The Playlist

'Welcome To People' Is Now 'People Like Us'; Eric Bana & Olivia Wilde-Led Thriller Retitled 'Deadfall'

By Simon Dang
|
March 16, 2012 2:25 PM
|
1 Comment

News

Alex Kurtzman is best known as one half of the blockbuster-scripting duo with Roberto Orci ("Transformers," "Star Trek"), but last year, he ventured out solo making his directorial debut with a family dramedy known as "Welcome To People." Starring Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde and Michelle Pfeiffer, the project is one we're keen to check out, but we'll now have to look for a different title on box office screens with the DreamWorks pic now going by "People Like Us."

More:

Gerard Butler Replaces Eric Bana In Diamond Heist Pic 'Brilliant'

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
February 29, 2012 4:37 PM
|
3 Comments

News

Fresh out of rehab, and looking dapper hitting the Oscar parties over the weekend, Gerard Butler is wisely putting whatever troubles he had to overcome, putting his head down, and getting back to work.

More:

Eric Bana & Rebecca Hall Starring In Untitled Thriller From 'Boy A' Helmer John Crowley & 'Eastern Promises' Writer Steven Knight

By Oliver Lyttelton
|
February 2, 2012 1:35 PM
|
0 Comments

News

Despite the idea of the suspense thriller for grown-ups being routinely declared dead, the genre itself refuses to stay dead. Every few months, some such film will quietly make a tidy profit at the box office, despite not gathering the same attention as pictures with more explosions in them. Last year saw films like "The Lincoln Lawyer," "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" all end up firmly in the black, and the companies behind the latter, producers Working Title Films and distributors Focus Features, are teaming up again for another highly promising-sounding turn.

More:

Armie Hammer To Face Off Against Eric Bana In Sheldon Turner's 'By Virtue Fall'

By Oliver Lyttelton
|
December 7, 2011 1:15 PM
|
6 Comments

News

Armie Hammer's had his fair share of ups and down across his admittedly brief career. Aged only 21, he was George Miller's choice to play Batman in "Justice League: Mortal!" But the film was scrapped only weeks before shooting. He spent a few years without major credits, before impressing as the Winkelvi in David Fincher's "The Social Network," and landed a major role in Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar" as a result! But "J. Edgar" didn't turn out to be any good.

More:

Eric Bana To Play The King In Cary Elwes' Directorial Debut 'Elvis & Nixon'

By Simon Dang
|
October 24, 2011 1:21 AM
|
1 Comment

Danny Huston In Talks To Star As President NixonAs if the art of acting wasn't difficult enough, how about taking on a character that would lay claim to being the most regularly portrayed and impersonated in real life and a role that warrants it's own lengthy section on Wikipedia dedicated to listing all the people who played the exact same part on screen in the past? That's the challenge fronting Eric Bana who will soon play Elvis Presley in Cary Elwes' directorial debut, "Elvis & Nixon."

More:

Eric Bana To Pull Off 'Brilliant' Diamond Heist

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
September 27, 2011 3:19 AM
|
0 Comments

Is the heist movie making a comeback? Last year's "The Town" excited audiences with its gritty heist sequences, while this summer's "Fast Five" found the car franchise refashioning itself into something else entirely, and later this year Louis Leterrier will combine illusions and bank robberies when he starts filming "Now You See Me." Well, "Legally Blonde" and "Killers" director Robert Luketic is getting in on the action, and having signed on to direct "Brilliant" earlier this year, he's now found his leading man.

More:

Weekend Box Office: 'Hop' Defeats Four Newcomers; 'Your Highness' Flops Loudly And Rudely

By Gabe Toro
|
April 10, 2011 4:48 AM
|
12 Comments

Earlier in the year, the tepid box office returns were something to be ignored, as 2011 was competing with the previous year, with both “Avatar” and then the anomaly of “Alice In Wonderland” each raking in a cool billion. Well, it’s April, and it’s time for Hollywood to panic. There have been no genuine out-of-the-box hits so far this year and lots of flops, and the two (barely) $100 million grossers considered underperformers (“Rango” and “Just Go With It”). Let’s face it, part of it is a failure of marketing, but the blame must be laid on inadequate product. Even when it comes to the early year doldrums, this has been a banner year for garbage.

Review: 'Hanna' A Study In Merciless Violence, Strong Performances And Block Rockin' Beats

By Gabe Toro
|
April 6, 2011 11:25 AM
|
2 Comments

In "Hanna," Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan graduates to the next stage of her career, the one that all "respected actors" reach -- the action stage, where her piercing looks and astute natural intelligence are replaced by kicks, punches and improbable stunts. The anomaly, of course, is that Ms. Ronan has become a remarkably accomplished, borderline preternatural performer at a young age, and so the action phase of her career -- admittedly, a brief tour as opposed to the extended sojourn other actresses might enjoy -- has arrived fairly early. Such is the natural gimmick at the heart of "Hanna," one that audiences should find familiar by now: the little girl with wolf's teeth and bear's claws.

More:

'Hanna' Director Joe Wright Calls "Bullshit" On 'Sucker Punch's Faux Feminism

By Drew Taylor
|
April 3, 2011 7:20 AM
|
26 Comments

One of the many things that we took particular umbrage with in reviewing Zack Snyder’s unerringly nasty, totally boring “Sucker Punch,” was its horrible gender politics. Keep in mind that this is a movie in which a bunch of young girls, to escape the psychic and physical pain of getting regularly raped by a swarthy orderly, zap themselves into a make-believe fantasy world in which they wear next-to-nothing, engage in adolescent male videogame theatrics and take orders from a gruff older man (played, with some aplomb, by Scott Glenn).

More:

James Spader, Ryan Phillippe, Carla Gugino & Eric Bana Join Sheldon Turner's 'By Virtue Fall'

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
March 29, 2011 2:10 AM
|
0 Comments

Colin Farrell OutIn the works for about a year now, there is a whole lot of fresh movement on "Up In The Air" scribe Sheldon Turner's directorial debut "By Virtue Fall." A fresh cast is now in place, and while one big star who has been circling seems to be on board, one has also departed.

More: