This year's Oscar nominee list was released today and Brokeback Mountain leads the way with eight nominations. Local production Capote checks in with five nominations.
The CBC Arts site reports on Canadian director Julia Kwan capturing the Special Jury Prize in the World Dramatic category of the Sundance Film Festival for her feature film debut Eve & the Fire Horse.
FOXNews.com reports that Yoko Ono tried to stop the filming of a controversial new movie about John Lennon fan turned assassin Mark David Chapman outside the Dakota Hotel this week but failed to stop the crew from recreating tragedy on her doorstep. The film "Chapter 27," which stars Jared Leto as Chapman and Lindsay Lohen as another Lennon fan, is based on the final three days of the killer's life. It is set for release in 2007.
This has been floating around the Net for a while but I thought I'd post it anyways. This video clip from Saturday Night Live is a hillarious rap song which tells the story of two guys catching a matinee of Narnia. Definitely worth a look if you haven't seen it already.
The opening night selection at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Friends with Money stars Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Frances Mc Dormand and Joan Cusack and was written and directed by Nicole Holofcener (LOVELY AND AMAZING, WALKING AND TALKING). Check out the trailer (quicktime required):
Broadband connections
Dial-up connections
I have posted a list of this year's Golden Globe winners. I only posted the film category winners as I don't follow television series regularly and don't care to comment on them. As far as the film categories, I was happy to see Walk the Line win a couple of awards. It was an amazing and thoroughly enjoyable film and I hope it is rewarded at the Oscars as well.
After clearing numerous hurdles, the film "Karla" will finally be released in Canadian theatres on January 20th. The controversial film about convicted killers Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo has now received an 18A rating in Ontario. The rating handed down by the province's Film Review Board means that anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult to see it. Early reviews of "Karla" indicate that it is neither a masterpiece nor a disaster.
Originally slated to debut in August 2005 at the Montreal World Film Festival, "Karla" stars U.S. actress Laura Prepon (Donna from "That '70s Show") in the title role and tells the story of Homolka's life with her former husband, Bernardo (Misha Collins). The organizers of the festival pulled the film after complaints from sponsors and the general community. Homolka and Bernardo, raped, tortured and murdered teenagers Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French in the early 1990s. Paul Bernardo is still serving a life sentence for his part in the crimes, while Homolka completed her 12-year sentence this past July.
In looking back at 2005, I thought this might be a fun place to start. According to website moviemistakes.com, some of the biggest block-busters of the year are riddled with blunders. My "favorite" blunder was from Fantastic Four and I was glad to see it on the list.
At this year's CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, the next-generation DVD format war has started to heat up in earnest. Announcements were made by manufacturers such as Toshiba, Samsung, and Pioneer as to when players featuring the new technologies (Blu-ray and HD-DVD) will hit the market. Pioneer will launch its Blu-ray player in June for around $1,800 US. Samsung plans a similar machine in the spring at approximately $1,000 US.
From the HD-DVD camp, Toshiba promised to have two HD-DVD-based models out by March at prices of $500 for their entry-level model and $800 for their advanced player. The more expensive model will have more audio processors. It might appear that Toshiba’s HD-DVD machines have an advantage in both price and timing, but not as many film studios are backing the HD-DVD format.
Universal Pictures has come out in support of HD-DVD. Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video are currently planning to support both of the new formats. Meanwhile, the list of Blu-ray supporters is quite impressive. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, and Lions Gate have all come out in favor of Blu-Ray.
This is shaping up to be a rehash of the Beta vs VHS war. Unfortunately, it is usually the consumer that ends up paying the price if they choose the losing side.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has launched an online catalog of 30,000 film scripts located in Southern California libraries. The free service at scriptlist.oscars.org. will be helpful to people interested in reading or researching the scripts dating back to 1910 and the database will be updated monthly. The scripts are at the Margaret Herrick Library, American Film Institute`s Louis B. Mayer Library, the Frances Howard Goldwyn Hollywood Regional Library, the USC Cinema-Television Library, UCLA and the Writers Guild of America West.