New Photo from ‘The Spectacular Now’

Courtesy of the official Twitter account, I have added a lovely new image from The Spectacular Now to the gallery. I really can’t wait to see this one, and I have my fingers crossed that we’ll be seeing and hearing a lot more about it leading up to the release! Be sure to take a look.

‘The Spectacular Now’ Gets Release Date

DEADLINE.COM – Upstart distributor A24 has set a June 14 limited theatrical release launch of the Sofia Coppola-directed The Bling Ring, and it has set an August 2 limited release for the James Ponsoldt-directed The Spectacular Now. This spring, A24 launches Ginger & Rosa and Spring Breakers, films also aiming at a young demographic.

The Bling Ring stars Emma Watson, Leslie Mann, Gavin Rossdale and Paris Hilton, latter of whom was actually ripped off by the title characters, young bandits who broke into the homes of well to do celebutantes. The film’s based on the Vanity Fair article The Suspects Wore Louboutins by Nancy Jo Sales.

The Spectacular Now was scripted by (500) Days of Summer scribes Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber and stars Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Elizabeth Winstead in a drama about a mismatched young high school students. It was bought at Sundance in January.

‘The Spectacular Now’ Added to SXSW Lineup

It looks like SXSW is going to be a bit of Sundance South in 2013. With Park City premieres like “Don Jon’s Addiction,” “Computer Chess,” “Prince Avalanche,” “Before Midnight” and “Upstream Color” all headed to Austin, one more movie that unspooled at the festival is making its way to the city of BBQ.

Zal Batmanglij’s “The East” will be the Closing Night film of the 2013 SXSW Film Festival. It’s familiar territory for the director, who followed a similar trajectory in 2011 with “Sound Of My Voice,” with that film too taking a bow at Sundance and playing SXSW a couple months later. But capping off an exciting week or so of moviegoing is a nice way to return. The film stars Ellen Page, Alexander Skarsgard, Brit Marling and Patricia Clarkson, and tells the story of a young woman who infiltrates a radical environmentalist activist group but finds her moral boundaries becoming blurred.

As we noted in our review, the film is one that should get many people talking, and it seems like a good note to end SXSW on. Meanwhile, even more Sundance titles have also been added to the lineup including James Ponsoldt’s “The Spectacular Now,” docs “Muscle Shoals,” “Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer” and “Linsanity” as well as Ramin Bahrani’s “At Any Price” and many more. Check out the official website for more details. The festival runs from March 8-16.

Source: Indiewire

Shailene Woodley on First Sex, Teen Drinking and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2′

It’s been a year since Shailene Woodley netted an Independent Spirit Award and a Golden Globe nomination for her feisty breakthrough turn opposite George Clooney in Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants.” Since then, the 21-year-old has been finishing up her run on the ABC teen show “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” (the last episodes air this spring) and laying low on the film front. She’s finally back on the big screen in “The Spectacular Now,” a deeply affecting coming-of-age film that earned a rapturous response at its world premiere on the second day of the Sundance Film Festival Friday. (The film was recently acquired by A24 and is expected to open this summer.)

In the drama, helmed by “Smashed” co-writer-director James Ponsoldt, Woodley proves that “Descendants” was no fluke by showing great range as Aimee, a deft high school student with a bright future ahead who falls for the troubled class clown (a revelatory Miles Teller).

Indiewire sat down with Woodley in Park City to discuss her absence from the film circuit, shooting her first sex scene and taking over from Kirsten Dunst to play Mary Jane Watson in the upcoming “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” directed by “(500) Days of Summer” helmer Mark Webb.

(more…)

A24 Acquires Rights to ‘The Spectacular Now’

Great news! I really can’t wait to see it.

One of the most active new distribution companies on the independent film scene, A24 nailed down a deal to take North American rights to “The Spectacular Now” in the early morning hours Monday. The company plans a summer release for the film, which had its premiere Friday in the U.S. dramatic competition.

Directed by James Ponsoldt, whose previous film, “Smashed,” screened in competition at Sundance in 2012, “Spectacular Now” was adapted from the Tim Tharp novel by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (“(500) Days of Summer”). It tells the story of the complex relationship that develops between two teenagers with very different approaches to life.

Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley star, with Brie Larson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kyle Chandler and Andre Royo co-starring. Tom McNulty, Shawn Levy, Andrew Lauren, and Michelle Krumm produced.

“We fell in love with this film the minute that we watched it and we know the rest of the country will embrace this timeless love story,” said A24 principals David Fenkel, John Hodges and Daniel Katz. “James has directed a wonderful film that depicts young love with complete authenticity and has two young stars giving incredible performances with Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley.”

(more…)

Hollywood Reporter Reviews ‘The Spectacular Now’

As they did in his 2012 Sundance hit Smashed, the perils of alcoholism loom large in James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now, a sincere, refreshingly unaffected look at teenagers and their attitudes about the future. Wonderfully acted by the kids and adults and smartly adapted from Tim Tharp’s novel by the (500) Days of Summer team of Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber with a studious avoidance of hipster posturing, this fundamentally serious film poses a commercial challenge by the way it not so much falls between two stools as it embraces both adolescent and grown-up perspectives. The right distributor would be the one that could miraculously attract both audience segments, however fanciful that dream might be.

It says a lot for the depth of the writing and the characterization to acknowledge that it takes the entire film to fully get a handle on Sutter Keely. Ineffably played with a genial, easy-going charm by Miles Teller (Project X, Footloose), this high school senior has a devil-may-care, no-problem attitude that more than compensates for his lack of classic good looks and attracts guys and girls like the sun; even the most impressive kid in school, the black star athlete and class president, envies his smooth skills. Still, his line of b.s. has its limits, prompting his girlfriend to jump ship and him to get plastered.

But even as he awakens at 6 a.m. on the lawn of an unfamiliar home, Sutter’s got a ready line of patter for one of its occupants, classmate Aimee (Shailene Woodley), a bright, industrious, innocent girl who’s into sci-fi and has never been part of the in-crowd or had a boy friend.

For Sutter, this perceived ugly duckling would be easy pickings but he soon comes to really like her and it’s a tribute to one aspect of his nature that he doesn’t take advantage of her naivete or eagerness until she’s good and ready. To her amazement, he asks her to the prom, but red lights flash when he gives her a present of a flask, something one may or may not have noticed he almost always carries with him.

(more…)

THR Interviews Cast of ‘The Spectacular Now’