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Joaquin Phoenix is undoubtedly one of the best actors of his generation, but hes also a star who seems to engender controversy with his career decisions on a rather consistent basis. Whether it's his odd affinity for method acting or an expressed desire to work with idiosyncratic filmmakers, Phoenix often spends much of his time on press tours defending his decision to make key films. In recent years, Im Still Here was criticized for blurring the lines between fiction and documentary filmmaking, and Joker initiated a national conversation about the depiction of violence and treatment of those with mental health issues. However, all of Phoenixs previous controversies pale in comparison to the 2001 war film Buffalo Soldiers, which was held from theatrical release for almost two years.

In 2002, it was finally all coming together for Joaquin Phoenix. He was at long last being considered a leading man after two decades of ensemble parts, and was a year removed from earning a Best Supporting Actor nomination for "Gladiator." The U.S. Army satire "Buffalo Soldiers" could have been the film to fully transform him into a full-blown, top-of-the-poster star, but it wound up getting buried for the offense of poking fun at the military in the immediate wake of 9/11 (it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival the very week of the attacks). So, it couldn't help but feel like he was more actor than M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" needed for the role of Mel Gibson's brother.

Don't get me wrong! I'm thrilled Phoenix got the part if only for his terrified reaction to the alien video, a jump scare we get to share with him as...

February 2009. Legendary late-night talk show host David Letterman introduces his next guest: Oscar-nominated actor Joaquin Phoenix. He’s sporting an unkempt beard, dark sunglasses indoors, and behaving like it was his first talk show appearance rather than his hundredth. Even Letterman, who could improv with the best of them, struggles to keep up with Phoenix’s short answers, insisting that he was done with acting so he could focus on becoming a rapper. Turns out, it was an attempt at viral marketing for the upcoming mockumentary, I’m Still Here. Okay, so maybe the interview didn’t tell us much about the movie or drive anyone t to see it, but it did tell us a lot about Joaquin Phoenix, the person and the performer, his deep commitment to his art form, and his obsession with authenticity that brought him through a difficult upbringing and into a wildly successful acting career.

Let’s remember the interesting thrillers of the past years, which once pleased us, but then forgotten. These films have not lost their advantages over time and are still able to bring pleasure. They are worth watching them again. As part of this series of articles, you and I should try to remember as many good thrillers as possible. I’m sure we can do it! Additionally, if you’re looking for a way to unwind after watching these thrilling movies, consider checking out this gambling website Stay casino login for an exciting and relaxing gaming experience.

A Perfect Getaway, 2009 IMDb: 6.5; Kinopoisk: 6.9; Critics’ Choice: 62% (138)

A suspenseful American thriller with a few amusing surprises in its plot. It was directed by David Touhy, known for his fantastic trilogy of films about a popular character called Riddick. Milla Jovovich, Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant and Chris Hemsworth have the lead roles.

Joaquin Phoenix has established himself as one of the industry’s greatest living actors because of his commitment to offbeat and unusual characters. What qualifies as great acting can mean different things depending on what a given genre requires, and Phoenix has done a great job at keeping his roles versatile. He has shown off his skills as a physical comedian in Buffalo Soldiers and Inherent Vice, explored the psychology of damaged characters in Joker and You Were Never Really Here, and dedicated himself to playing historical figures in Napoleon and Quills. Gus Van Sant’s 2018 biopic Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot forced Phoenix to do all three of these things, even if it isn’t necessarily remembered as one of his best films. Although the film ran the risk of becoming a generic biopic, Phoenix's highly underrated performance turned Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot into a hilarious,...

Jamie Foxx is paying tribute after friend and Django Unchained co-star Keith Jefferson passed away.

On Aug. 9, Jefferson announced on social media that he'd been diagnosed with cancer. Foxx shared on Thursday evening that Jefferson has since passed away at 53 years old by posting an image to Instagram along with the announcement. The Oscar winner also spoke about how painful this news is, speaking to his admiration for Jefferson as a person beyond just their friendship.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jamie Foxx (@iamjamiefoxx)

"[T]his one hurts," Foxx said. "Keith, you’ve been nothing but absolute grace, your whole life your heart is pure your love is immeasurable you were an amazing soul. We will all miss you dearly. It’s gonna take a long time for this to heal. Goodbye, my friend. I love you."

Sharing another image with Jefferson in a second post, Foxx added,...

Jefferson, who was a staple in Quentin Tarantino films, opened up in August about battling cancer.

Keith Jefferson, an actor who appeared in a handful of Quentin Tarantino films like “Django Unchained”, “The Hateful Eight” and “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”, has died. He was 53.

The official cause of death is not known, but Jefferson shared back in August he was battling cancer. Jamie Foxx took to Instagram on Thursday to pay tribute to his longtime friend and co-star. Foxx first shared a photo of himself with Jefferson in what appeared to be a recent visit to the hospital.

“[T]his one hurts. Keith, you’ve been nothing but absolute grace, your whole life your heart is pure your love is immeasurable you were an amazing soul,” Foxx captioned his post. “We will all miss you dearly. It’s gonna take a long time for this to heal. Goodbye, my friend.

Military movies often focus on the mundane and traumatic aspects of soldier life, portraying its crushing repetition and occasional violence. The best military movies strike a balance between satire and observation, criticizing the military-industrial complex while humanizing soldiers and civilians. Lesser-known military satires like Buffalo Soldiers and Jarhead offer realistic depictions of military life while providing social commentary on war and futility.

While there are a lot of war movies that highlight the horrors of armed conflict, some great military satires have managed to mine dark humor from the same subject. Military movies have to strike a difficult balance and can often become quite dour as a result. Unlike more gung-ho war movies, military movies are often more concerned with the day-to-day lives of soldiers than spectacular battles and bloody sieges. However, this means that many of them focus on the crushing repetition, grinding boredom, and occasional traumatic violence of life in the military.

Exclusive: Tobias Truvillion (The Best Man: The Final Chapters), Leon (City on a Hill) and Jessica “Jess Hilarious” Moore (Hip Hop Family Christmas) are among the new additions to First Lady of Bmf: The Tonesa Welch Story, a new biopic starring Michelle Mitchenor (First Wives Club), which is set to debut on BET+ later this year.

The film currently in production in the Washington, D.C. area, which Vivica A. Fox (Holiday Hideaway) is directing, follows Tonesa (Mitchenor), a young woman raised in 1980s Detroit, who becomes seduced by the limelight and adventure of being in the drug game. She soon meets Harry (Truvillion), an older, sophisticated head of a drug organization who gives her a taste of the good life. Bothered by Tonesa’s ambition, Harry controls her through violence. But when the cycle of prosperity and abuse is about to break her spirit, Harry gets locked up...

Plenty of media stories about Jeymes Samuel’s “The Harder They Fall” have played up the Western’s all-Black cast, with many describing the Netflix film as a “corrective” to the popular Hollywood image of an all-white Old West. But a cursory Google search will offer that this credit has been attributed to a number of other titles that came long before Samuel and even the oldest members of his all-star cast were even born.

The Western film genre is unique to a specific period and place and is, as such, instantly recognizable. The cinema helped immortalize the cowboy, rendering him, in many ways, inseparable from its cultural tradition. The cinema has also immortalized the cowboy as a white man, erasing the Black Americans who made up one-fourth of the wranglers and riders of the American frontier.

While some are quick to groan at every instance of colorblind casting, those...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Black Westerns

An often overlooked aspect of the western genre is the emergence of the Black-led films born around the Civil Rights era and continuing throughout the century. With essential context from guest programmer and film scholar Mia Mask, The Criterion Channel is now presenting a series of these works, including Rutledge (1960), Duel at Diablo (1966), The Learning Tree (1969), El Condor (1970), Skin Game (1971), Black Rodeo (1972), Buck and the Preacher (1972), The Legend of Black Charley (1972), Thomasine and Bushrod (1974), Posse (1993), Buffalo Soldiers (1997), and Rosewood (1997).

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Center Stage (Stanley Kwan)

Following her breakout with Jackie Chan in Police Story and before her iconic roles in the films of Wong Kar-wai and Olivier Assayas,...

The Criterion Channel has unveiled their March 2021 lineup, which includes no shortage of remarkable programming. Highlights from the slate include eight gems from Preston Sturges, Elaine May’s brilliant A New Leaf, a series featuring Black Westerns, Ann Hui’s Boat People, the new restoration of Ousmane Sembène’s Mandabi.

They will also add films from their Essential Fellini boxset, series on Dirk Bogarde and Nelly Kaplan, and Luchino Visconti’s The Damned and Death in Venice, and more. In terms of recent releases, there’s also Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century and Claire Denis’ Let the Sunshine In.

Check out the lineup below, along with the teaser for the Black Westerns series. For weekly streaming updates across all services, bookmark this page.

The Adventurer, Charles Chaplin, 1917

Bandini, Bimal Roy, 1963

Behind the Screen, Charles Chaplin, 1916

Black Jack, Ken Loach, 1979

Black Rodeo, Jeff Kanew, 1972

Blood Simple, Joel and Ethan Coen,...

No genre romanticizes America’s manifest destiny mythos more than the western. For decades, the construct featured white men conquering the frontier from Native Americans and law enforcement. In fact, no image in the American lexicon espouses freedom more than the cowboy, and from the 1860s through the 1880s, Black people accounted for 25% of cowboys. But Black folks — other than having films like “Buffalo Soldiers,” “Buck And The Preacher,” and “Bull” — have mostly been erased from the cinematic and American history of the west.

Continue reading ‘Concrete Cowboy’ Is A Lyrical Genre-Bending Urban Western, But Doesn’t Always Coalesce [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

"You've got your life, I've got mine." Samuel Goldwyn Films has unveiled a new Us official trailer for the emotional romantic drama Dirt Music from Australia, the latest film from filmmaker Gregor Jordan. It's scheduled for Us release on VOD in July. Adapted from the novel by Tim Winton, the stunning landscape of Western Australia is the backdrop for an impassioned tale of love and grief. Talented actress Kelly MacDonald stars as Georgie, who is stuck in an unhappy relationship with a local fisherman. She goes off on a journey of self-discovery and meets a former musician named Lu Fox, played by Garret Hedlund. This also stars David Wenham, Aaron Pedersen, Dan Wyllie, Chris Haywood, and Ava Caryofyllis. I'm not sure if it's just the trailers or what, but this looks like such a damn good, impassioned, beautiful film about listening to your heart. A must watch trailer. Here's the...

"I already felt like a ghost... Figured why not become one." Universal Pictures Australia has released the first official trailer for a heart-wrenching romantic drama titled Dirt Music, the latest film from Australian filmmaker Gregor Jordan. Adapted from the novel by Tim Winton, the stunning landscape of Western Australia is the backdrop for an impassioned tale of love and grief. Talented Aussie actress Kelly MacDonald stars as Georgie, who is stuck in an unhappy relationship with a local fisherman. She goes off on a journey of self-discovery and meets a former musician named Lu Fox, played by Garret Hedlund. The film also stars David Wenham, Aaron Pedersen, Dan Wyllie, Chris Haywood, and Ava Caryofyllis. This actually looks way better than the average romance, not only with some gorgeous cinematography, but heartfelt performances and a tragic but meaningful story. Here's the official Australian trailer (+ poster) for Gregor Jordan's Dirt Music, direct...

Gregor Jordan on the set of ‘Dirt Music’. (Photo: Kerry Brown)

Once cinemas reopen, Universal Pictures intends to give Dirt Music a wide release – something director Gregor Jordan is thankful for.

Shot in Western Australia and based on Tim Winton’s Miles Franklin-winning novel, the film made its world at the Toronto International Film Festival last September.

It stars Kelly Macdonald as Georgie, a sometime sailor, diver and nurse who is stranded in a remote fishing town with Jim (David Wenham), a man she doesn’t love, and his young sons whose dead mother she can never replace. A reckless moment leads Georgie to an intense, sexually charged affair with Lu Fox (Garrett Hedlund), an enigmatic loner, musician and poacher who is traumatised by a tragic accident from his past.

When Lu retreats into the wilderness, Georgie embarks on a journey to bring him back with the unlikely help of Jim,...

Coming soon to theaters, The Great War tells of the "Buffalo Soldiers," a regiment of African-American military troops, who faced a multitude of conflicts during the dying days of World War I after they were trapped behind enemy lines. Bates Wilder, Hiram Murray, Billy Zane and Ron Perlman lead the cast. Here's more from the official synopsis: "After one of these soldiers manages to escape, he's ordered to join a select team of white troops, led by a battle-scarred officer, to find and rescue the survivors. Casting aside their racial differences, the determined men join forces to find their lost comrades in this gripping, action-filled tale of bravery and unity." Directed and written by Steven Luke, The Great War will open in select U.S. theaters...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

I don’t need to send droplets of my blood in an envelope to some corporation to know that, for the most part, my forebears were not immigrants to this land. Yet I also know that unlike even our parents, my sister and I were fortunate to be born here with something approximating a complete set of civil rights. We are, in a different way of speaking, first-generation Americans.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times Magazine reporter who pitched and then worked to produce the acclaimed 1619 Project over the last several months,...

If you look to the British Independent Film Awards for a clear snapshot of, well, British independent film, this year’s otherwise sturdy list of nominations may come as a disappointment to you. A branch of cinema that once conjured images for many of stern, rain-lashed kitchen-sink drama and plucky community comedy has a far broader, more international remit in 2018. To wit, only one of this year’s five nominees for British independent film — Michael Pearce’s unnerving debut feature “Beast” — is a British-oriented story from a British filmmaker.

The rest of the category mixes the perspectives of outsiders looking in and vice versa. Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, the leading light of his homeland’s recent cinematic “weird wave,” isn’t a newcomer to the BIFAs, having scored multiple noms for his first English-language film, the darkly absurdist fantasy “The Lobster,” in 2015. Yet while that and its follow-up, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,...

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from “Godless.”]

The Old West was a lawless place, where nothing was certain except for dust and hardship. On Netflix’s limited series “Godless,” outlaw Frank Griffin was certain about one thing though: how he wasn’t going to die.

“This ain’t my death,” he says over and over again like a mantra. Whether he has a noose around his neck or a shotgun pointed at his heart, he holds onto that unshakeable belief. “This ain’t my death. I’ve seen my death; this ain’t it.”

Jeff Daniels, who portrays Frank Griffin, spoke to IndieWire about that infamous line. “If it were a song, it’d be a good hook,” he said. “You preface that with, ‘Is this it? No, it’s not it. This ain’t my death. I just checked. Didn’t get the feeling that this was it.’ And that’s kind of all he goes on.

El Questro Station, where 'Wonderful Unknown' will shoot. (Photo: Tourism Western Australia)..

Two features, Wonderful Unknown and Dirt Music, as well as a six-part drama series from Greer Simpkin and David Jowsey, are set to shoot in Western Australia, thanks to the $16 million Wa Regional Film Fund.

The fund, launched by the state government.last year, is designed to attract local and international productions..

".Eight months after its launch, the fund has helped secure its first Hollywood-Australian feature and UK-Australian feature as well as a major Australian television series," said Wa Culture and Arts Minister John Day.

.It is estimated they will contribute more than $14 million to the Wa economy..

Gregor Jordan (Buffalo Soldiers, Ned Kelly, Two Hands) will direct Dirt Music, the long-in-the-works adaptation of Tim Winton.s novel.

The screenplay was penned by Jack Thorne (Wonder, The Last Panthers), and the producers are Brits Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey,...

Chinese entertainment conglomerate Huace Group and Arclight Films have signed a strategic alliance for a multi-faceted $300 million feature film collaboration.

Their co-venture Aurora Alliance Films. plans to develop, finance and produce a slate of high concept international co-productions. The first titles have secured top-tier Hollywood directors to be announced soon. Huace and Arclight Films have begun work on the action-thriller Lights Out and are in final negotiations with a Hollywood director.

Also in the works is Safecrackers, a crime-action feature written by Paul Staheli, to be directed by Gregor Jordan whose credits include Buffalo Soldiers,.. Two Hands and Ned Kelly. The group is also developing a big budgeted Chinese co-production, an action thriller,. with Thunder Road.s Basil Iwanyk, who recently produced Gods Of Egypt, the $200 miliion film directed by Alex Proyas.

The producers are in negotiations with James McTeigue to direct. McTeigue made his directorial debut in 2006 with box-office hit V for Vendetta.

Gary Hamilton has struck a partnership with president Zhao Yifang of China’s Huace Group to collaborate on a slate of at least three high-concept features a year.

Huace and Aurora Alliance, a new venture created through the partnership, will jointly produce the slate of Chinese, Us and Australian co-productions, while Arclight will handle sales outside China.

The parties claim to have secured “top-tier Hollywood directors” to each project and are in final talks with James McTeigue to direct what they say will be one of the most expensive Chinese co-productions ever, which is being developed with Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk.

Huace and Arclight Films have begun work on the action-thriller Lights Out and say they are in final negotiations with a “legendary” Hollywood director. Xavier Gens had been attached previously.

The roster includes action comedy Safecracker that teams up Ned Kelly and Buffalo Soldiers director Gregor Jordan with screenwriter Paul Staheli.

Let's hear it for the great westerns -- not the Ford and Hawks classics, but the fascinating marginal gems that see The West in a different way. Do you like Sam Peckinpah? Robert Parrish's evocation of Texas and Mexico in the 1880s will be pleasantly familiar -- a testing ground of personal codes and shifting loyalties in a treacherous land. The Wonderful Country Savant Blu-ray Review Kl Studio Classics 1959 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date September 29, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95  Starring Robert Mitchum, Julie London, Pedro Armendariz, Gary Merrill, Jack Oakie, Albert Dekker, Charles McGraw, Leroy "Satchel" Paige. Cinematography Floyd Crosby Film Editor Michael Luciano Production Design Harry Horner Original Music Alex North Written by Robert Ardrey from the book by Tom Lea Produced by Chester Erskine Directed by Robert Parrish

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

This gem is as individual a western as any made in the 1950s, and a...

The 59Th BFI London Film Festival Announces Full 2015 Programme

You can peruse the programme at your leisure here.

The programme for the 59th BFI London Film Festival in partnership launched today, with Festival Director Clare Stewart presenting this year’s rich and diverse selection of films and events. BFI London Film Festival is Britain’s leading film event and one of the world’s oldest film festivals. It introduces the finest new British and international films to an expanding London and UK-wide audience. The Festival provides an essential platform for films seeking global success; and promotes the careers of British and international filmmakers through its industry and awards programmes. With this year’s industry programme stronger than ever, offering international filmmakers and leaders a programme of insightful events covering every area of the film industry‎ Lff positions London as the world’s leading creative city.

The Festival will screen a...

What’s joining Netflix in the month of April? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with a full list of original programming -- finally, Daredevil is premiering! -- movies, and your favorite TV shows streaming starting April 1.

Among our top picks: The Aussie horror indie, The Babadook, Life Partners starring Leighton Meester and Community’s Gillian Jacobs, and Hot Fuzz.

Netflix Originals

All Hail King Julien, Season 1 (4/3/15)

Derek, Special (4/3/15)

Marvel’s Daredevil, Season 1 (4/10/15)

Chris De’Elia: Incorrigible (4/17/15)

News: Tina Fey and Ellie Kemper Dish on Their Hilarious Netflix Series!

Movies

4/1

And Now ... Ladies and Gentlemen...

Bandolero

Barnyard

The Beautician and the Beast

Bound

Buffalo Soldiers

The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course

Down to Earth

Leprechaun 3

Leprechaun 4: In Space

Leprechaun 6: Back 2 tha Hood

Suicide Kings

Sunset Strip

Underworld

Whiteboyz

Wrong Turn at Tahoe

4/2

Life Partners

Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage

4/3

Starry Eyes

The Quiet Ones

4/4

Delta Farce

4/7

Preservation

4/9

Crank

Pioneer

4/10

The Awakening

Broken

Burning...

What's new on Netflix in April 2015? The eagerly anticipated original "Marvel's Daredevil," with Charlie Cox as the blind superhero, which debuts April 10, for one. Also new: Acclaimed horror films, including the Iranian vampire movie "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" and the Aussie chiller "The Babadook;" a quartet of Nigerian films; and new seasons of "Wilfred," "Halt and Catch Fire," and "Sons of Anarchy."

Here's a much larger rundown of what's new on Netflix in April 2015, provided by Netflix. As always, all titles and dates are subject to change. We've also go you covered in terms of what's leaving Netflix in April 2015, in case you were wondering.​

Available April 1

"And Now ... Ladies and Gentlemen..." (2002)

"Bandolero" (2000)

"Barnyard" (2006)

"The Beautician and the Beast" (1997)

"Bound" (1996)

"Buffalo Soldiers" (2001)

"The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course" (2002)

"Down to Earth" (2001)

"Leprechaun 3 "(1995)

"Leprechaun 4: In Space" (1997)

"Leprechaun 6: Back 2 tha Hood" (2003)

"Suicide Kings" (1997)

"Sunset Strip" (2000)

"Underworld...

At the beginning of (and throughout) every month, Netflix Streaming adds new movies and TV shows to its library. Here is a quick list of several that you might be interested in. Some of these may have previously been on Netflix, only to have been removed and then added back. We will update this list as more titles are added closer to the end of the month.Movies April 1And Now ... Ladies and Gentlemen... (2002)Bandolero (2000)Barnyard (2006)The Beautician and the Beast (1997)Bound (1996)Buffalo Soldiers (2001)The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002)Down to Earth (2001)Leprechaun 3 (1995)Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997)Leprechaun 6: Back 2 tha Hood (2003)Suicide Kings (1997)Sunset Strip (2000)Underworld (2003)Whiteboyz (1999)Wrong Turn at Tahoe (2009) April 2Life Partners (2014)Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage (2014) April 3Starry Eyes (2014)The Quiet Ones (2014) April 7Preservation (2014) April 9Pioneer (2013) April 10The Awakening (2013)Broken (2013)Burning Bridges (2014)Confusion Na Wa (2013)Finding Mercy (2012)Finding Mercy 2...

Here are the Netflix new releases for April 2015, as well as the movies and television shows that will expire from the streaming service next month. Hot Fuzz, Noah and National Treasure are all coming to a streaming device near you in April, plus Netflix's Daredevil series. Before March ends, tune in to movies like Mystic Pizza, Clue, the Karate Kid and Goodbye Vietnam because they will be leaving Netflix. Check out the full list below: Movies and TV Shows Coming in April Available April 1 And Now ... Ladies and Gentlemen.. (2002) Bandolero (2000) Barnyard (2006) Bound (1996) Buffalo Soldiers (2001) Down to Earth (2001)

read more...

Mila Kunis and Kick Gurry in Jupiter Ascending.

.

Since Jupiter Ascending.s world premiere at Sundance the sci-fi action-adventure and writers-directors Andy and Lana Wachowski have been pilloried by most critics and the production is shaping as a costly write-off for Warner Bros and Village Roadshow Pictures.

Much of that criticism is unfair and disrespectful to the filmmakers, according to Kick Gurry, who plays Jupiter.s cousin Vladie in his second collaboration with the Wachowskis.

.The Matrix was the best action film of the last 25 years,. the Los Angeles-based Gurry tells If. .I don.t know why people revel in lampooning Jupiter Ascending so much. The Wachowskis should be held in higher regard than they are by some reviewers.

.I love the movie, its message and what it stands for. It.s great that movies inspire debate and conversation but it upsets me when some of the criticism gets more personal.

Taking a break from Alan Partridge, Trips with Rob Brydon and Nights At The Museum, Steve Coogan has just signed up for a period piece. He'll play the 18th century lawyer James Boswell in an adaptation of Patrick Edgeworth's play Boswell For The Defence. Edgeworth wrote the screenplay himself, and Gregor Jordan (Buffalo Soldiers, The Informers) is directing.Boswell is best known as the long-suffering companion and biographer of Samuel Johnson, but Boswell For The Defence takes place some years after Johnson's death. It's a fictionalised version of the trial of Mary Bryant, who was convicted of (pretty low-level) highway robbery and transported to Australia in 1787. She and others escaped the colony and returned to England in 1792, undertaking an extraordinary journey that at one point involved navigating the then-uncharted Great Barrier Reef.The punishment for escaping transportation was usually death, but Boswell, stirred by her heroic tale, came to...

• Michael Douglas and Orlando Bloom have both signed on to star in the thriller Unlocked from filmmaker Michael Apted, creator of the Up documentary series. Noomi Rapace (The Drop) is starring as a CIA interrogator who accidentally gives information to terrorists planning a biological attack on London. Peter O’Brien, a writer on the Halo: Reach video game, has written the script with production expected to start at the beginning of November. [THR]

• Oscar nominee Steve Coogan will play Scottish lawyer James Boswell in the film adaptation of the West End play Boswell for the Defence. Gregor Jordan (Buffalo Soldiers) is...

Highland Film Group announced today that Academy-nominated, BAFTA Award-winning actor Steve Coogan (Philomena, The Trip) has signed on to play the title role of James Boswell in a feature film adaptation of acclaimed West End play, Boswell for the Defence.

Gregor Jordan (Buffalo Soldiers, Ned Kelly) will direct from a script by Patrick Edgeworth, who also wrote the play. Mark Pennell and Steve Chasman will produce. Armyan Bernstein will executive produce. The project is represented by Highland Film Group Internationally.

Boswell for the Defence tells the true story of how James Boswell (Steve Coogan), in the twilight of his career and life, takes on an impossible case - to save the life of the convict Mary Bryant from the gallows. A case no one else wants or cares about. The tragi-comic Boswell is the most unlikely hero from the most unlikely quarter. But he manages to find his past brilliance...

“Philomena” star Steve Coogan has signed on to play Scottish lawyer James Boswell in Highland Film Group's adaptation of the West End play “Boswell For the Defence,” the company announced Sunday. Gregor Jordan (“Buffalo Soldiers”) will direct from a script by Patrick Edgeworth, who also wrote the play. Mark Pennell and Steve Chasman will produce, while Armyan Bernstein of Beacon Pictures will executive produce. The project is represented by Highland Film Group internationally. Production is set for 2015. Also read: ‘The Trip to Italy’ Review: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon Serve Up More Delicious Mid-Life Crises “Boswell For the Defence” tells the true story of how.

Highland Film Group announced today at the Toronto film festival that Academy-nominated, BAFTA Award-winning actor Steve Coogan (“Philomena”, “The Trip”) has signed on to play the title role of James Boswell in a feature film adaptation of acclaimed West End play, Boswell For The Defence.

Gregor Jordan (“Buffalo Soldiers”, “Ned Kelly”) will direct from a script by Patrick Edgeworth, who also wrote the play. Mark Pennell and Steve Chasman will produce. Armyan Bernstein (Beacon Pictures) will executive produce. The project is represented by Highland Film Group Internationally.

Production is set for 2015.

Boswell For The Defence tells the true story of how James Boswell (Coogan), in the twilight of his career and life, takes on an impossible case – to save the life of the convict Mary Bryant from the gallows. A case no one else wants or cares about. The tragi-comic Boswell is the most unlikely hero from the most unlikely quarter.

With so many films releasing each year, it’s impossible to catch them all. No matter how many movies you see, there are always a handful that manage to get by. You pledge to catch them at a later date, or maybe when they hit Blu-Ray, but we all know how it goes. You never get around to watching them and as more and more time passes, they get completely forgotten. It’s a shame, too, because there really are so many great movies that get overlooked each and every year and unfortunately, don’t achieve the mainstream success that they deserve.

Here at We Got This Covered, we’re hoping to remedy this problem by starting a new web show titled Second Look, where each week we’ll suggest several great movies that you might not have seen yet. On the last episode, we presented you with Smashed, Buffalo Soldiers,...

With so many films releasing each year, it’s impossible to catch them all. No matter how many movies you see, there are always a handful that manage to get by. You pledge to catch them at a later date, or maybe when they hit Blu-Ray, but we all know how it goes. You never get around to watching them and as more and more time passes, they get completely forgotten. It’s a shame, too, because there really are so many great movies that get overlooked each and every year and unfortunately, don’t achieve the mainstream success that they deserve.

Here at We Got This Covered, we’re hoping to remedy this problem by starting a new web show titled Second Look, where each week we’ll suggest several great movies that you might not have seen yet. On the last episode, we presented you with Haywire, The Bling Ring,...

Who of our modern filmmakers will justify lavish, career-spanning box sets in the next generation (presuming there is such a thing and we’re not 100% digital)? We’ve seen Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, and Alfred Hitchcock sets in recent years but who will get the same treatment in ten or twenty years?

One man who I’d love to see dissected from first film to last is the essential Spike Lee. He has had an undeniably spotty career with films both considered masterpieces and complete failures. But Spike is always working, always trying something new, always willing to challenge himself and the viewer. Did his “Oldboy” remake work? No. He picks himself up, dusts himself off, and gets back to it. Spike has been everywhere lately, promoting and discussing the 25th anniversary of his masterpiece, “Do the Right Thing,” and so someone figured it was a good time to release...

Stars were born in this Australian classic crime-doesn’t-pay morality fable that had flashes of innovation around the edges

From a career-building and star-grooming point of view, writer and director Gregor Jordan’s offbeat crime caper Two Hands (1999) is significant for a few reasons.

It starred a little-known Heath Ledger as a simple-minded wannabe criminal, heralded the breakthrough performance for Rose Byrne as his sweet, country girl love interest and provided the stepping stone for Jordan's career in Hollywood. His next film was 2001's Buffalo Soldiers, an irreverent Cold War-set comedy starring Joaquin Phoenix as a drug-peddling Us soldier.

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British actor Tom Ellis has inked with CAA. The Wales native will topline USA Network’s new medical drama series Rush from writer-director Jonathan Levine and Fox 21, set to premiere in July. Ellis has worked extensively in the UK, starring in the BBC2/BBC1 comedy Miranda and BBC’s EastEnders. He also has appeared on Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Once Upon A Time. On the feature side, his credits include Buffalo Soldiers, Vera Drake and Miss Conception. Ellis continues to be managed by Anonymous Content and repped by Christopher Farrar at Hamilton Hodell in the UK. Related: Hot TV Promo: USA Network’s ‘Rush’...

A film based on the true story of Bob Marley and the Wailers is reportedly in the works, set up at Mandalay Pictures, with writer Barry Morrow (Rain Man) and producer Cathy Schulman (Crash) both said to be currently attached to the project - this according to Production Weekly, which I subscribe to. Titled Buffalo Soldiers (named after song written by Bob Marley), the biopic, as it's being described, will follow Marley and the Wailers and their many struggles faced on their way to eventual success.  The title and lyrics refer to the black U.S. cavalry regiments, known as "Buffalo Soldiers", that fought in the American Indian Wars in the last 1800s/early 1900s. Marley's...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 5 Dec 2013 - 06:54

Our voyage through history's underappreciated films arrives at the year 2001, and a vintage year for lesser-seen gems...

Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke may have seen 2001 as the year we'd head off to meet alien intelligences in the depths of space, but in reality, its cinematic landscape was dominated by fantasy rather than extra-terrestrials. Rowling and Tolkien dominated the box office, with Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone and The Fellowship Of The Ring earning almost $1bn each, while Monsters, Inc and Shrek thrilled old and young audiences alike.

At the other end of the spectrum of success, 2001 was such a vintage year for movies that we had to whittle our usual selection of 25 films down from an initial selection of more than 40. This is why the decision was made - with heavy heart - to exclude some of our favourite films,...

Back in August 2010, comedy fans around the world were treated to the news that Todd Phillips would be producing a John Belushi biopic, written by Steven Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness). That such heavyweights would be collaborating on a film about a beloved comic legend was, to say the least, very exciting.

Even more exciting, was confirmation that the book would be based on Belushi – the second novel about the late star to be written (or at least co-written) by his widow, Judith Belushi Pisano. Generally acknowledged as being the most honest of books about Belushi, it benefits from being a source material supported by the people that played a part in his life, as opposed to the ill-received 1989 film adaptation of Bob Woodward’s Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi, starring Michael Chiklis.

However, this project soon fell quiet, and speculation suggested problems in the...

Bryan Brown and Sam Neill will star in Old School, an ABC series in the vein of the BBC comedy-drama New Tricks. Brown will play Ted, a retired cop, with Neill as Lennie, an ex-crim. The odd couple turn sleuth to solve crimes, unravel scams and earn much-needed dosh.

The cast includes Sarah Peirse as Ted.s feisty, sports-mad wife; Hanna Mangan Lawrence as Lennie.s granddaughter Shannon; Mark Coles-Smith as Jason, the mechanic son of one of Lennie.s prison mates; and Damian Walshe-Howling as a charming opportunist who woos Shannon.

The show was created by Paul Oliver and Steve Wright and will be produced by Matchbox Pictures. Helen Panckhurst and exec produced by Tony Ayres and Penny Chapman.

Production of the eight-part series starts in Sydney in June with the directing chores shared by Gregor Jordan (Two Hands, Buffalo Soldiers), Peter Templeman (Not Suitable For Children) and Oliver.

Andy and Lana Wachowski are remaining typically discreet about their next opus, the sci-fi thriller Jupiter Ascending. While the specific details of the plot are under wraps though, we do at least know something about the cast. Sean Bean, Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne and Douglas Booth are already in place, and they'll now be joined by Australian actor Kick Gurry.The name might not be familiar to you as yet, but he's racked up quite an impressive CV on the quiet. He's worked with Terrence Malick (an uncredited small role in The Thin Red Line), David Mamet (Spartan) and Alex Proyas (Garage), and was in Gregor Jordan's excellent Buffalo Soldiers with Joaquin Phoenix. He'll next be seen in Doug Liman's All You Need Is Kill, and he's worked with the Wachowskis previously too, as Sparky in their idiosyncratic Speed Racer. So that can't have hurt his chances for redeployment.

By now, "Downton Abbey" fans, you've may have started the grieving process over the lovable Matthew, whose life was taken in an automobile accident during the Season 3 finale. But the show is moving on full speed.

"Downton" creators began auditioning actors to play a new love interest for Lady Mary earlier this year, since the show starts filming Season 4 this spring. And now U.K. newspaper the Mirror says it knows one of the men on the shortlist.

Tom Ellis, of BBC sitcom "Miranda," is reportedly one of the top choices to play Mary's new man. He's a 33-year-old Brit who gained a legion of female fans from his work on the U.K. comedy series.

A source at ITV, the company that produces "Downton" in the U.K., tells the Mirror, "Tom has always been popular but he has really become hot property since his role as Gary in Miranda.

‘Caper’ movies are a sub-genre of the crime film that in the past 50 years has created some highly entertaining, memorable pieces of cinema. Each of the classics of the sub-genre seems to follow a simple set of just three rules:

The ensemble cast, led by a strong leading actor, play a group of down-on-their-luck men (they are either criminals, ex-cons, reluctant soldiers, or unemployed) who band together to carry out a clever and audacious heist. The audience throughout cheers for the ‘criminals’ because we know they are not Really ‘bad guys’ and, until the very final moments, we hope that they will get away with the crime (any maybe afterwards). The script is as clever as the cinematic crime itself and has a strong element of black – and usually quite socially subversive – humor.

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The top five are probably The League of Gentlemen (1960), Ocean’s Eleven (1960), The Italian Job (1969), Three Kings...

For the past week or so, Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘The Master’, a film that explores the facets of religious cults, has been the talk of almost every cultural quarter in both Europe and America. On its opening weekend in the Us, it has broken records in the world of arthouse cinema, generating nearly eight-hundred thousand dollars after being screened in only five cinemas. In stark comparison to other films of a similar nature, it has achieved a prodigious success in a nation where arthouse is usually received with indifference. After being awarded with the Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival, it is a tantalising offering for British cinema-goers who gravitate towards arty films, and it promises to be an engrossing spectacle upon its release.

But an intriguing sub-story to the film’s acclaim is the return of one of its stars, Joaquin Phoenix, who shared...

Bob Marley emerges as an almost Napoleonic figure in Kevin Macdonald's passionate but partisan documentary

Directed by Kevin Macdonald, and – just as importantly – executive-produced by Ziggy Marley and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, this is a long and very enjoyable hagiography of Bob Marley: a languorously drawn-out act of homage to the adored Rastafarian star and musical hero.

It is a fundamentally respectful film. If any interviewee were to mention the possibility that Marley had nicked the Banana Splits TV theme tune for Buffalo Soldiers, then that interviewee would undoubtedly be taken out and savagely beaten, with the cameras rolling. As it happens, the subject doesn't come up. Macdonald's overwhelming warmth and passion suffuses the picture, and the testimony he gets from Marley's friends, family and fellow band members has pungency and insight. Macdonald gives a vivid picture of the man who rose from dirt-poor beginnings in...

The opening minutes of Red Tails set the stage for what you can expect throughout the whole movie. It's World War II, a group of American bombers are being escorted through enemy territory and the Germans have arrived to throw a wrench in the works. Planes swarm in a dance of CG aerial acrobatics until the camera focuses in on an American pilot who exclaims, "Germans! Let's get 'em!" thus beginning two-hours of elementary dialogue interspersed with rote plotlines you could have easily predicted before walking in.

Using the heroics of the African American pilots that make up the Tuskegee 332nd Fighter Group to tell this "inspired by a true story", Red Tails cherry picks and gives these boys a variety of cliched personality traits to keep the story moving forward.

First there's "Easy" (Nate Parker), the squadron captain. He has a drinking problem you can be sure will get...