The surprise winner of this year’s Forbes Celebrity 100 list was singer-actress-American Idol famous person Jennifer Lopez, who beat out the likes of Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga in the magazine’s uber-scientific calculation of the celebrity with the most fiscal earnings and fame. J. Lo even bested Oprah, but then Oprah’s having an off year despite raking in $165 million. Not bad for a former fly girl — and a wily Hollywood strategist, at that — whose second pregnancy-themed movie in a row is coincidentally due in theaters this week. [Forbes]
Also Wednesday afternoon, Jane Fonda picks up a role, Anthony Hopkins and Andy Garcia team for a story about Hemingway in Cuba and Sacha Baron Cohen’s midnight screenings outshine Dark Shadow.
Cannes Market Up 9% in 2012
The Marché du Film — better known as the Cannes Film Market — is defying a flat economy locally and growing by leaps and bounds. This year, 4,600 titles including finished films and projects, are up for sale in the market, a separate component from the overall Cannes Film Festival. And the number of buyers has also increased, according to the market’s own publication, Cannes Market News. Two hundred more buyers from around the world have descended on Cannes compared to last year, bringing the total to about 1,900. “Maybe it’s the word of mouth or the fact that the festival is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year, but we have the feeling people want to be here,” noted Marché du Film director Jérôme Paillard. The Cannes Film Market is now in its 53rd year.
Sundance Blesses Utah with $80M
Festivals are a business and they’re a big draw of people with expense accounts (and those without). The 2012 Sundance Film Festival, which takes place primarily in Park City, UT had an $80 million impact on Utah including $6.9 million in tax revenue and supporting 1,731 jobs. 46,000 attended the festival, an increase of 2% from the previous year. “Nationwide it is proven that the arts boost tourism, create jobs, increase educational outreach and support local businesses, and we are proud to be a strong example of this,” said Sundance Institute exec. director Keri Putnam.
Around the ‘net…
Jane Fonda Has Better Living Through Chemistry
Fonda is a customer of the pharmacy run by a character played by Sam Rockwell. Her character…
Here’s what I’ve been waiting for with all these pseudo-karaoke Rock of Ages glimpses we’ve endured: A look at Mary J. Blige — the realest singer in the cast, if you ask me — doing her thing. Watch as Mary J. as Justice Charlier drops the 411 on neophyte exotic dancer Julianne Hough to the sounds of Journey’s “Any Way You Want It,” which is apparently the rallying empowerment anthem of strippers everywhere circa 1987.
All these choreographed limbs and intentionally cheesy-bombastic rock ‘n’ roll faces are actually… growing on me. That said, I can’t quite figure out what kind of ’80s getup Hough is wearing here. What is that, Xanadu-chic?
Rock of Ages is in theaters June 15.
The Shane Black-helmed Iron Man 3 begins filming this month, but Marvel fans are still trying to piece together clues as to who, exactly, Iron Man is going up against in his post-Avengers threequel. The latest casting news doesn’t make it any clearer: James Badge Dale, most recently seen in The Grey and Shame, will play Eric Savin, a soldier known from Marvel lore. But will Dale also portray the character as the superpowered mercenary he transforms into in the comics?
Said character is Coldblood, an enhanced robo-soldier who’s reconstructed after a land mine injury. But Variety’s report is careful to avoid confirmation that Dale will play Savin as Coldblood in the nanotech-themed sequel, which already has Ben Kingsley in place as its villain. Thoughts on how it’ll all come together?
[Variety]
One of the funniest moments during a “meet the jury session” Wednesday afternoon in Cannes came toward the end of a press conference. The annual first-day Q&A has long been a peculiar dance, with jurors giving vague answers about being happy to be on the jury and how they’ll pursue the next 11 days viewing all of the competition entries with an open mind. And this year was pretty much no exception: Joined by fellow jurors Ewan McGregor, Diane Kruger, Jean Paul Gaultier, Raoul Peck, Andrea Arnold, Hiam Abbass and Emmanuelle Devos, jury president Nanni Moretti – who’s own film Habemus Papam (We Have a Pope) screened in competition here last year – recalled a wall of silence surrounding the jury when he last served many years back.
“When I was here 15 years ago, we weren’t allowed to speak out,” Moretti said, comparing how times have changed for the Cannes Film Festival. “Now we have this press conference and another one after [the winners are chosen].” He likened the former wall of silence to a Vatican conclave, the secret meeting of the Catholic Church’s cardinals who select a pope, a drama that figured so prominently in his film that debuted here one year ago. “Speaking to the press used to be taboo,” he said. “But now only conclaves must be silent.”
But the fact of the matter is they do speak, both today and after the awards are announced (but supposedly not in between). This year, the dearth of female directors in the official competition has again caused controversy. Last year, four women directors screened in competition (there were none in 2010), but this year’s lineup is…
David Gordon Green’s remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror pic Suspiria was once set to star Natalie Portman, re-envisioning Argento’s stylish tale of a young woman who discovers spooky goings-on at her boarding school. Now Green has found his lead in 15-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman, who herself spooked audiences in her 2009 breakout film The Orphan, and most recently nabbed a role as the sadistic tribute Clove in The Hunger Games. But that’s not all! A report out of Cannes reveals that a line-up of European veterans will be joining Fuhrman — or menacing her — in the pic.
Argento’s moody classic told the tale of an American ballet student (Jessica Harper) who begins noticing strange happenings at her European ballet school and discovers that it’s run by a coven of witches; Green’s script removes the ballet aspect, but as he told Movieline last year he plans on paying homage to the original with nods to scenes, shots, dialogue and the film’s iconic score by Goblin.
For Fuhrman, this is huge; it marks a coveted lead role and a major step in breaking away from being “that girl from The Orphan,” a film in which she made quite an impression at the age of 12. (She’s currently filming M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth.)
According to Screen Daily, Suspiria has Isabelle Huppert, Albert Nobbs‘ Janet McTeer, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Michael Nyqvist and Man of Steel’s Antje Traue set to play roles in the film. (You can guess that some or all of these folks might be set to play members of the school/coven, though I imagine Udo Kier’s helpful psychologist from the original might also pop up in some form.) Green is…
Good news for anyone who couldn’t get enough of Kenneth Lonergan’s flawed, fearless, possibly cursed epic Margaret: The forthcoming DVD will feature a 186-minute cut — 36 minutes longer than the version all but buried last year by Fox Searchlight before a cadre of critical supporters rallied on its behalf. The not-so-good news, if high-definition transfers of talky moral dramas are of particular importance to you: The 150-minute version will reportedly be the only one available on Blu-ray when it goes on sale July 10. But hey. We take what we can get in this world. [Amazon]
