Also in Tuesday morning's round-up of news briefs, do young people care about older movies, or is it just about what's happening now? Universal is moving forward with a revamp of its Universal City in L.A. And remembering Bill Asher, director of classic TV shows including I Love Lucy and the "beach blanket" movies of the '60s.
more »
It may seem like an unlikely pairing, the academic and author Douglas Brinkley teaming up with one of the world's biggest movie stars to edit a little-known unpublished novel by the late folk singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie titled House of Earth. But that is in fact in the works. Johnny Depp is partnering with Brinkley whose writings eventually informed documentaries including Spike Lee's Hurricane Katrina work When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts as well as the 2004 doc Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. Brinkley stumbled upon the work, which Guthrie finished in 1947, while researching an article about Bob Dylan for Rolling Stone.
more »
Also in Wednesday morning's round up of news, Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez tapped for big role in Libertador, Six Feet Under star joins CBGB, and amid rumors, Johnny Depp confirms he and partner are calling it quits.
more »
Rounding out Wednesday morning's mostly film news briefs, Tribeca Film takes rights to one of its winners, Focus Forward heads to LA Film Festival with prizes ready to hand out, Amazon teams with MGM titles and CBGB movie picks up another actor to play a singer
more »
Movies reigned where once music videos played... MTV hosted its annual Movie Awards in L.A. over the weekend from the Gibson Amphitheatre, morphing the venue into a futuristic drive-in of sorts. Russell Brand MC'd the show, which featured four "Golden Popcorn" wins for The Hunger Games, an on-stage performance by Johnny Depp and a roasting for Trailblazer award-winner Emma Stone.
more »
Per LaDonna Harris, president and founder of Americans for Indian Opportunity (ahem): "'Johnny is reprising the historic role of Tonto, and it seemed like a natural fit to officially welcome him into our Comanche family. [...] I reached out, and Johnny was very receptive to the idea. He seemed proud to receive the invitation, and we were honored that he so enthusiastically agreed. [...] Welcoming Johnny into the family in the traditional way was so fitting,' Harris said. 'He’s a very thoughtful human being, and throughout his life and career, he has exhibited traits that are aligned with the values and worldview that Indigenous peoples share.'"
more »
Another Monday morning, and thus another look at what carnage The Avengers has wrought at the weekend box office. And while things aren't as bad as they may look at first for Battleship and the rest of the competition, they're not what you'd call pretty. Your Weekend Receipts are here.
more »
Also in Tuesday morning's Biz Break: Horizon Movies picks up an ode to '70s and '80s thrillers, Martin Scorsese is driving a new Rolls Royce pic, movies are top for consumers, and more...
more »
This weekend sees the release of Dark Shadows, marking the eighth time director Tim Burton has teamed with Johnny Depp, his second-favorite performer on screen. (He no doubt frequently has to tell Helena Bonham Carter as much.) So natural is their pairing that we have come to expect a certain level of quality and/or box-office performance from their combined efforts, and an announcement of a new Burton title has generally come to carry the promise of a Depp appearance. Although Hollywood has long brought us such fruitful and lucrative actor/director relationships — from both Cary Grant and James Stewart's collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock to Robert De Niro's legendary work with Martin Scorsese — consider nine other long-term pairings packing a little (or a lot) less luster.
more »
Given the kind of vampire that’s dominated pop culture in recent years – hunky, as down in Bon Temps, or sparkly, like the eternal teens of Twilight — it’s no surprise that some folks may long for the bloodsucker of olde. Well, count Johnny Depp among the ranks of the traditionalists. His latest collaboration with director Tim Burton, an adaptation of the 1970s supernatural soap Dark Shadows, sees Depp in ghostly make-up and fangs as undead hero Barnabas Collins in what he describes as a counterpoint to movies about “vampires that look like underwear models.”
more »
Johnny Depp likely has a lock on the weekend's new releases with Tim Burton's Dark Shadows. The movie is set for 3,700 screens. No other new release comes close, but there are nevertheless plenty of other limited roll-outs that may make their way in a theater near you. Check a few of them out in this weekend's new-release roundup.
more »
There are enough terrific, elegant old-style Tim Burton touches in Dark Shadows that, now and then, you might be fooled into thinking the once-mad genius had finally come back to his senses: A young girl gazes dreamily through the window of a train slipping through the New England countryside, the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” serving as an aural curtain for her reverie; a wispy ghost woman floats toward the waiting arms of a giant chandelier, her hair and tattered skirt winding around its crystals like jellyfish tendrils; a secret button reveals a passageway whose opening is framed by mechanical ocean waves and a cadre of cast-iron wolves raising their snouts to the moon in a hearty salute. Parts of Dark Shadows look lovely. So what happened to the story?
more »
Between Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, and the reliably bizarro fashion statements of Helena Bonham Carter, the Dark Shadows premiere promised a veritable feast of eccentricities. But guess what? The best and weirdest photo ops from last night's to-do came not from the aforementioned mavens of macabre (granted, HBC was M.I.A.), but from the bizarre antics of an unlikely duo whose red carpet shenanigans made Burton and his cast of lovable weirdos look downright... mundane.
more »
Johnny Depp and Tim Burton have crossed the celluloid path on eight films over a little more than two decades. But apparently that long collaboration is not without a little pain. And apparently this time it was all about the... nails?
more »
While talking up this month’s Men in Black III – in which he does an uncanny Tommy Lee Jones impersonation playing Jones’ ‘60s-era younger self – Josh Brolin took a moment to discuss the upcoming project that makes him nervous just to think about: Spike Lee’s Oldboy, the remake of Park Chan-wook’s ultraviolent 2003 film, for which Brolin says he sought Park’s blessing before taking on the Hollywood remake.
more »
FILM NEWS 