Jonathan Pryce

Sony Pictures Classics Comes Down with HYSTERIA Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: November 10th, 2011 at 5:01 pm

This one’s for the ladies: Hysteria, the Tanya Wexler-directed picture starring Oscar-nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal, has sold its US and South African rights to Sony Pictures Classics. The romantic comedy is based on the historically (and hysterically) accurate tale of Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville’s invention of the first vibrator, all in the name of medical science. The heart of the film is about the realization that everyone is in control of their own happiness.

Written by Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer, and produced by the all-female trio of Sarah Curtis, Judy Cairo and Tracey Becker, Hysteria also stars Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce, Rupert Everett and Felicity Jones. Hit the jump for more on Hysteria.

TIFF 2011: HYSTERIA Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: September 14th, 2011 at 7:00 pm

Tanya Wexler’s Hysteria is a silly little historical comedy and there’s nothing wrong with that.  The film is about the creation of the vibrator or as the opening title card tells us “The following is based on true events.  Really.”  Going into Hysteria, I was initially worried that there might be an unsettling subtext implying the only way women can get over their problems is through sexual relief and they owe it all to ingenious men.  Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case, although there’s not much case at all other than to make the audience chuckle at citizens in Victorian England having orgasms and misunderstanding sex.  Hysteria goes a little overboard at times with its self-aware pronouncements and unrealistic characters, but it is inarguably the best movie you’ll see all year featuring Jonathan Pryce fingerblasting an old lady.

TIFF 2011: First Images from THE AWAKENING, HYSTERIA, WINNIE, and WUTHERING HEIGHTS [Updated]

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: August 16th, 2011 at 9:00 am

With the announcement of new additions to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, new images have gone online.  After the jump you’ll find the first images from The Awakening (starring Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, and Imelda Staunton), Hysteria (starring Hugh Dancy and Maggie Gyllenhaal), Winnie (starring Jennifer Hudson and Terrence Howard), and Andrea Arnold’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Hit the jump to check out the new images and a synopsis for each film.  The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8 – 18th. [We've updated the story with the trailer for Hysteria]

BRAZIL Blu-ray Review

by Phil Brown    Posted: August 7th, 2011 at 7:07 am

Twenty-six years later and with all of the controversy surrounding it’s release a distant memory of filmmakers-getting-fucked-over Hollywood lore, Brazil still stands as a masterpiece. The film isn’t perfect and it’s certainly not for everyone (no Terry Gilliam movie is), but Brazil remains one of those rare Hollywood creations: a large scale, spectacle-filled personal film. It’s weirdly appropriate that Gilliam had to fight so hard to get Brazil released given that the movie itself is about how easily dreams and imagination can be crushed in an unforgiving modern world.  In a weird way, it’s almost as if the director looked into the future and made a film about his career long struggle to create bizarre and bracingly original movies.  My review of the Blu-ray after the jump:

Casting Call: Madisen Beaty Confirmed for Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Drama; Grint and Pryce Join WARTIME WANDERERS

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 6th, 2011 at 7:43 am

We have a couple of quick casting stories to report this morning.  First up, The Film Stage confirms that Madisen Beaty has joined Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled religious drama.  Her role is unknown but it’s possible she’s playing the daughter to charismatic religious leader Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his wife (Amy Adams).  This weekend we reported that Rami Malek (who gave an electric performance in The Pacific) had been cast as the daughter’s husband.  The cast also includes Joaquin Phoenix as Dodd’s right-hand man, Laura Dern, Lena Endre, Jesse Plemons, and David Warshofsky.  The plot was once based on L. Ron Hubbard and the founding of Scientology, but that may have been scaled back to tell the story a man who witnesses the horrors of World War II and is spurred to create his own religion.

Hit the jump for casting news on the drama Wartime Wanderers.

Hugh Dancy Joins Maggie Gyllenhaal for HYSTERIA

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: August 20th, 2010 at 2:26 pm

Amid the same round of press where Maggie Gyllenhaal revealed she would star alongside Peter Sarsgaard in a Bill Monroe biopic, the actress spoke a bit about her upcoming role in Hysteria:

I play a firecracker whose father is a doctor who is in the business of curing hysterical women. He cures them basically by getting them off and that actually happened. I end up having a sort of unexpected love affair with this guy who works for him, and who by mistake invents the vibrator. [ScreenCrave]

Variety confirms Gyllenhaal’s involvement in the period rom-com, which most headlines have taken to calling a “vibrator comedy.”  Hugh Dancy has been cast opposite Gyllenhaal as the doctor (and romantic interest) who works for her father, played by Jonathan Pryce.  Rupert Everett also stars, with Tanya Wexler directing from a script by Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer.  Hysteria is slated for an October shoot.

4 Movie Clips from G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: July 29th, 2009 at 1:14 pm

With “G.I. Joe:  The Rise of Cobra” set for release in a little over a week, Paramount has release four clips from the Stephen Sommers movie and they’re after the jump. As I said when I wrote my mini-review, all you need to know is “G.I. Joe” is the cartoon come to life. It’s a pure candy coated popcorn film and if you’re going to the movie theater to have a good time, you’re going to have a lot of fun watching “G.I. Joe”. Just remember, the movie is aimed at kids and it’s designed to sell toys. Watch the clips. You’ll see what I mean.

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