News

Netflix has released the first trailer and poster for the highly-anticipated Benji movie, which is getting ready to debut on the streaming service March 16. This movie comes from producer Jason Blum and his team of horror masters over at Blumhouse, with the company carving out a new niche for itself by taking on this family film. Production began on Benji way back in October 2016, but now the adventure is finally ready to see the light of day, ending this project's long journey to the screen.

A modern day retelling of the classic, the story of Benji follows one orphaned puppy and Carter and Frankie, two capricious New Orleans school kids who strike up a friendship with the tenacious street dog. When danger befalls them and they end up kidnapped by robbers who are in over their heads, Benji and his scruffy sidekick come to the rescue. Blumhouse picked up the...

My father used to say that the reason for livin' was to get ready to stay dead a long time.

There aren't many authors out there with the same kind of hard, dark reputation as William Faulkner. He wrote a few screenplays but his major works have gone unadapted for feature films until James Franco decided he was the man for the job. The result is As I Lay Dying (2013), the story of the Bundren clan's journey to bury their mother. The patriarch, Anse (Tim Blake Nelson), is just barely holding onto his control of the family and his decisions as frequently lead to disaster as...well, really it's just disaster. The grown boys, Darl (James Franco), Cash (Jim Parrack), Jewel (Logan Marshall-Green), and the child Vardaman (Brady Permenter), go along with it, but they've all got some loose screws and their sister Dewey Dell (Ahna O'Reilly) ain't much better.

Title: As I Lay Dying Directed by: James Franco Starring: James Franco, Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Parrack, Ahna O’Reilly, Logan Marshall-Green, Brady Permenter, Danny McBride Running time: 109 minutes, Rated R, Available 11/05/13 Special Features: Behind the Scenes featurette; Cast & Crew Interviews Addie Bundren (Beth Grant) is dying. Her daughter Dewey (Ahna O’Reilly), youngest son Vardaman (Brady Permenter) and husband Anse (Tim Blake Nelson) are by her bedside as she takes her final breaths. Her oldest son Cash (Jim Parrack) is outside her window, sawing wood for her coffin. Her two other sons Jewel (Logan Marshall Green) and Darl (James Franco) are making a run to town in order [ Read More ]

The post As I Lay Dying DVD Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Ahna O'Reilly really knows a thing or two about working with James Franco. Not only has she known him for years (they even dated), but she also worked with him on his feature-length debut, As I Lay Dying, which comes out on video on demand today and will be available on DVD on Nov. 5. We got a chance to talk to Ahna about working on the film adaptation of the classic of the same name by William Faulkner and learned about her new literature-related project with James. Popsugar: How did you get involved with As I Lay Dying? Ahna O'Reilly: I’ve known James Franco and [producer] Vince Jolivette for years, and I knew that they wanted to make this. At one point they mentioned to me that they wanted me to be Dewey Dell, but this was two years before it actually got made. I just didn’t want...

James Franco's adaptation of William Faulkner's novel is perhaps not entirely successful, but it's a brave and interesting attempt to pull off a film with a high degree of difficulty

Critics of James Franco are getting worn down, if not yet fully convinced, by his sheer energy and productivity. The actor, writer, director and artist has now come to Cannes with a bold and high-minded new project: a screen version of William Faulkner's 1930 novel As I Lay Dying, which Franco directs from his own screenplay, and co-stars as Darl Bundren, the glowering son in a dirt-poor family in rural Mississippi. Tim Blake Nelson is the haggard, toothless father Anse, and Beth Grant plays the dying mother Addie Bundren. Jim Parrack and Logan Marshall-Green play Cash and Jewel, the other two grownup brothers; Ahna O'Reilly plays their sister Dewey and Brady Permenter is the smallest child, Vardaman. When Addie dies,...

James Franco's As I Lay Dying is a film to be respected more for its filmmaking vision rather than its resulting narrative. In adapting William Faulkner's 1930 novel Franco has managed to capture the nuts and bolts of the story, utilizing split-screen to add more information to almost every scene. But as the film rolls along, and the curiosity in function goes away and the story is doing very little to entertain or engage, you can't help but ask yourself, "Why am I watching this?" The story follows the Bundren family in the aftermath of the death of Addie (Beth Grant), the family matriarch. Her wish is to be laid to rest in Jefferson, Mississippi and her family obliges in their own selfish and misunderstood ways, but the path to Jefferson with Addie stowed in a coffin on the back of a horse-drawn wagon proves treacherous to say the least.

As I Lay Dying, a drama and official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, has first poster up. The film also includes Tim Blake Nelson, Danny McBride, Logan Marshall-Green, Ahna O'Reilly, Jim Parrack, Beth Grant and Brady Permenter. Franco directs from a script he wrote with Matt Rager, based on the 1930 novel by William Faulker. The story tells of the death of Addie Bundren and her family's quest to honor her wish to be buried in the nearby town of Jefferson. The film was shot in Canton, Mississipi and is produced by Caroline Aragon, Lee Caplin, Vince Jolivette, Miles Levy, Matthew O'Toole, Robert Van Norden and Millennium Films' Avi Lerner. Heidi Jo Markel serves as executive producer.