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After Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony, this weekend's horror movie Mama doesn't just star Jessica Chastain but "Golden Globe winner" Jessica Chastain. It might seem strange to see an award-winning actress in a horror movie, but the trend of respected actors taking roles in horror movies is on the rise. Just last year, Oscar–nominated actor Ethan Hawke (Training Day) starred in supernatural horror-thriller Sinster while Golden Globe-nominated Rebecca Hall (Vicky Christina Barcelona) appeared in British ghost story movie The Awakening.
Of course, horror movies have historically been a place where actors often get their start. In fact, a surprising amount of Hollywood stars and Academy Award winners and nominees have started their careers in the horror genre, and, in fact, some are still working in the genre.
check out the list >> Posted 01.18.13 by Ryan -
Director George Ratliff's adaptation of Salvation Boulevard was a reported crowd favorite when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January. IFC Pictures and Sony soon picked up the movie's distribution rights and have finally released a trailer for the movie.
Based on the novel by Larry Beinhart (Wag the Dog), Salvation Boulevard stars a high profile cast that includes Pierce Brosnan, Jennifer Connelly, Greg Kinnear and Ed Harris. A religious satire, Salvation Boulevard comes at a time when the proposed Rapture has been moved to October 21, so the July release date allows the movie to arrive with more than enough time before the (rescheduled) end.
watch the trailer >> Posted 05.24.11 by Ryan -
Today's Challenge: The Green Hornet and The Dilemma are both out on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time today. Can you find the movie link to connect Seth Rogen to Jennifer Connelly?
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 05.03.11 by reelz -
Vince Vaughn's comedies always involve an appealing "What if?" scenario. What if Santa Claus had a brother (Fred Claus)? What if a couple that broke up still shared the same apartment (The Break-Up)? What if several well-respected comedic actors went to Bora Bora to make a terrible movie (Couples Retreat)?
Vaughn's latest, The Dilemma (formerly titled What You Don't Know, explores the scenario of "what if a man (Vaughn) discovers that his best friend's wife (Winona Ryder) is cheating and isn't sure if he should tell his best friend (Kevin James) about it?" Universal has released the first trailer from the movie.
Watch the trailer >> Posted 09.22.10 by Ryan -
In Legion, Paul Bettany is a badass angel shorn of his wings and battling it out with, well, legions of other angels sent by God to exterminate the human race.
In Creation he takes a more cerebral turn, playing one of his own personal heros, Charles Darwin, who is struggling with the consequences of his discoveries about the origin of species. The conflict is made more intensely personal here because of how the scientist's findings clash with the faith of his deeply religious wife, played by Jennifer Connelly, who (just to make things even weirder) is also Bettany's actual wife.
His performance as Darwin won some rave reviews when it debuted last year in Britain, with the Guardian calling it his "career-best performance." In Legion, by contrast, there is a lot less talk and a whole lot more action. Changing pace like that was really no problem for him, though, he tells the Orlando Sentinel:
I do a movie like Legion because I want to see an audience's popcorn jump up in the air! I loved seeing those movies growing up. Dawn of the Dead sticks with me. What a thrill, this siege with just a handful of people, trapped in a shopping mall, battling an onslaught of zombies. Legion is just like that, without zombies. The CGI [computer-generated imagery] guys put wings on me, and once you've got wings, the rest is easy!
Besides, he says, reconciling such different roles provides a crazy kind of balance:
When I’m making a movie as Charles Darwin, I’m sitting in my trailer, hankering to run around shooting vampires. And when I’m battling vampires (as in Priest, which opens this fall) I think, "It would be awfully nice to be in something nice and quiet with a lot of talking in it."
Posted 01.18.10 by reelz -
Dustin Lance Black didn't take long to set up his first directing job. After winning this past year's Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Milk, Black wooed the crowd with a heartfelt, tearjerking acceptance speech. And now, Variety reports that he's been given the reins to direct his own script for What's Wrong With Virginia, which will star Liam Neeson and Jennifer Connelly.
The movie tells the story of a sheriff, played by Neeson, who has had a long-standing love affair with Connelly's character, a younger mother described by as "charming but psychologically disturbed." Drama arises when the sheriff's daughter develops a relationship with Connelly's son.
Milk director Gus Van Sant is executive producing the movie, which begins production later this summer.
Posted 05.18.09 by reelz -
Based on the self-help book that blossomed out of a Sex and the City episode, He's Just Not That Into You has been adapted for the screen and features a massive ensemble cast of stars and starlets, including Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper, Justin Long, and Kevin Connolly. Drew Barrymore does double duty, starring and producing for her Flower Films banner.
So is He's Just Not That Into You the ultimate chick flick? Something men should dread and steer clear of if their date suggests it? Find out in our review.
Posted 02.06.09 by reelz -
Why remake a sci-fi classic like The Day the Earth Stood Still? That's what Keanu Reeves initially asked: "I came to the director, Scott Derrickson, like why do you want to do this? Why remake a classic? And he said, 'Yes, it is a classic, but I think we can take that premise, that story, and retell it today.'"
Reeves was sold on the "contrast of the plot." But will fans be? See our review of The Day the Earth Stood Still. And if you're looking for additional details about this action-packed remake, see our interview with Keanu Reeves and interview with Jennifer Connelly.
Posted 12.12.08 by reelz -
Variety is reporting that Jennifer Connelly has joined the cast of the remake of the 1951 sci-fi hit, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Connelly will play the Patricia Neal part in the movie, in which aliens inform humans they must either live in peace or get it. Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) will direct.
And Al Gore's daughter, Kristin Gore, is seeking to bridge the gap between movies and politics with her political comedy, Nailed. Gore co-wrote the screenplay with director David O. Russell (he of the I Heart Huckabees/Lily Tomlin outburst fame). According to The Hollywood Reporter, The satire is about a small-town receptionist who develops nymphomaniac tendencies after a nail gets shot into her head. She goes to DC to lobby for her injury rights and gets taken advantage of by a skeezy congressman. Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel are attached to star.
Posted 11.06.07 by reelz -
Renee Zellweger has signed on to star in Appaloosa, a Western drama that will be directed by Ed Harris (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13). The movie is about "a pair of friends hired to protect a lawless town suffering at the hands of a renegade rancher," says Variety.com.
Harris, who will also be starring in the movie, adapted the script with Robert Knott (with whom he worked in Pollock) from the 2006 novel by Robert B. Parker. Harris will also be re-uniting with his A History of Violence co-star Viggo Mortensen, who also toplines the film which will start filming in New Mexico in October.
And according to The Hollywood Reporter, Jennifer Connelly (Blood Diamond), Kevin Connolly (Entourage), Bradley Cooper (Wedding Crashers), Justin Long (Live Free or Die Hard) and Ginnifer Goodwin (Big Love) are all close to closing casting deals in Ken Kwapis's (License to Wed) film adaptation of He's Just Not That Into You.
As we reported in June, Drew Barrymore will be producing and starring in the movie, based on the book by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo.
And finally, MTV.com is reporting that actress Rosario Dawson (Grindhouse, Sin City 2) won't be in Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno after all. Although Smith wrote the role of Miri with Dawson in mind, it appears she is too busy with her other projects (most notably Eagle Eye, which will be directed by D.J. Caruso) to fit it into her schedule. We wonder if Smith will delay shootnig Zack and Miri to get his muse?
Posted 08.07.07 by reelz