Category Archives: Amusements

On Semi-Pro’s Marketing

Amusements, Musings

A full review of the film will follow later today, but Will Ferrell’s Semi-Pro is certainly blazing more new paths with its ancillary marketing schemes. First there’s Ferrell’s in-character, costarring role with Heidi Klum in the recent, annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition (below).

Then, in moderate rotation, and I guess greatly defraying the cost of ad buys, are a series of television commercials for Old Spice deodorant in which Ferrell — again in character, as affably idiotic owner-coach-player hoops maven Jackie Moon — ad-libs about sweat, exercise and “herniated colons,” and how Old Spice is the all-important cure-all. They’re funny (despite my girlfriend’s insistence to the contrary) and in keeping with the arbitrary tone of the movie, though still a little bit diminishing. It smacks of all the cross-promotional stuff done for Talladega Nights, though a bit less artfully integrated, since part of the “joke” there was in spoofing the commercialization of racing, and its many sponsors.

Lindsay Lohan Wins Razzies

Amusements, Ephemera

So after just baring all for New York Magazine, Lindsay Lohan has followed that up by having her latest film, I Know Who Killed Me, “win” eight of the nine prizes for which it was nominated this past weekend at the annual Golden Raspberry (aka “Razzies”) awards, in which a spotlight is shone on some of the worst films of the year. Lohan alone managed to win two, for both Worst Actress and
Worst Screen Couple, for a scene in the movie in which she appears
alongside herself. With its eight victories, I Know Who Killed Me smashed the unenviable record set by John Travolta’s sci-fi epic Battlefield Earth and the NC-17-rated Showgirls,
which each scored seven wins at previous ceremonies.

Eddie Murphy, meanwhile, was awarded
three of the four prizes in the worst acting categories, for a trio of
characters, both male and female, he played in Norbit. With Murphy and Lohan’s pictures, ahem, sucking up all the oxygen at the ceremonies, Daddy Day Camp, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., was the only other movie to be humiliated with a Razzie award, for Worst Prequel or Sequel. Sadly, no one was on hand to attempt to one-up Halle Berry’s surprise in-person acceptance of her award for Catwoman.

Bush, Obama Make T-Shirts

Amusements, Politics

I’ve been traveling a lot lately, and while flying through Washington’s Dulles airport, stopped to snap these admittedly too blurry photos from a presumably duty-free gift shop.

The first, above, celebrates the end of George Bush‘s presidency. Not that Dubya would have occasion to ever glimpse it, but it has to be somewhat weird when the city in which you live (when you’re not clearing brush) has racks of T-shirts calling you out and celebrating your scheduled departure.

The second is more of the celebratory-populist vein. The natural, consumerist extension of the get-on-the-love-train affection for Barack Obama I somewhat get (“Barack & Roll,” it says above), but… referenced in the form of an AC/DC visual gag? Very strange, indeed. Oh, and not pictured, from the same storefront walkway: the 16-inch, disturbingly lifelike Hillary Clinton nutcracker. (Seriously.) When I think about China manufacturing stuff like that, and what sociocultural conclusions they must draw from it, it amuses me to no end.

Happy Birthday, Tea Leoni

Amusements, Birthdays

It’s a happy 42nd birthday to smokin’ hot Téa Leoni, whose superbabies with husband David Duchovny will be smart, hella-attractive, effortlessly funny and also doubtlessly great interviews, should occasion arrive. We can only hope that they’ll be benevolent rulers of our world as well.

While one can’t presume to know exactly how the couple will celebrate, at least one thing can be eliminated with relative certainty; Leoni won’t be having freaky sauna sex tonight.

Lindsay Lohan Bares All

Amusements, Ephemera, Musings

So Lindsay Lohan has bared all for New York Magazine and photographer Bert Stern, who snapped the last pictures of Marilyn Monroe, six weeks before she was found dead. To that end, the shots — taken February 5, at the Hotel Bel-Air — are a recreation of those photographs, with Lohan posing with little to nothing, save see-through fabrics and strings of diamonds, like the photographs below.

In the interview accompanying the spread, penned by Amanda Fortini, Lohan dismisses talk that the pictures are part of a gambit to restore any shine to her big screen career, after last year’s lackluster grosses of Georgia Rule and I Know Who Killed Me, and a couple well-publicized run-ins with the law and stints in rehab. Rather, the actress offered a more straightforward explanation: “I didn’t have to
put much thought into it. I mean, Bert Stern? Doing a Marilyn shoot?
When is that ever going to come up? It’s really an honor,” she says.

In laying out some of the particulars of the air-quote closed-set shoot, Fortini delivers a compelling thumbnail sketch of the “celebrity industrial complex,” but also raises questions about who is giving Lohan advice, if anyone. Part of her rationalization, given the next day by phone (“Here is a woman who is giving herself to the public,” says Lohan about the Monroe photos, “she’s
saying, ‘Look, you’ve taken a lot from me, so why don’t I give it to
you myself?’ She’s taking control back”) doesn’t really pass the smell test, particularly when Lohan has to battle newly forged ridden-hard-and-put-away-wet tabloid problems largely of her own creation. It’s great for the hornball set, naturally, these pictures, but what does it accomplish, other than remind folks, “Oh yeah, I guess we haven’t really heard anything about Lohan the past eight or nine weeks?” Does it help make her one iota more bankable, or land a film of gimme-put substance, either commercially or artistically? No, it doesn’t; it merely reinforces the notion that she’s only suitable for wild-child and/or other dinged, reckless parts.

Gossip on The Wolf Man

Amusements, Ephemera, Musings

Dining last night with some friends, including one in the know, there was some information gleaned about The Wolf Man, the Andrew Kevin Walker-scripted project, starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt, from which director Mark Romanek walked away. While he indeed quit over budget concerns and considerations (he refused to commit to a production kitty that had already ballooned from $100 million to around $120 million-plus), Romanek was also on the verge of being fired before he chose to walk. Universal called in the director over the weekend several weeks back, in a last-ditch, ass-covering effort to get him to toe the line; by quitting, he voided his contract, and made things a lot easier.

Jurassic Park III and October Sky helmer Joe Johnston has already officially been tapped as The Wolf Man‘s new director, as announced by Variety last week, but this after both Brett Ratner (who of course jumped into the driver’s seat on X-Men: The Last Stand when Bryan Singer abandoned the franchise he originated to take the reigns on Superman Returns) and Frank Darabont (who most recently directed The Mist, an adaptation of Stephen King’s source text of the same name) were each given hearty consideration. One of those names is entirely expected, one decidedly less so, in my opinion…

Bond 22 Title… Is What?

Amusements

So the new, official title of the 22nd Bond picture was revealed to reporters Thursday at a press conference at Pinewood Studios outside of London, where filming on the movie began earlier this month. And the tabbed moniker is… Quantum of Solace? Look, I don’t want to question whether or not the title was drawn blindly from a fan contest, but… was the title drawn blindly from a fan contest? And besides, wasn’t that the title of one of Stephen Hawking’s best-sellers?

Location shooting is planned for Austria, Italy and Panama, and the film — which picks up where 2006’s Casino Royale left off — of course returns Daniel Craig as Bond and Judi Dench as MI-6 boss M. New additions include pouty hottie Olga Kurylenko and
Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), who will play the
movie’s villain. If my photo posting was working properly, I could include a few pictures from said press conference, but those will have to wait for another day, it seems. Quantum of Solace opens Stateside and in Great Britain on November 7.

Daniel Day-Lewis Breaks Up by Fax

Amusements

There are a few ways to take this Daniel Day-Lewis piece from the Daily Mail, by Paul Scott, and while some are flattering (reuniting father-in-law Arthur Miller with his estranged Down’s Syndrome-afflicted son before the former’s death in 2005), it’s mostly a hit parade document of take-down gossip, even if seemingly not sharply honed by personal animus. All the juicy chart-toppers are here — breaking up with baby mama Isabelle Adjani by fax when she was pregnant with his son, breaking down on stage during a performance of Hamlet, pissing off Liam Neeson and weirding out crew members by aggressively staying in character, plus other tales of carpentry and psychological duress. Good stuff, really. It’s just that Day-Lewis is older (50), actually talented, highly respected and reclusive to boot, so he doesn’t get any paparazzi shine for his act. Don’t let those smilin’ eyes fool you, though… some true turbulence lies within. For the full read, click here.

Abigail Breslin Named Star of Tomorrow

Amusements, Ephemera, Musings

It’s awful news for a friend of mine, yesterday’s announcement that 11-year-old Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin will be named the Showest “Female Star of Tomorrow” at the closing night ceremony of the Las Vegas industry professional event, held March 10-13.

“Since making her big screen debut at the tender age of five, Abigail Breslin has impressed critics and movie fans across the world with her versatile, enchanting and charismatic performances,” said Mitch Neuhauser, co-managing director of the event. “From her breakout role in Signs to her astounding performance in Little Miss Sunshine, Abigail has shown Hollywood that she is a force to be reckoned with, for many years to come.”

The commercial breakthrough of those two, above-mentioned films notwithstanding, it seems an unusual choice in some regards, as Breslin, who next appears in Nim’s Island, hasn’t been a recognized top-liner for very long. I wonder what older brother Spencer thinks of this? Well… both he and Dakota Fanning, actually. She may be sticking needles in an Abigail voodoo doll tonight.

27 Dresses, 729 Ladies

Amusements, Ephemera

Katherine Heigl’s 27 Dresses, opening wide on January 11, had a nationwide sneak preview on Thursday, December 27, which giggly pre-teens at my nearby neighborhood theater were very effective in sneaking into. That winkingly date-rigged foretaste, however, was nothing compared to the larger publicity stunt that 20th Century Fox had in store for the movie — live standees.

That’s right — 27
models, like the ones above, pulled duty at 27 specially selected locations across the country, wearing
specially made bridesmaid dresses adorned with the film’s title and credits, inspired by the movie’s like-minded one-sheet. The question, then, arises: how hassled were those 729 ladies, and how boggled were the minds of quietly giddy adolescent boys at the sight of so many bare shoulders? After all, where’s the bra… where’s the bra?!

There Will Be Poster Amusement

Amusements, Posterized!

The tattered tome poster, with the tagline “When Ambition Meets Faith” and its single, vertical, red line, is both simplistic and eye-catching, but does anyone else think that There Will Be Blood‘s other poster, with a hat-sporting Daniel Day-Lewis, makes him look like Burt Reynolds? I swear that Paramount Vantage further lightened that image on the right-hand side, which has a successful reductive effect. But still…

Jessica Simpson’s New Flick Bombs

Amusements, Musings

After first allegedly putting the jinx on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, the state of Texas returned the favor on Jessica Simpson this past weekend, when her latest film opened in eight theaters to a total of $1,322. No, not Major Movie Star, the Private Benjamin rip-off that audiences will still have a chance to reject and deride in 2008, but Blonde Ambition, in which a young professional woman (Simpson) unwittingly becomes the pawn of
two business executives in their bid to oust the head of a
mega-conglomerate.

Since, in addition to Simpson, the film costars fellow Texan Luke Wilson (and Andy Dick too, who’s… big in the Lone Star state?), Millennium Films executives decided to give the movie a limited, down-home Christmas run, trying to bait more interest from other cinema chains
across the country for a wider January release. That worked out smashingly. Averaged out, Blonde Ambition‘s gross comes to around $165 per theater, and if you figure an average ticket price of around $8, that’s less than 20 people per screen, per day. Awesome… a line-in-the-sand stand by home-staters will certainly help inflict another serious if not yet mortal wound on Simpson’s would-be big screen career.

A Grab-Bag of National Treasure Tidbits

Amusements

Richard Horgan has another amusing/cool blog item up on FilmStew, this time comprised of just a bunch of overheard tidbits from National Treasure: Book of Secrets‘ press screening and junket. All in all, it’s a fun 45-second read. My only comment is regarding the news that the lovely Diane Kruger is dating Joshua Jackson, and yet still can’t get a table at Katsuya. Paraphrasing David Spade, “Wait a second… Diane Kruger is a dude?”

Francis Ford Coppola Talks to Martians

Amusements, Musings

Richard Horgan has an amusing blog item up on FilmStew about Francis Ford Coppola’s forthcoming Youth Without Youth and, more specifically, the press kit for the film, which is, to put it charitably, an abstruse exercise. Starring Tim Roth as an elderly linguistics professor who finds his age reversed after he survives a cataclysmic event, and Alexandra Maria Lara (Control, The Company) as his muse/lover/study subject, Youth Without Youth is to my mind — nominal, tangential intrigue involving Nazis aside — an extended metaphor of Coppola’s plaintive yearning for films of bygone youth, a film of muddy Faustian reversals. It’s a movie made in search of something, no doubt — an examination of intellectual pursuit told in an impressionistic style — but it seems uncertain of its own moves and rhythms.

So how do you sell this, in part? Well, you put together a press kit which in part features Coppola being interview by a Martian, naturally, a preciously constructed exchange in which the filmmaker is queried about thought and “the true nature of reality.”

John Cusack Is Not Wes Bentley

Amusements

It’s kind of like staring at the sun or sniffing gasoline, this short but powerful clip of John Cusack, at the press day for Grace is Gone, having to try hard to convince a young, bimbo interviewer that he’s not actually in American Beauty. But my God, it’s still funny, just for the way he moves back in his chair, and the fact that you know he shared the story with both his sister and Jeremy Piven the next time they talked.

Amy Adams = Isla Fisher Upgrade

Amusements, Musings

A friend caught Enchanted recently, enjoyed it (with only a few qualifications), and had this to say, which I thought was spot-on:

“Amy Adams has always been the real deal to me; she’s like
Isla Fisher’s way cooler, way more talented, and frankly hotter sister. And I
hear she started on Enchanted for pre-recording the songs and animation and
everything even before Junebug, which says quite a lot about Disney’s eye for
talent.”

On Photoshopped Pictures

Amusements

Yes, the picture, from 20th Century Fox’s advance publicity kit, pegged to this review of Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is obviously a somewhat poorly Photoshopped interpolation, designed to cram Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman in the same frame. But it’s not nearly as bad as this one from Click, of Adam Sandler and Kate Beckinsale. I don’t know what’s more amusing — the fact that studios, with all the massive resources at their disposal, can’t even stage a few good publicity two-shots, or fact that someone receiving college credit apparently got to take a break from fetching coffee and crank out these gems.

Joke of the Day

Amusements

Been thinking about Fred Claus, and in addition to its very funny “Siblings Anonymous” scene, this tidbit stuck with me, an obviously improvised mock-rant joke from Vince Vaughn: “I’ve got a lawyer with a lot of vowels in his last name, and he’s gonna make you pay a lot of money to make up for the hurt I felt from your handlers…”

Rachel Nichols Brings the P2 Cleavage

Amusements, Ephemera

Rachel Nichols joined KROQ morning drive-time deejays Kevin and Bean for two segments this morning, to promote her new parking garage thriller of containment, P2, which opens today. Here at Shared Darkness, we will help promote the movie with the photo below.

IMDB’s erroneous trivia page, Bean, who confessed a creepy crush, made his play for Nichols’ heart by asking her about boxer Shane Mosley’s upcoming bout and the diminishing value of the dollar (because the aforementioned page lists her as having graduated with a double major in math and economics). Nichols gamely played along, but confessed she didn’t have a plethora of economic theories at her disposal. Among the otherwise pedestrian recountings of P2‘s filming and flattering assessments of her Charlie Wilson’s War costars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, though, Nichols did mention that there was some discussion about the “nightie” mentioned in the original script, and a scene in which she gets submerged in water in an elevator. “I opted for cleavage instead of protrusions,” Nichols said. I’m not sure that there will be many complaints…

That’s Not Perfect…

Amusements, Musings

So I freely admit that I know nothing about The Perfect Holiday, releasing nationwide
December 12 from Yari Film Group, apart from a single publicity email I
received yesterday. It’s being billed as the heart-warming story of Nancy
(Gabrielle Union), a loving single mother of three who falls for Benjamin
(Morris Chestnut), a talented but struggling songwriter working part-time as a
mall Santa. Are We There Yet?-type
conflicts arise when her oldest son, 10-year old John-John, convinces his
younger brother and sister to help scheme against their mother’s new boyfriend
in the hopes that she will reunite with their father, rap-mogul J-Jizzy
(Charles Q. Murphy).

Oh, and the film is narrated and produced by Queen Latifah, who
costars in the magical role of Mother Christmas opposite Terrence Howard, who
plays “the amusingly Scrooge-ish Bah-Humbug.”

But I do know that the above is not a picture you should have shown me…