The Playlist

Premature Predictions: The 2014 Best Actor Nominees

By Oliver Lyttelton
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February 27, 2013 2:45 PM
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33 Comments

Awards

As part of our steady quest to go cold turkey from the Oscar season over the next few days, we've been running down some of our possibilities for the films that will be elbowing each other for awards in 2014. Yesterday, we looked at Best Picture, and today, we turn to Best Actor, won this year by Daniel Day-Lewis.

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Lisa Cholodenko Won't Direct 'Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,' But Steve Carell Still On Board

By Kevin Jagernauth
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February 22, 2013 1:22 PM
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0 Comments

News

With credits that include "The Kids Are All Right," "Laurel Canyon," "High Art" and "The L Word," Lisa Cholodenko didn't always seem like the obvious choice to co-write (with Ron Lieber) and direct "Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." But she's been developing the vehicle for a while, first at Fox and then at Disney who picked the project up when it went into turnaround. But as the movie continues to move forward, Cholodenko has decided she won't get behind the camera after all.

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Universal Moves Ahead With FBI Wedding Comedy Starring Steve Carell

By Cain Rodriguez
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February 14, 2013 9:23 AM
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2 Comments

News

Since leading “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” to box-office success, and being the best in the U.S. version of “The Office” for multiple seasons, Steve Carell has had a patchy record on the big screen, ranging from successes like "Date Night" to things no one saw like "Dan In Real Life." With the release of the magician comedy “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” and “Anchorman: The Legend Continues” later this year, the former 'Office' star may be at the start of a string of hits, and Universal want in.

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Sundance Review: 'The Way, Way Back' A Familiar But Crowd Pleasing Coming-Of-Age Tale From Co-Writers Of 'The Descendants'

By Cory Everett
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January 22, 2013 11:03 AM
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1 Comment

Reviews

Back in 2012, “The Descendants” took home the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and most people were probably surprised to see Alexander Payne (a previous winner for “Sideways” and nominee for “Election”) flanked by Dean Pelton from “Community” and that dude from “Club Dredd.” For the first time in Payne’s career he had not collaborated with his usual co-writer Jim Taylor, but instead rewritten a previously existing screenplay by the aforementioned Jim Rash and Nat Faxon (which was in itself an adaptation of a novel).

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Watch: Trailer For 'The Incredible Burt Wonderstone' Features Steve Carell, Jim Carrey & Lots Of Spray Tan

By Kevin Jagernauth
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December 21, 2012 8:56 AM
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2 Comments

News

While Steve Carell has been positioned as the next big comedy star, the projects he's chosen have been disappointments for the most part. For every "Crazy Stupid Love" there has been a "Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World," while an ambitious concept like "Dinner For Schmucks" (a remake of much better and excellent French film "The Dinner Game") may have done decently at the box office (barely) but wasn't exactly all that memorable. Now comes "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," another big idea comedy that unfortunately looks pretty tedious.

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Fox Puts Steve Carell & Lisa Cholodenko Project 'Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day' Into Turnaround

By Edward Davis
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September 27, 2012 4:43 PM
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0 Comments

News

In case you're too immersed in the all-too-random minute breadcrumbs that possibly point to Thanos being the villain in "The Avengers 2," Patrick Stewart potentially nodding in the affirmative that he'll be Professor X again one day, or that webshooters are being retroactively retrofitted into old "Spider-Man" trailers, you may have missed that there's a regime change over at 20th Century Fox. Tom Rothman is out, and when Chairman and CEOs "step down" (euphemism), companies tend to take stock of their wares and decide what they can let go or kick to the curb.

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James Gandolfini & Steve Carell Are 'The Bone Men'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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September 24, 2012 3:43 PM
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2 Comments

News

It seems that James Gandolfini and Steve Carell have got along smashingly on the set of "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone." And while we'll have to wait until next Christmas for that movie to show itself, the pair are brewing up a project together that might see them take a step back in time.

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New Images: 'The Way, Way Back' With Steve Carell & Sam Rockwell; 'Not Fade Away,' 'Flight' & 'Fun Size'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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August 24, 2012 5:17 PM
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2 Comments

News

So what happens when you win an Oscar? Your long-developing project gets the kick in the pants it needs to get made. And that's just what happened for "The Descendants" writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Originally set for director Shawn Levy ("Real Steel") in 2007, "The Way, Way Back" was first delayed by the WGA strike of that year, and was stuck in limbo before finally coming back to life last fall. After the pair took home an Oscar for the screenplay for "The Descendants," everything started moving fast, and with a pretty great cast on board.

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Justin Theroux To Direct Will Ferrell & Steve Carell In 'Swear To God'

By Edward Davis
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August 9, 2012 9:55 PM
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1 Comment

News

Justin Theroux's career as a triple threat actor, director, and writer continues. Coming off another strong comedic turn in this year's hippie colony comedy "Wanderlust," Theroux is set to follow-up his underrated feature-film debut, "Dedication" with a new comedy called, "Swear To God."

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Review: ‘Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World’ Is Too Apocalyptically Cute

By Drew Taylor
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June 19, 2012 8:59 AM
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8 Comments

Reviews

“Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,” the directorial debut of writer Lorene Scafaria (she also wrote “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”), has a premise that, if handled correctly, could really shake up romantic comedy conventions in new and exciting ways. It’s set during the final weeks of our planet’s life, as a killer asteroid rockets toward earth and the basic functions of society start to decay and fall apart. It’s sort of like “Melancholia” if the wedding section had been a screwball comedy, or maybe if you wanted “Armageddon” to be more like “Crazy Stupid Love.” And “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,” while occasionally punctuated with poignancy and darkness, never fully engages with the niftiness of its concept. It’s ultimately too cute to really be about anything, a clever premise lost in a sea of apocalyptically bland romantic comedy conventions.

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