Superbad has supergood chances of winning a trophy at the MTV Movie Awards.
The buddy comedy starring Michael Cera and Jonah Hill leads the awards ceremony with five nominations in categories such as Best Comedic Performance and Best Movie, MTV announced Tuesday.
Other multiple nominated films included Juno, Enchanted, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Knocked Up. A new category - Best Summer Movie So Far - will debut at the annual awards ceremony. Nominees for that category are Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Sex and the City: The Movie, Speed Racer and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Viewers can vote for all winners online through May 23. They can also submit online movies parodying films from the past year in the user-generated category, Best Movie Spoof. The live ceremony will be broadcast on June 1 from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California.
PHOTO: EPA
The grim prospect of another Hollywood strike inched closer earlier this week after a fresh round of contract talks between producers and the biggest actors' union ended with no resolution in sight.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) accused the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) of "unreasonable demands" as the two sides attempted to broker a contract to replace the existing deal that expires on June 30.
The deadlock has revived memories of the devastating Hollywood writers strike that plunged the US entertainment industry into crisis and cost billions of US dollars in losses according to some estimates.
Tuesday's stalemate occurred after both sides last week agreed to extend negotiations into a fourth week, with a cut-off set at 6pm Tuesday.
The AMPTP said in a statement it remained optimistic of reaching agreement after resuming negotiations at a later date.
The producers' alliance said key obstacles to a new deal were differences on royalties from DVD sales and new media.
"Under these circumstances, with SAG's continued adherence to unreasonable demands in both new and traditional media, continuing negotiations at this time does not make sense," AMPTP said in a statement.
SAG officials meanwhile insisted that the guild had negotiated in good faith, accusing AMPTP of suspending talks despite the objections of their team of negotiators.
"It is unfortunate and deeply troubling that the AMPTP would suspend our negotiations at this critical juncture," SAG President Alan Rosenberg said.
"We have modified our proposals over the last three weeks in effort to bargain a fair contract for our members.
"Our negotiating team is prepared to work around the clock for as long as it takes to get a fair deal. We want to keep the town working."
This year's screenwriters strike was the US entertainment industry's most damaging dispute in years, forcing the postponement of several US television shows and movie projects.
Yasukuni war shrine is Japan's ultimate taboo subject. A symbol of the country's militaristic past, the shrine is revered by nationalists, despised by Japan's Asian neighbors, and rarely mentioned in public by anyone else.
On Saturday, that taboo faced a test with the Tokyo premiere of a documentary film that has drawn protests from right-wingers, spooked theater owners and won praise from Japanese who say it's time to openly discuss the shrine.
Yasukuni focuses on Aug. 15, the date when thousands throng the shrine to mark the anniversary of Tokyo's World War II surrender. The shrine honors the 2.5 million Japanese who fell in wars from the late 1800s until 1945.
Like the shrine itself, which has a museum depicting Japan's wartime conquests as a noble enterprise, the film has been a magnet for controversy.
The Tokyo opening was accompanied by a heavy police presence, but the sold-out screenings passed without incident.
The film, partially funded by US$73,500 from a government-linked agency, was directed by a Chinese citizen, and includes graphic footage of Japanese soldiers executing civilians - three elements that have earned the ire of nationalists.
"The film is anti-Japan, and an insult to Yasukuni and our devotion to it,'' said Hiroshi Kawahara, who heads the nationalist group, Doketsusha. "But Yasukuni's dignity cannot be shaken by a film like this." Pacifists and the victims of Japanese aggression - such as China and the Koreas - abhor Yasukuni as a glorification of militarism.
Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman is to star in a film based on the life of British pop icon Dusty Springfield, entertainment industry press reported last week.
The 40-year-old Australian actress will also produce the biopic, Daily Variety reported, adding that it was one of two films on Springfield currently in the works in Hollywood.
Springfield, who died in 1999, enjoyed huge success throughout the 1960s with a string of hits including I Only Want to Be With You, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me and The Look of Love.
Springfield's success masked a troubled personal life however that saw her battle mental illness and drug and alcohol problems. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, four years before her death.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50