At last, it’s here: the long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s The Dark Knight, generally considered the best comic book superhero movie ever made (and until this year’s The Avengers, the highest-grossing). The Dark Knight Rises is also director Christopher Nolan’s farewell to the Batman franchise, and the nearly three-hour film was perhaps the most challenging of his career.
Despite Christopher Nolan’s insistence to take a more realistic approach to his Batman films (well, as realistic as a man dressing as a bat to fight crime can be), it was inevitable that Batman’s main love interest, Selina Kyle/Catwoman, would show up at some point. She finally appears in The Dark Knight Rises, portrayed by Anne Hathaway.
Come and knock on my door… I have a cease and desist letter for you…
Sorry, I know that’s an awful joke — it doesn’t even fit the melody. But it’s fitting, since playwright David Adjmi found himself on the receiving end of a cease and desist letter from the copyright owner of the 1970s/1980s television series Three’s Company on the day of the opening night of his new play, 3C.
At first I wasn’t completely sold on Anne Hathaway being cast as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, but she certainly looks great in the catsuit and I’m looking forward to seeing what she brings to Christopher Nolan’s vision of Gotham City. In fact, Nolan admits that he was so impressed by Hathaway’s performance that he feels she ought to have her own Catwoman spinoff.
Though she’ll always be best known as Ripley, the Alien franchise extraterrestrial ass-kicker and one of film’s most iconic female protagonists, Sigourney Weaver has had a prolific career in film. She now stars in her first television mini-series Political Animals as Elaine Barrish, the current U.S. Secretary of State and ex-wife of a former president.
Willem Dafoe remains one of those actors who is as versatile as he is prolific — he regularly appears in about 3 movies per year, ranging from expensive studio projects like Spider-Man and John Carter to independent films like this year’s 4:44 Last Day on Earth and The Hunter.
Every year Forbes releases its list of Hollywood’s highest paid actors, and the results are often surprising. Take this year, for example, with Tom Cruise topping the list at $75 million. Though Cruise was paid handsomely for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Rock of Ages, it seems more likely that he would’ve topped the list in 1992 rather than 2012.
While Chris Pine is definitely best known for starring as Captain Kirk in Star Trek and its upcoming sequel, he also not only has experience in smaller films like People Like Us but also in theater.
If you have yet to hear about this Andrew Garfield fellow, you obviously haven’t been paying attention to the significant coverage of his starring role in Broadway’s recent revival of Death of a Salesman and the even bigger coverage of his turn as Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man.
A few years ago a band called the Silver Brazilians released a song titled “Kate Winslet”, which served as an ode to the beauty of the titular Titanic actress. However, with lyrics like “Kate Winslet / You know you look so fine / When they talk about your weight girl / I wouldn’t pay no mind / I’m no diplomat / but you look better fat / Kate Winslet,” it does mention Winslet’s often-discussed figure in a less-than-flattering way.
I like Eugene Levy, I really do. It’s kind of hard to put that in writing though, because as endearing as Levy is in Christopher Guest’s mockumentries and as Jim’s Dad in the American Pie movies, he’s in some incredibly awful movies. The SCTV veteran has starred in such “gems” as Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, New York Minute, The Man, Ri¢hie Ri¢h’s Christmas Wish, and Madea’s Witness Protection, which is now in theaters and is one of the most negatively-reviewed films of Levy’s career.
One of the most anticipated films of summer 2012 is Ted, the first film directed by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. The movie is about a man named John Bennett whose childhood wish of his teddy bear coming to life has come true while he was an adult.
When jobless in a tough economic climate, sometimes the best plan is to go back to school. After all, getting a degree that you could use toward getting a better job when the economy eventually turns around rather than dedicating all your time and energy searching for a job that isn’t available at this time. However, despite that often-shared advice, drama school applications in the UK have fallen by as much as 14.2% for the upcoming academic year.
Originally set for a 16-week run, Clybourne Park has recently been extended by three weeks because of strong sales. One of the actors enjoying that success is Brendan Griffin, who appeared in the original Playwrights Horizons production.
Recently Shirely MacLaine was awarded the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award for her long career in films — which is still ongoing, as she stars in this year’s Jack Black comedy Bernie and next year’s Ben Stiller comedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
It’s ironic that one of the most experienced Broadway musical actors on the NBC television series Smash, Brian D’Arcy James, plays one of the characters who isn’t involved in the Broadway business.
After memorable appearances in the two Hangover films (well, we might as well call it now that he’ll put an appearance in the upcoming third film) and his award-winning 2008 documentary Tyson, former world heavyweight boxing champion “Iron” Mike Tyson has carved quite a movie career for himself over the last several years.
Alan Cumming is many things: actor, singer, author, photographer, scented bath lotion entrepreneur, but he is. perhaps all else, a Scotsman. He began his career on the stage in his native Scotland, and that is where he has returned to star in a production Macbeth for the National Theatre of Scotland.
If you’ve never seen the new YouTube show Cool Kids’ Table, it features two stereotypically obnoxious high school girls, Kenzie and Blake, sitting in the cafeteria as they interview celebrities in a very condescending way. Although it’s a lot of schtick, it does have its moments.
Gene Wilder, who memorably played Wonka in the 1971 film, not only made several suggestions about how Wonka should act, but unlike most actors he also made several suggestions about what Wonka should wear.
