F

Flavorwire

Morgan Spurlock

Film

Morgan Spurlock Has Nothing to Lose, Will Make One Direction Doc

By Alison Nastasi on

Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock explored manufactured masculinity in his recent documentary, Mansome. Now, he’s turning his attention to the nation’s biggest boy band One Direction for a Sony concert film, according to Variety. We hope there’s a subversive link between the two projects where Spurlock can ask the hard-hitting… Read More

Television

CNN Picks Up Morgan Spurlock’s Intriguing New Series, ‘Inside Man’

By Matthew Bower on

Morgan Spurlock has earned quite a reputation for unconventional investigative documentary making. Since famously gorging himself for a month straight on Double Quarter Pounders with cheese and super-size fries, Spurlock has been busy exploring various other idiosyncrasies of American culture. Already this year the Oscar-nominee has delved into the obsessive, Mountain Dew fueled ranks of nerddom with his recent film Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, and confronted the ambivalent meaning of contemporary masculinity with Mansome, which premiered in April.

CNN announced today that Spurlock will be returning to television this spring to host a new original series called Inside Man. Having created and hosted the acclaimed FX series 30 Days, as well as the Hulu exclusive A Day in the Life and the Yahoo web series Failure Club, it seems Spurlock’s return to television will be a continuation of his masterful ability to explore ordinary lives in new and interesting ways. … Read More

Film

This Week in Trailers: Meryl, Medea, "Mansome" and More!

By Jason Bailey on

Every Friday here at Flavorwire, we like to gather up the week’s new movie trailers, give them a look-see, and rank them from worst to best — while taking a guess or two about what they might tell us (or hide from us) about the movies they’re promoting. We’ve got seven new ones for you this week — including a couple of titles from that festival, plus new stuff from Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Robert Pattinson, and Tyler Perry. Check ‘em all out after the jump, and share your thoughts in the comments. … Read More

Film

The Rise of the Geek in Pop Culture

By Caroline Stanley on

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, geeks quietly populated the fringes of pop culture, hoping to avoid the wedgies and swirlies that came with the territory of worshipping at the altar of Yoda. Today, it’s one hundred percent likely that your mom watches a “genre” show like Game of Thrones, Zooey Deschanel’s New Girl character casually tosses out Tolkien references, and The Hunger Games, a movie based on a YA fantasy series, is poised to become the next big film franchise, following in the footsteps of equally geek-friendly fare like Twilight and Harry Potter. Maybe you think this sounds like a good thing. But after watching Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, the latest documentary from Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock, I’m not so sure. … Read More

Film

This Week in Trailers: ‘American Reunion,’ Pixar’s ‘Brave,’ and More

By Jason Bailey on

Every Friday here at Flavorwire, we like to gather up the week’s new movie trailers, give them a look-see, and rank them from worst to best — while taking a guess or two at what they might tell us (or hide from us) about the movies they’re promoting. We’ve got ten new trailers for you this week, including the American Pie sequel (yes, another one) American Reunion, the end-of-the-world thriller 4:44 Last Day on Earth, a new indie featuring (and produced by) Nick Offerman, and the latest effort from the fine folks at Pixar. Check ‘em all out after the jump, and share your thoughts in the comments. … Read More

Web

Morgan Spurlock Seeks Failed Artists for His New Show

By Caroline Stanley on

If you self-identify as a starving artist, then Morgan Spurlock wants you for his latest project, a documentary web series called Failure Club that will air on Yahoo’s newly-revamped video site beginning in November. Specifically, the Super-Size Me filmmaker is looking to cast seven New York-based creatives who are willing to share their personal stories… Read More

Film

Interactive Interview: Morgan Spurlock on the Realities of Selling Out

By Russ Marshalek on

With his new movie, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has sold out, in a sense. For Pom Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Spurlock, the provocateur behind the fast-food take-down Super Size Me, has created a documentary on the realities of marketing, advertising and product-placement that it, itself, funded entirely through those exact same things. That’s why you’ll notice, in our interactive interview with him below, he’s wearing a suit loudly emblazoned with the logos of JetBlue and his movie’s other major backers. He talks to us about the realities of “selling out” in the 21st century, what he thinks is the most mind-blowing corporate sponsorship buy-in he’s seen, and the good and bad points of being in a bathtub with a live horse. Click through for the full Flavorpill Interactive Interview with Morgan Spurlock, where you control the questions. … Read More

Film

Morgan Spurlock Pays Town to Rename Itself After His New Movie

By Judy Berman on

With his new film, POM Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold, hitting theaters next Friday, Morgan Spurlock is already making the publicity rounds. He showed up on The Colbert Report this week sporting a blazer tricked out with the logos of all the corporations who are sponsoring his advertising-funded documentary about advertising in media.… Read More

Film

Rate-a-Trailer: Morgan Spurlock’s ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’

By Judy Berman on

“What I want to do is make a film all about product placement, marketing, and advertising, where the entire film is funded by product placement, marketing, and advertising,” Super Size Me provocateur Morgan Spurlock says in the trailer for his new documentary. And considering its official title is now Pom Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold, he must have achieved that goal. The film seems to be comprised of series of boardroom conversations, branded merchandise (Greatest Movie Ever Sold urinal cake, anyone?), hilarious phone calls (“What if we loaded it with nudity?” Spurlock asks one potential sponsor. The reply: “Yeah, that would help.”), and interviews that run the gamut from Ralph Nader to Big Boi — all with the aim of exposing the ugly realities of marketing in 21st-century media. We’re excited, but also a bit terrified, to see Pom Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold when it comes out April 22nd. Tell us if you agree after the jump. … Read More

Film

A Brief History of Documentaries That Changed the World

By Jason Bailey on

A couple of weeks ago, an interesting comment popped up in one of our posts. On Tuesday, January 25th, we wrote (as countless other blogs did) about that morning’s Oscar nominations — the snubs, the surprises, etc. The next day, this comment from “ANGA” appeared: “Claims in the film Gasland have been widely documented to be untrue. See the investigative documents for yourself here,” followed by the URL for a “truth about Gasland” page. Here’s what’s interesting about that comment: all we did in the post was mention Gasland — we listed it, among the Best Documentary nominees, without comment.

At risk of getting ourselves mixed up in this controversy over the accuracy of Gasland, we will merely note that we’ve seen the film and it seemed awfully convincing to us; that Fox has responded to each of the claims being lobbed against him; and that ANGA is a high-profile natural gas company which certainly benefits from Fox’s reportage coming into question. The fact that they have the resources to troll the Internet and comment on blogs that so much as mention the film gives you some idea of what a documentary filmmaker is going up against when taking on big targets like this. … Read More