Publicity for the upcoming sequel The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is starting to heat up, and the first lot of teaser posters are quite incredible. Lionsgate really don’t need to put this much effort in to promote Mockingjay Part 1. Each Hunger Games movie so far has been a mammoth hit and audiences around…
As glowing reviews continue to pour in for Locke – and in particular, Tom Hardy’s stunning performance – The Iris caught up with the film’s co-producer Guy Heeley for some more insight into the unique process from which this film was made. The entire thing took a little over a week to shoot, a set…
Director Brendan Muldowney has crafted something both beguiling and disturbing with film Love Eternal; he has done so in a way that adds a layer of beauty on top of something which would unnerve a lot of viewers. Muldowney loosely based this film on the novel Loving the Dead by Japanese author Kei Oishi, who…
George Takei is a master of social media. His Facebook page has 7.1 million likes. That’s pretty much the population of Switzerland. He has 1.2 million followers on Twitter and uncounted millions of fans from his Star Trek days. How has he achieved such a following? He did it with his charm, his humour, his…
“How will a little girl, a low-level thug, a business woman become the most dangerous villains around?” Simple answer. They all got their start in this city.” In the new teaser trailer for the upcoming FOX show, Gotham, viewers are given the first glimpses of the villains of the series. Included in the trailer are…
2014 has insofar been somewhat of an artistic renaissance for Australian film. So far this year we’ve seen successful cinema releases of 52 Tuesdays, Tracks, The Babadook, and Healing. Sophie Hyde (52 Tuesdays) won Best Director at Sundance; David Gulpilil (Charlie’s Country) won Best Actor at Cannes. Seventeen Australian films are getting a release in…
Members of the media were wowed at Event Cinemas in Sydney today with a twenty-minute screening of the upcoming The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This was the first time that the reel had been seen outside of the WETA Workshop offices, and was nothing short of incredible. This sneak peak was followed…
Adaptations of the novels of Nicholas Sparks have been a mainstay of romantic cinema ever since A Walk to Remember and The Notebook warmed and broke everyone’s hearts in the early 2000’s. Since then a new Sparks adaptation has hit the big screen every couple of years, including Dear John, Safe Haven and The Lucky One. The…
It’s the penultimate episode of Fargo and there are so many questions remaining unanswered that we could potentially fill up an entire additional season. Yet in Noah Hawley’s script we trust, and somehow he’s going to give us all the answers, if not in this instalment, then at least in the finale. Once again we’re…
Peedu Ojamaa once had the world’s greatest job. He was the founder and boss of the only commercial film studio in the Soviet Union at a time when the iron curtain ruled and there was a strictly planned economy. Advertisements were unnecessary as there was a shortage of goods due to government controls, but these…
Up until the mid-to late- twentieth century the Indian Act in Canada imposed various forms of control over its Native Indian citizens, most notably in the form of Residential Schools, which all Indian children under fifteen were forced to attend, and the Caucasian ‘Indian Agents’ that ran them. These rules are at the centre of…
When it was first announced a few years ago that Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill would be starring in a comedy reboot of the popular 1980’s TV series 21 Jump Street, sceptics around the world raised their eyebrows. To put it bluntly, it sounded like a stupid idea. No one was really holding out for a…
The Iris’ Larry Heath talks to Michael Altman about the career of his father, director Robert Altman, as well as his own. Filmed during Sydney Film Festival in June 2014, where Michael presented a retrospective of his father’s illustrious career. ———- This content has recently been ported from its original home on The Iris and…
As was revealed today by Digital Spy, Mark Ruffalo has said Marvel is “entertaining” the idea of making a new Hulk film following the success of The Avengers series and spin-offs. This would be brave of Marvel after two previous attempts to devote an entire film to the big green man-monster that were commercially underwhelming….
Ridley Scott has previewed footage of his upcoming biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings, at the annual CineEurope presentation. As was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, the director also treated a select group of theatre owners with a peek at the unreleased trailer alongside his preview of the film’s opening. Exodus: Gods and Kings, which…
After the stunning finale to the incredible fourth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, fans all over the world are hungry for any way to return to Westeros, and now it is possible. To celebrate the release of Season 4 on Google Play, HBO and Google Play are bringing Game of Thrones: The Exhibition to…
Humans need water. People are also made of water. And we affect water. The documentary, Watermark looks at the different experiences that society has with water, from celebration to pure science; from duress to progress and through spirituality and work, the many facets of this subject are covered by this ambitious project. But audiences will…
So it ends; Game of Thrones’ excellent fourth season has come to it’s 10-episode conclusion, closing the book on George RR Martin’s A Storm of Swords and signalling a huge expansion in Season 5. Two pivotal characters – and consistent fan favourites – are now on journeys to places we never expected them to go;…
Well it looks like you just can’t keep those pesky teenagers away from the cinema, as young adult adaptation The Fault in Our Stars has topped the Australian box office chart again over the past weekend. The novel is a publishing phenomenon and fans are clearly loving the film. To be fair, Fault has received very strong reviews as…
Village Roadshow Pictures Asia and Warner Bros. Pictures have signed on as co-financiers and co-producers of Desen International Media’s Chinese 3D fantasy adventure Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal. Directed by Zhao Tianyu (The Law of Attraction, Deadly Delicious), Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal stars Chen Kun (The Painted Skin),…
Indie film and TV darling Zach Braff has taken a decade as well as a controversial Kickstarter crowd funding campaign to finally have his second feature brought to life on the big screen. Wish I Was Here examines the struggles of the thirty-somethings of our generation, including unemployment, marriage, raising kids and the inevitability of…
Last night saw the end of the 61st Sydney Film Festival, with the festival’s prestigious awards handed out at the Closing Night Gala at the State Theatre. Of the 12 films competing in the Official Competition, the Sydney Film Prize was awarded to the French film Two Days, One Night, directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc…
La Petite Mort translated as The Little Death, is a French euphemism for orgasm, referring to the post-orgasmic state of consciousness some people go through after a sexual experience. Josh Lawson’s (Any Questions for Ben?, Anchorman 2) low budget directorial debut based on this intriguing concept, is an extension of a short film he’d put…
The Iris talks to Peter O’Donoghue, the editor and co-writer of Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets about the film while in Sydney for the Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival – June 2014. ———- This content has recently been ported from its original home on The Iris and may have formatting errors…
Agnès Varda is a director who has a nose for a good story and an eye for the sublime. The Grand Dame of French New Wave Cinema started her career as a stills photographer and it is clear that she has brought these skills to her feature films. Her movies are often quite sensual and…
When we see those pre-empting words of ‘based on a true story’ at the beginning of a film, we are usually left thinking about how much of what we see is fiction, and how much is fact. In the case of Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, the latest offering from the Zellner Brothers, the protagonist is…
It’s 1997 and the Asian Financial Crisis is in full swing. Companies are downsizing, people are feeling the pinch and the burden of providing for one’s family is high. It’s in this pressure-cooker environment that first-time Singaporean director Anthony Chen brings Ilo Ilo. For many, Ilo Ilo is not just about class systems but also…
Awarded the Special Jury Award winner at the Sundance Film Festival, Love.Love.Love is a charming short documentary film about the notion of love as seen through the eyes of a group of woman ranging from young girls to elderly women. Love.Love.Love was developed via the Cinetrain initiative, a cinema event that takes place in Russia…
There’s only one time in my life that I can recall having something that I can only describe as an anxiety attack. It was at a Brian Cox lecture in Sydney last year and I believe it was when the rockstar physicist was describing the moment when the Earth would cease to exist. The very…
“It’s life, you go to bed unsatisfied” in the words of police chief Bill Oswalt, and he’s expressing how we feel too, we’re unsatisfied, and this episode does leave you feeling a little bit that way. Not in a negative sense at all, more in a “we’re at episode 8 of 10 and we still…
