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<channel>
	<title>Alt Film Guide</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.altfg.com/blog/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog</link>
	<description>The Oscars, film awards, new releases, Los Angeles screenings, movie classics, gay movies, film festivals, box office, foreign and independent films</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 23:35:37 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Box Office: THE AVENGERS Behind THE DARK KNIGHT Ticket Sales</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/box-office-the-avengers-the-dark-knight-ticket-sales/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/box-office-the-avengers-the-dark-knight-ticket-sales/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 23:35:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zac Gille</dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=38731</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Avengers: Chris Evans / Captain America, Robert Downey Jr / Tony Stark / Iron Man The Avengers easily topped the North American box office this past weekend, grossing $55.64m according to box-office actuals found at Box Office Mojo. At a distant second place with $25.53m was Battleship, a $209m Universal release that has turned out to be a major bomb domestically. On Sunday, The Avengers passed the $450m mark in North America. It is the fastest movie to reach that milestone: 17 days. At no. 2, Christopher Nolan / Christian Bale&#8217;s The Dark Knight reached $450m after 27 days. (Adjusted for inflation, The Dark Knight reached that milestone on Day 21.) The Avengers vs. The Dark Knight: Ticket Sales Now, which movie has sold more tickets, The Avengers or The Dark Knight? On Day 17, The Avengers&#8216; cume stands at $457.66m; The Dark Knight&#8216;s was $393.75m. Adjusted for inflation, The Dark Knight&#8216;s take goes up to approximately $429m. Now, if 3D screens accounted for 50% of the The Avengers&#8216; domestic box office (the percentage was 52% on the first weekend), then after deducting the 3D surcharges (calculated at 30% above the cost of a 2D movie), The Avengers&#8216; box-office take goes down to approximately $400m &#8212; or well behind The Dark Knight&#8216;s. Even if only one third of The Avengers&#8216; gross originated from 3D houses, the Marvel sci-fier / actioner would still be behind The Dark Knight in terms of ticket sales: approx. $419m vs. The Dark Knight&#8216;s aforementioned $429m during the same period. Internationally, however, The Avengers is doing much better than The Dark Knight. The Avengers&#8216; international gross currently stands at $723.3m. The Dark Knight cumed at $468.57m. To date, The Avengers&#8216; top five international markets are the U.K. ($73m), China ($70.1m), Mexico ($57.1m), Brazil ($53.3m), and South Korea ($48m). Directed by Joss Whedon, The Avengers features Captain America: The First Avenger’s Chris Evans as Captain America, two-time Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr (Chaplin, Tropic Thunder) as Iron Man, Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) as the Incredible Hulk, Match Point’s Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, and Snow White and the Huntsman’s Chris Hemsworth as Thor. Also: two-time Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Town) as Hawkeye, The Deep Blue Sea’s Tom Hiddleston as Loki, The Storm Awaits&#8216; Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Pulp Fiction Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love) as Pepper Potts, and Much Ado About Nothing’s Clark Gregg as agent Phil Coulson. And finally: Stellan Skarsgård, Powers Boothe, Alexis Denisof, veteran Jenny Agutter (Walkabout / Logan’s Run), and Deep End director / Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water screenwriter Jerzy Skolimowski, in addition to the voices of Paul Bettany and Lou Ferrigno. Chris Evans as Captain America / Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man / The Avengers picture: Zade Rosenthal / Walt Disney Studios.]]></description>
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		<title>ON THE ROAD Clip: Kristen Stewart/Marylou Wants Normal Life</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/on-the-road-clip-kristen-stewart-marylou/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/on-the-road-clip-kristen-stewart-marylou/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 20:23:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andre Soares</dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=38728</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On the Road: Kristen Stewart as Marylou, Sam Riley&#8216;s / Sal Paradise&#8217;s ear &#34;I just had a great idea, you guys are gonna love it!&#34; exclaims Garrett Hedlund&#8216;s Dean Moriarty at the end of this French-subtitled On the Road clip. (Please scroll down to check out Sur la route.) Also seen in the clip are Kristen Stewart&#8216;s Marylou and Sam Riley&#8216;s Sal Paradise. Walter Salles directed this year&#8217;s Cannes Film Festival&#8217;s Palme d&#8217;Or contender. Kristen Stewart is the focus of this particular On the Road clip, as Marylou is apparently telling Sal that she&#8217;s going to dump Dean. She sounds a bit like a fatalist: better dump Dean before he dumps her. In any case, she&#8217;s already got a fiance at home, a sailor. Marylou also sounds like a traditionalist here: she wants a house and a baby, &#34;something normal.&#34; It&#8217;d be interesting if Dean&#8217;s &#34;great idea&#34; has something to do with what Marylou can do to her house, baby, and normality. Walter Salles&#8217; The Motorcycle Diaries collaborator José Rivera wrote the screenplay adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s 1957 iconic novel. Brokeback Mountain’s Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla composed the film&#8217;s core, while You Ain&#8217;t Seen Nothin&#8217; Yet&#8216;s Eric Gautier is the cinematographer. The editing was done by Look at Me’s François Gédigier. The Godfather’s Francis Ford Coppola is one of On the Road’s executive producers. IFC Films / Sundance Selects will release On the Road in North America. The film opens in France on May 23. Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley, Garret Hedlund: upcoming movies Kristen Stewart has two other 2012 movies coming out: Rupert Sanders&#8217; Snow White and the Huntsman, co-starring Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, and Sam Claflin. Stewart plays Snow White in the film, which opens June 1. Bill Condon&#8217;s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, the last installment in the Twilight movie series. Kristen Stewart plays Bella Swan-Cullen, opposite Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. Also in the Breaking Dawn 2 cast: Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Dakota Fanning, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Michael Sheen, Nikki Reed, Booboo Stewart, Billy Burke, and Jamie Campbell Bower. Sam Riley will next be seen in Neil Jordan&#8217;s Byzantium, which should open later this year. Also featured are Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Jonny Lee Miller, Caleb Landry Jones, Tom Hollander, and Daniel Mays. Garrett Hedlund stars in Joel Coen and Ethan Coen&#8217;s Inside Llewyn Davies, which comes out in February 2013. Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Alex Karpovsky, Oscar Isaac, and Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) co-star. Hedlund&#8217;s previously announced Akira (which at one point was to have co-starred Kristen Stewart) seems to be a no-go for the time being. Kristen Stewart as Marylou picture: screencap from IFC Films&#8217; On the Road.]]></description>
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		<title>THE POSSESSION Poster: Girl Possessed by Demon</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/the-possession-poster-demon-possessed-girl/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/the-possession-poster-demon-possessed-girl/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 19:44:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zac Gille</dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=38726</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Possession poster &#34;Pray for Her,&#34; reads the headline in The Possession poster. But why should anyone bother praying for &#34;her&#34;? Because the young girl in question has been possessed by a spirit &#8212; a dibbuk &#8212; that may eventually destroy her soul. Apparently a mix of The Exorcist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Audrey Rose, Poltergeist, and The Host, The Possession is purportedly based on a true story about a young girl who becomes obsessed with an antique wooden box. Lionsgate will release the horror drama on August 31 in the United States. Natasha Calis plays the girl; Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick are her parents. Nightwatch&#8216;s Ole Bornedal directed from a screenplay by Juliet Snowden and Stiles White. Spider-Man&#8216;s Sam Raimi is one of the film&#8217;s producers. The Possessed&#8216;s poster was found at Fearnet.com.]]></description>
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		<title>KILLING THEM SOFTLY Teaser Poster</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/killing-them-softly-teaser-poster/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/killing-them-softly-teaser-poster/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 19:14:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andre Soares</dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=38724</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Killing Them Softly poster Andrew Dominik&#8216;s Killing Them Softly, Dominik&#8217;s first film in five years, has a teaser poster. The New Orleans-set crime drama reunites the The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford director with that film&#8217;s star, Brad Pitt. In Killing Them Softly, Pitt plays professional enforcer Jackie Cogan &#8212; not to be confused with The Kid&#8216;s urchin Jackie Coogan &#8212; who investigates a heist that took place during a mob-backed poker game. The film&#8217;s title refers to the way Pitt&#8217;s Cogan performs his killings. For those who don&#8217;t know: an enforcer is a hired thug who uses violence to get his/her victims to do what they&#8217;re told. The methods of this particular enforcer apparently represent the American way of life, or something along those lines, as can be attested by his patriotic shades. In addition to Brad Pitt, Killing Them Softly features Scott McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Ray Liotta, Max Casella, Vincent Curatola, Sam Shepard, Trevor Long, and Garret Dillahunt. The film is based on George V. Higgins&#8217; 1974 novel Cogan&#8217;s Trade, not to be confused with the 1968 Clint Eastwood cop thriller Coogan&#8217;s Bluff (or, for that matter, with Eastwood&#8217;s 1976 Dirty Harry thriller The Enforcer). Killing Them Softly, which will be screened on Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, opens in the US on Sept. 21 via The Weinstein Company. That means the following: expect Killing Them Softly to make a splash next awards season.]]></description>
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		<title>News: Kristen Stewart/Garrett Hedlund/Sam Riley ON THE ROAD Interview</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/news-kristen-stewart-garrett-hedlund-on-the-road-interview/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/news-kristen-stewart-garrett-hedlund-on-the-road-interview/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 18:31:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andre Soares</dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=38721</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On the Road interview: Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley &#34;It&#8217;s interesting to play characters that have existed,&#34; says Kristen Stewart in an On the Road video interview posted at Screenslam. (Please scroll down.) &#34;Especially when you have grown to love those people. When I played Joan Jett, I couldn&#8217;t improvise. I felt so weird putting words in her mouth. I always referred to her. And in this case, we wouldn&#8217;t be doing On the Road right, unless it was found, unless so much of it was, like, learned and then forgotten, so we could actually just discover it ourselves.&#34; Screenslam will be posting several interviews with various On the Road talent in the next few days. On the Road, in competition for the Palme d&#8217;Or at the Cannes Film Festival, opens in France on May 23. Directed by Walter Salles &#8212; of previous road movies Central Station and The Motorcycle Diaries &#8212; On the Road will be distributed by IFC Films / Sundance Selects in North America. A date hasn&#8217;t been set yet, though fall 2012 is a probability. Also during the brief On the Road interview, Sam Riley explains that in order to play Sal Paradise, based on On the Road author Jack Kerouac, he did &#34;research as much as possible. I listened to Kerouac&#8217;s voice all the time.&#34; The British Riley, best known for playing Joy Division&#8217;s singer Ian Curtis in Anton Corbijn&#8217;s Control, had to develop a believable Southern American accent. After saying that &#34;we have to try to rid of our inhibitions and fears,&#34; Garrett Hedlund, Dean Moriarty in the film (Moriarty is based on Neal Cassady), talked about On the Road&#8216;s more esoteric appeal. &#34;Those who identify with it,&#34; Hedlund explained, &#34;can read every word of this spontaneous prose and go all the way through the book and be hanging onto every single word.&#34; Those who don&#8217;t, will manage a few lines or a chapter or two. Kristen Stewart said something similar, and that&#8217;s apparently the chief reason On the Road had trouble finding a US distributor. The distribution rights were reportedly deemed too costly for a two-and-a-half-hour, stream-of-consciousness movie that would be hard to market to mainstream audiences, whose idea of challenging filmmaking is Toy Story 3. In addition to Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley, and Garrett Hedlund, On the Road features Julie &#38; Julia’s Amy Adams, A Dangerous Method’s Viggo Mortensen (as a fictionalized William S. Burroughs), I Am Legend’s Alice Braga, Being Julia’s Tom Sturridge, Melancholia&#8216;s Kirsten Dunst, Ideal&#8216;s Danny Morgan, and Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss. Salles&#8217; The Motorcycle Diaries collaborator José Rivera wrote the screenplay adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel. Brokeback Mountain’s Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla composed the On the Road score. The film&#8217;s cinematography is by Eric Gautier, who also shot Alain Resnais&#8217; Wild Grass and Cannes 2012 contender You Ain&#8217;t Seen Nothin&#8217; Yet. The editing was done by Look at Me’s François Gédigier. The Godfather’s Francis Ford Coppola is one of On the Road’s executive producers. On the Road stars&#8217; upcoming movies Kristen Stewart, 22, has two other 2012 releases: Rupert Sanders&#8217; Snow White and the Huntsman, co-starring Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, and Sam Claflin. Stewart plays Snow White in the film, which opens June 1. Bill Condon&#8217;s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, the last installment of the Twilight movie franchise. Stewart plays Bella Swan-Cullen, opposite Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. Also in the Breaking Dawn 2 cast: Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Dakota Fanning, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Michael Sheen, Nikki Reed, Booboo Stewart, and Jamie Campbell Bower. Sam Riley, 32, will next be seen in his own vampire movie, Neil Jordan&#8217;s Byzantium, which should open later this year. Also featured are Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Jonny Lee Miller, Caleb Landry Jones, Tom Hollander, and Daniel Mays. Garrett Hedlund, 27, has Joel Coen and Ethan Coen&#8217;s Inside Llewyn Davies coming out in February 2013. Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Alex Karpovsky, Oscar Isaac, and Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) co-star. The previously announced Akira, at least for now, seems to be a no-go.]]></description>
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		<title>Michael Haneke/AMOUR: Cannes Masterpiece?</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/michael-haneke-amour-cannes-masterpiece/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/michael-haneke-amour-cannes-masterpiece/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 2012 11:56:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andre Soares</dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=38714</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Emmanuelle Riva, Michael Haneke&#8216;s Amour / Love Michael Haneke took home the Palme d&#8217;Or for The White Ribbon three years ago. This year, Haneke may be taking home a second Palme d&#8217;Or for Amour, which has received enthusiastic praise following its screening earlier today at the Cannes Film Festival. Starring veterans Jean-Louis Trintignant (The Conformist, Red) and Emmanuelle Riva (Hiroshima Mon Amour; Leon Morin, Priest) as an elderly couple facing illness and death as the biggest challenges to their love, Amour has been described as Haneke&#8217;s masterpiece. Or, in some cases, his latest masterpiece. Written by Haneke himself, Amour also features The Piano Teacher&#8216;s Isabelle Huppert, Certified Copy&#8216;s William Shimell, and Alexandre Tharaud. Amour opens in France in October. It&#8217;ll surely be released some time this year in the US for awards-season consideration; Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the North American distribution rights. [Check out the French-language Amour trailer.] &#34;Michael Haneke&#8217;s Amour is the last possible melodrama, the finale for every love story that doesn&#8217;t reach a conclusion, the truth circumvented in such films as The Notebook, and partly touched upon in Sarah Polley&#8217;s Away from Her. &#8230; Flawless and extremely sad, of a perfection and a sadness that one can&#8217;t pretend not to be affected by it, Amour is a movie that can&#8217;t be recommended lightly, for, as [Italian poet Carlo Emilio] Gadda would say, [watching it is] to become acquainted with grief [title of Gadda's novel, La Cognizione del dolore, translated into English as Acquainted with Grief].&#34; Giorgio Viaro, who calls Amour the Cannes Film Festival&#8217;s masterpiece, in Best Movie. &#34;Austrian director Michael Haneke gives us the first real masterpiece of the 65th Cannes Film Festival with French language effort Amour (Love, 2012), a surprisingly warm meditation on old age and death and undoubtedly a strong contender for the coveted Palme d&#8217;Or. His most personal film to date, Amour revolves around a married couple, Anne and Georges (names Haneke uses repeatedly throughout his work), played with intensity and courage by veteran actors Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant.&#34; John Bleasdale in Cine Vue. &#34;Haneke, whom we have sometimes reproached for his penchant for sterile provocations and for his preachiness, opts for a soberness and a tenderness of which we wouldn&#8217;t have thought him capable. For that reason, it&#8217;s difficult not to be deeply moved by this tale of a love that is both simple and cruel.&#34; AlloCiné. &#34;Nobody had ever shown the horrors of dependence with as much cruelty, acuity and truthfulness as Michael Haneke. Grounded on strong performances by Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant, [Haneke] delivers a romantic drama with incredible intensity, skirting voyeurism while depicting the end of two lives joined together for better or for worse. Amour is, to date, his best film.&#34; Caroline Vié at 20minutes.fr. Emmanuelle Riva / Amour / Love photo: Films du Losange / Sony Pictures Classics.]]></description>
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		<title>ROMEO AND JULIET for TWILIGHT Crowd</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/romeo-and-juliet-twilight-douglas-booth/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/romeo-and-juliet-twilight-douglas-booth/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 2012 06:11:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andre Soares</dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=38712</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Romeo and Juliet: Hailee Steinfeld, Douglas Booth Starring LOL&#8216;s Douglas Booth and True Grit&#8216;s Hailee Steinfeld, a new version of Romeo and Juliet is currently being shopped around at the Cannes Film Festival. Partly financed by Austrian design house Swarovski, this latest adaptation of Shakespeare&#8217;s love story was written by Academy Award winner Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) and directed by Carlo Carlei. A Best New Director David di Donatello nominee for The Flight of the Innocent (1993), Carlei&#8217;s previous English-language foray, the Matthew Modine vehicle Fluke, was a major box-office flop in 1995. In recent years, Carlei has worked on Italian television; his most recent TV movie was a remake of Roberto Rossellini&#8217;s Il General della Rovere (2011), starring Pierfrancesco Favino in the old Vittorio De Sica role. According to the Los Angeles Times blog 24 Frames, producer Ileen Maisel wants “every teenager in the world to come see” Romeo and Juliet. To make the narrative more accessible, the new movie offers its dialogue in “understandable iambic pentameter,&#34; which, according to one of film&#8217;s publicists, is supposed to make this version a &#34;Romeo and Juliet for the Twilight Generation.” Well, Romeo and Juliet does play a key role in The Twilight Saga: New Moon. In Chris Weitz&#8217;s 2009 movie, the vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) gets to recite a brief poem to the human Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), and subsequent plot twists and turns lead the teenage couple to Italy and a, huh, near-death experience. Now, making accessible film versions of Romeo and Juliet is nothing new. Directed by George Cukor, MGM&#8217;s 1936 adaptation starring Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard was a major box-office hit. No one seemed to care that Shearer, 35, and Howard, 43, were old enough to be Romeo and Juliet&#8217;s parents. Just as accessible and even more successful was the 1968 Best Picture Oscar nominee directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and starring Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting. That Romeo and Juliet grossed $38.9m in North America, or approx. $230m adjusted. Among the other movie versions of Romeo and Juliet, which pop up much more frequently than once every generation, are several silent ones (even silent screen vamp Theda Bara got to play Juliet); Renato Castellani&#8217;s Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winner Romeo and Juliet (1954), starring Laurence Harvey and Susan Shentall; and Baz Luhrmann&#8217;s Romeo + Juliet (1996), with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Not to mention Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins&#8217; multiple Oscar-winning musical West Side Story (1961) and Eytan Fox&#8217;s Middle-East political drama / gay romance The Bubble (2006), respectively starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer / Ohad Knoller and Yousef Sweid as the star-crossed lovers. Also in the (possibly) 2013 Romeo and Juliet cast: Stellan Skarsgård, Damien Lewis, Ed Westwick, Natascha McElhone, Paul Giamatti, Lesley Manville, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Christian Cooke, Laura Morante, Tomas Arana, and Tom Wisdom. Romeo and Juliet (1968) box office: The Numbers. Hailee Steinfeld and Douglas Booth / Romeo and Juliet photo: Swarovski Entertainment.]]></description>
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		<title>Brooklyn Decker Box Office: BATTLESHIP Tanks, WHAT TO EXPECT Below Expectations</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/box-office-battleship-brooklyn-decker-taylor-kitsch/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/box-office-battleship-brooklyn-decker-taylor-kitsch/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 May 2012 03:47:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zac Gille</dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=38710</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Battleship: Brooklyn Decker, Taylor Kitsch Brooklyn Decker has two box-office disappointments opening on the same weekend: Decker is featured in Battleship and What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Both movies opened way below expectations on Friday; in fact, official studio estimates released Saturday morning have them faring even worse than Friday night estimates indicated. Starring Taylor Kitsch, Peter Berg&#8217;s Battleship raked in $9m at 3,650 locations on Friday in the US/Canada according to Box Office Mojo. That&#8217;s about $500k less than early estimates. For comparison&#8217;s sake: Joss Whedon&#8217;s The Avengers, at the start of its third weekend out, took in an estimated $15.3m. Box-office prognosticators were expecting Battleship to gross $40m on its first weekend out in North America. It turns out the alien invasion actioner / sci-fier will be lucky if it earns much more than $25m. A Universal release, Battleship cost a reported $209m. Needless to say, Taylor Kitsch hasn&#8217;t had much luck at the North American box office. Battleship is his second expensive box-office dud this year, following Disney&#8217;s Andrew Stanton-directed John Carter. The $250m sci-fier / actioner opened with $30.18m in early March; its domestic total to date is $71.78m. Admittedly, Taylor Kitsch has been luckier overseas. John Carter international take is $200.6m. Though already on its last legs, Battleship has collected $215.3m overseas, faring particularly well in Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. But just as John Carter posted heavy losses for Disney, Battleship will undoubtedly post heavy losses for Universal. After all, Battleship will likely end its run with $300-$320m worldwide &#8212; or about 65% of the amount necessary to cover the film&#8217;s budget, even without taking into account marketing / distribution expenses. (On average, studios get about 50-55% of a film&#8217;s domestic gross; 40% of the international gross.) Kirk Jones&#8217; all-star ensemble What to Expect When You’re Expecting brought in a paltry $3.85m at 3,021 sites on Friday. Early estimates had the film earning $4.4m. Chances are the $40m-budgeted movie will reach only $11m this weekend. Definitely not good news for distributor Lionsgate, which was expecting something around $20m. Not helping matters is Sacha Baron Cohen&#8217;s The Dictator, which opened on Wednesday. The tale of an Arab dictator stranded in the United States, The Dictator pulled in an estimated $5.74m at 3,008 theaters on Friday, for an expected weekend total of $16m and a cume of $23m. For comparison&#8217;s sake, Bruno &#8212; which was considered a major box-office disappointment following Borat &#8212; opened with $30.61m on its first weekend out in July 2009. At no. 5, Tim Burton / Johnny Depp&#8217;s Dark Shadows, last weekend&#8217;s box-office dud, earned $3.8m on Friday. Dark Shadows is expected to score $11.5-12m over the weekend &#8212; or slightly more than What to Expect When You’re Expecting. The film&#8217;s cume will quite possibly fail to reach the $50m mark after ten days. Dark Shadows&#8216; budget figures remain fuzzy, but most reports have it at around $150m. Which makes this Warner Bros. release another major springtime domestic bomb. Rounding out the top nine movies in North America on Friday were Maggie Smith / Judi Dench&#8217;s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel with $872k at 178 locations; Gary Ross / Jennifer Lawrence&#8217;s The Hunger Games with $825k; Michael Ealy / Jerry Ferrara&#8217;s Think Like a Man with $800k; and Zac Efron / Taylor Schilling&#8217;s The Lucky One with $580k. Directed by Joss Whedon, The Avengers features Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Cobie Smulders, Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Clark Gregg. In addition to Taylor Kitsch and Brooklyn Decker, the Battleship cast includes Liam Neeson, Rihanna, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter MacNicol, Josh Pence, John Bell, and Jesse Plemons. Besides Brooklyn Dekker, the What to Expect When You’re Expecting cast includes Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Chace Crawford, Twilight&#8216;s Anna Kendrick, Ben Falcone, Matthew Morrison, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, Rodrigo Santoro, Joe Manganiello, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Megan Mullaly. Supporting Sacha Baron Cohen in The Dictator are Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, and Megan Fox as herself. Larry Charles directed. Besides Johnny Depp, Dark Shadows features Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jackie Earle Haley, Eva Green, Jonny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote, Gulliver McGrath, Michael Shannon, Alice Cooper, and Christopher Lee. Brooklyn Decker / Taylor Kitsch / Battleship picture: Frank Masi / Universal Pictures.]]></description>
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		<title>COSMOPOLIS Review: Robert Pattinson Brave, David Cronenberg Back</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/cosmopolis-review-robert-pattinson-david-cronenberg/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/cosmopolis-review-robert-pattinson-david-cronenberg/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 May 2012 23:58:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Andre Soares</dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=38705</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Cosmopolis movie: Robert Pattinson, Sarah Gadon Mathieu Carratier has written a highly positive Cosmopolis film review for Premiere magazine, praising the movie itself, director-writer David Cronenberg, and star Robert Pattinson. Cosmopolis is in competition for the Palme d&#8217;Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It&#8217;ll be screened on May 25. Carratier begins his Cosmopolis commentary by remarking that whether or not he appreciates David Cronenberg&#8217;s recent work &#8212; one assumes he means more accessible fare such as the Viggo Mortensen trilogy: A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, and A Dangerous Method &#8212; he was &#34;seriously missing&#34; the Cronenberg of (no-holds-barred) movies such as Crash and Videodrome. But not to worry. &#34;Pop open the champagne,&#34; exults Carratier, &#34;because he’s back in every Cosmopolis shot.&#34; Cronenberg himself wrote the Cosmopolis screenplay &#8212; reportedly in six days, and his first for a feature film since eXistenZ (1999). The plot is based on Don DeLillo&#8217;s novel about a fateful day in the life of a young New York City multibillionaire, Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson). As described by Carratier, Packer is &#34;haunted by a question that is never formulated: Can someone who has everything still desire something else?&#34; (A haircut, maybe?) Carratier continues: &#34;Cronenberg has made sure that all his obsessions mark out the route, be they intellectual (the search for &#34;another&#34; reality) or physical (at the end of a scene that will make people talk, Packer learns that his prostate is asymmetrical). Enthroned in the back seat of his limousine, Robert Pattinson reveals a depth that becomes increasingly more fascinating as his character approaches the abyss. In the last moments, the fear that takes over his face isn&#8217;t only that of an anti-hero arriving at the point of no return; it’s also the fear of an actor testing his limits with unsuspected bravery. A feverish and decadent ride through hell, Cosmopolis proves he&#8217;s not yet close to reaching them.&#34; Cronenberg&#8217;s Crash &#8212; not to be confused with Paul Haggis&#8217; 2005 Best Picture Oscar winner &#8212; was screened at Cannes in 1996. Based on J.G. Ballard&#8217;s novel about human relationships, kinky sex, car crashes, and mutilated bodies, Crash won a Special Jury Prize. When the prize was handed out, Cannes Official Competition jury president Francis Ford Coppola had to explain that several jury members were adamantly against the selection. Some in the audience agreed, as (a clearly irate) Cronenberg was booed when he got onstage. And here&#8217;s an interesting David Cronenberg comment regarding movie directors: &#34;If you don&#8217;t enjoy some element of voyeurism, then you&#8217;re in the wrong business. Every day, the set was charged with sexuality, and there is a deliciousness in ignoring it, in having a professional distance. Even when there isn&#8217;t any overt sexuality in front of the camera, a film set is a very sexually charged place. You&#8217;re never surprised that strange people have affairs. You&#8217;re just as likely to want to have sex with the props person as the leading lady. And one does. Later, you realize that these are things that should be enjoyed but not acted upon.&#34; Besides Robert Pattinson, Cosmopolis features A Dangerous Method’s Sarah Gadon, Chocolat’s Juliette Binoche, Rock of Ages’ Paul Giamatti, Elizabeth: The Golden Age’s Samantha Morton, I Am Number Four’s Kevin Durand, You Ain&#8217;t Seen Nothin&#8217; Yet’s Mathieu Amalric, The Black Marks’ Jay Baruchel, The Trotsky’s Emily Hampshire, and K’Naan. Robert Pattinson has two other movies coming out in 2012: Nick Ormerod and Declan Donnellan&#8217;s Bel Ami, currently available on VOD in the US, and co-starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Uma Thurman, and Christina Ricci; and Bill Condon&#8217;s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, in which Pattinson is reunited for the last time with Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. Additionally, Robert Pattinson has reportedly signed on to star in Mission: Blacklist and The Rover. David Cronenberg has several rumored projects in the works, including a sequel to Eastern Promises and a remake of his own The Fly (1986), which starred Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. As per the IMDb, other projects include As She Climbed Across the Table, The Matarese Circle, League of Monster Slayers, and London Fields. Cosmopolis review via strictlyrobsten. David Cronenberg quote: The Canadian Encyclopedia. Robert Pattinson / Sarah Gadon / Cosmopolis picture: eOne Entertainment.]]></description>
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		<title>Jennifer Lopez/WHAT TO EXPECT, THE DICTATOR: Box Office Duds</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/jennifer-lopez-what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-box-office/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/jennifer-lopez-what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-box-office/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 May 2012 09:57:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zac Gille</dc:creator>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=38702</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Jennifer Lopez, What to Expect When You’re Expecting Still going strong, The Avengers is on its third weekend out. Yet, the domestic box office is expected to be down 18% compared to last year because of three weak new entries: Peter Berg / Taylor Kitsch&#8217;s megabudgeted Battleship barely managed to stay afloat on Friday, while Sacha Baron Cohen&#8216;s The Dictator (which opened on Wed.) and Kirk Jones&#8217; all-star ensemble (Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, Chace Crawford, etc.) What to Expect When You’re Expecting performed below expectations. [See Box Office: BATTLESHIP bombs.] The Dictator grossed an estimated $5.5m at 3,008 theaters on Friday, for an expected weekend total of $16m, as per Deadline.com. Sacha Baron Cohen&#8217;s R-rated comedy will thus reach a cume of $23m after five days. For comparison&#8217;s sake, Bruno &#8212; which was considered a major box-office disappointment following Borat &#8212; opened with $30.61m on its first weekend out in July 2009. Supporting Baron Cohen in The Dictator are Anna Faris, Oscar winner Ben Kingsley (Gandhi), and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen&#8216;s Megan Fox in a cameo as herself. Larry Charles directed. All-star cast unable to boost What to Expect When You’re Expecting Lionsgate&#8217;s What to Expect When You’re Expecting raked in an estimated $4.4m at 3,021 sites, for an estimated weekend total of $12m. That&#8217;s a paltry sum &#8212; and well below expectations &#8212; for a movie featuring the likes of Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, and Chace Crawford, especially one that cost a reported $40m. Also in the What to Expect When You’re Expecting cast: Brooklyn Decker (also of the underperforming Battleship), Twilight&#8216;s Anna Kendrick, Ben Falcone, Glee&#8216;s Matthew Morrison, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, 300&#8216;s Rodrigo Santoro, Joe Manganiello, Bridesmaids&#8216; Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Megan Mullaly. Rounding out the top five movies was Tim Burton / Johnny Depp&#8217;s Dark Shadows, last weekend&#8217;s box-office dud. Dark Shadows is expected to score $11.5m over the weekend, after earnings of $3.7m on Friday. The film&#8217;s cume will likely fail to reach the $50m mark. Dark Shadows&#8216; budget figures remain fuzzy, but most reports have it at around $150m. Remember, those are early, rough estimates. Official Friday estimates will be released Saturday morning. Weekend estimates come out on Sunday. Box-office actuals will be released on Monday. In addition to Johnny Depp, Dark Shadows features three-time Oscar nominee Michelle Pfeiffer (Dangerous Liaisons, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Love Field) and Chloë Grace Moretz (recently cast in the Carrie remake), plus Tim Burton&#8217;s companion and two-time Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter (The Wings of the Dove, The King’s Speech), Eva Green, Jonny Lee Miller, Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children), Bella Heathcote, Gulliver McGrath, Michael Shannon, rock legend Alice Cooper, and veteran Hammer Dracula Christopher Lee. Directed by Joss Whedon, The Avengers features Captain America: The First Avenger’s Chris Evans as Captain America, two-time Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr (Chaplin, Tropic Thunder) as Iron Man, Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) as the Incredible Hulk, He&#8217;s Just Not That into You’s Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, and Snow White and the Huntsman’s Chris Hemsworth as Thor. Also: two-time Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Town) as Hawkeye, The Deep Blue Sea’s Tom Hiddleston as Loki, The Storm Awaits&#8216; Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Pulp Fiction Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love) as Pepper Potts, and Much Ado About Nothing’s Clark Gregg as agent Phil Coulson. And finally: Stellan Skarsgård, Powers Boothe, Alexis Denisof, veteran Jenny Agutter (Walkabout / Logan’s Run), and Deep End director / Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water screenwriter Jerzy Skolimowski, in addition to the voices of Paul Bettany and Lou Ferrigno. Jennifer Lopez / What to Expect When You’re Expecting picture: Melissa Moseley / Lionsgate.]]></description>
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