Results tagged “thehollywood”

The Hollywood Reporter has news that Beastie Boy Adam Yauch will be expanding his music and film production operation, Oscilloscope Laboratories, into indie film distribution. Under the nom de plume Nathanial Hörnblowér, Yauch has orchestrated many of the Beastie Boys videos, as well as the hip hop group’s inventive full-length concert doc Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! Oscilloscope also shot and produced live concert videos for Beck and Ryan Adams.

The producer of Pan's Labyrinth, the Oscar-winning film that partially delves into the world of abuse, may in fact have done some abusing of her own. A lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court yesterday against Frida Torresblanco. Her nanny, Angelica Hernandez, claims she was treated like a virtual slave.

We've been monitoring how I am Legend, the big budget post-apocalyptic zombie movie set in New York, will be portraying the Big Apple ever since filming took place on the Brooklyn Bridge (it eventually gets blown up). Now, with reviews starting to pop up, we're hearing mixed things about the movie but raves about how a futuristic people-less New York City looks. The Observer's Sara Vilkomerson was freaked out, noting how the city is...

Some folks were mighty disappointed when a Daisy May's BBQ cart on Park Avenue and 52nd Street turned out to be a tease. According to Midtown Lunch, the cart was set up outside the Seagram Building for the filming of the next Adam Sandler movie, You Don't Mess With Zohan.

Last night, Katie Couric made her CBS Evening News debut. Overall, the newscast was perfectly fine - no banter, a long Lara Logan feature on going in Taliban-run Afghanistatn, an interview (sorta like The Daily Show, just without the humor) with the NY Times' Thomas L. Friedman, a segment from Morgan "30 Days" Spurlock, and what the public has really been waiting for, pictures of baby Suri Cruise (she has a crazy head of hair!). Sure, people tuned in for last night's broadcast, but will they tune in every day? Are you going to watch? And are you going to help Katie pick a sign-off?

as Law & Order SVU used to be on then (and we remember the good ol' Fridays when The X-Files was on at 9PM and then Homicide was on at 10PM). And maybe Govich's ADA character, Jessica "From the wrong side of the tracks" [the elevated train tracks?] Rossi, won't be that lucky - the lady ADA's have a mysterious way of leaving every so often.

This might be the most alarmist issue of New York magazine ever! The city's weekly takes the time to summarize the insane saga of strange bird Peter Braunstein, the suspected Halloween sexual attacker. There are some choice tidbits about Braunstein's iex-girlfriend and interactions with colleagues, there are also some withering critiques of his style:

In this [cutthroat fashion magazine] environment it was normal for people to be working a persona, but no one quite got Braunstein’s—the Jheri-curl mullet, Huckapoo shirts, velvet blazers, an unironic briefcase (for shame!), and the daily parade of leather pants. “Studio 54 by way of the electronics shop,” says one co-worker; “as if he discovered mousse ten years too late”; “a hair trope like Robert Townsend in The Hollywood Shuffle”; “could’ve been the drummer from Boston circa 1971.”

Mick Stingley, Low-Rent Rock Critic

Gothamist did not need to check Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, or Defamer to know that Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith would become the most popular movie across America this weekend. Gothamist knew it the moment we overheard a neighbor playing a DVD of the movie very loudly on Saturday afternoon. Said neighbor purchased the DVD in Chinatown, and while he missed the group experience of being around tons of people dressed up like beings from the five other Star Wars films, his surround sound system made us feel like we were in the theater. The NYPD, however, has been cracking down on counterfeit DVD sellers, with a raid on a Harlem storage unit revealed that counterfeit Sith DVDs were stacked "nearly to the ceiling." One counterfeit DVD buyer explained to the Daily News, "I can't even afford to go to the movies nowadays. It's $35 after a ticket, soda and food." Another possible explanation not offered that Gothamist will introduce is that the first two Star Wars prequels sucked so bad that people deserve to see Revenge of the Sith however they want.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Meryl Streep will be playing the Anna Wintour-inspired devilish boss in the movie of The Devil Wears Prada. Streep has already played another Conde Nast employee, New Yorker writer Susan Orlean, in Adaptation, so we can't wait until she plays Graydon Carter or Jeff Jarvis next (hey, she played a rabbi in Angels in America - she can probably do it!). We think that someone like Lara Flynn Boyle, with aging makeup, would be more physically like Wintour, but these are the movies and Streep can play insane well (see Manchurian Candidate, She-Devil, and Death Becomes Her). Streep does have experience playing people in journalism - she was a thinly veiled Nora Ephron (who wrote for Esquire) in Heartburn.

One of the great uncles of the reality TV genre, Taxicab Confessions, has its 11th season premiere tomorrow night on HBO. The NY Times had an Arts & Leisure feature about the show last weekend, noting that most New Yorkers ignore cab drivers, which could be partly due to some cabdrivers' chats on the cellphone, but, yeah, New Yorkers will conduct all sorts of strange business anywhere. Most of the other seasons of Taxicab Confessions were filmed in Las Vegas, because HBO couldn't get a permit to film here; HBO Documentaries president apparently made a new pitch to film in NYC by sending Film & TV Commissioner Katharine Oliver the Emmy that Nevins received for the first TC, but not as a threat, sort of as an enticement. The Hollywood Reporter gives a synopsis of the first episode, in a disappointed review:

The nine segments featured here include a skinny white guy and an extremely large black woman sharing the cab on their first date while he addresses his "big black woman" fetish; a guy and his blonde transsexual girlfriend boasting about their steamy sex life; a gentile guy discussing how the Jewish woman whom was once his girlfriend would take phone calls from her mother during sex; a young tattooed rock 'n' roll couple getting physical in the back seat, complete with her performing fellatio; and a couple of party girls and their male companion vividly demonstrating the "If you get naked, you get a free drink" policy of the karaoke bar they just left.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards their 62nd annual Golden Globes this Sunday, a sure sign that the season of gowns, the buzz and the surprise upset is upon us. Unlike the Oscars though, the Golden Globes covers television and film, so we get to see the disjointed mingling of the stars on the red carpet from both genres.

Terrence Winter's bio notes that he's from Brooklyn, went to NYU and got his law degree from St. John's. He also co-wrote the Pine Barrens episode with Tim Van Patten.

The Hollywood Reporter is running a series of articles about how great New York is for film and TV production. One of them, Location report: New York, gives us some interesting information: "The original "L&O" has contributed more than $650 million to the city during 672 weeks of regular production spanning nearly 15 years." Wow! And that's just ONE of the Law & Order shows. Katherine Oliver, the Film, Theatre and Broadcasting Commissioner, says that L&O is a "repeat customer" coming into for permits "every single day." Commissioner Oliver will also help out films that are shooting entirely in the city: "[Stay, an Ewan MacGregor-Naomi Watts film] was a $50 million-budgeted film, and they shot the entire film in New York City," New York film commissioner Katherine Oliver says. "We diverted Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for 10 nights; this is not something easy to do, but the message was that if you're going to spend that kind of money, do the entire project here and employ New Yorkers, we will give you the Brooklyn Bridge." There are you go: You get the Brooklyn Bridge for 10 nights, at a cost of $50 million.

The Smoker can also be found in Kissing in Manhattan, a collection of Schickler's stories. Here's what looks like Schickler's website for Kissing in Manhattan. And Gothamist is excited about Linklater's sequel to Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, which comes out on July 2.

There's voting for a Guilty Pleasure Movie to be screened at Pier 25 on Friday, May 7. Included are A Clockwork Orange, Evil Dead 2, Fletch, Re-Animator, Rushmore, The Jerk, and more. While Gothamist loves Rushmore, Dazed and Confused is our guilty pleasure movie of choice.

Michael Tully, Actor/Writer/Musician

There's an excellent unofficial Amy Sedaris page that links to a Time Out interview with some choice Amy quotes ("I didn't even know it was the Year of the Monkey�I'm just a year-round monkey gal. Monkeys are the best, right?") Season Two of Strangers for Candy is out on DVD. Gothamist previously on Strangers with Candy.

Some "hip" African Americans we'd like to help Gothamist over our obstacles: Samuel L. Jackson, Dave Chappelle, and Tracey Reese.

Since it's been fun to cast The Parker Grey Show, Gothamist would like to look at the casting for the upcoming Batman movie that Memento director Christopher Nolan will be directing. The Hollywood Reporter says that these actors are in the running:

The Washington Post's Beltway gossip Lloyd Grove gets ready for his new gig at the Daily News by going heavy on the D.C. screening circuit today. First, he leads with a screening of The Passion, with director Mel Gibson present, for insiders to quell rumors. The invitees skewed to the conservative: Matt Drudge, Peggy Noonan, Cal Thomas and Kate O'Beirne; conservative essayist Michael Novak; President Bush's abortive nominee for labor secretary, Linda Chavez; staff director Mark Rodgers of the Senate Republican conference chaired by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.); former Republican House member Mark Siljander of Michigan; and White House staffer David Kuo. Jack Valenti seemed to be the only liberal, but as he's the head of the annoying MPAA and kiss up to Mel, Gothamist is not surprised that he told audience members, "I don't see what the controversy is all about. This is a compelling piece of art. I just called Kirk Douglas and told him that this is the movie to beat." Gothamist dies a little as another spin machine starts. [Via nw]

Adam Buckman of the Post has seen the Buffy finale and say it's awesome. But Gothamist did not realize there was talk of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer cartoon - Joss Whedon wanted it to be on par with "Animaniacs or Batman: The Animated Series." [ Read more in The Hollywood Reporter interview with Joss.]

The Hollywood Reporter says Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz's production company, Crusader Entertainment, has bought to the rights to turn Atlas Shrugged into a film.

The evening is over, while Gothamist will be following up with extensive commentary about the actual Oscar telecast, here are the winners and some post-game analysis:

As a hopeless cinephile, I feel that the year I spend watching movies is like having a crush on some unattainable person. It makes me feel alive, with all the planning and dreaming and effort I put into it, and somehow, even when I see a bad movie, it�s okay, because it�s one of the knocks I take in wishing that maybe this in time, after paying $10+ for a movie, it might reward my desperate passion with an enlightening moment that can transcend time and place. (For the record, that includes Owen Wilson�s goofiness, Katharine Hepburn trying to hit Cary Grant, and the way Christopher Doyle moves a camera.)