Movieline caught up with Will Forte this week in Park City, where he was at Sundance to support Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s absurdist midnight offering Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie . In the film, Forte plays the uptight, moustachioed owner of a sword store in a mall that bumbling filmmakers Tim and Eric have taken over following the epic failure of their brush with Hollywood. Forte compared the more restricted sensibilities of his gig on Saturday Night Live to working within the madcap, surrealist stylings of the cult duo. Forte, like Billion Dollar Movie co-stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, also appeared on Heidecker and Wareheim’s Adult Swim sketch show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! He recalled his first time on the series, filming a bit called the Lazy Horse Mattress Ad. “I just did exactly what Tim and Eric asked me to do — that was the first time I ever worked with these guys, and it was the best experience,” Forte remembered. “It was so fun, because it’s this advertisement for a mattress store and in between there’s this crazy dream, and for the crazy dream part they just turned the camera on and said ‘Go nuts for a while!’” “They’d turn the camera off for four or five minutes, say ‘Try this, do this here…’ They were so good about giving you direction but also giving you a ton of freedom. It was one of the best times I’ve ever had – it was so therapeutic to just be able to go nuts for a while. You don’t get to do that very often.” His more famous gig on Saturday Night Live , on the other hand, is understandably a much different process. “I love SNL , but it’s different. It’s got to be structured because it’s a live show, so the director needs to know what you’re going to do so he can capture it best; you can go nuts on that show, but it’s a different type of nuts.” As for Billion Dollar Movie , Forte is just one of a number of zany characters populating the first Tim and Eric feature, and while his part is plenty absurd, it’s nowhere near the most bizarre or random bit in the film. (Just wait ‘til you find out what shrim is, folks.) “I’ve always been a fan of the nuttier stuff,” Forte enthused, “and you don’t get much nuttier than Tim and Eric – I mean that as a major compliment.” Sundance audiences didn’t quite know what to make of Billion Dollar Movie ; even crew members admitted to Movieline that you’re either a Tim & Eric fan, or you may not get their brand of random, hyper-ridiculous comedy. Still, if the film is a success, Heidecker told me, they’d possibly explore a prequel – Tim and Eric’s Million Dollar Movie , perhaps? [Photo: Getty Images] Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Moore’s separation from Ashton Kutcher, thin appearance had fans concerned even before Tuesday health scare. By Jocelyn Vena Demi Moore Photo: FilmMagic Demi Moore made headlines on Tuesday when she was hospitalized for “exhaustion.” The news of the health scare may not have been too surprising to celebrity watchers who have been closely keeping an eye on the actress in the wake of her split from Ashton Kutcher. In 2011, Moore’s personal life became heavily scrutinized when “Two and a Half Men” star Kutcher faced allegations that he was cheating on Moore . The actress has been lying low of late — she appeared in several smaller films in the past year, including “Margin Call” and “Another Happy Day.” Last fall, shortly before she announced her split from Kutcher, Moore had many fans worried about her health after she appeared thinner than usual at several red-carpet appearances to promote “Margin Call.” But she kept up a brave face in the wake of all the rumors regarding her appearance and her marriage. Check out photos of Demi and Ashton from happier times. It all came to a head in November when Moore and Kutcher confirmed that they were separating. In a statement, Moore said, “It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I have decided to end my six-year marriage to Ashton. “As a woman, a mother and a wife there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life,” the statement continued. “This is a trying time for me and my family, and so I would ask for the same compassion and privacy that you would give to anyone going through a similar situation.” In the months since the announcement, Moore has kept a low profile, but in early January she was cast as feminist icon Gloria Steinem in the “Lovelace” biopic currently shooting in Los Angeles. Since her hospitalization, Moore has dropped out of “Lovelace.” Her next film release is “LOL,” starring Miley Cyrus and Ashley Greene, due out later this year. “I really loved the movie; I loved working with [Cyrus] and the director. They just put it on pause because they had another film they were focusing on. It’s a tough thing when you have a movie you’re looking forward to coming out,” she said of the flick. Related Photos Demi And Ashton: From Bliss To Breakup
This just in at Movieline HQ: “With the return in popularity of the moustache, the organizer of New England’s largest moustache pageant is introducing the world’s first known International Moustache Film Festival in 2012.” And, with a whole $100 in prize money, so remunerative! I’d have preferred the Stache d’Or, but hey. Here’s a video call for submissions, with full press release and submission details below. Beware: Hipsters ahoy! ================= International Moustache Film Festival – The World’s Hairiest Film Festival Portland, Maine– With the return in popularity of the moustache, the organizer of New England’s largest moustache pageant, No Umbrella Media, is introducing the world’s first known International Moustache Film Festival in 2012. The festival will be be held immediately before the fifth annual Stache Pag on March 30, 2012. The film selection committee must receive all film submissions by March 24, 2012. This festival is open to film makers the world over. The finalists will have their 8 minute or less films shown and judged at the festival. The winner will be chosen and awarded a cash prize. Dr. Lou Jacobs, director of The New England Bureau of The American Mustache Institute will be the host of the film festival. “This is an important moment in moustache history,” says Dr. Jacobs. “Never has there been a film festival dedicated to the unique art of filming the mustached male (or female). The American Mustache Institute would like to congratulate the IMFF for it’s efforts to preserve the mustached arts.” Silly as this may sound, the festival is quite serious. The beneficiaries of the festival and 5th Annual Stache Pag will be Northeast Historic Film, MENSK and Mystache Fights Cancer. The events put on by No Umbrella Media are designed to preserve the arts and save lives. Some of the many film categories will be: Best Foreign Moustache Film, Best Growth Story, Best Collection of Moustaches in One Film and Best Fake Moustache Movie. Video announcement is located at www.stachefilmfest.com No Umbrella Media is Portland, ME-based video production company specializing in authentic storytelling through video. www.noumbrella.com The American Mustache Institute has been “protecting the rights of, and fighting discrimination against moustached Americans, by promoting the growth, care, and culture of the moustache.” AmericanMustacheInstitute.org Details: Date: March 30, 2012 Venue: Port City Music Hall – 504 Congress Street, Portland, Maine. Film Festival Begins: 7:30pm Stache Pag Begins: 10pm For more information, including ticket info, and how to enter the Moustache Pageant or Film Festival, please visit the websites. ###
We’re big Sara Paxton fans here at Skin Central, so when she casually dismissed our Breast Picture of 2010, we were a little hurt. What’s wrong with ” Piranha 3D content,” as she told reporters NOT to expect from the strikingly-similar-in-every-way-but-nudity Shark Night 3D (2011)? So it is with a TIT of bitter irony that we skintroduce the first-ever glimpse of what Paxton is packin’ inside her bra- a nip slip from the normally skingy star 1 hour, 4 minutes into the film. But we won’t hold a grudge…though we have been known to hold our puds. See more from killer-fish flicks from Shark Night 3D (2011) to Tintorera (1977) right here at MrSkin.com!
Emma Roberts was out doing some shopping today on a sunny day in Hollywood. Catch Emma along with Rashida Jones and Elijah Wood later this year in “Celeste and Jesse Forever”.
In his new Brooklyn-set drama Red Hook Summer , director/co-writer Spike Lee tackles the complex topics of religion and redemption within the modern African American experience, as filtered through the eyes of a spoiled Atlanta teenager (Jules Brown) forced to spend one hot, explosive summer with his preacher grandfather in the projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. It’s a richly conceived portrait of the Brooklyn neighborhood as microcosm for the black community at large, very much a Lee joint through and through. But, as the filmmaker reminded audiences this week at Sundance , where he railed against the Hollywood system, “it’s not a sequel to Do the Right Thing !” It’s tempting to draw parallels to Lee’s incisive 1989 Oscar nominated drama – he does, after all, appear in Red Hook Summer as his Do the Right Thing character Mookie (who’s still delivering pizzas for Sal’s, though he and Tina have parted ways). But fast forward to 2012 and there are new complications to be explored now that gentrification, secularism, reverse-migration, and the evolution of culture have altered the composition of the community – and Lee, with co-writer James McBride, seeks to explore every nook and cranny of this expansive 21st century terrain. Into the evolving world of Red Hook comes young Flik (newcomer Brown), who resents the old-school rules of his grandfather, charismatic minister Enoch (Clarke Peters). A local girl (Toni Lysaith) helps Flik acclimate to the hood, but unexpected, volatile events shift this coming of age outsider tale into a polemic on faith, the church, and community that’s proven difficult for some festival audiences and critics alike to swallow. Lee, speaking with Movieline after the divisive debut of his film, wasn’t worried about leaving some viewers unsatisfied. “There are a lot of questions in the film that we don’t necessarily have the answers for, and I think a lot of the time that’s good,” he said. “I know there have been a lot of references back to Do the Right Thing , but one of the major criticisms of Do the Right Thing when it came out was that I didn’t have the answer for racism at the end of the movie. But who has that answer?” Red Hook Summer paints a picture, in vibrant colors and heightened dialogue, of a community anchored by faith and led by Peters’ charismatic, Bible-thumping minister – the lone figure leading the charge against crime, apathy, and dissolution within the neighborhood. A pointed jab at Tyler Perry seems to declare Lee’s intent to do better and be less jingoistic to the black faith-based crowd. Asked to declare his position on Perry, Lee paused. “I respect his business savvy. It’s great.” Still, he couldn’t resist inserting a mock Madea poster into his film. “What, Fat, Black and Crazieee ?” he laughed. “It’s coming this summer to a theater near you! Where Red Hook Summer goes in its last act makes it much more than a superlative version of a Perry film, suggesting that religion and blind faith can only go so far in tempering the ugliness of the world around us before personal accountability comes into play. “All one has to do, I think, is read a newspaper, because the marketing for this film is being done daily in the newspapers and on television,” explained Peters. “What Spike has done is hold a mirror up to that for you to look into, safely, and make your own judgments and hopefully govern yourselves accordingly.” The nature of the film, and the scope of Lee’s provocative vision for it, may explain why he says mainstream Hollywood studios balked at backing the project. “They know nothing about black people,” he said at the Q&A following his Sunday premiere. “Nothing!” Striking out on his own, Lee financed and filmed Red Hook Summer himself, shooting over the course of a few weeks on location, using the church founded by McBride’s parents as the film’s central backdrop and casting his two young actors from local Brooklyn schools. “Obstacles don’t bother us,” he told Movieline. “They’ve never bothered me. I’ve always been an independent filmmaker. Just because I did Inside Man , that doesn’t mean I left it.” But the studios weren’t the only ones hesitant about Lee’s project; according to McBride, “a lot of actors [wouldn’t] do it. They don’t want to be affiliated with this kind of film.” Even actor Nate Parker, who plays a former congregation member-turned-gang leader and also appears in George Lucas’s Red Tails , was advised not to take the role. “People on my team said, ‘Aren’t you afraid that people won’t want to work with you because you’re only doing these types of films? Aren’t you afraid that you’ll miss your window?’” “No,” he continued. “We need to give ourselves more credit. We need to give the world more credit. To say that the world is so short-sighted that they don’t want to see people like us – human beings doing human things? Religion is universal.” It’s not just the citizens of the contained streets of Red Hook or Brooklyn who are primed for these re-examinations of faith. Co-scripter McBride on the one hand wrote Red Hook Summer drawing on his own history with the place, but he also hopes it’s applicable to other communities. “There are a people who believe in God and need God badly, and there are people who deliver His word well, and who have some corrupt elements in their lives,” he said. “This issue of religion is something that affects white people, in fact, probably more than black folks. Look at where we are politically in this country – look how the Republican party has fallen apart as a result of this religious zealotry, which is misguided and misplaced and used as a baseball bat to divide us.” And so, in the face of studio apathy, polarized reviews, and a collective reluctance to discuss faith and its place in life, Lee and Co. are something of an underdog force chipping away at a largely unspoken topic within a vastly underrepresented community. Still, the idea that Red Hook Summer will inspire discussion and debate is, perhaps, victory enough. “With a team like this I hope that we’re on the scrimmage line all the time, moving that ball down the film inch by inch,” enthused Peters, “because we can’t do long passes! We’ve got to do it in increments. And this is just another bite into that.” Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter . For more of Movieline’s Sundance coverage here .
Directors of ‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ and ‘A Separation’ also revel in their Academy Awards recognition. By Kara Warner Viola Davis in “The Help” Photo: DreamWorks As Academy Awards nomination day rolls on, so do the excited and deliriously happy reactions from the nominees . You can almost see and feel two-time nominee Viola Davis smiling via her statement. “It’s an honor to be nominated a second time. It is a personal accomplishment and triumph for women and women of color,” Davis said of her Best Actress nomination for “The Help.” “I’m so glad the film has been recognized. It was a labor of love from the moment it was conceived, and it is rewarding to see the impact it is having.” Davis was previously nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in 2008’s “Doubt.” What were the biggest shocks and snubs from this year’s Oscar nominations? Triple-nominee Alexander Payne, who’s up for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on “The Descendants,” took the time to shine the spotlight on his collaborators on the film, particularly his editor and fellow nominee, Kevin Tent. “There’s no denying that Oscar nominations for one’s film are exciting, if only for the joy they give to everyone who worked so hard on the film,” Payne said in a statement. “I’m particularly happy for the recognition of my longtime editor Kevin Tent. He really deserves it.” “I’m deeply honored that the Academy recognized ‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ as well as Max von Sydow,” director Stephen Daldry said of the film’s Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor nominations. “The entire team behind our film felt the enormous responsibility in taking on this project, and it is deeply humbling to have the Academy recognize it in this way.” Steven Spielberg also chimed in about nominations for a film he directed (“War Horse”) and one he produced (“The Help”). “I am thrilled with our multiple nominations for ‘The Help’ and ‘War Horse.’ It is the first time that I have experienced two Best Picture nominations in the same year,” Spielberg said in a statement. “One is a high honor. Two is humbling but very exciting. It is a tribute to all those who joined with Stacey Snider and our DreamWorks Studios team to develop and make these two films with stories that we passionately felt we had to make.” Multi-talented writer/director/producer Asghar Farhadi was also very happy to have scored his second Best Foreign Language Film nomination, along with a Best Original Screenplay nod, for the critically acclaimed film “A Separation.” “This is cheerful news for me and for the family of cinema in Iran, specially the nomination for the Best Original Screenplay,” Farhadi said in a statement. “It seems that although people speak different languages around the world … there is one common universal language which everyone understands: The Language of Cinema.” Fun fact about the film’s Best Original Screenplay nomination: It is the first screenplay written in Farsi to receive a writing nod. See the complete list of Oscar Nominations . Related Videos Oscars 2012: And The Nominees Are… Related Photos 2012 Oscar Nominees
‘I just asked a normal question,’ Rock tells MTV News about what prompted the director’s passionate criticism against Hollywood. By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Eric Ditzian Chris Rock Photo: MTV News PARK CITY, Utah — The old refrain of “more money, more problems” seems to apply to Spike Lee’s “Red Hook Summer,” the director’s new drama he unveiled at the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday. During a Q&A session following the screening of the filmmaker’s religion-focused feature, actor and comedian Chris Rock (at Sundance for his new film “2 Days in New York” from Julie Delpy) asked Lee if he would have done anything differently had he “actually gotten… studio money” for the film. Lee’s response was a fiery one, fueled with comments that condemned the Hollywood studio system for knowing “nothing about black people.” “We never went to the studios with this film. I bought a camera and said we’re gonna do this mother[bleeping] film ourselves. I didn’t need a mother[bleeping] studio telling me something about Red Hook! They know nothing about black people,” Lee said in response to Rock’s question, according to the New York Post . “And they’re gonna give me notes about what a 13-year-old black boy and girl do in Red Hook? [Bleep] no!” Lee’s response was nothing short of perplexing to Rock, who told MTV News that he “just asked a normal question.” “I just asked him how it would have been different if he’d had it financed by a studio. If he had more money,” he continued. “That was it. That’s all I said. Everything else, I don’t know. You gotta ask Spike.” In “Red Hook Summer,” Lee tells the story of a young boy sent by his mother from Atlanta to spend the summer in Red Hook, Brooklyn, with his grandfather, a strict preacher he’s never met. The film stars Clarke Peters, Jules Brown and Thomas Jefferson Byrd. Do you think Spike Lee’s criticism at Sundance out of line? Sound off in the comments section! The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially under way, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked with MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance. Related Videos Sundance 2012: Interviews From Park City Related Photos Sundance 2012: Behind The Scenes Photos Celebrities Hit The Ground At Sundance 2012 Film Fest
Lana Del Rey recently sat down with BBC 6 Music personality Huey Morgan for an interview, and she also brought along her band for performances of “Video Games”, “Blue Jeans” and “Born To Die”. Yes, performances. And — would you look at that — she sounded just fine. In fact, the stripped-down “Born To Die” … More » Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Idolator Discovery Date : 23/01/2012 20:24 Number of articles : 2
ILM released a new video about the special effects that went into Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon , specifically, the building falling over scene, which seemed to last a mere 55 minutes in the film. If you like seeing how computer effects are integrated into movies — and I do — it’s pretty cool to see all the bits and pieces ILM had to create to make the scene. However, the real revelation comes… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Topless Robot Discovery Date : 23/01/2012 21:58 Number of articles : 2
