February 2012
49 posts
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TV Bits: ‘Legion’ Turned Into TV Series at Syfy,... →
While most people would agree Scott Stewart‘s 2010 film Legion isn’t exactly a masterful piece of cinema, the film’s idea is rock solid. God has decided to smite humanity and sends his legions of angels down upon us. It’s then up to a rogue angel to help a group of strangers make their last stand. The film doesn’t quite live up to that cool log line but maybe, when it’s adapted to TV, it...
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Fan-Made Trailers: The Best ‘John Carter’ Trailer... →
Disney has been struggling with the marketing for Andrew Stanton‘s John Carter, which opens in a couple weeks but still seems to face an uphill battle establishing itself even for audiences that should be pretty receptive to an old-school sci-fi film based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel.
There have been a couple trailers now and quite a few clips released, and while each has various charms...
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Yeah, That Needs To Go: Things I learned from TV. →
dumbthingswhitepplsay:
iamnotyourpuppet:
dumbthingswhitepplsay:
All Asians look like John Cho.
Asians know everything. Seriously, everything. And they can probably fly in secret and they just don’t tell us.
If an Asian person tells you to do something, for the love of god, do it. NEVER cross them.
Black people are all hard….
BUT. Tasha from The L Word was black, and Bette was half. And...
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Kanye West scouting for film locations in Middle... →
Kanye West is making a new film, reportedly set in the Persian Gulf. The project is a follow-up to Runaway, the 34-minute film that West released to much fanfare in 2010.
According to the New York Observer, the rapper has dispatched a team of representatives to negotiate with production companies in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar. Although they have revealed no details of the film’s...
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Johnny Depp options West Memphis Three memoir →
The actor and producer is the latest to declare a creative interest in the story of three men convicted of child murders in 1994.
Johnny Depp looks set to become the latest high-profile film-maker to take a creative interest in the controversial case of convicted child killers the West Memphis Three after optioning a forthcoming memoir by one of their number, Damien Echols.
Echols, who is...
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Lionsgate Will Film More ‘Twilight’ if Stephenie... →
When Lionsgate bought Summit Entertainment a couple weeks back — or when Lionsgate bought Twilight, I might say to be more direct — Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said he would like to continue Twilight, either on film or television.
Now, during a conference call to report Lionsgate’s third quarter earnings for 2011,Rob Friedman, the co-chair of the studio’s motion picture group, says they’re...
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Burn after viewing: DVD screeners are part of... →
The Baftas and Oscars begin with a DVD being sent out to thousands of members of the industry bodies. It’s a vital part of marketing – but it’s also blamed for the exponential rise of piracy.
You want a Bafta award, but your film isn’t out yet – or worse, it may have been and gone, or be a tiny release art film. How do you make the required impact? For more than a decade, in...
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Mattel Will Finally Release The Hoverboard From... →
The year 2015 is coming up fast, and it seems like many of the future inovations seen in the future Hill Valley of Back to the Future: Part II have not come to pass — but I’m still hopeful that we’ll all be in flying hovercars in just three years time (um, yeah). Last year, Nike finally produced a limited edition “preview” run of the self-lacing Nike MAG sneakers. I saw last week...
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Angelina Jolie Says ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Revamp... →
Disney’s Maleficent may have lost Tim Burton as director last year but Angelina Jolie, long attached to star as the wicked witch introduced in Snow White, isn’t going anywhere. In fact, the actress says the film is next after her promo run ends for her directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey.
THR spoke to Jolie at the Berlin International Film Festival, where In the Land of Blood and...
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Internet Service Providers Will Soon Slow Down... →
The discussion about movie and television show piracy is raging right now, which makes sense given the tension between a massive online movement and the conglomerated studios seeking to curb their enthusiasm for downloading without paying. The bottom line is that when The Oatmeal makes a comic about it, you know things are getting serious.
And after a crushing defeat over SOPA/PIPA, groups...
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Guillermo del Toro Producing Animated ‘Day of the... →
I bet that with Guillermo del Toro finally directing Pacific Rim, which has been underway for some time, you thought he might not have time to amass other projects. Not so! In addition to films like Pinocchio that the filmmaker has been working on for some time, he’s now producing an animated film based on the traditions and iconography associated with the Mexican Day of the Dead.
Reel FX...
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Sidney Poitier turns 85 →
Sir Sidney Poitier, the Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat, turned 85 (Feb 20).
In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three well-received films To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess...
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Aung San Suu Kyi biopic The Lady is underground... →
They move in crowds, thrusting handfuls of bills into sellers’ hands before slipping their purchases stealthily into their bags. With its poor sound quality and shaky videography, this is one DVD that would not normally merit such secrecy – or popularity – on the streets of Rangoon.
The buyers are undeterred and eager to know more about 66-year-old “Auntie Suu”, as she is...
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Guillermo Del Toro To Helm ‘Beauty and the Beast’... →
It’s a tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme. Guillermo Del Toro is attached to another project. This time he’s upgraded from producer to director of a new version of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast for Warner Bros., which will be written by Andrew Davies (Bridget Jones’ Diary).
Variety broke the news of Del Toro’s decision to board the project as a director as well as the...
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Hints About Two New Studio Ghibli Projects... →
This weekend marks the release of the first new Studio Ghibli film on U.S. screens since 2009. It’s called The Secret World of Arriety and besides being a very sweet, enjoyable film, the title is also a great way to describe the world of Ghibli itself. Everything about their productions is shrouded in secrecy. Then, one day, as if by magic, a lovely movie appears, beautifully animated for the...
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Jason Reitman’s LACMA ‘Reservoir Dogs’ Reading... →
Our apologies. Even if you live in Los Angeles, posting about Jason Reitman‘s awesome live readings at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is torture. The casts are so fantastic, the projects so good and yet it’s virtually impossible to go because they sell out so quickly. In fact, they sell-out weeks before the script or cast is even announced.
I was lucky enough to see The Princess...
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WatchViola Davis on race issues and relations in Hollywood. Full transcript can be found here.
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/Film Receives a Package Containing Peter Parker’s... →
Today I came home from lunch to find a big box sitting on the front door of /Film HQ. Inside the box I found a backpack, inscribed on the backside with “Property of Peter Parker”. This is the same exact backpack that Andrew Garfield wore in The Amazing Spider-Man footage we saw at Comic Con and at the recent “Untold Story” event. The only difference is this bag is missing Peter’s skateboard....
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Spartacus’ Peter Mensah Joins ‘True Blood’ →
“Spartacus” star Peter Mensah is going from lowly slave to powerful vampire.
The black thespian has joined the cast of True Blood for a recurring role in Season 5, Deadline reports. The 52-year-old actor will play Kibwe, the chancellor for the Vampire Authority.
True Blood is slated to return this summer on HBO.
Wheee!
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The Fate of Documentary Film →
While there is debate about when, exactly, the first film screening occurred, there is no arguing its genre. Whether the Lumiere brothers’ 1895 “Exiting the Factory” or Louis Le Prince’s 1888 “Roundhay Garden Scene” or the Edison workers’ undated camera test “Monkeyshines No. 1,” the earliest films were all documentaries. Simply by pointing a camera at it, these moving pictures made everyday life...
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Showbusiness's last secret: actors who daren't... →
A charter to protect the rights of gay actors and actresses is to be created after it emerged that many still worry about the effect of coming out on their careers and professional relationships. The entertainment trade union Equity said it hoped to agree a charter that will enshrine the rights of its gay members at a meeting of global unions in Toronto later this year.
The idea was proposed...
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Marketing to Young Fans on Their Technology Level →
The founders of the Whistle have a single aspiration: create an ESPNfor kids.
It is no small ambition. Sports television viewing is dominated by the habits of men 25 and older, who are targets for commercial pitches for beer, cars and insurance. Until now, pint-size fans watched what Mom, Dad and older siblings did — including the Cialis ads.
ESPN’s many spin-offs include none for the 6- to...
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Sundance Documentaries Transform Data Into Stories →
Over the weekend, “The House I Live In,” Eugene Jarecki’s heart-heavy investigation into the American war on drugs, nabbed the grand jury prize for documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Jarecki’s other movies include “The Trials of Henry Kissinger,” about you know who, and a 2005 grand jury prize winner, “Why We Fight,” about the American military industrial complex. Notably, one of this...
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Eiko Ishioka, Multifaceted Designer and Oscar... →
Eiko Ishioka, a designer who brought an eerie, sensual surrealism to film and theater, album covers, the Olympics and Cirque du Soleil, in the process earning an Oscar, a Grammy and a string of other honors, died on Saturday in Tokyo. She was 73.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, her studio manager, Tracy Roberts, said.
Trained as a graphic designer, Ms. Ishioka was for decades...
Watchdynamicafrica:
Shooting Freetown
A short film by Kieran Hanson
Shooting Freetown follows three people forging their way in film and music in the nation’s capital, facing the constant struggles with vision and resourcefulness.
By incorporating collaborative video projects, their stories give a fresh image of post-war Freetown - presented to the world through their own lens.
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UK box office passes the magic £1bn mark thanks to... →
British films Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, The King’s Speech and The Inbetweeners helped the UK box office hit £1bn for the first time in 2011.
The UK box office hit £1bn for the first time in 2011 following a year which saw successes for the final film in the Harry Potter series and independent blockbusters such as The King’s Speech and The Inbetweeners.
The...
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Watchpeopleofthesouth:
A Procura De Pancho (Searching for Pancho)
In ‘Searching for Pancho’, a short film by South African filmmaker Christopher Bisset about the work of Pancho Guedes, perhaps the most renowned of all building designers — about five hundred structures all told — in what was then Portugal’s piece of the action, Lourenço Marques, is surveyed. The film is a cute piece of work.A...
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Don Cornelius, ‘Soul Train’ Creator, Is Dead →
Don Cornelius, the producer and television host who created the dance show “Soul Train,” was found shot dead in his Los Angeles home early Wednesday morning in what appears to be a suicide, the Los Angeles Police Department and the county coroner’s office said. He was 75.
Mr. Cornelius was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:56 a.m., Mr. Winter said....
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Extreme close-up: German film brings the spread of... →
”Kriegerin”, by the young German director David Wnendt, went on general release this month. Less than six months ago, it would have been dismissed by many as an exaggerated if not fanciful depiction of the far-right skinhead problem which has been commonplace in eastern Germany since reunification over two decades ago.
But recent events have led critics to declare that the film an...
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Virtual unknown beats Scarlett Johansson to Les... →
When Les Misérables hits cinemas in December, the cast list will groan with big names – with one exception. On Tuesday night, Samantha Barkswas taking her curtain call after playing Nancy in Oliver! at Manchester’s Palace Theatre when she was surprised onstage by Cameron Mackintosh.
To audience cheers, the producer told her she had won the role of Éponine alongside Anne Hathaway, Hugh...
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