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Woody Allen is currently in the midst of a second comeback in his long career. Last year, the director had his biggest hit ever with Midnight in Paris, but Allen had to leave New York for his second resurgence, starting with this drama about a tennis pro playing both sides of the court.
game, set, match for Woody Allen >> Posted 12.28.12 by Chris -
ReelzChannel Celebrity Rundown
Over the weekend, we learned exhaustion was the reason paramedics rushed to Lindsay Lohan's hotel room after someone from the Elizabeth Taylor biopic Lohan is working on found the actress "unresponsive." While Lohan said she was exhausted from working nearly nonstop on the Lifetime movie, it didn't keep her from partying. Us Weekly reveals that Lohan was partying until 1 a.m. at L.A.'s Chateau Marmont on Saturday, just a day after the incident. Lohan was so determined to get to the club, she showed up in her Liz Taylor makeup from the set. Lohan, you gotta ask yourself: What Would Elizabeth Do?
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While 51% of the U.S. population is looking forward to seeing Channing Tatum take it off in Magic Mike, a couple of the actor's former stripping pals are less than enthusiastic about the movie coming out. TMZ reports two male strippers who worked with Tatum before he became a movie star claim he stole their story. The movie is supposedly based on Tatum's career as a stripper in Florida. The two guys said they taught Tatum everything he knows about stripping and feel unappreciated. We have a feeling come June 29, women across the country are going to appreciate what they have passed along to Tatum.
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Jack Osbourne revealed he has multiple sclerosis. The diagnosis comes just two weeks after fiancee Lisa Stelly gave birth to daughter Pearl Clementine. "I was just angry and frustrated and kept thinking, 'Why now?'" Jack tells People. "I've got a family and that's what's supposed to be the most important thing." Multiple sclerosis targets the central nervous system, affecting the ability of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to communicate with each other effectively. There is no cure for the disease.
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What did you get your dad for Father's Day? A tie? Well, for Jay-Z's first Father Day's, Beyonce did a little better than a tie. MediaTakeOut.com reports Beyonce bought Jay-Z a $40M private jet. The brand-new Bombardier Challenger 850 includes a living room, kitchen, a bedroom, and two full bathrooms. Oh, the joys of fatherhood.
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Woody Allen's son wished him a happy Father's Day on Twitter saying: "Happy father's day -- or as they call it in my family, happy brother-in-law's day." Guess he's still not over Woody marrying his adoptive sister.
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Justin Bieber took girlfriend Selena Gomez on a helicopter ride over Stratford, Ontario, between rehearsals for Sunday's MuchMusic Video Awards.
Posted 06.18.12 by Chris -
At 75, Woody Allen is at a career high. His last movie, Midnight in Paris, was his largest financial success in his long and storied career, earning $107 million in worldwide box office.
While Allen shot Midnight in Paris in, well, Paris, France, his latest movie was shot in Rome, Italy, and was initially titled The Bop Decameron. Made up of four vignettes, the movie stars Alec Baldwin, Robert Begnini, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg and Ellen Page and also has a new title. Allen told THR that The Bop Decameron, named after Giovanni Boccaccio's medieval allegory The Decameron, didn't register with most people so he changed it.
I couldn't believe how few people had heard of The Decameron even in Rome. And the few that did assumed the movie was based on Boccaccio's tales which it's not. Anyhow, I changed the title to Nero Fiddled, which is the first time I've changed a title since my last minute switch of Anhedonia to Annie Hall.
more about Allen's latest >> Posted 10.14.11 by Ryan -
Woody Allen spent most of his career working in New York, but has been working in Europe since 2005's Matchpoint, returning briefly to New York for 2009's Whatever Works. While Allen has worked primarily in England or Spain, the prolific writer/director's latest, Midnight in Paris, unsurprisingly, takes him to France with a story about an engaged couple (Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams) whose lives are transformed by a visit to the French capital.
Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for the movie, which also stars Kathy Bates, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Tom Hiddleston, and French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
Allen's recent work sometimes feel partially like movies he has already made, with Match Point borrowing heavily from Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors, and last year's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger seeming to borrow the theme of a family's sexual politics from Whatever Works. Midnight in Paris seems to borrow from Vicky Christina Barcelona, in that an American finds inspiration by visiting a foreign city.
Watch the trailer >> Posted 03.29.11 by Ryan -
At 74 years old, Woody Allen's one-movie-a-year output is increasingly impressive, though his latest, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger seems a little lazy, depicting another tale of sexual politics complicating the lives of a British family (Allen fans might remember the exact same plot line in 2009's Whatever Works, only the setting was New York). A new international trailer shows off the usual jazzy, ensemble dramedy that is the standard for Allen movies. This time his impressive cast includes Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Antonio Banderas, Gemma Jones, Lucy Punch, and Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto.
View the international trailer here >> Posted 07.09.10 by Ryan -
Woody Allen's latest You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger won't open until September 23, but the prolific writer/director is already at work putting together his cast for his next movie. Entertainment Weekly reports that Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, and Kathy Bates have signed on for Allen's latest romantic comedy, Midnight in Paris. French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was already cast, even though she admitted "I'm not an actress at all."
The movie "celebrates a young man's great love for Paris, and simultaneously explores the illusion people have that a life different from their own is better" as it follows a family that heads to Paris for business, including a young engaged couple that has a life-changing experience during the trip.
Michael Sheen (Tron: Legacy) and Tom Hiddleston (Thor), also star.
Posted 04.28.10 by Ryan -
In Whatever Works, out on DVD this week, Patricia Clarkson plays Marietta, mother to the 21-year-old Melodie (Evan Rachel Wood) who marries the curmudgeonly Boris (Larry David). Clarkson's character comes to New York intent on ending her daughter's marriage ... and then makes a radical lifestyle change.
Whatever Works is Clarkson's second appearance in a Woody Allen movie, having played an unhappily married housewife in 2008's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. On the next Secret's Out, Clarkson talks with Leonard Maltin about how she got started working with Allen.
Tune in for the Secret's Out premiere on Friday, December 11, at 6:30 PM ET/ 3:30 PM PT. Or catch one of its encore showings.
Posted 12.11.09 by reelz -
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has accepted Woody Allen's offer of a role in his next movie, The singer, songwriter, and former model is the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and has been the at the center of all sorts of controversies. This will be her first acting job, though, she confesses in an interview with Bloomberg.
He offered me a role in his next movie.... I don't know for what character, but I said yes. I'm not an actress at all.... Maybe I will be terrible. But, in my life, I cannot let such a chance go.
The part is not for Allen's next project, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, which is currently in post-production, but for the one after that. Not much is known about that movie yet, other than that it is to be a romantic drama set in Paris.
Although Bruni-Sarkozy has not appeared in any movies, she did make one recent foray onto television: She was lampooned as a sex-mad femme fatale in a recent episode of The Simpsons called "The Devil Wears Nada." Unlike many celebrities mocked on the show, she did not lend her own voice to the segment, which has become something of an Internet sensation, especially in France. You can see the full episode on Hulu.
Posted 11.25.09 by reelz -
Always secretive about his upcoming projects, Woody Allen has released just a little teaser about his next movie, reported in THR. Called You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, the movie will star Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Gemma Jones, Lucy Punch, and Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto. Punch was called in to replace Nicole Kidman, who dropped out over a schedule conflict.
Not many details so far on the plot, other than it revolves around various members of a family and their mixed-up love lives. Meaining, it's a bit hard at this point to differentiate it from any number of other Allen flicks, except perhaps for the bold title.
Allen recently told the Telegraph that fans can tell ahead of time which of his movies will be good just by what they're called.
I never title a movie until it's finished because if I look at the film and it's no good I don't like to give it an aggressive title, I give it what I call one of my hiding titles — the kind of title that is low-key and promises nothing, so people are less disappointed by it. But if I feel the film is good, I give it an aggressive, confident title and then hope for the best.
Well, this latest title certainly does seem to be promising something. So, if this method really holds any water, Allen's latest movie just might be one of his better efforts. You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is slated for a fall 2010 release.
Posted 10.26.09 by reelz -
In an extensive interview with NPR, Woody Allen talks about his latest comedy, Whatever Works, and gets existential about his relationship to the characters in his movies. In his own view, things are not quite as close as they might appear.
The curmudgeonly worldview adopted by his latest lead, Boris (Larry David), is illustrated at the beginning of the interview with an audio clip from Whatever Works. Boris explains to an outraged mother that he didn't throw a chess set at her son:
That idiot's your son? Do me a favor. Don't send that cretin to me any more. I can't teach an empty-headed zombie chess.... I didn't throw it at him. I picked up the board and dumped the pieces on his head as an object lesson to shake him out of his vegetable torpor.... Your son's an imbecile. Teach him tiddlywinks, not chess.
Funny and over-the top. In other words, classic Allen. But the director insists that he isn't nearly as misanthropic or as arrogant as Boris, a part that he originally envisioned for Zero Mostel. The characters he's felt comfortable playing, himself, are a lot more self-depricating.
Nonetheless, his basic philosophy ends up just as bleak. As Boris sums up his view near the beginning of the movie: "Life is short, so take what little pleasure where you can get in this chamber of horrors." It's an attitude that has recurred again and again in Allen's movies. Allen takes up the theme at a more personal level too, explaining that for him "making a movie is a great distraction from the real agonies of the world." The ultimate solution, for both his character and himself, seems to be to spice things up with a little humor and "whatever works."
Posted 06.16.09 by reelz