Famed indie director turned sometime Hollywood player Richard Linklater has reteamed with his School of Rock star Jack Black for Bernie, which is due to premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 16.

Slash Film have procured two images of the black comedy (see below) which concerns a mortician (Black) who befriends a rich widow (Shirley MacLaine), only to then kill her and keep up the pretence that she is still alive.

Matthew McConaughey (who made his debut in Linklater’s much-loved paean to 70’s adolescent, Dazed & Confused) is another co-star, and if the director has been able to capture something which is close to either film, we may be in for a treat here.

It must be said, Black looks particularly creepy in the second image.

Here at HeyUGuys, we aim to provide you with an all-encompassing look into the world of film. Whether you’re a fully-fledged cineaste, or just possess a casual interest, there’s something for anyone with our alternative A-Z of cinema, which starts today and runs through the week.

If you’ve ever wondered just what it is an Executive Producer does, or maybe if you’ve heard the ambient sounds of Tangerine Dream in an 80’s film favourite without knowing who you were listening to, this is the list for you!

Underground Film is a label which refers to a feature which exists outside the mainstream either in its style, genre or financing. The first use of the term was coined in a 1957 essay by famed American film critic Manny Farber, entitled Underground Films.

In the late 1950s, underground film was used to describe early independent filmmakers working in San Francisco, California and New York City. Leading figures who grew out of that era included Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas, Jack Smith and Bruce Conner. By the late 1960’s filmmakers within the movement began to employ terms like avant-garde or experimental to describe their work.

Through both the 1970’s and 80’s the term would still be used to refer to the more countercultural fringe of independent cinema. Pink Flamingos (John Water’s transgressive tour de force from 1972) is an example of an underground film that, due to its notorious content, found a bigger, cult-like audience and become a permanent fixture on the Midnight Movie circuit.

Vittorio Storaro (1940-) is widely regarded as one of the masters of modern cinematography. By using and adapting the premise inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s theory of colours (which focuses, in part, on the psychological effects different colours have) throughout his own work, Storaro has influenced a whole generation of DoP’s.

One of his most famous and recognised work is in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam odyssey, Apocalypse Now. While many of the cast and crew were losing their heads (director included) Storaro soldiered on, imbuing the film with a bold visual landscape which undoubtedly attributed to a large part of it’s success.

Other equally productive collaborations with filmmakers from Coppola’s era have included Bernardo Bertolucci (Storaro shot his 1970 masterpiece The Conformist) and Warren Beatty. His oeuvre also includes the likes of 1900 Last Tango in Paris, Bulworth, The Sheltering Sky and Dick Tracy. He received Oscars for Reds (1981) and The Last Emperor (1987).

Waking Life is a 2001 feature from Slacker director Richard Linklater which explores the nature of dreams and the sub-conscious. Like his aforementioned 1991 debut, this film has a similar loose and free-wheeling structure, which is composed of various scenes where people muse over their place in the universe and what their purposes are within it.

The film is also known for its use of the rotoscoping animation technique. To achieve this, the animators overlaid the live action footage shot by Linklater (frame by frame) with animation, lending the film a surreal and dream-like quality of its own. Linklater fans will also note that the director has a couple of familiar faces amongst the ensemble. Dazed and Confused’s Wiley Wiggins plays the protagonist, while Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their characters from Before Sunrise for one scene.

Waking Life premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2001, and Linklater would later apply the same effect (with a bigger budget) for his 2002 Philip K. Dick adaptation, A Scanner Darkly.

X-rating. The original X certificate in the UK was issued between 1951 and 1982 by the British Board of Film Censors. From 1951 to 1970, it classified as being “Suitable for those aged 16 and over”. From 1970 to 1982 it was redefined as “Suitable for those aged 18 and over.” The X certificate was replaced in 1982 by the 18 certificate.

In the United States, the X-rating originally referred a film with extreme content that was for adults only, with no concessions made for minors.

Midnight Cowboy (1969) is the first and only X-rated film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Cult sci-fi comic book shoot em’ up RoboCop was originally given an X rating by the MPAA for scenes of “excessive violence” and director Paul Verhoeven (no stranger to controversy) had to remove the blood and gore from the most violent scenes for the film to receive an “R” rating.

Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too) is a 2001 Mexican coming-of-age/road movie. Directed by Children of Men’s Alfonso Cuarón, it follows the exploits of two male horny adolescents who end up taking a trip with an older woman to a beautiful, secret beach called Boca del Cielo (Heaven’s Mouth). During the journey, the duo’s playful and care-free outlook of life is challenged as painful truths are revealed and untapped emotions surface.

As well as being known for its frank and refreshing depiction of sexuality, it also launched the careers of both Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal, who teamed up again in 2008 for comedy drama Rudo y Cursi. Their companion on the trip is played by Spanish actress Maribel Verdú, who was Ofelia’s weak-willed mother in Pan’s Labyrinth.

The film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards (Cuarón co-write it with younger brother, Carlos), as well as receiving a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe Awards that same year.

Zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words “zoe” (which means life) and “tropos” (turning).

It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. Beneath the slits on the inner surface of the cylinder is a band which has either individual frames from a video/film or images from a set of sequenced drawings or photographs. As the cylinder spins the user looks through the slits at the pictures on the opposite side of the cylinder’s interior. The earliest elementary zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD.

American Zoetrope (the studio founded by Francis Ford Coppola in 1969) was named after the device. In 2008 a UK visual effects house built a 10 meter wide, 10 tonne zoetrope for a Sony promotional exercise, which has since been declared the largest in the world by Guinness World Records.

Check out P-T here.

**Read all the posts in our ‘Love Theatrically’ series here**

#3 – “BEFORE SUNRISE” (1995)

Directed by Richard Linklater

Love and romance can often be both unexpected and wholly ephemeral yet unmistakably enchanting while it lasts, gently enveloping all it touches in a warm fairytale glow of seductive splendour and thus transporting those it embraces into an altogether parallel existence temporarily detached from the day to day mundanity of everyday life.

And it’s this very feeling that Richard Linklater evokes so sensuously in “Before Sunrise”, only his third film following “Slacker” (1991) and “Dazed and Confused” (1993).

A chance encounter on a train leads Jesse (Ethan Hawke) to make an impromptu proposal to Celine, a French graduate student on her way to Paris (played by the luminously beautiful Julie Delpy) when he asks her to get off the train with him in Vienna and spend the night with him before he’s due to catch his plane back home the next morning. Much to his delight she agrees and what follows is a truly beguiling adventure as the two of them explore the majesty of Vienna, talk about their lives and loves and grow forever closer knowing that come sunrise they may very well never see each other again.

It’s a wonderfully simple premise yet one that gives the film a definite sense of romantic urgency as their feelings grow ever stronger and the realisation of their potentially tragic predicament slowly begins to dawn on them.

Ignoring a handful of supporting characters the film solely rests on the shoulders of its two leads and both Hawke and Delpy deliver wonderfully believable performances with Jesse and Celine emerging as such instantly likeable characters that the audience are sure to impart a great deal of empathy towards them as the film draws to its inevitable bittersweet conclusion.

If there were to be a third party in this most magical of affairs then it would surely be Vienna itself which provides a sumptuously shot playground in which the two young lovers can play out this most fleeting of fairytales amidst a wealth of art, poetry, music and romance. And speaking of romance, watching this particular one blossom is a wonderfully heart-warming thing to behold from the sense of quiet awkwardness and cursory glances the couple share as they listen to a record in a listening booth to the endearing fake phone calls they take part in whilst at a restaurant that allows them to express their fondest hopes, desires and feelings.

An encounter with a street poet halfway through the film leads to a gorgeous scene in which he offers to write a poem for the two of them and in just a handful of lines perfectly encapsulates the turmoil of emotions the two of them are feeling at that moment. “I’m a delusion angel / I’m a fantasy parade”, the poet recites, such words further highlighting the sense that this is truly a magical realm they currently inhabit in which only the two of them matter and all else is transitory. Yet the coming dawn will sadly bring with it an end to this most intoxicating of illusions as the veil of darkness is pulled aside and reality is forced to take centre stage one more. As Jesse so succinctly puts it near the film’s dénouement it’s as if the two of them have re-entered “real-time” and following the heartbreaking goodbyes at the train station the film ends on a poetic series of shots as we see a handful of locations in and around Vienna that only the previous night seemed so magical and otherworldly to Jesse and Celine yet in the harsh light of day are nothing more than simple buildings, parks, bridges and cafés.

Nine years later Linklater, Hawke and Delpy were to reunite for “Before Sunset” which saw a chance encounter between Jesse and Celine in Paris lead to reignited emotions, regret, re-evaluation and reconciliation yet for me “Before Sunrise” will always be the more deeply romantic of the two films if only for its masterful handling of the sheer impulsive and magical quality of romance and the haunting sense of ambiguity that ends this most passionate of brief encounters. Witty, warm, smart, sensitive, passionate, magical and memorable “Before Sunrise” is everything you could possibly ask for in a romantic movie and one that never fails to lift my spirits and warm my heart.

“When isn’t everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?.”

Track #12 – “COME HERE”

Written and Performed by Kath Bloom

Shia LaBeouf (currently rouge trading at the box office in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), appears to be interested in taking on a smaller film project next time around, having recently finished tussling with those Transformers again (part 3 is out next summer).

Slash Film are reporting that he may take the role of a young Karl Rove in comedy-drama College Republicans. The film (scripted by newcomer Wesley Jones) follows the early years of the man who would be become Senior Advisor to one George W. Bush, as he attempts to win the position of chief campus conservative under the guidance of famed political consultant Lee Atwater.

I wonder if LaBeouf sought advice from Wall Street director Oliver Stone, who is no stranger himself to dramatising historical and political figures. An older version of Rove even made an appearance (as played by Toby Jones) in his 2008 film W.

No director is attached as yet, but Richard Linklater’s name has been mentioned as one possible contender.

Last month we brought you news that Jack Black is reteaming with his School of Rock director Richard Linklater for black comedy Bernie. Now The Wrap is reporting that another Linklater veteran, Matthew McConaughey, has also been cast in the film.

Black stars as a mortician who befriends and murders a rich widow (Shirley MacLaine), and then tries to keep her death a secret from the community by pretending that she is still alive. McConaughey will the play the role of a district attorney.

McConaughey made his debut as charismatic stoner Wooderson in Linklater’s period comedy Dazed and Confused, and also cropped up a few years in another of his films (the underappreciated gangster flick, The Newton Boys). His career (like Black’s) has had its fair share of bumps of late (although he was great in Tropic Thunder, which also featured his Bernie co-star). Maybe being under the direction of Linklater again may yield positive results.

Anyone hoping for a return to form for Jack Black may be interested to learn that The Hollywood Reporter brings news that both the rotund funnyman and indie auteur-turned Hollywood player Richard Linklater are reteaming to make black comedy Bernie – a macabre-sounding tale of a mortician (Black) who befriends a rich widow (Shirley MacLaine), only to then kill her and keep up the pretence that she is still alive.

On the surface this sounds suspiciously like a retread of ‘classic’ 80’s comedy Weekend at Bernie’s, but it’s actually loosely based upon a true-life crime some years back.

The duo’s last collaboration, School of Rock, was a success for both, establishing Black as a bankable stand-alone lead and opening up the Hollywood gates for Linklater. Although the subject matter this time around doesn’t exactly read ‘family-friendly’, there’s obviously hope that these guys can come of with the goods again.

Here are some excellent interviews giving us a great insight into the movie, ‘Me and Orson Welles’ which stars Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes, Zac Efron, Zoe Kazan, Eddie Marsan and Christian McKay.

Our friend, James Kleinmann was able to interview the three leads from the movie and also director, Richard Linklater (The School of Rock, Before Sunset) asking him about what had drawn him to Robert Kaplow’s novel.

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/me_and_orson_welles/efron_mono.mp3"] Interview with Zac Efron: [/gplayer]

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/me_and_orson_welles/danes_mono.mp3"] Interview with Claire Danes: [/gplayer]

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/me_and_orson_welles/mckay_mono.mp3"] Interview with Christian McKay (Orson Welles): [/gplayer]

[gplayer href="http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/audio/me_and_orson_welles/efron_mono.mp3"] Interview with Richard Linklater (Director): [/gplayer]

Me and Orson Welles is released 4th December and if you haven’t already seen it, you can see the trailer here.

Here’s a new poster for Zac Efron’s latest movie, Me and Orson Welles courtesy of Cinematical.

Richard Linklater (who has previously brought us A Scanner Darkly, Before Sunset and The School of Rock) directs a great cast which, as well as Efron includes Ben Chaplin, Kelly Reilly, Eddie Marsan and the fabulous Claire Danes. I posted the trailer a few weeks ago and it actually looks like it might be a movie where we get to see Efron playing a good acting part which makes a change from his High School Musical days.

If you’ve not seen the trailer, head on over here. Me and Orson Welles is out for release 25th November in the US. I’ve not found a release date for the UK as yet.

Proof that Zac Efron can actually act has arisen in the form of the trailer for Me and Orson Welles! The movie is directed by Richard Linklater (The School of Rock and Before Sunset) and also stars Ben Chaplin, Christian McKay, Claire Danes, Kelly Reilly. It’s scheduled for release at the end of the year in the US (no UK release date as yet.

I’ve embedded the trailer below. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. I don’t think this is going to be anything High School Musical or 17 Again I’m afraid Efron lovers!

Synopsis: In a whirlwind week in 1937 in New York City, a young aspiring actor named Richard is thrown into the middle of Orson Welles Mercury Theatre Company on the eve of the opening of Welles historic staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. During this week he will find romance with a worldly older woman, becomes immersed in a creative experience few are afforded and learn the downside of crossing the imperious, brilliant Welles. Richard is about to grow up fast.