Marley Beats Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, and Tom Cruise

David Frankel’s comedy Marley & Me raced to the top of the North American box office this weekend with $37 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as a couple struggling to keep their dog in check, Marley & Me lifted its domestic total to an impressive $51.6 million after only four days in release.

At No. 2, Adam Sandler’s latest comedy Bedtime Stories took home $28 million, reaching a cumulative gross of $38.5 million. The Adam Shankman-directed effort follows a hotel handyman whose bedtime stories come true the next day.

Meanwhile, David Fincher’s acclaimed drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt [...]

by Franck Tabouring | December 28, 2008
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Tags: Adam Sandler, Box Office, Bryan Singer, Cate Blanchett, David Fincher, Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Tom Cruise, Trailers, Valkyrie

Australian Film Institute Awards 2008

2008 Australian Film Institute Awards
2008 Australian Film Institute Award nominations: Oct. 29, 2008
2008 Australian Film Institute Award winners: Dec. 5 ("industry" categories) and Dec. 6 (top categories), 2008
("*" denotes the winner in each category)

Elissa Down’s feature-film debut, The Black Balloon, chronicles the difficulties encountered by a teenager (Rhys Wakefield) whose younger brother (Luke Ford) is autistic. With the help of his girlfriend (Gemma Ward), the teen struggles to come to terms with the issue.

FEATURE FILM NOMINEES
L’Oréal Paris AFI Award for Best Film
* The Black Balloon. Tristram Miall
The Jammed. Dee McLachlan, Andrea Buck & Sally Ayre-Smith
The Square. Louise Smith
Unfinished Sky. Cathy Overett & Anton Smit
AFI Award for Best Direction
* The Black Balloon. [...]

by Deborah Arthur | December 7, 2008
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Tags: Australian Film Institute Awards, Cate Blanchett, Elissa Down, Film Awards, Heath Ledger, Luke Ford, Monic Hendrickx, The Black Baloon, Toni Collette, William McInnes

THE AVIATOR Screening

Martin Scorsese’s 2004 Best Picture nominee The Aviator is the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series. The handsome but vapid Howard Hughes biopic will be screened on Monday, July 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Following the screening, cast members Alec Baldwin, Jacob Davich, J.C. Mackenzie, and Amy Sloan, production sound mixer Petur Hliddal, special effects supervisor R. Bruce Steinheimer, and miniature effects supervisor Matthew Gratzner will take part in a discussion about the film.
The US$100-million-plus The Aviator wasn’t quite the hoped-for critical and box-office hit, though the biopic won numerous accolades and did good business thanks to the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio [...]

by Andre Soares | July 24, 2008
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Tags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Adam Scott, Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin, Ava Gardner, Biopic, Cate Blanchett, Danny Huston, Dante Ferretti, Edward Herrmann, Errol Flynn, Film Awards, Films on Filmmaking, Gwen Stefani, Howard Hughes, Ian Holm, Jacob Davich, Jean Harlow, John C. Reilly, John Logan, Jude Law, Kate Beckinsale, Katharine Hepburn, Kelli Garner, Leonardo DiCaprio, Los Angeles Screenings, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, Ralph Owen Brewster, Sandy Powell, Stanley DeSantis, The Aviator, Thelma Schoonmaker, Willem Dafoe