Angelina Jolie is one step closer to another helping of Salt as Columbia Pictures hits the negotiating table with Seven Years in Tibet writer Becky Johnston.
Naturally with the 2010 original grossing $293.5 million, including $118,311,368 in the U.S., the studio has incentive to get a Salt 2 underway, especially with its irreplaceable star, Angelina Jolie, threatening retirement in the not-too-distant future.
Columbia hired the first Salt’s writer Krut Wimmer to write the sequel, but Jolie had apparently scoffed at the script and had not committed to a re-do, according to THR. The studio searched for a replacement who could re-style the story that will satisfy all involved.
Johnston’s other credits include The Prince of Tides (1991) as well as Wonder Woman and Brad Bird’s San Francisco earthquake story, 1906.
Johnston’s participation will be a departure from her previous work, though there’s at least one connection. Seven Years in Tibet, released 15 years ago, starred Jolie’s future partner, Brad Pitt.
[Source: THR]
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey held its THIRD global premiere on Thursday — this time stateside at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York. I was on the red carpet, and in light of the debate over Peter Jackson’s decision to shoot the movie at a high 48 frames per second, I asked Warner Bros. Pictures President Jeff Robinov if the studio was getting behind the groundbreaking but controversial technique.Robinov told me that while Jackson’s enthusiasm was contagious, the studio will see how its limited release of the high-frame-rate cut does in theaters before making any major commitments.
I also got the chance to ask Andy Serkis what he feels it will take for Hollywood to seriously consider motion capture performance as acting.
Also on the red carpet were the actors who play dwarves in The Hobbit. I couldn’t help asking if they could take on their Disney counterparts, and let’s just say they’ve been strategizing about how to take their rivals down.
Check out the full interview below:
Read More on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:
‘The Hobbit’ 3-D Early Review: Back Again, But Not Quite There
‘The Hobbit’ At 48 FPS: A High Frame Rate Fiasco?
‘Hobbit’ Fans Complain Of Dizziness & Nausea
No One’s Heaving At ‘The Hobbit’ According To Warner Bros.
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey held its THIRD global premiere on Thursday — this time stateside at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York. I was on the red carpet, and in light of the debate over Peter Jackson’s decision to shoot the movie at a high 48 frames per second, I asked Warner Bros. Pictures President Jeff Robinov if the studio was getting behind the groundbreaking but controversial technique.Robinov told me that while Jackson’s enthusiasm was contagious, the studio will see how its limited release of the high-frame-rate cut does in theaters before making any major commitments.
I also got the chance to ask Andy Serkis what he feels it will take for Hollywood to seriously consider motion capture performance as acting.
Also on the red carpet were the actors who play dwarves in The Hobbit. I couldn’t help asking if they could take on their Disney counterparts, and let’s just say they’ve been strategizing about how to take their rivals down.
Check out the full interview below:
Read More on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:
‘The Hobbit’ 3-D Early Review: Back Again, But Not Quite There
‘The Hobbit’ At 48 FPS: A High Frame Rate Fiasco?
‘Hobbit’ Fans Complain Of Dizziness & Nausea
No One’s Heaving At ‘The Hobbit’ According To Warner Bros.
Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Follow Grace Randolph on Twitter.
The Hobbit doesn’t make you heave, according to Warner Bros. The studio behind the first film in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy is batting down reports that the the high-frame rate of the picture caused nausea and dizziness for some fans who saw early screenings of the picture in New Zealand.
Here’s the statement that the studio released on the matter:
“We have been screening the full-length HFR 3D presentation of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY extensively and feedback has been extremely positive, with none of thousands who have seen the film projected in this format expressing any of the issues described by two anonymous sources in media reports. We share the filmmakers’ belief that by offering filmgoers the additional choice of HFR 3D, alongside traditional viewing formats, they have an opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking advancement in the moviegoing experience and we look forward to having audiences everywhere share in this new way of storytelling.”
Warner is reacting to reports by the New Zealand Herald and ABC News that some moviegoers found the film’s frame-rate hard to stomach. The Down Under publication cited “some viewers” who said the “filming technique made them nauseous and dizzy, with some even complaining of migraines.”
ABC News quoted a Hobbit fan who tweeted: “You have to hold your stomach down and let your eyes pop at first to adjust.”
Jackson’s decision to shoot the movie at 48 frames-per-second — twice the rate of most films — has also prompted complaints that high-definition result requires the moviegoer to process too much visual information.
The New Zealander does have one Hollywood heavyweight in his corner. James Cameron predicted that Jackson’s decision to…
Full Story »Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl will make his directorial debut — and a smart tax write-off — at the Sundance Film Festival with the premiere of Sound City, a documentary about the legendary Van Nuys, California recording studio where Nirvana’s Nevermind, Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours were recorded among many influential classics.
If you’re a Foo fan like me, or you saw Grohl’s controversial acceptance for Best Rock Performance at the 2012 Grammys, then you know the guy loves analog recording. As he said then, “It’s not about what goes on in a computer” that makes great rock ‘n’ roll but the “human element.”
Well, he took a lot of crap for that speech, in part, because Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light album — which led to the Grammy — was recorded on all analog equipment but then went through a digital post-production process. But I have a feeling that Grohl will get his point across in Sound City, which tells the story of the funky studio with the magic vibe. Sound City ceased to operate as a recording studio in 2011, but still houses sound stages. Grohl now owns the Neve 8028 analog recording console that was instrumental to its allure.
I’m sure it helped him research the picture.
Check out Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks and all the other rock greats in the clip.
Related Story: Dave Grohl’s Sound City Love Letter: Read What’s Behind the Rocker’s Directing Debut
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When the Independent Spirit Awards take place in Santa Monica on the Saturday before the Academy Awards next February, there should be plenty of A-list testosterone coursing through the event tent. The slate of nominations for the 2013 honors, which celebrate independent film, is studded with box-office friendly male actor who’ve carried studio films. And Jennifer Lawrence.
Best Male Lead
Jack Black (Bernie), Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook) and Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe), who’ve all starred in studio pictures, count for three of the six Best Male Lead nominations. John Hawkes (The Sessions), who’s on the verge of leading-man status, Wendell Pierce (Four) and Thure Lindhardt (Keep The Lights On) round out the category.
That’s a considerably more Hollywood pack than last year’s nominations, of which there were only five: The biggest studio star in that bunch was Ryan Gosling (Drive), whose fellow nominees were, respectively French and Mexican actors, Jean Dujardin (The Artist) and Demián Bichir (A Better Life) and Woody Harrelson (Rampart) and Michael Shannon (Take Shelter), who are best known for excellent character work.
Best Female Lead
The Female Acting categories are not so larded with heavy hitters, but they do include The Hunger Games star Lawrence, nominated for Best Female Lead based on her performance in Silver Linings Playbook, and Helen Hunt, who nabbed a Best Supporting Female nomination for her portrayal of a sex therapist in The Sessions.
Best Supporting Male Actor
The Best Supporting Male actor category also has two A-listers: Bruce Willis, for his work in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, and, nominated in his second category,
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Calling the lobby before last night’s New York premiere of R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet an awkward scene wouldn’t do it justice: PR reps ran around, security locked down our electronics and scores of media folk shuffled about as all of our abilities to tell time went dark. But then something magical happened: Eric Lane walked in. He was followed by La Donna Tittle, and suddenly everyone stood around in awe of the two actors who are better known in this strange world as Twan and Rosie the Nosy Neighbor.
It speaks to the weird magic behind R. Kelly’s self-described “hip hopera” — but really, let’s just say it’s a soap opera that rhymes — and how a one-night stand can transform into a character study about a group of people dealing with relationships, crime and a blind ho named Francine.
And yet, the crowd that came out to see the latest installment in the Trapped franchise (airing on IFC Friday, November 23 at 9pm PT/ET) wasn’t there for spectacle. The audience assembled because of the assured promise that R. Kelly would continue to deliver revelations with his cult hit about adultery, midgets and how devastating a plot point that no one could find Chuck — once a throw-away character, now a series lynchpin — could be.
Even the show itself turned into a meta-on-top-of-meta moment as Reverend Mosley hawked a “Trapped in the Closet” book (“There’s the Bible…and there’s this”) as characters gave Real World confessionals on an unnamed talk show. But when R. Kelly came out for a post-screening Q&A with E!’s Alicia Crowley, any questions were moot as he soaked in the applause. Answering a few questions, Kelly had this to say about the writing process behind the series:…
Full Story »Hollywood veteran Martin Landau earned an Oscar in his first collaboration with Tim Burton, 1994’s Ed Wood, and for Burton’s latest and most personal picture, Frankenweenie, the filmmaker cast his erstwhile Bela Lugosi as the eccentric but inspirational Mr. Rzykruski — the science teacher who nurtures young Victor Frankenstein’s budding talents and encourages him to forge his own path. It’s a fitting role for the 84-year-old Landau, who lit up as he discussed Frankenweenie and his longtime parallel career as an acting coach to the likes of Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Huston, and many more Hollywood greats under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.
Tim Burton cast you as Mr. Rzykruski, Victor’s teacher and he’s quite the character: At first imposing and foreboding, he’s revealed to be one of Victor’s only kindred spirits. What did you make of him at first and how did you find his quirks?
It’s a fun character, and the thing that amazed me is that I saw an arc and if I could play it on camera I’d play it exactly the same. I did [the voice recording] first and the animators animated after. It was just my voice, but Tim sent me pictures of the character and it looked like me years ago, or Vincent Price and me mixed up, a caricature of me with dark hair and such. I saw him as a loving man, but eccentric as hell and passionate! And also, European – but not specifically from a country. It said that; it said it’s a generic accent. It’s not German, it’s not Russian, it’s not Hungarian, but it’s European. [In Mr. Rzykruski’s voice] So I lowered the voice.
The relationship between Victor and Mr. Rzykruski is the best child-adult relationship in the…
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Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, San Sebastian, Hong Kong, New York, Telluride – and Pyongyang? The end of Summer brought on the annual big tentpole festivals in Venice and Toronto as well as industry and celeb-heavy Telluride, ushering in the annual awards race and many of this year’s fall releases. But don’t expect North Korea’s international film festival, which opens Thursday to factor too deeply into Oscar. In fact, Americans are apparently banned. Held every two years, the Pyongyang International Film Festival is a chance for residents of the so-called Hermit Kingdom to view foreign films on the big screen.
One romantic comedy, Comrade Kim Goes Flying actually had its world premiere at the recent Toronto International Film Festival. The joint North Korean and European production took almost seven years to make. The romantic comedy centers on a coal miner who dreams of becoming an acrobat. North Korean filmmaker Kim Gwang Hun shot the film in the country, which is considered one of the world’s most isolated, which is still considered in a “state of war” with its nearby democratic rival South Korea.
“It’s not what you expect from North Korea, and it’s not something people have seen before,” British filmmaker Nicholas Bonner,” told A.P. about the film, which took three years to get the script both “entertaining and palatable” to authorities for viewing in North Korea. “In the end, you’re dealing with professionals. They do their job. You’re in the film world, and we’re all making a film.”
The event’s first edition took place in 1987 under the country’s late founder – who holds the lofty title in the country as the “Eternal President” – Kim Il…
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Also in Monday morning’s round-up of news briefs, a Fox studio co-head prepares to leave, consolidating leadership at the movie giant. Author Salman Rushdie says a controversial book he published in ‘88 would “never be published today.” And remembering film professional/journalist Sandy Mandelberger.
Hezbollah Leader Calls for More Protests Against Anti-Muslim Movie
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah called for protests to continue Monday as the fall out from the anti-Muslim video Innocence of Muslims appears to be continuing into another week. The news comes after the U.S. State Department called for the removal of non-essential personnel from its embassies and consulates in Tunisia and Sudan,” Deadline reports.
Fox Filmed Entertainment Co-Chief Tom Rothman to Exit Studio
Co-Chairman Tom Rothman is exiting Fox at the end of the year. Jim Gianopulos will become the sole Chairman/CEO at the studio, which will be consolidated into the freshly dubbed Twentieth Century Fox Film, Deadline reports.
The Master Sets Specialty Box Office Record
It’s not every weekend that a specialty film can claim a record, but The Master opened with an incredible $145,949 per-theater average, the best limited release ever for a live-action film, topping another record-breaker from earlier this year, Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, which bowed with with an average of $130,749 at four locations, Deadline reports.
Salman Rushdie: ‘Satanic Versus would not be published today’
The author said he thinks a climate of fear and reprisal exists today that would prevent him from getting his controversial 1988 novel The Satanic Versus from being published today. He said the banning of the book in many countries and the subsequent threats on his life including a fatwa by Iran’s then supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini, had created a “long-term chilling effect,” BBC reports.…
