We have the intersection between famous people and crazy people to thank for no small amount of entertainment. Take the lawsuit filed by Dannez Hunter, who claims that in 1999 he submitted a story treatment to Miramax about a character named Ren. Hunter claims that Ren became O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill, and that Quentin Tarantino stole elements of his treatment, including the specific manner of murder of Ren’s mother.
But it gets better, because Hunter also applied for a job at Miramax, and was, ahem, “never given a return phone call, as numerous similar situated less qualified Jewish and White people were bestowed job after job after job.” He wants a bag full of money, in part because whites and jews got all the royalties from Kill Bill. Good luck with this one, buddy. [TMZ]
After the break something slightly more substantive but less amusing: Tarantino reportedly may make a Harvey Weinstein documentary. Read More »
Update: Wes Craven has corrected this story on twitter:
“SCREAM 4 - LA Times has it wrong. I’m still in talks but nothing has been finalized.”
The original report follows after the jump.
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Miramax may be closed, but the story ain’t over yet. Disney has tried to shop the company around for sale in the past, and even offered the name to Harvey Weinstein for a reported $1.5 billion. But no one bought, and last week Disney closed down the company, ending the company’s 31-year run.
But Disney is still trying to sell, and has started an auction off at a lower price: bids of over $700 million are being entertained for the company name and full library of seven hundred films. (How many of those are Hong Kong films that Harvey bought and never released?) Summit is said to be one of the notable bidders, but The Weinstein Company is absent so far. Read More »
UPDATE: Just after I published this, The Weinstein Company was announced as the distributor for Blue Valentine, the drama starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. The film has been one of the critical hits of the fest, but I’ve got to wonder what TWC will be able to do with it. The company is struggling, and I don’t have much faith in its ability to give the movie a proper release. Check Peter’s video review of Blue Valentine here. Original article follows.
Right at the beginning of this year’s Sundance there were a couple of big deals made. The doc Waiting for Superman was bought by Paramount and Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds, was picked up by Lionsgate. (Read Peter’s review.)As the festival winds down there have been a couple other big buys. Hesher is the most notable, with the Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring film going to Newmarket. The very well-received The Kids Are Alright has also found a home, and while Joel Schumacher’s Twelve isn’t the best-reviewed film at the fest, it’s got a deal now, too. Read More »
UPDATE: Now The Weintein Company says they won’t be cutting theatres from Nine’s release. A rep insists that it will remain on 1400 screens this week. Let’s see what happens next week… Original article follows.
When it comes to year-end releases, Harvey Weinstein likes to bet on awards contenders. This year his horse was Nine, the Rob Marshall-directed adaptation of the stage musical. There was a lot of pedigree to back his pick: Marshall’s previous musical, Chicago, did well with critics, audiences and award balloting. The stage version of Nine won awards. And there’s the cast: Daniel Day-Lewis and a bevy of notable women: Kate Hudson, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Marion Cotillard and Penélope Cruz. (And Fergie who, ironically, turned out to be the selling point.)
But Nine’s reviews have been dismal and the business worse. When it went wide last week it was only the eighth-highest earner, with a $5.5m tally against a budget over $60m; the film has made about $9m globally. If the Weinstein Company was hoping the film would offset the studio’s widely-reported financial woes, then this has been a season of disappointment. The film is already scaling back from the wide 1,400 theatre release. But Harvey has a plan to keep going into 2010. Read More »
Posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 by David Chen
What are the pleasures of musicals?
Musicals require from their performers the daunting task of simultaneously acting and singing, often while executing choreographed dance. That’s a significant part of the reason we go pay to see live performances: to witness incredibly talented people perform these remarkable feats in real time. Musicals thrive on the tension between consummate professionalism and unpredictability. They also require the perception of continuity of motion in order to be fully enjoyed. When you fashion a musical into a film, you necessarily lose some of those elements.
But you don’t have to lose all of them.
As an audience, we understand on some level that the audio is recorded separately, that the dances probably required dozens of takes to produce the final version that we see on screen. So we make a bargain with the filmmaker: We will try to forget these inexorable truths about the filmmaking process if you do your best replicate the magic of musicals using a screen, a projector, and a few speakers. Rob Marshall’s Nine takes us up on this arrangement, only Marshall fails spectacularly at living up to his side of the bargain.
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We’ve seen two trailers for Youth in Revolt, and with a month left before the film finally opens (it was delayed from a fall open) we’ve now got a red band trailer. This clip follows much the same structure as the second trailer, only with a lot more dirty dialogue. That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, as it’s funny stuff. Check it out after the break. Read More »
The Weinstein Co have released a third movie trailer for Rob Marshall’s new musical Nine.
Rob Marshall, who directed Chicago - winner of six Academy Awards including Best Picture, returns to the big screen with another classic Broadway production. The musical tells the story of world famous film director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he prepares his latest picture and balances the numerous women in his life including his wife (Marion Cotillard), a producer, a mistress (Penelope Cruz), a film star muse (Nicole Kidman), an American fashion journalist (Kate Hudson), the whore from his youth (Fergie), his confidant and costume designer (Judi Dench), and his deceased mother (Sophia Loren).
If you missed the previous trailers, you can watch the first andsecond trailers linked. Watch the new trailer after the jump, and leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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BloodyDisgusting is reporting that the Weinstein Co and Dimension Films are planning to remake The Amityville Horror… yes… again. The Platinum Dunes’ remake of the 1979 cult favorite grossed over $108 million worldwide in 2005, and is still somewhat fresh in audiences minds. Why launch into another remake, so soon?
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Neve Campbell tells Black Book Magazine that she is “pretty sure” that Wes Craven is back on board to direct Scream 4, which is tenatively set to begin shooting in April 2010. Craven had said previously that he wanted to wait for a script to be completed, before he decided if he would helm the next sequel, the first part of a new trilogy.
Courtney Cox and David Arquette have also committed to the fourth film, which is currently being written, concurrently with a script for a fifth film,by series screenwriter Kevin Williamson. The film will be set ten years later in Woodsboro, and is described as “an ensemble” which will introduce several new characters. Williamson has said that it will reference manga comics, Asian ghost girl movies, PG-13 horror movies, vampire films, M. Night Shyamalan movies and even torture porn.
via: Bloodydisgusting
