The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies
The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies |
- Forest Whitaker takes up Richard Pryor's biopic
- From London with love: Bond show in Shanghai
- The Joes blast past The Croods to win box office
| Forest Whitaker takes up Richard Pryor's biopic Posted: 31 Mar 2013 09:17 PM PDT Deadline.com has revealed actor and director Forest Whitaker is now at the helm of a movie project that will tell the life story of American comedian Richard Pryor. Forest Whitaker (pic) will produce the project that started in the mid-1990s. He is collaborating with the comedian's widow, Jennifer Pryor, to develop the movie. The new team will start the screenplay from scratch in order to tell the story of a man who remains one of the most famous American comedians. Before Forest Whitaker, Adam Sandler wanted to produce a biopic about Richard Pryor. Marlon Wayans was supposed to play the comedian and Bill Condon was set to direct. At one stage, Martin Scorsese was also interested in recounting the life of Pryor, who was tormented by drugs before he was struck down by multiple sclerosis. (Relaxnews) |
| From London with love: Bond show in Shanghai Posted: 31 Mar 2013 09:12 PM PDT SHANGHAI (AFP) - An exhibition on fictional British spy James Bond opened in Shanghai Thursday, just weeks after the Communist government's censors cut parts of the latest film in the franchise, Skyfall. But Neil McConnon, lead curator of Designing 007 -- Fifty Years Of Bond Style said there had been no censorship of the show, organised by London's Barbican. "We certainly didn't edit at all for a Chinese audience," he told AFP. "We have encountered censorship before in some exhibitions, but not in this exhibition." Parts of Skyfall -- partly shot in China's commercial hub -- proved too sensitive for the authorities ahead of its release in January. A scene showing prostitution in Macau, a special administrative region of China, was removed, as was a line in which Bond's nemesis mentions being tortured by Chinese security agents. A section in which a hitman takes out a Chinese security guard in a skyscraper in Shanghai itself was also cut. The Shanghai exhibition, backed by a commercial company, is being mounted at the privately-owned Minsheng Art Museum. It is an expanded offering from previous shows in London and the Canadian city of Toronto, incorporating more material from Skyfall including the boat used by Daniel Craig as Bond to enter a Macau casino. In a room dedicated to villains, the display also includes an outfit worn by Michelle Yeoh playing Chinese spy Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies -- who as a cover story claimed to be a reporter for China's official news agency, Xinhua. Visitors can see a model of Bond's Aston Martin DB5, the bowler hat used as an airborne weapon by the character Oddjob in Goldfinger, and the orange bikini worn by actress Halle Berry in Die Another Day. But Chinese audiences are more familiar with recent Bond films, through both theatrical release and pirated DVDs, than the classics of the franchise. "It will be perhaps a different experience for a Chinese audience who won't have the same shared experience and the same resonance as audiences in the US or Europe," McConnon said. |
| The Joes blast past The Croods to win box office Posted: 31 Mar 2013 08:34 PM PDT REUTERS - Action movie G.I. Joe: Retaliation won the weekend box office battle in the United States and Canada, fighting off competition from cartoon cavemen, a Tyler Perry drama, and an alien-possessed heroine trying to save the human race. G.I. Joe, a sequel starring Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis, secured US$41.2 million in domestic ticket sales from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates. Last week's winner, animated prehistoric adventure The Croods, slipped to second place with US$26.5 million in North America (the United States and Canada). Tyler Perry's Temptation landed in the No. 3 slot with US$22.3 million. G.I. Joe opened Wednesday evening to get a jump on the Easter holiday weekend. The cumulative box office after Sunday is estimated at US$51.7 million. In international markets, the movie racked up US$80.3 million, for a global haul of US$132 million. "The result is as spectacular as the look of the movie," said Don Harris, president of domestic theatrical distribution at Paramount Pictures. "We couldn't be happier with the result in terms of both the domestic and international box office and the response from movie goers." Inspired by a Hasbro toy, G.I. Joe tells the story of elite soldiers fighting the enemy organization called Cobra as well as threats from within the federal government. The sequel to 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra was slated to open last summer, but the release was delayed to convert the film to 3D. Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures, MGM and Skydance Productions produced the sequel for about US$130 million. Ahead of the weekend, forecasters predicted a domestic tally around US$38 million for G.I. Joe. Domestic ticket sales for The Croods, a Dreamworks Animation comedy about a family of cave dwellers, dropped 39 percent from its debut a week ago. The cumulative international box office takings rose to US$140.5 million. Temptation, a departure from Perry's hit comedies, focuses on a married woman drawn to a handsome billionaire. The movie stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Lance Gross and Vanessa Williams. Reality TV star Kim Kardashian plays a small role and helped promote the film through TV appearances and social media. Another new release, sci-fi romantic thriller The Host, finished in sixth place with US$11 million. The movie is based on a novel by Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight vampire series that became a blockbuster movie franchise. Host features a love triangle centered around a young woman whose body is taken over by an alien with good intentions. The two live in the same body, first as enemies before they become friends who team up to save the human race. Irish actress Saoirse Ronan plays the lead character. Distributor Open Road Films acquired domestic rights for The Host for US$2 million. In fourth place, thriller Olympus Has Fallen earned US$14 million during its second weekend. The movie stars Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman in the tale of a White House under attack. Disney's Oz The Great And Powerful came in fifth with US$11.6 million. |
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