Also in Thursday’s quick round up of film news, ARC Entertainment is bringing Fat Kid to the States, Meryl Streep gives her two cents on big studio flops, and audiences just are not heading to theaters frequently like they used to. Fat Kid to Hit North America ARC Entertainment has picked up North American rights to director Matthew Lillard’s Fat Kid Rules the World . Starring Jacob Wysocki ( Terri ), Matt O’Leary ( Natural Selection ) and Billy Campbell ( The Killing ), the film won the Narrative Feature Audience Award at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival. The film revolves around two guys who form a strong friendship after one saves the other from suicide. Around the ‘net… Meryl Streep Has Words for Studio Tentpole Failures The actress had advice for studio execs behind big budget box office flops like Battleship and John Carter : “Listen to the ladies.” THR reports . Waiting for the Avengers Directors Cut Following in the footsteps of other high stakes box office titles, Joss Whedon is rumored to be reinstating footage into a three-hour version of the blockbuster that has taken in billions worldwide, The Guardian reports . Only 3% Rate Moviegoing as Frequent Form of Entertainment Only two years ago, 28% of U.S. consumers said “cinema/movies” were a frequent source of entertainment, according to PR outfit Edelman which released the statistics, Deadline reports . LA Film Festival Lures Woody Allen to Opener The director is, not publicly anyway, a frequent visitor in Los Angeles, but LAFF managed to get the filmmaker to its opening night. THR talks to the festival’s head programmer on how they made it happen. Follow Brian Brooks on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Also in Monday afternoon’s news round up, Outfest unveils its 30th anniversary lineup, Ashley Tisdale joins the next Scary Movie , Cannes and Sundance winner Beasts of the Southern Wild is set to open Stateside film festival, Matt Dillon and Brendan Fraser are among the cast set for a new dark comedy, Christina Ricci will join Susan Sarandon in an upcoming project and Christopher Nolan says good bye to Howard Hughes pic. Woody Allen Sets Cast for Untitled Project The director named his cast in alphabetical order Monday for his next film which will shoot in New York and San Francisco this summer. Joining the cast are: Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Louis C.K., Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Michael Emerson, Sally Hawkins and Peter Sarsgaard. Co-stars include Max Casella and Alden Ehrenreich. It is a Gravier Productions film produced by Allen’s long time producers, Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum. This will be Allen’s second film in San Francisco following his 1969 debut Take the Money and Run . Outfest Unveils 30th Anniversary Roster Director John Waters will be feted at the event, which will open with HBO documentary Vito on July 12th. The oldest festival in Los Angeles and one of the largest LGBT film events in the U.S., Outfest will screen 147 films from 24 countries. The festival will close with Struck by Lightning starring Glee star Chris Colfer who wrote the script. Other galas include Keep the Lights On , sexually charged Young & Wild , ACT UP doc How to Survive a Plague and Mosquito Y Mari which will screen as the fest’s Centerpiece. For more info on the Outfest lineup, visit their website . Ashley Tisdale to Star in Scary Movie 5 Ashley Tisdale has been cast as one of the leads in Dimension Films’ Scary Movie 5 , the latest installment in the franchise. Scary Movie 5 production will begin this summer. Tisdale played Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical franchise. The Scary Movie franchise has made over $800 million worldwide. Beasts of the Southern Wild to Open 16th American Black Film Festival The Sundance and Cannes winner will bow the event taking place June 20 – 23 in Miami, Florida. Raising Izzie , which was the winner of the 2011 GMC Faith and Family Screenplay Competition, will close out the festival on Saturday, June 23. Beasts is set in a “forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee where a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality,” according to the event. Zarafa and Rabbi’s Cat Head to GKids U.S. rights to Zarafa which debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year as well as The Rabbi’s Cat have been picked up by GKids. The Rabbi’s Cat won the French Cesar Award for best animated feature in February. Around the ‘net… Prometheus Arrives to ‘Mixed Atmospheric Readings’ “The 87% ‘fresh’ audience rating on rottentomatoes.com makes it one of the year’s best-received saturation-release films, and yet there’s a thread of uncertainty running through even the most gushing of reviews, a sense that Scott has produced an epic entertainment without actually delivering a particularly ‘good’ film,” writes The Guardian . Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser Board Pawn Shop Chronicles Also joining the cast of the project directed by Wayne Kramer are Elijah Wood, Vincent D’Onofrio, Pell James, Thomas Jane, Lukas Haas, Chi McBride, Ashlee Simpson, Kevin Rankin, DJ Qualls, Michael Cudlitz and Norman Reedus. The dark comedy centers on a man searching for his abducted wife, Deadline reports . Christina Ricci Joins Mother’s Day She will join Susan Sarandon and her real life daughter Eva Amurri Martino in the drama. Directed by Paul Duddridge, the film revolves around the relationships between a dozen mothers and daughters, Deadline reports . Christopher Nolan’s Howard Hughes Pic is Dead The director said the project is now gone in the latest issue of Empire Magazine, via The Playlist . “Luckily I managed to find another wealthy, quirky character who’s orphaned at a young age,” the director said referring to his next film which will hit theaters this summer, The Dark Knight Rises .
Also in Monday afternoon’s news round up, Outfest unveils its 30th anniversary lineup, Ashley Tisdale joins the next Scary Movie , Cannes and Sundance winner Beasts of the Southern Wild is set to open Stateside film festival, Matt Dillon and Brendan Fraser are among the cast set for a new dark comedy, Christina Ricci will join Susan Sarandon in an upcoming project and Christopher Nolan says good bye to Howard Hughes pic. Woody Allen Sets Cast for Untitled Project The director named his cast in alphabetical order Monday for his next film which will shoot in New York and San Francisco this summer. Joining the cast are: Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Louis C.K., Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Michael Emerson, Sally Hawkins and Peter Sarsgaard. Co-stars include Max Casella and Alden Ehrenreich. It is a Gravier Productions film produced by Allen’s long time producers, Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum. This will be Allen’s second film in San Francisco following his 1969 debut Take the Money and Run . Outfest Unveils 30th Anniversary Roster Director John Waters will be feted at the event, which will open with HBO documentary Vito on July 12th. The oldest festival in Los Angeles and one of the largest LGBT film events in the U.S., Outfest will screen 147 films from 24 countries. The festival will close with Struck by Lightning starring Glee star Chris Colfer who wrote the script. Other galas include Keep the Lights On , sexually charged Young & Wild , ACT UP doc How to Survive a Plague and Mosquito Y Mari which will screen as the fest’s Centerpiece. For more info on the Outfest lineup, visit their website . Ashley Tisdale to Star in Scary Movie 5 Ashley Tisdale has been cast as one of the leads in Dimension Films’ Scary Movie 5 , the latest installment in the franchise. Scary Movie 5 production will begin this summer. Tisdale played Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical franchise. The Scary Movie franchise has made over $800 million worldwide. Beasts of the Southern Wild to Open 16th American Black Film Festival The Sundance and Cannes winner will bow the event taking place June 20 – 23 in Miami, Florida. Raising Izzie , which was the winner of the 2011 GMC Faith and Family Screenplay Competition, will close out the festival on Saturday, June 23. Beasts is set in a “forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee where a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality,” according to the event. Zarafa and Rabbi’s Cat Head to GKids U.S. rights to Zarafa which debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year as well as The Rabbi’s Cat have been picked up by GKids. The Rabbi’s Cat won the French Cesar Award for best animated feature in February. Around the ‘net… Prometheus Arrives to ‘Mixed Atmospheric Readings’ “The 87% ‘fresh’ audience rating on rottentomatoes.com makes it one of the year’s best-received saturation-release films, and yet there’s a thread of uncertainty running through even the most gushing of reviews, a sense that Scott has produced an epic entertainment without actually delivering a particularly ‘good’ film,” writes The Guardian . Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser Board Pawn Shop Chronicles Also joining the cast of the project directed by Wayne Kramer are Elijah Wood, Vincent D’Onofrio, Pell James, Thomas Jane, Lukas Haas, Chi McBride, Ashlee Simpson, Kevin Rankin, DJ Qualls, Michael Cudlitz and Norman Reedus. The dark comedy centers on a man searching for his abducted wife, Deadline reports . Christina Ricci Joins Mother’s Day She will join Susan Sarandon and her real life daughter Eva Amurri Martino in the drama. Directed by Paul Duddridge, the film revolves around the relationships between a dozen mothers and daughters, Deadline reports . Christopher Nolan’s Howard Hughes Pic is Dead The director said the project is now gone in the latest issue of Empire Magazine, via The Playlist . “Luckily I managed to find another wealthy, quirky character who’s orphaned at a young age,” the director said referring to his next film which will hit theaters this summer, The Dark Knight Rises .
Also in this week-ending, Friday afternoon edition of Biz Break: MGM gets into the Ray Bradbury business, how Obama lost Hollywood, and more… Alec Baldwin to Rejoin Woody Allen and Russell Brand — Separately The busy actor, who will reportedly play himself in a film shooting next week at Cannes, is in line to re-team with both his To Rome, With Love director Woody Allen and his Rock of Ages co-star Russell Brand — on separate projects, alas, including Allen’s upcoming, untitled San Francisco-set film and the New Line comedy Man That Rocks The Cradle , respectively. Deadline reports . Catherine Zeta-Jones Signs on to RED 2 The Oscar-winner joins Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Mary-Louise Parker, all of whom appeared in the original 2010 action-comedy about a group of middle-aged contract killers reunited for a mission. Dean Parisot takes over directing duties for Robert Schwentke. THR reports . Dark Shadows Starts Soft at Midnight The poorly reviewed Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration earned a very light $550,000 from midnight screenings early Friday and expects to end the weekend with a disappointing $30 million (or less) haul. Deadline reports . MGM bites the Dust The studio has picked up the rights to Ray Bradbury’s 2002 story collection From the Dust Returned , about “a mortal boy named Timothy who is adopted into a family of benevolent ghouls.” Deadline reports . Sam Claflin gets Quiet for Hammer The hot young actor, soon to be seen in Snow White and the Hunstsman , is set to join the Hammer Films production The Quiet Ones , co-starring Jared Harris. THR reports . Despite Starmegeddon , has Barack Obama lost the Hollywood left? A new report from Buzzfeed underscores the problems facing the president as he lobbies for reelection among a constituency that helped push him to victory in 2008.
The Los Angeles Film Festival unveiled its lineup of nearly 200 features, shorts and more today. This year’s event, which comprises work from 30 countries, will open with the North American premiere of Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love ( as previously announced ), while the world premiere of Warner Bros.’ Magic Mike by Steven Soderbergh will close out the festival, which runs June 14 – 24 at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles. Other gala events include Lorene Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World , Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere and Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild. And Dreamworks Pictures’ People Like Us will have its World Premiere in LAFF’s Summer Showcase screenings. Directed by Alex Kurtzman and written by Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jody Lambert, and the film stars Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Michael Hall D’Addario, Philip Baker Hall, Mark Duplass, Michelle Pfeiffer, and centers on a 20-something fast talker who is tasked to fulfill his estranged father’s last wishes. LAFF’s lineup below include 30 World, North American and U.S. premieres, 19 of which are in competition. The festival’s International Showcase spotlight narrative and documentary selections from outside the U.S., while Summer Showcase are advance screenings set for release this summer. Narrative Competition (10) (with LAFF descriptions): All Is Well – Portugal (Director Pocas Pascoal, Producer Luis Correia, Cast Cheila Lima, Ciomara Morais) – Strangers in a strange land, two beautiful Angolan sisters fleeing a civil war in their homeland struggle to survive in Lisbon. Pocas Pascoal’s deeply personal saga shows us the face of exile with quietly stunning power. North American Premiere Breakfast with Curtis – (Director/Writer/Producer Laura Colella, Cast Theo Green, Jonah Parker, David Parker, Virginia Laffey, Aaron Jungels, Yvonne Parker, Adele Parker, Laura Colella, Gideon Parker) – A balmy eastern summer and a lush, rambling backyard are the perfect settings for this mirthful tale of unlikely friendships and rekindled neighborliness amongst a quirky and charming cast of bohemians. World Premiere The Compass is Carried by the Dead Man – Mexico (Director/Writer Arturo Pons , Producer Ozcar Ramírez González, Cast Gael Sanchez Valle, Pedro Gamez, Ana Ofelia Murguía, Eligio Melendez, Luis Bayardo, Marco Perez) – A young man and a dead man journey north through a subtly surreal desert landscape, picking up a wagonful of odd characters as they go in this darkly humorous satire of contemporary Mexico. North American Premiere Crazy and Thief – (Director/Writer Cory McAbee, Producers Cory McAbee, Scott Miller, Cast Willa McAbee, John McAbee, Gregory Cook, Graham Stanford) – With only a homemade “Star Map” and their own imagination to guide them, a brother and sister take a fantastical journey through the real world in this ode to being a little kid from cult director Cory McAbee. North American Premiere Dead Man’s Burden – (Director/Writer Jared Moshé, Producer Veronica Nickel, Cast Barlow Jacobs, Clare Bowen, David Call, Joseph Lyle Taylor, Richard Riehle) – This tense, classically crafted indie Western, set in the aftermath of the Civil War, starts with a startling act of violence: a daughter shoots down her father on the open range. Then her long lost brother returns. This is not going to be just any old family reunion. World Premiere Four – (Director/Writer Joshua Sanchez, Producer Christine Giorgio CAST Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, Aja Naomi King, EJ Bonilla) – Over the course of a steamy 4th of July night, a father and daughter, each trapped in loneliness, reach out for sexual connection — he with a self-hating teenage boy, she with a smooth-talking wannabe homeboy — in this psychologically complex, beautifully acted drama. World Premiere A Night Too Young – Czech Republic (Director Olmo Omerzu, Writers Bruno Hájek, Jakub Felcman, Olmo Omerzu, Producer Jiří Konečný CAST Martin Pechlát, Jirí Cerny, Natálie Rehorová, Vojtech Machuta, Jan Vasi) – On New Years Day, two innocent 12-year-old boys score vodka for three strangers and get invited to an adult party they’ll never forget. This darkly comic tale by gifted 26-year-old Czech director Olmo Omerzu upends the conventions of the coming of age movie. North American Premiere Pincus – (Director/Writer/Producer David Fenster, Cast David Nordstrom, Paul Fenster, Christi Idavoy, Dietmar Franosch) – An anchorless carpenter returns to his Miami home to help his ailing father. To escape the burden of his responsibilities, he seeks comfort in women, weed and his otherworldly German friend Dietmar. World Premiere Red Flag – (Director/Writer/Producer Alex Karpovsky, Cast Alex Karpovsky, Onur Tukel, Jennifer Prediger, Caroline White, Keith Poulson, Dustin Guy Defa) – Writer/director/star Alex Karpovksy reveals his sterling comic chops playing an indie filmmaker named Alex Karpovsky who, unexpectedly dumped by his girlfriend, takes to the road for a misbegotten mini-tour of film screenings and overly ardent groupies. World Premiere Thursday till Sunday – Chile (Director/Writer Dominga Sotomayor, Producers Gregorio González, Benjamin Domenech, Cast Santi Ahumada, Emiliano Freifeld, Francisco Pérez-Bannen, Paola Giannini) – With uncommon beauty and style, this Chilean road movie finds a family at a crossroads, as the daughter slowly realizes the divide between the adults in the front seat and the kids in back. North American Premiere Documentary Competition (with LAFF descriptions): 25 to Life – (Director Mike Brown, Producers Mike Brown, Yvonne Shirley) – William Brawner contracted the HIV virus through a blood transfusion as a toddler and kept it a secret as an adult while living a promiscuous, womanizing life. 25 years later, he comes clean, and this unflinching, sure-to-be-controversial documentary records his struggle for redemption. World Premiere A Band Called Death – (Directors Jeff Howlett, Mark Covino, Producers Matthew Perniciaro, Scott Mosier, Kevin Mann, Jerry Ferrara FEATURING David Hackney, Bobby Hackney, Sr., Dannis Hackney) – Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and inspiring family chronicle, this is the captivating and little known story of the Hackney brothers and their band Death, the best punk band the world almost never heard. World Premiere Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and The Farm Midwives – (Directors Sara Lamm, Mary Wigmore, Producers Kate Roughan, Zachary Mortensen, Sara Lamm, Mary Wigmore FEATURING Ina May Gaskin, Stephen Gaskin, Pamela Hunt, Farm Midwives past and present, Kristina Kennedy Davis) – Ina May Gaskin and the courageous midwives of the Farm commune inspired the modern midwifery movement. This beguiling documentary tells their empowering story with depth, intelligence and wit. World Premiere Call Me Kuchu – (Directors Katherine Fairfax Wright, Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Producer Malika Zouhali-Worrall) – To be openly gay in Uganda is to risk imprisonment and death, yet brave men like David Katos, the country’s first openly gay activist, have fought back. This heartbreaking and stirring documentary takes us inside this life and death struggle for human rights. US Premiere Drought – Mexico (Director Everado González, Producer Martha Orozco) – Contrasting the lives of a cattle-ranching community with the arid northeastern Mexican landscape that surrounds them, this cinema vertité documentary paints a poetic portrait of a community on the verge of extinction. US Premiere The Iran Job – USA/Germany/Iran (Directors Till Schauder, Producers Sara Nodjoumi, Till Schauder FEATURING Kevin Sheppard, Leah Sheppard, Hilda, Laleh, Elaheh, Abdullah, Zoran “Z” Milicic, Kami Jamshidvand, Ali Doraghi, Mehdi Shirjang, Gholamreza Khajeh, Asadollah Kabir, Fereidoon Reisi, Mohammad Ahmadi, Ehsan) – An American pro basketball player signs up for a season with upstart Iranian Super League team A.S. Shiraz. This sports documentary takes a surprising turn when this gregarious charmer meets three strong Iranian women fighting the repressive regime. World Premiere Sun Kissed – (Directors Maya Stark, Adi Lavy, Porducers Jocelyn Glatzer, Maya Stark, Adi Lavy) – With remarkable strength of spirit, a husband and wife examine their lives and why their children and others have been struck with a rare genetic disorder in this powerful portrait of a small Navajo community. World Premiere Vampira and Me – Director/Producer R. H. Greene) – Before Elvira there was Vampira, the playfully ghoulish host of a local L.A. late night horror movie show who became a national celebrity, then disappeared. This loving, personal portrait reveals the remarkable woman behind the chalk-white mask. World Premiere Words of Witness – Egypt/USA (Director/Producer Mai Iskander, Featuring Heba Afify) – Updating your Facebook status is a political act in this street-level documentary depicting the recent Egyptian revolution as seen through the eyes and social network accounts of a young female journalist working for an English language newspaper. US Premiere International Showcase (15): Bestiaire , Denis Côté – Canada Bunohan: Return to Murder , Dain Said – Malaysia (Oscilloscope Pictures) Canícula , José Álvarez – Mexico The First Man , Gianni Amelio – France – US Premiere The Last Elvis , Armando Bo – Argentina Neighboring Sounds , Kleber Mendonça Filho – Brazil (The Cinema Guild) On the Edge , Leila Kilani – France/Morocco/Germany P-047 , Kongdej Jaturanrasamee – Thailand Return to Burma , Midi Z. – Taiwan/Myanmar Sister , Ursula Meier – Switzerland (Adopt Films) – North American Premiere The Strawberry Tree , Simone Rapisarda Casanova – Canada/Cuba/Italy Summer Games , Rolando Colla – Switzerland Teddy Bear , Mads Matthiesen – Denmark (Film Movement) Unforgivable , André Téchiné – France (Strand Releasing) Without Gorky , Cosima Spender – UK Summer Showcase (16) : About Face , Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (HBO Films) Beauty Is Embarrassing , Neil Berkeley Big Easy Express , Emmett Malloy Celeste and Jesse Forever , Lee Toland Krieger (Sony Pictures Classics) Gayby , Jonathan Lisecki (Wolfe Releasing) Gimme the Loot , Adam Leon (IFC Films) The House I Live In , Eugene Jarecki It’s a Disaster , Todd Berger – World Premiere La Camioneta : The Journey of One American School Bus, Mark Kendall – USA/Guatemala Neil Young Journeys , Jonathan Demme (Sony Pictures Classics) An Oversimplification of Her Beauty , Terence Nance – USA/France People Like Us, Alex Kurtzman (Dreamworks Pictures) – World Premiere The Queen of Versailles , Lauren Greenfield (Magnolia Pictures) Reportero, Bernardo Ruiz Robot and Frank , Jake Schreier (Samuel Goldwyn Films) Searching for Sugar Man , Malik Bendjelloul (Sony Pictures Classics)
Scan the latest from a busy Monday news day in Movieline’s newly minted Biz Break. Following this morning’s edition of the new column is a slew of casting news from Iron Man 3 to Woody Allen’s next project, while the folks at CAA caught a surprise break from the office today thanks to a power outage. Robert Downey Jr. Chats Iron Man 3 Casting and more Now that The Avengers is about to finally get its U.S. release, Iron Man 3 is next on Marvel’s slate. Downey said of casting rumors regarding Ben Kingsley: to Screenrant , “Sometimes you have to call for a good old fashioned British invasion.” Iron Man 3 Targets Jessica Chastain for Starring Role Meanwhile, Jessica Chastain is back in the mix to play a starring role opposite Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man 3 . The role is a sexy scientist every bit as smart as Tony Stark, Deadline reports . Sally Hawkins Eyes Woody Allen’s Next Pic The British actress starred in Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream and is in talks to play one of the female leads in his next movie, shooting in San Francisco and New York. Variety reports Allen is considering Cate Blanchett for the other lead. Isabelle Huppert Joins Dead Man Down Huppert will join Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Terrence Howard and Dominic Cooper in the thriller. Swedish director Niels Arden Oplev (who directed the original version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ) will direct, Deadline reports . CAA Has a Power Outage A power outage of the electrical sort hit the Century City offices of CAA today, closing the building. CAA agents and execs were reportedly working “Off-site” today, according to THR . Jennifer Caserta Named IFC President & GM As expected, AMC Networks has promoted Jennifer Caserta to IFC president and general manager. She succeeds IFC TV and Sundance Channel president Evan Shapiro, who recently left the company to become president of Participant Television, Deadline reports . Dark Shadows Soundtrack to Feature ’70s Hits from Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, T. Rex Also joining the soundtrack available May 8 (the film opens in theaters May 11) are tunes from The Moody Blues, Danny Elfman and even The Carpenters. HitFix reports . Rihanna Bags Villain Role in Sequel She’ll play the villain in the sixth installment of The Fast and the Furious . Rihanna will be driving supercars alongside the likes of Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, as the series continues its world tour of exotic locations, The Sun reports . Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Skarsgaard Welcome Daughter The acting pair are now the parents of their second baby girl, a rep for Gyllenhaal told Us Weekly . The newborn, Gloria Ray, joins the family along with big sister, Ramona, 5. Taylor Kitsch Jokes He’s Overrated and Talks Up Battleship at CinemaCon Taking to the mic at a CinemaCon press conference, the actor drew some laughs joking he’s overrated. Turning somewhat serious, he said he hopes he’ll never get used to the big studio effects and talks up Oliver Stone. Latino Review provides video.
Some guy who should probably be running the space program instead focused his efforts on producing a time-lapse video of the goings-on in Rear Window , as seen from the eponymous vantage point in Jimmy Stewart’s apartment. I don’t really have any words for this beyond that. Just stop what you’re doing and have a look. Even the music is perfect! I’d like to nominate creator Jeff Desop for a Genius Grant, if anyone out there can help with that. [ Vimeo via AICN ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Woody Allen continues his cinematic Eurotrip with To Rome With Love , which aims to repeat the formula of pitting navel-gazing privileged Americans against Old World locales with charming results. While it doesn’t go for the transformative magic of Midnight in Paris , will Woody’s Rome outing capture something special in Italy? Watch the first trailer below. To Rome With Love is comprised of four vignettes; one features Allen (in his first onscreen turn since 2006’s Scoop) and Judy Davis as a married couple; another stars Greta Gerwig, Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin and Ellen Page as Americans in Rome; a third features Penelope Cruz; and the fourth follows Roberto Benigni. While the trailer gives little away in terms of plot, it does provide a peek at how Allen’s brand of neurosis-comedy will play set against the streets and countryside of Italy. (Answer: Pretty much the same as it does in France, Spain, and New York.) Via Yahoo! : To Rome With Love debuts on June 22.
“Sony Pictures Classics announced that on June 22 it will release Woody Allen’s latest film, the newly titled To Rome With Love . To Rome With Love was a name selected as an homage to the eternal city of Rome where the film was shot on location last summer. This will be used for its worldwide release. The film’s former title, Nero Fiddled , while an appropriate and humorous phrase in the U.S., is not a familiar expression overseas and many international territories preferred a more globally understood name.” [ SPC ]
Get ready for some twee twinkling on the Croisette — Wes Anderson ‘s Moonrise Kingdom is set to open the 2012 Cannes Film Festival! Last year’s opener, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris , went on to enjoy a rousingly successful theatrical run on its way to a Best Picture nomination; Anderson’s comedy, about a pair of pre-teen lovebirds on the lam in 1960s New England, will open stateside just over a week after its May 16 Cannes debut and marks his return to live-action film after his most recent film, the Oscar-nominated Fantastic Mr. Fox . In a statement announcing the premiere, Cannes head Thierry Frémaux referenced Fellini and Renoir while calling Anderson a ‘ brilliant and inventive filmmaker ‘; not too shabby for a guy who most recently followed in the footsteps of some of cinema’s brightest directors by helming a pair of car commercials for Hyundai ! (Said ads are classic Anderson, though, through and through — can’t quite say the same for this week’s other ad director-for-hire, Darren Aronofsky .) Moonrise Kingdom stars youngsters Jared Gilman as Sam and Kara Hayward as his best gal Suzy, along with Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Ed Norton, Frances McDormand, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban, and Harvey Keitel. [ Deadline ]
