It is thrilling to see all these great directors make the switch from movies to TV. Legendary filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, David Fincher, Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee, Todd Haynes, Joel Coen and Ridley Scott are all giving us their own serialized statements on the small-screen, hell, even this past year Steve McQueen made the jump to streaming with his powerful “Small Axe” anthology.
Read more“Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins says growing up he was inspired by “Aliens," “Die Hard," and “Coming To America"
“Which films inspired him, growing up? “I wasn’t really inspired by film,” he says, “but I admired Spike Lee’s movies because they just felt very, very, very black. I remember watching School Daze and thinking, ‘What the hell is this?’ There were colleges for black people that just black people go to? And those colleges had all this shit going on? This is so energizing!
“Otherwise, it was the really big Hollywood stuff – The Color Purple, Aliens, Die Hard, Coming To America. I would catch the bus to go to the AMC theatre downtown. But I never thought, ‘Hey, maybe one day I might like to do that.’ It just didn’t seem possible.”
Alfonso Cuaron wins the DGA for “Roma”; Well-Positioned to Win Second Best Director Oscar.
Alfonso Cuaron has won the DGA for “Roma.” This doesn’t necessarily mean his film is now the one to beat in terms of Best Picture odds, but it does position it quite well in the grander scheme of things, and as a natural adversary of current frontrunner “Green Book.” Cuaron beat out "A Star Is Born‘s Bradley Cooper, Green Book‘s Peter Farrelly, BlacKkKlansman‘s Spike Lee and Vice‘s Adam McKay. The latter is a film that has been unfairly shunned by critics, despite the industry’s liking of it. I believe McKay’s film will age like fine wine. McKay did get the award for Television directing for his excellent work in one of last year’s very best shows HBO’s “Succession.”
In other news, Bo Burnham won best first feature for “Eighth Grade” actually beating out Bradley Cooper and “A Star is Born.” INSANE.
Christopher Nolan's next movie will be released July 17th, 2020
Christopher Nolan’s next movie will be an IMAX event movie scheduled for summer 2020, July 17, 2020 to be exact. That’s according to a press release by the filmmaker earlier on Friday.
We know NOTHING else about the title or plot of the project. We don’t even know the genre he will be tackling, especially since Nolan went out of his comfort zone with his last film, 2017’s ‘Dunkirk,” which earned $526.9 million worldwide, and received Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Nolan’s first Best Director nod.
Patty Jenkins Criticizes the Academy as ‘Very Limited’ After Women Directors Snubbed
We all knew it was going to happen. The Best director race this year was not going to be female-centric. Yes, Chloé Zhao’s “The Rider,” Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace,” Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here,” Marielle Heller’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and Tamara Jenkins’ “Private Life,” to name just a few.
Read moreDirector Charles Burnett to Direct Amazon Slavery Drama
Charles Burnett is one of the great, unsung directors of the last 40 years. The fact that “Killer of Sheep” and “To Sleep With Anger” are two of the finest films ever directed by an African-American director is enough reason to celebrate this latest news.
Read more‘Toy Story 3,’ and ‘Coco’ Director Lee Unkrich Exiting Pixar
I had initially heard about director Lee Unkrich when he was hired as director for "Toy Story 3." Little did I know that he had also worked behind the scenes as an editor on "Toy Story," and has had co-director credits on "Finding Nemo," "Toy Story 2," and "Monsters Inc." Anyway, "Toy Story 3" was his own creation and it was such a success that he then was tasked to helm "Coco“ which ended up making close $800 Million worldwide.
Read moreDGA Criticized for Women Director Shut Out
Here's an undisputed fact: The studio and independent system is white-male dominated, all of this hoopla that a bunch of black and female filmmakers deserve their fair share of 2018 awards is quite simply overreaching and a form of virtue signaling on the part of film critics. The odds are heavily stacked for white male directors making the best films of the year.
Read moreChristopher Nolan says Damien Chazelle is “One of Our Most Exciting Directors"
Where are the next great American directors?
An interesting observation: The '80s and '90s saw a slew of brilliant American filmmakers making their debut. For example, we saw the likes of Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Jim Jarmusch, Oliver Stone, Jonathan Demme, Michael Mann, John Sayles, Gus Van Sant, Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, Joel and Ethan Coen and Kathryn Bigelow, John Hughes andBarry Levinson. The 1990s were even better, due to the indie film movement blossoming into its peak, with the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Darren Aronofsky, Spike Jonze, Todd Solondz, Todd Haynes, Alexander Payne, David O Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher, Kelly Reichardt, and Brad Bird,among many others who made their first films that decade.
Read more‘The House That Jack Built’: Lars von Trier Director’s Cut Being Released in November
Earlier today, IFC announced that Lars von Trier's "The House That Jack Built" will be getting a special release later this year. Two versions of the film will be screened — the “director’s cut” that was shown at Cannes and the “R-rated cut” that is supposed to be 'tamer,' at least by Lars von Trier standards. Both will be available on VOD and in select theaters. However, what most people are talking about today is not the IFC release announcement but rather a promotional campaign that had film journalists being robocalled at random by a creepy voice. This was most definitely a prank call and the victims are none too pleased about it, describing it as “creepy,” “aggressive,” “terrible,” and “twisted.”
Read moreScorsese regrets not directing every episode of his cancelled HBO series 'Vinyl'
TV shows tend to rarely have the same director directing every episode. Even the very best shows we've had, like "Breaking Bad," have had dozens of filmmakers take a crack at episodes.
Speaking at the Rome Film Festival (via THR), Martin Scorsese showed regret in not directing every episode of his misbegotten HBO series “Vinyl."
Read moreLuca Guadagnino Working on Film Adaptation of Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks"
In a recent New Yorker interview with director Luca Guadagnino ("Call Me by Your Name"), it was revealed that a film adaptation of Bob Dylan’s 1975 album "Blood on the Tracks" is being worked on, with Guadagnino set to direct and Richard LaGravenese writing the screenplay. Digging up for more information I stumbled upon a source telling SPIN that the film will tell “a multiyear story, set in the seventies, that [LaGravenese] and Guadagnino had invented, drawing on the album’s central themes.” LaGravenese tells the New Yorker about the characters: “When they’re repressing, we dramatize the repression, and what that does to them. And we dramatize what happens when you let your passions take over too much.”
It looks like they're going for a "I'm Not There" type of narrative. A risky endeavor, if you ask me, but well worth a shot. "Blood on the Tracks" is an incredible work of art.
‘Kindergarten Teacher’: Maggie Gyllenhaal & Director Sara Colangelo Talk The Horror Of “Starving A Vibrant Woman’s Mind”
Maggie Gyllenhaal is a Staten Island early-childhood educator lacking something meaningful in her life who starts obsessing over a gifted student, which leads to problems too good to reveal. Suffice to say, when you watch “The Kindergarten Teacher,” Sara Colangelo’s American remake of the similarly-titled Israeli drama, you are transported into what Gyllenhaal described to me as the psyche of a “starving, vibrant woman’s mind.”
Colangelo, who stunned more than a few moviegoers with her 2014 feature directing debut “Little Accidents,” creates a film with its own unique identity, the fleshing out of a woman who desperately needs to find meaning in her life. However, the movie belongs to Gyllenhaal, in an awards-worthy performance, who, along with Colangelo’s patient camera, keeps playing with our heads throughout the proceedings. The fact that she maintains a sort of sympathetic nature to her character makes this brilliant film all the more mysterious to the eyes.
I spoke to Colangelo and Gyllenhaal about the film, which premiered on Netflix this past Friday.
Ryan Coogler to Write and Direct 'Black Panther' Sequel
THR is reporting that Ryan Coogler will write and direct a sequel to this year's uber-successful "Black Panther."
Coogler is set to make mega bucks for "Black Panther 2." Good for him. Such a great timeline for him. His career got started with the little indie "Fruitvale Station," which I thought wasn't all that impressive, despite the important political context and friendly reviews. What really turned heads, including mine, was the way he shot those boxing scenes in "Creed 2," Wowza! That really led me to believe this guy had something special, but then he had to go and waste those talents on the most mass-marketed, safe entertainment imaginable over at Marvel. Oh, well. Money talks, but I do hope Coogler eventually goes back into making original statements post-Panther. Which is not to say "Black Panther 2" will disappoint by any means, although I had a generally mixed reaction with the original, but, man, Marvel and Disney are really stealing all these young up and coming talents for the most mainstream fare imaginable.
Michael B. Jordan is also set to star in the 'Panther' sequel. And so, you might ask, if Jordan's character died in the first one, how is he going to star in this movie as well? My answer is rather simple: this is Marvel, nobody ever really dies forever.
Official: James Gunn To Write and, Possibly, Direct 'Suicide Squad' Sequel for Warner Bros.
A few months ago, Over 200,000 people signed a petition for Disney to re-hire "Guardians of the Galaxy" writer-director James Gunn. However, this petition didn't change Disney's decision, it was quite clear he was toast.
I predicted that DC would take advantage of this opportunity to pounce and try to sign Gunn to their now newly redesigned DCEU. But it's still shocking to hear today's news that Gunn will not only be writing "Suicide Squad 2" for DC and Warner Bros but is set to direct the sequel as well.
A report courtesy of THR is saying that Gunn will indeed be heading from Marvel to DC:
"Gunn, who was fired from the third installment in his Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, has come on board to write, with an eye to direct, Suicide Squad sequel, the DC-based project at Warner Bros."
"Gunn has closed a deal to pen the script. At this stage, there is no director deal but talks could proceed depending on the outcome."
"Gunn was fired from his Marvel franchise after old tweets from 2008 and 2009 where he made insensitive and controversial jokes about topics like rape and pedophillia were resurfaced by conservative website The Daily Caller."
"Suicide Squad" had so much potential but turned out to be a very bad movie. With Gunn now at the forefront of the sequel, anticipation levels have just skyrocketed.
More developing ...
"World War Z" sequel to start production next year with David Fincher directing
After a lot of back-and-forths, it seems like David Fincher has finally settled on "World War Z 2" to be his next movie. The sequel to the 2013 zombie movie starring Brad Pitt has had quite the pre-production journey. Director J.A. Bayona was originally slated to direct. However, two years later Bayona left the sequel to go and direct to go and direct "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," which had many people suspecting the sequel was dead. It was only last year that Pitt’s frequent collaborator director David Fincher was "in talks" to helm the anticipated blockbuster sequel.
Variety has now confirmed Fincher as director, they spoke with producers Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, who revealed that filming is now due to begin in June 2019. Fincher is currently directing the second season of his Netflix series "Mindhunter" and Pitt is in Los Angeles shooting Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Thus, the reason for the delays.
Fincher hasn't directed a movie since 2014's "Gone Girl."
‘Private Life’: Tamara Jenkins, Kathryn Hahn & Kayli Carter Discuss Netflix’s Rich, Funny, Painful Infertility Dramedy [Interview]
Tamara Jenkins' "Private Life" is a film that gets the details right. Bowing as one of the 26 films chosen for the main slate of this year's 56th annual New York Film Festival, it zeroes in on a married couple (as played by Katherine Hahn and Paul Giamatti) coping with a neverending infertility struggle and the collapse of their marriage, as they navigate through the world of adoption and assisted reproduction. It features indelibly pertinent performances from Hahn, Giamatti, and newcomer Kayli Carter, the latter who plays the married couple's niece who agrees to be their egg donor. The New York City apartment all three share in the film, as they navigate in and out going to endless doctor's appointments, feels very much like a character of its own. It's in this closed claustrophobic atmosphere that the film tries to squeeze out the inner-kept emotional trauma of the characters.
Read moreTrailer for Clint Eastwood's ‘The Mule,' His First Leading Role Since 2008's ‘Gran Torino'
You can add another noteworthy film to your must-see holiday basket. None other than Clint Eastwood will be releasing a film this coming December. The 88-year-old will direct and star in "The Mule," which is based on the true story of Leo Sharp, a WWII veteran in his 80s, who volunteered to lend his services as a drug mule. Eastwood will play the titular mule.
Based on the just-released trailer, we might have a potentially great film in our hands. If you remember, Eastwood had stated in 2008 that "Gran Torino" would be his last performance and that he'd be retiring from acting after that role. His casting in "The Mule" is a surprising turn of events as the legendary star is the central lead in the film. He seems to be in great shape for an 88-year-old geezer.
Read moreJohn Carpenter: The most influential director of the 2010s
If there's a filmmaker whose stock/legacy has been considerably bumped up the past decade, it's John Carpenter's. And yet, he's only directed a single film in the last 17 years (2010's The Ward" starring Amber Heard). At 70 years of age, Carpenter is mostly concentrating on producing nowadays, but you cannot deny just how influential he's been to the resurgence of the horror genre.
We have seen shades of Carpenter classics such as “Halloween,” “The Thing,” “Assault on Precinct 13,” “Escape from New York,” “They Live,” and “Big Trouble in Little China” all over the neo-horror resurgence. There's Ti West's "House of the Devil," David Robert Mitchell's "It Follows," Adam Wingard's "The Guest," Jeremy Saulnier's "Green Room," Jeff Nichols' "Midnight Special," The Duffer Brothers' "Stranger Things," and even Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight," the latter which had Tarantino only showing "The Thing" to his cast before production begun.
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To say it blew the roof off the place would be an understatement. I don't think I've ever seen a Toronto audience — any festival audience — embrace a movie the way they did last night.