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UPDATE: First 'Avatar' Reviews Crashing Websites; Great Buzz On Blockbuster

By Nikki Finke | Category: 3-D, Buzz | Thursday December 10, 2009 @ 3:47pm PST

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BREAKING NEWS! So much for the accuracy of tracking. There's obviously huge online curioisty about James Cameron's 3-D latest. The Hollywood Reporter's glowing early review of Avatar released just now has crashed the trade paper's website because of a Drudge Report pickup. The Times of London, KTLA's Sam Rubin, and other stellar reviews are pouring in and revving up Internet traffic...

Avatar premiered in the UK today. Even though London critics had to sign away their firstborns promising not to review the film until Monday, their drooling reactions are starting to dribble onto the Internet especially via Twitter. I can't find anyone who seriously says Avatar stinks up the joint. Instead, many are quite effusive in their praise and think it's kickass spectacular. Generally, the critical reaction is far above average, which bodes well for the film's word of mouth. Then again, the British may not be familiar with Smurfs.

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First Reviews Of Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds' Shown At Cannes: "Gott-Awful", "Grisly-Comic", "Camp-Operatic", "Subverts Expectation"

By Nikki Finke | Category: Movies | Wednesday May 20, 2009 @ 9:03am PST

There was an audience screening at noon Cannes Time. Great reaction from the general audience with a huge ovation. But the reviews range from good, to mixed, to really rotten. The real question is how Inglourious Basterds will do at the box office when it opens in August and how it will affect Quentin Tarantino's future and The Weinstein Co's fortunes.

Peter Bradshow, The Guardian

Quentin Tarantino's wartime spaghetti western about a bunch of Nazi-hunting Americans is just Gott-awful... Quentin Tarantino's cod-WW2 shlocker about a Jewish-American revenge squad intent on killing Nazis in German-occupied France is awful. It is achtung-achtung-ach-mein-Gott atrocious. It isn't funny; it isn't exciting; it isn't a realistic war movie, yet neither is it an entertaining genre spoof or a clever counterfactual wartime yarn. It isn't emotionally involving or deliciously ironic or a brilliant tissue of trash-pop references. Nothing like that. Brad Pitt gives the worst performance of his life, with a permanent smirk as if he's had the left side of his jaw injected with cement, and which he must uncomfortably maintain for long scenes on camera without dialogue. And those all-important movie allusions are entirely without zing, being to stately stuff such as the wartime German UFA studio, GW Pabst etc, for which Tarantino has no feeling, displaying just a solemn Euro-cinephilia that his heart isn't in. The expression on my face in the auditorium as the lights finally went up was like that of the first-night's audience at Springtime for Hitler. Except that there is no one from Dusseldorf

... Read More »

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Longtime Dubya Reporter Reviews 'W.' As "Remarkably Accurate Portrait"

By Nikki Finke | Category: Movies | Saturday October 18, 2008 @ 11:50am PST

Few journalists have covered George W Bush for as long or as in depth as The Dallas Morning News' senior political writer Wayne Slater who was at the epicenter of Dubya's two campaigns for Texas governor, his tenure in Austin, and both his runs for the U.S. presidency. He also is the co-author of two books on Bush's political guru Karl Rove. So I was curious to see his review of Oliver Stone's W. here. "By taking real moments and reconfiguring them in artificial ways, Mr. Stone has created something Texans who saw Mr. Bush close-up will recognize as a remarkably accurate portrait," Slater writes. "Too often, biopics take real people and turn them into caricatures. In W., Mr. Stone has taken the caricature and, quite unexpectedly, produced the real person."

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Roger Ebert Leaves The Lede For Last

By Nikki Finke | Friday October 17, 2008 @ 2:30pm PST

The long respected film critic really stepped in it this week when he wrote a long negative review of a movie without revealing until the very end that he only saw the beginning of a 99-minute film before he stopped watching. (Ebert wrote at the finish of his critique: "The rating only applies to the first eight minutes. After that, you're on your own.") Here is Ebert's own blog defense: "My editor argued that in my Tru Loved review, I should reveal in the first paragraph that I drew the line at eight minutes. I protested. That would pervert the flow of the review. Everything after would be anti-climax. What I was trying to do was recreate my thoughts as I watched the movie, and show them leading inexorably to my eventual decision. But was I placing my regard for my prose over the rights of the movie? I hope not. I hope the review truthfully records the process I went through." Sorry, but his argument is lame to the extreme. How can you base a review on 8 minutes of a 99-minute film? Most of us could name hundreds of terrific films that started out horribly. Conversely, if people had only seen the first few minutes of Godfather Part III, it would have looked like a worthy final installment to Coppola's mob masterpiece. I think no reviewer should dare critique a film without seeing the entire film.

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Israel's Oscar Bid: 'Waltz With Bashir'

By Nikki Finke | Category: Critics | Tuesday September 23, 2008 @ 3:02pm PST

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You may recall that last year the Israeli Academy of Motion Pictures chose The Band’s Visit as the country’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar only to see it disqualified by the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for having too much English dialogue. The runner-up, Beaufort, then became the first Israeli film to grab an Oscar nomination in 24 years. Israeli film blogger Yair Raveh tells me that this year Israel’s pick is Waltz With Bashir which debuted in Cannes to much buzz, played at the Toronto and Telluride film fests, and tonight swept the Israel's Academy Awards so it automatically becomes that country's AMPAS Oscar pick. Picked up by Sony Pictures Classics, it's an animated film based on writer-producer-director Ari Folman's real-life memories - or lack thereof - of the first Lebanon war in 1982. (This is Folman’s 2nd movie to win Israel’s Academy Award; 1st was 1997’s Saint Clara.)

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2008 Emmy Winners (...analysis coming)

By Nikki Finke | Category: Internet | Sunday September 21, 2008 @ 8:29pm PST

Emmy By The Biz
HBO  10
NBC  4
AMC  3 
ABC  3
FX  2
CBS  2
Comedy Central  2
PBS  1
FOX  1

Emmy By The Win
COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock (NBC)
 
DRAMA SERIES
Mad Men (AMC)

MINISERIES
John Adams (HBO)
 
ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock (NBC) 

ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Bryan Cranston - Breaking Bad (AMC)
 
ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Tina Fey - 30 Rock (NBC) 

ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Glenn Close - Damages (FX)
 
REALITY HOST
Jeff Probst - Survivor

MADE FOR TELEVISION MOVIE
Recount - (HBO)

REALITY COMPETITION PROGRAM
The Amazing Race - (CBS)
 
ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Paul Giamatti - John Adams (HBO)
 
ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Laura Linney - John Adams (HBO)
 
SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Jeremy Piven - Entourage (HBO)
 
SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Zeljko Ivanek - Damages (FX)
 
SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Tom Wilkinson - John Adams (HBO)
 
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Jean Smart - Samantha Who? (ABC)
 
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Dianne Wiest - In Treatment (HBO)
 
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Eileen Atkins - Cranford (Masterpiece Theatre)
 
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN A VARIETY OR MUSIC PROGRAM
Don Rickles - Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (HBO)
 
DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY
Barry Sonnenfeld, Pushing Daisies ("Pie-Lette")

DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA
Greg Yaitanes, House ("House’s Head")

DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY PROGRAM
Louis J. Horvitz - 80th Annual Academy Awards (ABC)

DIRECTING FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Jay Roach - Recount (HBO)

VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SERIES
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart - (Comedy Central) 

WRITING FOR A COMEDY
Tina Fey - 30 Rock ("Cooter") (NBC)
 
WRITING FOR A DRAMA
Matthew Weiner - Mad Men ("Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" - Pilot) (AMC)

WRITING FOR A VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY PROGRAM
The Colbert Report (Comedy Central) - ... Read More »

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2008 Emmy Events, Parties & Lounges

By Nikki Finke | Category: Agents | Tuesday September 16, 2008 @ 12:55pm PST

Sunday, September 14th
1-7 PM Connected Gift Rooms Emmy Awards Celebrity Gift Lounge
Sofitel Hotel, Beverly Grand Ballroom, 8555 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles

6-9 PM ATAS hosts Emmy Producers Nominee Party
Citrus at Social Hollywood, 6525 W Sunset Blvd, Hollywood

Monday, September 15th
1-7 PM Connected Gift Rooms Emmy Awards Celebrity Gift Lounge
Sofitel Hotel, Beverly Grand Ballroom, 8555 Beverly Bld, Los Angeles

Thursday, September 18th
10 AM-6 PM Dubois Pelin & Associates Gifting Lounge
Luxe Hotel, Beverly Penthouse Suites, 360 N Rodeo Dr, Beverly Hills

12 PM Celebrity Green Gifting Chateau (LA Confidential/Platform Media Group)
Harry Warner Private Estate, 501 S Rossmore Ave, Los Angeles

7:30 PM ATAS hosts Emmy Outstanding Writer Nominee Party
Taper Courtyard, Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N Sepulveda Blvd, Brentwood

7:30 PM TV Guide Cocktail Party/Private Dinner
Foxtail, 9077 Santa Monica Blvd, W Hollywood

Friday, September 19th
11:30 AM YouthAIDS Pre-Emmy Luncheon (Little Black Dress Wines/Tacori)
Private Estate, Doheny Hills

12 PM Celebrity Green Gifting Chateau (LA Confidential/Platform Media Group)
Harry Warner Private Estate, 501 S Rossmore Ave, Los Angeles

7-10 PM NewPoker.com's Creative Coalition Celebrity Poker Challenge
Harry Warner Private Estate, 501 S Rossmore Ave, Los Angeles

Saturday, September 20th
10 AM-6 PM Dubois Pelin & Associates Gifting Lounge
Luxe Hotel, Beverly Penthouse Suites, 360 N Rodeo Dr, Beverly Hills

12 PM Celebrity Green Gifting Chateau (LA Confidential/Platform Media Group)
Harry Warner Private Estate, 501 S Rossmore Ave, Los Angeles

3-6 PM British Academy of Film & Television Arts (LA) Tea Party
InterContinental Hotel, 2151 Avenue of the Stars, Century City

6-8 PM 30 Rock's Vanity Fair Emmy party
Chateau Marmont, 8221 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood

7-10 PM LA Confidential magazine pre-Emmy party
Six Fifty North, 650 N La Cienega,

... Read More »

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Wkd Prediction: Robot $70M, Angie $40M

By Nikki Finke | Category: Actors, Advertising, Agents | Friday June 27, 2008 @ 5:36am PST

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I'm told that not only is Pixar/Disney internally hoping for a $70+ million dollar opening for Wall-E, but also a Best Picture Oscar nomination for the L'il Robot. It's possible with 100% great reviews from top critics and even rival studios bigwigs gushing about the pic: "I saw it on Wednesday and it's just adorable and smart and interesting. It has more character development and emotion than any movie I've seen this year." My box office gurus are projecting a $65M to $70M opening, and maybe more from 3,992 theaters. Clearly it'll be another giant box office since Universal's Angelina Jolie / James McAvoy starrer Wanted now looks like an all-round date movie instead of just a guyfest. 

Universal is hoping for at least $35M and maybe even $40M from 3,175 venues for Wanted's Fri/Sat/Sun total. My box office gurus are projecting $40M to $42M. "In terms of comps, that would be an extraordinary result for an R-rated summer action movie," a source tells me. "So anything above $35M is absolutely a franchise." The appeal for well-reviewed Wanted is a surprise: women want to see it as almost as much as men, young and old are coming in nearly even, and relative newcomer McAvoy is almost as much of a draw for the film as veteran Jolie.

Wall-E and Wanted will compete for older females. But it won't matter. "All the Wall-E reviews have been extraordinary. And Pixar is a brand that has earned the complete and total trust of the public," ... Read More »

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'Wall-E' Orbiting Best Picture Oscar Nod?

By Nikki Finke | Category: Agents, Awards, Big Media | Friday June 27, 2008 @ 1:07am PST

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I'm told that Disney and Pixar are going to push hard for a Best Picture Oscar nomination for Wall-E on the basis of its anti-toon moody darkness and rave reviews by critics who matter. Certainly many toons have tried for that high honor over the years, and then settled for "just" a recently added Best Animated Feature nod. Only one animated movie has made it into the most competitive Academy Award category -- Disney's Beauty And The Beast in 1991 -- but, alas, didn't win. But that may not be the obstacle in Wall-E's way. No, I'm hearing the problem may be Andrew Stanton's arrogance in that interview in last Sunday's New York Times:

"Stanton, who wrote and directed the film, doesn’t care if the kiddies want to hug Wall-E or not when the movie comes out on Friday. 'I never think about the audience,” he said. “If someone gives me a marketing report, I throw it away.'” Because them thar's fightin' words in the movie industry. "Half of Hollywood went, 'You've got to be kidding!' " a bigwig Hollywood marketer said, echoing sentiment heard within the Industry. "Nobody can say, 'I don't care what the audience thinks', especially when making a mainstream movie for families. Nobody can live outside the envelope like that. His disdain for the audience was really obvious."

Ah, I love the smell of nastiness at the start of Oscar season. Smells like... controversy! 

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Los Angeles Press Club Awards...

By Nikki Finke | Category: Agents, Awards | Monday June 23, 2008 @ 9:23am PST

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Last year the Los Angeles Times' Patrick Goldstein graciously handed off the Los Angeles Press Club's Entertainment Journalist Of The Year title for print, broadcast or online to me, and now I fittingly hand it off to the L.A. Times' John Horn after Saturday's 2008 awards night. My sincerest congratulations. (I received Honorable Mention this year in that category and, to my surprise, an Honorable Mention in Print Entertainment Hard News behind the Los Angeles Times' coverage of the writers strike. I did wind up winning First Place for the Online Entertainment News/Feature/Commentary category.) At the 50th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards, here were the first-place wins for entertainment coverage:

ENTERTAINMENT – Print, Broadcast or Online
1st Place: John Horn, Los Angeles Times
---
PRINT: DAILY/WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS (Over 100,000 Circulation)
ENTERTAINMENT REVIEW/CRITICISM/COLUMN
1st Place: Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times
Judges’ comments: Rutten’s reviews offered style, wit and insights into both substance and form, drawing readers to books they otherwise might not have considered.
&
ENTERTAINMENT, HARD NEWS
1st Place: Staff, Los Angeles Times, “Hollywood Writers’ Strike”
Judges’ comments: This comprehensive package revealed behind-the-scenes mechanics of the strike, plus its effects on everyone from television-show workers to dog walkers. Well-sourced and tightly written.
&
ENTERTAINMENT, FEATURE
1st Place: Judith Lewis, LA Weekly, “The Way He Lives Now”
Judges’ comments: Well written and interesting to the end, this story presented a perfectly hewn subject matter and angle.
---
PRINT: DAILY/WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS (Under 100,000 Circulation)
ENTERTAINMENT REVIEWS/CRITICISM/COLUMN
1st Place: Luke Y. Thompson, OC Weekly, “Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em”
Judges’ comments: An easy, fun read. Thompson brings a knowledge of the genre ... Read More »

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R.I.P. George Carlin

By Nikki Finke | Category: Actors, Agents, Awards | Sunday June 22, 2008 @ 10:06pm PST

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I've just been told by a source that George Carlin died this evening. This is indeed shocking. Last week, it was announced that on November 10th the veteran comic whose infamous "Filthy Words" routine reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court would be the 11th person inducted into the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ pantheon of humor and receive this year’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. (Past winners include Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin.) Reuters now also has Carlin's death, reporting that he died at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica of heart failure at age 71. Hollywood has long loved Carlin as a gentle and considerate man. But what the funnyman courageously did to fight censorship over the airwaves on radio and television is the legacy he leaves behind for the entertainment and media biz. 

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Thank You, Vanity Fair...

By Nikki Finke | Category: Awards, Blogs, Buzz | Friday June 13, 2008 @ 12:07pm PST

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Vanity Fair magazine has created a Blogopticon which charts the tone and content of what it considers "the most influential or amusing blogs" vying for the attention of the world’s billion-plus Web surfers. The sites are categorized along four attributes: "news" vs "opinion", "earnest" vs "scurrilous", and everything inbetween. I am very proud to say that VF included my Deadline Hollywood Daily and gave it high marks indeed: at the very top of "news" and in the "earnest" category.

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Two 1st Places: 2008 AltWeekly Awards

By Nikki Finke | Category: Awards, Journalism | Sunday June 8, 2008 @ 3:58pm PST

The winners of the 2008 AltWeekly Awards were announced yesterday in Philadelphia at a luncheon held as part of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' annual convention for alternative newsweeklies across the United States and Canada. The contest administered by Northwestern University's Medill School Of Journalism seeks to "promote excellence by recognizing work that is well written, incisively reported and effectively challenges established orthodoxies."

I'm pleased to announce:

Blog
Circulation Over 55,000
First Place: Nikki Finke, Deadline Hollywood Daily, LA Weekly
For these three postings: NBC Shake-up: My Final Wrap & Analysis, WGA Talks Collapse: East Strike On! and Worst Talent Deal Ever?

&

Media Reporting/Criticism
Circulation Over 55,000
First Place: Nikki Finke, "Deadline Hollywood" columns, LA Weekly
For these three columns: Goodbye Baquet, Hello O'Shea: The Chicagoan comes out fighting; Dangerous Liaisons: More hanky-panky than a whorehouse in LAT opinion section; and Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid: The Sopranos-like takeover of Tribune Co. could mean cement shoes for employees.

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Jorge Camara Re-Elected HFPA President

By Nikki Finke | Category: AFTRA, Agents, Awards | Thursday June 5, 2008 @ 1:50pm PST

It's been the most challenging year on record for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- well, if you don't count 1982's uproar over naming Pia Zadora best "New Star Of The Year" -- that saw the cancellation of its Golden Globe Awards dinner because of the Writers Guild strike. So Jorge Camara should take some small comfort in knowing that he was re-elected today HFPA president for the year 2008-2009 at the organization's annual election meeting. A member of the association for 43 years, Camara is serving his sixth term and covers entertainment (print and television) for Mexico and Latin America. Mike Goodridge was re-elected vice president. Serge Rakhlin and Meher Tatna were re-elected executive secretary and treasurer, respectively. The new Board of Directors is comprised of Mahfouz Doss (re-elected chairman), Erkki Kanto, Lilly Lui, Paz Mata, Frances Schoenberger, and Armando Gallo (alternate). The annual HFPA Installation Luncheon to honor the officers and directors will be held later this summer, when the association makes its annual donations to non-profit organizations and film schools. Now, if only the HFPA would focus on cleaning up its membership policies to allow real Hollywood foreign press into its pathetically faux organization. 

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French Film Wins Cannes #1 Palme D'Or

By Nikki Finke | Category: Actors, Awards, Celebrity | Sunday May 25, 2008 @ 11:45am PST

Robert DeNiro presented top honors today to Laurent Cantet's French classroom drama Entre Les Murs at the 61st Cannes Film Festival. The winner of the Palme D'Or is a frank tale about classroom life using real students and teachers at a junior high school and is shot in a raw, improvisational style to chronicle the events that unfold over one school year. Some 22 films were vying for top honors, which shut out Changeling, Clint Eastwood's raved about pic starring Angelina Jolie in the true-life story of a L.A. woman battling corrupt police. But the jury headed by Sean Penn gave a Special Award of this 2008 May 14th-to-25th festival to Eastwood and to the French actress Catherine Deneuve. The Grand Prize was awarded by Roman Polanski to director Matteo Garrone for Gomorra, a study of the criminal underworld in Naples. Best Actor went to Benicio del Toro in Steven Soderbergh's Che: "I'd like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara." Best Actress went to Sandra Corveloni in Linha de Passe.

Following are the winners of the main prizes and a selection of quotes via Reuters:

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PALME D'OR
- Entre Les Murs, directed by Laurent Cantet
"The film we wanted to make had to be a reflection of French society -- multiple, many-faceted, complex. Sometimes also with friction that the film does not try to cover up," Cantet said.

GRAND PRIX (Runner-up prize)
- Gomorra directed by Matteo Garrone

SPECIAL PRIZE
- Catherine Deneuve
"It is such a joy to be able ... Read More »

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What's The Magic Number For 'Indy 4'?

By Nikki Finke | Category: Agents, Box Office, Broadway | Wednesday May 21, 2008 @ 6:29pm PST

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THURSDAY AM UPDATE: The line forms for the 12:01 AM Thursday showing of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull at the Vista Theatre in Los Feliz. And it keeps going, and going... (Photos by Jim Stevenson)

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WEDNESDAY: Forget all the hype. What matters is the Memorial Day weekend box office gross for Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull which opens at 12:01 AM Thursday in 4,260 theaters in North America and also day and date in 61 territories overseas (but not Japan). Let's first look at domestic, where this Steven Spielberg/George Lucas tentpole is gonna be mega-hit. (Like, duh.) The only question is how BIG a hit. A record-breaker after 19 years in absentia? Maybe. But there's some tough competition for that if you play the stats game of splitting hairs. (Which is why, increasingly, box office is becoming like baseball. Oh joy.)

Indy 4 debuts for a full 5-day holiday weekend, among the best of all circumstances. Which is why informed guesstimates from my box office gurus are ranging from a low of $142 million to a high of $175 million for the well-reviewed PG-13 adventure pic. I think the answer lies somewhere inbetween -- around $160M. Then again, that's not taking into account how movie theaters are raising ticket prices by a dollar or two this summer because popcorn is more expensive. (According to news reports, next year's corn stocks are expected to plunge to a ... Read More »

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"Best Of The West" Column Writing Win

By Nikki Finke | Category: Agents, Awards | Wednesday May 14, 2008 @ 1:07pm PST

bestlogo1.gifThe 2008 "Best of the West" journalism competition, recognized as the West's most prestigious, is designed to reward journalistic excellence and to promote freedom of information. It is administered by the nonprofit First Amendment Funding and draws entries each year from journalists in the 13 states west of the Rockies:

Category: Special Topic Column Writing
First Place: Nikki Finke, "Deadline Hollywood" newspaper columns, LA Weekly
Judge's comment: "Nikki Finke is a badass. Period. She covers Hollywood with a terminally jaundiced eye for the kind of ridiculousness that people in that world take with the utmost seriousness. Her line about Clint Eastwood, that 'the geriatrics who still make up the majority of Oscar balloters love the guy cuz he's still got a prostate and balls,' is classic. I can even forgive the use of the 'cuz.' On 'The Sopranos' cut-to-black-ending, she wrote, 'Maybe we should all register with the Writers Guild for our residuals, since we had to fill in the blank.' Good stuff, written with passion and an utter disregard whether any of the studio heads, or anyone in 'the industry,' will ever buy her lunch."

(This year, my category was judged by Mike Argento, columnist for the Daily Record in York, Pa., and president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.)

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2008 Cannes Film Festival Events Sked...

By Nikki Finke | Category: Actors, Agents, Awards | Friday May 9, 2008 @ 7:31am PST

The latest 61st Cannes Film Festival screenings guide is here.

Monday, May 12th, 2008
7:00 pm -- Wild Bunch Football Tournament
@ Stade St Cassien

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
TBD -- Paul Allen Yacht Party
9:00 am-6:00 pm -- Official Cannes Film Festival Short Corner
sponsored by Moving Pictures
5:30 pm-7:30 pm -- Mandate International
@ The Penthouse at Villa D’Estelle

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
TBD -- Macy Gray performing for Nikki Beach 
@ Noga Hilton
TBD -- Chopard Party
@ Carlton
TBD -- Opening Night Film: Focus Features' Blindness
TBD -- Vicky Christina Barcelona
9:00 am-6:00 pm -- Official Cannes Film Festival Short Corner
sponsored by Moving Pictures
10:00 am-10:30 am -- Kung Fu Panda Stunt with Jack Black
@ Carlton Pier
6:00 pm-8:00 pm -- DDA Press Cocktail
@ Majestic Beach

Thursday, May 15th, 2008
TBD -- Opening Night Gala
TBD -- UBBA, Abba Celine Kamina’s Company
@Top of The Majestic
TBD -- Screening of Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda
9:00 am-6:00 pm -- Official Cannes Film Festival Short Corner
sponsored by Moving Pictures
6:00 pm-8:30 pm -- Yacht Cocktail Party, IM Global, Bunraku Bunraku
@ My Pegasus, Soleil Levant, Quai Albert Eduard Cocktail
7:00 pm-9:00 pm -- Velvet Octopus Cocktail Party
@ Nouma Blanc Apartment
7:00 pm-12:00 am -- Greenhouse and Prince Albert II Foundation Party
8:30 pm (sunset) -- WHV Beach Screening: Bonnie and Clyde
@ Plage Mace
9:00 pm-12:00 am -- City of Your Final Destination Party
hosted by Chopard @ Crystal Beach
9:00 pm -- Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda Party
@ Carlton Beach
10:00 pm-1:00 am-- Focus Films
@ 3.14 Beach La Croisette
   
Friday, May 16th, 2008
TBD -- Soho House Party
@ Chatteau De La Napoule
TBD -- Crystal Sky's Steven Paul birthday party
@

... Read More »

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Trio To Receive WGA Honors April 23rd

By Nikki Finke | Category: Agents, Awards, Blogs | Tuesday April 15, 2008 @ 11:44am PST

wga.bmpThe Writers Guild of America West’s Animation Writers Caucus (AWC) has awarded its 10th annual Animation Writing Award for lifetime achievement to Pixar writer-director Brad Bird, whose most recent film, Ratatouille, won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. And screenwriter and WGAW board member Tom Schulman is set to receive the guild’s Valentine Davies Award, recognizing both his writing legacy and valued service to the WGAW, the entertainment industry, and community at large. Also, screenwriter Robert Eisele will receive the Paul Selvin Award for his screenplay of The Great Debaters. The trio will be feted, among other honorees, at the Guild’s 2008 Honorary Awards Luncheon on April 23 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.

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Horrific 'Prom Night' Slays Keanu For #1

By Nikki Finke | Category: Actors, Agents, Box Office | Saturday April 12, 2008 @ 3:15am PST

promnight_galleryposter.jpgSUNDAY AM: Sony and Fox dominated a modest weekend box office populated by mostly mediocre movies. The Friday-through Sunday domestic gross crowned Sony/Screen Gems' horror flick Prom Night as the box office king with $22.7 million from 2,700 theaters. That's exactly what rival studios thought the pic would earn, even though Sony execs were trying to lower expectations to high teens. The PG-13 young-skewing slasher film, a contemorry remake of a cult classic, cost a dirt cheap $20M and was critic proof. For 47% of females under age 25, Prom Night was their first choice. "That's who drives those PG-13 horror movies. Plus, it's prom season," noted a rival studio marketing maven who praised the P&A campaign orchestrated by Screen Gems' head of marketing Mark Weinstock for such a disgusting film. The marketing campaign included interactive in-theater promotional standees that were so novel, they were the subject of a feature in The New York Times.

streetkings_galleryposter.jpgThat other newcomer, Fox Searchlight's Street Kings, based on the James Ellroy dirty cop story/script, was a distant #2 with $12 million this weekend from 2,467 venues, even though the R-rated drama starred Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker and Hugh Laurie. But they were wasted in this poorly reviewed film (only 31% positive on Rotten Tomatoes). Its gross was decidedly less than the mid-to-high teens my box office gurus had predicted.

A three-week holdover, Sony's casino caper pic 21 is showing some legs by clinging to 3rd place with $11 million this weekend from 2,736 sites. Its new cume totals $62.2 mil.... Read More »

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