Jesse Eisenberg set to play Lex Luthor in Batman vs. Superman
...what?! In an announcement that seriously comes from left field, Warner Bros. has announced that they have cast Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) as Lex Luthor in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman film. With the litany of names thrown out for consideration, such as Joaquin Phoenix, I don't think many people would have guessed that Eisenberg would come out on top for the role... and with good reason, too.
The very obvious reason is the fact that Luthor has always been depicted as an older, bald businessman. However, as technology has risen and the corporate structure has shifted more towards younger generation, it's only fitting that Batman vs. Superman's Luthor would be a younger man. Furthermore, this opens up narrative possibilities for DC and WB that would include Eisenberg being used for a long-term, multi-picture deal, as well as have the artistic creativity to further create stories that distance themselves from the same old canon. As somebody who detests DC comics (and the structure of their films outside of the Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy), this is a great move for a company that desperately needed one.
Also cast into the film is Jeremy Irons (The Borgias) as Bruce Wayne's (Ben Affleck) butler, Alfred, to round out a cast that features Eisenberg, Gal Gadot, Affleck, Henry Cavill, and Amy Adams. Sounds like DC and WB are creating quite the stable for their little film that could. For their sake, let's all hope that it works out in the end.
[via /Film]
Tom Sherak, Former Academy President, Dies at 68
Tom Sherak, a man who withheld many important film industry roles but is best known for his presidency of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, died on Tuesday in his home in Calabasas, California at the age of 68. His passing was the result of a longtime battle with prostate cancer.
Sherak was known to be a dedicated and loyal worker to all of those who knew him. Last year Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti deemed Sherak as the "film czar" of LA. It was then Tom's mission to bring the filmmaking process back to Hollywood and keep Los Angeles as the film capital of the world.
What he is best known for, however, would be his tireless attempt to bring back ratings to the Oscar award ceremony. He served as the Academy president from 2009 to 2012, and he found a few ways in which to tweak the awards system. His first minor change was the expansion of the number films nominated for best picture from 5 to 10 which would leave room for box office hits that would ultimately draw in more viewers due to their popularity. The other major effort he took part in was the transition of electronic Oscar voting. This made it faster and more efficient for the voters of the Academy from all over the globe to submit their selections. Diversification became anther focus point during his years as president as he attempted to recruit more people of color and younger voters onto the Academy.
Sherak was born in Brooklyn, New York. His successful career started with Paramount in 1970, but he spent 17 years at 20th Century Fox as the executive and also was chairman of the Twentieth Century Fox Domestic Film Group. His longtime efforts in such a make-or-break industry will always be highly regarded as the career field evolves.
[via Variety]
Schoolboy Q Helps Promote Launch of SoundCloud's New Visual Player
Popular online audio platform SoundCloud has released a new visual player that gives a complete makeover to the embedded player by now allowing artists' artwork to be displayed along with their music. Artists' artwork is important, and now it is front and center for everyone to see and SoundCloud also revamped its waveform to give users a better visual experience. The new player also offers a better listening experience, too, by offering continuous listening by suggesting related tracks when a song is paused or when it's finished playing.
The company has also enlisted the help of artists to promote the newly unveiled player ranging from The 1970 to Schoolboy Q. After raising $60 million of funding this could be just the beginning for SoundCloud. Check out a snippet of the new track “Gangsta” from Schoolboy Q's upcoming album and see what the new visual player is all about.
[Via TechCrunch]
[iframe id="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/131104113&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true"]
Have Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles been revealed?
Last week, a costume company inadvertently leaked the designs for what was assumed to be Michelangelo in Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles remake. The costume depicted the turtle wearing board shorts, a tied sweater around his waist, and a pooka necklace with a tribal piece - the very definition of "trying too hard '90s chic." While the costume looked hideous, it appeared to just be a mix of cheap kids' Halloween designs and the unofficially first official look at the new turtles, raising speculation as to how the rest of the group would appear in the film.
Late last night, an inside source leaked what appear to be either toys or physical mockups of the Ninja Turtles. Michelangelo's design does appear to be in line with last week's costume leak, but spruced up and not as bad looking. The rest of the Turtles also have their own individual styles to them, such as Leonardo's samurai-esque garb and Donatello's gadgets and tech. Also revealed are the early designs for William Ficthner's Shredder.
What do you guys think? Are you back on board with Michael Bay's reboot, or are you still skeptical?
[via comicbookmovie.com]
X-Men: Days of Future Past on 25 Empire Magazine covers
The next X-Men film, Days of Future Past, has been building up momentum over the past few months with the onslaught (no pun intended) of images, trailers, viral videos, and even the announcement of the film's sequel. Over the course of a whirlwind 25 hours, Fox and Empire released an exclusive cover for the magazine commemorating characters from the mutant-filled sequel.
Some of the covers feature X-Men film mainstays like Wolverine, Magneto, and Professor X, but also introduced new entries in the franchise, such as Bishop, Blink, and Warpath. The most controversial of them, however, is director Bryan Singer's vision of Quicksilver, the mutant Avenger and biological son of Magneto. Who is considered both one of the most iconic Avengers and enemy to the X-Men has been nerfed into a '90s club kid complete with gaudy headphones and silver, side-swept hair.
You can check out the full collection of covers below.
[Empire Magazine, via Forbes]
[Video] Google Glass Releases The Titanium Collection
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It looks like Google Glass has an eye on the everyday consumer with its newest Titanium Collection that consists of four frames for those with prescription glasses. There are four different styles available: thin, split, bold, and curve in an assortment of colors that should appeal to many people. As you can see by the photos, the glasses still have a futuristic look to them, but makes you look less like a cyborg. Also for those who are lucky and don't need prescription frames, there are also sunglasses available. It'll be interesting to see the evolution of Google Glass and how they go about targeting an audience that might be weary of wearing the current models, but as this collection suggests, Google Glass has taken steps to really hit the mainstream. For now, w'll have to wait and see if people will truly feel the need for a product like Google Glass when it launches to more consumers later in 2014. Just remember, if Glass is a bust, there's always Google Lens.
[Via Google Glass]
Sundance Film Festival 2014 Award Winners
[Ruby Hornet will be at Sundance Film Festival 2014 providing coverage of the festival's 30th year. Keep it tuned to Ruby Hornet this week as we share reviews, interviews, photos, and more at one of the country's largest film festivals.]
Photo by Calvin Knight
Sundance Film Festival 2014 came and went like a flash. With over 100 films playing during the festival, many of which consisted of world premieres, it's hard to catch every single one. It was hard for myself to catch the dozen or so films I was able to cover, but I can't even imagine how hard it was for the juries to watch dozens of films competing in the U.S. Dramatic and Documentary Competitions, as well as the World Dramatic and Documentary Competitions. Then, of course, the categories get broken down even more amongst the other awards, including Audience Awards and recognition in directing, editing, cinematography, etc.
The festival's US Dramatic Award (and US Dramatic Audience Award) went to Whiplash, written and directed by Damien Chazelle, a dramatic film about a young drummer intent on becoming one of the best jazz drummers. The film's two stars, Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now) and J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man), received high praise for their roles. The World Dramatic Award went to To Kill a Man, which I found favorably well. Other special recognition awards include a Special Jury Award for Musical Score for Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for The Skeleton Twins.
You can find the full list of winners below.
U. S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Whiplash
U. S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary Rich Hill
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic To Kill a Man
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary Return to Homs
Audience Award: U. S. Dramatic presented by Acura Whiplash
Audience Award: U.S. Documentary presented by Acura Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic Difret
Audience Award: World Cinema: Documentary The Green Prince
Audience Award: Best of NEXT Imperial Dreams
Directing Award: U. S. Dramatic Fishing Without Nets / Cutter Hodierne
Directing Award: U. S. Documentary The Case Against 8 / Ben Cotner & Ryan White
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic 52 Tuesdays / Sophie Hyde
Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary 20,000 Days on Earth / Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
Cinematography Award: U. S. Dramatic Low Down / Christopher Blauvelt
Cinematography Award: U. S. Documentary E-TEAM / Ross Kauffman & Rachel Beth Anderson
Cinematography Award: World Cinema Dramatic Lilting / Ula Pontikos
Cinematography Award: World Cinema Documentary Happiness / Thomas Balmès & Nina Bernfeld
U. S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent Dear White People / Justin Simien
U. S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Musical Score Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter / The Octopus Project
U. S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Intuitive Filmmaking The Overnighters
U. S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Use of Animation Watchers of the Sky
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Performance God Help the Girl
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Bravery We Come as Friends
Editing Award: U. S. Documentary Watchers of the Sky
Editing Award: World Cinema Documentary 20,000 Days on Earth
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic The Skeleton Twins / Craig Johnson & Mark Heyman
Screenwriting Award: World Cinema Dramatic Blind / Eskil Vogt
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize I Origins
Short Film Grand Jury Prize Of God and Dogs
Short Film Jury Award: US Fiction Gregory Go Boom
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction The Cut
Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction I Think This is the Closest to How the Footage Looked
Short Film Jury Award: Animation Yearbook
Short Film Special Jury Award for Unique Vision Rat Pack Rat
Short Film Special Jury Award for Non-Fiction Love. Love. Love.
Short Film Special Jury Award for Direction and Ensemble Acting Burger
Short Film Audience Award, Presented by YouTube Chapel Perilous
Quentin Tarantino suing Gawker over latest film script leak
Last November, director Quentin Tarantino revealed his plans to direct a Western as his next film with Jay Leno. A planned Western, The Hateful Eight was met with excitement over Tarantino's prospects in returning to the setting following the successful Django Unchained. However, the plans were scrapped last week when the first draft of the script was leaked online through one of three actors he personally gave a copy of the script to, naming Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern. Whether directly or indirectly, Tarantino believes either Dern or Madsen allowed an agent to take the script, who then spread it out. Tarantino has since decided to publish the screenplay in book form, so we'll be able to at least read along to a presumably great story.
A week after the announcement and leak, Tarantino has decided to sue Gawker Media for publishing the script online. The director had the following to say about the outlet in his formal complaint request:
Gawker Media has made a business of predatory journalism, violating people’s right to make a buck. This time they’ve gone too far. Rather than merely publishing a news story reporting that Plaintiff’s screenplay may have been circulating in Hollywood without his permission, Gawker Media crossed the journalistic line by promoting itself to the public as the first source to read the entire screenplay illegally. Their headline boasts, ‘Here is the leaked Quentin Tarantino Hateful Eight Script’ — here, not someplace else, but ‘here’ on the Gawker website. The article then contains multiple direct links for downloading the entire screenplay through a conveniently anonymous URL by simply clicking button-links on the Gawker page, and brazenly encourages Gawker visitors to read the screenplay illegally with an invitation to ‘enjoy’ it. There was nothing newsworthy or journalistic about Gawker Media facilitating and encouraging the public’s violation of Plaintiff’s copyright in the screenplay, and its conduct will not shield Gawker Media from liability for their unlawful activity.
I can't blame Tarantino for being so peeved about The Hateful Eight's leak. Gawker knows better than to make the script so readily available, so it's not much of a shock that Tarantino decided to take action. However the case ends, we can find solace in the fact that Tarantino has many other script ideas he wants to film, so the production for his next film shouldn't be delayed too long.
[via Collider]