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New Chappie Trailer – Take a fresh look at Neill Blomkamp’s robot tale

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The first trailer for Chappie looked like it would be a bit of a charmer, with a little bit of an ET/Short Circuit vibe going on. However this new promo adds in a little bit of a harder edge, with a few echoes of Robocop (barring the violence) and more edge.

Still looks like it could be good though.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Every child comes into the world full of promise, and none more so than Chappie: he is gifted, special, a prodigy. Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings – some good, some bad – and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man. But there’s one thing that makes Chappie different from anyone else: he is a robot. The first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself. His life, his story, will change the way the world looks at robots and humans forever.’ Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver and Sharlto Copley star.’

The film’s due out March 6th.

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Melissa McCarthy Circling Ghostbusters Lead – As long as scheduling can be sorted

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The extremely long-gestating Ghostbusters 3 is still ever so slowly creeping closer to the screen, and it appears its now ready to seriously think about casting, as THR reports that Melissa McCarthy is in major contention for the female lead.

That’s not too surprising as director Paul Feig has a long-standing relationship with the actress thanks to the likes of Bridesmaids and The Heat, along with the upcoming Spy. However it’s far from a done deal, as McCarthy has several months more work to complete on the latest season of Mike & Molly, and also plans to shoot her hubby’s movie, Michelle Darnell, this summer.

Sony apparently want to shoot the Ghostbusters movie in June, which is likely to clash with Darnell, but it appears they’re going to try to work something out.

It also seems Emma Stone is a contender for being one of the female-led Ghostbusters team, with Jillian Bell (Workaholics), and Cecily Strong (SNL) also likely to meet Feig.

Expect to hear more soon.

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Grand Budapest Hotel Leads The BAFTA Nominations – Followed by Birdman and The Theory of Everything

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The BAFTA nominations are out, with The Grand Budapest Hotel leading the way (perhaps surprisingly) with 11 nominations. Birdman and The Theory of Everything are each nominated in ten categories. The Imitation Game has nine nominations. Boyhood and Whiplash are each nominated five times. Mr. Turner, Nightcrawler and Interstellar receive four nominations, while Pride has three nominations.

The Grand Budapest Hotel’s impressive line up of noms include Best Film, Director and Original Screenplay for Wes Anderson, Original Music, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, Make Up & Hair and Sound. Ralph Fiennes is nominated for Leading Actor.

The Imitation Game is nominated in Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design and Sound. Benedict Cumberbatch is nominated for Leading Actor and Keira Knightley is nominated for Supporting Actress.

The nominees for the EE Rising Star Award, announced earlier this week, are Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jack O’Connell, Margot Robbie, Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley. This audience award is voted for by the British public and presented to an actor or actress who has demonstrated exceptional talent and promise.

The EE British Academy Film Awards, hosted by hosted by Stephen Fry, take place on Sunday 8 February at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.

Take a look at all the noms below.

BEST FILM
BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
THE IMITATION GAME Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
’71 Yann Demange, Angus Lamont, Robin Gutch, Gregory Burke
THE IMITATION GAME Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman, Graham Moore
PADDINGTON Paul King, David Heyman
PRIDE Matthew Warchus, David Livingstone, Stephen Beresford
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
UNDER THE SKIN Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Nick Wechsler, Walter Campbell

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
ELAINE CONSTANTINE (Writer/Director) Northern Soul
GREGORY BURKE (Writer), YANN DEMANGE (Director) ’71
HONG KHAOU (Writer/Director) Lilting
PAUL KATIS (Director/Producer), ANDREW DE LOTBINIÈRE (Producer) Kajaki: The True Story
STEPHEN BERESFORD (Writer), DAVID LIVINGSTONE (Producer) Pride

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
IDA Pawel Pawlikowski, Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzieciol, Ewa Puszczynska
LEVIATHAN Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Rodnyansky, Sergey Melkumov
THE LUNCHBOX Ritesh Batra, Arun Rangachari, Anurag Kashyap, Guneet Monga
TRASH Stephen Daldry, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Kris Thykier
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd

DOCUMENTARY
20 FEET FROM STARDOM Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers, Gil Friesen
20,000 DAYS ON EARTH Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
CITIZENFOUR Laura Poitras
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
VIRUNGA Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara

ANIMATED FILM
BIG HERO 6 Don Hall, Chris Williams
THE BOXTROLLS Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable
THE LEGO MOVIE Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

DIRECTOR
BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING James Marsh
WHIPLASH Damien Chazelle

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Armando Bo
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson
NIGHTCRAWLER Dan Gilroy
WHIPLASH Damien Chazelle

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
AMERICAN SNIPER Jason Hall
GONE GIRL Gillian Flynn
THE IMITATION GAME Graham Moore
PADDINGTON Paul King
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Anthony McCarten

LEADING ACTOR
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH The Imitation Game
EDDIE REDMAYNE The Theory of Everything
JAKE GYLLENHAAL Nightcrawler
MICHAEL KEATON Birdman
RALPH FIENNES The Grand Budapest Hotel

LEADING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS Big Eyes
FELICITY JONES The Theory of Everything
JULIANNE MOORE Still Alice
REESE WITHERSPOON Wild
ROSAMUND PIKE Gone Girl

SUPPORTING ACTOR
EDWARD NORTON Birdman
ETHAN HAWKE Boyhood
J.K. SIMMONS Whiplash
MARK RUFFALO Foxcatcher
STEVE CARELL Foxcatcher

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
EMMA STONE Birdman
IMELDA STAUNTON Pride
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY The Imitation Game
PATRICIA ARQUETTE Boyhood
RENE RUSSO Nightcrawler

ORIGINAL MUSIC
BIRDMAN Antonio Sanchez
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Alexandre Desplat
INTERSTELLAR Hans Zimmer
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jóhann Jóhannsson
UNDER THE SKIN Mica Levi

CINEMATOGRAPHY
BIRDMAN Emmanuel Lubezki
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Robert Yeoman
IDA Lukasz Zal, Ryzsard Lenczewski
INTERSTELLAR Hoyte van Hoytema
MR. TURNER Dick Pope

EDITING
Due to a tie in voting in this category, there are six nominations
BIRDMAN Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Barney Pilling
THE IMITATION GAME William Goldenberg
NIGHTCRAWLER John Gilroy
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jinx Godfrey
WHIPLASH Tom Cross

PRODUCTION DESIGN
BIG EYES Rick Heinrichs, Shane Vieau
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock
THE IMITATION GAME Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana MacDonald
INTERSTELLAR Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
MR. TURNER Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts

COSTUME DESIGN
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Milena Canonero
THE IMITATION GAME Sammy Sheldon Differ
INTO THE WOODS Colleen Atwood
MR. TURNER Jacqueline Durran
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Steven Noble

MAKE UP & HAIR
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Frances Hannon
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou, David White
INTO THE WOODS Peter Swords King, J. Roy Helland
MR. TURNER Christine Blundell, Lesa Warrener
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jan Sewell

SOUND
AMERICAN SNIPER Walt Martin, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman
BIRDMAN Thomas Varga, Martin Hernández, Aaron Glascock, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wayne Lemmer, Christopher Scarabosio, Pawel Wdowczak
THE IMITATION GAME John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Stuart Hilliker, Martin Jensen
WHIPLASH Thomas Curley, Ben Wilkins, Craig Mann

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Erik Winquist, Daniel Barrett
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Stephane Ceretti, Paul Corbould, Jonathan Fawkner, Nicolas Aithadi
THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R. Christopher White
INTERSTELLAR Paul Franklin, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
THE BIGGER PICTURE Chris Hees, Daisy Jacobs, Jennifer Majka
MONKEY LOVE EXPERIMENTS Ainslie Henderson, Cam Fraser, Will Anderson
MY DAD Marcus Armitage

BRITISH SHORT FILM
BOOGALOO AND GRAHAM Brian J. Falconer, Michael Lennox, Ronan Blaney
EMOTIONAL FUSEBOX Michael Berliner, Rachel Tunnard
THE KÁRMÁN LINE Campbell Beaton, Dawn King, Tiernan Hanby, Oscar Sharp
SLAP Islay Bell-Webb, Michelangelo Fano, Nick Rowland
THREE BROTHERS Aleem Khan, Matthieu de Braconier, Stephanie Paeplow

THE EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
GUGU MBATHA-RAW
JACK O’CONNELL
MARGOT ROBBIE
MILES TELLER
SHAILENE WOODLEY

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Foxcatcher – A tour de force from Steve Carell as a psychotic egotist

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So that’s the Best Actor Oscar sorted then. Steve Carrell, that lovely chap from the US Office and 40-Year-old Virgin, has gone deep to play the deeply disturbed, and disturbing, John du Pont, and the results are stunning. The film itself is impressive on many levels, if a little one-note, and not quite satisfying, but Carrell’s performance is utterly mesmerising.

The charming, likeable, warmly funny persona is utterly gone. In its place is a portrayal of du Pont, the heir to a vast chemical fortune, enormously wealthy but painfully lonely. His mother, Jean (Vanessa Redgrave), looms like a huge dark cloud over his life, her disappointment in her geeky, fragile, unattractive son all too obvious. She pours her love into horses, he into the sport of wrestling – horses are stupid, he says, all they do is eat and shit. His love of his pastime is so great he decides to basically take over and run the US wrestling team to train them for the 1988 Olympics. Top of his shopping list is Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo), brothers who won Gold in Los Angeles in 1984.

Dave is a family man, happily married and devoted to his two children, and views moving onto du Pont’s vast estate to train suspiciously. Mark however, the younger brother, is more willing, lured by a brand new gym, beautiful grounds and a salary of $25,000 – ‘the highest number I could think of’ he tragically tells his unimpressed sibling. Mark, it transpires, was abandoned as a baby, and brought up by his older brother. He clearly has as many issues with loneliness as du Pont, and when he moves in the pair begin the relationship that is at the heart of the film – although never quite resolved satisfactorily.

Du Pont initially seems to view Mark as a beefcake trophy he can impress people with at posh dinners, but soon it becomes much more sinister than that. Before long they are cutting each other’s hair, sharing cocaine and perhaps even getting physical, although the film shies away from that subject as soon as it hints at it (and the real life Schultz has been very vocal that the suggestion is not true). The awkward, mumbling Mark is basically du Pont’s plaything, but when Dave turns up to coach the team it gets even darker and deeper.

The film is really a showcase for the amazing performance of Carell. He becomes a slimy, reptilian creep, with a weird nasal speech pattern, absolutely no sense of humour and a bloated sense of his own talents and achievements. Driven on by his mother’s insistence that wrestling is a ‘low sport’, du Pont, like Charles Foster Kane, seems to want to collect everything but feels let down by everyone around him – apart perhaps by the birds he studies and has stuffed around his huge mansion. He is extraordinarily vain – after his troops win Golds at the 1986 World Championships he celebrates by fighting them. They, sportingly and for obvious reasons, let him win – he clearly believes he has won fair and square. He claims Mark is his only friend in the world, but it is brother Dave who really understands the boy, which can only lead to disaster. With his pasty skin, enormous nose and inflated ego, it’s an emotional tour de force of someone who clearly was even madder in real life than portrayed here.

That leaves the film with a problem. His behaviour is erratic, yes, but never quite explains his total meltdown at the end of the film. Also why did poor Dave bear the brunt of it rather than Mark, the son who really disappointed him. Miller had a similar problem at the end of his Capote portrayal, although as he proved in Moneyball he can film sports sequences, and here the wrestling scenes are done convincingly and to the point.

Overall verdict: Fascinatingly dark tale which serves as the perfect vehicle for Carell’s tour de force as a psychotic egotist with way too much money and power, and an empty hole where his heart should be. It will win him an Oscar nod, and may well land him the gong. If it does, no complaints, it’s a marvel to behold.

Reviewer: Mike Martin

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The Voices Trailer – Ryan Reynolds can talks to animals but in a rather mad way

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The Voices debuted this time last year at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s taken a while to get it to audiences, partly because while the premise of Ryan Reynolds talking to animals sounds like it’ll be a family-friendly romp, the movie itself is a lot more weird and unusual than that.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is that chipper guy clocking the nine-to-five at a bathtub factory, with the offbeat charm of anyone who could use a few friends. With the help of his court-appointed psychiatrist, he pursues his office crush (Gemma Arterton). However, the relationship takes a sudden, murderous turn after she stands him up for a date. Guided by his evil talking cat and benevolent talking dog, Jerry must decide whether to keep striving for normalcy, or indulge in a much more sinister path.’

That sinister path may include killing women.

Anna Kendrick, Gemma Arterto, Jacki Weaver co-star in the film with Marjane Satrapi directing. The film arrives on VOD and in cienmas on February 6th in the US, while it should arrive in the UK on March 20th.

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Fifty Shades of Grey Gets An ‘R’ Rating For Its ‘Unusual Behavior’ – It’s escaped an ‘NC-17’

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Many have been wondering how the film version of Fifty Shades Of Grey would escape a dreadful – and commercially suicidal – NC-17 rating in the US. After all, if it fully showed what the novels are most famous for, it would be hardcore in the extreme.

However ever since Universal bought the film rights it’s been clear they’ve been aiming for an ‘R’ rating. Indeed, Jamie Dornan’s recent statement that his contract even included a clause that his penis wouldn’t be shown suggested it might be even tamer than some had expected (or at least hoped for).

Now it’s been through the MPAA rating system and has come out the other side with it ‘R’ certificate, along with the official warning that it got that classification for, ‘Strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity, and for language.’

The ‘unusual behavior’ is presumably some of the film’s BDSM powerplay situations, as the MPAA is famed for issuing warning that are so scared of actually saying what the problem is that they become too vague for anyone to understand (the most famous of these being films that are given a rating due to mysterious ‘thematic elements’).

Before Fifty Shades went into production, there had been talk of the studio making an ‘R’ rated version and then later releasing a much stronger ‘NC-17’ edition, but those plans were abandoned fairly quickly. Indeed that fact the movie seemingly sailed through the MPAA system without too many issues, further suggests that this may not be as near-the-knuckle as the books would suggest it would have to be.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘FIFTY SHADES OF GREY is the hotly anticipated film adaptation of the bestselling book that has become a global phenomenon. Since its release, the “Fifty Shades” trilogy has been translated in 52 languages worldwide and sold more than 90 million copies in e-book and print—making it one of the biggest and fastest-selling book series ever.

‘Stepping into the roles of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, who have become iconic to millions of readers, are Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson. Joining them in the cast are Luke Grimes as Christian’s brother, Elliot; Victor Rasuk as Anastasia’s close friend, José; and Jennifer Ehle as Anastasia’s mother, Carla. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY is being directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and produced by Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti alongside E. L. James, the creator of the series. The screenplay is by Kelly Marcel, with revisions by Patrick Marber and Mark Bomback.’

It’ll be in cinemas on Valentine’s 2015.

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