According to Broadcast News, the film about schoolgirl killer Karla Homolka will likely be kept out of Canadian theatres until the fall. Producer Michael Sellers says he's been watching the media frenzy that Homolka's anticipated July 4th release from prison has set off in Canada. Sellers says he doesn't want to be a part of the media circus surrounding the schoolgirl killer.
The film Deadly tells the story of Homolka and her ill-fated union with Paul Bernardo -- a relationship that led to the grisly murders of Ontario teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy
Time Magazine has posted a list of what they consider to be the Top 100 movies of all time. It is interesting to note the absence of classics like Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz have been left off the list. Time does not offer a ranking (that would be inane and argumentative at best) and overall the list is quite comprehensive and includes many foreign films such as 2002's City of God, which gave a glimpse into life in the Rio de Janeiro slum known as Cidade de Deus.
The Sun chain of newspapers ran an article revealing that David Cronenberg's "A History Of Violence" was never in the running for the Palme d'Or as best film at the Cannes Film Festival. Jury president Emir Kusturica jibed that another jury, one filled "with genre freaks," might have given A History Of Violence the Palme d'Or because "it is a very good film."
Check out this cute piece of propaganda from the Organic Food Organization -- Store Wars.
"The Child", directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, won the Palme d'Or as best film at the 58th Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night. The film, which follows a young thief as he struggles with fatherhood, was inspired by Dostoyevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" and influenced by the French classic "Pickpocket," by Robert Bresson. The Dardenne brothers have previously taken home the festival's top prize; "Rosetta," their harsh look at unemployment in Belgium, won the Palme d'Or in 1999.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A company that gave office space to "Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock in return for a share in the company that made the hit film about eating fast food is suing him for $40 million. Attorney Bill Kelly said on Wednesday his client Cast Iron Partners, which helps start-up companies with office space and business advice, took a 25 percent share in Spurlock's company in early 2002 and was suing for his failure to share profits.
"We bet on this long shot and it hit and they're basically trying to keep all the money," Kelly told Reuters. Spurlock said this week the Oscar-nominated film, in which he eats only McDonald's fast food for a month, had grossed around $30 million after playing in some 65 countries. But he said he had seen little of the money since so much went to pay for distribution and other costs.
"I personally haven't even made close to that. I haven't even made a million dollars," he told Reuters in an interview on Monday while promoting a new book.
The suit, filed at the New York Supreme Court, accuses Spurlock of "engaging in self-interested and wasteful activities" and diverting assets into a new company. Spurlock could not immediately be contacted for comment but his lawyer, speaking by telephone from the Film Festival in Cannes, France, called the suit baseless. "I haven't had the opportunity to read it but as reported to me the claim is baseless and without merit," Spurlock's attorney John Sloss said. The suit was filed on May 16. Kelly said his clients had repeatedly tried to discuss with Spurlock when they would be paid a dividend from the profits of the film, which was nominated for an Oscar this year after it won the Director's Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.
Sony officially announced that Topher Grace would join the Spider-Man 3 cast but no detail was given on what role he would take. There are few details available about the film, expected to be released in May 2007, though IGN specualtes that Venom may be the lead villain in the third installment.
According to TVShowsOnDVD.com. Warner Home Video is announcing the August 9th release of Thundercats - Season 1, Volume 1, carrying 33 episodes: an even half of the first season of the adventurous animated show. Extras on the set include "Feel the Magic, Hear the Roar: ThunderCats Fans Speak Out", an interview featurette in which Wil Wheaton (of Star Trek: The Next Generation) and other loyal fans give their memories and support to this animation classic.
This will be the first of two releases to complete the 65-episode season premiere, and you can expect Season 1, Volume 2 to be available later this Fall, to complete the first full season! I've uploaded an image of the cover art.
News from the soccer world that Spanish premier league club Real Madrid FC will release a self-promoting film called "Real, The Movie" which will be presented in several countries during their international tour this summer.
"Real, the movie has been shot in New York, Tokyo, Caracas, Senegal, and Madrid. Five stories situated in distant locations of the world. Five lives, five different cultures bonded by a single passion: Real Madrid." an official press release from the club said on Tuesday. "The film offers the viewer a unique behind-the-scenes opportunity to see the players and the team, the work and effort that goes into every game, the highs and lows, and their trips around the world. It will also show some live footage from games and from training sessions during the week."
Real Madrid will finish second in the Primera Liga, behind this season's champions FC Barcelona. You can watch a trailer for the film on the Real Madrid FC official site
The first trailer for the upcoming DaVinci Code movie is now available from the Apple movie trailers website.
In a move that is long overdue, Loews Cineplex Entertainment has announced that it will start publishing the actual starting times of movies so people can skip the ads if they want. Loews Cineplex also owns the Cineplex Odeon chain here in Canada so hopefully the idea will spread here. This issue has long been a pet peeve of mine. The audience pays for the privilege of watching a film without all the commercials one would expect from TV.
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Marvel Comics has reached a deal with Paramount Studio to produce films using a package of 10 characters from the Marvel archive. Paramount will market and distribute them for as-yet-undisclosed fees. Under this arrangement, Marvel will keep the vast share of the box-office and ancillary revenues while retaining the merchandising rights.
The first characters launched under the new agreement are Captain America and Nick Fury. Marvel's budgets for each film may range from $45 million to $180 million.
Although the identities of the other eight superheros will remain secret for the time being, the news that a Captain America film is moving forward will undoubtedly excite fans of the heroic shield-wielder, Marvel's greatest success during the so-called "Golden Age" of comics. The personification of patriotism, Cap's debut preceded the US's entry into World War II and quickly took off thanks to a surge of national pride that followed the Pearl Harbor attacks. The cover of "Captain America" #1 featured Cap punching Adolf Hitler square in the face. Captain America is the alter-ego of Steve Rogers, whose injection with a mysterious liquid turned him from an ailing patriot rejected by the army because of his poor medical condition into a super-soldier, a dynamo of muscle, agility and athleticism.
Captain America has had his share of ups and downs over the years. Many artists and writers have attempted to renew his popularity with fresh stories while keeping the character frozen in unflinching patriotic mindset. In the days following the 9/11 attacks, Captain America enjoyed a newfound relevance as he battled terrorism and mourned at Ground Zero.
Nick Fury, although lesser-known character, is similar to Captain America in many ways. He is also a soldier who battled the Nazis, receiving a wound that forced him to wear an eye patch for the rest of his life. Fury also shares one unfortunate similarity with Captain America: both characters have been previously exploited for low-budget, poorly received '90s films. In 1998, the film Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD saw David Hasselhoff portray the cigar-chomping super soldier. A 1991 Captain America movie cast Matt Salinger as the star-spangled superhero, but failed to do anything but dull the sheen on Cap's shield. Let's hope these new films are good enough to make us forget their predecessors.
International co-productions are the new reality of making feature films in Canada, says a Winnipeg film and TV producer in Cannes. Liz Jarvis, a producer for Winnipeg's Buffalo Gal Pictures is in Cannes for the first time and has joined the throngs of filmmakers, film buyers, actors and paparazzi at the 58th annual Cannes International Film Festival, which began on Wednesday. Jarvis's goal is to win international support for several local projects, so she is taking part in the festival's Canada Pavilion to network and try to partner with producers from other countries.
"[With] our reliance on traditional public financing, every year [it] becomes more oversubscribed," Jarvis told CBC News. "I don't feel it's particularly stable anymore." Read the rest of the article on the CBC Arts website.
The 2003 SARS crisis in Toronto is the basis of a new made-for-television movie called Plague City, which will air on CTV on May 29. Billed by the network as a medical thriller, it stars Kari Matchett as a nurse struggling to cope with the outbreak of the mystery illness that eventually became known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS.
The movie is part of CTV's Signature Series of films, which is devoted to telling important Canadian stories. The story begins in a town in China, where a butcher receives a small scratch on his hand from an infected cat. The wound triggers a chain of events that results in a panicked Toronto, the city's residents terrified and the city itself virtually closing its gates to outsiders. You can read more about the movie on the CTV website.
A new prize to be awarded at the Cannes Film Festival will celebrate one of Canada's film pioneers. The winner of the Palme d'Or – the festival's top prize – in the short film category will also receive the Norman McLaren Prize, officials announced in Paris and Toronto on Thursday. The new prize, which carries a purse of 3,000 euros (or about $4,800 Cdn), is a tribute to McLaren, the National Film Board filmmaker and Canadian animation pioneer whose film Blinkity Blank won the Palme d'Or for best short film at Cannes in 1955. The prize also includes an offer from the film board to distribute the winning short internationally. You can read more about it and watch a short interview with NFB chairman Jacques Benison on the CBC Arts website.
The Washington Post (free subscription required) has posted a great article detailing the work of film "sanitizers". They are one of a new kind of independent and self-proclaimed family-friendly editors who delete scenes containing sexuality, violence or crude language -- and sometimes more -- from the DVD releases of Hollywood movies. The edited DVDs are resold or rented to parents and others who want a "clean" version of the movie.
The article raises several sides to the problem of re-editing and re-selling movies. I can see how many people are tired of not being able to find many films that do not have some sort of violence or sex in them. However, to then mark up a DVD by $6 or 7 dollars and turn a profit on someone else's work would appear to go against the "fair use" argument that might otherwise be made.
According to an article on CNet.com, Microsoft and Warner Brothers will collaborate on on the retail release of HD movies and TV programs on HD-DVD discs using Windows Media Video 9, Microsoft's version of the VC-1 standard.
VC-1 already has been selected as a mandatory codec (a method of coding and compressing data) in both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc, the two competing formats for next-generation high-definition DVDs.