Hollywood Backing Perv Polanski Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone

There has been much indignation - and rightfully so - from various parties over the fact that Hollywood is ”circling the wagons” around Roman Polanski, who was finally arrested in Switzerland after being a fugitive from justice for over 30 years for the drugging and subsequent rape and sodomy of a 13-year-old girl despite her pleas to stop – to which he pled guilty, by the way.

An excellent article, which really says it all, is by Kate Harding over at Salon.com – if you haven’t read it yet, you should. She reminds us that Roman Polanski – wait for it – raped a child. I don’t care if the victim, now 45, wants it all dropped because she’s tired of being the focal point of publicity. I don’t care it it’ll be a drain on California’s over-extended budget (how about not footing the bill for the education and medical care for illegal aliens? That’d fix things in a big hurry). I don’t care if she “looked” older than 13, or if her mother was the proverbial stage mother from hell, or if the sky was green instead of blue that day. And I certainly don’t care that Polanski is such a talented director – what WOULD we do without Hollywood to entertain us? – with a troubled past of his own. Many of us have troubled pasts. We don’t all use it as an excuse to do whatever the hell we want just because it “feels good” at the time. (more…)

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Tags: academy awards, American Beauty, Debra Winger, hollywood, Kate Harding
Posted Sep 30th 2009 at 4:58 am in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Politics | 237158119 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pmeister/2009/09/30/hollywood-backing-perv-polanski-shouldnt-surprise-anyone/Hollywood+Backing+Perv+Polanski+Shouldn%27t+Surprise+Anyone2009-09-30+11%3A58%3A32Pam+Meister

Natalie Portman’s Castle and Why the Movie Star is Dead

One day … ONE day after gushing over how exciting the recession is now that those forced to work jobs they hate or who have lost them entirely can focus on their passions, Natalie Portman bought herself a $3 million castle-like estate.

Natalie, whoever’s advising you … fire them. If no one’s advising you, find someone who doesn’t carry a small dog in their purse or dates someone who does. Look to the real world for help. Look to someone who’s spent a few years in a land where the zip codes don’t start with “9-0.” Someone who cares enough about you and your career to say (without any “Honey, babys”):

“Nat, past the gates of your community and away from the hills of Hollywood losing your job doesn’t fuel passion, it fuels despair, and working a job you hate is almost as bad because of the big black  permanent ball of dread it plants in your gut. I know you dig Barack, I did too before he targeted my children and health care, but you can’t flak for his recession. That’s what the mainstream media is for. You have to empathize with your audience, build goodwill. Besides, you’re closing on that castle tomorrow, so today wouldn’t be a good time to get all gushy over how exciting Barack’s recession is. And if you do, I quit.” (more…)

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Tags: "District 9”, "Twitter Effect", academy awards, Castle, Christian Bale
Posted Sep 5th 2009 at 9:52 am in Celebrity News, Classic Hollywood, Featured Story, Politics | 218402194 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/09/05/update-natalie-exciting-recession-portman-buys-castle-like-estate/Natalie+Portman%27s+Castle+and+Why+the+Movie+Star+is+Dead2009-09-05+16%3A52%3A07John+Nolte

Review: ‘Julie & Julia’–Traditional Filmmaking With Traditional Values

It’s rare enough these days to see a movie in which one story is well-told, much less two stories. It’s even more rare when a filmmaker is able to balance two completely different plotlines and make both equally enjoyable and compelling. Yet with her new film “Julie & Julia,” writer-director Nora Ephron (“Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail”) pulls off such feats so impressively that the movie could possibly wind up with an Oscar nomination at the end of the year now that the Academy has expanded the awards to ten nominations and will likely finally include a couple of comedies each year.

“Julie & Julia” follows the amusingly parallel lives of chef Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep), who achieved worldwide fame while revolutionizing the art of cooking starting in the ‘50s, and Julie Powell (Amy Adams), a young New York City woman searching for identity in 2002. Powell longs to be a successful writer like her friends and yet is trapped processing insurance claims from victims of the World Trade Center attacks. (more…)

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Tags: academy awards, Amy Adams, blogs, Chris Messina, cooking
Posted Aug 7th 2009 at 1:04 pm in Reviews | 20231040 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/08/07/review-julie-julia-traditional-filmmaking-with-traditional-values/Review%3A+%27Julie+%26+Julia%27--Traditional+Filmmaking+With+Traditional+Values2009-08-07+20%3A04%3A42Carl+Kozlowski

Haunted by the Memory of Her Song: Fifty Years of ‘Rio Bravo’

The sun is sinking in the west
The cattle go down to the stream
The redwing settles in her nest
It’s time for a cowboy to dream….

Exquisitely crafted, but never ostentatious. Pleasantly mellow, but never lazy. Thematically rich, but never preachy. Respectful of tradition, but never stolid. Deeply compassionate, but never descending into schmaltz. Five decades ago, a group of men now long-dead (and, it must be said, one smokin’-hot woman, still-living) followed an aged veteran director into the Arizona desert to make a humble, heartfelt western based firmly on quintessentially American notions of courage, decency, and good humor. The result of their collaboration, Rio Bravo (1959), remains one of the great visceral pleasures of cinema.

Howard Hawks’ masterpiece stemmed from his disgust with the joyless anti-heroics of uptight, melodramatic westerns like Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952) and Delmer Daves’ 3:10 to Yuma (1957) — dark “message movies” that seemed to revel in smugly depicting small-town Americans as cynics and cowards. The man behind such classics as Scarface (1932), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), To Have and Have Not (1944), Red River (1948), and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) was in his early sixties in 1958, his career winding down after decades of constant production. He had interned for Famous Players-Lasky way back in 1916, and directed his first features in the mid-1920s. Thirty years later he was old and tired, and his last film, Land of the Pharaohs (1955), had been a disheartening flop. Since then, the previously prolific director hadn’t helmed a picture in three years, an unheard-of period of self-exile for a man who had cranked out movies regularly for decades. But the brazen slap across the face that High Noon had given America’s western mythology had bothered him. “I made Rio Bravo,” he later told an interviewer, “because I didn’t like High Noon. Neither did Duke. I didn’t think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help. And who saves him? His Quaker wife. That isn’t my idea of a good western.” (more…)

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Tags: 3:10 to Yuma (1957), academy awards, alfred hitchcock, Allen Barra, Angie Dickinson
Posted May 3rd 2009 at 5:30 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 1221545 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/05/03/haunted-by-the-memory-of-her-song-fifty-years-of-rio-bravo/Haunted+by+the+Memory+of+Her+Song%3A+Fifty+Years+of+%27Rio+Bravo%272009-05-03+12%3A30%3A38Leo+Grin

Summit scores a nice hit with KNOWING, which could reach $60M domestic, while I LOVE YOU, MAN has a shot at $70M in the US!

It was another good weekend for Summit Entertainment. The distributor behind last year’s meteoric hit Twilight has scored a solid hit with the Alex Proyas-directed Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage. Despite shaky word-of-mouth and negative reviews, the sci-fi thriller got a solid 9% bump on Saturday for a $9.7M second day, and it will likely finish its opening weekend with a possible $24.8M.

As a production company, Summit is responsible for some monster hits, including commercially and/or artistically successful films like Once (Oscar nominee for Best Picture), American Pie ($102..5M domestic), Memento (Oscar nominee for Best Original Screenplay: Chris Nolan), Mr. & Mrs. Smith ($186.3M domestic) and In the Valley of Ellah (Tommy Lee Jones nominated for Best Actor). But as a distributor, they got off to a slow start. (more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take, a.r. rachman, academy awards
Posted Mar 22nd 2009 at 11:33 am in Entertainment, Steve Mason's Box Office | 8666210 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/22/studioestimates-2/Summit+scores+a+nice+hit+with+KNOWING%2C+which+could+reach+%2460M+domestic%2C+while+I+LOVE+YOU%2C+MAN+has+a+shot+at+%2470M+in+the+US%212009-03-22+18%3A33%3A54Steve+Mason

KNOWING grabs $8.95M Friday & targets $23.2M weekend, but word-of-mouth may push I LOVE YOU, MAN to $70M domestic; DUPLICITY gets a only a C from CinemaScore!

Early box office returns are pointing to a weekend win for Knowing from Summit, but I will put my money on I Love You, Man (Dreamworks/Paramount) to generate more in US ticket sales over the long haul. The Nicolas Cage sci-fi thriller has grabbed an estimated $8.95M to start the weekend, and it will likely finish at $24M or so. That is, unless word-of-mouth catches up to it first.

Will reviews and word-of-mouth catch up to KNOWING?

Reviews for Knowing, written and directed by Alex Proyas, the inventive filmmaker behind the visually striking 1998 film Dark City and the 2004 Will Smith mega-hit I, Robot, has received overwhelmingly negative reviews (25% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), but thanks to Twitter, real-time movie-goer reactions spread like wildfire. Here are some Tweets I just grabbed off the social networking platform.

(more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take, a.r. rachman, academy awards
Posted Mar 20th 2009 at 10:30 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 8596218 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/20/estimates-9/KNOWING+grabs+%248.95M+Friday+%26amp%3B+targets+%2423.2M+weekend%2C+but+word-of-mouth+may+push+I+LOVE+YOU%2C+MAN+to+%2470M+domestic%3B+DUPLICITY+gets+a+only+a+C+from+CinemaScore%212009-03-21+05%3A30%3A27Steve+Mason

KNOWING is favored to win the weekend, but is I LOVE YOU, MAN poised for an upset?

For the last few weeks, Summit’s Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage, has appeared to be the likely winner of the upcoming box office weekend. But, my sources tell me that I Love You, Man, the new comedy starring Paul Rudd (Role Models) and Jason Segal (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) has surged in the latest pre-release industry tracking.

In the spirit of March Madness, I’m calling for the upset. I Love You, Man may not actually be a Judd Apatow movie, but it sure does look like one in trailers and commercials. The movie reportedly “rocked the house” at the South By South West Festival last week, and the buzz is very positive. I am calling for $21.5M, which would be above industry expectations.

(more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take, a.r. rachman, academy awards
Posted Mar 19th 2009 at 5:39 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 8503027 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/19/tracking-3/KNOWING+is+favored+to+win+the+weekend%2C+but+is+I+LOVE+YOU%2C+MAN++poised+for+an+upset%3F2009-03-20+00%3A39%3A04Steve+Mason

Audiences RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN on Saturday as The Rock’s new family film targets $25M start & $85M domestic, but WATCHMEN is now headed for no more than $110M in the US!

As expected Disney’s Race To Witch Mountain enjoyed a huge Saturday surge for just over $11M in tickets sold, and the reboot of the 70’s franchise will finish with about $25M for the 3-day. Overall, Race posted the year’s seventh-best Saturday performance.

TOP 10 SATURDAY GROSSES IN 2009
1. March 7 – Watchmen – $18.3M
2. February 21 – Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail – $16.6M
3. February 14 – Friday the Thirteenth – $14.3M
4. January 17 – Paul Blart: Mall Cop – $13.2M
5. January 10 – Gran Torino – $12.1M
6. January 31 – Taken – $11.65M
7. March 14 - Race To Witch Mountain – $11M (estimated)
8. February 7 – He’s Just Not That Into You – $10.9M
9. January 17 – Paul Blart: Mall Cop – $10M
10. January 17 – Gran Torino – $10M
(more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take, a.r. rachman, academy awards
Posted Mar 15th 2009 at 12:02 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 802822 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/15/studio-estimates/Audiences+RACE+TO+WITCH+MOUNTAIN+on+Saturday+as+The+Rock%27s+new+family+film+targets+%2425M+start+%26amp%3B+%2485M+domestic%2C+but+WATCHMEN+is+now+headed+for+no+more+than+%24110M+in+the+US%21+2009-03-15+19%3A02%3A03Steve+Mason

Photos surface from Clint Eastwood’s new movie THE HUMAN FACTOR – A solid bet to be in the Best Picture race?

If I was forced today to guess which 2009 release will win the Academy Award for Best Picture, I would first complain that it’s impossible to guess right. Then I would put my money on Clint Eastwood’s The Human Factor (Warner Bros). In mid-March, it’s silly to start discussing which upcoming movies will be Academy Award contenders, but there are some films, still in production, that seem to have the pedigree to “go all the way.” Eastwood’s next movie as a director, based on John Carlin’s Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela & the Game That Changed a Nation, seems like a decent bet.

Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman acquired the film rights to the book, and he will play a post-prison Nelson Mandela with friend Eastwood directing. The Human Factor will tell the story of how the 1995 World Cup Rugby Final between heavily-favored New Zealand and underdog South Africa helped to heal the post-Apartheid racial divide. Matt Damon, sporting blonde hair, has reportedly trained hard in order to credibly play South African captain Francois Pienaar. Some photos have begun to show up from the current production.

(more…)

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Tags: academy awards, Best Picture, blood work, changeling, Clint Eastwood
Posted Mar 14th 2009 at 9:26 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 8014260 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/14/humanfactor/Photos+surface+from+Clint+Eastwood%27s+new+movie+THE+HUMAN+FACTOR+-+A+solid+bet+to+be+in+the+Best+Picture+race%3F2009-03-15+04%3A26%3A28Steve+Mason

Wrestler-turned-movie star Dwayne Johnson leads RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN to a $24.25M opening, while WATCHMEN plummets 71%!

As Watchmen (Warner Bros) falls, “The Rock” appears to be racing to a weekend win. Disney’s Race To Witch Mountain, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is off to a solid start with $6.8M or so on opening day, and, with its expected surge in family matinee audiences on Saturday and Sunday, it will likely triumph with a possible $24.25M.

Meanwhile last weekend’s winner Watchmen staggered to a second Friday of only $5.4M or so, and I am projecting only $15.75M for the 3-day. That marks a 71% drop. Anything over $20M would have been acceptable, but the bottom has fallen out of this movie, and it will now struggle to reach $100M domestic. When the foreign and DVD are added, it may make a small profit, but it will likely be negligible. The superstitious might suggest that Watchmen writer Alan Moore’s alleged curse may be to blame, but the reality is that word-of-mouth has been more negative than for any movie in recent memory.

(more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take, a.r. rachman, academy awards
Posted Mar 13th 2009 at 10:46 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 7964662 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/13/estimates-8/Wrestler-turned-movie+star+Dwayne+Johnson+leads+RACE+TO+WITCH+MOUNTAIN+to+a+%2424.25M+opening%2C+while+WATCHMEN+plummets+71%25%212009-03-14+05%3A46%3A03Steve+Mason

WITCH MOUNTAIN could “Rock” WATCHMEN for surprising weekend win!

One of the coolest ways to use the social networking platform Twitter is to find out what people are thinking, saying and Twittering about in real time. Here’s a small sampling of Tweets from the opening weekend of Watchmen (Warner Bros).

The Watchmen = Epic fail!

If you haven’t seen The Watchmen yet, I’d urge you to read the graphic novel first. Well, actually, I’d urge you to JUST read the GN. lol.

Watchmen.undecided,confused as superhero film with

very little superhero action.Convoluted story,but overall watchable. My opinion only

I was bored while watching Watchmen

Just got out of Watchmen…. Ouch, would spend the 9 quid on – can’t even find the humour, brain switched off 1 hour into the 3- BIG YAWN (more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take, a.r. rachman, academy awards
Posted Mar 11th 2009 at 9:53 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Media Criticism, Reviews, Steve Mason's Box Office | 7804642 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/11/final-tracking-2/WITCH+MOUNTAIN+could+%E2%80%9CRock%E2%80%9D+WATCHMEN+for+surprising+weekend+win%212009-03-12+04%3A53%3A12Steve+Mason

WATCHMEN with $25.2M opening day, but “ticking downward,” now targeting $57M 3-day & $145M domestic!

“Who is watching the Watchmen?” Just about everyone…or so it seems.

The brand new film adaptation of the classic graphic comic Watchmen is a hit of monstrous proportions on its opening weekend, but not everyone loves it. In fact, not only is there a prominent character named Rohrschach (played by Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley), the film itself is serving as a Rohrschach Test for critics, fanboys and the broader public.

The Zack Snyder-directed $120M epic started with $4.5M in Thursday midnight business which is outstanding. There was no way for Watchmen to approach the $18.5M midnight start for lat summer’s The Dark Knight. First off, it is March and not the middle of summer blockbuster season. Kids have school. People are working. These are not the lazy days of July when it is easier for many to see a movie at midnight on Thursday, and hit the office late on Friday. The other factor is the movie’s rating. This is an R-rated movie, not PG-13 like The Dark Knight. (more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 300, a.r. rahman, academy awards
Posted Mar 6th 2009 at 10:32 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Media Criticism, Steve Mason's Box Office | 7469826 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/06/estimates-7/WATCHMEN+with+%2425.2M+opening+day%2C+but+%22ticking+downward%2C%22+now+targeting+%2457M+3-day+%26amp%3B+%24145M+domestic%212009-03-07+06%3A32%3A56Steve+Mason

It will take more than WATCHMEN writer Moore’s curse to keep Zack Snyder’s adaptation from topping $60M!

Watchmen (Warner Bros) has followed a long and winding road, passing through the hands of some remarkable directors like Terry Gilliam (The Fisher King), Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) and Paul Greengrass (United 93), before landing in the lap of the mastermind behind 2004’s stunning re-imagining of Dawn of the Dead and 2007’s March blockbuster 300. From the moment that the first trailer for Zack Snyder’s $120M comic book adaptation made its debut at midnight screenings of The Dark Knight in July, this has been a sure-fire mega-hit. Now, the big screen version of the 1986 graphic novel will be unleashed on Friday.

WATCHMEN writer Alan Moore has reportedly placed a curse on the movie

The original comic was written by Alan Moore and the lead artist was Dave Gibbons. The collaborators have radically different views of Snyder’s film adaptation.The latter has publicly expressed confidence in Snyder. Gibbons reveals to Wired magazine that at one point Joel Silver owned the film rights to Watchmen and that the producer was insistent that Arnold Schwarzenegger should play Dr. Manhattan. (That would have potentially been an unintentional disaster movie.)

(more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 300, academy awards, adam sandler
Posted Mar 4th 2009 at 11:23 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 7299852 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/04/watchmen-tracking/It+will+take+more+than+WATCHMEN+writer+Moore%27s+curse+to+keep+Zack+Snyder%27s+adaptation+from+topping+%2460M%212009-03-05+07%3A23%3A11Steve+Mason

Overlooked: The Top 10 Best Performances of 2008 that you may not have heard about!

The Academy Awards for 2008 have been handed out, and the “popular kids” have Oscars on their mantles, but the dirty little secret about winning awards is that you’ve gotta campaign for them. Thousands of dollars were spent by the distributors and filmmakers behind Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Milk (Focus Features), The Reader (Weinstein) and other assorted winners and nominees, but not all performances received that sort of big money backing.

I am an unabashed lover of the acting craft. I see virtually every movie, large and small, that passes through the US marketplace, and, taking nothing away from Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz and Heath Ledger, not all of 2008’s best performances have been recognized. I’m not going to be obvious here. Clint Eastwood was snubbed for Gran Torino, but he received lots of acclaim for the role including being named Best Actor by the National Board of Review. My goal is to highlight 10 performances from last year that have received virtually no acclaim in the US. Many of these roles can be found in hardly-seen, under-appreciated movies that came and went without much notice. Each and every one of these movies deserve a spot in your Netflix (or Blockbuster) cue. (more…)

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Tags: "Traitor", 2008, academy awards, acting, alan rickman
Posted Mar 1st 2009 at 2:10 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Featured Story | 7013043 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/01/performances/Overlooked%3A+The+Top+10+Best+Performances+of+2008+that+you+may+not+have+heard+about%212009-03-01+22%3A10%3A58Steve+Mason

The Oscars are Important

While watching the Academy Awards last night, I got to thinking about what an important role the Oscars play in our global community. And of course, there’s no more blatant case in point of Hollywood’s positive impact on society than Al Gore’s 2007 Oscar win for his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” What a speech too, huh? Just listen: “My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It’s not a political issue; it’s a moral issue…”

And solve it he did! Just look at what’s happened since that magical evening: (more…)

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Tags: academy awards, Al Gore, angelina jolie, Global warming, Jennifer Aniston
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 at 5:55 pm in Political Humor | 6497837 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/rlconover/2009/02/23/the-oscars-are-important/The+Oscars+are+Important2009-02-24+01%3A55%3A47Rodney+Lee+Conover

Top 5: Oscar Highlights and Lowlights

A 23.3 rating this year, compared to last year’s record low of 21.9. The headlines read, ”Oscar Ratings on the Rise.” If George W. Bush ran the Academy they would read, ”Oscar Viewership Barely Keeps Up With Annual Increase in U.S. Population.”

First the highlights: (more…)

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Tags: academy awards, Bill Maher, hugh jackman, oscar, sean penn
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 at 11:21 am in Top 5 | 64662102 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/02/23/top-5-oscar-highlights-and-lowlights/Top+5%3A+Oscar+Highlights+and+Lowlights2009-02-23+19%3A21%3A06John+Nolte

Celebutard of the Week: Bill Maher

You’d think they’d learn.

The Oscars have always been a venue where celebs bash presidents, governments and endorse leftist candidates. But this year the Oscars hit a low even for Hollywood – allowing Bill Maher to bitterly bash religion. For personal reasons. This earns him the title of Celebutard of the Week, in keeping with my new book: “Celebutards: The Hollywood Hacks, Limousine Liberals and Pandering Politicians Who are Destroying America.’’ (Kensington). (more…)

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Tags: academy awards, Bill Maher, oscar, Religulous
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 at 7:57 am in Entertainment, Politics | 64462246 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/apeyser/2009/02/23/slumdog-maher-celebutard-of-the-week-x2/Celebutard+of+the+Week%3A+Bill+Maher2009-02-23+15%3A57%3A36Andrea+Peyser

Mickey Rourke with another priceless acceptance speech! Stage set for Oscar glory?

Mickey Rourke won the Independent Spirit Award last night in Santa Monica, possibly setting the stage for a memorable Oscar moment tonight. Randy “The Ram” Robinson, the character that Rourke plays in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler (Fox Searchlight) is a blazing, raw, “broken down piece of meat” of a professional wrestler, and it is a once in a lifetime performance for the not-that-long-ago has-been.

His speech is so entertaining that as I was hosting an Oscar Eve radio special on 790 KABC in Los Angeles last night, every guest that had been at the Spirits could talk about nothing else, including Best Supporting Actress nominee Taraji P. Henson from Benjamin Button, E!’s Ben Lyons, Associated Press film critic Christy Lemire, James Marsh, the writer/director of Man On Wire (favored to win Best Documentary Feature tonight) and Emmy winning actor Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad (set to return on AMC on March 8). (more…)

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Tags: academy awards, acceptance speech, best actor, Darren Aronofsky, eric roberts
Posted Feb 22nd 2009 at 10:39 am in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Steve Mason's Box Office | 5738215 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/22/mickey/Mickey+Rourke+with+another+priceless+acceptance+speech%21+Stage+set+for+Oscar+glory%3F2009-02-22+18%3A39%3A02Steve+Mason

Final Oscar Predix: SLUMDOG, Rourke, Streep, Ledger, Cruz; BEN BUTTON could win just 2 of 13!

I am forecasting a coronation for Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) at Sunday’s Academy Awards. My final predictions call for Slumdog wins in 8 of the 9 categories it is competing in including Best Picture and Best Director: Danny Boyle. The only place I think it will fail is in the Sound Mixing category where The Dark Knight (Warner Bros) may trump it.

Slumdog Millionaire is about to win the Hollywood's Grand Prize

The “Battle Royale” of the night is Mickey Rouke from The Wrestler (Fox Searchlight) vs. Sean Penn in Milk (Focus) in the Best Actor category. There have been two ties in major categories in Academy Award history. The first was in 1932 when Frederic March in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde shared Best Actor with Wallace Beery for The Champ. (March had one more vote, but in that era, any finish within 3 votes was rules a tie.) Then in 1968, Katherine Hepburn for The Lion In Winter and Barbara Streisand for Funny Girl tied for Best Actress. If there was any justice, Rourke and Penn would share the award. In any other year, either of them would be a lock. Forced to make a pick, I’m going with Rourke.

(more…)

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Tags: a.r. rahman, academy awards, Amy Adams, andrew stanton, anne hathaway
Posted Feb 22nd 2009 at 1:01 am in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 5711436 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/22/final-oscar-pix/Final+Oscar+Predix%3A+SLUMDOG%2C+Rourke%2C+Streep%2C+Ledger%2C+Cruz%3B+BEN+BUTTON+could+win+just+2+of+13%212009-02-22+09%3A01%3A24Steve+Mason

Even if you wanted to see the Best Picture nominees this weekend, you might have trouble finding a theatre!

Tyler Perry’s decidedly un-Oscar Madea Goes to Jail (Lionsgate) is the box office story of Oscar weekend selling a massive $14.65M in opening day tickets with a possible $38M in sales expected for the weekend. But what about the Best Picture nominees, the supposed cool kids on the box office block?

Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) is the odds-on Best Picture winner, and it expanded to about 600 additional playdates this weekend for a total screen count of 2,224. The other four contenders for Hollywood’s biggest prize, however, are on a combined 2,508 screens. That means that they are essentially done with their theatrical engagements in the US (barring a truly shocking upset). Even if you wanted to see the other four nominees, you might have trouble finding them at your local multiplex – especially if you live outside a major city.
(more…)

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Tags: a.r. rahman, academy awards, alexandre desplat, as good as it gets, Bernard Schlink
Posted Feb 21st 2009 at 3:55 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Steve Mason's Box Office | 5696612 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/21/oscar-weekend/Even+if+you+wanted+to+see+the+Best+Picture+nominees+this+weekend%2C+you+might+have+trouble+finding+a+theatre%212009-02-21+23%3A55%3A11Steve+Mason

Studio Estimates: Tyler Perry is the undisputed box office king of Oscar weekend as MADEA GOES TO JAIL grabs a stunning $14.65M opening day for a $41.12M start!

Tyler Perry is the king of the Hollywood box office for Academy Awards weekend. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail (Lionsgate) debuted with just 2,032 playdates on Friday and scored a monstrous $14.65M for a Per Theatre Average of over $7,000. The final weekend take could be $41.12M.

The box office king....err....queen of Oscar weekend

Although I am not necessarily a fan of Tyler Perry movies, I am a Tyler Perry fan. He traveled the country for years doing live stage shows in order to fine-tune his act, and he identified an under-served audience – African Americans, and more specifically black, Christian women. Now he makes two movies a year, and he has two television series’ on TBS – House of Payne and Meet the Browns. He built a multi-million dollar studio in an under-served area in Atlanta, taking advantage of tax credits for building in a blighted neighborhood. Now he is building a mini-empire. He produces, writes, directs and stars in his projects, and he even helps to finance them.

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Tags: 3-d, a.r. rahman, academy awards, adam sandler, atlanta
Posted Feb 20th 2009 at 11:21 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 5665825 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/20/estimates-6/Studio+Estimates%3A+Tyler+Perry+is+the+undisputed+box+office+king+of+Oscar+weekend+as+MADEA+GOES+TO+JAIL+grabs+a+stunning+%2414.65M+opening+day+for+a+%2441.12M+start%212009-02-21+07%3A21%3A10Steve+Mason

Top 5: Best Picture Noms

With the Academy Awards just a few days away, here’s a list – from best to worst —  of the films nominated for best picture along with links to their Big Hollywood reviews. Last year when critics called 2007 a great year for movies, I thought to myself, “If that’s the definition of ‘great’ what’s ‘lousy’ gonna look like?”

Well, that would be 2008. (more…)

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Tags: academy awards, Frost/Nixon, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader
Posted Feb 19th 2009 at 11:41 am in Top 5 | 5517862 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/02/19/top-5-best-picture-noms/Top+5%3A+Best+Picture+Noms2009-02-19+19%3A41%3A13John+Nolte

Oscar odds: SLUMDOG, Rourke, Winslet, Cruz are favorites, but Penn, Streep and Tomei are live underdogs!

On Sunday, the Academy Awards will be handed out at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and there are some clear favorites. Slumdog Millionaire, the feel-good Danny Boyle Mumbai opus made for just $14M, is a heavy favorite to win Best Picture. It’s hard to imagine Slumdog missing out on Hollywood’s biggest prize, having won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA Award and just about everything in between.

But, in the world of gambling, you always want to look for value. What are the films and performances with longer odds that would be worth a wager on Sunday? My purpose here is to establish a betting line for each of the six major categories, and then find the value bet in each category.

(more…)

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Tags: academy awards, alexandre desplat, Amy Adams, amy ryan, angelina jolie
Posted Feb 15th 2009 at 6:29 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 5191848 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/15/oscar-odds/Oscar+odds%3A+SLUMDOG%2C+Rourke%2C+Winslet%2C+Cruz+are+favorites%2C+but+Penn%2C+Streep+and+Tomei+are+live+underdogs%212009-02-16+02%3A29%3A27Steve+Mason

What Recession? Biggest President’s Day Weekend in Hollywood History as FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH scares up $19.3M Friday and has a stab at $47M for 4 Days!

Although America is suffering through its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, there is no recession in the movie business. Led by the Warner Bros reboot of Friday the Thirteenth and a couple of surprisingly strong chick flicks, Hollywood’s top twelve grossing movies may grab a combined $201.5M over the long President’s Day weekend holiday, which marks an all-time best for the annual 4-day movie-going bonanza.

TOP GROSSING PRESIDENT’S WEEKENDS FOR HOLLYWOOD
- combined gross of top 12 films -
1. 2009 – $201.5M (estimated)
2. 2007 – $167.8M
3. 2008 – $141.1M
4. 2003 – $141M
5. 2005 – $137.1M

Director Marcus Nispel (2003’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) and the Platinum Dunes production company have gotten the all-new Friday the Thirteenth off to a spectacular $19.3M opening day. That could translate to a well-above-expectations $47M by Tuesday morning. The new Jason restart quickly follows the Platinum Dunes success of The Unborn, released on January 9 to a $19.8M 3-day take. That David D. Goyer written and directed genre pic was made for just $16M, and The Unborn has generated an estimated $42M in the US.

(more…)

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Tags: 3-d, a.r. rahman, academy awards, adam sandler, box office
Posted Feb 13th 2009 at 11:02 pm in Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 506709 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/13/estimates-5/What+Recession%3F+Biggest+President%E2%80%99s+Day+Weekend+in+Hollywood+History+as+FRIDAY+THE+THIRTEENTH+scares+up+%2419.3M+Friday+and+has+a+stab+at+%2447M+for+4+Days%212009-02-14+07%3A02%3A02Steve+Mason

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is the toast of the UK, winning 7 BAFTA Awards including Best Picture!

There was not a great deal of drama surrounding this year’s British Academy of Film & Television Arts Awards, commonly known as the BAFTA Awards. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) is a movie with deep roots in the UK. Director Danny Boyle was born in Manchester, England, lead actor Dev Patel is the star of the popular British television series Skins, and the movie is a gigantic hit in the British Isles with an impressive $20.6M (US dollars) in box office for Pathe, since its release there on January 6.

BAFTA Winner Mickey Rourke

The two major uncertainties entering Sunday’s ceremony were whether Kate Winslet, twice-nominated for Best Actress, would split her own vote and miss out on her second BAFTA Award and who would prevail in the Sean Penn-Mickey Rourke battle for Best Actor. Aside from that, it seemed like a Slumdog sweep, and that’s exactly how it played out.

(more…)

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Tags: a.r. rahman, academy awards, alexandre desplat, andrew stanton, anthony dod mantle
Posted Feb 8th 2009 at 2:04 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, News, Steve Mason's Box Office | 4539010 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/08/baftas/SLUMDOG+MILLIONAIRE+is+the+toast+of+the+UK%2C+winning+7+BAFTA+Awards+including+Best+Picture%212009-02-08+22%3A04%3A55Steve+Mason

2009 Oscars doomed? – FROST/NIXON, THE READER and MILK are among the 6 weakest grossing Best Picture nominees of the last decade!

There is a phenomenon known as “the Oscar bounce.” When a movie receives Academy Award nominations, especially one of the five coveted Best Picture slots, ticket-buyers generally follow. The Oscar seal of approval used to mean something to the rank-and-file moviegoer, but that seems to have changed.

Only one of this year’s Best Picture nominees has inspired any real passion from the broad public. The almost-certain Best Picture winner is Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), and its devotees, including critics and members of the Academy (not to mention yours truly), have made it a word-of-mouth smash hit. The Danny Boyle-directed feel-good Bollywood fusion movie made for a meager $14M added another $2.05M or so on Friday and is charting a 3-day course for about $7.4M. That will give the Slumdog a $77.4M take, and it could reach $90M-$95M before it’s through in American theatres.

(more…)

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Tags: a.r. rahman, academy awards, alexandre desplat, babel, ben button
Posted Feb 7th 2009 at 10:47 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Reviews, Steve Mason's Box Office, Video | 4505871 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/07/oscarboxoffice/2009+Oscars+doomed%3F+-+FROST%2FNIXON%2C+THE+READER+and+MILK+are+among+the+6+weakest+grossing+Best+Picture+nominees+of+the+last+decade%212009-02-08+06%3A47%3A17Steve+Mason

LOWEST RATED OSCAR TELECAST IN HISTORY?: Snubs of THE DARK KNIGHT, Clint Eastwood and Bruce Springsteen point toward a new ratings nadir for the Oscar show; The five Best Picture nominees have combined to gross only $186M, about what TDK delivered in first 4 days!

Nobody is ever completely satisfied with the Academy Award nominations, but with several key snubs, Oscar voters may have ensured that the 2009 telecast hits an all-time ratings low.

Investor Warren Buffet coined the phrase “skin in the game” to describe a situation where executives use their own money to buy shares in their company. The so-called Oracle of Omaha likes companies where insiders have their own money invested because they work harder, care more and generally are more emotionally invested.

The problem with the Oscars is that voters are nominating films that relatively few people have seen. The five movies nominated for Best Picture this week – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, The Reader and Frost/Nixon – have combined to gross just $186.7M. The Dark Knight passed that box office total early in its fifth day of release. (more…)

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Tags: a.r. rahman, academy awards, Alicia Keyes, Bernard Schlink, Best Picture
Posted Jan 22nd 2009 at 11:09 pm in Steve Mason's Box Office | 2839775 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/01/22/oscarsnub/LOWEST+RATED+OSCAR+TELECAST+IN+HISTORY%3F%3A+Snubs+of+THE+DARK+KNIGHT%2C+Clint+Eastwood+and+Bruce+Springsteen+point+toward+a+new+ratings+nadir+for+the+Oscar+show%3B+The+five+Best+Picture+nominees+have+combined+to+gross+only+%24186M%2C+about+what+TDK+delivered+in+first+4+days%212009-01-23+07%3A09%3A27Steve+Mason

FINAL TRACKING: UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS could reach $24M with MALL COP at #2; Eastwood’s TORINO and INKHEART battle for third; SLUMDOG, THE WRESTLER and REV ROAD set for solid expansions!

Michael Sheen has two movies in release this weekend. The classically-trained Welsh actor plays Lucien in the wildly commercial Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (Sony), opening on about 3,000 screens, and he plays David Frost in Frost/Nixon (Universal), expanding to about 800 playdates.

He is a classically-trained stage actor, who has starred in heavyweight UK productions of Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Amadeus and The Dresser, was somehow overlooked by both Hollywood Foreign Press and Oscar voters when he starred as Tony Blair in 2006’s The Queen. (He was outshined by Helen Mirren, who won every acting prize imaginable). This year, he is in the shadow of Frank Langella’s towering portrayal of President Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.

As an aside, The Queen was the second in screenwriter Peter Morgan’s Tony Blair trilogy. The first film was called The Deal for British television and tells the story of the rivalry between Blair and current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (This is a great title to put in your Netflix or Blockbuster cue.) The final film will be called The Special Relationship, which will focus on the intimate friendship between the British PM and President Bill Clinton between 1997-2000. Sheen has signed on, but there is no word on who will play Clinton. Morgan says the idea for the third film began to germinate when he heard that Blair and Clinton were alone together when Vice President Al Gore conceded the 2000 election.

In the meantime, Sheen will almost certainly have the #1 movie in America this weekend with Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. This is the third Underworld movie, but it is a prequel set in the dark ages with Sheen as Lucien, a young werewolf, who leads a war against Bill Nighy as Viktor, the leader of the vampire race. (more…)

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Tags: a.r. rahman, academy awards, adam sandler, Al Gore, Angela Bassett
Posted Jan 21st 2009 at 11:40 pm in Steve Mason's Box Office | 2725319 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/01/21/tracking-2/FINAL+TRACKING%3A+UNDERWORLD%3A+RISE+OF+THE+LYCANS+could+reach+%2424M+with+MALL+COP+at+%232%3B+Eastwood%27s+TORINO+and+INKHEART+battle+for+third%3B+SLUMDOG%2C+THE+WRESTLER+and+REV+ROAD+set+for+solid+expansions%212009-01-22+07%3A40%3A34Steve+Mason

Your Not-So-Ultimate Golden Globes Wrap-up

Some quick thoughts on the snoozefest known as the Golden Globes:

The big question, of course, is always how the Globes will affect the Oscar voters. My guess – somewhere ranging from “not at all,” to “completely and utterly.” And I’m kind of an expert on these things, so you can quote me on that.

There was pretty much no political posturing, except for Laura Dern, who bless her heart just couldn’t help herself. Dern of course won Best Supporting Actress for the HBO film Republicans Bad, Democrats Good. Or some such.

Kate Winslet winning two acting awards is pretty damn impressive, if you’re the kind of person who finds that sort of thing impressive. If you’re not, you probably weren’t impressed at all.

Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle looks an awful lot like Bradley Whitford as Danny Tripp in Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. (Other than the five of you who actually watched Studio 60, you’ll have to google to see just how dead on I am here.) (Sorry, the four of you. I’m actually the fifth.)

After American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, I think it’s fair to ask: what the hell did the suburbs ever do to Sam Mendes?

Shouldn’t Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull disqualify Steven Spielberg from receiving any lifetime achievement awards for awhile?

Ricky Gervais should be hosting every awards show Hollywood produces.

How much hell to pay will there be for The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky flipping off Mickey Rourke? And I guess we’re now saying “balls” on network prime time television!

It was nice to see Mickey Rourke win Best Actor. Which I guess was the whole point of giving him the award.

Colin Farrell was a jittery winner. Question of the day: nerves, or meth?

Farrell also said – with all the fake modesty he could muster – that the votes must have been counted in Florida. Nothing like an eight-year-old callback!

And lastly: For this I missed 24?

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Tags: academy awards, Balls, Golden Globes, oscars
Posted Jan 11th 2009 at 8:43 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment | 1586173 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/alevy/2009/01/11/your-not-so-ultimate-golden-globes-wrap-up/Your+Not-So-Ultimate+Golden+Globes+Wrap-up2009-01-12+04%3A43%3A28Andy+Levy