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The Cold War was one of the most frightening periods of American history, a roughly 44-year period marked by tense relations with the Soviet Union and the constant threat of mutually assured destruction. During the 13-day Cuban missile crisis, the standoff between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. brought the world closer to the brink of global nuclear war than ever before or since, with President Kennedy and Soviet Premiere Khrushchev "eyeball to eyeball" until Khruschev "blinked" and war was averted.
By the '80s, economic stagnation and the rise of strong nationalist and separatist moviements combined to tear the Soviet Union apart, finally putting an end to the Cold War. But, would Khrushchev have blinked at all if he had had an army of obedient, tireless, super-strong soldiers at his command? The world we live in today would be a very different place indeed had the Soviet Union's experiments in breeding humans with non-human apes come to fruition. Think Red Dawn meets Planet of the Apes, but for real!
Hybrid humanzees and chumans! Oh, my! >> Posted 03.21.13 by BrentJS -
Christian Bale and Gary Oldman are the latest Dark Knight Rises castmember to release statements regarding the tragic shooting that left 12 dead, including a 6-year-old, and 58 injured at a midnight screening of the movie at an Aurora theater. Bale had this to say about the horrible incident:
Words cannot express the horror that I feel. I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.
Oldman, who plays Commissioner Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise, also released a statement.
My prayers and deepest sympathies are with the victims and their families of this horrific act.
Both statements follow Nolan's staement on Friday. The director, speaking for the cast and crew, said he expressed their "profound sorrow" for the entire Aurora community.
Information about the shooting victims and survivors has slowly been coming out. The Aurora Sentinel is publishing information about those involved as it becomes available.
TDKR Expected to Gross $170M over the weekend >> Posted 07.21.12 by Chris -
The third and final installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman series, The Dark Knight Rises, opens this week and fans could not be more excited. It turns out that cast members couldn't be more excited either.
In the ReelzChannel special, The Dark Knight Rises: The Battle for Gotham, we got the first-hand accounts of making the movie directly from the A-list cast. Our Patrick Stinson sat down to talk with both Gary Oldman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt about the conclusion to this epic story, and it turns out it is definitely an ending and not just an episodic Part 3. When asked if it was the end of the story, the pair did not mince words. Oldman said simply, "I know for sure," and Gordon-Levitt followed up with "This is clearly, I think, the end of a story."
It was also clear that both actors found inspiration from their amazingly talented cast mates. Gary Oldman, who is himself one of the most respected actors working today, compared the experience of working with co-star Michael Caine to attending a "master class" in acting. Gordon-Levitt made it clear he is a huge fan of Oldman's, and compared their characters relationship as law enforcement officers to their own relationship.
In the film, Commissioner Gordon is someone that John Blake has always looked up to, which is perfect because Gary is someone I always looked up to as an actor.
Watch the extended interview >> Posted 07.18.12 by Mandy -
Remakes. While plenty of moviegoers groan over the prospect of yet another remake or — as they're often called nowadays — "reboot," studios keep finding success with them... And the proliferation continues.
Likely many balked at the news of a remake of director Paul Verhoeven's 1987 sci-fi classic Robocop. Production is ready to go this September and actor Joel Kinnaman (AMC's The Killing), who is cast in the lead role, made a case to Collider about why fans shouldn't instantly reject remakes.
I used to be like “Why are we doing a remake? What are remakes being done for?” But then, we do that all the time in the theater. If we weren’t doing remakes, nobody would know who Shakespeare was. I’m not saying that Robocop is Shakespeare, but it’s a way to... we’re retelling. That’s what we do as human beings. We retell our favorite stories. That’s what we’ve done since we were sitting around campfires. It’s a part of the human spirit. It doesn’t have to be negative to creativity. It can be completely opposite. That’s how you can break new ground by rethinking something that’s already been done.
more from kinnaman about RoboCop >> Posted 06.04.12 by Ryan -
Months after actor Joel Kinnaman (AMC's The Killing) was confirmed to play the lead role in the upcoming remake of Robocop, another cast member has finally been added. THR reports that Gary Oldman has joined the cast of the remake directed by Jose Padilha (Elite Squad).
Like director Paul Verhoeven's 1987 original, Kinnaman will play Alex Murphy, a Detroit cop who is saved from the brink of death by being turned into the cyborg protector of the futuristic city. Unlike the original, Oldman will play a character named Norton, the scientist who creates Robocop and ultimately finds himself stuck between the needs of the corporation and Robocop's attempt to rediscover his humanity. In the original, Miguel Ferrer played Bob Morton, a wormy executive that helped usher the Robocop program through Omni Consumer Products, but didn't have scruples about it later.
more about Robocop >> Posted 05.24.12 by Ryan -
The Weinstein Company has released a series of stylish character posters for director John Hillcoat's (The Road) new period bootlegging movie, Lawless, to help get you acquainted with the movie's gangsters, their dames, and the cop who pursues them.
Written by Nick Cave (The Proposition), who also provided the music for the movie, Lawless is based on Matt Bondurant's novel The Wettest County in the World, which chronicled the story of his grandfather and granduncles, bootleggers in rural Virginia during the Great Depression. The story revolves around three brothers — Jack (Shia LaBeouf), Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke) — who defy Prohibition in their quest for the American Dream. The cast includes Gary Oldman as the gangster Floyd Banner; Mia Wasikowska as Bertha Minnix, a preacher's daughter who Jack desperately tries to impress; Jessica Chastain as Maggie, a woman with a mysterious past who puts a spell on Forrest; and Guy Pearce as Charles Rakes, the lawman determined to bring the brothers to justice.
see the posters >> Posted 05.20.12 by BrentJS -
For years, actor Gary Oldman was the go-to guy for movie villainy, turning in memorable performances in Bram Stoker's Dracula (creep-adelic Count Dracula), True Romance (skeevy pimp Drexl Spivey), and The Professional (psycho cop Norman Stansfield). After a brief hiatus from acting in the early '00s, Oldman returned as a kinder, gentler version of himself, taking on good guy roles in major movie franchises like the Harry Potter series (Harry's godfather, Sirius Black) and Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy (Bat-buddy James Gordon).
Now that Oldman has finally received an Academy Award nomination for the good-guy role of MI6 agent George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, it looks like he's ready to return to the dark side. According to THR, Oldman is in "final negotiations" to play the villain in Albert Hughes' new revenge thriller, Motor City.
more about Motor City >> Posted 02.03.12 by BrentJS -
To celebrate the great cinematic performers of 2011, The New York Times has put together a spectacular video gallery called "Touch of Evil" that features thirteen of this year's hottest actors and actresses portraying thirteen iconic "Vamps, Crooks and Killers" from throughout cinema history.
see the images and watch the videos >> Posted 12.08.11 by BrentJS -
Even though the well has run dry on the "spy" pics and videos that were a mainstay during principal photography on director Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) and Warner Bros. has yet to put the promotional campaign into high gear, that doesn't mean that there is a lack of new information about the movie. Gary Oldman, who has been a great source of information about the three-quel since before it went into production, recently offered some new insight into the state of Gotham City and his character, Commissioner James Gordon, at the start of TDKR. It also appears that WB has launched (or re-launched) a viral campaign for the movie that revolves around a missing nuclear physicist. Additionally, an anonymous tipster who claims to have seen the prologue to TDKR that will begin playing in IMAX theaters next week has offered up a detailed description of the sneak peek that could reveal the origin of Batman's (Christian Bale) latest nemesis, Bane (Tom Hardy).
more about TDKR [POSSIBLE SPOILERS] >> Posted 12.08.11 by BrentJS -
Gary Oldman recently admitted that he's "waited 30 years to play" a character like semi-retired British intelligence agent George Smiley in the upcoming thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which may have come as a surprise to those that have enjoyed his other, more frenetic, roles. "It's a different animal to, say, Sirius Black [in the Harry Potter movies]," Oldman told The Playlist after his career tribute at the Gotham Awards. "Or even Drexl in True Romance, which was a kind of fairy tale. I hope I wasn't over-the-top as Lee Harvey Oswald [in JFK]! But it's been a long time since I've played someone like that, and Smiley's the one to do it with."
Based on the 1974 novel by John le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is already a success in Britain, where it opened at the top of the box office in the U.K. in September. Director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) and screenwriter Peter Straughan have already revealed that a sequel to Tinker is possible, and would likely be based on le Carré's third book featuring the character of Smiley, titled Smiley's People. Oldman confirmed that the possible sequel would be based on the book and not The Honourable Schoolboy, the second novel in the Karla trilogy, where Smiley is in a more supporting role.
They're now saying they might do Smiley's People. It's a very different story, very different to Tinker Tailor. We don't want it to feel like a sequel, you know, because it stands on its own, but we've sort of established this world, and there's enough material to do more films.
oldman's commissioner gordon to "retire"? >> Posted 12.01.11 by Ryan