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Cormac McCarthy’s stories have been translated to the screen with success multiple times, but even titans sometimes fall. McCarthy’s play, The Sunset Limited, was adapted into a movie in 2011 by Tommy Lee Jones (who had already enjoyed success with the acclaimed adaptation of McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men) and co-starred Samuel L. Jackson. These two heavyweights lead the film and shine with committed, haunting performances, but that’s just it — the entirety of the movie is literally a single, lengthy conversation between the two. Unlike The Road or No Country for Old Men, there is no cinematic production; the dialogue is the sole source of compelling material in the film. For the patient, attentive viewer, this movie is an insightful, verbal battle between nihilism and faith. The film is an insightful rendition of two polarized reactions to an existential crisis, but it is admittedly sluggish. Viewers...

It's been a long time since the cast of Batman Forever last joined forces to create the first major Batman film following the exit of Tim Burton from the franchise, and its stars have ended up in many different place since. As far as Batman movies go, Batman Forever sits in an odd place. The film is comically cheesy, stepping away from the darkness of Batman Returns to poor reception, but is perhaps underrated as a whole, with more than a few enjoyable aspects. Of these, some of the film's performances are worthy of note.

The cast of Batman Forever is an eclectic bunch, with several noteworthy names in Hollywood sharing marquee space with some relative unknowns. Since the film's release, many of its actors have fallen into varying levels of fame, especially in comparison to the even more star-studded cast of Batman & Robin, the film's infamous sequel. Sadly, a...

The feud between Vin Diesel and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson may have been avoided if Tommy Lee Jones had been cast as Hobbs in the Fast & Furious franchise. The role of Hobbs was originally written for Tommy Lee Jones, but it was later given to Dwayne Johnson based on a fan suggestion. If Tommy Lee Jones had played Hobbs, the dynamic of the franchise would have been different, with a more serious and respectable tone, and the spinoff film Hobbs & Shaw may not have happened.

Although the Fast & Furious franchise has an iconic and expansive cast, it isn't entirely free of problems, and one such issue likely could have been fixed if this one casting choice had been different. The Fast & Furious franchise first began in 2001 with the original film, The Fast and the Furious. Since then, nine more main movies have been made along with a spinoff film.

Cormac McCarthy, generally considered one of America’s greatest living authors, has died. His death was confirmed by his son, John McCarthy. He was 89.

McCarthy is best known for books such as Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West; The Road, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and No Country For Old Men, which was adapted into the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-winning film.

His other published works include The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark, Child of Dark, Suttree, All the Pretty Horses – which won the National Book Award – The Crossing and Cities of the Plain. All the Pretty Horses, The Road and No Country were adapted for film by Billy Bob Thornton, John Hillcoat and Joel and Ethan Coen, respectively.

McCarthy told the Wall Street Journal that No Country for Old Men was originally a screenplay, but failed to gain traction in that form. “In fact, they said, ‘That will never work.

Cormac McCarthy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who endured decades of obscurity and poverty before film versions of “All the Pretty Horses,” “No Country for Old Men” and “The Road” brought him a wide readership and financial security, died Tuesday in Santa Fe, N.M. His publisher, Penguin Random House, said his son John McCarthy announced his death from natural causes. He was 89.

Extremely reclusive, McCarthy shunned publicity so effectively that one critic observed, “He wasn’t even famous for it.” But Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2008 adaptation of 2005 novel “No Country for Old Men” put him momentarily in the limelight; the crime thriller, which starred Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, won Oscars for best picture, director, adapted screenplay and supporting actor.

While McCarthy’s first novel, “The Orchard Keeper,” was published in 1965, commercial success eluded him until his 1992 National Book Award-winning “All the Pretty Horses” and the...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Tuesday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best show currently on TV?” can be found at the end of this post.)

This week’s question: What is the strangest (most unusual, most unexpected, etc.) response you’ve had in an interview?

Eric Deggans (@deggans), NPR

I’m sure I’ve probably blacked out the craziest stuff from my memory, like Lou Dobbs insulting me so badly during an interview that the publicist who set it up called to apologize afterwards. Or Tommy Lee Jones insisting on only answering in detail incredibly esoteric questions about lighting and scheduling lunch when talking about directing a version of the two-man play “The Sunset Limited” for HBO. But one of the weirdest experience I ever had was when Tim Allen said the word “nigger” to me during a telephone interview.

In a very open Oscar race for Best Original Score, Marco Beltrami's compositions for Tommy Lee Jones' western "The Homesman" may well find themselves in the final five. He has earned two previous nominations somewhat unexpectedly ("3:10 to Yuma" and "The Hurt Locker") and his latest endeavor very much set the mood of Jones's progressive period piece. I recently had the chance to speak to Beltrami about the film working with Jones, his collaborations with Buck Sanders and his approach to film composing more generally. Check out the back and forth below. "The Homesman" is now playing in theaters. *** HitFix: When did you come aboard the film? Marco Beltrami: It was way before shooting, just after Tommy told me about the script when they were working on it. At the time, he had some other projects that were possibilities. Nothing was set. He said "come aboard" and...

Hollywood's most high-falutin' varmint must be Tommy Lee Jones. As difficult and humorless as he's perceived to be (and sometimes said to actually be), he's gone and built a career on imbuing a certain curmudgeonly ease into whatever films he appears in, from Coal Miner's Daughter to Captain America, from Men in Black to Lincoln. This was somehow true even in his younger days, before he started racking up Oscar nominations and securing the occasional director gig. The Homesman is Jones' fourth directorial effort, if you count his two made for TV movies, The Sunset Limited (2011) and The Good Old Boys (1995). Although I can't vouch for those two, his previous theatrical helmer, 2005's The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, stands as one of the...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Just as he did with The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and The Sunset Limited, Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones takes on a variety of different duties with The Homesman. Based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout, Jones co-wrote, co-produced and directed the movie, and he also stars in it as George Briggs, a claim jumper who makes the acquaintance of the un-married, middle-aged Mary Bee Cuddy (Hillary Swank).

The movie takes place back in the 1850s, as Mary is escorting three women who show signs of insanity across the country. Realizing that she can’t transport these women on her own, she invites George along for the extra protection. Together, they make the oddest of couples as their journey proves to be very long and dangerous. However, it also turns out to be very transformative for them both.

On the surface, The Homesman looks like a western, but it...

Academy Award nominated composer Marco Beltrami brings raw emotion to The Homesman.

Directed by Tommy Lee Jones, the film’s all-star cast includes Jones, Hilary Swank, Meryl Streep, and Hailee Steinfeld. The unconventional western follows three women, driven mad by pioneer life, who are being transported across the country by covered wagon by the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy (Swank), who in turn employs low-life drifter George Briggs (Jones) to assist her.

The film marks Beltrami’s third collaboration with director Tommy Lee Jones, previously scoring The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and The Sunset Limited.

The film opens in select theaters on November 14th, 2014 and the score album will be released through Varese Sarabande digitally on November 17th, 2014 and on CD December 9th, 2014.

Director Tommy Lee Jones says of Beltrami, “He’s different, that’s what he brings. He’s original.” This originality stretches to their work on The Homesman.

This is a reprint of our review from the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Eight years ago (gosh, was it really that long?), Tommy Lee Jones made his long-awaited feature directorial debut with the contemporary neo-western “The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada.” The film premiered at Cannes, and proved a big hit there, winning a Best Actor trophy for Jones, and a Best Screenplay prize for “Babel” scribe Guillermo Arriaga. But the film never quite found an audience outside the Croisette, and perhaps for that reason, the only thing that Jones has made in the meantime was a modest HBO adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Sunset Limited.” Until now, anyway. The actor-director is back at Cannes with “The Homesman,” an adaptation of the novel by Glendon Swarthout, and while ‘Three Burials’ certainly nodded at the Western, this is the full-fat version, full of settlers and pioneers and wagons and Indians. It...

What more is there for Tommy Lee Jones to do with a Westernc We have seen him in a cowboy hat on screen so much it is almost part of his head. To my surprise, Jones has not made a film as a director set in the Old West since the 1995 TV movie The Good Old Boys, which I have not seen. I have seen his last two films, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and HBO's The Sunset Limited, and I have come to the conclusion Jones is a very underrated director. He knows how to expertly pace a scene to bring about the maximum amount of tension. This is particularly evident in The Sunset Limited, where he and Samuel L. Jackson talk for ninety minutes, and every second of it is riveting. For his latest film, The Homesman, Jones tries to make a traditional, epic Western centered on a strong woman.

The upcoming western The Homesman stars Oscar-winners Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank as, respectively, claims jumper George Briggs and pioneer woman Mary Bee Cuddy – an odd couple who team up to transport three mentally-ill women from Nebraska to a mental hospital in Iowa. Jones also co-wrote the film’s script (based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout) and served as the helmsman. An international trailer for the film released earlier this year, but now a green-band promo (see above) has been unveiled, a couple months ahead of Homesman‘s U.S. theatrical debut.

Homesman marks Jones’ fourth time as director, following after a pair of TV movies (including the Cormac McCarthy play adaptation The Sunset Limited) and his previous theatrically-released feature, the modern-day western-inspired film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. The actor/filmmaker has put together an impressive cast for his latest ...

Click to continue reading ‘The Homesman...

Nearly ten years after making the leap to directing with The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Tommy Lee Jones is back behind the camera with The Homesman. (In the interim, he made The Sunset Limited for cable.) The new film is a Western, like the last one was, but of a very different type. Hilary […]

The post ‘The Homesman’ U.S. Trailer: Tommy Lee Jones Returns to the Director’s Chair appeared first on /Film.

With James Franco’s recent test footage for his not-to-be Blood Meridian film adaptation now online, it’s time to think about what we want from a movie version of the landmark novel. Franco shot that test footage a few years ago and showed it to Scott Rudin, who owns the rights to the novel, but Rudin seems to have turned him down—and should continue to do so.

So Franco, instead, directed another movie adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel: Child of God. The movie comes out this week, and Franco wrote a piece for The Daily Beast explaining...

If you are an aspiring composer, a musician, or simply a music fan interested in how a song actually comes together before you see it on the big screen, we have a peak behind the curtain for you. Composer John Fulford specializes in creating music for productions and has worked on shows like Breaking Bad, Glee and Enlightened as well as indie films like The Sunset Limited, studio releases like American Reunion and, most recently, Brick Mansions. Fulford knows how to work within tight deadlines (thanks to the weekly schedule of TV) and this discipline of constantly creating has helped train his ear in recognizing track elements that would work perfect on screen. Fulford was looking to get some music on Shawn Ryan’s The Chicago Code and figured the best way to achieve that goal was to work with Chicago-based artists. That led him to the artist N.E.P.H.E.W. Fulford and Nep began working together and created...

Eight years ago (gosh, was it really that long?), Tommy Lee Jones made his long-awaited feature directorial debut with the contemporary neo-western “The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada.” The film premiered at Cannes, and proved a big hit there, winning a Best Actor trophy for Jones, and a Best Screenplay prize for “Babel” scribe Guillermo Arriaga. But the film never quite found an audience outside the Croisette, and perhaps for that reason, the only thing that Jones has made in the meantime was a modest HBO adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Sunset Limited.” Until now, anyway. The actor-director is back at Cannes with “The Homesman,” an adaptation of the novel by Glendon Swarthout, and while ‘Three Burials’ certainly nodded at the Western, this is the full-fat version, full of settlers and pioneers and wagons and Indians. It’s also a much less fully-formed and complete picture than its predecessor,...

Welcome back to Cannes Check, In Contention's annual preview of the films in Competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off on May 14. Taking on different selections every day, we'll be examining what they're about, who's involved and what their chances are of snagging an award from Jane Campion's jury. Next up, one of the starrier entries in the lineup: Tommy Lee Jones' "The Homesman." The director: Tommy Lee Jones (American, 67 years old). Well, you know -- it's Tommy Lee Jones. The Texas-born, Harvard-educated actor began his acting career on Broadway, and landed his first film role in the 1970 smash "Love Story" before beginning a five-year stint on the soap opera "One Life to Live." His big-screen breakthrough came in the 1980 Oscar winner "Coal Miner's Daughter"; he picked up an Emmy for one of several TV movies he made in the decade, and his first Oscar nod in 1992 for "JFK.

Tommy Lee Jones has directed two TV movies (most recently The Sunset Limited) and one great theatrical feature, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Now he has finished another film, which adapts Glendon Swarthout’s novel The Homesman. Jones’ movie will likely premiere at Cannes, and has a French release planned for May. The first Homesman trailer […]

The post ‘The Homesman’ Trailer: Tommy Lee Jones Leads the Way Home appeared first on /Film.

HBO

Hearing the words ‘made-for-tv movie’ doesn’t exactly fill you with hope. Despite TV’s rising reputation as a contender for the entertainment media crown (it’s coming for you, film), TV movies still carry the reputation of being absolutely rubbish. They lack the credibility of cinema, because, if this crew and this cast couldn’t make it onto the big screen, then Lord knows they were probably doing something wrong.

TV movies are saccharine blobs of mush used to fill out the daytime TV schedule, lazily-directed feature-length soaps with no personality whatsoever – or so goes the myth. And yet in reality it isn’t always the case. TV movies can be where great filmmakers of the future go to cut their teeth, or where old pros go to realise projects too risky for film studios to take on.

There are gems to be found amidst the made-for-tv movie wreckage.

The following "Auditions at a Glance" calendar conveniently organizes projects by the date and day-of-the-week that the projects' auditions are taking place, to help you schedule your plans. Click on any of the following links to see the casting and job notices related to the dates and project titles highlighted below.     Fri. Aug. 23 'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo' 'Bauer' 'Into the Woods' 'Jerusalem' 'Seminar' 'Storefront Church' Sat. Aug. 24 L.A. Connection Improv Groups Sun. Aug. 25 Diavolo Dance Theater Touring Company Mon. Aug. 26 L.A. Connection Improv Groups 'The Ark, the Musical' 'The Diviners' Tue. Aug. 27 'Macbeth' 'The Ark, the Musical' 'The Diviners' Wed. Aug. 28 'A Moon for the Misbegotten' 'Collected Stories' L.A. Connection Improv Groups 'The Sunset Limited' Thurs. Aug. 29 'A Moon for the Misbegotten' 'Collected Stories' Disneyland Resort, Actors Talent Show 'The Sunset Limited' Fri. Aug. 30 Click here to search for auditions. Sat. Aug. 31 'Cupcakes' Sun.

While Cormac McCarthy is undeniably an American literary icon, cinematic adaptations of his work haven't always fared so well. From the great ("No Country For Old Men") to the good ("The Road") to the missed opportunities ("All The Pretty Horses") to the ones no one saw ("The Sunset Limited"), the success rate has been scattered. But this fall will see two movies based on his efforts. Later this month, James Franco will unspool "Child Of God" in Venice, but for the rest of us, it will be "The Counselor" that we'll be seeing first. More importantly, it was written specifically for the screen. And a new trailer is here giving the biggest peek yet at what is one of the fall's biggest films. Ridley Scott has stacked the cast for this one—Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Dean Norris, Rosie Perez, John Leguizamo, Natalie Dormer,...

The following "Auditions at a Glance" calendar conveniently organizes projects by the date and day-of-the-week that the projects' auditions are taking place, to help you schedule your plans. Click on any of the following links to see the casting and job notices related to the dates and project titles highlighted below. Thurs. Jan. 24 • A Noise Within 2013 Spring Season • 'Sideways' • 'Spring Awakening' • Watch it Now Ent. weight loss commercial Fri. Jan. 25 • 'Sideways'• Six Flags, Superheroes & Costume Characters Sat. Jan. 26 • 'Company' • 'Sideways' Sun. Jan. 27 • CA, Stiletto Entertainment • 'Company' Mon. Jan. 28 • 'Billy and Ray' • 'Company' • 'Lend Me a Tenor' • 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' • 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers', Dancers • 'Snow White' • 'Sweet Charity' • 'The Fantastiks' • 'The Sunset Limited' Tues. Jan. 29 • 'Falsettos' • 'Lend Me a Tenor' • 'Sweet Charity' • 'The Sunset Limited' Weds. Jan. 30 • 'Falsettos' • Wayne Foster Entertainment, Vocalists Thurs. Jan. 31 • Click here to search for auditions.

HBO is planning to bring more Broadway to your television.The Hollywood Reporter reported that the pay cable channel has given a script commitment to an hourlong television adaptation of “Stick Fly,” playwright Lydia R. Diamond’s original Broadway play about the secrets, prejudices, rivalries, and infidelities that are exposed during a wealthy African-American family’s weekend getaway in Martha’s Vineyard.Diamond is adapting the screenplay and will also executive produce with Alicia Keys and Nelle Nugent, who were among the producers of the Broadway production.“Stick Fly” opened Dec. 8, 2011, at the Cort Theatre and ran for 93 performances, closing Feb. 26, 2012. The cast of the Broadway production featured Dulé Hill, Mekhi Phifer, Tracie Thoms, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and Condola Rashad, who earned a Tony nomination for her performance. Casting for the HBO version has not been announced.HBO has had success in the past by adapting theater for television, with TV...

While recent clips for the upcoming sequel “Men In Black III” continue to lead us to believe it was nothing but a giant payday for all involved, actor Tommy Lee Jones is always reliable, even with the treacle-filled trailer for his co-starring role with Meryl Streep in “Hope Springs” showing he’s willing to step outside his comfort zone so late in his career to bring some laughs.

Well, Variety is reporting that Jones is now lining up his next directorial outing in the form of “The Homesman,” the pioneer-era tale of a woman who joins a outlawed man (Jones) in an attempt to usher three mentally unstable women from Nebraska to Iowa, on an odyssey that well have them braving the elements every step of the way. While that may sounds like an adaptation of the ‘90s PC game “The Oregon Trail,” Jones seems to be taking this quite...

After spending a few years away from the director’s folding chair, Tommy Lee Jones is now eyeing a return, setting up pioneer drama The Homesman to write, produce and direct. The story will find a pioneer woman who teams up with a claim-jumping n’er-do-well (Jones) to guide three insane women on a tough quest from Nebraska to Iowa.It may not sound like the most commercial of prospects, but then, Jones is not known for making blockbuster fare, preferring to tackle tighter character studies. His last stint behind the megaphone was 2005’s The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada, though he did also produce and direct The Sunset Limited as a TV movie for HBO last year, which saw him starring alongside Samuel L Jackson. He’s currently in the process of putting together the financing he needs, including looking to make a deal with Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp.

After helming the 1995 TV movie The Good Old Boys, Tommy Lee Jones took a decade off from behind-the-camera duty, before returning to the director’s chair for the well-received The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Since then, Jones has been mostly defined by his soulful on-screen work in both In the Valley of Elah and No Country for Old Men, but it looks as if the directing bug has caught fire once again — after overseeing HBO Films’ recent The Sunset Limited, the actor is lining up The Homesman, a road-picture period piece. [ShowBlitz]

Jones‘s duties, furthermore, will extend far beyond the realm of directing — not only is the film based on his screenplay, but he’s also signed on to produce and star in the film as well. The story will track “a pioneer woman and a claim-jumping rascal of a man (Jones) who usher three insane women on an odyssey from Nebraska to Iowa.

Tommy Lee Jones is lining up his next directorial vehicle with The Homesman, which he will also star in, write, and produce.

This period drama centers on a claim-jumper (Tommy Lee Jones) and a pioneer woman who both escort three insane women on a bizarre journey from Nebraska to Iowa, where they must brave the harsh elements along the way.

The multi-hyphenate will produce alongside Michael Fitzgerald and his Ithaca Films banner. The producers are in talks with Luc Besson's EuropaCorp to co-produce, finance, and distribute the drama.

Both Michael Fitzgerald and EuropaCorp produced Tommy Lee Jones' first feature directorial effort, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. He also directed the HBO movie The Sunset Limited last year.

No production schedule was released. The actor will next be seen in the long-awaited sequel Men in Black III, which hits theaters May 25.

For all the many strengths of "The Avengers," there's one important element that writer-director Joss Whedon can't take credit for: the casting. Of the main characters, only one, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, hasn't appeared in one of the previous five Marvel movies that have led to this point. So given the casting committee that assembled The Avengers, it's something of a miracle that it's ended up with one of the most enjoyable collections of actors in a big tentpole movie for quite some time.

Of course, for the most part, it's to be expected: while there are a few newcomers in the mix, the principle cast have close to a century of experience in the movies between them, and countless great performances in their back catalogs. With "The Avengers" finally hitting U.S. theaters tomorrow, we've picked out the greatest performance of each of the seven members...

Projects in Hollywood need a name attached---script quality and director’s vision and rarely make a project happen until someone that Hollywood trusts to make money joins the project. The Sunset Limited is scripted by the writer of No Country For Old Men, starring Samuel L. Jackson squaring off against Tommy Lee Jones. Who wins in this face-off between two actors loved by so many? Check out our review after the jump. The Sunset Limited is an adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy play. The premise is very simple. Two men, White and Black, sit in an apartment. Black saves White from an attempted suicide. They go back to Black’s apartment and discuss life, death, faith and reason. No action, no weapons, no aliens. Just two actors reacting off each other and digging into a script. Will White head back to jump in front of the train again? Will Black...

The film is The Counselor and it is still without a studio, but will be directed by Ridley Scott with a script from Cormac McCarthy and now Deadline.com reports it will star Michael Fassbender and the film is looking at a May 1 start date, a month before Scott's Prometheus hits theaters. McCarthy, as I'm sure you all know, penned the novels "The Road" and "No Country for Old Men" (among several others) and he also wrote the play and teleplay adaptation of The Sunset Limited, which Tommy Lee Jones directed for HBO. The Counselor is already being compared to McCarthy's previous works with insiders calling it "No Country For Old Men on steroids," which is a pretty generic description, but yes, it implies it's quite a piece of work. The story centers on a respected lawyer (Fassbender) who thinks he can dip a toe into the drug business without getting sucked down.

What is there to say about Tom Six's coprophagic endurance test that hasn't already been said? About as much as Martin had to say to his victims, I would think. Consequently, this review will be the reverse of my recent rundown of The Sunset Limited blu- it will focus more on the disc than the actual film. How can one cineaste appreciate such diametric opposites, you ask? My only response would be, "Embrace the mystery," delivered with a heavy Japanese accent. Do you really need a synopsis? Fine, I need to fill up space. The Human Centipede 2 picks up where the first film left off. Sort of. You see, in the world of the sequel, the first film was actually a film, not a...

The Sunset Limited, Cormac McCarthy's one-act novel in dramatic form, is all about the dialog. The Sunset Limited, Tommy Lee Jones' HBO adaptation of McCarthy's play, is all about the characters delivering that dialog.The plot of both is simple: White, a suicidal nihilist who believes knowledge is responsible for his malaise, attempts to end his life via oncoming subway train. Black, a religious ex-con full of hope and goodwill, prevents White from completing said task, and takes the man back to his apartment for a rousing discussion on the very meaning of existence. This is Cormac McCarthy we're talking about, so yeah, it's as heavy as it sounds. On the page, we are treated to McCarthy's robust existential musings, sans distraction. Let's be honest- the...

Welcome back to This Week in DVD! Some great, good and sadly deficient releases await you including The Sunset Limited, Knuckle, season two of Rocko’s Modern Life, the second to last Twilight film and more! As always, if you see something you like, click on the image to buy it. Project Nim In the early 1970s a douchey professor at Columbia University set out on an experiment involving cross species communication by taking a young chimpanzee from its mother shortly after birth and placing it with a human family to be raised as one of their children. This documentary from director James Marsh is ostensibly about that chimp named Nim, but the people who pass in and out of his life are just as much the subjects here. Their motivations, actions and attitudes offer a smorgasbord of typical human behaviors that none of us should be proud of regardless of where you land on the issue...

DVD or Blu-ray? Redbox or Netflix? Streaming? Get your home entertainment options settled before midnight on Saturday, Februrary 11 -- because that's when "Breaking Dawn," the latest installment of "The Twilight Saga," arrives in stores. We've got the highlights and lowlights on the week's new releases, plus an exclusive preview of the Blu-ray debut of Disney's "Lady and the Tramp." Moviefone's Pick of the Week "Project Nim" What's It About? This documentary from the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind "Man on Wire" chronicles Nim Chimpsky, a newborn chimp that was raised like a human for a controversial study on linguistics. See It Because: If you're looking for a cute movie about cute animals doing cute things like cute babies, this isn't that movie; instead "Nim" is an honest and captivating look at the complex relationship between man and nature, and the too-simple definitions we try to apply to the animal kingdom. Also...

On DVD and Blu-ray this week: James Marsh's acclaimed follow-up to his Academy Award-winning documentary "Man on Wire;" season two of Britain's favorite import; "The Sunset Limited," directed by Tommy Lee Jones; the latest button-pusher from "Run, Lola, Run" helmer Tom Tykwer; and a documentary that got last year's Sundance Film Festival all riled up for the right reasons.   1. Critic's Pick: "Project Nim" (DVD) Sure, James Marsh's follow-up to "Man on Wire," "Project Nim," didn't earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary like its predecessor (which went on to win), but don't let that stop you from catching what's surely one of the best documentaries of last year. (Fun fact: it beat out awards juggernaut "The Artist" to win the Golden Tomato for best reviewed film in limited release, per Rotten Tomatoes.) The Lionsgate release tells the story of...

Anonymous The fact this is hitting DVD and Blu-ray and no one has really seen it and Columbia has done very little to encourage people to see it is a bit frustrating. As someone that loves and writes about movies you want the good ones to be seen and I can tell you this is a good film. I don't know what it was that scared Sony into releasing it into only 513 theaters at its widest release, but I guess that just stands to mean it will be a small gem found on DVD and Blu-ray.

 

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 This one actually doesn't arrive until Saturday, February 11, but I'm sure young girls all across the country are already queuing up to be the first to own the first part of the final film in the Twilight franchise in which nothing happens and Summit makes millions of dollars as a result.

“Maybe birthdays are dangerous, like Christmas.”

The Sunset Limited, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson, is one of the best film adaptations of a stage play. Jones and Jackson do a magnificent job of bringing to life Cormac McCarthy’s rich, provocative dialogue. It’s a minimalist story, but the actors find ways to get under your skin and make you question your every waking breath.

Often when a stage play is converted into a film, something is lost from the performance and the experience. The subtle magic of a theatre’s imperfect lighting, larger than life stage sets and the reality of a live show draw you into a world that can’t be mimicked on film. Sometimes I can’t help but cringe when a classic play or musical gets a film adaptation.

So when The Sunset Limited, the minimalist stage play from McCarthy (The Road,...

Chicago – Tommy Lee Jones’s production of Cormac McCarthy’s two-character play debuted last year on HBO to little fanfare. Now that the film has finally been released on Blu-ray and DVD, it deserves to be placed at the top of every cinephile’s queue. It is, quite simply, one of the best films of 2011 and the finest cinematic adaptation yet made of the great novelist’s work.

Using an oft-sentimentalized premise as its jumping off point, the film delves into a battle between two opposing viewpoints that question the fundamentals of existence. McCarthy’s astonishing dialogue cuts deep into mankind’s most primal obsessions and fears while allowing each man to articulate his impassioned beliefs, which are often as black and white as life and death. It’s only appropriate for the unnamed characters to be credited as White (played by Jones) and Black (a riveting Samuel L. Jackson...

The story of Cormac McCarthy's "The Counselor" is quickly becoming one of the most intriguing in Hollywood and one that could result in a truly fantastic film.

Deadline reported last night (January 31) that Ridley Scott is in talks to direct "The Counselor," based on the first feature film script by McCarthy. Scott would make it his next picture after "Prometheus."

For those of you just hearing about this, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist shocked everyone—his agents most of all—when he turned in a spec script back in December. The story garnered comparisons both to McCarthy's novel "No Country for Old Men" and the television series "Breaking Bad."

The story follows an attorney in the American Southwest, who thinks he can dip his toe into the drug trade without getting buried too deep. He would be wrong.

"The Counselor" does not mark the first occasion that McCarthy's and Scott's name have been mentioned together.

Cormac McCarthy Delivers Movie Script: The Counselor

When it comes to the material of Pulitzer Prize winning author Cormac McCarthy, screenwriters are usually tasked with bringing his novels into script format. But now the brilliant writer has penned his first ever screenplay. That’s what I call, cutting out the middle man.

When All the Pretty Horses found its way to the screen, Matt Damon starred. In No Country for Old Men, stars were made of Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem. I still much prefer the novel to the film version of The Road, not that Viggo Mortensen didn’t act well. Tommy Lee Jones directed an adaptation of The Sunset Limited. Now its time for The Counselor. It appears McCarthy skipped writing a novel and brought this piece to life directly in screenplay format.

The Counselor follows an attorney who doesn’t mind a little walk on the wild side.

The lyrically-stark prose and often brutal subject matter of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy’s literature has given rise to some excellent film adaptations in the past, most notably No Country for Old Men and The Road. It’s for that reason that the 78-year-old novelist is considered one of the best (if not the best) American writers working today.

Hence, there’s good reason to be excited about The Counselor, which is the first original feature-length spec script penned by McCarthy. Naturally, his agents are already shopping the screenplay around, looking to attach a top-notch filmmaker to the project – a task they should have little difficulty accomplishing.

McCarthy has previously not been involved with any cinematic adaptation of his literature, with the exception of the HBO TV movie version of his single-setting play, The Sunset Limited, which was directed ...

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Is Cormac McCarthy the greatest living American writer? We're sure cases could be made for many other authors, but show us one who's written something as undeniably great as "Blood Meridian," and we'll start to listen. Thanks to the Oscar-winning success of 2007's "No Country For Old Men," based on his novel, McCarthy has become quite the hot prospect in the film world in the last few years, with the Coen Brothers' film being swiftly followed by "The Road" and "The Sunset Limited," the latter an HBO take on his play, while several other adaptations have been percolating. And now McCarthy himself is getting on in the action, as Deadline report that the writer has just sold his first-ever spec screenplay to producers Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz, who were behind the adaptation of "The Road." Entitled "The Counselor," the script (which is drawing comparisons to 'No.

As 2011 comes to a close it’s hard to say whether it was a good or bad year for movies. It started out a bit slow but the latter half of the year produced some of my favorite movies in recent years. The following, is the list of what I think are the 10 best films of the year, in order. I will preface this, by saying I did not yet see a few(Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Martha Marcy May Marlene, etc) which based on most reviews might bump their way into my list once I’ve seen them.

10. Captain America: The First Avenger

At a point where comic book movies are churned out every few months, 2011 brought us the best one since The Dark Knight three years ago. One of the films I was legitimately worried about, turned out to be what was one of the best summer blockbusters...

There are certain actors for whom any attempt to follow the logic or reason in their career choices can only end in failure. What drives Al Pacino to follow playing himself in Adam Sandler comedy "Jack & Jill" with a Phil Spector biopic? How does Samuel L. Jackson film both Cormac McCarthy adaptation "The Sunset Limited" and direct-to-video actioner "Arena" in the same year? At least Nicolas Cage owes the government millions in taxes, but some of these elder statesman seem to delight in veering between the sublime and the ridiculous, and one of the greatest offenders is Bruce Willis.…...

Chicago – It’s that time of year again – the time when the TV industry‘s chosen few try to determine which of their peers delivered the best performances of the past twelve months before handing in their Emmy ballots this Friday, June 24th, 2011. As we do every year, we’re back to offer our choices for the most-deserving nominees in the major categories along with input from our readers and listeners to Wgn-am radio.

The nominees this year are guaranteed to include some surprises, simply due to the strength of two major absentees and a strong slate of new programs hoping to step in. Most importantly, AMC’s “Breaking Bad” didn’t air in the last year, which makes previous winners Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul ineligible, and, of course, “Lost” is gone, freeing up a few spots of its own. The absence of “Monk,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and “Damages...

"Carlos" leading man Edgar Ramirez has already contended for SAG and Golden Globe awards for his audacious portrayal of the notorious fugitive Carlos the Jackal. Now, as the focus of the Emmy campaign by Sundance Channel, he is a frontrunner for Best TV Movie/Mini Actor. Among his competition: Idris Elba ("Luther"), Laurence Fishburne ("Thurgood"), William Hurt ("Too Big To Fail"), and Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones ("The Sunset Limited"). Since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, the five-and-a-half hour biopic has earned rave reviews and both the La and NY film critics named it Best Foreign-Language film last December. Last October, "Carlos" aired as a three-part miniseries on producing partner Sundance (thus qualifying for the Emmys) and this January it won the Golden Globe for Best TV Movie/Mini. Ramirez chatted with Gold Derby senior editor Rob Licuria from the Canary Islands where he is...

50 Cent was blown away by Samuel L. Jackson's performance in recent TV movie The Sunset Limited, and he can't understand why the Shaft icon has yet to claim gold at the annual prizegiving.

In an interview with Vibe magazine, 50 says, "Samuel L. Jackson is probably the most underrated actor. Like, he's trying to go for the world record of underrated.

"You have the strongest monologue and awesome performance in Pulp Fiction, and it's overlooked. Props don't count. He deserves an Academy look."

Jackson has been vocal about his disapproval of rappers embarking on careers in Hollywood in recent years and 50 Cent, who has undergone acting lessons to hone his onscreen skills, insists he understands the star's frustrations.

The rapper adds, "He said something about me earlier. I was a fan of him before and after he said it. You understand, if you are that passionate... That person has disciplined himself and trained himself.

Samuel L. Jackson will play Martin Luther King in a Broadway adaptation of The Mountaintop, Katori Hall’s play about the martyred civil rights leader’s imagined conversation with a hotel maid during his last days in Memphis, according to the New York Times. It opened in London in 2009, with David Harewood portraying King. Jackson, Oscar nominated for his role in Pulp Fiction, has appeared in several off-Broadway productions, but playing King will be his first Broadway starring role. The Mountaintop will begin previews at the Bernard Jacobs Theater on Sept. 22.

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Hollywood A-listers coming to Broadway this fall...

Chicago – Nothing transfixes me quite like transcendent acting and writing when viewed under a cinematic lens. My favorite films of early 2011 have been Tommy Lee Jones’s stunning adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s play, “The Sunset Limited,” and Abbas Kiarostami’s beguiling new masterwork, “Certified Copy.” Both films derive their dramatic power from the differing philosophies of two articulate characters who may or may not be what they seem.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

Neither picture can truly be experienced when viewed casually. They demand an audience’s full attention, engagement and participation. If you don’t leave these films with the overpowering need to discuss and dissect their intricacies, then you obviously zoned out long before the end credits. And yet, neither of these films are rendered inaccessible to the mainstream because of their inherent intellectualism. They are compulsively watchable, effortlessly entertaining, deeply provocative and guaranteed to haunt you for days.

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