Watching the Casino Royale DVD this week, it dawned on me that I have interviewed two of the film’s supporting stars in the past. Eva Green (Vesper Lynd) was on the press junket for Kingdom of Heaven (2005) — though I admittedly didn’t use any of her quotes when I wrote up my junket report — and I did a phoner with Jeffrey Wright (Felix Leiter) in connection with Shaft (2000). Here is the article that came out of that... Read more
Just a quick note to say that The Inquiry, AKA The Final Inquiry — i.e. the film about a Roman soldier who is sent by Tiberius to investigate rumours regarding the resurrection of Jesus — will not be opening on April 6, AKA Good Friday, after all. The Fox Faith Movies website now says the film is merely “coming soon”. Read more
You may recall an item I posted here back in October about the differences between the Canadian and American poster art for Shut Up & Sing: Dixie Chicks. It looks like those differences have carried over to the Canadian and American versions of the DVD — and what’s more, the Canadian version is widescreen, but the American version is fullscreen. Huh. I wonder if that means they have cropped the sides, or opened the top and bottom. MAR 21 UPDATE:... Read more
My interview with David Belton, producer and co-writer of Shooting Dogs (2005), AKA Beyond the Gates, is now up at CT Movies. I may post a longer version here in a few days. Read more
It has been over a dozen years since the Rwandan genocide — an atrocity in which as many as 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers were killed by Hutu extremists in just a few months, while the outside world turned a blind eye or, worse, withdrew what little help it had offered in the first place. David Belton covered the genocide as a reporter for the BBC. He went on to become a producer of documentaries like War Spin and Soldiers... Read more
Time for another quick batch. 1. Variety reports that Gerard Butler — star of 300, Beowulf & Grendel (2005), Dear Frankie (2004) and others — hopes to play Snake Plissken in a remake of Escape from New York (1981). 2. I just noticed today that Becket (1964) will finally come out on DVD on May 15 — with a commentary track by Peter O’Toole! 3. Matt Page at the Bible Films Blog passes on the news that a new animated... Read more
Fox Faith is releasing The Inquiry, AKA The Final Inquiry, next month. A team of German and Canadian filmmakers is developing The Sword of Peter. And Screen Gems and Tim LaHaye are collaborating on The Resurrection — the release date of which, incidentally, was recently bumped to February 27, 2009. And now … another film joins the mix! Variety reports: Making a foray into the faith-based arena, Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment is producing “Risen –The Story of the First... Read more
You may have heard that 300, Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae, broke a box-office record or two when it opened this weekend. If its estimated $70 million gross holds up when the actual figures are released today, it will beat the Ice Age movies (2002-2006) for biggest March opening weekend ever, and it will be second only to The Passion of the Christ (2004; $83.8 million) among movies that opened between January... Read more
Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. Pan’s Labyrinth — CDN $5,094,436 — N.AM $35,435,000 — 14.4%The Number 23 — CDN $4,070,518 — N.AM $30,481,000 — 13.4%Zodiac — CDN $2,367,321 — N.AM $23,727,000 — 10.0%300 — CDN $6,093,145 — N.AM $70,025,000 — 8.7%Music and Lyrics — CDN $3,765,833 — N.AM $43,847,000 — 8.6%Bridge to Terabithia — CDN... Read more
Believe it or not, there are two more sets of movie critics’ awards that I took part in, that I have not yet mentioned here. First, the American Film Renaissance Awards, which were actually posted a couple weeks ago — yeah, I’m way behind on this one: Best Picture: The Pursuit of HappynessRunners-up: Apocalypto, United 93, The Queen, The Departed Best Documentary: Border War: The Battle Over Illegal ImmigrationRunners-up: Islam: What the West Needs to Know, Abduction: The Megumi Yokota... Read more
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