Archive for the ‘News’ Category

"Avatar" looks great (see photo), but the 3D is what really makes it stunning.

IGN.com recently published an article where author Eric Moro compared the 3D image quality of the theatrical version of James Cameron’s Avatar with its Blu-Ray copy being designed for home theater use.

Almost everyone who has seen the movie in theaters praises the 3D technology for making the experience highly immersive, and Moro is no different. That being said, he claims the scenes he was able to witness for the special 3D Blu-ray player looked even better than they did in the theater. You can read the full article here.

So for those who were worried that Avatar was destined to be solely a theatrical experience that would force home viewing to be lackluster by comparison, there seems to be at least a little bit of hope. One report is hardly the final word on the issue, but it does allow for some optimism.

Joel and Ethan Coen handle directing/producing duties arguably better than anyone

In an article for Variety.com, feature writer Anthony Kaufman sheds light on the world of filmmakers who decide/are able to both direct and produce their movies. People like Peter Jackson, Clint Eastwood, and the Coen brothers are members of an elite group that has won Oscars for both directing and producing, and accomplishing such a feat is even harder than one might think.

The two different, and arguably opposing functions of directors and producers is perhaps the number one reason for the high level of difficulty in doing both. It’s the job of the director to make sure the artistic quality of a film is the highest it can be, and the producer’s job is to manage and organize all aspects connected to a film’s financing. Being that art can be very costly, directors and producers naturally clash every so often during the making of a movie. And aside from this, the simple fact that one person is doing two jobs makes the endeavor daunting.

A positive way of looking at the added responsibility is to say that having to keep both art and practicality in mind while making all decisions is a very useful skill to have because it keeps either from getting out of hand. If a film’s artistic side is met with too few limitations it can make it appealing to too narrow an audience, while if the budget hampers the art’s ability to express itself sufficiently the overall quality of the product suffers.

Director Lee Daniels (Precious) sums up the job of director/producer like this: It’s “powerful, but a powerful curse.” Read more about the job of being a director/producer by clicking on the link below.

Source: Variety

In Other News…

Blake Lively

Gossip Girl and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants star Blake Lively has been cast in Warner Brothers’ Green Lantern. She will reportedly be the romantic interest opposite star Ryan Reynolds, who is playing the supernatural superhero.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Former RottenTomatoes.com parent IGN Entertainment has sold majority ownership of the review aggregator site to Flixter, whose services center on movie listings and trailers. The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed.

IGN Entertainment will still have a minor stake in RottonTomatoes.com, and IGN Ent. president Roy Bahat is even joining the Flixter board.

“Joining RottenTomatoes with Flixster creates a company that can dominate the online movie category,” Bahat said – HollywoodReporter

IGN Ent. has stated that it wants to focus more on its own operations, which primarily include covering videogames and men’s lifestyle. The news corp. also covers movies and movie-related topics, which you can access at movies.ign.com.

Source: HollywoodReporter

Jeremy Renner in "The Hurt Locker"

The National Society of Film Critics has announced that the Kathryn Bigelow directed Hurt Locker has won their awards for this year’s Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Jeremy Renner).  The film is the first one since 1997′s L.A. Confidential to win Best Picture honors from the top three – the National Society, and the L.A. and New York Critic Societies.

The other NSFC award winners include the following:

Actress: Yolande Moreau, Seraphine

Supporting Actor: (tie) Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds, and Paul Schneider, Bright Star

Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious

Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man

Foreign-Language Film: Summer Hours

Nonfiction Film: The Beaches of Agnes

Cinematography: Christian Berger, The White Ribbon

Production design: Nelson Lowry, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: While even we here at Movie-Thoughts thought very highly of Hurt Locker, it would be a surprise to us if it went on to win Best Picture at the upcoming Academy Awards. The film will doubtless be nominated, as the nomination pool has grown to 10 this year, but with contenders like Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, and Precious to compete with the Best Picture Oscar is hardly in the bag. However, such high praise at this time of year has proven to give a number of films the momentum needed to pull off the feat (American Beauty, Crash, and Slumdog Millionaire come to mind). So if you are someone pulling for Hurt Locker to win it all, you may not need to cross your fingers.

Social networking websites like Facebook are on Hollywood's radar for niche internet advertising

While the old standbys of television and radio continue to hog most of the money that studios spend on marketing campaigns for new releases, more and more money is being allotted for internet and mobile markets. The recent success of Paramount’s internet marketing for Paranormal Activity, for example, shows what can be done when the right demographic is reached through these digital means.

Facebook in particular allows studios to reach niche markets which correlate to their new releases much more effectively than simply advertising on demographic-related TV channels. Such a strategy is one way of spending smarter, which is exactly what the new focus on digital outlets is all about. Reportedly, the change allows studios to spend just as much money as ever on marketing their films, even though the poor economy has forced them to cut talent costs, reduce the number of films made, and let go a number of staff members.

Television and radio still take up around 60-70% of marketing budgets, but the percentage spent on digital outlets has risen from 1% (2002) to 8-12%, and continues to grow. Avatar‘s marketing budget (estimated to exceed $150 million) reportedly allotted 10% toward internet ads alone. That’s over $15 million.

Niche marketing is nothing new, but Hollywood’s growing concentration on using digital outlets to take advantage of this strategy could mark a big overhaul in future film marketing in general.

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: All of this seems well and good at first glance, however one wonders once the economy recovers if talent costs will rise back up and staff positions get refilled, or if the percentage of money spent on marketing stays the same. The success that’s possible due to the help of digital outlets could be too tempting for studios to not continue spending as much as they are.

Also, more money spent on internet and mobile ads means less ad money spent on newspapers and magazines, which are already hurting. Thinking pessimistically, this could be the final blow for big paper-based publications, forcing those companies to try and survive completely on the internet.

Dan O'Bannon in a 2003 interview for the Special Edition "Alien" DVD

Famed screenwriter Dan O’Bannon passed away this week at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica Ca. after a 30 year battle with Crohn’s disease.

His most famous work includes the writing for Alien and Total Recall, as well as writing and directing the cult favorite The Return of the Living Dead. O’Bannon began his career as a sci-fi icon by working together with director John Carpenter on writing for their student-film-turned-low-budget-feature Dark Star.  And like Carpenter, he is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s film program.

O’Bannon was 63, and is survived by his wife and son.

Source: Variety

A R Rahman, winner of Best Original Song 2009 for "Jai Ho," from "Slumdog Millionaire"

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released their list of all 63 songs eligible for nomination for the Best Original Song Oscar at the upcoming 82nd Academy Awards.

The voters will rate each song on a point basis, with an 8.25 rating needed for a song to be nominated. If no songs receive that high of a rating, the category is scrapped for the year. If only one song receives an 8.25 or higher, it and the runner up will be the only nominations. Up to 5 songs can become final nominees.

The list of all songs eligible for nomination are as follows:

“All Is Love” from Where the Wild Things Are
“Almost Over You” from My One and Only
“Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog
“AyAyAyAy” from The Maid
“Back to Tennessee” from Hannah Montana the Movie
“Being Bad” from Duplicity
“Blanco” from Fast & Furious
“Brothers in Arms” from Brothers at War
“Butterfly Fly Away” from Hannah Montana the Movie
“Cinema Italiano” from Nine
“Colorblind” from Invictus
“Depression Era” from That Evening Sun
“Don’t Walk Away” from Hannah Montana the Movie
“Dove of Peace” from Bruno
“Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog
“Fly Farm Blues” from It Might Get Loud
“Forget Me” from I Love You, Beth Cooper
“God Bless Us Everyone” from Disney’s A Christmas Carol
“Here” from Shrink
“Hideaway” from Where the Wild Things Are
“Hoedown Throwdown” from Hannah Montana the Movie
“I Bring What I Love” from Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love
“I See You” from Avatar
“(I Want to) Come Home” from Everybody’s Fine
“If You’re Wondering” from The Lightkeepers
“Impossible Fantasy” from Adventures of Power
“Innocent Child” from Skin
“Invictus 9,000 Days” from Invictus
“Legendary” from Tyson
“Let Freedom Reign” from Skin
“Loin de Paname” from Paris 36
“Ma Belle Evangeline” from The Princess and the Frog
“My One and Only” from My One and Only
“Na Na” from Couples Retreat
“Never Knew I Needed” from The Princess and the Frog
“New Divide” from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
“New Jersey Nights” from Adventures of Power
“New York Is Where I Live” from Did You Hear about the Morgans?
“No Time for Love” from Simon & Malou
“One Day” from Post Grad
“Only You” from The Young Victoria
“Other Father Song” from Coraline
“Petey’s Song” from Fantastic Mr. Fox
“Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” from Ponyo
“Possibility” from The Twilight Saga: New Moon
“Raining Sunshine” from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
“Running Out of Empty (Make Ourselves at Home)” from Lymelife
“Smoke without Fire” from An Education
“Somebody Else” from Crazy Heart
“Stu’s Song” from The Hangover
“Take It All” from Nine
“Through the Trees” from Jennifer’s Body
“Trust Me” from The Informant!
“Un Bouquet des Violettes” from New York, I Love You
“We Are the Children of the World” from The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
“We Love Violence” from The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart
“When You Find Me” from Adam
“Winter” from Brothers
“The Word Is Love” from Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!
“You Got Me Wrapped around Your Little Finger” from An Education
“You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home” from Hannah Montana the Movie
“You’ve Been a Friend to Me” from Old Dogs

Hannah Montana The Movie and The Princess and the Frog have the highest number of eligible songs. Official nominations for all categories will be released February 2nd.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

A still from "Coraline"

The American Film Institute has released their choices for the top 10 films of 2009. The list comprises the following films (in alphabetical order):

Coraline, The Hangover, The Hurt Locker, The Messenger, Precious, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Sugar, Up, and Up in the Air.

Being that Up in the Air hasn’t yet been released into theaters nationwide, its inclusion on this list might act as great promotion and cause the film to have a bigger opening weekend than it would have. The Hangover might also enjoy boosted DVD sales.

Select groups representing these respective films will receive AFI’s awards at a ceremony in Los Angeles on January 5th.

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: What the hell is The Hangover doing on this list? Certainly there were more deserving films that could have taken its spot in AFI’s top 10 of the year, such as Star Trek or Ingloureous Basterds, to name a few. But to play Devil’s advocate for a moment, many people have been lobbying for years for comedies to get more credit from organizations like AFI because while a successful comedy may not be “artistically superior” (as not every comedy can be Annie Hall) it nevertheless may be impressively effective in garnering the reactions its genre seeks to induce. To The Hangover‘s credit its reception was surprisingly positive from critics, and since its release it has penetrated pop culture thoroughly. Is this grounds for being mentioned with films like Precious, The Messenger, and Coraline? Tell us what you think.

Captain America

IGN.com has published another film preview guide, the newest one for movies that are going to be based off of various comic books and graphic novels. The guide covers all the latest buzz about possible Blade and Fantastic 4 reboots, The Avengers, The First Avenger: Captain America, Iron Man 2, Runaways, Spider-Man 4 through 6, Thor, Batman 3, Green Arrow, Jonah Hex, Y: The Last Man, among others.

As far as I can research the guide is as thorough as one could probably need. Looking up news on each of these films reveals only minimal extra information, none of which I feel is interesting enough to mention here. So if you’re itching to hear the latest about the superhero side of Hollywood, or if you’re just curious, this IGN guide should prove to be a great read.

Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is arguably the most stylized retelling of the Dracula story to date

With vampire craze still in full swing due to the enormous hit that has been New Moon, the same production studio that financed that film has let it be known that it will now finance a remake of the story of Dracula. The project is called Vlad, written by Charlie Hunnam (actor on FX’s Sons of Anarchy), and is focused on Dracula as a young prince (with Vlad the Impaler of course being the inspiration for the character). Music video director Anthony Mandler (Rhianna, The Killers, Eminem) will be helming the project, with Brad Pitt producing. Reportedly, the film is set to have the same degree of stylization as 2006′s 300, which executives at Summit are excited about. The casting of the role of Vlad is expected to be an unknown.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Quick Opinion: As it turns out, we at Movie-Thoughts got our wish for a remake of Dracula, although having it made by Summit, starring an unknown, and captained by a music video director wasn’t exactly what we had in mind. However, here’s the silver lining: Summit is still small enough to not fall under the pressure of big studio-type paranoia (i.e. they can financially afford to be bolder and more daring with their creativity), unknown actors like Brandon Routh have proven that a no-name can indeed carry the weight of an iconic role, and Spike Jonze has proven that a music video director is capable of telling wonderful stories very skillfully. The odds that Vlad will have the same level of performances and direction as the names just listed can only be speculated, but it’s good to think positive.