Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

Garfield

BBC NEWS: British actor Andrew Garfield is to play comic book superhero Spider-Man in the next outing of the film series, it has been announced.

The 26-year-old, raised in the UK but born in California, will begin work on the new movie in December.

His previous credits include last year’s The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus alongside the late Heath Ledger.

Former Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire and director Sam Raimi departed the franchise after making three films.

‘Rare combination’

The new instalment, to be shot in 3D, will focus on the formative years of Peter Parker, the unremarkable youth who – after being bitten by a radioactive spider, is transformed into the superhero.

The movie has yet to be named. Read the rest of this entry »

BBC News: US officials have shut down nine websites accused of offering free access to films, including Toy Story 3.

The crackdown, which included seizing assets from 15 bank accounts, involved police, customs and the movie industry.

The closure of the sites, which had 6.7m visitors combined each month, was described as the “largest takedown of illegal movie and TV websites in a single action” by the government.

Some films were available hours after their release in US cinemas.

Previous crackdowns on film piracy have focused on illegally copied DVDs.

The latest action is the first of its scale to target websites which profit – by selling advertising or taking donations – from offering pirated films for free. Read the rest of this entry »

CANNES, France, (AFP) — Rocker Mick Jagger played to the crowd at the Cannes festival yesterday, launching a film about the drug-fueled sessions that yielded the Rolling Stones’ classic album Exile on Main Street.

He joked about the band’s antics in a French villa in 1971 — shown in rarely-seen original footage in the film, which reveals that they had an eight-year-old boy roll marijuana joints for them.

“We were young, good-looking and stupid,” he told the audience after strutting on stage in a grey suit and shiny silver sports shoes for the screening of film-maker Stephen Kijak’s documentary Stones in Exile.

“Now we’re just stupid,” he added, to laughs from a packed theatre at the screening, part of the Directors’ Fortnight, a side-show to the main festival.

The nostalgic film tells how the Stones went into exile from Britain to escape the tax man and set up a studio in the basement of guitarist Keith Richards’ villa in Villefranche-Sur-Mer on the French Riviera. Read the rest of this entry »

In an April 30, 1981 file photo, singer Lena Horne is shown in a Broadway production 'Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music' in New York.

AP: Lena Horne, the enchanting jazz singer and actress known for her plaintive, signature song Stormy Weather and for her triumph over the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not to socialise with them, has died. She was 92.

Horne died Sunday at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, said hospital spokeswoman Gloria Chin, who would not release details.

Quincy Jones, a longtime friend and collaborator, was among those mourning her death Monday. He called her a “pioneering groundbreaker”.

“Our friendship dated back more than 50 years and continued up until the last moment, her inner and outer beauty immediately bonding us forever,” said Jones, who noted that they worked together on the film The Wiz and a Grammy-winning live album. Read the rest of this entry »

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams are collaborating on a hush-hush project — and Iron Man 2 audiences are getting the first look at it.

A Paramount spokeswoman says a teaser trailer for Super 8 will debut before midnight Friday screenings of Iron Man 2.

Abrams, whose films include Star Trek, wrote the screenplay for Super 8 and will direct. Spielberg is producing.

Like Cloverfield, the 2008 hit produced by Abrams, details about Super 8 are being kept secret. Paramount spokeswoman Katie Martin Kelley would only say that Super 8 is not a sequel to Cloverfield and that the movie is inspired by films Abrams “loved and admired as a teenager.”

Super 8 is due in theaters in summer 2011.

Tony Stark didn’t need Americans to make his first $100 million.

In a rare occurrence of domestic moviegoers having to wait for a Hollywood event movie, “Iron Man 2″ debuted in most foreign countries this weekend ahead of its U.S. launch on Friday and took in a very strong $100.2 million. That’s 26% more than the original “Iron Man” opened to in the same 53 foreign markets in 2008, according to distributor Paramount Pictures, and a likely precursor to a huge domestic debut next weekend.

Although impressive, the foreign opening of “Iron Man 2″ is not among the all-time biggest, ranking behind mega-successes including some “Harry Potter” pictures and the biggest-ever overseas superhero film launch, “Spider-Man 3.”

Paramount decided to debut “Iron Man 2″ early internationally to get ahead of June’s World Cup, which will keep many soccer fans at home watching TV, and to take advantage of the May Day holiday weekend. Domestically, the studio pushed the movie back a week to make sure it would play through the lucrative Memorial Day holiday.  Read the rest of this entry>

Its back, scary than ever and topping the American Box Office – Nightmare on Elm Street!!

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” the latest slasher film from a newly-resurrected hit movie franchise, topped the weekend North American box office with 32 million dollars in receipts, industry estimates showed Sunday.

Last weekend’s top earner, animated Dreamworks fantasy hit “How to Train Your Dragon,” fell to second place with 10.8 million dollars in ticket sales, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.

In third place was slapstick comedy “Date Night,” starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell about the misadventures of a jaded married couple in search of a rare romantic evening without their kids, which earned 7.6 million dollars.

Fourth place went to “The Back-Up Plan,” a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Lopez, which took 7.2 million dollars in receipts.

Kiddie flick “Furry Vengeance” about a group of woodland critters who join together to prevent the construction of a housing development on an animal reserve, debuted in fifth place, earning 6.5 million dollars.

In sixth place was “The Losers,” an action film adaptation of the comic book of the same name, with six million dollars in its opening weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

The nominees for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards which will be held on Sunday, March 7, 2010, was announced today. Here is a complete list of the nominees:

Actor in a Leading Role

• Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
• George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
• Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
• Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
• Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Matt Damon in “Invictus”
• Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
• Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
• Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
• Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Read the rest of this entry »

By: Joal Ryan

Is there nothing, or no one who can challenge Avatar? Well, other than Porky’s?

James Cameron’s box-office streamroller flattened the returning Mel Gibson to claim its seventh straight box-office win. One more, and it’ll tie three other films, including the aforementioned Porky’s, for the sixth-longest stay at No. 1.

Avatar grossed an estimated $30 million Friday-Sunday, and handily led Gibson’s Edge of Darkness ($17.1 million) and Kristen Bell’s When in Rome ($12.5 million). More details:

• Already the worldwide box-office champ, Avatar inched—well, yard-ed—ever closer to Titanic’s domestic record. Cameron’s new movie stands at $594.5 million; his old movie towers, for now, at $600.9 million.

• At the rate it’s going, look for Avatar to take Titanic’s domestic record by as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.

• If Avatar ties and passes Porky’s, et. al, it’ll still have a ways to go match the longest box-office winning streaks: 15 straight weekends, held by, yes, Titanic; and, 16 overall weekends, held by E.T. Read the rest of this entry »

Sci-fi spectacular Avatar has surpassed Titanic to become the highest grossing movie of all time, figures from distributor 20th Century Fox show.

Avatar’s worldwide takings in just six weeks stand at $1.859bn (£1.15bn), versus Titanic’s $1.843bn (£1.14bn).

The figures are not adjusted for inflation or the higher cost of Avatar’s 3D film tickets.

Director James Cameron holds the remarkable distinction of directing both the world’s top grossing movies.

Titanic, which starred Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, set a new box office record during its release in 1997-1998.

It also won Cameron an Oscar for best director.

Avatar – Cameron’s latest epic – won two Golden Globes last week, and is expected to garner an Oscar nomination next month.

Earlier this month, it became the fastest movie ever to achieve $1bn (£623m) in ticket sales around the world, and took over second place from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

It has proved a worldwide sensation, dominating the box office from North America to China and Russia.

The science-fiction adventure, about a disabled marine who infiltrates a race of giant blue aliens, mixes live action with digitally-created performances.

It was reportedly the most expensive film ever made, with a budget of at least $300m (£185m).

Source: BBC