This is… interesting: Warner Bros. and Todd Phillips have brought in writer/directors Mark and Jay Duplass to have a crack at adapting Mule , Tony D’Souza’s novel about a couple who turn to drug trafficking to make it in the recession. Phillips would direct, making the project the first time the Duplasses, who recently drew mixed reviews with Jeff, Who Lives at Home , did not direct one of their scripts. Unless Phillips goes off and spends the next two years on The Hangover Part III , in which case I guess it might be the brothers’ first time directing an adaptation. Wait and see, etc. [ Deadline ]
Said Madeline Puzo, the dean of the USC School of Theater where Ross will speak on May 11: “Gary is a wonderful example of a superb artist who combines a rigorous aesthetic standard with stories that have broad-ranging appeal .” No kidding! And you’ll really know he’s serious when he turns his speech over to Francis Lawrence a third of the way through. [ Variety ]
Well, not free free, but still: Hollywood superproducer Joel Silver is looking for a new studio home for his Silver Pictures operation, with which Warner Bros. will officially part ways at the end of 2012. The separation marks the close of a 25-year relationship that yielded blockbuster franchises from Lethal Weapon to The Matrix to Sherlock Holmes — and more than a few shouting matches, outstanding loans and other troubling legacies. Nikki Finke has the juicy details at Deadline, largely focusing on the ongoing battles between Silver and Warner Bros. boss Jeff Robinov: Robinov used his own surrogates to make Silver aware that the studio was about to “address the economics” of his Warner Bros. deal if — and that was a big “if” — it was renewed at the end of the year. Which Silver correctly interpreted as meaning a drastic reduction in his already greatly reduced contract terms even though the studio had not yet presented any details. Robinov counted on Silver imploding, which is exactly what happened. It’s well known in Hollywood that the lavish-living Silver has relied on a longstanding series of loans from Warner Bros. by taking advances against the money due him on his movies. Once he leaves Warner Bros., Silver must repay those loans. Will another studio be willing to let him borrow in an arrangement which Silver’s lawyer Bert Fields once described as “a running account between them”? Yikes. Finke suggests Universal as a possible fit, which is as good a guess as any with Silver pal Ron Meyer (whose daughter also works for Silver) running the ship. Or maybe not! Anyone out there need a 59-year-old terror to watch your lot and spend your money? Suggestions welcome… [ Deadline ]
Considering its relatively mundane subject matter — Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann ‘s Knocked Up characters, Pete and Debbie, go into mid-life crisis mode when age 40 approaches — there’s a deceptive amount of classic signatures in Judd Apatow ‘s This is 40 . Yes, I’m talking about dick jokes. And boners and nipples and vagina tree rings and whatever it is that Rudd is gazing at through a mirror without his pants on. In other words: Comedy gold! Right? Well, that’ll depend on what kind of Apatow you’re expecting from This is 40 . Suburban married protagonists struggling with parenting and fitness and stuff is much more grounded terrain than Apatow’s biggest hits. Not that it’s a bad thing that Rudd and Mann’s duo seem fairly realistic, considering; they were great foils to Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up , though This is 40 seems to mostly follow-up on Debbie’s age-insecurity than Pete’s hamstrung powerlessness. We may not see Rogen or Heigl reprise their roles in the “sort-of-sequel,” but Jason Segel returns, joined in the supporting cast by Lena Dunham, Megan Fox, Melissa McCarthy, Albert Brooks, Chris O’Dowd, John Lithgow, Annie Mumolo, the blond kid from Super 8 , and real life Apatow-Mann daughters Iris and Maude. I’m just hoping Debbie goes back to that club with her new boner-iffic bod and gives Craig Robinson what for. Verdict: This is… promising, but not a surefire slam dunk. Fingers crossed. This is 40 hits theaters December 21.
“I’m here to answer all of your questions about Rampart .” With that sly nod to Woody Harrelson ‘s infamous fiasco of an internet Q&A, Molly Ringwald arguably won Reddit’s Ask Me Anything (AMA) for all of eternity — and that was even before she named Nights of Cabiria as her all-time favorite movie, answered Redditor memes with other memes, quoted American Psycho , and told tales about John Hughes and The Breakfast Club and applying lipstick with her boobs. For example, on the subject of her famed lipstick trick: Regarding lipstick, it’s all movie magic. There is a story behind that: John Hughes wrote it but never actually thought about me having to do it. He kept putting it off until the end of filming that long scene. I kept bringing it up, like, “Hey. We gotta figure this out. Are we going to have robotic breasts?” Finally we decided it was better to see less and let everyone assume that I was particularly skilled. Let the record show that Molly Ringwald did not, in fact have robo-boobs! (That should make some of us ladies who still have to apply by hand a little bit better.) Elsewhere, she was asked to clear up the rumor that Breakfast Club co-star Judd Nelson was almost fired from the shoot for giving her a hard time. This is true. I think Judd was doing the method actor thing during rehearsals. He was wearing Bender’s clothes and trying to annoy me. I was fine but John Hughes was very protective of me. We ended up having a powwow, led by Ally. I remember her telling me, “We have to get him focused. Like a laser!” I think a bunch of us including myself called John and asked him to reconsider. I am thankful he did. Ringwald, who can currently be seen on ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager , joined Twitter days ago and set up the Reddit AMA after admitting to being a longtime lurker and Reddit fan. Head here for her full Reddit AMA, which will only ignite your totally ’80s Molly Ringwald obsession/crush anew. [ Reddit via @ifctv]
The film : Strange Fruit: The Beatles’ Apple Records (2012), available on DVD via Chrome Dreams Why It’s an Inessential Essential : Clocking in at a mammoth 162 minutes, Strange Fruit: The Beatles’ Apple Records is an exhaustive new documentary about the short-lived record and film label that the Beatles used to release such artists as Badfinger and James Taylor. And while the absence of Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney and the lack of archival interview footage of the Beatles is striking (John Lennon only chimes in around the 135-minute mark), that’s also sort of liberating: The film takes a semi-critical look at why Apple, a label that was meant to have established artists promote new artists, never really took off. One could easily accuse talking heads like The Iveys’ bassist Ron Griffiths of having an axe to grind. Griffiths bad-mouthed Apple and said he was disappointed in their non-existent promotion of the band. But others, like Mojo Magazine’s Park Paytress, Apple biographer Stefan Granados and Beatles biographer Chris Ingham, all clearly know their stuff and hold no grudges. They also all have their own unique takes on the artists and history of the Beatles (Paytress is especially fond of Yoko Ono’s debut album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band). Ultimately, Strange Fruit works because the filmmakers don’t have to be beholden to the Beatles’ sides of the story. That approach is almost immediately rewarding, too: The film quickly establishes that part of the reason why Apple was created was to help the Beatles pay less tax money than they otherwise would have had to. Apple Records’ financial failure is, after all, mostly due to creative mismanagement. It’s great to see Badfinger guitarist Joey Molland defuse tension by saying that he’s not mad at the Beatles but rather at the music industry in general. But it’s also more directly the Fab Four’s fault for not following through on their ideas and leaving almost all of their new artists in the lurch by not properly promoting them. How the DVD Makes the Case for the Film : There’s an interesting supplementary feature on the DVD where Stephen Friedland (aka: Brute Force) provides an emblematic example of why Apple artists like himself never really had a chance. Friedland was mystifyingly approached by George Harrison in 1968 to release “King of Fuh,” a bratty and deliberately button-pushing song that Friedland thought, at the time, was a sign of his “genius.” Along with McCartney, Harrison at the time was the only Beatle to take Apple’s mandate to discover and develop new talent seriously. But, after basically stumbling upon Friedland’s album thanks to a friend of a friend of a friend, Harrison casually called up Friedland, saying, “‘Hello, this is George Harrison. Just want you to know that you have a record on Apple Records.’” Because of the song’s risqué nature (Geddit? “Fuh King?”), both the BBC and FCC refused to play it. So as the documentary filmmakers relate through intertitles, even though Harrison “add[ed] string arrangements from the London Philharmonic,” EMI, the Beatles’ own record label, “refused to press or distribute [the single],” and, “it remained unreleased for years except for a small pressing by Apple of 3,000 copies.” Other Interesting Trivia : Of Strange Fruit ’s many interesting anecdotes, some of the most interesting are the ones about the artists that crossed paths but didn’t make establish any kind of working relationship with Apple or the Beatles. For example, apparently David Bowie and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were both considered to be Apple acts but didn’t quite make it that far. In the long run, that may not be such a bad thing… PREVIOUS INESSENTIAL ESSENTIALS The Last Temptation of Christ The Sitter Citizen Ruth The Broken Tower Dogville Night Call Nurses Simon Abrams is a NY-based freelance film critic whose work has been featured in outlets like The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Vulture and Esquire. Additionally, some people like his writing, which he collects at Extended Cut .
Gone are the days of callouses and carpenter pants. Today, men are rocking skinny jeans and moccasins as they treat themselves to spa days, having no shame in getting waxed, tweezed, manicured and/or exposed to other meticulous grooming techniques. This ongoing — and slightly horrifying — “manscaping” trend is spreading throughout America and beyond, and Morgan Spurlock (along with executive producers Ben Silverman, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman) captured it all in their world premiere Tribeca documentary, Mansome . The film highlights everything from elite beardsmen (yes, it’s a sport) to wrestlers’ full-body shaving, but mostly focuses on candid interviews with some familiar Hollywood men. Movieline caught up with director Spurlock at the film’s premiere over the weekend, chatting about everything from the ongoing “manocolypse” to the Oscar-nominee’s top five manscaping tips. When you think of the manscaping trend, who comes to mind in Hollywood? Zach Galifianakis! That’s why we called him first. How much grooming does he do? None — that’s why he was perfect. You think of someone like a David Beckham, you know; you think of somebody like that. We immediately thought of Scott Ian from Anthrax because he’s been shaving around that crazy beard his whole life, and he’s one of the first people I called. You think of like these kind of perfect-looking actors and actresses, many of which wouldn’t talk to us, simply because they didn’t want to get into it. In reference to some of those guys, do you think that kind of seal look is good for anyone? Well, it seems to be good for Seal, I don’t know — it seems to work out! I feel like if you’re going to commit yourself, like really going for it, then you might as well go for it. I’m not quite that guy. I wasn’t even talking about Seal the musician — I was talking about a seal, like the body slickness of a fully-waxed man… Oh, like when they seal it all in? No, that’s not for me. What was the most exciting part about working with this group of men? Had you ever worked with them before? I had never worked with Will or Jason; I’d never worked with any of the guys in the film. I had met a lot of them and had said that I’d love to work with them sometime. When we called Zach for the film, he jumped at the chance. He said “Absolutely — come meet me at my place in North Carolina!” And he was great. I’ve been such a fan of Judd Apatow for so long, and Paul Rudd, so to have those guys to come in was great. And the characters that we follow in the film — Jack Passion, Shawn Daivari, Ricky [Manchanda] — to have these guys open their lives to us, to let us kind of follow them through these like manscaping rituals, you gotta be a brave guy; you gotta be really courageous to kind of open yourself up like that. I think we had really cool, courageous guys who realized that we were going to make a fun, funny film. Why do you think now was the right time to make this movie? You know, we’re in the midst of a manocolypse! We gotta help figure out what we need to do to help define masculinity today! What do you think are the top five things in the manscaping world? Well, there’s a lot of waxing; a lot of hairy guys waxing is a big one. Grooming is also a big one — making sure you shave your face or cut your hair. There’s a lot of guys with big caterpillar eyebrows… Peter Gallagher? Peter Gallagher may want to take a little something to the middle of that; it’s okay to do that these days. You don’t want to have the unibrow — not so en vogue anymore. I think you don’t want to have a bunch of grimey fingernails; I don’t ever want to see a guy with big, dirty fingernails. Unless you’re like a coal miner or you’re digging a ditch somewhere and that’s your job — like “I dig ditches” or “I dig mud all day! That’s what I do.” — you can’t just go around all day with scrub in there. Do you think women are more attracted to men that manscape? I think that what attracts you initially is how you look. I think ultimately you are attracted to someone at first because of “X,” no matter what it is; there’s something about those pheromones that they’re sending out, and you want them, for whatever reason that is. And then you start to understand who they are and what they’re about, and you continue to stay attracted to them once you peel back the layers. But I do think that we are a judgmental society, and you want to be attracted to them first. But then once you start to talk to them, then you realize, “Wow, you are a completely terrible, shallow person. I don’t want to be around you anymore.” And then you realize that what really matters is all the stuff that’s in here. [Points to head] All the pretty people that I’ve gone out with aren’t the pretty people that I’ve stayed with; I’ve usually stayed with people that have much more to offer from the inside. Is that the advice that you’re going to give to your son? I’m going to tell my son, “Marry the most ugly woman that you can — she’s going to be the best to you of all time.” Read all of Movieline’s Tribeca 2012 coverage here . Alyse Whitney is a New York-based writer, currently with TVLine.com . Her work has been featured in Bon Appétit and a handful of other publications, and you can also find her on Twitter . [Top photo: WireImage]
Following last week’s unveiling of the Cannes Film Festival competition lineup , sidebar Critics Week today revealed its own 2012 slate. Opening the event is the world premiere of Broken , British director Rufus Norris’s story of a young girl in North London whose life changes after witnessing a violent attack, co-starring Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy. This year’s lineup includes a particular focus on French and Latin American work as well as a tribute to Asian action films. Spanish/U.S./Mexico co-production Aquí y allá joins the feature competition; set in Mexico, the film portrays an immigrant family torn apart while attempting to reach the United States. Of this year’s lineup, nine are first-time features. Founded in 1962 by the French Union of Film Critics, Cannes Critics Week (la Semaine de la Critique) showcases first and second time filmmakers worldwide. Global filmmaking heavyweights including Bernardo Bertolucci, Jean Eustache, Otar Iosseliani, Ken Loach, Wong Kar Wai, Jacques Audiard and Arnaud Desplechin all started at la Semaine. Special Screenings : Broken by Rufus Norris (Opening Film) Augustine by Alice Winocour (France) J’enrage de son absence by Sandrine Bonnaire (France/Luxembourg/Belgium) Features Competition : Aquí y allá by Antonio Méndez Esparza (Spain/USA/Mexico) Au galop by Louis-Do de Lencquesaing (France) Les Voisins de Dieu by Meni Yaesh (Israel/France) Hors les murs ( Beyond the Walls ) by David Lambert (Belgium/Canada/France) Peddlers by Vasan Bala (India) Los Salvajes by Alejandro Fadel (Argentina) Sofia’s Last Ambulance by Ilian Metev (Germany/Croatia/Bulgaria) Medium and short films in Competition : La Bifle ( The Dickslap ) by Jean-Baptiste Saurel (France) Ce n’est pas un film de cow-boys ( It’s not a Cowboys Movie ) by Benjamin Parent (France) Circle Line by Shin Suwon (South Korea) O Duplo ( Doppelgänger ) by Juliana Rojas (Brazil) Family Dinner by Stefan Constantinescu (Sweden) Fleuve rouge, Song Hong ( Red River, Song Hong ) by Stéphanie Lansaque & François Leroy (France) Hazara by Shay Levi (Israel) Horizon by Paul Negoescu (Romania) Un dimanche matin ( A Sunday Morning ) by Damien Manivel (France) Yeguas y cotorras by Natalia Garagiola (Argentina)
This Friday Jason Statham charges into theaters as a cage-fighting ex-NYPD officer who protects a 12-year-old Chinese girl from the Triads, the Russian mob, and corrupt city officials in Boaz Yakin ‘s throwback actioner Safe . So what better way to celebrate the stone-cold suaveness of Britain’s most bad-ass action export than by penning a 10-word review of any one of his films? Transport yourself into Statham mode, crank up the chaos, and expend your best critique for your chance to snatch up the grand prize. Speaking of which, here’s what the author of the best 10-word Statham review will receive, courtesy of Lionsgate: – $100 Gift Card (Gamespot or AmEx — your choice) – Jason Statham DVD Pack ( The Expendables, Crank, Crank: High Voltage, Transporter 3, The Bank Job ) – Safe one-sheet To enter, submit your entry in the comments below, on Facebook, or on Twitter (including @Movieline , @LionsgateAction and the hashtag #SAFE ). Reviews must be exactly 10 words long and critique any Statham movie of your choice. Contest ends Tuesday, April 24 at 5pm ET/2pm PT.
After nearly a month in first place, The Hunger Games surrendered its banner to another big-league bestseller-adaptation — and not the one that you (or I, for that matter) were expecting. Your eye-opening Weekend Receipts are here. 1. Think Like a Man Gross: $33,000,000 (new) Screens: 2,015 (PSA $16,377) Weeks: 1 Author Steve Harvey’s comic self-help literary phenomenon became director Tim Story’s comic cinematic-infomercial phenomenon over the weekend, soundly shutting down the Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Lucky One . Or maybe “shutting down” is being kind: Any time you can open on a third fewer screens and earn a third more opening-weekend loot — and more than double the per-screen average — than your closest competition, that’s just an ass-kicking. 2. The Lucky One Gross: $22,805,000 (new) Screens: 3,155 (PSA: $7,228) Weeks: 1 And the thing is, these aren’t especially horrible numbers for the Zac Efron potboiler: As the second-best opening for a Sparks movie to date, it would factor strongly overall into the film’s Sparks Quotient . It would also suggest that Zac Efron couldn’t open a packet of cheese let alone a movie full of the stuff. 3. The Hunger Games Gross: $14,500,000 ($356,900,000) Screens: 3,752 (PSA $3,865) Weeks: 5 (Change: -31.3%) God, third place? After five weeks ? Slackers. 4. Chimpanzee Gross: $10,205,000 (new) Screens: 1,563 (PSA: $6,529) Weeks: 1 Now that’s a fine way for Rich Ross to leave Disney : Fourth place on a nature documentary. The guy couldn’t wait two weeks for The Avengers ? I mean, I know they’d moved his personal parking space to a gas station around the corner from the studio, but still. Have some pride, son. 5. The Three Stooges Gross: $9,200,000 ($29,355,000) Screens: 3,482 (PSA $2,642) Weeks: 2 (Change: -45.9%) Someone had to finish fifth. [Figures via Box Office Mojo ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
