In what might be the least anticipated remake in all of film history, the “Point Break” project is moving forward. In 2011, Alcon Entertainment said it would remake Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 film about FBI agents undercover as surfers, but then everyone forgot about that–until yesterday.The company announced that the project has a director, Ericson Core, whose credentials include “Fast and the Furious” and football film “Invincible” starring Mark Wahlberg.In 2011, producer Andrew Kosove told IndieWire that the remake will have “elements of the original and it’s not just surfing, it’s other kinds of extreme sports, but surfing is very, very prominent in the story.”It remains yet to be seen, however, if a group as memorable as Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey and Anthony Kiedis can be cast (it can’t).Continue Reading… … Read More
“Fists of Legend”: Ludicrous (and delicious) action extravaganza
Not to indulge in cultural stereotypes about how Asian movies involve several different genres at once, along with a lot of ass-kicking – but that’s exactly what the overloaded and outrageous Korean martial-arts saga “Fists of Legend” is like. One of the mini-stories of global movie distribution in the last year has been the sudden emergence of Korean pop cinema in the American market, which is partly about the fact that the Asian-American audience is now spread across the continent and partly about the fact that Korean movies tend to draw so heavily on a blend of familiar Western and Eastern references, and aren’t likely to strike anyone as incomprehensible. Like the recent gangland thriller “New World,” “Fists of Legend” will open in numerous cities before moving rapidly to home video.Continue Reading… … Read More
Newest “Great Gatsby” trailer teases with plot, music
Though by now you may have already seen trailers for “The Great Gatsby,” the adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic, Warner Bros. on Thursday released the first trailer to reveal some of the plot of the film. The trailer also features new music from Beyoncé, Florence and the Machine, Lana del Ray and André 3000.The film, starring Leonardi DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, hits movie theaters May 10.Continue Reading… … Read More
Story of Boston Globe team who exposed sex abuse in Catholic Church hits big screen
Dreamworks has bought life rights to the story of The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team, who in 2003 won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for exposing sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. “The Boston Globe’s coverage of the Catholic priest scandal opened the door to a bigger story that had worldwide ramifications,” said DreamWorks president Holly Bario.From the Hollywood Reporter:Life rights have been acquired to the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight Team” of reporters and editors, including then-Globe editor Marty Baron, special projects editor Ben Bradlee Jr., Spotlight Team editor Walter “Robby” Robinson and reporters Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer and Matt Carroll. The team spent a year interviewing victims and reviewing thousands of pages of documents and discovered years of cover-up by Church leadership. Their reporting eventually led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, who had hidden years of serial abuse by other priests and opened the floodgates to other revelations of molestation and cover-ups around the world that still reverberate today.Tom McCarthy will direct and co-write the script with Josh Singer, THR reports. Boston Magazine already has some casting suggestions for the Globe reporters.Continue Reading… … Read More
Roger Ebert scales back, to review “only the movies I want to” due to cancer
Preeminent film critic Roger Ebert announced late last night that he is cutting back from his work due to his ongoing struggle with cancer.Ebert, the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, has been penning reviews for 46 years to the day, and writes over 200 reviews a year. Last year, Ebert wrote a career-high of 306.Now, the prolific reviewer is taking what he refers to as a “leave of presence”:”What in the world is a leave of presence? It means I am not going away. My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers handpicked and greatly admired by me. What’s more, I’ll be able at last to do what I’ve always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review.”Though narrowing his writing focus, Ebert will expand his reach in other ways, including starting a Kickstarter campaign to bring back his PBS program, “At the Movies,” attempting to turn a video game or app into a movie, collaborating with Martin Scorsese over an Ebert biopic and managing the relaunch of his Web site, Rogerebert.com.Continue Reading… … Read More
“Movies featuring an epic Nicolas Cage meltdown” and other April Fools’ jokes on Netflix
If you are a company searching for the perfect Internet prank for April Fools’ Day, you might as well give up, because Netflix has beat you to it. The online streaming company, known for its increasingly precise category recommendations, last night launched a set of bizarre new categories for the occasion. (If you have a Netflix account, check the third row of categories).Better hurry home tonight, so you don’t miss out on some of these one-time recommendations:[slide_show id=13257727]Continue Reading… … Read More
Martin Scorsese to develop “Gangs of New York” television series
Legendary film director Martin Scorsese is adapting his 2002 movie “Gangs of New York” to television. The film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis, is based on Herbert Asbury’s book of the same name about rival gangs in New York during the late 1800s.Deadline reports on the television series:”The series, co-produced by Miramax and GK Films, will draw from the events surrounding organized gangs at the turn of the century and shortly thereafter in America, not only in New York but in other cities such as Chicago and New Orleans and the birth of organized crime in America. ‘This time and era of America’s history and heritage is rich with characters and stories that we could not fully explore in a two-hour film,’ said Scorsese. ‘A television series allows us the time and creative freedom to bring this colorful world, and all the implications it had and still does on our society, to life.’ ” ;Continue Reading… … Read More
