Entertainment News
Entries from January 2013
Warner Brothers is getting cold feet about their next potential big budget comic book adaptation, Justice League. The studio seems to be a bit nervous about the fate of the forthcoming Man of Steel, the latest attempt to revive the Superman franchise. While word of mouth on the movie is good and red-hot Christopher Nolan executive produced the film, the track record of its director, Zack Snyder, is mixed, having overseen some big budget disappointments. Warner Brothers has made it clear that it is taking a wait-and-see attitude and will evaluate how Man of Steel performs before deciding whether to proceed with Justice League. Click here for more
Hollywood devours its older, most respected filmmakers. Take acclaimed director Paul Schrader, the man who wrote memorable films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Yakuza, Obsession and The Mosquito Coast. (He also directed Hardcore and Affliction). Schrader has other stories he wants to tell, but can't find financing for them despite the fact that the productions he has in mind can be produced for amounts that total less than Brad Pitt's coffee budget. Schrader has used innovation to his advantage, however, raising private funds on-line for his new film, The Canyons, a daring look at modern sexuality and depraved behavior in troubled relationships. He not only cast a male porn icon in the lead role, but has given the female lead to Lindsay Lohan. In an extensive piece on the making of the film for the New York Times, writer Stephen Rodrick lays bare the amount of trials and tribulations that Schrader has gone through to deal with Ms. Lohan in his obsession to bring this small film to the screen. Those trials included having to deal with Lohan's insecurities, her penchant for taking off on a minutes notice and having to direct naked in order to make her feel comfortable filming a sex scene. Click here to read
Film critic Rex Reed pays his annual tribute to the great artists lost in the previous year. Among the great talents who left us in 2012: Whitney Houston, Ernest Borgnine, Phyllis Diller, Andy Griffith and so many more who will never be replaced. Click here to read the tribute article.
Lovelace, the bio pic of porn legend Linda Lovelace, premiered this week at Sundance. Amanda Seyfried plays the title role of the tortured Lovelace, a woman whose peculiar sexual talent resulted in Deep Throat grossing hundreds of millions of dollars in the 1970s. Lovelace saw none of the profits, however, beyond the paltry sum she was paid to perform in the film. The fame and notoriety did elevate her to a household name and put the debate over government censorship into high gear. Lovelace's personal life was also defined by controversy and destructive relationships. She passed away in 2002 at the age of 53. Click here to watch a clip of Seyfried as Lovelace.
George Barris, the man who turned a 1955 Lincoln Future concept car, into one of the most iconic vehicles in screen history is $4.2 million richer today. His original Batmobile, driven by Adam West and Burt Ward in the 1960s smash hit Batman TV series, sold for that eye-opening price last week at auction. Click here for details
The international rollout for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln will differ slightly than the version seen by American audiences. It will feature a special prologue that is designed to inform foreign audiences about the historical context of what was going on in America during the period of the Civil War. The film centers primarily on Lincoln's obsession with getting the 24th Amendment to the Constitution passed by Congress so that slavery would be banned throughout the entire United States once the country was reunited. For more click here
Jerry Lewis' big screen comeback film, Max Rose, is finally going into production this week in Los Angeles. However, if you look for Nutty Professor-like antics from the 86 year-old comedy legend, you won't find them in this indie film written and directed by Daniel Noah. It's a dramatic tale about a widowed pianist who is haunted by a revelation about his late wife. Lewis played it straight before, leaving the laughs to Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's underrated classic The King of Comedy (1983). For more click here
This is a trying time for all labor unions. Once the backbone of the American workforce, unions could point to so many quality of life issues they negotiated for that now benefit most working Americans, from the 40 hour work week, overtime, health benefits, family leave and many other progressive policies. However, the recent trend against employing union members has now extended to the entertainment industry. Variety's music critic Jon Burlingame reports that studios are balking at using union musicians for film scores, preferring to have the music recorded overseas where musicians make more money up front but don't get residual payments. The work in L.A. for musicians is drying up fast, but ironically, the American Federation of Musicians points out that it has brought in the highest total of residuals ever last year. The problem is that the work and money is going to a smaller and smaller pool of musicians. There is a movement afoot to try to convince the AFM to offer studios an alternative to the residual programs, which would make Hollywood more competitive with overseas orchestras. There is also criticism of the studios, which take major tax incentives from the U.S. government to shoot films on American soil but use a loophole to outsource the music. For more click here
The Oscar nominations have been announced- and the biggest surprises came with the directors who were not nominated despite having been considered to be shoo-ins for the honor. Kathryn Bigelow, Ben Affleck and Tom Hooper were all denied nominations for Best Director and long-shots Ang Lee, Benh Zeitlin and Michael Haneke did receive nominations. The "James Bond Curse" was also lifted, with Skyfall nabbing five nominations, none in the major categories. However, it did get nominations for Best Song, Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Cinematography- the most nominations ever accorded a 007 film. For more click here
The film Playback has the dubious distinction of being the lowest-grossing movie released in 2012. Never heard of it? Apparently, only a handful of people did. The film, starring Christian Slater, took in an opening night gross of $252 with $12 earned during the week. In fairness, however, the movie only played in one theater for one week. In some cases, movies get limited theatrical releases in order to fulfill contractual obligations or to aid in the marketing of a DVD release, whereby the studio can technically say the movie played theatrically. No matter how you cut it, however, Playback offered no payback for investors: its budgeted was $7.5 million. For more click here
Director Robert Zemeckis has dropped plans to remake the Beatles' animated 1968 feature film Yellow Submarine. The Oscar-winner has been developing the project for several years but confirmed recently that he has changed his mind. "That would have been a great one, to bring the Beatles back to life," he said. "But it's probably
better not to be remade — you're always behind the eight-ball when you
do a remake." Thus, the original Blue Meanies will still reign supreme.
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