US President George W. Bush late Tuesday hosted an "emotional" White House screening of the film United 93, with relatives of some of the passengers who died aboard the September 11, 2001 flight attending, his spokesman said.
"It was a very emotional night, because you had family members and a handful of the families had not seen the movie before," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters Wednesday.
"At the conclusion ... it has a very powerful ending, and it's dead silent as the credits roll" except for "the sounds of quiet sobbing in the room," he said.
"It was an extraordinarily moving event," said Snow.
After the screening of the film -- the first major movie to address the 2001 events -- Bush met and spoke with some of the families, the spokesman said.
United 93 chronicles how the passengers of one of the four flights taken over by al-Qaeda operatives to attack the US on that day desperately fought against the hijackers in an effort to take control of the plane.
The flight, which it is believed the hijackers had hoped to plow into the White House or US Capitol building, ultimately crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
US actress Sandra Bullock got a three-year extension Wednesday on a restraining order against a man she has accused of stalking her across three US states.
Thomas James Weldon has spent three years in a psychiatric hospital, but Bullock, in a sworn statement requesting the order's extension, said she had no guarantee that he would not resume harassing her upon his release.
Her attorney, Edwin McPherson, said Bullock was concerned for her safety since Weldon will get permission in September to leave his Nashville, Tennessee hospital for 90 days.
"I have not been informed nor received any indication that the defendant recognizes that his fixation on me is delusional and that he will not resume stalking and harassing me, members of my family and employees of Fortis Films Inc when and if he is released," she said.
Fortis Films is the 41-year-old actress' West Hollywood-based production company.
"I do not know the defendant, I have never met him and I have never communicated with him nor voluntarily accepted any communication from him," she said in statement.
Bullock originally won the restraining order in June 2003, forcing Weldon to stay at least 200 meters away from the actress.
At the time, she accused him of following her from Michigan to the southern state of Texas, where she has a home, and to California during an 18-month period.
US actress Uma Thurman, renowned for her roles in Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction, is to star in a new romantic comedy, portraying a woman torn between two men, Variety reported.
Thurman, 36, who turned to acting after modeling, will play the lead female character in The Accidental Husband.
She will play a psychologist who gets engaged, but then learns she is already married and is faced with the dilemma of choosing which man she wishes to remain with.
Forest Whitaker, who played in the 2002 Phone Booth and Panic Room, plans to join William Hurt, Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox in the new thriller, Vantage Point, according to Hollywood Reporter.
Whitaker is to play an American tourist who is filming during an assassination attempt on the US president. Hurt is to portray the president.
The story unravels in Madrid, and is related from five different 15-minute-long vantage points. The director is Pete Travis, who created the 2004 film Omagh, about an IRA terrorist attack in the small Irish town of Omagh.
One of Hollywood's biggest studios, Warner Bros, said it will launch a direct-to-DVD business with low-budget films that bypass the costs of theatrical releases.
Warner plans to produce about 10 to 15 movies a year for DVD release at the low production cost of US$5 million or less, said the company, confirming a newspaper report.
The first film to be released straight to DVD is a sequel to The Dukes of Hazard, which was based on the 1980s television series and enjoyed lukewarm success at the box office last summer. The less costly, made-for-DVD sequel will not include original cast members such as Jessica Simpson.
A partnership between Warner Bros Pictures and Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group, the new project follows similar businesses by rivals Walt Disney Studios and Universal Pictures.
The direct-to-DVD industry turns a profit by relying on cheaper films without big-name stars and elaborate production budgets.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located