Showbiz Sandbox 16: Hollywood Thinks Outside The Redbox

David Poland of Movie City News joins us this week.  You might know Poland from his days at the Chicago Tribune, Entertainment Weekly or Roughcut, but he is most known as the columnist behind The Hot Button which has morphed into his blog, The Hot Blog.  He can also be seen on DP30 or his new video podcast Super Movie Friends.  You can follow Poland on Twitter by visiting twitter.com/davidpoland.

“District 9” topped the box office in North America over the weekend with $37 million, but will it have legs?  Warner Bros saved a New Line movie once again with “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” which had been sitting on the shelf since last year.  It made a respectable showing with $19.2 million.

Some interesting/baffling/exciting movie news this week. Aaron Sorkin uh, is writing, uh, a draft of the Facebook movie, which, um, is a movie about social networking.  (Listen to the episode to, ah, get the joke).  And if you think that’s crazy, Warner Bros is putting together a movie based on the Legos toys, and Bryan Singer is directing a big screen version of “Battlestar Gallactica.” Will Starbuck still be dead? Does anyone care? Read more

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Showbiz Sandbox 15: Ferris Bueller Is A Jerk!

Korbi Ghosh of Zap2it’s Korbi TV blog joins us again to discuss Paula Adbul leaving “American Idol,” Jeanine Mason winning “So You Think You Can Dance,” and this past week’s Television Critics Association press tour. But we begin with Box Office News:  “G.I Joe” won the weekend with over $56 million, although bad word of mouth will probably result in a steep drop by next weekend. Co-host Michael Giltz watched the movie in a packed theater and gives his review of both the movie and actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum.

“G.I. Joe” was not screened for critics (never a good sign) but that didn’t stop Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal from reviewing it based on the trailer alone.  Morgenstern writes, “At first I felt shut out, but then I realized I was missing the point of a double blessing. Paramount has spared me the pain of sitting through another military-toy epic (the recent “Transformers” sequel having been a near-death experience), Read more

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Showbiz Sandbox 14: Zooey Deschanel Proves It’s Twee To Be You And Me

First off, we took care of a little internal business by welcoming entertainment journalist Michael Giltz as an official co-host.

Alonso Duralde joins us this week. Alonso is the film critic at MSNBC.com and the author of “101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men“. His reviews are featured regularly on The Rotten Tomatoes Show. A member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Alonso spent six years as Arts & Entertainment editor at The Advocate where he is still a contributing writer. His work has also appeared in such publications as the Village Voice, Movieline, Detour among many others. This month Alonso will be curating a the series “So Bad They’re Brilliant” at the American Cinematheque. You can follow him on Twitter at @MSNBCalonso.

We asked Alonso to join us because of a story he wrote for msnbc.com called “Do You See What I Twee?”, as it related to the latest movies. He described the essence of twee as “avoiding the fashionable, the obvious, the predictable, the mundane in an attempt to be, for lack of a better phrase, showily unshowy…It’s about replacing one calculated technique of visual and cultural cues with another.” It’s an apt description of one of the more popular movies out this summer, “(500) Days of Summer,” and its lead, Zooey Deschanel. We also just love saying the word “twee.” Read more

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Showbiz Sandbox 13: Hooliganism At Comic-Con (Or Lack Thereof)

We had a plethora of panelists this week, all of whom were in San Diego over the weekend to experience Comic-Con first hand. KPBS’ Cinema Junkie blogger Beth Accomando covered the event for National Public Radio, Todd Gilchrist was there for Cinematical, SciFi Wire‘s news editor Patrick Lee made the trip, as did Phillip Nakov from MovieSet.com and Harry Medved, who helped out with Fandango’s coverage of the event as their director of public relations.  Also joining in on this week’s fun is New York Daily News writer and Huffington Post blogger, Michael Giltz.

If you weren’t one of the 126,000 people attending Comic-Con, this episode will fill you in on what you missed.  There was whole day devoted to 3D movies, which apparently isn’t just a gimmick anymore.  The big hits of Comic-Con were “District 9”, “Avatar”, “Kick Ass” and “Iron Man 2” and the biggest miss was Roland Emerich’s next movie “2012” which is either so bad it’s good, or so bad it’s just plain bad.  Irrelevant whether it wowed people at the convention or not was “Twilight: New Moon”, because fans just wanted to see Robert Pattinson .  Hundreds of young girls, their moms and a bunch of sensitive men camped out overnight to get into a jam packed “Twilight” panel. The festival was “the redemption of “New Moon” director Chris Weitz, who was clearly adored by his cast. It was definitely the panel with the most security.

This year marked the first appearance by Tim Burton (as a presenter), Peter Jackson and Terry Gilliam. Johnny Depp stopped by to say two words (literally) in promotion of Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.”  Read more

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Showbiz Sandbox Special Episode: A Look Inside TMZ’s Michael Jackson Scoop

When pop singer Michael Jackson died unexpectedly at the end of June news organizations all over the world frantically tried to keep up with the story. What was noteworthy, and what will surely be a historical footnote to Jackson’s death, is that mainstream media such as newspapers and cable news networks were not the outlets breaking the story. That privilege belonged to the upstart celebrity news site TMZ.com. Before it broke the Jackson story, TMZ was primarily thought of as an online version of the National Enquirer and was better known for running stories about Christian Bale’s profanity laden temper tantrums.

However Stephen Brook, a press correspondent for London’s Guardian newspaper and deputy editor MediaGuardian, believes that it is precisely the salacious content TMZ has a reputation for running that gives the site its power. Less than 24 hours after the event, Brook wrote an article for the Guardian which detailed how TMZ managed to be the first media outlet to correctly report the story of Jackson’s death, possibly six minutes before he was officially pronounced dead. Brook’s article was reprinted all over the world in dozens of newspapers and websites.

In this special episode of Showbiz Sandbox, Brook explains how he put the story together and discusses some of the highlights from his piece. Read more

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Showbiz Sandbox 12: I Want To Be Korbi!

Korbi Ghosh of Zap2it’s Korbi TV blog joins us this week to discuss a bunch of television news including the Emmy nominations.  Korbi‘s blog shares scoops, spoilers and breaking news with a community of fellow TV fanatics. She often appears on the TV Guide Channel, delivering her expert opinion on the television topic of the day and has filmed guest spot appearances on series such as “Scrubs” and “Greek.”  Michael Giltz, whose writing appears in the New York Daily News, the Huffington Post and the Advocate also joins us this week.

The Emmy nominations were led by “30 Rock” which garnered a total of 22 (plus, noms for supporting cast Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer and Tracy Morgan!) A surprise nomination for Jim Parsons for Actor in a Comedy Series (the the underrated “Big Bang Theory”), Simon Baker (“The Mentalist”),  and Farrah Fawcett, nominated posthumously for “Farrah’s Story.”  Snubbed one again were “Friday Night Lights,”  “Battlestar Galactica,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” and that show’s host, Cat Deeley. Read more

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Showbiz Sandbox 11: Wild About Michael Jackson (…and Neil Diamond)

Rolling Stone contributing editor David Wild joins us this week to discuss the Michael Jackson memorial.  Wild is an Emmy-nominated television writer and a best selling author. on top of his work with Rolling Stone.  He recently worked on the magazine’s Michael Jackson tribute, and was also instrumental in putting together the pop star’s memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  He explains some of the realities and feelings taking place behind the scenes at the event.  He also has a new book out titled He Is… I Say: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Neil Diamond, currently available on Amazon and other retailers.  You can follow David on Twitter at twitter.com/wildaboutmusic.

Audiences weren’t wild about “Bruno,” which won the weekend box office race, but didn’t perform as expected. Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock’s “The Proposal” continues to perform well – well enough that Reynolds has been offered the role of The Green Lantern in Warner Bros’s upcoming movie. Was he a better choice over Bradley Cooper and Justin Timberlake?  Does anyone even care about “The Green Lantern”?  Anne Thompson addresses that, and the future of film criticism in her blog Thompson On Hollywood. Read more

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Showbiz Sandbox 10: The Death Of Pop, Pinup Girls and (Possibly) 2D Movies

Roger Friedman, senior columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, and Showbiz411.com joins us along with writer Michael Giltz to discuss the death of Michael Jackson. Friedman has been covering Jackson since his first child molestation trial and is one of the trusted reporters covering the pop star’s life and death.

The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences announced this week that the Academy Awards would now nominate ten films in the Best Picture instead of the usual five. Will this allow more deserving movies a shot at the big prize, or is this blatant pandering for higher Nielsen ratings?

“Transformers 2” stormed the world-wide box office over the weekend, but that still doesn’t make it a good movie. Read more

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Showbiz Sandbox 9: I Loves Me A Good Ouster Story

Entertainment journalist Michael Giltz provides his insight and wit again this week.

“The Proposal” topped the box office, and was Sandra Bullock’s biggest movie opening ever. Which begs the question, why is this not also “a Ryan Reynolds movie”? Sean Penn is taking a year off for some “personal time,” or perhaps he just wants to get out of “The Three Stooges.” Other people taking time off are Steven Soderbergh and Brad Pitt, after Colombia Pictures President Amy Pascal pulled the plug on the Steven Zallian-scripted “Moneyball” which was set to shoot on Monday, June 22. Sam Mendes is having better luck, having just signed a two year deal with Focus Features, and he will direct the film adaptation of George Eliot’s classic “Middlemarch.”

It was a shoot ‘em up between NY Post Critic Lou Lumenick and Universal over Lumeneck’s early review of “Public Enemies.” Turns out there was an embargo on when the reviews could be published. Lumenick claims he didn’t know that, but according to Michael Giltz, it’s a rule of thumb that all reviewers know. Read more

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Showbiz Sandbox 8: Everybody’s A Critic On The Internet

This week “The Hangover” hung around, and “The Taking of Pelham 123” opened at lower numbers than expected. Was the film miscast?

James Cameron proves he’s King of the World, or at least of the digital age, by pushing game publisher Ubisoft to create the videogame industry’s first stereoscopic title. What does this mean for future relationships between films and videogames? In other film news, “Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle signed a three year deal with Fox Searchlight; the quasi-classic “Conan The Barbarian” will be remade; and rumors abound that the director of the summer action film “G.I. Joe” was fired. Plus, DVD fans may have to wait a little longer until movies they didn’t bother seeing in the theaters are available for viewing on the couch.

Despite repeated warnings, chaos still ensued when the switch to digital TV finally happened in the United States. And though there were obvious clues about his sexual orientation, “American Idol” runner up Adam Lambert finally came out to Rolling Stone magazine. Plus, the debate rages on: Can Jay Leno survive at 10pm? Advertisers sure aren’t happy about his new time slot. Read more

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