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Logan Lerman & Sarah Gadon Have Indignation – Based on Philip Roth’s novel

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The extremely long-gestating adaptation of Philip Rother’s American Pastoral is slowly making its way to the screen, with Ewan McGregor set to star and direct. However it’s not the only Roth novel that’s getting a movie version as James Schamus is set to write and direct Indignation, which has just added Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon to the cast, according to Deadline.

Roth’s Indignation is ‘set in 1951 and focuses on Marcus (Lerman), the 18-year-old son of a kosher butcher in Newark who grapples with anti-Semitism, sexual repression and the escalating Korean War as he comes of age at a Midwestern Lutheran college. Into his life comes Olivia Hutton (Gadon). Blonde and pretty, Olivia is a classmate of Marcus’ at Winesburg College. She goes on a date with Marcus and is attracted to his intensity. She is sexually promiscuous, headstrong and fiercely independent. A daughter to a highly regarded Cleveland surgeon, Olivia had previously attempted suicide and spent time in a mental institution.’

It’s a good fit for Lerman, who many don’t realise is Jewish himself and so has the right cultural background for the role.

Gadon incidentally has also just signed up for the mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s 11/22/63, which has James Franco in the lead as a time-travelling teacher who sets out to prevent JFK’s assassination.

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Shia LaBeouf Gets A Taste For American Honey – He’ll star in Andrea Arnold’s movie

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Andrea Arnold has built a great reputation in the UK with Fish Tank, Red Road and Wuthering Heights, and now she trying her hand in the US, although sticking with indie end of the spectrum rather than going full Hollywood. She’s directing American Honey and now Variety reports that Shia LaBeouf is set to star.

Based on a screenplay Arnold wrote herself, the film ‘centers on a runaway teenager who’s selling magazine subscriptions around the U.S. and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard-partying, law-bending and young love’

It’s not clear who LeBeouf will play in this coming of age tale, or indeed when the movie will shoot, although it’ll be looking for buyers at May’s Cannes Film Festival.

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Win The Signal On DVD! – Laurence Fishburne & Brenton Thwaites star in the sci-fi

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To celebrate the release of the new astonishing science-fiction thriller THE SIGNAL – available on digital download April 6th and on DVD April 13th – we are giving away a copy on DVD!

Starring Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, Hannibal), Olivia Cooke (The Quiet Ones, Bates Motel) and Brenton Thwaites (Maleficent, Oculus) THE SIGNAL is packed with big action and even bigger ideas, with shades of modern science-fiction classics such as Source Code and Looper.

The Signal is available to pre-order today from:

DVD: http://amzn.to/1Bg5PJC

iTunes: http://apple.co/1Fz5GaX

To be in with a chance of winning the copy of The Signal on DVD that we’ve got to give away, sign in to the site below (or click here to register) and answer the multiple choice question (see below for more details on how to enter). The competition closes on April 19th, 2015, so get answering and good luck!

HOW TO ENTER: This competition is open to all registered Movie Muser members who live in the UK. It’s free to register and obligation free, and once you’ve signed up to the site, you’ll be able to enter any other competitions we run, plus post comments, join in on the forum or even have your own film blog. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER. If you’re already a member, sign in below and answer the multiple choice question in the grey box, click enter, and you’re done!

This competition closes at 11.59pm on April 19th, 2015. Competition open to UK residents aged 15 or over. (For general competition terms and conditions, privacy policy and site T&Cs, CLICK HERE)

The Prize Finder – UK Competitions

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Win Exists On DVD! – From the co-director of Blair Witch Project

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To celebrate the release of “Exists” – on DVD 6th April 2015 – we have a DVD copy to giveaway courtesy of Entertainment One.

The creator of The Blair Witch Project, Eduardo Sánchez, returns to found-footage horror, the sub-genre he defined back in ’99 and proves he can still terrify audiences with his masterful ability and technique to create high levels of suspense.

This time around, Sánchez turns the lens on America’s favourite monster – Bigfoot, and as Exists’ gang of doomed road-trippers is about to discover, this Sasquatch is the most terrifying incarnation ever seen on screen.

“Exists” is available to order on Amazon today: http://amzn.to/1ClKAKu

To be in with a chance of winning the copy of WWE Royal Rumble 2015 on DVD that we’ve got to give away, sign in to the site below (or click here to register) and answer the multiple choice question (see below for more details on how to enter). The competition closes on April 18th, 2015, so get answering and good luck!

HOW TO ENTER: This competition is open to all registered Movie Muser members who live in the UK. It’s free to register and obligation free, and once you’ve signed up to the site, you’ll be able to enter any other competitions we run, plus post comments, join in on the forum or even have your own film blog. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER. If you’re already a member, sign in below and answer the multiple choice question in the grey box, click enter, and you’re done!

This competition closes at 11.59pm on April 18th, 2015. Competition open to UK residents aged 15 or over. (For general competition terms and conditions, privacy policy and site T&Cs, CLICK HERE)

The Prize Finder – UK Competitions

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Blade Runner: The Final Cut – The classic sci-fi returns to the BFI

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Ridley Scott spent years fiddling with his film after studio interference, CGI developments and DVD reissues, and finally in 2007 we got the definitive version which is re-released by the BFI to give film fans another chance to see it on a big screen.

It is certainly a big-screen film, a unique futuristic film noir that creates a complete world that satisfies on just about every level. Pretty much all the elements of 1940s film noir are there – the lonesome gumshoe (Harrison Ford), complete with battered raincoat, drink problem and zero sense of humour, stalking the dark streets in search of the bad guys, with the obligatory visit to a seedy strip club. Sean Young is the femme fatale, with red lipstick, enormous shoulder pads and an untrustworthy past. The dark, neon-lit urban landscape of Los Angeles has more than a few echoes of Edward Hopper, with Ford’s apartment clearly inspired by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. And there’s a mystery – how do we know who are the humans and who are the replicants?

What makes Scott’s film unique is the fact it’s not set in the past but in the future, a nightmarish world in which technology has raced ahead perhaps too far, and man’s greed has created a breed of replicants, human robots who have evolved so far they now want to break free from slavery and live like humans. There’s a problem – they have a built in life span of just four years, and four of them have escaped a colony and are on earth trying to track down their evil creator, Tyrell, to get themselves rewired so they can live longer.

This version thankfully omits the awful Ford voiceover that was in many an early cut – one of the many problems the film had in its gestation, the main one being Ford and Scott’s difficult relationship. This cut, without the voice-over, was thought to be lost, but in 1989 Michael Arick, a sound preservationist, stumbled upon a 70mm print of the film. Scott refused to call it a director’s cut until he had tweaked a number of issues with the film, small mistakes such as the serial number on the snakeskin being read out wrongly, and Joanna Cassidy’s double crashing through the glass when she is shot – it’s clearly not her, but a bit of digital whizardry has papered over the cracks.

Watching the film now it’s clear that this is Scott’s masterpiece. Ford looks suitably pained but is a perfect noir hero, slowly falling for Young even though he suspects she is a replicant – early on he asks Tyrell tragically “How can it not know what it is?”

There are some minor flaws, sure – personally I found Hannah’s punk gymnast a tad annoying, and the Vangelis soundtrack, which sounded like the future in 1982, now sounds hopelessly weedy and dated – synthesisers have moved on quicker than CGI. However these can all be forgiven, especially in the face of Rutger Hauer’s near-perfect scene-stealing show at the end.

His is a lurking presence thoughout the film, with his mad unblinking eyes and extraordinary facial expressions, flicking from child-like to psychotic in the blink of an eye, but it is the final showdown between him and Ford which completely steals the show. During this amazing fight sequence, lasting 15 minutes, Ford utters not one word, while Hauer rants, cries like a wolf and hams his way through an amazing scene whilst losing more and more clothes. It veers between extreme camp – at one point he pretends to cry like a baby – to Jack Nicholson-style bonkersness, smashing his face through a wall, all the while throwing Ford around like a rag doll. His final lines though completely catch the viewer off guard, and it’s amazing to discover that, with all the script problems and rewrites, he improvised them himself. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe – star ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion” is one of the great lines of sci-fi.

Interestingly the whole idea of testing whether a robot can match a human for emotional response was dreamed up by Alan Turing, the subject of recent movie The Imitation Game but never mentioned in it. Somehow I feel Turing would approve of this film.

Overall verdict: This version can rightly take its place in the list of all-time sci-fi classics. It stands alone as a futuristic noir, beautifully shot, brilliantly realised and still absolutely gripping. It may have taken decades to get right, but it was worth it. A must-see, especially on a big screen.

Reviewer: Mike Martin

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Win WWE Royal Rumble 2015 On DVD! – Off the mat and into your home

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Royal Rumble 2015 is out on DVD and Blu-Ray from Monday 6th April and courtesy of FremantleMedia International, we have a DVD competition copy to give away.

Brock Lesnar puts his WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line against John Cena and Seth Rollins in a triple-threat match. So far ‘The Beast Incarnate’ has destroyed every obstacle in his path – but can overcome two of WWE’s top Superstars at once? And as the road to WrestleMania begins, 30 Superstars enter the Royal Rumble match for a shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the grandest stage of them all. Which Superstar will survive and earn the right to headline WrestleMania?

To be in with a chance of winning the copy of WWE Royal Rumble 2015 on DVD that we’ve got to give away, sign in to the site below (or click here to register) and answer the multiple choice question (see below for more details on how to enter). The competition closes on April 17th, 2015, so get answering and good luck!

HOW TO ENTER: This competition is open to all registered Movie Muser members who live in the UK. It’s free to register and obligation free, and once you’ve signed up to the site, you’ll be able to enter any other competitions we run, plus post comments, join in on the forum or even have your own film blog. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER. If you’re already a member, sign in below and answer the multiple choice question in the grey box, click enter, and you’re done!

This competition closes at 11.59pm on April 17th, 2015. Competition open to UK residents aged 15 or over. (For general competition terms and conditions, privacy policy and site T&Cs, CLICK HERE)

The Prize Finder – UK Competitions

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