Monday, January 23, 2012
Vampire warrior snatches US box office crown
"Underworld Awakening," a movie about the exploits of a woman vampire
warrior, grabbed top North American box office honors in its opening
weekend, industry figures showed Sunday.
The 3D film starring Kate Beckinsale garnered $25.4 million at the box office, outmaneuvering the debut of "Red Tails," which recounts the World War II deeds of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots, with $19.1 million, said Exhibitor Relations.
The two new films pushed last week's top attraction, Mark Wahlberg's crime drama "Contraband," to third place with $12.2 million over the weekend.
"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," the Tom Hanks-Sandra Bullock story of a family impacted by the 9/11 attacks, brought in $10.5 million in its first weekend of wide release.
Rounding out the top 10 in the United States and Canada were action flick "Haywire" ($9 million), "Beauty And The Beast" in 3D ($8.6 million), "Joyful Noise" ($6 million), "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" ($5.5 million), "Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows" ($4.8 million) and "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" ($3.8 million).
The 3D film starring Kate Beckinsale garnered $25.4 million at the box office, outmaneuvering the debut of "Red Tails," which recounts the World War II deeds of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots, with $19.1 million, said Exhibitor Relations.
The two new films pushed last week's top attraction, Mark Wahlberg's crime drama "Contraband," to third place with $12.2 million over the weekend.
"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," the Tom Hanks-Sandra Bullock story of a family impacted by the 9/11 attacks, brought in $10.5 million in its first weekend of wide release.
Rounding out the top 10 in the United States and Canada were action flick "Haywire" ($9 million), "Beauty And The Beast" in 3D ($8.6 million), "Joyful Noise" ($6 million), "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" ($5.5 million), "Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows" ($4.8 million) and "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" ($3.8 million).
Damien Echols discusses life West of Memphis
By Zorianna Kit
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - Damien Echols was just a teenager when he and his two friends were tried and convicted of the murder of three young boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993, a case that became known as the West Memphis Three.
Echols, along with fellow teens Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, are thought by some to be innocent of the crime and over the years, several documentaries have been made about them. Support from "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson and other celebrities has helped raise awareness of their case.
Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were released from prison last August in a legal maneuver known as an "Alford Plea," whereby the men plead guilty in their own best interest while asserting innocence.
Now their case is the subject of a documentary, "West of Memphis," produced by Jackson, his wife Fran Walsh, along with Echols and his wife, Lorri Davis. The movie looks at their case, interviews them in jail and tracks them after leaving prison.
Over the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival for the world premiere of the film, Echols, now 37-years-old, sat down with Reuters to talk about the documentary, his old life on death row and what his newfound freedom has been like.
Q: When Peter Jackson began officially funding your defense in 2006, did you secretly wish this big-time filmmaker would make a documentary to bring more attention to the case?
A: "I didn't really think of that. One, I was too busy just trying to survive day to day in the environment that I was in. Also we had a lot of high-profile supporters and friends that have helped us over the years who chose to publicly stay behind the scenes. I thought perhaps that would have been the same in this case, but Peter and Fran both were extremely hands on. It's not like they just threw money at it and walked off. They were involved in every single step of the process from forensic testing to hiring investigators to come in and talk to the witnesses. So that's really all I was thinking about at the time. The first priority for us, and for them, was always the case. The film is the icing on the cake."
Q: In the documentary, you say your case is nothing out of the ordinary. It happens all the time. Why do you think the media spotlight shined on you three?
A: "I think it was because of the outrageousness of the claims the prosecution made in the beginning. They brought a lot of attention on the case with all the claims of satanic cults and orgies and all this sort of thing. That made people want to see what was going on in the case. In that way, their own strategy sort of backfired on them in the end."
Q: You were on death row and in solitary confinement, with only one hour out per day. How did that impact the filming?
A: "Whenever (director) Amy (Berg) came in, they told her she had one hour to do her interview. And they stood there and timed her. And as soon as an hour was up, they ran her out."
Q: And only one hour out a day out of solitary confinement?
A: "Well they say you get one hour out, but basically I was in a super maximum security prison. So what that means is for the hour out, they take you out of your cell and put you in another cell. So I wasn't outside at all in somewhere between 8 to 10 years."
Q: Any health issues as a result of that ?
A: "I'm slowly recovering due to better nutrition now, being able to get proper exercise and fresh air and things like that. But one of the things that was really damaged was my eyesight due to the fact of not having any natural light and not being able to see anything at a distance. It caused tremendous damage to my eyes."
Q: Are you getting any care now?
A: "Since I've been out we've been seeing doctors and dentists and trying to get me back to semi-normal. I had a lot of nerve damage in my teeth just from being beaten by prison guards. There's almost no dental care in prison. They don't do crowns or root canals or anything like that. If you're in pain, either you live in pain or you let 'em pull your teeth out."
Q: How do you move on? Is it even possible?
A: "I would like to do things, accomplish things that stand on their own merits. I don't mind having to talk about this stuff now. But at the same time I don't always want to be known for the rest of my life, as when my name comes up it being synonymous with, 'oh yeah, that's that guy who used to be on death row.' I want to do things in the art world and in the literary world that stand on their own merits, that aren't there just because of the freak show appeal."
Q: You've been out of jail for four months, and you've already taken a trip to Australia to visit Peter and Fran. Now you're at a film festival surrounded by snow!
A: "I haven't had it in almost 20 years now. It's one of the things that I absolutely missed the most. When I was sitting in that prison cell, I would think about how great it would be to see snow again. And now it finally happened."
Q: What are your plans for the future as husband and wife?
A: "Just to keep living, moving forward. Try to continue to grow as people and as a couple. And try to do whatever we can to bring more magic into our lives."
(Reporting By Zorianna Kit; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - Damien Echols was just a teenager when he and his two friends were tried and convicted of the murder of three young boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993, a case that became known as the West Memphis Three.
Echols, along with fellow teens Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, are thought by some to be innocent of the crime and over the years, several documentaries have been made about them. Support from "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson and other celebrities has helped raise awareness of their case.
Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were released from prison last August in a legal maneuver known as an "Alford Plea," whereby the men plead guilty in their own best interest while asserting innocence.
Now their case is the subject of a documentary, "West of Memphis," produced by Jackson, his wife Fran Walsh, along with Echols and his wife, Lorri Davis. The movie looks at their case, interviews them in jail and tracks them after leaving prison.
Over the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival for the world premiere of the film, Echols, now 37-years-old, sat down with Reuters to talk about the documentary, his old life on death row and what his newfound freedom has been like.
Q: When Peter Jackson began officially funding your defense in 2006, did you secretly wish this big-time filmmaker would make a documentary to bring more attention to the case?
A: "I didn't really think of that. One, I was too busy just trying to survive day to day in the environment that I was in. Also we had a lot of high-profile supporters and friends that have helped us over the years who chose to publicly stay behind the scenes. I thought perhaps that would have been the same in this case, but Peter and Fran both were extremely hands on. It's not like they just threw money at it and walked off. They were involved in every single step of the process from forensic testing to hiring investigators to come in and talk to the witnesses. So that's really all I was thinking about at the time. The first priority for us, and for them, was always the case. The film is the icing on the cake."
Q: In the documentary, you say your case is nothing out of the ordinary. It happens all the time. Why do you think the media spotlight shined on you three?
A: "I think it was because of the outrageousness of the claims the prosecution made in the beginning. They brought a lot of attention on the case with all the claims of satanic cults and orgies and all this sort of thing. That made people want to see what was going on in the case. In that way, their own strategy sort of backfired on them in the end."
Q: You were on death row and in solitary confinement, with only one hour out per day. How did that impact the filming?
A: "Whenever (director) Amy (Berg) came in, they told her she had one hour to do her interview. And they stood there and timed her. And as soon as an hour was up, they ran her out."
Q: And only one hour out a day out of solitary confinement?
A: "Well they say you get one hour out, but basically I was in a super maximum security prison. So what that means is for the hour out, they take you out of your cell and put you in another cell. So I wasn't outside at all in somewhere between 8 to 10 years."
Q: Any health issues as a result of that ?
A: "I'm slowly recovering due to better nutrition now, being able to get proper exercise and fresh air and things like that. But one of the things that was really damaged was my eyesight due to the fact of not having any natural light and not being able to see anything at a distance. It caused tremendous damage to my eyes."
Q: Are you getting any care now?
A: "Since I've been out we've been seeing doctors and dentists and trying to get me back to semi-normal. I had a lot of nerve damage in my teeth just from being beaten by prison guards. There's almost no dental care in prison. They don't do crowns or root canals or anything like that. If you're in pain, either you live in pain or you let 'em pull your teeth out."
Q: How do you move on? Is it even possible?
A: "I would like to do things, accomplish things that stand on their own merits. I don't mind having to talk about this stuff now. But at the same time I don't always want to be known for the rest of my life, as when my name comes up it being synonymous with, 'oh yeah, that's that guy who used to be on death row.' I want to do things in the art world and in the literary world that stand on their own merits, that aren't there just because of the freak show appeal."
Q: You've been out of jail for four months, and you've already taken a trip to Australia to visit Peter and Fran. Now you're at a film festival surrounded by snow!
A: "I haven't had it in almost 20 years now. It's one of the things that I absolutely missed the most. When I was sitting in that prison cell, I would think about how great it would be to see snow again. And now it finally happened."
Q: What are your plans for the future as husband and wife?
A: "Just to keep living, moving forward. Try to continue to grow as people and as a couple. And try to do whatever we can to bring more magic into our lives."
(Reporting By Zorianna Kit; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Another side of Ai Weiwei shown in Sundance film
By Christine Kearney
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - A new documentary film offers a glimpse into the life of Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, conveying a creative, brave, yet humble man who has become more cautious following his 81-day government detention in 2011.
"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," which premiered at the Sundance film festival on Sunday, features interviews China's leading artists and activists and people who surround Ai in is life.
It includes footage that humanizes the man, showing suprising tears from his mother worried about his safety, the artist playing with his young son, and highlights from his projects such as a poor response to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Ai, who was named the world's most powerful artist by U.K-based ArtReview magazine in October since his release, appears in interviews only before his detention, but not after his release.
The 54-year-old bearded, burly Chinese artist wanted to attend the Sundance screening "but felt it was just going to invite too much trouble," the film's director Alison Klayman told the audience after a standing ovation in Park City, Utah, where the festival takes place.
Ai became a symbol for China's crackdown on artists and dissidents when his disappearance and secret detention after battling Chinese authorities sparked an international outcry.
Last November he paid a bond of 8.4 million yuan (then $1.3 million) on a tax evasion charge, which he denies, while his supporters continued to raise the full, combined bill of 15 million yuan (then $2.4 million.)
Klayman spent several years chronicling his rise to prominence and told the audience she believed the detention of the artist, which became a rallying point for China's free speech and other movements, had changed him.
"There was absolutely a change. I really think about it as: there was the time before the detention and there was the time after," she said. "The big thing is that he is constantly changing, he always has been, so I don't know where it is going to end up."
INSIGHT INTO AI
The film offers audiences some insight into Ai's childhood, family, formative time spent living for years in New York and his reasons for often criticizing China's government, which is expressed in many of his contemporary works.
"If you don't act, the danger becomes stronger," says Ai, who had a hand in designing the Bird's Nest stadium at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and has had installations at some of the world's major museums including London's Tate Modern Gallery.
"Never Sorry" shows his efforts gathering and listing more than 5,000 names of students who died in the Sichuan earthquake,
pointing to shoddy school construction and claiming that he was punched in the head by police in Sichuan's capital Chengdu.
But it also offers glimpses of a loving father and stoic son rarely publicly separated from his art and activism.
"Every night I can't sleep," his mother, Gao Ying, says to him in the film before breaking down in tears because she is worried she will not see him again.
"We'll endure what we can," he answers calmly, before later calling himself "an eternal optimist."
Klayman, who doubted there would be a public screening of the film in China, told the audience it was clear that being a father had altered Ai's life, too, along with detention.
He seems more careful, she said, when talking about footage in the documentary showing that upon his release, Ai uncharacteristically speaks little to reporters.
"He does have to be a lot more cautious. If this was a year ago he would be here," said Klayman.
(Reporting By Christine Kearney; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - A new documentary film offers a glimpse into the life of Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, conveying a creative, brave, yet humble man who has become more cautious following his 81-day government detention in 2011.
"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," which premiered at the Sundance film festival on Sunday, features interviews China's leading artists and activists and people who surround Ai in is life.
It includes footage that humanizes the man, showing suprising tears from his mother worried about his safety, the artist playing with his young son, and highlights from his projects such as a poor response to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Ai, who was named the world's most powerful artist by U.K-based ArtReview magazine in October since his release, appears in interviews only before his detention, but not after his release.
The 54-year-old bearded, burly Chinese artist wanted to attend the Sundance screening "but felt it was just going to invite too much trouble," the film's director Alison Klayman told the audience after a standing ovation in Park City, Utah, where the festival takes place.
Ai became a symbol for China's crackdown on artists and dissidents when his disappearance and secret detention after battling Chinese authorities sparked an international outcry.
Last November he paid a bond of 8.4 million yuan (then $1.3 million) on a tax evasion charge, which he denies, while his supporters continued to raise the full, combined bill of 15 million yuan (then $2.4 million.)
Klayman spent several years chronicling his rise to prominence and told the audience she believed the detention of the artist, which became a rallying point for China's free speech and other movements, had changed him.
"There was absolutely a change. I really think about it as: there was the time before the detention and there was the time after," she said. "The big thing is that he is constantly changing, he always has been, so I don't know where it is going to end up."
INSIGHT INTO AI
The film offers audiences some insight into Ai's childhood, family, formative time spent living for years in New York and his reasons for often criticizing China's government, which is expressed in many of his contemporary works.
"If you don't act, the danger becomes stronger," says Ai, who had a hand in designing the Bird's Nest stadium at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and has had installations at some of the world's major museums including London's Tate Modern Gallery.
"Never Sorry" shows his efforts gathering and listing more than 5,000 names of students who died in the Sichuan earthquake,
pointing to shoddy school construction and claiming that he was punched in the head by police in Sichuan's capital Chengdu.
But it also offers glimpses of a loving father and stoic son rarely publicly separated from his art and activism.
"Every night I can't sleep," his mother, Gao Ying, says to him in the film before breaking down in tears because she is worried she will not see him again.
"We'll endure what we can," he answers calmly, before later calling himself "an eternal optimist."
Klayman, who doubted there would be a public screening of the film in China, told the audience it was clear that being a father had altered Ai's life, too, along with detention.
He seems more careful, she said, when talking about footage in the documentary showing that upon his release, Ai uncharacteristically speaks little to reporters.
"He does have to be a lot more cautious. If this was a year ago he would be here," said Klayman.
(Reporting By Christine Kearney; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt trade views on filmmaking
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - They're arguably Hollywood's highest-profile
couple, so it's only natural that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would
privately discuss the art and business of filmmaking. According to Pitt,
they don't always agree.
Speaking with Reuters at Saturday's Producers Guild Awards in Beverly Hills, Pitt said that he and Jolie, who are each busy on both sides of the camera as well as raising six children together, will talk shop at the end of a long day.
"Usually we argue shop every now and then," Pitt said, noting that they tend to differ in their approach. "She's much more decisive, she's much more quick. I've got to see everything. I've got to shop the entire eBay to know exactly what I want and what I need."
When he's stumped, Pitt said, "I'll always go to her and talk it out."
Jolie, who received the guild's Stanley Kramer Award for her directorial debut, "In the Land of Blood and Honey," said Pitt's role as a producer calls for different skills. He produced and starred in "Moneyball," one of the 10 films nominated for the Producers Guild's top prize.
"I had to direct, I think it's different. I think he'd execute properly if he was the director," Jolie said. "But I do like to think of myself as decisive, so I'll take that."
Regarding her first work in the director's chair, a love story set amid the harrowing destruction of the Bosnian War, Jolie said her intention "wasn't to make a political statement against anybody. It was simply to say, 'We must talk about what happened, we must try to learn from what happened, we must try to see humanity on all sides,' and if we can, then we can start to move forward."
On the other hand, Jolie admitted that she was "fascinated" by a political matter somewhat closer to home: the Republican presidential race.
"There's that part of us that's wanting to learn about what's going on, and wanting to see who could possibly be the next president, and taking that very seriously, which it is. And then there's that other part of it that is this strange television ... these characters that we're watching. So you try to kind of separate that," Jolie said, adding that "it goes into the bizarre sometimes."
(Reporting by Phil Furey, writing by Sheri Linden; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Speaking with Reuters at Saturday's Producers Guild Awards in Beverly Hills, Pitt said that he and Jolie, who are each busy on both sides of the camera as well as raising six children together, will talk shop at the end of a long day.
"Usually we argue shop every now and then," Pitt said, noting that they tend to differ in their approach. "She's much more decisive, she's much more quick. I've got to see everything. I've got to shop the entire eBay to know exactly what I want and what I need."
When he's stumped, Pitt said, "I'll always go to her and talk it out."
Jolie, who received the guild's Stanley Kramer Award for her directorial debut, "In the Land of Blood and Honey," said Pitt's role as a producer calls for different skills. He produced and starred in "Moneyball," one of the 10 films nominated for the Producers Guild's top prize.
"I had to direct, I think it's different. I think he'd execute properly if he was the director," Jolie said. "But I do like to think of myself as decisive, so I'll take that."
Regarding her first work in the director's chair, a love story set amid the harrowing destruction of the Bosnian War, Jolie said her intention "wasn't to make a political statement against anybody. It was simply to say, 'We must talk about what happened, we must try to learn from what happened, we must try to see humanity on all sides,' and if we can, then we can start to move forward."
On the other hand, Jolie admitted that she was "fascinated" by a political matter somewhat closer to home: the Republican presidential race.
"There's that part of us that's wanting to learn about what's going on, and wanting to see who could possibly be the next president, and taking that very seriously, which it is. And then there's that other part of it that is this strange television ... these characters that we're watching. So you try to kind of separate that," Jolie said, adding that "it goes into the bizarre sometimes."
(Reporting by Phil Furey, writing by Sheri Linden; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Govt of Pakistan plans to make documentary film on Arifa Karim
Awan said that President Asif Ali Zardari would give one million to Arifa Karim Foundation.
By M. Haroon Abbas Qamar
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