Movie Roundup: Seth MacFarlane to Host Oscars, 'Hotel Transylvania' Rules Box Office
Check out Nicole Kidman in the first trailer for Stoker below. (Photo by Pacific Coast News) Seth MacFarlane will host the Oscars. (Getty Images) And Selena Gomez voiced Dracula's daughter in Hotel Transylvania, helping it win the weekend's box office. (Photo from Columbia Pictures)The Academy surprised fans this morning by picking Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane to host the Oscars. Meanwhile Twilight fans join Summit Entertainment in celebrating news of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart's reunion at least on the red carpet. And Adam Sandler and Selena Gomez led Hotel Transylvania to a big box office win.All this and Joseph Gordon-Levitt fans will find a very special treat (our exclusive interview with the actor) below!
Seth MacFarlane's Hosting the Oscars!He's been lampooning Hollywood for years via Family Guy, and he can carry a tune better than half the actors on Broadway, so is Seth MacFarlane really as surprising an Oscar host as everyone's making him out to be? Especially after watching him knock one out of the park hosting Saturday Night Live (he told Deadline this morning the Oscar offer came "roughly around the same time"), the writer/producer/actor whose face is so often stuck behind the scenes seems like an exciting choice for the telecast.
As a TV-first kind of guy, MacFarlane is sure to seem like an outsider at first blush. After all his voice is about a hundred times more recognizable than his face. (Keep your ears open for Stewie.) But faithful fans know all about his love for showtunes, and after seeing him on SNL, it's easy to see what would make him so attractrave to t! he Academy.MacFarlane certainly seems stoked. "It's truly an overwhelming privilege to be asked to host the Oscars," he said. "My thoughts upon hearing the news were, one, I will do my utmost to live up to the high standards set forth by my predecessors; and two, I hope they don't find out I hosted the
Charlie Sheen Roast." (Seth's dad was, um,less impressed with the news.)
RPattz & KStew Will Walk the Red Carpet TogetherThe world will have to wait indefintely to see what happens when Johnny De! pp an! d Wes Anderson get together. Despite earlier reports, Anderson's next project, The Grand Budapest Hotel, will be Depp-less. "You know, the Internet has a way of announcing things on its own," Anderson toldHuffPo. "Johnny is somebody who I would love to work with at some point, but he's not going to be in this movie."
Hotel TransylvaniaLeads Box Office Rebound
Adam Sandler's animated monster movie mashed the all-time September record for a debut by raking in more than $43 million this weekend. It couldn't have hurt to have Selena Gomez bringing in the Disney Channel audience. She voices Dracula's daughter, Mavis (pictured below right), who finds herself nursing a crush on a human boy.
After a few dead weeks, it was a big weekend for the overall box office with sci-fi thrillerLooper pulling in a robust $21 million and the hilariousPitch Perfecttaking home over $5 million in limited release. The news wasn't all roses however asWon't Back Down, theMaggie Gyllenhaal,Viola Davisteacher drama, had one of the worst debuts of all time for a wide release (2500 locations).MovieWeekendTotal1. Hotel Transylvania$43M$43M2. Looper$21M$21M3. It's the first day of October, when big scares can mean big box offices, and today marks the anniversary of the release of two seminal horror movies: Night of the Living Dead (1968), and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). The two films cost less than $200,000 combined to produce, and raked in more than $60 million at the box office. Adjusted for inflation, that's like $4 trillion dollars, or something... However you do the math, those are bloody good numbers.Adele Leaked Her Big James Bond News on Twitter
After months of speculation as to who would have the honor of recording the James Bond theme forSkyfall, we have our answer:Adele. The British powerhouse let news of her involvement with the franchise slip by tweeting a picture of her holding a music sheet from the movie. (Hopefully it wasn't top secret.) The name for theSkyfalltheme is simply "Skyfall," but wouldn't it have been great if it was called "Rolling in the Deep Cover"? Skyfallhits theaters November 9.
Nicole Kidman Is Crazy Scary in 'Stoker' TrailerUnhinged doesn't begin to describe Nicole Kidman's skin-crawling performance in the first trailer from Stoker. "I've o! ften wond! ered why it is we have children, and the conclusion I've come to is we want someone to get it right this time," she whispers to Mia Wasikowska. "But not me. Personally speaking I can't wait to watch life tear you apart."
The ensuing tale of sex, murder, and a mom who seems intent on seeing her daughter ruined should come as no surprise to fans of Korean director Chan-woo Park. Best known for the stylized violence of Oldboy, this will be Park's first English-language feature, and it looks just as messed up as anything he did on the other side of the Pacific.
Robert Downey Jr. Loves Playing Iron Man
With arms outspread,Robert Downey Jr.appeared to be blissfully embracing the cast, crew, and set of Iron Man 3 earlier this morning. And why shouldn't he be happy? The guy gets paid millions (possibly more than $50 million for Avengers) to wear a bright red metallic suit, act like a narcissistic playboy, and live in Miami for a couple months. The movie, which also stars Guy Pearce andGwyneth Paltrow, is due in theaters May 3, 2013.
FameFlynetWe Interviewed Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Rian JohnsonWith a solid opening we! ekend beh! ind it, Looper is one of the most talked-about science fiction movies of the year. Zimbio's Joe Robberson recently had a chance to sit down with star Joseph Gordon-Levitt and director Rian Johnson, who's also directed two episodes of Breaking Bad. Here's what they had to say about the movie.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: I did. I practiced a lot, both with Bruce and without Bruce. ... [He] even sent me recordings he did of himself performing some of my voice-over monologues so that I could hear what it would sound like in his voice.
Zimbio: My favorite sequence was the part that takes us 30 years in the future, and I wonder how you conceptualized that and realized it.
Rian Johnson: That's one of the few times that we kind of have fun with the time travel. ... You see this kind of future life that he could possibly have where he goes off overseas and has this whole other life. And it was fun also because we shot that sequence in Shanghai, and it let us go into a more expansive visual sci-fi world, and let us play in that realm even if it's just this little contained sequence. (Watch the rest of the interview below.)
Related Articles:
Comments