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3 articles from 2007

24 October 2007 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Brad Pitt went green at the Hollywood Awards on Monday night, arriving at the glitzy Los Angeles event in a chauffeur-driven Toyota Prius hybrid. The actor was there to present his The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford co-star, Casey Affleck, with the Breakthrough Actor of The Year prize. Meanwhile, Richard Gere was named Actor of The Year for The Hoax, John Travolta picked up the Supporting Actor of The Year prize for Hairspray and Casey's brother Ben Affleck claimed the Breakthrough Director gong for Gone Baby Gone. Jennifer Connelly was named Supporting Actress of the Year for Reservation Road and French star Marion Cotillard claimed the Breakthrough Actress prize for her portrayal of singer Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose. The Hollywood Awards are part of the annual Hollywood Film Festival.

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9 April 2007 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

A funny thing happened on Grindhouse's way to becoming the top film of the weekend. Well, actually three funny things -- the holdover comedies Blades of Glory and Meet the Robinsons and the newcomer Are We Done Yet? Grindhouse came in a disappointing fourth, earning just $11.6 million -- half the gross that analysts had predicted. By contrast, Glory dropped only 30 percent in its second weekend, raking in an estimated $23 million and bringing its total to 68.4 million. In second place, the animated Robinsons dropped just 32 percent to earn $17 million and bring its total to $52.2 million. Are We Done Yet?, a remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House with Ice Cube in the Cary Grant role, debuted with $10.1 million. And then there was the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez "double bill" Grindhouse. Analysts had mixed explanations for the film's disappointing performance. Family films traditionally dominate the Easter weekend, they observed. Some noted that Grindhouse was up against another horror flick, The Reaping, starring Hilary Swank (which came in fifth with $10.1 million). Others noted that the effort to release Grindhouse, packaged as an old-fashioned double feature complete with fake previews, likely went over the heads of the younger crowd which dominates the movie market. Still others noted that the complete package lasts more than three hours, limiting the number of times it can be shown in theaters. In an interview with the Associated Press, Harvey Weinstein, whose The Weinstein Co./Dimension Films released the movie, said: "If you go see it with any audience, walk into any theater, you'll see people screaming and applauding like a rock concert. ... Maybe we didn't educate the audience that it's such an experience." In a separate interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Weinstein said, "It got such great reviews and such great [audience] scores, that it's baffling." Meanwhile, in limited release, Miramax's The Hoax, starring Richard Gere, opened in 235 theaters to an estimated $1.5 million. Overall, the top 12 films took in an estimated $113 million, up 9.7 percent from the comparable week a year ago. The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. Blades of Glory, $23 million; 2. Meet the Robinsons, $17 million; 3. Are We Done Yet?, $15 million; 4. Grindhouse, $11.6 million; 5. The Reaping, $10.1 million; 6. 300, $8.8 million; 7. Wild Hogs, $6.8 million; 8. Shooter, $5.8 million; 9. TMNT, $4.9 million; 10. Firehouse Dog, $4 million.

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3 April 2007 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

Clifford Irving, the subject of director Lasse Hallström's The Hoax, set to open on Friday, has suggested that some scenes in the movie are just as fanciful as scenes he invented for his notorious 1971 book, The Autobiography of Howard Hughes.In an interview with today's (Tuesday) New York Daily News, Irving said that he had agreed to cooperate with Hallström and the film's writers: "They asked me a great many questions. I replied in depth. They ignored most of what I said." In one scene, the Irving character, played by Richard Gere, is seen hiring a prostitute for his collaborator, Dick Susskind, played by Alfred Molina. Hallström acknowledges that the scene amounts to "dramatic license." As for Gere's performance, Irving told the Daily News, that the actor "portrays me as a scumbag. If I were that man, I'd shoot myself."

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3 articles from 2007