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(10/14/04 5:49am)
LOS ANGELES -- The vote is in: Political matters have become viable candidates on the big screen, with filmmakers and audiences roused by curiosity, patriotism or indignation to explore critical issues of the times.\nUsually relegated to Sunday morning TV roundtables, current events and political content have become as commonplace in theaters as presidential wannabes in Iowa early in an election year.\nMichael Moore's President Bush-bashing "Fahrenheit 9/11" has led the way, but dozens of other documentaries and a handful of dramatized films have arisen in the aftershocks of the 2000 election mess, the 9-11 attacks and the U.S. war on terrorism.\nMoviegoers have made mini-hits out of such theatrical releases as "Control Room," an examination of Arab TV network Al-Jazeera's coverage of the Iraq war and "The Fog of War," Errol Morris' Academy Award-winning compendium of Robert S. McNamara's insights on modern history and combat.\nPolitical documentaries such as "Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election," "Uncovered: The War on Iraq" and "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" have sold briskly on DVD.\n"The voting public is energized," Moore said last summer, after "Fahrenheit 9/11" became the first documentary to top $100 million at the domestic box office. "They are anxious to discuss politics, and I think since Sept. 11, the American people have wanted to find out more of what's going on in the world."\nFilmmakers and distributors have rushed in to satisfy that inquisitiveness.\nOther issue-driven films newly released on film or DVD include "Horns and Halos," chronicling the saga of J.H. Hatfield's George W. Bush biography "Fortunate Son;" "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry" and "Brothers in Arms," which explore the Democratic presidential candidate's Vietnam record and his subsequent stand against the war; "The Yes Men," following two anti-corporate pranksters posing as World Trade Organization representatives; "The Hunting of the President," examining efforts by Bill Clinton's enemies to discredit his administration; and "The War Room," the documentary hit about Clinton's 1992 campaign.\n"I think this is the high-water mark for political filmmaking, but I don't think it's the end of the rising tide," said filmmaker Steve Rosenbaum, who is making "Inside the Bubble," a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Kerry campaign.\n"Under Clinton, we went through eight years in which things were kind of OK, the economy was going great, with the dot-com thing, everybody was going to be a millionaire. Now, we're on the back end of that. People are waking up, wondering, 'Where the hell is Sudan? Where is the Gaza Strip? What did we do in Afghanistan?' That sense of bewilderment people have been feeling leaves intelligent people thinking."\nDocumentary directors tend to be left-leaning people, so the rush of political films reflects that liberal bent. But some films have delved into the conservative side or attempted to counter liberal viewpoints, among them "Bush's Brain," a portrait of the president's chief adviser, Karl Rove; "George W. Bush: Faith in the White House"; and two documentaries rebutting Moore's work, "Michael Moore Hates America" and "Fahrenhype 9/11."\nTo an extent, the surge in political interest has spilled over to fictional films. "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "Team America: World Police" parodies the U.S. war on terror using a cast of puppets. Denzel Washington starred in last summer's remake of the assassination thriller "The Manchurian Candidate," which used the Persian Gulf War as the root for a plot to usurp the White House. Robert Redford is developing a sequel to his 1972 political satire "The Candidate."\nSean Penn stars in the upcoming "The Assassination of Richard Nixon," based on the true story of a business failure who set out to kill the president because he viewed him as the embodiment of corruption.\nPenn -- who derided the Iraq war at last spring's Academy Awards, when he won the best-actor prize for "Mystic River" -- said filmmakers' current interest in world affairs reflects the preoccupations of society at large.\n"It's the story of the fight that happened outside," said Penn, who also plans to star in a new version of Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men," a novel loosely based on Louisiana's populist "Kingfish" governor, Huey Long. "There's a fight across the street. They come in, see their friends, they tell them the story of the fight across the street.\n"I think they're walking in off the streets now to their typewriters and writing about what's all around them, and events happening in the world right now are what's all around them."\nJohn Sayles' latest ensemble tale, "Silver City," casts Chris Cooper as a tongue-tied gubernatorial candidate loosely based on Bush in his first campaign for Texas governor.\nSatirizing political king-making, corporate influence and media passivity, "Silver City" had its roots in what Sayles and romantic partner and producer Maggie Renzi saw as rah-rah coverage of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.\n"It was so one-sided, the conversation. The war was happening, and Maggie and I were watching the BBC and the Jon Stewart show to feel like we were getting any news at all," Sayles said. "And these miniseries were running on the American news that just seemed liked pep rallies. Despite reporters being embedded, we felt like we were watching Armed Forces Radio and TV.\n"It didn't feel like there was any perspective at all, any analysis, or even any facts, in some ways. So we felt like, we've got to get into the conversation."\nAs with other forms of independent filmmaking, digital technology has helped swell the ranks of documentary directors. What used to be a prohibitively expensive endeavor for cameras, lighting and film stock now can be undertaken by anyone with an idea and a few thousand dollars for a digital camera.\nCommercial success of Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" and other documentary hits have broadened audience and distributor interest in nonfiction films in general.\nThough audiences have embraced political films, the movies' potential to influence the elections is uncertain.\nMoore has said he hopes "Fahrenheit 9/11" will help jar apathetic Americans to vote, but response to the film breaks down along party lines. Essentially, it's been embraced by those already predisposed to vote for Kerry and dismissed as propaganda by Bush supporters.\nThe same holds true for other political documentaries, most of which have not been seen by wide-enough audiences to significantly impact the election, anyway.\n"It's very rare that a work of art changes people's opinions," said "Going Upriver" director George Butler, who also made "Pumping Iron," the 1977 documentary featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger that helped popularize the world of bodybuilding. "'Uncle Tom's Cabin' did it, 'China Syndrome' did it. 'Pumping Iron' did it to a certain degree, because 100,000 gyms opened up in America after the movie came out. ...\n"If I'd made a film about John Kerry with some cute idea that it would influence the election, it would be a disaster. I believe first of all that a good film speaks for itself. The moment the audience feels they're being manipulated, forget it"
(10/07/04 5:34am)
LOS ANGELES -- Rodney Dangerfield, the bug-eyed comic whose self-deprecating one-liners brought him stardom in clubs, television and movies and made his lament "I don't get no respect" a catchphrase, died Tuesday. He was 82.\nDangerfield, who fell into a coma after undergoing heart surgery, died at 1:20 p.m., said publicist Kevin Sasaki. Dangerfield had a heart valve replaced Aug. 25 at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center.\nSasaki said in a statement that Dangerfield suffered a small stroke after the operation and developed infectious and abdominal complications. But in the past week he had emerged from the coma, the publicist said.\n"When Rodney emerged, he kissed me, squeezed my hand and smiled for his doctors," Dangerfield's wife, Joan, said in the statement. The comic is also survived by two children from a previous marriage.\nAs a comic, Dangerfield -- clad in a black suit, red tie and white shirt with collar that seemed too tight -- convulsed audiences with lines such as: "When I was born, I was so ugly that the doctor slapped my mother;" "When I started in show business, I played one club that was so far out my act was reviewed in Field and Stream;" and "Every time I get in an elevator, the operator says the same thing to me: 'Basement?'"\nIn a 1986 interview, he explained the origin of his "respect" trademark:\n"I had this joke: 'I played hide and seek; they wouldn't even look for me.' To make it work better, you look for something to put in front of it: I was so poor, I was so dumb, so this, so that. I thought, 'Now what fits that joke?' Well, 'No one liked me' was all right. But then I thought a more profound thing would be, 'I get no respect.'"\nHe tried it at a New York club, and the joke drew a bigger response than ever. He kept the phrase in the act, and it seemed to establish a bond with his audience. After hearing him perform years later, Jack Benny remarked: "Me, I get laughs because I'm cheap and 39. Your image goes into the soul of everyone."\nFlowers were placed on his star on Hollywood Boulevard after word of his death, and the marquee of The Improv, a comedy club where Dangerfield often performed, read "Rest In Peace Rodney."\nTeller, half of the magic duo "Penn & Teller," said Dangerfield hardly needed material since he was "intrinsically funny." He said Dangerfield at times would appear while they were performing in Las Vegas, walking around the casino wearing a satin dressing gown and sandals with a beautiful girl on his arm.\n"He was so confident," Teller said. "He was Rodney, and he could do anything."\nComedian Adam Sandler, who starred with Dangerfield in 2000's "Little Nicky," said the affection felt for Dangerfield "when you saw him on TV or in the movies was doubled when you had the pleasure to meet him. He was a hero who lived up to the hype."\nDangerfield had a strange career in show business. At 19, he started as a standup comedian. He made only a fair living, traveling a great deal and appearing in rundown joints. Married at 27, he decided he couldn't support a family on his meager earnings.\nHe returned to comedy at 42 and began to attract notice. He appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" seven times and on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson more than 70 times.\nAfter his first major film role in "Caddyshack," he began starring in his own movies.\nHe was born Jacob Cohen on Nov. 22, 1921, on New York's Long Island. Growing up in the borough of Queens, his mother was uncaring and his father was absent. As Philip Roy, the father and his brother toured in vaudeville as a pantomime comedy-juggling act, Roy and Arthur. Young Jacob's parents divorced, and the mother struggled to support her daughter and son.\nThe boy helped bring in money by selling ice cream at the beach and working for a grocery store. "I found myself going to school with kids and then in the afternoon I'd be delivering groceries to their back door," he recalled. "I ended up feeling inferior to everybody."\nHe ingratiated himself to his schoolmates by being funny; at 15 he was writing down jokes and storing them in a duffel bag. When he was 19, he adopted the name Jack Roy and tried out the jokes at a resort in the Catskills, training ground for Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, Red Button, Sid Caesar and other comedians. The job paid $12 a week plus room and meals.\nIn New York, he drove a laundry and fish truck, taking time off to hunt for work as a comedian. The jobs came slowly, but in time he was averaging $300 a week.\nHe married Joyce Indig, a singer he met at a New York club. Both had wearied of the uncertainty of a performer's life.\n"We wanted to lead a normal life," he remarked in a 1986 interview. "I wanted a house and a picket fence and kids, and the heck with show business. Love is more important, you see. When the show is over, you're alone."\nThe couple settled in Englewood, N.J., had two children, Brian and Melanie, and he worked selling paint and siding. But the idyllic suburban life soured as the pair battled. The couple divorced in 1962, remarried a year later and again divorced.\nIn 1993, Dangerfield married Joan Child, a flower importer.\nAt age 42, he returned to show business as Jack Roy. He remembered in 1986:\n"It was like a need. I had to work. I had to tell jokes. I had to write them and tell them. It was like a fix. I had the habit."\nEven during his domestic years, he continued filling the duffel bag with jokes. He didn't want to break in his new act with any notice, so he asked the owner of New York's Inwood Lounge, George McFadden, not to bill him as Jack Roy. McFadden came up with the absurd name Rodney Dangerfield. It stuck.
(10/06/04 4:13am)
LOS ANGELES -- Janet Leigh's most famous scene was so terrifying it put her off showers for the rest of her life.\nLeigh, who died Sunday, insisted she always took baths after seeing the finished cut of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," in which her character was slashed to death in a motel shower in what may be the silver screen's most memorable murder.\n"I know she used to get very scared about that scene," said the director's daughter, Pat Hitchcock, who had a small part in "Psycho" as a co-worker of Leigh's.\nLeigh died at her Beverly Hills home, with husband Robert Brandt and her daughters, actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis, at her side. She was 77.\n"She died peacefully," said Heidi Schaeffer, a spokeswoman for Jamie Lee Curtis, Monday.\nLeigh had suffered from vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels, for the past year.\nThe blond beauty had 60-odd film and TV roles in a career with highlights including playing Frank Sinatra's romantic interest in "The Manchurian Candidate" and Charlton Heston's abducted bride in Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil."\nYet the shower scene in "Psycho" became Leigh's defining moment, the role earning her an Academy Award nomination for supporting actress.\nLeigh played embezzling office worker Marion Crane, who checks into the Bates Motel and never checks out. Dressed as his own mother, psychotic hotel clerk Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) repeatedly stabs Marion in the harrowing sequence, which was accompanied by the shrieking violins of composer Bernard Herrmann's score.\n"'Psycho' scared the hell out of me when I saw it finished. Making it and seeing it are two different things," Leigh told The Associated Press in 2001, when "Psycho" was picked No. 1 on the American Film Institute's top 100 list of most thrilling U.S. movies. "That staccato music and the knife flashing. You'd swear it's going into the body. I still don't take showers, and that's the truth."\nThe scene left countless moviegoers sneaking the occasional peak around the shower curtain to make sure the bathroom was clear of knife-wielding lunatics. It also was a drastic departure from Hollywood convention, defying expectations of audiences who until that point had identified with Leigh as the movie's main character.\n"I think first of all it was having a big movie star playing the part and dying early in the movie," said Pat Hitchcock. "That was the shock value."\nLeigh had a classic storybook introduction to Hollywood. Born in Merced, Calif., on July 6, 1927, she was attending the University of the Pacific when retired screen star Norma Shearer saw her photograph at a ski resort. Shearer recommended the teenager to talent agent Lew Wasserman, who negotiated a contract at MGM for $50 a week.\nDubbed Janet Leigh (her birth name was Jeanette Helen Morrison) she starred, at 19, in her first movie, "The Romance of Rosy Ridge," opposite Van Johnson, and her salary was quickly boosted to $150 a week. She became one of MGM's busiest stars, appearing in six movies in 1949.\nAmong her films: "Act of Violence" (with Van Heflin), "Little Women," "Holiday Affair" (Robert Mitchum), "Strictly Dishonorable" (Ezio Pinza), "The Naked Spur" (James Stewart), "Living It Up" (Martin and Lewis), "Jet Pilot" (John Wayne), "Bye Bye Birdie" (Dick Van Dyke) and "Safari" (Victor Mature).\nLeigh had been married twice before coming to Hollywood: to John K. Carlyle, 1942, the marriage later annulled; and Stanley Reames in 1946, whom she divorced two years later.\nIn 1951, she married Tony Curtis when their stardoms were at a peak. Both their studios, MGM and Universal, worried that their immense popularity with teenagers would be hindered if they were married.\nAided by a splurge of fan magazine publicity, their appeal rose. They appeared in four films together, including "Houdini" and "The Vikings." The "ideal couple" divorced in 1963. In her 1984 autobiography, "There Really Was a Hollywood," she refrained from criticizing Curtis.\n"Tony and I had a wonderful time together; it was an exciting, glamorous period in Hollywood," she said in an interview. "A lot of great things happened, most of all, two beautiful children (Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis)."\nHer 1964 marriage to businessman Brandt was longer lasting.\nLeigh appeared in Jamie Lee's 1980 thriller "The Fog" and co-starred again with her daughter in one of her last roles in 1998's slasher sequel "Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later."\nIn recent years, Leigh was very choosy about acting projects and except for her daughter's flicks, declined regular offers to trade on her "Psycho" fame with other horror roles, said her agent, John Frazier.\n"Every year at this time of the year, she would be approached to do something tied into Halloween," Frazier said. "She never did that. She thought it would have cheapened it"
(06/07/04 1:56am)
LOS ANGELES - The boy wizard has worked his biggest box-office spell to date.\n"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" charmed audiences to the tune of $92.65 million in its debut weekend, the best results yet for the franchise, according to studio estimates released Sunday.\nIt was the third-best three-day opening weekend ever, behind "Spider-Man" at $114.8 million in 2002 and "Shrek 2" at $108 million last month.\n"I guess audiences are still crazy about Harry," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., the studio behind the franchise based on J.K. Rowling's fantasy series.\n"Harry Potter" bumped off "Shrek 2," which had been the No. 1 flick the previous two weekends. "Shrek 2" came in second with $37 million, lifting its three-week total to $313.6 million and putting it within striking distance of "Finding Nemo," the top grossing animated movie ever at $339.7 million.\nThe global disaster thriller "The Day After Tomorrow," which debuted a strong No. 2 over Memorial Day weekend, fell to third place with $28.15 million, pushing its 10-day total to $128.8 million.\n"Harry Potter," "Shrek 2" and "Day After Tomorrow" have turned around what had been an anemic early summer season for Hollywood. Before "Shrek 2" opened, early summer revenues were down 25 percent from last year's. Summer revenues now are running 6 to 7 percent ahead, while the box office so far this year is up about 5 percent over 2003's pace.\nStill to come is summer's most anticipated movie, "Spider-Man 2" on June 30, with a rush of potential hits to follow, including "The Bourne Supremacy," "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement."\n"What a difference a few weeks have made," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "This could actually be the perfect summer trajectory. Instead of a big start, stalling in the middle and a weak finish, like we usually have, we could have a weak start, a big middle and a strong finish."\nThe top 12 movies this weekend took in $180.9 million, up 15.6 percent from the same weekend last year.\nNo other big movies opened against "Harry Potter" as other studios stayed out of the way of a franchise whose first two installments totaled nearly $600 million domestically.\n"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" launched the series in November 2001 with a $90.3 milliondebut on its way to a $317.6 million total. A year later, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" opened with $88.4 million, finishing at $262 million.\n"Prisoner of Azkaban" was the franchise's first summer release and was the best-reviewed of the three movies. The movie reunites Daniel Radcliffe as Harry with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as his allies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they unravel the mystery of an escaped sorcerer (Gary Oldman) linked to the deaths of Harry's parents.\nAlfonso Cuaron, best known for the racy "Y Tu Mama Tambien," took over as director from Chris Columbus, who made the first two "Harry Potter" flicks. Cuaron delivered a tale with a suitably darker tone as Harry and his pals mature and learn more about the sinister forces working against them.\n"What's fabulous about the series is, I think, as the actors have aged, so has the audience, and that's created a bond between them," Fellman said. "The other thing is, as the actors have gotten older, they've gotten better, so the performances are the best yet."\nPart four, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," now is filming in London, with Mike Newell ("Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Mona Lisa Smile") directing. The movie is scheduled for release in November 2005.
(04/19/04 6:20am)
LOS ANGELES -- Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" saga slayed its movie rivals once again, with part two of the vengeance tale following its predecessor as the country's No. 1 weekend draw. "Kill Bill Vol. 2," with Uma Thurman as an ex-assassin continuing her bloody quest for revenge against former colleagues and lover, Bill, debuted with $25.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.\nThat was up 16 percent from the $22.1 million opening weekend that "Kill Bill Vol. 1" delivered last October. Part two is expected to match or exceed the $69.9 million domestic total of "Kill Bill Vol. 1," said Rick Sands, chief operating officer of Miramax, which released the movies.\nBy splitting "Kill Bill" into two parts, Tarantino and Miramax gambled that audiences would be willing to pay twice the ticket price to catch both chapters.The risk paid off nicely. The two movies cost a total of $60 million to produce, and "Kill Bill Vol. 1" alone has grossed $180 million worldwide, with the movie's video release last week selling 2 million copies in its first day, padding revenues by about $40 million more.\n"It was a terrific decision financially," Sands said.\nAnother tale of retribution, the comic-book adaptation "The Punisher," opened in second place with $14 million. The movie stars Thomas Jane as an ex--FBI agent targeting the crime boss, played by John Travolta, who wiped out his family.\n"A very big weekend for revenge," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "Revenge in movies is very cinematic. Everyone lives vicariously through characters in movies, and they can safely get their revenge fix without actually doing it themselves."\nNia Vardalos, writer and star of the weekend's other big new release "Connie and Carla" was unable to recapture the box-office magic that made her first film, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," a blockbuster.\n"Connie and Carla," a movie about two musical theater singers posing as men in a drag queen revue while hiding from mobsters, finished well out of the top 10 with $3.26 million. The movie co-stars Toni Collette and David Duchovny.\nVardalos' "Greek Wedding" debuted in 108 theaters two years ago with little fanfare, grossing $597,362 and averaging a solid $5,531 per cinema over opening weekend. Audience word-of-mouth gradually built the romantic comedy into a $241 million sensation. In contrast, "Connie and Carla" debuted in 1,014 theaters and averaged a weak $3,210. Studio polls found audience reaction was good for "Connie and Carla." Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, which released the movie, said she hopes the audience will have the same affect on "Connie and Carla" as it did on " My Big Fat Greek Wedding." \n"So I hope there's a little bit of life left in it," Rocco said. \nThe overall box office dipped slightly after seven straight weekends of rising revenue. The top 12 movies grossed $86.6 million, down 2 percent from the same weekend a year ago.\nAfter an Easter surge that lifted it back to the No. 1 spot the previous weekend, "The Passion of the Christ" fell to ninth place with $4.2 million. Since opening on Ash Wednesday, the movie has taken in $360.9 million domestically.\nDisney's expensive flop "The Alamo" came in at No. 10 with $4.05 million in its second weekend. "The Alamo" cost about $140 million to make and market but has grossed just $16.3 million.\nEstimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co., Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
(03/24/04 5:39am)
LOS ANGELES -- Some filmmakers tiptoe around the word "remake." Others delicately suggest their film is not so much a remake as a "revisitation or reimagining," afraid of being scorned for filching someone else's ideas. The Coen brothers guffaw over such euphemistic distinctions.\n"Listen, this is a remake," said Joel Coen, who joined with brother Ethan to write, produce and direct "The Ladykillers," starring Tom Hanks in an update of the 1955 Alec Guinness black comedy.\nLeave it to the Coens to call it a remake while infusing it with so much of their own warped humor and macabrely funny imagery that it feels entirely original. After last fall's nearly normal "Intolerable Cruelty," the George Clooney/Catherine Zeta-Jones romance that was the Coens' most mainstream film yet, the brothers are back in their hinterland of oddball America, where such wicked little yarns as "Fargo," "The Big Lebowski" and "Barton Fink" could only exist.\nIn "The Ladykillers," Hanks takes on the Guinness role as mastermind of a gang of daft thieves who rent rooms from a sweet old lady as a base of operations then bumble through attempts to knock her off when she uncovers their plan. The project began as a script the Coens wrote at the request of director Barry Sonnenfeld, the cinematographer on their first three films, "Blood Simple," "Raising Arizona" and "Miller's Crossing." After the screenplay was finished, Sonnenfeld moved on to other directing projects, so the Coens decided to make the film themselves.\nThey had no qualms about doing a remake, which Hollywood is churning out by the dozens these days.\n"We don't think about it in those terms," Ethan Coen said. "We wouldn't have done it if we didn't think we could have fun with it."\nThey had not seen "The Ladykillers" in years, though they borrowed one of its memorable closing lines of "Who looks stupid now?" for their 1984 debut, "Blood Simple."\nThe Coens took the "bones of the plot" and ran with it, transplanting "The Ladykillers" from London to the Deep South and creating a more active heroine than the porcelain-teacup widow of the original. Irma P. Hall co-stars as a slightly batty, devout Southern Baptist who discovers her dandy of a tenant (Hanks) and his buddies (Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma and Ryan Hurst) have tunneled from her cellar into a casino and cleaned out its cash vault.\nThe film puts an absurdist spin on reality as only the Coens can. They create a timeless realm where hip-hop punks co-exist with old Southern charlatans of the Mark Twain Duke-and-Dauphin variety. Sinister lines from Edgar Allan Poe manifest themselves in images of ravens and crumbly gargoyles, while an endless flotilla of garbage barges underscores the atmosphere of dewy decay the Coens present.\nPropelling the action is an invigorating collection of church tunes gathered by music producer T Bone Burnett, a soundtrack that could rouse interest in gospel the way Burnett's work on the Coens' "O Brother, Where Are Thou?" did for roots music. Hanks delivers a wildly eccentric performance as a caped, toothy "professor" with a rat-quiver laugh, a passion for dusty literature and a heart of ice (the Coens viewed Hanks' character as a cross between Col. Sanders and 19th century actor Edwin Booth). Like Guinness in the original, Hanks creates an effeminately creepy heavy, but in an entirely different manner and without the slightest trace of imitation.
(02/20/04 5:00am)
LOS ANGELES -- Academy Awards overseers were hoping for a kinder, gentler buildup to the Oscars. So far, their wish has been granted, with none of the shady campaigning that has sullied recent Hollywood awards seasons.\nThe race to take home a little gold guy has been as strenuous as ever, though, with stars and filmmakers glad-handing like politicians and Hollywood trade papers awash in glossy ads plugging Oscar contenders.\nThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences implemented tougher rules this year to rein in campaigning and keep the focus on the merits of the movies as much as possible. Parties overtly intended to influence Oscar voters were prohibited, along with ads carrying endorsements from academy members and smear campaigns against particular films.\nAnyone violating the rules could be kicked out of the academy or have their film pulled from Oscar contention in some categories.\nThe rules simply forced campaigners to be more circumspect on placing ads or arranging parties so the events were not transparently held to solicit Oscar support.\nStill, the new rules may have injected a greater sense of decorum into the awards season.\n"I think it actually has," said Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper, co-host of TV's "Ebert & Roeper and the Movies." "Also, I think a lot of studios were beginning to sense that it was backfiring. This very aggressive campaigning, just like in politics, can have a backlash that works against you."\nLast year, Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein was criticized for suggesting that academy members consider voting for Martin Scorsese as best director on "Gangs of New York" as a career award. Miramax's campaign for "Gangs" also included ads reprinting a column by Oscar-winning director Robert Wise that praised Scorsese, prompting the academy's ban on such quote ads. Scorsese lost at the Oscars.\nTwo years ago, Universal Studios complained of a smear campaign against its eventual best-picture winner "A Beautiful Mind," though no evidence surfaced that other studios were bad-mouthing the film.\nThis season has been free of such backbiting.\n"People are so afraid this year of having their membership revoked," said Pete Hammond, a film reporter for the trade paper Daily Variety. "They've been very careful about distancing themselves from anything that could get them in trouble."\nA shorter Oscar season also has left less time for unseemly behind-the-scenes developments. The academy moved the Oscars to late February, three weeks earlier than usual, hoping the shorter season would boost the ceremony's sagging television ratings.\nBruce Davis, the academy's executive director, said sheer awards fatigue from months of earlier movie honors may have been undermining viewers' interest in the Oscars.\nThe biggest issue facing the Oscars last fall -- an attempt by studios to ban special videos of competing films so awards voters can watch them at home -- has had little or no effect. The ban eventually was lifted, and while those "Oscar screeners" may have arrived a little later than normal, "we did not have a single complaint from members that they felt they didn't have time to see the films," Davis said.\nThe date change for the Oscars prompted studios to begin awards marketing sooner, with ads appearing in trade papers weeks earlier than usual. The Hollywood Reporter had about 1,000 pages of awards ads this season, the same as last year, said Lynne Segall, associate publisher.\n"Everything was really just pushed forward a month," Segall said. "There hasn't been any less campaigning."\nParties where nominees mingle with academy voters remain commonplace, though the events are camouflaged to avoid any appearance of blatant Oscar campaigning.\nJulianne Moore held a party for pal Patricia Clarkson, a supporting-actress nominee for "Pieces of April," while Universal held lavish bashes for "Seabiscuit" and "Lost in Translation" -- two best-picture nominees -- to celebrate the films' DVD releases.
(01/29/04 6:02am)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Middle-earth crowned its monarch. Now, Academy Awards voters seem ready to crown "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" as the first fantasy to win best picture.\nThe final chapter of Peter Jackson's trilogy, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic set in an imaginary world of hobbits, wizards and elves, took a leading 11 Oscar nominations Tuesday -- among them, best picture and director.\nKey acting nominees included Golden Globe winners Bill Murray as a washed-up actor in "Lost in Translation," Diane Keaton as a down-on-love playwright in "Something's Gotta Give," Charlize Theron as serial killer, Aileen Wuornos in "Monster" and Sean Penn as a vengeful father in "Mystic River."\nThe Napoleonic era-naval adventure, "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," received 10 nominations, including best picture and director for Peter Weir.\nThe other best-picture nominees were the quirky Tokyo tale "Lost in Translation," the somber vengeance story, "Mystic River" and the uplifting horse-racing drama "Seabiscuit."\nThe biggest surprise was 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes. For her performance as a Maori girl bucking tribal tradition in "Whale Rider." She became the youngest person ever to be nominated for lead actress.\nJoining the teen, Keaton and Theron in the best-actress category were Samantha Morton, as an Irish mom in New York, in "In America," and Naomi Watts, a grieving mother, in "21 Grams."\nIt was the fourth nomination for Keaton, a best-actress winner for 1977's "Annie Hall." Keaton plays an older woman who has closed the door on love, then finds herself pursued by two men, in "Something's Gotta Give," which has topped $100 million at the box office.\n"It's fantastic for actresses of my generation," Keaton said. "It means we can still be in romantic comedies, and if they're well-written and directed and acted, it works and it makes money."\nAlong with Law, Penn and Murray, best-actor nominees were Johnny Depp, as a wily buccaneer, in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," Ben Kingsley as an Iranian immigrant in "House of Sand and Fog" and Jude Law, as a Confederate deserter, in "Cold Mountain."\nMurray is the latest in a string of actors such as Tom Hanks and Robin Williams who earned hard-won respect after a career beginning in broad comedy. Academy voters had snubbed Murray for one of 1998's most acclaimed performances in "Rushmore."\nAnother surprise pick was director Fernando Meirelles for the Brazilian film "City of God."\n"Lost in Translation" earned nominations for directing and original screenplay for Sofia Coppola. She was only the third woman ever nominated for director, after Lina Wertmuller for 1976's "Seven Beauties" and Jane Campion for 1993's "The Piano."\n"It's pretty unbelievable. I'm happy to be in good company," said Coppola, the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola and the first American woman nominated for director.\nA win for Coppola would make her kin the second family of three-generation winners, joining Walter, John and Anjelica Huston. Coppola's father is a five-time winner and her grandfather, Carmine Coppola, won for musical score on "The Godfather Part II."\nThe most notable snubs were for the Civil War saga "Cold Mountain," which failed to get nominations for best picture, director Anthony Minghella or lead actress Nicole Kidman, last year's best-actress winner for "The Hours." The film had scored well in earlier movie honors.\n"Cold Mountain" did manage to pick up seven nominations, though -- among them, best actor for Law and best supporting actress for Renee Zellweger as a salt-of-the-earth Southerner. It was Zellweger's third straight nomination.\nBesides Zellweger, supporting actress nominees were Shohreh Aghdashloo in "House of Sand and Fog," Patricia Clarkson in "Pieces of April," Marcia Gay Harden in "Mystic River" and Holly Hunter in "Thirteen."\nContenders for supporting actor were Alec Baldwin in "The Cooler," Benicio Del Toro in "21 Grams," Djimon Hounsou in "In America," Tim Robbins in "Mystic River" and Ken Watanabe in "The Last Samurai."\nBesides best picture and director, nominations for "Return of the King" included original score and song, visual effects, film editing and adapted screenplay. The film was shut out in acting categories, though.\nWith their strange creatures and mythical settings, fantasy flicks have had a hard time gaining favor with Oscar voters. No such fantastical film has ever won the top Oscar, yet universal acclaim and success at previous awards have positioned "Return of the King" to break that barrier.
(01/27/04 3:55am)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and its mythical creatures are poised to go where no fantasy film has gone before -- the winner's circle at the Academy Awards.\nWith a leading four Golden Globe trophies, the final chapter of Peter Jackson's adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy appears ready to steamroll its way to the best-picture Oscar. Nominations come out Tuesday.\nA box-office juggernaut heading toward $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide, "Return of the King" took the dramatic-picture prize at Sunday's Globes, along with the best-director award for Jackson and the song and musical score honors.\nVoters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences historically have been reluctant to even nominate fantasy films, and nothing as otherworldly as "Return of the King" -- with its epic battles among hobbits, wizards, elves and orcs -- has been named best picture.\nThe first two "Lord of the Rings" flicks -- 2001's "The Fellowship of the Ring" and 2002's "The Two Towers" -- were nominated for the top Oscar but lost. The sense in Hollywood has been that Oscar voters might reserve their top prize for the final chapter.\nJackson himself has said the rousing finale is the best of the three films, but he sidestepped speculation that the Oscar momentum was with "Return of the King."\n"I don't really want to think in such competitive terms," Jackson said backstage at the Globes. "I'm a filmmaker. I'm very happy to entertain people and very happy to receive awards. I'm really just very happy to be a participant and turn up at the shows and see what happens."\nNo other film appears to have support to challenge "Return of the King" at the Oscars. The Civil War saga "Cold Mountain" led the Globes with eight nominations but came away with just one win, and the film has not drawn the sort of widespread admiration that typically spells a best-picture prize.\nMeantime, "Return of the King" has been embraced by critics and fans. Even the normally snooty New York Film Critics Circle chose the populist Tolkien finale as last year's best movie.\nThat all bodes well for the film's chances at the Feb. 29 Oscar ceremony, even though the academy generally prefers more down-to-earth dramas or epics rooted in history.\n"It's one of the great mysteries of Hollywood that people in the business of make-believe don't have a great appreciation for fantasy," said Tom O'Neil, author of the book "Movie Awards."\nBut with the Globe wins for "Return of the King," Oscar voters "have just received permission to do what they've never done, to crown a fantasy film as best picture," O'Neil said.
(11/10/03 5:37am)
LOS ANGELES -- The sci-fi Matrix saga lost some of its spin at the U.S. box office, with "The Matrix Revolutions" pulling in $50.16 million in its opening weekend -- off 45 percent from the previous chapter's weekend debut.\n"Revolutions," pummeled by critics as harshly as "The Matrix Reloaded" was last May, has grossed $85.5 million domestically since debuting Wednesday, according to studio estimates Sunday. While the numbers are high, they are still down from "Reloaded," which had a $91.8 million weekend debut and took in $134.2 million over its first four days.\nDistributor Warner Bros. preferred to focus on the worldwide results for "Revolutions." Warner opened the movie simultaneously in a record 109 countries, where it racked up a worldwide total of $204.1 million in five days, beating the previous global high of about $200 million for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."\nWill Ferrell's Christmas comedy "Elf," about a human raised among the little people at the North Pole, opened strongly in second place with $32.1 million domestically. In narrower release, the romantic comedy "Love Actually" had a healthy debut with $6.6 million, coming in at No. 6.\nDespite the domestic debut for the final "Matrix" chapter, the "Matrix" franchise this year already is pushing the $1 billion mark.\n"Anytime you have a billion dollars in box office, that's pretty impressive," Joel Silver, producer of "The Matrix" franchise, said Sunday. "I don't know how you point a finger and say there's anything wrong there."\nStill, interest clearly has waned in the franchise, which began in 1999 with the Wachowski brothers' "The Matrix," starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss. The movie's sleek black fashion sense and slow-motion visual effects have become one of the most copied looks in movie history.\nMany fans of the original were disappointed by "Matrix Reloaded," finding it a lackluster followup that emphasized style over substance.\n"Reloaded's" opening weekend -- the second-best ever after "Spider-Man's" $114.8 million -- was greatly due to pent-up demand since the original movie. "Revolutions" lacked that buildup.\n"I don't know what film could do $90 million and then repeat that with its next sequel just six months later," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.\nPlaying in 3,502 theaters domestically, "Matrix Revolutions" averaged $14,322 a cinema from Friday to Sunday, down from a $25,472 average for "Matrix Reloaded." "Love Actually," with an ensemble cast including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, averaged $11,458 in 576 cinemas, while "Elf" averaged $9,619 in 3,337 theaters.\nDan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner, said "Matrix Revolutions" may hold up better in subsequent weeks than did "Matrix Reloaded," whose grosses nose-dived in its second weekend. Films tend to have longer shelf life over the holidays than they do in summer-blockbuster season, he said.\n"The story really isn't over yet," Fellman said. "We might not have had the same impact in the opening weekend, but you need to play this out for the next few weeks and see if we play a little catchup."\n"Elf" and "Love Actually" were scheduled against "Matrix Revolutions" as alternatives to the sci-fi franchise, whose core audience is younger males. Families and children accounted for most of the crowds at "Elf," while "Love Actually" played mainly to women and older adults.\n"We assumed we would be swamped, and essentially, we did get swamped" by "Matrix Revolutions," said Russell Schwartz, head of domestic marketing for "Elf" distributor New Line. "We were not trying to be No. 1"
(11/06/03 5:39am)
BURBANK, Calif. -- From featherhead to virtual-reality savior of humanity. What an odd set of bookends to the career of Keanu Reeves.\nFor more than a decade, no matter the far-ranging roles and genres he tried, Reeves was inescapably identified as the most-excellent but nitwitted dude Ted of 1989's "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and its sequel, "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey."\nNow Reeves, 39, faces life after Neo, the most-solemn messiah of "The Matrix" trilogy. What does he do for an encore?\nThe same thing he's done all along: Mix things up.\n"I love doing supporting roles, different genres, different scales of moviemaking," Reeves told The Associated Press during an interview at a soundstage at Warner Bros., the studio behind "The Matrix" franchise. "It's important, it's a wish of mine to be able to do that."\nIn December, Reeves plays second fiddle to Jack Nicholson in the romantic comedy "Something's Gotta Give," as an emergency room doctor wooing an older woman (Diane Keaton). Already completed is a role as an orthodontist in the low-budget comedy "Thumbsucker," and Reeves is shooting the occult comic-book adaptation "Constantine."\nReeves' approach -- follow an action flick with a moody independent feature, move from a star turn to an ensemble film -- has fueled Keanu-bashing among critics. Despite serious turns in "Dangerous Liaisons" and "My Own Private Idaho" early in his career, Reeves was pigeonholed by "Bill & Ted" as a screen simpleton and castigated when he strayed from lunkhead parts.\nSome of his performances have been called stiff and taciturn. Critics have scorned his attempts at villainous roles in such films as Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare comedy "Much Ado About Nothing."\nFor all Reeves' aloof exterior, the criticism stings.\n"Yeah, I mean bad reviews suck, man," Reeves says. "It's terrible. It's a drag. But it's still just a review. It sucks to have a bad review, but it's not like after I get a bad review, I run outside and start drinking and have a kind of catastrophic depression."\nBefore he turned brooding into an art form with "The Matrix" movies, Reeves excelled mainly at playing the lovable cretin ("Bill & Ted," Ron Howard's "Parenthood" and Lawrence Kasdan's "I Love You to Death") or the cookie-cutter action hero ("Speed," "Point Break"). He handled those roles so well that critics and audiences sometimes assumed Reeves was a meathead himself.\n"Sometimes a lot of journalists feel that Keanu is the people that he plays. It's really not fair to say that," says Joel Silver, producer of "The Matrix" films. "I don't think ("The Sopranos" star) James Gandolfini is in the Mafia. But people think that Keanu is not bright. He is very bright. He's a very good actor. Keanu's very well-read, he's very conscious of the world, politics, the economy."\nIn conversation, Reeves is highly articulate, though he peppers his speech with dude-like "yeah, mans" and the occasional "most certainly." His demeanor is a mix of California casual and fidgety furtiveness.\nHis co-stars say Reeves is gracious and easygoing, but closer in spirit to the guarded Neo than the goofball Ted.\n"I would never say he has the carefree Ted in him," said Carrie-Anne Moss, who plays Neo's soul mate, Trinity. "I would say he's so funny and has a great sense of humor. He's a very kind person."\nPolitely reticent, Reeves gushes about "Matrix" creators Andy and Larry Wachowski and the film work itself, but clams up when things stray to his private life, especially to hard times he has borne.\nHis sister has been battling leukemia. Three years ago, Reeves and then-girlfriend Jennifer Syme had a stillborn baby. A year later, after the couple had split, Syme died in a car crash. And there was the 1993 drug-overdose death of Reeves' friend and "My Own Private Idaho" co-star River Phoenix.\nAsked how he copes, Reeves turns stone-faced and glances away, muttering something about "work and friends and just trying to, uh, oh ...," before his voice trails off.\nWhen he looks back, Reeves has a pained look in his eye as he gives a slight nod for the next question. With wordless courtesy, he has managed to change the subject and make it tacitly clear that such matters are off limits.\n"He's very funny when he decides not to talk," says Laurence Fishburne, who co-stars as Morpheus in "The Matrix" movies. "I wish I knew how to do it. I've watched him and Clint Eastwood do it. It's amazing. They can just not talk, and that's that."\nBorn in Lebanon, Reeves is the son of an English showgirl and a Chinese-Hawaiian father. After his parents divorced, Reeves moved with his mother and sister to New York City and later Toronto, where he excelled at hockey and took up acting in his teens.\nHe looks forward to showcasing a cheerier side in "Something's Gotta Give" and "Thumbsucker," which should help break the perception that he gravitates toward dark, somber characters.\nReeves notes that his pre-Neo Thomas Anderson character in "The Matrix" had a lighter, rogue-ish quality, while his title role in the action-thriller "Constantine" calls for a good dose of irreverence.\nSo Reeves is lightening up on screen. Has he lightened up in real life?\n"I'm older. I'm an older guy," Reeves says, again copping his no-personal-questions-please game face. "So to answer your question, I'll just say yes"
(11/05/03 5:23am)
LOS ANGELES -- A year has passed since Frodo and Sam continued their ominous trek to Mordor. It's been six months since Neo lay comatose alongside his nemesis. And three more months will pass before the vengeful Bride gets a chance to kill Bill.\nHollywood is in tease mode these days, breaking with the convention that each movie must have a clear beginning, middle and end. Film franchises like "Lord of the Rings," "The Matrix" and "Kill Bill" are dabbling in installment plans, taking their cues from a serial format that dates back to the ancient Greeks.\n"Certainly, serialization of entertainment started with literature," said Keanu Reeves, who stars as Neo in "The Matrix" trilogy, which concludes with "The Matrix Revolutions," debuting Wednesday. "The continuation of stories like Oedipus (Sophocles' three-part theater trilogy). It's in the tradition, cycles and trilogies."\nThe Wachowski brothers shot parts two and three of "The Matrix" simultaneously, a moneysaving method that also allowed them to rush the movies into theaters just a few months apart rather than the typical two or three years.\nLikewise, Peter Jackson filmed "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy at the same time, with the films hitting theaters just before Christmas three years running, the final part now six weeks away.\nQuentin Tarantino shot "Kill Bill" as one long, action tale, then broke it into two parts after he and distributor Miramax decided three hours was too long for a single martial-arts film. Part two debuts in February.\nIt's more coincidence than trend that these three projects surfaced around the same time. The stories are epics that needed more than a single movie's running time to do them justice, and the unresolved endings required the expediency of simultaneous shooting to get them in theaters quickly, before audiences lost interest.\nIf Hollywood takes away any lessons, it will be on the bottom-line, not the lure of cliffhanger storytelling. Whether a franchise is intended as a serialized story or several self-contained films, studios may be enticed by the cost efficiency of shooting two or more movies in one swoop.
(10/07/03 5:09am)
LOS ANGELES -- "The School of Rock," with Jack Black playing a rocker posing as a substitute teacher to coach fifth graders for a battle-of-the-bands contest, earned top grades from audiences with a $20.2 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.\n"Out of Time," starring Denzel Washington as a police chief scrambling to prove his innocence in a double murder, opened in second place with $17 million.\nThe Rock's action comedy "The Rundown," the previous weekend's top flick, slipped to third place with $9.8 million, lifting its 10-day total to $32.7 million.\nBlack, a relative newcomer to lead roles, edged established star Washington even though "School of Rock" opened in fewer theaters. \n"'School of Rock' has a younger, school-age appeal. Black's like a big kid, like an Adam Sandler-type persona," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "Irreverent, funny, bucks the establishment. That brings in younger audiences"
(10/07/03 5:09am)
LOS ANGELES -- "The School of Rock," with Jack Black playing a rocker posing as a substitute teacher to coach fifth graders for a battle-of-the-bands contest, earned top grades from audiences with a $20.2 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.\n"Out of Time," starring Denzel Washington as a police chief scrambling to prove his innocence in a double murder, opened in second place with $17 million.\nThe Rock's action comedy "The Rundown," the previous weekend's top flick, slipped to third place with $9.8 million, lifting its 10-day total to $32.7 million.\nBlack, a relative newcomer to lead roles, edged established star Washington even though "School of Rock" opened in fewer theaters. \n"'School of Rock' has a younger, school-age appeal. Black's like a big kid, like an Adam Sandler-type persona," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "Irreverent, funny, bucks the establishment. That brings in younger audiences"
(09/12/03 4:59am)
TORONTO -- Meg Ryan leaves behind cute and perky for grim and brooding. Nicole Kidman's an iron-willed janitor with dirty fingernails. Isabella Rossellini is a double-amputee beer baroness in a twisted search for the world's most sorrowful music.\nAmid the glitz of the Toronto International Film Festival, actresses with cover-girl faces are playing fast and loose with their images in a movie lineup that includes a wealth of strong women's roles.\nRyan stars in Jane Campion's thriller, "In the Cut," as an emotionally detached writer caught up in a gruesome murder investigation and some steamy sex scenes. Rossellini plays the legless puppet-master of a Depression-era musical competition in the perversely funny "The Saddest Music in the World."\nKidman follows her Academy Award-winning role in "The Hours," in which she took on a fake nose and dour demeanor to embody Virginia Woolf, with "The Human Stain," playing a custodian with a tragic past who becomes involved with a disgraced academic (Anthony Hopkins).\nAlong with "The Human Stain," the Toronto festival that ends Saturday also showcased Kidman's "Dogville," a harrowing drama about a fugitive who carries out terrible vengeance against a town that abused her.\n"Your job as an actor is to be malleable," Kidman said. "Your body, your voice. What I aspire to is to be where you say, 'this is an instrument, my identity is not what I'm bringing to the role. What I'm bringing is the ability to give over to the piece.' And that means what you want as an actress in this industry is to have a face that can be changed, is to have a voice that can change, is to have a body that can change the way it moves so that it can morph into different beings."\nOther Toronto films featuring strong women's roles include "21 Grams," "Casa de los Babys," "Lost in Translation," "Girl With a Pearl Earring," "The Company," "My Life Without Me," "Prey for Rock & Roll" and "Veronica Guerin."\nIn the days of Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford, female-driven films were a Hollywood mainstay. The rise of television in the 1950s kept more older adults at home, and many intriguing women's roles dried up as movie studios catered to younger crowds with action films and teen comedies.\nActresses such as Julia Roberts or Kidman have the clout to line up studio financing for some pet projects, but even they turn to lower-budgeted independent movies for challenging parts that Hollywood fails to offer. Kidman, a producer on "In the Cut," spent years developing the film with Campion, intending to star in it before turning it over to Ryan.\n"In the independent film world, there are always more interesting characters, and you can get a quote 'more famous actress' to do your low-budget film because finally, there's a role that she's not getting in Hollywood," said Marcia Gay Harden, who stars in John Sayles' ensemble drama "Casa de los Babys," about American women adopting babies in Latin America.\n"The economics of Hollywood are so stringent and severe now that you can barely get a film financed even with certain very famous people," said Harden, a supporting-actress Oscar winner for "Pollock" two years ago who also co-stars in Roberts' upcoming "Mona Lisa Smile."\nFestivals such as Toronto tend to feature strong women's roles because so many of the movies come from the indie world. Still, this year's lineup is especially promising, even for a festival that historically has been a solid showcase for female-driven films.\nSome actresses say commercial and critical success for recent women's films has eased the way.\n"I think with the success of 'Legally Blonde' and 'The Hours' and all these great performances that have happened over the years by these wonderful actresses has definitely opened a lot of doors," said Katie Holmes, who stars as a black-sheep daughter trying to make peace with her dying mother (Patricia Clarkson) in the Toronto flick "Pieces of April."\nOthers in the industry say it runs in unpredictable cycles, with a wave of solid women's roles one year and a dearth the next. "I would like to think it's about time that smart, edgy, challenging roles are going to women for all the right reasons, but to a big degree I do think it may be serendipitous," said Michele Maheux, managing director of the Toronto festival.\nAt the very least, the Toronto lineup hints that the industry might be more forgiving when top stars trade glamorous roles for more somber characters. Roberts stumbled in the 1990s when she strayed from her pretty-woman image with such dour dramas as "Mary Reilly," but Kidman, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore and others are managing to balance glitz and gloom.\n"I think it is the age now of women really taking on the challenge and losing our vanity," said Clarkson, who presents a grim portrait of a woman coping with breast cancer in "Pieces of April."\n"I think now we are realizing it's all right if your hair does not look good or if you do a movie without makeup," said Clarkson, who also co-stars in Kidman's "Dogville" and a third Toronto film, "The Station Agent." "You're still going to get another job. If you're good in the film, your work will get you the next job. Not because your teeth look good"
(09/04/03 6:14am)
TORONTO -- A humdrum lineup at last spring's Cannes Film Festival had movie fans wondering if Hollywood had turned its back on such glitzy events.\nNot to worry. North America's premiere showcase, the Toronto International Film Festival, opens Thursday with an impressive roster of celebrity-driven movies, foreign films, independent features and documentaries.\nIn its 28th year, the 10-day festival is a launch pad for big fall releases and films with Academy Awards prospects. With eager audiences, Toronto also is known as a film-lovers' festival, unlike Cannes or Sundance, which are aimed at filmmakers and industry insiders.\nFilms also are not competing for prizes at Toronto as they are at many festivals, making it more laid back.\n"It's a friendly festival. They're not out to cut your head off," said Ridley Scott, coming to Toronto with his comic drama "Matchstick Men," starring Nicolas Cage, and a director's cut of his 1979 horror hit "Alien." "It's a kinder and gentler place."\nThis year's festival presents 254 feature-length movies and 85 short films from 55 countries.\nHighlights include Denzel Washington's thriller "Out of Time"; the ensemble romance "Love Actually," featuring Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson; Adrien Brody's offbeat ventriloquism tale "Dummy"; "21 Grams," a somber character drama with Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts; "Shattered Glass," with Hayden Christensen in the story of disgraced journalist Stephen Glass; and Neil Young's concert film "Greendale."\nThere had been speculation that studios and talent might be gun-shy about Toronto after the scare over severe acute respiratory syndrome crippled the city's tourism industry.\nWith a health warning on Toronto travel lifted, the festival has encountered no reluctance from studios, filmmakers or audiences about attending, said Piers Handling, the event's director.\n"We were never worried about SARS," said Tom Ortenberg, head of Lions Gate Films, which is showing about a dozen films at the festival, including Nicole Kidman's "Dogville." "Our chances of getting struck by lightning were always greater than getting ill in Toronto.\nThis year's festival has no formal events to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. After the attacks in 2001, the festival shut down for a day, and last year, its lineup included several Sept. 11-themed movies.\nEven so, the festival begins with one reminder of Sept. 11. The opening-night film, writer-director Denys Arcand's "The Barbarian Invasions," includes brief footage of the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center.\nArcand uses the footage as an introduction to a TV historian's comparison of the United States to the Roman Empire as it was besieged by outside forces that led to its downfall.\n"He says Sept. 11 was the first time that the barbarians have launched a successful attack into the heart of the empire," Arcand said. "And maybe that date will be viewed in future centuries as the beginning of the great barbarian invasions."\n"The Barbarian Invasions" was one of the few triumphs at Cannes, where it earned the screenplay prize for Arcand and the best-actress award for Marie-Josee Croze, who plays a heroin addict enlisted to score illegal drugs that ease a dying man's pain.\nCroze's tremendous performance is among an especially strong crop of intriguing female roles at the Toronto festival. Among them: "In the Cut," director Jane Campion's moody murder thriller starring Meg Ryan; John Sayles' "Casa de los Babys," whose ensemble cast includes Mary Steenburgen, Marcia Gay Harden and Daryl Hannah in the story of American women adopting children in Latin America; Sarah Polley as a dying mother in "My Life Without Me"; Cate Blanchett in "Veronica Guerin," based on the true story of a slain Irish journalist; Robert Altman's ballet drama "The Company," starring Neve Campbell; and "Pieces of April," with Katie Holmes as a black-sheep daughter trying to reconnect with her dying mother (Patricia Clarkson).\nAlong with "Dogville," Kidman appears in a second Toronto film, co-starring with Anthony Hopkins in "The Human Stain," adapted from Philip Roth's novel.\nThe festival could prove a coming-out party for 18-year-old Scarlett Johansson, gradually making the transition from teen roles.\nJohansson has two plum adult roles at Toronto: co-starring with Bill Murray in Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation," a quirky tale of friendship between two Americans visiting Japan, and with Colin Firth in "Girl With a Pearl Earring," about a maidservant in the household of 17th century painter Vermeer.\n"I think she definitely carries herself beyond her years," Coppola said. "She has a unique quality and look about her, and a sort of calmness or strategy where she's not performing all the time. Certain people, they have something, and you can see it in her, sort of a wise look in her eyes"
(09/02/03 5:19am)
LOS ANGELES -- Horror held sway at theaters again as "Jeepers Creepers 2" sunk its claws into audiences, debuting as the top movie with $18.5 million over the long Labor Day weekend.\n"Jeepers Creepers 2" deposed another horror sequel, "Freddy vs. Jason," which had been the No. 1 movie for the previous two weekends. "Freddy vs. Jason" fell to No. 6 with $8.1 million, bringing its 17-day total to $73.4 million, according to industry estimates Monday.\nHollywood had a brisk finish to the summer-blockbuster season, with revenues up for the third straight weekend. The top 12 movies took in $101.2 million over Labor Day weekend, an 11 percent increase over the same period last year.\nThe industry rang up $3.87 billion in ticket sales domestically from early May through Labor Day, beating summer 2002's revenue record by about 2 percent. Factoring in higher admission prices this year, though, the number of tickets sold fell about 2 percent.\nRevenues had slumped during the first half of summer, but a strong lineup of late-season hits helped Hollywood catch up to summer 2002's pace.\n"It was a very impressive finish," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "Summers are known for burning out or faltering at the end, but this summer certainly bucked that trend with some pretty strong films."\nA follow-up to 2001's horror mini-hit, "Jeepers Creepers 2" features the return of the bestial, bat-like "Creeper," this time butchering and munching on a bus full of high school athletes and cheerleaders.\n"Jeepers Creepers 2" was the only new film in wide release for Labor Day weekend, traditionally a quiet time at theaters when families are preoccupied with barbecues and other outdoor activities and students are preparing to return to school.\nArthouse films in limited release expanded to eager audiences. "American Splendor," starring Paul Giamatti as cult comic-book writer Harvey Pekar, widened to 88 theaters and took in a healthy $1.08 million.\nFour movies passed $100 million over the weekend, bringing summer's total to 15 flicks hitting that mark, breaking summer 2002's record of 13.\nCrossing $100 million were "S.W.A.T.", "Seabiscuit," "The Italian Job" and "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle." At least two other movies released this summer are positioned to top $100 million.
(09/01/03 4:39am)
LOS ANGELES -- Hollywood banked big on sequels this summer, scoring hugely on a couple but falling short of the industry's pie-in-the-sky expectations on many.\nStudios dodged early forecasts of a slump in box-office receipts, riding a late surge of hits that produced another summer of record revenue.\nThe main surprise was the little fish that could. No one figured the goofy sea creatures of "Finding Nemo" would swim past the daring heroes of "The Matrix Reloaded" to become the year's top-grossing film.\n"Finding Nemo" has climbed to $330 million in domestic ticket sales, passing "The Lion King" to become the highest-grossing animated film ever. Factoring in today's higher admission prices, though, 1994's "The Lion King" sold more tickets.\nSummer's most anticipated movie, "The Matrix Reloaded," came in second at $279 million. Another surprise blockbuster, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," is creeping past $270 million and could commandeer the summer's runner-up slot.\nAdd in "Bruce Almighty" and "X2: X-Men United," and a record five summer movies crossed the $200 million mark. Twelve have topped $100 million, with four others positioned to do so, breaking the record of 13 $100 million movies in summer 2002.\nAmong the hits were "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," "Bad Boys II," "The Hulk" and "S.W.A.T.", along with sleeper success "The Italian Job" and the classy drama "Seabiscuit."\nFrom early May through Labor Day, domestic grosses are expected to total $3.87 billion, up 2 percent from summer 2002's record, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.\nWith an estimated 4 percent rise in admission prices, though, ticket sales will be down about 2 percent from summer 2002, the first decline in three years.\n"It's just slightly off. I don't think it's any big deal. If it were off dramatically, it would be a different story," said Richard Cook, studio chairman at Disney, which released "Finding Nemo," "Pirates of the Caribbean" and the hit remake "Freaky Friday."\n"If it continued to be off for another nine months or a year, then certainly we'd all be scratching our heads."\nUnlike the glut of G- and PG-rated movies in summer 2002, Disney largely had the family market to itself this season. The only other notable summer family flick came from Disney-owned Miramax, which gambled on a revival of the three-dimensional format with "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over."\nIt paid off, with the "Spy Kids" sequel topping $100 million.\n"We can say what a great idea it was now because it worked," said Josh Greenstein, senior vice president for marketing at Dimension Films, the Miramax banner that released "Spy Kids 3-D."\nProduced for a relatively modest $37 million, "Spy Kids 3-D" will turn a tidy profit. Many other sequels showed diminishing gains because of rising expenses.\nHollywood once dashed off cheap sequels to wring a few more dollars out of a blockbuster brand name. Franchises such as "Austin Powers" and "The Mummy" taught the industry that by investing more up front to bring back key talent, sequels could produce larger paydays than their predecessors.\nThat backfired on some franchise flicks this summer. Studios shelled out bigger and bigger sums for talent and advertising, then found audiences far less interested in sequels than anticipated.\n"The Matrix" and "X-Men" sequels easily outgrossed their predecessors. Others fell well short, including "Terminator 3" (topping out at about $150 million compared to $205 million for 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day") and "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" (barely crawling past $100 million compared to $125 million for the first movie three years ago).\nSequels to "Legally Blonde" and "The Fast and the Furious" also were underachievers compared to the original flicks. "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider -- The Cradle of Life" rolled over and died, taking in just half the $131 million domestic total of the first "Tomb Raider."\nThat does not spell the end of sequels, just a more cautious approach by Hollywood. In the future, studios likely will aim to pay stars and filmmakers less up front in exchange for bonus money depending on how well a sequel performs at the box office.\nStudios also will lean more toward multipicture deals for original movies that might result in sequels, locking the talent in at a fixed salary for follow-up films.\n"Anybody who tells you sequels are dead, sequels aren't going to be made, doesn't know what they're talking about," said Tom Sherak, a partner in Revolution Studios, which teamed with Sony on the summer hit "Daddy Day Care" and the season's big flop, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's "Gigli."\n"Sequels are pre-sold pictures with a pre-sold audience that normally do really well. They are not going to go away. They're going to be a mainstay in Hollywood. It's just a matter of re-examining the economics of sequels"
(07/14/03 1:16am)
LOS ANGELES -- Disney was rolling in doubloons as "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" plundered the box office for $46.4 million in its first weekend.\nBased on the Disney theme-park attraction, the movie starring Johnny Depp had taken in $70.4 million since opening Wednesday, according to studio estimates Sunday.\nDebuting in second place was Sean Connery's literary superhero adventure "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," which had a $23.25 million opening weekend. Connery stars as Victorian-era adventurer Allan Quatermain leading a team of characters lifted from literature, including Dorian Gray, Capt. Nemo and Dr. Jekyll.\n"Pirates of the Caribbean" commandeered the box-office lead from the previous weekend's No. 1 flick, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," which fell to third place with $19.6 million. "Terminator 3" pushed its 12-day total to $110.5 million.\nOverall box-office revenues were up slightly, ending a string of four down weekends. The top 12 movies grossed $140 million, up 3.5 percent from the same weekend last year.\nFor the year, Hollywood receipts are running about 5 percent behind 2002 revenues.\n"Finding Nemo," the year's top-grossing movie, was No. 5 for the weekend with $8.2 million, lifting its total to $290.8 million.\nThe surreal fairy tale "Northfork" debuted strongly in limited release, taking in $61,000 at five theaters. From sibling filmmakers Mark and Michael Polish, "Northfork" stars Nick Nolte, James Woods and Daryl Hannah in the story of locals who refuse to evacuate their town to make way for a hydroelectric dam.\n"Pirates of the Caribbean" stars Depp as a rascally pirate on a quest to retrieve his stolen ship from his first mate (Geoffrey Rush) and a crew of cursed mutineers who turn into skeletons in moonlight.\nProduced by blockbuster baron Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Gore Verbinski, the well-reviewed "Pirates" offered elaborate stunts and visual effects for the action crowd and a classy cast that elevated it above the usual summer popcorn picture.\nA staple in Errol Flynn's days, pirate movies had fallen on hard times in Hollywood with such modern bombs as "Cutthroat Island" and "Treasure Planet."\n"Everybody had said pirate movies were cursed. The curse is officially over," said Chuck Viane, Disney head of distribution.\nDisney bombed with its previous theme-park adaptation, last summer's "The Country Bears." But with the success of "Pirates," audiences skeptical about seeing movies based on Disney attractions might be a bit more primed for the next one, this fall's "The Haunted Mansion," starring Eddie Murphy.\nThe studio is running trailers for "The Haunted Mansion" before "Pirates of the Caribbean."\nEstimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., with final figures to be released Monday:\n1. "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," $46.4 million.\n2. "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," $23.25 million.\n3. "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," $19.6 million.\n4. "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde," $12 million.\n5. "Finding Nemo," $8.2 million.\n6. "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," $7.3 million.\n7. "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas," $4.6 million.\n8. "28 Days Later," $4.25 million.\n9. "The Hulk," $3.7 million.\n10. "The Italian Job," $2.8 million.
(07/14/03 1:16am)
LOS ANGELES -- Disney was rolling in doubloons as "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" plundered the box office for $46.4 million in its first weekend.\nBased on the Disney theme-park attraction, the movie starring Johnny Depp had taken in $70.4 million since opening Wednesday, according to studio estimates Sunday.\nDebuting in second place was Sean Connery's literary superhero adventure "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," which had a $23.25 million opening weekend. Connery stars as Victorian-era adventurer Allan Quatermain leading a team of characters lifted from literature, including Dorian Gray, Capt. Nemo and Dr. Jekyll.\n"Pirates of the Caribbean" commandeered the box-office lead from the previous weekend's No. 1 flick, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," which fell to third place with $19.6 million. "Terminator 3" pushed its 12-day total to $110.5 million.\nOverall box-office revenues were up slightly, ending a string of four down weekends. The top 12 movies grossed $140 million, up 3.5 percent from the same weekend last year.\nFor the year, Hollywood receipts are running about 5 percent behind 2002 revenues.\n"Finding Nemo," the year's top-grossing movie, was No. 5 for the weekend with $8.2 million, lifting its total to $290.8 million.\nThe surreal fairy tale "Northfork" debuted strongly in limited release, taking in $61,000 at five theaters. From sibling filmmakers Mark and Michael Polish, "Northfork" stars Nick Nolte, James Woods and Daryl Hannah in the story of locals who refuse to evacuate their town to make way for a hydroelectric dam.\n"Pirates of the Caribbean" stars Depp as a rascally pirate on a quest to retrieve his stolen ship from his first mate (Geoffrey Rush) and a crew of cursed mutineers who turn into skeletons in moonlight.\nProduced by blockbuster baron Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Gore Verbinski, the well-reviewed "Pirates" offered elaborate stunts and visual effects for the action crowd and a classy cast that elevated it above the usual summer popcorn picture.\nA staple in Errol Flynn's days, pirate movies had fallen on hard times in Hollywood with such modern bombs as "Cutthroat Island" and "Treasure Planet."\n"Everybody had said pirate movies were cursed. The curse is officially over," said Chuck Viane, Disney head of distribution.\nDisney bombed with its previous theme-park adaptation, last summer's "The Country Bears." But with the success of "Pirates," audiences skeptical about seeing movies based on Disney attractions might be a bit more primed for the next one, this fall's "The Haunted Mansion," starring Eddie Murphy.\nThe studio is running trailers for "The Haunted Mansion" before "Pirates of the Caribbean."\nEstimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., with final figures to be released Monday:\n1. "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," $46.4 million.\n2. "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," $23.25 million.\n3. "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," $19.6 million.\n4. "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde," $12 million.\n5. "Finding Nemo," $8.2 million.\n6. "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," $7.3 million.\n7. "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas," $4.6 million.\n8. "28 Days Later," $4.25 million.\n9. "The Hulk," $3.7 million.\n10. "The Italian Job," $2.8 million.