The Playlist

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

Interviews

Sam Neill Is Under The Impression That The New 'Jurassic Park' Will Be A Reboot

By Drew Taylor
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May 22, 2013 5:15 PM
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9 Comments

News

To paraphrase the great screenwriter and novelist William Goldman: nobody knows anything about "Jurassic Park 4." The core creative principles are known, of course, with "Safety Not Guaranteed" director Colin Trevorrow working from a script written by the husband-and-wife team of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver ("Rise of the Planet of the Apes"), possibly based in part on a screenplay that Mark Protosevich ("I Am Legend") wrote for Steven Spielberg in 2011. But plot specifics and casting decisions have yet to see the light of day, despite the announcement that production was being delayed slightly. But Sam Neill, who starred in the original film and the underwhelming "Jurassic Park III," thinks that he knows what's going on: it's going to be a reboot. And honestly, if you can't trust Sam Neill, who can you trust?

By Joe Cunningham
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September 18, 2012 1:39 PM
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2 Comments

News

Where is Rosamund Pike finding the time? Fresh off of “Jack Reacher,” the actress is busy filming a significant role in Edgar Wright’s final instalment in the jokingly monikered ‘Blood and Ice Cream’ trilogy, “The World’s End.” Once she’s wrapped on that she’ll be reuniting with Simon Pegg on the set of “Hector and the Search for Happiness,” and she’s also attached to Stephen Brown’s “The Sea.” But not content with that busy schedule (and likely happy to capitalise on a sudden resurgence in popularity), Pike has added another project in the form of Pascal Chaumeil’s English-language debut “A Long Way Down.”

By Drew Taylor
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March 11, 2012 5:01 PM
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3 Comments

Reviews

In their 2006 book "Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger," authors Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson, then researchers at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, talked about becoming obsessed with a stuffed Tasmanian Tiger that they would walk by every day in the museum. It became "something akin to amorous fervor," and eventually they decided to take a trip to Tasmania to see if the tiger, which officially became extinct in 1936 when the lone survivor died at the Hobart Zoo, still existed, somewhere in the wild. It's the kind of mysterious animal – lithe, beautiful, angular – that inspires this kind of devotion, even decades after its extinction.

By Kimber Myers
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February 9, 2012 11:55 AM
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5 Comments

Reviews

The things that got us verklempt in the last week include the latest episode of “Downton Abbey” and the “Halftime in America” Chrysler ad with Clint Eastwood. Clearly, it doesn’t take much, but noticeably absent from that list is the would-be weepy “The Vow,” starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. We even came prepared for tears, Boy Scout-style, with tissues in our pockets, but they’re still there, waiting to make a linty mess out of our laundry. The film isn’t as bad as what it looks like--the Chinatown knockoff equivalent of a Nicholas Sparks movie--but that doesn’t mean that those outside the target audience won’t find it a painful experience.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 18, 2011 3:24 AM
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3 Comments

Sam Neill, Anthony LaPaglia & Sebastian Stan Also On BoardVera Farmiga and Mia Wasikowska are set to boost their already strong indie cred as they lead a strong cast in the upcoming film adaptation of Arthur Miller's play "A View From A Bridge."

By Simon Dang
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November 1, 2010 2:13 AM
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2 Comments

An Adaptation Of Julia Leigh's Psychological Thriller About The Hunt For An Extinct AnimalWillem Dafoe, Sam Neill and Frances O'Connor will topline Daniel Nettheim's adaptation of Julia Leigh's psychological thriller "The Hunter," which began production on location on the southern Australian island of Tasmania this week.