Hotgamestation dotcom: movie

Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts

Sunday, August 31, 2008

John Lennon movie

John Lennon movie coming together

Friday, Aug 29, 2008

LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - The story of John Lennon is headed for the big screen with "Nowhere Boy," which will focus on the former Beatle's troubled adolescence.

Screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh's script details the story of Lennon as a lonely teenager abandoned by his mother and raised by his authoritarian aunt. His only escape is music, art and his fateful friendship with Paul McCartney.

The film will be directed by visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood, who will shoot on location in Lennon's hometown of Liverpool.

"The women in John's early life truly shaped who he became," Taylor-Wood said, "and the strengths and weaknesses of their relationships are central to this film."

Casting for the major roles "is under way," said producer Ecosse Films, which is developing the project with the Film Council.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Disney previews 10 new animated movies

from http://reuters.com

Disney previews 10 new animated movies

Tuesday, Apr 08, 2008

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Walt Disney Studios previewed 10 animated movies on Monday that it will release during the next four years, including further installments in the "Toy Story" and "Cars" series and two new fairy tales.

With the exception of "Wall.E," a robot love story opening on June 28, and "The Princess and the Frog," a hand-drawn animated fairy tale set in New Orleans and due to open Christmas 2009, the remaining eight movies will be made in digital 3-D.

"We're excited to be pushing the boundaries of 3-D and computer technology to tell our stories in the best possible way," said John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.

Digital 3-D still requires moviegoers to wear geeky glasses, but the left- and right-eye images are calibrated so finely that most viewers experience no headache or eyestrain.

The first Disney digital 3-D movie for release is "Bolt," the story of a dog of the same name who thinks he has superhero powers. John Travolta gives voice to Bolt while hit teen singer/actress Miley Cyrus is voicing Bolt's owner Penny in the movie, due to open on November 26.

"Up," the story of an unlikely 78-year-old adventurer and his 8-year-old sidekick, is due to be released on May 29, 2009. "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" are due to be re-released in digital 3-D on October 2, 2009 and February 12, 2010 respectively, while "Toy Story 3" is due to hit screens on June 18, 2010.

All the original cast from the previous "Toy Story" films, including Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack, are returning for the third film, which picks up with Andy grown up and about the head off to college.

The classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Rapunzel," about a girl trapped in a tower whose long golden hair is the only way for anyone to climb up to her, will be released at Christmas 2010.

Next comes "Newt," a story of the last two blue-footed newts on the planet that aims to show that love is not a science, which is due to hit screens in summer 2011.

Another new original fairy tale, "The Bear and the Bow" -- an action-adventure about a royal family in rugged and mythic Scotland -- is slated to open Christmas 2011 starring the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson.

"Cars 2," in which Lightning McQueen and his best friend Mater bid to take on the world's fastest cars, is due for release in summer 2012. "King of Elves," based on a 1953 short story by Phillip K. Dick, will hit screens at Christmas 2012.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols)

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

"Jumper" stays top of box office

'Jumper' stays top of box office

LONDON (Reuters) - Science fiction thriller "Jumper" held on to top spot at the box office for a second week, adding another 1.51 million pounds to its take, according to Screen International on Tuesday.

The story of Hayden Christensen as the man who can teleport himself anywhere at any time has now taken 5.89 million pounds in its UK run.

New at two was "Be Kind Rewind" with Jack Black and Mos Def trying to cover up their disastrous wiping of a video store's stock by re-filming the movies with themselves as stars.

Coming in at three was Sylvester Stallone as co-writer, director and star of "Rambo," the fourth sequel of the action hero series, with the ex-Green Beret this time on a rescue mission in Burma.

Down one place at four was "Juno" with Ellen Page as a teenager coping with pregnancy, while "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," with Nicolas Cage trying to clear his ancestor of murdering Abraham Lincoln, was down three at five.

At six, down from four was the story of a boy, a large pet and Loch Ness in "The Water Horse" while this week's big Oscar winner, the ultra-violent tale of a drugs deal gone wrong, "There Will be Blood," was unchanged at seven.

Down two places at eight was "The Bucket List" with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two terminal cancer patients discussing life and fate on a farewell world trip.

Monster movie "Cloverfield" was down four places at nine while "Alvin and the Chipmunks" was back up two places to 10.

(Reporting by Steve Addison)

80th annual Oscars head for record low TV ratings

:
http://uk.mobile.reuters.com

80th annual Oscars head for record low TV ratings

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. telecast of the 80th annual Oscars, dominated by European stars and movies that played poorly at the box office, appears headed for record low viewership, according to early figures from Nielsen Media Research on Monday.

The three-hour-plus live broadcast hosted by Jon Stewart on ABC posted a combined household rating of 21.9 in the 56 largest "metered markets" monitored by Nielsen. Each rating point represents 1 percent of the 78.8 million households in those cities -- accounting for 70 percent of the country.

National figures were expected later in the day.

The "metered market" tally was down sharply from the corresponding figure in 2003, which entered the record books as the least watched Oscars telecast ever. That show, which was presented just after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq had begun, posted a "metered market" household rating of 25.5.

The 2003 program was hosted by Steve Martin and featured the musical "Chicago" as best picture. It ended up with a national household rating of 20.4, the lowest level going back to the very first televised Oscars in 1953.

In terms of actual people watching, the 2003 telecast averaged 33.05 million viewers, the smallest number since 1974, when average audience figures first became available.

The weak ratings for Sunday's broadcast were no surprise given that most movies showcased this year, while drawing critical raves, generated little enthusiasm among moviegoers.

The night's big winner, the grim, violent crime drama "No Country For Old Men," which claimed four awards including best picture and best drama, grossed a modest $64 million (33 million pounds) at the North American box office.

Only one movie among the five nominated for best picture, breakout comedy "Juno," crossed the $100 million box office market domestically. That film managed just one win, for best original screenplay.

The Oscar ratings likely also suffered from the fact that all four acting awards this year went to European performers whose names are relatively obscure for American audiences and who appeared in movies that relatively few moviegoers saw.

The Oscars generally have drawn a bigger U.S. television audience in years when the big crowd pleasers at the multiplex, like "Titanic" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," also figured prominently in the awards race.

Oscar producers already were bracing for low ratings due to an overall viewership slump in network TV this broadcast season, exacerbated by a glut of reruns and reality shows triggered by the recently settled Hollywood writers strike.

Still, the Academy Awards show ranks as the year's highest-rated entertainment special and a cash cow for Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, which raked in an average of $1.8 million for each 30-second spot, up 7 percent from a year ago.

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Sundance film festival

Docs are hot at Sundance

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008

By Bob Tourtellotte

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) -
The Sundance Film Festival entered its second week on Monday amid a cooling market for buying films, while documentaries stole the spotlight and Hollywood insiders defended the indie spirit of star-filled movies like "What Just Happened?"

Sundance is the top U.S. festival for movies made outside Hollywood and 2008's first stop for distributors of independent films looking to snap up titles they hope will be among the hottest movies in art houses for this year and 2009.

Coming into the festival, buzzed-about films included "Sunshine Cleaning," about sisters who clean murder scenes, "The Wackness," telling of the friendship between a pot-smoking psychiatrist and his dope-dealing teenage client, and "The Great Buck Howard," a tale of movie star eccentricity.

But in the marketplace for movies that takes place on the Sundance sidelines, none of those titles had found a buyer, most were receiving so-so reactions from audiences, and many of the formal reviews were mixed at best.

"The story so far is good movies but not commercial movies," said David Poland, founder of Web site Movie City News and a veteran Sundance watcher.

Before the festival began, some in the industry expected sellers would find a hot marketplace because distributors would be looking to fill their pipelines in case the Hollywood writers strike continued indefinitely and left them without movies to make.

But late last week, film and television directors settled a contract with major studios, and insiders think the striking Writers Guild of America will agree to a similar deal quickly.

"It seems to me the writers don't have much choice," said Art Linson, producer of "What Just Happened?", an insider's look at making Hollywood movies and one major producer's life.

BIG NAMES, INDIE SPIRIT

Like other films including Linson's comedy "Sunshine Cleaning," directed by Barry Levinson, raised eyebrows of some low-budget filmmakers at Sundance who questioned how they could compete with films starring the likes of Robert De Niro and Sean Penn. "Sunshine Cleaning" has Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.

Linson and Levinson defended the independent spirit of their movie, saying it was without studio funds to retain storytelling freedom, and the stars worked for less than their normal salaries.

"Why should high-powered actors be penalized and have people say they can't make a smart, cool movie," Linson said. "If 'independent' means coming together to do something that is a labour of love, then this is a truly independent movie."

With the cooling market for fictional films, attention shifted to documentaries, or "docs." One title that sold this past weekend was "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," about the Oscar-winning director convicted of unlawful sex with a minor.

"Polanski" was bought by Weinstein Co. for international distribution and by HBO's documentary unit for North America.

Music-themed nonfiction films also drew much attention, including "Young @ Heart," about a chorus of senior citizens who sing their own versions of rock songs, and "Patti Smith: Dream of Life," about the former punk rocker.

"Young @ Heart" is wowing audiences, and director Stephen Walker reckoned one reason was because it didn't have any stars. "Sundance isn't about glamour, and that works for this film," he told Reuters.

Irish band U2 drew a huge media crush when they arrived at Sundance to show "U2 3D," which is a digital, three-dimensional film of their 2006 "Vertigo" tour through South America.

Sundance still has six days to go, and many more movies to be seen among the some 120 feature films that are playing here. The event ends on January 27 following an awards ceremony.

(Editing by Jane Clark and Philip Barbara)