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5 Things You Might Not Know About 'Say Anything,' 23 Years After The Release Of Cameron Crowe's Classic Rom-Com

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • April 13, 2012 10:03 AM
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  • 4 Comments
Features
"Say Anything" was not particularly successful on its release. John Cusack was an established star of films like "The Sure Thing," but co-star Ione Skye was basically unknown, and director Cameron Crowe was, despite his writing credit on "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" eight years earlier, not a known quantity. As such, despite rave reviews, it only took $20 million at the domestic box office, and a meagre $733,000 internationally -- indeed, in many territories, like the U.K, it went straight to video.
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More: Features, On This Day In Movie History, John Cusack, Cameron Crowe, Say Anything

Videodrome: The Best In Recent Music Videos Including Jack White, Drake, Benga & More

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • April 12, 2012 12:59 PM
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  • 1 Comment
Features
In case you missed it, we resurrected our old Videodrome column a few weeks back: our semi-regular showcase for the best music videos around. Given that the form has given the world game-changing helmers in both the blockbuster and arthouse worlds, it's always important to keep an eye on promos, and indeed, one could argue that there's more invention to be found in the short-form than there is in features. So, with no further ado, the five best music videos we've seen in the last few weeks. As ever, any tips and suggestions are more than welcome.
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More: Videodrome, Drake, Jack White

5 Things You Might Not Know About 'Mad Max,' 33 Years To The Day After It Hit Theaters

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • April 12, 2012 10:59 AM
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  • 4 Comments
Features
Any day now, director George Miller will finally get rolling in Namibia on "Fury Road," the long-awaited continuation of the "Mad Max" series. Starring Tom Hardy in the role that launched Mel Gibson's career, with a cast that also includes Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult, the film's been in the works for years, but to be getting underway in the next month or two.
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More: 5 Things You Might Not Know About..., On This Day In Movie History, Mel Gibson, George Miller, Features, Mad Max: Fury Road

The Essentials: The Films Of John Milius

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • April 12, 2012 10:04 AM
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  • 15 Comments
Features
All those who complain about the liberal domination of Hollywood have never come across John Milius. A film school pal of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Milius had tried to join the Marine Corp, but was turned away due to his asthma. Instead, he channeled his frustrations into both a life-long obsession with firearms (he was paid for "Jeremiah Johnson" in antique weaponry, and has served on the NRA Board of Directors,) and making some of the most masculine, testosterone-filled movies of all time, both as an acclaimed writer and as a director. The basis for both Paul Le Mat's character in "American Graffiti" and Walter in "The Big Lebowski" -- the Coens are friends of Milius, and offered him the part of Jack Lipnick in "Barton Fink" -- he's one of film history's most singular, colorful characters.
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More: John Milius, The Essentials, Features, On This Day In Movie History

5 Things You Might Not Know About Steven Spielberg's Game-Changing 'Jaws' As It Finally Heads To Blu-Ray

  • By The Playlist
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  • April 11, 2012 11:23 AM
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  • 15 Comments
Features
You know what’s a fun task? Trying to convince anyone that Steven Spielberg’s 1975 “Jaws” is not an American classic and a nearly flawless film. It’s kind of impossible, and if you were to somehow take this position, you would either be painfully foolhardy, Armond White, or both.
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More: Jaws, Steven Spielberg, Features, On This Day In Movie History

The Lost, Forgotten & Undersung Projects Of Joss Whedon

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • April 11, 2012 11:04 AM
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  • 8 Comments
Features
Joss Whedon is about to have a very good week. The writer/director/producer has until recently, been best known for his work on television: he turned his poorly-received screenwriting debut "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" into one of the most beloved cult series of all times (which itself got a long-running spin-off, "Angel"), and followed them up with the short-lived but passionately followed sci-fi Western "Firefly," a show that lasted as single season, but managed to get its own cinematic sequel, "Serenity," which marked Whedon's big-screen directorial debut.
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More: Joss Whedon, Features, Cabin In The Woods, The Avengers

Who Should Direct 'Catching Fire'? 5 Directors We Think Could Do The Job

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • April 11, 2012 9:59 AM
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  • 20 Comments
News
So, writer-director Gary Ross, having helped make "The Hunger Games" into a gigantic hit, has decided to move on to new pastures. As we reported last week, Ross will be focusing on a new project, and after a few days, Lionsgate officially confirmed he will not be helming "Catching Fire," with both the studio and the director issuing formal statements.
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More: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Features, Hunger Games, Gary Ross, Gavin O'Connor, Susanna White, Patty Jenkins, George Nolfi, Drew Goddard

On The Rise 2012: 5 Screenwriters To Keep An Eye On In The Next Few Years

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • April 10, 2012 11:59 AM
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  • 13 Comments
Features
Unlike in theater or television, writers generally get the short end of the stick in the movie business. When a film doesn't work, the script is blamed, when it does work, the director gets credit. Writers get fired, rehired, fired again, rewritten and screwed out of credit. But that's not to say that once they get the momentum behind them, a screenwriter can't become just as talked about as actors, actresses and directors around Hollywood watering holes and meeting rooms.
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More: Drew Pearce, Andrew Baldwin, Kelly Marcel, Josh Zetumer , Graham Moore, Features, On The Rise Features

The Essentials: 5 Of Michael Curtiz's Greatest Films, On The 50th Anniversary Of His Death

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • April 10, 2012 11:05 AM
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  • 5 Comments
Features
The coming of the auteur theory has meant that filmmakers like Michael Curtiz no longer get much sway among current generations of directors. Curtiz (born Kertész Kaminer Manó in Hungary in 1886), was a workman, a man who flourished in the studio system after being picked out by Jack Warner for his Austrian Biblical epic "Moon of Israel" in 1924). He stayed at the studio for nearly 20 years, taking on whateer he was assigned at a terrifyingly prolific worklate - he made over 100 Hollywood movies up to "The Comancheros" in 1961. And some of them are terrible, as you might expect.
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More: The Essentials, On This Day In Movie History, Features, Micheal Curtiz

To Get Ready for 'Cabin in the Woods,' Here Are The Top 5 Cabin Movies

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • April 10, 2012 10:05 AM
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  • 3 Comments
Features
Everything from “The Truman Show” to John Carpenter’s “Halloween” is chopped up and blended in the pop culture Cuisinart that is Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s irrepressible “Cabin in the Woods.” But it quite clearly owes a certain debt to a very specific type of horror sub-genre set primarily in a rickety homestead in the forest, one just desolate or decrepit enough to be rife with the possibility of evil spirits, demented madmen, psychic trauma… or all of the above. When Whedon originally came to Goddard with the concept, he gleefully suggested making a “cabin movie.” While “Cabin in the Woods” ended up being much more than that (it's an acidic takedown and euphoric celebration of all things horror), we wanted to briefly cite five of the films that contributed, either directly or through the pop culture ether, to “Cabin in the Woods.”
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More: Features, Cabin In The Woods, Drew Goddard, Joss Whedon, Eli Roth, Sam Raimi, Tom Savini

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