The Brag

Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies kicked off the brief micro-fad of mashing up classic or historical fiction with pulpy horror elements. While the feature film adaptation of that particular novel quietly decomposes in a cellar at Lionsgate Studios, audiences will have to make do with Grahame-Smith’s rather more marketable follow-up, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which posits that the US President, not content with freeing the slaves, fighting a civil war and running a country, was also an axe-wielding scourge of the undead.

Posted: August 7th, 2012 under Arts, Brag 474, Film Reviews.
Tags: Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rob Newcombe, Seth Grahame-Smith, Timur Bekmambetov

Although it’s his first feature at the helm, Get The Gringo director Adrian Grunberg’s impressive resume includes a number of collaborations with Mel Gibson, including a gig as first assistant director on his 2006 Mayan epic Apocalypto. So naturally, when Gibson approached Grunberg with an idea for a screenplay and an offer to co-write and direct it with him, he was happy to oblige. Like many who have worked with Gibson (with notable recent exceptions), Grunberg speaks highly of the man.

Posted: May 29th, 2012 under Arts, Arts - Interview, Arts Feature, Brag 464 (May 28), Film Reviews.
Tags: Adrian Grunberg, Arts, Arts Feature, Film, Get The Gringo, interview, Mel Bibson, Review, Rob Newcombe

When it comes to romantic comedies, Jason Segel and writer-director Nicholas Stoller have undeniable chemistry; meeting on the set of Judd Apatow’s TV series Undeclared in 2001, they reunited on Stoller’s cult comedy directorial debut Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Segel wrote and starred in, and re-teamed in the same roles for The Muppets, with Stoller co-writing. With their third feature together on screens this month, their chemistry graduates to a full-fledged creative relationship.

Posted: May 23rd, 2012 under Arts, Brag 461 (May 7), Film Reviews.
Tags: Delicacy, Emily Blunt, Film, Film Review, Jason Segel, Rob Newcombe

It’s rare enough to see a co-director credit on a feature film, and rarer still that the co-credited aren’t siblings. You’d think a film set would be fraught enough without introducing sibling rivalry into the mix, but it seems to work for the Coen brothers and so, too, Stéphane and David Foenkinos, who collaborated to bring David’s 2009 novel Delicacy (La delicatesse) to the screen in this year’s charming French rom-com of the same name.

Posted: May 15th, 2012 under Arts, Brag 461 (May 7), Film Reviews.
Tags: Audrey Tautou, Delicacy, Film, Film Review, La delicatesse, Rob Newcombe