Emile Hirsch
James Franco Says He Was a Pretty Good Boyfriend
Last night, at a screening of Milk and Q&A with stars James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin and Alison Pill; director Gus Van Sant; and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, everyone was pretty giggly.
Mr. Franco said that he had watched Gay Sex in the 70s (the documentary) to prepare for his role as Scott, Harvey Milk's boyfriend. Mr. Brolin joked that he'd been thinking he was to play Milk and so "being a straight guy, I had tons of sex. Lots of orgies."
Mr. Hirsch (sitting next to Mr. Brolin) interrupted him. "Our research was actually coordinated, right?" read more »
Milk Is Great, but Would Be Even Tastier With More Penn Smooches
Milk
Running time 128 minutes
Written by Dustin Lance Black
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Alison Pill, Diego Luna, Victor Garber, Denis O’Hare
In real life, Harvey Milk was an unexceptional Jewish boy, as plain as a matzo, but with extraordinary courage, as challenging to homophobic society as a pierced nipple. Without much public egotism or personal glory, he was a late bloomer who, at 48, made history, first when he became the first gay-rights advocate elected to public office on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, and the next year, when he was assassinated for it. read more »
Morning Memo: Kirsten Dunst's Guys; Tinsley Mortimer's Gigs; Anna Wintour's Advice
Depending on which day you read the papers, rehabilitated Kirsten Dunst is chasing Into the Wild actor Emile Hirsch, or maybe Drew Barrymore's ex, Justin Long. [P6]
CNBC interviewed Tinsley Mortimer as the "socialite-turned-entrepreneur," who designs handbags, lip gloss and clothes. Apparently she's huge in Japan! [Park Avenue Peerage]
Anna Wintour has offered to "discuss her career, stories of former successful Vogue interns and give advice on how to do well in the business of journalism" with current Vogue interns. [The Cut] read more »
New teasers are out for the upcoming season of Gossip Girl and from what we can tell, everyone is in the Hamptons, Serena seems to be dating a lifeguard, and Nate is running from someone's house in his boxers.
Cough! Ptooey! Frantic Speed Racer Spews Toxic Fumes
SPEED RACER
Running Time 129 minutes
Written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski
Starring Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci, John Goodman
Even for summer trash, this abomination by the creatively challenged Wachowski brothers is a train wreck so bad that words literally fail me, but I will say it looks like somebody ate 25 cafeteria Jello-O congealed salads and then threw up all over the sets. Happily, I was out of town for Iron Man and have no intention of catching up, but slashing whatever I.Q. points I saved was Speed Racer, an obnoxious two-hour-and-15-minute tribute to noise and Fiestaware from the muttonheads who polluted the planet with the Matrix trilogy; it’s pretty much in a garbage pile of its own. Summer isn’t even officially here yet, but for me Speed Racer fires the opening shot for what threatens to be a three-month school-vacation Marvel-comics festival of violence, stupidity, junk and unsaturated fat, aimed at morons with I.Q.’s of 40 and under, and starring assorted hulks, Spider-Men, Batmen, ninjas, robots, superheroes that are anything but super, and Adam Sandler. Few summer movies promise to be more nauseating than Speed Racer, unless you count the one with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as siblings (you need a barf bag just for the trailers). read more »
Sara Vilkomerson's Guide To This Week's Movies: Whatcha thinkin', Wachowskis?
O.K., temperatures may only sporadically hitting the 70s, but summer blockbuster season is officially here. Iron Man opened last weekend with a whopping $104.2 million stateside and another 96.8 million overseas ($201 million all together in its first five days). That beats even what the studio was hoping for (a mere $90 million domestically) and out there in Hollywoodland, executive types are thrilled that all the bemoaning and hand-wringing over the death of the box office was premature. read more »
Tribeca Film Festival Ends With Speed Racer
The Tribeca Film Festival went as it had come: with another glitzy premiere.
Merely two weeks after the festival encroached on our city with the much-hyped premiere of Baby Mama, the Wachowski brothers’ Speed Racer closed the festivities to an equally if not more star-treaded red carpet and winding line of rubbernecking ticket holders. read more »
Tribeca to Close with Matrix Makers' Speed Racer
Those brothers who brought us The Matrix trilogy made a film version of the 1960s Japanese Speed Racer cartoon and they'll be premiering it on the last day of the Tribeca Film Festival on May 3. Andy and Larry Wachowski are releasing their first directorial project since we followed them down the rabbit hole for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in 2003, and this new Wonderland looks like a cross between The Fifth Element and Knight Rider. They traded leading man fav. Keanu Reeves for Into the Wild actor (and Penn's Good Boy) Emile Hirsch. He's a demon and he's gonna be chasing after someone! (Apparently, that will be Christina Ricci, who plays hot babe girlfriend Trixie). Joel Silver, a frontman for the bashful Wachowski bros and producer of Racer and the Matrix films, told USA Today last May that the film will have a "retro future" look and will center on Speed sticking it to the man (or, men in the corporate world) and trying to get famous on the race track. Go Emile, Go!
Into the Wild Leads S.A.G. Awards
Into the Wild led contenders for the Screen Actors Guild Awards with four nominations, including honors for lead actor Emile Hirsch and supporting players Hal Holbrook and Catherine Keener. The nominations were announced this morning.
Directed by Sean Penn, Into the Wild also was nominated for performance by its overall cast, along with the Western 3:10 to Yuma, the crime sagas American Gangster and No Country for Old Men, and the musical Hairspray.
Guild awards will be presented Jan. 27 in a ceremony televised on TNT and TBS.
The Associated Press reports that unlike the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, which face turmoil caused by striking Hollywood writers, the guild awards look as though they can come off as planned. With actors showing strong solidarity on strike issues, SAG has reached an agreement with the Writers Guild of America for one of its members to write the ceremony.
Full list of nominees after the jump. read more »
Collect 'Em All! Our Guide to Celebrities Pressing Flesh in New York This Week
Because cases of mistaken celebrity identity can be really annoying, here follows a list of some stars—most of whom are out-of-towners—in New York over the next seven days. So if you happen to find yourself at, say, Da Silvano on Wednesday night and could swear that Tom Hanks is sitting at the next table over, you’ll know that it’s probably him. (Mr. Hanks comes to town today to promote his new film, Charlie Wilson’s War.)
After the jump, some other stars in town to push a little flesh this week. read more »
Critics Circle Goes Wild
They're wild for Sean Penn, those movie critics. Into the Wild received seven nominations for the 13th Critics Choice Awards, announced today by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The film got nods for picture, director, writer, actor, supporting actor for Hal Holbrook, supporting actress for Catherine Keener and best song for Eddie Vedder's "Guaranteed" (What? No props for Emile?).
The Observer's Rex Reed wrote about Into the Wild:
It’s a sad story that runs two and a half hours, and you already know going in that the protagonist is going to die in the end, so it is positively amazing that Into the Wild is so consistently fresh, riveting and profoundly moving. Its seismic impact must be credited to Mr. Penn’s passion for and enormous dedication to his material.
...
Here’s something else: As much as I admire Mr. Penn’s consuming drive to get this story on the screen, I also salute him for resisting the temptation to nominate McCandless for sainthood. God knows he was brave, but a hero? In addition to his fearlessness, he was also something of a selfish brat, never once making an effort to contact caring parents back home, driven to the lip of madness with worry, not knowing if he was dead or alive. In my opinion, he was thoughtless, arrogant, cruel in his ignorance of the needs and feelings of others and a train wreck waiting to happen. I applaud his spiritual quest, but heading into the wild without maps, compasses or matches is more than a little bit loopy. In the end, McCandless learns life’s most valuable lesson—that real happiness and personal fulfillment come not in alienation from the society you distrust, but through relationships with others. Tragically, McCandless was never able to share what he learned, but his story does teach us something vital about the human condition. He was a breed apart from what you would call average; his life is still haunting, and so is this film.
Juno racked up six nominations, while Atonement, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, Sweeney Todd and Hairspray each got five nominations apiece. The winners will be announced on Jan. 7 in Santa Monica.
Full list of nominees after the jump.
Brolin, Hirsch, Franco Got Milk
Three hunky actors have got Milk this morning, landing roles in the biopic based on the life of Harvey Milk. He was America's first openly gay elected official, assassinated in 1978. read more »
Remains of the Day: Emile Hirsch, Birdie Clark, Morrissey
Our Web site had a hairball for most of the day, so excuse the Culture Czar for coughing up these stories a little late. Here’s what we missed:
Into the Wild was, predictably, the big winner at the Gotham Awards last night in Brooklyn. Go Emile!
The Weinstein Co. has acquired publishing and screen rights to Bridie Clark's upcoming novel I Think She's Got It, which is billed as a modern version of Pygmalion set in New York.
25 million people watched Dancing With the Stars. We’re losing faith in humanity.
Carrie Brownstein ponders Rock Band vs. real bands.
Morrissey is no longer a free agent after signing with Polydor/Decca.
Sound, Into the Wild Top Gotham Award Noms
The IFP announced the 17th Annual Gotham Awards nominees today, spotlighting the breakthrough indie films of the year.
Great World of Sound, a comedy about a bumbling Southern duo who traverse the country to discover unsigned "talent" for a record label, garnered the most nominations for Best Feature, Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor. In Craig Zobel's documentary-style debut, real performers auditioned without knowing it was actually a film shoot. With hidden cameras, the interaction was recorded between the lead actors and the unsuspecting musicians.
Into the Wild, Sean Penn's film adaptation of the Jon Krakauer book, was also nominated for Best Feature and a Breakthrough Actor nod for star Emile Hirsch.
Mr. Hirsch told Hillary Frey in the Observer:
“There were times when it was really, really, really hard,” he continued. “But there were times when Chris [McCandless] was on the road and it was really, really, really hard. I just knew that that was part of the commitment. I didn’t go into it thinking it was gonna be a ball. It’s amazing how you can go into it thinking it’s not really gonna be a ball, but you really don’t realize what that means until you’re doing it.”
“I think it’s important to be willing to suffer, if that’s what it takes,” said Mr. Penn of his expectations for his star.
The awards will be presented at Steiner Studios in New York on Tuesday, Nov. 27.
View the full list of nominees after the jump.
Wild Thing, I Think I Love You ...
It looks like Resident Evil: Extinction (#1) will not be following its own advice. After a $24 million dollar opening weekend, the Sony franchise based on a video game looks like it is here to stay. And it appears New Yorkers are just fine with that: the movie grossed a very respectable $337,000 at 9 theaters over the weekend.
But the big story for Manhattan box office continues to be the success of Eastern Promises (#2) and Across the Universe (#3). read more »
Penn’s Good Boy
From green trees to green screen, Emile Hirsch stars in Into the Wild and next year’s quasi-cartoon Speed Racer. read more »
