The Playlist

Teaser Trailer For Rodrigo Cortes' 'Red Lights' Features Robert De Niro Turning Around Slowly

By Benjamin Wright
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September 14, 2011 4:30 AM
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4 Comments

While many of our writers didn’t exactly love Rodrigo Cortes’ “Hitchcock in a box” thriller “Buried,” it’s hard to deny that Cortes took some inventive turns with the film’s high concept premise. Next up for the director is “Red Lights,” which MTV has the trailer for, and it’s about as minimalist as you would imagine from a director who stuck one of Hollywood’s most rapidly rising stars (at the time) in a box for two hours.

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TIFF '11 Review: 'Killer Elite' Offers Some Cheap Thrills But Not Much Else

By Drew Taylor
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September 9, 2011 7:21 AM
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4 Comments

"Killer Elite," the new Jason Statham/Clive Owen/Robert De Niro testosterone tsunami, claims to have been inspired by a true story, and goes about setting the action in the early 1980s as a way of justifying its supposed historical validity. The problem, of course, is that the movie is so silly, so two-dimensionally cartoonish, that you don't buy, for a second, that anything depicted actually took place (the 1991 book on which the film is based, originally sold as a "true adventure," has been debunked and similarly derided). As a junky action movie, it passes muster, but for the historical thriller it pretends to be, it fails miserably.

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Mark Wahlberg Out, Bradley Cooper & Robert De Niro Looking In For 'The Silver Linings Playbook'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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August 2, 2011 3:40 AM
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6 Comments

Are BFFs Mark Wahlberg and David O. Russell having trouble? Are there problems in the house that "Three Kings," "I Heart Huckabees" and "The Fighter" built? Nah, it's nothing more than routine scheduling issues but it looks like the two best bros and frequent collaborators won't be reteaming for "The Silver Linings Playbook" -- but one of the earliest names attached the film has returned.

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David O. Russell Working On Action-Drama With Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura Called 'The Mission'

By Edward Davis
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June 14, 2011 12:16 PM
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2 Comments

Also Circling Disney's 'Maleficient'; Director Confirms He's Been Talking To Angelina Jolie, Plus Robert De Niro For 'The Silver Linings Playbook'Update: Ahh, so this is the one of the "several projects" that David O. Russell was talking to Angelina Jolie about. According to THR, now that Tim Burton has dropped the project, "The Fighter" filmmaker is one of the director's "circling" the Sleeping Beauty project "Maleficient." Russell never met a meeting he didn't like, so we're sure he's interested, but knowing his creative differences with studios, we would bet this one is not going to stick.

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Art Linson's 'The Comedian' Set For Another Robert De Niro & Martin Scorsese Reunion?

By Simon Dang
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May 21, 2011 4:18 AM
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2 Comments

Is Robert De Niro set to return to the comedy world with regular collaborator Martin Scorsese?

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Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl & Amanda Seyfried Starring In 'Gently Down The Stream'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 12, 2011 8:03 AM
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3 Comments

There's a basic appeal to the idea of the team-up movie. Since the dawn of fan fiction, people have dreamed of combining their favorite heroes, and it's proved to be lucrative big-screen niche, from "Godzilla vs.King Kong" and "Alien vs. Predator" to next summer's "The Avengers." So it only makes sense that we'd eventually get a female-driven version of the genre, and by combining a trio of the biggest stars in the rom-com world, along with an acting legend, that seems to be what the producers of "Gently Down the Stream" are doing: it's like "The Avengers," but with stars of terrible romantic comedies.

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First Look At Robert De Niro In Rodrigo Cortes' 'Red Lights'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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April 1, 2011 3:25 AM
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1 Comment

No that isn't Robert De Niro getting ready to accept a film award, present a movie or host the Daytime Emmys. It's the enigmatic first look at the actor in the upcoming thriller "Red Lights" from “Buried” director Rodrigo Cortes.

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Robert De Niro Is Going To Make Another Movie With 50 Cent For Some Reason

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 26, 2011 3:15 AM
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10 Comments

Forest Whitaker Also Circling RoleFor the love of god Robert De Niro, fire your agent. The once-esteemed actor, who has spent the most part of the last decade or two slogging it out in one mediocre picture after another, apparently doesn't know a good movie anymore even if it walks up and bites him in the ass. The actor hemmed and hawed over the drama "Honeymoon With Harry" to the point where director Jonathan Demme gave up on the project. So what to do next? How about another shitty movie with 50 Cent!

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Jonathan Demme's 'Honeymoon For Harry' Falls Apart After Robert De Niro Gets Cold Feet

By Oliver Lyttelton
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March 18, 2011 1:02 AM
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2 Comments

The lament of the last fifteen years or so of Robert De Niro's career is a common one; the actor for the most part having traded in the challenging performances he made his name on in the 1970s and 1980s for a series of lukewarm comedies and pot-boiler thrillers. His last truly great performance was in "Jackie Brown" in 1997 and, while he does occasionally do good work -- last year's "Stone" was his best for ages -- audiences don't seem to care when he does. But the actor doesn't exactly help his own cause.

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Review: 'Limitless' Expands The Boundaries of Bradley Cooper's Charm

By Kimber Myers
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March 16, 2011 8:20 AM
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4 Comments

Originally (and enigmatically) titled “Dark Fields,” Neil Burger’s latest film now bears the bland moniker “Limitless,” making it sound like a film scraped together from D.C. Comics’ dregs. But rather than being another entry in the seemingly neverending superhero genre, “Limitless” is a sci-fi-inflected thriller that never quite lives up to its premise or its lead actor.

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