Press release:
PARAMOUNT ACQUIRES WORLDWIDE RIGHTS TO REITMAN AND CODY’S “YOUNG ADULT”
The film begins principal photography in NY this month
HOLLYWOOD, CA (October 7, 2010) – Paramount Pictures has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Mandate Pictures’ YOUNG ADULT from Academy Award®-nominated director Jason Reitman and Academy Award®-winning writer Diablo Cody. Academy-Award® winning actress Charlize Theron (“Monster,” “The Road”) stars alongside Golden Globe nominee Patrick Wilson (Angels in America, the upcoming “Morning Glory”) and Patton Oswalt (“Ratatouille”).
The movie will be produced by Academy-Award® nominated producers Lianne Halfon and Russell Smith of Mr. Mudd Productions, Mason Novick, Diablo Cody, Jason Reitman through his film banner Right of Way Films and Denver & Delilah Films. Nathan Kahane, John Malkovich, Helen Estabrook and Steven Rales will executive produce. Mary Lee, Kelli Konop, Brian Bell and Beth Kono will co-produce. Paramount’s David Beaubaire, will run point for the studio.
YOUNG ADULT marks the second collaboration for these filmmakers. Reitman, Mr. Mudd, Mandate, Novick and Cody had an enormously successful partnership on JUNO. The film, directed by Reitman and written by Cody, garnered a host of accolades, including an Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay and three Academy Award® nominations for Best Motion Picture (Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers), Best Actress, and Best Director. The $227 million box-office and critical sensation was released by Fox Searchlight in late 2007.
The film also marks the third collaboration for Reitman and Paramount. The studio released his Academy-Award® nominated “Up in the Air” last year. Earning over $160 million world-wide, the movie earned six Academy-Award® nominations, and five Golden Globe nominations, with Reitman taking home the Golden Globe for Best Adapted Screenplay. Reitman next produces the upcoming Paramount Pictures film “Jeff Who Lives At Home,” starring Jason Segel and Ed Helms, and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, to be released in 2011.
“We immediately jumped at the chance to work with Jason again,” said Paramount Film Group President Adam Goodman. “He’s one of the most talented filmmakers working today and look forward to this next collaboration.”
Dan Freedman, SVP of Business and Legal Affairs, negotiated all deals for Mandate Pictures.
ABOUT PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company's labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group, and Worldwide Television Distribution.
ABOUT MANDATE PICTURES
Mandate Pictures is a multifaceted film production and financing company with a distinguished reputation and proven track record of success and profitability. Acquired by Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) in 2007, Mandate continues to operate as an independent brand delivering acclaimed commercial and independent films worldwide. Under President Nathan Kahane, Mandate has carved out a unique position in the film industry, having the creative autonomy and capital to finance, develop, package and produce theatrical films such as the Academy Award®-nominated film, JUNO, directed by Jason Reitman, written by Diablo Cody and starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. Mandate’s most recent film THE SWITCH, starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman, was released by Miramax Films on August 20, 2010; upcoming films include an untitled comedy starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, which will be distributed by Summit Entertainment in 2011.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Wes Craven Brings Terror to the Sky in "Red Eye"
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 134 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux
Red Eye (2005)
Running time: 85 minutes (1 hour, 25 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence, and language
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WRITER: Carl Ellsworth, from a story by Dan Foos and Carl Ellsworth
PRODUCERS: Chris Bender and Marianne Maddalena
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Yeoman
EDITORS: Patrick Lussier and Stuart Levy
THRILLER
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Jayma Mays, and Jack Scalia
Wes Craven wants you to know that his new film, Red Eye, is not a horror film. I even saw him on a cable entertainment talk show where he emphatically stated that Red Eye was not a horror flick.
In the film, Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams), who hates to fly, has to take a plane, Fresh Air Flight 1019, from Texas (where she attended her grandmother’s funeral) back to Miami. Upon boarding her plane, Lisa is shocked to find that she’s seated next to Jackson Ripner (Cillian Murphy), a seemingly charming man with whom she earlier shared a drink. Once the plane is in the air, Jackson drops his flirtatious and charming façade and reveals to Lisa why he’s really on board the same plane with her. Jackson needs Lisa to use her pull as the desk manager of the popular Miami hotel, the Lux Atlantic, to move the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Charles Keefe (Jack Scalia), to a room in the Lux where it will be easier to assassinate him (and his family). If Lisa doesn’t cooperate, Jackson’s comrade is waiting in car parked by her father’s home, waiting to kill dear old dad, Joe Reisert (Brian Cox). Trapped at 30,000 feet in air in the confines of the airplane and unable to summon help without endangering her father, Lisa has to figure away to thwart the ruthless Jackson, who never lets her out of his sight for very long.
While not a horror film, Red Eye is just more proof that Wes Craven knows how to give people chills and thrills. Red Eye is a nifty thriller that’s part Hitchcock (the first half) and part slasher film (the second half as Jackson pursues Lisa). The film is especially taut and tense during the plane sequences; those who don’t like flying will especially feel the shivers on the back on their necks and running down their spines. The wonderful camera work by Robert Yeoman (who has photographed all of Wes Anderson’s films) and Craven’s direction ably creates a sense of panic, doom, and claustrophobia. While Red Eye wears its B-movie credentials on its proverbial sleeves, Craven executes a premise into a suspense film that simply works – making a by-the-book plot a highly engaging cat-and-mouse drama – if only the story stayed on the plane.
Earlier in Summer 2005, Steven Spielberg turned sci-fi B-movie tropes into a grisly disaster film of high pedigree with War of the Worlds. Craven falls just short of making his own thriller into a rare breed suspense flick, and he shares the blame with the script. Neither he nor his screenwriter, Carl Ellsworth, do anything novel to keep Red Eye’s last act from becoming a video fare crime thriller. Red Eye is by no means a failure; it just fails at being great although the first half of the movie had the movie on the path to excellence. Ellsworth (who wrote Red Eye’s original story with former college classmate Dan Foos) was reportedly the only screenwriter to work on Red Eye’s script, a rarity in Hollywood, but in this case, perhaps it would have been best if at least one more writer put in his two cents worth.
Red Eye’s lightening pace can’t quite hide the ugly truth that the script turns what is an engaging adversary, Jackson Ripner, into nothing more than just another killer who in the film’s closing act overestimates himself. Cillian Murphy, sure to be a good character actor for some time to come, chews up the scenery as long as Jackson is on the airplane. When Red Eye’s script turns the story from a button-pushing psychological thriller into a killer-on-the-loose cheapie in the second half, Cillian Murphy’s Jackson looses his wicked charm and becomes a tiresome (and not too bright) ordinary home-invading assailant. It doesn’t help that the co-star Rachel McAdams is just another pretty face, and her acting, which has won her a prestigious Genie Award in her native country of Canada, delivers a functional performance here. In Red Eye, she lacks the tasty menace that made her such a sweet adversary for Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls. Here, she’s just another spunky white girl running from a bad man with a knife – no better or worse than all the other white chicks who have run from monsters and killers for Craven since he first started making scary movies over three decades ago.
In the end, Red Eye works much more often than not. An edge-of-your-seat thriller with enough wit to make you laugh out loud, it’s a guaranteed winner for people who actually want to go to the theatre to see a movie, and it’ll also be a winning choice for those who are always looking for something good to rent from the video store.
6 of 10
B
Monday, August 22, 2005
Red Eye (2005)
Running time: 85 minutes (1 hour, 25 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence, and language
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WRITER: Carl Ellsworth, from a story by Dan Foos and Carl Ellsworth
PRODUCERS: Chris Bender and Marianne Maddalena
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Yeoman
EDITORS: Patrick Lussier and Stuart Levy
THRILLER
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Jayma Mays, and Jack Scalia
Wes Craven wants you to know that his new film, Red Eye, is not a horror film. I even saw him on a cable entertainment talk show where he emphatically stated that Red Eye was not a horror flick.
In the film, Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams), who hates to fly, has to take a plane, Fresh Air Flight 1019, from Texas (where she attended her grandmother’s funeral) back to Miami. Upon boarding her plane, Lisa is shocked to find that she’s seated next to Jackson Ripner (Cillian Murphy), a seemingly charming man with whom she earlier shared a drink. Once the plane is in the air, Jackson drops his flirtatious and charming façade and reveals to Lisa why he’s really on board the same plane with her. Jackson needs Lisa to use her pull as the desk manager of the popular Miami hotel, the Lux Atlantic, to move the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Charles Keefe (Jack Scalia), to a room in the Lux where it will be easier to assassinate him (and his family). If Lisa doesn’t cooperate, Jackson’s comrade is waiting in car parked by her father’s home, waiting to kill dear old dad, Joe Reisert (Brian Cox). Trapped at 30,000 feet in air in the confines of the airplane and unable to summon help without endangering her father, Lisa has to figure away to thwart the ruthless Jackson, who never lets her out of his sight for very long.
While not a horror film, Red Eye is just more proof that Wes Craven knows how to give people chills and thrills. Red Eye is a nifty thriller that’s part Hitchcock (the first half) and part slasher film (the second half as Jackson pursues Lisa). The film is especially taut and tense during the plane sequences; those who don’t like flying will especially feel the shivers on the back on their necks and running down their spines. The wonderful camera work by Robert Yeoman (who has photographed all of Wes Anderson’s films) and Craven’s direction ably creates a sense of panic, doom, and claustrophobia. While Red Eye wears its B-movie credentials on its proverbial sleeves, Craven executes a premise into a suspense film that simply works – making a by-the-book plot a highly engaging cat-and-mouse drama – if only the story stayed on the plane.
Earlier in Summer 2005, Steven Spielberg turned sci-fi B-movie tropes into a grisly disaster film of high pedigree with War of the Worlds. Craven falls just short of making his own thriller into a rare breed suspense flick, and he shares the blame with the script. Neither he nor his screenwriter, Carl Ellsworth, do anything novel to keep Red Eye’s last act from becoming a video fare crime thriller. Red Eye is by no means a failure; it just fails at being great although the first half of the movie had the movie on the path to excellence. Ellsworth (who wrote Red Eye’s original story with former college classmate Dan Foos) was reportedly the only screenwriter to work on Red Eye’s script, a rarity in Hollywood, but in this case, perhaps it would have been best if at least one more writer put in his two cents worth.
Red Eye’s lightening pace can’t quite hide the ugly truth that the script turns what is an engaging adversary, Jackson Ripner, into nothing more than just another killer who in the film’s closing act overestimates himself. Cillian Murphy, sure to be a good character actor for some time to come, chews up the scenery as long as Jackson is on the airplane. When Red Eye’s script turns the story from a button-pushing psychological thriller into a killer-on-the-loose cheapie in the second half, Cillian Murphy’s Jackson looses his wicked charm and becomes a tiresome (and not too bright) ordinary home-invading assailant. It doesn’t help that the co-star Rachel McAdams is just another pretty face, and her acting, which has won her a prestigious Genie Award in her native country of Canada, delivers a functional performance here. In Red Eye, she lacks the tasty menace that made her such a sweet adversary for Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls. Here, she’s just another spunky white girl running from a bad man with a knife – no better or worse than all the other white chicks who have run from monsters and killers for Craven since he first started making scary movies over three decades ago.
In the end, Red Eye works much more often than not. An edge-of-your-seat thriller with enough wit to make you laugh out loud, it’s a guaranteed winner for people who actually want to go to the theatre to see a movie, and it’ll also be a winning choice for those who are always looking for something good to rent from the video store.
6 of 10
B
Monday, August 22, 2005
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Will Ferrell Leads Record-Breaking "Megamind" Gathering
Press release:
Will Ferrell and 1,580 Caped Crusaders Capture World Record for Largest Gathering of Superheroes during DreamWorks MEGAMIND Event
New Guinness World Records Achievement Awarded to Heroic Crowd on Saturday, October 2nd
Los Angeles, CA (Oct 2, 2010) – Will Ferrell and 1,580 of his closest costumed superhero friends united on Saturday, October 2nd and made heroic history as they smashed the current Guinness World Records title for Largest Gathering of Superheroes. The Mega-event was open to caped crusaders everywhere and was hosted by DreamWorks Animation to celebrate the November 5th release of MEGAMIND.
“We just broke the record for the biggest gathering of super heroes to kick off Megamonth. If everyone would just stay in their costumes for all of October, we could break another one.” - Will Ferrell on Saturday, after breaking the Guinness World Record
The attempt commenced promptly at 10:00 a.m. as superheroes swooped into L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles. To qualify for the record attempt, participants had to arrive dressed as an easily recognizable superhero that has appeared in a published book, comic, television program or film, as stipulated by the record guidelines. A minimum of 1,501 superheroes were needed to break the previous world record.
Will Ferrell, alongside Megamind, took to the stage at L.A. LIVE to lead his band of superhero supporters into the record books. The feat was witnessed by official Guinness World Records Adjudicator and Spokesperson, Stuart Claxton, who judged and verified the attempt adhered to the strict guidelines of the record category before he announcement that the record had been successful broken.
The world record setting event marked the kickoff of MegaMonth, an official month dedicated to Mega-events across the country in celebration of the upcoming DreamWorks Animation release of MEGAMIND, starring the voices of Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt.
About “MEGAMONTH”
Events scheduled across the country, which include Mega regional contests, Mega marathon weekend races and Mega food festivals. MegaMonth is DreamWorks Animation’s month of Mega events. These events are Mega-big, Mega-bold and Mega-Mega!
About “MEGAMIND”
Megamind is the most brilliant super-villain the world has ever known…and the least successful. Over the years, he has tried to conquer Metro City in every imaginable way - Each attempt, a colossal failure thanks to the caped superhero known as “Metro Man,” until the day Megamind actually defeats him in the throes of one of his botched evil plans. Suddenly, the fate of Metro City is threatened when a new villain arrives and chaos runs rampant, leaving everyone to wonder: Can the world’s biggest “mind” actually be the one to save the day?
Michael Jai White Kicks "Blood and Bone" into High Gear
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 83 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux
Blood and Bone (2009)
Running time: 93 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, pervasive language and brief drug use
DIRECTOR: Ben Ramsey
WRITER: Michael Andrews
PRODUCERS: Matthew Binns, Michael Mailer, and Nick Simunek
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roy H. Wagner
EDITOR: Dean Goodhill
DRAMA/CRIME/MARTIAL ARTS
Starring: Michael Jai White, Julian Sands, Eammon Walker, Dante Basco, Nona Gaye, Michele Belegrin, Bob Sapp, Ron Yuan, Kimbo Slice, Stuart Wilson, and Kevin Phillips
For all intents and purposes, the martial arts movie, Blood and Bone is a straight-to-video action movie. According to the website, IMDb, Blood and Bone only received a theatrical release in Lebanon. Some may think that this says something negative about the movie’s quality, but Blood and Bone is absolutely thrilling. The movie also says that Michael Jai White should be a big time action movie star.
When he gets out of prison, Bone (Michael Jai White) heads for Los Angeles with a plan for revenge. He enters LA’s underground fight scene with the help of a scrappy manager named Pinball (Dante Basco). Bone made a promise to Danny (Kevin Phillips), his prison cellmate who was murdered, that he would take care of Danny’s girlfriend and son. This promise brings him into conflict with James (Eammon Walker), an ambitious gangster, who has the most feared fighter in LA’s underground scene, the massive Hammerman (Bob Sapp).
In Blood and Bone, Michael Jai White reveals himself as a charismatic action star who is as cool and stoic as he is an ass-kickin’ superhero. Bone is similar to one of those characters that Clint Eastwood plays in Westerns – the mysterious stranger who suddenly appears on the scene specifically to deliver justice/revenge. Mix that with some Bruce Lee, and we have Isaiah Bone. White as Bone, however, is better as a martial arts hero than either Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme. Over the course of his career, White’s acting has also improved, and he is much less stiff than he was in his first leading role in a movie, as the title character in Spawn (1997).
In Blood and Bone, White is smooth, funny, and occasionally, even droll and witty. He really comes alive as a martial artist in the film’s numerous fight scenes, and White is so exciting to watch that it may seem to some (like me) that there aren’t enough fight scenes and duels in Blood and Bone. White is electric when he is going up against prison thugs, street fighters, gangsters, and the film’s lead villain, James.
By the way, Eammon Walker is excellent as James, full of pathos and urgent ambition. This is one of several quality performances from actors who make the best of the awkward sounding dialogue given to them. Director Ben Ramsey not only gets the best out of many of his actors; he also paces the film so that it is always making the viewer anticipate something good.
It would be good to see the character Bone come back for a sequel. If he doesn’t bring him back, Michael Jai White has certainly given him a memorable one-shot at stardom in the surprisingly exciting, low-budget fight movie, Blood and Bone.
7 of 10
B+
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Blood and Bone (2009)
Running time: 93 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, pervasive language and brief drug use
DIRECTOR: Ben Ramsey
WRITER: Michael Andrews
PRODUCERS: Matthew Binns, Michael Mailer, and Nick Simunek
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roy H. Wagner
EDITOR: Dean Goodhill
DRAMA/CRIME/MARTIAL ARTS
Starring: Michael Jai White, Julian Sands, Eammon Walker, Dante Basco, Nona Gaye, Michele Belegrin, Bob Sapp, Ron Yuan, Kimbo Slice, Stuart Wilson, and Kevin Phillips
For all intents and purposes, the martial arts movie, Blood and Bone is a straight-to-video action movie. According to the website, IMDb, Blood and Bone only received a theatrical release in Lebanon. Some may think that this says something negative about the movie’s quality, but Blood and Bone is absolutely thrilling. The movie also says that Michael Jai White should be a big time action movie star.
When he gets out of prison, Bone (Michael Jai White) heads for Los Angeles with a plan for revenge. He enters LA’s underground fight scene with the help of a scrappy manager named Pinball (Dante Basco). Bone made a promise to Danny (Kevin Phillips), his prison cellmate who was murdered, that he would take care of Danny’s girlfriend and son. This promise brings him into conflict with James (Eammon Walker), an ambitious gangster, who has the most feared fighter in LA’s underground scene, the massive Hammerman (Bob Sapp).
In Blood and Bone, Michael Jai White reveals himself as a charismatic action star who is as cool and stoic as he is an ass-kickin’ superhero. Bone is similar to one of those characters that Clint Eastwood plays in Westerns – the mysterious stranger who suddenly appears on the scene specifically to deliver justice/revenge. Mix that with some Bruce Lee, and we have Isaiah Bone. White as Bone, however, is better as a martial arts hero than either Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme. Over the course of his career, White’s acting has also improved, and he is much less stiff than he was in his first leading role in a movie, as the title character in Spawn (1997).
In Blood and Bone, White is smooth, funny, and occasionally, even droll and witty. He really comes alive as a martial artist in the film’s numerous fight scenes, and White is so exciting to watch that it may seem to some (like me) that there aren’t enough fight scenes and duels in Blood and Bone. White is electric when he is going up against prison thugs, street fighters, gangsters, and the film’s lead villain, James.
By the way, Eammon Walker is excellent as James, full of pathos and urgent ambition. This is one of several quality performances from actors who make the best of the awkward sounding dialogue given to them. Director Ben Ramsey not only gets the best out of many of his actors; he also paces the film so that it is always making the viewer anticipate something good.
It would be good to see the character Bone come back for a sequel. If he doesn’t bring him back, Michael Jai White has certainly given him a memorable one-shot at stardom in the surprisingly exciting, low-budget fight movie, Blood and Bone.
7 of 10
B+
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Waiting for "Superman" Inspires New Huffington Post Section
Press release:
The Huffington Post Launches Education Section Inspired By “Waiting For ‘Superman’” Documentary
"HuffPost Education" Covers Broad-Range Of Issues Impacting Students, Parents, Teachers, Administrators, and the Nation
-- “Waiting for ‘Superman’” Signs on As Inaugural Sponsor --
New York, NY, October 4 – The Huffington Post (“HuffPost”) a leading social news and opinion site, today announces the launch of "HuffPost Education http://www.huffingtonpost.com/education/," a new education section inspired by the issues raised in WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN,” the documentary by Academy Award®-winning director Davis Guggenheim. HuffPost Education serves as a one-stop-shop education “hub,” featuring up-to-the-minute news and features, blog posts, video, and community engagement around America's troubled education system. The section is produced in partnership with Causecast, a leading cause marketing and technology solutions provider, and is the latest content "vertical" to be added to The Huffington Post, which continues its expansion as "The Internet Newspaper." Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, made the announcement.
"The Huffington Post is thrilled to launch HuffPost Education -- a new section that highlights and builds on the issues raised in WAITING FOR ‘SUPERMAN,’”said Arianna Huffington. “Education has always been the great equalizer in America: the chance for each succeeding generation to improve their minds -- and their lives. But something has gone terribly wrong with our education system, and this failure has profound consequences for America’s future. Our nation’s education crisis demands ‘the fierce urgency of now,’ and that’s why HuffPost Education looks at the problems plaguing our schools but also focuses on the innovative solutions being proposed and implemented all across the country. Last but not least, it’s an opportunity to celebrate and support the many teachers who, despite a broken system, are doing heroic work.”
HuffPost Education serves as a hub for education news and trends -- from school success stories and teacher profiles to tips for parents and the latest research and expert analysis. The section features broad-ranging coverage of what’s happening at schools across the country, and around the world, including curricula, testing, resource allocation, teacher training, and more. HuffPost Education highlights the important work that teachers are doing as well as provides them with a real-time forum to discuss the issues impacting them. As part of this, the section will highlight great teachers from around the country, and feature the innovative ways they are getting children to learn. It is also home to a spirited ongoing conversation about what’s gone wrong with America’s educational system -- and what needs to be done to fix it -- featuring topical takes from an eclectic mix of stakeholders in the education debate.
Said Ryan Scott, CEO of Causecast: “We’re delighted to announce the expansion of our HuffPost partnership with the launch of HuffPost Education. Like HuffPost Impact, our award winning service and philanthropy vertical, HuffPost Education strives to move the needle forward by providing inspiring content combined with tools that let readers take action. The aim is to be the definitive online hub for addressing the education crisis, a forum for the best and most innovative minds in America to discuss the current and future state of our public education system, and a venue for everyday participation.”
About The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/) is a leading social news and opinion site which in four and a half years has become an influential and oft-quoted media brand, "The Internet Newspaper." The site offers coverage of politics, media, business, entertainment, living, style, sustainable “green” living, world news, technology, nonprofits, college life, books, religion, food and comedy, and is a top destination for news, blogs and original content. The Huffington Post ("HuffPost") has over 40 million unique visitors per month (source: Google Analytics) and is the “most-linked-to blog” on the Internet, per Technorati. In 2008, the site launched its first local version, HuffPost Chicago; HuffPost New York, HuffPost Denver and HuffPost LA launched in 2009. The Huffington Post has an active community, with over three million comments made on the site each month. HuffPost Social News launched in partnership with Facebook in 2009 to leverage the power of social networking to allow readers to create their own personalized social networking-like news page on HuffPost itself. The Huffington Post Twitter Edition launched in 2010. HuffPost has 6,000 bloggers -- from politicians and celebrities to academics and policy experts -- who contribute in real-time on a wide-range of topics making news today. Among those who have blogged on HuffPost are Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Larry David, Nora Ephron, Larry Page, Madeleine Albright, Robert Redford, Neil Young, Rahm Emanuel, Albert Brooks, Mia Farrow, Russ Feingold, Al Franken, Ari Emanuel, Gary Hart, Harry Shearer, John Kerry, Bill Maher, Nancy Pelosi, Madonna, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ryan Reynolds, Craig Newmark, Alec Baldwin, Donna Karan, Kenneth Cole and Donatella Versace. A comprehensive list of the contributors to The Huffington Post can be found in its blogger index: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/index/.
About Causecast
Causecast is a full-service cause integration company that provides custom solutions to nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Causecast leverages media and technology platforms to develop cause marketing campaigns, provide fundraising and volunteer management tools to nonprofits, and support for-profit CSR with a patent pending employee engagement platform. Clients include AARP, The Huffington Post, Ben Stiller, Malaria No More, John Legend's Show Me Campaign, The National Forensics League, Charity: Water.
About WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”
From AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH director Davis Guggenheim comes WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN,” a provocative and cogent examination of the crisis of public education in the United States told through multiple interlocking stories—from a handful of students and their families whose futures hang in the balance, to the educators and reformers trying to find real and lasting solutions within a dysfunctional system. Tackling such politically radioactive topics as the power of teachers’ unions and the entrenchment of school bureaucracies, Guggenheim reveals the invisible forces that have held true education reform back for decades.
The film is produced by Lesley Chilcott, with Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann serving as executive producers. It is written by Davis Guggenheim & Billy Kimball.
About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company's labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group, and Worldwide Television Distribution.
About Participant Media
Participant Media is a Los Angeles-based entertainment company that focuses on socially relevant, commercially viable feature films, documentaries and television, as well as publishing and digital media. Participant Media is headed by CEO Jim Berk and was founded in 2004 by philanthropist Jeff Skoll, who serves as Chairman. Ricky Strauss is President.
Participant exists to tell compelling, entertaining stories that bring to the forefront real issues that shape our lives. For each of its projects, Participant creates extensive social action and advocacy programs, which provide ideas and tools to transform the impact of the media experience into individual and community action. Participant’s films include The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson’s War, Darfur Now, An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, Standard Operating Procedure, The Visitor, The Soloist, Food, Inc., The Informant!, The Cove, The Crazies, Oceans, Furry Vengeance, CASINO JACK and the United States of Money, Countdown to Zero and Waiting for “Superman.”
About Walden Media
Walden Media specializes in entertainment for the whole family. Past award-winning films include: “The Chronicles of Narnia” series, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “Nim’s Island” and “Charlotte’s Web.” Upcoming films include the third installment in the Narnia series “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Review: "Guess Who" Laughs to Get Along (Missing Bernie Mac)
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 147 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux
Guess Who (2005)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sex-related humor
DIRECTOR: Kevin Rodney Sullivan
WRITERS: David Ronn and Jay Scherick and Peter Tolan, from a story by David Ronn and Jay Scherick (based loosely on the screenplay, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner by William Rose)
PRODUCERS: Jason Goldberg, Erwin Stoff, and Jenno Topping
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
EDITOR: Paul Seydor
COMEDY with elements of drama and romance
Starring: Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, Zoë Saldaña, Judith Scott, Hal Williams, Kellee Stewart, Robert Curtis-Brown, RonReaco Lee, Niecy Nash, Kimberly Scott, Denise Dowse, and Mike Epps
In the famous 1967 film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, a young white woman (played by Katharine Houghton) brings her black fiancé (famously played by Sidney Poitier) home to meet her parents, the mother played by Katherine Hepburn and the disapproving father played by Spencer Tracy.
Director Kevin Rodney Sullivan (Barbershop 2: Back in Business) updates this classic of interracial (a tired, archaic term) dating in Guess Who. This time, Theresa Jones (Zoë Saldaña), a young black woman, brings her fiancé, Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher), a young white man, home to meet her parents, Percy (Bernie Mac) and Marilyn Jones (Judith Scott). Percy has already had a credit check done on Simon and knows that he has a high-powered job at an investment firm, but Percy doesn’t know two things about Simon: (1) he quits his job the day he’s supposed to meet Theresa’s parents who may end up being his in-laws and (2) Simon is white. Complicating matters is that Simon and Theresa plan on announcing their engagement on the very weekend that Percy and Marilyn are holding a big and expensive ceremony to renew their vows after 25 years of marriage. Percy is upfront and blunt with his disappoint in Theresa’s choice of Simon, and Simon tries his best to make friends with Percy. Will Percy ever learn to like… or at least tolerate Simon?
Guess Who is more funny than smart, and it’s actually very funny when it deals with tense issues of interracial dating and race relations in an off-handed way. Several times the films seems as if it wants to deal with America’s proverbial elephant in the room (race), but most of the time it has to awkwardly limp away from that after fumbling the ball at the 20-yard line and getting injured. Guess Who is a film about race relations that never uses the word “nigger,” but feels safe using the ineffective racial slur, “honky.” That is the best Guess Who could do as far as walking the tightrope between what is acceptable and offensive. It avoids discussing what people have in common (humanity) and what divides us (skin color, ethnicity, religion, etc.), so it certainly isn’t a daring film. In the end it’s also about as glib as Meet the Parents and, to a lesser extent, its sequel, Meet the Fockers, in terms of dealing with the conflicts that result when an outsider marries into the family and when two really different groups of people come together because of a marriage.
On the other hand, the film is funny, very funny. Mac and Kutcher have excellent screen chemistry; in fact the script gets that right, so much to the point that it could be a text book example of how to make interpersonal dynamics in screen narratives in which a screen duo or couple are of different skin colors work. The drama does seem a little leaden and forced, but if a viewer goes in expecting a typical comedy of errors and misunderstandings, he’ll get one that has a lot of laughs. There is deep fun in watching Mac’s Percy Jones and Kutcher’s Simon Green dance awkwardly around each other for a long time, each graceless meeting helping each to learn about (if not understand) the other.
That makes the inevitable hug of real friendship seem so… well, real, and rewards us with a happy moment to top of a truly funny film. You see, every movie about us (all of us) learning to get along shouldn’t involve cursing, screaming, tears, and finally a tragic incident that brings us together to appreciate life. Sometimes, we can all laugh our way to getting along, or so says Guess Who.
7 of 10
B+
NOTES:
2006 Black Reel: 1 nomination: “Best Actress” (Zoe Saldana)
2006 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Zoe Saldana)
Guess Who (2005)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sex-related humor
DIRECTOR: Kevin Rodney Sullivan
WRITERS: David Ronn and Jay Scherick and Peter Tolan, from a story by David Ronn and Jay Scherick (based loosely on the screenplay, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner by William Rose)
PRODUCERS: Jason Goldberg, Erwin Stoff, and Jenno Topping
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Karl Walter Lindenlaub
EDITOR: Paul Seydor
COMEDY with elements of drama and romance
Starring: Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, Zoë Saldaña, Judith Scott, Hal Williams, Kellee Stewart, Robert Curtis-Brown, RonReaco Lee, Niecy Nash, Kimberly Scott, Denise Dowse, and Mike Epps
In the famous 1967 film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, a young white woman (played by Katharine Houghton) brings her black fiancé (famously played by Sidney Poitier) home to meet her parents, the mother played by Katherine Hepburn and the disapproving father played by Spencer Tracy.
Director Kevin Rodney Sullivan (Barbershop 2: Back in Business) updates this classic of interracial (a tired, archaic term) dating in Guess Who. This time, Theresa Jones (Zoë Saldaña), a young black woman, brings her fiancé, Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher), a young white man, home to meet her parents, Percy (Bernie Mac) and Marilyn Jones (Judith Scott). Percy has already had a credit check done on Simon and knows that he has a high-powered job at an investment firm, but Percy doesn’t know two things about Simon: (1) he quits his job the day he’s supposed to meet Theresa’s parents who may end up being his in-laws and (2) Simon is white. Complicating matters is that Simon and Theresa plan on announcing their engagement on the very weekend that Percy and Marilyn are holding a big and expensive ceremony to renew their vows after 25 years of marriage. Percy is upfront and blunt with his disappoint in Theresa’s choice of Simon, and Simon tries his best to make friends with Percy. Will Percy ever learn to like… or at least tolerate Simon?
Guess Who is more funny than smart, and it’s actually very funny when it deals with tense issues of interracial dating and race relations in an off-handed way. Several times the films seems as if it wants to deal with America’s proverbial elephant in the room (race), but most of the time it has to awkwardly limp away from that after fumbling the ball at the 20-yard line and getting injured. Guess Who is a film about race relations that never uses the word “nigger,” but feels safe using the ineffective racial slur, “honky.” That is the best Guess Who could do as far as walking the tightrope between what is acceptable and offensive. It avoids discussing what people have in common (humanity) and what divides us (skin color, ethnicity, religion, etc.), so it certainly isn’t a daring film. In the end it’s also about as glib as Meet the Parents and, to a lesser extent, its sequel, Meet the Fockers, in terms of dealing with the conflicts that result when an outsider marries into the family and when two really different groups of people come together because of a marriage.
On the other hand, the film is funny, very funny. Mac and Kutcher have excellent screen chemistry; in fact the script gets that right, so much to the point that it could be a text book example of how to make interpersonal dynamics in screen narratives in which a screen duo or couple are of different skin colors work. The drama does seem a little leaden and forced, but if a viewer goes in expecting a typical comedy of errors and misunderstandings, he’ll get one that has a lot of laughs. There is deep fun in watching Mac’s Percy Jones and Kutcher’s Simon Green dance awkwardly around each other for a long time, each graceless meeting helping each to learn about (if not understand) the other.
That makes the inevitable hug of real friendship seem so… well, real, and rewards us with a happy moment to top of a truly funny film. You see, every movie about us (all of us) learning to get along shouldn’t involve cursing, screaming, tears, and finally a tragic incident that brings us together to appreciate life. Sometimes, we can all laugh our way to getting along, or so says Guess Who.
7 of 10
B+
NOTES:
2006 Black Reel: 1 nomination: “Best Actress” (Zoe Saldana)
2006 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Zoe Saldana)
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Review: "Mr. 3000" Gets Save from Mac and Bassett (Happy B'day, Bernie!)
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 192 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux Mr. 3000 (2004)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual content and language
DIRECTOR: Charles Stone III
WRITERS: Eric Champnella and Keith Mitchell and Howard Michael Gould; from a story by Eric Champnella and Keith Mitchell
PRODUCERS: Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, and Maggie Wilde
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Shane Hurlbut
EDITOR: Bill Pankow
COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE/SPORTS
Starring: Bernie Mac, Angela Bassett, Michael Rispoli, Brian J. White, Ian Anthony Dale, Evan Jones, Amaury Nolasco, Dondre Whitfield, Paul Sorvino, Earl Billings, Chris Noth, and John McConnell
In 1995, Stan Woods (Bernie Mac) got his 3000th hit as a Major League baseball player, thereby (according to him) assuring him of his place among the immortals of baseball and guaranteeing him a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Vain and jaded, Stan, however, retired in the middle of the same season and on the same day he got his 3000th hit. Nine years later, his reputation as selfish has kept him out of the Hall because the baseball writers (who vote on admission into the Hall) still don’t like him. If that weren’t enough, baseball officials suddenly disqualify three of the hits, for which he was apparently credited due to a clerical error. Woods now officially has 2997 hits, but he has been living it up as his business alter ego, Mr. 3000, merchandising himself and using the moniker for his business ventures.
Now, Stan wants back into the Major Leagues, and because his old team, the Milwaukee Brewers, is losing, Brewer ownership is glad to have him back. Mr. 3000 was and still is a fan favorite, but he’s returning as a 47-year old man who is way out of shape. His old manager, Gus Panas (Paul Sorvino), isn’t welcoming him back with open arms, because he and Woods didn’t get along back in the day. The current Brewers roster is filled with young players who don’t fully focus their attentions on the game. Also, an old flame, Mo (Angela Bassett), is now a reporter with ESPN, and she is very skeptical of Woods’ motives for returning, as is the rest of the press. Can Mr. 3000 get back in shape, earn Mo’s trust, relearn his childhood love of the game, and pass it on to a new generation of teammates?
Mr. 3000 is very similar to the baseball romantic comedy Bull Durham, except that the romance between Bernie Mac and Angela Bassett’s characters has more edge to it than the Kevin Costner-Susan Sarandon love fest of Bull Durham. Durham also had a great script; Mr. 3000 doesn’t. This film’s screenplay has all the markings of being something special, but it ultimately falls apart; I don’t know if this is because of studio interference or because the film was ultimately edited for time, but the writing fumbles at the one-foot line.
Good characters are introduced and dropped. Other characters hang around and aren’t properly utilized. However, the film’s most egregious error is trying to fit an adult comedy/drama/romance into the mold of being a light-hearted family baseball film. Mac’s character is a hardass, even more so than many people believe baseball superstar Barry Bonds to be. Mac, for that matter, is an R-rated personality who seems out of place in PG or PG-13 rated productions. Trying to make Mr. 3000 a family film is like trying to put Richard Pryor’s edgy act into a kids’ animated feature.
As badly as the romantic angle of this film is handled, the baseball part of this film is also betrayed. The filmmakers get the technical aspects of filming a baseball movie correct, but the spirit, flavor, and atmosphere of the game doesn’t come through as well as it should. And the story choice of having the team fighting to move from fifth place to third just doesn’t have the heat that having the Brewers chase a title would.
Mac and Ms. Bassett are great together and have excellent screen chemistry. They ably sell their screen couple’s troubled relationship – that the duo can love each other a lot but so irritate each other. To see a black actor and actress together in such a unique romantic entanglement is a treat. We already know that Ms. Bassett is a fine actress, but Bernie Mac also shows his acting chops. Hopefully, both will get better material in the future, but Mr. 3000, warts and all, is still worth seeing.
6 of 10
B
NOTES:
2005 Black Reel Awards: 1 win: “Best Actor, Musical or Comedy” (Bernie Mac); 2 nominations: “Best Actress, Musical or Comedy” (Angela Bassett) and “Best Director” (Charles Stone III)
2005 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Angela Bassett)
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