Rob Thomas Solo Debut Due In May
Matchbox twenty frontman Rob Thomas will release his as-yet-untitled solo debut in May via Atlantic Records. The set features a guest spot by singer/songwriter John Mayer on guitar on an unnamed track, according to Thomas' spokesperson. Other songs tipped to make the cut are "Lonely No More" and "Ever the Same."
The process of writing for a solo project as opposed to a band has been a liberating one, Thomas told Billboard last March. "First of all, it doesn't have to have two guitars, a bass and a drum on every song," he said. "After a while you want to try something different. It's all about not having a framework that you have to fit into. It doesn't have to sound like a band."
The album will feature production by Virgin chairman/CEO Matt Serletic, who has worked regularly with matchbox twenty since its 1996 debut, "Yourself or Someone Like You."
The other members of matchbox have lately been busy with side projects, including guitarist Kyle Cook's the New Left, which self-released its debut EP, "Let Go," in late October.
Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood among nominees for Directors Guild
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Martin Scorsese, shut out five times previously for the top prize from his filmmaking peers, has earned another shot at the Directors Guild of America Awards.
Scorsese earned a nomination Thursday for the guild's best-director honour for his sprawling epic The Aviator, a film biography starring Leonardo DiCaprio as aviation pioneer and Hollywood rebel Howard Hughes.
Also nominated was Clint Eastwood for his boxing drama Million Dollar Baby; Marc Forster for Finding Neverland, a whimsical look at the inspirations behind J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan; Taylor Hackford for the Ray Charles film biography Ray; and Alexander Payne for the quirky road-trip flick Sideways.
The winner will be announced at the guild's 57th annual dinner Jan. 29, one of Hollywood's warmups for the Academy Awards on Feb. 27.
The guild honours have a good track record at predicting who will go home with the best-director Academy Award. Only six times since 1949 has the guild recipient failed to go on to win the Oscar.
Scorsese generally has been viewed as the front-runner to win both the guild prize and the best-directing Oscar. He has been nominated five times before by the guild and four times by academy voters, but he has never won either honour.
The guild honoured Scorsese with a lifetime-achievement award in 2003, when he also was nominated for Gangs of New York but lost to Rob Marshall for Chicago.
Eastwood, who also stars with Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman in Million Dollar Baby, earned his second-straight guild nomination following 2003's Mystic River. He won the guild prize and the best-director Oscar for 1992's Unforgiven.
Hackford, previously nominated for 1982's An Officer and a Gentleman, was a surprise nominee this time. While Ray star Jamie Foxx has received great awards buzz, Hackford generally has been overlooked at earlier Hollywood honours, including December's Golden Globe nominations.
Forster and Payne, both first-time guild nominees, also received best-director nominations for the Golden Globes, whose awards ceremony is Jan. 16.
'Anchorman' Takes Seat at Top of Video Charts
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," starring Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate, was the nation's best-renting DVD last week, according to data issued Wednesday.
DreamWorks' newsroom spoof generated about $10.3 million in consumer rental spending, during its first five days on shelves, according to Video Store magazine data for the week ended Jan. 2. It was also the nation's best-selling DVD, according to Nielsen VideoScan.
The No. 2 DVD seller was "Resident Evil: Apocalypse." The Sony actioner, starring Milla Jovovich, also generated about $7.9 million at the rental counter during its first five days in release, according to Video Store magazine.
"Garden State," starring Natalie Portman and Zach Braff, debuted at No. 4 on VideoScan's DVD sales chart, and generated about $4.1 million in rental spending, according to Video Store magazine.
The indie thriller "Open Water," from director Chris Kentis, was the fifth-best-selling DVD during its debut week in release.
In yet another demonstration of the popularity of TV-to-DVD product, HBO Home Video's "Sex and the City: Season Six, Part 2" was the nation's sixth-best-selling DVD its debut week on store shelves, according to VideoScan.
The Couch Potato Report - January 7th, 2005
In The Couch Potato Report this week there are 4 of my favourite films of last year, but this isn't a best of list!
No, it isn't a best of list as I am not a fan of best of lists. It is just a coincidence that between the last Couch Potato Report and this one four of my favourite films of 2004 have been released.
Now, if you have been spending time with loved ones and enjoying the holidays, as I have, think of this week as a look at some of the films you may have missed over the past fourteen days.
And you have missed some good movies. Four of my favourite films of last year in fact.
So lets get to those four, two other films that you might have missed, starting with ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY.
After DODGEBALL, ANCHORMAN was the funniest film of 2004.
Will Farrell from OLD SCHOOL and ELF is Ron Burgundy, a macho, self centered news anchor from the 1970s.
The fact that it is set in the 1970's provides some laughs, but it is the supporting cast, and their idiotic male chauvinist attitude that offers the majority of the films many humourous moments, especially when a woman arrives with ambitions to become an anchor herself, she threatens the male-dominated newsroom.
Remember it is the male chauvinistic 1970's here.
At times ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY is hit and miss with it's comedy, but it was more hit than miss for me.
As I said it was the second funniest film of 2004, and one of my favourites.
OPEN WATER isn't funny, but it is one of the most suspenseful films of
the year, and another one of my favourites.
If you have ever been looking for an excuse not to go Scuba diving, OPEN WATER is it!
In the film a young couple is accidentally abandoned during an open-sea diving excursion.
Eventually the couple realizes that they are in the midst of some unwanted company and they end up treading water for most of the film's brisk 79-minute running time.
It might not be as scary as JAWS was the first time you saw that classic shark film, but OPEN WATER has a few great scares all it's own.
OPEN WATER is a perfect excuse to stay on land.
DE-LOVELY, on the other hand, can't be described by using the word perfect in any context, but I still found myself thoroughly entertained by this musical portrait of American composer Cole Porter.
Kevin Kline plays Porter as he looks back on his life as if it was one of his spectacular stage shows, with the people and events of his life becoming the actors and action onstage.
The always radiant Ashley Judd shines as Linda Lee, one of the many loves of Cole Porter's life, and singers Elvis Costello, Alanis Morissette, Diana Krall and Robbie Williams appear in the film singing Porter's timeless songs.
No, DE-LOVELY isn't perfect, but does every good movie have to be?
So, you have now heard about three of my favourite films of 2004, so let me get to the movie that I enjoyed the most last year.
GARDEN STATE may be one of the smallest films of 2004, in terms of how much exposure it received, but I still loved it.
Zach Braff from TV's SCRUBS is an scarred young actor who travels back to New Jersey - the Garden State - after nine years away for his mother's funeral.
While there he avoids his bitter father, choosing instead to party with old friends.
Along the way he meets a woman with more than a few problems of her own and the two are able to provide each other with a little comfort.
Natalie Portman from CLOSER and BEAUTIFUL GIRLS is superb as the woman and, without trying to be cliche, I both laughed and cried at her performance, and the entire movie.
GARDEN STATE has tremendous visual images, realistic, lively dialogue, and a great cast. It is a fresh and funny movie that is my favourite film of 2004..
The fact that I have just highly recommended GARDEN STATE might cause you to have raised expectations when you see it. I hope it lives up to what you expect it to be.
Because as I've mentioned before, low expectations can sometimes make a movie seem better than it is.
That is certainly the case with WIMBLEDON, the new romantic comedy from the folks who gave us NOTTING HILL and BRIDGET JONES' DIARY.
My low expectations of the picture allowed me to enjoy it more than I ever thought I would, and subsequently, now allow me to recommend it to you.
In WIMBLEDON, Paul Bettany from A BEAUTIFUL MIND and KIRSTEN DUNST from the SPIDER-MAN movies are professional tennis players who fall in love at the All England Tennis Championships in Wimbledon.
Even though the film isn't as good as it could be, it has more laughs and more genuine suspense that you will ever expect, and you will find yourself enjoying it.
Yes, I liked WIMBLEDON.
But I didn't like TROY, and I doubt you will either.
TROY stars Hollywood's hunky hunks Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom and is based on Homer's The Iliad.
In the book, and the film, Trojan prince Paris makes off with Helen, the wife of a Spartan ruler. The ruler's brother Agamemnon then prods him into enraged retaliation.
But the actress they cast as Helen is so poorly underwritten that there is no reason to believe that anyone would want to take her away, or go to war to get her back.
So the movie stalls there, and Pitt does what he can as the warrior Achilles, but after many, many, many fight scenes the film just starts to drag.
And the last thing you want is to have a film that is almost three hours dragging.
But drag it does and the result is a film that is just a waste of time.
It might take a bit longer that three hours to read Homer's The Iliad, but the end result is something that isn't a waste of time.
I also don't feel that ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY, OPEN WATER, DE-LOVELY, GARDEN STATE and WIMBLEDON are a waste of your time. They are all available now, along with TROY at your local movie store.
COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT
The man who thrilled us with THE SIXTH SENSE and SIGNS bores us with
THE VILLAGE. In M. Night Shyamalan's latest a rural village is
attacked by potentially menacing creatures.
WITHOUT A PADDLE won't bore you, but this comedic story about three
friends who go on canoe trip to find a treasure won't make you laugh
either.
On the other hand, PAPARAZZI won't bore you or make you laugh, but it
might entertain you. In the movie some menacing paparazzi photographers
injure a movie star's wife and he takes revenge.
I'm Dan Reynish and I'll have more on those, and some other releases,
in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next week on The Couch!
'I'm Having The Time Of My Life Out Here'
SEATTLE - Are you ready for Star Wars: Episode Three? Don't get excited just yet, the new movie doesn't open until May.
But for one Seattle fan, it's never too early, or too cold, to start the wait.
Jeff Twieden doesn't care that it's freezing outside. He's camping out in front of the Cinerama Theater in downtown Seattle, waiting for Episode Three to open. It's only 22 weeks away.
"I've got another sleeping bag coming, so that's sleeping bag number three," he says. "It's better to be too hot than too cold."
In 1999, Twieden made international headlines when he and another fan camped out for months in this same spot to see the first of George Lucas' prequel trilogy.
"A lot of people say 'Get a life,' stuff like that. But I'm having the time of my life out here."
Twieden thinks prequel episodes one and two were a mixed bag, but he can sum up the potential of Episode Three in one word.
"Vader, baby. Vader."
In the film, the villainous Darth Vader makes his first onscreen appearance in over 20 years.
"We all want to see Vader kick some ass," he says.
There's a potential problem in the long wait. Twieden isn't even sure Episode Three will play the Cinerama.
"That's the assumption I'm going on," he says. "If it isn't, I'll be more than happy to move to a different theater. It's really about the wait."
Rain or shine, through sleet or snow, the wait will last another 134 days.
"Star Wars is about independence and freedom," Twieden says. "And that's really what this wait is about. That complete and utter independence."