Hollywood News Gossip Entertainment Movies

Ferguson jury call Elicits Stern Celebrity Response

2014-11-26T07:28:00.001-08:00

On Monday night, a jury in Ferguson, Missouri voted to not accuse Darren Wilson, the lawman WHO shot and killed 18-year recent Michael Brown in August.

Riots poor move into the streets for days following the incident and, as documented within the following video, unrest followed the jury finding all over again last night.

official Bob McCulloch explained via group discussion that the jury found no grounds for any of the fees thought-about against Wilson.

The officer might have visaged prosecution for first-degree murder and homicide within the shooting of Michael Brown, whose death has LED to most unrest.

In response, President Barack Obama addressed the state, pushing for calm, whereas celebrities from across all industries expressed their reaction on Twitter...

Russell Simmons: the D.A ne'er portrayed the individuals properly. He ne'er wished AN indictment. violent ones within the streets square measure probably those that didn’t vote.

LeBron James, WHO announce a drawing of Michael Brown arm in arm with Trayvon Martin, wrote:

"As a thereforeciety however will we do higher and stop things like this happening time when time!! i am so sorry to those families. Violence isn't the solution individuals. getting even is not the answer furthermore."

"#PrayersUpToTheFamilies #WeHaveToDoBetter."

Charlie Sheen: Officer Wilson, you're a criminal. Shame on you. oldsters don't seem to be imagined to bury their youngsters. you're thinking that this. #Losing.

Katy Perry: Feeling stuck all the far more than here in Sydney seeing the news just... causation my prayers to Ferguson & praying for AN equal America.

Kerry Washington: Surreal.

Lena Dunham: All my love is with the family of Michael Brown. I applaud their strength and courageousness, mourn their loss, pray they see justice and alter.

Katherine Heigl: My heart and sympathy goes bent on Michael Browns family. They’re words and actions square measure outstanding considering their deep sorrow and grief.

Gabrielle Union: serious heart, angry soul… we have a tendency to matter. ALL our lives matter. Hear us, feel us, respect us…

Shonda Rhimes: "Darkness willnot drive out darkness; solely light-weight can do this. Hate willnot drive out hate; solely love can do this." -Martin Martin Luther King, Jr.

Magic Johnson: we have a tendency to should work along to prevent the reserve loss of young men of color. Justice wasn't served in Ferguson.

Josh Groban: My thoughts square measure with the Ferguson community. I hope the frustration, furthermore because the love for the Brown family, shows itself through peace.

2014’s highest-paid celebrity millennials

2014-11-26T07:20:00.001-08:00

Justin Bieber is also one in all the foremost discordant celebrities right away, however his controversial standing is transportation within the huge bucks—more than enough to out-earn each different celebrity on Earth WHO hasn’t turned thirty however. In its prime Earning Celebrities beneath thirty list, Forbes estimates that the 20-year-old got paid the maximum amount as $80 million this year, “thanks principally to money from the tail finish of his last world tour.”

“Musicians dominate our annual list of the youngest celebrity cash manufacturers, filling 9 of the highest ten positions. The list relies on analysis for our annual Celebrity a hundred summary, that appearance at entertainment-related earnings between June 2013 and June 2014,” Forbes employee Dorothy Pomerantz says of the list. “Here, we’re simply observing earnings and also the under-30 crowd. Our estimates area unit supported entertainment-related financial gain and that we don't deduct for taxes, management fees or the opposite prices of being a star.”

At second place is One Direction (average age twenty one, per Forbes). The British-Irish boy band raked in a very combined $75 million, together with prime dollar from sold-out arena shows moreover as their previous album time of day reminiscences.

Taylor Swift takes the third spot, “making her fifth look on the Forbes Celebrity a hundred along with her highest earnings to date: $64 million.” The 24-year-old is predicted to earn even additional throughout the 2014-2015 amount as a result of the recent unleash of her wildly booming, best album, 1989.

Bruno Mars makes his 1st beneath thirty look, “thanks to a busy road schedule.” consistent with Forbes, the 29-year-old contend a complete of 118 dates throughout the prescribed timeframe, that is to blame for a giant chunk of the cash within the bank.

Rihanna locks within the prime 5 along with her $48 million bank check. Despite not having discharged AN album since 2012’s unapologetic, the 26-year-old Barbadian singer managed to stay the ball rolling with the 96-date Diamonds World Tour for many of 2013, that attained $142 million in price tag sales from March to Nov.

With the discharge of her critically acclaimed and platinum-selling Bangerz album, Miley prince returns to the Celebrity a hundred once a four-year hiatus with $36 million. The last time the 21-year-old created the list was throughout her time as Hannah Treasure State. however those days area unit way gone currently and prince encompasses a new controversial public image that's solely serving to boost her record sales.

The only non-musician on the beneath thirty list is Jennifer Lawrence at range seven. The 24-year-old’s 2013-2014 fortunes, amounting to $34 million, area unit for the most part from being a blockbuster draw. The Hunger Games: Catching fireplace complete its theatrical run in early 2014 with international box-office sales of $864.6 million.

Lady Gaga’s $33 million may be a steep decline from the $90 million she attained in 2011. however the 28-year-old’s 2014 bank check continues to be large enough to land her the eight spot on the beneath thirty tally. danceroom music DJ/producers Avicii, 25, and Skrillex, 26, spherical out the highest ten with $28 million and $18 million price of earnings severally.

10 Prized Celebrity Collections value quite $15,000

2014-11-24T18:14:00.000-08:00

It's definitely no secret that celebrities get pleasure from the finer things in life. several have used their large paychecks to gather a formidable inventory of terribly fancy record. Here area unit ten of the foremost spectacular collections massed by superstars.

1. Jay Leno: Cars

Jay Leno's classic automotive assortment -- consisting of one hundred thirty cars, ninety three motorcycles and numerous different automotive elements, in step with the associategeles|l. a. |la} Times -- is thus intensive the far-famed comedian homes it in a very construction next to an flying field. instead of specializing in a selected style of automotive, Leno merely buys those he desires to drive. a number of the highlights embrace a $1.2 million McLaren, variety of Duesenbergs, a 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400, and a spread of vintage Bentleys and Jaguars. In total, the gathering is alleged to be value or so $50 million.

2. John Mayer: Watches

When it involves watches, John Mayer has exquisite style. The singer encompasses a watch assortment which will place even the savviest watch enthusiasts to shame -- particularly those with a watch for the Rolex. the whole assortment is valued at $20 million and is reported to incorporate models like the Rolex person II, Rolex navy man and Rolex Daytona.

3. Janet Yellen: Stamps

The Fed Chair and her husband, Berkeley social scientist St. George Akerlof, have a stamp assortment valued between $15,001 and $50,000, in step with a Fed money speech act. whereas the particular contents of the gathering area unit unknown, the stamps seem to be a Yellen family heirloom. A 1997 Washington Post article on the official assets of the Clinton administration, supported their money disclosures, noted that Janet Yellen transmissible a stamp assortment within the same valuation vary from her mother.

4. Leon Black: Art

New York have Leon Black has AN accumulation valued at an awesome $750 million, and poor a Sotheby's record in 2012, once he outbid eight different hopefuls for Edvard Munch's masterpiece, "The Scream," paying $120 million. His intensive assortment additionally includes works by Vincent van Gogh, Raphael, painter and J.M.W. Turner.

5. Nicolas Cage: Comic Books

The far-famed actor loves comic books such a lot that he named his son Kal-El, once Superman. In fact, his anonym comes from the character Luke Cage. whereas he oversubscribed his prized magazine assortment in 2002 for $1.68 million, it absolutely was thus spectacular that enthusiasts area unit still talking regarding it. a lot of recently, the actor oversubscribed a duplicate of Action Comics No. one -- that includes the primary look of Superman -- for quite $2 million.

6. Confederate soldier Depp: author things

Johnny Depp has such a deep admiration for the author author that he's same to own spent $50,640 to get a number of his personal things, in step with journalist Jack Boulware. This includes a coat for $15,000, a traveling bag for $10,000, a travel bag for $5,000, a slipover for $2,000, a rain hat for $3,000, a tweed coat for $10,000 and a canceled check to a store for $350.

7. Jerry Seinfeld: Porsches

The famous comedian encompasses a serious passion for Porsches. In fact, he's reported to own forty seven completely different models of the posh sports automotive, value AN calculable $15 million. Seinfeld paid $1.7 million to convert a former plumbing manufactory in ny into a two-story garage that holds twenty of the cars; it's reported a minimum of a number of the remaining vehicles may well be keep in a very construction in Santa Monica. a number of the fashionable sports cars in his assortment embrace a Porsche 911S, Porsche Boxsters, a 1944 Porsche 550 Spyder and a Porsche 959.

8. Richard Gere: Vintage Guitars

The actor UN agency rose to fame with hit movies like "Pretty Woman" and "An Officer and a Gentleman" additionally encompasses a musical facet. Gere oversubscribed his assortment of vintage guitars and amplifiers at a Christie's ny auction in 2011, conveyance in $936,438. a number of the standouts enclosed a 1960 Gibson Les Paul that oversubscribed for $98,500, a 1958 Gibson Flying V that oversubscribed for $74,500 and a 1931 Martin D-28 that oversubscribed for $62,500.

9. Charlie Sheen: Watches

Charlie lustre has quite simply a momentary interest in high-end watches. The actor's intensive watch assortment includes a spread of arm candy, like the Patek Philippe 2499 in pink gold, Patek Philippe calendar 5970P and Rolex person II -- simply to call many. In total, Sheen's watch assortment is valued at roughly $5.6 million.

10. Jay-Z and Beyoncé: Art

While it's unknown specifically that works of art the facility couple owns, the rapper oftentimes references design in his songs, hinting at a list that might be value regarding $493 million, in step with Forbes. His portfolio positively includes a bit by painter and a portrait of Basquiat.

Celebrity Cancels Cruise Calls in state

2014-11-24T18:01:00.002-08:00

Celebrity Cruises has off calls to island and Komodo, Indonesia, in what the road characterizes as a “dispute” that threatens the company’s “legal and moral standards.” the corporate declined to specify the precise nature of the dispute.

“Celebrity Cruises prides itself in conducting its business in compliance with the law and in accordance with the very best standards of business ethics. Doing therefore protects our company, our crew, and our guests,” the cruise line aforesaid during a statement. “A dispute has arisen with native Indonesian authorities of a nature that we tend to believe puts those legal and moral standards at serious risk.

"Because of this dispute, we've been suggested that native officers could either stop guests sailing on Celebrity Millennium from disembarking the ship in island, or stop the ship from outward-bound. we tend to refuse to place our guests and crew at such risk. whereas we've escalated this come to the national level with the Indonesian government, sadly, we tend to were unable to succeed in a resolution before Celebrity Millennium’s current sailing began on Sunday, Nov. 23.”

Instead of island and Komodo, the ship can build long calls to metal Chi Minh town, Vietnam, and capital of Thailand, Thailand, and pay extra time on Phuket, Thailand.

To help ease disappointment, Celebrity can offer every guest AN aboard credit and a future cruise certificate for thirty % of the cruise fare paid.

Justin Bieber Tops Forbes' List Of The Highest-Earning Celebrities Under 30

2014-11-24T17:40:00.003-08:00

From a public relations standpoint, Justin Bieber is having a terrible year. Search for news about the young singer and you’ll find that he recently agreed to pay $80,000 to a former neighbor after egging his house; he’s almost done with his anger management classes; and he appears to have punched a paparazzo in Paris.

But from a financial point of view, Bieber is still going strong. His fans follow him religiously on Twitter , where he has 56.6 million followers, and his live shows sell out in minutes. Bieber tops our list of the Highest-Earning Celebrities Under 30 with an estimated $80 million over the 12-month span we evaluated, mostly thanks to the tail end of his world tour. With a new album reportedly in the works, the 20-year-old star has a chance to let his music speak louder than his latest shenanigans. Bieber recently released 15 seconds each of 11 songs using his Instagram account but there’s no solid word on when the album will be finished.

Musicians dominate our annual list of the youngest celebrity money makers, filling nine of the top 10 positions. The list is based on research for our annual Celebrity 100 rundown, which looks at entertainment-related earnings between June 2013 and June 2014. The Celebrity 100 is based on earnings and metrics that quantify fame; on that list, Bieber ranked 33rd. Here, we’re just looking at earnings and the under-30 crowd. Our estimates are based on entertainment-related income and we do not deduct for taxes, management fees or the other costs of being a celebrity.

Ranking second is a group of young men who, unlike Bieber, have yet to tarnish their reputations. One Direction (average age, 21) earned an estimated $75 million between June 2013 and June 2014. Formed from a group of contestants on the British version of The X Factor, One Direction’s latest album, Midnight Memories, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and the song “Story Of My Life” went multi-platinum.

Taylor Swift is the top-ranked woman on our list in third place with $64 million. The 24-year-old has another huge hit record on her hands with 1989, which dropped in October. It’s hard to escape from her single, “Shake It Off,” which has already gone multi-platinum. The singer expertly used social media to hype her fans up for 1989 by posting photos of them buying her album on her Twitter feed and using a new Tumblr account to reblog them while adding her own quippy comments.

At 29, Bruno Mars just squeezes onto our list in fourth place with $60 million. After he turns 30, expect the crooner to keep going strong on the Celebrity 100, where he ranked 13th this year in his list debut. His album Unorthodox Jukebox went double platinum and last year he earned the title of the youngest musician ever to play the Super Bowl halftime show.

Rihanna rounds our our top five with an estimated $48 million. The 26-year-old singer earns big from her music but also has a line of fragrances and is becoming a part of the fashion scene. She gets as much attention for her fashion style as she does for her pop songs.

Jennifer Lawrence is the only actor who ranks on our under-30 list. The 24-year-old comes in seventh with estimated earnings of $34 million over our 12-month time span. Her latest film, The Hunger Games:

Mockingjay Part 1, hit theaters Friday. The Hunger Games franchise has already earned $1.5 billion at the global box office and is on track to double that with the next two movies. Expect Lawrence’s earnings to stay strong as she continues to balance giant franchise films like Hunger Games and X-Men with smaller movies like the upcoming Serena.

Watch This Woman's Spot-On Impressions Of Celebrities Stuck In Traffic

2014-11-24T01:13:00.000-08:00

Terrible traffic is the great equalizer in the City of Angels, no matter who's doing the driving. To prove it, comedian Lauren O'Brien posted a clip of herself doing impressions of a slew of different celebrities driving around and/or stuck in traffic in Los Angeles. And, it's pretty great.

O'Brien manages to capture the essence of a wide variety of actors and singers with little more than simple costume changes and wigs or hats, from the Olsen twins to Ellen DeGeneres.

Some of her impressions are more impressive than others; her Angelina Jolie is downright spooky, and Mindy Kaling is perfectly perky. Listen carefully for music cues, like the Dawson's Creek theme accompanying Katie Holmes and Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All" playing in Jolie's car stereo. Because, the children are our future, you know.

O'Brien told News.com.au that she was initially studying business in college but eventually her teachers told her to think about performance. "I was pulled aside by multiple professors and told I was in the wrong major and should go to the theatre department. It wasn't until post college that I really began to pursue it."

Celebrity song to aid fight against Africa Ebola crisis tops UK charts

2014-11-24T01:08:00.000-08:00

(Reuters) - Band Aid 30's reworked version of "Do They Know it's Christmas", a song intended to raise money to fight the spread of Ebola in Africa, went straight to the top of Britain's single charts on Sunday, the Official Charts Company said.

The track was inspired by a celebrity song of the same name with different lyrics which was recorded in 1984 and raised millions of pounds to fight famine in Africa. Bob Geld of, former lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boom town Rats, helped mastermind the track, as he did the original.

The new song, which sold over 200,000 copies in the last week to become the fastest-selling single of the year, has drawn criticism from some Africans and other recording artists who say it is patronizing and perpetuates unhelpful myths about the continent's problems.

The track's organizers have strongly rejected those comments, saying it will raise much-needed funds to fight Ebola. It generated 1 million pounds within minutes of its launch, they say.

The single pushed last week's number one, a celebrity cover version of Avicii's "Wake Me Up", in aid of charity Children in Need, into seventh place.

In the album charts, a new release by boy band One Direction called "Four" dethroned British progressive rock group Pink Floyd's new album "The Endless River" which fell to fourth place.

15 TV Shows That Are Way Up—or Way Down—in the Ratings

2014-11-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

Break out the brooms 'cause it's time for sweeps. November sweeps, that is.

Each season, around the holidays, TV shows really go for it in order to bring in as many viewers as they can. We're talking deaths, shockers, first kisses, first times, massive fights, etc. etc. You know the drill, people.

But sometimes, it can just be a little too late. Some fan favorite shows have seen some pretty jawdropping declines this fall season. Seriously, you might just be surprised to see the series that are way down in the ratings. However, it's not all doom and gloom as some shows, including a bunch of newbies, have managed to increase their numbers. So basically, the TV version of riding a unicorn on a rainbow.

So do you want to know which shows are soaring or sinking this fall season? Click through our gallery below to get the lowdown on 15 new and returning series that forced us to crunch some serious numbers. (Math is hard. Our brains hurt. Stay in school.)

News, reality, comedy top live social TV shows: Ten

2014-11-23T23:54:00.001-08:00

ABOUT one in three people use social media everyday, and half of those say it influences the shows they watch on television, according to a study from Network Ten that looks at the impact of social media on TV viewing.

Two-thirds of social interactors will watch programs live so they can participate in real-time social media conversations about them, with more than one-third watching them live at least weekly and one in ten doing so daily.

Reality television, comedy, news and current affairs programs are more likely than others to be watched live so viewers can discuss them on social media. Game shows, light entertainment and lifestyle shows are least likely.

Ten has been an early mover in the use of social media to market programs, signing up to Twitter’s Amplify advertising product and signing up to research firm Nielsen’s Twitter TV ratings, the first data from which was launched last week.

But the network is not yet able to quantify the boost to audiences of a particular TV program because of discussions about it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or other social media.

However Ten’s head of research Sarah Keith said social media had become “the new water cooler”.

“Social media discussions are now a significant factor in television viewing decisions,” she said.

“Social media interactors want to be part of real-time discussions about television programs.”

Young people actively use social media to seek out information about programs, according to the study, which was conducted with 1000 Australians last month, but are more likely to passively ‘like’ a post than comment on it. Older groups were more likely to comment.

“Now that we’ve got this information about what people are most likely to do on social we’ll make sure we tailor our activity for them,” Ms Keith said.

She said recent shows such as The Bachelor had reiterated the importance of “super fans” whose posts were referred widely on social media networks.

“Sport — the Big Bash League — will be a real test for us because of the high-profile commentators,” she said.

She said other key programs from a social media point of view were I’m a celebrity, get me out of here, Shark Tank and Google Box.

What’s It Like to Act in Both TV Shows and Movies?

2014-11-23T23:51:00.001-08:00

This question originally appeared on Quora, the best answer to any question. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and access insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

Answer by Danielle Panabaker, actress, foodie, Bruin, dog lover, The Flash, Shark, Piranha 3-D, The Crazies:

It is an exciting time to be an actor. The industry, alongside technology, is changing rapidly. There are so many sources for content, but in my opinion, television has some of the best, most innovative and challenging material right now. (I feel that way both as an actor and as a consumer. There is just so much amazing television right now!) Television also offers a variety of quality material at all different levels.

For me, television is especially appealing because it is much more consistent work, especially as a regular on a show. With movies, you’re constantly hopping from one to another, often in different locations. In television, like on The Flash, we shoot in Vancouver, so I can predict where I’ll be for nine months out of the year.

Creatively, it’s fun to grow with a character on television. In film, you already know the full arc of the story and character when you start. With television, the character is (hopefully!) growing and changing. Each script brings an opportunity to move forward and evolve based on the previous episodes.

The cons of television are that you can be limited by budget or by the time in which you have to tell your story (or both). For example, we only have eight or nine days to shoot each episode of The Flash, and that includes all the stunts and special effects, so we often shoot 14 hours a day. That said, I think I am superbly lucky in the commitment The Flash team has made to create special effects that are movie-quality.

Another challenge, particularly on a new TV show, is that we have a new director every week. In film, it is important to trust the director and his vision; in television, the director is often a guest on the show and not as familiar with the material as the actors might be.

4 New Ways Movie Theaters Are Filling Seats and Upselling Patrons

2014-11-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

The next time you go to a movie theater, you may be coaxed into spending a little extra money—perhaps for a beer, a toy your kid is begging for, or the right to watch the film you just saw over and over.

Even with the blizzard of ticket sales for Frozen starting the year, 2014 has been less than stellar at the box office, with a summer of few blockbusters and overall sales that are down 4% compared to last year. In previous years, theaters and movie studios have resorted to raising admission prices (often using IMAX or 3D screenings as a justification) as a way to offset declining ticket sales.

However, fewer 3D films are being released lately—at least partly because theatergoers have come to see the technology as a gimmick not worth paying extra for in an otherwise mediocre movie—so theaters and movie studios have had to become more creative in their efforts to fill seats and upsell patrons. Here are a few of the strategies that have popped up recently:
Unlimited Admission Ticket
AMC Theatres and Paramount Pictures are experimenting right now with a special unlimited admission for Christopher Nolan’s three-hour space epic Interstellar that’ll get customers to turn over an extra $15. Like it sounds, the unlimited admission ticket allows filmgoers to see the movie as many times as they like—which could be quite a few times, considering how confusing some have found it to be. Unlimited tickets are on sale for $19.99 to $34.99, depending on location, or customers can pay $14.99 to upgrade a one-time admission into an unlimited one.
Combo Concessions
To boost revenues, theater concessions stands have increasingly been offering combo packages that generally include popcorn, a drink in a collectible cup, and often some kind of toy or figurine related to the movie such as How to Train Your Dragon 2 or Transformers: Age of Extinction. The Hollywood Reporter noted these combos cost theaters about $1.50 apiece, and they’re sold to customers for as much as $7.95. As one executive involved in the creation and licensing of such products explained, the natural reaction children have when seeing such combos is to whine until a parent gives in and buys one: “The kid sees another kid with this toy and says, ‘Hey, I want that, too.’” And the popularity of these offers isn’t limited to children, as one theater food service manager said: “We didn’t think we would see 35-year-old guys with collectible cups with little toys on them, but they love them.”
Booze, Food, Recliners… and Wind
To attract more customers and simultaneously squeeze more money out of them at the same time, theaters have been adding or expanding amenities and special features so that going to the movies is much more of an “experience” than sitting at home watching Netflix. Regal Cinemas has been adding luxury recliners to theaters, and plans to have them in as many as 350 locations by 2015. AMC’s Dine-in Theatres program allows patrons at select locations to grab beer and wine, as well as lunch, dinner, or some snacks while taking in a film, sometimes from the comfort of a recliner. In June, the country’s first 4D theater opened in Los Angeles, with artificial wind, fog, scents, and sensor-equipped seats adding another dimension to 3D films.
Gamer Competitions
In October, three Cinemark theaters boasted “multiple sold-out auditoriums” for special screenings that took place in the middle of the night and charged a premium over the usual movie admission. Most curiously, the screening that drew these crowds into the movie theaters wasn’t a movie at all, but a video game competition, the Riot Games League of Legends Championships, which were being held in South Korea and live-streamed at theaters in Texas, Illinois, and Washington.

Is 'Mockingjay - Part 1' really a movie?

2014-11-22T21:17:00.000-08:00

This is not a rant about anything. I need to clarify that up front, because 2014 has been a horrible year for ranting. But it’s also been great year for very good things that straddle the line between how we used to define television and how we used to define movies.

Is True Detective a miniseries or an 8-hour movie? Should The Knick rank in Steven Soderbergh’s filmography? Fargo and Hannibal transformed well-trod source material into a new kind of remake—half greatest hits compilation, half concept album. Not for nothing, 2014 was also the year that Shonda Rhimes claimed Thursday for old-fashioned weekly TV, with three flavors of throwback procedural (doctor show, politics show, lawyer show) infused with soap operatics.

On the big screen, Hollywood’s embrace of aggressive franchising came up with fascinating new mutant forms of sequel-prequel-reboots. It’s become common to compare the cinematic output of Marvel Studios to television production: Kevin Feige is the showrunner; different directors serve the Marvel vision first and their own vision second; cast members sign seven-picture contracts, the new incarnation of the old TV-actor Faustian bargain. (Steady work = no freedom.) You can feel the TV-ification of cinema in small ways and large. Wasn’t Dwayne Johnson’s Hercules just a more expensive version of Kevin Sorbo’s Hercules? (I mean that as a compliment; Hercules is one of the best watch-it-on-a-plane movies released this year.) Isn’t Horrible Bosses 2 just a renegade from the parallel universe where Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day starred in a middlingly popular bro-com on Fox?

But this was also a good year for non-sequelized big swings—Interstellar, Lucy, Edge of Tomorrow, Snowpiercer, some great and some terrible but all of them aiming for something interesting. This was the year of adaptations like Gone Girl and The Fault in Our Stars. This was the year when Liam Neeson made two of the best Liam Neeson movies ever (the goofy Non-Stop and the terse A Walk Among the Tombstones) and the year Seth Rogen took the Seth Rogen persona into intriguing new territory (marriage and North Korea).

And maybe Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy were just episodes of the Marvel show, but at least they’re innovative episodes, pushing the megafranchise in new directions. Meanwhile, two very different movies tried to grapple with our modern sequel-heavy moment: Meta-sequel 22 Jump Street ate its own tail with jokes about big budgets, while mega-sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past featured everybody you ever loved from an X-Men movie—and Marsden, too!—embarking on what amounted to an in-universe reboot of the X-Men franchise. A reboot about rebooting, a sequel about sequels—and this was also the year of Too Many Cooks, a viral video that crossbreeds a couple decades of crap TV culture with a hearty dose of demi-Lynchian surreality. Is Too Many Cooks a short film? Or is it an episode for a TV show that never existed—a bottle episode, where the bottle is the size of the universe? It was a weird year, but it wasn’t boring.

Conversely, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part One is boring. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; boredom is an underrated virtue in blockbuster cinemas. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that most blockbuster filmmakers are so terrified of boredom that they deliver movies that are relentless, aggressive, and ultimately stifling. (Transformers 4 is guilty of this, but so is Interstellar.) The best thing director Francis Lawrence has brought to his Hunger Games movies is a stillness, a delicate pace. It’s there at the beginning of the Catching Fire: The opening three shots tell you everything you need to know about Katniss Everdeen, her world, her thoughts.

So many YA adaptations trend prosaic and expository. By comparison, this is myth, poetry, cinema. That same stillness is there in the opening moments of Mockingjay – Part 1, when Katniss lingers in the shadows, troubled by bad dreams; when walks down to hang out with beloved merman boytoy Finnick, who mentions casually that he really wishes everyone was dead.

What follows doesn’t quite live up to that opening. There are some good scenes, most of them involving Natalie Dormer, playing propagandist Cressida as a mixture of hip-haircut NYU-film grad and no-bull journeyman reality-TV professional. The best unbroken stretch of movie comes when Cressida and Katniss head to the ruin of District 12. They’re trying to capture genuine emotion—because they need to package that genuine emotion for a commercial, selling rebellion as a product. There’s a scene on the water where Katniss sings a cheerful little tune about a hangin’ tree; Lawrence cuts from that song to a mob of rebels singing the same song. Not to get too crazy but to get a little crazy, it’s a Sergei Eisenstein moment: The cut from the Individual to the Community, the suggestion that Revolution is the heroic action of the faceless many.

But what the hell actually happens in Mockingjay – Part 1? I saw it a couple days ago; I can’t really tell you. Half or more of the movie is Katniss hanging out in subterranea with her dynamite supporting cast, everyone sitting around a table waiting for Mockingjay 2 to start. This is the latest entry in the expanding canon of books split into multiple movies. It started with Deathly Hallows, and continued with Breaking Dawn—although Peter Jackson was planning to split The Hobbit into two movies for many years before he came up with the bold idea to split those two movies into three movies. (Sources say there will also be two Allegiant movies; sources could not confirm what Allegiant is or why anyone should care.)

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that a movie is something with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Mockingjay – Part 1 has a beginning, but no middle. There are long scenes of fabulously talented actors all doing their own thing, Elizabeth Banks doing Hepburn-farce and Woody Harrelson doing druncle charm and Philip Seymour Hoffman smirkishly method-mumbling (RIP forever) and Julianne Moore giving good wig and Liam Hemsworth being present. This is fun, but it’s fun the way that a lesser episode of Parks and Recreation are fun: It’s the joy of watching a supporting cast hang out, which is very different from the joy of watching actual things happen. In Mockingjay – Part 1, all the action is abstract, distant: Jeffrey Wright appears to be single-handedly doing the revolution at his computer screen. Towards the end, the movie stages a grand rescue scene—Zero Dark Peeta—but it comes out of nowhere. That’s a common motif in Mockingjay – Part 1: Someone announces that something is about to happen, that thing happens, and then everyone moves on.

Like all artistic definitions, things immediately get hazy with the whole beginning-middle-ending thing. Defenders of book-splitting might point out that, say, Star Wars begins in media res and ends in media same, to the extent that the Empire is still the Empire and the Rebels are still rebelling. But to me, the definition of a movie—even a deep sequel, even a movie that’s explicitly setting up another movie—is that it should feel like a complete journey unto itself. There’s no journey in Mockingjay – Part 1. You could argue that Catching Fire didn’t have an ending, but it did have a journey. It’s all right there, in the fantastic final close-up. Witness denial, acceptance, righteous vengeance:

Deathly Hallows 1 feels like it has a real journey, in part because it’s the smallest-scale of the Harry Potter movies: A three-character piece, with a heist scene in the middle. A lot of people love Deathly Hallows 2, but to me, that’s actually the least movielike of the Harry Potters, all climax and relentless catharsis and incoherent Kelly MacDonald cameos. Neither of the Breaking Dawns feel like movies, but then again, part of what I dig about the Twilights is how un-movielike they are: Nothing happens, then nothing happens, then suddenly there’s a vampire baby chewing through her mother’s womb, then nothing happens, then something happens which is immediately revealed as nothing, then it’s over.

You can feel the difference most palpably in Peter Jackson’s two Tolkien trilogies. People tend to lump The Lord of the Rings together as one gigantic movie, but the three films tell very different stories in very different ways. Fellowship is the most concise, a dudes-on-a-mission character piece about making and breaking of the titular gang of heroes. The Two Towers translated the Battle of Helm’s Deep into one of the great mini-boss arcs in franchise history. And where Two Towers is fleet-footed, Return of the King is grandly bloated. There’s too much of everything—a handy definition for most of Jackson’s post-LOTR output—but at least the too-muchness makes sense. You can’t say the same about any of the Hobbit movies. You can see all the same tricks as the first Tolkien trilogy: More romance, more psychology, more Buster Keaton-meets-Frank Frazetta action scenes. But you can never quite get past the fact that the first two Hobbit movies feel like epic distractions—hundreds of millions of dollars spent passing the time until the good stuff begins.

Maybe that’s the biggest sin of Mockingjay – Part 1: the fact that it requires you, the viewer, to understand how much good stuff is coming in the next movie. It feels a little bit like we’re watching the preproduction for a much better movie—which makes the movie’s media satire feel reflexive in the worst way. Now again, I’m not saying Mockingjay – Part 1 is bad, per se. The cast is great; the look of the movie is sharp and subdued, even if all the desolation looks samey after awhile. Maybe it was always a bad decision, on the level of pure entertainment, to split up such a bleak, melancholy little book into a two-act blockbuster epic. (I love the book Mockingjay, love it more than most people seem to, but the ideal movie adaptation would’ve been 90 minutes long, tops.)

Still, Deathly Hallows managed to do something interesting with three angsty teens on a camping trip. Couldn’t Mockingjay – Part 1 figure out something to do with futuristic class revolt? Instead, the film defaults to the least interesting contemporary franchise Uber-Arc: Hero Doesn’t Want To Be Hero, Hero Decides To Become Hero. This was the plot of Hobbit 1 and Man of Steel and, weirdly, the Iron Man sequels—but not the first Iron Man, which skips right to the actual fun part of a hero being a hero. So Mockingjay – Part 1 is a movie about a girl who is clearly the Mockingjay saying “I don’t want to be the Mockingjay!” and then everyone says “Please be the Mockingjay?” and then the Mockingjay says “Lemme think about it” and then eventually she says “Okay, I’ll be the Mockingjay!” at which point the writers high-five because that’s half the movie done now.

And maybe that’s okay? It’s easy to be cynical about franchise movies, especially when studios cynically split one movie into two to maximize profits. But I dig the Hunger Games movies. I walked out of Mockingjay – Part 1 excited to see Mockingjay 2, which maybe makes me part of the problem. Or maybe we need to figure out a new definition for whatever a thing like Mockingjay – Part 1 is. It’s not really a movie, or anyhow, it’s aims are radically different from what movies used to aim for. (Citizen Kane covers the entire sweep of a man’s life in a running time of 119 minutes, which is four minutes shorter than Mockingjay – Part 1.) Is it more accurate to describe The Hunger Games as a TV show? A show that only airs one ludicrously expensive two-hour episode per year?

Watch Johnny Depp’s Curse-Laden Speech from the Hollywood Film Awards

2014-11-17T05:44:00.002-08:00

CBS had to bleep the intro by the Into the Woods actor

When Johnny Depp took the stage at the 2014 Hollywood Film Awards, he immediately warned the crowd, “I'm not really good at this kind of thing.” After setting the bar low, Depp went on to make the censors work overtime bleeping out the stammering, curse-laden speech he delivered live on primetime television.

“That’s the weirdest microphone I’ve seen in my life,” Depp began, before getting bleeped.

As the speech devolved, Depp started to trend on Twitter, including accusations that the Into the Woods star was drunk on stage. At one point it appeared that CBS cut him off, but despite the lack of microphone, Depp kept reading what was on the teleprompter. At the end of the speech, Depp was bleeped again, before sagely noting, “it’s one of those nights”. He was then cut-off once and for all by a clips package.

Depp was on stage at the awards show to introduce famed talent manager Shep Gordon and present Mike Myers with the Hollywood Documentary Award for his film, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon. Honoree Gordon was shown laughing during the speech and Myers shrugged it off, reportedly sayingthat Depp’s speech was “very rock and roll.”

These sort of antics just make us more excited for this year’s Golden Globe Awards.

‘Gone Girl’ Wins Big at Hollywood Awards

2014-11-17T05:40:00.000-08:00

The mystery-thriller “Gone Girl” took home the top prize at the 2014 Hollywood Film Awards on Friday night in Los Angeles. But while an array of Hollywood A-listers, including Angelina Jolie, Ben Affleck and Johnny Depp, showed up for the event’s first televised ceremony, audiences at home did not. The program, which was hosted by Queen Latifah and carried by CBS, attracted about four million viewers at its peak, according to the websiteTVbythenumbers.com.
The previous Friday, the network’s usual lineup (“The Amazing Race,” “Hawaii 5-0” and “Blue Bloods”) peaked at 11.4 million. Now in its 18th year, the Hollywood Film Awards are selected by an anonymous panel of industry insiders and executives and honor movies released or scheduled for release in the calendar year. “The Imitation Game,” which has a Nov. 28 release date, was one of the evening’s most lauded films, with acting honors for Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley and a directing prize for Morten Tyldum. The cast of“Foxcatcher” won best ensemble.

Gossip column: Ronaldo, Di Maria, Gerrard, Reus, Cabaye

2014-11-17T05:33:00.001-08:00

TRANSFER GOSSIP

Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta, who is eligible for re-election in 2016, has suggested the possibility of recruiting Real Madrid's 29-year-old forward Cristiano Ronaldo. (Le Figaro - in French)

Tottenham scouts flew to Argentina last week to watch Colombian River Plate striker Teo Gutierrez, 29. (Daily Mirror)

Southampton manager Ronald Koeman wants to sign Netherlands defender Bruno Martins Indi, 22, from Porto in January. (Sun - subscription required)

Chelsea lead the race for Borussia Dortmund winger Marco Reus, 25, and could offer forward Andre Schurrle, 24, in exchange to beat Liverpool and Arsenal to the deal. (Daily Express)

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, 34, will switch Merseyside for the San Siro by joining Inter Milan in the January transfer window. (Daily Mirror)

Juventus striker Carlos Tevez, 30, says he would have considered going back to West Ham only if he had 20 more playing years. (Tuttosport - in Italian)

Barcelona are keeping a close watch on Marseille coach Marcelo Bielsa as the current manager of the Catalan club, Luis Enrique, has failed to live up to expectations. (Le Figaro - in French)

Juventus will go all-out during the January transfer window to recruit Barcelona's 31-year-old Brazil defender Dani Alves. (AS.com - in Spanish)

Brazilian forward Ronaldinho, 34, could leave Mexican club Queretaro to join LA Galaxy as a replacement for United States midfielder Landon Donovan, 32. (L'Equipe - in French)

Manchester United winger Angel Di Maria, 26, is eyeing a move away from Old Trafford, with former suitors Paris St-Germain uppermost in his thoughts. (Daily Star)

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger insists forward Lukas Podolski, 29, is not for sale in January. (Goal.com)

Former Newcastle defender Olivier Bernard says he is "absolutely sure" that fellow Frenchman Yohan Cabaye, 28, will return to the Premier League from Paris St-Germain in January. (Newcastle Chronicle)

OTHER GOSSIP

Republic of Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane has accused Everton boss Roberto Martinez of putting pressure on his Irish players to miss international matches. (Daily Mail)

Gareth Bale's agent admitted Manchester United offered more money for the Welshman than Real Madrid, but the 25-year-old forward had his heart set on Spain. (InsideFutbol.com)

Brazil legend Pele, 74, has been discharged from a hospital in Sao Paulo after undergoing surgery to remove a kidney stone. (Marca)

Manchester United striker Radamel Falcao is undergoing an intensive fitness programme at the club's Carrington training ground during the international break so that he can finally get himself into peak condition. (Daily Telegraph)

Meanwhile, Manchester United defender Marcos Rojo, 24, has revealed he went on strike to force his £16m move from Sporting Lisbon in the summer. (Sun - subscription required)

England striker Wayne Rooney is desperate for a win over Scotland on Tuesday so he can wind up former Manchester United managers David Moyes and Sir Alex Ferguson. (Daily Record)

Arsenal and France defender Mathieu Debuchy, 29, is close to a return to action after being sidelined with an ankle injury in September. (Daily Mirror)

Cardiff City are to consider letting midfielder Ravel Morrison, 21, leave the club after manager Russell Slade admitted the move to Wales has not quite worked for the England Under-21 international, who is on loan from West Ham. (Western Mail)

Uefa officials forced Slovenia to take a bus to Wembley for their international with England - even though they were staying at a hotel just 50 metres from the stadium entrance. (Daily Mail)

BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Footballers past and present weretweeting their support for former Fulham, Hull and Wigan midfielder Jimmy Bullard as he made his debut in reality show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

Argentina's players appeared in good spirits as they trained at Manchester City's Carrington complex ahead of their friendly against Portugal on Tuesday.

Manchester United Daley Blind shared his frustration on Instagram at being injured during Netherlands' 6-0 win against Latvia.

AND FINALLY

More people watched the BBC quiz show Pointless than tuned in to England's Euro 2016 qualifier on ITV against Slovenia on Saturday. (Daily Mail)

Turkish club Genclerbirligi have banned players from growing beards, with anyone flouting the facial hair rule liable for a £7,000 fine. (Guardian)

To celebrate the arrival of David Moyes, Real Sociedad is raffling the scarf the former Manchester United manager wore during his official presentation at the side's Anoeta stadium.

Gossip column: Gerrard, Koke, Hummels, Pique, Destro, Rodgers

2014-11-17T05:26:00.004-08:00

TRANSFER GOSSIP

New Inter Milan boss Roberto Mancini is lining up a January move for Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, 34. (Mail on Sunday)

Manchester United have been told Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels, 25, will cost them £47m. (Sun on Sunday - subscription required)

Chelsea and Manchester City are set to go head to head for the signature of Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke, with both clubs prepared to meet the 22-year-old's £48m release clause. (Sunday Express)

Liverpool are ready to rival Arsenal for the signature of 19-year-old Lazio striker Keita Balde Diao. (Sunday Express)

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique, 27, has scotched talk of a move to Manchester United by reaffirming his commitment to the Catalan club. (Mail on Sunday)

Forward Lukas Podolski, 29, looks set to leave Arsenal in January after bemoaning his lack of first-team opportunities at the Emirates. (Evening Standard)

Atletico Madrid have made Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata, 26, their top January transfer target. (Daily Star Sunday)

Manchester City striker Alvaro Negredo, 29, will make his loan move to Valencia permanent next summer. (Sunday Mirror)

Everton are lining up a move for Arsenal misfit Joel Campbell, 22, and are prepared to pay £7m for the Costa Rica striker. (Sun on Sunday - subscription required)

Cardiff City could terminate Ravel Morrison's loan spell after the 21-year-old West Ham midfielder disappointed manager Russell Slade. (Independent on Sunday)

David De Gea's broken finger will not prompt Manchester United to sign 32-year-old free agent Victor Valdes, with reserve goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard set to play against Arsenal instead. (Sunday Telegraph)

Roma striker Mattia Destro, 23, has welcomed rumours linking him with a move to Arsenal. (Evening Standard)

Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson, 35, is eyeing a January move after admitting his career at Ewood Park is over. (Talksport)

Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli, 24, will not be returning to former club Inter Milan in January after Roberto Mancini ruled out a move. (Goal.com)

OTHER GOSSIP

Liverpool are considering whether to sack manager Brendan Rodgers after an underwhelming start to the season. (Metro)

Everton manager Roberto Martinez says midfielder Ross Barkley can become the best England player ever. (Daily Star Sunday)

Captain Wayne Rooney says England can win every match of their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign after defeating Slovenia. (Sunday Times - subscription required)

Rooney has also pledged that he will never retire from international football.(Sunday Telegraph)

The president of the German Football League, Reinhard Rauball, says European football's governing body Uefa could leave Fifa if the global governing body fails to publish Michael Garcia's report into World Cup corruption. (Observer)

An official of the England 2018 bid claims the £35,000 spent on a gala dinner was approved by Fifa, despite world football's governing body criticising the payment in it World Cup bidding report. (Sunday Telegraph)

BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Newcastle midfielder Jonas Gutierrez has shared photos of his new tattoo marking his battle against cancer on Twitter.

Wayne Rooney took to Twitter to share his pride at reaching 100 England caps.

Formula 1 gossip: Hamilton, Chilton, Raikkonen, Wolff

2014-11-17T05:22:00.000-08:00

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton says he is feeling relaxed, confident and ready to win ahead of the Formula 1 title decider in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. (Crash.net)

Championship leader Hamilton tweeted a picture of himself at the poppy installation at London Bridge, which he said he passed during a run over the weekend.

Briton Max Chilton, who drove for Marussia this season before they went into administration, has emerged as a surprise candidate to race the second Caterham in Abu Dhabi this weekend.(grandprix.com)

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen says he has struggled with the tyre construction this year after being out-performed by team-mate Fernando Alonso, but would like to stay at the Italian team beyond 2015. (Auto Motor und Sport - in German)

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff wants to resume contract talks with Lewis Hamilton as soon as possible. (motorsport.com)

Trump Entertainment, Creditors Say Trump Taj Mahal to Close

2014-11-17T03:39:00.002-08:00

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.’s last remaining Atlantic City boardwalk casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, is almost certainly going to close, lawyers said Friday.

”We intend to close the facility at the Taj Mahal on Dec. 12,” Trump Entertainment lawyer Kris Hansen told a bankruptcy judge. A meeting has been set for Monday with New Jersey officials who have so far turned a cold shoulder to the gambling company’s pleas for a $175 million bailout package.

Creditor representatives are unhappy but resigned to the likelihood another casino on the distressed Atlantic City Boardwalk will go dark.

“The committee would be thrilled if the Taj Mahal did not have to close,” said Karen Giannelli, attorney for the official committee of unsecured creditors in Trump Entertainment’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

With the fate of its final casino all but sealed, Trump Entertainment is now battling creditors over how much they’ll get once secured lender Carl Icahn takes over the company.

It remains to be seen whether that takeover comes by way of Trump Entertainment’s Chapter 11 plan or a rival Chapter 11 plan that unsecured creditors want to propose.

Judge Kevin Gross indicated he is likely to clear the company’s Chapter 11 plan for voting and consider the creditor’s rival proposal in December.

Even in bankruptcy and besieged by labor troubles, Trump Taj Mahal isn't draining cash out of the company, the judge noted.

“Although it’s not making money hand over fist, the Taj Mahal is at the very least holding its own on a weekly basis,” Judge Gross said.

Hours before Friday’s court hearing, Trump Entertainment revised its Chapter 11 plan proposal to add a $1 million payout for unsecured creditors.

That is a fraction of a penny on the dollar recovery on unsecured debt of more than $210 million, creditors lawyers said. They countered with a competing proposal that, like the company’s plan, gives the casino properties over to Mr. Icahn.

Instead of the $1 million Trump Entertainment is offering, creditors want to use cash Trump Entertainment doesn’t need to cover its bankruptcy expenses to fund a trust that will pursue lawsuits.

The casino company still bears the name of Donald Trump, who stepped away from management years ago. He has sued to reclaim his brand from the company’s distressed properties, but the suit was caught up in the Chapter 11 case.

The Trump Plaza closed shortly after Trump Entertainment’s Sept. 9 bankruptcy filing.

Reliance Entertainment aims to buy US, European game studios

2014-11-17T03:35:00.001-08:00

India's Reliance Entertainment plans to begin acquiring North American and European mobile game studios starting in early 2015, in hopes of becoming a significant global player in the fast-growing mobile games industry.

The company, which is the biggest stakeholder in DreamWorks Studios, is in talks with bankers to identify and acquire up-and-coming mobile game studios in North America and Europe to boost sales, chief executive Manish Agarwal told Reuters in a phone interview.

"We will go full steam in the January and February time frame in terms of identifying studios," Agarwal said. "Gaming is going to be the largest share of the pie of entertainment time spent, and Reliance would like to be a sizeable player in that space."

Reliance Entertainment is a unit of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, one of India's largest conglomerates, with businesses ranging from financial services to infrastructure and power. Its Reliance Games unit is looking at smaller studios at $2 million to $5 million a pop, at least initially, according to Agarwal.

Agarwal said the potential for Reliance Games is "huge."

"In three years, our business will make $50 million in net revenue, and in five years we'll be a $100 million company," he said. Net revenue is after cuts taken by app stores from Google, Apple and others.

Reliance Games, which to date has focused on making titles related to Hollywood properties in partnership with studios such as Warner Bros, Sony and Lions Gate, hopes to use acquisitions to expand into other genres, Agarwal said. Genres of interest include real-time action strategy akin to Supercell's "Clash of Clans," puzzlers like King's "Candy Crush Saga," builder games like Supercell's "Boom Beach," and social casino games.

Reliance Games develops its own titles at its Pune-based studio in India as well as partnering with other game studios. With about 50 million downloads, its most successful game franchise has been "Real Steel," with action titles based on the DreamWorks movie with the same name featuring Hugh Jackman.

In the face of competition from larger and more seasoned players such as King and Japan's GungHo Online Entertainment , Reliance has yet to make waves in a competitive mobile gaming space that investors worry is a fickle, hit-driven business.

Agarwal, who did not identify targets, made it clear that Reliance does not want studios that could be one-hit wonders, such as OMGPOP, which was acquired by Zynga for $200 million but shut down over a year later.

Reliance Games wants nimble studios of five to 12 members and that are "one game away from creating that elusive hit and looking to scale," Agarwal said. "If the game is already doing good, the shelf life of the game could be six to 12 months."

Currently, about 70% of Reliance Game's revenue comes from North America, the UK, Russia and Korea, and about 20% from India, mostly from games offered through telecom carriers rather than app stores.

"For us, it is not an India story as yet as the opportunity lies in growing globally, Agarwal said. "India is the fastest growing market in terms of Android and gaming is going to compete with TV watch. ... What China is today, India will be in the next 24 to 36 months."

Spackman Entertainment to Acquire Korea’s Novus Media

2014-11-17T03:31:00.000-08:00

HONG KONG — Media investor Spackman Entertainment Group is to buy Novus Media, a Korean film investor and ancillary distributor.

Spackman, which is listed in Singapore and is connected to Toronto-based Spackman Equities, said that it had signed a memorandum to acquire 51% or more of Novus. But it did not disclose the value of the transaction.

Since 2009, Novus was an investor, presenter, and/or ancillary distributor for a total of 54 films (35 Korean and 19 foreign) including “Secretly Greatly,” which was one of the biggest box office hits of 2013, and ”Friend 2: The Great Legacy.”

Novus’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Novus Entertainment Co. is currently producing three theatrical films for release in 2015: “Life Risking Love,” “Chong Hee – The Emperor’s Love,” and “Korean Gangster.”

Spackman says that the reason for the acquisition is the development of the South Korean ancillary market, where digital and online revenues are replacing DVD. It says that in 2013, the Korean ancillary market totalled KRW268 billion (US$256 million), more than three times the KRW88.8 billion (US$85 million) size of the market in 2009.

“With the recent growth of the ancillary market, the post-theatrical revenues have become a significant portion of the overall revenues of a film. A potential deal with Novus is an example of the Group exploring ways to financially capitalize on this fast growing segment of the industry,” said Richard Lee, head of business development, Spackman Entertainment Group.

The company already owns two Korean production companies Opus Pictures, one of the producers of Bong Joon-ho’s “Snowpiercer,” and Zip Cinema, which last year produced “Cold Eyes,” the highly-polished remake of Hong Kong thriller “Eye In The Sky.”

Box Office Results: The Dumbest Comedy Sequel Ever Wins the Weekend

2014-11-17T03:27:00.000-08:00

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

As the holiday movie season picks up steam from the slower fall months, we went from a weekend with two movies grossing $100 million between them to one where three movies made that amount (and next weekend, one movie should be able to do well above that amount on its own.)

With the movie theater business booming, last week's big budget blockbusters were transplanted by a comedy sequel twenty years in the making as the Farrelly Brothers reunited Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels for Dumb and Dumber To, which burst into 3,154 theaters with an estimated $38 million. That's Jim Carrey's biggest opening weekend since 2003's Bruce Almighty, which opened with $68 million over Memorial Day, and it's the Farrelly Brothers' biggest opening ever, grossing more in its first three days than a few of their recent movies have grossed in total.

The film's low "B-" CinemaScore doesn't bode well for the comedy's long-term prospects although it shouldn't have a problem hitting $100 million with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up (when it will face another sequel to a more recent comedy hit). According to exit polls, 55% of the audience was male with 57% of the audience over the age of 25.

Both of last week's new releases held up well in their second weekend with Walt Disney Studios Animation's Big Hero 6 taking second place with $36 million, down just 36%, and Christopher Nolan's outer space epic Interstellar (Paramount), taking third place with $29.2 million, down 39%. Reportedly produced for the same $165 million budget, Big Hero 6 remains ahead in making that money back domestically with $111.6 million to date, compared to Interstellar's $97.8 million. IMAX is still contributing greatly to Interstellar's success with more than $7.4 million of its weekend take grossed from 368 IMAX iterations.

Gina Prince-Blythewood's music biz romance Beyond the Lights, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker, opened softly with $6.5 million in 1,789 theaters to take fourth place with an average of $3,633. That's a weaker opening than both of Prince-Blythewood's previous films, 2008's adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees and 2000's Love & Basketball.

David Fincher and Gillian Flynn's adaptation of the latter's bestselling thriller Gone Girl (20th Century Fox), starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, continues to be one of the unstoppable hits of the fall movie season, as it remained in the Top 5 for its seventh consecutive weekend with $4.6 million, having grossed $152.7 million during that time domestically.

Another surprising fall sleeper is Ted Melfi's comedy St. Vincent (The Weinstein Co.), starring Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy, which maintained sixth place with $4 million, also down just 25% as it brought its domestic gross to $33.3 million.

Brad Pitt's WWII epic Fury dropped to seventh place with $3.8 million and $75.9 million grossed domestically so far.

Jake Gyllenhaal's thriller Nightcrawler (Open Road) took eighth place with $3 million, putting it $13,000 ahead of Universal's low-budget Ouija, which has grossed $48 million based on a budget of $5 million.

Alejandro Inarritu's Birman finally moved into the Top 10 as it expanded nationwide into 857 theaters and got a slight bump to $2.4 million with $11.6 million grossed its first month in release.

The Top 10 grossed an estimated $130.7 million, up roughly $15 million from this weekend last year when Universal opened another long-time-coming comedy sequel The Best Man Holiday in 2,024 theaters where it scored $30.1 million, not enough to best Marvel Studios' Thor: The Dark World in its second weekend.

Jon Stewart's directorial debut Rosewater, starring Gael Garcia Bernal as imprisoned Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, opened on Friday in 371 theaters where it scored $1.2 million, putting it just outside the Top 12 at #13.

In limited release, Moneyball director Bennett Miller's latest drama Foxcatcher (Sony Pictures Classics), starring Channing Tatum, Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo, did decently with $288,000 in 6 theaters in New York and L.A.

Tommy Lee Jones' Western The Homesman (Roadside Attractions), starring fellow Oscar winners Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep, opened weaker with just $48,000 in four theaters in New York and L.A.

Comedy night will benefit Taylor Mill nurse

2014-11-17T03:08:00.001-08:00

Friends and family rally to help Schwarte who’s been sidelined since June surgery.

A Comedy Night Benefit for Paula Schwarte, R.N., will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 28, at Moose Lodge, 5247 Taylor Mill Road.

The lodge is a mile south of the Taylor Mill Road and I-275 exit 79. Cost is $25 in advance or $30 at the door.

Following elective abdominal surgery in June, Schwarte has faced life-threatening complications causing her to remain in the hospital since her surgery, according to a press release.

She is no longer able to work following a 30-year career as a nurse. Proceeds from the benefit will defray the family’s medical bills and daily expenses.

Comedians Chick Halloran, Shelley Iker and Terry “TV” Foster will perform. There will be a deejay, raffles, door prizes, split the pot and bake sale.

Is Kiwi comedy really that sexist?

2014-11-17T03:03:00.001-08:00

Michele A'Court's been hounded about what it's like to be a funny woman once too often. She turns down an interview, pointing to her final thoughts on the subject in The Guardian, where she wrote earlier this year: "It forces me to think of myself as 'a woman who does comedy' rather than as a 'comedian'."

Despite the question haunting her decade-long career of wisecracking, it's 2014, and 24-year-old Louise Beuvink still gets introduced as "the one with tits and a vagina".

Rose Matafeo, 22, is horrified that at her gig last week in Hamilton, a man congratulated all the male comedians by their names, then merely said to her: "Well done Mrs Skirt" ("I wasn't even wearing a skirt!").

Urzila Carlson has the same response for the age-old "is it hard being a female comedian?": "I don't know I've never been a male one. Is it hard being a f---wit?"

So why does our comedy scene feature more penises than the graffiti on K Road power boxes?

Too long has been spent on the joyless moot of whether women are funny or not (of course they are). Figuring out where the idea originates is depressing, but perhaps Virginia Woolf said it best in 1929: society has different expectations of women.

Stereotypes about delicate creatures with natural ineptitude in maths, science, sports and - apparently - comedy (ladies, please flutter your eyelashes in the direction of Mr Jerry "I can't see women doing that. It bothers me" Lewis) remain prevalent in the 21st Century.

These preconceptions, says Matafeo, a Billy T Award winner and regular on TV3's Jono and Ben at Ten, explain why you see so few women in stand-up.

"The biggest struggle is wrestling with what people already think," she says. "There are good female comedians, bad ones and material on everything, but we're tainted with the same brush by audiences and I hope that will change."

It can be a daunting environment, says Matafeo: "It's a male-dominated industry and starting out as a minority in anything isn't a comfortable position."

Women have other stuff to do, suggests Carlson. "You work at night mainly and it's a tough industry - everyone's a critic. People have no qualms, the same as if you watch a movie: you walk out and go 'that was shit' but don't think about the years that go into it.

"Men, I think, can take more. They don't care or want to prove them wrong."

Beuvink, a stand-up comedian who took a year off gigging to focus on her "real" job in advertising, was inspired to return to comedy after seeing Matafeo and Carlson "smashing it" at the Comedy Festival - Matafeo won the Billy T and Carlson took the People's Choice award.

Since then, Beuvink has quit her full-time job to focus on comedy while maintaining a part-time income (you've got to be able to pay the rent). After a gig she was approached by Ben Hurley to open for him and he helped her land a job writing for the TV3 comedy panel show Seven Days.

"A bunch of women write for Seven Days and there are probably people who laugh at their jokes and would otherwise think women aren't funny," she says. "They're completely none the wiser. It makes me smile: you're laughing at women and don't even know it."

While it's rare for Beuvink to be introduced by her genitals, she's usually presented to audiences as "the female comedian."

"They'd never go here's a black comedian, a Jewish comedian, a gay comedian. It throws me a bit. I know the audiences expectations are lowered. I've been introduced as different, special, unique. I want to define myself by what I say on stage, not what MC decided before I walked on."

Laura Daniel, 23, a regular on the Auckland stand-up scene who also writes for TVNZ's Happy Hour, says the best advice she got was to embrace her womanhood and never feel obligated to play to stereotypes.

"If you're funny, just be what makes you funny - not what you think punters want to hear. I make fun of myself and the stupid things I do but not for being a woman. It's important for any young female comedian to not degrade themselves because they are female."

While stereotypes remain - the fat, funny lesbian; the dazed and confused love-struck damsel - it's more about taking who you are and using that as material. It's not something that's necessarily gender-specific; Dai Henwood has a running gag about his height, Guy Williams embraces his awkwardness.

When Matafeo began stand-up at the age of 15, her braces, frizzy hair and natural goofiness gave her instant material. "Because I was genuinely nervous I played upon that to derive comedy. people would see me on stage being nervous and find it funny. In recent years I've been like 'oh, I've actually been in comedy for a while, I should stop pretending it's my first gig every time."

Scott Blanks, owner of the Classic comedy club says about one in 10 professional comedians are female, and the ratio hasn't changed much in the last decade.

He has his own theory on why that is: "There's nothing preventing either gender starting out in live comedy . . . the difference is that males are drawn to it as a form of exhibitionism. More so than females. And because more men are drawn to it as a thing to do, there are more men still on stage at the business end of it."

Matafeo agrees men are more confident in putting themselves out there. "It's hard to negotiate the actual performance of stand-up because it's a really masculine kind of performance.

"The expectation that people are going to want to hear what they have to say possibly comes easier to men, whereas that's not an expectation [though she stresses it should be one] that is easier for women to have, because it isn't encouraged or facilitated sometimes.

"Men are often imbued with this confidence from just being a man and expecting people to care about what they say. I don't think women are encouraged to do that - this is the kind of barrier being broken."

An added pressure of going on stage as the only female in a set is feeling as if you're carrying a gender on your shoulders, says Beuvink.

"If a male comic sucks people don't go 'oh all men aren't funny', but if we suck that's going to damage the reputation of women in comedy in general because people go 'see, I told you women weren't funny'. It's like confirmation bias. I wouldn't mind if it damaged my reputation but if every woman's reputation is damaged, that's pretty tough."

Carlson says: "Never mind the six dudes you saw that just sucked balls for an hour."

It's the "very worst part" of being a female comedian says Matafeo, who often has people tell her they "don't usually like female comedians because they're vulgar and crass, but you're one of the good ones".

"Honestly it's just so heart-breaking because they're trying to compliment you. There's a complete double standard: a guy can go out and talk about his dick for 10 minutes and if a girl even mentions having a period they're like 'ugh, she's vulgar' ."

Seven Days' rotating panel offers regular television outings to most established Kiwi comedians, making it a decent yardstick for how many women have broken through. The show's producer, Jon Bridges, says he always strives (but doesn't always succeed) in having at least one woman on the six-strong panel: "That's not for the purposes of affirmative action. We're not trying to be PC, we're trying to cater to an audience and make everyone laugh - everyone includes women so we're doing that for our own good."

Last year, the BBC banned all-male panel shows. The move created uproar but was intended as positive discrimination. Bridges wouldn't support a similar rule here; he says his shows aim is solely to be funny, and there just aren't enough female comics to put on the show.

Beuvink isn't keen on quotas either: "The danger with trying to push more women through is you push some when they're not actually ready.

"If you give a comedian a spot that she isn't experienced enough for just for the sake of there being a woman on the line up then maybe she won't do very well and that will damage her career more than benefit it."

But both Beuvink and Bridges say Seven Days is improving. "When we first began we couldn't have two women on the show at once," says Bridges. "Or if we did it meant next week, we couldn't have a woman because she would've been on last week. I can't have the same person on the show because our main thing is we mix it up.

"The world has just started changing slowly and comedy is one of the last places for that change to happen. It's weird because you'd think comedy would be quite a progressive industry."

Or, as Carlson explains: "In another ten years, we're going to look back and go: can you believe there were only six women in early 2000s comedy?"

In this year's Raw Comedy Competition, 11 of the 21 entries were female. Beuvink hopes that's not an anomaly.

Kylie Sealy, who runs the New Zealand Comedy Festival says it won't be. She's seen about a five per cent increase in women scheduled for next year's line-up.

Despite discouraging numbers at The Billy T auditions last month where only two out of 21 applicants were female, she says: "A new wave of comedians are coming through".

There are already at least two names in that hat: Beuvink and Daniel both say they'll be applying next year. Neither felt "ready" to go for the award this year despite (both) being finalists in the Raw Comedy Quest.

"It's up to women, myself included," says Daniel, "to put themselves up for awards like this."

And things are changing, say Matafeo, Daniel and Beuvink. The question that's dogged A'Court's career has changed, even in the space of five years, from "are women funny?" to "now where are the rest of them?"

Black Comedy misses the mark

2014-11-16T09:16:00.003-08:00

Rebecca Marshall's Square Eyes TV opinion column from the Sunshine Coast Daily

SURELY the primary pre-requisite for a comedy show, and certainly one with the very word in its title, should be that it is funny.

Black Comedy (ABC, Wednesdays, 9.35pm) is not.

At least, 95% of it is not.

I watched the first episode a fortnight ago and could count two LOL moments at the end of 30 full minutes: during The Real Housewives of Narromine skit and the handful of seconds Steven Oliver slid into shot to proclaim "So, the black bitch likes gin?" or some other random assumption.

Production values are pretty solid, Deb Mailman and Elizabeth Wymarra are best in cast and the sketches refresh at a good pace.

However Black Comedy, hailed as "a sketch comedy show by Blackfellas for everyone", plays unashamedly for controversy, crassly aiming to bullseye a provocation target.

There's the send-up of COPS, BLAKFORCE, where SWAT teams raid the homes of unsuspecting people accused of not being black enough - with the first suspect revealed to have bought a Delta Goodrem album, and the second admonished for driving a well-maintained car, wearing seatbelts, not carrying any open bottles and not having a coat hanger for an aerial. Really.

Then there's Black Velvet, a faux dating agency based on "native romantic philanthropy" where they promise to "match you with your perfect Aborigine". Really.

It wasn't just my jaw criss-crossing in a cringe response; it was my whole body, twisting in hands-over-eyes pain at how awkward it was.

I think it's a total trainwreck, but find it difficult to articulate why.

Don't get me wrong, I hate how that poisonous waterfall of political correctness has soaked common sense, responsiblity and free speech almost to oblivion. But this is offensive.

However, do I - a white, middle class woman - have a right to be offended?

What does a show like this do for reconciliation, bridging an understanding gap between the cultures? Perhaps that was never its purpose.

So what was?

Boxer and I'm a Celebrity contestant David Haye defends the show

2014-11-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

Boxer David Haye gives his backing to this year's I'm a Celebrity show ahead of Tyneside visit

Boxing superstar David Haye has defended hit TV show “I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here” after claims the show abused animals.

Just hours before this year’s series launches, the former world heavyweight and cruiserweight champion - who came third in the programme in 2012 - said he would be the first to shout up if he animals were suffering as part of the show.

It comes after TV presenter Chris Packham wrote an open letter to Ant and Dec asking them to end “abuse of animals”.

Haye said: “I was in there and if there was any cruelty to animals I’d be the first to bring it up.”

Haye was speaking to the Sunday Sun ahead of his visit to Newcastle and South Shields this month.

The ‘Hayemaker’, who will be at the Grosvenor Casino in Newcastle on November 21 for a “Q&A” session and at Customs House in South Shields, for a signing on November 22, said he was looking forward to visiting the North East.

Both events have been organised by boxing promoter Steve Wraith.

He said: “I always love coming up to Newcastle. A friend of mine Steve Wraith is a really good promoter and he’s arranged a nice couple of days for me up in Newcastle.

“We have got a question and answer session at the Grosvenor Casino and I’ve a nice question and answer session.

“People often ask me some really wacky questions and nothing to do with boxing. It’s great that everyone has a laugh and a few drinks and it’s great to have a nice off the record chat with people.

“I’ll be going down to Mel Gates’ boxing gym to meet the people there.

“It will be good to see the young lads coming though as that’s where it all starts.

This is not the first time Haye has visited the region and the Londoner recalls having a night out in Newcastle following an Amir Khan fight.

He said: “I spent time in Newcastle when Amir Khan had a match in the Metro Radio Arena there.

“It was a really good event. I was working for Sky Sports at the time. We went to a few clubs after the match and it was a real good night.”

The boxing champ even admitted he thought controversial MTV show Geordie Shore was funny and said he would be definitely watching this year’s I’m A Celebrity, which kicks off at 9pm tonight on ITV.

“I’m going to make an effort to watch it,” said Haye. “I never watched it until I went in there so I didn’t know what to expect.

“This time I’m going to watch it.

“I know what it’s like out there - watching that camp I spent so much time in.

Haye also said he thought Geordie duo Ant and Dec were great guys.

He said: “Ant and Dec are the best exports for the North East.

“They are one of the North’s best exports in representing what Newcastle is about.

“They are a nice couple of lads - they are great guys. I spent one month with them and they are just as funny off camera.

“I remember them from the Byker Grove days and when they were PJ and Duncan.

“It’s great they are still together - they have a real connection with the fans and the viewers.”

• David Haye Will be appearing at Grosvenor Casino on Friday November 21. Tickets are on sale from www.wraithpromotions.com . The signing session at Customs House South Shields will take place at 10am the following day. For tickets seewww.customshouse.co.uk