12.2.2008 | By Jack Rico |
New images from Agora, Alejandro Amenabar’s follow up to The Sea Inside, have shown up online as Fotogramas.es has a pair of images of Rachel Weisz as the astronomer Hypatia Read More
12.2.2008 | By Jack Rico |
Paramount Pictures has set Shia LaBeouf to play the title role in the bigscreen version of John Grisham‘s upcoming legal thriller “The Associate,” which the studio has just acquired rights to.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing.
LaBeouf will play a student who’s about to graduate from Yale Law School when he’s manipulated into accepting a job at a prestige law firm and given privileged information about a multibillion-dollar lawsuit.
The novel, Grisham’s first legal thriller since 2005’s “The Broker,” will be published in January by Random House.
Grisham’s longtime rep, David Gernert, shopped the book by giving it to four producers. While some felt that lessened the book’s chances to find a suitor in a tight marketplace, the strategy worked.
Par-based Di Bonaventura, who as an exec worked on the Grisham films “A Time to Kill” and “The Client,” received the book in the Middle East, where he and LaBeouf were shooting “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” There, they agreed to do it together.
Deal gives Paramount another LaBeouf vehicle to follow the “Transformers” films, on which the studio partners with DreamWorks. He last starred for the studio in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
12.1.2008 | By Mack Chico |
You could be seeing these two films at the upcoming Oscar awards in 2009.
Director Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” about a poor Indian boy who gets a shot at winning millions in a television game show, swept the British Independent Film Awards on Sunday with three prizes.
“Hunger,” artist Steve McQueen‘s widely acclaimed directorial debut, also picked up three awards, followed by Mike Leigh‘s uncharacteristically upbeat “Happy-Go-Lucky,” which took both the best supporting actor and actress prizes.
Slumdog Millionaire won the best British independent film, best director and most promising newcomer categories, the latter going to young actor Dev Patel who played the lead role of Jamal.
The movie has already won rave reviews at film festivals and generated early Oscars buzz.
Also with three awards was Hunger, a hard-hitting film about the final days of IRA prisoner and hunger striker Bobby Sands in 1981.
Sands was played by Michael Fassbender, who won the best actor category, while McQueen was awarded the Douglas Hickox prize for best debut director and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt was honoured for best technical achievement.
Best actress went to Vera Farmiga in “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,” and the best screenplay award was won by Martin McDonagh for “In Bruges.”
Alexis Zegerman was named best supporting actress for Happy-Go-Lucky, and Eddie Marsan won the best supporting actor prize for the same film.
“The Escapist” won the best achievement in production award, “Man on Wire” won best documentary, “Soft” won best British short film, and best foreign film went to “Waltz With Bashir,” Ari Folman’s haunting Middle East war animation.
Actor David Thewlis was honoured with the Richard Harris award for outstanding contribution to British film, and Michael Sheen won the Variety award.
12.1.2008 | By Mack Chico |
Thanksgiving weekend movie crowds gobbled up the Reese Witherspoon-Vince Vaughn holiday comedy “Four Christmases,” which premiered at No. 1 with $31.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The film raised its total to $46.7 million since opening Wednesday.
In terms of revenue, it was Hollywood’s second-biggest Thanksgiving period ever. The top 12 movies took in $223.7 million from Wednesday to Sunday, trailing only the $232.2 million haul over 2000.
“Twilight,” which had a huge No. 1 opening the previous weekend, took a steep 62 percent decline from its $69.6 million premiere.
Based on Sunday’s estimates, Disney’s animated “Bolt” had a slight lead on second place with $26.6 million for the weekend, to $26.4 million for “Twilight.”
In San Francisco, Focus Features’ film “Milk,” directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn as slain Supervisor Harvey Milk, set a box-office record at the Castro Theatre. From Wednesday through Friday, the single-screen theater grossed $109,440 on “Milk,” breaking the previous three-day record of $50,584 set in May by “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” according to film promoters Terry Hines and Associates.
The film opened nationally on 36 screens, two of which, the Sundance Kabuki and the Embarcadero, didn’t begin showing the film until Friday. “Milk” opened at No. 10 nationwide with $1.4 million in just 36 theaters. The film had a strong average of $38,375 a cinema, compared with $9,571 in 3,310 theaters for “Four Christmases.”
The weekend’s other new wide release, “Australia,” opened at No. 5 with $14.8 million for the weekend and $20 million since premiering Wednesday.
11.27.2008 | By Jack Rico |
The film version is based on the Tony Award winning musical, “Nine,” directed by Academy Award nominated director Rob Marshall (“Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Chicago”).
11.27.2008 | By Mack Chico |
There’s nothing but love between Alec Baldwin and Salma Hayek, who recently shot a five episode arc on “30 Rock” where the 42-year-old beauty will be playing Jack Donaghy’s love interest.
11.25.2008 | By Alex Florez |
Let’s be frank (no pun intended). This review really isn’t needed. The latest installment of the ‘Transporter’ series is everything you expect it to be: one ridiculous action sequence after another with a senseless romantic plot sandwiched in between. But who says that’s a bad thing? Read More
11.25.2008 | By Mack Chico |
The Dirty Harry star says he has no plans to appear in films again after starring in Gran Torino, a drama about a racist veteran of the Korean War.
“That will probably do it for me as far as acting is concerned,” said the 78-year-old, who stressed he had no plans to stop directing films.
“You always want to quit while you are ahead,” he said. “You don’t want to be like a fighter who stays too long in the ring until you’re not performing at your best.”
His performance in Gran Torino, which is released in Britain in February and which he also directed, has already been tipped as worthy of an Oscar. The drama revolves around the relationship between a disgruntled war veteran and his young neighbour, an Asian American teenager who tries to steal his prized possession, a 1972 Gran Torino.
Eastwood worked as a petrol pump attendant, a bar-room piano player and a lumberjack before becoming an actor, where his 1959 western TV series Rawhide turned him into a household name and he was cast by Sergio Leone in the cowboy classic A Fistful of Dollars.
But his film direction now earns him his greatest acclaim. In the New Year he will direct The Human Factor, a drama about the 1995 Rugby World Cup, hosted by South Africa, with Morgan Freeman playing Nelson Mandela.
“Everybody thinks making films back to back is a big deal but they did it all the time in the old days,” he said.
However a friend of Eastwood said he would never rule out an acting comeback for the veteran star:
“If something comes along that attracts his attention or demands his involvement and he is still able to consider acting in a picture then who knows? Gran Torino was such a movie.
“But that is not his priority and he is not seeking an acting role,” the friend said.
11.24.2008 | By Alex Florez |
With ‘Moulin Rouge!’, visionary filmmaker Baz Lurhmann finished his ‘Red Curtain Trilogy’ (Strictly Ballroom and Romeo+Juliet are the other two) – a series of stylized and highly choreographed retelling of stories we’re all pretty familiar with. Read More
11.24.2008 | By Jack Rico |
Recently we heard many conversations about Hollywood being recession-proof. Doesn’t look like that’s the case for big honcho Harvey Weinstein, owner of The Weinsten Company. This goes to show you that no one is escaping the topsy-turvy times of the economy.
The Weinstein Co. has succumbed to the economic pressure by laying off 11% of its staff, or 24 people.
The indie outfit is slimming down from 224 people to 200. The cuts affected all departments in offices in Gotham, L.A., the U.K. and Hong Kong.
No offices or departments are being shuttered. Staffers were notified of the layoffs Friday afternoon.
Formed three years ago by Harvey and Bob Weinstein with more than $1 billion in backing from Goldman Sachs and other investors, TWC has had a bumpy ride. After a spate of deals across the media spectrum yielded spotty results, the company refocused on its film slate and has touted its official detachment in January from distrib partner MGM and a pay TV deal with Showtime.
The Weinstein slate, however, has not borne a lot of fruit. “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” the Kevin Smith-helmed comedy released on Halloween, is the latest under-performer. Woody Allen’s “Vicki Cristina Barcelona” is the only notable pic to far exceed expectations in 2008.
As the company seeks to get into a theatrical groove, it’s also been hit with a wave of staff turnover. Senior-level vets Glen Basner (international sales), Michelle Krumm (production) and Maeva Gatineau (U.K. acquisitions) are among those who have exited in recent months.
Matthew Frankel, who spent just a few months heading corporate communications, departed in the spring (he’s since resurfaced at AOL) and has not officially been replaced.
