The Academy Awards® have a long history of not allowing movie previews and promos to air during its annual telecast, but after what has been arguably the most difficult year for the film and--most of all--the film exhibition industry in modern history, an exception was made in this past Sunday's 93rd ceremony. But, perhaps in a tacit ploy to promote the theatrical experience, or perhaps just owing to Oscars showmanship, or both, the three featured film previews--all for music-driven projects, as it (not so coincentally?) happens--simply did not just air during a regular commercial break, they were more like embedded features of the telecast, being introduced by talent involved with each film.
Clearly the most anticipated look was that of the one film of the three that has remained shrouded in virtual mystery since its production, Steven Spielberg's new take on Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's evergreen tale of forbidden love amid warring New York street gangs in the 1950s, West Side Story. To be perfectly frank, while undoubtedly visually striking, and the melancholy rendition of "Somewhere" from the one returning star from the classic and timeless 1961 Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins film adaptation, Rita Moreno, is affecting, there isn't enough for me here just yet to convince me that this take is necessary when the 1961 film has rightly been a cornerstone of the pop culture consciousness in the six decades since its release. Spielberg's film is due out on Friday, December 10, from 20th Century Studios.
After a wildly warm reception at this January's Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards, the Oscars®' resident DJ this year, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson's filmmaking debut, Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) had its official launch to the masses with its teaser trailer. A documentary on the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a concert series event that, despite live performances by music legends such as Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight, and Sly and the Family Stone, has largely evaporated from the memory. The teaser, which offers a tantalizing glimpse of the never before seen, downright electrifying performance footage featured in the film, indicates that this monumental event will finally have its rightful place cemented in American history when the film is released in cinemas and on Hulu by Searchlight Pictures on Friday, July 2.
Rounding out the trio is Jon M. Chu's screen adaptation of the Tony-winning stage musical that first put superstar composer Lin-Manuel Miranda on the map, In the Heights, finally due out in theatres after a nearly year-long delay on Friday, June 11. Having seen the film more than once already (more thoughts, needless to say, to come, closer to release date), and must commend Warner Bros. for showing unwavering support in pushing this potential blockbuster-in-waiting as an experience that must be shared with a full cinema audience despite the simultaneous, day-and-date drop on HBO Max. The latest in what has been a terrific series of trailers further distills just why this rousing, heartfelt entertainer must be experienced in the largest, loudest, livest way possible.
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Fresh off of yesterday's release, just in time for today's holiday, Warner Bros. has dropped a brief video with Bugs Bunny highlighting various "Easter eggs" hidden in the Space Jam: A New Legacy trailer. Check out what was hidden through all of the madcap mayhem featuring LeBron James and entire Looney Tunes gang below.
Today, Warner Bros. released the first trailer for Malcolm D. Lee's long-awaited Space Jam: A New Legacy, which unites LeBron James and Bugs Bunny and the entire Looney Tunes gang (and, apparently, other WB animation favorites such as The Iron Giant) on the basketball court and the big screen.
After many starts and stops over the last 10 years, from Universal pulling the plug on a 2011 adaptation to be directed by Kenny Ortega right when full casting was to be finalized, to escaping from the clutches of an imploding Weinstein Company in 2017, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony Award-winning In the Heights is finally arriving on the cinema screen under the direction of Jon M. Chu. While Miranda is not reprising the lead role, bodega owner Usnavi de la Vega, as he had intended for the earlier Ortega incarnation, he does have a supporting role here, ceding Usnavi's signature cap to his Hamilton co-star, Anthony Ramos. Ramos is but one of the many fresh faces that mostly populate the cast (in an amusing bit of irony, considering fear over a lack of "known" stars led to Universal's decision to abort their project), and "freshness" is what immediately comes to mind after watching the recently dropped first teaser trailer. Ramos looks and sounds like a more than worthy successor to Miranda, and Chu appears to have captured the energy that made the original stage production such an electrifying experience while making something that is also distinctly cinematic. It's still early, but these early signs are very promising.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom starring Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge, Riaad Moosa, and Terry Pheto, and directed by Justin Chadwick opens in the United States from The Weinstein Company on Friday, November 29.
On July 18th ET, Yahoo! and the
UN General Assembly have exclusive First Looks
New York, NY – July 17, 2013 – The Weinstein Company (TWC) and Distant Horizon announced today that they will premiere the trailer for the upcoming Nelson Mandela biopic, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, this coming Thursday, July 18th on Entertainment Tonight, with a teaser to be shown on the show Wednesday evening. Yahoo will additionally debut the film’s trailer online on Thursday night. The date also marks Mandela’s 95th birthday and Nelson Mandela International Day.
Along with giving the public their first glimpse of the film on Thursday, TWC will be showing footage of it to the United Nations General Assembly, where they will be joined by John William Ashe, President of the General Assembly; Mr. Ban ki-moon, Secretary-General of the U.N.; former U.S. President Bill Clinton; Reverend Jesse Jackson; Mr. Harry Belafonte; and Mr, Andrew Mlangeni, MP and former treason trialist and Robben Islander. The trailer will be featured in the main program of the day for the General Assembly as part of the observance of the Nelson Mandela International Day.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, which TWC is set to release theatrically on November 29th, is based on South African President Nelson Mandela’s autobiography of the same name, which chronicles his early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison before becoming President and working to rebuild the country’s once segregated society. Idris Elba (Prometheus) stars as Nelson Mandela with Justin Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl) directing and produced by Anant Singh who has been developing the project for over 20 years.
Ever since I witnessed the unveiling of first tantalizing tastes of Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby at CinemaCon 2012 last April, I have been eagerly anticipating the mad Aussie's 3D take on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel--anticipation that only grew when Warner Bros. pushed back the release date from an awards-baiting Holiday 2012 berth to an early summer 2013 release date. Usually such a major release shift denotes some sort of trouble, but moving a period romance from a more drama-friendly season to ultracompetitive summer suggests that Warner Bros. sees the film as one that could go over with the masses--which is what happened when Fox did a nearly identical rescheduling move a dozen years earlier with Luhrmann's (now-widely beloved) Moulin Rouge!. Judging by the newest and final official trailer for the film before the May 10 opening, I can see this potentially being the date movie for the season. As with nearly all late campaign trailers, this new one is more conventionally dialogue- and plot-heavy than all previous teasers and spots for the film, but 45 seconds in, a more familiarly, distinctly Luhrmann vibe takes over: clever, unconventional, yet pitch-perfect music choices playing against grandiose costumes and production design that serves as a backdrop to unabashedly outsized, often operatic emotion, best exemplified by the electric, soulful looks of longing exchanged between a truly radiant Carey Mulligan as Daisy and Leonardo DiCaprio comfortably slipping back into his long-neglected romantic lead shoes as the title character. If there's any disappointment with this particular spot, it's the absence of Indian screen legend Amitabh Bachchan (in, shockingly as it may seem, his Hollywood debut), who was prominently featured in previous trailers. But for the home stretch of the campaign, it is a wise choice to push the romantic hook and push it hard--and I am not ashamed to admit that my inner sap is already swooning. But we shall see if the finished product is akin to a romantic evergreen like Moulin Rouge! or a gorgeous but only sporadically effective and affecting Australia when The Great Gatsby opens in cinemas everywhere on Friday, May 10.
While not the most prolific and active Hollywood studio in India--that title goes to Fox, who has released three Hindi language films thus far in 2012 alone--Disney seems the the most dedicated to organically extending its established brand identity in South Asia. After their 2008 Indian film debut with the Yash Raj Films animated co-production Roadside Romeo, the Mouse then distributed the family-friendly entertainer Do Dooni Char in 2010; and last year they made their official live action Bollywood debut with the kid superhero tale Zokkomon as well as stepping into regional Telugu language cinema with Once Upon a Warrior. That last film played very much like a classic Disney animated musical adventure that just happened to be in live action (and, of course, in a South Indian language), but now the studio, in association with UTV, takes things the next natural step with Arjun: The Warrior Prince. Based on the trailer below, this looks to be the most seamless and symbiotic cinematic melding of the Disney and Indian film sensibilities yet, blending music, mythology, and some truly stunning 2D and 3D animation design for a rousing epic adventure.
The film hits cinemas worldwide this Friday, May 25.
AMC Theatres hosted a special premiere event for the first full trailer for Ridley Scott's eagerly anticipated science fiction epic Prometheus exclusively for members of the chain's loyalty program, AMC Stubs, this afternoon at their Downtown Disney District 12 multiplex in Anaheim. Hosted by AMC Movie News Blog associate editor George Roush, the screening of the trailer in the Real D 3D format was followed by a live 30-minute discussion with Scott and screenwriter Damon Lindelof, who fielded questions from fans both live in the theatre and via the Internet. While Scott and Lindelof were expectedly conservative with what details about the notoriously secrecy-shrouded projects they divulged, they were a bit less coy with the film's connection to Scott's seminal Alien, stopping short of calling it a direct prequel but leaving no doubt that the seeds of that classic sci-fi cinema saga begin in the new film--an admission more than reinforced by some briefly seen but no less tantalizing images in the new trailer, embedded below. Just exactly how everything fits in will be revealed when Prometheus opens on IMAX and standard screens on June 8.
I won't post anything formal about the film until closer to its March 23 release date in both the U.S. and its native Indonesia (that is, unless I get clearance from the Sony Pictures Classics publicists), but I haven't quite shaken the rush of Gareth Evans's The Raid since my screening of it yesterday afternoon. This trailer (the original cut from Indonesia rather than the domestic one, for it more clearly sets up the story scenario) will go a long way toward explaining exactly why.
A few more: Farhan Akhtar's 2006 update of the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan starrer was not only one of the best pure entertainments of that year, but about as ideal a modern "reimagining" of an older film should be, honoring not only the story but also the spirit of the original while having its own modern identity. With this long-anticipated sequel, Akhtar is now free of the shackles of the original, and I look forward to seeing what one of the most consistently smart and fresh young filmmakers working anywhere in the world has up his sleeve this time on December 23.
