August 26, 2011
Wahlberg brothers pay for NY co.’s ‘burger’ nameROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) – Actor brothers Donnie and Mark Wahlberg have licensed the name of a hamburger from a western New York chain of drive-in-style restaurants and plan to use the name for their new eatery.
Executives with Tom Wahl’s tell the Democrat and Chronicle that the brothers from Boston have licensed the Wahlburger name from the company so they can use it when they and another sibling, Paul, open a burger joint named Wahlburgers Restaurant in their hometown. Tom Wahl’s serves a cheeseburger called a Wahlburger and owns the federal trademark rights to the name.
Tom Wahl and his brother Bill opened the first Tom Wahl’s restaurant in Avon (A’-vahn), south of Rochester, in 1955. The chain now operates eight restaurants.
The company hasn’t disclosed the amount of the licensing agreement.
ABC Bans Spot For Weinstein’s comedy “OUR IDIOT BROTHER”Network Refuses To Air Spot, Prompting Studio To Cut New Red Band Trailer For Film In Advance Of August 26 Opening
New York — The Weinstein Company (TWC) said today that ABC has refused to broadcast the commercial spot for its new comedy OUR IDIOT BROTHER, unless TWC makes specified cuts. The ad is already airing in its current form on other broadcast and cable networks. The action has prompted to TWC to cut a new red band trailer for the film. Commented TWC Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein, “We’d like to dedicate our new red band trailer for OUR IDIOT BROTHER to censorship everywhere. Enjoy!!”
An ensemble comedy about three sisters and an incurably optimistic sibling, OUR IDIOT BROTHER was a breakout hit at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. It is directed by Jesse Peretz and stars Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Steve Coogan, Hugh Dancy, Kathryn Hahn, Rashida Jones, Shirley Knight, T.J. Miller and Adam Scott. The screenplay is by Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall.
The banned television spot can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/theweinsteincompany and the new restricted trailer can be viewed exclusively on AOL’s Moviefone at http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/08/24/our-idiot-brother-red-band-trailer/.
OUR IDIOT BROTHER opens nationwide on Friday, August 26th.
Conn. town officials ask ABC show to change scene
GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) – Officials in a well-to-do Connecticut town have asked an ABC hidden-camera show to change a scene being shot there.
The Greenwich (GREN’-ich) Time newspaper (http://bit.ly/qUQu3J) reports Greenwich officials called the filming of “What Would You Do?” disruptive and asked the crew to choose another location. The show sets up morally difficult situations and secretly films people’s reactions.
An ABC representative tells The Associated Press the crew was asked to change a scene involving an element of theft because an armed robbery recently occurred nearby. Spokeswoman Alyssa Apple says the crew complied and filming continued.
Town officials say having the show set up in front of stores for two days affects business. Greenwich police say one of the show’s scenes caused an alarmed resident to ask a store employee to call police.
Fernando Meirelles’ ‘360’ to open London Film festLONDON (AP) – London Film Festival organizers say this year’s event will open with the European premiere of Fernando Meirelles’ “360,” starring Rachel Weisz, Jude Law and Anthony Hopkins.
The film is a series of interlinked love stories set in cities including London, Vienna and Denver and inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s play “La Ronde.”
Brazilian director Meirelles is best known for “City of God” and “The Constant Gardener,” which opened the London festival in 2005.
His latest, written by Peter Morgan (“Frost/Nixon”), gets its world premiere at September’s Toronto film festival.
London festival artistic director Sandra Hebron said Wednesday that “360” had “a modern and moving narrative, helped by strong performances.”
The festival runs Oct. 12-27.
Pacino, ‘Scarface’ cast celebrate film’s legacy
Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Al Pacino says he got burned while making “Scarface.”
Literally, he grabbed the hot barrel of a gun that had just shot 30 rounds during one of Tony Montana’s violent scenes.
“My hand stuck to that sucker,” the 71-year-old actor recalled. He couldn’t work for two weeks.
Pacino relayed the experience during a discussion with “Scarface” co-stars Steven Bauer, Robert Loggia and F. Murray Abraham and producer Martin Bregman at a party Tuesday heralding the film’s Blu-ray release.
Part of the charm of the film, Pacino said, is that it wasn’t initially a hit.
“It’s one of my favorites because of its whole evolution,” he said. “It (was) sort of eviscerated after it opened by the press. … Nobody was fond of it, except it had good audience participation.”
He said “it’s almost a miracle” audiences continue to discover and appreciate the film.
He wanted to make it after being inspired by Paul Muni’s performance in the 1932 original. Sidney Lumet suggested he make the main character Cuban instead of Italian.
Pacino’s “Scarface” is set in 1980s Miami, and Tony Montana is an ambitious immigrant who runs a growing drug empire until he eventually collapses under greed and addiction. Pacino’s performance as the gun-wielding, coke-snorting Montana is among his most memorable.
He said that during the nine months he was shooting the film, his character practically inhabited him. When a friend’s yappy little dog lunged at him, Pacino said he cocked back his fist instinctively, as if threatening a punch.
“So I love Tony Montana, man, because I couldn’t do that!” Pacino said Tuesday.
Bregman called “Scarface” a “perfect, perfect movie.”
Its timeless themes of greed, desire and ambition would make it controversial even if it were just released today, Pacino said.
Screenwriter Oliver Stone and director Brian De Palma were both “trying to talk about the avarice of the ’80s,” Pacino said. “At that time, there was this whole thing about greed, which was Wall Street and everything, and I think that’s part of it. A great character, too, Tony Montana – a person who dares to do anything, who flies like a Phoenix, like Icarus, close to the sun.”
The Blu-Ray will be released Sept. 6. “Scarface” is also set to play at 475 theaters nationwide on Aug. 31 for a special one-night engagement.
TV comedy producer John Howard Davies dies at 72Jill Lawless
LONDON (AP) – John Howard Davies, who grew from cherubic child actor to influential British television producer, has died at 72.
Son William Davies said his father died Monday at his home in Blewbury, southern England. He had been suffering from cancer.
He is remembered by film-lovers for playing the titular orphan boy in David Lean’s 1948 film of “Oliver Twist.”
He later became a producer and director on enduring comedies including “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” ”Fawlty Towers” and “Mr. Bean.”
Born in 1939, the son of writers Jack and Dorothy Davies, the young actor followed “Oliver Twist” with major roles in “The Rocking Horse Winner” (1949), “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” (1951) and “The Magic Box” (1951).
As an adult he moved behind the camera as a producer and director, mainly at the BBC, where his work included British comedy classics of the 1970s and 80s – “The Good Life,” ”To the Manor Born,” ”Not the Nine O’Clock News” and “The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin.”
Monty Python member Michael Palin said Davies was one of the directors of the first-ever episode of the series, in October 1969.
“He was a man of integrity and candor, never afraid of saying what he believed in,” Palin said.
As head of comedy at BBC television between 1977 and 1982, Davies commissioned shows including “Only Fools and Horses” – one of the most popular British sitcoms of all time – and “Yes, Minister,” a classic of political satire.
He later worked for the commercial broadcaster Thames Television.
William Davies said his father “had an absolutely extraordinary career, was unfailingly supportive as a parent and will be greatly missed.”
Davies is survived by his wife, son and daughter. A private funeral will be held next week.
Stamp for ‘Some Like It Hot’ director Billy WilderLOS ANGELES (AP) – Legendary Hollywood director Billy Wilder is being honored with a postage stamp.
The U.S. Postal Service offering features a classic scene from Wilder’s Oscar-winning 1959 film “Some Like It Hot” with Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.
Tuesday’s announcement rounds out the “Great Film Directors” commemorative set. The Postal Service said John Ford, Frank Capra and John Huston also are depicted in the series.
Other memorable Wilder movie credits include “The Lost Weekend” (1945), :”Sunset Boulevard” (1950), “Stalag 17” (1953) and “The Apartment” (1960).
Wilder was 95 when he died in 2002.
TV comedy producer John Howard Davies dies at 72LONDON (AP) – John Howard Davies, who grew from a cherubic child actor to an influential British television producer, has died at 72.
Son William Davies said his father died Monday at his home in Blewbury, southern England. He had been suffering from cancer.
He is remembered by film-lovers for playing the titular orphan boy in David Lean’s 1948 film of “Oliver Twist.”
He later became a producer and director on comedies including “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” ”Fawlty Towers” and “Mr. Bean.”
As head of comedy at BBC television, he commissioned shows including “Only Fools and Horses” – one of the most popular British sitcoms of all time – and “Yes, Minister,” a classic of political satire.
He is survived by his wife, son and daughter. A private funeral will be held next week.
Author’s letter is focal point in ‘The Help’ suit
Holbrook Mohr
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A handwritten letter from author Kathryn Stockett has become the focal point of a lawsuit over her bestselling novel “The Help,” which has been made into a box office hit.
A housekeeper who works for Stockett’s brother claims her likeness was used in the book without permission. “The Help” is based on relationships between white families in Mississippi and the black women who worked for them in the 1960s. The movie adaptation of “The Help” took the No. 1 spot in theaters this past weekend with $20.5 million.
Hinds County, Miss., Circuit Court Judge Tomie Green dismissed Ablene Cooper’s lawsuit last week. Green said the statute of limitations elapsed between the time that Stockett gave Cooper a copy of the book in January 2009 and the lawsuit’s filing in February of this year.
Cooper’s lawyer, Edward Sanders, filed a motion last week to have the lawsuit reinstated. The motion argues that the clock should not have started ticking on the statute of limitations until Cooper read the book in the summer of 2010. Sanders argued that Cooper didn’t read it sooner because Stockett said in the letter that, despite the similarity in names, the character wasn’t based on Cooper.
In a response filed with the court Monday, Stockett’s lawyers said the letter accompanied a copy of the book and Cooper waited too long to sue under the one-year statute of limitations.
“The note makes clear that Ms. Stockett told Mrs. Cooper that a character in the novel was named ‘Aibileen.’ With note and novel in her possession, Mrs. Cooper knew, or reasonably should have known, of her potential claims in January 2009,” Stockett’s lawyers wrote in court papers.
Stockett’s defense team also said the letter has already been discussed in court and the judge made the correct decision in throwing out the lawsuit.
Sanders had no comment Tuesday.
The judge has not made any determination on whether Aibileen was based on Cooper. Stockett denies she was.
In the letter, Stockett says she only met Cooper a few times, but was thankful she worked for the writer’s brother because his kids love her.
“One of the main characters, and my favorite character, is an African American child carer named Aibileen,” the letter said. “Although the spelling is different from yours, and the character was born in 1911, I felt I needed to reach out and tell you that the character isn’t based on you in any way.”
The letter goes on to say the book is “purely fiction” and inspired by Stockett’s relationship with “Demetrie, who looked after us and we loved dearly.” The letter is referring to Demetrie McLorn, the Stockett family’s housekeeper, who died when the author was a teenager.
An affidavit said Cooper knows Stockett, has kept her child before, and had no reason not to trust her.
“She’s a liar,” Cooper screamed outside the courthouse after the lawsuit was dismissed last week. “She did it. She knows she did it.”
The lawsuit also quotes passages from the book, including one in which Aibileen’s character describes a cockroach: “He black. Blacker than me.”
The lawsuit says Cooper found it upsetting and offensive to be portrayed as someone “who uses this kind of language and compares her skin color to a cockroach.”
Stockett’s publicist has declined comment on the lawsuit.
Schwarzenegger comeback to be filmed in New MexicoBELEN, N.M. (AP) – Arnold Schwarzenegger will be making his movie comeback in New Mexico.
The Valencia County New-Bulletin (http://bit.ly/p8kq17 ) reports the movie “Last Stand” will start filming in Belen, N.M., in October.
The movie is a modern day Western about convicts making their way to the Mexican border through New Mexico after escaping from a prison in Las Vegas, Nev.
Location manager Paul Roberts said the rest of the casting will be complete in September.
It’s the first major movie role for the former California governor since 2003’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” He had a cameo in last summer’s “The Expendables.”
Schwarzenegger said in May that he was putting his acting projects on hold after disclosing that he fathered a child with a family housekeeper and splitting with wife Maria Shriver.
Record opening for ‘The Inbetweeners Movie’LONDON (AP) – “The Inbetweeners Movie” has the biggest opening of all time for a U.K. comedy.
Entertainment Film Distributors says the movie, based on the cult British TV comedy show, took over 13 million pounds ($21 million) in its opening weekend. The record was previously held by “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason”, which opened in 2004.
“The Inbetweeners” TV show followed four misfits through high school, while the movie sees them graduate and embark on their first boys’ vacation.
Like the program, the movie stars British actors Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison, and is directed by Ben Palmer.
The movie is currently the No. 1 film in the U.K. and Ireland.
Writer finally helms his Oscar winner on NH stage
Lynne Tuohy
NEW HAMPTON, N.H. (AP) – Ernest Thompson wrote the play “On Golden Pond” during Memorial Day weekend in 1978 and watched from the sidelines as his movie adaptation became a blockbuster three years later.
But when the curtain opens Tuesday at a tiny New Hampshire theater on the lake where the movie was filmed decades ago, the Academy Award-winning Thompson will be center stage.
He is directing the stage production of the drama for the first time.
“I started with it as a play, so that’s where my heart is,” Thompson told the Associated Press.
The 1981 movie that netted Oscars for Thompson and lead actors Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda was the second-highest grossing movie that year, behind “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and ahead of “Superman 2” and “Cannonball Run.”
Tuesday’s opening marks the second session of the play Thompson directs at the Little Church Theater on Squam Lake in Holderness. It had a two-week run earlier in the summer, and Thompson had a chance to gauge audience reaction.
“They come in with a little skepticism,” Thompson said. “How are you going to improve on Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda and, incidentally, where’s the lake?”
“What’s really powerful is that the audience’s imagination fills in all the missing pieces,” Thompson said.
Thompson, 61, wrote the play when he was 28 and making a career change from acting to writing. He said he was writing about the end of an era when families would spend the entire summer at a lake cottage, as he did growing up. His mother would not abide a telephone, television, stereo or radio at their cottage on Great Pond in the Belgrade Lakes region of Maine. But the cottage had a vast library of books, Thompson said, and the storyteller in him took root there.
He said he didn’t always see eye-to-eye with the movie’s director, Mark Rydell, but loves the big-screen version.
“Weirdly, insanely, that movie continues to resonate with people,” Thompson said. “I’m in the luxurious position of having written a play – now translated into 28 different languages – that wasn’t killed by the movie.”
The lead characters in the Little Church Theater production are played by a married couple performing their fifth production of “On Golden Pond” together – Frank Wells, 74 and Vinette Cotter, 65, of Moultonborough. They marvel that Thompson could portray Ethel and Norman Thayer at the young age he did.
Thompson moved from Los Angeles to New Hampshire with his young family 21 years ago, settling not far from where the movie version of “On Golden Pond” was filmed.
Historical epic is hope of Taiwan film industry
Annie Huang
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng has reason to be thrilled about the upcoming Venice premiere of “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale,” his four-hour epic about a 1930 aboriginal uprising against Taiwan’s Japanese rulers.
A decade in preparation, the $24 million production is stirring hopes that the island’s film industry is set to stage a comeback, after flaming out in the 1980s following a series of groundbreaking efforts, many about young romance in rural locales.
Wei was able to begin shooting Seediq Bale in 2009 after the surprise success of “Cape No. 7” – a drama about the romance between a Taiwanese man and Japanese woman – made him the darling of local financial angels interested in the revival of the Taiwanese cinema.
Over the past two years films like the gangster drama “Monga” have helped the industry begin to turn the corner on its decades long doldrums. But it is Seediq Bale – one of 22 films competing for best feature film at next month’s Venice Film Festival – where the fiercest hopes reside.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Monday, Wei thanked Seediq Bale’s backers and paid special tribute to its hundreds of aboriginal actors – few of whom had any professional experience before the shooting began. Aboriginals, who comprise about 2 percent of Taiwan’s population of 23 million, live mostly along the island’s heavily mountainous spine. They are traditionally farmers and hunters, though more and more young people are now seeking jobs in construction and other types of manual labor in Taiwan’s Han Chinese dominated cities.
Seediq Bale is about a young warrior who incites his tribesmen to revolt against Japanese colonial administrators, who ruled Taiwan between 1895 and 1945. Rousing his fellow tribesmen to battle he notes: “The Japanese number more than the stones at the Chusui River, and are denser than leaves at the forest, but our determination is firmer than Chilai Mountain.”
Taiwanese pop star Vivian Hsu, who plays a Seediq woman forced to adopt a Japanese lifestyle, said the aboriginal actors’ lack of experience was more than compensated by their natural acting ability.
“They had that stern, killing look in their eyes,” she said, referring to a crowd scene during a key moment in the development of the Seediq revolt.
Hsu said she was happy to act in Wei’s film because of the respect she has for the director. But despite its $24 million budget – huge by local standards – she said cost was always an issue, because of the large-scale battle scenes Seediq Bale contains.
Some Taiwanese have protested at the Venice festival’s listing of the film as coming from Taiwan, China – a political reference that makes the island seem like it comes under Beijing’s direct sovereignty, when in fact it has enjoyed more than 60 years of de facto independence.
But despite filing an official protest with festival organizers, producer Huang Chih-ming said he was now ready to put the controversy behind him.
“The important thing is to let more people view the film,” he said.
Hollywood-China production venture raises $220M
Kelvin Chan, Business Writer
HONG KONG (AP) – Hollywood production house Legendary Entertainment and a Chinese studio have raised $220.5 million for the joint venture they’ve set up aimed at China’s increasingly lucrative film market.
Legendary and Huayi Brothers Media Corp. said in a statement late Sunday that they’re selling a 50 percent stake in the venture, Legendary East, to Hong Kong construction company Paul Y. Engineering.
Legendary Entertainment has produced hits including “The Dark Knight,” ”Inception” and the two “Hangover” movies.
The Hong Kong-based joint venture, which was announced in June, plans to make one or two “major, event-style films” a year for worldwide audiences starting in 2013.
The partnership allows Legendary Entertainment to bypass Chinese import restrictions that effectively limit the country to about 20 foreign blockbusters a year.
“With China’s rapid economic growth and rich cultural background, this is a filmmaking marketplace on the rise,” Legendary Entertainment Chairman Thomas Tull said a statement.
Beijing-based Huayi Brothers will distribute the movies inside China will Warner Bros. Pictures is expected to handle international distribution.
“We want to do globally appealing movies, so there will be a lot of elements involving East meets West,” said Kelvin Wu, chief executive of Legendary East.
Recent Huayi releases include the hit Feng Xiaogang disaster epic “Aftershock,” the kung fu drama “Shaolin” and the Tsui Hark fantasy epic “Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.” Its films accounted for 17 percent of China’s box office in 2010.
Chinese box office takings surged 64 percent to $1.5 billion in 2010.
“There’s huge room for growth and we want to be ready to enjoy the bigger market when it’s there. We don’t want to come in when the market is mature,” said Wu.
Paul Y. will fund its purchase by selling new shares to a private equity firm and other big investors and it will own the biggest stake. Legendary Entertainment and Legendary East’s management will own 40 percent while Huayi Brothers will own the remaining 10 percent.
