Tom Cruise met with dashing (in looks...Gothamist claims no knowledge about Japanese politics, barely able to keep our own country's goings on in check) Prime Minister Koizumi while promoting his upcoming Oscar-contending film, The Last Samurai. They apparently karaoked to an Elvis tune. And for some reason, reporters made Cruise say, "I think he's a charismatic and very intelligent man," while really, what else is a visiting super star going to say about his gracious host? more ›

The movie studios are adding blogging to their marketing repertoire: Fox Searchlight Pictures has started it's own blog, foxsearchlight.blogspot.com, to "join this online phenomena" plus innundate people with information about screenings, box office data, interviews, articles in which their releases are mentioned, etc., etc. Part of what's helpful in driving traffic to the blog is the fact that the releases Fox Searchlight has out there right now are actually good, like 28 Days Later and Bend It Like Beckham, and their upcoming films, frothy Merchant-Ivory Le Divorce, nihilistic teen girl movies Thirteen, and Jim Sheridan's long-awaited In America, are definitely intriguing. Also, worth checking out is Fox Searchlight's SearchLab which has Quicktime interviews with directors like Ridley Scott, Mark Romanek, Baz Luhrmann, and Kimberly Peirce. [Via Movie City News] more ›

The trailer for Val Kilmer's new film, Wonderland, is up at the Movie Box, and watching it reminded Gothamist of Boogie Nights and Auto Focus. Of course, Boogie Nights is not surprising, as BN was based loosely around the legend of John Holmes, while Wonderland is about porn star John Holmes and his involvement with the Wonderland Gang and their murders. At any rate, the gritty, seamy side of Los Angeles vibe looks intriguing (Val Kilmer as John Holmes, means Val ass), as does a crazy-haired Dylan McDermott. Kate Bosworth plays Holmes' 15 year-old girlfriend and Lisa Kudrow his wife, and Eric Bogosian looks really eerie as Eddie Nash, the drug dealer plots the robbery that set the murders in motion. Wonderland will open in limited release on September 26 (which can be a special date to some). [Via Movie City News] more ›

The Media Action Network for Asian Americans is up in arms against the creators of Charlie's Angels for missing out on the opportunity for giving Lucy Liu's character an Asian parent by casting funny man John Cleese. They have an opinion piece in the L.A. Times: [Via Movie City News] more ›

We'd like to put this idea into the Bad Idea Jeans Vault: Producer Dino De Laurentiis is moving forward with a movie about Hannibal Lecter as a young man: more ›

It's premiering at Cannes in May, in official competition, and it's website doesn't launch until May 19, 2003, but for now, you can see the trailer for Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark follow-up, Dogville. Starring Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, von Trier regular Stellan Skarsgaard, James Caan, Ben Gazzara, and Paul Bettany, Dogville is about a woman who ends up in a small Rocky Mountain town, possibly in the 1930s. The trailer, however, is something totally strange. The actors seem to be talking about the film as actors, not as characters in the film. Kind of a meta trailer. more ›