From the diaries . In the wake of Chen Guangcheng arriving safely in the United States, after years of persecution in China for his anti-abortion activism, The House of Representatives will vote tomorrow on H.R. 3541 (also known as the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act – PRENDA), a bill to ban sex-selection abortions in the United States. Although the US has strongly condemned China for their sex-selection… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Red State Discovery Date : 29/05/2012 11:29 Number of articles : 2
Bit of a random post this morning, with rumors of Facebook entering China finally, and in the spirit of China, Mark Zuckerberg with wife in tow, have made a surprise appearance in a documentary about China’s Police force, which aired on broadcast channel CCTV. The video shows Zuckerberg and his wife as bystanders for just a second (at 0:29) and is ironic considering Facebook is blocked in China. The… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : TweakTown News RSS Feed Discovery Date : 27/05/2012 14:17 Number of articles : 2
‘Snow White’ actress tells MTV News how she ‘stalked’ director Rupert Wyatt after hearing about the sci-fi adaptation. By Fallon Prinzivalli, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Charlize Theron Photo: MTV News Charlize Theron has played more than a few not-so-nice characters. She received critical acclaim for her role in “Young Adult,” where she played an unstable woman intent on winning back her married high school sweetheart. Now she’s working on a project with “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” director Rupert Wyatt called “Agent 13,” in which she’ll reportedly play another femme fatale. When MTV News caught up with the “Snow White and the Huntsman” actress, she revealed how the sci-fi project came together. “It’s a pitch that I heard a month or so ago and I fell in love with this pitch,” she said. “And ironically, at the same time, I really wanted to have a general [meeting] — ’cause you know how I stalk directors — with Rupert ’cause I really love what he’s been doing. I brought up the pitch to him and he said, ‘I really love this. I think we should talk about it.’ And so it was really just the universe coming together.” “Agent 13” is an adaptation of a 1988 comic book that follows an organization called the Brotherhood, which comprises survivors of the lost civilization of Lemuria. The title character was kidnapped by the Brotherhood as a young boy and trained to be one of their top spies. When Agent 13 realizes the group has been corrupted, though, he sets off to take them down. Fans are speculating that Theron will play one of the agent’s two sidekicks — his seductive lover, China White, or his beautiful, devoted assistant Maggie Darr — but the actress isn’t sure which character she’ll play. “You know, we’re writing it right now so it’s a very, very loose pitch,” she said, “but it’s an alternate world story so it’s big and epic and cool.” With the Wyatt project still in its early stages, fans can get their fill of evil Theron as the wicked Queen Ravenna in “Snow White” when it opens on June 1. Her character’s cruel nature, she said, gave her license to act like a jerk between takes. “I’m like yelling for sandwiches and coffee,” she joked. “And then, Chris [Hemsworth] comes by and he’s like, ‘You’re not shooting right now, Charlize!’ And I say, ‘Your head on a silver platter!’ And he says, ‘No, you’re not the queen right now.’ And then it crushes me, and I cry, and I deal with it.” While Theron hasn’t ruled out playing the nice girl, she teasingly said that for now she takes on the roles most familiar to her. “I stick with what I’m good at,” she said, laughing. Check out everything we’ve got on “Snow White and the Huntsman.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV First: Snow White And The Huntsman MTV Rough Cut: ‘Snow White And The Huntsman’ Related Photos Snow White And The Huntsman ‘Snow White And The Huntsman’ World Premiere
In this morning’s Biz Break: Indian ire rises over The Avengers , a Chinese company eyes AMC theaters, vet actors join the musical comedy How Sweet It Is , the Chinese blockbuster Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is headed to IMAX, and more. Vet Actors Join Cast in Musical Comedy How Sweet It Is Burt Reynolds ( The Dukes of Hazzard ), Joe Piscopo ( Saturday Night Live ), Paul Sorvino ( Law & Order ) and Erika Christensen ( Parenthood ) have signed on to star in the musical comedy How Sweet It Is . Written and directed by Brian Hertzlinger (with co-writer Jay Black), the film is produced by Suzanne DeLaurentiis, Steven Chase, Rick Finkelstein, Ivan Kavalsky, Keith Weiner and Matthew L. Weiner and slated for a fall release. Ben Means Joins Phase 4 Films as SVP, Global Business Development Means will be charged with expanding Phase 4’s North American business. Prior to joining Phase 4 Films, Means was General Manager of Aggregation Services at Sony DADC; Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment; and Vice President of North American Operations at Buena Vista Home Entertainment, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Around the ‘net… Avengers Slum Scenes Ignite Indian Anger The movie’s healthy opening in India has been marred by high-profile complaints over its portrayal of urban living conditions in the city of Kolkata, The Guardian reports . AMC In Talks with China’s Wanda to Sell North America’s second largest theater chain has resumed talks with China’s Wanda over selling a “significant stake” in the company, the NY Times reports . If completed, the deal will begin a new phase in China’s push into the global film industry by sharply increasing its leverage with Hollywood. The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate Sets September IMAX Release Acquired for North American release by Indomina, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is the first Chinese-language film to be released in the IMAX 3D format and the fourth-highest grossing Chinese-language film of all time. Since its December release in China, the feature has earned approximately $86.5 million at the box office, of which approximately $10.6 million was generated in 61 digital IMAX theaters, Movieweb reports . Killer Joe Heads for Release with NC-17 Black comedy Killer Joe will open July 27 via LD Entertainment with an NC-17. Directed by William Friedkin the film received the NC-17 in late February despite an appeal by the filmmaker and distributor, Deadline reports .
(John Hinderaker) It’s been a banner 12 months for Justin Folk. Last summer, he won the $100,000 Power Line Prize with his animated video The Spending Is Nuts. In January, he was part of the team that won the $1 million Doritos Super Bowl commercial prize, for the hilarious commercial Sling Baby, starring Justin’s young son. Now, Justin’s company has collaborated with Bill Whittle and Andrew Klavan… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Power Line Discovery Date : 27/04/2012 05:12 Number of articles : 2
BEIJING — Chen Guangcheng, the blind, self-taught lawyer known for his outspoken opposition to China’s forced abortion and sterilization policies, has escaped from house arrest and posted a dramatic YouTube video calling on Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to investigate his case and protect his family. Read full article > > Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Sleuth Discovery Date : 27/04/2012 09:00 Number of articles : 2
In movie terms, Jason Statham is a man without a country, an actor who fits so conveniently into a certain kind of movie that almost no one can think of him any other way. Where, oh where, can he go from here? Statham is the go-to guy for action movies that require an appealing, thoughtful protagonist who looks great shirtless, and Boaz Yakin ’s Safe is, unfortunately, just more of the same, or perhaps even less of the same. It has neither the Red Bull–fueled crudeness of Crank nor the Frenchified lunatic vitality of the Transporter movies; it’s not even as cheaply entertaining as the generic hit-man retread The Mechanic . Safe shows Statham comfortably treading water, proving all the things he no longer needs to prove – chiefly, that he’s a terrific action performer who moves with more grace than pretty much anyone else in the film world. The picture fails to challenge him. Safe is safer than safe – it’s so relentlessly kinetic that it ends up being dull. Statham plays former New York cop and sometime cage fighter Luke Wright, a guy who first gets on the wrong side of the Russian mob and then pisses off the Triads to boot. Somewhere in there, Luke’s old cop pals get in on the action too: They’re corrupt as hell, and when they finally get a hold of him, they’re all too eager to find ways to dispose of him. All three groups have a stake in one prized piece of property, who happens to be a person: Mei (Catherine Chan) is a child math prodigy who can hold streams of numbers in her head – business figures, safe combinations and the like – thus doing away with all those pesky paper trails. Mei has been whisked away from her home in China and pressed into service by the Triads as a kind of one-person bookkeeping service. Everyone wants the information she has stored in her head, which means she needs to be protected. And you’d think that Statham’s Luke, with his powerhouse brawn, dolphinlike agility and rough-soft kitten’s tongue of a voice, would be just the guy to do it. And he is, sort of. But Safe – written and directed by Boaz Yakin – offers too much mindless gunplay and indiscriminate roughhousing and not enough Statham, even though he’s most certainly the star. The action is ostensibly the movie’s reason for being, yet it’s so chopped up and dizzying it’s practically a distraction, and it pushes the movie into a strange state of inertia. What’s more, the action isn’t cleanly shot or edited – it’s almost impossible to tell who’s coming from where, which, sadly, is pretty much the standard in all contemporary action movies. But it’s a double disappointment given that Statham is such a charismatic star, both in terms of emotional subtlety and in the way his body moves. He has a few astonishing scenes, one in which he shows the deepest kind of sorrow without saying a word. Yakin – who has worked as both a screenwriter ( Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ) and a director ( Remember the Titans , A Price Above Rubies ) clearly knows what Statham is capable of. So why doesn’t he use this movie to blast open more opportunities for this sorely underchallenged actor? Your guess is as good as mine. Statham does have a few wonderful scenes with Chan, who may not be the most relaxed child actor but who nonetheless has a bright, sparkplug intensity. When Luke pumps her for information, Mei grudgingly complies. “Now you know everything. Happiness for you?” she shoots back bitterly, and in that moment you recognize that even though she’s tiny and cute, she’s a much tougher customer than Statham’s Luke is. He’s taken aback by her precociousness and her perceptiveness, but you can see he respects her, too. That’s the thing about Statham: He has the face of a careful listener, to the extent that his gloriously sculpted body almost seems like an afterthought. The picture could use more scenes like that one, although perhaps Yakin didn’t want to make a retread of Luc Besson’s crazy-wonderful Léon , which paired Jean Reno’s hitman with the littlest hitgal, played by an astonishingly young Natalie Portman. But Safe would be so much better if it followed Léon ’s lead, at least in terms of giving Statham a multidimensional character to play. Statham does his damnedest, but mostly, he just looks a little weary. Those of us who love Jason Statham will just have to wait until someone figures out what the heck to do with him. (So far, Roger Donaldson has come the closest, with his 2008 heist thriller The Bank Job .) For now, Safe is all we’ve got, and you can bet it’s not taking any risks. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The rogue state of North Korea is making headlines again for issuing threats, but this time of a more specific nature than their typical over-the-top, vague rhetoric. North Korea’s military interrupted state TV Monday with a special report, vowing to reduce areas of neighboring South Korea “to ashes” in less than four minutes. The threat comes amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, the recent ascension of Kim Jong Un to the dictatorship and the North’s latest failed missile test . North Korea Issues New, Specific Threats According to the AP, the scary statement from North Korea was unusual in promising something soon and in describing specific locations and periods of time. The North Korean military threatened to “reduce all the rat-like groups and the bases for provocations to ashes in three or four minutes … (or) in much shorter time, by unprecedented peculiar means and methods of our own style.” Yeah. Real normal. South Korean officials responded, urging North Korea to end the threats. “We urge North Korea to immediately stop this practice,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said, according to the Associated Press. The South Korean leader added, “We express deep concern that the North’s threats and accusations have worsened inter-Korean ties and heightened tensions.” The April 13 launch of what the United States called a “disguised ballistic missile test” disintegrated just minutes after its launch, humiliating North Korea. South Korean officials say new satellite images show that North Korea has been digging a tunnel in what appears to be preparation for a third atomic test. For months the North has castigated South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and the conservative administration for insulting their leadership and criticizing a new cruise, nuclear-armed missile capable of striking anywhere in the south. Meanwhile, in a meeting Sunday with a North Korean delegation in Beijing, China’s senior official on foreign policy praised the leadership shown by Kim Jong Un. How far he pushes the envelope remains to be seen, but he’s clearly put the world on notice that like his father Kim Jong Il, he’s not afraid of posturing.
You GO girl! *Martin Lawrence voice* Pennsylvania First Grader Born With No Hands Wins Penmanship Award A Pittsburgh-area girl who was born without hands has won a penmanship award — and $1,000 — from a company that publishes language arts and reading textbooks. Zaner-Bloser Inc. recognized 7-year-old Annie Clark at Wilson Christian Academy in West Mifflin on Wednesday. After the ceremony, Clark demonstrated her ability to write by manipulating a pencil between her forearms. The girl’s parents, Tom and Mary Ellen Clark, have nine children — three biological and six adopted from China, including Annie. They say the girl uses a similar method to feed and dress herself and to paint her toenails. Clark is the first winner of an award named for Nicholas Maxim. Nicholas was a Maine fifth-grader born without hands or lower arms who entered the company’s penmanship contest last year. Talk about inspiration for that a$$, you feel kind of silly complaining about stuff after you read this huh? Image via Larry Roberts/Pittsburg Post-Gazette Source More On Bossip! Dirty Dog Diaries: MORE Women Come Forward Telling Royce That Her New Boo-Thang Dezmon Briscoe Been Tryna Chop Them Down Too! Single And Ready To Mingle: The 10 Best Cities To Meet New People And Get Freaky! Cheaper To Chop Her: Men (And Women) That Got Caught Trying To Pay For That Poon Ain’t That A B–?! Dirty Dogs That Faced Bad Karma For Their Dirty Dog Ways
Pop star is in goddess mode in snippet from upcoming video, which band teased during Canadian tour stop. By John Mitchell Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Rihanna Photo: Getty Images Coldplay teased the upcoming video for their latest Mylo Xyloto single, “Princess of China,” during a tour stop in Edmonton, Canada, giving concertgoers their first look at Rihanna rocking the look she tweeted about from the video’s set in March. During the band’s performance of the song, the Barbadian pop diva appeared on an overhead video in full-on goddess mode with multiple sets of hands fanning out behind her and moving to the beat of the song. The guys of Coldplay are big fans of the “We Found Love” singer and told MTV News last year that they were excited to work with her because it was an opportunity to cross genres. “Her bit on our record is my favorite bit,” frontman Chris Martin told MTV News in September. “When the song came out, it sort of asked for her to be on it. And I think at this point, we have nothing to lose, and so we’ve been trying some new things and trying to break down the perceived boundaries between different types of music.” Coldplay have not yet announced when the full “Princess of China” video will premiere. Rihanna, who is also featured in Drake’s “Take Care” video , is readying her own clip for her new single “Where Have You Been.” She hasn’t said when the video will debut, but she posted some sexy stills from the clip to her Facebook earlier this week. Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: Coldplay Related Artists Coldplay Rihanna
