Every day, Opening Acts highlights the best pieces of writing on film, television, and literature published around the Internet. Please share if you like what you see.
For your reading enjoyment …
“Bay said he thought a two-second shot of the plane crash inProject Almanac was a visual effect when he watched the completed movie. Bay was upset to learn first-time director Dean Israelite had instead used actual crash footage.”
2. Jeffrey Katzenberg On DWA’s Cutbacks: ‘3 Films A Year Was Too Ambitious’, by Marc Graser. Graser looks at DreamWorks Animation’s cutbacks and new focus.
“After a string of box office misfires that have included Rise of the Guardians, Turbo, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, and more recently The Penguins of Madagascar — forcing the company to write off more than $290 million in losses — DWA was forced to make changes.”
3. Polish Nationalists Launch Petition Against Oscar-Nominated Film Ida, by Andrew Pulver. Pulver reports of a petition against the critically acclaimed Polish film.
“The Polish Anti-Defamation League (Reduta Dobrego Imienia) has launched a petition against the film… claiming it ‘fails to acknowledge the German occupation’ and ‘that the viewer with no understanding of history may leave the film with the idea that the blame for the Holocaust lies with Poles’.”
4. Fifty Shades Laid Bare, by Ramin Setoodeh. Setoodeh talks with Fifty Shades Of Grey star Jamie Dornan and crew members about the upcoming film’s anticipated impact.
“The actor thinks that Hollywood’s shyness about sex is strange. ‘In a funny way, the movies as a business are all about sex. It’s an industry built on sex appeal… this kind of sex – S&M – hasn’t been depicted on the big screen ever,. That in itself is groundbreaking.’.”
5. Joaquin Phoenix: ‘In Real Life, Evil Seduces’, by Rory Carroll. Carroll interviews Joaquin Phoenix ahead of the UK release of Inherent Vice.
“His left leg quivers with nervous energy but discussing acting, his favourite topic, seems to calm it. The twitching resumes when conversation turns to the awards circuit. In 2012 he branded it ‘total, utter bullshit’, a circus he wanted no part of.”
