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Toy Story 3 Official Movie Trailer 3

20 hours ago | ShockYa | See recent ShockYa news »

Walt Disney Studios UK just released this official movie trailer for the upcoming animated film “Toy Story 3″ by director Lee Unkrich (Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2) and starring Tom Hanks (Cars, The Polar Express), Michael Keaton (Batman), Joan Cusack, Tim Allen, Timothy Dalton, John Ratzenberger and Wallace Shawn. “Toy Story 3″ will be in theaters everywhere June 18th, 2009. Click Here for more photos, news and videos from Pixar’s “Toy Story 3″. Synopsis: Woody, Buzz, and the rest of their toy-box friends are dumped in a day-care center after their owner, Andy, departs for college. Stay tuned to Shockya.com for the latest movie news, posters and more from Pixar Animation and “Toy [...] »

- Brian Corder

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Open Forum Friday: Should There Be an Oscar Category for Motion Capture?

27 November 2009 2:52 PM, PST | FilmJunk | See recent FilmJunk news »

Recently we've been lamenting the fact that director Robert Zemeckis seems to be only interested in doing movies that use his patented "performance capture" technology -- that is, movies like Beowulf, The Polar Express, and A Christmas Carol, where the actors' movements and voices are recorded but then everything on screen is rendered with CG. It's not so much that the technology doesn't have potential, but the main issue is that he's so focused on the tech that the actual stories aren't necessarily compelling. Well, this week the folks over at Film Drunk [1] found an interesting article [2] where Zemeckis pushes for motion capture to be taken more seriously, particularly by the Academy Awards. The quote (translated from Spanish) is as follows: "I'd say that the appropriate thing would be to create a new category, like when Walt Disney made the first animated movie. He got a special award since no one had ever done that. »

- Sean

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Zemeckis demands new Oscar category

26 November 2009 2:24 AM, PST | digitalspy | See recent digitalspy news »

Robert Zemeckis has said that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) should introduce a new Oscar category for performance capture films. The director, who has pioneered the filmmaking technique with The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol, told latercera that the Academy Awards should recognise the new form of animation. "I'd say that the appropriate thing would be to create a new category, like (more) »

- By Simon Reynolds

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Black Friday Movie Deals: Target

23 November 2009 11:15 AM, PST | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

Our good friend and Eic Erik Davis had a very thoughtful idea for the holiday season: Why not scan the early flyers for the Black Friday sales, and report back to you -- the ravenous movie junkie -- to let you know where to find the best treats on the day after Thanksgiving? To those who choose to brave the stores on 11/27/09, you have my best wishes. I'll be sleeping.

We'll be bringing you deals for a variety of stores all week long. Here's what we've posted so far so you can keep track:

Black Friday Movie Deals: Best Buy

For Target, the 2-Day Sale starts Friday, November 27, at 5 a.m

2001: A Space Odyssey (blu-ray) -- $12.99 Baby Mama (standard) -- $3.99 Christmas Vacation (standard) -- $5.99 The Dark Knight (blu-ray) -- $12.99 (standard: $3.99) Elf (standard) -- $3.99 Forgetting Sarah Marshall (standard) -- $3.99 Gone With the Wind (blu-ray) -- $12.99 Goodfellas (blu-ray) -- $8.99 Gremlins (blu-ray »

- Scott Weinberg

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The Good, The Bad And The Wtf: Never Been Klingon

23 November 2009 7:30 AM, PST | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »

Life lesson #1: Never trust DVD menus. They are programmed by humans, and humans lie. Therefore, DVD menus lie. If you buy one and the menu looks wrong, do not show fear. Just stand firm and call your player a filthy liar. Life lesson #2: Don't teach your newborn a fictional alien language instead of English. That is cruel. What's the matter with you? Life lesson #3: Don't take life lessons from a man on the internet. Wait, what's going on? Oh, right, movie updates. Here they are.

The Good

• The other two posters for Alice in Wonderland were released on Facebook last week, completing the set of three. Your sharp eyes do not deceive you: the three posters can indeed be combined to form this image:

• I'm going out on a huge limb here by giving this movie the benefit of the doubt. This trailer for Jump doesn't exactly »

- Arya Ponto

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Ross McCall: The Everyday Guy Amidst the L.A. Insanity of "Crash"

22 November 2009 8:12 PM, PST | The Hollywood Interview | See recent The Hollywood Interview news »

(Ross McCall and Eric Roberts, left, in "Crash.")

By Terry Keefe

(This article is currently appearing in this month's Venice Magazine.)

It isn’t necessarily great news for an actor to hear that the television series they’ve been starring in is going to be “retooled” in its second season. Your character can be retooled right out the door. Or, it can develop significantly. The latter has fortunately been the case for actor Ross McCall, who has been playing Kenny Battalgia on “Crash” for both of its two seasons. Earlier in the year, veteran producer and writer Ira Steven Behr (“Deep Space Nine”) was brought on as the new show runner, and he merged Kenny’s storyline with that of billionaire Seth Blanchard, the billionaire played by Eric Roberts in the new season, and the major plot focus. Blanchard has a spiritual reawakening which causes him to forgo the building of a new L. »

- The Hollywood Interview.com

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'New Moon' Opens with Deafening Howl

22 November 2009 1:23 PM, PST | Box Office Mojo | See recent BoxOfficeMojo.com news »

The Twilight Saga: New Moon dawned with a hot-blooded estimated $140.7 million on approximately 8,500 screens at 4,024 sites over the weekend, charting as the third highest-grossing opening behind only The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3 and the biggest of 2009. With the advent of New Moon, not to mention an excellent showing by The Blind Side, overall business surged 56 percent over the same weekend last year when Twilight and Bolt debuted and was the second-highest seen in history, behind the weekend that The Dark Knight opened.

On its opening day, New Moon shattered the records for opening day ($72.7 million) and midnight showings ($26.3 million), thanks to the rush of its fervent fan base. Just like its predecessor, Twilight, the supernatural romance fell over 40 percent Friday-to-Saturday and the Friday accounted for more than half of the weekend business. On each day, New Moon essentially doubled the grosses of Twilight, which is an incredible feat for a sequel, »

- Brandon Gray

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“Christmas Carol” Has Small Drop In Second Week

17 November 2009 2:32 PM, PST | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

Disney's A Christmas Carol, which had a somewhat disappointing opening -- given its reported $200-million budget -- at the box office two weekends ago, may still turn a profit if the current trend continues, the Los Angeles Times observed today (Tuesday). The newspaper observed that the movie fell just 25.8 percent in its second weekend, well below the 32.8 percent drop that director Robert Zemeckis's The Polar Express experienced in its second weekend in 2004. The film, it noted, has now grossed $63.3 million -- $11.8 million more than The Polar Express took in at the end of its second weekend. The Times pointed out that the film still has several more pre-holiday weekends in theaters, including next week's four-day Thanksgiving break, before James Cameron's Avatar grabs away its 3D screens, which have been producing the lion's share of its ticket sales, on December 11. And even then, it's likely to return to theaters for holiday runs for years to come. »

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Weekend Box Office: '2012' Feeds Appetite for Destruction

16 November 2009 6:02 AM, PST | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

Occasionally you'll hear a movie branded as "criticproof," which I take to be a derisive term implying that the masses will flock even though the movie in question is garbage If there's an entire genre that may now get described as "criticproof" it's the disaster movie. No amount of bad reviews could keep people away from watching Roland Emmerich destroy the world anew in 2012, which made $65 million domestically and $225 million worldwide. The domestic numbers are comparable to The Day After Tomorrow which, among other things, ran 40 minutes shorter. The foreign numbers are even stronger. Those who've seen the movie shouldn't be surprised. Think of it what you will (it's probably my favorite Emmerich film, which is not saying a lot), but it's pretty incomparable as special effects spectacle.

2012 had the box office pretty well to itself this weekend. Its only new competition in even semi-wide release was Pirate Radio, which »

- Eugene Novikov

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'2012' Plagues the Box Office

15 November 2009 5:20 PM, PST | Box Office Mojo | See recent BoxOfficeMojo.com news »

Detonating atop the weekend box office, 2012 swept in with an estimated $65 million on approximately 6,500 screens at 3,404 sites, ranking as the seventh highest grossing November debut ever. Among fellow disaster movies, it had the second-highest grossing start, behind only director Roland Emmerich's previous disaster, The Day After Tomorrow, which opened to $68.7 million. In terms of initial attendance, though, it trailed Day After Tomorrow by a wide margin, and Emmerich's Independence Day tops all disaster movies. 2012's marketing campaign successfully mimicked its predecessors in story and spectacle, replete with the destruction of the White House and other famous structures. Distributor Sony Pictures' research indicated that 52 percent of 2012's audience was male and 55 percent was 25 years and older.

While the other new nationwide release, Pirate Radio, made less than a ripple, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire had a robust expansion, grossing an estimated $6.1 million at 174 sites. That's the second-highest »

- Brandon Gray

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Zemeckis Directing Motion Capture Nutcracker?

12 November 2009 8:21 PM, PST | newsinfilm.com | See recent newsinfilm news »

Not content with taking three beloved books and turning them into expensive, glass-eyed renderings, Robert Zemeckis is planning yet another Christmas-themed motion capture movie.

The director of The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol is considering a 3-D animated adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s original novel, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.”  According to Pajiba’s source, it will not be a re-creation of the Tchaikovsky ballet, so at least the creepy cartoons won’t be in tights.

Instead it will be a period piece set in 19th century Russia about the origins of the Nutcracker and the battle between the dolls and the mice.

I know I have been hammering Zemeckis the last few weeks for his obsession with performance capture technology, but I can’t be the only one tiring of this gimmick.  Does the Nutcracker really need the performance of a high-profile actor when his jaw just goes up and down? »

- Jeff Leins

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Breakdown: The Animated Oscar Race Begins with 20 Films

12 November 2009 2:14 PM, PST | FilmSchoolRejects.com | See recent FilmSchoolRejects news »

Yesterday, Variety published the list of films that have made the cut of 20 for the race to get the Best Animated Feature Oscar. These 20 films will eventually be cut down to a list of 5 nominees, rather than the usual 3, and ultimately cut down to the one film that will be named Best Animated Film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. A few of these animated films are yet to be released, and have not yet been screened by the Academy, so it's possible that some may be disqualified because of too much live-action mixed in, quality, etc. The final five nominees will not be announced until February 2, with the Oscars being presented on March 7. For your viewing pleasure (and our own need to inject our opinion into this process), we would like to present the following list with comments: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Instantly eliminated due to too much live-action and likelihood of »

- Neil Miller

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Robert Zemeckis Planning on Directing an Adaptation of The Nutcracker

12 November 2009 7:09 AM, PST | Reelzchannel.com | See recent ReelzChannel news »

According to Pajiba, Robert Zemeckis plans to follow up his take on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with an adaptation of another classic Christmas story: E.T.A. Hoffman's 1816 novel The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

Apparently, Zemeckis has plans to stick to the novel, rather than draw from the Tchiakovsky ballet performed to millions every year around Holiday time. The movie will be a period piece that tells the story of the Nutcracker's origins, including his relationship with the young girl Marie and his his battle with the seven-headed Mouse King.

Zemeckis has gone a little overboard with 3-D animation as of late, and The Nutcracker will be no exception. After hit-or-miss efforts with The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol (which opened last week), we can only take a guess as to the quality of this next effort.

Still, we have to admit that the idea of a darker, »

- Rich Z Zwelling

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Robert Zemeckis to Adapt 'The Nutcracker' Next?

11 November 2009 5:45 PM, PST | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

Here's the thing about Bob Zemeckis and all his newfangled motion-capture outings. When put to more mythic use in Beowulf, I was more drawn in by the adventure and less distracted by the characters. However, between The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol, I couldn't help but be re-struck time and time again but that unfortunate uncanny valley, especially when the characters look so much like the real thing (see: Gary Oldman as Cratchit) that I'd just as soon watch them give live-action performances that would then go surrounded by countless effects (you know, the way they used to make movies).

That disappointing truth, combined with last weekend's good-not-great opening for Carol, isn't getting Zemeckis down, though. According to Pajiba, he's pursuing The Nutcracker as his next holiday adaptation to be 'enhanced' by mo-cap technology. (I think it's fairly safe to assume after Carol and Express that this will likely »

- William Goss

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Zemickis to Continue Run of Animated Christmas Films

11 November 2009 5:07 PM, PST | Atomic Popcorn | See recent Atomic Popcorn news »

First there was The Polar Express in 2004. This year saw the release of A Christmas Carol. Next on Robert Zemickis’s list for animated Christmas tales? The Nutcracker.

Zemickis’s adaptation of the story of the nutcracker prince will be taken from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s original novel The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, rather than Tchaikovsky’s balletic interpretation (the form with which most people are more closely acquainted).

The film will focus on the war between the mice and the dolls, but will also seek to answer the question of the Nutcracker’s origin and explain the curse that turned him into a toy. The Nutcracker will also be made as a period piece, taking place in 19th century Russia, as in the original story.

The Nutcracker will, of course, be shot in the motion-capture animation style that Zemickis is turning into his trademark.

No production details have yet been released. »

- Carly

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Rumor: Zemeckis Following Christmas Carol with The Nutcracker

11 November 2009 2:49 PM, PST | firstshowing.net | See recent FirstShowing.net news »

Robert Zemeckis' latest CGI feature, A Christmas Carol, is currently playing and seems to be bringing in the cash, as expected. Whereas Zemeckis used to be an amazing filmmaker, he's now become our bi-yearly deliverer of a fantastical 3D CGI version of some beloved holiday story. First it was The Polar Express, this year it's A Christmas Carol, so what's up next after that? Pajiba claims that Zemeckis will eventually be adapting The Nutcracker as well, but it's not clear if that'll come before or after he remakes The Beatles' Yellow Submarine. Whatever the case, I'm not excited, despite my love for these wonderful holiday stories. They also say that similar to A Christmas Carol (which was a direct adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel), Zemeckis' Nutcracker won't be an adaptation of the Tchaikovsky ballet, but rather an adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann's original 1816 novel, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, »

- Alex Billington

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With 20 Movies Submitted, This Year’s Best Animated Feature Race Will Have Five Nominees Instead of Three

11 November 2009 2:18 PM, PST | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »

For only the second time since the category’s creation in 2001, Best Animated Feature will have five nominees competing for the award instead of three.  This is because this is the first time more than 16 films have been submitted.  Maybe another year this would mean the category would have greater competition rather than a clear winner in years past (although there have been a couple upsets, i.e. years where Pixar released a film and didn’t win).  Unfortunately for the four other also-rans, Pixar released Up.  Hit the jump for more details.

It’s great that there will be five nominees this year but it could have had ten and it wouldn’t change the outcome.  Oscar watchers are always saying that Up is a near-lock for a Best Picture nomination now that the category for Oscar’s highest honor has opened up from five slots to ten.  I »

- Matt Goldberg

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John Tartaglia Joins the NYC Pops for The Polar Express Holiday Concert, 12/19

10 November 2009 7:49 PM, PST | BroadwayWorld.com | See recent BroadwayWorld.com news »

According to reports from Carnegie Hall, Tony nominee and Avenue Q alum John Tartaglia will narrate the holiday children's classic The Polar Express in concert with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall this season. The production will take place in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage on Saturday, December 19 at 2pm. The concert features a score by Alan Silvestri, who also wrote the music for the 2004 feature film adaptation of the event. »

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North American box office: ‘A Christmas Carol’ generates little holiday cheer

10 November 2009 12:01 AM, PST | www.flickfilosopher.com | See recent FlickFilosopher news »

“That’s opening already?” someone asked me incredulously when I mentioned A Christmas Carol, and as I explained to him: Disney knows it’ll play at least middling well through the entire holiday season, particularly with no Harry Potter movie to contend with (though it will have another Disney toon, The Princess and the Frog, as competition). And Disney will have to milk it for all it’s worth -- it cost $200 million to make; whether it’s worth that is your call -- because a $30 million opening is not great. Nine Novembers ago, Jim Carrey delivered another kiddie Christmas flick, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, to an opening of $55 million... though Robert Zemeckis’s The Polar Express didn’t do quite so well when it opened in November 2004: $23 million. Then again, as Box Office Mojo notes: »

- MaryAnn Johanson

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“Carol” Has A Dickens Of A Time

9 November 2009 12:16 PM, PST | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

Moviegoers were about as tight-fisted at the box office over the weekend as Ebenezer Scrooge was at the grindstone in his day. The top film, Disney's A Christmas Carol, which stars Jim Carrey as Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, opened with an estimated $31 million, far below analysts' expectations of about $40-45 million -- and less than half what Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa earned when it opened with $63.1 million during the comparable weekend a year ago. But while most critics called the performance of the movie disappointing, particularly for a movie that was said to have cost close to $200 million, others pointed out that it took in more than Robert Zemeckis's previous motion-capture animation films, including The Polar Express, which opened with $23 million, and Beowulf, with $28 million. Besides, Disney apparently intends to milk it for another seven weekends before Christmas. "You know you're in for a marathon rather than a dash," Chuck Viane, Disney's president of domestic theatrical distribution, told Reuters. Slipping to second place was the Michael Jackson concert documentary This Is It, which dropped a moderate 39.7 percent to $14 million. (It continued to perform strongly overseas, however.) The comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats opened in third place with a better-than-expected $13.3 million. Another new film, The Fourth Kind, followed with $12.5 million. Rounding out the top five was Paranormal Activity, which fell 48 percent to $8.6 million. Nevertheless, the $15,000 film's total gross has now risen to $97 million, putting it on track to pass the $100-million mark before next weekend. Meanwhile the critically praised Precious opened in just 18 theaters with $1.8 million -- or a staggering $100,000 per theater. »

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2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003

1-20 of 163 articles from 2009   « Prev | Next »

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