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The daring new movie from the director of Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines is a sweeping emotional drama powerfully exploring the unbreakable bond between fathers and sons.
Luke (Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling) is a high-wire motorcycle stunt performer who travels with the carnival from town to town. While passing through Schenectady in upstate New York, he tries to reconnect with a former lover, Romina (Eva Mendes), only to learn that she has given birth to their son Jason in his absence. Luke decides to give up life on the road to try and provide for his newfound family by taking a job as a car mechanic. Noticing Luke’s ambition and talents, his employer Robin (Ben Mendelsohn) proposes to partner with Luke in a string of spectacular bank robberies – which will place Luke on the radar of ambitious rookie cop Avery Cross (Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper).
Avery, who has to navigate a local police department ruled by the menacing and corrupt detective Deluca (Ray Liotta), is also struggling to balance his professional life with his family life, which includes his wife Jennifer (Rose Byrne) and their infant son AJ. The consequences of Avery’s confrontation with Luke will reverberate into the next generation. It is then that the two sons, Jason (Dane DeHaan) and AJ (Emory Cohen), must face their fateful, shared legacy.
Focus Features will release The Place Beyond the Pines in New York and Los Angeles on March 29; in select cities on April 5; and in cities across the country on April 12. This film has been MPAA-rated “R.”
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In a contemporary adaptation of Langston Hughes’ celebrated play, the holiday musical drama BLACK NATIVITY follows Langston (Jacob Latimore), a street-wise teen from Baltimore raised by a single mother, as he journeys to New York City to spend the Christmas holiday with his estranged relatives Reverend Cornell and Aretha Cobbs (Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett). Unwilling to live by the imposing Reverend Cobbs’ rules, a frustrated Langston is determined to return home to his mother, Naima (Jennifer Hudson).
Langston embarks on a surprising and inspirational journey and along with his new friends, and a little divine intervention, he discovers the true meaning of faith, healing, and family.
Screenplay by: Kasi Lemmons
Directed by: Kasi Lemmons
Based on the play by: Langston Hughes
Produced by: Bill Horberg, Celine Rattray, Galt Niederhoffer
Executive Producers: Trudie Styler, Joy Goodwin
Executive Music Producer: Raphael Saadiq
Cast: Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Tyrese Gibson, Mary J. Blige, Jacob Latimore, Nasir Jones and Jennifer Hudson
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Having rather loathed Tron: Legacy, I’ve had to work myself up in order to get excited about Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion.
Yes, Tom Cruise usually makes sure that his big-scale pictures are a cut above and yes the film looks better with each trailer, but the biggest cause for hope was its release schedule. The film’s national release was set for April 19th, but the film was also going a full week early in IMAX only, giving paying audiences a week-long sneak preview in IMAX and other larger-screen formats. But alas, that promising move by Universal has been cancelled.
Chalk it up to Cruise wanting to do international press for the film’s overseas debut on the 12th and the film’s US debut on the 19th, chalk it up to Universal wanting an extra week of play for their 3D reissue of Jurassic Park on April 12th, but audiences will not be seeing Oblivion: The IMAX Experience one week early after all. Color me genuinely disappointed.

To read more go to Mendelson’s Memos
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As most of you know, Warner Bros. intended to release Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Killer in June of 2012 before pulling it from release, ordering reshoots and the like, and calling it a more kid-friendly Jack the Giant Slayer.
I don’t know what the film’s budget was prior to the date change and related reshoots, but it was probably a lot less than the $195 million that they ended up with. And for what? The film opened this weekend to $28 million.
If patterns hold for this kind of release, it’ll likely top out at $70 million domestic at best and around $250 million worldwide as a best case scenario. But point being, how much better of an opening could Warner Bros. expecting for a half kid-friendly/half dark-and-violent retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk starring absolutely no one of any box office worth? How much worse of an opening would Warner Bros. be looking at had it just gone ahead and opened it in June of 2012 as they intended?
Is it really worth the extra tens-of-millions of dollars that they ended up spending on the picture? Delaying the inevitable oftentimes merely gets you the same result at a greater cost.
To read more go to Mendelson’s Memos
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Pretty much everything I said last March about John Carter applies to Jack the Giant Slayer. There are a few differences.
Jack and the Beanstalk is technically a well-known property and Bryan Singer had the live-action track record that Andrew Stanton did not. But otherwise it is pretty much the same fallacy with pretty much the same result: $200 million cost plus who knows how much in marketing for $27.9 million on opening weekend. No stars, source material no one really cared to see onscreen, marketing that didn’t convince them that they should, a release date that put them within one week of a likely juggernaut, and mixed reviews.
Like John Carter and Battleship, Jack the Giant Slayer was basically a $200 million variation on ‘Generic Blockbuster: The Movie’. Unlike Disney and Universal respectively, Warner Bros. seemed to see this one coming well in advance. They changed the release date from June 2012 to this weekend and changed the title from Jack the Giant Killer to ‘appeal to families’. Yet they still spent $200 million on a would-be family film that I can’t take my daughter to because it’s PG-13 and (allegedly) features slightly toned down Lord of the Rings type violence.
To be fair, some of that $200 million cost was due to reshoots and the date change, but why bother? Warner spent untold extra millions to get the exact same terrible result they got this weekend. And really the film’s cost is as usual the prime offender.
To read more go to Mendelson’s Memos
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There are $200 million fantasy spectaculars opening within two weeks of each other at the moment. If the $400,000 10pm/midnight figures for Jack the Giant Slayer is any indication, Warner Bros. is about to have its very own John Carter/Battleship ($25 million debut, $65 million finish, around $250 million worldwide at best). Conversely Walt Disney has let the embargo wall fall for its Sam Raimi-helmed Oz: The Great and Powerful, which is allegedly tracking to open at around $75 million.
There are a number of reasons why Sam Raimi’s fairy tale-redux is prime to perform better than Bryan Singer’s such attempt. For one thing, I can take my daughter to the one that isn’t PG-13 and doesn’t involve giants biting peoples’ heads off and/or setting them on fire.
Also helping is the strength and confidence of Disney’s marketing versus Warner’s “we know we laid a financial egg” trepidation. But perhaps most importantly, Oz: The Great and Powerful has actual movie stars. What? I thought the era of the movie star was gone and the proverbial movie star was a relic of a bygone era? Well… it’s actually only half-true.
To read more go to Mendelson’s Memos
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The next Oscars? The new season begins, like, now, with “The Sapphires” opening on March 22nd. Pencil it in for Golden Globe Comedy/Musical, and if it takes, off, well, who knows what else?
Mainly next winter we will be looking hard at Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep in “August: Osage County” and Nicole Kidman in “Grace of Monaco.” Streep will probably go into Supporting. Kidman is said to on track to win. Naomi Watts will be back as Princess Diana, and Leonardo DiCaprio will make a bid for Best Actor in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
The Weinstein Company has 14 films for 2013, with lots of potential nominees. But Tarantino is off duty this year, so don’t count on him. The Coen Brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” could bring gold for the bros, plus Oscar Isaac and John Goodman. There’s a new Woody Allen movie said to be “one of his greats” like “Midnight in Paris.” Pedro Almodovar is back in form with a comedy. Robert Redford directed “The Company You Keep” and stars in JC Chandor’s new film. Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling are superb in Derek Cianfrance’s “Place Beyond the Pines,” which was screened in Toronto.
Then there’s Kristen Wiig in the very funny retitled “Imogene” now called “Girl Most Likely.” Wait til you see Matt Dillon steal that show. Sundance will contribute “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” with Casey Affleck. There’s Terrence Malick’s “To the Wonder” (forget it) and maybe a better one called “Knight of Cups.” George Clooney acts in “Gravity” with Sandra Bullock and directs “Monuments Men.” Luc Besson could have a good film with Robert DeNiro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Cross your fingers.
T read more go to www.showbiz411.com
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“My admiration for the steadfast mission of the Festival to champion the international language of movies is second to none. The most prestigious of its kind, the festival has always established the motion picture as a cross cultural and generational medium.”
Taking over the reins from the Italian Nanni Moretti, American director and producer Steven Spielberg agrees to head up the jury of the 66th Cannes Film Festival taking place May 15-26 this year.
“As they say across the Atlantic”, said Gilles Jacob, President of the Festival de Cannes, “Steven Spielberg is a Cannes ‘regular’: Sugarland Express, Color Purple. But it was with E.T. that I screened as a world premiere in ‘82 that ties were made of the type you never forget. Ever since, I’ve often asked Steven to be Jury President, but he’s always been shooting a film. So when this year I was told “E.T., phone home”, I understood and immediately replied: “At last!”
“Steven Spielberg accepted in principle two years ago”, declared Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Festival. “He was able to make himself available this year to be the new Jury President and when meeting him these last few weeks it has been obvious he’s excited about the job. Because of his films, and the many causes he holds dear, he’s year-in year-out the equal of the very greatest Hollywood filmmakers. We are very proud to count him among us.”
To read more go to Festival de Cannes
Courtesy 2013 Festival de Cannes
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By Michael Russnow
This year’s Oscars show on ABC wrapped after a bit over three and a half hours and there were a bunch of great moments, a bit of tedium and a lot of disappointment over the tasteless antics of host Seth MacFarlane.
Look, I’m not a prude, though I’ve ranted at the likes of Ricky Gervais when he hosted the Golden Globes. You don’t have to be sweetness and light and/or just mildly funny, but as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler displayed at the Golden Globes you can find the right mix to be biting and clever without resorting to cheap, shocking and sometimes hurtful jokes.
I was neither backstage nor in the control booth, but I can guess something must have happened after the overlong 17-minute opening segment, wherein MacFarlane early on cast mock aspersion at last year’s Best Actor winner, Jean Dujardin, as essentially having since disappeared, when it’s clear his stellar career is mostly anchored in France. And a sometimes funny bit with William Shatner, beaming in from the future as Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, became somewhat surreal when he warned MacFarlane that his reviews were destined to be pretty bad.
Mercifully interspersed with the host’s puerile humor were musical bits during which Channing Tatum danced quite masterfully with Charlize Theron, and Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sang and danced, aided by the surprisingly excellent vocal talents of Mr. MacFarlane. He wasn’t just on-key, he sang like he’d been in musical theatre. And, upon doing some follow-up research, I learned he’d sung at Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall in London. Who knew?
During these moments and when he played it straight, he was great — poised, handsome and charming. But on occasion he spewed classless material, which I’m sure he thought was very funny. He absolutely bombed in a joke ostensibly crediting Daniel Day-Lewis with getting into Lincoln’s head, but then indicated he hadn’t done as well as had John Wilkes Booth. The audience gasped.
From that point on, when he was on camera he essentially introduced the next guests and did so with professional aplomb. Was it a coincidence or did someone rip up the rest of his cue cards?
As to the rest of the show, it was professional and sometimes spectacular. The spoof of Flight with hand puppets was delightful and the tribute to a few recent musicals with some of the casts singing live was terrific, [...]

Congratulations to the 2013 Oscar nominees and winners… for complete list of winners pls scroll down.
Best Supporting Actor:
Christoph Waltz – “Django Unchained”
Best Animated Short:
“Paperman” – John Kahrs
Best Animated Feature:
“Brave” – Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
Cinematography:
“Life of Pi” – Claudio Miranda
Visual Effects:
“Life of Pi” – Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
Costume Design:
“Anna Karenina” – Jacqueline Durran
Makeup/Hairstyling:
“Les Misérables” – Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell
Live Action Film:
“Curfew” – Shawn Christensen
Documentary Short Subject:
“Inocente” – Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Documentary Feature:
“Searching for Sugar Man”
Sound Mixing:
“Les Misérables” – Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
Sound Editing:
“Zero Dark Thirty” – Paul N.J. Ottosson
Supporting Actress:
Anne Hathaway – “Les Miserables”
Film Editing:
“Argo” – William Goldenberg
Original Score:
Mychael Danna, “Life of Pi”
Original Song:
Adele – “Skyfall”
Adapted Screenplay:
Chris Terrio, “Argo”
Original Screenplay:
Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained”
Director:
Ang Lee, “Life of Pi”
Best Actress:
Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Best Picture:
“Argo”
For the first time, viewers in the U.S. will be able to stream tonight’s Oscars show in its entirety across multiple platforms including ABC.com, the ABC Player app, and the free, ad-supported Hulu and Hulu Plus subscription service. The show will also be available via ABC On Demand, the network’s fast forward-disabled VOD service.
The Oscars, in its entirety, will be available to stream within hours of its broadcast completion, beginning Monday, Feb. 25th at 6:00 a.m. EST through Wednesday, February 27, at midnight EST.
“Tonight’s show included remarkable performances that will surely have people talking. This is an easy, convenient way for anyone who missed the show to catch up and join the conversation,” said Karin Gilford, Senior Vice President of Digital Media, ABC Entertainment. “It’s also perfect for anyone who just wants to relive the most magical moments of the night.”
“Our goal is to give fans as many ways to enjoy and engage with the Oscars as possible and this will provide another great opportunity for them,” said Christina Kounelias, the Academy’s Chief Marketing Officer.
The full streaming will be advertiser supported with :15 or :30 video spots running intermittingly from Blue Diamond, Diet Coke, Hyundai, JC Penney, Samsung and The University of Phoenix.
Additionally, during the telecast, Oscar.com offered a plethora of “Real Time Oscar Highlights” to viewers almost instantly after they debuted on the live broadcast. Those special moments from telecast as well as numerous highlights from the Red Carpet and backstage during the show, are currently available on the show’s official site, Oscar.com.
Oscar.com and the official Oscars app [...]