The Descendants (2011)

‘The Descendants’ Star Shailene Woodley Will Try to Tame a Bad Boy in ‘The Spectacular Now’

George Clooney may have earned a Best Actor nomination for his work in last year’s The Descendants, but the truly eye-opening performance in that film came not from the king of Hollywood, but from the little known actress playing his teenage daughter. Simply put, Shailene Woodley was the bee's knees in that film. Her work fleshed out a role that would have played like a cliché of teenage rebellion in most other hands, and she’s going to have quite a few opportunities coming her way in the upcoming year. It’s newsworthy, then, that Variety has word on what her next job is going to be. According to the trade, the actress is attached to star in Smashed (which was reviewed by Allison Loring here) director James Ponsoldt’s next film, which is an adaptation of the Tim Tharp novel &#8220The Spectacular Now.&#8221 Amazon describes the book as such: “Sutter Keely. He’s the guy you want at yo (Read More)

Film School Rejects

Toni Collette Headed Way, Way Back

Steve Carell also ready to travel Its been six years since Toni Collette and Steve Carell shared the screen in Little Miss Sunshine , but Oscar-winning writers Jim Rash and Nat Faxon look set to reunite them for directorial debut The Way, Way Back . Rash and Faxon &ndash who scored the golden baldie this year for co-writing The Descendants with Alexander Payne &ndash have set up the film about a teen boy who struggles through a summer holiday while dealing with a bored, inattentive mother (Collette) and a drinking, drugging and cheating stepfather (Carell, in a role that sounds like itll be a real change from his usual loveable schlubs). The two are joining a cast that already includes Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell and Annasophia Robb, with the co-directors set to kick off production this summer thanks to their scripts appearance on the 2010 Black List. They also have an u (Read More)

Empire Online

Mike Jones To Write ‘Second Act’ For Fox Searchlight

EXCLUSIVE: Mike Jones will write Second Act based on a story by Teddy Grennan. Alexander Payne, Jim Burke and Jim Taylor’s Ad Hominem will produce the project, which is being kept under wraps. David Greenbaum will oversee Second Act for Fox Searchlight. Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash recently received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants. Jones is currently writing Marco Polo at Warners for Erwin Stoff. His spec In The Event Of A Moon Disaster was picked up by FilmNation and made the 2011 Black List. FilmNation is currently out to directors for the project. Moon Disaster re-imagines the first moon mission, in which disaster strikes and the astronauts find themselves up against insurmountable odds. Jones, Payne and Burke are represented by CAA. Jones is also represented by Gotham Group and attorney Darren Trattner at Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer Austen Mandelbaum Morris & Klein.

Flick Daily,

Blu-ray Review: Privilege, Grief, Anger, and THE DESCENDANTS

George Clooney begins the family drama The Descendants by enumerating the many ways that life in Hawaii isn't the paradise that us folks on the mainland might presume it to be. Intercut with images of the homeless and the miserable in the streets of the island state, set to ukelele music, that defensive position for the drama that's about to follow almost seems to be director and co-screenwriter Alexander Payne (adapting a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings) preemptively warning us, the viewers, that for real, we should really, really be concerned about the lives of these monied, sad white people in Hawaii. And whether by design or by accident, this might leave you completely unprepared for the smart, funny, and often "true" story at the...

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