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1-20 of 135 items from 2012 « Prev | Next »
AfterElton Briefs: Kylie Has A "Timebomb," Ellen's Adorable Gingers, and How Did Your Favorite TV Shows Rank This Year?
25 May 2012 11:50 AM, PDT | AfterElton.com | See recent AfterElton.com news »
Here is last week's caption pic winner. This week's caption pic is at the bottom of the page.
Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner is ...
"It seems Edna Mode's "no capes" policy has been taken to extremes."
Thanks to Miz Liz for this week's winning caption!
Weekend Birthdays! (Note: Birthday shoutouts are for out entertainers, allies, or for any celeb that seems to have a following on Ae). Cillian Murphy (above) is 36, A very special shoutout to Sir Ian McKellen, who is 73, the late Dixie Carter would have been 73, Mike Myers is 49, the faboo Pam Grier is 63, Helena Bonham Carter is 46, Paul Bettany is 41, and out singer/actor Timo Descamps is 26. He's just adorable.
Btw, there are two other birthdays this weekend we'll celebrate on Saturday and Sunday with separate posts. Deadline has the complete ranking list for this television season (for the 18-49 demo). Shows of note include »
- snicks
10 Reasons Prometheus Will Be The Best Film of 2012
24 May 2012 5:00 AM, PDT | Obsessed with Film | See recent Obsessed with Film news »
You could say “Prometheus” has named itself rather ambitiously. Appropriating the name of a man attributed with bringing fire and brightness to the world and then being punished for it; it’s either making itself out to be the summer martyr, the best thing on display and given to us, yet it is punished by films like “Step Up 4″ at the box office; forever living in shame, infamy and forcing Ridley Scott to retreat to a different planet to avoid the embarrassment. Don’t worry Ridley, no-one else will understand why either.
Or, it’s a signal of intent, it’s promising to bring something fresh, new, explosive, flickering and big to our screens; and so far it hasn’t disappointed. The trailers have done everything from raise the hairs on the back of our necks, to make us hold on to our faces to make sure it’s melted »
- Luke Stevenson
Christopher Eccleston Wants More Theatre Roles
16 May 2012 5:11 AM, PDT | WENN | See recent WENN news »
British actor Christopher Eccleston is turning his focus to the stage as he devotes the next phase of his career to the theatre.
Eccleston got his start performing classics by Shakespeare and Chekhov before appearing in a series of big-budget films, including 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
While he has enjoyed his Hollywood success, Eccleston admits his burning ambition is to be onstage.
He tells Britain's Daily Telegraph, "I've neglected theatre. That's a shame. It's why I went to train as an actor. And for the next 20 or 30 years I'm going to do more and more of it. That's the plan. I'm determined!"
Eccleston was inspired to become an actor after working as a young usher and seeing Sir Anthony Hopkins performing at London's Olivier Theatre.
He recalls, "I was an impressionable student and I'll never forget seeing Anthony Hopkins as Lambert Le Roux (in Pravda) and Ian McKellen playing Coriolanus. I had a really extraordinary experience of seeing Hopkins dominate the Olivier then eat beans on toast in the canteen. That was fascinating - seeing the transition, the quietness of him, then the hugeness of him in the same day. What solidified in my mind was the thought, 'If you play a big classical role on the Olivier stage, you can go no higher in British theatre.' The Olivier was where I always wanted to work."
Eccleston's dream is soon to be realised - he is starring as Creon in an upcoming production of Antigone at London's Olivier Theatre. »
Joyce Redman obituary
13 May 2012 7:18 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Vivacious Irish actor best known for her role opposite Albert Finney in Tom Jones
The red-haired, vivacious and provocative Irish actor Joyce Redman, who has died aged 93, will for ever be remembered for her lubricious meal-time munching and swallowing opposite Albert Finney in Tony Richardson's 1963 film of Tom Jones. Eyes locked, lips smacked and jaws rotated as the two of them tucked into a succulent feast while eyeing up the afters. Sinking one's teeth into a role is one thing. This was quite another, and deliciously naughty, the mother of all modern mastication scenes.
Redman and Finney were renewing a friendship forged five years earlier when both appeared with Charles Laughton in Jane Arden's The Party at the New (now the Noël Coward) theatre. Redman was not blamed by the critic Kenneth Tynan for making nothing of her role as Laughton's wife. "Nothing," he said, "after all, will come of nothing. »
- Michael Coveney
Sci-Fi and Fantasy Heroes Turned Russian Generals
8 May 2012 8:13 PM, PDT | FamousMonsters of Filmland | See recent Famous Monsters of Filmland news »
io9 has uncovered a webtastic treat, where UK artist Steve Payne has replaced the faces of 19th century Russian generals with many of our favorite stars from sci-fi and fantasy classics. Something I’m sure everyone’s thought about doing. There’s the Shat, Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellan and many more, all looking ridiculously great. If you want to check out Payne’s tumbler to see them all in their glory, click here. »
- Andy Greene
The Iron Lady
7 May 2012 6:52 AM, PDT | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »
There is a great moment on the Hollywood comedy Extras where Sir Ian McKellen explains his acting method succinctly to Ricky Gervais. When the director says “action,” he plays that character. When the director says cut, he stops. While the scene is played for laughs, this is how many actors approach their job. They play and pretend, hoping to trick the audience into believing for a few hours that the actors in front of them are real characters. An actor's job is complicated, however, when they are acting in a biopic. Anyone can do an impersonation, but getting the audience to suspend their disbelief is far trickier, especially for a public figure like Margaret Thatcher. An audience will know if the actor's mannerisms or actions don't ring true to their real life counterpart. For all those reasons, The Iron Lady is an extraordinary achievement and will certainly be a major »
- Rachel Kolb
Top 10 sci-fi and fantasy beards
3 May 2012 4:44 AM, PDT | Den of Geek | See recent Den of Geek news »
The sci-fi and fantasy genres simply wouldn’t be the same without a bit of arresting facial hair on its protagonists. Here are Sarah’s top 10 beards...
Beards are awesome, aren’t they? The right kind of beard can make any man into… well, a slightly hairier man, but theoretically a much more awesome man. Beards seem pretty intrinsically linked with sci-fi and fantasy, too: there are some kinds of facial hair that just scream “this is the future!” while “beardy” has been used as an adjective to suggest excessive nerdiness.
We, of course, would never use “beard” in a pejorative sense, ever. Because, as previously mentioned, beards are awesome. Here are the ten best beards in all of sci-fi and fantasy:
10. Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane)
The Harry Potter franchise
According to an article in Scotland on Sunday, part of the character concept for Hagrid is that he’s a “mountain of leather and hair. »
Peter Jackson responds to The Hobbit criticism
30 April 2012 2:38 PM, PDT | Flickeringmyth | See recent Flickeringmyth news »
One of the big surprises coming out of the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas this past week was the reaction towards 10 minutes of footage from director Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - or more specifically, the look of the footage, which Jackson has chosen to shoot at 48fps (frames-per-second), as opposed to the industry norm of 24fps. While many, including James Cameron (Avatar), have touted this approach as the future of cinema, those in attendance were taken aback by the footage... and not in the way Jackson would have intended.
"The change from 24 frames per second to 48 frames per second is Huge. It completely changes what every image looks like, the movements, the tone, everything is different," wrote Peter Sciretta in his report over at /Film. "It looked like a made for television BBC movie... It looked uncompromisingly real — so much so that it looked fake. »
- flickeringmyth
Nazis at the Center of the Earth (2012)
30 April 2012 1:24 PM, PDT | Planet Fury | See recent Planet Fury news »
Directed by: Joseph J. Lawson
Written by: Paul Bales
Featuring: Dominique Swain, Jake Busey, Josh Allen, Christopher K. Johnson
“Wouldn’t it be hard to make a movie about a huge Nazi army in an underground world in Antarctica on a next-to-nothing budget?” you might ask. The answer is “yes.”
A crack team of scientists stationed in Antarctica accidentally discover a piece of aluminum sheeting with a swastika painted on it buried one whole inch below the surface of the snow where it has been since 1945 when Nazis fled to the snowy continent to continue their mad plans to rule the world. Sensing their aluminum sheeting has been discovered, Nazis race to the surface and abduct the two scientists away to their enormous underground Nazi lair.
The rest of the scientists, led by Jake Busey, go looking for their co-workers and come upon a hole in the ground that leads to this crazy world. »
- Superheidi
Box Office: Biggest International Opening Weekends
29 April 2012 3:24 PM, PDT | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »
Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2: Biggest International Opening Weekends Box Office: Ninth Biggest International Opening Weekend – The Avengers David Yates’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 with Daniel Radcliffe, Ralph Fiennes, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint — $314,000,000 Rob Marshall’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush — $260,400,000 David Yates’ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint — $236,000,000 Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 with Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco — $230,544,376 Michael Bay’s Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon with Shia Labeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel — $219,810,798 Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End with Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley — $216,000,000 David Yates’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 with Daniel Radcliffe, Ralph Fiennes, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint — $205,000,000 David Yates’ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix »
- Zac Gille
Peter Jackson Responds to Criticism Towards The Hobbit and 48 Fps Projection
28 April 2012 3:18 PM, PDT | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »
Peter Jackson caused a hailstorm of negative feedback this past week when he screened ten minutes of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at CinemaCon 2012, where the footage was projected at 48 frames per second. 48 fps is supposed to be the next wave in cinematic technology, but critics and theater owners in attendance couldn't believe what they were seeing. Most said it made the movie look cheap, like a bad Mexican soap opera. Especially the sets, which looked particularly artificial when shot at this speed.
Of course Peter Jackson has heard these comments, and today, he has responded to the backlash this ten minutes of film, which were also shot at 48fps, has received in the press.
First, he told Entertainment Weekly his thoughts on the negative reactions towards the footage.
"Nobody is going to stop. This technology is going to keep evolving. At first it's unusual because you've never seen a movie like this before. »
- MovieWeb
Peter Jackson responds to complaints about 'The Hobbit' footage
27 April 2012 6:19 PM, PDT | EW - Inside Movies | See recent EW.com - Inside Movies news »
Peter Jackson says the negative reaction this week over new technology he’s using to shoot The Hobbit won’t hold him back, and he hopes moviegoers will give it a try and judge for themselves.
“Nobody is going to stop,” he said. “This technology is going to keep evolving.”
When Warner Bros. showed off 10 minutes of footage this week at CinemaCon, the annual convention for theater owners, many attendees complained that this version of Middle Earth looked more like a movie set than the atmospheric, textured world seen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
There was a lot »
- Anthony Breznican
Peter Jackson Debuts New 48Fps Format With Footage from The Hobbit at CinemaCon
26 April 2012 12:00 PM, PDT | ScifiMafia | See recent ScifiMafia news »
At this year’s CinemaCon, attendees were treated to the debut of not only ten minutes of footage from Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but also the innovative 48 frames-per-second format. This new format doubles the traditional 24 fps we are used to seeing in the theaters and provides a “heightened sense of reality” according to Jackson.
Though reaction to the new format seems mixed, it’s to be expected. As with the emergence of any new technology, there will be traditionalists who buck the emerging trend and skeptics who question how well this format pulls of a “heightened sense of reality.” Jackson believes that 48 fps will help the quality of 3D as well as function fully reverse-compatible:
“It’s terrific for 3D; I’ve looked at the 48 fps dailies for ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ in 3D for over a year now, and with the reduction in strobing and flicker, »
- Lillian 'zenbitch' Standefer
The Hobbit 48-Frame Problem
25 April 2012 9:19 PM, PDT | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »
Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and its sister (brother?) movie The Hobbit: There and Back Again were shot in 3D for a reported $500 million, which is about half the gross domestic product of African nations such as The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Liberia. Jackson’s gamble goes further when you take into account that The Hobbit movies were shot in 48 frames per second — twice the normal speed rate. About ten minutes from The Hobbit were screened at the theater owners’ CinemaCon convention earlier this week. The results were at best mixed. Wide vistas received wide praise; indoor scenes were panned. "Indeed, the footage shown did seem hyper-realistic," wrote Amy Kaufman in the Los Angeles Times‘ "old school" (joke…) blog 24 Frames. "An opening aerial shot of dramatic rocky mountains appeared clearer than the images in most nature documentaries. But »
- Zac Gille
Warner Bros.Pictures Unveils Never-Before-Seen Footage Of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Showcasing Stunning High-Frame-Rate Results
25 April 2012 2:49 PM, PDT | WeAreMovieGeeks.com | See recent WeAreMovieGeeks.com news »
Warner Bros. Pictures screened approximately 10 minutes of never-before-seen footage from New Line Cinema and MGM’s upcoming epic “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” which showcased the filmmaking innovation of 48 frames-per-second (fps), doubling the typical frame rate of 24 fps. The footage was part of the studio’s presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners (Nato).
The film, slated for worldwide release beginning December 14, 2012, is the first major motion picture to be made using this state-of-the art high-frame-rate technology.
The footage was introduced via a taped greeting from director Peter Jackson, who gave a bit of history as to how 24 fps became the industry standard and why today’s technology allows for higher frame rates. He also explained that 48 fps is actually closer to the way the human eye views the world. Jackson offered, “As a filmmaker, I always want to create a strong sense of reality, »
- Michelle McCue
The Hobbit: first glimpse gets mixed response
25 April 2012 2:18 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
First screening of extended footage at CinemaCon meets with mixed reactions to 48 frames-per-second format
The first screening of extended footage from The Hobbit, Peter Jackson's forthcoming two-part Lord of the Rings prequel, has been met with mixed reactions at the annual CinemaCon event in Las Vegas.
The conference, which allows cinema owners, filmgoers and critics to catch a glimpse of upcoming high-profile movies, featured a presentation from Jackson (via recorded linkup) of footage shot at the higher 48 frames-per-second format, which the film-maker has been championing as the future of cinema. However, Variety reports that some audience members were unconvinced, with actors appearing overlit and sharp in a way that many compared to modern sports broadcasts or daytime television.
"It reminds me of when I first saw Blu-Ray, in that it takes away that warm feeling of film," one chain owner said. "It looked to me like a behind-the-scenes featurette. »
- Ben Child
The Dark Knight Rises: CinemaCon Thunderous Applause
24 April 2012 9:43 PM, PDT | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »
Christian Bale, The Dark Knight Rises The Dark Knight Rises was a hit at CinemaCon on Tuesday. According to TheWrap’s Brent Lang, Tdkr director / co-writer Christopher Nolan "spliced together a nearly wordless series of shots that showed the caped crusader (Christian Bale) duking it out with Bane (Tom Hardy), tangling with a very sultry Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and once again being called on to save Gotham City from the brink of anarchy." Lang adds that "the applause that greeted the footage was thunderous, so much so that Warner Bros. might think about using it as a trailer." EW.com offers a few more details about the Dark Knight Rises footage, including the following: The clips began with an extended scene of Bane … and his crew hijacking a plane in an innovative way. Then it cuts to a series of shots showing Christian Bale as an aging — and perhaps ailing — Batman. »
- Zac Gille
Tom Hiddleston Pens Poetic Defense Of Superhero Movies
23 April 2012 11:14 AM, PDT | MTV Splash Page | See recent MTV Splash Page news »
Leave it to Tom Hiddleston to stand up for the integrity of the superhero genre.
"The Avengers" star wrote an editorial for The Guardian defending what has become one of the most popular types of movie in Hollywood. Hiddleston explained that, in his opinion, comic book movies are inventive and innovative, like the films the Lumière brothers made back at the turn of the 20th century, and should be treated as such.
"Big talk for someone in a silly superhero film, I hear you say. But superhero films offer a shared, faithless, modern mythology, through which these truths can be explored," Hiddleston wrote. "In our increasingly secular society, with so many disparate gods and different faiths, superhero films present a unique canvas upon which our shared hopes, dreams and apocalyptic nightmares can be projected and played out."
He continued, "Superhero movies also represent the pinnacle of cinema as 'motion picture. »
- Terri Schwartz
Avengers Star Tom Hiddleston Writes Great Article Defending Superhero Films
21 April 2012 12:00 PM, PDT | GeekTyrant | See recent GeekTyrant news »
I love the superhero films that are being made these days! And of course I love the superhero films of the past such as Superman, Batman among many others. These films actually served as our inspiration for starting GeekTyrant, in fact we launched the website at the same time as Jon Favreau's Iron Man.
There was a time when these comic book adaptations went through some disappointing phase with movies like Daredevil, Electra, Fantastic Four, X-Men: The Last Stand and a few others we like to tear apart. But for the most part, comic book movies are constantly evolving and getting better and better as time goes on. There's a place for these films in our lives, and they aren't going away anytime soon.
Marvel has gloriously cornered the market for these movies, and are epically adapting comics that at one point I honestly didn't think we would see so awesomely made. »
- Venkman
Tom Hiddleston: Why I love superhero movies
20 April 2012 7:05 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
From Superman to Batman, superhero films have much to teach us about faith and humanity – as well as being terrrific visual spectacle, writes Avengers Assemble star Tom Hiddleston
Earlier this year, beneath the wind-whipped tarpaulin of a catering tent in Gloucester, I was working on a film with the actor Malcolm Sinclair. Over scrambled eggs at an ungodly hour, he told me something I had not previously known: when Christopher Reeve was young, barely out of Juilliard, he was roundly mocked by his peers on Broadway for accepting the role of Superman. It was considered an ignoble thing for a classical actor to do.
I grew up watching Superman. As a child, when I first learned to dive into a swimming pool, I wasn't diving, I was flying, like Superman. I used to dream of rescuing a girl I had a crush on (my Lois Lane) from a playground bully (General Zod). Reeve, »
- Tom Hiddleston, Patrick Stewart
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996
1-20 of 135 items from 2012 « Prev | Next »
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