Mitt Romney Our Idiot Brother / Barack Obama The King’s Speech says Harvey Weinstein. With the blessing of the U.S. Supreme Court, the United States has become the biggest – or rather, the most expensive – democracy money can buy. At least in public, The Weinstein Company’s Harvey Weinstein isn’t too concerned that Republican candidate Mitt Romney will have the White House bought for him by his corporate pals even though Republican Super PACS are outgrossing Democrats’ by a ratio of 3 to 1.
On The Rachel Maddow Show on Friday, July 6, Weinstein explained to Maddow (please scroll down to the check out the video):
“I’ll give you an example of two movies that I distribute. I spent the exact same amount on both movies. One movie was called The King’s Speech. It grossed $140 million, won a few Oscars including Best Picture, and did sensational based on its budget.
“The other picture was called Our Idiot Brother. And we spent the same exact amount of money on it and it grossed $25 million. Not bad for what we paid for it … A little bit of profit.
“To me, Romney is Our Idiot Brother, and Obama is The King’s Speech. You can spend all the money in the world. If you’ve got a bad product, it doesn’t matter.”
All b.s. aside about “bad product” having no chance of success – does Harvey Weinstein truly believe George W. Bush was a “good product”? – what’s most interesting about Weinstein’s discourse is his claim that TWC spent “the exact same amount” on both The King’s Speech and Our Idiot Brother.
Even if The King’s Speech was acquired by $6 million (Our Idiot Brother‘s reported acquisition cost), are we to believe that the studio spent equal sums marketing both films? And should Paul Rudd sue after being compared to Mitt Romney? (Rudd has the title role in Our Idiot Brother.)
Harvey Weinstein quotes via The Hollywood Reporter.
Paul Rudd Our Idiot Brother picture: The Weinstein Company.
Katy Perry Blue Hair
Pop icon Katy Perry, whose concert documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D is currently on North American screens, is seen here donning a sizzling blue wig backstage at Nickelodeon’s 23rd Annual Kids’ Choice Awards on March 27, ’10. The awards ceremony was held at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.
A presenter at the Kids Choice Awards, Katy Perry caused a sensation when she got “slimed” with green goo. It’s unclear whether people went crazy because Perry got slimed or because the green goo didn’t match her wig color.
For the record: Among the Kids Choice Award winners that year were favorite movie actress Miley Cyrus for her performance in Hannah Montana: The Movie and favorite movie actor Taylor Lautner for playing the werewolf Jacob Black in Chris Weitz’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon. In an unusual turn of events, Lautner also won an award for best on-screen couple, shared with New Moon‘s Kristen Stewart. (Robert Pattinson has been Stewart’s usual Twilight co-winner.)
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel was voted best film, beating The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Now, I ask you: Why oh why isn’t the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences more representative of the people who actually go to the movies?
Note: A shorter version of this “Katy Perry Hot Hair” article was initially posted in March 2010.
Katy Perry hot blue wig photo: Larry Busacca / KCA2010 / Getty Images for KCA.
‘Justice League’ Movie: Christopher Nolan Says Categorical No
Justice League movie: No Christopher Nolan. Christopher Nolan’s “Batman 3” movie, a.k.a. The Dark Knight Rises, opens in theaters in 11 days. Nolan has already affirmed that TDKR will be his last Batman effort. But what about some other superhero movie? Perhaps the widely rumored Justice League movie, DC Comics’ version of Marvel’s The Avengers?
Scratch that. Christopher Nolan has categorically denied he’ll be involved in any other movie featuring the Caped Crusader. (Check out The Dark Knight Rises featurette.]
No Justice League movie for Christopher Nolan
When asked this past weekend if he had any plans to work on a Justice League movie – which inevitably would feature Batman (plus the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern) – Nolan replied, “No, none at all. We’re finished with all we’re doing with Batman. This is the end of our take on this character.”
I’m assuming that by “we” Christopher Nolan meant he and his brother / The Dark Knight Rises co-writer Jonathan Nolan. Surely Warner Bros. (a Time Warner company and owner of DC Comics) isn’t through with Batman. If there’s money to be made, Batman will be resurrected, rebooted, and reformatted much like Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man, currently on screens around the world as The Amazing Spider-Man, with Marc Webb replacing Sam Raimi, Andrew Garfield replacing Tobey Maguire, and Emma Stone replacing Kirsten Dunst.
‘Batman will outlive us all’
“Batman will outlive us all, and our interpretation was ours, Nolan added. “Obviously, we consider it definitive and kind of finished. The great thing about Batman is he lives on for future generations to reinterpret, and obviously, Warners will have to decide in the future what they’re going to do with him.
“We’ve had our say on the character. … I’ve got no plans to do anything more, and certainly, no involvement with any Justice League project.”
Christopher Nolan is one of the producers of the upcoming Man of Steel, a Zack Snyder-directed Superman movie starring Henry Cavill and Amy Adams. Nolan believes the rumors about a possible association with a Justice League movie project was a result of his behind-the-scenes Man of Steel role.
A sequel to The Dark Knight (which earned Heath Ledger a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Academy Award) and Batman Begins, The Dark Knight Rises opens July 20. The last film in the Batman movie trilogy was co-written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, from a story by the director / screenwriter and David S. Goyer.
The Dark Knight Rises cast includes Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Tom Conti, and Matthew Modine. In addition to: Josh Pence, Juno Temple, Daniel Sunjata, Nestor Carbonell, Joey King, Brett Cullen, Chris Ellis, Adam Rodriguez, Josh Stewart, Christopher Judge, and Aidan Gillen.
Christopher Nolan Justice League movie quotes via EW.com.
Christopher Nolan director The Dark Knight Rises photo: Ron Phillips / Warner Bros.
Tsunami movie ‘The Impossible’: Too soon?
Tsunami 2004 movie The Impossible poster with Naomi Watts. J.A. Bayona, the director of the horror thriller The Orphanage, offers a different sort of horrific experiences in The Impossible, a movie about the 2004 tsunami that killed approximately 230,000 people in the coastal areas surrounding the Indian Ocean. Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts (21 Grams) and Ewan McGregor (recently seen in Salmon Fishing in Yemen) star.
Four years ago, another tsunami 2004 movie, Fabrice Du Welz’s Vinyan, was screened out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. Starring Emmanuelle Béart and Rufus Sewell as an European couple in search of their – possibly still alive – son, Vinyan stirred quite a bit of controversy because the psychological / supernatural thriller was deemed exploitative as tsunami memories were still fresh.
The Impossible opens in Spain on Oct. 11. So, maybe eight years is a long enough gap for a movie to be made about a horrific tragedy? Paul Greengrass’ United 93, released five years after the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, bombed at the box office. (Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter, which flopped in North America but performed relatively well abroad, doesn’t really count, as the tsunami 2004 wasn’t at the film’s core.)
Perhaps we need more distance, say, 84 years – as was the case with James Cameron’s Titanic – to turn horrific tragedies into blockbuster-caliber entertainment for the masses.
‘The Impossible’ cast
Written by Sergio García Sánchez, The Impossible follows a white, English-speaking family who find themselves at a resort ravaged by the 2004 tsunami. In addition to Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, The Impossible cast features Marta Etura, Tom Holland, Dominic Power, and veteran Geraldine Chaplin.
As per the IMDb, The Impossible opens in Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, and The Netherlands later this year, and in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, and Norway in January 2013. Summit Entertainment (now annexed to Lionsgate) is the film’s North American distributor, but there’s no scheduled release date as yet.
Tsunami 2004 movie The Impossible / Lo Imposible poster: J.A. Bayona’s Twitter page.
Peter Jackson The Hobbit filming completed
Peter Jackson ‘The Hobbit’ filming completed
Peter Jackson The Hobbit filming completed. According to an announcement on Peter Jackson’s Facebook page (see below), the filmmaker has finished principal photography on The Hobbit, or rather, the two Hobbit movies) after 266 days. That translates into nearly nine months, divided into separate blocks. James Cameron – who, according to Sigourney Weaver, will be shooting Avatar 2, 3, 4 concurrently – better take note.
“We made it! Shoot day 266 and the end of principal photography on The Hobbit. Thanks to our fantastic cast and crew for getting us this far, and to all of you for your support! Next stop, the cutting room. Oh, and Comic Con!”
Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit, the two Peter Jackson movies, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, feature Martin Freeman in the title role, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Stephen Fry, Richard Armitage, Lee Pace, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm, Barry Humphries, Mikael Persbrandt, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Among Peter Jackson’s previous movies are The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, a 2005 King Kong remake starring Naomi Watts, and the box office and critical disappointment The Lovely Bones, starring Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, and Rachel Weisz.
Set in San Diego, Comic Con 2012 runs from Thursday, July 12, to Sunday, July 15. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens on Dec. 14.
Peter Jackson picture via his Facebook page.
2 comments
Glass heels? Skip, a hop and a jump towards adult video nonsense. I await the first Katy Perry sex video, and the drug addled nonsense that will transpire. Maybe she’ll follow the example set by that Greek singer.
I think Katy Perrys songs are just amazing, her songtext always make me smile and still there is a deeper meaning behind it. Does anybody know where I can get an autograph of her?