Just in case all those sleeping air traffic controllers didn't make you terrified to fly, here's some more bad news: On Sunday morning, an Ohio air traffic controller sent more than three minutes of audio from the DVD he was watching to all the planes in the surrounding air space. The movie? The immortal Samuel L. Jackson film Cleaner, a 2007 direct-to-DVD thriller from director Renny Harlin that no one saw. Let's take a look at this one ahead.
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Did you think the controversial new on-demand service Home Premiere was just another way for studios to milk even more money out of your pockets on a regular basis? Good news! It's not, says Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group president Kevin Tsujihara. In fact, the only reason films available via the DirecTV service -- like the studio's Hall Pass, for instance -- will cost $30 is so you'll go to the movies more. Here, let Mr. Tsujihara explain.
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Over five million people have watched last week's premiere episode of Kevin Tancharoen's Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series -- an impressively-shot introduction to baddie Kano (Darren Shahlavi) and heroes Sonya Blade (Jeri Ryan) and Jax (Michael Jai White). The second episode picks up right after the explosive cliffhanger of the debut with even more eye-catching camera work, striking action, and general badassery on display, as the show dives right into the origins of Jax and Kano's infamous bionic accoutrements.
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Also in this Tuesday edition of The Broadsheet: Another old timer returns to American Reunion... Daniel Radcliffe's parents love Lady Gaga... Perez Hilton: Movie Star... and more ahead.
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More news on The Hunger Games casting front! Showblitz reports that Elizabeth Banks is up for the role of Effie Trinket in the highly anticipated adaptation, "the flighty bureaucrat who wrangles the young death-match contestants to their fates." No word yet on who will play former Hunger Games winner (and Katniss mentor) Haymitch, but expect that announcement to happen soon enough. Perhaps Banks' television husband Alec Baldwin? Other suggestions welcome ahead. [Showblitz]
Earlier today, Brooklyn author Jennifer Egan was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for A Visit From the Goon Squad. Set in New York City (mostly), Egan's non-linear novel follows a cast of aging, self-destructive characters involved in or around the music industry and has been celebrated by Publishers Weekly, the New York Times and many other literary outlets. Now, Movieline wonders whether Goon Squad should follow in the footsteps of other Pulitzer Prize-winning novels like The Color Purple, The Hours and The Road and be adapted for the big screen.
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If you'd dismissed the upcoming Ginnifer Goodwin-Kate Hudson wedding-themed chick flick Something Borrowed as just another Bride Wars-esque lady comedy, think again; Something Borrowed tackles a subject that's been on the minds of modern artists for decades -- the moral lines between friendship, love, sex, and betrayal. Or, in the immortal words of hip-hop group Naughty by Nature, circa 1991, it's about one concept in particular: O.P.P.
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An artist struggles with her latest work, haunted by paranoid visions to the point that she questions her sanity. Is it just us, or does Winona Ryder's next film, The Stare, sound a little -- okay, a lot -- like her last film, Black Swan? Fine. Black Swan didn't also have James Franco portraying some sort of performer. That doesn't sound familiar, either.
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Rio might have flown away with number one, but the real stories of the weekend box-office might be a pair of films that didn't even make the top 10. And if their companies' reactions are any indication, they are not done yet. But is this really just about the money?
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No one in Hollywood has come close to recreating the epic tapestry of power, politics and family (not to mention machine gun murders) onscreen that Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola established with The Godfather. That doesn't mean they aren't trying. Just today, director Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener) and screenwriter Bráulio Mantovani (City of God) announced that they are developing a similarly ambitious project which will center on Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, his sketchy business dealings and his sketchier involvement with the Kennedy family.
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Bad news for fans of puzzling reboots: Gore Verbinski and Disney's The Lone Ranger will not star Ryan Gosling as Tonto's (Johnny Depp) compadre. Aw. In the meantime we'll enjoy the Blue Valentine bandit in Crazy, Stupid, Love and apparently a Logan's Run revamp. And, of course, repeat viewings of the definitive Bad Movie We Love, The Notebook. [EW]
Last year, Woody Allen had the distinct displeasure of directing French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy in reportedly 35 dialogue-less takes for a scene in Midnight in Paris. (In her defense, the scene did involve the most complicated bread prop in the business: a baguette.) And although Allen has no intention of casting Bruni-Sarkozy again anytime soon (he said her Midnight role was a one-time thing, "for fun"), the prolific director is not completely against writing a character for her husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
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That was fast. Just one week after appearing at a press conference in New York to officially announce his involvement in Gotti: Three Generations, director Nick Cassavetes has left the project due to scheduling conflicts; he'll tackle the indie film Yellow instead. With John Travolta and Joe Pesci already lined up for the cast (Lindsay Lohan is also rumored to be in talks) and a start date scheduled for the fall, a replacement for Cassavetes at the helm of Gotti is needed, post-haste. Thankfully for all involved, Movieline is here! Ahead, five suggestions for who Fiore Films can hire as Casavettes' replacement.
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Viola Davis (the Tony winner and Oscar nominee) and Bryce Dallas Howard (the gorgeous redhead who dares to have three boy names) look like they're concealing a silent grudge match in new stills from the upcoming Dreamworks adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling book, The Help. The trailer goes up later this afternoon, but in the meantime, let's stare at socioeconomically provocative pics of these two stars, along with Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer.
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You've got your new Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) -- now it's time to start fleshing out the rest of the Hunger Games cast. Lionsgate announced today that they've selected newcomers Dayo Okeniyi and Amandla Stenberg to play Thresh and Rue, respectively. So who are these two future tributes from the Southern climes of District 11?
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