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Cannes 2013: Surprises & Notable Absence ...

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Rodrigo Santoro Joins Lynne Ramsay's 'Jane Got A Gun' With Michael Fassbender & Natalie Portman

By Kevin Jagernauth
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February 4, 2013 2:31 PM
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News

As if "Morvern Callar" and "We Need To Talk About Kevin" helmer Lynne Ramsay doing a western wasn't enough to get you excited, the cast itself is a powderkeg all its own. With Natalie Portman, Michael Fassbender and Joel Edgerton already lined up, a new name has now come on board.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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December 6, 2012 3:06 PM
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Reviews

The common criticism leveled at biopics is that they are rarely narratively challenging, with most following a standard template that sees the story move along episodically, ticking off the events in the character's life in a rote fashion. So some credit must be given to director José Henrique Fonseca and his four co-writers for defying convention with "Heleno," a biopic of 1940s Brazilian football star Heleno de Freitas. However, your enjoyment of the impressionistic rather then detail-oriented portrait of the player will largely depend on how much you know about him (or not) going into the film.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 16, 2012 11:28 AM
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1 Comment

News

Update: Deadline confirms that Santoro will be back as Xerxes and "300: Battle Of Artemisia" will shoot this summer. Santoro and Eva Green will pair up as the bad guys in this one.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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September 27, 2011 2:52 AM
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2 Comments

So, can Arnold Schwarzenegger put his philandering, baby-making ways behind him and make a big screen comeback? He's certainly going to try. Next summer, he'll star alongside a bunch of other aging 'roid-heads in "The Expendables 2," but his first post-gubernatorial leading man vehicle will come in the form of the B-movie thriller "The Last Stand." And it's already amassing some strong talent to back him.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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July 6, 2011 6:12 AM
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1 Comment

Even though he broke out in Zack Snyder's "300" as the memorable Xerxes, Rodrigo Santoro has had a hard time snowballing that exposure into anything substantial. For every solid turn like Raúl Castro in Steven Soderbergh's "Che" or Jimmy in "I Love You Phillip Morris" there's something like "Post Grad" or even "Lost" where he played one half of Nikki and Paulo, the most hated couple to ever appear on that show. On the horizon he's got the HBO film "Hemingway & Gellhorn" with Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen but that will be countered by yet another gig that's beneath him.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 10, 2011 9:38 AM
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3 Comments

With lensing now underway on "Hemingway & Gellhorn," the HBO film starring Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen, the rest of the cast has been rounded up and it's a pretty intriguing and interesting array of names.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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March 1, 2011 1:50 AM
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4 Comments

"What I really want to do is direct," might as well be the adage that every screenwriter in Hollywood not so secretly clings to at night when they brush their teeth before bed and daydream of their Academy acceptance speech.

By Oliver Lyttelton
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February 16, 2011 1:56 AM
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The Berlin Film Festival always brings a ton of news as independent producers shop around for pre-sales, and the latest project to be revealed is an intriguing, if odd-sounding drama, with an eclectic cast. Screen Daily reports that Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson and Lenny Kravitz are all attached to star in "The Blind Bastard Club," which will begin filming in April.