Emma Stone broke into films using her wit and comedic timing in films like Superbad, Zombieland and Easy A. As she’s matured (and she’ll only turn 30 this year), Stone has shown she also has dramatic chops (The Help), the ability to do deep character work (Battle of the Sexes), amazing versatility (Maniac) and a talent for song and dance that won her an Oscar for La La Land. Stone doesn’t work as much as other actresses of her generation, but following her Oscar success she is now the highest-paid actress in Hollywood and whatever projects lie in her future she has an almost unmatched power for someone her age in picking and choosing the films that will fill out her career’s filmography.
Hugh Jackman’s first film of his post-Wolverine career will be a routine to his roots: musicals. An unknown song and dance man before becoming a household name thanks to his iconic portrayal of Wolverine in the X-Men films, Jackman will be headlining the big holiday musical of 2017. With the songwriters of La La Land, will The Greatest Showman, starring Jackman as circus legend P.T. Barnum be able to duplicate that film’s success? To listen to the full version of the song “This Is Me” by Keana Settle, which will be going head-to-head with Beauty and the Beast’s contributions come Oscar time, scroll down. It’s literally playing on loop in my head and has been for days. Co-starring Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya, The Greatest Showman will open Christmas Day. Read more below from Coming Soon.
Inspired by the imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business & tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.
The Greatest Showman is directed by exciting new filmmaker, Michael Gracey, with songs by Academy Award winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land). Hugh Jackman produced The Greatest Showman alongside Laurence Mark and Chernin Entertainment. Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Jenny Bicks (Rio 2, Sex and the City) and Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Beauty and the Beast) wrote the screenplay.
Ryan Gosling is finally moving from mostly indie films into the big time, and over the last five years has been an integral part of some of the best films produced. Gosling’s talent stretches from comedy (The Nice Guys, Crazy Stupid Love) to hard drama (Half-Nelson, The Ides of March) to action (Blade Runner 2049) and even song and dance (La La Land). Gosling’s dedication to his roles is such that he learned to play the piano for La La Land. With Blade Runner 2049’s critical success, Gosling can really do whatever he wants and join the elite ranks of Hollywood’s leading men.
The REAL best picture from last year still has me kind of puzzled as to how a classical Hollywood musical managed to completely blow me away to the point where I ended up seeing it more in the the theater than I did Rogue One. Damien Chazelle is come kind of mad wunderkind. Whiplash was a work of genius, and La La Land is also about music and extols the virtue of jazz, but this couldn’t be more different. An unabashed musical of this sort hadn’t been made since the late 1950s. It’s charming, visually stunning, has amazing music and songs, and finishes in a surprisingly bittersweet, though charming look at what might have been for the film’s stars: Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling).
La La Land is about chasing your dreams, and-ultimately-if you take away a message from the film it’s that you can have your dreams and the person you love the most, but be wary, because the smallest decision, one alteration from what you know in your heart to be the right course, and you’ll end up losing one or the other (or likely both outside of the world of movies). The film’s end flashes forward five years. Mia’s achieved her dream of acting success and Sebastian has his jazz club, which Mia and her husband stumble into one night one the way home. Sebastian, playing the piano, sees Mia, and begins to play their theme, and then Chazelle takes the audience on a trip through an alternate timeline, where things didn’t go wrong between them, and they still got what they wanted. We revisit the music and locales of the film and the entire thing shouldn’t work because we’re too jaded in 2017 for something as hokey as this amazingly shot dance number…but apparently we’re not if it’s done right. This is a perfect film, period.
Hugh Jackman’s first film of his post-Wolverine career will be a routine to his roots: musicals. An unknown song and dance man before becoming a household name thanks to his iconic portrayal of Wolverine in the X-Men films, Jackman will be headlining the big holiday musical of 2017. With the songwriters of La La Land, will The Greatest Showman, starring Jackman as circus legend P.T. Barnum be able to duplicate that film’s success? Jackman’s only Oscar nomination was for leading the cast of the big screen adaptation of Les Miserables, so this is familiar territory, the only question is can a first-time director deliver? The first trailer looks very promising. Co-starring Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya, The Greatest Showman will open Christmas Day. Read more below from Coming Soon.
Inspired by the imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business & tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.
The Greatest Showman is directed by exciting new filmmaker, Michael Gracey, with songs by Academy Award winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land). Hugh Jackman produced The Greatest Showman alongside Laurence Mark and Chernin Entertainment. Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Jenny Bicks (Rio 2, Sex and the City) and Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Beauty and the Beast) wrote the screenplay.
