Let’s run through the top acquisitions from the Sundance Film Festival in the past 48 hours:

- Rashida Jones’s “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” which also stars “SNL” standout Andy Samberg, was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics after a sold-out premiere at the Eccles.

- Millennium Entertainment picked up the rights to Rodrigo Cortes’s “Red Lights,” a supernatural thriller starring Robert De Niro, Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy and “Martha Marcy May Marlene” star Elizabeth Olsen.

- Focus Features picked up the tab for the raunchy phone-sex comedy, “For a Good Time Call …”

- The dreamy “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” one of the fest’s most buzzed about titles, went to Fox Searchlight.

- And finally, Searchlight also picked up the tearful “The Surrogate,” which some are predicting will be an awards player for Helen Hunt and John Hawkes next Oscar season.

Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.

Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards, Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News

By Scott Mendelson

HollywoodNews.com: As a whole, Contraband is a pretty unremarkable would-be thriller. There is almost no real action, and much of the middle act is a series of monotonous scenes of Kate Beckinsale being threatened and/or beaten by Giovanni Ribisi. While Ribisi’s character felt the need to continually antagonize Mark Wahlberg’s family after Wahlberg has already agreed to do the crime in question is to be debated, since you’d think you wouldn’t want to antagonize the professional criminal who is being entrusted with your precious cargo. Anyway, Wahlberg is the classic ‘former criminal gone straight’ archetype, complete with a loving wife and kids. If I my spoil the not-so shocking ending of the picture (…SPOILER WARNING…), Contraband ends on a mostly happy note, with Wahlberg having gotten away with the crime, protected his family (including his imperiled brother-in-law), and scored a large amount of capital for himself and his crew. And even though Wahlberg’s character is actually an accessory to a mid-film heist that ends in the wanton murder of about half-a-dozen people, he’s still an okay guy. After all, they were just security guards.

The first girl I dated in college was a young woman whose father was a security driver for some financial institution or another. I never met the man, but if I ever had I would have been tempted to ask him about how those in his profession are treated like absolutely expendable bugs on a windshield. Starting with Die Hard (where Alexander Godunov popped two guards at the very start of the Nakatomi Plaza takeover) and continuing through any number of Die Hard rip-offs over the last 24 years, few action films about terrorists are complete without an opening siege that sees the point-blank execution of any number of security people as the villains make their way to their base of hostage-taking/weapons-hijacking. And almost never are these hapless souls actually mourned by anyone else in the picture. Half the time they are literally forgotten as the film gets into gear. And what of their expendability in various hard-boiled crime pictures? We hear over and over again how top-notch Robert De Niro’s heist team is in Michael Mann’s Heat. Yet the first time we see them pull a job, they end up having to whack all three truck guards purely to show that Kevin Gage is kinda crazy (note – this also happens in Mann’s 1987 film LA Takedown, which Heat is a remake of). Last time I checked, unless you were a terrorist or a hit-man, I’m pretty sure your reputation as a professional criminal was judged by how few corpses you left behind and, as is the case here, how well you chose your associates. But because the people whom De Niro’s crew bumps off are security guards as opposed to cops and/or traditionally innocent bystanders, they retain their ‘expert criminals’ ranking until they start screw up their big downtown LA bank robbery at the end of act two. Even more disconcerting is when the hero of a film slaughters such security personal as indiscriminately as the bad guys, but keeps their nobility because it’s for a ‘just cause’ (think The Matrix or Prince of Persia).

Not every dead body has to be accounted for in every action film or crime drama. Not every slain member of the ‘good guys’ requires a funeral. But the sheer brazenness in which the security guard above all other classifications of people in film, is randomly and brutally murdered without consequence is and always has been a bit disconcerting. It’s basically a cheap tactic to amp up the body count without killing any major characters or too many hostages over the course of the film. When ‘heroes’ like Contraband’s Mark Wahlberg escape legal culpability or even moral denouncement when they stand by without commentary while their buddies commit such murders, when films like Live Free Or Die Hard feature the point-blank execution of countless such security personal while keeping its PG-13 rating, when any number of films both good and bad (Speed, Hellboy, Demolition Man, etc) treat such murders as ‘no big deal’, the message being sent is that bank guards, armored truck drivers and other such protectors don’t really count as full-fledged human beings on the scale of movie morality. Thus ends the pet peeve of the day… Feel free to share your thoughts below. Do you know anyone who works in security and if so, have they ever complained about the large-scale body count that their profession has racked up onscreen?

To read more go to Mendelson Memos

Follow Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.

Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards, Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News

HollywoodNews.com: Robert De Niro is reportedly taking on a new, big role as he will allegedly play Bernie Madoff for a new project.

HBO spokesperson Nancy Lesser reportedly announced that HBO and the actor’s production team will adapt the book ‘Truth and Consequences: Inside the Life of the Madoff Family’ with De Niro playing Madoff, states UsMagazine.com. The book will be made into a TV movie.

John Burnham Schwartz will reportedly write the screen adaptation of the book.

Do you think it will turn out well?

Follow Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.

Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards,  Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News

Image by PR Photos

Like “Valentine’s,” the comedy centers around disconnected individuals all crossing paths on one day. This time it’s New Year’s Eve, and the action shifts from L.A. to New York City. Sarah Jessica Parker, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Biel, Katherine Heigl, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Lea Michele, Zac Efron, Michelle Pfeiffer, Halle Berry and Hilary Swank all jostle for screen time in Marshall’s latest, which has its first official trailer below:

Warner Bros. and New Line will open “New Year’s Eve” on Dec. 9.

Follow Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.

Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards, Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News

HollywoodNews.com: The official Jury of this 64th Festival de Cannes, presided over by Robert De Niro, revealed this evening the prizes winners during the Closing Ceremony.

Mélanie Laurent hosted Jane Fonda on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière to award the Palme d’or to the best film among the 20 in Competition.

Christophe Honoré’s closing film Beloved starring Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel and Milos Forman, was screened at the end of the ceremony in the presence of the crew.

FEATURE FILMS
Palme d’Or
THE TREE OF LIFE by Terrence MALICK

Grand Prix
BIR ZAMANLAR ANADOLU’DA (Once Upon A Time In Anatolia) by Nuri Bilge CEYLAN
THE KID WITH A BIKE by Jean-Pierre & Luc DARDENNE

Award for the Best Director
Nicolas WINDING REFN for DRIVE

Jury Prize
POLISS by MAÏWENN

Best Performance for an Actor
Jean DUJARDIN in THE ARTIST by Michel HAZANAVICIUS

Best Performance for an Actress
Kirsten DUNST in MELANCHOLIA by Lars von TRIER

Award for the Best Screenplay
Joseph CEDAR for FOOTNOTE

SHORT FILMS IN COMPETTION

Palme d’Or

CROSS-COUNTRY by Maryna VRODA

Jury Prize

BADPAKJE 46 (Swimsuit 46) by Wannes DESTOOP

CAMERA D’OR

LAS ACACIAS by Pablo GIORGELLI presented in the framework of the the CRITICS’ WEEK

UN CERTAIN REGARD

PRIZE OF UN CERTAIN REGARD Ex-æquo

ARIRANG by KIM Ki-Duk

HALT AUF FREIER STRECKE (Stopped on Track) by Andreas DRESEN

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

ELENA by Andrey ZVYAGINTSEV

DIRECTING PRIZE

BÉ OMID É DIDAR (Au revoir) by Mohammad RASOULOF

CINEFONDATION

First Cinéfondation Prize

DER BRIEF (The Letter) by Doroteya Droumeva
dffb, Germany

Second Cinéfondation Prize
DRARI by Kamal Lazraq
La Fémis, France

Third Cinéfondation Prize
YA-GAN-BI-HANG (Fly by Night) by Son Tae-gyum
Chung-Ang University, South Korea

Follow Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.

Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards, Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News

Jodie Foster

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 11

Jodie Foster - 64th Annual Cannes Film Festival - "The Beaver"

Alicia Christian “Jodie” Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress, film director, producer as well as being a former child actress.

Foster began acting in commercials at three years of age, and her first significant role came in the 1976 film Taxi Driver as the preteen prostitute Iris for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, she starred in the cult film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1989 for playing a rape survivor in The Accused. In 1991, she starred in The Silence of the Lambs as Clarice Starling, a gifted FBI trainee, assisting in a hunt for a serial killer. This performance received international acclaim and her second Academy Award for Best Actress. She received her fourth Academy Award nomination for playing a hermit in Nell (1994). Other popular films include Maverick (1994), Contact (1997), Panic Room (2002), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006), The Brave One (2007), and Nim’s Island (2008).

Foster’s films have spanned a wide variety of genres, from family films to horror. In addition to her two Academy Awards she has won two BAFTA Awards for three films, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a People’s Choice Award, and has received two Emmy nominations.

Foster made nearly 50 film and television appearances before she attended college. She began her career at age three as a Coppertone Girl in a television commercial and debuted as a television actress in a 1968 episode of Mayberry R.F.D. She was managed by her mother. In 1969, she appeared in an episode of Gunsmoke, where she was credited as “Jody Foster”. She is also credited as “Jodi Foster” for her 1970 Daniel Boone role and credited as “Jodie Foster” for her 1970 Adam-12 role. Although not a regular on The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, she appeared from time to time as Eddie’s friend Joey Kelly. She made her film debut in the 1970 TV movie Menace on the Mountain and was featured as Tallulah in Bugsy Malone in 1976. As a child, Foster made a number of Disney movies, including Napoleon and Samantha (1972) and One Little Indian (1973), and she continued to star in Disney films into her early teens. On television, she appeared in an episode of The Partridge Family titled “The Eleven-Year Itch”, co-starred with Christopher Connelly in the 1974 TV series Paper Moon and alongside Martin Sheen in the 1976 cult film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. As a teenager, Foster made several appearances on the French pop music circuit as a singer. Commenting on her years as a child actress, which she describes as an “actor’s career”, Foster has said that “it was very clear to me at a young age that I had to fight for my life and that if I didn’t, my life would get gobbled up and taken away from me.” She hosted Saturday Night Live at age 14, making her the youngest person to host at that time until Drew Barrymore hosted at the age of seven.[citation needed] She also said,

“I think all of us when we look back on our childhood, we always think of it as somebody else. It’s just a completely different place. But I was lucky to be around in the ’70s and to really be making movies in the ’70s with some great filmmakers – the most exciting time, for me, in American Cinema. I learned a lot from some very interesting artists — and I learned a lot about the business at a young age, because, for whatever reason, I was paying attention; so it was kind of invaluable in my career.”

Foster made her debut (and only official) musical recordings in France in 1977: two 7″ singles, “Je T’attends Depuis la Nuit des Temps” b/w “La Vie C’est Chouette”[22] and “When I Looked at Your Face” backed with “La Vie C’est Chouette”. The A-side of the former is sung in French, the A-side of the latter in English. The B-side of both is mostly spoken word and is performed in both French and English. These three recordings were included on the soundtrack to Foster’s 1977 French film Moi, fleur bleue.

Foster starred in three films in 1976: Taxi Driver, Bugsy Malone, and Freaky Friday. She was nominated for the Academy Award For Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Taxi Driver. She won two British Academy Film Awards in 1977: the BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performances in Bugsy Malone opposite Scott Baio and Taxi Driver opposite Robert De Niro. She received a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Freaky Friday. As a teenager, she also starred in the Disney adventure Candleshoe (1977) and the coming-of-age drama Foxes (1980).

Unlike other child stars such as Shirley Temple or Tatum O’Neal, Foster successfully made the transition to adult roles, but it was not without initial difficulty, as several of the films in her early adult career were financially unsuccessful. These included The Hotel New Hampshire, Five Corners, and Stealing Home. She had to audition for her role in The Accused. She won the part and the first of her two Golden Globes and Academy Awards and a nomination for a BAFTA Award as Best Actress for her role as a rape survivor. She starred as FBI trainee Clarice Starling in the 1991 thriller The Silence of the Lambs, for which she won her second Academy Award and Golden Globe, and won her first BAFTA Award for Best Actress. This “sleeper” film marked a breakthrough in her career, grossing nearly $273 million in theaters and becoming her first blockbuster.

Foster made her directorial debut in 1991 with Little Man Tate, a critically acclaimed drama about a child prodigy, in which she also co-starred as the child’s mother. She also directed Home for the Holidays (1995), a black comedy starring Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr. In 1992, Foster founded a production company called Egg Pictures in Los Angeles. It primarily produced independent films until it was closed in 2001. Foster said that she did not have the ambition to produce “big mainstream popcorn” movies, and as a child, independent films made her more interested in the movie business than mainstream ones. She played Laurel Sommersby in Sommersby opposite Richard Gere, who would comment that “She’s very much a close-up actress, because her thoughts are clear.”

Foster starred in two films in 1994, first in the hugely successful western spoof Maverick and later in Nell, in which she starred as an isolated woman who speaks an invented language and must return to civilization. Her performance earned her nominations for her fourth Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and an MTV Movie Award, and won her a Screen Actors Guild Award and a People’s Choice Award. In 1996, Women in Film awarded her the Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. In 1997, she starred alongside Matthew McConaughey in the science-fiction movie Contact, based on the novel by scientist Carl Sagan. She portrayed a scientist searching for extraterrestrial life in the SETI project. She commented on the script that “I have to have some acute personal connection with the material. And that’s pretty hard for me to find.”[citation needed] Contact was her first sci-fi film, and her first experience with a bluescreen. She commented,

“Blue walls, blue roof. It was just blue, blue, blue. And I was rotated on a lazy Susan with the camera moving on a computerized arm. It was really tough.”

The film was another huge commercial success and earned Foster nominations for numerous awards, including a Golden Globe. In 1998, an asteroid, 17744 Jodiefoster, was named in her honor. In 1999, she starred in the non-musical remake of The King and I titled Anna and the King, which became an international commercial success.

In 2002, Foster took over the lead role in the thriller Panic Room after Nicole Kidman dropped out due to a previous injury. The film costarred Dwight Yoakam, Forest Whitaker, Kristen Stewart and Jared Leto and was directed by David Fincher. It grossed over $30 million in its opening weekend in the United States, Foster’s biggest box office opening success of her career so far. She then performed in the French-language film Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement) (2004), speaking French fluently throughout. She returned to English-language films with the 2005 thriller Flightplan, which opened once again in the top position at the U.S. box office and was a worldwide hit. She portrayed a woman whose daughter disappears on an airplane that her character, an engineer, helped to design.

In 2006, Foster starred in Inside Man, a thriller directed by Spike Lee and co-starring Denzel Washington and Clive Owen, which again opened at the top of the U.S. box office and became another international hit. In 2007, she starred in The Brave One directed by Neil Jordan and co-starring Terrence Howard, another urban thriller that opened at #1 at the U.S. box office. Her performance in the film earned her a sixth Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination and another People’s Choice nomination, for Favorite Female Action Star. Commenting on her latest roles, she has said she enjoys appearing in mainstream genre films that have a “real heart to them”.

In 2008, Foster starred in Nim’s Island alongside Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin, portraying a reclusive writer who is contacted by a young girl after her father goes missing at sea. The film was the first comedy that Foster has starred in since Maverick in 1994, and was also a commercial success.

Foster was set to direct, as well as reunite with actor Robert De Niro, for the film Sugarland; however, the film was shelved indefinitely in 2007. Foster is developing a biopic of Leni Riefenstahl. She directs and stars opposite her Maverick co-star Mel Gibson in a black comedy titled The Beaver, out in April 2011.

Foster provided her voice in a tetralogy episode of The Simpsons titled “Four Great Women and a Manicure”.

Foster recently stated that she would be involved with directing a sci-fi film. The film is still in the script stage, however, it is said to be a family-based film.

To read more about Jodie Foster go to wikipedia.org

Follow Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.

Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards, Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News

The component programs are “Tribeca Talks: After the Movie,” “Tribeca Talks: Industry,” “Tribeca Talks: Pen to Paper, hosted by Barnes & Noble,” the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival panel, and new this year, in celebration of the tenth Festival, the “Tribeca Talks: Directors Series,” featuring one-on-one conversations with acclaimed filmmakers — plus the premiere of five new documentary films and a one-of-a-kind videogame-film event.

From the release:

This year, Tribeca’s annual panel series, a collection of special events, conversations and audience Q&A’s designed to spark a richer dialogue about film, has expanded to include the “Tribeca Talks: Directors Series.” The series invites audiences to join entertainment industry icons from Brian Williams to Alec Baldwin to Martin Scorsese as they moderate discussions with noted industry figures such as actor-producer and Tribeca co-founder Robert De Niro and acclaimed directors Doug Liman and Souleymane Cissé, respectively.

The Festival also unveiled five new documentary titles – The Education of Dee Dee Ricks; Love Hate Love; Off the Rez; Grandma, A Thousand Times; and Sing Your Song – which will receive exclusive screenings as part of the “Tribeca Talks: After the Movie” series. Another one-of-a-kind world premiere event will be the screening and examination of L.A. Noire, a new interactive crime thriller being released in the spring by Rockstar Games.

The Tribeca Talks panel series will bring film enthusiasts together with some of the biggest name directors, actors and industry leaders to explore topics from multi-platform filmmaking to financing to the role of women in film.

This year’s participants include Academy Award-winning actors Robert De Niro and Sean Penn, Academy Award-winning directors Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard and Alex Gibney, filmmaker Doug Liman, Alec Baldwin, Kelly Ripa, war photographer Greg Marinovich, and industry leaders ESPN, Rockstar Games and more.

The Tribeca Talks panel series is open to the public and will take place throughout TFF, which will run from April 20 to May 1, 2011 in lower Manhattan.

Also part of “Tribeca Talks: After the Movie” are the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s presentation of the 10th anniversary screening and panel discussion of “A Beautiful Mind,” Universal Pictures’ Academy Award-winning masterpiece from director Ron Howard, and an exclusive preview of Rockstar Games’ new digital state-of-the-art crime thriller, L.A. Noire, followed by a special Q&A exploring the cinematic elements of filmmaking that have crossed over into interactive entertainment.

The L.A. Noire Q&A will follow a live demonstration of the new detective game where players solve complex, historically-inspired crimes in a beautifully recreated and fully interactive rendition of 1947 Los Angeles.

“We wanted to celebrate our Tenth Festival by inviting some of the finest filmmakers, media artists and actors of our time to share their insights and experiences through our Tribeca Talks” series said Nancy Schaefer Executive Director of TFF. “We have over the years established a tradition of conversations that both engage audiences in the details and revelations of contemporary film making as well as offer a perspective as to the direction and the future of storytelling and the industry. This is so much a part of what festivals can do to enrich the viewing experience for their audiences and we are proud to present this special series.”

Follow Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.

Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards, Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News

Photo courtesy of PRPhotos.com.

The Focus Features stars Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore, Paul Dano, Dale Dickey (“Winter’s Bone”), Lili Taylor and Olivia Thirlby. It tells the story of Nick Flynn (Dano), a young writer who takes a job at a homeless shelter where he discovers his long-absent father Jonathan (De Niro) seeking a bed. Moore portrays the writer’s mother Jody, while Thirlby portrays Denise, a worker at the shelter.

“Nick’s memoir was emotional, ruefully funny, and powerfully moving. Paul’s movie looks to honor Nick’s experiences – and his father’s. We are privileged to be working with these filmmakers and talent to tell this story,” said Focus CEO James Schamus.

Weitz commented, “I’ve been working on this script for seven years, gone through 30 drafts, and I feel extremely lucky to be making this draft, with this cast, at this studio.”

More from the release:

Mr. Weitz and Andrew Miano, both of the production company Depth of Field, are producing the film with Corduroy Films and with Mr. De Niro’s Tribeca Productions. The executive producers are Tribeca’s Jane Rosenthal and Meghan Lyvers, Caroline Baron, and Depth of Field’s Kerry Kohansky.

Declan Quinn (Rachel Getting Married) is the cinematographer on the film, and Emmy Award winner Sarah Knowles (Warm Springs) is the production designer. Focus executive vice president, production and development Kahli Small and creative executive Christopher Kopp are supervising the project for president of production John Lyons.

Mr. Weitz was an Academy Award nominee, with his brother Chris, for adapting Nick Hornby’s novel About a Boy into the film of the same name, which they co-directed. Paul Weitz’ other films as writer/director include In Good Company and American Dreamz.

Follow Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.

Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards, Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News

Photo courtesy of PRPhotos.com.

In honor of the film’s 35th anniversary (it was released on Feb. 8, 1976), AMC Theatres will sponsor screenings of “Taxi Driver” in select markets throughout the country. The screenings will be held Saturday, March 19, at 8 p.m., and Tuesday, March 22, at 8 p.m. Admission price to the screenings will include a commemorative mini-poster (while supplies last).

For a complete list of participating theatres, click here.

And as part of the anniversary celebration, AMC has posted a period-accurate trailer for Scorcese’s psychotic trip through the mind of Robert De Niro’s Vietnam veteran. The droll voiceover narration in the clip is enough to send chills through your body. We’ve posted the “Taxi Driver” trailer below. Be sure to grab tickets and see “Taxi Driver” at a theater near you soon.

Follow Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.

Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards, Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News

By Roger Friedman

HollywoodNews.com: Stan Rosenfield, a beloved and honorable press agent, is quitting Charlie Sheen this morning.

Rosenfield has worked for Sheen for eight years, masterfully guiding him through his divorces from both Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller.

Stan –whose other clients include Robert DeNiro, George Clooney, and Kelsey Grammer–has also had to deal with Sheen’s public misbehavior over the years. But the last couple of weeks spelled the end of their relationship. Sheen has run wild, ignoring Rosenfeld and booking TV and radio interviews without him.

As I wrote last week. Stan–a new grandfather–was on a plane from LA to NY for Kelsey Grammer’s wedding when Sheen went ballistic and took on CBS. By the time the plane landed, “Two and a Half Men” was cancelled and Sheen was labeled an anti-Semite. Sheen can blast CBS, Chuck Lorre, and anyone else, by the way. But Hollywood knows and loves Rosenfield.

To read more about this article go to www.showbiz411.com

Photo By PR Photos

Follow Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.

Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards, Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News