Emma Stone is in talks to headline Woody Allen’s next film. Deadline is reporting that the actress is currently in talks with the writer/director/actor and is expected to close her deal soon.

As this is the ultra-secretive Woody Allen we’re talking about, outside of the fact that the film will shoot in the south of France, there is nothing else known about the project including even a basic storyline or title.

In the meantime, Allen has Blue Jasmine with Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin and Louis C.K. recently completed and scheduled for release later this year.

Guillermo del Toro is still working at putting the finishing touches on this summer’s Pacific Rim, but he is also starting to gear up for his next film, the haunted house thriller Crimson Peak. According to Variety, the director has cast Emma Stone in the film’s lead and that a deal between the two is being worked on right now.

Outside of del Toro describing the film as a “classical but at the same time modern take on the ghost story” we don’t know anything about the story nor how Stone’s character will fit into it.

Normally I am a fan of her work, so it came as a bit of a shock that she appeared to be so out of her depth in last weekend’s Gangster Squad. Hopefully, Stone will be up for whatever del Toro has in mind for her to do in the film.

Seth MacFarlane, who will be hosting the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony next month, will be pulling double duty and announcing the award nominees this Thursday as well. Joining him for the early morning announcement will be actress Emma Stone.

Apparently, MacFarlane tweeted the news last night and the Academy rushed out a press release this morning.

I’ll be announcing the Oscar nominees on Jan. 10 at 5 a.m. with Emma Stone.We’ll also be revealing the name of Kanye & Kim’s baby (Zeus).

— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) January 7, 2013

Traditionally, the announcement is made by the president of the Academy accompanied by an Oscar recipient from the previous year. The last time a ceremony’s host also participated in the announcement press conference was in 1973 when Clint Eastwood, one of the four co-hosts for the awards ceremony, also helped announce the nominees.

Here’s the Academy’s press release –

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards® will be announced by the show’s host, Seth MacFarlane, and actress Emma Stone on Thursday, January 10. This will be the first time since 1972 that an Oscar show host has participated in the nominations announcement.
MacFarlane and Stone will unveil the nominations at a 5:30 a.m. PT news conference at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, where hundreds of media representatives from around the world will be gathered.

Since the first nominations announcement in 1964, the Academy president has been joined by one or more co-announcers at the event. This year the Academy will break with tradition when MacFarlane, who was named Oscar show host in October, joins Stone on Oscar nominations morning. Charlton Heston (1972) was the only other show host to participate in the nominations announcement.

Stone starred in the 2011 Best Picture nominee “The Help” and the summer release “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Her other film credits include “Superbad,” “Zombieland,” “Easy A” and “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” Stone will be seen in “Gangster Squad” later this month and in “The Croods,” due out in March.

Nominations information for all categories will be distributed to news media in attendance and via the Internet on the official Academy Awards website, www.oscar.com.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

FBOL Editor-in-Chief Rich Drees posted his review of this film yesterday, and he’s already been taken to task in the comments over it. Well, as much as I hate to take him to task again, I will, albeit, hopefully, in a more professional manner. Because I liked the movie far more than he did.

I agree with Rich that it’s nigh impossible to look at this film without comparing it to 2000′s Spider-Man, because like Sam Raimi’s film, it is an origin story that takes several beats from the comic book origin. Yes, you’ll have the scene where Peter Parker get bitten by a spider. You’ll get the killing of Uncle Ben, you’ll get the costume creating montage. And after each of these moments, you’ll be taken back to the original Raimi film. Some moments may compare favorably, some may not, your mileage may vary.

But once you get past the origin part of the story, where the similarities seem the strongest, this film begins to go its own way. This version of Spider-Man is more grounded in reality, or as close to reality any movie featuring a mutated seven-foot lizard man can get. And it is also a modernized version of Spider-Man as well. Raimi’s Spider-Man had an ageless quality to him, that with a small change of set dressing Tobey Maguire’s version of the character could have been from the 1950s or 1960s as much as he was from the 2000s. Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man is set in the now, a world of cell phones and You Tube and skateboards. Neither version of better than the other, in my opinion, but both are valid takes on the iconic character.

I think that Rich missed a lot of the subtlety of the characterization of Peter Parker, because if he didn’t, I’m sure that a lot of his complaints about the film would have been answered. Peter Parker, as brilliantly played by Andrew Garfield, is a young man who never knows the right thing to do. This causes him to hem and haw while asking out a girl who is throwing herself at him. It also causes him to believe that humiliating the bully who humiliated him is the best course of action. With this as a prologue, his desire to hunt down the man who killed his uncle seems completely believable. It’s what Peter, blinded by grief and anger, thinks would be the best way to make amends for, and to relieve his guilt over, inadvertently causing his uncle’s death.

While it is true that the death of Uncle Ben was used as the instigator of Spider-Man’s using his powers for unselfish means in both the comics and the Raimi films, it wouldn’t work here with the characterization up to that point and, trying to avoid spoilers, the way this movie changes the death of Uncle Ben. The scene where Peter finally realizes the effect of his uncle’s words about taking responsibility for his actions comes later during what I will call the “bridge scene,” the point of which Rich obviously either missed or  didn’t give proper emphasis to.

Once again, to avoid spoilers, I’ll simply say it’s where the Lizard makes his first appearance and Spidey saves a bunch of lives (facts which the trailer spoiled). It’s here where Peter learns that with great power comes with great responsibility. It’s here where he learns that he is the only person qualified to take on this menace (and barely qualified at that) and that if he doesn’t take action, many, many people will die. Uncle Ben’s words finally sink in. It’s is here where Peter’s story arc curves and he, as a character, changes and grows. And this new sense of responsibility carries through to the end of the film.

The film is full of deep emotional resonance, inspired directing by Marc Webb, finely crafted scenes (the dinner scene where Peter meets Gwen Stacy’s family is especially sharp and proves that Denis Leary is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood), and subtle moments that make for an enjoyable film. The way they treat Gwen Stacy is especially refreshing. With a stunning acting performance from Emma Stone, who is quickly becoming the greatest actress of her generation, Gwen is not the superhero film stereotype of “The Girlfriend In Peril.” She is an equal, if not a superior, to Peter in many ways. And while the film places her in jeopardy at times, it’s not for a stupid reasons, but for heroic acts and always with her knowing the dangers of her actions.

Comic fans should appreciate the film’s interpretations of George Stacy and Flash Thompson, which, while not carbon copies of their comic book inspirations, captured the spirit of them well enough to please a long time Spidey fan like me. And the film’s obligatory Stan Lee cameo is one of his funniest yet.

This is not to say the film is a perfect film. It’s not. There are a number of bad plot contrivances such as mind-numbing coincidences (Who is the guide for the tour of Connor’s lab? Why Gwen Stacy of course! And naturally the secret formula Peter’s dad left behind in an old briefcase would be the formula Connors needed to finish his work!) and glaring gaps of logic (in addition to the Internet search thing Rich mentioned, Peter has his secret identity spoiled by leaving behind his camera, complete with a “Property of Peter Parker” placard at a battle scene. Why didn’t he also leave a class schedule and a list of his fears along with it?).  But these are but blips on the radar for an otherwise enjoyable film.

If you liked the part in Spider-Man 3 when Toby Maguire’s Peter Parker got all moody and emo, then you’re going to love James Garfield’s interpretation of the character in the franchise reboot The Amazing Spider-Man.

Here we have a high school Peter Parker who has abandonment issues over the deaths of his parents and oft times takes them out on his loving Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). And while his time spent underneath a mask as Manhattan’s swinging superhero is often seen as a chance for Peter to let his hair down so to speak and have some fun, this version of Spider-Man has more of a single-minded mission. And best (or worst) of all, we can count on this portrayal continuing into at least the next installment of the franchise as none of these character issues are really resolved. It is as if director Marx Webb doesn’t realize that we already have a grim and gritty comic book film this month in the form of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Dark Knight Rises.

Peter Parker is not your typical teen. While extraordinarily smart, he is having trouble fitting in at school, which is surprising considering that he goes to Midtown Science High School which sounds like it would be an environment rich with like-minded teens. But Peter keeps himself isolated, still hurting from the death of his parents a decade earlier. When his Uncle Ben finds an old briefcase of his father’s, Peter starts to investigate the events surrounding his parents’ deaths. The trail leads him to OsCorp and Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), a former colleague of Peter’s father. Connors is researching how animal genetics could help improve humans. While snooping around Connor’s lab, Peter is bitten by a spider and soon finds himself with enhanced strength and the ability to crawl up walls. But when Connors turns his research on himself, he finds himself transformed into a seven-foot-tall half-human, half-lizard monster. Following the death of his uncle at the hands and gun of a petty thief, Peter starts using his powers to try and catch the killer only to become a target of the New York City police.

That description makes the film seem much more densely plotted than it actually is. Some storylines are introduced only to be abandoned. The mystery of Peter’s parents is only there to lead him to Connors after which it is conveniently forgotten until the mid-credits button scene in which the filmmakers suddenly remember that this particular thread is still unresolved and make a quick promise to possibly return to the issue in a sequel. Likewise, a plotline involving an OsCorp executive demanding that Connors escalate his work to human trials exists only to force the character to test the serum on himself so he would turn into the villain of the piece.

While I will get to some of the film’s flaws, I did want to address a few of the things that it got right. First off, the teenage awkwardness between Peter and his high school crush Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) feels spot on. The portrayal of Connors/The Lizard as an ersatz Jekyll and Hyde works well enough to make you wish that the movie spent more time on it. A sequence at the beginning of the film’s climax where New Yorkers rally to help Spider-Man delivers perhaps the film’s most emotional moment.

I will admit that it is hard not to compare this new iteration of the Spider-Man story to the director Sam Raimi’s trilogy that has come before. Not just because Raimi’s films are still in the relatively recent past but because their popularity have cemented a certain version of the character in the public’s imagination. Webb’s new reinvention of the Spider-Man mythos almost seems to court such comparisons though and when examining them we can find some to be problematic.

Among comic book fans, one of the most controversial aspects of Raimi’s films was the change of Spider-Man’s webshooters being an invention of Peter’s to yet another change in his body brought about by that radioactive spider bite. Amazing Spider-Man wants to emphasize Peter’s boy genius side by returning to the idea that he built his webshooters, but then proceeds to undercut it by having the actual web fluid be something he stole from OsCorp.

I also found it hard to believe that while Peter has often wondered about his parents, it was not until the discovery of his father’s attaché case that he decided to start actively trying to find out about them. Credulity is further strained when we see how much information was obtained by a relatively simple internet search. If Peter’s so smart how is it he never thought to do a simple search engine query?

But the biggest wrong note that the film hits is how it treats Peter’s reaction to his Uncle Ben’s death. This is the moment where Peter embraces the Spider-Man story’s well-known theme of great power bringing great responsibility. Instead, this film uses that moment to turn Peter into a vigilante, only stopping crimes being committed by men who match the description of his uncle’s killer.

And even by the end of this new film, Peter has not embraced the responsibility of his powers. This is a point that is firmly driven home in the film’s very last line of dialogue before the credits begin rolling. Peter may have changed physically over the course of the film, thanks to him receiving his powers, but he still seems to be the same self-absorbed kid he was at the start of the film with no emotional growth or maturity. This leaves us with the true meat of Peter’s origin to be stretched out over a succession of sequel films and that feels like a decision made more in a boardroom than anywhere else in the creative process.

Emma Stone appeared on last night’s The Tonight Show with Hacky McChinychin and as usual on these promotional stops disguised as a casual conversation, a clip was screened of her work in the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man. It is a minute long but feels like it may have been edited down from a longer sequence. It features Stone’s character of Gwen Stacy inside the lab of the recently mutated Dr Curt Connors. Judging from what is shown, I am guessing that this is a sequence from fairly late in the film, so there are potential spoilers.

The Amazing Spider-Man also stars Andrew Garfield, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, Martin Sheen and Sally Field and opens July 3.

Whether its the fact that Crazy, Stupid, Love.‘s star-crossed lovers who can’t seem to get together because of who they are, the mix of heart-wrenching dramatics with near slapstick humor, or the many cases where just the right song from unknown indie band or a deep album cut from a popular band scores the moment on screen perfectly, this film reminds me of late 80s, early 90s Cameron Crowe.

I’m not saying this is a bad thing, unless, of course, you can’t stand Crowe’s output from Say Anything to Jerry Maguire. I happen to like those films and when that style works, as it does here, I think it makes for an entertaining film.

The movie begins with Cal (Steve Carell) being asked for a divorce by his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore). The couple were childhood sweethearts, and were married at 17, so Cal is ill-prepared to enter the dating scene. Luckily, he catches the eye of Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a young pick-up artist who’s a hit with the ladies. Jacob helps Cal find his inner mojo, but will it be enough so Cal can win Emily back? Does he even want to? And what kind of complications arise when the player finally finds the one girl he want to spend all of his time with in the quirky Hannah (Emma Stone).

There’s a lot to like about this film. It’s a well constructed movie with many carefully crafted scenes that involve the audience. It is perfectly cast, with every actor playing their roles to perfection. Granted, you have Steve Carell playing a sad sack, a role he can do in his sleep, but I never pictured Ryan Gosling as being that much of a ladies man before this film, but I do know. Especially good are Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei in glorified cameos. Their work in this film is proof of the adage that there are no small part, only small actors. Both light up the screen whenever the show up. Bacon plays what could easily be the villain of the piece but makes the character geeky and human. And Tomei goes from needy and vulnerable to righteously angry without ever falling into parody.

The writing is great as well, as Dan Fogelman is brave enough to use foreshadowing without drawing too much attention to it. There is quite a big reveal during the third act that was set up in the preceding scenes yet still caught me by surprise. The dialogue always sounds realistic and the plot point always ring true, even when the film finds its way into out and out farce in the third act.

There are a lot of great moments in the film, a lot of great characterization and a lot of great writing in the film. It’s a good alternative to the summer blockbuster.

Well, that was quick.

Although she was offered the part just two days ago, Emma Stone has already passed on taking the lead in director Craig Gillespie’s adaptation of Seth Grahme-Smith’s comic horror novel Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. I guess if you’re waiting to see Stone fighting zombies you’ll just have to hope that they get around to making that Zombieland sequel that gets talked about every now and then.

Stone now joins Mia Wasikowska and Anne Hathaway in having been approached for the lead role of the film which takes Jane Austen’s classic novel and sets it against a zombie outbreak in 18th century England.

So who will be the next actress to be approached with the part? Time will tell.

Via Deadline.

It’s more zombies for Emma Stone.

The actress who made a splash battling the shuffling undead in the 2009 comedy Zombieland has been offered the job of fighting them again in director Craig Gillespie’s adaptation of Seth Grahme-Smith’s comic horror novel Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. Previously Mia Wasikowska and Anne Hathaway both flirted with taking the role, but passed.

The film takes Jane Austen’s classic novel and sets it against a zombie outbreak in 18th century England.

If a deal is reached, Stone would become the first cast member to join the project. There’s no word yet as to when the movie will start production and Lionsgate has yet to schedule a release date for it. Hopefully, with this start to casting some of those dates will be announced soon.

And the Spider-man reboot casting news keeps on coming. This time it appears as if the film’s director Marc Webb is turning out to his 500 Days Of Summer star Zoey Deschanel to fill in the supporting role of Betty Brant.

For those only familiar with the Spider-Man mythos through Sam Raimi’s previous film trilogy, Betty is more than just Daily Bugle publisher J Jonah Jameson’s harried secretary. In the early years of the comic book series, Betty was also a sometimes girlfriend of Peter Parker, before their relationship evolved into one of close friends.

Given the star status of Deschanel, it looks as if the part will not be as small as it was in the previous films and that Webb is looking to use the character more in the way of the comics. Could poor Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) find himself in a love triangle between Betty and Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone)? We should all be so unlucky.

We should note that this story originates back at Showbiz Spy, whose track record has not always been the greatest, so let’s take this with the pre-requisite grain of salt.