June 22, 2007
Set photo from Indiana Jones
We've received the first photo from the set of the new Indiana Jones film. The film sees Spielberg reuniting with executive producer George Lucas and star Harrison Ford to bring the classic hero back to the big screen. It's the trio's first collaboration since the last film in the Indiana Jones series, 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Shooting will continue throughout the summer before the film goes into post-production in preparation for the expected May 22, 2008 release.
You can find out more news, including some video interviews with some of the supporting players at the official Indiana Jones website.
June 08, 2007
Pacino honored by AFI
Al Pacino has been selected to receive the 35th American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, the highest honor for a career in film. In a press release, the AFI Board of Trustees stated: "Al Pacino is an icon of American film. He has created some of the great characters in the movies--from Michael Corleone to Tony Montana to Roy Cohn. His career inspires audiences and artists alike, with each new performance a master class for a generation of actors to follow. AFI is proud to present him with its 35th Life Achievement Award."
The award was presented at a gala tribute in Los Angeles on June 7, 2007. Past winners include James Cagney, Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Poitier, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep.
Believability Issues
Peter Howell of the Toronto Star has posted an interesting commentary about the film Knocked Up
The article discusses how we buy into movie plots about impossible miraculous spider bites and rock-star pirates but many find something as simple as a beautiful woman getting involved with a not-so-beautiful man to be a completely absurd premise. It's an interesting issue and a worthwhile read.
June 01, 2007
Cannes Festival Wrap-up
The top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d'Or, went to one of the darlings of the festival, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu. The film is set in 1987 Bucharest, during the decline of the Soviet bloc era. It tells the story of a college student who has an illegal abortion, her friend, and the abortionist, who is also a rapist.
American painter and director Julian Schnabel won a best director prize for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," the French-language adaptation of the best-selling memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby, the French Elle magazine editor afflicted with "locked-in syndrome" -- mentally aware but unable to physically respond -- after a stroke.
Acting awards went to big performances in small films. South Korea's Jeon Do-yeon, who plays a young widow and mother struggling to maintain her sanity following twin tragedies in Secret Sunshine, was lauded for Best Actress.
Russia's Konstantin Lavronenko, who played a distraught husband in The Banishment, a film about a marriage on the rocks, won for Best Actor. The award for Best Screenplay went to German writer/director Fatih Akin for The Edge of Heaven, a story of loss and forgiveness.