Extremely Link

Weinstein Co a live chat today with The Artist team (4:30 PM EST)
Gold Derby "Oscar nominations we're rooting for"
Deadline exciting sounding project alert. Gyllehaal mama Naomi Foner, who wrote the brilliant Running on Empty (1988) is making her directorial debut with Very Good Girls. Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning to star as best friends just out of high school eager to lose their virginity.
Nicks Flick Picks' Best Actress Birthday Parties are getting more and more festive. I died at one particular one-liner in the Piper Laurie Tim review and now I simply must see the movie. 

Slash Film Remember that biopic Big Eyes about artist-marrieds Margaret and Walter Keane which was supposed to star Kate Hudson years and years ago? No? Well, it's back in development only this time with Reese Witherspoon. I don't know how you make a movie called Big Eyes and cast anyone but Our Miss Hathaway though. 
AD Jameson How many movies can you see? An obsessive discussion about what's feasible or worthwhile.
By Ken Levine "guys are not going to want to f*** her" on pursuing a role in TV pilots. A scary read for actors!

Fun videos with Charlize, Fassy & Viola after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Review: "Haywire"

If you've ever wanted to see Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender or Channing Tatum punched in the face repeatedly, HAYWIRE is your movie. At one time or another, the actors take quite a believable pummelling from rogue CIA agent Mallory (Gina Carano) in Steven Soderbergh's experimental action picture. Soderbergh first spotted his new muse, a real life mixed martial arts champ, while channel-surfing and was so transfixed he ended up building a feature around her. 'Why can't there be a female James Bond?' went his reasoning. He must have meant it in a loose sense for Mallory is no Bond. She's not super verbal, isn't at all comfortable at elegant black tie events, and has no discernible signature catchphrase. She orders no martinis, neither shaken nor stirred.

Carano's lack of acting experience shows when she's not fighting but thankfully that isn't often. Soderbergh, ever a resourceful director, keeps forcing her to dodge bullets, fists, and sharp objects...

Read the rest at Towleroad

P.S. What movies will you be catching up with this weekend? Have you ever wanted to punch Ewan, Channing or Fassy in the face?

Ray of Link

Rope of Silicon early commercials starring the ascendant Michael Fassbender
W Magazine a horizontal pictorial of Fassy. I am more and more worried he'll be the surprise snub at the Oscars. I really am. May my prophecy fail me!
NY Times a profile of George Lucas on the eve of his supposed retirement from blockbuster filmmaking. But first Red Tails (2012)
24 Frames Octavia Spencer is getting choosy about her roles but Hollywood is still not awash in leading roles for acclaimed black actresses.

Pajiba on Michelle Williams body body body GQ photoshoot.
Guardian offers a guide of 20 pictures to watch for at the Sundance Film Festival which begins... tomorrow!
Low Resolution Carnage cast power rankings
FlavorWire on TCM's ten most influential silent films. See, The Artist is good for cinema. People are looking back. Silent films are so wonderful. I hope you've seen a bunch of them.

Kenneth in the (212) fans "react" to Madonna winning her second Golden Globe. LOL.
Boy Culture I knew Matt would have smart things to say about the Madonna Globe win and Elton John's ridiculous pissiness about it. Matt on Madonna's "ungracious" speech. 

What was narcissistic about Madonna's sweet speech, anyway? She accepted an award and thanked her co-writers and her leading lady. Sure, she forgot to self-flagellate, but...

Hee!

Guardian Speaking of The Artist. I knew we'd eventually get a story about total idiot moviegoers. Seems some people want their money back because they didn't realize it was a silent movie. Excuse me, I amend. Not idiots, Assholes. Silent films can be just as amazing as sound films.  
In Contention on the costumes of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Ultra Culture 14 Things That Armie Hammer looks like in J Edgar. Hee
Paper Mag has the season 5 poster for Mad Men but to give it context they include all the others too.

If you must know, not that *I'm* counting, that is 67 days away. How will you spend those days?

Blue Moments With Jodie & Fassy

Was it just me or was last night's Golden Globe ceremony less gold than blue? (It was even unfortunately brown what with all the references to Bridesmaids poop jokes). "Blush" was both a red carpet trend and something that stars were having to do.

The evening literally began with a beaver joke and ended with a dick gag. Both Jodie Foster and Michael Fassbender were good sports about the below-the-belt ribbing but what the hell did they spike the drinks with last night?

Jodie's Beaver
Ricky Gervais set the bawdy tone kicking off with a joke that seemed to be about Mel Gibson (he wasn't allowed to talk about him) but morphed into a much better one about Jodie Foster. He can't mention Mel Gibson...

Especially not Jodie Foster's Beaver. I haven't seen it myself. 

I've spoken to a lot of guys here. They haven't seen it either.  

...But that doesn't mean it's not any good!

One of the talking dumbheads at E! after party actually thought that was a joke about Jodie still being hot after birthing two children. Oh no, honey, no. That's not what the joke was about. 

Elton John did not think this joke was funny in a subsequent cutaway -- though he knew what the joke was about -- but he had a permascowl on his face throughout the evening, only smiling when Morgan Freeman interrupted his own speech to say "Hi Elton"

Fassbender's Frontal
When Clooney won Best Actor, He gave a beautiful shout out to his friend and former co-star Brad Pitt before going straight for the Fassbender dick jokes, even pantomiming a golf swing without a golf club.

Also you get to meet a lot of other wonderful young actors.  I met -- I'd like to thank Michael Fassbender for taking on the frontal nudity responsibility that I had.

Really Michael?  Honestly, can you play golf with your hands behind your back?

Go for it man, do it. 

George, George, George... 

Surely that was as good as a $100 million blockbuster for upping Michael Fassbender's Q Quotient round the world. 

FYC Booklets: Shame

Ever since we shared that Harry Potter "Consider..." book, I've been meaning open to crack open the other FYC ads that have arrived. So let's do that starting with Shame.

Shame... Why didn't this one come in a black plastic or brown paper wrapping like porn? The cover blurb courtesy of New York magazine says

Michael Fassbender has arrived."

Where? We'll be right over!

We get the meaning but that happened with Hunger, thank you, and was immediately confirmed over and over again for the next year and change with the consecutive openings of Inglourious Basterds, Jane Eyre and X-Men First Class and so on. He's not only arrived, he's moved in.

More Shame and modest FYC proposals after the jump

Click to read more ...