Indian Media Conglomerate to Fund Spielberg's New DreamWorks
An Indian media conglomerate is stepping forward as a backer for Steven Spielberg's dream to re-start Dreamworks as an independent studio. It costs a lot of money to run a movie studio and finding backers in today's economy isn't easy. Except for Steven Spielberg, who is sort of a one-man hit machine who also knows how to win Oscars.
The principals of DreamWorks SKG are close to a deal with one of India's biggest entertainment conglomerates to form a new movie venture, according to people familiar with the situation, a move that would give director Steven Spielberg the cash to finance his DreamWorks team's departure from Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures later this year.
Mumbai-based Reliance ADA Group would provide Mr. Spielberg and company with $500 million to $600 million in equity, moving them one step closer to ending one of Hollywood's most contentious and closely watched battles. In Reliance, the DreamWorks team also would have an unusual and ambitious partner in the film business: an Indian firm with interests in telecommunications, financial services and entertainment that wants to build a media empire by financing Hollywood pictures.
The deal amounts to a marriage of some of the biggest names in the Hollywood and Indian business worlds, with Reliance getting a large stake in the new company. DreamWorks, which makes live-action films that have included last year's "Blades of Glory" and "Dreamgirls" in 2006, would likely seek another $500 million or so in debt financing elsewhere to give its new venture enough money to make a slate of about six films a year. The company would then choose a studio to distribute the films, which is still an open question. General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures, where Mr. Spielberg began his career, is thought to be the director's preference to release his future works, but News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox also is thought to be a serious contender.
Spielberg and David Geffen have signaled that they are going to leave Paramount as soon as their contracts are up. With Wall Street financing drying up and the U.S. economy in a recession, foreign buyers are picking up all kinds of great deals: from landmark Manhattan skyscrapers to owning a piece of the legendary SKG DreamWorks (their deal with Paramount allows them to take their name back if they leave). The deal isn't done yet, but the negotiations alone prove that globalization is alive and well.
New Line Cinema just got absorbed
into Warner Bros. It will be an independent film company no more.
Roll the credits on New Line Cinema, the 40-year-old studio behind such iconic movie franchises as "The Lord of the Rings," "Austin Powers" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
The company will lay off hundreds of employees between its Los Angeles and New York facilities and be merged into its corporate sibling, Warner Bros.
The consolidation marks the end of the line for the once scrappy producer that prided itself on taking creative risks that other studios wouldn't. But in recent years New Line strayed from its street-smart roots with a slew of costly flops that ended its role as a big-time player in the volatile movie business.
In a sign of retrenchment that is increasingly prevalent in Hollywood, the company will now focus on making fewer movies limited to the kind of smaller, low-cost "genre" horror and comedy pictures upon which it built its name.
New Line becomes the latest free-standing Hollywood studio to abandon its ambitions as a full-fledged company in a market in which bloated overhead and soaring production and marketing costs have squeezed profits amid flat movie attendance and sagging DVD sales.
It comes just as the studio is to release today what could be one of its most promising comedies in a long time, the basketball spoof "Semi-Pro" starring Will Ferrell.
New Line has 600 employees, many of whom will be let go. New Line won't have the power to greenlight, market or distribute new films. And everything has to be cleared through Warner Bros. It's a sad day for New Line employees, that's for sure.
Film critic Joel Siegel has died
at the age of 63, after a long battle with colon cancer.
Surrounded by family and friends, ABC's beaming and insightful movie critic Joel Siegel has died in New York, after a long and remarkably courageous struggle with cancer, at the age of 63.
Both colleagues and fans delighted in his unique way of blending cheerful good humor and piercing critical acumen in reviews that made them instantly clear to anyone. You knew exactly what he thought -- often with the bonus of a good laugh.
In a statement today, ABC News President David Westin said, "Joel was an important part of ABC News and we will miss him. He was a brilliant reviewer and a great reporter. But much more, he was our dear friend and colleague. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family."
Joel Siegel's battle with colon cancer was borne with such astonishing courage and humor that he almost tricked his colleagues around the office into forgetting his struggle.
Still at work only two weeks before his death, he had this reporter and several others chortling in an elevator over a line he was about to broadcast about there being so many new penguin movies lately that soon they would outnumber the penguins themselves.
With his trademark style -- a bright but very business-like cheerfulness -- Joel Siegel delivered his swift judgments with a self-confidence and wit so finely phrased it made his reviews a pleasure to listen to just for the quick precision of his language.
He was the master of the unambiguous thumbnail review, whether delivering flowers:
-- "The Pursuit of Happyness" gets a C for spelling and an A for acting. It could also get an Oscar for Will Smith."
-- "Letters from Iwo Jima" is the only contemporary film I've ever reviewed that I felt safe calling a masterpiece. It's not about the enemy, it's about humanity, and Clint Eastwood proves you don't have to understand the language to understand the heart."
... or bombs:
-- "The appeal of Matthew McConaughey has long evaded me both as a pinup and as an actor. His constant ticks, bad hair and strained syntax as a coach fumble what should have been the tragic and inspirational story of the rebuilding of Marshall University's football team after a devastating plane crash."
Conan O'Brien recently visited the San Francisco-based headquarters of Lucasfilm in this two-part series of video clips from NBC. The second video clip is especially entertaining. Conan gets to put on a special suit and play Lucasfilm's Schwa and C3PO digital characters. The segment was written and directed by George Lucas.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is now helping out some of the medical dramas on TV get their facts straight. Apparently there have been some episodes where the facts were totally wrong. And that makes the CDC very grumpy.
Surveys show that most people believe the medical information they see on television dramas and soap operas. With fictional TV shows playing such a powerful role in public health education, the government is dedicated to keeping an eye on what Hollywood says. That’s why the CDC is one of four government health agencies that fund the “Hollywood, Health & Society” program at the University of Southern California. The program has an annual budget of nearly $564,000.
It's run by a former CDC employee, Vicki Beck, but the real "talent" are government health officials and other medical experts the program sets up with writers of daytime soap operas, nighttime dramas and other shows.
To be sure, many TV shows consult with doctors, lawyers and others professionals on plot details. Some even hire physicians to be writers. The executive producer of “Law & Order: SVU” is an MD.
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The CBS show Numbers is one example. Numbers writer David Harden called, saying he was pursuing a plotline about black market profiteering in human organs. TV writers like the topic because of it's dramatic potential and persistent hold on the public imagination: Who hasn’t heard the urban myth about the man who meets a hot woman in a bar and wakes up in a bathtub full of ice?
Health officials, however, hate it. They say there is no black market in organs in the United States, and dramatizing the idea may dissuade Americans from becoming organ donors.
But the program took Harden's call and convinced some experts to talk to him. One in particular was skeptical of the plot idea at first, Harden recalled, but answered every question.
The resulting show, which aired in January 2006, was about an international black market that provided detailed information on how the national organ matching program works. Health officials deemed it a success: In a subsequent online survey of about 160 people who said they were not organ donors, 10 percent said they had decided to become donors after watching the episode.
We saw that episode -- it was a good one. But we still believe that meeting a hot woman in a bar could result in waking up in a tub of ice, missing a kidney. It could happen.
Roger Ebert is ready to go back to work, after a long year recovering from cancer surgery. He writes about his ordeal on his website, RogerEbert.com.
Nine months ago I was leaving Northwestern Memorial hospital after surgery for salivary cancer. I was planning to be back in action in a few weeks, but unfortunately, there were complications, and more medical procedures resulted. I was in bed so long that I experienced serious deconditioning that led to a stint at the famous Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
I began my rehabilitation there, and I am continuing it, along with an overhaul of my general health, at the Pritikin Center in Florida. Also, because of a tracheostomy, my speaking voice is on hold until my upcoming completion surgery. I am feeling better every day and my wife Chaz says we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
During this difficult period it was important for me to write some reviews for the Sun-Times, and I was happy to continue my "Outguess Ebert" contest for the Academy Awards. It was also important for me to make contributions to WLS, ABC-7. At "Ebert & Roeper" with my approval we are using a revolving selection of critics and filmmakers to spar with my partner, Richard Roeper, and I tune in, just like you, to be entertained and informed. After the autumn publication of "Awake in the Dark" and "Movie Yearbook 2007" I have yet another new book being published this month: "Your Movie Sucks," reviews of movies I hated.
I am happy to say my Ninth Annual Overlooked Film Festival will be held as scheduled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign April 25-29. I'll be there, but friends and colleagues will take over the onstage Q&A duties. I'll watch from the audience. I think of the festival as the first step on my return to action. Because I will be under scrutiny there, I'll tell you what to expect: a sick guy, getting better, who still loves the movies and the festival.
This has been a long and unexpected ordeal, made better by many kind and gifted doctors and nurses, led by the incomparable Dr. Harold Pelzer, Dr. Robert Havey, and Dr Neil Fine, and above all by the selfless and loving care of my wife, Chaz.
I plan to gradually increase my duties in the months to come. I still love writing about the movies. Forty years is not enough.
Get well soon, Roger! Forty years really isn't near enough.
Variety reports that Indian media conglomerate UTV Motion Pictures will help finance M. Night Shyamalan's next film, which is entitled The Happening. The thriller is produced by Fox.
UTV confirmed that it will distribute the $57 million-budgeted pic in India and share in worldwide revenues, while Fox distributes worldwide.
Fox boarded the pic earlier this month. UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala, who was introduced to Shyamalan via CAA, flew to Philadelphia prior to Fox's commitment to hammer out a deal with Shyamalan.
"Fox is perfect because they have such strength in distribution and they see the film as a real tentpole for next summer," Screwvala said. Pic, which was based on a spec script, is skedded for release in summer 2008.
Shyamalan plans to lens "Happening" principally in Philadelphia, where he has shot most of his movies. But UTV isn't concerned that the pic won't have an Indian theme. "It is our ambition to be involved with Indian world directors," Screwvala said.
Shyamalan needs a hit -- The Lady in the Water was a critical and box office disaster.
Here is the list of the Oscar award winners for the 79th annual Academy Awards. It was a big night for The Departed which won four awards including Best Picture. One of The Departed's Oscars went to Martin Scorsese who finally won a much deserved Oscar for Best Director. Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth also had a big night winning two awards: one for Best Documentary and one for Original Song.
Best Picture: The Departed (Warner Bros.) Graham King, Producer
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed (Warner Bros.)
Nicole Kidman is now the
highest paid actress, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Oscar winner, who earns as much as $17 million per movie, tops the fifth annual list of highest-paid actresses released Wednesday by The Hollywood Reporter.
Kidman, 39, ranked second on last year's list behind four-time top-earner Julia Roberts, who didn't make the list this year. She spent time with her 2-year-old twins.
In second place, with $15 million per movie, was Reese Witherspoon, 30, who won the best-actress Oscar this year for her performance in "Walk the Line."
Renee Zellweger, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively. They also get $15 million for each film.
Rounding out the top 10 are Halle Berry ($14 million), Charlize Theron ($10 million), Angelina Jolie ($10 million), Kirsten Dunst ($8 million to $10 million) and Jennifer Aniston ($8 million).
The list will appear in the Women in Entertainment Power 100 issue to be published by The Hollywood Reporter on Dec. 5.
Good for Nicole! It's nice to see how well she's done afer the Tom Cruise divorce nightmare.
Lindsay Lohan appears on The Oprah Winfrey Show today to promote her new movie, Bobby. Emilio Estevez, the director, also appears. Linsday talks about the movie, her goals and her party girl reputation.
Lindsay recently told In Style magazine that by age 30 she wants to find true love, have a house to call home, and win an Oscar®. Lindsay admits she said those things, but in a casual manner. "I'd like to. I don't hope for everything—I'm setting extreme standards for myself," she says.
Is Lindsay's reputation as a so-called party girl true? "No. I mean, I've been acting my whole life. And this is what I love to do. And I'm very lucky and blessed to be able to do that," Lindsay says. "I'm 20 years old. Is it a crime to go…dancing with your friends? It's not. I have a life and I have my family and I have work and I have those three things."
Emilio says Lindsay was great to work with—and was always on time. "The media likes to focus on [the negative] because it sells. And the fact of the matter is I'd rather have them focus on how extraordinary she is in this film and how dedicated and how passionate she is in this role," Emilio says. "You see a young actress mature on film and you see her do, I think, the best work of her life."
You can read more about today's show and the film Bobby on Oprah.com.
Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner Take Over United Artists
Variety reports that Tom Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner are set to revive United Artists, the studio that was originally founded to be run by artists but which is now a unit of MGM. Cruise will star in and produce the films, and Wagner will serve as CEO.
In its new incarnation, U.A. will produce four pics a year, a number that eventually increase. The films will be marketed and distribbed by MGM.
Cruise and Wagner will control the development, production and greenlighting of U.A. films, though subject to certain parameters.
Cruise/Wagner Productions had long been based at Paramount, but exited the Melrose lot in August when Par would not re-up the deal at the $10 million annual rate the duo had been receiving. The split became national news when Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone publicly chastised Cruise for his "inappropriate" behavior and said the star’s salary was too high considering the current economics of the movie industry.
News is the latest development at MGM since chairman-CEO Harry Sloan took over the studio last year and has been aggressively rebuilding the company into a distribution and marketing entity.
That's definitely a surprise move by Cruise -- he's apparently been working very hard to replace that Paramount deal. Meanwhile, Sumner Redstone has said that one of the main reasons he fired Cruise was because of his wife who, along with many other women, absolutely despises Cruise because of his Brooke Shields/anti-psychiatry/anti-medication rants.
Paramount Studios boss Sumner Redstone's wife convinced him to end the studio's relationship with Tom Cruise, because she "and women everywhere had come to hate him."
*****
In a new interview with Vanity Fair magazine, Redstone insists he has no regrets about his public ditching of Cruise.
He says, "He was embarrassing the studio. And he was costing us a lot of money. $100 million, $150 million on 'Mission: Impossible III.' It was the best picture of the three, and it did the worst."
Explaining his wife's role in the decision, he adds, "Paula, like women everywhere, had come to hate him. The truth of the matter is, I did listen to her. His behavior was entirely unacceptable to Paula and to the rest of the world. He just didn't turn one (woman) off. He turned off all women, and a lot of men.
"When did I decide (to fire him)? I don't know. When he was on the 'Today' show? When he was jumping on a couch at Oprah? He changed his handler, you know, to his sister (LeAnne Devette) -- not a good idea.
"The explosion was good. It sent a message to the rest of the world that the time of the big star getting all this money is over. And it is! I would like to think that what I did, or what we did, has had a salutary effect on the rest of the industry."
Network executives have a bad case of TV-Attention Deficit Disorder. They are now deciding
whether to cancel or renew a television series based on as little as two episodes, which is just absurd.
The box office mentality that's plagued the feature world for years has spread to the small screen.
Like their film counterparts, webheads have recently grown increasingly impatient, frequently condemning shows to death -- or declaring them "hits" -- after seeing just a few weeks of Nielsen data.
CBS, for example, pulled the John Wells-produced Ray Liotta vehicle "Smith" last week after just three airings (Daily Variety, Oct. 5). On the other end of the spectrum, NBC opted to announce a full-season order for comicbook caper "Heroes" on Thursday after just two episodes had aired.
"Everybody seems anxious to declare something a hit or miss after one or two weeks," a network exec said. "But we all know we need to be patient with certain shows and temper our expectations."
Still, webheads know it's harder for shows to find themselves over time these days -- hence their itchy trigger fingers. Viewers have so many options that nets need to see some sign that they're coming to a show, or might still be convinced to sample a show, in order to resist pulling the plug.
"Give me a reason to be patient," one longtime ratings warrior said last week.
That attitude's particularly prevalent this year, as serialized shows dominate the fall pack. Series that practically demand auds show up week after week to keep up with storylines can foster viewer loyalty. But if people don't show up in the first place -- or if they uniformly reject that first episode -- it's unlikely they're going to show up later, given how difficult it is to catch up on a serialized skein.
"The theory is, if you don't get viewers pretty early, they're not going to come in down the road," said one net exec. "If you don't have critical mass to start from, you're never going to get to where you need to be."
The tight race for adults 18-49 has also stepped up the competish, as one or two underperforming shows can make the difference between worst and first.
Helping feed the frenzied atmosphere behind such hair-trigger decision-making: intense scrutiny of the ratings race by both the media and the blogosphere
Oh, sure. Blame it on the blogosphere. It's not our fault that network execs are so scared of their own shadows that they won't take a chance on a show building an audience over time, as did Seinfeld.
In the wake of Mel Gibson's drunk driving arrest, anti-Semitic tirade, fervent apology and even more fervent apology, Hollywood is buzzing about the effect that the incident will have on Mel's career.
More specifically, how will it affect his upcoming film, Apocalypto, which is being distributed by Disney?
And what do the pros think he'll have to do to be forgiven by the Jewish community and by the film-going public? Time magazine consulted a few experts who had some suggestions:
1) Apologize to the people who write your paychecks: When New York Yankee slugger Jason Giambi was accused of using steroids, he expressed remorse first to his bosses, Yankee owner George Steinbrenner and the team's coaches. By staying in the organization's good graces, Giambi was able to stay on the playing field and win back fan support. "You've got to get to the people making decisions about your career," says Chris Lehane, onetime spinmeister for the Clinton White House. Gibson has already apologized to Disney, the studio releasing his film Apocalypto in December. He should keep on reaching out to his professional contacts, Lahane says. Gibson needs to show that he cares about their investment in him.
2) Apologize to your public. Rinse. Repeat. "Our country doesn't like its celebrities to be hate-mongers," says Howard Rubenstein, who has handled publicity for clients like Naomi Campbell, Leona Helmsley (and TIME magazine). "The public is quick to forgive and forget, but in this case, he may need to ask for forgiveness repeatedly." Gibson has already started this process, issuing two statements within days of the offending comments, the second more specific and remorseful than the first.
*****
4) Bare soul on camera. Once he has done the requisite soul-searching in private, Gibson should go beyond written statements and get in front of a camera to reaffirm his apology, says Lehane. "You need the emotional element that TV provides. That allows you to begin the process of turning the page."
5) Be a do-gooder. Through philanthropy, public appearances and film-making, Gibson has many avenues to express his remorse in deed, as well as word. "Maybe he goes to Israel or makes a powerful film about Israel," says Michael Sitrick, who has managed p.r. crises for Rush Limbaugh, Halle Berry and the Los Angeles Dodgers. "Maybe he does something with the Museum of Tolerance. But he has to show, not tell us, that he's sorry."
The pros say that he also really has to be sorry and that it will take a long time to recover. Unless, of course, Apocalypto breaks all box office records. Then all will be forgiven in Hollywood. And stop looking at us like that. What, you don't believe that money washes away all sins in La La Land?
Richard Johnson of Page Six
reports on the feud between Post film critic Joel Siegel and Kevin Smith, director of Clerks and Clerks 2.
Siegel hated Clerks II so much that he walked out of the screening, declaring the film to be "smut." But that wasn't all -- he yelled "Time to Go!" and tried to get the other critics to leave the screening, as well. Smith was not amused.
"Time to go!" roared Siegel to his fellow critics. "First movie I've walked out of in 30 [bleeping] years!" His tirade came 40 minutes into the long-awaited Weinstein Company sequel to Smith's 1994 cult classic about two foul-mouthed Long Island convenience store clerks who razz customers and goof off.
In the scene that sent Siegel to the exit, the characters graphically discuss hiring a woman to perform sexual favors on a donkey. Siegel told Page Six: "It was so foul and mean and repulsive. I finally realized I could not say anything positive . . . I wasn't ready for this kind of smut . . . I hope he doesn't make any more movies."
An apoplectic Smith fired back on his MySpace blog: "Getting a bad review from Siegel is like a badge of honor. This is the guy who stole his mustachioed-critic shtick from Gene Shalit years ago, and still refuses to give it back. This is a guy who seemingly prides himself on his own nyuk-nyuk wordplay. For 'Pirates 2,' he made us all titter with 'Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Fun' . . . He made us squeal with delight when he wrote, 'Wheelie Good Time for "Cars." ' I mean, Fozzy [bleeping] Bear laughs at this guy."
And there's more: "I don't need Joel Siegel to [bleep] my [bleep] the way he apparently [bleeps] M. Night Shyamalan's, gushing over his flick ['The Lady in the Water'] before he's even seen it, but [bleep] man, man - how about a little common [bleeping] courtesy? You never, never disrupt a movie, simply because you don't like it. Cardinal rule of moviegoing: Shut your [bleeping] mouth while the movie's playing.
"I don't come down to your job and slap the taste out of your mouth for coming up with a line like, ' "Shark Tale" Is a Halibut Good Time' - so don't [bleep] with my stuff while it's still screening . . . What are you, a 12-year-old boy cutting loose with your pals at a Friday night screening of 'Scary Movie' 4' while your parents are in a theater down the hall watching 'The Devil Wears Prada'? Leave the diva-like behavior and drama-queen antics to the movie stars, not the movie reviewer, ya' rude-ass [bleep]."
Yikes. What was Siegel thinking? I mean if the whole donkey thing was so offensive to him, the polite thing to do would have been to quietly start sending furious text messages to PETA. Yelling in the middle of a film is likely to induce another patron to start text messaging Homeland Security about the unhinged nut job who's trying to incite a riot during the film screening of Clerks II.
Director James Cameron thinks that 3-D can help save movie theaters.
James Cameron, who was showered with Oscars for Titanic and who is directing a science-fiction 3-D film for 20th Century Fox, said that the technology enables cinemas to offer something that home entertainment cannot.
"I want to inspire people to come back to cinemas with an experience they can only have there," he said. "Theatre owners, exhibitors and distributors should work to bring a sense of showmanship back to the cinema experience. Cinemagoing won’t go away, but it can get eroded. This is a wake-up call. Are we just going to lie down and let change roll over us, or do something about it?"
The latest 3-D technology boasts an unsurpassed clarity, making audiences feel that they are in the picture. Two reels of film go through the projector and fool the brain into merging them and seeing them in 3-D.
Although audiences still have to wear special glasses, advances mean that the eye strain and headaches associated with the green-and-red ones of past decades have been eliminated.
Cameron was speaking to The Times yesterday as Superman Returns, directed by Bryan Singer, has become the first live-action picture to have segments converted into 3-D.
Both the 2-D and 3-D versions are being released next month. Some 20 minutes of the film have been converted to 3-D, with visual cues — a green glasses symbol appears at the bottom of the screen — to indicate when to don the aids.
On Wednesday night, 450 delegates at a trade conference in Amsterdam were given a preview. They included Dennis Laws, general and technical manager of the Imax cinema in London, which will screen Superman Returns from July 14.
He said: "You felt you were there as part of the action. There are moments when you want to reach out and touch Superman as he whizzes past."
But Cameron called for films to be shot completely in 3-D: "Superman was shot in 2-D, and then they dimensionalised part of it. I’m not a big fan of the dimensionalising process. If you’re making a film now, just shoot it in 3-D — not as an afterthought."
Cameron is right: if movie theaters are to compete with home entertainment systems they're going to have to start offering something consumers can't get at home. We're not sure that 3-D is the answer, though. Recent studies have shown that high prices and rude patrons are the main reasons most people skip the theater and wait to see movies on DVD.
Director Uwe Boll Challenges Film Critics To A Duel
Uwe Boll is widely known as one of the world's worst directors...after all, who else would have cast Tara Reid as an archeologist? And having just come straight from a viewing of BloodRayne on DVD, well, let's just say that his reputation is intact. Here are a few highlights: Ben Kingsley is a vicious vampire who has a climactic fight with Kristanna Loken who is a half-vampire, half-human. This amazing film also starred Lost's Michelle Rodriguez sporting a British accent and lots of black leather, as well as Meat Loaf in drag cavorting with naked women. Sound like fun? It actually was, for the first two-thirds of the film. But, alas, we hit the last third and somehow the movie just kind of trailed off into incoherency. After her big fight, the heroine just sits there with a blank look on her face while we get a seemingly endless flashback of every body part being cut off, while fake blood spurts everywhere. No resolution. No closure. Nothing. For this we have followed the lithesome Lokanna all over medieval Romania?
We apologize if that summary made absolutely no sense. But, believe us, if you see the film, it will. But back to the Duel of the Ages...
June 12, 2006 -- Vancouver, BC -- We are proud to announce that Dr.Uwe Boll's Bloodrayne starring Kristanna Loken, Michael Madsen, Matthew Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Sir Ben Kingsley, Will Sanderson, Udo Kier, Meat Loaf, Michael Pare & Billy Zane had a successful release May 23rd., 2006 on DVD in both Canada & USA.
Iain Taylor of Vivendi Visual Entertainment Canada stated, "BloodRayne ranked in the top 6 best selling DVD titles during the first part week of sales in Canada (Nielsen Videoscan Canada)." In the USA BloodRayne's DVD performance was even stronger. Tom O'Malley, GM of Vivendi Visual Entertainment (USA), said "For the first time in this industry, a Theatrical Release and the Complete PC Video Game were released together on DVD. BloodRayne ranked in the top 5 best selling DVD titles during its debut week (Nielsen VideoScan USA)." In both countries unofficial DVD rental statistics have proven to be even more impressive.
Again the fans have shown that the critics of Uwe Boll are out of touch with want the general movie audience population wants. Dr. Boll has continually been roasted for the films he has directed and produced. His last two films, House of the Dead & Alone in the Dark, cost $20 million but they have grossed over $110 million to-date. The same negative reactions from some of the same press and the internet critics are now being directed at Uwe Boll's latest film; BloodRayne.
Dr. Uwe Boll has had enough! Uwe Boll's position is "I am fed up. I'm fed up with people slamming my films on the Internet without see them. Many journalists make value judgments on my films based on the opinions of one or two thousand Internet voices. Half of those opinions come from people who’ve never watched my films. I have been told that BloodRayne has a very bad IMDb rating, but how many of those votes of zero were made before the movie appeared in theatres." The criticism goes on and on.
Uwe is now challenging the critics that failed to watch his films prior to reviewing or commenting, "TO PUT UP OR SHUT UP!"
On July 17th, 2006 Uwe will start filming his next feature film, Seed, starring Will Sanderson, Ralf Moeller, Michael Pare & Andrew Jackson. Following that film he will go into production in late September with another feature called Postal. Both movies will be shot in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Towards the end of the filming of the Postal the 5 most outspoken critics will be flown into Vancouver and supplied with hotel rooms. As a guest of Uwe Boll they will be given the chance to be an extra/stand-in in Postal and have the opportunity to put on boxing gloves and enter a BOXING RING to fight Uwe Boll. Each critic will have the opportunity to bring down Uwe in a 10 bout match. There will be 5 matches planned over the last two days of the movie. Certain scenes from these boxing matches will become part of the Postal movie. All 5 fights will be televised on the internet and will be covered by international press.
To be eligible you must be a critic who has posted on the internet or have written in magazines/newspapers at least two extremely negative articles in the year 2005. Critics of 2006 will not be considered. Please submit proof of your negative reviews & comments via e-mail to:
info@boll-kg.de
All challengers must be healthy males, weighing between 64 kilograms (140 lbs.) and 86 kilograms (190 lbs.). You will require to be physically examined by a doctor and sign the necessary release forms for liability, etc. You will not be paid or entitled to any residuals
or fees. Your transportation & hotel costs will be covered.
Dr. Uwe Boll's invitation to fight and/or appear in his film is extended to all his harshest critics. Roger Avary and Quentin Tarantino are among the most eligible candidates.
We won't be accepting the challenge because we feel fairly sure we'll have a prior engagment for whatever the date of the fight is. We did have one positive thing to say about BloodRayne: Kristanna Loken is in excellent shape.
(Hat tip to SKNR.net.)
Nicole Kidman is now the
highest paid actress, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Lindsay Lohan appears on The Oprah Winfrey Show today to promote her new movie, Bobby. Emilio Estevez, the director, also appears. Linsday talks about the movie, her goals and her party girl reputation.
In the wake of Mel Gibson's drunk driving arrest, anti-Semitic tirade, fervent apology and even more fervent apology, Hollywood is buzzing about the effect that the incident will have on Mel's career.
Richard Johnson of Page Six
reports on the feud between Post film critic Joel Siegel and Kevin Smith, director of Clerks and Clerks 2.
Uwe Boll is widely known as one of the world's worst directors...after all, who else would have cast Tara Reid as an archeologist? And having just come straight from a viewing of BloodRayne on DVD, well, let's just say that his reputation is intact. Here are a few highlights: Ben Kingsley is a vicious vampire who has a climactic fight with Kristanna Loken who is a half-vampire, half-human. This amazing film also starred Lost's Michelle Rodriguez sporting a British accent and lots of black leather, as well as Meat Loaf in drag cavorting with naked women. Sound like fun? It actually was, for the first two-thirds of the film. But, alas, we hit the last third and somehow the movie just kind of trailed off into incoherency. After her big fight, the heroine just sits there with a blank look on her face while we get a seemingly endless flashback of every body part being cut off, while fake blood spurts everywhere. No resolution. No closure. Nothing. For this we have followed the lithesome Lokanna all over medieval Romania?
