In 1996, it arrived. Within a few days, it struck box office gold. And on July 3, 2013, it comes back...in 3-D! 20th Century Fox has announced plans to re-release Roland Emmerich's original destructo-blockbuster Independence Day next year in an extra dimension, because America apparently can't get enough of seeing Will Smith battle aliens. (Bad Boys in 3-D? Now that I'd pay to see.) Plan your 2013 '90s sci-fi flashback movie nights accordingly. [Collider]
Don't worry, no Prometheus spoilers here, just a peek into the brain of Sir Ridley Scott, who opened an interview with press by musing on... tape recorders. And Star Trek. And light speed. Naturally.
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The latest in a string of big budget studio movie lawsuits has been lobbed at the makers of Men in Black 3, with extra Danika Gerner claiming that she was outfitted with a costume that led to her suffering "serious bodily injuries" during filming last May. The curious part: Reports give no clues as to just how Gerner's costume injured her, or which background character she played. More on the litigious wardrobe malfunction after the jump.
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This just in from Disney HQ: After bashing records across the globe, The Avengers will go from puny Earthbound box office domination to the final frontier, screening for six lucky multinational cosmonauts currently in orbit: "Marvel Studios announced today that they arranged with NASA to transfer their record-breaking blockbuster film Marvel’s The Avengers to NASA’s Mission Control in Houston, which will uplink the film to the International Space Station (ISS), currently orbiting 220 miles above Earth. The film will then be screened for the space station crew’s exclusive enjoyment." (Take that, Pentagon!) Keep an eye out for Loki up there fellas, eh? [Press release]
It's no secret that Chinese censors are tough nuts to crack when it comes to Hollywood imports like Men in Black 3. And, sure — those scenes of aliens with reptilian tongues disguised as Chinatown restaurant workers serving up contraband foodstuffs played on easy jokes, and were reportedly excised from the Chinese release. But was there something more subtle and subversive at play when Agent J "neuralized" a crowd of innocent Chinatown bystanders?
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It's not quite Willy Wonka's suit, and it should probably belong to the young actor who wore it onscreen, but it's a good cause, so hey: "Focus Features is donating an original costume from its acclaimed new movie Moonrise Kingdom, directed by Wes Anderson, to Variety the Children’s Charity of New York for Variety New York’s online auction." Read on for more from Focus's announcement and the auction site CharityBuzz.
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What to even say about this wild report out of Hong Kong, where the provocateurs at Apple Daily — basically the Daily Mail of the East — have published the scandalous allegations that actress Zhang Ziyi sexually serviced "various rich and powerful figures" in China from 2007 to 2011, starting with a disgraced politician and eventually earning the equivalent of $110 million for her "work." Wait, what?
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I don't recall the 1994 Pauly Shore/Andy Dick effort In the Army Now being a "huge box office success and fan favorite," but I'm happy to take the co-stars' words for it if it means leaving well-enough alone and not foisting In the Army Again on an unsuspecting population still reeling from a decade of war abroad. Even if it means not seeing them save "Katey Parry [sic] from a USO show gone bad" — our national psyche has endured enough, has it not?
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Star Wars opened 35 years ago today, which prompted Movieline pal Mike Ryan to probe the memories of contemporary filmmakers for a collective glimpse at the film's towering influence. It's a pretty diverse sample, from Jon Favreau to Diablo Cody to Gary Ross to Simon Pegg, but for my money, nothing beats Eli Roth's illustrated Star Wars comics... from age 8.
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Also in Thursday morning's briefs: Bill Clinton heads to Monaco for celebrity fundraising, Obama is criticized for helping Kathryn Bigelow's latest film on Osama bin Laden, and a pair of fan-friendly sites team up for ticket initiative.
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Now that there's no need to dance around spoilers (because everyone in the world saw it in theaters) we finally have an official Hunger Games trailer reel that includes the best scenes and plot turns of Katniss Everdeen's journey from District 12 huntress to The Girl on Fire. Revisit highlights from Lionsgate's mega-franchise adaptation with the Hunger Games Blu-ray trailer and see what's in store in the jam-packed bonus features on for the August 2-disc Blu-ray and DVD release.
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Ha! Kidding. But don't tell me you've never wanted to lick the guy. Wait, what? We can't have that privilege, either? What is going on here? Anyway, here are some sweet new postage stamps featuring directors John Huston, Billy Wilder, John Ford and Frank Capra. They are available today for philatelists and the snail-mail enthusiast in your life. (Hint, hint.) Read on for full details via the USPS and its partners at the American Film Institute.
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Also in Wednesday morning's news briefs: Lee Daniels finds his Jacqueline Kennedy for The Butler, Harvey Weinstein and Karl Lagerfeld seek a star at amfAR auction, Cannes Film Market reports an increase in attendance and screenings, and more...
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As much as I hate the movie theater talkers, cell phone texters, loud popcorn-chewers, backseat-kickers, nervous leg-jigglers, smelly food-eaters, and armchair hogs who combine evil forces to make going to the movies these days a distracting, living hell, I stop myself short of physical violence when it comes to laying down the law of theater etiquette. Which is what one enraged theater patron in the Seattle area did not do when he caught a case of theater rage and slapped an offending movie talker in the face. Making matters worse: The talker was a ten-year-old kid.
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"'Yeah, Romney. He's just such a disappointment, an embarrassment. Chin up, hair up. He's just one of those guys, one of those guys who says he's going to change everything. [...] And he'll get in there, and they'll smile at him and introduce themselves: "We're Congress, we make sure nothing changes." He won't do it. He can't. Everybody wants to be Barack Obama. And what did he change?'" [Esquire]
