21 Years Trailer: Celebrating Richard Linklater

Alright, alright, alright... looked what just popped up on my Twitter feed yesterday. I had no idea that there was a documentary being made about director Richard Linklater's career so far from Slacker to Boyhood.

The trailer has got a wealth of stars who have appeared in his films from Billy Bob Thornton through Keanu Reeves and Jack Black all the way back to Wooderson himself Mr Matthew McConaughey. Like director Jay Duplass says, Linklater is one of the most interesting and varied directors working in film at the moment, particularly with his 12 year experiment Boyhood having just been released to great critical acclaim this year.

Check out the trailer below and then click on Linklater's filmography to ensure you haven't missed any of his films. If you haven't seen Dazed and Confused, the Before trilogy and Waking Life, those are my recommendations for where to start.



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David Goyer rumoured to write and direct Justice League movie

Forget Zack Snyder, it might be the Man of Steel writer David Goyer who will take on the super hero super team.

AMC Movie Talk host John Campea tweeted that ‘a little bird’ told him that ‘Warner Bros is moving on Justice League with Goyer possibly directing. All those waiting to see the DC super team that would feature both Batman and the Man of Steel in the same film will have to pause for breath before accepting this as gospel.

A little bird is never a rock solid source but Campea then quickly followed that tweet with another. "Re Justice League two industry guys emailed in last 5 mins. One heard same from same source, one says Goyer is on but writing only” he tweeted.

Previous reports

Previous reports had Will Beall attached to write the screenplay and even George Miller to direct way back in 2007 before he moved on to his Mad Max reboot. Warner Bros are likely holding back until after Man of Steel opens and will guage the viability of a superhero ensemble on the back of the success of that film. Superman has the weight of DC’s future on his shoulders it would appear.

Following Man of Steel

The producer of Man of Steel has teased in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the film will be ‘setting the tone for what the movies are going to be like going forward’. He also promised that ‘what Zack [Snyder] and Chris [Nolan] have done with it is allow you to really introduce other characters into the same world’.

This definitely sounds like the promise of a potential team up and all Warner Bros will have to do now is find a fitting replacement for Christian Bale to don the Bat suit, somehow make disappointed fans forget the Green Lantern movie and then find suitable candidates to take on the roles of Wonder Woman and The Flash among others.

David Goyer

David Goyer’s only directing dip in the world of comics came with Blade: Trinity but his credits as a writer include the Dark Knight trilogy and Man of Steel. If he is to take on both duties, it will be a bold move for Warner Bros and Goyer will likely have to relinquish much of his control over television series Da Vinci’s Demons.

Nevertheless if Goyer does take on even just scripting duties on the Justice League movie, the future of DC’s characters will be in very safe hands.

Or will they just go with Zack Snyder if Man of Steel is a big enough success? Have you got any preference on who should direct a Justice League movie? 

Fast and Furious Director Articles at Yahoo Movies

I've just had my first two stories for Yahoo Movies published on who will take over directing the Fast and Furious movies now that Justin Lin has departed.

The first article is all about the three directors that were rumoured to be on the short list to take on Fast and Furious 7. Who will direct the next installment in the Fast and Furious franchise? All three names are interesting if not terribly exciting but the article is worth a look to see the three names that looked likely according to early reports.

Then another name was thrown into the mix. The second article works on the assumption that James Wan, the director of Saw and Insidious, might be the director tasked with taking on the next film in the Fast and Furious franchise. This really excited me as later in the year I will be doing a director retrospective for Filmoria on James Wan ahead of the release of the Insidious sequel. This article looks at why James Wan is an excellent choice for being the Fast and Furious 7 director.

Now I guess fans of the franchise just have to hope the producers are not being overly optimistic and that the sixth one actually lives up to some of its hype and that it makes a killing at the box office. The trailer does look pretty good to me. I'm all for less of the street racing and more of the 'vehicular warfare' and seven is supposed to start shooting this summer!



Anyone up for this? All these posters with the characters facing away are pretty cool too don't you think?

Mathieu Kassovitz Interview at Filmoria

On Sunday April 14th 2013, I got to meet, interview and shake the hand of the director of one of my all time top 3 films, La Haine. The director is Mathieu Kassovitz (who also made Gothika and Babylon AD but don't hold that against him) and he was in London for a couple of days to promote his film Rebellion.

Rebellion is the true story of an elite counter terrorism unit captained by Philippe Legorjus (Mathieu Kassovitz) sent to Ouvea Island in the French colony of New Caledonia to negotiate the release of 30 kidnapped policemen.

Kassovitz spoke candidly of the challenges of making Rebellion; a task that has taken ten years and also his recent controversial Twitter outburst over his disappointment at some of the responses to the film.

How would you describe Rebellion to anyone who has only heard of La Haine?

As a grown up version of La Haine. Less funny and less welcoming and accessible. But La Haine was about police brutality. This one is about government brutality so it’s a step up but it’s the same kind of energy and the same kind of message.

You seem very comfortable with this position against the mainstream of French politics.

One of the great opportunities of being a director is being able to tell stories and especially the true ones where you only heard one voice and one side of the story and you discover there is something else. Usually of course you can call it a revision of history because all of a sudden what you’ve been told is not what you discover.

There is nothing more fascinating than to be able to express that and to show it to people. That’s what historians are here for and sometimes by being a director you can be a historian. If you do your homework properly and if you take it very seriously, then you become a reporter. The movie becomes like a very important piece of journalism. But the difference is a magazine will get lost next week and a movie is here to stay. 

When you’re saying something and you’re able to revise history or revise point of view or a way of thinking, it’s a great responsibility but it’s also the best thing. You can’t get a bigger kick than that because you’re not only making a movie but you’re also saying something and you’re going to reveal something. That’s very important. Of course I feel very comfortable with that, not just with movies but everyday life, I like that, I like to confront ideas and to shock people so movies are a great vehicle for that.

How has the film been received in France and on the island as it’s a colonial story?

It’s a hard story to deal with for France. I’m invested in that story. I know all about it. But people don’t care. They have other things to do. The story was 20 years ago and 25,000 km away and who gives a shit? This kind of movie requires patience and intelligence. I’m trying to be smart about it and design the movie to get the audience right in the middle of it, in Philippe’s shoes so you can say what would I have done if I was in his shoes? 

It’s a difficult movie to sell and we got the best reviews ever but nobody went to see the film in France because of different reasons. When people are down you don’t want to hear again that the government is lying. You’re like I know; you don’t need to stick my nose in my own shit. I know about it but I don’t want to hear about it all the time. So I get that and people want to laugh and I get that. It’s strange for me because I’ve never had such good reviews and no one went to see the movie. I was really shocked. It’s about our history and I would think for a French audience they would take it and they would say yeah. We’re fighting this because we’re French and that’s what we are. But French people aren’t French anymore. Five years of Sarkozy has killed our spirit. And a year and a half of Ayrault is not bringing it back so we’re not the French people that we were before. I thought we were still the same people but we’re not. 

In a year from now New Caledonia will vote for their independence. I think the movie will be revealed then. But you need to be able to sit down for two hours and just think about what you’re seeing which is not what movies do today. You can’t know if a movie like that will work. I’m a little sad, not for me because I did it, I’m very happy I did it and I’m very happy with the movie. I’m sad for the actors who want to do that kind of movie.

Would you embark on that kind of project again?

I’m burned out right now. 10 years to make a kind of movie like that and no one goes to see it, it’s painful. You’re like why would I put another 10 years of my life into a movie that no one cares about? I will but people ask me how I found that story. You don’t find stories like that, stories find you. The right time, the right moment, you stumble onto something; you got to tell that story. So you need to actually cross paths with such a story. It can be something that you witness in the street. It can be a historical event, it can be whatever but you need to find it. If you don’t find it then you don’t have anything so right now I don’t have the energy to find something like that. I can’t create that inspiration; it has to come to me. Right now I’m working in Hollywood so I’m doing exactly the opposite and I’m resting my brain and building good muscle tone!

How have the Kanaks responded to it?

First of all the movie was censored in New Caledonia. The theatre owners said that they were scared the people would burn the theatre down. So that was a reason not to show the movie and to try to hide it a little longer. 

Did you expect these kinds of responses?

That… no! That was too far. If I had expected that, then I would have made a much harsher movie for the French government. I didn’t show a lot of stuff. I didn’t show torture. I didn’t really show the violence. I didn’t go that far. I wanted to make a movie really balanced so that I wouldn’t have that kind of problem, like censorship or being partisan. But still people say the movie is partisan, you take the side of the Kanak. The story is actually that the French army came and killed people so there are victims, but the military are victims also. You have to really explain why and how it happened but there are no two sides for that story. Some people can be on the side of the military. What I really want to do is make the military and the people that were responsible for that to see the movie and to have a different point of view. I don’t want to shun them; I don’t want to slap them in the face. Even with trying to be as subtle, not as arrogant or mean or hard core as I could be, they can’t accept it. 

How does Philippe feel about the film? How involved was he?

Very much. As soon as I started to work with the Kanak. I started with them in 2001. In 2003 they were like yeah why not [make the film]. Then I got in touch with Philippe and we started to work together. He was very involved. I had to understand what he went through. But the guy is a snake; he’s a cold blooded animal. They are very professional... they can’t let their emotions take over and they have to be really on top of their game. So they don’t communicate that much. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t really tell me what he felt during that event because it was just happening. He realised a few months later what happened. So he likes the film. The Kanak like the film and he likes the film. I got from both sides the same kind of relationship. Both parties were so involved that they knew exactly what they were going to get.

Do you think there is a more open culture amongst the Kanaks now with being able to talk about the events?

The movie is here. Discussions are up in the air. If they want to talk about it they have a first stone that they can step onto and start to build on that. They needed that. I told them I’m not going to tell your story, I’m not going to tell their story, I’m going to tell the global story and try to be as close to the truth as possible. Your bad actions will be shown and their bad actions will be shown. 

They needed something that they can regroup around and now they have a piece of material they can talk about so it’s very important for them. That’s one of the first things they said that they want to be portrayed in a real way, not a good way or a bad way but what they are and what they’re fighting for. And their reason to live and what they are here for. They’re very proud of that because the movie’s very true to what they are. You can really feel that. I spent so much time with them. I really loved that island and the culture, even if there are a lot of problems and it’s very complicated to deal with. That’s why they let me do it. I really spent time with them. I became one of them. 

It was the same thing with them as I did with La Haine in the projects. I’m not from the projects so I could step in and look at it from a distance. That’s the only way you can have a point of view on something and share it with somebody else. If you were in the projects all the time then you cannot see what is going on because you’re knee deep into it. If you’re a Kanak you cannot really have a judgment about Philippe Legorjus because you’re passion is too much. You need somebody like me that can take a step out, that can stay out of it but can still be invested in it.

What can you say about your angry Twitter reaction to the single César nomination Rebellion received?

I won I think three of them in my career. I never went to get them. Even my first movie called Café au lait I was nominated as an actor. I never went to get it. First of all I think it’s tacky. It’s the tackiest ceremony in the world. It’s boring. I’m not keen being seated next to these people. I’d loved to go to the Oscars because I’d love to be seated next to Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg, all these amazing directors. But in France, no. I need to admire people I want to sit next to. And I hate competition. I love competition before the movie was released but once the movie is released, I don’t like it.

Didn’t you accuse French cinema of being too enthralled with Hollywood?

I said fuck French cinema. It’s a global thing. Just to say that I don’t really care about having a César or not but when Rebellion was not nominated; I was very, very shocked. It’s not because it’s a good movie or not. The movie didn’t do good in theatres. If the French industry doesn’t support movies like that, you know there’s not another movie like that out that year. It’s not like we had 10 political movies. There’s this one and that’s it. If they don’t support it, they say we don’t care. They gave Césars to the most successful movie of the year. Why would you give the César to a movie that doesn’t need it and which is probably not even the best one? But it’s not about the competition, just to recognize French movies and French cinema is also that. If you don’t need that and you just need comedies, then fuck you! And the other part is just trying to be Americans. But you don’t know how to and you’re just trying to look American, then I’m like what are we? We’re French! Right now we’re not the way we should be. I think Sarkozy killed us, killed the spirit. And Ayrault is not helping. I made Rebellion because I still thought that the French people were feisty. Not anymore. They’re not concerned anymore. They’re not interested. 

I understand that the public didn’t go and see it because I understand it’s a difficult movie to take. People have other things to do and problems so they’d rather laugh and I totally get it. I probably wouldn’t have gone to see it anyway myself. But for the industry not to recognize it, not to support it, I was very, very shocked. I said, that’s it, I’m done. I did what I had to do in France. I gave my best. I think it’s time for me to go somewhere else.

What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

It’s simple... my parents were filmmakers and they were good filmmakers so they taught me the craft and the love for the craft. My father was very ethical about directing movies and he gave me the basics. Stay on schedule, work on a budget, if you can do it for less, do it for less. Problems are solutions. You don’t need money to find solutions. You need to be smart; you need to know your subject. He knew his craft and he just passed it onto me. My mother, the same. If they had been butchers and they would have done it right, I would be killing cows right now in a very good way… without hurting them [laughs]. I would have done what my parents taught me with passion. I was lucky it was movies so I can hang out with beautiful people, no dead cows. 

Why political movies?

I have no fucking idea. Because with my parents it was the sixties, seventies. My father was coming from Hungary. He escaped during the Communist regime. I don’t know. It’s difficult to make movies. You have two choices. Either you make movies because wow I make movies and it’s a fucking great way to make a living or you make movies because you have something to say. That’s where it becomes really interesting because it’s such a powerful and amazing medium to play with. I realised doing this movie when you make a movie like that, that’s it! The movies done and you say what you had to say and it becomes the truth so it’s a great responsibility but it’s also a great honour. I said the truth about that story and that’s going to influence the vote next year. That’s amazing. I’m doing politics at the same time. It’s very difficult to make a movie so it’s better to make it for a purpose other than your bank account.

More interviews at I Love That Film

Kubrick One Point Perspective Supercut

Stanley Kubrick, to state the obvious, made some wonderful looking films. I f you haven't already seen this gorgeous supercut of his many one-point perspective shots, then I implore you to click play and remind yourselves of the beauty of Kubrick's films.

Not only does it feature many of the symmetrical, disquieting shots from the likes of The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange, but it also shows off why Kubrick is a master of the tracking shot. These iconic images have all been cut together to the epic, emotive tune of Lux Aeterna's Requiem for a Tower. It all adds up to a magical, spellbinding visual and aural feast.

These symmetrical shots have a disturbing psychological impact on the audience, putting them at unease even if there isn't anything immediately menacing present in the shot. The viewer feels very distanced from what is occurring and it is almost like we are watching still images, paintings or other such works of art come to life rather than watching motion picture photography.

At the same time, many of these shots are not symmetrical but the one-point perspective forces the viewer to look towards the central, most distant point. It draws our eyes into the frame, ignoring the sides often and focusing on what is most central and distant. In this way, rather than distancing the viewer, it actually pulls us in to the shots.

Stanley Kubrick was well aware of the impact and contrasting effects these shots would have and was a master creating unforgettable images; cinematography that is dream like, distancing, disturbing but also very beautiful. This supercut shows off some of the weirdest and wonderful imagery of Kubrick's films, edited into short, sharp bursts that emphasise the similarities but also remind of the excellent films that Kubrick directed.

Great Actor/Director Collaborations #1 David Fincher and Brad Pitt

Lying awake last night and thinking about all the things I'd like to blog about and worrying that I Love That Film has no running features, I kept thinking about all the great actor/director collaborations there have been in cinematic history. I say history, but actually I was thinking mostly about modern ones. So hopefully this is going to turn into a semi-regular feature.

My thoughts immediately turned to David Fincher and Brad Pitt who have made three films together: Seven, Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.


"They're like brothers - opposite in the way they act, but they understand each other the way families do." Taraji Henson (Bowles, 2008)

Brad Pitt gained international recognition as a sex symbol for his supporting role in Thelma and Louise in 1991. Pitt went on to secure his reputation as a handsome leading man with larger parts in A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall.  However his appetite for edgier roles was clear from his early work as a psychopath in Kalifornia, and his cameo in True Romance as a couch potato stoner.


On the other hand, David Fincher began his directing career in commercials and music videos. He moved on to feature films with an extremely brave debut- directing the third film in the Alien franchise. Afterwards, Fincher continued on his course of dark, challenging films by choosing to direct a disturbing serial killer film.  Pitt was on the look out for new, darker material; a film that would subvert what audiences were expecting from a Hollywood movie ‘starring Brad Pitt’

Seven (1995)

Brad Pitt plays a young, cocky and short-fused detective, David Mills.  He is newly transferred to a crime-infested, permanently rain-soaked, unidentified city to be partnered with Morgan Freeman’s older, wiser detective, William Somerset. After reading the script and being offered the part, Pitt ‘immediately signed on, with one caveat: The studio could not change the film's final scene… “They tried all kinds of things to change our minds," Pitt says. "We wouldn't budge. David isn't afraid to use an ending that works, even if it isn't the one you want’ (Bowles,2008).  This created a bond between actor and director.  

Fight Club (1999)

Fight Club is the story of an unnamed protagonist (Edward Norton) who creates an alter-ego for himself.  This imaginary friend is Tyler Durden and is played by Brad Pitt with a shaved head and part of his teeth missing.  In Tyler’s own words, he is “All the ways you wish you could be… I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.”  Producer Art Linson said studio executives expected “Seven in another costume” (Swallow, 2003, p.121) but got something quite different.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the life story of the titular character played by Pitt.  Born with the appearance of an old man and looking younger and younger as he grows older, it is argued that ‘both director and star would have to wade into unfamiliar waters. Pitt would have to get ugly, Fincher happy’ (Bowles, 2008).  

Will there be more collaborations? 


‘Paramount Pictures has acquired graphic novel "The Killer" and will develop it as a directing vehicle for David Fincher… produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment and Alexandra Milchan’ (Fleming, 2007).  This was reported some time ago and has yet to come to fruition.  However, there is also Fertig; ‘based on the biography of middle-aged American civil engineer-turned-World War II guerrilla fighter Wendell Fertig who with a small team of Americans refused under orders to surrender and led thousands of Filipinos in a seemingly hopeless war against the Japanese.’ (Holmes, 2008)  Fincher believes Pitt would be perfect and would sign up for the project when the script is right. 

What is your favourite collaboration of Fincher and Pitt? Seven and Fight Club are, to me, the pinnacles of both Fincher and Pitt's careers to date.

Parts of this post were already printed in an article in Media Magazine back in April 2011. 

Next up in this feature: Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese

Director Retrospectives: Part 2 Danny Boyle

In the continuing series of director retrospectives over at Filmoria, my latest is on the career of British director Danny Boyle, ahead of the release of his new film Trance. I'm seeing Trance tomorrow at a preview screening and cannot wait! It's got James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassell and looks like it might be a hypnotic blast. Early reviews are looking very good, no surprise after Danny Boyle wowed the world with the London Olympics Opening Ceremony last year!

 In advance of some of the biggest and best film releases of 2013, Filmoria writers are all contributing retrospectives of many directors' work. We have all chosen six directors who have films being released in 2013 and the idea is that in the week leading up to the new film, we will write and publish a retrospective look at that director's body of work.



The six directors I picked are some of my very favourites and others that have significant films to make their body of work worth revisiting. I take tasks like this very seriously and would like to get through all the films of each particular director before I write the pieces. I started out with Quentin Tarantino as my first director and that retrospective was published back in January ahead of the release of Django Unchained.


In the meantime other Filmoria writers have been tackling the likes of:


Sam Raimi

Pedro Almodovar
Steven Soderbergh
Walter Hill
Kathryn Bigelow
Judd Apatow
Robert Zemeckis

and many more!

I've been re-watching all of Boyle's films over the last couple of months in order to reappraise them and give this retrospective of the great director's work the respect it deserves. You can check out my Danny Boyle retrospective at Filmoria here. In case you didn't know this is the guy who gave us the likes of Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. He's easily one of my favourite directors and definitely my favourite British director, responsible for two of the greatest British films of all time in my opinion. Please go check out the retrospective to find out more about the man and his films.

If you aren't uncontrollably dribbling and desperate to see Trance by the end then I will consider myself a failure and hang my head in shame. Choose Life! Choose reading my retrospective!

Avatar Sequels and Next Bond Director

Recently I've been writing about all sorts of strange ponderings over at Filmoria including my thoughts on the Avatar sequels and who I'd like to see as the next Bond director. Click this link to check out my thoughts on James Cameron's Avatar sequels and why they are a step in the right direction for Hollywood in certain ways. To check out who I'd like to see as the director of the next Bond films, please click here.

Avatar is the biggest box office behemoth of all time and I'm curious as to why that is the case. Are we going to have a generation of Avatar fans who are as dedicated as Star Wars fans? Will James Cameron's sequels live up to the ludicrous expectations that fans of the first film will have? I remember reading on the release of the film that people were getting depressed and even semi-suicidal that they could not live their lives on Pandora. So immersive was the world Cameron created and so luscious was his 3D cinematography that fanatical fans were taking the whole cinema as escapism thing a bit far and walking out of the darkened theatre back into their real lives and feeling miserable.

I'd like to think that some of these fans found the environmental warnings of the film also very concerning and decided that we needed to make a change right here and right now on Planet Earth and start looking after the rainforests better and getting back to nature a bit more. Perhaps as they left the cinema and saw their decaying, dirty, polluted cities, they did indeed feel depressed at what this planet was becoming. If that is the case, then good on Mr Cameron for making people think twice about the destruction of our planet.

In completely different news, Sam Mendes stepped away from Bond after his huge success with Skyfall. I think it's a real shame but I'm sure there are plenty of others who are thinking that Mendes should get back to making sensible films about suburbs and repressed emotions and stuff. Skyfall was a truly awesome Bond film. I'm not the biggest fan of the franchise but this one had loads of great character stuff as well as some breathtaking action. Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins made it both beautiful and thrilling and I would have loved to see them have another go. However whoever takes the reigns now has seriously big boots to fill and I don't envy them!

What do you think about Avatar's success? Does it really deserve to be the biggest film of all time or do kids just have more money to spend on going to the cinema these days or what?

And who do you think should direct the next Bond film?