The Playlist

Watch: New TV Spot For Sam Raimi's 'Oz The Great & Powerful' With James Franco & Mila Kunis

By Oliver Lyttelton
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January 14, 2013 11:20 AM
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3 Comments

News

Adapting a beloved TV series to the big screen is always a risky prospect, particularly when you start departing from the source material. Be it giving a post-modern meta spin on classics like "Bewitched" or "Starsky & Hutch," or chucking big-budget effects at lo-fi favorites like 'The A-Team" or "Lost In Space," the results are rarely positive, pleasing neither fans or neophytes. We thought we might be on safer ground when we discovered that Sam Raimi was directing a film called "Oz." Surely the brutal prison drama that preempted the golden age of HBO and shows like "The Sopranos" and "The Wire" would make it to the big-screen unscathed, especially in the hands of the director of "The Evil Dead" and "A Simple Plan."

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Oscars: 'Zero Dark Thirty' Isn't The Frontrunner Yet & More Observations After The NYFCC & NBR Awards

By Oliver Lyttelton
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December 6, 2012 9:59 AM
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3 Comments

Awards

Are you a fan of hearing that people have won things? Then you're in luck, because between now and the end of February, you'll struggle to go 24 hours without some kind of awards news. After the Gothams and the Independent Spirit nominations last week, the first major salvos of the awards season were fired this week, with the New York Film Critics' Circle giving out their prizes on Monday, and the National Board of Review awarding theirs yesterday.

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New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Picture & Best Director To Kathryn Bigelow's 'Zero Dark Thirty'

By The Playlist Staff
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December 3, 2012 3:12 PM
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4 Comments

Awards

This morning saw the New York Film Critic's Circle fumble all day with Twitter, but finally announce their awards for 2012's best, marking the first critics' group to bestow their honors. Sometimes bucking against the tide ("The Accidental Tourist" and "Far From Heaven" are among past Best Feature winners), sometimes proving good precursors to the Academy (they matched Best Picture, Director, Actress and Foreign Language feature last year), it's generally deemed to be the first major precursor of awards season.

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Watch: Dazzling New Trailer For Sam Raimi's 'Oz The Great And Powerful'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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November 14, 2012 8:49 AM
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12 Comments

News

You may have forgotten, but Sam Raimi's "Oz The Great And Powerful" has been a long time coming. It actually started production way back in July 2011, meaning it will be just under two years before it hits theaters next spring. But it looks like that time and attention to detail have certainly paid off because if anything, the 3D- and effects-heavy movie looks pretty damn great. The murky, digitally undercooked world of Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland" looks nearly amateur by comparison.

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James Franco, A China Doll & A Monkey: Yes, It's More New Images From 'Oz The Great And Powerful'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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November 13, 2012 10:45 AM
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3 Comments

News

This certainly isn't your grandma's Oz. With James Franco, 3D and a bunch of monkeys, the yellow brick road has been redone, for better or worse, in Sam Raimi's upcoming "Oz The Great And Powerful." Whether or not it all comes together remains to be seen, but if anything, it should look spectacular.

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New Images Of James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz & Mila Kunis In 'Oz The Great And Powerful'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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November 12, 2012 8:58 AM
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3 Comments

News

It's taken a while, especially given that the film comes out about four months from now, but some proper looks at James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz in Sam Raimi's "Oz The Great And Powerful" are here. And yes, another look at a monkey.

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Rachel Weisz Joins David Cronenberg's 'Maps To The Stars' With Robert Pattinson & Viggo Mortensen

By Kevin Jagernauth
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November 7, 2012 2:26 PM
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21 Comments

News

Brewing since 2006, not much has really been known about David Cronenberg's "Map to the Stars." In May he described it as, "very extreme. It's not obviously a very big commercial movie, and even as an independent film it's difficult. 'Maps to the Stars' is completely different [from 'Cosmopolis'], but it's very acerbic and satirical, it's a hard sell." But Cronenberg has made a career out of mounting one "hard sell" picture after another, and thanks to three major stars on board, this one looks like it's getting made.

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Rachel Weisz Reportedly Doesn't Make The Cut On Terrence Malick's 'To The Wonder'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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August 28, 2012 7:01 PM
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24 Comments

News

A Terrence Malick movie is like a box of chocolates -- you never know what you're going to get. Especially if you're in the cast. Ever since "The Thin Red Line," Malick has earned a reputation for being somewhat ruthless when it comes to cutting actors (Adrien Brody went from being the lead in that film to practically a glorified extra), and even for "The Tree of Life," there are dozens of stills floating around that depict countless scenes that were shot and excluded from the finished film. And thus, with "To the Wonder" shortly to premiere at the Venice Film Festival, it appears one high-profile name won't be seen in the film that runs just under two hours long.

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Jeremy Renner's Biggest Challenge Was "Not Getting Hurt": 10 Things Learned About 'The Bourne Legacy'

By Ryan Gowland
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August 10, 2012 12:04 PM
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3 Comments

News

This week will finally see the answer to one of Hollywood's great questions: will audiences watch a 'Bourne' movie without Matt Damon? The answer will be provided by Tony Gilroy's "The Bourne Legacy," the first of what could be a potential franchise starring Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross, a similar agent to Jason Bourne, but a product of the Department of Defense's Operation Outcome, a different training program from the CIA's Treadstone. Gilroy is no stranger to the 'Bourne' franchise, having been a writer or co-writer on all three installments, but once Damon and "Bourne Supremacy" and "Bourne Ultimatum" director Paul Greengrass decided against returning, he was tasked with creating what producer Frank Marshall called a "same-time-quel."

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Review: Heady & Complex, 'The Bourne Legacy' Is A Fresh & Exciting Expansion Of The Franchise

By Drew Taylor
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August 7, 2012 1:25 PM
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15 Comments

Reviews

Like a game of high-octane chess played upon a moving train, Universal’s “The Bourne Legacy” is just as interested in engaging the mind as it is the senses with its visceral action set-pieces. And while one might argue the action drama's allegiances lie much deeper with engaging the former, this taut, complex, and yes, at times dense, action thriller is still an auspicious beginning to what presumably will kick off another series in the grand mythology of these clandestine and top-secret CIA black ops programs.

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