And at a cemetery! “Created and performed by acclaimed actor Val Kilmer, and seen recently in development by sold-out audiences in venues in Los Angeles such as Disney Concert Hall, Tim Robbins’ The Actors’ Gang, and The United States Veterans Artists’ Alliance Hall, Mr. Kilmer’s production delves into the heart and soul of Samuel Clemens and conjures forth the great spirit of Mark Twain, America’s greatest storyteller. Storytelling was a lifeline for Twain, and in Kilmer’s Citizen Twain , this lifeline continues into and after Twain’s death, making it an appropriate choice to perform the show in The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.” [ Ticketfly ]
Now here’s an image that could inspire a rebellion: Jennifer Lawrence hit the premiere of The Hunger Games in shiny, glowing gold, joining cast mates Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, and more to celebrate the upcoming YA event movie. Well, OK — that number’s not quite bow and arrow, running-through-the-woods killing people-friendly, but JenLaw destroyed everyone else on that black carpet, including guest (and… secret Hunger Games fan?) Sylvester Stallone. Photos after the jump! Click to launch the slideshow . Get more on The Hunger Games , in theaters March 23.
For many, the Weinsteins’ inescapable awards-season carpet bombing was mere insult added to an even more grievous seasonal injury: moving Piranha 3DD from its original November 2011 release date to the notorious TBD associated with so many Dimension and Weinstein Co. releases. What did you expect, though? Madonna/ W.E. Golden Globe campaigns don’t pay for themselves, right? Anyway, as befits a new inductee into France’s Legion of Honor , Harvey Weinstein is not skimping on the public service, finally rescheduling the blood-and-boobs fishploitation extravaganza for June 1. The good news? That’s only two and a half months away! The bad news? That’s only two and a half months away! Is there enough time and money left after handling the Bully ratings “crisis” to manufacture a PG-13 crusade for this one? How will kids at lakeside summer camps nationwide know how to best deal with flesh-rending fish infestations? Think of the children, save the date, etc. [ STYD ]
An inevitable consequence of the ugly Kim Novak/ Artist soundtrack-rape saga had to be that other artists and actors would use the analogy to describe how, unauthorized, new legacies are built or enhanced using elements of their older ones. Right on cue, enter Courtney Love: “Courtney Love believes Kermit the Frog and his gang of Muppet friends ‘raped’ the memory of her ex-husband Kurt Cobain — by bastardizing Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ in their 2011 movie … without her permission. But there’s another side to this … We’re told Courtney sold off half of her rights to Kurt’s music to a company called Primary Wave Music. And there’s more … Courtney also gave Primary Wave the exclusive right to distribute Nirvana’s entire catalog.” Mm-hmm . Anyway, isn’t this stuff supposed to be limited to awards season? Better luck next year, Courtney. [ TMZ ]
It wasn’t tough to spot Channing Tatum or Jonah Hill at the after party following the SXSW premiere of 21 Jump Street ; they were the ones, beaming unselfconsciously in the middle of the crowd, wearing bicycle-cop uniforms. More specifically, wearing their costumes from the movie, in which they play a pair of bumbling rookie policemen sent undercover to high school — a set-up that so delivers beyond its premise that the ’80s Johnny Depp TV series adaptation is actually one of the best new films of 2012, comedy or otherwise. Sony’s March 16 release had screened a handful of times for press leading into the SXSW premiere, establishing surprisingly strong word of mouth for months. Catching up with 21 Jump Street directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord after the film’s equally supportive public debut found the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs helmers in fantastic spirits, and with good reason: If audiences follow the lead of critics and SXSWers, then 21 Jump Street could become a deserving critical and commercial hit in the mold of last year’s Austin breakout Bridesmaids . Credit goes to an exceedingly sharp script and great chemistry between leads Hill and Tatum, whose onscreen two-man comedy team rapport carries what might, in a lesser film, have been reduced to a fairly banal by-the-numbers plot (the pair go undercover in search of the source of a powerful and dangerous drug making the rounds in the high school set). The reboot takes its job seriously than, say, the Starsky and Hutches that came before it; if you’re wondering how the hell anyone could justify resuscitating a decades-old idea from the depths of nostalgia, for example, the film beats you to it. If you’re skeptical of seeing Ice Cube as Tatum and Hill’s angry black police captain, Cube’s Captain Dickson clears the air in his very first scene. But 21 Jump Street isn’t just clever in its construction and aware of its own inherent vulnerabilities to criticism — it’s pretty hilarious to boot. Two of the best jokes in my estimation come not from Tatum, who is genuinely funny and, more importantly, comfortable flexing his comic muscles here, or Hill, but from supporting players Dave Franco as the crunchy, Berkeley-bound popular kid and 21-year-old lady rapper Rye Rye as a fellow undercover Jump Streeter. The film even manages to use Rob Riggle well without succumbing to the near-universal rule that almost any comedy featuring the (talented!) Riggle turns out to be kind of terrible. Curse broken! Monday’s 21 Jump Street debut also marks yet another strong showing for a studio release at SXSW after Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods and the surprise horror entry Sinister . Drop back by Movieline on Thursday for Stephanie Zacharek’s review of 21 Jump Street , and catch up on all of our SXSW 2012 coverage here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
It’s on! Responding to yesterday’s unveiling of the inaugural Movieline Soily Awards, an eagle-eyed commenter pointed out this brief note posted to the Golden Raspberry Awards official message board — a reply apparently from “Head RAZZberry” John Wilson himself: “Many a RAZZIE® imitator has come and gone during the 32 years we’ve been doing our awards. And looking over their category names and choices, I’ve gotta say the so-called ‘Soilys,’ [sic] with their fixation on excremental terminology and their categories with names few American publications would even touch (let alone publish) look likelier to join the ‘gone’ list than make the brief roster of our ‘competitors’ who’ve stood the test of time…” Wait — so is he saying that we’re not going to get the Shit-the-Bed Award written up in USA Today ? Who knew? Anyway, Wilson or his representative or whoever brings up a crucial element of the awards that we did omit: SOILIES® looks so much more dignified, no? We also seem to have forgotten to charge folks to vote . Oops. Next year! Read more about the 2012 Soilies here , and drop back by tomorrow for our Reader’s Choice launch! Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Those NMA TV wizards have done it again: Watch as the Taiwanese animators offer their take on the in-progress South by Southwest Music, Film and Interactive festival (“If you’re watching this animation, that likely means you’re not at SXSW. You’re probably not even cool enough to go”). Tears, hippie DJs, 21 Jump Street , bands the rest of the world will hear about months from now… it’s all here! Okay, okay. SXSW isn’t quite as douchey as this video suggests — though the divide between the Interactive/Music folks and the Film attendees always feels like some sort of class division. But earlier today, I di d overhear the following while walking downtown: “What if pills could contain… ideas?” And also: “The thing is, I already have a green trucker hat!” Here’s hoping more notable SXSW ’12 events happen that warrant their own NMA video. Where’s Jake Gyllenhaal when you need him? [ NMA ] Catch up with Movieline’s ongoing coverage of SXSW Film and follow along on Twitter .
The troubles marring the relationship between fast-talking literary agent Jack McCall (Eddie Murphy) and his wife and the mother of his baby Caroline (Kerry Washington) are nothing next to the issues A Thousand Words has in marrying wacky physical comedy and a new age exploration of absentee fathers. The film, which is directed by Norbit ‘s Brian Robbins and written by Bruce Almighty ‘s Steve Koren, is being slung at audiences as a broad family laffer of the Jim Carrey school, but spends just as much time trying to be a serious tale about letting go of childhood resentments and accepting mortality. The “deep” bits aren’t, despite a climactic shot in which Murphy actually frolics with his childhood self through a Terrence Malick-style dreamy field of wheat, and the parts that aim to be funny rarely succeed at that either, telegraphing their punchlines so far in advance that they don’t really need to follow through on them. Murphy’s journey into the lucrative and yet so often awful world of family-friendly comedies is one that’s been taken by plenty of comics, but he wears it worse than most, his edges sanded off and a too calculated look in his eyes as he prepares for the soggy reconciliations with which these stories always end. It doesn’t help that even the pratfalls in A Thousand Words look tired and recycled. McCall climbs a tree to rescue a cat only to have it attack him, making him fall. McCall bluffs his way to the front of a long line at Starbucks by pretending his wife’s in labor. (I realize this is really not the type of film at which to nitpick, but beyond the vaudeville-era mustiness of the gag, why would anyone believe that someone in a wild rush to the hospital would still stop for coffee?) McCall causes multiple car accidents trying to help a blind man cross the street without being able to speak to him. The central conceit in A Thousand Words is that, thanks to a deal he’s made with Dr. Sinja (Cliff Curtis), “the most popular nondenominational religious leader on the planet,” McCall finds that a mystical tree has suddenly grown in the backyard of his swank house of a hill. For every word he says or writes, a leaf falls off, and presumably when they’re all gone both he and the tree will die. (The tree raises some mystical copyediting issues — “dickhead” merits two leaves, but so does “sorta classy.”) McCall obviously has some issues to work through, including the usual ones of working too hard and being emotionally unavailable, factors the film links back to his dad leaving his mom (Ruby Dee) when he was young. Caroline is so upset by his apparent lack of commitment (he refuses to sell his bachelor pad in order to move them into a more child-appropriate house and neighborhood) and unwillingness to communicate (something stepped up by the arrival of the tree) that she leaves him, though not before a laugh-free scene in which she tries to reinvigorate their relationship by wearing vinyl lingerie and breaking out furry handcuffs. That sequence, like most of the other comedic set-pieces, has the feel of something that went from brainstorming board right to the screen, as the film strains its way through every possible scenario that would be awkward when you’re not supposed to talk — ordering coffee, making an international call via an operator, making a deal over the phone, having a business meeting. When the film actually stumbles on a laugh, it seems almost an accident, as when Murphy’s character, high because of pesticides (don’t ask), inserts a breadstick up Allison Janney’s nose. Murphy rolls his eyes and mugs ferociously at the camera — A Thousand Words is the miming showcase the world never asked for — but it’s Hot Tub Time Machine’s Clark Duke, playing McCall’s assistant Aaron Wiseberger, who walks away with the film’s best scene when he’s forced to fill in for his boss at a high-powered dinner during which McCall can’t speak. The only way he knows how to handle a business deal is by channelling his boss, and the entire joke is that he’s a scrawny white kid offering fist bumps and telling someone “Sit your ass down!” But it’s mostly funny because he’s trying to pull off a decent Eddie Murphy. Remember Eddie Murphy? He used to be hilarious. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
This is real: Paramount is in talks with Magical Elves to direct their Katy Perry 3-D concert documentary — as in Magical Elves, the producing duo comprised of Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, who previously produced the Paramount smash Justin Bieber: Never Say Never in addition to creating reality TV “classics” like Project Runway and Top Chef . The film will follow the singer on and off-stage, with Footloose director Craig Brewer also onboard to executive produce. The question is, can Perry bring the star power and fan adulation that drove predecessors Never Say Never and Michael Jackson’s This Is It to huge box office returns — or will it take some fairy-esque magic to translate Perry’s candy-colored pop persona into movie gold? [ THR ]
Kanye West debuted his Autumn/Winter 2012 fashion show during Paris Fashion Week yesterday in Paris, France. The dark line consisted of 30 looks, including leather biker jackets, suede dresses and fur shirts and vests! Cassie and Diddy, Shyne Po, Andre Leon Tally, Vogue’s Anna Wintour, Common, Rosario Dawson, Teyana Taylor, Waka Flocka Flame, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz were spotted at the show. Kim Kardashian was also in attendance wearing Kanye’s uncomfortable, $5,800 Guiseppe shoe! But where were the black runway models? Just sayin’… RELATED: Jay-Z & Kanye West “N*ggas In Paris” [WORLD PREMIERE] Adele Sweeps Grammy Awards With 6 Wins [LIST OF WINNERS] Lil Wayne Disses Watch The Throne [VIDEO] Kanye West Opens Up About New Design Company “Donda” On Twitter
