Thursday, August 9, 2012

Rachel Weisz turns action star for new "Bourne" film

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Rachel Weisz, who won a best supporting actress Oscar in 2006 for her role as Tessa Quayle in 'The Constant Gardener,' takes on her most action-packed part to date when she stars opposite Jeremy Renner in 'The Bourne Legacy,' opening on Friday

Weisz plays scientist Dr. Marta Shearing, who goes on the run with Renner's character. But the British actress is better known for her dramatic roles.

Weisz, 42, talked with Reuters about shooting her motorcycle action sequence in the 'The Bourne Legacy' and also about playing Evanora, the Wicked Witch of the East in Sam Raimi's 'Oz: The Great and Powerful,' due out next year.

Q: In 'The Bourne Legacy,' Dr. Shearing starts off as a victim and then ends up kicking some serious butt by the end of the movie. How did you like partaking in all that action?

A: 'I didn't think of myself as being bad-ass. I was just thinking of my character fighting for her life. If I was in that situation, I think I would do the same thing.'

Q: Did you have to go through any extensive fight training?

A: 'I didn't have to go through any training. My character is not a superhero so I didn't need any special skills or muscles. My character had to run, so I did a lot of interval training on the treadmill to make sure my lungs were okay.'

Q: There is a quite an intense motorcycle sequence that was shot in Manila with you and Jeremy Renner on a single motorbike. Was that you or a stunt double?

A: 'That was me doing it. We did a little practicing on the bike, but mainly we just did it. Every rehearsal was captured on film and they pieced together the best bits from each take. I had to do it 40, 50 times, so I was learning in the moment.'

Q: Your character is a scientist. Did you visit any real life scientists for research?

A: 'I met a woman who was a scientist and thought, 'Oh, she's just a human being like me. I could pretend to be her.' Then I had the job of understanding the science. That took a while because I'm not a scientist. I had to Google a lot of (terminology). I just had to really understand what it was I was saying. That took time alone in a room saying it over and over again until I understood it.'

Q: Was the shooting schedule pretty grueling?

A: 'It was pretty grueling. My character goes through a lot of stuff. Everyone gets murdered at her workplace, the FBI tries to kill her, then she burns down her house and goes on the run. Not a bundle of laughs!'

Q: Most of your scenes are with Jeremy. What was it like working with him?

A: 'Jeremy and I work in a very similar way. We don't like to analyze and talk about the scene before we do it. We never rehearsed, not for one second. We'd just come to do the scene, turn the cameras on and start doing it. We're coming from exactly the same place.'

Q: It must have been nice to take a break from the shoot and do something completely different and fantastical like playing witch Evanora in 'Oz.'

A: ''Bourne' is a particular brand of action. It's realistic. It looks and feels real. ('Oz') was a very, very different (type of) acting. The film is complete fantasy. I couldn't do any research. I couldn't meet any witches and go fly!'

(Reporting By Zorianna Kit, editing by Jill Serjeant and David Gregorio)



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Writer says bin Laden film, trailer not politically motivated

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Hollywood studio this week released a trailer for a film dramatizing the hunt for Osama bin Laden, but the film's screenwriter said the trailer was not meant to boost the campaign of President Barack Obama, who ordered the May 2011 commando raid in which bin Laden was killed.

Earlier this year, U.S. Representative Peter King, the Republican who chairs the House committee on Homeland Security, said the filmmakers had 'set out to tell a blockbuster, election year story about one of the most classified operations in American history.'

King expressed concern about the involvement of a 'Democratic lobbying firm' in 'brokering' access for the filmmakers to top officials.

But screenwriter Mark Boal said the film is a non-political account of the actions of the undercover operatives who hunted down bin Laden and eventually killed him. Obama is not even a character in the movie, he said.

Sony Pictures said the trailer for the film, titled 'Zero Dark Thirty,' was released on Tuesday. The studio posted the trailer, which runs for 1 minute 15 seconds, on YouTube.

The trailer is potentially controversial because official documents released by the government this year to a conservative group showed that Boal and film director Kathryn Bigelow were given background briefings by White House, Pentagon and CIA officials about the bin Laden operation.

Both the CIA and the Pentagon said at the time that their interactions with the filmmakers, who won an Oscar for the movie The Hurt Locker, were routine and normal.

A political controversy erupted when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd reported last year that the White House was 'counting on' the film to 'counter Obama's growing reputation as ineffectual.'

Dowd reported that the film was scheduled to open on October 12, about three weeks before the November presidential election. After her column was published, however, media reports said that the release date had been postponed until December.

In an email to Reuters on Wednesday, Boal confirmed that the film is scheduled for release in December. He said it was currently in post-production.

He said there was no political undertone to either the film or the timing of its release.

'The film has no partisan agenda,' Boal said.

'The suggestions otherwise are from people who are clueless about the film. This is about black ops operatives who carried out the secret hunt for UBL (bin Laden). It's not about the president.

'There's no actor running around playing Obama in our movie,' he added.

The screenwriter's assurances are unlikely to quiet Obama critics. Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, the conservative group which requested and obtained records of the filmmakers' dealings with administration officials, said he wanted more information.

'The trailer is sure to have a lot of fans in the Obama campaign. The pre-Election Day hype for the movie makes it all the more important to get the full truth about the secret and inappropriate access the Obama administration gave the filmmakers,' Fitton said.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; editing by Jim Loney)



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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

"Persepolis" director Marjane Satrapi to direct "The Voices"

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Marjane Satrapi will direct 'The Voices' for Mandalay Vision and Vertigo Entertainment, Mandalay confirmed on Tuesday.

This will be the first English language, live-action film for Satrapi, the director of 2007 animated Oscar nominee 'Persepolis.' Her first live-action feature, 'Chicken with Plums,' a French drama, opened overseas last year. Both films are based on graphic novels Satrapi wrote.

'The Voices' is a Black List script written by Michael R. Perry ('Paranormal Activity 2') that details a disturbed factory worker who goes on and off his medications. Told from the man's point of view, it mixes a dark subject matter with comedic notes.

Roy Lee's Vertigo first bought the script, and when Mandalay came aboard, they began looking for directors.

'We got lucky in finding the unique voice of Marjane Satrapi; she is a total visionary,' Mandalay Vision president Matt Rhodes told TheWrap. 'She is a character-driven, performance-driven filmmaker. The heightened sense of reality that Marjane works in is just perfect for this story.'

They will cast the psychological thriller in the coming weeks and view this as a film with commercial potential, especially given the right big-name actor in the lead.

It will start shooting next year at Berlin's Babelsburg film studio, which is where Satrapi shot 'Chicken with Plums.' The historic studio, setting for films such as 'Metropolis' and 'The Reader,' celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.



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James Cameron takes 3-D film venture to China

BEIJING (Reuters) - Oscar-winning director James Cameron said on Wednesday that he will open a joint venture in China to provide 3-D filming technology, the latest move by Hollywood to secure a foothold in the country's booming movie industry.

Box office revenues -- growing by leaps and bounds in China thanks to its fast-growing middle class -- have whet Hollywood's appetite despite complaints over government restrictions on access to screens, content control and piracy.

CPG China Division, the new arm of Cameron Pace Group, will offer Chinese film makers three-dimensional camera technology but will not be involved immediately in producing films, Cameron told Reuters in an interview.

'We're not going to tell Chinese film makers how to make movies. We are going to help them make a transition to 3D production technology as cost effectively as possible, and in a way that doesn't inhibit creativity,' he said.

Three-dimensional films, which enhance depth perception by being shot from two perspectives, gained in popularity during the 2000s and achieved a breakthrough with Cameron's 2009 blockbuster 'Avatar', a movie about blue aliens which set a $2.8 billion box office global earnings record.

Cameron also directed the second-highest grossing film of all time, the nautical disaster-romance starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, 'Titanic'.

Cameron said the deal was 'huge', though he would not give details on the amount of the investment or the venture's equity split with two state-owned entities -- film distributor Tianjin North Film Group and Tianjin Hi-tech Holding Group.

'This is a huge investment for us, as much in sweat equity ... as it is financially,' he said, noting that initial projects to 'build muscle' will focus on 3-D films highlighting Chinese cities.

The Cameron Pace Group, formed 12 years ago with camera guru Vince Pace, earned $58 million last year renting its 3-D cameras to crews producing films, concert videos and sports broadcasts.

A die-hard proponent of expanding 3-D viewership, Cameron said the ambitions of the Chinese partners, as well as Chinese state television eager to try out live 3-D broadcast technology, exceeded even his own.

'We think we're on the verge of a kind of media revolution. And we certainly have the enabling technology, we have the methodology, we've honed our skills.'

COPYCAT CONCERNS

The director's move follows a string of other high-profile Hollywood announcements in China.

The next 'Iron Man' film will be co-produced in China under a joint agreement between Walt Disney Co, Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment.

'Shrek' and 'Kung Fu Panda' creator DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc plans to open a 20 billion yuan ($3.14 billion) theme park in Shanghai by 2016 with Chinese partners.

U.S. film producers were excited about a deal hammered out during Vice President Xi Jinping's February visit to the United States that paved the way for the import of 14 premium format films, such as IMAX or 3-D.

If the deal is implemented, those films will be exempt from China's annual import quota of 20 foreign films per year, a concession offered by Beijing after losing a World Trade Organization dispute over media distribution in 2009.

Technology transfers have been a stumbling block for other foreign invested joint ventures in China, as companies have complained that handing over intellectual property is sometimes the price of admission to access China's huge consumer market.

CPG China Division will rely heavily on cutting edge cameras, but the director downplayed copycat concerns.

'That's certainly a danger. We are going to look very carefully at how we protect our core technology. But frankly ... it is changing so rapidly that you can clone what we are putting in the field now, but we'll be coming out with something new in 18 months, anyway,' he said.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)



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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

"Harry Potter" tops NPR's list of 10 best young adult novels

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The witchcraft and wizardry of the 'Harry Potter' series has entranced fans, who chose it as the greatest teen novels ever in an online poll conducted by NPR.

Results from the survey were released Tuesday.

The franchise grossed more than $2.3 billion in revenue from its film series.

And in a tally of more than 75,000 participants, the series beat out the second-placed 'The Hunger Games' and Harper Lee's third-placed 1960 classic, 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'

Newcomers to the list included No. 4, 'The Fault in Our Stars,' the story of a young cancer patient who falls in love with a boy whose leg was amputated. The author, John Green, also made it into ninth place with his earlier novel, 'Looking for Alaska.'

The rest of the top 10 list was dominated by fodder for high school literature classes.

J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' came in fifth, just as attention has been drummed up about the forthcoming film trilogy.

J.D. Salinger's loss-of-innocence novel 'Catcher in the Rye' placed sixth, tailed by Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings.'

'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury topped Markus Zusak's 2006 bestseller 'The Book Thief.'

The nominees were suggested by NPR's audience and a panel with The New York Times' Pamela Paul, the Onion's A.V. Club book editor Tasha Robinson, Publisher's Weekly staffer Diane Roback and librarian Ted Schelvan filtered down the 1,200 recommendations to a voting list of 235 books.



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Joss Whedon signs on to direct, write "Avengers 2"

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Joss Whedon has signed to write and direct 'The Avengers 2,' Disney Chairman Bob Iger said Tuesday.

In addition, Whedon will create a 'Marvel-based' series for ABC, Iger said during a conference call with analysts.

Whedon wrote and slid behind the camera on 'The Avengers,' which Iger called a 'phenomenal success' during the call. The adaptation of the Marvel Comics series has grossed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide.

Whedon's script and direction were praised by critics and fans for their light and often humorous touch.

Thanks largely to 'The Avengers,' the income at Disney's studio unit jumped to $313 million from $49 million a year earlier, during its most recent fiscal quarter. Overall, net income across all of Disney's divisions jumped 24 percent to $1.8 billion for the period.

Since purchasing Marvel for $4 billion three years ago, Disney has leaned heavily on the comic book maker as one of the pillars of its business, believing that the films it makes with its library of heroes will drive not just box office, but also revenue from theme park rides and toys.

Its upcoming film slate is peppered with films featuring the various characters from 'The Avengers.' Due out in 2013 are 'Iron Man 3' and 'Thor: The Dark World.' The next year will bring 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier,' and 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' a new super-group film.



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Ben Stiller to receive American Cinematheque award

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Ben Stiller had better brush off the tux, because the American Cinematheque said Tuesday that he will receive the organization's award for career achievement.

Stiller has been one of the most bankable comic stars in movies over the past decade, racking up hits like 'Meet the Parents' and 'A Night at the Museum,' while scoring with edgier fare like the profane and hysterical 'Tropic Thunder.' He has also shown a willingness to expand his range, starring in low-budget indies like Noah Baumbach's 'Greenberg.'

Stiller stars opposite Kristen Wiig and Sean Penn in next year's 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.'

In receiving the American Cinematheque honor, Stiller joins a list of prior honorees that includes such A-listers as Sean Connery, Steven Spielberg, Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and last year's recipient, Robert Downey Jr.

'Ben Stiller is a comedy icon whose wide-ranging talents include acting, directing, writing and producing,' Rick Nicita, American Cinematheque chairman, said in a statement. 'He entertains us in front of the camera with unforgettable performances in groundbreaking comedies such as 'There's Something About Mary' and franchises like 'Meet the Parents' and 'A Night at the Museum.''

The presentation, which will take place Thursday, November 15 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, will include tributes from some of Stiller's colleagues and friends. Funds raised as part of the benefit will support the American Cinematheque's film programming at non-profit theaters like the Aero and the Egyptian.



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