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Why Did George Clooney Turn Down Noah Calhoun Role In The Notebook? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Imagine George Clooney playing Noah Calhoun in The Notebook. Hard to picture, right? That’s because it almost happened, but George himself put the brakes on it. In a shocking reveal during a virtual panel at the 64th BFI London Film Festival, Clooney confessed that he was supposed to play the young Noah, with Paul Newman set to take on the older version. However, George quickly pulled out. Why? He didn’t feel he could match up to Newman’s legendary looks.

According to Pop Sugar, Clooney shared, “We were going to do The Notebook together… I was going to play him as a young man. It’s funny, we met, said, ‘This is it. It’s going to be great.’” But after watching some of Newman’s iconic films, Clooney had second thoughts. “He...

John Krasinski and Matthew Rhys are set to executive produce and star in “Silent River,” a new psychological thriller ordered by Amazon MGM Studios for Prime Video.

According to the official logline, the project, which is seen through the lens of two men whose lives are far more more connected than they realize, explores the cracks of small-town America in the wake of discovering a serial killer among them.

“Silent River” is created by Aaron Rabin, who serves as an executive producer. In addition to Krasinski, Rhys and Rabin, Allyson Seeger and Alexa Ginsburg will executive produce for Sunday Night. Krasinski is set to direct the show’s pilot and some additional episodes. Andrew Bernstein is also set to direct and executive produce.

In addition to the series order, Sunday Night has renewed its first-look television deal with Amazon MGM Studios.

“We are thrilled to continue our work with John Krasinski,...

When we think of John Krasinski, it’s relatively easy to picture him as the charming, slightly awkward Jim Halpert from The Office. But in real life, that is something he’s not quite. He’s married to Emily Blunt—the dream team couple that makes Hollywood feel just a bit warmer and wholesome. These two, who’ve been married for over a decade and share two daughters, Hazel, 10, and Violet, 8, still seem utterly smitten with each other.

John Krasinski in The Office | Credits: NBC

They’re almost like one of those fairytale couples. But Krasinski didn’t exactly stumble into love right away. Let’s just say the guy had his fair share of near-misses, rumored romances, and memorable dates before he ultimately found his happily-ever-after with Blunt. So, let us take a look at John Krasinski’s relationship timeline, where Blunt and he were emotionally when they met,...

Top 10 Hottest John Krasinski Roles That Prove He’s Sexiest Man Alive - Main Image

John Krasinski has officially been crowned People’s 2024 Sexiest Man Alive, a title that seems long overdue.

From his role as Jim Halpert in The Office, which brought him into the spotlight, this multi-talented actor has become a formidable leading man beloved by many on both the big and small screens.

Since then, he has appeared in several television series and films, each role showcasing not only his charm but also his incredible appeal.

From being a bold CIA analyst in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan to a devoted father

in A Quiet Place, here are the top 10 hottest roles of Krasinski that prove he’s the sexiest man alive.

10. Jim Halpert in The Office

Krasinski finally received his breakthrough role when he played Jim in The Office (2005-2013).

Over a decade after he portrayed the character,...

Though there are plenty of voice cameos in If, the credits revealing Brad Pitt as Keith is a surprising secret. John Krasinski's 2024 live-action/CGI hybrid movie about imaginary friends features plenty of A-list talent. Whether it is Ryan Reynolds leading the way or the likes of Steve Carell or Phoebe Waller-Bridge being part of If's voice cast, the credits for the film are loaded with recognizable names. This is at least partially due to Krasinski and Reynolds pulling in favors from other people they have worked with over the years.

Leading up to If's ending, audiences are sure to match the voices of many imaginary friends with known stars. Krasinski and Gosling's real-life wives, Emily Blunt and Blake Lively, both have voice cameos as Unicorn and Octopuss. Krasinski also pulls in his former Leatherheads co-star George Clooney, former Promised Land co-star Matt Damon, and former Aloha co-star Bradley Cooper.

These days, it feels like George Clooney is known more for his political opinions than his acting career. Billions earned at the box office? Meh. Billions more raised in advocacy, humanitarian efforts, and charity? Yawn. Two-time People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive? Getting closer, but nah. Donald Trump calls you a “rat” on Truth Social? That’s when you know you’ve made it.

Believe it or not, George Clooney used to be famous for something other than his political flip-flops. Well, hold onto your hats because there was actually a time before Clooney’s latest head-scratcher: penning a New York Times op-ed calling Joe Biden unfit for office mere weeks after throwing him the mother of all fundraisers. Yes, you heard that right – he hosted a record-breaking cash bash for Biden, the biggest ever for a Democrat candidate, then declared to the world that the guy shouldn’t run.

George Clooney directs cast of The Boys in the Boat, a sports film based on a true story of the 1936 Olympics. The film features a mix of young stars and veteran talents, available on Amazon Prime Video and MGM+. Joel Edgerton plays Al Ulbrickson, Callum Turner stars as Joe Rantz in the movie centered on historical drama.

George Clooney's 2023 sports film, The Boys in the Boat, boasts an ensemble cast of exciting young stars with veteran talents sprinkled in. The movie is based on Daniel James Brown's 2013 book of the same name, exploring the true story of the United States men's rowing team and their mission to compete in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. While The Boys in the Boat makes changes to its material for cinematic purposes, much of its core drama comes from its real historical drama, combined with surefire underdog sports movie elements.

The Boys in the Boat...

Perhaps one of the most impressive aspects of John Krasinski’s upcoming film, If, is the all-star voice cast he lined up for it.

The multihyphenate stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday to discuss the project, and the late night host couldn’t help but ask about how the writer-director managed to get major stars to sign onto the project.

“I gotta say, the most yeses of my career was on this movie and the fastest yeses because they all love the idea of imagination, going back to your childhood,” Krasinski shared.

When discussing the ice cube, voiced by Bradley Cooper, the Quiet Place star explained, “I don’t know why when I created this guy, in my head, I was like, ‘He’s from Philly, and he’s a little bummed to be living in Arizona.'”

Jimmy Fallon then pulled up a photo of Blake Lively’s character,...

It’s an interesting month on HBO and Max this March, as two acclaimed films hit the streamer along with some intriguing original programming.

First up in the movies arena is the streaming debut of Wonka, starring Timothée Chalamet. From beloved Paddington director Paul King, the film follows the adventures of a young Willy Wonka as he looks to become the world’s best (and weirdest) chocolatier. Later in March on Max, there’s also Dream Scenario, a highly-regarded comedy boasting Nicolas Cage as Paul Matthews, who suddenly starts appearing in people’s dreams for unknown reasons, and who naturally becomes very famous as a result of this strange phenomena.

Series-wise, the biggest show on Max this month is The Regime. It packs a solid cast, including Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Andrea Riseborough, Martha Plimpton, and Hugh Grant, and tells the story of “life within the walls of a modern...

Matthias Schoenaerts and Kate Winslet in ‘The Regime’ (Photograph by Miya Mizuno/HBO)

Max’s March 2024 streaming lineup includes the premiere of The Regime starring Oscar winner Kate Winslet as a paranoid chancellor with major control issues. The streaming service’s March slate also includes the debut of The Girls on the Bus starring Melissa Benoist, Carla Gugino, Natasha Behnam, and Christina Elmore as political journalists.

Documentaries A Revolution on Canvas and The Lionheart along with the comedy docuseries Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show will premiere in March 2024. And Wonka and Dream Scenario make their streaming debuts.

Series & Films Arriving On Max In March 2024

March 1

127 Hours (2010)

Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015)

Baby Mama (2008)

The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017)

The Best Man Holiday (2013)

Bullet Head (2018)

Cabaret (1972)

Captain Fantastic (2016)

Deadpool (2016)

Dear White People (2014)

Dope (2015)

The Expendables (2010)

The Expendables 2 (2012)

The Expendables 3 (2014)

The Farewell (2019)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

Fruitvale Station (2013)

Godzilla...

This post contains spoilers for "The Boys in the Boat."

Heads up, Dads of the world: There's a new Dad Masterpiece (or "Dadsterpiece") in theaters right now. After tackling a sports movie with his 2008 film "Leatherheads," director George Clooney is back in sports mode once again with "The Boys in the Boat," an adaptation of Daniel James Brown's 2013 non-fiction book about the unlikely rise of the University of Washington's Jv crew team as they went on to represent the United States at the 1936 Olympics. 

The sports movie boom in American cinema is long over, so in some ways, a project like this feels like a rarity. It also feels comforting and familiar in the way it engages with the tropes and rhythms of this genre. Still, there are some surprises to be had if you don't know the real story, and I had the chance to sit down over...

The current, somewhat glib joke about George Clooney as a filmmaker is that he makes movies that “don’t exist,” i.e., are not made for the current cinematic zeitgeist and are often out of step with what the culture is watching and consuming. And there’s an argument to be made, no matter how shallow and maybe that ageist the joke is, that there’s something to it, perhaps going as far back as 2008’s throwback comedy “Leatherheads,” which really wasn’t for audiences at the time either.

Continue reading ‘The Boys In The Boat’ Review: George Clooney’s Classical Underdog Sports Drama Is Conventional But Still Worthy Of Merit at The Playlist.

George Clooney’s directing career has been one of both ecstasy and agony. His bold, respected spy dramedy debut (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) was immediately followed by the incredibly lauded (and incredibly great) period drama Good Night and Good Luck. What followed was a run of more mixed fare. One film was ambitious and flawed (The Midnight Sky), one overrated (The Ides of March), one undercooked (Leatherheads), and two really didn’t work. Then came The Tender Bar in 2021, a modest piece of work featuring nuanced performances from an impressive cast. It’s an old-fashioned picture starring Ben Affleck, who offers many old-fashioned, matinee idol charms, square jaw and all. Perhaps Clooney learned something about himself as a filmmaker with The Tender Bar: he may be at his best when breathing life into fact-based drama and not trying to be too cute about it.

Clooney’s back in...

The director lays on the strident messaging in this clunky film, all about the gutsy underdogs of the US rowing team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

George Clooney has been a charming and dapper Anglophile presence on the awards circuit this season while promoting the new movie he’s directed, some of which was shot not far from where he lives near Henley-on-Thames. So it’s sad to report that his film clunks harder than redwood. It is a stodgy and sententious varsity-sports underdog drama from the Depression era, a bit like his 1920s American football film Leatherheads, from 2008, but minus the comedy. Weirdly, it is as if this earnest but perfunctorily imagined film is always ordering us to feel nostalgic and sentimental about a time and place of which no one involved can have any real memory or feeling.

It tells the true story of how a gutsy crew of...

If George Clooney weren't such a charismatic actor, his milquetoast directing might not inspire such derision. It's been well over a decade since he sunk his teeth into a meaty part, yet his ambitions on the other side of the camera have ranged from passable to terrible. "The Boys in the Boat" ranks in the upper echelon of Clooney's directorial efforts, if only because that's a rather low bar.

This is sturdy, simple studio filmmaking at its least offensive. Clooney executes a familiar underdog sports narrative with technical competence and some measure of engaging action. It's aiming for less than his last foray into period athletics, 2008's "Leatherheads," which also tried to shoehorn in screwball comedy elements alongside football competition. But "The Boys in the Boat" achieves more by using a more vibrant palette to color within predictable lines.

Read more: The 15 Best Comedy Duos Of All Time

Just...

The Boys in the Boat is an upcoming sports movie directed by George Clooney about a college rowing team competing for gold at the Olympics. Based on a bestselling book, the film tells the inspirational true story of the 1936 University of Washington rowing team in the Summer Olympics in Berlin. Callum Turner and Joel Edgerton lead the cast in this highly anticipated film.

The Boys in the Boat trailer reveals a sports movie directed by George Clooney about a college rowing team competing at the Olympics. Based on the best-selling book of the same name, the upcoming film follows the inspirational true story of the University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The Boys in the Boat cast is led by Joel Edgerton and Callum Turner alongside Jack Mulhern, Sam Strike, Peter Guinness, Alec Newman, Tom Varey, and Bruce Herbelin-Earle.

On Wednesday,...

MGM has released the trailer, first look images, and a behind the scenes feature for George Clooney's upcoming film The Boys in the Boat, based on a non-fiction novel about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team. The film focuses on a group of underdogs during the Great Depression as they compete for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, facing elite international rivals. George Clooney, known for his acting career, has established himself as a successful director with several critically acclaimed films, including Good Night, and Good Luck and The Midnight Sky.

MGM has released the first look images and behind the scenes feature for George Clooney's upcoming film The Boys in the Boat, based on the non-fiction novel by Daniel James Brown, which hits theaters December 25. Published in 2004 under the title The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Brown's book...

Exclusive: Smokehouse Pictures partner George Clooney and Grant Heslov have signed an overall film deal with the Warner Bros. Pictures Group and its Co-Chairs and CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. It amounts to a homecoming for the filmmakers, who named their company for the Smoke House steak joint right off the Warner Bros lot, where they used to eat all the time. Clooney’s history with the studio goes back to his breakthrough starring role in the Warner Bros Television drama ER. They made their first deal at Warner Bros when they formed Smokehouse in 2006.

The duo told those who attended with them during a Q&a session at last Friday night’s screening of All The President’s Men that is part of a monthly screening series of WB classics set up by De Luca & Abdy. Clooney and Heslov will return to offices on the lot — one of...

With Super Bowl Lvii upon us, we wanted to know what Football (or Football related) movie was your favorite. We compiled a list of scripted movies, so you won’t see the Oscar Winning Documentary Undefeated on the list, but if that is your favorite, please click the other button and let us know why you loved it so much in the comments section.

Favorite Football Film80 For Brady (2023)American Underdog (2021)Paterno (2018)Woodlawn (2015)My All American (2015)Concussion (2015)Balls Out (2014)When The Game Stands Tall (2014)Draft Day (2014)23 Blast (2013)Touchback (2012)The 5th Quarter (2011)The Blind Side (2009)The Longshots (2008)The Express: The Ernie Davis Story (2008)Leatherheads (2007)The Game Plan (2007)The Comebacks (2007)Gridiron Gang (2006)Facing The Giants (2006)We Are Marshall (2006)Invincible (2006)Two For The Money (2005)The Longest Yard (2005)Friday Night Lights (2004)Radio (2003)Monday Night Mayhem (2002)The Replacements (2000)Remember The Titans (2000)Any Given Sunday (1999)Varsity Blues (1999)Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998)The Waterboy (1998)The Garbage...

A new season of “The Boys,” the latest “Bond” movie and the entire “Twilight” franchise are among the new streaming additions to Amazon Prime Video in June. The highly anticipated “The Boys” Season 3 is set to premiere on June 3 with the first three episodes of the season, followed by one new episode weekly.

The Jenny Han adaptation “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” a new YA series, premieres on June 17. And Daniel Craig’s final James Bond movie “No Time to Die” makes its streaming debut on Prime Video on June 10.

As far as noteworthy library titles go, this is also your new streaming home for the “Twilight” franchise, while “Shaun of the Dead,” “Galaxy Quest” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” will all be streaming starting June 1.

We’ve also included a complete list of what’s new on Freevee – formerly known as IMDbTV – in June, which will be hosting the entire...

Prime Video’s list of new releases for June 2022 features the one superhero show this season you’re not gonna want to miss.

That’s right: The Boys are (almost) back in town. The Boys season 3 premieres its first three episodes on June 3 and its cast and crew have promised spectacle beyond your wildest dreams. How will Homelander adapt to life after Stormfront? We’ll get to find out soon.

Read more TV The Boys: How Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy “Shakes Things Up” in Season 3 By Alec Bojalad TV The Boys Season 3 Trailer: There’s Something Wrong With Homelander By Alec Bojalad

Aside from that one very big hit, it’s a relatively light month for Prime Video originals of note. June 17 sees the arrival of two light and breezy summer projects. The Summer I Turned Pretty is a movie adapted from a trio of beloved YA novels. Meanwhile The Lake...

Though the confusingly named initiative “FX on Hulu” is on its way out, FX is still bringing premium television to Hulu in the meantime.

Hulu’s list of new releases for April 2022 is highlighted by FX limited series Under the Banner of Heaven. This adaptation of the non-fiction book by John Krakauer stars Andrew Garfield as a Mormon police detective whose faith is shaken when investigating a murder involving the church.

It’s not all just FX on the TV side of things for Hulu this month, however. The streamer is debuting second seasons of its series The Hardy Boys (April 6) and Woke (April 8). There isn’t much to report from Hulu’s original movies arm aside from true crime documentary Captive Audience on April 21. But that doc about one family’s 50-year journey for justice sounds like a must-watch.

April 1 sees the usual arrival of library film titles. Looper,...

Photo: 'National Champions' Despite being someone who isn’t a football fan, there are plenty of football-related films that I have enjoyed. From comedies such as ‘Leatherheads’ and ‘The Replacements’ to dramas such as ‘Remember The Titans’ and ‘We Are Marshall’, there are numerous films revolving in the orbit of football while remaining entertaining for someone like me. The new film directed by Ric Roman Waugh ‘National Champions’ has almost no on-field action in it. It is actually about the absence of football. Related article: Exclusive: 'Dune' Full Commentary, Reactions, Making Of - Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac Related article: 'No Time to Die' Full Commentary, Behind the Scenes & Reactions, Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Bond Related article: 'Halloween Kills' Full Commentary & Reactions, Behind the Scenes - Jamie Lee Curtis & More When a quarterback calls for a player boycott three days before the lucrative national championship game,...

Exclusive: Malcolm Goodwin has been tapped to lead The Great Wall of Warren, an indie dramedy from writer-director Victor Hawks, which also stars Kirby Bliss Blanton (Project X), Vanessa Curry (Behind The Trees), William “Big Sleeps” Stewart (Coffee & Kareem), Ester Tania Jiron (Anniversary), Dax Rey (Swan Song), Jackie Burns (Power Book II) and Yolonda Williams (Robocop).

The film picks up two days before the lockdown of 2020 and finds Warren Grant (Goodwin) living his best Hollywood life, filling his days with frivolity and booze. Two days later, the world shuts down, and he soon realizes how his lifestyle had put him on an island of loneliness, with the damaged 12-year-old inside emerging. Without the distractions of the world, he is left with nothing but time to confront his loneliness and starts to spiral, deciding that the best way to combat it is to...

Wait a minute. Are we somehow half way through the year already? That feels impossible but here comes month number five all the same. With its list of new releases for May 2021, Amazon Prime is highlighting some of its more intriguing original series in awhile.

The first original of note is The Underground Railroad. This series from Barry Jenkins tells the story of one woman’s desperate bid for freedom in the Antebellum South and arrives on May 14. After that comes Solos. This intriguing anthology has one hell of a cast including Anthony Mackie, Dan Stevens, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Constance Wu, and more. The project will premiere on May 21 and each of its seven episodes promises to be quite different.

Read more TV Does The Lord of the Rings Series Have a Hidden Title? By Joseph Baxter TV Who is the Villain Teased in The Lord of the Rings TV Series Synopsis?...

"You can either work the field, or play the field." Sony Pictures Classics has revealed an official trailer for an indie football drama titled 12 Mighty Orphans, based on the true historical account of a young football team playing during the Great Depression (in the 1930s). The sports film – starring Luke Wilson, Martin Sheen, Vinessa Shaw, and Robert Duvall – tells the story of the Mighty Mites, the football team from a Fort Worth, TX orphanage who, during the Great Depression, went from playing without shoes—or even a football—to playing for the Texas state championships. Play on, boys! 12 Mighty Orphans is adapted from Jim Dent's bestselling book of the same name, and it also co-stars Wayne Knight, Jake Austin Walker, Treat Williams, Ron White, and Scott Haze. This doesn't look particularly good in any way, but it is the kind of underdog football story that some American viewers will eat up.

As a cinematographer, if you spend the bulk of your career shooting classy big-budget productions for Hollywood heavyweights, it’s conceivable that you might occasionally get a B-movie hankering: Even gourmet chefs crave the sloppy pleasures of a Big Mac now and then. Janusz Kaminski gets the urge rarely, it seems, but when it strikes, he takes to the director’s chair. Back in 2000, Steven Spielberg’s trusty Dp made an ignominious helming debut with “Lost Souls,” an incoherent occult horror that wasn’t even the tasty kind of trash. Two decades later, things haven’t overly improved with “American Dream,” the noble-sounding title of which does little to dignify the dingy exploitation exercise lurking below: a thriller in which the American pursuit of happiness is no match for the dogged chase given by ticked-off Russian mobsters.

The relative novelty of Kaminski’s attachment in this capacity superficially distinguishes “American...

Ben Affleck is being considered to star in George Clooney’s feature film version of J.R. Moehringer’s coming-of-age story “The Tender Bar: A Memoir” for Amazon Studios.

Affleck and Clooney worked together as producers on “Argo,” which won them and Clooney’s producing partner Grant Heslov an Academy Award for best picture.

Clooney and Heslov are producing “The Tender Bar” through their Smokehouse Pictures banner along with Ted Hope. The project was set up in July. William Monahan, who won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for “The Departed,” has written the script for “The Tender Bar.”

Moehringer’s book, published in 2005, centers on the author seeking a replacement for his father, a New York City disc jockey who vanished before his son spoke his first word. When he can’t find his father’s voice on the radio anymore, the boy turns in desperation to the bar on the corner,...

When he couldn’t get to his home in Italy after the March lockdown, George Clooney wound up hunkered down with his family in his three-acre Laurel Canyon compound and with no domestic help. When he wasn’t doing dishes or laundry, or playing with his three-year-old twins, he was remotely finishing his seventh feature film as a director. “I had to take a six-month crash course in visual effects,” said Clooney, who is now calling from a beach house in Hawaii. “But it’s not jam-packed with exploding things.

“The Midnight Sky” could return Clooney to Oscar contention for the first time since 2013 Best Picture-winner “Argo” (produced with his partner and frequent co-writer Grant Heslov and director Ben Affleck). That came one year after Clooney scored not only an acting nomination for “The Descendants” but also an Adapted Screenplay nomination for “The Ides of March” (with Heslov and Beau Willimon...

When he couldn’t get to his home in Italy after the March lockdown, George Clooney wound up hunkered down with his family in his three-acre Laurel Canyon compound and with no domestic help. When he wasn’t doing dishes or laundry, or playing with his three-year-old twins, he was remotely finishing his seventh feature film as a director. “I had to take a six-month crash course in visual effects,” said Clooney, who is now calling from a beach house in Hawaii. “But it’s not jam-packed with exploding things.

“The Midnight Sky” could return Clooney to Oscar contention for the first time since 2013 Best Picture-winner “Argo” (produced with his partner and frequent co-writer Grant Heslov and director Ben Affleck). That came one year after Clooney scored not only an acting nomination for “The Descendants” but also an Adapted Screenplay nomination for “The Ides of March” (with Heslov and Beau Willimon...

After a lackluster November that left Netflix scrambling to rescue its award season ambitions after “Hillbilly Elegy” didn’t quite hit the mark, the streaming giant is showing its full strength with a December lineup that pairs unmissable Originals like “Mank” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” with quintessential library titles like “E.T.” and “Jurassic Park.” Add a bearded George Clooney and a rapping Meryl Streep into the mix, and you’ve got the kind of holiday viewing slate that only Netflix has the chutzpah to put out into the world.

Here are the seven most exciting movies coming to the platform this month.

7. “The Prom” (2020)

Future historians will note that 2020 ended the only way this cursed year possibly could: With Meryl Streep rapping on camera in a Netflix musical directed by Ryan Murphy. And yet, despite all evidence to the contrary, it seems “The Prom” might be just the party...

Collider is home to the exclusive premiere of the trailer for American Dream, directed by Steven Spielberg's longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. This is the second feature film from Kaminski, who previously made his directorial debut with the 2007 Polish drama Hania. Kaminski is more widely known as the cinematographer on some of Spielberg's biggest movies of the past three decades, including Schindler's List, War of the Worlds, Minority Report, and the upcoming West Side Story. American Dream sees Kaminski directing a gritty crime drama story co-written by Duncan Brantley (Leatherheads) and Mark Wheaton (The Messengers). The …...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars and filmmakers and not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between.

Today, Conor and I tackle multi-hyphenate George Clooney, and are joined by the Clooney Disciple himself to do it: friend of the podcast and publicist extraordinaire Rob Scheer!

We talk about the Soderbergh remake Solaris, the Soderbergh “reimagining” of Casablanca that is The Good German, Clooney’s own sports comedy Leatherheads and, finally, the criminally-underrated The American.

Topics broached included Spielberg’s advice to Clooney on the set of E.R., unavoidable Cary Grant comparisons, the sexiness of Out of Sight, Akira Kurosawa’s thoughts on Tarkovsky’s Solaris, and the failed ambition of The Good German.

For more from The B-Side, you can find every actor/director and the films discussed in one place here.

Vertical Entertainment has picked up the North American distribution rights to Breaking Fast, a romantic comedy from first-time writer/director Mike Mosallam. The film stars Haaz Sleiman (The Visitor), Michael Cassidy (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) and Amin El Gamal (Good Trouble). Set to screen at the upcoming Outfest Film Festival, the pic is set against the twinkling lights of West Hollywood and follows Mo, a practicing Muslim still reeling from heartbreak. When an All-American guy named Kal offers to join him in his nightly Iftars –the traditional meal eaten by Muslims during Ramadan– meal after meal, the two start to discover they have more in common than meets the eye. Producers are Seth Hauer, Sarah Bazzi, Alex Lampsos, Davin Michaels, and Bay Dariz under his Minutehand Pictures label. Breaking Fast premiered earlier this year at the CineQuest Film Festival is slated for release in US theaters and on VOD early next year.

George Clooney is in talks with Amazon Studios to direct and produce a feature film version of J.R. Moehringer’s coming-of-age story “The Tender Bar: A Memoir.”

Clooney and his producing partner Grant Heslov would produce through their Smokehouse Pictures banner along with Ted Hope. William Monahan, who won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Departed,” has written the script for “The Tender Bar.”

An adaptation of Moehringer’s book, published in 2005, had been set up previously at Sony Pictures. The story centers on the author, who as a young boy is seeking a replacement for his father, a New York City disc jockey who had vanished before his son spoke his first word. When he can’t find his father’s voice on the radio anymore, the boy turns in desperation to the bar on the corner, where he finds friendship from his Uncle Charlie and other adults,...

One of the major pieces of The Office lore is, of course, the questions surrounding why in the world Jim’s hair looks so terrible in Season 3. John Krasinski’s shaggy hair became a staple of the fan-favorite Office character, but for one season there, something is a bit… off. It doesn’t look quite right. Well, that’s because in Season 3 of The Office, John Krasinski is wearing a wig. Indeed, many Office fans did some digging and discovered that Krasinski was shooting a major role in the George Clooney-directed film Leatherheads during Season 3 …...

Image Source: Getty / Roy Rochlin / Vera Anderson / WireImage

Even seven years after the show's final season, Jim's pranks on The Office continue to creep into my subconscious whenever I need a laugh, but it turns out that one of his best pranks wasn't even included in the show. During the "Casino Night" episode of Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer's podcast, Office Ladies, John Krasinski revealed that he pulled a prank on Fischer Irl, and it's one for the Halpert record books.

"You know what's sad about that prank? I realized that I am such a bad prankster that I stole that prank from [George] Clooney."

"John, you played one prank on me in the whole nine years of The Office, like one fully formed, good, thought-out prank," Fischer said. "It was at Schrute Farms and you and I had this scene where we had to drive up to the farmhouse several times,...

George Clooney has wrapped filming on a Netflix adaptation of the novel “Good Morning, Midnight” for Netflix, as confirmed by the streamer in a recent tweet. The movie is now titled “The Midnight Sky.” Because, no, it’s not that “Good Morning, Midnight,” a novel penned by Jean Rhys in the 1930s about an alcoholic forced by her enabling bestie to spend her dying days drying out in a Paris hostel. This is a science-fiction story, lifted from Lily Brooks-Dalton’s 2017 novel centered on Augustine (George Clooney), a lonely scientist in the Arctic, as he races to stop Sully (Felicity Jones) and her fellow astronauts from returning home to a mysterious global catastrophe.

David Oyelowo, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir, and Tiffany Boone co-star. Per Netflix, the film is set to be released later in 2020. The screenplay comes from “The Revenant” co-writer Mark L. Smith.

This is Clooney’s first return...

Remember when Renee Zellweger had Tom Cruise — and moviegoers — at “hello” in 1996’s “Jerry Maguire”? Or when she rebranded the working-girl archetype for the 21st-century in 2001’s “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and earned her first Academy Award nomination as a lead? Then there was her mastery of the art of singing, dancing and acting all at the same time as Roxie Hart, a murderous wannabe jazz-age chorine in 2002’s “Chicago,” the source of her second lead nod.

Back then, Zellweger was America’s sweetheart. But something happened after she won a supporting Oscar for her portrait of no-nonsense and self-sufficient mountain woman Ruby Thewes in 2003’s “Cold Mountain.”

Just when her career should have gone rocketing skyward, her opportunities on the big screen began to somewhat inexplicably shrink. Yes, that second Bridget Jones film in 2004 was a stinker, but at least she followed it with a sturdy stand-by-your-man role as Russell Crowe...

Netflix has just courted another A-list filmmaker for a new marquee project. George Clooney is set to both direct and star in an adaptation of Good Morning, Midnight, the acclaimed novel by author Lily Brooks-Dalton. This marks the first feature that Clooney has signed on to direct since 2017's Suburbicon. While the streaming service hasn't yet revealed a release date, it's noted that the project is already in pre-production. Filming is expected to begin in October.

According to a press release from Netflix, Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) adapted the screenplay. Oscar-winner Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Pictures is set to produce alongside George Clooney, with Anonymous Content and Syndicate Entertainment also on board the project. Clooney, coming fresh off his Catch-22 miniseries for Hulu, had this to say about his latest gig in a statement.

"Grant and I couldn't be more excited to be involved with this incredible project. Mark...

When Christopher Abbott walked into the audition room to read for the lead role in “Catch-22,” George Clooney greeted him wearing a leather helmet.

“I took a breath a little bit,” Abbott says. “I wasn’t as nervous. I was like, ‘All right, we can play.’”

The icebreaker worked. Abbott landed the role of Capt. John Yossarian, the bombardier antihero of Joseph Heller’s novel “Catch-22,” who spends the entirety of the story trying his damnedest to get out of World War II. The helmet was one of several that Clooney and producing partner Grant Heslov keep around their Smokehouse Pictures office in Los Angeles — relics from “Leatherheads,” the 2008 feature that was Clooney’s third outing as a director, which he calls “one of our big flops.”

With “Catch-22,” a limited series based on Heller’s 1961 book and set to premiere May 17 on Hulu, executive producer and director Clooney is...

George Clooney is in early talks with 20th Century Fox to direct Christopher MacBride’s science-fiction thriller “Echo.”

The movie is set up with 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, and Dan Cohen. The production company has previously produced the science-fiction pic “Arrival,” which grossed more than $200 million worldwide for Paramount, along with the upcoming “Darkest Minds” for Fox and “Kin” for Lionsgate. 21 Laps is also an executive producer on the Netflix sci-fi series “Stranger Things.”

“Echo” centers on a drone specialist who has a psychological crisis after suspecting that his lover is not who she appears to be and wondering whether she has been replaced.

Clooney has directed six movies, starting with 2002’s “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” followed by “Good Night, and Good Luck,” “Leatherheads,” “The Ides of March,” “The Monuments Men,” and last year’s “Suburbicon.” He received an Oscar nomination for directing “Good Night, and Good Luck.

Last year’s AFI Life Achievement Award winner Diane Keaton cooed over George Clooney’s 18-year relationship with a pig. Laura Dern recalled being stranded in Budapest on their first movie, the never-released “Grizzly II: The Predator,” waiting for plane tickets home. Julianna Margulies thanked Clooney, who just turned 57, for tipping her that her “E.R.” character tested well enough to possibly come back to life, something she did not hear from her own agent.

“You’re the real deal,” she said, choking up, reminding the black-tie crowd that “E.R” arrived after 13 failed pilots. “The most important lessons I learned in this town I learned from George.” Richard Kind described George’s foundation as “the boys,” a motley crew that has hung together for three decades and were led by Clooney — before “E.R.” hit — to spend three days cleaning up East L.A. after the riots.

Yes, George...

Last year’s AFI Life Achievement Award winner Diane Keaton cooed over George Clooney’s 18-year relationship with a pig. Laura Dern recalled being stranded in Budapest on their first movie, the never-released “Grizzly II: The Predator,” waiting for plane tickets home. Julianna Margulies thanked Clooney, who just turned 57, for tipping her that her “E.R.” character tested well enough to possibly come back to life, something she did not hear from her own agent.

“You’re the real deal,” she said, choking up, reminding the black-tie crowd that “E.R” arrived after 13 failed pilots. “The most important lessons I learned in this town I learned from George.” Richard Kind described George’s foundation as “the boys,” a motley crew that has hung together for three decades and were led by Clooney — before “E.R.” hit — to spend three days cleaning up East L.A. after the riots.

Yes, George...

Strap yourself in for another trek in the cinema “way-back” machine at your local multiplex. And for once it’s not a “biopic” or a story “inspired by true events” like Marshall or Breathe. Yes, it’s pure fiction but it is set firmly in the real world. The movies have often viewed the 1950’s through the “rose-tinted” lens of nostalgia, as if yearning for that simpler, more innocent time. TVeven joined in with its long running hit “Happy Days” (that 70’s show now has its own nostalgic glow, as seen in the recent Kingsmen: The Golden Circle). Sure, they were indeed happy days…if you were part of the right social class, religion or race. . That’s the view of this new film, no surprise since it sprang from the minds of Joel and Ethan, the Coen brothers. But they’re not behind the camera on this project (supposedly...

Like those talented pop singers who keep making valiant stabs at being actors — and vice versa — George Clooney can’t seem to stay away from the director’s chair. His filmmaking career started promisingly enough with “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” (helped greatly by its Charlie Kaufman screenplay), but since then it’s been a parade of adequacies (“Good Night, and Good Luck,” “The Ides of March”), mediocrity (“Leatherheads”) and downright catastrophe (“The Monuments Men”). Clooney’s directorial legacy won’t get any help from “Suburbicon,” a garish and overblown crime melodrama that combines clumsy noir with lame jabs at 1950s suburban conformity.

On paper, few 2017 releases should be safer Academy Award plays than Suburbicon. After all, it has George Clooney behind the camera, the Coen Brothers co-writing, as well as Matt Damon and Julianne Moore in starring roles. Throw in a supporting turn from Oscar Isaac and the ingredients are all there for something irresistible. And yet, this is one of the year’s more disappointing films. It opens in theaters this week and will hope to reverse the at best mixed buzz that has followed the flick on the fall festival circuit. There’s ambition on display here, though unfortunately it just never comes together in a satisfying way. A period piece satire, set in the utopian style community of Suburbicon, we see two events shape the entire community. One is the arrival of the first African American family into the town, while the other is a home invasion. The Meyers...

Like those talented pop singers who keep making valiant stabs at being actors — and vice versa — George Clooney can’t seem to stay away from the director’s chair. His filmmaking career started promisingly enough with “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” (helped greatly by its Charlie Kaufman screenplay), but since then it’s been a parade of adequacies (“Good Night, and Good Luck,” “The Ides of March”), mediocrity (“Leatherheads”) and downright catastrophe (“The Monuments Men”). Clooney’s directorial legacy won’t get any help from “Suburbicon,” a garish and overblown crime melodrama that combines clumsy noir with lame jabs at 1950s suburban conformity.

Catching up on a Trailer debut from a few days ago here (we also got a Teaser for mother! yesterday, but there’s a full Trailer coming next week we’ll tackle). This one today is the major Oscar hopeful Suburbicon, coming to us as the latest directorial outing from George Clooney. Not only is Clooney teamed up with his partner Grant Heslov for this one, he also is working off of a script that the Coen Brothers once penned with an eye towards directing. You’ll be able to see this Trailer below, but first, you know the drill here…some discussion is in order. The film is a pitch black crime comedy of sorts. So far, the description for it is simply that a home invasion rattles a quiet family town. The town is the town of Suburbicon, and Gardner (Matt Damon) is a father and husband drawn...

Marc Buxton Dec 22, 2017

Venture into the unknown with Stephen King's 10 most infamous supernatural villains...

Pennywise the Clown isn't the only monster you need to fear at night. The King has created plenty of other horrific things that go bump in the night...

The name Stephen King conjures up images of horrific creatures, monsters, places, and stories, and some of the most enduring villains in fiction. These are beings of unimaginable evil that test the limits of the protagonists' will to survive, and some of these villains have gone on to become almost as famous (or infamous) as the writer himself. While many Stephen King villains are monsters of the human variety (serial killers, power hungry despots, nihilists, etc.) his most memorable are the supernatural ones who use their dark powers to twist the orderly world around them into a special place of chaos and pain.

Here are just a...