Super Bowl LV Trailers

Once again, lots of men ran around a field, fighting over a stupidly shaped ball just to impress some sort of superb owl. No, I don’t get it either but because so many people watch it, we get lots of tasty trailers and TV spots for films and show we’re all looking forward to.

This year because of the pandemic (I’m so sick of saying that) there are fewer films out so there was an assumption that we’d see more TV show trailers than films especially with the likes of Marvel churning out multiple cinematic series to expand it’s ever growing universe.

However whilst there were fewer than normal years, there’s still lots of new content for fans to get excited about. I thought we’d see more of Loki, The Suicide Squad, Batman and more. Even maybe something new like Hawkeye which is currently being drip fed via sneaky on set photos and Jeremy Renner’s Instagram. It’s rare (I say rare, probably never) that we would have our first look at anything Marvel/DC during an event like this but one can dream!

What we got was new looks at The Falcon and the Winter Soldier where Sam and Bucky are getting on each other’s nerves, Fast 9 or F9 where the word family isn’t said, how weird. Also saw more of Raya and the Last Dragon and got a look at Old, M. Night Shyamalan’s latest which will be on Apple TV and Nobody. A film in which Bob Odenkirk kicks a lot of ass. Can’t wait.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Raya and the Dragon

Disney+

Fast & Furious 9

Old

Coming 2 America

Nobody

Clarice

Keep. It. Reel.

Two New Cinematography Programmes For Women

AFI (American Film Institute) and Fox Studios are launching two new programmes aimed at aiding women who want to get into cinematography. The two tuition-free programmes are tailored to suit those at different stages in their careers. The first is AFI Cinematography Introductory Intensive for Women (CIIW), a short 4 day course which serves as an introduction into cinematography taking place between 3rd – 6th August. This will include screenings, lectures, workshops and discussions. Submissions are open now and the deadline to apply is June 15.

The second is aimed at AFI Conservatory graduates who are actively trying to break into the Hollywood cinematography circle. The Fox DP Lab (the name of the partnership between Fox and AFI) is looking for 10 – 15 graduates who are looking to have the hiring process demystified by .meeting executives who are in charge of recommending and approving cinematographers, receive career guidance from Fox cinematographers and see a Fox studio film or Fox series being shot. Applications for this course will open in August.

Speaking of the partnership and programmes, Stacey Snider, CEO and Chairman of Twentieth Century Fox Film said, “Following our incredibly successful partnership with AFI to develop the Fox Filmmakers Lab, this new initiative to grow and develop female DPs is a natural extension of our ongoing efforts to diversify and strengthen the talent pool in this vital creative discipline. Rachel Morrison’s recent Academy Award nomination should be the norm — not the exception — for female DPs, and our hope is that programs like the Fox DP Lab will create even more opportunities for the next generation of talented, up-and-coming female DPs throughout the entertainment industry.”

Keep. It. Reel.

Golden Globe Nominations 2017

Award season is well and truly on the way with the recent event that was the Critics Choice Awards who dished out yet more shooting star trophies. Soon enough it’ll be the BAFTAs and Oscars taking place, but before the “prestigious” award ceremonies happen, let’s slum it for a bit with the Golden Globes. This week the nominations for next year’s awards were released, and it looks like La La Land is taking the lead, but for some stupid and inexplicable reason, Dev Patel have been shoved into the Supporting Actor category. Why? Some one tell me why? He’s the lead dammit!

Anyway, this year we’ll see Jimmy Fallon hosting so it’s no doubt that this will be an entertaining event, with a nicer tone than this years. Although I didn’t mind Ricky Gervais, he did, after four times hosting, piss a lot of people off. No surprise but still funny.

Here is the full list of 2017 Golden Globe nominations:

FILM

Best film drama

• Hacksaw Ridge
• Hell or High Water
• Lion
• Manchester by the Sea
• Moonlight

Best film comedy/musical

• 20th Century Women
• Deadpool
• La La Land
• Florence Foster Jenkins
• Sing Street

Best actor (drama)

• Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
• Joel Edgerton, Loving
• Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
• Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
• Denzel Washington, Fences

Best actress (drama)

• Amy Adams, Arrival
• Jessica Chastain, Miss Sloane
• Isabelle Huppert, Elle
• Ruth Negga, Loving
• Natalie Portman, Jackie

Best actor (comedy/musical)

• Colin Farrell, The Lobster
• Ryan Gosling, La La Land
• Hugh Grant, Florence Foster Jenkins
• Jonah Hill, War Dogs
• Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool

Best actress (comedy/musical)

• Annette Bening, 20th Century Women
• Lily Collins, Rules Don’t Apply
• Hailee Steinfeld, The Edge of Seventeen
• Emma Stone, La La Land
• Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

Best film supporting actor

• Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
• Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
• Simon Helberg, Florence Foster Jenkins
• Dev Patel, Lion
• Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nocturnal Animals

Best film supporting actress

• Viola Davis, Fences
• Naomie Harris, Moonlight
• Nicole Kidman, Lion
• Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
• Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea

Best film director

• Damien Chazelle, La La Land
• Tom Ford, Nocturnal Animals
• Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge
• Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
• Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea

Best screenplay

• La La Land
• Nocturnal Animals
• Moonlight
• Manchester by the Sea
• Hell or High Water

Best animated film

• Kubo and the Two Strings
• Moana
• My Life as a Zucchini
• Sing
• Zootopia

Best foreign language film

• Divines
• Elle
• Neruda
• The Salesman
• Toni Erdmann

Best film score

• Moonlight
• La La Land
• Arrival
• Lion
• Hidden Figures

Best film song

• Can’t Stop the Feeling, Trolls
• City of Stars, La La Land
• Faith, Sing
• Gold, Gold
• How Far I’ll Go, Moana

TELEVISION

Best TV series (drama)

• The Crown
• Game of Thrones
• Stranger Things
• This Is Us
• Westworld

Best TV series (comedy)

• Atlanta
• Black-ish
• Mozart in the Jungle
• Transparent
• Veep

Best miniseries or TV movie

• American Crime
• The Dresser
• The Night Manager
• The Night Of
• American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson

Best actor in miniseries or TV movie

• Riz Ahmed, The Night Of
• Bryan Cranston, All the Way
• John Turturro, The Night Of
• Tom Hiddleston, The Night Manager
• Courtney B Vance, American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson

Best actress in miniseries or TV movie

• Felicity Huffman, American Crime
• Riley Keough, The Girlfriend Experience
• Sarah Paulson, American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson
• Charlotte Rampling, London Spy
• Kerry Washington, Confirmation

Best TV supporting actress

• Olivia Colman, The Night Manager
• Lena Headey, Game of Thrones
• Chrissy Metz, This Is Us
• Mandy Moore, This Is Us
• Thandie Newton, Westworld

Best TV supporting actor

• Sterling K Brown, American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson
• Hugh Laurie, The Night Manager
• John Lithgow, The Crown
• Christian Slater, Mr Robot
• John Travolta, American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson

Best actress in a TV series (musical/comedy)

• Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
• Sarah Jessica Parker, Divorce
• Issa Rae, Insecure
• Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin
• Tracy Ellis Ross, Black-ish

Best actor in a TV series (musical/comedy)

• Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
• Gael Garcia Bernal, Mozart in the Jungle
• Donald Glover, Atlanta
• Nick Nolte, Graves
• Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent

Best actress in a TV series (drama)

• Caitriona Balfe, Outlander
• Claire Foy, The Crown
• Keri Russell, The Americans
• Winona Ryder, Stranger Things
• Evan Rachel Wood, Westworld

Best actor in a TV series (drama)

• Rami Malek, Mr. Robot
• Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
• Matthew Reese, The Americans
• Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan
• Billy Bob Thornton, Goliath

Keep. It. Reel.

60th BFI London Film Festival roundup and thoughts

This year’s festival was truly incredible, with the big films as well as the independent ones, there was a vast variety of things to see, as well as people to meet. It’s only been my second year covering the festival for my blog as press and it’s been a lot of fun watching all sort of films, getting to go to press conferences and meeting some really wonderful and passionate people. During my time at the festival, I decided to watch as much as I possibly could, I never thought that it would be tiring and difficult, whilst being totally worth it!

I was also fortunate enough to meet and interview a couple of directors who had films out at the festival. Both were incredibly passionate about their work and the industry, it’s clearly something that they are in love with, as am I. I love meeting these sorts of people, there’s something humbling about sitting down to talk to someone about their work. I hope I get to do more of it in the future.

I saw 20 films in 12 days, here’s a few words on each one:

1.  The Eagle Huntress – Surprisingly good
2.  A Day for Women – Unfortunate and terrible
3.  Into the Forest – Interesting, although made no sense in the end
4.  Barakah Meets Barakah – Good and funny
5.  Kills on Wheels – Inappropriately funny
6.  Sweet Dreams – Good
7.  A United Kingdom – Good but the music is a bit much
8.  A Monster Calls – Wonderful, beautiful and sad
9.  The Handmaiden – Good and weird
10.  The Eyes of my Mother – Creepy, scary, brilliant
11.  La La Land – Wonderful, stunning and extraordinary
12.  Manchester by the Sea – Decent but not great, no development at all
13.  David Lynch: The Art Life – Interesting and original
14.  Bleed for This – Okay, but not great, lacked heart
15.  Arrival – Better than most modern sci-fi films
16.  Birth of a Nation – On the nose score, in your face religious imagery, well told if a little anti-climactic
17.  Snowden – Better than I thought it would be
18.  Lion – Moving beyond words
19.  Nocturnal Animals – A story which essentially goes no where
20.  Free Fire – Good fun

Full reviews for some of these are on the way of course. In between these films I was normally queuing up for another film, chatting away to fellow delegates which is a lot more than I did last year. Frankly when I was new to the whole thing in 2015, I was nervous and I had no idea what to say to anyone! For any of you who have been to any random events by yourself where you have the chance to chat, get to know people and network, it can be hard! It’s something I took with me to this year’s festival in the sense that I just didn’t want to just stand around any more. I wanted to speak to people, see what they’ve seen, find out about their work and get to know them, which I did with a great deal of apprehension.

Those who I spoke to included several journalists, a student, a screen writer, a teacher, an actress, a producer and many more. All of them trying to make something of themselves in this insanely difficult industry. Just like myself. Having this ambition to become a film critic is a hard one to realise but recently, especially after walking from screening to screening for two weeks, it’s something that I want more than ever. I think that speaking to such a wide variety of people, finding out about their careers and what they have achieved and what they would like to achieve really got me thinking and it’s something I’m never going to stop thinking about.

For those of you who want to cover something like this, it’s as simple as putting yourself out there, but in a lot of ways. I had a couple of amazing moments this year and last, of knowing that I’m being given a press pass to cover the best thing we have for film goers and film lovers. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that you’re getting to attend something as fascinating as this! So the best thing to do is start a blog, take acting classes, become a vlogger, use social media to its maximum capacity and never give up.

I love getting to cover this festival, the films, the people, the time off work! There’s so much to love and I’m already excited about next year. So, here’s to 2017 and what will be the 61st BFI London Film Festival.

Keep. It. Reel.

London Film Comic Con 2016

London Film Comic Con took place this weekend and it was full of cosplayers, a few photos shoots, plenty of celebrities who you can have your photo taken with (for a price), cars from films and lots and lots of geeky stuff to buy. Sounds like heaven doesn’t it? Well, unfortunately it wasn’t.

I went full of anticipation, only to feel a little bit let down, perhaps I should have done my research. I suppose it was never going to be as good or as big as SDCC but it just feels like you go inside to empty your wallet and that’s mostly it. This is me very much nitpicking but there seems to be a very empty atmosphere when you walk around certain areas of Olympia London. Inside there were stalls selling comics, artwork, DVDs, replicas and so on but there are huge wide open spaces where you could fit more or have somewhere to sit rather than the floor. I don’t know why this bothers me but it made it feel quite sad in places.

Now this isn’t to say it was all bad. There were plenty of opportunities where you can take your photo for free. For example with any of the cosplayers and a few of the cars, plus there was a really fantastic Suicide Squad section which I really loved! But being told off for taking a photo of one of the many famous faces around is a joke! Yes they need to make money, no we don’t all want to be ripped off for the “privilege” of being in the photo with them.

What you can buy inside is truly amazing, and surprisingly not a rip off! Plenty of offers and cheap decent items to fill your nerdy desires. The artwork was fantastic, a really eclectic range when it came to framed and printed art, lots of incredible replicas, pieces being auctioned, comics being sold, collectors items including pin badges, buttons Pop figures and such for sale. I even saw Stromtrooper armour for sale. It’s an amazing range to see, but that is mostly what it is. Stalls to buy things from.

The best part of going? Seeing my friend Charlie and meeting her friend Hollie. Both awesome, both geeks. So I suggest, if you ever go to something like, go with people who are similar to you, those who might enjoy it, those who are geeky enough for you to get your geek on.

My haul from the day, not bad!

Keep. It. Reel.

Home Cinema

Just over 10 years ago, George Clooney made the move from TV to film. From ER to Hollywood hunk, as he is referred to constantly. He went from the very popular and sexy E.R to movies such as Three Kings, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Ocean’s Eleven working with big name directors Steven Soderbergh, the Coen brothers and David O Russell. It was the natural move for someone who has considered a good actor, charming, good looking and a delight to work with. Since his success, several others have made this natural progression such as Colin Farrell, James McAvoy, Zooey Deschanel and Will Smith

George Clooney in ER

These are household names with their film careers firmly intact and nailed down. They aren’t going anywhere but up in their careers. However, there has been a huge shift in more recent years with the big Hollywood A lister (as some are frustratingly referred to as) crossing over from the silver screen to the small screen. Where many actors began, it has become the medium of great love and respect amongst the writers, producers, directors and of course actors. With companies such as the unstoppable HBO producing shows which include Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire, Band of Brothers, Boardwalk Empire, Bored to Death and Game of Thrones, it’s not hard to see why Claire Danes, Justin Long, Alec Baldwin and Steve Buschemi are flocking to what used to be a stepping stone but is now a step up.

Homeland

The calibre of television has gone through a huge change over the past few years, with the introduction to sharper writers, new effects, gritty storylines that cut through to the bone, larger budgets and fresh ideas, it can really compete with the big screen. There are several similarities that make moving from film to television a no brainer. Similarities such as the writers not only work on television, those such as JJ Abrams developing his TV career as well as working on Mission: Impossible III and Super 8. The influences of which can been seen to bleed through into his television work in Lost with the action scenes and paranormal phenomena.

30 Rock

All of these actors have made something of themselves, starting from the bottom and working their way to super stardom. But maybe their fame shouldn’t be as celebrated as it is, they have gone one way, the way people seem to be shunning. It seems well-established actors as turning their back on films and flocking to HBO. Flocking to television. Flocking from the silver screen to the small screen. So many shows have come out in recent years which have the same high budgets Hollywood uses on a daily basis.

Bored To Death

For those of you who love these shows and enjoy seeing your favourite actors on a weekly basis, the best is yet to come. More and more actors are shunning Hollywood to forge a television career such as Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer who are currently starring in The Newsroom. The evolution of television has allowed actors to develop their characters further and act in a way like never before. They have these chances on the big screen on but not on the small screen. Not until now. Now we can have a well-rounded viewing experience with everything from the make-up (just take a look at those “walkers” In The Walking Dead) to the well-oiled dialogue. To me, it’s a real tribute in a way to how talented the writers are that lures the huge names to TV, you can’t have anything but respect for. The budgets, the talents and especially those such as Mark Whalberg and Steven Speilberg producing TV shows prove that television is the new black.

The Walking Dead

The Newsroom

 

Real life Disney

We all love Disney. Whether that’s Disney old school or Disney with Pixar. All of their films are loved, especially the classics such as Bambi, Lion King, Up, Dumbo, 101 Dalmations and so on. Some of these beloved movies have had a change. A real life change. Take a look at these photos of real life Disney characters, they are just amazing. Enjoy and Keep It Reel.

The real life Disney!

Alternative posters by Olly Moss

Empire Magazine have a regular feature with the artist Olly Moss, have a look at his brilliant artwork of alternative film posters. Superb work! Click here for more work on his site. Hope you love it!

News from Comic Con: The superheroes are still coming.

Comic Con news just in: new Marvel Comic films are on the way, including second installments of Captain America and Thor, both of which have foregone the usual numbers and opted for full titles. Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be with us on 4th April 2014, whilst Thor: The Dark World will be out on 8th November 2013. The rest include Ironman 3 which is out on 26th April 2013, Guardians of the Galaxy will be released on 1st August 2014 and Ant-Man does not currently have an official date as of yet.

So lots on the way for comic book fans, we’ll see if they can live up to the hype, especially Ant-Man which has had some footage shown at Comic Con. It starts with two agents at the end of a long white corridor, from which we pull back behind an air vent to reveal Ant-Man. Tiny, red and black suit, a mask. Simple. He jumps through the vent, runs along t he corridor and zaps into a normal size. The agents draw their guns. Ant-Man changes back into his small self and leaps into the mouth of one of the agents and knocks him out. He then grabs the tie of the other, flips him through the window and changes back to normal size. He enters an elevator and shrinks back down again.

We’ll see what this holds and how the others do against the magnitude of comic book films that are also in production right now, which includes two more Garfield Spidermans, Man of Steel with Christopher Nolan’s creative input as producer and more from The Avengers. It’s going to be a fun geek-filled few years.

s

The Expendables 2 new poster

I recently put up a new trailer for The Expendables 2 which is clearly going to be bigger, badder, tougher and harder than the previous film, adding more testosterone than you’ve ever seen on one screen! The same can be said for this poster which shows all of the stars from the film standing in form, doing their best to look as hard as they can! With most of them pushing a considerably older age shall we say, they are doing a dam good job at it! And well done for not jumping up and down in the pit of fire, you guys are fucking tough! YEAH!!! FEEL THE BURN!!! Literally.