DiCaprio Replaces RDJ for Iron Man 4!

October 7, 2013 by Jill Landon Posted in Casting News Tagged Iron Man, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downy Jr.

Donec imperdiet quam faucibus elementum facilisis. Pellentesque eu velit justo. Suspendisse orci diam, convallis sit amet placerat convallis, viverra et nibh. Ut varius dui eros, et gravida mauris molestie sed. Proin volutpat vulputate elementum. Etiam vitae sapien sed mi molestie tincidunt ut tempor metus. Donec sed suscipit risus. Aliquam in est quis velit auctor aliquet. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Integer suscipit vestibulum erat vitae sodales. Maecenas scelerisque condimentum mauris ut bibendum. Nunc aliquam mattis orci. Donec tempus nulla at neque vestibulum, id gravida nisi porta. Suspendisse ac malesuada magna.

Mauris at hendrerit libero. Pellentesque rutrum, erat interdum consectetur mattis, est justo eleifend lorem, vel porta massa ligula nec augue. Aenean tortor ipsum, feugiat id nunc eget, suscipit feugiat dui. Fusce adipiscing mattis neque ut pulvinar. Aenean imperdiet nunc sit amet bibendum tristique. Aliquam blandit urna sagittis purus auctor vulputate. Mauris a rutrum justo.

Nulla cursus nunc ut fringilla ullamcorper. Morbi quis velit pharetra, aliquam dolor at, viverra odio. Nullam faucibus, justo a iaculis pretium, urna purus imperdiet diam, nec euismod nisi quam sit amet dui. Quisque dignissim, arcu a imperdiet vehicula, est neque vestibulum libero, non pharetra metus risus in diam. Vestibulum hendrerit urna non est sagittis, quis eleifend neque consequat. Pellentesque lacinia velit at tellus interdum hendrerit. Proin posuere varius leo, sit amet feugiat magna faucibus sit amet. In eu nunc ligula. Quisque in nisl porta, fringilla ipsum eget, consectetur eros. Donec et volutpat mi, a imperdiet erat. Maecenas luctus lacinia mi, at sollicitudin urna pharetra eu. Fusce porttitor nibh et est tempus convallis.

Nam at gravida mauris, aliquet auctor nulla. Phasellus porttitor consequat lectus. Maecenas lacinia massa sem, cursus sodales felis viverra malesuada. Etiam faucibus urna magna, et suscipit eros tristique eu. Nulla faucibus nisl nisi, eget rutrum nisl laoreet at. Morbi in nisl nulla. Nam non bibendum diam. Maecenas vehicula, sem vel gravida ornare, diam elit pellentesque mi, at viverra enim nulla vel libero. Aenean rhoncus sed ligula quis volutpat. Integer quis rutrum erat. Sed et nibh enim. Maecenas odio leo, consectetur a sem quis, tincidunt malesuada libero. Pellentesque ornare consequat leo et consequat. In egestas odio velit, vitae dictum lacus molestie vel.

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter

DiCaprio Replaces RDJ for Iron Man 4

October 7, 2013 by Jill Landon Posted in Casting News Tagged Iron Man, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downy Jr.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla elit purus, vehicula non facilisis a, condimentum a felis. Sed varius scelerisque eros vitae dictum. Maecenas lacinia eros id nunc convallis suscipit. Etiam eleifend, nisl id cursus egestas, nunc nibh convallis risus, eu volutpat arcu purus vitae massa. In pharetra consectetur accumsan. Cras diam purus, ultricies non malesuada dictum, porttitor eu massa. Nunc in mauris nulla.

Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor Johnson Confirmed for THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

October 6, 2013 by Matt Oakes Posted in Casting News Tagged Aaron Taylor Johnson, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Casting News, Elizabeth Olsen, Marvel

Elizabeth Olsen (Martha May Marlene) and Aaron Taylor Johnson (Kick-Ass) are slated to play twin superheroes, Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver, in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Samuel L. Jackson announced Elizabeth Olson’s involvement, while promoting Spike Lee’s upcoming adaptation of Oldboy, saying “I know we’re shooting in London, that James Spader is Ultron and going to be the bad guy, and that we added Ms. Olsen, but I don’t know what she’s doing, if she’s on the inside or the outside. I haven’t seen a script.” Deadline’s source confirmed.

The news lends credibility to the long-time rumors of Aaron Taylor Johnson’s involvement in the film, as he seems to be making his career on comic book movies.

Aaron Taylor Johnson’s Kick-Ass co-star, Evan Peters, is also playing Quicksilver in the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, due to Fox and Marvel sharing the characters rights, so expect the incessantly obnoxious comparisons to begin, when The Avengers: Age of Ultron opens on May 1, 2015.

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter

Taylor Swift Cast in THE GIVER to the Excitement of No One

October 6, 2013 by Matt Oakes Posted in Casting News

In a move to delight the singer’s tween audience, enrage readers of books, and generally boost box office returns, Taylor Swift has been cast in the movie adaptation of The Giver, Lois Lowry’s Newberry Medal winning 1993 children’s novel about a frightening dystopian future disguised as a utopia where pain has been eliminated along with emotional depth and memory. Although given that subject matter, Swift’s casting would seem to make sense. Director Phillip Noyce and The Weinstein Company have probably chosen Swift to boost box office returns and slowly chip away at a pillar of your childhood.

The seminal work, heralded ignorantly by Teen Vogue as “the original Hunger Games”, stars Jeff Bridges as the titular character, a community’s living receptacle of all emotion and memory as he trains a precocious youth to take over the role, Jonas (Brenton Thwaites, who will also star in Disney’s upcoming film Malificent in 2014). As you can imagine, things go wrong and the boy and his mentor fight the system in a tale with themes – Contentment vs. Integrity, the Great Society vs. Individual – meaty enough for most middle schools to assign the book to their students. Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush, Alexandar Skarsgard and Cameron Monaghan round out the cast.

Harvey Weinstein said of the production that, “We could not have assembled a more impressive cast for this project behind Lois Lowry’s beautiful novel and the directorial talents of Phil Noyce, and are tremendously excited to commence production,” set to begin on October 7th in Cape Town, South Africa. Neither Weinstein or Noyce, who’s directing credits include Salt and Patriot Games, have commented on whether Swift will show up in the soundtrack as well, although the rumor mill is giving it pretty good odds.

It’s pretty ironic that in a work, which is opposed to sameness and uniform contentment, Noyce and his producers have made no breaks from the norm casting-wise to make this film. Whether it’s contempt for the tween audience The Giver adaptation is marketed to, or the producer’s blatant attempt at raking in the dough at the cost of the source material’s integrity, there are plenty of reasons to dislike this move. Given that it’s part of an increasing trend of pillaging school reading lists for movie ideas, it makes you hope that Weinstein & Co. don’t discover “Animal Farm”, “Lord of the Flies”, or any more childhood favorites to sell to today’s young adults.

The Giver is directed by Phillip Noyce and stars Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush, Alexandar Skarsgard and Cameron Monaghan. It hit theaters August 15, 2014.

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter

New Teaser Trailer and Poster for ENEMY

October 5, 2013 by Matt Oakes Posted in Trailers

Not much has been released or even said about Enemy, the second work by Denis Villeneuve starring Jake Gyllenhaal since Prisoners, the powerful drama that premiered at TIFF on September 20th, 2013. No US release date has been set, but from the poster and the just-over-a-minute teaser trailer, replete with ennui from the content to the wandering and sorrowful music, we can expect the same moody introspection and desolate spaciousness that characterized Prisoners. Screened as a special presentation at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the trailer asks more questions then answers, providing just enough information to set the scene without revealing any of the plot.

The teaser is full of disjointed and interconnected beats of Gyllenhaal, giving a lecture at a University where he teaches about dictators and control in some moments, interspersed with Gyllenhaal’s seemingly despondent relationship with his girlfriend, coitus and walk-out included. Gyllenhaal seems disheveled, preoccupied and uninterested; his world is beige, poorly furnished and bleak. That, coupled with the vaguely insidious soundtrack, is all we have to go on so far, and it is definitely enough to get the wheels turning about the emotional undertow of the plot. In text it’s apparent that Gyllenhaal gets double-billing for playing his doppelgänger, but only time and more released information will tell what will come of this meeting outside of scattered hints that the results will be grim.

An adaptation of Nobel-Prize-winning author José Saramago’s novel “The Double”, this work proposes to solidify the brooding, expansive aesthetic that Villeneuve gave glimpses of in Prisoners. The film’s cast also features Mélanie Laurent, Isabella Rosselllini, Sara Gadon, Stephen R. Hart and Jane Moffat and has recently been picked up by A24 for US distribution. Set to release in Spain on December 13th, 2013, it’ll be interesting to see how this film compares and measures up to Prisoners for Thrills, aesthetic, and overall artistic merit.

Enemy is directed by Denis Villeneuve and stars Jack Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Isabella Rosselllini, Sara Gadon, Stephen R. Hart and Jane Moffat. There’s no official release date yet set.

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter

Second Trailer for OUT OF THE FURNACE is More Exciting, Just as Heartbreaking

October 5, 2013 by Matt Oakes Posted in Trailers

The second trailer for Out of the Furnace, the Scott Cooper film staring Christian Bale and Woody Harrelson, pounds its pulse a little more wildly then the first trailer, but overall still conveys the sense of despair and futility associated with poverty that the first one did. The film, also starring Casey Affleck as Bale’s disillusioned brother, home from the army and in incredible danger, along with Zoe Saldana and Willem Dafoe, is set to release in theaters on December 6, 2013.

While the first trailer focuses more on painting a picture of the rust belt, complete with character portraits and the sprawling industrial landscapes, the second trailer is far more visceral. This one, drawing more from fight/crimes movies and the impoverished alienation capitalized and other Appalachian desperation films, gives you more of an idea of the “whole ‘nother world up in there” which Affleck has gotten himself entangled in. Bale, who’s character Russell has just gotten out of jail, has to decide whether to take his freedom and run or put it all on the line, guns blazing, as he treks into the lawless backwoods of Appalachia to get his brother back from the villain, played by Woody Harrelson.

Taken in aggregate, these trailers shine most in their immaculately crafted interiors, their character designs, and their wide shots of beautiful yet filthy industrial landscapes that sustain and oppress the cast of characters. Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” is covered sorrowfully in the second trailer to emotional impact, and along meticulousness shown in both trailers to the environment and to the performances, the general vibe evokes Winter’s Bone and other horror stories of American poverty. If Scott Cooper pulls performances out of his cast anywhere near as good as the one he got out of Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, this film will not be one to miss.

Out of the Furnace is directed by Scott Cooper and stars Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Zoe Saldana, Willem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker, Sam Shepard. It hits theaters on December 6, 2013.

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter

Second Trailer for OUT OF THE FURNACE is More Exciting, Just as Heartbreaking

October 5, 2013 by Matt Oakes Posted in Trailers

The second trailer for Out of the Furnace, the Scott Cooper film staring Christian Bale and Woody Harrelson, pounds its pulse a little more wildly then the first trailer, but overall still conveys the sense of despair and futility associated with poverty that the first one did. The film, also starring Casey Affleck as Bale’s disillusioned brother, home from the army and in incredible danger, along with Zoe Saldana and Willem Dafoe, is set to release in theaters on December 6, 2013.

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter

Aaron Eckhart Is Trying to Drive Final Nail into His Own Coffin with I, FRANKENSTEIN Trailer

October 4, 2013 by Matt Oakes Posted in Trailers

Aaron Eckhart has taken a bit of a fall from grace of late. Since The Dark Knight, he’s been wrapped up in such clunkers as The Rum Diary, Olympus Has Fallen, Erased and Battle: Los Angeles. From the production team behind the Underworld series, I, Frankenstein looks exactly like the CGI-clutter you would expect. Apparently aimed towards a younger crowd, considering the PG-13 rating, I, Frankenstein has high hopes of being the low point of Eckhart’s faltering career.

“Frankenstein’s creature finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans,” reads the IMDB description. I don’t know about you but this hardly seems like the movie that’s going to re-invest the mass public in the Frankenstein saga. The true shame is that Eckhart and co-star Bill Nighy are wasting their time on this oblivious clunker. Shame.

Take a peek at the trailer and see if there’s any chance you’ll be purchasing a ticket come January.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxOSPfUw3qw#t=123

I, Frankenstein is directed by Stuart Beattie and stars Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski, Jai Courtney, Miranda Otto and Kevin Grevioux. It hits theaters on January 24, 2013.

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter

Out in Theaters: RUNNER RUNNER

October 4, 2013 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters

“Runner Runner”
Directed by Brad Furman
Starring Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake, Gemma Arterton, Anthony Mackie, John Heard, Oliver Cooper
Crime, Drama, Thriller
91 Mins
R

While not nearly as intelligent or edge-of-your-seat as his last effort, The Lincoln Lawyer, Brad Furman‘s Runner Runner is an easily digestible thriller elevated by a sly performance from Ben Affleck. As a businessman-cum-villain, Affleck is the grinning face of rampant capitalism embodied. His character Ivan Block has harnessed the “greed is good” mantra of Wall Street and etched it up a notch, stopping short of nothing to make another dime… or so the film tells us.

However, upon delivery of the goods, Furman comes up short. Like a poker player holding his cards until the last moment, he never really brings the Block character to full-menace, summoning hearty pangs of disappointment from the thrill-hungry audience. But this is a common trend of the film: a slow-play that ultimately reveals a losing hand.

For all his efforts to turn something as intangible as online poker into a exciting experience, the promising sense of a well-dressed thriller fades quickly and we feel about as duped as the legions of online poker addicts gambling away their life savings. Luckily, we get away only having lost about an hour and a half, as little of Furman’s build up amounts to anything at all. It’s just left to wither away without ever accomplishing much or really saying anything. While it hardly gets down and dirty in the realm of the truly terrible, it’s a forgettable bag of movie mulch, tied-and-tethered to a sinking stone.

Princeton grad student Richie Furst (Justin Timberlake) is a gaming junkie. Not the type likely to spend his college tuition on a night of online poker, no, instead Furst tempts other Princetonians to pursue various gambling .coms and gets a cut of their losses. As one of the few people who herd traffic to these gaming sites, Furst knows that he has a better-than-average sense for the game and so hubristically puts his entire college tuition on the line (“Oh no he didn’t”) to make ends meet.

Lo and behold, Furst gets scammed, finds mathematical certainty of his being ripped off, and flies to Costa Rica to confront the man behind the curtain: the illusive Ivan Block. At some beachside vista, he meets Rebecca Sharan (the gorgeous Gemma Arterton) and flirts his way into a party to meet with Block. Right here, we run into our first issue (that is if you’re not counting Timberlake’s opening monologue where he tells you all about himself rather than letting it be revealed over time…but I digress). We’re told how impossible it is to get a meeting with Block from no less than three characters and Furst just waltzes up and bam, it’s meet-and-greet time.

Intellectual inconsistencies like this pepper the rest of the film, revealing the dangerous “tell” that this movie won’t even play by its own rules. With that knowledge, any urgent sense of danger melts away like butter on the popcorn required to digest this caliber of flick. Though these little dollops of stupidity don’t necessarily stand out quite so boldly while you’re in the midst of watching Runner Runner, upon reflection, the lack of foresight is as clear as a fold on a two-seven-split (that’s poker terminology for quit while you’re ahead.) No single moment is so egregious that it’s offensive on its own, but taken in junction with the fact that nothing really comes of anything that’s said or done, the truly frustrating nature of the film is revealed.

Anthony Mackie in an over-sized suit makes a run at Furst, threatening him with banishment from the US if he doesn’t come forward with proof of Block’s ill-doings, but he’s about as intimidating as a schnauzer in a clown costume. That is, he’s all bark and no bite. But that seems to be the point of all this: a lot of talk backed up by very little walk.

Behind the camera, Furman doesn’t accomplish anything that hasn’t been done before but he admittedly didn’t have much to work with, coming off a pipe bomb of a script from longtime duo Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Rounders, Runaway Jury). It’s about as paint-by-numbers as it comes, borrowing from the thrillers of the 70s, 80s, and 90s that we’ve seen so many times before. The romantic subplot, thrown in there for kicks and focus-group ratings, is about as hot as a winter morning in Maine. Both Timberlake and Arterton may be fine specimens of nature but their whimsy flirtation provides a trainer-bra level of support for any of the emotional gravity that’s supposed to come from them. We just know exactly how everything is going to shape up before it gets there, making the journey along the way as familiar as the morning commute.

Furman’s last, The Lincoln Lawyer, was a surprisingly rousing success, however, it seems he learned little from that triumph. Where that provided edge-of-your-seat suspense, this falls behind in the first leg of the race and never manages to catch up. Even the name of the film, a tip-of-the-hat to a poker play where the turn and the river (the final two cards in play) end up significantly improving your hand, is unintentionally ironic. Where a runner-runner depends on the end of play bettering things, in Runner, Runner the finale peters out and flips no trump cards.

It’s not quite bad enough to stand too firmly against but it’s far too soft to inspire any level of recommendation. Ultimately, Runner Runner is best left for a lazy Sunday when you’re half-watching but mostly invested in your smartphone or a periphery conversation.

C-

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter

Documentary Dossier: THE SUMMIT

October 4, 2013 by Matt Oakes Posted in Documentaries, Out in Theaters

“The Summit”
Directed by Nick Ryan
Starring Christine Barnes, Hoselito Bite, Marco Confortola, Pat Falvey, Niall Foley, Stefan Grossniklaus
Documentary
95 Mins
R

K2 is the second highest peak on Earth (after Mount Everest) and by far the most difficult to summit. It has a staggering casualty rate of one in four. Nick Ryan’s The Summit tells the story of an infamous 2008 expedition where 11 of 24 climbers were lost. Ryan makes the audience aware of these statistics early on in the documentary, helping to shape an acute sense of foreboding as we hear virginal tales of these excited climbers over sinister music. Unfortunately the film’s strong start is spoiled by haphazard editing that trumps its initial sense of excitement and leaves the viewer in disbelief that the run time is only 95 minutes.

As far as educational value goes, the film certainly doesn’t skimp. Grand in scope, it lays out every detail about what makes this the hardest climb in the world as well as the history of the mountain, and what exactly has gone wrong to result in so many deaths. If the goal is to learn as much as possible about K2, this is a good starting place. Outdoor enthusiasts and adventure seekers will be pleased, as this film is clearly aimed towards those who can relate to these methodical adrenaline junkies.

There are many methods of scaling a mountain, Ryan tells us. Some (such as a group of Korean climbers) move in large teams, while some move only in pairs. Many rely on oxygen and a Sherpa, while others use neither. What they all have in common is that they are extremely experienced climbers, contradictory to some early news reports on the underlying tragedy.

Ryan uses documentary footage to show the camaraderie between nations at base camp, the competition between hopeful climbers trying to ascend, and the ultimate moral problem that faces climbers: whether to save yourself or try to save an endangered climber. We are told that an unspoken climber’s code is that you save yourself, and you cut your rope if you are endangering your fellow climbers. Just as climbing methods differ between nations, the approach to this moral question differs, showing some to be unapologetic in saving themselves at all costs, as well as those who will wait around, at great risk, to save a friend. Through this lens, the film gives a very three-dimensional look at a great deal of climbers.

Real footage from the event blends seamlessly with the occasional reenactment, to set the record straight on an event that became a real-life Rashomon. Multiple conflicting stories from the survivors saturate the media for months. This, of course, begs the audience to question the authenticity of The Summit’s account. If it was so chaotic up there, how is the film’s chosen account any different? However, this aspect of the story isn’t brought out until very late in the film, and it feels rushed. In fact, pacing is the film’s greatest weakness. Much like a climber looking to tackle the K2, this film has the most difficulty on the way down.

While trying to balance interviews with survivors, documentary footage, and footage from a much earlier climb by the first group to conquer K2, The Summit loses steam fast. As soon as you feel yourself becoming invested in a story, before the payoff, the film shifts gears. It does this repeatedly, and while it can be a good technique, the documentary fails to build enough sympathy for the characters to achieve the intended goal. It jumps around far too much, as the audience waits for everything to connect in a way that justifies the film’s tangential wanderings.

As The Summit pays homage to each fallen climber in a still frame of their picture, birth date, and death date, after each death occurs on screen, it seem like more of a memorial service than a film. The entire thing felt like its intended audience was the bereaved. On this very particular level, it was a success, but it doesn’t offer very much for your average film goer. Here it breaks from Kevin Macdonald’s excellent Touching the Void, which managed to maintain a fantastic sense of tension and character investment. Some of The Summit’s most heavy-hitting moments, such as a grieving widow breaking down in tears, recounting the death of her husband, come well after the film has lost all momentum, completely obliterating the potential of such a scene.

It seems insensitive to trash this film because it was not “entertaining” enough, as it is thoroughly devoted to the facts of a relatively recent tragedy. But when a story such as this doesn’t make you grieve for innocent lives lost, it is a failure. It is a problem of severed impact, something that was apparently lost on the editing room floor.

The footage is there, it just needs coherence, which proper editing could provide. An argument can be made, that the editing style was supposed to make the audience feel the confusion of the climbers, but a documentary needs to document clearly and The Summit does not. Climbing fanatics and family members of lost hikers will probably enjoy this film regardless of its faults, since it is packed with detail, but the rest of us will be left cold.