Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead of an apparent drug overdose inside a Greenwich Village home on Sunday, cops said.
Hoffman’s body was found by a friend at 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning in an apartment at 35 Bethune St., sources said.
Cops are at the scene and are investigating, sources said.
Hoffman has admittedly struggled with drug addiction in the past, and reportedly checked himself into rehab last year for heroin abuse.
h/t – nypost
Cofounder and CEO , MoviePass
The former Miramax executive’s subscription service works at almost any movie theater. For $35 a month, users can see one movie a day–any movie, at any time.
“‘Raise prices 5% every year’ can’t be the future. Millennials consume media in subscriptions– Netflix, Hulu–and we need to take that seriously. It’s not that disruptive. We could put AMC or Regal Crown memberships right into our app and become an extension of those programs. We build loyalty.”
“Our system works within the theaters’ Subscribers select the movie and showtime on our app, which unlocks a debit card to purchase the ticket. MoviePass pays the theater the full price, and we sell in-app advertising. The strategy has helped us reach roughly 4,500 theaters across every state.”
“Theaters are open all day but are only crowded for a fraction of that. In a survey last year, we increased theater traffic 64%, users consumed more concessions, and they doubled their visits at off-peak times. Basically, we helped theaters make more money during the times they’re already open.”
“When we talk to major theater chains, we stress our robust customer service. That isn’t just for our own customers; that’s so a user’s poor experience goes directly to us and nobody blames the theater. That really helps the theater see us as a friend, not a potential liability.”
h/t – fastcompany
Casting “Aloft the Flames.” Synopsis: While screening her documentary film about the Gaza War, Jessica falls deeply in love with a Los Angeles novelist. Seven roles are available.
Want to see if you have what it takes? Submit via Backstage.com.
h/t – backstage.com
Riding a wave of Oscar buzz and big earnings at the box office, Lee Daniels’ acclaimed film The Butler will be returned to theaters for a limited on December 6th.
The film stars Forest Whitaker as a White House service-worker named Cecil Gaines who witnesses history alongside presidents like Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan. His performance in the film, and Oprah Winfrey’s supporting turn as his wife, are earning serious consideration for Academy Awards.
The movie is loosely based on the life of real-life White House butler Eugene Allen and in addition to Winfrey and Whitaker boasts an all-star cast which includes Terrence Howard, Jane Fonda, John Cusack, Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding, Jr.
The Weinstein Company is presumably re-releasing the film to capitalize on the awards season hype but it hardly needs the money
The Butler earned over $115 million during its initial run in theaters.
It’s flu season on The Walking Dead! And boy is it a doozy. That’s what killed the nerdy young Patrick last week, a death that immediately sparks a rather gruesome massacre in Cell Block D. This particular strain of flu apparently makes your face explode, and can be fatal within 24 hours even for young and healthy people — which would be dangerous enough on its own even if it didn’t immediately turn their corpses into dangerous killing machines. When you consider that the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic managed to infect a third of the global population and kill an estimated 50 million people, it’s not looking great for our survivors.
And as the extinction of humanity looms even larger than before, it’s no surprise that their primary concern seems to be children — both protecting them and protecting their innocence, goals that ultimately prove to be incompatible.
“Why don’t you wear your hat anymore?” Michonne asks as Carl, shortly before hearing the gunshots. “It’s not a farming hat,” Carl replies, because he and Rick are farming farmers who farm now, in case you missed the many, many mentions of their farming over the last two episodes. Accordingly, they don’t wear cowboy hats anymore, nor do they carry guns, all because of an incident where Carl maaaaybe gunned down a (possibly dangerous) stranger in cold blood. Concerned that his son might be taking a one-way trip to Psychotown, Rick is now obsessed with trying to give Carl back his childhood, which in Rick’s mind means 1) farming (obviously) 2) refusing to let Carl take part in any zombie-related duties and 3) insisting he read comic books and go to storytime with the little kids.
Which isn’t entirely fair, and you can see how badly playing the role chafes for Carl. Like many of the survivors, he had to become a very different person in order to stay alive, and he hasn’t really been a child for a long time. But he’s trying with all his heart to act like one anyway because Rick wants him to, because he can tell that his father needs it far more than he does. Rick doesn’t want Carl to carry a gun because he wants to believe that Carl doesn’t need to carry a gun. And of course, that’s not true.
Based on a true story of one man’s fight for survival and freedom. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses, Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist alters his life forever.
But, Black journalist, Orville Lloyd Douglas of TheGuardian says he’s not too interested in catching this kind of film;
“As a black person, I can honestly say I am exhausted and bored with these kinds of ‘dramatic race’ films. I’m convinced these black race films are created for a white, liberal film audience to engender white guilt and make them feel bad about themselves. Regardless of your race, these films are unlikely to teach you anything you don’t already know. Frankly, why can’t black people get over slavery? Or, at least, why doesn’t anyone want to see more contemporary portrayals of black lives? ”
I can understand his point. No doubt that movies like this may elicit feelings of guilt in white people. I have white friends who ask me, “Why can’t black people just get over slavery? That was hundreds of years ago!”. And I can feel that they truly want to get past the ugly, shamefulness of people who looked like them relegating people who looked like me, a dear friend, to chattel. But it did happen.
And it happened in a place not far away but right here, in this place and space that we’re in right now. Four generations is not that long ago when you break it down from great-great grandparents to grandparents.
The African – American story is as important and as relevant a story as any other race’s in this country. Instead of guilt, try just respecting that heritage. And while were at it, respect the Native – American, Asian – American, Latino – American and every other dash American whose stories get minimized and trivialized when the history of the United States is told.
No one is naive enough to think that any hardcore racists will find their way into theatres to watch this movie. But maybe such ‘dramatic race films’ will cause people, black and white, who are ‘liberal’ mainly at face value — you know, the ones who think that blacks should just “get over that slavery stuff” — to utilize films like ’12 Years’ as an excercise to examine of the various ways in which racism is entrenched in this country, and understand how it draws parallels with how things are right now. Particularly over the last 5 years, as many Americans continue to have a difficult time ‘adjusting’ to the idea of an African-American as POTUS.
But that of course is your prerogative. No guilt, no pressure.
The movie is set to be released in January 2014! This should be good!
“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” is serving up success at the box office.
Starring Forest Whitaker as a longtime White House butler and Oprah Winfrey as his boozy wife, the Weinstein Co. biopic debuted in the top spot with $25 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. But the weekend’s three other major new releases, including the action romp “Kick-Ass 2,” failed to find traction with fans.
“We expected to do well, but we didn’t expect to do this well,” said Erik Lomis, president of distribution and home entertainment for Weinstein Co., adding that “The Butler” is the company’s first No. 1 debut since 2009’s “Inglourious Basterds.”
Even with a full slate of newcomers, last week’s top movies claimed the second and third spots in the box-office race. The Jason Sudeikis-Jennifer Aniston Warner Bros. comedy, “We’re the Millers,” held onto second place in its second week of release with $17.78 million, while last week’s No. 1, Sony’s “Elysium,” dropped to third with $13.6 million.
“It was tough if you were any other film opening other than ‘The Butler,'” said Paul Dergarabedian of box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
Read more: TMZ
Saw the movie “Last Earth” this past Father’s Day and it was a blast! The flick had everything I like in a matinée sci-fi blockbuster: mind-blowing SFX, a mind expanding storyline, fast-paced action, great acting and a hunky leading man, in this case Will Smith.
On the surface the story appears to be about a young man desperately trying to live up to what he feels are the expectation of a heroic father and falling miserably short in his own eyes.
The big picture centers on the complexities of human nature and family bonding. A father tries to instill in his son everything’s he’s learned about surviving and thriving in an often times dangerous, hostile environment. It was no mistake that the message was particularly aimed towards black boys. The tagline of the movie ” Danger is real, fear is a choice” couldn’t be more poignant. “Last Earth” exemplifies the time when a boy ingests everything taught to him by his father and the breakaway moment when he decides to come out from under his protective wing, to fly on his own. To be his own man.
It is the timeless coming of age story that never gets old, and the real life father/son duo of Will and Jaden Smith only added to the narrative of a rite of passage that all boys of any nationality or race should go through, but often times miss out on.
Imagine my confusion then, when finally reading reviews on ” Last Earth” that called it a flop almost before the movie hit the theatres. Critics have the power to make or break a film because people will totally bypass seeing one based on negative reviews;
NY Daily News: “Summer 2013 has its first bomb, and sadly, it’s landed right on Will Smith.”
The Mirror: “The speaking clock has more emotional range than Will’s son Jaden Smith, with the trite scenes of him bonding with his father simply throw-your-hands-in-the-air bad.”
The Village Voice: “I fear Jaden might face online wrath for his performance here, especially thanks to the numb-tongued Kiwi accent he’s forced to adopt. He’s not bad, especially, but he is a kid asked to do the extraordinary: compel us as he pretends to do ridiculous bullsh–.”
DailyMirror on Twitter: “As Will Smith coldly instructs him to feel, to root in this moment now, to master his own creation, I felt the purest horror I ever have at a Shyamalan film: What if this is what Jaden Smith’s life is actually like?”
These comments left me wondering “What movie did they see?!” There were even cries of nepotism and that senior Smith used his tremendous star power in creating the role of his son in the movie Kitai Raige, for Jaden. Ummm…duh! There’s a long list of movie star parents who starred opposite their children in movies to help push their carreer’s along. That’s what parent’s do when trying to create a legacy. It’s obvious that Will Smith wanted the role to be a gift to his son and that it was meant to help propel the boy into the stardom that he now enjoys. And why the heck shouldn’t he? There’s room at the top of the multi-billion dollar movie industry for more than one black male and female superstar, isn’t there?
I would say to those critics that Jaden Smith was the best part of the movie and that his performance held my attention until the very end. And I was clapping at the end (which I rarely do lol!) along with others in my Manhattan theatre audience!
So, I want everyone within the site of this blog to go check out “Last Earth” and if you loved it like I did, spread the word and make this movie the summer blockbuster that its supposed to be!
Michael Douglas revealed the cause of his throat cancer was not smoking and drinking – as he previously believed — but instead by performing oral sex.
The 68-year-old actor was incredibly honest in an interview with The Guardian, explaining that he learned his cancer was caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).
“Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” he said.
The actor, currently enjoying rave reviews for his performance as famed pianist Liberace, told the British newspaper that he though the diagnosis three years ago was sure to be a fatal one. The onslaught of bad news — including his son’s incarceration and his rehabilitation stint for his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, who suffers from Bipolar disorder – led him to believe stress was a trigger.
“I did worry if the stress caused by my son’s incarceration didn’t help trigger it,” Douglas said. “But yeah, it’s a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer. And if you have it, cunnilingus is also the best cure for it.”
According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, one tract of HPV — known as HPV16 — is known to be linked to oral cancer, manifesting itself in the back regions of the throat and mouth.
The “Wall Street” actor has been open about the incredible discovery of a walnut sized tumor in his throat almost nine months too late. In an interview with New York Magazine, Douglas detailed symptoms of toothaches and infections that stumped doctors.
“After complaining for nine months and them not finding anything, and then they told me I was stage four?” he said. “That was a big day.”
Noticeably thin for months, the actor lost 45 lbs while undergoing treatment.
“The amount of chemo I was getting, it zaps all the good stuff too,” he said. “It made me very weak.”
Now, two years cancer free, Douglas said playing Liberace – who died of illnesses related to AIDS — was a “beautiful gift.”
“It was right after my cancer, and this beautiful gift was handed to me. I’m eternally grateful,” he said. “For this to come along, when you’re wondering if you have a career — you’ve had this big hiatus, you don’t know what repercussions cancer has for being hired. It was something to look forward to.”
Well the weather hasn’t been great here in New Jersey so I stayed away from the shore this Memorial Day Weekend and spent Monday night at the movies with my friends. They talked me into seeing Fast and Furious 6; here is my short review.
What I liked:
What I disliked:
My final impressions? Well if you have that much free time, a little kid who wants to see it, or friends who will buy you your ticket then by all means go see Fast and Furious 6. Otherwise save yourself the $13 for a ticket and go buy lunch or dinner.
