Roger Ebert made a rare public appearance today at the ShoWest convention where he received the ShoWest Career Achievement in Film Journalism Award. Beyond being heralded by the legendary directors of our time (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, and Oliver Stone) in a pre-recorded video montage, Ebert received a heartfelt tribute from Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker. He referred to Ebert as one of independent film's saviors and said, "Both personally and professionally, Roger means more to me than any other public figure." Ebert then took the stage with his wife Chaz, who read Ebert's speech (the critic's bout with throat cancer has left him unable to speak). Never a man to waste a public forum, Ebert asked theater owners to pay more attention to indie film, even dedicating one or two screens a weekend to the smaller, niche fare.
Sony unspooled a reel previewing its summer slate at ShoWest in Las Vegas on Wednesday, although the first order of business was an announcement that Spider-Man 4 is due to arrive in 2011. That small bit of business out of the way, the studio's summer movies looked strong, with something for everyone. Attendees got an unexpected treat in a long scene from Katherine Heigl's The Ugly Truth, which might give Meg Ryan's famous orgasm act from When Harry Met Sally... a run for its money. Angels & Demons, Julie & Julia, Year One, and Pelham 123 all looked good, too.
But Sony is pushing really hard on a movie with an unknown cast called District 9. Distribution president Rory Bruer mentioned it in his opening remarks, and audience members were given T-shirts and hats for the little-known sci-fi movie after the presentation concluded. So what is it? Well, the film is produced by Peter Jackson and directed by newcomer Neil Blomkamp, who wrote it with Terri Tatchell. Blomkamp was the director who was supposed to helm the Halo film, but when that project fell apart, he continued working Jackson's help on District 9, which is based on a series of short videos Blomkamp had created for advertising Halo 3. The film itself concerns a South African refugee camp for aliens called District 9, and it resembles a combination of 28 Days Later and Cloverfield. Sony execs are psyched about the project and it could prove to be one of the big surprises of the summer. These days, that's a hard feat to pull off.
During a presentation at the movie industry's annual ShoWest convention in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sony distribution president Rory Bruer said that the studio is going back for thirds on the Ghostbusters and Men in Black franchises. Now, of course, the question on everyone's mind is: Who will be starring in said monster-fighting movies? Sony isn't
talking (Bruer's announcement arrived almost in passing), but it is expected that Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, Bill
Murray, and Dan Aykroyd will return to be involved to some degree on a followup to 1989's Ghostbusters II. The story is being written by Office scribes Gene Stupnitsky
and Lee Eisenberg, and it will focus on a new crew of Ghostbusters who are mentored by the veteran fighters. (Contrary to Internet buzz, Judd Apatow is not on board to produce.) Meanwhile, Men in Black III
is in even more of a nascent stage. Sony won't comment on whether
Will Smith will be involved in the project in any way, either as an actor or producer. There is said to be interest in one screenwriter
for the job, but he has not yet been hired.
Heartened as he is by the blogosphere's embrace of his forthcoming Iron Man (opening May 2), Robert Downey Jr. isn't prepared to commit to a complete career reinvention as an action badass. That's what EW.com learned when we caught up with the actor at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas last week. There, Downey accepted the Male Star of the Year award and kibbitzed with Ben Stiller while presenting footage from their August comedy Tropic Thunder, in which Downey portrays an actor who dyes his skin in order to play an African American. He also took a moment to respond to our query: Do these back-to-back gigs in a comic-book thriller and a Vietnam War sendup mean that the star of significantly quieter fare like Chaplin, Restoration, and Two Girls and a Guy is about to go all Nicolas Cage on us and appear in nothing but Jerry Bruckheimer explosion-fests from now on? "Mmmm, you mean Nicolas Cage, who also in the middle of all of that did The
Weather Man, [Gore] Verbinski's greatest movie?" Downey replied, without missing a beat. "And Matchstick Men! That's so great. Here's
what I would say: You know, I'm in my early 40s and it's kind of great to have
this whole area of expression and excitement now — I probably won't
burn out until I'm at least 50 now."
EW.com caught up with Steve Carell in Las Vegas on Thursday evening, where he introduced footage from his summer comedy Get Smart to the ShoWest convention. It seemed like a perfect time to ask him what's going on at Dunder Mifflin now that the Hollywood writers strike is over. "We just shot the first episode [since the strike ended]," Carell said. "We finished last night at midnight and I think it's really, really good.
Michael has a dinner party and it's just terrible." He added that the episode (which airs April 10) was written before production shut down. "We
did the table read before the strike and it killed
at the table read. It's just been sitting there for three months."
So what impact does Carell think the strike had on The Office — did it affect morale on the set or, perhaps, the show's story lines in some way? "I
don't think it affected the story lines, but I think it affected people's
morale in a good way, in that the writers have come back extremely strong and
energized," he said. "I think everyone feels that way. Everyone is very
excited to get back to work and there's a sense of hope and fun." Carell said he was going to head back to L.A. and start shooting the second of the season's last six episodes on Friday.
During its final-day presentation at ShoWest on Thursday, Warner Bros. introduced movie-theater owners to what may very well be the weirdest release of the summer: Larry and Andy Wachowski's big-screen version of the classic cartoon Speed Racer (opening May 9). Producer Joel Silver (who also worked with the brothers on the Matrix movies and V for Vendetta) and stars Emile Hirsch, Matthew Fox, and Christina Ricci took the stage to introduce four minutes and 10 seconds of footage from the kandy-kolored family film. (No, the Wachowskis didn't show up, duh.) What did it look like? Imagine a chaotic mash-up of The Matrix, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Cars, and you might be able to get the dizzying picture.
The dizziness continues behind the scenes, it turns out. Later in the evening, when EW.com caught up with Speed Racer himself, Emile Hirsch, the actor said that the Brothers are gunning their engines to get the film done. "Occasionally
I'll call Larry or Andy and they'll give me the crazy update," Hirsch said. "They're
scrambling to complete the visual effects. They have 2,000 visual-effects shots [in the film]...and
they're getting, like, 100 shots a day at this point. They have to go through 100 shots and put them into the movie. So they're just
scrambling, it's a mad dash to the finish line."
Flora Plum, Jodie Foster's long-in-the-works, much-cursed Depression-era circus movie, could still become a reality. The film, which would mark the actor's third feature as a director, nearly got off the ground in 2000, but was derailed when then-star Russell Crowe suffered an injury while preparing for his role. It's had other starts and stops in the intervening years as well. Then, when EW.com caught up with Foster at ShoWest on Thursday (where she was promoting her upcoming family film Nim's Island with Abigail Breslin), we asked what she has on tap next, and the actress suggested that the door is open to give Flora another shot. "We'll see, we'll see," Foster answered when asked about the project. "I've decided now I no longer talk about this — because as soon as I talk about it, then it always ends up tanking, and then I have to explain why it tanked." As it happens, Flora Plum isn't the only project Foster has had a hard time bringing to the big screen: When EW interviewed her last fall, she said that Sugarland, a movie about migrant workers that she was to make with Robert De Niro, had also fallen apart.
After Sarah Jessica Parker and everybody else behind the Sex and the City movie attempted — and largely succeeded — in keeping plot details under wraps during production on the film, fans were glad when the SATC trailer seemed to reveal hints about what will happen when the movie debuts on May 30. "Seemed to" being the operative phrase here, as Parker suggests that the trailer may appear to give away more about the plot than it actually does. "Some things were revealed," Parker told EW.com at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas on Thursday evening. "It's very curious to hear how people have interpreted the trailer."
It's no surprise that Parker (who, as a producer on the film, is still knee-deep in post-production matters regarding marketing plans and "massive amounts of just perfunctory minutia that would bore you") was picking her words carefully. The teaser, she said, aimed to tell some of the story without giving away too much, of course. But, she added cryptically, "we also knew that people would make decisions about what that trailer meant and what those words meant and who knows what order we put it in and why. I think in large part we did it because photographs had already [leaked] out and so people were telling us the movie that we were making — which was wonderful, but no one has yet told us actually the story that we're telling. So it's all out there in the trailer, but it's not really the story."
So does that mean that there were fake-outs in the trailer? Were fans duped? "Um, yeah, there are fake-outs. I mean, not like a bait-and-switch — people aren't going to come to the theater and feel hoodwinked or taken advantage of. We just had to be careful because it's a movie with an ending that we wanted to keep protected. So we had to be a little clever and a little stealth with the trailer, but we also had to give people a trailer. It's not enough to just give you the images and music — I would be perfectly fine with that, but apparently that's not acceptable!"
Brendan Fraser, executive producer and star of Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D, the first live-action digital 3-D movie to hit the big screen this summer, introduced his new movie to the throngs of exhibitors at ShoWest yesterday. Along with his stunning Icelandic co-star Anita Briem, the actor told audiences to strap into the 5-point harness for the thrill ride from first-time director Eric Brevig. And the movie didn't disappoint: Complete with high-quality 3-D gimmicks, such as a view from the drain when Fraser spits water, flying fish soaring right toward your face, and a huge Tyrannosaurus Rex coming for your throat, Journey was a family-friendly tale that 8-year-olds (and their parents) will enjoy. Centering on a scientist and his nephew, who go on a venture to Iceland and come across a major discovery that takes them to the center of the earth, Journey should be a solid money-maker this summer. Set to release July 11, the movie, which was once supposed to debut solely in the 1,000 or so digital 3-D screens, will now get a 2-D release as well, to fill out its theater count. Expect a 2-D trailer to be hitting the movie theaters shortly.
The film is likely to mark the final project from the current New Line staff. (The 40-year studio is being folded into its parent company, Warner Bros.) New Line's post-screening party for Journey should have been a celebratory occasion, considering how well this 3-D gamble seemed to screen. But given that some 75 percent of the staff is expected to lose their jobs, there was very little celebrating among the New Line rank-and-file at the Risque club in the Paris hotel on Wednesday. Most employees are tired of the constant flow of rumors, which seem to change daily. They did find out the severance package for non-contract employees, but no decision has been made on who will run the division under Warner Bros., or what that division may look like. The common understanding is people will keep their jobs, at least on the marketing and distribution side of the company, until July 11 when Journey is released.
In the second of three 3-D presentations that have been scheduled for this week's ShoWest conference, 10 minutes of footage from the animated summer flick Fly Me to the Moon unspooled for movie industry dignitaries on Wednesday morning in Las Vegas. Produced mostly in Belgium but fully in English (and with a few all-American patriotic touches to boot), the family film looks charming enough — it follows three adorable house flies who hitch a ride on Apollo 11 during the first moon landing in 1969. But the real appeal will be the movie's 3-D presentation: Even ordinarily mundane things — e.g. shards of glass flying through weightless space or dust being kicked up under Neil Armstrong's boots — appear remarkably realistic when seen through those plastic 3-D specs. Question is, how important will that cool factor be to kids (the film's target demographic) when the movie opens on August 22nd?
