Well, this is very sad news – a huge Universal Studios fire broke out this morning, ravaging three movie sets on the New York City and New England street facades. The fire has been contained and no one was injured in the blaze.
The New York City facades were used for “Seinfeld” and “Sex and the City.” Additionally, the King Kong exhibit as well as the “Back to the Future” set were destroyed.
Tonight’s MTV Movie Awards will continue as planned, taking place at the Gibson Amphitheatre, which was unharmed in the Universal Studios fire.
A whole whack of ads ran during Superbowl Sunday yesterday, and many were for upcoming movies. Here’s a handy index of all the Superbowl Sunday movie ads. Each link will take you to a MovieCrunch page with a bit of info about each movie and an embedded video.
It’s probably no surprise that Miley Cyrus’ Hannah Montana 3D concert flick made the top of the box office this past weekend. The little diva-in-training is a hot performer these days. One youth, possibly uninspired by her,tried to hijack a plane with the intent of crashing it into the stadium he thought she was performing at.
Jessica Alba and The Eye, which also just opened, made it to second place – a bit surprising, considering the mixed reviews it has received. Even more surprising is that 27 Dresses is still in third place*. Eva Longoria Parker and Over Her Dead Body didn’t make it into the top ten. Juno with Ellen Page, Michael Cera and Jennifer Garner, moved back up this list.
[-] Hannah Montana/ Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour. Miley Cyrus.
While you might not hear about them, there are a LOT more filmmakers in the United States alone than you might realize. Something I read the other day said “150,000″, but I’m not even sure that that was a complete count. And then there are all the filmmakers in other countries. Read the rest of this entry »
Actress Sally Kirkland was hospitalized for exhaustion this past weekend but has been released. [TMZ]
The WGA writers’ strike might be coming to an end, with the DGA contract agreement having broken the ice. There’s nothing definite yet, but negotiations are supposedly resuming. Please end this now!! I’m sick of reality shows. [CBS News]
Is the blackjack movie 21 is an example of how Hollywood takes a real story and “glamorizes” it? Top Socialite suggests it is, taking the two Asian main characters in the book and changing their race and even gender, casting Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth. Read the rest of this entry »
Did I call it or what? Of the movies that opened this past weekend, Meet the Spartans topped the box office receipts, with Rambo in second, then Untraceable. Here’s the top ten in terms of box office receipts. (Notes:”[+]” means a movie was not in the top 10 last week, and “[-]” means the movie was just released. Rank considers box office receipts for the most recent weekend only, not cumulative since release.)
[-] Meet the Spartans. Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra.
It was no big surprise that Cloverfield was number one the previous weekend and also no big surprise – to me – that it has dropped to #4 this weekend, despite all the over-inflated hype. I’ll have reviews of Cloverfield and Untraceable today and tomorrow, respectively. A review of Meet the Spartans, National Treasure, Juno, Bucket List and I Am Legend should follow later in the week.
Some inside sources have told TMZ that Heath Ledger’s death this past Tuesday could have been from natural causes – possibly even a heart attack. [TMZ]
Fans of Knight Rider and David Hasselhoff can look forward to a TV movie on Feb 17th. Hasselhoff is still in negotiations. [IMDB]
Jessica Simpson is understandable upset about an OK! mag article that claimed Tony Romo dumped her. So she’s siccing her lawyers on them. [US]
Danny Glover was convicted Thursday of trespassing in relation to a 2006 protest in Niagara Falls, Canada. [SF Gate]
Imagine having 20 minutes to come up with and shoot a 2.5 minute movie idea around three objects, and then having an hour to edit. That’s what several teams of aspiring filmmakers had to do in France recently, as part of a competition. [Reuters]
Pregnant Halle Berry has appeared a lot in public lately without boyfriend Gabriel Aubry. However, he’s still in the picture, even if they haven’t decide where to raise the baby-to-be. In fact, while Berry does not want to get married again, she is happily wearing a $10,000 commitment ring that Aubry gave her. [SFGate Daily Dish]
Cityrag has some photos of incredible tattoo likenesses of Jessica Alba, Christopher Walken and other celebs. Also see Worth1000 for some interesting pics of Tara Reid, Jessica Alba, Vin Diesel, Kylie Minogue, Jessica Biel, Colin Farrell and others with their bodies covered with tattoos, thanks to Photoshop or something like it. Read the rest of this entry »
The WGA has dropped one of their demands, that reality and animation show writers be unionized. Looks as if we now know something more about the hierarchy of Hollywood. [TV Squad]
BurnAware Free is free CD/DVD burning software for MS-Windows (98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista 32, Vista 64) that includes support for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. [Download Squad]
Blatant T+A Dept: io9 has a collection of naked-babe pics from a couple of “Nerdcore” calendars that pay homage to various various video games or science fiction/ superhero movies. WARNING: VERY NSFW. [io9]
Here are the current top ten movies based on box office receipts from the past weekend. We’ve added some links to our own posts about each. The number in brackets represents the position last week, if available.
It’s no big surprise that Cloverfield tops the list and that 27 Dresses is near the top. Cloverfield has been ultra-hyped and J.J. Abrams is the executive producer of the much-loved Lost TV series. He also executive produced the Alias TV series (Jennifer Garner) and is producing and directing this year’s Star Trek prequel movie (the trailer for which supposedly appeared in Cloverfield screenings).
27 Dresses of course has Katherine Heigl, who’s obviously hot right now, thanks to movies like Knocked Up, and her role in the very popular Grey’s Anatomy TV series.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure which movie is more frightening.