News

Conquering fear more then just a role to act for A Prophet

By James Foyle
MovieSet.com

Sentenced to six years in prison, young man Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison he falls under the sway of a “Corsican Mafia” group, led by Luciani, who enforce their rule in the prison. Malik toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group. He follows Luciani's orders to kill prisoner Reyeb. Luciani arranges 12-hour leaves for Malik, in which Luciani sends him on missions, including murder. Malik learns how to read and write, and uses all his intelligence to discreetly develop his own network. His power grows and finally he is no longer on Luciani's side.

It’s easy to see why this film has been nominated for best foreign film of the year for the 82^nd academy awards. The number one reason that is plain to me has to be the superb acting by the entire cast.  It’s impossible not to get drawn into the sense of what it actually feels like to be stuck in jail.  The initial feeling being the fear: the desperate struggle to stay safe, the cold feeling of being thrown into a corner and surrounded by vultures who want you dead and will kill you if you don’t obey their every command, no matter how frightening or obscene.

For the main character, Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), conquering fear became necessary to actually survive in the situation he was thrown into.  In a recent interview by Aaron Hillis from the IFC.com news blog Tahar and Jacques Audiard (the films director) talk about how they both went through a similar necessity to conquer fear in their real lives concerning the film itself.

Aaron Hillis: A Prophet is such an intense, rigorously filmed epic. Were there any significant shared challenges you had to overcome as collaborators?

Jacques Audiard: We had to tame our fears. I think for Tahar and myself, the fear was transformed into something else, something more positive. Otherwise, we never would have succeeded.

Tahar Rahim: The fear is actually what propelled us forward, what drove us to complete it.

AH: What do you mean by fear?

TR: Well, there was the fear of failure, of not being able to pursue the idea. For me, I was afraid of not being able to do what Jacques was asking me to do.

JA: When you write something, you have an idea about what it's going to be, of how the story is going to develop and unfold, and then you'll choose your actors and they're going to try to deliver that vision you had. You sit and you see things before they actually come into being. Then, when you shoot the film, there are lots of things that you thought you were going to use or happen, and then they seem inappropriate or idiotic or misplaced. If things go well, as was the case here, then you're working towards something that you never anticipated, something you could not have envisioned. But that comes from giving yourself away to the film. You have to accept the fear of not knowing entirely what you're doing.

TR: It's so freeing to stop being afraid of making mistakes, to let yourself go.

If you’ve ever enjoyed any gangster movie in the past this film is truly a unique must see.

Read the full article here.

The Avengers Set To Have a Cast Decked With as Much Talent as the Super-Heros They’ll be Depicting

By James Foyle
MovieSet.com

Take all the greatest comic book characters and throw them into one team and The Avengers is what you get. As far as comic book history goes The Avengers was as epic a work of art and power as it comes.

The actors so for cast for the line-up, and those rumored to be ready to fill in the rest of the spots, are no less epic of a team. Apparently we can expect to see names such as Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes), Scarlett Johansson (He's Just Not That Into You), Samuel L. Jackson (The Spirit), Don Cheadle (Brooklyn's Finest) and Chris Hemsworth (A Perfect Getaway). Even Natalie Portman (Hesher), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) and Edward Norton (Pride and Glory) are rumored to be on the list.

With talent like that and the way VFX have been blowing us away during the last few years with other Marvel productions such as Iron Man, we can expect to see something truly amazing.  I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty lucky having been a comic book fanatic while growing up and now having the chance to see all those eye popping comics turn into dynamic visual brilliance. The fact that the cast lineup is stacked pushes the artistic brilliance a million degrees.

Sean Faris Heads up the Wyoming Project

‘It’s Complicated’ Comes to Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download April 27th, 2010!

By Shannon Nystedt
MovieSet.com

Just in time for Mother’s Day, It’s Complicated, comes to Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download on April 27th, 2010.

From Universal Studios Home  Entertainment, two-time Academy Award® winner Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia), Emmy® and Golden Globe® winner Alec Baldwin (My Sister's Keeper) and Emmy® winner Steve Martin (The Pink Panther 2) star in the latest smart, funny, feel-good from Oscar® nominated writer and director Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, What Women Want).  

It’s Complicated also features John Krasinski (Away We Go), Lake Bell (“Boston Legal”), Mary Kay Place (Youth in Revolt), Rita Wilson (My Life in Ruins), Alexandra Wentworth (“Head Case”), Hunter Parrish (17 Again) and Zoe Kazan (The Private Lives of Pippa Lee) in this light-hearted story of a woman whose life has it all—and then some—when she finds herself in an unexpected, if not exactly unenjoyable, love triangle with her still sexy ex-husband and an attractive new suitor. Bonus features include a behind-the-scenes featurette and filmmaker commentary.

Click here for further information.