Apr 30 2009
Many patrons know to stay seated after a movie based on a comic book or graphic novel ends. Or seems to.
Director Gavin Hood told the Associated Press that "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" has two endings, playing on separate prints.
Having seen "Wolverine" a day ago, this is what you need to know: One scene interrupts the credits but a second, more important one, plays after all of the credits have finished and you think the theater lights are about to come up. So stay seated and don't bolt for the exits. That scene sets the stage for what could be a sequel or a second prequel. You get the idea.
Apr 26 2009
Never discount the value of a PG-13 rating and a promised cat fight between Beyonce Knowles and Ali Larter.
Beyonce doesn't sing in "Obsessed." Didn't need to, as prelimary figures for the weekend show. The recycled "Fatal Attraction," with a wife and an office seductress warring over Idris Elba, was No. 1 with an estimated $28.5 million.
The Associated Press reports these early numbers, courtesy of Media by Numbers, which will issue final figures tomorrow:
1. "Obsessed," $28.5 million.
2. "17 Again," $11.7 million.
3. "Fighting," $11.4 million.
4. "The Soloist," $9.7 million.
5. "Earth," $8.6 million.
6. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $8.5 million.
7. "State of Play," $6.9 million.
8. "Hannah Montana: The Movie," $6.4 million.
9. "Fast & Furious," $6.1 million.
10. "Crank: High Voltage," $2.4 million.
Apr 23 2009
Summit Entertainment has hired David Slade to direct "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg. It will be the third film in the franchise based on the Stephenie Meyer books and will be released June 30, 2010.
Slade directed "30 Days of Night," a horror tale about ravenous vampires that turn up for the prolonged winter darkness in Alaska, and the psychological thriller "Hard Candy" with Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page.
This is what I had to say about "30 Days," which received 2.5 stars out of a possible four:
Movie Review: '30 Days of Night' Vampires feast on unbaked Alaska Friday, October 19, 2007 By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
'30 Days of Night'
- Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston.
- Rating: R for strong horror and violence.
- Web site: www.sonypictures.com
I miss the old days when vampires dined with discretion -- a swirl of the black cloak and neat puncture holes in the victim's neck. In "30 Days of Night," vampires feed on their prey like starving wolves and come up with beards of blood.
Based on a graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, "30 Days" is set in Barrow, Alaska, where the 30 days of darkness trap everyone -- living and dead -- in town. Stella (Melissa George), estranged wife of the sheriff (Josh Hartnett), misses the last plane out. "I can't stay here. I got bills to put in the mail and my plants will die."
Plants aren't all that are about to die. Vampires have discovered paradise -- "We should have come here ages ago" -- and start cutting off outside communication and attacking the residents. And there's nothing like fresh powder to highlight the red, red color of blood, as director David Slade proves again and again.
The dwindling band of survivors, the assortment of townspeople who meet their frightful fate and the countdown to possible freedom is nothing new. But "30 Days" has several things in its favor, from its lonesome snowy landscape to the casting of Danny Huston as a vampire leader and prosthetics that alter the vampires' faces so they have a hint of alien about them.
"30 Days" isn't the scariest movie you'll ever see, but it gives the genre an infusion of fresh blood, so to speak.
Apr 21 2009
Zachary Quinto, we are happy to report, knows his "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." That is a good thing, since he's cast as an unofficial ambassador for Pittsburgh as he promotes the new "Star Trek" movie in which he plays Spock.
He is also known to fans of NBC's "Heroes" as the villainous Sylar. Quinto, who is from Green Tree, fields 20 questions in the May issue of Playboy, including this one:
Q: "You grew up in Pittsburgh, hometown of Mister Rogers, who famously told kids, ‘You're okay just the way you are.' Would he apply that to ‘Heroes' Sylar, the best villain on TV, and want him as a neighbor?"
A: "I don't think Mister Rogers' far-reaching assertion reaches so far as to include maniacally bloodthirsty superpowered psychopaths.
"He was talking to and about children who were struggling with what it means to be fat, dyslexic or myopic. If Sylar were Rogers' neighbor, the Neighborhood of Make-Believe would have a whole different element.
"I can just imagine Trolley being impeded on the tracks by the severed heads of Daniel Striped Tiger or Lady Elaine Fairchilde as he tries to pass by the castle of King Friday and Queen Sara - not a pleasant image."
Quinto also talks about his heritage, high school days, eyebrow grooming habits and Leonard Nimoy. In this photo by Jorge Herrera/Image.Net, he's shown at the UK premiere of "Star Trek" on Monday.
Apr 20 2009
This just in. Pittsburgh will not get the premiere of "Wolverine," although folks here gave it their best shot. Here's the release from Fox;
LOS ANGELES, (April 20, 2009)....In a hard-fought contest stretching over thousands of cities and towns across the Unites States, Tempe, Arizona has emerged triumphant in its far-reaching, citywide bid to nab the world premiere event of X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, on April 27.
The announcement caps a frenzied two-week period in which entrants launched innovative and viral campaigns, urging fellow residents to enter the Hometown Premiere contest by marking their town with a digital "X" on a special contest website. In each locale, schools, businesses, and of course X-Men and Wolverine fans, joined forces to create special videos posted on YouTube, as well as websites urging residents to enter the contest.
Tempe accumulated the most "X's," narrowly beating out Davis, California in a hard-fought battle to bring home a major "Hollywood" style event.
The "Origins" of the event came from Hugh Jackman, who plays the famed antihero in X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. Jackman wanted to express his appreciation to the fans by hosting the premiere, in which he will bring the movie and a few of his "friends and enemies" from the film to Tempe. In addition to the stars and filmmakers, the event will have all the other trappings of a mega-Hollywood premiere, including the red carpet, klieg lights and media coverage.
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, the first chapter in the X-Men saga, unites Wolverine with several other legends of the X-Men universe, in an epic revolution that pits the mutants against powerful forces determined to eliminate them. Twentieth Century Fox releases the film everywhere May 1st.
Apr 16 2009
"The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" star Jon Foster talked about co-star Sienna Miller and filming love scenes with Peter Sarsgaard earlier this week on E!. Here is what he had to say, courtesy of the cable outlet:
Regarding the hailstorm that started after Miller said some disparaging things about Pittsburgh in an interview, Foster said: "You know we're all actors, we're all idiots, we say stupid stuff and look, that town is kind of strange, it's just ‘pubs' and there's not a whole lot to do and we made fun out of it. Uh, but I think she slipped a little bit in an article and they're a very proud city and I think they took it very personal pretty much."
Foster says shooting love scenes with co-star Peter Sarsgaard made him nervous: "Oh, yeah you get nervous. Yeah, no we were absolutely hammered. Peter and I were flirting a lot before the scene to try and break the ice, oh just complimenting each other's body parts and stuff. And uh half way through the sex scene he ended up singing um ‘I Had the Time of My Life' (he sings) now I'm back there you brought me all the way back there."
And here's more from my chat with director-writer Rawson Marshall Thurber. Much of it appeared in Thursday's paper:
Q: In terms of how you assembled the cast, who was the first person you had on board, was it Peter Sarsgaard?
A: Yes, I'd written the role of Cleveland for Sarsgaard and he read it and said, "I'm in." I just about fell out of my chair, and then I had thought for a long time that Sienna Miller would be perfect to play Jane Bellwether, who's sort of this shiksa goddess, as it were, and she read it and was keen to play the part and we met and shook hands and that was that.
And Nick Nolte read the script and really liked the Joe Bechstein role and I went and sat down with him and he talked to me about the character in a way that was incredibly impressive. I think he understood Joe Bechstein better than I understood Joe Bechstein, so that was a done deal....
Every once in a while, an actor will come and you know that the part is theirs, that was the case with Mena. "OK, thanks, the job is yours."
Jon Foster, for Art Bechstein, we read 60 or more actors for the part and I think Michael London and I had sort of given up hope almost and then at the last moment we'd heard that Jon had read it and was interested. I went to New York and sat down with him and he read the role and I thought he was fantastic.
Q: He was 22 or so at the time when you were making it ... did you do anything special to get him through this?
A: I know that Jon has been acting since he was 13, so he was a real pro ... and I know that he came to Pittsburgh a little bit early and kind of walked around on his own and did whatever he needed to do to get into the part of Art Bechstein. But I really agree with you that it's a pretty challenging role for any actor at any age, let alone a 22-year-old and I think he delivers beautifully.
Q: Are you different as a director or as a writer, having come through this experience?
A: I hope so. I think undoubtedly ... I think you build on everything, I'm a much better writer than I was when I started adapting the book now. And I'm a much better director than I was, and you learn something every time.
Apr 14 2009
After pushing Harry Potter from fall 2008 to summer 2009, Warner Bros. has shifted him again, but just slightly. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" has been moved to Wednesday, July 15, from the original July 17 announced opening date.
In the next installment, the boy wizard deals with raging teenage hormones, Voldemort's tightening grip on the Muggle and wizarding worlds, and an aloof student determined to make his mark
Apr 13 2009
Actor Michael Sheen, who has made a career out of portraying Tony Blair or David Frost, will ditch the real-life roles for "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."
Variety reports he will play the leader of the Volturi, an Italy-based coven of vampires. He does have experience as a werewolf in the "Underworld" films.
"New Moon," also starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as the star-crossed (and cross-species) couple, will return, of course. The movie is scheduled to be released on Nov. 20.
Apr 11 2009
This is how Lou Lumenick, of the New York Post, starts his review of "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" (which already opened in New York and arrives here on April 17):
"You know a movie's got problems when the most memorable thing about it is Sienna Miller's mustache -- and the vulgarity the one-time It girl used to defame the Pennsylvania city where it was filmed."
Ouch.
Entertainment Weekly, which raved about "Adventureland," gave "Mysteries" a D and called it a "stillborn rendering of Michael Chabon's first novel." Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert said it's "all the more artificial because it has been made with great, almost painful, earnestness."
I saw the movie in November at a special sneak preview after the Three Rivers Film Festival. I watched it a second time this week and will be revisiting it on Friday but here's what I had to say then:
As Arthur Lecomte likes to say: "Some people really know how to have a good time."
On Sunday, that meant going to the one-time showing of "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" at the Regent Square Theater, a bonus at the end of the Three Rivers Film Festival courtesy of Pittsburgh Filmmakers.
One woman, surveying the line stretching down South Braddock Avenue and doglegging past the Sunoco gas station, muttered, "This is like 'Star Wars.' "
Or, in teen parlance, "Twilight."
In the end, roughly 310 lucky people got inside the theater and another 150 were turned away -- and "Mysteries" doesn't even have a vampire with heavenly hair.
But then, it also doesn't have the character of Arthur Lecomte. He is noticeably absent from the movie based on the 1988 novel by University of Pittsburgh graduate Michael Chabon.
The character of Cleveland Arning has been turned into a bizarre composite of Lecomte and the original motorcycle-riding Cleveland, and only an actor of Peter Sarsgaard's talent and appeal could hope to pull that off. And, if you're a purist, that is just one of the changes from the book.
"Mysteries" is set in 1983 and stars Jon Foster as Art Bechstein, spending the summer in suspension between college graduation and real life and caught in a romantic triangle with Cleveland and Jane (Sienna Miller), his girlfriend and an aspiring concert violinist.
The cast also includes Mena Suvari as Phlox, Art's sometime girlfriend, and Nick Nolte as his gangster father.
Only in Pittsburgh would the line, "I'm starving, do you want to stop at the O?" merit applause. And only in Pittsburgh, perhaps, would moviegoers sneer and jeer when Miller's character suggests she and Cleveland should leave and go "anywhere that isn't Pittsburgh."
That's because no one has forgotten Miller insulted the city in Rolling Stone and got into a kerfuffle over admission to a South Side bar without proper ID. Both incidents were recounted, with relish, by people in line.
"Mysteries" filmed around the city for more than two months in 2006. It seemed consigned to limbo while other movies, such as "Smart People" and "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," hustled their way into theaters.
It finally has a distributor, which means it should open here in early 2009, although no date has been announced. If that happens, a full review will appear but applause at the movie's end on Sunday was lukewarm, at best.
Director-writer Rawson Marshall Thurber brought a fresh eye to the city and "Mysteries" is a good-looking movie. It's just not the same story that prompted critics to declare the novel astonishing and remarkable.
In a chat over coffee at the Omni William Penn in October 2006, Thurber explained eliminating the Lecomte character this way: "It always seemed to me a more efficient cinematic engine to employ a love triangle vs. what exists in the book, which is a four-pointed rhombus, for lack of a better term."
In other changes, he shot the famous "cloud factory" in Rankin, eliminated the Hillman Library location and turned Phlox into Art's lusty boss at the discount bookstore where he works. Thurber made a hash of it and not in a good way.
"Mysteries" debuted in January at the Sundance Film Festival where Variety and Hollywood Reporter critics noted that Thurber takes considerable liberties with the original.
Duane Byrge from The Hollywood Reporter called it a "reverential and smart distillation" but said the film's "glossy sheen and artful compositions are often distracting, bracketed by seeming calendar shots for a Pennsylvania tourism office." And that's a problem how?
In the end, Sarsgaard is probably the best thing about "Mysteries," although a dark-haired, haggard-looking Nolte proves very capable as a cold-hearted mobster. Foster is oddly bland, and tossing in a bit of narration just reminds us how much we miss Chabon's original text.
Apr 09 2009
As the song lyric says, "Second verse same as the first."
Next week, a movie called "State of Play" will open but you will not find a locally written review because the movie is not being previewed here for critics.
Universal Studios apparently has decided to tighten its belt and that's why we didn't get to see "Duplicity," "Fast & Furious" and, soon, "State of Play."
The irony is particularly sharp on this one because it's set partially at a newspaper - something I know a little bit about, having worked at daily newspapers in Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania for three decades.
"State of Play," based on the Peabody Award-winning BBC miniseries, stars Russell Crowe as a street-smart Washington, D.C., reporter, Helen Mirren as a ruthless editor and Ben Affleck as an unflappable U.S. congressman whose research assistant/mistress is murdered.
Wish I could advise you how it stacks up with the British version, starring Bill Nighy, but I cannot. "Duplicity," by the way, is one of the best movies of the year so far, with Julia Roberts having met her match in Clive Owen, an actor who doesn't wilt in her powerful presence.
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