· CBS has launched Project LENO ("Late prime Enhanced News Opportunity" -- hee hee!), which involves sending "tool kits" to affiliates to promote the scripted programming they hope to crush NBC with. May we suggest brochure Selling Sex: David Caruso, the Exotic Ginger Hunk of 'CSI: Miami' is as good a starting place as any? [Variety]
· Paramount purchased spec script Hellified, a "supernatural action movie involving a journey to hell" to be produced by Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and featuring two bumbling, illiterate and jive-talkin' Satan's minions named Thugzebub and Haylllll No. [THR]
Later in Hollywood Ink ... Valentine's Day is full of Grace ... mutated Spaniards board the USS Drake ... Seven of Nine becomes Best Out of Five...
more »
I guess it's not a spoiler if the scene doesn't make the final cut, but be warned anyway: Universal lifted a Michael Jackson-related sequence from Brüno just hours before the film's premiere Thursday night -- which happened to be just hours after the King of Pop was confirmed dead at age 50. The studio and the filmmakers have about a week to decide which version they'll ship to theaters for the July 10 release; more scene specifics and an admittedly vague reaction from director Larry Charles after the jump.
more »
Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and culture-war inducing at box office. This week, we sit back and watch Michael Bay's bloody coup overtake the world, Cameron Diaz gets maternal, and two of the better outcomes of the War on Terror cross over to the States. Pray that a shapeshifting Chevrolet doesn't intercept them, and view the rest of this weekend's movie forecast after the jump.
more »
The King of Pop is dead. Long live the King of Pop! As I'm too distressed to work, as I'm sure you are too, I thought we could celebrate Michael together with something from his prime: 3-D Disney parks cinematic odyssey Captain EO -- which, many tend to forget, was one of Francis Ford Coppola's lesser-heralded works. That's Angelica Huston as the licorice-tangled Supreme Leader ordering EO and his crew to be turned into trash cans, before Michael saves the day by singing "We Are Here To Change The World" and shooting purple lasers out of his wrists. Captain EO premiered at EPCOT September 12, 1986 and had its last public showing at Disneyland Park Paris on August 17, 1998. Goodbye, Michael. There will never be another you. I wish it all had a happier ending.
more »
You know about its fall from critical grace. You know about its shamelessness and robot minstrelsy. You also know it's already one of the biggest blockbusters ever. For these reasons and a few others, I can't quite get Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen out of my head. Shell-shocked as I was upon exiting the theater, I refused to believe for the two-and-a-half hours prior that Michael Bay's latest spectacle was beyond comprehension or without some sort of critical merit. Not that I'm here to be contrary -- by any conventional critical or technical standards, RotF is not an especially "good" film, and Bay is not an especially "good" director.
Nor is it simply a binary, thumbs-up/thumbs-down experience, and to dismiss it out of hand would be to engage in the same cheap cynicism Bay's critics attribute to him. But what is in it for the everyday, rational filmgoer? I've got five observations to start with after the jump; add yours as you like, and let's discuss this like adults, shall we?
more »
UPDATED: TMZ reports that Jackson is dead.
PREVIOUSLY: KTLA News is reporting that two hours ago, Michael Jackson was taken to UCLA Medical Hospital after a 911 call indicated that he was not breathing and had suffered cardiac arrest. More information to come, but for now, the full news story after the jump:
more »
· The 11-year-old who notoriously attempted to give Megan Fox a yellow rose has been found! He is a Brit named, uh, "Harvii" (is this an alien name?), and his Facebook interests include "fashion...going to my friends hse...spending money lol." Congratulations, "Harvii," the world is ready for a new Susan Boyle to wear out!
· Speaking of Le Renard, here is an interview with Megan Fox's stunt double.
· Ugh, why was Shia LaBeouf so damn cute on the Today show this morning? Swoon. That is my completely professional opinion.
· Good news, all you Marlon Brando/Jackie Kennedy fanfiction writers: Your dreams have come true!
· Lou Diamond Phillips won The Heidi and Spencer Show. Yay!
More sad news for the week: Farrah Fawcett died this morning after a protracted battle with cancer. She was 62. Fawcett received last rites earlier today, according to an ABC report; People notes that Ryan O'Neal and best friend Alana Stewart were both present when she passed. A few video remembrances -- and your condolences -- after the jump.
more »
Despite inspiring film criticism to new metaphor heights in describing the depths to which mainstream Hollywood movies have plunged -- tossing out everything short of comparing it to "the subway tunnel rape scene in Irreversible, where Michael Bay's vision is the rapist, Monica Bellucci is us, and her violated rectum is the current state of American cinema" -- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has proven itself to be utterly review-proof, shattering Wednesday box office records by pulling in an astonishing, GNP-of-a-small-country-esque $60.6 million. (The last record-holder was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, whose $44.2 million seems but a blob of Hippogriff poop by comparison.)
more »
Remember the Eddie Murphy film that opened a couple weeks ago? The one that finished sixth at the box office and won't last through July at multiplexes where its sad, aromatic $12 million gross is overtaking the smell of the popcorn? Ring a bell? Either way, studios haven't forgotten Imagine That -- in fact, according to a new report, they can't wait to get back to even more pictures with Murphy. But why?
more »
· If you're Ryan Reynolds, how do you follow up your surprise summer romcom hit The Proposal? How else? Sign on for Buried, a mini-budget indie about a civilian contractor in Iraq who's kidnapped and buried alive with nothing but a cell phone, a candle and a knife. Thank goodness for those -- digging out of that box would get awfully boring without an occasional game of Bedazzled to break up the monotony. [Variety]
Antichrist gets a release date, The Runaways replace Lita Ford, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
more »
· He brought tears to my eyes, and will do the same for you.
more »
Everyone seems to think that the Academy's expansion of the Best Picture category to ten nominees is a direct rebuttal to last year's crop. So, then, it's reasonable to ask: Had this rule been around last year, what additional five nominees would have been added to the category? And would they have made a difference on who won?
more »
Once the dust settles on the critical evisceration of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and long after all the money is counted, it's likely the only thing most people will remember from the embarrassingly overblown Paramount sequel are Mudflap and Skids, whom you read about first on Movieline. For it seems the notion of two developmentally disabled, blinged-out robots who are incapable of reading and who speak exclusively in an African-American urban patois has -- amazingly enough -- struck a nerve.
more »
It's the biggest news to hit the Oscars since, well, probably ever: The 82nd Academy Awards will feature 10 Best Picture nominees, doubling the standard upheld since 1944. This should be cause for celebration around most of Hollywood today, none more jubilant than that of the interested parties you'll find after the jump.
more »
