It’s auteur 3-D work-in-progress week in New York! Less than a day after Martin Scorsese gave a hometown crowd an early glimpse at his upcoming Hugo , James Cameron dropped by Times Square to show off 17 minutes from his ongoing 3-D conversion of Titanic .
It’s giveaway time again! This time, Movieline is giving away two Tree of Life combo packs (Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy included) in honor of tomorrow’s home release of the Terrence Malick drama. And what better way to toast the thought-provoking feature starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn than with a 10-word review contest. So grab your guest critic pens and click through for more details — except for you, Sean Penn .
The “Circle of Life” remains unturned as The Lion King (in 3D) topped Moneyball to win the weekend receipt war for a second week in a row. Brad Pitt has nothing to be ashamed of, though, as his passion project notched the highest opening weekend for any baseball movie ever. In fact, a couple of big records were set this weekend. After the jump, we’ll count down the biggest earners and lament the plight of Taylor Lautner.
For a notoriously private guy, Brad Pitt surprisingly opened up a can of worms with his comments about his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston in Parade magazine. Remarks the actress and her camp are said to have “gone ballistic” over. Regardless of the Moneyball star’s intentions, saying he wasn’t leading an interesting or fulfilling life pre-Angelina Jolie, and that he was “trying to pretend my marriage was something that it wasn’t” reated a PR firestorm. How did the former Mrs. Pitt react? “She was annoyed,” a pal close to the Horrible Bosses star says. “She thought that it was rude and inappropriate.” Team Aniston angrily reached out to Pitt’s representatives, according to Us Weekly , and “They got his team involved and Brad was read the riot act.” Within 24 hours, Pitt had surprisingly released a statement clarifying and lamenting the pretend marriage comment while praising his former spouse. Jen “is an incredibly giving, loving and hilarious woman,” Brad swears. Still, the Pitt source says, despite his claims that it was all spun wrong , “no one believes his words were taken out of context – he said what he said.” Why say that in any context? Yhough Pitt is clearly happy with Angelina Jolie and their kids, “We think he’s jealous [Jen’s] in love,” the source says.
Brad Pitt is in full-fledged movie promotion mode, but still finds himself fielding questions about his personal life – specifically select comments he made last week regarding his pretend marriage to Jennifer Aniston . “That was never my intention for it to be spun that way,” he said of those who interpreted his remarks that way, insisting it wasn’t what he meant. “People read things into it that just weren’t there.” Saying he once used film to fill a void in his life, Pitt told Parade last week: “It became very clear to me that I was intent on trying to find a movie about an interesting life, but I wasn’t living an interesting life myself.” “I think that my marriage had something to do with it,” he says, noting that he was “trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn’t.” While we certainly don’t think Brad meant to overtly slam Jen, it’s also easy to understand how someone could interpret it as such. Tough one. However he may have meant it, there’s no arguing that critics and fans are eagerly anticipating his new film Moneyball , opening this weekend. [Photo: WENN.com]
Thelma and Louise. Seven. Fight Club. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The Tree of Life. To say nothing of this week’s superb Moneyball . With a few arguable exceptions, these are among the Brad Pitt films you’ll find generally accepted as canonical. So which, if he had to choose one, do you think he would hand down as his legacy? Hint: None of them .
In a new interview with Parade , Brad Pitt briefly discusses his failed marriage to Jennifer Aniston, with one quote in particular raising eyebrows. Saying he tried to use movies to fill a void in his personal existence, Pitt says “It became very clear to me that I was intent on trying to find a movie about an interesting life, but I wasn’t living an interesting life myself.” Ouch. And it gets worse: “I think that my marriage had something to do with it,” he says, noting that he was “trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn’t.” He adds that nowadays, “I’m satisfied with making true choices and finding the woman I love, Angie, and building a family that I love so much.” If that sounded harsh to you, get in line. Brad’s also in that line, contacting E! News through his rep to explain that he didn’t mean it like that. “It grieves me that this was interpreted this way,” he says, “Jen is an incredibly giving, loving, and hilarious woman who remains my friend.” “It is an important relationship I value greatly. The point I was trying to make is not that Jen was dull, but that I was becoming dull to myself.” “That, only I am responsible for.” Pitt is one of the most private and least malicious guys around, one we can’t see taking a cheap shot like that, so we’re inclined to believe him. Think Jen agrees? Do you? [Photo: WENN.com]
Hollywood celebrities Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston are not just planning to wed their respective partners, they’re tripping over themselves to get married first! According to a clearly bogus report in OK! anyway. There is little doubt that when Brad Pitt left Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie six years ago, it fueled one of the biggest celebrity feuds in modern times. But while entertainment news channels and celeb gossip sites eat that up, there’s little reason to believe there’s actual competition right now. Or is there? According to OK!, Angelina is a RAGING, SPITEFUL, JEALOUS BITCH who must, at all costs, sabotage Jen’s (non-existent) wedding to (non) fiance Justin Theroux . Jolie is set to marry Brad first as part of this evil plot. Despite publicly insisting that she has no plans to wed, sources who do not exist close to the Oscar-winner say she’s has already picked out a dress! Make no mistake – her fake wedding will be more opulent than Aniston’s, too: “The truth is she and Jen still hate each other,” a source dishes. “They just can’t seem to let go of their grudges. They’ve taken a lot of jabs over the years, but Angelina is obsessed with proving her dominance.” “Obviously she loves Brad deeply and wants to cement their bond and keep her family together. But there’s more going on. A lot of people around her suspect this.” “The wedding has a lot to do with her need to be on top.” No matter what, Angelina wears the pants around the house. Absolutely no one is going to get up here and argue that oft-repeated rumor.
When Guillermo del Toro ( Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth ) set out to update the scariest movie he’d ever seen as a child — the 1973 made-for-television movie Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark , about inhabitants of a house who discover sinister creatures living in the basement — he intended to frighten and thrill a new generation of youngsters. Even co-star Katie Holmes , who makes a rare genre appearance in the Del Toro-produced and co-scripted horror pic, found the script to so terrifying that she knew she had to do it. But is Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark , as the MPAA deemed, too scary for kids?
Magazine editors are increasingly looking to place their stories at studios — for what it’s worth: “‘Hollywood is essentially in the business of not making movies,’ said Henry Finder, editorial director of The New Yorker . ‘They only make a movie when they run out of reasons not to make it. [… B]ut if I’m trying to get talent attached it might be easier for me to say, “Hey look, Brad Pitt, there’s this really cool story that was in Vanity Fair or Rolling Stone ” — it’s going to be based on that.'” Great! It beats Ouija . [ WWD via The Awl ]