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Posts Tagged ‘The Weinstein Company’

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

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1. The editor-in-chief of Jackie, the Dutch fashion magazine that referred to Rihanna as “the ultimate ni**abitch,” has resigned in the wake of complaints over the piece. The pop star tweeted her response to the controversy: “You put two words together, with the intent of abasement, that made no sense … ‘N***a Bitch’?!….Well with all respect, on behalf of my race, here are my two words for you … F*** YOU!!!” [via NME]

2. The Oscar that Orson Welles won back in 1941 for his Citizen Kane screenplay has been sold at auction for a whopping $861,542. Apparently famed magician David Copperfield was trying to get his hands on it, but was outbid. [via Deadline]

3. The Weinstein Company is moving ahead with its first stage musical, an adaptation of the 2004 film Finding Neverland; the current plan is to launch the show in Britain by next fall, and then transfer it to London by the end of the year. [via ArtsBeat]

4. “Like the screen Tintin, the movie proves less than inviting because it’s been so wildly overworked: there is hardly a moment of downtime, a chance to catch your breath or contemplate the tension between the animated Expressionism and the photo-realist flourishes. Relax, you think, as Tintin and the story rush off again, as if Mr. Spielberg were afraid of losing us with European-style longueurs. Bore us? He’s Steven Spielberg!” — New York Times film critic Manhola Dargis reviews The Adventures of Tintin

5. A rare performance by David Bowie on the UK show Top of the Pops will air on the BBC tonight for the first time since its original 1973 broadcast. The four-minute clip features him doing an extended version of “Jean Genie” with his band at the time, The Spiders From Mars. [via BBC]

Bonus Buzz: Arpakasso, The Adorable Alpaca That’s Sweeping Asia

Film

Warning: “The King’s Speech” You’re Seeing Didn’t Win the Oscar

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Consider this a consumer’s warning: If, in the coming weeks, you and yours decide to finally see what all the fuss is about and go check out that British movie with the stuttering dude, you may not be seeing the movie that won the Oscar for Best Picture two nights ago. Wait, what?

When rumors first started to leak in late January that the Weinstein Company was considering re-releasing The King’s Speech in a PG-13 version that would scrub the film’s instances of the dreaded “F-word,” our response was pretty much the common one: WTF? It seemed an odd move, and a rather greedy attempt to squeeze a few more dollars out of an already insanely profitable movie ($130 million in worldwide box office, and that was before Oscar night), but whatevs — it would probably just amount to one of those curio footnote releases, like Mel Gibson’s sanitized flop The Passion Recut or that post-DVD expanded re-release of Avatar. What we didn’t realize at the time was that the Weinstein Company was so anxious to take advantage of the millions of tweens clamoring to see The King’s Speech (seriously, why else would they be spending so much money on that Justin Bieber movie?) that they would straight-up replace the movie that’s still in theaters with this bowdlerized cut.

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Film

Miramax Sequels We’d Pay to See

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Word came today that as part of the deal between the Weinstein Company and their old home of Miramax, we’ll soon be seeing sequels to some of the best-known films in the Miramax library — to the tune of about five in the next two years. A followup to Bad Santa and Amityville Horror are already in the planning stages, with a television series based on Swingers and a sequel to Shakespeare in Love eventually to follow. Also part of the deal: Bridget Jones’s Diary, Copland, From Dusk Till Dawn, Clerks, Rounders, and Shall We Dance.

While we understand that knocking off existing films is a lot easier and cheaper than coming up with new material, we’re not sure it’s a safe bet — unless the Weinsteins are willing to give audiences the action-filled popcorn flicks they really want. Click through for our list of Miramax sequels we’d pay to see*, and add to our suggestions in the comments.

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Web

What’s on at Flavorpill: Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

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Today at Flavorpill, we chortled over the fact that James Cameron is working on a prequel novel to Avatar that should be finished later this year. We were creeped out by Robert Smith’s cover of “Very Good Advice” for the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack. We wanted to buy some of The Lost Art of Inglourious Basterds — Quentin Tarantino, Upper Playground and the Weinstein Company have all teamed up on the poster project, and it benefits Haiti. We wondered if making our own music video for “You’re So Vain” could be our claim to fame. We found it funny that Madonna waited until now to launch her own fashion line. We peeped the winning photographs from the 2010 World Press Photo Contest. We made a mental note to tell you to read this Roger Ebert interview in Esquire (also, if you’re not already following his journal, you should). We were sad to hear that the lead singer of the Knack had died, but happy to meet his Sharona. And finally we watched the first episode of HBO’s latest, The Ricky Gervais show, which premieres on Friday. You can download it for free now on iTunes.

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

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1. Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds topped the weekend box office, but because of a deal with Universal, the Weinstein Company will only take in half of the profits. [via The Daily Beast]
2. Thanks to The Streep Effect, Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking is topping the best-seller list 48 years after it was first published. [via NYT]
3. Do we really believe that Prince wants to join Team Obama? [via TwentyFourBit]
4. YouTube’s new search and delete system also allows copyright holders to monetize infringing videos. [via Wired]
5. Will the 2016 Olympics be the death of Chicago’s famed Gropius architecture? [via CSM]

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