News

Johan Grimonprez’s fascinating documentary suggests that the US used jazz legend Louis Armstrong in a ‘cool war’ offensive to assassinate Patrice Lumumba

I last encountered the work of the Belgian artist and film-maker Johan Grimonprez in the documentary-reverie Double Take from 2009, which imagined an encounter between two Alfred Hitchcocks. Now in this fascinating and valuably informative film, he amplifies what he sees as the mood music that lay behind the assassination of the leftist Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961; a strange and jazzy new “cool war” offensive in which the American intelligence services, through various fronts, tried to export jazz music by black American musicians to Africa, to win hearts and minds.

The film suggests that Lumumba’s murder, perpetrated by partisans of a civil war stoked by western intelligence services soon after his election, was connived by the US, the Un and by Congo’s former imperial masters,...

An artist and writer as well as documentary filmmaker, Johan Grimonprez takes a multidisciplinary approach to his subjects, combining archival footage, interviews, and cultural artifacts to dismantle how history is shaped and presented to us. As French writer Voltaire writes: “History is the lie commonly agreed upon”

Centered around the assassination of Congo leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is a kaleidoscope of politicians, spies, colonialism, revolution, and music––specifically jazz music of the 1950s and 1960s. Weaving together strands from Africa, Europe, and the United States, Grimonprez makes a compelling case that Lumumba’s death reverberates through society to this day.

Grimonprez uses jazz as a thread to tie together stories as disparate as Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe at the United Nations, the CIA sponsoring “jazz ambassador” tours of Africa, and Belgian leaders holding onto Congolese resources while ceding control of the country.

Africa, colonialism, the United Nations, the 1961 assassination of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nikita Khrushchev, Tesla, iPhones, and jazz music come together in director Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat. The documentary feels like a concert with academic footnotes and references or performance art. It also investigates the filmmaker’s native Belgium’s colonial history and complicity in stifling Congolese independence.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s review of the film, which had its world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation, called it “riveting and propulsive,” noting that the “kinetic doc connects jazz, decolonization and the birth of the United Nations.”

Kino Lorber has partnered with specialist streamer Kanopy on the U.S. release of the film, which hits cinemas on Nov. 1. The filmmaker will...

Who knew that jazz legends like Louis Armstrong was an unknowing pawn in the CIA’s plot to assassinate Congo prime minister Patrice Lumumba?

With Sundance-winning documentary “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” the music of political uprising is paired with the CIA’s squashed plans to overthrow an African government. Johan Grimonprez directs the 1960s-set feature that charts post-colonial international relations through jazz.

The official synopsis reads: “From the Congo to Harlem and back again, Johan Grimonprez’s kinetic, urgent documentary delivers post-colonial politics in jazz form, replete with virtuosic archival riffs, historical text in the form of Blue Note album covers, and musical performances by jazz legends who in the ‘60s doubled as cultural ambassadors to Africa. Their roles as unknowing decoys in the CIA’s plot to assassinate Congo’s prime minister Patrice Lumumba threads through this deeply researched, densely textured tapestry – which scrambles the simplistic good guys/bad guys narrative,...

Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez, best known for Soundtrack To A Coup d’Etat, will be the guest of honour at the 2024 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

Several of Grimonprez’s films are to screen at the festival including Double Take, Shadow World and Blue Orchids. The filmmaker will also participate in a in conversation and unveil his top 10 contemporary films.

Grimonprez first gained international acclaim with his 1997 feature dial H-I-s-t-o-r-y. His latest film, Soundtrack To A Coup d’Etat, has screened at several festivals including Sundance, where it won the jury prize in cinematic innovation; and Thessaloniki, picking up the audience award.

Belgian artist and filmmaker Johan Grimonprez, whose “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” won an award at this year’s Sundance, will be the guest of honor at the 37th edition of IDFA.

The documentary festival, which will take place from Nov. 14 to 24, has also unveiled curated program Dead Angle and Spotlight on Cuba, which focuses on the island’s cinema, alongside live cinema section IDFA on Stage and new media program IDFA DocLab.

IDFA will highlight Grimonprez’s “uncompromising approach to challenging narratives and reinterpreting historical events through a critical, contemporary lens,” the festival said.

Grimonprez first gained international acclaim with his 1997 film “Dial H-i-s-t-o-r-y,” which examined the history of airplane hijackings and the media’s role in shaping public perception. His most recent film, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” unravels the decolonization of Congo, using jazz as a “means of protest” in the examination of the international context behind...

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam — or IDFA — has unveiled its first wave of programming and named its guest of honor for 2024. The edition, the festival’s 37th, runs November 14 through 24.

Belgian artist and filmmaker Johan Grimonprez will be IDFA’s guest of honor. Grimonprez first gained international acclaim for his 1997 film “Dial H-i-s-t-o-r-y,” about the media’s part in shaping the public perception of airplane hijackings. His latest film, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” looks at Congo’s decolonization through the smokescreen of jazz as protest. Other films screening as part of the Grimonprez retrospective will include “Double Take” (2009), “Shadow World” (2016), and “Blue Orchids” (2017). The program will include an extended talk with Grimonprez.

This edition of IDFA will also introduce the multi-year curated program titled Dead Angle, which uses documentary storytelling to illuminate cultural blind spots past and present. This year, the program looks at borders of both the metaphoric and physical varieties.

Tubi, Fox’s free streaming service, has announced its list of August titles. The Tubi August 2024 slate features new Tubi Originals and numerous action, art house, Black cinema, comedy, documentary, drama, horror, kids and family, romance, sci-fi and fantasy, thriller, and Western titles.

As a leading ad-supported video-on-demand service, the company engages diverse audiences through a personalized experience and the world’s largest content library: over 200,000 movies and TV episodes, a growing collection of Tubi Originals, and nearly 250 Fast channels.

You can watch the Tubi August 2024 lineup for free on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, and Cox Contour.

You can also watch the service on connected television devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and on the Tubi site.

Tubi Originals

Documentary

Defying Death:...

Kino Lorber has acquired US rights in the Cannes market to Sundance documentary Soundtrack To A Coup d’Etat, while Mediawan Rights has closed key territory sales.

Johan Grimonprez’s film unravels colonial power dynamics in Africa and re-examines the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, set against a soundtrack of American jazz greats.

The film includes eyewitness accounts, official government memos, testimonies from mercenaries and CIA operatives, and speeches from Lumumba himself.

Kino Lorber plans a theatrical release later this year followed by a home video, educational, and digital release on all major platforms. The distributor is partnering with public...

In this critically agile film, Hitchcock supposedly narrates from beyond the grave, using movie clips to reveal techniques and meanings in his work

Only a cinephile as passionate as Mark Cousins could have got away with this film, in all its hilarious presumption and cheek. It is a study of Alfred Hitchcock’s work, illustrated with clips chosen with tremendous insight and connoisseurship – and supposedly narrated from beyond the grave by Hitchcock himself, pointing out techniques, resonances, images, meanings and occasionally breaking off to check something with Cousins who will answer, off-mic: “Yes Mr Hitchcock.”

However, the script is Cousins’ own and the master himself is faked by the comic Alistair McGowan, whose vocal impersonation is just so eerily good that after a while I thought Cousins really had made this by sitting alone in some darkened Edwardian parlour with his tape recorder and Ouija board. But of course the...

Variety can reveal the first look poster and trailer of the long awaited sequel to all-time British kids’ classic film “The Railway Children” from Studiocanal.

Studiocanal is launching global sales on the film at the virtual AFM (Nov. 1-5).

Based on a celebrated novel by E. Nesbit, the original 1970 film follows three children, who, after the enforced absence of their father, move with their mother to Yorkshire where they attempt to discover the reason for his disappearance.

Picking up nearly forty years after the events of the original film, “The Railway Children Return” follows a new group of children who are evacuated to a Yorkshire village during WWII, where they encounter a young soldier, who like them, is far away from home.

BAFTA and Emmy winning Jenny Agutter resumes her role as Roberta from the original “The Railway Children” and is joined by BAFTA winning Sheridan Smith (“Cilla”), Oscar nominee...

When “Ted Lasso” premiered in July, the hype machine was in full swing, but few could’ve predicted how Season 2 would play out. Early reviews were strong, then the backlash began, then there was the backlash to the backlash, then the Emmys happened, and finally, the Season 2 finale dropped, completing a roller-coaster run that left quite a few questions lingering for Season 3. Does the series work as well when consumed weekly as it did in Season 1, when many viewers marathoned episodes after the full season was out? Do complaints about a lack of conflict and bloated run times stem from real problems within the show, or how people have been trained to watch TV in 2021? And what the heck was “Beard After Dark”?

For insight, IndieWire turned to two of its most devout “Ted Lasso” teammates, each of whom saw Season 2 a bit differently. IndieWire’s TV Awards Editor Libby Hill...

Earlier this year, vaultboy set himself a challenge: Write a song a day and share the results on TikTok. He had a knack for the negative; one of his first-ever TikTok posts was tagged “potential breakup song but more sad,” and he followed that with covers of various mega-hits that were alternately “hella sad” or “kinda sad.” But 12 days into his onslaught of songwriting in January, vaultboy decided to throw a snippet of a happy track on the app for the first time. Sort of — “everything sucks” is the opening line.

BAFTA-winning director Morgan Matthews (“X+Y”) will begin principal photography on May 10 on a sequel to the all-time British kids’ classic “The Railway Children.”

“The Railway Children Return” will shoot in locations around the U.K. from the original 1970 film, including Oakworth Station, Haworth and The Bronte Parsonage. The iconic Keighley & Worth Valley Railway from the original film will also feature.

BAFTA and Emmy-winning actor Jenny Agutter will resume her role from the original “Railway Children.” BAFTA-winning Sheridan Smith; Academy Award nominee and BAFTA winner Tom Courtenay; and a new generation of Railway Children will star alongside.

Based on a celebrated novel by E. Nesbit, the original film follows three children, who, after the enforced absence of their father, move with their mother to Yorkshire where they attempt to discover the reason for his disappearance.

“The Railway Children Return” follows a group of children who are evacuated to a Yorkshire village during WWII,...

Josh Gad and Isla Fisher are set to star in the romantic comedy series “Wolf Like Me,” which has received a straight-to-series order at Peacock.

The streamer has ordered six episodes of the half-hour series. In the show, Gary (Gad) is an emotional wreck and struggles to provide for his daughter since the death of his wife. Mary (Fisher) has a secret she can’t bring herself to share with anyone. The universe brought these two together for a reason, they just need to keep following the signs.

Abe Forsythe will write and executive produce the series in addition to directing all six episodes. Gad and Fisher will executive produce as well as star. Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea, and Steve Hutensky from Made Up Stories will also executive produce. The series is produced by Made Up Stories in partnership with Endeavor Content and Stan.

“We fell in love with Abe...

Exclusive: Garret Dillahunt (Fear the Walking Dead), Michael Hyatt (Snowfall), Ahna O’Reilly (The Morning Show), Sterling Macer Jr. (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story), and newcomer Jojo Regina have been added to the cast of Where The Crawdads Sing, the film adaptation based on Delia Owens’ Nyt best-selling novel from 3000 Pictures, Hello Sunshine, and Sony. Olivia Newman is attached to direct the pic from a screenplay written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Lucy Alibar.

Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter are producing for Hello Sunshine with Elizabeth Gabler, Erin Siminoff and Aislinn Dunster are overseeing the project for 3000 Pictures.

Set against the backdrop of the mid-20th century South, the story centers on a young woman named Kya who, abandoned by her family, raises herself all alone in the marshes outside of her small town. However, when her former boyfriend is found dead, Kya is thrust into the spotlight, instantly branded by the...

Vanquish starring Morgan Freeman and Ruby Rose will be available in Select Theaters on April 16th and on Apple TV, and everywhere you rent movies on April 20th. The trailer looks thrilling:

From the director of Double Take, Middle Men, and The Poison Rose comes this stylish, glossy action-thriller starring Morgan Freeman (Se7en) and Ruby Rose (“Orange Is the New Black”) that shows what desperation can drive a person to do. A mother, Victoria (Rose), is trying to put her dark past as a Russian drug courier behind her, but retired cop Damon (Freeman) forces Victoria to do his bidding by holding her daughter hostage. Now, Victoria must use guns, guts, and a motorcycle to take out a series of violent gangsters — or she may never see her child again.

Anquish stars Morgan Freeman and Ruby Rose, is directed By George Gallo, with a screenplay By George Gallo and Sam Bartlett.

Lionsgate Movies had debuted a new trailer for the action-thriller from George Gallo’s ‘Vanquish’.

From the director of Double Take, Middle Men, and The Poison Rose comes this, glossy action-thriller starring Morgan Freeman (Se7en) and Ruby Rose (“Orange Is the New Black”) that shows what desperation can drive a person to do.

A mother, Victoria (Rose), is trying to put her dark past as a Russian drug courier behind her, but retired cop Damon (Freeman) forces Victoria to do his bidding by holding her daughter hostage. Now, Victoria must use guns, guts, and a motorcycle to take out a series of violent gangsters — or she may never see her child again.

Directed by George Gallo. the film stars Morgan Freeman, Ruby Rose.

Also in trailers – New trailer drops for ‘Chaos Walking’ as April 2nd UK release date announced

The film is released in the US On Demand and...

"You know who she is – just stay out of her way!" Lionsgate has unveiled a full trailer for an action movie called Vanquish, yet another of these dime-a-dozen bland action features with derivative plots. From the director of Double Take, Middle Men, and The Poison Rose comes this stylish, glossy action-thriller starring Morgan Freeman and Ruby Rose that shows what desperation can drive a person to do. A young mother is trying to put her dark past as a Russian drug courier behind her, but retired cop Damon forces Victoria to do his bidding by holding her daughter hostage. It also stars Patrick Muldoon, Julie Lott, Ekaterina Baker, Nick Vallelonga, Joel Michaely, and Miles Doleac. This doesn't look terrible, but doesn't look so great either. Freeman and Rose are cool to see in this, but that doesn't automatically make it a good film. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for George Gallo's Vanquish,...

Noa Kirel, Israel’s biggest pop star and an Israel’s Got Talent judge, has signed with WME.

The singer, dancer and actress recently signed a deal with Atlantic Records ahead of her latest music being set for a spring 2021 roll-out.

WME will be charged with building out Kirel’s business opportunities across film, TV and branding in the U.S. and internationally.

Kirel, who previously was repped by CAA, currently stars in Double Take, her own Israeli TV series loosely based on her life and is the youngest artist ever to serve as a judge on the Israeli shows Got ...

Noa Kirel, Israel’s biggest pop star and an Israel’s Got Talent judge, has signed with WME.

The singer, dancer and actress recently signed a deal with Atlantic Records ahead of her latest music being set for a spring 2021 roll-out.

WME will be charged with building out Kirel’s business opportunities across film, TV and branding in the U.S. and internationally.

Kirel, who previously was repped by CAA, currently stars in Double Take, her own Israeli TV series loosely based on her life and is the youngest artist ever to serve as a judge on the Israeli shows Got ...

Exclusive: Alison Jackson, the provocative artist behind the BAFTA-winning BBC show Double Take, is making a feature-length documentary about U.S. president Donald Trump for Sky Arts.

Deadline can reveal that Jackson has spent time traveling America speaking to people who know Trump, including childhood acquaintances, former colleagues, and those who have accused him of sexual misconduct. She will then use these conversations as inspiration for a series of works on the U.S. leader.

Jackson is best known for her work on celebrity culture, producing voyeuristic photographs of lookalikes posing as their doppelganger in compromising or intensely private situations. The often hazy images are designed to deceive people into thinking they are authentic.

Jackson is famous for creating an image of Queen Elizabeth II sitting on the toilet, which formed part of the key artwork for 2003’s BBC series Double Take, and in 2016, she did a Trump shoot for Vanity Fair magazine.

Exclusive: Love Island exec producer Simon Thomas has been promoted at ITV America and will oversee the search for “noisy” formats for the production company.

Thomas, who was previously Svp, programming becomes Executive Vice President, Programming, West Coast at the U.S. production division of the British broadcaster.

He recently exec produced reality dating series Love Island for CBS, which renewed the format for a second season. He reports to ITV America CEO David George.

In the newly expanded role, Thomas will be tasked with overseeing and shepherding prominent, “noisy” formats, as well as live event programming, while supervising the creative production teams assigned to all ITV America projects in Los Angeles.

In addition to Love Island, he has also worked on Fox’s The Four and American Grit with John Cena as well as Pawn Stars, Forged in Fire, Facebook’s Double Take and A&e’s Oj: Guilty in Vegas.

The live-action “Akira,” which has long been kicking at Warner Bros. and from producer Leonardo DiCaprio, is one among the latest 18 projects selected for California’s film and TV tax credit program 2.0.

In all, it’s expected that the 10 non-indies and eight independent projects will generate an estimated $408 million in qualified expenditures in the state. Ten of the films are shooting outside the Los Angeles 30-mile zone, and all 18 projects are combining for 740 shoot days in California.

“Akira,” which is based on the anime film by Katsuhiro Otomo and is set in Tokyo in 2060, alone will generate an estimated $92 million in qualified spending for the state. That figure includes $43 million in wages paid to 200 below-the-line crew members and more than 5,000 extras and stand-ins. With a tax credit reservation of $18.5 million, the project is scheduled to film entirely in California over the course of 71 filming days. DiCaprio is producing on behalf...

Diga Studios has hired veteran development executive and producer Nick Rigg as head of unscripted, the company said today.

“Nick is an incredibly talented creative executive and producer, with great vision and expertise across a wide spectrum of unscripted content,” Diga Studios General Manager Tommy Coriale said in a statement. “He will be an invaluable asset in helping Diga Studios grow and broaden the scope of our unscripted output, and I am thrilled to have him on our team.”

Diga Studios recently was acquired by Allyance Media Group.

Tony Disanto, CEO of Allyance and Diga Studios, added about the new hire, “Nick Rigg is a strategic, thoughtful and seasoned executive with a clear and infectious passion for making great content.”

He added that Rigg’s expertise “will elevate Diga Studios, the cornerstone of the Allyance Media Group, and I couldn’t be more excited to hand him the keys to...

The WWE pay-per-view event “Crown Jewel” is just 11 days away, but wrestlers won’t utter the name of its location on tonight’s episode of “Raw.” In fact, the words “Saudi Arabia” have been strikingly absent from WWE programming since the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

That’s by order of WWE management, an insider told TheWrap. The insider said WWE talent have been instructed to promote the event — but not its location — for two weeks now, ever since the search for Khashoggi turned into a murder investigation, with the Saudi Arabian government as the prime suspect.

The wrestling company is weighing whether to continue the event, or join the slew of companies that have frozen or vowed to exit deals with Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s death.

Also Read: 16 Hollywood and Media Deals With Saudi Arabia - And Where They Now Stand

WWE.com has also stripped all...

Tuesday’s “WWE SmackDown 1000” tagged in 2.55 million total viewers last night, the best for a “SmackDown Live” episode since April 24.

The 1,000th overall episode of the USA Network show included a tag team title change and the return of WWE Superstar Rey Mysterio, who is pictured above delivering his 6-1-9 finishing maneuver to United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura.

The jam-packed pair of hours also featured the rare (these days) Vince McMahon cameo, and reunited former wrestling faction Evolution.

Also Read: John Cena Is Going to Ruin This Poor Hypnotized Baker's Day in 'Double Take' Premiere (Exclusive Video)

See all of the Oct. 16 blue-brand results from Washington, D.C. here.

“SmackDown Live” airs Tuesdays from 8-10 p.m. Et on USA.

Read original story ‘SmackDown 1000’ on USA Network Draws WWE Show’s Biggest Audience Since April At TheWrap...

John Cena has no idea what John Cena looks like — or how to pronounce “Cena” — on the series premiere of his new Facebook Watch hypnosis-prank series, “Double Take.”

On Episode 1, which premieres Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 8/7c along with the entirety of Season 1, “celebrity hypnotist” Chris Jones tricks Cena superfan Kristin into baking a cake for the WWE superstar, with the WWE superstar.

Of course, she’s under Jones’ spell, and has no idea that her bumbling idiot assistant is actually her hero.

Watch a preview clip of the madness via the video above, which is exclusive to TheWrap.

Also Read: John Oliver Piledrives WWE Over Saudi Arabia Ties (Video)

Here is the full episode description for “John Cena Gives His Superfan the Surprise of a Lifetime”:

Kristin — a die-hard John Cena fan who has used his “never give up” mantra to better her life, and is even planning her...

John Cena is partnering up with “celebrity hypnotist” Chris Jones on new Facebook Watch prank series, “Double Take.” The Loud TV show premieres on Sept. 5.

In addition to Cena, who will appear in Episode 1, other stars to be featured over the first six episodes include Adam Rippon, Steve-o, NeNe Leakes, Gabriel Iglesias and Pamela Anderson.

The WWE Superstar will executive produce the series via his Hard Nocks South banner. For ITV America’s Loud TV, Nick Rigg, David George, Simon Thomas and Adam Dolgins are executive producers. Ken Schwab is executive producer for Ken Schwab Media, and David Bulhack also serves as executive producer.

Also Read: WWE 'Raw' After SummerSlam Is Most-Watched Episode Since Greatest Royal Rumble Week

Here is the show’s (lengthy) official description:

In each 12 to 15-minute episode of “Double Take,” hypnotist and prankster extraordinaire Chris Jones conspires with a different celebrity to give one...

Movie producer and director Brett Ratner has been accused of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct or harassment — including by actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, who both spoke to the Los Angeles Times.

Munn claims that while visiting the set of the 2004 Ratner-directed film After the Sunset, he masturbated in front of her, while Henstridge told the paper that when she was 19, she was forced to perform oral sex on Ratner in his New York apartment after watching a movie with a group of friends.

In the Times article, published Wednesday, a total of six women spoke out against the longtime Hollywood power player,...

Director Brett Ratner thinks Rotten Tomatoes is the worst thing that has ever happened to Hollywood. That makes sense, as he directed X-Men The Last Stand, Rush Hour 2&3, Movie 43, Double Take, Money Talks, and a handful of other films that are on the lower end of the review aggregator's spectrum. While he does have some fresh films, his highest achievement, Red Dragon, sits at 69%. Now that you know that, take a look at what he says about the site to EW:

“I think it’s the destruction of our business. I have such respect and admiration for film criticism. When I was growing up film criticism was a real art. And there was intellect that went into that. And you would read Pauline’s Kael’s reviews, or some others, and that doesn’t exist anymore. Now it’s about a number. A compounded number of how many positives vs.

Funko announced new Ghostbusters Dorbz items that will be available in February of 2016. Also in this round-up: new images for Michael Matteo Rossi's Sable, details on the free (for 24 hours) Remote #2: Radio Silence comic, and acquisition news for the action-horror film, The Devil.

Ghostbusters Dorbz: From Funko: "Who you gonna call?!

The Ghostbusters Dorbz line now includes the iconic Ecto-1 Dorbz Ridez, the official transportation for the world famous Ghostbusters!

Every Ecto-1 Dorbz Ridez comes with a marshmallowed Egon Spengler Dorbz!

Coming in February!

Dorbz Xl: Ghostbusters - Stay Puft Marshmallow Man

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Dorbz Xl is crashing the party! It's going to take all four Ghostbusters to bring this 6-inch figure down!

Coming in February!"

---------

Sable: ""There is no coming to consciousness without pain". Sable, the upcoming feature by Michael Matteo Rossi, tells the story of a young woman's search for self-discovery through many trials and tribulations.

Pete Wentz is one of the many celebrities starring in the new online series Double Take for Power Balance, where celebs take on the challenge of interviewing themselves. Strangely enough, his hair–which was recently totally overhauled–was a big topic of conversation. In this goofy, laughable interview, Wentz brings up questions regarding the not so secret life of whether he is a vampire as well as much more: I get it, Pete Wentz, vampire, eyeliner thing. I wasn't in Twilight. He also makes it clear that his skinny jeans trend was not started after trying on a pair of his wife, Ashlee Simpson Wentz's...

Sports and web series are like egg nog and Canadian Whisky—mixed together they make even the worst of Mondays mornings tolerable. Athletes are natural pranksters and the world of sports is so rife for parody it’s no wonder jocks make the best SNL hosts. By now, we thought Espn’s plucky send-up Mayne Street and Vuguru’s Back on Topps have thoroughly mined the world of sports cameos, not to mention the one-on-self athelte punking Double Take (watch Shaq’s ep again) that bowed in November. But then comes this latest call-up, an indie comedy, Sports Ballz, from creators Jason Schmid and Jake Bern in its initial run on Funny or Die. Related News:‘Narrow World of Sports’, Peter Mehlman’s Fresh Jock Comedy ‘Flash Sports Tonight’ – A Cleverly Crass Espn Roid Fest ‘Palisades Pool Party’, One Sexy Fun Awkward Conundrum...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Gasland" (2010)

Directed by Josh Fox

Released by New Video Group

"Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work"

Directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg

Released by Mpi Home Video

"Exit Through the Gift Shop" (2010)

Directed by Banksy

Released by Oscilloscope Laboratories

If you haven't caught up on the year's best documentaries in time to fill out your top 10 list, three of them will be hitting DVD shelves this week, beginning with Josh Fox's Sundance award-winning "Gasland," an exploration of the "hydraulic fracturing" going on in own backyard, a type of drilling that has spread to 34 states in the U.S. and has left a host of reservoirs of toxic waste and frequent gas explosions along the way. For something less serious, but equally compelling, there is also Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," which follows the...

Editor Gary Morris, freshly relocated to San Francisco, introduces the new issue of Bright Lights Film Journal and these are just a few of the highlights that leap out to my eye: Alan Vanneman "contributes another fine entry in his epic trek through the work of Fred Astaire, this one on Minnelli's The Band Wagon.... Lesley Chow finds fascinating perversity in the pianist motif in films like Preminger's Angel Face and of course Haneke's The Piano Teacher. Jacob Mikanowski has three articles this time: an ambitious discussion of five experimental films and reviews of the Hitchcock curio Double Take and the woefully underrated King Vidor-Bette Davis masterpiece Beyond the Forest.... New contributor Jonathan Simmons explains why Zizek's reading of The Birds is full of shit.... André Bazin makes another Bl appearance courtesy of Bert Cardullo's translation of everybody's favorite critic's review of De Sica's Umberto D. Frank Tashlin,...

Having explored over the last two days both the Box Office Sweet Spot and the directors with the highest average box-office over the course of their careers, I can't quite let it go until I round up the directors with the lowest box-office average, too (since 1980). Again, to be included on the list, the director must have made at least four films, and I also excluded those directors who didn't have at least four movies in the English language (just because a director like Tom Twyker or Hayao Miyazaki may not be commercially successful in America doesn't mean he hasn't been incredibly successful overseas).

I think the trend that you're most likely to pick up on from this list is that you don't have to make scads of money at the box office to be considered a successful or very well-respected director. Many of the directors on this list have Oscars,...

The Lovely Bones

DVD & Blu-Ray, Paramount

It shouldn't matter if a film adaptation of a book fails to follow its source material to the letter – providing, of course, that it delivers a strong enough tale. Even if you haven't read Alice Sebold's novel, with its longer timescale and darker details, it's hard not to feel some important elements are skimmed over or even omitted in Peter Jackson's film version. It's narrated by a murdered young girl, Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), as she flits between limbo and the real world, helplessly watching her grieving family and her uncaught killer, George Harvey (a terrifyingly mundane Stanley Tucci), who is now targeting her sister. Perhaps for reasons of taste, the murder is not dwelt upon but this diminishes the impact of what follows; it even seems Susie is better off dead in her fantasy afterlife and that can't be right, can it?...

Robert Pattinson (photos) swooners rejoice! Not only does Remember Me hit the DVD racks today and Eclipse hit theaters next week, but we’ve also gathered 30 of RPattz’s sexiest looks into one easily digestible post. Though we’re sure he’d never consider himself a “fashionisto,” somehow he rocks “sloppily thrown together” like no other man in Hollywood. Whether he’s spruced up in a tux for the Oscars, donning a slim-fitted suit for a premiere, or dressed down in plaid and Adidas for the airport, Rob always gets the ladies in a tizzy. Here’s why (bibs for droolage required): 1. Shiny New Penny 2. Blazin’ Blue 3. Plaid Punk 4. Capped and Classy 5. Wild Abandon 6. Ahoy, Patty! 7. Cable Knit Cutie 8. Trés Chic 9. Street Casual 10. Two Thumbs Up 11. Gorg In Gray 12. A Solid Investment 13. Nom Nom Navy 14. RPatriotic 15. Lovely in Linen 16. Midnight Delight 17. Boozin’ in Brown 18. Blacked Out 19. Hottie in a...

Robert Pattinson (photos) swooners rejoice! Not only does Remember Me hit the DVD racks today and Eclipse hit theaters next week, but we’ve also gathered 30 of RPattz’s sexiest looks into one easily digestible post. Though we’re sure he’d never consider himself a “fashionisto,” somehow he rocks “sloppily thrown together” like no other man in Hollywood. Whether he’s spruced up in a tux for the Oscars, donning a slim-fitted suit for a premiere, or dressed down in plaid and Adidas for the airport, Rob always gets the ladies in a tizzy. Here’s why (bibs for droolage required):

1. Shiny New Penny

2. Blazin’ Blue

3. Plaid Punk

4. Capped and Classy

5. Wild Abandon

6. Ahoy, Patty!

7. Cable Knit Cutie

8. Trés Chic

9. Street Casual

10. Two Thumbs Up

11. Gorg In Gray

12. A Solid Investment

13. Nom Nom Navy

14. RPatriotic

15. Lovely in Linen

16. Midnight Delight

17. Boozin’ in Brown

18. Blacked Out

19. Hottie in a...

With Hollywood in their current “we love the '80s” mode, any film to come out that takes place in the '90s is a welcome sight in my eyes. Just off the top of my head, the last film that I remember seeing to take place in the '90s was Jonathan Levine's The Wackness. Whether you liked or disliked seeing Sir Gandhi Kingsley smoke weed and listen to east coast rap classics is beside the point. The point is there is an entire decade of potentially great stories just waiting to be tapped into. With that being said, the folks over at Trailer Addict [1] have just put up a new trailer for Middle Men. From what I gather of the preview, the film is a biopic on the men responsible for the birth of internet porn in the '90s, and God bless them. The film is...

Following My Name is Khan and Kites, Raajneeti became the third Bollywood movie this year to lead all limited releases in its first weekend. Arthouse mainstays The Secret in Their Eyes, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and City Island continued to find audiences, while a handful of new movies had relatively insignificant openings. Raajneeti grossed $850,244 at 124 locations, which was good for first among limited releases and 11th place on the overall weekend chart. While its opening fell short of other 2010 Bollywood movies My Name is Khan, Kites and Housefull, it was solid in its own right. These movies do tend to be extremely front-loaded, though, so look for a steep fall from Raajneeti next weekend. The Secret in Their Eyes fared best among limited holdovers, down 13 percent to $397,705. Through its eighth weekend, the Best Foreign Language Oscar winner has grossed just under $4 million. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo also held well,...

Yo! Readers of Unreality TV, we’ll be having a Britain’s Got Talent liveblogging session right here tonight on this very page.

The show kicks off at 8:00pm on ITV1 – so switch on yer telly, get out yer laptop and chat about Bgt here, or join in with the chatter on the Unreality TV forum.

Well, another year, another million, billion, trillion aspiring light entertainers queue up to be discovered via Britain’s Got Talent. There’s even a kid who can’t pronounce “Variety”, so it’ll be hard for him to claim being on the Royal Variety Performance has been “a lifelong dream”. Because we all dream about performing in front of The Queen, don’t we? No, not like that, you filthy minded readers

First up is middle aged lady band Double Take, who wax lyrical about the many levels of performance you can bang out of a tambourine.

Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden promised us some strange acts on this year’s Britain’s Got Talent and we can tell you that Saturday night’s show will not disappoint.

Along with Max the parrot who won’t eat his mashed potatoes, viewers will be treated to a flash of some old mens bums (check out the picture of the Cheeky Boys above), a pair of sisters known as ‘Double Take’ who play the Timbrel and take umbrage when Simon Cowell tells them its a ‘tambourine with Christmas decorations’, Persephene Lewin who plays an instrument made out of a hose pipe, a teapot and a penguin glove puppet and Michael Lavender, the 71 year old retired teacher who now does impressions of unusual jungle animals.

Also appearing is David Churcher who recites rubbish poetry over classical music, Pipes and Brums – a husband and wife act who play the bodhrán and...

Clash of the Titans and How to Train Your Dragon's kick-ass box office contributed to a huge cash windfall for UK cinemas over the Easter weekend, resulting in a 112% rise over the equivalent period in 2009

The Easter bonanza

Posting the second-best weekend for box office in the past 12 months, the 2-4 April period proved a huge cash windfall for UK cinemas, with film fans flocking to the plexes over Easter. Once again, families proved a potent market, with Clash of the Titans appealing to older kids, and How to Train Your Dragon and Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang mopping up younger ones. Older teens and twentysomethings looking to escape their families could choose between Clash of the Titans and Kick-Ass.

The figures in our top 10 below do not include takings on bank holiday Monday, but if those are added in, the top three titles – all new releases – contributed...

Lourdes (U)

(Jessica Hausner, 2009, Aus/Fra/Ger) Sylvie Testud, Léa Seydoux, Elina Löwensohn. 99 mins

Handsomely photographed and coolly observant, this excursion to the French pilgrimage town manages to be both a penetrating study of the spiritual tourism racket and a genuine mystical inquiry. Testud is our central pilgrim, paralysed from the neck down and, like many others, in search of a miracle. But unlike those others, she gets one. Or does she? We're given much to think about.

No One Knows About Persian Cats (12A)

(Bahman Ghobadi, 2009, Iran) Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Khoshanejad. 107 mins

A suitably guerrilla-style tour of Iran's underground (often literally) music scene – a place where even gentle indie rock is considered seditious. Mostly factual and shot illegally, it's eye (and ear)-opening stuff.

The Blind Side (12A)

(John Lee Hancock, 2009, Us) Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron. 128 mins

Bullock might have got her Oscar but that doesn't make it any...

Sundance 2010: New Frontier All My Friends Are Funeral Singers by Tim Rutili This program highlights work that explores the limits of traditional aesthetics and the narrative structures of filmmaking. Film info from the Sundance press release. All My Friends Are Funeral Singers / USA (Director and screenwriter: Tim Rutili) — A fortune teller lives and works in and old house crowded with ghosts. When a mysterious light appears in the woods, the ghosts realize they are trapped and begin to rebel. Cast: Angela Bettis. World Premiere Double Take / Germany, Netherlands (Director: Johan Grimonprez) — Alfred Hitchcock is unwittingly caught up in a double take on the cold war period. As television hijacks cinema, and Khrushchev [...]...

On Thursday, December 3, Sundance Institute has announced movies which are included on the non-competition line-up of the 26th Sundance Film Festival. Among the list, there are "The Runaways", a biopic starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart, and "The Killer Inside Me" that has Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba as part of the cast. Both movies are enlisted in Premieres category.

Non-competitive categories usually focus on bigger-budget films with well-known stars and a distributor already in place. However, organizers of this year's festival have added a new section, called Next, which is dedicated to extremely low-budget movies that cost under $500,000.

Speaking about the new category, Sundance lead programmer Trevor Groth stated, "There's this whole movement of getting back to the low-budget aesthetic in storytelling, to the kind of film we'd see a couple decades ago. That's why we created this new section called Next, which is a direct response to that...

This program highlights work that explores the limits of traditional aesthetics and the narrative structures of filmmaking. All My Friends Are Funeral Singers / USA (Director and screenwriter: Tim Rutili)—A fortune teller lives and works in an old house crowded with ghosts. When a mysterious light appears in the woods, the ghosts realize they are trapped and begin to rebel. Cast: Angela Bettis. World Premiere Double Take/Germany, Netherlands (Director: Johan Grimonprez)—Director …...

Selma Blair, Amy Smart, Jason Lee, Giovanni Ribisi and Kevin Pollak are set to star in Columbus Circle, an indie thriller that George Gallo is directing from a script he co-wrote with Pollack. Principal photography is slated to start this month in Los Angeles. The film centers on a reclusive heiress (Blair) in an upscale Manhattan apartment building who is brought face-to-face with her fears when a detective (Ribisi) shows up to investigate a homicide next door and a new couple (Smart and Lee) moves in to that apartment. Pollak plays the building's concierge and one of the heiress' few friends. On a recent episode of his internet talk show, Pollak revealed that the idea for the film came on a plane ride back from the Cannes Film Festival after producer Christopher Mallick had lost the rights to a remake of a Korean film. Two loft sets were already built and ready to go,...