Next and Coming Attractions: Upcoming Movies one shouldn't miss

[diem]

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Hayek tackles prejudice in new film
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By Claudia Parsons
From the Malaya 3/10/06

NEW YORK – Racism in Los Angeles is a hot topic after the Oscar triumph of "Crash," and it’s back on the big screen this week in "Ask the Dust," a new film starring Salma Hayek, who has fought her own battles against Hollywood prejudice.

Based on the cult novel by John Fante, the film stars Colin Farrell as Arturo Bandini, an aspiring Italian-American writer in 1930s Los Angeles who reluctantly falls in love with an illiterate Mexican waitress played by Mexican-born Hayek.

"We were talking about a time when it would say ‘No Mexicans or animals,’" Hayek told Reuters in an interview, recalling a sign in the shabby hotel where Farrell’s character stays in the film.

"We had the same rights as an animal, maybe not even that," she said in New York before the film’s release on Friday.

Director Robert Towne, who won a screenwriting Oscar for "Chinatown," said he fell in love with Fante’s book 30 years ago.

He envisaged Al Pacino playing the lead but too much time had passed for that. Now Towne is glad he did not make the movie then because he cannot imagine anyone playing waitress Camilla Lopez better than Hayek.

"You have a rare combination of somebody who is self-assured sexually, who is self-assured period, but who understands very well and has suffered from the prejudice that Mexicans historically have suffered from," Towne said.

The director, who also adapted the novel for the screen, said Hayek had turned down the part when he first approached her eight or nine years ago, fearing she would be typecast.

He recalls Hayek telling him, "I can’t get a job in a science-fiction movie because they tell me there’s no such thing as Mexicans in space."

Nearly a decade later and an Oscar nomination behind her for playing Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in the 2002 film "Frida," Hayek changed her mind.

The film, produced by Tom Cruise, has a big-name cast, including Donald Sutherland as Bandini’s dissolute neighbor, and paints a sepia-tinged picture of Depression-era Los Angeles that may please the nostalgic. Reviews have been mixed.

Variety said: "Hayek is in full blossom as Camilla."

"Sexy, salty and sensual, Salma Hayek ... has no trouble stealing the movie," the New York Observer wrote while slamming the movie as "long, lazy, plotless" and "a real ordeal."

After a successful TV career in Mexico, at the age of 39 Hayek has established herself as a bankable Hollywood name, but she said when she first arrived she was constantly being told that nobody wanted to hear foreign accents on screen.

"They hadn’t noticed there were 38 million Latinos in the United States and that was an important market," she said. "I’d go as far as to say they were quite stupid business-wise.

"I didn’t take it that personally," Hayek said. "I did have five minutes when I said, ‘It’s pure racism,’ but it’s really a lack of information."

Hayek seems to have proved the doubters wrong. She will be seen later this year alongside Spanish star Penelope Cruz in "Bandidas" about a pair of female Mexican bank-robbers.

Hayek already has directed a small film and now wants to write and direct big movies. She says she is writing a script for a movie she hopes to direct about classical music.

"I showed 15 pages to Jamie Foxx and he wants to do it," she said. "Now I just have to finish it." – Reuters

[raul julia]

V for Vendetta (2006)

Set against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, the story of a mild-mannered young woman named Evey who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked vigilante known only as "V." Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, V urges his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. As Evey uncovers the truth about V's mysterious background, she also discovers the truth about herself--and emerges as his unlikely ally in the culmination of his plot to bring freedom and justice back to a society fraught with cruelty and corruption.

[raul julia]

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006)

The Ice Age is coming to an end, and the animals are delighting in the melting paradise that is their new world. Manny, Sid, and Diego quickly learn that the warming climate has one major drawback: a huge glacial dam is about to break, threatening the entire valley. The only chance of survival lies at the other end of the valley. So the three heroes, along with a mammoth named Ellie and her two "brothers" -- possums Crash and Eddie -- embark on a mission across an increasingly dangerous landscape towards their salvation.

[soul_butterfly]

- aquamarine
-final destination 3

[odrujahad]

Dead or Alive!!!!!

[dAmNseL jEnY]

V for Vendetta!!!
30 Days of Nights!!!!
HP5
Mirror Mask (although it was shown somewhere in pLanEt eArTh)


WooT!!!! Who wants to tag along if these movies were shown?

[kyuusai]

i can't wait to watch Ice Age 2.. weeee.....

[klavel]

"Failure to Launch"

Synopsis: Tripp (Matthew McConaughey) has never been able to leave the nest. He’s always had some reason or other, but now, his desperate parents have had enough. They hire the gorgeous and talented girl of his dreams (Sarah Jessica Parker) to get him to move out of the house.

[moongk]

XMEN3-the last stand
nighwatch
ultraviolet
a scanner darkly
superman returns... up up and away!!!

kas ani kwarta uy.. mahal kaayo center stage sa ayala..

[diem]

First posted 11:59pm (Mla time) Mar 18, 2006
By Bayani San Diego Jr.
Inquirer

Editor's Note: Published on page A2-1 of the March 19, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

IN AN ATTEMPT TO ENRICH Filipinos’ movie-viewing habits by expanding their entertainment repertoire, a local production company is releasing three documentaries this year.
Abroad, documentaries are shown side by side with commercial features as a matter of course, but in the Philippines, docu filmmakers have yet to penetrate the mainstream industry (even if docus are a regular feature on television and in the campus and art-house scenes.)
Two years ago, Ramona Diaz’s Sundance-winning documentary “Imelda,” released locally by Unitel Pictures, made P25 million at the tills. This proved that an “informative and historical docu can also be entertaining.”
“Our company has since been looking for a good follow-up,” Unitel president Tony Gloria told Inquirer Entertainment.
Gloria found it in Frenchman Luc Jacquet’s “March of the Penguins,” which won Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards early this month and earned $80 million in the United States.
During the last American Film Market held in Santa Monica, Unitel acquired all Philippine rights to “March” from Wild Bunch, the French distributors.
Instead of a subtitled “March” or the English version narrated by Oscar winner Morgan Freeman, Gloria insisted on a “Tagalized” one to be narrated by Filipino actress Sharon Cuneta.
Gloria recounted: “I explained to the Wild Bunch representative that by ‘Tagalizing’ the docu, we could reach more people. I want as many Filipinos as possible to see this docu because of its beautiful story. The emperor penguins sure beat us humans in the aspect of devotion to offspring. It also teaches viewers respect for the environment.”
Chris Martinez—“Bikini Open” scriptwriter and “Zsazsa Zaturnnah (Ze Muzikal)” librettist—has been translating “March” for the past two months.
Gloria and Martinez took pains to imbue the script with an emotional wallop. “The poignant narration fits Sharon to a T,” Gloria said. “Pinoy na Pinoy. The script will surely touch people’s hearts.”
He said the company was eyeing a May or June playdate.
Health docu
Unitel is also laying the groundwork for a Tagalog version of a six-part health docu special for television.
In the pipeline as well is Diaz’s follow-up to “Imelda,” which Unitel is co-producing. With the working title “Teacher,” this one follows the journey of Filipino teachers recruited for work in inner-city/ghetto schools in Maryland.
Meanwhile, Unitel clinched the worldwide (except US) distribution deal for “Cavite,” which won for Fil-Ams Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana the most promising honor at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Gloria reported, “In the US, ‘Cavite’ was picked up by Mark Cuban who owns not just NBA’s Dallas Mavericks but also Landmark, a chain of 185 indie art-house cinemas.”