New York City officials are already teed off over Ken and Sarah Burns documentary The Central Park Five — but just wait until they see the poster for the headlines-generating film. The stark, black-and-white image simply, effectively — and immediately — communicates the idea that the scales of justice did not work for the five men who were convicted and later cleared in the racially charged 1989 Central Park jogger case that rocked the city. As I reported in early October, lawyers for the city of New York have subpoenaed notes and outtakes from the documentary, which Burns directed with his daughter Sarah Burns and her husband David McMahon, in order to determine whether the material can help them fight a federal civil rights lawsuit that five men filed nine years ago as a result of their experience. (Each of the five men is seeking $50 million.) The documentary, which was shown at the Cannes, Telluride and Toronto film festivals, scrutinizes the initial convictions of the Central Park Five — Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Kharey Wise — noting, for instance that the five men did not appear to be in the area of the park where the rape occurred, that their DNA was not found on the victim and that their confessions did not jibe with one another’s. As I also reported, the filmmakers are fighting the subpoena . Sarah Burns told me, “We’re not sure the city can subpoena us because we believe we’re protected by the shield laws” that allow journalists to protect their sources and research. In 2009, on the 20th anniversary of the incident, the lawyer for the five men, Jonathan Moore called their experience “the most racist prosecution that occurred in the City of New York. The city maintains that that cops and prosecutors acted appropriately. “We believe that based on the information that the police and prosecutors had at the time, they had probable cause to proceed, and the confessions were sound,” a city spokeswoman told the New York Times. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
New York City officials weren’t exactly helpful when Ken Burns and his daughter were making a documentary about the racially charged 1989 Central Park jogger case, but now they’re hoping the finished film, The Central Park Five , will be useful to them. The film, which got a special screening in New York on Tuesday night, explores the lives of the five men who were convicted and later cleared in the case which became a symbol of racial tension in a metropolis besieged by crime. (The terms “wolf pack” and “wilding” were added to the media’s lexicon of fear-inducing terms as a result of the case.) The documentary, which was shown at the Cannes, Telluride and Toronto film festivals, scrutinizes the initial convictions of the Central Park Five, noting, for instance that the five men did not appear to be in the area of the park where the rape occurred, that their DNA was not found on the victim and that their confessions did not jibe with one another’s. Despite the movie’s perspective, the New York Times reported that lawyers for the city of New York have subpoenaed notes and outtakes from the documentary, which Burns directed with his daughter Sarah Burns and her husband David McMahon, in order to determine whether the material can help them fight a $50 million federal civil rights lawsuit that five men filed nine years ago as a result of their experience. In 2009, on the 20th anniversary of the incident, their lawyer Jonathan Moore called that experience “the most racist prosecution that occurred in the City of New York.” Ken Burns told the Times that the Sept. 12 subpoena came after the city had spent years declining the filmmakers’ requests for interviews to explain the actions taken by law-enforcement officials involved in the case. “There is a great deal of disappointment that it came to this, given the fact that we had given so many of the factions in this complicated story many, many opportunities, on a regular basis, to comment,” Burns said. The city insists that cops and prosecutors acted appropriate given the information that they had available to them then.. “We believe that based on the information that the police and prosecutors had at the time, they had probable cause to proceed, and the confessions were sound,” a city spokeswoman told the Times. [ New York Times] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Although the actor never shows his face in the film, removing the iconic helmet ‘was never considered,’ Urban tells MTV News. By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Karl Urban in “Dredd” Photo: DNA Films
Tween Kendall Jenner has good morals, values and concept of how to market herself thanks to her old, fatter, more ethnic half sister who she wants to be exactly like…..but she also has a great fucking body…cuz instead of having a fat Armenian lawyer up in her DNA, she’s got an Olympic Gold athlete ready to win in her…making me think she was always the trophy girl they intended to have win over America….Kim Kardashian was just designed to be the evil leader of the family…a little gymnastic bodied thing takes over…at least thas what I hope…because I like my girls fit, lean and a better inspiration to the youth…not fat and filming porn with hip hop stars like some kind of music video girl no one respects….Team fucking Jennner..even though the whole bus of this family should be publicly blown up for the sake of America.
Wanted: one hardy strain of dinosaur DNA and an endless supply of lawyers who don’t mind using outhouses. Gawker.com picked up a report from Australia’s Sunshine Coast Daily that local billionaire Clive Palmer is in “deep discussion” with the scientists who cloned Dolly the Sheep about producing a real, live dinosaur that he could house at an ambitious resort he’s developing in Coolum, in the state of Queensland. Palmer, who looks like he was cloned from the DNA of John Candy and Sir Richard Attenborough — he played Jurassic Park founder John Hammond in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film adaption of Michael Crichton’s novel — also reportedly wants to build a fully functional replica of the Titanic, which suggests to me that this guy is just looking for trouble. I should also note that Queensland does not need an actual dangerous-ass dinosaur running loose since it is already home to a staggering array of deadly and venomous creatures i ncluding the Blue Ring Octopus, the Funnel Web and Red Back spiders, the Saltwater Crocodile and Taipan and Brown snakes. Palmer has yet to verify this claim, but is reportedly expected to hold a press conference on Friday. Stay tuned. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
What the hell ?! Police in Oregon say this super-freak broke into his neighbors’ homes so he could watch a triple X flick with a little added adrenaline rush. Antone Owens, of Eugene, allegedly busted into three houses between September of 2011 and April, 2012, The Register-Guard reports. Owens told the cops that he is addicted to “freaky films.” “He knows he has a problem,” Eugene police Sgt. Mitch Martin told the Register-Guard. “Our hope is that he gets the help he needs so that he can be a functioning member of society.” In one of the alleged break-ins, a residents’ son reportedly awoke to find someone in his bedroom, according to KMTR. The station also reports that Owens told police he does have a computer with Internet at his house, but he prefers the excitement of viewing flicks at other people’s homes. Police collared Owens last week after his voluntarily provided DNA sample matched “material” found at the crime scenes, CNET reports. Give this pervy burglar a nice jail cell so he can invite other inmates to join him for some live one on one action. No wi-fi connection needed. Source
So the Jenner sisters in all their hot, young, underage, not contaminated with Armenian DNA glory posted some pictures of their hot, young, underage bodies in bikinis, that have since been taken down….and that were unfortunately contaminated by a picture of the uterus, or mothership, source to the demons that are the Kardashians, but luckily they blurred out her vile mom stomach….cuz she’s bad enough as a human without showing off a mom of 10 drones designed to take over pop culture gunt…and as much as I hate all things Kardashian, at least 2 out of the 10 are good to look at… So the Jenner sisters in all their hot, young, underage, not contaminated with Armenian DNA glory posted some pictures of their hot, young, underage bodies in bikinis, that have since been taken down….and that were unfortunately contaminated by a picture of the uterus, or mothership, their source and the source of the demons that are the Kardashians, but luckily they blurred out her vile mom stomach….cuz she’s bad enough as a human, if she is even a human, without showing off a mom of 10 pieces of shit designed to take over pop culture gunt…and as much as I hate all things Kardashian, at least 2 out of the 10 are good to look at…
Teen Found Guilty of Raping Toddler This sick older brother is going away… hopefully for the rest of his life: Memphis, TN – A Memphis jury has found 17-year-old James Prindle guilty of raping a 23-month-old girl. The jury took all day on Friday to convict Prindle on all counts. Prosecutors claimed Prindle committed the disturbing act against the toddler while babysitting at Cordova Creek Apartments in August of 2010. Though just 15 at the time, he was later charged and indicted as an adult. “There’s no DNA, no semen, no blood stain. You’ll hear how the child was bleeding but nothing links James to the sexual assault,” said Prindle’s defense during opening arguments. Prindle was accused of bathing the child before running to a neighbor for help. Prosecutors say he told that neighbor a lie that a “large black man wearing a mask broke into the apartment,” that police later disproved. The next story Prindle told, according to prosecutors, was that his friends were responsible for the rape. His defense attorney says he lied about the robber because he was trying to stay out of trouble with his mother for having friends over when he was supposed to be babysitting. “He’s hanging out with friends, high, running the apartment complex. That’s what he was doing, making up stories lying about being in the apartment every time he was left alone for hours,” claimed the defense. Prindle’s attorney says Prindle, who had not only smoked marijuana but had taken Xanex, wasn’t home at the time of the rape and says once he found the little girl beaten and bruised he did everything he could to help her. Lil punk! You’ll be treated real nice where you’re going. Foxmemphis
U.K. critics are divided down the middle on Sony’s ‘Spider-Man’ reboot, starring Andrew Garfield as the friendly neighborhood hero. By Josh Wigler Andrew Garfield in “The Amazing Spider-Man” Photo: Peter Parker swings back into U.S. theaters on July 3 with “The Amazing Spider-Man,” this time played by British up-and-comer Andrew Garfield — and while Stateside critics have stayed hush-hush on their feelings about the “Amazing” reboot for now, our friends across the pond have been more outspoken with their reactions. Several U.K. news outlets including The Guardian and Empire have published their reviews of director Marc Webb’s “Spider-Man” reboot, following the film’s London premiere on Monday. The consensus is not unlike Parker’s own superhero career: rocky at points, healthy at times and flat-out “amazing” in other areas. Keep reading for the good and the bad from the early “Amazing Spider-Man” reviews! Webb & The Web-Spinner “Webb successfully treads a fine line between keeping the hardcore superhero-movie fans happy and injecting a dose of meaningful affect. Parker is generally reckoned to be the most ‘relatable’ figure in the superhero canon, but the pastel-bright synthetics of the earlier movies did little to dispel the sense that the comic-book world could only construct its characters out of clunking great blocks of melodrama. In re-engineering Parker into the introspective, uncertain male more typical of his previous film, Webb is aided by a terrific performance from Andrew Garfield, who brings a genial unflappability that allows him to negotiate the often-ludicrous demands of the superhero plotline. At the same time, Webb also shows an unarguable facility for the more traditional action elements of the story, and the 3D certainly helps: he pulls off some properly nauseating shots as Parker dives off skyscrapers, rescues kids from falling, and the like.” — Andrew Pulver, The Guardian Toning It Down “The shadow of ‘Batman Begins’ looms as ‘Amazing’ opens, the gold standard of origin-skewed reboots riskily invoked. Parker as a child plays games at home, stumbles on some destiny-sealing revelations, loses his parents on a stormy night… A dark roots movie steeped in tragedy? Some ‘untold story,’ that. Webb finds much surer footing as Parker hits high school, helped by crack casting. More confident than the last, this Parker is slick on a skateboard and not shy about standing up to Flash Thompson. The geek just got chic: who better to play him than the guy with the algorithms and rhythm from ‘The Social Network’? A young buck made testy by grief, a rebel without a comb, Garfield nails all bases here, star DNA aglow. Stare-y eyes melting, he’s winningly earnest; lithe of physique, he delivers in the dust-ups; blithely gatecrashing Gwen Stacy’s bedroom, he gives good dreamboat.” — Total Film Love For The Ladies “Then there’s his needle-sharp young girlfriend, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), who wants to get under his skin even more than that radioactive arachnid did; find out what it is that makes his Spidey-senses tingle. Amid all of the soul-searching and lip-biting, it suddenly struck me: Webb has created the first superhero movie aimed primarily at women. Ever since ‘Twilight’ tipped off Hollywood to the spending power of girls and their mothers, a range of increasingly expensive films aimed at that audience has materialised. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before a superhero suited up with them in mind, although it remains to be seen how die-hard Spider-fans will react to their hero courting a different — some would say rival — demographic.” — Robbie Collin, The Telegraph The Negative Spin “Director Marc Webb aims for a new realism, stripping away the brio of Sam Raimi’s 2002 version with Tobey Maguire. He also dispenses with much of the character and sass that always made this character fun. It’s not Garfield’s fault: he is a convincingly troubled, inarticulate Peter Parker, a springily athletic Spider-Man, and has awesome hair. His greatest enemy is the script. That, and the rather wearisome 3D.” — Nick Curtis, The London Evening Standard The Final Word “Graced with great performances from Garfield and Stone, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ is a rare comic-book flick that is better at examining relationships than superheroism. If it doesn’t approach the current benchmark of ‘Avengers Assemble,’ it still delivers a different enough, enjoyable origin story to live comfortably alongside the Raimi era.” –Ian Freer, Empire What do you think of the early “Spider-Man” reviews? Let us know in the comments section below! Check out everything we’ve got on “The Amazing Spider-Man.” For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Related Photos The Amazing Spider-Man
