Movie Talk
  • Hugh JackmanHugh Jackman, left, in 'Prisoner' (Photo: Screengrab/Warner Bros.)What damn fool would dare kidnap Wolverine's kid?

    Hugh Jackman goes into real berserker mode as a father who takes the law into his own hands after his daughter is kidnapped in "Prisoners," the new crime drama from French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve ("Incendies," "Maelstrom").

    The trailer opens pleasantly enough in the cold, grey American suburbs, where Keller Dover (Jackman), his wife (Maria Bello), and young daughter spend Thanksgiving with their neighbors (Terrence Howard and Viola Davis), who also have a daughter. A happy Turkey Day soon turns ominous as the two kids go outside to play ... and don't come home.

    Read More »from Hugh Jackman Goes Psycho-Dad in New 'Prisoners' Trailer
  • Frances Bean Cobain and Kristen StewartWould you have watched Frances Bean Cobain, left, play Bella? (Photo: Getty Images/Summit)Imagine Kurt Cobain's daughter and the Man of Steel pursuing a strange and forbidden romance in the Pacific Northwest … that's not how the "Twilight" franchise panned out, but it's what might have been if certain casting people had had their way.

    Courtney Love, the always colorful widow of Nirvana frontman Cobain and leader of the group Hole, appeared on the Howard Stern's radio show on Thursday, offering a surprising bit of insider gossip about the "Twilight" movies: Frances Bean Cobain, Love's daughter, was offered the leading role of Bella before

    Read More »from Frances Bean Cobain as Bella? Henry Cavill as Edward? What 'Twilight' Could Have Been!
  • Grumpy CatGrumpy Cat (Photo: ABC/Getty)If something catches on in the world, you can bet someone in Hollywood is figuring out how to turn it into a movie. And sadly, a lot of times they succeed (See: What Fans Want From Grumpy Cat, the Movie). Beyond the memes, here are some of the craziest places the film world goes hunting for source material:


    Mac and Me(Photo: Everett)

    Fast Food

    "Mac and Me" — a thinly-veiled "E.T." ripoff that came out in 1988 — became notable as the first film to turn Ronald McDonald into an actual movie character.

    One word: scary.


    Video Games
    Super Mario Brothers(Photo: Everett)In 1993, Super Mario Brothers began the trend with a notable, legendary disaster. That didn't stop the tie-ins however and as "Silent Hill" fans can attest,

    Read More »from Beyond Grumpy Cat: Hollywood’s Craziest Movie Concepts
  • "The action in the movie is what you would've dreamt to see when you were 11 years old," says director Guillermo del Toro about "Pacific Rim," this summer's sci-fi adventure film in which giant robots and giant monsters engage in epic smackdowns. And, as every 11-year-old loves an amusement park, it's only appropriate that the set of the film kind of resembled one. There's less green screen and computer-generated effects involved with making "Pacific Rim" than you might think.

    Sure, a team of CG artists came together to bring the kaiju (the Japanese word that translates literally as "strange beast") and the mech-warriors to life, but the actual actors who pilot the robots didn't have to leave a lot to the imagination, thanks to the massive sets that were designed to give them as physical an experience as possible.

    "Every movie has to have a portion of analog practical effects to convey the sense of physical reality of the film," says del Toro in the new featurette. "We rigged entire sets to vibrate, to shake, to give you the real perspective of what it would be like to be inside the robot."

    Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' 'Pacific Rim'

    The head of the robot was actually built and attached to a rig, with the resulting structure being about four stories high. There, the actors – including Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi and Idris Elba – would strap themselves in for a complete physical simulation for what it would be like to "grapple" with a giant creature from the deep. Del Toro based the experience of being inside the robot's head as similar to that of

    Read More »from Exclusive ‘Pacific Rim’ Featurette Shows Off 4-Story ‘Torture Machine’ Sets
  • Universal Pictures' 'Fast & Furious 6'

    As a car guy and a stunt man, the dream job has to be working on the "Fast and Furious" franchise, right?

    Fortunately, former road racer turned stunt man Robert Nagle doesn't have to dream about it, because he's lived it. Nagle's been a stunt man on the last two "Fast" films, #5 and #6, and he's lived to tell us about it!

    Nagle parlayed his contacts from the road racing circuit into high-performance driving work on such films as "Collateral," "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," "Drive," "The Dark Knight Rises," "Jack Reacher," "A Good Day to Die Hard," and more. And miraculously, through it all, his worst injury has been a broken thumb.

    However, one of the stunts on

    Read More »from Stuntman Robert Nagle Drives Right On the Edge for ‘Fast 6′
  • Kings of Summer'Kings of Summer' (Photo: MGM)When "Kings of Summer" opens on Friday, it will be the latest in a great line of Hipstersploitation movies, playing up to the of-the-moment tastes of America's young bohemian class.

    Some Hipster films, however, are more subtle than others in their pandering to the cool kids. Parts of "Kings" could pass for a fairly timeless coming of age tale, while other scenes could make you grow an ironic mustache just by watching them.

    So how do you know if you've stumbled into a Hipster film? Here are a few of the tell tale signs.


    1. Moustache Alert
    Michael Cera in 'Youth in Revolt'(Photo: Weinstein Company/Everett)Yes, the ironic mustache has become so much of a hipster cliche that it's hard to believe they still actually exist in nature. But young men in misplaced facial hair, it seems, is a permanent cornerstone of hipsterdom. One of the first things the young hero of "Kings" does when he tastes freedom is to get to work on his upper lip. Michael Cera's "Youth in Revolt"

    Read More »from 10 Signs You’re Watching a Hipster Film
  • Mel Gibson in Open Road Films' 'Machete Kills'

    Maybe one day we'll all find these movies as amusing as Robert Rodriguez seems to.

    For now, the DIY action auteur is back in grind house mode with "Machete Kills," the sequel to the 2010 exploitation flick featuring Rodriguez's muse Danny Trejo as the Mexican you don't want to mess with.

    The "Machete" sequel may perhaps prove to be most notable for being something of a semi-comeback vehicle for Mel Gibson. "Machete Kills" is the troubled star's first on-screen acting gig following the little-seen "Get the Gringo" (2012), which never got a U.S. theatrical release, and "The Beaver" (2011), director Jodie Foster's unfairly ignored therapy drama. Gibson stars as Luther Voz, and the film's first trailer gives us a brief tease of his skills with a sword.

    Read More »from Mel Gibson Plays His First (Fictional) Bad Guy in ‘Machete Kills’

Pagination

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News for You

  • So Long, Mary Jane: Shailene Woodley Cut From ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2′

    Well, it looks like nobody is going to be calling Peter Parker "Tiger" just yet. Sony Pictures and director Marc Webb have apparently decided that Parker's love life was complicated enough without the redhead as the character of Mary Jane … Continue reading →

  • 'The Exorcist': The Real-Life Story Behind the 40-Year-Old Horror Classic

    Really, though, it doesn't look a day over 20. Director William Friedkin's classic horror film had its New York City premiere on June 19, 1973, staking its claim in the pop culture consciousness (with a sledgehammer) and changing the face … Continue reading →

  • Mom: RI theater threw out disabled girl over noise

    NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — A woman says she and her 5-year-old developmentally disabled daughter were thrown out of a theater during a "Beauty and the Beast" performance because the girl was making giggling and humming noises she makes when she's happy.

  • You Won't Believe What Henry Cavill Did Before He Was Superman

    Superman walked my dog. Twice. How many people can say that? Back in 2005 I became friends with an extremely handsome restaurant host named Henry. Little did I know it was Henry Cavill, on the cusp of fame. I used … Continue reading →

  • Palace sheds some light on Kate's baby plans

    LONDON (AP) — With Prince William and the former Kate Middleton expecting their first child in mid-July — and much of the world interested in the birth of a future monarch — the royals' office has released some of the couple's plans, although many details are still being kept private. Kate has made several public appearances recently but is expected to keep a low profile in the final weeks of her pregnancy. Here is the latest news about the infant who will, upon entering the world, be third in line for the British throne.

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