Trailer of the week: “Vanguard”

(Photograph credit: Gravitas Ventures)

While the film is already released in China, those who love Hong Kong’s actions may get excited to expect a new Jackie Chan film “Vanguard” to hit theatres. It was supposed to release early this year but due to a pandemic, it was postponed.

Now the professionally made trailer is out. The film did get a mostly mixed reception from Chinese audiences and box office but it’s still Jackie Chan, one of the most beloved action stars of all time and it’s better to watch it with keeping in mind that he’s now 66 years old.

The movie is directed by Stanley Tong, who also directed Chan in some of his finest action films such as “Supercop”, “Rumble in the Bronx” and “First Strike”, all featuring some of Chan’s finest and impressive stunt work.

Now “Vanguard” doesn’t seem to be on their league but probably many fans will be glad to see Chan back in action. Watch the trailer and judge it for yourself.

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All-star cast is set for a new Vietnam War film

(Photograph credit: Deadline)


Filmiere.com reports based on exclusive news from Deadline that many stars are set to star in the Vietnam War film “The Things They Carried”.

The cast includes Tye Sheridan, Oscar-nominee Tom Hardy, Stephan James, Bill Skarsgard, Pete Davidson, Ashton Sanders, Martin Sensmeier, Moises Arias, and Angus Cloud. The more is yet to be announced, according to rumors.

Rupert Sanders will direct the feature adaptation of Tim O’Brien’s book about a platoon of young soldiers and their experiences on the front lines during the Vietnam War. His third book about the war is based upon his experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division.

Published in 1990, many of the characters are semi-autobiographical. One of the stories was previously adapted into a TV film “Soldier’s Sweetheart” starring Kiefer Sutherland in an acclaimed performance.

Director said he’s excited about the cast, saying “I am so excited about the cast we have put together – we have not seen this many young stars from different backgrounds sharing the screen since the days of Platoon or The Outsiders.”

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“Minimata” finds home at MGM

(Photograph credit: MGM)


Johnny Depp sued the British tabloid “The Sun” for calling him a “wife-beater” and he just recently lost the case since the judge declared on Amber Heard’s allegations that:

“I have found that the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms. Heard by Mr. Depp have been proved to the civil standard.”

It’ll depend on how the media will react or if there will be a backlash against Depp to see how MGM will do at promoting his new film because FIlmiere.com reports that MGM has acquired the Johnny Depp-starrer Minamata, through its American International Pictures label.

The Andrew Levitas-directed drama has been set for a February 5 release, dropping into the extended awards season as a theatrical and day and date PVOD release. The film received mixed reviews on his festival premiere in Berlin but the word on Depp’s performance was slightly better than most of his recent outputs.

The official plot describes the movie as following: “In a drama inspired by a true story, Depp plays Eugene Smith, a famed photojournalist who has disconnected from the world but takes a final assignment from his Life Magazine editor (Bill Nighy).

He travels to the Japanese coastal city of Minamata, where locals have been ravaged by mercury poisoning from chemicals dumped into the waters by a factory.

He’s accompanied by a Japanese translator (Minami) and encouraged by a local villager (Hiroyuki Sanada) as he helps expose decades of gross negligence by the Chisso Corporation.”

Depp has recently resigned from his role in the new “Fantastic Beasts” movie, saying Warner Bros. asked him to do so.

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Ethan and Maya Hawke are finally uniting.

(photograph credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/Shutterstock)


Maya Hawke had been making a name for herself after starring in a series of successful indie films but most importantly made a huge breakthrough with the third season of “Stranger Things”.

Filmiere.com informs you that, in a case you don’t know, she’s the daughter of Oscar-nominated ex-couple Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke.

Now the time has come for them to unite on the movie screen; this time as co-stars because recently in quarantine, Ethan filmed a music video of hers and Maya had a surprise appearance as his daughter in his TV series.

Anyways, the movie is about a young girl in a small town who has a plan to lose her virginity to Beatles member George Harrison. Sounds like a film that’ll cover the Beatlemania of the era and might be a potentially strong coming-of-age dramedy.

Directed by “John Carter” director Andrew Stanton, the film will be titled “Revolver”. Ethan Hawke, who recently starred in the “Good Lord Bird” series and the film “Tesla” (as Nikola Tesla) had been gaining strong reviews again.

His role is unknown yet but we’ll share it with you when more information will surface on the project. Stanton––whose latest film was a return to Pixar with Finding Dory, a sequel to his own Finding Nemo––will direct a script from Stranger Things’ Kate Trefry

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Sean Connery – RIP

(Photograph credit: Columbia Pictures)

Filmiere.com is deeply saddened to share the news of Scottish movie star Sean Connery’s sad passing at the age of 90.

Connery had a long career; already established himself as an icon for being the first James Bond, he went on to win Oscar for Brian De Palma’s “The Untouchables”, gave powerful performances in frequent collaborator Sidney Lumet’s movies like “The Offence”, “Murder on the Orient Express” and “The Hill”,

Connery was a major sex symbol of his time, with charismatic looks and gravitas he brought to films that were celebrated by his admirers. Even though it was more than a decade that he was retired from acting, his films from “Indiana Jones” to “Highlander” to “The Man Who Would Be King” stayed relevant and popular.

Connery was polled in 2004 The Sunday Herald as “The Greatest Living Scot” and in a 2011 EuroMillions survey as “Scotland’s Greatest Living National Treasure”.

He has also received lifetime achievement awards from Golden Globes, AFI, and European Film Awards alongside knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. His legacy will be celebrated by movie fans all around the world for many more years to come.

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Belgian hit gets an American update

(Photograph credit: Harper’s Bazaar)

With his thriller “Dulles”, the Belgian director Olivier Masset-Depasse had a huge success in his home country in 2018 and won a record-breaking 9 Magritte Awards (the counterpart to the Belgian Oscar). No wonder that Hollywood became aware of this work and has now commissioned a remake.

Star cast has also already been taken care of: Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain will take on the leading roles, while Masset-Depasse will also be in the US Version with the obvious title “Mothers’ Instinct”.

Hathaway and Chastain will portray two housewives in the 1960s where their friendship gets tested after a certain accident. Distrust, feelings of guilt, and paranoia spread, and the two friends become bitter rivals who may also hurt each other seriously.

Hathaway and Chastain were mostly recently collaborated on Christopher Nolan’s hit movie “Interstellar” in 2014, Filmiere.com reports. While some of the recent projects by Hathaway and Chastain were not totally successful, hopefully, this one will do good for both of them.

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Patrick Wilson set to direct next “Insidious” film

(Photograph credit: FilmDistrict/Blumhouse Productions)

Michael B. Jordan is not the year’s only film actor set to direct movie in his own franchise. Patrick Wilson is next.

While we don’t know the release date or when will it film yet, it’s reported by many reliable sources that Patrick Wilson, a star of “Insidious” horror films, directed by James Wan (who also directed Patrick in the “Conjuring” movies and “Aquaman”) will direct the next part.

The story picks up a decade after the events of the last movie and sees the Lamberts’ son Dalton heading to college. Scott Teems wrote the script based on a story by franchise co-creator Leigh Whannell.

“I’m honored and thrilled to be at the helm of the next ‘Insidious’ installment, which will provide an amazing chance to unpack everything the Lamberts went through a decade ago, as well as deal with the consequences of their choices,” Wilson said while talking about the film.

Adding that: “Directing the movie is both professionally and personally a full-circle moment for me, and I am extremely grateful to be entrusted in continuing to tell this frightening and haunting story. Into the further, we go…” Filmiere.com will keep you updated about the project.

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Alberto Barbera will remain as president of Venice Film Festival

(Photograph credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty)

 

If you follow film festivals closely, you know his name. Just like Thierry Frémaux, dedicated film lovers and festival followers must hear his name for a while at least a few times a year when they give interviews on the films they’ve chosen.

Alberto Barbera was widely-praised for his 2020 festival, which Venice held under strict COVID-19 safety protocols. It opened up possibilities for other festivals in the corona era.

La Biennale di Venezia, the parent organization that oversees the Venice Fest, announced Tuesday that it was re-upping Barbera as its head of cinema for another four-year term, from 2021-2024. Barbera had his fair share of criticisms in the past as well;

for allowing controversial directors like Roman Polanski into the line-up as well as lack of female directors in the competition for which he kept defending that he chose the films based on the strength of the movies but not because of directors and this year he said he wanted to get Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks”.

Despite the criticisms, what he achieved this year certainly helped the most for his presidency. Filmiere.com wishes him good luck and is hopeful to see better and better line-ups in following Venice competitions films in the next years.

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Trailer of the week: Midnight Sky

(Photograph credit: Netflix/Vanity Fair)

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Netflix seems the only major company that didn’t affect by it when it comes to their movie releases and their schedule.

So they keep releasing trailers for their countless new material. The next one from this week was “Midnight Sky”, directed by George Clooney, based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. It stars Clooney himself alongside Felicity Jones, Kyle Chandler, David Oyelowo, and Demián Bichir.

Clooney’s directorial career has started out strong with much-acclaimed “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and Oscar-winning “Good Night and Good Luck”. However, his recent efforts had all been received with strongly negative reviews including “The Monuments Men”.

Will Clooney get back to form is yet to be seen. It’s new ground for him; a science-fiction. Filmiere.com shares the official synopsis with you:

“This post-apocalyptic tale follows Augustine (George Clooney), a lonely scientist in the Arctic, as he races to stop Sully (Felicity Jones) and her fellow astronauts from returning home to a mysterious global catastrophe.”

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Italy closed the cinemas again

(Photograph credit: AP)

The second wave of the corona pandemic is rolling mercilessly across Europe and most governments are trying desperately, but unfortunately in vain, to get the situation under control. This could partly be due to visible, but ultimately not very effective measures.

Although in 43 million confirmed cases of infection worldwide, not a single outbreak could be traced back to a cinema screening (in contrast to almost all other public events). Cinemas are once again among the first institutions to be cracked down on.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced that bars and restaurants must cease daily service as of 6 PM beginning Monday.

Cinemas, live theaters, gaming halls, and discos will be closed altogether. Filmiere.com will keep you updated on the news around the world about how cinemas keep shutting down and re-opening, as well as its effects on the box office of the films around the world.

Hopefully, we’ll get rid of the virus altogether and will be back at movie theatres sooner than we expect.

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