Also in Wednesday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, Tribeca Film has nabbed North American rights to a SXSW premiere. A popular Austin, TX theater is San Francisco-bound. And China’s Wanda gets the final go-ahead to take over a top American theater chain.
Tribeca Warms to Somebody Up There Likes Me
North American rights to the deadpan comedy have been picked up by Tribeca Film, the distribution label of Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Enterprises. Starring Keith Poulson, Nick Offerman, and Jess Weixler, the film centers on Max (Poulson), his best friend Sal (Offerman Parks & Recreation) and the woman they both adore, Lyla (Weixler, Teeth) who stumble through thirty-five years of seemingly mandatory but unfulfilling entanglements. The film features an original score from Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio. Tribeca Film plans a theatrical Spring 2013 release day and video-on-demand offerings, as well as iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU, Xbox and Samsung Media Hub following a U.S. and Canadian film festival estival run.
Alamo Drafthouse Set for San Francisco
The popular Austin-based exhibitor will open a location in the Mission, and will feature five screens of new release movies. Alamo offers food and drink and noted its new location will be similar to the Alamo Ritz location in Austin with a mix of classic film programming, alternative content, live events, foreign films, independent films as well as some studio films.
Around the ‘net…
Alex Pettyfer Headed to Cali with Kristen Stewart
The Magic Mike star is in final talks to play Stewart’s love interest in Nick Cassavetes’ gritty action pic Cali. The film follows a couple who sell fake snuff and snatch the cash but Stewart “returns from the dead” years later to save her younger sister, Variety reports.
Vince Vaughn Picks Up The Risk Agent
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Magic Mike has already scored just under $78 million at the box office since its release in late June and the production budget was only $7 million. Minus the marketing budget, the stripper feature has likely already packaged a hefty sum. But never mind the money, there’s plenty of skin to be had, so why not let the strip show go on? Actors flexing their hot bods is a winning formula, and Tatum teased recently that another round of Magic Mike is in the early stages.
In a Twitter interview with Glamour magazine, Tatum said this when asked about a possible Magic Mike 2: “Yes, yes and yes! We’re working on the concept now. We want to flip the script and make it bigger.” Bigger? hmmm… Tatum didn’t provide much more in the way of details including whether director Steven Soderbergh has signed on for the follow-up or if co-stars Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello and the rest of the cast will be donning the thong for a second round.
He did offer up some insight in the making of the first Mike, however, saying that wearing a thong in front of people is “awkward,” adding, “I don’t know how you girls do it.” He also said in the Twitter back-and-forth that Joe Manganiello’s body was the most impressive. “He looks like he’s from Spartan blood!” said Tatum, referring to the war-waging city from Greek antiquity. He also said Manganiello and McConaughey were “a toss up” in the top stripping talent category. Tatum also shared that during McConaughey’s dance, the build-up was so intense that some women in the audience took matters into their own hands. “The women lost their minds and ripped his thong off,” he said. DVD extra anyone?
In non-related…
Full Story »“We’re trying to do our part to objectify men for the first time in movies.” Steven Soderbergh’s male stripper pic Magic Mike shimmies into theaters today powered by a charismatic turn by Channing Tatum and a hard-bodied supporting cast — but the tale isn’t all thongs, pelvic thrusts, and bachelorette party thrills. (Well, okay — it’s got a lot of those things, too.) What secrets did Soderbergh, Tatum, and co-stars Alex Pettyfer, Joe Manganiello, and Matt Bomer spill about on-set nudity, overzealous extras, cross-dressing, and Tatum’s real life experience as a male stripper?
The director and cast, along with newcomer Cody Horn, shared these and more stories recently in Los Angeles. Read on for their best anecdotes, advice, and revelations…
1. Magic Mike is based on observations from Tatum’s eight-month stint as a male stripper. How did he get into it — and why did he ever stop?
“Look, I was eighteen years old and I worked three jobs,” Tatum began. “This was just one of them, and I really enjoyed performing. It was probably my first performing job ever.” So what ended the 19-year-old Tatum’s stripping career? “I really like to dance, obviously, but then I didn’t really love taking the clothes off at the end…”
2. Tatum on the “very dark world” of male stripping…
Magic Mike depicts a backstage world filled with camaraderie, g-strings, and baby oil, but as Pettfyer’s Adam discovers, it’s also one filled with drugs, casual sex, and recklessness. Tatum remembers the real world of male stripping as an even darker place. “The world in itself was just a very dark world in a way. I don’t think we even scratch the surface of really how dark…
Director Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike debuted over the weekend, closing out the Los Angeles Film Festival. And while the Warner Bros film opens in theaters this Friday, fans may have the opportunity to see it live in the flesh as it were in the future.
Starring Channing Tatum, the story loosely revolves around the actor’s eight month stint dancing at male strip clubs in Tampa, Florida. It is a time during which Tatum admits to witnessing a much more dark and depressing version of events than what producing partner/writer Reid Carolin transposes to the script. He meets an eager college drop out, played by Alex Pettyfer and takes him under his wing.
Carolin tipped off to USA Today that there are plans to strut Magic Mike on Broadway in the near future. “”We are working on it as a Broadway show, which would be a different story,” said Carolin, adding, “More of a romp, more of a fun night out at a club with a story. I’m almost more excited about that than the movie because I think it’s the perfect thing for women to go see on Broadway, to be participants in the show.” And Pettyfer may have a chance to show more skin as well if and when the show hits the great white way. He said he “absolutely” would do the show. “”I think we should all do the opening night,” he said.
The promise of seeing Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, and their manscaped compatriots bare (almost) it all in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike has quickened the collective pulse of the film’s target audience in the weeks leading up to Friday’s release. But while ladies and many gents will get a titillating thrill from the scantily-clad dance numbers and cheesy-fantasy bumps ‘n’ grinds (and there are so, so many), what elevates the film beyond its “Showgirls-with-men” concept is the depth and naturalness in the story of 30-year-old star performer Mike (Tatum) and his pursuit of the American dream as one of the “Cock-rocking Kings of Tampa.”
Based loosely on Tatum’s eight-month experience as a male stripper in his teens — a time during which Tatum admits to witnessing a much more dark and depressing version of events than what producing partner/writer Reid Carolin transposes to the script — Magic Mike flies on Tatum’s charismatic turn as the male stripper at the center of this world filled with g-strings and crumpled dollar bills, the most ubiquitous, and sweat-drenched, tokens of power in this strange little world. An ambitious would-be entrepreneur who diligently saves the cash he earns working nights at McConaughey’s all-male dance revue, Tatum’s Mike dreams of starting his own custom furniture business but bad credit and a crap economy — and, more problematically, his hedonistic lifestyle — keep him from realizing his ideal life. When he meets an eager-but-directionless college dropout (Alex Pettyfer) and takes him under his wing, Mike sees a chance to mentor the kid. But the more that success comes at the club, the more Mike sees his real goals slipping further out of reach.
Closing the LA Film Fest on a star-studded note…
Full Story »
Hot dudes and with asses in air… A few thongs and strippers galore. A party in Miami, Key West or Palm Springs? Nahh… It’s Magic Mike of course and the latest trailer shows off a bit of skin courtesy of Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey — the resident hotties who will hold court in their sexiest in Steven Soderbergh’s latest film. There was a time in the not too distant past that Soderbergh said he was “retiring” from filmmaking, but things clearly changed and he found inspiration to continue. Good for him, since most ladies (and some gentlemen) will likely enjoy the show.
By the way, there are more ass and skin scenes with Matthew McConaughey — and even a little bondage — to be had in Lee Daniels’ new film, The Paperboy, which premiered in Cannes last month. But back to Magic Mike… the story revolves around a male stripper who teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women, and make easy money.
“They also had to be able to do what we needed them to do and willing to do what we needed them to do,” Soderbergh told Indiewire back in January about making the film. “But I mean, we got really lucky. All these guys were great and have brought something specific to the movie. There’s nothing like shared potential humiliation to bond.” We can’t agree more…
And what do you think of the fleshy teases? Check it out…
Magic Mike hits theaters on June 29.
Guys, forget Step Up 4 and Battlefield America and the ballet documentary and the new season of ABDC: Magic Mike is the dance event of the year. Need proof? Let Channing Tatum and his gang of manscaped stripper men (Alex Pettyfer, Joe Mangianello, Adam Rodriguez, and Matt Bomer) show you their sweet moves to the tune of “It’s Raining Men” in a new trailer for the June 29 ladyboner fantasy. I mean movie.
[via MTV]
In EW’s upcoming cover interview, Magic Mike stars Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey fondly remember the moment on set when excited extras tasked with stuffing McConaughey’s man-thong with dollar bills accidentally (or not) ripped the banana hammock right off. What’s that, EW? You want me to watch a behind-the-scenes video of McConaughey striking poses while Tatum splashes around breakdancing in a pool of water? Well, fine.
(To peek at Tatum stepping up to the McConaughey in said video, head here.)
It took me a good while to come to terms with just how much I actually really want to see Magic Mike even though it’s about male strippers and almost nothing in real life appeals to my womanly senses less than men prancing around in g-strings. I blame it on the power of the Channing. McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Matt Bomer, and that one guy from True Blood don’t hurt, either.
So I guess I understand how these lady extras on the Magic Mike set were swept up in the moment when McConaughey and his magical abs gyrated in their faces or whatever. “Make it rain on McConaughey!” they probably thought to themselves as they scrambled, George Washingtons in hand, toward his oh-so-delicate thong. And then, snap — OOPS! Let McConaughey retell the moment in his own words:
“I stayed in sequence,” he says proudly. “I went for the tuck. [Mimes covering his manhood] I went for the roll. [Mimes doing a forward roll] And I finished the dance.”
Like a pro. Good advice to keep in mind, fellas. Especially you, Joey Lawrence of Blossom fame, who coincidentally, in other news, might need to start stockpiling such tips. Because, according to TMZ:
Joey Lawrence is joining the Chippendales.
Whoa, indeed!
