One of the things I love about doing this blog of geeky type goodness is that I get to run across awesome short films being made by incredibly talented people, and then share them with you. Ruin is one of those short films, and at just under ten minutes in length it leaves you seriously wanting more. Ruin Is Yet Another Indie Animated Film That Needs To Be Made Full-Length [Video] is a post from: winextra… Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : WinExtra Discovery Date : 16/03/2012 22:34 Number of articles : 2
“Nothing will come from this if you win!” joked Seth Rogen as he opened his hosting gig at the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards . “Absolutely nothing. This won’t help you get paid anymore — if anything, it proves you’ll work for nothing.” That may be painfully true for many of the indie film nominees honored today at the annual Spirit Awards, held in a tent on the beach in balmy Santa Monica. But what does it mean that the night’s big winner was the Harvey Weinstein-backed awards season juggernaut The Artist ? The Oscar frontrunner swept the Spirit Awards Saturday in a precursor to what most pundits expect will transpire Sunday night at the Academy Awards ; the black and white silent film took home four awards, including Best Feature, Best Director ( Michel Hazanavicius ), Best Actor ( Jean Dujardin ), and Best Cinematography, further sealing its grip on the 2012 awards race. Along the road to Spirit Awards victory, the $15 million The Artist went up against the likes of more conventional indies. (Rules of eligibility includes films made for no more than $20 million.) In the Best Cinematography category, the Weinstein-backed favorite competed against, for example, Evan Glodell’s Bellflower , a film shot on a production budget of $17,000; for Best Feature it vied with 50/50 , Beginners , Drive , Take Shelter , and The Descendants . Additional winners on the night included Dee Rees’ Pariah , Alexander Payne’s The Descendants (which won Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Shailene Woodley), Asgar Farhadi’s A Separation , Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn , and Christopher Plummer for Beginners . (Full winners list here .) In other words – on the whole, not quite so different from the field competing tomorrow at the mainstream Oscars. Maybe that’s why, after Rogen’s fantastic Hollywood-skewering opening monologue, the Spirit Awards started to flag a bit in, well, spirit. By the time the absent Jean Dujardin won Best Actor about halfway through (co-star Penelope Ann Miller, the film’s mascot for the night, accepted on his behalf) the certainty of Artist domination seemed to loom in the air. Once Michel Hazanavicius arrived, fresh from the LAX runway with a police escort minutes before his name was called as Best Director, the sweep was sealed. Would any non-Oscar frontrunning independent filmmaker honorees have gotten the VIP treatment all the way down the 10? Were these the Oscar rehearsals, or the preeminent celebration of American independent film? Well, at least the show had its moments. Highlights included Rogen’s monologue; John Waters acting as MC for the night; Michelle Williams accepting her trophy with a nod to the very first Spirit Awards she ever attended, back when she wore her own clothes and cut her own hair and felt at home in the “room full of misfits, outcast, loners, dreamers, mumblers, delinquents, dropouts – just like me.” Backstage, winners trickled in throughout the night, sharing their own perspectives on craft and the awards show mania. Christopher Plummer , Best Supporting Actor: The jovial Plummer kicked off the winners’ room. “[Michael’s father, his character] was a true character and was written with such affection, such a lack of self-pity. It was fun to do, it made me so relaxed. His marvelous humor against all odds [is] a marvelous lesson to everyone who goes through cancer and dying. He treated it with a sort of carefree sense of humor, no self-pity at all.” Hinting at his next gig on an HBO project, Plummer addressed his continuing career at age 82. “I have to [keep acting] because I may croak at any moment – I have to keep going!” How did he keep from being upstaged by Cosmo the dog on the set of Beginners ? “We had a little private talk, and now that you mention it Cosmo and Uggie , I think our Cosmo was much more human than Uggie . Uggie was just a trickster – our dog had soul .” Shailene Woodley , Best Supporting Actress: “I’m so grateful,” Woodley began. “I don’t know if ‘surprised’ is the right word. I think gratitude kind of fills it all. It’s been such a beautiful experience for me in my life and totally transformed me as a human being, so I’m grateful to have been a part of the film and to have learned so many valuable amazing lessons.” “Every single person involved in the film was incredibly positive and had such gentle, kind, graceful souls. Being on the film as an 18-year-old and experiencing that right as I was about to start my life on my own, it was kind of the catalyst for me coming into my own. I don’t think there are words for me to express my gratitude for that.” As for the Oscars, Woodley has love for the Help star she went up against during the Golden Globes. “I am so stoked for Octavia [Spencer] – she is so awesome! She’s such a nice human being. [Pause] This is crazy. I was not expecting it and I got up there and said um a lot, I’m sure I’m going to be mortified when I watch it.” The Artist crew, Best Feature/Best Actor/Best Cinematography/Best Director: What did producer Harvey Weinstein bring to the film? “His weight,” joked producer Thomas Langmann, who credited Weinstein with taking a chance on The Artist when most backers balked. “We kept going to try to finance this meeting and we had very short meetings… nobody wanted to hear about this one. People told me this is against conventional wisdom. We managed to find the money and wanted to shoot here in Hollywood…” “This movie was made to be a tribute to Hollywood and cinema and especially American cinema. So to come back… and be rewarded by the Hollywood community, is a dream come true.” How’s life treating director Hazanavicius, who’s been on a nonstop tour through the home stretch of his award tour? “It’s not the worst job you can find,” he answered. “You come, you receive awards, everyone is smiling at you and is nice and they tell you you’re talented and have a very funny, charming French accent. [The police escort from LAX] was great. That was the best part.” “It’s physically tiring but the energy is so good that you don’t really feel it,” he said. “We’re really excited and are enjoying every moment we can enjoy.” Looking back to the beginning of their journey, did Weinstein promise the Artist crew he could get them to the Oscars? “Harvey knows how to promise things like that, yes. Sometimes he’s right.” Michelle Williams, Best Actress: “My friend was joking that until now I have been the Susan Lucci of the Indie Spirit Awards!” Williams said, beaming. “I have been luckier and luckier to be working with better and better people.” On how she found her way into Marilyn Monroe: “In a way you had to remove the fact that she was an icon, because that was too daunting… and think of her as an ordinary girl. There wasn’t a direct path in to her, I found. The only way in was time, so much time, and in a way letting her dictate, letting her take shape — letting all this information take shape instead of me trying to control it.” “I just do some work. I just sort of keep my head down, which is a very sort of Montana attitude. There’s this Amish thing, this Quaker thing I like – ‘Eyes to the ground and heart to the skies.’ I just keep focused.” Steve James, dir. The Interrupters , Best Documentary: “It means a lot for a film like this because this is a film about urban violence in Chicago, and when we were making it we never would have anticipated the reaction the film has gotten in the past year. It means a lot for what the film’s about and for us as independent filmmakers – I’ve been doing this now for 27 years, so it means a lot.” Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Justin Vernon and company also took home Best Alternative Album Grammy for self-titled album Sunday night. By Zachary Swickey Bon Iver wins Best New Artist at the 2012 Grammy Awards Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images Like Arcade Fire ‘s surprise Album of the Year win at last year’s Grammys , Bon Iver taking home Best New Artist on Sunday night (February 12) over more established artists like Nicki Minaj was bound to raise a few eyebrows. And when you asked “Who are Arcade Fire?” in 2012, we had you covered, and we’ve been following Wisconsin singer Justin Vernon (the man behind Bon Iver) for quite some time — long before he snagged BNA and Best Alternative Album at this year’s ceremony. Quite the pleasant surprise for the under-the-radar folk singer, who recently became the face of a Bushmills whiskey ad to boot. Bon Iver’s second, self-titled disc was released in early 2011 but is still clearly getting the attention it deserves. He may have made a few public derogatory comments about the Grammy Awards ceremony itself, but that didn’t sway the voters or the singer from showing up. To put his “underground” status into perspective: Bon Iver debuted at #2 in June 2011 on sales of just under 104,000, but their total album sales to date (just over 357,000) are nothing compared to a powerhouse-seller like Adele’s 21 . A helpful primer on Justin Vernon/ Bon Iver: The former All-State high school football star and World Religion college major began his career playing in the jazzy party band Mount Vernon, which transitioned into DeYarmond Edison, formed with some old high school pals who all moved to North Carolina in 2005 to spread their musical wings. A year later, things fell apart with his band and his girlfriend, just as he was laid low by a vicious bout of mono, driving Vernon back to Eau Claire for some physical and psychic healing. He holed up in isolation in a deer-hunting log cabin built by his dad in the woods in northwestern Wisconsin and began writing the high and lonesome songs that would become For Emma. After months spent drinking and watching “Northern Exposure” DVDs, he alighted on the name Bon Iver, which is a French phrase used as a greeting in the show that translates to “good winter.” The tunes he recorded were intended as a demo, but once they got some blog love, he was signed to indie Jagjaguwar, and For Emma was released in May 2008. The album became an indie sensation, and its mix of acoustic folk and manipulated, Auto-Tuned vocals not only landed him on the “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” soundtrack, but also on a number of songs from Kanye West’s Grammy-nominated My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Video: Watch Highlights From The 2012 Grammy Awards Even as his star was rising, Vernon kept collaborating with a number of other artists, lending his voice to the indie supergroup Gayngs, playing in the side project Volcano Choir and hooking up with English singer James Blake recently on the song “Fall Creek Boys Choir.” Bon Iver continued to be his main focus, so Vernon built his own cabin to record his self-titled project, again just outside of Eau Claire, turning what used to be an indoor pool into a recording studio where he tracked the songs mostly by himself. (The live version of the band includes a drummer, guitarist and bassist.) The denser, 10-track album featured help from a number of collaborators, including renowned session player and pedal steel maestro Greg Leisz, as well as a number of percussionists and horn and string players. Stick with MTV News for all the news on Whitney Houston’s tribute, the Grammy red-carpet fashion , Grammy winners and more until the hangover wears off! Related Videos 2012 Grammy Awards Red Carpet Highlights 2012 Grammy Awards Show Highlights Related Photos 2012 Grammy Awards: Backstage And Audience 2012 Grammys Red Carpet Photos Related Artists Bon Iver
It was only a matter of time, really; we’ve got FDR fighting werewolves and Abe Lincoln staking vampires , why not resurrect Osama bin Laden from the dead so Western heroes can kill him off again? This time around it’s a bunch of soldiers — excuse me, hunky, apparently manscaped soldiers — hunting the zombified bin Laden as he leads an army of flesh-eating terrorists towards a zombie apocalypse in Osombie . Yep, someone went there. Too soon? Nah, who are we kidding — I’m betting the world is ready to eat this stuff up. Also betting on that are director John Lyde and the makers of Osombie , who have put together a teaser reel of footage full of zombie decapitations and love scenes (of course!) to garner finishing funds for their indie production, which shot Utah for Afghanistan last fall. The synopsis of Osombie , as if you needed to know anything more: The story follows Dusty, a yoga instructor from Colorado, who is on a desperate rescue mission to save her crazy brother Derek, a conspiracy theorist who is convinced Osama Bin Laden is still alive, despite having been buried at sea. In Afghanistan, Dusty falls in with a team of NATO Special Forces on a secret assignment. Turns out Derek is not so crazy after all, and that Osama has returned from his watery grave and is making an army of zombie terrorists. When the group crashes headlong into the growing zombie apocalypse, Dusty and the troops must find and destroy the root of the zombie insurgency before it infests the rest of the world. More info on Osombie and its Kickstarter campaign here . All in all, the Osama hook should give Osombie a bit more exposure than your average B-movie independent genre flick, but still expect it to fare best on DVD. Even so, it raises an interesting question: With other dramatic retellings of bin Laden’s death in the works, are we ready to see the al-Quada leader come back to life in the movies — at least, with comedy paving the way first? [via MSNBC ]
Some actresses have to be talked into doing a nude scene. Katie Aselton , on the other hand, had a different experience: as both director and star of the indie thriller Black Rock (2012), the only one pressuring her to strip was herself. Get the skinny from Katie’s (sk)interview with Entertainment Weekly after the jump!
Brand-new clip finds the band trapped within a nightmare of its own invention. By James Montgomery Evanescence’s Amy Lee on the set of their “My Heart Is Broken” video Photo: Matt Elias/MTV News After nearly a month spent touting its various ethereal qualities , on Tuesday (January 24), Evanescence premiered their video for “My Heart Is Broken,” a dark, dreamlike thing that pushes Amy Lee’s claustrophobic musings to the next level. And somewhere beyond that too. As Lee told MTV News back in December, the look and feel of the “Broken” clip was very much influenced by the British fantasy/horror flick “Paperhouse,” about a young girl who creates vivid dream worlds to escape the harsh reality of everyday life, only to eventually realize she’s stuck in those dreams — inspiration that certainly resonates with the song’s lyrics, which are very much about being trapped in a dark, desolate place and trying to free one’s self despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Working with director Dean Karr, and aided very much by fiber-optic technology, Evanescence have created a video that is both haunting and haunted. It opens with Lee suspended in an inky void, a single light projecting from her finger. While her bandmates bash away in the blackness, she slowly begins to fill her emptiness by creating a dream world — a fallow field, a sea of stars, a crumbling room — until she eventually realizes that, in spite of her attempts, she is just as trapped as she was before. At clip’s end, the viewer is left to wonder whether she has the power to escape (though a cracked mirror seems to indicate she can), which, in a way, only further connects the video to the song itself: Like Lee sings, each of us have within ourselves the ability to free ourselves from any situation; whether we do or not is largely our decision. The first step seems to be realizing that the walls we surround ourselves with are largely of our own creation. The rest is up to us. What do you think of the “My Heart Is Broken” video? Share your reviews in the comments! Related Artists Evanescence
Sundance represents an opportunity to ‘[push] forward with Common as an actor and as a producer,’ the rapper tells MTV News. By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Common at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Photo: Jemal Countess/Getty Images PARK CITY, Utah — When you’re making your debut as a producer and lead actor in a feature film, it doesn’t hurt to surround yourself with stellar actors like Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Dennis Haysbert and Michael K. Williams. With talent like that on your side, it’s nearly impossible not to produce good work. That’s Common ‘s hope, at least. The rapper/actor makes his first turn as a leading man in a feature film in “LUV,” the Sundance Film Festival drama about an ex-con who leaves prison and strives to mentor his troubled nephew upon release. The film represents a lot of firsts for Common: It’s his first starring role and it’s the first movie he’s ever acted in and produced to appear at Sundance. “This is something that is me,” Common told MTV News at the fest. “And it’s a part of what I want to do pushing forward with Common as an actor and as a producer.” The Chicago MC is no stranger to appearing onscreen, of course. He’s had memorable roles in movies like “Wanted” and “Terminator Salvation,” and he stars on the AMC western “Hell on Wheels.” But this is Common’s first time in an independent movie, and the differences between the indie world and the studio system became abundantly clear to him very early on. “Things are just different. But what’s still cool about it is you’re really using your artistic creativity to come together and make the best thing, because you don’t have that many resources,” he said. “You don’t have the bigger budgets, you don’t have the things that [studio films have]. You need to use total creativity to make things rise. “So this is a first for me — and it’s a great first,” he added. 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 Celebrities Hit The Ground At Sundance 2012 Film Fest Related Artists Common
Fans support RPattz’s ‘Cosmopolis’ over ‘Breaking Dawn – Part 2,’ advancing the indie film to the Final Four. By Eric Ditzian Robert Pattinson in “Breaking Dawn – Part 1” Photo: Summit Entertainment Wow. Just … wow. In an upset for the ages, “Cosmopolis” defeated “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2” in the Elite Eight round of the 2012 MTV Movie Brawl . Let us count the ways this is shocking. One, it’s a freaking “Twilight” film, one in a franchise that has so far grossed $2.5 billion worldwide and has catalyzed 2.5 trillion fever dreams in teen bedrooms around the globe. Two, “Cosmopolis” is a little indie based on a slim, highbrow novel by Don DeLillo, a writer who has, without a doubt, changed the face of postmodern literature but whose themes, characters and erudition don’t exactly make him a likely Twi-fan fave. And three, “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” had thus far stormed through the Movie Brawl, dispatching challengers with ease and becoming the odds-on favorite to win the entire tournament. But a curious thing happened — and its name is Robert Pattinson . Fans banded together, deciding to support, in “Cosmopolis,” RPattz’s new work (a possible post-vampire breakout role under the direction of David Cronenberg), rather than his been-there, sucked-that performance in a “Twilight” flick. The result, after almost 400,000 votes, was a decisive victory for “Cosmopolis.” “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” will have to find some way to console itself (perhaps a mega opening in the fall will help), while Pattinson’s upcoming film moves on to face “The Dark Knight Rises” in the Final Four. “TDKR,” for its part, has shown a remarkable resurgence, repeatedly fending off challengers and, in the Elite Eight, besting “Dark Shadows,” the Johnny Depp adaptation that at one time seemed like a Movie Brawl dark horse. On the other side of the bracket, the story continues to be Daniel Radcliffe’s “Woman in Black,” a seven-seed that followed up an upset victory over Kristen Stewart’s “Snow White and the Huntsman” with an impressive win over “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” That contest literally was decided in the final few minutes of voting. When the dust cleared, another franchise had fallen at the feet of an indie flick led by a young international superstar. “The Hunger Games,” meanwhile, straight up embarrassed “John Carter” in the Elite Eight, setting up what is going to be a compelling Final Four battle. Let’s take a look. Vote For Your Favorite Upcoming Flick In MTV’s Movie Brawl 2012! East Region Um, what the heck is going on? Daniel Radcliffe fans, where y’all at? You guys came out in force to dispatch “Snow White” and “Hobbit,” but one day into Final Four voting, you’re nowhere to be seen. “Hunger Games” has staked out a formidable lead, 62 percent to just 38 percent. For “Woman in Black” to come this far and then essentially not show up when the going gets tough would be a tragedy. Yet even a huge voting surge might do nothing in the face of the overwhelming show of support “Hunger Games” fans have shown for this March release. West Region If the East Region is not shaping up for a tense Final Four fight, the West Region is looking to be nothing short of a blowout. It’s looking like the luck of “TDKR” is about to run out at the hands of “Cosmopolis.” We’re frankly surprised “Hunger Games” fans aren’t coming out in force, as they had in past rounds, to vote against Pattinson’s films. Unless something drastic changes, we’re looking at a final matchup of “Cosmopolis” vs. “Hunger Games.” Not exactly how we expected the MTV Movie Brawl 2012 to play out, but this isn’t up to us. The fans have spoken. What are you waiting for? Your must-see movie needs your support. It’s time to show character, poise and heart. Vote for your picks now at MTV Movie Brawl 2012 ! Related Videos MTV Movie Brawl 2012!
“I’m retiring,” Star Wars media emperor George Lucas recently told the NY Times, having toiled through today’s difficult indie film climate to get his ambitious Red Tails into theaters. “I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.” Or, as Lucas producer Rick McCallum put it: “Once this is finished, he’s done everything he’s ever wanted to do. He will have completed his task as a man and a filmmaker .” Say it ain’t so, George! Wait, what’s that? It’s not really the end? Oh, you tease. It turns out Lucas means he’s retiring from making huge popcorn blockbuster films, the last of which (he hopes) will be the Tuskegee Airmen flick Red Tails , directed by Anthony Hemingway. The full NY Times profile is a fascinating peek into Lucas’s self-image and future aspirations once Red Tails opens, or doesn’t. As corny as he sounds when talking about the importance of the film and what it could mean for black film and black filmmakers, he’s fairly upfront with his idealism. He embraces and acknowledges his own “naive” filmmaking style. He admits he made Red Tails “for black teenagers.” He says Star Wars fanboy backlash following his numerous tweaks to the franchise have discouraged him from making more sequels. (Yay?) And perhaps most curiously, Lucas wrestles credit away from Steven Spielberg for making Indiana Jones nuke the fridge. “He’s trying to protect me,” he says of Spielberg, although why those two would fight for that attribution, I have no idea. The cumulative profile is one of a man of many contradictions who prefers, it seems, to see himself as idealistically and naively as he approaches his films. A bazillionaire 99 percenter. The ultimate anti-fanboy fanboy. A white filmmaker making, as he says he’s described Red Tails , “a Tyler Perry movie, only without jokes.” Do African American filmmakers like Spike Lee and Lee Daniels and Tyler Perry even want Lucas to be their champion, to have their names jokingly bandied about as potential Red Tails sequel directors? Probably not; they’re all forging their own paths, navigating the indie film world. It’s intriguing to think that for Lucas, that’s the great unknown that lies ahead as he faces “retirement” from the world he knows — blockbusters, megafranchises, endless marketing and merchandising opportunities — and dives back into the brand of personal filmmaking he started out with in films like THX 1138 . But remember! He also reserves the right to make another Indiana Jones movie, according to the piece. Even the New Lucas won’t say no to that chance, no matter how much we wish he would. • George Lucas Is Ready to Roll the Credits [NYT]
Tracy Morgan stars in his first serious role, the indie crime thriller Son of No One . See a different side of Tracy, plus find out about another film in “ Coming Attractions ” from TV One and TheUrbanDaily . RELATED POSTS: Ol’ Dirty Bastard Movie In The Works, Tracy Morgan Or Eddie Griffin To Star Tracy Morgan Is At It Again, Decribes Woman As “A Cripple”
