Jonathan Levine

50/50 Blu-ray Review

by Andre Dellamorte    Posted: February 5th, 2012 at 6:00 am

How do you deal cinematically with cancer? That’s the question of Jonathan Levine’s 50/50, which was based on the experiences of its writer Will Reiser. It’s a tough subject matter because cancer touches so many lives and rarely offers happy endings. But 50/50 manages to be charming, and more about friendship and family in crisis than just pain. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars with Seth Rogen, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anna Kendrick in this warm dramedy. Our review of 50/50 on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

TOP 5: New STAR WARS Live-Action Series Details, CONTRABAND, WARM BODIES, Cinemath, Our TCA Winter Press Tour Coverage

by Jason Barr    Posted: January 14th, 2012 at 11:35 am

I have to say that I can’t wait to check out Steven Soderbergh‘s actioner Haywire. Everything I’ve seen from it thus far has looked great and the positivity pouring out from early reviews only supports my belief that the entire pic will deliver. Whether it be the stellar cast, the proclaimed breakout performance from Gina Carano, or Soderbergh’s top-notch action sequences, I fully expect to be talking about Haywire right here again next week in a little “Before & After” discussion. In the meantime…

…This week’s “Top 5″ brings you some new details regarding the long-gestating Star Wars live-action television series, Contraband interviews with Mark Wahlberg, Giovanni Ribisi, and more, the first official images from Jonathan Levine‘s (50/50) Warm Bodies, a “Cinemath” feature that analyzes the 2011 box office, and all of our coverage from the 2011 Television Critics Association (TCA) Winter Press Tour. Hit the jump for brief recaps and links to each.

First Official Image of Nicholas Hoult as a Zombie in Jonathan Levine‘s WARM BODIES [Updated]

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 9th, 2012 at 12:00 pm

While Hollywood’s zombie obsession has tapered off a bit, it’s far from dead. Though some of the recent zombie output suggests profit rather than creative fascination is the motivating factor, director Jonathan Levine’s (50/50) adaptation of Isaac Marion‘s novel Warm Bodies sounds like a wholly intriguing and incredibly fun zombie pic.  The “zombie love story” stars Nicholas Hoult as “R”, a zombie who falls in love with Julie (Teresa Palmer) after he eats her boyfriend’s brains and absorbs his memories.  It’s a really cool premise anchored by a stellar supporting cast (Rob Corddry, John Malkovich) and an exciting young filmmaker.

The first official image of Hoult as the zombified “R” has been released, and it’s pretty great.  The look is different enough from the gruesome zombies of The Walking Dead to appear fresh, yet still maintains the vacant stare and pale skin that says “I hunger for brains.”  The stain is a nice touch as well.  Hit the jump to check out the image.  Warm Bodies opens August 10th.

[Update: Summit has released three more images, now included after the jump.]

50/50 Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: September 29th, 2011 at 10:00 pm

It’s important to have a sense of humor in all things.  Being able to laugh at misfortune doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re diminishing a tragedy’s importance or ignoring the feelings created by hardship.  Laughter isn’t the best medicine (that would be the polio vaccine) but it’s damn useful and Jonathan Levine’s 50/50 manages to find humor in cancer by bringing together great performances and a gentle approach that manages to skillfully balance foul-mouthed dialogue alongside honest drama.

TIFF 2011: 50/50 Review

by Phil Brown    Posted: September 11th, 2011 at 2:09 pm

No film festival trip would be complete without sampling at least one depressing cancer movie. There isn’t another disease that has produced more nauseating tearjerkers and thankfully 50/50 isn’t one of them. That’s not to say that there’s no danger of having a tear or two jerked out over the course of the movie, it just isn’t the filmmakers’ main goal. You see, what we’re dealing with here is that rare beast known as the cancer comedy and more specifically, a cancer comedy from Seth Rogen. The film has the amiable wondering stoner comedy feel of much of Rogen’s work, the difference being that this time he’s playing best buddy to Joseph Gordon-Levitt who has recently been diagnosed with everyone’s favorite disease-of-the-week (see the title for his odds of survival). It’s a concept that really shouldn’t work, yet it does quite well. There’s something sweetly genuine about the way the characters use comedy as a self-defense mechanism against a terminal illness and it probably comes closer to capturing how those suffering from the disease actually react than any melodrama. Hit the jump for the full cancerous scoop.

Dave Franco, Analeigh Tipton, and Cory Hardrict to Join Zombie Film WARM BODIES

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: September 9th, 2011 at 1:32 pm

A trio of young actors are in talks to join the cast of writer/director Jonathan Levine’s (50/50) zombie pic Warm Bodies. Variety reports that Dave Franco, Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love.), and Cory Hardrict (Battle: Los Angeles) are all in line to join the cast which includes Nichoals Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry and recent addition John Malkovich. Hoult stars as R, an existentially tormented zombie who strikes up a friendship with the girlfriend (Palmer) of one of his victims. Franco will play Palmer’s boyfriend, who ends up leading the human resistance, Tipton will play Palmer’s best friend, and Hardrict will take on the role of one of Palmer’s dorky friends who becomes Malkovich’s right hand man.

Malkovich is in talks to star as the villain, a member of a group of humans who wall themselves inside a city known as the Green Zone. Corddry will play another zombie like R. Levin recently spoke to Steve quite a bit about the film, so if you missed it you can check out that interview here. The film itself is based on the novel of the same name by Isaac Marion.

TOP 5: STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA, MAN OF STEEL, THE AVENGERS, Don Cheadle as CAPTAIN PLANET, Jonathan Levine 50/50 Interview

by Jason Barr    Posted: September 3rd, 2011 at 9:44 am

I love this time of year. The opening week of college football is upon us and we’re in the middle of a three-day Labor Day weekend. To make matters even more enticing, the 100 degree heat of the Midwest is slowly but surely becoming a distant memory. All in all, life is good. Now, for those of you who look forward to our weekly “Top 5″ installment, things are only getting better.

In this week’s edition, we’re bringing you our coverage of Star Wars: The Complete Saga (blinking Ewoks and all), a new batch of set photos from Man of Steel and The Avengers, Don Cheadle’s hilarious albeit disturbing take on Captain Planet, and an exclusive interview with 50/50 director Jonathan Levine. Hit the jump for a brief recap and link to each.

Director Jonathan Levine Exclusive Interview 50/50

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: September 1st, 2011 at 7:43 pm

The dramedy 50/50, directed by Jonathan Levine (The Wackness), is one of my favorite films of 2011.  Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anjelica Huston, the film is based on screenwriter Will Reiser’s real-life battle with cancer and focuses on the twists, turns, shock, sadness, and comedic relief that he experienced along the way.   In addition, while all the performances are fantastic, Gordon-Levitt is operating on another level.  I really believe he’s one of the best actors working in Hollywood.

Recently, I was able to speak with Levine to discuss the film.  We talked about everything from how he got on the project to how he was able to make the film feel like real life and not some Hollywood twentysomething cancer story.   We also talked about deleted scenes, editing, extended cuts, Gordon-Levitt’s performance, landing Michael Giacchino for the soundtrack, Pearl Jam, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to read what he had to say and make sure to see 50/50 when it hits theaters at the end of September.

Exclusive: Jonathan Levine Talks WARM BODIES, LITTLE GIRL LOST, LEGEND, and JAMAICA

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: August 16th, 2011 at 9:38 pm

The other day I got on the phone with director Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) to talk about his great new film, 50/50.  Since our conversation covered so many subjects, I decided to break it up into two parts and I’m starting with everything he said about his future projects like Warm Bodies, Legend, Jamaica, and Little Girl Lost.  Here’s the highlights:

• Warm Bodies is up next for Levine.  After that, he has three projects to choose from.  The scripts for Legend and Jamaica are still being written.  Michael Bacall has finished the script for Little Girl Lost.
• Teresa Palmer  stars alongside Nicholas Hoult in Warm Bodies.  The story “follows an existentially tormented zombie named R (Hoult) that begins an unlikely friendship with the human girlfriend (Palmer) of one of his victims. The blossoming relationship starts a chain reaction that will transform him, his fellow zombies and maybe the whole lifeless world.”
• Levine says his script for Warm Bodies is “probably 75% faithful to the book,” but he enjoyed the freedom of creative license.  No “big changes.”
• The Warm Bodies zombies are somewhere between fast and slow.  They can run fast when they are really hungry, but otherwise don’t.
• Levine will begin a 9-week shoot in Montreal in about five weeks.  Montreal was chosen in part has an abandoned airport that will serve as a major setting, in part because Levine likes the architecture of the city.
• The biggest challenge will be satisfying zombie purists: “It is very different, and while it’s trying to work within the framework of the genre, it’s also trying to kind of do something unique with the genre too, and I’m sure we’re violating a lot of zombie rules and I’m going to have to beg for forgiveness and hope that everyone likes it.”
• It will be PG-13 because there is a romantic, magical tone to the story.  Levine says “we don’t need heads exploding to tell our story.”
• There will be a lot of voiceover by Hoult’s character, but it will be nontraditional, since Hoult plays a zombie.  Levine compares it to the locked-in syndrome perspective of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
• Warm Zombies will be a “music-heavy movie.”  Levine wrote several songs into the script, pending rights clearance.

Hit the jump for the part of the interview on his future projects.  Warm Bodies sounds like it could be very cool.

Free Tickets to Advance Screenings of 50/50 Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: August 16th, 2011 at 8:36 pm

There’s some positive buzz going on for Jonathan Levine’s 50/50 (I know Steve saw it and really dug it).  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a young man who gets cancer and while that seems like weighty material, the movie balances it with some raunchy humor.  The flick’s also got a strong supporting cast that includes Seth Rogen, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anna Kendrick, and Anjelica Huston.   And now Summit Entertainment is holding some advanced screenings to build the buzz even more.  Collider’s going to help you get into one of these screenings.  We’ve got 100 tickets to give away for each screening of 50/50 in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington DC.  All of the screenings are on August 30th except for Austin which is on August 29th.

Hit the jump for the details.

New Trailer for 50/50 Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen

by Jason Barr    Posted: August 11th, 2011 at 4:25 pm

A new trailer for director Jonathan Levine’s (The Wackness) dramedy 50/50 is now available online. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anjelica Huston, the film is based on screenwriter Will Reiser’s real-life battle with cancer and focuses on the twists, turns, shock, sadness, and comedic relief that he experienced along the way. Although this new cut features some of the same footage found in the film’s first trailer, it does offer a little more in the way of Anna Kendrick’s performance, a fact that I’ll never have any qualms with. Overall, I’ve heard great things about 50/50 and I can’t wait to see it in theaters.

Check out the new trailer after the jump. 50/50 opens on September 30th.

Director Jonathan Levine to Reunite with Will Reiser on JAMAICA; Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to Produce

by Jason Barr    Posted: July 6th, 2011 at 3:22 pm

Director Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) will reunite with scribe Will Reiser on the vacation-based comedy entitled Jamaica. Per their own press release, Mandate Pictures will fast-track the development of Jamaica with Levine attached to direct, Reiser writing/executive producing, and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg co-producing the pic through their Point Grey Pictures moniker. According to the release, Jamaica is based loosely on a trip Reiser took with his grandmother at the age of 14.

All four of the previously mentioned gentlemen participated in identical capacities for the upcoming dramedy 50/50 which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston, and Rogen. The film is based on Reiser’s own battle with a rare form of cancer and is set to hit theaters later this year on September 30th. Click here to check out the trailer for 50/50.

First Trailer and Images for 50/50 Starring Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 10:54 am

Summit Entertainment has released the first trailer for the dramedy 50/50.  Screenwriter Will Reiser based the story on his own battle with cancer. The trailer is fantastic and does a great job of balancing some funny jokes with the gravity of a guy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) dealing with cancer.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and the first images along with Steve’s thoughts on the film.  50/50 is directed by Jonathan Levine (The Wackness), also stars Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Angelica Huston, and Phillip Baker Hall star.  It opens September 30th.

THE WACKNESS Director Jonathan Levine to Helm LEGEND

by Jason Barr    Posted: May 12th, 2011 at 4:07 pm

Writer/director Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) will helm CBS Films’ adaptation of the forthcoming Marie Lu book trilogy, Legend. The press release confirms that Twilight producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey have selected Levine to adapt Lu’s novels and included this synopsis:

LEGEND takes place in a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations. It tells the story of a 15-year-old boy criminal and the 15 year-old girl prodigy hired to hunt him down. When their paths cross, the truth they uncover together will become legend.

Although the first book in the trilogy doesn’t arrive in bookstores until this November, Bowen and Godfrey acquired preemptive rights to the series all the way back in February of this year. Chalk one up for thinking ahead. In addition to Legend, Levine is currently in prep for his zombie film Warm Bodies starring Nicholas Hoult. His comedy/drama 50/50, of which I hear positive things, is set to hit theaters later this year on September 30th. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anna Kendrick.

Teresa Palmer in Talks to Co-Star with Nicholas Hoult in Zombie Love Story WARM BODIES

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: March 29th, 2011 at 7:53 am

Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four) is in talks to star alongside Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man) in Jonathan Levine’s adaptation of Isaac Marion’s upcoming novel Warm Bodies.  Per Heat Vision, the story is described as a cross between Shaun of the Dead (yay!) and Twilight (nay!) and “follows an existentially tormented zombie named R that begins an unlikely friendship with the human girlfriend (Palmer) of one of his victims. The blossoming relationship starts a chain reaction that will transform him, his fellow zombies and maybe the whole lifeless world.”  Palmer’s character is the daughter of one of the “military leaders who is tiring of a life of constantly fighting off zombie attacks.”

Palmer recently co-starred in back-to-back duds with I Am Number Four and Take Me Home Tonight, but I don’t think the short-comings of those films are her fault.  She showed she can be a bad-ass in I Am Number Four and she demonstrated charm in TMHT, so it’s really a matter of finding the right project for her talents.  Perhaps Warm Bodies will be it.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of the novel.

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