It was a busy week at The Playlist, with announcements for “Man Of Steel” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” a few big trailer premieres and, our biggest thrill, the announcement of the Cannes ’11 lineup. We decided to cull together the ten news stories this week that generated the heaviest debate, so if you missed anything, feel free to click away.
-Oliver Lyttleton brought us the week’s biggest news for film fans, the announcement of the Cannes Film Festival lineup. Among the highlights were Terrence Malick‘s “Tree Of Life,” Nicolas Winding Refn‘s “Drive” and Lars Von Trier‘s “Melancholia.” With three more competition slots left open, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear more big names.
-Kevin Jagernauth helped us debut the very first shots of Josh Brolin in the upcoming shitstorm that will be “Men In Black 3D.” On the bright side, he looks a lot like a young Tommy Lee Jones, who he is meant to be playing. Then again, yeah, fuck this movie with a rusty spoon.
-Kevin also helped announce three minor names appearing in one of 2012’s most buzzed-about movies, “The Dark Knight Rises.” Daniel Sunjata, Diego Klattenhoff and Burn Gorman will appear in the film, possibly to say lines like, “Look, out!” or “What’s that?” or something to the dramatic affect of, “He’s gonna make mincemeat out of ALL OF US!”
-In a must-see feature, the Playlist took a look at rewarding horror sequels, a feature inspired by the release of “Scream 4.” Friday also saw the day we went live with a tribute to the great Sidney Lumet, with a lengthy retrospective of his work. Check it out, and Netflix as many as you can.
-Regular L.A. corespondent Jeff Otto provided a clear-headed look at “Atlas Shrugged: Part One” in our most-discussed review of the week. Despite his generous words for the philosophy of Ayn Rand, he called the movie “an aimless, amateurish and, more to the point, stone cold boring piece of drivel,” awarding the film a rare Playlist “F.”
-You can guarantee that if we mention anyone from “Twilight,” we draw maximum traffic. No surprise then, that when Kevin Jagernauth dished on the new trailer for Taylor Lautner actioner “Abduction,” our comment section was out in full force. Surprised Kevin didn’t mention the perplexing use of the Sleigh Bells in the trailer.
-Oliver Lyttleton brought us our first look at the trailer to “Rise Of The Planet of The Apes.” He compared the action sequences to “The Happening,” which seems about right. We would add more, but it’s a Fox tentpole release. You know what to expect.
-Kevin Jagernauth assisted with the announcement that Michael Shannon was to be the new Zod in “Man Of Steel,” a title that won’t matter considering everyone is just going to say, “One for Superman, please.” Also worth checking out: Shannon’s memorable, folksy account of how he got the role.
-Edward Davis took a close-up look at what names and titles were missing from the loaded Sundance lineup. Among those who aren’t represented are David Cronenberg, Wong Kar-Wai, Brilliante Mendoza, Alexander Payne, Micheal Haneke and Yorgos Lanthimos. Now those are some filmmakers who would make a helluva film festival on their own. The comments section also offered up Lou Ye, Christophe Honore and Bela Tarr.
-Surprisingly, our most popular story of the week revolved around actress Anna Faris, revolving around comments she made regarding past films “Observe And Report” and “My Super Ex-Girlfriend.” Without tearing the film down, Faris regretted the taboos broken during what many considered a rape scene in “Observe And Report,” though she was ready to bury the memory of “Ex-Girlfriend,” which is convenient, since we did that years ago. The comments section seemed mostly dedicated to arguing with our writer about the content of “Observe And Report,” a movie we will hopefully be debating another decade from now.