First The Expendables Trailer
The first trailer for Stallone’s “The Expendables” has hit the Internet. It’s the bootleg teaser from Venice Film Festival 2009.
Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham, The Expendables
“The Expendables,” written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, is about a team of mercenaries led by Barney Ross (Stallone). The team consists of Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Bao (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), and Emanuel (Mickey Rourke), who head to South America on a mission to overthrow a dictator.
The movie also stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Villis, Randy Couture, Eric Roberts, Danny Trejo, Charisma Carpenter, Steve Austin, Curtis Jackson, Brittany Murphy and David Zayas.
Venice Film Festival: “Capitalism: A Love Story”
Michael Moore made an appearance at the Venice Film Festival to promote his new documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Moore’s says his film is dedicated to “good people … who’ve had their lives ruined” by the quest for profit.
“I am personally affected by good people who struggle, who work hard and who’ve had their lives ruined by decisions that are made by people who do not have their best interest at heart, but who have the best interest of the bottom line, of the company, at heart,”
“Capitalism: A Love Story” will explore the root causes of the global economic meltdown and take a comical look at the corporate and political shenanigans that culminated in what Moore has described as “the biggest robbery in the history of this country” – the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions.
The movie won was warmly received at a press showing Saturday evening and won positive reviews. Variety called it one of Moore’s “best pics.”
Moore admits that many of the companies that financed this film will probably be unhappy with the final product.
“Why would these companies give money to me, a guy who is diametrically opposed to everything they stand for? One of the beautiful flaws of capitalism is they will use the rope you give them to hang themselves, if you can make a buck.”
He adds, “I think this will be the last time they will give me that money.”
Venice Film Festival 2009 3D Award
This year’s Venice Film Festival has announced the nine films in competition for the event’s first 3-D award. They are all from the US.
“Up” by Pete Docter
“Coraline” by Henry Selick
“Battle for Terra” by Aristomenis Tsirbas
“Monsters vs. Aliens” by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon
“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” by Carlos Saldanha
“Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience” by Bruce Hendricks
“The Hole” by Joe Dante
“Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D” by Eric Brevig
“My Bloody Valentine” by Patrick Lussier
Brand New Hurt Locker Trailer and Poster
A brand new trailer for Kathryn Bigelow’s highly-anticipated Iraq War movie “The Hurt Locker” has been premiered via Apple.
“The Hurt Locker,” winner of the 2008 Venice Film Festival SIGNIS Grand Prize, follows three elite members of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad who volunteer to challenge the odds and save lives in the streets of Baghdad. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he quickly surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, when he recklessly plunges them into a deadly game of urban combat, to seek out and disarm deadly bombs in a thrilling race against time.
This war movie is based on the first-hand observations of journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal, who was embedded with a special bomb unit in Iraq. It stars Jeremy Renner, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty and David Morse among others.
Ang Lee To Head Venice Film Festival Jury
Director Ang Lee (”Hulk” from 2003, “The Hire: Chosen,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon“) will head Venice Film Festival jury this year.
Ang Lee twice won the Venice Film Festival’s prestigious Golden Lion award.
The Taiwanese-born director won the award in 2007 for “Lust, Caution,” and in 2005 for “Brokeback Mountain,” for which he also won a best directing Oscar.
His next movies are “Taking Woodstock” and “A Little Game.”
The festival made the announcement Friday. Last year’s jury was headed by German film director Wim Wenders.
Venice Film Festival will be held September 2-12, 2009.
“The Wrestler” Two Posters
Check out two new posters for Darren Aronofsky directed “The Wrestler.”
The Wrestler poster
Written by Rob Siegel, “The Wrestler” stars Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. Back in the late ’80s, Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was a headlining professional wrestler. Now, twenty years later, he ekes out a living performing for handfuls of diehard wrestling fans in high school gyms and community centers around New Jersey.
“The Wrestler” has won the top award – Golden Lion – at the Venice Film Festival.
Rourke, who received a rare standing ovation at a press conference, is generating early Oscar chatter. He told in an interview that “The Wrestler” was “the best … movie I’ve ever made.”
“The Wrestler” Footage
AP posted a clip from Darren Aronofsky-directed “The Wrestler“, starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. This clip features footage from the movie and interviews with Aronofsky and Rourke.
Mickey Rourke plays Randy “The Ram” Robinson who comes out of retirement to try to knock down an old rival.
Mickey is no stranger to knocking people out – he used to be a pro boxer.
“The Wrestler” has won the top award – Golden Lion – at the Venice Film Festival.
Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” wins Venice’s Golden Lion
Venice Film Festival will be remembered for Rourke’s performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler“, which the actor and critics agree is his best yet.
“The Wrestler” won the coveted Golden Lion award for best movie on Saturday.
“Darren Aronofsky came here a couple of years ago and fell on his ass,” Mickey Rourke told a packed Sala Grande crowd after the award was announced, referring to Aronofsky’s “The Fountain,” which flopped in Venice in 2006. “I’m glad he had the balls to come back. I don’t think he wanted to come back but I told him, “You have to come back’ and he did.”
The award seals his comeback from the Hollywood wilderness, and comments that Rourke is ready to ditch his bad-boy image and cooperate with directors suggest there is more to come.
“A guy like me changes hard, I didn’t want to change, but I had to change,” the star of 1980s hits “9-1/2 Weeks” and “Angel Heart” told in an interview in Venice.
There was controversy at Saturday’s closing ceremony when jury president Wim Wenders criticized rules which prevent the Golden Lion winner also picking up best acting prizes, suggesting Rourke should have won that too.
The Silver Lion for best director was won by Russia’s Alexei German Jr. for “Paper Soldier“, set on the windswept steppes of Kazakhstan and centring on the 1960s Soviet space program.
The best actor prize went to Silvio Orlando for his acclaimed portrayal of an overprotective father in “Il Papa di Giovanna” (Giovanna’s Father).
The best actress prize went to France’s Dominique Blanc in “L’Autre” (The Other One), a haunting tale of a woman who becomes dangerously obsessed with a young ex-boyfriend.
“Teza“, by Ethiopian director Haile Gerima, picked up two prizes, the special jury award and best screenplay.
The story chronicles the life of an Ethiopian intellectual who flees his country during the Marxist “red terror” in the 1980s, only to be attacked in Germany by racist youths.
Jennifer Lawrence of the United States was named best emerging actress for her role in “The Burning Plain“, in which she appeared alongside Kim Basinger and Charlize Theron.
As well as “The Wrestler”, “The Hurt Locker” by U.S. director Kathryn Bigelow impressed critics with its portrayal of the perils faced by a bomb disposal unit in Iraq, while actress Anne Hathaway generated awards buzz in “Rachel Getting Married“.
Venice 2008 – Review
The competition film, “The Wrestler,” which stars Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood, packed three Venice screenings Friday and prompted speculation among festival participants that Mickey Rourke could be a candidate for Venice’s best actor prize, which will be announced with the other major awards Saturday.
Mickey Rourke has given what critics are calling the performance of his life in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” in which he plays a lonely, washed out wrestler whose story poignantly mirrors the Hollywood outsider’s own troubled past.
“Wrestler,” which centers on an aging former professional wrestler, is the fest’s final premiere at the Sala Grande.
Rourke, who received a rare standing ovation at a press conference, is generating early Oscar chatter. He told in an interview that “The Wrestler” was “the best … movie I’ve ever made.”
The film, the last of 21 movies in the main competition to premiere, is a contender both for the top actor award and the coveted Golden Lion for best picture, critics say. The festival wraps Saturday with its prize ceremony.
Anne Hathaway also impressed in her unusually dark role in “Rachel Getting Married,” Jonathan Demme’s touching wedding drama that has been lauded in Venice.
A third late entry, Thursday’s premiere, “The Hurt Locker” by U.S. director Kathryn Bigelow, leads an informal poll of Italian critics who were impressed by its portrayal of the perils faced by a bomb disposal unit in Iraq led by a reckless sergeant.
Venice 2008 – Natalie Portman’s “Eve”
Natalie Portman presented her debut as a director at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday with a short movie “Eve” about a young woman who is dragged along to her grandmother’s romantic date.
A young woman, Kate, goes to visit her grandma Lola for a private dinner. She is surprised to find she is instead the third wheel at her grandma’s date with Joe.
“Eve” (17 minutes), screening out of competition in the Venice short film section, star Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazzara and Olivia Thirbly.
Portman, 27, said she had always had a fascination with the older generation, and drew inspiration for Bacall’s character from her own grandmother.
Getting Bacall on board was like fulfilling her “wildest dream”, Portman said.
“It’s so exciting to see someone with that much experience and that much wisdom on screen. It’s rare. The film was definitely inspired by personal experience and also all my friends, female friends, starting to define themselves in relation, and in reaction to, their mothers and their grandmothers”
Having started her acting career as a child, she said that she had long wanted to be on the other side of the camera and will present a second short work at the Toronto film festival which starts later this week.
“I have been working now in films for 16 years…it was exciting to know what a director goes through and also to create something completely on your own. When you are an actor of course you are creating something but you are serving someone else’s vision and ultimately it’s someone else’s creation. To have authorship is … and feels like a more adult job.”
Early reviews have been positive.
