Becoming Sundance: The Development of America’s Premiere Film Festival
As June is the month of the Sundance Directors Lab, the writers of The Film Stage saw this as being an appropriate moment to reflect back upon the early days ...
Kristen Coates
Paramount Officially Confirms Les Grossman Movie From ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World’ Screenwriter
Earlier this week, we reported that Tom Cruise had been quoted confirming rumors of a feature-length film involving his Tropic Thunder character, Les Grossman. ...
[Review] Agora
Alejandro Amenábar’s historical epic Agora is high-minded and visually pleasing, but doesn’t quite pull itself to maintain an entertaining momentum. It has many of the hallmarks of an epic, from the swelling music, to the sweeping city views, to the main characters ability to meander through surrounding violence unscathed, but the pace is often stalled by wordy monologues and the need to impart information, causing a loss of emotional impact. What we are left with is a story about religious intolerance and the resulting powerlessness of reason....
Remembering Dennis Hopper
Today brought the tragic news of Dennis Hopper’s passing after a decade-long battle with prostate cancer. Hopper had many contributions to American cinema, so in honor of his memory we’re going to look back on the early films that helped him rise to fame....
French New Wave: The Influencing of the Influencers
From time to time, filmmakers, film critics, and film buffs will make references to a period in film history known as the French New Wave. For some people this is a term to throw out just to sound impressive [...]...
Release Dates Announced for Fukunaga’s ‘Jane Eyre’ & Wright’s ‘Hanna’
While we just listed a number of films you should see this summer, it seems there are already a few more to look forward to in 2011. Focus Features has set release dates for Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre and Joe Wright's Hanna for spring 2011....
Producer Spike Jonze Premieres ‘The Lazarus Effect’ On HBO
On May 24th, tomorrow, HBO is airing a new documentary on HIV / AIDS in Africa, titled The Lazarus Effect by director Lance Bangs and executive producer Spike Jonze....
[Interview] Susan Koch and Jose Antonio Varga; Director and Writer of ‘The Other City’
Of the documentary films that premiered at Tribeca this past April, The Other City was one of the most striking. The Film Stage was able to catch up with Jose Antonio Vargas [...]...
Robert Rodriguez Acquires Rights to Adapt ‘Fire and Ice’
It was recently revealed to AICN in an interview that Robert Rodriguez has acquired the rights to Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi’s 1983 animated feature Fire and Ice. The hope is to adapt the project into a live-action film, produced through Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios....
Kevin Spacey and Zachary Quinto Set to Star in ‘Margin Call’
It has been reported that Kevin Spacey and Zachary Quinto are attached to star in Margin Call. The film "tracks eight people at a prominent investment bank in a tumultuous 24-hour period during the early stages of the financial crisis. The characters struggle to position themselves ahead of the coming storm." This will mark the directorial debut of writer J.C. Chandor....
