Archive for the ‘News’ Category

To our beloved casual readers we would like to inform you that Movie-Thoughts has now returned from its one month hiatus and plans to once again provide you with intelligent and engaging film criticism.

The break was due to my (Cliff Bugle’s) preoccupation with grad school, as I have begun the first year of my pursuit for a Masters in Liberal Arts. School has been challenging so far, and my commute to campus (2 ½ hours each way, four times per week) has been exhausting to say the least, but nevertheless I believe I have figured out how to budget my time in a way that will allow me to continue my endeavors with this website. Let’s be honest, I love movies too much to give this up.

Not only will this moment mark the continuation of the usual high-quality content for Movie-Thoughts, but we also thought that it would be best to use this opportunity to make some changes as well.

We will continue our efforts to supply our usual brand of high-level film criticism with our reviews and various articles, but we will also now make a concerted effort to post less formal affair about random movie-related thoughts that either I or a contributor might have. These will hopefully satisfy your interests in between postings of our more official texts, as well as give our personalities a little more elbow room.

Timberlake (left), Eisenberg (right)

Thanks to those who keep coming back! We’ll make sure your loyalty and patience is rewarded.

On tap for tomorrow is our review of The Social Network, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake. It will be a week late, but hopefully it will help out those of you who are on the fence about seeing a movie about Facebook. Lord knows that that website needs more exposure.

The agreement between Disney and Ron Tutor and Colony Capital (now dubbed Filmyard Holdings) to sell Miramax and its library has been made official. The latter will purchase the studio for $660 million, including the rights to its books, developing projects, and other assets. The deal is expected to close sometime between Sept. 10 and the end of the year.

“Although we are very proud of Miramax’s many accomplishments, our current strategy for Walt Disney Studios is to focus on the development of great motion pictures under the Disney, Pixar and Marvel brands,” said Robert Iger, Disney president and CEO. “We are delighted that we have found a home for the Miramax brand and Miramax’s very highly regarded motion picture library.”

Disney agreed to distribute Miramax films that have already been completed under its ownership.

Complications still persist, however, as The Weinstein Co. still owns the rights to a handful of coveted films that reside under the Miramax label. Filmyard Holdings would need Weinstein’s approval before any sequels or remakes of these films could be made.

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: It’s still not a given that Filmyard will be able to pay the entire asking price for Miramax, but even if it did there hasn’t been much consideration for how well the company is going to be able to finance films in the near future. The Weinsteins had a strained relationship with Disney largely due to financing restrictions. It will be interesting to see how strongly Filmyard will be pinching their pennies, though at least they don’t have to worry about funding any smaller branches of Miramax, as The Weinstein Co. took Dimension Films with them in their 2005 exit agreement. The selling of Miramax might be in the books, but its future is still very much uncertain.

Due to Metro Goldwyn-Mayer’s immense debt ($4 billion) the studio that has owned the rights to the James Bond name for decades faces an uncertain future with its most prized franchise. Although the studio received yet another extension to pay $450 million to its debtholders that will continue through Sept. 15, the financial crisis is far from over. MGM’s goal is to sell the company, but no offers have yet been up to par. Time Warner offered $1.5 billion, and that remains the highest bid.

All of these money woes have caused an indefinite delay for the next Bond film. What MGM fears is that these woes continue for such a time that the franchise wont be able to get back on its feet again (5, 6 years?). Nobody seems to lack confidence that the franchise can still rake in the big bucks, as the last time there was a long delay between Bond films (the switch between Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan) it led to GoldenEye, which grossed over $352 million worldwide. The two Daniel Craig projects, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, grossed a combined $1 billion worldwide, so it’s safe to think that another Bond film will be made. The only question is when, and by whom.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Quick Opinion: The James Bond franchise is indeed too successful to be left for dead. Although most people are of the opinion that Quantum didn’t quite live up to Royale, there is still a lot of interest in knowing where the story set-up by these films will go next. Has Bond really let go of his feelings for Vesper? Will he return to his more charismatic ways and not be so serious? Will we ever find out exactly what Quantum’s bigger plan is? There is still a lot of story to discover. The biggest problem for both MGM – or whoever ends up owning the rights – and audiences that I see is that the longer these financial problems go unresolved the less a studio will be able to get from Daniel Craig, who can only do so many of these movies before he gets too old for them (granted that might take another ten years). So, the longer the delay, the fewer movies they can make with Craig, which is less money they can make from him, which is less entertainment for us. But, we should be confident that James Bond will be back. After all, it just wouldn’t be the same without him.

Metro Goldwyn-Mayer is drowning in debt, but its survival behooves its investors

In order to play catch-up with the latest news that has happened over the past few days, here are some of the more notable headlines aside from Despicable Me‘s opening weekend box-office numbers (which reportedly exceeded $60 million).

Metro Goldwyn-Mayer Requests 6th Debt Extention

The longstanding Hollywood studios is reportedly almost $4 billion in debt. More than 100 lenders who will assume control of the company soon (due to this debt) are in the process of phasing in new management, but in the meantime the company still owes the lenders a $250 million payment with a $200 million interest tag, which must be paid by July 15th. However, MGM will have more time to come up with these funds if the lenders grant the company a sixth extension, which they have until July 13th to do.

Disney to Finally Sell Miramax?

Disney has made an agreement (but not an official deal) with a group headed by construction executive Ronald Tutor and joined by Colony Capital that will sell the latter Miramax studios, along with its 611 film library, for $650 million. Only $300 million is available in equity to Disney at the moment with more to be raised in the near future, and so a $200 million debt is to be expected for Tudor and Colony Capitol if the deal goes through. Disney appears to have confidence that the buyers will be able to raise the money.

The Weinstein Co. still claims to have interest in buying Miramax, but their 2005 exit agreement happened because they felt Disney’s asking price of $650 million was too high. If the Tudor/Capitol talks fall through, Weinstein will reportedly consider making another bid. If the current deal does become official, it will raise questions about the rights to certain films that Weinstein still owns due to their exit agreement. Miramax will not be able to make sequels or remakes for any films Weinstein owns without their approval.

Academy Changes Rules for Animated Films

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors has released new rules about which animated films can be nominated for the Best Animated Feature category. The original cutoff for animated shorts was a 40 minute maximum, and animated features had to be at least 70 minutes. The gap has been corrected to include animated films over 40 mins in the feature-length category.

Also, the board has decreed that motion-capture animation does not qualify as true animation, which is the traditional “frame-by-frame technique”. So, mo-cap animated films will not be eligible for Best Animated Short or Feature Oscar categories. The new rule regarding animated films is as follows: “An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of greater than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75% of the picture’s running time.”

Netflix and Relativity Media have made a deal that will allow the video-rental giant to stream up to 30 of the studio’s films during the “traditional pay-TV distribution window.” Netflix has deals with all major studios that allows them to stream online a certain amount of those studios’ films, however up until now only Disney and Sony were allowing the streaming of their movies during this period.

The deal will begin with only the 10-12 films that Relativity will release over the next year (their typical output) but Netflix will be able to max out at 30 over the next five years. Both companies have stated that they believe this deal will be the beginning of a different age of distribution, away from pay-TV channels.

“Our continued goal is to expand the breadth and timeliness of films and TV shows

Netflix's streaming rights continue to grow, which will possibly help smaller studios gain better exposure

available to stream on Netflix,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

“We have always been about finding new ways to grow and monetize our business,” Relativity chief Ryan Kavanaugh said. “This clearly is a natural step in the evolution of the movie business and opens up a whole new world of revenue and marketing opportunities.”

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Quick Opinion: That Netflix is now making streaming deals with non-major Hollywood studios should be encouraging for those who are excited about the idea of “big” Hollywood not having as big a monopoly on exposure. With more streaming movies being from smaller (but not small) production and distribution studios the greater leverage they have in making distribution deals with those bigger companies. The more people see your films – and the more evidence you have that they do – gives you more creative authority because there is less reason to bend over backwards to appease a big distributor’s standards. One easy example to cite is how Disney doesn’t tell Pixar how to make their films, they simply get a cut of the profits for distribution. What this all could do is open up an opportunity for production studios like Relativity (Lionsgate, Focus Features, Rogue Pictures, etc.), who prefer to create movies for peripheral audiences.

Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly's "Cyrus" has been one of the recent indie successes

According to Pamela McClintock of Variety.com the “specialty sector”, or independent film market, has received a recent boost in box-office grosses thanks to releases like Mark and Jay Duplass’ Cyrus starring Jonah Hill, John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, and Catherine Keener, a documentary that follows the raising of several children from all over the world titled Babies, as we as several others.

President of Fox Searchlight Steve Gilula says that the recent (relative) success of these independent films are indicative that there “is life in the [indie] market, even as audiences are being more selective.” Some other examples of these films include City Island, Exit Through the Gift Shop, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

These indie successes hope to continue their theatrical and VOD runs, because as with any film the longer the run the more money they make. However, with word of mouth being the primary propellant of their runs such success is almost completely reliant on audience buzz, which is means these films’ futures are harder to predict than most.

One aspect that’s being tentatively attributed to these films’ financial achievements is how there are fewer large-market films being released during the Spring and early Summer months. Also consider the recent Warner Bros. flop Jonah Hex, for example, and it can be said that independent films have had less competition than usual.

The momentum that the “specialty sector” is building right now will be important for the current releases in creating Oscar buzz come Fall and Winter, as well as help later indie releases like Bill Murray and Robert Duvall’s Get Low, which will open July 30th, to do the same by holding the attention of audiences who may become distracted by bigger films such as Inception, Predators, Twilight: Eclipse, Salt, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and Tron.

Source: Variety

Hogwarts Castle is no longer something of fiction. You can now visit it!

The brand new Orlando amusement park – which reportedly cost $265 million to build – based off of the Harry Potter books and movies has opened to rave reviews from Potter fans around the globe. A fully immersive park all on its own, though technically attached to the Universal Studios park, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter contains rides, restaurants, and enough site-seeing to make you believe you’re actually in the stories. You can hear Moaning Myrtle in the restrooms, visit Dumbledore’s office, drink pumpkin juice and butterbeer (the recipes of which were approved by J.K. Rowling), and see a quidditch match. You can even visit gift shops where if you’re looking to pick out a wand, a wand will pick you!

Let Daniel Radcliffe and MTV take you on a tour of the park here.

Watch a video documenting the grand opening of the park here.

The Gainesville Sun, of Gainesville FL, published in today’s paper their list of the Top 10 features of the new park. Here is a sampling of what they had to say (we wont spoil the rankings).

“Hogwarts: Trademark castle houses the new Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride and an elaborate queue with tons of detailing. Watch for the Mirror of Erised, Dumbledore’s office, living portraits, mandrakes, the Dark Arts classroom, levitating candles and more, all before taking off on the ride’s ‘enchanted benches.’ “

“Live entertainment: Expect regular performances by the Frog Chorus (an a cappella quartet plus two amphibians) as well as physical demonstrations by the contrasting styles of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic (dancing with ribbons) and Durmstrung Institute (very serious acrobatics and weaponry).”

For fans of Harry Potter it appears that The Wizarding World is just as wonderful as you could have hoped. Elements from both the books and the movies can be found, which bring to life one of the most successful entertainment franchises in history. If any of you readers out there get a chance to visit the park, drop us a line and tell us about your trip. We’d love to hear all about your experiences!

The Wizarding World's Grand Opening on June 18th

Interesting Factoid: The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has publicly expressed his displeasure about the fact that the Harry Potter park was built in the United States as opposed to England.

“I want to know why this Kingdom of Potter is not being built in the UK, and I won’t be fobbed off with any nonsense about the weather. They built Eurodisney in the Valley of the Marne, where it is at least as cold and drizzly as it is in London – and it has been a triumphant success”

I suppose it’s understandable that a number of Brits would have preferred the park be built in England because the character of Harry Potter is such a huge British icon, but calling Eurodisney a “triumphant success” just makes you sound crazy. The climate was no doubt a very big factor in the decision to build the park in Florida – a state which houses the most financially successful and well-attended amusement parks in the world. The Wizarding World in London would have made logical sense yes, but let’s be reasonable.

Writer/Director M. Night Shyamalan

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has been shopping a new script around Hollywood, and that there might already be a cast for it.

Bruce Willis, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Bradley Cooper‘s names have been “loosely tied” to the project. If Willis officially signs on, it will be the third time he and the director will have worked together (The Sixth Sense – 1999, Unbreakable – 2000). No details about the story are yet known, as it is being kept secret from anyone outside executive offices.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Quick Opinion: Shyamalan’s previous three films (The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening) each endured their share of critical beat downs – particularly Lady in the Water and The Happening - and so the once-acclaimed director is certainly hoping that this summer’s The Last Airbender (July 1st) will bring him out of his slump. If nothing else, he surely hopes that the film proves commercially successful so that he can use that momentum to get this newest project green-lighted. If he can prove to studios that he’s still capable of putting butts in the seats it would go a long way towards salvaging his career – or at least his career as a director. Even with his worst films he has proven that he can come up with original and interesting concepts, so if he’s ever relegated to being just a writer then whatever he writes can be possibly improved upon through collaboration with other directors and writers. And if this were to happen Shyamalan should count his blessings because there are far worse fates in the movie industry.

Banks

Deschanel

Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, and Rashida Jones have signed on to star opposite Paul Rudd in My Idiot Brother, which was written by Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall and will be directed by Jesse Peretz.

Banks, Deschanel, and Mortimer will play Rudd’s sisters.

“Banks is a career-driven single about to get her big break in journalism after spending years writing about accessories at a fashion magazine; Deschanel is a bisexual whose flakiness and lies are getting in the way of moving forward with her caring, responsible girlfriend (Jones); and Mortimer plays a Park Slope mom too worried about having the perfect life and children to notice that her marriage is falling apart.” -THR

Mortimer

Jones

Filming is scheduled to begin in New York sometime next month.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Jemaine Clement

Jemaine Clement of HBO’s Flight of the Conchords fame has reportedly been cast as the villain in the next Men in Black sequel.

Jonah Hex‘s Josh Brolin has also signed on to the project and will reportedly play a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones’ character K, though Jones and Will Smith will also return, along with director Barry Sonnenfeld.

Etan Cohen (Idiocracy, Tropic Thunder) has written the script, which some suspect entails time travel due to the involvement of Brolin’s alleged role.

Source: Ain’t It Cool News

Quick Opinion: I’ve heard many complain about how Men in Black II was not as good as the first, and not often were those complaints based on the film’s casting. The original Men in Black struck a chord with audiences because of how fresh it was, and MIB II might have failed simply because screenwriter Robert Gordon was unable to keep that element moving forward. Looking back, this is somewhat surprising being that Gordon also gave us the wonderfully self-aware Galaxy Quest. But come to think of it, a sequel to that film would probably not work either for the same reasons. So why be excited about MIB III? New pedigree has been added, again, in the form of Josh Brolin and Jemaine Clement, which is to be expected with Hollywood sequels. But the real upgrade might come through Etan Cohen’s screenplay. Idiocracy has become a sort of cult classic for its jabs at modern society and scarily convincing premise which suggests the meek may actually inherit the earth. Tropic Thunder was about as self-aware as movies get, de-glorifying the action and war movie genres as well as Hollywood in general. Because of this background it is fair to believe that Cohen can bring the freshness of the first MIB back to the series. On the other hand, I’m sure that’s what they were hoping for from Gordon. Like most things, this will probably be a game of “wait and see.”