Thor: The Dark World opened in a handful of territories on Wednesday taking in $8.2M

'Thor: The Dark World' Box Office -- Strong Start In France & UK

EXCLUSIVE… UPDATE: Disney and Marvel Studios‘ Thor: The Dark World opened in a handful of territories on Wednesday taking in $8.2M. The pic starring Chris Hemsworth was the #1 film in each market which represented only 28% of its eventual international footprint. It had stronger starts in the UK and France than the 2011 first installment. The North American opening is November 8th. Disney and Marvel see what they call “tremendous room for growth” at the box office from the first Thor which grossed just under $450M worldwide. “All signs indicate we’ll have a much higher result,” an exec tells me. “I can’t put a number on it, but by the time we report domestic numbers on November 10th, we should be in really great shape.” Thoropened to $65M in May 2011 and went on to earn $181M domestic and $268.3M international. 

Oscar-Nominated Doc Follows the Working Poor Who Survive on Collecting Bottles and Cans

The HBO documentary "Redemption" examines New York City’s canners — the largely invisible people who survive by redeeming bottles and cans they collect from curbs, garbage cans and apartment complexes. Many have quietly slipped into poverty after losing their jobs, now living on the margins of society. The film has been nominated in the documentary shorts category at this year’s Academy Awards. We’re joined by co-directors Jon Alpert and Matt O’Neill, both of the Downtown Community Television Center, a community media center based in NYC’s Chinatown. [includes rush transcript]

Universal screens 'Lone Survivor' and Q&A with moderator Tina Brown

Mark Wahlberg: ‘I Never Felt More Pressure, But I’ve Never Felt More Pride’ Playing Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell | Variety

Mark Wahlberg admitted that portraying Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell — the protagonist of Universal’s Afghanistan war tale “Lone Survivor”— was more than a bit unnerving.  “I never felt more pressure playing someone, but I’ve never felt more pride,” Wahlberg said, following the screening Wednesday night at the TV Academy in North Hollywood. “It was a hard movie to make with Marcus there.”

Luttrell received a standing ovation at the start of the Q&A, moderated byTina Brown. Writer-director Peter Berg and star Taylor Kitsch were also on hand.  The film recounts the failed 2005 attempt to capture a Taliban leader and is based on Luttrell’s book “Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10.” Luttrell needed over a minute to simply list all his injuries and admitted that adjusting to post-soldier life has been a challenge. “I missed the adrenaline, I missed my buddies,” he allowed. “My wife keeps me out of the shadows.”

Film History's Most Definitive Music Cues

The Most Definitive Music Cues in Film History – Flavorwire

There’s a terrific little movie coming out tomorrow called London Boulevard (it’s available now on demand as well), a tough British gangster flick along the lines of The Long Good Friday or Mona Lisa, starring Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley and directed by William Monahan, who wrote The Departed. But his stylish direction and their charismatic performances aren’t why I can’t get the picture out of my head. It’s because of the Yardbirds.

Three times in the film (the opening credits, the closing credits, and a key point in-between), Monahan fires up “Heart Full of Soul,” the marvelously moody blues-rocker from 1965. It’s a great song, but it’s so well-matched to the film that they’re now all tied up together in my head; it’s pretty safe to bet that any time I hear that song from now on (which, being a Yardbirds fan, will be more often than you’d think), there will be an image of Farrell on his jail cot to accompany it.

Probably the world’s first short shot on [RED] Dragon

This morning, Norwegian filmmaker Gunleik Groven wrote me with a link to Sweet…, which he described as “Probably the world’s first short shot on [RED] Dragon.” In it, he creates four distinct worlds, each with a different look, and the results are very striking. For those of you who are tech-inclined and want to dig into the processes behind the short, check out this thread on the RED User message board in which Groven breaks down how he achieved each look.

2013 Media Access Awards

The 2013 Media Access Awards was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on Thursday, October 17. The event, now in its fourth year, honors members of the entertainment and broadcast industries for their efforts in promoting awareness of the disability experience, accessibility for people with disabilities, and the accurate depiction of characters with disabilities. 

The goal of representing and shedding light on various disabilities while raising public perception through the media takes center stage for this celebration. A vibrant and positive reception, the Media Access Awards continues to bring out some of television and film's brightest and most supportive stars as recipients and presenters year after year, and 2013 is set to be the biggest yet. The ceremony is presented by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and Starz Entertainment.

Award Recipients:
Media Access Awards' LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD (Norman Lear, All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude, The Facts of Life)
*Media Access Awards' VISIONARY AWARD (George R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice & Fire, the basis for Game of Thrones)
*SAG-AFTRA Disability Awareness Award (Jenni Gold, Producer of the Documentary Cinemability)
*SAG-AFTRA Harold Russell Award (RJ Mitte, Breaking Bad)
*Casting Society of America Award (Deedee Bradley, Switched at Birth, Veronica Mars)
*Writers Guild of America, West Evan Somers Memorial Award (David Shore, House)
*Producers Guild of America George Sunga Award (Bruce Cohen, Milk, Silver Linings Playbook, Academy Award-winner for American Beauty)
*Christopher Reeve Acting Scholarship (Santina Muha)
*RJ Mitte Diversity Award (Ryan Lane, Switched at Birth)

The Media Access Awards were created in 1979 by the California Governor's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities along with producer Fern Field and her late husband, Norman Brooks, to recognize and encourage the accurate portrayal of people with disabilities.

The story of ADELAIDE encapsulates her innocence and the tragic loss of her life from abuse as she ponders her fate from the grave.

ADELAIDE... 9-year-old Adelaide ponders life from the grave by Kimberly Seilhamer — Kickstarter



ADELAIDE is just 9-years-old when she dies at the hands of her sexually abusive father.  We open the story as he's hurriedly carrying her to her final resting place, a concerned Bandit the dog hot on his heels.  Even though Adelaide has died, she ponders life and death and shares those thoughts with us.  

New Mexican Films Shine in Zurich

New Mexican Films Shine at the Zurich Film Festival | Filmmaker Magazine

Quickly gaining stature as one of the best of Europe’s newer players on the fall festival scene, the Zurich Film Festival wrapped its ninth edition last weekend after it’s longest and most wide ranging event yet. One hundred and twenty-two films screened over the course of 11 days in Switzerland’s largest city, one which besides being a capital of world banking is among of the oldest continuous settlements in Europe, dating back over 6,400 years. The festival, run by Karl Spoerri and Nadja Schildknecht, featured its most star-studded group of guests yet, with the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Harrison Ford, Michael Haneke and Hugh Jackman being feted on the festival’s oddly green carpet with various honors, while a group of directors that would be right at home in a Cannes competition lineup, among them James Gray, Atom Egoyan, David Gordon Green, Andrew Dominik and Marc Forster, were either in town to exhibit new work or sit on one of the festival’s several juries. The four main competitions, delineated between international and German language films as well as narratives and docs, focus on first-, second- or third-time filmmakers making international, European or within the “German-speaking realm” premieres; the galas and special screenings tend to dominated by established international auteurs or films making their world premiere in Zurich. Sidebars focused on new Brazilian cinema, cinema within conflict zones and children’s films rounded out lead programmer Viviana Vezzani’s impressive selection.

'Hunger Games Tracking Strong at $152M

'Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Box Office -- Tracking Strong 3 Weeks Out

EXCLUSIVE: The 2nd installment of The Hunger Games film trilogy based on American writer Suzanne Collins’ bestselling books came on tracking this morning. Lionsgate’s Catching Fire three weeks out is currently looking to open with $140M to $150M in North American weekend gross. That should target the first installment’s opening of $152.5M and beat the recordholder for November, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, at $142.8M. Three weeks out, Catching Fire has 11% unaided awareness, the same as New Moon. However, Catching Fire‘s first choice at 27% is 10 points ahead of where New Moon was three weeks out. “Which we hope suggests upside in a crowded November marketplace with Thor andFrozen,” an insider tells me. Of course, tracking has been very unreliable this year and may not be an accurate measure of the film’s domestic box office prospects. The movie will be released on November 22nd. Gary Ross, director of the first Hunger Games installment, did not return and was replaced by Francis Lawrence. Pic stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth. The first installment of The Hunger Gameswas released in March 2012 and earned $408M domestic all in, for a worldwide total of $691M.

Actors - From Worst Auditions to Leg Waxing

Matthew McConaughey, Jake Gyllenhaal at Awards Roundtable: 6 Top Actors' Uncensored Tales, From Worst Auditions to Leg Waxing

The Hollywood Reporter's annual series kicks off with a candid conversation featuring Matthew McConaughey, Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Josh Brolin and Michael B. Jordan.

OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS

PBS to Air Hollywood Reporter Roundtables as Holiday Event Series 

Matthew McConaughey: Why I Rejected a $15 Million Paycheck

Box Office Lesson: Older Crowd Prefers Seasoned Stars, Shuns Youngsters

Academy Taking Steps to Simplify e-Voting for Oscars

Dallas Buyers Club: Toronto Review

Fruitvale: Sundance Review

Labor Day: Telluride Review

Lee Daniels' The Butler: Film Review

Prisoners: Telluride Review

This story first appeared in the Nov. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Huddled together just before the first of this year's awards-season roundtables got underway at the historic Mack Sennett Studios in Silver Lake, the six invited actors were eager to discuss one thing: Christopher Nolan. "Is he a big guy?" one of the participants asked Matthew McConaughey, who was taking a break from shooting the director's Interstellar on the Sony lot. Queried another, "Does he talk a lot?" McConaughey, 43, demurred as he joked with his Dallas Buyers Club co-starJared Leto, 41, who had flown in the night before from Michigan, where he performed with his band 30 Seconds to Mars. The duo joined Josh Brolin, 45, Jake Gyllenhaal, 32,Michael B. Jordan, 26, and Forest Whitaker, 52, in a candid discussion about everything from flubbed auditions to Brazilian waxing.

'Spinning Gold' With Justin Timberlake

Spike Lee May Be 'Spinning Gold' With Justin Timberlake In Neil Bogart Biopic | The Playlist

You gotta hand it to Spike Lee, he's keeping us on our toes. Never one to take the easy road or obvious path, the filmmaker has been bobbing and weaving with a diverse slate of projects, going from Michael Jackson documentary "Bad 25," to little indie "Red Hook Summer," with a trio of wildly different upcoming projects including the "Oldboy" remake, stage show adaptation "Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth" and his crowdsourced "Da Blood Of Jesus." So what direction is he going next?

Well, he's being sought to helm "Spinning Gold," that music biopic of record producer Neil Bogart you already forgot about that has Justin Timberlake attached to star. The project has been brewing in the background for a while, with the actor/singer signing up all the way back in 2011. Written by Tim Bogart (yes, Neil's son) the film will tell the story of his father's rags to riches tale as a Jewish kid from Brooklyn who founded Casablanca Records and found fortune releasing records by KISS, Donna Summer and Parliament. Among his many accomplishments, Bogart helped usher in the use of the 12" record as a singles format, and worked with a vast array of talent including Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, Gladys Knight and The Village People.

Here and Now - A young married couple contemplates the future of their strained relationship. By Julian Higgins

Julian Higgins - Here and Now

A YOUNG MARRIED COUPLE CONTEMPLATES THE FUTURE OF THEIR STRAINED RELATIONSHIP

Take an extended look behind the scenes of a celebrity director's film

Project Imagination

Project Imaginat10n launched with a photo contest, inviting the masses to interpret 10 storytelling themes through photography. After receiving tens of thousands of submissions, the 91 winning photos were announced. Then, the 5 Celebrity Directors and 5 Film Contest Winners each chose 10 photographs, one from each theme, to inspire their films. Watch them all here.

Direct Distribution For Your Movie

Direct Distribution & Marketing Roundup: A Who's Who of Today's Digital Tools « nofilmschool

Whatever you choose to call it: self distribution, direct distribution, or as some prefer ”alternative-distribution” — the tools are out there for filmmakers to publish their work and get paid for it. It’s not a fast track to success and will likely require the full breadth of your attention to make it work, but it is quickly becoming the most viable way for filmmakers to carve out a market for themselves in this industry. Read on to get a roundup of some of the big players, a simple breakdown of what each of them offer and my first impressions.

The 25 Highest Grossing Indies of 2013

The 25 Highest Grossing Indies of 2013 (A Running List) | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews | Indiewire

Here's a chart of 2013's twenty-five highest grossing films tracked by Indiewire's box office charts, as of October 28, 2013.  The list will be updated on a weekly basis.

It only includes North American grosses for specialty films that opened in limited release (initially under 500 screens) in 2013 and were released by an independent distributor or a studio specialty division. It also includes films that screened only as an Academy-qualifier in 2012 ("Quartet," "The Gatekeepers," etc.).

Check out the list below:

1. Instructions Not Included(Lionsgate/Pantelion) - $43,956,267
2. Blue Jasmine (Sony Pictures Classics) - $32,210,615
3. Mud (Roadside Attractions) - $21,590,086
4. The Way, Way Back (Fox Searchlight) - $21,475,653
5. The Place Beyond The Pines (Focus) - $21,403,519
6. Quartet (The Weinstein Company) - $18,390,117
7. Fruitvale Station (The Weinstein Company ) - $16,097,842
8. Spring Breakers (A24) - $14,124,284
9. Enough Said (Fox Searchlight) - $13,054,096
10. Before Midnight (Sony Pictures Classics) - $8,113,737
11. The Spectacular Now (A24) - $6,830,533
12. The Grandmaster (The Weinstein Company) - $6,594,136
13. The Bling Ring (A24) - $5,845,732
14. Pulling Strings (Lionsgate/Pantelion) - $5,574,585
15. Chennai Express (UTV) - $$5,307,960
16. The Company You Keep (Sony Pictures Classics) - $5,133,027
17. 20 Feet From Stardom (RADiUS) - $4,713,798
18. Much Ado About Nothing (Roadside Attractions) - $4,328,849   
19. Frances Ha (IFC Films) - $4,066,582
20. Metallica Through The Never (Picturehouse) - $3,419,967
21. 12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight) - $3,394,268
22. Emperor (Roadside Attractions) - $3,346,265
23. In a World (Roadside Attractions) - $2,879,101   
24. Home Run (Samuel Goldwyn) - $2,861,020
25. Filly Brown (LGF) - $2,850,357

Rejected - Best Oscar Award Winner Movie

An Academy Award® winner student film about love at a bus stop. Short film. best short film, best student film, 2012.

‘It Takes a Thief’

Universal Turning 1970s Series ‘It Takes a Thief’ into Film (EXCLUSIVE) | Variety

Universal is looking to get the gears moving on a feature adaptation of “It Takes a Thief,” bringing on Greg Russo to pen the script.  Inspired by the 1970s TV show created by Roland Kibbee and starring Robert Wagner, the story follows a young CIA analyst who recruits a brilliant thief, who has managed to evade the CIA to work for him. An earlier draft was written by Joe Gazzam.

John Davis is producing through his Davis Entertainment banner as is Joseph Singer. Derek Dauchy will oversee for Davis, with Scott Bernstein overseeing it for Universal.  Russo has been on a hot streak of late, and “It Takes a Thief” would be the latest in a recent string of projects to bolster his resume. He recently penned the script “Heatseekers” for Paramount, which Michael Bay and Chris Morgan are producing, and has also sold a handful of specs and pitches, including “Down” to Relativity and “Black Ice” to Alloy. He is also writing “Continuum” for Relativity, with Atlas and Benderspink producing.

New Director Joining Batman vs. Superman?

Underworld 3 Director Joining Batman vs. Superman? - IGN

Zack Snyder's Batman vs. Superman has reportedly locked down a veteran production designer.  According to a tweet from Production Weekly, Patrick Tatopoulos (Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) has joined the Man of Steel sequel team as the movie's production designer, and will collaborate with DP Larry Fong. What's more, a production office has been opened in Raleigh Michigan Studios in Pontiac for the film.

Movie Box Office Sales, Openings, and Coming Soon

IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities

Box Office

1.	Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa	$32.1M
2.	Gravity	$20.1M
3.	Captain Phillips	$11.6M
4.	The Counselor	$7.84M
5.	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2	$6.28M

See more box office results »

Opening This Week

Ender's Game		72%
Last Vegas		12%
Free Birds		16%
About Time		6%
Dallas Buyers Club		11%
Diana		23%
Mr. Nobody		11%
The Broken Circle Breakdown		46%
Big Sur		20%

See more titles »

Coming Soon

Thor: The Dark World		10%
The Book Thief		199%
How I Live Now		40%
The Armstrong Lie		53%
The Best Man Holiday		66%

See more titles »

New York Times Critics' Movie Picks

Best Movie Reviews - Critics' Picks - Movies - New York Times

Each week, the movie critics of The Times recommend a selection of films for the Movies section of NYTimes.com. The recommendations are based solely on that critic's personal opinion of the film. Below are films recommended by the three main critics of The Times: Manohla Dargis, A. O. Scott and Stephen Holden, along with other critics who review films for the Arts section of the newspaper.

Austin Jury and Screenplay Awards

Austin Film Festival Announces Jury and Screenplay Awards: Audiences still have chances to catch screenings - Screens Blog - The Austin Chronicle

Though the 20th anniversary Austin Film Festival runs through Thursday, Oct. 31, you don't have to wait for some of the biggest news.

The festival announced the winners of its annual screenplay and teleplay competition, as well as who's taking home jury awards, this afternoon. Keep an eye on all these winners, but especially the screenplay winners, who have been known to bring their final films back to AFF for premieres, as in the case of this year'sCoffee, Kill Boss. Check out the full slate below, and congratulations to all!

Screenplay Awards

• Drama Screenplay Award presented by the Writers Guild of America, East: Last Waltz of Viennaby Brian Weakland
• Comedy Screenplay Award: Don’t Talk to Irene by Pat Mills
• Enderby Entertainment Award: Hooking Up by Jacqueline Fitzgerald
• Darkwoods Productions Horror Award: The Hitch by Troy Miller
• Dark Hero Studios Sci-Fi Award: Lightspeed by Brian Siegele
• AMC One-Hour Teleplay Pilot: Liberators by Eric Haywood
• Sitcom Teleplay Pilot: I Love Monsters by Julie Cross
• One-Hour Teleplay Spec: Doctor Who: “Ghost Town” by Alyssa Weinberger
• Sitcom Teleplay Spec: Girls: “Golden Birthday, Golden Showers” by Sarah Carbiener & Erica Rosbe

Jury Awards

• Dark Matters Feature: OXV: The Manual (W/D: Darren Paul Fisher)
• Young Filmmakers Program Competition Grand Prize: "HB" (D: Imogen Pohl)
• Narrative Student Short: Pistachio Milk (D: Avram Dodson)
• Documentary Short: "Blinde Liefde (Blind Love)" (D: Jenny van den Broeke)
• Animated Short: "A Cautionary Tale" (D: Erica Harrison)*
• Narrative Short: "Fool's Day" (W/D: Cody Blue Snider)*
• Documentary Feature: Political Bodies (D: Christopher Englese)
• Narrative Feature: Beside Still Waters (W/D: Chris Lowell)

*Note: AFF is an Oscar-qualifying festival for shorts, which means the Narrative and Animated Shorts winners are eligible to be nominated for an Academy Award this year.

Apple's Final Cut Pro X is faster and less confusing to set up than FCP 7

A Fresh Look at Apple’s Final Cut Pro X | Filmmaker Magazine

Hard to believe, but FCP X is well over two years old and already into its ninth iteration.  Its popular multicam tool arrived with version three in January of last year. In the past 12 months alone, no less than four new versions have been released, bringing dual viewers, a unified import window, support for native REDCODE RAW, MXF, Sony XAVC (up to 4K) and optional Rec. 709 display of ARRI ALEXA ProRes captured in Log C.

Recent improvements also include a handy freeze-frame tool, chapter markers for QuickTimes and DVDs, better audio channel editing tools, and FCPXML 1.2 to facilitate audio and metadata export/import. (FCPXML uses Extensible Markup Language, or XML, to exchange Project and Event data and metadata between FCP X and third-party applications.) Plus, there are a host of bug fixes and performance improvements.  Apple claims its 64-bit FCP X has outsold all previous 32-bit versions of FCP combined, and there’s no reason to doubt this, for two reasons.

‘Golden Slumbers,’ A Film About Cambodian Cinema - NYTimes.com

Often a documentary tackles a topic that, however tempting, poses visual challenges (or exhausts the imagination of the filmmaker). That problem is the focus of “Golden Slumbers,” a film about Cambodian cinema, a history wiped clean by the Khmer Rouge. In the hands of the filmmaker Davy Chou, that vanished past becomes a remembered fantasy, expressing the absence of much more than a couple of hundred missing melodramas.

Ron Howard Helps Canon Capture Creativity with Short Film Contest | Variety

Most marketing campaigns for cameras either focus on the hardware or the random nature shot. With YouTube and other digital platforms creating a new generation of filmmaker, Canon has turned the lens on the kinds of films that can be made with its devices in an effort to stand out from its rivals.  Ron Howard returned this year to back Canon’s “Project Imaginat10n,” the second edition of a contest that had individuals submit photos from which the director and his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard chose a few to have filmmakers adapt into short films.