The Playlist

Nicolas Winding Refn Was Originally In Talks To Direct 'Magic Mike'; Steven Soderbergh Has No Desire To Make Another "Important Movie"

By Kevin Jagernauth
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June 26, 2012 10:17 AM
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3 Comments

News

Well, you gotta admit, Channing Tatum has got some serious taste when it comes to directors. With his CV so far including folks like Michael Mann, Kevin Macdonald, Ron Howard, Kimberley Peirce and now, of course, Steven Soderbergh (x3), there's another helmer that, had things gone differently, Tatum would've already knocked out a couple movies with. His name? Nicolas Winding Refn. After "Bronson" in 2008, Refn was lining up the thriller "The Dying Of The Light," which would've starred Harrison Ford and Tatum in a Paul Schrader-penned film about a CIA agent who becomes afflicted by blindness. The project fell apart, but it seems Tatum and Refn were talking about reuniting on something entirely different.

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5 Oscars Wins That We'd Love To See This Year (Even If They Won't Happen)

By Oliver Lyttelton
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February 24, 2012 1:02 PM
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5 Comments

Features

Sometimes, the nomination is the prize. Even in more open years than this one (where many of the major prizes have been locked in for weeks, if not months), only two or three of the nominees have had a realistic chance of winning, with the others merely filling out the field. Which is not to say that they're not deserving. Indeed, quite often, the anointed winner is in that position because they're overdue, or they're part of a film that's sweeping the Oscars in general, or any one of a number of reasons.

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The Amazing Race: At Long Last, My Final Oscar Nomination Predictions

By Oliver Lyttelton
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January 20, 2012 3:54 PM
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18 Comments

Awards

It's crunch time. The Globes are done, the guilds have wrapped up, the critics have all had their say, and the BAFTAs have picked their nominees. In four days, the nominations for this year's Academy Awards will be announced, and we can finally stop talking about who's going to be nominated, and start talking about who's going to win.

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'Bridesmaids,' 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' & 'The Ides Of March' Surprise With PGA Nominations

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 3, 2012 12:42 PM
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3 Comments

Awards

Let's get the other stuff out of the way first. Yes, the Best Picture frontrunners you've expected all during the awards season -- "The Artist," "The Descendants," "The Help," "Midnight In Paris" -- have all earned PGA Award nominations for the top movie prize, the Darry F. Zanuck Producer Of The Year Award. But as always, it's the surprises that are the most fun, and this year, the PGA has a quite a few up their sleeve.

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Steve Zaillian Talks 'Dragon Tattoo,' 'Moneyball' & The Difficulties Of Getting Adult Dramas Made In Hollywood

By The Playlist
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December 27, 2011 9:45 AM
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1 Comment

News

Last week, David Fincher's "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" opened, and with it returns something that's been missing from the big cineplexes for a while: a big, expensive movie that is made for adults. It doesn't dumb anything down and it wears its R-rating like a badge of pride and not a scarlet letter. We got to talk to screenwriter Steve Zaillian, who as a screenwriter, director and producer, has somehow managed to land many of the grade-A assignments that don't involve robots that transform into cars and then transform into another type of car.

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'Moneyball' Soundtrack Band This Will Destroy You Scoring Indie Documentary 'The Deep Field'

By Benjamin Wright
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December 19, 2011 2:30 PM
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0 Comments

News

Besides the fine performances by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, along with Bennett Miller’s impeccable direction of this year's “Moneyball,” another aspect of the film worth singling out for praise is the score by Mychael Danna. Though as we mentioned on our list of Best Scores and Soundtracks of 2011, post-rock outfit This Will Destroy You also had a hand in creating one of the film’s signature pieces of music with the track “The Mighty Rio Grande,” which was also featured prominently in the film’s trailer.

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'The Help' & 'The Artist' Lead The Field At Screen Actors Guild Awards Nominations

By Oliver Lyttelton
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December 14, 2011 9:36 AM
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8 Comments

Awards

In the seventeen years that they've been running for, the annual Screen Actors' Guild Awards have proven to be a pretty reliable precursor for the acting categories at the Academy Awards. And why shouldn't they? With the actors who nominate their peers for the Oscars overwhelmingly being SAG members, there's always going to be a natural link, and certainly by the time the guild award their prizes, it's a good time to make a bet. In the last few years, they've only missed Penelope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Marion Cotillard in "La Vie En Rose" and Alan Arkin in "Little Miss Sunshine" as winners, while the nominees tend to match up heavily -- last year, seventeen out of twenty in the acting categories were the same, while all five nominees in the Outstanding Cast category won Oscar nominations.

From Bloody Murders To Bridesmaid Speeches: The 25 Best Movie Moments Of 2011

By Oliver Lyttelton
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December 13, 2011 1:59 PM
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49 Comments

Features

The great Howard Hawks once famously said that what makes a good film is "three great scenes, and no bad ones." While we'd argue that that's not an absolute hard-and-fast rule, he wasn't far off. With 2011 providing a number of above-average films, there've been plenty of memorable moments to go around, even if we couldn't attest to them all following Hawks Law.

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Awards Mania As 'The Artist,' 'The Tree Of Life' & 'The Descendants' Earn Top Critic Organization Honors

By Gabe Toro
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December 12, 2011 8:59 AM
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1 Comment

News

Sunday was a major day for Oscar prognosticators, as a number of critics organizations went live with their end-of-2011 honors. Some films gained support, and some lost quite a bit of steam, but for those of you who look at the whole thing like a horse race, there was a lot of movement amongst a thick group of thoroughbreds.