Golden State Warriors point guard (and Splash Brothers member) Stephen Curryhas teamed up with Day 6 Sports Group for the re-launch of Backyard Sports.
The digital game franchise debuted in 1997, and under its latest iteration it will be available on tablets and smartphones – with Curry serving as the face of the franchise.
“I grew up playing Backyard Sports, and having an opportunity to help bring it back to this generation of children is something I’m really thrilled about,” said Curry, whose sharpshooting skills has led the Warriors to NBA prominence.
“Re-launching a brand that was so iconic is an exciting step for us,” said Jim Wagner, CEO, Day 6 Sports Group. “And partnering with the NBA and Stephen Curry is the perfect way for us to engage with both our existing community of fans as well as the next generation of Backyard Sports players.”
Backyard Sports NBA Basketball is set for a spring 2015 release. For more info, please go to www.backyardsports.com.
Actress Katherine Waterston gives a scene stealing (and possibly star in the making) performance as Shasta Fay Hepworth, the missing ex-girlfriend of bumbling private eye Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) in Inherent Vice.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and based on Thomas Pynchon’s 1970s set novel, Inherent Vice is now playing in New York and Los Angeles (it opens nationwide January 9).
For Waterston, whose father is actor Sam Waterston (The Newsroom, Law & Order), the film isn’t just a sprawling ode to Los Angeles noir – it’s also a love story:
“I just so immediately loved Doc – his spirit and relentless optimism despite sort of being confused all the time. I didn’t want to simply create some kind of cruel femme fatale – I wanted the audience to respect him on some level, to see why he would care about her beyond just sort of sexual attraction or some kind of manipulation or control she had over him in that way. And I wanted there to be a genuine connection there. That was really important to me, and I thought it was really important in the film.”
Joaquin Phoenix, Katherine Waterston – Inherent Vice (CR: Wilson Webb, Warner Bros. Pictures)
To prepare for the role, Waterston watched “loads” of movies, especially flicks which contained exterior shots of Los Angeles. Click on the media bar to hear Waterston talk about her DVD (or maybe it was Blu-ray?) expedition, which often led her to the Santa Monica, Ca. spot Cinefile Video.
On Thursday, December 11 an open house at Penguin Random House Audio Studio was held. Invitations went out to journalists, bloggers, librarians, and reading enthusiasts to attend the several hour event at the studio, located within the confines of California’s San Fernando Valley.
Participants were given a tour of the recording studios and the chance to listen to audiobook recordings conducted by narrators Cassandra Campbell(she read a section of Kate Walcott’s novel “A Touch of Stardust” which comes out February ’15) and Kirby Heyborne (he read a selection from Jennifer Niven’s upcoming YA title “All The Bright Places”).
In the following clip, Kirby Heyborne talks about the importance of being prepared as a narrator (for more info on Heyborne, please go to http://www.kirbyheyborne.com/)
Bestselling novelist Jonathan Kellerman was also on hand to sign copies of the audiobook version of Killer. In the clip below, Kellerman talks about the importance of audiobooks in regards to his work. He also praises actor John Rubinstein, who has narrated much of Kellerman’s audiobooks.
My longest conversation came with Cassandra Campbell (Twitter handle: @campbell_cass), and she talked about how her theater experience as well as being an avid reader helped shape her own narrating skills (Campbell was in the recording booth during the interview).
Having worked at Westwood One for nearly 15 years, I know a thing or two about the radio business. My comforts, however, lie in interviewing people and writing, so getting the chance to read a section of Gone Girl in the recording booth was a surreal and nerve wracking experience.
I stammered, hemmed, and hawed my way through two pages of Gillian Flynn’s razor sharp writing, and I was more than happy that, even though I did a poor job behind the mic, I actually gave it a shot.
After stuffing my face with a delicious lasagna cupcake (lunch was catered by Heirloom LA), I was homeward bound, realizing that listening to a good story, whether it’s in a recording booth or in the comforts of your car, is a beautiful thing.
For more info on Random House Audio, please go to their official site.
Now playing in New York and Los Angeles, Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles explores the turbulent, frustrating, yet ultimately innovating and inspiring career of one of cinema’s more talented auteurs.
Filmmaker Chuck Workman, who also directed the 2013 release What Is Cinema?, is a lifelong fan of Welles’work, and during our interview he talked about how his own perceptions of Welleschanged while making the documentary.
During the interview, Workman elaborate about the underrated and overlooked facets of Welles’talents (hence the doc’s “Magician” moniker). He was a filmmaker who was way ahead of his time, as Magician: The Astonising Life and Work of Orson Wellessuggests in compelling fashion.
For Welles fanatics, the movie also features rarely seen footage from such unfinished work as The Deep, Don Quixote, and The Other Side of the Wind, so if you think you’ve had your fill of the man who played Charles Foster Kane and Harry Lime – think again.
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The film’s moniker may apply to you as well, since you had to edit and cull so much footage from his prolific career.
It didn’t take a lot of magic to pull it together in terms of his work because his work had a particular progression where you can see it getting better and better as he went on.
Even though Citizen Kane was so amazing, with the films that followed he used different kinds of filmmaking skills to convey deeper and deeper things. With Citizen Kane, he relied on his own company of actors and himself. But eventually he learns how to work with Tony Perkins (TheTrial) and John Gielgud (Chimes at Midnight) and all sorts of other actors. That changed the way he did things.
He learned how to edit because he didn’t have the facilities of Hollywood to do these big shots – so he had to do smaller shots and prep them in a certain way. He learned how to use sets in a really big way. This was something I could see immediately.
Did your vast editing experience help you prepare for crafting your documentary?
I knew I was going chronologically so I could take (the films) one at a time. And then I just went through each movie and picked the things I thought would work basically that would either demonstrate things I wanted to show or that I thought were the best parts of those movies.
And with doing trailers in my early life and also doing a lot of the montage stuff when I worked for the Oscars, I sort of knew what I was looking for. But I was always surprised. I really didn’t know the movies as well as I thought I did because I just assumed I knew every Welles film.
I had probably seen them all, but I hadn’t really looked at them in a way that you look at when you want to include them into another film.
When he passed away, the narrative was that Orson Welles was a tragic figure. But his work is so deep and so rich, that maybe it takes a little more analysis as far as changing that narrative.
That (narrative) hasn’t changed. You’re saying that. But I just hung up from another interview where (the interviewer said) “Isn’t it bad that his career went downhill after (Citizen Kane).” People still think that.
People still think that the fat guy from Touch of Evil or the one who’s making the wine commercial was Orson Welles. And he was a tragic figure. I worked with two or three scholars and critics that knew a lot about Welles frankly. One of them said when he saw the film – “I’m so glad that you didn’t make him a tragic figure. You made him a figure who had all this accomplishment.”
We’re all tragic figures (laughs). We never get what we want, you know? You can I tell each other things we didn’t get that we wanted. But (Orson Welles) kept going and going and he kept getting better.
When he was out (in Los Angeles), he would go to Ma Maison (restaurant). There were all these stories about his weight (and) how he couldn’t get into his car. He would go around to the back of Ma Maison and get dessert. That he smoked too many cigars and he didn’t finish movies.
It’s a shame that he got this bad rap and yet it’s something we have here in Hollywood. That’s the game – you kind of look for gossip in other people.
Another problem is you can’t find the movies. You can’t see Chimes at Midnight, which he thinks is his best film, because it’s tied up in rights problems. You can’t see his last film (The Other Side of the Wind) because it wasn’t finished. Hopefully it will be finished soon.
Cohen Media
Are you encouraged that Frank Marshall and Peter Bogdanovich are working to get The Other Side of the Wind finished?
Oh I don’t know – it may be just a curiosity. Most people have seen most of it but a lot of it wasn’t done even though they say they have most of it. So who knows how they’ll spin it?
Both Frank Marshall and Peter Bogdanovich certainly have a lot of integrity and they both worked with Orson Welles on The Other Side of the Wind. So they know what they’re doing. Of course it’s encouraging – it’s one more Orson Welles film.
What is your personal favorite Orson Welles film and why?
Well I thought Citizen Kane was my favorite and then he made all these other interesting films but they don’t (match up to) Citizen Kane. As I’m working on this film, I learned how much I love the later films. Like The Lady from Shanghai, Touch of Evil, Chimes at Midnight – and The Trial!
And F for Fake – when I teach, I’d always show F for Fake in class. These 19-year-old (students) – they really related to it. It’s a modern looking film.
So there’s many films – I can’t pick out a favorite. Five years ago, I could pick out Citizen Kane. Now, I’m not so sure. Each film added to his tool kit, so by the time he got to Chimes at Midnight, he really had it all together. He knew how to do battles, (work) with actors, work with sets, and editing. Everything came together with that film very deeply.
What do you think filmmakers can take from Orson Welles’ work?
If you’re looking at a career – people who are very interested in a strong career in Hollywood – forget it! He did what he wanted.
But people who are looking at an artist in this amazing art form of cinema, they may look at him and say, “that’s how you do it.” You hold on to what you want to do and try to get through each film as much as you can in terms of what you want to do and then move on to the next one.
In his case, because he was so much ahead of his time, he was dealing with an already set establishment. But there was no establishment to be Orson Welles. If you wanted be something special – be John Ford. Be William Wyler. They’re very special, but they’re not Orson Welles.
Orson Welles had his own vision how to use the technique of cinema. And also underneath that, he also had what he wanted to say in the world through his characters. So The Lady from Shanghai is not just a film noir with Rita Hayworth. It’s an extraordinary film where style and content come together in such a cool way. You get – you don’t have to say, ‘Well what are all those mirrors being shot about?’ They just seem right.
Chuck Workman – Director, Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
Opening in select theaters today for Academy Awards consideration, The Salt of the Earth centers on the remarkable and inspiring life of Sebastião Salgado, a social photographer who has traveled the world documenting different aspects of humanity.
Filmmaker Wim Wenders had been an admirer of Salgado’s work for over 25 years (two of Salgado’s prints hang over Wenders’ desk), and his inspiration for the documentary took flight when he visited the photographer’s studio and checked out his latest project “Genesis” (the exhibition runs at the International Center of Photography through January 15).
Wenders joined Salgado and his son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado on a photographic excursion, and eventually the filmmaker and Juliano teamed up as co-directors for The Salt of the Earth.
During my interview with Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, the pair talked about the “genesis” of the documentary and how the narrative took a different creative shape in the editing room. For Wenders, The Salt of the Earth goes beyond Salgado’s pictures.
“I must admit, for a long time, I thought we were making a movie about a photographer and only slowly it dawned on me that this was a bigger thing. We were touching on something that surpassed (it being) a film about a photographer. His life was about so much more.”
It’s a landmark event tonight on Bones, and if you’re going to celebrate 200 episodes of one of television’s most beloved shows, why not do it up film noir style?
Titled “The 200th in the 10th,” this installment features the Jeffersonian and FBI teams in classic 1950s Tinseltown, as Brennan (Emily Deschnael) is an LAPD detective and Booth (David Boreanaz) is a dashing jewel thief who’s framed for murder. The pair, as all classic Hollywood couples do, team up to solve the mystery and clear Booth’s name.
A huge factor for Bones’ longevity lies in the innate chemistry between Boreanaz and Deschanel. “She’s a great person to work with,” said Boreanaz about his co-lead. “When we feel like we’re having bad days, we tell each other – we support each other. Rather than run away from each other and sit on opposite ends of the room . . . we support the process.”
To hear the audio version of David Boreanaz’s comments, click on the media bar below:
The Juliana Hatfield Threereleased their debut albumBecome What You Are back in 1993, and the group have reunited to release their sophomore album Whatever, My Love on February 17 via American Laundromat Records.
The group worked on the album at Nuthouse Recording in Hoboken, NJ, with Hatfield and Tom Beaujour (Nada Surf, Minor Alps, Guided By Voices) serving as producers of the 12 songs.
Although the debut album yielded the hits “My Sister” and “Spin the Bottle” (it was featured on the Reality Bitessoundtrack), the trio each went their separate paths. As Hatfield has continued her career as an indie artist and collaborator (Some Girls, Blake Babies, Minor Alps), Todd Philips ventured off to a career in the film industry and also has been touring as the Lemonheadsdrummer. Bassist Dean Fisher has plied his trade in the Boston music scene with Dylan in the Moviesand Tanya Donelly.
Juliana Hatfield Three – Band Photo (American Laundromat Recordings)
Whatever, My Love, along with exclusive bundle items (shirts, button), are available for pre-order at American Laundromat Records.
In support of their album, the group will tour North America in February and March of 2015 (details are TBA). To listen to the band’s catchy track “If I Could,” listen to the audio below:
Marvel Contest of Championsis a free to play app that is now available in the App Store and on Google Play. The game, a collaboration between Kabam and Marvel Entertainment, contains over 25 unlockable characters from the get-go.
Kabam
With Marvel Contest of Champions, gamers will craft a group of heroes and villains taken from Marvel’s extensive universe, and along with single player campaigns there’s also player vs. player (PVP) mode for gamers who love a bit of online competition.
A sign that this app may have legs lies in its creative direction, as Marvel Comics scribe Sam Humphries (The Legendary Star-Lord) penned the game, which features a group of heroes who team up to take down such other worldly villains as Kang the Conqueror and Thanos.
“It was awesome working with Kabam to develop a unique storyline for a video game that stays true to the Marvel Universe,” said Humphries. “Watching the heroes and villains come to life as playable characters on my phone is beyond epic.”
Kabam
“We could not be more excited about Marvel Contest of Champions,” added Jay Ong, VP of Games, Marvel Entertainment. “The team at Kabam has done an amazing job of translating the heroic combat and dynamic visuals that Marvel fans know and love into an action-packed gameplay experience for mobile devices.”
To download Marvel Contest of Champions for iOS, please go to this Apple Store link.
Scott Speedman (TV’s Last Resort, Dark Blue, Barney’sVersion)returns to Atom Egoyan country with the psychological thriller The Captive (the pair previously worked on the 2008 feature Adoration).
Released exclusively on DirecTV last month and opening in New York December 12, The Captive centers on a landscaper named Matthew (Ryan Reynolds) who is haunted by the disappearance of his daughter. In the eight years since her abduction, Matthew and his wife Tina (Mireille Enos) understandably cling to their child’s memory, hoping that one day they’ll find a resolution to their tragedy.
Rosario Dawson and Scott Speedman are the dogged detectives who continue to search for the girl’s kidnapper (Lost actor Kevin Durand). With the use of his trademark (yet still fresh) non-linear narrative, Egoyan weaves a compelling tale of obsession, manipulation, and ultimate redemption.
During the interviews for The Captive, I asked Scott Speedman about the innovative creative spirit that drives Atom Egoyan.
He’s just not interested in telling simple, down the line, obvious stories. It’s a very challenging thing he does and I think that’s what sets him apart. He’s very brave in his choices.
I also asked Scott Speedman about being selective over his movie and TV roles. He gives a pretty funny answer as he talks about his career:
The Captive, which also stars Alexia Fast (Manhattan) and Bruce Greenwood (Mao’s Last Dancer, Devil’s Knot), also opens in Los Angeles December 19.
Flyhunter Origins from developers Steel Wool Games and Ripstone publishing came out on the PS Vita yesterday in the U.S. and today it’s available to download on PC and Mac for $6.99. (through December 17, Steam is offering 30% off the title)
Players will take on the role as the alien spaceship janitor Zak, a wannabe Flyhunter who must save Earth from a slew of insects that have escaped from the vessel. Since the Flyhunters are in cryo sleep, it’s up to Zak to hunt down the cargo and be the hero he’s probably always wanted to be.
The PC screenshots as well as the trailer (not to mention the affordable price point) makes Flyhunter Origins a promising game. I’m a big platformer fan, so I definitely have high expectations for Flyhunter Origins – a review of the title should be coming within the next few days so stay tuned!!
