Month: July 2015

Very cool!!

Post author By Dan
Post date July 29, 2015

Keith Richards Doc ‘Under the Influence’ Headed to Netflix

Keith Richards: Under the Influence, a new documentary about the Rolling Stones guitarist, will premiere via Netflix on September 18th. Filmmaker Morgan Neville, who recently won a “Best Documentary” Oscar for a documentary about backup singers called 20 Feet From Stardom and who directed Richards’ recent “Trouble” music video, directed the film.

Producers are promising an “unprecedented look” at Richards’ influences, songwriting process and guitar playing in the documentary. The film, which was made as Richards prepared his first solo record in over two decades – Crosseyed Heart, due out the same day as the movie – culls from interviews, archival material and footage of him recording new music.

“If there’s a Mount Rushmore of Rock & Roll, Keith’s face is surely on it,” Neville said in a statement. “He has always represented the soul of rock music – for all of the light and dark shades that implies. To my relief, Keith Richards turned out to be a real man – full of humor, knowledge and wisdom. That’s the real Keith we’ve worked to capture in our film and I’m honored to bring it to a global audience via Netflix.”

Richards’ new record finds him collaborating with guitarist Waddy Wachtel and drummer/co-producer Steve Jordan, both of whom played on Richards’ previous solo outings. It also features appearances by Norah Jones, Spooner Oldham, Aaron Neville and Larry Campbell. Late Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys will also appear on two tracks.

“I had a ball making this new record and working with Steve Jordan and Waddy Wachtel again,” Richards said in a statement at the time he released the “Trouble” video. “There’s nothing like walking into a studio and having absolutely no idea what you’re going to come out with on the other end. If you’re looking for ‘Trouble,’ you’ve come to the right place.”

Movies

Hope it’s good!!

Post author By Dan
Post date July 29, 2015

‘Bourne’: Tommy Lee Jones Joins Matt Damon in Sequel

Tommy Lee Jones has joined Matt Damon in the next installment of the “Bourne” franchise.

Alicia Vikander and Julia Stiles are also on board to join the action series, while Paul Greengrass is back to direct and pen the script with Christopher Rouse.

Frank Marshall will produce again alongside Jeffrey Weiner for Captivate Entertainment. Greengrass, Damon, Greg Goodman and Ben Smith will also produce, while Rouse and Henry Morrison will serve as executive producers.

Plot details are unknown at this time, though sources say Jones will play a superior officer at the CIA. Edward Norton, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox and David Strathairn have playing similar roles in past “Bourne” movies. Production is expected to begin later this summer. The film will bow on July 29, 2016.

Damon’s three Bourne movies, the first of which was released in 2002, grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide at the box office. Damon last played the iconic role in 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum,” and Jeremy Renner stepped into the franchise with 2012’s Tony Gilroy-directed “The Bourne Legacy.”

Jones was last seen in “The Homesman,” which he also wrote and directed, and will appear alongside Kevin Costner in the upcoming thriller “Criminal.”

Awards

The main reason I’ll never own one.

Post author By Dan
Post date July 27, 2015

Why Academy Award Winners Can’t Sell Their Oscars

The Academy Awards are a night of prestige and honor that Hollywood takes very seriously. How seriously, you may ask? Well, in addition to being considered the guardians of quality in film, they have some extremely strict bylaws and guidelines for the entire process. Everything from nominations to what you can do with your Oscar once you’ve won is governed by their ruling hand. If anyone needed a reminder of The Academy’s power, they’ve certainly got one in a recent court ruling involving the coveted statuette itself.

The Guardian reported on the legal battle between the Academy and the family of previous honoree Joseph Wright. Wright won the Oscar for best color art direction, earned through his work in “My Gal Sal” in 1942, and his nephew auctioned the statue off for a cool sum of $79,200 to buyer Nate D. Sanders. The sale was challenged by the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and this week’s ruling claims that the sale was a violation of the Academy’s bylaws involving the sale of Oscar statues.

As the bylaws have stated since 1951, any Academy Award statues must be offered back to the Academy at the going rate of $10 before going onto the open public market. While Wright won his Oscar in 1942, he was a member of the Academy from 1933 to 1983, thereby held to all applicable Academy regulations during the time that he retained his membership. The coup d’ grace of the Academy’s case is a legal concept known as “equitable servitude,” which covers the angle of Wright’s nephew being the seller, as the legal precedent states, “Original parties must have intended to bind successors,” once they enter an agreement.

It’s easy to see both sides of the argument involving the sale of Oscar statues. On one hand, the Academy wants to keep a tight hold on their copyright of the statue’s design and prestige. Considering the market for fake Oscar statues, a more realistic Oscar would make everyone from prop builders to even possible thieves excited at the chance to have something that looks so close to the real thing you’d mistake it as genuine. This would cause headaches for the Academy, as well as any winners past and future. After all, if someone could steal a dress at last year’s after party, they could easily steal a genuine Oscar and replace it with a very convincing lookalike if they really wanted to.

However, bylaws aside, the Oscar statues are technically considered the property of the winner. It was their hard work that earned them the award in the first place, and once that item transfers to the winner it should be considered theirs in perpetuity. Or, at the very least, the Academy should be offering a much more competitive sum than $10 to buy back their trophy. Considering a 2013 estimate, based on Gold prices at the time, valued the 24 karat statue at $900, one would think that they could afford a better going rate for buying back their statues if they can afford to spend that much on them in the first place. So a note to future Academy Award winners: when you’re up on the stage celebrating your win on February 26, 2016; remember that you still need to choose your projects extremely carefully.

Movies

I’d see that!! It would be fun!!

Post author By Dan
Post date July 27, 2015

Tom Cruise says Top Gun 2 would be ‘fun to do’

Tom Cruise may hang on to the side of a moving plane in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, but he has his eye on some other aerial stunts — this time for the follow-up to Top Gun.

At the Mission: Impossible premiere, Cruise told reporters that while he hadn’t “turned an eye” to the thought of a Top Gun sequel, it would be “fun” to get back in the cockpit.

“It’s tricky to figure out,” Cruise told Extra. “If I can figure it out, if all of us can figure it out, it’d be fun to do. I’d like to fly those jets again, but we’ve got to do all the jets practical — no CGI on the jets.”

“If we can figure all that out, and the Department of Defense will allow us to do it, that would be fun,” he added.

A Top Gun sequel has been in the works for at least five years, and last month, producer David Ellison said that a screenplay is in development, with unmanned drones replacing many pilots. “There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie, and there is no Top Gun without Maverick,” Ellison said at the time.

Movies

I finally saw TRAINWRECK!! It was amazing!!

Post author By Dan
Post date July 27, 2015

Box office report: Ant-Man slips past Pixels to win the weekend

Adam Sandler’s Pixels may have beat the weekend’s other new releases, but its $24 million debut failed to best the small-but-mighty Ant-Man. Instead, Marvel’s smallest hero claimed the box office crown again in its second weekend with an estimated $24.8 million.

That margin is narrow enough that things could change when final box office numbers come in tomorrow, but regardless, it’s a lackluster debut for Pixels and Sandler. Pixels only earned a B CinemaScore, and its $24 million debut puts it closer to Sandler duds like Jack and Jill (which opened to $25 million) than recent hits like Grown Ups 2 ($41.5 million).

But the biggest box office surprise was actually Southpaw, which wasn’t even expected to make the top five. Instead, Jake Gyllenhaal’s boxing movie came in with an estimated $16.5 million, well above early estimates in the low teens. The adult-skewing drama was expected to fall to Paper Towns, but the adaptation of John Green’s young adult novel fell short and only opened to $12.5 million. While Paper Towns was never expected to be as much of a hit as last summer’s other Green adaptation, The Fault In Our Stars (which opened to $48 million), it was still eyeing a debut closer to $20 million.

Meanwhile, Minions fell 55 percent to an estimated $22.1 million, earning third place in its third weekend. Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck, on the other hand, saw a miniscule drop of 43 percent in its sophomore outing, ending the weekend with an estimated $17.3 million.

Outside of the top five, Jurassic World (of course) reached a domestic total of $623.8 million, officially making it the third biggest domestic film of all time. (Just this week, it claimed third place at the worldwide box office, too.)

1. Ant-Man — $24.8 million
2. Pixels — $24 million
3. Minions — $22.1 million
4. Trainwreck — $17.3 million
5. Southpaw — $16.5 million

People

Very sad news. May he rest in peace.

Post author By Dan
Post date July 19, 2015

Alex Rocco, The Godfather Actor, Dead at Age 79

Alex Rocco, best known for his role as Moe Greene in The Godfather, has died at age 79.

The actor, who lived in the Los Angeles area, passed away on Saturday. His daughter, Jennifer Rocco, confirmed his death on Facebook.

“Alex Rocco aka Alessandro Federico Petricone, Jr. passed away just hours ago on July 18, 2015,” she wrote. “February 29, 1936 – July 18, 2015 RIP Dad, be with Mom and Marc….I will see you but not for a while….”

Alex is also survived by survived by his wife, actress Shannon Wilcox, son Lucien and a grandson, Variety reported.

Alex was born in Boston began his onscreen acting career in the ’60s. He took acting classes taught by Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy, who died at age 83 this past February.

He appeared on shows such as the original Batman series and Get Smart before he starred in The Godfather in 1972.

In the film, he played a mobster and casino owner, who had lines such as “I got a business to run. I gotta kick asses sometimes to make it run right” and “Sonofabitch! Do you know who I am? I’m Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders!”

He went onto appear on shows such as The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote and The Facts of Life, in which he played Charlie Polniaczek.

In 1990, he won an Emmy for his role as a Hollywood agent Al Floss in the comedy The Famous Teddy Z. Also in the ’90s, he provided the voice of Roger Myers Jr. on The Simpsons. The character is the chairman of the studio that produces The Itchy & Scratchy Show.

Alex also appeared in movies such as Smokin’ Aces and provided the voice of grumpy ant Thorny in Disney-Pixar’s A Bug’s Life.

In recent years, he had starred on shows such as One Life to Live, The Division, comedian Marc Maron’s show Maron and Starz’s Magic City, in which he played Arthur Evans. He also played Matt LeBlanc’s fictional father, Dick LeBlanc, on Showtime’s Episodes.

Movies

If you care…

Post author By Dan
Post date July 19, 2015

Paul Feig reveals Ghostbusters character names

Who you gonna call? Erin Gilbert, Jillian Holtzmann, Abby Yates and Patty Tolan, as it turns out. On Saturday, director Paul Feig revealed the four character names for the paranormal exterminators in Ghostbusters.

Feig tweeted the names after being asked to identify the characters by a Ghostbusters fan account. Melissa McCarthy will play Yates, with Kristin Wiig as Gilbert, Kate McKinnon as Holtzmann, and Leslie Jones as Tolan. (Feig had previously tweeted McKinnon’s character name on Friday.)

The director has used his account to update fans on the progress of his reboot throughout production, released still photos of the Ghostbusters’ car, costumes and proton packs. Ghostbusters is out next summer.

Movies

There are so many new movies that I need to see!!

Post author By Dan
Post date July 19, 2015

Box office report: Ant-Man wins with $58 million, but Trainwreck surprises with $30.2 million

Looks like Ant-Man isn’t so little after all.

Marvel’s latest superhero film debuted to an estimated $58 million this weekend, falling just short of initial estimates but still outstripping Minions to snag first place. On one hand, Ant-Man failed to meet expectations of $60 to $65 million, and it earned the weakest debut ever for a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie (unless you count The Incredible Hulk, which opened to $55.4 million in 2008). But Paul Rudd’s superhero debut still earned first place, which means that the MCU is now 12 for 12 for #1 openings (and that’s including The Incredible Hulk). Ant-Man was never expected to reach Avengers-level numbers at the box office, and although it didn’t manage to crack $60 million, it wasn’t too far off from other MCU debuts like Captain America: The First Avenger ($65.1 million) and Thor ($65.7 million).

But even though Ant-Man came in first place, the biggest winner of the weekend might actually be Trainwreck. Even though it placed third with an estimated $30.2 million, that’s well above early predictions, which had Amy Schumer’s debut landing somewhere in the mid to high teens. Even though Schumer has basically ruled TV these past few months (and she’s proved that she’s hot enough to be on television), this was the first real test of whether she could carry a feature film. Based on these box office numbers (and generally solid reviews), we should expect to see more from Schumer on the big screen soon.

Meanwhile, Minions took a pretty steep hit of 57 percent in its second weekend, falling to an estimated $50.2 million. The Despicable Me spinoff topped the charts last weekend, earning the second biggest animated debut ever, and this weekend brought its domestic total to a whopping $216.7 million after only 10 days. At the same time, Inside Out regained its lead over Jurassic World, snagging fourth place by only about $300,000. But Jurassic World did get some good news this weekend: Its domestic total is now $611.1 million, making it only the fourth film in history to cross $600 million at the domestic box office.

Here are this weekend’s top five at the box office:

1. Ant-Man — $58 million
2. Minions — $50.2 million
3. Trainwreck — $30.2 million
4. Inside Out — $11.7 million
5. Jurassic World — $11.4 million

Television

Yup, they want us to buy them yet again!!

Post author By Dan
Post date July 19, 2015

Back to the Future 30th Anniversary Trilogy Blu-ray

Great Scott! In 1985 Director Robert Zemeckis, Executive Producer Steven Spielberg and Producer/Screenwriter Bob Gale embarked on a three-part journey through time that broke box-office records worldwide and catapulted Back to the Future into one of the most beloved trilogies in motion picture history. In 1989, the filmmakers gave us a glimpse of the future in Back to the Future Part II as Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to 2015…or, if our calculations are correct, October 21, 2015, to be exact. “The Future” has finally arrived.

Now, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment celebrates this once-in-a-lifetime date, as well as the 30th Anniversary of the groundbreaking first film, with two new releases debuting on October 20, 2015. Available on Blu-ray and DVD, the Back to the Future 30th Anniversary Trilogy will include all three movies plus a new bonus disc with more two hours of content. Back to the Future: The Complete Animated Series will be released for the first time ever on DVD featuring all 26 episodes from the award-winning series and Back to the Future: The Complete Adventures will include all three movies, the complete animated series, a new bonus disc, a 64-page book and collectible light-up “Flux Capacitor” packaging. Featuring more than two hours of content, the bonus disc will include all-new original shorts, documentaries, two episodes from the animated series and more.

In addition to the home entertainment release, the Back to the Future celebration continues in theaters when the films go back to the big screen on October 21, 2015.

Additionally, Universal Music Enterprises is reissuing an all-new 30th Anniversary picture disc vinyl soundtrack, available October 16th in stores and through all digital partners.

Books

I Bet You Think This Book Is About You.

Post author By Dan
Post date July 19, 2015

Carly Simon to release memoir

Carly Simon is set to release her revealing memoir three years after inking her first book deal.

The You’re So Vain hitmaker initially secured an agreement with bosses at Random House to write an autobiography in 2012, but after a series of delays, she has finally finished her memoir, titled Boys in the Trees, which will be released on November 24 through Flatiron Books.

In a statement announcing the tome, Simon teases she’ll be revealing a lot of untold stories from her life that she’s previously kept secret.

It reads: “This book is my way of going back through my childhood, my music, my romances, my marriage… and trying to make sense of it all. I’ve been working on it for so long that it feels like my third child… but now it’s time to send that child out in the world. It’s one of the most frightening – and exciting – things I’ve ever done.”

Simon was famously married to James Taylor, and also romanced the likes of Cat Stevens, Kris Kristofferson, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, and Mick Jagger.