Movie Nation

So my thinking re: “Star Trek Into Darkness” interviews was I’d just interviewed Chris Pine, and Zach Quinto just before him. Karl Urban I’ve talked to twice.

And then I brain farted and forgot to push for Benedict Cumberbatch.

But I’m always happy to catch up with Simon Pegg and another of his co-stars from the Enterprise.

Simon’s a busy lad, and seeing as how this is the first time I’ve chatted with him without his mate Nick Frost, it’ll be different.

Suggested questions, lines of questioning? Comment below, and yes, I do peruse and use these, so on your toes!

They’ve cast the little girl from “Beasts of the Southern Wild” in this Jay Z/Will Smith produced version of the musical “Annie.” But they need a Daddy Warbucks, aka Benjamin Stacks as he’s being called in this African American spin on the tale.
Jamie Foxx can sing. So he’s the leading candidate, according to THR.

Winona Ryder has a new film with a juicy role for her to play in it going into limited release this coming weekend. “The Iceman” is another tour de force Michael Shannon performance,this time as a real-life Jersey hitman. And Ryder plays his seemingly unknowing wife.

At the end of our chat about that film, I fired a few questions at her that I’d solicited from fans.

She was last seen at the “Disconnect” premiere as the date of the film’s director, Henry Alex Rubin. If she hitting the “Murderball” director, an old friend, up for gigs?

“He had a baby, Georgia, two days before the premiere. I’d been over visiting with his sweet baby girl,” so that’s why she and not Rubin’s wife hit the red carpet with him.

“We go back a long ways — my second unit director on ‘Girl Interrupted,’ back in the ’90s. I’m really really proud of him. He’d BETTER cast me in something. He’s filmed enough footage of me, over the years –things.”

At 41, Ryder is working more now than she has in years, with two films in the can “and some GREAT stuff I’ve been sworn to secrecy about. I WISH I could start talking about that!”

So how does the former tabloid favorite spend her down time, these days?

“I spend a lot of my time at home in San Francisco, one of my favorite places in the world. You can often find me at City Lights Bookstore. That’s my favorite place in the city. Yeah, I’m really boring. I read a lot. And go to the movies. I love going to revival houses and seeing old movies on the big screen.
“With the way world is, with all this instant Internet access to things for you to react to. It makes me nostalgic for the old days. Nostalgic in a sweet way, I think. It makes me want to do retro stuff like go to revival house theaters.
“I’m not bashing the Internet, but you know when you go to a bookstore to pick up a book, and you see 500 books that you never would have seen, thought of or heard about if you had never gone to the bookstore? That part of the experience I love. I know you can order books online, but that means you miss out on seeing and touching and picking up books that you never would have considered.

“Video stores were that way, too . You see things you never would have thought of renting.

“My friends call me ‘Old School.’ A little too old school, I’m afraid.
“For instance, I actually learned that there ISN’T a  (Genius) bar upstairs in the Apple Store, a place where they serve alcohol and everything. To geniuses. Very embarrassing.

“I am slowly adapting. Maybe it’s just a phase. Maybe it’s my love of tangible objects. I’m more into face to face communication, having those experiences in person.
“There’s a ton of great things that are happening online, so much good politically and in terms of communication. The good is amazing and great. Corruption is exposed! But the bad is depressing and scary. The worst thing a person can do is Google yourself. I did that once and friends had to talk me off the ledge.
“I’m lucky this way, because of what I do, that I don’t have to engage with that world that much. I have a lot of friends and people close to me who are more into it and are using the Web in amazing ways to get the word out about projects or causes. That part of it I’m really drawn to.

“I just need to understand it more. Obviously, if I’m asking people how a ‘cloud’ can hold information, and ‘What happens if it rains?’ If I’m thinking there’s a bar upstairs at the Apple Store, then I’m a little out of step. And I’m pretty insecure about that.”

Tyler Perry can be credited with the recent renaissance in Georgia film production. He’s set up studios, shoots all the films under his aegis there, and the TV shows too.

Georgia is a cheap state to make movies in — incentives, low sales taxes, right to work and all.

Now the famed Pinewood Studios in the UK are setting up a satellite operation on 200+ acres south of Atlanta. Pinewood Atlanta. This will add studio space to the other infrastructure, crew base, etc., that has been pouring there from Florida, LA, Louisiana and elsewhere.

Deadline.com is reporting that the latest Marvel from Marvel, “Iron Man 3,” will open in North America already a worldwide hit — $195 million in all territories this weekend.

Then there’s “Mud,” which enjoyed a decent “wide” opening this weekend, part of a new strategy to open more modest fare on a timetable that allows the film to capitalize on its publicity push, right around the NY/LA openings. Open “Mud” or “The Emperor” in a few hundred theaters before people have forgotten all the newspaper articles on Tommy Lee Jones and Matthew McConaughey, all their chat show appearances. Over $2 million plus, over $6,000 per screen.

I like the  idea of rolling films out into this many markets, not relying on New York or LA buzz to get them out there. It means films like this are fresh in the public’s mind when they show up, and that helps art cinemas like Enzian out, or gives an “Emperor” a decent chance to break even in a shorter interval of time. 

Another in a long line of weak weekends at the movies this year was headlined by “Pain & Gain”, which opened at $20 million and edged the second weekend of “Oblivion” ($17.6) to come home a “winner.”

The Michael Bay “Pain” will probably reach black ink, at some early point — with claims that it only cost $26 million (the cast surely ate up all of that).  But with “Iron Man 3” sucking all the money away next weekend, everybody tapping into action or sci-fi needs to make their money now.

“G.I. Joe II” will clear $125, tops. “Olympus Has Fallen” may reach $100 million, US, “42” should close in on $80, Ryan Gosling’s “The Place Beyond the Pines” is hanging around the top ten, closing in on $20 million. “The Croods” have had the kiddie corner all to themselves for a month, but will not crack that animation finish line of $200 million — US. It’s a hit, and it’ll spawn sequels.

The all-star wedding comedy “The Big Wedding” is dying — only $7.5 million for an opener.