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11 articles from 2008

17 July 2008 11:59 PM, PDT | From GetTheBigPicture.net | See recent Get The Big Picture news

The Wackness

Starring Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, and Olivia Thirlby

Directed by Jonathan Levine

Rated R

Sometimes it's the strangest relationships that can be the most rewarding. Felix and Oscar, Harold and Maude, Martin and Lewis, Laurel and Hardy, Gnarls Barkley. The Wackness provides us the most dysfunctional friendship of 2008, but it's one the characters and the audience are both the better for exploring.

Recent high school graduate Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) attends therapy sessions with Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsley). At the end of each session, Luke pays his doctor with dime bags of pot. It's a win-win situation; Luke gets the help he seeks and gains a customer, and Dr. Squires gets the high he wants and, for 45 minutes, a friend he needs.

Squires lives a pretty vacant life. He's in a loveless marriage (to Famke Janssen) and he doesn't get along very well with his step-daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby from Juno). Luke,

Colin Boyd

26 June 2008 12:07 PM, PDT | From screeninglog.com | See recent screeninglog news

Sarah Jessica Parker is deeply in love with New York City. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the “Sex and the City” star is in talks to topline “The Ivy Chronicles,” another comedy set in the Big Apple.

Based on the novel by Karen Quinn, the film centers on Ivy Ames, a wealthy Upper East Side mother who relocates into a cheapo downtown apartment after losing her dream job and getting a divorce.

In a quest for money to feed her children, Ivy opens a business to help upper-middle-class mothers get their kids into New York’s best kindergartens.

Warner Bros. will develop and distribute the project, which does indeed sound like a crossing between “The Devil Wears Prada” and “The Nanny Diaries.”

Besides the big-screen adaptations of “Sex and the City,” Parker recently starred alongside Dennis Quaid and Ellen Page in “Smart People.”  

Franck Tabouring

15 April 2008 10:35 AM, PDT | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

After a series of horrible performances at the box office by horror flicks, Sony's Prom Night graduated with honors over the weekend as it took in $20.8 million, far more than the studio said that it expected -- and about what it cost to produce. It beat the Keanu Reeves cop drama Street Kings, which opened with $12.5 million, by a wide margin. Overall, the box office grossed $95 million down from $118 million for the comparable weekend a year ago -- a drop of 19.6 percent. Through the first 15 weeks of the year, ticket sales are off 3.5 percent and attendance, 6.6 percent from last year. The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Media by Numbers (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):1. Prom Night, Sony, $20,804,941, (New); 2. Street Kings, Fox Searchlight, $12,469,631, (New); 3. 21, Sony/Col, $10,470,173, 3 Wks. ($61,738,420); 4. Nim's Island, 20th Century Fox, $9,111,667, 2 Wks. ($25,391,566); 5. Leatherheads, Universal, $6,276,665, 2 Wks. ($21,976,580); 6. Horton Hears a Who!, 20th Century Fox, $5,920,566, 4 Wks. ($139,548,920); 7. Smart People, Miramax, $4,092,465, (New); 8. The Ruins, Paramount, $3,385,395, 2 Wks. ($13,548,871); 9. Superhero Movie, Mgm, $3,216,247, 3 Wks. ($21,304,164); 10. Drillbit Taylor, Paramount, $2,044,988, 4 Wks. ($28,436,029).

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14 April 2008 10:33 AM, PDT | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

After months of frightful box-office performances by horror flicks, Sony/Screen Gems's Prom Night debuted with $22.7 million over the weekend at the high end of analysts' predictions. It was the best debut for a horror film this year. In second place was Fox Searchlight's R-rated Street Kings, starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker, which brought in an estimated $12 million. In its third week, 21 was still showing a strong hand as it took in $11 million. Everything else on the theater marquees looked weak, however, as the box office wound up with less revenue than it did a year ago for the fourth straight weekend. The top 12 films earned $82.6 million, more than 19 percent below what it took in during the comparable weekend last year. The fourth-ranked film, Fox's Nim's Island, brought in $9 million, while the George Clooney drama Leatherheads rounded out the top five with $6.2 million. The only other film to open wide this weekend, Miramax's Smart People, wound up with $4.2 million, to place seventh. The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers:1. Prom Night, $22.7 million; 2. Street Kings, $12 million; 3. 21, $11 million; 4. Nim's Island, $9 million; 5. Leatherheads, $6.2 million; 6. Horton Hears a Who!, $6 million; 7. Smart People, $4.2 million; 8. The Ruins, $3.3 million; 9. Superhero Movie, $3.1 million; 10. Drillbit Taylor, $2.1 million.

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11 April 2008 10:31 AM, PDT | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

Smart People , about, well, smart people in academia, is opening with quite a mixture of critical reaction. It passes the Iq test with flying colors. And intelligence plus genuine wit aren't its only distinctions," comments Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal. Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times concludes her review by remarking, "It's the kind of observational comedy, that'll be hard to find come summertime and should be enjoyed while there's still a chance." Michael Sragow awards it a B-, describing the film as "sometimes droll but often just pleasantly literate." Claudia Puig in Usa Today grades it only a C+, writing, "Though it features witty dialogue and good performances, the plot contrivances keep it from being an altogether winning enterprise." Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News isn't even sure about that "witty dialogue," writing, "Its idea of 'smart' is to simply put multisyllabic words into its characters' mouths, ignoring how empty-headed the people saying them are." And Peter Howell in the Toronto Star dismisses the movie as "terminally dull."

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11 April 2008 10:31 AM, PDT | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

You won't be reading any reviews for it, but Sony Screen Gems's horror flick Prom Night is the favorite among box-office analysts to win this weekend's movie competition. Today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times reported that tracking surveys indicate that the film will take in $18-22 million, about the same as it cost to produce. The likely No. 2 film, according to the analysts, is the Keanu Reeves-Forest Whitaker drama Street Kings, which analysts figure will bring in $10-12 million. But Daily Variety pointed out that, with the exception of Cloverfield, horror films have performed weekly this year. It suggests that Street Kings could best it. Also opening this weekend, but in only about 1,100 theaters, is Miramax's Smart People, with Ellen Page of Juno, Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker. In limited release, France's controversial award winner Persepolis, an animated film -- it now has an English soundtrack -- about a girl's experiences growing up in Iran at the time of the Islamic revolution, is due to open in 136 theaters.

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7 April 2008 6:10 AM, PDT | From ifc.com | See recent IFC news

By Neil Pedley

Prom queens and street kings hold court this week at the multiplexes while the college professors of "Smart People" and "The Visitor" preside at the art houses.

"Body of War"

Talk show legend Phil Donahue hands over the mic to Iraqi war veteran Tomas Young in this hard-hitting documentary that contrasts Young's struggle to re-enter civilian life as a paraplegic and anti-war activist with archival footage of an overeager U.S. Congress and what the filmmakers view as their hasty decision to greenlight the invasion. Although the film, co-directed by Donahue and Ellen Spiro, was named best documentary of 2007 by the National Board of Review, "Body of War" has earned equal attention for its soundtrack led by two tracks from Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, with all proceeds going to the non-profit organization Iraq Veterans Against The War. (Check out our interview with Spiro and Donahue.)

Opens in New York.

Neil Pedley

4 April 2008 10:30 AM, PDT | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Sideways star Thomas Haden Church has developed a reputation for flashing his genitals to male co-stars on the sets of his films.

The actor admits he did it for laughs on the Sideways set and ruined Dennis Quaid's composure on the set of new film Smart People.

Church reveals he uses nude scenes to surprise his co-stars.

In Smart People, he's supposed to be lying naked on his belly but he rolled over for one hilarious take.

He says, "I did one that was frontally nude to Dennis. Dennis and the cameraman enjoyed that... Dennis whirled in disgust and left the set.

"I did the same thing in Sideways too but they're never big fans of your sticky fruits flopping around back at the studio. They're never big fans of that activity."

Church and Quaid's co-star Sarah Jessica Parker regrets the fact she was not on the set that day: "I was not privileged to be there for the sticky fruit alert."

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31 March 2008 11:30 PM, PDT | From PEOPLE.com | See recent PEOPLE.com news

She may cut a willowy figure – but Sarah Jessica Parker doesn't deprive herself in order to fit into designer duds. "I eat everything," the actress, 43, told People Monday night at a special screening of her new film, Smart People, co-hosted by Allure magazine's Linda Wells and The Cinema Society. "I'm just an eater. If it's free, I honestly eat everything." As if to prove a point, the Sex and the City star rattled off a list of all the food she'd consumed in the past 48 hours: "Last night I had steak and some lamb shank. And I had some roasted

Jeffrey Slonim

29 March 2008 11:00 PM, PDT | From PEOPLE.com | See recent PEOPLE.com news

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be hard at work on the campaign trail, but the senator from Illinois can count on James Wilkie Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick's 5-year-old son, for his support in his battle for the White House – if he's running again in 13 years. "He's very into Barack Obama," Parker told reporters Saturday at a New York press junket for the movie Smart People. "On his own!" "He's really, truly into this election," she says of her little guy's interests. "He's come to this conclusion on his own based specifically on Barack's gender. It's that deep.

Paul Chi

28 January 2008 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Actor Dennis Quaid finds it tough to watch the climax of his new movie Smart People because it reminds him of his newborn twins who nearly died after a drug overdose. At the end of the film the star, who plays an English professor struggling to get over the death of his wife, is seen cradling baby twins. And the star admits it is hard to watch the footage now after the near-death experience of his own children. He says, "It actually really gets me when I see this. I'm a little verklempt. Kimberly (Quaid's wife) and I weren't even pregnant when we shot (the movie). We'd been trying for three years. When I read the script a couple years ago, the end scene always got me emotionally. It made me well up. And of course having our own twins now, it really gets me verklempt. It's a wonderful thing. For me, it's just life imitating art." Quaid's twins Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace were left fighting for their lives when they were mistakenly given 1,000 times the normal 10-unit dose of blood-thinning drug Heparin by staff at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center shortly after they were born to a surrogate mother in November. The babies were eventually discharged after doctors gave them the all-clear.

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11 articles from 2008