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Matthew McConaughey Is Not In 'Magic Mike XXL'. But Andie MacDowell Is.


Matthew Mcconaughey Andie MacDowell Steven Soderbergh Channing Tatum

Matthew McConaughey will not reprise his role as strip-club owner Dallas in sequel Magic Mike XXL, according to director Greg Jacobs. Since his performance in the first movie, McConaughey has won an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club, stole The Wolf of Wall Street with just a couple of scenes and delivered one of the finest TV drama performances of all time as Rust Cohle in True Detective.

Matthew McConaugheyMatthew Mcconaughey will not return as Dallas in 'Magic Mike XXL'

All that has success means McConaughey is in demand and as well as Interstellar and Gus Vant Sant's Sea of Trees, the actor presumably has numerous movies in development. 

Continue reading: Matthew McConaughey Is Not In 'Magic Mike XXL'. But Andie MacDowell Is.

Meet Robert Downey Jr, Forbes' Highest Paid Actor In The World


Robert Downey Jr Channing Tatum Steven Soderbergh Hugh Jackman Mark Wahlberg Adam Sandler Denzel Washington Tom Cruise Leonardo Dicaprio Liam Neeson Jon Favreau

Robert Downey Jr, the star of The Avengers and Iron Man 3 - two of the biggest grossing movies in history, has been named Forbes' highest paid actor on the planet with annual estimated earnings of $75 million.

The 48-year-old - who's enjoyed somewhat of a career resurgence over the past decade thanks to Marvel's big-budget blockbusters - pulled in more than $1 billion at the box-office.

Though Downey Jr is the predictable No.1, perhaps most surprising is the entry of Channing Tatum in second place on this year's list. The new father who both financed and starred in Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike, made around $60 million.

Continue reading: Meet Robert Downey Jr, Forbes' Highest Paid Actor In The World

Behind The Candelabra Reviews – Critics Fall In Love With Liberace Soderbergh’s Swansong


Michael Douglas Matt Damon Rob Lowe Steven Soderbergh

Side Effects was supposed to be Steven Soderbergh’s last film, but the sequence of events that led it from being a TV movie to a fully fledged feature conspired in the director’s favor, as Behind The Candelabra is much better way to say goodbye.

The critics have well and truly fallen in love with Soderbergh’s depiction of Liberace in Behind The Candelabra. “Buffed to a typical HBO high gloss, Candelabra is a visual feast,” say USA Today. “It shines brightest in those moments where it captures the rhythms of a relationship in its first blush of affection and its seemingly inevitable collapse.” This never happens, but if you peruse the reviews of this film on Rotten Tomatoes, you won’t see a green splat; just shiny red tomatoes. With 93%, this film is certified fresh. “Who'd have thought Michael Douglas and Matt Damon would make such an astonishing, convincing on-screen couple? Steven Soderbergh, that's who...” say Empire Magazine. “If showbusiness is the business of showing off, nobody did it better than Liberace,” comment the Financial Times.

Continue reading: Behind The Candelabra Reviews – Critics Fall In Love With Liberace Soderbergh’s Swansong

Behind The Candelabra: Denied An Oscar, Liberace Biopic Ignites Critics' Passion


Michael Douglas Matt Damon Steven Soderbergh Liberace

Liberace biopic, Behind The Candelabra, has been released today in UK cinemas today but due to troubles securing big-buck Hollywood funding, the glitteringly kitsch film will only be seen on TV in the US, making it exempt from Oscar considerations.

In unfortunate circumstances for all who worked hard to create the well-received, feature-length biopic, Behind The Candelabra, its broadcast on US TV, instead of screening in cinemas, will mean that the film starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon cannot win the most illustrious award in filmmaking. No matter how many scores of critics proclaim their adoration; regardless of how many fans flock in their droves to the cinema here in the U.K, the film will never even have a shot at the Oscars.

According to director Steven Soderbergh, Behind The Candelabra was denied any financing from Hollywood studios because of their belief that only gay people would want to go and see the film. Soderbergh failed to let Hollywood's knockback deflate his big plans to bring Liberace back to life, finding funding instead from HBO, the American cable television network, who will broadcast the biopic on the small screen. Soderbergh said he and his team saw the bright side: "Our attitude was: 'More people are going to see it this way anyway.'"

Continue reading: Behind The Candelabra: Denied An Oscar, Liberace Biopic Ignites Critics' Passion

Michael Douglas Cancer Remarks Denied, Newspaper Provides Audio [Listen]


Michael Douglas Steven Soderbergh

The nature of Michael Douglas' cancer remarks have been cleared up by his spokesperson Allen Burry, though the Guardian newspaper is sticking by its story. On Monday 3 June, the newspaper published an interview with Douglas - the star of Steven Soderbergh's Behind The Candelabra - in which he spoke about his cancer diagnosis and subsequent recovery.

According to the published interview, Douglas appeared to suggest his throat cancer was caused by oral sex and not from years of drinking and smoking. "No. No. Ah, without getting too specific, this particular cancer is caused by something called HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus," the actor was quoted as saying. Various medical professional refuted the claims before Allen Burry denied that Douglas said that oral sex was the cause of the cancer and claimed he was merely pointing out one of the many causes of oral cancer. "In a discussion with the newspaper," the Associated Press quotes Burry as saying, "they talked about the causes of oral cancer, one of which was oral sex, which is noted and has been known for a while now."

The Guardian refutes any charge of misrepresentation and claims "Mr Burry was not present at the Guardian's interview with Michael Douglas," adding, "the only two people present were Mr Douglas and the Guardian writer, Xan Brooks." The newspaper also posted the relevant audio file of the interview, along with a verbatim transcript of the interview. Over to you, Mr Douglas.

Continue reading: Michael Douglas Cancer Remarks Denied, Newspaper Provides Audio [Listen]

Video - Steven Soderbergh And Michael Douglas Arrive To Honour Marvin Hamlisch At The 100th Birthday Of The American Cancer Society


Oscar award winning director Steven Soderbergh poses with his wife Jules Asner and Terre Blair-Hamlisch, the widowed spouse of composer Marvin Hamlisch, at the 100th Birthday event of the American Cancer Society in tribute to Hamlisch himself who passed away in 2012 after a short illness. He is renowned as one of very few EGOTs (someone who has landed an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony in their career).

Continue: Video - Steven Soderbergh And Michael Douglas Arrive To Honour Marvin Hamlisch At The 100th Birthday Of The American Cancer Society

Michael Douglas Says He Got Throat Cancer From Oral Sex, Doctors Say He Didn't


Michael Douglas Steven Soderbergh Catherine Zeta Jones

Michael Douglas, the legendary American actor and star of Steven Soderbergh's new movie Behind The Candelabra, claims he got throat cancer through oral sex. When asked whether he regrets his years of heavy drinking and smoking - the usual causes of cancer - Douglas told the Guardian, "No. Because without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV [human papillomavirus], which actually comes about from cunnilingus." Err, ok.

Bizarrely, the Oscar winner, who is married to Catherine Zeta-Jones, went on to claim that oral sex was also the best cure for it, "I did worry if the stress caused by my son's incarceration didn't help trigger it. But yeah, it's a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer. And if you have it, cunnilingus is also the best cure for it." Celebrity GP Dr Drew Pinsky praised the actor for the interview, tweeting, "Very courageous, will help reduce the risk for others," though other professionals remained sceptical. Mahesh Kumar, a London-based head and neck surgeon, said, "It has been established beyond reasonable doubt that the HPV type 16 is the causative agent in oropharyngeal cancer. Maybe he thinks that more exposure to the virus will boost his immune system. But medically, that just doesn't make sense."

Douglas' representative denied that the actor made a specific link between cancer and oral sex, saying, "He did not say this was the cause of his cancer. In a discussion of oral cancer, he said this is one of the suspected causes. He never made it personal."

Continue reading: Michael Douglas Says He Got Throat Cancer From Oral Sex, Doctors Say He Didn't

A Week In Movies: The Hangover Saga Ends, The Hunger Games Cast Talk Catching Fire And Jennifer Aniston Plays A Stripper


Bradley Cooper Zach Galifianakis Ed Helms Steven Soderbergh Jennifer Lawrence Sam Claflin Francis Lawrence Jennifer Aniston Jason Sudeikis Forest Whitaker Zack Snyder Henry Cavill

The Hangover III

The big global release this week is The Hangover Part III, and the cast has been jetting around the world for premieres in Los Angeles and London, where fans screamed at actors Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Ken Jeong as they paraded up the red carpet. The critical response hasn't been quite as positive.

The 66th Cannes Film Festival winds down this weekend in France. Critics are praising new films by Steven Soderbergh (Behind the Candelabra starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon), Alexander Payne (Nebraska with Bruce Dern) and the Coen Brothers (Inside Llewyn Davis with break-out actor Oscar Isaac). They weren't so thrilled by Ryan Gosling's reunion with Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn for Only God Forgives, although they praised costar Kristin Scott Thomas for going far against type.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: The Hangover Saga Ends, The Hunger Games Cast Talk Catching Fire And Jennifer Aniston Plays A Stripper

Behind The Candelabra At Cannes 2013 – First Impressions


Matt Damon Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects was supposed to be the inconstant director’s last film, but he’ll want Behind the Candelabra his biopic of the pianist and composer Liberace to be remembered as his last work. The film - starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon – has been excellently received after its Cannes Film Festival debut.

“The film is mesmeric, riskily incorrect, outrageously watchable and simply outrageous,” says The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw in his 4-star review. “Unlike ITV's Vicious, which stars two famously gay actors, Behind the Candelabra does not offer any extra-textual liberal assurances in its casting.” The Telegraph were even more impressed, awarding the film a five-star rating. “Soderbergh’s exceptional film, which screened in competition at the Cannes Festival on Tuesday morning, is adapted from a book written by Thorson, who worked for five years as Liberace’s live-in companion,” they write. “During that time, Liberace moulded him – sometimes medically, with the help of plastic surgery and diet pills – into his younger, sexually idealised doppelgänger."

Continue reading: Behind The Candelabra At Cannes 2013 – First Impressions

A Week In Movies: Cannes Film Festival Kicks Off, Coen Brothers' & James Franco Are Potential Award Winners, Michael Douglas Portrays Liberace In Behind The Candelabra And Much More!


Cannes Film Festival Coen Brothers James Franco Michael Douglas Liberace Cameron Diaz Leslie Mann Asa Butterfield Sandra Bullock Steven Soderbergh

Cannes Film Festival Logo

The 66th Cannes Film Festival kicked off this week with the glittering red carpet premiere of The Great Gatsby, attended by filmmaker Bas Luhrmann and cast members Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton and Isla Fisher. The film opened in America last Friday and in the UK this Thursday.

Mulligan also stars in another film in competition at Cannes: the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis is the story of a folk singer (Oscar Isaac) in 1960s New York. The eclectic, starry cast includes Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund and John Goodman. And to go with the Cannes world premiere, the film launched its first trailer this week. It looks pretty unmissable, and is being released to target awards season.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Cannes Film Festival Kicks Off, Coen Brothers' & James Franco Are Potential Award Winners, Michael Douglas Portrays Liberace In Behind The Candelabra And Much More!

Michael Douglas Stuns As Liberace In 'Behind The Candelabra' [Trailer & Pictures]


Michael Douglas Steven Soderbergh Matt Damon Dan Aykroyd Debbie Reynolds Rob Lowe HBO Liberace

Michael Douglas as Liberace in Behind The CandelabraMichael Douglas as Liberace in Behind The Candelabra

Steven Soderbergh lands in sunny Cannes this week with his HBO movie Behind the Candelabra, a biopic of the flamboyant pianist Liberace, played by Michael Douglas. The American entertainer's personal life was embroiled in scandal with rumors of homosexuality which he always vehemently denied - this despite his close relationship with a young chauffeur named Scott, 39-years his junior.

Scott, played by Matt Damon, becomes an important figure in the pianist's life and he is even persuaded to under facial surgery by the pianist. It led to a desperate struggle with drugs and various fiery arguments between the pair. "I didn't want to do a biopic in the traditional sense. I wanted to go narrow and deep," Soderbergh told the Los Angeles Times of the movie, "It's Alice going down the rabbit hole. That's a much more elegant way to get into Liberace's life." On his love scenes with Damon, Michael Douglas told the New York Magazine, "Once you get that first kiss in, you are comfortable.Matt and I didn't rehearse the love scenes. We said, 'Well - we've read the script, haven't we?"

Watch the 'Behind the Candelabra' trailer!

Continue reading: Michael Douglas Stuns As Liberace In 'Behind The Candelabra' [Trailer & Pictures]

Behind the Candelabra Trailer


Liberace was an American pianist and entertainer well-known for his flamboyant lifestyle and the sense of grandiose he carried about with him. His personal life was embroiled in scandal with rumours of homosexuality which he vehemently denied. While everyone saw him as a figure of extravagance and individuality, behind closed doors was a turbulent relationship with a young chauffeur 39 years his junior. Scott Thorson became an important figure in Liberace's life; not only as a driver, but also like a son, a brother and a best friend. They embarked on a 5 year affair that saw Liberace persuade Scott into facial surgery to resemble himself, something which led to a desperate struggle with drugs on Scott's part and many a fiery argument between them. Just what was life for Liberace like behind the glitz and glamour of his luxurious existence?

Continue: Behind the Candelabra Trailer

Dark Rooms, Bans And Bolshy Women: How The Cannes Jury Choose The Palme D'Or Winner


Stephen Frears Cannes Film Festival Steven Spielberg Quentin Tarantino Coen Brothers Nicole Kidman Ang Lee David Fincher Nicolas Winding Refn Michael Gray Steven Soderbergh Alexander Payne

What it's like to sit on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival and have the power to present the director of the very best movie with the prestigious Palme d'Or? This year, Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz bring a touch of Hollywood A-list glamor to the event and will spent 10 days in darkened screening rooms debating each of the movies in competition.

British director Stephen Fears headed the jury in 2007, when he and his team chose Romanian movie 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days as the Palme d'Or winner ahead of the Coen's No Country For Old Men, David Fincher's Zodiac, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. "They were very anti-American, the jury. But I kept saying that American films are watched all over the world. This cut no ice with a few bolshy women on the jury," Frears told the BBC ahead of the Festival this week, "I don't know, you try and behave sensibly. I hear all those stories about people manipulating things, but there didn't seem to be any of that. There were no orders from above - nobody tried to interfere, but there were a few basic rules which you had to follow," he added.

Sitting in a darkened room and watching the very best movies of the year before anyone else sounds pretty fantastic right? "...you're terrified of is going to sleep," said Frears, "...so I had coffee brought to me to stay awake - it was manageable. I didn't write notes but I had a friend with me and she and I would discuss the film afterwards." On whether he still recognised that he had chosen the best movie in competition, Frears was unequivocal, saying, "Oh yes, it was a wonderful, original film. I'm sure it benefitted from winning, it was a very accessible film. I'm sure if you spoke to distributors, I'm sure they would say Michael Haneke's film [2012 Palme d'Or and Oscar-winner] Amour has done really well."

Continue reading: Dark Rooms, Bans And Bolshy Women: How The Cannes Jury Choose The Palme D'Or Winner

Why Steven Soderbergh's Final Movie 'Side Effects' Could Well Be His Best


Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh has made no secret of the fact he is taking an indefinite break from the movie business to focus on his painting, though his parting gift - provocative thriller 'Side Effects' - may well be considered one of Hollywood's finest swansongs. The movie stars Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum as a successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily's psychiatrist (Jude Law) intended to treat anxiety has unexpected side effects.

The notoriously hard-to-please Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw gave the movie a wildly positive review, writing, "What a gripping and disturbing thriller this is. Surely it can't be Soderbergh's last movie. Say it ain't so." It's certainly a shame to be losing Soderbergh, an accomplished filmmaker best known for Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean's Eleven, Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Contagion. On the eve of its UK release, Ben Walters of Time Out magazine talked up Side Effects, writing, "As a thriller in the Hitchcock mould, 'Side Effects' is great fun: its characters are well acted without being entirely likeable, which makes their jeopardy all the more enjoyable while putting us at a clinical remove." Ian Freer of Empire Magazine was another to mourn the loss of Soderbergh from the movie world, writing, "We may lose Soderbergh to painting, theatre and HBO-fuelled TV, and that's a crying shame. If that's the case, Side Effects is a great note on which to go out."

As Freer notes, the director's departure shouldn't take the emphasis away from a great movie, featuring strong performances from Hollywood's rising stars Tatum and Mara, and the now-veteran Jude Law. 

Continue reading: Why Steven Soderbergh's Final Movie 'Side Effects' Could Well Be His Best

Side Effects Trailer


Emily Hawkins once thought that her relationship with her husband couldn't be more perfect, however she is forced to come to terms with his absence when he is sent to prison and therefore struggles to cope with her mixed feelings and subsequent anxiety on his return. In a bid to progress to feelings of normality again, Emily consults a psychiatrist who prescribes her a drug to help her cope again. It seems to work well and gradually begins to help rebuild Emily and her husband's relationship. However, things take a tragic turn when a woman is mysteriously murdered and Emily and her psychiatrist seem to be the two people who are facing blame. Not only that, but when evidence arises suggesting the pair had a relationship other than a professional one, Emily stops knowing who she can trust anymore. 

This complex psychological thriller is set to 'wow' cinematic audiences with its thrilling plot, all star cast and direction from the Oscar winning Steven Soderbergh ('Ocean's Eleven', 'Contagion', 'Magic Mike'). With a screenplay written by the BAFTA nominated Scott Z. Burns ('The Bourne Ultimatum', 'Contagion'), it's nothing short of expertly put together and definitely in line for several film award nominations on its release on March 15th 2013.

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Continue: Side Effects Trailer

Contagion Review


Excellent
Soderbergh applies his brainier brand of filmmaking to the global outbreak thriller genre, and the result is a hugely gripping blockbuster that never talks down to its audience. It's also terrifyingly believable as we watch a deadly flu virus spread around the world.

In Minneapolis, Mitch (Damon) is horrified when his wife (Paltrow) comes home from a business trip to China, collapses with the flu and dies. But she's only the first of a series of similar cases around the world, and soon officials from the Centers for Disease Control (Winslet, Fishburne and Ehle) and the World Health Organisation (Cotillard) are on the case, trying to manage emerging clusters while tracing the disease back to its source. Meanwhile, a blog hack (Law) is pestering a San Francisco scientist (Gould) for a cure.

Continue reading: Contagion Review

The Informant! Trailer


Watch the trailer for The Informant!

Continue: The Informant! Trailer

Schizopolis Review


Good
Hovering somewhere among a botched experiment, a sneaky assault on modern-day life and cinema, and the greatest home movie ever made is Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis. Made at the tail end of the indie-film part of Soderbergh's career (which started off with Sex, Lies & Videotape in 1989 and provided diminishing returns afterwards), and right before he banged into the mainstream with Out of Sight in 1998, it has a no-holds-barred kind of frustrated genius to it that, even though it doesn't always provide rewarding viewing, is definitely worth a peek.

As far as the "story" can be described, Soderbergh himself (in his only starring role) plays Fletcher Munson, who works for the L. Ron Hubbard-like New Age prophet T. Azimuth Schwitters (Mike Malone). A pale-faced wage slave, Munson haunts his cubicle, doing nothing, and occasionally nipping off to the office bathroom to masturbate and make funny faces in the mirror. Meanwhile, there's some strange goings on involving bug exterminator Elmo Oxygen (David Jensen), who darts about the city in his jumpsuit and goggles, romancing housewives and speaking entirely in seemingly randomly-generated, Rorschach-blot dialogue ("nose army ... throbbing dust generation ... beef diaper"). Then, Soderbergh shows up playing the other major character, dentist Dr. Jeffrey Korchek, who, to be quite honest, isn't nearly as interesting as Munson, who at least gets to write reams of meaningless babble for Schwitters to spout in public. This sideline with Korchek doesn't distract much, though, from Elmo Oxygen's rants, or scenes of office politicking with Munson's co-worker, Nameless Numberhead Man - both hilarious in a Theater of the Absurd sort of way.

Continue reading: Schizopolis Review

Waking Life Review


Essential
Today, most films are bloated, uninteresting, narrative-driven drivel, filled with beautiful people, a hit soundtrack, and closely following the storyline of some bestseller close enough so that it doesn't offend a legion of Oprah's Book Club readers. Waking Life is something altogether different, a work of abstract art that recalls Buñuel, Lynch, and Cocteau.

Most people will not understand Waking Life. Some will find it to be one of the most brilliant pieces of film ever produced. I found it to be beyond words; a combination of film, groundbreaking computer animation, and a difficult and profane script that produces a sublime interpretation of existence.

Continue reading: Waking Life Review

Waking Life Review


Very Good

Watching "Waking Life" is like eavesdropping on a theoretical discourse between Kierkegaard and Kerouac, while standing in a modern art museum as the paintings come to life and melt into your visual cortex.

An eye-popping, mind-blowing, groundbreaking piece of stream-of-consciousness pop-art philosophy, director Richard Linklater has created a film that turns the notions of dreaming and reality inside out, both visually and conceptually, while telling an absorbing tale of a off-beat teenage boy (Wiley Wiggins) trying to wrap his head around a ponderous waking dream from which he can't seem to escape.

Linklater ("Slacker," "SubUrbia") shot the film on digital video with dozens of actors (some of note, some unknown) playing nameless denizens of the real world and of the kid's subconscious. They're characters from whom he soaks up random abstract ideas on everything from transcendence and reincarnation to collective memory to the existence of free will.

Continue reading: Waking Life Review

Steven Soderbergh

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Steven Soderbergh Movies

Logan Lucky Trailer

Logan Lucky Trailer

Jimmy and Clyde Logan are two down-and-out brothers from West Virginia. Jimmy has been fired...

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Behind The Candelabra Trailer

Behind The Candelabra Trailer

An extraordinary tale of friendship and romance is set to hit our screens as the...

Behind the Candelabra Trailer

Behind the Candelabra Trailer

Liberace was an American pianist and entertainer well-known for his flamboyant lifestyle and the sense...

Side Effects Trailer

Side Effects Trailer

Emily Hawkins once thought that her relationship with her husband couldn't be more perfect, however...

Contagion Movie Review

Contagion Movie Review

Soderbergh applies his brainier brand of filmmaking to the global outbreak thriller genre, and the...

Haywire Trailer

Haywire Trailer

Mallory Kane is a highly trained freelance covert operative who works for the American Government...

The Girlfriend Experience Trailer

The Girlfriend Experience Trailer

Watch the trailer for The Girlfriend Experience There's big money to be made if you're...

The Informant! Trailer

The Informant! Trailer

Watch the trailer for The Informant! Mark Whitacre is a successful businessman, he works at...

Oceans Thirteen Trailer

Oceans Thirteen Trailer

Oceans Thirteen Trailer StreamWhat are the odds of getting even?Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and the...

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