Drama »

Good news, Twilight fans. You have the first official news for the third Twilight installment, courtesy of our own Jen Yamato, FearNet and the New Moon junket.* The magically-coiffed Robert Pattinson has confirmed that Breaking Dawn will begin filming in Fall 2010, and that it's penciled into his schedule for next year.

Of course, Dawn remains unconfirmed by Summit. The most controversial installment of the Twilight series, rumors swirl that the studio is hesitant to take it to the big screen. If it is made, it seems likely that it could be split into two films a'la Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Personally, I don't see Summit risking the money they'd make on #4, and they'll find a way to steer around the gorier aspects of the book. But now you know when to look for it, though you still have the madness of Eclipse pre-production to get through.

Pattinson also dished on the movie I want to mark on my calender (Sorry, I dig boots and spurs more than vampires), a Western called Unbound Captives. The directorial debut of Madeleine Stowe, it stars Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, and Pattinson. The young heartthrob revealed that it's tenatively scheduled to begin shooting in early 2010, and he sounds enthusiastic for a role that'll be miles away from Edward Cullen. "I'm playing a kid who is kidnapped by Comanches when he was four years old, and he is brought up by them. His mother spends her entire life trying to find me and my sister. When she finds us, we can't remember who she is and can't remember anything about the Western culture she grew up in. I speak Comanche the whole movie. You can't really speak more differently from Edward."

[Special thanks also goes to Collider who apparently pried the Breaking Dawn date out of Mr. Pattinson]

At a press junket earlier this summer for 2012, Roland Emmerich told reporters he's not doing any more blow-'em-up flicks. "I would not know how to top this... It's just one of these things, you know. I had a hard time deciding to do another disaster movie, but... you cannot make a disaster movie if there's not something --- an idea in this disaster which elevates it to something more than a disaster. And so it was this idea, you know, that there will be a global flood and it's a retelling of Noah's Arc."

Later he added, "It's not my last film, it's my last disaster film. And that's because I wouldn't know what else to do. It's just, you know what, I really didn't want to do this movie at first... But when I decided that the idea was too good to not do it for the reason I had done before, I said, okay, if I do it, I will do it in such a spectacular manner that nobody can top it for a long time. I have that pride in my work."

The upcoming The Danish Girl is one of those independent, edgy films that has all the right elements for something brilliant, but it's subject matter is so tricky that it could end up becoming a farce. Based on David Ebershoff's novel, The Danish Girl is the story of the world's first post-operative transsexual, Einar Wegener, and his wife, Greta. Tomas Alfredson is set to direct, Nicole Kidman has long been attached to play Einar, and Variety reports that Gwyneth Paltrow has stepped in to play Greta. She's stepping in for Charlize Theron, who originally held the role, but has dropped out for unspecified reasons.

The story takes place in 1920s Denmark. Greta* was a portrait painter, and needed a model. She asked Einar to step into a dress, stockings, and heels, and created some kind of awakening in Einar. In women's clothes, her husband became an outrageous character named Lili. The paintings of Lili became extremely popular, few realizing a man had stood in for them. Lili than took on a public life of her own, and Greta often introduced Lili as her sister. Eventually, Einar / Lili decided to commit to gender reassignment surgery, a dangerous and experimental procedure at the time. Greta stood beside her husband until his transformation was complete, and then their marriage was declared null and void by the King of Denmark.

By Eric D. Snider (reprint from 1/19/09 -- Sundance Film Festival)

The premise of Precious is so unsettling and bleak that no one would blame you if you didn't want to see it: It's the story of an obese 16-year-old illiterate Harlem girl who's pregnant (for the second time) by her own father, lives with her monstrously abusive mother, and has almost given up on life. But if you do see it, you'll find that it's compelling and artistic, punctuated with warm humor and masterful performances, and ultimately triumphant and hopeful.

The girl is named Claireece "Precious" Jones (she goes by Precious), and she's played with astonishing rawness by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe. Narrating the film, Precious tells us the grim facts. Beyond the ones already noted, she is still in junior high school (where she's dumbly in love with her kindly math teacher); her first child, born with Down syndrome, is technically in her mother's custody but is actually cared for by her grandmother; and her mother, Mary (Mo'Nique), is a welfare-absorbing harridan who abuses Precious in every possible way, hating her daughter for "stealing" her man. Precious did no such thing, of course -- she was raped by her father -- but Mary is not interested in details.

Precious is directed by her principal to an alternative school called Each One Teach One. Her class is populated by other girls who dropped out or were kicked out of public schools for various reasons; it's telling that even in such a motley group, Precious is still the most timid, the most withdrawn, and the most messed-up. The teacher, Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), is dedicated to her work, perhaps the first adult to ever take a genuine interest in helping Precious. The other students might be Precious' first friends, too.

Having dipped into the seductive waters of sexy courtesans, Stephen Frears is now looking towards the future, and the future's got lots of gambling. The trades are reporting that Frears is set to direct Lay the Favorite, a dramedy that will rejoin him with High Fidelity scribe D.V. De Vincentis. The project stems from an upcoming memoir by Beth Raymer called Lay the Favorite, Take the Dog, which will be published this Spring.

Now, why did I say trades and not pick one? That's because it's time to play Pick the Plot.

In one corner, we've got The Hollywood Reporter, who says that this is a world of "geeky gamblers" who "figure out how to work the sportsbook system in Las Vegas for their own profit. It centers on a woman in her early thirties who has made a series of bad choices but achieves a redemption of sorts when she meets and then becomes involved with the gamblers." De Vincentis says: "This is the version of 50-year-old math geeks from Queens in basketball shorts who have pet guinea pigs."

In the other corner, we've got Variety describing the story as a "young woman's journey into the world of sports gambling. She starts out as a cocktail waitress but gets caught up in gambling until falling in love," calling it a cross between High Fidelity and The Grifters.

So, geek fest with gambling and a little romance thrown in for good measure, or a romantic world where a cocktail waitress can gamble her way to money ... and love. Which do you choose?

The future Faceman may have lost the chance to fly as the Emerald Knight, but DC isn't the only place you can gain superpowers. You can also score them from top secret pharmaceuticals! (Don't try this at home, kids.) According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bradley Cooper is set to star in Dark Fields, a thriller directed by Neil Burger and based on the book by Alan Glynn.

Cooper will play a writer down on his luck who manages to get his poor paws on a secret drug that promises to make one smarter. He doesn't go ask Alice before popping them, and finds that it's a wonder drug. He enjoys writing success, wealth and women until the side effects kick in. They're long lasting, potentially lethal, and have the extra kick of making time appear as a stop-motion movie. As if that doesn't suck enough, mysterious and unpleasant men begin pursuing him. Do they look like Shia LaBeouf, who was originally set to star? Hopefully not.

The screenplay was penned by Leslie Dixon, and is said to be similar to Fight Club and The Game, which might be a big spoiler as to the nature of those mysterious antagonists, which is why you shouldn't think about it too much. There's no start date, but hopefully he has no time between The A-Team and Dark Fields to squish in another frightening romantic comedy.

Know what this trio of names has in common -- Tom Waits, Crystal Gayle, and Francis Ford Coppola? They collaborated on the music for Coppola's 1982 film One from the Heart. Waits was the creative mind behind the film's music, he performed a number of duets with the country singer, and he also earned an Academy Award nomination for his efforts.

However, that was about all the notoriety the film got. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review some 27 years ago: "This must be the first movie in history to arrive with more publicity about its production techniques than about its stars," describing the film as "a major disappointment." Heart focused on two people in love (Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest) who get swept away by the throes of passion with Raul Julia and Nastassja Kinski. But rather than simply tell the story, it was an art piece for Coppola, using creative filming techniques and a carefully plotted score that interacted with the characters.

After the jump you can see a behind-the-scenes look at the music from the film, mainly focused on Waits, but also revealing footage from initial discussions about the project, and how the music came together. It might sound old-hat in a world where we are saturated by DVDs with special features, but I love seeing the old process -- minds coming together in the back yard for a "musical summit," how each piece of a film can be so carefully plotted, and the utter strangeness of seeing someone like Gayle collaborating with Waits.

After a year of speculation (Will it be James Bond? Will it be Maximum City? Trainspotting 2?), Danny Boyle has finally settled on his next project. Variety reports that it will be 127 Hours, the tale of mountain climber Aron Ralston. Boyle has been loosely attached to the project since June when the LA Times reported that Boyle and Fox Searchlight had signed a long term, best friends forever deal. Boyle has already penned a treatment, and Simon Beaufoy is in talks to write the script.

In this age of flashmob media stories, you might have forgotten the tale of Ralston. Like your humble authoress and Balloon Boy, Ralston hails from Colorado. He became famous for a Utah climbing accident in 2003, when an 800 lb boulder shifted and crushed his hand. Ralston was forced to choose between life and limb, and in a stomach-turning story heard around the world, he amputated his own hand with a pocketknife. In the media frenzy that followed, Ralston was hailed as a hero and as an idiot, because he had chosen to go climbing alone and without notifying anyone. It was particularly intense locally, and I still remember the heroism debate Ralston sparked in my American Culture class. (It even inspired one student's final project!) Since those heady days of early fame, Ralston has enjoyed success with his autobiography, continues to climb, and is a motivational speaker.

The director is already on the casting hunt for the part of Ralston, which Variety declares will be "a plum job" because it will force an actor to work solo for most of the shoot. Below the jump, I've embedded a video of Ralston describing his amputation. Watch it to prepare for two hours of unflinching detail, and sound off on who you think should be lucky enough to act out a very painful 127 Hours.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a little post about Movies That Nobody Seems To Like But You, and it was an awful lot of fun for you (over 100 comments) and me -- so today I thought we could flip it around because I happen to know for a fact that there are movies that everyone seems to love but you ... because for me, that movie is Heat.

Released in 1995, Michael Mann's crime drama was an unofficial remake of his made-for-TV film, L.A. Takedown, and is still considered one of the greatest crime films of all time. The story centered on an LAPD homicide detective and a career criminal (played by 'Method heavies' Al Pacino and Robert De Niro) in a battle of wits with Mann's trademark themes of masculine identity and how our work can define us as people. But, no matter how many times I have tried to give this movie just one more chance, I still walk away wondering what I'm missing. In fact, it's a great example of how it doesn't matter how good a movie may be, it will always come down to your personal tastes.

After the jump: it's not a 'guy thing' and what's the big deal with that diner scene?...

In the 2007 awards season, Fox Searchlight had two strong films in the mix with Juno and The Savages, and then in 2008, they dominated with Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler. As many other indie arms were folding (Paramount Vantage, Warner Independent, Picturehouse), Searchlight managed to keep things up on their end.

2009, however, hasn't been so kind to them. January's Notorious didn't do bad actually, though March's Miss March was indeed D.O.A. June's My Life in Ruins similarly underperformed, while July's Adam failed to catch on as that same month's (500) Days of Summer had. Post Grad was dumped in the doldrums of August, while Whip It failed to find a crowd in October.

Cut to now: Amelia has been effectively neutered as a ready-made Oscar contender, while Gentlemen Broncos (from the director of Napoleon Dynamite, which did particularly well for the same studio) is being pulled from wider release after this weekend after posting modest numbers on two screens and earning savage reviews for the most part.

With Miramax also facing tough times, it's a shame to see studios like these have an off-year, though there's time for a turn-around yet so far as Searchlight is concerned. Summer's summer release means the timing could work out to earn a push for Original Screenplay as a happy-go-lucky alternate to many dour contenders. This month's similarly light Fantastic Mr. Fox is an Animated Feature candidate at the very least, and -- according to THR -- the Jeff Bridges drama Crazy Heart is getting a last-minute test run of sorts at the moment to see if it can merit a move to be positioned for this year's race instead of next year's.