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11 articles
3D Wars: Spielberg Blockbuster to Trail Cameron's and Lucas'?
4 hours ago
Will the 3D rerelease of Spielberg's '90s blockbuster trail Cameron's and Lucas' at the domestic box office? Directed by Steven Spielberg the 3D rerelease of the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park should end up with $17-18 million at the Us / Canada box office this weekend (April 6-8), after having brought in an estimated $7 million at 2,771 theaters this past Friday, according to studio figures found on the web site Box Office Mojo. Please scroll down for comparisions to the 3D box-office performances of George Lucas' The Phantom Menace and James Cameron's Titanic. Originally released two decades ago, the sci-fier / thriller starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Richard Attenborough earned $357.06 million back then, or approx. $694 million in current dollars. Worldwide, the film pulled in $557.62 million, or approximately $896 million in 2013 dollars, for an adjusted worldwide total of close to $1.6 billion. See also: "Colin Trevorrow Jurassic Park 4 director." Pictured above: Laura Dern, »
- Zac Gille
Remake of Raimi's Early '80s Cult Classic to Top Domestic Box Office This Weekend
6 April 2013 3:33 AM, PDT
Remake of Raimi's early '80s cult classic (and minor box-office performer) to easily surpass Jurassic Park 3D rerelease to land at the top of the domestic chart This past weekend, the no. 1 release at the Us/Canada -- actually, around the world -- box office was the widely panned 3D-converted sequel of a widely panned flick based on a toy. This weekend (April 6-8), in addition to the 3D toy-movie sequel mentioned above, two of the other top four movies on the domestic b.o. chart will be the remake of a bloody cult classic and the 3D-converted relaunch of a 1993 horror blockbuster. As the old saying goes, moviegoers are eager, thirsty, yearning for fresh, original content. That surely helps to explain why the brought-back-to-life Evil Dead will be this early April weekend's top film, likely to be followed by (toy movie sequel) G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the animated The Croods, »
- Zac Gille
Del Toro's Haunted-House Flick Adding a New Cast Member?
5 April 2013 5:41 PM, PDT
Del Toro's haunted-house flick to get a new cast member? According to a Variety report, this year's Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain (for Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty) is in "final negotiations" to become the latest addition to the cast of filmmaker Guillermo del Toro's haunted-house movie Crimson Peak. If her signature does end up in the dotted line, Chastain will be featured next to Pacific Rim / Queer as Folk's Charlie Hunnam, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug / Star Trek Into Darkness' Benedict Cumberbatch, and one of Chastain's The Help co-stars: Emma Stone. Needless to say, for that to happen all of the aforementioned names must actually end up in the film. As per Justin Kroll's Variety article, the plot of the Legendary Pictures horror film (possibly to be handled by Universal Pictures) remains unknown. Could GdT's latest turn out to be Robert Wise's The Haunting »
- Andre Soares
Ebert Wrote Three 'Sexploitation' Scripts, Was Prolific Twitter User
4 April 2013 3:33 PM, PDT
Ebert's scripts: 'sexploitation' cult fare As found on the IMDb, Roger Ebert wrote scripts for a total of three movies, "sexploitation" fare directed by maverick independent filmmaker Russ Meyer. The first of those was Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, which follows three young (and good-looking) women who find sex (lesbian and straight), drugs (of various sorts), and unhappiness in Hollywood. Distributed by the then-daring 20th Century Fox (Fox also released Raquel Welch and Mae West's Myra Breckinridge that same year), Beyond takes Jacqueline Susann's trashy bestseller Valley of the Dolls and its 1967 Mark Robson-directed filmization to an even higher degree of tacky campiness. Among the movie's cast members were Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom (all three seductive beauties are pictured above), John Lazar, and frequent presence on the Academy Awards red carpet, Edy Williams. The second Roger & Russ collaboration was Up!, a movie whose tagline »
- Andre Soares
Pulitzer Winner Ebert Dead at 70: 2001, La Dolce Vita Among Top Movies
4 April 2013 3:33 PM, PDT
Pulitzer Prizer winner Ebert died earlier today at the age of 70 Probably the best known movie critic in the United States, Roger Ebert passed away on Thursday in Chicago, Illinois, following a decade-long battle against cancer. Ebert, who was 70, had announced the recurrence of his illness in a tweet two days ago. (Pictured above: An Ebert closeup, as found on his Twitter account.) The renowned critic was best known alongside Gene Siskel for their "two thumbs up" routine, which was watched by millions on the nationally syndicated television show At the Movies (previously known as Sneak Previews and later as Siskel & Ebert [and the movies]). But populism or no, Ebert was a well-regarded and quite influential movie pundit. He began writing for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967; eight years later, he became the very first film reviewer to take home a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. (That particular Pulitzer branch had been set up in »
- Andre Soares
102-Year-Old Former Movie Extra to Attend Author Slide's Lecture About Hollywood Extras, Bit Players and Stand-Ins
4 April 2013 12:39 AM, PDT
Author Slide to discuss the history of Hollywood extras at historical Lasky-DeMille Barn Film historian Anthony Slide, author of dozens of books on Hollywood history, will be discussing his most recent work, Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players and Stand-Ins, at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10, at the Hollywood Heritage Museum, located at a Hollywood historical landmark: the Lasky-DeMille Barn, right across the street from the Hollywood Bowl. (Check out: "The History of Hollywood Extras, Bit Players and Stand-Ins: Interview with Author and Film Historian Anthony Slide.") Pictured Above are Olivia de Havilland and her The Charge of the Light Brigade stand-in, Ann Robinson, circa 1936. As per the Barn's press release, "Mr. Slide will discuss the lives and work of extras, including the harsh conditions, sexual harassment, scandals and tragedies." Besides, he'll also talk about Central Casting and the Hollywood Studio Club, the residence of a number of up-and-coming actresses, »
- Andre Soares
One of the Most Breathtaking Silent Movies (or Movies, Period) Ever Made: The Best of '21
3 April 2013 12:59 PM, PDT
One of the Most Amazing Silent Movies (or Movies of Any Era, Period) Ever Made Tops the List of Best of Movies Released in 1921 Rex Ingram’s The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Metro Pictures' film version of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s epic novel -- from a scenario by the immensely powerful writer-producer June Mathis -- catapulted Mathis’ protégé, the until then little known Rudolph Valentino (photo, left), to worldwide superstardom, as The Four Horsemen became one of the biggest box-office hits of the silent era. Ingram’s wife, the invariably excellent Alice Terry (right, dark-haired in real life; a light-haired in her many movies), played Valentino's love interest. Ninety-two years after its initial launch, the Four Horsemen remains a monumental achievement. Released by MGM, Vincente Minnelli's 1962 remake of this Metro Pictures production featured an all-star cast: Glenn Ford, Ingrid Thulin (dubbed by Angela Lansbury), Charles Boyer, Lee J. Cobb, »
- Andre Soares
Underground Sex and Euro-Horror Director Dead; Reviled by Catholic Church, Goya Winner
2 April 2013 6:53 PM, PDT
Spanish director dies following a stroke: Best known for his nearly two hundred underground, "exploitation" films "I think I was born because my father and my mother had sex ... ." Nope, that has nothing to do with the anti-censorship lectured delivered by Oz the Great and Powerful and Interior. Leather Bar's James Franco online. The words above were uttered by another Franco, a Spaniard. No, not the foaming-at-the-mouth right-wing military ruler Francisco Franco, but multitasking filmmaker Jesús Franco, aka Jess Franco aka dozens of other aliases, including those in honor of jazz performers Clifford Brown and James P. Johnson. His oeuvre included about 200 films, among them The White Slave, The Sexual History of O, Macumba Sexual, , Emmanuelle Exposed, Vampyros Lesbos, The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll, and White Cannibal Queen. The director died today in Malaga, a city in southern Spain, after suffering a stroke. According to reports, he had never truly »
- Andre Soares
Latest Movie Based on Meyer Novel Unlikely to Generate Sequels
1 April 2013 7:40 PM, PDT
The latest movie adaptation of a Meyer novel will likely not lead to a movie franchise Directed and adapted by Andrew Niccol, Stephenie Meyer's sci-fi book The Host debuted at no. 6 on the Us / Canada box-office chart this Easter weekend, earning an anemic $10.6 million at 3,202 North American venues, as per actuals found on the web site Box Office Mojo. Many pundits had been predicting The Host to debut in the mid-to-high teens. What that means (and considering the film's budget; see below), the romantic sci-fier featuring Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, and Jake Abel is this year's most recent big box-office disappointment. (Pictured above: Abel as one of the men in Ronan's in The Host) It may seem mean-spirited to compare The Host to either Twilight or The Hunger Games; but then again, both of those movies were also adaptations of popular novels geared to young adults, and featured a »
- Zac Gille
The Best Movies of Everybody's (Second) Favorite Year: From Caligari to Pollyanna
1 April 2013 4:28 PM, PDT
In Robert Wiene’s 1920 dreamlike horror classic, veteran German actor Werner Krauss plays the mysterious Dr. Caligari, the apparent force behind a creepy somnambulist named Cesare and played by Conrad Veidt, who abducts beautiful Lil Dagover. The finale in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has inspired tons of movies and television shows, from Fritz Lang's 1944 film noir The Woman in the Window to the last episode of the TV series St. Elsewhere. In addition, the film shares some key elements in common (suppposedly as a result of a mere coincidence) with Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio's 2011 thriller Shutter Island. The 1920 crime melodrama Outside the Law is not in any way related to Rachid Bouchareb's 2010 political drama. Instead, the Tod Browning-directed movie is a well-made entry in the gangster genre (long before the explosion a decade later). Browning, best known for his early '30s efforts Dracula and Freaks, »
- Andre Soares
Hide Your Easter Eggs: Shirtless Dudes with Big Weapons Conquer World
31 March 2013 5:36 PM, PDT
G.I. Joe sequel tops global box office, boasting the year's no. 1 debut around the globe Here's definitive proof that audiences the world over have an insatiable thirst for Good Movies, Good Stories, and Good Acting: director Jon M. Chu's G.I. Joe: Retaliation, "2013's first blockbuster" in the words of distributor Paramount, opened with a remarkable $132 million at the worldwide box office -- the year's top weekend debut. (Pictured above in all their glory: six-packed D.J. Cotrona shirtless, Top Hunk Channing Tatum, and Big Bear Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock in the Magic Mike sequel, huh, in Gay I Joe -- er, in G.I. Joe: Retaliation) As found in The Hollywood Reporter, studio vice chairman Rob Moore remarked that the $130 million-budgeted action flick's 3D conversion and reshot sequences got it "to a great place," which helps to explain the film's international success. Said "great place" has a worse-than-mediocre 21% approval »
- Zac Gille
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