Also in Tuesday morning’s round-up of news briefs, actress Jennifer Lawrence is in negotiations for a hefty paycheck for the second installment of The Hunger Games . Kevin Costner is headed to join a new project. Wayne Wang will direct a basketball tale and big changes at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Marvin Hamlisch Dies at 68 He composed the scores for over 40 movies, winning three Oscars, four Emmys, a Tony for A Chorus Line and three Golden Globes. Films included The Sting , Sophie’s Choice , Ordinary People and Take the Money and Run , USA Today reports . Jennifer Lawrence Eyes $10 Million for The Hunger Games Sequel She reportedly received $500K plus bonuses for the first installment which has grossed $683.8 million worldwide, but she’s in final negotiations to return for Catching Fire in a package that could total around $10M range, THR reports . Dreamworks to Make Kung Fu Panda 3 in China DreamWorks Animation and Chinese partners announced plans Tuesday to co-produce the next Kung Fu Panda movie and develop an entertainment district in Shanghai, expanding Hollywood’s fast-growing ties to China, A.P. reports . Kevin Costner Eyes Kenneth Branaugh’s Three Days to Kill Costner has been offered the co-lead in the film that will star Chris Pine. He’ll play Ethan Renner, a government assassin who is dying. Before he goes, he is determined to reconcile with his daughter, while taking on one final mission, Deadline reports . Wayne Wang to Direct Basketball Story Brave Dragons The story is based on Jim Yardley’s new book about an NBA coach who moves with his wife to a Chinese industrial city to coach one of the worst teams in Chinese basketball, Deadline reports . Peter Scarlet Departs from Abu Dhabi Film Festival He will be replaced by Ali al Jabri as Festival Director. He has served as director of the Emirates competition for five years. Scarlet served as head for three years previously topped the Tribeca Film Festival and the San Francisco Film Society. This year’s festival will take place October 11 – 20, Screen Daily reports .
www.ERISProfitCompany.com – Must Subscribe & SHARE This Video For It To Work http://www.youtube.com/v/-CbX5VJDn6o?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Original post: FREE Justin Bieber Tickets ! ! ! LINK In Description !
Also in Tuesday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs Miramax sells music rights to its film music; A thief in Mexico wearing a mask is holding up theaters playing TDKR ; Remembering Irish writer/journalist/playwright Maeve Binchy; And DreamWorks animation posts lower second quarter profits. Warner/Chappell Buys Miramax’s film music The music publishing wing of Warner Music Group is acquiring the masters and publishing rights for all film music owned by Miramax. “The Miramax music library contains music from Academy Award winners The Cider House Rules , Chicago , Cold Mountain and Frida , as well as Gangs of New York , Finding Neverland , Good Will Hunting , Chocolat , Sin City , The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and music from several hundred other Miramax films. Terms are not being disclosed. Around the ‘net… James Franco Boards Homefront Franco will join the cast of the Millennium Films action-thriller. Jason Statham is also starring in the film, which Gary Fleder will direct from a script written by Sylvester Stallone, Variety reports . The Dark Knight Rises Holds Solid in U.K. The Olympics opening ceremonies did not seem to result in a sluggish turn out for the latest Batman movie in host country, the U.K. The Christopher Nolan superhero pic took in £7.28 million ($11.412 million) across the pond over the weekend, for a 10-day cume of £30.55 million ($47.889 million), The Guardian reports . Masked Mexican Thief Hits Theaters Showing TDKR Officials in northern Mexico say a man wearing a ski mask and carrying a gun robbed two theaters showing the latest Batman installment Prosecutors in the Mexican state of Chihuahua said that a man went to ticket booths demanding the ticket money. No injuries were reported and the shows went on, AP reports . R.I.P. Maeve Binchy The Irish journalist and writer died yesterday at 72. Binchy’s books sold over 40 million copies with translations in 42 languages. Her work Circle of Friends was adapted into a 1995 film. Her radio drama work included the award winning ”Infancy” and ”Tia Maria”, which starred Oscar winner Kathy Bates, RTÉ reports . DreamWorks Animation Posts Lower Q2 Earnings Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted was the second quarter’s cash cow, but profits at the studio amounted to $12.8 million compared to $34.1 million in the time period one year ago. Revenue declined 25% to $162.8 million, THR reports .
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted was an unexpectedly charming addition to the summer’s kiddie flick franchise pile-up, better and stranger than, honestly, it needed to be in a subgenre that is, Pixar aside, usually just about merchandising potential and providing enough bright moving objects to occupy young attention spans for 80 minutes. People hoping for the same pleasant surprise when escorting offspring to Ice Age: Continental Drift might as well pre-crush those hopes in advance before donning their 3-D glasses — the film, the fourth in the series from Blue Sky Studios, is just a sugary jumble of goofy voices, hyperkinetic action scenes and rote plot elements that rolls forward just enough to get us to the de rigueur pop song that plays over the closing credits. Ice Age: Continental Drift finds the series’ makeshift herd of glacial period animals still together and not eating each other (the carnivores in the group presumably have learned to eat only non-speaking extras). Mammoths Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) have a now teenage daughter named Peaches (Keke Palmer) whose best friend, molehog Louis (Josh Gad), is nursing an inconvenient cross-species crush on her. (She, unfortunately for him, has eyes only for fellow mammoth Ethan, voiced by rapper Drake). Saber-toothed tiger Diego (Denis Leary) remains grumpy, while sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) is still ignorantly blissful, even when the family that abandoned him stops by to leave his senile Granny (Wanda Sykes) in his company and then takes off immediately after. The plot’s precipitated by the series mascot Scrat (Chris Wedge), an acorn-loving saber-toothed squirrel whose journey always frames and runs parallel to the main storyline, and who triggers the rapid breakup of the continents (a process that took millions and millions of years but here happens in maybe a day) by planting his prized nut in a place that manages to crack open the Earth’s crust. The shifting land masses break up the mammoth family, forcing Ellie, Peaches and all to march toward safer territory while Manny, Diego, Sid and Granny end up adrift in the sea for an oddly nautical adventure. They encounter and do battle with pirates, led by the ape Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage), who use icebergs as ships they’re able to steer with helpful twig technology. Ice Age: Continental Drift is a children’s animated movie, and to complain about it not making sense, not having characters who require more than a one-adjective description, and not being very funny to anyone over the age of 6 may seem beside the point, — except, well, Pixar has proven things needn’t be this way. Ice Age: Continental Drift isn’t bad so much as its devoid of anything particularly good, including the animation. The characters in general have the odd texture of ratty stuffed toys rather than furry living animals, and they’re designed in such a way as to sometimes defy expression — when the camera closes in on Manny’s face to show his alarm, it ends up only framing his two eyes and a giant, fuzzy stretch of trunk, as if someone forgot we wouldn’t be able to see his mouth. The teenage mammoths have been given strange human haircuts on top of their Elephantidae heads, as if they’re a meld between an extinct species and a Bratz doll. It’s Sid and Scrat who come off the best by being built like they belong in the Looney Tunes-esque elastic universe from which the film’s action takes its cue. When Sid melts into a heap after eating a paralyzing berry, the clever physicality of it — Manny scoops him up and tosses him to safety on a glacier, only to have him slide right bonelessly off — is entertainingly done. And Scrat’s voyage has the freedom of the surreal, from the giant ball-bearing that he bounces off of at the center of the world to the map he finds at the bottom of the ocean, the pressure squashing him to a fraction of his original size. While the main characters have battles on glaciers and encounters with sirens who seem to be there only to fill out the runtime, Scrat skitters across the surface of the water and finds his way to a Greece-inspired saber-toothed squirrel utopia that he instantly ruins. And he, blissfully, doesn’t speak. The other animals, sadly, do, in their array of celebrity voices (Nicki Minaj, Aziz Ansari, Nick Frost and Seann William Scott also pop up behind different animated faces), and they grumble their way through an assembly of prepackaged dramas that feels like a few sitcom episodes mashed together — Diego fights and then falls for pirate crew member Shira (Jennifer Lopez), Manny learns not to be so overprotective of his growing daughter and Sid realizes he’s not a screw-up or something. It’s the kind of indifferent filmmaking that wouldn’t be so offensive if it weren’t so often hugely financially successful — it’s the effort of a large group of people, plenty of them talented, to turn out something barely adequate. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in Thursday morning’s round-up of news briefs, DreamWorks Animation will lend its characters to a new theme park; director Joe Cornish is set to adapt a robot comic-book; James Cameron takes his mini 3-D camera to L.A.’s X Games and China cracks down even harder on internet movie and video content. Darren Aronofsky Tweets a Noah Teaser The Black Swan director tweeted what presumably looks like construction of the ark that carried all life forms to safety from the earthly flood. He said: I dreamt about this since I was 13. And now it’s a reality. Genesis 6:14 #noah: http://t.co/QLaIuqXh. The film is slated for release in Spring 2014. Around the ‘net… DreamWorks Animation Theme Park Heads to New Jersey DreamWorks Animation will bring its movie characters to a planned in-door amusement park in the New Jersey Meadowlands, ten miles west of New York City, Deadline reports . Fangirls Fuel Comic-Con Growth Long lines of women camped out to get into the Twilight panel. The movie has increased attendance to around 40%, which has resulted in Hollywood sending over more femme-friendly fare, Variety reports . Joe Cornish to Direct Graphic Novel Rust Attack the Block director Joe Cornish is set to adapt Royden Lepp’s comic-book robot on the prairies story Rust for 20th Century Fox. Fox’s synopsis reads: “”Life on the Taylor family farm was difficult enough before Jet Jones crashes into the barn, chased by a giant decommissioned war robot!” The Guardian reports . James Cameron Debuts Ultra-Mini 3-D Camera at X Games Cameron used the camera in March when he explored the Mariana Trench and is now taking the device to ESPN’s X Games in Los Angeles, THR reports . Internet Content Faces More Chinese Scrutiny A new push by Chinese regulators will force internet video providers to pre-screen programming including drama series and mini-movies before they’re posted, Deadline reports via A.P.
Two animated features sit atop the box office this past weekend. Disney/Pixar’s Brave seized the top of the b.o. as expected. The animated feature grossed over $66.7 million Friday through Sunday. That total is above Pixar’s previous feature title Cars 2 , which opened with $66.1 million in 2011. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted held strong with $20.2 million. 1. Brave (3-D Animation) Gross: $66,739,000 (New) Screens: 4,164 (PSA: $16,028) Week: 1 The film beat DreamWorks animation Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted by just over $6 million. It did better than Cars 2 in 2011 by only about $600K (that film opened in 4,115 theaters) but nowhere compared to Toy Story 3 , which opened in 4,028 theaters in 2010, raking in over $110.3 million. Brave is the 13th straight Pixar/Disney release to bow at number one. 2. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (3-D Animation) Gross: $20,200,000 ($157,574,000) Screens: 3,920 (PSA: $5,153) Weeks: 3 (Change: – 41%) Its international cume is now at $208.4 million. The feature continued to show muscle despite competition from Brave . 3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (3-D) Gross: $16.5 million (New) Screens: 3,108 (PSA: $5,309) Week: 1 The debut numbers came in along the lines of expectations. 4. Prometheus (3-D) Gross: $10 million ($108,546,680) Screens: 2,862 (PSA: $3,494) Weeks: 3 (Change – 52%) 5. Snow White and the Huntsman Gross: $8,012,655 ($137,055,375) Screens: 2,919 (PSA: $2,745) Weeks: 4 (Change: – 40%) 6. Rock of Ages Gross: $8 million ($28,763,000) Screens: 3,470 (PSA: $2,305) Weeks: 2 (Change: -45%) 7. That’s My Boy Gross: $7.9 million ($28,180,000) Screens: 3,030 (PSA: $2,607) Weeks: 2 (Change – 41%) 8. The Avengers Gross: $7.04 million ($598,288,000) Screens: 2,230 (PSA: 3,157) Weeks: 8 (Change – 21%) The pic’s global total now stands at $1,436,200,000. 9. Men in Black 3 (3-D) Gross: $5.6 million ($163,339,000) Screens: 2,462 (PSA: $2,275) Weeks: 5 (Change: – 44%) The features global cume is $577.3 million. 10. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World Gross: $3,836,348 (New) Screens: 1,625 (PSA: $2,361) Week: 1 [Source: Hollywood.com box office]
Two animated features sit atop the box office this past weekend. Disney/Pixar’s Brave seized the top of the b.o. as expected. The animated feature grossed over $66.7 million Friday through Sunday. That total is above Pixar’s previous feature title Cars 2 , which opened with $66.1 million in 2011. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted held strong with $20.2 million. 1. Brave (3-D Animation) Gross: $66,739,000 (New) Screens: 4,164 (PSA: $16,028) Week: 1 The film beat DreamWorks animation Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted by just over $6 million. It did better than Cars 2 in 2011 by only about $600K (that film opened in 4,115 theaters) but nowhere compared to Toy Story 3 , which opened in 4,028 theaters in 2010, raking in over $110.3 million. Brave is the 13th straight Pixar/Disney release to bow at number one. 2. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (3-D Animation) Gross: $20,200,000 ($157,574,000) Screens: 3,920 (PSA: $5,153) Weeks: 3 (Change: – 41%) Its international cume is now at $208.4 million. The feature continued to show muscle despite competition from Brave . 3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (3-D) Gross: $16.5 million (New) Screens: 3,108 (PSA: $5,309) Week: 1 The debut numbers came in along the lines of expectations. 4. Prometheus (3-D) Gross: $10 million ($108,546,680) Screens: 2,862 (PSA: $3,494) Weeks: 3 (Change – 52%) 5. Snow White and the Huntsman Gross: $8,012,655 ($137,055,375) Screens: 2,919 (PSA: $2,745) Weeks: 4 (Change: – 40%) 6. Rock of Ages Gross: $8 million ($28,763,000) Screens: 3,470 (PSA: $2,305) Weeks: 2 (Change: -45%) 7. That’s My Boy Gross: $7.9 million ($28,180,000) Screens: 3,030 (PSA: $2,607) Weeks: 2 (Change – 41%) 8. The Avengers Gross: $7.04 million ($598,288,000) Screens: 2,230 (PSA: 3,157) Weeks: 8 (Change – 21%) The pic’s global total now stands at $1,436,200,000. 9. Men in Black 3 (3-D) Gross: $5.6 million ($163,339,000) Screens: 2,462 (PSA: $2,275) Weeks: 5 (Change: – 44%) The features global cume is $577.3 million. 10. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World Gross: $3,836,348 (New) Screens: 1,625 (PSA: $2,361) Week: 1 [Source: Hollywood.com box office]
Awww, something baby Blue Ivy can watch too! How precious… Beyoncé Lands “Epic” Role In Animated Film BeyBey has another movie role headed her way. But this time we don’t have to watch her struggle to show emotion on the big screen. Four-month-old Blue Ivy is probably too young to appreciate most of mom Beyonce’s projects. The singer’s newest role, however, is something her whole family will be able to enjoy. According to Deadline, the “Run the World (Girls)” chanteuse has signed on to voice the character of Queen Tara in the 3D, CG-animated movie Epic. The film is being produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios–the companies responsible for Ice Age and Rio– and already boasts a star-studded cast. Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Knoxville, Aziz Ansari, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis and Steven Tyler have all reportedly signed on to appear in the flick, which hits theaters in May 2013. This will be Beyonce’s first film role following the January 7 birth of her and Jay-Z’s daughter; the Grammy winner, 30, is also slated to star in Clint Eastwood’s remake of A Star Is Born. Congrats Bey, this one sounds like a winner. Source
‘Are we a country that includes everybody and give everybody a shot and treats everybody fairly?’ Obama tells the crowd about his gay marriage stance. By Gil Kaufman President Obama arrives in Los Angeles to attend a fundraiser at the home of George Clooney Photo: AFP/Getty Images President Obama again affirmed his support of gay marriage on Thursday night at a star-studded Los Angeles fundraiser at the home of George Clooney. The event, which reportedly raised a record $15 million for the Obama re-election campaign fund, was attended by around 150 guests who paid $40,000, along with two women who won tickets by pledging $3 in an online raffle. Speaking in front of an audience that was likely to be receptive to the message, Obama expanded on his view of gay marriage. “Obviously, yesterday we made some news,” he said to what was reported by The Los Angeles Times to be enthusiastic. Obama was referring to an ABC interview in which he revealed that he now personally supports same-sex marriage, which made him the first sitting president to ever do so. “It was a logical extension of what America is supposed to be. It grew directly out of this difference in visions: Are we a country that includes everybody and gives everybody a shot and treats everybody fairly and is that going to make us stronger? Are we welcoming to immigrants? Are we welcoming to people who aren’t like us — does that make us stronger? I believe it does. So that’s what’s at stake.” The comments reiterated his earlier embrace of gay marriage, which was applauded by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton , who told MTV on Thursday that the news was happy, if a bit late in coming. “I wish he would have done this a long time ago,” Hilton said. The gathering was organized by DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, featured food by famed chef-to-the-stars Wolfgang Puck and took place in a large tent on the basketball court outside Clooney’s huge Tudor-style Hollywood home. Among the stars in attendance were Robert Downey Jr., Tobey Maguire, Jack Black, Salma Hayek, Billy Crystal, Barbra Streisand and husband James Brolin and Clooney’s girlfriend, Stacey Kiebler. Fresh off his joke-filled appearance at the Correspondents dinner in D.C., the president went for laughs again, chiding the host that his famous 2008 “Hope” campaign poster was taken from a photo of him sitting next to Clooney when Obama was a U.S. Senator. “This is the first time that George Clooney has ever been PhotoShopped out of a picture,” Obama said. “Never happened before, never happen again.” And while the night had a positive tone, Obama acknowledged to his high-dollar donors that the upcoming election is going to be much more difficult than the 2008 contest. “This is going to be harder than it was the last time,” he said. “2008, in some ways, was lighting in a bottle … So we’re going to have to fight against cynicism and a belief that maybe things can’t happen and maybe the game is rigged, what’s the point. That’s what we’re going to be fighting against this time.”
