Happy Friday, everyone!

Attendees of CinemaCon 2022 in Las Vegas were treated to a first look at TÁR and Borderlands which will be both released this year. There is also an additional article with interview with Cate from The Hollywood Reporter for Chaplin  Awards.

TÁR Reaction

First footage of TÁR was specifically created to be shown at the event on Wednesday (April 27th). The movie is on the upcoming slate of Focus Features and is schedule to be released on October 7th 2022.

Cate Blanchett Smokes The Competition As A World-Famous Conductor

According to Deadline, the film will follow Blanchett’s Lydia Tár, a (fictional) renowned and groundbreaking conductor who becomes the first woman to lead a major German orchestra. “Joker” composer Hildur Guðnadóttir will score the picture, while Field is writing and producing in addition to directing. Nina Hoss, Noémie Merlant, Julian Glover, Mark Strong, Allan Corduner, Sylvia Flote, and cellist and Royal Academy of Music alum Sophie Kauer are among the announced cast.

The film is in post-production, but CinemaCon audiences were treated to an exclusive first look at the footage so far.

The footage shown at CinemaCon was brief, albeit striking. A woman (Cate Blanchett with her face obscured) stands against a black background, slowly opening her mouth to let smoke pour out. I know, I know, smoking is bad, but Blanchett makes it look like the coolest, sexiest thing in the world. The shot is presented with a narration discussing how the pandemic has had a massive impact on our culture and belief systems.

“But there are other plagues,” the narrator says.

The narration continues, talking about nature, but the camera remains on this single shot of smoke leaving her lips, and pulsating into a strange form that continues obscuring her face. The narration takes a turn for the intense, and says that you must “stand in front of God and obliterate yourself.” Finally, the camera cuts to a different image, one of a woman conducting the orchestra. Lydia Tár may not be a real person, but whomever this woman is that Blanchett is bringing to life, seems like an absolute badass.

Official plot details about “TÁR” are scarce, but Focus Features says it’s “set in the world of classical music, starring the incomparable Cate Blanchett.”

Focus Features shows the new Todd Field movie at CinemaCon

Audiences got a look at TÁR, the first film from Todd Field (Little Children) in 16 years. Not much is known about the film just yet, only that it takes place in the world of classical music and stars Cate Blanchett. That should be enough. The footage shown at CinemaCon was created exclusively for the event and consisted of Blanchett exhaling smoke in slow motion while a monologue about the nature of power played underneath. 

Borderlands Reaction

On the last day of CinemaCon 2022, Lionsgate has presented their 2022 slate which includes Borderlands starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Black, Ariana Greenblatt and Florian Montaneau. There is no release date for the yet. Based on the reports from the attendees, a clip for Borderlands that run for one minute was shown during Lionsgate sizzle reel.

IGN Southeast Asia — The first look at the Borderlands movie was revealed at CinemaCon 2022, and it looks to be a faithful adaptation of the beloved video game franchise. While we only saw about a minute of footage, it was immediately clear that this film is set in the Borderlands universe. From the artstyle to hearing Jack Black as Claptrap to seeing Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Patricia Tannis, and Kevin Hart as Roland, all the familiar beats from Borderlands are being hit, albeit with a bit of Hollywood starpower being thrown in.

The Hollywood Reporter — The first footage for Borderlands has arrived — and just like the immensely popular video game series, it was spectacular.

The highly-anticipated film, based on the blockbuster gaming series developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K, got a sneak peek Thursday during the Lionsgate panel at CinemaCon.

Lionsgate showed approximately a minute of electric footage that showcased Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett as she’s never been seen before, in a fire-engine-red wig, toting a gun and fighting her way through a vibrantly colored cityscape. Kevin Hart also appeared as did Jack Black voicing the robot Claptrap that unexpectedly takes a bullet from Blanchett’s gun with a punchline to follow.

SlashFilm — The “Borderlands” footage came as part of a sizzle reel from Lionsgate, which also showcased footage from “The Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and the upcoming “Dirty Dancing” sequel. In the footage, we see Cate Blanchett as Lilith in a killer bright red wig, which seems worth the price of admission alone. Kevin Hart’s character Roland says, “Nothing better than a little wham, bam, thank you, man.” There’s a robot (fans of the games will recognize as Claptrap) voiced by Jack Black, who says, “Whoopsie, you accidentally shot me in the face again.”

And that’s about all there was to see! It isn’t much, just enough to give a little tease of the upcoming “Borderlands” movie, which looks like it will maintain the humorous tone of the game.

JoBlo — A small amount of footage from the live-action adaptation of Borderlands was also teased, with Bumbray saying that the colour scheme looks insane. Cate Blanchett stars as Lilith, an infamous treasure hunter with a mysterious past who reluctantly returns to her home planet to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful S.O.B. The footage showcased Blanchett fighting across a cityscape, gun in hand, with Kevin Hart also appearing as Roland and Jack Black voicing Claptrap.

Cate Blanchett “Completely and Utterly Overwhelmed” by Chaplin Award Honor

On Monday night Cate Blanchett became the second-youngest recipient of Film at Lincoln Center’s Chaplin Award. And though Blanchett is a two-time Oscar winner and has worked with Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro and Wes Anderson, among other luminaries, she was “completely and utterly overwhelmed,” she told The Hollywood Reporter, to have received this year’s honor.

“I don’t even know how to express it because you look at the look of previous honorees, and they’re so eclectic, but to a woman, they’re all of them are people who’ve had a deep influence on the American cultural landscape and on filmmaking at large internationally,” she added. “They’re people who I have individually revered, but collectively it’s like entering some sort of strange pantheon.”

She continued, laughing, “Hopefully, I can make it out of the building without them taking the award away from me.”

The honor is Film at Lincoln Center’s second Chaplin Award to be presented in the past 12 months, with Spike Lee receiving his honor in a delayed ceremony that took place in September.

Yet Monday night’s proceedings weren’t totally unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced at the top of the gala that director Todd Haynes, who was set to conduct a Q&A with Blanchett, would not be there since he had tested positive for COVID that morning. Then, the audience was told, presenter Bradley Cooper, who recently starred with Blanchett in Nightmare Alley, was also “not feeling well.” These two announcements, greeted with groans from the audience, were quickly followed by Blanchett shouting from the audience, “I’m here,” which prompted cheers.

The evening featured tributes from Scorsese, Richard Linklater, Hugh Jackman and producer Christine Vachon, who presented Blanchett with her award and shared with the audience that Haynes, though “devastated” not to be there, was apparently still feeling well enough to be frequently texting her throughout the event, wondering what they were doing. Film Comment co-deputy editor Devika Girish filled in for Haynes.

Prior to the gala, Film at Lincoln Center president Lesli Klainberg shared that despite Blanchett perhaps not being old enough for a lifetime achievement award, she had amassed enough impressive, diverse work over her nearly 30 years in the industry to make her worthy of this honor.

“I think Cate really embodies a really extraordinary artist of this time who has worked in independent films; she has worked on studio films; she works on blockbuster studio films,” Klainberg told THR. “The extraordinary variety of directors that she’s worked with, it’s just amazing to think about how many of the finest directors of our time she has been able to work with and all of her projects — we felt that she was also a person who was so active still, still working—this is not intended as an end of your career award.”

As for what’s next for her, Blanchett said she doesn’t have a particular type of project she hasn’t done that she wants to do, but she looks forward to getting a “strange ask.”

“I always think that the job I just finished is my last, and I will finally go and grow orchids in my greenhouse,” she said of her career plans. “I guess if I look back, it’s that I’ve always gravitated towards the strange ask or the ask that’s just an antidote to what I’ve done in some way. It’s an undeniable ask, and the directors I’ve worked with have usually made those asks of me. Not necessarily that I’ve achieved what I’ve wanted to achieve through that role or that production or that they have either, but the ask has been really undeniable.”

Sources: SlashFilm-TAR, JoBlo-TAR, THR-Borderlands, IGN, SlashFilm-Borderlands, JoBlo-Borderlands, THR