Have you ever imagined how much better Inside the Actors Studio might be if it consisted entirely of awkward silences? (Culminating in a lightning-round through the Proust questionnaire, natch.) Me too! And thanks to the wonders of YouTube, now we know: A lot better . Let James Lipton and his special guest Johnny Depp enlighten you: May the Dark Shadows press tour be this rewarding. [ You’re a Nation Films via Videogum ]
‘My fans are always up for supporting a great cause,’ Bieber says in a statement about his support of the documentary. By Kara Warner Justin Bieber Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images On the heels of the very successful release of his new single “Boyfriend,” teen phenom Justin Bieber is lending his star power and the song “Born to Be Somebody” to a very worthy cause: the TV ad campaign for “Bully.” The Weinstein Company announced Monday (April 9) that the Bieber-backed TV spot, which debuted on Fandango , will begin airing all over the U.S. ahead of the film’s PG-13 release this Friday. “My fans are always up for supporting a great cause. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of as an entertainer,” Bieber said in statement of his decision to be involved with the documentary. “I hope they see ‘Bully’ with their friends and help start the conversation so we can end bullying.” The highly publicized documentary, which depicts the often-disastrous results of school bullying, originally received an R rating by the MPAA, which inspired 17-year-old Katy Butler to start a viral petition that received over 500,000 signatures , including Bieber, Ellen DeGeneres, Johnny Depp and Demi Lovato. MTV’s own Vinny Guadagino from “The Jersey Shore” also got involved via the anti-bullying campaign the Bully Project tied into the promotion of the film. The campaign is a partnership between GLAAD and the Weinstein Company designed to spread awareness about bullying and to give people opportunities to add their name in support. For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Artists Justin Bieber
Is Tim Burton’s vampire flick darker than the campy trailer had us believe? By John Mitchell Johnny Depp in “Dark Shadows” Photo: Warner Bros So we’ve been talking a lot about that gonzo first trailer for “Dark Shadows.” It’s got its defenders and its detractors and that’s all pretty well documented , so we’re not going to spill any more ink on it. But now Warner Bros. has muddied the waters a bit by releasing Danny Elfman’s full score for the film — and it’s definitely not the score to a slapstick comedy. First things first, the trailer unquestionably makes “Dark Shadows” seem like a farce. We’ve argued that’s not necessarily a bad thing — sometimes a radical overhaul is what it takes to reinvent something old for modern audiences (see: “Charlie’s Angels,” “Mission Impossible”) — but the tone set in the trailer is a complete departure from what everyone expected, while Elfman’s score, which can be heard in its entirety on WB’s Watertower Music , seems perfect for the film that fans of the TV show thought they were getting. Strange, right? Elfan’s score is rich, deep and dark. It is heavy on strings, ambient sounds and atmosphere. The drama factor is high and there’s little evidence of slapstick. Tracks like “Killing Dr. Hoffman,” “Deadly Handshake” and “Barnabas Collins Comes Home” have an almost menacing and methodic feel, and “Dumping the Body” and “Widow’s Hill” are rife with shadowy action. The music for the film is kind of amazing, actually. (Should Danny Elfman begin readying for his fifth Oscar nomination?) But what is most exceptional about it is how little it fits the film Burton had us expecting. There’s been some indication from sources close to the film that the comedic elements were dialed up for the trailer. After its initial arrival and ensuing fan backlash, co-star Chlo
‘Hunger Games’ fever has us wondering about the prospects for Tim Burton’s adaptation. By John Mitchell Johnny Depp in “Dark Shadows” Photo: Warner Bros Everyone has “Hunger Games” fever , and it’s understandable; the film is absolutely everywhere, critics are saying it’s pretty good and star Jennifer Lawrence’s candid, funny interviews are a welcome change from the uncomfortable sit-downs granted by, um, some other YA adaptation stars when their films hit the big screen. Anyway, “Games” just crept into theaters, and talk of the sequel is already ramping up. Filming on “Catching Fire” is set to begin later this year, and a November 22, 2013, release date is already in the books. That got us thinking about our own little mini-obsession: “Dark Shadows.” While it’s nowhere near as fervent or large as “Games,” “Shadows” has a devout following too, and if the film is a hit at the box office, which seems quite possible if not bet-on-it likely, at least one sequel would be justified. And with an extensive catalog of 1,225 episodes, there is plenty of plot for, well, as many follow-ups as Tim Burton could come up with. But the approach the director has taken with the film makes us wonder if it’s the sort of thing that could sustain a franchise. Let’s talk this out. First, the direction Burton has chosen to take with the film has already divided fans . Over on MTV Movies Blog, we asked readers whether they liked the “Shadows” trailer , and the reaction was pretty much split down the middle. Just over half of those who voted (52.35 percent) were into the trailer, checking our “Love it! Burton knows what he’s doing” box. That leaves 47.65 percent of respondents who instead “Hated it! Burton is ruining everything!” It’s a pretty radical reinvention, to be sure, and the trailer reminds us most of the big-screen version of “The Addams Family.” “Addams,” of course, was a sitcom to start with, and all director Barry Sonnenfeld really did was turn up the volume on the weird. Much of the humor derived from people reacting to the macabre-but-good-natured family of weirdos, and the film was a hit — a big enough hit to merit a sequel. The “Addams” sequel didn’t connect quite the way the first film did, perhaps because the shtick that was so fresh the first time around had worn out its welcome. So even if it’s a hit, will people really want multiple “Shadows” films once the novelty has worn thin? The thing about (good) sequels is that they generally require emotional investment from the audience to be successful. We want to know what happens next with Katniss in “The Hunger Games.” There’s an entire mythology attached to Bruce Wayne in the “Batman” films. It’s hard to form that connection when the characters are hyper-realized and a little bit caricatured. And though there is a definite mythology to “Shadows,” Burton has opted to ignore it in favor of some brave, maybe even fun, stylistic choices he no doubt hopes will make the film unique and set it apart, both from the series itself and from anything else hitting the big screen this summer. But zany absurdity is hard to maintain across multiple films. By the time the second “Addams” movie came around, the crux of the joke — playing off other people’s reactions to the goth family — was a bit tired, so they had to put Wednesday and Pugsley into an awkward situation (summer camp) to try and keep it fresh. Had Burton hewed a little closer to his source material, this wouldn’t be a concern, but in taking such liberties with the style of “Shadows” he kind of backs himself into a corner when it comes to whatever comes next. He’d have to up the ante in some way for a sequel, but since he’s already operating so over the top, is that even possible? We’re super excited for “Shadows” but we’re just curious if — unlike “Hunger Games” fans — we should learn to quell our excitement that there may be more films coming. After all, maybe there’s a reason we only ever got one “Beetlejuice” ( hey, wait a minute … ). What do you think, “Shadows” fans? Did Tim Burton blow his shot at a franchise by making his “Shadows” so niche? Let us know in the comments below and tweet me @JohnMitchell83 with your thoughts and suggestions for future columns! Check out everything we’ve got on “Dark Shadows.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
They’ve been spotted out in public, and they’ve exchanged loving Tweets , but Jennifer Lopez hasn’t said much about her much younger boyfriend, Casper Smart. Until now. In the April issue of Vogue, the American Idol judge glows over her back-up dancer of a man, telling the magazine: “He’s adorable. But you already see that. He really is [sweet]. He’s a good egg. I don’t want to talk about it too much. It’s my private thing.” But what about that age difference of 18 years? “I don’t feel older, and I don’t feel like I look it, either, so I am just acting the same way I have always acted,” she says. As for that public split from Marc Anthony ? J. Lo adds that she’s “proud” of how both sides have handled it and points to their children as the basis for their continued respect and friendship. “We’re still friends – and we’re parents. But it’s going to take time.. It’s tough. But for the most part, I feel very proud of the way we’re handling it. I really do. We are doing the best we can for the kids.”
Welcome to THG’s Week in Review! Below, our staffers look back at the stories, stars and scandals that made the last seven days some of the craziest ALL MONTH. If you don’t already, FOLLOW THG on Twitter , Google+ and Facebook for 24/7/365 news. Every day, week and year, let us be your celebrity gossip source! Now, a rundown of the week that was at The Hollywood Gossip : The Bachelor Finale: Ben Flajnik Proposes to Courtney Robertson The Bachelor season finale revealed the inevitable proposal, shrug. The only surprise: Ben is still engaged to Courtney Robertson . George Clooney was arrested in a protest over Sudan crimes. Russell Brand was arrested for less humanitarian reasons. Liar Jermaine Jones got the boot from American Idol. Some hacker leaked pics of Heather Morris nude . Donald Trump Kids Go Hunting, Kill Elephant (Photos) Donald Trump’s kids were criticized over these hunting pics (above). Kim Kardashian and Jon Hamm are engaged in a random feud. Cops are investigating an alleged Lindsay Lohan hit-and-run . Britney Spears is reportedly still in talks to join The X Factor . Elle features Jessica Simpson nude on its cover this month. Nicki Minaj posed for Allure , almost as revealingly. Meghan McCain (above) is featured in Playboy this month. Just an interview. The cover of Playboy , meanwhile, features Bruno Mars. Yes, Bruno Mars . Nick Gordon and Bobbi Kristina Brown are now dating, apparently. The Real Housewives of OC are all certifiably insane. Bear Grylls got fired from the Discovery Channel. Charlize Theron is adopting a baby boy! The first pic of Robert Pattinson in Breaking Dawn Part II leaked (cue squeals). And Kristen Stewart as a vampire in the same film, too, for good measure. Rihanna spoke out about her decision to collaborate with Chris Brown. Dharun Ravi was convicted of hate crimes in the Tyler Clementi case. Piers Morgan really doesn’t like Kate Moss or Madonna. Rick Santorum hates porn . Like a lot. The Hunger Games Clip: Crushing on Katniss The countdown to The Hunger Games (preview clip above) continues … The Jersey Shore Season 5 finale ended with tears, sex and pranks. Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli split after 10 years of marriage. Jaycee Dugard opened up to Oprah about her 18-year ordeal. THG readers picked their favorite celeb couple (not a shock). The trailer was released for Johnny Depp’s Dark Shadows … Dark Shadows Trailer What was the highlight of the week for you? Did we leave anything out?
Welcome to THG’s Week in Review! Below, our staffers look back at the stories, stars and scandals that made the last seven days some of the craziest ALL MONTH. If you don’t already, FOLLOW THG on Twitter , Google+ and Facebook for 24/7/365 news. Every day, week and year, let us be your celebrity gossip source! Now, a rundown of the week that was at The Hollywood Gossip : The Bachelor Finale: Ben Flajnik Proposes to Courtney Robertson The Bachelor season finale revealed the inevitable proposal, shrug. The only surprise: Ben is still engaged to Courtney Robertson . George Clooney was arrested in a protest over Sudan crimes. Russell Brand was arrested for less humanitarian reasons. Liar Jermaine Jones got the boot from American Idol. Some hacker leaked pics of Heather Morris nude . Donald Trump Kids Go Hunting, Kill Elephant (Photos) Donald Trump’s kids were criticized over these hunting pics (above). Kim Kardashian and Jon Hamm are engaged in a random feud. Cops are investigating an alleged Lindsay Lohan hit-and-run . Britney Spears is reportedly still in talks to join The X Factor . Elle features Jessica Simpson nude on its cover this month. Nicki Minaj posed for Allure , almost as revealingly. Meghan McCain (above) is featured in Playboy this month. Just an interview. The cover of Playboy , meanwhile, features Bruno Mars. Yes, Bruno Mars . Nick Gordon and Bobbi Kristina Brown are now dating, apparently. The Real Housewives of OC are all certifiably insane. Bear Grylls got fired from the Discovery Channel. Charlize Theron is adopting a baby boy! The first pic of Robert Pattinson in Breaking Dawn Part II leaked (cue squeals). And Kristen Stewart as a vampire in the same film, too, for good measure. Rihanna spoke out about her decision to collaborate with Chris Brown. Dharun Ravi was convicted of hate crimes in the Tyler Clementi case. Piers Morgan really doesn’t like Kate Moss or Madonna. Rick Santorum hates porn . Like a lot. The Hunger Games Clip: Crushing on Katniss The countdown to The Hunger Games (preview clip above) continues … The Jersey Shore Season 5 finale ended with tears, sex and pranks. Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli split after 10 years of marriage. Jaycee Dugard opened up to Oprah about her 18-year ordeal. THG readers picked their favorite celeb couple (not a shock). The trailer was released for Johnny Depp’s Dark Shadows … Dark Shadows Trailer What was the highlight of the week for you? Did we leave anything out?
Actor was arrested in Washington, D.C., outside the Sudanese embassy. By Jocelyn Vena George Clooney is arrested at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington on Friday Photo: Colin Drummond/ Splash News George Clooney was arrested on Friday (March 16) in Washington, D.C., after participating in a protest. The Oscar nominee was taken into custody outside the Sudanese embassy. According to MSNBC , the group was protesting Sudan’s blockage of food and aid from entering the Nuba Mountains and aimed to bring attention to the treatment of the people in that area of Sudan. His father, journalist Nick Clooney, was also arrested, according to MSNBC, as well as Martin Luther King III, NAACP President Ben Jealous, Rep. Jim McGovern and Rep. Jim Moran and former Rep. Tom Andrews. Clooney and the other protesters knew that, because the embassy is private property, they would be arrested if they refused to move. MSNBC reports that the protesters were warned three times before police moved in. The group reportedly held a sign that read, “Sudan: Stop Weapons of Mass Starvation.” He told the large crowd at the protest, “We need immediate humanitarian aid into Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.” He asked “the [Sudanese] government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them, and stop starving them.” According to People.com , the group was then taken to a Secret Service van. “He’s being charged currently with disorderly crossing of a police line, which is a misdemeanor and he will be transported to the second district of the Metropolitan Police Department for processing,” Max Milien, spokesman for the Secret Service, told the site, noting that Clooney was being cooperative. “They were protesting the violence committed by the government of Sudan on its own innocent men, women and children,” Clooney’s rep said in a statement. “They were demanding they allow humanitarian aid into the country before it becomes the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.” The actor has been trying to bring change to the area, even meeting with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Secretary Hillary Clinton and President Obama in the Oval Office on Thursday. One day before, he attended the White House state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron. He is expected to appear on “Hardball with Chris Matthews” on Friday.
Our columnist defends Tim Burton’s comedic re-imagining of the vampire soap. By John Mitchell Johnny Depp in “Dark Shadows” Photo: Warner Bros The first trailer for Tim Burton’s big-screen adaptation of the late-’60s/ early-’70s vampire soap opera “Dark Shadows” dropped Thursday, and it has sharply divided fans. In one corner are “Shadows” purists, who seem none too pleased with the director’s decision to re-imagine the campy but deadly serious soap as a gonzo comedy. In the other corner are more casual fans and Burton enthusiasts, who are seeing shades of “Beetlejuice” and “Edward Scissorhands” and loving it. I’m on the record as falling in the latter category. I grew up on reruns of the original soap (yeah, I was a weird kid) and also loved NBC’s short-lived prime-time reboot in the early ’90s. If the original series was a true-to-genre soap opera (just, you know, with a heavier lean on the supernatural), the ’90s take was “Melrose Place”-meets-“Twin Peaks” but with fangs. The problem is, a straight take on the original (which is where Burton’s loyalties lie — he’s never given any indication he cares about the TV reboot) wouldn’t fly with today’s sophisticated film audience, and playing to the ’90s retread would have resulted in a film that would have a lot in common with Neil Jordan’s “Interview With the Vampire.” And while that’s certainly not a bad thing — “Interview” is a killer vampire flick — it has nothing to do with Tim Burton. For its ’90s return, “Shadows” turned up the sex factor; it was a sudsy drama with a chest-baring Ben Cross as Barnabas, Angelique busting out of her corset and a plot that focused heavily on Barnabas’ attempts to cure his vampirism so he could bring the sexytimes with Victoria Winters, whom he suspected may have been the reincarnation of Josette DuPres, the love of his mortal life back in the late 18th century. That’s all well and good, and a big-screen treatment of that might have even played well. But that was never going to happen with Burton at the helm; it’s not his game. The dark and spooky aesthetic he created for films like “Sleepy Hollow” and “Sweeney Todd” had the look fans of the series were after, and I think that — mixed with Burton’s fanboy enthusiasm for the project — is why purists were so psyched that he was directing. But Burton doesn’t really do romance, particularly not lusty, forbidden love stories. ‘Dark Shadows’ Trailer: Love It Or Hate It? (Poll) There are several directors who do, and who do it well, including “Shadows” star Michelle Pfeiffer’s frequent collaborator Stephen Frears (“Dangerous Liaisons,” “Cheri,” “Mary Reilly”) and “Interview” director Jordan (“The End of the Affair,” “The Crying Game”). Joe Wright (“Atonement,” “Pride and Prejudice,” the upcoming “Anna Karenina”) has practically built his career on the stuff. But I suspect they wouldn’t have been able to grasp the weirdo wonderment that makes “Shadows” so special to fans. It’s based on a soap, after all, and is so over-the-top that to direct it as a straight romantic vampire drama might have meant significant alterations to the story to “normalize” it. It would have had to be boiled down to the basics. That still might have made for a good film, but (real talk) it also might have meant that something really dynamic would be translated into a highbrow, slightly more horror-leaning version of “Twilight.” And, um, no one wants that. On the flip side, if Burton had kept the deliberately exaggerated and theatrical style of the original without acknowledging the comedy inherent in going so over-the-top (this is the literal definition of “camp”), it would have been unwatchably ridiculous. Soaps are absurd but play their ridiculousness with the utmost seriousness. It’s something we all know and accept about them, but it’s not something that would work, not even for a second, on the big screen — particularly in a big-budget film starring two three-time Oscar nominees (Johnny Depp and Pfeiffer), the twice-nominated Helena Bonham Carter and “Little Children” nominee Jackie Earle Haley. The only thing left for Burton to do was turn the volume up even higher and trust his talented actors to work their magic with what better be a damn clever script. It’s hard to embrace absurdity without it coming across as farce, but you know who is a master of doing exactly that? Tim Burton. He did it in “Beetlejuice” and “Edward Scissorhands.” He even brought some genuine emotion to it with the more delicate “Ed Wood.” It’s been a while since Burton worked this particular magic, but after seeing the “Shadows” trailer I’m feeling like he may have done it again. What did you think of the “Dark Shadows” trailer? Let us know in the comments below and tweet me at @JohnMitchell83 with your thoughts and suggestions for future columns! Check out everything we’ve got on “Dark Shadows.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
Johnny Depp stars as vampire Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows , the Tim Burton movie based on the 1960s TV series of the same name. But this is NOT your typical gothic adaptation. Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Gossip Cop Discovery Date : 16/03/2012 00:43 Number of articles : 2
