Fan Fare

Muggles beware! Pottermania is back

Muggles take note. A new and possibly unprecedented wave of Pottermania is about to hit movie goers, newspaper readers, Internet visitors and other innocent bystanders as Warner Bros gears up for the release of the eighth and final instalment of the Harry Potter film franchise.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2″ is released in theatres on July 15th, and brings to and end one of cinema’s most successful series. For the first time it’s in 3D and there will, there absolutely has to be, resolution of the question — Harry or Voldemort? — by the end.

For those of sturdy constitution, Warner is putting on the whole series again in select British cinemas, starting with “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” on Friday, July 8th and then running through the week until the launch of Deathly Hallows – Part 2 the folloing Friday. We can expect many more such announcements and celebrations in the coming weeks.

Of course, most of the world knows the answer to the key question posed above, as it was in the seventh and final book of the series created by J.K. Rowling. But the lack of a surprise ending is unlikely to dent the box office too badly, with experts predicting another ticket sale bonanza to bid farewell to the fictional boy wizard and his pals at Hogwarts.

That said, for all the impressive numbers — and in Hollywood terms, they are striking indeed — some studies suggest that attendance figures, as opposed to overall takings, have shown a sizeable decline in the United States over the 10-year life of the franchise. It will be interesting to see if the anticipation and marketing ahead of the final chapter help to reverse that trend.

Cannes – let the guessing game commence

Phew. Eleven days gone and the end is in sight at the Cannes film festival.

No, this is not a bad a assignment to have as a journalist, and no, we aren’t complaining, but yes, the end of the busiest festival  many of us can remember is a relief.

2011 has had it all — good movies (I can’t tell you my personal choices — this is Reuters!), big stars, great parties, huge interest from the outside world and a big dose of controversy.

The moment we will all remember above all else is the shock expulsion of Danish director Lars Von Trier for his strange outburst during a press conference in which he joked about being a Nazi, a Hitler sympathiser and used the phrase “final solution” to boot.

People variously found it funny, ill-advised, embarrassing, naive or just downright offensive. Kirsten Dunst, the star of Von Trier’s latest movie “Melancholia”, visibly squirmed as the director dug himself into a deeper and deeper hole. In subsequent interviews the arch-provocateur expressed a mixture of regret and defiance, and many of the festival’s reporters and critics disagree with Cannes’ decision to expel him.

That aside, there has been a string of hotly-discussed films — Melancholia itself, Terrence Malick’s epic “The Tree of Life”, the wonderfully comic “Le Havre” and “The Artist”, the touching “The Kid With a Bike”, the stylish “Drive”, subtle “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” and the radiant “The Source”.

All eight movies, and arguably two or three more, could win the top prize in Cannes when awards are handed out on Sunday evening, all for very different reasons.

Does director Malick exist?

Admittedly with tongue firmly in cheek, French reporters in Cannes for the film festival are pondering the unthinkable — does U.S. director Terrence Malick actually exist?

Most film makers are only too happy to share the limelight with their cast at the world’s biggest showcase, bathed in sunshine so far this year and the scene of an endless circus of screenings, press conferences and parties frequented by the beautiful people.

Not so Malick. The notoriously shy director’s “The Tree of Life”, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, is in competition this year and is one of the most talked-about movies at the festival so far. Only his fifth feature film and the first for six years, anticipation was high for a picture that tackles nothing less than the question of the meaning of life. Yet the 67-year-old “The Thin Red Line” director is nowhere to be seen. Pitt took most of the questions during the post-screening press conference, and Malick did not show on the red carpet.

Presenters on the festival’s official television channel joked that he may not actually exist. One said that Malick had been caught on camera briefly on Monday by a journalist who actually thought he was Brian de Palma.

Many reporters assumed Malick was not in Cannes, but French director Luc Besson suggested that the sighting may have been genuine. “He is shy, he’s just very shy,” he said on the red carpet before the world premiere of The Tree of Life. “He’s not far from here.”

Think your family’s bad? Cannes films beg to differ

This blog was written by Nick Vinocur in Cannes:

With jealous dads, sadistic sons and abandoned children in their key roles, many films in competition for the top prize at the Cannes film festival this year are taking on the very darkest sides of family life.

Two of the movies, Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and Israeli film “Footnote”, ask what happens when jealousy or hatred take the place of love and affection in a parent-child relationship.

“Footnote”, by director Joseph Cedar, is about an academic family in which father and son, both professors of Talmudic studies, end up hating one another due to jealousy over honours in their respective careers.

“We Need to Talk About Kevin” features a sadistic son who appears to hate his mother, played by Tilda Swinton, from the day he is born and does everything in his power to punish her, including a killing spree at his high school.

While “Footnote” takes a lighter tack, drawing laughs at its first screening in Cannes, neither movie gave the spectator any suggestion that in the end, love would prevail. To the contrary, in these families, the undertow of sadism or jealousy proves stronger than any filial bond — a dark view of modern family life on the filmmakers’ part.

In “The Kid With a Bike”, by Belgian filmmaking duo Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, there is a little more optimism — but not much. A 12-year-old boy moves mountains to locate a father who has abandoned him, only to be told that he is not wanted.

Woody back on form in Cannes. Phew!

I, along with just about every other reporter and critic in Cannes for the film festival this year, was a little nervous about Woody Allen being chosen to open the event with his romantic comedy “Midnight In Paris”. Many cinephiles feel the 75-year-old Oscar winner has failed to live up to his famously high standards in recent outings. In Britain, at least, “Match Point” was not much loved while “Cassandra’s Dream” was broadly unpopular.

But Midnight In Paris quickly won over the notoriously picky Cannes crowd at a press screening today, with laughter (in all the right places) and warm applause as the credits rolled on what he has described as his “love letter to Paris”. The surreal tale follows Hollywood scriptwriter Gil, played by Owen Wilson, who is in Paris and travels back in time each night to the 1920s, where he meets his heroes including Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald. As he grows closer to Picasso’s lover Adriana, played by Marion Cotillard, he moves ever further from his present-day fiancee, played by Rachel McAdams.

There are plenty of in-jokes for the culture vultures — it helps, for example, to know the paintings of Salvador Dali or the films of Luis Bunuel or the novels of Hemingway. But it’s not a must and the humour tends to work well, not least when Michael Sheen delivers the pretentious lines of odious intellectual snob Paul, an expert in everything and anything.

Wilson shares some of the classic Allen-as-actor mannerisms — the lost look and the uncertainty — but the differences are more striking. ”He’s the opposite of me,” Allen said of his central hero. “I’m very nervous and New York, he’s very West Coast, very blond, very ‘on the beach’, very athletic. He speaks nothing like me. If I got someone more like me we would have lost a dimension. He brought a dimension that was very different from what I imagined when I wrote it.”

Cannes organisers will be relieved to have got off to such a good start. Opening films have a habit  of putting a downer on the festival. In 2006, “The Da Vinci Code” had the honoured slot but bombed and cast a pall over the first few days of the 11-day cinema showcase. Not so in 2011. Phew.

Chilean miner rescue hits big screen in Berlin

Emblazoned on the cover of movie industry magazine Variety’s Berlin film festival daily publication today is a full-page advertisement for “Atacama’s 33″, a retelling of the incredible story of survival in Chile’s northern Atacama desert which ended in such dramatic fashion in October.

Boy, that was quick! It seems like yesterday that the 33 miners, trapped deep underground for two months, were hauled to safety in scenes watched by hundreds of millions of well-wishers around the world.

The movie industry has rarely been one to stand on ceremony, although there are a few exceptions. “The King’s Speech”, for example, was only made after the death of the Queen Mother, who had said that watching her husband’s story re-told on the big screen would have been too painful. For its makers, the long wait was worth it as the movie starring Colin Firth basks in critical and commercial success.

Whether “Atacama’s 33″ matches that glory remains to be seen — the first advertised screening in Berlin is tomorrow morning, with potential buyers or distributors likely to be the main target of today’s advertisement. Billed as “The story of how 33 miners bravely survived, as one nation rose to the challenge” to rescue them, the film comes from America Video Films, although the fact that its theatrical arm also looks like being involved suggests that its backers see the potential for a theatrical release.

Even if the movie makes it to cinemas, it is unlikely be the last movie adaptation of the story.

New Dads Elton John, David Furnish plan more movies

Now that they have baby Zachary to look after, Elton John and David Furnish may follow up their animated movie “Gnomeo and Juliet” with more kids’ films. Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John was born on Christmas Day at a Los Angeles hospital to a surrogate mother.

The celebrity couple produced the feel-good, gnome-infested take on William Shakespeare’s bleak tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”, and the film hits theatres in Britain and the United States on Feb. 11. At the London premiere this weekend, the couple walked the red carpet along with some of the stars who provided voices, including Emily Blunt, Stephen Merchant and Matt Lucas.

“We’d love to make more kids’ films. This has been really wonderful,” Furnish told reporters. “We’re very excited that in four or five years’ time, Zachary will be able to see this film … It is such a British film, it is lots of fun, the tongue is very firmly planted in the cheek and it is great to be here.”

Pop star John appeared relaxed about tinkering with one of the revered Bard’s most cherished works.

“We changed the ending,” he said. “We made it into the greatest love story ever told because the original one ends in tragedy and we had poetic licence with this one. I don’t think Bill (William) Shakespeare would have been upset with a gnome changing the ending.”

John, who is included on the music credits of the new movie, has previously found success with animated movie compositions. Three of his works for “The Lion King” were nominated for best original song Oscars, and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” eventually won the prize.

Critics curse Cage and “Season of the Witch”

Nicolas Cage has a reputation for dividing the critics. Some love him, others loathe him, and many love and loathe him in the same breath. No such confusion over his latest movie, however, with “Season of the Witch“, out Friday, winning almost universal scorn among critics.

The Oscar-winning actor plays a war-weary, disillusioned 14th century crusader charged with transporting a young girl to a remote monastery on the orders of the church, which believes she is a witch responsible for a devastating plague sweeping Europe. Cage is not so sure, and promises her a fair hearing when they get to their destination. Accompanied by his comrade-in-arms, played by Ron Perlman, Cage’s character Behmen faces collapsing bridges and fierce, diabolical wolves on his way through the forest, only to come up against even greater forces of evil at the abbey.

Reviewers have not been kind to Cage, with the Rotten Tomatoes critic aggregator site giving it a putrid three percent approval rating based on one positive review out of 36. And all on the actor’s 47th birthday as well.

The Wall Street Journal, perhaps harshly, compares it with the Ingmar Bergman classic “The Seventh Seal”, in which a knight plays chess with Death. “Mr. Cage’s knight ends up playing second banana to a digital devil. Welcome to the January dead zone,” its review concludes. The Daily Telegraph had this to say: ”The stench of plague is all around, unless that’s an aroma emanating from the script.”

Perez Hilton — does he deserve a second chance?

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton turned from snarky observer of celebrities into a news topic in his own right on Wednesday when he appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres” show (and spoke with Reuters) to declare he was ending his bullying of celebrities — gay and straight — after being labeled a hypocrite  by the gay community.

Hilton, 32,  said his change of heart was motivated primarily by his conflicting efforts to speak out against the rash of gay teen bullying, while enjoying a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most vicious gossips, and the man who helped “out” celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris and singer Lance Bass.

Hilton may be outspoken, but he is far from stupid — he admitted that he expected a lot of skepticism, and the loss of many readers,  now that his web site is less nasty than it used to be.

Hilton started out by apologizing via Twitter to Demi Moore — whose daughter Rumer has come in for more than her fair share of jibes from “Hollywood’s  most hated web site”.

“There’s too many to tell this to, but I thought I’d start with you. I’m sorry” Hilton said in a Tweet to Moore.

Good Charlotte” singer Joel Madden, also the boyfriend of Nicole Richie, was among the first celebrity to congratulate Hilton on his new positive stance. “way to be positive! Takes courage in a world filled with negativity”, Madden Tweeted.

New York gossip girl Kelly Will also congratulated Hilton on his “bold honorable choice.”

from Environment Forum:

Surprise ending to director’s oil sands visit

James Cameron did not meet expectations with his high-profile visit to Alberta's oil sands, and that's probably to the Canadian-born filmmaker's credit.

An earlier contention by the director of "Titanic" and "Avatar" that development of the massive energy resource was a black eye for Canada had industry supporters in a tizzy.

Surely, his trip to oil sands plants and native communities in the region would be just another example of some celebrity seeking to burnish his green cred without knowing the real story, they said.

On the other side of the emotional debate, some green groups staunchly opposed development expected Cameron to fully side with them. They had trumpeted comparisons between the oil sands and resource extraction portrayed on the fictional planet Pandora in "Avatar."

In the end, he proved them both wrong.

After his tour this week, he told Reuters he realized the complexities of what is the largest crude deposit outside the Middle East and a major environmental battleground, and that there are no easy answers.

Cameron impressed oil industry, environmental and political officials alike with a firm grasp of the key issues facing Alberta and Canada as the continent thirsts for the oil, and a pragmatic approach to many of them.