The Playlist

Showtime Land 'Skyfall' Team Sam Mendes & John Logan's Supernatural Series 'Penny Dreadful'

By Cain Rodriguez
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January 15, 2013 10:04 AM
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1 Comment

Television

Last year, before the film even opened in North America, Sam Mendes and John Logan, the director and writer of “Skyfall,” began developing a vampire-hunting TV series set in the 1800s. The pair pitched the series to various cable networks, and the show has now found a home at Showtime.

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Back For Duty? Writer Robert Wade Reveals Sam Mendes & John Logan Developing Plot For 'Skyfall' Followup

By Kevin Jagernauth
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November 19, 2012 4:53 PM
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6 Comments

News

Asked about returning to direct another Bond after the massive success of "Skyfall," Sam Mendes played it cool. "Do I want to do another one? I'm a shadow of my former self [laughs]. No, I don't know. I felt like everything I wanted to do with a Bond movie, I put into this film," he said last month. "So I would have to be convinced that I could do something that I loved and cared about as much if I was to do it again. I think the great risk of repeating oneself is that one doesn't have the great store of ideas that you have when you first tackle a subject." But could he be kicking the tires on it?

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'Skyfall' Or Skyfail: What Worked & What Didn't In James Bond's Latest

By The Playlist Staff
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November 12, 2012 12:17 PM
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22 Comments

Features

Over the weekend, it sounds like more than a few of you checked out "Skyfall" -- $80 million+ worth of you, in fact. And around the rest of the world, it's even more, the film having taken over $500 million internationally since it started rolling out two weeks ago. And for the most part, it's been acclaimed as one of the best (if not the very best) entries in the long-running spy franchise to date.

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'Skyfall' Pair Sam Mendes & John Logan Reteaming For 1800s Vampire Hunting TV Series

By Cain Rodriguez
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November 5, 2012 9:18 AM
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1 Comment

Television

Despite not yet opening in North America, “Skyfall” is already racking up impressive box office grosses, and with the number one spot all but guaranteed this weekend, you can bet director Sam Mendes and writer John Logan will soon have their pick of projects. While Mendes has already ruled out a return to Bond, he’s re-teaming with Logan to hopefully work some more magic on the small screen.

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'Skyfall' Screenwriter John Logan Returns To Pen Bond 24 & Bond 25

By Kevin Jagernauth
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October 26, 2012 9:01 AM
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3 Comments

News

Bond is back on duty in "Skyfall," which is now up and running and set to crush the box office overseas. The 23rd installment in the franchise, arriving on its 50th anniversary, is already earning rave reviews from those who have seen it this far (you can read ours right here) with many calling it one of the best in the franchise ever (though this writer thinks it's kind of mess, but I digress). Nontheless, it's not a shock that the producers want to get as much of the creative team back as they can for the next entry.

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Review: Sam Mendes' 007 Film 'Skyfall' Sees James Bond Back To His Best

By Oliver Lyttelton
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October 12, 2012 7:00 PM
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16 Comments

Reviews

Christopher Nolan is, famously (like many British directors), a big fan of the James Bond franchise. He said that he approached "Batman Begins" more like a Bond flick than a superhero movie, he directly nodded to one of 007's high watermarks in "Inception," and has publicly expressed interest in, at some point, directing one of the films in the franchise.

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We Read It: Michael Mann & John Logan's Unmade 1930s Noir A Nasty Look At Old Hollywood That Doesn't Quite Work

By Oliver Lyttelton
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March 21, 2012 1:56 PM
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9 Comments

Features

Of all the unmade, potentially great projects of the last few years, one of the most talked-about is the untitled 1930s noir thriller penned by Oscar nominee John Logan ("The Aviator," "Hugo") with the intention that Michael Mann would direct, and Leonardo DiCaprio would star. The project started doing the rounds back in 2007, but despite interest from New Line, the film, with an estimated budget of $120 million, proved too expensive and too risky to get made.

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Discuss: Will Michael Mann & 'Hugo' Writer John Logan's Unmade 1930s Hollywood Noir Ever Make It To The Screen?

By Oliver Lyttelton
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March 19, 2012 10:17 AM
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18 Comments

News

The walls of the studio backlots have always been haunted by the films that never made it into production. Whether through design, tragedy or somewhere in between, every great filmmaker and star has at least one project that slipped through the net, films that, had they made it to the screen, might have stood among the classics. Indeed, we've run down through several of the casualties of development hell in the past (part one, part two, part three, part four). Over the weekend, new details of one of the projects we've featured emerged, which made us wonder: might it be one of the few to get a second lease on life?

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Screenwriter John Logan Talks Writing 'Coriolanus' With Swagger & Dreaming Up The World Of 'Hugo'

By Todd Gilchrist
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January 18, 2012 11:56 AM
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0 Comments

News

It’s no small thing to collaborate with Gore Verbinski, Martin Scorsese or Ralph Fiennes. But to work with all three in the same year, on separate projects, is a truly remarkable accomplishment. And that’s exactly what screenwriter John Logan did in 2011, crafting screenplays for “Rango,” “Hugo,” and “Coriolanus” as a sort of hat trick for a career that’s already been full of spectacular efforts, including “Gladiator,” “The Aviator,” and “Sweeney Todd” among many others.

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'Hugo' Writer John Logan To Adapt Broadway Smash 'Jersey Boys' For GK Films

By Oliver Lyttelton
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January 11, 2012 9:41 AM
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0 Comments

News

For a man whose first big-screen credit came with the Dina Meyer-starring B-movie "Bats," John Logan isn't doing too shabbily. Thanks to script work on "Any Given Sunday" and "Gladiator," he's been one of Hollywood's most in-demand writers for a decade, winning a second Oscar nomination for Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator." And, off the back of his Tony-winning play "Red," had a banner year in 2011, with his name stamped on Ralph Fiennes' "Coriolanus," Gore Verbinski's "Rango" and Scorsese's "Hugo," the latter two of which look set to win him further awards plaudits.

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