The Playlist

Kate Winslet Is A 'Dressmaker'; David Tennant & Rosamund Pike Go On 'Holiday' & More

By Kevin Jagernauth
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May 10, 2013 3:36 PM
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1 Comment

News

Cannes starts next week, which means producers and buyers are flocking to the market, which means a bunch of projects are being announced, so let's just dive in...

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Review: 'Cloud Atlas' Is Bold, Messy & Disappointingly Unimaginative

By Kevin Jagernauth
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October 25, 2012 6:32 PM
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19 Comments

Reviews

With The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer literally throwing a critic off the roof of a building to his death in the opening moments of the nearly three-hour "Cloud Atlas," it's clear that they aren't concerned in the slightest with how this ambitious effort will be received. And you certainly have to give the trio of directors some respect for their approach, which tag teams an all-star cast, gives them multiple roles and spreads the story across nearly a half dozen time periods. But for all their boldness in narrative approach, the adaptation of David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" is also a mess, with an attempt to mix its various genres under a universal thematic banner that never quite coheres.

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Set Pics Unveil First Look At James McAvoy & Jim Broadbent In 'Filth'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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October 9, 2012 2:45 PM
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5 Comments

News

We won't be seeing James McAvoy on the big screen in 2012, but by this time next year, he'll have been the centerpiece of quite a few promising films. His slate includes: the thriller "Welcome To The Punch"; the duo of films "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: His" and "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Hers" alongside Jessica Chastain; and Danny Boyle's art world tale "Trance." And if that's not enough, he'll be getting dirty with "Filth." And we now have our first peek at that movie.

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4 New Images From 'Cloud Atlas'; Test Screening Reactions Hit The Web

By Kevin Jagernauth
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August 13, 2012 2:06 PM
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9 Comments

News

Of the many big-name films unspooling at TIFF in September, perhaps the crown jewel is the world premiere of The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer's "Cloud Atlas." The star-studded, sprawling, ambitious adaptation of David Mitchell's novel will be unveiled before hitting theaters in October, but it looks Warner Bros. is still gauging audience reactions to this thing.

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Watch: Staggeringly Ambitious, Visually Impressive 6-Minute Trailer For The Wachowski's & Tom Tykwer's 'Cloud Atlas'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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July 26, 2012 5:11 AM
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19 Comments

News

Well, damn. After a prolonged period of radio silence, this week has seen a flurry of activity regarding "Cloud Atlas," the adaptation of David Mitchell's acclaimed best-seller by Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer and Andy Wachowski. On Tuesday, it was announced that the film would make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, yesterday saw the first images start to leak out, and overnight, the first trailer for the film leaked online (courtesy of JoBlo). And, boy, what a trailer.

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First Images Of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Ben Whishaw & Jim Broadbent In 'Cloud Atlas'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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July 25, 2012 10:28 AM
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8 Comments

News

“[The movie explores] the idea of being reborn and souls being reborn through time,” Hugo Weaving recently told THR about "Cloud Atlas." When was the last time a big studio movie tackled that kind of subject matter? Well, the trick here is that The Wachowskis ambitious adaptation of David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" was actually financed independently from a number of production companies worldwide, giving the helmers, who teamed up with Tom Tykwer, the creative space to tell their tale.

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Jim Broadbent Joins Eric Bana & Rebecca Hall In John Crowley's Untitled Thriller, Because Jim Broadbent Is In Everything

By Oliver Lyttelton
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March 23, 2012 9:23 AM
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0 Comments

News

It's a little known fact, but in the mid 1980s, in a bid to fight underemployment in certain aspects of the entertainment industry, the British government passed the Broadbent Act, which set up a quota that one in four British movies would have to cast British character actor favorite Jim Broadbent, while providing tax cuts to any Hollywood movies that employed him. Sometimes, this has led to some overlap, such as last year, when Broadbent accidentally gave the exact same performance in "The Iron Lady" as he did a decade ago in "Iris."

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Imogen Poots, Jim Broadbent & Eddie Marsan Round Out Cast For 'Filth' With James McAvoy

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 18, 2012 4:11 PM
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4 Comments

News

James McAvoy is quietly amassing one of the most interesting filmographies out there. The actor toplined two major tentpoles in 2011 -- "X-Men: First Class" and "Arthur Christmas" -- and now he's quickly gone in the other direction, getting in front of the cameras for Danny Boyle's thriller "Trance," and the gritty Brit crime flick "Welcome To The Punch." And kicking off 2012, he's settling into what be his most challenging effort to date, an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's "Filth." This one has been brewing for a while now, with Jamie Bell boarding over the summer and now with filming set to kick off, the rest of the cast has been solidified, and it's certainly very promising.

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Review: 'Arthur Christmas' Is A Visually Dazzling, Emotionally Rich Holiday Treat

By Drew Taylor
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November 22, 2011 9:02 AM
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1 Comment

Reviews

Making a truly classic Christmas movie is a feat that few achieve but many try their hand at. In recent years, studios have cynically tried to graft "edgy" material onto all-audiences Christmas approaches, often times involving Vince Vaughn for reasons that remain obscure, and the results are barely watchable trash-heaps like "Fred Claus" and "Four Christmases." The trick is to modernize an archetypal story for current audiences without losing the seasonal sweetness (there's a reason "Elf," for all its mediocrity, is so beloved). Aardman Animation and Sony have attempted to do just that with "Arthur Christmas," a surprisingly rollicking, visually dazzling, and emotionally rich Christmas movie that actually succeeds in its lofty goals of being an ready-made annual classic. It's practically gift wrapped for the occasion.

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Watch: Meryl Streep Gets Prime Ministerial In Full Trailer For 'The Iron Lady'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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November 14, 2011 5:19 AM
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12 Comments

News

Of everything this Oscar season, the biggest question mark has been "The Iron Lady." While most of the films in play made festival bows months ago, or have started screening for long-lead press by now, Phyllida Lloyd's biopic of legendary British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, starring the equally legendary Meryl Streep, has been kept tightly under wraps, with only a brief teaser trailer showing how the film might turn out.

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