The UBS Evening Television & Movie News 07.16.09
Posted by George H. Sirois on 07.16.2009
The “Gary, You Schmuck!” Edition...
Welcome everyone to the latest edition of the UBS Evening Movie News. I'm George H. Sirois, and I have some good news regarding Liz, the friend of my friend. Over a thousand bucks was raised for her, which already went towards covering doctor's visits and cab rides. And even better news, she won't need surgery! How awesome is that?
Now, if you still want to contribute since she will require four months worth of doctor's visits, check out their group's blog page HERE or join their Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=98898529261 HERE, you'll see a link to their PayPal page, so you too can contribute. Like I said before, for the mere cost of a Starbucks Iced White Chocolate Mocha with Sugar-Free Vanilla + Tax (which comes to about $5), you can be a part of Liz's hopefully speedy recovery!
Oh, and there's a good chance that my own employment problems are coming to an end. I'll let you know within the next couple weeks because SOMETHING is going to happen. Just not sure what yet...
If you're on Twitter, you can find me HERE! And don't forget, for all of you who are new to 411Mania.com, make sure you check out all of our zones. We have some of the best writers on the Internet right here, and we love to hear from all of you! So keep coming back to read what we have for you, make us your homepage and if you have Facebook, make sure to join our group HERE!
SYBIL THE SOOTHSAYER
UPCOMING MOVIES
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: As Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) begins his 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he discovers an old book marked mysteriously "This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past.
Cheryl and I have had our tickets for the past couple weeks. We're both equally excited about it. Can't wait...
G-Force: A specially trained squad of guinea pigs is dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire from taking over the world.
If there's any justice on the planet, this movie will not make the Top 5 and will quickly disappear.
Credit: TheMovieBox.net
DVD NEWS
I'm sure there are some old-school Godzilla fans around here. And if there are, they'll be happy to know that the 1963 movie King Kong vs. Godzilla has been added to Universal Home Video's fall line-up, scheduling a DVD version of the film for release in September.
Unfortunately, there aren't any extras included, but at least the price tag of only $14.98 should make up for it. The DVD arrives in stores on September 15.
Credit: DVDReview.com
MOVIE TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
JIM WEBBING AND HIS IT'S-THE-HONEST-TRUTH-DEPARTMENT
Hollywood Continues to Test the Audience's Memory: Alcon Entertainment has geared up its live-action/animated version of "Hong Kong Phooey" with Alex Zamm on board to direct from David Goodman's script.
Alcon toppers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove are producing along with Brett Ratner and Jay Stern.
Project's an adaptation of the 1970s Hanna-Barbera animated TV series, about a police station janitor who becomes a dog with mystical powers, including the ability to do kung fu.
Alcon's financing and co-producing "Book of Eli," directed by Allen and Albert Hughes.
Goodman's written "Who's Killing the Great Chefs of Vegas" for Warner Bros. He continues as an exec producer on "Family Guy."
Now, I can understand the desire to put together something like this since the cartoons of the 80s are making comebacks on the silver screen, but it doesn't seem like the ones that came out in the 70s just don't have the same kind of juice.
Honestly, do you think kids today would be thrilled about a Hong-Kong Phooey movie? I got a kick out of the show when I watched it a few times, but I just don't think there's a feature in here. But then again, what do I know? They found a way to make the Smurfs into a movie, right?
Shudder...
Credit: Variety
This is where I feel warm and fuzzy: The spirit of composer Jerry Goldsmith, who would have turned 80 this year, hovers over back-to-back festivals this summer that focus on music for film.
The Intl. Film Music Festival in Ubeda, Spain, running July 16-19, will hand out a number of "Jerrys," the fest's award named after the late composer, who died in 2004. Immediately following, July 20-26 at Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, film music fest Fimucite will screen such Goldsmith classics as "Chinatown" and "Papillon," and a closing-night gala concert will feature Joel McNeely conducting numerous Goldsmith film suites including "The Omen," "Planet of the Apes" and "The Sum of All Fears."
The two events, which boast attractive European locales, join a growing roster of film fests dedicated to the art and craft of movie music, including the granddaddy of such celebrations, Belgium's Ghent Intl. Film Festival (Oct. 6-17), marking its 36th edition, and Austria's "Hollywood in Vienna," which stages its second go-round Oct. 9-14.
Numerous American composers will make the trip to Ubeda and Tenerife, both of which offer a host of live concerts and panel discussions, with attendees arriving from all over Europe, making up a mix of movie-music buffs, locals and tourists.
"The Ubeda festival is a celebration of film music in the unlikeliest of settings," says U.S. soundtrack producer Robert Townson, the fest's artistic director, "where all of these composers converge in a beautiful Renaissance town in the south of Spain."
Scottish composer Patrick Doyle ("Gosford Park," "Bridget Jones's Diary"), who attended last year, will function as the fest's "honorary president," moderating panels and giving a workshop for aspiring film composers.
He also will perform in both of the festival's concerts: a Friday-night recital in which he will play piano; and a Saturday-night symphonic concert that will include excerpts from his "Hamlet," "Much Ado About Nothing" and "East-West" scores as well as the premiere of a six-minute tone poem for violin and orchestra dedicated to Emma Thompson, six of whose films feature Doyle scores.
Also participating are Michael Giacchino, doing music from "Up," "Star Trek," "Ratatouille," "Cloverfield" and TV's "Lost"; Christopher Young, showcasing his horror scores for "Hellraiser" and "Hellbound"; and McNeely, conducting a suite from his "Tinker Bell" scores for the popular Disney videos; as well as music from "Agnes of God" by the late French composer Georges Delerue, who will be the subject of a tribute.
Damn, I want to go to Spain. Anytime some much-deserved attention comes to film music composers, an angel gets its wings. It's such a great feeling to know that Jerry Goldsmith – who really was one of the greatest composers in film history – may not be with us, but his music will live on forever, especially when you have so many other men and women picking up where he left off.
Now, if only these people will get this kind of credit in this country...
Credit: Variety
Apparently, you just can't have enough Cullen: Cable network Reelzchannel will launch a new weekly series, "Twilight Weekly: Spotlight," hosted by correspondent Naibe Reynoso, to offer updates on the "Twilight" films. The series premieres in its Monday primetime slot on Aug. 10 at 10 pm ET.
"Our special coverage of the Twilight movie has already earned Reelzchannel a reputation among Twi hards, big fan blogs and social networking groups as a premiere destination for the latest news and views on all things 'Twilight'," Reelzchannel CEO Stan Hubbard said.
I give Reelz credit for striking while the iron is hot, but it seems like all this can do is just speed up time to get us all to the point where everyone is burned out on all things Twilight. Personally, I'm looking forward to that moment, but then again, I'm the complete opposite of the demographic. If teenage girls are going to wait for three hours to watch Robert Pattinson just come out of his makeup trailer and jump in his car, then they're gonna watch this.
Credit: Hollywood Reporter
It's good to know what you want, but...: Working Title has confirmed that it is developing a third installment of the "Bridget Jones" series starring Renee Zellweger. The British producer has also attached Cate Blanchett to star in helmer Joe Wright's "Indian Summer."
News comes as the company's previously stellar track record for boffo films has hit a bumpy patch, causing the shingle to pinkslip six of its 45 staffers in recent days.
The untitled third "Bridget Jones" pic, which is still in its early stages and probably won't go into production until the end of next year, will see Zellweger reprise her role as a British publishing exec struggling to find love.
It will likely be based on the weekly columns author Helen Fielding wrote in 2005 for British newspaper the Independent in which Bridget, now in her 40s, attempts to have a baby before it's too late.
Working Title co-toppers Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan have yet to set a writer or director.
It's a damn shame that this is the way so many movies are made. Competition for audiences' attention is so strong that studios have to call dibs on dates before they even have a story. It's like a bum borrowing a million dollars from a loan shark with no idea of what to do to pay it back.
What really sucks about this is that it takes the art out of filmmaking. (Yes, sometimes it can still be art.) Writers, directors, crew members and actors aren't making a movie; they're just making a release date. And nothing good ever comes out of that.
There's something else that really sucks about the film business and I'll discuss that a little later...
ANDY CRITCHELL'S INTERACTIVE BABE PHOTO NEWS BRIEF WITH ANDY CRITCHELL
I am going to try something new next week, an all request Photo News Breif! All you have to do is email me at andy(dot)critchell(at)gmail(dot)com and I will post your gal, simple as that. There will be limited space, so make sure to get your requests in right away! Now on to this week's gal.
After last week's break, I am now getting back to showcasing for you some unknown hotties. This week I am going to shine the spotlight on the lovely and talented Lexi Belle. Lexi is a 22 year old fox from Louisiana that got started in the adult entertainment business in 2006. You can check out her Myspace page here and you can keep up with her on Twitter here. Her Twitter is especially great because she is prone to post fun pics of herself, some of which you can see below. Let's check them out…
And there you have it! Hope you enjoyed. Also, don't forget to check me out over in the wrestling zone where I write the hottest new TV Report, ECW Extreme Extracts. Here is the latest entry. I'm also keeping a blog here on 411 which you can read here. Of course, if you were smart and checked out my blog, you would have already seen a picture of this week's gal. If you didn't, well keep an eye on my blog for a preview of next week's girl. Did I mention there is a prize?
MAD PROPHET OF THE AIRWAVES
I'll try to make this short and sweet, since I'm less than an hour away from my deadline. (Whether it's actually short and sweet remains to be seen.)
Like I said before, when a movie is done right, it can still be classified as a work of art. But even when it doesn't quite reach that level, there is literally no limit to how good one can be. We saw that in the comic book genre last year when The Dark Knight came out, and we've also seen it in the past several years with the first two X-Men films, the first two Spider-Man films, Batman Begins and Iron Man. Those movies represent a combination of filmmakers with a vision and producers making sure that vision comes to life in the best possible way.
But every now and then, producers and directors don't find themselves on the same page, and when this happens, the movie suffers and, with that, so do audiences. In 2003, I watched DareDevil in the theaters and enjoyed it, but not as much as I wanted. It felt like it just went way too fast and that Mark Stephen Johnson grabbed a bunch of moments in the character's history and created a Greatest Hits package. The next year, the Director's Cut came out on DVD and the advanced word I had heard about it was that it was sooooo much better than the theatrical cut. It was over a half hour longer, it brought back a whole subplot that was completely stripped away and instead of a Greatest Hits package, we would be getting a movie with a story!
This was all I needed to hear, so I made sure to get the director's cut as soon as it came out. Sure enough, the movie was – in my eyes – completely redeemed. The pace was slower, the story worked and there was an extra grit to it that was sorely lacking when it was released to theaters the year before. It was even rated R!
After watching the movie, I switched over to the featurette that explains what changes were made and what needed to be restored for this cut. And it was during this featurette that I was introduced to producer Gary Foster. And I got to watch Foster admit that, as producer, he was the one who made the call to turn the damn good Director's Cut into the "damn, it could have been good" theatrical cut. Here's what he said when he had to explain himself...
"There was a cut of this film at a reasonable length that included the Director's Cut material, and it was something that we considered to be the theatrical cut of the film."
Sounds all well and good, so why wasn't this much better version the only version?
"What's more valuable? A quick-paced fast-moving movie or a fuller content that might have some slower moments? My personal feeling was that I was advocating speed over well-shot, well-directed, well-performed scenes but that were going to slow down the overall movement of the film. I don't think that in the commercial marketplace that, you know, the intellectual content is as important as the quick and exciting experience of this kind of movie."
You got that? Basically, Foster is saying that there was a perfectly good cut that he felt necessary to cut down to the basics just so people can get in and get out and leave their brains at the door.
This pisses me off more than what I saw earlier this month with TransFormers: Revenge of the Fallen. This pisses me off more than Batman & Robin. Why? Because whether you like them or not, they represented what the director wanted to do. In this case, Mark Johnson did a damn good job putting this labor of love together and his producer cut him off at the knees just to dumb it down and make the movie shorter. Of course, this means that if the movie is shorter, there will be more screenings of it per day.
Look, I understand that filmmaking is a business and the overall goal is to make money. But I need to fill someone in particular in on something. When the film is good, MORE PEOPLE WILL SEE IT regardless of length! Hell, look at the aforementioned The Dark Knight. That was pretty long, wasn't it?
I'll be delving a little bit more into this during tonight's Movie Zone podcast, and you'll be able to hear the audio clip for yourself so I can prove to you that someone actually had the balls to say that the comic book genre has no place for a well-made film.
So with all due respect, Gary, you schmuck!
And that's a wrap for Chapter 121 of The UBS Evening Movie News! For Andy Critchell, I'm George H. Sirois and we'll see you next week!
