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Christopher Nolan's Inception Cast Gets Interesting

BuzzSugar — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:30:01 -0700

We knew that Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan was next directing a "contemporary sci-fi action" movie he wrote titled Inception, and that Leonardo DiCaprio would be the next big A-lister to work with him. Now an interesting trio has been added to the cast, including an Oscar winner, a young Oscar nominee and a "Scarecrow."

Apparently "Warner Bros. is in talks with Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy and Ellen Page to join the cast of Inception." Nolan has never worked with Cotillard or Page, but Cillian Murphy starred in Nolan's Batman Begins (and had a brief appearance in The Dark Knight) as the creepy Scarecrow.

The plot of Inception remains a mystery, besides being a sci-fi action flick "set within the architecture of the mind." (Architecture of the mind?) Still, though details are sketchy, the combination of this cast and Christopher Nolan in the director's chair has increased my interest in Inception tenfold.

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Leonardo DiCaprio Joins Christopher Nolan's Next Project

BuzzSugar — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:30:46 -0800

After an incredibly exciting year of praise and tremendous box office success for The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan is ready to start all over again with a new, non-Batman-related project. And yet again, he's getting a big-name A-lister to work with. Leonardo DiCaprio is signing on to star in Nolan's Inception, which "is described as a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within 'the architecture of the mind.'" The movie is set to release relatively soon, in the Summer of 2010.

Nolan wrote the script for Inception himself (just as he wrote the screenplays for many of his other films, including Memento, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight), and it'll be interesting to see what will come from a collaboration with DiCaprio. This does, however, push back any work on another Batman movie. Are you anxious for Nolan to continue with the Batman franchise? Or do you think there should be a bit of breathing room between The Dark Knight and the next installment?

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Buzz News Roundup, 2/13

BuzzSugar — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:30:16 -0800

Jennifer Hudson and The Secret Life of Bees were big winners at the NAACP Image Awards. - Reuters
Columbia Pictures is bringing a time-traveling Jane Austen drama to the big screen, based on the British miniseries Lost in Austen. - ComingSoon
Director Christopher Nolan's next project has nothing to do with Batman: He'll direct an original screenplay he wrote called Inception, a sci-fi action film, for Warner Bros. - The Hollywood Reporter
John Malkovich will square off against Josh Brolin in Jonah Hex, the Warner Bros. adaptation of the DC Comics property. - Variety
Armie Hammer has been cast as Serena's new boyfriend on Gossip Girl. - E! Online
After playing Ozymandias in the upcoming Watchmen, Matthew Goode will join Amy Adams for the romantic comedy Leap Year. - Zap2It
Anne Hathaway will topline Twelfth Night in Central Park this Summer in the role of Viola. - AP
U2 will play five nights straight on Late Show With David Letterman in March. - The Hollywood Reporter
Peter Gabriel has withdrawn from performing at the Academy Awards, refusing to perform a shortened version of his nominated song from Wall-E, "Down to Earth." - Variety

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The Dark Knight Smashes Box Office Records

BuzzSugar — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:15:23 -0700

Many thought that breaking Spider-Man 3's record for the biggest opening weekend ever would be difficult, even for The Dark Knight. But the much-hyped and critically adored sequel to Batman Begins shattered many records over the weekend - including Spidey's.

Earning an estimated $155.4 million, Bruce Wayne and gang smashed box office records for the biggest single-day gross in history and the biggest opening weekend for an IMAX release.

According to Variety, Mamma Mia! also broke records by "narrowly beating Hairspray to become the top opener for a musical," earning $27.5 million over the weekend.

That is a lot of money that people spent at the movies this weekend. What did you see? And how many times?

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Prepare Yourself For Batman - Take My Quiz!

BuzzSugar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:30:20 -0700

So you're excited for the new Batman movie, are ya? Does your knowledge start and stop with Christian Bale? (I'd understand if it does, he's so beautiful.) Or do you sharply remember all that came before Christopher Nolan's reboot? Remember the '90s, when there were, like, three Batman movies? George Clooney even wore the suit at one point! As a kid I sometimes caught reruns of the Batman TV show from the '60s, and then there's the cartoon, and of course the DC comics that started it all. Phew!

See how well you know your Batman trivia (in honor of The Dark Knight of course) by taking my quiz!

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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The Dark Knight: Tense, Sad, Unsettling - And One of the Best Movies I've Seen in Years

BuzzSugar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:30:27 -0700

"This town deserves a better class of criminal." – The Joker

Indeed. And by extension, audiences deserve a better class of villain. In The Dark Knight, we get one. Director Christopher Nolan seems to have a keen understanding that we want our heroes to be badass - but we want our villains to be way badder. The movie tells a story about Batman, sure, but really, this is The Joker's tale. Even when it's Batman's story. . . The Joker owns it.

The Dark Knight is unlike almost any other superhero movie that came before it. It's insanely dark, it's melancholy, it doesn't leave you with a great sense of peace. But the thing is, we can handle it. I think this is Nolan giving audiences some credit. And every superhero tale has these themes of good vs. evil, order vs. chaos, hero vs. villain. It's just that this one doesn't sugarcoat these things at all. And why should they be sugarcoated? The superhero's tale is actually the perfect vehicle for exploring these things, and explore them we do. Nolan brings us an affecting, disturbingly dark tale, and one that could easily be seen as an allegory for the goings-on of today's world (terrorism vs. peace, cowardice vs. heroism, etc.). To see more what I mean (and I promise - no spoilers), read more.

Christian Bale reprises his role as the manly, gravel-voiced Batman by night and the wealthy Bruce Wayne by day. Michael Caine again dryly charms his way through the role of Bruce's helpful butler Alfred, and Gary Oldman is again the likable Commissioner Gordon. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives Rachel Dawes, Bruce's love interest and Gotham City's District Attorney, some much-needed depth and chutzpah. In this installment, there's an evil mastermind on the loose, terrorizing Gotham, and his name is The Joker. As The Joker continues to taunt Batman, trying to get him to break his noble moral code of beating the bad guys without actually harming anyone, the body count rises and Joker gets closer and closer to forcing the citizens of Gotham City to turn on each other. He is the greatest fearmonger of all time.

Heath Ledger is thoroughly mesmerizing as Joker. Should we be talking Oscars? Absolutely. I haven't seen a performance so impeccably realized, so desperately truthful in a long, long time. However, another impressive performance comes from Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, Gotham's great white hope for a safer, Joker-less future. His mixture of political-minded bravado and inner turmoil makes for a far more layered character than one might expect.

In perhaps my favorite scene - one that is so exciting, and yet so agonizing - we get both of these tortured souls, The Joker and Harvey Dent, alone together. The outcome of this scene is a profound sense of despair because in it we witness how quickly people can shift from good to evil, and how easy and nonsensical violence is. On Joker's part, there is no real reasoning behind his cruel madness, and we're reminded that sometimes evil simply exists for no good reason. It taps into a very real, basic and horrible fear: that in this world where terrorism could lurk anywhere, where chaos and war and murder exist, we struggle continuously to figure out "why?" The Joker represents our most feared response to that question: There is no reason.

Then again, here is another truth: Sometimes people choose good over evil, no matter what. Some will surprise you with their unselfishness. There is a lot of bleakness in this film, but there is also hope.

Of course, compounding the darkness of the movie is the maddening real-life tragedy that is forever intertwined with it. An unsettling side effect of Ledger's death is that we will never see the man behind the garish, horrifying makeup. And in this sense, the Joker is forever, hauntingly alive. There’s no Heath Ledger to do the late-night TV show circuit or the red carpet interviews. He's not coming out from behind the screen to reassure us, "No, no, it's all an act. Here I am, just a guy, just an actor, see?" Logically, we're adults who understand that the Joker doesn't exist. And yet. . . Ledger's absence causes the tiniest of doubts in the back of our minds, the part that's still on board for superhero movies. With no one telling us otherwise, we're left with the cryptic suggestion that the Joker might very well be. . . real.

This is partly what has left me with such a sense of uneasiness since watching the movie, and one of the things that is keeping The Dark Knight at the forefront of my mind. But even beyond that, the film is so well-written, thrillingly suspenseful, action-packed and brilliantly acted. It's all the things we want in a superhero movie - along with a whole bunch of dark, thorny morality issues tossed in.

All told: It. Is. Amazing.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Movie Night: The World of Dark Knight Director Christopher Nolan

BuzzSugar — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:30:46 -0700

Christopher Nolan is a director who initially made a huge splash with a little budget and not much celebrity star power. He's the director of The Dark Knight and the man responsible for resuscitating the Batman franchise. Not so long ago, he was an independent filmmaker, but after this weekend he'll probably be seen as one of the most influential creative forces in Hollywood. So who is the visionary behind the ~~mask~~ camera? Well, you could read this interesting New York Times profile, or you could let his work speak for itself by embarking on a Christopher Nolan Movie Night!

Memento
Try to remember back to 2000 - there was a lot of hype around a little movie about a guy suffering from short-term memory loss looking for the man who murdered his wife. Memento was a big deal and shot Nolan to the head of the class in the eyes of film critics and Hollywood bigwigs alike. Guy Pearce is mesmerizing as a man forced to tattoo himself to remember things, and the way the movie plays with time is chilling and mind-blowing.

Two more Nolan flicks to go so read more.

The Prestige
Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, David Bowie, magic, murder - what more do you need for an exciting movie? Nolan created a spooky atmosphere in which to set this tale of two illusionists competing against each other at the turn of the 20th century. The film earned Oscar nods for both art direction and cinematography. The gripping story follows both magicians (Bale and Jackman) as they try to outdo each other, taking their competition to deadly extremes.

Batman Begins
While it had only a third of the hype The Dark Knight has, Batman Begins wiped the superhero's slate clean of the tarnished image of the franchise (and memories of George Clooney's nippled batsuit) and brought the tale of the dark hero back to its roots. Its super darkly awesome roots, that is. If you haven't seen this first installment of Nolan's reboot, you definitely won't be lost at Dark Knight this weekend, but it's well worth watching and will get you super pumped.

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Would You See a 6:00 a.m. Screening of The Dark Knight?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:30:03 -0700

According to The New York Times, the demand is so high for opening weekend tickets to The Dark Knight that many theaters are showing the film on Friday, July 18 starting at midnight (no surprise there), and continuing through 6:00 a.m. showings. Fandango.com is reporting "well over 1,500 wee-hour showings for The Dark Knight in theaters that typically do not open their doors before about 10 a.m."

The Times article goes on to note that people are now paying the kind of attention to movies that was "once reserved for rock concerts, basketball games or the introduction of a hot product like the iPhone."

The midnight screenings I can understand - especially for a dark, spooky, adventure story like The Dark Knight, but 6:00 a.m. on a weekday morning? Indeed: "About 38 percent of ticket buyers polled by Fandango said in a recent survey that they intended to take some or all of July 18 off to see The Dark Knight."

What do you think of all this? Would you see a super-early morning screening of this Batman story?

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Link Time! 7/1

BuzzSugar — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:31:04 -0700

Popwatch writer Annie Barrett has a hilarious note that her mother passed to her father on a plane, explaining how to adjust the volume on an iPod, which prompted Annie to ask: What's the most basic technological instruction you've had to explain to the tragically unhip?
Best Week Ever is holding a quirk-off between Daniel Day-Lewis and Jeremy Irons.
LilSugar wants to know if you can handle any more Real Housewives.
Inspired by Amanda Seyfried's character's dilemma in Mamma Mia, FilmExperience wonders which of her three possible daddies would be your daddy: Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth or Stellan Skarsgård?
TV Squad names some of the best Six Feet Under corpses, including the one that makes me scared to ever put my head through the roof of a limo.
Cinematical ponders whether or not Robin has any place in Christopher Nolan's Batman movies.
Lucky TV with MeeVee has seen three hours of Generation Kill, and it sounds like everything I'd hope it would be.
One brave contributor to The TV Addict lays out some reasons for hating Lost.

New Photos From the Set of The Dark Knight

BuzzSugar — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:17:03 -0700

I'm starting to think that the people behind the viral marketing for The Dark Knight are geniuses. For a movie that doesn't even open until next summer, they've managed to generate an awful lot of buzz around this next Batman movie. The latest ploy: releasing 18 new images from the set of the movie, some of which hint at plot details previously unknown (multiple people in Batman costumes?). It's no full-length trailer, but it definitely worked to keep people talking and speculating about The Dark Knight. To see the gallery of images (which I found on Film School Rejects), read more

View 18 Photos ›