Hollywood's biggest (and possibly most anticlimactic) night is upon us, which can only mean one thing: Movieline's third annual Oscar Liveblog Extravaganza! Join your Movieline editors and loyal readers as we parse the Academy Awards to within an inch of their glamorous lives. The fun begins on the red carpet at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, with the Oscarcast proper commencing at 8:30 p.m ET/5:30 p.m. PT. And in any case, keep abreast of this year's Oscar class with our commentary after the jump.
more »
Congrats aren't just in order for the winners of tonight's Film Independent Spirit Awards; major props go to Adam Sandler for an outstanding showing in today's Razzie nominations announcement, which found the Jack & Jill/Just Go With It star breaking the previous record for most personal Razzie nominations earned in a year. (Sandler won 11 nominations, while Jack & Jill itself earned 12.) Eddie Murphy, guess you're off the hook for the Year of Norbit. See the full list of fairly obvious nominees vying for Golden Raspberry (dis)honors after the the jump and leave your predictions below.
more »
Give the Academy some credit: They made awards season fun for a little bit longer. At least my mind was blown this morning as AMPAS president Tom Sherak and Jennifer Lawrence announced The Tree of Life, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Demián Bichir and a few other shocks among the 2012 Oscar nominations.
more »
We're a little more than half a day away from learning who and what will compete for the 84th annual Academy Awards -- an elite class through which Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics had combed for four months in its fail-safe, fool-proof and bracingly handsome Oscar Index. This calls for one last sweep through each of the Academy's categories (with the exception of live-action, animated and documentary short, about which even our pointiest-headed Oscar wonk cannot speak yet with authority); check our team's work against your own, and drop back by Movieline tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. ET/5:30 a.m. PT as we deliver nominations, reactions, analysis and more.
more »
When the Weinstein Co. first announced their Apollo 18 project last year, they sent out a press release stating that Russian producer Timur Bekmambetov had discovered actual Apollo 18 footage that would be incorporated in their "documentary." Just three hours later, the studio retracted the release with a new one that curiously did not mention the footage. But then they released a trailer for Apollo 18 that opened by claiming "the following is the recovered footage from Apollo 18." Confusing much? On the eve of the film's release, NASA is finally coming forward to talk about Apollo 18.
more »
Harry Potter claimed his rightful place atop the weekend box office, and how: Shattering box office records and unseating Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the closing chapter of the boy wizard's magical saga topped The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, and The Twilight Saga: New Moon as the biggest weekend opener of all time. Cue the celebratory wizard rock jam!
more »
Michael Bay's juggernaut of a sequel Transformers: Dark of the Moon didn't just spank Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts at the box office; it handily seized the title of the biggest domestic July 4 opener of all time from previous champ Spider-Man 2 and should hit $116.4M over the four-day weekend for a $181.1M domestic take. On top of that, Transformers 3 is performing even better overseas than in the U.S. of A. -- and it has yet to open in Transformers-loving Japan. Bow to our robot overlords!
more »
When your last three movies combined cost nearly $550 million to make, a $20 million budget suddenly sounds... reasonable. Modest, even. So give Transformers auteur Michael Bay some credit for restraint with Pain & Gain, a real-life crime pic about bodybuilders-turned-criminals that he says he'll direct next.
more »
The alleged greatest 3-D film ever made held its world premiere today in Moscow, where Michael Bay and his Transformers: Dark of the Moon cast swept into town to kick-off the Moscow International Film Festival. Hit the jump to ogle Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, John Malkovich, McDreamy himself, the guys from Linkin Park, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's sheer couture number on the red carpet.
more »
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in the wake of Kung Fu Panda 2's disappointing box office performance, DreamWorks Animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg had some choice words for those other studios that have dropped the ball on 3-D theatrical releases. "We're not the problem," he said, pointing non-specifically to competing 3-D releases that have turned audiences off the 3-D viewing experience, ruining it for everyone. So, who is?
more »
Gone are the days when Shockwave seemed like one of the lamer Decepticons in the Transformers universe, and fans may have Michael Bay to thank for it. According to producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Shockwave's been given a facelift for Transformers: Dark of the Moon -- and if you've seen the trailers, you've already seen his handy new upgrade.
more »
Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon promises some thrilling wingsuited, skydiving action, and in a new behind the scenes featurette you can learn more about the daring sky jumpers tapped to execute film's aerial stunts. Also: Paramount's released more pictures of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in peril and Shia LaBeouf sliding down a building, so happy Transformers Wednesday!
more »
Physician-turned-comedian Ken Jeong (AKA Dr. Ken) got his start on the big screen with comic bits in films like Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, and Role Models, but he made his most memorable on-screen appearance in Todd Phillips' 2009 surprise hit The Hangover as a flamboyant gangster named Chow. This week in The Hangover Part II, Jeong returns to cause more mayhem on the streets of Bangkok with an entrance that manages to one-up the shocking sight of springing, fully nude, from the trunk of a Mercedes.
more »
Director Jon M. Chu is one of the few working filmmakers with an intuitive grasp on filming in 3-D, as evidenced by his dynamic visuals in Step Up 3D and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, so the idea of a G.I. Joe sequel released in 3-D actually sounded promising. But Chu always said he'd rather go 2-D than rush a post-conversion on the action sequel, and a report today suggests that's just what will happen.
more »
The marketing machine for Transformers: Dark of the Moon is really ramping up now that early-bird journalists got their first look at the kinetic 3-D action stylings of Michael Bay -- a portion of which footage is now online for your perusal/approval -- and Paramount decided to move up their release date to June 29. After the jump, watch the 3-D trailer (in 2-D here, obviously) filled with wanton destruction, a tease of Dark of the Moon's conspiracy theory premise, and more glorious destruction as Decepticons tear through downtown Chicago.
more »
