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There's no escaping James Franco. In little more than a decade, the 30-something actor has risen up from relative obscurity to become a worldwide sex symbol and Hollywood leading man with tremendous star power, despite making some career choices — after receiving critical acclaim for his performance in Milk (2008), Franco returned to TV in 2009 with recurring roles on 30 Rock and the soap opera General Hospital — that would have derailed the careers of other actors.
Passed over for several major roles earlier in his career, Franco was chosen to bring Fox's Planet of the Apes franchise back to life and to headline Disney's Oz the Great and Powerful, which is currently the highest grossing movie of the year by a wide margin. How did Franco go from being a TV "geek" to the king wizard of the box office? Just watch the movies on the list we've put together for you and, in under eight hours, you'll be able to dazzle your friends and co-workers with your understanding of the ascension of Franco.
Be conversant in James Franco >> Posted 04.09.13 by BrentJS -
Comic book legend Stan Lee first started working for Marvel Comics in 1939, back when it was still known Timely Comics, eventually co-creating Marvel's most enduring characters, including the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the Avengers, to name a few. Still going strong at 90 years old, many might be surprised to know that Lee hasn't worked at Marvel Comics for years, as he is still seen as a figurehead for the comic book company. Lee continues to field questions and comments on Twitter, where he has a huge following, and continues his association with Marvel through his many cameos in Marvel movies.
Lee made his first onscreen cameo in the 1989 TV movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, and would go on to appear in 2000's X-Men, all four Spider-Man, 2003's Daredevil and Hulk, both Fantastic Four movies, 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, both Iron Man movies as well as 2011's Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger and last year's The Avengers (but not, inexplicably, 2003's X2: X-Men United or X-Men: First Class). Lee's entire, chronological cameo history has been compiled into a single video (via Mary Sue), including most of our ten favorites (sorry, Mallrats doesn't count) and excluding Lee's voice over work from Marvel's animated series.
watch the video >> Posted 01.09.13 by Ryan -
The Amazing Spider-Man's release marks the fourth Spider-Man movie in the past decade — and the original trilogy sets a pretty high bar for the franchise's reboot to live up to. Well, the first two do. The third one, not so much… In any case, Sam Raimi created a pretty memorable series of movies, not to mention a wonderful depiction of the original comics.
We have no doubt that the latest release will do better than its namesake, TV's Amazing Spider-Man. (If you're not familiar with this 1977 gem, check out the trailer. It kind of speaks for itself.) Even so, we remain worried about whether the reboot's plot can stand up to what we've seen before. Not only did Raimi's first installment do justice to Spidey's origin story, it also went through a couple of his better storylines: namely the entire Green Goblin soap opera and the creation of Venom. The Amazing Spider-Man, on the other hand, focuses on The Lizard. While he's certainly an iconic villain, his story never had the same weight.
If the reboot has any box office success, we can pretty much assume a sequel waits in the wings. In case Sony's executives are looking for ideas, here are five storylines from the comics worth bringing to the big screen — even if we have doubts as to whether they could get a green light.
See Spin Me a Tale: 5 Spider-Man Stories We'd Like to See >>
Posted 06.28.12 by reelz -
For younger moviegoers, he was best known for telling Spider-Man/Peter Parker that "with great power, comes great responsibility." But for older audiences, he was known for his Academy Award-winning performance in the 1968 movie Charly and for bringing down one of the most powerful movie studio heads in 1977.
Cliff Robertson died Saturday of natural causes, just one day after turning 88 at the Long Island's Sony Brook University Medical Center.
Robertson won his Best Actor Oscar for playing a mentally impaired character in Charly. But it was outing Columbia studio head David Begelman in a check forging scheme that made a name for Robertson.
more about robertson's career >> Posted 09.11.11 by Chris -
So far, not much has been revealed about how director The Amazing Spider-Man different from the trilogy of movies that Sam Raimi directed. With no trailer released yet, anxious fans were recently treated to the first official photos outside of January's first official look at Andrew Garfield in his Spider-Man costume and February's look of Spidey about to use his webshooters.
Of course, there have been plenty of "spy pics" from the Amazing Spider-Man set, some of which just show Spidey running across the street, while others were more revealing. Some May spy photos confirmed that Rhys Ifans was going to play Dr. Curt Connors, a.k.a. the Lizard, a fact that Sony was trying to keep very close to the vest.
Both The Amazing Spider-Man and 2002's Spider-Man cover the character's origin story, which is how the movies will be similar, though Amazing Spider-Man has Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) as Peter Parker's love interest and not Mary Jane, which is more in keeping with the comic book origin. In an interview with The LA Times, Webb says that another difference between his and Raimi's Spider-Man movies is that being a nerd is much different than when the character was first created in 1962.
what did webb say? >> Posted 07.19.11 by Ryan -
Today's Challenge: There have been lots of movies based on comic books, but The Dark Knight and Spider-Man top the charts. Can you find a movie link that connects Batman (Christian Bale) to Spidey (Tobey Maguire)?
Our first Facebook movie game, ClusterFlick, plays off that old "six degrees of separation" theory — you know, the one that has a certain Kevin at the center of the Hollywood universe. It's easy to play, but not so easy to win. The goal is to use the major cast of movies to get from Point A to Point B in the smallest number of moves.
Play ClusterFlick >>
Posted 04.17.11 by reelz -
With Spider-Man 3 expectations were high because ... well, why shouldn't they have been? The first movie was good, the second one was great, and assuming that a pattern was forming it looked like the franchise's third movie was going to be awesome. Yeah. Let's just say the actual Spider-Man 3 didn't meet our expectations — hell, it didn't meet our expectations for the Chipmunks movie. Our hopes are still high for the Spider-Man reboot. But just in case, we've charted out the problems with the last movie in hopes that Marc Webb and Co. are paying attention.
See Rewind: Spider-Man 3 >>
Posted 01.19.11 by reelz -
Tonight's Hollywood's Top Ten takes a look at movie scenes where the romance or drama is intensified by rain. Which movies made the list? Find out in the clip below. Then tune in tonight at 8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT to see the full episode, or catch one of its encore showings. ReelzChannel is 299 on Dish, 238 on DirecTV, and available on your cable system.
Posted 07.23.10 by reelz -
Andrew Garfield had to be thrilled when he found out he won the title role in Sony's upcoming Spider-Man reboot. A relative unknown outside of the U.K., Garfield is taking over a franchise that has made more than $2 billion dollars in worldwide box office, gets to work with up-and-coming director Marc Webb, and become rich beyond compare. Eventually. Deadline reports that the entire reboot is taking a pay cut, including Garfield, who will earn $500,000 in his first outing as Peter Parker.
That's 1/8 what Maguire got for the first movie >> Posted 07.06.10 by Ryan -
Even though director James Cameron said only a month ago that he would not direct the rebooted Spider-Man movie because it would be "a little bit sloppy seconds," apparently he is willing to discuss the movie with the director ultimately chosen for the job, Marc Webb. According to MTV, Cameron's producing partner, Jon Landau, confirmed that the two directors met and that the topic of discussion was shooting the Spider-Man reboot in 3-D, a technique Cameron mastered in directing Avatar.
Last [week] we met [with Webb. He] wants to do the next one in 3-D, which they've announced that they want to do. So, we want to try to support that as much as possible.
What's interesting about this meeting is less the fact that Webb sought out Cameron for his 3-D knowledge than that Cameron has long been associated with Spider-Man as a movie property. Cameron drafted a script for a big-screen Spider-Man adaptation for Carolco back in 1991, more than a decade before Sam Raimi's Spider-Man broke box-office records and helped to entrench superhero movies as a summer box-office staple. Cameron's plans were crushed beneath the weight of legal actions over character rights and contract disputes. Carolco and Marvel Comics both declared bankruptcy in 1996 and the rights to Spider-Man, including Carmeron's script, went to MGM, who later traded them to Columbia Pictures for the exclusive rights to 007.
In light of Cameron's history with Spider-Man, it's easier to understand the underlying bitterness in his "sloppy seconds" remark, but it only makes his decision to meet with Webb all the more surprising. But, Landau said that Cameron agreed to the meeting because he "loved" Webb's latest movie, (500) Days of Summer, and because of their shared belief that the right way to release a movie in 3-D is to shoot it in 3-D, rather than to have it converted to 3-D in post-production.
Other movies are turning to [3-D] now, some of which I agree with, some of which I don't agree with. Clash of The Titans is coming out in 3-D; they're converting it very hastily into 3-D. I'm not in favor if that. If you want to shoot a 3-D movie, shoot it in 3-D.
The currently untitled Spider-Man reboot is being written by James Vanderbilt and produced by Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin for Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios. Though no cast announcements have been made yet, Sony Pictures has already announced that the movie will be released in 3-D on July 3, 2012.
Posted 02.17.10 by BrentJS