WEIRDLAND

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Reese on Ellen´s video clips

Reese Witherspoon Dunk Tanks Audience Member! on Ellen's Show:


The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2009-03-27)
Reese Witherspoon's Interview!

The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2009-03-27)
Reese Witherspoon Dunk Tanks Audience Member!

Michael Welch in Twilight

"First, the actor playing Mike Newton is PRETTIER THAN ALL OF THE VAMPIRES PUT TOGETHER. Seriously, Bella, why did you not hit that? I couldn't figure out where I'd seen him before. (Looks it up.) Holy crud, he was mini-Jack! If that doesn't make you awesome, nothing will. This kid blew me away on Stargate. He had all the mannerisms pitch-perfect. I want to see more from Michael Welch". Source: darkfrog24.livejournal.com
"When Stephanie visited the set, she blogged back to her fans that you can really dance. So does that mean you’re going to audition for the next big dance movie?

I do like to dance. But I doubt that anyone will be hiring me to do it professionally in the near future. Stephanie’s assessment of my prom boogy stylings was very kind. But the truth is, anyone can dance. The big secret is to just hit the beat. You can do whatever you want in between beats, doesn’t matter. Just make sure you’re on top of the 2-4, or in the case of salsa, the 1-2-3, and you’ll be just fine.

Coming from fans of literature, is there any character from a book that you’d like to be cast as if it was turned into a film?

How old is the kid from Hatchet? He was like 17, right? Hatchet was my favorite book as a kid (until I read James and the Giant Peach). I’d love to play the main character in that, if I’m age appropriate. This kid gets stranded in the wilderness because of a plane crash and has to survive on his own. Sounds like a blast to me!

The scene in the diner, with Mike dancing outside the window… improv or scripted? Were you encouraged to improve or did you have to stick straight to the script?
There was a lot of improve in this film for the humans (Eric, Tyler, Angela, Jessica, and Me). Catherine didn’t really care whether dialogue or actions were improvised or scripted, or whether ideas came from her or the cast. Her priority was to create something real, empathetic, and entertaining for the audience. She always had respect for OUR role in the overall story, and our purpose in Bella’s life. And having made several movies on the subject, Catherine has a lot of experience in trying to capture the essence of teenagers.

In the case of the diner, the process went like this… The script said something like, “Mike waves and calls out, trying to get Bella’s attention.” Catherine showed me where this will take place, suggested a couple of ideas, and ultimately left it up to me to come up with something that works. I thought of that dance (for whatever reason), showed her, and she approved. Later in post-production, she had me come into a sound studio to record some various, “Bow chicka WOW wow. WOO WOOO!” whacky noises. She picks one of three choices, and there you have it. Mike Newton in all his goofy glory, dancing for the affections of Bella". 
Source: www.touchedbytwilight.net

Reese likes a good communicator

"Settling back in her chair, Witherspoon proves an engaging subject. She is dressed in a simple black top and blue jeans and (I'm reliably informed) sports a swanky new hairdo. She is refreshingly candid - it's a trait she values, saying that she likes a man to be "honest, candid, a good communicator" - although she does questions about her current beau with a very straight bat."He's not in the movie, so I can't really talk about him," she coos, citing the actor's equivalent of the fifth amendment. Witherspoon, it appears, is also keenly intelligent. She grew up a self-proclaimed "book dork" and certainly seems to have forged her career path with a craftswoman's precision.

She was born Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon in New Orleans, and spent her formative years in Germany, where her father did his military service, before the family settled in Nashville, Tennessee. The Witherspoon family itself boasts a rare pedigree - one of her Scottish forefathers, John Witherspoon, became president of Princeton University and signed the original Declaration of Independence - and Laura Jean was raised in a quiet, conservative enclave.

"My upbringing was kind of old-fashioned," she concedes, "that's how I grew up, hence I've always thought that while you have to let your children be individuals, you have to set boundaries."
Her first film role came with 1991's romantic drama The Man In The Moon, the last film shot by To Kill A Mockingbird's Robert Mulligan, in which she played a 14-year-old tomboy who falls in love with her older teenage neighbour. The young starlet won unilateral praise, her co-stars naming her "Little Meryl". Indeed, so tenacious was she in her pursuit of her dreams, that Witherspoon's parents dubbed her Little Miss Type A.

Type A is now the name of her production company, which has already enjoyed success with Legally Blonde 2: Red, White And Blonde (2003), Penelope (2006) and Four Christmases (2008). "It's funny, that Little Miss Type A thing does conjure up an image of a total control freak," she muses, "but I really wouldn't say that's me. I am a go-getter type of girl, though, but it's probably been motivated by fear more than anything. Anyway, nowadays, I have to be a go for it' kind of girl. If you are a separated woman with children, you don't really have any other option."

And how does she feel about being touted as the most powerful woman in Hollywood? "I don't really know what that means," she offers. "Now, though, I do feel more confident - I have much less doubt - and that helps me in my daily life and in my work. For me, especially in this film, I want to find characters that I think are really strong and speak to young women.
"I admire a lot of people who manage to have great careers and have a family life and then have also kept their feet on the ground. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were a great inspiration. There are people who do great things with celebrity and create opportunities for other people who really need it."
These are not hollow platitudes: Witherspoon herself has been involved in children's and women's advocacy organisations, serving on the board of the Children's Defence Fund, She was also named global ambassador of Avon Products in 2007, for whose foundation she served as honorary chair. Doesn't she ever feel a little too exposed?

"You hope that the tabloid things will go away," she smiles. "Sometimes I feel like a 49-foot woman. I go places where I see people whispering and pushing their children toward me to take pictures or look cute in front of me. I know what that feels like, a little bit. But I would not say it is a detriment. This career has afforded me a lot of great things in my life and I am very lucky and blessed to have everything I do. I want to carry on making good movies." 
Source: www.sundayherald.com

Saturday, March 28, 2009

3 million "Twilight" DVDs on first day


"TWILIGHT, which was released in theatres on November 21, 2008, grossed $69.6 million domestically in its first weekend and to date had grossed nearly $380 million worldwide. No surprises here: Teen girls lined up en masse to take Robert Pattinson home with them when the Twilight DVD went on sale Saturday, complete with midnight release parties. The romantic vampire sensation, which has grossed $380 million in theaters since its November release, sold more than 3 million copies in its first day on the shelves, studio Summit Entertainment says".
Source: www.hollywoodinsider.ew.com


Domestic = $191,397,304
Foreign = $184,868,115
Worldwide = $376,265,419

Here is a press release from Summit:
Los Angeles, CA March 22, 2009 – Summit Entertainment announced today that the home entertainment release of the studio’s action-packed, modern day vampire love story TWILIGHT sold over 3 million DVD units in its first day of release. The DVD launch commenced this past Saturday morning at midnight with nationwide events during which time Summit and its retail partners provided TWILIGHT fans with the chance to celebrate the DVD release of the film. “TWILIGHT at Midnight” allowed participating retailers the opportunity to stay open late as fans lined up in impressive numbers to purchase the DVD of the epic romance at midnight parties.

Thousands of TWILIGHT fans across the nation participated in the “TWILIGHT at Midnight” event and some were surprised by filmmaker and cast appearances. 2,500 fans attended in Salt Lake City to see Rachelle Lefevre who plays Victoria; 2,000 showed up in Los Angeles to see Ashley Greene who plays Alice Cullen; over 1,000 fans came out to see director Catherine Hardwicke in Dallas; 700 fans lined up in New York for Edi Gathegi who plays Laurent; and 500 fans in Chicago saw Nikki Reed who plays Rosalie Hale.

With over 3 million DVD units sold, TWILIGHT enters the top five best first day DVD releases over the past two years along with PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END, THE DARK KNIGHT, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, and TRANSFORMERS.

Summit Entertainment’s Co-Chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger stated, “The Saturday release in conjunction with the groundbreaking retail events across the country have proven to be overwhelmingly successful which in turn benefited TWILIGHT fans as well as our retail partners. Home Entertainment President Steve Nickerson, the home entertainment group and the entire family at Summit are to be commended for the conceptualization and execution of this unique approach.”

“We are incredibly appreciative that TWILIGHT fans came out to once again support this film at our midnight events across the nation,” said Steve Nickerson, Summit’s President of Home Entertainment. “With such a successful first day sales, it is apparent that our fans remain passionate about the TWILIGHT SAGA and want to own a piece of the Edward and Bella story they have come to love. We look forward to the continued success for both the home entertainment and retail sales of this property as a whole.”

Watch Video: "Twilight" Interview with Robert Pattinson

Catherine Keener in Genova

Jake Gyllenhaal and Catherine Keener in "Lovely and amazing" (2001).
"This week sees the release of her latest film, Genova, a smaller-scale, more intimate work by British director Michael Winterbottom. It's a story about an Anglo-American family: Colin Firth, a British academic working in the US, and his two daughters (played by The OC's bad girl Willa Holland and a stunningly persuasive 10-year-old newcomer named Perla Haney-Jardine). The family relocates from Chicago to Genova for a summer, to recover from the death of the girls' mother, played by Hope Davis, in a car crash the younger girl believes she caused. Keener plays an old flame of Firth's, who is now teaching at the same university. The film is a mood piece, a movie as much about a city and its light as it is a look at grief - a slow-burning journey through guilt, agony and rage towards acceptance and peace. It has a ghost in it, too.

As with a lot of Winterbottom's work, Genova appears to have been put together without any shooting permits, by a skeleton crew. "Michael works in a very personal way," Keener says of the Blackburn-born director, who will often guide his cameraman by tugging on his shirt from behind. "As for the crew, they were virtually invisible, except for a director of photography and a sound guy. They're just like sherpas, carrying their gear alone and sweating a lot. When I got the crew list, I turned the page over expecting more names, but that was it: 10 names. Spike Jonze works a little in the same way, so you never quite know what you're doing. It shows me you don't need the extra stuff. But it takes a lot of work, sensitivity and preparation - combined with luck. Michael would just pull in extras from the people walking around Genova. I don't think we had permits. We worked on locations and got whatever we could, mostly with available light."
Catherine Keener and Emile Hirsch in "Into the wild" (2007).

She says she feels sisterly towards other women actors her age, and would concur that Hollywood remains ageist and sexist, especially when it comes to big-budget material. Somehow, she has found a niche that avoids these traps. She despairs a bit of the new generation of women coming up: "Everyone seems so frigging young and naive. They had some survey of younger women and they asked them what they aspired to be. The most popular answer was to be the assistant to a movie star - not the movie star, but the assistant!"

Despite her recent forays into the mainstream, Keener is still loyal to the indie directors with whom she first found success. She has made four movies with Nicole Holofcener, including the upcoming Please Give, about life in a New York apartment building; then there's her three with Spike Jonze, including Where the Wild Things Are, out in the US later this year; Charlie Kaufman, who wrote Being John Malkovich, recently cast her as a lead in Synecdoche, New York, released here in May. "Actually," she says, "I think it's them who are incredibly loyal - to me."

After a decade of combining indie movies with more mainstream work, she still remembers the terror of her first big-budget film. "First day on the set for [Steven Soderbergh's] Out of Sight, and all the studio bigwigs showed up to watch the kick-off shot. It was a scene with me, by myself. And there's me, all alone, with people screaming instructions and shit, so I just had to scream inside." She thinks for a moment and says: "Actually, I'm always like that".
Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Samantha Ronson, from Jake to Lindsay

Jake with Samantha Ronson, on 29th May, 2005, in Malibu.Lindsay Lohan advertised on a bus in Milano, Italy.
Some pictures of "Nylon" photoshoot, March 2009:

"Red Bull. It really is the cocaine of our time" -Sarah Silverman.
Samantha Ronson: disc-jockey and Lindsay Lohan´s girlfriend.

Leaving a medical center, Beverly Hills

Jake leaving A Medical Center in Beverly Hills, on 27th March. Pictures courtesy of Iheartjakemedia.com

Jake and Reese for a jog and a lunch

Jake having a lunch with Reese, on 27th March in Los Angeles.
Jake and Kirsten Dunst Eating At Sant Ambroeus Cafe In NYC, on 15th September 2005. Reese shows more attention to Jake and she doesn´t pick up her phone while at lunch table.
Pictures courtesy of
Iheartjakemedia.com

"Blame it": Slick Party Hit


“Blame It” is the second single off Jamie Foxx’s third studio album Intuition. It features the juggernaut rapper T-Pain, and Foxx/ T-Pain kill it in an all-out auto tune fest. The song also use some elements from “I Luv Your Girl” by The-Dream. The music video was directed by Hype Williams and premiered at 106 & Park on February. Cameo appearances in the video are made by Ron Howard (random!), Forest Whitaker, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Quincy Jones, Cedric the Entertainer, Jermaine Dupri, Morris Chesnut, Clifton Powell, Alex Thomas, Tatyana Ali, Bill Bellamy, Clarence Avant, and Tommy.
In this image released by Sony/RCA/Arista Records, Forest Whitaker, left, Jamie Foxx, second left, Ron Howards and Jake Gyllenhaal pose for a photo at the set of Jamie Foxx’s “Blame It” music video in Santa Monica, Calif. Intuition was released through Sony’s J Records, which recently merged with Arista but still maintains its individual name.


“Blame It” rose rapidly to the top spot on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, becoming Foxx’s first number one on the chart as a lead artist, and his third including featured credits. Blame It topped the chart for seven straight weeks so far. On the Billboard Hot 100 it has thus far reached #7, making it his second top ten hit on the chart as a lead artist and his highest peak on the chart, also making Jamie’s most successful single to date". Source: www.sonyinsider.com

Reese Witherspoon's Mad Libs Acceptance Speech! on Ellen's


The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2009-03-27)
Reese Witherspoon's Mad Libs Acceptance Speech!

Reese is up for a Kids' Choice Award, but she tells
Ellen that she has a hard time coming up with
acceptance speeches. Ellen then thinks up the
perfect solution: The two will create an original
speech by playing a simple game of... Mad Libs!

The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2009-03-27)

"Reese Witherspoon finds "tough" being short.

The Legally Blonde star - who is reportedly engaged to boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal - says she's has had enough boobs, backs and armpits to last her three lifetimes.

And since playing a giant in her new movie, Monsters vs Aliens, Reese has started to hate the fact she only comes up to most other people's chests and has to deal with looking at boobs and armpits every day of her life.

She says, "It's still me at concerts or the supermarket, dealing with people's backs and their armpits and stuff.

"That's sort of the challenge of being 5 foot 2. It's tough."

Reese, 33, recently revealed that she had teamed up with Jim Brooks, Paul Rudd and Bill Murray for an as-yet untitled film about softball".
Source: www.showbizspy.com

Friday, March 27, 2009

Violent scenes in "Prince of Persia" graphic novel

"Prince of Persia, a lengthy graphic novel based on a long-running series of video games, touches some primal chords.

There is a scene, for instance, in which a man wearing the pelt of a lion leads an actual pride of lions into battle. A forsaken messiah-type lives in a ruined city on the outskirts of a desert town, scurrying to and from civilization through a network of abandoned irrigation tunnels. His lonely life among the ruins strikes a lyrical note. People are beheaded by scimitar in the tale, and others have their tongues chopped off in a graphic public ceremony. There is stirring beauty, and effective violence.

The long and convoluted story is loosely based on a video-game franchise that has been around since the 80s—which, in turn, was loosely based on Arabian Nights.
To understand what's happening here, you need to keep the book's two parallels stories separate. They both involve saving a princess and a bloodline, and overturning some kinda tyranny, and they are drawn similarly - most readers will probably find it a bit challenging to follow. I certainly did.

The art owes something to Will Eisner. LeUyen Pham and Alex Puvilland's expressive faces, brutish soldiers, cute belly dancers, dusty Arab cities, and so on are really excellent. There's nothing amateurish here.
The graphic novel coincides with yet another iteration of the Prince of Persia video game, and a Jerry Bruckheimer / Disney (the Pirates of the Caribbean team) film to be released in 2010".
Source: www.playbackstl.com

Decent crushes

"The more you love, the more you can love-- and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just". -Robert A. Heinlein.

"When the desperate Mrs. Livingston and her husband try to contrive an anti-Semitic ransom scheme to generate media interest in Jimmy's disappearance, the point is that she is the bigot and her son is such a decent spirit that even her xenophobia can't taint him. (''Bubble Boy'' even explains why she is so frightened.) When it clicks, the picture should shock you into laughter -- enough to make you wish it were better and applaud its efforts anyway". Source: www.nytimes.com

"He is kind of guileless. He doesn't seem like a jerk," Kat Dennings (Norah) told Reuters in a joint interview with Cera.

"He doesn't have lesions or active sores or something," Cera said.

"Not on his fingers," Dennings joked. "I don't know, girls can tell when someone's acting nice -- like, acting like a decent human being -- when they're are not. He's not acting like that. He's very nice. I think girls can identify with a real nice person."
 
Source: www.reuters.com

"I was not warned that Emile Hirsch was so funny. I thought for sure that he was yet another serious, mumbly young actor - I meet them all the time, the kinds of guys who don't comb their hair and don't shower to detract from how gorgeous they are, and who don't like to talk about anything except 'The Moment' or 'The Craft' - and that's if you can get them to talk at all.

But Hirsch isn't like that. He's genuinely hilarious; when some dumb reporter asked him about 'Tokyo drifting,' he came back with a reply that had me cracking up for a long time. And he's incredibly personable, too, another trait you don't find it too many of these serious young actors. It seems like he's found the zone between being a terrific actor and a decent person, and he's comfortable there". 
Source: www.chud.com

Joseph Gordon-Levitt twitter video

SxSW is a hot poppin tech gumbo -- signed up for Twitter @hitrecordjoe -- saw "We Live In Public"
500 Days of Summer is playing here in Austin at the end of the week, but South By Southwest is not just a film festival. It's most known for its music, and then there's what they call "Interactive." The tech, the net, the new media. I decided to come down to Texas early, and try to humbly soak it up. Glad I did, I've met so many cool people here, kicking so many asses. It's good to know that awesome people are building the future.

@ronen and I ceremoniously signed me up for Twitter in front of the state's capital.

And I saw an intriguing documentary, "We Live In Public," about the internet's past and future.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt RegularJOE's First Tweet

Jake shopping and with Global Green USA


Jake shopping in Beverly Hills, on 26th March. Pictures courtesy of Iheartjakemedia.com

Jake sported a red and white buttoned plaid shirt, jeans and a black derby hat.

Jake has joined forces with Global Green USA, attending the the launch of National Green Schools Initiative last month, building a garden during Green Service Day at Manual Arts High School.

Talking about Global Green, Jake tells: “What I learned is that something like this is possible. There are so many things that I’ve thought of [including making] gardens like this. I had always thought this is possible on a mass scale. This is possible within a massive city like Los Angeles!”


Green Schools Initiative: Day of Service with Jake Gyllenhaal (Short)

"Adventureland" review

"Our lead is James Brennan played perfectly by Jesse Eisenberg. This is a less overtly awkward Michael Cera type, but older. He is a college graduate, in transition between college and seeking a Graduate degree in Journalism - after majoring in Renaissance studies. He also happens to be a Virgin. Not an inept one, but one of choice. He's had opportunities, but his love of Renaissance literature has given him a lovesick fascination with true love. Although peer pressure and his own natural attraction and desire for intercourse... well, it is on his mind.

This isn't another of those comedic romps about getting laid, though that is the overall arc of this story. It's more about real human types that take a summer job at a theme park like ADVENTURELAND and what that summer could very well have been like.

I found the story to be very honest feeling. You don't have ridiculous over the top disgusting gags for laughs' sake. The drugs and drinking isn't about stereotypes with half-closed eyes acting like burn-outs... But about sharing a single joint after work to take the edge off - and the kinds of conversations that these types of people would have.
People get hurt in this film and some triumph. This is a film that has a shared soul with movies like AMERICAN GRAFFITI and DAZED & CONFUSED, though not nearly as GREAT as those films - at least not upon a single reflection.

The cast is wonderful. I dare you to not lust after Margarita Levieva's Lisa P
or not fall a little in love with Kirsten Stewart's Em. These are not perfect types, but characters that surprise you with their flaws and their merits. Martin Starr is again masterful as a wonderful Nikolai Gogol and other Soviet literature. He smokes a pipe and is acutely self-aware that his major prepared him for isolation and self-loathing, which in turn leaves him frustrated.I know I'm describing a film that feels like a downer, but it isn't. I LOVED spending the summer with these characters. I loved how there are no overt VILLAINS, only mistakes that flawed humans make and then chose to forgive or be condemned by.

I honestly feel we need more movies like this that help with the balance. I enjoy the silly goofy crap, but it doesn't inspire a generation to anything but losing itself in mediocrity and the science of distraction. This film feels honest, sweet and funny. That may not be as marketably cool as "from the creator of SUPERBAD," but it is a very very worthwhile film experience".
Source: www.aintitcool.com