Movie News: Saturday, October 14

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Kidman visits Kosovo as U.N. official (AP)

AP - Nicole Kidman began a tour of Kosovo on Saturday as a United Nations goodwill ambassador, pledging to provide a voice for the troubled province.

For Roberts there's life after 'Raymond' (AP)

AP - Nearly a year and a half removed from "Everybody Loves Raymond," actress Doris Roberts hasn't yet had a chance to miss television.

Clooney receives 2006 Cinematheque Award (AP)

AP - For George Clooney, the awards just keep on comin'. In a year where he's already received an Oscar and a Golden Globe, the actor-director-producer has just collected another trophy: the 2006 American Cinematheque Award.

Turner Classic pilot to star Gene Wilder and Alec Baldwin

alec Turner Classic movies is bringing out the big guns of two different acting generations to get the ball rolling on their new TV pilot Idols. Looks pretty good to me, check out what yahoonews.com had to say:

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Turner Classic Movies is producing a pilot for a series that pairs modern-day thespians with actors from previous generations who have inspired them. "Idols," which is part of the cable channel's slate for 2007, will feature Alec Baldwin and Gene Wilder for the pilot.

Interesting, very interesting. The trend to get big name actors for television continues on and TMC is being very smart about how they use them. If you just get each star to do one episode and then move on there will be no pricey contract re-negotiations, also there is a draw to two different audience demographics with each episode.

I was a very big fan of the TV show "I'm with Busey" an improv/reality based show on the comedy network. The premise was this nerdy twenty something guy who wants Gary Buesy to mentor him, and Buesy does and also abuses the hell out of him while making him do terrible things. It was one of the funniest shows I have ever seen.

If TCM continues to match quirky (but still very talented) stars like Wilder to work with calm ( but sometimes unpredictable) younger actors (like Baldwin), this will be something to see. But if it's just two stars fishing or complementing each others work I'm not sure the show will last.

China edits out 20 minutes of Miami Vice

It always shocks me when I read about China's strictness with the movies it shows, and now they have edited Miami Vice, and done a worse job than the original editors! They could have made it a better movie. The folks over at yahoonews.com give us this:

BEIJING (Hollywood Reporter) - Twenty minutes, including steamy sex scenes between Gong Li and Colin Farrell, will be cut from "Miami Vice" before it opens in China at the end of October, a Beijing newspaper reported Wednesday. A 120-minute version of Michael Mann's big-screen remake of the 1980s TV cop show will open on the mainland three months after its world premiere, the Beijing Morning Post said, citing official industry sources. Each year, China allows just 20 imported films to keep a percentage of their box office take and maintains a tight watch over content, often cutting scenes that offend Communist Party censors.

Yeah, it's wrong. It's just as wrong as when Blockbuster does it to our video's at home. But China is a very different place, I'm just saddened by their poor editing skills. Of all the stuff to cut, they cut the sex scene? That was almost twenty minutes in itself.

If the censors had truly cared for their people (and were really concerned about American propaganda) they would have cut all of the advertising shots, the close ups of the fancy cars and pricy watches every ten seconds. Plus if they had taken away maybe half of the serious expression close ups from Farrell it would be a perfect fast paced 120 minute movie.

Shame on you China, Shame.

Gibson links film with anti-Semitic remarks (Reuters)

Reuters - Actor Mel Gibson says his drunken, anti-Semitic outburst at police this past summer may have stemmed in part from lingering resentment he harbored over the barrage of Jewish criticism leveled at his 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ."