The First Still from Snowpiercer

Amir here. When I was compiling my list of 2013’s most anticipated films a couple of weeks ago, one of the titles that slipped under my radar was Snowpiercer. With the first official still from the film released yesterday the internet is awash with news about this sci-fi and I might have to adjust my list a little bit!

Snowpiercer, adapted from a French graphic novel titled Le Transperceneige, marks the English language debut of South Korean director Bong Joon-ho. He’s dabbled in different genres but is best known for his two most recent efforts: the monster flick The Host, which became a smash hit in its home country; and the internationally acclaimed Mother, for which Kim Hye-Ja won a bunch of best actress titles including from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

first poster and plot concept after the jump

Click to read more ...

The Flu

Apologies for my absence. Under the weather for the 17th time this year. I think the evil Flu realized that I kept claiming that my calendar year didn't end until Oscar Night and also overheard my praise for 2013 as a whole new rebirth after the constantly hideous 2012. It put two and two together and saw a window for one last attack! 

Every hour'ish today, I've been startled awake by my own Oscar Fever 'omg I forgot to post something about Amour!'  And as soon I dizzily stumble over to the computer I forget what it is that I've forgotten to say about it. I mean besides the top ten list which is 75% written... stay tuned. During this weird ritual I've realized that they still haven't announced who Amour's producer nominees are for Best Picture. And that, if Argo wins, Ben Affleck wins his second Oscar anyway despite the director "snub" and then they'll "owe" him --ugh! -- and he'll breeze to a third win. Some of my best actresses can't even win one! 

Anyway I hope it's not the flu again and i'm just having an odd day but if it is, at least I have good company. Four day old Golden Globe joke coming at'cha... 

I don't know who made this or i'd give them credit. but thanks for the lolz

Stage Door: "Picnic" Packs a Lot of Starpower

Occasionally on Mondays, Broadway's "dark" night, or uh... It's Wednesday (oops!)... we'll talk theater.

As I sat waiting for the revival of William Inge's "Picnic"  to begin in its new Broadway run, I noticed that I couldn't keep my mitts off of Sebastian Stan. Playbills can get so smudgy if you keep pawing at them but it couldn't be helped with his face so blown up big on the program. The collection of actors onstage was about to experience the same handsy problem with Sebastian Stan as "Hal" the hunky drifter in this classic drama about the power of beauty and the complications of sexual attraction. Only it wasn't his face they wanted to rub themselves all over.

No sooner had the play begun than Ellen Burstyn was talking him out of his clothing (please to note: Sebastian Stan has been working out. A lot. God bless, presumably, Captain America: The Winter Soldier in which he'll square off with Chris Evans as his former friend 'Bucky' now resurrected/brainwashed as an arch enemy.) He spends the better part of the three act play sweaty and shirtless or half sweaty-shirted if you will.

more after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Proof Positive That Not All of 'Les Miz' is Shot in Close-up

Only 261 Days Until "GRAVITY" Drops

Solaris (2002)Remember that blissful time a year ago when we thought we would have Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity in theaters for 2012. It was not to be but the film finally has a release date in October 4th, 2013. There are still no official photos of this movie so enjoy this still of George Clooney in Steven Soderbergh's remake of Solaris (2002), his only previous sci-fi outing. ... unless you'd like to count Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988).

The release date is already crowded with the Vince Vaughn sperm donor comedy The Delivery Man (another sperm donor comedy... I thought we were done with those!), the 3D conversion of Revenge of the Sith, and the corporate thriller Paranoia which pairs young Liam Hensworth with Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford.

Gravity, in case you've forgotten, is an expensive 3D technological marvel (we're told) which is also an experimental dramatic two hander about a medical engineer (Sandra Bullock) and an astronaut (Clooney). The space travellers become stranded, tethered only to one another, when their shuttle is destroyed. Naturally, you need mega stars when your movie is going to cost a fortune and basically stare at the same two faces the whole time. Strangely given the synopsis it's always been reported that this is primarily the actress's show.

2013 is a big comeback year for Bullock after her, uh, big comeback year of 2009 for which she won the Oscar with the mega-hit The Blind Side. She's only made one movie in the interim (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) and she wasn't its selling point. Now she has two potential blockbusters looming. The other is the comedy The Heat (79 days away) from the director of Bridesmaids which pairs her as an FBI agent with cop Melissa McCarthy for an action comedy about two women after a drug lord. Last time Bullock led a female FBI comedy, Miss Congeniality, it was so popular a sequel followed.

Gravity might be a trickier sell.

Here's the trailer.