Archive for February 2011
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Kevin Costner in Superman?
“All-American” film star said to be under consideration for the rebooted Man of Steel.
Gnomeo, Vanishing & We Are What We Are: CFQ Round Table 2:7
This week offers a wide-ranging edition of the Cinefantastique Round Table Podcast, including capsule reviews by Dan Persons of three films currently in release: GNOMEO & JULIET, Disney’s animated adaptation of Shakespeare; VANISHING ON 7TH STREET, an independent film with a TWILIGHT ZONE vibe making its way around the country with art house engagements; and [...]
The Unknown & The Haunted: Rare Screening
[ February 25, 2011; 7:30 pm; 7:30 pm; ] The UCLA Film & Television Archive presents a double bill of rare television pilots created by Joseph Stefano, the producer-writer of the classic series THE OUTER LIMITS. The screenings take place on February 25, starting at 7:30pm, in the Billy Wilder Theater of the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
At the end [...]
Oscar-nominated Makeup Symposium with Rick Baker
[ February 26, 2011; 2:30 pm; ] On Saturday, February 26 at 2:30pm, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater (8949 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents its fifth annual symposium examining the nominees in the category of makeup and hair styles. This year’s event will be moderated by Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch Governor [...]
Black Death on screen
[ March 11, 2011; March 18, 2011 to March 19, 2011. March 25, 2011; April 1, 2011; April 8, 2011 to April 9, 2011. April 22, 2011; ] Magnet Releasing is opening this period horror film in limited engagements around the country; it is already available via Video on Demand. The story is set during the time of the titular plague; a knight (Sean Bean) and a monk (Eddie Redmayne) travel to a village unaffected by the disease. (Sounds a bit like SEASON [...]
Red Riding Hood: March 11
[ March 11, 2011 to March 13, 2011. ] Warner Brothers releases what sounds like a TWILIGHT-take on the classic fairy tale – directed, naturally enough, by TWILIGHT-helmer Catherine Hardwicke. Amanda Seyfried stars in the title role, a young girl who falls for an orphaned woodcutter (Lukas Haas); unfortunately, there is a werewolf lurking about the medieval village. We’re not sure that turning the [...]
Jane Eyre: March 11 (select theatres)
[ March 11, 2011 to March 13, 2011. ] Focus features offers up a new feature film version of Charlotte Bronte’s famous Gothic tale, about the titular governess, whose employer Rochester has a mysterious, guilty secret lurking in the attic. The tale is not, strictly speaking, horror, but there is a moody aura and things do go bump in the night. Cary Fukunaga directed, [...]
Battle: Los Angeles – March 11
[ March 11, 2011 to March 13, 2011. ] Columbia Pictures unleashes this film about – yes – another alien invasion of Earth. (Didn’t that just happen in SKYLINE?) Aaron Eckhart stars as a marine sergeant on his last day in the service, who is sent to La-La-Land to lead his men in a battle against what turns out to be aliens storming [...]
I Am Number Four review
While there is no rule in Hollywood explicitly stating that screenwriters should avoid ripping off characters as legendary as Superman, the makers of Dreamworks’s I AM NUMBER FOUR should have at least been warned. Ironically coming from SMALLVILLE creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, I AM NUMBER FOUR employs all the usual tricks for developing [...]
Insidious: April 1
[ April 1, 2011 3:00 pm to April 3, 2011 3:00 pm. ] FilmDistrict releases this supernatural shocker the vein of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, about a family battling demonic forces intent on whisking their comatose child into another dimension (dubbed “The Dark Realm”). That Oren Pelli (writer-director of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY) is on board as a producer should be no surprise, considering the spooky tone of the trailer; what is [...]
Red State on screen
[ March 11, 2011 to March 12, 2011. March 14, 2011 to March 15, 2011. March 22, 2011; March 26, 2011; March 28, 2011 to March 29, 2011. April 4, 2011; April 9, 2011; ] Kevin Smith is taking his independently shot horror film around the country one city at a time, rather like a concert tour (for example, schedule for the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles shows his name, not the film title). The professed strategy is to raise money for a nationwide release, with the official RED STATE [...]
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives: March 4
[ March 4, 2011 to March 6, 2011. ] Strand Releasing gives a limited theatrical spin to this import, including engagements in New York City and at the Laemmle Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles. Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, this winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2010 sounds more like art house fare than a full-blown genre exercise, but there is a genre [...]
The Adjustment Bureau: March 4
[ March 4, 2011 to March 6, 2011. ] Universal Pictures distributes this paranoid science-fiction thriller, in which a secret organization “adjusts” your life to make sure everything goes according to plan – whether or not you approve of the plan. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt star as the couple who meet accidentally – a meeting that was not intended to take place – [...]
