Joel and Ethan Coen's comedy "Hail, Caesar!" has been chosen to open the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February.
The film is set in 1950s Hollywood and stars Josh Brolin, George Clooney and Channing Tatum.
Festival Director Dieter Kosslick said in a statement Friday that the film will be a "perfect start" to the festival. The directors' "True Grit" opened the festival, known locally as the Berlinale, in 2011.
"It's wonderful that Joel and Ethan Coen are once again opening the Berlinale," Kosslick said. "Their humor, unique characters and fantastic narrative skill are guaranteed to thrill the audience."
The festival runs Feb. 11 through 21.
Film academy adds handwritten “Pulp Fiction” script, Miyazaki art, more to vast collection
No one knew what Quentin Tarantino had in the duffle bag.
He and many other A-listers were gathered recently at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles for its glitzy annual fundraising gala. Tarantino was among the honorees. And as he approached the podium to make his speech, the bag did not go unnoticed. At the very least, it was unusual.
Then he opened it up and presented its contents: It was his original handwritten script for "Pulp Fiction," with mistakes, misspellings and all. He was giving it to the museum.
"The script is legendary," said Matt Severson, the executive vice president of academy collection and preservation. "No one was expecting it. This was not a coordinated effort on the part of the academy. This is Quentin thinking what can he do to make his stamp on the museum?"
It's one of many high-profile acquisitions to the Academy's vast film memorabilia collection that the organization announced Thursday, including original "Ponyo" art by Hayao Miyazaki, glasses worn by Mink Stole in "Pink Flamingos," Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken costume from "John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.," animator maquettes of Figaro and Geppetto from Disney's "Pinocchio" and six storyboards from "The Silence of the Lambs."
The organization has also acquired personal collections of filmmakers Paul Verhoeven, Barbara Kopple, Nicole Holofcener, Oliver Stone and Curtis Hanson, as well as 70mm prints of Christopher Nolan's best-picture winner"Oppenheimer," and David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Ryan's Daughter."
"We want items from the history of cinema that relate to all ages and levels of interest," Severson said. "We are preserving this global film history. And it's something that the academy has been doing since its founding in... Read More