woody harrelson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I always seem to start these pieces the same way: "I don't normally do set visits," given my general distaste for air travel and a frequent disinterest for movie sets, but once in a while ... something fun and easy comes along, and I go for the ride. The friendly folks at Sony invited me to visit the set of a flick called (wait for it) Zombieland! Come on! If you know anything about me, then you know "Zombieland" is a place I want to visit, even if it is just a movie set! (Oh, and the flight was from Philadelphia to Atlanta, and that really helped to seal the deal.)

So I arrive in the surprisingly quiet but very charming section of Atlanta (a city I'd love to revisit soon) and am greeted by several gracious colleagues -- and ... what's this? Mr. James Rocchi, an old friend to Cinematical and one of my very best buddies? He was here for the Zombieland set visit too? Toss in a quick beer with some of my Signal pals ... and this turned out to be a smart trip.

But here's where I'll let you in on a little secret. Gather 'round, movie geeks. Ready? Here it is: movie sets are really boring! No, it's true! It's like wandering through a stunningly orchestrated construction site that also has a tiny little stage play taking place in a corner somewhere. If you're interested in the crafts of photography, fashion, carpentry, or electrical engineering, then a movie set could be pretty fascinating. (But you'd keep getting bumped into, believe me.) Luckily for us, "set visits" are just a bit more elaborate than a normal day on the set...



(Much) more right here at HorrorSquad!

Just when it seemed that October might be super-serious with its horror and dramatic offerings -- Shutter Island to Sorority Row, The Stepfather to Saw VI -- we get our first look at the fun-looking Zombieland, an action-horror-comedy in which Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone (!) and Abigail Breslin all team up in the post-apocalyptic wasteland and whoop some undead ass.

The tone of at least the trailer (I could see the narration carrying over to the film) strikes me as something like Shaun of the Dead crossed with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I for one don't think that intersection's a bad place to be.

Read the rest over at Horror Squad ...

The summer of 1937 brought the invasion of China by Japan. "By December 13th, they had defeated the Chinese army and invaded the nation's then-capital, Nanking," wrote Kim Voynar in January 2007, by way of introducing her review of the documentary Nanking, which played at Sundance that year. The film is now available for free online viewing, thanks to our friends at SnagFilms.

As you might expect, directors Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman use archival footage and interviews with survivors to flesh out the film, but they also include "staged reading of excerpts from journals and letters by a group of actors including Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway, Rosalind Chao and Jurgen Prochnow," as described by Voynar. She observed: "The scripted reading actually works more effectively than mere voiceover would have, bringing to life the people who were a part of the events that happened in Nanking during that time. War and violence are never pretty, and this is not an easy film to watch -- there is brutal and gruesome footage of the death and destruction that happened there."

The subject remains controversial in Japan, with some disputing or downplaying what happened in Nanking. As Voynar noted, "Nanking doesn't offer any easy answers -- and is it even possible to truly comprehend the mind-boggling evidence of humanity's capacity to cause hurt and suffering?" We've embedded Nanking below for your viewing convenience. Please note that it's NSFW due to the explicit historical footage included. More information is available at SnagFilms.

(Full disclosure: Nanking was produced by Ted Leonsis, founder and chairman of SnagFilms, who also serves as Vice Chairman Emeritus of AOL, the parent company of Cinematical.)

In a very minor way, Management attempts to freshen up the moribund romantic comedy genre, toning down the gleeful bounciness and upping the wry strangeness. Unfortunately, the weirdness employed by Stephen Belber's amorous fairy tale is of a decidedly limp, half-hearted sort, as the writer/director seems torn between wanting to make his film legitimately idiosyncratic, and fearing that going too far out on a limb will interfere with his rather traditional meet-cute tale – and alienate said material's formula-craving target audience. The result is a very mildly peculiar take on a stale opposites-attract premise, which in this case centers on Mike (Steve Zahn), a schlub who works as night manager at his parents' Arizona motel, and Sue (Jennifer Aniston), a chilly traveling saleswoman of corporate artwork who stays two nights at Mike's establishment and quickly catches his eye. Though Mike is a loser, he's an adorably earnest one, and though Sue is a cold fish, she's actually a caring, understanding one, and thus when Mike begins his courtship, it's already been made patently clear by Belber's contrived script that the two are destined to make googly-eyes at each other.

The first teaser trailer for Roland Emmerich's 2012 has just arrived online, courtesy of Moviefone, and from the looks of it the director has returned to his most successful end-of-the-world form for this film about the Mayan prophecy that predicts the world will end in the year 2012. Starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, Woody Harrelson and more, 2012 will follow a group of survivors as they deal with the catastrophic events occurring on their planet as the world as they know it slowly comes to an end. In addition to this teaser, you can Google 2012 and surf through tons of information about the prophecy -- including this site, Institute for Human Continuity, which allows users to register for a lottery number to ensure their chance of survival once that dreadful day arrives.

2012 is due in theaters on July 10, 2009, and you can find out more about the film over on its official website (which just launched with this teaser). Watch below, or over on Moviefone in glorious HD. Thoughts?

When it comes to 'Zombie comedy', (if that is even such a thing), you have to admit that it is going to pretty difficult to top Shaun of The Dead -- but you can't blame someone for trying. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) has signed to star opposite Woody Harrelson in the horror-comedy, Zombieland. According to THR, "Eisenberg is in negotiations to play Flagstaff, a terrified shut-in whose cowardice makes him an expert at surviving the zombies but who is forced out of his shell to join the band of survivors, which includes Harrelson."

Zombieland was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and is about a "mismatched pair of survivors who find friendship and redemption in a world overrun by zombies." So I guess that makes Zombieland a comedy, a horror, and a 'feel-good' buddy flick? Ruben Fleischer has already signed to direct, and is a relative newcomer to the world of feature films. Fleischer might only have a few credits to his name, but he can include the dubious distinction of being one of the people responsible for unleashing Rob & Big onto the world.

Zombieland could be a gamble for Columbia. 'R rated' comedy has yet to prove that it can compete at the box-office, so it was only a matter of time before studios started tacking on a body count. Personally, I think I'll just hold out for Seth and Jay vs. The Apocalypse instead. How about you?

Mr. Eric D. Snider saw and reviewed Stuart Townsend's Battle in Seattle when it played at the South By Southwest Film Festival last March. As the film is opening tomorrow in limited release, we offer a reprint of that review.

Watching Battle in Seattle is like being jabbed in the belly with a police baton, and not in a good way. Written and directed rather ambitiously by the actor Stuart Townsend, who has never written or directed anything before, it uses fictional characters to tell a true story but gives us no reason to care about the people, their lives, or their political causes. The riots that occurred at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999 may well have been historically significant -- but you wouldn't know it from watching Battle in Seattle, which insists on telling us how important the issues are rather than showing us.

Townsend gives a cursory explanation of what the WTO is and tells us that many oppose it for its lax policies on human rights and labor standards. The details aren't important to him, though. He seems to take it as a given that we already dislike the WTO, even though most viewers' response to WTO is "WTF?" It's a massive, complicated international organization that deals with stodgy, unsexy issues like trade and commerce, and I guarantee the vast majority of the audience isn't nearly as interested in it as Townsend is. And if the point is that we should be interested in it, he fails to explain why.

Cinematical has just received this exciting exclusive clip from Battle in Seattle, directed by Stuart Townsend. In theaters this weekend, Battle in Seattle tells the true story of what happened when tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Seattle to protest the World Trade Organization. Starring folks like Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Ray Liotta, André Benjamin and Michelle Rodriguez, the film follows several different points of view -- from protesters and police to delegates and doctors. In the clip, Woody Harrelson plays a SWAT officer who begins to take the taunting of protesters a little too personally. Check it out after the jump...

Warning: The following clip contains foul language.

Where else would you expect to see the world premiere of a comedy in which Matthew McConaughey is shirtless for the entire film? It had to be Austin. Instead of the traditional red carpet, the stars of Surfer, Dude strolled down a green carpet in 90-plus-degree weather last night, as part of a benefit screening for Austin Film Society. McConaughey (who kept his shirt on the entire time, sadly) was joined by a half-dozen of his co-stars, including Woody Harrelson, as well as director/co-writer S.R. Bindler. Bindler's previous film, the documentary Hands on a Hardbody, played at the Dobie in Austin for more than a year back in the late 1990s. Even McConaughey's parents were on the green carpet, although I don't think they appear in the R-rated comedy. The only disappointment was that Willie Nelson, who also has a role in Surfer, Dude, wasn't around.

After the jump, I've included a photo of Surfer, Dude actresses Alexie Gilmore and K.D. Aubert from last night's premiere. Out and About, the Austin American-Statesman's social/entertainment blog, has posted more photos from the green-carpet event as well as a short and light-hearted review. Surfer, Dude is opening on Friday in limited release -- including Austin -- and then will hit more cities on September 12. The film's distributor is Anchor Bay, primarily a DVD distribution company, but in the past year or so the company's started giving its movies a small theatrical release before the DVD rollout.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive clip from the new film Management, starring Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn and Woody Harrelson. Written and directed by Stephen Belber (this is his feature debut), Management follows the quirky relationship between a traveling art saleswoman (Aniston) and the motel worker (Zahn) who crushes on her. In the clip below, watch as Aniston asks Zahn whether he'd like to touch her butt (that should be enough to tease you in). I actually really enjoy Aniston when she lets her hair down and takes on a quieter indie, and, well, who doesn't love the antics of Steve Zahn? Together this duo should certainly do a good job of managing our attention for a coupla hours on the big screen. Don't ya think?

Management is set to premiere during the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival this month, and you bet we'll be back here with an early review real soon. Additionally, check out another photo and the film's official synopsis after the jump.