Actual weekend box office numbers won’t be released until later today, but regardless of the final results, many of you saw either The Smurfs or Cowboys & Aliens during the last days of July . Or maybe both! As such, there’s plenty to talk about — both onscreen and, more important, off.
“I feel badly about thinking that Dogville , which in my eyes is one of my most successful films, should have been a kind of script for him. It’s horrific,” director Lars von Trier said about the fact that Dogville was revealed to be one of Norwegian camp killer Anders Behring Breivik’s favorite films. “[I]f it was an inspiration, I’m sorry that I made it. But of course I have educational purposes with my films, even if I hesitate to admit it, and my views are the complete opposite of Breivik and his deeds.” Dogville ends with Nicole Kidman’s character ordering the massacre of the village that abused her. [ Hollywood-Elsewhere ]
With a name like Shark Night 3D — and a trailer that highlights bikini-clad co-eds and shark attacks — you would be right to assume that the upcoming David R. Ellis-directed film would be packed to the gills with boobs and blood. As the director told Movieline at Comic-Con , however, it’s not. “This movie is just a really smart, well-written movie with great character arcs, great twists, without having to have gratuitous nudity or language. Jaws was PG-13. The Birds . All those really great horror films.” Fair points, David! Though you might want to tell the marketing department, since the first clip from Shark Night teases gratuitous nudity and some shark-related ultra-violence.
One of the most congested weekends of the summer delivered no shortage of shock and awe to Hollywood, with expensive flops-in-the-making facing off against surprisingly formidable blue forest creatures recycled from the ’80s. Their fierce battle is too close to call as weekend numbers emerge, but that doesn’t mean the real winner isn’t clear. Your Weekend Receipts are here.
Word just over the Movieline transom reports that the 49th New York Film Festival will open Sept. 30 with Carnage , Roman Polanski’s screen adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage .
In this weekend’s Crazy, Stupid, Love (read Movieline’s review here), Julianne Moore plays Steve Carell’s bored wife whose office affair (and subsequent request for divorce) catapults her husband into Ryan Gosling’s impeccably toned arms for a man makeover and life overhaul. How did the North Carolina native evolve from playing a pair of conniving, clichéd half sisters on As the World Turns to one of the most reliably brilliant actresses in Hollywood?
Earlier on Thursday, Variety reported that Eli Roth is designing a Hostel -themed maze for Universal Studios Hollywood’s “Halloween Horror Nights” theme park franchise. Because what parents don’t want to lead their kids into a labyrinthian torture factory where other humans are seemingly being slaughtered for sport against a backdrop of sexually suggestive imagery? In honor of this cuckoo bananas development, Movieline has brainstormed five other amusement park attractions based on horror films that seem just as appropriate.
On Thursday, Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan and Steel City first-timer Christian Bale held a Pittsburgh press conference to thank the city for hosting production on the final installment in the Batman trilogy. Nolan said that they chose Pittsburgh because “it is a very beautiful city on a very impressive scale and yet one which has a community that hasn’t lost its human scale.” So, not because of the Wiz Khalifa song ” Black and Yellow “? Go figure. Filming begins tomorrow. Principal photography started in May. [ Post-Gazette ]
In long forgotten lawsuits news today, a judge has ruled in favor of Crash director Paul Haggis and star Brendan Fraser who allege that the film’s producer Bob Yari relied on “creative accounting” as part of an intentional ploy to withhold money from Haggis, Fraser and co-writer Bobby Moresco. More details about the four-year-old lawsuit surrounding the Academy Award-winning film below.
In long forgotten lawsuits news today, a judge has ruled in favor of Crash director Paul Haggis and star Brendan Fraser who allege that the film’s producer Bob Yari relied on “creative accounting” as part of an intentional ploy to withhold money from Haggis, Fraser and co-writer Bobby Moresco. More details about the four-year-old lawsuit surrounding the Academy Award-winning film below.