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Production Headline News

Framestore Strengthens Commercials Dept With Bumble Davis & James Alexander

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 11:55am

Framestore’s busy commercials production department is expanding, taking on two new producers: Bumble Davis (formerly head of production at Golden Square) and James Alexander (hailing from Envy).

Blogs

SHAME (2011) (****)

It's been given the dreaded NC-17 rating. But how could an honest film about sex addiction be otherwise? Director Steve McQueen pushes his actor Michael Fassbender to the edge like they did in the IRA hunger strike drama HUNGER. This time Fassbender does things on screen you might not do at home with your spouse or girlfriend. But this is far from pornography.

Fassbender gives his best performance to date as Brandon Sullivan, a hot exec at a web firm who has terrible sex addiction. His mind is consumed with sexual impulses to the point where he has cut off his family and is getting into work later and later each day. Sex for him is just one extreme fantasy or fetish du jour. He hires prostitutes, buys volumes of porn videos and mags and is a steady customer to online sex cams. But his routine of anonymous sexual acts is disrupted when his troubled sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan, AN EDUCATION) shows up at his door needing a place to crash after another relationship has crashed and burned.

Blogs

Blu-ray: ANOTHER EARTH (2011)

Your appreciation of this AVC transfer relies heavily on knowing the source of this indie sci-fi drama. Filmed with a 720p camera on a next to nothing budget, the picture contains a great deal of grain that increases exponentially under low lighting conditions. One scene in the snow at night really highlights its digital origins. Banding and aliasing often creep up in higher contrasted scenes. Color are muted and natural, which fits the cool mood. But when compared to the DVD version, clarity is greatly increased with the grain issue minimized. All things considered this 1080p release is about as good as this material can look.

Blogs

Blu-ray: ANOTHER EARTH (2011)

Read my review of ANOTHER EARTH

Your appreciation of this AVC transfer relies heavily on knowing the source of this indie sci-fi drama. Filmed with a 720p camera on a next to nothing budget, the picture contains a great deal of grain that increases exponentially under low lighting conditions. One scene in the snow at night really highlights its digital origins. Banding and aliasing often creep up in higher contrasted scenes. Color are muted and natural, which fits the cool mood. But when compared to the DVD version, clarity is greatly increased with the grain issue minimized. All things considered this 1080p release is about as good as this material can look.

Home Headline News

Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas Melts onto Blu-ray & DVD

A perfect family gift for the holidays, ICE AGE: A MAMMOTH CHRISTMAS lands on Blu-ray and DVD November 26 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and features the original voice talents of Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary and Sean William Scott.

Company Headline News

Lionsgate & Summit Enter Merger Talks

Summit Ent., the house that TWILIGHT built, and Lionsgate Ent., which is wrapping production on what is hoped to be the next TWILIGHT-like franchise THE HUNGER GAMES, have resumed merger discussions, writes The Hollywood Reporter.

Blogs

ANOTHER EARTH (2011) (***1/2)

Here is a unique use of sci-fi. For the most part this film is a drama regarding recovering from a tragic event that fundamentally transforms one's life over night. The concept of a doppelganger planet is used as metaphor for how decisions we make create new lives and even selves.

Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling, upcoming THE COMPANY YOU KEEP) is a high school student who has just gotten into MIT. After a night of drinking, she makes the mistake of driving home and along the way hits another car putting college professor John Burroughs (William Mapother, TV's LOST) into a coma and killing his pregnant wife and young son. In an instant, she transforms from a promising future astrophysicist into a convict who must serve four years in prison.

Visual Headline News

Visual Effects Veteran Art Repola Joins Gener8's Advisory Board

Gener8 Digital Media Corp., a rapidly growing company that is redefining the landscape of 3D film production, is pleased to welcome visual effects veteran and producer Art Repola to its advisory board.

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