Movie News
Universal Studios Home Entertainment Announces the Next Generation of Blu-ray Interactivity
Delivering on its promise to provide consumers an ever more immersive, dynamic and interactive Blu-ray experience, Universal Studios Home Entertainment (USHE) announced today the launch of an array of enhanced iPhone and iPod touch-enabled features and social web-based offerings with the release of upcoming titles Bruno, Funny People, 9, American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, Public Enemies, and Inglourious Basterds all available this holiday season. These innovations include the pocket BLU app, which offers iPhone and iPod users touch further enhancements to the Blu-ray experience, and social BLU, which offers Blu-ray users more ways to interact with their Facebook and Twitter networks through an Internet-connected Blu-ray player.
Additionally, USHE will unveil an all-new redesign of its BD-Live Center on Funny People, which makes the dynamic content on the multimedia portal easier to access, more engaging, and easier to use. On future releases, Universal will deliver even more innovative, exciting features based on these platforms, making Blu-ray(TM) discs more simple, fun, and sharable than ever before.
Winona Ryder Joins “Black Swan”
Winona Ryder has joined the cast of Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming supernatural thriller “Black Swan.”
Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey have also joined previously announced cast members Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.
The movie, set in the world of the New York City Ballet, centers on a talented ballerina (Portman) who is tormented by a rival (Mila Kunis) who might or might not be a figment of the dancer’s imagination.
Natalie Portman stars as Nina, a veteran ballerina who finds herself locked in to a competitive showdown with a rival dancer Mila Kunis (Lilly). Nina is not sure whether her rival is a supernatural apparition or if she is having delusions.
Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Nicole Kidman in “The Danish Girl”
Gwyneth Paltrow will play alongside Nicole Kidman in true-life transsexual drama “The Danish Girl.”
Tomas Alfredson (”Let the Right One In”) will direct the movie from a script by Lucinda Coxon based on David Ebershoff’s international bestseller.
The movie will center on the real life story of Danish painter Einar Wegener who became the first person to go through a sex-change operation to become a woman.
Kidman had already been attached to play Einar, and Paltrow, who replaces a previously-cast Charlize Theron, will play Gerda Gottlieb Wegener Porta, fashion illustrator, who stood by her partner through the sex-change operation.
Paramount Thanks Fans by Featuring Them in Credits on “Paranormal Activity” DVD and Blu-ray
As the nationwide phenomenon “Paranormal Activity” makes its way to the $100 million mark at the box office, Paramount Pictures is taking fan appreciation to new heights by giving back to the legion of moviegoers who helped to make the $15,000 movie a hit by featuring their names in the credits of the film’s DVD and Blu-ray editions.
Paranormal Activity Poster
“The success of “Paranormal Activity” would not have been possible without the million-plus fans who went to the ParanormalMovie.com official website and demanded the movie in their home town,”
says Amy Powell, Senior Vice President, Interactive Marketing, Paramount Pictures.
“They demanded the movie and they got it. So now we are giving them credit where credit is due.”
Sony Takes Risk: The Film of World Domination
Sony Pictures has acquired the film rights to the classic board game “Risk,” Another Hasbro board game which was invented in 1957 by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse as “La Conquete du Monde” (Conquest of the World). Two years later, in 1959, Parker Brothers (now a division of Hasbro) published the game we all came to know as “Risk.”
Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrad said:
Hasbro has already seen tremendous success with Transformers and GI Joe and audiences have shown a great desire for films that bring to life everything that has made these franchise properties stand the test of time.
George Clooney To Star In “The Descendants”
George Clooney is in discussions to head the cast of Alexander Payne’s comedy-drama “The Descendants.”
The movie marks Payne’s first movie since 2004’s Oscar winner “Sideways” and the first collaboration between Clooney and the director.
The movie centers on a wealthy revolves around a wealthy father who takes his two daughters on a trip to find his wife’s lover in the hope that it will keep his family together.
Screenplay for “The Descendants,” based on the debut novel of the same name by Kaui Hart Hemmings, is written by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.
Production is scheduled to start in February in Hawaii.
Alexander Payne, Jim Burke and Jim Taylor are producing through their shingle Ad Hominem.
Clooney, who is currently shooting Anton Corbijn-directed thriller “The American,” has three films set for release in the coming weeks – he is the voice of the title character in Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” movie, “Up in the Air” and can be seen in comedy “The Men Who Stare at Goats” from this Friday.
DreamWorks Studios and Doubleday Acquire Rights to “Robopocalypse”
DreamWorks Studios and Doubleday have acquired, in a pre-emptive deal, the rights to Daniel H. Wilson’s unpublished manuscript, “Robopocalypse,” it was announced today by Mark Sourian and Holly Bario, Co-Presidents of Production at the studio, and Jason Kaufman, Executive Editor and Vice President, at Doubleday.
DreamWorks acquired the film rights from literary manager Justin Manask and is putting the project into accelerated development. Kaufman acquired world publishing rights to “Robopocalypse” from Laurie Fox at the Linda Chester Literary Agency and a tentative 2011 publication date has been set for the book.
“Robopocalypse” explores the fate of the human race following a robot uprising.
Mark Sourian said:
“Daniel H. Wilson’s cautionary tale of man versus machine grabbed us from the very beginning”
“Wilson’s background in robotics and artificial intelligence grounds his story with a frightening level of realism and he has created an exhilarating story that we think audiences will really respond to.”
“As a book editor, you’re always looking for something unique and riveting to come across the transom,” said Jason Kaufman. “‘Robopocalypse’ is one of the most exciting and original novels I’ve read in a very long time. Daniel H. Wilson is not only a brilliant robotics engineer but also an extraordinary writing talent.”
