1. The new Liam Neeson action thriller Unknown took the top spot at the weekend box office, making $21.7 million. I Am Number Four came in number two with $19.5 million, and was closely followed by Gnomeo and Juliet 3D, which made $19.4 million. [via Deadline]
2. Remember when New York Times classical music critic Anthony Tommasini set out to identify the ten greatest composers of all time? Now Dean Rader of the San Francisco Gate is hoping to do the same thing with poets. Weigh in with your opinion here.
3. It’s official: Baz Luhrman is shooting The Great Gatsby in 3D, with filming to begin in Sydney (apologies New York!) this August. Leonardo DiCaprio has already signed on to star as Jay Gatsby while Carey Mulligan has been offered the role of Daisy Buchanan. [via THR]
4. Over the weekend a rumor surfaced that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark producers were looking to find Julie Taymor a co-director for the beleaguered project, but as the show’s spokesperson told Vulture, “There is no truth to the rumor of a co-director. The production has not brought anyone on and the original creative team remains firmly in place, with Julie Taymor at the helm.”
5. Adele has become the first living artist since the Beatles in 1964 to have two albums and two singles in the top fives of both album and singles charts in the same week in the UK. (If you have no idea who she is, we recommend you check out this clip of her covering Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman” for an upcoming episode of VH1’s Unplugged.) [via Billboard]
Bonus link: Watch a “psychotropically influenced pseudo-documentary” directed by Matt Groening’s dad Homer
Like our friends at Big Other, we are literally obsessed with watching videos of celebrities doing the same things over and over and over again. Somehow, even though it’s based in repetition, it never gets old, so as long as people keep making them and putting them on the internet, people will keep watching. But, further than the mere fleeting pleasure we get from the montages, we think they say something about each actor as a person — after all, if you get cast in a million movies where you cry, kill yourself, or have a panic attack, those directors must see something in your personality to support that. Or they’re just really, really uncreative. After all, as Albert Einstein said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Check out some of our favorite (and most insane) montages and see if you agree with our character judgements after the jump.
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1. After Harvey Weinstein personally argued his position at yesterday’s hearing, an MPAA board has unanimously overturned the NC-17 rating on Blue Valentine. The film will be given an R rating instead. [via Deadline]
2. The Winklevoss twins — who already walked away with a $65 million settlement — are suing Mark Zuckerberg again because they say that they didn’t get enough money the first time around. [via Gawker]
3. In related news, Armie Hammer, who played both twins in The Social Network, has been cast to play Leonardo DiCaprio’s lover in Clint Eastwood’s upcoming film Hoover. [via Just Jared]
4. This is the world we live in: Snooki will be placed inside a ball (mind you, not The Ball) that will drop in Time Square during MTV New Year’s Bash while the rest of the Jersey Shore cast tries to break the world record for fist pumping. [via THR]
5. HBO has passed on Alan Ball’s new pilot, All Signs of Death, which “follows a slacker suffering from PTSD as he works in crime-scene clean-up.” Sounds dark. Maybe it’s something that AMC would want to pick up? [via EW]
Bonus link: Jonathan Franzen’s Awkward Family Photo
1. The British royal family has confirmed that Prince William is finally engaged to Kate Middleton. They have been dating since 2003. [via CNN]
2. Baz Luhrmann has confirmed that Carey Mulligan will play Daisy Buchanan in his adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Leonardo DiCaprio will play Jay Gatsby, and Tobey Maguire is expected to play his friend, Nick Carraway. [via Deadline]
3. Mike White has signed on to direct Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the adaptation of the Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel of the same name. No word on casting yet. [via Deadline]
4. Watch the first trailer for MTV’s new show Teen Wolf, but don’t be disappointed when there’s no van surfing. [via Vulture]
5. Apple is rumored to be announcing today that The Beatles music is going to be available on iTunes. Are you as excited about it as they are? [via NME]
Bonus link: Turns Out Smoking Weed Is Bad for You
1. Between accusations of his antisemitism and the fact that he’s not even planning to show up at the banquet, do you think the Academy is starting to regret giving Jean-Luc Godard an honorary Oscar? [via NYT]
2. So that’s not good: “Show Zero,” which was touted as the warm-up for Conan O’Brien’s upcoming TBS show, was pretty disappointing, filled with “dated comedy and embarrassingly overt product placement.” [via Vulture]
3. Leonardo DiCaprio is going to play Dr. HH Holmes, one of the most prolific serial killers in Chicago history, in a film adaptation of The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. [via Deadline]
4. Kim Kardashian has been spending time in the recording studio with The-Dream. [via TMZ]
5. Paramount has bought a new film project from True Blood creator Alan Ball that is allegedly “a dark comedy with a twist.” He will both direct and produce. [via Deadline]
Bonus link: 37 Unforgettable Nude Scenes
1. Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann is reportedly workshopping a version of The Great Gatsby that would star Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, and Rebecca Hall in the role of Daisy. We’d watch that. [via Deadline]
2. Word is that Brenda Chapman is no longer attached to Pixar’s Brave, which is sad as it was going to be the first film in the company’s history both written and directed by a female filmmaker. [via Slashfilm]
3. Demetri Martin has a signed a deal with CBS to star, write, and produce his own show. [via Variety]
4. Attention New Yorkers: You can use clues to track down pages from Jay-Z’s upcoming memoir, Decoded, a month ahead of its release thanks to Bing. [via Mashable]
5. FOX is planning to remake the Rocky Horror Picture Show, with Glee creator Ryan Murphy as the current frontrunner to direct it. We’ll decide whether we think that’s a good idea or not after we watch next week’s episode. [via TotalFilm]
Bonus link: Celebrity Pumpkin Carving Stencils
While watching Inception over the weekend, we came up with a theory: for someone with such a sweet face, Leonardo DiCaprio is kind of like the Henry VIII of the film world. Female characters don’t exactly flourish in his movies. Multiple suicides. A murder. A kidnapping. You get the drift. After the jump, we investigate what happened to the women in a few of our favorite Leo films, and attempt to understand: Why does it suck so much to be a lady in a Leonardo DiCaprio movie?
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If you’ve ever traveled abroad, then you’ve probably had the disconcerting experience of running into a well-known Western celebrity holding a bottle of liquor on a billboard. (If not, think of Bill Murray’s character in Lost In Translation.) We’ve scoured the Internet to find some of the weirdest celebrity television ads from the past 40 years, which include odd product pitches from Iggy Pop, Johnny Rotten, and Nicolas Cage. After the jump watch musicians, athletes, and film stars sell their wares and let us know if you think they’re making an honest living or just plain selling out.
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Despite its mixed reviews, there’s no debating the quality of the cinematography in Martin Scorsese’s newest flick, Shutter Island. Sure, we may have seen Leonardo DiCaprio as a Boston cop before, but the light reflecting off of the Massachusetts coast at dawn, graying bodies at a standstill, and Michelle Williams’ yellow dress with trickles of bright crimson blood are anything but old hat. In fact, we were so engrossed by director of photography Robert Richardson‘s work that we could hardly complain about other elements of the twisted thriller.
In homage to what can only be described as his visual superowers, we’ve rounded up of some of our favorite shots from Scorsese’s vast archive. Tell us what we forgot in the comments.
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After the success of Dark Knight, everyone was wondering what director Christopher Nolan was going to do next. There were rumors that another Batman movie was already in the works, complete with Megan Fox as Catwoman. Thankfully it wasn’t true, and Nolan fans turned their attention to Inception, his latest project, which previewed this past summer during screenings of Inglourious Basterds.
And yet, the plot was still a mystery. Here’s what we know: Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the CEO of a company which has developed technology that allows you go/see into dreams and memories. Ken Wanatabe is the villain blackmailing DiCaprio’s character. Ellen Page stars plays a graduate student who works in the company and serves as DiCaprio’s sidekick. Marion Cotillard is his wife, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, an associate working at the firm.
Peep the freshly-premiered poster after the jump, and tell us what you think of Nolan’s latest.
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