· Thursday's very funny edition of 30 Rock featured a very funny -- and timely -- sight gag about NBC's programming priorities in the wake of their merger with Comcast. Er, Kabletown. Click ahead to see Jack Donaghy's pie chart, and stick around for more Buzz Break.
At the risk of being a jerk: Has anyone actually seen the phrase "title treatment" before? "Title card," sure; but "treatment"? It just seems like we're in new territory here -- one similar to the place where that Transformers: Dark of the Moon announcement trailer lives. (And looks awesome; what can I tell you?) Anyway, click ahead to see your first look at the title treatment for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part I. There's no butter-colored sex, but there is some fancy, curly typeface. So, win!
Sure it's cold and snowy and otherwise appalling outside in New York right now, but sometimes you've just got to suck it up, get out of the house or office and catch a live Jason Statham interview at the Apple Store SoHo. I'll be there moderating, so please prepare your trenchant questions about his new film The Mechanic (among other topics) accordingly. The party starts at 6 p.m.; as always, it's free to get in, but seats are first-come, first-served. We look forward to seeing you!
Even by today's standards, it's been a pretty strange week for remake announcements. Sandwiched in between seminal films in both the buddy cop and Sam Peckinpah genres, we've also got remakes of two classic musicals with Jay Z and Willow Smith attached to one and Beyonce and Clint Eastwood to the other. Not to mention Westworld! Actually, go ahead and remake Westworld. That's fine. Anyway, in celebration of Friday, let's step once more into a Hollywood fantasyland where content and quality are priority number one (or at least not so low on the list), and look at alternatives to several of these high profile remakes.
It says something that out of four feature-length films opening the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, the hottest ticket in town wasn't the celebrity doc (Sing Your Song) or the buddy cop thriller starring two famous-for-an-indie-movie stars (The Guard). Instead, Thursday's big premiere was Project Nim -- or, as it was referred to around Park City, "the monkey movie" -- a documentary by returning Grand Jury Prize/Audience Award winner James Marsh, whose first and last Sundance debut (Man on Wire) went on to win an Oscar.
Also in this Friday edition of The Broadsheet: A Star is Born gets born again with an unlikely duo... Russell Brand is ready to Rock... Taco Bell doesn't like potential kiddie porn... and more ahead.
Happy Friday! And, uh, what happened to the movies? The January doldrums have rarely looked so sparse, with only one film opening in wide release and a sprinkling of indies finally making their ways to some screens here and there. Let's have a look at the options.
· Photos form Paul W.S. Anderson's The Three Musketeers are here, and they're... delightfully sincere in grandeur! They're not as titillating as Christoph Waltz in his Richelieu drag, but what is? [/Film]
(Deep long sigh) I know, I know: This is exactly what Armond White wants. When someone writes a column as inflammatory as the one he wrote this week, it's done for one purpose: To get attention. And, yes, we are playing into the game by giving him the attention that he wants. It's just, wow. It's hard to ignore this one: White -- who you may have heard is a bit of a contrarian -- unleashed a 1,700-word rant in which he accused Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum -- and the Village Voice's Jim Hoberman, with whom White has had a longstanding feud -- of racism.
Earlier this month, Movieline mentioned that George Clooney was spending this year's award season in Africa so that the Oscar winner could bring attention to Darfur, break in his khaki vest collection and, as revealed today, contract malaria for the second time.
I applaud him for playing along and testing his mettle, but there's no doubt that Ignatiy Vishnevetsky -- the new 24-year-old co-host on Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies -- crashed and burned while taking The Daily Beast's 10-question movie quiz. He compensated with a slick harangue to Aaron Sorkin midway through question eight, but still, he biffed. Would you have fared better?
In No Strings Attached, Natalie Portman co-stars for the second movie in a row with a former cast member of That '70s Show. Ashton Kutcher gets the honors this time (sorry, lesbian fans!), playing... well, a version of himself that's been steadily getting worse since That '70s Show. How did Kutcher transform from a pretty decent sitcom actor to a movie star who appears in terrible movies? You can always trace a direct line through a handful of important roles to illustrate what led to an actor's current success. Well, except in this case. If anything, that line has been on a steady decline since Kutcher's first role as Michael Kelso. Let's look at eight performances that trace the devolution of one Christopher Ashton Kutcher.
· Good news, non-sports fans: When you're watching the Super Bowl in two weeks, there will be some great movie trailers to keep your attention between first downs. According to THR, trailers for Super 8, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger will be among the highly anticipated summer films getting a Super Bowl push. Also, Limitless. Hey, they all can't be winners...but Buzz Break can! (Worst. Segue. Ever.) Click ahead for more.
As detailed in this morning's edition of The Broadsheet, Hollywood went remake crazy while you were sleeping, with planned relaunches of Lethal Weapon, Westworld, The Wild Bunch and Annie all presumably coming to a theater near you in the next five years. Nothing there should inherently surprise you -- this is Hollywood after all, where announcing remakes is otherwise known as a weekday -- but it's still a bit demoralizing. With that in mind, let's remoralize! (Invented word!) Ahead, Movieline offers 15 duos who might make the planned relaunch of Lethal Weapon almost tolerable. Suggestions welcome.
In the grand tradition of The Dark Knight Rises and the Spider-Man reboot, a shocking development in a 23-year-old missing persons case has arrived just in time to get you pumped for the Taylor Lautner these-ain't-my-parents thriller Abduction.
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