1. THE 92-YEAR-OLD, WAR HERO FACE OF MOVIE PIRACY
One of the world’s most prolific bootleggers of Hollywood DVDs loves his morning farina. He has spent eight years churning out hundreds of thousands of copies of “The Hangover,” “Gran Torino” and other first-run movies from his small Long Island apartment to ship overseas. …
In February, Mr. Strachman duplicated and shipped 1,100 movies. (“A slow month,” he said.) He has not kept an official count but estimates that he topped 80,000 discs a year during his heyday in 2007 and 2008, making his total more than 300,000 since he began in 2004. Postage of about $11 a box, and the blank discs themselves, would suggest a personal outlay of over $30,000.
2. JIMMY KIMMEL PLAYS IT SAFE WITH WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SPEECH
Kimmel’s half-hour speech was received with consistent, if not uproarious, laughter — likely a result of his playing it relatively safe. By Correspondents’ Dinner standards, and certainly compared to Seth Meyers’ 2011 skewering of Donald Trump, Kimmel really wasn’t that mean.
3. MEL GIBSON: ‘I’VE GOT A LITTLE BIT OF A TEMPER’
On Friday, the actor appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and brought up all the drama with the “Maccabees” scribe. “You know, I love coming to ‘The Tonight Show’ because when I get here and you tape me, you let me know you’re going to do that up front!” Gibson joked.
“The actor admitted that he had been “peeved” at Eszterhas over the delay of the script and had indeed yelled at the writer.
“Was it just you swearing at the guy?” Leno asked in regards to the secretly taped tirade.
“Yeah, pretty much!” Gibson said. “You know, maybe you don’t know this about me, but I’ve got a little bit of a temper.”
4. AARON SORKIN’S ‘NEWSROOM’ TRAILER NO. 2: WAIT, IT’S A COMEDY NOW?
“HBO’s downbeat and preachy first trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s upcoming cable news network drama series The Newsroom made us want to cash in our 401k and move to Canada. This new trailer strikes a somewhat different tone. … Why, this Newsroom almost plays like a sassy office comedy.”
5. A FIFTH RAMBO MOVIE IS NOW EXTREMELY LIKELY
“It’s one thing where you lay down the final culmination of your life where you can articulate it, but also act on it where he realizes what his destiny really is, It’s not to be a farmer, it’s not to be obscure; it’s to go out in a blaze of glory in a heroic fashion. But is he really doing it for himself or is he doing it because that’s just his id? That’s who he is.”
6. HAVE BLOCKBUSTER MOVIES LOST THE PLOT?
In fact, the international blockbuster market is in such rude health that previously recession-cowed studios are upping the annihilation levels in what might otherwise be run-of-the-mill action films in the hope of cashing in. Battleship, a dim-witted alien-invasion romp released in Britain last week, found itself “upgraded” to blockbuster status by Universal Pictures with a reported £22 million budget hike midway through production, and has been rolled out internationally a month before its American release – in other words, to the audiences most likely to appreciate it, which, depressingly, include Britain.
7. PETER JACKSON RESPONDS TO ‘HOBBIT’ FOOTAGE CRITICS, EXPLAINS 48-FRAMES STRATEGY
“It does take you a while to get used to,” he said. “Ten minutes is sort of marginal, it probably needed a little bit more. Another thing that I think is a factor is it’s different to look at a bunch of clips and some were fast-cutting, montage-style clips. This is different experience than watching a character and story unfold.”
Because of that, he isn’t planning to release a 48 fps trailer for the movie. “I personally wouldn’t advocate a 48-frame trailer because the 48 frames is something you should experience with the entire film. A 2 1/2 minute trailer isn’t enough time to adjust to the immersive quality.”
8. SECOND OPINION: ‘THE AVENGERS’
Already the fanboys in the comments have begun to attack Kyle Smith’s three-star review of “The Avengers” in today’s print edition (its East Coast premiere, which is not open to the general public, is designated as the closing night film at the Tribeca Film Festival) as insufficiently enthusiastic. Never mind that most of them haven’t even seen the movie yet; they just KNOW it’s great because they want it to be.
9. POPULAR WRITERS: A STEPHEN KING INTERVIEW
King writes every day. If he doesn’t write he’s not happy. If he writes, the world is a good place. So he writes. It’s that simple. “I sit down maybe at quarter past eight in the morning and I work until quarter to twelve and for that period of time, everything is real. And then it just clicks off. I think I probably write about 1200 to 1500 words. It’s six pages. I want to get six pages into hardcopy.”
10. New 3-Minute Trailer for Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus’
Twentieth Century Fox has released this new 3-minute international trailer for director Ridley Scott’s highly-anticipated “Prometheus,” opening in 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on June 8.
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4. ‘AVENGERS’ ENJOYS A SUPER HAUL AT U.K. BOX OFFICE
…CONTINUES BREAKING BOX OFFICE RECORDS
…EXPLAINING ‘THE AVENGERS’ POST-CREDITS SEQUENCE
7. REVIEW: ‘THE AVENGERS’ IS MARVEL’S MIGHTIEST MOVIE
8. ‘DIE HARD 5’ IS ALL SET IN RUSSIA, FOX CHIEF SAYS
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10. 7 MOVIES WE’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO: MAY 2012
11. LATEST THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN POSTER
12. ‘DAREDEVIL’ REBOOT GETTING A REWRITE
13. GEORGE TAKEI: FDR’S ‘INTERNMENT’ OF JAPANESE-AMERICANS ANOTHER REASON TO HATE…REAGAN!
14. PROUD ROB LOWE INVITED TO BECOME A SON OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
15. WILL FEARS ABOUT THE HEALTH OF THE ECONOMY DAMPEN UPFRONT AD SALES?
SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINKTACULAR
STALLONE! SCHWARZENEGGER! NORRIS! CHARACTER POSTERS FOR ‘THE EXPENDABLES‘
‘STAR TREK’ IS WHERE YOUR FAVORITE CREATORS WENT TO GRAD SCHOOL
INTERVIEW WITH VISUAL EFFECTS LEGEND DOUGLAS TRUMBULL
OVER THE TOP REACTIONS TO CINEMATIC TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS
A GUIDE TO THE FILMS OF RICHARD LINKLATER
A LOOK BACK AT FARRELLY BROTHERS’ FILM ‘KINGPIN‘
NEW TO HOME VIDEO
JOHN CARTER: Disney brings to life an iconic hero, John Carter, in a visually stunning new world with heart-pounding action. The heroic epic adventure “John Carter” arrives on Disney Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D™, HD Digital, DVD and On-Demand June 5, 2012, just in time for Father’s Day!
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CINDERELLA: “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” and at the stroke of midnight, October 2, 2012, dreams around the globe really will come true when The Walt Disney Studios opens its prestigious vault to release one of Walt Disney’s most timeless and beloved masterpieces of all time, “Cinderella,” in the highly anticipated Blu-ray™ Diamond Edition Collection.
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