Monsters party tops box office with "Hotel Transylvania"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Family film 'Hotel Transylvania' brought new life to movie box offices with a chart-topping $43 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales during the weekend, a record for a September opening.

The animated 3-D movie featuring the voices of Adam Sandler and Selena Gomez finished ahead of new science fiction film 'Looper,' which took in $21.2 million from Friday through Sunday.

The police drama 'End of Watch,' which tied with 'House at the End of the Street' for the top spot last week, landed in third place with $8 million, according to studio estimates.

The big turnout for the top films helped revive a box office that has struggled through several weeks of sluggish attendance.

In 'Hotel Transylvania,' Frankenstein, the Invisible Man and other monsters gather for a party at a high-end resort operated by Dracula. Their celebration is disrupted when a boy discovers the hotel and falls in love with Dracula's daughter but must deal her overprotective father.

The film's domestic sales far exceeded distributor Sony Corp's prediction for $25 million-plus from the North American (U.S. and Canadian) market. The movie added $8.1 million from international markets, for a global debut of $51.1 million.

'It's absolutely an incredible result,' said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony Corp's Sony Pictures studio, adding that the studio had hoped for something in the $30 million range, which he noted 'in this market would have been extraordinary.'

The hefty take easily beat the September opening record of $35.65 million for 'Sweet Home Alabama,' which had stood for 10 years.

'Hotel Transylvania' cost $85 million to produce.

'LOOPER'

Sony also distributed second-place film 'Looper,' a time travel story about a man charged with killing an older version of himself. The movie starring Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt earned rave reviews from critics with a 93 percent positive rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

Sony had predicted ticket sales of up to $20 million domestically for 'Looper.' Endgame Entertainment paid for the film's production.

'To see it open as it did bodes well for how well this movie will play in the future,' said Bruer.

Looper, a Chinese co-production, performed especially well in China, where the take was on par with, and could exceed, even the U.S. total, Endgame's chief executive James Stern said.

'We don't have the final box office tally' due to a national holiday in China, but the numbers are pointing toward 'the very first time in history that China would be world's leading market for an international film,' said Stern.

The weekend's other new movie, 'Won't Back Down,' stars Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal as two determined mothers who try to transform their children's failing inner city school. The film started off with $2.7 million over the weekend, in 10th place.

Rounding out the top five, Clint Eastwood baseball film 'Trouble with the Curve' scored $7.5 million to take the No. 4 slot, while horror flick 'House at the End of the Street' earned $7.2 million during its second weekend in theaters.

New comedy 'Pitch Perfect,' about a girls' singing group, pulled in an impressive $5.2 million in a limited debut on 335 screens for the sixth spot. Distributor Universal Studios chose a smaller opening in hopes of generating buzz ahead of a wider release on October 5.

Sony Corp's movie studio released 'Hotel Transylvania' and 'Looper.' 'Won't Back Down' was distributed by News Corp's 20th Century Fox studio and produced by Walden Media.

'End of Watch' was released by Open Road Films, a joint venture between owners Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc. Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. distributed 'Trouble With the Curve.'

Comcast Corp's Universal Studios released 'Pitch Perfect.' 'Trouble with the Curve' was distributed by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. unit.

(Additional reporting by Chris Michaud)



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Monsters party atop box office in "Hotel Transylvania"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Family film 'Hotel Transylvania' brought new life to movie box offices with a chart-topping $43 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales during the weekend, a record for a September opening.

The animated 3-D movie featuring the voices of Adam Sandler and Selena Gomez finished ahead of new science fiction film 'Looper,' which took in $21.2 million from Friday through Sunday.

The police drama 'End of Watch,' which was in a tie with 'House at the End of the Street' for the top spot last week, landed in third place with $8 million, according to studio estimates.

The big turnout for the top films helped revive a box office that has struggled through several weeks of sluggish attendance.

In 'Hotel Transylvania,' Frankenstein, the Invisible Man and other monsters gather for a party at a high-end resort operated by Dracula. Their celebration is disrupted when a boy discovers the hotel and falls in love with Dracula's daughter but must deal her overprotective father.

The film's domestic sales far exceeded distributor Sony Corp's prediction for $25 million-plus from the North American (U.S. and Canadian) market. The movie added $8.1 million from international markets, for a global debut of $51.1 million.

'It's absolutely an incredible result,' said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony Corp's Sony Pictures studio, adding that the studio had hopes for something in the $30 million range, which he noted 'in this market would have been extraordinary.'

The hefty take easily beat the September opening record of $35.65 million for 'Sweet Home Alabama,' which had stood for 10 years.

'Hotel Transylvania' cost $85 million to produce.

Sony also distributed second-place film 'Looper,' a time travel story about a man charged with killing an older version of himself. The movie starring Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt earned rave reviews from critics with a 93 percent positive rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

Sony had predicted ticket sales of up to $20 million domestically for 'Looper.' Endgame Entertainment paid for the film's production.

'To see it open as it did bodes well for how well this movie will play in the future,' said Bruer.

The weekend's other new movie, 'Won't Back Down,' stars Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal as two determined mothers who try to transform their children's failing inner city school. The film started off with $2.7 million over the weekend, in 10th place.

Rounding out the top five, Clint Eastwood baseball film 'Trouble with the Curve' scored $7.5 million to take the No. 4 slot, while horror flick 'House at the End of the Street' earned $7.2 million during its second weekend in theaters.

New comedy 'Pitch Perfect,' about a girls' singing group, pulled in an impressive $5.2 million in a limited debut on 335 screens for the sixth spot. Distributor Universal Studios chose a smaller opening in hopes of generating buzz ahead of a wider release on October 5.

Sony Corp's movie studio released 'Hotel Transylvania' and 'Looper.' 'Won't Back Down' was distributed by News Corp's 20th Century Fox studio and produced by Walden Media.

'End of Watch' was released by Open Road Films, a joint venture between owners Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc. Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. distributed 'Trouble With the Curve.'

Comcast Corp's Universal Studios released 'Pitch Perfect.' 'Trouble with the Curve' was distributed by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. unit. (Additional reporting by Chris Michaud)



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Ang Lee's 3D 'Life of Pi' opens NY film festival

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Once considered impossible to make, the big-screen 3D adaptation of the bestselling novel 'Life of Pi' opened the 50th New York Film Festival on Friday, marking another advance in digital filmmaking.

The movie's director, Ang Lee, hit the red carpet at the big-budget movie's world premiere, with the black-tie audience getting the first glimpse of the spiritual story of a boy stranded on a boat with a tiger. It kicked off the screenings of more than 160 films over 17 days at the New York festival.

One of the world's most respected movie showcases, the festival typically emphasizes the art of cinema by focusing on the best films from the year's European festivals rather than Hollywood-style premieres. But the event is still seen as an important step in gathering buzz as Hollywood's awards season gets going.

More splashy world premieres than usual are on this year's schedule, including 'Sopranos' maker David Chase's film feature debut, 'Not Fade Away' and Robert Zemeckis' first live-action film 'Flight,' starring Denzel Washington, which will close the festival.

'Life of Pi' uses computer-generated imagery to bring a cinematic feel to the tale of a Hindu boy who survives a shipwreck and gets stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days with a spotted hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker.

It is director Lee's riskiest film to date, even after 2005's 'Brokeback Mountain,' for which he won the best director Oscar. That film generated controversy for breaking barriers about gay portrayals on screen.

The 57-year-old Taiwanese born-director told the premiere on Friday night the film took four years to make and he joked about learning the hard way the difficulties of making a film in 3D predominantly set in the middle of the ocean portraying a host of zoo animals.

''Life of Pi' was such an incredible story I just couldn't help myself, I had to tell this story,' he said to audience applause. 'This was an incredible journey for me.'

DIRECTOR FOUND NOVEL 'MIND-BOGGLING'

With a budget of nearly $100 million, the film that opens in November in the United States is considered one of the riskier holiday season films.

Early reviews posted on Friday were mixed. The Hollywood reporter called it 'exceptionally beautiful' and appealing to diverse audiences. Variety called it visually stunning but lacking in dramatic tension and grit.

Lee told reporters earlier on Friday that he read the novel soon after its release in 2001, and found it 'mind-boggling.' But he added, 'I remember thinking to myself, nobody in their right mind' would transfer it to film due to the technical difficulties of filming the story.

Spurred on by its spiritual message, Lee agreed to make the movie and saw 3D as the only way to realize it, even before 'Avatar' in 2009 broke through as a box-office bonanza for 3D movies.

'Life of Pi' stars novice Indian actor Suraj Sharma, who was plucked from more than 3,000 hopefuls. The book's author, Canadian writer Yann Martel, said he never imagined the film adaptation. 'It was cinematic in my mind but I never thought I would actually see it on the screen, that it would be too complicated to do,' he said.

Other films looking to gain favor with critics and audiences coming off showings at earlier festivals include Michael Haneke's 'Amour,' Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's 'Beyond the Hills,' Noah Baumbach's black-and-white ode to New York, 'Frances Ha,' starring Greta Gerwig, and Chile director Pablo Larrain's 'No.'

(Editing by Richard Chang and Peter Cooney)

Schwarzenegger calls affair with housekeeper "stupidest thing"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Arnold Schwarzenegger, talking about his affair with a family housekeeper for the first time in a television interview, said it was 'the stupidest thing' he did in his marriage to Maria Shriver and said it 'inflicted tremendous pain' on his family.

In a '60 Minutes' interview with reporter Leslie Stahl due to air on September 30, Schwarzenegger admitted that he lied to Shriver about the affair. CBS released a clip of the interview on Friday.

'I think it was the stupidest thing I've done in the whole relationship. It was terrible. I inflicted tremendous pain on Maria and unbelievable pain on the kids,' Schwarzenegger said.

Schwarzenegger, 65, had been quiet in public about his affair with their housekeeper Mildred Baena. He and Baena had a son, Joseph, who grew up not knowing Schwarzenegger was his father until the scandal made headlines last year.

After the revelations, Shriver and Schwarzenegger began proceedings to end their 25-year marriage. They have four children together.

The interview coincides with the October 1 release of Austrian-born Schwarzenegger's autobiography, 'Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life.' He told Stahl that he was determined to write a book that included his 'failures' as well as his successes in bodybuilding, film and politics.

Since his term as Republican governor ended, Schwarzenegger has returned to movies with 'The Expendables 2' last August, and he has five more films in the pipeline. He also inaugurated a global policy think tank in his name at the University of Southern California's Los Angeles campus.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy)



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Jessica Chastain takes another risk in her meteoric rise from obscurity

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - From 'Take Shelter' to 'The Debt,' Jessica Chastain is an actress who feeds off risks.

But in a still relatively young career that has seen her push the boundaries while working with demanding auteurs like Terrence Malick and Kathryn Bigelow, the Oscar-nominee is about to embark on her biggest challenge yet - taking on the iconic role of Catherine Sloper in a revival of 'The Heiress.'

The lonely spinster at the heart of the tragedy has been a favorite of actresses over the years, with the likes of Olivia de Havilland, Cherry Jones and Jane Alexander putting their indelible mark on the character. Chastain insists that despite making her Broadway debut in a play associated with such formidable women, she is not intimidated.

'I don't feel trepidation because what it shows is what an exquisite role Catherine is,' Chastain told TheWrap. 'There's no way my Catherine will be the same as Olivia de Havilland's Catherine or Cherry Jones' or Jane Alexander's. We're such different women with different sensibilities. I don't feel the nervousness of it, because I could never be the wonder that is them and I just have to find who Catherine is to me.'

Still, Catherine, a plain-looking woman, who is dominated by her emotionally frigid father and manipulated by her caddish suitor, seems a physical stretch for the luminous Chastain.

Unlike say Jones, a powerful stage presence who is nonetheless severe looking, Chastain, with her fiery red mane of hair, alabaster skin and dazzling, fulsome smile is no one's idea of dowdy.

Moisés Kaufman, the two-time Tony-nominated director and playwright who will be staging the revival, insists he was most concerned with finding an actress with the emotional intelligence to play Catherine.

'To me it was more important for the actress to be able to understand the sense of the character,' Kaufman said. 'We're in the theater. In the theater we transform ourselves. As long as you're true to the character than plain is in the eye of the beholder.'

Previews begin on October 6 with the show set to open on November 1 for a limited run.

When TheWrap caught up with Chastain, she only had a week of rehearsals under her belt and admitted she was still finding her way to the character. Her co-stars - an august group that includes such theater and film veterans as two-time Tony winner Judith Ivey and Oscar-nominee David Strathairn along with 'Downton Abbey' heartthrob Dan Stevens - insist that Chastain is already making the role her own.

'I think she's interested in finding this paper thin frailty that is wrapped around a steely core,' Stevens, who is also making his Broadway debut in the play, told TheWrap.

For Ivey, who previously appeared in 'Washington Square,' Agnieszka Holland's 1997 film adaptation of the story, Chastain has begun to unveil a unique spin on the role.

'She is finding the gentility of this young woman and the ignorance of her in a way I've never seen it interpreted before,' Ivey said.

The rewards for getting Catherine Sloper right are substantial. De Havilland won an Oscar for her portrayal of the heartbroken heroine, while Jones scored a Tony award. It's a role that charts Catherine's emergence from a timid creature, smitten with a man who only wants her for her money, to a colder and more calculating woman, who knows how to operate in an oppressive society.

Although 'Washington Square,' the Henry James novella that inspired the play, was written in 1880 and adapted for the stage in 1947, the revival's cast says that Catherine's nascent feminism will allow the play to stay fresh for a newer generation of theatergoers.

'I find her so modern,' Chastain said. 'It's shocking to me that this adaptation was written in the 1940s. For her at the end of the play to stand alone and believe it's OK not to be married - for 1940 to have a woman be independent in that way and make decisions without the influence of a man - I find that shocking. Thirty years from now, this story and this play will still be relevant.'

When it comes to attracting a crowd, Chastain already has one thing in her favor - the curiosity factor. Of all the movie stars treading the boards on Broadway this fall, a group that includes Al Pacino and Katie Holmes, perhaps none is more hotly anticipated than Chastain. That's somewhat surprising given that she is relatively jejune to the New York theater scene. But, as Kaufman points out, Chastain spent four years at Julliard studying Chekhov and Shakespeare.

She has also appeared the 2006 Los Angeles Wadsworth Theatre production of 'Salome' opposite Al Pacino and in the 2004 off-Broadway production of 'Rodney's Wife' with Strathairn.

If she pulls off 'The Heiress' it will be another triumph on Chastain's meteoric rise out of obscurity, a journey that began less than two years ago. Thanks to a remarkable string of performances in the likes of 'Tree of Life' and 'Coriolanus' capped off by an Oscar nomination for her work in 'The Help,' Chastain established herself as one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood, starring in eight high-profile films and doing voice work for the latest 'Madagascar' sequel. She next appears in Bigelow's 'Zero Dark Thirty,' a true-life thriller about the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

With that run of success, it would be tempting for Chastain to double down on her film work, but the actress says she views her Broadway stint as more than just a one-off.

'I''m always going to do both theater and film, always,' Chastain said.

'I love theater and I love the ensemble feeling of it. I love the community. I love being in New York. I love the idea of finishing a show and then seeing people from other shows and then all leaving for a late night dinner, but you know this is my first time so we'll see how it goes.'



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Tom Rothman to Join Steven Spielberg on "Robopocalypse"

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Countering recent rumors that Steven Spielberg may not even direct 'Robopocalypse,' DreamWorks issued a press release Monday saying that Spielberg would direct and produce the movie and that Tom Rothman is coming on board also as a producer.

The film, a DreamWorks and Twentieth Century Fox co-production, will begin principal photography in early 2013 and will be released on April 25, 2014 worldwide. The Walt Disney Studio's Touchstone Pictures will distribute the film domestically with Twentieth Century Fox handling international distribution.

Exploring the fate of the human race following a robot uprising, 'Robopocalypse' is being adapted for the screen by Drew Goddard and is based on the novel of the same name by Daniel H. Wilson. DreamWorks acquired the rights to Wilson's unpublished manuscript in November 2009. Published by Doubleday on June 8, 2011, the book soon appeared on the New York Times best-sellers' list.

'When someone like Tom is a free agent, you snatch him up fast,' Spielberg said in a statement. 'He has proven himself to be a necessity of this industry. At Fox he had already been an enthusiastic partner on 'Robopocalypse,' and it is to our advantage that he would come produce this film with me.'

Rothman recently resigned after 18 years at Twentieth Century Fox, the last 12 as Chairman and CEO.

'If you are in politics, you dream of a call from the White House, in baseball, from the Yankees, in movies, from Steven Spielberg,' Rothman said in a statement. ''Robopocalypse' is the kind of important epic entertainment, a big movie with big ideas, that Steven does better than any filmmaker on earth ... I enjoyed the idea of being unemployed for a week, but this will be way more fun.'

Meanwhile, CAA could not confirm reports that Anne Hathaway is circling the project.



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Actress Helen Mirren to receive European film award

LONDON (Reuters) - British actress Helen Mirren will receive a lifetime achievement award from the European Film Academy when it hands out its annual movie prizes in December, the organization said on Tuesday.

The 67-year-old, best known for her Oscar-winning portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in 'The Queen', will attend the awards ceremony held on December 1 in Malta.

'It was discovering the immense diversity of European film making that gave me an enduring love and respect for the art form,' Mirren said in response to the announcement of the European Achievement in World Cinema honor.

'This award is therefore a very meaningful honor,' she added in a statement. 'I would be proud to be counted as an actor in the European tradition.'

Mirren began her film career in the late 1960s, with titles including Michael Powell's 'Age of Consent', and established her reputation in 1980 with gangster movie 'The Long Good Friday' also starring Bob Hoskins.

She became a well-known figure in Britain for her work on the police television series 'Prime Suspect' which also won her a slew of prizes.

In 'The Madness of King George' (1994) she played Queen Charlotte, but it was 14 years later, in the part of another queen, Elizabeth II, that she established herself at the very top of her profession.

Her portrayal of the current British monarch won her a best actress Academy Award, and she was nominated for the same award again for 'The Last Station'.

Mirren will portray the queen on stage in a play written by the script writer of 'The Queen', Peter Morgan. 'The Audience' opens in London in 2013.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Three films cluster at top of North American movie box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police drama 'End of Watch' and horror thriller 'House at the End of the Street' tied for the top spot at the North American box office this weekend, with Clint Eastwood's 'Trouble With the Curve' close behind.

Each of the top films brought in $13 million respectively at U.S. and Canadian box offices.

The gritty 'End of Watch,' written and directed by the writer of 2001 crime drama 'Training Day,' David Ayer, brought in $13 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices.

The opening by 'End of Watch' was the largest for independent film distribution company Open Road, a 2-year-old joint venture between theater chains AMC and Regal. Its two other films this year, 'Hit and Run' and 'Silent House,' opened with less than $7 million apiece.

Open Road CEO Tom Ortenberg said 'End of Watch' was successful because it appealed to a wide swath of moviegoers.

Referring to 'End of Watch' as a 'smart action movie,' Ortenberg added that it is a prototype for the type of films Open Road hopes to make. Its next film, action ensemble 'Breacher,' is another David Ayer project.

'House at the End of the Street,' which features Jennifer Lawrence in her first role since this year's blockbuster 'The Hunger Games,' also brought in $13 million.

The timing of horror thriller's release capitalized on Lawrence's 'Hunger Games' fame, said Relativity president of distribution Kyle Davies. The film primarily targeted young females and did a large share of marketing through mobile-phone-based applications.

The audience for 'Street' was 61 percent female, and 70 percent of filmgoers were under 25.

Baseball movie 'Trouble with the Curve' was hot on the heels of the top films, taking in $12.7 million, according to box office estimates released on Sunday. The film is Clint Eastwood's first starring role in four years and comes less than a month after his headline-grabbing speech at the Republican national convention.

Rounding out the top five was the 3D re-release of 'Finding Nemo' with $9.4 million, and 'Resident Evil: Retribution' with $6.7 million. Both films premiered in theaters last weekend.

Futuristic action film 'Dredd' disappointed with a mere $6.3 million on its debut weekend, failing to crack the top five and coming in below expectations.

Though the overall box office is down when compared to last year, a couple of independent films have performed strongly.

'The bright spots are the indie films like 'The Master' and 'The Perks of Being A Wallflower,' which are both doing terrific business in their limited runs,' said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst at Hollywood.com.

'The Master,' which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a charismatic cult leader and has been compared to the story of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, set a new per-screen average record when it opened in limited release last week, and has garnered strong reviews.

This week, the film expanded to take in $5 million in domestic markets, bringing its total domestic gross to $6.1 million so far, and it snagged the No. 7 spot in this weekend's overall box office rankings.

Teen movie 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' starring Emma Watson scored the fourth-highest per-screen average of 2012 with its debut.

DIVIDING UP THE AUDIENCE

The close finish among the top three films was a reflection that the broad slate of new releases, which each targeted a different demographic, divided up the movie-going audience.

Warner Brothers, a unit of Time Warner, released 'Trouble with the Curve.' Relativity Media released 'House at the End of the Street.' Open Road Films, a joint venture of the AMC and Regal theater chains, released 'End of Watch.'

Sony Corp's movie studio released 'Resident Evil: Retribution.' 'Dredd' was released by Lions Gate.

'The Master' was released by the Weinstein Co.

'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' was released by Summit.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)



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Slovak lawmakers reject online vote to name bridge after Chuck Norris

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak officials rejected the overwhelming results of a popular Internet campaign to name a new pedestrian and cycling bridge near the capital after action film star Chuck Norris.

Despite 12,599 votes for the Norris name in a two-month online poll, Bratislava regional assembly decided to call the bridge spanning the Morava river and Slovakia's border with Austria the 'Freedom Cycling-Bridge' in memory of people killed attempting to escape communist eastern Europe.

The assembly's choice earned only 457 votes in the online poll, where it was easily outshone by other proposed names, including 'Maria Theresa' after an Austro-Hungarian empress and 'the Devinska cycling bridge' in honor of a nearby village.

'We have unanimously voted for the Freedom Cycling-Bridge,' Bratislava region chairman Pavol Freso told reporters.

'It truly is a place where people were running for freedom through barbed wire, it is a place where many have died, so this is a dignified way how to honor these people.'

Slovakia, once part of the former Czechoslovakia, has a 107 km border with Austria and many people died trying to flee the communist regime before its collapse in 1989.

Norris, a martial arts expert-turned film star, is known for playing tough guy characters in such classic movies as 'Lone Wolf McQuade', 'Missing in Action' and 'The Delta Force'.

The actor's work has become a popular source of kitschy fun among Slovaks and a mainstay for local jokes about macho strength and invincibility.

(Reporting by Martin Santa, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Chuck Norris ambushed on Slovak bridge to freedom

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak officials rejected the overwhelming results of a popular Internet campaign to name a new pedestrian and cycling bridge near the capital after U.S. action film star Chuck Norris.

Despite 12,599 votes for the Norris name in a two-month online poll, Bratislava regional assembly decided to call the bridge spanning the Morava river and Slovakia's border with Austria the 'Freedom Cycling-Bridge' in memory of people killed attempting to escape communist eastern Europe.

The assembly's choice earned only 457 votes in the online poll, where it was easily outshone by other proposed names, including 'Maria Theresa' after an Austro-Hungarian empress and 'the Devinska cycling bridge' in honor of a nearby village.

'We have unanimously voted for the Freedom Cycling-Bridge,' Bratislava region chairman Pavol Freso told reporters.

'It truly is a place where people were running for freedom through barbed wire, it is a place where many have died, so this is a dignified way how to honor these people.'

Slovakia, once part of the former Czechoslovakia, has a 107 km border with Austria and many people died trying to flee the communist regime before its collapse in 1989.

Norris, a martial arts expert-turned film star, is known for playing tough guy characters in such classic movies as 'Lone Wolf McQuade', 'Missing in Action' and 'The Delta Force'.

The actor's work has become a popular source of kitschy fun among Slovaks and a mainstay for local jokes about macho strength and invincibility.

(Reporting by Martin Santa, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Jennifer Lawrence heats "House at the End of the Street" at box office

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - This weekend will provide a heat check for Jennifer Lawrence, the young star of 'House at the End of the Street,' the thriller expected to challenge for the top spot at the box office.

If the low-budget PG-13 movie from Relativity delivers, and industry analysts say it will compete for the top spot with Clint Eastwood's 'Trouble With the Curve,' it will surely increase the buzz surrounding Lawrence - and that's saying something.

In January, Relativity shifted the original release from April 20, ostensibly to avoid a crowded schedule. But there will be plenty of competition this weekend, too. Besides Eastwood's baseball film 'Trouble With the Curve,' Open Road Films is rolling out its police drama 'End of Watch' and Lionsgate bows 'Dredd 3D.'

The expansion of the Weinstein Company's 'The Master' - which was the No. 1 seller for online ticket broker Fandango Thursday - and the debut of Summit Entertainment's 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' highlight the specialty release lineup.

It's a broad slate of movies but their target audiences are diverse, which bodes well for overall box office revenues.

Her turn as Katniss Everdeen in this spring's blockbuster 'The Hunger Games' made Lawrence the highest-grossing action heroine of all-time. She has been getting critical raves for her first film comedy role in 'Silver Linings Playbook,' the David O. Russell film that won the audience award at the Toronto International Festival. And she already has the box-office hit 'X-Men: First Class' and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for 2010's 'Winter's Bone' under her belt.

Not bad for a 22-year-old. She even sings 'All You've Got to Do is Fall in Love' by Benji Hughes in the new film.

Young women are the target audience for 'House at the End of the Street,' which will be in 3,083 theaters. Elizabeth Shue and Max Theriot co-star, and Mark Tonderai directs. Relativity didn't screen it for critics, but thriller and horror films tend to be review resistant.

Relativity sees it opening in the $10 million range, but analysts have it doing considerably better, as high as $18 million.

'If 'House' does well, it will be seen as a big win for her,' Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations Company, told TheWrap. 'But even if it doesn't, no one's going to hold it against her because this is a small film without a ton of traditional marketing behind it.'

Relativity has focused much of its effort on online and mobile phone promotions, including a partnership with Zynga, as it bids to expand the audience beyond the core young female demographic group with young males.

'Dredd 3D' is a remake of the 1995 movie starring Sylvester Stallone in the comic-based tale of a one-man judge, jury and executioner of the future.

Karl Urban straps on the helmet for the title role, as he fights to rid MegaCity of the menacing drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headley).

Olivia Thirlby plays Judge Dredd's mind-reading side-kick and Pete Travis ('Vantage Point') directs.

The reviews has been strong for the film, rated R for its dark themes and lots of 3D violence. MetaCritic gives it a 68 rating, and 85 percent of the reviews are positive on Rotten Tomatoes, as are 72 percent of those on Movie Review Intelligence.

Lionsgate is trying to build on the fan boy buzz that began with a well-received Comic-Con screening in July. In addition to a robust online and social media campaign, the company has screened the film in the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness slot and the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and at a number of regional screenings that featured the film's stars.

'Dredd' will be in 2,506 locations and on 2,700 screens, 2,200 of which are 3D. The studio sees the film doing between $8 million and $10 million over the three days, the analysts have it a bit higher.

The critics are also high on 'End of Watch,' an R-rated cop drama written and directed by David Ayer, who wrote the screenplay for 2001's 'Training Day.'

Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena star as young officers who are marked for death after confiscating money and firearms from cartel members during a routine traffic stop. Anna Kendrick, America Ferrera, Frank Grillo and Cody Horn co-star.

Eighty-two percent of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are positive, as are 69 percent on Movie Review Intelligence. MetaCritic gives it a 70 rating.

The analysts see it doing around $11 million for the three days, but Open Road acquired the $7 million film for much less than that and would be happy with a debut over $8 million.

The Weinstein Company is expanding Paul Thomas Anderson's Scientology-inspired tale 'The Master' into 788 theaters in 135 markets. Last week it posted the year's biggest specialty box office opening, taking in $729,745 from five theaters in New York and Los Angeles.

That was a $145,949 per-screen average, easily topping the year's previous highest, which belonged to 'Moonrise Kingdom.' The analysts see 'The Master' doing between $5 million and $6 million this weekend, which would land it in the top ten overall.

Summit Entertainment is debuting teen-targeting 'Perks of Being a Wallflower,' which stars Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame, Logan Lerman ('Percy Jackson') and Ezra Miller, in four theaters.

It's based on a novel of the same name. Author Stephen Chbosky wrote and directs the film adaptation of the 1990s Pittsburgh-set tale, about an introverted high school freshman (Lerman) taken under the wings of two seniors (Miller and Watson).



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Penny Marshall advises budding directors: Drop the ambition

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pioneering film director and producer Penny Marshall has some advice for future filmmakers: Take some chances and don't be a slave to Hollywood ambition.

The 69-year-old Marshall who rose to fame as a comedic actress in the sitcom 'Laverne and Shirley,' and ultimately broke barriers for female directors in a male-dominated field with a string of hit Hollywood films, chronicles her colorful life in a new memoir, 'My Mother Was Nuts' that hit U.S. stores this week.

The book is filled Marshall's anecdotes about her childhood in the Bronx with her dance instructor mother, her shotgun marriage in 1961, drug-fueled times with a circle of famous names, her bout with cancer and an acting and directing career spanning 44 years.

She said her lack of fear of being thrown out of Hollywood helped her succeed as the first female director to make a film that grossed over $100 million with 1988's family comedy 'Big' starring Tom Hanks.

'I'll try anything. What are they gonna do, kick me out of show business?' she told Reuters in an interview. 'I didn't have that problem because I wasn't ambitious enough.'

Another key success ingredient? Don't be afraid to ask for help.

'I talked to my crew and said, 'Just tell me the truth.' I turned to the crews and asked them for their help,' she said.

The gambit worked: 'Big' was both a box office and critical success and her second film, 'Awakenings,' picked up an Oscar nomination for best film, while her third, the baseball comedy drama 'A League of Their Own,' became a Marshall fan favorite.

YOUTUBE ADVANTAGES

But after helping pave the way for female directors to helm critical and box office hits, these days Marshall said she doesn't have an opinion on the lack of female directors that still haunts Hollywood. She said her situation was unique since 'they asked me - I didn't knock on their door.'

She did encourage aspiring filmmakers to use current filmmaking tools that were not available to her, including advances in technology and social media.

'Look at YouTube, how many talented people there are,' she said. 'It's a whole new world of how to express yourself. I don't know how to work that world, but take advantage of it.'

Throughout her life, her propensity for trying new things extended beyond the professional realm: she writes candidly about her drug use during the 1970s and 80s, which included cocaine, marijuana, qualudes, and ecstasy.

Contrast that to now, she said, where vitamins, thyroid medication, and the occasional Motrin are her legal drugs of choice. But she does support legalizing marijuana, especially for medical use.

'I have nothing against anyone who smokes it, I like the smell of it, if it helps with people's illness, I say yes,' she said.

She is also vocal about her support for abortion rights after her own experience with unplanned pregnancies. Her first pregnancy with her boyfriend-turned-husband resulted in her daughter, Tracy. Her second, following her second marriage and divorce to Hollywood director Rob Reiner, resulted in an abortion.

'I'm pro-choice. But I'm glad that there was no choice back then, because I have a wonderful daughter and three grandchildren,' she said.

These days, after beating a brain-tumor scare, she is passionate about activism on behalf of war veterans with brain injuries. She also directs the occasional television episode.

She has not directed a Hollywood film in years -- her last movie in cinemas was 2001's 'Riding in Cars with Boys.' But she would not rule out getting behind the camera for a big movie again.

'We'll see,' she said, smiling.

(Reporting By Andrea Burzynski, editing by Christine Kearney and David Gregorio)



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Lindsay Lohan arrested in NY for hitting pedestrian

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lindsay Lohan was arrested on Wednesday after a pedestrian told police that her car struck him as the 'Mean Girls' actress was driving into a hotel in New York, New York City police said.

Lohan's vehicle clipped a 34-year-old man in an alley, around 2:30 a.m., police told Reuters, and the man later went to a nearby hospital saying he had an injured knee.

The 26-year-old actress, who has been in and out of court, rehab and prison since a 2007 drunk driving arrest in Los Angeles, was arrested for leaving the scene of an accident. Police arrested her as she left the Dream hotel in lower Manhattan.

She was charged with a misdemeanor and released, the New York police department's Office of Public Information said.

Lohan's spokesman in Los Angeles said he believed the claims would not be proved.

'While some of the facts are still being gathered, it appears that this is much ado about nothing. We are confident this matter will be cleared up in the coming weeks and the claims being made against Lindsay will be proven untrue,' spokesman Steve Honig said in a statement.

Celebrity website TMZ.com, quoting sources at the hotel, said surveillance video of the incident made it hard to tell whether Lohan's car made contact with the pedestrian or, if it did, how hard.

The New York Daily News identified the man as Jose Rodriguez, a cook who was leaving his workplace, the adjacent Maritime hotel, when the incident occurred.

A Los Angeles judge released Lohan from formal probation in March, but she was instructed to obey all laws until 2014. A conviction in the New York case could trigger a violation of those conditions.

Lohan, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1990s, has been trying to make a comeback after her once promising movie career was derailed. She stars as screen legend Elizabeth Taylor in a Lifetime TV movie, 'Liz & Dick,' due to air in November.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York and Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Gary Hill)



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Lindsay Lohan arrested for hit and run in New York City

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested on Wednesday for leaving the scene of an accident after she struck a pedestrian on her way into a hotel in lower Manhattan, police said.

Lohan's latest brush with the law started shortly before 2:30 a.m. when she drove her black 2010 Porsche Cayenne SUV into an alley between the Maritime Hotel and Dream Hotel on West 16th Street.

Lohan's vehicle clipped a 34-year-old man, police said without elaborating. She got out of the car and entered the Dream Hotel.

'She was involved in a hit and run,' a police spokeswoman said.

Lohan, 26, was arrested when she left the hotel a short time later, charged with a misdemeanor and released.

The man, who said his knee was injured, was in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital, police said.

Lohan has been trying to make a comeback after a string of legal and personal troubles, including stints in jail, rehab and court. She was released in March from almost five years of formal probation stemming from a 2007 drunken driving and cocaine possession arrest.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Doina Chiacu)



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"Resident Evil: Retribution" swims past "Finding Nemo"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Horror sequel 'Resident Evil: Retribution' grabbed the top spot at the U.S. and Canadian box office over the weekend with $21.1 million, studio estimates released on Sunday showed.

A 3D version of Walt Disney Co cartoon 'Finding Nemo' took the No. 2 spot in the U.S. and Canadian box-office charts with $17.5 million, Disney said.

Demon flick 'The Possession' slipped to third place after two weeks at No. 1, ringing up sales of $5.8 million.

'Resident Evil: Retribution' is the fifth movie in a franchise that stars Milla Jovovich as heroine Alice in a battle against the Umbrella Corporation and its army of zombies.

Domestic sales were in line with distributor Sony's pre-weekend projection for the low- to mid-$20 million range.

In international markets, the film added $50 million, for a worldwide total of $71.1 million. It did particularly well in Asia.

Sony president of distribution Rory Bruer credited Jovovich for the continuing success of the 'Resident Evil' franchise.

'Every country she goes, they (audiences) fall in love with her,' he said. 'The 3D and Imax elements complement the franchise in a certain way, but the big money is on Milla.'

The studio spent $65 million to produce the sequel. The four earlier films amassed global ticket sales of more than $660 million since the first movie in 2002.

Asked whether audiences should anticipate another 'Resident Evil' installment, Bruer said: 'I would count on it.'

Meanwhile, families headed to theaters to see 'Finding Nemo' for the first time in the 3D format. The movie ranks as one of the most successful from Disney's Pixar animation studio, generating global sales of $868 million during its original run. It won the Academy Award for best animated feature.

Disney spent less than $5 million to convert the film to the 3D format. Although weekend numbers came in slightly lower than Disney's original projections, Disney's executive vice president for motion picture distribution Dave Hollis said the tally was in line with previous 3D re-release openings.

'It's great for families during the day, and then couples at night,' Hollis said, noting the fairly balanced age and gender spread of the weekend audience.

The movie is one of a handful of films Disney is bringing back to theaters in 3D after last year's success of 'The Lion King 3D', which grabbed $94 million.

Rounding out the top of the charts, Prohibition-era drama 'Lawless' earned $4.2 million during its third weekend in theaters to land in fourth place. Animated kids movie 'Paranorman' finished in the No. 5 slot with $3 million.

Sony Corp's movie studio released 'Resident Evil'. Lions Gate Entertainment distributed 'The Possession'. The privately held Weinstein Co released 'Lawless'.

(Editing by David Brunnstrom and Dale Hudson)

(lisa.richwine@thomsonreuters.com; 1 213 955 6776; follow me on Twitter @LARichwine)

Documentaries generate buzz at Toronto film festival

TORONTO (Reuters) - Documentaries are making waves at the Toronto film festival, exploring subjects ranging from abuse in the Catholic Church to brutal massacres in Indonesia, often in novel ways.

For the first time ever in Toronto, two non-music based documentaries were given the star treatment at the festival, with gala screenings of Liz Garbus' 'Love, Marilyn' about Marilyn Monroe and Shola Lynch's 'Free Angela and All Political Prisoners' about U.S. civil rights activist Angela Davis.

The 10-day Toronto International Film Festival, which ends on Sunday, serves as a kickoff to Hollywood's awards season and is considered a top venue for building documentary buzz.

Drawing headlines for its unusual style and brutal content, Joshua Oppenheimer's 'The Act of Killing' gives first-hand accounts of the military coup of Indonesia in 1965, which resulted in the deaths of more than one million alleged communists and ethnic Chinese.

The film follows the aging gangsters who perpetrated the killings and who remain national heroes in Indonesia.

Rather than have the men just recount their crimes, Oppenheimer allows them to gleefully re-enact the killings for his cameras, creating a chilling 'film within the film' where the killers play both executioner and victim.

'I wanted to understand how do these people, and how does this society, imagine itself in such a way that this can be something to be celebrated,' said Oppenheimer, a U.S. director now based in London.

With a handful of reviews in, the film is described as 'bizarre, hypnotic, audacious' by the Globe and Mail, while Variety notes that the complex narrative often loses its thread.

'Still, essential and enraging, 'The Act of Killing' is a film that begs to be seen, then never watched again,' Variety concludes.

LABOR CAMP LIFE, IN ANIMATION

Another documentary that backs away from convention is 'Camp 14 - Total Control Zone,' which uses animation to illustrate a young man's life growing up in a North Korean labor camp.

Directed by Marc Wiese, 'Camp 14' is a stark and moving portrait of Shin Dong-hyuk, who was born to political prisoners and spent the first two decades of his life behind barbed wire.

Shin eventually escapes and ends up living in South Korea, where he is overwhelmed by consumerism and dreams of returning to a simple life in the North.

Featuring interviews with Shin and two former security officials from North Korea, the film paints a picture of torture and human rights abuse in the secretive nation.

Human rights are also central to the narrative in 'Central Park Five,' which looks at the wrongful conviction of five black and Latino teenagers for the rape of a white woman in New York's Central Park in 1989.

Co-directed by legendary U.S. documentarian Ken Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, the film interviews city officials, police and all five of the accused to dig into why the teenagers initially confessed and the public's rush to condemn them despite contradictory evidence.

Biographies and autobiographies played well in Toronto this year, with Sarah Polley's personal family memoir, 'Stories We Tell,' scoring an early distribution deal with Roadside Attractions for a 2013 release.

Meanwhile, the premiere of Maiken Baird and Michelle Major's biographical documentary 'Venus and Serena' was cloaked in intrigue after the tennis champion Williams sisters canceled plans to attend the festival and withdrew their support for the film.

The film chronicles the Williamses' journey from Compton, California, to the top ranks of women's tennis, but the sisters were reportedly unhappy about the portrayal of their father and his role in their careers.

SECRETS AND SILENCE

Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney returns with 'Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,' serving up an indictment of the Vatican's role in covering up cases of sexual abuse by priests.

The film, which opens in U.S. cinemas in November and will show on HBO next year, traces the story of four deaf men who were sexually abused by a Milwaukee priest. The priest was accused of abusing up to 200 children but never defrocked for his crimes.

The larger focus of 'Mea Maxima Culpa' is the Vatican's poor handling of all sexual abuse cases, including the roles the last two popes - Benedict and John Paul II - played in apparently silencing the victims.

Gibney said that while previous media articles had focused on individual sex abuse cases, he aimed to highlight how all the cases were connected.

'There hadn't been a story ... of the victims within a larger system of cover-up that existed within the institution itself,' he said.

Also grabbing attention this year are documentaries on the decades-long political crisis in the Middle East, including 'The Gatekeepers,' which features groundbreaking interviews with six former chiefs of Israel's Shin Bet secret police about the organization's successes and failures over the years, and 'State 194,' which chronicles efforts by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to have his nation recognized by the United Nations as an independent state.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kearney and Cameron French, editing by Jill Serjeant and Prudence Crowther)



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"Arbitrage": Richard Gere owns this slick con game

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - There's a reason the business pages in newspapers offer some of the best reading these days. There's real drama and human dimension in money, both in the making of it and in the losing of it.

Writer-director Nicholas Jarecki captures exactly that in 'Arbitrage,' his polished debut feature film. (Jarecki earlier made a documentary, 2005's 'The Outsider,' in which he followed about as maverick director James Toback shot and attempted to distribute a movie.)

Clearly partly inspired by the story of convicted financial trader Bernard Madoff, 'Arbitrage' covers a few crucial days in the life of Robert Miller (Richard Gere), a financial titan seemingly on the verge of his greatest success.

The financial thriller opens with Miller, a silver-haired smoothie, spending a very busy night in Manhattan trying to close a deal to sell the financial firm that he has built, celebrating his birthday with his longtime wife (Susan Sarandon) and adult children (Brit Marling and Austin Lysey), and sneaking off to the opening of his mistress' (Laetitia Casta) show of paintings at an art gallery he has funded.

That his life is complicated is clear. That it's about to get more complicated becomes obvious when it is revealed that Miller's business is nowhere near as sound as he's making it out to be to a prospective purchaser and when he's the driver in a car crash in which someone else dies.

He spends the rest of the movie desperately scrambling as he tries to salvage the sale of his company, his marriage and his relationship with his offspring, and to keep a nosey New York City police detective (Tim Roth) from getting too close to the truth about the accident.

As the movie goes on, a running theme is that both Miller and everyone around him is lying in some way, whether to themselves or to others. They all want to hang on to what they have got, but at what cost?

The film is stuffed with savvy performances, from Sarandon as a less than worshipful spouse to Marling as an ambitious daughter to Nate Parker as an unlikely ally. And there's a sly cameo by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, who pops up briefly but memorably as a rival corporate mogul.

It is, however, to Gere to whom 'Arbitrage' belongs. He's not merely gliding through here, though at this point he certainly could. Rather, he nails the silky self-confidence of Miller, a man so successful at the high-level con game he's been running for so long that he has nearly managed to con himself.



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Final "Twilight" tickets Go on Sale October 1

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson will reunite on-screen in just two months, but the most serious of Twihards can save their seats even sooner.

Fandango and Movietickets.com will start selling advanced tickets for 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2' October 1 at midnight. This is the final installment of the vampire franchise, which made Stewart, Pattinson and Taylor Lautner movie stars.

It has also made Summit (and now Lionsgate) a boatload of cash, a trend that will undoubtedly continue with this latest film. Fandango has already said 'Breaking Dawn - Part 2' is the most anticipated movie of the fall, according to an online survey.

The film, which opens November 16, picks up after Stewart's Bella Cullen has had her child with Pattinson's Edward.

Lionsgate/Summit has announced a Twilight Marathon of all the films in the franchise will take place on Thursday November 15, the day before the release of the final film. Fandango and Movietickets.com will sell tickets for that event starting October 1 as well.

The ticketing services have also set up a sweepstakes for its Twilight fans everywhere, offering a grand prize winner two tickets to the film's world premiere at the Nokia Theatre, as well as roundtrip airfare and hotel accommodations.



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Why Nemo, T-Rex and Indiana Jones are returning in Imax

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Hollywood is not doing so hot with its new releases, but it's hoping to find gold elsewhere: in its vaults, and in today's higher-ticket-price formats.

Last weekend, five months after Paramount's 3D Imax re-release of 'Titanic,' the studio re-released 'Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark' for a one-week Imax run (Fox handled international).

On Friday, Disney rolls out its third toon adapted for 3D, following 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'The Lion King': the less-than-a-decade-old 'Finding Nemo.'

More are in the offing from the Mouse House, which has had a long history with regular-format re-releases. It will bring back a 3D 'Monsters, Inc.' in the winter, seven months before the release of its prequel 'Monsters University,' and has others in the pipeline but is not yet willing to say which ones.

'We're fortunate at Disney to have the power of the brand,' Dave Hollis, EVP of theatrical exhibition and sales at Disney, told TheWrap. 'Relative to other studios, we find ourselves in a fortunate position to have a treasure trove of opportunity because of our vault.'

Though some may begrudge the studios for this unabashed pursuit of profits at a time when most fans and critics crave original material, the decision is rooted in simple economics.

'It's an obvious thing for studios to do, given that they have these classic movies that are sitting on the shelves that they can relatively easily turn into a 3D version,' Bruce Nash, founder of the box-office statistics site The Numbers, told TheWrap. 'There's a very small incremental cost in doing the conversion - and a proven market for the films.'

Hollis said it cost Disney less than $10 million to convert each of the animated films.

Nash noted that converting animated films is much easier because they begin life as a computer file, anyway.

The low cost of conversion makes this a win-win situation for studios, which can use these beloved films to boost quarterly grosses.

All of the films released so far, 'The Lion King,' 'Beauty & the Beast,' 'Star Wars: Episode I - the Phantom Menace' and 'Titanic,' surpassed $40 million at the domestic box office. Only 'Beauty & the Beast' failed to gross $100 million worldwide.

'Raiders' made a modest $1.7 million at the box office, but it posted the best per-screen average of the weekend. And there was an added premium: The one-week release was geared towards promoting the September 18 debut of 'Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures' on Blu-ray.

All of the re-releases promote the brand, thus boosting home entertainment and merchandise sales, as well as theme parks in the case of studios like Disney or Universal.

But the real trophy in this may be the international box office, where markets like Russia and China were either unavailable or less developed when the movies first came out.

'Titanic' grossed $285 million at the international box office, buoyed in particular by China.

'Titanic did okay in the U.S. with $50 million, but it was huge in China because it was a film that didn't get much play in China before,' Nash said.

One individual with knowledge of the situation put 'Titanic's' conversion at less than $20 million. Though that's nearly double what Disney spends on its titles, the cost was a pittance compared to the budget for a summer blockbuster today.

'It's easy money for them,' Nash said. 'It's certainly very low-risk. The films that have come out have played fairly consistently.'

It's clear why this is only the beginning of what may become a flood.

Next year, Universal will join the crowd with 'Jurassic Park.' George Lucas has promised re-releases of every 'Indiana Jones' and 'Star Wars' film, with two more, 'Attack of the Clones' and 'Revenge of the Sith,' on deck for next year.

'As the appetite for 3D hits more and more mediums - theatrical, home entertainment, iPod, anywhere you can watch content - and that content becomes available in 3D, there's a revenue source,' William Sherak, CEO of StereoD, which converted 'Titanic,' told TheWrap. 'You'll start to see more and more films.'

However, some analysts sense a potential for oversaturation if studios pursue this strategy too aggressively.

'There's definitely a risk of diminishing returns,' Nash said. 'At some point, people will say, 'All right, I didn't mind 'Star Wars' and it was kinda cool to see 'Jurassic Park,' but 'Independence Day' is one movie too many for me.'

Yet studio executives insist they are very selective when it comes to what they choose.

Nikki Rocco, distribution chief at Universal, told TheWrap that 'Jurassic Park' is the only film it has decided to convert so far - though more are being discussed.

'I know Steven, and I had a lot of dialogue with him; he's not one to just say let's do it for the sake of doing it,' Rocco said. 'It took a lot of thought and effort, and the way he does things is to perfection.'

Rocco worked at Universal the first time 'Jurassic Park' came out, when its innovative computer-generated dinosaurs helped propel the film to $914 million in global box office receipts.

Now? Those dinosaurs look a bit antiquated, which 3D and IMAX will change.

'The studio and Steven and the whole Amblin group felt there was an opportunity to give a new audience and those that just adored the film an opportunity to see it in a way they could never imagine they would be able to see it back in those days.'



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Gwyneth Paltrow named best dressed woman by People magazine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Gwyneth Paltrow was named the 'World's Best Dressed Woman' of 2012 by People magazine on Wednesday, wowing the celebrity magazine with a simple elegant style that avoids some of fashion's quirkier trends.

The Oscar-winning actress, 39, and wife of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, headed a list of the year's style mavens that included Prince William's wife Kate, R&B star Rihanna, and the Kardashian family of TV reality show fame.

People said the list was compiled after soliciting input from the celebrity magazine's 42 million readers, its editors and fashion bloggers.

While Oscar-winner Paltrow won the best dressed title, fashion icon Kate Middleton - formally known as the Duchess of Cambridge - was named the woman with the best classic style.

Paltrow's stylist, Elizabeth Saltzman, told People that the actress was not a slave to trends. 'She doesn't do fringe. She has a uniform. It's simple, not overdone,' Saltzman said.

Emma Stone, the 23-year-old star of 'The Amazing Spider-Man' and 'The Help,' was chosen as having the best red carpet style, while singer Rihanna was praised for taking the most risks in her fashion choices.

Actresses Jessica Alba (best jeans), Jennifer Lawrence (best under 25s), and Reese Witherspoon (best pregnancy) also made the top 10, along with Australian model Miranda Kerr.

Among men, honors went to actors Andrew Garfield, Brad Pitt, Colin Firth, Robert Pattinson, Chris and Liam Hemsworth and singer Jay-Z.

People also looked back at some of the fashion faux pas of 2012. The magazine recalled an orange lace dress worn with prominent black underwear by pop singer Fergie, and a floral floor-length dress worn by Sarah Jessica Parker that fashion blogger Heather Cocks said made the 'Sex and the City' actress look like a cast member of polygamy TV reality show 'Sister Wives.'

People's special Best & Worst Dressed double issue hits news stands on Friday and can be seen online at www.people.com/bestdressed.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Stacey Joyce; Editing by Stacey Joyce)



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"Argo," "Silver Linings" lead Toronto buzz; business simmers

TORONTO (Reuters) - Ben Affleck's political thriller 'Argo' and David O. Russell's comedic drama 'Silver Linings Playbook' are winning widespread praise at the midpoint of the Toronto International Film Festival, with early sluggish sales beginning to pick up.

Toronto, along with recent festivals in Venice and Telluride, traditionally launches the movie industry's major awards season. Some of the more hyped films heading into the festival have won over critics and audiences, while others have divided film buffs, suggesting possible box office and awards disappointments.

'A bunch of titles go in with hype and then only a couple of them really deliver,' said David Laub, co-president of New York based indie film distribution company Oscilloscope.

Laub cited 'Argo,' and 'Silver Linings Playbook' as gaining early awards buzz among the bigger premieres so far. 'Now they start their journey to the Oscars - and then some are a bit more muted,' he said.

Those that so far haven't quite lived up to their high expectations include several of the eagerly anticipated literary adaptations - 'Anna Karenina' and 'Midnight's Children' - while 'Cloud Atlas,' co-directed by Tom Tykwer and 'The Matrix Trilogy' sibling team, divided critics with its complex multiple storylines.

OSCAR HOPES

'Argo,' starring and directed by Ben Affleck, is considered one of the safer bets for awards nominations, including one of the 10 best film Oscar slots and a possible directing nod for Affleck's third effort in a turn away from previous Boston stories 'The Town,' and 'Gone Baby Gone.'

Affleck, 40, whose film tells the true story of how the CIA helped smuggle six American diplomats out of Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis using a fake Hollywood production, declined to speculate about award potential and whether a film that both pokes fun of and celebrates Hollywood might appeal more than usual to Oscar voters.

In making the film, he said, his greatest issues were smooth transitions from the tense Iran scenes to the more humorous moments, which have gained buzz for Alan Arkin playing the role of veteran Hollywood producer.

'How often do you get to make a movie on this subject matter, particularly in a world where some of the war films that had been made had been a little too depressing for audiences over the last 10 years?' Affleck said.

Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master' continued to impress critics and audiences in Toronto, especially for its lead actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix, who was last seen by audiences in the mockumentary 2010 'I'm Still Here' which chronicled his supposed 'retirement' from acting to pursue a hip-hop career.

Neither Hoffman nor Phoenix showed up to the film's press conference and Anderson deflected questions about whether the film was about Scientology, prompting speculation about how it would be promoted come Oscar time in early 2013.

Bill Murray has also gained attention for his turn as Franklin D. Roosevelt in 'Hyde Park on Hudson,' while Jennifer Lawrence has stirred talk of a best actress nomination for 'Silver Linings Playbook' as a sexually forward widow fighting depression.

The film, by 'The Fighter' director David. O. Russell and centered around a mentally ill man played by Bradley Cooper trying to rebuild his life, is being talked about as a possible contender in several categories.

Among smaller films, Noah Baumbach's 'Frances Ha' has also won over critics.

BUSINESS PICKING UP

From a strong non-fiction lineup, both 'The Gatekeepers,' about Israeli security agency Shin Bet, and Alex Gibney's 'Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,' about the Catholic church's sex abuse scandals, won enthusiastic audience applause. On the red carpet, Johnny Depp attracted one of the festival's biggest crowds to support 'West of Memphis.'

Sarah Polley's autobiographical nonfiction film about family secrets 'Stories We Tell' was one of the early sales at a festival that saw sluggish business activity in the first half of the festival which started September 6 and ends September 16.

The only early big acquisition title was 'The Place Beyond the Pines' by 'Blue Valentine' director Derek Cianfrance and starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper. It was bought for roughly $2.5 million, according to media reports, and unlike the other films sold the day following its premiere.

Other more recent sales included sex addiction comedy 'Thanks for Sharing' starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Ruffalo and singer Pink in a supporting role; 'Imogene' starring Kristen Wiig; and 'Crying Game' filmmaker Neil Jordan's 'Byzantium.'

While sales figures for some still remain secret, prices are way down on the highs of the indie market of the mid-2000s when films like 'Little Miss Sunshine' posted much higher levels. But observers said they expected business to pick up by the festival's end and in the weeks following that.

'People aren't rushing to close deals the way they once were, which is common in the last few years,' said Laub.

Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, said buyers and sellers are slower to make deals in times of more economic uncertainty and as distribution models including theatrical and video-on-demand have been shaken up.

'There are so many (films) where it is really unclear where they are going to fit in the marketplace. That's one of the reasons there is a delay in a lot of these sales,' said Barker. 'But by the end of the festival there will be many more.'

(Reporting By Christine Kearney, Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)



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Obama campaign fact-checks, fires back at "2016"

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Barack Obama's campaign has hit back at Dinesh D'Souza and his filmmaking team for their cutting characterization of the incumbent president in '2016: Obama's America.'

On September 5, as the anti-Obama documentary continued its winning streak at the box office and the Democratic National Convention hit a crescendo with a rousing appearance by former President Bill Clinton, a pointed blog entry about '2016' was posted on BarackObama.com.

Calling D'Souza, a longtime fixture on the right-wing speakers' circuit, 'a self-proclaimed expert on the President,' the blog post on the campaign site's 'Truth Team' page fires this opening salvo: 'Right-wing author Dinesh D'Souza has recently released '2016: Obama's America,' a movie that falsely smears President Obama as having a hidden agenda bent on realizing 'anti-colonial' ambitions.'

The article calls into question D'Souza's use of his own work as a basis for building his argument about what moviegoing citizens 'don't know' about the president - much of which stems from Obama's relationship with, and purported feelings about, his distant father.

Obama's 'Truth Team' points to D'Souza's use of his own life story in the first part of the film, slamming the documentary's creator for 'baselessly claiming his supposedly similar background gives him a special insight into the President's thinking.'

The campaign site's impromptu review also offers counterpoints to specific claims the documentary makes about the president's politics. On the subject of the source of the controversial TARP bank bailout program, for example, the entry states: 'D'Souza even claimed that President Obama passed the bank bailouts when the facts clearly show that it was President Bush who signed the Troubled Asset Relief Program into law in October 2008.'

As if there was any room for doubt, the blog gives '2016' a clear thumbs down, concluding that the documentary is 'nothing more than an insidious attempt to dishonestly smear the President by giving intellectual cover to the worst in subterranean conspiracy theories and false, partisan attacks.'

'2016' has been analyzed and appraised by a number of sources, and D'Souza himself has engaged with critics like Bill Maher and the Associated Press' Beth Foulhy, whose article 'Fact Check: Anti-Colonial Obama Not Plausible' spurred D'Souza to respond and call for an apology in an op-ed piece he wrote for TheWrap on September 3.

'Evidently this fact-checking article required its own fact-checker,' D'Souza said.

Regardless of the White House's position on the documentary, '2016: Obama's America' has been a surprise hit amid a late-summer lull in theaters, pulling in more than $26 million to date at the box office. And though the film's momentum has slowed since its peak just before the Republican National Convention in late August, it's now the second most successful political documentary of all time.



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"Gossip Girl" Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds tie the knot

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, who co-starred in last summer's 'Green Lantern' film, married quietly on Sunday in South Carolina, People.com reported, sealing their low-profile romance of about a year.

The celebrity magazine website said the 25 year-old 'Gossip Girl' television star married Reynolds just outside of Charleston at Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.

British singer Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine, performed at the reception, People quoted an unidentified source as saying.

Representatives for the actors did not return calls for comments.

Lively and Reynolds have been dating for about a year, although the private and low-key couple never talked publicly about their relationship.

Canadian-born Reynolds, 35, was previously married to Scarlett Johansson for two years. The couple split in late 2010 and their divorce was finalized in 2011. Prior to that, Reynolds was engaged to singer Alanis Morissette.

This is the first marriage for 25-year-old Lively, who most recently starred on-screen in Oliver Stone's 'Savages.'

(Reporting By Zorianna Kit, editing by Jill Serjeant and Sofina Mirza-Reid)



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Complex film "Cloud Atlas" divides in leap from page to screen

TORONTO (Reuters) - Cult novel 'Cloud Atlas' was once considered unfilmable. For some movie critics, it still is.

The adaptation of the philosophical book by Britain's David Mitchell premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to sharply divided reviews, suggesting the complex storylines and ambitious plot structure did not always connect with audiences who had not read the novel.

With a budget that reportedly topped $100 million, and an all-star cast of Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant and Halle Berry playing multiple roles, the pressure is on for 'Cloud Atlas' to be a box office hit. And with Hollywood awards season just around the corner, anticipation is running high.

Co-directed by Tom Tykwer of 'Run Lola Run' fame, and the sibling team behind 'The Matrix Trilogy', Andy and Lana Wachowski, 'Cloud Atlas' is made up of six narratives spanning from the 1840s to the present day to a post-apocalyptic future.

The century-hopping film explores how actions can have consequences in the past, present and future, and the notion that humanity cannot help but repeat itself.

While Mitchell's book tells six separate but linked stories in chronological order, moving from the past to future and then back again, the film intercuts the stories to drive home the link between the threads.

'When you read the book you see that there are very resonant themes in all six stories,' co-director Lana Wachowski said of the adaptation process at a news conference on Sunday.

'Once we started seeing the resonant pieces of narrative and the pieces of narrative that seemed connected, we began sort of laying it out as if it was one big story and that was our goal.'

GIANT FOLLY OR INTENSE MENTAL WORKOUT?

Britain's Guardian newspaper gave the film two stars, saying it 'carries all the marks of a giant folly, and those unfamiliar with the book will be baffled.'

'Yet it's hard to wholly condemn the directors' ambition - this is fast-paced and cleverly assembled, with the best of the performances shining through the prosthetics,' the Guardian said.

Variety said the movie was 'an intense three-hour mental workout rewarded with a big emotional payoff,' while Indiewire called it 'bold, messy and disappointingly unimaginative.'

The actors undergo several big physical transformations in their various roles.

Hanks is a shady doctor in the 1840s, a nuclear scientist in the 1970s and then a simple valley-dweller in the distant future, while Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in the 'Matrix' films)switches from a hired hitman in the 1970s to an iron-fisted female retirement home nurse in the present day.

The Hollywood Reporter called the film 'an impressively mounted, emotionally stilted adaptation' in a review that highlighted the editing and acting. But it lamented 'there are so many characters and plots tossed about that no one storyline feels altogether satisfying.'

Slant magazine was even harsher, calling the film 'a unique and totally unparalleled disaster.'

Despite the challenging content, Hanks said that doing the film was a no-brainer for him.

'It's kind of like a hug that gets tighter and tighter,' he told reporters on Sunday. 'By the time I was reading the last 40 or 50 pages of the screenplay, I was completely involved in each of the individual struggles and understood that these were characters that were having to make the choice between cruelty and kindness, and that decision was going to change the world from thereon in.'

'And it was totally worth it if only to see Hugh Grant as a cannibal,' Hanks added with a grin.

(Reporting by Julie Gordon; editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)



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Korean film wins Venice, Hoffman, Phoenix honored

VENICE (Reuters) - South Korean movie 'Pieta', an ultra-violent story of a loan shark confronted by a mysterious woman claiming to be his mother, scooped the Golden Lion award for best picture at the Venice film festival on Saturday.

The other big winner on the night was Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master', loosely based on the early days of Scientology, which earned him a Silver Lion for best director and a joint best actor award for Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix.

All three prizes will be popular on the Lido waterfront, where critics praised Pieta's visceral portrayal of a twisted story of love and revenge, difficult at times to watch but also absorbing and moving in equal measure.

Director Kim Ki-duk sang a traditional Korean song 'Arirang' as part of his acceptance speech, and later told reporters: 'This is a song that we Koreans sing when we are sad, when we feel alone, when we feel desperate, but also when we're happy.'

Asked how he felt about receiving the award, he picked up the Golden Lion and kissed it.

Hoffman, playing a character based on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and Phoenix as his troubled, volatile protege, were clear front runners for the acting prize and both are expected to be in the frame when Oscar nominations are announced.

Hoffman rushed back to Italy to accept the awards on his own and his colleagues' behalf.

'I just got off a plane, like, five minutes ago, literally,' he told the red carpet awards ceremony.

'I still have crust in my eyes from the sleep on the plane. I put this suit on in a bathroom, so please don't judge.'

He went on to praise Phoenix, who was back to his best form in 'The Master' after several years in the acting wilderness.

'Joaquin Phoenix is a life force in this film ... and I kind of rode that life force and that was my performance.

'It was really riding his life force because it was something that was untameable and my job was to try to and it was almost impossible, which is kind of the movie.'

In examining the founding of the self-described religion of Scientology, Anderson tackled a topic many film makers would consider taboo given the support it enjoys in Hollywood and its sensitivity to perceived criticism.

He confirmed he had shown the film to Tom Cruise, a leading Scientologist, and said the two were 'still friends'.

RELIGIOUS THEME

This year, the theme of religion ran throughout the festival and was also a major factor at the awards ceremony, which brought the curtain down on 11 days of screenings, parties, photoshoots and interviews.

Austria's Ulrich Seidl picked up the Special Jury Prize runner-up award for 'Paradies: Glaube' (Paradise: Faith) about a woman's obsessive faith which is sorely tested when her estranged Muslim husband suddenly returns home.

And Hadas Yaron was named best actress for her performance in 'Fill the Void', Rama Burshtein's rare glimpse into her own ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in a tale about a young bride torn between love and her obligations to her family.

The screenplay award was won by Olivier Assayas of France for his 1970s political drama 'Apres Mai', and Italy's Daniele Cipri was named winner of the cinematography category for 'E Stato Il Figlio'.

Notable films that did not figure among the prizes included 'Spring Breakers', experimental director Harmony Korine's raunchy and raucous tale of hard-drinking college students starring former Disney teen star Selena Gomez.

Terrence Malick, who is revered in some quarters and won the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 2011 for 'The Tree of Life', went away empty-handed after 'To the Wonder', an impressionistic love story with almost no dialogue, received some stinging reviews.

Another American veteran, Brian De Palma, also saw his reputation dented when 'Passion', his steamy sex thriller set in the cutthroat world of advertising, was jeered at a screening.

As well as competition movies, dozens more had their world premieres in Venice, including opening film 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist', another film touching on religion, and Robert Redford's political drama 'The Company You Keep'.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Andrew Osborn)



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