tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

2009 is getting to be an exciting year for young actors! I would certainly include Paul Dano as one of the most exciting young actors today and there are enough reasons to say, he's here to stay in the next years to come. After an impressive appearance opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, the latest role where Dano got the chance to showcase his amazing talents is in writer-director Matt Aselton's debut Gigantic.

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Michael Ordoña @ The LA Times did an interview with the young actor and Dano explained more about why such a title for a movie (among other interesting info):

That the thoughtful and articulate Dano has trouble pinning down the movie he executive produced is telling of director and co-writer Matt Aselton's debut. It's firmly rooted in reality but has important moments of surreality that keep the experience off a stable axis.

"I liked the element of mystery. I think some people won't; they'll want it explained," says Dano. "I like it that Brian has something going on that not everyone knows about, and that you have to figure him out a little bit."

The character is deceptively complex. At first blush, he might seem the sort of passive figure who often passes for a protagonist, someone to whom things happen. But as the actor points out, there's more to his behavior. [ read more ]

Natalie Portman is not only a talented actress, she is also known as an activist and with the launch of a website (together with cofounder/CEO Christine Aylward) named MakingOf, she may also be known as an innovator of sorts... Here's what she said about the rationale behind the site:

I always wondered why there isn't a Web site that encapsulated the experience of visiting a friend on a movie set," said Portman. "Our site is supposed to give access to people who don't have a friend they can visit." And that means exclusive behind-the-scenes content and some serious insight into what all the different people who work on a movie do. "There are so many people who contribute in ways that aren't highlighted," she said. "Jobs that people don't even know about.

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I think without having to write an intro, this short bio encapsulates her work as an actress: Natalie Portman began acting at the young age of 11 and has since then starred in more than 25 films. Titles include Star Wars: Episodes I, II, and III, Garden State, Closer, V for Vendetta, and The Other Boleyn Girl. Portman won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and earned an Academy Award nomination for her role in Closer. She recently made her writing and directorial debut with a short film for the anthology New York, I Love You and next wrote and directed the short film, Eve, starring Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazzara and Olivia Thirlby, which debuted at the 2008 Venice Film Festival. Portman also recently formed a production company, Handsomecharlie Films and will soon be seen in Brothers, directed by Jim Sheridan.

The best young talents from European cinema are being celebrated via the annual European Shooting stars program. This year, it's no surprise to see Germany selecting the young David Kross, who made such an impression acting opposite Kate Winslet in award-winning dramatic-thriller The Reader. 

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But his role in The Reader is not the only factor that gave Kross the title. Aside from The Reader, Kross also played one of the leads in Marco Kreuzpaintner's latest film, Krabat.

With the anticipation for the release of 500 days of Summer building up, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is definitely making the biggest buzz this 2009! Of course, his role in G.I. Joe is perhaps the one getting the biggest buzz. Then there is the news (via Entertainment Weekly) that he's been cast alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page and Cillian Murphy in the next Christopher Nolan film (entitled Inception).

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I was having some difficulties accepting the notion that perhaps Joseph Gordon-Levitt might have surpassed his performances in Brick and Mysterious Skin via 500 Days of Summer. But any second thoughts were erased upon watching Marc Webb's initial foray into filmmaking...

Read my Lips! 
Londoner with a flair for fashion and art is brilliant and unassuming, take a closer look at Eddie Redmayne!

Right this minute, Eddie Redmayne is one of the most exciting emerging actors and he's not keen on playing the usual boy-next-door roles. In fact, he prefers them dark and nasty. Reserve your sugary, no-brainers for someone else, Redmayne wants something entirely different.

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Excellent Performance in Savage Grace! You ought to see this movie if only to confirm if Redmayne is truly a talented actor! The last we heard of Savage Grace, some critics had trashed the flick already, though most of them praised the performances of the leads, especially Julianne Moore and this guy! In this adaptation of the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Natalie Robbins and Steven ML Aronson, Redmayne plays the gay son of Barbara Daly (Moore), a young woman who married someone beyond her social class, the heir of a very rich family.

He was also reported to have said something cool about the female lead of Twilight:

"and the legendary Kristen Stewart."

This says a lot! Apparently, he likes Kristen (to be seen next in New Moon of the Twilight saga with another awesome young talent, Robert Pattinson). He has acted alongside Kristen in The Yellow Handkerchief, so apparently he knows the young actress. Did we fail to mention Ellen Page? He likes her too!

Let's get to know him better as we look closely at his movies [ with a comprehensive video clips of some of his best! ]

tMF initiated two blitzes! Well, I find it funny (and endearing) how the term 'Blitz' was used when the filmmakers of How To Be made mention of our promo site at the recent Deland screening where the award-winning film participated. Thanks to Jen, who contributed so much to both the HTB and LA blitzes, there is a video that included the mention. Jen recently launched RobPattinson.com - yet another Pattinson fansite but she kept it quite competitive, fun and most of all, updated with all Rob-related news.

Oh yeah, there is a new trailer for How To Be! While Paul Morrison's Little Ashes is distributed by Regent Releasing, Oliver and Justin, the filmmakers of How To Be, recently told me, the movie might become part of IFC's latest releases, and indeed How To Be is now part of IFC's roster. Just watch it!

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Two new Blitzes coming up??? You heard me!

"Next week I'll be in Toronto. I'm still trying to get my head around it. I just came back from New York actually where I was doing an independent film. I've gone from one side of the world to the other. My head is going crazy", he says. "I woke up this morning and said ‘Where am I?' I looked out the window and saw the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and I'm like ‘Wow! How did I end up in Australia?' Have you ever seen that film Jumper? It's like I'm in Jumper!"

That's young British actor Aaron Johnson describing the turn of events as he goes globetrotting in the fulfillment of his upcoming movie projects.

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 We're quite excited about the acting career of this charming young British talent- with two high-profile projects (as the young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy and opposite Nicholas Cage in Kick-Ass) soon to hit the big screen, Johnson is definitely the one to watch!

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds
Director: Greg Motolla
Release Date: April 3, 2009 (wide)
Running Time: 107 min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: Miramax Films

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The Sundance darling of 2009 was clearly decided before it even started. People have been waiting for director Greg Mottola’s followup to Superbad for quite a while now, and Adventureland is it. Although the film shouldn’t have been purchased before the festival (or at least not before the P.I. screenings), trailers for Adventureland were played nationwide before Doubt. It’s crap like this that give all those naysayers ammo when they bitch about Sundance being so commercial these days. Blah blah blah.