Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie may have to wait until early October before it hits screens, but movie fans will have a chance to get an early look at images from the stop-motion animated feature during an exhibition tour beginning next week in Barcelona, Spain that continues on to seven countries including the U.S. Frankenweenie revolves around a boy and his dog, Sparky. After his dog is lost unexpectedly, he conducts a science experiment to bring him back to life, but then faces monstrous consequences. The exhibition, which will feature original sketches drawn by Burton in addition to displays of props, pets and puppets, will head to the U.S. in time for Comic-Con in San Diego (July 11 – 15). Other countries on tap for the Frankenweenie show include France, England, Japan, Mexico and Canada, courtesy of Walt Disney Studios which will release the film in the fall. Martin Landau, Martin Short, Robert Capron, Winona Ryder and Conchata Ferrell star in the film directed by Burton who co-wrote with John August. This is not the first time Tim Burton’s creations have made “live appearances” outside the theater for the public. In 2009 the filmmaker had a major retrospective of his creations ranging from Edward Scissorhands to Sweeney Todd , among others, that included hundreds of paintings, drawings, storyboards, puppets and other work surveying his over one-dozen films. The popular exhibit opened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and eventually traveled to locations throughout the world. [Source: International Business Times ]
Wes Anderson ‘s nostalgic kid romance Moonrise Kingdom is on its way to wide release later this month (June 29), when even more folks will have the chance to fall in love with the tale of New England youngsters Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward). As a special treat, Focus Features has released an utterly charming supplemental short — introduced by Bob Balaban as the island of New Penzance’s narrator/cartographer and, as it turns out, local librarian — in which the six young adult fantasy books glimpsed in the film come to life via Hayward’s narration and some magical animation. In Moonrise , star-crossed tween lovers Sam and Suzy pact to run away together, sending the entire island into a tizzy. The soulmates’ plan for escape is as practical as it is impractical; they’ve packed camping gear and kitten food, but Suzy’s suitcase is filled with library books. And what books! Shelly and the Secret Universe , The Francine Odysseys , The Girl from Jupiter , Disappearance of the 6th Grade , The Light of Seven Matchsticks , The Return of Auntie Lorraine … Anderson commissioned different artists to design each novel, a small but potent detail that goes a long way in capturing that elusive sense of childhood wonderment, at least for this childhood sci-fi/fantasy book nerd.
The Prometheus post-mortem continues (really, the fact that it’s still provoking discourse says something… right?) with screenwriter Damon Lindelof talking end-of-movie spoilers with TIME Magazine. Namely, what does it mean that you-know-who does you-know-what with the whatsit at the end? Kidding! Dive in to hear the LOST veteran address the certain future of our heroes, plus: An infographic that breaks down Prometheus ‘s DNA in one handy chart. Spoilers throughout! First up, TIME talks with Lindelof about the smoke monster. I mean the android, David (Michael Fassbender), who pulls some seriously heinous moves in Prometheus at the behest of one master, only to seemingly switch allegiances at the end. Can Shaw (Noomi Rapace) trust David’s head to direct her where she wants to go, i.e. the space beyond space, from whence the Engineers of doom hail? Lindelof says yes, because David has a robot crush on her . I think they’re going where she wants to go. His fundamental programming has been scrapped. Weyland [the man who built and programmed him] is dead and so now his programming is coming from God knows where. Is he being programmed by Elizabeth, or is it his own internal curiosity now that Weyland isn’t telling him what to do any more? He’s always been interested in Elizabeth, remember that: He’s watching her dreams when she’s sleeping in much the same way that he watches Lawrence of Arabia . He’s a strange robot that has a curious crush on a human being , and when Weyland is eliminated, I think he is genuinely interested in what she’s interested in. He reaches out partly for survival, but partly out of curiosity, and I think he’s sincere that he’ll take her wherever she wants to go. Right. Well, interspecies relations have taken stranger routes in the Alien universe. Speaking of which, artist Carlos Poon whipped up a handy infographic (via the folks at Dangerous Minds ) to help your brain keep track of the origins of species in Prometheus . Alright gang, mysteries solved! Right? RIIIIGHT?? [ TIME , Dangerous Minds ]
Also in Tuesday afternoon’s round up of news briefs, Magnolia Pictures and Strand Releasing each pick up a 2012 Tribeca Film Festival title, while Monique Gabriela Curnen and Kathy Baker join an indie thriller. Marina Abramovic nabs a French festival prize, Mark Cuban gives his two cents at a producers conference over the weekend and what to do about those pesky website responses… The British have an answer. Magnolia Pictures Nabs U.S. Rights to Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie The documentary about the seminal talk show host is directed by Ironbound Films’ Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger. Downey exploded made a splash onto the late ‘80s talk show circuit, uprooting the traditional format by turning debate of current issues into a brouhaha, earning the title “Father of Trash Television.” The film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, will be released theatrically by Magnolia in the first quarter of 2013. Tribeca’s Yossi Heads to Strand Releasing North American rights to Tribeca Film Festival debut Yossi are going to Strand Releasing. The follow up to the successful Yossi & Jagger , the film follows the main character, Yossi played again by Ohad Knoller as he lives a solitary existence as a workaholic doctor in Tel Aviv. Strand’s Jon Gerrans negotiated the deal with Films Distribution’s Nicolas Brigaud-Robert. Monique Gabriela Curnen and Kathy Baker Join Model Home The actresses have joined indie the indie thriller to be directed by Patrick Cunningham. Cunningham co-wrote the screenplay, which marks his feature debut, with William Frank. The story explores the little-known practice of “live-in staging,” where recently evicted families are recruited to live in unsold properties. Marina Abramovic Takes Top Prize at 1st Champs-Elysées Film Festival The Sundance world premiere won the audience prize for feature-length film from the U.S. The audience prize for best short film from the U.S. went to Motherland by Shariq Siddiqui while best French short went to It’s a Miracl’House by Stéphane Freiss. Created by Sophie Dulac, the festival programmed some 50 films enabling Parisian audiences to discover the variety of productions available from France and the United States. Around the ‘net… Universal Talks with Duplass Bros for Same Time, Next Year Re-do The studio along with producers Walter Mirisch and Scott Rudin plan a remake of the 1978 romantic comedy and are negotiating with Mark and Jay Duplass to write the script with the possibility to direct the feature, Deadline reports . Common to Star in New Version of Truffaut’s The Man Who Loved Women He will lead the cast in an “urban update” of Francois Truffaut’s 1977 romantic comedy classic The Man Who Loved Women for writer and director J. Kevin Swain. Swain’s version will be set in Buenos Aires, Shadow and Act reports . 9 Best Things Mark Cuban Said at Producers Guild Conference Produce as long as you can market; TV triumphs over online in revenue; Online numbers are deceiving and so is Facebook… Indiewire details some of the mogul’s proclamations. Websites to be Forced to Identify “Trolls” by Brits Websites will soon be forced to identify people who have posted defamatory messages online. New U.K. government proposals say victims have a right to know who is behind malicious messages without the need for costly legal battles, BBC reports .
Also happening in (mostly) film news Tuesday morning, Roger Corman to lead a festival jury, Alfre Woodard to star along with Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender in a slave epic, projections for worldwide entertainment are up, though less so in North America and former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash gets ready for his star… Roger Corman to Lead Tokyo Film Festival Corman will serve as president of the 25th Tokyo International Film Festival taking place October 20 – 28 in the Japanese capital. Corman has produced more than 550 films and directed fifty others in a career spanning nearly 60 years. Around the ‘net… Danny Boyle Unveils Olympics Opening Details The Olympic Stadium will morph into an idealized version of the English countryside complete with farm animals and recreations of British landmarks. The $42 million event will take place July 27th, Variety reports . Worldwide Spending for Theatrical and Home Video to Hit $100B PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook gave its annual five-year forecast, saying theater tickets and home video will increase by 3.1 per cent per year to nearly $100 billion by 2016. Box office will rise 6.3 per cent per year while home video will only rise by 0.5 per cent. Most growth will come from abroad, with North America poised for a less than 1 per cent rise, Deadline reports . Ray Winstone Set to Play Noah’s Nemesis The actor has been offered the role of Noah’s enemy in the Biblical story of the man who built the arc, directed by Darren Aronofsky. Winstone would play opposite Russell Crowe in the epic which also stars Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth and Emma Watson, Deadline reports . Alfre Woodard Boards Steve McQueen’s Latest The actress will join Chiwetel Ejiofor, Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender in Twelve Years a Slave a New Regency production based on an autobiography written in 1853 by Solomon Northup, a free black man who became enslaved, THR reports . Slash to Get His Star in Hollywood The former Guns N’ Roses guitarist will get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next month. He is the first of the former band members to receive the star, which will be unveiled July 10th on Hollywood Blvd., BBC reports .
Those wild animals in Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted showed their box office heft, beating out Prometheus to land atop the overall box office for the weekend. The opener for the third installment of the animated feature figured bigger than anticipated for the pic which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last month and is clearly flexing its franchise prowess. The film had an 8% increase Saturday, bringing out families. But Prometheus is certainly not a disappointment. The feature also had better than expected numbers. Internationally, the pic stood at $91.5 million over the weekend after nearly two weeks in release in some territories and its IMAX $9.1 million total is a June record. 1. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (3-D animated) Gross: $60.35 million Screens: 4,258 (PSA: $14,173) Weeks: 1 Certainly not a bad start for the animated film and on par with its previous installment, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa , which opened also in first place back in 2008 with a $63.1 million gross in 4,056 theaters (for an impressive $15,559 average). That film went on to gross over $180 million domestically, according to Box Office Mojo and nearly $424 million worldwide. 2. Prometheus Gross: $50 million Screens: 3,396 (PSA: $14,723) Weeks: 1. Prometheus actually slightly topped Madagascar in the per screen average take by $550. Worldwide, Prometheus has seen $141.5 million so far since it first hit screens abroad in addition to this weekend’s domestic debut. 3. Snow White and the Huntsman Gross: $23.02 million Screens: 3,777 (PSA: $6,095) Week: 2 (Change: – 60%) The Kristen Stewart starter added just four more theaters in its second weekend, dropping to number 3 in the ranking with a 60% drop in overall gross compared to its opening $56.255 million last week. The movie has picked up $182 million worldwide so far. 4. Men in Black 3 3-D Gross: $13.5 million Screens: 3,792 (PSA: $3,560) Week: 3 (Change: – 54%) Another pretty big drop for Men in Black though 456 locations fewer screened the title over the previous weekend. Still, the pic has amassed $441.7 million internationally. That’s some serious cha-ching! 5. The Avengers Gross: $10.8 million Screens: 3,129 (PSA: $3,454) Week: 6 (Change: -47%) Still going strong, the year’s biggest film so far has grossed nearly $1.4 billion worldwide. 6. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Gross: $3,235,000 Screens: 1,298 (PSA: 2,492) Week: 6 (Change: -28%) The specialty has stayed in the top ten of the overall box office after its initial roll out in only dozens of theaters. It held onto number 6 among all releases last weekend, despite being in comparatively far fewer venues and its gross decline was only 28% compared to the previous week. And what did you see this weekend? Was it worth it?
David Lynch ians, clear your schedule: You’ll want to spend the next hour or so indulging in these 50 minutes of deleted scenes unearthed from Lynch’s surreal 1986 noir Blue Velvet . Order a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon longnecks and raise a toast, as Jeffrey Beaumont might: “Here’s to an interesting experience!” Thanks to the folks at Dangerous Minds, the collection of deleted scenes from Blue Velvet ‘s Blu-ray release is viewable online and below. Enjoy, and hash it out: Would re-inserting these 50 minutes make for a better cut, or is Lynch’s theatrical version the better for leaving them on the cutting room floor? [ Dangerous Minds via Paste Magazine ]
Throughout the ’70s and into the first part of the ’80s, it was hard to ignore singer/songwriter/actor/sometimes talk show host and best-friend of the Muppets Paul Williams. He won Grammys and even an Oscar for hits he wrote including “We’ve Only Just Begun,”, “Rainy Days on Mondays,” “Evergreen,” “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song” and “Rainbow Connection.” Barbra Streisand, The Carpenters and even Kermit the Frog are among the artists he wrote super-hits for. Below, Paul Williams gives us his top ten movie songs of all time and dishes insight on Stephen Kessler’s documentary about him, Paul Williams Still Alive , about his raging ascent and crashing fall and return to form… Johnny Carson first brought the artist onto the Tonight Show as the swinging ’70s were just beginning. He did television, movies, concerts. If there was a group of “It-guys” in that crazy decade, Williams would surely have been a part of that cadre of people at the center of all that spectacle. But as the ’80s wore on and into the ’90s Paul Williams all but disappeared from the center of it all. Drugs and booze did him in for a while, though he came roaring back though via a less flashy route. Enter fan and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stephen Kessler. He had long been a fan of Williams as a teen growing up in Queens, NY and his songs which he described as about “depression, loneliness and alienation,” and set out to find Williams and make a documentary. Williams said ‘yes’ but he was hardly a willing participant, at least initially, as Williams told Movieline. “By the time I decided to go along, he had spent a lot of time and a lot of money. I didn’t want to flat out say no and didn’t know how to say no.” Williams added that he thought there was nothing worse than some older famous guy trying to reach for that last bit of notoriety. Kessler is very present in the film, which goes against most documentary standards unless you’re Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock. With Williams reluctant initially to open up and only providing limited access, the story unfolds interweaving a treasure-trove of ’70s pop culture which Paul is at the center and Kessler’s desire to get at his core and open up. I’m an actor, I can ignore the camera if I want to. But it’s exhausting to try and pretend I don’t notice the camera,” said Williams. “I didn’t want to do that, it seemed ridiculous.” One thing cameras caught and the film surfaces, decades later, is footage of Williams, high, while doing late night talk shows. Now 22 years sober, it’s a painful reminder of his past life and he even said during the film that he didn’t want his daughter to see that. But he relents and said he hopes it will help others. “I became a shallow ride and my behavior was totally unacceptable. One of the best things I did was to say to keep that footage in the movie. I think by leaving in you get a sense of how bad it got,” he said. “[There is] a sense of real disappointment and leading edge of shame. In a certain context it’s hard to watch, but you get a sense that recovery works. You see the yin and yang of the whole deal and you see that now, my life is such a gift. I hope I can make a difference… I love my life. And I’m blown away by the reaction.” PAUL WILLIAM’s TOP 10 MOVIE SONGS: Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley, Blackboard Jungle (1955) Main title theme by Elmer Bernstein, The Man with a Golden Arm (1955) Lose Yourself by Eminem/Bass/Resto, 8 Mile (2002) When You Wish Upon a Star by Harline/Washington Pinnochio (1940) The Man That Got Away by Arlen /Gershwin, A Star is Born (1954) With a Song in My Heart by Rodgers/Hart, With A Song in my Heart (1954) Somewhere by Bernstein/Sondheim, West Side Story Moon River by Mancini/Mercer, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) Alfie by Bacharach/David, Alfie (2004) Streets of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen, Philadelphia (1993) Born To Be Wild by Dennis Edmonton AKA: Mars Bonfire, Easy Rider (1969) And what are your favorites? Paul Williams Still Alive opens in NYC today. Follow Brian Brooks on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Total Film has the first look at Idris Elba in Guillermo del Toro’s alien invasion flick Pacific Rim , for which he built — and destroyed — replica sets, kaiju style. Elba stars alongside Charlie Hunnam , Ron Perlman, Charlie Day and Rinko Kikuchi in the mecha-epic, which pits robot-piloting humans in battle against interplanetary monsters. In the magazine’s latest issue, Del Toro spills about the process of destroying entire city blocks and rigging robot hydraulic rigs on the set: When we’re talking about the physicality of the fight, we ended up building several blocks of Hong Kong. And literally demolished them. We built a building and then we took down the buildings. We built command centres of the robots that were the size of the house. We started them on hydraulic rigs that shoot and elevated them and moved them round so you could really get a sense of the physical nature driving a robot like this. “The thing I love most in the world is monsters, and we are creating great monsters,” del Toro told Movieline last year , when he was just starting on the film. Pacific Rim is set for release on July 13, 2013. [ Total Film via Moviehole ]
The troubled actress was rushed to an L.A. hospital Friday following a collision in her black Porsche along Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica. Her car slammed into the rear of an 18-wheeler at approximately noon local time, totaling her car in a mishap that TMZ described as a “bad car accident.” She apparently did not go to hospital via an ambulance and word on her condition is pending. A Witness told the website that Lohan was driving the car.
