It was recently reported that Kevin Costner was dropping out of Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming revenge Western about slaves and slave owners, Django Unchained. Costner was supposed to play a mean old snake named Ace Woody who oversees a plantation and keeps the slaves in line using not so nice methods. It seemed like a great opportunity to give Costner a meatier, or at least more interesting role than he has had in a while, and I was pretty disappointed to hear that he wouldn’t be able to work with Tarantino. Sometimes I’m astounded at how fickle I can be.

Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming spaghetti western type movie Django Unchained includes a lead role that calls for a mean man to do mean things. The character’s name is Ace Woody, and he’s a slave owning creep. Up to this point it was pretty much a lock that the role was going to be played by Kevin Costner, it was even the opinion of this writer that Tarantino might be looking to give Costner’s career a shot in the arm, much like he’s done with a couple aging actors before. But now it’s looking like Costner will be dropping out of the role, and it’s because his career doesn’t need any resuscitating after all. Deadline Chuichu is reporting that due to his duties playing Pa Kent in Man of Steel and his work in the History miniseries The Hatfields and McCoys, Costner’s schedule isn’t going to allow for him to take part in the lengthy two month film shoot that Tarantino has planned. That means Tarantino is going to need to find someone else to play Ace Woody. My unsolicited advice would be to go after either Woody Harrelson or Tom Hanks, both great actors who have lots of experience playing characters named Woody. No need to thank me Quentin. In my heart you already have.

Back in May, the illustrious Matt Patches put together a list so honest, so compelling, so original, that I had absolutely no choice but to copy it almost totally wholesale to craft my own version. Patches’s list was comprised of eight films his previous girlfriends had forced him to watch that made him who he is today (the list was, of course, titled “8 Movies My Past Girlfriends Forced Me to Watch That Made Me Who I Am Today” because we here at FSR are nothing if we are not succinct). The list, while interesting on a purely cinematic basis, also said something surprisingly deep about the nature of relationships themselves – mainly when it comes to the all-important element of compromise. Patches, a gentleman and a scholar, found some compelling honesty in his consistently sweet tales of cinematic (and romantic) discovery. My list starts off with a film that made me realize my first boyfriend was possibly also interested in other men. That’s just the sort of list this is. Here are seven movies that seven different suitors all “forced” me to watch at different points in my (admittedly still young) cinematic life. More than any individual lesson each film taught me, together the list forms one giant reminder of what I love best about going to the movies – endless possibility. Take a peek at my list after the break, and then feel free to pipe in with any films that someone made you watch that ultimately changed your [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

There’s already been a lot of high profile casting news for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Western Django Unchained. Jamie Foxx is going to be playing the lead role, an ex-slave who is going after his ex-owner to liberate his wife. Leonardo DiCaprio is going to play said slave-owning creep. Samuel L. Jackson will be his manipulative servant. And Christoph Waltz is set to play a German bounty hunter that shows Django the ropes. That’s a fine enough sounding cast right there, but strap yourself in, there’s more. Deadline Las Cruces is reporting that Tarantino is in negotiations to get Robin Hood to join the cast. That’s right, the one true Robin Hood, the Bryan Adams Robin Hood: Kevin Costner. You might also know him as that guy who drank his own pee in Waterworld. However you remember the guy, you probably can recollect that once upon a time he was a pretty big deal. And history shows that Tarantino loves to take actors who used to be a big deal and give them a chance to shine once again. If Costner signs on the dotted line, he will get a chance to do just that, as the role he is up for is that of Ace Woody, the brutal taskmaster who trains slaves to fight one another in gladiatorial battles. It’s a showy, villainous role that could very well get Costner a lot of attention, much like Waltz’s Jew hunter character did in Inglorious Basterds. As he showed in Mr. Brooks, [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Every day, come rain or shine or internet tubes breaking, Film School Rejects showcases a trailer from the past. What do you do when you’re facing college graduation, the diaspora of your friends, and the threat of being drafted right into the jungles of Vietnam? You go on a road trip through Texas to find a bottle of Dom that you buried years ago. This movie is for anyone who ever reveled in the foolishness of youth, who ever had a firework fight in a graveyard, who ever jumped out of an airplane because their friends kept calling them a weenie. To those committed to committing random acts of stupidity, this one’s for you. Check out the trailer for yourself:

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr trolls around hospitals looking for a scorching hot young doctor who doesn’t want a real relationship but would rather have someone she can have copious amounts of sex with many times throughout the week. Upon returning from that fantasy land, he heads to a job-placement agency to rub elbows with laid-off corporate executives who have trouble making ends meet so they can pay the lease on their Mercedes. Kevin is handing out grades for No Strings Attached and The Company Men, and the grades are not good.

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this shit late at night, what do you expect?

When the calendar page turns to October, we Rejects have only one thought: horror. To celebrate this grandest and darkest of months, we’ll cover one excellent horror film a day for the entirety of the month. That’s 31 Days of Horror and 31 Films perfect for viewing on a dark, chilly, October night. If you, like us, love horror and Halloween, give us a Hell Yeah and keep coming every day this month for a new dose of adrenaline. Synopsis: John (Costner) moves his two children to a house well outside of town, looking to escape the pain of his recent divorce. His troubled teenage daughter Louisa seeks solace in the woods behind surrounding the house, but after she becomes infatuated with a mysterious mound and begins acting strangely, things at the home go from strained to strange. Killer Scene: Without giving away too much, the entire last twenty or thirty minutes of the movie is awesome and unexpected. To give you a taste, let’s just say Kevin Costner grabs his shotgun, messes some shit up, and then goes out to take care of that mound once and for all, via violence!

Mixing horror with Kevin Costner is like the first time you heard of chocolate covered bacon. You thought you’d like it, but were scared. Once you try it, though…

We take a look at the hundred-year history of Robin Hood in film and discover that Sean Connery seems to be the common thread.

Variety is reporting that Kevin Costner has selected his next project as a director. It is an action-adventure flick called A Little War of Our Own, in which he will also play a sheriff during World War II.

I’ve already heard several folks here in Park City draw lines between John Wells’ recession drama The Company Men and Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air. That’s not exactly true. But it also isn’t a bad thing.

Seasoned filmmaker Kevin Reynolds talks with us about the magic moments of filmmaking, advises aspiring filmmakers to be hobos for a while, and tries to unravel his dedication to Kevin Costner.

Variety is reporting today that two more distinguished actors have joined Ben Affleck on the unemployment line.

Moviehole is reporting on a story in the Durham Herald-Sun that claims a sequel to Bull Durham has been green-lit and will begin shooting next spring.

I guess that being a cynical bastard like myself, I just couldn’t swallow the plot.

Swing Vote is about a beer-drinking, trailer-park-living, fly-fishing redneck whose last-minute ballot becomes the deciding vote in a presidential election. Wait a minute… did I just say “beer-drinking”? Hell, yeah!

Apparently there are plans of a sequel to the 1990 Best Picture Winner, Dances With Wolves, which starred and was directed by Kevin Costner. The sequel will be titled The Holy Road. Yeah, I didn’t know this either until today.

We all have guilty pleasures. Chocolate. Hannity & Colmes. John Tesh music. Snorting blow off the buttocks of a Thai hooker. The one thing all those have in common though is their general acceptance by polite society. My own guilty pleasure is more embarrassing than these, and I rarely find myself able to talk about it without fear of recrimination and judgment. I like Kevin Costner. This is not a new affliction for me. I’ve been a fan since he stole Silverado from the more seasoned ensemble around him. The rest of the movie-going public joined me in the late eighties through the early nineties as he churned out hit after hit… movies that not only made money but were actually damn entertaining. No Way Out, The Untouchables, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Dances With Wolves… How quickly people forget. Granted the man then went on to make some incredibly bad movies, like 3000 Miles to Graceland, which was without question the worst film released in 2001. (Yes, the same year that saw Freddy Got Fingered, Pearl Harbor, and Britney Spears’ Crossroads.) But mixed in with the bad and mostly mediocre there have been some great performances in really good films… Tin Cup and The Upside of Anger come immediately to mind. Which brings me to the newly released DVD of Costner’s latest film, Mr. Brooks. Costner plays Earl Brooks. Husband, father, businessman, serial killer… This isn’t a spoiler as the movie’s entire advertising campaign was built around Costner’s portrayal [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]