Olivia Wilde To Direct Biopic 'Perfect' On Olympic Hero Kerri Strug

Following on the heels of her Indie Spirit Award-winning Booksmart, it should come as no surprise Olivia Wilde is one of the hottest filmmakers around. And she's been quick to capitalize with a number of upcoming projects, including one on Olympic champion gymnast Kerri Strug.

Wilde will direct Perfect, a film about Olympian gymnast Kerri Strug, who became famous when she battled through injury to land her final vault and secure Team USA's first gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The image of her landing on her one good ankle, then being carried to the medal podium are some of the most iconic in the competition's history, and made Strug an American hero.

The script will be penned by Ronnie Sandahl, who wrote the excellent tennis biopic Borg/McEnroe, and is based on Strug's book, Landing On My Feet, A Diary Of Dreams. Buyers are already starting to line up to purchase the rights, with Searchlight Pictures leading the way. Others in pursuit include Warner Bros., A24, and at least one streaming service, so expect a big deal to be announced soon, and that's without even knowing who will play the role of Strug. Usually, these packages come with a big star attached, and I wouldn't be surprise if someone is named very soon.  [Deadline]

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'Wake Up' Trailer: Olivia Wilde's 'Booksmart' Followup Is A Short Starring Margaret Qualley

While her directorial debut Booksmart may have been shut out of the Oscars (unfairly, depending on who you ask), Olivia Wilde's comedy was one of best-reviewed movies of the year. That's got a lot of people eager to see what she'll be doing behind the camera next. Well, if you were here at Sundance you could check out her next film, a short titled Wake Up, starring The Leftovers' Margaret Qualley.

Teaming with legendary cinematographer Matty Libatique (A Star is Born), Wilde tells a story blending multiple styles, with Qualley "as a woman awakened to a world she doesn't recognize, one where people are more engaged with screens and devices than with each other. She sets out on a journey to find connection in a disconnected world and relearn what it means to be human."

Wake Up will have its world premiere here at Sundance tomorrow, January 24th. Wilde's already working on her next feature, Don't Worry, Darling, alongside Booksmart writer Katie Silberman.

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Review: 'Richard Jewell', Clint Eastwood Goes On The Attack To Defend A Tragic Hero

The name Richard Jewell shouldn't be famous. If the tragic events of July 27th 1996 hadn't have happened, it wouldn't be. He was a normal guy; an overweight security guard with a spotty job history and a pleasant but forgettable demeanor. Jewell would probably be considered a doormat by some folks for being too nice. But those events of July 27th 1996 did happen; a terrorist did set off an improvised bomb at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta; and Jewell was the one who first discovered it. If that were all there was to it, Jewell would be remembered as a momentary hero, someone who was at the right place at the right time. But it's what happened after that which has cemented Jewell's name, and given Clint Eastwood a provocative story to rally around.

While Eastwood's grizzled, keep off my lawn/don't tread on me perspective has only become more prominent over the years, it has never been as distinct as in Richard Jewell. Corrupt government officials in the FBI and a venomous news media lurk in the shadows, ready to unleash a power-mad scheme to destroy common, every day Joe Blow. To be fair, Eastwood has plenty to go on to make that kind of assertion, which is why this feels like the most invested he's been behind the camera.

Jewell, played by I, Tonya and BlackKklansman goof Paul Walter Hauser, is first seen as a congenial office clerk. That's where he met aggressive attorney Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell), and kept his stash of Snickers bars stocked, and occasionally joined him for video games at the nearby arcade. But Jewell has aspirations of getting into law enforcement, but they're scary aspirations. He eventually gets his wish, but stints as a cop, then a campus security guard, are cut short by his overzealous nature. It's the kind of undisciplined zeal and need to command authority that, under the wrong temperament, turns men like George Zimmerman into killers of the innocent. But Jewell isn't violent, it doesn't seem to be in his nature at all. He is by all accounts a good person just trying to do the right thing, albeit the wrong way.

That makes him both the most perfect and most imperfect person to find that bomb on July 27th in Olympic Park. The police officers don't even believe him at first, seeing Jewell as just some chubby wannabe cop. But when forced to accept that he's not making it up, it's only moments later the explosion occurs. The injuries were vast, but it would've been much worse if Jewell hadn't began warning people to get away. He became an instant celebrity, risen to the status of hero by a media which needed something good to come out of this horrible tragedy. And then they turned on him.

Eastwood captures the rapidity of Jewell's fall from grace; so quick the sleepy-eyed Jewell doesn't even see it happening. Within days he's gone from hero to terrorist, throwing his life, and that of his concerned mother Bobi (Kathy Bates, terrific) into upheaval. It's quick enough to make your head spin, but comes at the price of a wildly unflattering portrayal of journalist Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde), who destroys Jewell with a single headline. A man-eater it is suggested who uses sex to get the big stories, Scruggs is painted as the ugliest of female stereotypes and nothing is done to contradict that. Something tells me if Scruggs were still around she'd be filing the kind of defamation suit that Jewell filed against her outlet, of which she was eventually exonerated. Jon Hamm plays FBI agent Tom Parker who, after succumbing to Scruggs' charms, then goes on a crusade to crucify Jewell. Between Parker and Scruggs, the constant humiliation of Jewell in the news media is constant, and Hauser's sympathetic performance has you wanting the guy to get a win.

That said, Eastwood and screenwriter Billy Ray do a better job rounding out Jewell as a real person than they do his one-note enemies. Jewell is often his own worst enemy. His reverence for law enforcement has him giving in to pretty much anything they ask, much to the chagrin of Bryant, who agrees to become Jewell's attorney. Bryant's frustration bubbles over more than once at Jewell's casual treatment towards the people trying to send him to Death Row. Jewell just wants so badly to be a cop that he's afraid of going against them. It also doesn't help that Jewell fits a certain kind of profile; a frustrated white guy obsessed with law enforcement, with need to be the center of attention. Oh, and he owns dozens of guns. "It's Georgia", is the only defense he can mount to the flabbergasted Bryant, who understands all too well that perception is often reality. Bryant, a perfect stand-in for Eastwood himself, has an office with a poster boasting "I fear government more than I fear terrorism." Even his assistant, a Russian woman (played by Nina Arianda), says “Where I come from, when the government says someone’s guilty, that’s how you know they’re innocent." One can imagine Eastwood chuckling to an empty chair over that one.

What emerges is a strange coming-of-age drama in which Jewell learns to remove the rose-colored glasses and look at the world with more skepticism. The actual merits of the FBI investigation aren't explored with any real depth, perhaps because it makes sense for Hauser to be a cursory subject as the person who found the bomb, the same way spouses are investigated when the other dies suspiciously. The driving force of Richard Jewell is Eastwood himself, who relishes his working-class hero (these characters are a constant for him) and longs to give the man his due. He puts Jewell bravely in the heart of the action during the bombing scene; while others are partying or loafing around. It's a few minutes of terrific tension, and we forget how good Eastwood can be at scenes like this, while employing his no-frills style to maximum effect. The minimalism of it actually helps in capturing the gravity of the situation, and Jewell emerges as the protector he always saw himself as. Richard Jewell may go way overboard in criticizing forces Eastwood has little respect for, but it does much to honor Jewell's simple heroism, and hopefully will inspire that in the rest of us.

3 out of 5

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Eastwood Takes Us back to '96 in Trailer for Olympic Bombing Film 'Richard Jewell'

Clint Eastwood is 112 years old and still making hard hitting films better then most could in their prime (Editor's Note: Eastwood is really a spry 89). This time around he's pulled in major talent in the form of Sam Rockwell (this writer's favorite working actor), John Hamm, and Olivia Wilde to tackle the story of Richard Jewell. For those under 30 or who, like most of us, have pretty much forgotten this story in the slew of stories like it since 9/11, Richard Jewell was a campus security guard who found a bomb in the Olympic Village during the summer games of 1996. His warning saved countless lives and he was hailed as a hero....until the media got a hold of the fact that he was being looked at by the FBI as a suspect. What followed was a premature and ultimately incorrect public media prosecution that ruined a mans life.

While Eastwood probably has his own political motivations for tackling the subject it is still a very important story that needs to be told, today more then ever. The 24 hour news cycle does great things, however it, with the cooperation of a willing public, has a tendency to jump to conclusions which aren't always correct. In our headline knowledge world the details have become increasingly incidental so hopefully this film will make people take a closer look at things from time to time.

The film itself looks beautiful from the trailer alone and provides a weight to the proceedings that could go missed. Hamm, Wilde, and Rockwell all seem to be bringing their A-game but the big surprise here is relative unknown Paul Walter Hauser, who plays the title character. Again, only judging from a trailer but the performance beats we get speak to a memorable performance at a minimum.  The film comes out in time for Oscar consideration and it has the feel of a contender, I emphasize again this is only from seeing the trailer but I wouldn't be shocked to here Hauser name bounded around when nomination time comes.

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Olivia Wilde Is Reteaming With 'Booksmart' Writer On A Psychological Thriller

If you loved Olivia Wilde's Booksmart and are upset the film didn't get enough love, just know that the partnership between Wilde and writer Katie Silberman is going strong. They're partnering up on two projects post-Booksmart, both for Universal. One is a holiday comedy, the other will see Wilde turning her talents to the thriller genre.

I missed this while at Comic-Con, but Wilde has agreed to direct an untitled holiday comedy penned by Silberman. Universal won a fierce bidding war for the project, which was pitched by Wilde and Silberman. So far it's unclear who will star in it and if anybody from the Booksmart cast will be involved.

Next, Wilde has agreed to direct psychological thriller Don't Worry, Darling, with Silberman rewriting a script originally penned by  Shane and Carey Van Dyke. Details are thin, but it's apparently going to follow an unhappy housewife in the 1950s.  So like a Far from Heaven only more deadly?

It's unclear which film will go first, but does it really matter? This is terrific news in that Wilde showed herself to be a real talent behind the camera, and having her and Silberman creating more great female characters is something Hollywood needs.  [Deadline/Variety]

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Clint Eastwood's 'The Ballad Of Richard Jewell' Adds Jon Hamm And Olivia Wilde

All respect to Sam Rockwell, he's an amazing actor deserving of all the accolades in the world. However, star power he doesn't really bring in spades. Last week he was cast alongside Paul Walter Hauser (Who? Oh yeah, the funny guy from I, Tonya) to lead Clint Eastwood's The Ballad of Richard Jewell. Promising duo for sure, but bigger names are needed and that's what Eastwood has now.

Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, and Kathy Bates are the latest to join The Ballad of Richard Jewell, or just Richard Jewell depending on who you ask. If you don't know the story of Jewell, it's pretty tragic and shows how our conspiracy theory culture can destroy lives. Jewell was a security guard during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and discovered a suspicious package that turned out to be a bomb. He helped clear the area and saved a number of lives, but when he was falsely accused of being a suspect, it ruined his life and career. The FBI cleared him three months later but the damage to his reputation and health was done.

Hauser is set to play Jewell with Rockwell as his defense attorney. Hamm will play an FBI agent involved in the case, with Wilde as real-life reporter Kathy Scruggs who covered it. Unclear is whether they are the two involved with outing Jewell as a suspect. Bates will play Jewell's mother.

Wilde is coming off her critically-acclaimed (but woefully underseen) directorial debut, Booksmart. Hamm can be seen in the Good Omens series on Amazon, and has upcoming roles in Top Gun: Maverick and Lucy in the Sky.

The Ballad of Richard Jewell begins filming soon and should easily make a 2020 release. [Variety]

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Review: 'Booksmart', Olivia Wilde's Hilarious, Perceptive And Cool Teen Comedy Is One Of The Year's Best

The genius of Olivia Wilde's raucous, inspired teen comedy Booksmart is that it doesn't attempt to reinvent the wheel. High school comedies are always representative of a certain generation but the themes are always consistent. Combining the best of John Hughes with the rebellious attitude of Lady Bird, the raunchy energy of Superbad, the awkward isolation of Eighth Grade, and so much more, what separates Booksmart most is that it centers on two brilliant adventure-seeking girls.

The female perspective is crucial to reinvigorating a stale formula and totally flipping the genre on its head. Beanie Feldstein (whose brother Jonah Hill starred in Booksmart's spiritual cousin, Superbad) and Kaitlyn Dever are best friends Molly and Amy, two bookish seniors on the cusp of graduation and an Ivy League future. They've spent their high school years studying hard and looking down on the hard-partying jocks, the drunks, the perceived sluts who are destined to spend their lives pumping gas.

Oh, but wait...those class clowns...they got into the same exclusive schools. And they had fun. What the Hell were Molly and Amy doing all this time?  Even the school stoner turns out to be so smart he'd going to be a millionaire as a tech wiz. This cannot stand. With one last blowout bash before graduation, the girls decide it's finally time to crash a party and cut loose. They've got a lot of lost time to make up for.

What follows is a madcap race through the city, with diversion at a tacky boat party thrown by the "trying too hard" nerdy rich kid (Skyler Gisondo), a detour at murder dinner party led by the theatre students, and a brief stop to hijack a pizza delivery guy. The party is the destination, but the journey, which sees Molly and Amy trying to hold on to this little slice of freedom before a seemingly pre-destined future is where the film is at its best. For once, we have a high school comedy led by a couple of hyper-intelligent females and not a bunch of moronic dudes looking to get laid. The perspective matters in contextualizing Molly and Amy's relationship, while also upending our expectations.

Not to say that getting laid is out of the equation, but you won't find anybody poking an apple pie or anything. A teddy bear, maybe.  Amy hopes to finally talk to a cute skater chick she's been eyeing for years but has always been scared to approach. Molly, who has all of the aggressive political aspirations and subtlety of  Election's Tracy Flick, secretly has eyes for jock/class VP Nick, who is kind of an idiot. The film shoots down notions that girls handle this whole romance thing with any more maturity than guys, because clearly they don't. But also, there's quite a lot of sex positivity in the screenplay credited to four female writers. Amy's homosexuality is only made a big deal by Molly, who enjoys needling her friend's all-too-accepting conservative parents (played by Lisa Kudrow and Will Forte). There's even a lot to say about women who slut shame other women, and the real emotional harm it can cause.

Feldstein and Dever make as great a mismatched pair as Jonah Hill and Michael Cera were in Superbad. Both films tread on similar ground, setting themselves on the cusp of graduation when you're excited about what comes next but terrified of letting go from the familiar. Molly is the more outgoing of the two, while Amy is more measured, but together they both are prone to unpredictable wild streaks. While their relationship goes through some ups and downs, and there's a point where we see that closeness can be rather toxic, there's nothing but love there and that's obvious from the start. You can also tell both stars had a real blast making this movie, and making it for Wilde in her directorial debut. Wilde keeps the energy moving briskly and chooses an absolutely mint selection of old school hip-hop jams (Hey, she's from my generation!). The sheer number of screenwriters does cause for a bit of inconsistency in the style of humor, and I would say the Murder Mystery dinner scene is a drag, and some of the sentimentality is laid on pretty thick, but overall the funny far outweighs the lame.

A big reason to thank for that is the supporting cast. Billie Lourd has been great in just about everything, and she's the definite scene-stealer here as spacey, blissed-out Gigi who seems to show up everywhere she's least expected. Wilde finds a sympathetic role for her husband Jason Sudeikis as a principal trying to make ends meet in an embarrassing fashion, and the always-welcome Jessica Williams shines as the school's most popular teacher and is perhaps still too close to her own teenage years. Hilarious, perceptive, and contemporary, Booksmart has the makings of a classic, and could be the start of an amazing directorial career for Wilde.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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'Booksmart' Red Band Trailer: Olivia Wilde's Directorial Debut Gives Zero F*cks

Annapurna have done a bang-up job marketing Olivia Wilde's high school comedy, Booksmart. While I had feared it would get walloped this week by Disney's Aladdin (To be fair, it still might), it now seems to have set itself for success either as some clever counterprogramming or as a future cult classic. The buzz for this film has been off the charts, and although my review can't go up for a few days I will say I agree with everything being said about it.

A new red band trailer has dropped, unnecessarily I think, giving us one final look at the film which stars Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever as bookish high school seniors who realize all of their hard work didn't get them any special treatment. The kids they perceived as losers all got into the same exclusive schools, so the girls decide to cram four years' worth of partying into a single night. Basically, it's Superbad from a female perspective and that really counts for something, especially in the way they talk about sex and other frank topics.

Put Booksmart on your must-see list for this week.  The film marks Wilde's directorial debut, and co-stars Skyler Gisondo, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, Jessica Williams, Billie Lourd, and Jason Sudeikis. Check out the trailer below plus the movie's first six minutes.

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'Booksmart' Trailer: Olivia Wilde's High School Comedy Breaks All The Rules

Stop me if you've heard this one: a pair of straight-A high school students realize they've wasted their school years with too much studying, not enough partying, and so with graduation coming up they decide to cut loose for one wild night. It's been done, but what sets Olivia Wilde's directorial debut Booksmart apart from the rest is the chemistry between stars Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein.

Flipping the script on the usual gender dynamic instantly makes Booksmart different than something such as Superbad, which the film has been compared to ever since debuting at SXSW. Dever, best known for her work in Short Term 12 and Justified, along with Neighbors 2 and Lady Bird co-star Feldstein, are rising stars in the rare opportunity as headliners. The characters they play are more than best friends, and exploring how women react to the pressures of society and academia is a welcome change from the typical male nerd trying to get laid before graduation.

Booksmart has an uphill climb opening on May 24th when it will face Disney's live-action Aladdin, but I'm guessing the strong reviews could carry it to cult status.

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'Booksmart' Red Band Trailer: Olivia Wilde's Directorial Debut Looks Like A Female 'Superbad'

After a stretch of years in which it seemed like she was in everybody's movie, Olivia Wilde is in front of cameras a lot less nowadays. Part of the reason is she's beginning to spend more behind it, and last night saw the SXSW world premiere of her directorial debut, the raunchy comedy Booksmart, which has been described by some as the female version of Superbad. Sounds about right based on this red band trailer.

Starring Kaitlyn Dever of The Front Runner and Short Term 12 plus Neighbors 2's Beanie Feldstein, the film centers on two brilliant high school friends who decide they spent way too much in high school studying when they should've been partying. Also in the cast are Jessica Williams, Noah Galvin, Skyler Gisondo, Billie Lourd, Jason Sudeikis, Lisa Kudrow, and Will Forte. Can't complain about that.

Wilde has been building up to this by directing a handful of short films, a music video, and producing projects such as Drinking Buddies and Meadowland.  Booksmart will hit theaters on May 24th courtesy of A24.

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Review: 'Life Itself', Dan Fogelman Can't Even Ripoff 'This Is Us' Properly

I don't like to admit this sort of thing but in the case of Life Itself it must be done: I knew within about five minutes that I would hate this movie. Normally, I'm not given to passing judgement on anything so quickly but Dan Fogelman, the guy whose NBC show This is Us has all of your Facebook friends weeping every week, is so self-important and "clever" so early on that it sets the bad wheels in motion. Life Itself is a more pompous Collateral Beauty; a manipulative, preachy and contrived mess full of big stars punching well beneath their weight class.

The only one who is exactly where we expect him to be is Fogelman, who is basically giving you a two-hour version of This is Us. Which begs the question, "Why does it work on the small screen but not as a movie?" Commercial breaks? Life Itself is multigenerational and overwrought, following scads of characters who rarely if ever cross paths but are connected by an event. It's usually a terrible tragedy, but in this case it's like multiple tragedies. This damn movie is dark, and gets dark quick, but Fogelman tries to lighten it up with some narrative slight of hand. The irritation begins with Samuel L. Jackson, who both narrates the early going and appears as a version of himself, filling our heads with drivel about who the hero of the story will be. The narration in this movie always gives away whatever theme Fogelman wants to get across, because he doesn't have the capacity to express it through his characters, nor does he trust the audience to figure that shit out for themselves.

Tragedy befalls the apparent "hero", a therapist played by the great Annette Bening. But Fogelman pulls the rug out from us; that's not really the true opening of the movie. It's all just a façade. Why? Well, later narration has some obnoxious crap for us about unreliable narrators, too.

Divided into chapters to stress how incredibly serious-minded this whole thing is, the film stars Oscar Isaac as Will, a New York City neurotic who has fallen madly in love with Abby (Olivia Wilde). He believes they are a perfect couple, always meant to be. Flashbacks to their courtship in college show the level of Will's commitment to her and the book of corny shit no guy would ever say;  “I’m waiting for the right moment, because when I ask you out, there’s not going to be any turning back for me."

Oh yeah, that's a Fogelman.

But are Will and Abby really happy? What was that about unreliable narrators? The opening thirty minutes of the film are aggravating, but there's potential in exploring the way in which Will constructs fantasy in his head to cope with life's many twists and turns. See, life itself is unpredictable. That's a fine place to start for a movie, but that's pretty much all Life Itself is. At one point Abby comes up with a college thesis that is, literally, a regurgitation of the whole "life is unpredictable/shit happens" narrative. But like her school paper it is merely an idea and never really explored in a way that is meaningful.

Again, I blame Fogelman for this. Rather than creating characters for the audience to connect with he'd rather shock them with one heart-tugging tragedy after another. We're soon introduced to Will and Abby's daughter, Dylan (Olivia Cooke), who is named after, of course, Bob Dylan. If you're not a fan of the famous singer/songwriter then this movie will be like nails on a chalkboard, because his music is everywhere. And when it's not playing, his music is referenced repeatedly. Outside of her caring, protective grandfather (Mandy Patinkin, a real pleasure), Dylan's life is marked by loss, which has made her sullen and angry. Jump thousands of miles away to Spain, and we find out that Dylan's life is connected to another family. Javier (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) is a simple olive picker who has earned the respect of his co-workers and the notice of his wealthy boss, Mr. Saccione (Antoino Banderas). Promoted to foreman, Javier is now able to care for his new wife Isabel (the always-terrific Laia Costa, doing her best work yet), and young son Rodrigo (Alex Monner), who has dreams of going to New York City. Hmmmm....

Those who know Fogelman will be able to suss out this circular journey pretty quickly, not that knowing makes tolerating it any easier. The Spanish portion of the story, some of it subtitled but the crucial bits in English, have the benefit of gorgeous cinematography taking in the countryside's natural beauty. But there's a massive disconnect that Fogelman struggles to fix, and every attempt to do so strains credulity. It works much better when Fogelman stops trying to connect the dots and just lets the story unfold and his actors perform. Isaac is in full Inside Llewyn Davis mode here, showing humor and deep reservoirs of soulfulness and pain that nearly overshadow Fogelman's mawkish screenplay. Peris-Menchata, Banderas, and Costa are terrific, as well, grounding this drama in a way that it sorely needs. While telegraphed a mile away, the hero-or-villain dynamic between Javier and Saccione could be its own movie, and I would pay to see it. Unfortunately, it's just a small piece of an unfulfilling, obvious film that never earns the feelings it wants from viewers. Life itself may be unpredictable yet sadly Life Itself is anything but.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

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'Life Itself' Trailer: 'This Is Us' Creator Leads Oscar Isaac Through A Multigenerational Romance

An ensemble love story that spans generations? Better call Dan Fogelman! The creator of phenom TV series This Is Us (The one that has all your friends in tears each week) is bringing his talent for multigenerational romantic drama to the silver screen with Life Itself, and the first trailer for it is here.

Starring Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Mandy Patinkin, Laia Costa, Olivia Cooke, Annette Bening, Samuel L. Jackson, and Antonio Banderas, the film follows the intersecting stories of people in New York and Spain across generations. One look at the trailer will probably have This Is Us regulars swooning, but Fogelman isn't making it easy to figure out the catalyzing event that connects his characters.

Here is the official synopsis: As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes in Life Itself. Director and writer Dan Fogelman (“This Is Us”) examines the perils and rewards of everyday life in a multigenerational saga featuring an international ensemble including Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Antonio Banderas, Annette Bening, Olivia Cooke, Sergio Peris- Mencheta, Laia Costa, Alex Monner and Mandy Patinkin. Set in New York City and Carmona, Spain, Life Itself celebrates the human condition and all of its complications with humor, poignancy and love.

Life Itself opens September 21st.

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'Life Itself' Trailer: 'This Is Us' Creator And Oscar Isaac Bring Multigenerational Drama To The Big Screen

Dan Fogelman has millions of viewers in tears each with his multigenerational series drama, This Is Us. So can he replicate that kind of success on the big screen with another love story that spans generations and follows people from all walks of life? Amazon Studios is hoping so, and they're expecting big things from Life Itself, which stars Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde.

Amazon debuted the first teaser during tonight's season finale of This Is Us. The story is pure Fogelman, following various characters all around the world who are connected in some way. Along with Isaac and Wilde the film includes Annette Bening, Laia Costa, Olivia Cooke, Antonio Banderas, and Mandy Patinkin. Here's the official synopsis:

“‘Life Itself’ centers on a couple (Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde) which leads a multigenerational love story spanning both decades and continents, from the streets of New York to the Spanish countryside, and are all connected by a single event.”

Life Itself opens in theaters on September 21st.

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Samuel L. Jackson, Laia Costa, And More Join Oscar Isaac In 'Life Itself'

If it feels like everyone around you is watching This Is Us (And sobbing at every episode), it's probably true. Series creator Dan Fogelman is finding the biggest success of his career on the small screen, but he's also got a pretty healthy thing going on as a film director. The Crazy Stupid Love writer and Danny Collins director is moving forward on his next project, Life Itself, which already has Oscar Isaac set to star. And now he's rounded out the ensemble with an impressive array of talent.

Joining Isaac are Samuel L. Jackson, Olivia Wilde, Olivia Cooke, Laia Costa, and Antonio Banderas. The multi-generational drama follows a group of people who are all connected by one tragic event, with Isaac and Wilde the lovestruck couple at the center of it.  Yep, that sounds like Fogelman alright.  Filming will kick off this spring.

That's a great international cast Fogelman's putting together but I'm especially happy to see Costa becoming more of a regular presence in American movies. The Spanish actress first came to our attention with her remarkable performance in Victoria, and I just had the pleasure of seeing her in Drake Doremus' Sundance drama, Newness, in which she was absolutely stunning. [Deadline]

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Liam Neeson Is 'The Trainer', Olivia Wilde Becomes 'A Vigilante', Abbie Cornish Joins 'Where Hands Touch'

Liam Neeson is rejoining his Michael Collins director Neil Jordan for The Trainer. And just because it sounds like the title for another of his forgettable action movies that isn't actually the case. He plays an Irish horse trainer overcome by grief after a tragedy, who bonds with a teenage refugee over a horse named Allabelle. Uh, where are the guns? Surely they must be in the plot somewhere. [Deadline]

Olivia Wilde has slowed down from her high of about four or five movies a year, taking time to raise a family and whatnot. But she's back and headlining crime drama A Vigilante, in which she plays a secretive figure known as The Woman, who helps victims of domestic abuse by getting rid of their attackers. The film is written and directed by Sarah Daggar Nickson, whose screenplay won Wilde over, tweeting that "it blew my fucking mind". [Deadline]

The underrated Abbie Cornish is joining the cast of Where Hands Touch, the latest film from Belle and A United Kingdom director, Amma Asante.  She's joined by Christopher Eccleston (The Leftovers) and Tom Sweet (The Childhood of a Leader), alongside the previously-cast Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games) and George McKay (Captain Fantastic). The 1944-set film takes place in Berlin and follows the relationship between a biracial German girl and a member of the Hitler youth. Shooting has already begun and frankly this is one of my most anticipated films of next year already.

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Review: 'Love the Coopers' Starring Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Ed Helms, and More

Few movies are as disappointing as one that raises your hopes only to let you down hard at the end.  From the outside, Love the Coopers looks like yet another cutesy, confluentialist holiday comedy in the vein of New Year's Eve, but at the scale of a single family gathering for Christmas dinner.  And if that's all it had been, I wouldn't be so frustrated.  But it spends most of its running time seeming like a much smarter story -- almost set out to undermine the sort of movie it's pretending to be -- before taking a hard turn at the end into exactly what it appeared to be all along.

The Coopers are Sam and Charlotte (John Goodman and Diane Keaton), living in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, and the extended family that's coming together for the holiday.  Charlotte's sister Emma (Marisa Tomei) will be there, and their father Bucky (Alan Arkin).  Their daughter Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) is flying in; their son Hank (Ed Helms), his kids Charlie (Timothée Chalamet), Bo (Maxwell Simkins), and Madison (Blake Baumgartner), and his ex-wife Angie (Alex Borstein) all live in the area.  Oh, and they're getting Sam's Aunt Fishy (June Squibb) out of the nursing home for the evening too.

Of course, everyone's got their problems.  Or at least most of them do; Aunt Fishy and Madison are largely around for comic relief.

Bo is upset at his parents' divorce and wants to earn his brother's respect, while Charlie cares more about the girl he likes.  The one-sided sibling rivalry is echoed in Emma's jealousy over Charlotte's life, which leads her to try -- and fail -- to steal a brooch from a local department store as a one-upping gift.  This leads to her arrest by Officer Williams (Anthony Mackie) and a long, winding drive around the city during which she tries to provide him impromptu counseling.

Eleanor has the usual dissonant relationship with her mother, and hangs out in the airport bar rather than go directly home.  It's here she meets Joe (Jake Lacy), a soldier headed to his own home for the holidays between boot camp and shipping out, but currently stuck with a cancelled flight.  They hit it off in an opposites-attract sort of way, and she asks him to fake being her boyfriend to avoid her mother's disappointment.

Hank has lost not only his marriage, but his job as a department store photographer, though he hasn't told anyone.  He's also nursing a crush on a young woman who came in with her family for a holiday card.  She just happens to be Ruby (Amanda Seyfried), the waitress at the diner where Bucky eats regularly, mostly to see her.  She's about to move out of town, desperate to make a change in her life, which comes as a real shock to Bucky.

But the biggest problem is between Charlotte and Sam: after forty years of marriage they've grown apart and Sam wants to call it quits.  Charlotte has made him promise one last "perfect Christmas" before he leaves, but the pressure of keeping up appearances is weighing on him.

The tone is all over the place, with some parts goofy and some parts almost somber.  And yet, for much of the movie this plays as a kind of exaggeration of the mood swings common to this genre.  Love the Coopers seems aware of what it is, and seems determined to deconstruct it.  More than once we hear a comment about how arbitrary the holidays are, and how weird it is to focus all our expectations of joy and happiness on a single day.  But that focus is key to a holiday movie like this; without it there's no reason to expect everyone's drama to come together in the same place and time.

Director Jessie Nelson finds plenty of creative expressions of fantasy as well.  Over and over we see what the characters imagine, often replaced immediately by the more pedestrian reality.  It highlights the artificial nature of these kinds of stories, showing us the "movie version" of the story before replacing it with something closer to real human relationships.

Until, that is, it doesn't.  The last twenty minutes depart radically from this strategy, fully embracing the artificial movie version of events, aimed towards resolving everyone's problems neatly and providing everyone a happy ending.  It's such a hard turn that I seriously wonder if Steven Rogers' original script continued in its more bittersweet direction, but the studio panicked after poor tests with audiences who wanted something more traditional.  The tone and even the language suddenly change, and whatever thoughtfulness Love the Coopers had built up vanishes into the cold winter's night.

Rating: 2 out of 5

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New Trailer for HBO's 'Vinyl' Smashes You Over the Head

The hook of HBO's drama series Vinyl isn't necessarily the sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, although that's a big part of it. It's really the synthesis of three incredibly powerful creative voices: Martin Scorsese, Boardwalk Empire writer Terence Winter, and Mick Jagger. The network debuted a brand new trailer tonight and it features all of their various influences.

"Think back to the time when you heard a song that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, made you want to dance, or go out and kick somebody's ass"! Bobby Cannavale plays the beleaguered studio exec on the search for exactly that song, and the hunt is riddled with...well, sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll. But there's also a good deal of violence, captured in a purely cinematic style we instantly recognize as Scorsese's.

This looks absolutely amazing, and the cast joining Cannavale isn't shabby, either. Juno Temple, Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano, Jack Quaid, and more co-star in Vinyl when it debuts in 2016.

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Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson Spiral Into Despair In the 'Meadowland' Trailer

Debuting to solid reviews at Tribeca earlier this year was Meadowland, the directorial debut by cinematographer Reed Morano. Having worked on the likes of Kill Your Darlings, Frozen River, Martin Scorsese's upcoming HBO series Vinyl, and many more, Morano has rubbed elbows with a lot of stars who show up in the film's new trailer.

Starring Olivia Wilde, Luke Wilson, Elisabeth Moss, Giovanni Ribisi, Ty Simpkins, Juno Temple, John Leguizamo, Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi, Merritt Weaver, Kevin Corrigan, and Mark Feuerstein, the story centers on a grieving couple spiraling into self-destruction after the death of their child. Here's the synopsis:

In the hazy aftermath of an unimaginable loss, Sarah (Olivia Wilde) and Phil (Luke Wilson) come unhinged, recklessly ignoring the repercussions. Phil starts to lose sight of his morals as Sarah puts herself in increasingly dangerous situations, falling deeper into her own fever dream. 

Meadowland hits theaters October 16th and VOD on October 22nd.

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Trailer for Spirited Holiday Comedy 'Love the Coopers' with Ed Helms, Amanda Seyfried, Diane Keaton, and More

What would the holidays be without an honest-to-goodness family Christmas comedy? Pretty darned empty, that's what. And this year a gaggle of stars have come down the chimney for Love the Coopers, a film full of yuletide cheer and more than its share of family squabbles.

Starring *deep breath* Ed Helms, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, June Squibb, Marisa Tomei, Olivia Wilde, Jake Lacy, Anthony Mackie, Alan Arkin and John Goodman, the film is directed by Jesse Nelson, a producer who hasn't directed a film since 2001's I Am Sam with Sean Penn. Love the Coopers is about exactly what you think it's about, centering on multiple generations of the Cooper clan as they gather together for the holidays.  Here's the official synopsis:

LOVE THE COOPERS follows the Cooper clan as four generations of extended family come together for their annual Christmas Eve celebration. As the evening unfolds, a series of unexpected visitors and unlikely events turn to night upside down, leading them all toward a surprising rediscovery of family bonds and the spirit of the holiday.

Basically this looks like a more crowded version of The Family Stone, but it seems like harmless holiday fare. Love the Coopers opens on November 13th. 

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Drug-Fueled Teaser for Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger's HBO Series 'Vinyl'

Sometimes HBO's programs are so auteur driven that they can become difficult to sell to mainstream audiences. A series like Treme is a fine example of a good show with a great cast and important subject matter,but people didn't want to settle in for a post-Hurricane Katrina drama. HBO will not have any trouble selling Vinyl to anybody. All they need to say is sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, Mick Jagger, and Martin Scorsese.

After a brief teaser arrived just days ago, an amped up teaser with actual dialogue has just debuted. Penned by Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street) and starring Bobby Cannavale, Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano, Juno Temple, Max Casella, Jack Quaid, and more, the series is set against the backdrop of the drug-fueled '70s rock music scene. Here's the show's synopsis:

From Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Terence Winter, this new 10-episode drama series is set in 1970s New York. A ride through the sex- and drug-addled music business at the dawn of punk, disco, and hip-hop, the show is seen through the eyes of a record label president, Richie Finestra, played by Bobby Cannavale, who is trying to save his company and his soul without destroying everyone in his path.

Vinyl gets spinning in 2016. 

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