united artists
The Germans Love ‘Valkyrie’!
2:45AM STV | The debate over Valkyrie’s box-office viability has tempered since its plunge from the post-holiday Top 10. But while it’s barely broken even at home, it managed a stunning Euro groundswell over the weekend. More »
MGM Pours $US70 Million Into Making You Care About ‘Valkyrie’
3:23AM STV | Valkyrie is recovering reasonably well from the crippling stroke of bad publicity that nearly killed it earlier this year. But only part of that is due to slightly better-than-average word on the street. More »
UA Excited About Untitled Tom Cruise Serial Killer-And -Pasta Project
5:35AM Seth | Tom Cruise and UA have bought the rights to The Monster of Florence, about a serial killer responsible for eight double-homicides between 1968 and 1985. No word yet on whether Tom would play the monster, or Florence, or (spoiler alert) both! [Variety] Denzel Washington will star in The Book of Eli, set in the near future, when “America is a wasteland and a lone warrior fights to bring society the knowledge that is key to its redemption.” Denzel’s good, but he’s not convincing Alaskan hockey mum good etc. etc. [THR] OK, here’s the thing America. Germany loves your movies and movie production dollars. But not when they involve sadistically taking out your WWII issues on innocent make-believe Nazis! [THR] Robert DeNiro made it to the set of Martin Campbell’s Edge of Darkness, and then abruptly dropped out. Said a spokesman, “Sometimes things don’t work out; it’s called creative differences.” Coincidentally, that’s the last thing Don Fanucci heard before getting shot in the face. [Variety] The Beijing Olympics had an audience of 4.7 billion viewers, or roughly 70% of the Earth’s population, or approximately half the viewers who tuned in to see which David would take the Idol crown. NBC must be thrilled! [THR] More »
Nevada’s Free-Movie Lovers Ambushed With ‘Valkyrie’ Screening
4:00AM Seth | Valkyrie. It’s that rare movie which, without even having been released, has already managed to break free from its celluloid constraints to become a genuine state of mind. (”How you feeling?” “Oh, a little Valkyrieish, you?” “Same.”) We all know the story by now: Odd flight of historical fancy by Nazi-obsessed director Bryan Singer; Tom Cruise signs on, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Col. Shtuffel Von Klingenhauser, the movie’s famed Hitler-hunter; mishaps and flatulence follow, Nazis are injured and sue; and its studio crumbles amid a round of musical release dates. But through it all, has anyone actually seen this thing? According to E! Online, top secret testing is currently underway at an undisclosed location somewhere in Nevada known only as Area Einundfünfzig—and what they are learning there is nothing short of astonishing:
Tom Cruise: ‘I Don’t Run United Artists; I Just Own It.’
2:15AM Seth | Horny gossip spinster Liz Smith had unwittingly curried favour with Tom Cruise by appearing on an episode of Fox News Channel’s gossip-for-conservatives show Lips & Ears, in which she opined that misunderstood Nazis: Just The Nice Ones-vehicle Valkyrie should be “accepted in the same way World War II movies by Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood and Francis Ford Coppola.” (The actor has a staff combing the airwaves 24-hours a day for Cruise-positive messages; both Smith and Lips & Ears have now been slid into the Allies column.) What followed was a candid chat with the actor on everything from his crumbling UA dominion, to his comedic turn as a Harvey Weinstein-type in Tropic Thunder, to his billion-year war bride Katie Holmes bruise-inducing preparations for her Broadway debut:
Truckload Of ‘Valkyrie’ Extras Want $11 Mil In Nazi Pain And Suffering
2:05AM Seth | The saga of Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie, the Tom Cruise-as-Hitler-stalking -Nazi-infidel project that we frequently need to remind ourselves is an actual movie, and not just an improbable plot point in James Frey’s Bright Shiny Morning—is not one for the fainthearted. From a location shoot hindered by a cult-leery, swastika-averse German government—to an ongoing round of musical release-dates that most recently positioned its opening for December 26, 1857, a safe 40 years before the invention of movie projectors—this is not what you call a sinking studio’s dream project. Now Deadline Hollywood Daily notes that 11 Nazi soldier extras who fell out of a truck during filming last summer are suing United Artists for $11 million. (That’s one million per Nazi, for those not schooled in the Third Reich-championed Hitler Math.) From Spiegel Online: More »
‘Operation Lowball’ Places Kirk Kerkorian Back at Centre of MGM Sale Rumours
4:30AM STV | If it’s not bombs, bees and/or anthrax threatening to engulf MGM in a dense apocalyptic deathcloud, then there’s always the Specter of Ownership Past to give the denizens of Constellation Drive a good mortal scare. But only if they’re willing to suspend their disbelief long enough to imagine Kirk Kerkorian shuffling back into town on his black steed, blank check in one hand and studio valuation figures in the other, grinning wildly at the prospect of reclaiming the studio a fourth time in as many decades. More »
Into The Diaspora: UA To Wander In Hollywood Desert For Another 40 Years
3:41AM Seth | Yesterday brought the not-entirely-shocking bombshell that Paula Wagner would abandon her vanity-mini-major Eden—not to mention her decade-and-a-half long producing partnership with Tom Cruise—by resigning from her position as CEO of United Artists, reportedly to strike out on her own. This came after a disastrous 21 months on the job that produced a single stinker release, in what, to our knowledge, is the first studio scandal based entirely upon underspending: The reckless frugality! The gluttonous discretion! How dare she not greenlight a $75 million Will Ferrell-as-loutish-badminton-pro comedy in this depressed economic environment?
7:55AM STV | Apocalypse Commences at MGM Tower: A brave reader sends word and photographic evidence of the third — and by far the most real yet — safety crisis to grip the Century City landmark in the last week: Bees! “They have not yet shut down the building, but the front entrance is now closed due to a swarm of bees huddling over and around their queen,” we’re told. We’re not sure if this is at all connected to the Tower’s bomb-y, anthrax-y week of living dangerously, or if perhaps it’s just a late public rally in support of UA’s beleaguered Paula Wagner, but in any event, we once again advise caution to those working at or visiting the site. And, of course, insert your “Finally — buzz at MGM!” joke here. More »
