As promised, here’s the first video blog from Skyfall director Sam Mendes. Skyfall is currently shooting in London with Daniel Craig making his third outing as James Bond and Dame Judi Dench returning as M.

I actually wouldn’t call this a “video blog” at least how we’ve come to know them from Peter Jackson’s use of the term and the medium to document the making of The Hobbit films. There’s no footage of the actual film, none of Dench, and only a fleeting glimpse of Craig, no sneak peeks at Ralph Fiennes or Javier Bardem. It seems to be  more of a Mendes interview, in which he mentions his personal feelings about Bond and the legacy he’s been handed, as well as Daniel Craig as Bond in particular.

I’m making two assumptions based on this clip. One it’s probably only the start of updates we’ll be getting (that might be wishful thinking on my part), as I think Mendes has decided if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, or at least control the flow.  I also think this is probably part of a “making of” for the dvd release. We’ll see. I can’t think about dvd now. That’s a year away. I’m too excited for Skyfall’s theatrical release this fall.  Even though it’s still shooting, Skyfall hits theaters in the UK on 26^th October and November 9 here on this side of the pond.

Enjoy the video. We also have a few more pics of filming in the past few weeks. (I'm kind of partial to the one at the top of the post. I'll let you figure out why.) More will surely follow.

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A new image from the set of Skyfall has been released via the film’s Facebook page. Dame Judi Dench can be seen with director Sam Mendes. That’s cinematographer Roger Deakins (whose credits are too numerous to mention. He was the DP on two previous Mendes films, Jarhead and Revolutionary Road. He was also visual consultant on How to Train Your Dragon. I consider it a good sign whenever his name is attached to a film.) behind the camera, with the full head of white hair. Not sure who the man in the middle is. He could be one of the writers but I think he’s probably an Assistant Director.

The plot of Skyfall (or  Bond 23 as it’s still known in some circles) finds 007′s loyalty to M tested as her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, Bond must track down and destroy the threat, no matter what the personal cost.

I cannot wait!

The cast includes Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Helen McCrory, Ben Whishaw and Albert Finney. It opens in the UK on 26^th October and November 9 in the US. Stay tuned, apparently a video blog from director Sam Mendes is in the pipeline for tomorrow!

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I don’t know about you, but I get excited whenever a new Coen brothers movie is announced. I’ve been a fan since Blood Simple and I can quote just about every line from Raising Arizona. I’ve followed them everywhere they’ve led me, through Miller’s Crossing to O Brother Where Art Thou to Burn After Reading to No Country For Old Men and everywhere in between. I don’t love them all. Some I’ve only seen once, but most of their work has ended up on my dvd shelves. All of that is, of course, by way of explanation for my enthusiasm for the fact that Joel and Ethan Coen are (probably) as we speak, on the streets of Manhattan, transforming the Village back into its glorious 60s hayday for their new film, Inside Llewyn Davis. Scheduled for 2013, this is their first film since 2010's True Grit. And it's a comedy! *demented poodle dance*.

In the film, Oscar Isaac plays a  singer-songwriter who must navigate New York's folk music scene during the 1960s. We have some pics of Isaac (currently on screens in Madonna’s W.E.) and the Brothers Coen filming on Friday.

Inside Llewyn Davis also stars Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, F. Murray Abraham and Garret Hedlund. Obviously still filming, the comedy doesn’t have a set release date yet.

Head over to the East Village Local for videos and more info. 

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photo credit: Ivan Nikolov/WENN

New Year, new movie: This one doesn’t have a title but it’s written and being produced and directed by James Gray and stars Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix in one of his first starring roles since he got the train back from Crazy Town.  This is Phoenix’s fourth collaboration with Gray after The Yards, We Own the Night and Two Lovers. (That last might have been what bought him the ticket to Crazy Town in the first place.) In any case, what is currently known only as Untitled James Gray Project is currently filming on location in Brooklyn.

The basic plot of the film involves an innocent immigrant woman (Cotillard) who is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician (Jeremy Renner) tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.

Since Renner is playing the romantic hero (Orlando the Magician), we can assume that Phoenix’s character (Bruno Weiss) will be the one who seduces Cotillard’s Sonya Cybulski. Is it too soon to say “I’m in”? I love the idea of Renner playing this type of character. He’s got a look about him that is both youthful and lived in, and Phoenix can do melodramatic villain very well. Remember his Commodus in Gladiator? If he’d have had a mustache he’d have twirled it. I think the same will probably be said of Bruno Weiss. (This is, of course, all conjecture based on the brief synopsis and the pics we’ve gotten from the set.)

Speaking of pics, I’m loving Phoenix’s bowler and Cotillard’s vaudeville costume, especially the velvet wrapper she’s bundled up in. It must have been very cold in Brooklyn the past few days. Even with the velvet, Cotillard is alternately swaddled in a blanket or someone’s down coat between takes. There’s no information currently available on Untitled James Gray Project’s release date, but hopefully we’ll have a title when there is.

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The TV series 'Smash' is quickly gaining a lot of buzz as the series takes a look at the behind-the-scenes drama of a Broadway musical on the life of Marilyn Monroe. The show stars Debra Messing, Jack Davenport,  Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty.

Debra Messing, Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty and Uma Thurman were on the streets of New York yesterday filming scenes for the show. Although the pilot had an early airing (January 26), it doesn`t officially start until Monday, February 6.

Will you be watching? Did you watch the pilot?

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Photos: Ivan Nikolov/WENN

While it may look like Gerard Butler has a million women chasing him (what's new?) and out to sea no less, he's really filming a scene for his latest film, the Curtis Hanson directed Of Men and Mavericks, a biopic of the late surfing legend, Jay Moriarty. Moriarity, who will be played by Jonny Weston, pioneered the giant waves at the Northern California break known as Mavericks at 16 then died June 15, 2001 a day before his 23rd birthday in a diving accident in the Indian Ocean.

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