Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane brings his boundary-pushing brand of humor to the big screen for the first time as writer, director and voice star of Ted. In the live action/CG-animated comedy, he tells the story of John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), a grown man who must deal with the cherished teddy bear who came to life as the result of a childhood wish…and has refused to leave his side ever since.

Official Movie Site: www.tedisreal.com

Now that The Hunger Games is a hit with more than $363 million in the till, the question is whether writer-director Gary Ross will return for the next installment in the lucrative Lionsgate franchise.

Unlike stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, Ross is not signed for a sequel. And negotiations for him to do the first movie were “a terrible experience,” says a source with knowledge of the discussions, because Ross is a seasoned filmmaker (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) and Lionsgate isn’t accustomed to paying seasoned-filmmaker fees. He ended up taking a relatively low $3 million to write (with Billy Ray and novelist Suzanne Collins) and direct. But he will collect a very remunerative 5 percent of backend.

Continue reading “‘Hunger Games’ Director Gary Ross in Tough Negotiation for Sequel” »

The use of 3D in recent cinema has polarized film fans for the last couple years. Some viewers like the immersive experience provided by the format, while others see it as nothing more than a cheap gimmick to drive up movie ticket prices. However, what initially started out in the province of hyper-active kids’ cartoons and big-budget blockbusters has now attracted the attention of more esteemed filmmakers. Martin Scorsese employed 3D in his family film Hugo with much success, as that film went on to win almost all the technical awards at the most recent Oscars ceremony. Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders, both iconoclasts from the German film industry, now regarded as world-class film artists, brought the use of 3D to the realm of documentaries (Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Pina, respectively), providing a unique richness and texture to the imagery in their non-fiction works. Now, 3D will be utilized for another unlikely source, classic American literature, specifically F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and this time being brought to the screen by that madcap Australian visionary, Baz Luhrmann.

Continue reading “Work in Progress: The Great Gatsby” »

Written and directed by Douglas Tirola, and produced by Susan Bedusa, Robert Greene and Tirola, ALL IN- THE POKER MOVIE chronicles the worldwide poker boom that started in the underground clubs of New York City and went on to be played at homes and casinos all around the globe. The film explains how poker has become the target of politicians who have tried to cut off the ability for millions to play and for many to make a living.

This documentary weaves the quest for the American Dream, the ability to take risks, and the celebration of entrepreneurship with a game that began with conmen on riverboats nearly two centuries ago. Poker has become a metaphor for making it big quick, and though millions play it, poker seems unable to escape it’s cinematic image of something done by people on the outside of society. The film’s extensive research, archival footage, and interviews with today’s poker celebrities, as well as social commentators such as Ira Glass and Doris Kearns Goodwin make this the definitive exploration on this worldwide cultural phenomenon.

Featured Interviews: Matt Damon: Star of “Rounders”, Frank Deford: Peabody Award-Winning Sports, Journalist, Ira Glass: Host of National Public Radio’s “This American Life,” Doris Kearns Goodwin: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Writer and Historian, Kenny Rogers: Grammy Award-Winning Entertainer, Bert Sugar: Sports Writer and Historian.

“We’re going to surprise a lot of people with the final chapter we have planned,” Phillips said in the statement.

As part of an announcement Thursday of the start of production on the third installment of the wildly successful comedy movies, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures included a statement from Phillips noting that Hangover Part III will be the last.

“We’re going to surprise a lot of people with the final chapter we have planned,” Phillips said in the statement. “It will be a fitting conclusion to our three-part opera of mayhem, despair and bad decisions.”

Continue reading “Todd Phillips Says Third ‘Hangover’ Will Be the Last” »

Disclosure: This reviewer is acquaintances with this film’s producer.

Move over Dancing with the Stars. Wheelchair dancing may become the new craze after Musical Chairs hits theaters. In the film, Armando (EJ Bonilla, TV’s Guiding Light) is the son of Puerto Rican immigrants who run a successful restaurant. Instead of continuing the family business and marrying a nice Puerto Rican girl, Armando has his sights set on dancing for a living, and his heart set on the white dance instructor, Mia (Leah Pipes, TV’s The Deep End). When Mia is hit by a car and forced into a wheelchair, Armando dedicates himself to teaching Mia the power of dance and the perseverance of love.

The best and worst thing about Musical Chairs is its diversity of cast. In addition to the West Side Story-style star-crossed love story, there are transgender, punk, and meat-head jock/veteran wheelchair dancers who all find acceptance and love during the course of the film. This gives the film a TV movie or an ’80s feel-good movie stigma. The only thing missing is a slow-clap sequence. However, the central story with Mia and Armando would likely not carry the entire film, so the secondary characters add flavor to the story and present personalities who are all too often invisible in American cinema.

Continue reading “Film Review: Musical Chairs” »

A movie by William Nicholson – Laureate of the Louis Vuitton’s special mention of the Louis Vuitton Journeys Awards 2009. Luhambo means “journey” in Xhosa, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages. Luhambo is the story of a young boy who is sent on a mystical adventure by his mother. She gives him a photograph of a stranger and sends him off to deliver it to this person. Once he completes this task, the person. Once he completes this task, the stranger hands him another photograph of the next person that he is required to find. This sends the boy further and further away from home, until eventually he retrieves the final photograph – an image of himself.

Tel Aviv-based artists Efim Graboy + Daria Turetski have created ‘Minilook Kiev’, a short stop-motion film in which the Ukrainian city has been captured in a miniature perspective by means of tilt-shift photography. By employing this filming method, Graboy and Turetski were able to enhance the potential for the selective focus of their camera. The aesthetic choice to film the scene with the short depth of focus offers the footage an uncanny toy-like effect. The artists created 25,000 images of Kiev over a span of five days and two nights with a canon 550d camera. In post production Graboy and Turetski then refined their selection to approximately 4,500 frames over several months of editing in order to create the piece.

Continue reading “Stop Motion Video: A Tilt-Shift Spring Day in Kiev” »

HBO has ended its series Luck in the wake of three deaths of horses during filming. Here’s the statement from HBO:

“It is with heartbreak that executive producers David Milch and Michael Mann together with HBO have decided to cease all future production on the series LUCK.

Safety is always of paramount concern. We maintained the highest safety standards throughout production, higher in fact than any protocols existing in horseracing anywhere with many fewer incidents than occur in racing or than befall horses normally in barns at night or pastures. While we maintained the highest safety standards possible, accidents unfortunately happen and it is impossible to guarantee they won’t in the future. Accordingly, we have reached this difficult decision.

We are immensely proud of this series, the writing, the acting, the filmmaking, the celebration of the culture of horses, and everyone involved in its creation.”

Said Michael Mann and David Milch in a statement: “The two of us loved this series, loved the cast, crew and writers. This has been a tremendous collaboration and one that we plan to continue in the future.”

Continue reading “HBO Ends ‘Luck’ After Horse Deaths” »

Will Ferrell in Casa de Mi Padre. Photograph: John Estes/Lionsgate/AP

This article titled “Will Hollywood ever speak Hispanic audiences’ language?” was written by Phil Hoad, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 13th March 2012 12.53 UTC

It’s not obvious what language Will Ferrell’s new film, Casa de Mi Padre, is speaking. Everyone’s favourite cross-eyed man-child had last-minute cramming sessions in order to be able to drawl the Spanish-language dialogue for the comedy – a sendup of cheesy rural-Mexico telenovelas. But just as Ferrell admits he still can’t really hold a conversation in Spanish, Casa looks like it could have communication issues, too. Is it a deft in-joke for the US’s movie-mad Hispanic audience? Or does Ferrell’s presence just crank up the irony factor for the urban-hipster crowd to indulge yet another cultural fetish?

Continue reading “Will Hollywood ever speak Hispanic audiences’ language?” »