So we already know that the NFL banned their players to go on twitter for fear of letting the public (or other team) in on some confidential news, well it looks like the social media tool Twitter has been added to Hollywood’s contracts as well.
It’s been rumored that DreamWorks want to make sure Diaz and Myers will keep mum about the new Shrek sequel, in which they’ll both be starring next year, by staying off of Twitter.
Wow, this must have been fast-tracked like crazy!! Check out the trailer:
The Breakfast Club, Ferris Buellers Day Off, Uncle Buck, Weird Science… John Hughes, who wrote and directed some of the most memorable movies to come out of the 1980’s, died of a heart attack today. Read more from /Film.com:
TMZ is reporting director John Hughes suffered a heart attack while taking a morning walk during a trip to New York City with family.
Hughes is best known for writing and directing some of our favorite films from the 1980’s - National Lampoon’s Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, European Vacation, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. Hughes dropped out of filmmaking in 1991.
He will be missed.
Hughes began his career as an ad copyrighter in Chicago, where he created the famous Edge “Credit Card Shaving Test” marketing campaign. He wrote jokes for Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers, before writing a letter to National Lampoon Magazine inspired by his family trips as a child. This of course became the basis for the film National Lampoon’s Vacation.
His directorial debut was in 1984 with the film Sixteen Candles, which became the first in a series of high school movies, sometimes starring a group of actors referred to as the Brat Pack. In 1994, Hughes retired from the public eye, rarely granting or giving interviews to the media. He wrote a couple screenplays and did some rare script and treatment work using his pseudonym, Edmond Dantès (a reference to the protagonist of Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Count of Monte Cristo). Those films include Beethoven, Maid in Manhattan (story) and Drillbit Taylor (story).
Here is a clip from one of my favorite all-time movies which happens to be directed by Mr. Hughes:
Sister site WatchMojo.com has just published a new series on the G.I. Joe franchise of characters covering everything from the action figures to the cartoon to the brand new Hollywood movie about the hit theaters. Check them out:
This is an interesting article on the state of Hollywood today. Check it out from LATimes.com:
The stars are not twinkling bright this summer.
Hollywood’s movie studios, hopeful that marquee-name actors would push their summer box-office receipts to record levels, are finding that the heavyweights aren’t winning over audiences like they used to. With all but a couple of big-budget films already opened, the summer of 2009 is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for Hollywood’s A-list talent.
The studios stocked this summer’s release schedule with so-called star vehicles, including “Land of the Lost” with Will Ferrell, “Year One” featuring Jack Black, the comedy “Imagine That” with Eddie Murphy, and Denzel Washington and John Travolta in a remake of “The Taking of Pelham 123.” But rather than igniting ticket sales, the star-studded movies have dramatically underperformed.
The brightest stars of the lucrative popcorn season — which typically accounts for about 40% of annual ticket sales — instead have turned out to be mostly movies with no-name actors — or no actors at all on screen.
So far, the summer’s most profitable film has been Warner Bros.’ surprise hit “The Hangover,” a $35-million-budget R-rated comedy about a bachelor party in Las Vegas that boasts not a single household-name actor but has reached $183 million in U.S. ticket sales since its June 5 opening and is expected to exceed $200 million. Other summer hits like J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” and Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” showcase eye-popping visual effects along with up-and-coming talent.
And, the highest-grossing summer movie so far? Walt Disney’s Co.’s “Up,” the Pixar-animated movie starring the voice of . . . Ed Asner.
The studios, which for years have banked on richly paid stars to open their movies, are now witnessing a new reality: even the most reliable actors can be trumped by what Hollywood executives like to call “high concepts” (a bachelor party gone awry), movies based on brand-name products (Hasbro’s Transformers toys), and reinvented franchises (not your father’s “Star Trek”).
“I think we’re seeing a transformation in what the value of the star system represents,” said Marc Shmuger, chairman of Universal Pictures, which will take a significant loss on Ferrell’s “Land of the Lost,” which cost $100 million to make and tens of millions more to market and distribute. There’s also an “incredible hunger among audiences for something new and different,” he said.
Indeed, that was the appeal of the buddy comedy “The Hangover.”
“Movie stars still hold an incredible value both creatively and financially,” said “Hangover” director Todd Phillips. “But it’s getting to be more about the movie and whether it delivers on the promise of its trailers and commercials.”
Internet plays a role
Moreover, in the Internet age, word of mouth about movies spreads instantly.
“There used to be a free weekend where marketing departments could open a movie and if it didn’t work, word didn’t get out until Monday, but that’s evaporated with Facebook and Twitter,” Phillips said. “The water-cooler effect is much more immediate.”
Even before a major movie hits the big screen, Twitter users and bloggers are weighing in — which can help or hinder a studio opening a movie.
“The world has changed, throwing conventional wisdom out the window,” said former studio marketing executive Peter Sealey. “The star-power opening is fading in importance and the marketing and releasing of movies is going into new territory where the masses are molding the opinion of a movie. People no longer say, ‘It’s a Tom Cruise movie, let’s go see it!’ With social networking, you know everything about a movie before it comes out.”
Doug Belgrad, production president of Sony Pictures Entertainment, whose studio is behind “Year One” and “Pelham,” said stars alone no longer can compete against the draw of franchise movies and sequels like “Transformers” and “Harry Potter” that come with a high degree of public awareness.
“Movie stars in the right films provide a certain amount of value from a marketing point of view,” he said. “But there is no star power that you can throw at a movie that gives you the kind of brand awareness you get from pre-sold titles.”
This summer’s woes come at a time when studios are already battling the climbing cost of making and marketing movies as well as a decline in DVD sales, which have long supported the economics of the film business.
A telling test case will come this week when Johnny Depp, one of the biggest movie stars in the world, appears as 1930s gangster John Dillinger in Universal’s crime saga “Public Enemies, which cost $100 million to produce.”
Given the poor performances this year of dramas targeted to adults, the prospects of the Michael Mann-directed film gaining mass audience appeal appear dim.
The fourth installment of the series starring Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, Fast & Furious hits theatres at the end of next week. For updates, exclusive info and a built-in GPS map, grab the official widget from their site here. Download the Fast & Furious widget right to your desktop or click “Grab & Share” to post it on your social network profile. The application allows you to receive exclusive content and breaking news related to the film, watch trailers and video clips, download wallpapers, and map directions from the built in GPS map. You can also upload your own ride and pin-point it on the map, and connect with other fans real-time. Check it out…
Thank the gods. Just when you thought you were running low on BSG awesomeness…the DVD release of Caprica is coming at you on April 21st!
To help gear up for the highly anticipated feature-length prequel to the series phenomenon, Battlestar Galactica, check out some film clips from Caprica below:
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Universal City, Calif. (February 5, 2009) Caprica, the highly anticipated prequel to “Battlestar Galactica,” will enjoy its world premiere exclusively on DVD on April 21, 2009 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. In a groundbreaking move sure to delight fans of the long-running television phenomenon, the feature-length prequel will be available on DVD as a limited-edition uncut and unrated version before the series’ broadcast premiere on the
SCI FI Channel in 2010. Caprica is executive produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick (“Battlestar Galactica”) and Remi Aubuchon (“24”). Exclusive bonus features that take viewers behind the scenes of the creation of Caprica make this DVD a landmark event for any fan of “Battlestar Galactica.” The film will also be available at selected online destinations for digital download transactions.
As “Battlestar Galactica” wraps its gripping final season on SCI FI on March 20, 2009, Caprica begins a brand new epic saga that continues the franchise’s commitment to thought-provoking storytelling and extraordinary characters. Set over 50 years before the events of “Battlestar Galactica,” Caprica is a world at the peak of its power, grappling with new science and technologies and the issues they create. The series will star Golden Globe nominee Eric Stoltz (Mask, Pulp Fiction), Esai Morales (“Jericho,” “NYPD Blue”), Paula Malcomson (“Deadwood” “ER”) and Golden Globe® nominee Polly Walker (“Cane,” “Rome”) in a story laced with passion, intrigue and family conflict.
“We are thrilled to take the groundbreaking step of offering the world-premiere of the Caprica feature-length extended pilot episode on DVD prior to the new series’ television debut,” said Hilary Hoffman, Senior Vice President, Brand and Digital Marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment. “This innovative distribution model will serve to satisfy ‘Battlestar Galactica’ fans’ appetites for a new content while building excitement for the franchise’s next great adventure.”
Caprica, the highly anticipated prequel to “Battlestar Galactica,” will enjoy its world premiere exclusively on DVD on April 21, 2009 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. In a groundbreaking move sure to delight fans of the long-running television phenomenon, the feature-length prequel will be available on DVD as a limited-edition uncut and unrated version before the series’ broadcast premiere on the
SCI FI Channel in 2010. Caprica is executive produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick (“Battlestar Galactica”) and Remi Aubuchon (“24”). Exclusive bonus features that take viewers behind the scenes of the creation of Caprica make this DVD a landmark event for any fan of “Battlestar Galactica.” The film will also be available at selected online destinations for digital download transactions.
As “Battlestar Galactica” wraps its gripping final season on SCI FI on March 20, 2009, Caprica begins a brand new epic saga that continues the franchise’s commitment to thought-provoking storytelling and extraordinary characters. Set over 50 years before the events of “Battlestar Galactica,” Caprica is a world at the peak of its power, grappling with new science and technologies and the issues they create. The series will star Golden Globe nominee Eric Stoltz (Mask, Pulp Fiction), Esai Morales (“Jericho,” “NYPD Blue”), Paula Malcomson (“Deadwood” “ER”) and Golden Globe® nominee Polly Walker (“Cane,” “Rome”) in a story laced with passion, intrigue and family conflict.
“We are thrilled to take the groundbreaking step of offering the world-premiere of the Caprica feature-length extended pilot episode on DVD prior to the new series’ television debut,” said Hilary Hoffman, Senior Vice President, Brand and Digital Marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment. “This innovative distribution model will serve to satisfy ‘Battlestar Galactica’ fans’ appetites for a new content while building excitement for the franchise’s next great adventure.”
“Ever since fans first caught wind of the ‘Battlestar Galactica’ prequel Caprica, they have been eagerly following its development,” said Mark Stern, Executive Vice President, Original Programming for SCI FI & Co-Head Original Content, Universal Cable Productions. “We wanted to give them a chance to see the pilot in its original form and experience the prequel to the BSG story while that series’ finale was still ringing in their ears. It also affords the creative team an unprecedented chance to get viewers feedback before production on the Caprica series begins this summer.”
“If ‘Battlestar Galactica’ offered us a way to shatter the conventions of space opera, Caprica will be a show which will challenge the conventions of science fiction storytelling as a whole,” said Ronald D. Moore, Executive Producer/Writer.
“Part sweeping soap, part meditation on the dangerous moral ramifications of artificial intelligence, this is a truly unique opportunity to continue telling stories which will be as daring and shocking as the best of ‘Galactica’ — and yet will be altogether different from ‘Galactica,’” said David Eick, Executive Producer.
Trailer:
BONUS FEATURES:
· Feature Commentary with Director Jeffrey Reiner and Executive Producer/Writer Ronald D. Moore and Executive Producer David Eick
· Deleted Scenes
· Video Blogs
· What the Frak is Caprica?
· The Director’s Process
· The V Club
· The Birth of a Cylon
SYNOPSIS
Set 50 years before Battlestar Galactica, Caprica follows two rival families and their patriarchs – Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) – as they compete and thrive in the vibrant world of the 12 Colonies, a society recognizably close to our own. Enmeshed in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe-to-toe blending action with corporate conspiracy and sexual politics.
This looks much more action packed than The Da Vinci Code:
Hopefully this signals the end of the Christian Bale saga… this morning he apologized on the radio (click play on box, left side of page)
PLAY
