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The upcoming dark comedy Young Adult is reunion for director Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody, the creative team behind the 2007 comedy/drama Juno that scored Reitman an Oscar nomination and Cody an Academy Award. The movie stars Charlize Theron as unlikeable teen fiction writer Mavis Gary, who returns to her Midwestern hometown to reclaim her high school boyfriend (Patrick Wilson), now a happily married expectant father.
Young Adult is already receiving Oscar buzz, no doubt due to Theron's willingness to play a nasty character, and Reitman's ability to make a movie about the "girl you hated in high school" an appealing and entertaining movie. In an interview with The Playlist, Reitman explained how he and Theron came to work together.
theron scared of the role, reitman reveals "secret weapon" >> Posted 12.09.11 by Ryan -
The fourth movie in the cult horror movie series that began in 1981 with writer-director Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead has found a distributor. The horror pic, which will go into production next year under the direction of independent filmmaker Federico "Fede" Alvarez of Uruguay, will be distributed in North America and throughout the world (save France and the U.K.) by Sony Pictures. This makes it the fourth distributor in the franchise's history — New Line distributed The Evil Dead, Paramount Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn and Universal Army of Darkness, aka Evil Dead III. Raimi, original Evil Dead producer Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell, who starred in the first three movies as "Ash" Williams, are producing the Evil Dead remake.
more about Evil Dead >> Posted 12.01.11 by BrentJS -
There hasn't been much for fans to be happy about when it comes to the upcoming remake of 1981's The Evil Dead . Sure, director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell will be on hand to produce, but as Campbell has already revealed, the remake won't include his signature character, Ashley "Ash" Williams, who returned for more in 1987's Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn and 1992's Army of Darkness. Furthermore, the plot, following the original closely, only adds a drug addicted character who reportedly "becomes insane and difficult to control [without drugs], which makes it impossible to see that she's actually possessed". That "twist" hasn't been warmly received by fans.
It's not all that bad, according to Academy Award–winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno), who is rewriting the script by newcomer director Fede Alvarez and his screenwriting partner Rodo Sayagues. In an interview with MTV, Cody said that the Evil Dead remake will be "grounded in reality".
cody discusses why she was hired for the movie >> Posted 11.30.11 by Ryan -
Horror fans were already having a tough time wrapping their minds around the fact that Federico "Fede" Alvarez was directing a remake of one of their most beloved cult classics, Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead, but the news that Juno scribe Diablo Cody was hired to rewrite the script written by Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues sent many of them over the edge. In an effort to assure the fans that all is well with the remake, the star of the original Evil Dead movies, Bruce "Ash" Campbell, has spoken out in support of Cody, but it hasn't seemed to have had much of an impact on the online community and their constant grumbling that Cody will Juno-ize the remake.
Apparently, the controversy was not unexpected, least of all by Cody herself. In a recent interview in support of her new movie, Young Adult, Cody said that she knew she was "gonna get sh*t" from the fans when she signed on to rewrite the remake and that she "wouldn't have even gotten involved" if Raimi and Campbell were not attached as producers. As for the tone, Cody offered the assurance that the new Evil Dead will be "really scary, "unbelievably violent" and "true to the original."
what did cody say about The Evil Dead? >> Posted 11.20.11 by BrentJS -
A new poster and three preview clips have arrived online for the upcoming dark comedy Young Adult, from the writer-director team of Juno, Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman.
Young Adult stars Academy Award winner Charlize Theron (Monster) as the extremely unlikeable, teen fiction writer Mavis Gary, who returns to her hometown to reclaim her now happily married high school boyfriend (Patrick Wilson).
Already receiving Oscar buzz, the three clips from Young Adult show that the success or failure of the movie and its possible nominations rests on how audiences embrace Theron's Mavis, described as "the girl you hated in high school."
watch the clips >> Posted 11.15.11 by Ryan -
Paul Walker is adding to his post-Fast Five resume with another thriller. For those not closely following Walker's career, the actor starred in the 2010 crime thriller Takers after 2009's Fast and Furious.
THR reports Walker has signed on for Hours, a thriller set post-Hurricane Katrina that will follow Walker as a father trying to keep his newborn daughter alive in an abandoned hospital. From the sounds of the plot, it doesn't look like Walker will be getting into any car chases or stealing anything, which was likely a deliberate choice.
The movie will be the directorial debut for screenwriter Eric Heisserer (The Thing prequel, Nightmare on Elm Street remake). Buried producer Peter Safran is reuniting with Walker for Hours; the actor just finished working with Safran on another thriller titled Vehicle 19.
Hours will start production in New Orleans starting in March 2012, after which Walker will likely start work on Fast Six, which already has a release date of May 24, 2013.
one more for World War Z; Octavia Spencer to deal some laughs >> Posted 10.08.11 by Ryan -
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is needs some big-time help for one of his next movies and that help is coming from... Susan Sarandon?
Currently shooting G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, THR reports that one of Johnson's next projects is the action thriller Snitch, which sees the former wrestler-turned-action star play a suburban father who goes undercover to help capture a drug dealer when his teenage son is given a long prison sentence. Sarandon will play an ambitious U.S. attorney who thinks a drug bust will help her political ambitions.
Written and directed by Ric Roman Waugh (Felon), Snitch was originally written by Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road), until Waugh became attached and rewrote the script, and is based on a Frontline documentary. No word on when Snitch will start shooting — oddly, no one is talking.
More casting news >> Posted 09.28.11 by Ryan -
THR has revealed the first teaser poster for Paramount Pictures' Young Adult, the second collaboration between screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman. Their previous movie, 2007's Juno, won Cody an Oscar and Reitman his first Academy Award nomination.
Young Adult stars Charlize Theron as an alcoholic, teen fiction writer who returns to her hometown in Minnesota to rekindle a romance with an old boyfriend (Patrick Wilson), who is now happily married. There, she runs into another former high school classmate (Patton Oswalt), who also has had a tough time letting go of the past. A photo of Theron in character was released by the studio a few weeks ago.
Opening December 16, Paramount is likely hoping that Young Adult captures the Academy's attention the way Juno did, perhaps awarding Theron with a nomination for what looks like the kind of image-shattering turn that won the actress her Oscar for 2003's Monster (only, Young Adult is probably funnier). Expect a trailer to arrive soon.
Posted 09.06.11 by Ryan -
Earlier this week, reports surfaced that a remake of director Sam Raimi's 1981 debut, Evil Dead, was in the works. Bruce Campbell even Tweeted in support of the reports, but now the remake has been officially announced by Ghost House Pictures.
Previously reported director Fede (Federico) Alvarez will be at the helm, while Raimi, Campbell, and original Dead producer Robert Tapert will produce the remake, with the three producers discussing the remake in a statement to THR.
more on Evil Dead >> Posted 07.14.11 by Ryan -
Undaunted by the disappointing performance of her first venture into the horror genre, screenwriter Diablo Cody has set her sights on the zombie rom-com Breathers: A Zombie's Lament. Describing the project to iF Magazine, Cody says,
We have a script and I am thrilled with it and hope we can go into production with it soon. It's a zombie love story. Zombies are so hot now, but I like to think it's about the personal side of being a zombie and being ostracized.
The movie is based on a novel of the same name by S.G. Browne, a sometimes "gruesome farce" which picked up a pretty positive review over at io9 a while back.
As for her last horror project, Cody tells iF that even now she isn't quite ready to give up on Jennifer's Body, despite its lackluster reception so far, hoping that its recent release on DVD will help bring it back to life:
The marketing was a little messed up. It was marketed mostly to boys and I think we could have had a large female audience that was ignored. I have faith. I'm on Twitter and I get a lot of feedback from people all day. The DVD came out and I've heard from an avalanche of people saying "I didn't think I would like this movie, and I've watched the DVD five times." Now I'm thinking, you missed it the first time around and you're getting your opportunity to enjoy it.
Posted 01.11.10 by reelz