News

Gus Van Sant is a fiercely individual voice with one foot in the independent world and another in the studio system, Van Sant’s filmography varies wildly from mainstream entertainments to peculiar experiments, from sublime highs to extreme lows. Let’s take a look at all 17 of his films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1952 in Louisville, Kentucky, Van Sant kicked off his filmmaking career with the micro-budget, black-and-white “Mala Noche” (1985), a major preamble to the New Queer Cinema. His next feature, “Drugstore Cowboy” (1989), firmly established him as an indie maverick, a reputation he would fulfill with his followup, the River Phoenix/Keanu Reeves road movie “My Own Private Idaho” (1991). He dipped his toes into studio filmmaking with the gleefully dark satire “To Die For” (1995), which won Nicole Kidman a Golden Globe as Best Comedy/Musical Actress.

He hit the Oscar jackpot for the first time with the inspirational drama...

The Toronto International Film Festival, like most other festivals this year, returns with a post-pandemic mindset: a primarily in-person event with an overall line-up closer to their numbers before 2020. Their Short Cuts programme remains smaller for the time being, with only 39 selections across its six line-ups (compared to 55 in 2019), but programmer Jason Anderson has put together a diverse series across multiple forms and genres.

Here are ten shorts that constitute some of the strongest works in a generally impressive lineup.

Airhostess-737 (Thanasis Neofotistos)

In Airhostess-737, flight attendant Vanina (Lena Papaligoura) finds herself stressed on what should be a routine flight, only to find her sense of reality slip away as she confronts what’s really making her so anxious. Director Thanasis Neofotistos opens his film by stating it was “conceived in a dream,” and part of the movie’s fun is how he piles on the surrealism as we get to know more about Vanina.

Exclusive: Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), Lenny Kravitz (Lee Daniels’ The Butler), Beverly D’Angelo (Violent Night), Colleen Camp (Back on the Strip) and Gavin Rossdale (The Bling Ring) have signed on to star alongside Vito Schnabel in the dark comedy The Trainer, which Tony Kaye (American History X) is directing from Schnabel and Jeff Solomon’s script.

The film currently in production, after nearly a decade in development, is based on an original story by Schnabel. It unfolds over eight days of sleep-deprived chaos and follows Jack (Schnabel), a down-on-his-luck fitness expert living with his mother in Los Angeles, who takes a maniacal swing at fame and fortune, trying to realize his version of the American dream.

Julia Fox, Steven Van Zandt, Taylour Paige, Stephen Dorff, John McEnroe, Gina Gershon, Luka Sabbat, Soo Joo Park, Brock O’Hurn, Bella Thorne, Laird Hamilton and Duke Nicholson are also set to star.

"It makes me happy to help folks out a little." Film Movement has debuted the US trailer for an acclaimed Japanese indie drama titled They Say Nothing Stays the Same, which initially premiered back in 2019. The film is the latest directed by Japanese actor / filmmaker Joe Odagiri, and features cinematography by the award-winning Dp Christopher Doyle. "Why does one need a ferryman? One needs a ferryman where there is a body of water and a bridge does not exist. The village high in the hills has a ferryman, but a bridge is in the works. The poor peasant is about to become even more poor. The people, livestock, and goods won't need his services much longer... He meets a young girl on a day when everything was supposed to go like any other day." The film stars Akira Emoto, Ririka Kawashima, Nijiro Murakami, Tsuyoshi Ihara, ...

He may have an impressive film CV, but the actor is destined to be remembered as The Office’s resident dork. He talks about why he was perfect for the role, his new movie, Don’t Tell a Soul – and his love for Steve Coogan

Some actors associated with a signature role will tire of talking about it. No such preciousness from Rainn Wilson, who appears on camera from his Los Angeles home wearing a grey T-shirt emblazoned with the word “Scranton”. That Pennsylvania city provided the setting for the US version of the mockumentary sitcom The Office, which ran for nine widely adored, award-winning series. Wilson earned three Emmy nominations for playing the livid, disagreeable Dwight, the Rust Belt equivalent of Mackenzie Crook’s Gareth. Today’s beard and baseball cap, as well as his chipper demeanour, banishes all memory of the pasty face, DIY haircut and startled expression he wore in that show.

Film Movement has acquired North American rights to “They Say Nothing Stays The Same,” the feature film debut of Joe Odagiri, a popular Japanese actor and musician.

The lushly lensed Japanese drama premiered at Venice and went on to play at Busan. Among its many accolades, the pic won best feature film at Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in Turkey and was nominated for the Golden Star at El Gouana. It also played at the New York Asian Film Festival.

“They Say Nothing Stays The Same” will have a theatrical release in 2021, followed by a roll-out on digital and home entertainment platforms. The announcement was made by Michael Rosenberg, the president of Film Movement and Maki Shimizu of the Kinoshita Group.

Headlined by Akira Emoto, the film boasts a strong crew including Christopher Doyle, the cinematographer of “Paranoid Park”; Emi Wada, the costume designer of “Ran”; as well as Armenian jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan.

The seven-episode Ouverture of Something That Never Ended has garnered millions of views since it was posted on YouTube in November. Sponsored by Gucci, the series marks the latest collaboration between director Gus van Sant and cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Hksc, following the features Paranoid Park and Psycho. Shot on location over a three-week period in the fall, the series was Doyle’s first chance to work under new Covid-19 protocols. Extensive testing and social distancing were among the steps taken during the production. With over 100 films to his […]

The post “Stupid Questions are the Best Questions, and Mistakes are What People Call ‘Style'”: Christopher Doyle on Pandemic Production, Creativity and Shooting Gus Van Sant’s Gucci Series first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The seven-episode Ouverture of Something That Never Ended has garnered millions of views since it was posted on YouTube in November. Sponsored by Gucci, the series marks the latest collaboration between director Gus van Sant and cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Hksc, following the features Paranoid Park and Psycho. Shot on location over a three-week period in the fall, the series was Doyle’s first chance to work under new Covid-19 protocols. Extensive testing and social distancing were among the steps taken during the production. With over 100 films to his […]

The post “Stupid Questions are the Best Questions, and Mistakes are What People Call ‘Style'”: Christopher Doyle on Pandemic Production, Creativity and Shooting Gus Van Sant’s Gucci Series first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Gus Van Sant celebrates his 67th birthday on July 24, 2019. A fiercely individual voice with one foot in the independent world and another in the studio system, Van Sant’s filmography varies wildly from mainstream entertainments to peculiar experiments, from sublime highs to extreme lows. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look at all 17 of his films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1952 in Louisville, Kentucky, Van Sant kicked off his filmmaking career with the micro-budget, black-and-white “Mala Noche” (1985), a major preamble to the New Queer Cinema. His next feature, “Drugstore Cowboy” (1989), firmly established him as an indie maverick, a reputation he would fulfill with his followup, the River Phoenix/Keanu Reeves road movie “My Own Private Idaho” (1991). He dipped his toes into studio filmmaking with the gleefully dark satire “To Die For” (1995), which won Nicole Kidman a Golden Globe as Best Comedy/Musical Actress.

SEENicole Kidman movies:...

If you’ve already binged your way through the latest season of “Handmaid’s Tale” and all of “Catch-22,” worry not because Hulu is here to cure your mid-vacation content slump with a whole new slate of titles coming to the streamer this July.

Watch Kristen Bell reprise her role as the titular character in Season 4 of “Veronica Mars,” dropping July 1. Or if you aren’t in the mood to return to the seaside town of Neptune as Mars investigates a mysterious string of bombings and murders, you can relax with Ice-Cube’s hilarious one-liners in Steve Carr’s family comedy “Are We Done Yet?” and his spin-off series “Are We There Yet?”

Alongside classic favorites — all five “Rocky” movies, “King Kong,” and “The Polar Express” are among some notable additions — the streaming service also came through with both brand-new and returning original shows. Watch the series premiere of “Four Weddings and a Funeral,...

Hulu is out with its list of new content coming in July, and highlights include the “Veronica Mars” revival and the series premiere of the new “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” We also have the list of everything that’s being removed from the streaming service at the end of July.

Season 1-3 of the original “Veronica Mars” series will be available starting July 1, so you can brush up on all the background knowledge you’ll need to fully enjoy Season 4 when it drops July 26, with Kristen Bell returning the starring role as the title character after almost 15 years. Here’s everything we know about the revival so far.

The new Mindy Kaling-produced “Four Weddings and a Funeral” series comes July 31, with “Game of Thrones” star Nathalie Emanuel in the lead role. Original star Andie MacDowell will return as a guest star.

Also Read: Summer TV Premiere Dates: Here's...

Anaphora is an on-going series of video essays exploring the neglected films by major directors. Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park (2007) is showing May 17–June 15, 2019 on Mubi in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland as part of the series Cannes Takeover.Gus Van Sant can be a difficult director for which to wave the flag at present. You just never know if he’ll be making a pleasant if weightless drama designed to play endlessly on cable channels in need of harmless programming or if he’s going to make the single most haunting film you’ll see in a given year. After almost a decade of not-quites and outright critical disasters, he made Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far On Foot, which looked like a run-of-the-mill inspirational movie but in fact contained some of his most engaged and empathetic filmmaking to date, housed a murderer’s...

Part science-fiction, part teenage romance, “Andromedia” sure has some surprises for its audience. Takashi Miike’s most successful work up to that point, grants most of it box office success to the J-Pop bands featured in the cast. In 1998, Shochiku hired the director to promote a couple of popular teen bands via a movie.

The main plot is tied to Mai, who is killed in a car accident. Her father, a genius programmer, recreates her in a computer program named “AI”. Therefore he transfers all of her memories into that artificial character and gives her the shape of Mai. Unfortunately, the father’s brother-in-law wants to get his hands on the technology for profit and steals the program. Mai’s father is killed in the robbery. In the further course of the movie, Mai’s friends try to gain control of the program and free AI from the bad guys,...

Cirque du Soleil-esque model is eyed for forthcoming Us launch of popular UK immersive cinema event company.

Secret Cinema – the wildly popular immersive cinema event company in the UK – is heading into new territories both geographically and in terms of ambition.

“The future of Secret Cinema is to grow it around the world,” founder and chief creative officer Fabien Riggall said during a keynote at Connext, the Flanders Image industry event in Ghent.

For the Us expansion, he said, “Secret Cinema we’ll be starting in New York and La and then there can be touring shows as well as static shows,...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (Peyton Reed)

After the apocalyptic implications following the cliffhanger of Avengers: Infinity War, one wonders where Marvel could go next. Small, of course. Ant-Man was the franchise’s most playful, inconsequential offering, so it’s only fitting that another insular story featuring Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang and shrinkable company would make a worthwhile breather in a world of superheroes where the fate of the world is often the name of the game. That’s clearly–and thankfully–not the mission here and in his follow-up Peyton Reed doubles down on the comedic charms of his cast, playing up Rudd’s aloofness and...

A band of female skateboarders raise mayhem as they roar around New York City in this likable, laid-back drama

Crystal Moselle’s intensely likable and sympathetic movie, with its seductively laid-back documentary realist style, is all about skateboarders in New York City. For me, it reclaims the skater genre from movies like Larry Clark’s The Smell of Us and perhaps Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park, which tended to fetishise skaters, pornifying their perceived alienation and affectlessness – and of course their maleness. This is about a women’s skater group calling themselves Skate Kitchen whose stunts and general freewheeling and life-enjoying attitude are publicised on Instagram.

Related: Skate Kitchen: wheel life tales of sexism and sisterhood...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Godard’s work in the Dziga Vertov Group is the centerpiece of a new series.

A restoration of Wanda plays alongside McCabe & Mrs. Miller and The Spook Who Sat By the Door.

Bam

A new series highlights the first female filmmakers.

Prints of Raging Bull and a (supposedly) worthwhile companion screen on Saturday.

Quad Cinema...

If nothing else, Gus Van Sant’s latest feature, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, has engendered the most energetic discussion and retrospective viewing of his work in a noticeable length of time — since Paranoid Park, it seems? (We weren’t too keen on the film when seeing it at Sundance, but Lord knows it’s considered a step above some others.) Case in point: Le CiNeMa Club have the Academy Film Archive’s restoration of Four Boys in a Volvo, his 1996 piece “made from material shot for a Levi’s commercial on which [he] was given complete freedom.” Brief in length, intimate in focus, vast in its landscapes, and positively aglow from what is perhaps his first collaboration with Harris Savides — thus preceding Gerry by six years — it distills a remarkable amount of Van Sant’s predilections and appeal into four lucid, dream-like minutes.

Four Boys in a Volvo can be streamed,...

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot is the first film Gus Van Sant has written since 2007’s Paranoid Park capped off an all-time great run of films, leading to decidedly less-successful, though no less-distinguished, mainstream films. It’s is hardly a return to his long-take portraits of loneliness, but Van Sant’s individual identity is more firmly present, pitting him somewhat at war with a screenplay aiming for a more standard arc.

The film is based on the same-titled memoir by the late John Callahan, a cartoonist and somewhat notorious figure in the Portland art scene back before the Portland art scene became so commodified. Joaquin Phoenix plays John as he battles alcoholism alongside adapting to quadriplegic life following a near-deadly drunk driving accident. His plate, you see, is rather full. But rather than dwell on the routines of John’s physical limitations, Van Sant (perhaps...

Returning to the Sundance Film Festival for the first time since Gerry, Gus Van Sant has had a peculiar run since. After experimental highlights like Elephant and Paranoid Park, he earned acclaim with Milk, but then his last trio of features–Restless, Promised Land, and The Sea of Trees have been forgettable–or worse. His latest film, Don’t Worry, You Won’t Get Far on Foot, finds him returning with a beating heart, courtesy of Joaquin Phoenix’s stand-out lead performance, but this biopic is ultimately let down by its shapeless, uncinematic approach.

Based on a memoir by Portland’s John Callahan, the scattershot editing structure finds us jumping between his early 20s–when his alcoholism led him to becoming paraplegic after a horrible accident–and his life confined in his wheelchair, from his early, angry days to finding some peace with crafting off-color cartoons and support at an AA group.

It’s been a while since Gus Van Sant both wrote and directed a film—since 2007’s Paranoid Park, in fact—and nearly as long since one has scored with either audiences or critics. Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot aims to reverse that downward trend by returning to a favorite theme of friendships forged among the…

Read more...

“The things inside your head, they’re only as real as you want them to be. If you want, you can just decide they’re not real.” Early on in “The Strange Ones,” Nick (Alex Pettyfer) tells this to his younger travel buddy Sam (James Freedson-Jackson), before seemingly making a coffee mug disappear. On its surface, the film is about two brothers heading out on a camping trip, but it quickly becomes apparent that not everything is as it seems, from the pair’s names to their endgame (to the existence of their coffee mugs). The film’s co-directors, Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein, may be relatively new to audiences (“The Strange Ones” is their feature-length debut; in fact, it’s an expansion upon their own 2011 short, based on real-life true-crime stories), but movie buffs will recognize flashes of their cinematic inspirations throughout. The film may be intentionally vague, but...

A firmer hand with the plot – and with Shia Labeouf – might have benefitted this admirably loose-limbed and atmospheric immersion into a little-seen world

Andrea Arnold is the brilliant British film-maker who created two modern gems in the social-realist tradition in the form of Red Road and Fish Tank, and in my view a near-masterpiece in the form of her much-misunderstood Wuthering Heights, a work of such radical simplicity and raw experience it actually seemed to predate the literary work.

Now in American Honey she has created a long, often intriguing and humidly atmospheric film which sometimes dwindles into listlessness. It’s a road movie in the un-accented style of Gus Van Sant – particularly his Elephant and Paranoid Park. The drifting camera shots directed straight up into a blue sky, bisected occasionally with telegraph poles, are very similar to Van Sant’s Elephant. There’s something of Larry Clark or Harmony Korine in the featureless,...

Japan’s infamous Aokigahara played host to Natalie Dormer and Co. for underwhelming thriller The Forest late last year. In swapping psychological thrills and spills for profound drama, director Gus Van Sant (Paranoid Park) has teamed with Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe for The Sea of Trees.

Due to enter the competition at Cannes come May, today brings forth the first English-language trailer for Van Sant’s latest (prefaced by a Japanese message from Watanabe), placing McConaughey and Watanabe in the shoes of Arthur Brennan and Takumi Nakamura, respectively.

In Japanese culture, Aokigahara is considered a powerful open-air haven of spiritual energy. Situated at the base of Mt. Fiji, The Sea of Trees, as it is known locally, is also the place where people go to commit suicide, and that’s exactly what McConaughey’s despairing Brennan plans to do.

Struggling to come to terms with his wife’s ailing...

Marking Gus Van Sant‘s first film in competition at Cannes since his Paranoid Park, The Sea of Trees unfortunately didn’t go over very well last May. Starring Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe as Arthur Brennan and Takumi Nakamura, respectively, it follows the two individuals who happen upon each other in the forests of Mount Fuji in Japan known as the sea of trees. Brennan plans on committing suicide in the forest whereas Nakamura is geographically lost and unable to find his way out.

We said in our review, “The genuinely captivating ambiguity of these early moments fools you into thinking The Sea of Trees could be a return to form for Van Sant, a tantalizing throwback to the days when a new release by the director was greeted with deserved anticipation. The rest of the film obliterates this promise and punishes you for being so gullible.” While Roadside Attractions...

To cinephiles, few cinematographers get the blood truly pumping quite like beloved and Criterion-approved director of photography Christopher Doyle. Best known for his iconic work in films like Wong Kar-Wai’s In The Mood For Love (to this very day one of the greatest achievements in film photography), Doyle has honed his craft largely outside of the United States, occasionally coming stateside to work with filmmakers like Gus Van Sant (Paranoid Park) or even Barry Levinson (Liberty Heights). Working numerous times with directors like Wong Kar-Wai, as well as the likes of Zhang Yimou and Edward Yang (Doyle’s first film was Yang’s That Day, on the Beach), he has become a bastion of the world cinema scene and one of today’s most beloved photographers.

Playing this year’s New York Asian Film Festival is his latest journey behind the camera, as Filipino poet/filmmaker/artist Khavn (aka...

“Sea of Trees”

While Gus Van Sant’s last movie Promised Land dropped in 2012, the announcement of his latest film The Sea of Trees coming to Cannes felt like a return to a certain kind of art house form for the veteran director. This film marks his first time in Competition for the Palme D’or since 2007 with Paranoid Park.

The Sea of Trees stars Matthew McConaughey, Naomi Watts, and Ken Watanabe in a story about two men lost in the forest near Mt. Fuji. This first clip with McConaughey and Watanabe gives a hint at their somewhat tense and dreamy search for a way out. Watch it below via DeadlineNow:

The post Matthew McConaughey stars in clip for Cannes ’15 entry ‘The Sea of Trees’ appeared first on Sound On Sight.

One of our most-anticipated titles screening in competition at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival is Gus Van Sant’s The Sea of Trees. Marking the director’s first film in competition since his Paranoid Park, the drama stars Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe as, respectively, Arthur Brennan and Takumi Nakamura, two individuals seemingly lost in a forest in Japan known as the […]...

Director Gus Van Sant’s has had great experiences at the at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Palme d'Or in 2003 for his drama “Elephant," and not so great experiences — 2011’s “Restless” was not so warmly received. He’s been on the Croisette several times, and he’ll be In Competition once again for his upcoming film, “Sea Of Trees.” But which Van Sant will show up? The filmmaker obviously vacillates from the commercial (“Milk”) to the more esoteric and introspective (his entire “Gerry” through "Paranoid Park" run, which went from 2002 to 2007 and includes four films, so it'll be interesting to see what flavor we get here). Well, despite the starry cast of Mathew McConaughey, Ken Watanabe (“Inception”), and Naomi Watts, it sounds like the artier Van Sant will appear at Cannes. “Sea Of Trees” sounds like more of an existentialist, minimalist effort, and it follows two strangers who meet...

The lineup for the 68th Annual Cannes Film Festival was unveiled Thursday morning, with announcements for the competition, Un Certain Regards and Out of Competition categories all included. Among this year’s lineup are new films from Todd Haynes, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Matteo Garrone, Jia Zhang-Ke, Gus Van Sant, Denis Villeneuve and more.

Out of Competition, Woody Allen’s Irrational Man, George Miller’s blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road, and the new Pixar film Inside Out, will all be making their World Premieres.

In competition and in the Un Certain Regard, some of the highlights include Todd Haynes’ Carol, his first film since 2007’s I’m Not There, and Gus Van Sant’s The Sea of Trees, with him making his first return to the festival since 2011, and the first time he is back in Competition since Paranoid Park was nominated for the Palme D’Or in 2007.

Actress Natalie Portman...

With 2015 upon us, we figured it was a good time to look back on the movies the millennium has brought us. We've dug into the archives and are re-running our Best of the 2000s pieces, from way back in 2009 when the Playlist was a little Blogspot site held together with tape and string. Each list runs down the top 10 films of each year (it's possible that, half-a-decade on, we'd put them in a different order and even change some of the movies, but we wanted to preserve the original pieces untouched as far as possible). Check out 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 if you missed them, and today we continue with 2007. The original piece follows below, and thanks to staffers past and present who contributed. 2007 was another near spectacular year for cinema. At Cannes in '07, Cristian Mungiu 's Romanian abortion drama "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" won the Palme d'Or, Gus Van Sant's...

Acclaimed French actor Catherine Deneuve, known for her iconic roles in films such as Repulsion (1965), Belle de Jour (1967) and Tristana (1970), and more recently in Dancer in the Dark (2000) and 8 Women (2002), will be conferred with the Lifetime Achievement award at the 16th Mumbai Film Festival. The festival will screen a selection of her movies as a tribute.

Side bar events of the festival include master classes by internationally acclaimed cinematographer Christopher Doyle, of Paranoid Park, Lady in the water, Psycho, In the Mood for love and Chunking Express; and noted director and writer Mahamat Saleh Haroun known for his films, Girgis, Bye Bye Africa, A Screaming Man.

Chaitanya Tamhane’s Venice “Lion of the future” winner Court is the only Indian film in international competition. The India Gold competition will showcase films like Avinash Arun’s Killa, Bikas Mishra’s Chauranga, Venu’s Munnariyippu, Dr. Biju’s Names Unknown and Vivek Wagh’s Siddhant.

Secret Cinema, you feel, is becoming something of a misnomer. In 2007, the format launched with a one-off screening of Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, bringing the film's skater milieu to life in a disused railway tunnel. Four hundred people turned up, and an idea – that movies could be enhanced by creating a corresponding world for the audience to explore as they watched – was born.

A film adaptation of the popular manga series Death Note has been brewing for some time now, and last we heard about the project, Iron Man 3 helmer Shane Black was working with his The Nice Guys co-writer Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry on a new iteration of the script. The movie is set up at Warner Bros., which has a strong relationship with Black thanks to the Lethal Weapon franchise and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, so his involvement seemed like a done deal. However, now we’re hearing that Black might no longer be involved with Death Note, and his replacement is none other than Milk director Gus Vant Sant.

Death Note, an English-language adaptation of the manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, follows a high school student who finds a mysterious notebook that allows him to instantly kill any person by writing their name within its pages.

"Death Note" would have been a very strange Shane Black movie. That alone seems like a reason to have been excited about the possibility of seeing it, but in the grand scheme of things, it seems like a better fit for Shane Black to move on to a new "Predator" movie. Besides, the notion of seeing Gus Van Sant direct a new take on this highly-acclaimed and very strange title is fairly provocative in a different way, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to see what he does with it. The original manga series was by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, and it tells the story of a high school student who finds a notebook that grants whoever owns it the ability to kill anyone simply by writing their name in the notebook. By using it, he draws the attention of the Shinigami, a disturbing race of inter-dimensional death gods.

Shane Black isn't attached to Death Note anymore. But Gus Van Sant is...

News

Plans for a live action movie based on Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note have been bumbling around for the best part of half a decade now. At one stage, Shane Black was attached to the project (as recently as 2013), and was set to write and direct the movie. However, it seems that things may be back on track, as it's being reported that Milk, Good Will Hunting and Paranoid Park director Gus Van Sant is now set to take on the film.

Death Note tells the story of a student who happens upon a strange notebook. By writing the name of someone in the book, he can instantly kill them.

A screenplay was in place from Shane Black, Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry. Whether Van Sant pressed ahead with that or develops one...

Tribeca coverage with Glenn on the latest from Kelly Reichardt (Meek's Cutoff, Wendy & Lucy)

“Reserved, even by Kelly Reichardt’s standards.” That was the line I used to describe this Portland director’s latest, Night Moves, after its screening at Tribeca. Having premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, it’s understandable that it didn’t make all that much noise in the intermediate months given it’s such a quiet, guarded film despite its eco-thriller roots and name cast that includes Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard. Like all of Reichardt’s films, however, it is that very low-key ingredient that makes it memorable. While it doesn’t soar to the breathtaking heights of Meek’s Cutoff, which just like Night Moves took a genre prone to testosterone-filled violence and twisted it into a elegant mood piece, her latest is a surprisingly thrilling experience even when its...

The Smell Of Us

Director: Larry Clark

Writer: Mathieu Landais

Producers: Morgane Production’s Gérard Lacroix, Polyesters’ Pierre-Paul Puljiz

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

Cast: Michael Pitt, Alex Martin, Lucas Ionesco

Larry Clark is back again, and quite quickly, since his last film was 2012’s Marfa Girl. The often controversial filmmaker turns his sights to skateboarders, which automatically puts us in mind of Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park. A cast led by Michael Pitt lends to the intrigue, as well as the presence of Lucas Ionesco, son of Eva Ionesco and grandson of Irina Ionesco, an infamous family in France (and Eva Ionesco directed a 2011 film called My Little Princess starring Isabelle Huppert, which documented her childhood as a nude model for her mother’s photographs).

Gist: Follows a group of self-destructive skateboarders in Paris.

Release Date: Clark’s last film, 2012’s Marfa Girl won top honors at the Rome Film Fest,...

Behind the scenes on the Sal set with James Franco and Val Lauren

No one has a career quite like James Franco. There are his big screen star turns in films like Milk, Howl or 127 Hours, but he’s just as likely to pop up on television in everything from The Mindy Project to General Hospital. Then there’s his own writing and directing projects such as Interior. Leather Bar. Franco always manages to compel us and keep us interested in what he’s up to, including his latest project.

He may have directed the film Sal a few years ago but it’s only been his busy schedule that has kept it from reaching theaters (and VOD) until now. The film, written by Stacey Miller, chronicles the final day in the life of Sal Mineo, the twice-Academy Award-nominated actor (for Rebel Without A Cause and Exodus) who came out in the 1960s and,...

By any measure, Christopher Doyle is one of the greatest cinematographers in the business, a painter of light whose career will always be defined by his woozily gorgeous collaborations with Wong Kar-wai ("In the Mood for Love," "2046"), but who has also done remarkable work for such auteurs as Zhang Yimou ("Hero"), Gus van Sant ("Paranoid Park") and Jim Jarmusch ("The Limits of Control"). But while the Australian-born artist has been showered awards by everyone from Us critics' groups to the Cannes Film Festival, he has never been nominated by the Academy's cinematographers' branch. And that looks unlikely to change after...

Gus Van Sant's fracking drama pits Matt Damon's energy executive against John Krasinski's eco-dreamboat in a battle for the minds of backwater farmers and the heart of Rosemarie DeWitt's moony schoolma'am

Here is an entertaining anti-corporate thriller directed by Gus Van Sant, very much in the mainstream-activist mode that gave us Milk and Good Will Hunting (rather than, say, the avant-gardist who directed Gerry and Paranoid Park, or the fey trendoid who brought us Restless or Last Days). The star is Matt Damon, who of course gained rather more than simply acting chops by co-scripting and producing Good Will Hunting (along with Ben Affleck, and look where he's ended up). Damon has produced this one too, and was apparently scheduled to direct, before dropping out and calling in Van Sant.

Promised Land hones in on a controversy du jour: fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, the process of...

Gus Van Sant has always been a director who is hard to pin down, veering from insanely small-scale, personal works like "Elephant" and "Paranoid Park" to larger scale entertainments like "Finding Forrester" and his admirable-if-unsuccessful "Psycho" remake. This week, his charming eco-drama "Promised Land" opens, which casts his "Good Will Hunting" co-writer Matt Damon as an operative from a natural gas company who travels to a small, financially struggling Pennsylvania town to woo them to sell the drilling rights to their land. But his efforts run up against an environmentalist, played by John Krasinski (who co-wrote "Promised Land" with Damon), who tries to alert the citizens to the dangers they might face with the "fracking" process. It's not as showy as most of the movies grabbing for Oscar gold, but it's a solid, well-intentioned drama, beautifully, almost impressionistically directed by...

Gus Van Sant has had a rather interesting career. He’s brought us some amazing films such as Good Will Hunting, Milk, and Elephant, though he has also had his share of duds like Paranoid Park and his misguided shot-for-shot remake of Psycho. Now the two-time Academy Award nominee is back with his latest work entitled Promised Land.

Today, thanks to The Film Stage, we have the first trailer for the film, which stars Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Frances McDormand, and Hal Holbrook.

For those unfamiliar with the film, here’s the official synopsis:

Corporate salesman Steve Butler (Damon) arrives in a rural town with his sales partner, Sue Thomason (McDormand). With the town having been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, the two outsiders see the local citizens as likely to accept their company’s offer, for drilling rights to their properties, as much-needed relief. What...

Glenn here winding down with the Melbourne Film Festival coverage. For whatever reason, Miff’s selection of queer films is never particularly large. I wasn’t able to attend the AIDS documentary How to Survive a Plague, although I’ve heard it’s a powerful experience, but I did get along to Ira Sachs’ Keep the Lights On that follows a nine-year relationship between a Danish documentary filmmaker (Thure Lindhardt, Into the Wild) and a lawyer (Zachary Booth, Damages, Dark Horse) in New York City. I know Nathaniel’s not a fan (and I can certainly see why as there are problematic areas), but it’s rare for a “gay film” to find a positive foothold in the critical community so that made it a veritable must see.

There’s a moment when Lindhardt’s Erik passes a graffiti sign that reads “Fake Your Beauty”, which is actually a good...

What has Gus van Sant been up to since he was nominated for an Oscar for Milk in 2009? Well you might have missed it, but he actually directed a whole new film, the college-aged romance that was released last fall and grossed-- no, wait for it-- $163,265 total. Van Sant is no stranger to veering between tiny indies and mainstream successes, having released the tiny Paranoid Park the same year as Milk, and the low-key demise of Restless doesn't seem to be bothering him, as he's already moving on to his next directorial effort, the "Capra-esque" drama Promised Land with John Krasinski and Matt Damon. Production on The Promied Land has already wrapped, and apparently taking a break from the editing room, van Sant has done something else unexpected-- taken on an acting role. In a photo tweeted by writer Bret Easton Ellis, van Sant is revealed to be playing ...

Moviegoers today want more than a seat and a bucket of popcorn. They want an interactive experience – and Secret Cinema gives them just that

"The traditional way of film distribution," says Fabien Riggall, "just isn't working any more." But finding a fix can be fun – and lucrative. Riggall has cooked up a way to send cinemagoers home happy, despite them having to cough up £35 to spend a couple of hours in a disused warehouse before watching a film whose title they didn't know beforehand – and may well have already seen.

Since 2007, Secret Cinema has screened classics such as Lawrence of Arabia and Alien to a largely delighted and seriously large group of people who can interact beforehand with film-specific sets and installations and actors clad as characters from the movie. It's theme-park sweding; irreverent cultural engagement for kidult cineastes. The rent, staffing and insurance overheads must be enormous. But the...

Following our looks at actors, actresses, screenwriters and directors to watch in recent months, when the time came to put together a list of cinematographers (as we did two years ago), we went in with an open mind. But what was interesting is realizing, after the fact, that in an era where 35mm film is allegedly being phased out, that all five have done perhaps their most distinctive work on old-fashioned celluloid, rather than digital.

All have worked in digital of course, at least in the commercial world, and some have done hugely impressive work on new formats. But most of our five are fierce advocates for good 'ol 35mm, and it's another sign that the death knell shouldn't be rung for the old ways just yet. As long as there are talented DoPs like the ones below, and on the following pages, working closely with filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson,...

As much as people have quibbles with (much more democratically voted-on) awards like the Oscars, the decisions by juries at film festivals tend to be even more contentious. Usually drawn from practitioners and actors, with a few other curious participants in there as well, jurors often come in with their own likes, dislikes and agendas, and in the absence of a unanimous choice, often end up settling for compromises.

Indeed, this year's Cannes Film Festival jury president Nanni Moretti said, after the awards were unveiled this past weekend, that none of the them were unanimously voted for (word is Andrea Arnold in particular was a fervent opponent of Leos Carax's "Holy Motors"). That being said, their Palme D'Or winner was a popular one: while a few critics were rooting for "Holy Motors," almost everyone was delighted that Michael Haneke's "Amour" picked up the prize (his second in four years,...

Photo by Gareth Cattermole . © 2012 Getty Images.

Sundance Selects announced today from the 2012 Cannes Film Festival that the company is acquiring all Us rights to Like Someone In Love directed and written by former Palme d’Or winner Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy, The Taste Of Cherry). The film is an MK2 and Eurospace Production. It stars Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno and Ryo Kase. It was produced by Marin Karmitz (MK2) and Kenzo Horikoshi (Eurospace), and associate produced by Nathanael Karmitz and Charles Gillibert. Like Someone In Love made its world premiere in competition earlier in the week at the Cannes Film Festival.

In his follow-up to the stateside hit Certified Copy (which starred Juliette Binoche), Abbas Kiarostami’s returns with yet another dazzling cinematic puzzle. An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him. He thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home.

Student – Darezhan Omirbayev

Buzz: Really, anytime there’s a new Kazakh film it’s reason to pay attention; the country doesn’t produce that much, and when they do it tends to be pretty damn noteworthy. The last significant film from Kazakhstan (no, it wasn’t Borat) came four years ago in the form of Tulpan. A year earlier, Darezhan Omirbayev’s previous film Chouga placed on Cahier du cinema’s top ten of 2010 (it played in Un Certain Regard in 2007, but this is the year it finally got released in France). So it’s pretty easy to see why project is being unveiled with a relatively unprecedented level of momentum for the under-appreciated filmmaker.

The Gist: Said to be “a modern retelling of Dostoyevsky’s epic novel Crime and Punishment set against the backdrop of contemporary Kazakhstan.” For those unfamiliar with the seminal novel or have yet to see...