Director Steven Soderbergh seems determined to gather incredible lists of actors for his upcoming features. Lately, all the news has been about his KNOCKOUT, which so far has a cast list that includes Dennis Quaid, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum, Bill Paxton, and Ewan McGregor, along with reported cast members Antonio Banderas and Michael Angarano.

Not content to let the rest of Hollywood rest on its laurels, Soderbergh has now cast a still more impressive cast for his CONTAGION – including Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, and Jude Law. (more…)

A new Noah Baumbach film, featuring a score by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy? I’d tell you to call up Fandango and get me some tickets ASAP, but I’ve already done that. We here at Gordon and the Whale dot com are pretty excited for the upcoming release of GREENBERG, so any information is choice – but full details on Murphy’s soundtrack, featuring no less than eleven new solos, and one brand-new LCD joint? That’s just too much good stuff. Murphy has said that this new soundtrack work “sounds NOTHING like LCD, really. It’s made to fit the movie, not be ‘my record.’” Interesting.

Hit the jump to see the full track listing, which also includes songs by Nite Jewel, Albert Hammond, Galaxie 500, the Sonics, and Duran Duran. (more…)

If there is one thing that I love just as much as film, it’s music. So seeing that one of my favorite bands is going to be scoring the new film from one of my favorite filmmakers has me more than happy. 

According to Prefix, the French band Phoenix is currently working on the score to Sofia Coppola’s next film, SOMEWHERE.  Here’s what the band’s face, Thomas Mars, had to say about the project: (more…)

Last week, the popular classic, foreign, and art house film distribution company the Criterion Collection announced that they will be losing rights to a several StudioCanal films. Criterion, a collector’s favorite for their dedication to cinephiles everywhere, has let customers in on the news early in order to allow their followers time to grab any of these films before they go out of print. In addition, they’ve started a sale which allows fans to purchase these films for even cheaper than before by offering a $5 discount until these titles run out of stock.

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Mickey Rourke thinks Megan Fox is one fine model turned actress despite what that the critics say about her acting in movies like TRANSFORMERS and JENNIFER’S BODY. 

The two teamed up on the film PASSION PLAY, where Fox plays a fallen angel who becomes involved with a down on his luck trumpet player (Rourke), while being exploited as a carnival geek by a gangster.  

Rourke seems to believe that Fox is one of the most promising young movie stars in Hollywood today.  High praise from the man whose career is seeing a renaissance since his Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role nominated performance in last year’s THE WRESTLER. (more…)

According to LatinoReview, Patrick Melton announced on a UK Radio show that there is an increasing likelihood that the seventh installment in the SAW franchise will be the last. Melton, who helped write the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh SAW films claims that there is serious debate surrounding the future of the franchise. He goes on to say that he has “a very strong feeling its going to end with Saw VII.”

Why would Lionsgate and the other companies involved seek to end the franchise when it has been so overwhelmingly successful? Well, first of all SAW’s latest run at the box office brought in only half of SAW V’s take. Critics and analysts cite two major causes of the film’s disappointing profit, with the first being franchise fatigue. Every year since 2004 has seen another installment in the franchise and because of this long run in cinemas, audiences might be seeking something new and different. The other cause of SAW’s dwindling box office returns is the competition it faced from the latest newcomer to the horror genre- PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. This box office giant brought in more than four times the box office gross than SAW VI, and did so on a fraction of the budget. (more…)

Like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly and emerging from its cocoon, Fritz Lang’s popular cinema classic METROPOLIS is about to be re-released to the public with some significant changes.  The original version of METROPOLIS has been chipped away at over time and now, with the help of Buenos Aires of all places, the original print has been found and is set to be revealed to the public on February 12^th. The missing footage is rumored to contain valuable pieces of information that are crucial to the films overall understanding. (more…)

Etan Cohen has become somewhat of a hotshot in Hollywood in the past couple of years. After writing IDIOCRACY and TROPIC THUNDER, he has made a name for himself in the comedy genre. Now it looks as though he is moving through the natural progression, and will direct a feature film. (more…)

No matter how much you may or may not love his films, there’s one thing you can’t deny when talking about Quentin Tarantino–that’s he’s one of the most knowledgeable and bright filmmakers working today.

With the news that he wants to quit filmmaking someday to begin a career in writing books on cinema, it makes me sad that he will one day not put his genius to celluloid, but I’m also excited for stories like the ones he recently told at the Directing Panel in Santa Barbara this weekend. (more…)

Shock Till You Drop received news today that Tom Felton, who plays bully Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, has been cast in the supernatural thriller THE APPARITION. THE APPARITION is being produced by Joel Silver, Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman (the latter two make up the team behind THE STRANGERS). (more…)

Blu-ray Rating: 5/10

This review will focus on the Blu-ray release. If you want a review of the film, click HERE, and your need will be met.

One of the ten best films of the year (according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) is A SERIOUS MAN. The film is nominated for Best Picture, the famous (or for many, infamous) category that grew from five to ten nominations this year. It is also one of the ten best films of the year according to Rusty Gordon (a personal hero of mine), so now you know it is legitimately great even if that first sentence did nothing for you. The A SERIOUS MAN Blu-ray, on the other hand, finishes far behind the quality of the film, officially clocking in at disappointing. (more…)

Shailene Woodley of TV’s “The Secret Life of an American Teenager” has been cast in Alexander Payne’s latest film, THE DESCENDANTS. George Clooney is also set to star as a father who “finds his life at a crossroads after the death of his wife, and decides to take a trip with his daughters to find the man she was having an affair with.”

Woodley will be playing Clooney’s eldest daughter. Early script reviews state that THE DESCENDANTS plays to Payne’s strengths as a director and will most likely get Oscar attention come this time next year. Payne, who has directed such hits as ABOUT SCHMIDT and SIDEWAYS, is most likely pulling for Woodley to be his breakout star. (more…)

Here we go with some more FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA information. It seems like every single day we are getting some new tidbit of info about the film. This time it’s plot related instead of casting, which is most of the info we’ve been getting lately, directly from the mouth of the film’s director Joe Johnston. (more…)

Not to be confused with THE GHOST RIDER reboot, THE GHOST WRITER follows “a man (Ewan McGregor) hired to ghost write the memoirs of the former prime minister to Britain (Pierce Brosnan), and in the process uncovers deep, dark secrets that lead down a path of betrayal, deceit, and murder.” Co-written and directed by Roman Polanski, the film co-stars Timothy Hutton, Kim Cattrall, Tom Wilkinson, James Belushi, and Olivia Williams.

We’re doing an advance screening of this in Dallas on February 23 at 7:30 PM. If you want these free passes (absolutely NO PURCHASE NECESSARY!), fill out the form after the jump. We will announce the winners no later than February 23rd. Must be 17 or older to enter. Good luck! (more…)

It looks like no franchise can stay dead, not even if they feature only one film.

According to Vulture, Fox is looking to go at easy money yet again, as they are planning a prequel/reboot of Doug Liman’s solid action film, MR. AND MRS. SMITH.  The 2005 film, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, follows a married couple who secretly lead double lives as assassins and each are given a final hit–each other. (more…)