LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - 'The Avengers' flexed its muscles overseas, opening at No. 1 in all 39 markets and rolling up $178 million a week ahead of its U.S. debut.
Joss Whedon's superhero spectacular earned a whopping $24.7 million in the U.K., Disney's best three-day weekend ever there.
It also took in $19.7 million from Australia, a record $15.9 million from Mexico and another $12.9 million from Korea. In addition to Mexico, 'The Avengers' opening was the biggest ever in Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, New Zealand and the Philippines.
The numbers are even more impressive for the Marvel-Disney collaboration, considering the film won't open in China and Russia until next week, when it opens in the U.S. It will play in Japan in August.
Another movie that is banking on a major foreign boost before launching in the U.S., Universal's 'Battleship,' continues to steam along. It took $22.5 million from 50 locales over the weekend, raising its overseas gross to $170 million, according to Rentrak. It opens on May 18 in the U.S.
'Titanic,' meanwhile, rang up another $20.4 million from 71 territories, raising its foreign overall gross to $317 million.
Elsewhere, Sony's 'Pirates! The Band of Misfits' opened to $1.1 million in Russia. It has grossed $63.6 million so far in 49 markets.
This article is brought to you by MATCH.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Peter Jackson responds to "Hobbit" preview fallout
LOS ANGELES,(TheWrap.com) - Peter Jackson responded to criticism of his preview of 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' at CinemaCon this week, saying that audiences will eventually 'settle into' the hyper-realistic look of the film shot at a higher frame rate.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director acknowledged that some did not care for the look of the film at the rate of 48 frames per second, rather than the standard 24.
'I can't say anything, just like I can't say anything to someone who doesn't like fish,' he said. 'You can't explain why fish tastes great and why they should enjoy it.'
'A couple of the more negative commenters from CinemaCon said that in the Gollum and Bilbo scene they didn't mind it and got used to that,' Jackson said. 'That was the same 48 frames the rest of the reel was. I just wonder if it they were getting into the dialogue, the characters and the story. That's what happens in the movie. You settle into it.'
A New Line executive told TheWrap that there had been debate at the studio about whether or not to screen the high frame rate footage in its unfinished form, but Jackson had pushed for the preview and prevailed. The individual said that any problems will likely be fixed once the color is corrected and the special effects are finalized.
Jackson opted to shoot the prequel to his 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy at 48 frames per second rather than the standard 24 frames, because he claims it will improve the film's 3D imagery and better immerse audiences in the action.
But the 10-minute extended look at the fantasy was easily the most divisive event at the exhibitor trade show, with many theater owners and members of the media complaining that the effect was similar to a telenovela or a filmed stage play.
An individual close to Jackson told TheWrap that the director has taken note of the criticism and acknowledges that the technology needs work.
This individual noted that the landscapes were effective, particularly an opening aerial shot of a mountain range, but agreed that the problems seemed to arise whenever an actor appeared.
The higher definition may reduce the blurriness associated with 3D imagery, but it has the added effect of heightening actors' facial blemishes and robbing the film of its painterly quality.
Both individuals were confident that the technical problems will be smoothed out before 'The Hobbit' premieres on December 14. The film will also be available at the standard rate of 24 frames per second.
Though the reaction to the technology was mixed, the film itself got strong buzz. As TheWrap noted, the scenes that screened at CinemaCon showed Jackson firmly in command of his storytelling powers.
An encounter between Bilbo Baggins and Gollum, in which the hobbit has to answer riddles in exchange for his life, was both chilling and absorbing.
Jackson told the magazine that the blowback was not going to prevent filmmakers from experimenting with higher frame rates.
'Nobody is going to stop,' he said. 'This technology is going to keep evolving.'
If his intention was to get theater owners on his side, that might be more problematic. Though most of the major chains will likely update their projectors so they can screen the film at 48 frames, smaller exhibitors may balk at the added expense.
One theater owner told TheWrap that he was unimpressed by the high frame rate footage and unsure if it was worth the investment.
He noted that he had already made a substantial investment to convert his theaters from film to digital in recent years, spending roughly $150,000 per screen. He said that he estimated updating his projectors would cost $8,000 apiece.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director acknowledged that some did not care for the look of the film at the rate of 48 frames per second, rather than the standard 24.
'I can't say anything, just like I can't say anything to someone who doesn't like fish,' he said. 'You can't explain why fish tastes great and why they should enjoy it.'
'A couple of the more negative commenters from CinemaCon said that in the Gollum and Bilbo scene they didn't mind it and got used to that,' Jackson said. 'That was the same 48 frames the rest of the reel was. I just wonder if it they were getting into the dialogue, the characters and the story. That's what happens in the movie. You settle into it.'
A New Line executive told TheWrap that there had been debate at the studio about whether or not to screen the high frame rate footage in its unfinished form, but Jackson had pushed for the preview and prevailed. The individual said that any problems will likely be fixed once the color is corrected and the special effects are finalized.
Jackson opted to shoot the prequel to his 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy at 48 frames per second rather than the standard 24 frames, because he claims it will improve the film's 3D imagery and better immerse audiences in the action.
But the 10-minute extended look at the fantasy was easily the most divisive event at the exhibitor trade show, with many theater owners and members of the media complaining that the effect was similar to a telenovela or a filmed stage play.
An individual close to Jackson told TheWrap that the director has taken note of the criticism and acknowledges that the technology needs work.
This individual noted that the landscapes were effective, particularly an opening aerial shot of a mountain range, but agreed that the problems seemed to arise whenever an actor appeared.
The higher definition may reduce the blurriness associated with 3D imagery, but it has the added effect of heightening actors' facial blemishes and robbing the film of its painterly quality.
Both individuals were confident that the technical problems will be smoothed out before 'The Hobbit' premieres on December 14. The film will also be available at the standard rate of 24 frames per second.
Though the reaction to the technology was mixed, the film itself got strong buzz. As TheWrap noted, the scenes that screened at CinemaCon showed Jackson firmly in command of his storytelling powers.
An encounter between Bilbo Baggins and Gollum, in which the hobbit has to answer riddles in exchange for his life, was both chilling and absorbing.
Jackson told the magazine that the blowback was not going to prevent filmmakers from experimenting with higher frame rates.
'Nobody is going to stop,' he said. 'This technology is going to keep evolving.'
If his intention was to get theater owners on his side, that might be more problematic. Though most of the major chains will likely update their projectors so they can screen the film at 48 frames, smaller exhibitors may balk at the added expense.
One theater owner told TheWrap that he was unimpressed by the high frame rate footage and unsure if it was worth the investment.
He noted that he had already made a substantial investment to convert his theaters from film to digital in recent years, spending roughly $150,000 per screen. He said that he estimated updating his projectors would cost $8,000 apiece.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
"Man" leads domestic movies, "Avengers" big abroad
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Romantic comedy 'Think Like a Man' easily beat four new films to win the U.S. and Canadian box office race for a second time while superhero movie 'The Avengers' stormed into overseas theaters with record-breaking sales.
'Think Like a Man' led domestic charts with an $18.0 million total from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters on Sunday. New movies including adult comedy 'The Five-Year Engagement' didn't come close, each grabbing about $11 million or less.
Big-budget, effects-filled 'Avengers' hauled in a massive $178.4 million since Wednesday from theaters in 39 international markets, Walt Disney Co said. The 3D film from Disney's Marvel studio set opening-weekend records in 12 territories including Mexico and Brazil and opening-day records in four countries.
'Avengers' reaches North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters on Friday to kick off the summer movie season. Box office forecasters predict super-sized sales that will rival this year's record set by teen death match drama 'The Hunger Games,' a blockbuster that debuted in March with $152.5 million domestically.
Anticipation for 'Avengers' likely kept many filmgoers home from multiplexes this weekend, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office division of Hollywood.com. Overall ticket sales slumped 30 percent from the same weekend last year.
'It just seemed like audiences are saving their time and money for next weekend' and the 'Avengers' debut, he said.
'Think Like a Man' brought its 10-day sales to $60.9 million. The movie features an ensemble cast and is based on a best-selling relationship guide by comedian Steve Harvey.
Among the newcomers, animated family film 'The Pirates! Band of Misfits' performed best with $11.4 million and second place. The film cost about $55 million to make. Total sales overseas, where the movie has been playing since late March, rang up at $75.1 million through Sunday.
Close behind in third place, love story 'The Lucky One' took in $11.32 million domestically during its second weekend in theaters.
Action movie 'The Hunger Games' slipped to fourth with $11.25 million. Worldwide sales to date reached $601 million, distributor Lions Gate Entertainment Corp said.
'Five-Year Engagement' opened at a disappointing No. 5 with $11.2 million, slightly below projections by Universal Pictures for the low-teens. The movie stars Jason Segel and Emily Blunt as a couple whose walk down the aisle runs into repeated interruptions. Audiences had a lukewarm reception, grading the movie a 'B-minus' in polling by survey firm CinemaScore.
Universal and privately held Relativity Media produced 'Five-Year Engagement' for about $30 million. 'A reasonably priced film that slightly underperforms is not the worst thing in world,' said Nikki Rocco, Universal's president of distribution.
New thriller 'Safe' secured $7.7 million and the No. 6 slot. The movie stars Jason Statham as a former elite agent who takes on a mission to rescue a kidnapped girl. Another new thriller, 'The Raven' starring John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe, landed in seventh place with $7.3 million.
Sony Corp's film studio distributed 'Think Like a Man' and 'Pirates! Band of Misfits.' Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. studio released 'The Lucky One.' 'The Five-Year Engagement' was distributed by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp released 'Hunger Games' and 'Safe.' Privately held Relativity Media released 'The Raven' in the United States, and Alliance Films distributed the movie in Canada.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Bill Trott and Eric Walsh)
'Think Like a Man' led domestic charts with an $18.0 million total from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters on Sunday. New movies including adult comedy 'The Five-Year Engagement' didn't come close, each grabbing about $11 million or less.
Big-budget, effects-filled 'Avengers' hauled in a massive $178.4 million since Wednesday from theaters in 39 international markets, Walt Disney Co said. The 3D film from Disney's Marvel studio set opening-weekend records in 12 territories including Mexico and Brazil and opening-day records in four countries.
'Avengers' reaches North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters on Friday to kick off the summer movie season. Box office forecasters predict super-sized sales that will rival this year's record set by teen death match drama 'The Hunger Games,' a blockbuster that debuted in March with $152.5 million domestically.
Anticipation for 'Avengers' likely kept many filmgoers home from multiplexes this weekend, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office division of Hollywood.com. Overall ticket sales slumped 30 percent from the same weekend last year.
'It just seemed like audiences are saving their time and money for next weekend' and the 'Avengers' debut, he said.
'Think Like a Man' brought its 10-day sales to $60.9 million. The movie features an ensemble cast and is based on a best-selling relationship guide by comedian Steve Harvey.
Among the newcomers, animated family film 'The Pirates! Band of Misfits' performed best with $11.4 million and second place. The film cost about $55 million to make. Total sales overseas, where the movie has been playing since late March, rang up at $75.1 million through Sunday.
Close behind in third place, love story 'The Lucky One' took in $11.32 million domestically during its second weekend in theaters.
Action movie 'The Hunger Games' slipped to fourth with $11.25 million. Worldwide sales to date reached $601 million, distributor Lions Gate Entertainment Corp said.
'Five-Year Engagement' opened at a disappointing No. 5 with $11.2 million, slightly below projections by Universal Pictures for the low-teens. The movie stars Jason Segel and Emily Blunt as a couple whose walk down the aisle runs into repeated interruptions. Audiences had a lukewarm reception, grading the movie a 'B-minus' in polling by survey firm CinemaScore.
Universal and privately held Relativity Media produced 'Five-Year Engagement' for about $30 million. 'A reasonably priced film that slightly underperforms is not the worst thing in world,' said Nikki Rocco, Universal's president of distribution.
New thriller 'Safe' secured $7.7 million and the No. 6 slot. The movie stars Jason Statham as a former elite agent who takes on a mission to rescue a kidnapped girl. Another new thriller, 'The Raven' starring John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe, landed in seventh place with $7.3 million.
Sony Corp's film studio distributed 'Think Like a Man' and 'Pirates! Band of Misfits.' Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. studio released 'The Lucky One.' 'The Five-Year Engagement' was distributed by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp released 'Hunger Games' and 'Safe.' Privately held Relativity Media released 'The Raven' in the United States, and Alliance Films distributed the movie in Canada.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Bill Trott and Eric Walsh)
Friday, April 27, 2012
Pot-smoking teddy bear a hit at CinemaCon
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Universal brought Snow White, Bourne and a battleship to CinemaCon on Thursday in the hopes of astonishing theater owners, but all it really needed to pack was a pot-smoking teddy bear.
With a reported budget of $65 million, Seth MacFarlane's 'Ted' was made for a fraction of what it cost to blow up half the Navy in 'Battleship,' but the resounding laughter that greeted the extended footage indicates the studio might have a huge R-rated hit on its hands.
The film centers on a boy whose Christmas wish comes true after his teddy bear comes to life. But that dream turns more nightmarish when the pair grows up.
Universal highlighted the stuffed bear, played by McFarlane in a motion-capture suit, hanging out with prostitutes, taking hits from a bong and humping a cash register - all activities that would be pretty foreign to, say, Winnie the Pooh.
Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis star along with MacFarlane. The reaction was so enthusiastic that Adam Fogelson, Universal Pictures chairman who was emceeing the event, probably did not mind when he found himself the target of MacFarlane's raunchy zingers.
'You have the boyish charm of Rick Santorum,' MacFarlane told Fogelson.
Later, MacFarlane dared the studio chief to expose himself. Fogelson opted to keep his appendage in trou.
Universal also screened footage of 'Snow White and the Huntsman,' bringing out stars Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron to preview an extended trailer that has the title character leading a band of knights and dwarves to battle against the wicked queen.
The film is a spectacular epic, directed by a first-time talent, Rupert Sanders, who spun a world of mythical creatures, an imperiously evil Theron and a dark look that is miles removed from the rococo Snow White picture from Relativity, 'Mirror, Mirror.'
The studio also gave exhibitors a look at 'Battleship,' which hits these shores on May 18, but has already debuted in many foreign territories. It has grossed north of $150 million, so something must work, but it just seemed to pummel convention-goers into submission with its pyrotechnics and jingoism.
More interesting were 'The Savages,' a dark thriller that Fogelson said would return director Oliver Stone to the ultra-violent territory he covered in his script for 'Scarface' and 'Natural Born Killers.' The movie, which centers on two pot dealers whose mutual girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel, looks to ride the knife's edge. Salma Hayek plays a drug lord, while John Travolta plays a crooked D.E.A. agent.
Travolta came on stage and said he had never worked with '...such decent people doing such awful things.' As for the Bourne franchise, Fogelson said that after Matt Damon passed on a fourth installment, the studio wanted to open up the paranoid world of the thrillers without recasting the lead.
He said that Universal had decided to let Bourne swim off into the Hudson, his memory restored, 'for now,' holding out the possibility that Damon could be in for a big payday down the road.
'The Bourne Legacy' sees Jeremy Renner taking over as another super-assassin on the run from the government. Based on the early footage, he is equally adept at turning from prey to predator and single-handedly tearing through an intelligence agency.
Looking farther ahead, Universal also previewed glimpses of its winter and spring slate, including footage from the 'This is 40,' which centers on the 'Knocked Up' characters played by Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd; 'Les Misérables' with Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman flexing their singing voices; and the 3D martial arts adventure '47 Ronin.'
With a reported budget of $65 million, Seth MacFarlane's 'Ted' was made for a fraction of what it cost to blow up half the Navy in 'Battleship,' but the resounding laughter that greeted the extended footage indicates the studio might have a huge R-rated hit on its hands.
The film centers on a boy whose Christmas wish comes true after his teddy bear comes to life. But that dream turns more nightmarish when the pair grows up.
Universal highlighted the stuffed bear, played by McFarlane in a motion-capture suit, hanging out with prostitutes, taking hits from a bong and humping a cash register - all activities that would be pretty foreign to, say, Winnie the Pooh.
Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis star along with MacFarlane. The reaction was so enthusiastic that Adam Fogelson, Universal Pictures chairman who was emceeing the event, probably did not mind when he found himself the target of MacFarlane's raunchy zingers.
'You have the boyish charm of Rick Santorum,' MacFarlane told Fogelson.
Later, MacFarlane dared the studio chief to expose himself. Fogelson opted to keep his appendage in trou.
Universal also screened footage of 'Snow White and the Huntsman,' bringing out stars Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron to preview an extended trailer that has the title character leading a band of knights and dwarves to battle against the wicked queen.
The film is a spectacular epic, directed by a first-time talent, Rupert Sanders, who spun a world of mythical creatures, an imperiously evil Theron and a dark look that is miles removed from the rococo Snow White picture from Relativity, 'Mirror, Mirror.'
The studio also gave exhibitors a look at 'Battleship,' which hits these shores on May 18, but has already debuted in many foreign territories. It has grossed north of $150 million, so something must work, but it just seemed to pummel convention-goers into submission with its pyrotechnics and jingoism.
More interesting were 'The Savages,' a dark thriller that Fogelson said would return director Oliver Stone to the ultra-violent territory he covered in his script for 'Scarface' and 'Natural Born Killers.' The movie, which centers on two pot dealers whose mutual girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel, looks to ride the knife's edge. Salma Hayek plays a drug lord, while John Travolta plays a crooked D.E.A. agent.
Travolta came on stage and said he had never worked with '...such decent people doing such awful things.' As for the Bourne franchise, Fogelson said that after Matt Damon passed on a fourth installment, the studio wanted to open up the paranoid world of the thrillers without recasting the lead.
He said that Universal had decided to let Bourne swim off into the Hudson, his memory restored, 'for now,' holding out the possibility that Damon could be in for a big payday down the road.
'The Bourne Legacy' sees Jeremy Renner taking over as another super-assassin on the run from the government. Based on the early footage, he is equally adept at turning from prey to predator and single-handedly tearing through an intelligence agency.
Looking farther ahead, Universal also previewed glimpses of its winter and spring slate, including footage from the 'This is 40,' which centers on the 'Knocked Up' characters played by Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd; 'Les Misérables' with Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman flexing their singing voices; and the 3D martial arts adventure '47 Ronin.'
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Missing Cuban actor, "War Witch" win Tribeca awards
NEW YORK (Reuters) - 'War Witch,' a sensitive drama about a 12-year-old girl abducted by vicious armed rebels in sub-Saharan Africa, and a nonfiction film that examines the plight of women in modern India won the top awards at the Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday.
'War Witch' picked up the jury prize for best narrative feature and best actress for Rachel Mwanza who plays the girl forced to become a child soldier, while 'The World Before Her' that parallels women in the Miss India beauty pageant and a fundamentalist Hindu girls camp won best documentary.
But in a continuing strange saga of life imitating art at Tribeca, a Cuban actor starring in a film about defecting to the United States, who went missing in real life while en route to the festival, shared the top acting award.
Actor Javier Nunez Florian, who was last seen at Miami's airport and disappeared along with his female costar Anailin de la Rua de la Torre from the film 'Una Noche', did not show up to split his $2,500 award.
He shared the top acting honor with his male costar Dariel Arrechada, who did turn up on the red carpet toward the end of the awards and was the only actor present at the film's premiere a week ago. Representatives for the film said this week no one from the film has had any contact with the missing Cubans.
'Una Noche,' (One Night), which follows the journey of three Cuban teenagers trying to escape the poverty of their homeland to start a new life in Miami, also picked up the best cinematography award and best new narrative director for New York University film school graduate Lucy Mulloy.
After winning her award, Mulloy, a London-born 32-year-old who shot the low-budget film in Havana and was inspired by a tale she heard on a trip to the island nation 10 years ago, told Reuters she wished the missing actors could have been there.
'It would have been a great experience for them,' she said. 'I haven't heard from them. I just hope they are well and they are healthy.'
Argentinean film 'All In', a romantic comedy written and directed by Daniel Burman about a professional poker player, won best narrative screenplay, while best editing went to unusual Holocaust documentary 'The Flat' from Israel.
The award for best new documentary director went to Dutch filmmaker Jeroen van Velzen for 'Wavumba,' a film set in Kenya that explores fishermen lore, while 'The Revisionaries,' which spotlights the politicizing of children's textbooks in Texas won a special mention from the Tribeca jury.
The majority of winning films reflected Tribeca's greater emphasis this year on showing films set in foreign lands. More than half of the films in the narrative feature category were international productions.
But the strange tale of 'Una Noche' provided the biggest drama of the festival that began as a way to revive downtown Manhattan after the September 11 attacks.
Asked whether the winning prize money might lure her missing actors, Mulloy said, 'possibly, we'll see, I hope so'.
She added: 'Honestly, it's all happened so quickly ... it's a shock.'
(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
'War Witch' picked up the jury prize for best narrative feature and best actress for Rachel Mwanza who plays the girl forced to become a child soldier, while 'The World Before Her' that parallels women in the Miss India beauty pageant and a fundamentalist Hindu girls camp won best documentary.
But in a continuing strange saga of life imitating art at Tribeca, a Cuban actor starring in a film about defecting to the United States, who went missing in real life while en route to the festival, shared the top acting award.
Actor Javier Nunez Florian, who was last seen at Miami's airport and disappeared along with his female costar Anailin de la Rua de la Torre from the film 'Una Noche', did not show up to split his $2,500 award.
He shared the top acting honor with his male costar Dariel Arrechada, who did turn up on the red carpet toward the end of the awards and was the only actor present at the film's premiere a week ago. Representatives for the film said this week no one from the film has had any contact with the missing Cubans.
'Una Noche,' (One Night), which follows the journey of three Cuban teenagers trying to escape the poverty of their homeland to start a new life in Miami, also picked up the best cinematography award and best new narrative director for New York University film school graduate Lucy Mulloy.
After winning her award, Mulloy, a London-born 32-year-old who shot the low-budget film in Havana and was inspired by a tale she heard on a trip to the island nation 10 years ago, told Reuters she wished the missing actors could have been there.
'It would have been a great experience for them,' she said. 'I haven't heard from them. I just hope they are well and they are healthy.'
Argentinean film 'All In', a romantic comedy written and directed by Daniel Burman about a professional poker player, won best narrative screenplay, while best editing went to unusual Holocaust documentary 'The Flat' from Israel.
The award for best new documentary director went to Dutch filmmaker Jeroen van Velzen for 'Wavumba,' a film set in Kenya that explores fishermen lore, while 'The Revisionaries,' which spotlights the politicizing of children's textbooks in Texas won a special mention from the Tribeca jury.
The majority of winning films reflected Tribeca's greater emphasis this year on showing films set in foreign lands. More than half of the films in the narrative feature category were international productions.
But the strange tale of 'Una Noche' provided the biggest drama of the festival that began as a way to revive downtown Manhattan after the September 11 attacks.
Asked whether the winning prize money might lure her missing actors, Mulloy said, 'possibly, we'll see, I hope so'.
She added: 'Honestly, it's all happened so quickly ... it's a shock.'
(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Strong women take center stage in Tribeca foreign films
NEW YORK (Reuters) - As women increasingly press for greater equality in countries around the world, filmmakers are breaking barriers too, making their female protagonists as strong and varied as the characters they meet in everyday life.
New York's Tribeca Film Festival, which draws to a close this weekend, has shown its spotlight on several foreign-made movies that feature strong women roles, from the Israeli military drama 'Room 514' to Mexican border thriller 'The Girl.'
'In Israeli films, I found that women's parts are always prostitutes or some secondhand old woman nobody wants. I said, 'What's going on?,' Sharon Bar-Ziv, director of 'Room 514' told Reuters. 'This is not reality. We have F-16 pilots who are young women. In the Supreme Court and everywhere, women are strong.'
He said that simple fact of life made him want to create a female protagonist that was more in line with reality.
'Room 514' has drawn comparisons to 1992 Hollywood drama 'A Few Good Men,' which starred Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore and told of U.S. marines accused of murder and the attorney who defended them.
Yet the focus of 'Room 514' is on a lone woman, Anna. She is a military investigator who takes the case of a celebrated soldier accused of brutality against a Palestinian civilian, and she relentlessly digs for the truth despite attempts by her male colleagues to thwart her efforts.
'She's brave, she's strong, determined, independent ... In a mainly male area - an army male area - she's moving forward with her loyalty to her morals,' Bar-Ziv said.
U.S.-Mexican border drama 'The Girl' follows Ashley (Abbie Cornish), a single mother who loses her son and becomes involved in trafficking illegal immigrants to raise money and get him back. In the process, she finds herself responsible for a young Mexican girl, leading Ashley to fend off alcoholism and re-learn the importance of motherhood.
The approach toward his protagonist taken by director David Riker, whose previous work includes 'La Ciudad,' is more subtle than Bar-Ziv but nonetheless effective in depicting a woman who takes control of her life during a time of crisis.
'The metaphor I use is that she's in quicksand,' he told Reuters TV. 'Everything she does to try and get out just sends her deeper into the kind of train wreck of her life. And Abbie, over the course of the film, has to come out of that, and she does it in the most subtle, nuanced ways.'
The depiction of strong women is not confined only to tough or gritty films. It also shows up in British manners comedy 'Cheerful Weather for the Wedding,' which features an ensemble of female characters ranging from a bride who disregards her guests to look inward, to her mother who confidently doesn't mince words with guests she perceives as interfering.
A frank younger sister crosses class lines for a stealthy fling, an elderly aunt trades playful barbs with her husband and a best friend advises the bride's ex-lover. They round out a cast of characters who refuse to fade into the background.
'There was a big range of female characters,' director Donald Rice told Reuters. 'There's six or seven really good female roles and that's unusual.'
Based on a 1932 novel of the same name by Bloomsbury writer Julia Strachey, 'Cheerful Weather for the Wedding' takes place in an English country house and sees bride-to-be Dolly (Felicity Jones) swigging rum as she reminisces about her summer romance with ex-lover Joseph.
Elizabeth McGovern, currently starring in TV hit 'Downton Abbey,' plays Dolly's mother in the movie, and she said she took the role because it reflected her own experience.
'(She) is allowed to speak for herself and what she feels, in a way that isn't always perfectly motherly,' said McGovern. 'So much of the time, the mother character in movies and TV is painted into the background, and there's an immediate assumption she's not a character with desires or much interest.'
'Since I'm a mother, I have a different feeling about it,' she said. 'Just because I'm a mother doesn't mean that the rest of me has died and gone to sleep.'
(Reporting by Andrea Burzynski; additional reporting by Reuters Television; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
New York's Tribeca Film Festival, which draws to a close this weekend, has shown its spotlight on several foreign-made movies that feature strong women roles, from the Israeli military drama 'Room 514' to Mexican border thriller 'The Girl.'
'In Israeli films, I found that women's parts are always prostitutes or some secondhand old woman nobody wants. I said, 'What's going on?,' Sharon Bar-Ziv, director of 'Room 514' told Reuters. 'This is not reality. We have F-16 pilots who are young women. In the Supreme Court and everywhere, women are strong.'
He said that simple fact of life made him want to create a female protagonist that was more in line with reality.
'Room 514' has drawn comparisons to 1992 Hollywood drama 'A Few Good Men,' which starred Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore and told of U.S. marines accused of murder and the attorney who defended them.
Yet the focus of 'Room 514' is on a lone woman, Anna. She is a military investigator who takes the case of a celebrated soldier accused of brutality against a Palestinian civilian, and she relentlessly digs for the truth despite attempts by her male colleagues to thwart her efforts.
'She's brave, she's strong, determined, independent ... In a mainly male area - an army male area - she's moving forward with her loyalty to her morals,' Bar-Ziv said.
U.S.-Mexican border drama 'The Girl' follows Ashley (Abbie Cornish), a single mother who loses her son and becomes involved in trafficking illegal immigrants to raise money and get him back. In the process, she finds herself responsible for a young Mexican girl, leading Ashley to fend off alcoholism and re-learn the importance of motherhood.
The approach toward his protagonist taken by director David Riker, whose previous work includes 'La Ciudad,' is more subtle than Bar-Ziv but nonetheless effective in depicting a woman who takes control of her life during a time of crisis.
'The metaphor I use is that she's in quicksand,' he told Reuters TV. 'Everything she does to try and get out just sends her deeper into the kind of train wreck of her life. And Abbie, over the course of the film, has to come out of that, and she does it in the most subtle, nuanced ways.'
The depiction of strong women is not confined only to tough or gritty films. It also shows up in British manners comedy 'Cheerful Weather for the Wedding,' which features an ensemble of female characters ranging from a bride who disregards her guests to look inward, to her mother who confidently doesn't mince words with guests she perceives as interfering.
A frank younger sister crosses class lines for a stealthy fling, an elderly aunt trades playful barbs with her husband and a best friend advises the bride's ex-lover. They round out a cast of characters who refuse to fade into the background.
'There was a big range of female characters,' director Donald Rice told Reuters. 'There's six or seven really good female roles and that's unusual.'
Based on a 1932 novel of the same name by Bloomsbury writer Julia Strachey, 'Cheerful Weather for the Wedding' takes place in an English country house and sees bride-to-be Dolly (Felicity Jones) swigging rum as she reminisces about her summer romance with ex-lover Joseph.
Elizabeth McGovern, currently starring in TV hit 'Downton Abbey,' plays Dolly's mother in the movie, and she said she took the role because it reflected her own experience.
'(She) is allowed to speak for herself and what she feels, in a way that isn't always perfectly motherly,' said McGovern. 'So much of the time, the mother character in movies and TV is painted into the background, and there's an immediate assumption she's not a character with desires or much interest.'
'Since I'm a mother, I have a different feeling about it,' she said. 'Just because I'm a mother doesn't mean that the rest of me has died and gone to sleep.'
(Reporting by Andrea Burzynski; additional reporting by Reuters Television; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Pitt, Kidman films to premiere at Cannes in 2012
PARIS (Reuters) - Movies starring Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman will premiere in Cannes this year, as the world's biggest film festival held on the glamorous French Riviera promises a strong North American accent in 2012.
Films from U.S. director Wes Anderson and Canada's David Cronenberg will be among 22 films vying for the coveted 'Palme d'Or', the top prize at the glitzy cinema showcase which can significantly boost a picture's box office and awards potential.
Officials will be hoping that the blend of Hollywood star power and auteurs from around the globe will help the festival recover from last year's controversy when Danish director Lars Von Trier was expelled for making Nazi jokes during a press conference.
'Killing Me Softly,' from New Zealand-born director Andrew Dominik, and co-starring 'The Sopranos' James Gandolfini, sees Pitt investigating a heist during a mob-protected poker game.
Anderson's 1960s drama 'Moonrise Kingdom,' starring Ed Norton and Bill Murray, is set to kick off the May 16-27 festival, while Cronenberg's 'Cosmopolis,' starring 'Twilight' hearthrob Robert Pattison, is also in the main running.
Conenberg's son Brandon is in the smaller 'Un Certain Regard' selection with his debut, 'Antiviral.'
And Twilight fans will also be keen to get their teeth into 'On the Road,' the adaptation of Jack Kerouac's classic novel from Brazilian director Walter Salles. Its cast includes Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart as well as Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst.
Contenders from host country France include 'Vous N'Avez Encore Rien Vu,' from veteran European festival favorite Alain Resnais, 89, and Jacques Audiard's 'De Rouille et D'Os' ('Rust and Bone') starring Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard.
Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, a former Palme d'Or winner, is also competing with his French film 'Amour' starring Isabelle Huppert.
GREAT AUTEURS
At a press conference held in the grand salon of a Paris hotel flanked by this year's festival poster of Marilyn Monroe, organizers saluted great filmmakers from around the world.
'In a world that sacrifices everything to what's superficial, to the new-best-thing, to the lowest common denominator ... what counts, what makes us strong, is our passion for cinema and for those who make it: the great auteur filmmakers,' said Cannes President Gilles Jacob.
Berenice Bejo, star of 'The Artist' and winner of a French Cesar award, will host the festival's official ceremonies.
The silent movie, winner of the 2012 best picture Oscar, debuted at Cannes last year and thrust Bejo and co-star Jean Dujardin - winner of a best actor Academy Award - into the international spotlight.
Other previous Palme d'Or winners up again for the main prize include Britain's Ken Loach ('The Angel's Share') and Romania's Cristian Mungiu ('Beyond the Hills').
Italy's Matteo Garrone, director of 2008's 'Gomorrah,' the gritty portrait of the Camorra crime syndicate in Naples, will be competing with the film 'Reality.'
The growing influence of Middle Eastern cinema is represented by Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah's 'Baad el Mawkeaa' and Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's Japanese film, 'Like Someone in Love.'
Competing from Asia are South Korea's Hong Sangsoo with 'In Another Country' and Im Sang-soo with 'The Taste of Money.'
Films outside of the main competition include the third installment of the hit animated 'Madagascar' film series, the 3D 'Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted,' as well as a new Ken Burns documentary 'The Central Park Five' about the 1989 Central Park jogger case in which five minors were convicted of assault and rape but their convictions later thrown out.
Nicole Kidman could appear on the Cannes red carpet to promote U.S. director Philip Kaufman's 'Hemingway & Gellhorn', which is also being shown out of competition.
The closing film in 2012 will be Claude Miller's 'Therese Desqueyroux', in honor of the French director who died shortly after completing the picture.
This year's jury deciding the awards in the main competition will be led by Italian actor/director Nanni Moretti, who won the Golden Palm in 2001 with 'The Son's Room'. Presiding over the 'Un Certain Regard' jury will be English actor Tim Roth.
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; writing by Mike Collett-White and Alexandria Sage, editing by Paul Casciato)
Films from U.S. director Wes Anderson and Canada's David Cronenberg will be among 22 films vying for the coveted 'Palme d'Or', the top prize at the glitzy cinema showcase which can significantly boost a picture's box office and awards potential.
Officials will be hoping that the blend of Hollywood star power and auteurs from around the globe will help the festival recover from last year's controversy when Danish director Lars Von Trier was expelled for making Nazi jokes during a press conference.
'Killing Me Softly,' from New Zealand-born director Andrew Dominik, and co-starring 'The Sopranos' James Gandolfini, sees Pitt investigating a heist during a mob-protected poker game.
Anderson's 1960s drama 'Moonrise Kingdom,' starring Ed Norton and Bill Murray, is set to kick off the May 16-27 festival, while Cronenberg's 'Cosmopolis,' starring 'Twilight' hearthrob Robert Pattison, is also in the main running.
Conenberg's son Brandon is in the smaller 'Un Certain Regard' selection with his debut, 'Antiviral.'
And Twilight fans will also be keen to get their teeth into 'On the Road,' the adaptation of Jack Kerouac's classic novel from Brazilian director Walter Salles. Its cast includes Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart as well as Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst.
Contenders from host country France include 'Vous N'Avez Encore Rien Vu,' from veteran European festival favorite Alain Resnais, 89, and Jacques Audiard's 'De Rouille et D'Os' ('Rust and Bone') starring Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard.
Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, a former Palme d'Or winner, is also competing with his French film 'Amour' starring Isabelle Huppert.
GREAT AUTEURS
At a press conference held in the grand salon of a Paris hotel flanked by this year's festival poster of Marilyn Monroe, organizers saluted great filmmakers from around the world.
'In a world that sacrifices everything to what's superficial, to the new-best-thing, to the lowest common denominator ... what counts, what makes us strong, is our passion for cinema and for those who make it: the great auteur filmmakers,' said Cannes President Gilles Jacob.
Berenice Bejo, star of 'The Artist' and winner of a French Cesar award, will host the festival's official ceremonies.
The silent movie, winner of the 2012 best picture Oscar, debuted at Cannes last year and thrust Bejo and co-star Jean Dujardin - winner of a best actor Academy Award - into the international spotlight.
Other previous Palme d'Or winners up again for the main prize include Britain's Ken Loach ('The Angel's Share') and Romania's Cristian Mungiu ('Beyond the Hills').
Italy's Matteo Garrone, director of 2008's 'Gomorrah,' the gritty portrait of the Camorra crime syndicate in Naples, will be competing with the film 'Reality.'
The growing influence of Middle Eastern cinema is represented by Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah's 'Baad el Mawkeaa' and Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's Japanese film, 'Like Someone in Love.'
Competing from Asia are South Korea's Hong Sangsoo with 'In Another Country' and Im Sang-soo with 'The Taste of Money.'
Films outside of the main competition include the third installment of the hit animated 'Madagascar' film series, the 3D 'Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted,' as well as a new Ken Burns documentary 'The Central Park Five' about the 1989 Central Park jogger case in which five minors were convicted of assault and rape but their convictions later thrown out.
Nicole Kidman could appear on the Cannes red carpet to promote U.S. director Philip Kaufman's 'Hemingway & Gellhorn', which is also being shown out of competition.
The closing film in 2012 will be Claude Miller's 'Therese Desqueyroux', in honor of the French director who died shortly after completing the picture.
This year's jury deciding the awards in the main competition will be led by Italian actor/director Nanni Moretti, who won the Golden Palm in 2001 with 'The Son's Room'. Presiding over the 'Un Certain Regard' jury will be English actor Tim Roth.
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; writing by Mike Collett-White and Alexandria Sage, editing by Paul Casciato)
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tribeca opens with comedy "The Five-Year Engagement"
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hollywood comedy 'The Five-Year Engagement' opened New York's Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday bringing some crowd-pleasing laughs and red carpet glamour to the event before audiences settle into 12 days of mostly independent cinema.
The romance starring Jason Segel and Emily Blunt, made by the same team behind hit 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall,' kicked off the festival which is entering its second decade with organizers promising a broad group of films from all regions of the world.
Segel and Blunt hit the red carpet for the movie in which they portray a couple discovering each other during a never-ending engagement. The film is directed by Nicholas Stoller, who co-wrote the script with Segel. The pair first teamed up with on the 2008 blockbuster 'Marshall.'
'This is how inertia can destroy a relationship,' Stoller told Reuters. 'They realize that they didn't know each other quite as well as they thought. It's about how an engagement can get in the way of a relationship.'
Compared to 'Marshall,' the characters are slightly older and the male and female perspectives on love and relationships were equally represented, said Stoller. But his new film offers the same honesty as 'Marshall' and 'Get Him to the Greek,' which he also co-wrote with Segel.
'We like things to be awkward and real like they are in real life. People don't often come out with the perfect phrase to explain a moment,' he said. 'That kind of awkwardness and reality makes for the best comedy because people can see themselves in the characters.'
On the red carpet, Segel described the movie as 'a lean mean comedy machine,' and joked that, like his previous comedies, there were again plenty of scenes of himself nude in strange situations. 'Sadly, sadly there is, yes,' he said.
Blunt said another film in which she stars here at Tribeca, 'Your Sister's Sister,' is far different from the comedy opposite Segel, whom she described as a 'good pal.'
'This is a big raucous comedy and the other one is a tiny movie all improvised, made for no money. We shot it in 12 days - there are very diverse, which at least is a good thing,' she said.
The film's producer Judd Apatow, actress Olivia Wilde, comic actresses Amy Poehler and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, documentary maker Michael Moore, as well as the festival's co-founder Robert De Niro also attended the opening, held not far from Central Park.
De Niro helped set up the festival as a way to revive downtown Manhattan after the September 11 attacks, and many of the screenings are still held in downtown Manhattan.
This year, Tribeca will screen 89 feature films split between 57 fiction and 32 documentaries, including 50 world premieres.
It is the first year Tribeca organizers selected debut night films for the narrative and documentary competitions, and organizers said the overall program reflects a range of films from around the world. Half of the festival's lineup of 12 fiction films in competition are international productions.
The festival will return to more bigger-budget Hollywood fare for its closing night film, the anticipated superhero blockbuster 'The Avengers,' to be screened on April 28.
(Additional reporting by Alicia Powell, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
The romance starring Jason Segel and Emily Blunt, made by the same team behind hit 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall,' kicked off the festival which is entering its second decade with organizers promising a broad group of films from all regions of the world.
Segel and Blunt hit the red carpet for the movie in which they portray a couple discovering each other during a never-ending engagement. The film is directed by Nicholas Stoller, who co-wrote the script with Segel. The pair first teamed up with on the 2008 blockbuster 'Marshall.'
'This is how inertia can destroy a relationship,' Stoller told Reuters. 'They realize that they didn't know each other quite as well as they thought. It's about how an engagement can get in the way of a relationship.'
Compared to 'Marshall,' the characters are slightly older and the male and female perspectives on love and relationships were equally represented, said Stoller. But his new film offers the same honesty as 'Marshall' and 'Get Him to the Greek,' which he also co-wrote with Segel.
'We like things to be awkward and real like they are in real life. People don't often come out with the perfect phrase to explain a moment,' he said. 'That kind of awkwardness and reality makes for the best comedy because people can see themselves in the characters.'
On the red carpet, Segel described the movie as 'a lean mean comedy machine,' and joked that, like his previous comedies, there were again plenty of scenes of himself nude in strange situations. 'Sadly, sadly there is, yes,' he said.
Blunt said another film in which she stars here at Tribeca, 'Your Sister's Sister,' is far different from the comedy opposite Segel, whom she described as a 'good pal.'
'This is a big raucous comedy and the other one is a tiny movie all improvised, made for no money. We shot it in 12 days - there are very diverse, which at least is a good thing,' she said.
The film's producer Judd Apatow, actress Olivia Wilde, comic actresses Amy Poehler and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, documentary maker Michael Moore, as well as the festival's co-founder Robert De Niro also attended the opening, held not far from Central Park.
De Niro helped set up the festival as a way to revive downtown Manhattan after the September 11 attacks, and many of the screenings are still held in downtown Manhattan.
This year, Tribeca will screen 89 feature films split between 57 fiction and 32 documentaries, including 50 world premieres.
It is the first year Tribeca organizers selected debut night films for the narrative and documentary competitions, and organizers said the overall program reflects a range of films from around the world. Half of the festival's lineup of 12 fiction films in competition are international productions.
The festival will return to more bigger-budget Hollywood fare for its closing night film, the anticipated superhero blockbuster 'The Avengers,' to be screened on April 28.
(Additional reporting by Alicia Powell, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Monday, April 16, 2012
Court upholds convictions in Stamos extortion plot
(Reuters) - An appeals court on Monday upheld the convictions and sentences of a Michigan couple charged with trying to extort $680,000 from actor John Stamos.
Allison Coss and Scott Sippola were convicted in 2010 of concocting an elaborate plot to extort money from Stamos by threatening to release pictures of him at a party where there were strippers and cocainescover that he has suddenly and inexplica. The defendants were each sentenced to four years in prison.
Coss and Sippola, who were in a relationship at the time, challenged their convictions, claiming the extortion law was vague and therefore unconstitutionals, DUBBING 'A MIXED BLESSING' . They argued that the statute should only criminalize threats to commit unlawful acts, not just wrongful acts.
Selling the pictures to tabloids may have been wrong, but it was not illegal, they argued, and the law infringed on their commercial speech protected by the First Amendmente of it, so, you know, . But the Cincinnati-based U.Span class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1334333901_13'. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected their appeal.
'The crime of extortion has never been defined strictly in terms of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of .. 'It's a mixed blessing,' . the underlying actions,' Judge Karen Moore wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel 'Apart from Penelope Cruze and sp. The threat to sell the photos was wrongful because Coss and Sippola had no right to $680,000 from Stamos, the court concluded.
The appeals court quoted the trial judge, who said that presenting the plot as a legitimate business deal was 'to put it mildly, somewhat ludicrous.'
Sarah Henderson, a lawyer for the defendants, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.Scuts' id='lw_1334333901_10'E. Attorney's Office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, did not immediately provide comment.
Coss, who worked at a northern Michigan night club, met Stamos in Florida in 2004 when she was 17 and on a trip to Disney World901_1'Roberto Benigni/. The two continued to correspond via email for several years.
Stamos contacted the FBI in Nashville, Tennessee in November 2009 after receiving emails from someone claiming to have found incriminating pictures from 2004ch Village, where he saw many of the great Ital. Prosecutors said Coss and Sippola had sent the emails and that the damaging pictures did not existou developed and you grew up, It's an un. The two also sent emails to Stamos posing as a woman who claimed to have been impregnated by him, prosecutors said.
Stamos is best known for his role as Jesse in the 1990s sitcom 'Full House,' where he played opposite then-child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
(Reporting By Terry Baynes; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Allison Coss and Scott Sippola were convicted in 2010 of concocting an elaborate plot to extort money from Stamos by threatening to release pictures of him at a party where there were strippers and cocainescover that he has suddenly and inexplica. The defendants were each sentenced to four years in prison.
Coss and Sippola, who were in a relationship at the time, challenged their convictions, claiming the extortion law was vague and therefore unconstitutionals, DUBBING 'A MIXED BLESSING' . They argued that the statute should only criminalize threats to commit unlawful acts, not just wrongful acts.
Selling the pictures to tabloids may have been wrong, but it was not illegal, they argued, and the law infringed on their commercial speech protected by the First Amendmente of it, so, you know, . But the Cincinnati-based U.Span class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1334333901_13'. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected their appeal.
'The crime of extortion has never been defined strictly in terms of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of .. 'It's a mixed blessing,' . the underlying actions,' Judge Karen Moore wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel 'Apart from Penelope Cruze and sp. The threat to sell the photos was wrongful because Coss and Sippola had no right to $680,000 from Stamos, the court concluded.
The appeals court quoted the trial judge, who said that presenting the plot as a legitimate business deal was 'to put it mildly, somewhat ludicrous.'
Sarah Henderson, a lawyer for the defendants, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.Scuts' id='lw_1334333901_10'E. Attorney's Office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, did not immediately provide comment.
Coss, who worked at a northern Michigan night club, met Stamos in Florida in 2004 when she was 17 and on a trip to Disney World901_1'Roberto Benigni/. The two continued to correspond via email for several years.
Stamos contacted the FBI in Nashville, Tennessee in November 2009 after receiving emails from someone claiming to have found incriminating pictures from 2004ch Village, where he saw many of the great Ital. Prosecutors said Coss and Sippola had sent the emails and that the damaging pictures did not existou developed and you grew up, It's an un. The two also sent emails to Stamos posing as a woman who claimed to have been impregnated by him, prosecutors said.
Stamos is best known for his role as Jesse in the 1990s sitcom 'Full House,' where he played opposite then-child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
(Reporting By Terry Baynes; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Iron Man 3 to be co-produced in China
HONG KONG (Reuters) - The next 'Iron Man' film will be co-produced in China under a joint agreement between Walt Disney Co, Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment, the latest in a series of tie-ups between Hollywood and China where movie-going is growing fast.
DMG - a Chinese entertainment and marketing group - will invest in Iron Man 3, manage the Chinese co-production process and jointly produce the film in China/media,zenfs,com/en_us/News/Reuters/2012-02-10. Along with Disney's China unit, it will also distribute the film in China, the companies said on Monday.
Iron Man 3 will star Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadleher powerful portrayal of former span class='ysho. It will be released in the United States on May 3, 2013.
Monday's announcement comes after China in February agreed to allow in more foreign films and reflects the fast-growing Chinese middle class spending more money in theaters and less on pirated movies.
Last week Disney said it would work with China's Ministry of Culture and Tencent Holdings to promote the animation industry in China, while Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc in February said it would build a studio in Shanghai as part of a joint venture with some of China's biggest media companies.
Comcast Corp's NBC Universal Studio is also said to be in preliminary talks with Tianjin about a joint venture to build a theme park in the port city.
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin; Editing by David Holmes)
DMG - a Chinese entertainment and marketing group - will invest in Iron Man 3, manage the Chinese co-production process and jointly produce the film in China/media,zenfs,com/en_us/News/Reuters/2012-02-10. Along with Disney's China unit, it will also distribute the film in China, the companies said on Monday.
Iron Man 3 will star Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadleher powerful portrayal of former span class='ysho. It will be released in the United States on May 3, 2013.
Monday's announcement comes after China in February agreed to allow in more foreign films and reflects the fast-growing Chinese middle class spending more money in theaters and less on pirated movies.
Last week Disney said it would work with China's Ministry of Culture and Tencent Holdings to promote the animation industry in China, while Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc in February said it would build a studio in Shanghai as part of a joint venture with some of China's biggest media companies.
Comcast Corp's NBC Universal Studio is also said to be in preliminary talks with Tianjin about a joint venture to build a theme park in the port city.
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin; Editing by David Holmes)
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Google co-founder rips Hollywood on anti-piracy efforts
LOS ANGELES,(TheWrap) - Hollywood and the entertainment industry are 'shooting themselves in the foot, or maybe worse than the foot' by pushing the current anti-piracy legislation, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
He said the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act that Hollywood has been lobbying for would have led to the U.S4409_5'James B, Kelleher/span; Editi. using the same technology and approach it has criticized China and Iran for using.
Brin made the comments in an exclusive interview with the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper.
The entertainment industry, he said, is failing to understand that users will continue to download pirated content as long as it is easier to acquire and use than legitimately obtained material.
'I haven't tried it for many years but when you go on a pirate website, you choose what you like, it downloads to the device of your choice and it will just work - and then when you have to jump through all these hoops (to buy legitimate content), the walls created are disincentives for people to buy.'
Brin's criticism of Hollywood was part of an alarming portrait he painted of the current Internet landscapen Friday afternoon by deputies investiga. He said that the principles of openness and universal access that fostered the creation of the Internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever.
There are 'very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the worldn,' was arrested for span c. I am more worried than I have been in the past...it's scary,' Brin said.
He said the threat came from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access by their citizens, the entertainment industry attempting to crack down on piracy and the rise of Facebook and Apple, which he said tightly control software on their platforms.
He said five years ago he did not believe China or any country could effectively restrict the Internet for long but he had been proven wrong.
'I thought there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle, but now it seems in certain areas the genie has been put back in the bottle,' Brin said'Thelma & Louise' and 'Kill Bill,' was . He cited China, Saudi Arabia and Iran as the greatest threats.
He said that Facebook and Apple can stifle innovation and 'Balkanize' the web with their proprietary platforms and controlled user access.
'There's a lot to be lost,' he saidailed on charges of cruelty to a ch. 'For example all the information in apps - that data is not 'crawlable' by web crawlersrested at his span class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1331. You can't search it.'
Some will take Brin's comments on its rival Facebook, which has seen huge growth and now has more than 800 million members globally, with a grain of salt#39;s department said in a . The social network has announced plans for a $100 billion IPO.
Had Facebook existed, he and Google co-founder Larry Page could not have created Google, Brin said.
'You have to play by their rules, which are really restrictiveclass='yshortcuts' id='lw_1331444409_0'Actor Micha. The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine, is the web was so open The Los Angeles C. Once you get too many rules that will stifle innovation.'
He said the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act that Hollywood has been lobbying for would have led to the U.S4409_5'James B, Kelleher/span; Editi. using the same technology and approach it has criticized China and Iran for using.
Brin made the comments in an exclusive interview with the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper.
The entertainment industry, he said, is failing to understand that users will continue to download pirated content as long as it is easier to acquire and use than legitimately obtained material.
'I haven't tried it for many years but when you go on a pirate website, you choose what you like, it downloads to the device of your choice and it will just work - and then when you have to jump through all these hoops (to buy legitimate content), the walls created are disincentives for people to buy.'
Brin's criticism of Hollywood was part of an alarming portrait he painted of the current Internet landscapen Friday afternoon by deputies investiga. He said that the principles of openness and universal access that fostered the creation of the Internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever.
There are 'very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the worldn,' was arrested for span c. I am more worried than I have been in the past...it's scary,' Brin said.
He said the threat came from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access by their citizens, the entertainment industry attempting to crack down on piracy and the rise of Facebook and Apple, which he said tightly control software on their platforms.
He said five years ago he did not believe China or any country could effectively restrict the Internet for long but he had been proven wrong.
'I thought there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle, but now it seems in certain areas the genie has been put back in the bottle,' Brin said'Thelma & Louise' and 'Kill Bill,' was . He cited China, Saudi Arabia and Iran as the greatest threats.
He said that Facebook and Apple can stifle innovation and 'Balkanize' the web with their proprietary platforms and controlled user access.
'There's a lot to be lost,' he saidailed on charges of cruelty to a ch. 'For example all the information in apps - that data is not 'crawlable' by web crawlersrested at his span class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1331. You can't search it.'
Some will take Brin's comments on its rival Facebook, which has seen huge growth and now has more than 800 million members globally, with a grain of salt#39;s department said in a . The social network has announced plans for a $100 billion IPO.
Had Facebook existed, he and Google co-founder Larry Page could not have created Google, Brin said.
'You have to play by their rules, which are really restrictiveclass='yshortcuts' id='lw_1331444409_0'Actor Micha. The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine, is the web was so open The Los Angeles C. Once you get too many rules that will stifle innovation.'
"Hunger Games" rings up 4th box office win
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The blockbuster movie 'The Hunger Games' dominated box office charts for the fourth weekend in a row, outselling three new releases at U.S50_3'Meryl Streep/span as former span class=. and Canadian theaters.
The Lions Gate Entertainment Corp drama about a televised teen death match brought in $21.5 million at domestic theaters from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters.
The ongoing appetite for 'Hunger Games' left three newcomers trailingerby,com calls that race 'neck and neck,' . 'The Three Stooges,' featuring an updated cast of finger-poking stars, beat industry expectations to land in second placeen black and gold embroidered gown, while Gwyneth. The horror film 'The Cabin in the Woods' finished third.
The last movie to win four straight weekends was 'Avatar,' the highest-grossing film of all time, according to Hollywood.comrned to emcee the show for the ninth. That film, released by Fox, went on to generate $760 million in domestic sales.
Since 'Hunger Games' hit theaters March 23, the movie has racked up $337 million in North American (U.S star find redemption throug. and Canadian) ticket salesen with 'Midnight in Paris' or Alexander Payne an. That places it 22nd all-time in ticket sales, just behind Walt Disney Co.'s 'Finding Nemo,' according to the site Box Office Mojo.
The film has also added $194 million from international markets, according to Lions Gate, for a global total of $531 million.
'There's nothing old about finishing Noost award shows this year, Sti. 1,' said Richie Fay, Lions Gate president of distribution up two early wins for cinematogra. 'We're just happy to be able to look over our shoulders and see how well we've done.'
Horror movie 'The Cabin in the Woods,' also from Lions Gate, rung up $14.8 million in domestic theaters310050_8'Billy Crystal/span playing. Industry forecasters had projected 'Cabin' would debut with at least $13 million domestically.
The movie picked up steam over the weekend, adding 3 percent from Friday to Monday, said Fay, unusual for a horror flick and points to good word of mouthay man in 'Beginners. The film generated surprisingly good reviews from critics, which helped sell the film to an over 25-year-old audience that doesn't generally go for creepy movies.
'The Three Stooges,' an effort to bring the goofy comic trio to a new generation, pulled in $17.1 million for second placeto take home best film by most industr. The eye-poking act started as vaudeville comedy in 1930 and enjoyed its greatest popularity in through 1946, according to the online site Wikipedia.
In the current movie, this slapstick trio Larry, Curly and Moe stumble into a murder plot and star in a reality television show.
Fox spent about $35 million to produce the film and had projected opening weekend sales of around $10 millionost award shows this year, Still, pundits p. Box office prognosticator had projected it would do $15 million.
'The Three Stooges' drew more than 52 percent of its audience from movie under the age of 25, said Chris Aronson, Fox's executive vice president for domestic distributiont Hollywood stars including span class='ysho. That could point to a lengthy run in theaters, he said.
The comedy sequel 'American Reunion' grossed $10.6 million, giving Comcast Universal Pictures a second film in the top tenendants,' . Its animated film 'Drs' and sang a song about the movies that drew . Deuss' The Loral,' was tenth for the weekend with $3 million, adding to a total of $204 million so far this year.
'People said you could get more if we released them in the Summer, said Universal president of distribution Nikki Rocco as adapted screenplay, . 'but look at the summer lineup.'
The summer will be filled with blockbusters in waiting, including sequels to 'Men in Black' and 'Spider-Man,' and another installment of the Batman 'Dark Knight' series.
The other new nationwide release, sci-fi thriller 'Lockout,' landed in tenth place with nearly $6.3 million at domestic theatersCOME Later in th. The film tells the story of a man who tries to rescue the president's daughter from an outer space prison Separation,' But it was Spencer. The movie played in about 2,300 U.SThe Descendants,' T. and Canadian theaters, compared with more than 3,900 for 'Hunger Games.'
Also this weekend, big-budget action movie 'Battleship' opened in 26 overseas markets starting Wednesdaynning the first major awar. The film pulled in $58 million in offshore markets, according to distributor Universal Pictures.
News Corp's 20th Century Fox studio distributed 'Three Stooges.' 'American Reunion' and 'Battleship' were released by Comcast Corp's Universal Picturesthis year, Still, pundits point out that '. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, distributed 'Titanic 3D' in domestic theaters.
Open Road Films, a joint venture between theater owners Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc, distributed 'Lockout.' The movie was produced by independent studio Film District.
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jackie Frank)
The Lions Gate Entertainment Corp drama about a televised teen death match brought in $21.5 million at domestic theaters from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters.
The ongoing appetite for 'Hunger Games' left three newcomers trailingerby,com calls that race 'neck and neck,' . 'The Three Stooges,' featuring an updated cast of finger-poking stars, beat industry expectations to land in second placeen black and gold embroidered gown, while Gwyneth. The horror film 'The Cabin in the Woods' finished third.
The last movie to win four straight weekends was 'Avatar,' the highest-grossing film of all time, according to Hollywood.comrned to emcee the show for the ninth. That film, released by Fox, went on to generate $760 million in domestic sales.
Since 'Hunger Games' hit theaters March 23, the movie has racked up $337 million in North American (U.S star find redemption throug. and Canadian) ticket salesen with 'Midnight in Paris' or Alexander Payne an. That places it 22nd all-time in ticket sales, just behind Walt Disney Co.'s 'Finding Nemo,' according to the site Box Office Mojo.
The film has also added $194 million from international markets, according to Lions Gate, for a global total of $531 million.
'There's nothing old about finishing Noost award shows this year, Sti. 1,' said Richie Fay, Lions Gate president of distribution up two early wins for cinematogra. 'We're just happy to be able to look over our shoulders and see how well we've done.'
Horror movie 'The Cabin in the Woods,' also from Lions Gate, rung up $14.8 million in domestic theaters310050_8'Billy Crystal/span playing. Industry forecasters had projected 'Cabin' would debut with at least $13 million domestically.
The movie picked up steam over the weekend, adding 3 percent from Friday to Monday, said Fay, unusual for a horror flick and points to good word of mouthay man in 'Beginners. The film generated surprisingly good reviews from critics, which helped sell the film to an over 25-year-old audience that doesn't generally go for creepy movies.
'The Three Stooges,' an effort to bring the goofy comic trio to a new generation, pulled in $17.1 million for second placeto take home best film by most industr. The eye-poking act started as vaudeville comedy in 1930 and enjoyed its greatest popularity in through 1946, according to the online site Wikipedia.
In the current movie, this slapstick trio Larry, Curly and Moe stumble into a murder plot and star in a reality television show.
Fox spent about $35 million to produce the film and had projected opening weekend sales of around $10 millionost award shows this year, Still, pundits p. Box office prognosticator had projected it would do $15 million.
'The Three Stooges' drew more than 52 percent of its audience from movie under the age of 25, said Chris Aronson, Fox's executive vice president for domestic distributiont Hollywood stars including span class='ysho. That could point to a lengthy run in theaters, he said.
The comedy sequel 'American Reunion' grossed $10.6 million, giving Comcast Universal Pictures a second film in the top tenendants,' . Its animated film 'Drs' and sang a song about the movies that drew . Deuss' The Loral,' was tenth for the weekend with $3 million, adding to a total of $204 million so far this year.
'People said you could get more if we released them in the Summer, said Universal president of distribution Nikki Rocco as adapted screenplay, . 'but look at the summer lineup.'
The summer will be filled with blockbusters in waiting, including sequels to 'Men in Black' and 'Spider-Man,' and another installment of the Batman 'Dark Knight' series.
The other new nationwide release, sci-fi thriller 'Lockout,' landed in tenth place with nearly $6.3 million at domestic theatersCOME Later in th. The film tells the story of a man who tries to rescue the president's daughter from an outer space prison Separation,' But it was Spencer. The movie played in about 2,300 U.SThe Descendants,' T. and Canadian theaters, compared with more than 3,900 for 'Hunger Games.'
Also this weekend, big-budget action movie 'Battleship' opened in 26 overseas markets starting Wednesdaynning the first major awar. The film pulled in $58 million in offshore markets, according to distributor Universal Pictures.
News Corp's 20th Century Fox studio distributed 'Three Stooges.' 'American Reunion' and 'Battleship' were released by Comcast Corp's Universal Picturesthis year, Still, pundits point out that '. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, distributed 'Titanic 3D' in domestic theaters.
Open Road Films, a joint venture between theater owners Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc, distributed 'Lockout.' The movie was produced by independent studio Film District.
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jackie Frank)
Friday, April 13, 2012
Woody Allen's "To Rome, With Love" opens in Eternal City
ROME (Reuters) - Woody Allen says his new movie 'To Rome, With Love,' is a tribute to all the old Italian films that influenced him as a young artist but he has one wish: that more Italians could hear his voice in the original rather than the dubbed versions.
The film, which stars Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page, had its world premiere in the Eternal City on Friday.
Made up of four separate stories, it is his first set in Rome, which Allen called 'a feast for a filmmaker''Serb/span region of. It is also his latest set in a European capital, following London, Barcelona and Paris.
'I grew up on Italian cinemasaid, 'There is so much ho. I have always been an enormous admirer of Italian cinema70' height='70' alt='' . Anything that appears in the movie that is redolent of Italian cinema is strictly something that I have absorbed through osmosis over the years and it comes out,' he said at a news conference.
'It would have been impossible in the years that I grew up to not have been influenced by the Italian movies that came to New Yorkty in the Serb region . These are the films that I saw, my fiends saw, they were very impressive,' he said.
Allen, 76, grew up in Brooklyn and, after writing for television, started his career as a stand-up comic in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, where he saw many of the great Italian films of the 1950s and 1960s by directors such as Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini.
'Naturally, when you make films you tend to make the kind of films that you have absorbed and have enjoyed as you developed and you grew upding:0 5px 5px 0;'img src='http://l,yimg,com/. It's an unconscious influence but a very substantial one,' he said.
'To Rome, With Love' is made up of four episodes of adventures and misadventures.
In the first a famous architect played by Alec Baldwin is in Rome on vacation and is reminded of his youth in the city when he meets Jack, played by Jesse Eisenberg.
In the second, Allen plays a retired director who visits Rome and tries to promote the career of a man who sings professional quality opera but only when he is under a shower.
The third stars Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni as a man who wakes up one morning to discover that he has suddenly and inexplicably become famous and is stalked by paparazzi.
'Apart from Penelope Cruze and Ellen Page, I am sure Mr Allen chose me because of my beauty,' Benigni joked at the news conferenceng deep snow and freezing temperatures. 'I am without a doubt the most handsome of the men in the filmy night, said she would not attend a pre. My apologies to Mr Baldwin and Mr Eisenberg.'
In the last episode, Penelope Cruz plays a high-class call girl who accidentally finds herself in the wrong hotel room, setting off a chain of comic events involving several couples.
DUBBING 'A MIXED BLESSING'
While Allen is a comic superstar in Italy, most Italians have never heard his voice They att. As in many European countries, Italians' ingrained dislike of subtitles has fed a powerful dubbing industry.
'It's a mixed blessing,' Allen said in answer to a question at the news conference attended by all of the movie's stars.
'I don't like dubbing at all doesn't just remind yo. Americans are not used to dubbing woman from the northwestern town of Prije. We grew up without dubbing and so it's always very, very strange to us and I am very much against it,' he said.
'Whenever I send my films out to European countries I always try to get the prints subtitled if I can but I'm met with resistance because the countries are just not used to subtitles,' he said.
But Allen said he has often wondered if he would have been as successful without a dubber.
'Now, having said this I would say that the man who dubbed me for years in Italy, now deceased, made me into a hero ..ttend a premiere screening there, . it was his voice and everybody liked meesenting all sides of the Bosnian atrocities, . I don't know for sure if they had heard my own voice they would have been that responsive to me,' he said.
Allen was referring to Oreste Lionello, an Italian comic who died in 2009 and was Allen's voice for decades.
In the newest film, he is dubbed by Leo Gullotta, a famous Italian comedian who has also done serious roles, such as playing the simple small town theatre usher in 'Cinema Paradiso', which won the Oscar for the best foreign film in 1989.
'I might have been good anyway, but there is no guarantee of it, so, you know, that's how I feele criticism of any perceived b. I consider myself lucky that I was dubbed even though I don't like the process,' he said.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella, editing by Paul Casciato)
The film, which stars Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page, had its world premiere in the Eternal City on Friday.
Made up of four separate stories, it is his first set in Rome, which Allen called 'a feast for a filmmaker''Serb/span region of. It is also his latest set in a European capital, following London, Barcelona and Paris.
'I grew up on Italian cinemasaid, 'There is so much ho. I have always been an enormous admirer of Italian cinema70' height='70' alt='' . Anything that appears in the movie that is redolent of Italian cinema is strictly something that I have absorbed through osmosis over the years and it comes out,' he said at a news conference.
'It would have been impossible in the years that I grew up to not have been influenced by the Italian movies that came to New Yorkty in the Serb region . These are the films that I saw, my fiends saw, they were very impressive,' he said.
Allen, 76, grew up in Brooklyn and, after writing for television, started his career as a stand-up comic in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, where he saw many of the great Italian films of the 1950s and 1960s by directors such as Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini.
'Naturally, when you make films you tend to make the kind of films that you have absorbed and have enjoyed as you developed and you grew upding:0 5px 5px 0;'img src='http://l,yimg,com/. It's an unconscious influence but a very substantial one,' he said.
'To Rome, With Love' is made up of four episodes of adventures and misadventures.
In the first a famous architect played by Alec Baldwin is in Rome on vacation and is reminded of his youth in the city when he meets Jack, played by Jesse Eisenberg.
In the second, Allen plays a retired director who visits Rome and tries to promote the career of a man who sings professional quality opera but only when he is under a shower.
The third stars Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni as a man who wakes up one morning to discover that he has suddenly and inexplicably become famous and is stalked by paparazzi.
'Apart from Penelope Cruze and Ellen Page, I am sure Mr Allen chose me because of my beauty,' Benigni joked at the news conferenceng deep snow and freezing temperatures. 'I am without a doubt the most handsome of the men in the filmy night, said she would not attend a pre. My apologies to Mr Baldwin and Mr Eisenberg.'
In the last episode, Penelope Cruz plays a high-class call girl who accidentally finds herself in the wrong hotel room, setting off a chain of comic events involving several couples.
DUBBING 'A MIXED BLESSING'
While Allen is a comic superstar in Italy, most Italians have never heard his voice They att. As in many European countries, Italians' ingrained dislike of subtitles has fed a powerful dubbing industry.
'It's a mixed blessing,' Allen said in answer to a question at the news conference attended by all of the movie's stars.
'I don't like dubbing at all doesn't just remind yo. Americans are not used to dubbing woman from the northwestern town of Prije. We grew up without dubbing and so it's always very, very strange to us and I am very much against it,' he said.
'Whenever I send my films out to European countries I always try to get the prints subtitled if I can but I'm met with resistance because the countries are just not used to subtitles,' he said.
But Allen said he has often wondered if he would have been as successful without a dubber.
'Now, having said this I would say that the man who dubbed me for years in Italy, now deceased, made me into a hero ..ttend a premiere screening there, . it was his voice and everybody liked meesenting all sides of the Bosnian atrocities, . I don't know for sure if they had heard my own voice they would have been that responsive to me,' he said.
Allen was referring to Oreste Lionello, an Italian comic who died in 2009 and was Allen's voice for decades.
In the newest film, he is dubbed by Leo Gullotta, a famous Italian comedian who has also done serious roles, such as playing the simple small town theatre usher in 'Cinema Paradiso', which won the Oscar for the best foreign film in 1989.
'I might have been good anyway, but there is no guarantee of it, so, you know, that's how I feele criticism of any perceived b. I consider myself lucky that I was dubbed even though I don't like the process,' he said.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella, editing by Paul Casciato)
Mel Gibson fires back at anti-Semitism claim
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mel Gibson fired back Thursday at screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for accusing the 'Braveheart' star of anti-Semitism, calling the writer's comments 'utter fabrications' and saying he was angry over a rejected film script.
Gibson, who has been dogged by similar criticism since making an anti-Semitic statement in 2006 to police in a drunken rant, had been working with the 'Basic Instinct' screenwriter on a movie about the ancient Jewish hero Judah Maccabee.
On Wednesday, Hollywood show business publication TheWrap.com reported that the first draft of Eszterhas' script was rejected by Warner Bros Bookmak. Upon hearing of it, Eszterhas sent a nine-page letter to Gibson accusing him of not really intending to make the movie, called 'The Maccabees.'
Eszterhas wrote that Gibson announced the project purely 'in an attempt to deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism,' according to a copy posted on TheWrap.com.
He also accused Gibson of calling Jews 'oven-dodgers' and 'Jewboys' when they met, and even wrote that Gibson admitted vowing to kill his ex-girlfriend Oksana Gregorieva, following a bitter public feud with her over custody of the pair's child.
Gibson, the Oscar winner whose movies include 'Mad Max' and 'Lethal Weapon,' did not directly address charges of anti-Semitism, but said Eszterhas' description of his 'statements and actions' are 'utter fabrications.'
'Contrary to your assertion that I was only developing Maccabees to burnish my tarnished reputation, I have been working on this project for over 10 years and it was publicly announced eight years ago,' Gibson wrote in the letter, released by a spokesman.
'I absolutely want to make this movie; it's just that neither Warner Brothers nor I want to make this movie based on your script,' he said.
Gibson, 56, went on to call the draft that Eszterhas submitted the most 'substandard' he had seen in 25 years of overseeing script development and a 'waste of time.'
Jewish leaders criticized Gibson's Maccabee project when it was revealed last fall as offensive given the star's history.
In the past, Jewish groups accused Gibson of evoking age-old stereotypes about Jews in 2004's 'Passion of the Christ,' which made over $600 million at worldwide box offices.
Two years later, Gibson was arrested for drunken driving in Malibu, California, and he ranted at the officer: 'The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.' His arrest and tirade made headlines around the worldPitt ('Moneyball') and Michael Fassbend. He later publicly apologized and attended self-help meetings.
Judah Maccabee was the son of a Jewish priest who in the 2nd century B.Cs7_gLbkbL5g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDto. led a guerrilla revolt in Judea against armies of the Seleucid Empireooks through a book as he. The historical figure, whose last name in Hebrew translates as 'The Hammer,' is revered by many Jews wooden grave tablet at his study room in J. The holiday of Hanukkah commemorates his triumphs.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu)
Gibson, who has been dogged by similar criticism since making an anti-Semitic statement in 2006 to police in a drunken rant, had been working with the 'Basic Instinct' screenwriter on a movie about the ancient Jewish hero Judah Maccabee.
On Wednesday, Hollywood show business publication TheWrap.com reported that the first draft of Eszterhas' script was rejected by Warner Bros Bookmak. Upon hearing of it, Eszterhas sent a nine-page letter to Gibson accusing him of not really intending to make the movie, called 'The Maccabees.'
Eszterhas wrote that Gibson announced the project purely 'in an attempt to deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism,' according to a copy posted on TheWrap.com.
He also accused Gibson of calling Jews 'oven-dodgers' and 'Jewboys' when they met, and even wrote that Gibson admitted vowing to kill his ex-girlfriend Oksana Gregorieva, following a bitter public feud with her over custody of the pair's child.
Gibson, the Oscar winner whose movies include 'Mad Max' and 'Lethal Weapon,' did not directly address charges of anti-Semitism, but said Eszterhas' description of his 'statements and actions' are 'utter fabrications.'
'Contrary to your assertion that I was only developing Maccabees to burnish my tarnished reputation, I have been working on this project for over 10 years and it was publicly announced eight years ago,' Gibson wrote in the letter, released by a spokesman.
'I absolutely want to make this movie; it's just that neither Warner Brothers nor I want to make this movie based on your script,' he said.
Gibson, 56, went on to call the draft that Eszterhas submitted the most 'substandard' he had seen in 25 years of overseeing script development and a 'waste of time.'
Jewish leaders criticized Gibson's Maccabee project when it was revealed last fall as offensive given the star's history.
In the past, Jewish groups accused Gibson of evoking age-old stereotypes about Jews in 2004's 'Passion of the Christ,' which made over $600 million at worldwide box offices.
Two years later, Gibson was arrested for drunken driving in Malibu, California, and he ranted at the officer: 'The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.' His arrest and tirade made headlines around the worldPitt ('Moneyball') and Michael Fassbend. He later publicly apologized and attended self-help meetings.
Judah Maccabee was the son of a Jewish priest who in the 2nd century B.Cs7_gLbkbL5g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDto. led a guerrilla revolt in Judea against armies of the Seleucid Empireooks through a book as he. The historical figure, whose last name in Hebrew translates as 'The Hammer,' is revered by many Jews wooden grave tablet at his study room in J. The holiday of Hanukkah commemorates his triumphs.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu)
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Allen's "To Rome With Love" to open L.A. film fest
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Woody Allen's 'To Rome With Love' will serve as the opening night film at the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival, LAFF organizers announced on Thursday.
The Sony Pictures Classics comedy, which features an ensemble cast that includes Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page and Allen, will have its North American premiere at the festival.
Its world premiere takes place this month in Italy.
Allen's last film, 'Midnight in Paris,' was launched at last year's Cannes Film Festivalts' id='lw_1334259487_3'Los Angeles Film F. The film received a Best Picture nomination, won Allen an Oscar for his screenplay and became the top-grossing film of the writer-director's career, with more than $56 million at the U.S9;s 'To Rome With Love' will serve as the span cl. box office and nearly $150 million worldwide.
'I can't think of a better way to kick off this year's festival than with the original independent filmmaker himself, Woody Allen,' said festival director Stephanie Allain in a press release announcing the selection.
The release did not say whether the famously reticent Allen would make the trip to Los Angeles for the premiere.
Last year, the festival kicked off with Richard Linklater's 'Bernie,' which will finally receive a limited release later this month$150 million worldwide, 'I can. Two years ago, LAFF's opening-night film was Lisa Cholodenko's 'The Kids Are All Right,' which went on to receive a Best Picture nomination.
'To Rome With Love' was formerly titled 'The Bop Decameron' and then 'Nero Fiddled,' before switching to a title more in the vein of 'Midnight in Paris.'
The film will launch LAFF on June 14re switching to a title more. The festival, which is produced by Film Independent, will continue through June 24 in downtown Los Angeles, with most screenings taking place in the L.Apan class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1334259487_3'. LIVE complex.
The Sony Pictures Classics comedy, which features an ensemble cast that includes Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page and Allen, will have its North American premiere at the festival.
Its world premiere takes place this month in Italy.
Allen's last film, 'Midnight in Paris,' was launched at last year's Cannes Film Festivalts' id='lw_1334259487_3'Los Angeles Film F. The film received a Best Picture nomination, won Allen an Oscar for his screenplay and became the top-grossing film of the writer-director's career, with more than $56 million at the U.S9;s 'To Rome With Love' will serve as the span cl. box office and nearly $150 million worldwide.
'I can't think of a better way to kick off this year's festival than with the original independent filmmaker himself, Woody Allen,' said festival director Stephanie Allain in a press release announcing the selection.
The release did not say whether the famously reticent Allen would make the trip to Los Angeles for the premiere.
Last year, the festival kicked off with Richard Linklater's 'Bernie,' which will finally receive a limited release later this month$150 million worldwide, 'I can. Two years ago, LAFF's opening-night film was Lisa Cholodenko's 'The Kids Are All Right,' which went on to receive a Best Picture nomination.
'To Rome With Love' was formerly titled 'The Bop Decameron' and then 'Nero Fiddled,' before switching to a title more in the vein of 'Midnight in Paris.'
The film will launch LAFF on June 14re switching to a title more. The festival, which is produced by Film Independent, will continue through June 24 in downtown Los Angeles, with most screenings taking place in the L.Apan class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1334259487_3'. LIVE complex.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
"Kony 2012" group tipped off Uganda to wanted ex-rebel: Wikileaks
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The group behind the viral 'Kony 2012' video that drew world attention to Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony tipped off Ugandan forces in 2009 to the whereabouts of a former child soldier wanted by the Kampala government, according to a classified U.S, That would be the biggest openin. cable published by Wikileaks.
Invisible Children, which shot to prominence last month when its video on Kony and his brutal Lord's Resistance Army drew more than 100 million hits on social media, told Ugandan officials that a man wanted by security forces was staying with the group in the northern Ugandan city of Gulu, the cable showed.
Patrick Komakech, the former child soldier who was featured in Invisible Children documentaries and said to have been abducted by Kony's rebels at age 9, was immediately arrested, according to U.Sc, the percentage is 85 percent. document, posted in a database of classified cables published by Wikileaks.
'Komakech had confessed to being part of a new anti-government movement in the north,' the 2009 State Department cable saidhe Hunger Games' is on track to gross at least $9. 'Komakech reportedly gave the locations of several arms caches.. the firm NRG are awar. with a total of 600 weapons.'
The 'Kony 2012' video, the latest in a series of documentaries by the group, has been hailed for inspiring young people to activism.
But the video has also been criticized for what some have called a misleading and oversimplified portrayal of events in Uganda, and for neglecting African initiatives to solve the crisis as well as opening up old wounds.
Invisible Children took another hit when the maker of the Kony 2012 film, Jason Russell, suffered a public meltdown last month that doctors described as a brief psychotic breakdown.
The group released a follow-up video last week pushing back against the criticism that has been leveled at itosh Hutcherson, Liam Hems. The new video includes more African voices and context on the long-running conflict involving Kony in several African countries The PG. It was released before April 20, which has been planned as a day of action.
WORKED WITH ANOTHER REBEL GROUP
The cable about Komakech, transmitted in 2009 from the U.Sld Sutherland, . Embassy in Kampala, said he had been working with the People's Patriotic Front, a resistance group whose objective was the overthrow of the Ugandan government.
Before his arrest, Komakech had also been engaged in child soldier rehabilitation efforts with non-governmental organizations including Invisible Children.
'In 2009, Invisible Children was contacted by a member at the U.Slightly lower -- but still impress. Embassy in Kampala regarding Patrick Komakech, a former LRA combatant who Invisible Children had been supporting in attempts to assist with his personal recovery and academic development,' a spokeswoman for Invisible Children said in an e-mailed statement.
The group said it had been brought to its attention that Komakech and a group of others were 'allegedly involved in activities that could be jeopardizing the lives of civilians and putting the organization and its staff at risk.'
'Invisible Children was deeply saddened to learn of these allegations; the organization was cooperative in providing information to the U.Snight/span, The movi. Embassy regarding the nature of our relationship with and academic support to Mrower -- but still impressive -- for yo. Komakechsays that 74 percent. In light of the severity of these allegations, the organization severed all ties immediately with Mrmes/span,' Lionsgate's. Komakech,' the statement said.
The diplomatic cable indicates Komakech was likely released by Ugandan security forces after interrogation because he was a 'low-level operative.'
Komakech visited the United States in 2007, when he was 25, for a bike ride across Iowa to bring attention to the plight of child soldiers who had been abducted and forced to fight for the LRA, according to an interview he gave in July 2007 to the Des Moines Register.
Kony's guerrilla band captured him when he was 9, and by age 16 he was a battalion commander with the LRA, according to the Des Moines Registercuts' id='lw_1331611809_1'Suzanne Collins/span&. He eventually escaped.
'They have never been to school choice,' The numbers are sli. But they know how to shoot; they know how to kill,' Komakech told The Des Moines Register The movie will. 'If they don't have enough to eat, what do you expect they will do?'
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Christopher Wilson)
Invisible Children, which shot to prominence last month when its video on Kony and his brutal Lord's Resistance Army drew more than 100 million hits on social media, told Ugandan officials that a man wanted by security forces was staying with the group in the northern Ugandan city of Gulu, the cable showed.
Patrick Komakech, the former child soldier who was featured in Invisible Children documentaries and said to have been abducted by Kony's rebels at age 9, was immediately arrested, according to U.Sc, the percentage is 85 percent. document, posted in a database of classified cables published by Wikileaks.
'Komakech had confessed to being part of a new anti-government movement in the north,' the 2009 State Department cable saidhe Hunger Games' is on track to gross at least $9. 'Komakech reportedly gave the locations of several arms caches.. the firm NRG are awar. with a total of 600 weapons.'
The 'Kony 2012' video, the latest in a series of documentaries by the group, has been hailed for inspiring young people to activism.
But the video has also been criticized for what some have called a misleading and oversimplified portrayal of events in Uganda, and for neglecting African initiatives to solve the crisis as well as opening up old wounds.
Invisible Children took another hit when the maker of the Kony 2012 film, Jason Russell, suffered a public meltdown last month that doctors described as a brief psychotic breakdown.
The group released a follow-up video last week pushing back against the criticism that has been leveled at itosh Hutcherson, Liam Hems. The new video includes more African voices and context on the long-running conflict involving Kony in several African countries The PG. It was released before April 20, which has been planned as a day of action.
WORKED WITH ANOTHER REBEL GROUP
The cable about Komakech, transmitted in 2009 from the U.Sld Sutherland, . Embassy in Kampala, said he had been working with the People's Patriotic Front, a resistance group whose objective was the overthrow of the Ugandan government.
Before his arrest, Komakech had also been engaged in child soldier rehabilitation efforts with non-governmental organizations including Invisible Children.
'In 2009, Invisible Children was contacted by a member at the U.Slightly lower -- but still impress. Embassy in Kampala regarding Patrick Komakech, a former LRA combatant who Invisible Children had been supporting in attempts to assist with his personal recovery and academic development,' a spokeswoman for Invisible Children said in an e-mailed statement.
The group said it had been brought to its attention that Komakech and a group of others were 'allegedly involved in activities that could be jeopardizing the lives of civilians and putting the organization and its staff at risk.'
'Invisible Children was deeply saddened to learn of these allegations; the organization was cooperative in providing information to the U.Snight/span, The movi. Embassy regarding the nature of our relationship with and academic support to Mrower -- but still impressive -- for yo. Komakechsays that 74 percent. In light of the severity of these allegations, the organization severed all ties immediately with Mrmes/span,' Lionsgate's. Komakech,' the statement said.
The diplomatic cable indicates Komakech was likely released by Ugandan security forces after interrogation because he was a 'low-level operative.'
Komakech visited the United States in 2007, when he was 25, for a bike ride across Iowa to bring attention to the plight of child soldiers who had been abducted and forced to fight for the LRA, according to an interview he gave in July 2007 to the Des Moines Register.
Kony's guerrilla band captured him when he was 9, and by age 16 he was a battalion commander with the LRA, according to the Des Moines Registercuts' id='lw_1331611809_1'Suzanne Collins/span&. He eventually escaped.
'They have never been to school choice,' The numbers are sli. But they know how to shoot; they know how to kill,' Komakech told The Des Moines Register The movie will. 'If they don't have enough to eat, what do you expect they will do?'
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Christopher Wilson)
Warner Bros. shelves Mel Gibson Maccabee movie
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Warner Bros. has put on hold a controversial Mel Gibson movie project about the Jewish Maccabee revolt in the 2nd Century B.C. after reading the script by writer Joe Eszterhas, TheWrap has learned.
A spokesman for the studio told TheWrap, 'We are analyzing what to do with the project.'
Jewish groups were outraged after news broke in September that Gibson had reached a production deal with Warner Broslike this and last wi. to direct the story of Judah Maccabee, whose victory over Greek and Syrian armies is celebrated at Hanukkah re-release of 'span class='yshortcuts' id='l. One Jewish group called it 'a moral lapse in judgment.'
Eszterhas delivered the script in late February, and Warner BrosMenace/span,' . has since passed on it, according to an individual close to the projectnerated by the 3D re-release of 'Th. Warner production president Greg Silverman described it as lacking in 'feeling' and 'a sense of triumph,' according to the individual.
As another individual put it, 'The script didn't pass muster.'
A spokesman for Gibson had no immediate commentton/span's latest thri. Eszterhas declined to comment.
Warner's has a long history of collaborating with Gibson, but the star was upset after the studio rescinded his cameo in 'The Hangover Part II' when the crew protested his involvement.
The project involved one of Gibson's favored themes -- an underdog army fighting for freedomtcuts' id='lw_1328918287. In 165 B.C., Jewish leader Maccabee led his brothers in revolt against the Seleucid Empire, ruled by Antiochus Epiphanes who had forbidden Jewish practices.
Noting his checkered history of making anti-Semitic remarks and his controversial depiction of Jews in his 2003 film 'The Passion of the Christ,' Jewish leaders said the choice of Gibson to direct a film about a prominent figure in their religion was insensitive.
'Casting him as a director or perhaps as the star of 'Judah Maccabee' is like casting Madoff to be the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission,' Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement after the project was announced.
The Anti-Defamation League asked Warner's to reconsider the choice of Gibsonlate night showings an. In a statement, the group said, 'Not only has Mel Gibson shown outward antagonism toward Jews and Judaism in his public statements and actions, but his previous attempt to bring biblical history to life on the screen was marred by anti-Semitism.'
The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants labeled the choice of Gibson a 'moral lapse of judgment.'
'Given our brutal experience, we are pained that Warner's has abandoned principle and taken this unworthy path,' the group said.
Gibson was detained by police in Malibu for drunken driving in 2006 and found himself embroiled in a public relations fiasco when reports surfaced that he had launched into expletive-laden anti-Semitic remarks while in custody.
It was left to Eszterhas to offer a modest defense of Gibson in a New York Times interview in February and appealing to slightly diff. The screenwriter noted that he had an anger problem but said he understood how to make a movie of the story of Maccabee on a 'Braveheart'-like scale.
'We both saw it as Mel, maybe from his heart, wanting to do a terrific 'Braveheart'-like movie about Jewish history,' said Eszterhas, who said he was comfortable working with Gibson despite his problems.
A spokesman for the studio told TheWrap, 'We are analyzing what to do with the project.'
Jewish groups were outraged after news broke in September that Gibson had reached a production deal with Warner Broslike this and last wi. to direct the story of Judah Maccabee, whose victory over Greek and Syrian armies is celebrated at Hanukkah re-release of 'span class='yshortcuts' id='l. One Jewish group called it 'a moral lapse in judgment.'
Eszterhas delivered the script in late February, and Warner BrosMenace/span,' . has since passed on it, according to an individual close to the projectnerated by the 3D re-release of 'Th. Warner production president Greg Silverman described it as lacking in 'feeling' and 'a sense of triumph,' according to the individual.
As another individual put it, 'The script didn't pass muster.'
A spokesman for Gibson had no immediate commentton/span's latest thri. Eszterhas declined to comment.
Warner's has a long history of collaborating with Gibson, but the star was upset after the studio rescinded his cameo in 'The Hangover Part II' when the crew protested his involvement.
The project involved one of Gibson's favored themes -- an underdog army fighting for freedomtcuts' id='lw_1328918287. In 165 B.C., Jewish leader Maccabee led his brothers in revolt against the Seleucid Empire, ruled by Antiochus Epiphanes who had forbidden Jewish practices.
Noting his checkered history of making anti-Semitic remarks and his controversial depiction of Jews in his 2003 film 'The Passion of the Christ,' Jewish leaders said the choice of Gibson to direct a film about a prominent figure in their religion was insensitive.
'Casting him as a director or perhaps as the star of 'Judah Maccabee' is like casting Madoff to be the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission,' Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement after the project was announced.
The Anti-Defamation League asked Warner's to reconsider the choice of Gibsonlate night showings an. In a statement, the group said, 'Not only has Mel Gibson shown outward antagonism toward Jews and Judaism in his public statements and actions, but his previous attempt to bring biblical history to life on the screen was marred by anti-Semitism.'
The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants labeled the choice of Gibson a 'moral lapse of judgment.'
'Given our brutal experience, we are pained that Warner's has abandoned principle and taken this unworthy path,' the group said.
Gibson was detained by police in Malibu for drunken driving in 2006 and found himself embroiled in a public relations fiasco when reports surfaced that he had launched into expletive-laden anti-Semitic remarks while in custody.
It was left to Eszterhas to offer a modest defense of Gibson in a New York Times interview in February and appealing to slightly diff. The screenwriter noted that he had an anger problem but said he understood how to make a movie of the story of Maccabee on a 'Braveheart'-like scale.
'We both saw it as Mel, maybe from his heart, wanting to do a terrific 'Braveheart'-like movie about Jewish history,' said Eszterhas, who said he was comfortable working with Gibson despite his problems.
Gary Ross bows out of "Hunger Games" sequel
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Gary Ross has bowed out of 'The Hunger Games' sequel, citing time constraints for his exit.
His role in 'Catching Fire' has been subject to much speculation in recent days, and late Tuesday, he and Lionsgate issued statements announcing his exit from the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' book.
'As a writer and a director, I simply don't have the time I need to write and prep the movie I would have wanted to make because of the fixed and tight production schedule,' Ross said, calling the decision a difficult one.
Lionsgate, for its part, said that it was sorry that he was not returning for the second installment.
'We were really looking forward to making the movie with him,' the studio said in a statementng -- she's so pretty but blandthat sh. 'He did an incredible job on the first film and we are grateful for his work.'
The movie, which opened March 23, has already grossed more than $300 million in the U.Sperson for a makeup line called Tabula Rasa -- is. alone1331263813_1'Maya Rudolph/span, span class='. It stars Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson and is set in the dystopian future; youth must compete in the titular Hunger Games, wherein they are forced to eliminate their competitors.
Ross co-wrote the script with Collins; their collaboration replaced the version written by Billy Rayut every move that 'Friends With Kids' make. He previously wrote and directed 'Pleasantville' and 'Seabiscuit.'
Ross is not the first director to bow out of directing the follow-up to a hugely popular teen franchise on a tight schedule; Catherine Hardwicke walked away from the 'Twilight' sequel for creative reasons.
That Summit franchise is now under Lionsgate's roof due to the merger earlier this year.
The question now is: Who will take the reins of Lionsgate's lucrative franchise? There are three books in the trilogy, which the studio hopes to turn into four hit movies, much the way Summit has with 'Twilight.' The first 'Hunger Games' installment has exceeded expectations.
Its release has further stoked book sales; the trilogy has sold more than 30 million copies.
In exiting the project, Ross called 'The Hunger Games' the happiest experience of his professional life and disputed claims that sequel negotiations with Lionsgate were rocky.
'Lionsgate was supportive of me in a manner that few directors ever experience in a franchise,' Ross saidthe context of marriage until she. 'And contrary to what has been reported, negotiations with Lionsgate have not been problematicd, Young professionals Julie (West. They have also been very understanding of me through this difficult decision.'
He also praised producer Nina Jacobson, the 'brilliant Suzanne Collins,' 'the gifted and remarkable Jennifer Lawrence' and the rest of 'the incredible cast.'
Lionsgate said the parting 'will not be the end of our relationship' and that it looks forward to working with Ross in the future.
His role in 'Catching Fire' has been subject to much speculation in recent days, and late Tuesday, he and Lionsgate issued statements announcing his exit from the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' book.
'As a writer and a director, I simply don't have the time I need to write and prep the movie I would have wanted to make because of the fixed and tight production schedule,' Ross said, calling the decision a difficult one.
Lionsgate, for its part, said that it was sorry that he was not returning for the second installment.
'We were really looking forward to making the movie with him,' the studio said in a statementng -- she's so pretty but blandthat sh. 'He did an incredible job on the first film and we are grateful for his work.'
The movie, which opened March 23, has already grossed more than $300 million in the U.Sperson for a makeup line called Tabula Rasa -- is. alone1331263813_1'Maya Rudolph/span, span class='. It stars Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson and is set in the dystopian future; youth must compete in the titular Hunger Games, wherein they are forced to eliminate their competitors.
Ross co-wrote the script with Collins; their collaboration replaced the version written by Billy Rayut every move that 'Friends With Kids' make. He previously wrote and directed 'Pleasantville' and 'Seabiscuit.'
Ross is not the first director to bow out of directing the follow-up to a hugely popular teen franchise on a tight schedule; Catherine Hardwicke walked away from the 'Twilight' sequel for creative reasons.
That Summit franchise is now under Lionsgate's roof due to the merger earlier this year.
The question now is: Who will take the reins of Lionsgate's lucrative franchise? There are three books in the trilogy, which the studio hopes to turn into four hit movies, much the way Summit has with 'Twilight.' The first 'Hunger Games' installment has exceeded expectations.
Its release has further stoked book sales; the trilogy has sold more than 30 million copies.
In exiting the project, Ross called 'The Hunger Games' the happiest experience of his professional life and disputed claims that sequel negotiations with Lionsgate were rocky.
'Lionsgate was supportive of me in a manner that few directors ever experience in a franchise,' Ross saidthe context of marriage until she. 'And contrary to what has been reported, negotiations with Lionsgate have not been problematicd, Young professionals Julie (West. They have also been very understanding of me through this difficult decision.'
He also praised producer Nina Jacobson, the 'brilliant Suzanne Collins,' 'the gifted and remarkable Jennifer Lawrence' and the rest of 'the incredible cast.'
Lionsgate said the parting 'will not be the end of our relationship' and that it looks forward to working with Ross in the future.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
DreamWorks Studios gets more financing-source
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - DreamWorks Studios, the film company headed by director Steven Spielberg, will get around $200 million from its partner Reliance Entertainment to continue making films, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.
The financing is the second part of a 2009 agreement to finance the studioe also denied suggestions that the film, w. In that agreement, Reliance Entertainment, a unit of Reliance ADA Group, provided the partnership with $325 million of capital for an undisclosed stake.
The studio, which made Spielberg's 'War Horse' and 'The Help' last year, will produce between three and five films a year, a reduction from the four to six that it initially announced, said the person.
Reliance's 2009 investment came after months of negotiation with DreamWorks that reduced the Indian company's investment from a planned $650 million, as large-scale financing from banks became more difficult to secureby the tragedy when I was there at . At the time, the two companies said in a press release that the investment was the first stage.
DreamWorks is producing Spielberg's 'Lincoln,' scheduled to be released in December, with News Corp's Fox studio, according to the movie information website, IMDB.com British theatres on Apr. The film will be released by Disney in the U.S, was a way of cashing in on the tragedy, which h. and by Fox in Japan.
The financing deal was first reported by The New York Times on its website, but no details on financial terms were includedKate Winslet/span and span c. DreamWorks had no commentster, released to coincide with the sp. Reliance representatives could not be reached for comment.
Reliance has been active in financing films in recent years, and said at the time of the 2009 announcement that it had invested more than $1 billion to produce films in English, Hindi and other Indian languages.
It also had development deals with several producers, including George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions and Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions and last year released the Indian film 'Bodyguard' in the U.S.
The bankers for the joint venture, led by J.Pstory, the people that were heroic, the people th. Morgan, did not change, the person said "Look, there&#. The group provided senior debt of $325 million at the time.
(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Editing by Carol Bishopric)
The financing is the second part of a 2009 agreement to finance the studioe also denied suggestions that the film, w. In that agreement, Reliance Entertainment, a unit of Reliance ADA Group, provided the partnership with $325 million of capital for an undisclosed stake.
The studio, which made Spielberg's 'War Horse' and 'The Help' last year, will produce between three and five films a year, a reduction from the four to six that it initially announced, said the person.
Reliance's 2009 investment came after months of negotiation with DreamWorks that reduced the Indian company's investment from a planned $650 million, as large-scale financing from banks became more difficult to secureby the tragedy when I was there at . At the time, the two companies said in a press release that the investment was the first stage.
DreamWorks is producing Spielberg's 'Lincoln,' scheduled to be released in December, with News Corp's Fox studio, according to the movie information website, IMDB.com British theatres on Apr. The film will be released by Disney in the U.S, was a way of cashing in on the tragedy, which h. and by Fox in Japan.
The financing deal was first reported by The New York Times on its website, but no details on financial terms were includedKate Winslet/span and span c. DreamWorks had no commentster, released to coincide with the sp. Reliance representatives could not be reached for comment.
Reliance has been active in financing films in recent years, and said at the time of the 2009 announcement that it had invested more than $1 billion to produce films in English, Hindi and other Indian languages.
It also had development deals with several producers, including George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions and Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions and last year released the Indian film 'Bodyguard' in the U.S.
The bankers for the joint venture, led by J.Pstory, the people that were heroic, the people th. Morgan, did not change, the person said "Look, there&#. The group provided senior debt of $325 million at the time.
(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Editing by Carol Bishopric)
Protect your eyes, The Three Stooges are back
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Maybe it was just a matter of time before Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the brothers who wrote and directed the comedy 'Dumb & Dumber,' made a movie about their original dimwitted inspiration, The Three Stooges.
The result of the Farrelly brothers' work, 'The Three Stooges' movie (bravely being released on Friday 13th), is an updated take on team Larry, Curly and Moe with all their misadventures, slapstick humor, eye pokes and iconic Stooge sound effects - finger-snaps, 'nyuk-nyuks' and 'boinks.'
Starring Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and Chris Diamantopoulos as the trio of boneheads, and with a supporting cast that includes 'Modern Family's' Sofia Vergara, 'Curb Your Enthusiasm's' Larry David and the cast of 'Jersey Shore,' the film aims to appeal to kids of all ages who are looking for laughs.
Peter Farrelly recently spoke with Reuters about bringing The Three Stooges back to life on film.
Q: Why did you want to make The Three Stooges?
A: 'They were our favorites growing up three wars since winning thei. They gave us more laughs than any other comedy group.'
Q: How hard was it resurrecting an old vaudeville act?
A: 'It's very tricky, as we didn't just want to do a version of them, like you might for Batman='lw_1330701971_2'CHANDIGARH, I. We wanted to do Larry, Curly and Moe, exactly as you remembered themndigarh/span to look like the Pakistani . And we wanted to please the hardcore Stooges fans first, but also bring it into a new generation of fansP) Hindu group, 'We . They were in danger of disappearing701971_1'Osama bin Laden/span on the grounds tha. A lot of kids don't know them now, and we wanted to bring them back in a way that would do them justices' id='lw_1330701971_4'Pakistan/span. So we always planned to write new material and place them in the present day.
Q: Were you nervous about whether their trademark slapstick comedy might earn a restrictive film rating like 'R' versus a more family friendly rating such as PG or PG-13?
A: 'We were, because of all the hitting and physical violenceke the Pakistani city of Lahore, . But they gave us a PG as there's no bad language, no nudity and no bloodgroup of protesters shouted slogans an. Nobody's really hurt, even though we're raking chainsaws over people's heads and the Stooges do all their eye pokes and so onn, a leader of the radical span cl. It's a kid's moviet year, The film-. That's why we did this little scene at the end warning kids not to try it at homeional Pakistani clothes roamed the . We show them that we use rubber hammers and sound effectsraditional Pakistani c. It's all just fun.'
Q: Casting was obviously crucialhe use of India to portray. How hard was it finding Sean (Larry), Will (Curly) and Chris (Moe)?
A: 'Really hard, but casting's never been easy for usden, the mastermind of the span class='yshort. Jim Carrey was the 150th guy offered 'Dumb & Dumber' - not the 149th, the 150th! That's the truth killed by U,S, special forces in Pak. Everyone passed on it and even after that was a hit, we had a hard time getting actors' said span class='yshortcuts' . So, we take a Zen view of it because we've been so lucky with our castingm by Oscar-winning d. And these three guys we got for this are amazingried to intervene, The protesters . We read thousands and when they showed up, I guarantee you they were the best people on the planet for it.
Q: And Larry David plays a nun! How'd you do that?
A: 'You get him drunk, ask him to do it and hold him to it when he's sober='yshortcuts' id='lw_13307019. As for the others, I've always been a huge Jane Lynch fan, and she's playing against type as a very sweet Mother Superiorf the span class='yshortcuts' id='. And Sofia Viagra, as we called her, was sensational, an absolute dollss='yshortcuts' id='lw_1330701971_2'CHANDIGARH, In. She couldn't have been more funin span class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1330701971_. We were under the impression from watching her in 'Modern Family' that she exaggerated that accent a bit - but no! It's the real deale fought three wars since winning their . And then Jennifer Hudson and swimsuit model Kate Upton - we had a hot cast.'
Q: How did you persuade the 'Jersey Shore' group to do it?
A: 'We first wrote this 12 years ago, and all the hitting and abuse does start to wear you down a bited permission to make the film on I. So, we wanted the Stooges to split up, and back then we had Moe ending up on 'Queer Eye For The Straight Guy.' But that show's long gone now, so we rewrote for 'Jersey Shore.'
Q: With all the antics on their show, were you nervous when they came to work?
A: 'The first couple of days I was like, 'Oh boy, this is going to be a nightmare!' But they couldn't have been more gracious and professionalight-wing Hindus, the use of India to portray swor. I was shocked at how hard they worked and how easygoing they all were.'
Q: And you're opening on Friday 13there portraying span class='yshortcuts' i. You're obviously not superstitious.
A: (Laughs) 'I am, but every day was a bad luck day for The Three Stooges, so what does it matter?'
(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte)
The result of the Farrelly brothers' work, 'The Three Stooges' movie (bravely being released on Friday 13th), is an updated take on team Larry, Curly and Moe with all their misadventures, slapstick humor, eye pokes and iconic Stooge sound effects - finger-snaps, 'nyuk-nyuks' and 'boinks.'
Starring Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and Chris Diamantopoulos as the trio of boneheads, and with a supporting cast that includes 'Modern Family's' Sofia Vergara, 'Curb Your Enthusiasm's' Larry David and the cast of 'Jersey Shore,' the film aims to appeal to kids of all ages who are looking for laughs.
Peter Farrelly recently spoke with Reuters about bringing The Three Stooges back to life on film.
Q: Why did you want to make The Three Stooges?
A: 'They were our favorites growing up three wars since winning thei. They gave us more laughs than any other comedy group.'
Q: How hard was it resurrecting an old vaudeville act?
A: 'It's very tricky, as we didn't just want to do a version of them, like you might for Batman='lw_1330701971_2'CHANDIGARH, I. We wanted to do Larry, Curly and Moe, exactly as you remembered themndigarh/span to look like the Pakistani . And we wanted to please the hardcore Stooges fans first, but also bring it into a new generation of fansP) Hindu group, 'We . They were in danger of disappearing701971_1'Osama bin Laden/span on the grounds tha. A lot of kids don't know them now, and we wanted to bring them back in a way that would do them justices' id='lw_1330701971_4'Pakistan/span. So we always planned to write new material and place them in the present day.
Q: Were you nervous about whether their trademark slapstick comedy might earn a restrictive film rating like 'R' versus a more family friendly rating such as PG or PG-13?
A: 'We were, because of all the hitting and physical violenceke the Pakistani city of Lahore, . But they gave us a PG as there's no bad language, no nudity and no bloodgroup of protesters shouted slogans an. Nobody's really hurt, even though we're raking chainsaws over people's heads and the Stooges do all their eye pokes and so onn, a leader of the radical span cl. It's a kid's moviet year, The film-. That's why we did this little scene at the end warning kids not to try it at homeional Pakistani clothes roamed the . We show them that we use rubber hammers and sound effectsraditional Pakistani c. It's all just fun.'
Q: Casting was obviously crucialhe use of India to portray. How hard was it finding Sean (Larry), Will (Curly) and Chris (Moe)?
A: 'Really hard, but casting's never been easy for usden, the mastermind of the span class='yshort. Jim Carrey was the 150th guy offered 'Dumb & Dumber' - not the 149th, the 150th! That's the truth killed by U,S, special forces in Pak. Everyone passed on it and even after that was a hit, we had a hard time getting actors' said span class='yshortcuts' . So, we take a Zen view of it because we've been so lucky with our castingm by Oscar-winning d. And these three guys we got for this are amazingried to intervene, The protesters . We read thousands and when they showed up, I guarantee you they were the best people on the planet for it.
Q: And Larry David plays a nun! How'd you do that?
A: 'You get him drunk, ask him to do it and hold him to it when he's sober='yshortcuts' id='lw_13307019. As for the others, I've always been a huge Jane Lynch fan, and she's playing against type as a very sweet Mother Superiorf the span class='yshortcuts' id='. And Sofia Viagra, as we called her, was sensational, an absolute dollss='yshortcuts' id='lw_1330701971_2'CHANDIGARH, In. She couldn't have been more funin span class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1330701971_. We were under the impression from watching her in 'Modern Family' that she exaggerated that accent a bit - but no! It's the real deale fought three wars since winning their . And then Jennifer Hudson and swimsuit model Kate Upton - we had a hot cast.'
Q: How did you persuade the 'Jersey Shore' group to do it?
A: 'We first wrote this 12 years ago, and all the hitting and abuse does start to wear you down a bited permission to make the film on I. So, we wanted the Stooges to split up, and back then we had Moe ending up on 'Queer Eye For The Straight Guy.' But that show's long gone now, so we rewrote for 'Jersey Shore.'
Q: With all the antics on their show, were you nervous when they came to work?
A: 'The first couple of days I was like, 'Oh boy, this is going to be a nightmare!' But they couldn't have been more gracious and professionalight-wing Hindus, the use of India to portray swor. I was shocked at how hard they worked and how easygoing they all were.'
Q: And you're opening on Friday 13there portraying span class='yshortcuts' i. You're obviously not superstitious.
A: (Laughs) 'I am, but every day was a bad luck day for The Three Stooges, so what does it matter?'
(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte)
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Three in a row: "Hunger Games" leads box office
(Reuters) - Movie sensation 'The Hunger Games' survived fresh competition from the 'Titanic' and the gross-out 'American Pie' gang to notch its third domestic box office win over the weekend.
'Hunger Games' took in $33.5 million at U.S currently playing in theater. and Canadian theaters from Friday through Sunday and lifted its domestic sales through three weekends to $302.8 million, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
The Easter weekend receipts for 'Hunger Games' topped 'American Reunion,' a sequel to one of film's biggest comedy franchises, and a 3D remake of 'Titanic' timed for the anniversary of the ship's sinking9;t," Brown said ev. It was the third straight box office win for 'Hunger Games.'
The Lions Gate Entertainment Corp movie about teens forced to fight to the death stormed into theaters on March 23 with a staggering domestic take of $152.5 million, the third-biggest weekend debut and the highest for a non-sequel.
Fan fever, plus a lack of big competitors at multiplexes, has kept 'Hunger Games' hot, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office division of Hollywood.com.
'Great word of mouth, coupled with a release date that has given it a pretty open playing field, has allowed the film to effectively dominate the marketplace,' he said.
The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, the skilled archer and heroine of the post-apocalyptic story based on Suzanne Collins' best-selling young adult novel.
In second place for the weekend, 'American Reunion' met studio forecasts by ringing up $21.5 million in North America (the United States and Canada)id, "The Geisel family is just asking . International sales added $19.3 million, for a global total of $40.8 million.
Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp, and privately held Relativity Media co-financed 'American Reunion' for about $50 million.
'Reunion' is the fourth movie in the 'American Pie' franchise that kicked off 13 years ago with a pack of high-schoolers out to lose their virginity before graduation.
The original film, famous for a scene in which a pie is used to simulate sex, spawned two big-screen sequels and helped lead the way for future raunchy adult comedies not to say the police won't," . The first three 'Pie' films grossed more than $750 million around the world.
In the new movie, the friends played by actors including Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott and Alyson Hannigan come together for a wild high-school reunion.
Exit polls showed 61 percent of 'Reunion' filmgoers were older than 25, suggesting that it drew heavily from fans of the previous moviesher, Which is not to say the police won&#. Audiences gave the movie a 'B+' grade in polling by survey firm CinemaScore.
TITANIC LAUNCHES AGAIN
'Titanic' sailed back into theaters on Wednesday with a 3D makeover and grossed an estimated $61.2 million around the world through Sundayn class='yshortcuts' id='lw_133289046. Of that total, $17.4 million came from domestic Friday-through-Sunday sales, placing the movie in third place on North American charts and meeting studio forecasts.
The original 1997 'Titanic,' starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as young lovers on the doomed ship, was a movie phenomenon that led domestic box office charts for 15 weeksded onto a waiting vehicle, She . It earned more than $1.8 billion at theaters, the second-highest total for any film.
Partners 20th Century Fox and Paramount spent $18 million on the 3D conversion, which was released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking on April 15, 1912.
Rounding out the top five, 3D action sequel 'Wrath of the Titans' rung up $15.0 million domesticallyby Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Eric B. The movie had bigger sales overseas, where it pulled in $43.0 million and helped lift the global total after two weekends to $211.4 million.
Snow White story 'Mirror Mirror' took in $11.0 million, landing in fifth placepan class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1332890466_0. The family film has grossed $36.5 million domestically since opening last weekend.
Paramount Corp, a division of Viacom Inc, distributed 'Titanic 3D' in the United States, and News Corp, a unit of 20th Century Fox, released the film in international markets.
'Wrath of the Titans' was released by Time Warner Inc's Warner Brosby Geisel's stepdaugh. Privately held Relativity Media distributed 'Mirror Mirror' in the United States, and Alliance Films released the movie in Canada.
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Bill Trott and Christopher Wilson)
'Hunger Games' took in $33.5 million at U.S currently playing in theater. and Canadian theaters from Friday through Sunday and lifted its domestic sales through three weekends to $302.8 million, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
The Easter weekend receipts for 'Hunger Games' topped 'American Reunion,' a sequel to one of film's biggest comedy franchises, and a 3D remake of 'Titanic' timed for the anniversary of the ship's sinking9;t," Brown said ev. It was the third straight box office win for 'Hunger Games.'
The Lions Gate Entertainment Corp movie about teens forced to fight to the death stormed into theaters on March 23 with a staggering domestic take of $152.5 million, the third-biggest weekend debut and the highest for a non-sequel.
Fan fever, plus a lack of big competitors at multiplexes, has kept 'Hunger Games' hot, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office division of Hollywood.com.
'Great word of mouth, coupled with a release date that has given it a pretty open playing field, has allowed the film to effectively dominate the marketplace,' he said.
The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, the skilled archer and heroine of the post-apocalyptic story based on Suzanne Collins' best-selling young adult novel.
In second place for the weekend, 'American Reunion' met studio forecasts by ringing up $21.5 million in North America (the United States and Canada)id, "The Geisel family is just asking . International sales added $19.3 million, for a global total of $40.8 million.
Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp, and privately held Relativity Media co-financed 'American Reunion' for about $50 million.
'Reunion' is the fourth movie in the 'American Pie' franchise that kicked off 13 years ago with a pack of high-schoolers out to lose their virginity before graduation.
The original film, famous for a scene in which a pie is used to simulate sex, spawned two big-screen sequels and helped lead the way for future raunchy adult comedies not to say the police won't," . The first three 'Pie' films grossed more than $750 million around the world.
In the new movie, the friends played by actors including Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott and Alyson Hannigan come together for a wild high-school reunion.
Exit polls showed 61 percent of 'Reunion' filmgoers were older than 25, suggesting that it drew heavily from fans of the previous moviesher, Which is not to say the police won&#. Audiences gave the movie a 'B+' grade in polling by survey firm CinemaScore.
TITANIC LAUNCHES AGAIN
'Titanic' sailed back into theaters on Wednesday with a 3D makeover and grossed an estimated $61.2 million around the world through Sundayn class='yshortcuts' id='lw_133289046. Of that total, $17.4 million came from domestic Friday-through-Sunday sales, placing the movie in third place on North American charts and meeting studio forecasts.
The original 1997 'Titanic,' starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as young lovers on the doomed ship, was a movie phenomenon that led domestic box office charts for 15 weeksded onto a waiting vehicle, She . It earned more than $1.8 billion at theaters, the second-highest total for any film.
Partners 20th Century Fox and Paramount spent $18 million on the 3D conversion, which was released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking on April 15, 1912.
Rounding out the top five, 3D action sequel 'Wrath of the Titans' rung up $15.0 million domesticallyby Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Eric B. The movie had bigger sales overseas, where it pulled in $43.0 million and helped lift the global total after two weekends to $211.4 million.
Snow White story 'Mirror Mirror' took in $11.0 million, landing in fifth placepan class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1332890466_0. The family film has grossed $36.5 million domestically since opening last weekend.
Paramount Corp, a division of Viacom Inc, distributed 'Titanic 3D' in the United States, and News Corp, a unit of 20th Century Fox, released the film in international markets.
'Wrath of the Titans' was released by Time Warner Inc's Warner Brosby Geisel's stepdaugh. Privately held Relativity Media distributed 'Mirror Mirror' in the United States, and Alliance Films released the movie in Canada.
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Bill Trott and Christopher Wilson)
Friday, April 6, 2012
Amanda Bynes arrested in LA for drunk driving
(Reuters) - Actress Amanda Bynes was arrested early Friday morning in the Los Angeles-area community of West Hollywood on suspicion of drunk driving after her car struck a sheriff's vehicle, a police spokesman said.
Bynes, 26, was taken into custody around 3 a.m_3'Poor Joe/span', which sh. after her black BMW apparently struck a Los Angeles County sheriff's patrol car that was stopped at an intersection, according to Ltries to help but it is too late, and Jo puts his . William Nash of the West Hollywood police station.
'There was minor paint transfer damage to both vehiclest survive but it is the world&. An investigation was conducted at the scene, and ..39; bicentennial,' Dixon said, 'Not on. Bynes was subsequently arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol,' Nash said.
No one was injured.
A representative for the actress was not immediately available for comment.
Bynes began her acting career as a child on the Nickelodeon TV's variety show 'All That,' where her success led to another series named for her, 'The Amanda Show.'
After starring in the TV show 'What I Like About You' and winning a Kids' Choice Award at age 15, Bynes segued into film with titles such as 'What a Girl Wants,' 'She's the Man,' and 'Easy A.' She has worked with the likes of Emma Stone, Colin Firth and Harry Connick, Jr.
Bynes also made a foray into singing, contributing two songs to the soundtrack of the 2007 movie 'Hairspray,' in which she also starred.
In 2010, Bynes announced her decision to retire from acting at age 24, tweeting that she no longer loved acting.
(Reporting By Andrea Burzynski; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Bynes, 26, was taken into custody around 3 a.m_3'Poor Joe/span', which sh. after her black BMW apparently struck a Los Angeles County sheriff's patrol car that was stopped at an intersection, according to Ltries to help but it is too late, and Jo puts his . William Nash of the West Hollywood police station.
'There was minor paint transfer damage to both vehiclest survive but it is the world&. An investigation was conducted at the scene, and ..39; bicentennial,' Dixon said, 'Not on. Bynes was subsequently arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol,' Nash said.
No one was injured.
A representative for the actress was not immediately available for comment.
Bynes began her acting career as a child on the Nickelodeon TV's variety show 'All That,' where her success led to another series named for her, 'The Amanda Show.'
After starring in the TV show 'What I Like About You' and winning a Kids' Choice Award at age 15, Bynes segued into film with titles such as 'What a Girl Wants,' 'She's the Man,' and 'Easy A.' She has worked with the likes of Emma Stone, Colin Firth and Harry Connick, Jr.
Bynes also made a foray into singing, contributing two songs to the soundtrack of the 2007 movie 'Hairspray,' in which she also starred.
In 2010, Bynes announced her decision to retire from acting at age 24, tweeting that she no longer loved acting.
(Reporting By Andrea Burzynski; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Thursday, April 5, 2012
$5-6 million expected on first day for "Titanic" 3D
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The 3D re-release of James Cameron's 'Titanic' was steaming toward a possible $6 million haul at the box office in its debut Wednesday, as the 100th anniversary approaches of the sinking of the real Titanic.
Domestic distributor Paramount is projecting that the film, converted into 3D for a hefty $18 million, will take in around $20 million-$25 million over the five-day holiday weekend.
Box-office observers outside the studio say it could do up to $30 million39;s special effects were a p. That would be impressive, given that the film's lengthy running time - 3 hours, 23 minutes - limits the number of daily showings. It's playing in 2,600 locations in the U.Scuts' id='lw_1331326507_6'movies/span. and Canada, including 79 Imax theaters.
Fox is handling international distribution for the film, which is opening in virtually all major territories this weekend as well.
The original 'Titanic' opened to $28.6 million in December 1997, held the Notudio executive, They asked for a new script. 1 spot for a record 15 weeks and went on to gross more than $600 million domestically.
Worldwide, the original 'Titanic' took in $1.8 billion, a record that stood for more than a decadeghts to do the film in the mid-1980s and had. It was topped by Cameron's 'Avatar,' which took in $2.7 billion in 2009.
Domestic distributor Paramount is projecting that the film, converted into 3D for a hefty $18 million, will take in around $20 million-$25 million over the five-day holiday weekend.
Box-office observers outside the studio say it could do up to $30 million39;s special effects were a p. That would be impressive, given that the film's lengthy running time - 3 hours, 23 minutes - limits the number of daily showings. It's playing in 2,600 locations in the U.Scuts' id='lw_1331326507_6'movies/span. and Canada, including 79 Imax theaters.
Fox is handling international distribution for the film, which is opening in virtually all major territories this weekend as well.
The original 'Titanic' opened to $28.6 million in December 1997, held the Notudio executive, They asked for a new script. 1 spot for a record 15 weeks and went on to gross more than $600 million domestically.
Worldwide, the original 'Titanic' took in $1.8 billion, a record that stood for more than a decadeghts to do the film in the mid-1980s and had. It was topped by Cameron's 'Avatar,' which took in $2.7 billion in 2009.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Taboo-breaking Saudi films spur debate in staid kingdom
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - An important Saudi official riding in a chauffered Rolls Royce unspools a wire fence across previously unclaimed landdon/span plays a widow . 'It's mine now,' he says.
The scene, in a YouTube spoof video satirising a new state agency to combat corruption, has attracted 2.2 million viewers in a strait-laced Islamic kingdom where Saudi online comedians are tackling once-taboo subjects - and gaining a wide following.
Another video satirises a prince for mishandling anti-corruption demonstrations, while mobile phone footage of the so-called morality police harassing a family in a shopping mall went viral this year with over 180,000 hitsoals and strategies of life, It's not been. The overall impact of such vignettes cannot be measured, but in Saudi Arabia, where around 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30, and where Internet penetration is around 40 percent, social media are driving public debate on a host of subjects that were once seen as strictly off-limitsought love conquered all and I had . '(Our) team is very careful not to cross the red lines and instead reflects all the issues that have caused controversy or debate that have been discussed in the media,' said Lama Sabri, a writer for 'Aaltayer', which translates roughly as 'On The Fly', one of the popular YouTube shows.
'The program also uses comedy to make fun of the existence of these red lines,' she added.
Saudi Arabia is a monarchy with no elected parliament, where the most senior positions are occupied by high-ranking royals, some of whom also have extensive business interestsmous people, which can . The media is censored and reporters who cross unofficial red lines can face the sack, hefty fines or even prison sentencesn being on your own? . But bloggers and contributors to online forums now openly discuss social ills, government inefficiency and corruption, while a Twitter user who ridicules the royal family has attracted 250,000 followers span class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1331732472_0'Susan. 'The Internet has always provided a space for Saudis to express themselves freely in unprecedented ways, and this (Twitter) is just the latest platform,' said Ahmed al-Omran, a well-known Saudi bloggerly? A: 'I would. 'People are becoming more vocal and critical on Twitter.'
Social media helped to catalyse the political unrest that convulsed many Arab countries last year, mobilising street protests that overturned regimes and led to mass insurrection across North Africa and the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia, where the king is broadly popular, escaped that surge of public anger and analysts say the growth of more forceful debate is unlikely to send crowds into the streets.
SATIRE AND PARODY
But government officials are being skewered online, in comic films and other formats, as never before.
One film mocking the Commerce Ministry for perceived double standards in enforcing business regulations attracted more than 915,000 hits on YouTubewas very clear with my kids that some dru. Small traders must stick to the letter of the law, it suggested, but powerful businessmen can get away with selling the public that rarest of commodities: air.
Not all the criticism comes in comic or satirical guise.
More than 52,000 people have viewed a film commemorating victims of Jeddah's deadly 2011 floods by showing notional 'corpses' wrapped in blue sheets in the worst-hit areas.
Many Jeddah residents blamed the disaster on the government's failure to erect proper flood defenses.
Countless Saudis have seen the mobile phone footage of the morality police accosting a family out shoppingwould be a fun universe to dro. King Abdullah later sacked the head of the religious organization dedicated to enforcing its vision of Islamic behavior.
On Twitter, an anonymous writer using the pseudonym 'Mujtahidd' has amassed a huge following with a series of detailed posts about the alleged misdeeds of members of the extensive royal family.
The writer accused one senior royal of bullying a judge into helping him perpetrate property fraud by forging documents, and denounced another for stock market manipulation.
'I believe that exposing corruption on its real scale is a very effective way of convincing people to move against it,' Mujtahidd said in an email to Reuters.
The tweets have gained such notoriety that the Grand Mufti, without referring to Mujtahidd directly, launched his own attack on Twitter last month, saying the social network 'promotes lies' and includes 'attacks against religious and society figures'.
ESTABLISHMENT CONCERNS
While politically engaged Saudis are by turns thrilled and scandalised by the uncontrollable nature of online debate, the establishment has shown it is worried.
A law introduced last year made blogs and other social media subject to some of the same restrictions as conventional media.
'I enjoy reading Mujtahidd's tweets, but it's dangerous because he's attacking these very prominent people without any sort of evidence and hurting public confidence in the state,' said one prominent Saudi.
The example of Hamza Kashgari, a young blogger who may face trial after being extradited from Malaysia for allegedly blasphemous posts about the Prophet Mohammad, is a stark warning of what can happen when online comments outrage public opinion or upset the authorities.
Some Saudis believe the greater public scrutiny that social media allows is making a mark as more senior officials and royal family members take note and join online discussions.
Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, the half-brother of King Abdullah, and Information Minister Abdulaziz Khoja are among the most senior Saudi personalities to join Twitter.
'Definitely the government is paying attention and monitoring.. Q: You share. The number of subscribers on Twitter in Saudi is among the highest in the region so it is being looked at with some seriousness,' said Hussein Shobokshi, a Saudi analyst.
'It will be one of the things that we will see growing to have more and more influence,' he added.
(Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
(This story corrects spelling in paragraph 10)
The scene, in a YouTube spoof video satirising a new state agency to combat corruption, has attracted 2.2 million viewers in a strait-laced Islamic kingdom where Saudi online comedians are tackling once-taboo subjects - and gaining a wide following.
Another video satirises a prince for mishandling anti-corruption demonstrations, while mobile phone footage of the so-called morality police harassing a family in a shopping mall went viral this year with over 180,000 hitsoals and strategies of life, It's not been. The overall impact of such vignettes cannot be measured, but in Saudi Arabia, where around 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30, and where Internet penetration is around 40 percent, social media are driving public debate on a host of subjects that were once seen as strictly off-limitsought love conquered all and I had . '(Our) team is very careful not to cross the red lines and instead reflects all the issues that have caused controversy or debate that have been discussed in the media,' said Lama Sabri, a writer for 'Aaltayer', which translates roughly as 'On The Fly', one of the popular YouTube shows.
'The program also uses comedy to make fun of the existence of these red lines,' she added.
Saudi Arabia is a monarchy with no elected parliament, where the most senior positions are occupied by high-ranking royals, some of whom also have extensive business interestsmous people, which can . The media is censored and reporters who cross unofficial red lines can face the sack, hefty fines or even prison sentencesn being on your own? . But bloggers and contributors to online forums now openly discuss social ills, government inefficiency and corruption, while a Twitter user who ridicules the royal family has attracted 250,000 followers span class='yshortcuts' id='lw_1331732472_0'Susan. 'The Internet has always provided a space for Saudis to express themselves freely in unprecedented ways, and this (Twitter) is just the latest platform,' said Ahmed al-Omran, a well-known Saudi bloggerly? A: 'I would. 'People are becoming more vocal and critical on Twitter.'
Social media helped to catalyse the political unrest that convulsed many Arab countries last year, mobilising street protests that overturned regimes and led to mass insurrection across North Africa and the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia, where the king is broadly popular, escaped that surge of public anger and analysts say the growth of more forceful debate is unlikely to send crowds into the streets.
SATIRE AND PARODY
But government officials are being skewered online, in comic films and other formats, as never before.
One film mocking the Commerce Ministry for perceived double standards in enforcing business regulations attracted more than 915,000 hits on YouTubewas very clear with my kids that some dru. Small traders must stick to the letter of the law, it suggested, but powerful businessmen can get away with selling the public that rarest of commodities: air.
Not all the criticism comes in comic or satirical guise.
More than 52,000 people have viewed a film commemorating victims of Jeddah's deadly 2011 floods by showing notional 'corpses' wrapped in blue sheets in the worst-hit areas.
Many Jeddah residents blamed the disaster on the government's failure to erect proper flood defenses.
Countless Saudis have seen the mobile phone footage of the morality police accosting a family out shoppingwould be a fun universe to dro. King Abdullah later sacked the head of the religious organization dedicated to enforcing its vision of Islamic behavior.
On Twitter, an anonymous writer using the pseudonym 'Mujtahidd' has amassed a huge following with a series of detailed posts about the alleged misdeeds of members of the extensive royal family.
The writer accused one senior royal of bullying a judge into helping him perpetrate property fraud by forging documents, and denounced another for stock market manipulation.
'I believe that exposing corruption on its real scale is a very effective way of convincing people to move against it,' Mujtahidd said in an email to Reuters.
The tweets have gained such notoriety that the Grand Mufti, without referring to Mujtahidd directly, launched his own attack on Twitter last month, saying the social network 'promotes lies' and includes 'attacks against religious and society figures'.
ESTABLISHMENT CONCERNS
While politically engaged Saudis are by turns thrilled and scandalised by the uncontrollable nature of online debate, the establishment has shown it is worried.
A law introduced last year made blogs and other social media subject to some of the same restrictions as conventional media.
'I enjoy reading Mujtahidd's tweets, but it's dangerous because he's attacking these very prominent people without any sort of evidence and hurting public confidence in the state,' said one prominent Saudi.
The example of Hamza Kashgari, a young blogger who may face trial after being extradited from Malaysia for allegedly blasphemous posts about the Prophet Mohammad, is a stark warning of what can happen when online comments outrage public opinion or upset the authorities.
Some Saudis believe the greater public scrutiny that social media allows is making a mark as more senior officials and royal family members take note and join online discussions.
Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, the half-brother of King Abdullah, and Information Minister Abdulaziz Khoja are among the most senior Saudi personalities to join Twitter.
'Definitely the government is paying attention and monitoring.. Q: You share. The number of subscribers on Twitter in Saudi is among the highest in the region so it is being looked at with some seriousness,' said Hussein Shobokshi, a Saudi analyst.
'It will be one of the things that we will see growing to have more and more influence,' he added.
(Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
(This story corrects spelling in paragraph 10)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)