News for 12/1/2004


'Finding Neverland' Named Year's Top Film

By CHRISTY LEMIRE
AP Movie Writer


NEW YORK (AP) - "Finding Neverland," the whimsical, wistful story of "Peter Pan" creator J.M. Barrie, topped the National Board of Review's list as the best film of 2004.

Jamie Foxx was named best actor for his convincing portrayal of Ray Charles in "Ray," and Annette Bening took the top female acting honors for "Being Julia," a showy role in which she plays an aging British stage star.

Annie Schulhof, president of the National Board of Review, described "Finding Neverland" as "visually magical."

"The group also felt the movie transported them to another time and place," Schulhof said Wednesday after the winners were announced. "I think all the elements hit the page for a best NBR film _ the acting, the costumes, the set design, the music, and especially the cinematography."

No single film dominated the group's winners, although "Sideways," about best friends on a wine-tasting road trip, was honored in three categories: Thomas Haden Church won the supporting-actor award for his role as a swaggering, washed-up TV actor; director Alexander Payne and his writing partner, Jim Taylor, shared the adapted screenplay honors; and the film was listed among the group's 10 best of the year.

Laura Linney won the supporting-actress category for "Kinsey," in which she plays the wife of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. The cast of "Closer" _ Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman _ were honored for best acting by an ensemble.

The Pixar hit "The Incredibles," about a family of super heroes, was named best animated feature. "The Sea Inside," a Spanish film starring Javier Bardem as a quadriplegic fighting for his right to die, was the top foreign language film. And "Born Into Brothels" was the group's choice for best documentary.

Michael Mann won the best-director award for "Collateral," starring Tom Cruise as a hit man on the prowl in Los Angeles. Writer Charlie Kaufman's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," about a man (Jim Carrey) who wants to erase the memory of a failed romance, won for best original screenplay. And Clint Eastwood received special filmmaking achievement honors for the boxing drama "Million Dollar Baby," which he directed, produced and stars in, and for which he composed the score.

The group's top 10, in order: "Finding Neverland," "The Aviator," "Closer," "Million Dollar Baby," "Sideways," "Kinsey," "Vera Drake," "Ray," "Collateral" and "Hotel Rwanda."

The No. 1 choice of "Finding Neverland," starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, came as no big surprise to Tom O'Neil, host of the awards handicapping Web site GoldDerby.com.

"The board traditionally likes movies based on real-life characters _ movies with literary credentials based on real-life characters, like `The Hours' and `Quills,'" O'Neil said.

"And they have certainly demonstrated that they have a profound impact on the Oscars," he added. "They put Halle Berry on the map with `Monster's Ball.' Halle Berry's win at the National Board of Review was the only major industry award she won in the Oscar home stretch."

But the organization _ traditionally the first to announce its top film picks each year _ doesn't always jibe with the eventual Academy Award winner. In recent years, the National Board has chosen "Mystic River," "The Hours," "Moulin Rouge" and "Quills," none of which won the best-picture Oscar. In 1999, however, it matched up with the Oscars, picking "American Beauty."

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, formed 95 years ago, is composed of film historians, students and educators.


For more information including the list of winners click here.



"Sideways" Goes Straight for Spirits


By Sarah Hall
E! Online


Sideways landed right side up Tuesday, leading the pack in nominations for the 2005 IFP Independent Spirit Awards.

The film nabbed six noms in all for the indie Oscars, including Best Feature, Best Actor (Paul Giamatti) and Best Director (Alexander Payne).

Virginia Madsen received a Supporting Actress nomination and Thomas Haden Church reeled in a Supporting Actor bid, while Payne and writing partner Jim Taylor garnered a Best Screenplay nomination for the film.

Sideways tells the story of a failed husband and writer (Giamatti), who gingerly wades into the terrifying waters of romance with a new interest (Madsen) while on a wine-tasting trip with a soon-to-be married pal

Trailing just behind Sideways was Maria Full of Grace with five nominations, including Best Feature and Best Actress for Catalina Sandino Moreno, who plays a women whose hopes for a better life lead her astray as she becomes a drug mule who smuggles heroin into the United States.

Rounding out the Best Feature category were Baadasssss!, Mario Van Peebles' chronicle of father Melvin's struggle to make the '70s-era black-power film Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song; thriller Primer, which captured the Grand Jury Prize for Top Dramatic Film at last year's Sundance Film Festival; and the Liam Neeson-starrer Kinsey, a biopic about the life of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey.

Other nominees in the Best Actor category include Neeson for Kinsey; Kevin Bacon for his role as a convicted child molester trying to reclaim his life after prison in The Woodsman; Jamie Foxx, who plays a jailed L.A. gang member crusading against violence in Redemption; and Jeff Bridges as a father coping to deal with family tragedy through drinking and sex in Door in the Floor.

In addition to Moreno, the Best Actress nominees include Kimberly Elise, playing a woman on death row in Woman, Thou Art Loosed; Vera Farmiga as a drug-addicted wife and mother in Down to the Bone; Judy Marte as a street-wise drug dealer in On the Outs; and Kyra Sedgwick as a mother who reunites with the daughters she abandoned in Cavedweller.

The Spirit Awards nominating committee honored the ensemble cast of Mean Creek--Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan, Josh Peck and Cary Schroeder--with a Special Distinction Award.

"These young actors turned in performances so uniformly unselfish, and so intricately in tune with one another, that it became impossible to single any one of them out from their extraordinary achievement together," the committee said in a statement. "Their work is of such high quality that it moves beyond craft to achieve that mysterious truth and beauty that constitutes the finest acting."

The Independent Spirit Awards honor films whose funding comes at least in part from sources outside of the major Hollywood studios.

The awards will be doled out in a customarily low-key ceremony in a beachfront tent in Santa Monica on Feb. 26, the day before the frenzy of the Academy Awards.

Here's a round-up of the nominees for the 2005 IFP Independent Spirit Awards:



BEST FEATURE: Baadasssss!; Kinsey; Maria Full of Grace; Primer; Sideways

BEST DIRECTOR: Shane Carruth, Primer; Joshua Marston, Maria Full of Grace; Alexander Payne, Sideways; Walter Salles, The Motorcycle Diaries; Mario Van Peebles, Baadasssss!

BEST SCREENPLAY: Baadasssss!, Mario Van Peebles and Dennis Haggerty; Before Sunset, Richard Linklater and Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke; The Door in the Floor, Tod Williams; Kinsey, Bill Condon; Sideways, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor

BEST FIRST FEATURE: Brother to Brother, Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite, Saints and Soldiers, The Woodsman

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY: Brother to Brother, Rodney Evans; Garden State, Zach Braff; Maria Full of Grace, Joshua Marston; Primer, Shane Carruth; Robbing Peter, Mario F. de la Vega

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (best feature made for $500,000): Down to the Bone; Mean Creek; On the Outs; Robbing Peter; Unknown Soldier

BEST DEBUT PERFORMANCE (actors in their first significant role in a feature film): Anthony Mackie, Brother to Brother; Louie Olivos, Jr., Robbing Peter; Hannah Pilkes, The Woodsman; Rodrigo de la Serna, The Motorcycle Diaries; David Sullivan, Primer

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE: Cate Blanchett, Coffee and Cigarettes; Loretta Devine, Woman Thou Art Loosed; Virginia Madsen, Sideways; Robin Simmons, Robbing Peter; Yenny Paola Vega, Maria Full of Grace

BEST SUPPORTING MALE: Thomas Haden Church, Sideways; Jon Gries, Napoleon Dynamite; Aidan Quinn, Cavedweller; Roger Robinson, Brother to Brother; Peter Sarsgaard, Kinsey

BEST FEMALE LEAD: Kimberly Elise, Woman Thou Art Loosed; Vera Farmiga, Down to the Bone; Judy Marte, On the Outs; Catalina Sandino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace; Kyra Sedgwick, Cavedweller

BEST MALE LEAD: Kevin Bacon, The Woodsman; Jeff Bridges, The Door in the Floor; Jamie Foxx , Redemption; Paul Giamatti, Sideways; Liam Neeson, Kinsey

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Dandelion, The Motorcycle Diaries, Redemption, Saints and Soldiers, We Don't Live Here Anymore

BEST FOREIGN FILM: Bad Education, Oasis, Red Lights, The Sea Inside, Yesterday

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Bright Leaves, Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed, Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Tarnation

SPECIAL DISTINCTION: Mean Creek cast: Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan, Josh Peck, Carly Schroeder


For more information including the entire list of nominees click here.



News for 11/30/2004


Lions Gate & 2929 Aboard Akeelah and the Bee

Source: Lions Gate Entertainment


Lions Gate Films and 2929 Entertainment will finance and distribute Akeelah and the Bee, an inspirational, triumph over adversity drama it was announced today by Michael Paseornek, Lions Gate Films President of Production. The film centers on a precocious eleven year-old girl from South Los Angeles whose journey to compete in the National Spelling Bee unites her community. Laurence Fishburne ("The Matrix" trilogy) will play Dr. Joshua Larabee and Keke Palmer (Barbershop 2: Back in Business) has been cast in the title role.

Doug Atchison will direct from his script, which first garnered attention when it won the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in 2000. Sid Ganis' Out of the Blue Entertainment and Michael Romersa's Reactor Films will produce with Nancy Hult Ganis and Danny Llewelyn in association with Laurence Fishburne's Cinema Gypsy Prods., Inc. 2929's Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban and Marc Butan with Helen Sugland of Landmark Artists Management will executive produce. Mike Paseornek, Lions Gate Films President of Production and Donna Sloan, Senior Vice President of Production, will oversee the project and Jonathan Ruiz, Vice President of Production, will act as the project production executive, which has been fast-tracked for an early 2005 start date. This marks the second collaboration between Lions Gate Films and 2929 Entertainment, following this spring's thriller Godsend.

"We were so thoroughly impressed and taken with Doug Atchison's winning screenplay that we immediately knew this was a film we wanted to make," said Paseornek. "His is a singular new filmmaking voice which we are looking forward to bringing to audiences everywhere."

"When we first read Doug's script we were blown away," stated Butan. "This is a story with great characters, incredible heart and a positive message and we are thrilled to be working with Doug to bring it to the screen."

Ganis describes "Akeelah" as the 'Rocky' of spelling bee movies. "It's a sports story with a lot of heart." Atchison first developed the idea for "Akeelah" after seeing ESPN's inaugural broadcast of the Scripps Howard Spelling Bee. At the time, he observed that few inner city children participated in the competition. "Akeelah comes from an environment where many kids feel like the Spelling Bee is for someone else. In order to compete, Akeelah must first overcome her feelings of inadequacy. It's the quintessential underdog story," says Atchison. Hult Ganis added, "It champions education in a wonderfully exciting and dramatic story."



Weekend Boxoffice


'National Treasure' Retains No. 1 Spot

By DAVID GERMAIN
The Associated Press


LOS ANGELES - "National Treasure" continued to strike box-office gold, taking in $33.1 million from Friday to Sunday to retain the No. 1 slot over the busy Thanksgiving weekend.

"The Incredibles" remained in second place with $24.1 million, while Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis' holiday comedy "Christmas With the Kranks" debuted at No. 3 with $22.7 million over the three-day weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Premiering Wednesday, "Christmas With the Kranks" took in $32 million over the five-day holiday period.

The weekend's other new wide release, Oliver Stone's historical epic "Alexander," had a so-so debut of $13.4 million, coming in sixth behind two holdovers, "The Polar Express" (No. 4 with $20.1 million) and "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" (No. 5 with $17.8 million).

Since debuting Wednesday, "Alexander" grossed $21.6 million.

In limited release, the French-language film "A Very Long Engagement" opened strongly with $106,000 in four theaters. A love story set in World War I and its aftermath, the film stars Audrey Tautou, reuniting with her "Amelie" director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

It was a healthy holiday for Hollywood, with the top 12 movies grossing $215 million from Wednesday to Sunday, the second-best Thanksgiving period ever behind 2000's haul of $232.2 million.

With "National Treasure" and "The Incredibles," distributor Disney had the top two films over one of the busiest moviegoing weekends of the year. The one-two punch has helped lift Disney from a box-office slump that lasted most of 2004, with such duds as "The Alamo," "Around the World in 80 Days" and "King Arthur."

Action-packed but carrying family-friendly PG ratings, "National Treasure" and "The Incredibles" have drawn broad audiences.

With six of the top 10 movies rated PG or G, competition for the family crowd was fierce, but the movies all managed to find a solid slice of the audience.

"Christmas With the Kranks" succeeded despite poor reviews, and distributor Sony and producer Revolution Studios expect its holiday theme will sustain the movie through the end of the year.

The movie benefited from the family appeal of Allen, who starred in the holiday hit "The Santa Clause" and its sequel, and Curtis, fresh off last year's comic romp "Freaky Friday."

"Alexander," starring Colin Farrell as the Greek conqueror, also got bad reviews, but the R-rated movie served as counterprogramming over a weekend dominated by family flicks.

1. "National Treasure," $33.1 million.
2. "The Incredibles," $24.1 million.
3. "Christmas With the Kranks," $22.7 million.
4. "The Polar Express," $20.1 million.
5. "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," $17.8 million.
6. "Alexander," $13.4 million.
7. "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," $6.8 million.
8. "Finding Neverland," $4.7 million.
9. "Ray, $3.9 million.
10. "After the Sunset," $3.3 million.



News for 11/23/2004


'The Honeymooners' Gets a Black Cast for a New Film

By DAVID CARR


Last week on a battered block in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, just as the cold was moving in, a pair of men played a set piece out the windows of a four-story walk-up.

Hard against the elevated M train that seems to clank by every minute and over a row of fresh fruit at the bodega that anchors the building, they open their windows and lean out into the chill. It's Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton of "The Honeymooners," somehow transported to the present moment. Ed leans out his fourth-floor window and shouts some words about the baseball game the night before down to Ralph, just before he drops a plate of waffles on Ralph's head.

It seems like 50 years never went by, that nothing has changed, but then again, everything has. This time around, the iconic Ralph is black. So is Ed. And so is most of the rest of the cast.

In this filmed version of "The Honeymooners," scheduled to be in theaters next year, Cedric the Entertainer, a huge force in stand-up and filmed comedy, plays Ralph Kramden, a role created by Jackie Gleason. Like Gleason, Cedric is a large man who can take over a room simply by entering it. He also has a similar delicate and nuanced sense of comedic timing.

As Ed, the Art Carney character, Mike Epps, one of the princes of black comedy, has a remarkably open face, one that can fill with wonder in a New York minute; this is not a long walk from Carney's gift for credible gullibility.

The casts rounds out with Ralph's wife, Alice, played by Gabrielle Union, who appeared in "Welcome to Collingwood" and "Bring It On," and Trixie Norton, wife of Ed and Alice's sister in long-sufferingness, played by Regina Hall. Alice has her heart set on a tidy little house, a real house, but Ralph, with Ed's bumbling assistance, is busy blowing what little savings they have on a scheme that involves both a brass train buried under Grand Central and an abandoned greyhound they think still has some races left in him. At its core, the movie is another in a series of don't-get-rich-quick parables that made "The Honeymooners" famous in the first place.

At a time when the best rapper in the world may be a white guy and the best golfer in the world may be a black guy, it should not be surprising that the roles of two men who think their middle-class aspirations are just one caper away from fulfillment are black. Black life, which has been rendered by the movies in cartoonish ways - no more or less than thugs and sports stars - is, in the main, a working-class struggle.So while the original "Honeymooners" opened a window for many 1950's Americans on the "real" New York - a tough palooka of a city with a heart of gold where people struggled not to get over, but to get by - Paramount's new version catches up to the ways that the city has changed, while at the same time, underscoring the fact that the struggle is held in common by all sorts of people. (Although, film industry economics being what they are, the archetypal New York story, in which the city serves as something of a character in the film, was largely shot in ... Dublin.)The film also promises to become a milestone in a process that is slowly prying some of the strongest black film talents out of a cinematic urban ghetto and bringing them into the mainstream.

The breakthrough came with "Barbershop," which unexpectedly drew a mass and racially diverse audience for MGM in 2002, thanks in no small part to Cedric's arch critique, in the role of some major black figures like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

This is "The Honeymooners" after all, the holiest of holies, a series that begot some of television's best. So you could imagine purists freaking out at the notion that Ralph and Ed have been racially hijacked.

But some of the people who knew the men who conjured "The Honeymooners" think it is a grand risk.

Mike Epps's tour promoter, Doug Isaac, showed up on the set accompanied by Barbara Carney, the widow of Art Carney. They had never met, but she came to the set with a picture of her husband, who died last year, signed, "With Love, Art Carney."

"I brought it for you, Mike," she said.

"This is amazing," he said, suddenly quiet. "I will never forget this in my entire life. It is such an honor to meet you."

Mrs. Carney had very little trouble making sense of the other twist in the film's re-creation of her husband's series.

"I think that Art would be thrilled," she said.

Just then, the director of the film, John Schultz, walked by wearing a backpack and looking young enough to be a graduate student moonlighting as a grip. Mr. Schultz, 40, was the director of "Like Mike," a 2002 film built on a black male's aspiration of being the best basketball player of all time. He does not find anything particularly shocking in what he sees as extremely logical casting for "The Honeymooners."

"Paramount called me and asked me if I wanted to do a modern remake of 'The Honeymooners' and I told them no," he said. "And then they mentioned Cedric, and I said yes immediately."

"This story, the one we are telling, has nothing to do with race," he added. "If one guy is a volatile bus driver who wants to get rich quick and the other is his happy-go-lucky friend, what does that have to do with race? It is a classic, quintessentially American story."

Cedric has never spent much time in the boroughs of New York, but he is making the most of it. A crowd of about a hundred people were gathered across the street in a rugged neighborhood that does not usually see cameras except after a drive-by shooting. On a break, Cedric rushed across the street and into the middle of the crowd, posing for cellphone photos and scribbling autographs.

"That's my stage dive," he said proudly, standing in the bodega at the bottom of the apartment building. He suggested that the project had been "blessed" from the start, although he had a bit of trepidation at first.

"It was intimidating in the sense that he is such a popular, iconic figure," he said, leaning against a stack of rice. "Gleason had a very unique sense of timing. He could fast-beat a joke and then slow it down, you know, throw a knuckleball."

Mr. Epps said that he would not be surprised if some were surprised by the casting."I think some of the fans, fans of the original show, are going to be shook up by the whole color thing," he said. "But if they sit back and watch it for what is, if they just allow him to entertain them, I think things will go fine."

One of the producers, David T. Friendly, who was the driving force in getting a remake of "The Honeymooners" onto the screen, said he likes his chances.

"The only pressure I feel is not to embarrass ourselves, to be true to the integrity of the show," he said. "For it to work, it's got to be funny, but it's got to have heart."

But Mr. Friendly added: "What do I know, though? Like anyone else who is an entrepreneur, I have a lot of Ralph Kramden in me."

Cedric, for one, says he will have no trouble finding his inner-Ralph.

"He's a little bit gruff, and he can be tough on his friends," Cedric said. "But Ralph is lovable because he is Everyman."



Weekend Boxoffice


'National Treasure' Tops Box Office

By DAVID GERMAIN
The Associated Press


LOS ANGELES - Nicolas Cage found box-office bullion with "National Treasure," which took in $35.1 million over the weekend, debuting as the nation's top movie.

The cartoon adventure "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" premiered in second place with $32 million.

The top 20 movies at North American theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. and Nielsen EDI Inc.:

1. "National Treasure," Disney, $35,142,554, 3,017 locations, $11,648 average, $35,142,554, one week.

2. "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," Paramount, $32,018,216, 3,212 locations, $9,968 average, $32,018,216, one week.

3. "The Incredibles," Disney, $26,523,852, 3,683 locations, $7,202 average, $177,555,485, three weeks.

4. "The Polar Express," Warner Bros., $15,668,101, 3,650 locations, $4,293 average, $51,463,282, two weeks.

5. "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," Universal, $10,044,890, 2,450 locations, $4,100 average, $21,511,685, two weeks.

6. "After the Sunset," New Line, $5,075,005, 2,819 locations, $1,800 average, $19,092,384, two weeks.

7. "Ray," Universal, $4,565,210, 2,020 locations, $2,260 average, $59,192,215, four weeks.

8. "The Grudge," Sony, $3,812,121, 2,112 locations, $1,805 average, $104,422,638, five weeks.

9. "Seed of Chucky," Focus Features, $3,241,211, 2,062 locations, $1,572 average, $13,459,639, two weeks.

10. "Saw," Lions Gate, $2,882,575, 1,679 locations, $1,717 average, $50,355,671, four weeks.

11. "Shall We Dance?", Miramax, $2,336,883, 1,535 locations, $1,522 average, $52,294,268, six weeks.

12. "Sideways," Fox Searchlight, $1,828,760, 279 locations, $6,555 average, $6,039,004, five weeks.

13. "Finding Neverland," Miramax, $836,754, 57 locations, $14,680 average, $1,149,279, two weeks.

14. "Alfie," Paramount, $727,388, 1,286 locations, $566 average, $12,710,531, three weeks.

15. "The Motorcycle Diaries," Focus Features, $621,808, 233 locations, $2,669 average, $12,733,850, nine weeks.

16. "Kinsey," Fox Searchlight, $577,721, 36 locations, $16,048 average, $826,679, two weeks.

17. "Shark Tale," DreamWorks, $575,850, 907 locations, $635 average, $158,432,301, eight weeks.

18. "Veer-Zaara," Yash Raj, $547,956, 83 locations, $6,602 average, $1,752,335, two weeks.

19. "Friday Night Lights," Universal, $537,105, 587 locations, $915 average, $60,085,618, seven weeks.

20. "Ladder 49," Disney, $394,375, 445 locations, $886 average, $72,734,485, eight weeks.



News for 11/14/2004


Denzel Washington to Star in New Broadway Staging of Julius Caesar

By Robert Simonson


Film star Denzel Washington will star in one of Shakespeare's most political plays, Julius Caesar, in a new Broadway production this spring.

Daniel Sullivan, a director not typically associated with the Bard, will pilot the staging, set to preview in earch March at the Belasco, the New York Times reported.

Washington, star of "Malcolm X" and "Training Day," will embody the tragedy's juciest role, the conflicted statesman and soldier Brutus.

Carole Shorenstein Hays and Freddy DeMann will produce. Casting for the play's other major roles—Cassius, Marc Antony, Julius Caesar—has not been announced.

Julius Caesar hasn't been seen on Broadway since 1950. It was recently produced in Central Park by the Public Theater, with a cast including Jeffrey Wright.

Washington hasn't appeared on Broadway since 1988's Checkmates.



Weekend Boxoffice


'Incredibles' Derails 'Polar Express'

By DAVID GERMAIN
AP Movie Writer


LOS ANGELES (AP) - Santa Claus could not conquer "The Incredibles." The cartoon hit retained the top slot at the box office for a second weekend, taking in $51 million to fend off animated newcomer "The Polar Express," a Christmas tale that debuted at No. 2 with $23.5 million.

The heist flick "After the Sunset," with Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek and Woody Harrelson, opened in third place with $11.5 million, studio estimates showed Sunday.

Getting a jump on its full premiere next weekend, Renee Zellweger's sequel "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" began in narrower release and came in at No. 4 with $8.9 million. The film debuted in 530 theaters, compared to 3,650 for "The Polar Express."

The horror tale "Seed of Chucky," a follow-up to the "Child's Play" movies about a bloodthirsty doll, debuted in fifth with $8.8 million.

Hollywood broke out of a box-office slump that has lingered most of the fall. The top 12 movies took in $136 million, up 11 percent from the same weekend last year.

Pixar Animation's "The Incredibles," about a family of superheroes pressed into action after years of civilian life, lifted its 10-day total to $144.1 million. That matched the 10-day total of Pixar's "Finding Nemo," which went on to gross $340 million last year.

The film's revenues held up strongly, down just 28 percent from its opening-weekend gross, indicating it should have a strong shelf life through the holidays.

"I've always learned not to make long-range forecasts, but this is obviously going to go on to be a huge success," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney, which released "The Incredibles." "If it happens to mirror 'Nemo,' that would be the best of all worlds for us."

"The Polar Express," based on the children's book about a boy's train trip to the North Pole, has grossed $30.8 million since opening Wednesday. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the movie features Tom Hanks in multiple roles, including Santa.

With a reportedly $170 million budget, "The Polar Express" needs strong holdover business through the holidays to avoid becoming a box-office train wreck.

The movie received wildly mixed reviews: Some critics called it a potential Christmas classic and others said its hyper-realistic human figures resembled dead-eyed zombies.

Distributor Warner Bros. is confident "The Polar Express" will follow the usual pattern of Christmas family flicks, holding up well through Thanksgiving weekend and beyond, said Dan Fellman, the studio's head of distribution.

"Momentum for us is on the climb, which is exactly what our strategy was, to get ourselves some money in the bank and have some great word of mouth before we really hit the holidays," Fellman said.

"The Polar Express" also should become a perennial revenue producer on video and television in future holiday seasons, Fellman said.

Two limited-release films debuted strongly in New York City and Los Angeles. Johnny Depp's "Finding Neverland," in which he plays "Peter Pan" creator J.M. Barrie, grossed $240,016 in eight theaters. Liam Neeson's "Kinsey," a film biography of sexuality researcher Alfred Kinsey, premiered with $175,026 in five theaters.

1. "The Incredibles," $51 million.
2. "The Polar Express," $23.5 million.
3. "After the Sunset," $11.5 million.
4. "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," $8.9 million
5. "Seed of Chucky," $8.8 million.
6. "Ray," $8.4 million.
7. "The Grudge," $7.1 million.
8. "Saw," $6.4 million.
9. "Shall We Dance?" $4.1 million.
10. "Alfie," $2.8 million.



News for 11/11/2004


'ER' Delves Deep into Phifer's Psyche

By John Crook


Remember Dr. Peter Benton, the prickly-to-the-point-of-surly surgeon Eriq La Salle played during the early seasons of "ER"?

Well, Dr. Greg Pratt makes Benton look like a Smurf.

Since joining the cast of NBC's hit Thursday medical drama in 2002, actor Mekhi Phifer has steadfastly resisted any impulse to make the talented yet emotionally guarded Pratt anywhere near as endearing as, say, Noah Wyle's Dr. John Carter or Maura Tierney's Dr. Abby Lockhart.

"There's a whole history to Pratt that we have just skimmed so far," Phifer says. "When I joined 'ER,' my goal was to create a character who was not easily defined."

Phifer certainly has succeeded in that regard, but the Thursday, Nov. 11, episode -- an hour titled "Time of Death," featuring guest star Ray Liotta as an acutely alcoholic patient -- begins to peel away some of the layers of ambiguity surrounding Pratt.

"Dr Pratt has an estranged relationship with his father," Phifer says. "Ray Liotta's character comes in, a guy who is drinking himself to death, and Pratt at first looks at him with disdain. But as the episode goes on, a lot of things we gradually learn about [this patient's] past are things that resonate with Pratt about his own life."

Certainly some earlier scripts, and Phifer's multilayered acting, have suggested there is a vulnerable human being under the gruff womanizer the character superficially appears to be, and a notable measure of that vulnerability bubbles to the surface during Thursday's episode.

Pratt always has taken a fierce pride in the way he dragged himself up from a hardscrabble childhood to put himself through medical school and reach his current professional status, although he has suffered an unusually harsh series of tough breaks along the way, even for a fictional TV character.

"My character's mother died of lung cancer when I was 15, so that left me kind of on my own," Phifer says. "One of the things that I promised her was that I would make something of my life, become something she would have been proud of.

"Dr. Pratt has certainly gone through so many trials and tribulations that I think people are definitely starting to root for something good to happen to him. I see a silver lining to this cloud around him. As we delve more into Pratt's life, and who he is, you'll see some changes. That's all part of all the transitions we have going on with the show as a whole, with some cast members leaving us. You'll see a lot more about Pratt."

Liotta's guest appearance marked a reunion of sorts with Phifer. The two actors recently completed filming the movie thriller "Slow Burn."

"I would love to say Ray was dying to come work with me some more," Phifer says, laughing, "but I think it was mainly a coincidence that they offered him this very meaty guest role. I mean, the writing on this show is still so excellent, and the caliber of acting in our cast is so strong, that guest artists just respect the atmosphere they find when they visit us.

"The fact that we have Ray Liotta and Ed Asner and so many other great guest actors coming in just proves how much respect there is out there for our show. Actors know they have a chance to come in and work for seven or eight days on some really superior material with a strong cast around them, and they realize it would be a great experience for them."

Like his "ER" character, Phifer grew up in a challenging environment, in Harlem, where he credits a neighborhood community center with helping him polish his performance skills before filmmaker Spike Lee propelled him to fame in 1995's "Clockers."

"I was working construction and going to college in electrical engineering, and my cousin asked me to go with him to this open audition," he recalls. "Spike auditioned me seven or eight times with different scenes, me reading with Harvey Keitel and Isaiah Washington, and I got the role.

"I had done no professional acting before then, but I had always been a creative entity. I was always involved in after-school programs at the community center and things like that. Oh, we weren't doing 'Hamlet' in Central Park or anything like that, but we would do community-based stuff: a Christmas play, or a fun lip-synching talent contest, stuff like that."

By 15, Phifer had gotten into music, a talent he recently exhibited when he co-starred with Beyonce Knowles in a hip-hop TV adaptation of "Carmen." In 1993, at 18, he was given a recording contract by Warner Bros., but his "Clockers" role shifted his priorities from music to acting.

As his 30th birthday looms in late December, Phifer says he still loves music but doesn't fancy another career change.

"I'm not interested in doing a tour or concerts, media spots, blah blah blah. Just don't want to go down that road," he says.

"I bought a house last year, in Woodland Hills, Calif., and I have an annual party in late November that's usually a pretty crazy bash anyway. This year, I'll just take that annual party and make it my 30th birthday party, with lots of people there. I imagine it'll be pretty extraordinary."



UPN Picks Up 'One on One' Spinoff


LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) UPN is in the "Cuts."

The netlet has snagged at least six episodes of "Cuts," a spinoff of the veteran comedy "One on One."

Originally developed for the fall, "Cuts" focuses on Flex's barber brother (Marques Houston), who runs a barbershop with a corporate heiress (Shannon Elizabeth). The pilot was written by "One on One" creator Eunetta Boone and Bennie Richburg, a writer and consulting producer on the Monday night comedy.

David Janollari and Robert Greenblatt (both also busy with their duties as entertainment presidents at The WB and Showtime) will still executive produce.

UPN, in a competitive race behind The WB for fifth place, has three shows already in place for midseason. The Jenny McCarthy comedy "The Bad Girl's Club" has yet to begin production and only recently selected a showrunner, while "The Road to Stardom With Missy Elliott" is already set to premiere in January between installments of "America's Next Top Model."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, UPN may also be cutting the run of freshman comedy "Second Time Around" short. Earlier this week when the network picked up the back-nine orders for drama "Veronica Mars" and "Kevin Hill," "Second Time Around" was left on the outside and it appears that the show's season will end at 13 episodes. UPN has retained an option to bring the show back next season, according to the industry trade.

Through its first seven episodes, "Second Time Around" is averaging 3.18 million viewers.



'Bernie Mac' Still in Sick Bay


LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) "The Bernie Mac Show" will be off the air a little longer than originally planned as its star recovers from pneumonia.

Production of the FOX comedy was scheduled to start this week, but Mac is still shaking off the effects of pneumonia, which was compounded by the comic's unusually hectic work schedule over the summer. The show is now set to go back into production next week, the Hollywood trade papers report.

Mac and the show's producers agreed in mid-October to take a few weeks off to let him recover. When the scheduled start date came around this week, however, both the star and the producers agreed that Mac needed more time.

Since "The Bernie Mac Show" is a single-camera show, production takes longer than on a traditional, multi-camera comedy. Mac appears in almost every scene of the show, which makes for long workdays.

The handful of episodes that have aired this fall were shot last spring, before Mac went to work on "Ocean's Twelve" and another feature, "Guess Who," with Ashton Kutcher. He followed those two shoots with promotional work for the film "Mr. 3000" and was planning to jump back into the show without a break.

FOX will continue airing the unscripted series "Nanny 911" in "Bernie Mac's" 9 p.m. Wednesday spot for at least the next two weeks.



FOX, 'Bernie Mac' Creator Make Up


LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) The circumstances under which Larry Wilmore left FOX's "Bernie Mac Show" were hardly amiable.

After feuding with producer 20th Century Fox TV about the show's creative direction, and making pointed public comments about FOX's penchant for unscripted shows, Wilmore, who won an Emmy for writing the "Bernie Mac" pilot, was fired in March 2003. He moved on to a deal at NBC.

Time has apparently healed whatever wounds existed between Wilmore and FOX, however, as he's landed a new pilot project at the network. The Hollywood trades report that the show will focus on behind-the-scenes shenanigans on a TV show starring a popular African-American actor.

The new project will be produced by NBC Universal TV Studio, where Wilmore's development deal exists. Through that, he was an executive producer of "Whoopi" last season and wrote and exec produced a pilot called "Beverly Hills SUV" during the spring development season.

In addition to "The Bernie Mac Show," Wilmore created the animated series "The PJs" for FOX. He also served as a writer and producer on "The Jamie Foxx Show" and wrote for "In Living Color."



News for 11/7/2004


Weekend Boxoffice


'Incredibles' Rakes in an Amazing $70.7M

By DAVID GERMAIN
AP Movie Writer


LOS ANGELES (AP) - "The Incredibles" lived up to their name at the box office as the animated superhero adventure debuted with $70.7 million in its opening weekend, continuing an unbroken string of hits for Pixar Animation.

If numbers hold when final figures are released Monday, "The Incredibles" would have the second-best opening weekend among animated flicks, coming in just ahead of Pixar's 2003 blockbuster "Finding Nemo," which debuted with $70.3 million. "Shrek 2" holds the animated debut record with $108 million.

The horror hit "The Grudge," the No. 1 movie the previous two weekends, slipped to third with $13.5 million, lifting its total to $89.6 million.

"Ray," starring Jamie Foxx as musician Ray Charles, remained No. 2 for a second straight weekend with $13.8 million. It has grossed $39.8 million in 10 days.

Jude Law's "Alfie," a remake of the 1960s hit about an incorrigible womanizer, debuted weakly with $6.5 million, coming in at No. 5.

Despite the big opening for "The Incredibles," overall Hollywood revenues fell, continuing a box-office slump that has lingered for most of the autumn. The top 12 movies took in $136.1 million, down 5 percent from the same weekend last year, when both "The Matrix Revolutions" and "Elf" opened.

Playing in 3,933 theaters, "The Incredibles" averaged a whopping $17,971 per theater, compared to an average of $2,935 in 2,215 theaters for "Alfie."

Featuring the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Lee, "The Incredibles" tells the story of a family of superheroes pressed back into action years after they had been forced underground as ordinary suburbanites.

The film drew a mainly family audience, though teenagers and adults without children accounted for about one-third of the crowd, according to distributor Disney.

With stellar reviews, "The Incredibles" maintained the perfect critical and commercial record for Pixar, whose previous hits were "Finding Nemo," "Monsters, Inc.," "A Bug's Life" and the "Toy Story" movies.

"It's more important to have a great story and then to use the technology to bring it to life, and they have never lost sight of that," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney, which has released the Pixar movies. "They deliver absolutely the best story first and meld it with the most unbelievable technology out there."

Disney's deal with Pixar expires after next November's release of "Cars." Negotiations to extend the deal fell apart earlier this year, though there has been speculation the two companies still might partner up again in the future.

"It's a shame they can't get this together, because it's been such a successful partnership," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "This formula has worked for years, consistently, with every movie out of this Disney-Pixar alliance."

Pixar has been talking with other studios about distributing its films.

1. "The Incredibles," $70.7 million.
2. "Ray," $13.8 million.
3. "The Grudge," $13.5 million.
4. "Saw," $11.4 million.
5. "Alfie," $6.5 million.
6. "Shall We Dance?", $5.65 million.
7. "Shark Tale," $4.6 million.
8. "Friday Night Lights," $3 million.
9. "Ladder 49," $2.6 million.
10. "Team America: World Police," $1.9 million.



News for 11/1/2004


Weekend Boxoffice


'The Grudge' Scares Up $22M to Stay No. 1

By DAVID GERMAIN
AP Movie Writer


LOS ANGELES (AP) - Halloween spirit possessed movie-goers as Sarah Michelle Gellar's fright flick "The Grudge" remained the top draw for the second straight weekend with $22.4 million. The film biography "Ray," which has drawn Academy Awards buzz for Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in the title role, debuted in second place with $20.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The horror tale "Saw," about a serial killer who puts victims through grisly morality trials, opened at No. 3 with $17.4 million. The cast includes Cary Elwes and Danny Glover.

In narrower release, Nicole Kidman's "Birth" had a so-so debut, coming in at No. 11 with $1.7 million in 550 cinemas to average $3,091 a theater. Kidman plays a widow about to remarry when she encounters a 10-year-old boy claiming to be the reincarnation of her dead husband.

By comparison, "Ray" debuted in 2,006 theaters with a healthy $10,020 average, while "Saw" averaged $7,516 in 2,315 cinemas.

"The Grudge," starring Gellar as an American student tormented by a hateful spirit lurking in a Tokyo house, lifted its 10-day domestic gross to $71.3 million. A remake of a Japanese horror hit, "The Grudge" cost just $10 million to produce.

Scary movies tend to plummet in their second weekend because hardcore horror fans catch them in the first few days. Halloween weekend helped shore up "The Grudge," whose receipts fell just 43 percent, a relatively strong hold from its $39.1 million debut.

"The Grudge" and "Saw" drew mostly younger viewers looking for Halloween scares. The audience for "Ray" was older, with three-fourths of viewers age 30 and over.

Films that play to older crowds tend to stick around longer at theaters, and distributor Universal Studios is counting on the movie's Oscar prospects to extend its appeal through awards season.

Interest in Charles has surged since his death last June and Foxx has received enormous acclaim for his uncanny re-creation of the blind singer's mannerisms and spirit.

"This is the most talked about performance of the year," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "His performance even transcends the movie itself."

Director Taylor Hackford, who had Charles' full support on "Ray," struggled for 15 years to get the movie made. Financed independently, the finished film was shopped around futilely among Hollywood studios until it found a home at Universal.

"Nobody wanted this movie, so as a result we are celebrating like you can't even believe," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "We expect a long life for this movie."

1. "The Grudge," $22.4 million.
2. "Ray," $20.1 million.
3. "Saw," $17.4 million.
4. "Shark Tale," $8 million.
5. "Shall We Dance?" $6.3 million.
6. "Friday Night Lights," $4.1 million.
7. "Ladder 49," $3.3 million.
8. "Team America: World Police," $3.1 million.
9. "Surviving Christmas," $2.6 million.
10. "Taxi," $2.15 million.