Emile Hirsch

The Tribeca Film Festival went as it had come: with another glitzy premiere.

Merely two weeks after the festival encroached on our city with the much-hyped premiere of Baby Mama, the Wachowski brothers’ Speed Racer closed the festivities to an equally if not more star-treaded red carpet and winding line of rubbernecking ticket holders.  read more »

Those brothers who brought us The Matrix trilogy made a film version of the 1960s Japanese Speed Racer cartoon and they'll be premiering it on the last day of the Tribeca Film Festival on May 3. Andy and Larry Wachowski are releasing their first directorial project since we followed them down the rabbit hole for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in 2003, and this new Wonderland looks like a cross between The Fifth Element and Knight Rider. They traded leading man fav. Keanu Reeves for Into the Wild actor (and Penn's Good Boy) Emile Hirsch. He's a demon and he's gonna be chasing after someone! (Apparently, that will be Christina Ricci, who plays hot babe girlfriend Trixie). Joel Silver, a frontman for the bashful Wachowski bros and producer of Racer and the Matrix films, told USA Today last May that the film will have a "retro future" look and will center on Speed sticking it to the man (or, men in the corporate world) and trying to get famous on the race track. Go Emile, Go!

Into the Wild led contenders for the Screen Actors Guild Awards with four nominations, including honors for lead actor Emile Hirsch and supporting players Hal Holbrook and Catherine Keener. The nominations were announced this morning.

Directed by Sean Penn, Into the Wild also was nominated for performance by its overall cast, along with the Western 3:10 to Yuma, the crime sagas American Gangster and No Country for Old Men, and the musical Hairspray.

Guild awards will be presented Jan. 27 in a ceremony televised on TNT and TBS.

The Associated Press reports that unlike the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, which face turmoil caused by striking Hollywood writers, the guild awards look as though they can come off as planned. With actors showing strong solidarity on strike issues, SAG has reached an agreement with the Writers Guild of America for one of its members to write the ceremony.

Full list of nominees after the jump.  read more »

Because cases of mistaken celebrity identity can be really annoying, here follows a list of some stars—most of whom are out-of-towners—in New York over the next seven days. So if you happen to find yourself at, say, Da Silvano on Wednesday night and could swear that Tom Hanks is sitting at the next table over, you’ll know that it’s probably him. (Mr. Hanks comes to town today to promote his new film, Charlie Wilson’s War.)

After the jump, some other stars in town to push a little flesh this week.  read more »

They're wild for Sean Penn, those movie critics. Into the Wild received seven nominations for the 13th Critics Choice Awards, announced today by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The film got nods for picture, director, writer, actor, supporting actor for Hal Holbrook, supporting actress for Catherine Keener and best song for Eddie Vedder's "Guaranteed" (What? No props for Emile?).

The Observer's Rex Reed wrote about Into the Wild:

It’s a sad story that runs two and a half hours, and you already know going in that the protagonist is going to die in the end, so it is positively amazing that Into the Wild is so consistently fresh, riveting and profoundly moving. Its seismic impact must be credited to Mr. Penn’s passion for and enormous dedication to his material.

...

Here’s something else: As much as I admire Mr. Penn’s consuming drive to get this story on the screen, I also salute him for resisting the temptation to nominate McCandless for sainthood. God knows he was brave, but a hero? In addition to his fearlessness, he was also something of a selfish brat, never once making an effort to contact caring parents back home, driven to the lip of madness with worry, not knowing if he was dead or alive. In my opinion, he was thoughtless, arrogant, cruel in his ignorance of the needs and feelings of others and a train wreck waiting to happen. I applaud his spiritual quest, but heading into the wild without maps, compasses or matches is more than a little bit loopy. In the end, McCandless learns life’s most valuable lesson—that real happiness and personal fulfillment come not in alienation from the society you distrust, but through relationships with others. Tragically, McCandless was never able to share what he learned, but his story does teach us something vital about the human condition. He was a breed apart from what you would call average; his life is still haunting, and so is this film.

Juno racked up six nominations, while Atonement, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, Sweeney Todd and Hairspray each got five nominations apiece. The winners will be announced on Jan. 7 in Santa Monica.

Full list of nominees after the jump.

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Three hunky actors have got Milk this morning, landing roles in the biopic based on the life of Harvey Milk. He was America's first openly gay elected official, assassinated in 1978.  read more »

Our Web site had a hairball for most of the day, so excuse the Culture Czar for coughing up these stories a little late. Here’s what we missed:

Into the Wild was, predictably, the big winner at the Gotham Awards last night in Brooklyn. Go Emile!

The Weinstein Co. has acquired publishing and screen rights to Bridie Clark's upcoming novel I Think She's Got It, which is billed as a modern version of Pygmalion set in New York.

25 million people watched Dancing With the Stars. We’re losing faith in humanity.

Carrie Brownstein ponders Rock Band vs. real bands.

Morrissey is no longer a free agent after signing with Polydor/Decca.

The IFP announced the 17th Annual Gotham Awards nominees today, spotlighting the breakthrough indie films of the year.

Great World of Sound, a comedy about a bumbling Southern duo who traverse the country to discover unsigned "talent" for a record label, garnered the most nominations for Best Feature, Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor. In Craig Zobel's documentary-style debut, real performers auditioned without knowing it was actually a film shoot. With hidden cameras, the interaction was recorded between the lead actors and the unsuspecting musicians.

Into the Wild, Sean Penn's film adaptation of the Jon Krakauer book, was also nominated for Best Feature and a Breakthrough Actor nod for star Emile Hirsch.

Mr. Hirsch told Hillary Frey in the Observer:

“There were times when it was really, really, really hard,” he continued. “But there were times when Chris [McCandless] was on the road and it was really, really, really hard. I just knew that that was part of the commitment. I didn’t go into it thinking it was gonna be a ball. It’s amazing how you can go into it thinking it’s not really gonna be a ball, but you really don’t realize what that means until you’re doing it.”

“I think it’s important to be willing to suffer, if that’s what it takes,” said Mr. Penn of his expectations for his star.

The awards will be presented at Steiner Studios in New York on Tuesday, Nov. 27.

View the full list of nominees after the jump.

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It looks like Resident Evil: Extinction (#1) will not be following its own advice. After a $24 million dollar opening weekend, the Sony franchise based on a video game looks like it is here to stay. And it appears New Yorkers are just fine with that: the movie grossed a very respectable $337,000 at 9 theaters over the weekend.

But the big story for Manhattan box office continues to be the success of Eastern Promises (#2) and Across the Universe (#3).  read more »

From green trees to green screen, Emile Hirsch stars in Into the Wild and next year’s quasi-cartoon Speed Racer.  read more »