The Playlist

Can An Action Movie With Clive Owen Turn Things Around For Katherine Heigl?

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
May 6, 2013 2:03 PM
|
12 Comments

News

Katherine Heigl hasn't always been her own best advocate. A lead role in Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up" is mostly remembered by the fallout that came when she complained about the supposed sexist elements of the hit film. Then there's the saga with "Gray's Anatomy," with the actress battling with the creatives on the show and even withdrawing her name from Emmy contention one year because she didn't feel the material was up to snuff. While one could scoff at the irony of someone who went on star in movies like "27 Dresses" and "The Ugly Truth," Heigl had the last laugh because they were hits. And then suddenly, her choices were no longer so sound. "Killers," "One For The Money" and "The Big Wedding" were all bombs, with the Apatow-clone "Life As We Know It" as the lone outlier, a modest hit that you still probably forgot existed. So perhaps it's no shock Heigl is changing things up.

More:

Katherine Heigl To Star In 'A Moment To Remember' A Remake Of A Movie Based On A TV Show For 'The Sessions' Director Ben Lewin

By Cain Rodriguez
|
February 8, 2013 9:25 AM
|
3 Comments

News

Though “The Sessions” didn’t turn out to be the awards contender many predicted -- Helen Hunt’s nod for Best Supporting Actress notwithstanding -- when it premiered last year at Sundance, it still impressed a hell of a lot of people and now its director has already set-up his follow-up film.

More:

Eddie Murphy Is The Most Overpaid Actor In Hollywood According To Forbes

By Charlie Schmidlin
|
December 5, 2012 9:41 AM
|
1 Comment

News

Once seen as a series of soaring precedents afforded to Hollywood's best and brightest, the massive paychecks given to high-profile actors and directors today have since grown smaller with the film industry's cost-cutting measures. However, for an elite group of individuals, their price tag remains as high as it ever was, but now a recent list has revealed a slow reversal has begun for those once deemed financially golden.

More:

Watch: Utterly Painful & Unfunny Trailer For 'The Big Wedding' With Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Katherine Heigl & More

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
July 31, 2012 2:16 PM
|
10 Comments

News

Hollywood is a weird place. While it can be known for being forward-thinking or progressive in its politics, willing to adapt to social changes and put new stories on the big screen, like the Oscar-nominated "The Kids Are All Right" that offers a refreshing and modern look at families, on the other hand, it can be strangely conservative. And so, we'll forgive you if when watching the trailer for "The Big Wedding" you might think it was exhumed from a previous decade (or two).

More:

The Mix: Rooney Mara Unveils New Look For 'Bitter Pill'; Katniss Everdeen Gets Turned Into A Barbie & More

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
April 10, 2012 6:16 PM
|
4 Comments

News

Steven Soderbergh's "The Bitter Pill" is now rolling in front of cameras and it looks like the girl with the dragon tattoo is now the girl with a new haircut (or wig). Rooney Mara has been snapped walking around the New York City set with some new brunette-ish locks, and combined with a frumpy trench coat, it's a far cry from her previous Hot Topic look.

More:

Katherine Heigl To Star In Brian Henson's Dark Puppet Comedy-Thriller 'Happytime Murders'

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
February 3, 2012 3:37 PM
|
1 Comment

News

Okay, so we all got a good laugh yesterday when Katherine Heigl signed on to that ridiculous "Face Blind" thriller, but we have to give her kudos for this movie. It seems she's using her power for good instead of evil.

More:

Katherine Heigl To Star In 'Face Blind,' A Movie Milla Jovovich Has Pretty Much Already Made

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
February 2, 2012 2:43 PM
|
2 Comments

News

It seems Hollywood doesn't know what on Earth to do with Katherine Heigl. Her career as a rom-com star seems to be dwindling fast, with "One For The Money" opening in third last week (thanks to a Groupon promotion) to bigger numbers than expected, but still pretty dismal all around. In fact it's the worst starring role opening she's had ever -- yes, even "Killers" with Ashton Kutcher made more on its first weekend. So, she's gonna change up the game a bit.

More:

Weekend Box Office: 'The Grey' Sees Green, While Audiences Stay Away From The 'Ledge'

By Gabe Toro
|
January 29, 2012 12:14 PM
|
3 Comments

Box Office

Good ole’ dependable Liam Neeson. This is the third straight early-year period where the character actor turned badass leading man has scored a number one hit. While “The Grey” couldn’t pull in the same numbers as “Taken” or “Unknown,” it did top $20 million. Not a bad figure considering this was a much less commercial beast, with an R-rating, and it’s arguable that few leading men could have gotten a man-vs.-wilderness drama into an eight figure debut. This is distributor Open Road’s second ever release. Their first, last year’s “Killer Elite,” seemed like a surefire commercial proposition, but it pulled in half of what “The Grey” is looking to make on this opening weekend. You could argue this was a bait and switch, as the ads centered around spoiling, and misinterpreting, the film’s ending -- Cinemascore was a not-entirely-kind B-. But everyone got the opening they wanted -- this puts Open Road on the map, it gets Joe Carnahan out of Director Jail following “The A-Team” and it continues Neeson’s winning streak. Also worth noting: throughout each week in 2012 so far, the number one slot at the box office has been filled by R-rated fare.

More:

Naomi Watts Looks Dowdy In First Look Photo From Clint Eastwood's 'J. Edgar'

By Edward Davis
|
August 16, 2011 6:45 AM
|
3 Comments

Plus New Photos Of Sarah Jessica Parker, Lea Michele & Sofia Vergara In 'New Year's Eve'We suppose she wasn't meant to be glamorous or pretty in this picture. WB has released a first look photo of Naomi Watts in Clint Eastwood's biopic "J. Edgar" starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and the actress looks positively dowdy and frumpy. That's by design. She's playing Helen Gandy, a Justice Department file clerk who ended up being Hoover’s personal secretary. Not the sexiest role in the film, though in one version of Dustin Lance Black's screenplay, if we recall correctly, there is one brief sequence where she and Hoover attempt to go out on a date, which doesn't really work out. Following Hoover's death in 1972, Gandy spent weeks destroying his personal file, thought to be where the most incriminating material he used to manipulate and control the most powerful figures in Washington was kept, though we're pretty sure Eastwood's drama won't extend that far into his history.

More:

Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl & Amanda Seyfried Starring In 'Gently Down The Stream'

By Oliver Lyttelton
|
May 12, 2011 8:03 AM
|
3 Comments

There's a basic appeal to the idea of the team-up movie. Since the dawn of fan fiction, people have dreamed of combining their favorite heroes, and it's proved to be lucrative big-screen niche, from "Godzilla vs.King Kong" and "Alien vs. Predator" to next summer's "The Avengers." So it only makes sense that we'd eventually get a female-driven version of the genre, and by combining a trio of the biggest stars in the rom-com world, along with an acting legend, that seems to be what the producers of "Gently Down the Stream" are doing: it's like "The Avengers," but with stars of terrible romantic comedies.

More: