Author Archive

Johnny Drama of ‘Entourage’ writes piece about awards season anxiety for Variety »

The gospel according to Johnny Chase aka Johnny Drama: 
The Emmy season is upon us and let me tell you, I won’t be getting much sleep. My publicist promised to wake me if I get the nod, but I’m not taking any chances on sleeping through the moment I’ve been waiting for my whole career. I’m pulling [...]

Dreamworks animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg speaks about making movies »

 
It never gets any easier. Jeffrey Katzenberg has spent a professional life sweating on whether his next film is a success, and Shrek The Third, the latest in the phenomenally successful franchise, is no exception.“I’ve been doing this for 35 years, my whole life, been involved with many many hundreds of movies, literally, 500 or more [...]

Study finds viewers losing interest in primetime television »

Perhaps there really is a simple reason behind the end-of-season viewership slump experienced by the broadcast networks this year: Primetime television is losing its allure. That’s the finding of a new study released by Relay Worldwide, a Chicago-based sponsorship and marketing company and a division of Publicis Groupe.  
The Relay Intelligence: The American Life Survey, conducted [...]

Visual effects industry suffers from breakneck pace of blockbusters »

 
If the visual effects industry had its way, the Disney tentpole that sailed into theaters May 25 might have been named “Pirates of the Caribbean: At Wits’ End.”
Industrial Light & Magic topper Chrissie England, who’s seen many blockbusters come through her shop, calls the editing/post-production race to the pic’s delivery deadline “about the scariest [...]

Actor Paul Sorvino building mini-studio in small town Pennsylvania? »

ON a dreary weekday afternoon this winter, the burly, gregarious actor Paul Sorvino sat in a darkened hotel meeting room here, working on the next act in his long-running career in show business.
Sprawled in a plush upholstered armchair, glasses perched on his bulbous, slightly off-center nose, Mr. Sorvino, 68, watched himself act on a flat-screen [...]

INTERVIEW: Director Davis Guggenheim talks about his new soccer coming-of-age movie ‘Gracie’ »

 
Davis Guggenheim’s current project, opening this Friday, is Gracie, a film whose story is based partly on the lives of his wife and her family dealing with the tragedy of losing the oldest Shue sibling, Elizabeth’s brother Will, many years ago. The film also doubles as a well-told look at a young girl in crisis, [...]

Movie stars turn to comedy on the web »

 

The Internet is already filled with cheap laughs — YouTube alone offers a lifetime’s supply of home videos (some funny, most not). But now many experienced comedians, talent agents and financiers are seeing the Web as a way to showcase talent while trying to turn a profit. In January, Turner Broadcasting began SuperDeluxe.com, which features [...]

First Look: Speed Racer »

Emile Hirsch was 6 years old when he saw his first episode of the cartoon Speed Racer and, more important, caught a glimpse of the Mach 5. “It was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen,” Hirsch says by phone from Germany , where filming will begin next week on the movie adaptation. “That’s when I started thinking [...]

Harry Potter theme park set to debut at Universal Studios Florida »

Universal Orlando has secured rights to the phenomenally successful Harry Potter stories and will build a themed area of rides, shops and restaurants called “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” at Islands of Adventure. Universal, author J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Studios, which makes the Harry Potter movies, are making a worldwide announcement of the [...]

Meet the new Hollywood alpha male – the beta male »

Newsweek reports that the testosterone-pumped, muscle-bound Hollywood hero is rapidly deflating and taking his place is a new kind of leading man, the kind who’s just as happy following as leading, or never getting off the sofa; in other words, the beta male. It makes sense that our culture is embracing the mojo-free man right [...]