Month: May 2010

Universal Studios New York Street Backlot Video – Watch Ron Meyer, Steven Spielberg, Jon Turteltaub and Others Talk About the Rebuilt Studio

…The video features Universal President Ron Meyer narrating why the backlot is so important to Universal and how films like Back to the Future and Blues Brothers were filmed in the area that burned down. Shortly after, Steven Spielberg talks about how he got involved in the rebuilding and he explains how when he heard about the fire, he immediately rushed down to the studio. Of course the video has a positive ending as the studio just spent a lot of money making the New York backlot even better…

https://www.collider.com/2010/05/28/universal-studios-new-york-street-backlot-video/

Killers Not Being Screened For Critics

A mere four or five years ago it was all but unheard of for a Hollywood studio not to screen a major blockbuster in advance for critics. Back when I first started reviewing movies, in the early aughts, I could count on one hand the number of major theatrical releases which weren’t screened for the press each year. Since then, studios have discovered that potential moviegoers are easier to manipulate into seeing bad movies, if there’s no one around to warn them, and refusing to screen movies for critics has become commonplace whenever Hollywood has a real stinker on its hands. Word of mouth will kill these movies eventually, but only after they’ve made big opening weekend box office generated by tricky advertising campaigns…

https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Killers-Not-Being-Screened-For-Critics-18774.html

Johnny Depp: Only Star To Hit The Billion Dollar Gross Mark Twice

When Alice in Wonderland this week became only the sixth film to cross the $1 billion gross mark, it certainly bolstered Johnny Depp’s case for being the biggest movie star in the world. He’s the only guy who has reached the $1 billion mark with two films. The other, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, is the fourth highest grossing film ever…

https://www.deadline.com/2010/05/johnny-depp-only-star-to-hit-the-billion-dollar-gross-mark-twice/

Is ‘Shrek’s’ box office collapse tied to sky-high 3-D ticket prices?

It has been big news everywhere that “Shrek Forever After” took a big tumble at the box office this weekend, barely scraping together $71 million in revenues, a dramatic fall from the grosses of the franchise’s past sequels. What happened? The reviews weren’t so bad…

https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/05/is-shreks-box-office-collapse-tied-to-sky-high-3d-ticket-prices.html

Are video games art? Roger Ebert says no, Ben Kingsley says YES!

Roger Ebert’s been on a tweeting/blogging bent saying video games are not art. I mean, geez, you don’t have to play them, but why so harsh?

Well, some bona fide artists are jumping to defend video games now. Oscar-winner Sir Ben Kingsley, who stars in the movie version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, says video games are a new form of art worthy of his own mad acting skills…

https://scifiwire.com/2010/05/ben-kingsley-to-roger-ebe.php

Megan As Cautionary Tale: Is Shia Heeding?

The decision to dump Megan Fox from Transformers 3 underscores the perils of slamming your franchise and filmmakers if you’re a thesp. Promoting Wall Street 2 in Cannes, LaBeouf hasn’t been as recklessly critical as his now former co-star. But Hollywood executives I talked to feel that Shia was disrespectful when he proclaimed publicly (and truthfully) that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull basically sucked even though he starred in it. The 23-year-old did take some responsibility (“The actor’s job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn’t do it. So that’s my fault”). But he told reporters that “when you drop the ball, you drop the ball… You can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven. I’ll probably get a call. But he needs to hear this…” …

https://www.deadline.com/2010/05/megan-as-cautionary-tale-is-shia-heeding/#more-42953