Pixar’s absent from the 2014 theatrical release schedule, but the award-winning animation studio will be back in 2015 with Inside Out. Directed by Pete Docter and co-director Ronnie del Carmen, Inside Out will enter theaters on June 19, 2015 featuring a voice cast that includes Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, and Phyllis Smith.
Playing in front of Inside Out‘s theatrical release will be the short film, Lava, directed by James Ford Murphy.
A year out from seeing Inside Out and Lava in theaters, Pixar’s just released the official storylines and new art for each of the two animated films.
The Official Inside Out Plot:
From an adventurous balloon ride above the clouds to a monster-filled metropolis, Academy Award-winning director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc., Up) has taken audiences to unique and imaginative places. In Disney•Pixar’s original movie Inside Out, he will take us to the most extraordinary location of all—inside the mind.
Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it’s no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life.
As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley’s main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.
Poster for ‘Lava’
The Official Lava Plot:
Inspired by the isolated beauty of tropical islands and the explosive allure of ocean volcanoes, Lava is a musical love story that takes place over millions of years.
Sarah Carter (‘Maggie’) admits she’s not good at talking about Falling Skies leading into a season. She’s fine with discussing the series once episodes have aired, but as far as teasing what audiences can expect from season four it was a difficult task for Carter who seemed to want to spill the beans on everything – that’s how enthusiastic she is about this upcoming season.
Chatting at WonderCon, Carter discussed her character’s romantic entanglements as well as how this season has women in more powerful positions among the surviving humans.
Falling Skies season four premieres on TNT on June 22, 2014 at 10pm ET/PT.
Sarah Carter Falling Skies Interview
What are you allowed to tease about this new season?
Sarah Carter: “This is our fourth season that’s about to air so things are completely different and very exciting, and especially for Maggie. I think this is one of her wildest seasons…it is her wildest season. What can I tease you about? Well, I think you have probably heard that there’s a love triangle and it’s not with Karen. I was just officially given permission to tease about this and I’m terrified for this story to come out. When it was written I had a very strong reaction and I think it’s because I genuinely love working with Drew Roy and our relationship – the Hal and Maggie relationship. And we are still very much working together but the relationship is now complex because his little brother’s involved.
When I saw it on the page, I went, ‘I’m doing what?! What’s going on? How do you justify this?’ Tears…phone calls to David. ‘David, I know this is an awesome idea. I trust you because you’re a genius. But are you sure? Are you sure?’ But it is making for incredible drama, I have to admit.”
Isn’t this better than Drew having another woman?
Sarah Carter: “Hal…poor Hal. Oh my god! I think Maggie’s got it harder though. It’s heart-wrenching because she’s entirely aware of what’s going on and there is a major piece that I can not tell which is the reason for all of this. That part of the storyline is phenomenal. I can’t wait until Comic-Con when I can speak freely. So, it’s justified but it’s still hard.”
Where does the relationship stand at the start of the season?
Sarah Carter: “Off the top of the season, Maggie and Hal are split up so we both take leadership roles in our new little communities. And Hal’s storyline is phenomenal and I was excited about not being only in a romantic storyline but actually taking a leadership role. And Tom empowers Maggie in this season a lot to be that voice of truth and reason.
I think when Ben sees me in that role, he falls in love and he also wants to be around me a lot. Maggie is taken aback… We know Maggie to stand in the back of the crowd, right? She’s sort of like looking at everyone and assessing the situation. She’ll take action, but she doesn’t say much. She’ll take action when she wants to make a political move. She’s a political character, for sure. But now Tom is saying, ‘Maggie, what is up?’ He’s seeing that she can stand on her own two feet and she can also affect change. So, that’s awesome to play.”
It says in the notes that Jessy Schram is back this season, but you killed off Karen. Can you say anything about her return?
Sarah Carter: “Well, I think she’s forever going to be the reason for a lot of the things that happen on the show. She’s the reason for everything in the next season, separating, and coming back together. She has a lot to do with Scarlett Byrne’s character. Scarlett is phenomenal next season. She’s such a great actress. I think that’s probably the best thing about next season: Scarlett Byrne.
Great storylines for women, actually, in this upcoming season. Moon [Bloodgood’s] character Anne Glass is a full-on warrior. I think it takes the show to a whole other place to have all of these women in leadership positions, and I was not expecting that. So kudos to the writing team.”
Do you think it needed four seasons to take it to this level or do you think it was something that was missing that should have been addressed sooner?
Sarah Carter: “Oh, maybe. You know the show is about Tom Mason and his sons and that’s wonderful. That’s sort of Spielberg’s niche and I have a lot of respect for that. Noah Wyle is very much the lead this season. It is all about Tom Mason’s arc and he is creating an umbrella for all of us. But, yeah, maybe it was our turn. Maybe it took a while for women to… I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer that. I don’t really think of the show in terms of why, when, it just is. It’s so crazy next season. Everything is what you don’t expect.”
Rosario Dawson (Sin City) has signed on to a role in Marvel’s Daredevil as just announced today by Marvel and Netflix. The name of the character she’ll be playing wasn’t confirmed, however, Marvel did say she’ll play “a dedicated young woman whose quest to heal the wounds of Hell’s Kitchen brings Matt Murdock unexpectedly crashing into her life, while her own journey forever alters the course of his battle against the injustices of this broken city.”
The cast is led by Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk.
“Rosario Dawson is one the most charismatic, talented, and powerful actresses in Hollywood, so she was always at the top of our list for Marvel’s Daredevil,” said Jeph Loeb, Marvel’s Head of Television. “Her role in the series is absolutely critical to Matt Murdock’s journey to become the hero we know as Daredevil.”
The 13-episode series will air on Netflix in 2015. Spartacus‘ Steven S. DeKnight is the showrunner and is executive producing the series with Drew Goddard and Jeph Loeb. Goddard also wrote the first two episodes.
The Plot:
Marvel’s Daredevil follows the journey of Matt Murdock, who was blinded as a young boy but imbued with extraordinary senses, now fighting against injustice by day as a lawyer, and by night as the superhero Daredevil in modern day Hell’s Kitchen, New York City.
Guess what film Paramount Pictures will be pushing come awards season (besides Interstellar). I’ll give you one hint: they’ve just announced a prime Christmas Day theatrical limited release date for this dramatic movie. Selma, directed by Middle of Nowhere‘s Ava DuVernay, has landed the December 25th limited release spot to be followed by a wide release on January 9, 2015.
Oprah Winfrey, Christian Colson, and Plan B are producing, and Paramount Pictures and Pathe confirmed today that Winfrey will also play a character in the film. She’s joining the cast as Annie Lee Cooper, “an elderly woman and visible leader amongst the civil rights protesters in Selma who tried to register to vote and was unfairly denied by the sheriff.”
Filming is currently underway in Selma, Alabama as well as Montgomery, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia.
The cast is led by David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. and includes Tom Wilkinson as Lyndon Baines Johnson, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, Andre Holland as Andrew Young, Omar J. Dorsey as James Orange, Alessandro Nivola as John Doar, Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover, Giovanni Ribisi as Lee White, Tessa Thompson as Diane Nash, Colman Domingo as Ralph Abernathy, Stephen Root as Al Lingo, Jeremy Strong as James Reeb, and Tim Roth as George Wallace.
The Plot:
Selma is the story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic struggle to secure voting rights for all people – a dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated with the epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and led to President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The first official photo from AMC’s ‘Better Call Saul’
AMC’s unveiled this first official photo from the set of the Breaking Bad prequel, Better Call Saul, featuring Bob Odenkirk as attorney Saul Goodman, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul series creator and showrunner Vince Gilligan (who’s also directing the first episode) and co-showrunner Peter Gould (he created the ‘Saul’ character). However, along with this bit of Better Call Saul goodness from the Albuquerque set comes word that the series has been pushed back from a late 2014 premiere to early 2015.
In the good news department, the network has confirmed there will be a season two of Better Call Saul with an episode order that’s upped from the first season’s 10-episode order to 13. Season one will air during the first quarter of 2015 and season two will follow in the first quarter of 2016.
“Production on Better Call Saul is underway, and we could not be more proud of, nor more excited about, the work to date. We join the fans in eager anticipation for this series, and today we happily confirm that our initial Saul order is for two seasons and a total of 23 episodes,” said AMC president Charlie Collier. “When introducing any series, especially one with the DNA of Breaking Bad, there are countless factors to consider in making sure the show gets the launch it deserves. We have a strong history with Vince, Peter, Bob, the studio, and so many involved with this production; we are enjoying the process on Saul and all share a focus on making it a true television event. No half measures.”
“Frankie, the world is going to hear that voice,” says Angelo ‘Gyp’ DeCarlo (Christopher Walken), the highly respected/connected mobster, talking to a young Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young). Gyp’s trying to reassure the kid if he works hard one day he’ll make it big in the music business with his great singing voice in the movie adaptation of the smash Broadway hit musical Jersey Boys.
The film opens in 1951 New Jersey where Frankie Valli is a barber’s assistant and is hoping to be in his best friend Tommy DeVito’s (Vincent Piazza) music group. Together the two young hellraisers get into trouble with the law on a regular basis. But since Frankie is the youngest – Tommy almost always covers for him and even convinces the judge, when they end up getting caught stealing and destroying property – to let him off with a warning while Tommy takes the full punishment.
A few years pass and Tommy brings Frankie into the group along with their friend Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda). But even with Frankie’s great falsetto voice the group has no original songs which keeps them from getting recorded and hitting the big time. Things begin to change though when Tommy’s friend Joe Pesci (Joseph Russo) … Yes, the famous actor before he became famous … introduces the gang to Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), a music writer who already has a semi-hit playing in jukeboxes. After some resistance from Tommy who’s initially leery of letting Bob in as a full partner, the four friends set out to make new music, record a demo, and finally make it to the big time with their new name: The Four Seasons.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, Jersey Boys is an engaging, great looking musical movie biography of the rise and eventual fall of the classic 1960s rock group. The film benefits greatly with the casting of three actors who played the same roles on stage: John Lloyd Young, Michael Lomenda and Erich Bergen. These three young actors know exactly how to portray these characters and already have solid chemistry. However, the real stand-out performance in the cast is by Vincent Piazza as Tommy the original leader of the group and Frankie’s surrogate big brother. Piazza captures perfectly the wannabe wise guy punk who’s always looking for an angle to make a quick extra couple of bucks and who can’t keep away from gambling. In fact, the only redeemable quality Tommy has is his friendship with Frankie and how he looks out for him like an older brother would and gets him started in the group. It’s a performance that should be considered come Oscar time for Best Supporting Actor.
Christopher Walken steals every scene he’s in – no big surprise here – as the New Jersey mob boss Gyp DeCarlo who has great affection for the four young men (especially Frankie) and becomes a great friend and adviser to the guys during the darker times of the Four Seasons’ career. It’s a performance that might just be remembered during Oscar nominating season.
The production of the film is fantastic, bringing back to the big screen the look, sound, and feel of the 1950s, 1960s and the early 1970s in America. The clothes, cars, hairstyles, buildings, clubs, stages all look and feel authentic capturing an era long since gone. But by far it’s the music and the classic hits of The Four Seasons that are the biggest highlight of the film as the moviegoing audience either re-lives or experiences for the first time such classic songs as “My Eyes Adored You,” “Sherry,” “Dawn” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You.” The film’s soundtrack is sure to have audiences downloading these classics to their iPod soon after leaving the theater.
The only weakness in the film is with the make-up as the four singers age over the decades, which seems to be almost non-existent and than used almost laughably bad near the end of the film.
With strong performances, great direction, wonderful set and costume design, and a classic soundtrack, Jersey Boys is an extremely entertaining musical not to be missed.
Director Alejandro Monteverde’s inspirational family film Little Boy has been picked up by Open Road Films for U.S. distribution. Executive produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett (Son of God), Little Boy stars Kevin James, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Ben Chaplin, Michael Rapaport, Cary Tagawa, Ted Levine, David Henrie, Eduardo Verastegui, and young newcomer Jakob Salvati.
“Little Boy is a truly uplifting movie that resonates with family audiences and we are thrilled to add it to our slate,” said Tom Ortenberg, CEO of Open Road Films. “Roma Downey and Mark Burnett are some of the most successful producers in this arena and we are looking forward to working with them on this project.”
“This film is beautiful and emotionally resonant about a little boy’s love for his father,” said executive producers Downey and Burnett. “The movie shows the simplicity and single minded focus of a 7-year old boy who simply wants his dad to come home. This little boy moves mountains. It is a story that will resonate across all cultures and audiences.”
Director Monteverde and Pepe Portillo co-wrote the script. Monteverde’s also a producer on the project along with Eduardo Verastegui, Leo Severino, Emilio Azcarraga, Bernardo Gomez, Micky Ohare and Sean Wolfington.
The Plot:
Little Boy is the magical story of a 7-year old boy who is willing to do whatever it takes to end World War II so he can bring his father home. The story reveals the indescribable love a father has for his little boy and the love a son has for his father.
Rising Star’s Ludacris, Kesha, Brad Paisley and Josh Groban (Photo by Bob D’Amico/ABC)
ABC’s revealed the list of the first contestants who will be competing on the new singing competition series, Rising Star. Premiering on June 22, 2014 at 9pm and airing for 10 weeks, the new series has Josh Groban as host and Brad Paisley, Kesha, and Ludacris on its ‘expert panel’.
Here’s the details on Rising Star:
Rising Star completely reinvents the traditional singing competition as–for the first time ever–the audience has the final say in real time. The show follows a group of aspiring singers as they perform live. During the performances, viewers vote in real time via an App to determine if the singer will advance in the competition. If the voting reaches a certain threshold, the performer moves on. In addition, the performer can see how the voting is going throughout the performance, so the feedback is immediate and dramatic.
To vote for your favorite contestants, home judges (viewers) can download the Rising Star ABC app through the Apple App Store, Windows Market Place, or the Google Play Store. The App is essential to participate in the voting process, but it’s totally FREE and easy to use. Just register with your Facebook or Twitter account, and you’re ready to go. Before each performance, you’ll be asked to check-in, and then when it’s time to vote, swipe BLUE (to the right) to vote YES or RED (to the left) to vote NO. You’ll see the results of the vote in REAL TIME on television – even if you are on the West Coast. In just seconds, your votes determine whether the wall rises, whether a contestant moves on or goes home, or if you’re on the West Coast, whether a lucky contestant gets a second chance. And IF you give us permission through the app, you might also see your Facebook or Twitter profile picture on the Rising Star wall.
Rising Star‘s First Contestants:
Lisa Punch, Age 21, Brooklyn, NY
Joshua Peavy, Age 28, Soperton, GA
Jesse Kinch, Age 20, Seaford, NY
Maneepat Myra Molloy, Age 16, Los Angeles, CA
Sarah Darling, Age 31, Nashville, TN
Summer Collins, Age 18, Fayetteville, NC
Daniel & Olivia, (Daniel Wolfe, Age 24 and Olivia Thai, Age 25) San Gabriel Valley, CA
Colin Huntley, Age 16, Georgetown, TX
Beyond 5, Nashville, TN
(Members of Beyond 5: Zac Love, Age 19; Tanner Myler, Age 19; TJ Ryan, Age 16; Patch Crowe, Age 19; Ammon Soloasa Tuimaualuga, Age 17)
FilmBuff has just debuted the new theatrical poster for the teen drama Affluenza, coming to theaters and On Demand on July 11, 2014. Directed by Kevin Asch (Holy Rollers), the cast includes Nicola Peltz, Grant Gustin, Gregg Sulkin, Ben Rosenfield, Steve Guttenberg and Samantha Mathis.
The Plot:
Suburbia, 2008. Swept up in a heady pre-recession world of absentee parents, plentiful booze and casual sex, aspiring photographer Fisher Miller (Ben Rosenfield) escapes his middle-class life for the moneyed mansions of the young, beautiful elite. With a stash of high-quality weed and a vintage camera, he gains access to his gorgeous cousin Kate’s (Nicola Peltz) circle of wealthy and indulged friends, just as their entitled reality is about to spin out of control. A revealing take on the hidden perils of privilege.
Super Troopers‘ Jay Chandrasekhar is behind a new half-hour comedy drama coming to Amazon Instant Video this year. Really, created, written and directed by Chandrasekhar, will premiere during its third pilot season. The series stars Chandrasekhar, Sarah Chalke, Selma Blair, Travis Schuldt, Hayes MacArthur, Collette Wolfe, Luka Jones, Lindsay Sloane and Rob Delaney.
“At Amazon Studios, we’re always looking for shows with distinctive voices and captivating characters that our customers won’t see anywhere else on TV,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “From the moment we read the script we knew that Really is one of those shows, and we think Amazon customers will really (pun intended) enjoy viewing the pilot later this year.”
“One of the most accomplished comedy writer/directors around, Jay’s script stays true to the humor that his fans know and love him for and Amazon as the distribution platform will no doubt allow a whole new audience to be introduced to him,” said Main Street Films’ Chairman Craig Chang.
“Really is meant to be a sophisticated, funny, strikingly honest cable comedy for adults,” said Jay Chandrasekhar. “We’re going to talk honestly about subjects including sex, alcohol, addiction, drugs, race and politics. Good fun.”
The Plot:
Really is about four hard-charging suburban Chicago couples trying to grasp on to their dwindling youth. At the center are the happily but messily married couple “Jed,” played by Chandrasekhar, and “Lori,” played by Sarah Chalke. When Jed is faced with the choice of keeping his pal’s secret or destroying his friend group, he winds up digging himself into a very deep hole. Really explores marriage, friendship and the stifling peculiarities of suburban Chicago life.
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