The search for a new star to carry Paramount’s latest installment of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise is over. Oscar-nominated star Jeremy Renner, who anchored Kathryn Bigelow’s acclaimed Iraq War drama, “The Hurt Locker,” has been hired to carry on the mantle of international espionage. Deadline reports that Renner won’t replace, but rather star alongside, Tom [...]
Hollywood’s escalating war on originality is far-reaching. Independent films are finding it more difficult than ever to find distribution, tent-pole summer releases have a set a new precedent for mindless banality and virtually every film ever released will be remade, twice, by the end of next year. But perhaps the most troubling effect of Hollywood’s [...]
Chris Pine, the talented young man who took on the daunting task of replacing William Shatner as the famed Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ reboot of “Star Trek” earlier this year, will likely assume another prominent role, this time as Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Variety reports that Pine, nearing final negotiations with Paramount, would get [...]
Apparently J.J. Abrams knows something the rest of us don’t: Studios love lens flare. After this year’s critically acclaimed and monstrous box-office hit, “Star Trek,” which featured an unhealthy dose of said camera technique, Hollywood execs have been clamoring for more J.J., even willing to plop down close to $2 million for an untitled pitch [...]
Anton Yelchin’s star continues to rise despite taking part in the disaster that was McG’s “Terminator Salvation.” Yelchin, and co-star, Jennifer Lawrence, will play young lovers in “The Beaver,” the new Jodie Foster-directed flick for Anonymous Content and Summit Entertainment. Mel Gibson signed on the project as well, only a few months ago. Kyle Killen [...]
The 1970s were to good science-fiction what the 1960s were to social and political unrest, and counter-cultural deviance. With genre classics like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Star Wars,” “Solaris,” “THX-1138,” “Logan’s Run,” “Silent Running,” “Star Trek: the Motion Picture,” and “Alien” all emerging in the same decade, fans have been longing for the [...]
2009 has been a relatively good year for film. Action, adventure, comedy, drama, horror, and sci-fi have each been duly and honorably represented. And with the Academy’s recent announcement that the number of Best Picture noms has been increased from five to 10, under-appreciated films from the first half of the year may just have [...]
Adam Goodman, Paramount’s newly minted President, has made the action-comedy pitch “License to Steal” his first major acquisition, paying seven figures upfront for it, according to Variety. Shane Salerno will loosely model the script after the concept of high-end repo agents who travel the world to reclaim pricey toys explored in Marc Weingarten’s Salon.com article. [...]
JJ Abrams’ “Star Trek” kicks off the summer blockbuster season. Does it soar or fizzle? The task of rebooting an ailing franchise can be daunting. Also, we take a look at British avant-garde video artist Steve McQueen’s debut, “Hunger.” This IRA vs. British State, Bobby Sands hunger strike film is a compelling, disgusting, gut-wrenching, moving [...]
“Star Trek” has set its phaser to “kill” at the box office. Paramount, the movie’s distributor, told the Associated Press that the J.J. Abrams directed film brought in $24 million Friday, plus $7 million during preview screenings Thursday night. The distributor estimates that number will rocket to $70 million in ticket sales over the weekend [...]
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