“I didn’t just want to come here and say I made a record in Jamaica and grew some dreadlocks,” insists rapper Snoop Dogg in the trailer for Reincarnated , announced today as an official selection of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. “Rastafari called me.” Watch the trailer for Reincarnated for your first glimpse of Snoop Dogg — or rather, Snoop Lion, his newly minted reggae identity — leaving hip-hop behind to sing and smoke up a storm in his new rasta life. The doc, a co-production of Vice Films and Snoop’s own Snoopadelic Films, probably isn’t a terribly incisive or objective look at the musician’s musical shift, and it’s unclear how fleeting an alter ego “Snoop Lion” will be in the long run. But as the trailer speeds through a montage of Snoop’s past, it makes a case for why the erstwhile Calvin Broadus might have sought spiritual rebirth after a decades-long career in the rap game that has seen friends and collaborators pass on, sometimes violently. Beyond the personal loss of figures like Tupac and Nate Dogg, Snoop’s musical career has seemed to plateau in the last decade; how did the slim (with the tilted brim) rapper behind 1993’s “Doggystyle” wind up phoning in verses on Katy Perry Top 40 hits, writing rap songs about True Blood and roasting Donald Trump? Seizing the opportunity for Ali-esque cross-cultural/getting-in-touch-with-his-roots drama, Reincarnated came about when Snoop traveled to Jamaica to record with the producer Diplo. “While there,” explains the synopsis, “Snoop finds himself embraced by the Jamaican people, is positively impacted by Rastafarian culture, and becomes reincarnated as Snoop Lion.” Verdict: It all sounds so perfectly calculated. And yet, compared to Snoop’s post-fame exploits, it might also be his most sincere artistic expression in years. Reincarnated will screen at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. See more titles in the line-up here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Steven Soderbergh refuses to let up his breakneck pace of filming and is already at work on his Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra , which stars Michael Douglas as the flamboyant sparkly-suited superstar pianist. Beside Douglas and his bouffant in the first pic from the set, we find co-star Matt Damon, who’s rocking quite the ’70s coif himself as Liberace’s companion and alleged gay lover Scott Thorson. Ladies and gentleman, we may have found the only man in Hollywood who can indeed rock a blonde He-Man pageboy ‘do. Somebody call Jon M. Chu ! Behind the Candelabra boasts a script by Richard LaGravanesse and a supporting cast that includes Debbie Reynolds, Rob Lowe, Scott Bakula, Dan Aykroyd, and Nicky Katt. The film will be released by HBO and is based on Thorson’s autobiography Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace , which recounted the pair’s longstanding relationship and alleged romantic involvement. [ ABC News ]
Also in Tuesday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs Miramax sells music rights to its film music; A thief in Mexico wearing a mask is holding up theaters playing TDKR ; Remembering Irish writer/journalist/playwright Maeve Binchy; And DreamWorks animation posts lower second quarter profits. Warner/Chappell Buys Miramax’s film music The music publishing wing of Warner Music Group is acquiring the masters and publishing rights for all film music owned by Miramax. “The Miramax music library contains music from Academy Award winners The Cider House Rules , Chicago , Cold Mountain and Frida , as well as Gangs of New York , Finding Neverland , Good Will Hunting , Chocolat , Sin City , The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and music from several hundred other Miramax films. Terms are not being disclosed. Around the ‘net… James Franco Boards Homefront Franco will join the cast of the Millennium Films action-thriller. Jason Statham is also starring in the film, which Gary Fleder will direct from a script written by Sylvester Stallone, Variety reports . The Dark Knight Rises Holds Solid in U.K. The Olympics opening ceremonies did not seem to result in a sluggish turn out for the latest Batman movie in host country, the U.K. The Christopher Nolan superhero pic took in £7.28 million ($11.412 million) across the pond over the weekend, for a 10-day cume of £30.55 million ($47.889 million), The Guardian reports . Masked Mexican Thief Hits Theaters Showing TDKR Officials in northern Mexico say a man wearing a ski mask and carrying a gun robbed two theaters showing the latest Batman installment Prosecutors in the Mexican state of Chihuahua said that a man went to ticket booths demanding the ticket money. No injuries were reported and the shows went on, AP reports . R.I.P. Maeve Binchy The Irish journalist and writer died yesterday at 72. Binchy’s books sold over 40 million copies with translations in 42 languages. Her work Circle of Friends was adapted into a 1995 film. Her radio drama work included the award winning ”Infancy” and ”Tia Maria”, which starred Oscar winner Kathy Bates, RTÉ reports . DreamWorks Animation Posts Lower Q2 Earnings Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted was the second quarter’s cash cow, but profits at the studio amounted to $12.8 million compared to $34.1 million in the time period one year ago. Revenue declined 25% to $162.8 million, THR reports .
There’s a case to be made for the idea that Greece has more ghosts than the average country. This argument would involve space – having relatively little, especially for their dead, Greeks rent out cemetery plots for three years maximum before the body is exhumed to make room – but also the fact that Greece’s is one of the more fully recorded histories we have. And what ghosts exist that are not remembered? Alps , the latest from Athens-born director Yorgos Lanthimos, tells a certain kind of ghost story. Lanthimos is most famously the director of 2009’s Dogtooth , the creepy, Oscar-nominated fable of clannish perversion that made the film world sit up and wonder, “What the fuck is up with Greece?” Alps carries over several of that film’s themes and intensifies its aesthetic mood of earthly limbo: Several of its scenes are set in a hospital, the rest are infused with a similarly antiseptic starkness. The tone is one of deadpan discombobulation, a world turned 45 degrees to the left but presented with a clear, dry perspective. Whether you are willing or able to match that perspective will determine the better part of your response to Alps , which opens with a puzzling sequence and only gets weirder from there. A young woman (Ariane Labed) performs a rhythmic gymnastics routine to a swollen orchestral recording, protests to her coach (Johnny Vekris) that she wants to perform to pop music, and is promptly threatened with a grisly death. Next we meet a paramedic (Aris Servetalis) with an odd way of comforting accident victims: “You may be about to die,” he says to a critically injured teenage girl in the back of his ambulance. “Who’s your favorite actor?” As is revealed at the director’s mischievous leisure, that question is more purposeful than it first appears. As the nurse (Aggeliki Papoulia) who receives the ailing teen girl – an accomplished tennis player – tells the girl’s parents, “Death is not the end.” In fact, she offers, after reminding them of how important it is to remember the deceased, it could be the beginning a beautiful relationship, one that involves her stopping by a few times a week and “substituting” for their daughter, equipped with a costume and a few salient preferences, including the fact that her favorite actor is Jude Law. Papoulia (who played the elder sister in Dogtooth ) knows she is not the intuitive choice for this particular gig. That would be Labed (none of the characters are named), the other female in their four-person troupe (including Vekris and Servetalis) of substitutes. They meet in the gym to debrief, try out celebrity impressions, and agree on their group name, Alps, chosen because no other mountain could stand in for an Alp but the Alps could stand in for any other mountain. Resemblance and age-appropriateness are less important than you’d think, as is acting facility: The Alps know their lines (usually) and hit their marks, but that’s about it. The customers don’t require total fidelity — just bring them a body. The troubled, empathetic nurse emerges as the central character, and through her Lanthimos explores the lonely succor of standing in for what’s been lost. He keeps the focus on the substitutes, the customers are only seen in fragments, blurred, or from behind; only their need is felt. There is no talk of money, though we know the first three visits are free. Client requests are highly specific, and usually involve repeating the same lines over and over again; fights and confrontations are reenacted with mordantly wooden timing. The script (which Lanthimos co-wrote with Efthimis Filippou) feels at once tightly controlled and improvisational — each moment is deeply, almost mechanically constructed, and yet they play out in a sequence that is too lax for too long. The layering at work is so subtle as to seem incidental; Lanthimos resists easy signposts or even a clear demarcation of the lanes, never letting us settle on what to make of this misfit, distinctly patriarchal crew. When a ghost gets ghosted, Alps cracks open and one character’s desperation drives the final third of the film. The climax errs on the side of the overwrought and overdetermined, like an earnest adolescent’s first attempt at a short story. And yet Papoulia’s extraordinary performance lingers, as does the film’s provocative existential fog. Slowly but with terrible surety, Alps reveals the fracture lines within its subjects, their families and the group itself, so that by the end it’s no longer clear who is substituting for whom. Only that the dead are surely better loved than the living. Follow Michelle Orange on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
What the hell? Man Claims Hate Crime When ‘Vote Satan’ Sign Is Stolen From His Yard It seems wildfires aren’t the only craziness going on in Colorado these days… A Colorado man is claiming that the theft of a “Vote Satan” sign from his property amounts to a hate crime. Luigi Bellavite, who is a member of the Church of Satan, reportedly had the sign hanging outside his Mountain View home next to an American flag. In an interview with local station KMGH-TV, Bellavite said he and his wife chose to display the sign “because it symbolizes freedom from dogmas.” Bellavite said that when the sign was stolen, police classified the case as a theft, but Bellavite believes it constitutes a hate crime, according to the station. “If it was the Star of David, absolutely it would be a hate crime,” he said. “There are such double standards that some religions and some ideas are protected and others are not.” Source
The roaring Waldo Canyon fire that exploded into neighborhoods of Colorado Springs has destroyed 346 homes, making it the most destructive wildfire in state history. It also has claimed at least one life, according to reports. Colorado Springs Police Chief Pete Carey announced that human remains had been found in a burned home in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood. Other individuals are also missing, he said. He said the deceased’s body was found in the rubble and gave the address, but no further details. Colorado Fires Residents of the Mountain Shadows neighborhood were summoned to a meeting Thursday night at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. There, they learned with certainty which of their homes had survived and which had been consumed by the unprecedented firestorm this week. Police Chief Pete Carey said police are still trying to track down the whereabouts of “less than 10” people who may be unaccounted for. President Barack Obama was to tour fire-stricken areas Friday after issuing a disaster declaration for Colorado, releasing federal funds to help. Rich Harvey, the incident commander in charge of the massive firefighting effort, said that at the very least, the wildfires were held at bay overnight, with no growth of the perimeter and no more houses lost since Thursday. The fire was still only 15 percent contained as of Friday morning.
In the northernmost reaches of California’s Ventura County, a two-lane rural road called Highway 33 runs into the In the northernmost reaches of California’s Ventura County, a two-lane rural road called Highway 33 runs into the rugged and mostly undeveloped Transverse Mountain Range. Though it’s mostly raw wilderness, a few businesses catering to adventurous explorers have long existed there, some… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Reason Magazine – Hit & Run Discovery Date : 30/05/2012 19:16 Number of articles : 2
In the northernmost reaches of California’s Ventura County, a two-lane rural road called Highway 33 runs into the In the northernmost reaches of California’s Ventura County, a two-lane rural road called Highway 33 runs into the rugged and mostly undeveloped Transverse Mountain Range. Though it’s mostly raw wilderness, a few businesses catering to adventurous explorers have long existed there, some… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Reason Magazine – Hit & Run Discovery Date : 30/05/2012 19:16 Number of articles : 2
It has been years in the making. It is epic in scope. It contains elements beloved by millions. “It” is the marketing campaign for the hotly anticipated superhero gathering The Avengers , and as promotional surges go, those are high standards to maintain. Hence the $100 million worth of international promotional partnerships formed by Marvel and Disney — although, with such a global presence, it seems natural that a few of their marketing and merchandising moves would make less impact than Mjölnir . Behold the weirdest of what you may find touting the the comic-book blockbuster in the United States and beyond. Breaking the mold from conventional products — and conventional fanboys — is this customized collector’s desk, created by Tom Spina Designs . Made for a dedicated fan with a collection of screen props, this desk features items gathered from Captain America, Iron Man and all of their Avengers peers. This calls to mind another high end piece of furniture based on the franchise… Studio Dror created a S.H.I.E.L.D desk in conjunction with movie partner Acura. The spartan surface hides a number of compartment, hidden speakers and an iPod dock. The overall appearance calls to mind a possible scene where the members of the team turn to Thor’s Nordic experience to help them decipher the arcane instructions to an IKEA design. Meanwhile, though the snake-oil element of power/balance bracelets has largely been exposed here in the U.S., it looks as if Japan still clings to the supposed benefits of these adornments. Fashioned after Tony Stark’s suit-summoning device seen on screen, the firm Colantotte offers its Limited Edition Avengers Magtitan Neo Legend bracelet in titanium, stainless steel, and carbon fiber: It uses the power of magnets to — uh, well, help you out. Plus it is versatile: “Perfect both for Avengers thwarting arch enemies at the top of their game, or for everyday casual/business use.” The bling’s benefits sound impressive: They are axially magnetized in their trademarked “alternating north-south polarity orientation” (ANSPO) — which basically means the manufacturer took one of the magnets and flipped it over. Occasionally a major release will provoke a company to come out with a signature fragrance linked to either the film or a character. Well, credit the masterminds at JADS International with recognizing the immense scope of this film via seven fragrances based on Avengers players , including Nick Fury AND Loki: Close your eyes for moment and picture the behemoth that is the Hulk, veins coursing with secretions as he is covered in a sheen of perspiration. So what do you imagine he smells like? Nope, you’re wrong. According to the company, his fragrance is one of “Yuzu, bergamot and tarragon which create clean, clear top notes along with unexpected accords of water lily and nutmeg. SMASH! then carries an intense woody drydown enriched with Indian sandalwood, vetiver, musk and sharp cedar.” Tony Stark also gets his unique Mark VII aroma combining “mandarin, neroli, nasturtium and jasmine layered with light patchouli.” I’d say they got that one wrong. Actually I was expecting a light expression of pneumatic fluid mixed with fumes from 12 year old scotch, and just a whiff of shame. Fast-food tie-ins with comic book franchises are nothing new. However, one growing trend is the major studio release with tie-ins that are perfectly suited for American audiences yet unavailable Stateside. One such example is the Philippine chicken franchise Jollibee. For The Avengers , Jollibee not only offer up themed, reusable chicken buckets for their larger orders, but you can also purchase an additional item related to the film. Knowing the obsessives who collect Slurpee straws with characters on them, I presume many would clamor for these heat-reactive cups with hidden movie graphics. Just a couple of dollars in stores these will probably be fetching near $20 (after shipping, natch) on eBay very soon. Comic book films generate copious toy franchising opportunities, even when they make no sense. Slapping the image of characters on anything from playground balls to flashlights generates sales. The Avengers has even lured one company into being the exclusive slot-car producer for the film. But one product that truly defies logic is the Hulk diving mask: Is it really considered a clever move to obscure your child’s vision while underwater, all in the name of “resembling” his or her favorite gargantuan green Avenger? Anyway, the tie-in heft of a summer blockbuster with luncheon meat is obvious. I say this because it continuously occurs, even as you or I fail to see the connection. The Land-O-Frost company once again has joined a major studio in promoting its title by placing stickers on meat packs and staging a contest for customers. You, too, can feel a kinship with supernaturally gifted heroes by eating machine-stripped, processed and mechanically extruded ham loaf. Europe also has realized the cold-cut windfall to be had, with the Italian company Montana Foods following suit. Heroic baloney in Bologna — who’d have guessed? As we all know by now, Disney owns Marvel, and therefore the studio is able to platform its marketing with other company assets. Some can make sense, like covering the iconic monorails at Disney theme parks in graphics for the movie. But just because you can synergize doesn’t mean you should synergize. To wit, Disney also owns the ABC network. Therefore it was decided by somebody with a John Carter -like vision to stage a scene of the dwindling soap opera General Hospital with characters standing in front of an ersatz movie theater , discussing deep emotional plot points in front of banners for Avengers . I’m betting some marketing suit was brought into a board room and schooled loudly on some of the basics of Demographics-101. It would take a James Franco stunt-cameo to get tickets sold from that aged audience. Brad Slager has written about movies and entertainment for Film Threat, Mediaite, and is a columnist at CHUD.com . His less insightful impressions on entertainment can be found on Twitter .
Wednesday morning’s news roundup includes a fire at Tyler Perry’s studios in Atlanta, an AMPAS celebration for Gene Kelly’s centennial and a rare screening of the first Oscar-winner, Wings . The Hunger Games partners form a new label, Fandor plans a new indie news site and Justin Bieber’s manager joins a doc spotlighting America’s school dropout crisis. First Oscar Winner Wings Set for Screenings A restored version of the 1927 World War I drama Wings , the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, is set to hit screens for a rare presentation, exhibitor Cinemark Holdings said. Produced by Paramount for an whopping $2 million, the film explores the devastating effects of war through the story of two men who go off to battle and the woman they both leave behind. This historic piece of cinema stars Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen, and also features Gary Cooper in one of his first feature film roles. A fully restored version of the feature will be presented May 2 and 16 at select Cinemark locations . Academy to Fete Gene Kelly The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a two-night celebration of the life and career of dancer, director and choreographer Gene Kelly on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Film clips, personal remembrances and an exploration of the technology Kelly used to change the look of dance on film will be featured May 17 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, and Friday, May 18 at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Both programs will be hosted by Kelly’s widow, film historian Patricia Ward Kelly. Around the ‘net… Tyler Perry’s Atlanta Studios Catch Fire A 4-alarm fire broke out at 9pm last night at Tyler Perry Studios, AP reported Tuesday night. The complex includes a 200,000 square-foot studio and other buildings. No injuries were reported. Justin Bieber’s Manager Boards Doc About Public School Dropout Crisis Scott ‘Scooter’ Braun, who manages an array of musical acts including Justin Bieber, will produce director Adam McKay’s look at the scourge of American school dropouts, Deadline reports . Hunger Games ‘ Joe Drake Partners on New Film Label Longtime partners Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane have launched a new full-service motion picture financing, production and global sales company, Good Universe. It will kick off its upcoming slate with films in Cannes, Deadline reports . Mad Men Actress Climbs Kilimanjaro Actress Abigail Spencer will star opposite actor Brian Geraghty ( Hurt Locker ) in indie drama Kilimanjaro , which will be directed by Walter Strafford. The story revolves around Geraghty’s character who dreams of climbing the mountain, Africa’s highest. THR reports . Fandor Launches Digital Film Magazine Keyframe Online film service Fandor is backing a new site dubbed Keyframe , which will “provide in-depth coverage of the art, craft and business of the film world.” San Francisco-based Susie Gerhard will serve as editor-in-chief. She formally headed website SF360, initiated by Indiewire and the San Francisco Film Society, Market Watch reports .
