‘He’s a huge movie star. He has huge international appeal,’ producer Brett Ratner tells us on Emmy Awards red carpet. By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Eddie Murphy Photo: Bruno Vincent/ Getty Images The American public may no longer be convinced about Eddie Murphy ‘s enduring comedic gifts, based on the number of folks who purchased tickets to “Imagine That” and “Meet Dave.” Even Eddie Murphy may no longer be convinced about Eddie Murphy’s enduring comedic gifts . But one man with no such doubt is Brett Ratner , who is producing the 2012 Academy Awards and who has tapped Murphy to host. “I think there’s no question about it. He’s the greatest,” Ratner told us Sunday night at the Emmy Awards about Eddie taking on the gig and slaying the crowd. “My first idea was the show had to go in the direction of more comedy with a single host, and there’s nobody better on that stage than Eddie Murphy.” “I grew up watching ‘ Raw ‘ and ‘ Delirious ‘ and being a big fan of him,” Ratner added. “He’s a huge movie star. He has huge international appeal. There’s nobody better. He’s a pro. The guy is a pro.” That’s certainly true, even if it has been a couple of decades since Eddie’s days as the foulmouthed king of the standup comedy world. Ratner, for his part, appears to be attempting to hit a sort of Eddie Murphy reset button, for years trying to kick-start another ” Beverly Hills Cop ” film and now coming out this fall with ” Tower Heist ,” a flick that finds the comedian cussing and riffing like it’s the ’80s all over again. Perhaps for Murphy, in Ratner he trusts. Which is why, according to the filmmaker, Eddie took zero convincing to take on the Oscar gig. “It’s not the kind of job you want to convince anyone to do. They either want to do it or they don’t,” Ratner told us, adding that Eddie is going to commit more than 150 percent effort to the job. “200, not 150! 200!” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
Happy Monday! Also in today’s edition of The Broadsheet: Friends With Kids is among a fistful of Toronto deals… Paramount decides to make the Oscars and Eddie Murphy work for them… Emma Stone and Viola Davis are taking their Help show to Switzerland… Martin Scorsese will not go for the EGOT… and more.
Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Contagion’ follows at #2, with Ryan Gosling vehicle ‘Drive’ at #3. By Ryan J. Downey “Lion King 3-D” Photo: Disney What’s old was new again as Disney’s iconic “The Lion King” became the #1 movie at the box office over the weekend, taking in an estimated $29.3 million with a souped-up 3-D redo of the 1994 original. “Drive,” one of the year’s best-reviewed films, was #3 in its weekend debut, while the poorly reviewed remake of “Straw Dogs” and Sarah Jessica Parker’s even-worse-reviewed “I Don’t Know How She Does It” both flopped in their debuts. Last week’s #1 movie, “Contagion,” dropped to #2 this week. “The Lion King” 3-D re-release earned more than the other three new releases combined. The film’s original-run IMAX re-release (back in 2002) and the past weekend’s numbers pushed “The Lion King” from #25 to #17 on the all-time domestic box-office chart, according to Box Office Mojo . The animated tale, which has also quite successfully been adapted for Broadway, has made $357.8 million in the United States to date. Steven Soderbergh’s ensemble procedural drama “Contagion” made $14.5 million in its second weekend of release, for a total of $44.2 million. “Drive” took in $11 million, but while the film has set Twitter abuzz in critic circles, it remains to be seen how it will continue to play with a broader audience. “This is one of Ryan Gosling’s best performances,” Aisle Seat reported. “The Help” came in at #4 at the box office, adding $6.4 million for a total of $147.3 million. The remake of director Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 thriller “Straw Dogs,” featuring “True Blood” star Alexander Skarsg
MTV News reveals the Nevermind You Never Knew with a week of 20th-anniversary coverage. By James Montgomery Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain in 1991 Photo: MTV News “What are we about? Oh, we’re just this crazy rock and roll band.” That was wild-haired Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic’s summation of the band during their first interview with MTV, on September 30, 1991, and he wasn’t just being modest. At the time, their Nevermind album had been in stores for less than a week, the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had just premiered on “120 Minutes” and, really, outside of a few hardy souls in the Pacific Northwest (and various in-the-know journos), no one had really heard of Nirvana, the band that would come to “define an era,” “change the world” or any other hyperbole that would (rightfully) be showered upon them. Back then, they were just another “crazy rock and roll band,” one that was just beginning the voyage from underground to mainstream. Twenty years later, we still marvel at how far they managed to get, and how symbolic that trek truly was. And though they’d released their debut album in 1989, for all intents and purposes, Nirvana’s story really began with Nevermind, which, though it may seem incomprehensible to anyone who lived during the halcyon days of 1991, turns 20 on Saturday. In honor of that anniversary, and the moment where the foundations of rock and popular culture fundamentally shifted, we’re rolling out a week’s worth of coverage — exploring the impact of Nirvana and their wondrous, groundbreaking album, talking to folks who were there the moment everything went global and, of course, mining our tape libraries to unearth rare moments that show Nirvana as they really were: three rather scruffy, decidedly playful guys who often seemed at odds with their own success. Or, as Kurt Cobain put it in a 1993 interview with MTV News: “I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn’t want to be a frontman; I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.” To kick things off, we decided to look back at Nirvana’s meteoric rise to fame, as told by the band itself. The above video compiles quotes taken from our vault of Nirvana interviews, starting with that first sit-down and continuing on to the release of their final studio album, 1993’s In Utero. It’s a story that’s been told thousands of times before — as most great tales have been — but never by the members of Nirvana, in their own words. It is appropriately raw, unwashed and revelatory. Just like Nevermind was when it burst forth 20 years ago … and, like all classics, how it still is today. Stick with MTV News all week as we reveal the Nevermind You Never Knew , celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s definitive album with classic footage, new interviews and much more. Related Videos Nirvana: The Nevermind You Never Knew Related Photos Kurt Cobain: A Life In Photos Related Artists Nirvana
Britney used to be incredibly sexy back in the day and that is not an understatement at all and here she is dancing and looking really hot on stage Continue reading →
Gemma is topless in these gorgeous photo shoot pictures of her posing for the camera and holding those huge breasts with her hands as she struggles to keep them up Continue reading →
Headliner Yeezy promises fans ‘new times’ at close of festival show, alluding to the Throne era. By Gil Kaufman Kanye West performs at Austin City Limits music festival Photo: Getty Images AUSTIN, Texas — Kanye West is no stragner to the drama . So, it was fitting that on Friday at Austin City Limits — the final night of his ongoing tour in support of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — he staged a passion play in three parts, complete with dramatic ballet sequences, a matinee idol-worthy entrance and monologues that dove into the artist’s twisted psyche. In other words, Kanye West closed out the first night of the fest in the soul-stirring way only he can: by commanding the stage almost entirely by himself and letting the dense tracks and shout-along verses from his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album do the heavy lifting. Some rappers need a huge posse onstage to support them, or a 10-piece band and large stage sets. Not Yeezy. Give him some flashing lights, a few dancers and an imposing Greek fresco-type backdrop and he’ll do the rest on adrenaline alone. As the dramatic intro to “H.A.M.” swelled over the speakers and some beats kicked in, dancers reminiscent of the “Runaway” video took the stage, diverting attention away from West, who emerged mid-crowd on a crane, soaring 50-plus feet over his fans for “Dark Fantasy.” Could he get much higher? It didn’t seem like it, but when he made his way to the stage for the insanely hyped triplet of “Power,” “Jesus Walks” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” he commanded the space like a four-star microphone general, working it alone as the blazing lights turned from blood-red to orange and pink for “Hell of a Life.” Enclosed in two laser pyramids that looked like the phantom zone from “Superman,” ‘Ye rapped about what he called the “true story” in the song’s lyrics, accenting the lines about falling in love with a stripper with primal scream grunts and dragging the microphone stand around as if it were a ball-and-chain one minute, a prehistoric club the next. The crowd kept whispering about a possible Jay-Z cameo (which didn’t happen), and Rick Ross also wasn’t able to make it for “Monster,” but with the stage bathed in cash-green lights, Kanye held it down just find alone, backed by a three-piece band that was dressed in Kraftwerk -like white jumpsuits. And, of course, when he got to the line about needing to see some hands at the concert, thousands of pairs went up instantly. For “Flashing Lights,” he turned the stage into an early-80’s disco, with, yes, flashing white and blue lights and search-beam lasers that scanned out over the crowd. The set-up already looked like an outtake from an Off the Wall video, so when the band chopped up a sample of Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing),” there were some knowing nods among fans of a certain age. Like the stripped-down thunder funk of “Good Life,” Kanye was mostly dressed down, rocking ripped jeans and a short white button-down shirt over a white tank. The elegantly funky dancers were back at the top of Act 2 for the piano-thudding intro to “Love Lockdown,” melding into a writhing ball of limbs midstage and performing a kind of hip-hop ballet to the song’s spare, insistent beat. As the tune melted into just Kanye’s anguished, echoing screams, one dancer remained, acting out his pain with exaggerated arm movements. Rihanna’s voice boomed at the beginning of “Run This Town,” which ‘Ye performed with an extra dose of swagger and fierceness as a sea of Roc diamonds went up in the air for a medley that included songs like “Touch the Sky” and early hits like “All Falls Down.” And the ear-piercing shout of “We want prenup!” in the middle of a ground-shaking “Gold Digger” seemed to surprise even Kanye, who couldn’t really have been too shocked about the audience’s intense familiarity with his lyrics. The second act ended with the visual feast of “All of the Lights,” which layered a multicolored searchlight explosion of visuals to machine beats cranked to 11. But Kanye didn’t like how the crowd sang the line that comes after “MJ gone,” so he made the band start over and — along with the alien-landing lights, complete with horizon-scanning beams and a strobe-splosion — it was one of the night’s high points. The set ended with “Stronger,” which was stripped back to just Euro jeep beats, hissing blasts of smoke from a series of columns all across the stage and “Tron”-like banks of red lasers. As the night drew to a close, ‘Ye slipped into his red jacket and matching jeans, standing at his sampler for the opening plinking notes of “Runaway.” The dancers were back, this time in black tutus, executing freeze-frame poses they held for long enough that it seemed as if they were moving in super slo-mo, like living sculptures that had crawled out of the ancient backdrop. “This is the last night of this show,” West said. “This is the last night … there will be new times, but we gotta remember these times before we’re … runaway,” he added, alluding to his upcoming tour with the Throne pal Jay . He stretched the song out, adding the line “If you love someone tonight, hold on real tight,” during a nearly 10-minute freestyle in which he admitted to being the “#1” d-bag . After a mellow run through “Lost in the World,” Kanye thanked his crew, dancers, managers and choreographer for making his twisted fantasy come true, ending the show with his usual ode to his late mother, Donda West. As he sang “hey mama,” over and over, he thanked the crowed for making his dreams come true and promised to keep sharing those dreams with them. Did you catch Kanye at ACL? Share your reviews of his set in the comments below! Related Photos Kanye West Turns All The Lights On At Austin City Limits Related Artists Kanye West
Also starring Robert De Niro and Clive Owen, ‘This is a thinking man’s action movie,’ star tells MTV News. By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Jason Statham Photo: MTV News Jason Statham has got nothing against skull-cracking, explosions-for-explosions-sake action flicks. The guy made his name with “The Transporter,” after all, and he’s getting set for a second go-round opposite Sylvester Stallone in “The Expendables 2.” But “Killer Elite” (September 23), despite a title that suggests it’s another in a long line of empty-headed, Statham-starring adventures, is an altogether different creation. Based on a true story that spans the globe from France to Australia, the film stars Statham as an ex-special ops agent on a mission to save his mentor (Robert De Niro), who’s being held captive by a secretive military clan and its menacing leader (Clive Owen). There’s a grittiness simply not seen in much of Statham’s previous work. “This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” Statham told MTV News at the Toronto International Film Festival. “This is a thinking man’s action movie. It’s a bit more grown-up than things in the past I’ve done. In order to do movies like this, I have to go through and do a few of those as well. There’s a lot more going on.” That extends from the words on the page to the guy behind the camera to the dudes mixing it up with Statham when writer/director Gary McKendry yells, “Action!” “The quality of the script, the quality of the filmmaker — those are two elements that attract living legends like Bob De Niro and Clive Owen,” Statham said. “Once I start boxing around with those two, the whole quality of what we’re doing changes. It’s a big step up.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Killer Elite.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
Everyone was all smiles Thursday night at the premiere of Abduction , which served as the action hero coming out party for Twilight star Taylor Lautner . Director John Singleton was beaming, co-stars Sigourney Weaver and Lily Collins strolled the red carpet, and hey, look! Tween pop star (and rumored former Lautner galpal) Selena Gomez popped up to lend her support! How sweet. And she brought her current paramour, Justin Bieber! Who looks totally thrilled to be there. Really.
The NYC cop drama/thriller Son of No One set up quite a bubble for itself ahead of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival: Talented filmmaker Dito Montiel ( A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints , Fighting ) had his muse Channing Tatum spearheading a cast including Al Pacino, Juliette Binoche, Katie Holmes, Ray Liotta and, going straight, Tracy Morgan, creds that helped the movie earn the festival’s prestigious closing-night spot. And then came that notorious press and industry screening, piercing the bubble and hurling Son into indie limbo. Art-house ensemble piece or genre potboiler? Misunderstood gem or biggest swing-and-miss of 2011? And while I’d never suggest judging a film by its trailer, the latest spot does prompt the necessary question asked of all marketing: Does this preview actually make you want to see Son of No One ? That’s where things get complicated.
