Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, the adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel set in New York City during the Roaring ’20s. The 3D movie has a stellar cast comprised of Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Joel Edgerton, and more. Take a look below and see it for yourselves.

I’m one of the uncultured slobs who was never forced to read this book in school, and I’m sad to say I still haven’t gotten around to reading it. Despite the grand visual style we see on display here, this actually looks like it may be one of the most accessible films Luhrmann has ever directed. It’s cool to see Leo reuniting with Luhrmann for the first time since Romeo + Juliet back in 1996, and I particularly enjoyed the quick flashes of actor Jason Clarke, who starred on the terrific FOX series “The Chicago Code” before it was unceremoniously cancelled after one season; Clarke deserves a shot at the big leagues, and working with this cast seems to be exactly what he needs to take him to the next level.

What did you think of the trailer? Are you excited about seeing this version of The Great Gatsby?

Read similar posts to First trailer for The Great Gatsby on Filmonic

Entertainment Weekly got their hands on our first official look at Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. The images released show Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio in costume as their respective characters.

Check out the images below:

In the movie Django (Jamie Foxx) is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself, and after assisting Waltz in taking down some bad guys for profit, is helped by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife (Kerry Washington) and liberating her from an evil plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio). Samuel L. Jackson will play DiCario’s slave, Stephen, while Kurt Russell will play the sadistic trainer Ace Woody, who forces male slaves to fight to entertain the white patrons of Candyland.

The Weinstein Company will release Django Unchained on December 25, 2012. What do you think of Leo playing a villain?

Read similar posts to First look at Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained on Filmonic

We saw the first poster yesterday, and now The Weinstein Company has released one giant plot summary for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained which talks us through the story, cast, and characters.

You can read it in full below:

Set in the South two years before the Civil War, DJANGO UNCHAINED stars Academy Award®-winner Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Academy Award®-winner Christoph Waltz). Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles – dead or alive.

Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways. Instead, Schultz seeks out the South’s most wanted criminals with Django by his side. Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago.

Django and Schultz’s search ultimately leads them to Calvin Candie (Academy Award®-nominee Leonardo DiCaprio), the proprietor of “Candyland,” an infamous plantation where slaves are groomed by trainer Ace Woody (Kurt Russell) to battle each other for sport. Exploring the compound under false pretenses, Django and Schultz arouse the suspicion of Stephen (Academy Award®-nominee Samuel L. Jackson), Candie’s trusted house slave. Their moves are marked, and a treacherous organization closes in on them. If Django and Schultz are to escape with Broomhilda, they must choose between independence and solidarity, between sacrifice and survival…

Written and directed by Academy Award®-winner Quentin Tarantino, DJANGO UNCHAINED is produced by Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone. The executive producers are Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Michael Shamberg, Shannon McIntosh, and James Skotchdopole. DJANGO UNCHAINED will be released in the U.S. on December 25, 2012, and internationally by Sony Pictures.

It seems the marketing campaign is just getting started, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a teaser trailer sometime soon. The plan may be to attach it to one of the upcoming summer films.

Read similar posts to Django Unchained plot details released on Filmonic

2012 is going to be such a great year at the movies. The highly anticipated films are stretched out across the whole year, with the summer blockbuster slate of superhero films coming soon, Rian Johnson’s Looper out in September, Skyfall in November, and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained out on Christmas Day. The latter has just received a teaser poster, which you can see in full after the jump.

“Justified” and “The Shield” star Walton Goggins has just joined the cast (via The Playlist) and had some cool things to say about the movie:

“This movie is radical. It’s like a kid walking into a candy store, to use a trite, overused metaphor. I can’t believe it. I just started work this week, and my very first day, I’m looking up, and there’s Quentin. I’m in Quentin’s world, in his imagination,” Goggins enthused. “His cinematic acumen is unparalleled, and he’s able to draw from all these resources, which are all the movies that have ever been made. He’s seen most, if not all of them, and he really is an auteur. He’s a savant auteur who is as passionate and as playful as any artist I’ve ever worked with. His enthusiasm is infectious, and the story is a movie that only Quentin Tarantino could make.”

Are you as excited for Django Unchained as I am?

Read similar posts to First teaser poster for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained on Filmonic

Paramount Pictures has today released a new trailer for Titanic 3D ahead of the re-release next April. The trailer first appeared on Titanic‘s official Facebook page with an introduction from director James Cameron.

Paramount has also released a poster for the re-release, which you can view below:

It’s been 14 years since Cameron’s movie won 11 Oscars and made over $1.8 billion worldwide. Will you be buying a ticket to see it in 3D?

Read similar posts to Titanic 3D trailer on Filmonic

It’s easy to see how J. Edgar was one of my most anticipated films of 2011. It stars my favorite working actor, is directed by a living legend, and features a script by an Academy Award winning screenwriter. But who knew that those elements could combine to create something so…boring?

The film tracks the trajectory of the professional and personal life of J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio), the first director of the FBI, from the early days of his career in 1919 until his death in 1972. Hoover meets a young graduate named Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), and even though he doesn’t fit the profile for a job on Hoover’s coveted new squad, Hoover brings him on anyway. See, Hoover’s been bullied into not accepting his homosexuality. Even his own mother (Judi Dench) says she’d rather have a dead son than a gay one. On a first date with a new woman at the Bureau (Naomi Watts), Hoover is so socially inept that she has to interrupt a proposal from him. She’s married to her work, she says, and Hoover brings her on as his personal secretary (a position she’ll have for the rest of her life). But he can’t help himself with Tolson, what with the young man’s booming voice and broad shoulders and all. Though things never get too sexual – check out another film that played at the AFI Film Festival this year, Steve McQueen’s Shame, if you’re looking for that – their relationship takes center stage as Hoover makes a name for himself and his department.

“Information is power,” an elderly Hoover dictates to one of numerous agents tasked with writing a book about him (the structure of the film is told from the old man’s point of view through flashbacks), and the film does add a tiny bit of complexity when dealing with the issues of how far Hoover is willing to go to keep his power in Washington, simultaneously commenting on the state of American politics and freedoms in a post-9/11 world. I wish more of those concepts were explored instead of what we are actually shown: a stale biopic about a tortured man whose private life was undoubtedly messed up, but was also, as the marketing hails, “the most powerful man in the world.”

There’s much made of the creation of the FBI and Hoover’s crusade to secure the adoption of the investigation techniques used in regular police work today. But since our modern media is saturated with a different CSI or NCIS show seemingly every night, the “magic” of the implementation of those tactics seems dull and uninteresting. The film doesn’t really help us out in this department: the centerpiece of the use of this technology surrounds the infamous Lindbergh baby case – specifically, agents studying wood from a ladder found outside the home the day of the kidnapping. Yep, you read that correctly – guys standing around in a lab analyzing a wooden ladder. Some movies may be able to make a scene like that interesting, but J. Edgar is not one of them.

Behind the camera, this is not the rough and tumble Eastwood I prefer. Instead, it’s as if adhering to his notoriously quick directing style – Fincher did 99 takes for the opening scene of The Social Network, while Eastwood prefers to do everything in one or two takes – became more important than the content of the film itself, rendering the movie completely devoid of any passion or personality. It could have been directed by anyone, and that was a big disappointment for me.

Another disappointment? This is not DiCaprio’s best work. More distracting than the heavy age makeup for me was his speech, as he adopts what one can only assume is an accurate representation of the way Hoover actually spoke. But accurate as it may be (or maybe it isn’t, how should I know?), DiCaprio’s delivery is brittle and jerky, with an accent sliding in and out depending on the scene. This is the same actor who received high praise for his South African accent in Blood Diamond, one of the most difficult accents to replicate. So I’m sure it was just a choice on his part in J. Edgar, but it was one that I could never quite get past as the movie progressed. Armie Hammer and Naomi Watts were both fine, but the monotonous script doesn’t allow them to live up to their potential and never gives them a true “moment” to make their own, save for a laughably over-the-top emotional outburst from Hammer seen in the trailers.

Sometimes the combination of some of the best talent in the business results in a misfire. In the blockbuster genre, take a look at Cowboys & Aliens from earlier this year: Jon Favreau, Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Damon Lindelof, Hawk Otsby, Mark Fergus, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci all had their hands in that pot, and it was pretty awful. If the nicest thing I can say about J. Edgar is that it’s the dramatic equivalent of Cowboys & Aliens…well, there’s that saying about “if you can’t say anything nice,” so maybe I shouldn’t have said anything at all. Until next time…

Read similar posts to Review: J. Edgar on Filmonic

Leonardo DiCaprio has been nominated for three Oscars in his career, but the actor has yet to be rewarded with a trophy. His role in Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, which opens this week, is picking up some awards buzz and could see him secure another nomination.

In acknowledgement Funny Or Die has posted a video mash-up which suggests Leonardo DiCaprio would do anything to win an Oscar.

Watch below:

Read similar posts to Leonardo DiCaprio’s pursuit for an Oscar on Filmonic

When Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio were confirmed for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained there was talk of Kerry Washington (Ray, The Last King of Scotland) being in talks to play Broomhilda, Django’s wife who is sold off to entertain the white patrons of Candyland.

Now Deadline reports that Kerry Washington has landed the role, and the delay in confirmation was due to Tarantino’s interest in “making a discovery in the role, and that led to a long casting search”. However it appears he couldn’t find any upcoming talent, so went back to Washington who he had his eye on from the beginning.

The casting of Broomhilda has interested a few people who managed to read the script a few months ago. While the character is the female lead, Shadow and Act notes the role is not “the most glamorous, nor complex” as there are several scenes where Broomhilda is naked, and a few where she is being raped and whipped. The Playlist says the character is “essentially a damsel in distress…and that’s about it”, but the script may have changed slightly since, and Kerry Washington might be able to bring some depth to the role.

In the movie Django (Jamie Foxx) is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself, and after assisting Waltz in taking down some bad guys for profit, is helped by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife and liberating her from an evil plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio). Samuel L. Jackson will play DiCario’s slave, Stephen, while Kurt Russell will play the sadistic trainer Ace Woody, who forces male slaves to fight to entertain the white patrons of Candyland.

Tarantino plans to start shooting Django Unchained in New Orleans in January, and The Weinstein Company will release it on December 25, 2012.

Read similar posts to Kerry Washington joins Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained on Filmonic

Back in July Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown) signed on to direct the live-action adaptation of anime graphic novel Akira for Warner Bros., replacing Albert Hughes (The Book of Eli) who left due to “creative differences”.

Since then the director and Warner Bros. have been finding ways to reduce the budget, which at the time was way over $100m. Last week a new budget of $90m was presented, and Variety reports that the studio has now given the project the greenlight and are starting to offer roles to actors.

Names such as Robert Pattinson, Chris Pine, Andrew Garfield, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy were reportedly being considered for two lead roles earlier this year, but Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) is now said to be the top choice by both Warner Bros. and Collett-Sera.

The graphic novel follows the leader of a biker gang who must save his friend, discovered with potentially destructive psychokinetic abilities, from government medical experiments. Warner Bros. has moved the location from Japan to the US (annoying some fans), with the story now taking place in a rebuilt New Manhattan.

Leonardo DiCaprio is producing under his Appian Way banner, and Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves recently re-wrote the script. Katsuhiro Otomo, who wrote and directed the 1988 Japanese anime movie of the same name, will serve as executive producer. Shooting is set to begin in late February/early March 2012.

Read similar posts to Akira moving forward, Garrett Hedlund to star? on Filmonic

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s potential Oscar contender, J. Edgar. The biopic stars Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who was surrounded by controversy as his career in the Bureau progressed.

Watch the trailer below:

The films also stars Armie Hammer as lawyer-turned-FBI-official — and, some say, Hoover’s lover — Clyde Tolson. Though the pair didn’t always agree on political tactics, Tolson remained a loyal friend and advisor to Hoover. Naomi Watts plays Helen Gandy, a Justice Department file clerk Hoover selected as his personal secretary at the age of 21 who wound up working for him for over 54 years, and Judi Dench appears as Hoover’s mother.

J. Edgar will have a limited release starting on Wednesday November 9th, followed by an Oscar-friendly wide release two days later on November 11th. Could this be Leo’s shot at a trophy after being nominated (and missing out) three times?

Read similar posts to First trailer for Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar on Filmonic