Track teases soundtrack album, which drops on March 20, ahead of ‘Hunger Games’ release on March 23. By Jocelyn Vena Taylor Swift Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic Taylor Swift ‘s other “Hunger Games” track, “Eyes Open,” has hit the ‘Net nearly a week before the official soundtrack drops. Whereas “Safe & Sound” is sparse and gloomy, Swift’s second “Hunger Games” soundtrack contribution is more epic and upbeat, at least musically. The lyrics still touch on many of the darker themes of the film, meaning that she sings about the loss of innocence and the need to stay strong in the face of adversity. “Yesterday we were just children/ Playing soldier just pretending/ Dreaming dreams with happy endings,” she sings on the track, which has been posted on Perez Hilton’s website . “In backyards battle with the wooden swords/ But now we’ve stepped into a cruel world/ Where everybody stands and keeps score.” The song is punctuated by big guitar riffs and a rock-inspired beat as Swift continues on the chorus, “Keep your eyes open/ Everybody’s waiting for you to break down/ Everybody’s watching to see the fallout/ Even when you’re sleeping, sleeping/ Keep your eyes, eyes open.” Lyrically, many of the tributes in the Hunger Games can relate to that need to be strong, but it seems to be particularly pointed at the story’s female lead, Katniss Everdeen, played by Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, who becomes the face of revolution in the beloved franchise. The full “Hunger Games” soundtrack drops on March 20, just days before the film opens on March 23. It features a wide array of artists, including Miranda Lambert, the Civil Wars (who also appear with Swift on “Safe & Sound”), Arcade Fire, Kid Cudi and more. “I immediately read the book in, like, two days and fell in love with it,” Swift explained about her love of all things “HG” when she sat down with MTV News during her “First” last month. “I fell in love with the characters, fell in love with the world that Suzanne Collins had created. I was just so immersed in it.” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV First: Taylor Swift MTV Rough Cut: Jennifer Lawrence Related Artists Taylor Swift
Track teases soundtrack album, which drops on March 20, ahead of ‘Hunger Games’ release on March 23. By Jocelyn Vena Taylor Swift Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic Taylor Swift ‘s other “Hunger Games” track, “Eyes Open,” has hit the ‘Net nearly a week before the official soundtrack drops. Whereas “Safe & Sound” is sparse and gloomy, Swift’s second “Hunger Games” soundtrack contribution is more epic and upbeat, at least musically. The lyrics still touch on many of the darker themes of the film, meaning that she sings about the loss of innocence and the need to stay strong in the face of adversity. “Yesterday we were just children/ Playing soldier just pretending/ Dreaming dreams with happy endings,” she sings on the track, which has been posted on Perez Hilton’s website . “In backyards battle with the wooden swords/ But now we’ve stepped into a cruel world/ Where everybody stands and keeps score.” The song is punctuated by big guitar riffs and a rock-inspired beat as Swift continues on the chorus, “Keep your eyes open/ Everybody’s waiting for you to break down/ Everybody’s watching to see the fallout/ Even when you’re sleeping, sleeping/ Keep your eyes, eyes open.” Lyrically, many of the tributes in the Hunger Games can relate to that need to be strong, but it seems to be particularly pointed at the story’s female lead, Katniss Everdeen, played by Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, who becomes the face of revolution in the beloved franchise. The full “Hunger Games” soundtrack drops on March 20, just days before the film opens on March 23. It features a wide array of artists, including Miranda Lambert, the Civil Wars (who also appear with Swift on “Safe & Sound”), Arcade Fire, Kid Cudi and more. “I immediately read the book in, like, two days and fell in love with it,” Swift explained about her love of all things “HG” when she sat down with MTV News during her “First” last month. “I fell in love with the characters, fell in love with the world that Suzanne Collins had created. I was just so immersed in it.” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV First: Taylor Swift MTV Rough Cut: Jennifer Lawrence Related Artists Taylor Swift
Inquiring minds are listening to a a CNBC video interview with Nassim Taleb, author of the book ” The Black Swan “. Link if video does not play: Nassim Taleb Cheers Ron Paul’s Economic Platform on CNBC This quote says it all: ” Only one candidate, Ron Paul, seems to have grasped the issues and offered the right remedies for the central problems we are facing. From my risk based standpoint, one candidate… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analys Discovery Date : 13/03/2012 18:54 Number of articles : 2
Don’t miss the ‘Hunger Games’ red-carpet premiere tonight at 8:30, streaming live from MTV News! By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Josh Hutcherson in “The Hunger Games” Photo: Lionsgate As the countdown to “The Hunger Games” grows shorter and shorter, fans have been craving as much of the tributes as they can possibly get. Luckily, we have a brand-new exclusive clip from the upcoming movie. Soon after they are chosen for the games, the tributes from District 12, Katniss ( Jennifer Lawrence ) and Peeta ( Josh Hutcherson ), go through the public relations wringer, including a broadcast interview with the eccentric TV personality Caesar Flickerman, played by a very blue-haired Stanley Tucci . In this exclusive clip, Peeta sits down to answer a few personal questions from Caesar before heading into the arena. Similarly, the cast and crew of “The Hunger Games” will have to face the judgments of the diehard fans of the book, when the film finally comes out on March 23. MTV News’ Josh Horowitz spoke with Lawrence about her reaction to seeing the finished film and how fans have treated her during the lead-up. “It was really good. It didn’t surprise me, which was good. During filming, I really liked everything what I was seeing. I liked everything that Gary was doing. Then I saw it, and it was all there,” Lawrence said. “It’s always hard for me watching because I think I am a horrible troll and I’ll never work again. Overall, I think everybody else in the movie is fantastic, and I think the film itself is really good.” Life has changed significantly for Lawrence since scoring the highly coveted role, not for the better in some cases. “I get photographers hiding in my bushes,” she said. “We’re way past autographs. We’re into being stalked and followed.” Other than the paparazzi, the response has been generally more positive for Lawrence. “Everyone’s been really nice fortunately. I mean, the movie’s not out yet, so we’ll see.” MTV News goes live from the “Hunger Games” red-carpet premiere tonight! Tune into our live stream from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. ET as Josh Horowitz catches up with the stars and asks fans’ burning questions! Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: Jennifer Lawrence
Critics are not finding much to praise in film based on Edgar Rice Burroughs hero. By Kevin P. Sullivan Taylor Kitsch in “John Carter” Photo: Disney Disney’s $250 million effort to bring the iconic Edgar Rice Burroughs hero, to the screen is certainly not making critics leap for joy supernaturally high because of differences in gravity. In fact, many have outright damned the film, while others have found a deep and fun love of B-movie and pulp traditions We’ve rounded up a sampling of reviews of “John Carter,” so you’ll know whether to head out to the theater this weekend. The Story “Our hero is John Carter, the Confederate Civil War veteran who strikes gold in the Arizona territory but who is whisked to the planet Barsoom on the flimsiest of pretexts. Barsoom is Mars by another name, and the Virginia-born Carter lands in the middle of another civil war, this one between the Heliumites and the Zondangans. Dejah Thoris, the Heliumite princess known also as ‘the red girl,’ is about to be married off against her will. But love finds a way, and while Taylor Kitsch’s hunky John Carter and Lynn Collins’ dishy princess smolder as effectively as possible under the circumstances, Kitsch in particular seems lost in ways unrelated to his character’s predicament.” — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune Taylor Kitsch “If the movie had a leading actor with the galactic charisma necessary for the task, we might even be talking classic sci-fi. Since it’s impossible to put Harrison Ford into the Wayback Machine, though, we’re stuck with the unfortunately named Taylor Kitsch (TV’s ‘Friday Night Lights’) as John Carter, the burned-out Civil War veteran who finds himself mysteriously transported to the Red Planet while searching for gold in the caves of Arizona. Kitsch is decent company — manly, muscled, noble, sardonic — but there’s nothing unique about him, and we follow him by default.” — Ty Burr, Boston Globe The Backstory “It starts with a great story — of love and politics, time travel and mystical pathways between planets — badly sucked dry. Based on ‘A Princess of Mars,’ the post-Civil War/pre-Tarzan brainchild of arguably one of the most entertaining non-Disney imagineers of all times, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the book and the Barsoom (a.k.a. Mars) series that would follow has been picked over for plot points by Hollywood for years.” — Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times The Pixar Connection “The Pixar touch is evident in the precision of the visual detail and in the wit and energy of Michael Giacchino’s score, but the quality control that has been exercised over this project also has a curiously undermining effect. The movie eagerly sells itself as semitrashy, almost-campy fun, but it is so lavish and fussy that you can’t help thinking that it wants to be taken seriously, and therefore you laugh at, rather than with, its mock sublimity.” — A.O. Scott, New York Times The Final Word “The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, whose credits include ‘A Bug’s Life’ (1998), ‘Finding Nemo’ (2003) and ‘WALL-E’ (2008). All three have tight, well-structured plots, and that’s what ‘John Carter’ could use more of. The action sequences are generally well-executed, but they’re too much of a muchness. Does ‘John Carter’ get the job done for the weekend action audience? Yes, I suppose it does.” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times Check out everything we’ve got on “John Carter.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV First: John Carter
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Kevin Brockmeier, George Pelecanos, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, David… Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : Largehearted Boy Discovery Date : 09/03/2012 19:33 Number of articles : 2
‘I will close the book on Teenage Dream soon, but [ Complete Confection ] just felt really organic,’ Perry tells MTV News. By Christina Garibaldi Katy Perry Photo: Jeff Bottari/ Getty Images Katy Perry may already be thinking of what direction she will take on her next album, but before she does that, she wanted to do something special for her fans. On March 26, Perry will release Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection , which features all of her songs from her chart-topping album Teenage Dream plus some bonus tracks. “With Teenage Dream, the reasons why I wanted to put out this special edition, Complete Confection, is two major reasons for me: One, I’m doing it mostly for the hard-core fans because they always love all the extras,” Perry told MTV News in Los Angeles. “The second reason I wanted to do it is because it’s my one last push, to push that person that is on the precipice of becoming a fan. They’re thinking to themselves, ‘I bought four or five singles, maybe I should actually complete my album and now I should really complete my album because I’m gonna get 19 songs for a really great price.’ I think it’s like a bargain and I’m doing it for my fans.” Perry revealed that she wrote several songs that didn’t make the cut on Dream, which is why Confection will feature not only Perry’s new hit single “Part of Me” but several other songs, including the Tricky Stewart-produced track “Dressing Up.” “This song is really special. It’s called ‘Dressing Up,’ so it’s going to be a big record,” Stewart told MTV News in October. “It definitely fits. It’s right there in what her sensibilities are as a musician and a songwriter. She doesn’t change much. She has a very keen musical taste. It’ll be really good.” Even though there are several new tracks on Confection, Perry says she is not considering this a whole new album. “I’m really excited and I’m not putting it out there as, like, another album — you know how you find different artists do their version, like eight songs or something. I’m am ready to make a new record, and I will close the book on Teenage Dream soon, but [ Complete Confection ] just felt really organic.” Are you excited for Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection ? Let us know in the comments. Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: Katy Perry Related Artists Katy Perry
Latest Dr. Seuss adaptation isn’t winning over too many critics. A scene from “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” Photo: Universal Studios There are few authors whose oeuvre is as universally beloved as that of Dr. Seuss. The love for Dr. Seuss is so great that plenty of his stories are rife for big-screen treatment. We’ve seen movie versions of “The Cat in the Hat,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Horton Hears a Who,” and now we have “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” which hit theaters Friday (March 2). Led by an all-star cast of voice talent including Taylor Swift, Zac Efron, Danny DeVito, Betty White, Ed Helms and Rob Riggle, the story follows the journey of a young boy who fights to reintroduce endangered trees to the plastic-obsessed town of Thneedville in hopes of winning a girl’s heart. Despite the warm-and-fuzzy sheen of the film, critics were not as wowed by the colorful adaptation. The film currently has a 56 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes but an 85 percent positive rating from audiences. Read on as we sift through “The Lorax” reviews! The Adaptation “Director Chris Renaud and writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (the team responsible for 2010’s ‘Despicable Me’) were just the right people to bring Dr. Seuss’ (a.k.a. Theodor Geisel) 1971 environmental fable to vivid, eye-popping life. It has a similar blend of humor, bouncy silliness and sweetness. And it remains faithful to the spirit of Seuss. The pro-conservation, anti-consumerist message of the book is heartily intact. And, like the Seuss story, the film never resorts to sermonizing. … Disappointingly, Seuss’ trademark lilting language and clever rhymes are only sporadically integrated into the story. The film does add pleasantly loopy, if rather forgettable, songs.” — Claudia Puig, USA Today The Animation “As with ‘Horton Hears a Who!’ four years ago, the production design and computer-generated animation in this new ‘Lorax’ respect the basic lines of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s illustrations, his voluptuously curvy universe of serious whimsy. Both the ‘Horton’ and ‘Lorax’ films work better, certainly, than the live-action Seuss pictures ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ and the seriously not-good ‘Cat in the Hat.’ ‘The Lorax’ is a little more like it. A little. But you couldn’t accuse the film of practicing what it preaches: careful stewardship of a precious resource. The message tends to get lost in all the clanging slapstick and ‘WALL-E’ imagery. ‘WALL-E’ had the courage of its convictions as well as beauty and artistry; ‘The Lorax’ is just another OK feature-length animated edition (in 3-D, if you choose to pay for it) of a Dr. Seuss book.” — Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune The Final Word, Pro-Con-Pro Style “Directors Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda and their team honor Seuss’ original designs — those fuzzy-top trees and the comical bears and fish — while inventively creating the artificial world of Thneedville, where all the shrubbery is inflatable and it can be all four seasons simultaneously. While the film isn’t a full-on musical, the creators weave in a handful of catchy songs that nestle comfortably in the ear and push the plot forward, a rare combo in most cartoons these days. The voice cast is just fine, with Helms’ Once-ler traveling smoothly from protagonist to antagonist and back again. (A little of DeVito’s hectoring Lorax goes a long way, and the film wisely doles him out in small doses.) Conservative commentators like Lou Dobbs are absolutely right when they say that ‘The Lorax’ preaches in favor of the environment and against corporatism and waste and the destruction of the atmosphere. Parents who find that to be a message that’s somehow dangerous have every right not to go, but those Grinches, out of their terror of tree-hugging propaganda, will miss a real treat.” — Alonso Duralde, TheWrap “Don’t be fooled. Despite its soft environmentalist message ‘The Lorax’ is an example of what it pretends to oppose. Its relationship to Dr. Seuss’ book is precisely that of the synthetic trees that line the streets of Thneedville to the organic Truffulas they have displaced. The movie is a noisy, useless piece of junk, reverse-engineered into something resembling popular art in accordance with the reigning imperatives of marketing and brand extension. … ‘The Lorax,’ while it nods in the direction of Dr. Seuss’ distinctive, trippy drawing style, treats his sensibility as, at best, a decorative element. The movie’s silliness, like its preachiness, is loud and slightly hysterical, as if young viewers could be entertained only by a ceaseless barrage of sensory stimulus and pop-culture attitude, or instructed by songs that make the collected works of Up With People sound like Metallica. The simple fable of the Lorax and the Once-ler is wrapped in gaudy, familiar business and festooned with grim, forced cheer. What do the kids want? Car chases! Kooky grandmas! Pint-size villains flanked by thuggish minions! Things that fly! Taylor Swift!” — A.O. Scott, The New York Times “As much as this looks like Dr. Seuss, some of the most intriguing ideas of the original story have been changed and not always for the better. Altering the ending into one big happy party was slightly disappointing, if understandable. It was much more interesting that this strange creature would tell his story to a curious young boy and hope that this child would be able to plant the very last truffula tree seed. Not surprisingly, the movie changes that ambiguous hope into a happy-heavy ending. Sure it may be more child friendly, but the books weren’t exclusively made for grown-ups. If done right, young viewers would be able to search for hope with a less obvious finale. Yet with all the over-the-top joyfulness and an extraneous villain, there is fun to be had with ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.’ This is an enjoyable kid’s flick with a message for a new generation. The environmental aspect might anger a few people but that same idea is in the book itself, there is nothing new about that here. Much like Bob Holt’s take on him, I really warmed up to the character of the Lorax and what DeVito brings to this little critter that speaks for the trees. And yes, Betty White voices another wacky grandma, and everybody loves her, right?” — Jimmy O, JoBlo.com Check out everything we’ve got on “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Lorax’
Sandler is ‘off the rails and cursing every other word’ in new red-band trailer, co-star Andy Samberg teases. By Josh Wigler Adam Sandler in “That’s My Boy” Photo: Columbia Pictures Most movies about long-lost fathers reconnecting with their estranged sons don’t include overweight strippers launching fruit from their you-know-wheres. Then again, most of these movies are not “That’s My Boy,” the new comedy from Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg hitting theaters in June. MTV News has your exclusive first look at the NSFW red-band trailer for “That’s My Boy,” and if there’s one major takeaway, it’s this: There is no sign of the family-friendly, PG-safe Adam Sandler in sight. “It’s a hard R, which is extremely exciting, just in the fact that I don’t know that Sandler has ever done a hard R before, not with Happy Madison,” Samberg told MTV News in an exclusive interview. “The cut that I saw, which I loved, is what I thought the movie was going to be: the Happy Madison sensibility with a much edgier R-rating.” Indeed, we’d say that ending the trailer with a wedding dress covered in vomit and other bodily fluids fits the bill Samberg’s talking about. And if the Lonely Island frontman can be taken at his word, we still haven’t seen anything yet. “Sandler was having a lot of fun, doing stuff he hasn’t done since, really, his early albums, which is when I first became obsessed with him,” the “Saturday Night Live” performer said. “It’s certainly classic Sandler. He’s doing a Boston accent the whole movie; he’s off the rails, cursing every other word. We were dying the whole time we were shooting.” Part of the reason Samberg’s so excited to have been a part of “That’s My Boy” is his longtime status as a Sandler fan. “I’ve been joking that I’ve been carrying around this face my entire life, basically leading up to this moment where somebody says, ‘Hey, there’s this movie where someone has to play Adam Sandler’s kid, but he’s closer in age to Sandler than a normal kid would be,’ ” he laughed. “As soon as I read the script, I knew I wanted to do it. It sat for a while, but right around last fall, I heard that they were maybe thinking of doing it again. I told Sandler I’d love to do it, and he said, ‘We’ll see if we do it!’ And we did it! It was the happiest call.” “That’s My Boy” hits theaters June 15. For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
‘I just think that it’s time for me to show where I came from,’ Perry says of her Teenage Dream follow-up. By James Montgomery, with reporting by Christina Garibaldi Katy Perry Photo: MTV News Katy Perry ‘s Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection doesn’t hit stores until March 13, but with the first single, “Part of Me,” currently sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100, it’s almost as if Perry can never truly say goodbye to the album that has come to define her. Though, to be honest, she’s going to try. “It feels like the record that never ends!” she told MTV News recently in Los Angeles. “Obviously I’m going to close this chapter soon. … I am ready to make a new record and maybe try another approach artistically, and I will close the book on Teenage Dream soon, but [ Complete Confection ] just felt really organic. I’m doing it mostly for the hard-core fans, because they always love all the extras. And also, I couldn’t put more than 12 songs on the original Teenage Dream, and I had written more songs … and I finally wanted to incorporate them.” Perry said that, in addition to those two Dream holdovers — “Part of Me” and a track called “Just Enough” — the Confection collection will also feature a brand-new song … one that she just put the finishing touches on in a late-night recording session. “I just wrote [it] with a bunch of my co-writers, in two days,” she laughed. “It was nuts, I recorded it at 3 a.m. and I was slapping myself in the face to stay awake, singing the chorus … so tired! But it’s nice to have all those goodies [on the reissue.]” And while she wouldn’t give away too many details about the proper follow-up to Dream, Perry did say that she can’t wait to focus on writing new material. And she’s got no shortage of subject matter, either. “It’s a very therapeutic thing for me, songwriting. I’m kind of one of those people who is a bit emotion-less on the outside, especially in public, but what I do is I store it, and I file it, so when I need to write I can just push that button,” she explained. “I’m going to stick my finger out there and test the waters of what the world wants, or what I need to say … but, I’m all ears. If people want me to do another pop record, I can do another pop record … I definitely have a lot to say right now, and in general always have. If you want an opinion, I’ve got one, unfortunately.” Of course, whenever she gets around to making the new album, it may be a big-time departure from the futuristic, candy-colored pop confections she spun on Dream. The next time out, she may very well be looking backward, as opposed to forward. “I just think that it’s time for me in some ways to show where I came from,” she said. “I’ve always just been me and my guitar; and I’m not saying I’m going to make that record, but I do want to get back to my roots. I’ve been changing my hair color too much!” What do you hope to hear on Katy Perry’s next album? Leave your comment below! Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: Katy Perry Related Artists Katy Perry
