Category Archives: Ephemera

Denzel Washington Visits Troops

November 26, 2007EphemeraBrent

Thanks to our wayward starlets, there’s always enough bad and/or stupid celebrity news out there, so it’s nice to get word on a good story to help restore faith in the law of averages. To wit, Denzel Washington and his family recently visited
troops at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. This is where wounded soldiers who
have been moved from Germany come to be hospitalized and rehabilitated in the
United States — especially burn victims.

Ronald McDonald Houses,
Fisher Houses are a charitable hotel “chain” (there are several in Washington D.C. as well, near Walter Reed) where soldiers’ families can stay, for little or no
charge, while their loved one is staying on base and/or receiving treatment. While Washington was visiting BAMC, his hosts gave
him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses, which you can imagine stay filled most of the time. Rumor has it that he asked how much it would
cost to build one of them, took out his checkbook and scratched a check for the full amount
on the spot. More pictures to follow later this week…

Being Thankful for Mr. Brooks…

November 22, 2007EphemeraBrent

What’s there to be thankful for today? Well, MGM wants me to let you know that Mr. Brooks debuts on pay-per-view and video-on-demand. Now that’s Thanksgiving, baby. So if football isn’t your thing, enjoy instead some Kevin Costner, with a side dish of William Hurt as his murderous id. As far as careening serial killer ensemble pieces, it has to be the film of the year, and probably, in a close finish, the second best flick set in Portland, if only because of the copious nudity in Feast of Love. Costner’s bare haunches just don’t do it for me, sorry. For the movie’s trailer, click here.

The Mist Creeps Into Theaters

November 21, 2007EphemeraBrent

I’m looking out my window this morning, and it’s the best promotional gimmick any studio has dreamt up in a while, though surely someone owes Sean Connery‘s Sir August de Wynter a boatload of cash. Yep, The Mist is out today, along with Timothy Olyphant‘s Hitman and Enchanted, starring the beatific Amy Adams. Oh, and August Rush and This Christmas do the wide release thing, too. I haven’t seen the former, but I have to question its seasonal release and/or title. I’ve already had confused emails from two potential moviegoers in its demographic wheelhouse… not a good sign.

NBC Inhales Oxygen

November 21, 2007EphemeraBrent

NBC Universal announced today that it has completed its
acquisition of Oxygen Media, one of the nation’s leading female-focused cable
television networks. The transaction is valued at approximately $875 million
net of financial assets.

The acquisition by NBC Universal is part of the company’s stated
strategy to “transform its portfolio and focus on assets with potential for
rapid growth” (read: make money?). Oxygen will become part of the NBC Universal
Cable group, led by Jeff Gaspin, President and Chief Operating Officer,
Universal Television Group. “We are thrilled to add Oxygen Media to our roster
of high-growth cable networks,” said Jeff Zucker, President and CEO, NBC
Universal. “We look forward to having Oxygen play a key role in the ongoing growth
of our cable entertainment business.”

Oxygen strengthens NBC Universal’s position of leadership in
upscale, female-focused media. Its audience complements the viewers of Bravo
and The Today Show, and visitors to
iVillage, the leading online site for women. These assets across multiple
platforms give NBCU an even more attractive go-to-market position in the
fast-growing women’s entertainment and lifestyle market.

Lauren Zalaznick, President of Bravo Media, has been
appointed by Gaspin to oversee Oxygen Media, adding the network to her current
responsibilities; she will continue to report to Gaspin.
Additionally, she will continue her service as Chair of NBC Universal’s Green
Council. “We believe we can bring great value to the Oxygen brand, with our cross-promotion
opportunities, programming expertise and distribution team,” said Gaspin. “Lauren
has had tremendous success growing Bravo and we know, with her talent and
passion, she will do the same with Oxygen.” Under Zalaznick’s watch, Bravo has
achieved record ratings and critical acclaim, and recently completed the
highest-rated quarter in its history among both adults 18-49 and total viewers.

What Would Jesus Buy?

November 18, 2007EphemeraBrent

What Would Jesus Buy? Well, Telly Davidson knows, over on FilmStew, as he gives the so-titled documentary on the American consumer’s obsession with the materialistic side of Christmas a nice working over, and ponders which came first — our escapist comfort in material things or the stupefying effects of consumerism and advertising run amok?

L.A. Hosts Confessions of a Superhero

November 14, 2007Ephemera, ScreeningsBrent

Fresh off its screening at AFI Fest, Matthew Ogens’ freakshow documentary Confessions of a Superhero, presented by fellow showman Morgan Spurlock, will get a limited engagement Southern California run, starting this Friday, November 16, at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills. The Friday and Saturday night screenings at 7:30 p.m. will both be followed by Q&As. For more information, click here.

Charles Burnett Signs DVDs

November 12, 2007EphemeraBrent

Killer of Sheep (reviewed in full next week), director Charles Burnett will appear at Rocket
Video in Los Angeles on Thursday, November 15, at 7 p.m., autographing
copies of Milestone’s superb release, which also gathers several of the filmmaker’s short-form projects, including Quiet as Kept, his new short on Hurricane Katrina. An interview and a
brief Q&A session will precede the event. Rocket Video is located at 726
N. La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. For
more information, call (323) 965-1100. Admission and parking are free.

On Iraq’s Human Cost

November 10, 2007Ephemera, Irritations, PoliticsBrent

the human toll of hubris and an ideologically blinkered push for war — as shown on NBC national news last night, during a photo montage segment about President Bush’s visits with wounded veterans.

Rachel Nichols Brings the P2 Cleavage

November 9, 2007Amusements, EphemeraBrent

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…

Cyrano Fernandez Bows at AFI Fest

November 8, 2007Ephemera, ScreeningsBrent

Writer-director Alberto Arvelo (House with a View of the Sea) gives the French tale of Cyrano de Bergerac a Latin twist with his latest film, Cyrano Fernandez, which makes its world premiere at AFI Fest tomorrow evening, November 9, at 7 p.m. Set against the gritty backdrop of one of Latin America’s largest slums, the movie stars Edgar Ramirez (Domino, The Bourne Ultimatum), Pastor Oviedo and the not-at-all-unattractive Jessika Grau. For more information on the movie’s festival screening, and all of AFI Fest, click here. For Cyrano Fernandez‘s trailer, meanwhile, click here.

Angelina Jolie Talks A Mighty Heart

November 7, 2007EphemeraBrent

In town already for some Beowulf junketing, Angelina Jolie appeared at a special screening of A Mighty Heart on Sunday evening at the Paramount lot, to hold forth at a Q&A moderated by Maxim critic Pete Hammond.

Jolie is respected, and should secure a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work as Mariane Pearl, the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Talking about the film’s emotional crescendo, Jolie got emotional herself, and she also had plenty to say about her continuing friendship with the real-life Mariane.

Wait… How Many Hours in a Day?

October 31, 2007EphemeraBrent

So I’m writing a novel. In the span of a month…
what? Yeah, I know. Why, you might ask. That would be reasonable. Some folks
get drunk and call up their high school exes, some folks get drunk and wax nostalgic
to old songs by Poison or Journey. Some folks get drunk and respond to emails
from friends deciding to write a novel in a month.

I wish I could say I was the latter. I was stone cold sober
when I jumped on this merry-go-round.

AFI Fest Gets a Midnight Kiss

October 30, 2007EphemeraBrent

Writer-director Alex Holdridge’s rollicking, New Year’s Eve-set In Search of a Midnight Kiss, which plays at AFI Fest in Los Angeles on Saturday, November 3, at 3:30 p.m., and the following Saturday, November 10, at 7:15 p.m., gets an amusing promotional tout in this one-minute YouTube clip. I wonder what George Clooney really thinks about the hair down there — is he a George of the Jungle?

David Lynch on Twin Peaks’ DVD Set

October 27, 2007EphemeraBrent

David Lynch submits to a brief Q&A with Entertainment Weekly‘s Jeff Jensen in advance of next week’s DVD release of Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition, talking a bit about the supplemental extras on the set and his new line of signature coffee, as well as what spelled the death of the hit show, in his opinion: “ABC asked us to snip the goose’s head off, and it killed the goose. And
there went everything. It was never meant to be — there was so much
more to the mystery…”

On Zodiac’s DVD Controversy

October 25, 2007Ephemera, IrritationsBrent

The two-disc director’s cut DVD of David Fincher’s Zodiac that’s being listed for sale on Amazon with a release date of January 8, 2008, touts a running time of 162 minutes, yet the awards screeners for the film — listed on the cover as being the director’s cut — come advertised with a 158-minute running time, which is the same length as the movie’s theatrical exhibition. So what gives? It’s a typo; the awards screener does indeed run 162 minutes, adding four minutes to the original cut. Still, that seems a pretty miniscule splitting of hairs for a dense, cerebral crime drama — who went to the mat for the studio over four minutes?

Michael Bay Blasts Awards Ceremony

October 24, 2007Amusements, EphemeraBrent

Transformers director Michael Bay, no stranger to speaking his mind, let loose on the Hollywood Film Festival’s awards ceremony upon its conclusion last night, calling it the worst awards show he’s ever attended, which of course then raised the immediate question… wait a second, how many awards shows has Michael Bay been to?

“I’ve never seen such a rude awards show,” said Bay. “Could you believe that? I’ve
never seen a show where everyone talks through the first seven awards.” If they were anything but purchased, I suppose people might care a bit more. Still, points for calling a spade a spade. I guess $700 million in worldwide box office will put a little swing in your dick…

On Tom Perrotta, Birthdays, Hotel Chevalier

October 23, 2007Birthdays, EphemeraBrent

Writers Digest has up a solid interview with Tom Perrotta, the author of Little Children, in which he talks about his writing process, as well as his adaptation of The Abstinence Teacher, which he’s working on for Little Miss Sunshine co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris.

Also, surprising exactly no one in the know, the New York Times is reporting that when The Darjeeling Limited, which opened in about 200 theaters in late September, expands nationwide this Friday,
moviegoers will first see a short film, Hotel Chevalier, which distributor Fox Searchlight hopes will boost ticket sales. The thematically linked piece, starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman, is available online, and was originally not going to be shown with the film. At the movie’s press day in Los Angeles a couple weeks ago, though, director Wes Anderson admitted that it would be pegged to later prints of the movie.

And finally, it’s happy birthday wishes today to Ryan Reynolds and Ang Lee, who turn 31 and 53, respectively.

Some Depressing Transformers News…

October 23, 2007EphemeraBrent

So if there wasn’t enough troubling news in the world, now comes word that Transformers has sold 8.3 million DVDs in North America alone since its debut on October 16, with 4.5 million of those coming in a single day. After pulling in over $315 million domestically at the box office ($700 million-plus worldwide), the movie has already become the top-selling October DVD release of all time, as well as the best-selling HD-DVD ever, with 190,000 copies of the latter now sitting on coffee tables next to recently popped copies of Halo 3 and Maxim Magazine.

Ben Affleck on The Daily Show

October 19, 2007Amusements, Ephemera, MusingsBrent

Fraternal relationships were under the microscope on The Daily Show last night, when Jon Stewart rightly questioned this statement from a bearded Ben Affleck, about his relationship with younger brother Casey: “When we were younger we kind of grab-assed around a little bit, like most people probably do with their siblings.” Errr… what?

Affleck was more than a bit off his game; unlike Matt Damon’s appearance earlier this summer, this chat had little wing-ding charm, though it was funny when Affleck mentioned how he was being asked the same junket questions about sibling fights, and had thus concluded that all journalists have horrible relationships with their brothers and sisters. Not so, Stewart insisted. “We just don’t think very hard about our interview questions. We’re not very good at what we do…”

Michael Caine Pimps Sleuth

October 17, 2007Amusements, EphemeraBrent

Michael Caine was on The Late Late Show last night, and his shared across-the-pond heritage with host Craig Ferguson made for two delicious segments, in which he didn’t even mention his work on The Dark Knight, as he did here. In addition to a very funny taped bit in which Ferguson reenacted the diner scene from When Harry Met Sally…, in costume, as Caine and Sean Connery (the latter showcasing his “O face,” for what it’s worth), Caine made his pitch for a gender-inverted Alfie remake (Alfina, with his cad recast as the strict father of an out-of-control daughter). He also shared some great memories about Connery, and waxed philosophical about the nine years of theater at the beginning of his career (more on this later this week, from a chat I recently had with Caine), saying he didn’t miss it since he regarded “theater as a woman who didn’t give a damn about me and movies as a mistress who I could do anything with.”

Richard Shepard on Test Screenings

October 15, 2007Ephemera, Interviews, ScreeningsBrent

I met up with writer-director Richard Shepard
at a hotel bar maybe six weeks back to talk about the spry, post-war, investigatory
caper flick The Hunting Party — currently getting a half-hearted release shaft job from the Weinstein Company — and
while he touched on the phenomenon of test screenings in this separate tidbit, he also talked more directly about their merit, even
to filmmakers who trade in varying tonalities. To wit:

“Test screenings can go horribly wrong. If the studio
listens to every inane comment then you’re screwed,” Shepard relates. “If
you’re spending $100 million and making an action movie, then you want to reach
the biggest possible audience you can. But if you’re making an under-$20
million movie that mixes… this and that, it’s a particular type of movie, and
if you try to steer it to everyone, it’s going to fail. There’s a
nerve-wracking element if the studio is listening to the notes in a manifestly
different way than the filmmaker is, but as a filmmaker if you listen to what
real people have to say about your movie, it can be really helpful. It can help
clear up confusion, you can tighten the movie. You can see a scene hundreds of
times in an editing room and think that it’s fine, and then you see it in front
of an audience and you can just feel that people are a little bored. …Sometimes
you have to say, ‘I have to be bored there, because I can’t cut anything out of
it.’ At a certain point, especially if you’re making a movie that mixes tones,
you’re never going to please everyone — the best thing that you could hope for
in those test screenings is to please yourself by making the best movie that
you can.”

AFI Fest Goes Viral

October 13, 2007Ephemera, Trailer WatchBrent

AFI Fest 2007 has taken to the web help promote its forthcoming slate, filming a number of short, tongue-in-cheek viral promo videos. This one, for the in-competition documentary 1000 Journals, finds press and publicity manager John Wildman sheepishly copping to director Andrea Kreuzhage that he’s been hording a couple of the titular tomes; this one, meanwhile, finds programming director Shaz Bennett seeking autmotive help from Big Rig director Doug Pray and his daughter. For more information on the festival, which kicks off November 1, click here. More updates to follow.

A Moment of Self-Tout…

October 11, 2007EphemeraBrent

For what it’s worth, should one desire to confirm that I conform to the saddest stereotypes of a film critic (i.e., a white guy with glasses), I appear on the second episode of That Indie Film Show, discussing Gone Baby Gone, Lars and the Real Girl and Lust, Caution. It’s about halfway through the show, which can be accessed on IKlipz.com or by simply clicking here.

Nine Lives, Not of the Feline Variety

October 11, 2007EphemeraBrent

Not to be confused with writer-director Rodrigo Garcia’s 2006 film of the same name, or the 2004 horror flick co-starring Paris Hilton, or even John August’s The Nines, starring Ryan Reynolds, from just earlier this fall, The Nines is a provocative film debut from writer-director Dean Howell
and pioneer activist Michael Kearns (Intimacies,
T-Cells & Sympathy). Based on Kearns’
play Complications, it’s a film about
love, loss and the hopes and fears we all share, focusing, as the title would
suggest, on nine individuals whose lives intersect emotionally, sexually and
dangerously over the course of a single day.

An ensemble piece with heartfelt performances from a talented
cast, The Nines begins with Ronnie (Kearns),
an over-the-top and just about over-the-hill, HIV-positive man recalling his
love affairs, both past and present. Next is Mikey (Chariots of Fire’s Dennis Christopher), an introspective drug
dealer who has a casual infatuation with sexy hustler Bo (John Ganun), while
at the same time trying to provide for his mentally challenged younger brother. A threesome
between television producer Daniel (Nick Salamone), his hunky boyfriend
Corey (Steve Callahan) and their pool boy Carlos (Eric Turic) threatens their
relationship. And then there’s Lisa (Mad
TV’s Debra Wilson) and her perpetually late husband, Ralph (William
Christian), who fret as they prepare for their first child.

Shocking for its graphic sexuality, but tender in its
execution, Nine Lives is a
thought-provoking and candid look into the lives of these characters and how
they are all interconnected. It teaches a universal message of hope — no matter
how difficult life may be, we are never alone. DVD special features on the
widescreen presentation include a group audio commentary track with director Howell,
Kearns, Callahan, Christopher and Wilson, among
others, as well as a collection of deleted scenes and outtakes. To view the movie’s trailer, click here; to purchase the film via Amazon, click here.

A Quick Allison Burnett Q&A

October 10, 2007EphemeraBrent

Dylan Calaghan has an interview with Feast of Love screenwriter Allison Burnett (who’s a dude, for the record) up on the Writers Guild of America site, and while they don’t talk about the Fame remake he’s currently penning, they do get into the business of adaptations versus spec script grappling, as well as the art of capturing screen romance without getting sappy. For those looking for insights on those matters, it’s a solid, extremely brisk read.