So there's good news and bad news regarding Scary Movie 5. The bad news is... well, there is a Scary Movie 5. The good news? Anna Faris has reportedly exercised her option and/or good judgment to step away from the ever-deteriorating franchise. And then there's this, which could go either way depending on your taste: The new installment reportedly intends to spoof Black Swan. Like, the whole thing.
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When Darren Aronofsky directed a sumptuous Revlon commercial for mascara last year I called it his "least-daring work to date," but now comes a new project to trump that dubious accomplishment. Behold, the Oscar-nominated Black Swan director's gripping ad for Kohl's department store featuring J. Lo singing and dancing to a Kiki Dee cover song, a video that makes Jessica Biel plumping her lashes look like Requiem for a Dream.
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Ahh, the Grammy's -- the one award show that allows films like Black Swan to be nominated in the same category as The King's Speech and Tron Legacy. Late yesterday, the nominees for the 54th Grammys were announced and now that we've had nearly a day to absorb the fact that Zooey Deschanel, Seth MacFarlane and Cher are going head-to-head for a golden statuette, we can decide which artists deserve awards for their soundtrack contributions.
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"The only thing I learned on this internship was to be more picky in choosing employment opportunities... Black Swan had more than $300 million in revenues. If they paid us, it wouldn't make a big difference to them, but it would make a huge difference to us." Recent college grad Alex Footman didn't pick up many useful lessons during his time making coffee on the set of the Darren Aronofsky Oscar pic, but he and a fellow intern are attempting to change how Hollywood exploits labor does business. Good luck to the little guys? [NYT via MovieCityNews]
During the rush to get awards season hopefuls in front of various guilds, the studios have turned to increasingly digital means of distributing screeners to voters. Theatrical screenings and snail-mailed DVD screeners have given way to iTunes codes that allow recipients to download films directly for viewing on laptops, iPads, and other devices. It's a bold move dependent on a trust that none of the nearly 100,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild, for example, will turn around and pirate said films to the internet. But that's exactly what one SAG member did last winter.
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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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It was with no small amount of eagerness that Movieline ventured to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles to meet with screen veteran Barbara Hershey and discuss her work in Insidious, her second horror film in the last four months, following December's Black Swan. There, ensconced in a room in the famed nightclub -- a place purposefully shrouded in mystery -- conversation turned from the James Wan-directed tale to the paranormal and beyond thanks to a series of eerie mystery noises that, fittingly enough, evoked the thrills and scares found in the haunted house chiller.
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Another day, another Natalie Portman authenticity scandal. But this one isn't about how much dancing the Oscar-winner did or didn't do in Black Swan; it's of even more significance, to a certain segment of the movie-going audience: Did Portman use a butt double in her upcoming medieval comedy, Your Highness?
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Backstage at the Spirit Awards Saturday afternoon, Darren Aronofsky was in a jaunty mood. And why not? With Black Swan's two biggest Oscar rivals, The Social Network and The King's Speech, absent from competition at the penultimate awards show of the year (TSN excluded by budget, TKS relegated to the foreign film category), the night belonged to Aronofsky's stylish psychological ballet thriller. So after Black Swan took home Best Cinematography (Matthew Libatique), Best Actress (Natalie Portman), Best Director, and Best Feature, Aronofsky took to the winners' room to have some fun with the press.
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Yes, yes. The King's Speech will win, and no matter how hard we try to tell ourselves any other film has a chance in hell, its abiding safeness will triumph Sunday night. But I'd like to think the Academy will spread the love around -- a win for The Social Network here, a Natalie Portman winner's guffaw there, and some gold for Hailee Steinfeld. Hope she brings her blingitude for the big night.
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