Filed under: Deals, Celebrities and Controversy, Box Office, Distribution

His last movie didn't do so hot, but George Clooney's still making headlines. This time, he has spoken out about the recent split between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. According to Variety, Clooney has decided to stay neutral where many prominent actors have taken sides, and he's urging others to take the same route. If Hollywood actors go on strike, it'll probably be SAG's fault, considering the eagerness of AFTRA to negotiate a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. AFTRA's biggest defender is Tom Hanks, while Jack Nicholson is heading up the other side. "Stories about Jack Nicholson vs. Tom Hanks only strengthen the negotiating power of the AMPTP," Clooney said in a statement.

Like many actors, Clooney wants to take any measures he can to prevent a strike. As a member of SAG, the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America, he wears many hats. "I'm hoping that there might be a way out of this," he said. "To be sure, I'm not the brightest bulb out there. So maybe someone has a lot better idea." Then he got personal: "I just happen to believe so strongly in both unions... my father, my mother, aunt, uncle, even cousins were all members." Nobody's doubting his allegiance, but after souring his relationship with the WGA after Leatherheads came out, it's hard to say how the other unions will regard him in the coming months.

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The trailer for Miss Potter did not do the film justice at all. It seemed to imply a portrayal of Beatrix Potter as a mad woman. It showed her talking to her animal drawings as though they were real people and it did not manage to convey the film’s appealing features. I think this may be the reason the film did not do as well as it should have done on its release, as it did not do its job in attracting viewers. I am happy to say that Miss Potter is actually a charming film which beautifully tells the story of the famous children’s author Beatrix Potter (Renee Zellweger). She does not come across as crazy, but actually seems to be a highly intelligent woman who was born years ahead of her time. (more…)

Filed under: Casting, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand, Politics

When it comes to sifting through all actors responsible for portraying the most powerful man on the planet, there's no shortage of options. John Travolta did a great Bill Clinton impersonation in Primary Colors and Timothy Bottoms delivered a near-perfect imitation of George W. Bush in both D.C. 9/11: Time of Crisis and That's My Bush! Neither one comes across as particularly flattering, so presidential nominee Barack Obama has chosen a safer bet: At a recent party in Los Angeles, Obama revealed that he prefers Jeff Bridges' conflicted commander-in-chief in The Contender. Granted, he may have said this simply to keep his audience happy -- in this case, Contender director Rod Lurie, one of the attendees who was willing to plop down $28,000 for the event. "'I just plugged your movie," Obama told Lurie, according to a report the director sent to Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells.

Still, when you're under the kind of intense scrutiny that Obama currently endures, Bridges actually seems like a pretty safe choice. Choose Anthony Hopkins in Nixon and it sounds like you're endorsing the bad guy. Choose Kevin Kline in Dave and you come across as disingenuous. Choose Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove and somebody will call you incompetent. Bridges, on the other hand, plays a fierce leader bound to his moral convictions. Of course, Obama also expressed sympathy over Lurie's short-lived television show Commander-in-Chief, which featured Geena Davis as the first woman president. Perhaps it's no coincidence that he and Hillary have publicly made amends.

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Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Disney, Celebrities and Controversy, Family Films, Movie Marketing, Trailers and Clips

Continue reading The Trailer for Disney's 'Bolt' Races Online

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This weekend will see the battle of theWs in theaters across America, as moviegoers decide whether they want to watch the world go out with a stunning Pixar whimper in "WALL-E" or see Angelina Jolie make civilization safe for testosterone-based lifeforms in "Wanted". (That's EVE from the former movie above, not Angelina from the latter.)

Not really a contest, in my opinion. "Wanted" will get all the angry young men who wouldn't be caught dead going to a family film until word gets out that "WALL-E" is a visionary sci-fi parable that in some ways is the most grown-up release of the year. Some of the action scenes director Timur Bekmambetov comes up with in "Wanted" blew me away, sure, but I sat through "WALL-E" in sustained, even deepening awe at what Pixar attempts and achieves here. In a way, the film's the successful merging of Kubrick and Spielberg sensibilities -- which is to say profound disenchantment and radiant hope -- that "AI: Artificial Intelligence" wasn't.

That and the R rating for "Wanted" will cut into its ticket sales, so you know who's going to win the box office race. I'm just curious to see to what extent middle America embraces "WALL-E" over the next few weeks. It's a dense movie and, under the surface, a very dark one. This isn't "Finding Nemo". This is better. (And, oh my, look at these reviews.)

If you can't get your brain around a CGI animated movie that you should see even if you don't have kids, there are other choices. Wesley loves the new Fatih Akin movie "The Edge of Heaven," and as a huge fan of the German-Turkish director's "Head-On," I feel duty bound to tell you to check the movie out, even if I haven't seen it myself yet. It's at the Kendall, as is a short, quiet, achingly moving little drama about where sublime faith turns dangerous, "My Father My Lord."

"Brick Lane," about the cultural collision between a Bangladeshi bride and her new country, England, is at the Kendall and the Coolidge. The Brattle brings in "The Tracey Fragments," which per Wesley may test the patience of Ellen Page fans while pleasing those with attention deficit disorder. Also opening this week is "Finding Amanda," which will test the patience of Matthew Broderick fans and anyone who likes good movies.

At the Harvard Film Archive, a weekend of the groundbreaking political documentaries of the late Emile de Antonio. Friday night doubles up "In the Year of the Pig," the 1968 Vietnam doc that now looks like the coolly angry grandaddy to Michael Moore's agitpop, and 1966's "Rush to Judgment," one of the first major JFK assassination-conspiracy works. Saturday gives you a chance to see the riveting "Point of Order," in which de Antonio lets Senator Joseph McCarthy hang himself with his own documentary footage. Good stuff all around.

The "New Cinema from Spain" series finishes up this weekend at the MFA; also showing at the museum is "Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts,"which gets a thumbs up from the Globe's classical music critic Jeremy Eichler.

Oh, and if you're headed out the Turnpike, Mass MOCA in the Berkshires is hosting a cool event tomorrow: An outdoor screening (unless it rains) of the 1973 Bruce Lee classic "Enter the Dragon" with live music accompaniment by DJ/percussionist Karsh Kale.

If you're not headed out at all, there are three Cyd Charisse films on Turner Classics tonight. Good ones, too: if you can't stay up, set your Tivo for "Silk Stockings" at midnight.

Filed under: Casting, New Releases, Celebrities and Controversy, Box Office, Politics

Yesterday's New York Post contained a gossip item in Page Six taken from the book party for James Rosen's The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate in New York, where attendee Tony Danza expressed an interest in playing Richard Nixon aide H.R. Halderman -- maybe in a movie version of Rosen's book. Halderman, who died in 1993, worked for Nixon as White House Chief of Staff until the Watergate scandal landed him eighteen months in prison in 1973. His story, partially recounted in The Strong Man, involved a longstanding relationship with Nixon going back to the 1950s and the tense moments immediately before and after the president's resignation. In between, he was involved in a botched attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro and other tumultuous events dutifully recorded in Halderman's diary, which became available to the public years later.

Many political scandals often revolve around a single corrupt individual, but it's the right hand man whose story can be most revealing. (Roy Cohen's personal drama has way more twists than that of Joseph McCarthy, for example.) There's little doubt that Halderman's experiences would work well on the big screen, but this wouldn't be the first time: IMDb lists no less than five actors who have portrayed Halderman, including James Downing in The Pentagon Papers, as recently as 2003. Would Danza make sense in this role? And will any film have a chance at getting people interested in this story after Frost/Nixon nabs the spotlight later this year?

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Filed under: Action, Paramount, Celebrities and Controversy, Comic/Superhero/Geek, War

Fair warning: This is a slight, trivial, and practically meaningless piece of upcoming movie news -- but it touches on three things we love here at Cinematical: Action movies based on cartoons based on ancient marketing campaigns, horny directors, and fake breasts. Here we go:

According to SFGate's Hot Dish blog, sexy actress Sienna Miller was forced to wear fake hooters so as to accentuate her cleavage in the upcoming G.I. Joe movie. Ms. Miller will be playing The Baroness, and apparently her god-given boobies were not adequate in the eyes of director Stephen Sommers. ("'I'm gonna be honest, I like girls with big boobs," is what the director told her. Strange comment from a guy whose leading ladies have been Famke Janssen, Rachel Weisz, and Kate Beckinsale, three gorgeous women who aren't exactly D-cups.)

Ms. Miller notes that she was "mildly offended" by the breast issue, and I'm kind of surprised that the topic didn't come up before her first costume fitting, but hey ... The Baroness is pretty stacked. Perhaps Mr. Sommers is just trying to remain faithful to the source material -- or yeah, maybe he just likes big boobs. Lord knows the target demographic for G.I. Joe loves boobs. Check out images of Sienna as The Baroness in the gallery below.

...after the jump: more pics!

Continue reading Sienna Miller's New Cleavage: G.I. Whoa!

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Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand

Movie stars can get a stylist, remove those errant eyebrow and nose hairs, and even get some high-dose skin cleaner to make themselves smooth, shiny, and sexy; if all else fails, there are legions of makeup artists to make the men and women of Hollywood look as hot as possible. But there's not much they can do about their tongue prowess. Sometimes, the smooch or sex scene is so bad that it's even obvious on-screen, and on occasion, movie kissing is so bad that those who were forced to endure it remember the moment forever and tell tales about their bad kissing moments.

Defamer has a list titled: Top Ten Worst Kissers in Hollywood: From the 'Icky' to the 'Sweaty' to Tongues That Taste Like Kitty Litter. The folks at Defamer weren't just guessing in compiling the list -- they've gathered quotes from those unlucky suckers who had to experience it for themselves.

Continue reading Hollywood's Crappy Kissers

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Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Newsstand, George Lucas, Politics, Comic/Superhero/Geek

This isn't exactly film news, but it was too odd not to share with Cinematical. I honestly thought it had originated at The Onion, and not with the AP!

On Tuesday, George Lucas testified before the House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet. His intentions were really very admirable, as he was arguing in favor of reforming the universal service fund, which provides Internet and telephone access in rural, low-income, and high cost areas of the country. Lucas is passionate about education reform, and he testified in favor of making Internet access "a digital civil right," that is free to schools and libraries.

While his intentions were good, the saga of Lucas and the subcommittee quickly became downright goofy. Several lawmakers took advantage of Lucas' appearance to crack Star Wars jokes. Rep. Mike Doyle declared "The universal service fund needs to be blown up like the Death Star," while Rep. Lee Terry compared himself and fellow Representative Rick Boucher to Luke Skywalker, and their opponents to Darth Vader. Our tax dollars at work, people.

Continue reading George Lucas Testifies in Washington D.C. -- Yes, Really!

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Filed under: Drama, Thrillers, United Artists, Celebrities and Controversy, Tom Cruise, Movie Marketing, Images, War

Tom Cruise may be guilty of some odd public antics -- but he isn't guilty of photo fudging. Last week, we reported on Slate's little expose, where they examined a publicity photo released by United Artists. According to their graphic experts, the photo of Claus von Stauffenberg had been altered to better resemble Tom Cruise.

However, Yahoo! Movies now says Slate has been forced to retract the story. It turns out they were comparing the wrong photos -- they used one from the AP, as opposed to the Getty photograph United Artists used. Unfortunately, Slate didn't search all available archives for the photo before making their assertion.

United Artists is understandably upset over the slanderous claim. "The picture United Artists used of Colonel Stauffenberg can be found all over the Internet," said Valkyrie co-writer and producer Chris McQuarrie. He added that it would be much easier to "alter Tom Cruise" than to doctor "every available picture of Claus von Stauffenberg."

Now, with all due respect, I politely disagree with McQuarrie that the photo used by United Artists is easy to find. When this story first broke, I did my own Google search out of curiosity. The most readily available photo of von Stauffenberg is the one accompanying this post. It is also the first image Getty produces when you search their archives. The only site that produced the same photo was Spartacus Educational, and even then I wasn't sure, as the UA version seemed so much cleaner.

Continue reading 'Valkyrie' Update: No Cruise Photoshopping

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