The Playlist

Garrett Hedlund Replaces Jason Clarke In William Monahan's 'Mojave'; Terry Gilliam Has Small Role In The New Wachowski Movie

By Edward Davis
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May 16, 2013 5:39 PM
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1 Comment

News

Even without being massively fond of many of the films produced from his screenplays (not least his pretty bad directorial debut "London Boulevard"), we're fond of William Monahan and his salty dialogue, best embodied in his Oscar-winning script for "The Departed," and we're always hopeful that he'll come up with the goods. So despite our feelings about "London Boulevard," we're hopeful for his follow-up "Mojave," not least because of the cast he's assembling.

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Style Or Substance? 20 Visually Stunning Movies That Go For Broke

By The Playlist Staff
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May 8, 2013 1:51 PM
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23 Comments

Features

No matter what you think of Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby," opening this week in ultra-luxurious 3D, one thing's for sure – it looks pretty spectacular. Filled with lovingly crafted costumes, opulent sets, and computer generated imagery that makes ragtime New York seem like a quasi-futuristic metropolis, it is drunk on its own excess. It feels like the movie Luhrmann has been angling towards for a while and has finally achieved (thanks in part to the added dimensionality of 3D), for better or worse. It's a giant, gilded, vulgar monstrosity that overwhelms more often than it entertains. And it got us thinking about other movies whose similarly excessive styles have either been an asset or a detriment. So put on your 3D glasses, your best pink pinstripe suit, and grab a glass of bootleg liquor, for our list of 20 visually dazzling movies.

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Terry Gilliam Working On An Adaptation Of Paul Auster's 'Mr. Vertigo'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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July 28, 2011 1:45 AM
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0 Comments

Perhaps no other filmmaker in recent memory is as talked about for the films they didn't make, as opposed to the ones they did, than director Terry Gilliam. But, you have to admire the man's perseverance. We're now coming on two years since "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" and Gilliam has yet to mount another film, not that he hasn't been busy. He's done a couple of food and drink sponsored short films -- "The Legend of Hallowdega" and "The Wholly Family" -- knocked out a webcast for Arcade Fire, and more recently put on a terrific stage version of "The Damnation Of Faust." But it's those old projects that keep coming back to the surface.

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As 'The Dark Tower' Crumbles, Here Are 10 Dead Projects In Search Of Resurrection

By Gabe Toro
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July 21, 2011 3:56 AM
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3 Comments

One of the more ambitious projects in recent memory, "The Dark Tower," was canceled earlier this week by Universal Pictures. It's not a surprise, as the studio also recently put the kibosh on a $150 million-budgeted R-rated take on "At the Mountains of Madness" by Guillermo del Toro and Ron Howard, and Akiva Goldsman's multi-platform, multi-film Stephen King adaptation was arguably more risky and definitely much more expensive. We here at The Playlist root for movies to be good, but we mostly root for movies to be made, for a director to complete their vision and for it to have a chance to reach an audience and possibly become a part of the popular culture.

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Terry Gilliam on 'Don Quixote': I Would Say "Fuck This, Except It's The Best Script I’ve Got"

By Edward Davis
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June 20, 2011 11:12 AM
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0 Comments

Is Robert Duvall Out?While recent years haven't been kind to filmmaker Terry Gilliam or his art, we love the dude (no, really) because he's a maverick and he's very outspoken. He has seen a lot of ups and downs since 2002's "Lost in La Mancha" which documented his heartbreaking attempt at getting his "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" film off the ground to disastrous results and it almost seems like that period marks a before and after stage in his work. Gilliam's trajectory has been Sisyphean of late, but you must hand it to the man who just keeps plugging away and forging ahead.

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Stage Review: Terry Gilliam's Opera 'The Damnation of Faust' Is A Return To Form & Then Some

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 30, 2011 1:15 AM
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1 Comment

We've made no bones about our disappointment in Terry Gilliam's recent work. We absolutely have sympathy for the behind-the-scenes troubles that the helmer's suffered in recent years, with a string of bad luck almost unmatched among filmmakers, but unfortunately the work that has made it to the screens, from the Diet Gilliam of "The Brothers Grimm" to the gaudy, half-baked greatest hits set that was "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," has shown a director struggling to find his form.

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Will Terry Gilliam's 'The Defective Detective' Finally Hit The Big Screen?

By Christopher Bell
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May 17, 2011 10:15 AM
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5 Comments

If there was a small sect of loose changers that devised a conspiracy theory concerning otherworldly powers preventing Terry Gilliam from catching a break in his profession, we might be inclined to become believers.

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First Look: Terry Gilliam's Short Film 'The Wholly Family'; Will Premiere At Bradford Film Festival

By Kevin Jagernauth
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February 22, 2011 3:04 AM
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3 Comments

Before he gets to his stint at the English National Opera this spring, directing "The Damnation Of Faust," helmer Terry Gilliam will get his latest short film venture, "The Wholly Family," in the can. First announced last year, the film stars Cristiana Capotondi, Douglas Dean, Nicolas Connolly and Sergio Solli and is being shot on location in Italy, and not without good reason. The film is being sponsored by pasta company Garofalo as part of an annual series of films about Naples, and while details of what it's about have been kept under wraps, the project does have an original script by Gilliam and is not based off the Eve Merriam poem of the same name.

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Terry Gilliam's '1884' & Patrice Leconte's In Progess 'Suicide Shop' To Screen At Cartoon Movie

By Catherine Scott
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January 25, 2011 6:09 AM
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0 Comments

Production forum Cartoon Movie will take place March 2-4 in Lyon, France. The conference is a place for European animated films to find financing for the in-progress movies and distributors for the completed ones. Among the films unspooling at the forum this year are Tim Ollive’s “1884,” Patrice Leconte’s “The Suicide Shop” and Fernando Trueba’s “Chico and Rita.”

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Terry Gilliam Casts Unknowns In His Short Film 'The Wholly Family'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 11, 2011 9:56 AM
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1 Comment

Shooting started this week on Terry Gilliam's mysterious short "The Wholly Family" (which may be changing titles before all is said and done) and the cast for the film has been revealed: don't worry if you never heard of them.

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