Baz Luhrmann’s Flashy Great Gatsby Trailer Sets off Internet Backlash

By Julie Miller

The first preview of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby has surfaced—two and a half minutes that look just as you may expect if you’re familiar with the often flashy Aussie filmmaker’s work on Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, but that have somehow managed to shock the trailer-watching public in seemingly equal amounts of pleasure and dismay. The frenetic, high-drama preview promises sweeping shots of Jay Gatsby’s West Egg soirées, immaculate set design, and period-perfect costumes—but also what appears to be a hyper-stylized, extended-music-video treatment of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American classic. The trailer opens to the Kanye West/Jay-Z collaboration “No Church in the Wild” against images of Jazz Age excess that could fit into any rap video: wealthy men and women clinking cocktails in speeding convertibles, free-flowing liquor, women swaying from chandeliers over pulsating party crowds, and ample sexual tension. (So maybe Luhrmann nailed the “excess” aspect in one way or another.)

Praised as “gonzo,” “dazzling,” and visually “spectacular” by preview reviewers, it’s also set off a swift rebuttal in comments sections and on Twitter. (“UGH Baz Lurhmann stop touching things that I like!” Time-magazine columnist James Poniewozik added on the latter.) Ahead, the most outraged (or funniest) responses to Luhrmann’s latest spectacle, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, and Tobey Maguire. The full-length feature can be seen in all its glory in 3-D when it’s released in theaters on Christmas.

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Books to Film Forecast: Cloud Atlas, On the Road, Lawless

By Gabe Habash

There’s a slew of book-to-film news in light of Cannes 2012, going on right now. Let’s get to it.

*Cloud Atlas (which we put at #2 on our most anticipated book adaptations of 2012) has been bought by Warner Bros. for $20 million, after having been made for $101 million (and initially estimated at $170 million). The film is made by Matrix directors the Wachowski brothers and a 2 hour, 44 minute cut (with incomplete special effects) screened for buyers at Cannes to positive buzz. Cloud Atlas has been given a December 6 release date. It stars Tom Hanks, Ben Whishaw, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Hugh Grant, and Halle Berry.

*Also playing at Cannes is Killing Them Softly, the heist-and-mob picture from Andrew Dominik, whose first film was the masterful (PWxyz’s opinion) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The film is based on George V. Higgins’s Cogan’s Trade, written in 1974. The cast: Brad Pitt, Sam Rockwell, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini. Release is set for September 21. Check out the film’s first clip:

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A Radical Female Hero From Dystopia

  By A. O. SCOTT and MANOHLA DARGIS

KATNISS EVERDEEN, the 16-year-old “Hunger Games” warrior who has torn through the box office, is one of the most radical female characters to appear in American movies. The film’s stunning success can partly be explained by the print sales of Suzanne Collins’s trilogy of young-adult novels, which jumped to more than 36.5 million in March from 16 million in November, suggesting that the anticipation for the film was feeding demand for the books. At the same time there’s more to Katniss fever than page-screen synergy. Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott, the chief film critics of The New York Times, examine this complex, at times contradictory character.

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Watch ‘The Hunger Games’ Reenacted by Beanie Babies

By Emily Temple

If you haven’t had enough Hunger Games hype this weekend, we’ve got a pretty plush treat for you. “The Beanie Baby Hunger Games,” created by Jeff Luppino-Esposito & Jamie T. McCelland, is exactly what it sounds like — The Hunger Games acted out by Beanie Babies — and it’s actually remarkably true to the books. Follow stuffed blue jay “Katniss Everbean” as she volunteers at the reaping, heads to the Capitol (which looks suspiciously like Times Square), and is hurled into the games themselves, with good old Peeta, a bright yellow duck, at her side. Not only is this a clever, well-executed idea, we also think it’s a pretty solid way to make use of all those old Beanie Babies — after all, you know you’ve always wanted to set at least a couple of them on fire.

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The Cross-Generational Pull of ‘The Hunger Games’

 

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in 'The Hunger Games'/Photo: Murray Close

By Kate Bussmann

When Jennifer Lawrence appeared from nowhere in “Winter’s Bone,” the makers of “The Hunger Games” must have done a double take. Although one is contemporary realism and the other is dystopian fantasy, the roles themselves are strikingly similar. In each, a stoical teenager steps up to save her family from destitution, with her mother incapable and father absent. There are even parallel scenes where she kills and skins a squirrel.

Although she was Oscar-nominated for the role, from the moment Lawrence’s name was connected to Katniss Everdeen, the flawed but fierce heroine at the heart of Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, fans began to revolt. They complained that the now twenty-one-year-old was too old to play sixteen, that she wasn’t dark or gaunt enough, even that her hair was too short. They wanted Hailee Steinfeld from “True Grit,” Saoirse Ronan from “Hanna,” or Chloe Grace Moretz from “Kick-Ass” – all roles that put young girls in extreme situations. There were even some who wanted Harry Potter’s Emma Watson.

Collins, however, was delighted. “We have found Katniss,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I never thought we’d find somebody this amazing for the role. And I can’t wait for everyone to see her play it.”

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FIRST LOOK: Daniel Radcliffe As Allen Ginsberg

  By Jeremy Kinser

The first photos of Daniel Radcliffe as gay Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in the film Kill Your Darlings have emerged, courtesy of People magazine.

The film will tell the true story of Ginsberg’s friendship with On the Road author Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), a fellow member of their close circle of friends who later became identified with the Beat movement in literature.

 

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Behold! The Unfilmable: David Mitchell’s ‘Cloud Atlas’

Column by Joshua Chaplinsky

I can picture Don LaFontaine doing voice-over from the big vocal booth in the sky:

In a world of undiscovered countries and high seas adventure, a Dickensian composer living in Belgium… Wait a minute, that can’t be right, can it? Are you sure? Ok, then… An intrepid journalist investigates improprieties at a nuclear power plant… Am I missing a page here? Is this even the same movie? An aging publisher on the run from the mob, trapped in a nursing home against his will- Alright, is this someone’s idea of a joke? In the not too distant future, a clone working at a fast food restaurant contemplates rebellion, but is actually the subject of a holographic film being watched in a post apocalyptic future where the last surviving members of an advanced civilization watch over a group of primitives- Seriously, how can this be one movie? It doesn’t make any sense. In the not too distant future, a clone working- dammit, we’ve done this part. An aging publisher… an investigative journalist… What the hell? Why are we going backwards? A Dickensian composer- That’s it! I’m out of here! Good luck with your ridiculous movie.

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That’s right, David Mitchell’s unfilmable opus, Cloud Atlas, is coming to a theater near you, courtesy of the Wachoswski siblings (nee brothers) and (run) Tom Twyker (run). The purported (though denied) $150 million epic stars Tom Hanks, Jim Broadbent, and Susan Sarandon, to name an illustrious few. It also stars Halle Berry.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

…the film will see the actors playing multiple roles in the various storylines. Twyker and the Wachowskis will shoot parallel to each other using two separate film crews. It’s expected Tykwer, whose credits include the 18th century-set Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, will handle Cloud Atlas‘ period era plotlines while the Wachowskis apply their Matrix mojo to the novel’s sci-fi settings.

Of course, the question on everyone’s mind is, how the hell are they going to pull this off? For those of you who don’t know (and couldn’t discern the ramblings of the theoretical trailer), Cloud Atlas is comprised of a sextet of stories structured like a Russian nesting doll. A Russian nesting doll starring at its own reflection. You get the first half of each story- except for the sixth, which sits complete at the center- followed by their conclusion, in reverse order. Each section is presented as a historical or fictional document in the one that follows (or the one preceding, if you’re on the back end), acting as a thematic through line. It is a pastiche of genres, encompassing everything from high seas adventure to post-apocalyptic sci-fi.

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Oscars’ big winners will be books

Oscars on the shelf … Jennifer Lawrence and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Tom Sherak at this week's nominations. Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Literary adaptations look set to sweep the board in Hollywood this year.

ByJohn Dugdale

Six of the nine nominations announced this week for Best Picture are based on books, reflecting a recent pattern in which the Oscar lists have consistently and gratifyingly affirmed cinema’s dependence on literature. Apart from a modest lurch towards originality in 2010, the previous five years saw line-ups in which half or more of the shortlistees were adaptations, including the winners No Country for Old Men (2008), Slumdog Millionaire (2009) and The King’s Speech (2011).

It’s not classic novels that attract movie-makers. Of the books turned into nominated films this time, only Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse (1982) was not published in the noughties. The others are Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret (filmed as Hugo), Jonathan Safran Foer’s 9/11 novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Moneyball by Michael Lewis (the second non-fiction sports title by him in three years to generate a Best Picture nominee, as he also wrote the source of Blind Side), and two debuts, Kaui Hart Hemmings’s The Descendants and Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. It’s the first time for quite a while – conceivably since 1940, when Gone with the Wind won and Wuthering Heights was among the nominees – that versions of two novels by women have been listed for the most coveted Oscar.

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The Help triumphs at SAG film awards

The Help takes top honours at the Screen Actors Guild awards

Civil rights drama The Help has won three prizes at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards, including best cast and best actress for Viola Davis.

Another of the film’s stars, Octavia Spencer, was named best supporting actress.

“Dream big and dream fierce,” Davis told the audience at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium on Sunday.

Silent movie The Artist, tipped for Oscar glory, could only manage one win, a best actor prize for Jean Dujardin.

The SAG awards are seen as a key indicator of which films and stars may come out on top at the Oscars.

Actors make up the biggest voting group in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which picks the Oscar recipients.

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Editing & Mixing For ‘On The Road’ Complete

Walter Salles Says Editing & Mixing For ‘On The Road’ Complete; Film Looks Potentially Primed For Cannes With May 23rd French Theatrical Release

By Simon Dang

In development for decades by Francis Ford Coppola, who remains a key producer on the film, the eagerly anticipated big screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac‘s “On The Road” has been a long time coming. But the project’s lengthy journey might finally be seeing the light of day, as the post-production is wrapping up and European theatrical dates are slowly coming into focus. “The Motorcycles Diaries” director Walter Salles is at the helm, joined by a promising young cast in Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Tom Sturridge and Kristen Stewart, as well as veterans like Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, Steve Buscemi, Kirsten Dunst and Terrence Howard.

“We just finished the edit and the mix in Paris,” Salles told Your Entertainment Corner recently. “There are still a few steps left until the film is completely finished (designing titles and credits, getting the digital workprint back to 35mm, etc.) The independent company that produced the film, MK2, is now working on the site and trailer. As for release dates, they tend to vary from country to country when a film is distributed independently.”

One variable is evidently the release in France, which producer Charles Gillibert revealed on Twitter is set for May 23rd, running concurrently with the tail end of this year’s Cannes Film Festival (scheduled for May 16-27). This primes the film for a potential premiere on the Croisette, which will precede the Gallic theatrical release. In a similar manner, Terrence Malick‘s “The Tree Of Life premiered at the festival last year before being unspooled in French cinemas a week later. Unlike Malick’s film, though, “On The Road” doesn’t have North American distribution in place yet. So while the film looks like it will premiere and be released in France within the next five months, a U.S. date could be a bit further off.

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