Vatican's P.R. strategy against 'Angels and Demons' is to not have one

Controversy, if nothing else, sells newspapers and movie tickets and creates cash... lots of it!

It worked with Ron Howard's first film adaptation of a Dan Brown novel, 2006's "The Da Vinci Code," and Hollywood is hoping it will work again for their second collaboration, "Angels and Demons," which is set to open nationwide on May 15.

Howard recently stoked the fires with a terse op-ed in the Huffington Post, responding to calls for a boycott of the film by Catholic League President Bill Donohue.

''Let me be clear: neither I nor 'Angels & Demons' are anti-Catholic," Howard wrote. "And let me be a little controversial: I believe Catholics, including most in the hierarchy of the Church, will enjoy the movie for what it is: an exciting mystery, set in the awe-inspiring beauty of Rome."

Maybe, maybe not. But either way, in Round 2 of the battles with Brown, many church leaders are taking a new approach by trying to ignore the new film, hoping that the less attention they give it, the quicker it will go away.

''Be careful not to play their game," a top Vatican official, Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, said in the Italian newspaper La Stampa on March 20. "Dramatizing the question unintentionally gives publicity."

The Rev. John Wauck, a priest in the controversial Opus Dei movement that was a target in "The Da Vinci Code," agreed.

''Some people have called for a boycott but no one at the Vatican is speaking in those terms," said Wauck, who teaches communications at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. "And I don't think there's any need to boycott this movie ? particularly after the scathing reviews that 'The Da Vinci Code' received."

Ouch!!

It's no secret that there's no love lost between Dan Brown, Ron Howard, and the Catholic Church after the runaway success of "The Da Vinci Code," which centered on a church cover-up of a sexual relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

This time around, Howard's team had to build a small-scale replica of St. Peter's Square after church officials denied his request to film in the plaza.

''We were scheduled to film in particular locations all over Rome, with the Vatican and other churches in the background," Howard told reporters during a recent media blitz. "Three days before we were to begin filming, we were told, (there) was a meeting between the film commission and some Vatican officials and in the wake of that, our permits were rescinded."

Howard said he filmed in some of the locations anyway, using "guerrilla" tactics of hidden cameras and lightening-fast takes.

Although the film starts at a real-life residential science community in Switzerland, most of the action happens in Rome. Symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is called in to investigate the murder of a scientist-priest. Clues lead him and a beautiful scientist, Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), to Rome and a nefarious secret brotherhood called the Illuminati.

The Illuminati have kidnapped four cardinals during the conclave to elect a new pope, and kill them in creative and symbolic ways, giving Langdon one day to decipher the clues, to save the cardinals and to stop a catastrophic plot to destroy the Vatican.

The end result is like the TV show "24," only with a host of clerical collars and cardinal's crimson.

Howard admitted he took "a lot more creative license" with this adaptation of a Brown thriller, changing both the ending and an assassin, who is Muslim in the book version. They also toned down some of the book's more explicit religious content, trying to make the film version more of a traditional thriller.

One theater trailer, however, claims the church "ordered a brutal massacre" to silence scientists, and another focuses on the "war" between science and religion, a key theme explored in the book.

For now, church leaders say they're not worried ? at least not publicly.

''The truth is I don't think 'The Da Vinci Code' or 'Angels and Demons' is going to do much harm to Christianity," Wauck said. "The real impact has been on tourism. Dan Brown has brought a lot of people to Rome and they come looking for that mixture of history and mystery and religion and art and beauty that I really think is the reason why those books sell."

Dutch MP plans sequel to anti-Islam film Fitna

Dutch politician Geert Wilders (who labels himself a "Freedom Fighter" on his website) is planning a sequel to his controversial anti-Islam film Fitna, to be released in 2010.

In an interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf published on Thursday, Wilders revealed some of his upcoming cinematic plans.

"It will not be a copy of Fitna. This is the second phase,' he told the newspaper. "I now want to show the consequences of mass immigration from Muslim countries."

Wilders claims to have been contacted by professional filmmakers based "in New York and Hollywood," who offered their services to shoot the sequel.

Wilders, who leads the Freedom party, was blocked from entering the U.K. in February to screen Fitna in London and speak to the House of Lords.

Britain's Home Office denied the Dutch legislator entry on the grounds that his visit could endanger public security.

In March 2008, the internet release of Wilders's approximately 15-minute film Fitna sparked protests in Muslim countries and widespread condemnation worldwide.

The short film blends violent, graphic images of terrorist attacks with quotations from the Qur'an.

Wilders told De Telegraaf the sequel will tackle issues such as free speech and Shariah law.

Fox News columnist "let go" after review of leaked Wolverine movie

In a related story to the posting dated Saturday, April 4, 2009 @ 12:17 AM :

Fox News columnist Roger Friedman is out after posting a review of a leaked, full-length work print of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Fox News said Monday that the company's representatives and Friedman "mutually agreed to part ways immediately."

Friedman had been an entertainment writer who has contributed to FoxNews.com for 10 years. He wrote in his Fox 411 column Thursday that downloading the 20th Century Fox superhero prequel was "so much easier than going out in the rain" and that the movie "exceeds expectations at every turn."

The early review of the film, which 20th Century Fox described as a "stolen, incomplete and early version," was later removed from the website Friday.

The movie, which focuses on the beginnings of Hugh Jackman's clawed Marvel superhero Wolverine, is not scheduled for release until May 1, but the leaked version began appearing online last week. 20th Century Fox promised that the source of the film would be prosecuted and said the FBI and Motion Picture Association of America are investigating the leak.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact MPAA the Federal Bureau of Investigation or FOX Studios.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie posters

My face, but not my body in film publicity material, Liberal MP Dhalla say

Former actress and Brampton, Ont., Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla is trying to block DVD sales of a Bollywood-style movie she co-starred in before being elected to Parliament in 2004.

In an interview with the Toronto Sun Wednesday, MP Dhalla confirmed her role in the 2003 low-budget Hindi film made in Hamilton called Kyon Kis Liye (Translation: Why? And for Whom?).

However, she claimed the movie's publicity material, including posters and photos, were doctored putting her face on someone else's body.

"We've never seen a copy of the film," said Dhalla, 35, who represents the riding of Brampton-Springdale.

"They are misrepresenting myself. they put my face on someone else's body in clothes I never wore."

The film producer Charanjit (Chico) Sihra, who owns an autobody shop in Hamilton, said Dhalla signed a distribution waiver and was paid $2,000.00

Sihra who met Dhalla at a fashion show in 1993 shortly after she placed second in the Miss India Canada pageant said he doesn't know what all the fuss is about.

"She wanted to be in a Bollywood film," Sihra said. "She had a passion for the movie, but she's a politician now and she doesn't want the DVD of the film released."

Dhalla's mother was on set every day of filming and there is no nudity or sex in the movie, he added.

Dhalla denied signing a waiver and has asked Sihra to produce it. Sihra said the form was destroyed in a fire but he has witnesses who saw Dhalla sign it.

Both sides have hired lawyers.

"If we have to go through an injunction, we'll do whatever is necessary," Dhalla said.

She claims the producer and distributor in India are "opportunists" trying to exploit her status as a politician.

Thoughts? I may not know the entire story here, but, isn't it really convenient how the waiver was "lost in a fire" ? You'd think a director, producer, or anyone for that matter would have forms or papers of importance like that tucked away in a fire, flood and damage proof some where... Or am I the only one that would do that?

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ delights and angers South Asians

The theaters in New Delhi are packed. While “Slumdog Millionaire” has long since been released in the US, it opened in India last weekend.

The movie depicts the fate of three children who live in terribly difficult conditions in the slums of Mumbai. It follows them as love, violence and a television show changes their fate.

It is a very painful look at the lives of India’s poor through the eyes of the poorest of the poor: children.
Indian film critics are mostly raving about the movie, but everyday South Asians have reacted to the film with a range of emotions from happily entertained to fiercely angry.

There have been a couple of protests over the film since it opened. Some of the people who live in slums — and some who don’t — felt the film was profiting off the suffering of others. Some were spitting mad that a foreign director took the liberty to show everything that is wrong in the country and not much of what's right with it.

Even the name of the film itself has come under fire.

Protesters tore down movie posters in one of India’s poorest states saying the use of the word “Slumdog” to describe people living in slums had again injured the poor. They say it is yet another hurtful name for those already struggling at the bottom.

Back in Delhi when 20-something middle class South Asian movie-goers were asked about their thoughts on the movie, they were frank: “That’s India man, these are some of the realities of life here,” one guy remarked.

Which is why some people said they just didn’t want to see a film about the same sad stories they are faced with everyday.

As the week progressed a visit to the same theater where “Slumdog Millionaire” or “Slumdog Crorepati” (crorepati being the Hindi word for millionaire) was playing. During the week it was virtually empty.

The vast majority of people talked to were disturbed by the movie, saying it was both painful and uplifting. They pointed out faults but in the end recommended it, saying it was an interesting and entertaining film. Some, though, were pretty annoyed the world had seen a movie about India long before it was released where it was made.

The reaction about the movie all over India bring up a question that has long been debated: Do artists, this time filmmakers, have a responsibility to show balance, or should they be able to create their art freely even if it disturbs others?

Thoughts? What do you think?

British scientists solve cliffhanger at end of 'The Italian Job'

Some of the Britain's brightest minds have resolved one of the country's biggest cinematic cliffhangers: How the robbers could have got away with the gold at the end of "The Italian Job."

The 1969 heist film, Starring Michael Caine, ends with the robbers' gold-laden bus teetering over the edge of an Alpine road, with their loot - and their lives - in doubt.

The film was remade in 2003, Mark Wahlberg as Caine, and also featured Charlize Theron, Donald Sutherland, Jason Statham, Seth Green, Mos Def and Edward Norton.

On Friday the Royal Society of Chemistry offered fans a little closure, announcing the winner of a competition to find a scientific solution to their predicament.

"Like many people, I watched the film from when I was a young boy," said John Godwin, the winner. "It's one of those classic British films, with great actors - Michael Caine, Noel Coward, Benny Hill - and a great car chase, and at the end of the day they've done all the hard work and it seemed a waste to leave them hanging on that mountainside."

"The Italian Job" follows Charlie Croker, played by Caine, as he assembles a crack team of likable crooks to pull off a complex plan to steal a stash of gold in the Italian city of Turin. The ensuing car chase - which cuts across the rooftop test track of Fiat's Lingotto building and down the steps of Turin's Gran Madre di Dio church - ranks among the most gripping in movie history.

But things end badly when the gang's getaway bus slides halfway off a mountain road on its way to Switzerland. The bus seesaws precariously, with the men gathered at the front and the gold weighing down the back, which is hanging over the cliff. A wrong move could send the bus tumbling into the chasm below, but Croker says: "Hang on a minute lads - I've got a great idea." Then the credits roll.

Royal Society of Chemistry Chief Executive Richard Pike said the competition to find an ending to the movie that preserves both the gold and the men was aimed at "promoting science and chemistry to a wider audience in an entertaining way," adding that some 2,000 people had tried their hand at extricating Croker's gang. Some of the more novel solutions including burning the asphalt to glue the bus to the road or dissolving the gold with acid, he said.

Godwin said his fix took him an afternoon to work out:

-Break the windows at the back to reduce weight.

-Break two windows at the front, hold one gang member upside down out of the window to deflate the front tires and stabilize the vehicle.

-Drain the rear fuel tank through an access panel at the bottom of the bus.

-Gang members leave one by one from the front, collecting stones to replace their weight.

-Keep adding stones until someone can safely go to the rear to retrieve the gold.

Godwin said gathering the data he needed for his equations, like the fuel efficiency of a 1964 Bedford VAL14, the weight of a window or the price of gold in 1968 - needed to establish the weight of the haul - was fairly easy. "The Internet's a great place," he said.

He isn't the first to suggest a solution.

Caine himself proposed a much simpler idea in a British Broadcasting Corp. documentary six years ago - albeit one that leaves the hapless gang short of their precious haul.

"The next thing that happens is you turn the engine on," Caine said. "You all sit exactly where you are till all the petrol has run out, which changes the equilibrium. We all jump out and the gold goes over the cliff."

What do you think? do you have a theory on how the robbers got away?

Former girlfriend Lil Kim not happy with Notorious B.I.G biopic

Lil Kim was a big part of the Notorious B.I.G.'s life but she's not happy about the way she's been portrayed in the new biopic about the late rapper.

The Notorious B.I.G., (whose real name was Christopher Wallace), was Lil Kim's (real name Kimberly Denise Jones) mentor and was also romantically linked to the rapper. Their sometimes rocky relationship is depicted in the new movie "Notorious".

But Lil Kim doesn't think it's very accurate.

In a statement, she said: "The film studio and producers involved were more concerned about painting me as a 'character' to create a more interesting story line instead of a person with talent, self-respect and who was able to achieve her own career success through hard work."

She added: "Even though my relationship with Big was at times very difficult and complicated (as with most relationships we have all experienced at one time or another), it was also genuine and built on great admiration and love for each other. Regardless of the many lies in the movie and false portrayal of me to help carry a story line through, I will still continue to carry his legacy through my hard work and music."

But Wallace's mother, Voletta Wallace, dismissed Lil Kim's criticisms of the movie in an interview on Monday.

"This is not a Lil Kim movie," she said. "This is a Christopher Wallace movie. It has nothing to do with Lil Kim. If she's disappointed and upset, that is her problem."

At the film's New York premiere last week, "Notorious" screenwriter Cheo Hodari Coker said he understands why Lil Kim might not like the film, but added: "I think that Naturi (Naughton) did a great job playing Kim. I think people are going to be a lot more sympathetic towards (Lil Kim) after seeing the movie."

Wayne Barrow - Biggie's former manager and a producer on the movie - expressed less patience with Kim's attitude.

"Our job as producers . . . was to deliver for three individuals. That's his mom and his two children. Everybody else: Stand in line, buy a ticket and enjoy the show."

"Notorious" chronicles the life and untimely death of the Notorious B.I.G., who was shot to death in 1997 and remains one of rap's most important figures to this day. It opens in theaters this Friday.

Holy censorship Batman!!

Just because Batman landed in Hong Kong doesn't mean "The Dark Knight" will.

Warner Bros. decided not to release the film in China — or even submit it for censors' approval — because of "prerelease conditions" and "cultural sensitivities," the studio said Tuesday.

Warner Bros. officials may have been concerned the film — particularly scenes shot in Hong Kong, where Batman nabs a gangster — would offend censors. Hong Kong is a Chinese-ruled former British colony that maintains separate political and economic systems.

The studio said in a statement overnight that the acclaimed film - the second highest-grossing movie in US box-office history - would be canned in China, with "cultural sensitivities" cited as one of the reasons for the no-show.

"Based on a number of pre-release conditions that are being attached to The Dark Knight as well as cultural sensitivities to some elements of the film, we have opted to forego a theatrical release of the film in China," the statement said.

It was not clear what "cultural sensitivities" were at issue but the movie includes an action sequence shot in Hong Kong where Batman, played by Christian Bale, apprehends a Chinese money-launderer.

Another possible sticking point is a brief appearance by Hong Kong actor-singer Edison Chen (credited in the film as "LSI Vice President") , who appeared in one of the biggest sex scandals earlier this year in China, appearing in lurid photos with several women.

However, Bootleg copies have been available in Chinese markets for months.

The Dark Knight" has grossed more than $465 million in foreign markets.