Creative Loafing presents Ed Loves Bacon

By popular demand, Paramount Pictures announced screenings of their underground horror flick Paranormal Activity midnight tonight at Atlantic Station.

Over 230,000 people have requested the studio release the film through an innovative distribution promotional website, paranormalmovie.com. On the site, users “demand” the showing of the film selecting their city or by adding their city to the growing list. Los Angeles and New York topped the list, while Atlanta ranked 10th in total demand requests followed by Miami and Las Vegas.

In Paranormal Activity, a young couple tries to figure out what’s causing the strange occurrences in their home each night, especially while trying to sleep. Armed with a video camera and low-tech recording devices they soon capture evidence they’re not alone in the house when something forcibly make its presence known to them.

From viewing the trailer, its clear the film was shot as a mocumentary in the same vein as its low-budget predecessor, The Blair Witch Project. According to various reviews and viewer comments, the film is truly unnerving, and the website bloody-disgusting.com describes it as “one of the scariest movies of all time.”

While that remains to be seen, there are reports that director Steven Spielberg had his own account of paranormal activity while viewing the movie. In the Paranormal Activity Wikipedia entry, its noted that Spielberg witnessed a bedroom door inexplicably close and lock from the inside while he viewed the film. He returned the screener in a garbage bag stating that his copy was haunted.

Paranormal Activity, Screening October 2, 2009 12:01 am, Not Rated, Directed by Oren Peli, Stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat. Exclusive midnight showing at Regal Atlantic Station.

It’s hard to peg down the message in director Doug Pray’s latest documentary Art & Copy. There’s no cause to champion, no historic precedence, not even a controversial notion. Instead, the audience is engaged in a brief, candid discussion on the ad industry’s evolution and the successes that the changes spawned through a series of anecdotal interviews.

Art & Copy is essentially a series of one-on-one interviews with some of the ad industry’s innovators and trendsetters. Pray masterfully stitches together an open forum on creativity, its genius, and its impact with past and present ad directors and copy writers who were responsible for some of the world’s most popular ad campaigns. While the faces, names and companies may draw a blank for the average viewer, one immediately connects with the dialogue about their various successes.

Continue reading Art & Copy misses its own point

(Photo courtesy of Seventh Art Films)

BLUE MAN DUPED: Sully (Sam Worthington) gets schooled on nightlife on Pandora by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) in Jame Cameron's Avatar.

On Friday, August 21, over 400 Atlantans made their way to AMC Theaters to view 15 minutes of the James Cameron’s upcoming epic, Avatar. As part of “Avatar Day,” viewers were given an exclusive look at scenes from the film in IMAX 3D.

Long lines in the hundreds formed at both AMC Southlake Pavilion and AMC Barrett Commons as eager fans waited to see the screening of the Avatar preview. Attendees reserved their seats by registering online at www.avatarmovie.com.

Cameron introduced the preview welcoming the curious crowds to a sneak peek of the out of this world film. In the preview, we’re introduced to Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a crippled war veteran given a second chance by being downloaded into the body of a Nav’l, a native humanoid species on the hostile planet Pandora. Once linked to his avatar, Sully embarks on a journey of adventure and self discovery.

Across the blogosphere, the preview received mixed reviews. Around the web, people have begun calling the film Dances with wolves in space. After the screening, twitterers couldn’t wait to share their opinions of the preview.

Rubber_Rabbit: After meeting James Cameron at E3 and watching the #Avatar teaser I’m adding it to the must watch list. #movies http://ow.ly/l5Xv

Geekanerd: A: I agree with Degan. The #Avatar trailer looks wretched. Advanced Haterism begins now.

Aminojaku: Watched the #Avatar teaser trailer last night on iTunes. Holy crap. OMFG my head exploded does not even begin to describe it.

johnnycocaine: is afraid #avatar is going to basically be Return of the Ewoks.

kclynL: just went to see the screening of #AVATAR… now i’m getting excited for december…wooohooo!!! beyond our imagination movie…

Kneon: Is it just me, or does #Avatar look like a video game? For all the hype I thought the CGI looked fakey.

osulop: #Avatar CGI looked way more convincing in the preview on the big screen in 3D. Only thing I’m not too taken with is the shakycam.

andyroyal: saw the James Cameron #Avatar teaser on Friday, all I can say is O M G!!! I cannot wait for this film to come out or the game from @ubisoft

Cameron’s Avatar is a 3D spectacle but looks and feels at times like a bad acid trip. The blue skinned Nav’l mannerisms do remind you of images of Pre-Colonial Native Americans and even in the 15 minute preview, you get the sense that Cameron is trying to ram a message about humanity down your throat. Cameron proved he’s a genius at sci-fi story telling, but can he pull off a story about blue people on another planet?  I’m hopeful but not sure if he’ll sell this flick to the masses firmly planted here on planet Earth.

Avatar (not yet rated) stars Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana. Film opens nationwide December 18, 2009

Nick Cage has decided that he’ll muddy the water’s once again with sequel to the 2007 bomb Ghost Rider with a sequel, Ghost Rider 2 (no colon and subtitle as of yet).

According to brief interview with MTV during the promotional tour for his latest film G-Force, Cage mentioned he would like to deviate from the “western” feel the first movie had and steer it towards a more “international” view.

In Ghost Rider, Cage plays Johnny Blaze, a daredevil motorcyclist who at a young age sold his soul to the devil. In return for Satan’s favor, he’s impervious to harm and channels an inner demon who acts as a bounty hunter for fugitive demons.

According the IMDB, no information is available for the project, meaning Cage is still fishing looking for a writer and director to helm the project.

Here’s the MTV interview where Cage spoke briefly on the subject and what he’d like to see happen with the direction of the franchise.

STRIKE A POSE: Noah Ringer portrays Aang in The Last Airbender

Paramount released the first teaser trailer of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender earlier this week. The film is a live-action adaptation of the Emmy Award-winning animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender which ran three seasons on the Nickelodeon kid’s network and continues in reruns on Nick and Nicktoons channels.

In the animated version, Avatar tells the story of Aang, a young boy with the ability to control the elements of water, fire, earth and air. Instead of accepting his avatar mantle, Aang runs away and due to an accident, he’s encased in ice for 100 years. Once awakened,  Aang learns he’s the last of his tribe and starts on a journey to fulfill his destiny, and restore balance to the world that has been overrun by the Fire Nation.

The Live-Action version of the film was written by the animated show’s creator, Michael Dante DiMartin and stars newcomer Noah Ringer as Aang.

The Last Airbender is scheduled for release on July 2, 2010.

As part of the official movie site for Fox’s upcoming teen film, I Love You, Beth Cooper, Hayden Panettiere encourages teens to submit their own video confessions or “Moments of Truth” to be featured in an upcoming commercial for the film.

You can go to the official movie website and click “submit” to post your own video, view submission or if you prefer to be anonymous, you can tweet your moment of truth via the Twitter interface on the page.

According IMDB Here’s what ILUBC is all about:

A nerdy valedictorian proclaims his love for the hottest and most popular girl in school – Beth Cooper (Panettiere) – during his graduation speech. Much to his surprise, Beth shows up at his door that very night and decides to show him the best night of his life.

Definitely one for teens, but the moments of truth submissions (Twitter and YouTube) are pretty interesting.

Ryan Reynolds is scheduled to star in upcoming Deadpool feature film.

Twentieth Century Fox announced that it will begin production on an X-Men franchise spinoff featuring Marvel’s bad guy gone good, Deadpool. This brings up a lot of questions considering in the early releases of the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds is horribly mutated and (spoiler alert!) beheaded.

According to Variety, there’s an easter egg ending to the Wolverine movie in which Deadpool emerges from the rubble and gestures a “shhh” to the viewing audience. Most people saw the ending where Logan appears at a bar in Japan drinking in lament of his now hidden past. This sets the film up for the anticipated sequel which was officially announced on Monday.

For you noobs, Deadpool, aka Wade Wilson is a soldier for hire, who when diagnosed with cancer enlists into the Weapon X program. What emerges is an indestructible nut job with talent for klling and the gift for gab. Wade’s weapon of choice are two katana swords, but in Wade’s hands, really anything is a weapon.

Reynolds portrayal of Deadpool seems to be a natural fit, he’s been playing the quick-witted funny man since his stint on Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. But this isn’t the first time Reynolds has wielded a sword in an action film. In Blade: Trinity he plays Hannibal King, a snarky member of the vampire hunting team, The Nightstalkers.

The film will be produced by Lauren Shuler Donner (X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) in conjunction with Marvel. Its also reported that Marvel has also greenlighted two additional spinoff projects from the X-Men franchise; X-Men Origins: Magneto (2011) and X-Men: First Class (TBD). Rumors are still circulating about Halle Berry’s Storm project but nothing confirmed at the moment.

With the success of his first film, Boyz In The Hood, John Singleton has made a significant mark on Hollywood. His early box office success as a writer and director, can be seen in the films, Higher Learning, Poetic Justice and Rosewood.

Lately, John has jumped from behind the camera and taken the role of producer, with films Black Snake Moan and critically acclaimed, Hustle and Flow. John’s latest project, Illegal Tender, is a fictional tale of a Nyurican gangster’s legacy and one boys journey to find his way out of a maze of secrets and vendettas.

John stops by to discuss his latest project, issues in Black Hollywood and rumors of his makings of The Black Panther and Luke Cage projects.

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Links:

Illegal Tender: The official website for the film
John Singleton’s Wiki: All you need to know about the man
Tego Calderon: Want to know more about the man, check out Tego’s Myspace page

Ed talks with former FBI investigation specialist, Eric O’Neill (pictured left) and director/writer, Billy Ray (pictured right) about the capture of FBI Special Agent, Robert Hanssen (2001) featured in the upcoming film, Breach. Plus Alejandro shares his views on a few subjects.

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Links:
Breach Official Movie Website: Chronicling the pursuit and capture of this infamous FBI case.
The FBI web site: Find out what they had to say in their own words, including declassified documents about their investigation and what lead to his capture.
CNN’s Special Report: Ted’s people did a great job covering this case. Check out what they have on the case and the inner-workings of Robert Hanssen.

Ed interviews John Dau, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, who is featured in the upcoming documentary God Grew Tired of Us. Alejandro has this week’s cover story updates (including Carlton Hargro’s Fantasia user-generated interview)

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Links:
God Grew Tired of Us Official Website: learn more about the Lost Boys of Sudan and about relief efforts.
International Rescue Committee: The organization which provide refuge and relocation for the lost boys
Direct Change: John is the new Director for Sudanese efforts. Find out more about the organization, their projects and how you can help.