There is nothing more iconic than a good looking leather jacket on a movie star. There are as many styles of jacket as there are stars, which makes looking good easy. From Marlon Brando to Keanu Reeves, leather jackets have been a part of some of the most incredible looking costumes ever. So, here is our list of some of the most iconic leather coats and jackets in Hollywood history.

Marlon Brando In The Wild One

This list wouldn't be complete without including the O.G. leather look on Marlon Brando in The Wild One. The 1953 film about a biker gang was not only a big hit in theaters, but it was a huge influence on society. From the outlaw biker gangs who took inspiration from the look to regular folks who saw the leather jackets as the coolest of cool.

Wesley Snipes In Blade

Wesley Snipes is the coolest-looking superhero in Blade with his iconic look in leather and sunglasses. Everything about the costume and the character oozes cool and defines Blade's renegade nature.

Arnold Schwarzenegger In The Terminator Movies

Leather jackets definitely provide a look for someone to say "Don't mess with me," and nowhere is this more true in Hollywood than when Arnold Schwarzenegger wears one in the Terminator movies. Starting with the first movie, he's usually seen in one and you definitely don't want to mess with him.

Rooney Mara In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Leather jackets have always been a symbol of rebelliousness in Hollywood. In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, it's the perfect look for Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) to portray both her anti-social nature and her tough exterior. You can't imagine wearing anything else.

John Travolta In Saturday Night Fever

In the 1970s, no one was cooler than John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. The strut, the hair, the dancing, and the leather jacket all made that possible. The look is so iconic that people are still imitating it today, five decades later.

Carrie-Anne Moss In The Matrix Movies

It's safe to say that The Matrix movies would not be the same if the characters were dressed in anything but the coolest and toughest-looking leather jackets and coats. From Neo to Morpheus to, of course, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) in her amazing looking long leather coat. It's just such an amazing bit of costume.

Brad Pitt In Fight Club

Not every leather jacket has to be black to look completely awesome. Tyler Durden's reddish-brown jacket in Fight Club has become one of the most famous looks in Hollywood. Of course, it's easy for Brad Pitt to pull off almost any look, but he might just look his coolest in Fight Club.

Hugh Jackman In The X-Men Films

Leather jackets have been used a lot over the years to depict both heroes and anti-heroes. Nowhere is this more clear than on Logan aka Wolverine, as depicted by Hugh Jackman in the X-Men and now in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Logan is anti-social to an extreme and his leather jacket definitely indicates that you don't want to pick a fight with him.

Olivia Newton-John In Grease

The costumes in Grease are amazing. Of course, the T-Birds' jackets are fantastic, but it's the leather jacket that Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) dons in the last act that looks the most amazing. She completely changes her look and the jacket is what inspires the whole thing.

Keanu Reaves In The John Wick Movies

Keanu Reaves loves to wear leather in his movies, but the brown leather jacket in the first John Wick movie is probably the coolest. It's great because it's cool as heck, but it's not too over the top for the retired assassin. It makes John Wick seem normal, yet completely cool and ready for anything.

Eddie Murphy In Raw

In his standup movie Raw, Eddie Murphy takes the cool leather look to the next level. Not only does he have an amazing purple leather jacket, he compliments it with matching leather pants. It wasn't the first time he wore a leather outfit on stage, he wore a similar red one in his first standup movie, Delirious, but the purple one in Raw tops the red one in every way.

Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds

Dangerous Minds isn't the best movie in Michelle Pfeiffer's filmography, despite having an amazing soundtrack, but for an actress who had a whole bunch of iconic looks in the '80s and '90s, her jeans and leather jacket look in the movie is one of the most memorable. It's a costume that tells you so much about the character without saying a word.

Steve McQueen In The Great Escape

It's hard to argue that Steve McQueen isn't one of the coolest stars in Hollywood history. Of course, you can earn that kind of praise without at least one leather jacket. In The Great Escape, McQueen's brown leather bomber jacket is the epitome of cool. Even when he is covered in dirt, he looks great, but it's when he's wearing the jacket that he looks his best.

Tom Cruise In Top Gun

In the '80s, there was no movie cooler than Top Gun and there was no cooler character than Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise. The leather bomber jacket Cruise wore in the movie became so iconic and such a key characteristic of the role that when Top Gun: Maverick released its first teaser, the jacket was a big part of it.

Harrison Ford In Raiders Of The Lost Ark

There is something about a distressed leather jacket that brings authenticity to a character that few other costume pieces can. Nowhere in film history is this more true than with Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in all of the Indiana Jones movies. The jacket, along with the hat and the whip, completely define the character in every way. Is there any other kind of jacket you could ever see Indy wearing? Of course not.

Uma Thurman In Kill Bill

There are a lot things that make Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill cool, but Uma Thurman's yellow leather motorcycle jacket tops the list. It's become an iconic costume over the years, and while not everyone could pull off the look, Thurman certainly does and everyone loves it.

Mel Gibson In The Mad Max Movies

As distressed leather jackets go, Mel Gibson's in the Mad Max movies is among the best looking. Looking into a dystopian future, it makes complete sense that leather jackets would still be part of the fashion. They are almost indestructible and have that classic look that almost no other piece of clothing has.

Joey Lauren Adams In Chasing Amy

This one flies a little bit under the radar, but it's an amazing look and deserves to be on this list. Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams) in Chasing Amy has a lot of "rock and roll" to her style and nothing says rock star like leather.

Samuel L. Jackson In The MCU

As Deadpool asks in the post-credits scene in the original Deadpool movie, "Did you expect Samuel L. Jackson in a saucy leather number?" Well, yes, frankly we might have, since Jackson, playing the cooler-than-cool Nick Fury often shows up in a fantastic-looking leather jacket in the MCU. It is something we expect (even if Deadpool wasn't in the MCU at the time).

Tom Hardy In The Dark Knight Rises

Great Villains are often in leather. In The Dark Knight Rises Bane wears one of the greatest leather coats ever. The fur-lined brown leather number is perfect for his character and it's a look that not every villain could pull off, but Bane (Tom Hardy) certainly does.

Halle Berry In Die Another Day

Halle Berry has a few iconic outfits in the Pierce Brosnan-led James Bond film Die Another Day and while her bikini may be the most famous, the red leather jacket she wears for a lot of the movie is one heck of a look too. Sure, the movie isn't the best Brosnan-era Bond film, but you can't deny how great Berry looks in her costumes.

James Dean In Rebel Without A Cause

Seven decades after his death in 1955, James Dean is still the epitome of cool. Though he only starred in three movies, his impact on pop culture is immense. His red leather jacket in Rebel Without A Cause is one reason why. Because Dean's career was so brief, we don't have a lot of "looks" from him, making the jacket that much more iconic.

Kurt Russell In Escape From New York

If you want to look cool and look like you just don't care about anything, a distressed leather jacket can tell a lot of people just how you feel without saying a word. Take the look of Snake Pilsson (Kurt Russell) in Escape From New York. Has anyone ever looked tougher, cooler, and more aloof in an action film? No, not really.

Sigourney Weaver In Aliens

Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is one of the most amazing characters in action movie history. Of course, that means she must look cool as heck in leather, and she does in Aliens. It's not her most iconic look, but come on, you can't deny how awesome it is.

Tom Cruise In Mission: Impossible

Let's be honest, Tom Cruise always looks good in a nice leather jacket, but if you're ranking his costumes by how good looking they are, the jacket he wears in the first Mission: Impossible is at the top. When he is doing his sleight of hand with the disc with the NOC list on it while wearing the jacket is one of the best non-action scenes in the whole series.

Peter Fonda And Dennis Hopper In Easy Rider

If you wanted to be a rebellious hippie in the late 1960s, a leather jacket was a good place to start with your look. Especially if you were on a motorcycle like Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in Easy Rider. Fonda has a more traditional biker look with his black leather jacket, but Hopper's character goes for a sweet suede jacket with some awesome fringe. Both look amazing.

Anne Hathaway In Get Smart

Get Smart might not be the best movie that Anne Hathaway has ever been in, but her white leather coat looks fantastic in it. It's not the only time Hathaway has shown up in an iconic leather look, who could ever forget her look in The Dark Knight Rises, it is a unique look that you don't see in a lot of movies. Of course, she completely pulls it off.

Matt Dillon In The Outsiders

The greasers in The Outsiders are mostly known for their jean jackets, but one greaser, Dally (Matt Dillion) wears a leather jacket and he looks exactly the part in it. It's not the cleanest jacket in the world, we wouldn't expect it to be, but man it looks so cool!

Laurence Fishburne In The Matrix

Like many of the characters in The Matrix, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) looks totally iconic in his leather duster. Sure it's not a "jacket," but there was no way we could leave it off of this list!

Jon Voight In Midnight Cowboy

Midnight Cowboy is a little bit of a forgotten movie these days, but it was a massive hit when it was released. Those who know, know. Jon Voight's suede jacket with the long fringe isn't a look everyone can pull off, and even in the movie it's not always the best look, but looking back, it's safe to say it belongs on this list as one of the best in Hollywood history.

Jason Momoa In Fast X

It's not hard for Jason Momoa to look cool, I think we can all agree. Still, in Fast X, that black and white snakeskin-looking leather jacket is simply amazing. It's not a look that anyone can pull off, in fact, many would look ridiculous in it, but not Momoa, not by a longshot.

Emma Stone In La La Land

Red leather is a fantastic look, though not everyone looks good in it. Emma Stone in La La Land isn't just anyone though. Stone just looks fantastic in the jacket and it, along with all the others on this list, has become iconic.

You know what all of the best sports movies have in common? Well, besides featuring stories centered around football, baseball, and even roller derby? They all include tremendous performances by actors that are believable and help the audience suspend disbelief, if only for a couple of hours. However, there are also movies where the actors, despite trying their best, are a little bit outside. 

Here are 32 times actors played professional athletes and whether or not they were believable.

Burt Reynolds (The Longest Yard)

Considered to be one of the best football movies of all time, The Longest Yard (the 1974 version) features a tremendous performance by the late Burt Reynolds as Paul Crewe, a former pro quarterback who ends up in prison and leads a group of prisoners against the guards in the annual football game. At the top of his game, Reynolds is a lights-out QB and play-caller in this iconic comedy.

Margot Robbie (I, Tonya)

Margot Robbie is to die for in the 2017 sports biopic, I, Tonya, which sees her take on the role of Tonya Harding, the talented and raw figure skater who made a mark on the sport before being tied up in its most notorious controversy. While Robbie’s off-the-ice scenes are superb, her figure skating was just as impressive, which should come as no surprise.

Jamie Foxx (Any Given Sunday)

Oliver Stone’s 1999 satirical sports dramedy, Any Given Sunday, sees Jamie Foxx portray Willie "Steamin" Beamen, the third-string quarterback for the fictional Miami Sharks football team. Foxx is outstanding in his take on the young QB and does a wonderful job of showcasing the character’s on-field talents and off-the-field escapades.

Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby)

Hilary Swank won an Oscar for her portrayal of Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald in Best Picture winner, Million Dollar Baby, and rightfully so. The talented actress told CBS News she spent three months training at a Brooklyn boxing gym before filming Clint Eastwood’s 2004 sports drama, and it shows.

Sylvester Stallone (Rocky)

Rocky is without a doubt the most well-known boxing movie of all time, and that’s mostly due to Sylvester Stallone’s commitment to the role of Rocky Balboa. Though not as bulked up as he was in later films in the franchise, Stallone has a great physical presence and ring awareness in his breakout role.

Kevin Costner (Tin Cup)

If Kevin Costner isn’t believable as a down-on-his-luck and washed-up golf pro looking for a shot at redemption and to settle an old score in Tin Cup, then I don’t know what will sell it to you. Sure, Costner seems more comfortable in baseball movies like Bull Durham and For Love of the Game, but his take on Roy McAvoy is top-notch. 

Emma Stone (Battle Of The Sexes) 

Emma Stone played tennis trailblazer Bille Jean King in the 2017 sports biopic, Battle of the Sexes, which saw her take on Steve Carell’s Bobby Riggs in the famous 1973 match of the same name. The Oscar winner does a great job when it comes to every aspect of the role, including those tense tennis scenes.

Geena Davis (A League Of Their Own)

Geena Davis looks, feels, and acts like a professional baseball player in A League of Their Own. There’s no need to suspend your disbelief when watching Davis’ Dottie Hinson lead the Rockford Peaches to one victory after another. The physicality, the presence, the believability are all there.

Chadwick Boseman (42)

Chadwick Boseman became a massive star in 2013 thanks to his celebrated portrayal of Jackie Robinson, the Professional Baseball Hall of Famer who broke the color barrier more than a half-century earlier. Boseman, who died in August 2020, was phenomenal in his performance and made the film’s various baseball sequences incredibly realistic.

Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire)

Okay, Cuba Gooding Jr.’s take on Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire is killer, even when you take out the classic “Show me the money” scene. He’s cocky, brash, and hard to deal with, but he can back it up and makes the big catch to earn his team a playoff berth. We’ll let the off-field antics slide…

Tim Robbins (Bull Durham)

Bull Durham, one of the best baseball movies of all time, sees Tim Robbins play Ebby “Nuke” LaLoosh, a hot-shot young pitcher with a “million-dollar arm, but a five-cent head.” And the six-foot-five-inch Robbins very much looked and acted like a talented yet undisciplined ball player. 

Wesley Snipes (Major League)

Wesley Snipes’ Wille Mays Hayes, who could run like Hayes but not hit like Mays in Major League, was a convincing ball player in the 1989 sports classic. Yeah, he had trouble hitting the ball (part of his character), but he had unmatched speed. The scene where he runs in his pajamas in spring training is still the stuff of legend.

Charlie Sheen (Major League)

If you were to build the ultimate baseball movie team, Charlie Sheen’s Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn from Major League would have a permanent spot as the closer. To pull off the dominant pitcher’s fastball, Sheen took it to the extreme and tried out steroids, as he later told Sports Illustrated. 

Damon Wayans (The Last Boy Scout)

Tony Scott’s The Last Boy Scout is an all-time great buddy action movie, one that also features a former professional football player, or at least an actor playing one. Though we don’t see his character in action on the field, Damon Wayans just gives off the energy of a pro quarterback who lost it all. 

Carl Weathers (Rocky)

Carl Weathers’ Apollo Creed was one of the linchpins of the Rocky franchise and served as one of Sylvester Stallone’s best on-screen opponents. Weathers not only looked like a boxer with that ridiculous physique of his (especially in the later movies), but he also had that “it” factor needed to play such a flashy character.

Tom Berenger (Major League)

It’s hard to imagine anyone besides Tom Berenger playing Jake Taylor, the veteran catcher with bad knees and just enough gas left in the tank, in Major League. Throughout the movie, it feels like the Cleveland Indians’ senior slugger has been through the wringer multiple times, and that’s thanks to the incredible work of Berenger.

Chris Hemsworth (Rush)

Ron Howard’s 2013 sports biopic, Rush, features top-notch performances by Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl as James Hunt and Niki Lauda, respectively. While Brühl is great with his cool and collected demeanor, it’s Hemsworth who steals the show with his take on the self-confident and talented Formula One driver, thanks in part to the actor’s electric personality and physicality.

Paul Newman (Slap Shot)

There was no way we weren’t going to talk about Paul Newman in Slap Shot. Seriously, try to think about this beloved hockey movie with anyone else taking on Charlestown Chiefs player/coach Reggie Dunlop. Is he the most talented skater on the ice? No. But is believable in his portrayal of good, old-fashioned hockey? You bet! 

James Caan (Brian's Song)

Though James Caan was mostly recognized for his work in the latter half of Brian’s Song, this shouldn’t discount his portrayal of Brian Piccolo before he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. His take on the Chicago Bears halfback, along with Billie Dee Williams’ Gale Sayers, is phenomenal, to say the least.

Denzel Washington (The Hurricane)

Denzel Washington gave a commanding performance in the 1999 sports biopic, The Hurricane, which saw him take on the role of middleweight boxer Rubin “The Hurricane” Carter, who spent nearly 20 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder. Washington, once again proving he’s one of the greatest to do it, excels in the ring.

Keanu Reeves (The Replacements)

Audiences never got to see Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Utah throw a pass in Point Break, but we did get to watch the actor play another left-handed quarterback from Ohio State with his portrayal of Shane Falco in The Replacements. This is a "whatever" movie if there’s ever been one, but Reeves looks at home leading the Washington Sentinels after the regular players go on strike.

John Goodman (The Babe)

John Goodman looks like Babe Ruth in the 1992 sports biopic, The Babe, but he doesn’t really play like the Great Bambino. This isn’t a knock on Goodman’s talents as an actor, it’s just that it’s impossible to accurately imitate the unmatched talents of one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

Adam Sandler (Happy Gilmore)

Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore will probably always be considered one of the best sports comedies of all time. The movie is heavy on both humor and sports (especially if you include the hockey scenes), and Sandler pulls off both things really well. 

Raquel Welch (Kansas City Bomber)

In the 1972 sports drama, Kansas City Bomber, the late Raquel Welch played K.C. Carr, a recently retired roller games star who returns to sport to settle an old score. No surprise, Welch was great in the movie and was a dominant physical force on skates.

Robert De Niro (Raging Bull)

One of Robert De Niro’s best movies, Raging Bull, sees the Oscar winner take on the role of middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta at various stages in his life and career. De Niro, who went through a physical transformation for the part, could hold his own in the movie’s various boxing sequences and never looked out of place.

Robert Redford (The Natural)

Would saying Robert Redford looked natural in his take on Roy Hobbs in The Natural be too on the nose? Who cares! Redford’s boyish charm and remarkable swing of his trusty bat, “Wonderboy,” helped make Barry Levinson’s 1972 sports drama an all-time classic. 

Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

Not only was Mickey Rourke outstanding in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, but the actor’s portrayal of a washed-up Randy Robinson was also incredibly realistic. Whether he was in the ring or trying to fix the broken pieces of his life in the real world, Rourke bled, cried, and sweated like someone who had been in the squared circle for decades, not months.  

Tom Selleck (Mr. Baseball)

Mr. Baseball is one of those movies that feels like it should have been a much bigger deal, but here we are 30-plus years later with a baseball comedy that never really gets talked about anywhere besides the MLB Network. Despite this, Tom Selleck’s take on Jack Elliot, a New York Yankee who joins the Nagoya Chunichi Dragons of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball League, is both fun and believable. Come on, the Blood Bloods star even took an at-bat in an MLB spring training game a year before the film’s release.

Dwayne Johnson (The Tooth Fairy)

Dwayne Johnson, one of the greatest WWE Champions of all time, and a former college football player for the Miami Hurricanes, played a hockey player in the 2010 Disney movie, The Tooth Fairy. The Rock is great in just about anything, but not so much on the ice.

Will Smith (Ali)

Will Smith received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Muhammad Ali in Michael Mann’s 2001 epic sports biopic, Ali, and he did a decent enough job. The major problem with Smith’s performance doesn’t really have much to do with the actor, but instead, the man he was playing. Smith is great in the boxing sequences, but it’s hard to believe that he’s the greatest of all time and not an actor playing the iconic sports figure.

Dennis Quaid (The Rookie)

Dennis Quaid’s portrayal of Jim Morris in The Rookie is nothing short of magical. The way Quaid plays the high school chemistry teacher who becomes a major league pitcher more than a decade after his baseball dreams died is a lot of fun and believable. He has the heart and determination of the real-life Tamp Bay Devil Rays pitcher, which really carries the film.

Steve McQueen (Le Mans)

If there was a movie where Steve McQueen drives a car at a high rate of speed, you can guarantee the legendary actor looked natural doing so. That’s the case with the 1971 film, Le Mans, in which McQueen played Michael Delaney, a racer with a guilty conscience following a tragic accident. McQueen, who had experience as a race driver, looked like a natural.

Playing a professional sport is no easy task and takes years of training and dedication, but these actors did a fine job of playing athletes on the big screen. While some were better than others, each gave all they had.

Sometimes, if you love a movie enough, you might want to try and own a piece of it. However, the buying movie props business can get to be an expensive one. Here are some of the most expensive pieces of memorabilia ever sold.

 The Spy Who Loved Me's Submarine Car 

Sold For:  $864,600 

James Bond has had some of the coolest cars in all of movie history, but none are quite as wild as the car that transformed into a submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me. The vehicle driven by Roger Moore was a white Lotus Esprit and while multiple cars were used in the film, only one was given the submarine transformation. The vehicle sold for 550,000 pounds at auction in 2013.

Steve McQueen's Le Mans Suit 

Sold For: $336,000

Most of the most expensive movie props ever sold are from major blockbuster movie franchises, but sometimes they're just worn by the coolest people to walk the earth. In 2017 the racing suit worn by Steve McQueen for the racing movie Le Mans sold for $300,000.

Audrey Hepburn's Breakfast at Tiffany's Dress 

Sold For: $800,000

Somebody was a big Breakfast at Tiffany's fan in 2007, because they paid $800,000 for the dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the classic film. The price blew away the early estimates of what the dress would sell for. It was good news for a lot impoverished children, as the dress was sold for charity. 

Darth Vader's Empire Strikes Back Helmet 

Sold For: $898,420

Darth Vader is one of the most iconic villains in film history, so it's no surprise that his equally iconic helmet would be a prized possession. Specifically, the helmet from The Empire Strikes Back sold in 2017 for 1 million British pounds, or just short of $900,000 dollars.

 Saturday Night Fever's Dance Floor  

Sold For: $1,200,000

Most movie props are something you can put on a shelf and display. It's unclear how the person who spent over $1 million on the Saturday Night Fever dance floor planned to show it off. You don't let people walk on something that costs that much, do you?

Judy Garland's Wizard of Oz Dress 

Sold For: $1,560,000

The Wizard of Oz is one of the most popular films ever made, and Judy Garland one of the most beloved movie stars ever. There are probably a lot of people who would spend more than $1.5 million on Garland's Dorothy dress, assuming of course they had the cash.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Sold For: $805,000

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang wasn't exactly a high-performance automobile in the Dick Van Dyke musical, but it certainly sold like one, as the car sold for over $800,000 back in 2011. While it's one of the most expensive movie props ever purchased at auction, it was actually expected to go for a lot more.

R2-D2 From Star Wars

Sold For: $2,760,000

These days looking at R2-D2 on screen is as likely to be a CGI creation as it is a physical prop. Perhaps that's why one of the original R2-D2 creations for Star Wars: A New Hope sold for well over $2 million in 2017. There simply may not be as many of them in the future.

Casablanca's Piano 

Sold For: $3,400,000

"Play it, Sam." One of the most famous lines in movie history is often misquoted, but however you say it, you can play "As Time Goes By" on the actual piano used in Casablanca, or at least one person who had $3.4 million to purchase the piano can. Assuming they can play the piano at all.

The Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers

Sold For: $2,000,000

There are multiple pairs of Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz in the world that have all gone for significant sums. The most expensive was sold for $2 million in 2012 by a group that was buying them to add to the collection of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences museum.

The Maltese Falcon

Sold For:  $4,085,000

The Maltese Falcon is a movie about a lot of people who are willing to do, or pay, anything, to get their hands on a small statue of a falcon. It's fitting then that when the actual statue from the film was put up for sale, it sold for over $4 million, a record sum for a movie prop at the time.

Audrey Hepburn's My Fair Lady Dress 

Sold For:  $4,551,000

My Fair Lady won eight Oscars in 1965 and one of them was for the film's costume design. Audrey Hepburn's "Ascot" dress is probably the most well-remembered outfit in the film. The incredible dress that Eliza Doolittle wore for her coming out would sell for over $4.5 million in 2011. 

The Wizard of Oz's Cowardly Lion Costume

Sold For:  $3,077,000

Sometimes you don't know what you have. The Cowardly Lion costume was reportedly going to be thrown away by MGM before somebody saved it. Many years later the costume, which is made of real lion fur, sold for over $3 million. It makes one wonder what other valuable props may be lost forever.

Marilyn Monroe's The Seven Year Itch Dress 

Sold For:  $4.6 million 

Few pieces of clothing in the world are as famous as the white dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch. The dress was previously owned by actress Debbie Reynolds, for a museum project that never happened. The dress sold for $4.6 million, before the $1 million fee the auction house took home.

Robby the Robot From Forbidden Planet

Sold For:  $5.375 million 

Forbidden Planet was a groundbreaking science fiction film that influenced nearly every movie in the genre that came after it. Today the film is likely best known for Robby the Robot, a completely unique design for a robot character at the time. When Robbie sold for over $5 million in 2017 he became the most valuable movie prop ever sold.

 James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 From No Time To Die

Sold: For:  $3.5 million 

Few movie cars are as iconic as James Bond's Aston Martin. Actors from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig have driven different versions of the classic vehicle. Many replicas have been built and sold over the years but one vehicle that was actually used for stunts in Craig's final outing No Time to Die, sold in 2022 for £2,922,000, or about $3.5 million.

The Ax From The Shining

Sold For: $175,000

Stephen King famously didn't love The Shining from Stanley Kubrick, but millions of movie fans certainly feel otherwise. One apparently loved the movie so much, they dropped six figures on the ax Jack Nicholson swung into doors in the film, spending more than double what the weapon had gone for at a previous auction.

Marty McFly’s Hoverboard From Back To The Future Part II

Sold For:  $501,200

Ever since Back to the Future Part II came out, we've been waiting for hoverboards to become real. We're still waiting for that, so we'll have to make do with the props from the film. One of which, sold in 2021 for over a half million dollars. There were two added features that helped boost the sale, it was autographed by stars Michael J. Fox and Tom Wilson.

 Han Solo’s Blaster From Star Wars

Sold For: $1,057,500

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side. That blaster, however, can get expensive. The last remaining Han Solo DL-44 blaster -- three were originally designed -- from the original Star Wars sold for just over $1 million in the summer of 2022. 

Indy's Hat From Raiders Of The Lost Ark And Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

Sold For: $500,000 (and $300,000)

Harrison Ford has created more than one iconic character in film history, but none look as good in a hat as Indiana Jones. Different hats worn by Ford for different movies have all been sold for high prices. A Raiders of the Lost Ark hat has the record at $500,000, but one from Temple of Doom did almost as well selling for $300,000

 Charlie Chaplin's Cane And Hat  

Sold For:  $139,250

Charlie Chaplin was one of the first true movie stars, and his Tramp was one of the first movie franchise characters. Recognizable by his bowler hat and twirling cane, several sets have been auctioned off in the past, with a set in 2006 selling for almost $140,000.

 Superman Costume From Superman: The Movie

Sold For: $350,112

Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and before the endless iterations of Batman, there was Superman. Christopher Reeve made us believe a man could fly in 1978's Superman, a full set of Reeve's hero costume from the movie sold at auction for $350,000

 The Sound of Music Costumes 

Sold For:  $1.3 million

In The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews' Maria Von Trapp makes the children some play clothes out of curtains. If only she knew they would become so valuable. A collection of the costumes including the childrens' costumes and one of Andrews' dresses, sold for $1.3 million in 2013.

 2001: A Space Odyssey Space Suit 

Sold For: $370,000

2001: A Space Odyssey is considered one of the best sci-fi movies ever made, so its little shock props from the movie would be in demand. One of the movie's spacesuits sold for $370,000 in 2020.

 Gandalf's Staff From The Lord Of The Rings

Sold For: $390,000

When Gandalf's white staff from The Lord of the Rings went up for auction in 2017, it was expected to sell for around $25,000. Instead, the piece sold for over 10 times that amount. 

The Seventh Seal Chess Set 

Sold For:  $143,300 

Even if you've never seen Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal you likely know of the game of chess against death that has been referenced and parodied countless times. Bergman held on to the actual chess set used in the film, and it was sold after his death for 1 million Swedish crowns or a little under $150,000.

Chris Pratt's Guardians Of The Galaxy Helmet 

Sold For: $160,000

With so much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe being created by digital effects, there may be a minimum, of physical props to actually own. However, Star-Lord's helmet from Guardians of the Galaxy is very real, and it sold for six figures in 2017. 

 Prince's Purple Rain Costume 

Sold For:  $192,000

The death of Prince in 2016 was a shock to fans around the world, but it may be the reason that an auction of two items from his Purple Rain wardrobe a few months later ended up selling for $96,000 each, much more than had been expected. 

Back To The Future's DeLorean   

Sold For:   $541,200

There were seven DeLorean cars used in the original Back to the Future, but today only three are believed to exist, so of course they are quite valuable. One of the remaining models sold for over a half million dollars in 2011, with a portion of the funds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber From Star Wars

Sold For:  $240,000

There may be no more iconic weapon in movie history than the lightsaber, and while the "real" one has no blade, one of the models Mark Hamill used in the first two Star Wars movies sold for nearly a quarter million dollars in 2008. Another item was listed for sale in 2018, but it was pulled after Hamill himself questioned its authenticity. 

Aragorn's Sword From The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

Sold For:  $437,000

Andúril was reforged from the shards of Narsil in the Elvish enclave at Rivendell. With a lineage like that, it's no shock that the blade of Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King sold for over $400,000. 

 Poltergeist Clown Doll 

Sold For:  $656,250

Why somebody would spend $650,000 on a scary clown doll is a real question. Yes, it's from Poltergeist, an iconic horror movie, but now you have a scary clown doll in your house. Why would you do that? 

Harrison Ford's Blade Runner Costume

Sold For:  $287,500 

Blade Runner wasn't a box office hit in its day, but the film has become a cult classic and a defining part of Harrison Ford's career. His Deckard costume from the original film sold in 2023 for almost $300,000.

And those are just some of the many iconic movie props that sold for a huge sum of money.

In 2020, Steve McQueen released his anthology series Small Axe. Steve McQueen’s Small Axe movies range in runtime, from a little over two hours to just over an hour. The films take place mainly in the '70s and '80s, and depict many obstacles faced by Black people, mainly with origins from the West Indies, living in England. Small Axe’s stories are a mixture of fictional tales and those based on true events. Small Axe has five films in the first anthology: Mangrove, Lovers Rock, Red, White, and Blue, Alex Wheatle, and Education.

All five films were released exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, weekly, from November 20 to December 18, 2020. Each one of Steven McQueen’s Small Axe movies has a talented cast, powerful stories, and brilliant use of music. They’re all important, unique, and moving in their own ways. However, some of the films stand out more than the others, either because of the performances, storytelling techniques, the film’s creativity, or just the excellent writing, so I ranked each film based on those criteria and others.

I stress that the Small Axe movies are a collection worth watching in its entirety, but here’s how I would rank them as individual films.

5. Alex Wheatle

Alex Wheatle is the fourth film in the Small Axe collection. It’s the true-life story of Black British author Alex Wheatle, played in the movie by Sheyi Cole. It starts with him entering prison, and then flashes back to different periods in his life, from an orphanage to playing with his band in the '80s.

Alex Wheatle gives a fascinating account of a man without heritage and home, and how he goes on a journey to find his place, but ultimately realizes that he must find his roots first to find his true identity. Like all of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe movies, Alex Wheatle has an amazing cast of relatively unknown talented actors. Alex Wheatle is definitely a drama, but it’s the Small Axe movie with the most humor. This film ranks last because it just doesn’t feel as compelling as the four others. It’s by no means a bad film, but the other films felt more important and relevant in their messages, and some of Alex Wheatle’s universal messages are presented better in the other movies.

4. Red, White, and Blue

John Boyega stars in Red, White, and Blue. He plays real-life officer Leroy Logan. He was a founding member of the Black Police Association. Leroy and his family, specifically his father Ken (Steve Toussaint), have a very bad history with the London police force. They constantly harass Leroy’s community. He decides to join the police force, as one of the first black members, to try to help his community and solicit change.

It’s not an easy journey, as he faces opposition from his family, community, and his own colleagues. Leroy is pushed to his near breaking point by those around him. Boyega gives a very strong performance, as do Toussant and Antonia Thomas, who plays Leroy’s wife Gretl. Red, White, and Blue shows the difficulty of trying to be the change but also feeling abandoned and like an outsider in your career and community. Red, White, and Blue is the third film in Small Axe. It ranks fourth only because the ending felt incomplete. It got the message home that Leroy’s father understood what he was doing, and that was enough to keep him going, but it felt like it could have had a few more minutes to reach an even stronger finale.

3. Education

Education follows Kingsley Smith (Kenyah Sandy), a young boy who gets sent to a school for children with “special” needs. Once Kingsley arrives at this new school, he learns that it’s not like his former school because it lacks structure and a staff that actually cares about helping students learn. At first, his overworked mother Agnes (Sharlene Whyte) goes along with the new school without questioning it. Then Lydia Thomas (Josette Simon) and Hazel (Naomi Ackie) contact her about what’s really going on at Kingsley’s new school.

Education was one of the most powerful in the collection of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe movies, because it’s a portrait of how the system can fail children. It’s a sobering look at how the educational system of the past (and some still today) discard children with difficulty learning, and how the cycle of miseducation can ruin someone’s life. It also recognizes the importance of parents being involved to stop this cycle, and to take more of an interest in their child’s learning. Education is the fifth film in the collection and one that drives home its messages the best.

2. Lovers Rock

Lovers Rock follows two people, Franklyn (Michael Ward) and Martha (Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn) as they meet at a reggae house party. The film takes place mainly at the party and shows various events and incidents that happen before and after the party.

Lovers Rock is a film about the vibes it gives its viewers and less about an actual plot. The majority of the film is just people singing and dancing with some conflict thrown into the mix. It’s a great example of a film that shows, rather than tells the viewers what it’s trying to do. The film is able to show racial conflict, sexual awakening, and emotional turmoil with simple dance sequences, some dialogue, plot, and music. Some of the dance sequences and moments where people just lose themselves singing are goosebump-inducing for how realistic they feel, and how they take you to a moment where you lost yourself in the groove. Lovers Rock is Steve McQueen’s most experimental movie in the Small Axe collection. It’s also the one that leaves one of the biggest impressions. It’s the second film in the Small Axe anthology.

1. Mangrove

Mangrove is the first film in Small Axe. It tells the true story of the Mangrove Nine, nine individuals who were tried for inciting a riot at a protest in 1970. Mangrove is the name of the Caribbean restaurant that becomes a place for Black people to gather, for socializing and organizing. Mangrove starts by introducing viewers to the owner of the Mangrove, Frank Crichlow (Shaun Parkes), then introduces other important characters like Altheia Jones (Letitia Wright), Darcus Howe (Malachi Kirby), and Barbara Beese (Rochenda Sandall).

Mangrove is told in three different acts: the first is meeting the characters, the second is seeing how the London police led by PC Pulley (Sam Spruell) continue to harass these people and the Mangrove, and the final act is the courtroom drama of the Mangrove Nine against the London police, and the justice system in general. Mangrove has the longest runtime of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe movies, which allows it to really flush out these characters, set up the conflict of the Mangrove vs the London justice system, and allow an array of strong performances. Shaun Parkes is especially strong as Frank, a man who just wants to run his restaurant but becomes a leader in this movement for true justice and fairness. Of all the five Small Axe films, Mangrove feels the most well-rounded. It has strong performances, a story that keeps you engaged all the way through, and true-life events that enrage but also inspire.

All of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe movies are available to stream on Amazon Prime. Stream them here.

After years of being in the spotlight (for better or worse) for his performances as Finn in the Star Wars franchise's latter sequel trilogy, actor John Boyega is promoting a project that isn't from a galaxy far, far away, but from somewhere much closer to home. Boyega will next be seen in the TV drama anthology Small Axe, which will focus on racially charged stories set in London's West Indian community. Definitely not the kind of series where lightsabers and Sith lords would feel normalized, but Boyega will serve as a real-world hero, and now we have our first look.

To promote the upcoming anthology series Small Axe, which hails from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen, John Boyega took to Instagram to give fans a first look at his Star Wars follow-up, which you can check out below.

While it perhaps might not be as exciting or as eye-popping as a first look at Star Wars' Finn, John Boyega certainly pulls off this more regal and respectable look that certainly would have drawn Rey and Poe's attention. Boyega will be seen in Small Axe for the episode "Red, White and Blue" as he portrays the now-retired Metropolitan Police officer Leroy Logan. After seeing his own father getting assaulted by police, Logan attempted to make changes from within the police force, and got results for his actions.

Small Axe's extended five episodes will focus on London's West Indian community and its African-Caribbean population, and the social struggles that occurred from the 1960s through the 1980s. Thus, viewers will likely see Leroy Logan's struggles to introduce changes, as opposed to seeing all the fruits of his labor. In 2001, Logan was awarded the MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2001 for helping institute anti-racist policies within the police force. He put in 30 years on the job, retiring in 2013 as a Superintendent, but is still very much staying in the fight for equality.

Within the "Red, White and Blue" episode, John Boyega will co-star with Stephen Boxer, Jim Sturgeon, Ciarán Owens, Joy Richardson and more. Other episodes from Small Axe include "Mangrove" and "Lovers Rock," both of which were submitted for the Cannes Film Festival in June; the remaining two installments include "Alex Wheatle" and "Education."

John Boyega has quite a few projects on the horizon, though it's unclear when all of them will be getting made, thanks to production delays all across the board. One film that did finish filming is the crime drama Naked Singularity from Chase Palmer, which will co-star Bill Skarsgård, Tim Blake Nelson, Ed Skrein and Olivia Cooke. And one that fans will no doubt hope gets underway soon is the action-thriller Borderland, in which Boyega would co-star with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story's Felicity Jones.

Here's hoping that people really tune into Small Axe and John Boyega's other upcoming projects, seeing as how the actor has little interesting in continuing with the Star Wars universe. While his initially comments on the matter seemed to be throwing shade at the franchise, Boyega later clarified that he just wanted to take on other kinds of roles in this career. And if one of those roles happens to be in an Attack the Block sequel, so be it.

It's not clear just yet when Small Axe will be hitting Amazon and the BBC, but viewers can expect to see it premiering later in 2020. While waiting, be sure to check out our Fall 2020 TV premiere schedule to see what else is popping up on the small screen in the coming months.

It's hard to not love a heist movie. Sure, the majority of them are predicated on the same basic idea -- criminals/criminal associates get in hot water and need one last big score to make their all troubles disappear -- but the thrill comes from the special details added to the mix. The crew. The stakes. The target. The execution. And the ever present question of "Will they get away with it?" If a heist movie can properly put those puzzle pieces together, it's a winner.

As you might expect from talents like Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn, however, Widows has all of that and more. Armed with a potent premise, a brilliant ensemble, and thrilling, beautiful cinematography, it delivers all that it promises with some epic twists and awesome reveals stockpiled. It has the occasional and unfortunate flaw in its storytelling, but they are elements easy enough to look past when considering the film as a whole.

Loosely adapted from the 1980s British series of the same name by first-time collaborators Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn, Widows begins with what could easily be the third act of another heist film. Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) and his professional partners (Jon Bernthal, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Coburn Goss) are pulling off an absolutely massive job that would net them millions -- but then things go horribly wrong. As they are making their escape, they are blocked by an overwhelming police presence, and not only does the confrontation lead to a shootout, but also a massive explosion that leaves the entire crew dead.

We learn that their wives - Veronica (Viola Davis), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), and Amanda (Carrie Coon) -- never had any specific involvement with the criminal enterprise, but that all changes with the death of their husbands. As it turns out, the person Henry was trying to rob in his last heist was Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), a candidate running to be the alderman of Chicago's 18th ward, and a target not to be messed with. As all of the cash burned during the botched job, Jamal targets Veronica and demands compensation, particularly because he needs the money in his tightening race against dynasty politician and front runner Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell).

Without the means to pay Jamal back and the clock ticking, Veronica finds her only solution in a notebook that Henry left behind -- a notebook that contains detailed plans for what would have been his crew's next target. She coldly enlists the assistance of Alice and Linda by essentially blackmailing them (a.k.a. threatening to give their names to Jamal), and they collaborate to both work out what the target is, and train so that they can take what they need to pay their debt.

Admittedly I'm still confused why the notebook contains detailed notes and blueprints but not an address -- a story issue that develops into one of the second act's most significant narrative threads -- but it's a weak link in what is otherwise a solid and polished chain. While it's always cool to watch the formulation and implementation of a well-devised plan in a heist film, Widows is particularly built on the strength of its characters, and Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn offer an amazing ensemble to us rapturously invested.

It's no surprise that Viola Davis gives a phenomenal performance, armed at all times with an icy demeanor and a West Highland White Terrier, and the script gives her excellent material to really give it her all. As though it's not enough that Victoria life is being threatened and that she just lost her husband, we also learn that Victoria lost her young son years before in an incident with a police officer. It's an immensely rich character, and Davis commands every scene she's in.

The same fortune extend to Elizabeth Debicki and Michelle Rodriguez as well, not to mention Cynthia Erivo as Belle, a babysitter/hairdresser who finds herself roped into the heist (via circumstances better left not mentioned due to spoilers). Alice and Linda are two very different people left in very different places after the deaths of their husbands -- the former looking for a way out from under her abusive mother (Jackie Weaver); the latter struggling due to her betrothed's hidden spending habits -- and Widows allows time for us to see their worlds and understand their motivations in getting the job done. And while Belle is introduced later in the story, she's not only quickly established, but perfectly interwoven. The material brings out the best in all three of them.

Outfitted with their own specific, well-established and legitimate arcs, Brian Tyree Henry's Jamal Manning and Colin Farrell's Jack Mulligan likewise make for outstanding antagonist forces in the well-layered narrative, but a specific spotlight needs to be put on Daniel Kaluuya as Jamal's brother, Jatemme. To date, Kaluuya's most prominent work -- be it Get Out, Black Panther, Sicario, or even his episode of Black Mirror -- has seen him on the "Good" side of the morality scale, but it's amazing to see him pick up that scale and smash it on the floor in this performance. Jatemme operates in all the ways necessary to keep Jamal's hands clean, and it leads to the character possessing a persistent violence behind his eyes. It's both terrifying and captivating.

As a director, Steve McQueen enters totally new territory with Widows, but the sharpness of his craft is not in the least affected by his genre exploration -- it instead suggests remarkable possibilities. Titles like Shame and 12 Years A Slave didn't exactly offer opportunities for action sequences, but the filmmaker's collaborations with cinematographer Sean Bobbitt and editor Joe Walker yield both sumptuous and heart-racing material -- made ever more epic by the dark Hans Zimmer score.

The crew? An ensemble of exceptional actresses each playing out a smart, compelling arc. The stakes? Bryan Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya make for wonderfully threatening antagonists that keep the pressure on like a boot on a neck. The target? Shrouded in some nice mystery that keeps you guessing. The execution? Thrilling and smart, with plenty of surprises. And yes, you're kept asking until the end if they will all get away clean. Widows hits all of the big targets to be an exceptional heist movie, and adds the incredible prestige of a filmmaker like Steve McQueen. It's one of the best of the fall, and makes the mind race imagining what future genres McQueen and Gillian Flynn may explore.

It's clichéd to say that a city plays "an actual character" in a movie, but in some specific cases, this really ends up being true. You can't have Zodiac without San Francisco, and New York City might as well be the fifth Ghostbuster. The same will also be said of the tight-knit relationship that now exists between Steve McQueen's new crime thriller Widows and the Windy City of Chicago. When CinemaBlend spoke with the director and his cast about why it was important to set Widows in this city, we learned from McQueen:

It's important to tap into the modern identity of Chicago, but the Widows cast went on to elaborate the region's history of crime as being a chief influence. In Widows, four women left in the lurch after their husbands are killed in a botched heist decide to work together to get what they think is coming to them: money and power.

But it was Liam Neeson, one of the film's co-stars, who told CinemaBlend that Chicago's history made it an integral location in which to shoot, explaining:

The film is getting rave reviews for its mix of entertainment and message. And that could be found in co-star Michelle Rodriguez's explanation of the importance of shooting Widows in Chicago, as she told CinemaBlend:

Watch the cast of Widows discussing the film with us:

Steve McQueen's movie reaches theaters this weekend, and in fact, starts screening in locations on Thursday evening (so go now). We'll have more from our interviews at the Widows press day on the site soon, so stay tuned.

The Bond franchise needs some fresh talent. That goes without saying. We recently reported on the departure of Danny Boyle from Bond 25, leaving the series to now, once again, go on the hunt for a new director to take the reins on this shaken-but-not-stirred series.

I recently wrote about my own personal desire to see The Hurt Locker's Kathryn Bigelow take on the film, and that's still the best option. But if we're in the market for other realistic options, I have put together a list of potential directors who actually could handle Bond 25 and deliver it in time for the November 8, 2019 release date. On that note, let's dive in with an Oscar nominee whose name has been lumped in with the Bond franchise several times already.

David Mackenzie

David Mackenzie has quickly become a hot commodity in Hollywood, largely due to the success of 2016's Hell or High Water. The neo-western became a major Oscar contender after its initial debut, and Mackenzie has remained a consistent frontrunner on the Bond franchise shortlist ever since. The Scottish director doesn't have much on his plate aside from promoting November's Outlaw King (with Chris Pine) and prepping the upcoming TV series, Gemstone, so there's room for him to potentially move in and direct the next installment in the Bond franchise. Given his experience working with dark and dreary tones, intense, hyper-violent action, and beautiful camerawork in complex narratives, he seems like a very safe bet to capably step up to the plate of a blockbuster franchise and do something that the series has not seen before.

Steve McQueen

An Oscar-winner for his work on 12 Years A Slave, Steve McQueen has handily turned into one of the film industry's most beloved and talked-about drama directors. He has not really delved into the action world at this stage of his career (though the upcoming Widows has flashes of the sort), but he has more than proven that he has the chops to do something incredibly interesting with the Bond franchise. His films like Hunger and Shame tend to be smaller in scale, with a heavy emphasis on dark and dreary stakes -- with stories that often don't end well for the protagonists. Given the recent rumors suggesting that Daniel Craig and the producing team behind Bond want to shake things up and do something unique with a story centering on the modern conflict between Russia and the western nations, McQueen could be the right guy to deliver that degree of drama.

Christopher Nolan

No list about possible Bond 25 directors would be complete without the inclusion of Christopher Nolan. Over the years, few filmmakers have balanced blockbuster spectacle with a distinct sense of ownership quite like him, which is readily apparent in The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Dunkirk, and several others. Nolan has been a fan-favorite choice to take on a Bond movie for years, and he has made no secret of the fact that it's something he's interested in pursuing at some point in his career. Moreover, it's also worth mentioning that Nolan generally does not keep himself overly busy between projects, and his schedule currently looks relatively open at the moment. If ever there was a time for him to get his Bond movie finally, now seems like the time.

If you’ve been keeping tabs on Steve McQueen following 12 Years a Slave, you should know that the director has signed on with HBO to produce a pilot called Codes of Conduct. This week, the potential drama cast two more big names, signing on both Helena Bonham Carter and Rebecca Hall.

Codes of Conduct will focus on uppercrust New York society, and it’s no surprise that Bonham Carter and Hall will both be a part of that high-end world. Bonham-Carter is expected to play a divorced mother in the series who wants to live life “on her own terms.” She’ll also have two grown children. According to Variety, Hall has signed on to play the daughter of a New York billionaire.

Helena Bonham Carter and Rebecca Hall aren’t the first names cast in Codes of Conduct. When HBO started moving forward with the drama project, we learned the drama would look into an African-American man living in New York City who enters the ranks of the city’s elite. McQueen spent roughly a year looking for the right individual to cast and this October he found him in Devon Terrell, a newcomer with no professional acting credits. Terrell will play Beverly Snow, a young man with a mysterious past who will spend time learning the ropes in high society. Paul Dano was also recently added to the project.

McQueen will be involved in a way that is similar to how Martin Scorses approaches his HBO projects, as he is working on a film project right now, as well. Steve McQueen will be executive producing the project and will also direct the pilot for HBO. (This is what Scorsese did with Boardwalk Empire and will do with the upcoming rock ‘n’ roll project.) McQueen will co-write with Matthew Michael Carnahan. Finally, Iain Canning, Carnahan, Emile Sherman and Russell Simmons will executive produce.

Hall and Bonham Carter are mostly known for movies roles, but this TV gig isn't hugely outside the box for either lady. Hall has recently appeared in Transcendence, Iron Man 3 and The Awaking, although she did appear in the Parade’s End miniseries a couple of years ago. Bonham Carter’s been in the biz a lot longer and often appears in husband Tim Burton’s films, including Big Fish, but she’s also taking a variety of film roles, including appearing in the Harry Potter movies and The King’s Speech. On TV, she also recently played Elizabeth Taylor in Lifetime’s Burton & Taylor.

Codes of Conduct, with its high-profile names, sounds like it could be a good fit for HBO. We’ll let you know if the show moves beyond the pilot phase and nabs a series order.

It's not uncommon that we hear about films that have been stuck in development hell for between five and 10 years, but paperback hero Mack Bolan has been waiting multiple decades for his time on the silver screen. After so many years, the character is finally being pulled off the shelf, and a writer has been hired to pen a new feature based around him, but it's amazing to think back on what could have been.

Similar to the long in-the-works adaptation of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, which has attracted names like John Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farley, John Goodman, Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis over the years but has never been made, fictional hero Mack Bolan has spent many years in Hollywood and has had a knack for drawing the attention of the biggest action stars in the business. Without giving any real specific details regarding how long they were attached and how far along their versions of the film got, Deadline has provided a full rundown of the A-list talent who almost played the elite anti-terrorist operative, including Steve McQueen:

Sylvester Stallone:

Clint Eastwood:

And, most recently, Vin Diesel:

We can't quite say at this stage who the next big action star attached to play Mack Bolan will be, but at the very least we do know the name of the writer who will be scripting the adaptation. Shane Salerno, whose credits include Michael Bay's Armageddon, Oliver Stone's Savages, and James Cameron's upcoming Avatar 4, has made a deal with both author Don Pendleton's estate and Gold Eagle Books for the rights to finally make a Mack Bolan film. As you might have guessed, he will also be working on the project as a producer. At this time it's unclear which Bolan title Salerno intends to adapt - the character has been serialized is over 800 novels - but the filmmaker has promised a "relevant, grounded and gritty, real-world PG-13 action-drama film series."

First introduced in 1969, Mack Bolan a.k.a. The Executioner was introduced as a Vietnam veteran and expert sniper who goes full force after the mafia after their actions result in the death of his father and sister. Salerno has immediate plans to find a filmmaker and a studio so that he can start unfurling his plans for a trilogy of movies.

Rarely do you make a great movie without getting some blood on the streets. Creative types who can make it in Hollywood are usually headstrong enough to believe their vision is superior to another’s, and that results in clashes. Some of those clashes happen behind the scenes of the greatest movies ever made. There’s often a lot at stake, and it matters if your name is or is not seen on the screen in a bid for immortality. It turns out one of these clashes can be found behind the film that just took home Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

12 Years A Slave won big at the Oscars, on Sunday night, but The Wrap reports there’s a deep chill occurring between credited screenwriter John Ridley and director Steve McQueen - two deeply respected individuals who earlier seemed to have happily collaborated on one of the year’s most acclaimed movies. Though both received honors last night, neither acknowledged the other in their acceptance speeches. And when Ridley won his award, McQueen responded with this hilariously goofy non-clap.

Their initial collaboration, and resulting disagreement, is actually quite simple. McQueen enlisted Ridley for the project, and Ridley ended up adapting Solomon Northrup’s memoir on spec, which is to say he completed the work for free in order to receive eventual compensation. McQueen’s contributions to the script are unknown, but they were enough for him to request a co-writing credit. Ridley, who also wrote or co-wrote Three Kings, Undercover Brother and Red Tails, denied McQueen’s request, and a WGA ruling as well as Fox Searchlight also sided with Ridley.

Rather than accept the decision quietly, McQueen has apparently been less than cordial, and the two have not fraternized at awards events and promotional gatherings. The Wrap even details events where McQueen made Ridley’s wife cry, which is probably a gossipy exaggeration but one that nonetheless fits with McQueen’s brusque, plainspoken manner. It’s gotten so bad that the film’s producer, Brad Pitt, had to come in and mediate. And if Brad Pitt can’t make you chill out, then who can? That was probably a really chill mediation meeting.

These sorts of things strike every year at awards season. A few years ago there was a nasty spat between credited writer Sheldon Turner and director Jason Reitman over the writing credit for Up In The Air. Screenwriter-director relations are notoriously ugly: just ask Ridley, who has spoken at length about Three Kings leaving him with only a "Story By" credit. The screenwriter is often very low on the totem compared to the director, but many of the directors are writers themselves. When it comes time to claim the words, friction results from the act of having to share. And sometimes, Brad Pitt has to mediate. Hopefully there’s pizza involved.

Oscar time is upon us again, as this year’s nominations were announced this morning, prompting joy and disgust from moviegoers with almost every category. And while the first instinct will almost always be to complain about what didn’t make it – or to complain about Hollywood and awards season in general – let’s take a few minutes to shower further praise on those performers who are receiving their first nominations, and look at the long or short roads they traveled to achieve their successes.

We are admittedly playing favorites today, spotlighting actors and actresses (and a director) over those who arguably put just as much of an effort into the films’ creations. Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winters’ first nom for adapting The Wolf of Wall Street is worth a mention, as is Phillippe Le Sourd’s nom for Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster. Hell, even Steve Prouty’s makeup work for Bad Grandpa got a nod, though Johnny Knoxville is surprisingly absent from this year’s esteemed nominees. Ahem.

Here are 7 first time nominees and a little bit of backstory on where they came from...

Barkhad Abdi

One of two fairy tale stories from this year’s ceremony, Somali native Barkhad Abdi not only received his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but it was for his very first role in a film. The 28-year-old actor moved from Yemen to Minnesota when he was a teenager, and his post-university career consisted of working as a cab and limousine driver, as well as a radio DJ. His life changed forever following a 2011 casting call he’d heard about on the Today Show, which led to several more auditions for director Paul Greengrass and an eventual role.

But instead of being given a smaller role with only a few lines, Abdi nailed the role of Abduwali Muse, the head pirate responsible for taking over the container ship commanded by Tom Hanks’ Richard Phillips. Arguably the best part of a tense though predictable movie, Abdi has received award nominations from many associations and publications, and will be taking his career a step further by directing the film Ciyaalka Xaafada.

Lupita Nyong’o

Like Abdi, Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o received her Best Supporting Actress nomination for the first feature role, as the young and tortured Patsey in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. But unlike Abdi, she has a small background in cinema that helped her land the role. Born to political refugee parents in Mexico, Nyong’o moved back to Kenya for a while before heading to the U.S. to go to film school, eventually working behind the scenes on features such as The Constant Gardner and The Namesake. She went back to Kenya for a role in the TV miniseries Shuga and directed her own documentary called In My Genes.

It was after graduating Yale’s School of Drama that she landed the role of Patsey, and she has received almost universal praise from critics the world over. As you can imagine, she’ll be doing what every new Oscar nominee does for a follow-up project: she’ll star opposite Liam Neeson in the airplane thriller Non-Stop.

Chiwetel Ejiofor

London-born theater actor Chiwetel Ejiofor firmly asserted his presence in Hollywood back in 1997 when he was cast in Stephen Spielberg’s lighthearted screwball comedy Amistad. This began a long and accolade-filled career in universally acclaimed films like Children of Men, cult flicks like Serenity, and popular indies such as Dirty Pretty Things.He’s worked with directors like David Mamet, Spike Lee and John Singleton, but never in roles that had the Academy calling his name.

Of course, that all changed with 12 Years a Slave, in which the Best Actor nominee Ejiofor was tasked with retaining humanity and silent strength as Solomon Northup, a free black man who was swindled and dealt into the violent and dignity-free world of the slave trade. In lesser hands, this character may have felt overwrought, but the subtlety Ejiofor applied was absolutely perfect, and he’ll be hard to beat once the voting is said and done.

Michael Fassbender

It seems like we’re talking about 12 Years a Slave a lot, right? And we’re not even done yet. On the page, slave owner Edwin Epps is one of the most detestable characters in 2013 cinema, and the German-Irish Michael Fassbender managed to give that character the full breadth of life and the struggle involved in living that life. Don’t let anyone ever tell you it’s easy to be a douchebag.

While he’d gotten his start in the still awesome HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, Fassbender didn’t really come into his own until starring in Steve McQueen’s debut film Hunger in 2008, and to a lesser extent in the extremely tense thriller Eden Lake. His performances in both Hunger and McQueen’s Shame were arguably deserving of Academy nominations, but his breakout success in the last few years, thanks to Inglorious Basterds and X-Men: First Class, should lead to an abundance of future roles, some of which may earn him further awards recognition. Hopefully not a Prometheus sequel though.

Jared Leto

Oh, Jordan Catalano! Leto has had as strange a rise to Oscar fame as anyone on this list. Starting off as a teen heartthrob in MTV’s My So-Called Life, Leto built up his reputation in films like The Thin Red Line and Fight Club before making everyone want to stay the hell away from heroin forever in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. After years of lesser roles, culminating in the "made in 2009 but released in 2013" sci-fi whackout Mr. Nobody, Leto decided to hang up his acting hat for a while in order to invest more time into his increasingly pretentious rock band 30 Seconds to Mars.

And then last year he returned to cinema with a powerhouse performance as the transgender AIDS victim Rayon in Jean-Marc Vallée’s drama Dallas Buyers Club. It wasn’t the most predictable choice, but it paid off in full, netting Leto a Best Supporting Actor nod to go along with co-star Matthew McConaughey’s Best Actor nom. Maybe he’ll write a terrible stadium anthem about the experience.

Sally Hawkins

The British indie fave Sally Hawkins has built a solid career on mostly supporting roles on both the stage and screen, and is occasionally more memorable than the stars. Her first major film breakthrough came in 2008 when she was universally acclaimed for her role as the blindingly optimistic Poppy in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky. Since then she’s starred in such films as Submarine and Jane Eyre, but it wasn’t until she hooked up with Woody Allen that Oscar lightning struck.

Blue Jasmine proved once again that Allen writes female roles as well as anyone, this time Cate Blanchett's title character and Hawkins as her sister Ginger. Something tells me she won’t be receiving such high praise for her upcoming role in the Godzilla reboot, but maybe she can tell that big monster to go and "convince" voters to grant her the trophy.

Steve McQueen

Filmmakers like British director Steve McQueen don’t come around that often, bringing a wealth of precise visual styles (but not flair) to stories that heighten drama to its boiling point, all while keeping things ultimately grounded and interesting. 2008’s hunger strike drama Hunger was one unbroken take away from making me want to start protesting things, while the sexual addiction drama Shame is as much a modern love story and family drama as anything Richard Curtis has written. (Okay, it’s an incredibly uncomfortable love story and family drama, but still.)

But McQueen may never top himself in the Academy’s eyes than with the slavery epic 12 Years a Slave, a film that is sad but never maudlin, empathetic but never heavy handed, and violent without becoming straight torture porn. McQueen creates characters, not just narrative placeholders, and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Solomon Northup is his most fully-rounded character yet, despite staying quiet for large swaths of time. And you might have noticed McQueen didn’t need to use all the CGI effects that Gravity used. Maybe that’ll happen on his assumed follow-up film Slaves in Space.

12 Years A Slave is not an easy movie to talk about in a pithy introduction to an interview. It's not an easy movie to talk about in a rushed 10-minute junket interview either, especially when it's with Steve McQueen, the director who is so unwilling to tolerate fools that a GIF of his reaction at a press conference is minor Internet legend. At one point I asked what I thought was a follow-up question, only to have him tell me he'd already answered it. I was too embarrassed to include it in the transcript.

To be fair, McQueen has earned the right not to surround himself with fools. His transition from the art work to filmmaking has resulted in three masterpieces of varying degrees. his debut film Hunger was a devastating portrait of a real hunger strike, and introduced the world to Michael Fassbender. His follow-up Shame was an even more emotionally raw portrait of sex addiction, with what we've now come to see as an expectedly great Fassbender performance. And now he arrives with 12 Years A Slave, another wrenching true story, this one about a free man living in upstate New York who was captured and sold into slavery in the antebellum South. The film is earning near-universal good reviews and creating the sense that, though he remains uncompromising and continuously thoughtful in his work, McQueen won't just be an art house favorite for long.

I asked McQueen specifically about his use of long takes in some of the film's most brutal scenes, his attachment to what he calls the "recent past" and the film's current resonance-- he surprised me by mentioning Trayvon Martin and the recent repeal of a section of the Voting Rights Act, hot-button topics that many filmmakers would try to avoid entirely. 12 Years A Slave opens in theaters this weekend; much of our interview is best read after you've seen the film, but you can watch the trailer below for a basic rundown of the story.

You've said that this is a universal story. It wasn’t an American story. It wasn’t specifically about this one time, and that people all over the world could understand it. But what I find works about it so well is that it is specific, that it is one man’s story and it’s not the story that we’ve told a lot of times about people being taken from Africa and shipped. It’s not unusual, obviously it happened a lot, but it’s not the kind of story that’s been told.

Well, it was a story that people didn’t know. It was a story I wanted to tell. I think most people don’t realize that there were a lot of black people living in the north who were free. The reason why I wanted to tell that story is because it was an in for me, that you have this guy, who’s with his family, who is an American, who is with his family, and then one day he gets pulled into, kidnapped into slavery. I mean, that was the initial idea I had.

Without knowing that this was a real story?

I don’t know. I didn’t know about 12 Years a Slave yet. Then, I spoke to my wife about it and she said, look, why don’t you look into firsthand accounts of slavery, and we did, and she found this book called 12 Years a Slave, which landed in my hand. My idea was fully formed already and it reads like a script. I couldn’t believe it and I thought, wow, this is the movie that I want to make.

You've become famous for long takes, or at least that’s what critics talk about from Hunger and from Shame. In this there are two show stoppers that I can remember, the whipping scene and the hanging scene. I’m curious how you chose those specific moments to emphasize with the long take and this really effective, visceral, you-are-there way.

I don’t view it in that way, of long takes to do anything. I mean, I never think of long takes. It’s never in my mind. What I think about is, what’s the best way to portray this scene? What’s the best way of interpreting a situation on cinema? So as far as scenes which are long or short, or conventional or unconventional, I have no interest. I’m just trying to make the best thing I can do at the time. That’s not even in my mind when I’m shooting something.

So, then why was the extended camera for the whipping scene, which is complicated logistically and you’ve got to go through a lot, why was that the best way to do that?

For me, that had to do with keeping a pressure cooker going, keeping the tension of that time in the pressure cooker, and not letting the audience or the scene compress, or off the hook, as you will. It was a situation that was spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning out of control to the point where we get to the eye of the storm where Epps is whipping Patsey in a clockwise sort of rotation. You’re in the eye of the storm then, to the point of when Patsey drops the soap, you know. You keep that pressure, keep that kind of tension going. If I’d put a cut into that scene, then I would have let the audience off the hook. A cut would have decompressed the situation. To keep the tension going, was vital to that scene. I can’t put a stencil onto a situation, onto a scene, onto a film. The scene or the film have to tell me what it wants, and that’s how I go forth and shoot that scene.

In the hanging scene, there were a couple cuts. A couple are for time, just because the day passes, but even within the moment, the cut doesn't diminish the impact.

Well, for example, the first shot in the scene is Solomon hanging there, after he’s been hung.

The one where people start walking in the background?

Exactly, and what happens is slowly and surely, people start walking out of the house to carry on with their daily chores. They notice him, they recognize him, but they carry on. What that does for me, what I wanted to happen in that frame is to put about two or three layers onto that frame. What you have is a physical illustration, as such, of slavery, and a mental, at the same time.

So it's almost like a metaphor.

It’s not metaphorical at all. It’s visual. You see it, you’re there and the audience goes one plus one and comes up with the answer, whatever it is. You see this happening in front of you, and that’s happening from one shot. You get everything in one shot.

I think the reason why I don’t do any coverage, because when I was growing up, I was using a Super 8 camera, a very expensive Super 8, so therefore, whatever I shot had to be bloody good, otherwise, you know, I’m wasting money. I can’t develop it. It’s too expensive. So, I think that taught me to select, that taught me to edit things in my head or be very specific of what I wanted. I mean, I’m not a person with an AK-47 spraying the whole area. I want to be more like a sniper and be more specific, because, you know, it saves energy and it focuses your concentration.

In those scenes, and several others, you’re obviously letting the audience feel the impact of what these characters are going through, the physical and the mental, but it’s not sadistic. It feels much more exploratory in a way. Do you try to avoid sadism in that, and if so, how are you trying to toe that line?

I didn’t even think of that.

I guess that means you’re not sadistic if you didn’t even think about it.

Well, no. I’m telling a story about humanity. Either you’re making a film about slavery or you’re not. And I wanted to make a film about slavery and of human dignity. It was about Solomon holding on to his dignity through a very brutal regime, that’s it.

Do you ever think about the audience throughout it, like what can they handle?

Yes, very much. Oh, handle? In this case, no. I have to show what I have to show. I mean, if I don’t sort of portray slavery, I can’t pull punches in this situation. The only reason I’m here, because you know, people suffered and died for my freedom, and therefore, I can not pull punches on them. It would be a disservice to them. It would be a disservice to Solomon. The book is far more, you could say, unfortunate than the film, but we have to show it. It’s like having a Holocaust picture without showing brutality. You have to do that. You have to go there.

But you have to show a specific amount. You choose how much of that.

Oh, for sure, because the narrative dictates where you need it and where you don’t. You plot it. You plot it throughout the narrative. I think there are five acts of violence, you can say, within 2 hours and 13 minutes, but they have to show it, because otherwise, if you don’t show it, then you’re not having a film about slavery, and it’s actually not a discussion, you know. It can’t be a discussion.Why were so many people held in bondage for such a long period of time? How did they reinforce it? How did they maintain it? I mean, I couldn’t make a film about a hunger strike without you know, seeing someone who was on the verge of dying from starvation. It wouldn’t be a movie.

For this and both of your previous movies, some people have said, “You need to see this, but it’s kind of hard to watch again.” Is that a valid argument to you?

For me, I wanted to make a movie about slavery. You know, I was very ashamed as a child, I remember my first memories as a little boy, I was very ashamed of slavery. I didn’t know, because I wasn’t taught about slavery. All I knew was that people like me, or who looked like me, were slaves, and I didn’t know anything about it. And now through obviously learning about it and finding out what happened and how it happened, I want to embrace that part, that small part of my history as a necessity.

This is a global history, but also it’s a part of American history and the fact of the matter is that just as people have confronted the Holocaust, people have to confront the recent past of slavery. Now, I don’t know how many Holocaust films have been made in the last 65 years or so, since the second world war has ended. I mean, we’re talking a lot. I’m interested in now, going back to a situation where 150 years ago, there was abolition of slavery. So, for me, it's important, vitally important, particularly because of the recent circumstances which have happened in this country-- the election of a black President, the 150 years anniversary of the abolition of slavery, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the unfortunate Trayvon Martin situation, the rolling back of voting rights. I think there’s never been a better time sort of for people to look at the recent past, in order to go forward. America is a progressive country and what moves me and touches me about this country is this thing in the constitution which says, “and the right to pursue happiness”. How moving is that? So, in order for that to happen, one obviously has to look at their recent past in order to go forward and now has never been a better time to do so.

12 Years A Slave cast image via Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com

Marketing Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave to a mainstream audience will present challenges. So it will be interesting to see which scenes Fox Searchlight choose to isolate when trying to lure audiences into what is, without a doubt, the most uncompromising and honest portrayal of the brutality of American slavery that we’ve seen on screen in recent years … if not ever.

The above clip, for example, is set in a safer time – but it’s still exists to help demonstrate McQueen’s point that a free Black man was unusual. The scene was posted on Vulture. It shows us Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character, Solomon Northup, as he strolls through town with his family. In the scene, we can see that Solomon is a respected man, used to doing business with the local shop keeper. And we can see the look of astonishment on the face of another Black man who, unfortunately, belongs to a white owner with little tolerance for human rights. It’s heartbreaking how the shop owner simply mistakes the second African American as just another potential customer. In the North, such reasonable thinking still existed. But we’re slapped in the face by the realization that in the time of McQueen’s movie, Blacks hadn’t yet earned full equality … and it’s a serious issue Northup will face for the duration of McQueen’s movie.

The nastiness awaiting Northup as 12 Years progresses is left out of this clip – a wise decision, for the time being. But sooner rather than later, Searchlight is going to have to sell 12 Years as the harrowing experience it delivers, which is fine, because those seeking out a relentless march through our nation’s sullied past will get the entire experience in McQueen’s heartwrenching film. But this clip isn’t a fair or accurate representation of the fate that awaits either Mr. Northup or the 12 Years audience. The “worst” is yet to come.

All of this being said, anyone who reads up on or researches 12 Years will know exactly what they are in store for when the awards contender opens on Oct. 18. In fact, if you have seen any of McQueen’s previous, meticulous studies in human resilience, than you can understand what’s on the horizon in 12 Years. I raved about it in a video blog from the Toronto International Film Festival, but I also acknowledged that I’m not entirely sure when I’ll have the stomach to sit through this difficult, emotional drama again. But you should seek it out, particularly if you enjoy searing, brilliantly constructed and executed cinema. Here’s the full trailer, which paints a bigger picture of McQueen’s movie.

Someday I would like to watch a Steve McQueen movie that makes me feel perfectly content about being a human being. I can say for certain that it won’t be 12 Years a Slave, however, McQueen's upcoming star-studded adaptation of free man-turned-slave Solomon Northup’s autobiography. The above featurette, which comes to us courtesy of Yahoo! Movies, is subtitled “a Portrait of Solomon Northup,” and suitably gives a short but unsettling summary of the film’s events - and McQueen talks about what brought him to this incredible story. My sarcasm-laden theory is that he’s a sadist, much like Michael Fassbender is in the film.

Because a lot of footage from the movie is shown, it’s comparable to the film’s powerful first trailer, though a lot of the content is different. The trailer is successful because it puts you right in the middle of the film from the first moment, but we only know Northup because he’s played by Chiwetel Ejifor. Here we’re introduced to Northup as a free man in New York - a musician with a lovely family. And then we get to witness the hoodlums who drugged him and sold him into slavery down in New Orleans. It’s so much more disturbing this way, seeing the before and after in chronological order. Anybody who was put off by the over-the-top antics of Quentin Tarentino’s Django Unchained is likely going to be in complete disarray for the runtime of McQueen’s work.

The film’s producers, including Bill Pohlad, Dede Gardner and John Ridley, all speak about how this film is a slavery film like no other, and the word “unflinching” is used, which actually made me flinch. As a lifelong resident of South Louisiana, I’m quite familiar with slave history, and have always lived around racial tension. As you can imagine, getting a movie that gets slavery “right” sounds like a cup of poisoned tea to me.

In the story, Northup has his name changed to Platt by Theophilus Freeman (Paul Giamatti) and is sold to a benevolent plantation owner William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), and later falls under the ownership of John Tibeats (Paul Dano) and Edwin Epps (Fassbender), both of whom use violent discipline instead of words to get their points across.

Though this treatment is troublesome in the trailer, it’s interesting to hear Ejifor and McQueen talk about it in terms of the film’s themes. McQueen wanted to make a film that gave viewers a character whose societal fall they could relate to in some way. Knowing that Northup was an intelligent man and different from many of those around him, the slave owners tried and failed to destroy his integrity from the outside I dare not actually put myself in his shoes, or I'd realize just how weak I really am.

Now that I’ve gotten to know the character of Northup a little better, I think I can watch the trailer below without groaning once the sweeping orchestra comes in and reminds me that this movie has “Oscar bait” written all over it.

Also featuring Brad Pitt, Quevenzhané Wallis, Michael K. Williams, Sarah Paulson and Alfre Woodward, 12 Years a Slave recently debuted at the Telluride Film Festival to much acclaim, and will be in theaters nationwide on October 18th.

By now you've hopefully dropped everything to hit play on the above trailer, our first look at the new film from Shame and Hunger director Steve McQueen, which you can watch in HD at Apple. I'll give you another minute to watch just in case.

Well that's what happens when a filmmaker keeps his star-studded film quiet and presents a first trailer with maximum impact. When we wrote about the film's new, prime release date of October 18 back in June, we didn't even have an image from the film to use. Now we've gotten a look not only at Chiwetel Ejiofor in the lead role as Solomon Northrup, but at the immense cast supporting him-- including a turn that looks bigger than I'd imagined for Michael Fassbender. McQueen and Fassbender became famous together after 2008's brutal Hunger, and Fassbender starred for McQueen in Shame as well, but it seemed like he would be taking a backseat to Ejiofor's lead turn, playing the titular black man who lived free in the pre-Civil-War North before being kidnapped and sold into slavery. But now we see Fassbender's turn as the vicious master of the Louisiana cotton plantation, and if you haven't been sold on Fassbender's talents before… well, I'm not sure how you missed it, but you've got to at least be intrigued now.

On top of Fassbender and Ejiofor, the cast includes Brad Pitt-- apparently reusing his Aldo Raine accent to play what looks like the plantation's overseer--, your new crush Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Alfre Woodard, Sarah Paulson, Paul Giamatti and Beasts of the Southern Wild's Quvenzhane Wallis, though we don't really see her here. It's not just that McQueen is stepping up to make his first-ever ensemble film-- he's assembling maybe the best ensemble in movies this year to do it with him. No pressure.

It's not a surprise that this film looks powerfully acted; it's a bit of a surprise, though, to see the big emotional turn it takes near the end, lifting music from Inception to present the film as an emotional saga of overcoming adversity (as you might guess, Northrup's time as a slave ended after 12 years, and the film is based on his memoir about the events). McQueen, who had been a visual artist before transitioning into film, is known for films that are bracing and innovative and a little off-kilter-- think of Carey Mulligan's endless rendition of "New York, New York" in Shame, or the famous single-take dialogue scene at the center of Hunger. I'm expecting 12 Years A Slave to be a little less of a traditional historical drama than we're being sold here. Given how much talent is going into it, that's only a good thing.

Now you can begin the guessing game of which fall festival will host the film's premiere before its October 18 release. I vote for Toronto! You can also check out the film's first poster below, having also premiered at Apple, and click here for more info.

When Michael Fassbender first got international attention as an actor, it was for his gripping lead turn in the Steve McQueen-directed drama Hunger. When Michael Fassbender's private parts got even more international attention, it was for his lead turn in the Steve McQueen-directed drama Shame. And now even though Fassbender is off starring int he likes of Prometheus and X-Men: Days of Future Past, Fassbender is staying loyal to the director who gave him his big break-- and finally we know when the next collaboration between them will be revealed.

Though don't get too excited about Fassbender's performace-- for the first time McQueen is directing a film without Fassbender in the lead, hiring Chiwetel Ejiofor to lead the historical drama Twelve Years A Slave. Based on the true story of Solomon Northrup, a free black man sold into slavery in the pre-Civil War South, Twelve Years A Slave is coming to theaters on December 27, according to a tweet from distributor Fox Searchlight. Ejiofor is playing Northrup, and McQueen has brought in a serious cast to back him up-- Brad Pitt is on board to act as well as produce, rising stars Paul Dano, Adepero Oduye and Scoot McNairy have roles, and even little Quvenzhane Wallis, fresh off her Best Actress nomination, has a role. Fassbender is back with McQueen, of course, and if your heart can handle it, Benedict Cumberbatch has found his way on board as well.

Of course, with a cast that big, we have no idea how everyone fits into the narrative, but that will be just one of the many surprises awaiting us when Twelve Years A Slave arrives in December-- in the thick of awards season, of course. The awards prospects for Shame didn't pan out quite the way most people expected, with Fassbender missing out on a richly deserved Best Actor nomination, but it's good to see Searchlight putting so much faith in Slave, and to see a director McQueen stepping up with a project so ambitious for just his third go-round.

Omar comin'.

Though the HBO series The Wire was never a ratings success on the level of Game of Thrones, it's attracted a dedicated and ever-growing fan base over the years, and every single one of those fans knows what the above sentence means. According to Deadline, Michael K. Williams-- who played the charismatic, violent and constantly surprising Omar on The Wire-- has joined the cast of Twelve Years A Slave, the next film from Shame director Steve McQueen that's currently filming in New Orleans.

There are so many great things to process about this movie that we need to slow down a little bit and consider them one by one. First up, there's Williams, who has worked on Boardwalk Empire and a brief, underutilized guest spot on Community since The Wire ended, but still feels like he's waiting for a role that gives him a fraction as much potential as Omar did. It's unclear if Twelve Years A Slave will be that role-- after all, shooting has already begun, which suggests the part isn't that big-- but he'll at least be stealing scenes from some excellent company. In addition to Chiwetel Ejiofor in the lead role, as a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery in pre-Civil War America, the cast includes Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Dano, Pariah breakout Adepero Oduye and even SNL's Taran Killam.

And finally, there's Steve McQueen, who had a career in the world of high art before he made his directorial debut with the experimental, gripping drama Hunger, which also introduced the world to Michael Fassbender as the Irish political prisoner Bobby Sands. The two teamed up again last year for Shame, and while that movie didn't take off in awards season the way many expected, it clearly gave McQueen enough status to get Twelve Years A Slave going. It will be McQueen's first period film and first film with a large ensemble cast-- do you really need any more reasons to be excited about this?

In just two short years Benedict Cumberbatch went from being an unknown Stateside to one of the most talked about rising stars. The reason is elementary: Sherlock. On the hit BBC show that airs in the U.S. on PBS, Cumberbatch plays a modern incarnation of the iconic Sherlock Holmes with the twist that his genius deduction skills make him nearly sociopathic, or at the very least wildly eccentric and hysterically rude. While Cumberbatch had been snagging supporting roles in costume dramas and various British TV shows, it was undoubtedly his prickly consulting detective that has drawn the eye of casting agents and acclaimed filmmakers from all over the globe.

Last year he appeared in two Academy Award-nominated features, Steven Spielberg's War Horse and Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and has just wrapped on J.J. Abram's much-anticipated Star Trek sequel, in which he is definitely not playing Khan. Now, Variety reports that Cumberbatch has signed on to something grittier, Steve McQueen's soon-to-shoot biopic 12 Years a Slave.

Based on Solomon Northup's harrowing memoir, which was first published in 1853, the drama will unravel the shocking story of how a black man born free was kidnapped in the northern United States and then was forced into slavery down south, where it took 12 long years to wrestle back his freedom.

Chiwetel Ejiofor (Redbelt) will star as Northup, while regular McQueen collaborator Michael Fassbender will play one of the plantation owners who bought Northup over this torturous 12 years. For his part, Cumberbatch will portray another plantation owner, one who takes notice of Northup's engineering abilities. Also cast is Brad Pitt as the lawyer who fights for Northup's release, and extraordinary indie ingénue Adepero Oduye (Pariah), who is suspected to be tackling the role of Northup's wife.

Between this remarkable cast, the film's daring director and troubling subject matter, 12 Years a Slave has already become a 2013 release that critics are salivating over, and is sure to be a feature that will add a new dimension—and possibly some additional accolades—to Cumberbatch's body of work.

12 Years a Slave goes into production in Louisiana at the end of the month.

After his fantastic first feature film, 2008's Hunger, Steve McQueen quickly became a director to watch. His followup, Shame, not only found similar critical acclaim, but once again featured the British filmmaker working with leading man and budding superstar Michael Fassbender. And while Fassbender's work with McQueen is anything but mainstream, their relationship has already created two wonderful performances and should have everyone highly anticipating their third film together, Twelve Years a Slave.

The new project will continue their history of delving into difficult subjects, since Solomon Northrup's 1853 memoir tells his tale as a free man and violinist who is tricked, kidnapped and then sold to a Louisiana cotton plantation. Chiwetel Ejiofor will star as Northrup while Fassbender is on board as a plantation owner. While those two names are exciting enough, that's only the tip of the iceberg for the period drama's ever expanding amazing cast, as Twelve Years a Slave also features Brad Pitt (whose Plan B production company is behind the project), Paul Dano and Pariah breakout star Adepero Oduye.

Variety reports that two more rising stars, Scoot McNairy and Ruth Negga, have also just joined the film. McNairy will soon be seen opposite Pitt in Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly (which just released this 'too cool' poster). I guess he must have made quite the impression on the recent Academy Award nominee since Plan B is bringing him on-board their prestige project. In Twelve Years a Slave, McNairy will play a 'shrewd circus worker' who schemes to sell Northrup into slavery. The actor has been making big waves since starring in the low-budget sci-fi flick Monsters and can next be seen in both Ben Affleck's Argo and Gus Van Sant's Promised Land.

McQueen's period drama also added Negga to the impressive ensemble in a role described only as 'a runaway slave.' Negga just starred with Samuel L. Jackson in The Samaritan and has landed increasingly bigger television projects over the last few years. This is quite the opportunity for the young actress to make a name for herself since Twelve Years a Slave could find her on-screen opposite ones like Pitt, Fassbender, Ejiofor, Oduye and now McNairy. The film is set to start production at the end of June for a 2013 release.

Just a few hours ago the folks over at the Cannes Film Festival were given the chance to get their first look at Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, the filmmaker's new movie about a slave looking for revenge and retribution. The seven minutes that were shown when given nearly universal praise, particularly for what was seen from Leonardo Di Caprio and Don Johnson. We have no idea when we might get our own first look at the flick, but today we do have casting news about another exceptional writer/director's movie about slavery.

Paul Dano, best known for his roles in movies like Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood, has signed on for a part in Twelve Years a Slave, the new movie from Steve McQueen, according to Deadline. Based on the Solomon Northup memoir of the same name, the film tells the story of a free black man who is promised a job playing violin in the circus when he is kidnapped, drugged and sold as a slave. The movie already has a stellar cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor (who will play the lead character), Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt. Dano will be playing one of the slave owners who beats the lead character unmercifully. Twelve Years A Slave will be the third movie written and directed by McQueen, whose previous credits include Shame and Hunger.

Dano has a big year ahead of him. He will next be seen in the independent film Ruby Sparks, where he plays a writer who falls in love with one of his own characters, and then in September has a part in Rian Johnson's Looper with Joseph Gord0n-Levitt.

Adepero Oduye gave one of the best and least-seen performances of 2011 in Pariah, the indie feature that premiered at Sundance and won the Excellence in Cinematography Award. It was released by Focus Features in the tail end of the year, and the film itself and Oduye's performance were both overshadowed by bigger, flashier films-- par for the course with most indies, sadly. But Oduye's performance clearly got noticed by the right people, as evidenced by both a shoutout from Meryl Streep during her Golden Globes acceptance speech, and now, a role in a film from the director of one of 2011's other criminally underseen movies.

According to The Playlist, Oduye will star opposite Michael Fassbender, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Brad Pitt in Twelve Years A Slave, the next feature from Shame and Hunger director Steve McQueen. It tells the true story of a free black man (Ejiofor) who winds up back in slavery in Louisiana, at a plantation owned by Fassbender's character. In the script the man's wife hires a lawyer (Pitt) to fight for her husband's freedom, and it seems safe to assume Oduye will be taking on that role.

McQueen's previous films mean anything he makes is an obvious must-see, but Twelve Years A Slave seems particularly fascinating, for the caliber of talent he's attracted, for the extent to which it's a departure from his previous films that were almost character studies, and for the fact that he's digging into America's complicated history of slavery both as an Englishman and a black man. It's a huge challenge to be sure, but at this point McQueen seems more than capable of it. As, for that matter, does Oduye, who now has the chance to get more people than just Meryl Streep to stop and take notice.

Michael Fassbender earned rave reviews playing a struggling sex addict in Steve McQueen's (not that one) provocative film Shame. Unfortunately, if you don't live in a major city and don't frequent film festivals, there's a very good chance that you never had the chance to see it. The film pulls no punches when it comes to its subject matter, and was slapped with an NC-17 rating. While the filmmakers largely embraced the rating, it still means there are many theaters that wouldn't show it. If you missed Shame and have been curious about what all the hubbub is about, it's hitting shelves as a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on April 17th.

The Shame combo pack includes a high-def Blu-ray copy of the film with several bonus features, a DVD of the film, and a digital copy. It's listing for $39.99, but Amazon currently has it available for pre-order at $29.99. The bonus features include:

• Focus on Michael Fassbender
• Director Steve McQueen
• The Story of Shame
• A Shared Vision
• Fox Movie Channel Presents: In Character With Michael Fassbender
• Theatrical Trailer

Wow, I was expecting some sort of bonus feature where Fassbender walks around fully clothed. You know, just for the novelty of it.

Shame stars Michael Fassbender as Brandon, a New Yorker whose entire life revolves around his addiction to sex. His life is thrown for a loop when his younger sister (Carey Mulligan) moves in with him, forcing them both to confront painful memories of their past. The film was critically praised, with Fassbender receiving a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.

Watching the movies of Steve McQueen, the British director behind Hunger and now Shame, you're forced to slow down a little bit, to get into the deliberate pace of the film and stop expecting things to progress as frantically as they might in a more traditional film. Talking to McQueen, on the other hand, is the opposite-- he speaks fast, and speaks constantly, and will move from an idea suggested by your question to something totally different with no warning at all. It's thrilling to try and keep up with him, especially when you've only got a 15 minute interview and a lot to talk about.

In Shame McQueen once again directs Michael Fassbender in a no-holds-barred performance, this time playing a sex addict who lives an ostensibly successful life in New York City but is completely ravaged by his addiction. Shot entirely on location in New York, using a lot of modern architecture and posh locations, Shame looks like no New York movie you've ever seen, but McQueen swears he wasn't thinking about background at all. Watch him completely shoot down my first question about possible visual themes of the movie, then talk about why he explained so little about the characters and their back story, how they came up with the title, and why Shame and his next film 12 Years A Slave, despite their Yankee settings, aren't necessarily American movies. Shame is out in limited release this weekend.

Usually New York movies make me homesick, butt his movie had the exact opposite effect. The locations, with all the modern architecture, are so chilly and isolating, and they're all so similar. It seems that must have been a deliberate effort on your part.

No, not really, not at all. I wasn't thinking about background, I was thinking about ritual. I was thinking about where Brandon lives, where he'd go for his takeout food, how he'd walk to the subway, how he'd go to work. It was meticulous planning of how he would get from A to B.

So it's a result of where the neighborhoods are, not what they look like.

My focus is the character. My focus is Brandon. And that's it really. How he exists, what he would do, how he would walk. There's been a lot of talk about the movie and New York and landscape, but it was never a self-conscious situation.

So you were really rigorous about the geography, when a lot of people who shoot in New York aren't.

I love that because it makes my job easier. You have these beautiful things you have to deal with, and sometimes ugly things you have to deal with. That's part of our experience anyway. A lot of times in New York people live and work in the sky. You're always in the perspective, there's always a vista. You're always in the perspective of the city. Huge glass windows, apartments, hotels. I think sometimes it can make you feel quite lonely in a strange way. Who are you within this huge bloody city? And it is beautiful, because you're actually in a frame within a frame.

In the shot of him on the West Side Highway in the end, and you put him in contrast with the city from way down low, as opposed to in the sky.

For me it was a great, wonderful coincidence, it was bucketing down with rain that day, it was awful but fantastic for us. You have to embrace it, you have to deal with it. It may force you to make wonderful decisions. For me, that's cinema. I don't want to make TV commercials. So I wanted Brandon at that point, he needed some situation of distance. On the ground there's always a blockage of view, so the whole idea of expanse. I love the idea of the broken jetty, for me they're almost like broken people. It was one of those beautiful things.

You went through the trouble of actually shooting on the subway, which almost nobody does.

It's a little bit expensive, bur the transport people are very accommodating.

Why did it feel necessary to shoot on the actual subway?

Like I said before, you want to do the real thing. You don't want to avoid things, because it's a reality of what you need to get. The ritual is beautiful-- it's difficult, but it is what it is. And also it's underground and you're confronted with people. In London it's the same, you're on the underground, people, coincidence, it's beautiful. In New York with the grid system, you have a lot of coincidences. Things happen here-- it allows for more spontaneity. The ritual of going to work, often you meet the same people all the time. I love that, the possibility. It's wonderful that this ritual of courtship happens on the train.

The title of the movie is such a simple word, and it's enigmatic because it could mean so many things.

It was a common word we heard from people with this addiction. When they went on sexcapades, 72 hours watching porn or something, and when they would come down from that they would have this sense of self-loathing. And to dissipate that they would do it again. All these people talked about shame, and I thought that had to be the title. Of course, when you get that word, you mull it around in your head a little while. It's a one-word title like Hunger, and the next film [12 Years A Slave] thank God is more than one word.

Obviously it ties into Brandon and his affliction, but it also ties into Sissy in some way, the idea of their back story and the way it's kept so deliberately unclear to us.

Again, in realty that would never happen. We've met for the first time, you're not going to tell me your whole story, I'm not telling you my whole story. In the movies, everyone says oh, I did this when I was a kid-- no one talks like that. I wanted the situation where when you walk into the movie, it's already running, and when you leave the movie it continues. The whole idea of popping in as an audience into this movie, we bring our history, our past and our present, and we sit down and can decide what possibly happened. I wanted to make a situation that was familiar.

Do the actors know what the back story is?

They have an idea. And sometimes their back stories are slightly different from each other. But we all talked about it. I don't hire actors, I works with actors to get these performances. The camera can do so much, but it's all about how you interpret things. The highest form of acting is silent movie stars-- they say so much, and you know what they're saying through gesture. When we talk in our daily lives, we're talking shit most of the time, it's nothing true. It's to get through a day, to fill time, and we hardly ever say what we often feel. Maybe to your therapist or very closest friend. But in a day it's just a way of getting by. I wanted that familiarity of how people move and stuff. What I want my movies to be, I want the screen to be a mirror. When you sit down you see yourself.

Even though you're telling stories, at least in your first two movies, that are fairly extreme situations? It's not something that everyone will automatically recognize.

Maybe not an IRA prisoner, but surely Brandon, he's extreme, but at the same time we can identify with him or the aspects of him, absolutely.

The next movie is another American movie that goes way back into the past. This movie tackled New York City really interestingly--

I don't think Shame or the next one is an American movie. They happen to take place here, and Shame i think people in Europe will understand it. I think 12 Years a Slave, it's about freedom in a way.

Even though it's so specifically rooted in American history?

I think Western cowboy films are specifically rooted in America, but they say so much about other things. Sure it takes place in America with American history, but at the same time it has to have a universality, or else there's no point. It has to have universality, which I'm very much looking forward to.

The United States was settled as a puritan nation and despite the fact that those origins were over 200 years ago, many of the values still hold steady in our society. One of the places where this is most notable is in the film industry. Every year there is controversy surrounding the amount of violence and sexuality in cinema and the way in which it is rated by the MPAA, the latter typically more harshly than the former. As a result, major studios tend to avoid material with more explicit sexual material, instead leaving those films to the independent world. If that system can regularly produce titles like Steve McQueen’s Shame, however, there’s no issue supporting the status quo.

Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a middle-aged man living in New York with a serious sex addiction. While outwardly he appears normal, his apartment is littered with pornography, he hires prostitutes, and he masturbates at every opportunity. But when his sister (Carey Mulligan) arrives unannounced and tells him that she will be staying with him for an undisclosed amount of time, his entire carefully-constructed world begins to fall apart.

Walking away from the film, all you can think is, “Why has it taken this long to discover the true talents of Michael Fassbender?” who puts on a performance nothing short of breathtaking. Unlike the films that have brought him to stardom in recent years, like Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds or Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, Shame is truly Fassbender’s show and he makes the best of every minute. Tiptoeing on a high wire between restraint and pure rage, Fassbender’s Brandon is a man doing constant battle with his own id and what the actor does with it is nothing short of phenomenal. The tension between him and Mulligan (who is quite superb in her own right) is disturbingly palpable, as the mind is left to only imagine the origins of their fractured relationship. Because of the nature of the film as a character piece, left in the hands of a lesser performer it would have suffered as a whole. Fortunately McQueen had Michael Fassbender.

Aesthetically, Shame is stunning, in large part because of McQueen’s exceptional job capturing New York City. Playing perfectly into the movie’s themes of isolation and alienation, Brandon is often seen alone and surrounded by tall buildings, shots that succeed in accentuating the character’s loneliness. Contrasting those scenes are ones of extreme intimacy, which the director never shies away from. McQueen most definitely earns its NC-17 rating, but it’s never gratuitous or even erotic. The filmmaker understands that in order to understand Brandon and his weaknesses the audience must witness them, and in that sense Shame is unflinching.

I can’t help but fear that because of the film’s overt treatment of sexuality it will be ignored come awards season, simply because it deserves recognition. Michael Fassbender puts on one of the greatest, if not the greatest, performances you will see all year and McQueen’s director is magnificent. Bluntly, Shame is as courageous as filmmaking gets.

Earlier today, while writing about Brad Pitt's casting in the new Steve McQueen film 12 Years A Slave, Sean pointed out that there was a possibility that Fox Searchlight might run into a problem with McQueen's most recent film, Shame. Due to its content - the film is about a sex addict living in Manhattan - many have speculated that the movie might get hit with the MPAA's harshest rating: NC17. Unfortunately, that situation as come to pass.

Box Office Mojo has received word regarding Shame's classification and the MPAA has deemed the movie unsuitable for anyone under the age of 17 (this means that anyone under that age, even with parent guidance, will not be allowed to buy a ticket or enter the theater). This presents a major problem for Fox Searchlight, as many of the nation's biggest theater chains, including AMC and Regal, will not carry NC-17 rated movies. There was a similar situation that came up last year with Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine. That situation was resolved when Weinstein Company president Harvey Weinstein argued in front of the MPAA personally and the rating was changed to an R.

The film revolves around a man named Brandon (Michael Fassbender) living in New York and trying to control his ferocious sexual appetite. His ability to control himself, however, is compromised when his sister (Carey Mulligan) arrives in the city and announces that she will be staying indefinitely. The movie is scheduled to be released on December 2nd.

Everyone familiar with Shame knew this was a distinct possibility, which is why Fox Searchlight was given applause when they picked up the movie at the Toronto International Film Festival. The question is where does the situation go from here? The studio could try to protest the rating without changing the movie; they could re-edit and re-submit it; or they could just let it be and let movie theaters decide if they want to show the movie or not. Given the incredible buzz surrounding Fassbender's performance and the film as a whole, one can only hope that they will make an exception.

Steve McQueen’s Shame, which reaches theaters on Dec. 2 after a successful festival run, is a riveting, uncompromising look at a Manhattan sex addict, played to perfection by McQueen’s frequent collaborator Michael Fassbender. It’s a powerful film that should contend for multiple awards as the Oscar race marches along. And I mean no disrespect by looking past Shame, because it’s great, but hot damn, McQueen’s next project sounds fantastic and I’m kind of wishing it were opening on Dec. 2, as well.

Fassbender once again will team up with McQueen for Twelve Years a Slave, based on an 1853 autobiography of a free man from New York who is tricked into slavery while on a trip to Washington, D.C. In addition to Fassbender, though, Screen Daily (via The Playlist) reports that Brad Pitt and Chiwetel Ejiofor are joining the cast.

Pitt reportedly has been developing this story for years, and plans to produce through his Plan B shingle. McQueen, who co-wrote the Slave screenplay with Three Kings scribe John Ridley, begins filming next year, though we don’t know yet when the film could reach theaters.

It’s going to be a tough wait. McQueen shows such progress as a patient, probing filmmaker from his debut, Hunger, and then from Shame. I’d essentially watch Fassbender or Ejiofor in anything, and adding Pitt to the mix only increases anticipation. Pitt’s involvement also could get Slave into more theaters, so long as McQueen avoids the NC-17 rating that may cause distribution headaches for Shame distributor Fox Searchlight.

Let's talk about Michael Fassbender. Nobody in Toronto right now, myself included, seems unable to stop marveling at the actor, and once the general public has gotten a look at the two films he brought to this festival, A Dangerous Method and Shame, I imagine the general public will get on board as well. Of course, you might think you're already fascinated by Fassbender, thanks to performances in Inglourious Basterds and Hunger and Jane Eyre and Fish Tank and even X-Men: First Class. But you really haven't pondered the Fassbender appeal until, within two days of each other, you've watched him spank Keira Knightley and go full-frontal naked in two separate films.

His first movie to premiere here was A Dangerous Method, by far the least interesting of the two, despite the fact that it's directed by Canadian auteur David Cronenberg and co-stars both Knightley and Viggo Mortensen. On paper it all seems perfect-- the story of the friendship and eventual rift between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, set off by one of Jung's patients, a hysterical Russian woman (Knightley) with serious sexual issues. In his previous films Cronenberg has carefully, sometimes creepily examined issues of the mind and the body, and you couldn't ask for bigger talent to bring it all to the screen. But somehow the intellectual conversations between Mortensen's Freud and Fassbender's Jung have less crackle than Magneto and Professor X chatting it up in X-Men: First Class, and all that spanking-- which is wryly funny in its own way-- somehow feels tangential to the groundbreaking psychological theories these two are developing together.

You can lay some of the blame on Christopher Hampton, who adapted A Dangerous Method from his own stage play and relies far too much on telling us about these characters-- especially Jung's spirituality, which distanced him from Freud but is never really demonstrated onscreen-- than digging into their psyches the way any good psychoanalyst would. But Cronenberg is no help in removing the film from its stagebound roots either, bouncing from one conversation in a room between two characters for another, rarely opening up the camera to the early 20th century Vienna setting or allowing us inside these characters at all. The actors get some of the work done for him-- Fassbender plays Jung as a placid exterior masking a lot of coiled frustration, with Mortensen's Freud a kind of twinkly, fatherly side presence. Knightley is another issue entirely, kicking off the movie as a howling, toothy madwoman and gradually developing into a doctor who will become a significant force in psychology in her own right. Her performance is bold and big, and gets downright good once her character is allowed to calm down; in those opening moments of madness, though, Knightley has to ask the audience to engage with a character who's almost impossible to believe in.

For all the ways A Dangerous Method feels drained of meaning and artistic intent, though, Shame is brimming with it. The second feature film from British artist Steve McQueen, who gave Fassbender his breakout role in Hunger, is a simple and somewhat familiar story of addiction, told with visual style and powerhouse acting that renders it something entirely new. McQueen brings his story to New York, but a version barely familiar from other movies, shot entirely in brand-new apartment buildings and offices and high-end hotels, places where glass walls and sleek appliances convey not glamour and wealth, but a terrifying emptiness. Even the crowded subway feels cold and isolating, even when our terribly conflicted hero Brandon (Fassbender) makes eyes at a pretty young thing on the subway and loses her in the crowd. It's not just that he's alone in a city of millions, but as McQueen makes inexorably clear throughout the film, everyone else is alone there too.

Brandon is a sex addict, essentially scheduling his life around masturbation, random hookups, sex with prostitutes-- anything but lasting, meaningful relationships. The one exception is his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan), who comes to stay against Brandon's wishes and tries and repeatedly fails, in her own harsh way, to establish any real connection with him. They share a troubling history that is almost never spoken but hinted by McQueen's camera, long takes emphasizing tense space between them or casual nudity that's both familiar and unnerving for them both. McQueen became famous partly for the massive long take conversation in Hunger, and there are no showstoppers like that one in Shame his camera definitely lingers-- the scene in which Carey Mulligan sings history's slowest rendition of "New York, New York" in tight close-up feels like a slight indulgence. But the combination of the cool, clinical settings and McQueen's rigorous camera compositions puts the audience firmly inside Brandon's isolating, passionless but destructive world.

I haven't entirely worked out my thoughts and final feelings about Shame-- it's that constant film festival problem of too many movies, too little time. But the fearless performances from Fassbender and Mulligan, the uncompromisingly explicit sex and McQueen's vigilant, confident camera make Shame very much a movie to reckon with. Both McQueen and Fassbender have arrived together as formidable talents, and this second collaboration between them makes you feverishly anticipate the provocative, perhaps brutal work that's to come.

For my continuing converge from the Toronto Film Festival, go here.

Jeremy Renner, who doesn't seem to be listening to my concerns about his overexposing himself so early in his movie star career, has started a new production company that will enable him to take yet another starring role. According to THR, he and producing partner Don Handfield have formed The Combie, a production company that is putting into development a biopic about Steve McQueen.

If that doesn't sound promising enough, the script for the McQueen biopic will be written by James Gray, the writer-director behind the crime-tinged We Own The Night and the lovely romance Two Lovers; music video veteran Ivan Zacharias will make his directorial debut with the film. I can't quite figure out how this ties into another McQueen biopic announced in 2009, based on the same biography Steven McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel. Jesse Wigutow had been writing an adaptation of the book at the time for producers Michael Cerenzie and Christine Peters; none of those people seem to be involved in the Renner project.

What we all want to know, though, is how Renner will fare playing the iconic star of action films like Bullitt and The Great Escape. In many ways it's perfect casting-- Renner is becoming ubiquitous thanks to tough-guy characters in The Hurt Locker and The Town, and is well on his way to proving action credentials too thanks to Mission: Impossible-- Ghost Protocol and The Avengers. The only question is when on earth he'll find the time to play the part, especially if he accepts the offer to take over the Bourne franchise. You may be excited to see Jeremy Renner play Steve McQueen, but it may not happen until 2015.