Bad Movies We Love: O

Ralph Fiennes’s sweeping Coriolanus arrives this weekend. See that shit. Fiennes whips up a batch of thundering personal conflict, the kind that made Quiz Show so awesome, and Vanessa Redgrave gives a supporting performance far worthier of an Oscar than her work in Julia. She is angst and fury. She’s like Coriolanus Morissette up there. But if Shakespearean seriousness isn’t your thing, please circle back to 2001 when Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles and Josh Hartnett served up a Shakespearean telenovela in O, based on Othello. Hope you like hip-hop, opera and Josh Hartnett’s “evil” face, because this movie is a green-eyed monster that’s trying so hard not to be funny. Famously, O was filmed in 1999 but not released until 2001; the Columbine shootings made high school violence an unsavory topic for a couple years. Fact is, we could’ve used the chuckle that O provides. It is such an unyielding, self-serious melodrama that I deemed it appropriate to laugh randomly as the scenes progressed. It’s like reading a high school sophomore’s handwritten summary of Othello, one he wrote while listening to his favorite 2Pac album and doing his darnedest not to transcribe some of the lyrics on accident. In this retelling, Othello is a star basketball player named Odin or “O” (Mekhi Phifer), the only black student at his southern high school. He loves his girlfriend Desi (Julia Stiles), but his envious teammate Hugo (Josh Hartnett) starts to manipulate him into believing she’s duplicitous. You know Othello. Jealousy takes over, O loses control, and the story ends in tragedy. Fine, great. But the torrid basketballing has to be seen to be believed. Like all Bad Movies We Love, O breaks down into five lovable attributes. Let’s count ‘em down like hip-hop moves in Julia Stiles’s repertoire. 5. Martin Sheen loves Odin like a son, but not like his horrible son Hugo. Martin Sheen, one of our best presidents, plays a bulldog basketball coach who thinks O will lead the team to its 20th state victory. During an assembly he proclaims, “I’m not ashamed to say I love him like a son!” Now, that’s weird, because Martin Sheen has another son in this movie, and it’s the nefarious Hugo —- who plays on the fucking team. That slight really gets Hugo riled and scheme-y! Here, we see some of the merciless grit that marks Sheen’s performance. We also see John Heard (AKA Macaulay Culkin’s father in Home Alone) fight with his daughter about her personal affairs. 4. Modern-day Shakespearean translations are sometimes… dumb. Othello is filled with literary iconography: the “green-eyed monster,” Othello’s c-section scar, Desdemona’s dropped handkerchief. Sinister stuff. Too bad O proves that these items can seem awfully dull when revived in a moody hip-hopera. If the names “Odin” (for Othello), “Desi” (for Desdemona), and “Hugo” (for Iago) didn’t feel like Malt-O-Meal versions of the real things, check out other dubious updates: The “monster” lurking over the proceedings is a hawk that acts as the school mascot, and a major scene in which Othello overhears Iago’s manipulated conversation about Desdemona’s alleged wrongdoings is played here like an average episode of I Love Lucy’s mistaken identities — and with no studio audience to provide the right guffaws. 3. O cordially welcomes you to the space jam. Yes, O is an Othello retelling, but it doubles as an unofficial Space Jam sequel too. Here, Odin’s crazed energy culminates in a massive slam dunk that ruins a backboard. This is a man who’s ready to do something really serious — like star in a Gatorade commercial or befuddle Wayne Knight. 2. Julia Stiles as you’ve never seen her before: emoting Loved her on Dexter, loathed her onstage in David Mamet’s Oleanna, and on the big screen, I find that Julia Stiles is often — uninspired? Or just aloof? In O, the 10 Things I Hate About You’s titular hater surprises us all with a fresh, even harrowing performance. In one partially disturbing (but mostly over-the-top) scene, Othello’s rising rage and suspicions bubble over in a sexual assault. She looks pained here. Not to defend Odin, but the floating image of Andrew Keegan in flagrante delicto might inspire me to do sex a little faster too. Likely for a very different reason. 1. Josh Hartnett, super-villain The most lame/fantastic parts of O belong to the man who spooked us in Halloween H20, glowered at us in The Virgin Suicides, and shocked us with samurai-western credibility in Bunraku: Gen Y figurehead Josh Hartnett. It’s just inconceivable that a man as doe-eyed and baggy-sweatered as Hartnett would be so jealous of a teammate that he’d drive him to suicide. It’s even more inconceivable that he’d spout the following dialogue to Odin: “LIsten, I know you grew up in the hood, so you’ve seen a lot of hustlers, but the one thing I do know better than you is white girls.” That was real. Hartnett can’t handle the profound villainy of Iago or the slangy dialogue of O, so there’s no telling why he was cast here. All I know is I love that Iago’s most damning trait is his adorableness; it makes his lines like, “The point is, I’m the MVP on this piece of shit team!” seem cute — and true. You are the MVP, Mr. Hartnett. Even though your performance here makes Ryan Philippe’s in Cruel Intentions seem like dramatic masterwork. Follow Louis Virtel on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.

Jim Parsons befriends 'Harvey'

ParsonsJim Parsons has nailed lower his next legit gig, toplining an approaching Broadway revival of "Harvey." "The Big Bang Theory" Emmy champion, who made his Primary Stem bow last season inside the revival of "The Conventional Heart," look in the Roundabout Theater Company production helmed by Scott Ellis, the connect a.d. in the Gotham nonprofit. Parsons may have the man who pals around getting a huge invisible rabbit inside the 1944 follow Mary Chase. Cast will even include Jessica Hecht and Charles Kimbrough. Title, most broadly known in the 1950 film version starring James Stewart, was formerly elevated on Broadway in the short 1970 stint. New limited engagement -- produced by Roundabout in colaboration with Don Gregory, who holds rights for the play -- will begin following a Tony qualifications cutoff for your 2011-12 season, beginning previews May 18 before a June 14 opening at Studio 54, one of the Roundabout's Broadway venues. Full casting particulars be introduced. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com

Lellouche, Lindon, Scamarcio join 'Informant'

PARIS -- Gilles Lellouche ("Point Blank"), Vincent Lindon ("Anything on herInch) and Riccardo Scamarcio ("Romanzo Criminale") have grew to become part of the cast of crime thriller "The Informant" (L'Aviseur), composed by Abdel Raouf Dafri ("A Prophet"). Julien Leclercq, who formerly helmed "The Assault," is pointing the 18.9 million ($25 million) pic, which is founded on French undercover agent Marc Fievet's autobiographical book "Dans la peau d'un narco: Infiltre au coeur p la mafia" (a href="http://internet.selection.orgOrpostOrVR1118015361" target="_new">Variety, Feb. 13, 2010/a>). "'The Informant' might be the storyline from the regular guy who'll get in to a mean game -- the border patrols' cruel war against Gibraltar's drug-runners -- lacking the knowledge of the cardinal rule: Just like poker, in the event you spend some time in a table and you also can't tell who the sucker is, what this means is it's you," mentioned Dafri. Fievet spent more than ten years jail time we now have spent becoming an informant for your French border patrol, which introduced for the taking apart of key drug rings. "It's a performance-driven film inside the vein of classic crime movies like 'Donnie Brasco' and Michael Mann's films," mentioned producer Dimitri Rassam at Chapter 2. A French-The the spanish language language-Canadian co-production, "The Informant" will lense in Gibraltar, Montreal and Tangier, Morocco mole. Gaul's Studio 37 is co-creating with Canadian shingle Transfilm and Spain's Iberrota Films. Rassam mentioned Chapter 2 reaches discussions getting a French company that will handle distribution in France and worldwide sales. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Here's your Existence

Stars are Hollywood. One cannot survive with no other. Throughout my research for "The Storyline of Hollywood: An Highlighted History," I recognized why stars should worry about that old structures in Hollywood. It's their history. As we understood all of the tales of the stars during these structures, every story would transfix us.When working stars first showed up in 1909, Hollywood would be a sleepy town inside a natural paradise. There have been a couple of grain farms, plenty of lemon orchards, along with a street of humble business structures (Hollywood Boulevard) for everyone its citizens. Hollywood am remote, a nearby businessman closed his old fashion candy store to spread out a telegraph office, the only real way of communication between movies as well as their NY headquarters.The citizens of Hollywood did not greet thespians with open arms. Actually, they hated them. Mostly upon the market Midwestern abolitionists, they'd bought their land to subdivide particularly for teetotalers. That transformed whenever a national craze for those things Hollywood sent their home values soaring.As hordes of individuals, mostly entertainers, showed up, landowners built hotels and apartment structures in-front and meters to accommodate them. For vagabond stars, Hollywood offered an opportunity for any permanent home and work. Landowners happily subdivided areas into cozy bungalows on their behalf. In 1909, Hollywood had already commenced experimentation with exotic European-affected houses, German forts and French chateaus, all built from wood and stucco. These made perfect starter houses for any new film elite filled with false grandeur.The greatest stars were traders within the redevelopment of Hollywood from bucolic suburb to self-announced entertainment capital from the world. Office and retail structures put their hands up throughout the roaring '20s, offering lots of pharmacies full of shades and theatrical makeup.New structures given the Hollywood machine for the following 40 years. First-time site visitors Bette Davis and her mother checked into Vine Street's Plaza Hotel. Ava Gardner remained together with her sister in the Wilcox Hotel. Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg walked into Hollywood Boulevard office structures and began their careers. Sonny first saw Cher in a restaurant at Hollywood and Cahuenga. You will find 1000's and 1000's of those tales, millions should you count the ones which go nowhere.Many stars had companies during these structures, beginning with Henry Bergman, an actress in Charlie Chaplin's films, who opened up a well known restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard. Rudolph Valentino were built with a short-resided nightclub near the Roosevelt Hotel. Reginald Denny were built with a local hobby look for decades. Alan Reed Businesses, an import shop on Gardner north of Sunset, offered the first transistor radios from Fred Flintstone.Entertainers also had private social clubs. Previously, there have been a lot of ex-vaudevillians in Hollywood, you can learn the skill of the artist by chilling out in the Ontra Cafeteria at Hollywood and Vine. The theater towards the north (the Avalon) located a 1939 WPA smash-hit show built around them known as "Two each day.Inch Variety artists had their very own private club for many years known as Troupers. Its last location, at 1627 N. La Brea Ave., was a classic Victorian orchard house by having an auditorium within the backyard. Two blocks east on Sycamore, film stars had the Masquers Club inside a large house, the same as any NY theatrical club. Both places and also the Ontra building were destroyed in the present redevelopment.It wounds when these places disappear. The best old-Hollywood restaurantsthe Vine Street Brown Derby, Al Levy's, Rental property Capri, Martoni's, Don the Beachcomb erhave been destroyed since 1986.Within the nineteen thirties, Gertrude Stein visited her childhood home in Concord, Calif., throughout a lecture tour. When she couldn't find her house, she stated from the West Coast, "There's no there there." This is exactly why you should preserve old structures, especially inside the Hollywood Entertainment District. Therefore we will keep our here here. Greg Williams' book "The Storyline of Hollywood: An Highlighted History" is recently launched in softcover. By Greg Williams November 23, 2011 Stars are Hollywood. One cannot survive with no other. Throughout my research for "The Storyline of Hollywood: An Highlighted History," I recognized why stars should worry about that old structures in Hollywood. It's their history. As we understood all of the tales of all of the stars during these structures, every story would transfix us.When working stars first showed up in 1909, Hollywood would be a sleepy town inside a natural paradise. There have been a couple of grain farms, plenty of lemon orchards, along with a street of humble business structures (Hollywood Boulevard) for everyone its citizens. Hollywood am remote, a nearby businessman closed his old fashion candy store to spread out a telegraph office, the only real way of communication between movies as well as their NY headquarters.The citizens of Hollywood did not greet thespians with open arms. Actually, they hated them. Mostly upon the market Midwestern abolitionists, they'd bought their land to subdivide particularly for teetotalers. That transformed whenever a national craze for those things Hollywood sent their home values soaring.As hordes of individuals, mostly entertainers, showed up, landowners built hotels and apartment structures in-front and meters to accommodate them. For vagabond stars, Hollywood offered an opportunity for any permanent home and work. Landowners happily subdivided areas into cozy bungalows on their behalf. In 1909, Hollywood had already commenced experimentation with exotic European-affected houses, German forts and French chateaus, all built from wood and stucco. These made perfect starter houses for any new film elite filled with false grandeur.The greatest stars were traders within the redevelopment of Hollywood from bucolic suburb to self-announced entertainment capital around the globe. Office and retail structures put their hands up throughout the roaring '20s, offering lots of pharmacies full of shades and theatrical makeup.New structures given the Hollywood machine for the following 40 years. First-time site visitors Bette Davis and her mother checked into Vine Street's Plaza Hotel. Ava Gardner remained together with her sister in the Wilcox Hotel. Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg walked into Hollywood Boulevard office structures and began their careers. Sonny first saw Cher in a restaurant at Hollywood and Cahuenga. You will find 1000's and 1000's of those tales, millions should you count those that go nowhere.Many stars had companies during these structures, beginning with Henry Bergman, an actress in Charlie Chaplin's films, who opened up a well known restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard. Rudolph Valentino were built with a short-resided nightclub near the Roosevelt Hotel. Reginald Denny were built with a local hobby look for decades. Alan Reed Businesses, an import shop on Gardner north of Sunset, offered the first transistor radios from Fred Flintstone.Entertainers also had private social clubs. Previously, there have been a lot of ex-vaudevillians in Hollywood, you can learn the skill of the artist by chilling out in the Ontra Cafeteria at Hollywood and Vine. The theater towards the north (the Avalon) located a 1939 WPA smash-hit show built around them known as "Two each day.Inch Variety artists had their very own private club for many years known as Troupers. Its last location, at 1627 N. La Brea Ave., was a classic Victorian orchard house by having an auditorium within the backyard. Two blocks east on Sycamore, film stars had the Masquers Club inside a large house, the same as any NY theatrical club. Both places and also the Ontra building were destroyed in the present redevelopment.It wounds when these places disappear. The best old-Hollywood restaurantsthe Vine Street Brown Derby, Al Levy's, Rental property Capri, Martoni's, Don the Beachcomb erhave been destroyed since 1986.Within the nineteen thirties, Gertrude Stein visited her childhood home in Concord, Calif., throughout a lecture tour. When she couldn't find her house, she stated from the West Coast, "There's no there there." This is exactly why you should preserve old structures, especially inside the Hollywood Entertainment District. Therefore we will keep our here here. Greg Williams' book "The Storyline of Hollywood: An Highlighted History" is recently launched in softcover.

Lawyers For Jackson Physician Request For Probation

First Released: November 23, 2011 7:21 PM EST Credit: Getty Images Caption Dr. Conrad Murray gets to the Airport terminal Courthouse for his arraignment, La, Feb 8, 2010LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Lawyers for Michael Jacksons physician have requested he receive probation for his involuntary wrongful death conviction, while prosecutors have advised a sentence of 4 years imprisonment. Inside a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday prior to sentencing Tuesday, district attorney David Walgren stated Dr. Conrad Murray has proven no remorse for Jacksons dying and it has placed blame on others. He requested that Murray be also purchased to pay for restitution to Jacksons children. Defense attorney Nareg Gourjian, stating letters of praise from Murrays former patients, stated the physician is serving an eternity sentence of self-punishment and requested probation and community service within the medical area. The 2 recommendations were filed with Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor. Murray was charged November. 7 following a six-week trial. Copyright 2011 through the Connected Press. All privileges reserved. These components might not be released, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

REVIEW: Fassbender and Mortensen Duke It Out, Amicably, in A Dangerous Method

David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method is probably the most fun you’ll ever have watching a movie about Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud duking it out — and nurturing a deep-rooted but fragile friendship — in early 20th century Austria and Switzerland. In fact, when I first saw Viggo Mortensen done up in his trim little Freud beard, I nearly laughed out loud — not because he looked ridiculous, but because he looked so right. Mortensen has become one of Cronenberg’s go-to guys in recent years, and you can see why: Even in a period film like this one — a picture that runs the heavy risk of being ponderous and stiff — he can slip himself into the scenery with a “Don’t mind me, here in my Sigmund Freud getup” naturalness. That’s not true of everyone in the picture, particularly Keira Knightley, who has to navigate a particularly difficult entrance: Knightley plays Sabina Spielrein, a young Russian woman who would go on to become a renowned psychoanalyst herself, but when we first see her, she’s a hysterical creature being carted off to a hospital, kicking and screaming, in a horse-drawn carriage. Michael Fassbender’s Jung is the doctor in charge of treating her, and she’s in the midst of a fit when he first sits her down: Her neck is drawn long and tight, her eyes pop, her jaw juts out so far it looks as if it might detach from her face. It’s a lot of acting — maybe not good acting — but it sure gets the point across. Knightley gets better scene by scene, and the movie does too: Cronenberg is working from a script by Christopher Hampton (the movie is based on his play, The Talking Cure, as well as on John Kerr’s book A Most Dangerous Method), and his control over the material is both masterful and confident in its lightness. The picture is handsome — it was shot by Peter Suschitzky — but not stately in the deadly way. Turn-of-the-century Vienna looks like a happening place here, bustling with horse-drawn carriages and men and ladies walking briskly in, respectively, their dark homburgs and fluted skirts. Somehow, Suschitzky makes it look alive and not like a 3-D souvenir postcard. In short, Cronenberg has made an elegant film, with spanking. There’s some mildly kinky sex in A Dangerous Method, but Cronenberg makes it neither exploitive nor so tasteful that it loses its charge. He’s hip to the allure of the forbidden, but he doesn’t get carried away by it, nor does he assess any judgment — kind of like your therapist, come to think of it. (One of the movie’s jauntiest sections involves Jung’s “treatment” of Dr. Otto Gross, a hedonist sex maniac played by a terrifically scruffy Vincent Cassel.) Nor does Cronenberg make the mistake of thinking he’s writing a term paper. He’s a skilled and astute filmmaker, but he has an unfortunate tendency to take himself too seriously. His disciplined offhandedness is key here, and his actors thrive in the atmosphere he’s created for them. Fassbender has the great gift of being able to forget how good-looking he is: His Jung is gentlemanly, thoughtful, dutiful, as upstanding as the starched white collar he wears. It all goes kerflooey when he’s tempted by forbidden fruit, and Fassbender works that transition beautifully: His facial features are so classically composed — he looks so preternaturally stable and trustworthy — that when you see him play a character torn between intellect and the sexual impulse, you understand the costs involved. Through the course of the movie Knightley, as the woman who most challenges Jung both in and out of the bedroom — he clearly doesn’t get the same kick in the pants from his aristocratic wife, played very prettily by Sarah Gadon — turns her stilted, phony-Russian diction from a liability to a strength. By the end, she’s believable as a woman whose intelligence is inextricably bound with her awkwardness: Her Sabina Spielrein is never quite at home in the world, which gives her a better perch from which to observe it. But the exchanges between Fassbender’s Jung and Mortensen’s Freud are the movie’s greatest pleasures. Fassbender is the straight man to Mortensen’s sly jokester. At their first meeting, Freud listens patiently as Jung outlines Spielrein’s symptoms in great detail. He offers one observation, which Jung rejects; he offers another that Jung also pooh-poohs. “Well,” he says, after waiting one patient beat, “perhaps it’s a Russian thing.” In A Dangerous Method, Cronenberg takes this meeting of minds and finds the crackle in the connection. It’s never dull for a moment, which is an achievement for a movie about two guys who built whole therapeutic disciplines around the acts of talking and listening. Cronenberg is attuned to the inherent drama, and the pitfalls, in what these men did. As a filmmaker, he’s as good a listener as he is a talker. [Editor’s note: This review appeared earlier, in a slightly different form, in Stephanie Zacharek’s Venice Film Festival coverage.] Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.

R.I.P. Jack Elinson

TV comedy author Jack Elinson, whose career extended 50 plus years, died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica. He was 89. His numerous credits as author throughout the 1950sincluded the series All-Star Revue, The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Duke, The Jimmy Durante Show, Hey, Jeannie!, The Johnny Carson Show, andThe Real McCoys. Throughout the sixties, The Danny Thomas Show (akaMake Room for Dad),The Andy Griffith Show, Hogans Heroes, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (producer),Run, Buddy, Run (producer), andThat Girl (producer). He authored and offered as producer on many series within the 70s, such asGood Occasions (producer), andOne Trip to Time (executive producer), too asThe Doris Day Show (producer),Arnie and also the animated sitcomWait Till Your Father Will get Home. Throughout the 80s, his work incorporated The Details of Existence (executive producer) and227, the Marla Gibbs-starring comedy series which Elinson developed (produced by C.J. Banks and Bill Boulware, in line with the abide by Christine Houston) and executive created for many seasons. <!–more–> The NY City nativelaunched his comedy writing career penning jokes for Walter Winchells newspaper column. Radio stints rapidly adopted, then Elinson segued to TV like a gag author throughout its early many became a member of the writing writing team forThe Colgate Comedy Hour. Contributing to making sketches The Erectile dysfunction Wynn Show, The Jimmy Durante Show, The Garry Moore Show, as well as the originalJohnny Carson Show,lengthy before Carson grew to become the legendary host from the Tonight Show.His first wife Katie preceded him in dying. He's made it by his second wife Estelle, seven children along with a dozen grandchildren. Monday’s memorial was private.

WME Signs New Girls Max Greenfield

EXCLUSIVE: Max Greenfield, one of the male leads opposite Zooey Deschanel on Fox’s breakout new comedy series New Girl, has signed with WME. He was at TalentWorks. On New Girl, Greenfield plays Schmidt, one of Jessica (Deschanel)’s 3 male roommates, a self-proclaimed ladies man and the group’s designated “douche bag.” Greenfield, who previously had major recurring roles on Ugly Betty, Veronica Mars and Greek, is managed by Adena Chawke and Lisa Wright.

Billy Burke Sticks Out in Roberto Cavalli on London's Whitened Carpet (Video)

Dork Hogan/Getty Images Twilight'sQueenof the Evening Billy Burke almost capped her sexy slit crimson J. Mendel gown in the La premiere together with her shimmery sexy black lace beadedRoberto Cavalli gownat the London premiere.Kristen -- in other words her skilled stylist, Tara Swennen-- accessorized the elegant sexy dress by having an Alexander McQueen wide leatherbelt and two Jimmy Choo 'Vibe' platform sandals.our editor recommendsKristen Stewart Comes with an Offer to Star in 'Akira,' Will She Accept? 'Breaking Dawn's' Taylor Lautner Talks Sex Scene Edits on 'Ellen' PHOTOS:'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Beginning -- Part 1' Black Carpet Premiere Arrivals BothRobert PattinsonandTaylor Lautnerwore Emporio Armani suits. And also the London red-colored carpet -- that was fundamental black in LA -- was transformed to pure whitened. But yes, the heavens still needed to answer reporter's questions regarding the sex moments. Several things never change. PHOTOS: 'Twilight: Breaking Beginning': New Images Pattinson told MTV: "It had been kinda strange - you've reached type of blank out the truth that everyone's considering it otherwise it's an excessive amount of pressure to do. It wasn't bad, it had been type of easy. It is a really sweet nice scene and so i hope everybody wants it.Inch Lautner stated fans won't be disappointed through the movie's bed room romance: "It's steamy! I believe the fans is going to be happy."We're just happy the Twi-couple no more appears to be uncomfortable because they accustomed to appearing together around the red-colored carpet. PHOTO GALLERY: View Gallery Red-colored Carpet's Top Ten: Twilight: Breaking Beginning Premiere Taylor Lautner Rachelle Lefervre Red-colored Carpet Billy Burke Tara Swennen Roberto Cavalli

Tuner chimes in

Ted Turner, left James M. Nederlander, chair of Nederlander Org James L. Nederlander, prexy of Nederlander Org and Thomas Schumacher, prexy of Disney Theatrical Group No charitable organization will show you that you can get people taking into consideration the under developed, but Chris Helfrich may have found a likely solution for Africa-centric initiative Only Nets: Request within the finish of "The Lion King." "For people, 'The Lion King' designed a lot sense," mentioned Helfrich, who runs the initiative for your U.N. Foundation. In cooperation while using Nederlander organization (which has "Lion King" theater the Minskoff), Disney Theatricals, and Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights Helps, the cast in the show will petition the aud to guide for the charitable organization. Helfrich mentioned $10 batches might be best -- it's 10 dollars to deliver an African child a internet to keep over his bed mattress that will safeguard him within the mosquitoes and other that spread malaria. "It's all about engaging audiences around African styles and dealing with large issues, in fun and straightforward-to-grasp ways," mentioned Helfrich in the Julie Taymor/Elton John musical. "Which is precisely what our campaign is about, too. It comes down lower to connecting up Us citizens with people in Africa by delivering nets and saving lives." Tom Viola, of Broadway Cares, mentioned his charitable organization was "attempting to assist" if the heard Disney as well as the Nederlanders were striving to enhance the $40 million that Only Nets has elevated up to now. "Situation the cast of 'The Lion King,' particularly, asking people to become listed on them in something that's crucial that you them," Viola mentioned. Fund-raising remains limited to the show's Broadway version and may come through the spring appeal, beginning April 25 -- also World Malaria Day. The pitches take possibly about a minute to produce, but because minute, a youthful child dies of malaria around the Horn of Africa. "If the campaign started, a youthful child was dying every a few seconds, now it's every 45 seconds," Helfrich mentioned. "We're making progress, there's however still a lot of deaths." Contact Mike Thielman at mike.thielman@variety.com

Contender: 'Warrior'

Boxing photos have lengthy resonated for Oscar, and now you have to ascertain if mma will fare too.InchSoldier,Inch though disappointing in the box office (just below $14 million), was well-examined following its September release. Though it may be in comparison to last year's "The Fighter" in the logline -- both of them are concerning the inner turmoil of the family attempting to pay the bills having a brother searching to create a financial score within the ring -- "Warrior" never received the interest from the Mark Wahlberg film.Best chances for Oscar consideration for "Warrior" likely sits with supporting player Nick Nolte, who plays a once-absusive father searching for another chance. Nolte, who switched 70 captured, has two times been Oscar nominated, both occasions as lead actor: "Affliction" (1997) and "The Prince of Tides" (1991).As Nolte's tough but unforgiving kids, both Edgerton and Sturdy offer memorable and challenging perfs, but it may be difficult to allow them to break through inside a competitive lead actor area.Below-the-line jobs are all solid, especially throughout your dream moments that comprise probably the most dramatic moments from the film.Release date: Sept. 9LionsgateRead the range review Contact Stuart Levine at stuart.levine@variety.com

Housewives Star Kim Zolciak & Kroy Biermann Wed

First Published: November 11, 2011 6:49 PM EST Credit: Getty Images ATLANTA, Ga. -- Caption Kim Zolciak and Kroy Biermann attend Perez Hiltons One Night in Jersey during OUT in AC weekend at The House of Blues at Showboat on in Atlantic City, New Jersey October 29, 2010Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kim Zolciak has wed her Atlanta Falcons football player, Kroy Biermann. Thank you everyone for your early congrats and best wishes!!! @Kimzolciak has made me the happiest man alive!!! 11.11.11, Kroy Tweeted early Friday, a popular day for weddings. I love u, Kim Tweeted back. Kim Tweeted that her wedding, which was held in Atlanta, was simply, beautiful all around. Beautiful weather! Beautiful day!! Im walking on a cloud and Im so grateful! she wrote. Bravo Executive Andy Cohen didnt attend the event, but sent his best wishes via Tweet. Mazel to @Kimzolciak and @biermann71 on their wedding day! Wish I could be there. #LoveByBravo, he wrote. Kim announced her engagement to Kroy back in October. The couple welcomed their first child together Kroy Jagger back in May. Kim has two daughters, Brielle and Ariana, from a previous marriage. Life & Style first reported the wedding news. Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Freestyle Digital Media nabs 'Deadheads'

Freestyle Digital Media has acquired the domestic rights to horror comedy ''Deadheads.'' Deal was introduced Monday within the American Film Market. Pic won honours within the Traverse City Film Festival 2011 as well as the Newport Beach Film Festival 2011. The film is slated for just about any domestic release inside the first quarter. ''Deadheads'' starring Michael McKiddy and Ross Kidder, follows two zombie slackers who finish up remarkably reborn within the dead among a disastrous zombie outbreak. After finding an gem within the coat pocket, one enlists his new found zombie friend to try a mission searching for his lost love. The sale was talked about by FDM's Boss Susan Jackson, Producer Andy Drummond and Director Brett Pierce. ''Deadheads has created great press together with an enormous number of fans in the amazing worldwide horror festival run which we feel the film gets the makings from the cult classic inside the comedy horror market.'' Jackson mentioned. Worldwide sales are increasingly being handled by Cinema Management Group (CMG). Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Oz academy links up with G'Day USA

SYDNEY -- The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, which launched in August, has announced it will work with G'Day USA, a Los Angeles event that promotes all things Australian, to boost its kudocast in January. AACTA will use the G'Day USA black tie gala, held on Jan. 14 at the Grand Ballroom in L.A., as a platform to announce the noms for its AACTA International Awards, which will bow for the first time at the Sydney Opera House on Jan. 31. The international section of the kudos will honor the best practitioners worldwide in four categories: film, acting, writing and direction. "Australia's film and television industries play an important role in forming our cultural identity, in influencing tourism and in contributing to our export market, and we look forward to working alongside G'Day USA to raise the profile of our screen industry internationally," said AACTA topper Damian Trewhella. "The Australian public has thrown its support behind some great Australian stories this year, with 'Red Dog' catapulting its way into the top 10 highest grossing Australian films, and the popular documentary, 'Mrs Carey's Concert,' making box office history as just two examples." AACTA, which replaced the Australian Film Institute, aims to lift the local industry's international profile. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

J. Edgar

Leonardo DiCaprio plays J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwoods biographical drama. A Warner Bros. release and presentation of an Imagine Entertainment, Malpaso production. Produced by Brian Grazer, Robert Lorenz. Executive producers, Tim Moore, Erica Huggins. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Screenplay, Dustin Lance Black.J. Edgar Hoover - Leonardo DiCaprio Helen Gandy - Naomi Watts Clyde Tolson - Armie Hammer Charles Lindbergh - Josh Lucas Annie Hoover - Judi DenchJ. Edgar Hoover's mystique lies in the fact that while he kept meticulous files with compromising details on some of America's most powerful figures, nobody knew the man's own secrets. Therefore, any movie in which the longtime FBI honcho features as the central character must supply some insight into what made him tick, or suffer from the reality that the Bureau's exploits were far more interesting than the bureaucrat who ran it -- a dilemma "J. Edgar" never rises above. With Leonardo DiCaprio bringing empathy to the controversial Washington power-monger, Clint Eastwood's old-school biopic should do solid midrange business. In 1993, Anthony Summers published a tawdry expose titled "Official and Confidential, the Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover," which aired Susan Rosenstiel's claim that she had witnessed Hoover, a lifelong bachelor who was seldom seen without trusted deputy Clyde Tolson, wearing a cocktail dress at a gay orgy in NY. Though never corroborated, the claim stuck, and the legacy of this much-feared public figure -- who served as FBI director under eight presidents, across 48 years and through some of the most trying cases of the 20th century -- is now dominated by associations with cross-dressing. If the assumptions about his sex life are true, that would make "J. Edgar" the story of the highest-ranking homosexual in American history, produced by a major Hollywood studio and directed by one of the industry's most venerable directors -- hardly insignificant in an industry that goes to great lengths to obfuscate the sexuality of its own stars. While not exactly coy, Eastwood's classically styled look at Hoover's life takes a long time to arrive at questions of the character's proclivities. When it does get there, however, this new dimension of the character so enlivens what has been a mostly dry portrayal of one man's crusade to reform law enforcement that it becomes the pic's focus. True to Eastwood's understated nature, "J. Edgar" offers the "tasteful" treatment of such potentially salacious subject matter, though a more outre Oliver Stone-like approach might have made for a livelier film. With the exception of a few profanities (enough to land the pic an audience-limiting R rating) and a lone homoerotic wrestling scene so tame that Ken Russell's "Women in Love" feels like an X by comparison, the film could pass for something Warners would have released in an earlier era -- earlier even than many of the events depicted onscreen, as suggested by Tom Stern's cinematography, desaturated nearly to black-and-white. Eastwood's restraint applies to not only the kid-gloves depiction of how Hoover slyly manipulated politicos and press, including a loathsome attempt to blackmail Martin Luther King Jr. into declining the Nobel Peace Prize, but also to his oddly nonjudgmental approach to Hoover's sexual identity, depicting him as a man too Puritanical to pursue intimacy with someone of either gender. As he did with "Milk," screenwriter Dustin Lance Black follows the print-the-legend philosophy, building to what could have been the ultimate tragic love story between two men: Johnny and Clyde (as Truman Capote dubbed Hoover and Tolson), companions for the better part of five decades who never had the chance to express their affection -- a consequence of Hoover's insistence that FBI employees live up to the strictest code of conduct (he wouldn't even allow them to drink coffee on the job). The opening reel establishes both the scope of the story, which ranges from Hoover's 20s to his final days overseeing the FBI at age 77, and DiCaprio's remarkable ability to play the character at any point along that timeline. Aided by a convincing combination of facial appliances, makeup and wigs, the thesp draws auds past that gimmick and into the character within a matter of a few scenes. There's an innate kindliness to DiCaprio that makes for a more likable protagonist than Hoover as the tempestuous monster so many biographers describe, which is good news for the film's commercial prospects but seemingly at odds with reality. Surely this can't be the glory hound who collaborated with Sen. Joseph McCarthy on his anti-communist witch hunt and called King "the most notorious liar in the country," nor the same FBI chief accused of racism (the Bureau antagonized civil-rights leaders and employed few blacks), homophobia (gays were dismissed from service) and sexism (women were allowed to serve as secretaries and assistants, but never agents). Rather than seriously engaging with any of these common accusations, Black's script skips back and forth through Hoover's CV, alternating public grandstanding with invented insights into his private life. Annie Hoover (Judi Dench) exerts enormous control over her son's personality, telling him, "I'd rather have a dead son than a daffodil for a son," in the film's most chilling scene. Tolson (Armie Hammer), whose prissiness accounts for the film's scant laughs, also surfaces early, lurking behind the frosted-glass door to an adjoining office while Hoover dictates a self-aggrandizing book. Considering how critical any other character's perspective might be, allowing Hoover to narrate his own story comes as a generous gift from Black. Hoover's voiceover gives form to a story that starts out as an institutionally approved version of how the FBI came to be, punctuated every so often by a high-profile arrest or newfangled forensic development (an investigation into the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son supplies the sort of procedural intrigue that comes comfortably to Eastwood). As the pic progresses, however, Hoover's words grow increasingly defensive, and the episodes drift into far more personal territory. Since you can't put a face on the love interest in a workaholic's story, Black must manufacture romance on the margins. In the first act, Hoover briefly courts Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts), an office girl who declines his marriage proposal on their third date, but agrees to become his secretary. A short time later, Hoover meets Tolson in a scene staged to suggest love at first sight. As written, Tolson's character is clearly gay, but Eastwood seems noncommittal about Hoover. Certainly there are clues in nearly every aspect of the production, from Deborah Hopper's ever-dapper wardrobe to the meticulously appointed sets overseen by James Murakami and decorated by Gary Fettis. At one point, auds catch a glimpse of the entry stairwell to Hoover's home, where a framed portrait of his mother hangs alone. What's missing from this picture? Why, the famous nude photo of Marilyn Monroe that hung in the real-life Hoover's hallway.Camera (Technicolor/B&W, Panavision widescreen), Tom Stern; editors, Joel Cox, Gary D. Roach; music, Eastwood; production designer, James Murakami; supervising art director, Patrick M. Sullivan; art director, Greg Berry; set decorator, Gary Fettis; costume designer, Deborah Hopper; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS/Datasat), Jose Antonio Garcia; supervising sound editors, Alan Robert Murray; re-recording mixers, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff; special effects supervisor, Steven Riley; visual effects supervisor, Michael Owens; visual effects, Method Studios Vancouver, Lola Visual Effects; stunt coordinator, Buddy Van Horn; assistant director, David M. Bernstein; casting, Fiona Weir. Reviewed at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Nov. 2, 2011. (In AFI Film Festival -- opener.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 136 MIN.With: Jeffrey Donovan, Miles Fisher, Damon Herriman, Ary Katz, Dermot Mulroney, Geoff Pierson, Michael Rady, Stephen Root, Ed Westwick. Contact Peter Debruge at peter.debruge@variety.com

Canuck TV revs rise

Total operating revenues in Canada's TV sector hit C$7.1 billion ($7 billion) this season, up 8% from 2009.This really is really the greatest annual increase since 2003, with different study released Tuesday by government bodies agency Statistics Canada.Overall, TV advertising revenues elevated 9.2% to $3.34 billion a year ago this past year the whole was $3.05 billion, 8.3% lower on 2008, the initial decrease in 15 years.ten years back, ad revs taken care of for pretty much 60% in the TV sector's total operating revenues. This Season, that proportion was at 48.2%, a little upswing from 47.7% this past year.Complete operating revs for commercial free-to-air TV rose 8.8% to $2.12 billion this season, well below the 2007 peak.The segment released an earnings margin, before interest and taxes, of $5.31 million this season. This reverses a $111.6 000 0000 decrease in 2009, the initial decrease in thirty years.Cable tv and pay TV ongoing to build up this season by getting an 11.1% hike in operating revs to $3.44 billion. While subscription revs remain an important base for cablers, their share in the TV ad market was 32.6% this season, a substantial alternation in the 17.1% in 2001. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard Reportedly in Negotiations to Star in Lovelace

Lovelace, the Linda Lovelace biopic that both Olivia Wilde and Kate Hudson were rumored to topline (as opposed to the other Lovelace biopic, which traded in Lindsay Lohan for Malin Akerman), may have new leads in Amanda Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard. The legendary porn actress Lovelace would mark a shift for the In Time/Mean Girls star, and Sarsgaard’s potential role as her husband/pimp Chuck Traynor is just as dramatic a turn. Can we just agree to make this thing and stop recasting it for the next five years? Thanks. [Variety]