Movie News: Batman Begins..... Again

B-Aff to don the Batsuit

Holy reboot Robin! 

After much speculation since the announcement at this year’s Comic-Con that DC Comics’ Superman and Batman would go toe to toe, cape to cape etc in the untitled Man of Steel sequel, the mask is off... Or should that be on?

Warner Bros announced today that Ben Affleck will be the latest to don the Bat-cape of alter ego millionaire Bruce Wayne taking over from Christian Bale. Affleck, who had been rumoured to be directing the superhero mashup ‘Justice League’ at one stage will instead slip into some patented rubber in front of the camera fighting crime in some capacity alongside Henry Cavill’s Superman. And as you’d expect, all involved are excited at the prospect.

 “We knew we needed an extraordinary actor to take on one of DC Comics’ most enduringly popular Super Heroes, and Ben Affleck certainly fits that bill, and then some,” says Warner Bros Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production in a statement released by the studio today.

“His outstanding career is a testament to his talent and we know he and Zack will bring new dimension to the duality of this character.”

Zack Snyder returns as director for the sequel and looks to be giddy with anticipation at working with B-Aff;

“Ben provides an interesting counter-balance to Henry’s Superman,” says Snyder. “He has the acting chops to create a layered portrayal of a man who is older and wiser than Clark Kent and bears the scars of a seasoned crime fighter, but retain the charm that the world sees in billionaire Bruce Wayne. I can’t wait to work with him.”

B-Aff, who no doubt was already a WB favourite after winning the studio Oscar glory for last year’s Argo, has some runs on the board when it comes to playing a superhero – he portrayed actor George Reeves who played Superman in the 1950’s in the true Hollywood mystery Hollywoodland  in 2006 and starred as blind swashbuckling superhero Daredevil in 2003.

While that film under performed, Affleck looks like he’s on the money this time with the Man of Steel reboot which has past the $US650 million mark worldwide.

The untitled sequel is scheduled for release in July 2015.

Flashback: Blades of Glory

Hijinks on ice

For a casual passer by, the sight of two male, heterosexual Hollywood actors serenading each other to the tune of Aerosmith’s I Don't Want To Miss A Thing would be bemusing to say the least.

But for Jon Heder and Will Arnett it’s all part of the shenanigans of the promotional trail for their film, the Ben Stiller produced comedy Blades of Glory which takes aim at a sport ripe for lampooning, that of world champion pairs figure skating.

“It’s colourful, it’s got a lot of costumes and crazy characters, set pieces, make up and feathers." 

Heder, who gained cult status as the eponymous dry witted nerd Napoleon Dynamite plays the effete Jimmy MacElroy, a former child prodigy now a champion ice skater who comes to blows with his arch rival Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell again dusting of his brand of testosterone fuelled lunacy after Talladega Nights) at the ice skating world championships.

 As a consequence, both are banned from competing as individuals but in a canny loophole the enemies decide to team up as the first male paired figure skaters ever. 

Heder and Ferrell in all their glory

Arnett, best known for his scene stealing role as Gob Bluth in the acclaimed sitcom Arrested Development plays Stranz Van Waldenberg one half of an unnaturally close sibling pair (Arnett’s now ex-wife Amy Poehler - Baby Mama - plays his sister) out to make sure they don’t succeed.

Sitting on a mock Olympic podium on a metropolitan ice skating rink in Sydney, Heder and Arnett have skated out for a brief press conference after the assembled media has been regaled with routines from champion ice-skaters, a much more subdued affair compared to the campily amusing routines and costumes in the film.

Arnett and ex Poehler

First up a question regarding accusations that the movie ridicules the gay community. 

Heder responds in jest; 

“I think it’s just simply a love story between two men but in the sense of brotherly love.” 

Next up, did Heder’s amusing dance moves as Napoleon Dynamite assist his transition to the ice? 

“No, not at all,” he says unequivocally. 

“When you dance on a hard floor it’s much easier. It becomes a different language when you go on the ice because you don’t have control of your feet.”

Heder, who bravely suggested he wear a costume replete with peacock feathers in the film, reveals there was pain involved when FILMINK asks of the cast’s rigorous training regimen. 

“I actually broke my ankle during training so that kind of messed things up for a while,” he says. 

“I was off the ice for about 5 or 6 months. Most of us, aside from Will [Arnett] had to learn how to just skate in general on our own and then had to learn pairs skating along with that and then routines. Every single time we felt like we were doing pretty well they’d say ‘Oh well, here’s a new challenge’ and then we’d get down and try to kill ourselves….”

Spandex coated victory

Arnett, who grew up ice skating in Canada adds; 

“Everybody had to get up on their skating so there was a sense of camaraderie because we were all in this thing together.”

The earnestness thankfully doesn’t last long with the actors who share little actual screen time dropping gags at pace. Playing enemies in the film, they say, wasn’t a stretch. 

“Off the set, it was always me in my trailer thinking ‘How am I going to take out Will today?” jests Heder.

Heder jests that being a real life twin informed his portrayal of one half of a trail blazing male skating pair alongside the anarchic screen persona of Ferrell. 

“We shared everything,” he said “There were moments when we looked into each other’s eyes and I could read his thoughts. It wasn’t a pretty place….”

When asked why Blades of Glory achieved box office gold in the US Heder responded; 

“It’s colourful, it’s got a lot of costumes and crazy characters, set pieces, make up and feathers." 

"If you hate fun……” Arnett interjects, “Don’t come to it.”

Blades of Glory airs tonight on GO at 9.30pm

First published online at filmink.com.au, June 2007.

Movie News: The Great Gatsby

Success is sweet revenge for Baz



Baz mimes his desire to put the critics' cajones in a vice 

If success is the best revenge then Baz Luhrmann’s is proving particularly sweet.

Despite some scathing reviews, his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has well exceeded expectations raking it in at the international box office; it’s already made $130 million of its $180 million budget back since its release, first in the US on May 10 and has given the likes of Star Trek: Into Darkness and Iron Man 3 some stiff competition.

Who’d have thought a lavish 3D adaptation of an American literary classic could do that hey Baz?

"We’ve got a bona fide literary blockbuster on our hands," Luhrmann told news.com.au today with good reason to crow after the cutting critiques.

"When does that happen?

“It ain't over till it's over, but the numbers are way above expectations."

"It was an extraordinarily big gamble.”

News.com.au reports that Gatsby is Lurhmann’s most successful film released in the US to date having taken $90 million already – Moulin Rouge is his second, it made $57 million stateside.

"I could not be happier......No one saw it coming. Everyone said we were dead. Everyone said we would flop."

In Cannes where Gatsby opened the world's premier film festival in the coveted opening slot last week, Luhrmann took a pragmatic approach to the vicious criticism his films attract.

"The critical fallout is pretty much identical for all my films," he told The Guardian. "It's not just mild disappointment. It's like I've committed a violent, heinous crime against a personal family member."



Lurhmann with his Gatsby cast on the Croisette in Cannes

 And he revealed to The Sydney Morning Herald that the barbs and arrows do hurt when you’re taking a massive gamble like Gatsby.

"I worried for the life of the film," Lurhmann said. "It's like having a child go off to school and the kids are beating them up.

"I feel very responsible for leading everyone from our lead actors to every person in the crew and our financiers down a road and, when the reviews are negative, I worry for those who believed in the project.

"I don't want to see them derided or feel like they've backed the wrong horse."

"Did I worry about the reviews? Yes. Because I thought the child might be beaten to death before it got a chance even to get into the schoolyard."

As he prepares to walk the red carpet tomorrow night alongside stars Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire - Leonardo DiCaprio has pulled out, reportedly to party in Cannes - at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter in Sydney, just a stone’s through from Fox Studios where the film was shot, Lurhmann is clearly basking in proving the critics wrong.

"I could not be happier," he told the SMH. "No one saw it coming. Everyone said we were dead. Everyone said we would flop."

The Great Gatsby opens on May 30. Take a squiz at the trailer below featuring music from Beyonce and Florence Welch.

Margaret & David get their Rage on





Back away from your TVs as sparks might fly when the doyens of film criticism and spirited verbal combat Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton take control of the Rage playlist on ABC1 tonight from 11pm.

Pomz and Stratts are presenting a special ‘Auteur Edition’ showcasing music clips directed by some of cinema’s best known and most talented filmmakers.

Who knew that David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, The Social Network) directed Aerosmith’s ‘Janie’s Got A Gun’? Or that cinema icon Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) helmed Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’? Or that Brian DePalma (Scarface, Carrie) directed Bruce Springsteen’s suspect dance moves in ‘Dancing In The Dark’?



Courtney Loves Brucie

There’s sure to be many more surprises as Margaret and David show these clips and loads more from the likes of Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation), Kriv Stenders (Red Dog), Lasse Hallström (Good Will Hunting), Guy Richie (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels), Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands), Tony Scott (Top Gun), The Coen Brothers (Fargo), Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing) and Spike Jonze (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) amongst a cavalcade of others.

Musical acts featured include The Beatles, Madonna, Radiohead, Elton John, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, INXS, The Angels, Divinyls, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Bob Dylan and Marianne Faithfull and many more.

To get the party started here’s the craptastic video clip ‘Reach’ by the equally craptastic so called new wave ‘80’s band Martini Ranch (featuring actor Bill Paxton!) It’s a madcap wild west themed clip directed by none other than James Cameron (Terminator, Titanic, Avatar) and featuring his ex wife director Katherine Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) as a gun-slinging hottie and Paxton (Apollo 13) hamming it up as a hapless outlaw. Did I say craptastic?

Top 10 Valentine's AND Anti-Valentine's films to 'snuggle' to. Or not.



Lost for words - Love Actually



Love Actually has scored the number 1 spot in a recent poll of the best romantic movies to ‘snuggle’ to by the appropriately named movie rental outfit LOVEFiLM and behavioural analysis firm Mindlab International, reports The Daily Mail. And the pollsters say that there’s a real science behind why romantic films can get us in the mood for luurrrve.

“If an on-screen couple share a passionate kiss, the mirror neurons in the viewers’ heads will fire as if they were doing the kissing,” says Mindlab International's resident neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis.

“They will experience the same powerful and pleasurable emotions that are being depicted on screen.”

He notes that romantic films can up adrenaline and heighten sexual attraction.

“When a couple watch a romance together each person mistakenly attributes a part of the adrenaline buzz produced by the film to the presence of their partner,” says Lewis.

“Couples are far more likely to touch, hold, hug and kiss one another than couples watching a less emotional film.”

LOVEFiLM editor Helen Crowley adds that a romantic movie session “may even help to ensure the evening concludes in the way you’d hoped.”

Here’s the Top 10, with particular head-scratching at the inclusion of Disney Pixar’s Wall-E!

 

What the?!! Wall-E



1. Love Actually
2. The Notebook
3. Wall-E
4. Notting Hill
5. Dirty Dancing
6. Ghost
7. Pretty Woman
8. Titanic
9. Jerry Maguire
10. Casablanca

And for those less romantically inclined, here are ten Anti-Valentine’s films from this millennium, courtesy of Kirk Baird of The Toledo Blade.

 

She loves me/She loves me not.... (500) Days of Summer



• High Fidelity 
• Lost in Translation
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Broken Flowers
• (500) Days of Summer
• Crazy Heart
• Blue Valentine
• Barney’s Version
• Like Crazy
• Take This Waltz

Oscar Noms: Weaver drops the F Bomb, McFarlane drops H Bomb

The charmingly ever frank Aussie actress Jacki Weaver has revealed she dropped the F Bomb when she heard she’d scored a second Oscar nomination after her first for Animal Kingdom in 2011, this time for her performance as Bradley Cooper’s ‘Mom’ and Robert De Niro's wife in Silver Linings Playbook. (scroll down for the trailer)

And all while rugged up in Qantas pyjamas. Weaver was flying to Texas to shoot Parkland in which she’ll play mother to Lee Harvey Oswald when she heard the news.

"I wasn't sleeping well so I turned on the TV. I honestly wasn't expecting it, and it did take me quite by surprise,” she told Movieline. “I yelled out a rude word. That word began with f as in Freddie. And it sounded like the way Australians say 'park'."

Meanwhile, Family Guy and Ted creator Seth McFarlane who’ll host the Oscars next month, caused a storm of controversy when he announced Michael Haneke’s Amour in the Best Foreign Language category at Thursday’s nominations ceremony;

"I read Amour was co-produced by Austria and Germany," he said to co-presenter, actress Emma Stone. "The last time Austria and Germany co-produced something it was Hitler but this was much better."

McFarlane certainly seemed unrepentant when he responded to critics on his Twitter feed.

“Lotta flap over that Adolf joke. Look, Amour was a great film, so how about this: Austria, we'll give you the Oscar if you take back Arnold.”

If this is the sort of schtick McFarlane is capable of even before the big night, it should make for an interesting show come February 24.

Hitchcock warns of movie mobile menace from the grave

Ok, so that's a blatant lie, though you wouldn’t be blamed for confusing Sir Anthony Hopkins who plays The Master of Suspense in the just released Hitchcock with the real deal.

In this creepy, clever promo masquerading as a public service announcement Hopkins as Hitchcock warns of the dire consequences of using mobile phones during a movie echoing many a cinema lover’s sentiment;

“Nothing is more horrifying than talking or texting in the middle of a movie. Please do not text during the movie because it makes everyone psycho.”

Reviews for Hitchcock, a look behind the scenes of the making of Psycho and Hitchcock’s marriage to Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) and her influence on his work have been very mixed. While no one seems to deny the powerful performances of Hopkins and Mirren, the consensus of detractors is that the film doesn’t offer nearly enough insight into Hitchcock himself, that the tone is uneven and the truth very pliable;

“Hitchcock offers almost zero insight into the peculiar workings of creative genius, or into the rich, taboo-shattering legacy of the film whose making it documents,” wrote Justin Chang of Variety.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy was more generous;

“Hitchcock might be a work of fantasy and speculation as much as it is history and biography, but as an interpretation of a major talent's inner life and imagination, it's undeniably lively and provocative.”

And speaking of fantasy, well fantasy shattered that is, check out Hopkins having some fun with his prosthetic face on set below (fast forward to 2mins 10secs) .