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 »
1. That 6-minute prologue from The Dark Knight Rises that we told you about last week will only be screening before Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol on the higher resolution (and much rarer) 70mm IMAX screens, not digital IMAX ones. If you’re confused as to what this means, ask one of your film geek friends. [via Collider]
2. Word it that Sony is courting Aaron Sorkin to write its forthcoming Steve Jobs movie based on Walter Isaacson’s new biography. Sounds like a good match to us. [via LAT]
3. Netflix — which after price hikes and various PR snafus lost 800,000 US subscribers in the last quarter — is planning to expand its streaming service into Ireland and Great Britain in early 2012. [via Slashfilm]
4. Here are some photos of some of the outdoor sets in Sydney where Baz Luhrman is shooting the new Great Gatsby movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. Cute!
5. Stealing a strategy from the Disney playbook, Warner Bros. plans to stop shipping Harry Potter DVDs and Blu-rays to stores at the end of the year in an effort to increase demand and boost sales. [via THR]
Bonus Buzz: 90 Corgis In Costumes
Martin Scorsese has been all over the news lately, for both his well-received HBO documentary on George Harrison and his first 3D movie, Hugo, debuting at the New York Film Festival. So it makes sense that Harper’s Bazaar has dedicated some space to celebrating “The Age of Scorsese,” with a set of fascinating reminiscences of Marty from Jodie Foster, Tom Cruise, Steve Buscemi, and a slew of other boldface names. The article is accompanied by a set of uncannily accurate recreations of the most memorable scenes from Scorsese’s biggest films, with new actors taking over legendary roles. See Chloë Moretz (who stars in Hugo) and Keanu Reeves take over for Foster and Robert De Niro, and other great surprises, after the jump, and watch behind-the-scenes video from the shoot at the Harper’s Bazaar website.
Read More »
Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular 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. We’ve got ten new trailers this week, from biopics to historical epics to documentaries to thrillers; check ‘em out after the jump.
Read More »
1. Nas is working on an autobiography called It Ain’t Hard to Tell that is scheduled to come out next fall. Says music journalist Touré, who is collaborating with him on the project: “I’ve been talking to Nas about writing his autobiography for 15 years. This is hip hop history. We’ll tell his life & deconstruct some songs.” [via NME]
2. The first episode of Showtime’s new CIA drama Homeland is now streaming online, weeks ahead of its October 2 premiere date. What do you make of Claire Danes’ performance?
3. While it comes as no surprise that Tyler Perry topped Forbes’ list of the highest paid men in entertainment after making a whopping $130 million last year, we were kind of shocked that the only other actor to crack the top 10 was Leonardo DiCaprio, who brought in $77 million between May 2010 and May 2011.
4. Hugh Grant is the latest star to join the ensemble cast of the forthcoming film adaption of David Mitchell‘s award-winning novel Cloud Atlas. Already on board: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, and Hugo Weaving. [via THR]
5. Is the world ready for a Whitney Houston comeback? According to Rolling Stone, she’s planning to return to the big screen in Sparkle, a remake of a 1976 musical “loosely based on the story of the Supremes.” She’d be playing “the skeptical and unsupportive mother of the three main characters,” which seems like a bit of a waste to us.
Bonus Buzz: 20 Trendy Names To Call Your Grandma
1. Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and The Backstreet Boys are among the many pop artists whose songs have recently been banned by China’s Ministry of Culture for containing “vulgar content.” The offending tracks must be removed from Chinese websites by September 15, or their owners will face prosecution. [via Guardian]
2. Here is your first look at Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatbsy in Australia.
3. We’re excited to see that Bravo has announced the 14 contestants who will be competing in the upcoming season of Work of Art; Simon de Pury, China Chow, and the rest of the gang will return to our lives on October 12 at 9pm. [via THR]
4. The lovely Charlotte Gainsbourg will release a new double album called Stage Whisper on November 7 that will be made up of live and unreleased studio material, and includes collaborations with Beck, Noah And The Whale, Conor O’Brien of Villagers, and Connan Mockasin. [via NME]
5. We know that people love sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll, but we can’t help but be surprised by the news that Keith Richards’s memoir Life has sold over 1 million copies since coming out last fall. [via USA Today]
Bonus Buzz: Then And Now: The Worst Frontmen In Alternative Rock
Today at Flavorpill, our eyes played tricks on us thanks to this crazy street art installation in Stockholm by illusionist artist Erik Johansson. We decided after some internal debate that we’d be happy to see Leonardo DiCaprio play a villain in a Quentin Tarantino movie. We were surprised to read that AOL’s newsroom is now bigger than The New York Times’ (in case you’re curious, it’s a difference of about 1300 staffers vs. 1200). We checked out the first photo from the second season of The Walking Dead, which suggests that this year’s crop of zombies will be just as skin-crawling as their predecessors. We got super excited over this slew of action posters for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, but had a hard time picking a favorite one. We enjoyed this fictional account of why Emma Watson really left Brown a little too much (in fact, we think it should become a YA series). We wondered if women are capable of giving The Look too. We tried to figure out who has it the worst at NYC intersections after watching this clip — cars, bikes, or pedestrians. And finally, we thought that a Darren Aronofsky-directed re-telling of the Noah’s Ark story sounded promising — just imagine how dark and creepy he’d make all of the animals.
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.
Read More »
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
