In Contention

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  • ‘The Company Men’ trailer

    The debut feature of director John Wells (best known for his TV work on such series as “ER” and “The West Wing”) garnered fairly reserved reviews at Sundance in January. The trailer, which hit yesterday via Yahoo! Movies, does play a little on the beige side, but the story is topical, the cast excellent (always nice to see Rosemarie DeWitt getting work) and The Weinstein Company is putting it out in the prime real estate of late October. Maybe there’s something here. Maybe not. Judge for yourself by by clicking the link below, or watch the embed on the jump.

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  • COMIC-CON: New ‘Let Me In’ poster

    In the rush of Comic-Con I haven’t gotten around to posting the new poster for “Let Me In,” which debuted to coincide with the convention.  You might remember the teaser poster, which was released a few weeks ago, and this one is still teaser-ish, but certainly better.  Check out the full poster after the jump.

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  • COMIC-CON: ‘TRON Legacy’ invades Hall H for a third-straight year

    “It proves to me some things, good things, take a really long time to happen,” “TRON” creator Steve Lisberger said to a packed Hall H, looking strikingly like Bad Blake next to a clean-shaven Jeff Bridges.

    And that was the vibe you got from the euphoric crowd this afternoon as Disney revealed eight minutes of footage from the new film “TRON Legacy.” A new trailer was also shown, which was simultaneously “unlocked” by internet users online.

    Actors Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Bridges, Michael Sheen (in his first Comic-Con appearance), Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund joined Kosinski, Bailey and Lisberger on stage with moderator Patton Oswalt for a discussion on technology utilized by the project, re-visiting the material 27 years later and the underlying themes of the film.

    “We need modern myths,” Bridges said. “And one of the themes in our movie is the dark side of technology. We’re developing it so fast we haven’t developed any ethics.”

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  • COMIC-CON: Guillermo Del Toro to remake Disney’s ‘The Haunted Mansion’

    Following an intense “TRON: Legacy” panel at Comic-Con this afternoon (which I will get to in a moment), Disney pulled a real coup by having moderator Patton Oswalt introduce a brief animated piece of footage announcing a remake of “The Haunted Mansion” and then bring out the film’s writer/producer, announced exclusively right here in the hall: Guillermo Del Toro.

    With the “Pan’s Labyrinth” director’s recent departure from “The Hobbit,” many have been wondering what his next project would be.  And truly, this sounds like it could be something special from a unique and twisted mind.  Given the reaction form the crowd (who created the director to loud shouts of “Guillermo!”), there shouldn’t be much trouble building excitement around this project.

    “The scary WILL be scary,” Del Toro said of his vision in a brief announcement.  “If you bring children, they will scream.  And I hope to steal as many props as possible.”

    Obviously, for fans of Del Toro’s viscerally specific cinematic creations, this is a dream come true.  And even though it’s a remake and a Disney property, one gets the feeling he will have carte blanche with the material.

    More to come, I’m sure.  Check out the new teaser image from the film after the jump.

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  • COMIC-CON: ‘Megamind’ inverts comic genre tropes

    The opening Hall H panel of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con belonged to DreamWorks Animation’s “Megamind” from “Madagascar” director Tom McGrath.  The film, set for release November 5, is an “action comedy that takes the whole genre and turns it on its head,” McGrath told the packed hall.

    In the film, Will Ferrell gives his vocal talents to the title character.  Tina Fey plays a television reporter and Jonah Hill, her cameraman.  All three, along with McGrath, were on hand to preview five minutes of 3D footage from the film.

    Another key cast member, Brad Pitt, could not attend.  But the crew got a nice LOL pop out of the audience by bringing a cardboard cut-out on stage.

    Ferrell got into the Comic-Con spirit by donning the blue and black get-up of his character.  It’s the second time he’s been able to play a villain, following 2001’s “Zoolander,” but he said he was attracted to the idea of playing a “bad guy who becomes a good guy.”  No, nothing earth-shattering, but those are the kinds of quotes the panel was offering moderator Drew McWeeny.

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  • Aronofsky’s ‘Black Swan’ to open Venice

    [FURTHER UPDATE: Focus has confirmed that “The American” will not, in fact, be appearing at Venice.]

    [UPDATE: “Black Swan” has indeed been confirmed as the Venice opener, and will play in Competition. More soon.]

    I’ve been saying for some time that this year’s Venice Film Festival looks to be a very good vintage, capitalizing on the number of highly anticipated auteur works that weren’t quite ready in time for Cannes. Even with Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” still a major question mark — some are even suggesting it won’t surface this year — there’s plenty to get quivery about besides, as is clear from this tasty Variety piece.

    Nick Vivarelli’s article reiterates the titles — including Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” and Julian Schnabel’s “Miral” — that have long been all-but-guaranteed to show up at Venice, but adds some tantalizing new ones. Chief among them is Darren Aronofsky’s ballet psycho-thriller “Black Swan,” which will premiere as the festival’s opening film on September 1.

    The press release breaking the news, and more Venice possibilities, after the cut.

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  • COMIC-CON: Robert Rodriguez and the cast of ‘Machete’ want you to eat their tacos

    I was wondering if Robert Rodriguez’s “Machete” would have much of a presence at Comic-Con this year, and it looks like it will.  And if you’re in San Diego for the convention this week, you’ll want to hear about this because it’s open to the public.

    Rodriguez and the cast of the film will be serving tacos at the “Machete” Taco Truck Thursday, July 22, from 5:00pm – 8:00pm on the corner of 5th Ave. and J St. at the 5 Star parking lot downtown.  Artwork on the truck was designed by famed graffiti artist Mr. Cartoon.

    Later, at 9:00pm, footage from the film will be shown on a giant outdoor screen. Doors for that open at 8:30pm.  Looks like they’re giving away posters and T-shirts, the full nine.  So be there or be square.

    Follow Viva Machete on Twitter for more updates, including a flyer that’ll get you a free taco.  And check out a message from Rodriguez after the jump.

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  • LA Times on DC vs. Marvel

    Full disclosure: I don’t do comics. It’s not a matter of snobbery or dislike — I quite admire the medium, in fact — but I wasn’t brought up on them and can’t fabricate the kind of lifelong enthusiasm they inspire in others. The pile of unread novels on my bedside table is high enough without bringing graphics into the equation.

    This is a roundabout way of saying that talk of the rivalry between Marvel and DC Comics means about as much to me personally as that of the teams atop the German Bundesliga table — I understand both the game and the stakes, but my knowledge of the players themselves is elementary at best. So I found this LA Times article, in which Geoff Boucher and Ben Fritz break down the recent fortunes of Marvel and DC’s respective film production divisions, rather enlightening.

    With DC Entertainment’s extreme polarities of success (Christopher Nolan’s Batman pictures) and failure (the still-reeking “Jonah Hex”) putting them on shakier economic ground than the more consistent Marvel, the studio has appointed former “Harry Potter” brand manager Diane Nelson and comic-book writer Geoff Johns to take the reins. Nelson’s background is telling: parent company Warner Bros. will be relying heavily on DC Entertainment to plug the gap left when the Potter film series concludes next year.

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  • ‘Inception’ soundtrack contest winners!

    I’ve touched down in San Diego for all the Comic-Con shenanigans of the next four days, but a little business to tend to.

    Thanks to the 60-plus participants in our “Inception” soundtrack giveaway haiku contest. There were lots of great entries, but the two I settled on came from KYLE and GEORGIE. Respectively (and I guess I should say SPOILER warning):

    Falling off the bridge
    The sound of brass blaring bright
    They wake with a kick

    Non, je ne regrette
    The kick hits, the dream falls down
    But does the totem?

    Kyle and Georgie, I’ll try to hunt down your email on the backend, but send me a line just in case. You win!

  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 1961 and 1962

    Catch up with the idea behind this series here.

    I know it’s a fool’s game to do any kind of post that doesn’t mention “Inception,” but I just did so I guess it’s all good. Back at the Oscars, a big film swept the proceedings for the third year in a row with “West Side Story” earning ten statues from eleven nominations. Wikipedia tells me that 1961 is the first time the televised ceremony ran over two hours long. Slippery slope.

    1962 gave us the first nomination for Oscar’s favorite loser, Peter O’Toole, in another epic sweep for “Lawrence of Arabia.” It’s hard to argue with that film’s broad appeal but it also does seem like at this point, the Academy was just like, “Can’t we just pick one film per year and give it all the awards?”

    Luckily, there are more than enough excluded films worth mentioning from these years so get your Netflix queue’s ready for these bad boys!

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  • Pre-Con Batman “news” to fend off the cravings

    Via FirstShowing:

    We’ve gotten word from a reliable inside source with a studio casting grid that The Riddler is listed as a character for Chris Nolan’s highly anticipated to the sequel to The Dark Knight, which is still called Batman 3 at Warner Bros. Even more interesting, the actor currently listed in the same grid to play the assumed villain is none other than Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose status is just listed as “interested.” Let’s all say it together now: Hell. Yes!

    Truth? I’d rather not see Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this role. And I doubt that we will, actually. (I say spring for Michael C. Hall.)  But it’s nice to have quasi-confirmation on the villain. It wasn’t likely to be anyone else, but at the same time, you’re talking about a Rogues Gallery a mile long and you go back to the well?  And I mean, really, they brought elements of the Riddler into the Joker, so it could be slightly stale.

    Anyway just for fun, Method Man:

    [audio:http://www.incontention.com/audio/theriddler.mp3]

    [Photo: Entertainment Weekly]

  • Wahlberg talks up ‘The Fighter’

    When I remarked in a post yesterday that the upcoming awards season looks a little short on the high-profile biopic contenders so beloved of Academy voters, I had a feeling I was forgetting something obvious. And so I was: “The Fighter,” David O. Russell’s biopic of against-the-odds boxing champ “Irish” Micky Ward, starring Mark Wahlberg in the title role.

    In Friday’s episode of Oscar Talk, Kris expressed his high hopes for the film, singling out Christian Bale (as Ward’s half-brother and trainer Dicky Eklund) as a rumored standout. His faith is reflected in the updated predictions to your right, including potential bids in the two top races, as well as three acting categories. (Melissa Leo is currently tapped for Best Supporting Actress, but Amy Adams could be in the mix too.)

    Anne Thompson responded somewhat skeptically to Kris’s enthusiasm, suggesting that Russell’s film (should it turn out well, of course) is in a position to take some in the industry by surprise — always a good place to be from an awards-campaign standpoint. Meanwhile, it would appear that the film’s minders are opting not to build up buzz via the fall festival track: in this Collider interview, Wahlberg explains that they’ll likely skip Toronto and the rest, choosing instead to “go out and go big” with a December release.

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  • Tell us what you’re anticipating at Comic-Con

    Just curious.  I’ve already mentioned that nothing stands out as a “must-see” type of thing.  There will be some things that aren’t on the schedule that will surely be of interest, and I’ll report back, but maybe there’s something I have a blindspot to that you’d all like to hear about?  Let me know if that’s the case.  I’m southbound at roughly noon tomorrow.

  • Christopher Nolan’s ‘Doodlebug’

    I was looking at Brad Brevet’s take on ranking the films of Christopher Nolan over at Rope of Silicon and stumbled across an embed for the director’s 1997 short “Doodlebug.” I hadn’t seen it yet, honestly, and I imagine others haven’t either.  So I figured I’d post it for some discussion.

    What are we seeing here that would find its way into Nolan’s feature work?  You could pull out themes of identity, or reality vs. perception, maybe.  There’s certainly an undercurrent of paranoia in his films that has roots here, too.  Anyway, passing it along for your viewing pleasure on an EXTREMELY slow pre-Comic-Con Tuesday.  Check out the short after the jump.

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  • On the sound of ‘Inception’

    I totally meant to post this over the weekend as it’s been live since Saturday. Alas, I forgot.

    I’ve been high on the guys at SoundWorks Collection since I stumbled across their work last year. As you know, we’ve always been concerned with shining a proper spotlight on below-the-line efforts in filmmaking. SoundWorks Collection focuses on sound mixing and sound editing in major releases with brief aurally-focused featurettes.

    Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” is unquestionably a beast of immersive sound design, so I’ve been waiting on for this one for a while. It features interviews with Gary Rizzo, Lora Hirschberg and Richard King. Head on over to SoundWorks Collection to watch the featurette, or click through to watch an embed.  I imagine we’ll be digging further into the craft aspects of the film later in the season when we launch our annual Tech Support interview series.

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  • ‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’ trailer

    Here we go again. I think I gave up on high hopes for Woody Allen efforts back around “Curse of the Jade Scorpion” or thereabouts. Yeah, I loved “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” but, well…few and far between. The trailer for Allen’s latest, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” has hit via Yahoo! Movies, and I frankly nodded off a couple of times during its scant 1:37 running time.  Guy, meanwhile, was none too impressed by the film at Cannes.  Alas, no one can argue with Allen’s endurance. He’s like the energizer bunny. Anyway, check out the new trailer by clicking the link below, or watch the embed on the jump.

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  • Calling all original song contenders

    As we get closer and closer to the film awards season, I thought maybe it was a good time to round up all the potential original song contenders.  It’s generally a good idea to keep track of these things, so let’s see what we have so far.

    One of the best bets is probably Randy Newman’s “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3.” As usual for Newman, it’s not the kind of song that dives too far beneath the surface, but it’s a delightful jingle that helped sum up one of the year’s biggest critical and popular hits, so it should be considered formidable.

    Speaking of animated films,“How to Train Your Dragon” has an original song, “Sticks & Stones,” from Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson.  It’s a fast-paced bit of happiness that probably doesn’t have what it takes to push through to a nomination, but it’s in the field nevertheless.

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  • Oren Moverman, Kurt Cobain and the biopic

    One of my favorite current film writers, Ryan Gilbey, has an excellent piece in today’s Guardian on the subject of biopics — in particular, on the rise of the postmodern biopic in the face of Hollywood’s increasingly tepid stabs at the form. It’s a good read, but far better is the unabridged version of the article at Gilbey’s own blog, which contains some fascinating nuggets cut by the Guardian subs.

    Among them is this intriguing tidbit on an upcoming Kurt Cobain biopic from writer Oren Moverman. Moverman was, of course, a semi-surprise Oscar nominee earlier this year for his screenplay of “The Messenger,” but more pertinently to the subject at hand, he also co-wrote Todd Haynes’s oblique Bob Dylan study “I’m Not There.”

    Talking to Gilbey after the cut, Moverman explains that his next stab at the life of a rock icon won’t be quite as avant-garde as Haynes’s film (or Gus van Sant’s “Last Days,” for that matter), but he has no intention of ceding to the ‘greatest hits’ biopic structure so favored by Hollywood screenwriters.

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