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Partial ‘Eclipse’ Fans of “Twilight” will have their prayers answered, thanks to the “MTV Movie Awards.” Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner will present a clip from the June 30 film “Eclipse.” The trio will be in the spotlight all night, as their film, ‘New Moon’ competes for five awards. Best Movie, Best Female Performance, Best Male Performance, Best Kiss and Global Superstar (they share that nomination). Hosted by Aziz Ansari, the...

The monolithic Goth, Darkwave, and Industrial record label Metropolis has yet again brought forth a new set of dark and titillating electronic horror music to captivate the music scene again. The record label continues to garner major media attention by booking talented and undoubtedly hard working acts that continue to redefine the dark rock scene. While not every act they sign is a fresh face, some are indeed experienced in Goth and Industrial music but still set the pace for a scene that has continued to thrive despite all attempts to marginalize it, water it down, or dismiss it out of hand. Those of us who call it home have never really cared one way or the other; we do what we like, and as we please.

The French Canadian act Psyche are indeed well traveled fixtures in the electronic inspired Goth scene. Formed in 1984 by Evan Panic and Anthony Red,...

New York -- Gabriele Muccino, the Italian director and Will Smith collaborator, is setting up a new project.

Muccino will direct "What I Know About Love," a film described as a modern-day "Kramer vs. Kramer."

Like that 1970s custody saga, Muccino said that "Love" will seek to explore the wounds of divorce and single parenthood.

"It's the story of a family's collapse, but with the complexity that relationships have today," Muccino said. "It's a different world now, one that I think is more open and more destructive somehow."

The director is known for exploring the difficulties of romantic couplings as well as parent-child relationships.

Muccino will write "Love" with "Sex and the City" scribe Liz Tuccillo, with whom he collaborated on his latest project, the Mediaset-produced "Four Single Fathers." "Love" likely will be produced by Muccino's Indiana Prods. banner.

The project potentially also could involve Overbrook Entertainment, Smith and James Lassiter's Columbia-set production company with which Muccino made his two most recent films, "The Pursuit of Happyness" and the upcoming "Seven Pounds," both of which star Smith. (Columbia, incidentally, also made "Kramer vs. Kramer.")

The Italy-born Muccino has moved fluidly between borders during his career. Although his past two movies have been English-language, U.S.-set tales, he has a background in Italian cinema, directing and writing the middle-class drama "Ricordati Di Me" as well as "L'ultimo Bacio," the Italian film that became the basis for Tony Goldwyn's 2006 Zach Braff starrer "The Last Kiss."

Muccino's "Fathers," an indie feature that doubles as a pilot for Italian television, crossed borders to tell the story of Italian men who were once married to and had children with American women.

"The Italian in New York tends to import a cultural system, and the question is how, with American children, he can find the right way to communicate with American children," Muccino said of that film.

Muccino also has the immigrant tale "Man & Wife" in development at Universal.

TORONTO -- Proving that with solid direction, tight writing and strong performances an American remake can actually be as good as the foreign-language original, The Last Kiss, an unusually perceptive dramedy about contemporary relationships also manages to stand quite capably on its own two feet.

Adapted from the generally well-received 2002 Italian film, L'Ultimo Bacio, by Gabriele Muccino, the serio-comic portrait of a group of young men in various stages of relationships who are all freaking out at the prospect of turning 30 has perceptive things to say that don't necessarily require punctuation by a punchline.

Thanks to fresh, believable on-screen turns by an ensemble headed by Zach Braff, Jacinda Barrett and Rachel Bilson, and crisp behind-the-camera work by director Tony Goldwyn and on-a-roll screenwriter Paul Haggis, the Paramount release, which was given a test-drive at the Toronto International Film Festival, should receive an enthusiastic smooch from the female-driven Garden State crowd when it opens Sept. 15.

That picture's director and star, Zach Braff, isn't afraid to play someone proving to be less than huggable here. His Michael character would appear to have everything going for him -- most notably his bright, pretty girlfriend, Jenna (a terrific Jacinda Barrett), a good job and loyal buddies (Casey Affleck, Michael Weston and Eric Christian Olsen), who are all going through relationship crises.

But when Jenna informs him that they're going to be parents, Michael goes into complete panic mode and makes a boneheaded move involving a rather forward college co-ed (The OC's Rachel Bilson) that puts their future in serious jeopardy.

Goldwyn's direction never forces the issues, while Haggis' adaptation, which was written before Million Dollar Baby and Crash were released, has some astute things to say about modern love while being true to its vivid characters.

And, unlike another movie dealing with romantic disharmony, last summer's The Break-Up, these are people you actually wouldn't mind being around.

In some ways an extension of his Garden State persona, Braff's Michael takes a risk as an affable actor putting himself in a potentially unflattering light and comes off with his big screen credibility firmly intact.

Barrett and Bilson are similarly impressive as the distinctly individual women in Braff's life, while old pros Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson are in fine form as Barrett's parents, who are struggling to work on their own slowly disintegrating relationship.

THE LAST KISS

Paramount

DreamWorks Pictures and Lakeshore Entertainment present a Lakeshore Entertainment production. A Tony Goldwyn film.

Credits:

Director: Tony Goldwyn

Screenwriter: Paul Haggis. Based on the motion picture L'Ultimo Bacio by Gabriele Muccino

Producers: Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Andre Lamal, Marcus Viscidi

Executive producers: Gabriele Muccino, Eric Reid, Terry A. McKay, Harley Tannebaum

Director of photography: Tom Stern

Production designer: Dan Leigh

Editor: Lisa Zeno Churgin

Costume designer: Odette Gadoury

Music: Michael Penn

Cast:

Michael: Zach Braff

Jacinda Barrett: Chris: Casey Affleck

Kim: Rachel Bilson

Izzy: Michael Weston

Anna: Blythe Danner

Stephen: Tom Wilkinson

Kenny: Eric Christian Olsen

Running time -- 104 minutes

MPAA rating: R...

Gabriele Muccino will helm Columbia Pictures' Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith. Muccino most recently directed 2003's Ricordati di me (Remember Me, My Love). His credits include L'Ultimo bacio (One Last Kiss) and Come te nessuno mai (But Forever in My Mind). The project is based on the rags-to-riches tale of investment banker Chris Gardner. The film is being produced by Overbrook Entertainment Escape Artists. Matt Tolmach, Doug Belgrad and Amy Baer are overseeing the project at Columbia. Steve Conrad, who penned The Weather Man for Escape Artists, wrote the script.

Jacinda Barrett is stepping in to star opposite Zach Braff in The Last Kiss for DreamWorks and Lakeshore Entertainment. Rachel McAdams previously was set to play the role but bowed out for scheduling reasons. Tony Goldwyn will direct from a screenplay by Paul Haggis, and Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi will produce. Mark Sourian will oversee the project for DreamWorks. A remake of the 2001 Italian film L'Ultimo bacio, the film revolves around a group of 30-year-olds who are struggling to adapt to adulthood. DreamWorks is handling domestic distribution, and Lakeshore is taking most foreign territories. Barrett appeared in Lakeshore's The Human Stain and most recently in Ladder 49. Other credits include Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and the WB Network's D.C. She is repped by CAA.

NEW YORK -- Howard Cohen and Eric d'Arbeloff's indie film banner, Roadside Attractions, has acquired North American rights to Italian helmer Gabriele Muccino's Remember Me, My Love, a family drama toplining Monica Bellucci. The burgeoning Roadside has been active since its October launch, having previously grabbed rights to the Sundance standout Super Size Me and Israeli import Walk on Water, both with Samuel Goldwyn Films. Love, a bittersweet tale about the lives and loves of a modern Italian family whose individual aspirations threaten to pull them apart, screened at the Toronto and Sundance festivals last year and racked up more than $12 million in its homeland release. Said d'Arbeloff: "We were big fans of Gabriele's last film, The Last Kiss, and are very excited to release ('Love'). It's gorgeous, sexy, modern and very Italian." Roadside is a partner in the IDP distribution label, and Love is slated to hit theaters in the summer. A former UTA vet, Cohen was involved in the packaging and selling of more than 50 films, including Girl With a Pearl Earring, Igby Goes Down and The Banger Sisters. D'Arbeloff's producing credits include Lovely & Amazing. The Love deal was brokered for Roadside by Cohen and attorney Ben Feldman of Epstein, Levinsohn, Bodine, Hurwitz and Weinstein. The film was repped by sales agent the Works.

ROME -- From game shows with half-naked dancers to "talk" shows featuring buxom starlets and raunchy drag queens, channel surfing in Italy usually reveals lowbrow programming and shameless titillation in some form or another. But while beefcake and frivolous frolicking have long been staples of the Italian TV diet, tube sleaze has become a hotly debated issue lately, with critics claiming that in the current age of Silvio Berlusconi, the TV tycoon-turned-prime minister, the quality bar has sunk too low. The backlash against "la televisione volgare," or "vulgar TV," has recently gained momentum thanks to a smash hit movie, Ricordati di Me (Remember Me), which focuses on a 17-year-old girl who is willing to do literally anything to become a TV starlet. Remember Me, which is directed by Gabriele Muccino, whose previous film, The Last Kiss, earned him international renown, is widely considered an indictment of Italian television at its worst. "Female bodies everywhere fill the void of each frame and deliver the triumph of mediocrity," says Muccino, adding that all too often Italian TV screens are filled with "dancers who can't dance, singers who can't sing (and) rambling, dizzy beauties."...