The Amazing Spider-Man (Sony Pictures) opens in theaters everywhere in 3D on July 3.

One of the world’s most popular characters is back on the big screen as a new chapter in the Spider-Man legacy is revealed in The Amazing Spider-Man. Focusing on an untold story that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story, the new film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, with Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the film in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures, which will open in theaters everywhere in 3D on July 3, 2012. The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today.

"I didn't write these stories to be therapy for these people, but I'm really glad to hear it." -- Stan Lee

SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT CELEBRATES EDWARD CULLEN’S 111TH BIRTHDAY ON JUNE 20TH WITH DEBUT OF NEW TEASER TRAILER FOR THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 2

LA Film Festival Screenings:
Wednesday, June 20th at 7:10pm - Regal Cinemas L.A. Live - Public Screening #1 (Premiere)
Saturday, June 23rd at 9:40pm - Regal Cinemas L.A. Live - Public Screening #

In this doomsday comedy, four couples who meet for Sunday brunch find themselves stranded in a house together as the world may be about to end. When Tracy Scott (Julia Stiles) decides to introduce her new beau Glenn (David Cross) to her three friends Hedy (America Ferrera), Emma, and Lexi and their significant others, her biggest fear is whether or not her friends will approve of her new relationship, little does she realize that's the least of her worries.  Before long the couples find themselves in the midst of an apocalyptic disaster, catching them all off guard. One thing is clear; these four couples aren't going to let the potential end of the world get in the way of the relationship issues they all need to work out.
 
IT'S A DISASTER is written and directed by to Todd Berger (THE SCENESTERS). The film stars Julia Stiles (SAVE THE LAST DANCE), David Cross ("Arrested Development"), and America Ferrera ("Ugly Betty").

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

We've all seen that movie.  The one where a band of strangers must face the world head-on after some sort of cataclysmic event.  Zombies.  A deadly outbreak of disease.  Nuclear war.  There are countless ways a disaster can bring people together to fight for humanity and find themselves.

But how would they really act?  And what if they weren't strangers?

It's a Disaster explores such an idea.  How would real people approach a cataclysmic event?  They're empathetic and worried yes - but they're also smart, funny, realistic, and much like most Americans they're wildly unprepared.  Also they've seen disaster movies before and can take some cues, whether correct or incorrect, on how to behave.  

Through a prism of relationships - four couples at four different stages to be precise – the film explores how a disaster would not only effect a person, but also how that person relates to friends and loved ones.  How a disaster could take someone you think you really know and show them in a whole new light for better or worse.  How would you act?  Would you stay calm?  Would you panic?  Would you go into shock?  Anger?  Denial?  

Mark Twain is my favorite author and a personal idol.  A big inspiration for me on this film was reading what he once had to say about the human mind in a disaster situation…

Q&A WITH TODD BERGER
 
Can you discuss what inspired you to make IT’S A DISASTER?

The idea originally came to me when I read an article about how George Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was public domain because the original distributor neglected to place a copyright on it.  I concocted this plan to shoot a bunch of a new footage, DEAD MEN DON’T WEAR PLAID style, and plug it in to make a new movie about a group of couples that get together for board game night and find themselves stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse – but the invasion of the undead is secondary to their own personal problems.  The more I thought about it, the more I felt like the zombie market had been oversaturated and other movies have satirically skewered them pretty well already.  Still, I loved the idea of a comedy where a bunch of friends are trapped in some sort of horrible dramatic situation and have to cope with it, all the while dealing with their own problems.  After seeing 2012, I decided that the disaster genre seemed ripe for the picking.

 
Did your approach to filmmaking change for this second feature, after THE SCENESTERS?

The film itself is shot very differently – THE SCENESTERS was a fake documentary run-and-gun guerilla affair where we’d steal shots at concerts or on the street and was meant to have a much rougher feel.  I wanted this film to feel grander despite being limited to a single location, so every shot and movement was much more meticulously planned in order to let the camera breath in the confines of one house.

What was your writing process like? Did you find it to be challenging writing with a one setting constraint?

I always like to lock myself in a room and just write and write for days until I have a first draft, like Ewan McGregor kicking heroin in TRAINSPOTTING.  Then I abandon the script for a while and come back to it for a rewrite, which to me is the fun part.  I actually found it quite refreshing to be limited to one location, because it forced me to focus on making the characters and their relationships interesting enough that it could carry the film without having to rely on other elements like car chases and montage sequences, which are two of my favorite things.

Was it difficult to cast each of the characters? How did you decide to pair the couples together?

Casting actually went much smoother than I was expecting because folks really responded to the script - and some of the actors we ended up casting were those I imagined when I was writing.  When it came time to pair up, it was very important to me to make sure the couples were 100% believable.  I can’t stand it in movies when a couple shows up and you ask yourself “How one earth did those two ever end up together?” even if their purpose is to eventually break up.  
 
How did you prepare the actors for their roles prior to shooting?

I met with the actors individually to flesh out backstories, discussing much information that they were to never reveal to the other actors including their own “significant other.”  I then asked all the “couples” to pair off and go do something just the two of them.  Go bowling, see a concert, etc.  I wanted all the pairs to form a shorthand with each other before they had to work with everyone else.

How much did the script change once you started shooting? Was any improv implemented into the film?

After meeting with the actors and fleshing out the characters a bit more, I went back and made a few alterations.  Once we started shooting, though, the script pretty much went unchanged.  Improv was highly encouraged in the bigger scenes with many characters, because I really wanted the feeling that these are actual friends who talk to each other (and talk over each other) like actual friends do in real life.

Did you experience any challenges while shooting? How did you overcome them?

We were shooting on an incredibly tight schedule, having to knock out the entire film in just fourteen days. We also happened to be shooting during the hottest weeks on record in Los Angeles.  It was pretty grueling, but everyone seemed to be having so much fun that it ended up flying by.  Luckily, because we were limited to one location, it felt like we were at some bizarre summer camp.

How do you think your work has evolved since your last feature THE SCENESTERS?

Every film is a learning experience on some level, and making THE SCENESTERS taught me so much about how to tell a story that keeps people engaged for 90 minutes.  We worked long and hard in the editing room to shape THE SCENESTERS into a tight film because we shot so much stuff just for the hell of it. So with IT’S A DISASTER I was able to approach both the writing process and filming with an editor’s mind - constantly asking myself “Do we really need to shoot this?” and “Will this ever really be in the move?”   I think on THE SCENESTERS we had something like eleven deleted scenes, and on IT’S A DISASTER we have one.

You are in a comedy group called The Vacationeers with Kevin Brennan, Jeff Grace, and Blaise Miller who are all in IT’S A DISASTER. What was the process like collaborating with them on a film versus working with them on a sketch?

The biggest difference for us was making sure to keep a consistent tone over 90 minutes: what’s funny versus what makes sense.  When you shoot a sketch, the most important thing is for it to just be damn hilarious.  When you shoot a feature, you have to keep the big picture in mind because even if a joke or an idea seems great does it fit into this world we’ve created?  Would that character ever say that?  Does a guy falling down the stairs seem too broad in this universe?  If you just aim for out-and-out hilarity, you might end up with a muddled mess.  
 
Does IT’S A DISASTER draw from any personal experiences?

I’m from New Orleans and while I wasn’t there during Hurricane Katrina and the flood, I had several friends and family members who rode it out.  I would ask them what it was like for days and days as they were waiting for the national guard to arrive – was it constant dread?  Were people turning on each other? Panic in the streets?  They said sure at times and it was absolutely terrible, but there was also a lot of magazine reading.  You can only stay panicked in a disaster situation for so long – eventually you see if anyone wants to play cards.
 
What do you want audiences to take away from the film?

The eight characters in the film represent eight variations on the human response to a disaster situation.  I’d love for audience members to wonder which character best represents how they themselves would react.  Also, I’d love for them to laugh a lot.
 
What are you working on next?

I’ve got a bunch of writing gigs right now including WHERE’S WALDO for MGM and THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS for the Jim Henson Company, so hopefully you’ll soon be seeing those at a theater near you.  I’ve also written another script that I plan to direct later this year– but that one I’m keeping a secret.

Sinister
(Summit Entertainment) Sinister is a frightening new thriller from the producer of the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY films and the writer-director of THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE. Ethan Hawke plays a true crime novelist who discovers a box of mysterious, disturbing home movies that plunge his family into a nightmarish experience of supernatural horror.

COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE
TO BE RELEASED ON DVD ON JULY 10, 2012
 
Critically-Acclaimed Documentary Will Be Released In Two Special Edition Sets   With One-of-A-Kind Figurines - Including the First Ever Joss Whedon Action Figure
 
Los Angeles, CA (June 13, 2012) - Chris Ball, President and CEO of LA-based film production and distribution company Wrekin Hill Entertainment, and Joel Weinshanker, President and CEO of NECA Films, a division of NECA, announced today that Morgan Spurlock's (SUPER SIZE ME) COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE will be released on DVD ($19.99 SRP) on July 10, 2012. The film will also be available in two Collectors Editions with figurines ($29.99SRP).
 
The two Collector's Editions will contain the DVD alongside action figures of Stan Lee and Harry Knowles or Joss Whedon and Spurlock. This is the first time mega-director Whedon has been immortalized into action figure status... which will no doubt delight fans everywhere.
 
The Whedon/Spurlock special editions will be sold exclusively at Toys "R" Us stores nationwide.  The products are part of a unique retail opportunity with Toys "R" Us and will be sold alongside other action items dedicated to Comic-Con 2012.  The Lee/Knowles editions will be available at select stores and at online retailers.  A third combo-pack from HeroClix with all four figures and the DVD will also be available in July at game stores nationwide ($29.99 SRP).  
 
The DVD will include the following special features: Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, Deleted Scenes, Talent Interviews and Trailer. Fans will also be able to purchase the DVD and Collector's Editions at Comic-Con International in San Diego (July 12-15).
 
COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE explores this amazing cultural phenomenon by following the lives of five attendees as they descend upon the ultimate geek mecca at San Diego Comic-Con 2010.

One on one interviews with Comic-Con veterans who have turned their passions into professions include Stan Lee, Joss Whedon, Frank Miller, Kevin Smith, Matt Groening, Seth Rogen, Eli Roth and others are shared throughout the film along with up close and up front coverage of all the panels, parades, photos, costumes, crowds and camaraderie that make up one of the largest fan gatherings in the U.S.   COMIC- CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE was released theatrically and on VOD in early April 2012.
 
COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE Product Details
Format : DVD
Street Date: July 10, 2012
Pre-Order: June 4, 2012
Running time: 86 min.
Rating: PG-13
DVD SRP: $19.00
DVD with collectable figures: $29.99
Audio: English 5.1
Subtitles: English and Spanish
Closed Captioned
 
Bonus Features
Behind the Scenes Featurette
Deleted Scenes
Interviews
Trailer   
###

INSIDE THE PROMETHEUS 
“I Hope They’re Really Frightened” says Scott

By Alicia Hollinger

Los Angeles, CA (Hollywood Today)6/8/12/

—“Walking on to the set the first day was pretty impressive,” says Charlize Theron star of  Twentieth Century Fox’s “Alien” inspired movie, “Prometheus.” “I really didn’t expect that we were going to have an entire spaceship and on top of that, approaching Ridley Scott and having him say “Welcome to your spaceship!”

Scott, inspired  by a figure seen only briefly in his earlier film “Alien,” a giant fossilized creature dubbed the Space Jockey, wanted to create something “larger” this time, asking bigger questions, something “epic.” Scott states “The starting question was who was the skeleton in the seat of the very first ‘Alien,’ what did he mean, what was his intention?

Something that had stayed with me ever since ‘Alien,’ was the mystery behind it,” says Scott. “Who was he? Where was he from? What was his mission? What kind of technology would his kind possess? I thought those questions could provide a springboard for even larger ideas…. The keen fan will recognize strands of ‘Alien’s’ DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, far-reaching and provocative. ‘Prometheus’is the singular genre tale I’d been searching for.”

Filmed on five stages at Pinewood Studios in the U.K., including one of the biggest stages in Europe,  the famed “007 Stage,” the massive sci-fi set became “the greatest alien playground in the world,” as one production crew member puts it.

Scott chose to use all practical sets in place of the current trend of  primarily CGI and green screens. “CGI is purported to be saving money and cheaper, but it’s not.  My preference is to build as many sets as possible because I want to keep actors really engaged,” says Scott. “It is hard to overstate the impact of walking on those sets,” says Executive Producer, Michael Ellenberg. “It was inspiring on so many levels. There are so many understated, instinctual things that happen when you are filming on real sets. Everyone behaves in a more natural, organic fashion because it feels like a piece of reality.”

Production Designer Arthur Max designed all the spaceships and vehicles as well as the  landscape of the planet. For the ship Prometheus, Max says he wanted “to do something that was state-of-the-art, which would represent a flagship spacecraft with every technology required to probe into the deepest corners of the galaxy. We looked at a lot of NASA and European Space Agency designs, and played around with those ideas in the context of what space travel would be like a generation from now.”

“I remember seeing a couple of sets and being completely awestruck and then someone says ‘have you seen the big stage?’ and you say oh, there’s more! It was quite awesome really,” says Guy Pierce who plays Weyland,.

“Over the past few decades, we’ve been ‘action filmed-out’ and ‘monster filmed-out’ and almost ‘science fiction filmed-out,” says Scott. “So the baseline question is: how original are you going to be?”

“The film’s central metaphor is about the Greek Titan Prometheus, who defies the gods by giving humans the gift of fire, for which he is horribly punished,” Scott explains.

“When you talk about the myth on which the title is based, you’re dealing with humankind’s relationship with the gods – the beings who created us – and what happens when we defy them.”

The film’s cast includes Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers, a cold, pragmatic Weyland Industries executive, Noomi Rapace as optimistic scientist Elizabeth Shaw, Guy Pierce as an aged Weyland, Michael Fassbender as the very human-like robot David and Logan Marshall-Green as the scientist Holloway.

Charlize Theron says about her stoic, unlikeable character: “ It’s a fine line of ‘oh god I hate this person’ and then trying to deliver something interesting in there. I thought there was great potential in someone that went against everything that everyone was there to do and kind of play on the grey zones of that.”

Although he denies ‘Prometheus’ is a prequel to ‘Alien,” Pierce says “The name Weyland is referenced in the previous two films and now we finally get to see him.”

“It was science fiction and Ridley Scott,” says Marshall-Green. “And I know enough about science fiction to know that’s a very big deal. I’ve been living in his world in my imagination due to his worlds and now I get to walk in his worlds as a man. It’s pretty awesome.”

What does Ridley Scott hope audiences take away from seeing Prometheus? “First of all, I hope they’re really entertained,” he says, “and then I hope they’re really frightened, and I hope they’re really stressed to hell and most of all I hope they that they talk about it afterward and at breakfast tomorrow morning.”

‘MEN IN BLACK’ 3D Top Boxoffice $202M  

By Alicia Hollinger

Hollywood,CA(Hollywood Today)5/26/12

—“I haven’t worked in three years so I wanted to put on some shoes that I knew fit!” says Will Smith joking about his eagerness to reprise the role of Agent J in the newest incarnation of the ‘Men in Black’ franchise, this one, of course in 3D. “You can’t beat the black suit,” he says. “It’s such powerful, iconic imagery.  You put on the suit and the shades and it throws you into the mental space of the ‘Men in Black. ‘ It’s like a childhood fantasy – you know things that the other people don’t know and you’ve got the most important job in the world.  The seven-year-old boy in me comes running out when I put the black suit on.”

This version, the third and presumably last in the series, involves time travel and a poignant  surprise ending. “The surprise at the end of the movie, that was the thing that got everybody really excited to want to make the movie,” says Smith. “It was like, wow, that’s an interesting way to tie up the series and get you all the way back to the beginning. A lot of people are like ’Whoah!’ I never saw that coming!”

Time travel to the past, specifically 1969 becomes a character in itself. From a fun realistic portrayal of Andy Warhol’s Factory in New York, to the way Will Smith’s character was treated as a Black man in the sixties brings a thought-provoking new aspect to the movie. “I’ve always loved time travel,” says Smith. “Someone needs to come up with a Time Jump app!” he jokes.  “But I realized, for Black people, you don’t want to do much time jumping in the past. Like right now is the best it’s ever been. If I could go forward, that would be a great thing!”

Will Smith’s character J’s partner Agent K, played in the first two movies by Tommy Lee Jones, is split this time between Jones and Josh Brolin as his younger, more optimistic and joyful self, before he became the gruff, hard-nosed K, played so well by Jones. Brolin says he had been doing, in his words, “bad impressions” of Nick Nolte and Jones way before he got the call to do MIB3. Unsure if he could pull it off, his first reaction to the offer was “Ummm… can I think about it?”

Concerned about getting the character just right, Brolin listened to countless hours of Jones’ voice on an ipod and watched the earlier Men in Black movies over 50 times. “It’s like putting your ass on the line,” he says. “I still don’t know if Tommy liked it or not.”  But Will Smith certainly was impressed. “Josh had studied Tommy so well that there wasn’t a single missed beat when Josh came in. It was almost the identical chemistry, which is very difficult to come by,” says Smith. “It’s crazy because you don’t even notice how good his acting is because it’s so good, it’s like watching Tommy Lee Jones. You don’t realize, no that’s Josh Brolin…. It was absolutely stunning.”

The uncanny physical resemblance between the two didn’t hurt. “You can find a picture of Tommy Lee Jones as a lineman for Harvard and compare to a picture of Josh Brolin in Milk, with his hair cut in an early-1970s style.  It’s amazing – they’re dead ringers for each other,” says producer Walter F. Parkes. And just to help Brolin look even more like Jones, the actor was fitted with a mold of Tommy Lee Jones’s nose that was found in the studio archives from 20 years ago.

The ever-reticent Tommy Lee Jones was vague about his reaction to Brolin’s portrayal of him. A bit blasé in general, he says “All I’ve ever done is do the best I could to play the role as it appeared on the page and respond to the director and the other actors.” Not particularly impressed with the new technology utilized in current films, he states “A green screen is still a green screen. Aliens are still aliens. From my perspective it hasn’t changed much.” He’s only seen an early rough work-print of the movie and hasn’t seen a 3D movie since he was a kid—which is when he had his acting debut—in a second grade performance of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” in the role of Sneezy.

Oscar winning make-up effects artist Rick Baker enjoyed the creativity involved in creating the aliens. A combination of make-up effects with animatronic characters, puppets and computer generated effects provided a full palette of creative tools to draw from. For the 1969 scenes, Baker conceived the idea that the aliens would be retro aliens inspired from 60’s era sci-fi. “Let’s imagine that the guys who made monster movies back in the 50s and 60s really happened to see a real alien and based their monster design on that. That was where I really had fun on this movie – to do my version of those classic science fiction aliens is a lot of fun,” Says Baker. Visual Effects Supervisor, Jay Redd agrees “it’s fun, it doesn’t have to be real all the time. You get to play with physics.”

MIB3 is a seamless blend of digital effects and live action. CG created period cars are plopped into current NYC streets while neon signs and everything modern simply painted out.  Motion capture performances are blended with live action stunts.  “People say ‘Oh, computer generated images…” says Redd. “It’s the people behind the computer. If you put a canvas and paint brushes down, nobody says “Oil painted generated images.”

The physical appearance of the aliens were not scripted but conceived later by the creative teams.  “There’s so much variety in it, it’s all crammed into this one film. You get to create real worlds like New York and have a lot of control how it looks,” says Ken Ralston, Visual Effects Supervisor who shared duties with Redd.

But this final MIB is not just all laughs and visual effects, it explores the characters of Agents J & K and goes deeper than the earlier films. “We’re all ten years older from the second movie,” says Smith, “and different things are important in our lives and we’re growing. We wanted to have the same kind of dumb that the first two movies had, the same kind of silly, because there’s an appreciation of the silly that the comedy delivers, but it was really important for us also to have some meat to chew on and able to create something. If you’re going into the third part of something, we thought it was important to deliver more emotionally…  Just because it’s a popcorn movie, doesn’t mean you don’t have something to say….” But after a three-year absence from acting, Smith worries “When you stay away from acting for a while, it’s like a muscle, you know, you get out there and you look stupid. You gotta warm up a bit. Coming back to ‘Men in Black 3’ just felt like home.”