Entertaining Posts

Sunday, September 4, 2011

"The Help" hangs on to box office crown

LOS ANGELES | Sun Sep 4, 2011 1:26pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Surprise summer hit "The Help" retained the No. 1 spot at movie theater box offices on Sunday, beating back three newcomers and appearing headed for victory over a long U.S. holiday weekend.

Movie studio estimates showed the civil rights-era story about the racial divide between white women in Mississippi and the black women who worked for them had taken in $14.2 million over three days ending on Sunday and appeared headed toward $18 million by Monday, the U.S. Labor Day holiday.

The movie, backed by DreamWorks and released by the film division of The Walt Disney Co, topped No. 2 film, spy thriller "The Debt," which collected $9.7 million through Sunday and was poised for an $11.6 million haul by Monday, according to industry watcher Hollywood.com Box Office.

"The Debt," a newcomer to theaters from Focus Features, raked in an average of $5,300 per theater from 1,800 venues through Sunday. It is expected have sold $14 million worth of tickets in domestic -- U.S. and Canadian -- theaters by the time the holiday ends on Monday.

Taking the No. 3 spot was another new movie, space alien mystery "Apollo 18," which purports to use "found footage" of an ill-fated trip to the moon to tell its otherworldly tale. It had taken in $8.7 million, or $2,600 per venue, for the three days ending on Sunday. A Monday forecast was not available for the movie released by privately held Weinstein Co.

Close behind was the weekend's third new release, another thriller, "Shark Night (3-D)." It was seen collecting $8.6 million through Sunday and adding $1.9 million on Monday, to end at $10.5 million, according to its studio, closely held Relativity Media. For the three days ending on Sunday, its average was estimated at $3,000 per venue.

Rounding out the top five was holdover sci-fi flick "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," from 20th Century Fox, with $7.8 million in its fifth week in theaters. Like "the Help," its strong performance -- $160 million overall and still climbing -- has surprised box office watchers.

"The Help," in its fourth week, is expected to see its total domestic ticket sales reach $122 million by the time the long holiday weekend ends in the United States on Monday.

Focus Features is the specialty movie division of Universal Pictures, which is controlled by Comcast Corp.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Eddie Murphy high on list to host Oscars - report

NEW YORK | Sun Sep 4, 2011 2:04pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comedian Eddie Murphy is on an Oscar producer's shortlist to host the Academy Awards in February, showbusiness website Deadline reported.

A meeting is scheduled for this coming Tuesday between Oscar producer Brett Ratner and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, at which Ratner will offer president Tom Sherak the idea of having Murphy host the world's top film honors.

Deadline, citing unnamed sources, said in a report on Saturday night that having the "Shrek" movie star host the show was not a done deal, with many more steps to be completed before Murphy is agreed upon.

The 84th Academy Awards' other producer, Don Mischer, has been approached by several other big names who have expressed interest in the hosting duties.

But according to the report Ratner has focused solely on Murphy, star of such 1980s and 1990s hit comedies as "Beverly Hills Cop," "Trading Places" and "The Nutty Professor."

An Academy spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment on Sunday. The upcoming Oscars will take place on February 26, 2012.

Murphy, whose new film with Ben Stiller opens on November 4, is reportedly interested in the job, Deadline said.

The "Saturday Night Live" alumnus was nominated for a best supporting actor in 2006 for "Dreamgirls."

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Al Pacino honored in Venice, presents new film

By Mike Collett-White

VENICE, Italy | Sun Sep 4, 2011 12:29pm EDT

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Hollywood veteran Al Pacino is honoured by the Venice film festival on Sunday with a special prize and the presentation of his latest directorial project "Wilde Salome."

Even at such a star-studded festival, where the likes of George Clooney, Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna have walked the red carpet this year, Pacino drew large crowds of screaming fans and autograph hunters to the Lido island.

He receives the Jaeger Lecoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award at a gala awards ceremony.

Wilde Salome is part documentary about the staging of Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde's play "Salome" starring rising star Jessica Chastain, part an exploration of the author and part film version of Salome itself.

Pacino, one of the giants of cinema with eight Oscar nominations including one win to his name, admitted to being a little confused about what type of picture he had made.

"I guess what I tried to do is ... create a story," Pacino told reporters in Venice after the film was shown to the press.

"But I don't know what it is. I like to say it's a documentary because it's not a film, but then it's not a documentary either, so I'm confused too."

The 71-year-old said that making movies for himself, some of which remain hidden away never to be shown, made him fall in love with cinema years ago and become a better actor.

"As soon as I started making my own films, I actually became easier on directors," he explained.

"Because I was very difficult at first. I really didn't know the medium, I didn't know what the needs of a director were. Once I started, the magic of movies came into my life."

The star of films including "The Godfather" and "Scent of a Woman" added that, unlike Orson Welles, he did not abandon the theater once he discovered movies, but continued with both disciplines.

Pacino said Wilde, who was hounded for his homosexuality at the end of the 19th century, was a fascinating subject.

"We do know that he was ... a very liberal thinker and more than that he was a visionary in terms of his feeling for people and how he wanted society to be more humane and that he was really on dangerous ground at that time.

"Part of his sexuality was what they used against him to put him away. They wanted to silence him."

Asked what the future held, Pacino replied:

"I have movies that are still coming at me and I always say that I'm going to be selective. I always say that, but I never am.

"I'm saying again -- 'I'm going to do it only when I feel it's the thing to do for me.' I hope I follow that philosophy. That's my future. It's blank."

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Film "Shame" brings sex addiction tale to Venice

By Silvia Aloisi

VENICE, Italy | Sun Sep 4, 2011 10:01am EDT

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Up-and-coming Irish actor Michael Fassbender plays a sex addict in "Shame," a movie by British video artist Steve McQueen that is vying for the top prize at the Venice film festival.

It is the second lead role for Fassbender in a competition movie at this year's festival after his portrayal of psychoanalyst Carl Jung in David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method."

In Shame, the German-born Fassbender is Brandon, a handsome, 30-something executive living in New York whose only distraction from work is seducing women, masturbating at home or in the office and looking for sex on the Internet.

The tightly controlled rhythm of his life begins to fall apart when his needy, dysfunctional sister Sissy, played by Carey Mulligan, arrives for an unannounced visit.

Her presence, and her craving for Brandon's attention, disrupt his lonely existence even further, and his only way out seems to be wandering the streets at night in search of new sexual adventures.

Fassbender, whose portrayal of Brandon was warmly applauded after a press screening on Sunday, said taking part in the film's graphic sex scenes was not easy.

"Yes (it was) uncomfortable doing the sex scenes, you just have to jump and turn really," he said.

"The most important thing I guess is that everybody involved feels as comfortable as they can. And then just go for it so you don't have to do too many takes."

McQueen, whose debut film was the widely acclaimed "Hunger" about the last months of Irish Republican Army activist Bobby Sands in Belfast's Maze prison, said he saw similarities between the two films.

Hunger also starred Fassbender in the lead role.

"Clearly Hunger was a political film but Shame is also political. That one was about a prison in northern Ireland, this one it's about how someone's freedom can actually imprison them and they need an addiction in order to numb a pain, how our lives have been changed sexually by the Internet," he said.

"I love Brandon, he's trying and it's difficult. He's not so far away from most of us at the end of the day. He is not a bad person, I think the character is not at all repulsive, maybe unfamiliar but extremely recognisable."

The title Shame was chosen after interviews with sex addicts and their experiences in preparation for the film.

"The word shame came cropping up in those interviews," McQueen said.

His career began with film-related projects, he quickly branched out to include sculpture and still photography, and his work has been displayed at the Biennale of Art in Venice.

McQueen said he saw no big differences between his artworks and his feature films.

"There are no barriers between the two. Of course in one you're going to have a bit more narrative and the other less so, but the process is the same, it's work."

Asked why Mulligan had not come to Venice to present the movie, McQueen replied: "It's out of order. She should be here."

(Reporting By Silvia Aloisi, editing by Mike Collett-White)

Saturday, September 3, 2011

A-listers not spared in pandemic film "Contagion"

By Mike Collett-White

VENICE, Italy | Sat Sep 3, 2011 9:23am EDT

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Not even the A-listers are spared in "Contagion," a star-studded movie directed by Steven Soderbergh that recreates the outbreak of a global pandemic.

Audiences used to seeing the most famous faces last longest will be in for a surprise when they watch the slick, globe-trotting picture which is in competition at the Venice film festival.

The ensemble cast includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle, most of whom were in Venice for the world premiere on Saturday.

Soderbergh, an Oscar winner for "Traffic" and best known for his "Ocean's" crime capers, said the complex nature of the film made Hollywood heavyweights particularly important.

"It's very helpful to have movie stars playing as many of these roles as you can, because you're throwing so many characters and so much information at the audience it's very helpful for them to get a sort of reference point," he told reporters in Venice.

"There's a reason that movie stars have existed since the beginning of cinema," he added after Contagion was warmly applauded at a press screening ahead of the red carpet premiere.

"It's good for audiences -- they like to have people they can identify with."

Contagion opens with a couple played by Paltrow and Damon who find themselves at the center of a global emergency that goes on to claim millions of lives.

Cotillard and Fishburne play health officials trying to get to the bottom of the disease in a race against time, while Law portrays a journalist and blogger who challenges the official line.

SARS AN INSPIRATION

At one point, one scientist irked by his questioning turns to him and says: "Blogging is not writing. It's graffiti with punctuation."

Soderbergh weaves the bigger themes of fear, panic and globalisation together with individual tales of sacrifice and selfishness, hopping from Hong Kong to London to the United States as he does.

Paltrow was asked when she would allow her pre-teen children to watch Contagion, which features death, violence and a scene where a dead character's scalp is peeled back during an autopsy.

"My kids can't even watch (children's comedy) 'Babe', so I don't know, probably not for a while."

She added that she did not see the death of central characters as any kind of judgment on the lives they led in the movie.

"I think that if death by virus was a punishment for extra-marital affairs there may be only about three dudes left in this room right now," she joked at a packed press conference. "Maybe less because we're in Italy."

Script writer Scott Burns said the story was partly based on the real-life outbreak of SARS in China in 2003.

Soderbergh, who said he would shortly be taking a break from film making, added: "All of the science in the film had to be accurate, all of the scenes in which the virus was discussed or shown visually had to be absolutely realistic or plausible.

"Otherwise we felt we weren't advancing our ideas very well or contributing to this genre very well."

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Mike Nesbit)