Screen Rant » moneyball

‘Dark Knight Rises’ Cinematographer To Make His Directorial Debut

Sandy Schaefer — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:33:28 +0000

Wally Pfister has firmly established himself as a pristine director of photography over the past decade, thanks to his stellar work in film, ranging from high-octane caper flicks (The Italian Job) to small-scale indie dramas (Laurel Canyon) and even productions that (at first) seem to have little intrinsic cinematic value (Moneyball).

Pfister is of course best known for his collaborations with filmmaker Christopher Nolan, which have snagged Pfister numerous Oscar nods for his camerawork on Batman Begins, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight – along with a win for Best Cinematography on Inception.

That’s why it’s big news that Pfister is slated to “go solo” behind the camera and make his feature-length directing debut later this year, after his latest collaboration with Nolan (on a tiny film you may have heard of, called
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SR Oscars 2012 Live Chat

Anthony Ocasio — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:41:13 +0000

Tonight, the who’s who of Hollywood are gathered at the illustrious Kodak Theatre for the 84th Academy Awards.

With Martin Scorsese’s Hugo and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist leading the way with the most Oscar nominations for 2012, this year’s Oscars could very well become a battle of theatrical homages. That being said, Hugo and The Artist are going to have to overcome the competition that Tate Taylor’s The Help has been bringing to this year’s award shows.

Of course, no matter who takes home the coveted Oscar this year, all eyes are on Billy Crystal as he makes his long-awaited return as host of Hollywood’s most prestigious awards show.

Screen Rant will be here live to discuss the 84th Academy Awards as they happen and we’re inviting you to chat with us at 8:00pm EST.

[If you would ...

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Screen Rant Goes to the 2012 BAFTAS (Winners List)

Niall Browne — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:10:19 +0000

Sunday the 12th of February 2012 saw the BAFTA Awards held in London. Screen Rant corespondent Niall Browne was on the Red Carpet to bring you coverage of the event, and fill you in on some behind the scenes action:

My BAFTA journey started with a train ride into central London, on a bitterly frosty morning. After meeting with a selection of members of the press, I was ushered onto the red carpet, having to walk the full length of the crimson material, past a selection of appreciative and adoring fans – yes, admittedly they weren’t there for a group of film bloggers – but were patiently waiting, hoping to catch a glimpse of some acting legends. I got to the press pen, took my position and waited.

Now picture this: the time was approximately 3pm, it ...

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The Oscars: 84th Academy Award Nominations

Sandy Schaefer — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:34:03 +0000

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone, The Hunger Games) jointly announced the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards this morning, on Tuesday January 24th. The actual 2012 Oscar ceremony will take place next month, on February 26th at the Kodak theater – with Billy Crystal serving as host, for the ninth time in his career.

In the aftermath of the 2012 Golden Globes ceremony, Hollywood “in-crowd” types like George Clooney and Meryl Streep are favored to take home the gold for acting, while multiple Globe-winning films such as The Artist and The Descendants are considered heavyweight contenders for the coveted Best Picture Oscar.

Martin Scorsese’s Hugo led the way with eleven nominations, stacking up many a nod in the technical categories, ...

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SR Underground Ep. 21: ’2012 Golden Globes’

Ben Kendrick — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:45:19 +0000

The Screen Rant editorial team is back with episode twenty one of the Screen Rant Underground.

Join host Ben Kendrick as well as fellow SR editors Rob Keyes, Anthony Ocasio, and Kofi Outlaw as we chat about Steven Soderbergh’s male stripper movie Magic Mike, Captain America in The Avengers, as well as discuss the winners and losers from the 2012 Golden Globes.

Screen Rant Underground is available in the iTunes Music Store (where you can subscribe as well as download individual episodes) but if you’re not near your home computer, check out our twenty-first episode in the player below.

Also, Screen Rant Underground is an EXPLICIT podcast. We don’t go out of our way to say controversial things or use explicit language but it does happen – so use discretion when playing the podcast at work and around young, ...

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2012 Golden Globe Awards: Winners List

Anthony Ocasio — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:31:09 +0000

A relatively subdued Ricky Gervais took the stage as host of the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards. In his second year as host, it appears that all of last year’s controversy surrounding Gervais’ hosting must have impacted the funnyman, as all of his jabs appeared a little too nice compared to what was said last year.

For much of the evening, Michael Hazanavicius’ black-and-white silent film homage, The Artist, swept the Golden Globes in the comedy category, coming out on top overall with three wins for Best Original Score, Best Actor and Best Picture. Over on the drama side, Alexander Payne’s The Descendants took home the most awards in the drama category with a Best Actor win for George Clooney and Best Picture.

Other notable wins in the film category were Meryl ...

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2012 Golden Globe Nominations Announced

Sandy Schaefer — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:58:07 +0000

Much-ballyhooed (in a good and bad way) comedian Ricky Gervais will be back to host the Annual Golden Globes Ceremony for a third time in 2012, when the 69th annual iteration of the event takes place.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has officially announced its nominations for the 2012 Golden Globes show – and, just like any year, there are many obvious selections, a few surprises, and more than a handful of choices that are bound to rub moviegoers of all shades the wrong (or, in some cases, the right) way.

Filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius’ black-and-white silent film homage, The Artist, led the way with six Globe nods total; co-writer/helmer Alexander Payne’s The Descendants and director Tate Taylor’s The Help were close behind. That heavily-praised dramedy and popular literary adaptation (respectively) managed to snag five nominations each, putting them one ahead ...

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Brad Pitt Expects To Retire From Acting By 2014

Sandy Schaefer — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:26:40 +0000

It’s been a good year for Brad Pitt, between his well-regarded turn in Tree of Life and lead performance in Moneyball, the latter of which has been generating Oscar buzz for a while now. His future is looking pretty bright too, with parts in upcoming noteworthy titles like Andrew Dominik’s Cogan’s Trade, Marc Forster’s World War Z adaptation, and Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave.

However, the end is apparently drawing near for Pitt the performer, seeing how the man has tentative plans to hang up his acting hat in about three years (from the time of writing this).

Pitt revealed his plans earlier this week on the Australian 60 Minutes, saying that he still enjoys “the producing side” of the filmmaking process ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: November 6th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:00:45 +0000

This week:

Puss in Boots steals the top spot from Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller; Harold and Kumar have a flat 3D debut and Paranormal Activity 3 continues to scare audiences.

Word of the week: Disappointment.

Puss in Boots led the way at the box office – beating the combined star wattage of Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. The animated film dropped just 10% from last week, grossing an impressive $33 million. The Shrek spin-off now has $76.6 million in the kitty, with more on the way as the holiday season approaches.

$24.6 million is quite a disappointment for director Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist, as the film was expected to steal the top spot. The Ben Stiller/Eddie Murphy film has had decent reviews (read ours), but it failed to connect with audiences. The heist caper ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: October 30th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:05:18 +0000

This week:

Puss In Boots animates the box office as the Spanish voiced kitty tops the chart, Paranormal Activity 3 continues to scare audiences and Justin Timberlake’s In Time is out of luck.

Shrek spin-off Puss In Boots (read our review) topped the box office over the weekend with an estimated $33 million take. The Antonio Banderas voiced ‘toon banked roughly 50% less than Shrek Forever After, which brought in $70 million worth of green on its debut last year. That film went on to gross over $258 million at the US box office and $752 million worldwide – pretty good considering that it was the second lowest grossing film in the series (the first film holds that honor). Now, Puss In Boots won’t scale the dizzy heights of the other ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: October 23, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:57:23 +0000

This week:

Paranormal Activity 3 scares away the competition at the box office; it’s not all for one and one for all for The Three Musketeers - and Johnny English may be Reborn but he’s not topping the box office chart.

The Paranormal Activity franchise is the gift that keeps on giving to Paramount – the films are cheap to produce and they make back some serious coin. This latest installment is budgeted at $5 million, but it should gross over ten times that ($54 million) by Monday morning. The first Paranormal Activity cost just $15,000 (yeah – you read that right) and went on to score $107 million ($193 million globally) – while the sequel opened to $40 million on its way to $84 million ($177 million worldwide) from a $3 million budget.

Poised for a run ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: October 16th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 20:38:59 +0000

This week:

Real Steel knocks out the competition to retain the top spot; Footloose shows fancy footwork to come a close second; The Thing leaves audiences cold and The Big Year is a huge disaster.It was a close call, but according to early estimates Hugh Jackman’s Real Steel held on to the top spot during a very weedy weekend. The robot boxing movie dipped around 40% for a weekend take of almost $16.3 million. That figure ups the gross to $51.7 million – a decent number, but not spectacular given the films $100 million-plus budget. It’ll struggle to get near the century mark on its domestic release, so it’ll need strong foreign grosses to be profitable.

Paramount Picture’s Footloose remake (read our review) failed to kick-off its Sunday shoes; ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: October 9th, 2011

Niall Browne — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:22:33 +0000

This week:

Hugh Jackman doesn’t pull any punches as Real Steel opens at number one; George Clooney gets political in The Ides of March and holdover hits Dolphin Tale and Moneyball continue to do well.

Hugh Jackman’s big budget extravaganza Real Steel topped the box office over the weekend, grossing $27.3 million. The debut was in line with studio expectations and a decent way of showing that Hugh Jackman has some star power outside of playing Wolverine in X-Men. Real Steel has had solid reviews (read ours here) and Jackman has been on a strong promotional push, so it might crack $100 million and make some serious money around the globe. The debut of Real Steel is way behind the $85 million of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, although that ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: October 2, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:30:22 +0000

This week’s newcomers failed to make an impact as Moneyball and Dolphin Tale fought it out for the top spot over the weekend.

However, it looks like the fishy tale will capture the number one slot.

The fishy family film should see the weekend out with $14.2 million after declining roughly 25% from its debut last weekend. That would give the film a solid $37.5 million total, with more to come in the future.

Brad Pitt’s latest film, Moneyball, dipped nearly 40% for a weekend take of $12.5 million. The adult orientated drama has grossed over $38 million – not a bad figure considering the subject matter (a turn off for non-sports fans). It should end its run with a respectable number before grossing serious money on DVD if (when?) Pitt gets ...

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SR Underground Ep. 6: ‘Moneyball’

Ben Kendrick — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:33:43 +0000

The Screen Rant editorial team is back with episode six of the Screen Rant Underground.

Join host Ben Kendrick as well as fellow SR editors Rob Keyes, Anthony Ocasio, and special guest/Screen Rant news writer extraordinaire, Sandy Schaefer as we discuss this week’s most popular Movie/TV news and review Moneyball, based on the non-fiction book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis, directed by Bennett Miller and starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman – which opened in theaters this past weekend.

Screen Rant Underground is available in the iTunes Music Store but if you’re not near your home computer, check out our sixth episode in the player below. As mentioned in previous posts, we’re still in the early stages of developing the show – so cut us a little slack as ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: September 25th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:46:57 +0000

The Lion King topped the box office for a second weekend – beating out the likes of Brad Pitt and Taylor Lautner for the privilege. The 3D re-release of the classic Disney ‘toon banked another $22.1 million and upped its gross to over $61.6 million.

Not bad for a film that was first released seventeen years ago.

Brad Pitt used his star power to open Moneyball to $20.6 million. The baseball drama’s launch was the highest opening (non-adjusted) for a baseball themed film, and about average for a Pitt starrer. The well reviewed Moneyball (read our review here) which co-stars Jonah Hill, was written by heavy-hitters Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian. It went through a troubled production, with director Steven Soderbergh being dropped from the film and replaced by ...

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‘Moneyball’ Review

Ben Kendrick — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:00:50 +0000

Screen Rant’s Ben Kendrick reviews Moneyball

Moviegoers can be pretty skeptical of sports films – especially films about a real-life team’s championship bid. Often, these movies follow a standard, and predictable, format that fails to capitalize on behind-the-scenes drama without resorting to cringe-inducing melodrama.

However, Moneyball isn’t just another Hollywood sports story adaptation – especially considering Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin rewrote the film’s script followed by Steven Zaillian (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Moneyball‘s director Bennett Miller is no slouch either – responsible for helming the critically acclaimed, true-life-story to film, Capote. Interest in Moneyball, among non-sports types, was furthered by the casting of Brad Pitt (who continues to rack up one impressive dramatic role after another) and interestingly, Jonah Hill – who aside from a few turns in low-profile ...

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‘Moneyball’ UK Trailer Plays the Odds & Comes Out A Winner

Sandy Schaefer — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:19:07 +0000

A movie’s success or failure depends on it having (or not having) the right combination of acting, writing, directing, and technical talent involved. Hence why there’s an interesting parallel between the art of filmmaking and Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane’s approach to assembling a winning baseball team in the true-story drama, Moneyball.

The domestic Moneyball trailer painted the film as being an intelligent-but-unusual underdog sports tale featuring an eclectic cast at the top of their game (no pun intended) and nice direction by Oscar-nominee Bennett Miller (Capote). Does the UK trailer suggest otherwise?

Thankfully, the answer is “no.” Moneyball may not be a conventional real-life drama about the formation of a successful sports team, but it certainly looks like an intelligent one. Credit should definitely be given to the Oscar-winning screenwriters who worked on the script ...

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‘Moneyball’ Trailer: An Unusual Underdog Sports Story

Sandy Schaefer — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:19:26 +0000

The concept of assembling a winning baseball team based on empirical evidence might not seem so revolutionary today, but it certainly was when the Oakland Athletics did it back in 2002 – a story that will be dramatized in this fall’s unorthodox underdog sports tale, Moneyball.

An official trailer has been released for Moneyball, which hints at an intelligent and thoughtful examination of how A’s general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) used computer-generated analysis to assemble a winning baseball team.

Moneyball is based on Michael M. Lewis’ 2003 non-fiction book, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”. It focuses on Beane’s successful attempt to put together a strong team – while being constricted by a relatively small budget – by selecting players based on more objective criteria (ex. on-base and slugging percentages) rather than ...

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First Looks: James Franco in 127 Hours & Philip Seymour Hoffman in Moneyball

Roth Cornet — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 10:36:38 +0000

Today we’ve got first looks of Philip Seymour Hall in the baseball movie Moneyball and James Franco in the mountaineering dramatization 127 Hours.

The images appeared online yesterday and give us an early glimpse at the two eagerly-anticipated dramas.

James Franco and Danny Boyle are a team nearly impossible for the unabashed movie geek in me to resist. For a moment allow me to drop the professional distance and tell you that I want to make love to Danny Boyle and give birth to incredible short films. And before you say anything – allow me to correct you – yes, that is the way it works.

I have followed the director’s career since Shallow Grave left me simultaneously stunned and electrified. When it comes ...

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