Barbican To Launch “James Bond” Retrospective.

Posted on February 29, 2012 by jlmicek

So here’s a reason to book that trip to London. The Barbican Museum is set to launch an exhibition featuring 50 years of gadgets, cool cars and other geegaws from the enduring James Bond spy-flick franchise, The Guardian reports this morning.

Here’s the nut graf:

“Designing 007: 50 Years of Bond Style promises to showcase five decades of gadgets, sets, costumes and cars, along with the blueprints, drawings and models that went into creating them. “It’s the unseen Bond,” said the show’s curator, fashion historian Bronwyn Cosgrave. “We’re showing the complete scope of design of a Bond film, which has never been done before.”

Cosgrave has worked on the show for the past two years with Bond producers Eon, with “unprecedented access” to the Bond archive in north London. Designed by architect Ab Rogers, the “immersive” show will take up the Barbican’s entire ground floor and a lower level theatre, with exhibits from Dr No, to this year’s forthcoming Skyfall.”

Read the full story here.

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In The U.K., It’s “Avengers Assemble” To You.

Posted on February 28, 2012 by jlmicek

A new movie poster for the U.K. release of “The Avengers” reveals that the film will be known by a different name across the pond. Does this mean Thor and Captain America will have to fly on the other side of the street as well?

(h/t HeyUGuys)

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What “The Artist” Taught Us About The Importance of Silent Film.

Posted on February 28, 2012 by jlmicek

"The Artist" This year's Golden Globes favorite.

If you needed a reminder of the importance of preserving film history, it was driven home by “The Artist’s” big wins during this weekend’s Academy Awards.

Writing in The Guardian, film critic Pamela Hutchinson says Michel Hazanavicius’ mostly silent tribute to Hollywood’s first golden age is a reminder that “film preservation doesn’t happen by itself.” When Hollywood switched to sound movies, 80 percent of silent films were lost, Hutchinson notes.

Here’s the nut graf:

“Film preservation doesn’t happen by itself; it takes care and technology and a good deal of money. Which is a lesson we’ve learned slowly, over the near 120-year history of the cinema. So, as a rule, studios no longer toss their movies aside the moment they leave the cinemas. There are national and local archives, and with home video, we’re all the keepers of our own private collections. By contrast, in Michel Hazanavicius’s silent film, Valentin burns his own work because he feels it is outdated, just as in that other Oscars big-hitter Hugo, George Méliès’s precious trick movies are melted down and made into shoes.”

Read the full story here.

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Does The World Need A “National Lampoon’s Vacation” Reboot?

Posted on February 28, 2012 by jlmicek

Well, whether you want one or not, it looks like you’re getting one.

New Line Cinema has signed “Horrible Bosses” screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldsmith to direct a resurrected version of the 1980s raunch comedies that provided Chevy Chase with steady employment and steadily diminishing returns and teenaged boys of the era with fantasies of Christie Brinkley in a sports car.

According to ComingSoon.net, the new movie will focus on Rusty Griswold, now a grown man, who decides to take his kids on a road trip to Wally World (made famous in the first film) before it closes forever. Chase is expected to show up as Clark Griswold, now a grandfather, ComingSoon reports.

In case you needed reminding of the original:

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New “My Way” Poster Debuts.

Posted on February 28, 2012 by jlmicek

Courtesy of ComingSoon.net, here’s the poster for “My Way,” the World War II drama directed by Kang Je-kyy. It opens on April 20. The film recently netted an “R” rating for “intense realistically graphic sequences of war violence.”

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New TV Spot For Pixar’s “Brave” Debuts.

Posted on February 28, 2012 by jlmicek

Here’s the latest from the juggernaut animation house. This one looks like a good one to see if you’re the parent of a daughter (as I am):

Here’s a synopsis:
“Brave is set in the mystical Scottish Highlands, where Merida is the princess of a kingdom ruled by King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson). An unruly daughter and an accomplished archer, Merida one day defies a sacred custom of the land and inadvertently brings turmoil to the kingdom. In an attempt to set things right, Merida seeks out an eccentric old Wise Woman (Julie Walters) and is granted an ill-fated wish. Also figuring into Merida’s quest — and serving as comic relief — are the kingdom’s three lords: the enormous Lord MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd), the surly Lord Macintosh (Craig Ferguson), and the disagreeable Lord Dingwall (Robbie Coltrane).”

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A New “GI Joe: Retaliation” Trailer Comes to TV.

Posted on February 27, 2012 by jlmicek

And here it is — in all its high-def glory.

I remember when GI Joe mostly looked like this:

And, later on, I even endured this:

All things change …

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New “Avengers” Trailer To Bow On Wednesday.

Posted on February 27, 2012 by jlmicek

Marvel tweeted it, so it must be true:

Via ComicBookMovie.

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“ATM” Movie Poster Revealed.

Posted on February 27, 2012 by jlmicek

From ComingSoon.net, here’s the poster for “ATM,” the thriller starring Brian Geraghty, Alice Eve and Josh Peck:

Here’s a self-explanatory synopsis:

“On a late night visit to an ATM, three co-workers end up in a desperate fight for their lives when they become trapped by an unknown man.”

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Weekend Box Office and Your Monday Must-Read.

Posted on February 27, 2012 by jlmicek

It took an act of valor, or, more appropriately “Act of Valor,” to get filmgoers into the multiplex this weekend. The Navy Seal cinema-verite flick led the weekend. Courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo, here’s the numbers:

1 N Act of Valor Rela. $24,700,000 – 3,039 – $8,128 $24,700,000 $12 1
2 N Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds LGF $16,000,000 – 2,132 – $7,505 $16,000,000 – 1
3 4 Journey 2: The Mysterious Island WB $13,475,000 -32.1% 3,350 -150 $4,022 $76,731,000 $79 3
4 1 Safe House Uni. $11,400,000 -51.8% 3,052 -69 $3,735 $98,100,000 $85 3
5 2 The Vow SGem $10,000,000 -56.6% 3,038 +80 $3,292 $103,007,000 $30 3
6 3 Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance Sony $8,800,000 -60.2% 3,174 – $2,773 $37,832,000 $57 2
7 5 This Means War Fox $8,500,000 -51.2% 3,189 – $2,665 $33,571,000 $65 2
8 N Wanderlust Uni. $6,600,000 – 2,002 – $3,297 $6,600,000 – 1
9 N Gone Sum. $5,000,000 – 2,186 – $2,287 $5,000,000 – 1
10 9 The Secret World of Arrietty BV $4,503,000 -30.1% 1,522 – $2,959 $14,660,000 – 2

Hollywood hostess Connie Wald in her 20s (NYT)

The New York Times profiles nonagenarian actress Connie Wald, whose Beverly Hills home, during the Golden Age of Hollywood was a required stop. The story is a charming tale of dinner parties and movie-screenings that makes old Hollywood sound like a small town.

Here’s the nut graf:

“As the wife and then the widow of the fabled screenwriter and producer Jerry Wald (who received four Oscar nominations; was given the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1949; and produced the Academy Awards shows in 1957 and 1958), Mrs. Wald has been a Hollywood fixture. A notably chic (she is a perennial on the International Best-Dressed List) and enduring emblem of its Golden Age, she is a hostess celebrated for her home cooking (roast chicken and chocolate roll). A good-humored survivor at the age of 95, Mrs. Wald is still automatically included among the guests at any A-list party.”

Read the full story here.

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