The Playlist

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

Interviews

Emily Blunt Wins Female Lead In Rob Marshall's Sondheim Adaptation 'Into The Woods'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 16, 2013 6:38 PM
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7 Comments

News

Even we weren't big Sondheim fans, we're starting to suspect that we'd be getting excited about "Into The Woods" regardless. "Chicago" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" director Rob Marshall's been prepping his film version of Stephen Sondheim's fairy tale deconstruction for over a year now, but has started lining up a cast in recent weeks, and it's looking fairly spectacular.

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 15, 2013 8:30 AM
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7 Comments

News

Stephen Sondheim has never been an easy sell on screen. The Broadway composer's work is complex and rich in a way that doesn't easily lend itself to big-screen transitions, and outside of early work like "West Side Story" and "Gypsy," few of his shows have made it to the big screen -- "A Little Night Music" and Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd" being the major exceptions. Given its fairy tale subject matter, "Into the Woods" always seemed like one of the more obvious contenders to make it to the movies, with Steven Spielberg, Sam Mendes and Penny Marshall among the filmmakers who've flirted with the idea in the past.

By Edward Davis
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May 6, 2013 7:06 PM
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4 Comments

News

Logan Lerman might be known for the forgettable “Percy Jackson” films (a sequel arrives this summer), but he almost scored the coveted lead in “The Amazing Spider-Man” a few years ago and he impressed with his acting chops in “The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.” Casting directors and filmmakers have noticed. He’s getting called up into the big leagues and will join Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf in the WWII tank thriller “Fury” that “End of Watch” filmmaker David Ayer is writing and directing for Sony Pictures. The movie is already set for a Fall 2014 release and it’s an interesting one because it will be Ayer’s first non police-centered movie. Let’s hope unlike the almost great “End Of Watch,” the visual material doesn’t stand in the way of a good story and strong dynamic.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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April 26, 2013 4:08 PM
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14 Comments

News

While Johnny Depp has only worked with Rob Marshall once, it pretty much changed his career. "Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" launched a massive franchise, firmly established Depp as a blockbuster star and launched him into the stratosphere. And while it might have taken a while, it looks like the pair are ready to try and make some magic again.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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October 2, 2012 2:57 PM
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1 Comment

Television

When you're a Tony-award winning director, who has transitioned easily into the movie world earning both Oscar success ("Chicago") and blockbuster money ("Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides") people are going to jump out of windows to get a shot at what you're doing next. And it seems there were a lot of open windows in Hollywood

By Oliver Lyttelton
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January 11, 2012 8:58 AM
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0 Comments

News

While we're not exactly overrun by the things, the last decade has seen a semi-revival of the movie musical. Once Hollywood's biggest genre, the style virtually disappeared from theaters in the 1980s and 1990s, only for the likes of "Moulin Rouge!" to revitalize cinematic singing-and-dancing in the early '00s, and now we get a movie musical, if not necessarily every year, then every couple, and more often than not it's an adaptation of a stage hit.