Name:

Stanley Tucci

Date of Birth:

11th November 1960

Place of birth:

Peekskill, NY, USA

Special moves:

Acting, writing, pretending to be gay

Films include:

Big Night, The Devil Wears Prada, The Lovely Bones, Captain America: The First Avenger, Margin Call

What you probably already know:

Stanley Tucci is the American Dame Judi Dench, insofar as he’s in all of the films all of the time but you can’t hold it against him because he’s never less than brilliant. He’s been nominated for an Oscar (for The Lovely Bones), played a child-killing paedophile (in The Lovely Bones) and led an entire generation to believe him to be gay (thanks to all his other films). His latest film Margin Call – it’s excellent, in case you were wondering – is due out on Friday, and his lovely bald head will be bobbing up in no fewer than five of this year’s big releases – fantasy adventure Jack the Giant Killer, heist caper Gambit, spy thriller The Company You Keep and dystopic YA action flick The Hunger Games.

But if you’re thinking that 2012 is Stanley Tucci’s year, you’re not keeping up. Every year is his year – 2011 saw him take a pivotal role in Avengers prequel Captain America and star alongside Cher and Christina Aguilera in Burlesque, 2010 was the year of Easy A with dear lovely Emma Stone and 2009 played host to Julie & Julia (starring his The Devil Wears Prada costar Meryl Streep) as well as the aforementioned The Lovely Bones. He’s in at least one of your favourite films of the last five years, we absolutely guarantee it – he might not be starring, but he’ll be somewhere in the middle distance making everything subtly better.

What you might not know:

Can you believe that wrinkle-free head is 51? Stanley Tucci made his Broadway debut in 1982 and appeared in his first film three years later, and since 1987 he’s made at least one silver screen appearance a year. He doesn’t stick to appearing in front of the camera, either – Big Night, which he wrote and directed as well as taking a lead role, attracted awards and nominations from all directions. He’s picked up Emmys and Globes for his small-screen work, and returned to Broadway in 2002 to be immediately met with a Tony nomination.

Tucci married in 1995 and had three children with his social worker wife Kate as well as raising her two sprogs from a previous marriage. Following Kate’s death, Tucci became romantically involved with literary agent Felicity Blunt, the sister of actress Emily Blunt (with whom Tucci appeared in The Devil Wears Prada). The pair became engaged in late 2011.

Oh, and just like every other actor we’re totally in love with (and Sandra Bullock), he used to own a restaurant. Obviously.

Stanley Tucci quote:

“The constraints of melodrama can be a great blessing, because they demand that all the characters involved – as absurd and extreme as they may initially seem – must stay utterly rooted in their own reality, or the whole project collapses.”

What to say at a dinner party:

With The Lovely Bones, Tucci took a much-needed step out of supporting roles to seize the limelight for himself. Long may his fame endure!”

What not to say at a dinner party:

“Oh, is he not gay?”

Final thought:

Margin Call is out on Friday, and you’re advised to go along. Mind you, if you don’t he’ll have another film out in five minutes…

Anything else you think the world should know? Drop us a comment below!

The Host, which pretends to be for adults, is some utter fucking nonsense in which parasitic aliens take over most of the humans on Earth (except for Saoirse Ronan, who somehow manages to resist the advances of the alien in her head) and then there’s a love triangle because THERE’S ALWAYS A BASTARD LOVE TRIANGLE. In fact, the press release for The Host has the temerity to describe it as “one of the most unusual love triangles in literature”, which is frankly laughable. Have they not read my Han/Chewie/C3PO slashfic?

Anyway, if he’s going to make this really dreadful Andrew Niccol needs a cast to mutilate, so the hunt is currently on for two strapping young lads to play Saoirse’s boyfriend Jared (who’s in hiding, or something, and then she has to go and find him because her head alien makes her think about him all the time) and Ian, a nasty piece of work who does a number on Head Alien before falling in love with it. Fuck knows, quite frankly.

The shortlist of actors being considered for Jared currently includes Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games), Jai Courtney (Spartacus: Blood and Sand), Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) and Max Irons (Red Riding Hood). The contenders for the role of Ian are Jake Abel (The Lovely Bones), Dane DeHaan (In Treatment), Thomas McDonnell (Prom) and Augustus Prew (The Borgias).

Who the devil are these people? We’ve never even heard of half the TV shows they’re from (what happened to people working their way up in cinema, by the way? Next thing you know some twat off Corrie will be the new Bond), and they all have stupid names. This is going to be a car crash, isn’t it?

Do you like Stephanie Meyer? Then you’re a dick.

Name:

Rachel Hannah Weisz

Date of Birth:

7th March 1970

Place of birth:

London, England

Special moves:

Acting

Films include:

The Mummy, Enemy at the Gates, About a Boy, Constantine, The Fountain, The Constant Gardener

What you probably already know:

Everyone loves Rachel Weisz. Serious. She’s appeared in films which span an extraordinarily wide range of genres, ensuring she’ll be in your DVD collection whether you’re a fan of action (The Mummy), rom-coms (About a Boy), sci-fi (Constantine). war films (Enemy at the Gates) or dramas (The Constant Gardener, for which Weisz won the 2005 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress). Weisz is also a prolific stage actress with several significant Tennessee Williams roles to her credit, and as if that wasn’t enough she’s just married Craig. Daniel Craig.

Before becoming a real life Bond girl Weisz spent several years engaged to Darren Aronofsky, with whom she has a son. Her willingness to fill in for Cate Blanchett opposite Hugh Jackman saved Aronofsky’s ambitious sci-fi film The Fountain, and Weisz went on to make other challenging films including The Lovely Bones (in which she played the mother of Saoirse Ronan’s murdered teenager) and the forthcoming based-on-true-events drama The Whistleblower, which is sadly without a UK distributor at present. Basically, she’s done almost everything you’ve ever wanted to watch.

What you might not know:

Whilst she’s still best known for starring opposite Hugh Grant and Brendan Fraser in About a Boy and The Mummy, Weisz has spent the past few years beavering away on a variety of passion projects and relatively obscure films. She was praised for her performance in Wong Kar-wai’s 2007 road romance My Blueberry Nights, in which Jude Law and Natalie Portman also starred, and starred in Alejandro Amenábar’s Agora as the fourth century Greek astronomer Hypatia of Alexandria. Bet you didn’t see that coming. Weisz’ dedication to the role was such that Amenábar actually made her suppress some aspects of her performance, memorably refusing to include a scene proposed by Weisz in which Hypatia would have had a jolly good wank whilst looking at the stars.

So, what’s next for Rachel Weisz? Assuming The Whistleblower finds a distributor, her next film will be David Hare’s MI5 drama Page Eight. Also on the cusp of release are Dream House, in which she stars with Daniel Craig, and Terence Davies’ adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play The Deep Blue Sea (also starring Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale). And if that weren’t enough, Weisz will soon be seen with Anthony Hopkins and Jude Law in 360, a psychosexual drama from Fernando Meirelles (City of God), AND with Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams in Terrence Malick’s untitled next film. She just won’t stop; it looks like Weisz’ diverse army of fans will be kept happy for some time to come.

Rachel Weisz quote:

“I have absolutely no empathy for camels. I didn’t care for being abused in the Middle East by those horrible, horrible, horrible creatures. They don’t like people. It’s not at all like the relationship between horses and humans.”

What to say at a dinner party:

“With three promising dramas due out this year alone, Weisz has finally shaken the populist stigma of her early blockbuster work to receive the acknowledgement she deserves as a serious – and seriously talented – actress.”

What not to say at a dinner party:

“She’s certainly had some interesting boyfriends…”

Final thought:

We’re not quite sold on Page Eight yet, but if anyone can save it it’s Rachel Weisz. Check out the trailer and make up your own mind…

Anything else you think the world should know? Drop us a comment below!

From The Page To The Screen

When published in 2002 The Lovely Bones was an instant success, climbing to top of the UK as well as US book charts. It’s story wasn’t for the faint hearted – a tale of a young girl named Suzie Salmon, who is brutally raped and murdered in the cellar of a neighbour. Finding herself in a 14-year-old’s vision of the afterlife, Suzie has to try and communicate with her family from heaven to help them solve the mystery of her death. And when her murderer begins looking with interest at her younger sister, time is of the essence.

The reason the novel was such a success is that it contrasts the beautiful whimsy of a dreamy afterlife with the horrific images of a brutal act of murder. It rescues us from the despair and hopelessness of the real world by continually taking us back into Suzie’s dreamland. The film however, takes us to dreamland from the word go and keeps us there. The murder is unseen, there is no mention of rape, and many of the key plot points of the novel – the uncovered body parts, Suzie’s mother’s affair with the detective covering the case – are left out. The decision to keep this film PG is a interesting one, as though it ensures a visually beautiful film – and it really is lovely to look at – there’s no denying that the impact of the story is lost.

High Stakes, Low Impact

When the film was first tested with audiences back in 2009, the overwhelming response was that there was not enough violence shown, that the viewer didn’t feel the horror they should at Suzie’s murder. Though some post-production work was done to try and rectifiy this, we have to say that we agree with masses. Exploring an issue like the murder of a young girl will always be difficult, but the solution is not to spray it with perfume until the horror is masked completely. The overwhelming success of Precious – the story of an American teenager abused by her parents – has shown that audiences respond well to being presented with the reality of these terrible scenarios, rather than being distanced from them completely. To be fair, the cast are all strong, Saoirse Ronan (of Atonement) does a great job of portraying Suzie, lost in an in-between world, and Rachel Weisz brings a wonderful grieving grace to the part of Suzie’s mother. It would be been interesting to see what else she would have brought to the character had they decided to include her infidelity.

Overall, if what you want is a gentle couple of hours feasting on pretty shots and a poignant tale, then you won’t be disappointed by The Lovely Bones. However, if what you’re expecting is a faithful translation of the book, the tragedies, the horror and the joys, you may walk away underwhelmed, uncaring and unimpressed.

Special Features

Interview with cast and crew
Making The Lovely Bones documentary
Theatrical trailer
Sub-titles

Director Ramsey actually wrote the original script for The Lovely Bones, but it was shelved in favour of a more crowd-pleasing version when Peter Jackson got on board. So it’ll be interested to see what she can do un-edited. The story of We Need to Talk About Kevin centres on a series of correspondance between a mother (who Tilda will play) and father (John C Reilly, apparently), discussing the consequences of their son Kevin committing a horrific crime – a killing spree in his local school. Considering the book’s structure is based around letters, it’ll be interesting to see what angle a movie version takes, and with a budget of $10 million, they won’t fall into the ‘mega-hit’ trap that The Lovely Bones fell victim to.

Interested in We Need To Talk About Kevin? Talk to us…

From The Page To The Screen

When published in 2002 The Lovely Bones was an instant success, climbing to top of the UK as well as US book charts. It’s story wasn’t for the faint hearted – a tale of a young girl named Suzie Salmon, who is brutally raped and murdered in the cellar of a neighbour. Finding herself in a 14-year-old’s vision of the afterlife, Suzie has to try and communicate with her family from heaven to help them solve the mystery of her death. And when her murderer begins looking with interest at her younger sister, time is of the essence.

The reason the novel was such a success is that it contrasts the beautiful whimsy of a dreamy afterlife with the horrific images of a brutal act of murder. It rescues us from the despair and hopelessness of the real world by continually taking us back into Suzie’s dreamland. The film however, takes us to dreamland from the word go and keeps us there. The murder is unseen, there is no mention of rape, and many of the key plot points of the novel – the uncovered body parts, Suzie’s mother’s affair with the detective covering the case – are left out. The decision to keep this film PG is a interesting one, as though it ensures a visually beautiful film – and it really is lovely to look at – there’s no denying that the impact of the story is lost.

High Stakes, Low Impact

When the film was first tested with audiences back in 2009, the overwhelming response was that there was not enough violence shown, that the viewer didn’t feel the horror they should at Suzie’s murder. Though some post-production work was done to try and rectifiy this, we have to say that we agree with masses. Exploring an issue like the murder of a young girl will always be difficult, but the solution is not to spray it with perfume until you can no longer sense the horror. The overwhelming success of Precious – the story of an American teenager abused by her parents – has shown that audiences respond well to being presented with the reality of these terrible scenarios, rather than being distanced from them completely. To be fair, the cast are all strong, Saoirse Ronan (of Atonement) does a great job of portraying Suzie, lost in an in-between world, and Rachel Weisz brings a wonderful grieving grace to the part of Suzie’s mother. It would be been interesting to see what else she would have brought to the character had they decided to include her infidelity.

Overall, if what you want is a gentle couple of hours feasting on pretty shots and a poignant tale, then you won’t be disappointed by The Lovely Bones. However, if what you’re expecting is a faithful translation of the book, the tragedies, the horror and the joys, you may walk away underwhelmed, uncaring and unimpressed.

Was The Lovely Bones a little too lovely in your opinion? Or did Jackson strike the right balance? Let us know below!

The Lovely Bones

Based on the novel of the same name by Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones documents “A life, and everything that came after”. It’s story centres around a girl named Suzie Salmon, who is brutally murdered by a neighbour. From her own vision of heaven, Suzie looks down upon her old life, and tries to help her family solve the mystery of her death. The film has been criticised for “beautifying” the murder, and for taking out major plot points that made the book so famous, but with Peter Jackson on board as Director, it’s sure to be a hit.

Anticipation rating: 3/5

A Closed Book

(click pic for trailer)

A Closed Book stars Tom Conti and Daryl Hannah, and tells the story of a blind man who wishes to write an autobiography. The gent (who apparently has no eyes, rather than just being blind), hires a young woman to write for him in his reclusive mansion, and strange things begin to occur. The unseeing man begins to suspect the woman he hired has an agenda of her own, and a high-tension game of cat and mouse ensues. According to early reviews A Closed Book is an absolute stinker, with ridiculous performances from both Conti and Hannah and has virtually no plot whatsoever. Oh dear. It might be so bad it’s good?

Anticipation rating: 1/5

Crazy Heart

This is the much anticipated country-music-fest starring Jeff Bridges in an Oscar-nominated performance. It tells of Bad Blake, a 57-year-old, alcoholic, former country and western star who’s reduced to playing bars and bowling alleys across the country just to keep the booze flowing. However, when he tentatively begins a relationship with aspiring music journalist Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), he gets a glimpse of a better life, particularly when he bonds with her four-year-old son. All the facts are pointing towards this being a well-directed, subtle and poignant country romp, and it’ll be nice to see Jeff back on terrific form.

Anticipation rating: 4/5

The Last Station

The Last Station is another adaptation, based on a novel by Jay Parini and centres around the last few years of Leo Tolstoy’s life. Christopher Plummer (yes!) stars as Tolstoy, Helen Mirren as his wife and James McAvoy as his newly appointed secretary. The plot follows the dispute about what will happen to Tolstoy’s work once he is dead, with his family and his loyal disciples pulling the great man in different directions. The film earned Mirren a Best Actress Oscar nomination, so it’s probably worth seeing it for that alone, but it will also be great to see Christopher Plummer in such an iconic role.

Anticipation Rating: 4/5

Soloman Kane

(click pic for trailer)

Directed by Michael J Bassett, Solomon Kane is based on the character created by Robert E. Howard and stars James Purefoy as Captain Solomon Kane, a vicious killer of the 16th century who unexpectedly encounters the Devil’s Reaper. He informs Solomon that the Devil has laid claim to his corrupt soul, and to be saved he must renounce his violent ways. But with an evil overlord doing seriously bad stuff in the town nearby, it could be that Solomon must use his dark skills to save others. Word is that this is a refreshingly cliche free bloodthirsty romp, but that it has an ending that rather disappoints in terms of a final showdown. Jury’s out till we see it.

Anticipation Rating: 2/5

The UnLoved

(trailer not available, sad times)

Minimal and tightly written, The Unloved is a directorial debut from Samantha Morton, and is a semi-autobiographical drama based on Morton’s own childhood. Newcomer Molly Windsor stars as 11-year-old Lucy, who is beaten by her father (Robert Carlyle) and is subsequently placed in a care home by her social worker. taken under the wing of bolshy teen Lauren, Lucy soon begins to discover the joys of shoplifting and makeup, but her new life is not all it seems, and she soon finds herself wishing for the love of her family. The Unloved looks to be a subtle and strongly scripted debut from Morton, and with the success of Precious still ringing in the charts, it could be the perfect time to release it.

Anticipation Rating: 4/5

What are you most excited about? Feel like we've missed anything? Let us know below!

It’s 1974, and Susie (Atonement‘s Saoirse Ronan) is living in Pennsylvania with her average American Joe family, consisting of mother (Rachel Weisz), father (Mark Wahlberg), grandmother (Susan Sarandon), sister (Rose McIver) and brother (Christian Thomas Ashdale). When she is raped and murdered by a mentally-disturbed neighbour (Stanley Tucci), Susie ascends to a fantastical, flower-power-esque limbo world between life and death, and watches over her family, who remain on Earth devastated and baffled by the circumstances of her disappearance. While her father struggles to solve the case himself, her sister edges dangerously closer to the killer’s lair, and Susie must guide her family to a resolution while coming to terms herself with the reality of a world without her in it.

Reviews in the US, where the film has already been released, have been mixed, suggesting that Jackson paid too much attention to both the sinister and the supernatural aspects of the narrative, and not enough to the characterisations and the overall message of redemption that made the book so resounding. But regardless of the critics’ opinions, it’s worth going to see this one for yourself.

The Lovely Bones is released Friday 29th January

]]> http://bestforfilm.com/film-news/preview-the-lovely-bones/feed/ 0 http://bestforfilm.com/film-news/bafta-nominations-announced/ http://bestforfilm.com/film-news/bafta-nominations-announced/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:46:26 +0000 Sarah Kendall http://bestforfilm.com/?p=6043 The nominations for BAFTA 2010 are in, and surprisingly, it’s a pretty mixed bag. Despite the much-hyped domination of James Cameron’s Avatar for a million trillion weeks running at the box office, the epic is sharing its lead position of eight nominations with two other films – acclaimed drama The Hurt Locker and 2009′s standout British work An Education.

Only one nomination behind the three leaders is Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 with seven, while Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and the brilliant Up in the Air both have six. This spreading around of the nomination-y goodness should see a large range of films pick up awards, saving us all from one of those Lord of the Rings-esque years where we hear the same theme music played 12 times and the same director get sheepishly up on stage with no-one left to thank but the guy from the sandwich shop down the road.

Up for Best Picture are Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, An Education and hard-hitting drama Precious that’s yet to hit cinemas here in the UK. Surprising to see neither Precious‘s Lee Daniels or Up in the Air‘s Jason Reitman up for Best Director – instead it’s Tarantino and Blomkamp, plus the predictable James Cameron and The Hurt Locker‘s Katherine Bigelow, with An Education‘s Lone Scherfig representing for the Brits.

Considering it is a British awards ceremony, it’s always nice to see some local talent in amongst the big Hollywood blockbusters, particularly in the categories that aren’t specifically for British films. Andy Serkis and Colin Firth have gained well-deserved nominations in the Best Leading Actor category alongside Yanks Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker and George Clooney for Up in the Air. Carey Mulligan’s flying the flag in the Leading Actress category, joined by Gabourey Sidibe for Precious, Audrey Tautou for Coco Before Chanel and Saoirse Ronan for The Lovely Bones.

The awards ceremony will take place on Sunday February 21st. Should make for some interesting winter’s night viewing!

What do you think of this year’s noms? Surprised at Avatar’s relatively quiet appearance? Think there should be more local names up there? Let us know!

]]> http://bestforfilm.com/film-news/bafta-nominations-announced/feed/ 0 http://bestforfilm.com/film-news/thats-sir-peter-to-you/ http://bestforfilm.com/film-news/thats-sir-peter-to-you/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:49:23 +0000 Sarah Kendall http://bestforfilm.com/?p=3831 No doubt Lord of the Rings geeks worldwide already worship him as a god among men, but Peter Jackson will henceforth be known by a more concrete title – he’s been knighted in New Zealand’s latest New Year’s Honours list.

The director has been made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his contribution to film. No doubt the huge boost Lord of the Rings has given to the local tourism and filmmaking industries over in Kiwi-land also didn’t go unnoticed.

The knighthood will be sanctioned by Queen Elizabeth as New Zealand is a member of the Commonwealth, but it’s unclear whether there will actually be an official ceremony for Jackson at Buckingham Palace. Nevertheless, in between preparing for the release of his latest project, The Lovely Bones, and working on getting The Hobbit off the ground, Pete still had time to be chuffed.

“My parents would have been beside themselves with pride at this moment”, he gushed to the Sydney Morning Herald.

“I didn’t think anything would surpass the 2004 Academy Awards, but I was wrong.”

Jackson certainly won’t be resting on his armour any time soon – as well as The Hobbit, he’s also producing film adaptations of Tintin and the Mortal Engines fantasy novels. His remake of World War II film The Dam Busters is also due for release this year.

Feel like indulging in a little Jackson hero worship? Leave us your thoughts on the great man here.

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