F

Flavorwire

Tilda Swinton

Film

Casting Live Versions of Animated Classics

By Emily Temple on

This week, we found out a piece of very interesting news: that Robert Downey Jr. may be playing Geppetto in an upcoming Tim Burton-directed live action version of Pinocchio. Yep, you heard that right. While we think a live action version of Geppetto should be a little… shall we say friendlier than Robert Downey Jr., the news got us to thinking about actors who could step into the shoes of some of our favorite animated characters, from Aladdin and Jasmine to the characters from UP. Click through to see our dream casts for classic (and modern classic) animated films, and let us know who you’d love to see step into your favorite characters’ cartoon shoes in the comments. … Read More

Books

Listen to ‘Moby-Dick’ as Read by Tilda Swinton, John Waters, David Cameron, and More

By Emily Temple on

Moby-Dick is without a doubt one of the greatest works of American literature — but, being intimidatingly long and detailed, it is not read as widely as it should be. However, if you’ve been putting off the Great White Whale since you shirked the reading in college, you’re in luck – author Philip Hoare and artist Angela… Read More

Partner Buzz

Wes Anderson: The Flavorpill Interview

By Jason Bailey on

When Suzy (Kara Hayward), the 12-year-old heroine of Wes Anderson’s marvelous new film Moonrise Kingdom, runs away from home to spend a week camping with her pen pal and potential beau Sam (Jared Gillman), she brings along a battery-powered record player, her kitten, and a big suitcase filled with books (as seen in our exclusive clip below). Their import does not feel accidental (as, indeed, nothing seems accidental in a Wes Anderson film), and although the books are made-up, they echo a specific kind of young adult literature of the 1960s and 1970s, the kind of books E.L. Konigsburg or Virginia Hamilton would write, books where children were the protagonists, but the themes were contemplative and mature. And Moonrise Kingdom is that way too. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we channeled our inner archaeologists with news about a burial chamber filled with more than 80 mummies and a dozen infant remains. We judged 40 ’90s boy band members on their current hotness. We read 20 panels of Archie out of context. We browsed the lost projects of… Read More

Media

Which of Your Favorite Cultural Icons Made the TIME 100?

By Judy Berman on

Time has just published its annual list of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” Most of the names you expect are there — Barack Obama, Kim Jong-un, the lady who invented Spanx — but here at Flavorpill, we’re especially interested in the magazine’s picks within the cultural realm. Along with the obvious choices (Adele, Harvey Weinstein, Stephen Colbert), some intriguing trends emerge. All five of the actors on the list are women, for example, and the only two filmmakers come from Muslim countries. See who made the cut after the jump, and be sure to click through and read the blurbs by celebrities who are just as noteworthy as their subjects. … Read More

Celebrity

Beautifully Unpretentious Celebrity Portraits

By Alison Nastasi on

Yann Rabanier’s portraits of celebrities aren’t your typically glossy affair. The lighting isn’t perfectly flattering, hair is out of place; clearly Rabanier isn’t trying to imitate the hundreds of slick snapshots we normally see of celebs, but that’s what makes them great. It’s a real-life moment, without all the fuss that portrays the screen stars and other famous figures in a natural way. That said, it takes a few seconds to realize who each person is — an experience akin to bumping into your favorite actor on the street and having that “Aha!” moment seconds later. Antonio Banderas (plus his The Skin I Live In co-star Elena Anaya) and Ryan Gosling are amongst the few you’ll know, but the French photographer has also focused on un-Hollywood talent like Michel Piccoli (who has worked with all the French New Wave greats), and Dennis Hopper’s son, Henry. Visit our gallery below. … Read More

Film

Tilda Swinton to Star in Jim Jarmusch Vampire Movie

By Judy Berman on

Well, this is equal parts bizarre and thrilling: Jim Jarmusch — probably the last filmmaker we’d expect to get swept up in a mainstream trend — is making a vampire romance movie. We don’t know much about Only Loves Left Alive yet, except that it’s about an undead couple whose love has lasted centuries and… Read More

Film

Know Your Evil Movie Teens

By Jason Bailey on

We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay’s critically acclaimed indie drama, expands into a (somewhat) wider release this weekend, and if you live in one of those ever-elusive “select cities,” it’s worth checking out; it’s a tough, frightening picture that gets into your head, and it features not only the by-now-expected brilliant (if overlooked by the Academy) performance by Tilda Swinton, but a bravura turn by Ezra Miller as the title character. He plays Swinton’s son, a teen boy with, um, some problems. We’ll leave at that, in case you haven’t yet had the exact nature of his wickedness spoiled for you yet; suffice it to say, he’s a bad kid, which got us wondering how he’d stack up in the rich history of evil cinematic teenagers (and pre-teens). After the jump, we’ll take a look (with some spoilers of years-old movies, so consider yourself warned). … Read More

Film

Trailer Park: Coming of Age and Going to War

By Jason Bailey on

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 seven new trailers for you this week; check ‘em all out after the jump. … Read More

Film

The Year in Film: 2011′s Best Performances

By Jason Bailey on

For all the remakes and reboots and 3-D blockbusters, 2011 was a great year for film actors, with a wealth of terrific performances for us to choose from. What’s more, in sharp contrast to most years in recent memory, there was a bumper crop of terrific roles for great actresses — a trend that we’d like to see stick around for a while. After the jump, we’ll tell you about some of the best performances we saw this year, and why we’re still talking about them. … Read More