Hi impact terror appears to be in store this May with Star Trek Into Darkness and Paramount bowed its teaser trailer with a menacing voice warning of vengeance in these “final moments of peace,” and it will be Captain Kirk to the rescue, of course. The first full trailer will debut next week. ENTV description: The first official teaser trailer for Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013). After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Alice Eve, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho and Anton Yelchin. Watch the video on YouTube
The Hobbit doesn’t make you heave, according to Warner Bros. The studio behind the first film in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy is batting down reports that the the high-frame rate of the picture caused nausea and dizziness for some fans who saw early screenings of the picture in New Zealand. Here’s the statement that the studio released on the matter: “We have been screening the full-length HFR 3D presentation of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY extensively and feedback has been extremely positive, with none of thousands who have seen the film projected in this format expressing any of the issues described by two anonymous sources in media reports. We share the filmmakers’ belief that by offering filmgoers the additional choice of HFR 3D, alongside traditional viewing formats, they have an opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking advancement in the moviegoing experience and we look forward to having audiences everywhere share in this new way of storytelling.” Warner is reacting to reports by the New Zealand Herald and ABC News that some moviegoers found the film’s frame-rate hard to stomach. The Down Under publication cited “some viewers” who said the “filming technique made them nauseous and dizzy, with some even complaining of migraines.” ABC News quoted a Hobbit fan who tweeted: “You have to hold your stomach down and let your eyes pop at first to adjust.” Jackson’s decision to shoot the movie at 48 frames-per-second — twice the rate of most films — has also prompted complaints that high-definition result requires the moviegoer to process too much visual information. The New Zealander does have one Hollywood heavyweight in his corner. James Cameron predicted that Jackson’s decision to shoot The Hobbit at 48 frames per second would do for high-definition filmmaking what his Avatar did for 3D movies. “We charged out ahead on 3D with Avatar , now Peter’s doing it with The Hobbit . It takes that kind of bold move to make change.” RELATED STORIES: ‘Hobbit’ Fans Complain Of Dizziness & Nausea ‘The Hobbit’ At 48 FPS: A High Frame Rate Fiasco? ‘The Hobbit’ 3-D Early Review: Back Again, But Not Quite There [ New Zealand Herald , ABC News ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
As much as I hate the movie theater talkers, cell phone texters, loud popcorn-chewers, backseat-kickers, nervous leg-jigglers, smelly food-eaters, and armchair hogs who combine evil forces to make going to the movies these days a distracting, living hell, I stop myself short of physical violence when it comes to laying down the law of theater etiquette. Which is what one enraged theater patron in the Seattle area did not do when he caught a case of theater rage and slapped an offending movie talker in the face. Making matters worse: The talker was a ten-year-old kid. Per the Seattle Post-Intelligencer : King County prosecutors contend 21-year-old Yong Hyun Kim knocked out one of the boy’s teeth after the child and several other youths refused to quiet down and stop throwing popcorn in April. According to charging documents, Kim admitted to hitting the boy and appeared ashamed when confronted by police with the boy’s age. Kim allegedly said he thought the boy was an adult when he slapped him in the face. Kim has been charged with a felony assault and probably feels terrible, not to mention he might have to go to jail for slapping a child in the face . The offending kid may or may not have learned a lesson in unruly theatergoing, but he’s missing a tooth. Who’s also to blame, IMO? The management at said AMC Theater who did not stop a bunch of children from ruining another patron’s movie before theater rage took hold. Theater chains, take note: Policing bad behavior is on you, not your ticket-buyers. (And let this be a reminder: Encouraging texting in theaters is still an awful idea .) [ Seattle PI via @thefilmcynic ]
“As I went around the room, looking for a thumbs up, I saw their faces reluctant to give it to me. So I pulled out the trump card. Michelle Williams. Now my girls are lucky enough to know Michelle Williams and they know her daughter too. She is as sweet to my daughters as she is to her own. When a hair colorist had made a mistake on one of the girls, Michelle did an operation worthy of Bond, James Bond, and got it all sorted and fixed. In my house, that made her a folk hero. And that proved to be the closer.” [ Huffington Post ]
Ken Russell, the controversial and iconoclastic British filmmaker who brought The Who’s Tommy to the screen, helped win Glenda Jackson her first Oscar, made nude male wrestling safe for the moviegoing multitudes, famously clobbered a critic with his own review and faded into an obscurity almost as uncompromising as his cinematic visions, has died following a series of strokes. He was 84.
George Clooney’s The Ides of March is an actors’ movie, a picture that gives performers some provocative things to do without necessarily providing a great story for them to hang onto. It’s also a movie made for grown-ups, and Lord knows there are few enough of those around today. But this story of an idealistic young press secretary who finds his principles eroded at the hands of a corrupt Democratic presidential candidate keeps getting in the way of its own chin-stroking: It’s carefully designed to make us think it’s making us think, but in the end, what’s it really telling us? That politics — and politicians — can be dishonest and ugly? Please don’t stop the presses for that one.
“If I was in a room with Michelle Obama, and I thought she was right for a part, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask her.” Woody Allen cast French first lady (and former model-chanteuse) Carla Bruni in a small part as a museum guide in his Midnight in Paris “on a whim” after dining with the President and Mrs. Nicolas Sarkozy. He’d give Mrs. Obama a similar shot, he said on British T.V., if only he met with her first. Sounds like someone wants an invite to the White House! [ USA Today via Onion A.V. Club ]
How do you possibly promote a movie about a promiscuous high school student in the ’80s? If you’re ripping a page out of the Weinstein Co.’s Dirty Girl ‘s marketing book, try launching a blog where users can anonymously share their deepest, darkest, most twisted sexual fantasies… then making it accessible for anyone aged 13 and up! Um, guys…?
With September’s box office duelers on their way out, it’s time we clear space for two new contenders to duke it out for the moviegoing public’s vote. But try as he might, does George Clooney have what it takes to unseat Hugh Jackman’s crowd-pleasing sci-fi actioner, the probable weekend victor? He does have Ryan Gosling on his ticket. Not too shabby. Onward, to the polls! It’s your Weekend Forecast.
