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Tim Burton will have a retrospective at MoMa in NY

The Museum of Modern Art will present a major exhibition exploring the full scale of renowned filmmaker Tim Burton’s career, both as a director and concept artist for live-action and animated films, and as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. The exhibition will be on view from November 22, 2009, through April 26, 2010. Tracing the current of Burton’s visual imagination—from his earliest childhood drawings through his mature work in film—the exhibition Tim Burton will bring together over 700 examples of rarely or never-before-seen drawings, paintings, storyboards, moving-image works, puppets, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera, and includes an extensive film series spanning Burton’s 27-year career. The exhibition explores how Burton has taken inspiration from sources in pop culture and reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as an expression of personal vision, garnering him an international audience of fans and influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics.

Tim Burton is organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, and Jenny He, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film, with Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, The Museum of Modern Art

Mr. Magliozzi states: “There is no other living filmmaker possessing Tim Burton’s level of accomplishment and reputation whose full body of work has been so well hidden from public view. Seeing so much that was previously inaccessible in a museum context should serve to fuel renewed appreciation and fresh appraisal of this much-admired artist.”

Organized in collaboration with Burton, the exhibition presents artworks and objects drawn primarily from the artist’s personal archive, as well as studio archives and the private collections of Burton’s collaborators.

Included are little-known drawings, paintings, and sculptures created in the spirit of contemporary Pop Surrealism, as well as work generated during the conception and production of his films, such as original The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride puppets; Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, and Sleepy Hollow costumes; and even severed-head props from Mars Attacks! Also featured are the first public display of his student art and earliest nonprofessional films; examples of his work for the flash animation internet series The World of Stainboy (2000); a selection of the artist’s oversized Polaroid prints; graphic art and texts for non-film projects, like The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories (1997) and Tim Burton’s Tragic Toys for Girls and Boys (2003) collectible figure series; and art from a number of early unrealized projects. Additionally, a selection of international posters from Burton’s films will be on display in the theater lobby galleries.

The exhibition follows the entire course of Burton’s career, with childhood ephemera, juvenilia, and amateur short films from his youth in Burbank, CA; cartoons and drawings from his time at California Institute of the Arts; and examples of his first professional work at The Walt Disney Studios. Moving on to his mature work, the exhibition touches on the creature-based notions of character, motifs of masking and body modification, ongoing themes of adolescent and adult interaction, and elements of sentiment, cynicism, and humor that inform Burton’s work in a variety of mediums.

Burton’s entire cinematic oeuvre of 14 feature films—Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Planet of the Apes (2001), Big Fish (2003), Corpse Bride (2005), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Sweeney Todd (2007)—will be screened over the course of the five-month exhibition in the Museum’s Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. His early short films Vincent (1982) and Frankenweenie (1984) will also be featured. In conjunction with Tim Burton, MoMA presents The Lurid Beauty of Monsters, a series of films that influenced, inspired, and intrigued Burton.

Taking as its starting point a screening of horror movies that Burton organized in Burbank in 1977, the series includes such films as Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffey, 1963), Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920), The Pit and the Pendulum (Roger Corman, 1961), Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, 1922), and Earthquake (Mark Robson, 1974). An accompanying publication will be released in conjunction with MoMA’s exhibition, to be published in November 2009 by The Museum of Modern Art.

The International

Rated: R for some sequences of violence and language.
Release Date: 2009-02-13
Starring: Eric Singer
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA, Germany
Official Website: http://www.everybodypays.com/

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The International is a complicated film with an intricate plot line and lackluster acting. It’s only redeeming qualities are its action sequences and fast paced direction.

The premise is hard to follow: Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) are determined to bring to justice one of the world’s most powerful banks. Uncovering myriad and reprehensible illegal activities, Salinger and Whitman follow the money from Berlin to Milan to New York to Istanbul. Finding themselves in a high-stakes chase across the globe, their relentless tenacity puts their own lives at risk as their targets will stop at nothing – even murder – to continue financing terror and war.

Naomi Watts gave the worst performance in her career. It’s as if she has become worse over the years beginning with King Kong. Clive Owen is no Jason Bourne, but is believable enough that the credibility of the film isn’t compromised.

Be ready for what will be the most talked about action sequence of the early new year – the Guggenheim museum shooting frenzy is well worth the watch.

For a production that aspires to be so much more than a typical thriller, The International’s convoluted premise and Naomi’s painful acting achieves only to convey an average movie experience.

Antonio Banderas reveals new details from ‘Puss in Boots’

After actor Antonio Banderas revealed that “Puss in Boots” would indeed be an origin story for the character first introduced through “Shrek 2”, screenwriter David H. Steinberg confirmed that Puss will be the only original character kept for the spin-off. “No, all new characters – except Puss,” the scribe told Moviehole, dishing out possibility of Shrek, Fiona or Donkey making an appearance.

As for the reason behind the elimination of those popular characters, Steinberg pointed out on the fact that he is in the blank on the “Shrek Forever After” and “Shrek 5” scripts. “It doesn’t overlap with Shrek at all,” he explained. “Partly that was done to tell an original Puss story, but partly because we didn’t know what Shrek 4 (and now Shrek 5) were going to do with the characters and we couldn’t write conflicting storylines.”

Earlier, Puss’ voice actor, Banderas, has opened up to Coming Soon on what this spin-off will be dealing with. “…we’re going to go from the time he’s a very little cat, so you see actually why and how he becomes an adult killer, and the reasons why he ends up on that path,” he said. “It’s interesting because it goes away from that kind of use of popular culture that ‘Shrek’ has. It goes in a different way, and the movie sometimes gets almost emotional, I may say, and it’s kind of epic.”

“I found when they pitched the movie to me, and now reading the script, a total real connection with the character. Obviously, he’s a cartoon, but (I have) a real personal connection with him in terms of what he’s expressing. It’s very emotional at some points, it’s very special. It’s going to surprise people I think; they’re not going to expect what we’re going to do.”

Scheduled to hit U.S. theaters on March 20, 2012, “Puss in Boots” will be directed by “Shrek the Third” helmer Chris Smith. Its official synopsis is read, “Swords will cross and hearts will be broken in this adventure starring one of the most beloved characters of the Shrek universe – Puss In Boots. It’s a swashbuckling ride through Puss’s early years as he teams with mastermind Humpty Dumpty and the street-savvy Kitty (Salma Hayek) to steal the famed Goose that lays the Golden Eggs.”

Javier Bardem and Julia Roberts will star in ‘Eat, Pray, Love’

Javier Bardem is negotiating to star in “Eat, Pray, Love,” the Ryan Murphy-directed adaptation of the Elizabeth Gilbert memoir for Columbia Pictures.

Bardem joins Julia Roberts and Richard Jenkins in the cast.

Roberts plays the author, and Bardem will play Felipe, the man Gilbert meets and falls in love with on the final leg of a journey of self-discovery that began with the end of her marriage.

Richard Jenkins plays a Texan whom the heroine befriends at an Indian ashram.

Pic was adapted by Murphy, the “Nip/Tuck” creator who last helmed “Running With Scissors.”

Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner are producing through Plan B.

Bardem, last seen in the Woody Allen-directed “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” most recently starred for director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu in “Biutiful” for Cha Cha Cha and Focus Features.

David Carradine Dies at 72

David Carradine, the star of the 1970s television series “Kung Fu” and the title villain of the “Kill Bill” movies, has died in Thailand, The Associated Press reported. The United States Embassy in Bangkok told The A.P. that Mr. Carradine had been found dead in his hotel suite in Bangkok, where he was working on a movie. He was 72.

Mr. Carradine was part of an acting family that included his father, John; his brother, Bruce, and half-brothers Keith and Robert; and his nieces Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton.

After a short run as the title character in the 1966 television adaptation of the Western “Shane,” he found fame in the 1972 series “Kung Fu” as Kwai Chang Caine, a wanderer raised by Shaolin monks to be a martial arts master. He enjoyed a career resurgence in recent years when he was cast by Quentin Tarantino in the action movies “Kill Bill: Vol. 1″ and “Vol. 2.”

Jack Nicholson is reteaming with James Brooks

Jack Nicholson is closing in on a deal to reteam with James L. Brooks on the helmer’s untitled romantic comedy at Columbia Pictures.

Nicholson is the last piece of casting to come together on the ensemble project, which stars Paul Rudd, Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson.

For months, Bill Murray had been in talks to portray the blueblood father of Rudd’s character, but no deal closed. In recent weeks Murray’s interest in the project waned and he fell out of touch.

With Murray unresponsive and production scheduled to start in less than two weeks, Brooks reached out to Nicholson.

Brooks, who also penned the screenplay, is producing alongside Paula Weinstein (“Blood Diamond”), Laurence Mark (“Dreamgirls”) and Gracie Films prexy Julie Ansell.

Story involves a love triangle, with Rudd playing a white-collar executive vying for Witherspoon’s affections, and Wilson portraying a professional baseball pitcher who is also a love interest.

Two of Nicholson’s three Oscars have come via Brooks films: 1983’s “Terms of Endearment” and 1997’s “As Good as It Gets.”