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Academy Award Nominees Announced – ‘Lincoln’ Leads 2013 Oscar Noms

Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards have come in with Lincoln and Beasts of the Southern Wild making strong showings in the initial list of noms Thursday morning. (More to come). Best Motion Picture of the Year “Amour” Nominees to be determined “Argo” Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers “Django Unchained” Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers “Les Misérables” Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers “Life of Pi” Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers “Lincoln” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers “Silver Linings Playbook” Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers “Zero Dark Thirty” Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers Achievement in Directing “Amour” Michael Haneke “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Benh Zeitlin “Life of Pi” Ang Lee “Lincoln” Steven Spielberg “Silver Linings Playbook” David O. Russell Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook” Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln” Hugh Jackman in “Les Misérables” Joaquin Phoenix in “The Master” Denzel Washington in “Flight” Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Alan Arkin in “Argo” Robert De Niro in “Silver Linings Playbook” Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master” Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln” Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained” Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Jessica Chastain in “Zero Dark Thirty” Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook” Emmanuelle Riva in “Amour” Quvenzhané Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Naomi Watts in “The Impossible” Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Amy Adams in “The Master” Sally Field in “Lincoln” Anne Hathaway in “Les Misérables” Helen Hunt in “The Sessions” Jacki Weaver in “Silver Linings Playbook” Animated Feature Film “Brave” Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman “Frankenweenie” Tim Burton “ParaNorman” Sam Fell and Chris Butler “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” Peter Lord “Wreck-It Ralph” Rich Moore Achievement in Production Design ” Anna Karenina ,” Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer ” The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ,” Production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright ” Les Misérables ,” Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson ” Life of Pi ,” Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock ” Lincoln ,” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson Achievement in Cinematography “Anna Karenina,” Seamus McGarvey “Django Unchained,” Robert Richardson “Life of Pi,” Claudio Miranda “Lincoln,” Janusz Kaminski “Skyfall,” Roger Deakins Achievement in Costume Design “Anna Karenina,” Jacqueline Durran “Les Misérables,” Paco Delgado “Lincoln,” Joanna Johnston “Mirror Mirror,” Eiko Ishioka “Snow White and the Huntsman,” Colleen Atwood Best Documentary Feature “5 Broken Cameras,” Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi “The Gatekeepers,” Nominees to be determined “How to Survive a Plague,” Nominees to be determined “The Invisible War,” Nominees to be determined “Searching for Sugar Man,” Nominees to be determined Documentary Short Subject “Inocente,” Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine “Kings Point,” Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider “Mondays at Racine,” Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan “Open Heart,” Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern “Redemption,” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill Achievement in Film Editing “Argo” William Goldenberg “Life of Pi” Tim Squyres “Lincoln” Michael Kahn “Silver Linings Playbook” Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers “Zero Dark Thirty” Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg Best Foreign-Language Film of the Year “Amour” Austria “Kon-Tiki” Norway “No” Chile “A Royal Affair” Denmark “War Witch” Canada Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling “Hitchcock,” Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane “Les Misérables,” Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) “Anna Karenina,” Dario Marianelli “Argo,” Alexandre Desplat “Life of Pi,” Mychael Danna “Lincoln,” John Williams “Skyfall,” Thomas Newman Music Original Song “Before My Time” from “Chasing Ice,” Music and Lyric by J. Ralph “Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from “Ted,” Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane “Pi’s Lullaby” from “Life of Pi,” Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri “Skyfall” from “Skyfall,” Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth “Suddenly” from “Les Misérables,” Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil Best Animated Short Film “Adam and Dog” Minkyu Lee “Fresh Guacamole” PES “Head over Heels” Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly “Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”” David Silverman “Paperman” John Kahrs Best Live Action Short Film “Asad” Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura “Buzkashi Boys” Sam French and Ariel Nasr “Curfew” Shawn Christensen “Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)” Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele “Henry” Yan England Sound Editing “Argo” Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn “Django Unchained” Wylie Stateman “Life of Pi” Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton “Skyfall” Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers “Zero Dark Thirty” Paul N.J. Ottosson Sound Mixing “Argo,” John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia “Les Misérables,” Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes “Life of Pi,” Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin “Lincoln,” Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins “Skyfall,” Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson Visual Effects “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White “Life of Pi” Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott “Marvel’s The Avengers” Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick “Prometheus” Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill “Snow White and the Huntsman” Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson Adapted Screenplay “Argo” Screenplay by Chris Terrio “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin “Life of Pi” Screenplay by David Magee “Lincoln” Screenplay by Tony Kushner “Silver Linings Playbook” Screenplay by David O. Russell Original Screenplay “Amour” Written by Michael Haneke “Django Unchained” Written by Quentin Tarantino “Flight” Written by John Gatins “Moonrise Kingdom” Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola “Zero Dark Thirty” Written by Mark Boal http://www.youtube.com/user/Oscars?v=cM3-uj3rOns

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Academy Award Nominees Announced – ‘Lincoln’ Leads 2013 Oscar Noms

‘Y: The Last Man’ Movie Lands First Time Director Behind ‘Portal’ Fan Short

After nearly a decade of on-again, off-again development, the film adaptation of Y: The Last Man is finally moving forward with a new director Dan Trachtenberg and two new screenwriters whose collective work ought to make fans of the classic comic series gasp with pleasure or, at least, relief. New Line Cinema has hired first time feature director Trachtenberg to helm the adaptation. Though his previous work as a commercial director is far from a guarantor of a successful Y film, his work on the Portal fan film Portal: No Escape proves that at minimum, a nerd’s nerd has been hired to bring the series to the screen. (Trachtenberg also co-hosted The Totally Rad Show and Tweets at @ dannytrs .) No Escape suffers from the usual problems with fan films, namely the limitations of having been made on a literal shoestring budget, but it boasts solid tone and some truly impressive special effects, particularly when you take the budget into account. Trachtenberg will be directing from a script by Stephen Scaia and Matthew Federman. The duo have a strong history of decent genre work, having written for Human Target , Warehouse 13 and most appropriately, the late lamented series Jericho . That alone is enough to convince me that at minimum they’ll grasp the point of the series, something that the previous director and writer attached to Y: The Last Man , the team behind Disturbia , could not. Y: The Last Man , which ran from 2002-2008, is set in the aftermath of a global plague which kills nearly every male animal on earth (women are unaffected). The main character, Yorick Brown, is one of the few men not killed off by the disease. Along with his pet monkey named “Ampersand” (because series creator Brian K. Vaughan is a serious English dork) and an agent with a highly fictionalized version of the Culper Ring, he travels around the world in search of his girlfriend, and an explanation for the plague. Though it arguably doesn’t quite wrap up as cleanly as one hopes – Vaughan took a job writing for Lost while he was also penning Y: The Last Man ‘s final story arc – it does an excellent job of plausibly creating an apocalyptic world, and gets into some truly weird and interesting territory. Which is to say, in case you haven’t read it, rectify that immediately. [via Deadline ] Ross Lincoln is a LA-based freelance writer from Oklahoma with an unhealthy obsession with comics, movies, video games, ancient history, Gore Vidal, and wine. Follow him on twitter (@rossalincoln). Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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‘Y: The Last Man’ Movie Lands First Time Director Behind ‘Portal’ Fan Short

Christopher Nolan To Direct ‘Interstellar’: Peep The Science Behind The Wormhole Sci-Fi Pic

Nolanites, prepare to get really nerdy: Per THR , Christopher Nolan is in talks to direct and produce Interstellar , scripted by brother Jonathan Nolan , AKA the 2001 -esque project that Steven Spielberg was once attached to which “involves time travel and alternate dimensions in a story that sees a group of explorers travel through a wormhole.” What’s just as exciting as the prospect of another Chris/Jonah Nolan team-up (following Memento , The Prestige , The Dark Knight , and The Dark Knight Rises ) is the fact that Interstellar is grounded in the scientific developments of CalTech gravitational physicist and astrophysicist Kip Thorne, who theorized that cosmic wormholes can be used to time travel by connecting two points in time . Like, in real life . As Thorne told Discover Magazine in 2007, his musings on time travel via space-warping wormhole began when Carl Sagan asked advice while writing Contact : In Carl Sagan’s original version of his novel Contact , he had his heroine traveling through a black hole to a distant part of the universe, and he asked me for advice. I immediately told him, “You can’t do that. Black holes can’t be used in that way,” and I suggested he use a wormhole instead. That got me interested in the issue of whether or not there really could be wormholes that you could travel through, and quite quickly I came to realize that if they did exist, it would not be hard for a very advanced civilization to use a traversable wormhole to make a time machine . Of course, toying with time travel — especially the kind of fate-changing backward time travel characters frequently attempt in the movies — could have catastrophic consequences: It’s quite unlikely that one can go backward in time — although it is certainly not ruled out — and it may be that nature has mechanisms to prevent backward time travel. When I was studying this, I came away convinced that the laws of physics can be readily adapted to backward time travel without any serious loss of ability to predict and without self-inconsistencies. I think more interesting was the discovery I made with a postdoc, Sung-Won Kim from Korea, that there is a universal mechanism that always occurs: If any highly advanced civilization attempts to make a time machine for backward time travel, quantum effects will cause the time machine to begin to self-destruct explosively at the moment you activate it . Prior to Jonathan Nolan’s scripting involvement, Interstellar began as a treatment written by Thorne and producer Lynda Obst back when Spielberg was attached. According to Thorne, Interstellar concerns what he calls “the warped side of the universe” — something he discusses in this video, describing it as a fist-in-a-trampoline before jovially telling his young interviewer that a black hole ” would rip the atoms your body is made from apart “: [ THR , Discover ] Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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Christopher Nolan To Direct ‘Interstellar’: Peep The Science Behind The Wormhole Sci-Fi Pic

WATCH: ‘The Last Stand’ Red Band Trailer, Is Schwarzenegger Back?

Forgetting for a second how amazeballs rich the man is, poor Arnold Schwarzenegger . Not only is he reentering celebrity life on the heels of an absolutely humiliating personal scandal (not to mention a hit and miss tenure as California Governor), he hasn’t actually starred properly in a film since 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines . Now he has to reassert himself both as a star and as a famous guy who people don’t feel kind of snickery about, not an easy feat for someone in his 60s. He just needs the right combination of balls to the wall violence and a so-dumb-it’s-smart script to recapture that old magic. Could The Last Stand be the way to do it? Everything I’ve seen so far hasn’t made my spider sense tingle, but I’ve been waiting for a reason to care that this thing exists. Enter the new red band trailer, which gives me that reason in the form of someone being literally blown to bits by a flare gun. See for yourself: This is making me feel something I normally don’t feel unless I binge on Commando and Raw Deal. There’s an evil rich man in a fast car, a multi-ethnic cast that includes Luis Guzman and Forrest Whitaker, dialogue that only exists to setup one liners, and of course sweet delicious violence. This feels just like 1986! Only I’m not fat and I’ve actually had sex. Fine, The Last Stand, you win. I’m not longer angry about the California recall. [ Source: Yahoo! ]

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WATCH: ‘The Last Stand’ Red Band Trailer, Is Schwarzenegger Back?

‘Hunger Games’ First Look: Katniss And Finnick Get Cozy In ‘Catching Fire’

Let the Games continue! EW has your first look at the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire , with a peek at Jennifer Lawrence ‘s Katniss and cast newcomer Sam Claflin as returning Games victor Finnick Odair. Katniss and her baker boyfriend Peeta are back in Catching Fire , based on Suzanne Collins’s second Hunger Games book, but things haven’t exactly settled down; with revolution sparking in the Districts, the duo are sent back on the Games circuit and thrust into a new, even more dangerous competition. In the next ten months you’re going to see a lot of Claflin ( Pirates of the Caribbean , Snow White and the Huntsman ), the British up-and-comer who plays charismatic Finnick, a previous Games winner known for his seductive charm… who also has a notable scene in which he’s clad only in a fishing net. Ahem. Joining Claflin in the Francis Lawrence -directed sequel are new castmates Jena Malone as Johanna Mason, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee, Amanda Plummer as Wiress, and Jeffrey Wright as Beetee. For now, enjoy this first image of Finnick cozying up to Katniss in what might be the knot-tying scene. To borrow from the master R. Kelly: Peeta, don’t bring your girl around Finnick because he’s a flirt (with a trident). Catching Fire hits theaters November 21. Synopsis: THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) – a competition that could change Panem forever. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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‘Hunger Games’ First Look: Katniss And Finnick Get Cozy In ‘Catching Fire’

‘Hunger Games’ First Look: Katniss And Finnick Get Cozy In ‘Catching Fire’

Let the Games continue! EW has your first look at the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire , with a peek at Jennifer Lawrence ‘s Katniss and cast newcomer Sam Claflin as returning Games victor Finnick Odair. Katniss and her baker boyfriend Peeta are back in Catching Fire , based on Suzanne Collins’s second Hunger Games book, but things haven’t exactly settled down; with revolution sparking in the Districts, the duo are sent back on the Games circuit and thrust into a new, even more dangerous competition. In the next ten months you’re going to see a lot of Claflin ( Pirates of the Caribbean , Snow White and the Huntsman ), the British up-and-comer who plays charismatic Finnick, a previous Games winner known for his seductive charm… who also has a notable scene in which he’s clad only in a fishing net. Ahem. Joining Claflin in the Francis Lawrence -directed sequel are new castmates Jena Malone as Johanna Mason, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee, Amanda Plummer as Wiress, and Jeffrey Wright as Beetee. For now, enjoy this first image of Finnick cozying up to Katniss in what might be the knot-tying scene. To borrow from the master R. Kelly: Peeta, don’t bring your girl around Finnick because he’s a flirt (with a trident). Catching Fire hits theaters November 21. Synopsis: THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) – a competition that could change Panem forever. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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‘Hunger Games’ First Look: Katniss And Finnick Get Cozy In ‘Catching Fire’

Daniel Craig Appears To Be Missing From ‘Perfect Bond’ Composite Photo − Which Looks Like Bill O’Reilly

Remember a couple of days ago, when we saw what purported to be the perfect Batman , a composite photo created from all the actors who have played Batman onscreen (we assume he’d sound like Kevin Conroy)?  Not to be outdone by the combination of multiple, independently wealthy superheroes, an enterprising person has done the same for Britain’s top wetwork operative, James Bond .   The ‘perfect’ 007    is something of a creepy masterpiece, possessing as it does all the finest qualities of the actors who have infused Britain’s top spy with their smarmy essences. The bad toupee and suit of Sean Connery ! The bedroom eyes and soft cheeks of Pierce Brosnan ! The radar ears and, presumably, bad career decisions of George Lazenby ! The poncy elegance and eyebrows of Roger Moore ! The fiercely lined cheeks of Timothy Dalton ! And of course, the… stunning abs??? of  Daniel Craig . I can’t for the life of me find Daniel Craig in this. Any of you readers care to wager a guess as to where he’s hiding? I mean, besides Eve Moneypenny’s  bedroom, of course. This truly is a thing of beauty, but I have to be honest: the composite image looks less like the ideal James Bond and more like James Bond after he’s retired from MI6 and has been elected to Parliament from the borough of Brothel-Upon-Liquor Store. As played, of course, by early 1980s Richard Burton — or a younger, less jowly version of Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly.  ( Check it out .) Ross Lincoln is a LA-based freelance writer from Oklahoma with an unhealthy obsession with comics, movies, video games, ancient history, Gore Vidal, and wine. [ iO9 ] Follow Ross Lincoln on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter. 

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Daniel Craig Appears To Be Missing From ‘Perfect Bond’ Composite Photo − Which Looks Like Bill O’Reilly

WATCH: Shticky Red Band Trailer For Vince Offer’s ‘InAPPropriate Comedy’ Is All Sham & No Wow

I realize that with a little notoriety and a lot of money, it’s fairly easy to get a film made and distributed. But even knowing that, it’s still incredibly baffling to see the red band trailer for InAPPropriate Comedy and realize this is an actual movie that will play in theaters. Directed by Vince ‘Slap Chop’ Offer, it’s The Kentucky Fried Movie meets the Charlie Sheen  celebrity roast, and it looks every bit as terrible as his earlier Underground Comedy Movie . Only with the added discomfort of seeing Lindsay Lohan sully the last shreds of her reputation for what must surely have been a miniscule paycheck. Have a look: Considering Offer’s previous law-enforcement troubles involving a prostitute ,  it’s no wonder he was able to get a bunch of actors to whore themselves, but even so, it’s embarrassing to see Master of Style Adrien Brody debasing his career shilling razors to appear in this dreck. (Insert ShamWow or Schticky joke here.) The worst thing about this isn’t the constant barrage of racist and sexist ‘jokes’ or hackneyed references, it’s how friggin’ tame this thing looks. Titling this movie ‘InAPPropriate Comedy’ is kind of like how authoritarian dictatorships always insist that their countries be called ‘People’s Democratic Republics’. The only thing Asians will be offended by is how lazy the jokes about their eyes are. The good news is that no matter how bad it is, we’ll always have the Slap Chop song. So let’s watch that and remember a time when Vince could amuse us on an 11 th grade level, instead of a 3 rd grade level. Ross Lincoln is a LA-based freelance writer from Oklahoma with an unhealthy obsession with comics, movies, video games, ancient history, Gore Vidal, and wine. Follow Ross Lincoln on Twitter.  Follow Movieline on Twitter.

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WATCH: Shticky Red Band Trailer For Vince Offer’s ‘InAPPropriate Comedy’ Is All Sham & No Wow

‘The Hobbit’ Perched Atop The Box Office Again

Peter Jackson ‘s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey surpassed the competition at the box office over the long New Years weekend, outgrossing powerhouse newcomers Django Unchained and Les Misérables in their first full weekends in theaters. The first installment of the Hobbit trilogy grossed a chart-topping $48.3 million in the Friday to Tuesday holiday period in 4,100 theaters. That was nearly $3.788 million more than the overall box office’s runner-up, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained , though it should be noted that that title screened in 1,090 fewer theaters. The result is that Django scored the highest per screen average among the top 10, with $14,788 vs. The Hobbit ‘s $11,780. Django grossed $44.513 million over the long weekend. Fellow Christmas opener Les Misérables took in $41.14 million over the five-day holiday, placing third and a strong $14,620 average. The Box Office Top 10 with numbers from the New Years Friday – Tuesday holiday: 1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Gross: $48,300,511 (Cume: $238,001,325) Theaters: 4,100 (PSA: $11,780) 2. Django Unchained Gross: $44,513,232 (Cume: $77,833,497 – Xmas Day Opener) Theaters: 3,010 (PSA: $14,788) 3. Les Misérables Gross: $41,140,685 (Cume: $87,579,110 – Xmas Day Opener) Theaters: 2,814 (PSA: $14,620) 4. Parental Guidance Gross: $23,667,732 (Cume: $38,456,424 – Xmas Day Opener) Theaters: 3,367 (PSA: $7,029) 5. Jack Reacher Gross: $21,262,535 (Cume: $51,815,693) Theaters: 3,352 (PSA: $6,343) 6. This Is 40 Gross: $18,678,740 (Cume: $42,609,030) Theaters: 2,914 (PSA: $6,410) 7. Lincoln Gross: $12,122,623 (Cume: $136,652,420) Theaters: 1,966 (PSA: $6,166) 8. The Guilt Trip Grosss: $10,424,431 (Cume: $24,834,787) Theaters: 2,431 (PSA: $4,288) 9. Monsters, Inc. Gross: $9,831,867 (Cume: $21,958,331) Theaters: 2,618 (PSA: $2,463) 10. Rise of the Guardians Gross: $7,644,497 (Cume: $92,891,627) Theaters: 2,055 (PSA: $2,381) [ Source: Box Office Mojo ]

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‘The Hobbit’ Perched Atop The Box Office Again

Memo to Antoine Fuqua: Spike Lee Should Shout His Beef With Quentin Tarantino Not Share It Over Coffee

So, right before 2012 ended,   Training Day director Antoine Fuqua piped up from Capri, Italy to assert that Spike Lee should not have publicly criticized Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained for the movie’s spaghetti-western-style depiction of slavery. And to that I can only say, “Huh?”  If ever there’s a movie made to be publicly, loudly — and heatedly — debated, it’s QT’s anti-slavery epic.   If you were offline for the holidays, here’s a recap of the situation:  As Movieline’s Brian Brooks reported  on Dec. 27, Lee declared that he has no intention of seeing Django Unchained . “I can’t disrespect my ancestors,” the Red Hook Summer director told Vibe magazine. He further elaborated via Twitter that “American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust.” Enter Fuqua, who took issue with the noisy way that Lee’s expressed his criticism. While at the Capri, Hollywood Film Festival in Italy, Fuqua told   The Hollywood Reporter  told the publication: “That’s just not the way you do things….If you disagree with the way a colleague did something, call him up, invite him out for a coffee, talk about it. But don’t do it publicly.” (Fuqua further defended Tarantino, albeit without actually having seen Django. ) For starters, I have to say that the idea of Spike Lee quietly and politely expressing his opinion — about anything —  is pretty funny.  Lee is a New Yorker, and a filmmaker who has succeeded precisely because he has no reservations about giving voice to controversial ideas, whether verbally, in written form, or through his preferred medium of film, that the average person and a lot of establishment filmmakers would be afraid to tackle. But whether Lee is talking about his beloved New York Knicks or Tarantino’s portrayal of slavery in Django Unchained , he’s going to speak his mind and he’s going to do it in a way that will insure a lot of people hear him. Back in 2008, Lee tangled with Clint Eastwood when he criticized the veteran filmmaker for not including any black soldiers in two movies about World War II, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima .  “Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood . In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version,” Lee said at the Cannes Film Festival that year. Eastwood eventually responded that Lee should “shut his face,” and the Do The Right Thing director fired back: “We’re not on a plantation.” In 2012, Lee also sounded sour on the subject of Star Wars creator George Lucas’ movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails . In response to comments that Lucas had made in the media about the studios inability to market black action films, Lee told The Daily Beast: “Here’s a question—this is very important—did George Lucas not understand that the marketing departments of all these Hollywood studios are all white? He only discovered that for  Red Tails ?! I’ve been saying this stuff for years. It’s not new!” It’s Lee’s nature to be argumentative and controversial, and Tarantino should welcome his fellow filmmaker’s barbs. For one, thing, Tarantino likes to stir the pot, too, albeit it in a more politically correct way. Before Christmas, he appeared on a Canadian talk show to contend that slavery still exists in the United States via the war on drugs and America’s penal system — on that issue, I suspect he and Lee would see eye to eye — and he has also suggested that a true debate on slavery and its ramifications has been avoided.  (“People are a little too sensitive to talk about stuff,” Tarantino said during his on-camera time in Canada.) Samuel L. Jackson made a similar point when I interviewed him about Django . “We’ve been avoiding really talking about it,” he told me, and he’s right.  So, with all due respect to Fuqua, I applaud Lee’s decision to speak his mind, and I’d love to see Tarantino answer him.  What would really be great is to get Tarantino, Django Unchained producer and filmmaker Reginald Hudlin , Fuqua, Jackson and Lee to debate this issue loudly, publicly — and heatedly. It’s time. Read More On Django Unchained:  Quentin Tarantino Says Slavery Still Exists Via ‘Mass Incarcerations’ & The ‘War On Drugs’ Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django’ Klansmen Inspired By John Ford: ‘To Say The Least, I Hate Him’ [ The Hollywood Reporter , Huffington Post , The Daily Beast ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.

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Memo to Antoine Fuqua: Spike Lee Should Shout His Beef With Quentin Tarantino Not Share It Over Coffee