Time to round up another batch of blurbs and things.<\/span><\/p>\n 1.<\/a> Well, now we know why the actor playing James T. Kirk\u2019s father<\/a> in Star Trek XI<\/a><\/i> is only 24 years old. TrekMovie.com<\/a> reports that Spencer Daniels<\/a>, who is 15, and Jimmy Bennett<\/a>, who turns 12 in less than two weeks, will be playing George Samuel Kirk Jr. and his brother James T. Kirk, respectively. Looks like someone other than Chris Pine<\/a> can lay claim to playing \u201cthe young Kirk\u201d now, eh?<\/p>\n 2.<\/a> The nominees for the Genie Awards<\/a> have been announced, and, as Variety<\/a><\/i> reporter Brendan Kelly puts it:<\/p>\n For the first time in years, it looks like English-Canadian pics rather than French-Canadian ones will dominate the Genies, the Canuck film awards.<\/p>\n The leading contenders are David Cronenberg\u2019s London-set mob thriller \u201cEastern Promises<\/a>\u201d and Roger Spottiswoode\u2019s Rwandan-set drama \u201cShake Hands With the Devil<\/a>\u201d with 12 nominations each for the March 3 awards.<\/p>\n The other top nominees, announced on Monday, are Sarah Polley\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s drama \u201cAway From Her<\/a>\u201d with seven noms; Bruce McDonald\u2019s troubled-teen drama \u201cThe Tracey Fragments\u201d with six noms; and, with five nods apiece, Stephane Lafleur\u2019s black comedy \u201cContinental, a Film Without Guns\u201d and Francois Girard\u2019s romantic epic \u201cSilk.\u201d<\/p>\n The leading French-language nominee is \u201cContinental.\u201d<\/p>\n The contenders for best picture are Denys Arcand\u2019s \u201cDays of Darkness<\/a>,\u201d \u201cAway From Her,\u201d \u201cContinental,\u201d \u201cEastern Promises\u201d and \u201cShake Hands With the Devil.\u201d . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Incidentally, that \u2018Canada\u2019s Top Ten of 2007<\/a>\u2018 list that I mentioned here last month is<\/i> coming to Vancouver; seven of the ten films will be at the Pacific Cinematheque<\/a> between February 13 and 22.<\/p>\n 3.<\/a> Variety<\/a><\/i> says Oliver Stone has lined up financing for Bush<\/a><\/i>, his just-announced biopic on George W. Bush, and this means the film \u201ccould be in theaters by November\u2019s presidential elections, and certainly before Bush leaves the White House in January.\u201d<\/p>\n 4.<\/a> The Salt Lake Tribune<\/a><\/i> reports that Daniel Thompson, co-owner of the CleanFlicks<\/a> service which edits all the naughty bits out of mainstream movies so that families can watch them guilt-free, was arrested \u201con suspicion of having sex with two 14-year-old girls\u201d:<\/p>\n The booking documents state Thompson told the 14-year-olds that his film sanitizing business was a cover for a pornography studio. He asked the girls if they would participate in making a porn movie, but they refused, the documents state.<\/p>\n Police found a \u201clarge quantity\u201d of pornographic movies inside the business, along with a keg of beer, painkillers and two cameras hooked up to a television. Thompson told police he didn\u2019t know the teenagers were under 18 or that they were paid for sex. He said pornography found at the business was for \u201cpersonal use,\u201d according to the documents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Tribune<\/i> also says CleanFlicks was \u201cclosed in December after threats of legal action from Hollywood studios\u201d, but the company\u2019s website<\/a> still seems to be working. Maybe Thompson closed only one or more of the \u201cfour CleanFlicks shops\u201d that he owned two years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n 5.<\/a> Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/i> has an interview with Mark Pellington, one of the directors of the new IMAX concert movie U2 3D<\/a><\/i>:<\/p>\n Were you at the U2<\/i> premiere screening? People dancing in the aisles?<\/b> I find it hard to believe that there is an entire continent of people who are even more<\/i> fanatical in their religious devotion to U2 than some of the people I have met, but, well, anything\u2019s possible!<\/p>\n 6.<\/a> The New York Times<\/a><\/i> has a fun little article on Michel Gondry\u2019s Be Kind Rewind<\/a><\/i> and the nostalgia it evokes for the bygone days of VHS<\/a>. Among reporter Dennis Lim\u2019s interesting observations:<\/p>\n Since they function as elegies for a departed medium, \u201cBe Kind Rewind\u201d and \u201cSon of Rambow<\/a>\u201d differ substantially in tone from most other movies that have prominently featured videotapes and video technology. During its lifetime VHS often symbolized alienation and malevolence, perhaps because video quickly became the medium of choice for pornography and surveillance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 7.<\/a> Variety<\/a><\/i> says Dennis Quaid<\/a> will star as General Hawk in Stephen Sommers\u2019 upcoming G.I. Joe<\/a><\/i>. Quaid, eh? That kind of makes me interested in this film. Then again\u2026 Sommers, eh? This better not be as much of a chore to sit through as Van Helsing<\/a><\/i> (2004) was.<\/p>\n 8.<\/a> Dave Gordon<\/a>, writing in the National Post<\/a><\/i>, doesn\u2019t like the fact that Mathieu Amalric<\/a>, who is playing the bad guy in the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace<\/a><\/i>, says he is basing his performance on such \u201cinvisible villains\u201d as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and current French President Nicolas Sarkozy.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time to round up another batch of blurbs and things. 1. Well, now we know why the actor playing James T. Kirk\u2019s father in Star Trek XI is only 24 years old. TrekMovie.com reports that Spencer Daniels, who is 15, and Jimmy Bennett, who turns 12 in less than two weeks, will be playing George […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
It was great. Look. If you\u2019re a fan of U2<\/a>, you\u2019ll love it. If you\u2019ve ever seen them live, their lighting, their set, their show is amazing. So to capture that and<\/i> the energy of 80,000 people, that\u2019s a pretty religious experience. That\u2019s why we specifically chose Latin America. The band hadn\u2019t been there in eight years, and [the fans are] nuts. I mean, think about it. It\u2019s like a totally different, religious, spiritual fervor that goes on. It\u2019s in the blood. It\u2019s in the DNA of the culture, differently than it would be in Eastern Europe or Australia. It\u2019s inherent in the generational history of the culture, and its relationship to music.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n