Protests in the parks, bloody battles in the streets and ideological warfare behind closed doors — history buffs consider the events surrounding 1968′s Democratic National Convention in Chicago a clutch moment in one of America’s most tumultuous decades. Grizzled hippies remember it as the Woodstock of politics.

But members of the under-30 set, if they know anything at all about the convention and the subsequent trial of Abbie Hoffman and his fellow protesters in the so-called Chicago Seven, probably write it all off as another grainy slice of boomer nostalgia. The hybrid animated documentary Chicago 10, which opens Friday in select cities, reheats the controversial subject to serve it up to a younger audience.

Writer-director Brett Morgen, the Oscar-nominated creator of On the Ropes and The Kid Stays in the Picture, translates the events in Chicago into a style he hopes today’s college students will grok.

Chicago 10 mashes together rotoscope animation, vivid and sometimes shocking archival footage, transcripts from the legendary trial of culture jammer Hoffman and his Youth International Party, or Yippie, pals, and music by the Beastie Boys and Eminem. Morgen calls his style “mythomentary,” and Chicago 10 is an inventive, entertaining and stirring portrait of the ’60s protest movement at its peak.

In a phone interview, Morgen disses documentarian Ken Burns, relays the challenges of reaching the YouTube generation and explains why the phrase “animated documentary” is no longer an oxymoron. Chicago 10 features voice work by Hank Azaria, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider (who passed away this month), Liev Schreiber and Jeffrey Wright. Read the rest of this entry »

Max von Sydow, Emily Mortimer and Jackie Earle Haley have signed on to join Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams and Patricia Clarkson in Martin Scorsese’s mystery drama Shutter Island for Paramount Pictures.

The film, adapted by Laeta Kalogridis from Dennis Lehane’s 2004 novel, revolves around two U.S. marshals (DiCaprio and Ruffalo) who travel to a Massachusetts island to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane. Chaos ensues for the two as they encounter a web of deceit, a hurricane and a deadly inmate riot that leaves them trapped on the island.

Sydow will portray one of the hospital’s physicians, Mortimer will play the role of Rachel, an escaped hospital patient and Haley will star as an inmate, reports the Hollywood Reporter.

Phoenix Pictures, Scorsese’s Sikelia Prods. and DiCaprio’s Appian Way are producing the pic with Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Brad Fischer and Scorsese serving as producers.

Kalogridis, Lehane and Louis Phillips are executive producers of the film.

Paramount Vantage sold the project to several major European territories including Germany (TeleMunchen) and Italy (Medusa).

TeleMunchen picked up the films distribution rights for 12 million dollars while Medusa paid 10 million dollars.

Production is scheduled begin on March 6. (ANI)

SAO PAULO, Brazil – Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore are traipsing through a trash-strewn urban wasteland, scavenging for salvation. All around them, dozens of pitiful human beings dressed in filthy, mismatched clothes grope their way past wrecked cars and graffiti-splattered highway ramps, like dancers in some grotesque ballet of the damned.
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It’s not a pretty sight, but it’s impossible to avert your eyes – which is exactly the point. Director Fernando Meirelles and his camera crew are gearing up to shoot another take of “Blindness,” a feature film based on the harrowing 1995 parable about an unnamed city stricken with a plague of sightlessness, by the Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago.

Like nearly everyone in the film, Ruffalo’s character, an ophthalmologist known simply as “the Doctor,” is afflicted with a terrifying malady in which the eyes appear normal but are coated with a milky whiteness that blocks out vision.

The only person immune is Moore’s character, the doctor’s heroic, steadfast wife. As the story gathers speed, she must guide her husband and a small group of fellow sufferers (played by Danny Glover, Alice Braga and others) through a perilous obstacle course, in a society where order has collapsed, and humans are reduced to living like animals. Read the rest of this entry »

Written and directed by Brett Morgen (“The Kid Stays in the Picture”), CHICAGO 10 presents contemporary history with a forced perspective, mixing bold and original animation with extraordinary archival footage that explores the build-up to and unraveling of the Chicago Conspiracy Trial.

At the 1968 Democratic Convention, protestors, denied permits for demonstrations, repeatedly clashed with the Chicago Police Department, who waged a week-long terror campaign that resulted in riots witnessed live by a television audience of over 50 million. The events had a polarizing effect on the country.

Needing to find a scapegoat for the riots, the Government held eight of the most vocal activists accountable for the violence and brought them to trial a year later. The defendants represented a broad cross-section of the anti-war movement, from counter-culture icons Abbie Hoffman (voiced by Hank Azaria) and Jerry Rubin (Mark Ruffalo) to renowned pacifist David Dellinger (Dylan Baker). Seven of the defendants were represented by Leonard Weinglass and famed liberal attorney William Kunstler (Liev Schreiber), who went head-to-head with prosecution attorney Thomas Foran (Nick Nolte). The eighth defendant, Bobby Seale (Jeffrey Wright), co-chair of the Black Panther Party, insisted on defending himself and was bound, gagged and handcuffed to his chair by Judge Julius Hoffman (Roy Scheider). From the start, the trial was a circus with the eight defendants on a collision course with the governmental authority.

Eschewing talking-head interviews and omniscient narration, CHICAGO 10 allows the viewer to experience the drama and tragedy of Chicago in a unique and dynamic style. The film moves back and forth from the streets of Chicago to the courtroom at an exciting and accelerating pace that brings the past into the present. Ultimately, CHICAGO 10 is more than a historical drama; it is a new style of documentary with a visceral and emotional core.

Watch the trailer at MoviesOnline.ca

I just found some new photoshoots and film festival portraits and added to the gallery. There’s 10 new albums in the photoshoot section, for your delight. [:D]

GALLERY LINK
Latest updates in photoshoots section

They make their fortunes engineering the world’s biggest deals or making hearts swoon in movie houses and concert halls. But inside their storied prewar East Side town houses and palatial downtown lofts, members of the city’s power elite are grappling with the same question as the rest of the nation: Who should next occupy the White House?

Of course, the rivers of money that flow from Wall Street and Hollywood mean they can offer far more than a single vote.

Through the end of last year, the metropolitan region contributed more than $80 million to presidential aspirants. New York’s singers, actors, literary lights and plutocrats wrote checks across party lines, in some cases covering their bets by running the table of candidates.

The movie heartthrob Mark Ruffalo threw some of his indie cred — and $1,000 — to two candidates who never made it to the mainstream, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio and former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska.

Read the full article at NY Times website

HEATH Ledger’s family and A-list friends gathered to pay tribute to the actor in a moving private service at a Hollywood studio yesterday.
(. . .) While Williams did not attend the cermony, some of her closest friends attended, including her Dawson’s Creek co-star James Van Der Beek and film star Mark Ruffalo, who is married to the 27-year-old actress’ best friend Sunrise Coigney.

Our thoughts and love go to Heath’s family and friends.