Guys, it would appear that Abe Sylvia’s Dirty Girl will not be screening at this year’s Berlinale festival after all.
As some of you will surely recall, about a month ago the Berlin International Film Festival announced its Panorama 2011 lineup, which included Sylvia’s Dirty Girl, in which Milla Jovovich appears opposite Juno Temple and William H. Macy. Since then, however, the original press release appears to have been updated as the film is no longer listed among the screening titles, nor does the film have a page in the newly released festival programme. For whatever reason the film appears to have been pulled. 🙁
Credit:Millafan.com
Category: Movie News
Milla to attend Feb 14 ‘Vykrutasy’ premiere, Metrocity ad campaign
Just a couple of project tidbits via Milla Jovovich’s verified Twitter account @MillaJovovich.
First off, Milla will be heading to Moscow, Russia on February 14 for the premiere of her Russian-language debut Vykrutasy (Выкрутасы). The film will be out in Russian theaters Feb 17.
“yes, I’ll be in Moscow on the 14th of February for the Premier. I’m really excited, this is my first Russian speaking role. (Jan 20)
Milla was also briefly in New York City recently, shooting an ad campaign for the Korean label Metrocity:
“Working in NY today. Just had a few minutes 2 read many messages. Wish I had time 2 answer each & everyone of u. Thank u 4 all the love! (Jan 19)
some of you asked what I was doing in NY? I was shooting spring summer campaign for Metrocity from Korea. do I have any Korean followers? (Jan 20)
Resident Evil: Afterlife is top-grossing Canadian flick
Resident Evil: Afterlife, the fourth instalment in the popular thriller-horror franchise starring Milla Jovovich, was the top-performing Canadian film in domestic theatres last year, grossing a total of just less than $7-million.
The success of Afterlife, a Canadian-German co-production shot in stereoscopic 3-D in Toronto, was responsible for 21 per cent of the $33.5-million total earned by Canadian films in the country’s multiplexes in 2010, according to statistics from Montreal sales tracker Zoom Services for the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada. Released last September, Afterlife also has grossed almost $300-million worldwide, toppling Porky’s, a 1982 release,as the most successful Canadian-produced movie ever.
Expectations are understandably high that Afterlife will score several nominations when the short list for the 31st annual Genie Awards is announced Wednesday in Toronto and Montreal. The 2004 instalment, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, won a Genie for sound editing.
Over all, Canadian films grossed about 3.3 per cent of the $1.031-billion Canadians spent on movie admissions last year, a slight increase from 2009.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest box-office performer domestically, regardless of nationality, was Avatar, directed by Canadian-born James Cameron. The futuristic science-fiction thriller, already the world’s box-office champ with earnings of $3-billion, grossed almost $96-million here, more than twice the $36.4-million taken in by its nearest rival, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Finishing third was Chris Nolan’s thriller Inception with a $33.2-million gross, closely followed by Toy Story 3 ($32.6-million). Another Hollywood feature, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, claimed fifth spot, pulling $27.7-million from Canadian wallets and purses.
As ever, Quebec-made francophone films dominated the domestic box office, taking six of the top 10 positions dollar-wise – seven if one includes the Celine Dion documentary Celine: Through the Eyes of the World, which grossed 82 per cent of its $1.04-million box office in Quebec. Finishing second behind Resident Evil: Afterlife was Piché: Entre ciel et terre, a biopic, directed by Sylvain Archambault, about the troubled life of Air Transat pilot Robert Piché. Its $3.7-million box office was accumulated almost entirely in Quebec.
The same for Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated Incendies, which, while having a major English-Canada release only last month, went into Quebec theatres last September, shortly after its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. It finished third with a gross of more than $2.5-million.
The other English-language Canadian films in the top 10 were Splice, starring Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody ($2.14-million, fifth place), and Terry Gilliam’s fantastical The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus ($1.57-million, seventh place).
‘Stone’ lacks luster, organization despite stellar cast
It’s really too bad for Milla Jovovich. Not being one to be commonly lumped in with Hollywood juggernauts like Edward Norton and Robert De Niro, Jovovich got the chance to flex her acting chops with ‘Stone’, now available on DVD.
Jack (De Niro) works in a prison as a parole officer. He’s nearing retirement and wants to finish out the last few cases he has before he leaves. Among his files is one for Gerald “Stone” Creeson (Norton), a man convicted of helping set fire to a home. Stone pleads with Jack for a way to gain early release on his 10 year sentence, which he has served 8 years of. But when Stone senses that he can’t convince Jack to help him, he sends his wife Lucetta (Jovovich) to try and seduce him. Lines begin to blur as Jack, Lucetta and Stone all find they are playing a very dangerous game.
Like I said, its too bad for Milla. She finally finds a place to really showcase her talent. The sincerity of her performance is not something I’ve ever seen from Jovovich, who’s been relegated to the ‘Resident Evil’ series. In this film, she’s sexy, manipulative and very creepy.
De Niro and Norton, on the other hand, were given artistic shotguns which they were very liberal with. Their performances are unfocused and heavy handed. Norton’s “street” accent is muddled and overdone. De Niro has but three or four facial expressions in his old age. Both had previously appeared in ‘The Score’ with legendary actor Marlon Brando. Their performances in ‘Stone’ don’t have nearly the same caliber of acting that they brought to ‘The Score’. Instead, we see Norton trying to pass himself off as a street thug and doing a horrible job at it. De Niro continues to disappoint me with these half-hearted performances in movies that just don’t make much box-office sense. Say what you will about these artistic endeavors, but not everything is art.
EXTRAS
If you managed to sit through the feature, you’ll be happy to know that there’s only one measly extra:
The Making of ‘Stone’: I think they caught the cast in the middle of one of those press junkets where they have to answer all the same questions for hours on end. I say that because even the interviews are boring.
Do yourself a favor and wait for this to drop at the Redbox or wait for it to hit cable. This film lacks any real punch. Bad pacing, over acting and bad direction plague what should have been a much better film, given the cast.
Stone
Anchor Bay Entertainment/Overture Films, 105 minutes, R
DVD: $29.98
BD: $39.99
Milla Jovovich Hated All Day Long By Angry Fans
Actress Milla Jovovich starred in all four Resident Evil films. While the movies are based on the games, her character is not. And man, that pisses off some internet nerds.
Jovovich tells website CVG that the reason her character Alice was created was to avoid restrictive game story lines, which could change due to internal Capcom politics. When the actresses met with film director and future husband Paul W.S. Anderson, she originally told him that she wanted to be Jill, one of the game’s heroines.
“Capcom changes a VP and suddenly the storyline changes,” explains Jovovich. “So he [Anderson] needed to create a character that was a bit more like the audience. The innocent coming into this who they can relate to without needing to know her history.”
The liberties that Anderson and Jovovich took in creating Alice might have resulted in box office success, but didn’t win over some hardcore RE players.
“There are, like, 15 people in the world that spend all day really hating me,” says Jovovich. “Like horrifically hating me with a passion. They’re always writing.”
The fans are not happy with Alice or the films or whatever. Conceding that you can’t please everyone, Jovovich adds, “If you want the game, play the game. The game is such a sprawling world.”
At this point, the games and the movies seem to be moving in such a different direction. The movies are the movies. The games are the games. There’s no need to get worked up about Hollywood’s take on the franchise. Is there?