Move over, Prometheus : David Cronenberg and Robert Pattinson are here with a 30-second foreign teaser for Cosmopolis , their adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel about a young billionaire’s dark, demented and all-around catastrophic 24-hour Manhattan odyssey. And it looks amazing. In fairness, it’s basically only 30 NSFW seconds of hyper-edited visuals, but what visuals: Times Square overrun with dinosaurs, Pattinson’s Eric Packer shooting a hole through his hand, limousine trysts and pee breaks, and all the quintessentially Cronenbergian glimpses of the perverse in the quotidian. Niftier still is the dialogue introducing the teaser, clipped in DeLillo’s own trademark staccato, hinting at a spiritual fidelity to the flawed but sui generis source material. It just looks and feels right . We’ll see how the other 100 minutes or so can compare later this spring, when Cosmopolis presumably debuts (and lands an American distributor) at Cannes. [via Movies.com ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
There’s no script, no budget and no confirmed Charles Grodin to complement the “buddy” part of the “buddy comedy” formula that worked so well 24 years ago, but that’s not stopping the zeitgeist from panicking over the current state of Midnight Run 2 . To wit, Brett Ratner is now linked up as the director. Like we’ve never heard that before . Everybody calm down! Not that it doesn’t get somewhat worse, as Mike Fleming reports at Deadline: The studio and [De Niro’s production company] Tribeca put the wheels in motion on the sequel early last year, when they hired Tim Dowling to write a draft. [David] Elliot & [Paul] Lovett, who were writers on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra , and are working on the sequel to Four Brothers (which they also scripted) will continue the storyline of Walsh, the ex-Chicago cop who, when last seen, set free the turncoat mob accountant The Duke at LAX and walked away with a wad of cash he’d use to open a coffee shop. So, yeah: Still early. Anyway, to recap, De Niro played bounty hunter Walsh and Grodin played Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas in the 1988 film, which was written with such profane, caustic fervor by George Gallo and directed by Martin Brest in his follow-up to Beverly Hills Cop . All of which raises a few questions: Would the retired Grodin reprise his role? (He’s said he’s open to it, but he’s also 77 next month and doesn’t exactly need the paycheck.) What is it with Ratner wanting sequels to Brest classics? (If it’s not Beverly Hills Cop 4 , then it’s Midnight Run 2 . Just give him Son of Gigli already and let’s be done with it!) And can Elliot and Lovett find a place for Yaphet Kotto to return as well? Because there is no Midnight Run 2 without perpetually vexed FBI agent Alonso Mosley delivering some serious comeuppance. [ Deadline ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Singer is adjusting to the fame that’s followed the success of ‘Somebody That I Used to Know,’ her collabo with Gotye. By Christina Garibaldi Kimbra Photo: Getty Images You may have heard her voice on Gotye’s smash hit “Somebody That I Used to Know,” but everyone will soon be familiar with her name: Kimbra. The New Zealand pop singer will take the stage Thursday (March 15) at the 2012 mtvU Woodie Awards Festival during SXSW. So what can fans expect from this newcomer when she hits the stage? Well, MTV News caught up with Kimbra last month in New York, and she told us all about her live performances. “Live experience is definitely quite different,” she said. “I think the record shows a more intimate or reflective side of what I do, but the live show is all about showing more of that aggression.” After working on her debut album for more than three years, the 21-year-old singer/songwriter released Vows in Australia in 2011. It includes catchy and diverse songs like “Cameo Lover” and her latest single, “Good Intent.” Kimbra is set to release Vows in the U.S. on May 22; this version will feature additional songs that she recorded Stateside. “I started working on it when I was 17; now I’m 21,” Kimbra said of the LP. “I think there was a lot of development that needed to happen before I felt like I had something to say musically and lyrically. So yeah, there were some frustrating moments making the album, but I’m glad I took the time I did to make it, and I’m happy with it now. I definitely explore a lot on the album. It’s called Vows, so it talks a bit about the idea of commitment and making promises, but also breaking promises and how you deal with that.” Kimbra has a refreshing yet soulful sound, which she credits to her eclectic taste in music. “It’s hard to describe in a few words,” she said of her sound. “But I’m definitely influenced by some R&B. I also loved musical theater as a kid, so I think that’s what brings more theatrical elements to the music. I’d like to think it’s Prague-pop or something like that. I like to think it’s progressive in some way, but still pop music at the end of the day.” Kimbra is still trying to get used to the newfound fame that’s come with the success of Gotye’s hit. The video, which features the pair without clothing, currently has over 111 million views on YouTube . “We did vocals to that song, at least my verse, in my bedroom, [and] really chilled out,” Kimbra said of recording the track. “I think at the time we were like, ‘Yeah, it’s a cool song,’ but we didn’t think it would be quite what it’s been, so I think it’s a humbling experience for both of us.” Following her performance at the Woodies fest, Kimbra will be hitting the road with Gotye in March and will be back on tour in May with Foster the People . The Woodies invade SXSW on March 15 with the Woodies Festival. The best of the 2012 mtvU Woodies will air on MTV and mtvU on March 18 at 8 p.m. ET. Related Videos 2012 mtvU Woodie Awards Festival Performances Related Photos 2012 mtvU Woodie Awards Festival: Performances 2012 mtvU Woodie Awards Nominees Related Artists Kimbra
‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ will be the DiCaprio and Scorsese’s fifth project together. By Jocelyn Vena Leonardo DiCaprio Photo: Kiyoshi Ota/ Getty Images After some stops and starts, it seems that Martin Scorsese ‘s “The Wolf of Wall Street” is in full “go” mode with his longtime leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio , locked in to star. According to Deadline , the film has yet to nail down a timeline for when it will shoot and get distribution, but DiCaprio and Scorsese felt that now was the right time to get cracking on the flick. The two have been trying to get it into production since 2007, but they separated to work on their own high-profile projects before deciding to work together again. At one point, Ridley Scott had been attached to direct the film, but that later shifted back to Scorsese . The film is based on the tell-all memoir written by Jordan Belfort, a drug-, sex- and alcohol-addicted stockbroker who landed in prison for refusing to cooperate in a 1990s securities fraud case. It’s a steamy story of his fall from a 20-something multimillionaire to a 30-something federal convict banned from the securities business for life. The film would focus on Belfort’s relationship with an FBI agent and his attempt to make him into an informant. In addition to their roles as director and actor, Scorsese and DiCaprio will also serve as producers on the film. Writer Terence Winter, known for his work with “The Sopranos” and “Boardwalk Empire,” is reportedly cleaning up the script before the film goes to production. This marks the fifth collaboration for Scorsese and DiCaprio, who have worked together in the past on “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” “The Departed” and “Shutter Island.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Photos The Evolution Of: Leonardo DiCaprio
FBI agents have identified the third Atlanta gang member who they say was videotaped beating a 20-year-old gay man in Atlanta’s Pittsburgh community earlier this month. The videotaped attack was posted online and went viral. The AJC reports that Dareal Damare Williams is wanted for his part in the Feb. 4 robbery and attack on Brandon White. FBI agents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania said they believe that Williams, 17, is hiding out in the Erie, Pennsylvania area and have issued an alert in western Pennsylvania. Mayor Kasim Reed raised an Atlanta Crime Stoppers reward several times. The reward is currently $25,000. Police said the responding tips led to the arrest of Christopher Cain, 19, a week after the incident. On Feb. 17, 19-year-old Dorian Moragne turned himself in to police. All three teens are said to be members of a neighborhood gang called 1029 Jack City or Pittsburgh Jack City. The 1029 represents the address of the gang’s hangout, 1029 McDaniels Street. Anyone with information of Williams’ whereabouts are asked to call Atlanta Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477 or Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-472-8477. Anonymous calls are accepted, and anyone offering information leading to Williams’ arrest and conviction is eligible for the reward money. Read the full story at the AJC.com. RELATED: Suspects Identified In Viral Video Attack [VIDEO] Gay Atlanta Man Beaten In Viral Video Speaks Out [VIDEO] Bullying Is Not Hot! [VIDEO] G-Unit’s 40 Glocc On Getting Arrested For Beating His Girlfriend [AUDIO] Usher’s Brother Arrested For Beating Baby Mama & Abusing Child
‘It’s personal, sweet and really sad at the same time,’ actress Jasika Nicole tells MTV News of her upcoming ‘Fringe’ episode. By Josh Wigler Jasika Nicole on “Fringe” Photo: FOX There’s a running gag on ” Fringe ” about good-natured FBI agent Astrid Farnsworth: Even though she spends almost all her screen time assisting and taking care of the delightfully delirious Walter Bishop, the kooky scientist can never quite remember her name. “Aspirin,” he’s called her, or “Asteroid” or any other number of “A” names. Sadly, fans can relate to Walter’s repeated mistake. Sweet and mysterious though she may be, the alluring Astrid is relegated to supporting status so often that it’s far too easy to forget her name. But that all changes with “Making Angels,” the new episode of “Fringe” airing Friday (February 3). Forget Olivia, Walter and Peter — this one is all about Astrid. Actress Jasika Nicole, who plays Astrid on “Fringe,” spoke with MTV News about both versions of her character taking center stage in “Making Angels,” the challenges of merging two versions of the same person for the first time and much more. MTV : We’ve been waiting forever for the Astrid episode of “Fringe.” What took so long? Jasika Nicole : I’ve been waiting so hard and long, just like the fans have! [ Laughs. ] I don’t know why it took so long. It would be one thing if it seemed like Astrid didn’t have a lot of fan support and people aren’t interested, but I feel like fans have been begging to learn and see more of this character. I don’t know for the life of me why it took so long. At the beginning of the season, I called [“Fringe” show-runners Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman] and said, “I want you guys to know that I’m so happy on this show, but I would really, really love to know if there’s an Astrid episode coming up. It would really give me something to look forward to.” They were super vague about it. And I assumed that whenever she did get her episode, it would be a situation where Astrid figures out [the episode’s mystery] at the last minute, or everyone’s on LSD and she has to go out and save the day. That would be an easy way out. But I’ll tell you, I was really surprised with the episode. It’s so beautiful. It’s personal, it’s sweet, and it’s really sad at the same time. I don’t know why it took so long. But I think all the support the episode has been getting is going to make them feel really crappy that they didn’t do this sooner. [ Laughs. ] MTV : You’ve always been vocal about who Astrid is and what she’s about. For the audience, though, we’ve had to piece things together: You get a bit of Astrid here and there, but she’s not at the forefront the way Olivia and Peter are. When you got your episode, did Astrid measure up to your vision of her? How did the episode change your perspective on the character? Nicole : I think [the writers and I] were on the same page. But before with Astrid, we just got the CliffsNotes version of her. She’s kind, thoughtful and a great caretaker. The other Astrid is very smart and she’s a little bit vacant in terms of emotional relationships and isn’t the best communicator. That was kind of it. You didn’t know anything about her family, what it’s like when she got home … it was just overviews of these two characters. But this episode delves into them much more. You see to what extent this Astrid is a caretaker. She does something that’s just really beautiful. She’s such a sweet, caring, sincere woman. It made Astrid seem like a real person. Before, you see her taking care of Walter. She laugh at his jokes and there’s this weird husband-wife, father-daughter thing going on. [ Laughs. ] But now we get to see her in relation to someone who is not Walter. It’s the first time in the four seasons we’ve really seen her interact with another person and putting herself out there so much. The alternate Astrid has been a little one-note because you’ve only seen her at work, very focused on her job. She delivers her information and that’s pretty much it. But the truth is, she has a life and she has a family. Something traumatic happens where she comes from in that universe, and she’s so distraught and incapable of handling what’s going on by herself, that she comes to this universe to seek out our Astrid. That’s definitely a side of her you’ve never seen before. I always wanted to know what she’s like in personal situations instead of professional ones. You get to see that. This episode is really about alt-Astrid. MTV : One of the beauties of “Fringe” is that we get multiple versions of the same character — even though they’re literally the same person, they’re very different in many ways. With the two Astrids coming face to face in this episode, how do those differences and similarities come into play? Nicole : What’s interesting about having an alternate universe is trying to figure out where your paths went differently. What went on here that didn’t go on there? Why aren’t we the exact same person? With the Astrids, it’s a little different because they’re fundamentally different to the core — possibly at a genetic level, if you’re of the theory [that alt-Astrid is on the autism spectrum]. That changes your relationships with your family members, which is something that’s essential to the story of this episode. Not only are the two Astrids different, they’re so different that they have different relationships with the people in their lives. They’re the only constant. Everybody around them is different, but this connection that they have is the only solid thing that they have between them. That’s going to help the alternate Astrid to figure out what’s going on in her life in this crazy, tumultuous time. MTV : “Making Angels” isn’t just the first Astrid-centric episode of “Fringe,” it’s also your first chance to get in on some of the fun your co-stars have been having: acting opposite yourself for pretty much the entire episode. On one hand, that’s got to be pretty cool. On the other, it has to be pretty tricky, right? Nicole : You’re right, it was a double-whammy. It’s like you’re sticking two days into one. You have to know exactly what you’re going to do, you have to know so well how you’re going to play those characters in the beginning of those scenes. It takes a lot of foresight. The emotional part is really tough, but then there’s the technical stuff. You have to stand and make sure your outline is the same every time. There’s a point where [the two Astrids] shake hands, and I could not for the life of me figure out how they were going to make it work. It’s too big of a concept for me to grasp. But what was really cool is that they were able to merge the split screens on the monitors in video village, so they were watching it in real time. I’m doing it with my stand-in, but they’re watching both Jasikas on the screen. At one point, we’d been doing this one scene for like eight hours or something. We were tired. It was a big scene with two Olivias in it, two Astrids, Walter and Peter. There’s all this stuff going on. We ended up not being able to finish the green screen that night. We had to come back and finish the next day. But they only needed to stick me in the scene. There are four or five other characters in the scene, but they’re just filming me in front of the green screen playing off of dialogue that we had recorded the day before. Because we had done it for eight hours, I knew it like the back of my hand. I smiled at imaginary jokes being pulled, I watched imaginary people walking in — it was just so surreal. It’s like you’re playing a pretend game while you’re drunk by yourself, but there are people watching you do it! [ Laughs. ] Nothing about it makes sense, but the end result is phenomenal. The new episode of “Fringe,” “Making Angels,” airs Friday (February 3) at 9 p.m. ET. Check out everything we’ve got on “Fringe.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
It’s the sort of gamesmanship that keeps readers turning the pages in a spy novel. The FBI says that Anonymous, the loose-knit collective of global hackers, intercepted a highly sensitive call between American cybercrime experts and their counterparts at Scotland … Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : VentureBeat Discovery Date : 03/02/2012 11:04 Number of articles : 7
Alex Da Silva was convicted of rape and assault against former dance students. By Katie Byrne Alex Da Silva (file) Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images “So You Think You Can Dance” fans haven’t seen Alex Da Silva on the show since season four back in 2008, and there’s a reason the choreographer has been off the radar: He has been in jail since being charged with raping a former dance student and assaulting another one. On Friday (January 27), Da Silva was sentenced to 10 years in prison for those crimes, TMZ reports. While the 43-year-old was accused of raping and sexually assaulting four women, he was convicted in September of only one count of rape and one count of assault with intent to commit rape; the jury was deadlocked on the other charges. He was arrested back in 2009 and charged with multiple felonies. Unable to pay the bail set at $2 million, Da Silva has remained in jail for the past two years. On top of his 10 years in prison, he is now required to register as a sex offender for life. Da Silva appeared on seasons one through four of “So You Think You Can Dance” as a guest choreographer specializing in Salsa dancing. In season two, eventual winner Benji Schwimmer named his Da Silva-choreographed mambo as his favorite routine of the show. After his arrest, Da Silva did an interview with SalsaFreak.com to clear his name, insisting that he had done nothing wrong with his students. “I know the truth, and I don’t even know who the others are,” he said, claiming to not even be acquainted with some of his accusers. “It’s all a bunch of lies, and people just want to bring me down. If something like that really happened, then they should have gone to the police that night, or the same day, but it was never that way. I have too much to lose. I don’t need that type of thing in my life.”
While the FBI went after the file-sharing site for copyright infringement, many users want to recover their non-pirated data. By Kara Warner The FBI take-down notice posted at Megaupload.com Photo: United States Department of Justice The drama surrounding file-sharing site Megaupload continued Friday (January 27) as users announced a plan to sue the FBI over files lost during the site’s shutdown last week. Last week, the federal government took action against Megaupload.com, arresting several members of the company on racketeering and copyright-infringement charges. A federal indictment alleged that the site, which allows users to transfer large files, has generated more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and costs copyright-holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated movies, albums and other materials. According to TorrentFreak.com , Pirate Parties around the world are banding together to file an official complaint against U.S. authorities in an effort to recover the large amounts of non-pirated data, research documents and personal videos that are shared among users on the site. “The widespread damage caused by the sudden closure of Megaupload is unjustified and completely disproportionate to the aim intended,” they announced in a statement obtained by TorrentFreak. “For this reason Pirates of Catalonia, in collaboration with Pirate Parties International and other Pirate Parties, have begun investigating these potential breaches of law and will facilitate submission of complaints against the US authorities in as many countries as possible, to ensure a positive and just result. “This initiative is a starting point for legitimate internet users to help defend themselves from the legal abuses promoted by those wishing to aggressively lock away cultural materials for their own financial gain.” The Department of Justice said the case against Megaupload is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States. The news broke just a day after major websites like Wikipedia and Google protested against the U.S. House of Representatives’ controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA , and the Senate’s similar Protect IP Act.
Looks like Swizzy is gearing up to be questioned about his site Megaupload that was shut down by the FBI due to piracy claims: Alicia Keys’ husband, Swizz Beatz, was tangled in crisis meetings with his legal team on Friday as the music producer faces possible questioning by the FBI. Beatz is CEO of Megaupload, a file-sharing Web site shuttered by the feds Thursday over Internet piracy claims. Four of the site’s top executives were arrested, but Beatz was not named in the 72-page indictment filed Thursday by the Justice Department. Sources tell us Beatz believes he may be questioned by the FBI and is considering hiring a criminal defense lawyer. If convicted, the arrested executives could face up to 50 years in prison for the largest copyright case in history. Beatz “expects to be questioned by the FBI,” a source close to his camp told us. “He’s the CEO of the site.” When Page Six first revealed last week that Beatz was CEO of the Hong Kong-based file-sharing site, Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothken didn’t dispute Beatz’s position in the organization and acknowledged that Beatz persuaded Kanye West, Will.i.am and Sean “Diddy” Combs to participate in a promotional video for the site. Rothken changed his tune Friday, telling the blog Venturebeat that “[Beatz] was negotiating to become the CEO, but it was never official.” Rothken didn’t get back to us to explain his altered view. Sources tell us Beatz has been CEO of the company for close to a year. “Swizz is satisfied that he isn’t being investigated for any wrongdoing because had this been the case, they would have picked him up at the same time as the others,” a source said. “Swizz had no idea this was coming. He is very much in the dark about this investigation.” Hmmmm….we’re interested to see how this thing turns out. Source
