Ben Foster

Director Oren Moverman Talks RAMPART, His David O. Selznick Biopic at HBO, QUEER with Steve Buscemi, and More

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 7th, 2012 at 10:37 am

With his new film Rampart (which ranked #4 on my Top 10 of 2011 list), writer-director Oren Moverman took the corrupt-cop genre and twisted it just like he did with The Messenger‘s soldier-PTSD story.  He’s one of the more exciting filmmakers working today because of his ability to play against expectations and come out with a more powerful, realistic story as a result.

I got the chance to interview Moverman about the film and we talked about where the real Rampart scandal came into the story, re-teaming with Woody Harrelson, shooting the movie as if it were two different films, and more.  Moverman also spoke about his collaboration with Ben Stiller for a David O. Selznic biopic for HBO, and we discussed his script for Steve Buscemi‘s upcoming film, Queer.  Hit the jump to check out the interview.  Rampart opens in select cities this Friday.  Click here to read my full review.

Ben Foster CONTRABAND Interview

by Heather Warburton    Posted: January 14th, 2012 at 1:39 pm

Set in New Orleans, Contraband is Mark Whalberg’s new thriller about smuggling on container ships. He plays a blue-collar family man who’s sworn off his former life of crime, until his brother-in-law botches a drug deal and needs his help in order to repay the debt. Whalberg agrees to do one last job, running contraband from Panama on a container ship. Kate Beckinsale plays Whalberg’s wife, Ben Foster his best friend and business partner, and Giovanni Ribisi plays a New Orleans drug runner who is barely recognizable and eerily convincing.

I recently sat down with Foster in New York and we talked about the role he was initially courted for, the time he got kicked out of acting class, as well as his new production company. Hit the jump for the full interview.

CONTRABAND Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 12th, 2012 at 2:43 pm

There are so many ways to steal something, but when it comes to the big score, movies have kept their focus on elaborate heists.  How are the criminals going to break into the vault?  How will they escape?  Couldn’t they put all of this effort into a job that doesn’t risk going to jail?  These questions aside, the basic point remains: steal what you want and don’t get caught.  But there are so many other ways to accomplish that.  Baltasar Kormákur‘s Contraband is a fresh take on the theft genre (unless you’ve seen the original version, the 2008 Icelandic film Reykjavik-Rotterdam) by turning the attention to smuggling.  However, the movie always feels torn between what’s safe and familiar and what’s daring and inventive.

5 Movie Clips and 16 Images from CONTRABAND

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 7th, 2012 at 5:11 pm

We’ve been provided with five clips and sixteen images from director Baltasar Kormákur’s crime thriller Contraband. The film is set in the world of international smuggling and stars Mark Wahlberg as a man trying to escape his days as a criminal. When his brother-in-law (Caleb Landry Jones) botches a deal, Wahlberg’s character must settle his brother-in-law’s debt in order to keep him safe from a drug boss (Giovanni Ribisi).  The film also stars Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, J.K. Simmons, and Diego Luna.

Hit the jump to check out the clips and images.  Contraband opens January 13th, 2012.

5 Clips from CONTRABAND Starring Mark Wahlberg

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: December 19th, 2011 at 7:03 pm

We’ve been provided with five clips from the crime thriller Contraband. The film is set in the world of international smuggling and stars Mark Wahlberg as a man trying to escape his days as a criminal. When his brother-in-law (Caleb Landry Jones) botches a deal, Wahlberg’s character must settle his brother-in-law’s debt in order to keep him safe from a drug boss (Giovanni Ribisi).

Hit the jump to check out the clips.  The film also stars Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, J.K. Simmons, and Diego Luna.  Contraband opens January 13th, 2012.

First Trailer RAMPART Starring Woody Harrelson

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: November 18th, 2011 at 1:35 pm

I’ve been hearing about the cop drama Rampart for quite a while now, specifically Woody Harrelson’s performance in the film. The first trailer has now been released, and Harrelson does indeed look to be delivering one hell of a performance. The pic focuses on a Vietnam vet and cop who does his job a bit dirtier than most, unafraid to to blur the lines between right and wrong. Harrelson looks strong here, and I’m assuming the movie as a whole hinges on his character spinning out of control. Much has been said about the actor’s Oscar chances, so if he continues to pick up steam expect to hear a lot more about Rampart in the coming weeks.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The film also stars Ben Foster, Robin Wright, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Sigourney Weaver, Cynthia Nixon, Ned Beatty, and Steve Buscemi. Rampart opens November 23rd.

Guy Pearce, Ben Foster, and Kelly MacDonald to Star in Steve Buscemi’s Adaptation of QUEER

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: November 2nd, 2011 at 1:16 pm

Steve Buscemi has lined up quite the cast for his next directorial effort. The Boardwalk Empire actor is poised to direct an adaptation of William Burroughs’ novel Queer, and Vulture reports that Guy Pearce, Ben Foster, and Buscemi’s Boardwalk Empire co-star Kelly MacDonald are set to star. The book was written in 1952, after Burroughs accidentally shot and killed his wife. The story, which mirrors Burroughs’ emotional and psychological state at the time, centers on an American named William Lee living in Mexico City, weighed down by drugs, guilt, and lust. The project is still in the early stages, and financing isn’t yet firmed up, but Rampart director Oren Moverman wrote the script and told Vulture that the plan is to shoot the film during Buscemi’s next hiatus from HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Hit the jump to read the synopsis for the novel.

Rumor: Shortlist of Actors to Play Bruce Willis’ Son and Possibly Inherit DIE HARD Franchise Includes Aaron Paul and Ben Foster

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: October 13th, 2011 at 5:34 pm

The casting of John McClane was never in question, even if the fifth installment in the Die Hard franchise did struggle with landing a director (they settled on John Moore). But McClane can’t keep dodging bullets forever; sooner or later his son will have to inherit the famous one-liner. The shortlist for actors to fill Bruce Willis’s shoes is rumored to be as follows: Ben Foster (The Mechanic), Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine), Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) and Paul Walker (Fast Five). All of the above actors are expected to test with Willis, except for Walker, who Fox has a strong interest in. Plot details are thin at the moment, though we do know the film will be set in Russia and will involve some father/son crime fighting. To see why this will probably be the first Die Hard to make me cry, hit the jump.

New Trailer and Images for CONTRABAND Starring Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, and Giovanni Ribisi

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: September 29th, 2011 at 10:44 am

The trailer for Contraband has gone online and I have no idea what differentiates it from other Mark Wahlberg crime movies.  He’s either a cop or a good-guy criminal and in this movie he’s the latter.  He plays a former smuggler who’s called back into the game when his brother-in-law (X-Men: First Class‘ Caleb Landry Jones) steals from the wrong gangster (Giovanni Ribisi with a bizarre, distracting accent).  Wahlberg then puts together a team of crooks (including characters played by Ben Foster and Lukas Haas) and it looks a little like The Italian Job with smuggling and cool duct tape masks.  Hopefully, the film will have something to make it stand apart from other movies where Wahlberg plays a frantic, hard-nosed character.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and a number of new images.  The film also stars Kate Beckinsale, J.K. Simmons, and Diego Luna.  Contraband opens January 13, 2012.

TIFF 2011: RAMPART Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: September 15th, 2011 at 7:06 pm

In his debut feature The Messenger, director Oren Moverman eschewed the simplistic and pandering Soldiers-with-PTSD story seen in films like Stop-Loss and In the Valley of Elah.  Moverman took a deeper look to see how two soldiers struggled to heal their personal wounds by examining how the men struggled to help others deal with the loss of loved ones.  It was a smart and unusual way to tell a story and he has continued that approach with Rampart.  Coupled with another astounding performance from Woody Harrleson, Moverman  turns the genre on its head by showing that one dirty cop’s warped sense of justice may be necessary to not only to the world, but to his own existence.

TIFF 2011: 360 Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: September 10th, 2011 at 9:06 pm

360 is not a movie I’d expect from Fernando Meirelles and I don’t mean that as a compliment.  Mierelles’ previous films (City of God, The Constant Gardener, Blindness) have an energy to them and they tackle serious subject matter in a way that’s tense, gripping, and unexpected.  360 is none of those things.  It’s another tired anthology of uninspired vignettes that show us how we’re all connected especially if the script is written that way.  The movie manages to waste a talented cast, its director’s abilities, and two hours of the viewer’s time.

First Clips from RAMPART Starring Woody Harrelson

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: September 10th, 2011 at 7:47 pm

The Messenger was one of the nice surprises of 2009, a nuanced look at the life of the American soldier.  The gang—Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster, and writer/director Oren Moverman—is getting back together for Rampart, which gives us hope for a nuanced look at the life of the American police officer.  Harrelson stars as “a never- changing LAPD cop (Woody Harrelson) whose past is finally catching up with him in the wake of a department-wide corruption scandal.” Foster is joined in the supporting cast by Ice Cube, Brie Larson, Sammy Boyarsky, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, Ned Beatty, and Robin Wright.

Rampart is about halfway through its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival as I write this, but we have the first clips from the movie after the jump.

Ben Foster Joins GOTTI: IN THE SHADOW OF MY FATHER, Ryan Guzman and Kathryn McCormick to Star in STEP UP 4

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: August 2nd, 2011 at 4:05 pm

We’ve got a couple of casting stories for you this afternoon. First up, Ben Foster has joined the ever-changing production of Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father. The Wrap reports that Foster is set to play John Gotti Jr. The project has been through some rather public ups and downs, with Joe Pesci most recently suing the producers because he claims he gained weight for a role that was eventually cut. Barry Levinson is directing, and last we heard he was retooling the script. The cast includes Al Pacino, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, with filming set to begin in January in New York.

Additionally, newcomer Ryan Guzman and So You Think You Can Dance contestant Kathryn McCormick are set to star in the fourth installment of Step Up, which bears the undeniably genius tentative title Step Up 4Ever 3D. Scott Speer is directing the Miami-set movie from a script by Jenny May. The story centers on people who dance-fight in Miami. In 3D.

First Images from Steve McQueen’s SHAME, Jamie Linden’s TEN YEAR, Fernando Meirelles’ 360 and Ralph Fiennes’ CORIOLANUS

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: July 26th, 2011 at 10:40 am

Continuing our assault of all the new movie images that hit the net this morning, we’ve got our first official looks at Steve McQueen’s Shame (starring Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale and Nicole Beharie), Fernando Meirelles 360 (starring Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Rachel Weisz and Ben Foster), Jamie Linden’s Ten Year (starring Channing Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Kate Mara, Anthony Mackie and Chris Pratt) and Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut Coriolanus (which stars Fiennes and Gerard Butler).

While many Film Festivals hope to land a few big movies, this year’s Toronto International Film Festival is an insane lineup that’s loaded with huge actors and high profile projects.  Like the past few years, I’ll be at TIFF, so you can expect plenty of reviews/interviews during the Festival which runs from September 8-18th.  Hit the jump to check out all the new images.

Ben Foster Joins PROMETHEUS? Official Synopsis Revealed

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: July 1st, 2011 at 6:22 am

Ridley Scott’s Alien-prequel-but-not-an-Alien-prequel Prometheus already has a stellar cast.  The sci-fi flick features Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba, and Guy Pearce, and now JoBlo is reporting that Ben Foster has signed on.  Almost everything about the film is being kept under wraps so we don’t know what role he’ll play, but Foster is a fantastic addition to any cast.

We’re still awaiting official confirmation from Fox on Foster’s casting, but the studio has dismissed yesterday’s rumored synopsis. Instead, they’ve provided an official synopsis which deserves some kind of award for vagueness.  Here’s what the synopsis tells you definitively: the movie takes place in outer space (and we already knew that).  Hit the jump to read the synopsis and learn nothing.  Prometheus opens in 3D on June 8, 2012.

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