1. The first full trailer for the Gary Ross-directed adaptation of The Hunger Games has landed online — and it actually has some serious potential! Watch it here.

2. Also newly debuted: the first 30 seconds of the trailer for the Meryl Streep-fronted Margaret Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady, which you can see here. What do you make of her Thatcher impression?

3. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lady Gaga and her longtime creative director Laurieann Gibson have decided to part ways; it sounds like the fact that Gibson has been pursuing her own projects lately, as well as some friction over Gaga’s recent music videos, led to the split.

4. Courtney Love stormed offstage during a performance in Brazil on Saturday night after a concertgoer held up a picture of Kurt Cobain, and shouted, among other things, “I’m not Kurt, I have to live with his shit and his ghost and his kid every day and throwing that up is stupid and rude and I’m going to beat the f*ck out of you if you do it again.” [via NME]

5. During an interview with Australia’s 60 Minutes over the weekend, Brad Pitt announced that he’s planning to retire from acting when he turns 50 (which is three years from now), and put more of his focus toward producing. [via The Playlist]

Bonus Buzz: Best Slo-Mo Breakdancing You’ll See Today

Given the vast array of imaginative things that Hollywood is capable of crafting, it seems strange that moviemakers still struggle with some of the basics. Traditional makeup techniques that age actors stands as one of the biggest culprits and has often ruined entire films thanks to sloppy, weird, or unbelievable results. As many movies have proven, donning wrinkles and age spots doesn’t automatically equal a successful makeover. In the digital age, it’s easier for filmmakers to get a little help so that grandpa and grandma look more like live, actual people than a Halloween prop — but that’s what makes those who transform actors into senior stars old school-style so impressive. It’s an art form.

Leonardo DiCaprio underwent a dramatic transformation for the upcoming J. Edgar Hoover, and we definitely feel like it’s not one of his best-looking moments. The FBI’s first director didn’t win any beauty contests in his day, but DiCaprio appears to be drowning in his prosthetics, and the whole thing just seems awkward. This got us thinking about other cruddy elderly makeovers. Click past the break to see who made the leap to long in the tooth, in order from most convincing to least. Leave us your list in the comments.

Read More »

Described as “Caravaggio meets Fight Club,” Tarsem Singh’s mythology tale Immortals hits theaters on November 11. Man of Steel’s Henry Cavill takes on the role of Greek warrior Theseus, who leads a battle against the Titans — all set to The Cell director’s stunning visuals and taking a few cues from Zack Snyder’s otherworldly 300. Many movies have been inspired by sparring gods from ancient tales far and wide. Some of the stories about mythological scuffles that have been handed down to us over the years have been adapted into screen stories of modern warfare, while others have recalled the violent crusades more literally. Click past the break for a look at several celluloid versions of famous mythological battles. Leave your favorites below.

Read More »

Margin Call, a fact-based thriller concerning the beginning of the financial crisis, opens tomorrow with a stellar ensemble cast that includes Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker, and Mary McDonnell. (And Demi Moore. Hey, can’t win ‘em all.) Throw in last month’s Contagion (featuring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston, Marion Cotillard, and Elliott Gould) and December’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (with Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, and Mark Strong), and this is starting to look like the Season of the Ensemble. In celebration of these smart, adult movies flush with Oscar winners and fine character performers, we’ve assembled some of our favorite big-cast ensemble movies after the jump — check it out, and throw in your own in the comments.

Read More »

1. Here’s your first look at the teaser trailer for Joss Whedon’s highly-anticipated adaptation of The Avengers. Unfortunately for fans, it doesn’t contain any new footage that we haven’t already seen before.

2. “At it’s core, it is the most expensive and creative Film History 101 course of all time.” – The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg reacts to an unfinished version of Martin Scorsese’s children’s movie Hugo, which screened last night at the New York Film Festival.

3. If you loved Paris Is Burning, then you’ll be excited to hear that writer W. Merritt Johnson (In Treatment, Temple Grandin) is teaming up with Precious director Lee Daniels on a new dramatic series for Showtime that looks at New York City’s underground drag ball scene. [via Vulture]

4. Law enforcement officers in Hungary seized “85 functioning weapons” from a warehouse in Budapest that were going to be used in the filming of Brad Pitt‘s zombie movie World War Z, and it’s not really clear what will happen with them now. [via ArtsBeat]

5. A post-pregnancy January Jones has returned to the set of Mad Men. Check out some photos of Betty Draper Francis rocking a surprisinly frumpy house dress here.

Bonus Buzz: Movies That Go Bump In The Night

1. Thom Yorke has made a 25-minute DJ mix for XFM, and it includes a new solo track. You can download both the song, “Twist,” and the entire “Money Back Mix” at Stereogum.

2. Well, this was kind of inevitable: Fox execs looking for a way to increase Simpsons-related revenue are considering launching a channel devoted entirely to the series. The bad news, superfans, is that even if this plan comes to fruition, it won’t happen for at least a few years. [via Slashfilm]

3. Mad Men star January Jones gave birth to her first child yesterday and named the boy Xander Dane Jones. Huh. Is Betty a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan? [via People]

4. Well, Brad Pitt really put his foot in it. He implied in an interview that his marriage to Jennifer Aniston was so boring it sent him running to the bong, and now he’s apologizing for it. “Jen is an incredibly giving, loving, and hilarious woman who remains my friend. It is an important relationship I value greatly,” he said in a statement. [via RadarOnline]

5. Here’s a surprise: Charlie Sheen showed up on the Tonight Show yesterday and, despite his pending lawsuit against Warner Bros., admitted that Two and a Half Men was right to cut him from the show. “I would have fired my ass, too,” he said. Sheen also claimed that his “tiger blood” and “Adonis DNA” comments were “just metaphors.” [via EW]

Bonus buzz: 15 Infuriatingly Hilarious Troll Quotes

Sean Penn, never the wallflower, has some opinions he’d like to share about his latest film, The Tree of Life. His thoughts may surprise you! (If you know absolutely nothing about Sean Penn, that is.) The actor told the French publication Le Figaro, “I didn’t at all find on the screen the emotion of the script, which is the most magnificent one that I’ve ever read. A clearer and more conventional narrative would have helped the film without, in my opinion, lessening its beauty and its impact. Frankly, I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing there and what I was supposed to add in that context! What’s more, Terry himself never managed to explain it to me clearly.”

While Penn’s complaints may have resonated with the refund-refused moviegoers of Connecticut, most have seen it as rather bad form—particularly for a critically-acclaimed picture that is still in general release. On the other hand, he’s certainly not the first actor to publicly diss his own work; we’ve collected some of our favorites after the jump.

Read More »

Editor’s note: Welcome to The Fug Report! Every Friday our fashion blogger friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the sartorial geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself, will feature some of their favorite looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!

This week on Go Fug Yourself, we compared Miranda Kerr and Michelle Williams, and because it wasn’t an acting contest, Miranda took it in a walk. We worried about the state of The Hunger Games, given the state of Peeta and Gale on this week’s cover of Entertainment Weekly. We never, however, worry about Mila Kunis, who looked as pretty as ever in Moscow, or Julianne Moore, who is generally awesome regardless of her wardrobe. We began to wonder if maybe, contrary to what we had been led to believe, Jessica Biel was ALSO awesome, as she was game enough to wear this ridiculous fake mustache. And we agreed that this wax figure of Brad Pitt is categorically not awesome, unless by “awesome,” you mean “really creepy.”

1. The first photos of Brad Pitt on the set of the Marc Forster-directed film adaptation of the zombie thriller World War Z have surfaced. What do you think?

2. The Beastie Boys have reteamed with director Spike Jonze for the music video for “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win,” their recent collaboration with Santigold. “It is an explicit action adventure spectacular,” they explain on their website. “It features action figures of us and yes, they are ACTION figures, NOT dolls!” Unfortunately, there’s no release date yet. [via NME]

3. “I became reliant on [alcohol] to enjoy stuff … There were a few years there when I was just so enamored with the idea of living some sort of famous person’s lifestyle that really isn’t suited to me.” – Apparently Daniel Radcliffe used to have a problem with whiskey

4. Jay-Z and Kanye West may not have released Watch the Throne over the weekend (as had previously been rumored), but they did reveal official album art from designer Riccardo Tisci. [via Vulture]

5. Competitive eating renegade Takeru Kobayashi (who refuses to sign an exclusive contract with Major League Eating), set a world record yesterday by consuming 69 hot dogs in ten minutes at an unsanctioned event on a Manhattan rooftop. His arch nemesis Joey “Jaws” Chestnut — the winner of the Nathan’s Famous official contest — only managed to wolf down 62 dogs. [via NYDN]

Bonus link: Watch the Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Grand Finale

Welcome to “Trailer Park,” the Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week, we’ve got seven new trailers, ranging from killers (Lucky) to things you want to kill (Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked!) — check ‘em out after the jump.

Read More »