Some people pay tribute to Up with replica houses, some people pay tribute with morbidly awesome parallel-universe posters for the film's imagined sequel. Or remake. Or the movie we really wanted. Read on to check it out and for the rest of your pre-holiday Buzz Break.
It was an early morning yesterday; I was up before the dawn. And I really have enjoyed my stay; but I must be moving on. I bring up "Goodbye Stranger" not as a roundabout way of endearing myself to the more promiscuous readers out there, but to hackily inform you that my time at Movieline has come to an end. I'm very excited to announce that starting next week, I take over as the Vertical Editor at Moviefone -- an opportunity that has me levitating three feet off the ground. Let's have a group hug ahead.
Contagion/Haywire/Magic Mike director (slash painter and future retiree) Steven Soderbergh was indeed tapped by old friend Gary Ross to shoot second unit on the YA adaptation The Hunger Games, the challenge of which he explains in an interview with Moviefone: "I thought, 'OK, I see what you guys are doing. I know what the tool kit is. I know what the rules are.' And it's fun in a way. I found it much more nerve-wracking than when you're shooting for yourself. Because I was constantly thinking, 'Oh, I hope that he likes this. I hope he likes that.' May the odds be ever in his favor? [Moviefone]
It's hard to believe that what started with a smash of Thor's hammer back in May is ending meekly almost four months later with an orgy, a lost space mission and 3-D sharks. Alas, with Labor Day having arrived, summer is officially unofficially over. But! Before the crisp fall movie season begins in earnest, it's time to look back on what transpired. Pour yourself one last glass of Country Time lemonade and click ahead to remember the highlights of the summer movie season with your bestest Movieline editors.
Dear Reader: Please take a moment and issue a hearty welcome to the esteemed Alison Willmore, a fine critic and film journalist who this week joins the Movieline family. You can find Alison's first ML review, for The Debt, here, with more to follow in the weeks and months ahead. She is a longtime contributor to IFC, the AV Club, and numerous other publications, and she will be helping out as Stephanie Zacharek reports from the Venice and Toronto film festivals and Michelle Orange takes short leave for a book project. We are thrilled to have Alison aboard; please say hello!
Forty-seven years ago today, Keanu Charles Reeves was born to Patricia Bond and Samuel Reeves in Beirut, Lebanon. Growing up, Reeves enjoyed acting and hockey and in 1986, at the age of 22, Reeves combined his passions in the Rob Lowe hockey movie Youngblood. Twenty-seven years after his studio debut, Reeves has established himself as one of our favorite big-screen personalities. In honor of Keanu's birthday, let's hear what you consider his finest acting moment. Excellent!
Happy Friday! Also in this edition of The Broadsheet: Lindsay Lohan will probably regret her new tattoo ... Scarlett Johansson has a new man in politics ... Contagion is sexier than first thought ... Old pals Werner Herzog and Errol Morris make the news together again ... and more...
As you fire up the grill and wax philosophical about the meaning of Labor Day this long holiday weekend (i.e. it means no work on Monday!), take a moment to think about the underdogs struggling to do battle at the box office. Killer sharks, astronauts, even the mighty Helen Mirren -- none of this week's new releases may have the power to unseat the chick-lit segregation drama The Help, which could well sweep all comers under the rug with another #1 weekend showing. Bet you never envisioned the summer blockbuster season would end this way, did ya?
Even if the upcoming Marilyn Monroe biopic My Week with Marilyn doesn't live up to its intriguing promo stills, the casting and styling choices that make Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh such convincing impersonators of Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier are already stunners. Branagh's Shakespearean gravitas! Williams' sighing loveliness! This inspires us to revisit other famous actors who played Hollywood legends and see how their appearances measured up. Come on, Judy Davis, get happy!
So amid all the festival hoopla and luminaries dropping by, I know what you're really thinking today: How did The Worst Movie EVER! fare last night in Winchester, Va.? Indeed, the infamous mockbuster had its second theatrical engagement in a late showing at the town's Alamo Drafthouse, and the numbers are in. Stand back!
When the Weinstein Co. first announced their Apollo 18 project last year, they sent out a press release stating that Russian producer Timur Bekmambetov had discovered actual Apollo 18 footage that would be incorporated in their "documentary." Just three hours later, the studio retracted the release with a new one that curiously did not mention the footage. But then they released a trailer for Apollo 18 that opened by claiming "the following is the recovered footage from Apollo 18." Confusing much? On the eve of the film's release, NASA is finally coming forward to talk about Apollo 18.
· Club Silencio, the long-awaited Paris disco designed by renaissance man David Lynch, has opened its doors. The Guardian got a tour and a few snapshots, while Lynch told L'Express: "I have the feeling that I have coaxed out some of the atmosphere and the characters from my films, and even from my music." Which I guess makes the toilet... Dune? I'm so confused. Click through, take a look and stick around for your Thursday Buzz Break.
Diablo Cody has her own movie to anticipate with the release of her third feature Young Adult this December (featuring a thoroughly unamused Charlize Theron), but the Academy Award winner took time out tell Movieline which three films she most looks forward to seeing. What will make the cut? The Iron Lady? Carnage? A Dangerous Method? Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip Wrecked? Click through for her adroit (and quite cheeky) observations.
Back in 1988, in testimony before Congress, one of Hollywood's most successful, beloved and influential filmmaker-moguls expressed deep concern for a disturbing trend sweeping the movie industry. "People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians," this filmmaker said, "and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society." Damn straight, George Lucas.
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