May 27, 2011
Film on Bin Laden, Black Ops set for 2012 release
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal’s movie about the Black Ops hunt for Osama Bin Laden is set for release next year.
Columbia Pictures, which acquired the domestic distribution rights to the film earlier this week, says the untitled movie will come out at the end of 2012.
Bigelow and Boal each won a pair of Oscars for producing, directing and writing last year’s best picture, “The Hurt Locker.” The two began developing the film about the Black Ops’ mission to capture Bin Laden in 2008.
Co-Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment Amy Pascal says Bigelow and Boal “have an outstanding perspective on the team that was hunting the most wanted man in the world.”
Coalition battles Grammys over category cuts
Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Music Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – A coalition of musicians is demanding the Recording Academy restore more than 30 categories cut from the Grammy Awards, alleging the reductions unfairly target ethnic music and were done without the input of its thousands of members.
A protest was held Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif., at an academy board meeting. A modest turnout of musicians hoisted signs above their heads with such slogans as “Grammys Honor All Music” and “It’s Not Just About Rap, Rock or Country.” Some Latin jazz protesters brought instruments and turned the rally into a spontaneous jam session.
It was part of a campaign by those upset by last month’s decision to reduce the Grammy fields, which this year totaled 109, to 78.
“Reinstate the categories,” singer-songwriter Pepper Mashay told KABC-TV. “Reinstate all of them. Let the chips fall where they may on the talent.”
In a letter delivered to the Recording Academy Thursday afternoon, musicians ranging from Carlos Santana to Paul Simon and Herbie Hancock demanded the reinstatement of the categories. “We will not be disenfranchised,” the letter warned.
Grammy President and CEO Neil Portnow said changes would be in effect for the 2012 Grammys. He urged dissenters to work with the academy, which would examine the effect of the changes for the 2013 awards.
But protesters hope the process could be reversed in time for next year’s Grammy ceremony if at least one board member asks the academy to reconsider.
“Hopefully during that time, someone will rise and be brave enough and do this,” Bobby Sanabria, a four-time Grammy nominee in the Latin jazz category and a leader of the movement against the changes, said in an interview Wednesday.
“He’s being arrogant in saying that it’s written in stone when we have a chance to get these categories reinstated,” said Sanabria of Portnow. He has called for the resignation of Portnow and the board of trustees.
The academy announced the changes April 6; the move came after a more than yearlong examination of the awards structure, the first in the Grammys’ 50-plus year history. Portnow said at the time that the changes would make the Grammys more competitive, and the awards more coveted.
But the move upset many academy members, who were taken off guard by the announcement.
Simon wrote an individual letter to Portnow asking him to reconsider, writing, in part: “I believe the Grammys have done a disservice to many talented musicians by combining previously distinct and separate types of music into a catch-all of blurry larger categories. … They deserve the separate Grammy acknowledgements that they’ve been afforded until this change eliminated them.”
Santana and his musician wife, Cindy Blackman Santana, wrote their own letter to the academy, saying: “To remove Latin Jazz and many other ethnic categories is doing a huge disservice to the brilliant musicians who keep the music vibrant for their fans – new and old. … We strongly protest this decision and we ask you to represent all of the colors of the rainbow when it comes to music and give ethnic music a place in the heart of music lovers everywhere.”
Sanabria, who is working with musicians including Eddie Palmieri and Arturo O’Farrill, said ethnic music was unfairly targeted, and called it a “subtle form of racism.”
“The effect will be that the music will be very, very homogenous, it’s already starting to sound like that already,” he said. “Society as we know it now is very multicultural and very diverse, and the Grammys always reflected that.”
Portnow, in an interview this week, said he understands the frustration of those affected. However, he denied many of Sanabria’s contentions, including the idea that non-mainstream categories bore the brunt of the reductions.
“In this year’s awards, in the 53rd (annual ceremony), there were 34 mainstream categories. Next year, with the changed revision, there will be 20 mainstream categories. That’s a significant reduction in mainstream areas. In non-mainstream categories … there were 71. In the upcoming 54th awards, there will be 54,” he said, saying that percentage-wise, mainstream categories were more effected.
“Not only non-mainstream categories were affected here,” he said. “The facts here don’t play that out.”
Portnow also took issue with Sanabria’s assertion that the changes were conducted arbitrarily and in secret, saying the changes were implemented by representatives of the members.
“This is a committee that is made up of members of the academy who include musicians and producers, engineers and experts in the various fields,” he said. “There was well over a year and a half discussion within that group, in that committee. They recommended the overall changes to the process to the board of trustees, which was discussed thoroughly.”
Portnow said the changes were already adopted and unless “the board choses to act in a fashion not consistent with its rules and regulations, (these concerns) will be dealt with in the next cycle.”
He also criticized Sanabria for making what he termed personal attacks against him and other board members.
“It is not rational nor is it logical to have a discussion to ask people to resign,” he said. “I don’t think it endears their cause to board members either.”
After the academy announced the changes, meetings were held in chapter cities across the country to reach out to members. Portnow said he’s willing to meet with members of Sanabria’s coalition.
“They’ve done a great job in mobilizing the community to do something. If the community has been mobilized, let’s take it to the next step … a positive direction,” he said.
Said Sanabria: “You don’t stick a sword in somebody’s back and then when they’re bleeding say, let’s come together.”
“He disrespects us,” he said. “He’s so out of touch with everything.”
The Recording Academy’s board meeting ends Friday. If it concludes with the changes still in place, Sanabria is vowing boycotts of the Grammys, broadcast partner CBS and sponsors of the show. He said he will also urge people to resign from the academy.
“We have to fight this. This is not just a music issue. This is a cultural diversity issue,” he said.
Online: http://www.grammys.com
http://www.grammywatch.org
Nekesa Mumbi Moody can be reached at www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi
AP entertainment writer Derrik Lang contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
SKorea’s Kwon Sang-woo eyes Chinese film career
By Min Lee, Entertainment Writer
SHENZHEN, China (AP) – After building a name for himself in the South Korean film and TV industries, Kwon Sang-woo is setting his sights on another booming Asian entertainment market – China.
The 34-year-old actor is shooting a Chinese-language romance alongside Hong Kong actress Cecilia Cheung and will next join the Jackie Chan project “Chinese Zodiac.”
Kwon, who shot to fame with the 2003 TV drama “Stairway to Heaven,” on Friday took a break from shooting in the southern Chinese city Shenzhen to promote “Repeat, I Love You.”
“This movie marks my first foray into international markets, so I take this movie very seriously,” Kwon told reporters.
The South Korean entertainer said he has been a fan of Hong Kong and Chinese film since his student days.
“My childhood memories are filled with fondness and worship for Chinese entertainers, so I am very happy for this opportunity. Even though there is the language barrier, we share the same emotions,” he said.
Kwon, whose recent film credits include “Destiny,” ”More than Blue” and “71: Into the Fire,” praised Cheung, who plays two characters in the movie – both of whom Kwon’s character falls for.
“One role is a very feminine, sophisticated woman. The other is very tough. She was able to draw a clear distinction between the two,” Kwon said, adding that he was already familiar with Cheung from her starring role in the 2001 South Korean drama “Failan.”
Casting South Korean talent revives a trend in Chinese film. Veteran Ahn Sung-kee costarred with Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau in the 2006 costume drama “Battle of Wits.” Ji Jin-hee was one of the leading men in Peter Chan’s 2005 musical “Perhaps Love.” And Cheung worked with Jang Dong-gun on Chen Kaige’s 2005 fantasy epic “The Promise.”
Dan Mintz, chief executive of DMG Entertainment, the Chinese studio behind “Repeat, I Love You,” said he was looking to breed creativity through cultural exchange – and wasn’t necessarily thinking about South Korean box office numbers.
Directed by Hong Kong pop lyricist Calvin Poon, “Repeat, I Love You” also features Taiwanese singer Angela Chang and Taiwan-based model Sphinx Ting, as well as mainland Chinese entertainers Jing Tian and Jing Boran.
“What we look for is very different points of view. And what helps different points of view is by having different people from different places come together,” Mintz told The Associated Press, noting that instead of having Kwon master Chinese, he speaks Korean in the movie.
Kwon told the AP after Friday’s news conference that after finishing “Repeat, I Love You,” he will go to Paris to join the cast of Chan’s “Chinese Zodiac.” He is also in talks to co-star with a Chinese actress in a TV series next year.
Chan hasn’t announced details for “Chinese Zodiac” and Kwon didn’t elaborate on his role, but the South Korean star said he felt the offer was “a big honor for an Asian artist.”
Online: Kwon Sang-woo’s official website: http://belactorsent.co.kr/kwonsangwoo/
Tang’s role in Chinese propaganda film in doubt
By Min Lee, Entertainment Writer
HONG KONG (AP) – “Lust, Caution” star Tang Wei’s role in a Chinese propaganda blockbuster as the first love of Communist China’s founding father, Mao Zedong, has reportedly been dropped, raising the prospect that the actress is still suffering backlash after playing a traitor in the 2007 World War II-era spy thriller.
While “Lust, Caution” gave Tang international exposure, her role as a student activist who warns a Japan-allied Chinese intelligence official about an assassination attempt allegedly offended Chinese film officials worried about lingering anger over Japanese wartime atrocities.
The film’s director, Ang Lee, who won an Oscar for the gay romance “Brokeback Mountain,” was asked to edit dialogue so as to make the warning from Tang’s character less explicit. And Tang herself was reportedly blacklisted, not releasing another movie until last year’s Hong Kong-set romantic comedy “Crossing Hennessy.”
In September, Tang’s casting as Mao’s girlfriend was announced, signaling her rehabilitation in China. She joined a star-studded cast in “Jian Dang Wei Ye,” a propaganda blockbuster scheduled for release on June 15 to mark the 90th anniversary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese title translates roughly as “The Great Achievement of Founding the Party.”
But as the release date nears, reports have surfaced that Tang was left out of the final cut.
Gao Jun, deputy general manager of Chinese theater operator New Film Association, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday that Tang’s role was cut because historians questioned the factual accuracy of her character. He cited “industry insiders,” but declined to identify them.
Gao, however, said the decision had nothing to do with her “Lust, Caution” role.
“It’s not a problem with the actress,” he said.
A news report posted on the official website for “Jian Dang Wei Ye” on Thursday said Tang was no longer listed in the credits printed in the film’s latest publicity materials – although a production photo of Tang’s character was still posted on the site.
Production notes recently sent to the AP by the movie’s Hong Kong publicists also left out Tang from a list of actors that included Hong Kong veterans Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau and director John Woo, as well as Chinese-American performers Daniel Wu and Leehom Wang, and Taiwanese actor Chang Chen from the kung fu hit “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Mainland Chinese actresses Zhou Xun and Fan Bingbing are also part of the ensemble cast.
Mao is played by Chinese actor Liu Ye, best known to Western audiences for his roles in the Zhang Yimou imperial drama “Curse of the Golden Flower” and the drama “Dark Matter,” which costarred Meryl Streep.
Jiang Defu, the spokesman for government-owned studio China Film Group, declined to comment, asking a reporter to watch the movie when it is released.
Tang’s Hong Kong management company didn’t immediately return a call from the AP on Thursday.
Tang has another scheduled Chinese release this year. The Peter Chan martial arts picture “Dragon,” which co-stars Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kaneshiro, is scheduled to hit Chinese theaters Aug. 3.
It wasn’t clear whether “Dragon” has cleared Chinese censors. Chan’s production company, Applause Pictures, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Besides the release of “Jian Dang Wei Ye,” news reports said earlier this month that media regulators have also ordered broadcasters to show “outstanding” TV series in synch with party themes as part of the propaganda buildup before the July 1 anniversary of the party’s founding. TV stations have been reportedly prohibited from airing spy and crime thrillers from May to July.
“Jian Dang Wei Ye” is the second star-studded Chinese propaganda film in recent years. China Film Group also released “The Founding of a Republic” in 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary of Communist rule in China.
While propaganda films were once considered boring and outdated fare, especially by youngsters, China Film Group has been able to reinvigorate the genre by injecting star power, and in the process lending credibility to its version of history. The Chinese-language film industry’s biggest stars have been happy to comply, eager to please film officials who hold sway over the country’s fast-growing theatrical market. A-listers like Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Lau had cameo appearances in “The Founding of a Republic,” which went on to make a whopping $62 million in China, helped by politically correct theater operators who flooded their properties with screenings.
China Film Group is eager to replicate that success with “Jian Dang Wei Ye.” Shot in locations across China, Paris and Moscow and set from 1911 to 1921, the film describes the “spectacular stories” of how Mao and his colleagues “gave everything for their country during turbulent times,” according to an official synopsis issued by Hong Kong publicists.
Hong Kong 3-D erotic comedy to screen in NAmerica
By Min Lee, Entertainment Writer
HONG KONG (AP) – A hit Hong Kong 3-D erotic comedy that has wowed viewers in Asia has secured U.S. and Canadian distribution, as the pioneering film’s international rollout gains momentum.
China Lion Film Distribution said in a statement Wednesday that it bought the North American rights to “3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy” at the film market at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival.
The company, a Chinese-New Zealand joint venture that specializes in releasing Chinese films in the U.S. and Canada, said it was still deciding on the date and size of the release.
“Sex and Zen,” a remake of a 1991 Hong Kong movie by the same name, follows a sexually frustrated Chinese scholar who loses his way in the harem of a duke he befriends. The morality tale stars Japanese porn stars Hara Saori and Suo Yukiko and Hong Kong actress Vonnie Liu.
The $3.5 million Cantonese-language production got off to a roaring start when it debuted in Hong Kong on April 14, beating the opening-day box office record previously held by the James Cameron 3-D sci-fi epic “Avatar” with a first-day take of $360,000, and went on to post strong results in Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.
In Hong Kong, its latest gross was $4.9 million as of Wednesday, making it the southern Chinese territory’s most popular release so far this year, publicist Carmen Wong said Thursday. It had also made $1.7 million in Taiwan, $1 million in South Korea and another $1.2 million in Australia as of Wednesday, Wong said.
Disney withdraws Navy SEAL trademark application
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday that it has withdrawn its application to trademark the phrase “SEAL Team 6,” the elite unit that killed Osama bin Laden, after the Navy moved to protect its rights and the entertainment giant endured a wave of criticism and late-night jibes.
Disney sought the trademark rights on May 3, two days after U.S. operatives raided a luxury compound in Pakistan and killed the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
Disney’s ABC subsidiary wanted to develop a TV show along the lines “NCIS” and “JAG,” which are also real-life Navy units, and would have focused on the drama and heroism of the special forces members.
But it drew flak for not only its rapid filing, but also for a trademark application that included items like Christmas stockings and snow globes.
Comedy show host Jon Stewart needled the company on his “Daily Show”: “I can’t wait for the Happy Meal.”
Navy spokeswoman Amanda Greenberg said the Navy already had rights to the SEAL trademark but recently submitted two new applications for trademarks of “Navy SEALs” and “SEAL Team.”
“The Navy is fully committed to protecting its trademark rights as it pertains to this matter and is currently examining all legal options,” she said.
Disney/ABC spokesman Kevin Brockman said the company pulled the plug on its bid “in deference to the Navy’s application.”
Disney is still interested in producing a show based on the unit’s operatives although it would likely be produced by a third-party studio.
Iran slams Cannes for von Trier Nazi ban
PARIS (AP) – Iran’s government has protested to the Cannes Film Festival over its decision to ban director Lars von Trier for saying he sympathized with Adolf Hitler.
Iran’s semiofficial FARS news agency said Tuesday that deputy culture minister Javad Shamaqdari had written to festival president Gilles Jacob saying Cannes had smirched its history and rendered its claims to defend free speech “a meaningless slogan.”
The Iranian regime has jailed several filmmakers or banned them from making movies for supporting the country’s reform movement.
Cannes declared von Trier “persona non grata” last week after he told reporters that while Hitler “did some wrong things,” he could “sympathize with him a little bit.”
He later apologized and said it was a joke gone wrong.
In response to the Iranian letter, von Trier said Tuesday that his remarks were “unintelligent, ambiguous and needlessly hurtful.”
Von Trier was not allowed to attend Cannes’ awards ceremony on Sunday, where Kirsten Dunst was named best actress for her role in his film “Melancholia.”
This year’s Cannes festival included films by two Iranian directors, Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, who have been jailed by the country’s Islamic regime.
Both have been sentenced to six years in jail and banned from filmmaking for 20 years on charges that include “making propaganda” against the ruling system.
Rasoulof’s “Be Omid e Didar” (“Goodbye”) won a prize at Cannes, but the director was not allowed to travel to France to accept it.
Songwriter’s death in NYC is ruled a suicide
Colleen Long
NEW YORK (AP) – The Academy Award-winning songwriter of “You Light Up My Life,” who was awaiting trial on rape charges and was found dead in his apartment, committed suicide, the medical examiner’s office ruled Monday, citing asphyxia by helium.
Joseph Brooks was discovered in his apartment Sunday by a friend with whom he was supposed to meet for lunch. The door was unlocked and the doorman at Brooks’ apartment was given instructions to allow the friend upstairs.
Police said the 73-year-old was found slumped over on a coach in his den. A plastic dry-cleaning bag was wrapped around his head and a towel was wrapped around his neck. A hose was attached to the bag and a small tank of helium nearby.
The medical examiner’s office said Monday Brooks died of asphyxia due to displacement of oxygen by helium gas within the plastic bag over his head.
Helium is generally difficult to detect in an autopsy. Using it to commit suicide is outlined in a best-selling suicide manual by British author Derek Humphry.
The songwriter was awaiting trial on allegations that he lured women to his apartment through an online ad offering auditions for a movie role, then sexually assaulted them after making them drink apparently drugged wine as part of an “acting exercise.” He pleaded not guilty in 2009, and his court date had not yet been set.
Police said a rambling, three-page suicide note was found that included complaints about his health.
Brooks suffered a stroke in 2008, and his lawyer had said the songwriter’s health was deteriorating during the court case. He appeared gaunt and shuffled slowly as he came to recent court dates.
Brooks won the Academy Award for best original song for the 1977 Debby Boone ballad “You Light Up My Life” and directed a movie of the same name about a comedian who had a one-night stand with a director. Brooks also won a Grammy for the song.
“I have been saddened to hear of the horrible tragedies surrounding Joe Brooks and his family over the years,” Boone said in a statement released through a friend on Monday.
“My only real association with Joe was in 1977 for a couple of hours in a New York recording studio when I recorded his beautiful song. I will continue to sing it proudly and hope that people will be able to separate the song from Joe’s severely troubled life,” Boone said.
In an unrelated case, Brooks’ son, Nicholas, is charged with murder in the death of his girlfriend, Peruvian-American swimsuit designer Sylvie Cachay. She was found dead, half-clothed and face-up, in a tub at the swanky Soho House after water began leaking through to the floor below.
Nicholas Brooks has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail at the Rikers Island jail complex.
US director Malick sidesteps Cannes fest spotlight
JENNY BARCHFIELD
CANNES, France (AP) – Even winning one of the world’s top cinema prizes, the Cannes Film Festival’s coveted Palme d’Or, wasn’t enough to coax notorious reclusive American director Terrence Malick out of hiding.
“The Tree of Life,” Malick’s hypnotic film about life on the cosmic and nuclear family scales, was the most anticipated movie of the prestigious French Riviera showcase, where stars, industry insiders, journalists and cinema lovers converge for 12 days each May.
Malick, though, was a no-show at the 64th edition of the festival, sending his producers to receive the Palme d’Or on his behalf.
“Why isn’t he here? I’m not saying it’s an easy question to answer, he is personally a very humble guy and a very shy guy,” one of Malick’s envoys, Bill Pohlad, said at the festival’s closing news conference on Sunday night. “A lot of people … (see) this kind behavior as a bit of an act, but it’s not that way with Terry. He sincerely wants the work to speak for itself.”
The story of three young boys growing up in Texas in the 1950s, starring Brad Pitt and newcomer Jessica Chastain as the boys’ parents, “The Tree of Life” also includes long, breathtaking sequences of the creation of the universe and the time of the dinosaurs.
Though it got a mixed reception at the festival’s press screenings – with some booing vociferously as others clapped and cheered – the movie won over the jury, headed this year by American actor Robert De Niro. Malick, who has made just five films over his decades-long career, had won the festival’s directing prize, but never the Palme d’Or.
