Julie Taymor returns to what she’s good at with an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The film stars Alfred Molina, Helen Mirren, David Straitharn, Chris Cooper, and… Russell Brand(?). For the record, there’s two ways the Russell Brand casting can go. The Alan Cumming route: which is what happened in Taymor’s other Skespearean adaptation, Titus. Or the Keanu Reeves route: Kenneth Branaugh’s adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing left much to be desired from Reeve’s performance. The role is meant to be comedic, but to hear Brand’s strange London accent spouting Shakespearian ‘hey nonny nonny’s is going to be either disastrous or a complete-surprise-I-can’t-believe-the-shit-worked display. Anyway, here’s the pics:

So I never expected my column to ever get past ten articles. Now the whole 100 thing looks kinda messy but so are these articles.  Can’t win them all.

It’s my birthday so I don’t really have time to write up a bunch of hilarious things for you to “lol” at. I’m also not in my right mindset (don’t drink alcohol). So I will leave you with some Christmas in August vid that seems funny right now.

As many of you know, the MPAA’s rating system is about as empirical as a Fox News survey. Oscilliscope has been fighting the legitimacy of a recent ruling that gives their new Holocaust documentary, “A Film Unfinished” an ‘R’ rating for “disturbing image of Holocaust atrocities including graphic nudity”. In its appeal, Oscilloscope recalled a past ruling on “Last Days”; a film documentary produced by Steven Spielberg that was given a PG-13 rating for “well documented mass execution and extensive nudity”. The company needed at most a PG-13 rating; as, it hoped to be able to have the film used as educational material in classrooms after a DVD release. It would make the film virtually impossible to show in a school environment with teachers having to get signed permission from parents of students before showing the film. After an appeal was filed a few days ago, the MPAA decided to uphold the film’s original rating of ‘R’.

You know, it’s funny that the adjectives describing the ‘nudity’ change with the two different ratings. The awful dichotomy of sex and violence in American films is notorious for favoring the latter, even in the most extreme of cases. You can see all the gore you want, but as soon as a tit pops out the film gets an automatic ‘R’. It’s not just the difference between ‘graphic’ and ‘extensive’ that is bothersome, but the wording behind the rating of “Last Days” also includes the term “well documented”. It’s a bit of a broad term, but if taken in a sense that the film documents an event in history that is well documented then there is a problem. Does that mean that the only reason this film got a PG-13 is because the awful things that happened that are documented in the film are ‘well known’ as opposed to “A Film Unfinished” which is about an unfinished nazi propaganda film shot in the Warsaw ghetto in 1942?

Do any of you think it wrong to give this film a n adult rating?

Outnumbered completely by sexually precocious adolescents  demanding  “Lick your lips! Lick your liiiips!”  followed by infinite OMGs, we were able to snag Tip “T.I.” Harris for a small chat at the Philly red carpet preview of Takers, T.I.’s latest addition to his acting, as well as executive producer, career.

He’s not as warm and fuzzy as his first role in ATL, yet still on the same baller level as his minor role in American Gangster, Takers is your garden variety all-star-cast story about several sexy men who just happen to have a knack for robbing banks (of course with a philosophical rationale behind it–usually explained in a dramatic monologue within the first ten minutes of the film, as well as a damsel-in-distress hottie to boot). In my most humble opinion, despite the fact that there is no actual mind-bender of a story to follow, I still suggest you see this movie–not just to forget the whole economic crisis that still is in existence, but for the pure escapism of sexy men robbing banks.

Here, T.I. briefly talks about his overall gratitude to be involved in producing this film and his awe for action movies. Whereas in this case, I spent most of the conversation marveling at his glowing white teeth. For the record, the lip-licking was enthralling.

Liz Roan: You were pretty amazing in ATL…

T.I. Why thank you…

LR: …after that you were in American Gangster, now this is a pretty big step. Do you see yourself doing more acting in the future?

T.I.: I mean if you guys would have me, i definitely would spend a lot more time on film. I like to go wherever opportunities take me, opportunity is where I’m in a hurry to go.

LR: Any particular directors you wish to work with?

T.I. Ooh, yea!  you know I’m big on action so I would love to work with Michael Mann, or Michael Bay as well. Of course I’m a fan of Gangster pictures, so I love Scorsese.

LR: Yesss! you’d be so pimp.

T.I. Haha! But you know what I’m saying, I think that right now I want to work with whoever’s interested in working with me.

Liz Roan: How’s the overall experience of producing, acting and promoting this film?

T.I. Well you know, its a great honor and such a great pleasure to be a part of such a great project as an actor as well as a producer. I’m enjoying every minute of it. I just hope everybody else is enjoying it as much as we enjoyed making it.

A few days ago, the internet was a roar (which is much closer to yelling in a crowded room) with news of a ‘christwire’ article on how Bill Murray is the spawn of Satan. If you haven’t seen the article, you can check it out here. Below, we’re listed some of the best quotes from the article:

What this man symbolizes is far more ruinous than California’s buffet dinner of liberal socialist philosophies, homosexual lifestyles and pre-teen consumerism. No, what Bill Murray means to America is the acceptance and celebration of an ultimate apathy. He is a weak man, a murderer of lambs, a despicable hedonist who waves the white flag welcoming the end of American moral and economic primacy. He is a harbinger of our death as a culture, the death of that preëminent philosophy of faith married to capitalism that has saved the world countless times from repression and annihilation. Bill Murray is a fatal disease and the sad news we bring you today is that your children have been infected.

He has also been spotted by gossip reporters and police investigators showing up uninvited at “hipster” parties in places like Williamsburg, Brooklyn, once a Jewish enclave now a secret community of bearded 20-somethings wasting their parent’s hard-earned money on cocaine and clothes. Yes, he likes to slip into crowds half his age, squeeze the smooth young legs of Sarah Lawrence grads while joking with indie-band drummers about German poets, groping young men in Union Square Park, asking for change and warning them to tell no one, or singing to Japanese schoolgirls as they shower. One notorious urban legend recounts how Murray encouraged a subway train of young people to strip off their pants at midnight while he sang to them. (Evidence: “Sad Bill Murray: Accosting People In Union Square” and “Bill Murray Reads Poetry to Construction Workers”.)

Mr. Murray likes to play the gentle, befuddled older man, one who could ask a child to help him find a puppy in a quiet corner of a public park. Yet once you agree, it’s too late. You’ve been drawn into his celebrity orbit, like some delicious secret Bill has deigned to share with the modest creature that is you. Yes, this is the Bill Murray experience, showering the simple with his celebrity charm in the dark alleyways of America. But what is the endpoint here? The pattern is familiar to criminologists and it’s not hard to draw similarities to the lives of Jeffrey Dahlmer or John Wayne Gacy. Murray has not yet been charged with anything more than narcotic arrests and drunk driving, but at the very least parents should be deeply concerned. Is it not better to be safe than sorry when dealing with a man who may be the next national scandal for his bloodthirst and perversion? Would you not do everything in your power to protect your children from death and failure?

That’s right: Bill Murray is a serial murderer. Not only that, but hipsters are dangerous and Willimasburg a “secret” community (he’s definitely attempting to make this into a cult-like area).

Guillermo Del Toro has been the only one of the Mexican Trio (Cuaron, Inarritu, and Del Toro) hard at work promoting himself for every major film he can. First, there was the Hobbit which took 3 long years to get going before their studio (MGM) folded. Then, there was the deal with Disney turn the Haunted Mansion ride into a feature length film. Yeah, we know its been ‘done’ before. But we all know that projects starring Eddie Murphy after 1994 don’t count as films anymore. Now, comes news of him adapting an H.P. Lovecraft short story called, At the Mountains of Madness. Guess what? It’s in 3D. All of this spells out an awfully shitty mix, so far. We all know that Del Toro would be very good at a Lovecraft or Cthulu kind of story since most of his creatures are reminiscent of them anyway, but that is the prime weakness. He would have to force himself to become imaginative considering the walls of his creative mind were created around Lovecraft; or, worse, do the same schtick as in Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth. This has been remedied, however. James Cameron has been attached to produce which will make sure the studio carries this film like a newborn babe and with the very same kind of care. this film smells like money, which we usually stay away from, but sometimes money makers can do right.

Source: A.V. Club

P.T. Anderson has been prepping a film , lovingly called the Master by fans, for quite some time now.  Now, it seems that the project can now grow to fruition.  The story centers on L. Ron hubbard  the Master, a charismatic figure in the early 1950s who starts a cult called the Cause. The Master has dropped Philip Seymour Hoffman in as the title character and will likely pour in a cast of award winning and acclaimed character actors in the mix to make a perfect Oscar cocktail. It’s surprising that no one has heard anything from the ‘Church of Scientology’ about this. Or that Anderson’s office hasn’t been burned down by aliens. I have a feeling that when this begins to pick up more speed and they starting putting pieces together that this will become a PR war. Maybe even a literal war. Who know?

Source: i09