Besides commanding millions for his heavy rotation of films, co- shepherding a large brood and building housing in New Orleans, Brad Pitt is adding another set of skills to his resume – designing furniture. His pieces will likely not be heading to an Ikea near you any time soon, but it is not just a passing fancy either. Pitt has been designing buildings and furniture since the 1990s and some of his pieces will be on display in New York in the coming days. The actor will present a dozen pieces including tables, chars and what Architectural Digest dubbed “one rather fantastic bed” along with dozens of other pieces with his collaborator, Frank Pollaro, whose New Jersey-based company is renowned for its re-productions of Art Deco furnishings. [ Related: ‘World War Z’ First Look: It’s Brad Pitt Vs. CG Zombies ] The display will open November 13th (pollaro.com has details). “I’ve been doodling ideas for buildings and furniture since the early 1990s, when I first discovered [Charles Rennie] Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright,” Pitt said. “Actually, I found Wright in college, when looking for a lazy two-point credit to get out of French. It forever changed my life.” Pitt’s architectural affinity is evident in his Make It Right foundation, which taps the services of veteran architects to create “quality, affordable housing” in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. Pollaro noticed Pitt’s concepts in a sketchbook the Killing Them Softly actor had made while installing a re-production Ruhlmann desk the actor purchased a few years ago, Pollaro said, “I asked him, ‘Why don’t we make some of this stuff real?'” he recalled. “Brad said he thought that could be fun.” Now the two meet regularly pouring over what Pollaro said are “thousands” of ideas. The meetings “last anywhere from seven to ten hours.” It’s not everyone who gets to collaborate with a Hollywood A-lister mulling over aesthetics. “We talk about design, about materials, about craftsmanship, about classicism, about modernism. He has a respect for the masters of design,” noted Pollaro. The pieces headed for display include a bed, in which only nine will be made in different materials. Additionally, there is a dining table, a cocktail table, several side tables, a few club chairs and a bathtub that fits two in Statuario Venato marble. The designs will be customized in a variety of material and finishes that will be made in limited productions signed by Pitt and Pollaro who said some pieces may eventually be adapted for larger-scale productions. “The same chair we charge $45,000 for might sell for a fraction of that,” said Pollaro. Despite the new gig, Pitt will maintain his day job . His latest project, Killing Them Softly by Andrew Dominik will hit theaters November 30th. [ Sources: Architectural Digest , Yahoo ]
A moving and emotional powerhouse, Canadian director Kim Nguyen’s War Witch packs a punch worthy of the best of conflict thrillers, though more shocking is that the events depicted in the feature, which is Canada’s contender for Best Foreign-language Oscar consideration, are happening every day. The story of a teen girl who is kidnapped by Congo rebels after she is forced to execute her parents left audiences aghast at AFI Fest where it screened this week. Hailing from Canada, Nguyen may seem an unlikely filmmaker to take on some of the most notorious human rights tragedies of modern times, but he became interested in child soldiers after meeting a former youth who became lead a pack of others in a violent uprising in Africa. “There was this kid named Johnny who was a child soldier who was nine years old and smoked cigars everyday. He said he woke up one day thinking he was a reincarnation of God,” Nguyen told ML. “He had a [group] of soldiers that he lead in a rebellion against the government. The sheer madness of it all struck me and it pushed me to pursue this story.” The French-language feature, which won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, stars non-pro Rachel Mwanza who plays a 14 year-old girl who becomes an important spiritual figure for a brutal leader of a band of violent rebels. The “Great Tiger” as he is known to his followers, believes she is a war witch who is capable of seeing government soldiers in the thick jungle. She is given preferential treatment, but she is also aware that if she fails in her job, she will likely be executed quickly. Another child soldier whom she calls “Magician” looks out for her and convinces her to run away with him. He tells her that three previous “war witches” were gunned down by the “Great Tiger” after they failed to warn him of the presence of government soldiers on previous occasions. The pair flee to one of Magician’s relatives and are “married” though the rebels eventually track them down. “Learning about child soldiers eventually lead me to Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Nguyen. “I learned that there are actually more women child soldiers than men, which was surprising. What’s tragic, of course, is that they’re used as sexual slaves.” Initially, Nguyen thought of casting actual former child soldiers, but decided against it after meeting them because the trauma of what they had been through was too much. “I had this idea of working with ex-child soldiers but they were just so broken. There was this stare and they were just so broken. So I had an idea to work with people who had similar tough backgrounds as many of the child soldiers, but hadn’t actually [faced warfare].” War Witch won Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival last Spring in addition to another Best Actress win for Mwanza. The festival’s distribution wing, Tribeca Film will release the feature in theaters in early 2013 in addition to Video On Demand and other digital platforms.
The Martha Marcy May Marlene camp notches another chilling character study in the AFI Fest selection Simon Killer , an unsettling look at a young American’s dark descent in Paris directed by Borderline Films ‘ Antonio Campos ( Afterschool ). Glimpse what lies in store with the film’s hauntingly gorgeous, Kubrickian poster design, exclusively on Movieline. Brady Corbet stars as Simon, a college grad traveling abroad who meets a Parisian prostitute (Mati Diop) and takes up with her, entrenching himself in her life in the shadowy streets of the Pigalle. Entrancing and provocative, Simon Killer constructs a sensory cinematic study around Simon’s psyche as he’s revealed to be more complex, and more dangerous, than what he seems. The visual parallel to 2001: A Space Odyssey ‘s famous “eye” poster is an intriguing comparison point to draw; Simon Killer is quite a trip in itself, a portrait of an affable twentysomething’s innocuous-enough wanderings through Paris that takes unexpected turns, forcing the audience to re-examine their perceptions of, and sympathy to, its protagonist. (The poster design is by Brandon Schaefer of Seek & Speak.) Simon Killer is set for release via IFC in April of 2013; it screens today, November 5 and again on November 7 at AFI Fest , which is a great opportunity to see one of the boldest and most provocative films we’ll see in the coming year. Read more on Simon Killer here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Eat your heart out, Strasberg: Actor Sam Worthington ( Avatar , Clash of the Titans ), in Atlanta filming Ten with Arnold Schwarzenegger , was pepper-sprayed by a doorman after allegedly becoming disruptive on Saturday, then was handcuffed and arrested for disorderly conduct — and still managed to remain in character! Kinda . Per TMZ : Cops say the “Avatar” star was at Vortex, a restaurant in Atlanta, when he was refused entrance because people at the door felt he was too intoxicated … this after he got into an argument because he didn’t have the ID required to get inside the club. According to the police report, a witness told cops Worthington became disorderly. He allegedly pushed the doorman twice and the doorman responded by pepper spraying him and putting him in cuffs until the cops arrived. And then… AND THEN (!): The bouncer — Jerry Link — tells TMZ, he maced Worthington when the actor went belligerent outside the bar … and Worthington screamed, “I’m a DEA agent! You f**ked up now!” For what it’s worth, the charge against Worthington was dropped. Worthington stars opposite Schwarzenegger, Josh Holloway, Terrence Howard, Joe Mangianello, and more in the David Ayer -directed Ten , about a team of DEA agents whose members are slowly offed after stealing millions from a cartel house. [ TMZ ]
Fallout from Hurricane Sandy may have kept some crowds away from theaters over the weekend, but that did not stop Disney animated feature Wreck-It Ralph from packing a wallop at the box office. Box office in the top 12 headed northward to $124.6 million, 20 per cent higher than the previous week. 1. Wreck-It Ralph Gross: $49,038,712 Screens: 3,752 (PSA: $13,070) Week: 1 The Disney animation had a terrific bow, cashing in on great reviews and a solid marketing campaign. The feature also made $12 million internationally, making the title Disney’s top animated pic The $49 million plus domestic total compares to $40.1 million for Chicken Little in 2005. The opening compares to Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted , which brought in over $60 million when it opened in June. But Ralph helped bring up an overall box office which eclipsed the previous weekend. 2. Flight Gross: $24,900,566 Screens: 1,884 (PSA: $13,217) Week: 1 Flight cruised with strong results in its opening weekend, even edging out the weekend’s number one box office winner, Wreck-It Ralph in terms of per screen average. The results were stronger than expected and shows Denzel Washington, who is tipped to be a force this Awards Season due to his performance, is an audience draw. This is Washington’s fifth best debut. 3. Argo Gross: $10,209,103 (Cume: $75,860,240) Screens: 2,774 (PSA: $3,680) Week: 4 (Change: – 16%) The Ben Affleck-directed feature in which he also stars is continuing to show very solid momentum now one month into its theatrical life. Word-of-mouth is propelling the feature’s box office prowess and it will likely hit the $100 million mark in the next few weeks. 4. The Man With the Iron Fists Gross: $7,910,980 Screens: 1,868 (PSA: $4,235) Week: 1 The gross is in line with what was expected, but it’s still a bit of a downer. It should reach a lucrative overseas market. 5. Taken 2 Gross: $5,919,493 (Cume: $125,586,929) Screens: 2,639 (PSA: $2,243) Week: 5 (Change: – 23%) The film dropped 356 theaters in its fifth weekend, though it actually managed to climb the chart one notch compared to the previous weekend. Its 23% drop is also a sign of momentum and it should top out at $145 million.
Stephen Colbert is the Lord of the Lord of the Rings . The Colbert Report anchor appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live with his friend and Comedy Central colleague, Jon Stewart , to talk about how their cultural interests define them and to further fuel speculation that Colbert will be making a cameo in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Kimmel, who is broadcasting from Brooklyn this week, had both Colbert and Stewart on the show Thursday night, where he asked the former if he is going to be making an appearance in the first Hobbit film , as media reports have suggested. Colbert said he could ‘neither confirm nor deny” such a report — virtually the same thing that Peter Jackson said when EW asked the same question — but he didn’t exactly quell speculation when he recounted his experiences on the New Zealand set of The Hobbit over the summer. There, during “a party with all of the dwarves,” Colbert said he went hairy toe-to-toe with Jackson’s resident Tolkien expert Philippa Boyens in a 50-question quiz. “I smoked her,” said Colbert. “Peter Jackson officially said I’m the biggest Tolkien geek he has ever met.” Jackson also told EW that Colbert won the geek off, noting that “his encyclopedic knowledge of Tolkien is spectacular, and points to a deprived childhood in some respects.” Stewart had an even better line. Referring to Colbert’s knowledge of all things Tolkien, he told Kimmel: “Bilbo Baggins turned to him on the set and said, “Enough already…And he said it in Elvish.” The Daily Show anchor also pointed out that while Colbert is the only person he knows “fluent in the Bible and Lord of the Rings,” he is “more of a pop-culture nerd.” “You’re a Star Wars guy,” Colbert replied. ” Star Wars , The X-Men,” Stewart replied. That explains everything! Watch the boys shtick it up in the clip below. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
If you weren’t around for the premiere of Late Night with David Letterman in 1982, then chances are you’re not aware how much he — and the team of writers, producers and comic talent that put on the show five nights a week — changed the face of late-night TV. Dave challenged and, in some cases, blew up the conventions of the talk-show genre and rewrote the playbook that Conan O’Brien , Craig Ferguson and the Jimmys — Kimmel and Fallon — are using today. Now on CBS, Letterman is still going strong, and, in 1991, his success begat Worldwide Pants Inc, which has produced the television series Everybody Loves Raymond and Ed. The company’s CEO Rob Burnett began as an intern on Late Night in 1985 and rose to become executive producer of the current CBS incarnation of Letterman’s show as well as the co-creator, with Jon Beckerman, of Ed and Knights of Prosperity . Although Worldwide Pants made its first foray into film production with the 2005 indie feature Strangers with Candy , Burnett has expanded the company’s presence in the medium with two projects that also involve him personally. In September, he made his directorial debut with We Made This Movie , a funny, unsentimental coming-of-age comedy that he co-wrote with Beckerman. Worldwide Pants is a producer of that film as well as Burnett’s next picture, which was announced in mid-October: an adaptation of Jonathan Evison’s novel, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving . Movieline spoke to Burnett about his move into film, which, as you might expect from someone who cut his show-business teeth on Dave’s groundbreaking NBC show, has been anything but conventional. Working with a miniscule budget and determined to remain true to the film’s do-it-yourself plot, Burnett and Beckerman worked with a cast of unknowns and crowd-sourced the music through Red Bull Soundstage. They also orchestrated an online premiere via an alliance with SnagFilms , which Burnett talks about in the interview. There’s also the plot of We Made This Movie. Available via iTunes and other digital formats, it is not your mother’s coming-of-age movie. The film follows the exploits of Eric “LeBron” James and his crew of high-school friends in fictional Buckstown, NY, who plan to escape the drudgery of working in their local chicken-processing plant by making a Jackass -meets- Sacha Baron Cohen -style movie that will make them famous. LeBron’s hare-brained plan involves getting the movie into the hands of hometown hero Bill Pullman , who makes a memorable cameo in the movie, but even before that happens, there’s a little catch. Like so many teens looking for fame in the age of YouTube, they have cameras but no talent, and their attempts to film comedy skits that, for instance, involve one character performing celebrity impressions while sitting on a toilet, and LeBron donning a chicken suit and walking through town with what looks like a massive erection end up being funny for all of the wrong reasons. But as you watch the teens’ screen dreams bite the dust, another accidental — and realistic — movie emerges about friendship and coming of age in a small town. Movieline: Tell me about your next project first. I read that you just bought the rights to an interesting book. Rob Burnett: It’s this lovely little book called The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving that I’m hoping to adapt into a film. It’s by Jonathan Evison, and I just fell in love with it. It’s a beautiful little story about this guy who has suffered a great tragedy in his life. He gets a job as a caregiver and starts taking care of this kid with Muscular Dystrophy. The guy is emotionally paralyzed, and the kid is actually paralyzed. It’s very touching, but what I responded to is it’s not maudlin at all. It’s a kind of a buddy movie where they go on the road to find this kid’s father. If I can find a way to do it justice in writing a good script, it could be a nice little movie. I’m really excited about it. That’s what I really like about We Made This Movie . In the way that good comedy tells the truth, this movie is unsentimental about dreams. It absolutely is about dreams. There’s this adolescent energy about LeBron. He doesn’t want to go work at that chicken plant. He’s got big dreams. We’re living in a world right now where, in terms of making a movie, anyone can do it. But just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean you can. [Laughs]. You know? LeBron and his friends are very naïve. Even their plan is naïve: they’re going to get their movie in the hands of Bill Pullman, who’s from their hometown. And that alone is going to make them famous. I’m not sure Bill Pullman himself can get a movie made. What we love about the movie is that they try and they persevere. Jon Beckerman and I wrote this together, and there’s a lot of similarity between this and Ed , the show we did on NBC for four years. There’s a real bittersweet quality to the movie. What these characters don’t realize is the thing they really have is each other. They have friendship. They have these high school bonds with each other. And in the end, that’s largely what their movie becomes about. They don’t realize that. They don’t set out to do that. Jon and I have always been very interested in doing a coming of age movie. I love that time of life. Those memories you have; the bonding that goes on there. Your life is still wet cement. But we never quite found an access point until we got the idea: what about a group of kids who are trying to make a comedy film but accidentally make a coming-of-age movie? Some of the early scenes of the movie, where, for instance, the kids film the ‘Chicken with a Boner’ man-on-the-street segment and put up all those index cards with dubious ideas on them, seem to be inspired by ‘Late Show’ segments. That could have been Chris Elliott in a chicken suit instead of LeBron. We actually shot some of the stuff Letterman remote style. We were out on the street shooting with real people. So, yeah, a lot of it was influenced structurally by the way we do Letterman. But what we thought was interesting was that, unlike Dave or Chris Elliott or Sacha Baron Cohen, our kids aren’t good at what they’re doing. If Chris Elliott were ever to do Chicken with a Boner, he would do it ironically because he’d be making fun of it. These guys are doing Chicken with a Boner as if it’s the funniest thing in the world. In that scene where LeBron is suggesting that they shit into a taco and eat it, it’s so misguided. The thing is, it’s not that far away from the guys at Jackass might do, but whatever you think of the guys at Jackass , they’re really, really good at doing Jackass. LeBron and his friends aren’t even good at that. They’re not fearless, and they’re really not funny. I really liked the scenes where LeBron and some of the other guys show up at their friend Smitty’s house and find him with his sick mother. To me, Smitty is the stand-up comic of the group and those scenes show that comedy often does not come from a pretty place. The interesting thing and the challenging thing about the movie is we’re telling an accidental story. The kids are making a movie that they don’t know they’re making. So, in a different movie, if you’re telling the story of a character who’s taking care of a sick mother, at some point, you just cut to him with his sick mother. We couldn’t do that in this movie. Smitty, in some ways, sums that up. He’s kind of a bastard. He’s screwing up the movie and not taking it seriously from the very first scene. But then we see that not only is this kid taking care of his sick mother, he’s taking care of his brothers, too. Clearly, the father is gone, and he’s holding this all together without a word. You start to see where all of this deep cynicism comes from. That’s kind of the trick of this whole movie. And I think to some extent Smitty’s character sums it up better than any of the other characters. Where did you find such a funny cast of unknowns? The cast is phenomenal. They’re all brand new, really. Arjay Smith, who played LeBron had done some television here and there. And Michael Charles Roman, who played Smitty, had done a lot of commercials as a kid. But the rest of them literally had to join SAG to be in the movie. We auditioned hundreds of kids for these roles. I had open casting calls at NYU. I auditioned 300 kids in one day. We did have casting directors in a traditional way. Barbara McNamara on the East coast, and Bonnie Zane , who cast Ed for us, found Arjay on the West coast. We wanted kids that were funny and could think on their feet, but who could also be a fresh brand that no one had seen before. Given the idea of the movie, we didn’t want to have famous people in the cast. And that was kind of a guiding thought for everything we did. If you look at the direction, I didn’t use any dollies or cranes. The camera is always justified by being held by one of the characters. The movie is intended to have the look and feel of something the kids in the cast would have done themselves. And I think by and large, this is what it would have looked like had they done it themselves. They’re convincing as friends. How did you get them to bond? We shot this movie in 21 days. Holy shit. Seriously? Yes, that’s the appropriate reaction. And when you’re going to shoot for 21 days, you don’t have the luxury of time. If it takes four days to bond on the set, that’s 25 percent of your movie. So, I literally took all of these kids, and I had them live at my house for a week before we shot the movie. Translation: My wife is a saint. They all came to my house in Connecticut, and we also spent some time out at the beach in Long Island. And these kids, as only kids in their early 20s can do, became the best of friends very quickly. In fact, I distinctly remember the first morning of the first day of shooting. We were living in a Holiday Inn Express in Shelton, Conn. God bless the people of Shelton. That’s all I’ll say. We had all moved to this Holiday Inn Express, and we were going to be there for 21 days. The first morning before we went to set, I looked over and I saw one of the kids fart in front of the other kids and not care. The other kids were cracking up about it, and I’m like, we’ve done our job. They’re bonded. Let’s go to work.
You think navigating a press junket after a personal controversy goes public is potentially awkward? Try braving throngs of journalists clamoring for an answer to The Twilight Saga ‘s curious “imprinting” storyline , as Taylor Lautner did today when the franchise-ending Breaking Dawn Part II press tour kicked off. For the record, both parties in the reportedly reunited Robsten supercouple acquitted themselves ably and congenially in back-to-back press conferences as they discussed their four-year journey with the vampire franchise. [ Mild spoilers follow, if you haven’t read the books .] But Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson aren’t the only Twilight kids who’ve matured in the interim as the worldwide phenomenon has turned them and their cast mates into global megastars. Twenty-year-old Lautner came off with charisma even as he broached the subject of his character’s eyebrow-raising onscreen soul mate attachment to a child in Breaking Dawn . “It’s a fine line, and I was worried about it,” Lautner admitted of Jacob Black’s supernatural, (platonic — for now) love at first sight connection to the half-human, half-vampire offspring of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. (By comparison, Edward’s a century older than Bella, so in the grand scheme of things it’s not that bad…) Played by 9-year-old Mackenzie Foy, Renesmee grows from infant to school-age girl in a superhuman span of time — and as in the books, Jacob is compelled by his Quileute legacy to instantly “imprint,” or attach, himself to her side in a manner that eventually will take on romantic undertones. Understandably he had concerns, so he went to the source for advice: Stephenie Meyer. “There was nobody better to ask about it than her,” Lautner said. “And she basically told me, ‘Stop overcomplicating it. Think here and now, that’s all you really have to focus on.’” “It’s simple — she said it’s a lifelong bond between two people and that’s it,” he continued. “At this point the girl’s like, what, ten years old? So it’s more of a protective thing, like a brother-sister. That’s really all it is. I couldn’t allow myself to think ahead and go beyond that, so that’s kind of the zone I had to stay in.” The weirdness of the Jacob-Renesmee bond is not lost on Jacob in the film, who encounters a furious Bella when she awakens from human death to find her best friend has imprinted on her newborn baby. But Lautner’s Jacob finds himself in a more than few awkward situations in Breaking Dawn . Another scene found Lautner stripping down in front of Billy Burke’s Charlie in one of the surprisingly comical moments sprinkled throughout the film. “It actually was pretty funny in person,” Lautner laughed. “I love Billy Burke to death and he’s one of the coolest people alive, so it was a little uncomfortable for me — it’s always uncomfortable when I have to take my shirt off or something because I’m always the only one doing it!” “The weather conditions we film in, and everybody’s bundled up in like seven layers and I’m the only one in jean shorts… that was a new one,” he said. “I think the pants came off in that one too. But it was a funny, funny scene. I was so nervous to film it because it was written so hilariously and I wanted it to come across that way and I hope it does, but it was a blast to shoot.” Stay tuned for more on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt. II , which hits theaters November 16. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
In what was the shortest press op of my journalistic career, Terry Crews portrayed Idiocracy President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho in a Funny or Die conference call that, like most political media events, was about nothing, because Idiocracy creator Mike Judge, who was also supposed to be present, did not make it. After declaring that he was the “motherfuckin’ president of the motherfuckin’ United States” and had “shit to do,” Crews/Camacho explained that he had traveled to the present after ripping a hole in the space-time continuum during a cage match with the “Grand Poobah of Europe.” In other words, “some Einstein shit. Crews/Camacho explained that “I see a whole lot of stuff that I don’t like.” Among the things that bothered him: All of the political candidates, he declared, “is bullshit.” According to “Camacho’s world, politics is a pimp-ho game” and “Voters ain’t nothing but ho’s.” In other words, “If you tell people what they really need to hear, they ain’t gonna vote for you. You got to smooth talk these voters.” Crews/Camacho also noted that he had come to the present to “save white people” because “white flight had reached new levels” in the future. “White people it’s okay to come back out,” he said. The press conference was over after three questions, the cleverest one asked by a press-conference participant who asked Camacho to reveal who wins Tuesday’s presidential election (given that Camacho is from the future). “I understand your Jedi Mind Tricks, motherfucker,” replied the pretend president, who refused to answer the question on the grounds that it could affect the future, and “I might not get elected.” If you didn’t get enough, Camacho is also doing a live Q&A via Funny or Die’s Twitter account tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
May the farce be with you! In the wake of news that Disney will be producing more Star Wars movies as a result of its acquisition of George Lucas’ LucasFilm on Tuesday, the geniuses at Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco have posted some very funny parody posters of what the interstellar franchise will look like under the influence of the House of Mouse. I’m partial to the Boba Fett-meets-Buzz-Lightyear hybrid, but the image of the Jawas taking over for the Seven Dwarfs and spiriting off a comatose Snow White is a keeper, too. The full Boba poster and a third featuring the characters from Peter Pan silhouetted against the Death Star can be found at the Team Coco website . There’s such great material for satire here that I have a feeling that this is just the beginning. Walt Disney as Darth Sidious, anyone? Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
