It has come to this for “unaccompanied” teenagers desperate to see the unrated Bully : “An AMC spokesman said it will indeed allow that, but only if the child presents a signed permission slip from a parent, either via a form letter made available by the theater or an improvised note on a standard piece of paper. The move is an apparent attempt to support the film — AMC executive Gerry Lopez has two teenagers and has been vocal about its importance — while still paying deference to the Motion Picture Assn. of America and its ratings system.” Related: Is Harvey Weinstein just recycling tricks from his Kids playbook ? [ LAT ]
Browsing through the photo record of Tuesday’s Titanic 3D premiere in London, one notices immediately the absence of Leonardo DiCaprio. What gives? I mean, if Billy Zane can make time, then lord knows Leo should be able to drop in for at least a few snapshots with James Cameron and co-star Kate Winslet. At the very least, he’d better have a good excuse — which, according to Cameron, he did. Speaking to reporters on the red carpet, the filmmaker/ deep-sea habitué explained that DiCaprio was busy shooting Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained , and thus unavailable to travel. But that wasn’t all: “I didn’t show him the whole film but I showed him 18 minutes of it a few months ago,” Cameron continued, “It was a good reunion for us but great to watch his reaction. He couldn’t believe it. He said to me, ‘I’m such a young punk. Look at me.’ He was practically crawling under the seat. It was a good moment.” I can only presume this was the same clip package Cameron showed Movieline , which wasn’t that bad. Winslet, meanwhile, said she would seek similar refuge — from her nude scenes in particular: “I’m not going to look. I’ll be in the bar by that point or on the floor. I haven’t seen the whole film in a very long time, I’ve seen little pieces of it, but it’s a whole different me and we look much younger and our acting was different, hopefully not as good as now.” Never let go, babe. Now someone tell us where Kathy Bates was. [ OK! via Yahoo! , Metro ; photo via Daily Mail ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
High five to Fox for pulling their bullet-ridden Neighborhood Watch marketing materials from Florida theaters this week following the February killing of Trayvon Martin. Trying to get as much distance as possible from the teaser’s emphasis on grown men Ben Stiller , Vince Vaughn , Jonah Hill , and Richard Ayoade stalking and finger-shooting suburban kids is a good idea and a sensitive move — not to mention a no-brainer necessity, PR-wise — so the studio’s forthcoming campaign will likely focus on the film’s “broad alien-invasion comedy” elements. But even four months from now, will it be too soon for Neighborhood Watch to make fun escapism out of vigilante violence? A Fox representative explained the studio’s decision to THR : “We are very sensitive to the Trayvon Martin case, but our film is a broad alien-invasion comedy and bears absolutely no relation to the tragic events in Florida,” a Fox spokesperson tells THR. “The movie, which is not scheduled for release for several months, was made and these initial marketing materials were released before this incident ever came to light. The teaser materials were part of an early phase of our marketing and were never planned for long-term use. Above all else, our thoughts go out to the families touched by this terrible event.” Extending that retraction on a wider scale might even be in order, seeing as the media firestorm over Martin and his shooter, George Zimmerman, is now a national conversation and not just one for Floridians. Which brings us to the big question: Is the Trayvon Martin case too big, too incendiary, or just too heartbreaking for Neighborhood Watch to come out as planned, and perform well, in four months’ time? What’s in the teaser trailer may be an indication of the problem here: Whether or not it’s revealed in marketing materials, the film seems to glorify the kind of volunteer policing that Martin shooter Zimmerman was a part of in real life. The sounds of Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.” underscore the comically grandiose slow-motion crawl of the Neighborhood Watch gang — they’re lazy suburbanites using a self-important Neighborhood Watch front to get away from their families, but once the aliens invade they’ll become true-blue heroes. (Since I haven’t seen the film, I’m only guessing here — maybe it’ll turn out that the aliens were only visiting peaceably, their presence horribly misunderstood by overzealous would-be heroes, who resolve their differences with nonviolence.) That setup would be fairly harmless if it didn’t tap directly into the debate over what really happened on February 26 in Sanford, FL. Zimmerman was an active Neighborhood Watch captain in his gated community who, by many accounts, took citizen policing very seriously; following Martin as a suspicious person on the day of the incident led to the unarmed 17-year-old’s fatal shooting, which Zimmerman claimed was an act of self-defense. Neighborhood Watch , penned by Seth Rogen , Evan Goldberg, and Jared Stern as a ” hard R ” and directed by Lonely Island ‘s Akiva Schaffer, is still on Fox’s schedule for a July 27 wide release. According to the THR report, the studio doesn’t plan on pushing back the debut, despite the ongoing furor over the Martin case. I’d like to think that Martin’s death will be resolved but not forgotten by then, if only to give his family and all who’ve become invested in the case some closure, but I’m skeptical that four months — or five, or a year, or any measure of time — will be long enough that I won’t be thinking of George Zimmerman while watching Ben Stiller blow away the aliens who darken his doorstep. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The visionary, Oscar-winning director of The Abyss , Titanic and Avatar went to the planet’s deepest spot , and all we got were these lousy clips from the bottom of the sea. Don’t fret, however! There is much, much more where James Cameron’s preliminary submarine footage came from. For now, let the director/explorer fill you in on what he witnessed, right down to shrinking windows under 16,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. [via First Showing ]
The Ninja Turtles Culture War just gets better : “Paramount marketing changed the name. They made the title simple. The characters you all remember are exactly the same, and yes they still act like teenagers. Everything you remember, why you liked the characters, is in the movie. This script is being developed by two very smart writers, with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles . They care VERY MUCH about making this film for the fans. Everyone on this team cares about the fans. Just give them a chance. Jonathan the director , is a major fan of the whole franchise. HE’S NOT GOING TO LET YOU DOWN.” [ Shoot For the Edit ]
“If you show a woman’s mammary glands, if it’s done poorly, it instantly takes away from the comedic element of the scene. It’s too jarring. But [my husband] Chris [Pratt] and I were pitching around a character, a Hollywood-mess character on the red carpet at the opening of a movie. She’s talking to these journalists and she’s wasted. One boob is completely out, and she’s talking on and on, like, [Faris slurs] ‘I’m so excited to be here.’ If you held it long enough and kept it going, just the one boob, it would be so funny.” [ BlackBook ]
In a milestone of human civilization right up there with landing on the moon and eating 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes , James Cameron reached the deepest point on the planet on Sunday — the Mariana Trench, nearly seven miles below the surface of the Pacific. Naturally, upon reaching bottom, he did what any record-setting blockbuster deep-sea diver would do: Tweeted. Just arrived at the ocean’s deepest pt. Hitting bottom never felt so good. Can’t wait to share what I’m seeing w/ you @ DeepChallenge — James Cameron (@JimCameron) March 25, 2012 Back from trip to deepest pl on Earth – #oceans hadal zone.Puts a new spin on “to hell and back”. Good to see the sunshine. #deepseachallenge — James Cameron (@JimCameron) March 26, 2012 It wasn’t all good, according to a report today from Cameron’s partners at National Geographic: The expedition was designed so that Cameron could spend up to six hours collecting samples and video at the bottom of the trench. But his mission was cut short due in part to a hydraulic fluid leak that coated the window of the sub’s “pilot sphere,” obscuring his view. “I lost hydraulics toward the latter part of dive, and I was unable to use the manipulator arm,” Cameron said this morning Considering the daunting task of sending humans into the deep, such technical glitches are to be expected, Cameron emphasized: “It’s a prototype vehicle, so it’s gonna take time to iron out the bugs.” And even with the hydraulic leak obscuring the explorer’s vision, word has it that the ocean floor looked better than Titanic 3D . [ National Geographic ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
I told them to quit with all the sex scenes , but noooo : “Not to mention any names, but one actor came on me during the take. I had to surreptitiously wipe myself off with the sheet. Fortunately, I liked the guy. I found it a little flattering and a little creepy. We never talked about it, so I can’t tell you if it was Method acting on his part or if he just found me pretty, but I suspect I’m not the only actress who’s had this experience. But I can tell you that twenty years later, when I run into him, my first thought is, There’s the guy that had on-camera sex with my abdomen .” [ Vulture ] [Photo via Shutterstock ]
Oh, God, here we go again : “‘Katniss’s act of self-sacrifice [volunteering to take her sister’s place in the games] is a trigger for an entire revolution. She draws an ethical line that she won’t cross over and it serves as such a beautiful example for people,’ [director Gary] Ross said. ‘That assertion of her own individual ethics ultimately triggers a revolution just as it was one Tunisian flower vendor that led to the revolt that rifled through the Middle East last year. Or Rosa Parks refusing to sit in the back of the bus. It usually comes down to an act of individual ethics that can trigger something like that.'” [ LAT ]
The stirring 2009 documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty took us behind the scenes at Disney Animation to reveal what it’s like when good things happen to good people. But before that, there was The Sweatbox , the 2002 doc that exposed how bad things happen to good people at the notoriously demanding studio — a revelation that virtually ensured the film would never see the light of day. The crackdown worked once and may yet work in the future, but for now, YouTube has all 95 unfinished minutes available for a rare look. John-Paul Davidson and Trudie Styler were granted full access to the Disney process — the dark-arts cauldron comprising writers, directors, animators and executives — as it applied to the doomed project Kingdom of the Sun . The results featured below aren’t especially flattering (particularly to the executives), and Styler’s husband Sting walks his customary line between introspective and pretentious, but as a cautionary tale of snuffed-out Hollywood idealism alone, this one’s worth viewing. What the hell else are you doing with your Friday? [via /film ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
