Ewan McGregor

TOP 5: UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING Interviews, HAYWIRE Interviews, Recent Films/Retro Posters, Live-Action RUGRATS Trailer, Sundance 2012 Coverage

by Jason Barr    Posted: January 21st, 2012 at 1:17 pm

In last week’s “Top 5″ I spent the opening paragraph musing about my anticipation for Steven Soderbergh‘s Haywire. I also promised the readers a quick “Before & After” discussion this week which would address whether or not the pic lived up to my expectations. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but said discussion will have to be postponed. I know, I know, I’m disappointed too. Fear not, though, I’m slated to check out the film tonight which means that I’ll be able to deliver on my promise, albeit a week late. In the meantime…

…This week’s “Top 5″ installment brings you interviews with the cast of Underworld: Awakening and the aforementioned Haywire, a gallery of recent films in retro poster form, an ultra-disturbing Rugrats live-action trailer, and all of our Sundance 2012 coverage to date. Hit the jump for a brief recap and link to each.

Warner Bros. Puts ARTHUR & LANCELOT on Hold; Pushes JACK THE GIANT KILLER 3D Back to 2013

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: January 19th, 2012 at 7:24 pm

Not long after Warner Bros. was reportedly getting cold feet with the swelling budget of David Dobkin’s Arthur & Lancelot, it looks like the studio has officially hit the pause button. The film, starring Kit Herington (Game of Thrones) and Joel Kinnaman (The Darkest Hour) in a reimagined Arthurian legend, was supposed to open March 15, 2013. Dobkin (The Wedding Crashers) reportedly informed cast and crew that it “wasn’t looking good,” although studio insiders confirm they’re trying to make the project work. Warner envisions the tone of Arthur & Lancelot to be in a similar vein to their Sherlock Holmes franchise, but will have to negotiate budget and scheduling difficulties. Herington, will return to Game of Thrones this spring while Kinnaman is expected to segue into the film shoot after wrapping on AMC’s The Killing. The project may move forward without one or both of the actors. Hit the jump for news regarding the delay of Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Killer 3D and Rock of Ages.

HAYWIRE Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 19th, 2012 at 3:01 pm

Men are taught (or at least they should be taught) to never hit a woman.  The lesson is based on the assumption that women are physically weaker and don’t have the strength to defend themselves (also, hitting people isn’t very nice in general).  But what if the woman can not only hit back, but her job is to hit back and she knows how to hit back harder than anyone?  In Steven Soderbergh‘s Haywire, mercenary Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is that woman, and Soderbergh is unapologetic about having her hit in return.  The film forces us to confront our convictions about the fragility of women, and where that belief comes from.  Is the movie a blow for equality in showing that women can take and dish out a beating like a man?  Is a woman’s physicality always sexual?  Haywire doesn’t have easy answers to these questions, but it has no problem asking them under the cover of a badass European flavored action-thriller.

Ewan McGregor Talks HAYWIRE and JACK THE GIANT KILLER

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: January 16th, 2012 at 10:18 am

With director Steven Soderbergh’s spy-action pic Haywire opening this Friday, I recently got to sit down with most of the cast to talk about making the movie.  Starring MMA fighter Gina Carano as a burned spy who takes revenge against her handlers, Haywire also stars Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Angarano, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, and Bill Paxton.  I’ve seen Haywire twice now and it’s fantastic.  On top of Carano’s star-making performance, the action scenes are some of the best I’ve seen in years.   It’s absolutely something you should see in a theater.

During my interview with McGregor we talked about how he got involved in Haywire, his feelings on not being involved in more of the action scenes, karaoke, does he prefer two takes or fifty, and which of his previous movies do people always want to talk to him about.  In addition, McGregor talked about starring in Bryan Singer‘s Jack the Giant Killer which arrives this summer.  Hit the jump to watch.

3 Movie Clips and 37 Images from Steven Soderbergh’s HAYWIRE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: January 7th, 2012 at 6:00 pm

With director Steven Soderbergh’s spy-action pic Haywire opening January 20th, we’ve been provided with three clips and almost forty images from the film.  Staring MMA fighter Gina Carano as a burned spy who takes revenge against her handlers, Haywire also stars Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Angarano, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, and Bill Paxton.

I’ve seen Haywire twice now and it’s fantastic.  On top of Carano’s star in the making performance, the action scenes are some of the best I’ve seen in years.   It’s absolutely something you should see in a theater.  Hit the jump for the clips and images and look for my exclusive video interviews with the cast next week.

New Trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s HAYWIRE Starring Gina Carano

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 4th, 2012 at 4:25 pm

A new trailer for director Steven Soderbergh’s spy-action pic Haywire has gone online. The movie centers on a burned spy (MMA fighter Gina Carano) who takes revenge against her handlers. Soderbergh has surrounded Carano with a stellar ensemble of familiar faces (including Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, and Michael Douglas), and the action scenes here look absolutely brutal. This new trailer delves a bit more into the plot, and it’s actually a tad spoiler-heavy by way of revealing a couple of the deaths that take place onscreen. Soderbergh’s an incredibly interesting director, and I’m intrigued to see how he handles a film this action-heavy  so it’s safe to say I’m anticipating Haywire quite a bit.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The film also stars Channing Tatum, Michael Angarano, Antonio Banderas, and Bill Paxton. Haywire opens January 20th.

First Teaser Trailer for THE IMPOSSIBLE Starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: December 26th, 2011 at 9:45 am

The Impossible was present at the American Film Market in both 2010 and 2011, but we haven’t heard much outside of AFM.  Warner Bros. has released the first teaser trailer—it is stylish and striking and accomplishes everything you want from a teaser trailer.  Impressively, the teaser does all this while dubbed in Spanish.  The Impossible is the English-language debut of Juan Antonio Bayona, director of The Orphanage, which was a massive hit in Bayona’s homeland Spain.  So it makes sense that the first big promotional push is in Spanish.  Luckily for the rest of us, the disaster genre is a universal language.

Led by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, The Impossible tells the story of a family caught in the tsunami that hit Thailand seven years ago today.  Watch the trailer after the jump.

SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN Opens 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: December 22nd, 2011 at 5:24 pm

When the Palm Springs International Film Festival starts on January 5^th, the honor of being the opening film will fall to Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The film, by Oscar-nominated director Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules) and Oscar-winning writer Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) is an adaptation of the Paul Torday award-winning novel of the same name. The plot follows a sheik (Amr Waked) who desires to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen, a wild idea that is facilitated by a fishing expert (Ewan McGregor) and a PR consultant (Emily Blunt) with the urgings of the Prime Minister’s press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas). While Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is set to open the festival, the German comedy Almanya, Welcome to Germany will close it out on January 15^th. Hit the jump for more on Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

New Posters for THE AVENGERS and HAYWIRE

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: December 20th, 2011 at 9:54 am

New posters have gone online for The Avengers and Haywire.  Marvel seems to be taking a page from Warner Bros’ Harry Potter playbook by churning out as many character posters as possible between now and the arrival of the movie.  We’ve already seen the character banners, but now Marvel is disassembling these banners into individual posters.

There’s also a new poster for Haywire and it shares the same eye-catching design as the previous one-sheets.  It even makes the actors’ face-boxes look cool.  Hit the jump to check out the new posters.  Haywire opens January 20, 2012.  The Avengers opens in 3D on May 4, 2012.

VELVET GOLDMINE Blu-ray Review

by Andre Dellamorte    Posted: December 17th, 2011 at 7:00 am

One of the great things about film fandom is that it leads to earlier or more obscure films that may not have found their audience at the time. For one generation Christian Bale is Batman and Ewan McGregor is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Fans of their work that go exploring will eventually see them in Velvet Goldmine. Having sex with each other.

Todd Haynes’s film Velvet Goldmine is a faux-David Bowie biopic that tracks the glam rock phenomenon from birth to end and its exploration of pan-sexuality and how that generation transition into the Reagan and Thatcher 80’s by using the structure of Citizen Kane. It’s also a rock and roll movie par excellence. Toni Collette, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Eddie Izzard co-star in this trip down glam-rock lane. Our review of Velvet Goldmine on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

Trailer for SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN Starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: December 16th, 2011 at 10:46 am

The first trailer for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen has gone online.  The story centers on a fishing expert (Ewan McGregor) and PR consultant (Emily Blunt) who are thrown together to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen at the behest of a sheik (Amr Waked) and the Prime Minister’s press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas).  I found the film surprisingly witty and funny when I saw it at the Toronto Film Festival, but those qualities are almost non-existent in this trailer beyond Thomas’ scene-stealing performance.  Instead, the trailer plays up the romantic, life-affirming aspects in a heavy-handed, saccharine fashion.  It’s also probably not the best idea to finish up your trailer with a character saying, “I don’t have a sense of humor, as you recall.”

Hit the jump to check out the disappointing trailer.  Salmon Fishing in the Yemen opens March 2, 2012.

First Trailer and Poster for Bryan Singer’s JACK THE GIANT KILLER

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: December 15th, 2011 at 4:24 pm

The first trailer for director Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Killer has gone online. Based on the classic tale, the fantasy pic tells the story of an ancient war that’s reignited when a young boy (Nicholas Hoult) unknowingly opens a gate between the world of the humans and the world of the giants. We don’t see much here, as it plays out very much like a teaser trailer, but I like the feel of it and it sure is nice to see Singer back doing big action set pieces. Ewan McGregor is the epitome of cool, and Hoult seems a fine choice to play the reluctant hero. Overall, I like the tone and the look of everything, but there’s not enough here to gauge whether or not Singer’s got himself a winner. I’m really looking forward to seeing those giants though.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The film also stars Eleanor Thomas, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, and Bill Nighy. Jack the Giant Killer opens in 3D IMAX on June 15th, 2012.

New Trailer for PERFECT SENSE Starring Ewan McGregor

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: December 12th, 2011 at 5:48 pm

A new trailer for the dramatic thriller Perfect Sense has gone online. This is the third such trailer for the flick, and I’m still wholly intrigued by its premise. It centers on a chef and a scientist who fall in love just as a global epidemic is beginning to unravel. The disease systematically causes the loss of all senses. It’s basically a love story set in the middle of Contagion, and I quite like it. There’s a great deal of drama to be mined from the situation, and stars Ewan McGregor and Eva Green look to be handling it like pros.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. Directed by David McKenzie (Young Adam), the film is set for release on February 3rd, 2012.

New Posters from Will Ferrell’s CASA DE MI PADRE and PERFECT SENSE Starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: December 6th, 2011 at 3:36 pm

With the recent pick up of Will Ferrell’s Casa De Mi Padre by Pantelion Films, we can expect to see an influx of marketing material before the film’s March 16 release. First up are two new posters from the Spanish-language comedy that presents Ferrell as a Mexican rancher who must save his family’s farm while defeating a notorious drug lord and winning the hand of the lovely Sonia. Casa De Mi Padre also stars Gael Garcia Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Genesis Rodriguez (Man on a Ledge).

We also have the new one-sheet for director David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense which stars Ewan McGregor (Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace) and Eva Green (Casino Royale). The 2011 Sundance hit features McGregor and Green as two strangers who form a romantic connection in the face of a widespread epidemic that is wiping out all sensory perception. Hit the jump to check out the posters.

BEGINNERS DVD Review

by Jake Lasker    Posted: December 1st, 2011 at 5:59 am

When I received the DVD for Beginners in the mail last week, I was out of my mind excited. After all, Beginners is one of my favorite films of the year. I couldn’t wait to check out the supplemental material and I’m glad to report the disc doesn’t disappoint.

First things first: the film itself. Mike Mills’ semi-autobiographical tale follows Oliver, played wonderfully by Ewan McGregor, at two very different times in his life. The first timeline follows Oliver’s time with his father Hal (an Oscar-worthy Christopher Plummer), who has recently been diagnosed with cancer and come out of the closet. The second timeline follows Oliver as he embarks on a romance with Anna (Inglourious Basterd’s Melanie Laurent), a French actress staying in Los Angeles. Oliver is kept company at all times by his faithful terrier Arthur.  Continue reading for my full review.

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