Jude Law (at center) stars as a rogue submarine captain, with a misfit crew, after sunken treasure in Focus Features’ ‘Black Sea’ (Photo Credit: Alex Bailey / Focus Features)
“One hundred eighty two million dollars, equal share for every man,” says Captain Robinson (Jude Law) to his misfit crew aboard their rogue submarine in search of sunken gold treasure in the dramatic film Black Sea.
After being fired from his job as a submarine captain for a salvation company where he worked for 30 years, Robinson hears from an old friend that there might be a Nazi U-boat loaded with gold sitting on the bottom of the ocean in the Black Sea. Desperate and angry, Robinson puts together a crew of British and Russian sailors made up of engineers, cooks, ex-Navy men, divers, and convicts. Partnering up with a shadowy, wealthy backer, Robinson gets hold of a submarine and heads out in search of the sunken treasure.
As Robinson and his crew get farther out and dive deeper into the sea, greed, deception, fear and paranoia begin to spread among the crew. Robinson’s worried as his the rich backer’s representative, Daniels (Scoot McNairy), who asks the Captain, “What happens when one of them starts to figure out that their share gets bigger when there’s less people to share it with?”
Masterfully directed by Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald, Black Sea is an absorbing, suspenseful adventure thriller with a stand-out performance by Jude Law. It’s Treasure of the Sierra Madre meets Das Boot. The claustrophobic feel and look of the submarine is powerful and at times overwhelming, capturing perfectly the tight quarters these men must deal with and work in if they ever hope to find their treasure.
Jude Law gives one of his best performances as Robinson, the angry and determined Captain who truly believes this is both his and the crew’s last chance to make a fortune and never have to work for anyone ever again. Robinson is a crusty, middle-aged, past-his-prime sub captain and Law portrays him wonderfully, in particular when Robinson might be succumbing to gold fever.
Scoot McNairy is effective as Daniels, the overly nervous, manipulative representative of the mysterious wealthy backer who never planned to end up on board the submarine and knows more than he wants to share about their mission. His character is reminiscent of Paul Reiser’s “Carter Burke” in the film Aliens.
The set design is flawless in showing a rundown submarine and all its inner workings. The cinematography is terrific inside and also very impressive outside the submarine. Although some scenes are very dark, the audience will never have any trouble seeing the sub under water and at times it comes across quite ominous.
With superb direction, a solid script, and an outstanding performance by Jude Law, Black Sea is a first-rate adventure thriller not to be missed.
GRADE: B+
Rating: R for language throughout, some graphic images and violence
Summit’s showing off an advance look at The Divergent Series: Insurgent trailer which will air right before the 2015 Super Bowl. The new trailer features Tris’ fear landscape and includes a scene in which Tris tackles Jeanine (Kate Winslet). Coming to theaters on March 20, 2015, the second film of the Divergent series also stars Theo James, Ansel Elgort, Naomi Watts, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Maggie Q, and Mekhi Phifer.
The Plot:
The Divergent Series: Insurgent raises the stakes for Tris as she searches for allies and answers in the ruins of a futuristic Chicago. Tris (Woodley) and Four (James) are now fugitives on the run, hunted by Jeanine (Winslet), the leader of the power-hungry Erudite elite. Racing against time, they must find out what Tris’s family sacrificed their lives to protect, and why the Erudite leaders will do anything to stop them. Haunted by her past choices but desperate to protect the ones she loves, Tris, with Four at her side, faces one impossible challenge after another as they unlock the truth about the past and ultimately the future of their world.
The Oscar-nominated song “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from the documentary feature film Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me will be performed by Country singer Tim McGraw during the 2015 Academy Awards. Campbell and Julian Raymond wrote the song specifically for the documentary which celebrates Campbell’s career and features his goodbye tour following his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease.
“I’m honored to be asked to sing this powerful song from one of the true legends of the music industry,” said McGraw.
Announcing McGraw’s performance, Oscar producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said, “We couldn’t think of anyone better than Tim McGraw to properly celebrate Oscar nominee, Glen Campbell. Tim is the consummate country artist and will bring a bit of Nashville to the Oscars stage.”
The 87th Academy Awards will be held on February 22, 2015 and will be broadcast live on ABC at 4pm PT/7pm ET. Neil Patrick Harris is this year’s host.
Alchemy’s released the official trailer for Madame Bovary, the romantic drama starring Mia Wasikowska, Paul Giamatti, and Ezra Miller. Based on the classic novel by Gustave Flaubert and directed by Sophie Barthes, the cast also includes Rhys Ifans, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Logan Marshall-Green, and Laura Carmichael.
Alchemy’s releasing the new film adaptation this coming summer.
The Plot:
Set in Normandy, France, Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert’s classic story of Emma Bovary (Wasikowska), a young beauty who impulsively marries small-town doctor, Charles Bovary (Lloyd-Hughes), to leave her father’s pig farm far behind. But after being introduced to the glamorous world of high society, she soon becomes bored with her stodgy husband and mundane life and seeks prestige and excitement outside the bonds of marriage.
Woody Allen is back in business with Sony Pictures Classics as the studio announced they’ve just picked up the North American rights to his upcoming film. The acquisition brings the total of Allen films distributed by Sony Pictures Classics to eight.
Although the plot hasn’t been released yet, the film now has an official title: Irrational Man. There’s no word yet on when Irrational Man will arrive in theaters.
“Sony Classics and I have a good working relationship. I like the way they handle my movies, very special, very classy and I always hope my films live up to their expectations,” explained Woody Allen.
“Woody Allen’s new movie Irrational Man, his latest annual gift to moviegoers everywhere, is as fresh and winning as ever,” stated Sony Pictures Classics.
The cast includes Jamie Blackley, Joaquin Phoenix, Parker Posey, and Emma Stone. Stone starred in Allen’s last film, Magic in the Moonlight.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Outlander‘s Caitriona Balfe has joined the cast of Money Monster. Jodie Foster’s directing the thriller and George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jack O’Connell (Unbroken) are on board in starring roles. The film’s set up at TriStar Productions and is expected to begin shooting shortly, with the story unfolding in near real time according to TriStar’s original press release announcing their involvement in the project.
Jamie Linden wrote the script and Clooney, Grant Heslov, Daniel Dubiecki and Lara Alameddine are producing.
Per TriStar’s official announcement, Clooney stars as “Lee Gates, a bombastic television stock huckster, whose program (the titular ‘Money Monster’), and life, are taken hostage by an outraged gunman (O’Connell). As much of the world watches live, Gates must keep himself alive and, with help from the woman (Roberts) who produces the show, uncover the truth behind a tangle of big money lies.”
THR says Balfe will be playing a PR executive from the company whose stock crash caused O’Connell’s character to lose his savings.
Bob Odenkirk, Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan (Photo by Jacob Lewis / AMC)
At the 2015 Television Critics Association winter press event, AMC’s Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan was a much sought-after interview. Breaking Bad finished its five-season award-winning run in 2013 and the prequel Better Call Saul starring Bob Odenkirk is one of 2015’s most anticipated series. Fortunately, I was able to sit down with Gilligan along with a handful of other journalists to ask a few questions about the prequel premiering on February 8, 2015.
Interview with Vince Gilligan
How quickly will his name change from ‘Jimmy’ to Saul Goodman?
Vince Gilligan: “It really is a season about this person becoming who he’s going to become. Having said that, I can’t promise to you that he’ll even become the person he’s going to become within the first season.
And the question is, we have so much fun – me and the writers, I’m talking about – meeting and getting to understand Jimmy and who he is down deep inside, who he is at heart, that we thought to ourselves, ‘Gee, I guess we’ve got to get renamed Saul Goodman. When are we going to do that?’ Really, these characters kind of tell you – and it was the same way on Breaking Bad – these characters kind of tell you where their head is at and they tell you what they need. And they tell you how to write the story if you listen closely enough. So this character, Jimmy, really is a character who is just as interesting to us before he becomes Saul. In fact, in some ways maybe even more so.”
Did you ever look at Bob Odenkirk when you were originally writing Saul and think that he had an interesting backstory?
Vince Gilligan: “No. Well, we thought theoretically he must have an interesting backstory.”
It’s interesting because Better Call Saul isn’t the show many people are going to expect it to be.
Vince Gilligan: “This show…I’m not even exaggerating when I say that we in the writers room were pleasantly surprised by it. When we sat down to do this, we knew we loved the character of Saul Goodman. We knew loved Bob Odenkirk, but we really didn’t know where the whole thing was going to go. So, it was really a voyage of discovery in the writers room. There were days when we said, ‘Oh, man, have we agreed to do…’ Actually, not agreed but have we been pushed to do a show about a guy who doesn’t necessarily warrant a TV show? We had some dark days of the soul in the early going and I’m very happy and relieved to say that now that we’re a season into it, yes this guy does carry it – this character and the actor, certainly. We weren’t worried about the actor but we were worried about the character. We never worried about Bob being able to carry it. And after a season now we’re very relieved and happy to be able to report that in my opinion, the answer is yes.”
Where did you find the surreal tone and are you going to keep it or even increase it?
Vince Gilligan: “Well, I think there are moments of surrealness to the show but I think our best bet is to keep the character grounded and as recognizably human as possible. And so I think even in those more surreal moments, he is a real guy. I think there will always be an effort to ground the character and the story, and not just the character of Jimmy but all of the characters around him.”
Will there be a ‘case of the week’ element to the series?
Vince Gilligan: “There’s no rule that says there couldn’t be. We talked a lot about that. Should the show be episodic or should it be serialized? And as you’ll see as this season progresses, it’s a much more serialized show and not a case of the week show. But we could occasionally in the future have episodes that are a case of the week. Really, it sounds like an odd thing to say but the character kind of tells us what he needs and really the character of Walter White in Breaking Bad was the same. He told us where the show needed to go. This show works in a very similar fashion.”
Why was Saul the right character to focus on in a prequel?
Vince Gilligan: “Because we love Bob and we love Saul, and we love putting words in Saul’s mouth. It started off as simple as that. We loved writing the crazy dialogue that Saul produces volumes of. Having said that, it was really as simple as that at the beginning of it all and then it dawned on us – and it’s a very obvious question in hindsight – but we started to say to ourselves, ‘How deep do you build a show around this character?’ And that’s why it dawned on us that we really need to learn about who he was before he was Saul Goodman. We had to garner a much deeper understanding of who he really is.”
CBS’s upcoming series Supergirl has found its Jimmy Olsen. Mehcad Brooks has snagged the role of Jimmy, the intrepid photographer and love interest of Supergirl, in CBS’s series.
The comic book-inspired show is being developed by DC Entertainment, Warner Bros, and Berlanti Productions.
Melissa Benoist (Glee) is attached to play Supergirl/Kara Zor-el.
Brooks’ credits include Desperate Housewives, The Game, The Deep End, My Generation, and Necessary Roughness. He also had a supporting role in HBO’s True Blood playing ‘Eggs’.
Disney’s finally going to introduce a Latina princess. The Disney Channel announced Elena of Avalor, an animated TV series starring Princess Elena (voiced by Aimee Carrero), will debut in 2016. The series is a spin-off of Sofia the First and is executive produced by Craig Gerber, with Harvard professor Doris Sommer and El Camino Project Marcela Davison Aviles serving as cultural advisors.
“Our creative team has delivered a universal story with themes that authentically reflect the hopes and dreams of our diverse audience,” said Nancy Kanter, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Disney Junior Worldwide. “What excites us most is the chance to use distinctive animation and visual design to tell wonderful stories influenced by culture and traditions that are familiar to the worldwide population of Hispanic and Latino families and reflect the interests and aspirations of all children as told through a classic fairy tale.”
The Plot:
Princess Elena’s journey began long ago when her parents and kingdom were taken from her by the evil sorceress, Shuriki. Elena bravely faced the sorceress to protect her little sister, Princess Isabel, and grandparents but in the process, her magical amulet pulled her inside its enchanted jewel, saving her life but imprisoning her at the same time. Decades later, Princess Sofia of Enchancia discovers the truth about the amulet she has worn since joining her royal family and sets out to restore Elena to her human form and help her return to the kingdom of Avalor.
While Elena is the rightful heir to the throne, she is only age 16 so she will rule Avalor with the help of a Grand Council comprised of her Grandfather Tito, Grandmother Cici and Royal Advisor, Duke Esteban.
With some magical friends by her side – Mateo, a wizard-in-training, and Skylar, a magical flying creature – Princess Elena’s further adventures will lead her to understand that her new role requires thoughtfulness, resilience and compassion, the traits of all truly great leaders.
Fox’s Gotham takes place in the dark, dangerous, and seedy streets of Gotham City where ruthless supervillains rule empires, the majority of cops are corrupt, and the boy who will become Batman is just getting used to living without his parents. In a series packed with colorful characters, Fish Mooney is the most lethal female of the bunch. Jada Pinkett Smith tackles the key role in the series, and in a conference call with journalists she discussed how she’s able to get into character, the appeal of being a part of this comic book-inspired world, and Fish’s future.
Jada Pinkett Smith Interview
Fish Mooney has an amazing wardrobe. Do you have any input into her style?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “I actually do. Our fantastic costume designer usually just comes to me and says, ‘What do you think about these fabrics? What do you think about this idea?’ So I pretty much told Lisa [Padovani] to do what she feels, because she’s such a fantastic artist. We usually just talk about shape and color.”
At the end of the Jan 26th episode, “Welcome Back, Jim Gordon,” Fish appears to be leaving. Can you tease us about what’s coming or maybe when she’s coming back?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “Well, it’s not quite over yet but we’ll see if Fish survives the season. It’s a little tense from here on out, that’s for sure. It’s a little rough on Fish from here on out.”
What’s been your favorite scene to do thus far?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “I think one of my favorite scenes would have to be that Maroni scene when I go to Maroni and I hear that Penguin’s alive but I have yet to see him, and then he comes from the back in the kitchen and I see him for the first time. I think that’s probably one of my favorite scenes that I’ve done so far.”
What was it like preparing for this role since there wasn’t any source material to reference?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “That’s one of the reasons why the role was so interesting to me because it was something that Bruno [Heller] really wanted a partner in creating this Fish Mooney character. I love female gangsters. I just really love them. I think they’re really interesting characters and interesting people. There’s one, Griselda Blanco, who I had studied and I really love the character from Sunset Boulevard and it was kind of a mishmash of those two. Bruno had some suggestions and [we came] together and I said, ‘Well, I would really like to do a mixture of these two women.’
Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney in ‘Gotham’ (Photo by Jessica Miglio, FOX)
One thing I love about the supervillains in Gotham is that they’re always so colorful. I really wanted her to be grounded but also have quite a flair.”
Are you enjoying being a part of a comic book universe?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “Yeah, I am enjoying it. I love comic books and so it’s been a real pleasure to be able to participate in this way, for sure.”
What did you add to Fish that wasn’t originally scripted for you?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “I would say some of her Fish-isms. Her ‘tik, tik, tik.’ A lot of her mannerisms and just some of those little added attitude phrases that Fish has. I would say that would be pretty much what I would add. Thank goodness I have a lot of room on set just because Bruno and the writers know that we’re still trying to find the voice of this character so I have a lot of room to improv at times when it comes to Fish, so that’s been fun as well. Just adding those little flavors that I think make Fish Mooney, Fish.”
Are you enjoying the instant fan feedback you’ve been getting on Twitter during the episodes?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “I have so much fun. Yeah, I have a lot of fun. This is such an enthusiastic genre. The fans that participate in this particular genre are just so much fun, so I have a good time when I’m on Twitter talking about the show. I have a blast.”
Are there specific acting challenges in developing a character people love to hate and yet root for?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “That’s a really good question. As I was saying before I love how powerful Fish can be but at the same time you still want her to be relatable, you know what I mean? You still want people to be able to look at this woman and they might not necessarily know her story but be able to relate to her. I think that this world of Gotham, sometimes in finding where you need to be emotionally or how grounded you need to be in a scene or how far you can actually go with the colors of Fish Mooney, sometimes tends to be a bit challenging. That’s always a seesaw; it’s always trying to find that balance. That aspect is the most challenging of trying to keep her grounded and real. That can be really challenging.”
How would you describe her relationship with Penguin? What have you enjoyed most in seeing that relationship develop?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “I would say that I think she saw Penguin as one of her adopted orphans, somebody she took off the street and helped him become something, so I think that she felt deeply betrayed by Penguin. It will be interesting to see where their relationship goes from here. Right now they’re not getting along too well [laughing] and she’s still pretty upset with him, you know? But it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.”
There have been comments about people noticing a change in your delivery style. Is this a conscious decision for you to be playing Fish Mooney the thug pretending to be Fish Mooney the sophisticated gangster? Is that something you discussed with Bruno?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “Yeah. You know, the thing about Fish Mooney is that you’ll see, especially in the upcoming shows, you will see the many faces of Fish Mooney. I think Fish Mooney is a woman who because of her background and because of who she really is has taken it upon herself to do a lot of cover-ups. She has all of these different kinds of personalities that she picks and chooses to use during certain times. You have this kind of sophisticated Fish, what she considers to be sophisticated – what a sophisticated woman sounds like, what a sophisticated woman looks like – but then there are times when she loses her cool and you kind of see her original essence, which can get a little gutter. And then sometimes when she has to be influential with men, you’ll see her put on her little sexy kitten voice, which is coming up.
This is a woman who has created all these different masks to fit different times just depending on what she’s trying to do at that point in time. It’s interesting because when you watch people in real life, you’ll see that happen often. She just does it in a more extreme way.”
Is it true that when you came in to audition for Fish Mooney you came in with a man on a leash and liar written across his forehead? What gave you the instinct to show the people that’s what Fish embodied?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “Well, it wasn’t for an audition. I know that’s a better story, but it wasn’t for an audition. We were actually doing a work session about Fish Mooney and trying to find the character. That was one of the reasons I decided to do something as extreme as that because I felt like instead of talking about it, just show it. I just felt like from the psychology that I had put together in regard to who I thought Fish was, that’s something better to show than to explain verbally. And so that was one of the reasons why I decided for that particular creative session that I had with Bruno and Danny [Cannon] at the time, which it had already been decided that I would play Fish, I decided to come in with the guy on the leash to just go, ‘This is who this woman is. This is what I see.’ They’re like, ‘Okay, got it.’ [Laughing] It was a very short session to say the least!
They’re like, ‘Okay, we’re clear.’ I was done up and I had this guy on a leash with no shirt on with liar written across his head in red lipstick and they are like, ‘We are clear.’ It gave Bruno a nice foundation to work from, for sure.”
You are known for playing strong characters. Which one would you say is your favorite to play?
Jada Pinkett Smith: “I would say I love playing Fish Mooney. I think you’re going to see a lot more color from Fish in the next episodes to come. I think you’re going to see a lot more vulnerability, you’re going to see a lot more of a human side of Fish Mooney. I see Fish Mooney as a more extreme version of a woman who wears many faces, a woman who is strong but yet afraid. I would say that the Fish Mooney character has, especially in these coming episodes, has been really fun and I love how smart and perceptive she is.
She’s just decided to use her skills and not…you know, she’s a criminal. She decided to be a criminal instead of, you know, a doctor. But I really love her and what she’s becoming, too. I think in the next few episodes and definitely toward the end you’re going to see a whole different Fish and a woman that definitely has some heart. You’ve seen the ruthless, now you’re going to see some heart.”
Is there a character you’d like to play in the future?
“I think there’s a character coming up in Magic Mike that I’m really happy about that is totally different from anything I’ve done thus far, once again. And this woman is strong in a much different way also, and I think that from the response that we’ve been getting in regards to the character that I play in Magic Mike I’m really happy with how that turned out. She’ll probably end up being one of my favorites as well.”
Can you talk more about the sexuality of the character and what that’s been like?
“It’s been great. I think with the Fish Mooney character everything pretty much goes as far as she’s concerned. By any means necessary is kind of her motto. I definitely think that Fish doesn’t discriminate when it comes to her sexuality.”
What did you find so fascinating about the world of Gotham?
“Because Gotham is so mysterious, you know? There’s this kind of undertone to Gotham and the idea that the city itself is kind of this underbelly. It’s just like, ‘What is going on in these alleys? What’s going on in these so-called high rises? What is happening? Why is it that this place has some of the most incredible villains and you have one of the most beloved superheroes which is Batman, that comes from this dark, gritty atmosphere?’
I just felt like Gotham itself has been such a mystery and I’ve always been drawn to it. What is Gotham? What is the city about? Who’s there, and why is it this place? What is it about this place? And so that has always fascinated me about the Batman story, is just his backdrop which has been Gotham.”
Was there a particular scene or episode where you felt like you really clicked with Fish and became her?
“I think, funny enough, it really felt like as soon as I put on that wig, Fish is there. As soon as I put on that wig and her gear because it’s so specifically her, it’s like it’s a unique and immediate transformation. So the first day as soon as I put on that wig and that dress I just felt like, ‘Oh, there she is.’ And every time I do it, she just arrives. It’s a really beautiful thing to have. As an actress, you just don’t have to work hard for it. That, I’m grateful for. That wig and those heels and the nails really conjure her.”
