News

The Internet Movie Database, announced today that users can now watch over 6,000 full-length feature films and TV shows for free on their new video section.

Col Needham, the founder and managing director of IMDb.com, Inc. has announced:

IMDb’s mission has always been to be the world’s most comprehensive, user-friendly destination for all movie, TV and celebrity-related information, products and services,”

“We’re excited to offer our users a simple online experience to watch full-length movies and TV episodes for free. Our goal is to show our users every movie and TV show on the Internet for free on IMDb.com.”

Whilst this is obviously a logical move for the site, I imagine rights issues will mean that UK viewers won’t be able to watch a lot of the content available to US users.

Have you used it yet? Leave any comments below.

[Link via Digg]

> IMDb’s new video section
> PaidContent with more details on the shows and films screening on the site

The full lineup for the 52nd London Film Festival has been announced.

Amongst the highlights are Frost/Nixon, Slumdog Millionaire, W., Quantum of Solace, The Class, Che (in two parts), Waltz With Bashir and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

GALA SCREENINGS

Frost/Nixon (Opening Film): Ron Howard directs this adaptation of Peter Morgan’s play about the interviews David Frost (Michael Sheen) conducted with the disgraced Richard Nixon in 1977. Morgan adapted his own play and this could well be a heavyweight awards contender if it is anything like the highly acclaimed play.

W. (The Times Gala): Oliver Stone’s political biopic of George W. Bush which sees Josh Brolin play the outgoing US president. A highly impressive supporting cast includes Elisabeth Banks, Thandie Newton, Scott Glenn, Richard Dreyfuss, Toby Jones and James Cromwell as the film charts his extraordinary road from the black sheep of the Bush dynasty to the US presidency.

Genova (The Mayor of London Gala): Director Michael Winterbottom’s latest film is about a man (Colin Firth) who relocates to Italy with his two young daughters (Willa Holland and Perla Haney-Jardine) as he comes to terms with a family tragedy.

Waltz With Bashir (Centrepiece Gala): One of the most acclaimed films at Cannes earlier this year was this anti-war documentary. Director Ari Folman which uses animation to explore his own experiences in the Israeli Army during the first Lebanon War. Realising the limits of his own memory, he tracks down and interviews old friends and comrades in a politically charged study of innocence, memory and war.

Quantum of Solace (Film on the Square Gala): The 22nd James Bond film (which easily makes it the longest running franchise in film history) is directed by Marc Forster and sees Daniel Craig return as the legendary secret agent.  This film picks up the storyline just one hour after the end of Casino Royale, making this the first direct Bond sequel, as 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal.

The Other Man (Hewlett-Packard Gala): The latest film from award-winning theatre and film director Richard Eyre is about a husband (Liam Neeson) who suspects that his loving wife of 20 years (Laura Linney) may be cheating on him. Antonio Banderas and Romola Garai star in supporting roles

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Sky Gala): Woody Allen’s latest sees him relocate to Catalonia with this tale of two US students Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) both fall for the charms of Latin seducer Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem). Things are further complicated when his tempestuous ex-wife (Penelope Cruz) re-enters the scene.

The Brothers Bloom (American Airlines Gala): Writer-director Rian Johnson (who made the startling debut Brick in 2006) has assembled an impressive cast for a comedic twist on the heist movie. Brothers Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Adrien Brody) are expert swindlers still searching for the perfect con, who lure an eccentric heiress (Rachel Weisz) into their elaborate scheme.

Easy Virtue (MasterCard Gala): Australian director Stephan Elliott revisits Noel Coward’s social comedy, retaining the 1920s setting, whilst giving it a modern feel. It is about a young aristocrat (Ben Barnes) who impulsively marries a glamorous and sexy American (Jessica Biel), which leads to a culture clash. The ensemble cast also includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth and Kris Marshall.

Che [Part 1 & Part 2] (Tiscali Gala): Stephen Soderbergh’s biopic of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara (Benicio del Toro) is screened in two parts. The first chronicles his rise from doctor to successful revolutionary and the second deals with his attempt to orchestrate the great Latin American revolution.

The Class (Sight & Sound Special Screening): The winn er od the Palme D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is an adaptation of François Bégaudeau’s novel Entre les Murs, which is based on his experiences working in a school in Paris. Bégaudeau himself plays a committed teacher attempting to reach out to his pupils through language and literature.

Hunger (Time Out Special Screening): Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen ventures into film making with this drama about the 1981 IRA Hunger Strike led by Bobby Sands. Michael Fassbender plays Sands, whilst Stuart Graham and Liam Cunningham star in supporting roles.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunger S. Thompson (Documentary Gala): ‘Gonzo’ journalist Hunter S. Thompson is the latest subject for documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, who uses a wealth of archive footage and high-profile interviewees such as Tom Wolfe and Jimmy Carter, to paint a fascinating portrait of the counterculture icon. Johnny Depp (who played Thompson in Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of Fear and Laothing in Las Vegas back in 1998) narrates along with extracts from Thompson’s work.

The Secret of Moonacre (Family Gala): Based on the popular children’s novel The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, director Gabor Csupo’s latest offering follows Maria Merryweather (Dakota Blue-Richards), an orphan who inherits a book that provides a key to a past world and may answer the riddles of Moonacre Manor. With supporting performances from Ioan Gruffudd and Juliet Stevenson.

Slumdog Millionaire (Closing Night Film): Danny Boyle directs this true life tale of a poor teenager in Mumbai who goes on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in order to find his true love. It has already got rave reviews at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals and looks like an early awards contender.

FILMS ON THE SQUARE

These are the other notable films from around the world that will be screening in cinemas in Leicester Square during the festival.

24 City (Ershisi Cheng Ji) (Dir. Jia Zhangke / China)
Achilles And The Tortoise (Dir. Takeshi Kitano / Japan)
Adoration (Atom Egoyan / Canada)
American Teen (Dir. Nanette Burstein / USA)
Anvil! The Story Of Anvil (Sacha Gervasi / USA)
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Dir. Uli Edel / Germany)
Ballast (Dir. Lance Hammer / USA)
A Christmas Tale (Dir. Arnaud Desplechin / France)
Dean Spanley (Dir. Toa Fraser / UK, New Zealand)
Il Divo (Dir. Paolo Sorrentino / Italy)
Frozen River (Dir. Courtney Hunt / USA)
The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Dir. Kim Jee-Woon / South Korea)
Hamlet 2 (Dir. Andrew Fleming / USA)
Heart Of Fire (Dir. Luigi Falorni / Germany & Austria)
Incendiary (Dir. Sharon Maguire / UK)
Johnny Mad Dog (Dir. Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire / France, Belgium & Liberia)
Lake Tahoe (Dir. Fernando Eimbcke / Mexico)
Let’s Talk About The Rain (Dir. Agnès Jaoui / France)
Lion’s Den (Dir. Pablo Trapero / Argentina)
Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist (Dir. Peter Sollett / USA)
Of Time And The City (Dir. Terence Davies / UK)
A Perfect Day (Dir. Ferzan Ozpetek / Italy)
Quiet Chaos (Dir. Antonello Grimaldi / Italy)
Rachel Getting Married (Dir. Jonathan Demme / USA)
Religulous (Dir. Larry Charles / USA)
The Secret Life Of Bees (Dir. Gina Prince–Bythewood / USA)
The Silence Of Lorna (Jean – Pierre & Luc Dardenne / Belgium, France & Italy)
Sugar (Dir. Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck / USA)
Surprise Film
Synecdoche New York (Dir. Charlie Kaufman / USA)
Three Blind Mice (Dir. Matthew Newton / Australia)
Three Monkeys (Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan / Turkey, France & Italy)
Tokyo! (Dir. Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, Bong Joon–Ho / France, Japan)
Tulpan (Dir. Sergey Dvortsevoy / Russia)
Two Lovers (Dir.  James Gray / USA)
Tyson (Dir. James Toback / USA)
The Warlords (Dir. Peter Chan / China)
Wendy & Lucy (Dir. Kelly Reichardt/ USA)

For a full list of films showing at the festival go to the official LFF website.

> The Times report on this year’s lineup
> Official LFF website
> Check out our reports from last year

Actor Tommy Lee Jones has filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures for $10m (£5.7m), which he claims they owe him for his role as Sheriff Tom Bell in last year’s No Country For Old Men.

The Independent have the details:

Jones has filed his lawsuit in Bexar County, San Antonio.

NM Classics Inc, a Dutch subsidiary of Paramount Pictures, is also named in the action, according to The San Antonio Express-News. Jones, who won his only Oscar for his role alongside Harrison Ford in 1993’s The Fugitive, claims that he has not been paid the bonuses he was promised and his initial fee for appearing in the movie was unjustly reduced.

He also claims that a contract was given to him despite the fact it contained several inaccuracies.

The 61-year-old says he signed a contract with NM Classics on 3 April 2006, agreeing to act in the film and to provide “additional related services” for promoting the movie.

In return, the legal papers allege, the company agreed that it would pay Jones a fixed “upfront” fee and, depending on its success, “significant box-office bonuses and ‘back-end’ compensation”.

The vagueness of those promises has returned to haunt the actor. His lawyers claim he was promised “significant” bonuses to compensate him for his reduced fee.

No Country For Old Men was a co-production between Paramount Pictures and Miramax Films, with Paramount largely controlling the film’s release and distribution outside the US.

Jones demanded that he, the Coens and the film’s producer, Scott Rudin, should be entitled to the same treatment and equal shares of the box-office spoils.

Here is the interesting bit, which suggests someone in the Paramount legal department could be in trouble:

But the lawsuit claims that in December 2007, barely a month after the film was released in America, Paramount executives told Jones his contract contained a “mistake” related to “a major issue involving the deduction for home video expenses”.

It also alleges that on 10 January this year, Paramount officials approached Jones again, this time with information about a second major “mistake” in his contract.

The veteran A-lister, whose career has been reinvigorated after a few years in the wilderness, says his “deception” at the hands of Paramount amounts to fraud.

A central plank of his legal action is a claim that Paramount invited him to sign his contract while fully aware of the flaws it contained.

In recent years there have been various high profile Hollywood lawsuits, such as Peter Jackson’s issues with New Line Cinema over The Lord of the Rings, Clive Cussler - the author of Sahara - suing the producers of the movie adaptation and Randy Quaid taking on the producers of Brokeback Mountain.

One of the most interesting things about them - if both parties don’t settle - is the juicy details that come out in court.

For instance the Sahara case revealed that the production budget was swelled by bribes to local crew in Morocco, according to USA Today:

Documents cited by the Times also listed 16 “courtesy payments,” “gratuities” and “local bribes” totaling $237,386 in Morocco to expedite filming.

That included a $40,688 payment to stop a river improvement project while filming and $23,250 for “Political/Mayoral support.”

The LA Times also reported this priceless court exchange about how much money the film lost:

Karen Baldwin [an executive producer on Sahara] testified that she believed “Sahara” was on track to make a profit.

“It was No. 1 at the box office when it came out,” she said. “I have heard that over time the film is going to make its money.”

Clive Cussler’s attorney, Bertram Fields, informed Baldwin that financial reports showed that the movie lost more than $100 million.

“That would be one of the most massive losses in the history of the film business, wouldn’t it?” Fields asked.

“No, not at all,” Baldwin replied.

“Tell me a picture that lost more than $100 million.”

“Heaven’s Gate.”

“Lost more than $100 million, is that your testimony?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, why did you just say it?”

The fact that the court case contained better dialogue thatn the movie tells you something about the script, which ten screenwriters were reportedly paid $3.8 million for.

If Jones and Paramount don’t settle will there be anything as entertaining?

> Original article in The Independent about the lawsuit
> Tommy Lee Jones at the IMDb

Slumdog Millionaire will be the closing film at this year’s London Film Festival.

Directed by Danny Boyle, it is the story of a streetkid from Mumbai (Dev Patel) who goes on the Hindi version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

I spoke to Danny last year and he told me a bit about the story, which you can listen to here:

The film recently received a lot of buzz and critical acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival and looks like an early awards season contender.

It will screen this week at the Toronto Film Festival and opens in the US on November 28th.

A UK release is expected for early 2009.

This is a clip from the film:

Here is the official press release:

London – Wednesday 3 September: The Closing Night Gala of The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival will be the European Premiere of Danny Boyle’s SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is the story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who finds himself  just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’.

Arrested on suspicion of cheating, Jamal tells the police the incredible story of his life on the streets, and of the girl he loved and lost. But what is a kid with no interest in money doing on the show? And how does he know all the answers?

When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the police and sixty million viewers are about to find out … Dev Patel (Skins) stars alongside an all-Indian cast including Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Madhur Mittal and Freida Pinto in this uplifting drama set and shot in India.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE was adapted for the screen by Oscar®-winning writer Simon Beaufoy (THE FULL MONTY) from the bestselling novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup.

The film was produced by Christian Colson and Executive Producers Tessa Ross and Paul Smith, with cinematography from Boyle’s regular collaborator Anthony Dod Mantle (28 DAYS LATER).

Pathé Distribution will release the Film4 funded film in the UK in early 2009 and Pathé International is handling international sales.

In addition to bringing the Festival’s 16 day celebration of cinema to a close, Danny Boyle will give a career interview as part of the Tiscali Screen Talks series.

Sandra Hebron, the Festival’s Artistic Director comments: ‘We’re thrilled to be closing our Festival with this latest film from one of the UK’s most talented and versatile directors. Pulling together a wealth of talent from two continents to tell this moving and truly contemporary tale, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE will bring this year’s Festival to a vibrant and cheering close.’

On having his film invited to close the London Film Festival, Danny Boyle comments: “I am delighted that the film will receive its European premiere at the London Film Festival. I hope that Londoners will respond to this story about another great megatropolis - Mumbai, “the Maximum City”.’

The full programme for The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival will be announced next Wednesday (10th September).

The London Film Festival runs from 15-30 October 2008

> Official site for the London Film Festival
> Official US site for Slumdog Millionaire at Fox Searchlight
> /Film with more photos from the film
> Listen to our full interview with Danny Boyle from April 2007 about Sunshine

[Photo Credit: Ishika Mohan / TM and © 2008 Fox Searchlight / All rights reserved.]

Voice over artist Don LaFontaine has died aged 68.

Although you might not recognise his face, you will almost certainly know his distinctive voice from many movie trailers down the years which usually include the phrase “In a world…”.

Some of his more memorable voice overs include the trailers for The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cast Away and Fatal Attraction.

Here is an example of his voice over for the T2 trailer:

Born on 26th August, 1940, in Duluth, Minnesota his first job in the film business was as a sound engineer and he went on to be a writer, editor and a producer.

But he got his big break in 1964 when a voice-over guy failed to show up to a recording session for the western Gunfighters of Casa Grande and LaFontaine stood in for him.

He would go on to provide the voice for many trailers over the next 40 years, helping shape the trend for mini-movie narratives rather than the loosely assembled montages they had previously been.

In this video Don talks about his career:

He was also not above spoofing his style of voice, as this commercial for GEICO demonstrates:

He died aged 68 in hospital in Los Angeles after suffering a collapsed lung. He is survived by his wife, singer and actress Nita Whitaker, and three children, Christine, Skye and Elyse.

> Official site for Don LaFontaine
> Don LaFontaine at the IMDb

Here are the current top 10 films at the UK box office with the totals from last weekend.

Position / Film / Distributor / Weeks on release / Weekend Total / Total UK Box Office til 24th August

1.  Hellboy 2: The Golden Army / Universal / 1 / £2,969,602 / £2,969,602
2.  Mamma Mia! / Universal / 7 / £1,837,577 / £50,261,947
3.  Get Smart / Warner Bros / 1 / £1,542,005 / £1,542,005
4.  The Dark Knight / Warner Bros / 5 / £1,454,847 / £43,498,315
5.  You Don’t Mess With The Zohan / Sony / 2 / £781,953 / £3,560,382
6.  The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor / Universal /    3 / £641,421 / £9,991,490
7.  Wild Child / Universal / 2 / £585,881 / £3,032,933
8.  WALL-E / Disney / 6 / £459,574 / £20,511,945
9.  Star Wars: The Clone Wars /    Warner Bros / 2 / £347,981 / £1,915,065
10. Space Chimps / Entertainment / 4 / £135,547 / £2,836,558

[Source: FDA/Nielsen EDI]

A clever mashup with Gremlins taking over several movies.

> Gremlins at the IMDb
> Gremlins fansite
> A recent BT ad with the Gremlins