The Dark Knight Passes $400 Million Mark
According to Variety, "In only its 18th day in release, Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight reached the $400 million mark in domestic sales on Monday, grossing $6.3 million for a cume of $400.1 million. . . Dark Knight has every chance of nearing or crossing $500 million domestically, making it the second highest grossing title of all time after Titanic, which cumed $600.8 million at the domestic box office." 0 Comments
Can hypochondria be funny? NBC and Nip/Tuck's Ryan Murphy think so. The network has just picked up Murphy's Hyper-chondriac (he sure does love his titles with punctuation!), a half-hour comedy about a pharmaceutical salesman who develops hypochondria in the course of doing his job.
The series is based on the book Hyper-chondriac: One Man's Quest to Hurry Up and Calm Down, a memoir that tracks author Brian Frazer's history with various maladies that all ended up being tied to stress. In Murphy's version, the main character (also named Brian) is a sales rep whose work takes him to various hospitals, where he becomes convinced he's suffering from a whole host of diseases. As in the book, the symptoms are real, but the causes are different.
The pilot is expected to shoot next year. Murphy is already working on Glee, a Fox pilot about glee clubs, plus the remaining seasons of Nip/Tuck.
Between this pilot and a couple of memoirs on bookshelves (both Frazer's and Jennifer Traig's Well Enough Alone), it seems like hypochondria is a hot topic right now. Could you see yourself watching a comedy about it? (And would it just make you think you had some horrible diseases, too?)
Anne of Cleves will be the second wife Henry takes in the show's upcoming third season, following Jane Seymour (Anita Briem). The show's first two seasons already took care of Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn.
According to the Hollywood Reporter,
A daughter of a German nobleman, Anne was betrothed to Henry in a marriage treaty between the Cleves Court and the king's chancellor after Henry was shown a portrait of her. Upon Anne's arrival to England, Henry was disappointed in her looks and soon found a legal way to have the marriage annulled.
Ouch!
Stone has apparently been looking to cross into acting for a while, but before this, the only role on her résumé was a small part in the 2006 fantasy film Eragon. So, do you think you'll be able to take the singer seriously as a royal wife-to-be?
Clint Eastwood's period drama, Changeling (or The Exchange, depending on who you ask) premiered at Cannes and succeeded in impressing the critics, some of whom claim that Angelina Jolie may be looking at an Oscar nomination for her starring role. There's still no trailer for the film which is supposed to open in limited release October 24, but we do have a clip to check out.
The movie is set in the late-1920s and is based on true events. Jolie plays Christine Collins, a mother whose son has gone missing. A boy shows up claiming to be her son, but isn't, and Christine must then fight against corrupt police officers and shady reporters in her frantic search for answers. In addition, she fights the unfair restrictions and expectations placed on women during this era.
According to US Magazine, Jolie based her characterization of Christine on her own mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died of cancer in January 2007.
The clip shows the heartbreaking moment when Christine meets the young boy who is not her son. To watch, read more
All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to the the titles below, you can get to know the presidential candidates a little better with election-edition A&E Biography docs on Obama and McCain.
The Counterfeiters
Winner of this year's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, The Counterfeiters tells the dramatic true story of Jewish forger Salomon Sorowitsch, who is sent to a concentration camp and becomes part of an assembly of counterfeiters whose work is aiding the Nazis and undermining the Allies' economies. The film centers on Sorowitsch's unthinkable choice between continuing to help the Nazis or face death. You can watch a preview of the movie here.
As is often the case with foreign cinema, the movie had a limited release and I missed it when it came out, so I'm excited to get this one in the mail.
Special features include commentary with director Stefan Ruzowitzky, deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, and interviews with real-life counterfeiter Adolf Burger and actor Karl Markovics.
One more (and more family friendly) title, so read more
When I was at Comic-Con just a week ago or so, I was slightly in awe of the folks who camped outside the convention center in order to be the first people inside, ensuring good seats to the panels for things like Twilight and Heroes. It made me wonder if I'd ever do that, and if so, what I would do that for.
Have you ever camped out to be first to an event or to get tickets to something?
In ABC's collection of Lost images, there are always those posed photos of the individual cast members, standing in front of trees with the sun shining through the leaves. They're dressed in clothes their characters would wear on the island (which is to say, carefully distressed t-shirts and jeans).
So I was surprised to come across a new set of photos in which they're all spiffed up — and clean. They're pretty impressive (especially Sun, who is a knockout in that slinky silver thing) and they make me wonder what these images might mean for the next season (because it's Lost, and everything usually means something). To check out all the pretty people, hit "Start."
All photos copyright 2008 ABC, Inc.
Singer and actress Selena Gomez posed for pictures at the 2009 American Music Awards with a pretty pink smile on her face. She took advantage of the occasion and went glam; wearing a Talbot Runhof sequin dress with black strappy heels.
Stuart Weitzman
Ikea
Christian Louboutin