News for
American Beauty (1999) More at IMDbPro »

2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999

1-20 of 189 articles from 2009   « Prev | Next »

---

Moon Shines Bright on DVD and Blu-ray on January 12, 2010

9 November 2009 8:29 AM, PST | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »

You can bring home the critically acclaimed directorial debut of Duncan Jones on DVD and Blu-ray early next year. Moon will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 12, 2010. The DVD will be priced at $27.96 Srp, while the Bd will go for $37.95 Srp. The film stars Sam Rockwell, Dominique McElligott, Kaya Scodelario and the voice of Kevin Spacey.

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is nearing the completion of his 3-year-long contract with Lunar Industries, mining Earth's primary source of energy on the dark side of the moon. Alone with only the base's vigilant computer Gerty (voiced by Oscar-Winner Kevin Spacey, 1999 Best Actor, American Beauty) as his sole companion, Bell's extended isolation has taken its toll. His only link to the outside world comes from satellite messages from his wife and young daughter. He longs to return home, but a terrible accident on the lunar surface leads to a disturbing discovery that »

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Official Blu-ray and DVD Details for Duncan Jones’ Moon

9 November 2009 7:50 AM, PST | FilmSchoolRejects.com | See recent FilmSchoolRejects news »

A few weeks back, director Duncan Jones revealed some of the DVD and Blu-ray release details for the import release of his highly acclaimed film Moon via his twitter account (@ManMadeMoon). And ever since, we've been waiting for official word from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Today, we have that official word in the form of the press release below. The film will hit Blu-ray and DVD here in the states on January 12th, and it will include what appears to be a solid amount of special features. This includes two commentary tracks, two Q&A featurettes and two behind the scenes featurettes. Not bad for a smaller release. I for one will be keeping an eye out for Moon and picking up this release, as this film is certainly on my list for year end awards. See the official press release below: Culver City, Calif. (November 9, 2009) – Sam Rockwell (Frost/Nixon, upcoming »

- Neil Miller

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Spacey: 'Dench Is Bored Of Dame Name Tag'

3 November 2009 8:06 AM, PST | WENN | See recent WENN news »

Dame Judi Dench wants to drop her long-winded title - because she prefers to be called by her first name, according to actor pal Kevin Spacey.

The veteran star became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1988, but the regal-sounding prefix makes her cringe.

American Beauty actor Spacey also insists Dench's straight-laced reputation is far from her true character.

He says, "One just has to remove the 'Dame' from Judi's name, and you'll realise that she's hilarious and nothing close to the characters she plays. In fact, she's bored s**tless with that stuff and prefers to just be Judi." »

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Spacey Blamed For Waiter's Job Loss

3 November 2009 4:11 AM, PST | WENN | See recent WENN news »

A waiter has blasted Kevin Spacey after he was fired for asking the actor's pals not to smoke in a restaurant.

Peter Turner has accused the American Beauty star of costing him his job at the Clarke Cooke House in Newport, Rhode Island, after friends violated state laws by lighting up during a meal in June.

Turner alleges the head waiter instructed him to ask Spacey's party to put out their cigarettes - but the star reportedly took exception to the request, reports RadarOnline.com.

Turner recalls, "I told the maitre d' (they were) smoking, he said to ask them not to smoke. I did politely ask them not to. The second time I made a joke about it - I said, 'You're not allowed to smoke in here unless you're on fire.' The third time... Kevin Spacey basically verbatim said to me, 'You know, you're an aggressive p**ck.' I said to him, 'I'm sorry, I'm just doing my job. Does anybody need anything?' I was told (by Spacey), 'I need you to get the f**k away from my table.'"

The waiter claims his bosses were furious after the incident - and fired him from his position three days later.

Turner insists the lay-off has cost him dearly, adding: "I was banking on making somewhere between $12- and $18,000 (at the restaurant) and that's basically what I'm out because someone thought that they were more privileged than anyone else." »

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Film School 101: Protagonists

1 November 2009 4:57 AM, PST | Atomic Popcorn | See recent Atomic Popcorn news »

First off I need to apologize for the tardiness of this entry.  I was infected with the swine pandemic and was unable to do anything but utter “Bbbbraaaiiinsssss…” feebly from my bed.  Now I’m up and about again, so here we go.

One of the first things to do when making your movie is figure out who your main character is going to be.  Now, you may pick your plot first and then figure what kind of protagonist you want or you may pick your characters and write about what they do – it all depends on your style of writing.  In either case, understanding your protagonist(s) is very important since these are the people whom the plot revolves around, who we will come to know and love and who we will follow for the next 120 minutes.  They will be our tour guides through your movie so you have »

- Marco Duran

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Quiz: Can you spot the Oscars' nominee for best actor?

31 October 2009 5:13 PM, PDT | Gold Derby | See recent Gold Derby news »

Only one of these performances received a nomination for best actor at the Oscars. See the answer here! Answer: James Stewart, "It's a Wonderful Life."

More Gold Derby Awards Quizzes Can you spot the Oscar nominee for best picture? Who turned down Kevin Spacey's Oscar-winning role in 'American Beauty'? Which actor had the most Oscar nominations in a row? Which Bette Davis flick suffered the worst Oscars shut-out? Quiz: Who turned down Jodie Foster's Oscar-winning role in 'The Silence of the Lambs'? Who won an Oscar on her birthday? Which Oscar-winning role was not gay? How much does it cost to manufacture an Oscar statuette? Oscars quiz: Which movies won for writing, directing and acting but failed to win best picture? Easiest Oscars quiz ever: What two films suffered the worst shutout? What film was the first grand slam winner of the guilds' awards? »

- tomoneil

Permalink | Report a problem

---

MovieSet’s Alliance DVD Round-Up - Coraline, Ghosts of Girlfriends, Away We Go, Easy Virtue, 17 Again

30 October 2009 3:50 PM, PDT | MovieSet.com | See recent MovieSet.com news »

As winter approaches the days start getting shorter and the temperature keeps dropping which makes watching movies at home start to look like a better option than braving the cold weather to go out to the theater.

Lucky for you, Alliance has released a great selection of films that can entertain fans of any genre. Keep your eyes open for Coraline, Nothing Like the Holidays, Away We Go, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, Easy Virtue, Sin Nombre and 17 Again.

Coraline

Coraline DVD

If you’re looking for a good family film to watch over Halloween, then pick up Coraline on DVD or Blu-Ray to delight and frighten you in standard 2-D, or eye-popping 3-D.  Coraline tells the story of a young girl who walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life.

On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to »

- Shannon

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Screen Plays: How 25 Screenplays Made it to a Theatre Near You – For Better or Worse

29 October 2009 3:33 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

Screen Plays: How 25 Screenplays Made it to a Theatre Near You – For Better or Worse David S. Cohen, HarperCollins 2008. From the onset, Screen Plays looks like promising reading material for screenwriters and others interested in how screenplays make it from paper to screen. Cohen’s credits are respectable, and the promise of “valuable insider access to the back lots and board rooms” is tantalizing. The book covers some pretty good ground: from blockbusters such as Gladiator, to Indiewood hits such as Lost in Translation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to more controversial films such as Happiness and A Dirty Shame, it picks up a decent selection of interesting films that appeal to a broad demographic. In other words, he knows what he’s doing. Screen Plays is easy to navigate, and offers juicy little tidbits from the mouths of actors, directors, and screenwriters. The writing is simple and concise, »

- Ricky

Permalink | Report a problem

---

True Blood hits UK DVD!

29 October 2009 12:44 PM, PDT | The Hollywood News | See recent The Hollywood News news »

One of our fave TV shows is hitting DVD in the UK this week, the superb Us TV show True Blood.

From the creator of Six Feet Under and the Academy Award® winning writer of American Beauty (Alan Ball) and featuring the sexy, eclectic cast of Academy Award® winning Anna Paquin(The Piano, X-Men), British actor Stephen Moyer (NY-lon), Alexander Skarsgard  (Generation Kill) and Ryan Kwanten (Home and Away) True Blood is the show that everyone is talking about.

A sensation in the Us, winning a Golden Globe in its first season (Anna Paquin, Best Actress) True Blood has already made its (fang)marks on the flesh of  British viewers pulling in huge viewers on FX and threatening to glamour even more when it makes its terrestrial debut on Channel 4 in October. Feeding our fascination for vampires, Alan Ball looks at a lascivious world occupied by the dead in the »

- Paul

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Jeff Bridges: The Dude Who Stares At Goats

28 October 2009 9:01 PM, PDT | Atomic Popcorn | See recent Atomic Popcorn news »

November 6th will see the release of the much anticipated The Men Who Stare at Goats. The film about an army battalion of “psychic spies” stars four Hollywood’s heavyweights: George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, and Ewan McGregor.

Although each actor is well-known and has been in stand-out movies–Spacey in American Beauty, Clooney in Ocean’s 11, and McGregor in Moulin Rouge–Bridges takes the cake for playing, arguably, one of the most memorable characters in cinema history.

Bridges has had a long acting career, getting his unofficial start as an infant in the 1950 melodrama The Company She Keeps. At nine years old, Bridges began working in television with small roles in various shows over the next several years.

His first major role came in 1971, at the age of 22, in the film The Last Picture Show. The coming of age flick was a stellar debut for Bridges, earning him »

- Carly

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Where The Wild Things Are | Review

15 October 2009 8:06 PM, PDT | SmellsLikeScreenSpirit | See recent SmellsLikeScreenSpirit news »

Director: Spike Jonze Writer(s): Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers (screenplay) Maurice Sendak (book) Starring: Max Records, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper, James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker Our story follows Max (Max Records), an interesting and tender young boy full of imagination and wonderment. Max has become disconnected from his sister who has left childhood for the teenage years, and his mother (Catherine Keener) is dating someone that Max sees as competition for his time and attention. With the absence of Max's father due to divorce, we see him acting out emotionally the only way a young boy can - loudly and inappropriately. After putting on his wolf costume and displaying a "rebel yell" outburst in front of his mom and boyfriend Mark Ruffalo, Max's mom attempts to scold Max and send him to his room...but Max has other plans. He bolts from the house »

- Dave Campbell

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Phish's Halloween Show: Which Album Will Survive?

9 October 2009 8:20 AM, PDT | MTV Newsroom | See recent MTV Newsroom news »

Ever since Phish announced that they would be hosting their own three-day festival, which will be taking place on October 30 & 31 and November 1 in Indio, California at the same site as the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, speculation launched immediately about what the band would do for their "musical costume." One of the group's many traditions is to cover a classic album in its entirety on Halloween (past costumes include the Velvet Underground's Loaded and the Who's Quadrophenia), and this year will be no different.

As a way to build anticipation for the Halloween show (and the weekend itself, which is simply being called Festival 8), the band's official Web site currently contains a massive gallery of album covers. Each of these covers will be eliminated one-by-one (via a scary animated axe, complete with horror movie blood) until the last record standing gets crowned the victor. (It should be noted »

- MTV News

Permalink | Report a problem

---

'True Blood' - The Verdict

7 October 2009 3:00 PM, PDT | Digitalspy | See recent digitalspy news »

The world is crying out for a cracking new cult series to fill the void left by the end of Battlestar Galactica and the absence of Doctor Who in 2010. Well, step forward HBO's vampire series True Blood. A third season has already been commissioned Stateside and if the opening episode is anything to go by, this blood-sucking new show is well worth sinking your fangs into... Originating from the novels of Charlaine Harris and harnessed for the small screen by Six Feet Under and American Beauty writer Alan Ball, True Blood wastes no time in immersing us in an earthbound reality that's significantly different to our own. For vampires are now commonplace, but not accepted within society by its less undead members. They're treated suspiciously as second-class citizens, despite the advent of a new synthetic blood beverage that should curtail (more) »

- By Ben Rawson-Jones

Permalink | Report a problem

---

1999: A Year In Review (Part One)

7 October 2009 9:07 AM, PDT | ScreenRant.com | See recent Screen Rant news »

Many films come out every year with critics and fans alike, compiling lists of their bests and worsts. There are also many films that fall between the cracks, only to be discovered years later. Many critics believe that one of the best years in cinema was 1939, when Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were released alongside many other classic gems.

Personally, I’ve always felt that 1999 was an epic year for movies, providing us with so many interesting films. In fact, 1999 was such a good year for movies that even some of the bad ones are still worth watching!

So, please sit back and put your memory caps on as Screen Rant takes on a retrospective of 1999 in the world of film.

 

In 1999, the world was a very different place. We were on the cusp of a new millennium and 9/11 was something that nobody - not even »

- Niall Browne

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Ten reasons to guzzle 'True Blood'

6 October 2009 10:00 PM, PDT | Digitalspy | See recent digitalspy news »

Fresh from its run on FX UK, the superb True Blood finally arrives on Channel 4 and is sure to amass a legion of new fans with its tense yet funny storytelling and winning romantic intrigue. There will be skeptics out there no doubt grumbling 'oh no, not another vampire-themed show'. So here are ten reasons to sink your fangs into this superb slice of compelling drama set deep in Southern America. 1) The pedigree The background of key figures behind and before the cameras is impressive. True Blood creator Alan Ball was behind the similarly morbid and hugely-lauded series Six Feet Under and scooped an Oscar for his American Beauty screenplay. The lead star Anna Paquin, who plays kooky waitress Sookie Stackhouse, also landed an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at the tender age of 11 for her role in 1994 art flick The Piano, and won an army of (more) »

- By Ben Rawson-Jones

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Charlie and his chocolate takes the stage

2 October 2009 10:33 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

Reported by THR's Risky Biz earlier today, Warner Bros. is in the works to bring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the Broadway stage. The spectacle is set to be produced by American Beauty director Sam Mendes' production company Neal Street Productions, with Mendes also rumored to direct. Popular Scottish playwrite David Grieg is set to write the book, with Scott Wittman and Hairspray alumni Marc Shaiman set compose. This is not the first time that a Broadway show has been spun-off from a Hollywood film. In the past, the stage has graced us with faithful and popular adaptations of The Full Monty, The Little Mermaid and Shrek. Let's see if Charlie can hold note. »

- Ricky

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Warner Bros. Wants Willy Wonka To Build A Chocolate Factory On Broadway

2 October 2009 3:54 PM, PDT | cinemablend.com | See recent Cinema Blend news »

It looks like Sam Mendes found a golden ticket. According to THR.s Risky Biz, Warner Bros. is trying to bring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Broadway with the help of Mendes. production company Neal Street Productions. Mendes is also flirting with the idea of directing the piece. Moviegoers are primarily familiar with Mendes for having directed films like American Beauty, Road to Perdition and Revolutionary Road but he.s also directed a number of theatrical productions including Gypsy and The Vertical Hours. His hesitancy to pursue directorial duties results from a number of potential film projects, particularly Focus Features. Middlemarch, Butcher.s Crossing and Netherland. Clearly I prefer the big screen to the stage, but if Charlie and the Chocolate Factory actually makes it to Broadway, it could be huge. Superb source material cannot carry a film and that couldn.t be more evident than with the 2005 film »

Permalink | Report a problem

---

DVD: Review:DVDs In Brief: September 30, 2009

29 September 2009 10:00 PM, PDT | avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news »

Shot during the freefall that led to the current economic crisis, Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience (Magnolia) beautifully dovetails of-the-moment improvisation about the financial collapse with the story of a young woman who herself is a fading commodity. Real-life porn star Sasha Grey plays a high-priced call girl with appropriate reserve, though real-life film critic Glenn Kenny gets the best scene as a online “erotic connoisseur” who wants sleazy concessions in exchange for a positive notice… American Beauty director Sam Mendes doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in his formalist body, which makes him an odd choice to direct ... »

Permalink | Report a problem

---

There's No Place Like Blu-Ray For 'Wizard Of Oz,' In The DVD Report For Tuesday, September 29

29 September 2009 3:00 PM, PDT | MTV Movies Blog | See recent MTV Movies Blog news »

Rare is the occasion where the week biggest release isn't a new blockbuster but rather a septuagenarian, but that's the case this time as a young girl from Kanas eclipses anything New Hollywood has to throw at us. This is your DVD Report for Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

Since the advent of Blu-ray, studios have casually mined their catalogues for suitable re-releases, and while the results have often been notable, they're usually nothing to stop the presses over. But every once in a while, that little extra effort is made that blows something out of the water and we get something like MGM's timeless "The Wizard of Oz," which breezes into its 70th birthday with one of the best Blu-ray collections of all time.

Presented in a large hardbound rectangular case, the 70th Anniversary Edition of "Oz" comes as a three-disc Blu-ray set featuring a whopping 20+ hours of bonus content, and is »

- Brian Jacks

Permalink | Report a problem

---

Blu-ray Capsule Review: Away We Go

28 September 2009 11:42 PM, PDT | Rope of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news »

Away We Go My Theatrical Review: Read It Here Quick Thoughts: Away We Go is a dramatic and comical road trip movie from Sam Mendes as he deviates from his traditionally darker tone and delivers a sweet indie film about a couple (John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph) who are expecting their first child and go out in search of where to root their family. Rudolph is great and a host of co-stars along the way add their share of comedic and occasionally extremely emotional elements. The film was attacked by some in a way that prompted me to write an editorial headlined "Do Sam Mendes's Films Attack the State of American Marriage?" Based on American Beauty, Revolutionary Road and Away We Go I would say a case could be made, but I really don't understand how anyone can come away from this film with any kind of negative feelings. »

- Brad Brevet

Permalink | Report a problem

---

2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999

1-20 of 189 articles from 2009   « Prev | Next »

---