• Linda Hamilton will definitely appear in Terminator Salvation. Hmm, flashback or time travel? 'Cause, isn't she dead?
• Salma Hayek is joining Adam Sandler, Maya Rudolph, David Spade, and others for a new comedy.
• The trailer for Sam Mendes' next film Away We Go has been released. Starring Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski, with a script by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, it's sure to be a hit with 22-year-old English majors everywhere.
• Adventureland's Jesse Eisenberg will play poet Allen Ginsberg in the Beat Generation movie Kill Your Darlings.
• Ellen DeGeneres will portray Mother Nature in a comedy for Walden Media. Suggested title: It's Not Nice to Mess With Mother Nature While She's Dancing.
• The first poster for Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are has leaked. Please be as good as the poster, please be as good as the poster.
• Now Michael Bay is saying that Transformers 3 won't be out until 2012. Looks like Paramount jumped the gun.
BIZ
Angst is now Hollywood's top export
Peter Bart: Rough economy dominating discourse -- More and more, I find that meaningful dialogue in this community has been supplanted by five little words: How bad will it get? No one even says, "How are you?" anymore. Inquiries instead are directed toward the state of the global economy. Understandably so.
Ryan Kavanaugh Tries to Turn Rogue Pictures into Lifestyle
Brand
from Advertising Age - Madison+Vine
LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Hollywood film financier Ryan Kavanaugh said today
he is trying to turn his newly acquired low-budget film label, Rogue Pictures,
into a lifestyle brand that will include "a clothing line,
social-networking ventures and continued production of motion pictures which
appeal to 15-to-25-year-old audiences."
Contract Talks Between Actors, Advertisers at a Standstill
from Advertising Age - Madison+Vine by cbrodesser@adage.com(Claude Brodesser-Akner)
LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- With just 20 days remaining on Hollywood actors' $700 million TV-commercials contract, both sides look increasingly intractable and disagreeable.
Cable Faces Tough Upfront Market
from Advertising Age - MediaWorks
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- As the broadcast networks gear up
for what's shaping up to be their most challenging upfront yet, the picture for
cable is clouded with the same economic uncertainty that's already prompting
advertisers to cancel as much as 10% to 14% of their first- and second-quarter
upfront commitments.
The indie shuffle: What's next for Sundance and Fox
Searchlight?
from Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider by Owen Gleiberman
I'm not the kind of person who tends to get overly excited by executive shuffles. Too often, at least in the culture of movies, a major change at the top will come down to: Meet the new suit, same as...
IMDb's Needham: A Play Button on Every Page
from indieWIRE News
"We want a play button on every single page of IMDb," said
the popular film site's founder Col Needham during a SXSW Q&A moderated by
indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez. "Our strategy is to allow people to click the
play button and they will be able to legally watch an entire movie for free,"
Needham said.
Will It Be WME Or EWM Or Neither?
from Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily by Nikki Finke
Some enterprising guy has registered both williammorrisendeavor.com and endeavorwilliammorris.com. Guess he wants to be covered in case Ari wins/loses the arm wrestle over name placement. Personally, I like the name "WillEnd".
The Media Equation: Next Big Film Has a Premiere in Your Living
Room
from NYT > Movies by By DAVID CARR
In an era where more and more films are vying for precious big screens, little movies are beginning to show up on small screens at the flick of the remote.
So who's this Guy, Peter Rice?
from Peter Bart
The TV community wants to get a fix on the man who last week became the new overseer at Fox Broadcasting. How do they pitch this reserved Brit who comes out of the art house world and is an unknown on the TV landscape?
FESTIVALS
"Made in China" and "45365" Take Top SXSW Jury Prizes
from indieWIRE News
Judi Krant's "Made in China" won the narrative jury prize, while Bill Ross' "45365" won best documentary tonight at an informal awards presentation at the Austin Convention Center, closing out the main part of the South by Southwest Conference and Festival (SXSW).
Emerging bands scrounge up cash, flock to Texas music festival
When the five-day music portion of South by Southwest gets
underway Wednesday in Austin, Texas -- film and interactive events began Friday
-- it will do so amid the now annual doom-and-gloom music business stats. Album
sales are again facing a double-digit dip, the Virgin retail chain is on the
verge of closing its remaining stores and further consolidation is potentially
imminent, as industry giants Live Nation and Ticketmaster aim to join forces.
Here
the Messages Are the Media (Tweet, Tweet)
from NYT > Movies by By DAVID CARR
Organizers of South by Southwest have expanded their event laterally over the years, moving into film and interactive media with a vengeance.
Spike Lee's 'Kobe' to premiere at Tribeca
from Hollywood Reporter by By Gregg Kilday
Spike Lee's "Kobe Doin' Work," a documentary look
at Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, will have its world premiere at the
2009 Tribeca Film Festival.
H'wood film fest adding comedy section
from Hollywood Reporter by Staff report
The 13th annual Hollywood Film Festival, which runs Oct.
21-26 at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, is adding a Hollywood Comedy Film
Festival component to its programming to highlight the comedy genre.
Best Buy teaming with Film Independent
from Hollywood Reporter by Staff report
Best Buy and Film Independent on Monday announced a new
short film competition.
15 films picked for Cannes workshop
from Variety.com - Film Festivals
Film Festivals: Program helps projects complete financing -- Zhang Yuan's "Executioner Garden," Faouzi Bensaidi's "Death For Sale" and Diego Lerman's "Moral Sciences" are among the 15 projects selected for the Cannes Film Festival's production workshop.
'Act of God' to open Hot Docs fest
from Variety.com - Film Festivals
Film Festivals: Baichwal's pic to kick off Toronto event -- The world preem of local documentary helmer Jennifer Baichwal's "Act of God," exploring the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning, will open Toronto's Hot Docs on April 30 -- marking the first time a Canadian film has opened the international doc showcase.
Queer Fest takes trip back to 1980s
Film News: Verzaubert will unspool films across Germany -- he 1980s are back in this year's Verzaubert Queer Film Festival, which kicks off in Berlin Wednesday with a slew of films devoted to the Reagan years.
AWARDS
Which films are front-runners to win the next Oscars?
Will Meryl Streep, Peter Jackson, Clint Eastwood, Martin
Scorsese, Rob Marshall's, and Ang Lee be back in the race?
Grammys to air a bit early in 2010
from Variety.com - Award Central News
Award Central News: Telecast set for Jan. 31 from Staples Center -- Next year's Grammy Awards will be held at L.A.'s Staples Center on Jan. 31, a week earlier than this year's kudocast.
MOVIES
Daily Box Office: Monday, March 16, 2009
from Box Office Mojo - Current Box Office Results
Race to Witch Mountain tops Monday's box office with $1.9 million
They've been called "bromances": those buddy films and TV shows, such as the movies "Pineapple Express" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," that feature non-sexual but deep friendships between two or more males. The forthcoming "I Love You, Man," which opens Friday, appears to fit the bill, but don't tell the stars that.
Paul Rudd's awkward side back in `I Love You, Man'
from AP Top Entertainment News At 11:05 ... by By ERIN CARLSON
NEW YORK (AP) -- When Paul Rudd tells an embarrassing story, he leaves in details other celebrities might be too proud to reveal.
'Duplicity' marks Julia Roberts' 'comeback'
from Hollywood Reporter by By Steven Zeitchik
"Duplicity," which opens this weekend, has
essentially turned into a comeback for Julia Roberts, and the movie's
performance will be watched closely as a result.
DeGeneres to play Mother Nature in comedy
from Hollywood Reporter by By Jay A. Fernandez
Ellen DeGeneres has signed on to play Mother Nature in an
untitled comedy being produced by Walden Media.
Movie
Review | 'Valentino: The Last Emperor': Portrait of a Fashion King: Palazzos,
Pugs and Peons
from NYT > Movies by By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Watching "Valentino: The Last Emperor" is a little like gorging on chocolate and Champagne.
Screenwriter Millard Kaufman dies at 92
from AP Top Entertainment News At 11:05 ...
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Screenwriter Millard Kaufman, who co-created the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, was nominated for Academy Awards for his screenplays for "Take the High Ground!" and "Bad Day at Black Rock" and won a cult following as a first-time novelist at the age of 90, has died, a spokeswoman said. He was 92.
Bruce
Hornsby Scores Spike Lee's Kobe Bryant Doc
from Billboard News - All by Jason Lipshutz, N.Y.
After years of successful recording achievements, Bruce
Hornsby is taking his work to the silver screen. The singer and songwriter of
late-80's hits like "The Way It Is" and "The Valley Road"
has composed the score to "Kobe Doin' Work," an upcoming documentary
on basketball superstar Kobe Bryant directed by Spike Lee.
John Lennon biopic 'Nowhere Boy' picked up by the Weinstein Co.
from Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider by Nicole Sperling
The Weinstein Company has acquired U.S., Latin America, and German rights to Nowhere Boy, the John Lennon coming-of-age story from debut feature director Sam Taylor-Wood.
Freida Pinto: Future Bond babe?
from EW.com: Movies
By Joshua Rich
U.K. newspapers -- not always the most vigorous fact checkers -- say the
''Slumdog'' star is in talks; hope it's true?
'Madea': Bad for black America?
from EW.com: Movies
By Benjamin Svetkey, Margeaux Watson, Alynda Wheat
''Madea Goes to Jail'' has grossed more than $75 million to date, but is its
creator reinforcing stereotypes? And even if he is, how do you weigh that
against the good he's doing? Inside black America's secret culture war.
Robert Rodriguez Talks Machete, Sin City 2 and Neveracker
from /Film by orfilms@gmail.com (slashfilm.com)
Robert Rodriguez has been chatting it up at SXSW and CinemaBlend has a few
details direct from the filmmaker's mouth. First off, Robert says that he always
tells people that Sin City 2 is "right around the corner, because that's
what everybody wants to hear" but admits that "It might be a long corner." I'm
pretty convinced that a sequel won't happen until Miller has no other film
options, and is forced to return to the franchise.
TELEVISION
Networks look to midseason reinforcements
from L.A. Times - TV News
During the next month, the broadcast networks are rolling
out at least 10 new midseason series. NBC unveiled its epic drama
"Kings" on Sunday night. Two new ABC sitcoms are coming, "Better
Off Ted" this week and "In the Motherhood" next. And Fox has a
variety show with the Ozzy Osbourne clan, which, given its erratic history
could result in either spontaneous brilliance or spontaneous combustion.
Trump's 'Celebrity Apprentice' Continues Slide
from Advertising Age - MediaWorks
MINNEAPOLIS (AdAge.com) -- "Kings" and the Donald
performed more like commoners, as NBC's drama premiere and "Celebrity
Apprentice" resulted in the network finishing fourth, with a 1.8/5 rating
and share in the ad-centric 18-to-49 demographic. ABC, conversely, embraced the
common people -- and their problems -- with reality series such as
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (3.0/8) and dramas "Desperate
Housewives" (5.0/12) and "Brothers & Sisters" (3.7/9) to win
with an overall 3.5/9.
Ben Silverman To Blame For Kingly Bomb
from Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily by Nikki Finke
I'm told NBC Universal spent a whopping $10 million on
Sunday's two-hour opener for Kings and another $4 million per episode. That's a
staggering amount of money to lavish on any drama series, especially one that's
a bomb.
FIRST LOOK: The Real Housewives of New Jersey
Meet Bravo's newest cast of Housewives, which includes two sisters who married brothers
'American Idol' launching trading card line
from AP Top Entertainment News At 11:05 ... by By DERRIK J. LANG
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "American Idol" fans will soon be able to trade Carrie Underwoods for Danny Gokeys.
'Sopranos' creator David Chase returning to HBO
from AP Top Entertainment News At 11:05 ...
NEW YORK (AP) -- HBO says it's teaming up again with David Chase, mastermind of "The Sopranos," for a miniseries dramatizing Hollywood history.
Henry Rollins joins FX's 'Sons of Anarchy'
from Hollywood Reporter by By Nellie Andreeva
Actor-musician Henry Rollins has been tapped to recur on the
second season of FX's motorcycle drama "Sons of Anarchy."
Andy Samberg to host 2009 MTV Movie Awards
from AP Top Entertainment News At 11:05 ...
NEW YORK (AP) -- "Saturday Night Live" star Andy Samberg will host the 2009 MTV Movie Awards.
Leno adds second free show in Detroit area
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. Give out free tickets and the whole world will come.
The City: Hell I Still Love You, New York
from Defamer by Richard
Our long regional nightmare is over. The City has
ended. MTV's New York City-set
Hills spin-off sputtered and died weeks ago, but they've finally hauled
its carcass across the finish line. Let's dissect.
'Housewives': Meet new neighbor!
from EW.com: Today's Latest Headlines by Michael Ausiello
Series insider tells Michael Ausiello veteran character actress Gloria LeRoy ''will figure into Edie's exit''
Sci Fi Channel Looks For Life After 'Battlestar'
from Forbes.com: Media News by Lacey Rose
Can President Dave Howe keep his network rolling after the end of its most popular show?
SciFi Channel changing name to SyFy
After 16 years, Sci Fi Channel is changing its name ... unless you say it aloud. The NBC Universal-owned cable network will become SyFy starting in June.
MUSIC
New Reviews: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wavves, Peter Doherty and More
from Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily by Rolling Stone
It's Tuesday once again, which means there's a whole slate of new CDs on sale
now at your soon-to-be-closing record stores or favorite digital outlet. Before
you brave the St. Patrick's Day-celebrating masses on the way to the store, let
Rolling Stone be your guide to the best of this week's new releases.
Phish Announces Second Wave of Summer Dates
from Billboard News - All by Michael D. Ayers, Austin, TX
Fans who got shut out during round one of Phish's return to
the stage this summer will have a second opportunity to catch the veteran jam
band on a coast to coast tour starting with four nights (Jul. 30 - Aug. 2) at
the legendary Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado.
Bow Wow to release new studio album
from Entertainment News - UPI.com
NEW YORK, March 17 (UPI) -- "New Jack City II," the latest full-length studio album from U.S. hip-hop star Bow Wow, is slated for release this month, Columbia Records said.
50 Cent Plots Two 2009 Albums, Signs On For Fall Out Boy Tour
from Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily by Daniel Kreps
50 Cent
took a time out from his ridiculous ongoing feud with Rick Ross to talk about
his new LP Before I Self-Destruct and reveal that he'll release not one
but two new albums this year. Like his Aftermath labelmate Eminem,
who will drop Relapse on May 19th and then Relapse 2 later in the
year, 50 Cent also plans to go all Use Your Illusion on everyone in
2009.
Rihanna exclusive: Insider speaks
from EW.com: Today's Latest Headlines by Margeaux Watson
Evan Rogers, who discovered the singer in Barbados, talks exclusively with EW about how she's doing
The Web |' Rockville, CA': An Opportunity to Hype (and Mock)
Indie Bands
from NYT > Television by By MIKE HALE
"Rockville, CA" represents if not a step forward for online serials, at least a diverting step sideways.
Beastie Boys reissue "Check" in April
from Top Stories from LiveDaily.com
(LiveDaily.com) The Beastie Boys [ tickets ]' remastered, expanded reissue of 1992's "Check Your Head" will be available in stores April 7.
Counting Crows Part Ways With Geffen Records After 18 Years
from Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily by Daniel Kreps
After a relationship that bridged 18 years -- from the alternative-rock boom to Napster to the current music industry decline -- Counting Crows announced on their Website today that they are parting ways with their label, Geffen Records. The Counting Crows were one of the last vestiges of an era of DGC and Geffen that included artists like Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Beck and Hole. The band's last album for the label was 2008's Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings.
Bruce Springsteen preps for tour with Asbury Park rehearsals
from Top Stories from LiveDaily.com
(LiveDaily.com) Bruce Springsteen [ tickets ] and the E Street Band are spending time on the Jersey shore, rehearsing material from their latest album, "Working on a Dream," in preparation for their upcoming spring tour.
Prince celebrates new site with secret shows
from Top Stories from LiveDaily.com
(LiveDaily.com) Prince [ tickets ] has announced the upcoming launch of his new website and will mark the occasion with three separate shows in the Los Angeles area.
ETC...
Broadway Theaters To Dim Lights For Ron Silver
from Entertainment on HuffingtonPost.com by The Huffington Post
News Team
NEW YORK -- Broadway theaters will dim their lights Wednesday in honor of actor
Ron Silver who died Sunday after a two-year battle with esophageal cancer.
Parker Posey set for off-Broadway next season
from AP Top Entertainment News At 11:05 ...
NEW YORK (AP) -- Parker Posey, everyone's favorite indie-film actress, is going off-Broadway next season.
Clinton, Palin enter the world of comic books
Move over Wonder Woman and Lois Lane - Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are breaking into the world of comic books.
Geldof: poor must be part of global finance reform
from AP Top Entertainment News At 11:05 ...
BRUSSELS (AP) -- Activist Bob Geldof is calling for nations to consider the poor in reforms of the global financial system.
