Jennifer Jason Leigh

Natalie Portman Reacts To 'Whitewashing' Casting Criticisms Of New Film 'Annihilation'

By Ed Biggs in Movies / TV / Theatre on 15 February 2018

Natalie Portman Jennifer Jason Leigh Alex Garland

While she admitted it was "problematic", Portman said she had no knowledge of the issue before she was cast.

Natalie Portman and her Annihilation co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh have both spoken out over the ‘whitewashing’ controversy that has engulfed their casting in the film, saying that they had no idea their characters were not white in the original books.

Annihilation, which is out on February 23rd in the United States, is a science fiction based around Portman’s character Lena, a biologist working in a secret natural disaster zone. It’s an adaptation of the first book of the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer, published in 2014.

However, it’s not revealed until the second book of the series, ‘Authority’, that Lena is revealed to be of “Asian heritage”. Furthermore, Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character as the government psychologist Dr Ventress is described as being half-Native American and half-white.

Continue reading: Natalie Portman Reacts To 'Whitewashing' Casting Criticisms Of New Film 'Annihilation'

The Laws Of Nature Don't Apply In 'Annihilation'

When a biologist’s husband disappears his wife must undertake a dangerous mission into the unknown to save him. From the writer and director of ‘Ex-Machina’, Alex Garland, ‘Annihilation’ hits theatres in February.

After a group of soldiers enter an environmental disaster zone known as Area X only one makes it home alive. But his homecoming is shot-lived and soon it is up to his wife Lena (Natalie Portman) to save his life.

Natalie Portman in ‘Annihilation’

Continue: The Laws Of Nature Don't Apply In 'Annihilation'

Good Time Review

Very Good

Robert Pattinson continues to distance himself from his teen heartthrob image with this scruffy B-movie. His loser character takes the audience on a deranged funhouse ride through corners of New York that are so lurid that the movie feels like it was made in the early 1980s, especially with its electronic score by Oneohtrix Point Never. And while it all feels a little too constructed to be believable, the film is superbly gripping. And even a bit moving.

Pattinson plays Connie, a low-life criminal who confidently robs a Brooklyn bank with his mentally simple brother Nick (played by Benny Safdie, who also directed the film with his brother Josh). As they flee, Connie gets away, but Nick is arrested. In need of cash to pay Nick's bail, Connie looks up his rather unstable friend Corey (Jennifer Jason Leigh), but she turns out to be a dead end. So he decides to break Nick out of jail. While working out this plan, he meets Ray (Buddy Duress), a junkie coming down from a bad trip, and 16-year-old Crystal (Taliah Webster). And both of them give Connie a new idea.

Yes, this is the kind of film that moves from one chaotic set-piece to the next with a wonderful volatility that makes it feel fresh and spontaneous. And the Safdie brothers direct it in a remarkably full-on style, mixing close-up camerawork with dramatic God's eye aerial shots. Every scene is awash in bright colour, and each actor delivers a performance that's physically kinetic and emotionally raw. None of these people are very easy to sympathise with, but they're so funny and unpredictable that we can't look away. Pattinson has never been this frantic before, and he's terrific as a smart guy with no common sense. He's the kind of guy who thinks that his next plan will finally be the one that works, even though it clearly won't.

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Good Time Trailer

He doesn't know exactly what happened, but when Constantine 'Connie' Nikas hears that his brother Nick has been arrested following a bank robbery gone terribly wrong, he is desperate to get him out of the New York jail complex that is Rikers Island before he gets killed in there. He is already battered and bruised, so it is only a matter of time before he runs out of luck. The only way Connie knows how to help him is by getting involved in yet more criminal activity that leads him on a dangerous journey with cops on his tail. With an unlikely accomplice, however, he has a good chance of reuniting with his brother - whose vulnerability only spurs him on. Connie knows that it'll be all his fault if Nick gets killed and since the pair only really have each other, that's not something he can let happen.

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'No-One Writes Women Like Tarantino': Jennifer Jason Leigh Opens Up At 'The Hateful Eight' Premiere [Photos]

By Holly Williams in Movies / TV / Theatre on 11 December 2015

Jennifer Jason Leigh

The question is, has Tarantino crafted another masterpiece?

This week saw both the UK and US premieres of Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Western 'The Hateful Eight', and it's safe to say it's all becoming too real for us now. The film will be in actual theaters on Christmas Day, almost three years since he announced it.

The Hateful Eight cast The cast of 'The Hateful Eight' unite at the premiere

It's a movie about bounty hunters, bad weather and betrayal and it sure has an all-star cast. In fact, the only female member of the main cast, Jennifer Jason Leigh, has just been announced as a nominee for Best Supporting Actress at the 2016 Golden Globes, with Tarantino as the only other member of the crew to get a nod for the film as he becomes a contender for writing the Best Screenplay.

Continue reading: 'No-One Writes Women Like Tarantino': Jennifer Jason Leigh Opens Up At 'The Hateful Eight' Premiere [Photos]

Anomalisa Trailer

Anomalisa is a new film from directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson. Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich) also wrote the film - his first animation. Initial funding for the movie was achieved on Kickstarter, the project raised over 400,000 dollars, doubling their initial asking price.

The stop-motion film used 3-D printers to create the puppets and the story follows the day to day life of Michael Stone, a man who's struggling with going through the same processes every day. When he meets a stranger in a hotel, she might just be able to show Michael a new view point.

The lead characters are voiced by David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The whole film was voiced by the total of three people. The film was said to be the surprise movie of the 2015 BFI Festival.

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The Hateful Eight Trailer

John Ruth, known by his associates and like-minded peers as The Hangman on account of his fondness for hanging criminals, is a formidable bounty hunter on his way to Red Rock with a suspected murderer named Daisy Domergue. Along the way, they bump into another brutal bounty hunter named Major Marquis Warren who wastes no time in informing Daisy of her captor's uniquely vicious reputation, and they also pick up self-proclaimed new sheriff of Red Rock Chris Mannix. It's a bitter winter and soon a furious blizzard threatens to engulf them and their stagecoach. Thus, they decide to seek shelter at a small place on a mountain pass called Minnie's Haberdashery, which is currently playing host to caretaker Bob, Red Rock's own hangman Oswaldo Mobray, a ranch hand named Joe Gage and former Confederacy general Sandy Smithers. Unfortunately, the bounty hunters are not the only volatile ones at the haberdashery, and it seems some lethal mounting deception is threatening to bury them well before the storm.

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We're Shivering In Excitement For Quentin Tarantino's Winter Western 'The Hateful Eight' [Trailer + Pictures]

By Holly Williams in Movies / TV / Theatre on 01 October 2015

Quentin Tarantino Samuel L Jackson Kurt Russell Walton Goggins Tim Roth Bruce Dern Michael Madsen Jennifer Jason Leigh Demian Bichir

It's the Western every Tarantino fan has been waiting for...

Guns, violence, cool outfits and immeasurable cheese is everything that Quentin Tarantino is about, so fans have been waiting for a good old Western flick from him for a long time. Now we can rejoice because his eighth movie, 'The Hateful Eight', brings us just that, complete with shoot-outs, stetsons, suspicion - and a helluva lotta snow.

Samuel L. Jackson in The Hateful Eight Samuel L. Jackson is as formidable as ever in 'The Hateful Eight'

Tarantino touched on the Western genre with 2012's 'Django Unchained', of course, but that was more about illicit slavery than country outlaws; there's usually humour to the Oscar winning director's work despite the shameless brutality of it, but 'Django' gave us something serious to think about. 'The Hateful Eight' is just plain enjoyable, bounty hunter, sweary (thanks to Samuel L. Jackson) fun, that everyone should be excited for come winter.

Continue reading: We're Shivering In Excitement For Quentin Tarantino's Winter Western 'The Hateful Eight' [Trailer + Pictures]

Ennio Morricone Is Composing The Score For Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’

By Elinor Cosgrave in Movies / TV / Theatre on 13 July 2015

Quentin Tarantino Samuel L Jackson Kurt Russell Channing Tatum Walton Goggins Jennifer Jason Leigh Ennio Morricone

Quentin Tarantino, speaking at Comic-Con 2015, announced Ennio Morricone is composing the score for ‘The Hateful Eight’.

Ennio Morricone is set to write the score for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He is best known for composing music for a number of Italian (Spaghetti) Westerns including the Dollars Trilogy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Once Upon a Time in the West. The 86-year-old Italian composer is returning to writing film scores after eight years away but it has been more than forty years since he worked on a Western.

Quentin Tarantino at San Diego Comic-Con 2015.

Continue reading: Ennio Morricone Is Composing The Score For Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’

'The Hateful Eight': This Is What A Tarantino Western Looks Like [Pictures]

By Stephen Caswell in Movies / TV / Theatre on 01 June 2015

Quentin Tarantino Samuel L Jackson Kurt Russell Jennifer Jason Leigh Walton Goggins Demian Bichir Tim Roth Michael Madsen Bruce Dern

Following a screenplay leak, cancellation and final confirmation that it would be going into production, 'The Hateful Eight' is filming, and Tarantino has released some set pictures.

In case it wasn't clear already, Quentin Tarantino loves movies. He's talked on many occasions about his love for the Spaghetti-Western genre, which has led many people to wonder what a Tarantino-directed Spaghetti-Western would look like. Sure, we had 2012's 'Django Unchained' to give us a brief glimpse at the idea, but that was racial revenge story first, and a Western second. When Tarantino announced his 8th film, 'The Hateful Eight', back in November 2013, fans worldwide jumped for joy.

Quentin Tarantino on set with the cast of 'The Hateful Eight'

A jump that may have been a little premature, as the project was cancelled in January 2014, after the script for the highly anticipated picture was leaked online. Tarantino talked about rereleasing the screenplay as a novel, before going back and deciding to give the film one last shot. Production began in January 2015, and now we have some of the first pictures from the set of the new film.

Continue reading: 'The Hateful Eight': This Is What A Tarantino Western Looks Like [Pictures]

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Beverly Hilton Hotel Friday 27th July 2012 2012 TCA Summer Press Tour - Disney ABC Television Group Party held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel