The Rehabilitation of Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway is trying to talk about her new movie, "Rachel Getting Married," in which she plays Kym, a recovering drug addict who cuts out of rehab in time for her sister's wedding. It's a hard-edged, powerful performance that's earning Hathaway Oscar buzz for the first time in her career. But Hathaway keeps getting interrupted. She's sitting on the patio of a New York hotel; five or six stories up, her dog, Esmeralda, keeps whimpering from the balcony window. "Hi, baby!" Hathaway calls back. "If she starts barking, I might have to go up. I'm totally wrapped around her finger."
Esmeralda was in New Jersey for the summer with Hathaway's parents while the actress did press for "Get Smart," and last night the whole family celebrated Anne's visit to New York with hamburgers and reruns of "The Office." Esmeralda cries louder. "She's so pretty. Ahh, it's heartbreaking. So heartbreaking. She's looking right at me." And with that, Hathaway dashes upstairs.
(Newsweek)
First look: Oliver Stone’s ‘W.’ is not quite out of left field
An echoing announcer's voice calls out his name: "Ladies and gentlemen, the 43rd president of the United States …" But as the camera pans back, the cheering fades, and the stadium is revealed to be empty.
With outstretched arms and raised head, the character's body forms an unmistakable symbol: W.
It's the opening scene of Oliver Stone's movie of the same name, which he is still racing to finish in time for its debut Oct. 17. Stone chronicles the youth of George W. Bush, his rise to the White House and the crises he has faced over the past eight years. And it's a comedy.
(USA Today)
Disney gala shows off upcoming movies
Oprah Winfrey will voice the character of Eudora in the hand-drawn Disney-animated movie "The Princess and the Frog," the studio announced Wednesday.
The popular talk show host will play the mother of the main character, Tiana, in the film, which is set in New Orleans and slated for release on Christmas in 2009.
The Pixar and Disney animation studios' chief creative officer, John Lasseter, broke the news at a star-studded event at Kodak Theatre in Hollywood meant to show off the upcoming lineup at The Walt Disney Co.
(The Canadian Press)
Directors name ‘Godfather’ best movie
Filmmakers have named big-screen classic The Godfather their favourite movie of all time.
The Francis Ford Coppola Mafia film, starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, beat the likes of Gone with the Wind and Taxi Driver in the poll.
(Press Association)
‘Criminal Minds’: So dark it’s almost criminal
One suspects, in the current climate, that the actor Adoni Maropis views the particulars of his visage as both blessing and curse. He's got a hard brow and even harder jaw; piercing eyes; crisp, bushy eyebrows; a spherical, solid bald head; and a skin tone that allows him to play a range of ethnic backgrounds.
In other words, he makes a great terrorist. On "24" last year, he played Abu Fayed, the stern, persistent, always-angry head of a terror cell and significant antagonist to Jack Bauer.
So when he appears midway through the fourth-season premiere of "Criminal Minds," 9 p.m. Wednesday on CBS, as a smiling, warm-hearted ambulance driver who arrives to help a wounded federal agent, it's difficult not to feel a little impending dread. But this show routinely subverts its mystery by telegraphing its moves way in advance -- having Maropis in this role was just one tell among many.
(LA Times)
50 nifty filmmaking states
What's shot where? The following outlines what projects have been shot — partially or mostly — in each state.
(USA Today)
Michael Moore political movie released free on Web
Filmmaker Michael Moore released his latest documentary for free on the Internet on Tuesday, marking a first for the maverick director who aims to encourage young people to vote -- preferably for Democrats -- in November's U.S. presidential election.
"Slacker Uprising," a feature-length film documenting Moore's tour of swing states during the 2004 presidential election year, was made available for a free download instead of being released in movie theaters.
(Reuters)
Megan Fox: Confessions of a Hollywood temptress
Megan Fox has her fingers in her long black hair, and as she tosses her head this way and that, she runs her hands slowly down her face and onto her neck and chest. She’s panting as if undergoing some very heavy exertion. “My daddy’s in prison,” she heaves. “Sam!Sam! We’re not leaving without Bumblebee!”
Fox is having breakfast in a hotel lobby in San Diego, and this “Sam! Sam!” bit is her impression of her work in Transformers—the movie that launched her career in 2007 and earned her such dubious honors as the Sexiest Woman in the World. She’s not exactly proud of the performance.
It’s Movies, Movies, Movies for Mariah Carey
Casting directors are loving Mariah Carey.
Despite receiving horrendous reviews for her 2001 film Glitter, it appears that the angelic-voiced singer is still welcome in the movie biz. As reported earlier this month, Mariah's indie drama Tennessee will open later this year. Now comes word that Mrs.Nick Cannon has another flick in the works.
Director Lee Daniels, who produced Tennessee, was so impressed with Mimi that he's cast her in Push, in which she'll play a Harlem social worker ministering to an obese, HIV-positive woman impregnated twice by her father. Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and Paula Patton also appear in the film.
(Star)
Wayne Wang’s double exposure
Shuttling between independent and studio pictures since helming 1993's successful "The Joy Luck Club," Wayne Wang has seen his latter career marked by a distinct duality of purpose. It's no surprise then that the filmmaker recently chose to shoot two divergent low-budget movies back to back, then release them almost simultaneously as companion pieces.
Making the gentle and heartfelt "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," opening Friday in L.A., followed by the brash, more experimental "The Princess of Nebraska," premiering online on YouTube on Oct. 17 (youtube.com/ytscreeningroom), had its risks, both practical and artistic, harking back to such other notable Wang pairings as "Chan Is Missing" (1982) and "Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart" (1985), flip-side views of San Francisco's Chinatown; and 1995's Brooklyn-based art-house hit "Smoke" and its immediate follow-up, "Blue in the Face."
Nonetheless, the director's latest efforts represent a much-needed creative U-turn after helming an uneven string of big-budget studio films, including the Jennifer Lopez hit "Maid in Manhattan" and the more disappointing "Because of Winn-Dixie" and "Last Holiday."
(LA Times)