Amazon Greenlights New Pilots The Cosmopolitans and Hand of God
Adam Brody, Chloë Sevigny, Carrie MacLemore and Dree Hemingway to star in dramatic comedy The Cosmopolitans Written and Directed by Whit Stillman
Ron Perlman, Dana Delany, Garret Dillahunt and Alona Tal to star in drama Hand of God Directed by Marc Forster and Written by Ben Watkins
Both shows will be a part of Amazon’s third pilot season, which will debut later this year on Amazon Instant Video
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon Studios today announced it has greenlit two new pilots—the half hour dramatic comedy The Cosmopolitans, from Whit Stillman, and one hour drama Hand of God from Executive Producers Marc Forster, Ben Watkins, Ron Perlman, Brian Wilkins and Jeff King—for its third pilot season debuting later this year on Amazon Instant Video. Customers will once again be invited to watch and provide feedback on the shows they want to see turned into full series, which will then become available on Prime Instant Video. Additional pilots joining The Cosmopolitans and Hand of God in the third pilot season will be announced in the coming weeks.
“We’re very pleased to be working with Whit, Ron, Ben, and Marc on developing these pilots,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “The Cosmopolitans and Hand of God both contain rich stories and deep characters that we think customers will really enjoy. I’m looking forward to seeing our customers’ reactions when they debut.”
The Cosmopolitans
Written, directed and produced by Academy Award nominee Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Barcelona, The Last Days of Disco), The Cosmopolitans follows a group of young American expatriates in Paris searching for love and friendship in a foreign city. The dramatic comedy pilot stars Adam Brody as “Jimmy,” Chloë Sevigny as “Vicky,” Carrie MacLemore as “Aubrey,” Dree Hemingway as “Camille,” Freddy Åsblom as “Fritz,” Shaun Evans as “Hal,” and Adriano Giannini as “Sando.” The Cosmopolitans begins shooting this week in Paris.
Hand of God
Marking the television debut of renowned filmmaker Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, World War Z) and written by Ben Watkins, Hand of God stars Golden Globe winner Ron Perlman in his first lead television role since Sons of Anarchy as “Judge Pernell Harris.” Hand of God also stars Dana Delany as the Judge’s protective wife “Crystal Harris,” Garret Dillahunt as “KD,” the born-again sociopath, whose violent tendencies are exploited by Pernell, Andre Royo as the slick, smart, gregarious, and greedy mayor “Robert ‘Bobo’ Boston,” Alona Tal as Pernell’s grieving daughter-in-law “Jocelyn Harris,” Julian Morris as the questionable preacher “Paul Dobson,” Elizabeth McLaughlin as the preacher’s sultry girlfriend “Alicia,” and Emayatzy Corinealdi as Pernell’s call girl / confidante “Tessie.” The show centers on the powerful Judge Harris, a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side, who suffers a mental breakdown, and goes on a vigilante quest to find the rapist who tore his family apart. With no real evidence to go on, Pernell begins to rely on "visions" and “messages” he believes are being sent by God through Pernell's ventilator-bound son. Forster, Watkins, Perlman, Wilkins and King serve as Executive Producers, and Jillian Kugler as co-Executive Producer. Hand of God begins shooting this week in the Los Angeles and Long Beach areas.
About Amazon Studios
Amazon Studios launched in 2010 as a new way to develop feature films and episodic series—one that’s open to great ideas from creators and audiences around the world. Anyone can upload a script and will then be notified within 45 days if that script is optioned. Amazon Studios will read and review all submissions and those who choose to make their projects public will also receive feedback from the Amazon Studios community.
More than 23,000 movie and approximately 6,000 series projects have been submitted to Amazon Studios. Amazon Studios continues to invite series creators to upload their proposals for comedy and children’s programming at http://studios.amazon.com/getting-started/series or submit them privately via Amazon Studios.
Comprehensive cast and crew information, including bios and filmographies, is available on Amazon's IMDb (www.imdb.com), the world’s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Amazon Fire TV is a tiny box that plugs into your HDTV for easy and instant access to Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, SHOWTIME, low-cost video rentals, and much more. Kindle Paperwhite is the world’s best-selling and most advanced e-reader. It features new display technology with higher contrast, the next generation built-in light, a faster processor, the latest touch technology, and exclusive new features designed from the ground up for readers. Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, features improved fonts and faster page turns. The new Kindle Fire HDX features a stunning exclusive 7” or 8.9” HDX display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz processor, 2x more memory, and 11 hours of battery life, as well as exclusive new features of Fire OS 3.0 including X-Ray for Music, Second Screen, Prime Instant Video downloads, and the revolutionary new Mayday button. The all-new Kindle Fire HD includes an HD display, high-performance processor and dual speakers at a breakthrough price.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es, www.amazon.com.br, www.amazon.in, www.amazon.com.mx, and www.amazon.com.au. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Review: Special Effects Keeps "Evolution" Going (Happy B'day, Orlando Jones)
Evolution (2001)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, and for sci-fi action
DIRECTOR: Ivan Reitman
WRITERS: David Diamond and David Weissman, and Don Jakoby; story by Don Jakoby
PRODUCERS: Daniel Goldberg, Joe Medjuck, and Ivan Reitman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael Chapman (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Wendy Greene Bricmont and Sheldon Kahn
COMPOSER: John Powell
SCI-FI/COMEDY
Starring: David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, Ted Levine, Dan Aykroyd, Ethan Suplee, Ty Burrell, Sarah Silverman, and John Cho
The subject of this movie review is Evolution, a 2001 science fiction comedy from director Ivan Reitman. The film follows four people who are fighting an alien organism that has been rapidly evolving into outlandish creatures ever since its arrival on Earth inside a meteor.
Evolution makes me think of Ghostbusters (the former was released 17 years to the date of the latter’s release). Maybe, that’s because both films share the same director, Ivan Reitman, and maybe because both films seem to have the same ebb and flow. While the latter pretty much realized its promise of being a very funny and popular film, the former pretty much failed on both counts.
Dr. Ira Kane (David Duchovny), a biology teacher (and disgraced government employee), and his colleague Harry Block (Orlando Jones) see fame and fortune when firefighter cadet Wayne Grey (Seann William Scott) alerts them to a meteorite that recently crashed into a local cave. The meteorite emits a bluish fluid, and Dr Kane and Prof. Block are shocked to discover that the fluid contains many single-cell organisms that are evolving before their very eyes. The alien life forms evolve and adapt at such an incredible rate (into countless wonderful animal-like forms) that they threaten to prove Charles Darwin right – the strongest will survive and they will take over the world. When the military suddenly arrives, they only make matters worse. Of course, it’s up to Kane, Block, Grey, and sexy government scientist Dr. Allison Reed (Julianne Moore) to save the world from the fate of this alien evolution.
This film has two things going for it, the comedic performances of the actors and the special effects. Reitman, a veteran of many excellent funny movies, leans on the latter for his new film. Whereas Ghostbusters used SFX in service of a great cast of funnymen, Evolution seems enthralled by the CGI technology that didn’t exist at the time of Ghostbusters. Weird animal aliens fun amok in this film, some resembling dinosaurs and wild animals, others resembling slugs and worms. I was impressed by the visual finesse of the special effects, but I’d hoped that the movie would be funnier, but it only managed to be lukewarm.
The cast only manages to be really on their game for about half of the film’s running time. Seann William Scott and Orlando Jones are seemingly inspired, but Reitman doesn’t really let them reach the heights of which they are capable. Duchovny plays it a bit too cool, but at times he is bursting at the seams to really let his funny side loose. Ms. Moore is almost reduced to being the pretty female attachment, which is an utter waste when one considers are tremendous acting talent. Maybe, she isn’t a comedic actress, but she can do more than just be the female costar.
Occasionally intriguing, sometimes pleasant, and infrequently exciting, Evolution is sadly another mediocre film that only lazily aimed at being special. The filmmakers either didn’t put in the work required to make this film really good, or despite their best efforts, they assembled enough defective parts to ruin what could have been a good film.
5 of 10
B-
Updated: Thursday, April 10, 2014
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teaser Poster: Donatello - Choose Your Weapon
Visit the official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tumblr and choose your weapon.
http://tmntmovie.tumblr.com/
In theaters August 8th 2014
Watch the official teaser trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRipBOQl95o
Official Tumblr: http://tmntmovie.tumblr.com/
Official Site: http://www.teenagemutantninjaturtlesmovie.com/
Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/tmntmovie
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TMNT
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/TMNTmovie
Review: "Super Troopers" Can Be Funny (Happy B'day, Jay Chandrasekhar)
Super Troopers (2001)
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – R for language, sexual content and drug use
DIRECTOR: Jay Chandrasekhar
WRITERS: Broken Lizard (Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske)
PRODUCER: Richard Perello
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Joaquín Baca-Asay
EDITORS: Jumbulingam (Jay Chandrasekhar), Jacob Craycroft, and Kevin Heffernan
COMPOSERS: 38 Special
COMEDY
Starring: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Marisa Coughlan, Brian Cox, Daniel van Bargen, Michael Weaver, Dan Fey, Jim Gaffigan, and Lynda Carter
The subject of this movie review is Super Troopers, a 2001 comedy starring the comedy troupe, Broken Lizard, and directed by member, Jay Chandrasekhar. The film focuses on five Vermont state troopers, who are pranksters and screws ups, trying to outperform an overachieving local police department. Although Super Troopers was shown at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, it did not receive a national U.S. theatrical release (by Fox Searchlight Pictures) until 2002.
Movie reviewers often take the easy road or the high-minded road when they opine on what we film lovers call the guilty pleasure – the bad movie that is “really (seriously, now) entertaining.” So a movie often has to be taken for what it is, and what it is may not amount to very much. Perhaps the filmmakers were expressing themselves in the only way they knew. They were being themselves or being true to their game. Or maybe speaking in their own voices and not in someone else’s voice, and they made a movie just to have a silly time.
This is Super Troopers, and for the sake of the usual argument, this is a poorly constructed movie. It’s way too long, has a poor story, a predictable plot and premise, a boring setting, and is set in an indeterminate time, etc.
The plot, in which the appealing underdogs must overcome the overachieving jerks in order to save their low rent livelihoods, is the stiff upon which this cast hangs their act, and the act is the show.
Broken Lizard is a New York and Los Angeles based comedy troop made up of this movie’s director and his co-writers. The movie is merely a vehicle for their uproarious act. I’ve never seen them onstage, but, based upon this funny (no, really) film, I’m anxious to taste them. They are difficult to categorize. They aren’t slackers, because they lack the phony Gen X cool, and they aren’t thugs, ruffians, and lowlifes. Goofy and dumb doesn’t quite fit.
They’re like regulars guys, and their extreme antics are their means to wile away the extreme boredom, continued dullness, and constant pain-in-the-ass throb of life. Their sexual antics are loud without being raunchy. Their act is harmful, but like “Beavis and Butthead” and “Bart Simpson,” they are mostly harmful to themselves. Broken Lizard comes across as regular guys having a way too wild time.
When you watch Super Troopers, you can forget about what a movie is supposed to be like and what’s supposed to be in a movie, you just have a great time laughing at these clowns.
Yeah, maybe the show does go on a bit too long, as if Broken Lizard is not aware that as funny as they are, they can wear out their welcome, but that doesn’t take away from the fun, not by much.
6 of 10
B
Updated: Wednesday, April 09, 2014
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
Happy Birthday, Liz Martel
Happy B'day, sister girl. Hope you have a great day and many, many, many more.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Teaser Poster - Raphael: Choose Your Weapon
Visit the official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tumblr and choose your weapon.
http://tmntmovie.tumblr.com/
In theaters August 8th 2014
Watch the official teaser trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRipBOQl95o
Official Tumblr: http://tmntmovie.tumblr.com/
Official Site: http://www.teenagemutantninjaturtlesmovie.com/
Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/tmntmovie
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TMNT
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/TMNTmovie
Oscar Nominee Review: "The Wolf of Wall Street" is a Howler
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Running time: 180 minutes (3 hours)
MPAA – R for sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese
WRITER: Terence Winter (based on the book by Jordan Belfort)
PRODUCERS: Riza Aziz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey McFarland, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, and Martin Scorsese
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rodrigo Prieto (D.o.P)
EDITOR: Thelma Schoonmaker
Academy Award nominee
DRAMA/COMEDY/BIOFILM
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, Cristin Milioti, Shea Whigham, P.J. Byrne, Kenneth Choi, Brian Sacca, Henry Zebrowski, Ethan Suplee, Bo Dietl, and Johnnie Mae
The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 drama, bio-film, and black comedy from director Martin Scorsese and writer Terence Winter. The film stars actor Leonardo DiCaprio and is the fifth collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio.
The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the memoirs of Jordan Belfort (the 2007 book, The Wolf of Wall Street). The Wolf of Wall Street the film dramatizes the true story of Belfort: how he rose to become a wealthy stockbroker, how he lived the high-life, and how he fell into the clutches of the FBI.
Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) breaks the fourth wall of the movie screen and narrates The Wolf of Wall Street. He gives a tour of his incredible financial wealth, which includes a lavish house on Long Island’s Gold Coast and his trophy wife, Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie). He then goes back to the beginning of his career in a low-level job at an established Wall Street firm. Although he soon moves into a job as a real stock broker, the firm soon goes bankrupt.
Belfort then tells us of his less glamorous job selling penny stocks. However, his aggressive pitching style makes him a huge success in penny stocks. Eventually, Belfort opens his own brokerage firm, Stratton Oakmont, Inc., and hires his low-rent pals to be his first employees. His controversial style earns him the moniker, the “Wolf of Wall Street.” Belfort makes more money than he can spend, and he leads a decadent lifestyle of sex-filled, drug-fueled parties. However, all that money and his reputation earn Belfort the attention of the FBI and an ambitious agent, Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler), who begins investigating Belfort and Stratton Oakmont.
The Wolf of Wall Street is a box office success and earned many accolades, including five Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe award win for Leonardo DiCaprio. Still, the film is controversial, mostly for its moral ambiguity, sexual content, the presence of drugs, and/or its vulgarity, among many complaints.
I don’t see the film as morally ambiguous. The filmmakers are clear in the storytelling and the depiction of the characters and their actions that Jordan Belfort and his cohorts are crooks and scam artists, and they are certainly depraved and lecherous. Belfort may be a sociopath, and he is at least self-centered and narcissistic. Wall Street did not make him the way he is; it is simply the perfect place for Belfort to be what he is.
Director Martin Scorsese, writer Terence Winter, and lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio offer a black comedy that is timeless in its focus. They hold the mirror up to us and make it clear that people never change and they never learn. People chase money and some money chasers prey on other money chasers. They are the predators that clean up and rake in the dough every time. As this kind of predator – this wolf of Wall Street, DiCaprio gives a performance that deserves to be described as a tour de force.
Some predators live it up on their ill-gotten gains. The Wolf of Wall Street shows us the ribaldry and depravity of those who live it up to the extreme. And this film is a blast because of that. If you stop yourself from thinking about the real-life Jordan Belfort’s victims, you might find this film dynamic and irreverent. Scorsese isn’t glorifying Belfort’s excessive lifestyle. Instead, the director offers a great character study of a larger-than-life American archetype; this is a randy version of that archetype. This version simply spends more time with his pants down and blow up his nose than most.
You can hate both the player and the game, but it is hard to hate The Wolf of Wall Street, at least it is for me. This fifth Marty and Leo film makes me eager for the sixth.
9 of 10
A+
Friday, April 04, 2014
NOTES:
2014 Academy Awards, USA: 5 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Joey McFarland, and Martin Scorsese), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Leonardo DiCaprio), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Jonah Hill), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Martin Scorsese), “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” (Terence Winter)
2014 Golden Globes, USA: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Leonardo DiCaprio); 1 nomination: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical)”
2014 BAFTA Awards: 4 nominations: “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Terence Winter), “Best Leading Actor” (Leonardo DiCaprio), “Best Editing” (Thelma Schoonmaker), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Martin Scorsese)
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
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