Whether it’s the Spaghetti Western inspired Casa De Mi Padre or the somber drama Smashed, Nick Offerman usually manages to steal the show. He and fellow character Christopher McDonald (Quiz Show, Happy Gilmore) are part of the cast for Believe Me, a comedy which opens September 26.
The story centers on a college student named Sam (Alex Russell of Chronicle fame) who, along with several friends, creates a fake charity to embezzle money and pay for their educational expenses. Sam’s quest for dirty money hits a snag when he falls in love with his fake charity’s tour manager Callie (Johanna Braddy). During the tour’s final night, he must decide whether to come clean with his shady operation or stay quiet and keep his share of the dough.
The Believe Me trailer is below, and Headline Features is coordinating a publicity outreach campaign where movie fans can take part in the project’s marketing process. Check out the trailer below, and if you want to see how to get involved and become part of Believe Me’s street team, check out the movie’s official website.
Believe Me also stars Max Adler (the closeted bully from Glee), Zachary Knighton (Happy Endings), and hip hop artist Lecrae.
If you want to pre-order the Blu-ray, DVD, or even purchase an “F Satan” T-Shirt, click on the following link.
I grew up a huge Western fan, so my early admiration of filmmakers Anthony Mann (Winchester’ 73, Bend of the River), John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven) and John Ford (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Searchers) was inevitable. It’s with a tinge of embarrassment that director Delmer Daves didn’t enter my narrow minded world well into my forties. I have a lot of catching up to do, but thanks to Warner Archive my mission has started with Daves’ excellent feature Drum Beat.
Since it’s a CinemaScope feature, expect a healthy share of wide vistas and beautiful compositions, and Daves (who also penned the film) gives his story ample room to breathe. Alan Ladd, best known as the sentimental and tough loner from Shane, stars as Johnny Mackay, a brave fighter who’s sent to Oregon to broker a peace deal with Modoc Indian chief Captain Jack (Charles Bronson in a scene stealing performance).
Although Johnny’s family was massacred by Indians, his vengeful nature is behind him, as President Grant (Hayden Rorke) orders Johnny to keep the mission diplomatic. Captain Jack’s motivations are purely centered on warfare and expanding his tribe’s influence over the lands. Marisa Pavan is Toby, the Indian woman in love with Johnny, with Audrey Dalton starring as Nancy, a determined lady who takes over her uncle’s homestead after he’s killed by Indians.
Credit goes to Daves for penning and directing a first rate story that was inspired by the Modoc War of 1872-3. He refuses to pull on sentimental heart strings, but instead delivers a savage picture on how the West was won. Peaceful homesteaders as well as Indians are victims to this conflict, and Mackay understands that unless peace is achieved, both sides will suffer the consequences.
Bronson, whose stoic nature was best served as Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West, does inspired work as Captain Jack, a bellicose leader who will kill anyone in his path. Captain Jack and Mackay also have a history together, and their uneasy friendship culminates into a memorable showdown at an all too active river.
Drum Beat starring Alan Ladd and Charles Bronson (Warner Archive)
Pavan, who is actress Pier Angeli’s twin sister, is also memorable as the woman who only has eyes for Johnny, even if it threatens her relationship with the tribe. Versatile character actor Elisha Cook Jr. co-stars as a greedy gunrunner whose business relationship with the Modocs ends on a karmic note.
Even the film’s minor characters are given full attention in Daves’ story, thus infusing Drum Beat with a gripping storyline that is a cut above the average B-movie Western. Since Daves has an estimated 50 screenplay credits, crafting a compelling tale is definitely one of his skill sets.
Drum Beat was the first feature produced by Alan Ladd’s Jaguar Productions, and it’s a Western that kept me glued to the screen for 107 minutes. This is a perfect introduction to Delmer Daves’ work, and since his distinguished career stems from his work as a director and screenwriter, it’s a shame that his name is only recognizable to diehard film buffs.
Drum Beat is a Manufactured on Demand DVD, so if you want to order this title, please go to the Warner Archive site.
Nicolas Cage stars in Left Behind, a film based on the bestselling 1995 novel of the same name. The story centers on pilot Ray Steele (Cage) whose jet plane is flying the skies when the Rapture takes place. Yahoo! Movies premiered the trailer today, and you’ll be able to check out the clip at the end of this post.
Whether or not you’re a huge fan of Cage, it’s hard to deny he’s starred in his share of classics (Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, Moonstruck, Adaptation). His body of work may seem all over the place (I love his ability to easily move from project to project), but there is a method to the madness. During the Joe press conference (it’s one of Cage’s finest performances, if you haven’t checked it out), he explained why, when it comes to choosing movie roles, he beats to the sound of his own drummer:
“If you look carefully at my filmography, in between my adventure films, there have been a Bad Lieutenantor a World Trade Centeror a Lord of War or a Matchstick Men. I want to keep it eclectic. I see myself as a student. I would never consider myself as a master or a maestro and if you take the path of the student, that means you have to try a little bit of everything in the hopes that you’re going to learn something or strike some kind of new note or new sound or expression in the process. I’m not going for grades – I’m going for an education.”
To hear the full audio of Nicolas Cage talking about his acting process, check out the media bar below:
Left Behind, co-starring Chad Michael Murray and Cassi Thomson, opens October 3.
Opening August 15, The Giver centers on a seemingly halcyon society where violence and crime has been erased. The citizens’ memories of their past have also vanished, however, and when a young prodigy named Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) discovers that the government is restricting the individual freedoms of its people, he goes on a quest to find a newer way to live. Jeff Bridges is the titular character, a sage mentor who teaches Jonas about how the beauties and horrors of humanity’s past.
Brenthon Thwaites in ‘The Giver’ (Weinstein Films)
For Thwaites, having a more relaxed yet inquisitive approach to acting was a lesson he learned (or maybe reaffirmed) from his work with Jeff Bridges. “I guess every movie has its uniqueness,” says Thwaites, who was recently seen in the first rate sci-fi feature The Signal. “That’s the wonderful thing about being an actor. . . every job is kind of a different thing. Every movie is its own wild beast that you have to kind of roll with it and do the best you can and try to enjoy it along the way.”
One of Thwaites’ more endearing aspects is his sense of humor, and during the press conference he was asked about working with the baby twins on The Giver. In his answer, Thwaites gave a ribbing to fellow Aussie Phillip Noyce, the stoic and talented director behind The Giver.
Click on the audio link to hear Thwaites joke around about his bond with the babies, with Noyce chiming in with a rather dry response.
Noyce’s impressive body of work includes Salt, Patriot Games, The Quiet American, and Catch a Fire. Along with The Giver and The Signal, Thwaites was also starred in Oculus and Maleficent.
The new studio Gloomywood have released a teaser trailer for their retro survival game 2Dark. Credit the developers for not holding back on the storyline, as gamers will play a father who must save his children and their friends from a serial killer. One of the Gloomywood developers behind the game is French designer and Alone in the Dark mastermind Frederick Raynal.
“With Alone in the Dark, I worked first on the game technology thinking of what it could bring to the game mechanics, and that’s what created the gameplay and set the track for story. I am rather confident to my methods,” said Raynal. “For 2Dark, I started tinkering by defining the graphical rendering I want. Now, as it was never done, I am creating the necessary tools…”
To read about Raynal’s development of the these tools, check out the studio’s blog. The team will be available at Gamescon from August-15 to answer questions about the game, which fellow Gloomywood member Thierry Platon describes as an “uncompromising” experience.
The teaser is intentionally creepy, and anything that involves the endangerment of children certainly ups the dramatic stakes. Check out the vid below and tell us what you think!
Now playing in select theaters, Calvary features Brendan Gleeson as Father James, a man of the cloth who is the target of one of the members of his parish. Father James has one week to get his life in order and find the person who wants him dead, and during his journey his resolve and faith strengthens his spirit.
Whether he’s playing Winston Churchill (Into the Storm) or a rueful hitman (InBruges), Gleeson brings a hard earned sense of realism to his characters. “I can empathize with characters when I’m reading a script to the extent where I can feel impact, or I can feel the lack of it,” says Gleeson, who previously worked with McDonagh in The Guard. “It’s been an important thing in my arsenal. I’ve been able to distinguish pretty well on what’s a good script and what isn’t.”
Brendan Gleeson as “Father James” in CALVARY. Photo by Jonathon Hession.
Once Gleeson reads the script, an important element of building a character has already started. “You’ve already read the thing, in possibly kind of a voice in your head,” he adds. “That’s really the beginning of whatever the character is, and then you do what you need to.”
Click on the audio link below to hear Brendan Gleeson talk about his acting process and why mastering accents, as fellow actor John Hurt believes has to be part of one’s DNA (Gleeson also references his work as Winston Churchill in Into The Stormin the cilp).
Even though they’ve headlined the 2014 Vans Warped Tour, Yellowcard aren’t taking a huge break anytime soon. “It is with great amounts of epicness that we would like to announce our fall US tour,” said the band in a statement. “We will be co-headlining with our buds Memphis May Fire. The tour will take us across the States from October 16th until November 16th.”
Their trek, which is in support of their upcoming album Lift A Sail, begins in Las Vegas (October 16, House of Blues). VIP Meet and Greet packages, as well as pre-sale tickets, are on sale starting Tuesday, August 5th (it’s available through August 7th).
Yellowcard’s tour dates are listed below:
10/16 – Las Vegas, Nev. — House Of Blues
10/17 – San Diego, Calif. — The North Park Theatre
10/18 – Anaheim, Calif. — House Of Blues
10/19 – Tempe, Ariz. — The Marquee
10/21 – Dallas, Texas — House Of Blues
10/22 – San Antonio, Texas — Backstage Live San Antonio
10/23 – Houston, Texas — House Of Blues
10/25 – Orlando, Fla. — Hard Rock Cafe / Hard Rock Live
10/26 – Tampa, Fla. — The Ritz Ybor
10/28 – Atlanta, Ga. — The Masquerade
10/29 – Charlotte, N.C. — Amos’ Southend
10/30 – Baltimore, Md. — Baltimore Soundstage
11/2 – New York, N.Y. — Best Buy Theater
11/3 – Philadelphia, Pa. — Electric Factory
11/4 – Boston, Mass. — House Of Blues Boston
11/6 – Toronto, ON — Phoenix Concert Theatre
11/7 – Pontiac, Mich. — The Crofoot
11/8 – Chicago, Ill. — Concord Music Hall
11/9 – Minneapolis, Minn. — Mill City Nights
11/11 – Denver, Colo. — Summit Music Hall
11/12 – Salt Lake City, Utah — The Complex
11/14 – Reno, Nev. — Knitting Factory Concert House
11/15 – Los Angeles, Calif. — Club Nokia
11/16 – San Francisco, Calif. — The Regency Ballroom
For more Yellowcard info, check out their official website. The video below has the group performing the track “Awakening” from their 2012 album Southern Air.
Filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who’s Chair of the Film Foundation, released a statement regarding Kodak’s decision to continue producing film stock. Although most filmmakers have moved to the digital format, many directors such as Scorsese, Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins), Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) and Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master) have voiced their support of shooting their movies on film.
“Film offers a richer visual palette than HD,” said Scorsese. Check out the full statement below:
“We have many names for what we do – cinema, movies, motion pictures. And…film. We’re called directors, but more often we’re called filmmakers. Filmmakers. I’m not suggesting that we ignore the obvious: HD isn’t coming, it’s here. The advantages are numerous: the cameras are lighter, it’s much easier to shoot at night, we have many more means at our disposal for altering and perfecting our images. And, the cameras are more affordable: films really can be made now for very little money. Even those of us still shooting on film finish in HD, and our movies are projected in HD. So, we could easily agree that the future is here, that film is cumbersome and imperfect and difficult to transport and prone to wear and decay, and that it’s time to forget the past and say goodbye – really, that could be easily done. Too easily.
It seems like we’re always being reminded that film is, after all, a business. But film is also an art form, and young people who are driven to make films should have access to the tools and materials that were the building blocks of that art form. Would anyone dream of telling young artists to throw away their paints and canvases because iPads are so much easier to carry? Of course not. In the history of motion pictures, only a minuscule percentage of the works comprising our art form was not shot on film. Everything we do in HD is an effort to recreate the look of film. Film, even now, offers a richer visual palette than HD. And, we have to remember that film is still the best and only time-proven way to preserve movies. We have no assurance that digital informaton will last, but we know that film will, if properly stored and cared for.
Our industry – our filmmakers – rallied behind Kodak because we knew that we couldn’t afford to lose them, the way we’ve lost so many other film stocks. This news is a positive step towards preserving film, the art form we love.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt enters Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s universe with Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. It’s a plum role for the actor, as he plays a can’t lose gambler who strides into Sin City with the sole purpose of embarrassing Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). Unfortunately for Johnny, Roark has the town on a string, and his powerful grip may be too much for our young hero to handle.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (Weinstein Company)
To deliver an effective performance with Sin City’s black and white world, one must carry a great deal of imagination. Green screen is their basic canvas, but for Gordon-Levitt that wasn’t a huge problem. “I actually loved working in the green environment,” said the actor. “And just fully embracing an abandonment of realism.”
To hear Joseph Gordon-Levitt talk about the joys of working with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, click on the media bar below:
Will Johnny’s luck run out during his confrontation with Roark, or does he hit the revenge jackpot? Find out when Sin City: A Dame To Kill For hits theaters August 22.
One aspect behind the success of entrepreneur/businessman Marcus Lemonis lies in his ability to push through failure and face the next challenge. Complacency also doesn’t have any kind of room for progress in Lemonis’ business life, as witnessed by his recent investment in the struggling cupcake business Crumbs bakery.
“To me, the fundamentals are all the same,” said Lemonis, who was promoting his popular CNBC show The Profit earlier this month. “So whether the business is small or medium or large, it’s a people, process, product (equation) – I’ve been consistent with that from the beginning.”
During the interview, I asked the CEO of Camping World and Good Sam Enterprises if his ability to overcome and not be paralyzed by failure served as one of his strengths. “I think anybody that’s an entrepreneur, deep down, really deep down in their soul, has fear of failure – what will people say (or) what will people think,” he adds. “It’s a hard challenge.”
Lemonis gives his full answer in the following video below:
The Profit returns October 14 on CNBC.
**Also – here’s a recent Tweet Lemonis sent our Twitter account regarding the concept of “failure.”
@Deepestdreaming fear isn't a thing it's a state of mind. That state lives in all of us. Just interesting to see who admits it. Hard for me
