| New on video | | Posted Friday, January 05, 2007 2:56:15 PM by Blog57 Team | | In the age of David Blaine, "The Illusionist" puts the magic back in "magician." This beguiling and cooly entertaining turn-of-the-century fable, about Eisenheim the Illusionist (Edward Norton) and his duel with corrupt Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) for the future of Austria and the heart of Sophie (Jessica Biel), is itself an enchanting illusion. The actors are all splendid, but Paul Giamatti (above left, with Norton) anchors the picture as Chief Inspector Uhl -- detective, narrator, and magician's assistant. Written and directed by Neil Burger, based on the story by Steven Millhauser. Rated PG-13. (Jim Emerson) DVD special features: director commentary; making-of featurette; cast interviews. .... | |
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| | | Miramax opens Italo 'Door' | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 1:01:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | Miramax has acquired Emanuel Crialese's "Nuovomondo" (The Golden Door), Italy's foreign-language Oscar submission, in the unit's first foreign-language buy this year. Disney unit bought U.S. and Australian rights to the story of Sicilians seeking to emigrate to the U.S. in the early part of the 20th century. Charlotte Gainsbourg stars. Gallic shingle Memento produced along with Italian production company Titti Film and RAI Cinema. No release date has been set. Pic opened in Italy in September and played the fest circuit, including Venice and Toronto, winning the former's Silver Lion Award. A number of foreign-language Oscar candidates have already been snapped up for U.S. distribution, including Dutch submission "Black Book" and German entry "The Lives of Others," both bought by Sony Pictures Classics.... | |
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| | | 'Borat' makes most | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 3:06:55 AM by Blog57 Team | | Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan packed theaters to debut as the top weekend movie with $26.5 million. Borat pulled an upset over Tim Allen's The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, which had been expected to open at No. 1 but came in second with $19.5 million. .... | |
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| | | Miramax Films Takes On 'Golden Door' | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 6:55:08 PM by Blog57 Team | | Miramax Films has bought the domestic rights to Italian foreign-language Oscar hopeful Golden Door, says the Hollywood Reporter. The feature, written and directed by Emanuele Crialese, is set in 1913 and tells a mythical tale of a Sicilian peasant family that encounters an American stranger who talks of the fortune that awaits them in his country. Inspired by his stories, they travel to Ellis Island to seek their fortune. The cast features Charlotte Gainsbourg, Vincenzo Amato and Aurora Quattrocchi.More On 'Golden Door'... E-Mail This Article » Share your comments on 'Golden Door' .... | |
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| | | 'Wonderful Life' on disc for holidays | | Posted Friday, November 03, 2006 3:14:13 PM by Blog57 Team | | Movies released on DVD this week include: "It's a Wonderful Life" - George Bailey, the forever put-upon small-town hero, returns to DVD in plenty of time to spread fresh holiday cheer. The inspirational classic from director Frank Capra stars James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore and one of the most lovable supporting casts ever assembled in the story of a despondent man on the verge of suicide until an angel shows him all the good he's done and what a darker place the world would be without him. The new DVD is billed as a 60th anniversary edition of the 1946 film, though the disc has the same extras that appeared on an earlier, out-of-print release, including a making-of documentary. DVD, $19.99. (Paramount) "Mission: Impossible III" - Tom Cruise and the Impossible Mission Force saddle up again for what was critically the best flick of the three in the franchise but the weakest commercially, with the actor's odd behavior over his romance with Katie Holmes and his Scientology beliefs apparently cutting into his audience appeal.... | |
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| | | NBC rejects TV ads for Dixie Chicks film | | Posted Monday, October 30, 2006 7:01:49 AM by Blog57 Team | | NBC network says it has rejected a TV commercial for a new film documenting the furore over the Dixie Chicks' criticism of President George Bush. Ads for the documentary Shut Up & Sing also were rebuffed by the smaller CW network, though local affiliates of all five major broadcasters, including NBC and CW, ran promotional spots for the film in New York and Los Angeles, the two cities where it opened on Friday. The ad features footage of lead singer Natalie Maines declaring during a London concert in March 2003 that the band was "ashamed" to come from the same state as Bush. The film's distributor, Weinstein, seized on the rejection of its spots as evidence of political censorship by NBC and CW and said it was "exploring taking legal action." The studio provided media outlets copies of "clearance" reports from NBC's standards and practices department bearing handwritten notations stating the ads were deemed unacceptable because "they are disparaging of President Bush." Similar documents from the CW cited "concerns we do not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot." "It's a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America," studio co-owner Harvey Weinstein said in a statement.... | |
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| | | Children's librarians recommend books for the holidays | | Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006 2:54:27 AM by Blog57 Team | | CHICAGO - This year parents, grandparents and others can give the gift of reading and learning. The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has created a list of new books recommended for holiday gift-giving, as well as reading about the holidays themselves. The gift-giving guide features titles suitable for readers from preschool age through 8th grade and includes picture books, novels, fiction and nonfiction. "Research shows that kids who read for fun - not just for school - score significantly higher on reading tests," said ALSC President K.T. Horning. "I hope parents and caregivers will join us in celebrating the holidays with reading. Whether you buy or borrow these books from your local library, reading with your child encourages lifelong learning." Children's librarians and educators on the ALSC Quicklists Consulting Committee compiled the lists.... | |
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| | | Miramax Finds The Lost Painting | | Posted Sunday, October 22, 2006 1:09:22 PM by Blog57 Team | | Sure, The DaVinci Code may have not have been the gangbuster that was promised. There were some protests, there were some cries of blasphemy ... but really it was just kind of a dud. Money was to be made, however, and it looks like there is at least some residual "Dan Brown"-ish material left lurking in development. Variety has announced that Miramax has optioned The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr. This non-fiction book follows the search for the painting "The Taking of the Christ" a masterpiece assumed to be lost but was found in an Irish monastery. The book alsocovers the career and times of the painter Caravaggio, who was a bit of a bad boy in the art world. Christopher Monger will adapt the screenplay but there is no word on a star or director yet.The movie plans on taking a more forensic route to art history, as opposed to The Da Vinci Code's conspiracy-mongering.... | |
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| | | ABS-CBN Interactive signs 'Housewives', 'Grey's Anatomy' deal | | Posted Saturday, October 21, 2006 10:54:59 PM by Blog57 Team | | ABS-CBN Interactive, a subsidiary of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Company, has bagged a live action series mobile content agreement with Buena Vista International Television-Asia Pacific (BVITV-AP). With the agreement, ABSi's mobile customers will now be able to enjoy mobile video content from the hit series "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy", including behind-the-scenes video clips, second season seak peeks, SMS infotext, wallpaper and other WAP content. This will tie in with the TV broadcast of the second seasons of both series on Studio 23, one of ABS-CBN's television networks. BVITV-AP also sealed a multi-year agreement with Korean pay-per-view and VOD operator CGV Choice, a subsidiary of CJ Media, for current and library features from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films.... | |
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| | | DVD Review: Dust Devil - The Final Cut Five-Disc Collector's Edition | | Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2006 11:03:02 PM by Blog57 Team | | Winter of 2003, I'm sat on the edge of the mattress in my room with Ryan Adams singing about his Sweet Carolina from out the speakers behind me and with a cigarette 'tween my yap-flaps and with a lass from the technical college up the road stood at the door there, pulling her cardigan over her shoulders and running her hands through her hair, checking the reflection in the back-side of a Wildhearts CD."You look beautiful" I'm saying, and she does, with her Bruce Springsteen shirt and her bright-red moon-boots and her tartan trousers with the chains hung from her hip-bones to half-way down the avenue. "Don't" she says. "It just makes it all the more… emo, the whole thing.""Aye" says I, "Right enough.""I'm sorry" she says, leaning down for to kiss me on the cheek afore she leaves, "I really am.""Me too" says I.... | |
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