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Emily Browning Cast as Laura Moon in American Gods

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Emily BrowningStarz and FremantleMedia North America have announced that Emily Browning has been cast as Laura Moon, in the upcoming adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed contemporary fantasy novel, American Gods. The series will begin shooting in April.

Browning joins Ian McShane and Ricky Whittle who were recently announced to play Mr. Wednesday and Shadow Moon, respectively, in American Gods. As Laura Moon, Browning plays Shadow Moon’s wife, who has been preparing for her husband’s pending prison release. Little does she know that she will go on an unexpected journey that leads her to an epiphany about her relationship and affords her a second chance to get things right.

A native of Australia, Browning first received international recognition when she was cast as Violet Baudelaire in the 2004 film adaptation of the popular children’s book series, “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.”  She received a 2005 Critics Choice Award nomination for “Best Young Actress” from the Broadcast Film Critics Association on behalf of her performance, as well as a 2005 “Best Actress” Award by the Australian Film Institute. She was honored with the “Breakthrough Performer” award at the 2011 Hamptons International Film Festival and received a “Best Actress in a Leading Role” nomination by the Film Critics Circle of Australia, as well as the Australian Film Critics Association for her work in Julia Leigh’s 2011 art-house film “Sleeping Beauty.”  Additional film credits include “God Help the Girl,” Legend” opposite Tom Hardy “Ghost Ship,” “Ned Kelly,” “The Uninvited,” “Stranded,” “Sucker Punch,” “Magic Magic.” “The Host,” “Summer in February,” “Plush” and “Pompeii.”

American Gods has been translated into over 30 languages and earned numerous accolades including Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker Awards for Best Novel. The plot posits a war brewing between old and new gods: the traditional gods of mythological roots from around the world steadily losing believers to an upstart pantheon of gods reflecting society’s modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs. Its protagonist, Shadow Moon, is an ex-con who becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday, a conman but in reality one of the older gods, on a cross-country mission to gather his forces in preparation to battle the new deities.

Movie Review – Sucker Punch

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Sucker PunchJudging by the post viewing reactions of the “elite” press at the sneak peek of Zack Snyder‘s Sucker Punch, I’m guessing it won’t be getting the best of reviews by Washington, D.C. publications.  One reviewer went on to say “Now I know why they gave out suckers.  It fit the movie, because boy did it suck,” while another turned to me and said “I’m sure there’s somebody out there that liked this.”  None realized I’m “press” and while I was torn about it, I liked the movie.

While I proclaimed Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as “the first real movie for the Nintendo generation,” Sucker Punch takes the kinetic and frenetic feel of that movie a step further with puzzles, themed boards and each “level” ending in a boss battle.  While Pilgrim had plot to hold it together, Sucker Punch throws that out the window instead loosely tying in settings and events into a pseudo narrative.

The press hated it, but f-them, as this was a movie for a generation who grew up on video games.  A generation that’s looking forward to Halo on the big screen and cheers when they’re able to initiate bullet time in their favorite game to get in that perfect “kill.”  If you don’t celebrate a bit after getting that head shot in Call of Duty, this movie isn’t for you.  This isn’t Oscar bait, hell it might be nominated for a few Razzies.  But, should you expect it to be?  Snyder’s the man who brought us Dawn of the Dead, 300 and Watchmen.  All enjoyable movies but not the deepest or most well acted movies out there.  Snyder is about the visual, and here he brings it.

The movie’s plot is simple, a bunch of beautiful women escape into a fantasy world in order to escape their incarceration.  How does the fantasy world tie into the real world?  What’s actually going on?  That’s sort of strung together by the loosest of plot in the beginning and end, but that’s not the point of the movie.  The movie is all about watching a pretty girl dressed like Sailor Moon use bullet time to effortlessly dance around bullets and blades and go in for the kill.  It’s those moments that draw me into my favorite video games and that’s what sucked me into this movie.

The movie is escapism, plain and simple.  Snyder has put together a nonsensical plot about escapism so that you can experience it yourself by seeing visuals we don’t get enough of and strong women whipping ass.  This is a mish-mosh of movies.  Steam punk nazis, mechas, robots, 10 foot tall samurai, dragons, orcs, it’s all there.  Snyder went into the movie wanting to throw in everything he loves and the things we geeks love too.  He succeeded in that.

The movie was  a quick hour and a half, but in a time when the world is falling apart, that escapism is something I need and want, and I’ll take what I can get.  This is brainless fun for the Nintendo generation.

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