The roster of actors in the world who could reduce megastar George Clooney to rubble with a single withering look is short, but add newcomer Shailene Woodley to the top of the list. As Alex, the acerbic 17-year-old daughter of Clooney’s Hawaiian landowner and family man in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants , Woodley (of ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager ) makes an auspicious film debut that could land her in the Oscar race — not that Woodley, perhaps the most well-adjusted young star on the rise in Hollywood, would take awards razzle-dazzle too seriously.
Lots of movie business to tweet about this weekend: Breaking Dawn, Part I made more money than is right for our national health, The Descendants scored a great opening in limited release, Happy Feet Two happened, and everyone is pretending to know who Natalie Wood is. Time to narrow down Twitter’s commentary to five of the weekend’s best movie-related quips. Robert Wagner, you are not culpable for the hilarity herein.
A little over six months ago, before The Artist premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, it might have been unthinkable to foresee what has since evolved into a very real possibility: Jean Dujardin, a bona fide movie star in his native France but relative unknown in the United States, is as likely as any contender to date to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. Which would be surprising enough without The Artist being a black-and-white French import — a silent black-and-white French import.
Edward Burns’s newest film Newlyweds closed out the Tribeca Film Festival this year, and the director/writer/star is happy to tell you how he allocated the $9,000 in its budget: “5k for actors, 2k insurance, 2k food and drink. 9k in the can.” That’s according to Burns’s Twitter , which is a pretty fun and inspiring scroll for independent filmmakers. Movieline premieres the new poster for Newlyweds after the jump.
Rid of Me , James Westby’s scrappy dramedy about marriage, divorce and finding your inner punk rocker, begins with an act that makes flipping someone off or putting a brick through a windshield look passé. It takes place in a grocery store, and is the kind of ballsy, juvenile and legitimately shocking gesture that indie films used to chase after because studio features would never dare. These days the division between the two realms is fuzzy at best, but this film, which premiered earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, recalls when a little roughness in form and content was part of the charm.
Although Albert Nobbs has made the festival rounds and has long been generating awards-season buzz — particularly for star and co-writer Glenn Close — the film only had its Hollywood coming-out party of sorts over the weekend.
Amy Harris accused MC of slapping her at last month’s Voodoo Experience festival in New Orleans. By Gil Kaufman Odd Future’s Left-Brain onstage at the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans On October 30 Photo: Amy Harris A photographer who claimed Odd Future member Left Brain (born Vyron Turner) assaulted her at last month’s Voodoo Experience festival in New Orleans filed charges against the MC on Friday. Amy Harris accused Turner of slapping her across the face and knocking her camera lens to the ground in the October 30 incident. A representative for the New Orleans Police Department confirmed for MTV News that the single charge of simple battery had been filed and that a detective has been assigned to investigate. Harris would not comment further, referring all questions to a Los Angeles law firm handling her case. In a statement released Sunday, she wrote, “It is my understanding that a police report I filed in New Orleans on Friday has now become public knowledge and is being reported on various websites. At this time, I do not wish to discuss the filing of the police report other than to say that, upon further reflection of events of the past week, it is something I needed to do. The week’s events have been extremely upsetting.” Harris added that she decided to go to police after receiving anonymous email threats about the incident. The charge carries a jail term of up to six months and up to $1,000 in fines. The incident, in which Harris claims the rapper swatted the photographer in the head and knocked the lens off her camera while leaving her with a red welt on her face, came during Odd Future’s set at the annual festival. Harris has released a photo she took in which Turner can be seen bending down and looking directly into the camera with his right hand coming forward in a swinging motion as he grits his teeth. Turner has not commented on the charges filed, but in a since-removed post on his Tumblr — in which he posted Harris’ photo — he wrote, “I didn’t slap that old bi—. Everybody seen that sh–. Idgaf though. F— her and f— the media. I’m not stupid and I’m not lettin nobody sue me for my paper. It’s my job to slap cameras out the way so like I said before, f— your opinion your blog and ya peeps. Ha.” A spokesperson for the festival released a statement after the incident, which read, “The Voodoo Experience does not in any way condone the behavior of Odd Future towards the approved media assembled in the photo pit during the band’s set. … Festival organizers would like to apologize to their media guests who experienced and/or witnessed this abusive behavior.” But in a statement to Pitchfork , the band’s spokesperson denied the incident. “There simply is no truth to the accusation floating around the internet. It’s no secret that Odd Future has a love/hate relationship with photographers at shows simply because sometimes they are given access the group wishes their fans would have instead. After telling the photographers to clear out multiple times (as they’ve done before) Vyron (Leftbrain) took a swipe at a few cameras, NOT people. To manipulate the situation to insinuate an attack on a woman specifically is careless and manipulative.” The spokesperson declined to comment to MTV News on the charges. Related Artists Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All
Friday night at the 2011 AFI Fest, the seats in the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre weren’t quite filled to capacity for the gala screening of Luc Besson’s The Lady , which received mildly lukewarm reviews on the festival circuit. But, as it did at its premiere in Toronto, the biopic of Burmese democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi received a standing ovation at AFI Fest — one clearly directed primarily at star and Oscar hopeful Michelle Yeoh .
Thanks to all who entered Movieline’s Caption This contest for the chance to attend the L.A. premiere of Tarsem’s Immortals — after the jump, see which entries won over Movieline’s editors with their snappy stylings. And remember, each winner gets a pair of tickets to the premiere, so it’s not too late to lobby them to bring you as their plus-one. Just sayin’. Read your winning captions after the jump.
I was traveling all day as Movieline’s report from the Savannah Film Festival picked up steam around the blogosphere, but early on it was clear that two polar-opposite reactions were building in response to Universal Studios chief Ron Meyer’s comments about his studio’s well-publicized (at least, outside of the studio) recent flops. Either you love his blazing moment of candor — because we’ve all thought the same about most, if not all, of the woeful Universal films mentioned — or you despise what he stands for. But Meyer is a businessman, the President and COO of one of the largest movie studios and theme park conglomerates in the business. Should more filmmakers and studio heads follow suit?
