Monday, August 31, 2009

'The Final Destination' Kills In 3-D At Box Office

The Box-Office Top Five

#1 "The Final Destination" ($28.3 million)
#2 "Inglourious Basterds" ($20 million)
#3 "Halloween II" ($17.4 million)
#4 "District 9" ($10.7 million)
#5 "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" ($8 million)

There was plenty of blood and guts at the multiplex this weekend. Business was up 28 percent over last year, helped along by moviegoers who clearly couldn't get enough of murderous mayhem, whether it was in 2-D or 3-D. But it was "The Final Destination" that took #1 with a surprising $28.3 million, $18 million of which was brought in from 3-D screenings alone. It's the biggest debut for any installment of the "Final Destination" franchise, which has been going steady for nine years running and has clearly received a new lease thanks to the innovations of its 3-D death traps.

"Final Destination" wasn't the only horror flick on offer, as Rob Zombie slashed his way into theaters with Michael Myers and "Halloween II." The film was the favorite going into the weekend, but it only managed to slice up $17.4 million, earning the #3 spot at the box office. But Dimension's president, Bob Weinstein, said they were "very happy" with the film's success, adding that the film had cleared its $15 million budget, inspiring the studio to go forward with 3-D "Halloween" installments.

Though the body count of Quentin Tarantino is low in comparison to "The Final Destination" and Rob Zombie, the director's latest stayed strong in the sea of box-office blood. "Basterds" brought in a solid $20 million in its sophomore session, and the Tarantino thriller has brought in a total of $73.8 million so far.

Audiences sought out the repeat thrills of "District 9" and "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" over messages of peace, love and understanding, as Focus Features' "Taking Woodstock" had a disappointing debut at #9. The Ang Lee ensemble earned mixed reviews and only $3.7 million at the box office. Robert Rodriguez's family comedy "Shorts" also failed to have late-summer legs. It fell from #6 down to #8 with $4.9 million, and a cumulative of $13.6 million.

Upcoming Releases

Three films go wide for Labor Day weekend: Lionsgate's sci-fi/ action thriller "Gamer," Fox's romantic comedy "All About Steve" and Miramax's comedy "Extract."

Check out everything we've got on "The Final Destination" and "Halloween II."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



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'Eclipse' Director David Slade Posts Taylor Lautner Set Pics

Here at MTV News, we wouldn't want to imagine a world without "Twilight" or Twitter. It would be an unforgiving world, devoid of our favorite vampire/human love story and the easiest way for those involved in the saga's movie franchise to communicate with fans. The dual forces of "Twilight" and Twitter combined over the weekend to deliver some excellent updates about "Eclipse," the third film in the series, which is currently in production in Vancouver.

On Saturday, director David Slade posted a close-up head shot of Taylor Lautner, who plays werewolf Jacob Black. "Mr. Taylor Lautner," Slade explained. "A photo I took during early camera lighting tests. Not a whisker in sight."

Eclipse Director David Slade Posts Taylor Lautner Set Pics

 

Eclipse Director David Slade Posts Taylor Lautner Set Pics

 

Eclipse Director David Slade Posts Taylor Lautner Set Pics

 

Eclipse Director David Slade Posts Taylor Lautner Set Pics

 

Eclipse Director David Slade Posts Taylor Lautner Set Pics

 

Eclipse Director David Slade Posts Taylor Lautner Set Pics

 On The Set Of "Eclipse" 

Eclipse Director David Slade Posts Taylor Lautner Set Pics

 

Saturday was also a day for rehearsals with Kristen Stewart (Bella), Rob Pattinson (Edward) and Billy Burke (Bella's father). How do we know? Slade tweeted about it: "Third week of shooting just hours away. Preparation, preparation, preparation."

The next day, Slade posted another picture of Lautner, though this one didn't even show his face. What it did show was the actor in midair in a forest, flipping upside down with one leg sticking into the air. Pretty cool stuff.

"Yes, that is him mid back flip," Slade wrote. "He does it from standing still."

The director wasn't the only Twilighter using social networking over the last few days to share info. Burke tweeted that he arrived in Vancouver on Friday night and had to rest up for an early start on Saturday.

"Someone gets a cap and gown," he wrote, hinting about a scene he'd be shooting. (Sure enough, photos of a graduation ceremony shoot popped up over the weekend.)

And while many of the film's stars are active on Twitter, Nikki Reed (Rosalie Hale) commandeered co-star Peter Facinelli's account to make one thing clear.

"Hi, Nikki Reed here," she wrote. "Sitting with Fach. Just searched and found dozens of posers. I don't have Twitter. Please don't follow them!!! Scary!"

Check out everything we've got on "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and "Eclipse."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



Ricky Martin posts kids pic on Twitter‘Eclipse’ Actress Jodelle Ferland Is On Team Edward

Sunday, August 30, 2009

'Twilight' Convention-Goers Hit The Vampire Ball

PARSIPPANY, New Jersey — It may not have been the Forks High School prom, but a host of "Twilight" conventioneers were dressed to kill for the Vampire Ball on Saturday at the official "Twilight" convention.

Attendees were encouraged to dress like their favorite saga star, though many opted to hit the dance floor dressed simply as their most stylish selves. There were a few crafty souls, however, who fashioned spot-on costumes, many preparing weeks in advance for the big night.

"I made this dress myself," said Kesha Linehan, 31, of Milford, Pennsylvania, who came dressed as Alice in a lace-covered shift. "It took me three weeks to do."

Alyssa Marsico, 20, of Putnam Valley, New York, came in what turned out to be — fittingly enough — the evening's most popular costume: Bella at prom. Decked in a shiny blue dress, crutches, an ankle brace and a lone Converse sneaker, Marsico said she was hoping to win the evening's costume contest.

Three girls who had already won "Twilight" trivia contests earlier in the week received their big (and handsome) prizes too. In addition to glitzy makeovers, the trio were treated to a dance with a wolf pack member (Alex Meraz, Chaske Spencer or Kiowa Gordon).

Jessica Milne, 15, of New Milford, New Jersey, won the dance with Meraz, whose moves were theatrical to say the least. "Alex was really sweet about everything," Milne gushed afterward. "He told me when he was going to dip me and spin me because I was afraid of falling. Everyone went wild and took a lot of photos."

After the dance, the wolf pack members, along with Gil Birmingham, who plays Jacob's father, Billy Black, circulated throughout the room hugging giddy fans.

The ladies weren't the only ones getting in on the action, though. A few male Twilighters attended, most with their girlfriends and dressed as their favorite "Twilight" couple. Cassie Attanasio and Kince Ward, both of Central Islip, New York, came dressed as Renesmee (the daughter of Edward and Bella) and Jacob, with Kince sporting a wolf-head hat and matching tail safety-pinned to his pants.

In addition to costume making, attendees were able to flex their creative muscles by crafting "Twilight"-themed centerpieces in the hopes of winning a $250 gift certificate. Designs varied from the "Breaking Dawn" honeymoon scene, with Bella and Edward action figures tucked into a gauzy white canopy bed, to the pivotal "Twilight" meadow scene, depicted with lion and lamb stuffed animals referencing a famous line from the book.

Check out everything we've got on "Twilight: New Moon."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock &#8212 visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



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'New Moon' Actor Went Too Far With Kristen Stewart

PARSIPPANY, New Jersey — The second day of the official "Twilight" convention started with a howl from "New Moon" actor Kiowa Gordon, who, along with fellow Wolf Pack members Alex Meraz and Chaske Spencer, sat down for an hour-long Q&A session at the event.

Meraz initially took the stage wearing black sunglasses to conceal an injury received during mixed-martial-arts training for an "Eclipse" fight scene he'll have with Kellan Lutz. "In theory it's a good idea, but I got my eyes beat up," he said. "So they're kind of red. I'm being insecure."

New Moon Actor Went Too Far With Kristen Stewart

 

New Moon Actor Went Too Far With Kristen Stewart

 

New Moon Actor Went Too Far With Kristen Stewart

 

New Moon Actor Went Too Far With Kristen Stewart

 

New Moon Actor Went Too Far With Kristen Stewart

 

New Moon Actor Went Too Far With Kristen Stewart

 Brand-New "New Moon" Photos 

New Moon Actor Went Too Far With Kristen Stewart

 

While Meraz has been throwing punches in preparation to play shapeshifter Paul, Spencer took a more laid-back approach for his Quileute pack-leader role. "I just watched a lot of movies to get the character, Sam, and watched a lot of generals," he said.

One thing the trio tries not to do when preparing to film is read the blogs.

"For the first two weeks, when it came out I was in the Wolf Pack, I did it," Meraz said. "I was in my trailer [saying], 'People like me! People like me!' " But the gleam quickly wore off and negative comments began to bug the actor. "By Googling myself, I'm not going to find anything I like," he said, adding, "I'm arguing with an 8-year-old!"

Onstage the affable trio shared an obvious rapport, crediting some of their bond to cuddling on-set to keep warm during rain-drenched shirtless scenes. They shared several funny anecdotes from filming "New Moon," including Meraz's embarrassing moment with Kristen Stewart.

"I decided, all right, the Wolf Pack stay up all night looking for who's killing people on the res, so we don't sleep very much. So I thought it would be a great idea if I stayed up for 10 days straight." What should have been a simple scene — a confrontation between Bella (Stewart) and the Wolf Pack — became, in Meraz's mind, his "Brando moment." Wanting to try something different, the actor played the scene overly aggressive: screaming, grabbing Stewart by the throat, hurtling his line at her.

"[Director] Chris Weitz comes off-set like, 'Yeah, I like the energy Alex, but just take it down a little,' " Spencer chimed in: "Meanwhile the producers are freaking out back there."

" 'Cause nobody touches Kristen Stewart," joked Meraz.

Things get even more heated for Meraz when he phases into a wolf. For "New Moon," Weitz told the actors to envision the phasing sequences as a "pop like popcorn," which meant the actors only had to do a little shake before CGI took over from there. For the novel's wolf mind-reading sequences, the trio said it would be portrayed on film through quick glances. "With real wolves, that's actually how it's done," Meraz said. "The alpha male does things just with its eyes."

Spencer and Meraz also reminisced about the cliff-diving scene, a stunt they performed themselves, though for Spencer, his favorite scene was kissing onscreen love Emily (played by Tinsel Korey). "It was a lot of takes," Spencer said. "It's a hard job."

Check out everything we've got on "Twilight: New Moon."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock &#8212 visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



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Saturday, August 29, 2009

'Gentlemen Broncos' Trailer Saves Some 'Good Nuggets,' Jared Hess Says

LOS ANGELES — Between "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Nacho Libre," writer/director Jared Hess has carved out a unique Hollywood niche fueled by quirky characters, sincere plotlines and obscenity-free outrageousness. Now, the 30-year-old filmmaker is leaving his tater tots and stretchy pants behind but still making waves with "Gentlemen Broncos," an October comedy whose trailer already has the look of an instant classic.

The flick stars Michael Angarano as a student whose work gets ripped off by a hilariously over-the-top sci-fi writer played by Jemaine Clement, giving birth to a bizarre substory starring the incomparable Sam Rockwell. To help us finish out this week's Fall Movie Preview festivities, we caught up with Hess to discuss the inspiration of Super Dave Osbourne, how adding "anous" to the end of anything makes it magical, and why anyone who wears a Bluetooth automatically looks like an a-hole.

MTV: Jared, the trailer is hilarious. Tell us about your thoughts as you assembled it and how you knew which jokes to put in and which to hold back.

Jared Hess: I didn't want to keep anything sacred, you know? I'm always about whatever you can do to make a good trailer. But surprisingly, for me at least, some of the funniest moments aren't even in the trailer at all! It was cool when we started editing different versions of the trailer and found one that was still very funny but didn't give away all the good nuggets.

MTV: We've been watching these solid Michael Angarano performances for years. Is this finally the movie that's going to make him a household name?

Hess: Yeah, he's been under the radar for a while, but he's such an incredible actor. He's super talented and does a great job in the film. I'm a big fan of "Snow Angels." I really love him in that film. But what I most remembered seeing him in was this movie back in the day, the "Super Dave" movie. He was little Super Dave, and although it has nothing to do with "Gentleman Broncos," it was a pretty rad movie.

Gentlemen Broncos Trailer Saves Some Good Nuggets, Jared Hess Says

 

Gentlemen Broncos Trailer Saves Some Good Nuggets, Jared Hess Says

 

Gentlemen Broncos Trailer Saves Some Good Nuggets, Jared Hess Says

 

Gentlemen Broncos Trailer Saves Some Good Nuggets, Jared Hess Says

 

Gentlemen Broncos Trailer Saves Some Good Nuggets, Jared Hess Says

 

Gentlemen Broncos Trailer Saves Some Good Nuggets, Jared Hess Says

 Exclusive Photos From Fall's Biggest Flicks 

Gentlemen Broncos Trailer Saves Some Good Nuggets, Jared Hess Says

 

MTV: They say that all experiences are cumulative — so at some point, maybe you directed Michael in a tough scene where he thought, "I need to find that emotion I used with Dave!"

Hess: Yeah, exactly. [ Laughs. ] "Dude, this is just like what I did on 'Super Dave'!" Totally.

MTV: How did you become aware of Jemaine Clement? Are you a Flight of the Conchords fan?

Hess: I'm a big, big Flight of the Conchords fan. Jemaine just got talking about the part, and he's amazing. I told him to watch "Logan's Run," to see if he could do a good Michael York voice from that that film — and he nailed it.

MTV: I find it hilarious that as soon as you see Jemaine's character wearing a Bluetooth, it's shorthand that he's an a-hole.

Hess: Yeah, and he never uses it at all in the film. [ Laughs. ] He's rockin' that thing the whole time and actually has a couple different phone conversations, but the Bluetooth is never used. It is for him, at least, a kind of a status symbol. His character is a combination of everything that's lame about egotistical people that are creative. He did such a funny take on a lame science-fiction author.

MTV: We see Sam Rockwell as the fictional character, surrounded by a lot of bizarre sci-fi stuff. Tell us about some of what we see there.

Hess: Well, there's the surveillance doe — that's a cyborg deer. There's another clip in the trailer where it shows Bronco — the kid's hero in his story — flying a battle stag, which is a deer that shoots missiles and can fly and crap.

MTV: What's your favorite scene?

Hess: Gosh, that's a toughie. The trailer shows a clip of it a little bit, the scene where Jemaine is doing the writer's workshop and talking about character names.

MTV: And he says that adding "anous" to any name makes it magical. Where does that line come from?

Hess: I've got a friend that I went to film school with, and he's made a hundred movies — they're all pretty epic in scope, and he shoots a lot on super low budget. ... He comes up with pretty wild names for the characters in his fantasies. ... He told me if you have a name like [the biblical king] Nebakanezer, you can totally make it sound awesome, fantasy-style, by changing it to Nebakaranous or something sweet like that.

MTV: OK, so if you wanted to be awesome, you'd change your name to Jared Hessanous?

Hess: Yeah, or maybe Hessoneous. Hessmodeous, maybe, would be kind of cool.

MTV: Nobody would mess with you then.

Hess: [ Laughs. ] Totally.

From the sexy Megan Fox in "Jennifer's Body" to the black-clad warriors of "Ninja Assassin," the MTV Movies team is delving into the hottest flicks of Fall 2009. Check back daily for exclusive clips, photos and interviews with the films' biggest stars.

Check out everything we've got on "Gentlemen Broncos."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



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'Twilight' Director Catherine Hardwicke Tells Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

Many "Twilight" fans may think the first film in Stephenie Meyer's four-part saga is darn near perfect, but there are a few things director Catherine Hardwicke would go back and change if she could. "I would have a giant, plastic dome built over the state of Oregon," Hardwicke joked during a one-hour Q&A session at the official "Twilight" convention in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Joking aside, Hardwicke did say she wishes she could have delved deeper into Bella's vivid dreams. "I loved in the book when Stephenie would describe some of the dreams and things, so I really wanted to film some of the dream sequences," Hardwicke said. "And we had a whole plan for this beautiful, underwater dream sequence. [But we had] no money. They said, 'We can't afford it.' We had to do a lot of things with little money because Summit didn't know if anyone was going to see the movie."

Twilight Director Catherine Hardwicke Tells Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

 

Twilight Director Catherine Hardwicke Tells Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

 

Twilight Director Catherine Hardwicke Tells Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

 

Twilight Director Catherine Hardwicke Tells Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

 

Twilight Director Catherine Hardwicke Tells Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

 

Twilight Director Catherine Hardwicke Tells Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

 "Twilight" Invades New Jersey 

Twilight Director Catherine Hardwicke Tells Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

 

Obviously fans came out in droves for the vampire romance, but there were a few other scenes fans didn't get to see. For one, the beloved "blood test" scene from the novel was cut to add variety to the filming locations — and to abate Hardwicke's bloody fears. "I was actually that person that fainted in my seventh-grade biology class," she said. Another thing fans didn't see was a hairy Robert Pattinson. Hardwicke originally envisioned Bella's bloodsucking boyfriend Edward with long hair. "I thought it would be cool if Rob had long, romantic hair," she said. "So we put extensions on Rob and he just hated it. He sat there in the chair for eight hours and was like, 'No.' "

Hardwicke also had Pattinson style secrets to share from off the set. According to the director, Pattinson was sporting a not-so-fresh shirt at the Teen Choice Awards. "I was sitting on the couch next to Rob and he was telling me, 'I didn't know what to wear. I didn't have anything clean, so my friend wore this shirt last night and did a performance.' So his buddy did a whole performance in this shirt and Rob found it on the floor and thought it was the cleanest shirt he had, so he wore it to the awards."

But it wasn't all Rob, Rob, Rob during the Q&A session — Hardwicke offered particular kudos to actress Kristen Stewart. When one fan asked if Stewart could pull of the emotional intensity needed in "New Moon," Hardwicke wholeheartedly replied yes. "She has depth deeper than any actress I've ever known."

Though the session revolved mainly around "Twilight," Hardwicke alluded to her upcoming projects including "If I Stay," "Hamlet," "Maximum Ride" and the recently announced "The Girl With the Red Riding Hood," noting that they are all in the development stages and that she is not sure which she'll work on first. "Any fortune tellers out there?" she asked.

Check out everything we've got on "Twilight."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



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Friday, August 28, 2009

'New Moon' Volturi Vampires Revealed!

In trailers and photos, we've already seen some of what "New Moon" has in store for Twilighters thirsting for a big-screen vampire fix: There'll be a more muscle-y Taylor Lautner, as well as Kristen Stewart's Bella Swan struggling to adjust to life in Forks, Washington, without her beloved Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).

Now we get to check out the Volturi, those powerful bloodsuckers based in the ancient Italian city of Volterra who have become a sort of royal governing authority in the vampire world, delivering swift, violent justice to anyone who threatens their way of life.

New Moon Volturi Vampires Revealed!

 

New Moon Volturi Vampires Revealed!

 

New Moon Volturi Vampires Revealed!

 

New Moon Volturi Vampires Revealed!

 

New Moon Volturi Vampires Revealed!

 

New Moon Volturi Vampires Revealed!

 Meet The Volturi 

New Moon Volturi Vampires Revealed!

 

These vampires, director Chris Weitz explained in comments released by studio Summit Entertainment, possess "a kind of a tactile reality to them, in spite of how bizarre their situation is, really. The whole point is not to leave Forks, Washington, where everything has really been quite realistic, and then suddenly go to a location that completely throws you out of the movie. And the set, although it's huge and grand and magnificent, actually feels like a real place."

With all this in mind, let's meet the new "New Moon" vampires.

Jane (Dakota Fanning)
She's a ruthless little one, but in her defense, she had a rough go of it in the days before she was turned into a vampire. Humans thought she and her brother, Alec, were actually witches and decided to burn them alive. The Volturi, who were biding their time before transforming Jane and her bro, were compelled to act earlier than planned. So while Jane may look young, she's actually been around for a while and maintains a powerful place in the Volturi ranks. Her special ability is to inflict incapacitating pain with her thoughts — a skill she developed after being burned at the stake.

"She's innocent-looking in appearance but she's absolutely deadly," Weitz said.

Caius (Jamie Campbell Bower)
You don't want to mess with this member of the Volturi coven. Turned around 1300 B.C., Caius is mercilessly cruel. One of the three leaders, he's gunning to exterminate Edward, Bella and Alice Cullen (Ashley Greene), but Volturi founder Aro decides that isn't the best course of action.

Alec (Cameron Bright)
Brother to Jane, Alec has risen to become one of the Volturi Guard. As with his sister, it's unknown when he was transformed, nor exactly how old he truly is. What is known is that both siblings are invaluable to the Volturi: Since joining the coven, the group rarely has to engage in actual fighting — the siblings' skills allow for the outright slaughter of their enemies.

Marcus (Christopher Heyerdahl)
The first pic of Marcus is creepy, creepy, creepy — the thin, red lips, the hands stretching out toward the camera. Since the death of his wife, Marcus has become detached from the rest of the Volturi leadership. Turned at about 1300 B.C., he's developed almost zombie-like characteristics and is completely apathetic. Yet he maintains the special ability to perceive the strength of a relationship between two people. In this way, he is well aware of the intensity of Edward and Ella's connection.

Aro (Michael Sheen)
The founder of the coven and its de facto leader, Aro possesses the ability to read a person's thoughts simply by touching them. Unfortunately for him, this supernatural skill doesn't work on Bella.

"[A]fter 2,000 years you'd probably be more than mildly insane," Weitz said. "No matter how cultured or gracious you appear on the surface. And I think that's what Michael Sheen managed to portray as Aro, the head of the Volturi — on the surface he's terribly gracious, warm, a wonderful host, and at the same time he's lethal and frightening."

Check out everything we've got on "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



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'We Live In Public': Yesterday's Future Revisited, By Kurt Loder

Josh Harris was an emotionally stunted early computer nerd who came to New York City in 1984 with $900 in his pocket. He got into high-tech market research and made a bunch of money. He pioneered chat rooms and then Web TV before it was really feasible (dial-up was a stumbling block). He surfed the big Internet wave, became a name player and by the end of the '90s was worth $80 million. How did he do this? And what ever happened to him?

He did it by inventing the future. Well, by inventing the way people would live in the future. Or so he thought. But would they? Do they?

"We Live in Public," Ondi Timoner's new documentary about Harris, prompts a number of questions — about the future of privacy, the decay of intimacy, and technological totalitarianism — that keep burrowing back into themselves. It's a maddening, mesmerizing film. Harris is a half-brilliant entrepreneur with no moral sense whatsoever. That he grew up in a loveless bubble — with emotionally absent parents, his only friend the living-room TV set, his real family the cast of "Gilligan's Island" — tells us a lot, if not everything, we need to know about the man, and about why he grew up to be so strange.

At the end of 1999, rolling in dough, Harris turned his eye toward bigger things than making money. He decided to ring in the new millennium with a month-long techno-art happening he called "Quiet." This involved assembling about a hundred people — artists, musicians, other dot-com kids like himself — and installing them in an old building in downtown Manhattan that had been filled with more than a hundred video cameras, some stationary, some hand-held and roving. There was a barracks-like "pod hotel" — essentially rows of bunk beds with cameras affixed to record everything that went on in them. There was a big shower with see-through walls; the toilets had no walls at all. There were all kinds of great food, a 24/7 open bar and, down in the basement, a firing range heavily stocked with weapons, many of them automatic. (You can hear the roar of machine guns in the background of the period interviews Timoner has dredged up here.) There were also drugs, of course, and lots of nudity, lots of sex, all of it incessantly documented by Harris' cameras. The food, the booze, the ammo were all free — Harris paid for everything. ("I spend money like it's sand through the fingers of time," he says here.) The video footage, however, he kept for himself.

The atmosphere of creepiness that emanates from all of this thickens when we learn that every partygoer had to undergo an "interrogation" before gaining admission. These sessions, conducted by a stern note-taker, with a uniformed goon standing nearby, probed the subjects' fears and insecurities, their sexual practices, everything, with answers jotted down in individual files. We see a bipolar man unsteadily talking about the delusions from which he suffers, and a girl instructed to demonstrate exactly how she sliced open her arm in a suicide attempt. (She breaks down in tears.) Harris is watching all this — everybody is watching, via video hookup — and at one point we see him consulting with an on-the-scene psychiatrist, pressing him for suggestions about "any technique we can use to intimidate them — to break them, in essence."

According to one of the many cameramen on hand, "There was a tremendous fascist overtone to the whole thing." A woman adds, "It was absolutely a surveillance police state. Just by walking into the premises, you basically relinquished your rights." Harris saw it differently. "This is a perfect analogy of what the Internet will [become]," he said. "Everyone will have a camera and a monitor. ... As time goes by, we're going to increasingly have our lives exposed. And we're gonna want that to happen."

In the end the police arrived, drawn by the sound of all the gunfire, and shut the party down. But Harris was just getting started. "With 'Quiet,' " he says, "I saw what surveillance could do to the human condition. The next step was to experiment on myself."

And so for the first time that anyone who knew him could remember, Harris acquired a girlfriend, a fresh-faced young woman named Tanya Corrin, whom he invited to join him in his next project. He called it "We Live in Public," and once again it involved lots of cameras and microphones, this time installed all around a large residential loft into which the new couple moved. There were cameras in the shower, the bathroom, the bedroom — no space was left unobserved. They were all wired together into a Web site that allowed a community of online voyeurs to observe what Josh and Tanya were up to at any hour of the day or night, and — this being all about interactivity — to offer streams of real-time text commentary about the lives these two people were living.

An iron law of human nature ensured that this sinister experiment would end badly. Tanya grew unhappy. ("I'm not gonna be your porn star," she shouts at one point.) Harris, possibly in an attempt to goose his Web hits, became abusive, pushing her around and bruising her. Finally, she left. Harris, who appears to be in denial about virtually everything in life, responded with feigned nonchalance. "I couldn't wait to get rid of her," he claims. "Tanya was a pseudo girlfriend. I'd been trying to cast [that part], and she was perfect." He would soldier on: "I had to take 'Living in Public' to the end because I'm a celebrity ... there are people who watch." Unfortunately, observing Harris on his own — muttering to himself in the bathroom mirror or even taking a call on the toilet from a lady telling him his bank account is empty (the big dot-com bubble had finally burst) — was remarkably uninteresting. When his audience dwindled to about 10 people, he quit and left New York for a farm out in the middle of somewhere or other, where he fired off guns a lot and communed with the apple trees, which he felt could "sense my energy source."

Harris eventually attempted a comeback with another interactive Web site, but the new breed of younger moguls who might have financed it had no idea who he was, and they didn't. Then Harris disappeared.

So who is this man? Is he the guy we see in the film saying, "I'm an artist — one of the first great artists of the 21st century"? Or is he the guy telling us, "I'm sick. I'm mentally sick"? Timoner wants to make a case for Harris as a prophet ahead of his time — a man who foresaw the online-all-the-time world in which so many people now live. Maybe so. But he was hardly the first person to foresee the disquieting possibilities of modern communications technology. In a 1951 book called "The Mechanical Bride," Marshall McLuhan suggested the deceptive allure of the dominant medium of his day: "Come on, kiddies. Buy a radio and feel free — to listen." But McLuhan gave this subject considerable thought; he stirred concern. Harris didn't care. The grave new world he saw coming seemed to get him off. Being an emotional nonentity himself, living in public may have been the only way he could really live at all.

At the end of this remarkable film, Timoner, who worked on it for 10 years (and also worked on the "Quiet" project back in the day), tracks Harris down to the last place on Earth you'd expect to find him, far from the siren lure of digital media (and the even more insistent clamor of the many creditors he skipped out on). He's settled into real life at last and says he's there to stay. Let's hope so.

Don't miss Kurt Loder's review of "The September Issue," also new in theaters this week.

Check out everything we've got on "We Live in Public."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



‘Avatar’ Hype Continues As Trailer Breaks Apple.com RecordCalvin Harris seeks Robbie collaboration

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Drew Barrymore's 'Whip It' Features Roller-Derby Superwomen

Ellen Page, Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore and Juliette Lewis would wake up in the morning, do yoga and then strength-train together for two hours before going roller skating until nightfall. It was a bruise-inducing journey of female camaraderie, a two-month-long, check-your-ego-at-the-door boot camp for Barrymore's directorial debut, "Whip It." And as Lewis told MTV News as part of our weeklong fall movie preview, it was a chance for these actresses to become their own versions of superwomen.

"We all felt like action heroes!" the actress/singer said.

The film follows Page as a small-town Texas teen fed up with the beauty-pageant circuit who finds her way into an all-female league of roller-derby divas. Wiig and Barrymore play her tough-talking teammates, while Lewis portrays Iron Maven, the bullying rival team captain who becomes Page's nemesis.

And although they're adversaries in front of the camera, they're best of friends everywhere else. "It was tough to be an out-and-out bully, to shove Ellen Page into a locker," said Lewis. "I'm very nurturing and embracing of the underdog. But it was pretty f---ing fun!"

After shooting wrapped each day, they'd all compare their "big old nasty bruises," as Lewis put it. Page even shows off her war wounds as the movie's credits role. The actresses were just following the example of the real-life derby girls who played additional teammates in the film.

Female roller-derby culture, Lewis explained, is "a bit of wrestler culture, rock-and-roll culture, band culture and sports, because they're all incredible athletes."

Lewis has worked with first-time directors before — Dominic Sena in 1993's "Kalifornia," Scott Kalvert in 1995's "The Basketball Diaries" — but she singled out Barrymore for her extensive preparation before and during "Whip It," which comes out on October 9.

"She was so visually prepared," Lewis said. "You can talk about scenes and emotion and acting crap all day, but at the end of the day, you have to shoot the shot. She knew what she wanted cinematically."

Lewis had stayed away from Hollywood for four years as she recorded music and toured with her band. Now she's got a new album, Terra Incognita, ready to drop in September, and then her roller-derby flick to promote.

"I feel like a rapper now," she joked. "Except I don't have a shoe [line]. But don't worry, I'm going to release a tennis shoe!"

From the sexy Megan Fox in "Jennifer's Body" to the black-clad warriors of "Ninja Assassin," the MTV Movies team is delving into the hottest flicks of Fall 2009. Check back daily for exclusive clips, photos and interviews with the films' biggest stars.

Check out everything we've got on "Whip It."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



Miley Cyrus co-star wants sequelTim Burton Assembles ‘Mysterious Puzzle’ For ‘Alice In Wonderland’

Kristen Stewart Puts Herself In 'Messengers' Character's Shoes In 2005

In 2005, Kristen Stewart was busy filming the horror flick "The Messengers," and it seemed like she was already starting to embrace her dark side. Now, she's better known as Bella Swan, the girl in a love triangle with a werewolf and a vampire.

Recently, she told MTV News how emotionally distraught she was making "New Moon," thanks to its intense plot points. During the making of "The Messengers," Stewart was already establishing herself as a serious actress who could feel the emotions of the character she's playing.

"I think about the situations the character is in," she told MTV News on the "Messengers" set. "The situations that the character I play is in are scary enough."

Could Stewart relate to her character's spooky experiences? "I've never seen a ghost or anything, but I've had some strange occurrences in my life." She then recalled one time when she was "sitting on my bed and I was a lot younger, I think I was, like, maybe 11 or 12, I was making a rubber-band ball — for whatever reason I was doing that I don't know — but my TV was up on the ceiling [on a rotating holder], and it wasn't on and no one was in there with me.

"And I look up, and it moved over and faced me, and then the chair in front of my desk is a spinning chair, and it started to creek like somebody walked by, and I kind of looked from the TV to the chair to the door, and I was out," she continued. "And now it's my brother's room."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



Jackson’s death was fortuitous‘Eclipse’ Actress Jodelle Ferland Is On Team Edward

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

'Ninja Assassin' Director James McTeigue Extols Rain's 'Star Charisma'

In Hollywood, the ninja has either been a joke — think mutated turtles, Chris Farley, suburban adolescent wannabes — or strictly the stuff of narrowly focused genre flicks. In the last few years, though, ninjas have begun to get some mainstream respect, with appearances in movies like 2005's "Batman Begins" and this summer's "G.I. Joe." Can they once again carry their own mainstream movie? With "Ninja Assassin," director James McTeigue is not only sharpening his sword to slice and dice moviegoers' opinion of the stealthy, acrobatic fighters once and for all — he's planning on doing so with a cast of relative unknowns in the U.S.

But McTeigue's got skills molding genre material for the big screen — he was a key player in "The Matrix" trilogy and the director of "V for Vendetta" — and his lead actor happens to be one of the biggest pop stars in Asia. If you've never heard of Rain, you're about to, as the director explained to MTV News.

"Rain is an incredible athlete," McTeigue said. "An incredible personality too. You just have to spend a little time around him to know what dedication he has and what kind of star charisma he has, which is why he's so popular there."

McTeigue also pointed out that Rain is simply very talented. "We trained a lot of the actors for ['The Matrix']," the director said. "But Rain, through his dance ability, he trained harder than anyone I've ever seen. He also got the choreography down incredibly well, more so that you could just show it to him two or three times and then he'd do it perfect, pretty much. He was incredible to watch."

"I learned a lot of techniques and expressions, martial arts," the South Korean singer told MTV News shortly after the movie wrapped production. "I've been training for six months nonstop, everyday. From the moment, I've been controlling my mind and my menu, with chicken breasts and vegetables — almost killed me. I'll never work out again!"

So, you've got an international celebrity and a director with serious fanboy cred. What else does it take to bring the honorable ninja out from the depths of B-moviedom? McTeigue assembled a cast of strong supporting actors, secured a Hollywood-size budget and made sure the script emphasized character as much as it did action.

The story focuses on Rain's Raizo, who is picked up off the streets as a child and trained to be — what else? — a wickedly skilled ninja assassin. All grown up, Raizo ends up turning against the folks who taught him to be a killing machine and makes it his life's mission to end all this assassination business. Unsurprisingly, the others ninjas don't take kindly to this sort of career advice, and a cross-European battle royal ensues.

"You have to keep the essence of the ninja movie," McTeigue explained. "But if you want to take it above the usual kind of ninja movie, you need to give it a decent story. But make no mistake — it's a ninja movie."

In addition to the character-driven elements in "Ninja," when the movie hits theaters on November 25, expect loads of funky weapons (swords, throwing stars, chain-blade combos called kusarigama ) and wild fight choreography (incorporating elements of parkour, kung fu and sword combat). In other words, there's a little something for everyone.

"For me, the film is a cross between anime, video games and film noir," McTeigue said.

From the sexy Megan Fox in "Jennifer's Body" to the black-clad warriors of "Ninja Assassin," the MTV Movies team is delving into the hottest flicks of Fall 2009. Check back daily for exclusive clips, photos and interviews with the films' biggest stars.

Check out everything we've got on "Ninja Assassin."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



Vanessa Hudgens perfected songs by playing computer gamesAdam Brody Channels Jared Leto In ‘Jennifer’s Body’

'Twilight' Documentary Sheds Light On The Real Forks

SANTA MONICA, California — If you're like most Twilighters, you have a wall calendar with the November 20 release date of "New Moon" marked by a giant X, a star or two, and four or five red circles around it. But if you can't wait that long, now you have a new date to mark down — and a new "Twilight"-related movie to look forward to.

"The full title is 'Twilight in Forks: The Saga of the Real Town,' " explained producer York Baur, revealing details exclusively to MTV about the soon-to-be-released flick, whose existence has remained a secret — until now. "It's a documentary about the town and the impact of the 'Twilight' phenomenon on the town. It's a DVD that is shot in full HD, and it's going to be available to the public on October 15."

From now until that date, Baur and director Jason Brown will be unveiling exclusive sneak peeks of the film on MTV.com every Tuesday — continuing to lift the veil on the first-ever "Twilight" documentary.

"Everybody that's a fan of 'Twilight' has a vision of what Forks is like," Brown said of the real-life Washington town where Stephenie Meyer set her vampire-romance saga. "In the movie, we get a peek at that. But in fact, they didn't shoot the ['Twilight'] movie in Forks. So we've gone actually out to Forks. And you'll get a chance to meet some of the real people and see some of the real places that are featured in the story."

Shot with a beautiful, natural look that harnesses the massive woodlands and entrancing beaches of the small logging town, the flick is funny and sincere, enlightening and more than a bit mysterious — all at the same time. And while the film isn't officially affiliated with the franchise, it gives insight into the real town that inspired the author.

"I actually grew up partially in the Forks area," Baur said of the origins of the project. "My family's had a summer cabin since I was 3 years old ... the people are really unique, and it's so remote. One of the facts we learned along the way is that Forks is actually closer to outer space than it is to the nearest Wal-Mart! It's 62 miles to outer space and 67 miles to the Wal-Mart in Sequim. It's a very special, unique place."

Over the last several years, tens of thousands of Twilighters have made the pilgrimage to Forks, a real-life Disneyland of all things Stephenie Meyer. But if you can't make the long trip to the deep woods where the Cullens may live, "Twilight in Forks" will show you how the phenomenon was born — and whether vampires and werewolves could really be enjoying the region's famously rain-soaked climate.

"The project was the instigation of us saying that we wanted to expose this really cool and unique area to the world through the lens of the 'Twilight' phenomenon," explained Baur. "The film can be pre-ordered through our Web site; it's also available for pre-order on Amazon starting now, and it'll be available at traditional retailers as well on October 15."

For a first look at the "Twilight in Forks" artwork, head over to Hollywood Crush. And be sure to keep checking back every Tuesday, as we'll be rolling out more "Twilight in Forks" exclusive content in the weeks to come.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



Miley Cyrus co-star wants sequelWill ‘New Moon’ Soundtrack Include Thom Yorke And Kings Of Leon?

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Adam Brody Channels Jared Leto In 'Jennifer's Body'

LOS ANGELES — When it comes to "Jennifer's Body," there's a lot we want a sneak peek of: the blood-drenched gore. The instantly quotable dialogue from "Juno" writer Diablo Cody. Megan Fox's, well, body.

"I was thinking straight horror film when I started, and I thought, 'What scares me?' " Oscar-winner Cody told us of her script. "Zombies? Ghosts? No. Then I thought about when I was a teenage girl and the fear of invoking the wrath of another teenage girl and how truly scary that could be."

Naturally, we had to include the September 18 flick in this week's ongoing Fall Preview festivities — and we had to get an advance review from one of the film's stars, Adam Brody. Adam was eager to talk up the Foxy cheerleader horror/comedy that left him "blown away," his Jared Leto-esque character and, of course, nipples.

MTV: So, Adam, have you seen "Jennifer's Body" yet?

Adam Brody: Yeah, let's say that I've seen 90 percent of the finished product. I saw it eight or 10 months ago now, but it was mostly done.

MTV: What does it feel like the first time an actor sits down to watch something you've worked so hard on, when it's ultimately so out of your hands how it will come together?

Brody: Well, I got to experience this one pretty objectively, because I have a pretty small part. I pop up throughout, but when you get a smaller part you concentrate on that part and those days you're on set — you forget there's a whole other hour and 20 minutes of the movie. I read that part of the script once — a year before filming it — so it was a surprise that I got to enjoy it as a first-time moviegoer. I was blown away. ... I was so happy and pleasantly surprised.

MTV: You were paid to go to work and look at Megan Fox all day. Tough gig?

Brody: It was that simple, and it was fantastic. It's one of the hardest jobs to get, but one of the best ones to have.

MTV: Is it hard to work with Megan and not develop a little bit of a crush?

Brody: Wow. We've all got a little bit of a crush on Megan Fox.

MTV: Megan freely admits that she's gotten by on her looks in the past, but says that her acting skills have gotten much better recently. Will we see a big jump in "Body"?

Brody: Yeah, you get to see a lot more sides of her, not just the hotness. I think people will be very pleasantly surprised — or pissed off that she's talented and beautiful.

MTV: The trailer seems to be selling "Jennifer's Body" with two promises: a lot of gore and a lot of nudity. Which one does the film have more of?

Adam Brody Channels Jared Leto In Jennifers Body

 

Adam Brody Channels Jared Leto In Jennifers Body

 

Adam Brody Channels Jared Leto In Jennifers Body

 

Adam Brody Channels Jared Leto In Jennifers Body

 

Adam Brody Channels Jared Leto In Jennifers Body

 

Adam Brody Channels Jared Leto In Jennifers Body

 Exclusive Fall Movie 2009 Preview 

Adam Brody Channels Jared Leto In Jennifers Body

 

Brody: Well, the nudity is questionable. It's like, "What is nudity, specifically?" Because if we're talking about nipples, I don't think there are any nipples in the movie.

MTV: OK.

Brody: I knew this going in, and I remember being a little disappointed — like the rest of the world. But then, I remember seeing it and having no more want for sexual activity. It's sexual in the best way, and they did plenty with what was on the page. You're not going to feel gypped by a lack of sexuality. And the same with the gore — it is gory, but a lot of times, they'll cut away. But there's still plenty of gross stuff to satisfy viscerally. What do they have more of? Probably gore.

MTV: Give us the breakdown of your character.

Brody: I play this guy named Nikolai Wolf, and he's a singer in an emo band. He's looking for fame and fortune and is basically a sociopath who came upon the idea that devil worship and sacrificing a girl is the surefire ticket to fame and fortune. And he has no problem doing that, whatsoever.

MTV: Your look in the film seems a bit Jared Leto-esque. Was that intentional?

Brody: Yeah, there's some Jared Leto in there. I threw in a bit of Brandon Flowers. There's a little Maroon 5. There's no nail polish, but there's a little bit of eyeliner.

MTV: Have you ever met Jared? What would you expect him to say to you after this movie comes out?

Brody: I don't think he'd take it as a total homage to him. The only guy I've met is Adam [Levine], the dude from Maroon 5, and he's a nice guy. And there is a Maroon 5 joke in the script, so maybe he'd say something.

MTV: What is it?

Brody: I say, "Do you want to be rich and famous like that dude from Maroon 5, or a huge suicidal loser?" That is what my character is aspiring to — the fame and fortune of Maroon 5.

MTV: Hopefully, Maroon 5 never sacrificed anyone to achieve their fame and fortune.

Brody: I don't care. Maybe they did?

From the sexy Megan Fox in "Jennifer's Body" to the black-clad warriors of "Ninja Assassin," the MTV Movies team is delving into the hottest flicks of Fall 2009. Check back daily for exclusive clips, photos and interviews with the films' biggest stars.

Check out everything we've got on "Jennifer's Body."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more -- updated around the clock -- visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



Jackson’s family worried about bodysnatchers‘Inglourious Basterds’ Original Cast Plans Called For Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler

Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' Still A Mystery After Teaser Trailer

The teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan's "Inception" has arrived, and it looks like the director decided to split the difference between his memory mindbender "Memento" and his badass "Batman" action flicks: It has acrobatic fight sequences, darkly urban landscapes and a tagline that suggests the movie will take place as much within the human mind as it will in the real world. We still don't know what in the world "Inception" is about, but who cares? That's how Nolan wants it, and who are we to complain when he delivers such amazingly cool stuff?

This project has been on MTV News' radar since word first dropped in February that Nolan had decided to take a step back from Gotham City after "The Dark Knight" to write and direct a film described as a "contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind."

That didn't exactly clear up the "Inception" story line, however, and speculation exploded online about what Nolan was actually planning. Well played, Mr. Nolan. Kudos as well for getting your stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard, to keep the plot details to themselves.

"You so want to have information — I can see you!" Cotillard teased MTV News in June.

A week earlier, Gordon-Levitt, who replaced James Franco in the cast due to scheduling conflicts, also pleaded the Fifth. "Here's the thing," he told MTV News. "I can't wait to talk to you about ['Inception'], but I've been very specifically asked not to talk about it. I want to respect [Nolan's wishes], because I love his movies, and I'm so honored and grateful to be working with him."

Since the winter, though, some pieces did fall into place. DiCaprio has been described as a "CEO type" leading an elite team with a mysterious mission. Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy ("RocknRolla") are said to be his associates, and Ellen Page is reportedly a grad student and DiCaprio's "sidekick." Cotillard plays his wife, while Ken Watanabe ("Letters From Iwo Jima") has been revealed to be the film's villain.

After months of piecing all this info together and thinking about it in the context of that "architecture of the mind" description, MTV finally got a chance to check out the teaser trailer — and for all its indisputable awesomeness, it didn't provide much in the way of answers. It just further ramped up our interest, which is exactly what a teaser trailer should do. The site SlashFilm.com did go ahead and publish a possible, barebones plot summary it wrung from the far corners of the Internet, and it's anybody's guess how accurate it truly is.

" 'Inception' is about entering people's minds/dreams," the site reports. "A technology to do so has been developed and is done through an injection. DiCaprio and his team work to enter the minds of other characters in order to retrieve/plant information."

Sounds pretty cool to us, and it would certainly jibe with the implication of the "Matrix"-esque fight scenes in the trailer. Whatever the truth is, give Nolan credit for managing to keep concrete details under wraps for so long — a feat almost as impressive as writing and directing a movie that is already one of the most anticipated film's of 2010.

Check out everything we've got on "Inception."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



‘Avatar’ Hype Continues As Trailer Breaks Apple.com RecordVanessa Hudgens perfected songs by playing computer games

Monday, August 24, 2009

'Avatar' Hype Continues As Trailer Breaks Apple.com Record

Whether you loved it or loathed it, freaked out or rolled your eyes, you certainly tuned in: The teaser trailer for James Cameron's "Avatar" became the biggest debut for Apple.com ever, shattering the previous record (1.7 million) by over 2 million streams.

Debuting on Thursday, the trailer notched over 4 million views on Apple in its first day online, according to a press release from Fox. By Friday, the footage of the sci-fi epic — replete with towering blue aliens, interspecies warfare and visual effects that Cameron and his team dreamed up almost 15 years ago — had been released widely on the Web, surely logging millions of more views.

Friday became known as "Avatar" Day, as Fox screened 15 minutes of movie footage for free in IMAX 3-D theaters around the country. According to the press release, reservations for the two showings were fully booked.

For the movie, which required four years of production time and reportedly cost over $200 million to complete, Cameron revolutionized two filmmaking technologies: digital 3-D and e-motion capture (small cameras are attached to an actor's head to record his or her facial movements).

With such a big budget and so much hype surrounding the film's release on December 18, it remained an open question whether "Avatar" could possibly fulfill expectations. While reactions to the trailer were mixed — and surely some of that has to do with watching footage on a computer screen instead of in an IMAX 3-D theater — the huge Apple debut proves that audiences are captivated by the idea of the film. But will that interest continue for another couple months? Will the hype hold up? Cameron thinks so.

"I think all those questions about 'Can they do it?' 'Will it live up?' — that's going to be set by the wayside," the director told MTV News shortly before screening footage at Comic-Con in July. "So now, in a way, you're free to enjoy the world and enjoy the ride. That's why I don't mind showing stuff at this stage."

Check out everything we've got on "Avatar."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



Michael Jackson ‘This Is It’ Movie Opens October 28Ian Brown to release Stellify

'Inglourious Basterds' Original Cast Plans Called For Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler

With a $37.6 million opening weekend, the spaghetti Western-flecked World War II epic "Inglourious Basterds" has become the biggest box-office debut of Quentin Tarantino's career. But it almost turned out to be quite a different movie, and if it had, there's no telling how "Basterds" would have fared.

Tarantino's original wish list of actors showed a distinctly different set of priorities in everything from name recognition to country of origin. In the role of vicious Nazi Col. Hans Landa, Austrian actor Christoph Waltz won the best-actor award at Cannes and is on the short list to nab an Oscar nod. The part, however, almost went to someone with just a slightly bigger Stateside profile: Leonardo DiCaprio. The three-time Oscar nominee was said to be Tarantino's first choice to play Landa, though the director then reconsidered and decided Landa should be played by a German-speaking actor.

For the part of bat-wielding Nazi hunter Sgt. Donny Donowitz, Tarantino was rumored to be considering another Hollywood A-lister: Adam Sandler. The comedian might seem like an odd choice to play such a serious — and seriously violent — role, but Sandler played both serious and hair-trigger violent to considerable acclaim in 2002's "Punch-Drunk Love." Sandler committed to "Funny People" instead (which performed considerably worse in its opening earlier this summer), and horror director Eli Roth took on the Donowitz role.

Inglourious Basterds Original Cast Plans Called For Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler

 

Inglourious Basterds Original Cast Plans Called For Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler

 

Inglourious Basterds Original Cast Plans Called For Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler

 

Inglourious Basterds Original Cast Plans Called For Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler

 

Inglourious Basterds Original Cast Plans Called For Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler

 

Inglourious Basterds Original Cast Plans Called For Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler

 The 'Inglourious Basterds' That Almost Was 

Inglourious Basterds Original Cast Plans Called For Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler

 

Two English actors — Simon Pegg and Tim Roth — were both said to be considered for the part of British solider Lt. Archie Hicox.

"I love [Quentin] to bits," Tim Roth told MTV News in 2007. "If he ever does it, of course, I'd like to be in it. It's entirely up to him. It would be fun to be in a big Second World War movie. My dad was in that war."

But time passed, the project continued to gestate, and scheduling conflicts popped up. In the end Michael Fassbender became Hicox. Meanwhile, the role of German film star and Allied spy Bridget von Hammersmark was originally intended to go to German actress Nastassja Kinski. Instead, Diane Kruger, the star of two "National Treasure" flicks, signed on.

Check out everything we've got on "Inglourious Basterds."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



‘Inglourious Basterds’ Stars Tell Tarantino’s SecretsMorrissey box set details announced

Sunday, August 23, 2009

'Inglorious Basterds': Long March, By Kurt Loder

Quentin Tarantino is such an overflowingly talented maker of films that you wonder when he's going to grow up into a real filmmaker. Tarantino's new World War II movie, "Inglourious Basterds," brings with it the usual avalanche of insider film-geek references: A character named Aldo Raine is a reference to the late Aldo Ray, star of the 1955 war movie "Battle Cry"; the name of another character — Hugo Stiglitz — refers to a Mexican horror-film star. The most instructive of these little allusions, though, deals with two 1940s films by the French director Henri-Georges Clouzot. The title of one of these, "Le Corbeau," is glimpsed here on a movie-theatre marquee. A poster for the other, "L'Assassin Habite au 21," is seen on the wall in another shot. The star of both of those pictures was Pierre Fresnay, who also starred in Jean Renoir's World War I classic "Grand Illusion."

Presumably Tarantino thought that just slipping a poster for "Grand Illusion" into a scene would have been too obvious. But even this oblique reference is revealing. "Grand Illusion" is the greatest and most humane of all war movies — humane in the sense that it deals with timeless human concerns: the passage of time, the futility of war. "Inglourious Basterds" deals neither with these things, nor with such other eternal subjects as love, injustice or loss. Tarantino's films are essays in cleverness, which relieves him of the burden of having to say anything meaningful about the human condition, even in a clever way. His multi-referential jokiness worked brilliantly in the synthetic construct of "Pulp Fiction," 15 years ago. But will he ever move on?

Tarantino's admirers (I'm one) will object that this is a wild comedy, not a serious-issues picture, and they're right. But great comedies, even the frothiest screwball classics, deal with actual people, or at least recognizable human types. Tarantino tends to deal only with his interests, which, even after all this time, are still limited mainly to movies.

"Inglourious Basterds" is basically an extended gag about Aldo Raine, a redneck Army lieutenant (played by Brad Pitt), organizing a group of Jewish GIs to infiltrate German-occupied France for the purpose of killing Nazis. This premise at least has the virtue of moral clarity. And there's probably no point in being offended by Tarantino's turning World War II — a conflagration that consumed the lives of some 60-million people — into a giddy joke. The same has been said about the old TV series "Hogan's Heroes" — although that show did at least attempt to keep its distance from the war's hideous essence. Here we see Nazi soldiers firing their guns down through a farmhouse floor to exterminate a group of Jews who are hiding in the cellar. That the murdered Jews aren't actually seen allows the director to avoid any buzz-killing emotional charge.

One young Jewish woman escapes this slaughter. Her name is Shosanna (Mйlanie Laurent), and when we next see her, three years later, she's made it to Paris, where she's running — what else? — a movie theater. Here we can note the inevitable: This being a Tarantino picture, it's relentlessly movie-centric. When the British high command decides to dispatch an officer to assist the Nazi-hunting Basterds, who've also arrived in Paris, he turns out to be a former movie critic, and he discourses for us on the Nazi takeover of Germany's legendary UFA film studio in Babelsberg (where this picture was partly shot). We're also given a barrow-load of information about the flammable properties of old nitrate film stock. And movie scholars, if no one else, will register the presence of an actor playing Emil Jannings, the silent-film star who became a Nazi pet. (Jannings was also the first actor to win an Academy Award, in 1929, as you surely know.)

Along the way to Paris, we've learned that Aldo Raine is half Apache, which is why he's ordered his men to bring back the scalp of every Nazi they kill. (Can there be any other reason for this pointless plot quirk than the opportunity it offered Tarantino to insert a memorable image of a knife hacking the scalp off a corpse? The movie's gore quota is further fulfilled by the director's pal, Eli Roth, playing a Basterd called "the Bear Jew," whose specialty is bashing in the skulls of captured Nazis with a baseball bat.)

Raine and company have a special purpose in Paris. It has been learned that a new Nazi propaganda movie will be premiering there — at Shosanna's theater, in fact — and that Adolf Hitler and other top Nazis will be in attendance. The Basterds' assignment is to blow the place up during the show. But Shosanna has a plan of her own for the big night. Can history be blithely rewritten? Of course. But to what purpose?

All of this said, the movie is beautifully photographed (by Robert Richardson, who also shot Tarantino's "Kill Bill" pictures). And it contains some wonderfully well-constructed set-piece scenes — especially the opening farmhouse encounter (overextended though it is) that introduces the silky-scary SS colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), and later a chaotic shootout in a French pub. There's also some gorgeous imagery: A shot of an ecstatic face rearing up on a screen amid engulfing flames is one of the most striking things Tarantino has ever come up with — it actually recalls some of the great old UFA silent films.

The actors seem to be having fun, too. Pitt's good-ole-boy role is awfully broad, but he's such a star that he manages to make the character consistently entertaining. And Diane Kruger brings a vintage wartime glamour to the role of German movie actress (and secret British agent) Bridget von Hammersmark. The picture's one unforgettable performance, though, is by Waltz. His Hans Landa is a brilliant creation, all oily seduction and serpentine menace. In another context (a more serious movie, for instance), he'd be ghastly. Here he's mesmerizing, and Waltz owns every scene into which he sets foot. (He justly won the Best Actor award at the last Cannes Film Festival.)

How much of an audience "Inglourious Basterds" will be able to retain after its first week or two is an open question. The movie is two and a half hours long, and you may find your finger twitching in search of a delete button as the camera circles endlessly around overlong conversations, or lingers for no reason on the dolloping of whipped cream onto a slice of strudel. There's more talk in the picture than there is action — and a lot of the talk is in subtitled French, German and Italian. Tarantino is rightly esteemed for his sharp dialogue; but as was also the case with his last film, the dire "Death Proof," there's too much of it here, and a lot of it's not as sharp as might be hoped. In short, "Inglourious Basterds" is not "Pulp Fiction." It's not even a war movie. It's a movie about other war movies — a riot of references with no stabilizing core. Yet again.

Don't miss Kurt Loder's reviews of "The Baader Meinhof Complex" and "World's Greatest Dad", both new in theaters this week.

Check out everything we've got on "Inglourious Basterds."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



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'Wolfman' Star Emily Blunt Reveals 'Taboo Relationship' With Del Toro

Emily Blunt hates scary movies, slasher flicks and anything up on the big screen that has anything to do with the needless, heedless shedding of blood. But, as the British actress explained to MTV News, she signed up to star with Benicio Del Toro in the gothic horror film "The Wolfman" because along with the frights came amazing makeup effects from the best in the biz, a dark, character-driven story, and a particularly complex relationship with her onscreen co-star.

Now that the "Wolfman" trailer has been released, we can begin to see exactly what had Blunt so excited to take on the role.

"It's a taboo relationship between Benicio and I, because my character was engaged to his brother," she explained. "Her dead fiancй is found with his guts ripped out by some strange beast. Benicio, the long lost brother, comes back into town to find out what's gone on."

As Benicio begins his man-on-a-mission investigation, he tracks a beast — one whose existence has been rumored for years in this English village — and ends up being attacked. He survives, but the creature has made its mark. Benicio becomes a werewolf. And Blunt, who plays a woman named Gwen Conliffe — "she's the image of purity, which is new for me!" — can't help falling for him despite his rather unusual full-moon habits.

Wolfman Star Emily Blunt Reveals Taboo Relationship With Del Toro

 

Wolfman Star Emily Blunt Reveals Taboo Relationship With Del Toro

 

Wolfman Star Emily Blunt Reveals Taboo Relationship With Del Toro

 

Wolfman Star Emily Blunt Reveals Taboo Relationship With Del Toro

 

Wolfman Star Emily Blunt Reveals Taboo Relationship With Del Toro

 

Wolfman Star Emily Blunt Reveals Taboo Relationship With Del Toro

 "The Wolfman" Photos 

Wolfman Star Emily Blunt Reveals Taboo Relationship With Del Toro

 

"When I read the script, I thought it had this Greek mythology, this sweeping, gothic, eerie, suspenseful feel to it," she explained. "And then there's a love story. Even though it is terrifying, it's not just about how much blood we can show splashing across the camera."

Makeup whiz Rick Baker created the hirsute look of Del Toro's werewolf, and the trailer proves he is not one of the more family-friendly werewolves like those in "New Moon." And the reaction thus far, Blunt laughed, has been nothing short of staggering — even if the fanboy love has usually been directed at others in the cast and crew.

"We were at Comic-Con last year, and they went insane for Rick Baker," she said. "Benicio they went crazy for because of 'Sin City.' They couldn't have given a flying blop if I was there!"

Check out everything we've got on "The Wolfman."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.



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