Seven Psychopaths: Martin McDonagh Shares Love of Cinema Criminals Related Posts No Comments

As clearly seen in the Seven Psychopaths red band trailer, writer-director Martin McDonagh has a thing for killers. “I guess I share Colin Farrell’s character’s feelings towards psychopaths and killers in the film,” he said to Movie Fanatic recently.

“I know how cinematic they are and how interesting films can be with them, but kind of question the morality of only having films about guys with guns. It’s that, playing those two ideas off each other is my interest in them.”

Farrell is a screenwriter who is obsessed with writing a movie about the most violent of people (his screenplay shares the title of the actual movie). His best friend, played by Sam Rockwell, is joined by Christopher Walken in the dog-napping business and everybody becomes involved when it’s learned that the dog at the center of their latest canine escapade belongs to a psychopath of a gangster, played by Woody Harrelson.

Yet, although the film is about violent people, it is incredibly funny… something truly important to McDonagh to work throughout his story, as seen in his previous work In Bruges.

“I think most of my work is that way. In Bruges was probably more sad and melancholic than this, but it’s still hopefully very funny throughout. This was always a black comedy on the page, but I think it’s come out as more outrageously funny because of the actors,” he said.

“It’s the way I kind of think about the world and the way I like to tell stories. I don’t think you should get too heavy, but there’s enough out there in the world, with violence etcetera, that you should question. So I think that comedy leavens the heaviness of talking about those topics.”

The filmmaker has such adoration for the actors he cast in the film, but there was only one that he wrote with someone specifically in mind. “I write with Sam’s voice in my head because I love him as an actor, and I love the way he can go from comedy to darkness on a dime,” McDonagh said. If you had told him while he was penning Seven Psychopaths that he would be working with legends… McDonagh would have scoffed.

“I never dreamed I’d be in a place where I’m doing a film with Christopher Walken or Tom Waits or Harry Dean Stanton, even.”

As we stated in our Top 10 Christopher Walken Movies, the actor gives his best performance in McDonagh’s film and the director marveled at how Walken took the dialogue he wrote and sent it to a whole new stratosphere of resonance.

“It’s the periods and the commas that he forgets about,” he said and laughed. “But, conversely, he memorizes the script word for word like six months before hand. And the words never change, the intonations change, and you can never imagine that a line or a word even could be pounced in that way, but it’s still the words you wrote. So there’s a joy and a surprise to all that kind of stuff. He’s really the only one in the world that can do that I think.”

Above all else, the helmer believes he and his cast enjoyed the making of Seven Psychopaths to no end. An aspect of the work he hopes will get his ensemble back in front of his camera in the future.

“I think after Bruges I was really happy with how it went, but I did think it was kind of hard work. After this, it felt more fun. We had an awful lot of fun on Bruges too. But I feel like I love working with these actors,” McDonagh said. “I couldn’t have dreamed working with these kinds of actors. And now I know them and they like how it’s turned out, so I know that they’d be happy to come back and do more stuff with me.”

Source : moviefanatic[dot]com

Watch 'Seven PsychoCATS,' a feline version of the film 'Seven Psychopaths'

A mock trailer for Martin McDonagh's film Seven Psychopaths has taken over the web and turned Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell into cats.

This parody by Jim Tozzi mimics the original trailer of the dark comedy that follows a screenwriter struggling for inspiration for his script who is dragged into a dog kidnapping scheme.

We wouldn't mess with the Tom Waits cat.

Seven Psychopaths will be released in North American theaters on October 12.

Source : nydailynews[dot]com

Movie News CS Video: The Director and Cast of Seven Psychopaths ADD COMMENTS

Hitting theaters this Friday, writer/director Martin McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths marks the artist's second feature film, following 2008's In Bruges. Re-teaming him with leading man Colin Farrell, McDonagh offers what, on the surface, plays as an action-packed crime comedy while at the same time breaks down and explores conventions of cinematic violence.

In the film, Farrell stars as Marty, a struggling screenwriter who inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends (Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell) kidnap a gangster's (Woody Harrelson) beloved Shih Tzu, Bonny.

ComingSoon.net sat down to chat with Farrell, Rockwell, Walken, McDonagh and even Bonny to discuss the film's multiple layers and how they work together on the big screen.

Check out the interviews in the player below and catch Seven Psychopaths in theaters October 12.




Source : comingsoon[dot]net

Frankenweenie: Martin Landau on Tim Burton Brilliance Related Posts No Comments

Martin Landau visited with Movie Fanatic at the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland, and it could not have been more fitting. Landau has worked with director Tim Burton three times now, with his work on Ed Wood earning the actor an Oscar, and now he’s back with Burton on Frankenweenie. We cannot decide who’s happier, the tens of thousands parading through the park’s gates, or Landau discussing his affection for his helmer.

“He’s a friend and I love him,” Landau said in our exclusive interview.

Whether working with Burton on Sleepy Hallow, Ed Wood or now Frankenweenie, Landau noticed the same working landscape with Burton. “He creates a playground. Good directors do that and they don’t direct a lot. They hire the right people that can play the part. They open the door and let you play. All an audience wants to believe is what’s going on up there is happening for the first time ever,” Landau said.
 
The actor has also noticed that the director only works with top-rate actors. That’s probably why the helmer almost has his own repertory group with people like him, Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara and Martin Short.

“You don’t want to see the rehearsals or the slickness. It should be unpredictable.”

Another perk of joining the Frankenweenie cast was his utter adoration for his character, the science teacher Mr. Rzykruski. “I love this character,” he said and smiled broadly.

“He can’t lie. He’s totally undiplomatic. I had a vision of him, every school he teaches in, he’s probably fired after two months. And he’s a great teacher,” Landau added.

One of our favorite scenes is when an auditorium full of parents are questioning Mr. Rzykruski because of his science teachings. They feel threatened by it and he simply responds to the inquisition by calling everyone idiots. “That scene perfectly exemplifies my character. Everything’s questioned, by people who shouldn’t question it because they don’t know anything. You don’t tell your students’ parents that you’re stupid and expect to hold that job!”

The science teacher inspires the main character in Frankenweenie, Victor Frankenstein, and thus drives the story. Victor adores his pup Sparky (ironic name in hindsight). When he unexpectedly dies, the boy summons lessons he’s learned from Mr. Rzykruski and brings the dog back to life. 

“There’s something sweet, sad and awful about this guy,” Landau said. “In Victor, he sees himself as a kid. He’s a catalyst for the movie actually.”

His character has a mysterious accent that Landau had to craft on his own. “The fun part of it for me was when I got the script it said he was European. But then it told me what he wasn’t. He’s not Slovakian. He’s not Hungarian. He’s not German. He’s not Russian. He’s European. So what Tim wanted was a generic European sound as opposed to Ed Wood, where I was Hungarian. I made up that he’s from the fictional Slobovia,” he said and laughed.

“Slobovia’s where the Slobs come from!”

In the end, our conversation returns to directors, of which Landau feels Burton -- when all is said and done -- will sit amongst the greats. After all, Landau knows, as he has been directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen and George Stevens. 

“I think Tim’s moving there now. The thing about Tim is he’s an A-list director who’s allowed to make movies that interest him. There’s no one else like that,” Landau said.

“Tim… it’s almost a miracle if you think about it because he only makes films that were his predilections. You could offer him billions of dollars, and he’d say, ‘I don’t like that.’ That’s awfully refreshing. You ruin a take by laughing out loud. In Ed Wood, there were four in a row when I did the thing about (Boris) Karloff. There was laughter and the sound man had to stop it. ‘Someone’s laughing,’ the sound man said. And it was Tim!”

Burton and Landau both began their careers as cartoonist. “He’s a kindred spirit. There’s a kinesthetic kind of connection. It’s creative as hell.”

Source : moviefanatic[dot]com

Movie News Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan Join Edgar Wright's The World's End ADD COMMENTS

Martin Freeman ("The Office", "Sherlock", The Hobbit) and Eddie Marsan ( Sherlock Holmes, Snow White and the Huntsman) have officially joined the cast of Edgar Wright's next, The World's End. Read the full details in the official press release below:

Working Title Films and Big Talk Productions have commenced filming on The World�s End, the third installment of Edgar Wright�s trilogy of comedies, following the successes Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). The new movie is filming in the U.K. As with the first two movies in the trilogy, Universal Pictures International (UPI) will distribute The World�s End internationally and Focus Features will distribute it in North America.

As with the two earlier pictures, Mr. Wright co-wrote the script with Simon Pegg, who will once again star alongside Nick Frost. Joining the team are actors Martin Freeman (Shaun of the Dead, The Hobbit), Paddy Considine (Hot Fuzz, The Bourne Ultimatum), Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes), and Rosamund Pike (Jack Reacher).

The World�s End also marks Mr. Wright�s third movie with Working Title and Big Talk, following Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz; The World�s End is produced by Nira Park of Big Talk and Working Title�s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. The film will be executive-produced by James Biddle, Mr. Wright, Mr. Pegg, Mr. Frost, and Liza Chasin.

Mr. Wright is also reteaming with such creative collaborators as director of photography Bill Pope, production designer Marcus Rowland, hair and make-up designer Jane Walker, editor Paul Machliss, stunt coordinator Bradley Allen, and VFX Double Negative. Guy Speranza is the film�s costume designer.

In The World�s End, 20 years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hellbent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King (Simon Pegg), a 40-year-old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their hometown and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub � The World�s End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind�s. Reaching The World�s End is the least of their worries.

Working Title Films, co-chaired by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner since 1992, is one of the world�s leading film production companies. Founded in 1983, Working Title has made nearly 100 films that have grossed over $5 billion worldwide. Its films have won six Academy Awards, 30 BAFTA Awards, and prizes at the Cannes and Berlin International Film Festivals. Working Title�s 2012/2013 slate also includes Les Mis�rables, directed by Tom Hooper and starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Anne Hathaway; John Crowley�s Closed Circuit, starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall; Hossein Amini�s The Two Faces of January, starring Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, and Oscar Isaac; Dan Mazer�s I Give It a Year, starring Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall; the telefilm Mary and Martha, directed by Phillip Noyce and written by Richard Curtis, starring Hilary Swank and Brenda Blethyn; Ron Howard�s Rush, starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Br�hl; and Joe Wright�s epic love story Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Big Talk�s credits include all of Edgar Wright�s films to date: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Greg Mottola�s Paul, written by and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost with Kristen Wiig. Most recently Big Talk developed and produced Joe Cornish�s debut feature Attack the Block, which was released to critical acclaim in 2011, winning all four Audience Awards at Sitges, SXSW, the LAFF, and Fantasia International Film Festival. Next up for Big Talk is the black comedy Sightseers, directed by Kill List�s Ben Wheatley. The film had its world premiere at Cannes with a Special Screening in the Directors� Fortnight section. It will have a Gala Screening at the London Film Festival, and will be released in the U.K. in November. Big Talk is currently in production on Cuban Fury, a dance comedy starring Nick Frost, Chris O�Dowd, and Rashida Jones, directed by James Griffiths; and Jeremy Lovering�s psychological thriller In Fear.

Universal Pictures International and Focus Features are part of NBCUniversal, one of the world�s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. Comcast Corporation owns a controlling 51% interest in NBCUniversal, with GE holding a 49% stake.

(Photo Credit: Zak Hussein / WENN.com)


Source : comingsoon[dot]net