stars, sex and nudity buzz : 03/06/2013

‘Rapturepalooza’ NSFW Trailer: Anna Kendrick May Have Lost Some of Her Standards

by Nick Romano

Really, Anna Kendrick? You’re going to follow up ‘Pitch Perfect‘ with something called ‘Rapturepalooza’? Well, I suppose we saw something like this coming, and perhaps it’s not all bad. We were just thrown a bit by the immediate ‘Scary Movie’ vibe we got from the latest red-band trailer.

Looking to be along the same spirit as ‘This is the End,’ ‘Rapturepalooza’ stars Anna Kendrick and John Francis Daley (‘Bones‘) as two teens living through a religious apocalypse with a mission to destroy the Antichrist, who’s played by ‘The Office‘s’ Craig Robinson. But because it’s an adult comedy, there’s a lot of cussing, shooting Jesus with a laser cannon, talk of food shaped like genitalia, and, of course, “knifing the s—” out of the Antichrist.

While it definitely won’t be nominated for a 2014 Oscar, it’s got that sick sense of humor many of us (definitely us) feed off of when we’re with our buddies. And Robinson is nearly always funny, but, for some reason, we personally could do without Anna Kendrick in this movie, based on the trailer.

Check out the red-band trailer for ‘Rapturepalooza’ below, courtesy of IGN, and let us know what you think of the movie in the comments.

'I'm bringin' sexy back!': Anna Kendrick the water babe posts revealing swimsuit snap

Anna Kendrick has recently been raising eyebrows heads with provocative confessions her 900,000 followers on Twitter.

But on Friday Anna Kendrick took it a step further with a playful but revealing glamour shot.

The 27-year-old posted a seductive snap of herself to Instagram in a backless swimsuit that showed off her flawless skin and exhibitionist streak.

Playful seduction: Anna Kendrick posted a glamour shot of herself to Instagram, on Friday

The Up In The Air star accompanied the photograph with a humorous caption: 'I'm bringin' sexy back #PUNS #NailedIt #FistPump'

The double entendre was a nod to Justin Timberlake's hit single SexyBack from 2006's FutureSex/LoveSounds.

But the Pitch Perfect star seemed to think her experiments in lighthearted exhibitionism required further explanation.

She can fit in anywhere! The petite actress had some fun in the cabinet, on Saturday

On Tuesday Anna tweeted what appeared to be a justification for her risqué self-portrait: 'How will I ever subject my future children to sufficient character-building humiliation if Glamour Shots no longer exists?'

The snap displayed the curve of her back ending just at the ridge of her derrière as she kneeled in the shallow end of a fountain pool.

But the pose was all seduction, with a coy expression on her face as she looked sensually over her bare shoulder directly at the camera.


The attention seeking actress has a roster of movies slated for release later this year.

She will star in a film about recent college graduates hunting for employment, titled Get a job, with fellow actors Bryan Cranston and Alison Brie.

She is also set to act in Rapturepalooza, co-starring Rob Corddry and John Francis Daley.

* It's mating season.

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SXSW 2013: Check out the teaser trailer for the new comedy-thriller 'Cheap Thrills' -- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO AND PHOTO

The SXSW-screening black comedy-thriller Cheap Thrills has an intriguing cast — including David Koechner, Ethan Embry, Amanda Fuller, and Innkeepers costars Sara Paxton and Pat Healy — and what sounds like an equally interesting dramatic hook. “It’s about two down-on-their luck guys who meet a wealthy couple and over the course of one night they start playing a game,” explains Travis Stevens, the founder of Snowfort Pictures, who produced the film with Gabriel Cowan and John Suits of New Artists Alliance.”We spent two years really working on the script so that when the real dark stuff starts happening the audience are playing along themselves and understand a bit more why the character is doing what he’s doing.”

The directorial debut of E.L. Katz, Cheap Thrills debuts at SXSW this coming Friday as part of the festival’s “Midnighters” strand. But you can exclusively see a still from the film above and the film’s (somewhat risque) teaser trailer below.

Video Link

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Exclusive Steamy Trailer for Raw SXSW Romance 'Kelly + Victor'

With the 2013 SXSW Film Festival just three days away from launching in Austin, Indiewire is excited to share the exclusive trailer for one of the most buzzed-about titles set to make its debut at the event, the transgressive love story, "Kelly + Victor."

Directed by newcomer Kieran Evans, "Kelly + Victor" features "Pretty Little Liars" star Julian Morris and Antonia Campbell-Hughes as the titular couple who meet on the dance floor of a Liverpool nightclub and hit it off sexually. Both are struggling to get by as best they can while the people around them are choosing illegal lifestyles; Kelly's best mate is a dominatrix prostitute, Victor's pals are aspiring drug dealers. It’s when they get into bed with each other that their darker instincts take over.

Watch the trailer below. The film premieres Saturday, March 9.


Reviews: 
Hollywood Reporter
Though neither are Liverpool natives, Morris and Campbell-Hughes manage credible facsimiles of the local accent. Both also give impressively committed performances, including graphic nudity and intense sex scenes.

Fan Carpet 
The lead two performances from both Campbell-Hughes and Morris respectively, are very impressive and extremely brave. There are various scenes of them both completely naked, partaking in sadomasochistic intercourse, as a film that I'm sure both parties will attempt to avoid their parents ever seeing. 

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10 Films To See At SXSW Film Festival 2013

A couple of months on from Sundance, and a few weeks after Berlin wrapped up, and we're about to hit the third major movie event of the year, as the SXSW Film Festival gets underway on Friday. The festival has grown in importance, giving a certain kind of indie picture (and studio flick) a boost as spring gets underway, and the last few years have seen "Undefeated," "Monsters," "Bridesmaids," "21 Jump Street," "Weekend" and "Cabin In The Woods" among those buoyed by SXSW audiences.

On the surface, the 2013 line-up doesn't seem to be as strong as in previous years: there are fewer big high-profile premieres, and more leftovers from Sundance and other festivals. But dig a little, and you'll find plenty that should make the trip to Austin more than worth it. And isn't discovering a hidden gem or two what a film festival is all about? Check out our ten picks below, and let us know what you're looking forward to.

"Evil Dead"
Synopsis: Five friends head to a remote cabin in the woods and find a spooky book that unleashes all kinds of evil on them.

What You Need To Know: Another SXSW, another spooky cabin in the woods. The runaway hit of last year's festival was Drew Goddard's meta-horror "The Cabin In The Woods," but this year, the irony quotes are being removed, with the remake of Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" getting its world premiere at the festival. While some have been wary about this one, the "Evil Dead" remake has smacked of confidence from the get-go. Raimi and Bruce Campbell are producing, so have presumably signed off on things, Diablo Cody helped rewrite the script, and the posters proclaim that it's "the most terrifying film you will ever experience." We don't know about that, but trailers suggest that first-time director Fede Alvarez has gone back to the intense feeling of the first film, really putting his cast (toplined by excellent "Suburgatory" star Jane Levy) through the wringer, with an emphasis on practical effects over CGI. Everyone's been talking the right talk on the film, and it does look unusually promising for a horror remake, but we'll see if walks the walk at SXSW.

When: Friday March 8th at the Paramount. Opens in wide release on April 5th.

"Drinking Buddies"
Synopsis: Two friends, Kate and Luke, work together in a craft brewery. Their relationship has been platonic, and they're with other people, but just as Luke's girlfriend starts to demand a commitment, sparks begin to fly.

What You Need To Know: The prolific, sometimes infuriating figurehead of the mumblecore movement, Joe Swanberg is a talented and important filmmaker, but his output in recent years has taken the quantity-over-quality approach, the films increasingly becoming self-involved, and looking like excuses for the actor/writer/director to make out with topless actresses. His last few films have made little impact, but his contribution to horror anthology "V/H/S" marked a move towards the mainstream, one that seems to continue with "Drinking Buddies," which sees him work with big-name actors for the first time. Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson take the lead roles, with Ron Livingston and Anna Kendrick in support (and Swanberg nowhere to be seen on the cast list). Everyone involved is talented, and it'll be interesting to see how they adapt to the Swanberg style. Will this do for him what "Cyrus" did for the Duplass Brothers? Or is the same old thing with more recognizable faces involved? We'll find out in a few days.

When: Saturday March 9th at the Paramount, with further screenings on Sunday 10th at the Alamo Village, Wed 13th at the Topfer Theatre, and Sat 16th at the Rollins Theatre.

"Haunter"
Synopsis: Lisa and her family were killed in 1985, but Lisa has only just realized that she's a ghost. When a new girl moves into their home, she must protect them from the spirit of a serial killer.

What You Need To Know: Vincenzo Natali is one of those talented genre filmmakers whose work, starting with debut "Cube," has been consistently interesting without ever quite taking him to the next level. Four years on from his gleefully perverse, underrated "Splice," Natali's back with "Haunter," an intriguing spin on the haunted house tale that sounds like a straight-faced take on "Beetlejuice," with "Little Miss Sunshine" star Abigail Breslin in the lead and veteran character actor Stephen McHattie as the villain, the Pale Man. It's a neat conceit, and one with serious crossover potential if it works. Recent festivals have seen horror hits like "Insidious" and "Sinister" get big boosts -- could we see the same happen with this?

When: A midnight screening on Saturday March 9th at the Alamo Ritz, followed by screenings at the Violet Crown on Sunday 10th, and the Alamo Ritz again on Wednesday 13th.

"Short Term 12"
Synopsis: Grace, a twentysomething supervisor at a foster-care facility, is forced to confront her own past when she forms a bond with a troubled new arrival.

What You Need To Know: Everytime we think we have Brie Larson figured out, she turns around and surprises us. The former popster and Disney Channel star first turned up on our radar in "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World," she's continued to impress over the last few years in "Rampart" and "21 Jump Street" among others, and she now gets her first proper lead role in "Short Term 12." The second feature from "I Am Not A Hipster" director Destin Daniel Cretton, and an expansion of his short film of the same name, the film already has a degree of acclaim attached to it: the short won the Jury Prize at Sundance in 2009 ,and the feature script took a prestigious Nicholl prize. Larson has what seems to be a pretty meaty part, she's got solid support from John Gallagher Jr ("The Newsroom"), Rami Malek ("The Master") and Melora Walters ("Magnolia"), and we've heard some seriously great buzz about not just her performance, but also the film in general. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

When: Sunday March 10th at the Alamo Ritz, with extra screenings on Monday 11th at the Violet Crown, and Thursday 14th at the Topfer Theatre.

"Milo"
Synopsis: A man learns that his long-running stomach problems are caused by a demon baby living in his colon.

What You Need To Know: What, you need to know more than that one sentence log-line? What part of "demon baby living in his colon" doesn't sound appealling? Well, if you need more to convince you, "Milo" marks a new film from Jacob Vaughan, who's spent the decade since his acclaimed debut "Dear Pillow" doing editing work on films like "In Search Of A Midnight Kiss," "Jeff Who Lives At Home" and "Black Rock," with sometime collaborators the Duplass Brothers executive producing. This one marks something of a change of pace, being a horror-comedy toplining ex-"The State" member Ken Marino, and with the welcome faces of "Community" star Gillian Jacobs, Peter Stormare, Patrick Warburton, Mary Kay Place and Stephen Root also featuring. The genre's notoriously tricky to get right (as Marino's old colleagues Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant discovered at Sundance with "Hell Baby"), but the premise is so bonkers, and the cast so full of ringers, that we're certainly prepared to find out if Vaughan can deliver.

When: Sunday March 10th at the Alamo Ritz, also screening at the Alamo Slaughter on Monday 11th, the Paramount on Thursday 14th and the Topfer on Fri 15th.

"Loves Her Gun"
Synopsis: After being attacked in the street, a woman moves from New York to Austin to feel safer, and gets involved in Texas gun culture.

What You Need To Know: As far as hot-button issues right now, guns and gun control are about as topical as it gets. After all the tragic incidents of the last twelve months, and political pledges to get guns under control, it's likely to dominate headlines for some time to come, which makes the premiere of "Loves Her Gun" well-timed. The second feature from director Geoff Marslett (making a sharp about-turn from his previous effort, the animated "Mars," which screened at the festival in 2010), it promises to dig into the allure and the danger of guns in a way that could well end up catching the zeitgeist. And it features what buzz suggests is an impressive turn from lead Trieste Kelly Dunn, who turned heads a few years back in the excellent "Cold Weather." It's under the radar, for sure, but the teaser trailer (watch here) has enough to make us keep an eye on this one over the next couple of weeks.

When: Sat March 9th at the Violet Crown, further screenings at the Topfer on Monday 11th and Friday 15th, and the Alamo Village on Tuesday 12th.

"Kelly + Victor"
Synopsis: A young couple meet in a Liverpool nightclub, and soon embark on an affair, one that has potentially dark consequences.

What You Need To Know: "Kelly + Victor" picked up a lot of buzz on the festival circuit last year, and gets its U.S. premiere at SXSW, which could see it follow in the footsteps of earlier British-made festival hits like "Weekend" and "Attack The Block." The feature debut of music video veteran Kieran Evans --who's worked on videos for the likes of Saint Etienne, Kylie Minogue and Doves and helmed the music doc "Vashti Bunyan: From Here To Before" -- it toplines rising stars Antonia Campbell-Hughes ("Bright Star") and Julian Morris ("24," "Once Upon A Time") as the central couple. Packed with some fairly graphic sex scenes, and a soundtrack curated by legendary indie label Domino Records, including cuts from Wild Beasts and King Creosote among others, from most of what we've heard, this could be one of the hidden gems of the festival.

When: Saturday March 9th and Thursday March 14th at the Violet Crown, plus Tuesday 12th at the Stateside.

"Scenic Route"
Synopsis: Two estranged best friends are on a road trip together when their truck breaks down, leading them to fight not only each other, but for their survival too.

What You Need To Know: He's had a slightly rough ride so far -- his acclaimed Black Listed script "The Beaver" was virtually buried after star Mel Gibson was disgraced, while his excellent TV series "Awake" and "Lone Star" were both swiftly cancelled -- but we still reckon Kyle Kinnen is one of the more interesting and distinctive writers out there. Which is why "Scenic Route" grabbed our attention. On its own, the idea of a version of Gus Van Sant's "Gerry" starring "Transformers" actor Josh Duhamel and Jack Black substitute Dan Fogler isn't a wildly appealing one, but with Killen (who has something of a homecoming here, as an Austin native) scripting, this could be more interesting than it looks on paper. And the visuals may be distinctive as well, thanks to commercials veterans the Goetz Brothers making their feature debuts here. It's a bit of a flip of a coin, but maybe this could show us Duhamel and Fogler in a whole new light?

When: Friday March 8th and March 15th at the Topfer Theatre, then Saturday 9th at the Alamo Slaughter, and Tuesday 12th at the Alamo Village.

"Kilimanjaro"
Synopsis: An aimless young man decides to climb Mount Kilimanjaro after his girlfriend leaves him.

What You Need To Know: The excellent Brian Geraghty didn't quite get the boost off "The Hurt Locker" that his co-stars Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie did. He's popped up here and there ("Flight," the terrible "ATM,"), but either hasn't been taking, or hasn't been offered, the same big-money roles as his two former colleagues. But things are looking up: Geraghty just joined the cast of "Boardwalk Empire," and the next week sees him headlining a promising-sounding indie at SXSW. While it could be seen as not a world away from its competition, the title and premise at least suggest some ambition beyond another movie about an aimless slacker. And the cast that first-time writer and director Walter Strafford has assembled is a good one, with Geraghty joined by Alexia Rasmussen ("Tanner Hall"), Abigail Spencer ("Mad Men"), Bruce Altman, Jim Gaffigan and Diego Klattenhoff ("Homeland"). Hopefully the film is the showcase that Geraghty's been deserving of for the last few years.

When? Saturday March 9th at the Stateside, then Sunday March 10th at the Alamo Slaughter, and Tuesday 12th at the Alamo Ritz.

"Some Girl(s)"
Synopsis: On the eve of his wedding, a writer travels the country to make amends to past lovers.

What You Need To Know: For all the cinematic crimes that Neil LaBute has been responsible for ("Lakeview Terrace," "The Wicker Man"), he can still be an incisive writer, on stage and screen, when it come to the politics and power balance between men and women, as demonstrated by earlier work like "In The Company Of Men" and "Your Friends And Neighbors." Which is why it's promising that this film version of one of his better plays is on the way, and it tackles the kind of subject matter he made his name on. Directed not by LaBute, but by Daisy von Scherler Mayer (who was behind "Party Girl" and "Madeline," but more recently has been working on TV shows like "Mad Men"), this sees the charismatic, still somewhat underused Adam Brody take over a role played on stage by Eric McCormack and David Schwimmer, with Emily Watson, Jennifer Morrison, Mia Maestro, Zoe Kazan and Kristen Bell making up those he's visiting along the way. Whether von Scherler Mayer is able to make the source material cinematic is the big question (though the country-hopping structure should help), but the play and cast are strong enough that this can't really be a disaster, and could well turn out as one of the better films of the festival.

When: March 9th at the Topfer Theater, followed by Monday 11th and Tues 12th at the Alamo Village, and Friday 15th at the Stateside Theatre.

Honorable Mentions: We're not quite convinced by the festival's big opener, the Steve Carell and Jim Carrey led comedy "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," but hopefully the cast and festival slot indicate that it's better than the average comedy. Also catching our attention: Michelle Monaghan and Radha Mitchell in drama "Gus"; horror "Plus One" from "Last House on the Left" director Dennis Illiadis; lo-fi comedy "The Bounceback"; "Burma" which stars Christopher Abbott from "Girls"; the Civil War-set "The Retrieval"; John Sayles' latest film "Go For Sisters"; "Good Night" starring the omnipresent Alex Karpovsky"; Hurricane Katrina drama "Hours" with Paul Walker and "The Wait" with Jena Malone and Chloe Sevigny.

Among the documentaries that caught our eye were "Hawking" about the genius scientist; "Downloaded," from "Bill and Ted" star Alex Winter about Napster and the music industry; "Milius" about renegade filmmaker John Milius; "The Imposter"-goes-hip-hop premise of "The Great Hip Hop Hoax" and "The Punk Singer" about riot grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna.

Plus there are the films that have already screened elsewhere, including Zal Batmanglij's "The East," Harmony Korine's "Spring Breakers," Northern Irish music biopic "Good Vibrations," UK rom-com "I Give It A Year," Joss Whedon's take on "Much Ado About Nothing," Nick Cassavettes' "Yellow," horror anthology sequel "V/H/S 2" and much buzzed-about slasher flick "You're Next." If you're off to Austin, have a great time, and let us know what you're looking forward to.

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Actors reveal challenges of stage nudity

By Tim Masters Entertainment and arts correspondent, BBC News

Actors have been shedding their clothes on stage for decades. But just what are the challenges of revealing all in front of an audience?

There's been no shortage of nudity in the West End recently with actors going full frontal in plays such as Privates on Parade and The Judas Kiss.

Rupert Everett, who keeps his clothes on as Oscar Wilde in David Hare's The Judas Kiss, feels that the perception of nudity on stage has changed over the years.

"In the old days it used to throw an uneasy frost across an auditorium," he says, "but these days I think people really enjoy it and we got a lot more bums on seats because of the nudity - bums on seats and bums on stage."

Jack Thorne's new play Mydidae - which opens at Trafalgar Studios this week - presents its nudity in the environment of a fully-plumbed bathroom.

The story focuses on a day in the life of a young couple - played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Keir Charles - who spend much of the play sharing a bath.

Bath-time: Keir Charles and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Mydidae

"Jack was commissioned to write a play set in a bathroom so I knew something would be taken off and exposed," says Waller-Bridge during rehearsals. "He is incredibly classy when it comes to nudity, so I felt very safe in it. 

"It feels completely essential to the plot, so even though the vain, self-conscious side of me went 'Oh no, I've got to swing my leg over the side of a bath and climb in with no clothes on', it's totally justified by its necessity to the play."

Having premiered Mydidae - the title is a reference to a type of fly - at the Soho Theatre in December, the two actors know what they are letting themselves in for - even in the more intimate confines of Trafalgar Studios. 

"It's very much bathroom nudity not bedroom nudity. It's functional," says Charles.

"I did a play before where it was decided in rehearsals that we would be naked from the waist down - which was weirdly more exposing and felt more vulnerable."

His co-star adds: "We were expecting a lot more guffaws and giggles and awkwardness, but because it's so domesticated and so real the audience feels quite relaxed by that point."

Charles and Waller-Bridge both say drama school helped prepare them for nude scenes.

"It's always in the final year," says Waller-Bridge. "There's so much reverence around it at drama school. There are always a couple of actors who love doing it and others who will never will."

Charles reveals that his drama school experience involved a sauna and a "strategically-held towel".

So how did the pair break the ice during rehearsals for Mydidae? 

Charles: "The first time we got naked the director and stage manager went out for a cup of tea and me and Phoebe turned all the lights out, shut all the blinds, took off our clothes and ran around screaming like children."

Waller-Bridge adds: "There were office blocks all around with slightly bemused workers looking right into our rehearsal rooms. By the end of rehearsals we were naked quite a lot of the time - it was just business as usual. I didn't even see Keir as naked."

The actors who went naked in The Judas Kiss had a different approach.

"The whole rehearsal period was completely clothed, which was kind of weird," recalls Tom Colley, whose Italian character Galileo Masconi spends 18 of his 20 minutes of stage-time naked.

The cast members did not strip off until the first technical rehearsal, when the lighting, sound and scene changes are put to the test.

Colley said: "It's about having a bit of trust that what you're doing is artistically good and then having faith in the director and the writer, who are really prominent in the whole rehearsal process. Nothing seemed forced, nothing seemed unnatural."

'Liberating nakedness'

 

Kirsty Oswald, who plays a hotel maid, also shares an intimate nude scene in the play with actor Ben Hardy.

"The nerves were definitely more there in the beginning," Oswald says, "but as time goes on you just get used to it.

"It is easier to perform naked in front of 700 people you don't know than friends and family - it's more liberating when you don't know anyone."

Phoebe Waller-Bridge agrees. "You can feel the room come alive when you're doing it. There's a hyper-awareness between you and the audience - and that can be really celebrated."
But the actress has discovered that going nude for a bath scene that relies on hot and cold running water can have its drawbacks.

"There was one night when the taps gave up and I was sitting in this 2in freezing cold puddle," she recalls, with a shiver.

Keir Charles adds: "I stood there thinking I don't want to spend 20 minutes naked in there!"

Mydidae is at Trafalgar Studios until 30 March. The Judas Kiss is at Duke of York's Theatre until 6 April.

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I Don't Blame You for Not Going to the Movies

Studios spend more, audiences spend less, nothing but crap hits theaters

By: Brad Brevet

At the time of publishing this piece, the RottenTomatoes score for Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful, which opens in theaters this Friday, March 8, sits at 72%. I can tell you right now, by Friday that number will drop and will most likely join the green splatters you see to the right.

Speaking of which, what you see to the right are the RottenTomatoes ratings for this past weekend's Box-Office Top Ten (March 1-3) and just below that the MetaCritic.com ratings for the films currently in theaters. If it wasn't obvious, a red tomato signifies a film with largely positive reviews on the RottenTomatoes scale.

When it comes to MetaCritic, the higher the number the better and a color coded number in the green is what you really want. Out of the 22 films on the MetaCritic list, only one reaches that level and, to no surprise, it's the best film of 2013 so far (yes, my opinion), Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects.

Yes, it's the doldrums of the first two months of the year and yes, I'm sure you could go back over the past couple years and I've probably written similar articles, but during today's podcast our Box-Office Draft Challenge got me to thinking.
We're currently wrapping up our Winter 2013 draft, in which my podcast co-host, Laremy Legel, and I each selected ten films opening in the months of January and February. We take the reported budget, multiply it by 2.5 and that is the number our films must hit at the worldwide box-office in order to break even. The person whose films make the most money, wins.

If you're wondering about that 2.5 multiplier, it's clearly not scientific, but it's meant to take into account not only production budget, but marketing costs, prints, studio/theater splits and international distribution rights. As far as we're concerned, it's close enough even though it's obvious not every film is the same and studios don't always bear the brunt of the burden. For example, Warner Bros. spent something like $20 million to purchase rights on Cloud Atlas so that $102 million budget wasn't exactly all theirs to earn back.
Now lets take a look at the current results, which show neither Laremy or I have actually selected ten films that total enough money for us to break even. In fact, we are both more than $300 million in the hole. Only five films out of the 20 selected have managed to make a profit based on our formula.

Here's the current state of our draft as of the publishing of this post:

Laremy's Picks
Movie	Date	Budget	Box-Office	Current Total
Promised Land	Jan 4	$15m	$7.5m	-$29.9m
The Last Stand	Jan 18	$45m	$31.3m	-$81.1m
Movie 43	Jan 25	$6m	$23.1m	$8.1m
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters	Jan 25	$50m	$181.2m	$56.2m
Stand Up Guys	Feb 1	$15m	$3.3m	-$34.1m
Side Effects	Feb 8	$30m	$28m	-$46.9m
Beautiful Creatures	Feb 13	$60m	$32.3m	-$117.6m
Escape from Planet Earth	Feb 14	$40m	$43.1m	-$56.8m
A Good Day To Die Hard	Feb 14	$92m	$221.1m	-$8.8m
Dark Skies	Feb 22	$3.5m	$13.3m	$4.6m
			$584.7m	-$306.5m
Brad's Picks
Movie	Date	Budget	Box-Office	Current Total
Texas Chainsaw 3D	Jan 4	$20m	$34.3m	-$15.6m
Gangster Squad	Jan 11	$60m	$96.1m	-$53.8m
Broken City	Jan 18	$35m	$19.6m	-$67.8m
Mama	Jan 18	$15m	$104.7m	$67.2m
Parker	Jan 25	$35m	$17.4m	-$70m
Warm Bodies	Feb 1	$35m	$85.7m	$1.7m
Bullet to the Head	Feb 1	$55m	$9.4m	-$128m
Identity Thief	Feb 8	$35m	$108.4m	$20.9m
Safe Haven	Feb 14	$28m	$57m	-$12.9m
Snitch	Feb 22	$35m	$24.4m	-$63m
			$557.5m	-$324.9m

In addition to the draft, Laremy also does the weekend box-office predictions for RopeofSilicon every Thursday and as of late the comments and predictions on his posts have been down. Quite simply, no one seems to care about the movies being released and can you blame them when the only film in the top ten at the box-office with a majority of positive reviews first hit theaters almost five months ago and went nationwide over 45 days ago?

The issue, of course, is larger than just looking at the awful months of January and February as a recent article in The Economist points out.

In 2011 American cinemas sold 1.28 billion tickets, the smallest number since 1995. Last year, ticket sales rose back to 1.36 billion and box-office revenues to a record $10.8 billion, thanks to blockbusters like The Avengers. But film-going in America is not a growth business, especially now that people have so many media to distract them at home. The share of Americans who attend a cinema at least once a month declined from 30% in 2000 to 10% in 2011. Analysts expect revenue from American cinemas to be flat for the foreseeable future. Even people in Hollywood admit that America is a "mature" film market. That is no compliment in a town where ageing puts you out of work.

No one is going to the movies!

While the article does point out how much studios depend on a film's performance not only in theaters, but at home, but also adds this caveat: "Hollywood's movie studios are confronting three long-term problems: less lucrative home-entertainment divisions, the rising cost of making films and the terms they get in fast-growing new markets."

We all know DVD and Blu-ray sales are declining, falling 36% in fact since their peak in 2004. "People are still watching the same amount of movies that they did a few years ago," Todd Juenger of Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, told The Economist. "They're just spending $6 billion less a year to do it." Yet, studios seem to be spending more and more and the more they spend the less those record revenues mean.
Oz the Great and Powerful carries a price tag of $325 million (source) as a result of its production and marketing costs and last weekend's box-office bust Jack the Giant Slayer cost a reported $300 million to make and market.

While Oz does carry a name brand and is estimated to be heading toward $80+ million this weekend, audiences are beginning to sniff out these big budget losers and are waiting until they hit DVD/Blu-ray and the streaming market.

To these rising costs, The Economist piece adds:

Meanwhile, costs are rising. Everyone had expected technology to make it cheaper to produce films, but the opposite has happened, says Michael Lynton, the boss of Sony Pictures. A move from analogue to digital film enabled perfectionist directors to shoot more takes and touch them up afterward, using up expensive production and editing time. Studios have also started to make more "tent pole" films: big releases that can support the bottom line like a pole holds up a tent. These typically rely on expensive special effects, rather than compelling scripts, to attract a global audience. They often cost $200m to make and another $50m-100m to market.
When costly movies flop, the losses are scary. Disney took a $160m write-off after the failure of a single one, John Carter, a confusing space adventure. Studios used to be able to sell tickets and DVDs even for duds. Now social networks and fan sites ensure that bad reviews spread quickly, sinking a film's reputation faster than a director can shout "cut".

With social networks the world has become a much smaller place. Opinions spread like wildfire and while studios try and control the conversation, if you look at some of the content on the Facebook and Twitter pages it's almost laughable.

Interestingly enough, studios always seem to feel throwing money at the problem is the best solution, not sorting the quality from the crap.

As I sat in the theater and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters was about to begin, a four-minute preview for this summer's $185 million sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation played, a film of which I expect the marketing costs are astronomical. It was then I realized what Paramount had done with the Hansel and Gretel. They'd turned a $50 million film into a $50 million bonus feature attached to a G.I. Joe commercial. Fortunately for them, Hansel and Gretel is one of this year's only monetary successes so far, but looking at the final product I'd argue it was hardly a gamble worth taking, and looking at the price tag on Joe I can't help but wonder if the money spent there couldn't have been spent much more wisely.

When it comes to evaluating the year a studio had, recent news regarding The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Skyfall crossing the $1 billion mark is all anyone is discussing. When there's talk of The Hunger Games success ($686m worldwide) no one mentions Dredd which brought in $35 million on a $50 million production budget. Warner Bros. made money on The Hobbit, but the $75 million they spent making Rock of Ages resulted in $56 million at the box-office. And Columbia loved the success of Skyfall, which they shared with MGM and Fox handled the DVD/Blu-ray release, but what about the $70 million spent to make That's My Boy and the $57 million it made?

With only 10% of the population seeing one film a month and this month it looks like it's going to be Oz the Great and Powerful, there are a lot of films being made that probably don't have any business in the multiplex and those review ratings at the top and recent box-office results would seem to support such a claim.

What's Behind the Dismal Winter at the Box Office

"Jack the Giant Slayer"

Theater stocks slide and grosses drop 15 percent as "Jack the Giant Slayer" leads a season of discontent and a glut of grim action flops leaves few studios unscathed.

This story first appeared in the March 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter issue.

When Bryan Singer sat down at his computer in mid-January and read Internet comments criticizing a new Warner Bros. poster for his big-budget epic Jack the Giant Slayer, he fumed. He didn't care for the cartoonish image of the film's stars brandishing swords and standing around a swirling beanstalk. So Singer complained on Twitter. "Sorry for these crappy airbrushed images," he wrote Jan. 16, irking Warners' powerful marketing head Sue Kroll. "They do the film no justice. I'm proud of the film and our great test scores." An insider confesses, "Bryan felt like he had to apologize to his fans."

The dust-up points to a long and fraught process culminating with the low $27.2 million North American debut of Jack the Giant Slayer during the March 1-to-3 weekend, the latest in a string of dismal 2013 domestic releases. Revenue and attendance both are down a steep 15 percent from the same period in 2012, wiping away gains made last year. Jack might have cost far more than any of the other misses, but in assessing the carnage, there's a collective sense that Hollywood is misjudging the moviegoing audience and piling too many of the same types of movies on top of one another.

There were 13 R-rated films opening through the first nine weekends of 2013, an unprecedented number even for off-peak months. Many of those films were violence-laced action pics heavy on gunfire and featuring a parade of aging stars. "It's true, a lot of movies have been cannibalizing each other," says Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warners, which distributed Sylvester Stallone's dud Bullet to the Head (Joel Silver and IM Global partnered on the pic). Adds another studio distribution chief: "A lot of these films came out in the midst of the gun-control discussion sparked by the Newtown school shooting. It was terrible timing." Warners' homegrown Gangster Squad also fired blanks, and Fox's Bruce Willis starrer A Good Day to Die Hard will be the lowest-grossing film in the franchise domestically. It has earned nearly $60 million to date and likely won't get to the $83 million earned by the first Die Hard in 1988 (the sequel has earned north of $160 million internationally).

Universal's Identity Thief, which opened in February, is the only 2013 release to have crossed $100 million in North America, with earnings of $107.4 million through March 3. In February 2012, three films grossed more than $100 million: Safe House, The Vow and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Overall domestic revenue this February plummeted 24 percent, sparking alarm on Wall Street. That, coupled with Jack's weak debut -- driving revenue down 38 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when Dr. Seuss' The Lorax opened to $70.2 million -- caused analyst Eric Wold of B. Riley Caris to downgrade theater chains March 4, sending shares of Regal, Cinemark and Carmike Cinemas lower.

The finger-pointing has begun over why Jack failed to connect. Warners' New Line division and Legendary Pictures spent nearly $200 million to produce the revisionist fairy tale thanks to costly special effects. Tack on a hefty marketing spend, and the price tag grew to close to $300 million -- reminiscent of last year's Battleship, which resulted in a sizable loss for Universal after topping out at $303 million globally. Box-office experts say Jack is headed for the same fate unless it takes in $400 million to $500 million worldwide. In its favor: Early response in select Asian markets has been slightly better.

Sources say Singer ultimately was pleased with Warners' marketing campaign, but the director's impetuous tweet won't soon be forgotten by studio executives, who promptly demanded it be deleted (it's still there). What Singer's camp can't quite reconcile is the March 1 release date. Jack was supposed to open in June 2012, when older kids and college-age fanboys would be out of school, but more time was needed for special effects and to make the PG-13 film more kid-friendly. A new March 22, 2013, date was planned because it coincided with spring break. But the filmmakers were startled when it was again moved, this time to March 1, one week before the release of Disney's Oz the Great and Powerful, a film that targets the same audience, and further from the Easter holiday. Oz is tracking for a $75 million-plus opening, though there are no guarantees in the current climate. "They always said they'd find a place when kids were available. Also, everybody [at Warner Bros.] underestimated Oz," says the source.

Fellman says March 1 was the best date because there were no other event films (animated tentpole The Croods opens March 22). "Multiple reasons go into a dating decision, including the international rollout," he says, adding that the market often can sustain multiple event pics.

Privately, studio executives concede that Jack was a feathered fish, neither a straight fanboy tentpole that Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns) is famous for nor a pure family play. "Sometimes you simply have a movie that is rejected," laments one Warners executive, a common refrain these days in Hollywood. "You can spend as much as you want, market it a zillion different ways, and it still doesn't work."

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Aussie Adelaide Clemens captivating as Valentine

Holly Byrnes [March 06, 2013]

THE world has Hugh Grant to thank for the promising acting career of Australian beauty Adelaide Clemens (and no, this is not another secret love child story). 

At 14, then a budding gymnast, Clemens distinctly remembers the moment she decided acting was the job for her, albeit in extraordinarily painful circumstances.

An accident had left the teenager in hospital for weeks with a broken back, leaving her to keep herself entertained by watching movies.

Clemens plays it down now, describing herself as a "silly duffer", but is grateful for the down time because it's what led her to acting.

"It was the escapism," the luminous 22-year-old tells Switched On.

"To be honest, I was having a Hugh Grant marathon, thinking 'this is the best stuff in the world and I want to be a part of it'," she says, giggling. 

Fast forward to a "revolting hotel room in Covington, Louisiana" last year, where she was filming schlock horror film No-One Lived, when Clemens found herself auditioning over Skype for the role of bobbed suffragette Valentine Wannop in Parade's End, the kind of UK period drama that once would have been solid Hugh Grant territory.

She blames a dodgy internet connection for being knocked back after this initial, stilted audition, but like her determined character in the BBC series, to air on Channel 9, Clemens was not about to go down without a fight.

Clemens bought a ticket on the next flight to London and begged the director Susanna White for another chance - just 15 minutes of her time - to press her case again.

Such was her enthusiasm to play the role, she rode the Tube to the second audition in full period costume. She got the job.

"I honestly don't know what possessed me," she says. "This is the first time it happened to me, but I read a role and I really thought I could do it. Perhaps part of her character informed the way that I pursued it, because she's a very determined, admirable character. I just wanted to be her."

The hard yards clearly paid off, with Clemens singled out by British critics for praise.

The eldest daughter of an Australian nurse and an English-born marketing manager, Clemens, born in Japan but schooled in Sydney from 12, says it was her lifelong sense of being an outsider that made her right for the part.

"Even when I moved to Australia, I stuck out like a sore thumb because I was in a back brace for a couple of years. I've just always been a bit of a nerd and an outsider."

Her "nerd" instincts served her well in preparing for Parade's End, papering the walls of her rented flat with maps of rural England in order to give herself a sense of the drama's sweeping landscapes and her character's isolation in a small town, slowly dying post-Industrial revolution.

Filming in Rye, Clemens would also discover it was her father's birthplace, adding to the sense she was born to be Valentine.

Her character's forbidden romance with duty-bound army captain Christopher Tietjens (played by Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch) is central to the mini-series.

Clemens says she loved how "completely fearless" her activist character was to play, in stark contrast to Tietjens' social-climbing wife Sylvia (Rebecca Hall).

"Valentine's social status was of no concern to her, she had much more important goals and priorities."

The chemistry between Clemens and Cumberbatch is the high point of this drama, with the British actor clearly smitten by his young co-star.

The feeling was mutual, with Clemens equally enamored, describing the BAFTA nominee as "amazing, extraordinary. He's such a hard worker and so passionate. Just so enthusiastic, we had a ball just diving into that world and just trying to really make sure that we represented it in the best way possible".

She picks fault instead with the critics who dismissed the drama as plodding.

"I don't think it's slow at all, I think it's dense. It's not something you turn on, then go and get a cup of tea. You need to sit down and devour it. Even now I go back and read the scripts and there's more there. There's so much to explore," she enthuses.

There's more to explore for Clemens, who will next appear in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby (as Isla Fisher's screen sister Catherine), and a second season of the Sundance Channel series Rectify (from the makers of Breaking Bad).

She stars opposite another local actor, Aden Young. He plays Daniel, a man released after 19 years on death row. Daniel returns to his family home to find it has fallen apart since his incarceration.

"I play Daniel's step-sister and she's a young Southern woman who basically sees the good in everybody," Clemens says.

Having started her TV career on hit drama Love My Way, she has made intelligent choices.

"You know if you've got it in you to tell a story or not, but I didn't really set out to go all over the shop the way I have, but I feel very fortunate it's turned out that way."

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Leonardo DiCaprio kisses co-star Margot Robbie, hangs out with bikini-clad babes for 'The Wolf of Wall Street' reshoots

Mondays at the office aren't so bad for the 'Django Unchained' star, who cozied up to a bevy of bathing beauties for a video shoot in Los Angeles.

By Margaret Eby / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Leonardo DiCaprio smooches actress Margot Robbie during re-shoots for the upcoming film “Wolf of Wall Street.”

It takes a whole boatload of blonds to keep up with Leonardo DiCaprio. The "Django Unchained" star, 38, was spotted on a yacht with a crew of bikini-clad ladies on Monday, working on reshooting scenes for his upcoming film "The Wolf of Wall Street."

He even stole a kiss from co-star Margot Robbie, who was clad in a racy gold swimsuit. Rumors swirled last year that DiCaprio and Robbie, 22, have been getting cozy off-screen as well.
DiCaprio seemed relaxed in a breezy blue button-down shirt and white slacks, sporting sunglasses and slicked back hair.

"The Wolf of Wall Street," directed by Martin Scorsese, is a crime drama based on the story of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort, played by DiCaprio.
Belfort was indicted for fraud and money laundering, and led a hard-partying lifestyle before his arrest. The boat that DiCaprio was filming on may have been the movie's version of Belfort's ship Nadine, which was originally constructed for Coco Chanel.

Earlier this year, DiCaprio was spotted smooching Miss Universe Kosovo finalist Aferdita Dreshaj, who partied with the "Titanic" heart-throb in Miami.
DiCaprio told German newspaper Bild in January that he would like to take a break from acting after he completes "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "The Great Gatsby."

"I would like to improve the world a bit," the actor said. "I will fly around the world doing good for the environment."

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Is Vulgar the New Normal?

Jennifer L. Scott [Writer]

Watching the 85th annual Academy Awards last week, I cringed. A lot. I cringed as host Seth MacFarlane opened up with a musical number called, "We Saw Your Boobs." I cringed during the Lincoln assassination joke. I also cringed during many of the zingers that touched on race, domestic violence and the female sex. Those types of jokes belong in a seedy comedy night club, not in a room full of haut couture and diamonds. But my cringing isn't really new. Lately, I find myself inwardly cringing a lot. It's not just Seth MacFarlane. It's, well, everything.

It was that tasteless Super Bowl ad where a supermodel sloppily kisses a geek for an uncomfortably long period of time (I was watching that with my kids, guys!). It's the reality TV shows where both men and women flaunt their possessions and openly talk about money and how much things cost. (I'm recalled of last season's Real Housewives of Beverly Hills where one enthusiastic housewife showed off her new sunglasses and perkily proclaimed that they cost $25,000.)

And let's not forget the violence. A while back, a television ad promoting the reality show, Basketball Wives, came on the air and showcased a bunch of women throwing punches at each other and pulling hair. My two-year old daughter saw the ad, turned to me and asked, "Why are they doing that?" (actually it was more like, "Why dey doing dat????"). I turned the TV off instantly and mumbled something about that behavior being inappropriate, but I was deeply disturbed. Are these the images my little girl will have to see now growing up?

When I was growing up, I don't recall seeing women flagrantly beating each other up as a teaser for a new show. I don't recall people openly talking about how much money they had or how much they paid for something (call me old-fashioned but isn't talking about money vulgar?). I don't recall wincing while watching the Academy Awards and uncomfortably waiting for the next "edgy" (read: crass) joke. Actually, I just remember feeling enchanted as I watched Billy Crystal tap dance across the stage in a tuxedo.

What is happening to our society? Is vulgar the new normal? How do we navigate this strange new world?

There are a few things we can do. We can control what our children are exposed to, up to a point (obviously I'm not going to be watching Basketball Wives with my two-year-old, or at all for that matter). We can discuss what sort of values are important to us as a family. We can lead by example. This is what we can do.
I'm hoping that there will be a tipping point whereby our society becomes bored with the tasteless, the lowbrow, the common vulgarities that have seeped into our popular culture. The catalyst for this tipping point is us. We need to facilitate this positive shift by holding our heads high and walking the walk with the values that are important to us. Let's be the classy change we want to see in this world.

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Wounds (2011)

from William Stewart

The relationship between two sisters is tested...

Cast: Ellie Rose Boswell and Charlotte Mounter
Director: William Stewart
Screenplay: Pavlos Sifakis and Leah MacDonald

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Boobstagram: Mission Save the Ta-Ta’s 

Boobstagram was created to shed awareness on breast cancer in the most awesome way possible, with photos of ta-ta’s from around the world!

The blog was created in order to raise awareness for breast cancer prevention by asking young women who are comfortable with unconventional messages to participate in the attempt to change the behavior of young men and women today. According to their page:

“It is indeed one extra challenge of this disease, that one prepares one’s cancer in 20, 30 or 40 years. However, raising awareness amongst young people about real but distant risks is extremely complex. There are several types of preventions:
Primary prevention that targets unhealthy behaviours
Secondary prevention that promotes early detection of disease, when medicine can be most effective
It is on those two axis that we will attempt to intervene with those illustrated messages that we hope to see circulate widely on social networks.”

And this is the kind of awareness campaign we can totally get behind! Check out the unconventional message gallery and bonus video down below!

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Valerie Harper Has Terminal Brain Cancer

By Michelle Tauber and Johnny Dodd

Valerie Harper is facing a devastating diagnosis: terminal brain cancer.

The television icon – beloved for her role as brash New Yorker Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off, Rhoda – received the news on Jan. 15, she reveals to PEOPLE in this week's exclusive cover interview.

A battery of tests revealed she has leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare condition that occurs when cancer cells spread into the fluid-filled membrane surrounding the brain. Her doctors say she has as little as three months left to live.

Resolved to face her last days with courage and humor, "I don't think of dying," says the actress, 73, who previously battled lung cancer in 2009. "I think of being here now."

For more from Valerie, including her thoughts upon receiving the crushing news, how she is spending her remaining time and her inspirational outlook, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

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Ashley Benson On Spring Breakers Threesome With Vanessa Hudgens and James Franco

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Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence for romantic drama?

Christian Bale will reportedly star opposite Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence in forthcoming romantic drama, The Ends Of The Earth.

Last month, it was confirmed that Lawrence would reunite with Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell for the new movie, which has been written by Chris Terrio, who penned Argo.

Now, the Daily Mail is reporting that Russell wants Christian Bale to play the male lead opposite Lawrence. Other contenders for the role include Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.

The Ends Of The Earth will tell the true story of oil tycoon Ernest Marland, who loses his billion-dollar empire after he is caught in an affair. The lead female character, played by Lawrence, is his 20-year-old adopted daughter, Lydie.

Lawrence and Bale are apparently set to co-star in another of Russell's upcoming projects, too - an untitled political drama about the 1970 FBI sting operation, Abscam.

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Domestic Violence

from Westminster Television School

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GEFALLEN

from Manuel Meinhardt 

Cast - Annelie Echterhoff, Jonas Friedrich Leonhardi

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Cast chronicles 'Remaining' filming on Twitter

Following the announcement that indie horror "The Remaining" would shoot in the Port City, the film's cast took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the production.

The cast and crew of "The Remaining" hit the streets of Wilmington on Feb. 19.

Casey La Scala, who produced the Southport-filmed “A Walk to Remember” in 2002, is directing the project, which centers on a group of friends scrambling to survive after a global disaster.

Produced by filmmakers Marc Bienstock and Brad Luff, the film will follow Tommy and his best bud, Jack, as they and a group of friends struggle to find redemption after they survive what they believe to be the Rapture.

The film stars Alexa Vega (“Spy Kids”), Johnny Pacar (“Purgatory House”), Italia Ricci (of Comedy Central's “Secret Girlfriend”), Bryan Dechart (“Step Up 3D”), and Shaun Sipos (“Texas Chainsaw 3D”).

Here's a look at how the Wilmington-based shoot unfolded here.

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world-class nudity dodger Deborah Ann Woll is in danger of losing that title with introduction of hunky new vampire to come between Jessica and Jason in Season 6 of True Blood.

Ask Ausiello: Michael Ausiello

Question: I’ve been having major True Blood withdrawals! Any news for the upcoming season? —Victoria
Ausiello: Triangle alert! Around the midpoint of Season 6, the show will introduce Wes, a sexy and deep-thinking vampire who’s smart, compassionate and (not sure how I feel about this next part) can play the freakin’ guitar. Picture the love child of Jim Morrison and Gary Clark. Now picture him coming between Jason and Jessica.

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* it's only fair the male talent in Melissa King porn video should be outed as well. Here is his face. Hoping you guys will provide the name to the mug.

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Peter Frampton - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Frampton cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Its amazing.

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Miss Miranda - The Voodoo Priestess live at The Burning Beat

from Anthony Ratcliffe Films

 

Miss Miranda performs as The Voodoo Priestess, casting a love spell on the audience at The Burning Beat at The House of Wolf, London.

Film by Anthony Ratcliffe Films
miss-miranda.com
facebook.com/anthonyratcliffefilms
theburningbeat.com/

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Rupesh Paul's KAMASUTRA 3D: First Teaser Bares Breasts And Intentions

J Hurtado, Contributing Writer

Here we go again.

Last summer's big sexy adventure out of India was the disappointingly tepid Jism 2, starring Indo-Canadian porn star Sunny Leone. However, even she, at the mercy of the notoriously sheepish Indian censor board, was forced to keep her clothes on. Well, director Rupesh Paul is determined that no breast shall remain unbared in his new film, the first of a proposed trilogy (!), Kamasutra 3D.

Paul, the director of such "classics" as Saint Dracula 3D and My Mother's Laptop, has outlined ambitious plans to release a trio of Kamasutra films. While the first is merely in 3D, he insists that the next chapters will be in 4D and 5D, respectively, thus sating the need to increase the D's on skin flick sequels (think Piranha 3D and 3DD). Thankfully for us who might misunderstand his attempt to goose the international film market, Paul has released a director's statement clearly outlining his objectives for this project:

"Kamasutra is a valued text, as significant as the Gita or Ramayana, among the sacred texts of India. It is very pathetic to associate the name with porn every now and then'' ''Quite contrary to popular wisdom, Kamasutra was not written all alone by Vatsyayana, but by a range of authors, across centuries. Therefore, the script of 'Kamasutra 3D' has incorporated the configuration of this sacred text, through centuries and in various historical contexts''

"3D appears the best format to portray classic erotica, but it was hardly experimented till recently. It had remained as a tool to give the biggest jolt in horror movies. Nobody predicted that the Chinese stereoscopic porn would be a major hit. In fact, it out grossed 3D film Avatar. In the film, we are trying to give an extra dimension to the sexual positions described in the ancient treatise on the art of love."

"Yet, there wouldn't be any compromises made in the movie regarding creative nudity or boldness, to appease the moral police'

Well, there you have it.

The film will star Sherlyn Chopra, who is best known as the first Indian woman to pose for Playboy, though she has a few shitty films under her belt as well. Her greatest assets are on full display here, so be careful where you watch this thing, and she graciously remains silent throughout the one minute that this teaser runs. The director and producers have promised some big name "senior artists" will grace their film in order to give it some heft, however, all that they've managed so far is to secure Naseer, who is famous for playing villains with INSANE mustaches.

It is worth noting that even though the film wears its Indian origins and performers as a badge of honor, there is absolutely no chance of Kamasutra 3D getting any kind of commercial release in India in its intended form. Paul is aiming squarely at the international market with this film, and I'm having trouble seeing anything but novelty interest in this film going forward. Of course, that means I have to see it, but it may take me a little bit longer than usual. This ain't exactly Mira Nair.

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Michael Winterbottom’s The Look of Love with Steve Coogan

Led by Steve Coogan, Michael Winterbottom’s The Look of Love is just a month and a half away from its UK release date.
Winterbottom and Coogan are reuniting here on The Look of Love, after working together over a decade ago on 24 Hour Party People, and we’re looking forward to seeing what they’ve done next.
We saw Coogan surrounded by women in the new UK quad poster last week. And now we’ve got a handful of new hi-res images to share from the film. Hopefully we’ll have the first trailer to share soon, too.

“After starting his show business career as a mind-reader in a cabaret act, Paul Raymond went on to become Britain’s richest man and a modern King Midas. With an entrepreneurial eye and a realisation that sex sells, he began building his empire of gentleman’s clubs, porn magazines and nude theatre – provoking outrage and titillation in equal measure.
Raymond’s personal life was as colourful as his revue shows. His marriage to Jean, a nude dancer and choreographer, ended in a difficult divorce when he met Fiona – a glamour model who became the famous pin-up star of his magazines and shows. His daughter Debbie was the true love of his life, his business partner and heir to his empire – until her tragic and untimely death aged 36. Three weeks later Raymond was named Britain’s richest man and his fortune put at 1.5billion.”

Based on the real-life Paul Raymond, a.k.a. the King of Soho, The Look of Love sees Coogan starring alongside Anna Friel, Imogan Poots, and Tamsin Egerton as the women in his lives. And the four are joined by Chris Addison, Stephen Fry, Dara O’Briain, James Lance, Shirley Henderson, David Walliams, Matt Lucas, Simon Bird, Kieran O’Brien, Miles Jupp, Peter Wight, and Matthew Beard.

Winterbottom is directing from a script penned by Matt Greenhalgh (Control, Nowhere Boy).

The Look of Love will be released in UK cinemas on 26th April. Still no word yet on a US release date, but IFC have the rights for its release Stateside, and should be putting into cinemas a little later this year.

* Pity Tamsin Egerton didn't go full-frontal. Have to watch the movie to determine if it was cut out or skillfully cam-masked or cropped.

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SXSW 2013: Nikki Reed, Jake Hoffman explore dubstep's underbelly in 'Snap'

Snap, premiering at the SXSW Film Festival next week, is a pretty grim tale. Young stars Jake Hoffman (yes, son of Dustin) and Nikki Reed (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2) have both been in their share of dark films, but their upcoming feature about a schizophrenic dubstep fan and the girl he becomes obsessed with is by far the darkest.

“This was  the first time I’ve ever done a movie this creepy,” Hoffman says. “I had nightmares during the shoot.”


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Netflix’s ‘Hemlock Grove’ Poster Unleashes the Monster Within

by Kevin Fitzpatrick March 6, 2013

Netflix might not be too direct when it comes to releasing the viewing stats of its highest-profile original series to date ‘House of Cards,’ but all accounts have the endeavor as a rousing success. On April 19, the pay-streaming service will strike again with a very different entry into the original programming market, the Eli Roth-helmed ‘Hemlock Grove,’ but will it arrive to the same acclaim? Check out the latest creepy poster from the mysterious new series, and judge for yourself inside!

While we all patiently await the May premiere of ‘Arrested Development,’ April 19 will see Netflix unveiling its latest original series ‘Hemlock Grove,’ the first foray of horror director Eli Roth into serialized TV, if it can even so be called these days.

Starring Famke Janssen, Lili Taylor, Bill Skarsgard (yep, brother to ‘True Blood‘s’ Alexander), Dougray Scott, Penelope Mitchell and Landon Liboiron, and based on the original novel by Brian McReedy, ‘Hemlock Grove’ follows the murder of a young Pennsylvania girl near the former Godfrey steel mill. Suspected is an escapee from the “White Tower,” a biotech facility owned by the former steel magnates, while others believe the killer to be Peter, the teenage Gypsy boy from the wrong side of the tracks.

Today Netflix releases a creepy new poster from the April 19 release, confirming along with the original trailer that wolves (and the people therein) will play a large part in the horror saga. You can check out ‘Hemlock Grove’ for yourself when Netflix releases all the episodes at once, but in the meantime check out the new poster below and tell us what you think in the comments!

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Talent Managers Lose Legal Effort to Toss California Law

Statute Prohibits Reps From Procuring Employment

A federal judge has dismissed an effort by talent managers to strike down a California law that prohibits them from procuring employment for their clients.

U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson on Tuesday threw out a suit challenging the state’s Talent Agencies Act that was filed by the National Conference of Personal Managers, claiming, among other things, that the state’s ban on unlicensed managers from “procuring” employment was “unconstitutionally vague.”

But Pregerson said that courts have already have sufficiently established what “procuring” means, noting that it is contained in “numerous California statutes” that have not been challenged.

In a 2008 decision, the California Supreme Court ruled that the Talent Agencies Act does apply to personal managers and that they may not recover fees from clients if they procured work for the. The case stemmed from a case involving Rosa Blasi, an actress on the TV show “Strong Medicine.” After her management firm, Marathon Entertainment, sought unpaid commissions, she filed a petition with the state Labor Commissioner who sided with her and voided the management contract.

Pregerson also rejected a claim brought by the personal managers that the state statute creates a situation of “involuntary servitude” because they can be denied a commission.

“Plaintiffs are incorrect,” Pregerson wrote. “Not being compensated for work performed does not inevitably make that work involuntary servitude. Plaintiff’s members have choices.”

He also rejected claims that the Talent Agencies Act violated the Commerce Clause, the Contracts Clause and the First Amendment. Of the latter, he wrote that the state statute “protects conduct, not speech. It does not limit the speech of a personal manager; it limits the personal manager’s ability to enforce contractual obligations when that person engages in the conduct of procuring employment.”

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