NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actress, singer and director Barbra Streisand may be a familiar figure at Hollywood's Oscars, but she has only sung on the annual awards show once.
Streisand will perform again at the Academy Awards on February 24, producers said on Wednesday, without providing details about how her appearance would fit into the show or what she might sing.
Streisand, 70, has won two Oscars, one for best actress in 'Funny Girl' and another for best original song, 'Evergreen' from her 1976 vehicle 'A Star Is Born.' Her performance of the song at the 1977 Oscars show was her only previous onstage stint at Hollywood's biggest night.
'In an evening that celebrates the artistry of movies and music, how could the telecast be complete without Barbra Streisand?' producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said in a statement. 'We are honored that she has agreed to do a very special performance on this year's Oscars.'
Streisand has also been nominated for several Oscars, including for best actress in 'The Way We Were' and as producer for best picture nominee 'The Prince of Tides.'
Most recently she co-starred with Seth Rogen in 'The Guilt Trip,' a Christmas 2012 release.
Earlier this month, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced that Streisand would be this year's recipient of its annual Chaplin Award, a prestigious honor recognizing achievement in film.
The Oscars will be presented at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre, hosted by Seth MacFarlane and broadcast live on ABC as well as in more than 225 countries worldwide.
(Editing by Chris Michaud and Lisa Von Ahn)
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Oscar nod for protest film cheers Palestinians
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Oscar-nominated documentary '5 Broken Cameras' screened for Palestinians for the first time on Monday, leaving locals hopeful that their struggle with Israel for land and statehood will gain a global audience.
The low-cost film is based on five years of amateur camera work by journalist Emad Burnat as he documented weekly protests against land seizures by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in his village of Bil'in in the occupied West Bank.
Neighbors are killed in the protests and demolition equipment mars the landscape while the filmmaker captures his infant son's rapid loss of innocence, heralded by his first words: 'wall' and 'army.'
'This is a film for those who were martyred. It's bigger than me and bigger than Bil'in. More than a billion people follow the Oscars and they will know our struggle now,' Burnat said after the viewing.
His work will compete at next month's Oscar ceremony against four other films, including a documentary called 'The Gatekeepers' that looks at the decades-old Middle East conflict through the eyes of six top former Israeli intelligence bosses.
Although the perspective is very different, both movies share a surprisingly similar message -- the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is morally wrong and must end.
Burnat's film received a standing ovation at its premier in Ramallah, the Palestinians' administrative capital, with the audience excited to see their seemingly endless conflict splashed on the big screen.
'The film shows the whole world what occupation is. It wiped the happiness off the boy's face at too young an age. This has been the experience for all of us,' said taxi driver Ahmed Mustafa, who brought his wife and child to the viewing
'It's not all bad though. It shows that there is progress, there are victories, and that our cause is still alive and moving,' he said.
In 2007, Israel's High Court ruled that the separation barrier built on Bil'in lands was illegal and ordered it rerouted, cheering activists. The ruling was finally implemented in 2011, but the protests continue.
ISRAELI CO-DIRECTION
Humble villagers in black-and-white chequered Palestinian scarves and smartly dressed city dwellers shared the same visceral reaction to scenes in the film that are much chronicled but seldom appear in feature-length film.
A shot of olive trees reduced to glowing embers after being torched by Jewish settlers coaxes an audible gasp from viewers.
'Oh God!' said one man.
But as Burnat's camera captures defiant chants in the protagonists' village accent, or rocks being hurled at fleeing Israeli jeeps, ecstatic applause filled the hall.
The film was co-directed by an Israeli activist and filmmaker, Guy Davidi. This close association has led some people to classify 5 Broken Cameras as an Israeli movie and it was rejected by a Morocco film festival for this reason.
However, Burnat said it had been shown in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries and denied that the joint production reflected any meaningful 'normalization' of relations between Israel and the Palestinians.
'(Davidi) is a solidarity activist who came to the village to show his support. He was shown our material and agreed to help. This doesn't represent Israeli-Palestinian collaboration,' Burnat said.
But the film's action shows many examples of cooperation between Israeli solidarity activists and locals.
An Israeli photographer gives Burnat one of his five cameras, which are progressively shot or crushed in protests over the years, giving the film its name, and Israeli solidarity activists are shown helping to plan protests in Hebrew.
'Working jointly with an Israeli doesn't diminish this work, it enhances it,' Palestinian student Amira Daood told Reuters.
'They're not all against us. Some are opposed to what Israel is doing and the movie demonstrates that,' she said.
(Reporting By Noah Browning, editing by Paul Casciato)
The low-cost film is based on five years of amateur camera work by journalist Emad Burnat as he documented weekly protests against land seizures by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in his village of Bil'in in the occupied West Bank.
Neighbors are killed in the protests and demolition equipment mars the landscape while the filmmaker captures his infant son's rapid loss of innocence, heralded by his first words: 'wall' and 'army.'
'This is a film for those who were martyred. It's bigger than me and bigger than Bil'in. More than a billion people follow the Oscars and they will know our struggle now,' Burnat said after the viewing.
His work will compete at next month's Oscar ceremony against four other films, including a documentary called 'The Gatekeepers' that looks at the decades-old Middle East conflict through the eyes of six top former Israeli intelligence bosses.
Although the perspective is very different, both movies share a surprisingly similar message -- the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is morally wrong and must end.
Burnat's film received a standing ovation at its premier in Ramallah, the Palestinians' administrative capital, with the audience excited to see their seemingly endless conflict splashed on the big screen.
'The film shows the whole world what occupation is. It wiped the happiness off the boy's face at too young an age. This has been the experience for all of us,' said taxi driver Ahmed Mustafa, who brought his wife and child to the viewing
'It's not all bad though. It shows that there is progress, there are victories, and that our cause is still alive and moving,' he said.
In 2007, Israel's High Court ruled that the separation barrier built on Bil'in lands was illegal and ordered it rerouted, cheering activists. The ruling was finally implemented in 2011, but the protests continue.
ISRAELI CO-DIRECTION
Humble villagers in black-and-white chequered Palestinian scarves and smartly dressed city dwellers shared the same visceral reaction to scenes in the film that are much chronicled but seldom appear in feature-length film.
A shot of olive trees reduced to glowing embers after being torched by Jewish settlers coaxes an audible gasp from viewers.
'Oh God!' said one man.
But as Burnat's camera captures defiant chants in the protagonists' village accent, or rocks being hurled at fleeing Israeli jeeps, ecstatic applause filled the hall.
The film was co-directed by an Israeli activist and filmmaker, Guy Davidi. This close association has led some people to classify 5 Broken Cameras as an Israeli movie and it was rejected by a Morocco film festival for this reason.
However, Burnat said it had been shown in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries and denied that the joint production reflected any meaningful 'normalization' of relations between Israel and the Palestinians.
'(Davidi) is a solidarity activist who came to the village to show his support. He was shown our material and agreed to help. This doesn't represent Israeli-Palestinian collaboration,' Burnat said.
But the film's action shows many examples of cooperation between Israeli solidarity activists and locals.
An Israeli photographer gives Burnat one of his five cameras, which are progressively shot or crushed in protests over the years, giving the film its name, and Israeli solidarity activists are shown helping to plan protests in Hebrew.
'Working jointly with an Israeli doesn't diminish this work, it enhances it,' Palestinian student Amira Daood told Reuters.
'They're not all against us. Some are opposed to what Israel is doing and the movie demonstrates that,' she said.
(Reporting By Noah Browning, editing by Paul Casciato)
Monday, January 28, 2013
"Argo" boosts Oscar chances with two weekend award
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Iran hostage drama 'Argo' won its second big award in two days on Sunday, boosting its chances of winning a best picture Oscar next month in a race that had been considered wide open.
'Argo' won best cast ensemble, the top prize, at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, while Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence took lead acting honors.
On Saturday, 'Argo' won the Producers Guild Award - a key measure of Hollywood sentiment - beating 'Lincoln,' 'Les Miserables,' and 'Silver Linings Playbook,' which are all Academy Award best picture contenders.
'There was absolutely no way I thought we would win this award,' the film's director and star, Ben Affleck, told reporters backstage after the SAG win. 'Argo' is the true story of the rescue of U.S. diplomats stranded in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Asked about his movie's Oscar chances, Affleck said he was not in the business of 'handicapping or trying to divine what's going to happen down the road.'
'I don't know what's going to happen, nothing may happen, but it's a wonderful opportunity to be on the ride,' Affleck added.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) ceremony is among the most-watched during Hollywood's awards season because actors make up the largest voting group in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which chooses the Oscar winners. The SAG honors are selected by about 100,000 actors working in the United States.
SAG prizes acting over directing, screenplay writing and other skills that usually factor into the Oscar best picture choice.
PLAYING DOWN OSCAR HOPES
British-born Day-Lewis, who has picked up a slew of awards for his intense portrayal of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's efforts to abolish slavery in 'Lincoln,' confirmed his status as front-runner for what would be his record third Oscar on February 24.
But the actor played down his Oscar hopes backstage. 'Members of the academy love surprises, so about the worst thing that can happen to you is if you've built up an expectation,' Day-Lewis told reporters.
Accepting his award on stage to a standing ovation, he recalled that 'it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln and, therefore, it is sometimes only fitting that, now and then, an actor tries to bring him back to life again.'
In one of the most closely contested categories, Lawrence, 22, was chosen best lead actress for playing an outspoken young widow in 'Silver Linings Playbook' over Jessica Chastain's feisty CIA agent in Osama bin Laden thriller 'Zero Dark Thirty.'
Tommy Lee Jones, 66, won the best supporting actor trophy for his turn as radical Congressman Thaddeus Stevens in 'Lincoln,' beating strong competition from Robert De Niro, who played a gruff father in 'Silver Linings Playbook.'
Anne Hathaway, 30, won her first SAG award for her supporting role as the tragic Fantine in musical 'Les Miserables.'
'I got my SAG card when I was 14 ... And I have loved every single minute of my life as an actor,' said Hathaway, accepting the statuette.
SAG also handed out awards for performances in TV dramas, comedies and mini-series, and gave a lifetime achievement award to actor Dick Van Dyke.
In TV drama, the British cooks and countesses period show 'Downton Abbey' won best ensemble cast. 'Breaking Bad' star Bryan Cranston was named best actor and 'Homeland's' Claire Danes best actress.
'Modern Family' won the best comedy cast ensemble award for a third consecutive time. Alec Baldwin won best TV comedy actor for the 8th time for his role as an egotistical executive in '30 Rock' and his co-star Tina Fey took the honors for comedy actress ahead of the show's final episode on Thursday.
(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis, editing by Stacey Joyce)
'Argo' won best cast ensemble, the top prize, at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, while Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence took lead acting honors.
On Saturday, 'Argo' won the Producers Guild Award - a key measure of Hollywood sentiment - beating 'Lincoln,' 'Les Miserables,' and 'Silver Linings Playbook,' which are all Academy Award best picture contenders.
'There was absolutely no way I thought we would win this award,' the film's director and star, Ben Affleck, told reporters backstage after the SAG win. 'Argo' is the true story of the rescue of U.S. diplomats stranded in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Asked about his movie's Oscar chances, Affleck said he was not in the business of 'handicapping or trying to divine what's going to happen down the road.'
'I don't know what's going to happen, nothing may happen, but it's a wonderful opportunity to be on the ride,' Affleck added.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) ceremony is among the most-watched during Hollywood's awards season because actors make up the largest voting group in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which chooses the Oscar winners. The SAG honors are selected by about 100,000 actors working in the United States.
SAG prizes acting over directing, screenplay writing and other skills that usually factor into the Oscar best picture choice.
PLAYING DOWN OSCAR HOPES
British-born Day-Lewis, who has picked up a slew of awards for his intense portrayal of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's efforts to abolish slavery in 'Lincoln,' confirmed his status as front-runner for what would be his record third Oscar on February 24.
But the actor played down his Oscar hopes backstage. 'Members of the academy love surprises, so about the worst thing that can happen to you is if you've built up an expectation,' Day-Lewis told reporters.
Accepting his award on stage to a standing ovation, he recalled that 'it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln and, therefore, it is sometimes only fitting that, now and then, an actor tries to bring him back to life again.'
In one of the most closely contested categories, Lawrence, 22, was chosen best lead actress for playing an outspoken young widow in 'Silver Linings Playbook' over Jessica Chastain's feisty CIA agent in Osama bin Laden thriller 'Zero Dark Thirty.'
Tommy Lee Jones, 66, won the best supporting actor trophy for his turn as radical Congressman Thaddeus Stevens in 'Lincoln,' beating strong competition from Robert De Niro, who played a gruff father in 'Silver Linings Playbook.'
Anne Hathaway, 30, won her first SAG award for her supporting role as the tragic Fantine in musical 'Les Miserables.'
'I got my SAG card when I was 14 ... And I have loved every single minute of my life as an actor,' said Hathaway, accepting the statuette.
SAG also handed out awards for performances in TV dramas, comedies and mini-series, and gave a lifetime achievement award to actor Dick Van Dyke.
In TV drama, the British cooks and countesses period show 'Downton Abbey' won best ensemble cast. 'Breaking Bad' star Bryan Cranston was named best actor and 'Homeland's' Claire Danes best actress.
'Modern Family' won the best comedy cast ensemble award for a third consecutive time. Alec Baldwin won best TV comedy actor for the 8th time for his role as an egotistical executive in '30 Rock' and his co-star Tina Fey took the honors for comedy actress ahead of the show's final episode on Thursday.
(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis, editing by Stacey Joyce)
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Witch-hunting "Hansel & Gretel" wins box office
(Reuters) - A grown-up 'Hansel & Gretel' grabbed the weekend box office title, pulling in $19 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales with its reinvention of the classic fairy tale characters as fierce bounty hunters.
'Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters' knocked last weekend's winner, low-budget horror flick 'Mama,' into second place. 'Mama' earned $12.8 million from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates, followed by 'Silver Linings Playbook' with $10 million.
CIA drama 'Zero Dark Thirty' came in fourth with $9.8 million.
Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton star in 'Hansel & Gretel' as crossbow-wielding adult siblings who travel the world to take out evil witches. MGM and Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures produced the action comedy for about $50 million. Paramount had predicted opening weekend sales in the high-teens or low $20 million range.
Don Harris, Paramount's president of distribution, said the film performed well despite the very cold temperatures and snow that hit the eastern United States.
'We are pleased that we were on our number on a worldwide basis. It looks like we are on or exceeding our numbers, but we did get dinged with the weather on Friday,' he said in an interview.
'The impact of the weather was certainly more than I had predicted.'
'Mama' features Jessica Chastain as a woman forced to take care of two orphaned nieces who have been living in the woods. The $15 million production has now earned $48.6 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters through two weekends.
Chastain also stars in 'Zero Dark Thirty' in an Oscar-nominated role as a dogged CIA agent searching for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The best picture nominee, which has sparked debate over depictions of torture, has grossed $69.9 million since its release in late December.
'Silver Linings Playbook,' another Oscar contender, stars Bradley Cooper as a former mental patient trying to rebuild his life with the help of a young widow played by Jennifer Lawrence. Total sales for 'Silver Linings' reached $69.46 million.
New crime thriller 'Parker' finished in fifth place, taking in $7 million at domestic theaters. The film is based on a series of novels by Donald E. Westlake and stars Jason Statham as a thief seeking revenge against a crew that double-crossed him. Jennifer Lopez plays a woman who helps with his mission.
'Movie 43,' a raunchy new comedy with an ensemble of Hollywood directors and stars, settled for seventh place. The film is a series of related short films about three kids scouring the Internet to find the world's most-banned movie. Stars making appearances include Huge Jackman, Seth MacFarlane, Kate Winslet and Dennis Quaid. Privately held Relativity Media produced the film for about $6 million.
'Mama' was distributed by Universal Studios, a division of Comcast Corp. Sony Corp's movie studio released 'Zero Dark Thirty.' 'Parker' was released by independent studio FilmDistrict. The Weinstein Co distributed 'Silver Linings Playbook.'
(Editing by Bill Trott)
'Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters' knocked last weekend's winner, low-budget horror flick 'Mama,' into second place. 'Mama' earned $12.8 million from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates, followed by 'Silver Linings Playbook' with $10 million.
CIA drama 'Zero Dark Thirty' came in fourth with $9.8 million.
Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton star in 'Hansel & Gretel' as crossbow-wielding adult siblings who travel the world to take out evil witches. MGM and Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures produced the action comedy for about $50 million. Paramount had predicted opening weekend sales in the high-teens or low $20 million range.
Don Harris, Paramount's president of distribution, said the film performed well despite the very cold temperatures and snow that hit the eastern United States.
'We are pleased that we were on our number on a worldwide basis. It looks like we are on or exceeding our numbers, but we did get dinged with the weather on Friday,' he said in an interview.
'The impact of the weather was certainly more than I had predicted.'
'Mama' features Jessica Chastain as a woman forced to take care of two orphaned nieces who have been living in the woods. The $15 million production has now earned $48.6 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters through two weekends.
Chastain also stars in 'Zero Dark Thirty' in an Oscar-nominated role as a dogged CIA agent searching for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The best picture nominee, which has sparked debate over depictions of torture, has grossed $69.9 million since its release in late December.
'Silver Linings Playbook,' another Oscar contender, stars Bradley Cooper as a former mental patient trying to rebuild his life with the help of a young widow played by Jennifer Lawrence. Total sales for 'Silver Linings' reached $69.46 million.
New crime thriller 'Parker' finished in fifth place, taking in $7 million at domestic theaters. The film is based on a series of novels by Donald E. Westlake and stars Jason Statham as a thief seeking revenge against a crew that double-crossed him. Jennifer Lopez plays a woman who helps with his mission.
'Movie 43,' a raunchy new comedy with an ensemble of Hollywood directors and stars, settled for seventh place. The film is a series of related short films about three kids scouring the Internet to find the world's most-banned movie. Stars making appearances include Huge Jackman, Seth MacFarlane, Kate Winslet and Dennis Quaid. Privately held Relativity Media produced the film for about $6 million.
'Mama' was distributed by Universal Studios, a division of Comcast Corp. Sony Corp's movie studio released 'Zero Dark Thirty.' 'Parker' was released by independent studio FilmDistrict. The Weinstein Co distributed 'Silver Linings Playbook.'
(Editing by Bill Trott)
Hostage film "Argo" wins producers award as Oscars loom
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Iran hostage drama 'Argo' continued its trophy-winning streak on Saturday, taking the top prize at the Producers Guild Awards in the latest boost to its chances at the Oscars.
Guild picks regularly go on to win at the film industry's most prestigious event - for the last five years, the producers' choice of best-produced film has taken the best picture Oscar.
'I'm really surprised. I'm not even in the PGA (Producers Guild of America),' Argo director, producer and star actor Ben Affleck said as he collected the award for the film that tells the true story of the rescue of U.S. diplomats from Tehran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
'I am still acting and available,' added a smiling Affleck, joined on stage by co-producer Grant Heslov. George Clooney, also a producer, did not attend the event in Beverly Hills.
The PGA prize is seen as a particularly good indicator of future success as many of the Guild's 5,000 plus members are also members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who vote for the Oscars.
Argo was nominated earlier this month for a best film Oscar, but Affleck was snubbed in the director's category. Nevertheless, he won a Golden Globe for his direction this month and Argo also won best movie drama at the Golden Globes.
Argo won the PGA prize against nine other films on Saturday, including Steven Spielberg's presidential drama 'Lincoln', musical 'Les Miserables' and Kathyrn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden thriller 'Zero Dark Thirty'.
Also contending were Quentin Tarantino's darkly humorous slavery Western 'Django Unchained', the James Bond blockbuster 'Skyfall', Ang Lee's shipwreck tale 'Life of Pi' and the comedy 'Silver Linings Playbook'.
Many of the PGA-nominated movies are also in the running for the best picture Oscar on February 24.
The PGA handed 'Wreck-It Ralph,' its honor for best animated movie.
Unlike the Academy Awards, both the Producers Guild Awards and the Golden Globes also give prizes to television dramas and comedies.
The HBO film 'Game Change' about Sarah Palin's 2008 vice presidential bid won the outstanding longform TV prize and ABC's 'Modern Family' was named best-produced television comedy. 'Homeland' was named the best-produced TV drama.
'Searching for Sugar Man,' a film about an obscure singer named Rodriguez who is a hit in South Africa, won the prize for best documentary.
J.J. Abrams, who grabbed headlines this week for being named director for the 'Star Wars' film received an achievement award for his television work while producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein received a milestone award.
(Reporting By Susan Zeidler; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
This article is sponsored by real estate news.
Guild picks regularly go on to win at the film industry's most prestigious event - for the last five years, the producers' choice of best-produced film has taken the best picture Oscar.
'I'm really surprised. I'm not even in the PGA (Producers Guild of America),' Argo director, producer and star actor Ben Affleck said as he collected the award for the film that tells the true story of the rescue of U.S. diplomats from Tehran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
'I am still acting and available,' added a smiling Affleck, joined on stage by co-producer Grant Heslov. George Clooney, also a producer, did not attend the event in Beverly Hills.
The PGA prize is seen as a particularly good indicator of future success as many of the Guild's 5,000 plus members are also members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who vote for the Oscars.
Argo was nominated earlier this month for a best film Oscar, but Affleck was snubbed in the director's category. Nevertheless, he won a Golden Globe for his direction this month and Argo also won best movie drama at the Golden Globes.
Argo won the PGA prize against nine other films on Saturday, including Steven Spielberg's presidential drama 'Lincoln', musical 'Les Miserables' and Kathyrn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden thriller 'Zero Dark Thirty'.
Also contending were Quentin Tarantino's darkly humorous slavery Western 'Django Unchained', the James Bond blockbuster 'Skyfall', Ang Lee's shipwreck tale 'Life of Pi' and the comedy 'Silver Linings Playbook'.
Many of the PGA-nominated movies are also in the running for the best picture Oscar on February 24.
The PGA handed 'Wreck-It Ralph,' its honor for best animated movie.
Unlike the Academy Awards, both the Producers Guild Awards and the Golden Globes also give prizes to television dramas and comedies.
The HBO film 'Game Change' about Sarah Palin's 2008 vice presidential bid won the outstanding longform TV prize and ABC's 'Modern Family' was named best-produced television comedy. 'Homeland' was named the best-produced TV drama.
'Searching for Sugar Man,' a film about an obscure singer named Rodriguez who is a hit in South Africa, won the prize for best documentary.
J.J. Abrams, who grabbed headlines this week for being named director for the 'Star Wars' film received an achievement award for his television work while producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein received a milestone award.
(Reporting By Susan Zeidler; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
This article is sponsored by real estate news.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Director Abrams to helm new Star Wars, fans say force with him
(Reuters) - Sci-fi filmmaker J.J. Abrams will direct 'Star Wars: Episode VII,' Walt Disney Co said after days of speculation, giving hope to many long-suffering fans who were disappointed by the last three installments in the iconic franchise.
The announcement was greeted with celebrations on online networks by the films' army of enthusiasts who have already watched Abrams rescue the aging 'Star Trek' series with a high-grossing prequel in 2009.
Disney said late on Friday Abrams would work under the leadership of producer Kathleen Kennedy, the former president of Lucasfilm, and the script would be penned by Oscar-winning writer Michael Arndt.
'J.J. is the perfect director to helm this. Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise,' Kennedy said in a statement on starwars.com.
Fans were equally enthusiastic. 'JJ Abrams to the rescue!!! Yes!! #starwarsVII,' wrote Jonny Radtke ?(@JonnyRadtke) on Twitter.
'Great news about JJ Abrams directing Star Wars. Might just rescue the brand...,' added Alastair Brookshaw ?(@albrookshaw).
Rumors that Abrams, one of Hollywood's most successful directors and producers, would take stewardship of the films filled industry publications and online forums over the past week.
The 46-year-old made his name with TV shows 'Alias' and 'Lost' and earned his stripes as a director of effects-laden blockbusters with 'Super 8,' 'Mission: Impossible III' and another widely expected Star Trek film 'Star Trek Into Darkness,' due out later this year.
The Star Wars franchise, which was created by George Lucas' Lucasfilms Ltd, has grossed more than $4.4 billion at the global box office since the first film was released in 1977, making it the third most successful movie property after the 'Harry Potter' and 'James Bond' series.
Star Wars characters such as Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and the anti-hero, Darth Vader, have become a staple part of pop culture, along with the catch phrase 'May the force be with you'.
The Star Wars films were acquired by Disney after they bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in October 2012. They announced then that three new installments would be made, starting in 2015.
Lucas, 68, gave Abrams his blessing on Starwars.com, saying the director was 'an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn't be in better hands'.
Abrams said his new role was 'an absolute honor.'
Disney had previously said Lucas would remain a creative consultant on the series.
Lucas himself said in October he had story treatments for Episodes 7, 8 and 9, which he would hand over to Kennedy, who assured him that she would adhere to his ideas.
(This version of the story was corrected to clarify that Abrams directed 'Mission: Impossible III' and not 'Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol' as earlier stated in paragraph eight.)
(Editing by Andrew Heavens)
The announcement was greeted with celebrations on online networks by the films' army of enthusiasts who have already watched Abrams rescue the aging 'Star Trek' series with a high-grossing prequel in 2009.
Disney said late on Friday Abrams would work under the leadership of producer Kathleen Kennedy, the former president of Lucasfilm, and the script would be penned by Oscar-winning writer Michael Arndt.
'J.J. is the perfect director to helm this. Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise,' Kennedy said in a statement on starwars.com.
Fans were equally enthusiastic. 'JJ Abrams to the rescue!!! Yes!! #starwarsVII,' wrote Jonny Radtke ?(@JonnyRadtke) on Twitter.
'Great news about JJ Abrams directing Star Wars. Might just rescue the brand...,' added Alastair Brookshaw ?(@albrookshaw).
Rumors that Abrams, one of Hollywood's most successful directors and producers, would take stewardship of the films filled industry publications and online forums over the past week.
The 46-year-old made his name with TV shows 'Alias' and 'Lost' and earned his stripes as a director of effects-laden blockbusters with 'Super 8,' 'Mission: Impossible III' and another widely expected Star Trek film 'Star Trek Into Darkness,' due out later this year.
The Star Wars franchise, which was created by George Lucas' Lucasfilms Ltd, has grossed more than $4.4 billion at the global box office since the first film was released in 1977, making it the third most successful movie property after the 'Harry Potter' and 'James Bond' series.
Star Wars characters such as Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and the anti-hero, Darth Vader, have become a staple part of pop culture, along with the catch phrase 'May the force be with you'.
The Star Wars films were acquired by Disney after they bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in October 2012. They announced then that three new installments would be made, starting in 2015.
Lucas, 68, gave Abrams his blessing on Starwars.com, saying the director was 'an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn't be in better hands'.
Abrams said his new role was 'an absolute honor.'
Disney had previously said Lucas would remain a creative consultant on the series.
Lucas himself said in October he had story treatments for Episodes 7, 8 and 9, which he would hand over to Kennedy, who assured him that she would adhere to his ideas.
(This version of the story was corrected to clarify that Abrams directed 'Mission: Impossible III' and not 'Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol' as earlier stated in paragraph eight.)
(Editing by Andrew Heavens)
First Steve Jobs movie gets red carpet premiere
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - The first movie about Apple's legendary co-founder got a warm reception at its world premiere on Friday, just 15 months after Steve Jobs' death.
'jOBS,' starring 'Two and a Half Men' actor Ashton Kutcher as the tech and computer entrepreneur who revolutionized the way people listen to music and built Apple Inc into an international powerhouse, got a red carpet roll-out at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of hitting U.S. theaters on April 19.
'jOBS' chronicles 30 defining years of the late Apple chairman, from an experimental youth to the man in charge of one of the world's most recognized brands. It is the first of two U.S. feature films about Jobs, who died in 2011 at age 56.
'Everybody has their own opinion about Steve Jobs, and they have something invested in a different part of his story. So the challenge is to decide what part of his story to tell, and not disenfranchise anybody,' director Josh Stern told Reuters ahead of the screening.
'Hazarding a guess and venturing into too much speculation is always dangerous, especially with a character who is so well-known,' Stern added.
The film, co-starring Josh Gad and Dermot Mulroney, begins with Jobs the dreamer, the poet and the occasional drug user in college, and his initial ideas for Apple Computers, before his vision took on a life of its own.
Much of the drama is based around the early 1980s, and Jobs' ideologies for the Apple Lisa and Macintosh computers, which ended up performing poorly for the company and led to Jobs being fired.
Kutcher's Jobs is seen as the rock star of the tech world, admired but misunderstood in his early days as he constantly tried to think outside of the box and bring a notion of 'cool' to his brand.
The audience on Friday warmly applauded the film following the screening.
In a question-and-answer session after the screening, Kutcher took to the stage to talk about his preparations of mastering Jobs' posture, hand gestures and eccentricities, saying his 'painstaking research' included watching more than 100 hours of footage of the Apple innovator.
Notably missing from the film are details about Jobs' personal life - his court settlement with the mother of his first child features only in the backdrop of the 1980s, a time when he struggled to gain support from the Apple board for his visions.
Stern told the audience that he deliberately stayed away from the CEO's personal life, saying the film was 'not about getting mired in some of the soap opera' of Jobs' life.
Kutcher, 34, told Reuters on the red carpet before the screening that he was honored to play Jobs but also terrified because of the former Apple chairman's iconic status.
'To be playing a guy who so freshly is in people's minds, where everywhere you go you can run into people who met him or knew him or had seen a video of him ... that's terrifying because everyone is an appropriate critic,' Kutcher told Reuters.
WRONG PERSONALITIES
Hours before the screening, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said the movie appeared to misrepresent aspects of both his own and Jobs' personalities and their early vision for the company.
Wozniak was commenting after seeing a brief clip of an early scene that was released online on Thursday.
'Totally wrong. ... The ideas of computers affecting society did not come from Jobs,' Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Jobs and Ronald Wayne in a California garage in 1976, told technology blog Gizmodo.com.
'The lofty talk came much further down the line,' Wozniak said in a series of emails.
'Book of Mormon' star Gad, who plays Wozniak, told Reuters on Friday's red carpet that the filmmakers had tried to reach out to him to get his input on 'jOBS,' but that Wozniak was 'participating in another project about Steve Jobs.'
Wozniak is tied to a movie based on Walter Isaacson's official biography 'Steve Jobs,' being developed by screen writer Aaron Sorkin of 'The West Wing' and 'The Social Network' fame. No release date or casting has been announced.
Kutcher said he hoped Wozniak would look more kindly on the movie when he had seen the whole two hours.
'I hope that when he sees the film, he feels that he was portrayed accurately, that the film accurately represents who he was and how he was, and more importantly, inspires people to go and build things,' he said.
(Additional reporting By Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; editing by Philip Barbara)
'jOBS,' starring 'Two and a Half Men' actor Ashton Kutcher as the tech and computer entrepreneur who revolutionized the way people listen to music and built Apple Inc into an international powerhouse, got a red carpet roll-out at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of hitting U.S. theaters on April 19.
'jOBS' chronicles 30 defining years of the late Apple chairman, from an experimental youth to the man in charge of one of the world's most recognized brands. It is the first of two U.S. feature films about Jobs, who died in 2011 at age 56.
'Everybody has their own opinion about Steve Jobs, and they have something invested in a different part of his story. So the challenge is to decide what part of his story to tell, and not disenfranchise anybody,' director Josh Stern told Reuters ahead of the screening.
'Hazarding a guess and venturing into too much speculation is always dangerous, especially with a character who is so well-known,' Stern added.
The film, co-starring Josh Gad and Dermot Mulroney, begins with Jobs the dreamer, the poet and the occasional drug user in college, and his initial ideas for Apple Computers, before his vision took on a life of its own.
Much of the drama is based around the early 1980s, and Jobs' ideologies for the Apple Lisa and Macintosh computers, which ended up performing poorly for the company and led to Jobs being fired.
Kutcher's Jobs is seen as the rock star of the tech world, admired but misunderstood in his early days as he constantly tried to think outside of the box and bring a notion of 'cool' to his brand.
The audience on Friday warmly applauded the film following the screening.
In a question-and-answer session after the screening, Kutcher took to the stage to talk about his preparations of mastering Jobs' posture, hand gestures and eccentricities, saying his 'painstaking research' included watching more than 100 hours of footage of the Apple innovator.
Notably missing from the film are details about Jobs' personal life - his court settlement with the mother of his first child features only in the backdrop of the 1980s, a time when he struggled to gain support from the Apple board for his visions.
Stern told the audience that he deliberately stayed away from the CEO's personal life, saying the film was 'not about getting mired in some of the soap opera' of Jobs' life.
Kutcher, 34, told Reuters on the red carpet before the screening that he was honored to play Jobs but also terrified because of the former Apple chairman's iconic status.
'To be playing a guy who so freshly is in people's minds, where everywhere you go you can run into people who met him or knew him or had seen a video of him ... that's terrifying because everyone is an appropriate critic,' Kutcher told Reuters.
WRONG PERSONALITIES
Hours before the screening, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said the movie appeared to misrepresent aspects of both his own and Jobs' personalities and their early vision for the company.
Wozniak was commenting after seeing a brief clip of an early scene that was released online on Thursday.
'Totally wrong. ... The ideas of computers affecting society did not come from Jobs,' Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Jobs and Ronald Wayne in a California garage in 1976, told technology blog Gizmodo.com.
'The lofty talk came much further down the line,' Wozniak said in a series of emails.
'Book of Mormon' star Gad, who plays Wozniak, told Reuters on Friday's red carpet that the filmmakers had tried to reach out to him to get his input on 'jOBS,' but that Wozniak was 'participating in another project about Steve Jobs.'
Wozniak is tied to a movie based on Walter Isaacson's official biography 'Steve Jobs,' being developed by screen writer Aaron Sorkin of 'The West Wing' and 'The Social Network' fame. No release date or casting has been announced.
Kutcher said he hoped Wozniak would look more kindly on the movie when he had seen the whole two hours.
'I hope that when he sees the film, he feels that he was portrayed accurately, that the film accurately represents who he was and how he was, and more importantly, inspires people to go and build things,' he said.
(Additional reporting By Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; editing by Philip Barbara)
Friday, January 25, 2013
"Zero Dark Thirty" entertaining but inaccurate: ex-CIA agents
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden movie 'Zero Dark Thirty' may be an entertaining film, but it fails to capture the true nature of the work of those involved in his hunt and capture, according to three former CIA agents.
Nada Bakos, Cindy Storer and Marty Martin are featured in HBO documentary 'Manhunt,' which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week. It offers an alternative look at the long search by U.S. agents for the al Qaeda leader, who was killed in Pakistan in 2011.
'Zero Dark Thirty,' which has been nominated for five Oscars, portrays the hunt for bin Laden through the eyes of a young CIA officer, played by Jessica Chastain, and is described by the filmmakers as based on first-hand accounts.
'It's entertaining. It's a movie, that's the purpose of the film. What it's not, it's not a documentary, it's not a completely accurate portrayal of how national security works, or even how the CIA works,' Bakos, a former CIA officer, said of the Hollywood thriller in comments to Reuters.
'Manhunt' attempts to shed light on the larger scale of the operation, dating back nearly 20 years. It focuses on 'The Sisterhood' - a team of female CIA analysts leading the search - and 'Alec Station,' the code name for the larger group involved in the hunt.
All three CIA agents retired from service in 2007 or 2008 and were given clearance to talk to the 'Manhunt' filmmakers.
They agreed that the U.S. Navy SEAL team raid scene on bin Laden's Pakistan compound was well done in the Hollywood movie. But they were irked by the 'Zero Dark Thirty' portrayal of CIA agent 'Jessica,' based on real-life agent Jennifer Matthews (played by Jennifer Ehle), who died in a suicide bombing.
'I was so angry at this heated depiction of Jennifer as some fluffy-headed schoolgirl ... I just lost respect for it right there,' said Storer, an analyst who tracked bin Laden from 1995.
'The portrayal of who we're supposed to assume is Jennifer Matthews is not accurate. This was not representative of who she was as a person,' Bakos added.
TORTURE AND INTERROGATION
Bakos said the controversial 'Zero Dark Thirty' torture scenes, included waterboarding and beatings, were 'horrific to watch.'
And Martin, who ran clandestine operations in top field cases in the 1990s, said, 'the interrogation stuff - that was totally inaccurate as well.' He declined to be more specific.
In 'Manhunt,' the CIA search is juxtaposed with journalist Peter Bergen's own insight into al Qaeda.
Bergen produced a CNN interview with bin Laden and correspondent Peter Arnett in 1997 that marked the first time the al Qaeda leader was profiled on U.S. television, when he said he wanted to harm Americans.
Director Greg Barker said he wanted to present as many details as possible by showcasing how both the CIA and how Bergen covered the events, and to structure the documentary in a way that would inform and captivate viewers.
'It was a story that I had to understand for myself, and I saw it also as a spy movie. I make narrative documentary features that play like movies so I wanted to find very compelling characters, who through them, we can enter into the last decade,' Barker told Reuters.
Barker said he hoped the documentary would give viewers a better understanding of the detailed search for America's No.1 enemy, and a cause for reflection in future.
'I think there's going to be another crisis, and we'll all want the government to do something to prevent it from happening again. That's what we all felt like after 9/11 ... It's time now to step back and tell this story in a compelling way that people want to watch but also so that people can reflect,' Barker said.
'Manhunt' will be shown on cable channel HBO later this year.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)
Nada Bakos, Cindy Storer and Marty Martin are featured in HBO documentary 'Manhunt,' which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week. It offers an alternative look at the long search by U.S. agents for the al Qaeda leader, who was killed in Pakistan in 2011.
'Zero Dark Thirty,' which has been nominated for five Oscars, portrays the hunt for bin Laden through the eyes of a young CIA officer, played by Jessica Chastain, and is described by the filmmakers as based on first-hand accounts.
'It's entertaining. It's a movie, that's the purpose of the film. What it's not, it's not a documentary, it's not a completely accurate portrayal of how national security works, or even how the CIA works,' Bakos, a former CIA officer, said of the Hollywood thriller in comments to Reuters.
'Manhunt' attempts to shed light on the larger scale of the operation, dating back nearly 20 years. It focuses on 'The Sisterhood' - a team of female CIA analysts leading the search - and 'Alec Station,' the code name for the larger group involved in the hunt.
All three CIA agents retired from service in 2007 or 2008 and were given clearance to talk to the 'Manhunt' filmmakers.
They agreed that the U.S. Navy SEAL team raid scene on bin Laden's Pakistan compound was well done in the Hollywood movie. But they were irked by the 'Zero Dark Thirty' portrayal of CIA agent 'Jessica,' based on real-life agent Jennifer Matthews (played by Jennifer Ehle), who died in a suicide bombing.
'I was so angry at this heated depiction of Jennifer as some fluffy-headed schoolgirl ... I just lost respect for it right there,' said Storer, an analyst who tracked bin Laden from 1995.
'The portrayal of who we're supposed to assume is Jennifer Matthews is not accurate. This was not representative of who she was as a person,' Bakos added.
TORTURE AND INTERROGATION
Bakos said the controversial 'Zero Dark Thirty' torture scenes, included waterboarding and beatings, were 'horrific to watch.'
And Martin, who ran clandestine operations in top field cases in the 1990s, said, 'the interrogation stuff - that was totally inaccurate as well.' He declined to be more specific.
In 'Manhunt,' the CIA search is juxtaposed with journalist Peter Bergen's own insight into al Qaeda.
Bergen produced a CNN interview with bin Laden and correspondent Peter Arnett in 1997 that marked the first time the al Qaeda leader was profiled on U.S. television, when he said he wanted to harm Americans.
Director Greg Barker said he wanted to present as many details as possible by showcasing how both the CIA and how Bergen covered the events, and to structure the documentary in a way that would inform and captivate viewers.
'It was a story that I had to understand for myself, and I saw it also as a spy movie. I make narrative documentary features that play like movies so I wanted to find very compelling characters, who through them, we can enter into the last decade,' Barker told Reuters.
Barker said he hoped the documentary would give viewers a better understanding of the detailed search for America's No.1 enemy, and a cause for reflection in future.
'I think there's going to be another crisis, and we'll all want the government to do something to prevent it from happening again. That's what we all felt like after 9/11 ... It's time now to step back and tell this story in a compelling way that people want to watch but also so that people can reflect,' Barker said.
'Manhunt' will be shown on cable channel HBO later this year.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)
Dark side of porn star's life revealed in indie film "Lovelace"
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - Porn star Linda Lovelace became a poster girl for the sexual revolution of the 1970s, but it's her story of a life marked by domestic abuse and exploitation that is the focus of a new film.
'Lovelace,' starring Amanda Seyfried, joined a slate of films exploring the darker side of sex and pornography at the Sundance Film Festival this week.
Seyfried, 27, is best known for playing pretty, wide-eyed blondes in movies such as 'Mean Girls,' 'Mamma Mia!' and 'Les Miserables.'
Not this time.
'Everybody has a story and (Linda's) story is really fascinating and really dark, and I like that stuff. I wanted to portray somebody who really existed and had that story,' Seyfried told Reuters.
'I like controversy. I like risks, nudity and sex. That doesn't scare me at all,' she added.
The film chronicles Lovelace's formative years, her abusive marriage to Chuck Traynor, played by Peter Sarsgaard, and how she was forced into working on the 1972 porn film 'Deep Throat,' which became one of the highest-grossing films in America.
Traynor, portrayed as a sadistic man with a charming facade, has a destructive relationship with Lovelace in which he rapes and abuses her, and at one point sells her to a group of five men.
Both Sarsgaard and Seyfried said they felt the film was less about pornography and oral sex and more about the disturbing course of Lovelace's life.
After she left the porn industry and Traynor, Lovelace wrote several contradictory accounts of her experiences and became an anti-pornography activist. She died in 2002 of injuries from a car crash, aged 53.
Sarsgaard, who is often drawn to playing complex and darker characters, said he was uncomfortable playing Traynor.
'I didn't want to portray him. I really didn't ... I felt like the point of view of the story was so strongly against him and his perspective, that I'm the kind of guy who looks to see the person in the corner and tries to figure out what's going on with them,' the actor told Reuters.
The actor said he wished he could remove some of the grittier, violent scenes from the film.
'I have two kids, both girls, and it's getting harder and harder for me to play these roles ... especially the violence to women. I'm really having a problem with it,' he said.
'Lovelace' is the first of two upcoming films based on the porn star's life. 'Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story' is also due out later this year, with Malin Ackerman playing the role of Linda, and Matt Dillon as Chuck.
'Lovelace' has been purchased for theatrical distribution by The Weinstein Company.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)
'Lovelace,' starring Amanda Seyfried, joined a slate of films exploring the darker side of sex and pornography at the Sundance Film Festival this week.
Seyfried, 27, is best known for playing pretty, wide-eyed blondes in movies such as 'Mean Girls,' 'Mamma Mia!' and 'Les Miserables.'
Not this time.
'Everybody has a story and (Linda's) story is really fascinating and really dark, and I like that stuff. I wanted to portray somebody who really existed and had that story,' Seyfried told Reuters.
'I like controversy. I like risks, nudity and sex. That doesn't scare me at all,' she added.
The film chronicles Lovelace's formative years, her abusive marriage to Chuck Traynor, played by Peter Sarsgaard, and how she was forced into working on the 1972 porn film 'Deep Throat,' which became one of the highest-grossing films in America.
Traynor, portrayed as a sadistic man with a charming facade, has a destructive relationship with Lovelace in which he rapes and abuses her, and at one point sells her to a group of five men.
Both Sarsgaard and Seyfried said they felt the film was less about pornography and oral sex and more about the disturbing course of Lovelace's life.
After she left the porn industry and Traynor, Lovelace wrote several contradictory accounts of her experiences and became an anti-pornography activist. She died in 2002 of injuries from a car crash, aged 53.
Sarsgaard, who is often drawn to playing complex and darker characters, said he was uncomfortable playing Traynor.
'I didn't want to portray him. I really didn't ... I felt like the point of view of the story was so strongly against him and his perspective, that I'm the kind of guy who looks to see the person in the corner and tries to figure out what's going on with them,' the actor told Reuters.
The actor said he wished he could remove some of the grittier, violent scenes from the film.
'I have two kids, both girls, and it's getting harder and harder for me to play these roles ... especially the violence to women. I'm really having a problem with it,' he said.
'Lovelace' is the first of two upcoming films based on the porn star's life. 'Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story' is also due out later this year, with Malin Ackerman playing the role of Linda, and Matt Dillon as Chuck.
'Lovelace' has been purchased for theatrical distribution by The Weinstein Company.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Legendary Japanese filmmakers to be honored by Hollywood
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and three of his compatriots will be honored by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) next month for their lifetime of work on movies that organizers said have 'given us all a taste of the sublime.'
The WGA's West branch, which represents the U.S. West Coast writers of TV, films, radio and Internet programming, said that the late Kurosawa and his collaborators Ryuzo Kikushima, Hideo Oguni and Shinobu Hashimoto, will receive the Guild's 2013 Jean Renoir Award for Screenwriting Achievement on February 17 in Los Angeles.
The 94-year-old Hashimoto is the lone surviving member of the group. He is not expected to attend the ceremony.
The annual award honors 'those non-U.S. writers whose work has raised the bar for all of us,' said Writers Guild of America West Vice President Howard Rodman.
'These four men, working in loose collaboration, are responsible for writing many, many masterpieces - films that reflect the Japanese culture, and have given all of us a taste of the sublime,' Rodman added in a statement.
Kurosawa, who received an honorary Oscar in 1990 and died in 1998, found success in many films by collaborating with Kikushima, Hashimoto and Oguni on screenplays.
With Kikushima, the duo co-wrote such classics as 'Stray Dog' (1949) and 'Yojimbo' (1961). Hashimoto worked with Kurosawa on the seminal 1950 film 'Rashomon.' Oguni, Hashimoto and Kurosawa came together on 1952's 'Ikiru' and 1954's 'Seven Samurai.' The entire quartet wrote such films as 1957's 'Throne of Blood' and 1958's 'The Hidden Fortress.'
Kikushima died in 1989. Oguni died in 1996.
Previous recipients of the award include the late Italian screenwriters Suso D'Amico in 2009 and Tonino Guerra in 2011.
(Reporting By Zorianna Kit; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Will Dunham)
The WGA's West branch, which represents the U.S. West Coast writers of TV, films, radio and Internet programming, said that the late Kurosawa and his collaborators Ryuzo Kikushima, Hideo Oguni and Shinobu Hashimoto, will receive the Guild's 2013 Jean Renoir Award for Screenwriting Achievement on February 17 in Los Angeles.
The 94-year-old Hashimoto is the lone surviving member of the group. He is not expected to attend the ceremony.
The annual award honors 'those non-U.S. writers whose work has raised the bar for all of us,' said Writers Guild of America West Vice President Howard Rodman.
'These four men, working in loose collaboration, are responsible for writing many, many masterpieces - films that reflect the Japanese culture, and have given all of us a taste of the sublime,' Rodman added in a statement.
Kurosawa, who received an honorary Oscar in 1990 and died in 1998, found success in many films by collaborating with Kikushima, Hashimoto and Oguni on screenplays.
With Kikushima, the duo co-wrote such classics as 'Stray Dog' (1949) and 'Yojimbo' (1961). Hashimoto worked with Kurosawa on the seminal 1950 film 'Rashomon.' Oguni, Hashimoto and Kurosawa came together on 1952's 'Ikiru' and 1954's 'Seven Samurai.' The entire quartet wrote such films as 1957's 'Throne of Blood' and 1958's 'The Hidden Fortress.'
Kikushima died in 1989. Oguni died in 1996.
Previous recipients of the award include the late Italian screenwriters Suso D'Amico in 2009 and Tonino Guerra in 2011.
(Reporting By Zorianna Kit; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Will Dunham)
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Adele to perform Bond theme song "Skyfall" live at Oscars
LONDON (Reuters) - British singer Adele will return to the stage next month after a year absence to perform her Oscar-nominated song 'Skyfall' at the 85th Academy Awards, the show's producers said on Wednesday.
The theme tune to the latest James Bond movie was written by Adele and Paul Epworth. It is the first Bond theme to be nominated for the original song award at the Oscars since 'For Your Eyes Only' in 1981.
The February 24 show will be Adele's first live performance since the Grammy Awards last April and the first time she will perform 'Skyfall' live, as she has kept a low profile since giving birth to a son last October.
'It's an honor to be nominated and terrifyingly wonderful to be singing in front of people who have captured my imagination over and over again,' Adele, 24, said in a statement.
'It's something I've never experienced and probably only ever will once!'
She was in Hollywood last month to pick up the Golden Globe for the best original song prize for 'Skyfall'.
Adele's album '21' scored the rare feat in December of topping all U.S. album sales for the second straight year. She records on the indie record label XL.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; editing by Patricia Reaney)
The theme tune to the latest James Bond movie was written by Adele and Paul Epworth. It is the first Bond theme to be nominated for the original song award at the Oscars since 'For Your Eyes Only' in 1981.
The February 24 show will be Adele's first live performance since the Grammy Awards last April and the first time she will perform 'Skyfall' live, as she has kept a low profile since giving birth to a son last October.
'It's an honor to be nominated and terrifyingly wonderful to be singing in front of people who have captured my imagination over and over again,' Adele, 24, said in a statement.
'It's something I've never experienced and probably only ever will once!'
She was in Hollywood last month to pick up the Golden Globe for the best original song prize for 'Skyfall'.
Adele's album '21' scored the rare feat in December of topping all U.S. album sales for the second straight year. She records on the indie record label XL.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; editing by Patricia Reaney)
Shia LaBeouf's "Charlie Countryman" finds love in gritty Romania
Park City, Utah (Reuters) - Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood spin a twist on classic fairytales in their new film 'The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman,' a modern day love story that swaps castles in the sky for the underbelly of Romania's capital, Bucharest.
The film, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival this week, is a dark story of love unfolding between two unlikely people against the backdrop of a violent and crime-filled eastern European city.
Charlie (LaBeouf), an American, finds himself on a journey of self-discovery that takes him to Bucharest, where he meets the mysterious and captivating Gabi (Evan Rachel Wood), and puts his life on the line for love.
'Love is always the easiest answer, but somehow it's the hardest place to get for some people. I love the contrast of this world, which is filled with violence and hatred and crime, and above all there's love,' Wood said.
Director Fredrick Bond picked Bucharest because he was looking for a place that has not been captured in film prominently, and would compliment the complex nature of Charlie and Gabi's story.
'Charlie has to go through quite a tough journey and a very romantic journey, so I needed a city that had an edge,' he said.
Wood, 25, said the connection that Charlie and Gabi feel the moment they meet resonated with her because that is what she felt for her husband, actor Jamie Bell, when they first met at Sundance and started dating in 2005.
'It's almost this karmic connection, this kindred spirit, this soulmate of some sort, where he looks at her and he immediately falls in love. He's never said a word to her - that really happens. That's how I met my husband,' Wood said.
'We fell in love immediately, because it was almost meant to be, it was fate.'
FINDING TRUTH IN LOVE
'Charlie Countryman' is the feature film debut from Swedish director Bond, an award-winning creator of commercials. Bond said he was eager to work with LaBeouf and Wood, calling them the 'most talented young actors of their generation.'
'They have such a sense of truthfulness,' Bond said. 'It's a wild, crazy journey, I needed actors who could ground their performances ... Evan and Shia are about truth.'
LaBeouf, a former child star who became a box office staple as the lead in the 'Transformers' franchise, has been taking on grittier roles more recently, such as a bootlegger in gangster drama 'Lawless.'
The 26-year-old actor said he had been drawn to the role of Charlie when he read the script three years ago.
'It spoke honestly to me, it was really original. It had a Zsa Zsa Gabor narrative and it just read like 'The Graduate' with a bloody nose,' he said.
Wood, who shot to fame as the troubled young lead of teen drama 'Thirteen' in 2003, said she had wanted to work with LaBeouf for a long time.
For the role of Gabi, a complex Romanian cellist who has a penchant for bad boys, Wood had to perfect a Romanian accent without the help of a dialect coach, turning to her surroundings in Bucharest to draw inspirations.
'It's very stressful because you want to do it justice, and I wanted it to be spot-on because a lot of times, it can be very distracting. You can overdo the accent,' the actress said.
The film co-stars Mads Mikkelsen and Til Schweiger as Romanian mobsters, with British actors Rupert Grint, best known as Ron Weasley in the 'Harry Potter' movies, and James Buckley as Charlie's errant friends.
Bond said the biggest filming challenges were the action-packed fight scenes, especially because LaBeouf did his own stunts.
'Shia wants to do everything for real, so he takes hits for real ... which is fantastic, because it gives a reality to it, but you also have only so many takes, you have to be really well prepared to do it,' Bond said.
'Charlie Countryman' may defy the archetype of a traditional love story with its fierce characters in a harsh yet beautiful setting, but LaBeouf and Wood said they hoped audiences would take away messages of honesty in love from the film.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Mohammad Zargham)
The film, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival this week, is a dark story of love unfolding between two unlikely people against the backdrop of a violent and crime-filled eastern European city.
Charlie (LaBeouf), an American, finds himself on a journey of self-discovery that takes him to Bucharest, where he meets the mysterious and captivating Gabi (Evan Rachel Wood), and puts his life on the line for love.
'Love is always the easiest answer, but somehow it's the hardest place to get for some people. I love the contrast of this world, which is filled with violence and hatred and crime, and above all there's love,' Wood said.
Director Fredrick Bond picked Bucharest because he was looking for a place that has not been captured in film prominently, and would compliment the complex nature of Charlie and Gabi's story.
'Charlie has to go through quite a tough journey and a very romantic journey, so I needed a city that had an edge,' he said.
Wood, 25, said the connection that Charlie and Gabi feel the moment they meet resonated with her because that is what she felt for her husband, actor Jamie Bell, when they first met at Sundance and started dating in 2005.
'It's almost this karmic connection, this kindred spirit, this soulmate of some sort, where he looks at her and he immediately falls in love. He's never said a word to her - that really happens. That's how I met my husband,' Wood said.
'We fell in love immediately, because it was almost meant to be, it was fate.'
FINDING TRUTH IN LOVE
'Charlie Countryman' is the feature film debut from Swedish director Bond, an award-winning creator of commercials. Bond said he was eager to work with LaBeouf and Wood, calling them the 'most talented young actors of their generation.'
'They have such a sense of truthfulness,' Bond said. 'It's a wild, crazy journey, I needed actors who could ground their performances ... Evan and Shia are about truth.'
LaBeouf, a former child star who became a box office staple as the lead in the 'Transformers' franchise, has been taking on grittier roles more recently, such as a bootlegger in gangster drama 'Lawless.'
The 26-year-old actor said he had been drawn to the role of Charlie when he read the script three years ago.
'It spoke honestly to me, it was really original. It had a Zsa Zsa Gabor narrative and it just read like 'The Graduate' with a bloody nose,' he said.
Wood, who shot to fame as the troubled young lead of teen drama 'Thirteen' in 2003, said she had wanted to work with LaBeouf for a long time.
For the role of Gabi, a complex Romanian cellist who has a penchant for bad boys, Wood had to perfect a Romanian accent without the help of a dialect coach, turning to her surroundings in Bucharest to draw inspirations.
'It's very stressful because you want to do it justice, and I wanted it to be spot-on because a lot of times, it can be very distracting. You can overdo the accent,' the actress said.
The film co-stars Mads Mikkelsen and Til Schweiger as Romanian mobsters, with British actors Rupert Grint, best known as Ron Weasley in the 'Harry Potter' movies, and James Buckley as Charlie's errant friends.
Bond said the biggest filming challenges were the action-packed fight scenes, especially because LaBeouf did his own stunts.
'Shia wants to do everything for real, so he takes hits for real ... which is fantastic, because it gives a reality to it, but you also have only so many takes, you have to be really well prepared to do it,' Bond said.
'Charlie Countryman' may defy the archetype of a traditional love story with its fierce characters in a harsh yet beautiful setting, but LaBeouf and Wood said they hoped audiences would take away messages of honesty in love from the film.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Mohammad Zargham)
Actress Lake Bell finds her directorial voice "In A World"
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - In a world where men rule the voice-over industry, actress Lake Bell brings a tale of women versus men and old versus new in her directorial debut comedy.
'In A World,' which premiered at the Sundance Film festival this week, follows voice-over artist Carol (Bell) attempting to follow in the daunting footsteps of her father (Fred Melamed), a famous and respected voice who is struggling to stay relevant as new talent emerges.
Written and directed by Bell, 33, who is best known for supporting roles in movies such as 'No Strings Attached' and 'What Happens in Vegas,' 'In A World' is a quirky comedy with an unlikely heroine.
Bell talked to Reuters about the struggles of being in the voice-over world, her disdain for women with 'sexy baby' voices, and what her superhero power would be.
Q: What drew you to the voice-over world for your film?
A: 'I always envisioned that I was going to be one of the great voice-over artists. I thought I was going to kill it when I got to Hollywood. Since I was a kid, I loved accents, I collected them ... I would manipulate my voice to make people laugh all the time. I liked this idea of being a blind voice - you could be any ethnicity, you could be from any country, you could be any race. I thought it was so cool that you wouldn't be judged by who you are.'
Q: Your character, Carol, has to struggle with being a woman trying to break into the male-dominated world. Is that echoing the real-life industry?
A: 'I started getting into the idea of the omniscient voice, the people who announce and tell you what to buy or how you should think about things, they help form your opinions. These random people from the sky, they always were male, and I thought it was an interesting subject to attack because why aren't there any ladies? What are we, not omniscient? Are we not God?'
Q: How much of your own career struggles are reflected in Carol's story?
A: 'What's interesting about Carol's message is that she is a woman trying to find her voice, literally and also figuratively. As a filmmaker, I'm definitely embarking on this really beautiful journey of finding what my comedic voice is or what my filmic voice is.
'I'm lucky enough to have friends who took a chance on me and be in this film with me and respect me enough to let me direct them to do something different than maybe they've ever done before. There's definitely parallels in feeling like I'm finding my own voice.'
Q: Was this an autobiographical film for you?
A: 'It's not anymore. Draft one is autobiographical, but by draft 25, it's something else after so many rewrites, it takes on its own life. That's what's so cool about writing, you never know where it's going to lead. I often like to write when I'm acting in something else because then I can show up and be part of the machine and be around creative people, and then come home and go off into different worlds in my head.'
Q: What do you want people to take away from watching this?
A: 'I would hope in a fantasy world that the message is, people would somehow become aware of their own voice and respect it, because it's a privilege. Women are plagued by the 'sexy baby' vocal virus that is taken on, that is rampant in this nation. I just think that people should take themselves more seriously and give themselves a little more credit.'
Q: Do you have a dream role you'd like to play?
A: 'The dream role is that I'm a superhero. I want to be a superhero ... I want to have a superhero outfit because I like dressing up a lot. That would be fun.'
Q: What would your superhero power be?
A: 'Right now, it'd be quelling the 'sexy baby' (voices) of the world and extinguishing them.'
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant and Christopher Wilson)
'In A World,' which premiered at the Sundance Film festival this week, follows voice-over artist Carol (Bell) attempting to follow in the daunting footsteps of her father (Fred Melamed), a famous and respected voice who is struggling to stay relevant as new talent emerges.
Written and directed by Bell, 33, who is best known for supporting roles in movies such as 'No Strings Attached' and 'What Happens in Vegas,' 'In A World' is a quirky comedy with an unlikely heroine.
Bell talked to Reuters about the struggles of being in the voice-over world, her disdain for women with 'sexy baby' voices, and what her superhero power would be.
Q: What drew you to the voice-over world for your film?
A: 'I always envisioned that I was going to be one of the great voice-over artists. I thought I was going to kill it when I got to Hollywood. Since I was a kid, I loved accents, I collected them ... I would manipulate my voice to make people laugh all the time. I liked this idea of being a blind voice - you could be any ethnicity, you could be from any country, you could be any race. I thought it was so cool that you wouldn't be judged by who you are.'
Q: Your character, Carol, has to struggle with being a woman trying to break into the male-dominated world. Is that echoing the real-life industry?
A: 'I started getting into the idea of the omniscient voice, the people who announce and tell you what to buy or how you should think about things, they help form your opinions. These random people from the sky, they always were male, and I thought it was an interesting subject to attack because why aren't there any ladies? What are we, not omniscient? Are we not God?'
Q: How much of your own career struggles are reflected in Carol's story?
A: 'What's interesting about Carol's message is that she is a woman trying to find her voice, literally and also figuratively. As a filmmaker, I'm definitely embarking on this really beautiful journey of finding what my comedic voice is or what my filmic voice is.
'I'm lucky enough to have friends who took a chance on me and be in this film with me and respect me enough to let me direct them to do something different than maybe they've ever done before. There's definitely parallels in feeling like I'm finding my own voice.'
Q: Was this an autobiographical film for you?
A: 'It's not anymore. Draft one is autobiographical, but by draft 25, it's something else after so many rewrites, it takes on its own life. That's what's so cool about writing, you never know where it's going to lead. I often like to write when I'm acting in something else because then I can show up and be part of the machine and be around creative people, and then come home and go off into different worlds in my head.'
Q: What do you want people to take away from watching this?
A: 'I would hope in a fantasy world that the message is, people would somehow become aware of their own voice and respect it, because it's a privilege. Women are plagued by the 'sexy baby' vocal virus that is taken on, that is rampant in this nation. I just think that people should take themselves more seriously and give themselves a little more credit.'
Q: Do you have a dream role you'd like to play?
A: 'The dream role is that I'm a superhero. I want to be a superhero ... I want to have a superhero outfit because I like dressing up a lot. That would be fun.'
Q: What would your superhero power be?
A: 'Right now, it'd be quelling the 'sexy baby' (voices) of the world and extinguishing them.'
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant and Christopher Wilson)
Monday, January 21, 2013
Joseph Gordon-Levitt mines the humor in porn for "Don Jon"
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - After a remarkable run with leading roles in films such as 'The Dark Knight Rises' and 'Inception,' actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt stepped behind the camera to direct 'Don Jon's Addiction,' a raunchy comedy that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
'Don Jon's Addiction,' which Gordon-Levitt also wrote and stars in, leads a slate of films about sex on this year's Sundance roster.
The film follows the story of Jon, a handsome young man who is unable to maintain a relationship, due to his addiction to pornography.
When Jon meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), a beautiful but high-maintenance woman obsessed with Hollywood romantic comedies, and Esther (Julianne Moore), an emotionally fragile widow, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
Gordon-Levitt, 31, a former child star who has risen through the ranks of television and independent film to become one of Hollywood's most bankable actors, said he thought it would be 'hilarious' to pair a porn addict with a woman addicted to romance films.
'I wanted to tell a love story, and in my observations, what gets in the way of love most the time is how people objectify each other,' the actor told Reuters on Saturday.
While the story uses pornography as a device, Gordon-Levitt emphasized it was not meant as a commentary on porn addiction.
'I wasn't really focused on porn or porn addiction. It was really, to me, more of a metaphor,' he said. 'It is astonishing how prevalent it is in our culture today.'
Moore said the story reflected what is happening in modern society and culture.
'Both (characters) create expectations that people can't authentically meet in a relationship,' Moore said. 'We have so much of that in our lives right now in the world, with all the media influences, so people are growing up with this expectation that this is how you have a relationship.'
'Don Jon' and other festival films such as 'The Look of Love,' 'Lovelace,' 'kink' and 'Interior. Leather Bar,' explore the ways sex affects individuals and their ability to form relationships.
Actor Tony Danza, who worked with Gordon-Levitt in the 1994 film 'Angels in the Outfield' and plays his father in 'Don Jon,' said the film would spark conversation.
'It's just an uncomfortable subject, which lights everyone's fire,' Danza said. 'It exposes human nature, albeit with a sometimes uncomfortable subject. But he exposes a real slice of human nature, and it's really prevalent right now.'
MODERN DAY DON JUAN
Gordon-Levitt, who founded the HitRECord project that brings together an online community of creative artists, said he found inspiration for 'Don Jon's' humor on social media platforms.
'If you go on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and you look at the humor on there, you might call it smutty, you might call it raunchy, but there's also a sort of honesty to it,' he said.
Gordon-Levitt said he set out to shake up assumptions about porn addiction by playing his character 'Jon' against type. Instead of playing a socially awkward guy who turns to porn because he cannot connect with women, 'Jon' is a buff lothario. While he has plenty of female companions, Jon's porn addiction warps his views and expectations of women and sabotages his relationships.
Jon is portrayed as an Italian-American, but Gordon-Levitt said the 'archetype is beyond ethnicity.'
'I thought, 'who is the current-day Don Juan,' and the first thing I thought of was that guy with too much gel in his hair and a gym body ... I loved it instantly and thought it would be so funny to play that part.'
Gordon-Levitt said he hoped audiences come away from the film 'wanting to engage with each other.'
'I would hope people ... examine each other as unique individuals as opposed to items on a checklist, and I hope they have a great time and laugh,' he said. 'And I hope they go home and have transcendent sex.'
(Editing by Stacey Joyce)
'Don Jon's Addiction,' which Gordon-Levitt also wrote and stars in, leads a slate of films about sex on this year's Sundance roster.
The film follows the story of Jon, a handsome young man who is unable to maintain a relationship, due to his addiction to pornography.
When Jon meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), a beautiful but high-maintenance woman obsessed with Hollywood romantic comedies, and Esther (Julianne Moore), an emotionally fragile widow, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
Gordon-Levitt, 31, a former child star who has risen through the ranks of television and independent film to become one of Hollywood's most bankable actors, said he thought it would be 'hilarious' to pair a porn addict with a woman addicted to romance films.
'I wanted to tell a love story, and in my observations, what gets in the way of love most the time is how people objectify each other,' the actor told Reuters on Saturday.
While the story uses pornography as a device, Gordon-Levitt emphasized it was not meant as a commentary on porn addiction.
'I wasn't really focused on porn or porn addiction. It was really, to me, more of a metaphor,' he said. 'It is astonishing how prevalent it is in our culture today.'
Moore said the story reflected what is happening in modern society and culture.
'Both (characters) create expectations that people can't authentically meet in a relationship,' Moore said. 'We have so much of that in our lives right now in the world, with all the media influences, so people are growing up with this expectation that this is how you have a relationship.'
'Don Jon' and other festival films such as 'The Look of Love,' 'Lovelace,' 'kink' and 'Interior. Leather Bar,' explore the ways sex affects individuals and their ability to form relationships.
Actor Tony Danza, who worked with Gordon-Levitt in the 1994 film 'Angels in the Outfield' and plays his father in 'Don Jon,' said the film would spark conversation.
'It's just an uncomfortable subject, which lights everyone's fire,' Danza said. 'It exposes human nature, albeit with a sometimes uncomfortable subject. But he exposes a real slice of human nature, and it's really prevalent right now.'
MODERN DAY DON JUAN
Gordon-Levitt, who founded the HitRECord project that brings together an online community of creative artists, said he found inspiration for 'Don Jon's' humor on social media platforms.
'If you go on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and you look at the humor on there, you might call it smutty, you might call it raunchy, but there's also a sort of honesty to it,' he said.
Gordon-Levitt said he set out to shake up assumptions about porn addiction by playing his character 'Jon' against type. Instead of playing a socially awkward guy who turns to porn because he cannot connect with women, 'Jon' is a buff lothario. While he has plenty of female companions, Jon's porn addiction warps his views and expectations of women and sabotages his relationships.
Jon is portrayed as an Italian-American, but Gordon-Levitt said the 'archetype is beyond ethnicity.'
'I thought, 'who is the current-day Don Juan,' and the first thing I thought of was that guy with too much gel in his hair and a gym body ... I loved it instantly and thought it would be so funny to play that part.'
Gordon-Levitt said he hoped audiences come away from the film 'wanting to engage with each other.'
'I would hope people ... examine each other as unique individuals as opposed to items on a checklist, and I hope they have a great time and laugh,' he said. 'And I hope they go home and have transcendent sex.'
(Editing by Stacey Joyce)
Chastain horror film "Mama" takes big box office win
(Reuters) - Jessica Chastain overpowered Mark Wahlberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger and others as her low-budget horror flick emerged as the North American weekend box office champ and her Oscar-nominated 'Zero Dark Thirty' captured the second spot as well.
Chastain's supernatural thriller, 'Mama,' pulled in $28.1 million from Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to studio estimates, beating out a crop of new testosterone-fueled, male-targeted releases that finished far back in the pack.
'Zero Dark Thirty,' for which Chastain is a leading best actress Oscar contender, took in $17.6 million, while another late 2012 release and Oscar favorite, 'Silver Linings Playbook,' finished third with $11.35 million.
'Broken City,' a crime thriller starring Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, finished fifth with $9 million behind 'Gangster Squad's' $9.1 million, while Schwarzenegger's new action film, 'The Last Stand,' earned $6.3 million for a dismal 10th place.
'Mama' stars Chastain as a guitarist who doesn't want children but is forced to take care of two orphaned nieces who have been living in the woods. She and her husband try to re-adjust the little girls to normal life.
Based on a 2008 short film, the movie was produced for roughly $15 million.
'This is a great result, one we never would have expected especially for a film of this genre,' said Nikki Rocco, Universal's president for domestic distribution.
'The timing was perfect,' she said, noting 'the key was it's a PG-13 movie that appealed to the under-25 female audience.'
The studio said it was hopeful that as the only PG-13 film in release this month it would continue to find an audience.
Chastain is a best actress Oscar nominee for her role as a dogged CIA agent in 'Zero Dark Thirty,' the weekend's second-place film about the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden. The movie has taken in $55.9 million since late December.
'Silver Linings Playbook,' an Oscar-nominated romantic comedy about a former mental patient trying to rebuild his life, expanded nationwide for a strong third-place finish and a $55.3 million total since the movie starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence opened in late autumn.
Both Oscar contenders handily beat out a pair of new, male-oriented films, as did crime thriller 'Gangster Squad.'
'The Last Stand' features Schwarzenegger's return to a starring, big-screen role after a seven-year break while he was serving as governor of California, but managed only $6.3 million to finish 10th. The former 'Terminator' will star in three movies over the next 12 months.
Schwarzenegger plays a retired Los Angeles policeman who works to protect a tiny border town from a notorious drug kingpin. The film was produced for about $45 million.
The studio noted that the weekend was crowded with several movie-going choices, and that two films were competing for the same audience, referring to the weekend's other new movie, 'Broken City,' which stars Wahlberg as a former New York cop who uncovers a scandal involving the mayor, played by Russell Crowe.
The top 10 movies were rounded out by 'A Haunted House,' 'Django Unchained,' 'Les Miserables' and 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.'
'Zero Dark Thirty' was released by Sony Corp's movie studio.
'The Last Stand' was distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment.
'The Hobbit' and 'Gangster Squad' were released by Warner Bros, a unit of Time Warner Inc.
'A Haunted House' was released by Open Road Films, a joint venture between theater owners Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc.
'Django Unchained' and 'Silver Linings Playbook' were distributed by Weinstein Co.
'Broken City' was distributed by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.
'Les Miserables' and 'Mama' were distributed by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp.
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine and Chris Michaud; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Chastain's supernatural thriller, 'Mama,' pulled in $28.1 million from Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to studio estimates, beating out a crop of new testosterone-fueled, male-targeted releases that finished far back in the pack.
'Zero Dark Thirty,' for which Chastain is a leading best actress Oscar contender, took in $17.6 million, while another late 2012 release and Oscar favorite, 'Silver Linings Playbook,' finished third with $11.35 million.
'Broken City,' a crime thriller starring Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, finished fifth with $9 million behind 'Gangster Squad's' $9.1 million, while Schwarzenegger's new action film, 'The Last Stand,' earned $6.3 million for a dismal 10th place.
'Mama' stars Chastain as a guitarist who doesn't want children but is forced to take care of two orphaned nieces who have been living in the woods. She and her husband try to re-adjust the little girls to normal life.
Based on a 2008 short film, the movie was produced for roughly $15 million.
'This is a great result, one we never would have expected especially for a film of this genre,' said Nikki Rocco, Universal's president for domestic distribution.
'The timing was perfect,' she said, noting 'the key was it's a PG-13 movie that appealed to the under-25 female audience.'
The studio said it was hopeful that as the only PG-13 film in release this month it would continue to find an audience.
Chastain is a best actress Oscar nominee for her role as a dogged CIA agent in 'Zero Dark Thirty,' the weekend's second-place film about the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden. The movie has taken in $55.9 million since late December.
'Silver Linings Playbook,' an Oscar-nominated romantic comedy about a former mental patient trying to rebuild his life, expanded nationwide for a strong third-place finish and a $55.3 million total since the movie starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence opened in late autumn.
Both Oscar contenders handily beat out a pair of new, male-oriented films, as did crime thriller 'Gangster Squad.'
'The Last Stand' features Schwarzenegger's return to a starring, big-screen role after a seven-year break while he was serving as governor of California, but managed only $6.3 million to finish 10th. The former 'Terminator' will star in three movies over the next 12 months.
Schwarzenegger plays a retired Los Angeles policeman who works to protect a tiny border town from a notorious drug kingpin. The film was produced for about $45 million.
The studio noted that the weekend was crowded with several movie-going choices, and that two films were competing for the same audience, referring to the weekend's other new movie, 'Broken City,' which stars Wahlberg as a former New York cop who uncovers a scandal involving the mayor, played by Russell Crowe.
The top 10 movies were rounded out by 'A Haunted House,' 'Django Unchained,' 'Les Miserables' and 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.'
'Zero Dark Thirty' was released by Sony Corp's movie studio.
'The Last Stand' was distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment.
'The Hobbit' and 'Gangster Squad' were released by Warner Bros, a unit of Time Warner Inc.
'A Haunted House' was released by Open Road Films, a joint venture between theater owners Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc.
'Django Unchained' and 'Silver Linings Playbook' were distributed by Weinstein Co.
'Broken City' was distributed by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.
'Les Miserables' and 'Mama' were distributed by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp.
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine and Chris Michaud; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Sunday, January 20, 2013
"Django Unchained" producers order end to slavery action-figures
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The producers of Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained' on Friday ordered a halt to the production of action figures based on the Oscar-nominated slavery movie after criticism that they were offensive to African-Americans.
The eight-inch (20-cm) dolls, which were intended for people 17 and older, included gun-slinging freed slave Django, his wife and cruel, white plantation owner Candie.
'Django Unchained' has been attacked by some African-Americans for its portrayal of slavery and its violence. Despite the controversy, the film was nominated for five Oscars, including best picture.
Civil rights leader Al Sharpton's National Action Network was among the groups that criticized the action figures.
'Selling this doll is highly offensive to our ancestors and the African-American community,' K.W. Tulloss, president of the Los Angeles branch of National Action Network, told the New York Daily News.
'The movie is for adults, but these are action figures that appeal to children,' Tulloss told the paper. 'We don't want other individuals to utilize them for their entertainment, to make a mockery of slavery.'
The Weinstein Co, which produced 'Django Unchained,' said in a statement on Friday that in light of the reaction to the dolls it had ordered production to stop.
'We have tremendous respect for the audience and it was never our intent to offend anyone,' the company said.
The action figures were sold by the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, which could not be reached for comment on Friday.
The producers noted that action figures have been produced for all of Tarantino's past films, including his World War Two revenge fantasy 'Inglourious Basterds' in 2009.
'Django Unchained' stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio and has taken in some $130 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices since its release on December 25.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey and Alex Dobuzinskis Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Beech)
The eight-inch (20-cm) dolls, which were intended for people 17 and older, included gun-slinging freed slave Django, his wife and cruel, white plantation owner Candie.
'Django Unchained' has been attacked by some African-Americans for its portrayal of slavery and its violence. Despite the controversy, the film was nominated for five Oscars, including best picture.
Civil rights leader Al Sharpton's National Action Network was among the groups that criticized the action figures.
'Selling this doll is highly offensive to our ancestors and the African-American community,' K.W. Tulloss, president of the Los Angeles branch of National Action Network, told the New York Daily News.
'The movie is for adults, but these are action figures that appeal to children,' Tulloss told the paper. 'We don't want other individuals to utilize them for their entertainment, to make a mockery of slavery.'
The Weinstein Co, which produced 'Django Unchained,' said in a statement on Friday that in light of the reaction to the dolls it had ordered production to stop.
'We have tremendous respect for the audience and it was never our intent to offend anyone,' the company said.
The action figures were sold by the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, which could not be reached for comment on Friday.
The producers noted that action figures have been produced for all of Tarantino's past films, including his World War Two revenge fantasy 'Inglourious Basterds' in 2009.
'Django Unchained' stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio and has taken in some $130 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices since its release on December 25.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey and Alex Dobuzinskis Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Beech)
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Barbra Streisand to receive Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barbra Streisand will add the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award to her roster of honors, in recognition of her achievement as a director, writer, producer and film star, the group said on Friday.
Streisand, who shot to fame in the 1960s on Broadway and as a major recording star, will receive the honor at the 40th Annual Chaplin Award gala in New York on April 22 which will feature celebrity guests and a host of film and interview clips.
'The Board is very excited to have Barbra Streisand as the next recipient of The Chaplin Award,' Ann Tenenbaum, The Film Society of Lincoln Center's board chairman, said in a news release.
'She is an artist whose long career of incomparable achievements is most powerfully expressed by the fact that her acclaimed 'Yentl' was such a milestone film.'
The group cited Streisand as the first American woman artist to receive credit as writer, director, producer and star of a major feature film.
It also noted she is the only artist to receive an Academy Award, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America award, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards, France's Legion d'honneur and the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also the first female film director to receive a Kennedy Center honor.
'We welcome her to the list of masterful directors who have been prior recipients of the Chaplin Award Tribute,' added Tenenbaum, referring to luminaries such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese.
Stars ranging from Bette Davis and Elizabeth Taylor to last year's recipient, Catherine Deneuve, have received the award, which was renamed for its first recipient Charles Chaplin, who returned to the United States from exile to accept the commendation in 1972.
Streisand, 70, starred in such hits as 'The Way We Were' and 'Funny Girl,' for which she won an Oscar, and went on to direct films including 'The Prince of Tides' and 'The Mirror Has Two Faces.'
More recently she has returned to screen acting, in 'Meet the Fockers' with Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, and 'The Guilt Trip,' a Christmas 2012 release co-starring Seth Rogen.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Streisand, who shot to fame in the 1960s on Broadway and as a major recording star, will receive the honor at the 40th Annual Chaplin Award gala in New York on April 22 which will feature celebrity guests and a host of film and interview clips.
'The Board is very excited to have Barbra Streisand as the next recipient of The Chaplin Award,' Ann Tenenbaum, The Film Society of Lincoln Center's board chairman, said in a news release.
'She is an artist whose long career of incomparable achievements is most powerfully expressed by the fact that her acclaimed 'Yentl' was such a milestone film.'
The group cited Streisand as the first American woman artist to receive credit as writer, director, producer and star of a major feature film.
It also noted she is the only artist to receive an Academy Award, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America award, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards, France's Legion d'honneur and the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also the first female film director to receive a Kennedy Center honor.
'We welcome her to the list of masterful directors who have been prior recipients of the Chaplin Award Tribute,' added Tenenbaum, referring to luminaries such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese.
Stars ranging from Bette Davis and Elizabeth Taylor to last year's recipient, Catherine Deneuve, have received the award, which was renamed for its first recipient Charles Chaplin, who returned to the United States from exile to accept the commendation in 1972.
Streisand, 70, starred in such hits as 'The Way We Were' and 'Funny Girl,' for which she won an Oscar, and went on to direct films including 'The Prince of Tides' and 'The Mirror Has Two Faces.'
More recently she has returned to screen acting, in 'Meet the Fockers' with Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, and 'The Guilt Trip,' a Christmas 2012 release co-starring Seth Rogen.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Friday, January 18, 2013
Schwarzenegger takes a "Stand" in new film, with cue from Eastwood
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Arnold Schwarzenegger, taking inspiration from his idol, Clint Eastwood, returns to the big screen on Friday in the action film 'The Last Stand,' his first starring role since he took a seven-year break from moviemaking to serve as California governor.
In a departure from his typical superhuman roles, Schwarzenegger plays a retired Los Angeles policeman forced to protect a tiny border town from a notorious drug kingpin. The 65-year-old former bodybuilder looks every bit his age and admits in the film feeling 'old' as he takes a ribbing from some of his significantly younger deputies.
As he embarks on a movie comeback in which he will star in three films over the next 12 months, Schwarzenegger is embracing his age rather than trying to relive his glory days as an action star.
He is taking his cue from the 82-year-old Eastwood - the gun-toting former macho 'Dirty Harry' star who eased into more senior roles, winning plaudits for movies like last year's 'The Trouble with the Curve,' and 'Million Dollar Baby' in 2004, for which he was nominated for a best-actor Oscar and won for best director.
Schwarzenegger said he was inspired by Eastwood in the 1993 film 'In the Line of Fire,' where Eastwood's character, a Secret Service agent, is short of breath after running alongside the president's limousine.
'I thought that was so cool,' Schwarzenegger told Reuters TV recently. 'I remember how smart it was to acknowledge that because it took the curse off. No one was trying to say, 'Isn't he too old for this job?' That's what I tried to do in this film since (Eastwood) is a big idol of mine and I always like to learn from him.'
Schwarzenegger said he felt great physically, but that reality had set in. 'I'm not a 30-year-old action hero anymore,' he said. 'I'm now 65 years old, but I'm still doing action movies. I acknowledge that it's a different ballgame now. I'm an older guy.'
In 'Last Stand,' Schwarzenegger said he agreed to play the part of Sheriff Ray Owens because 'it was kind of a traditional Schwarzenegger action movie' with 'big blow-ups, a great story, good drama, fight scenes and action from the beginning to the end.'
Schwarzenegger began his transformation to an aging action star in the 2010 film 'The Expendables' and its 2012 sequel where he played an aging movie star in an ensemble cast that included Sylvester Stallone and other older stars.
'I was very pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction,' said Schwarzenegger, who was Republican governor of California from 2003 to 2011.
'I-DARE-YOU ATTITUDE'
Critics have mostly embraced Schwarzenegger's return with 'Last Stand,' despite the film's modest budget. Film critic Marshall Fine called it 'shamelessly entertaining,' while The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy wrote that Schwarzenegger 'still conveys the old self-confident, humorous I-dare-you attitude towards his adversaries.'
An older, wiser Schwarzenegger chose to play vintage roles in his other upcoming films as well. In September, he teams up again with Stallone in 'The Tomb,' where they play aging inmates who plot a prison escape. Next January, Schwarzenegger will star in 'Ten,' playing what the film's director, David Ayer, called 'a broken old drug warrior.'
In an interview with Reuters, Ayer said his No. 1 goal in working with Schwarzenegger was 'transformation.' The director said he studied every frame of Schwarzenegger's films, noting that most of the actor's filmography had 'a very specific tone, almost jocular in a sense, where it is not necessarily a psychologically realistic portrayal of a man or a character.'
'You look at all these performances, and the question is, have these characters been treated as something he can transform himself?' Ayer said. 'I probably asked him to do things he wasn't asked before. I knew I could take him someplace new. Some of these scenes required real, heavy lifting.'
In the end, Ayer believes moviegoers will be 'blindsided' by what they see of Schwarzenegger on screen.
Yet even as Schwarzenegger attempts to widen his range as an actor, he is not leaving behind the genre films that made him famous.
That means going back to some of his popular franchises of the past, including a new 'Conan the Barbarian' film that is expected to go into production later this year and a sequel to the 1988 action comedy 'Twins' to be called 'Triplets.'
'It's important I pick projects that the fans, that the audiences like to see,' he said.
He already has another big fan in his friend Stallone, who talked him into acting in the two 'Expendables' films.
'What is the definition of a star? Someone who people will wait three hours in the rain to see,' Stallone said. 'And people still have their umbrellas out for him.'
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
In a departure from his typical superhuman roles, Schwarzenegger plays a retired Los Angeles policeman forced to protect a tiny border town from a notorious drug kingpin. The 65-year-old former bodybuilder looks every bit his age and admits in the film feeling 'old' as he takes a ribbing from some of his significantly younger deputies.
As he embarks on a movie comeback in which he will star in three films over the next 12 months, Schwarzenegger is embracing his age rather than trying to relive his glory days as an action star.
He is taking his cue from the 82-year-old Eastwood - the gun-toting former macho 'Dirty Harry' star who eased into more senior roles, winning plaudits for movies like last year's 'The Trouble with the Curve,' and 'Million Dollar Baby' in 2004, for which he was nominated for a best-actor Oscar and won for best director.
Schwarzenegger said he was inspired by Eastwood in the 1993 film 'In the Line of Fire,' where Eastwood's character, a Secret Service agent, is short of breath after running alongside the president's limousine.
'I thought that was so cool,' Schwarzenegger told Reuters TV recently. 'I remember how smart it was to acknowledge that because it took the curse off. No one was trying to say, 'Isn't he too old for this job?' That's what I tried to do in this film since (Eastwood) is a big idol of mine and I always like to learn from him.'
Schwarzenegger said he felt great physically, but that reality had set in. 'I'm not a 30-year-old action hero anymore,' he said. 'I'm now 65 years old, but I'm still doing action movies. I acknowledge that it's a different ballgame now. I'm an older guy.'
In 'Last Stand,' Schwarzenegger said he agreed to play the part of Sheriff Ray Owens because 'it was kind of a traditional Schwarzenegger action movie' with 'big blow-ups, a great story, good drama, fight scenes and action from the beginning to the end.'
Schwarzenegger began his transformation to an aging action star in the 2010 film 'The Expendables' and its 2012 sequel where he played an aging movie star in an ensemble cast that included Sylvester Stallone and other older stars.
'I was very pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction,' said Schwarzenegger, who was Republican governor of California from 2003 to 2011.
'I-DARE-YOU ATTITUDE'
Critics have mostly embraced Schwarzenegger's return with 'Last Stand,' despite the film's modest budget. Film critic Marshall Fine called it 'shamelessly entertaining,' while The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy wrote that Schwarzenegger 'still conveys the old self-confident, humorous I-dare-you attitude towards his adversaries.'
An older, wiser Schwarzenegger chose to play vintage roles in his other upcoming films as well. In September, he teams up again with Stallone in 'The Tomb,' where they play aging inmates who plot a prison escape. Next January, Schwarzenegger will star in 'Ten,' playing what the film's director, David Ayer, called 'a broken old drug warrior.'
In an interview with Reuters, Ayer said his No. 1 goal in working with Schwarzenegger was 'transformation.' The director said he studied every frame of Schwarzenegger's films, noting that most of the actor's filmography had 'a very specific tone, almost jocular in a sense, where it is not necessarily a psychologically realistic portrayal of a man or a character.'
'You look at all these performances, and the question is, have these characters been treated as something he can transform himself?' Ayer said. 'I probably asked him to do things he wasn't asked before. I knew I could take him someplace new. Some of these scenes required real, heavy lifting.'
In the end, Ayer believes moviegoers will be 'blindsided' by what they see of Schwarzenegger on screen.
Yet even as Schwarzenegger attempts to widen his range as an actor, he is not leaving behind the genre films that made him famous.
That means going back to some of his popular franchises of the past, including a new 'Conan the Barbarian' film that is expected to go into production later this year and a sequel to the 1988 action comedy 'Twins' to be called 'Triplets.'
'It's important I pick projects that the fans, that the audiences like to see,' he said.
He already has another big fan in his friend Stallone, who talked him into acting in the two 'Expendables' films.
'What is the definition of a star? Someone who people will wait three hours in the rain to see,' Stallone said. 'And people still have their umbrellas out for him.'
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Eclectic opening for Sundance with films about Mideast, Chile, U.S. Southwest
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - The Sundance Film Festival opens Thursday with movies and documentaries from around the world, including a feature that examines the cultural divide between the Middle East and the United States.
The 10-day Sundance Film Festival, founded by actor-director Robert Redford and now in its 35th year, will showcase 119 films from 32 countries.
'May in the Summer,' the U.S. dramatic competition opener, comes from writer-director Cherien Dabis, who caught the eye of Sundance organizers in 2009 with her directorial debut 'Amreeka,' about a Palestinian family's experiences living in post 9/11 America.
Palestinian-American Dabis, 36, reverses the perspective on the Middle East, showing a Jordanian woman who has established a successful life in America but undergoes an identity crisis when she returns to her family in Jordan to plan her wedding.
'May in the Summer' will join U.S. documentary 'Twenty Feet from Stardom' about back-up singers, Chilean drama 'Crystal Fairy,' 'Who is Dayani Cristal,' about a mysterious corpse found in the Arizona desert, and five short films as part of the opening day roster at the world's leading independent film festival.
'We want the kind of films that will really set the tone for the rest of the festival. Those four films do that perfectly. They're very different in what they are, but they collectively represent what's going to be unfolding over the next days,' festival director John Cooper told Reuters.
OPENING UP TO THE WORLD
Festival organizers are making efforts this year to encourage more international stories and filmmakers to come to Sundance.
'They saw the value in the continuing changing world we live in and that even American stories are coming from all over the world,' Dabis said.
'The movie is a universal story that's set in the Middle East, and we all know the Middle East is a place where we all need to expand our perceptions of what life is like there,' she added.
Sundance founder Robert Redford said the festival was all about encouraging diversity in filmmaking.
'As long as we go forward and we adapt to change, we keep in touch with our original purpose which is simply to support and develop new voices to be seen and heard,' Redford told reporters at a news conference on Thursday.
In addition to the usual film competition and premiere categories, festival organizers have expanded their slate of edgier films and projects, including actor James Franco's sexually explicit films 'kink' and 'Interior. Leather Bar.'
There is also a thriving short film initiative, with more than 40 films showcased.
Outside of the films, Sundance has become a hot spot for the film industry to escape the hustle of Hollywood's awards season and relax in Sundance's more relaxed vibe.
Live music will feature prominently, with a spotlight on electronic dance music and four pop-up clubs featuring DJs such as Nero and Afrojack.
VIPs can take private snowboarding lessons or take part in the culinary event ChefDance, in a fusion of food and film.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)
The 10-day Sundance Film Festival, founded by actor-director Robert Redford and now in its 35th year, will showcase 119 films from 32 countries.
'May in the Summer,' the U.S. dramatic competition opener, comes from writer-director Cherien Dabis, who caught the eye of Sundance organizers in 2009 with her directorial debut 'Amreeka,' about a Palestinian family's experiences living in post 9/11 America.
Palestinian-American Dabis, 36, reverses the perspective on the Middle East, showing a Jordanian woman who has established a successful life in America but undergoes an identity crisis when she returns to her family in Jordan to plan her wedding.
'May in the Summer' will join U.S. documentary 'Twenty Feet from Stardom' about back-up singers, Chilean drama 'Crystal Fairy,' 'Who is Dayani Cristal,' about a mysterious corpse found in the Arizona desert, and five short films as part of the opening day roster at the world's leading independent film festival.
'We want the kind of films that will really set the tone for the rest of the festival. Those four films do that perfectly. They're very different in what they are, but they collectively represent what's going to be unfolding over the next days,' festival director John Cooper told Reuters.
OPENING UP TO THE WORLD
Festival organizers are making efforts this year to encourage more international stories and filmmakers to come to Sundance.
'They saw the value in the continuing changing world we live in and that even American stories are coming from all over the world,' Dabis said.
'The movie is a universal story that's set in the Middle East, and we all know the Middle East is a place where we all need to expand our perceptions of what life is like there,' she added.
Sundance founder Robert Redford said the festival was all about encouraging diversity in filmmaking.
'As long as we go forward and we adapt to change, we keep in touch with our original purpose which is simply to support and develop new voices to be seen and heard,' Redford told reporters at a news conference on Thursday.
In addition to the usual film competition and premiere categories, festival organizers have expanded their slate of edgier films and projects, including actor James Franco's sexually explicit films 'kink' and 'Interior. Leather Bar.'
There is also a thriving short film initiative, with more than 40 films showcased.
Outside of the films, Sundance has become a hot spot for the film industry to escape the hustle of Hollywood's awards season and relax in Sundance's more relaxed vibe.
Live music will feature prominently, with a spotlight on electronic dance music and four pop-up clubs featuring DJs such as Nero and Afrojack.
VIPs can take private snowboarding lessons or take part in the culinary event ChefDance, in a fusion of food and film.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)
Jodie Foster and the art of dropping acceptance-speech bombs
(Reuters) - As Jodie Foster proved at the Golden Globes on January 13, it's not the endless, tearful lists of boring thank-yous to producers, agents, directors and God that make headlines, it's those unexpected revelations, demonstrations and surprises. Here are a few of the bomb-dropping acceptance speeches that have entered into the annals of award season.
* 'She makes all things possible.' - Helen Reddy, 1973 Grammy Awards, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
'I Am Woman' won Helen Reddy a Grammy in 1973. And no one had any argument with that: She was wearing a dress and everything. It was her mention of God as 'She' that was controversial. People were fine with Helen being Woman. That she might out the Almighty as being one, too, was less popular.
* 'He . very regretfully cannot accept.' - Sacheen Littlefeather for Marlon Brando, 1973 Academy Awards, Best Actor
It wasn't so much something he said as it was sending someone else to say something. When Marlon Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather to reject his Oscar for 'The Godfather' on his behalf - armed with a 15-page speech about why he was refusing his award, as the actor found the giving out of awards inappropriate 'until the condition of the American Indian is drastically altered' - she managed to get in only 45 seconds before being escorted off the stage. The Academy has been wary of third-party statuette acceptance ever since.
* 'Zionist hoodlums.' - Vanessa Redgrave, 1978 Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actress
By the time Vanessa Redgrave picked up her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 'Julia,' there had already been protest at her nomination, given that she had funded a documentary on Palestine the same year. Her speech was impassioned and political, thanking the Academy for standing firm against a 'small bunch of Zionist hoodlums' who were at that moment burning an effigy of her outside the theater. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky then took the opportunity of his award presentation (for Best Screenplay) to decry all political speeches (forgetting to actually read out the nominees), leading the winner of that award to decry those who would deny speechmakers free speech. Phew. The '70s, eh?
* 'Any way they can.' - Oliver Stone, 1979 Golden Globe Awards, Best Screenplay
For Oliver Stone, the words 'thank you' couldn't cover his true feelings on accepting the Best Screenplay award for 'Midnight Express' at the 1979 Golden Globes. Not nearly so much as a diatribe about the shortcomings of U.S. drug policy and a demand that the government allow 'adults to pursue happiness in any way they can.' Stone's unconventional (and possibly misplaced) version of gratitude to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was going very well until security guards appeared onstage to chase him off the microphone.
* 'All 88 of you.' - Sally Kirkland, 1988 Golden Globes, Best Actress in a Drama
Very few have used the stage to proposition an entire awards body. But at the 1988 Globes, Sally Kirkland did it. 'This is to the Hollywood foreign press - all 88 of you - I'd like to take you home with me tonight,' she gushed, before espousing the earnest desire that acting would one day bring about world peace. History, meanwhile, does not record whether the HFPA took her up on her very generous offer.
* 'My high school drama teacher.' - Tom Hanks, 1994 Academy Award, Lead Actor
Tom Hanks was very magnanimous in dedicating his Oscar for 'Philadelphia' to a brilliant teacher he once had - who also happened to be gay. But maybe he could have checked whether said teacher was open about his sexuality with everyone he knew before announcing it to the world. Still, if he hadn't, the world would never have been blessed with the Kevin Kline comedy 'In & Out.' And where would we be then?
* 'Would you please come up here, sir?' - Ving Rhames, 1998 Golden Globe Awards, Best Actor in a Miniseries
In 1998, Ving Rhames used his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a miniseries for 'Don King' to reject his award and give it to reluctant fellow nominee Jack Lemmon instead - coming out as the nicest guy in Hollywood in the process.
* 'I'm the king of the world!' - James Cameron, 1998 Academy Awards, Best Director
James Cameron requested a moment of silence for the many hundreds of victims of the sinking of the Titanic before punching the air and declaring himself 'king of the world! Woooo hoo-hoo-hoo!' Sure, it's not the first time that someone has come out as a bit of a jerk live on air, but it may be the highest-rated time.
* 'He just held me and said he loved me.' - Angelina Jolie, 2000 Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actress
There's nothing wrong with loving your family. It's commendable and suitable to love one's sister, brother, whoever. What weirded people out at the 2000 Oscars, however, was Angelina Jolie coming out as being 'in love' with her brother. Given Jolie's propensity for kookiness and slight ickiness - wearing Billy Bob Thornton's blood on a necklace wasn't, strangely, a look that caught on in the fashion world - people were quick to take her at her word.
* 'Shame on you, Mr. Bush.' - Michael Moore, 2003 Academy Awards, Best Documentary
No one expected political documentary maker Michael Moore to make a non-political acceptance speech after winning the Oscar for 'Bowling for Columbine.' But Moore's rallying cry of 'Shame on you, Mr Bush, shame on you!' was more political than most people were comfortable with. It would have been a strong end to a speech, but, as some said, he didn't know when to stop, signing off with: 'And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up.' Which somewhat weakened his rhetoric.
* 'Imma let you finish.' - Kanye West, 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Best Female Video
Using your own acceptance speech to pay homage to a fellow artist is one thing (step forward, Ving Rhames). Using someone else's, meanwhile, is socially awkward, as Kanye West showed the world when he snatched the microphone out of Taylor Swift's hand during HER Grammy acceptance speech to announce it should have been given to Beyonce instead. A butt-clenchingly awkward moment, albeit one that gave birth to a fiercely hilarious meme that swept the world for months afterward..
* 'I guess I have a sudden urge to say something.' - Jodie Foster, 2013 Golden Globes, Lifetime Achievement Award
Did Jodie Foster use her Cecil B. DeMille Globes speech on Sunday to come out as gay or to come out as a celebrity who valued her private life? Despite the fact that she's spoken publicly about her sexuality as far back as 2007, the world's media declared the former - and took the excuse to talk about her private life publicly more than ever. So much for privacy.
(Editing by Kathy Jones and Douglas Royalty)
* 'She makes all things possible.' - Helen Reddy, 1973 Grammy Awards, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
'I Am Woman' won Helen Reddy a Grammy in 1973. And no one had any argument with that: She was wearing a dress and everything. It was her mention of God as 'She' that was controversial. People were fine with Helen being Woman. That she might out the Almighty as being one, too, was less popular.
* 'He . very regretfully cannot accept.' - Sacheen Littlefeather for Marlon Brando, 1973 Academy Awards, Best Actor
It wasn't so much something he said as it was sending someone else to say something. When Marlon Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather to reject his Oscar for 'The Godfather' on his behalf - armed with a 15-page speech about why he was refusing his award, as the actor found the giving out of awards inappropriate 'until the condition of the American Indian is drastically altered' - she managed to get in only 45 seconds before being escorted off the stage. The Academy has been wary of third-party statuette acceptance ever since.
* 'Zionist hoodlums.' - Vanessa Redgrave, 1978 Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actress
By the time Vanessa Redgrave picked up her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 'Julia,' there had already been protest at her nomination, given that she had funded a documentary on Palestine the same year. Her speech was impassioned and political, thanking the Academy for standing firm against a 'small bunch of Zionist hoodlums' who were at that moment burning an effigy of her outside the theater. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky then took the opportunity of his award presentation (for Best Screenplay) to decry all political speeches (forgetting to actually read out the nominees), leading the winner of that award to decry those who would deny speechmakers free speech. Phew. The '70s, eh?
* 'Any way they can.' - Oliver Stone, 1979 Golden Globe Awards, Best Screenplay
For Oliver Stone, the words 'thank you' couldn't cover his true feelings on accepting the Best Screenplay award for 'Midnight Express' at the 1979 Golden Globes. Not nearly so much as a diatribe about the shortcomings of U.S. drug policy and a demand that the government allow 'adults to pursue happiness in any way they can.' Stone's unconventional (and possibly misplaced) version of gratitude to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was going very well until security guards appeared onstage to chase him off the microphone.
* 'All 88 of you.' - Sally Kirkland, 1988 Golden Globes, Best Actress in a Drama
Very few have used the stage to proposition an entire awards body. But at the 1988 Globes, Sally Kirkland did it. 'This is to the Hollywood foreign press - all 88 of you - I'd like to take you home with me tonight,' she gushed, before espousing the earnest desire that acting would one day bring about world peace. History, meanwhile, does not record whether the HFPA took her up on her very generous offer.
* 'My high school drama teacher.' - Tom Hanks, 1994 Academy Award, Lead Actor
Tom Hanks was very magnanimous in dedicating his Oscar for 'Philadelphia' to a brilliant teacher he once had - who also happened to be gay. But maybe he could have checked whether said teacher was open about his sexuality with everyone he knew before announcing it to the world. Still, if he hadn't, the world would never have been blessed with the Kevin Kline comedy 'In & Out.' And where would we be then?
* 'Would you please come up here, sir?' - Ving Rhames, 1998 Golden Globe Awards, Best Actor in a Miniseries
In 1998, Ving Rhames used his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a miniseries for 'Don King' to reject his award and give it to reluctant fellow nominee Jack Lemmon instead - coming out as the nicest guy in Hollywood in the process.
* 'I'm the king of the world!' - James Cameron, 1998 Academy Awards, Best Director
James Cameron requested a moment of silence for the many hundreds of victims of the sinking of the Titanic before punching the air and declaring himself 'king of the world! Woooo hoo-hoo-hoo!' Sure, it's not the first time that someone has come out as a bit of a jerk live on air, but it may be the highest-rated time.
* 'He just held me and said he loved me.' - Angelina Jolie, 2000 Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actress
There's nothing wrong with loving your family. It's commendable and suitable to love one's sister, brother, whoever. What weirded people out at the 2000 Oscars, however, was Angelina Jolie coming out as being 'in love' with her brother. Given Jolie's propensity for kookiness and slight ickiness - wearing Billy Bob Thornton's blood on a necklace wasn't, strangely, a look that caught on in the fashion world - people were quick to take her at her word.
* 'Shame on you, Mr. Bush.' - Michael Moore, 2003 Academy Awards, Best Documentary
No one expected political documentary maker Michael Moore to make a non-political acceptance speech after winning the Oscar for 'Bowling for Columbine.' But Moore's rallying cry of 'Shame on you, Mr Bush, shame on you!' was more political than most people were comfortable with. It would have been a strong end to a speech, but, as some said, he didn't know when to stop, signing off with: 'And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up.' Which somewhat weakened his rhetoric.
* 'Imma let you finish.' - Kanye West, 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Best Female Video
Using your own acceptance speech to pay homage to a fellow artist is one thing (step forward, Ving Rhames). Using someone else's, meanwhile, is socially awkward, as Kanye West showed the world when he snatched the microphone out of Taylor Swift's hand during HER Grammy acceptance speech to announce it should have been given to Beyonce instead. A butt-clenchingly awkward moment, albeit one that gave birth to a fiercely hilarious meme that swept the world for months afterward..
* 'I guess I have a sudden urge to say something.' - Jodie Foster, 2013 Golden Globes, Lifetime Achievement Award
Did Jodie Foster use her Cecil B. DeMille Globes speech on Sunday to come out as gay or to come out as a celebrity who valued her private life? Despite the fact that she's spoken publicly about her sexuality as far back as 2007, the world's media declared the former - and took the excuse to talk about her private life publicly more than ever. So much for privacy.
(Editing by Kathy Jones and Douglas Royalty)
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Bigelow directs "Zero Dark Thirty" torture critics to Washington
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The director of Oscar-nominated thriller 'Zero Dark Thirty' on Wednesday defended the film's depiction of torture in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, saying criticism would better be directed at the U.S. officials who ordered such policies.
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Kathryn Bigelow said she personally opposed any use of torture, but said it was a part of the decade-long hunt for the al Qaeda leader that the film could not ignore.
'Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement,' Bigelow wrote of criticism of the movie's torture scenes from Washington politicians, the media and human rights groups.
'I do wonder if some of the sentiments alternately expressed about the film might be more appropriately directed at those who instituted and ordered these U.S. policies, as opposed to a motion picture that brings the story to the screen,' said Bigelow, who won two Oscars in 2010 for her Iraq war movie 'The Hurt Locker.'
'Zero Dark Thirty' was nominated last week for five Academy Awards in February, including best picture, screenplay and actress for Jessica Chastain.
But Bigelow was overlooked in the directing category in a snub that many Hollywood awards watchers attributed to weeks of negative publicity over the film.
A group of senators in December chided distributor Sony Pictures in a letter, calling the film 'grossly inaccurate and misleading' for suggesting torture helped the United States capture bin Laden in May 2011.
Actor David Clennon, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that selects Oscar winners, has urged fellow members not vote for the movie, accusing it of promoting torture.
However, in its first week of nationwide release, the movie topped the North American box office on Sunday, taking in $24 million.
Bigelow said her personal belief was that 'Osama bin Laden was found due to ingenious detective work. Torture was, however, as we all know, employed in the early years of the hunt. That doesn't mean it was the key to finding bin Laden. It means it is a part of the story we couldn't ignore. War, obviously, isn't pretty, and we were not interested in portraying this military action as free of moral consequences.'
'Bin Laden wasn't defeated by superheroes zooming down from the sky; he was defeated by ordinary Americans who fought bravely even as they sometimes crossed moral lines, who labored greatly and intently, who gave all of themselves in both victory and defeat, in life and in death, for the defense of this nation,' she concluded.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
This news article is brought to you by FOREX NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Kathryn Bigelow said she personally opposed any use of torture, but said it was a part of the decade-long hunt for the al Qaeda leader that the film could not ignore.
'Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement,' Bigelow wrote of criticism of the movie's torture scenes from Washington politicians, the media and human rights groups.
'I do wonder if some of the sentiments alternately expressed about the film might be more appropriately directed at those who instituted and ordered these U.S. policies, as opposed to a motion picture that brings the story to the screen,' said Bigelow, who won two Oscars in 2010 for her Iraq war movie 'The Hurt Locker.'
'Zero Dark Thirty' was nominated last week for five Academy Awards in February, including best picture, screenplay and actress for Jessica Chastain.
But Bigelow was overlooked in the directing category in a snub that many Hollywood awards watchers attributed to weeks of negative publicity over the film.
A group of senators in December chided distributor Sony Pictures in a letter, calling the film 'grossly inaccurate and misleading' for suggesting torture helped the United States capture bin Laden in May 2011.
Actor David Clennon, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that selects Oscar winners, has urged fellow members not vote for the movie, accusing it of promoting torture.
However, in its first week of nationwide release, the movie topped the North American box office on Sunday, taking in $24 million.
Bigelow said her personal belief was that 'Osama bin Laden was found due to ingenious detective work. Torture was, however, as we all know, employed in the early years of the hunt. That doesn't mean it was the key to finding bin Laden. It means it is a part of the story we couldn't ignore. War, obviously, isn't pretty, and we were not interested in portraying this military action as free of moral consequences.'
'Bin Laden wasn't defeated by superheroes zooming down from the sky; he was defeated by ordinary Americans who fought bravely even as they sometimes crossed moral lines, who labored greatly and intently, who gave all of themselves in both victory and defeat, in life and in death, for the defense of this nation,' she concluded.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
This news article is brought to you by FOREX NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
"Star Wars" Galactic Empire criticizes the White House over Death Star decision
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The White House's refusal to seriously consider building a Death Star is making our nation look weaker in the eyes of one of our greatest (but fortunately, fictional) enemies - the Galactic Empire.
Emperor Palpatine's regime from the 'Star Wars' universe has weighed in on the issue sparked by over 25,000 U.S. signatures petitioning President Barack Obama's administration to begin building the massive space station - capable of destroying entire planets with one laser beam blast - by 2016.
A press release from the Dark Side, published on the Star Wars Blog on Tuesday, concludes that the U.S. government's decision to pursue other, more peaceful space projects only confirms 'the overwhelming military superiority of the Galactic Empire.'
And even if the U.S. did consider constructing a weapon as powerful as the Death Star, the Galactic Empire questioned whether Earthlings possessed enough responsibility to handle it.
'It is doubtless that such a technological terror in the hands of so primitive a world would be used to upset the peace and sanctity of the citizens of the Galactic Empire,' Governor Wilhuff Tarkin of the Outer Rim Territories said in a statement. 'Such destructive power can only be wielded to protect and defend by so enlightened a leader as Emperor Palpatine.'
According to an Imperial Starfleet official, the $850,000,000,000,000,000 cost cited in the White House's tongue-in-cheek response to the Death Star petition is completely inaccurate.
'The costs of construction they cited were ridiculously overestimated,' added Admiral Conan Motti of the Imperial Starfleet. 'Though I suppose we must keep in mind that this miniscule planet does not have our massive means of production.'
So while the space station equivalent to the Death Star is a long way off, the White House was eager to remind concerned American citizens that a probe to explore the exterior layers of the Sun is being built, along with a powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.
This news article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
Emperor Palpatine's regime from the 'Star Wars' universe has weighed in on the issue sparked by over 25,000 U.S. signatures petitioning President Barack Obama's administration to begin building the massive space station - capable of destroying entire planets with one laser beam blast - by 2016.
A press release from the Dark Side, published on the Star Wars Blog on Tuesday, concludes that the U.S. government's decision to pursue other, more peaceful space projects only confirms 'the overwhelming military superiority of the Galactic Empire.'
And even if the U.S. did consider constructing a weapon as powerful as the Death Star, the Galactic Empire questioned whether Earthlings possessed enough responsibility to handle it.
'It is doubtless that such a technological terror in the hands of so primitive a world would be used to upset the peace and sanctity of the citizens of the Galactic Empire,' Governor Wilhuff Tarkin of the Outer Rim Territories said in a statement. 'Such destructive power can only be wielded to protect and defend by so enlightened a leader as Emperor Palpatine.'
According to an Imperial Starfleet official, the $850,000,000,000,000,000 cost cited in the White House's tongue-in-cheek response to the Death Star petition is completely inaccurate.
'The costs of construction they cited were ridiculously overestimated,' added Admiral Conan Motti of the Imperial Starfleet. 'Though I suppose we must keep in mind that this miniscule planet does not have our massive means of production.'
So while the space station equivalent to the Death Star is a long way off, the White House was eager to remind concerned American citizens that a probe to explore the exterior layers of the Sun is being built, along with a powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.
This news article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Americans favor "Lincoln" for top Oscars: poll
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Director Ben Affleck and 'Argo' may have been the big winners at the Golden Globes, but many Americans think Steven Spielberg and 'Lincoln' should take home the top Oscars at next month's awards.
Nearly a quarter of Americans questioned in an Ipsos poll for Reuters thought the Civil War drama 'Lincoln' should win the Oscar for best picture at the 85th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on February 24. Spielberg was also their top choice for best director, with 36 percent choosing him.
Only 4 percent of Americans thought 'Argo,' which depicts the rescue of American diplomats in Iran in the 1970s, should win the Academy Award for best picture.
The poll results have little if any implication for who will ultimately win the Oscars, which are voted on by movie industry professionals.
The Golden Globes are sometimes looked to for hints on the eventual Oscar victors, the biggest prizes in the film industry, as many Globe winners have gone on to Oscars success. But Affleck is not even in the running for best director after he was snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which announced its nominations last week.
Americans chose Daniel Day-Lewis as their clear favorite to follow up his Golden Globe win for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln with a best actor Oscar.
Twenty-two percent chose him over Denzel Washington in 'Flight,' who polled 16 percent while Hugh Jackman, who won a Golden Globe for his role in the musical 'Les Miserables' was third.
But the choice for best actress was less clear cut. Twelve percent of the 1,158 Americans polled voted for Naomi Watts as the distraught mother in the tsunami drama 'The Impossible,' followed by 10 percent for Jennifer Lawrence in 'Silver Linings Playbook' and 9 percent for Jessica Chastain in the search for Osama Bin Laden thriller, 'Zero Dark Thirty.'
Lawrence won the Golden Globe on Sunday for best actress in a comedy or musical, while Chastain took home the prize for best actress in a drama.
'Lincoln' was also the top choice in the poll for the supporting categories, with Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field favorites for their performances in the film.
Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who won praise for their first stint hosting the Golden Globes, will be a hard act to follow but 42 percent of Americans approved of the choice of outspoken comedian and creator of 'Family Guy' Seth MacFarlane to helm the Academy Awards.
If given the opportunity to select the host for the Oscars, 15 of people said they would opt for comedian Billy Crystal, followed by 12 percent who chose Ellen DeGeneres while 10 percent wanted Steve Martin.
To view the full poll results go to http://link.reuters.com/deh35t
The poll, which was conducted online from January 11-15, has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; editing by Cynthia Osterman)
This article is sponsored by Travel to France.
Nearly a quarter of Americans questioned in an Ipsos poll for Reuters thought the Civil War drama 'Lincoln' should win the Oscar for best picture at the 85th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on February 24. Spielberg was also their top choice for best director, with 36 percent choosing him.
Only 4 percent of Americans thought 'Argo,' which depicts the rescue of American diplomats in Iran in the 1970s, should win the Academy Award for best picture.
The poll results have little if any implication for who will ultimately win the Oscars, which are voted on by movie industry professionals.
The Golden Globes are sometimes looked to for hints on the eventual Oscar victors, the biggest prizes in the film industry, as many Globe winners have gone on to Oscars success. But Affleck is not even in the running for best director after he was snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which announced its nominations last week.
Americans chose Daniel Day-Lewis as their clear favorite to follow up his Golden Globe win for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln with a best actor Oscar.
Twenty-two percent chose him over Denzel Washington in 'Flight,' who polled 16 percent while Hugh Jackman, who won a Golden Globe for his role in the musical 'Les Miserables' was third.
But the choice for best actress was less clear cut. Twelve percent of the 1,158 Americans polled voted for Naomi Watts as the distraught mother in the tsunami drama 'The Impossible,' followed by 10 percent for Jennifer Lawrence in 'Silver Linings Playbook' and 9 percent for Jessica Chastain in the search for Osama Bin Laden thriller, 'Zero Dark Thirty.'
Lawrence won the Golden Globe on Sunday for best actress in a comedy or musical, while Chastain took home the prize for best actress in a drama.
'Lincoln' was also the top choice in the poll for the supporting categories, with Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field favorites for their performances in the film.
Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who won praise for their first stint hosting the Golden Globes, will be a hard act to follow but 42 percent of Americans approved of the choice of outspoken comedian and creator of 'Family Guy' Seth MacFarlane to helm the Academy Awards.
If given the opportunity to select the host for the Oscars, 15 of people said they would opt for comedian Billy Crystal, followed by 12 percent who chose Ellen DeGeneres while 10 percent wanted Steve Martin.
To view the full poll results go to http://link.reuters.com/deh35t
The poll, which was conducted online from January 11-15, has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; editing by Cynthia Osterman)
This article is sponsored by Travel to France.
Jodie Foster Kicks Open the Closet Door - What It Means for Gays in Hollywood
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Jodie Foster spoke frankly about her life as a lesbian Sunday night in a Golden Globes speech that thrust her into the center of the gay rights debate whether she likes it or not.
By deciding to address the subject of her sexuality in a spectacularly public setting, while also articulating a defense of personal privacy, she upended the casual way that other gay movie and music stars have been revealing their orientation in recent years.
They chose to nudge the closet door ajar by dropping the 'g' word in interviews - like 'The Big Bang Theory' star Jim Parsons - or by tweeting pictures of their significant others lounging on a couch, as 'Kyle XY' actor Matt Dallas did last week.
But Foster made coming out a big deal again, shattering her glass closet, while never actually saying the words, 'I'm gay.'
'When she decided to address her sexuality last night, however indirectly she did it, she was talking about gay rights at a critical moment,' Dustin Lance Black, the openly gay screenwriter behind 'Milk,' said. 'There is a case in that will be in front of the Supreme Court soon that will decide if gay and lesbian people will be allowed to marry. By coming out she sends a message to the country that we are everyone and everywhere. We're your friends, your neighbors and we're the people who have been entertaining you for the last 47 years.'
The speech itself was fascinating, because it was raw, but also grudging. Some gay activists have long agitated for Foster to speak frankly about being a lesbian and at various points, her speech seemed to be a challenge to any group who would seek to exploit her celebrity for its own ends. My life belongs to me, she seemed to be saying.
'I hope you're not disappointed that there won't be a big coming-out speech tonight because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age, in those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers and then gradually, proudly to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met,' Foster said, as her two sons, Charles, 14, and Kit, 12, looked on from the audience. 'But now I'm told, apparently that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a prime-time reality show.'
Foster turned 50 last November and her discomfort with addressing her orientation may have been entangled in a different era in which being openly gay was a barrier that prevented actors and actresses from getting A-list roles. Over the past half century, acceptance of gays and lesbians has accelerated dramatically.
In a Pew survey conducted last October, 49 percent of respondents favored gay marriage, up from 39 percent four years earlier.
This greater tolerance has left stars like Foster and to a lesser extent people like CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who acknowledged that he was gay last summer after years of internet speculation, in an awkward position.
'It catches people like Jodie Foster in a bind,' said Larry Gross, the author of 'Contested Closets: The Politics and Ethics of Outing' who is also vice dean at USC's Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. 'What happens to them is at a certain point the culture moved past them and they find themselves standing out there in a semi-opaque glass closet. Everybody in the world knew that she was gay and it was becoming an embarrassment.'
Foster tried to explain her hesitancy while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille career achievement award Sunday by saying that it was related to issues of personal privacy. She noted that she has been in the spotlight for half a century, but also implied that she was uncomfortable with the tabloid coverage of celebrities and their obsession to open their private lives to scrutiny in everything from prime time interviews to personal Twitter streams.
'If you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you'd had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe you too might value privacy above all else,' she said. 'Privacy. Some day, in the future, people will look back and remember how beautiful it once was.'
For the most part, the reaction among prominent members of the gay community has been positive, but there are some who insinuate that the relative safety in which Foster chose to address the issue had been fought and paid for by earlier generations of gay performers who opened up about their homosexuality at a time when their professional lives could have been snuffed out.
Wilson Cruz, the openly gay star of the 1990s drama 'My So Called Life' and now a strategic giving officer at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said he was heartened by Foster's remarks, but also conscious of her place in the history of the gay rights movement.
'I applaud anybody who opens up like that in a way that will effect million of people's lives for the better,' he said. 'One thing I did take umbrage with for personal reasons, is that I like to remember people who came out before it was safe. People like Harvey Fierstein, Ian McKellen and John Gielgud who risked their careers and their lives to do so.'
To that end, activists and public relations experts say that they do not anticipate Foster will be riding the main float at Gay Pride festivals anytime soon. Instead, they expect that after Sunday's air-clearing, the actress will remain fiercely protective of her privacy - something she had done since John W. Hinckley Jr. said that he had tried to assassinate former President Ronald Reagan to impress her while she was still a college student.
'I don't expect her to be the cover girl for gay and lesbian causes,' Howard Bragman, vice chairman of Reputation.com, and a publicist who has helped over a dozen actors with their coming out announcements, said. 'She may show up to a few events, but I don't think she will be that involved, and that's fine.'
Bragman said that on the scale of coming out announcements, Foster's ranked as a 'duh.' Though she had never been explicit about her orientation, she hadn't pretended to be a heterosexual. In fact, she had thanked her former partner Cydney Bernard as far back as 2007 at the Women in Entertainment Breakfast.
An industry awards gathering, though, is not the same thing as coming out on national television to an audience of 14.8 million viewers. Reaction to Foster's statements erupted almost immediately on Twitter and on other social media sites, with some griping about her decision to couple her speech about her 'modern family' with a plea for privacy.
To Bil Browning, a gay activist and the editor-in-chief of The Bilerico Project, that misses the point. Given Foster's iconic roles in films like 'The Silence of the Lambs,' not to mention her long-standing refusal to address the gay rumors, she had no choice but to command a global platform when the time came for her big reveal.
'Jodie Foster is somebody the gay community has always wanted to be an icon and she came out in a big way and now some people still aren't satisfied,' Browning said. 'Would they have been satisfied if she had just posted a picture of her girlfriend on Instagram? Given her status, I don't think she would ever have been allowed to just come out casually.'
Gay activists and chroniclers of the movement say that the 'coming out' process that has so bedeviled public figures like Foster may soon be an anachronism. As younger actors step into the spotlight, they will do so having grown up in a society that allows gays to serve openly in the military and is weighing the legality of permitting them to marry. The novelty of simply saying, 'I'm gay,' could soon seem quaint.
'We're on the verge of crossing or erasing what was an uncrossable line,' Gross said. 'There's a younger generation of actors, who have been out all their lives and can't imagine the enforced rigmarole of going on fake dates and ducking questions about their sexuality, who are coming on the stage. Like the Berlin Wall, the barrier is crumbling in front of our eyes.'
Or as Foster herself said in her Golden Globes speech last night, 'Change, you gotta love it.'
This news article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE 201 - where latest news are our top priority.
By deciding to address the subject of her sexuality in a spectacularly public setting, while also articulating a defense of personal privacy, she upended the casual way that other gay movie and music stars have been revealing their orientation in recent years.
They chose to nudge the closet door ajar by dropping the 'g' word in interviews - like 'The Big Bang Theory' star Jim Parsons - or by tweeting pictures of their significant others lounging on a couch, as 'Kyle XY' actor Matt Dallas did last week.
But Foster made coming out a big deal again, shattering her glass closet, while never actually saying the words, 'I'm gay.'
'When she decided to address her sexuality last night, however indirectly she did it, she was talking about gay rights at a critical moment,' Dustin Lance Black, the openly gay screenwriter behind 'Milk,' said. 'There is a case in that will be in front of the Supreme Court soon that will decide if gay and lesbian people will be allowed to marry. By coming out she sends a message to the country that we are everyone and everywhere. We're your friends, your neighbors and we're the people who have been entertaining you for the last 47 years.'
The speech itself was fascinating, because it was raw, but also grudging. Some gay activists have long agitated for Foster to speak frankly about being a lesbian and at various points, her speech seemed to be a challenge to any group who would seek to exploit her celebrity for its own ends. My life belongs to me, she seemed to be saying.
'I hope you're not disappointed that there won't be a big coming-out speech tonight because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age, in those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers and then gradually, proudly to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met,' Foster said, as her two sons, Charles, 14, and Kit, 12, looked on from the audience. 'But now I'm told, apparently that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a prime-time reality show.'
Foster turned 50 last November and her discomfort with addressing her orientation may have been entangled in a different era in which being openly gay was a barrier that prevented actors and actresses from getting A-list roles. Over the past half century, acceptance of gays and lesbians has accelerated dramatically.
In a Pew survey conducted last October, 49 percent of respondents favored gay marriage, up from 39 percent four years earlier.
This greater tolerance has left stars like Foster and to a lesser extent people like CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who acknowledged that he was gay last summer after years of internet speculation, in an awkward position.
'It catches people like Jodie Foster in a bind,' said Larry Gross, the author of 'Contested Closets: The Politics and Ethics of Outing' who is also vice dean at USC's Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. 'What happens to them is at a certain point the culture moved past them and they find themselves standing out there in a semi-opaque glass closet. Everybody in the world knew that she was gay and it was becoming an embarrassment.'
Foster tried to explain her hesitancy while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille career achievement award Sunday by saying that it was related to issues of personal privacy. She noted that she has been in the spotlight for half a century, but also implied that she was uncomfortable with the tabloid coverage of celebrities and their obsession to open their private lives to scrutiny in everything from prime time interviews to personal Twitter streams.
'If you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you'd had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe you too might value privacy above all else,' she said. 'Privacy. Some day, in the future, people will look back and remember how beautiful it once was.'
For the most part, the reaction among prominent members of the gay community has been positive, but there are some who insinuate that the relative safety in which Foster chose to address the issue had been fought and paid for by earlier generations of gay performers who opened up about their homosexuality at a time when their professional lives could have been snuffed out.
Wilson Cruz, the openly gay star of the 1990s drama 'My So Called Life' and now a strategic giving officer at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said he was heartened by Foster's remarks, but also conscious of her place in the history of the gay rights movement.
'I applaud anybody who opens up like that in a way that will effect million of people's lives for the better,' he said. 'One thing I did take umbrage with for personal reasons, is that I like to remember people who came out before it was safe. People like Harvey Fierstein, Ian McKellen and John Gielgud who risked their careers and their lives to do so.'
To that end, activists and public relations experts say that they do not anticipate Foster will be riding the main float at Gay Pride festivals anytime soon. Instead, they expect that after Sunday's air-clearing, the actress will remain fiercely protective of her privacy - something she had done since John W. Hinckley Jr. said that he had tried to assassinate former President Ronald Reagan to impress her while she was still a college student.
'I don't expect her to be the cover girl for gay and lesbian causes,' Howard Bragman, vice chairman of Reputation.com, and a publicist who has helped over a dozen actors with their coming out announcements, said. 'She may show up to a few events, but I don't think she will be that involved, and that's fine.'
Bragman said that on the scale of coming out announcements, Foster's ranked as a 'duh.' Though she had never been explicit about her orientation, she hadn't pretended to be a heterosexual. In fact, she had thanked her former partner Cydney Bernard as far back as 2007 at the Women in Entertainment Breakfast.
An industry awards gathering, though, is not the same thing as coming out on national television to an audience of 14.8 million viewers. Reaction to Foster's statements erupted almost immediately on Twitter and on other social media sites, with some griping about her decision to couple her speech about her 'modern family' with a plea for privacy.
To Bil Browning, a gay activist and the editor-in-chief of The Bilerico Project, that misses the point. Given Foster's iconic roles in films like 'The Silence of the Lambs,' not to mention her long-standing refusal to address the gay rumors, she had no choice but to command a global platform when the time came for her big reveal.
'Jodie Foster is somebody the gay community has always wanted to be an icon and she came out in a big way and now some people still aren't satisfied,' Browning said. 'Would they have been satisfied if she had just posted a picture of her girlfriend on Instagram? Given her status, I don't think she would ever have been allowed to just come out casually.'
Gay activists and chroniclers of the movement say that the 'coming out' process that has so bedeviled public figures like Foster may soon be an anachronism. As younger actors step into the spotlight, they will do so having grown up in a society that allows gays to serve openly in the military and is weighing the legality of permitting them to marry. The novelty of simply saying, 'I'm gay,' could soon seem quaint.
'We're on the verge of crossing or erasing what was an uncrossable line,' Gross said. 'There's a younger generation of actors, who have been out all their lives and can't imagine the enforced rigmarole of going on fake dates and ducking questions about their sexuality, who are coming on the stage. Like the Berlin Wall, the barrier is crumbling in front of our eyes.'
Or as Foster herself said in her Golden Globes speech last night, 'Change, you gotta love it.'
This news article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE 201 - where latest news are our top priority.
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