Results tagged “warnerbros”

Did you know that there's a southeastern city in Turkey named Batman? The mayor of that city, Huseyin Kalkan, is now suing Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for royalties to The Dark Knight! Kalkan explains: "There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us." Variety digs deeper into the craziness, pondering why "no one from the town of Batman has explained why it took so many years to take legal action. Batman first appeared as a comicbook character in 1939 and the TV series started in 1966. Tim Burton's first bigscreen rendition came out in 1989." Hmm, wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the latest film is racking it up at the box office, "about to pass the $1 billion mark." But wait, it gets stranger! Kalkan's series of charges also includes placing the blame on Nolan & Co. "for a number of unsolved murders and a high female suicide rate on the psychological impact that the film's success has had on the city's inhabitants." Allegedly some former natives of Batman have had problems registering their businesses abroad.

Former Ramones manager and most recently a real estate agent "to the stars," Linda Stein, was found murdered yesterday. The character who shows Charlie Sheen apartments in the movie Wall Street was reportedly based on her, and Michael Gross published a profile on her in NY Mag in the early '90s. Mrs. Stein was also the ex-wife of music industry mogul Seymour Stein.

Earlier this year, I Am Legend, the latest Will Smith extravaganza took over the Brooklyn Bridge. Warner Bros. spent around $5,000,000 for a 6 night shoot in New York, after getting approval from 14 government agencies, with hundreds of extras, including 160 members of the National Guard in full combat gear.

Rejoice all you fans of Gilmore Girls / Veronica Mars slash fiction! Your dreams of saphic teen-friendly erotica are one step closer to fruition with the merging of the WB and UPN networks. CNN reports:

Ah, the ongoing fight between stores that sell adult materials and the neighborhoods that don't want them anymore. A number of stores that sell "adult materials" have successfully appealed a lower court ruling which held up a city law that said any business that sells any bit of porno is an adult business. Previously, the city had allowed stores to operate under a "60/40 rule": If 60% or more of their floor space/inventory was non-porn-related, it would be classified just as a business. (Yes, that's why some of those stores you pass by on Sixth Avenue are selling old copies of the Scooby Doo movie when most customers just head to the back.) But in 2001, in a bit of Giuliani, the city tacked on the amendment that "exiled such businesses from all neighborhoods outside certain industrial areas." According to the Daily News, Appellate Court Judge Susan Read wrote that the "[the city has to show that the 6-0/40 businesses still display a] predominant, ongoing focus on sexually explicit materials or activities."

Check out the city's Department of Buildings site, or call 311 to see what kind of permits you might need if you're doing some reno work around the house.

IMDB's listing on the Police Academy and its sequels; Sharon Stone was in the fourth one. And Gothamist must say G.W. Bailey is one of the archetypes for movie villains with his great 80s performances in Police Academy movies and Mannequin.

The official Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban site. And it's 87% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (so far).

William Grimes likens the Time Warner Center Whole Foods' eating area to a food hall like Harrods, but anyplace where there is a 248 seat cafe within an atrium spaced, it's a food court.

USA Today looks at the new trailer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and producer David Heyman says about Alfonso Cuaron's direction, "Alfonso really understands the nuances of being a teenager, and that's vital to this film. It's much more grounded in reality. This is a magical world, but not a fantasy world. This film has the magic of A Little Princess, but the reality of Y Tu Mamá. But I can assure you that Harry, Ron and Hermione are not going off on a road trip. No ménages à trois." Very well, but, Gothamist knows some readers who will be severely disappointed. But at least there's slash fiction.

With the release of Matrix Revolutions this week, Gothamist spied this photograph of Larry Wachowski taken by movie columnist Jeffrey Wells at the premiere the other week. Now, after we looked at his rumored interest in getting a sex change, we can't help but think Wachowski does seem like that matronly Algebra II teacher we had in high school (Alan Horn, Warner Bros. CEO, is on the right).

If it's fall, it must be time for the New York Film Festival. This year, the opening night film is Mystic River, the ensemble drama directed by Clint Eastwood. The cast is ridiculously loaded with great actors: Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laurence Fishburne. The story is dark, eliciting comparisons to Eastwood's tour de force western, Unforgiven, but its present day setting makes it more wrenching. Sean Penn also stands a good chance of being nominated come Oscar time, based on the buzz of his performance as a father whose daughter is murdered.

According to Michael Fleming in Variety, former Warner Bros. head Lorenzo DiBonaventura is going to be pitching a live-action movie based on G.I. Joe. Yes, the Real American Hero! Gothamist wonders who will play Cobra Commander, because based on some analysis maybe it'd be great to see Alan Cumming in the role. Other thoughts: Vin Diesel as Destro, Julianne Moore or Alicia Witt as Scarlett, maybe Paul Walker as Duke, Catherine Zeta-Jones as the Baroness.

." - Batman "prequel" director, Christopher Nolan, on casting Bale as the Dark Knight.

The Daily News scores a copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - obviously a hot copy - from a health food store in Brooklyn. The owner, whose name is being withheld by the Daily News (ah, yes, they hope to fall on the sword of their journalistic code for Harry Potter when Scholastic comes a-knocking) says, "I didn't receive notification that I should hold off until the 21st. I didn't think I'd get them so soon." Brooklyn health food store owner who also sells books: Living under a rock for the past month.

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's Warner Bros.-based production company, Plan B, just bought the rights (Variety.com - registration required) to James Frey's memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Michael Fleming writes, "The memoir opens as Frey finds himself aboard a Chicago-bound plane, missing four teeth and with a hole in his face, unable to remember how he got that way. Strung out on booze and crack at age 23, and wanted by authorities in three states, he ends up in a drug treatment facility in Minnesota." And it's too clear why Hollywood came a-knocking - this is essentially actor's porn.

Someday, Gothamist will go to the Cannes Film Festival. But until then, we will continue to get excited about films that premiere there and eagerly await for them to come Stateside. Like Mystic River, Clint Eastwood's adaptation of Dennis Lehane's bestselling novel. Gothamist had heard how wonderful a book Mystic River was ("Don't mind the 'New York Times Bestseller' and mass-market paperback size, Jen."), both in terms of the thrill and emotional story telling. It is a solidly written, haunting book about three friends whose "lives change forever" when one is kidnapped but returned a few days later; the friends reunite when one's daughter is found murdered.

The Matrix Reloaded will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival this May. It will be shown out of competition on the same day it's released around the world, May 15.

Gothamist has been looking for a way to talk about What a Girl Wants, the new Princess Diaries-ish movie starring Nickelodeon star Amanda Bynes, if only to talk about Colin Firth, making the transition to playing fathers of teenage girls. Warner Bros. is backtracking and trying to eliminate the peace sign from WAGW posters according to the Hollywood Reporter. No matter that there are tons of posters that have been up for weeks.

To promote the Civil War film, Gods and Generals, Warner Bros. staged a re-enactment of a battle in Central Park on Wednesday. The publicity department didn't factor in Mother Nature's decision to dump 20 inches of snow, but that didn't deter the hearty from participating. The film is the first from Ted Turner, who apparently put his own money (a reported $100 million) into the film, as the Civil War is a personal hobby and he gets to say the film is from "Ted Turner Films." That's tiny compared to $1 billion he pledged to the U.N. in 1997, but wasn't that in Time Warner stock? Hmm. Since then, Ted Turner has lost billions. Well, Ted, hate to break it to you, but I don't think you'll be seeing money from the film until ancillary: Review of Gods and Generals. Look at more pictures of the publicity stunt in Central Park.