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J.C. Chandor, who raced from Margin Call to All Is Lost to A Most Violent Year, has left the director’s chair of the upcoming film Deepwater Horizon. The reason? Our old friend “creative differences,” at least as far as the official knowledge base goes. Now, coming in to replace him, is Peter Berg, whose most recent film was Lone Survivor. The link to the new Deepwater Horizon director may be Mark Wahlberg, who is set to star in the film, and was also the lead in Lone Survivor.

The Wrap reports; Lionsgate and Participant Media are backing the film, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing.

The film is based on the New York Times article ‘Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hour’ by David Barstow, David Rohde, and Stephanie Saul, which chronicled how the explosion on a Gulf of Mexico oil rig in 2010 killed 11 people, injured 17 more, and spilled oil into the gulf for months.

Liam Neeson and Michael Keaton may also end up co-starring in the new movie, which follows the events of the 2010 BP oil spill. Mark Wahlberg will play Mike Williams, who was the supervisor on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, after which the movie is obviously named. We don’t know what the roles for Neeson and Keaton might be.

Matthew Michael Carnahan, who wrote Berg’s film The Kingdom, is scripting.

Deepwater Horizon is set for release on September 30, 2016.

The post Peter Berg Takes Over ‘Deepwater Horizon’ From J.C. Chandor appeared first on /Film.

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Many people today don’t realize it, but much of modern comedy was born at the National Lampoon. John Hughes, Al Jean, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, John Landis, Ivan Reitman and John Belushi are just some of the famous names who got their start through something related to the once-popular humor magazine, created in 1970.

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon, directed by Douglas Tirola, tells the complete history of this incredible brand. Simultaneously, the film documents much of the humor we love today: Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, and more. Below, read the rest of our Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead review.

The best thing Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead has going for it is the energy and humor of the National Lampoon. The film moves along at an MTV pace, bombarding the viewer with hilarious images, headlines and articles from the decades of the magazine. The talking heads are equally impressive: names like Chase, Landis, Reitman, Belushi’s widow Judy Belushi Pisano, Judd Apatow, Kevin Bacon, Tim Matheson, Billy Bob Thornton and many more. There’s always something funny on the screen, even if it doesn’t quite mesh with the story being told.

That story follows Douglas Kenney and Henry Beard, the two friends who started the National Lampoon after attending Harvard and built it into a massive empire. Each man was a brilliant talent, but they were very different from one another, and their personalities are sort of the backbone of the film. Kenney provides the wild, over-the-top energy. Beard is the more organized and quiet rock of the organization. Those two tones pretty much sum up the movie, very serious on one hand, but also crazy.

The film then gets into the massively influential National Lampoon radio show, stage plays, and eventually Animal House and Caddyshack, which kind of changed everything in different ways. Along the way, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead also takes time to step back and reveal how the humor in the Lampoon was perfect for its time. It’s very thorough.

If you know anything about the National Lampoon, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, probably won’t blow you away. But I didn’t, so it did, and no matter what, the film is a must-watch for anyone interested in the history of pop culture.

/Film rating: 8 of 10

The post ‘Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon’ Is a Must-Watch for Anyone Who Loves Pop Culture [Sundance 2015] appeared first on /Film.

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When it comes to superhero movies, fans are sticklers. They don’t want the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films to link to the Tobey Maguire films. That wouldn’t make sense. They get angry when a studio casts the Human Torch as Captain America. How can one actor be both? The lone exception in all of this might be J. Jonah Jameson, played by J.K. Simmons. There’s no other character and actor pair that fans are not only willing to accept crossing film “universes” — they demand it.

The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb got around this by not including the character in his films at all, but in a new interview, Simmons said he’s heard Spider-Man might be coming back. And he’d love to return, too. Read and listen to the J.K. Simmons Spider Man quotes below.

Simmons appeared on the January 28th episode of Sirius XM’s The Howard Stern Show. At the very end, he was asked about Spider-Man. You can hear the interview at this link, but here’s the conversation:

Stern: Hey, we doing another [Spider-Man] or what?

Simmons: I just heard that we…that’s a possibility.

Stern: Would you do it?

Simmons: Absolutely.

The fact Simmons is interested in reprising the character isn’t that big of a deal. What is a big deal is he said he heard it’s a possibility that there’s another Spider-Man movie. Here’s the issue though. Is he just referring to what we’ve all heard about some kind of new film coming out, be it Amazing Spider-Man 3, an animated version, Sinister Six or something else? Or is Simmons talking about something behind the scenes we don’t know about? Something that he’d be a part of? It’s not 100% clear but is open to both interpretations for sure.

In the case of Spider-Man, where the main character himself is up in the air, I tend to believe Simmons is talking in more general terms. J. Jonah Jameson would probably not be the first person to hear about a new Spider-Man movie. Unless, because he’s on the Oscar tour, he’s spoken to some Sony/Marvel bigwigs.

What do you think Simmons is referring to here?

The post J.K. Simmons and Spider-Man: Actor Hints at J. Jonah Jameson’s Return appeared first on /Film.

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