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Harvey Weinstein: My 'Marilyn' Is Sexy, Beautiful, and Fun to Be Around


In case you haven't noticed, this is Harvey Weinstein's time of year. All year long, he has been hoarding his awards-worthy jewels, and now they're finally being unveiled to the public. First up are 'The Artist' (a leading contender for Best Picture despite the fact that it's silent) and 'My Week With Marilyn,' which appears destined to earn Michelle Williams her third Oscar nomination.

Fifty years after her death, Marilyn Monroe lives on as an enchanting enigma. She was the most famous woman in the world, and perhaps the greatest movie star we'll ever know, but her true nature remained forever out of reach. 'My Week With Marilyn,' directed by TV veteran Simon Curtis and based on a pair of memoirs by Colin Clark, offers a new vantage point to consider where Norma Jeane Baker ended and Miss Monroe began. The film takes place in 1956 and follows the adventures of young Clark (Eddie Redmayne) on the London set of 'The Prince and the Showgirl,' as he goes from glorified gofer to superstar go-between, skinny-dipping with Marilyn and helping her cope with the vicissitudes of fame and the disdain of her director and co-star, Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh).
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Viggo Mortensen: 'A Dangerous Method' Taught Me How to Talk in a Movie


David Cronenberg isn't necessarily the first director you'd expect to make a movie about the war of wills between two trailblazing 19th-century psychoanalysts, although on further reflection the idea starts to make sense. Cronenberg's movies have always featured plenty of disturbed individuals, so it stands to reason that he would not only know the work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung but that he would ultimately become fascinated by the flaws and faults of the men themselves. The resulting film, 'A Dangerous Method,' out today in limited release from Sony Pictures Classics, asks what happens when two men committed to curing humanity of its mental diseases encounter destructive forces within themselves. Michael Fassbender plays Jung, the idealistic Austrian heir to Freud's legacy, who slowly becomes acquainted with -- and, at least temporarily, possessed by -- his own dark side. Freud, portrayed with an air of ironic wit by erstwhile 'Lord of the Rings' swashbuckler Viggo Mortensen, is the vain, impatient mentor who evolves over time into a disapproving rival.
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New Moviefone Homepage: Your Handy Guide to Our Front Page Facelift

Filed under: Movie News
By now you've probably noticed that the Moviefone homepage has a fresh new look. (If you came in through the side door and haven't yet seen it, by all means click over and have a look around.) So ... what do you think? Granted, it can't quite compare to the sight of the Imperial Starfleet traversing the galaxy -- or Michelle Pfeiffer descending Robert Loggia's staircase in Scarface, for that matter -- but we're pretty happy with it all the same.
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What Do YouTube's New Celebrity Channels Mean for Movies and TV?

Filed under: Movie News


Psst! Hey, smart guy, did you get your million-dollar advance from YouTube?

If not, why not? According to an announcement made late yesterday, hipsters (Vice magazine, Pitchfork.com), actors (Ashton Kutcher, Amy Poehler), rappers (Pharrell, Jay-Z), and seemingly everyone in between (Madonna, Lionsgate, Shaquille O'Neal) have signed on to provide professional content for a series of new channels the Google subsidiary is expected to launch next year, in a deal valued at upwards of $100 million. Each partner will reportedly get an advance of up to $5 million; if and when that's recouped via advertising revenue, the partners will split any additional revenues roughly evenly.

So what, if anything, does this mean for the future of movies and TV?
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Yes, 'Like Crazy' Director Drake Doremus Did Have a Doomed Long-Distance Marriage

Filed under: Movie News


People tend to react in one of two ways to 'Like Crazy,' the Sundance-approved long-distance-relationship saga that Paramount is billing as something like the second coming of 'Love Story.' ("Love means never having to renew your visa"?) Some viewers experience a Kleenex-obliterating sense memory of what it felt like to be young, naïve, hopelessly in love, and separated from one's object of desire by circumstances beyond one's control; others check out emotionally as soon as they decide that these two idiot kids brought all their troubles on themselves. I fall decidedly into the former camp, so I jumped at the chance to interview the film's 28-year-old director, Drake Doremus, who shot the movie with no script and $250,000. He shared a few gory details about the long-distance relationship(s) that inspired the film, and even offered some advice for those foolish enough to attempt one in real life.
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Why the 'Heinous' Experience of Going to Movie Theaters Could Kill the Film Industry

Filed under: Movie News


You probably don't know Bob Lefsetz, but if you depended on the decimated music business to make a living, you sure would. His free e-newsletter, The Lefsetz Letter, is required reading for label executives, A&R guys, managers, publicists, bookers, and -- oh yeah, musicians, most of whom are being forced to learn economic self-reliance now that they've been abandoned/liberated by the traditional major-label system. Day in and day out, Lefsetz preaches a simple message for surviving the digital revolution: be true to your art, give the people what they want, and let the money sort itself out. And now he's turning his attention to the movie business.
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Do Hollywood Celebrities Have a Right to Occupy Wall Street?

Filed under: Movie News, Hot Topic


In a Sunday 'The New York Times' column titled 'Hollywood on Wall Street,' former food critic Frank Bruni sounds off on the left-leaning celebrities who have expressed solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, either in person or via their Twitter feeds. Though he acknowledges that entertainers have as much right as anyone to join the protest, he argues that their involvement could undercut its already muddled message. "With a slowly growing number of actors and musicians paying well-chronicled visits to Zuccotti Park," Bruni writes, "the movement is in danger of becoming a sticky fly strip for entertainers who like to flaunt their self-styled populism: a gadfly strip."
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