Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges Interview AMERICAN MASTERS – JEFF BRIDGES: THE DUDE ABIDES

by Christina Radish    Posted: January 10th, 2011 at 10:40 am

Entering its 25^th season on PBS, American Masters has produced an exceptional library of more than 160 biographies since its inception, and has deepened public knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the arts and artists of every kind. Premiering on January 12^th, Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides examines the Academy Award winner’s incredible body of work and stable of memorable characters, while telling the fascinating and surprising story of the man himself.

While at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, actor Jeff Bridges talked about his journey as an actor, his desire not to create a strong identifiable personality, his interest in expressing himself in a variety of art forms, his favorite film roles and his love of playing music. He also admitted to having no film work currently lined up. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Weekend Box Office – TRUE GRIT Scores First Place with $15 Million; SEASON OF THE WITCH Opens in Third

by Nicole Pedersen    Posted: January 9th, 2011 at 10:10 am

January suffered another down weekend, with estimated grosses for the top ten films down almost 56% over this weekend in 2010.  Paramount had reason to celebrate, as True Grit outdrew Little Fockers in the weekend race for the first time.  Season of the Witch, 2011’s first new title, struggled while Sony/SG’s Country Strong did modest business in its first expanded nationwide run.

	Title	Weekend	Total
1	True Grit	$15,000,000	$110.4
2	Little Fockers	$13,800,000	$124
3	Season of the Witch	$10,700,000	$10.7
4	Tron Legacy	$9,803,000	$147.9
5	Black Swan	$8,400,000	$61.4
6	Country Strong	$7,300,000	$7.4
7	The Fighter	$7,000,000	$57.8
8	The King’s Speech	$6,811,000	$33.2
9	Yogi Bear	$6,810,000	$75.6
10	Tangled	$5,200,000	$175.8

Jeff Bridges Recording an Album with CRAZY HEART’s T-Bone Burnett; Band Name Has a BIG LEBOWSKI Connection; Will Tour

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: November 19th, 2010 at 6:16 pm

On top of landing the news that Jeff Bridges is in talks with director Peter Bogdanovich about a third sequel to the American classic The Last Picture Show, Steve learned at the press junket for the upcoming TRON: Legacy that Bridges is currently hard at work on a full length album.

“I’m making an album with T-Bone Burnett right now. After I leave here I’m goin’ to the studio and we’re cutting some more tracks with this band that’s just phenomenal.”

Bridges said to expect the album to be released “sometime next year.” When asked if he was going on tour, he replied “Absolutely,” so The Dude may soon be coming to a venue near you! So what’s the band called, and what’s its Big Lebowski connection? “We’re calling ourselves The Royal We.”  If that’s a bit too “Lebowski inside” for you, we’ve included the clip after the jump. But it’s a quote from the Coen brothers film in which The Dude has some fun with grammar. For more on Bridges’ band, including his reunion with Crazy Heart producer T-Bone Burnett, hit the jump.

CRAZY HEART Blu-ray Review

by Andre Dellamorte    Posted: May 6th, 2010 at 9:25 am

Jeff Bridges has been the best thing about a lot of movies for years, so it’s only fitting that he finally got his Oscar. From Fearless to The Fisher King, from King Kong to Cutter’s Way, his list of great performances is legion, and rarely does he phone it in. For Crazy Heart, Bridges plays a washed-up drunk of a country music singer named Bad Blake, and the film charts his relationship with Jane Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) as he finds himself at a dead end creatively and physically. It’s a lived-in and vivid performance, and it elevates a familiar tale with the gravitas of a great performer. My review of Crazy Heart is after the jump.

PRECIOUS Has Huge Night at Independent Spirit Awards

by Keith Demko    Posted: March 6th, 2010 at 8:24 am

When the Oscars are finally handed out tomorrow night, Lee Daniels’ Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire will probably lose out to that band of blue horse cats or Bigelow’s bomb squad, but at the Independent Spirit Awards it pretty much rode to a complete sweep.

At Friday night’s ceremony hosted by comedian Eddie Izzard, Precious won five awards, including best feature, best lead actress for Gabourey Sidibe, best supporting actress for Mo’Nique, best director for Daniels and best first screenplay for Geoffrey Fletcher, all well deserved in this movie buff’s opinion. The only one likely to prevail on Sunday night is Mo’Nique, but we tune in to find out, right?

In other big categories, Oscar favorite Jeff Bridges took the best actor prize for his work as Bad Blake in Crazy Heart, and Woody Harrelson, who had a rather amazing year, took the best supporting actor prize for The Messenger. Hit the jump to hear what the winners had to say and to see a full list of the prizes handed out.

Weekend Box Office – It’s Over. AVATAR Falls To DEAR JOHN with $32.4 Million

by Nicole Pedersen    Posted: February 7th, 2010 at 10:31 am

After seven weeks and over $630 million dollars, the Avatar-domination of the domestic box office has been brought to a close. And what title finally proved powerful enough to take down the most profitable film of all time? A romantic confection called Dear John.

	Title	Weekend	Total
1	Dear John	$32,400,000	$32.4
2	Avatar	$23,600,000	$630
3	From Paris w/Love	$8,120,000	$8.1
4	Edge of Darkness	$7,005,000	$29
5	Tooth Fairy	$6,500,000	$25.3
6	When in Rome	$5,504,000	$20.8
7	Book of Eli	$4,835,000	$82.1
8	Crazy Heart	$3,650,000	$11.1
9	Legion	$3,400,000	$34.6
10	Sherlock Holmes	$2,360,000	$201.5

WGA Nominees Announced; Nods for AVATAR, STAR TREK, and THE HANGOVER

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 11th, 2010 at 12:41 pm

The WGA has announced their nominees for Best Original, Adapted, and Documentary screenplays today and because so many great films were ruled ineligible, these nominees are kind of a joke.  Avatar is getting way more love for its spectacle than its story (protect the Hometree from the Sky People), (500) Days of Summer‘s structure is impressive but the characters and story are completely vanilla, Julie & Julia is half a good movie, and Crazy Heart is a two-hour commercial for Alcoholics Anonymous.

Now here’s a list of movies that were rule ineligible:  Inglourious Basterds, District 9, In the Loop, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up, and A Single Man.  I suppose the only bright spot of all this is that The Hangover received a nomination, which is hilarious.

Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  Winners will be announced on February 20th.

Robert Duvall Video Interview CRAZY HEART

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: December 25th, 2009 at 1:07 pm

As I wrote when I posted my video interviews with Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, currently playing in limited release is Fox Searchlight’s Crazy Heart.  Originally scheduled for release next year, Fox Searchlight has mounted an impressive last minute campaign to get the film into theaters as they’re trying to get Jeff Bridges his long deserved Oscar.

In Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges stars as the anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film from writer-director Scott Cooper.  Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.

While the story of a musician overcoming his demons has been told many times, the buzz surrounding Jeff Bridges performance is well deserved.  He’s great as Bad Blake and I think it’s a sure bet he’ll be nominated for an Oscar.  So to help promote the film, I recently got to speak with Robert Duvall.  We talked about his amazing career and what movies he always gets recognize for, why he wanted to make Crazy Heart, the struggle to find money for indie films, and a lot more:

Maggie Gyllenhaal Video Interview CRAZY HEART

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: December 21st, 2009 at 5:32 pm

Currently playing in limited release is Fox Searchlight’s Crazy Heart.  If you haven’t yet heard about the film….it’s understandable.  Originally scheduled for release next year, Fox Searchlight has mounted an impressive last minute campaign to get the film into theaters next week as they’re trying to get Jeff Bridges his long deserved Oscar.

In Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges stars as the anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film from writer-director Scott Cooper.  Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.

I saw the film last week, and the buzz surrounding Jeff Bridges performance is well deserved.  He’s great as Bad Blake and I think it’s a sure bet he’ll be nominated for an Oscar.  So to help promote the film, I recently spoke with Maggie Gyllenhaal.  We talked about the sudden release of the film, working with Jeff Bridges, and is she excited to see Prince of Persia as her brother is the lead.  Our conversation is after the jump:

Jeff Bridges Video Interview CRAZY HEART

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: December 16th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

Opening today, in limited release, is Fox Searchlight’s Crazy Heart.  If you haven’t yet heard about the film it’s understandable.  Originally scheduled for release next year, Fox Searchlight has mounted an impressive last minute campaign to get the film into theaters as they’re trying to get Jeff Bridges his long deserved Oscar.  But let me back up a second.  You might first want to know what the film is about.

Jeff Bridges stars as the anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film from writer-director Scott Cooper.  Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.

I saw the film last week and the buzz surrounding Jeff Bridges performance is well deserved.  He’s great as Bad Blake and I think it’s a sure bet he’ll be nominated for an Oscar.  So to help promote the film, I got to speak with Bridges and our conversation is after the jump.  We talk about how the project came together, what’s the secret to playing a believable drunk on screen, Fox Searchlight and how they’re championing the film, and, of course, Tron Legacy.

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Names THE HURT LOCKER as Their Best Picture of the Year

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: December 13th, 2009 at 6:07 pm

The major critics groups are beginning to make their voices heard for what they think are the best films of 2009.  Today, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) named Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker as their top film of 2009, with Up in the Air as their runner-up.  Bigelow also won for Best Director and the film was runner-up for Best Cinematography.

Other big winners include Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) for Best Actor, Yolande Moreau (Séraphine) for Best Actress, Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) for Best Supporting Actor, and Mo’Nique (Precious) for Best Supporting Actress.  There was also an interesting upset in the animation category with Fantastic Mr. Fox being named the Best Animated Film and Up taking the runner-up category, and Carey Mulligan landing the runner-up victory for Best Actress.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

5 Movie Clips from CRAZY HEART Starring Jeff Bridges

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: December 5th, 2009 at 11:34 am

Opening December 16th is Fox Searchlight’s Crazy Heart.  If you haven’t heard about the film…it’s understandable.  Originally scheduled for release next year, Fox Searchlight has mounted an impressive last minute campaign to get the film into theaters this year as they’re trying to get Jeff Bridges his long deserved Oscar.

But let me back up a second.  First, you might want to read the synopsis:

Jeff Bridges stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film Crazy Heart from writer-director Scott Cooper.  Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.  As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.

I saw the film last week and the buzz surrounding Jeff Bridges performance is well deserved.  He’s great as Bad Blake, unfortunately, the rest of the film isn’t anything you haven’t seen before.  If you want to read a great review, Kirk Honeycutt of THR pretty much nails it.  But while I might not be blown away by the film, as a longtime fan of Jeff Bridges, I would love to see him win the big awards.

To help promote the film, we’ve been provided with five clip from Crazy Heart and you can check them out after the jump.  Also, look for interviews with Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall later this week:

Exclusive: Terry Gilliam Wants Robert Duvall to Play Don Quixote de la Mancha!

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: December 2nd, 2009 at 11:42 am

When I interviewed Terry Gilliam for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus a month ago, he told me he had his new Don Quixote de la Mancha, but he wouldn’t reveal who he was.  When I asked him if this person could help with the financing of the movie, he said he couldn’t.  While I spent some time trying to figure out who it could be, with little more to go on, I gave up, knowing it would eventually come out.

And it did. Today.

That’s because a few minutes ago I was interviewing Robert Duvall (on camera) for his new movie Crazy Heart and he told me Terry Gilliam wants him to play Don Quixote!  This is assuming Gilliam can raise the money.  While I wish I could post the video of him saying it and provide exact quotes, I’m still at the hotel.  But when I get back to the office later this afternoon I’ll update this story with the full interview.  I just wanted to get this news online immediately.  Until later today….

UPDATED: His exact quotes and the video are after the jump:

Trailer, Poster, and Oscar Buzz for CRAZY HEART Starring Jeff Bridges

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: November 16th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

Jeff Bridges is an actor who’s overdue for an Oscar.  He’s been nominated four times before (Best Supporting Actor for The Contender, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, and The Last Picture Show; Best Actor for Starman) and has a wealth of great performances in his filmography.  It looks like Bridges is adding another one to his filmography as he’s getting some serious Oscar-buzz for his performance as a hard-living country singer in Crazy Heart.

This is also good news for Fox Searchlight, which looked like they were going to be out of this year’s Oscar race after Amelia flopped.  Now a film which was on no one’s radar two months ago is being called The Wrestler of 2009.  You can get that sense from both the poster and trailer for the film but not in a “me too” kind of way.  I’m always up for Jeff Bridges being great and it looks like Crazy Heart isn’t going to disappoint.  Hit the jump to see the trailer, poster, and a brief synopsis.   Crazy Heart is slated to hit theaters in limited release on December 16^th.

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