anthony hopkins Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Exclusive: 'The Wolfman' Poster Premiere!
Filed under: Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Universal », Fandom », Posters »
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Click image below to view full poster
Cinematical has just received this exclusive new poster for The Wolfman, due in theaters February 12, 2010. As you can tell from above, this latest bit of marketing for the Joe Johnston directed resurrection of Universal's classic shows off the gentler side of the moon-fearing creature feature. It's a simple image of Emily Blunt, who plays Benicio del Toro's romantic interest in the film, hiding with baited breath behind a tree in the mist-filled forest from del Toro's titular man cursed with an ancient affliction.
What works so great about the poster, other than the fact that Emily Blunt is always easy on the eyes (and even easier on the eyes when in a corset), is how it denies us a glimpse of the actual lycanthrope at the center of the movie. I find it a testament to how fantastic the character of the wolfman is that no amount of beauty is going to distract us from wanting to catch a look at the doomed soul who loses control of himself whenever the moon is full.
In addition to this poster, Ain't It Cool News has debuted a second Wolfman poster a little later on today, so make sure to hop on over there to catch another insight into the mystical, Victorian world brought to life by the likes of Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, and Anthony Hopkins. After that, you may return to staring at the wonderful Emily Blunt, longing for February 12th to somehow get here sooner.
Check out the latest Wolfman trailer after the jump, and view the full poster by clicking the image below.
Gallery: 'The Wolfman' Poster
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The Geek Beat: High and Lowbrow
Filed under: Comic/Superhero/Geek », The Geek Beat »
Late last week, news broke that Anthony Hopkins had joined the cast of Thor as the Nordic paterfamilias, Odin. As I was writing up the news, I could practically see the Thor coverage that will titter across USA Weekend, Entertainment Tonight, and the local newspapers that are still landing on your driveway by 2010 and 2011. There will be so many articles shocked (shocked!) that an actor of Hopkins' caliber has chosen to embrace the pulp of the colored panels, smirking at pervasiveness of the geek trend, and engaging in shallow cultural criticism. It will look remarkably like USA Weekend's goggle-eyed look at the ladies of Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and The Incredible Hulk back in 2008.
Now, there's no doubt that the pages of Marvel, DC, and all the Dark Horses in between are being taken far more seriously than they once were. I think it's also becoming a bit of a Hollywood trend, and that many A-List actors want a little piece of the superhero pie, to permanently become part of the Marvel or DC universe. I believe a very similar trend sprung up around Disney animation in the 1990s, when everyone longed to voice a Disney character of their own and be permanently installed at the Magic Kingdom. Nowadays, animated characters are so superfluous that even McLovin' has a CG-3D flick to his resume, and the characters are forgotten as soon as the next Burger King tie-in comes out.
When I first began writing this column, I believed that comic book adaptations would reach such a point of saturation as to eat its own tail. But then Disney bought Marvel, and DC ballooned into something equally huge, and there's no end in sight. We're rapidly reaching a point when superheroes are going to become casual mentions on an Oscar winning resume. But you know what's really surprising? That's not new.
Anthony Hopkins Joins 'Thor' as Odin!
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting », Paramount », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
There's big news from Asgard tonight! According to The Hollywood Reporter, the legendary Sir Anthony Hopkins has joined the cast of Thor. This isn't one of these tightly kept casting announcements either, as THR reports that he and no one else is playing Odin. (Incidentally, there's no mention of Robert DeNiro and Jude Law among the confirmed cast members, so I'm guessing that was just a fever dream of a rumor.)If you're not up on your Thor or Nordic mythology, Odin is the father of Thor and the ruler of Asgard. He's your typical white-bearded god sort, fond of wine, women, and wisdom. He's not immortal (none of the gods of Asgard are), but ages slowly, and possesses amazing powers of strength and wisdom. He famously sacrifices his eye for the foresight to prevent Ragnarok, a sadly futile act, but you can't blame a god for trying.
While a lot of people were hoping that the Brian Blessed would be Odin (and my own money was on the recently signed Stellan Skarsgard), you can't really get much better than Sir Hopkins. He'll add just the right amount of gravitas, but he's an actor who can still have fun in a role. I can't wait to see him go up against Loki, and watching him smack down Thor for his arrogance is going to be pure theater. Cheers, Kenneth Branagh!
Villains: The Highs and Lows of Recasting
Filed under: Drama », Horror », Critical Thought », Fandom »
Why recast the relatively small role of a doctor in a thriller? Michael Mann's Manhunter was an excellent thriller, featuring Brian Cox in a small role as the imprisoned, chillingly cold cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecktor. When the time came to adapt another one of Thomas Harris' bestsellers, Jonathan Demme went in a different direction, casting Anthony Hopkins as the good doctor. The character's family name was restored (Lecter, not Lecktor) and a whole new set of tics and tricks were placed on display. Hopkins may have been the only actor alive who could have hammed it up to such extreme levels and yet, somehow, made Lector creepy rather than campy, unnerving rather than unbelievable. For his memorable efforts in The Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins won an Academy Award.
Recasting villains is a tricky business. Everyone needs to love, identify with, and cheer the hero or heroine, but if the villain doesn't provide the requisite level of opposition, the picture runs the risk of becoming unbalanced, leaving a gaping hole that cannot be filled in with special effects. And if an actor has established the character in the public's mind, it's difficult for anyone else to measure up.
So Dylan Walsh has an advantage in The Stepfather, which opens tomorrow. Terry O'Quinn originated the title role in the 1987 original, and was a truly memorable monster. Yet the film is not steeped in the public consciousness to a high degree, and O'Quinn has become much better known from playing John Locke in Lost. Walsh's fame, such as it is, comes from the lesser-seen TV series Nip/Tuck. Walsh has a shot of creating his own distinct brand of villain.
Scariest Villains Ever: Bears!
Filed under: Fandom », Lists »
Of the many things we've learned from television pundit Stephen Colbert, one of the most important is the danger of bears. On Colbert's online resource Wikiality, the Truthiness Encyclopedia, the entry on bears tells us that "Bears' strong vitality and resilience makes them one of mother nature's nearly unkillable animals. A bear has never been downed by any less than five gunshots. Combinations of high explosives, assault weapons, and trebuchets have been known to only piss the bear off."
But, you may ask, do they count as villains? Aren't scary bears in movies merely monsters, without the intellectual capacity to plot and scheme? I say bears are definitely villains, and as proof I offer three movies that feature relentless bears with more on their minds than just eating berries and looking for places to poop in the woods. Bears with purpose, with vicious intent. Bears who are, again in Mr. Colbert's words, "Godless killing machines."
Grizzly (1976)
The posters promised "18 feet of gut-crunching, man-eating terror!" (alternately, some ads also promoted "18 feet of towering fury") and indeed, Grizzly featured one large, nasty ursine villain. Sure, the whole movie was a cheesy rip-off of Jaws, which had been a phenomenal mega-blockbuster the previous year. But as cheesy rip-offs go, Grizzly is one of the best. The flick features a laundry list of 1970's B-listers like Christopher George, Richard Jaeckel and Andrew Prine, but the true star is the grizzly bear, chomping and mauling his way through a buffet of idiot campers at a state park.During the course of the film, hikers are torn asunder, cabins are smashed to bits, and the occasional deer gets dragged off to serve as a snack.
Nicole Kidman Enters Woody Allen Land!
Filed under: Casting », Newsstand »
For a 70+ year-old man, Woody Allen knows how to reinvent himself and keep us on our toes. These last few years, he's really upped the ante as he broke out of New York -- tennis, journalism, brotherly intrigue, and vacation romance. But while he might have gone back to Manhattan and back to his beloved May-December theme with Whatever Works, this is not a slip back into a New York state of mind. Word hit last month that Allen's next project would be an ensemble piece, with Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins leading the cast. And now his next London-based project is getting even better. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Nicole Kidman has signed onto the cast, which also now boasts an international array of drool-worthy actors -- Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, and Naomi Watts. THR points out that this mixes Spain, India, Britain/Australia, Austrailia, Britain, and USA. While an international cast is notable, I wonder if this is some hint towards the theme of this yet-untitled, plot-under-wraps project.
Then again, Woody likes to keep us guessing, so anything is possible. I just hope it has the same sort of bright whimsy as Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Production kicks into gear this summer, so we should hear more then.
What a Surprise -- There's News of Another Hemingway Feature
Filed under: Drama », Casting », RumorMonger », Scripts »
As soon as the name of an old icon enters the wind, it's only a matter of time before another Hollywood group gets a whiff and starts up a competing feature, or mind-melds with an international subconsciousness and starts one up unknowingly. Just last month, word hit that Ernest Hemingway was getting a biopic, and now THR's Risky Biz Blog says another is on the way, and they already have a star in mind.It appears that Andy Garcia is cooking up a feature called Hemingway & Fuentes that he'll write and direct, and Anthony Hopkins is tentatively attached to star as Papa. Garcia hopes to grab Fuentes, and Annette Bening might sign on to play Mary Welsh, Ernest's final wife. Hilary Hemingway, niece of Ernest, is teaming up with Garcia to write the script, which will revolve around Hemingway and his friend, Gregorio Fuentes, captain of the writer's beloved fishing boat, Pilar. But Fuentes is also a little something more than that -- some rumors say that he's the man who inspired The Old Man and the Sea.
Like the other project, this feature will focus on Papa's later life, but Garcia says it will be an historical drama, rather than a biopic, delving into Hemingway's psyche, his relationship with Fuentes, and his deep love of fishing. I'm happy to see so much attention being paid to the writer, but it's an incredible shame that it's all being focused on his struggles with depression and subsequent suicide. There are a million other stories to be told -- from his writing adventures overseas, stateside, and in Canada, to his crazy collection of wives, the war, how he was raised (which gives a lot of insight into his writing), and his times in places like Key West.
At least it will be interesting to see how Hemingway's male friendships evolve into different features.
Woody Allen's New Leads: Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins
Filed under: Comedy », Casting »
It seems like an entire lifetime ago since Josh Brolin popped up in Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda. That's the pre-superstar life, before he dazzled grindhouse audiences with his Dr. William Block, and critical audiences with Llewelyn Moss. But now he's returning to the Allen fold. Variety reports that Brolin and Anthony Hopkins have signed on to star in Allen's next film. But of course, in this early stage, both the title and the plot are being kept under wraps. (Which may be a smart move considering all the kerfuffle over his Vicky Cristina retitiling.) All we know is that it's an ensemble cast, and will shoot in London this summer.
Since Allen went back to his classic May-December theme for the upcoming Whatever Works, I can't help but wish that he decides to do the same for Brolin and Hopkins. It would be a new way to take Woody's ever-prevalent romantic urge and sass it up a bit. And come on -- Brolin and Hopkins would make for one heck of an interesting couple, or at least one that could really rock some classic Allen wordplay. A modern day Annie Hall!
It won't happen, but we should find out what this new one is all about once production gears up.
Universal Release Date Shuffle: 'Wolfman' Back, 'Furious' Up
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Horror », Romance », Thrillers », Mystery & Suspense », Universal », RumorMonger », Distribution », Family Films », Remakes and Sequels »
I was originally going to start out this post by going off on those studios that habitually change dates on their releases and wait until the last minute to do so. Instead, I'll try to remain positive and emphasize one particular studio that has given us a head's up on the shuffling of their 2009 slate: Universal.Of utmost priority is director Joe Johnston and star Benicio del Toro's take on The Wolfman, which has been bumped back from this spring to next November (not unlike The Box). Usually, such shuffling might seem like a bad thing, but about six more months to polish what I'm guessing are so very many special effects sounds like a fair enough compromise (which isn't to suggest that Oscar-winning make-up wizard Rick Baker didn't do a fine job the first time around). Also moving back is Ridley Scott's Nottingham, now pushed to a TBD date in 2010.
Cinematical Seven: My Favorite Screen Presidents
Filed under: Casting », New Releases », Politics », Cinematical Seven »
We've got two portrayals of U.S. Presidents vying for Oscars this year: Josh Brolin as W in W. and Frank Langella as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon. I've yet to see either one, though I did see Langella in the Broadway play, which I hear the movie faithfully replicates. On the eve of W.'s release, it seemed like a good time to get a discussion going on Best Screen Presidents, real or fictional. Here's my list, which is surely missing some obvious choices -- but that's part of the fun.
1. President Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) - The Contender
For the past couple of elections, pollsters have asked people which of the two presidential candidates they would rather "have a beer with." Inevitably it is pointed out that the person you would rather have a beer with is frequently not the person you would want to run the country. Jeff Bridges's President Jackson Evans, though, wins at life: he's the guy I'd want to have a beer with, and the guy I'd want running the country. Seriously, I would vote for Jackson Evans over either John McCain or Barack Obama. He's charming, and funny, and a bit of a jerk when called for, but he stands up for what's right and gives the best Rod Lurie Speech to date. My favorite movie president -- though for the record, I think The Contender is only pretty good.
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James Cameron Never Wanted to Make 'Titanic'
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Megan Fox's Scratched SNL Hitler/Michael Bay Joke
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