Few would have thought that 2015’s Paddington would be one of the year’s best animated movies. A real charmer that captured why Michael Bond’s marmalade-loving bear has been beloved for decades, it captured $268M worldwide, And now the bear is coming back for more with Paddington 2, which has just revealed a new trailer.
Ben Whishaw is back as the voice of Paddington, who has gotten into some trouble trying to do a nice thing. He wants to buy a rare pop-up book for his Aunt Lucy’s birthday, but runs afoul of a narcissistic actor and master of disguises played by Hugh Grant. Grant is a riot in every trailer we’ve seen, because he looks just as surprised as us that he’s in this.
Here’s the synopsis: Settled in with the Brown family, Paddington the bear is a popular member of the community who spreads joy and marmalade wherever he goes. One fine day, he spots a pop-up book in an antique shop — the perfect present for his beloved aunt’s 100th birthday. When a thief steals the prized book, Paddington embarks on an epic quest to unmask the culprit before Aunt Lucy’s big celebration.
Much of the original cast returns including Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Hugh Bonneville, and Peter Capaldi, along with new faces Brendan Gleeson, Noah Taylor, and Richard Ayoade. Paddington 2 opens January 12th 2018.
It’s been a long time coming, and Lord knows I’ve fielded more questions about this than almost anything else, but tomorrow is the official unveiling of Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War trailer! I’m assuming it will be the same footage they revealed at Comic-Con, and if so then you are in for a treat because it’s AMAZING!
But before all of that, Marvel has dropped a new poster and brief teaser that doesn’t reveal any footage. Instead it emphasizes the rabid fans of the MCU who have stuck with it for ten incredible years. Can you believe it’s been that long since Iron Man changed the entire Hollywood landscape and, in one fell swoop, made all of our nerdy comic book knowledge indispensable movie knowledge?
Also, check out a tweet by Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland, as he “accidentally” reveals the new poster. Oh that guy’s got webs for brains.
Starring pretty much everybody who has ever been in a Marvel movie and directed by the Russo Brothers, Avengers: Infinity War opens May 4th 2018.
We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free advance screening of Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water! The film stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Doug Jones.
SYNOPSIS: From master story teller, Guillermo del Toro, comes THE SHAPE OF WATER – an other-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.
The screening takes place on Monday, December 4th at 7:00pm at Landmark E Street. If you’d like to attend, simply complete the required steps in the Rafflecopter contest form below. Winners will be selected on Friday, December 1st and contacted by email. Good luck!
Beautiful stars in Alicia Vikander and Eva Green, an idyllic paradise dubbed “the most beautiful place in the world.” What’s there not to love abou Euphoria, the new film from director Lisa Langeth and her third collaboration with Vikander? Well, don’t be fooled. This trip to paradise is anything but.
While it may look like a Luca Guadagnino special, the film has darker tendencies. Vikander and Green play sisters in conflict as they spend time at a gorgeous estate where one sister plans to end her life. Still ready to dive into this one? The film co-stars Charlotte Rapmpling and Charles Dance.
Euphoria has yet to gain a U.S. release date but opens in Sweden next February. This is just a teaser so it’s tough place too much of a judgment on it, but I don’t remember there being a lot of buzz after it played Toronto.
The Oscars landscape for Jordan Peele’s Get Out is unclear at this point, but it got a little bit of a boost thanks to three victories at the 2017 Gotham Awards. The film won Best Screenplay, Breakthrough Director, and the Audience Award, cementing its status as one of the year’s most popular movies.
Luca Guadagnino’s coming of age Italian romance, Call Me By Your Name, also had a big night, taking Best Feature over some stiff competition that included The Florida Project, Get Out, I Tonya, and Good Time. Rising star Timothee Chalamet also won Breakthrough Actor for his performance in Guadagnino’s film. Saoirse Ronan earned Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird its only win in the Best Actress category, while James Franco’s oddball turn in The Disaster Artist earned him Best Actor.
Full list of winners below!
Best Feature WINNER: Call Me by Your Name Luca Guadagnino, director; Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges, Rodrigo Teixeira, Marco Morabito, James Ivory, Howard Rosenman, producers (Sony Pictures Classics) The Florida Project
Sean Baker, director; Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch, Kevin Chinoy, Andrew Duncan, Alex Saks, Francesca Silvestri, Shih-Ching Tsou, producers (A24) Get Out
Jordan Peele, director; Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm, Jr., Jordan Peele, producers (Universal Pictures) Good Time
Josh and Benny Safdie, directors; Paris Kasidokostas-Latsis, Terry Dougas, Sebastian Bear-McClard, Oscar Boyson, producers (A24) I, Tonya
Craig Gillespie, director; Bryan Unkeless, Steven Rogers, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, producers (NEON)
Best Documentary Ex Libris – The New York Public Library
Frederick Wiseman, director and producer (Zipporah Films) Rat Film
Theo Anthony, director; Riel Roch-Decter, Sebastian Pardo, producers (MEMORY and Cinema Guild) WINNER: Strong Island Yance Ford, director; Yance Ford, Joslyn Barnes, producers (Netflix) Whose Streets?
Sabaah Folayan, Damon Davis, directors; Sabaah Folayan, Damon Davis, Jennifer MacArthur, Flannery Miller, producers (Magnolia Pictures) The Work
Jairus McLeary, director; Alice Henty, Eon McLeary, Jairus McLeary, Miles McLeary, producers (The Orchard and First Look Media)
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Maggie Betts for Novitiate (Sony Pictures Classics)
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (A24)
Kogonada for Columbus (Superlative Films/Depth of Field) WINNER: Jordan Peele for Get Out (Universal Pictures)
Joshua Z Weinstein for Menashe (A24)
Best Screenplay The Big Sick, Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani (Amazon Studios) Brad’s Status, Mike White (Amazon Studios) Call Me by Your Name, James Ivory (Sony Pictures Classics) Columbus, Kogonada (Superlative Films/Depth of Field) WINNER: Get Out, Jordan Peele (Universal Pictures) Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig (A24)
Best Actor
Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project (A24) WINNER: James Franco in The Disaster Artist (A24)
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out (Universal Pictures)
Robert Pattinson in Good Time (A24)
Adam Sandler in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (Netflix)
Harry Dean Stanton in Lucky (Magnolia Pictures)
Best Actress
Melanie Lynskey in I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (Netflix)
Haley Lu Richardson in Columbus (Superlative Films/Depth of Field)
Margot Robbie in I, Tonya (NEON) WINNER: Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird (A24)
Lois Smith in Marjorie Prime (FilmRise)
Breakthrough Actor
Mary J. Blige in Mudbound (Netflix) WINNER: Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
Harris Dickinson in Beach Rats (NEON)
Kelvin Harrison, Jr. in It Comes at Night (A24)
Brooklynn Prince in The Florida Project (A24)
Breakthrough Series – Long Form WINNER: Atlanta, Donald Glover, creator; Donald Glover, Dianne McGunigle, Paul Simms, executive producers (FX Networks) Better Things, Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K., creators; Dave Becky, M. Blair Breard, Louis C.K., Pamela Adlon, executive producers (FX Networks) Dear White People, Justin Simien, creator; Yvette Bowser, Justin Simien, Stephanie Allain, Julia Lebedev, executive producers (Netflix) Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, creator; Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Harry Williams, Jack Williams, executive producers (Amazon) Search Party, Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers, Michael Showalter, creators; Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers, Michael Showalter, Tony Hernandez, Lilly Burns, executive producers (TBS)
Breakthrough Series – Short Form 555, Kate Berlant, Andrew DeYoung and John Early, creators (Vimeo) Inconceivable, Joel Ashton McCarthy, creator (YouTube) Junior, Zoe Cassavetes, creator (Blackpills and VICE) Let Me Die a Nun, Sarah Salovaara, creator (Vimeo) WINNER: The Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes, Nancy Andrews, creator (YouTube)
Unbelievably, at least to me, we’re getting James Franco starring in an X-Men movie, as last week he entered talks to play Jamie Madrox in Multiple Man. While details on the film are probably a long ways off, Franco spoke to THR and confirmed his involvement, while also suggesting it could follow in the R-rated footsteps of Deadpool and Logan…
“I don’t know how much I can say. But I will say I am producing and performing in it. It’s early stages. I think probably what I can say is, like anything, there’s a need to develop more.
Our bottom line MO is, how can we push this into new ground? A little bit, but still make it entertaining? [But] what I love about what Simon Kinberg and Fox and the X-Men people have done with Deadpool and Logan — it took a while to get there, maybe 10 years — but they are going to go hard R. And we’re going to take this superhero thing and really just push it into a new genre. So we’re working with Simon Kinberg on an X-Men property.”
While he doesn’t say himself that Multiple Man will be R-rated, there’s really no other reason to reference Logan and Deadpool. My hope is this means we’ll get a dark film noir-esque story that follows Madrox’s time as a superhero detective.
Between Deadpool and Logan we’ve seen comic book movies take a hard turn towards the R-rated, and audiences seem to love it. Anything that provides a different take than what we get from Marvel Studios and DC Films, which tend to gear their movies towards the broadest possible audience. And now there’s another uber-violent and uber-vulgar adaptation to get excited over, Accident Man, and I’m surprised this is one I hadn’t heard of before today.
Based on the 1991 U.K. comic Toxin, the film has a pretty sweet cast led by Scott Adkins (Doctor Strange, American Assassin), Michael Jai White (Spawn), Ray Park (X-Men), Ashley Greene (Twilight), Ray Stevenson (Punisher War Zone, Thor), and David Paymer (Drag Me to Hell). Damn. Adkins plays Mike Fallon, a high-class hitman who specializes in making his murders look like accidents. He lives the high life with a “devil may care” attitude, but all of that changes when his peaceful ex-girlfriend is murdered, and Mike goes on a rampage to find her killer.
Accident Man is directed by Jesse Johnson and hits home release on February 6th 2018.
Chris Morris’ directorial debut Four Lions won a ton of awards when it was released in 2010, and basically launched the career of Riz Ahmed, who you may have heard of. Morris’ stinging jihad satire flashed a ton of potential, but the writer/director basically vanished. While Morris did a little bit of TV, it’s only now that we’re hearing about a big screen followup, and it appears Anna Kendrick is a part of it.
Morris has apparently wrapped on a top secret comedy project that features Kendrick, Orange is the New Black‘s Danielle Brooks, Kayvan Novak, James Adomian,Denis O’Hare, Pej Vahdat, Marchant Davis and Mousa Kraish. We don’t have any plot details for the untitled film but just knowing that Morris is back in the game is worth getting excited about.
Less exciting is this set photo which shows Kendrick goofing around in military garb. I really need her to be in a good movie again, and something that doesn’t involve a capella. [via Deadline]
Reunited and it feels so good? The Theory of Everything earned Eddie Redmayne his first Oscar for Best Actor, and it was definitely deserved, while his co-star Felicity Jones was honored with a Best Supporting Actress nomination. They make for a great team, and so it’s no surprise they’re considering a reunion…in a hot air balloon.
Deadline reports Redmayne and Jones are eying roles in Amazon Studios’ The Aeronauts, an action adventure film based on the true story of 19th-century balloonists James Glaisher and Amelia Wren. Glaisher was a meteorologist and scientist with Wren as the balloon pilot, and in 1862 they broke the world record for altitude in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the Heavens.
The script was written by the red-hot Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Star Wars: Episode 9) with Tom Harper (Peaky Blinders) directing.
The 23rd annual Critics’ Choice Awards ceremony will air live from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on January 11 and excitement is building in Hollywood. It has moved back to its usual January slot and will take place four days before the Golden Globes, ushering in a busy awards season. All eyes will be on the show to see who prevails in prestigious categories like Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture. They are not exactly a predictor for the Oscars, but the awards provide an insight into which stars and films are gaining momentum at a crucial period in the calendar.
The awards are run by the Broadcast Film Critics Association – which includes 300 members, spread across TV, radio, print and online, that review films – and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association, its counterpart for the television industry. The awards will be aired on The CW and BFCA president Joey Berlin said: “BFCA and BTJA are thrilled to be back on The CW, where many of our finest CCA shows were nurtured. The CW is home to some of the best shows anywhere on broadcast television, and we’re looking forward to being back in their company for years to come. The Critics’ Choice Awards show has grown to be one of the most important and star-studded in Hollywood — and perhaps the most fun. We can’t wait to gather the brightest lights in film and television together again for what is sure to be a spectacular event on January 11.”
Gaye Hirsch, The CW’s head of development, added: “As award season kicks into high gear, we’re thrilled we can bring viewers an exciting night filled with the biggest and brightest stars in Hollywood.” Sportsbooks will offer odds on the various categories in the build-up to the event, and several categories will be hotly contested.
The 22nd Critics’ Choice Awards proved to be a great night for La La Land, which was named Best Picture, while director Damien Chazelle took the Best Director award. That led to a surge of support for the musical heading into the Academy Awards and Chazelle and co looked to have scooped the main prize when presented Faye Dunaway read out its name. But it was revealed to be a mix up on behalf of accountancy firm PwC, which handled logistics at The Oscars, and La La Land’s team had to leave the stage to be replaced by the Moonlight gang.
The Critics’ Choice Awards did not therefore foreshadow The Oscars in the Best Picture stakes, but Chazelle did go on to win Best Director at the Academy Awards. Casey Affleck also won Best Actor in both, but Natalie Portman won Best Actress for her portrayal of Jackie Kennedy, only to lose out to La La Land’s Emma Stone at The Oscars. Winning a Critics’ Choice Award is a tremendous achievement in its own right and it often predicts who will emerge victorious at The Oscars, but not always, so nobody can afford to get too carried away by the results.
This year the likes of Dunkirk, The Post and The Shape of Water are expected to fight it out for Best Picture, while Christopher Nolan is thought to be leading the race for Best Director. There have been several eye-catching performances from leading ladies, but Frances McDormand is generating a lot of buzz for her starring role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, while Gary Oldman is heavily tipped to sweep up at awards season for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
