Latest Video: FilmCrunch 067: Hairspray, Chuck & Larry, Premonition reviewed
Veronica Santiago and Neil Estep review Hairspray, Chuck & Larry, and Premonition in this episode of FilmCrunch.Play Video
It’s All in the Family: Hollywood Nepotism
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Casting, Celebrity Gossip, Filmmaking
In most places of business, nepotism is frowned upon. In Hollywood, it’s part of standard casting policies. Why is it okay for La La Land to offer opportunities to unknown - but well-connected - actors, when hiring regulations are in place for every other industry in the country? Let’s dip our toes into the Tinseltown gene pool and see how many family trees we can count.
If you haven’t heard by now, Will Smith’s son is going to become the next A-list, must-have child star. He’s starring in the new Karate Kid reboot (a movie that’s unnecessary at best), and now he’s putting his rapping abilities on display in a movie soundtrack tie-in. Like it’s not already great being Will Smith’s kid, Jaden, 11, is now forging a strong career in the “family business.” Which just happens to be multi-million-dollar movie and recording contracts. Nice.
Is Jaden Smith the most talented kid for the movie role? Are his rap skills so superior that he deserves the outpouring of press he’s been getting for his involvement with the film’s theme song?
Frankly, it doesn’t f&*^ing matter. The Karate Kid reboot (which, we hate to break it to you, does
notfeature karate) is produced by Will Smith and from its inception was intended as a Jaden Smith vehicle. No one else ever auditioned for the role of the Karate Kid, not that anyone else had a snowball’s shot in hell of landing it anyway.
Hollywood has always been the land where dreams come true…if you’ve already got an “in.”
Click to continue reading It’s All in the Family: Hollywood Nepotism
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Quote of the Day: Amanda Seyfried on Hollywood
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Casting, Celeb News, Celebrity Gossip, Rumors
“I have to stay in shape because I’m an actress. It’s f**ked up and it’s twisted, but I wouldn’t get the roles otherwise. If I’d been bigger, I don’t think they would have cast me for Mamma Mia!”
- Actress Amanda Seyfried on what it takes to stay in Hollywood.
(Make sure to check out other notable quotes.)
Read More 
| Huffington Post
Sony, Miramax Feeling the Strain of Recession
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Miramax, Sony, Corporate Shakeups
It isn’t just middle America that’s been affected by the severe economic crisis. Even one of the nation’s most successful ventures, the cinema, is feeling the budget crunch. Some of Hollywood’s biggest names are suffering, as more movie patrons find they can no longer afford box office prices.
Sony Pictures is laying off their employees, eliminating around 6% of their current workers. According to a memo given to employees of the company, “the decision to take this step was difficult. But it’s being done in the context of a strategy designed to help us safeguard our competitiveness and chart our own course through these troubled waters.”
Miramax is also struggling in the dangerous economic climate, and sources suggest that the company could be closing its doors for ever in 2011. Six movie projects are still in production, but upon their completion Disney could opt to sell the label.
Read More | Deadline
Catherine Zeta-Jones Quit Hollywood For Kids
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Celeb News, Celebrity Gossip, Rumors
Ever wonder what happened to Catherine Zeta-Jones? Word is that the actress quit living in Hollywood for the sake of her children.
The Welsh starlet, who lives in Bermuda and New York with her actor husband Michael Douglas and their children, nine-year-old son Dylan and six-year-old-daughter Carys, was so frustrated with the constant paparazzi presence that she gave up her glamorous Los Angeles lifestyle to focus on her family life.
“When you live in Los Angeles you can’t go anywhere without being critiqued—on your purse of the fact that you have gained weight or that you have got spots on your face. That’s not the life I want. Deciding to live in beautiful Bermuda was the healthiest thing Michael and I ever did. Now that I have kids, that’s what my life is about.”
Catherine is also not concerned about turning 40 this Thursday—the same day her husband turns 65—because she doesn’t feel old: “I feel much younger than I am. When you are 10 or 20, 40 looks really old. When I was nearing 30 that seemed like a major milestone.”
Uma Thurman Ready to Focus on Career
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Celeb News, Celebrity Gossip
Kill Bill‘s Uma Thurman is worried she might kill her career.
The actress - who has been working exclusively in New York for a number of years so she can be close to her children - thinks it’s time to return to Hollywood.
“I am a mother, but I need to do what I’m good at doing. Even your kids need you to be who you are,” she said. “I’ve been living at home for work for a long time. If I don’t leave soon, I’m going to literally choke my career to death.”
Click to continue reading Uma Thurman Ready to Focus on Career
Read More | W Magazine
Rogue Pictures Seeking Strangers Sequel
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: FOCUS, Universal, Horror, Mystery, Thrillers, Box Office, Casting, Filmmaking, Rumors, Upcoming Releases
Having domestically grossed $54 with a modest $9 million budget, The Strangers was a tremendous hit for Rogue Pictures. Of course, we all unfortunately know what follows any amount of success in Hollywood these days: sequels.
Hoping that they have a new horror franchise on their hands, producers over at the Universal Pictures subsidary have their greedy hearts set on Liv Tyler‘s return, as well as the rest of the original villains (just admit how much you loved seeing Gemma Ward as the creepy psycho girl).
Click to continue reading Rogue Pictures Seeking Strangers Sequel
Read More | Variety
Jon Favreau Blogs, Rants About Iron Man 2
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Paramount, Sony, Universal, Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Sequels, Thrillers, Filmmaking, Rumors, Scripts, Upcoming Releases
What’s an actor-turned-big-time-director to do once he’s catapulted into major success, forced to take on a sequel without having been consulted about anything concerning the project? Rant about your bosses and their absurdity in your MySpace blog! At least, that’s the route Iron Man director Jon Favreau took.
Actively participating in a MySpace forum to appease film geeks’ questions, Favreau complains, “Neither Robert [Downey Jr.] nor I were consulted about this and we are both concerned about how realistic the date is. We owe it to the fans to have a great version of IM2 and, at this point, we would have less time to make it than the first one.”
Click to continue reading Jon Favreau Blogs, Rants About Iron Man 2
Read More | E! Online
Hollywood’s All-Time Low: Quarantine
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Action, Horror, Mystery, Thrillers, Scripts, Trailers, Upcoming Releases
![[Rec] American remake is titled Quarantine](http://assets.gearlive.com/filmcrunch/blogimages/rec.jpg)
We all know that Hollywood rapes any movie they see as potential blockbuster meat, remaking any and every thing they possibly can. I never would have guessed, however, that they would go so low as to remake a film that was made just last year and has not even been released in the U.S. yet!
Yes, that’s right, a 2007 Spanish horror movie by the name of [Rec] already has an American remake that is due out this October, titled Quarantine. Both films follow an ambitious newswoman and her cameraman, off to cling to a story that does not end well.
The trailer for Quarantine, which you can see after the jump, has sparked quite some outrage, as fans are unimpressed by the remake, claiming it is a bad combination of 28 Days Later and Cloverfield. I personally am choosing not to support this atrocity, yet I know that Hollywood wins these battles because people go to see movies to see movies, no matter how unoriginal it is. If it looks remotely decent, anyone with ten dollars seems to jump on a movie like this.
Stand up in the fight against unoriginality, yes?
Click to continue reading Hollywood’s All-Time Low: Quarantine
Read More | IMDB
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