News

Channing Tatum has signed on to both star in and produce an untitled true story action-thriller for Sony Pictures.

Tatum would play a family man in the 1970s who risks it all by going undercover to help take down the country's biggest mob boss.

Kristin Gore ("Arctic Tale," "My Own Love Song") will pen the script, while Reid Carolin, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan are producing.

Tatum will next shoot "Magic Mike Xxl" this Fall, no word on when this film will go into production.

Source: Variety...

Channing Tatum has signed on to star in and produce an untitled action-thriller for Sony Pictures.

The plot is based on the true story of a family man in the 1970s, who decides to risk it all to go undercover and take down the biggest mob boss in the country. Kristin Gore (Arctic Tale, My Own Love Song) is writing the screenplay, with Neil Meron and Craig Zadan producing with Channing Tatum's partner Reid Carolin. Michael De Luca and Jonathan Kadin are overseeing the project for Sony Pictures. Kristin Gore previously worked with Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, while writing material for The Academy Awards.

No production schedule was given at this time. Channing Tatum will next shoot Magic Mike Xxl this fall, and he will next be seen in 22 Jump Street, Jupiter Ascending and Foxcatcher later this year. He also lends his voice to the Guillermo del Toro...

The spotty economy may have claimed a new victim: the people that brought us the Morgan Freeman-narrated adventures of a bunch of plucky penguins back in 2005. The Wrap reports that National Geographic Films, which distributed the Academy Award-winning March of the Penguins, will be shutting down. The rumor originates from "two individuals with knowledge of the studio." The studio has released multiple documentaries since 2005 -- including God Grew Tired of Us, Arctic Tale, and The Way Back -- but none of them have rivaled the success of the acclaimed March of the Penguins. That film brought in a worldwide gross of $106 million. Compare that to last year's The Way Back, with a worldwide gross of $5.58 million. Despite having several films in release this year, the studio has brought in a mere $1.7 million in revenue. According to The Wrap's story, National Geographic Films President Daniel Battsek is currently negotiating to leave,...

Los Angeles, CA (February 2, 2011) – Guy East and Nigel Sinclair, Co-Chairmen of Exclusive Media Group (“Exclusive”), announced today that the company has brought Chris Miller on board to serve as President of Film Finance Operations for Exclusive, and as the new President of Spitfire Pictures. Miller makes the move to Exclusive after spending three years as the Head of Production for National Geographic Films Worldwide. While at National Geographic, Miller worked on several other high profile projects including Peter Weir’s The Way Back, a co-production with Exclusive Films, as well as on The Last Lions, a new Natural History film event by world renowned filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert, to be released in North America next month. Prior to joining National Geographic, Miller in 2001 co-founded Visionbox Media Group and Visionbox Pictures, where he served as president for six years, creating original content in digital formats for the marketplace. Over the six years at Visionbox,...

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner web series wasn’t meant to be. A lack of funding stalled the production indefinitely. But opportunity is often born out of failure, and when it was apparent his replicant redux wasn’t going to see the light of a dystopian Los Angeles day, Scott took his newfound interest and knowhow in the internet as an entertainment medium, called up Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald, tapped some 80,000 YouTubers and made his next major motion picture. Life in a Day is a crowdsourced, collaborative film made possible by YouTube’s massive global usership. On July 24, 2010, Scott, Macdonald, and YouTube asked participants from all around the world to capture their own lives on camera and submit the footage to the Life in a Day YouTube channel. Scott’s production company, Scott Free also distributed a few hundred cameras to non-profits and NGOs in 20 different countries “on the...

How to Train Your Dragon continued to do its thing over the weekend, and that was all it needed to return to the top spot. New releases The Back-Up Plan, The Losers and Oceans generated little interest, while Dragon's photo finish rival from last weekend, Kick-Ass, conked out. Overall business suffered as a result: it was by far the lowest-grossing weekend of 2010 and was down 13 percent from the same timeframe last year when Obsessed grabbed first place. Easing 23 percent to an estimated $15 million, How to Train Your Dragon again saw the smallest dip among nationwide releases, though it was actually steeper than its previous two weekends. Its total climbed to $178 million in 31 days, handily eclipsing Monsters Vs. Aliens through the same point. Dragon and Monsters had pretty much the same Spring release pattern and Monsters had a much bigger start, but Dragon ultimately resonated better with audiences. At its current pace,...

Just a little more than two months after he was forced out as head of Disney's specialty label Miramax Films, Daniel Battsek is resurfacing at National Geographic Films.

The company would not confirm Battsek's move on Tuesday, but it acknowledged that Adam Leipzig, who currently serves as president of National Geographic Films, is shifting over to executive producer status on two of the company's current projects.

According to National Geographic president David Beal, "After six incredible years of setting the strategic course for National Geographic Films, Adam Leipzig's relationship transitions to executive producer of two in-process National Geographic Entertainment projects, Peter Weir's 'The Way Back' and the miniseries 'Undaunted Courage,' with HBO."

"The Way Back" is a drama about a group of soldiers who escaped from a Siberian gulag in 1940 and stars Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturges and Saoirse Ronan.

"Undaunted Courage," a mini-series about explorers Lewis and Clark,...

Yet another fragment of BBC Earth gets its own Blu-ray release. What can you expect? If you know anything about BBC Earth then you know it has a reputation for stunning nature footage in a resolution that will make you believe in hi-definition video setups. You’ve seen nature documentaries before, but until you’ve watched one like, say, Yellowstone: Battle for Life produced by top-notch cinematographers on top-of-the-line equipment you don’t know the best the genre has to offer. The natural occurrences captured in this three episode series will have you returning to the disc to show off to your friends exactly what that HD television on your wall is capable of. Yes, the series looks that good.

The division trisecting the series follows a seasonal sway. It starts with “Winter” and then, in a very Monty Python and the Holy Grail-way, gives Spring a miss...

Once again a nature documentary has shot itself in the foot by boasting breathtaking footage only to ruin it with poorly conceived narration. But unlike Arctic Tale, Paramount isn’t to blame for this spoilage, this time Disneynature has fouled up its spectacular filmmaking with a narration script that even James Earl Jones couldn’t save. So what gives Earth that sparkling value which makes it worth the purchase? The footage. The outstanding high caliber shots of nature at its best and worst.

In terms of making a modern day high-definition documentary on wildlife, everyone else is playing catch up to BBC’s Planet Earth series. There’s even a good chance that Disneynature’s title was intended to piggyback on the success of the prolific British series. While that aspect of the production is deplorable, Earth does stand on its own two feet. Watching a cheetah chase down its...

A film that gives a literally cold, hard look at arctic life from the .team that brought you .March of the Penguins.., .Arctic Tale. is set up as more of a family film with pooting jokes intact and therefore suffers a bit when compared to its more truthful-minded predecessor, but there.s no denying some powerful images here. From married filmmakers Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson - who spent six frosty years in the arctic accumulating footage of various animals, they whittled down the footage to focus on an infant polar bear, Nanu, and a baby walrus, Seela. Apparently, the footage was comprised over the course of several years and several different kiddie animals are edited together in a way...

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It's no secret the makers of Arctic Tale were aiming for a March of the Penguins repeat. Nor is it a secret that with Arctic Tale they missed the mark almost entirely. Granted it still stands as about 90 minutes of high definition nature footage that blows the mind at times, but the magic of March of the Penguins remains unmatched.

Arctic Tale follows two separate animals through the harsh arctic wilderness. Nanu, a polar bear, starts her adventure under the protection of her mother with her brother by her side. Struggling to find food in an ever changing environment, the polar bear trio works hard tracking down seals, fish and whatever else they can find to sustain them. Meanwhile, Seela, a baby walrus, experiences similar plights as her family swims and waddles about looking for safe places to relax on land. Both...

Finally a decent DVD release week with a few things worth checking out. At the top of the list has to be Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, which may not have gotten a lot of love at the Oscars but is still the best movie of last year according to Film Junk. Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon also hits stores today, along with the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, Notorious, and Battlestar Galactica prequel pilot, Caprica. If you're a fan of horror or sci-fi, you might want to look at J.T. Petty's horror-western The Burrowers, Marc Caro's sci-fi flick Dante 01, or the Hellraiser Puzzle Box, and quirky documentary lovers won't want to miss Audience of One. Also out on Blu-ray this week: Sin City and the X-Men trilogy. The Wrestler [1] (DVD, Blu-ray [2]) Frost/Nixon [3] (DVD, Blu-ray [4]) Notorious [5] (DVD, Blu-ray [6]) The Burrowers [7] Dante 01 [8] I Dismember Mama [9] Into The Blue 2: The Reef...

DVD Links: DVD News | Release Dates | New Dvds | Reviews | RSS Feed The Wages of Fear (Criterion Collection) If you have not read my review of Criterion's latest Blu-ray release you can do so right here, or you can just take my word for it and buy this one blind. If you enjoy thrillers then this one is for you, and on top of a thriller you are going to get oh so much more. This truly is one of the best films I have ever seen and is a film anyone that loves movies will absolutely enjoy. Worth every penny. The Wrestler This is the other must buy of the week and I also just posted my review right here. On top of being a top notch film, the making of documentary included on this release is fantastic. X-Men Blu-ray Trilogy

X-Men / X2: X-Men United / X-Men: The Last Stand Fox...

Occasionally we have a lot of DVD reviews waiting to post. When that happens, we post a DVD review roundup article. In this one we’ve got DVD reviews for The Tale of Despereaux, Arctic Tale and Strange Wilderness Blu-ray. The Tale of Despereaux Written by Jackson I’ve always enjoyed both family films and children’s literature. When done well, they work on multiple levels, thus appealing to adults as well as children. Disney and Pixar’s animated offerings are excellent examples of films designed to enthrall all audiences. So when I first saw the trailers for The Tale of Despereaux and thought the film seemed charming and potentially like a fun adventure yarn, I was intrigued. Alas, it was not to be. Despereaux, based on Kate Dicamillo’s Newbery-award-winning book, is the story of a mouse (voiced by Matthew ...

DVD Links: DVD News | Release Dates | New Dvds | Reviews | RSS Feed I apologize for the delay in publishing today's newly released DVDs and Blu-rays, but I posted enough articles last night I didn't want anything to get buried and it appears it was the right decision as only minutes ago I received word Slumdog Millionaire will be hitting DVD and Blu-ray on March 31, which wouldn't have made it into the report had I posted any earlier. As for today's releases there are a couple of titles worth noting that you may want to pick up including a film that I believe was the biggest Oscar snub of the year. Let's see what's out there... I've Loved You So Long Here it is, right off the bat. The biggest Oscar snub did not belong to The Dark Knight it belonged to the absence of I've Loved You So Long which at...

Fifty-nine songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures are being considered in the original song category for the 80th Annual Academy Awards.

The songs, unveiled Wednesday, include four songs from August Rush as well as three each from Dan in Real Life, Enchanted, 56 Drops of Blood, Good Luck Chuck, Into the Wild and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

Films with two eligible songs are Badland, Grace Is Gone, The Hottest State, Music and Lyrics and Once.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will screen clips in random order Jan. 15 featuring each song for voting members of the music branch in Beverly Hills and New York. Following the screenings, members will vote to determine which three, four or five songs become nominees in the category.

The 80th Academy Awards nominations will be announced Jan. 22.

The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are:

"Do You Feel Me" from American Gangster

"At the Edge of the World" from Arctic Tale

"Someday" from August Rush

"This Time" from August Rush

"Raise It Up" from August Rush

"Break" from August Rush

"Nothing's There" from Badland

"The Devil's Lonely Fire" from Badland

"A Hero Comes Home" from Beowulf

"The Stars of Orion" from Berkeley

"Say" from The Bucket List

"To Be Surprised" from Dan in Real Life

"My Hands Are Shaking" from Dan in Real Life

"I'll Be OK" from Dan in Real Life

"December Boys" from December Boys

"So Close" from Enchanted

"That's How You Know" from Enchanted

"Happy Working Song" from Enchanted

"Atkozott Egy Elet" from 56 Drops of Blood

"O, Atyam!" from 56 Drops of Blood

"Eleg!" from 56 Drops of Blood

"A Dream" from Freedom Writers

"Lyra" from The Golden Compass

"Good Luck Chuck" from Good Luck Chuck

"Shut Me Out" from Good Luck Chuck

"I Was Zapped by the Lucky Super Rainbow" from Good Luck Chuck

"Grace Is Gone" from Grace Is Gone

"Lullabye for Wyatt" from Grace Is Gone

"Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)" from Hairspray

"The Tale of the Horny Frog" from The Heartbreak Kid

"China Doll" from Honeydripper

"It Will Stay With Us" from The Hottest State

"Never See You" from The Hottest State

"Society" from Into the Wild

"Guaranteed" from Into the Wild

"Rise" from Into the Wild

"First Amendment Blues" from Larry Flynt: The Right To Be Left Alone

"Hello (I Love You)" from The Last Mimzy

"Despedida" from Love in the Time of Cholera

"Huck's Tune" from Lucky You

"Little Wonders" from Meet the Robinsons

"Another Believer" from Meet the Robinsons

"Way Back into Love" from Music and Lyrics

"PoP! Goes My Heart" from Music and Lyrics

"Ordinary People" from Music Within

"Pretty Much Amazing" from Nancy Drew

"Falling Slowly" from Once

"If You Want Me" from Once

"Le Festin" from Ratatouille

"Land of Quiet Poems" from Resurrecting the Champ

"Love Will Still Be There" from September Dawn

"Royal Pain" from Shrek the Third

"Rule the World" from Stardust

"Before It's Too Late (Sam and Mikaela's Theme)" from Transformers

"Baby Don't You Cry" from Waitress

"Beautiful Ride" from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

"Walk Hard" from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

"Let's Duet" from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

"Back Where You Belong" from The Water Horse...

Evan Almighty, Fast Food Nation, Happy Feet and Miss Potter are the nominees for best feature film in the Environmental Media Association Awards, which honor environmentally friendly television and film programs.

The EMA nominees for TV episodic comedy are NBC's My Name Is Earl, CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine and Fox's The Simpsons, while ABC's Boston Legal, NBC's Law & Order: SVU and CBS' Numbers are nominated in the episodic drama category.

Other nominees include Arctic Tale, Big Ideas for a Small Planet: WEAR, Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life and King Corn for best documentary; Living With Ed, Pimp My Ride, Project Runway and This Old House for reality program; and Bindi the Jungle Girl, Cake and It's a Big, Big World for children's live action.

The EMA awards, set for Oct. 24 at the Ebell Club in Los Angeles, will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Nov. 7 on E!

Opens Wednesday, July 25

Spectacular photography of the frigid domain of polar bears, walruses and seals is the chief attraction of Arctic Tale, a new documentary which hopes to combine the appeal of March of the Penguins and An Inconvenient Truth. Like the former film, this National Geographic production observes the mating and survival rituals of a group of imperiled creatures who inhabit the frozen wasteland at the tip of our world. And like Al Gore's lecture on global warming, Arctic Tale adds a green message to its nature photography by pointing out how climate change cracks the ice floes that mean the difference between life and death for many exotic creatures.

Whereas Penguins enlisted Morgan Freeman as narrator, this new film employs Queen Latifah as "storyteller" to recount the lovable exploits of Nanu, a young Polar Bear, and Seela, a baby walrus. This new picture seems guaranteed to attract a family audience, but it might not match the impact of those two earlier Oscar-winning docus. Sometimes it hurts to be second -- or third. The novelty is definitely gone.

The narration is the weakest element in the film. Written by Linda Woolverton, Mose Richards and Al Gore's daughter Kristin, the voice-over sometimes resorts to blatant message-mongering. Just as problematic is the cutesy tone that infects Latifah's chronicle of the mishaps of Nanu and Seela on their journeys across the ice. The use of music is also a bit heavy-handed, like the choice of Sister Sledge's We Are Family to celebrate the camaraderie of a herd of walruses.

The film would be more enjoyable if one could turn off the soundtrack and simply revel in the stunning visual evocation of this white-on-white world. Co-director Adam Ravetch is also the principal cinematographer, and he is aided by a crack team that caught amazing footage above the ice and underwater as well. The animals' search for food as well as their struggle to survive their enemies makes for a fascinating Darwinian adventure.

Children will be mesmerized by the animal footage, and adults will glory in the landscapes and respond to the sobering reminders of climate change. While the film shows bears hunting seals and walruses, it discreetly averts its gaze from the most savage animal attacks. It's probably even a little less graphic than the Disney true-life nature documentaries that were popular with families in the 1950s.

The gradual melting of the ice makes it far more difficult for these Arctic creatures to find the food they need to survive, so Arctic Tale adds to our understanding of how the balance of nature is being upset by human abuse of the environment. But most viewers will find the ecological manifesto less eye-opening than the lovingly rendered tableaux of animals romping and foraging at the North Pole.