“George Clooney in London for film festival gala - Miami Herald” plus 3 more

George Clooney in London for film festival gala - Miami Herald
National Amusements to sell shares of Viacom, CBS - Boston Globe
Gorgeous 'Wild Things' roars to the screen - Argus Leader
Chris Pine Cast as Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy Film - Hollyscoop.com

George Clooney in London for film festival gala - Miami Herald

Posted: 15 Oct 2009 12:34 AM PDT

LONDON -- Like the London Film Festival, Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is a mix of British grit and American glamor.

The movie was made in England using old-fashioned stop-motion animation, and has a voice cast led by George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Bill Murray.

Clooney, Murray and Jason Schwartzman brought a dose of Hollywood to Leicester Square on Wednesday with the film's world premiere at the 53rd annual London festival. The actors signed autographs as hundreds of fans and one or two anti-fox hunting protesters gathered outside the movie theater. Anderson said Streep, who had planned to attend, could not come because she had the flu.

Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach adapted Roald Dahl's book about the battle between a chicken-stealing fox and evil farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean.

The movie, from the director of "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums," retains the book's English setting and was made at London's Three Mills Studios but the animal heroes speak with American accents.

"I feel like we were better writing American voices," Anderson told reporters Wednesday. "So we decided that we would make all the animals American, and the humans would be British."

"Because," added Murray, "they're the bad guys."

The film's British performers include Michael Gambon as the villainous Bean, and former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker as the farmers' musical sidekick.

Clooney said he had a great time working on the film - especially as the cast recorded their parts on a real-life farm.

"It was like going to camp," he said.

"We were out in the middle of nowhere on people's farms, doing sound effects and rolling around in the fields."

The lo-fi feature brings Anderson's hipster sensibility to Dahl's children's classic. Mr. Fox is a dapper optimist in a corduroy suit - very like the one Anderson wore to meet the press.

Anderson said he had loved Dahl's books since childhood, and also "wanted to do a stop-motion movie with animals with fur, because I've always loved the way that looked - that odd, sort of magical style."

Clooney said he was struck by the film's original quality.

"I remember reading the script and saying to Wes, 'I love it, and I'm thrilled and excited to do it, but I don't know who will see it, because it's sort of made for grown-ups and it's sort of made for kids,'" Clooney said.

"He said, 'Don't worry about it. Let's just go out and make a movie and have some fun,' and I thought that's a great way to approach making a film."

Anderson said Clooney - the closest thing modern Hollywood has to a matinee idol - had the right starry charm for the part of the suave Mr. Fox.

"I think Cary Grant would have been good," he said. "And within 20 seconds of thinking of Cary Grant, we were talking about George Clooney."

One of the world's oldest film festivals, London is trying to raise its international profile to compete with better-known events in Cannes, Venice and Toronto. Most of the 300 films from almost 50 countries in the London lineup have been screened elsewhere, but 15 are world premieres.

The schedule includes Austrian director Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon," which won the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival; prison drama "A Prophet" from France's Jacques Audiard; Jane Campion's visually ravishing John Keats biopic "Bright Star"; "Steven Soderbergh's whistle-blower saga "The Informant"; designer Tom Ford's directorial debut "A Single Man"; and Lone Scherfig's "An Education," the Nick Hornby-scripted story about a teenager coming of age in the 1960s.

British films include Lucy Bailey's hard-hitting documentary "Mugabe and the White African"; Julien Temple's rock-doc "Oil City Confidential"; and "Don't Worry About Me," directed by actor David Morrissey.

The festival wraps up Oct. 29 with the world premiere of "Nowhere Boy," Sam Taylor-Wood's film about the young John Lennon.

Clooney is raising the star voltage at this year's event, with appearances in three films. He plays a psychic researcher for the U.S. military in Grant Heslov's "The Men Who Stare at Goats" and a smooth management consultant in Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air."

Clooney was the star attraction at a packed "Mr. Fox" press conference, fielding the usual celebrity questions: Does he have any plans to marry? Has playing a vulpine patriarch made him want to start a family?

Clooney deflected the queries with a quip.

"I'm going to adopt some of Brad Pitt's kids," he said.

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" is released in Britain Oct. 23 and in the United States next month.

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National Amusements to sell shares of Viacom, CBS - Boston Globe

Posted: 15 Oct 2009 12:13 AM PDT

CBS shares rose 37 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $12.52 in Wednesday trading while Viacom shares climbed 49 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $30.58 as analysts viewed the debt payback positively. CBS and Viacom shares have climbed about 50 percent since the start of the year, amid signs that advertising was recovering with the economy.

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Gorgeous 'Wild Things' roars to the screen - Argus Leader

Posted: 14 Oct 2009 11:59 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES - "Where the Wild Things Are," the book, is just 339 words long. But in turning it into "Where the Wild Things Are," the movie, director Spike Jonze has expanded the basic story with a breathtaking visual scheme and stirring emotional impact.

It's a gorgeous film: This may sound contradictory, but it's intricate and rough-hewn at the same time, dreamlike and earthy. What keeps it from reaching complete excellence is the thinness of the script, which Jonze co-wrote with Dave Eggers.

The beloved and award-winning children's book, which Maurice Sendak wrote and illustrated 45 years ago, still holds up beautifully today because it shows keen insight into the conflicted nature of kids - the delight and the frustration that can often co-exist simultaneously.

Jonze gets that, too. There's always been an inventiveness to his films, a childlike playfulness even amid some of the darker material within "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation." With its warm lighting and detailed production design, "Where the Wild Things Are" remains lovingly faithful to the look and spirit of the book but functions assuredly as its own entity.

But Jonze obviously understands the feelings of fear and insecurity - and the inability to articulate them - that the wild things of "Wild Things" represent, and he's taken the bold step of showing the creatures not through animation but rather by using actual people in giant, furry costumes. The monsters were voiced by an all-star cast and enhanced through digital effects to make the facial features seem more lifelike.

And because talented character actors like James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O'Hara and Paul Dano had the benefit of voicing their roles on the same stage at the same time - rather than recording their parts independently of each other, which is standard practice - their interplay feels more organic.

At their center is Max, played by 12-year-old Max Records, a lonely, misunderstood kid who runs off one day to the magical land where the wild things are and becomes their king. Records is no self-conscious, precocious child actor: He makes Max feel real and relatable, full of joy and rage like any little boy. (Catherine Keener has some lovely, subtle moments at the film's start as Max's struggling single mom, who inadvertently neglects him when he needs attention the most.)

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Chris Pine Cast as Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy Film - Hollyscoop.com

Posted: 14 Oct 2009 03:45 PM PDT

Chris Pine is joining the ranks of such actors as Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Alec Baldwin. All three have played the role of Jack Ryan—a character in the Tom Clancy novels that were made into films.

Alec Baldwin originated the character in 1990's "The Hunt for Red October," Harrison Ford played him in 1992's "Patriot Games" and 1994's "Clear and Present Danger," and Ben Affleck played Ryan in 2002's "The Sum of All Fears."

Chris ill now play the CIA agents in the next chapter of the film franchise. Paramount said in a statement: "Tom Clancy created an unforgettable character with Jack Ryan. With Chris in this role, we've taken our first step in creating a re-boot that lives up to the successful lineage of the franchise."

As you know, Chris became popular after starring in the Star Trek movie this year, which is expected to have multiple sequels. The big question is which movie he'll tackle first. Star Trek sequel, or Jack Ryan. Stay tuned!

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