Just watched the trailer for Merchant of Venice and thought I would share it with you. Al Pacino is one of my favorite actors and it will be interesting to watch him tackle Shakespeare. I think the character he has chosen, Shylock, is one that is well suited to his "style". If you are unfamiliar with the story the poet W.H. Auden sums up Shylock's character succinctly in the quote "Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return."
Check out the trailer for the Tom Cruise/Steven Spielberg project. It's just a teaser trailer so it's hard to gauge whether this is going to be a movie worth checking out or not. You can watch the trailer at Apple's trailer site (Quicktime player required).
A federal heritage committee will hit the road in 2005, holding public hearings into the state of the Canadian film industry. Chaired by Marlene Catterall, a longtime Liberal MP representing Ottawa West-Nepean, the committee will hold public hearings with producers, filmmakers and others film industry insiders in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax.
The goal is to take an in-depth look at the different ways the federal government currently supports the film industry. As well, the group will study the influence and the effectiveness of this support, which ranges from tax credit programs to the Canadian Television Fund to arm's length agencies like Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board. The group intends to assess film policies, and decide which ones have helped develop talented Canadian filmmakers, create quality films or helped build a larger audience for Canadian film at home and around the world.
Source: CBC Arts News.
Three documentaries are joined by comedy, drama and animation films on Canada's Top Ten, the Toronto International Film Festival Group's list of the top 10 Canadian films of 2004. Read the full story on the CBC Arts Newssite.
The Hollywood Reporter's annual list of top female earners was published recently and heading the list are Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz, each earning $20 million per film (Diaz didn't appear in any films this year). The next tier includes Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Drew Barrymore who go for $15 million per film. Halle Berry makes $14 million while Sandra Bullock and Angelina Jolie earn between $12 to $15 million each. Renee Zellweger and Jennifer Lopez are next at $12 million. The special "Women in Entertainment" issue also includes what it considers five breakout performers: Kirsten Dunst is No. 1 at $8 million, followed by Lindsay Lohan ($7.5 million), Jessica Alba ($3 million), Mandy Moore ($3 million) and Sarah Michelle Gellar ($2 million).
DreamWorks has reportedly landed a seven-figure deal for the rights to the beach lifeguard drama set in California. The company is planning to release the film in 2006, according to Variety magazine, but it is still unclear whether any of the show's original stars will take part. The TV series jump started the careers of several actresses including Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra as well as reviving the career of former Knight Rider star David Hasselhoff. Baywatch was an international hit, syndicated in 142 countries, and translated into 44 languages.
It appears that Twentieth Century Fox - Marvel Comics alliance may have lost yet another director to a DC Comics/Warner Brothers project. Just months after director Bryan Singer bolted the X-Men franchise to take over the struggling Superman project, it looks like Joss Whedon, thought to be taking over the X-Men director's chair, may be joining Singer's side. Joss Whedon, best known for creating "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," is said to be tapped to direct the proposed "Wonder Woman" movie for Warner Brothers.
Whedon has been deflecting speculation that he would replace Singer for "X-Men 3" despite his writing contributions to a recent X-Men comic book series. If Whedon were to be attached to a DC Comics product, it's unlikely that Fox will bring him in to the X-Men franchise. Other rumours are saying that Whedon would cast either of two former "Buffy" stars -- Sarah Michelle Gellar or Charisma Carpenter, with Gellar being first choice.
I missed this story from a couple weeks ago but thought I would post it now. The National Post carried this story:
Three deaf people, including a former Ontario MPP, have filed a human rights complaint against some of the country's largest movie companies in a bid to have subtitles displayed at every theatre in Canada. The discrimination case, which lands in front of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal this morning, could cost the motion-picture industry millions of dollars in technological upgrades. At the heart of the dispute is why only a small percentage of theatres are equipped with "Rear Window Captioning" (RWC), a system that projects subtitles on to small reflective devices placed in patrons' cup holders. For more than 310,000 deaf people in Canada, it is the only way to enjoy Hollywood's latest releases.
"Suppose the movie theatres started playing movies -- all movies -- with no sound and no captioning," said Scott Simser, one of the complainants. "How would you all feel?"
Named in the complaint are Canada's premier film studios, distributors and theatres, including Universal Studios, Alliance Atlantis, Famous Players and Cineplex Odeon. All are accused of failing to ensure that every theatre is 100% accessible to deaf movie buffs.
"This is a huge case," said complainant Greg Malkowski, a former New Democrat MPP most remembered for being the first politician to use sign language in a Canadian legislature. "Our goal is to make sure that all of the movie industry is made accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals."
The challenge for the tribunal will be to decide whether some of the companies -- if any -- are more to blame than others for the alleged discrimination. The distributors, for example, are accused of failing to release all their films in a format compatible with the RWC devices. The theatres, on the other hand, are being targeted for failing to equip all their screens with the technology.
"[The theatres] point the finger at the distributors and the distributors point the finger back at them, so there is this whole blame and lack of taking accountability," Mr. alkowski said yesterday.
That finger-pointing is expected to continue once the hearing begins. Hugh Christie, a lawyer for Universal Studios, said 90% of the movies his client releases conform to the RWC format. And all of them, he said, are available with conventional subtitles at the bottom of the screen, should the theatres decide to display them.
"Universal's position is they consider themselves a market leader in accommodating the hearing impaired community," Mr. Christie said. "They welcome the opportunity to have this hearing and get on the public record what they do, because they are quite proud of it."
The problem, he suggested, is that most theatres in Canada do not have Rear Window Captioning. So even if distributors release movies according to the necessary format, theatres have no way to display them. A spokeswoman for Cineplex Odeon did not return telephone calls yesterday, but Nuria Bronfman, the vice-president of corporate affairs at Famous Players, confirmed that only 30 of the company's 890 screens in Canada are equipped with RWC.
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Rumours abound that Tom Hanks will star in a movie version of the best-selling novel "The DaVinci Code", which details explosive theories on the origins of Christianity. Tom Hanks will play symbologist Robert Langdon in the film of Dan Brown's book that will apparently be directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard. Sony Pictures is targeting a May 2006 release date. The screenplay will be adapted by Akiva Goldsman, who won an Oscar for his work on "A Beautiful Mind".