Leonardo DiCaprio moulds into J Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood biopic

A Sunday afternoon is generally regarded as a day of rest – A visit to the local church, a few ales in the local public house or even just lounging around the house after a long week at the grinder. So it was a welcome change of pace to come across the first official shots of Leonardo DiCaprio as J Edgar Hoover in the upcoming Oscar magnet, J. Edgar. A few pap shots have been filtering through the web over the last few weeks but courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, we get our first glimpse at the first G-Man and the founding figure of the FBI. My initial reaction was that DiCaprio appears to have nailed the bulldog-esque look of Hoover and aided by prosthetics, transformed himself into the prominent figure of the Bureau’s early days.

Directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Dustin Lance Black, who previously penned the 2008 Oscar Winner, Milk, this has all the appropriate boxes ticked for Oscar glory – True story {check}, Political figure winding into self-destruction {check}, potential homosexual angle {check}, an ensemble cast and iconic filmmaker at the helm {check, check}. Eyes will also be focused on the leading man in Leo DiCaprio as the lawman and there will be high hopes that after three previous Oscar nominations, the question begs; Is this Leo’s time for Oscar victory? The Inception star is, in my eyes, one of the most consistent actors working today and I have him down as potential Oscar winner come February 2012. After thus far, a staggering career of playing everyone from a cowboy gunslinger to a Boston cop, his moment isn’t far off. His previous track record does include him playing real-life figures such as Frank Abagnale Jr (Catch Me If You Can) and of course, arguably his best performance in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, playing the complex yet staggering Howard Hughes.

Eastwood, who does enjoy dabbling into the real world of moviemaking with his previous crowd-pleasing yet stuffy biopic, Invictus will bring to light the turbulent career of the troubled director of the FBI. The film will track from his early years when he was appointed the head of the Bureau in 1924, building the very first unified police force before slowly surrendering to psychological issues later in his life and rumoured as a cross dressing homosexual who developed a personal relationship with his associate director, Clyde Tolson (played by The Social Network's Armie Hammer).

I get the feeling that the Million Dollar Baby director will cram a large proportion of Hoover’s main events across his almost fifty year career of being the face of America’s law enforcement. But went from hero to villain in the eyes of many American’s who perceived him as a tyrant and that all is power in the end got to his head. It appears to have all the ingredients for something special and with an impressive supporting cast that includes Naomi Watts, Josh Lucas and Judi Dench, this has an Oscar stamp firmly across it.

One slight criticism though. Clint Eastwood has a brisk pace on set usually but it seems with J. Edgar he is taking time on this one. The images that were released today have been the sole feature to come from his biopic. No teaser trailers have yet to surface leaving people slightly in the dark. Clearly Warner Bros. have their own intentions and putting all their Oscar hopes behind J. Edgar to become one of the prominent films to feature in the 2012 Academy Awards. After the veteran filmmaker’s last poor turn Hereafter, he is in no rush to promote his next feature film in a hurry.

For all you lucky American’s, J. Edgar will open on US screens on 9^th November 2011. Us slightly more unlucky folk in the UK have yet to see a release date confirmed with it rumoured to be released early 2012.

Written by Michael Cunneen

British pedigree of A-listers line up for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

In a Summer rammed with superheroes, pirates, robots, aliens and a few pissheads with the mother of all hangovers, attention will soon turn to the films that will likely feature in the next awards season. It only feels like yesterday when Colin Firth and Co were triumphantly waving the British flag sky high and overpowering the yanks at the Oscars. Not attempting to be too clichéd but I will anyway, it seems that history may very well repeat itself and alarm bells could very well be ring-a-ding-dinging upon the Hollywood hills when September 16^th knocks on the door with the release of the John le Carré espionage adaptation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

To be totally honest, I am actually struggling on where to begin on this one as it has the potential to be one of the big winners of 2011 with critics and fans alike. The cast is simply overwhelming, brimming with talent, versatility and experience. Leading the all-star British cast is Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Graham, Ciarán Hinds and Toby Jones.  Try listing off all that talent in one breath.  Could this be the greatest cast ever assembled? Only time will tell. But I am certainly putting this at the forefront as a genuine contender for big awards next year. Set during the Cold War, retired MI6 agent George Smiley (Oldman) is pulled out of retirement to investigate a Russian mole that has infiltrated the M16 hierarchy and positioned himself at the “Top of the Circus.” His mission is to discover which of his former colleagues has chosen to betray him and more so his beloved country.

The first trailer was released at the end of June and a brand new, longer trailer hit the web this week stoking me up ten-fold. Let The Right One In director Tomas Alfredson is taking charge of this spy espionage and from the looks of the footage, he has certainly gone down the cloak and dagger route and not giving anything away with a solid sense of tension brewing amongst the ranks of the highly trained MI6. The trailer does give off a menacing yet poetic tone that makes it undeniably one of the hottest tickets for the Autumn months ahead.

The cast is just overpowering to glance at with some of my all-time favourite actors including of course Gary Oldman (which by the looks of his role as the centrepiece, is poised to be a big contender at next year’s Academy Awards. Let’s face it, it’s about time his title gets an upgrade from Bafta Award Winner to Academy Award Winner Gary Oldman). It seems Tom Hardy is a popular chap at the minute and so he bloody should be with some outstanding performances in his breakthrough film, Bronson which then led on to Chris Nolan’s, Inception and of course the small, insignificant matter of the lead villain role as pumped up brute Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. The other big names that deserve mentioning are of course King Colin Firth and my mate John Hurt. The other cast members are in their own right class acts and key ingredients to what could potentially be one of the biggies.

Get your flag waving hand at the ready with your side of tea and scones set for 16th September when Tinker Tailor Solider Spy releases on UK cinemas.

Written by Michael Cunneen