Watch List 2011: Young Hollywood Edition

Mia Wasikowska – The Ingenue

The world fell in love with Mia Wiskowski last spring when Disney released Tim Burton’s dark re-imagining of Alice In Wonderland. With a starring role in the Oscar-contender The Kids Are All Right, she proved she had the acting chops to back up her waifish beauty. This year Wiskowski is staying firmly in the spotlight, starring in not one but two winter releases; Jane Eyre and Restless. This lovely Aussie is a swiftly rising star and definitely one for the Watch List.

Andrew Garfield – The Boy Next Door

Andrew Garfield is Winning. Last year he burst onto the scene in the Social Network, in an underrated performance that became one of the year’s most-talked about Oscar snubs. Now, Garfield has been cast a the latest Peter Parker and is catching everyone in his web of charm, good looks, and undeniable acting ability. This British important is going far.

Henry Hopper – The Heir Apparent

If Mia Wasikowska’s co-star in Gus Van Sant’sRestless seems oddly familiar, that’s because he’s the son of the lat, great Dennis Hopper. The twenty-year-old proves he not only got the genes for good looks, but inherited his fathers ability to give a finely tuned performance as well.

Elle Fanning – The Little Sister

Sofia Coppola certainly has an eye for ethereal beauty. Her starry eyed leading ladies have all gained cache from her finely crafted films. Last year this role went to Elle Fanning, younger sister of Wunderkind Dakota Fanning. The twelve-year-old showed a wisdom beyond her years and a quiet self-confidence in Coppola’s Somewhere holding her own opposite Stephen Dorff. Elle caught the eye of quite a few of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters; J.J. Abrams cast her in his latest sci-fi project Super 8, due out this summer; Cameron Crowe cast her in his family comedy We Bought A Zoo, due out this Christmas; and Sofia’s father Francis was so impressed by Elle he cast her in his upcoming film, Twixt Now and Sunrise.

Emily Browning – The Dream Girl

Some of you might remember Emily Browning as the orphan Violet Beauregard in A Series Of Unfortunate Events. The Lemony Snicket franchise fizzled, and since then the Australian beauty has flown more or less under the radar, but next year she’ll the dream girl of every teenage boy, thanks to Zach Snyder. Snyder selected Browning to replace Amanda Seyfried in his dark videogame-esque, Tarantino-flavored,meme-fest Sucker Punch. In the film Browning looks like a Playboy playmate, kicks ass like Laura Croft, and pouts like her life depends on it. While Sucker Punch may not be the smartest career-move she’s ever made, it’s definitely earned her some much needed (ahem) exposure.

Nicolaus Holt The Boy We’re All About

The world fell in love with a thirteen-year-old Nicolaus Holt in Hugh Grant’s quirky 2002 comedy About A Boy. Holt went on to gain celebrity status in the UK playing Tony on the hit series Skin, but fell off the radar stateside. Recently he’s re-emerged in a big way, playing Colin Firth’s love interest in A Single Man and is now set to become a super hero, playing the brainy Beast in this summer’s X-Men: First Class.

Micheal Pitt – The Tough Guy

Micheal Pitt is hardly the new kid in town. For almost a decade he has been a indie cinema idol and a fixture on the Sundance circuit. He broke through in 2001 as the rocker Tommy Gnosis in 2001’s transgender musical Hedwig and The Angry Inch. Since then he has been the muse of several sublimely cerebral directors, including Gus Van Sant and Bernardo Bertulucci. Recently Pitt has been rocketed into the spotlight as a star of the new HBO series, Boardwalk Empire, helmed by none other than mafia meastro Marty Scorrsesse. A native of New Jersey, Pitt brings both an authentic accent and irressitable swagger to the role of Jimmy Dormady.

Elizabeth Olsen The Sundance Darling

This year Sundance audiences fell head over heels for Elizabeth Olsen, star of Martha Marcy May Marlene, a critically acclaimed film about a young woman’s re-entry into society after being held hostage by a cult. Olsen has spent much of her life in her famous siblings’ shadow (her older sisters are Mary-Kate and Ashley), but this starry-eyed ingenue has proved beyond a doubt that she’s as talented as they are and then some. We can’t to see what she’ll do next.

Donald Glover – The Triple Threat

Donald Glover can do it all. He writes, acts, and DJs & and MCs on the side just for good measure. Donald Glover is best known for playing Troy, the silly, soulful jock on Community, but there is a whole lot more to Glover then meets the eye. He’s a founding member of the sketch comedy team Derrick Comedy and a writer for the hit series 30 Rock(he created the character of Twofer). But Glover’s real love is music: He spins under the DJ name ‘mcDJ’ and raps using the moniker ‘Childish Gambino,’ – and you know what? He’s good. Like, really good. What can’t this guy do?

Noomi Rapace – The Swedish Import

Not since Ingmar Bergman has a Swedish screen siren stopped us cold in our tracks….but Noomi Rapace is not your average girl; Her mother is a famous Swedish actress, and her father is a Spanish Flamingo singer with gypsy bloodlines. Rapace spent her childhood living in Iceland, and the result of this strange blend of nature and nurture is one of pure enigma. Her mystique won her the sought-after role of Lisbeth Salander in the Millenium Series. Rapace is poised to make her stateside blockbuster debut as the love interest in the new Sherlock Holmes film, and Ridley Scott has tapped her to star Prometheus, his new film set in the Alien universe.

Rest In Peace, Easy Rider

Dennis Hopper passed away today at the age of 74. Hopper was, and will remain, one of the brightest stars in cinema history. From Rebel Without A Cause to Apocalypse Now, Easy Rider and Blue Velvet, Hopper gave us some of the most remarkable performances of the 20th Century.

Dennis Hopper reading “If” by Rudyard Kipling

Rest in peace, easy rider.

5 Directors I’d Love To See Take Over The Barbarella Remake

With Legally Blonde‘s Robert Luketic now attached to direct the Barbarella remake, it feels like Hollywood is selling our beloved astronautrix short. Here are five directors who’d I’d much rather see re-imagine and revisit the planet SoGo.

1. Michel Gondry
Imaginative and whimsical, Gondry’s style would suit our girl perfectly. Gondry was Drew Barrymore’s first choice to direct when she was attached to the project, and screenwriter John August even flew to France to have a development meeting with the director. I would love to see Gondry return to Jean-Claude Forest’s comics as source material and completely reimagine Barbarella.

2. Roman Coppola
Coppola practically asked to remake Barbarella, with his debut CQ (2001). The film is a chronicle of a young American in Paris (Jeremy Davies, long before Lost), working on a very Barbarella-esque sci-fi film. Coppola not only has the skills to reintroduce us to the 60’s icon, but obviously a true understanding of what the original film was all about. And can’t you just see Jason Schwartzman in the David Hemmings role of rebel leader Dildano?

3. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
A french Science-Fiction direction whose skill at world-building is only surpassed by his ability as a casting direction. Imagine Dominique Pinon as Duran Duran. Are you convinced now? I certainly am. One could only pray and hope he would return to the original french comix for material, while contributing things from his own amazing mind.

4. Guillermo Del Toro
Guillermo Del Toro would be an ideal choice, with his incredible visual style and his fondness for fantasy. Seeing his interpretation of the City Of Night and the Matmos alone would be worth the price of admission. Too bad he’s busy in pre-production on that other fantasy film.

5. Joss Whedon –
Experienced sci-fi director? Check. Tongue firmly in cheek? Check. Ability to direct a strong, sexy female lead? Check. Joss Whedon has the perfect credentials to take us on the all-new adventures of Barbarella. Better yet, to give us Barbarella: The Musical.

The Origins Of Alice

Tim Burton’s Aliceis only the latest in a long line of visual adaptations of the class novels. Burton certainly brings his own unique aesthetic to the Victorian fairytale, but there is nevertheless a familiarity to the imagery in the film. This is due in part to Burton’s playful twisting of the Disney version we have all grown up on (the first five minutes in wonderland clearly serve to remind us that this production is produced by The Mouse, and Burton’s take on the story is at its core an adult revisiting that version). But there is something much older at work here.

The answer to this riddle (raven and writing desk aside) is John Tenniel. Tenniel’s  classic illustrations are the source material Disney based their animation off of, and that Burton obviously has returned to for his inspiration. Tenniel’s wonderful and weird engravings play with proportion, defy logic, and share in Burton’s sense of the absurd.

Tennel's Hatter

Burton's Mad Hatter

Tenniel's Chesire Cat

Burton's Cheshire Cat

Tenniel's Queen of Hearts

Burton's Queen of Hearts