The Screening Room

Relax, everyone -- this one isn't going to scare you the way No Country for Old Men did.

The Associated Press says that sibling filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen previewed Burn After Reading at the Venice Film Festival. It's a spy satire with an all-star cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and John Malkovich.

Read all about the premiere here.

If you were planning on seeing Vin Diesel's big summer movie this week, you might want to rethink your movie choice. At least, that's what the director thinks:

French director Mathieu Kassovitz, who cradled and loved his Babylon AD project for 5 years, is mad as hell at Fox. Citing terrible management, budget shenanigans, bad producers and partners, Kassovitz says making the futuristic tale starring Vin Diesel was a hideous ordeal. What went so wrong with Babylon AD that its own director and star call it "terrible"?

In the film, Vin Diesel plays Toorop, an ex-mercenary who is getting paid to transport an important girl from one end of the globe to another, while dodging enemy fire and hiding from the oppressive government. But according to Kassovitz, it should have been so much more. He worked on a project whose main point was to focus on refugee trafficking in a gritty tomorrow, as well as political issues like censorship and a declining educational system.

Read the rest of the post here.

So: Another case of an evil studio sucking the life and creativity out of a project to make it more marketable? Or a director with auteur visions for his Hollywood popcorn flick? Does this whole thing make you more or less likely to see the movie?

It doesn't sway me from my "maybe I'll catch it someday on Showtime" plan. If anything, it provides a little vindication for my belief that if the studio thought it was a great blockbuster, it would have come out earlier in the summer. And if it was a big think piece, it would find a home this fall. But the end-of-summer dead zone? Not a good sign.

Via io9

'Thunder' clap
Proving once again that all publicity is good publicity, Tropic Thunder remained atop the charts for a second week, pulling in $16.3 million to push its total to $65.6 million. The film has been dogged by those offended by its treatment of the mentally handicapped, but the protests don't seem to have affected its earning potential.

Exit Speed, an action movie filmed primarely in Coppell and Carrollton, will have its red carpet debut Tuesday night at the Studio Movie Grill on Centrail Expressway and Royal Lane. Walking the carpet will be cast members of the film including Lea Thompson, plus Bob Hudgins of the Texas Film Commission and Janis Burkland of the Dallas Film Commission. The film was produced by Sally Helppie, a Dallas lawyer who is president of Sabbatical Pictures.

Such an embarrassment of Jewish film riches. Just two nights before the 12th Annual International Jewish Film Festival opens with the affecting Sixty Six, a story inspired by a real-life bar mitzvah, 3 Stars Cinema is presenting a different kind of story, Praying with Lior. It's an award-winning documentary about a boy with Down syndrome and his journey to study for his bar mitzvah.

It's a one-night only showing Thursday, Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. at the Angelika Film Center. Tickets are $9 and are available here.

Oh, Christopher Nolan, say it ain't so! Admittedly, movie rumors (particularly casting rumors) are a dime a dozen on the Internet, where tales spread like wildfire -- or like a high school grapevine:

The 62-year-old singer and actress is reported to be in talks to play Catwoman opposite Christian Bale in the third Batman film from British director Christopher Nolan.

The Oscar-winner will join a cast that includes Johnny Depp as The Riddler as she plays the whip-carrying burglar. The character has also been played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry.

Continue reading at Telegraph.co.uk.

Time will tell whether to believe this or not. Personally, I think anyone -- or anything -- is a step up from Halle Berry's turn as the iconic figure. But I'm having a hard time seeing how this choice fits in with Christopher Nolan's Batman-verse.

I hear that a cult legend is dead. Sho 'Nuff, the shogun of Harlem, was Bruce Leroy's nemesis in the classic movie, Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon. Now he's no more.

Julius Carry was the actor who played the prettiest, baddest, mofo lowdown around this town - Sho 'Nuff! He coined one-liners, like "Kiss my converse!" And every time he asked his entourage, "Who's the baddest?," we all chimed in - "Sho' Nuff!"

It might not have been the deepest movie, or employed the most talented actors. But it had a time and place for my generation. In the mid-1980s, when black kids were watching Kung-Fu flicks and re-enacting the scenes afterward, we finally had a movie for us. Sho 'Nuff and Bruce Leroy had us all wishing we had the glow.

Maybe, like Bernie Mac, this will all be rumor and he's just laid up in a hospital somewhere. Then again, Bernie still died.

Here's a YouTube video to one of the best scenes:

— Tiara Ellis

If you were planning on heading out to the Angelika for a movie tonight, don't. The theater is closed to the public as it hosts the premiere of Drive and Deliver, a documentary about professional truck drivers. That film screens at 6 p.m., though I'm not sure how to get tickets. Maybe you can find out here.

This made my day.

Via Dubious Quality.

• Death Race (B+)
• The Rocker (D+)
• Elegy (B)
• Frozen River (A-)
• The House Bunny (B-)
• The Longshots (C+)
• I.O.U.S.A. (B)

Finding it hard to resist belting out "The Winner Takes It All" or dancing to "Dancing Queen" with Meryl Streep at Mamma Mia!? Resistance is futile and actually detrimental at a new sing-along version of the hit movie opening Aug. 29 at AMC NorthPark and Cinemark Legacy in Plano.

It's part of a limited national release for this cleverly plotted cornucopia of ABBA songs, boisterously performed on a lush Greek island and which despite the scoffing remarks of some (mostly males, ahem!), has already scored more than $320 million worldwide.

Cool thing is, with the words on the screen, you don't have even brush up on the lyrics (as if you didn't know them all). Well, that takes care of our plans for Labor Day weekend...

And if you will be away for Labor Day weekend, look here to find out your closest sing-along location.

I.O.U.S.A., a documentary that inspects the financial troubles facing the country, officially opens on Friday, but a special presentation of the film will be shown Thursday. After the screening, a panel discussion featuring Warren Buffett and other financial leaders will be shown via satellite. All screenings will be held at 7 p.m.; for a list of participating theaters, go to www.fathomevents.com.

Down goes Batman! Down goes Batman!
It took a fake army platoon to do it, but The Dark Knight was finally taken down last weekend. Tropic Thunder, the Ben Stiller-directed tale of actors shooting a war movie who find themselves involved in real combat, took in $25.8 million in its first weekend, besting Batman by $9 million.

Over on the Dallas City Hall Blog, Dave Levinthal has an interesting post on the topic. Dallas Film Commission director Janis Burklund suggests that the two venues would make great places to blow up in a movie.

You've got to see this. If you missed Street Kings in theaters, it's your chance to see Keanu Reeves (!) go all punisher on screen. Yep, the same Keanu Reeves that isn't known for any kind of explosiveness as an actor. But he has no choice when surrounded by a fiery, mustached Forest Whitaker and a scary, barely recognizable John Corbett in "Street Kings," released Tuesday.

From the moment the film starts, you know something's very wrong with every character in the movie. And you'll also be a little distracted by playing a game of "Hey, it's that guy!" as each cop is introduced. These cops consider themselves judge, jury and executioner. (The movie doesn't do a thing to help The Los Angeles Police Department's reputation.) Internal Affairs is snooping around, of course, but the investigation is rapidly going nowhere because as Forest Whitaker's character says late in the film, "We're all bad." And, by that time, you'll have to agree.

(Photo of Keanu Reeves by Merrick Morton)

As you've no doubt heard by now, the 6th Harry Potter movie has been pushed from its original date of Nov. 21 to July 17, 2009. Apparently, that memo didn't get passed on to Entertainment Weekly, who features the wizard on the cover of its fall movie preview.
Now, working on a publication with deadlines, I understand how these things can happen -- you expect one thing and then someone pulls the rug out from under you after your deadline.
But you don't expect it to happen when you share a parent company with the cover story. Time Warner Inc. owns both Entertainment Weekly and Warner Bros., the studio behind the Potter franchise. Seems like an inter-office memo might have been appropriate in this case. Anyway, just passing that along so you don't feel like your company is the only one that doesn't get the word out to you on important news.

Ping Pong Playa, which I wrote about in yesterday's paper, opened the Asian Film Festival of Dallas on Thursday night at the Magnolia Theatre. Afterward, everyone headed across McKinney Ave. to The Fish for a little opening night revelry.
In town for the event was Jimmy Tsai, who plays the lead role, C-Dub, in the film. To watch him on screen, you'd never know that it was his first film, or that he's not even an actor by trade. His primary job is serving as an accountant for Cherry Sky films, which produced Ping Pong Playa.
As you might expect from someone making a jump like that, he was bathed in a very happy to be there glow last night, happily mingling with festival goers and posing for pictures. It looked like a gig he could get used to.
"I'm mostly a behind-the-scenes guy," he told me last night at the party. "But if something else in front of the camera comes along, I'd be crazy not to pursue it."
If Ping Pong Playa does well when it is released in September, those offers may come knocking.

Less than 24 hours after Warner Bros. pushed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from this fall to July 17, 2009, Disney swooped in with a replacement to fill the void. Nov. 21 is a coveted date this year as it is the Friday before Thanksgiving -- a primo release date. With that day's big family film out of the picture, Disney announced today that Bolt, about a TV-star dog voiced by John Travolta, would fill the gap.

• Vicky Cristina Barcelona (B+)
• Fly Me to the Moon (B-)
• Tropic Thunder (B) (opened Wednesday)
• Mirrors
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (C+)
• Henry Poole is Here (B)

Change your plans, fangirls and boys. The Associated Press reports that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been moved from Nov. 21, 2008 until next summer, July 17, 2009. According to the story, Studio President and Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn says the studio has had success with past summer Harry Potter releases, including the fifth movie.

So that's another eight months until Lord Voldemort's dark past gets to the big screen. What do you think? Will this keep you from seeing the movie? Is it all a ploy? Were you all set to get your Harry Potter fix just before the holiday season kicked off?