No Bully-style quibbling here: Per a just-issued press release email, the Weinstein Co. approves of the MPAA's decision on their other Very Important Movie of the year, the boobtacular June sequel Piranha 3DD. "PIRANHA 3DD accepts a well deserved Rated R for 'sequences of strong bloody horror violence and gore, graphic nudity, sexual content, language, and some drug use,'" writes a rep for the company. See, they can totally accept the MPAA's decision without turning it into a shameless opportunity for publicity!
Ever since growling his way through 2008's gloriously B-movie-esque B-movie Taken, Liam Neeson's been enjoying his newfound status as the gruff hero with killer instincts and a particular set of skills that you want on your side in the event of a kidnapping/assassination attempt/jailbreak/wolf attack. So why fix something that ain't broke? Enter Non-Stop, Neeson's next actioner and an airplane-set excuse to see Neeson smash heads and deliver straightfaced epic one-liners.
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Here's a photo worth a thousand words, or at least four: Meeting with President Obama in February in the Oval Office, Star Trek alum Nichelle Nichols flashed the iconic Vulcan salute alongside the Commander in Chief for the best White House photo op since Elvis and Nixon shook hands in 1970. Live long and prosper!
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In a new interview over at The Hollywood Reporter, Jeremy Renner gets real about his on-the-brink career and personal life -- like, so real you'll want to give him a hug and then buy all the tickets for Bourne just to help him on his humble way towards megamillionaire action hero status. He's either a calculatedly brilliant PR strategist or a walking country song. Either way, this dog-loving, single dude, does-his-own-stunts part-time house-flipper is sure to endear himself to all four quadrants with this profile-boosting piece. Oh Jeremy Renner, don't be so sad!
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If cynicism were music, The Three Stooges would be a big brass band: "We didn’t have a huge budget. I think Pauly wanted too much money which was too bad because he’s also from Rhode Island. There were budgetary issues, but we did get enough of them to make our point. The Jersey Shore cast is one of the things that puts The Three Stooges in the modern world. The movie’s an hour and a half long and we split the Stooges up, because we didn’t want them hitting each other the whole time. Moe gets a part on a reality show, and that changed over the years. Originally, it was Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, then The Hills. When it came time to make the movie, Jersey Shore was the biggest thing going and so we put him on that." [Deadline]
For some reason a remake of the 1987 comedy classic Summer School has been in development hell for years, and it may finally come to fruition under Adam Sandler's Happy Madison banner. Though Sandler hasn't yet threatened to star as the slacker high school gym teacher forced to start caring about education -- a role played with Hawaiian-shirted panache by one Mr. Mark Harmon, and don't you forget it -- the possibility certainly looms over this project, as THR reports that Happy Madison is negotiating to produce. Take a trip down memory lane with the original trailer and decide: If not Sandler, who could fill Harmon's sockless shoes? (And will there be a part for Kirstie Alley?)
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While filming Michael Bay's next non-Transformers pic Pain & Gain, based on the bizarre, freaky real life story of a band of Florida bodybuilders who committed a heinous series of crimes in the '90s, star Mark Wahlberg put on quite the show for peeping photographers. Clad in workout gear and some very short shorts, he gave us quite the memorable first look at the modest little $20 million black comedy, as you can see after the jump.
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This just in from CheapOair, offering travel deals to the Charlotte, NC area that played host to the Hunger Games production. "Visit the DuPont State Recreational Forest (also known as the arena in the movie) where you can find a dramatic landscape of waterfalls, hideaway lakes, streams and pines, as well as the spot where Peeta camouflaged himself in the movie, and traces of the pyrotechnics from the fireball sequence." While you're at it, how's about a lovely spring picnic on the site where children lost their lives fighting to the death in the movie? Sign me up!
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Honestly, I can't tell which way is up with some of the news coming out of the April Fool's Day weekend. Does James Cameron want in on a Prometheus sequel? Is the Queen collaborating with 007 for the Olympics? Surely Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels aren't seriously going to shoot the long-gestating sequel to 1994's Dumb & Dumber this fall once the Farrelly brothers are done promoting April 13's The Three Stooges, right?
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Say what you will about James Cameron’s epic 1997 romance Titanic, but everyone in the universe has seen it, sniffled at it, or at least has had its iconic moments indelibly seared into their brains. (Don’t even get me started on the soul-piercing power of “My Heart Will Go On.”) When it comes to Titanic fandom, 15 years of romantic obsession plus the internet have yielded quite the bounty of fan-made Titanic creations. Naturally, with Titanic 3-D steering towards theaters this week, Movieline searched near, far, and all across YouTube in search of the best of them.
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The Trayvon Martin incident inspired Tyler Perry's latest blog post, which is like whoa: "As I stepped out of the car another officer pulled up in front of my car. This officer was a black guy. He took one look at me and had that Oh No look on his face. He immediately took both officers to the back of my car and spoke to them in a hushed tone. After that, one of the officers stayed near his car while one came back, very apologetic. I said all of that to say this: do you see how quickly this could have turned for the worse?" Related: Why does Tyler Perry drive himself to the airport? So many questions. [TylerPerry.com]
So did all that MPAA ratings nonsense and media outcry pay off for Bully? What do you think? Lee Hirsch's film achieved the year's best documentary opening to date with $115,000 on five screens in New York and Los Angeles — a $23,000-per-theater average that amounted to the best of the week by nearly $10,000 over The Hunger Games. But now that The Weinstein Company has to take its unrated baby out of the doc-friendly megamarkets and into the mainstream wilds, a new report suggests that Harvey Weinstein may be preparing to make the cuts required for a PG-13. Surprise!
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He's about to embark on his ambitious one-man Mark Twain show, and soon enough Val Kilmer will also be a doctor, courtesy of William Woods University! Kinda. "It’s embarrassing if you have a brother with a real doctorate. [Laughs.] I called him up without thinking — I was so excited! — and said, 'You won’t believe it! They called me out the blue. I’m going to be just like you! Dr. Kilmer.' There was a long pause, and I immediately realized what a mistake this phone call was." [Vanity Fair]
Look, everyone and their mother is going to be playing Hurley's numbers from LOST today for the chance to win $640 million in tonight's Mega Millions draw. (You know: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.) Your friendly Movieline editors aren't necessarily endorsing the insane gamble that is the national lottery, but if you're going to throw your hat and your dollars into the ring with the rest of America by going on a last-minute ticket buying frenzy (get 'em by 7:45 pm tonight, California!), here are the winning numbers that nabbed the jackpot for Nic Cage and Bridget Fonda, Bow Wow, and a handful of other lucky folks on the big screen.
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Here at Movieline readers have to work for their hard-earned prizes, but today we have a haiku contest that should also engage your inner child and tap into the most whimsical, fantastical depths of your imagination: Write an original haiku inspired by this weekend's colorful and witty Snow White retelling Mirror Mirror -- a movie featuring heroines in swan dresses and people wearing boats as hats! -- and you could win dinner and a movie for four! UPDATED: See the winning entry below!
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