Calling all ParaNorman fans both young and not so young! You now have a chance to be among the first to check out the new stop-motion animated comedy thriller. Movieline is giving away a pair of tickets to the World Premiere of ParaNorman in addition to the pic's soundtrack (composed by Jon Brion!). To decide our lucky winner who will get to attend the event this coming Sunday, August 5th at 2pm at the Hollywood Theater, we're hosting a good old fashioned Haiku contest - or more specifically - a ParaNorman Haiku contest. That's right, get your creative writing game on, and add your lovingly typed Haiku in the comments below.
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Author, playwright, politician Gore Vidal died at his home in the Hollywood Hills due to complications stemming from pneumonia, A.P. reports. His nephew said he had been sick for "quite a while" and had been living alone in the home when he passed away Tuesday.
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The studios rule the screens this time of the year - well, they do year-round, but especially in the Summer. So, here is a shout-out to some of this weekend's new Specialty Releases with trailers and background should there be any inkling to stray from Hollywood's big budget-busting, celebrity-saturated splendidly marketed juggernauts. OK, some here are also offshoots of the big guys, but all the same… Among the weekend's "indie/specialty/limited release" newcomers are docs Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Big Boys Gone Bananas!*. Also hitting limited screens (and with the big-fat NC-17 no less) is Killer Joe; Straight from Denmark and gracing these shores is Klown; and finally Ruby Sparks.
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As breathlessly reported by Variety's Jeff Sneider via Twitter: "Ladies and gentlemen, The Master primed for limited release on Sept. 14, will expand the following weekend!" The Weinstein Co. will release early in prime awards season moving the pic up from an October release, rolling the Philip Seymour Hoffman-starrer wide on September 21. The bad news for Austin, Texas film geeks: The timing seems to contradict speculation that Anderson's hotly anticipated pic might debut at Fantastic Fest, which runs September 20-27, though it may still screen there post-limited release. A Venice, late Toronto, or Telluride premiere is likely. [Variety]
Set your DVRs this spring to Reelz Channel for a Dolph Lundgren-hosted reality competition show called Race to the Scene, which might be the most potentially dangerous but too awesome not to watch TV show idea ever dreamed up: "Race to the Scene will feature pairs of contestants who race to and from actual movie locations as they compete in challenges and stunts inspired by memorable movie moments... [producer Justin Hochberg] and his partner Charlie Ebersol began talking to the network about the project a little over a year ago, and have since spent time selecting iconic scenes —think Bruce Willis jumping off Nakatomi Tower in Die Hard — for which to recreate." Can't wait for the barefoot 50-yard dash over broken glass! What could go wrong? [THR]
His film The Avengers is one of the highest grossers of the year and legions of fans gave adulation to him at the recent Comic-Con and even more did so at the box office. So what do you do when you have a blockbuster that has made nearly $1.5 billion worldwide and quickly counting? Take on Shakespeare and Much Ado About Nothing!
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Killer Joe had a gala screening Monday night in New York with stars Matthew McConaughey and Gina Gershon on-hand along with
Oscar-winning director William Friedkin who had some choice words about gun violence, the law and their relationship to movies. His film, which will be released this weekend, described by its official
website as a "Totally twisted deep-fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story" received an often-dreaded NC-17 by the MPAA for "graphic disturbing content involving violence and sexuality and a scene of brutality." McConaughey and Friedkin weighed in on violence and its sources post-
TDKR tragedy at the event, hosted by the Cinema Society.
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William Friedkin barrels into theaters this Friday with Killer Joe, boldly adapted from Tracy Letts' ultra-violent Southern-fried play about a Texas lawman/assassin who ingratiates himself into the family of the low rent punk (Emile Hirsch) who's hired him to murder his mother. Los Angeleno Movieliners, grab a bucket of fried chicken and your twisted wits and dive into our latest 10-word review contest, tackling any of Friedkin's cinematic output for a chance to win tickets to see Killer Joe this Thursday!
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Any re-hash of Beetlejuice will have to include Michael Keaton, Tim Burton who directed the 1988 original that also starred Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara has said. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter writer Seth Grahame-Smith, who is currently penning a script for the Beetlejuice sequel said in May that he's spoken with both Burton and Keaton about the proposed follow-up.
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ABC's Denver affiliate has acquired and released the first image of James Holmes, the 24-year-old suspect in the shooting attack that left 12 dead and 50 injured this morning at an Aurora, Colorado, multiplex. Local police, meanwhile, have encountered a series of booby traps complicating their investigation of Holmes's apartment.
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This morning's horrific Colorado multiplex shooting, which left at least 12 attendees of a midnight Dark Knight Rises screening dead, has prompted an ongoing wave of reactions from Hollywood to the White House and beyond.
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At least one gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises early Friday morning in Aurora, Colorado, injuring as many as twenty people. An early report from local radio station 850 KOA cites witness reports that a shooter, possibly wearing a mask, opened fire and set off tear gas during a shoot-out scene in the film. Various reports cite at least ten 12 people dead, although details are still emerging with at least one suspect in custody. [UPDATE: 50 others have been wounded in the attack.]
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Following Rush Limbaugh's attempt to cry conspiracy over the idea that The Dark Knight Rises villain Bane was meant as a political jab at Mitt Romney's ties to Bain Capital, comic book writer Chuck Dixon — who created the Bane character for DC's 1993 series Knightfall — chimed in to set the record straight on the character's origins. "Bane was created by me and Graham Nolan and we are lifelong conservatives and as far from left-wing mouthpieces as you are likely to find in comics,” he told ComicBook.com. "He’s far more akin to an Occupy Wall Street type if you’re looking to cast him politically. And if there ever was a Bruce Wayne running for the White House it would have to be Romney." [ComicBook.com via The Guardian]
The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher weighed in about the brouhaha that flared this week after some passionate Batman fans threw a fit after a spattering of negative reviews, resulting in aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes' decision to disable user comments for the time being. Nolan's final stint in the trilogy is expected to fetch box office records this weekend and so far reviews have been mostly positive, but a few critics gave TDKR a thumbs down and some fans went ballistic. Wednesday night at the film's London premiere, Nolan appeared to defend fans' emotional response.
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No, really — I'm asking: "Scalpers reportedly are re-selling The Dark Knight Rises’ midnight IMAX tickets for $65-$100 apiece on both Craigslist and StubHub for NYC’s AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 — higher even than for Avengers. Yet this may be my favorite Dark Knight Rises pre-release factoid so far: 'All the major circuits have asked for more frequent pickups from their Brink’s Truck drivers to deposit the record amount of cash they are anticipating,' a Warner Bros exec told me today." [Deadline]
