of people’s political affiliation or how they feel about Hillary Clinton, you don”t find people who question the quality of her intelligence or her drive. I want a wonderful actress who could embody that.”

The film is set to be released during the next presidential election in 2016, when Clinton is expected to be a candidate. And you can bet we’ll be talking about whoever lands the role during the awards season. It just has that whiff, doesn’t it?

Who do you think should land the lead role of ‘Rodham?’ Have your say in the comments section below!

CANNES – The 66th Cannes Film Festival has ended. The prizes have been handed out. Films have been acquired for global distribution and the last bottle of champagne is empty.  This year’s festival had something for almost every cinephile except for the glaring lack of documentaries (always an issue on the Croisette it seems) and less Hollywood star power. While there were many polarizing films, there were few disasters.  That being said, it’s easy to compile a necessary best and worst of this year’s selections.

Check out Guy Lodge and Gregory Ellwood’s picks in the embedded story gallery. Then let us know which movie you’re most excited about seeing in theaters down the road.

The 66th annual Cannes Film Festival is officially over as the winners and losers make their way home from the south of France. Will we be talking about these films during the Oscar season? Time will tell. But for now, a quick cheat sheet of our take on the festivities.

Gregory Ellwood and Guy Lodge reviewed 17 films from the fest (and certainly Tweet-reacted many more besides). It was a busy schedule and I imagine if you were trying to follow along at home, you could have been a bit lost along the way. But never fear! Below you can find links to each of the films reviewed along with blurbs from the reviewer and the grade assigned for each film, giving you a solid cross-section of our coverage, which you can also, of course, read through here.

Check back later as Greg and Guy close things out on their end with a pair of video packages charting both the best and worst of the festival’s second week and the Oscar implications of the 66th annual.

Steven Soderbergh’s “Behind the Candelabra” (Guy Lodge, A-)
“The film is too much fun…to feel much like social tract, but a cool-headed, universal advocacy of gay marriage prevails amid its flashy indulgence of this particular relationship”s peculiarities. Soderbergh and [screenwriter Richard] LaGravenese don”t shy from the tabloid salaciousness of the older man”s adoption of the younger, but the film is also posited as an extreme example of how social structures can be subverted, and potentially warped, if gay men are denied the right to conventional legal partnership.”

James Gray’s “The Immigrant” (Guy Lodge, A-)
“There”s an instinctive tendency among critics to ascribe the word “valentine” to any film this exquisitely textured and regionally specific, but if “The Immigrant” is a valentine to the Big Apple, it”s a tattered, tear-stained one: rarely has the promised land looked quite so unpromising, even within the geographically consistent and consistently moody oeuvre of James Gray.”

Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring” (Guy Lodge, B+)
“Some would argue that this is well-worn territory for Coppola, an unapologetically silver-spoon-fed filmmaker who has charted the ennui and corruption of celebrity culture in every film she’s made since her 1999 debut ‘The Virgin Suicides’ – which at least bookends ‘The Bling Ring’ as a study in warped adolescent self-actualization. But to lazily rehash already skimpy jabs at Coppola for her privileged tunnel vision would be to miss her new film’s significant shift in perspective. After three films about those firmly ensconced in the ivory tower – the Chateau Marmont in one incarnation, the Palace of Versailles in another – Coppola is, for the first time, on the outside looking in.”

Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Grand Central” (Gregory Ellwood, B+)
“Audiences will clearly recognize Gary’s path of emotionally-directed self-sabotage, but for every expected moment Klotowski and co-screenwriter Gaelle Mace surprise with an unexpected turn…Rahim remarkably communicates most of Gary’s plight with little exposition laced dialogue, a challenge not many actors could pull off.”

Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis” (Guy Lodge, B+)
“Perhaps middle-aged melancholy has finally caught up with the dark indie princes, spurred on by the colossal box office for 2010″s ‘True Grit,’ their most sentimental, studio-flavored release to date. Or perhaps the heart-on-sleeve integrity of pre-hippy 1960s folk music simply rubbed off in the research. None of which is to say ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ is a soft or overly forgiving film: rather, it”s as generously dimensional an individual character study as anything in their canon.”

Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past” (Guy Lodge, B+)
“‘The Past’ further showcases Farhadi’s dexterity as a dramatist of uncommon perspicacity and fairness…It never feels torrid or shrill, though its less compelling final act does raise the question of whether a writer can be democratic to a fault: blame is distributed and delegated so many times in the run-up to its ambiguous finale that dramatic momentum takes a slight hit…Bejo inherited the role from an over-scheduled Marion Cotillard and attacks it with the conviction of an actress hungry to surprise — her take on Marie-Anne is not outwardly sympathetic, but has a hostile, last-nerve vulnerability that plays excitingly against the more evenly tempered performances of her excellent male co-stars.”

Alain Guiraudie’s “Stranger by the Lake” (Guy Lodge, B)
“Yes, ‘Stranger by the Lake’ features more graphic man-on-man action on screen than you can, er, shake a stick at, granting it an immediate festival-world notoriety that will dissipate swiftly as many distributors simply cast it into the ‘unreleasable’ pile. But while some will deem the film barely distinguishable from gay pornography, its surfeit of explicit sex scenes has a function beyond base titillation (though, let it be said, there’s plenty of that too). If many films have put the practicalities and politics of casual sex to more rigorous examination on film in recent years, I either haven’t seen them or napped through a lot of the subtext in ‘Hitch.'”

J.C. Chandor’s “All is Lost” (Gregory Ellwood, B-)
“Disappointingly, while he creates one realistic peril after another, Chandor’s screenplay does not give [Robert] Redford much of a character to play with…If the lack of character in his screenplay constitutes a slight miscalculation, Chandor does everything he can to make up for it in his direction. A big jump from the suit and tie drama of ‘Margin Call,’ ‘All Is Lost’ features two very impressive set pieces and the action moves along remarkably considering a silent Redford is the sole focus of almost every shot.”

Ari Folman’s “The Congress” (Guy Lodge, B-)
“It’s precisely as bonkers as it sounds, and at two hours, both wearisome and claustrophobic. (I’m somewhat surprised, though not disappointed, that Folman resisted the lure of 3D for the animated stretch that makes up the majority of the film.) But flashes of fury and beauty remain — and I’m not just talking about the electrifying orchestral score by Max Richter. There’s something exhilarating — mesmerizing, even — about ‘The Congress”s most ludicrous flourishes.”

Roman Polanski’s “Venus in Fur” (Guy Lodge, B-)
“It’s frisky, funny stuff, unavoidably slight but given considerable verve by the game performances… ‘Venus in Fur’ finds Polanski repeatedly thumbing his nose at armchair psychologists too quick to find overarching themes in this (or any other) work…It’s enough to make you briefly wonder how many Polanski classics we’ve misread by the director’s standards; not that this flavorful diversion invites repeated readings in the first place. He’s having palpable fun here, but I’m ready for him to go play outdoors.”

Guillaume Canet’s “Blood Ties” (Guy Lodge, C+)
“[T]he pot stops boiling about halfway through this 1970s-set underworld family melodrama, dropping to a slow simmer as far too many narrative ingredients absorb the heat…The final result is diverting but inevitably derivative, with even [James] Gray’s own dialogue (co-written with Canet) sounding sometimes like genre play-speak. ‘I’m back in the New York groove,’ proclaims the film’s opening song, though it’s not strictly true: Gray never left, but Canet’s just arrived, which may be why the French-produced ‘Blood Ties’ still feels a tad jet-lagged.”

Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Only God Forgives” (Guy Lodge, C+)
“As the bodies pile up in increasingly grisly — and not terribly inventive — fashion, Refn dispenses with such niceties as tension, momentum or palpable human stakes. By the end, characters are passively serving themselves up for the slaughter, the endgame of a film that has the good grace not to appear very excited by its own rampant nihilism. ‘Only God Forgives’ is dull, but it’s also oddly transfixing, and not just in the sheer splendor of its craft.”

Jim Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive” (Guy Lodge, C+)
“It’s a thin premise for what amounts more to an extended sketch than a fully realized love story, though at least the one-ply joke is a droll one, played with good humor by the leads — particularly Swinton, who was pretty much born to deliver Jarmusch’s refined deadpan schtick. I’m not sure how many previous films have gotten comic mileage out of the possibility of modern-day Nosferati having known substantial historical figures, but it feels like more should have.”

François Ozon’s “Young and Beautiful” (Gregory Ellwood, C+)
“Director François Ozon has made a career of exploring sexuality and sexual awakenings on the big screen, but his latest, Jeune & Jolie (Young and Beautiful),’ sadly falls short of his previous efforts…A few hours after the film, an industry colleague noted, ‘Men should never make films about prostitutes. It never turns out well.’ There may be notable exceptions to that rule, but in this case Ozon proves him right as he’s bit off more than he can satisfactorily chew.”

James Franco’s “As I Lay Dying” (Guy Lodge, C)
“Alternating between the textually straight-ahead and the stylistically mannered, Franco’s ‘As I Lay Dying’ is hardly a critique of Faulkner’s furious study of mud-class mourning, while as interpretation, it’s timid at best, taking the emotional accents of its irony-strewn, often bitterly funny source very much at face value. If he seems cowed by the material, that is as pretty much any filmmaker — let alone one of Franco’s modest abilities — would and should feel. Yet the film’s staid CliffsNotes approach is still a surprise coming from this restless Yale literature graduate, whose previous directorial efforts have been less competent and often more compellingly self-styled.”

Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” (Guy Lodge, C)
“This is a tidy enough setup for a sharp comedy of manners, though Payne can’t seem to decide if he’s coddling these old-school Midwesterners for their rudely rustic values or sneering at the sheer narrowness of their worldview. Sometimes it does both at once…There’s an argument to be made that Payne, famously a son of Omaha, is putting himself up for scrutiny here, poking fun at the flawed society that raised and continues to mark him…but its insistent tone of downbeat poignancy doesn’t quite square with the flip tone of all too many scenes, as if Payne is trying to pass the film off as something less cynical than it actually is.”

Arnaud Desplechin’s “Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian)” (Guy Lodge, C-)
“Certainly, neither its doughy structure nor its vague, tin-eared evocation of post-WWII middle America are immediately indicative of a passion project that Desplechin has reportedly been nurturing for over two decades: we’re always plagued the longest by the problems we have the least natural ability to solve, and that’s a pearl of psychiatric wisdom you can have for free.”