Category: Actresses (Page 123 of 258)

Expansions

June 5, 2009 /

Just a couple of items where some more information might be of interest.

* I linked yesterday to a Variety story reporting that James Cameron had signed with mega-agency CAA. Last night, however, ace gadfly muckraker Nikki Finke reported that it was merely a new camera technology developed for Cameron’s upcoming “Avatar” 3-D extravaganza, not Cameron himself, that the agency will be repping. In true Finkean style, she can’t resist taking a swipe at Variety in the process, though I guess it might be earned in this case.

Sigourney Weaver* On a more pleasant and actually interesting note, we have some news about Sigourney Weaver‘s upcoming projects, after discussing her — well, actually, Ellen Ripley — topping Total Sci-Fi’s list of female science fiction icons yesterday. For one thing, I didn’t realize until now Ms. Weaver is one of the stars of the aforementioned “Avatar” (as is Will Harris’s talented Facebook buddy Dileep Rao).

But that’s far from all, JA at The Film Experience is waxing enthusiastic over her possible casting (it’s not truly confirmed yet, I gather) in another sci-fi film, of sorts. “Paul” is to be directed by Greg Mottola of “Superbad” and “Adventureland” and written by and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost of “Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz,” and “Spaced” fame. Apparently the film has something to do with a couple of British comic book geeks (Pegg and Frost) traveling cross-country from Comic-Con who meet up with Seth Rogen — I gather possibly animated or CGI’d or something — as an alien named, naturally, Paul at Nevada’s Area 51 (at least that’s how SlashFilm’s Paul Sciretta has it). It will also feature Bill Hader, Jane Lynch, Jason Bateman and Kristen Wiig.

Sounds pretty good, but JA was also good enough to mention another comedy casting for Ms. Weaver, this in “You Again,” which will star Kristin Bell, a particular favorite over here. As JA points out, it will re-team the high talented, geek-friendly Bell with director Andy Fickman, who elicited one of her most interesting performances in “Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical” back in 2005. At the risk of going off on a bit of tangent (and, by the way, just happening to mention my lengthy 2007 blog post on Fickman’s entertaining, though highly imperfect, movie), did you know that the former Veronica Mars can, as the Western codgers say, sing purty?

Don’t worry, she gets a lot less wholesome later on…

Actors, Actresses, Comic-Con, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies, TV Comedies

Box Office Preview of the “Lost” Weekend

June 5, 2009 /

So, there I was, thinking about what I was going to post tomorrow when it suddenly occurred to me: it’s not Wednesday, it’s Thursday, which means you’re reading this on Friday morning and, damnit, you need your box office preview.

This weekend sees the release of passel of comedies and comedy dramas, and the smart money at both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter agrees that “Up,” which is just about ready to receive the first Nobel Prize for animation and become the basis for a new religion, will likely defeat both of the newcomers. It gets more intriguing become it’s not impossible that the film starring a bonafide comedy superstar could come in at the #3 spot.

I speak, of course, of “Land of the Lost” starring Will Ferrell, which our own Will Harris gave a mere 1.5 stars to on the grounds of being unfunny and raunchily disconnected from it’s own youngster appeal. Rotten Tomatoes has given the film a sad 20% “Fresh” rating (even if Roger Ebert wrote another of his very, very many utterly winning defenses of films I would never spend my own money to see). I’m sure the elaborate comedy will do a certain amount of business based on Ferrell’s appeal and its special effects, but unless audiences like this one vastly more than critics, there may be long faces at Universal on Monday. At least it’s gotten the original TV series reissued, much to the delight of my fellow PH-er, Ross Ruediger.

Ed Helms and a feathered friendOn the other hand, the megastar-free “The Hangover,” which sort of sounds like a retread of the premise of “Very Bad Things,” is apparently a vastly more upbeat affair. My film review overseer, Jason Zingale, gave it a solid 3.5 stars and in general it is being received as a very good thing by RT critics, and may well do very good things for the careers of its up-and-coming cast. An upset at the #2 spot is not impossible.

Other than that, we have a new romantic comedy vehicle from Nia Vardolos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), “My Life in Ruins.” Despite being written by the very talented comedy writer, Mike Reiss, this film keeps alive director Donald Petrie’s career long record of never making a single well reviewed featured, receiving a truly dismal 7% at RT. I wouldn’t expect another sleeper from this one. Bullz-Eye’s Dave Medsker gave it 2.5 stars, definitely more in sorrow than in anger.

That’s pretty much it, but in very limited release is a new film from Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”, “Road to Perdition”) and literary power couple Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, which we’ll talk about when it’s in more than four theaters. Also, speaking of director’s named “Sam,” please consider giving Mr. Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell” a chance this weekend. It’s that or the only horror films the studios will be greenlighting will be “The Grudge 15” or such upcoming torture-porn classics as “I Digest Your Eyeballs” and “The Scrotum Stretchers.” Keep horror sane, see the darn thing. (Also check out Will Harris’s interview with the very cool actor, Dileep Rao.)

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies, TV DVDs

BadAzz Mofo Geeky Quick Hits

June 4, 2009 /

Other than the very sad and disturbing passing of David Carradine, very well noted by Will Harris a bit earlier (I’ve got more at my own bloggy digs, Forward to Yesterday), it’s kind of a slow news day in the movie world…

* In a bit of very inside baseball, with his upcoming “Avatar” 3-D extravaganza already getting a lot of ink many months before its X-Mas release, James Cameron has broken with his past practice and has signed with an agency. And not just any agency, but the mighty CAA. I know, your life will never be the same. Variety has the scoop, such as it is.

* 79-year-old lifelong cinema enfant terrible Jean-Luc Godard (“Breathless,” “Contempt” — a great film you really ought to see) is looking to do a film inspired by a Holocaust memoir, says THR. I know, your life will really never be the same, but this is interesting. Godard, a truly radical leftist, criticized Israel implicitly in his 1967 comic masterpiece, “Weekend,” when the middle-east nation’s battles were still very much a liberal cause. I’m not at all one to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, but the film itself, and the worldwide response from Jewish groups, should be worth watching for those of us interested in this kind of thing.

* And finally, Nikki Finke devoted all of 24 words this morning to the passing of David Carradine (and turned off comments for some reason), but after adding that she doesn’t “do geek,” she did find time to devote some space to covering Total Sci-Fi‘s “25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi” list, with a definite emphasis on bad-ass mofo type females. It was topped by Sigourney Weaver‘s Ripley from the “Alien” franchise (including “Aliens” from the aforementioned J. Cameron). The list also covered fantasy for whatever reason and #2 on the list was Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Geller) of “Buffy” fame. (My personal Buffsession, Willow Rosenberg, aka Alyson Hannigan, came in at #21.) With the possible exception of the first choice, which I really can’t argue with as long as you’re talking about actresses and not, say, writers, my list would be entirely different — if I didn’t tend to avoid lists. Since we really do “do geek” here at Premium Hollywood, allow me to link to fan site Whedonesque‘s comment thread on the topic, where the discussion eventually includes the terrific SF (not “sci-fi”!) writer, Roger Zelazny. Now that’s geek.

Action Movies, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

SAG & Swift & Stuff

June 1, 2009 /

Steve Benen, who is the main guy at the terrific political blog of the liberal Washington Monthly, frequently posts what he calls “mini-reports,” and as someone who desperately needs an efficient verbal containment device that will discourage me from running off at the keyboard, I’m borrowing his format. You can’t copyright asterisks, can you?
Tom Hanks
* Fortunately for readers, my eyes glaze over just as quickly as yours do when you the subject is proposed union contracts. Nevertheless, the ongoing Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) vote is important stuff and I can’t completely ignore it, even if I’m utterly unsure how I’d vote if I were in the union. Furthermore, I’m still trying to figure out exactly what happened to the current president of the union, Alan Rosenberg, who I gather has been stripped of his authority by the “new majority” who favor a proposed new contract. I could go on, but I’m already experiencing a minor case of mind melt, so here are the dueling videos: For “Yes” — Tom Hanks. For “No”: a bunch of talented but far less famous folks, including Tom’s good friend Ron’s dad. And a very long, but kind of interesting comment by Justine Bateman. More of this to come, I suspect.

* Ever heard of Tom Swift? I barely have myself, but I gather he was the hero of a series of pre-“Hardy Boys” type adventures with a touch of Jules Verne about a boy inventor. With bigwigs rummaging through such relics of a more polite time in popular culture as “Tintin,” it makes sense that Hollywood (director Barry Sonnenfeld, of “Men in Black” fame, included) is taking an interest.

* Box Office Mojo has some revisions. “Terminator Salvation” beat “Drag Me to Hell” after all.

* THR likes “The Hangover”, and I could go for a Bloody Mary right about now, myself.

Actors, Actresses, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

Weekend Box Office: “Up” Surprises; “Drag Me to Hell” in Limbo

May 31, 2009 /

Everyone expected a big weekend for the latest from the seemingly unstoppable Pixar/Disney creative team, but who knew that an elderly human could outperform an immature robot?

Yes, despite apparently being a bit intense for the very small ones, “Up” benefited from its widely noted ability to make adults cry and then laugh a lot as well — and perhaps more pointedly from being shown in what Nikki Finke reports is a record number (over 1,500) of 3-D digital screens. It raised $68.2 million, beating “WALL-E” by about $5 million, making it the third highest grosser in Pixar’s illustrious history. (Though, as always, one should remember that ticket prices keep getting higher.) But for those who think pristine visuals and high tech sound are the only attractions, I also have reason to believe it did well at the few remaining drive-in theaters as well…but more about that in a bit.

Overall, “Family” was apparently the watchword as “Night at the Museum: The Battle of the Smithsonian,” as Brandon Gray points out, dropped what is now considered a very respectable 53.5% to net $25.5 million smackers, buoyed by those premiums for IMAX theaters, both legit and “Liemax.”

Meanwhile, there was just a slight whiff of disappointment in horrorland as the ethically fascinating creepfest “Drag Me to Hell” netted a mere $16.6 million, but Sam Raimi’s presumably lowish budget flick is not quite in the movie toilet. Variety‘s Dave McNary cites a Universal bigwig thusly:

“It was a solid start,” [distribution chief Nikki] Rocco said, who asserted that “Drag Me to Hell” should benefit in coming weeks from a slew of positive reviews.

And, word of mouth of course. Like me, right here. As mentioned in my pre-weekend b.o. post, I really did head down to the Mission Tiki Drive-In in otherwise scenically challenged Montclair, CA. Alongside seeing hordes and hordes and hordes and hordes of families scrambling to see “Up” and meeting some very, very cool fellow cinenerds (some famed far and wide, relatively speaking), I can also say that “Drag Me to Hell” is a genuine hoot. You serious horror fans should be aware that, while it has laughs, they are mostly of the nervous and ironic variety, if that makes you feel any better. I mean, God forbid if a horror movie should actually be, you know, fun — and I don’t mean Dick Cheney’s idea of fun.

Meanwhile, “Terminator Salvation” did a lackluster $16.1 million in its second weekend, meaning that McG, Christian Bale and company likely feel like they’ve been dragged to the unhappy place themselves.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑