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What The Dictator Learned from Borat
From Cannes to Hollywood, Sacha Baron Cohen is back in the news this week as his latest mash-up of humor and political commentary makes it way into theaters, courtesy of The Dictator. If the moviemaker learned anything from Borat, it just may be that sweeping a number of unsuspecting "actors" into your film without their permission can turn into a very big headache.
After the release of Borat, 27 claims were filed against the Hollywood funnyman that eventually resulted in 10 lawsuits. All but one of these suits were dismissed or defeated, while the remaining one resulted in a small settlement. How did the story turn out so well for Borat when you consider the hundreds of folks who never signed a release at all and the dozens who did sign a release but wish they had thought twice?
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Dark Shadows Can’t Bring Down The Avengers
The Avengers handily overpowered Tim Burton's Dark Shadows over the weekend, becoming the top film at the box office for the second week running and, incidentally, topping $1 billion at the worldwide box office after only 19 days of release. The superhero 'stravaganza's domestic box office gross of $103.1 million (that's only its weekend gross, by the way—total domestic is $373.1 million so far) is over three and a half times what poorly reviewed new release Dark Shadows was able to pull in.
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Telling the Story of Portrait of Wally
The history of Egon Schiele's Portrait of Wally seems too improbable to be true. Art theft. Prestigious cultural institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and NPR. A Jewish art collector who spent the last decades of her life trying to get a beloved painting, looted by Nazis, returned to her—and a seemingly unscrupulous fellow collector who refused to give it up. But truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction—and director Andrew Shea lays out the incredible tale of "The face that launched a thousand lawsuits" with his documentary Portrait of Wally, opening in New York City today.
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Meanest Movie Moms
This weekend, offspring young and old will buy flowers, send cards and pay tribute to the women who brought them into this world. Mother’s Day is a time of celebration and gratitude toward the lady dearest to our hearts. And while turbulent times with mom are a natural part of growing up, this year you should be extra sweet to your creator, because she could be a whole lot worse. Don't believe us? Then take a look at this list of cinema's meanest mothers. From the psychotic to the just plain nasty, these moms make us glad that making our beds and taking out the garbage were the most ever asked of us.
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“It’s Only Forever…”
Director Brian Crano on the pressures and triumphs of A Bag of Hammers
Making a film, you learn a lot of lessons—often contradictory lessons, but lessons nonetheless. These are a few of the thousand lessons I learned in the process of making my first feature, A Bag of Hammers. I’ll skip the really obvious ones, like “Write a great, compelling script” or “cast the best actors you can"...
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The Journey to The Cup
On New Year’s Day of 2003, a neatly handwritten note arrived on the fax machine: “I have a story idea I wanted to run past you. I am sure you are familiar with the subject matter and would welcome your thoughts and suggestions.” The intriguing note came from Eric O’Keefe, a Texas journalist I had met while directing the television western Crossfire Trail. “What do you know about the 2002 Melbourne Cup?,” it read.
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Avengers Assemble at the Box Office
So, you might have heard—The Avengers did pretty well at the box office this weekend. If by "pretty well" you mean it shattered the record for best three-day weekend with its $200.3 million haul. Add that to the $441.5 million it's earned internationally since it came out just over a week-and-a-half ago, and the superhero extravaganza has racked up $641.8 million in just 12 days. All very good news for distributor Disney, which definitely needed a post-John Carter morale boost.
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Documenting the Lost and Found Generation in Falling Uphill
As a Hitchcock enthusiast, for years I wanted to direct a dark, suspenseful thriller. So I spent a of couple years developing a film in this “Hitchcockian” vein while producing and managing other films. After working on Peter Bratt’s La Mission, which depicts San Francisco in a very intimate and non-traditional way, I began to observe my surroundings and reflect on my personal life. Although it sucked to set aside my high concept screenplay, I refocused my energies on a more personal project featuring San Francisco. The film that resulted is Falling Uphill, which tells a story about heartbreak, self-discovery and new beginnings.
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Super (and Not-So-Super) Hero Flicks
Superhero movies tend to come in just one of two flavors: Exceptional and terrible. They either work as visually breathtaking, escapist fun… or they don’t. This summer features a slew of upcoming superhero flicks, including The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises. The latest, Joss Whedon's highly anticipated The Avengers, hits theaters today.
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Water Takes Center Stage in Last Call at the Oasis
When we started Last Call at the Oasis, our goals were ambitious and the challenge was considerable. We wanted to illuminate the water crisis and its many facets... and there are many, many facets. Generally, when we hear “water crisis” we think “drought”—usually “drought happening somewhere else in the world.” But what’s going on is big, and it is crucial that we understand it. This is water—essential for all life. Could the stakes be any higher?
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Think Like a Man Continues to Dominate
New wide releases The Pirates! Band of Misfits, The Five-Year Engagement, Safe and The Raven failed to snatch the number one spot out of the hands of last week's winner, Think Like a Man, which returned to the top of the box office for the second week running. Second place went to Pirates, while another holdover from last week, The Lucky One, claimed spot number three.
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Over the Rainbow with Jonathan Kalafer
The PS22 Chorus isn't your normal elementary school extracurricular group. A certified viral sensation after chorus director Gregg Breinberg started posting their performances on YouTube, in 2010 they were invited to perform at the Academy Awards. There to capture their journey from Staten Island to the Kodak Theatre was director Jonathan Kalafer, for whom the making of the film was its own sort of underdog story. In advance of world premiere of Once in a Lullaby: The PS22 Chorus Story at the Tribeca Film Festival, Kalafer took the time to share with MM his experience filming the PS22's Chorus incredible journey—and the personal impact doing so had on him.
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From Penguins to Pirates: The Best of Aardman Animations
After taking a detour into the world of CGI for last year's Arthur Christmas, Aardman Animations—the studio behind the Wallace and Gromit films, Chicken Run, "Shaun the Sheep" and more—has returned to the world of stop-motion with The Pirates! Band of Misfits, out in theaters stateside tomorrow, April 27th. To herald their return to the Claymation that made them great, we're taking a look back at some of Aardman's greatest contributions to the landscape of cinema.
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My Golden Rules: Ti West
With The House of the Devil and Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, writer-director Ti West showcased an uncanny ability to pay tribute to the classic horror films of the 1970s and ’80s while reinvigorating the genre with a bold indie spirit. His latest effort, The Innkeepers, was an award-winning hit on the film festival circuit and landed on Blu-ray and DVD on April 24th. Here, the horror-icon-in-the-making shares his golden rules of moviemaking.
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James McTeigue Captures The Raven
Unlike the many American teens who first encountered the work of Edgar Allan Poe in English class, James McTeigue, director of the upcoming thriller The Raven, discovered the Gothic writer in the lyrics of 1970s punk rock, specifically the song "Descent Into the Maelstrom"—named after a Poe story—by the band Radio Birdman. The first assistant director on all three Matrix films before making his directorial debut with V for Vendetta, McTeigue was never a Poe fanatic. But when producer Aaron Ryder (Donnie Darko, Memento) suggested that they work together on a fictionalized account of the legendary writer’s life, he couldn’t say no.
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Richard Linklater’s Cinematic Conviction
Legendary indie takes on the justice system with Bernie
The first thing you need to know about Richard Linklater is that he’s a Texas moviemaker. From his breakout hit Slacker, which told the poly-vocal story of several eccentric Austin residents, to his latest film Bernie, which is based on the true story of a murder that took place in Carthage, Texas in the mid-1990s, the bulk of Linklater’s films have taken place in his home state. MM caught up with the director on his home turf, at the SXSW Film Festival, to talk about truth, justice and the moviemaking way.
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