An open extras casting call is being held this Saturday, June 11th in Fort Lauderdale at America’s Backyard for Adam Shankman’s film adaptation of the popular musical “Rock Of Ages.” The production is now filming in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area. The film is being produced by New Line Cinema, with Warner Bros. Pictures handling worldwide distribution.

DATE: Saturday, June 11th

AT: America’s Backyard
100 S.W. 3rd Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
33312

TIME: 10: 00 PM – 2:00 AM

“Rock of Ages” is an arena-rock love story told through the heart-pounding hits of Def Leppard, Joan Jett, Journey, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, Night Ranger, Reo Speed Wagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Whitesnake and many more.
To join the star-studded cast, we are looking for people (in their 20’s and 30’s) who can play rockers of the mid-1980. Please come dressed for the part! We love long 80’s hair! Everyone should bring a photo of themselves; it does not have to be a professional photo, but it must include your name, stats, and phone number on the photo.

If you can’t make this extras casting call, please send a picture of yourself along with your name, stats, and phone number to roarevolution@yahoo.com

The movie sails into theatres May 20^th, 2011 in Disney Digital 3D™.

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Rob Marshall, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” captures the fun, adventure and humor that ignited the hit franchise—this time in Disney Digital 3D™.

Depp returns to his iconic role of Captain Jack Sparrow in the action-packed adventure. Crossing paths with the enigmatic Angelica (Penelope “Mrs. Javier Bardem” Cruz), he’s not sure if it’s love—or if she’s a ruthless con artist who’s using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth.

When she forces him aboard the “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” the ship of the legendary pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn’t know whom to fear more: Blackbeard or Angelica, with whom he shares a mysterious past.

The international cast includes franchise vets Geoffrey Rush as the vengeful Captain Hector Barbossa and Kevin R. McNally as Captain Jack’s longtime comrade Joshamee Gibbs, plus Sam Claflin as a stalwart missionary and Astrid Berges-Frisbey as a mysterious mermaid.

HOLLYWOOD, CA (January 20, 2011) – Paramount Pictures announced Thursday that Sacha Baron Cohen’s new comedy THE DICTATOR will be released worldwide on May 11, 2012. The studio also announced that Larry Charles (“Borat”, “Bruno”) has come aboard to direct.

The film tells the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed. It is inspired by the best selling novel “Zabibah and The King” by Saddam Hussein.

Producing alongside Baron Cohen are Scott Rudin, Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer, and David Mandel. The project marks the first collaboration for Rudin (“The Social Network,” “True Grit”) and Baron Cohen, while Berg, Schaffer and Mandel (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) join him as screenwriters on the movie. The movie is the latest collaboration between Baron Cohen and Charles, who previously worked together on “Borat” as well as “Bruno”. Dan Mazer (“Borat” “Bruno”), Ant Hines (“Borat” “Bruno”) and Peter Baynham (“Borat”) will serve as executive producers, reuniting the rest of the Academy Award®-nominated and Golden Globe winning “Borat” team. Todd Schulman (“Borat” “Bruno”) is co-producing under Baron Cohen’s Four By Two Films banner.

Larry Charles, Sacha Baron Cohen and David Mandel are repped by WME. Dan Mazer, Alec Berg and Jeff Schaffer are repped by UTA.

Cameron, who had always viewed AVATAR as the creation of a new world and mythology, will begin work on the scripts early next year with an eye towards commencing production later in 2011. Cameron will decide if he will shoot the films back-to-back after he completes the scripts, but the release of the first, as yet untitled sequel, is targeted for December 2014, with the third film contemplated for a December 2015 release.

AVATAR 2 & 3 will be produced by Cameron and Jon Landau for Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment.

“AVATAR is not only the highest grossing movie of all time, it is a created universe based on the singular imagination and daring of James Cameron, who also raised the consciousness of people worldwide to some of the greatest issues facing our planet,” said Rothman and Gianopulos. “We had no higher priority, and can feel no greater joy, than enabling Jim to continue and expand his vision of the world of AVATAR. This is a great day in the history of our company, and we thank Jim, Jon Landau,  Rae Sanchini and all of their team and all of our Fox colleagues throughout the world, who have made this possible.”

Commented Cameron: “It is a rare and remarkable opportunity when a filmmaker gets to build a fantasy world, and watch it grow, with the resources and partnership of a global media company. AVATAR  was conceived as an epic work of fantasy – a world that audiences could visit, across all media platforms, and this moment marks the launch of the next phase of that world. With two new films on the drawing boards, my company and I are embarking on an epic journey with our partners at Twentieth Century Fox.

Our goal is to meet and exceed the global audience’s expectations for the richness ofAVATAR’s visual world and the power of the storytelling. In the second and third films, which will be self contained stories that also fulfill a greater story arc, we will not back off the throttle of  AVATAR’s  visual and emotional horsepower, and will continue to explore its themes and characters, which touched the hearts of audiences in all cultures around the world. I’m looking forward to returning to Pandora, a world where our imaginations can run wild.”

“It is very exciting to be teaming again with our partners at Fox to give audiences the opportunity to return to Pandora,” said producer Jon Landau. “With the first movie, Jim only scratched the surface of the stories he wants to tell and the creatures and world he wants to create. Now we will continue his vision.”

AVATAR is the highest grossing film of all time, taking in nearly $2.8 billion in worldwide box office. It is also the top-selling Blu-ray disc of all time. AVATAR won Golden Globe® awards for Best Motion Picture and Best Director; and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won Oscars for art direction, visual effects and cinematography.

In AVATAR, Cameron takes audiences to a spectacular world beyond imagination and limitations, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization.

AVATAR was written by Cameron from an idea he nurtured for over a decade, while working on the technology necessary to realize its wholly imagined world. Working with Joe Letteri and his team at Peter Jackson’s WETA Digital, Cameron created a fully immersive 3D cinematic experience of a new kind, where revolutionary technology that was invented to make the film disappeared into the emotion of the characters and the epic nature of the story.

AVATAR 2 & 3 will mark Cameron’s latest collaborations with Twentieth Century Fox, a relationship that spans 25 years and marks one of the most successful filmmaker-studio alliances in motion picture history. Cameron and Fox first joined forces in 1985 for Aliens, which became a sci-fi classic. Next came The Abyss, which revolutionized visual effects technology; and True Lies, a blockbuster starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 1996, Fox greenlighted Cameron’s Titanic, which became the most successful film in history, and won a record-breaking eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

I’ve been on a movie marathon trying to see everything before with “Single Man” now out of the way. Still have “District 9″ and “The Hurt Locker” (can you believe I didn’t see that!) on the docket.

Tomorrow night is screening of “Alice in Wonderland.” Johnny Depp channeling Michael Jackson again as he did as Willy Wonka? And why does he believe every time he plays a storybook character he has to affect a lisp and act like a sissy.

Oh, well, back to Oscar ballotting.

Print your ballot here:

Chick Flick Oscar Ballot 2010

Comment here on your picks and we’ll all see how close we come on Sunday night.

Happy Viewing!

By Michelle Solomon

I remember when I was little I would go to the neighbor’s house across the street, and sit on her porch. Mrs. Hughes would tell me stories that I found fascinating about how the street looked at one time, the people who had lived there before, and about a time when streetcars went up and down Main Street.

Mrs. Hughes wasn’t a politician or a professional woman. She was a housewife, but the things she told me stuck with me longer than some learned professors I had in graduate school.

Which brings me to “The Philosopher Kings.” Like my neighbor on the front porch, who knew that the meaning of life could be found with a group of college janitors? Director/producer Patrick Shen focuses his lens on eight janitors. From Josue Laujenesse from Princeton University who selflessly supports 15 family members in New Jersey and Haiti to Corby Baker of Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle sees his job as a custodian to surround himself with the arts, one of his passions. The others are Oscar Dantzler from Duke University; Jim Evener and Gary Napieracz from Cornell University; Melinda Augustus from the University of Florida; Luis Cardenas of the California Institute of Technology; Michael Seals of the University of California, Berkeley.

Each person has their own story to tell, and each weaves a tale that stirs personal emotions.

The producers worked with human resources and facilities departments at a number of colleges, then conducted telephone interviews with more than 30 candidates, and culled it down to the eight custodians who are more than magical in “The Philosopher Kings.”

While most of the action takes place in the cities where the custodians live, and in the schools where they work, the crew followed Laujenesse to Haiti to a remote village in the middle of the jungles of Haiti. The cameras capture his heartbreak as he realizes that he has a mission to provide water to the families. He has been working for the past three years by helping to finance a project for a simple plumbing system of 25 miles of PVC pipe that carries water from a nearby mountain. This story led the filmmakers to find partners for Laujenesse to help expand his project.

Perhaps its Laujenesse’s story that tells such a far-reaching tale, but life’s recollections by janitors such as Augustus, who works at the University of Florida’s Museum of Natural History, also hit a soft spot. Augustus takes us through the death of her mother with a very symbolic scene where she closes the gate on the ghosts of the past.

Luis Cardenas tells his story in his native tongue, Spanish, but his message is felt in any language: “I have always said, that if you are afraid to die, you don’t deserve to live.”

We watch Cardenas change a paper towel roll in a college bathroom using only his left arm. While driving to work early one morning, Cardenas’s truck was struck by a drunk driver. The crash severed his right arm and he was in a coma for two weeks. Pictures from his hospital bed show what one could imagine would be a painful recovery. He returned to work as a custodian at CalTech only ten months after his accident and began the difficult process of relearning the daily tasks that were once easy for him.

Shen’s camera follows the stories without ever passing any judgment on the “ordinary” people who possess an extraordinary wisdom. My neighbor Mrs. Hughes possessed that wisdom. A Chinese proverb says, “A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.” “The Philosopher Kings” provides eight of these conversations, each with something all of us can relate to.

“The Philosopher Kings” World Premiere will take place during the prestigious AFI / Discovery Channel Silverdocs Festival on Thursday, June 18 at 7:15 p.m. in the Washington D.C. area. The Philosopher Kings was selected from more than two thousand submissions from throughout the world to participate in what has been hailed as the “pre-eminent U.S. documentary festival.”

Oscar Nunez dances for Sandra Bullock in The Proposal

By Michelle Solomon

Sandra Bullock doesn’t want her latest movie to be called a romantic comedy. Actually, what the actress who is starring in the new film “The Proposal” says this is, is a comedy with romance elements sprinkled throughout.

“The Proposal,” co-starring cute guy Ryan Reynolds, is a bit romantic comedy, but there’s enough story in the film to pluck it out of that category. While most of the plot relies on the foibles of the mismatched relationship of Bullock and Reynolds’ characters, there is a small dose of drama, but nothing that a few laughs doesn’t soon take away.

Bullock plays Margaret Tate, a “Devil Wears Prada”-like book editor who prompts instant message warnings across the editorial offices of a publishing house a la Simon & Schuster. Tate is so tightly wound that as soon as her Christian Louboutin stilettos hit the floor a hushed announcement of her impending office walk through prompts warnings of “The Witch Is On Her Broom.”

Reynolds plays Bullock’s oh-so-patient assistant, Andrew Paxton, who is working his way up the ladder to be an editor and eventually get his own book published. For some reason, he’s about the only one in the office who knows how to calm the queen of mean.

In a romantic comedy, of course, opposites attract, so some where along the way the two have to be set up. As Bullock is running her division with an iron fist, the publisher breaks the news to her that she is on the verge of being deported to her native Canada because of a glitch in her paperwork filing. No doubt, in the world of scriptwriting it is a bit contrived. Yet there is no choice for the audience but to play along.

We have to buy it because being deported would mean that Tate would lose the only relationship she can sustain ― her job. Quicker than anyone can say Green Card, she gets a brainstorm. She’ll marry her assistant, which will allow her to remain in the country. The unsuspecting assistant agrees after realizing that a bit of blackmail and conniving could make this business deal a win-win for both of them.

However, a suspicious immigration official (Denis O’Hare) could throw a wrench into the deal as he just so happens to question the validity of such a marriage.

In an effort to Cliff Note their relationship, the two head to Sitka, Alaska, to meet his family at a gathering celebrating Paxton’s grandmother’s 90th birthday. See where this is going?

From here, the focus is on Bullock as Tate in the typical fish-out-of-water scenarios. Big city New York girl is thrust into small town Alaska. This is a place where the ladies gather to slug beer and watch the town’s one male stripper, who also doubles as the butler, pastor and clerk at the general’s store. Oscar Nuñez from “The Office” elicits laughs for his unabashed portrayal, especially in a scene where he implores Tate in nothing but a thong.

While Pete Chiarelli’s script is over-the-top sitcom silly at times, director Anne (“27 Dresses”) Fletcher, who happened to be a choreographer at one point in her career, is able to move the action along. While frantic at times, Fletcher knows when to soften the focus and she creates some lovely moments as the two begin to realize their attraction. Bullock and Reynolds have just the right chemistry to pull off a number of different emotions, and a particularly hysterical scene, which has been trumpeted in the movie’s trailers, is when the two crash into each other’s naked bodies to absolute horror. You will feel their pain.

Other scenes don’t work at all like an impromptu fertility Indian dance in the middle of an Alaskan forest, and an eagle who has an affinity for small dogs and cell phones.

A supporting cast of A-list actors including Mary Steenburgen and Craig Nelson, plus a very perky and funny Betty White as Grandma Annie, lend a bit of credibility to “The Proposal.”

This romantic comedy, which isn’t really a romantic comedy but a romance with bits of comedy thrown in, is by the book and formulaic. Yet Bullock and Co. pull off “The Proposal,” and make us somehow care about this taming of the shrew.

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock star in The Proposal

That story, again? A middle-aged man (we’ve seen it with a women in the role, too), gets taken back to their younger days so they can see what life would have been like had they appreciated their blessings. “17 Again” is “Big” again. “17 Again” is “13 Going on 30″ again. “17 Again” is “18 Again.” But the good news is, “17 Again” also has Zac Efron, who somehow makes this retread of a movie seem fresh. The movie opens on a basketball court with a shirtless Efron, no doubt purposely planted to make the teen idol’s fans swoon. Efron plays Mike O’Donnell, who isn’t only a star on the high school basketball court, but one of the most popular boys in school. He has everything going for him, a college basketball scout in the stands, and a beautiful girlfriend named Scarlet. When Scarlet shows up at the game to tell him they are expecting a baby, his hoop hopes exit out the gymnasium door, along with his college scholarship. Almost 20 years later, Mike (Matthew Perry) works at a pharmaceutical company and drives a Ford Taurus. His teenagers barely speak to him and his marriage to Scarlet (Leslie Mann) has fallen apart.

His divorce is looming and he’s moved in with high-school nerd-turned-uber-billionaire Ned (Thomas Lennon). He also gets passed over for a promotion at work for a new hire, a giddy twentysomething blonde girl. Mike’s days couldn’t get any worse. How it ends up that Mike is given another chance when he’s sent back to 1989, isn’t nearly as clever as “Big’s” mechanical gypsy ― a Santa Claus-esque janitor suddenly appears and its Mike’s attempt to save the man’s life that propels the sad sack into a whirling tunnel of water. Moviegoers are given the obligatory teen in a baggy man’s suit who is totally confused about his new lack of chest hair. But it’s Efron’s true believability as a Dad caught up in pubescent angst that keeps this movie from sinking. Add to that some very funny pop culture references (Scarlet now thinks the new teenager on the block is actually in search of an older woman, a la The Cougar, and the new Mike thinks dressing in bedazzled Ed Hardy gear will make him cool at his new school).

A hilarious subplot that focuses on Ned, who courts the high-school principal (Melora Hardin, Jan on “The Office”) after posing as the new kid’s father, drags on a bit. But Lennon as a man-child with an undying passion for the worlds of science fiction, fantasy and comic books, and who speaks Elfin, steals many a scene. A memorabilia fight using lightsabers is sure to become a collectible movie moment for obsessed “Star Wars” geeks. With “17 Again,” Efron proves he’s more than the David Cassidy of the 21st century and possesses more acting depth than his usual role as a Disney poster boy.

“17 Again” is likely to open up new acting doors for Efron. Someone somewhere is probably already considering him for a role in a revamp of “The Graduate.” You heard it here first.

“Gran Torino” (R) Two 1/2 popcorn rating

Maybe it’s because I lived in the outskirts of Detroit for many years that I couldn’t buy into Clint Eastwood’s latest directorial-acting debut. There are so many events in “Gran Torino” that don’t make sense it’s difficult to care about any of the characters much less believe a storyline which finds Eastwood as a crotchety old man who suddenly finds favor with his Asian neighbors, and learns lessons about himself along the way.

Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a retired Detroit auto worker who lives in a working class neighborhood that has seen better days. The complexion of the ‘hood is changing and Kowalski finds himself surrounded by a melting pot of races. “I have more in common with these gooks than with my own spoiled, rotten family,” says Walt at a gathering after his wife’s death.

There’s a lot of anger in Walt, most of it leftover from the Korean War; some of it aimed at modern day society who seems to care little about their fellow man. The title of the film also offers some high hopes about Walt’s love affair with his 1972 beauty Gran Torino, but sadly, a brief bonding at the end of the film is all that comes of it. Like much else in the movie, the car is another ploy to show how mean the streets of this little, once nice part of town have become.

Try as he may, Eastwood tries to shake off the weak screenplay by Nick Schenk and create a meaty character with Walt. At times, he succeeds, but other times the predictability is just so overwhelming he doesn’t have a chance. Are we supposed to laugh off Walt’s grumpiness or be sympathetic? And how can a man who has had decades to build intolerance see those walls come tumbling down in such a short amount of time. Other irregularities fray the nerves: A trio of thugs on a tough street corner is frightened away by this geriatric Dirty Harry as he saves a young Hmong girl from their harassment. And Walt’s cronies are so accepting of his newfound mentorship of a shy, young Asian boy that they give him a construction job and teach him “man talk.”

Of course, there’s the requisite drive-by shooting and the “you saw that one coming” rape of the girl Walt saved from the three thugs. Predictable? Yes. Dramatic? No.

The story throws in the stereotypical red-headed Irish catholic naïve priest (Christopher Carley) who tries to save Walt from himself despite the curmudgeon’s constant insults. One of the choicest is his description of the clergyman as “a 27-year-old virgin who likes to hold the hands of little old ladies who are superstitious and promise them eternity.”

The movie finally comes into its own near the end of the film when Walt decides he has to take a stand not only for his neighborhood but for the newcomers who are trying to make a go of it.

But it’s too late for “Gran Torino,” which has too many sputters to make worthwhile. You can almost hear Eastwood saying in his gravely voice, “Hollywood just don’t make ‘em like they used to.”

Let’s start by saying that if you saw “Ratatouille” and you believe “The Tales of Despereaux” might traverse that same road, don’t give it a second thought.

Sure, this lovable children’s tale is about rodents and soup like “Ratatouille” before it, but that isn’t even close to the half of it. It does lead you to wonder, what is it with animated scripts of late that insist on having French chefs involved in soup making only to become hopelessly entangled with rats and mice. Well, in this case, it’s not the main crux of the story anyway. Soup and chefs are just a means to other things unlike “Ratatouille” whose plot surrounded soups, kitchens and French chefs.

Yet, we must admit, in “The Tales Of Despereaux” there is a bit of a story about soup. In the soup-loving kingdom of Dor life revolves around the yearly creation of an outstanding soup by the personal chef to the King and Queen. Meanwhile, a rat with a culinary six sense arrives in Dor just in time for soup day. Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman), whose days are mostly spent on a pirate ship, gets so enthralled with the soup, he accidentally dives into the queen’s bowl. She suffers ill consequences from the event and Roscuro is banned to the underground Rat World forever.

Furthermore, the King issues a proclamation that there will be no more soup or rats in the kingdom of Dor.

It is then that we meet another layer below the King’s castle, which is mouseworld. The day we’re invited in, the birth of a mouse baby is imminent and the proud papa couldn’t be happier. It turns out there’s only one problem, besides his newborns exceedingly large ears, he soon realizes the mouse isn’t afraid of anything.

Try as they might, even at school where mice students are taught to cower, Despereaux continues to be the odd mouse out, taking daring risks much to the chagrin of his friends and especially his parents. His final act of courage, his desire to interact with humans, which is a no no in the mouseworld, lands him in trouble. He is sent to the rat world.

Matthew Broderick keeps the voice of Despereaux at just the right strength in
order for the little guy to get his points across, and Dustin Hoffman as the downtrodden Roscuro couldn’t be better. A pleasantly voiced Sigourney Weaver narrates the story, which also has a third plot about a girl named Miggery Sow (Tracy Ullman), who dreams of one day living in the castle and becoming princess, but ends up as a castle handmaiden instead.

What’s beautiful and original about “Despereaux” is it actually has the feel of reading a storybook. It’s been kept true to its 2003′s children’s book of the same name by Kate DiCamillo. There’s something so enjoyable and relaxing about an animated movie that doesn’t follow the current pack of Cartoon Newtork type productions complete with pop culture references and too loud and too annoying hip hop music.

“The Tales of Despereaux” just lumbers along with its ode to once upon a time, and there’s enough of a story even to keep the toddler set entertained. It also helps that Despereaux himself almost leaps off the screen with his adorable pink nose, floppy ears and all.

“The Tales of Despereaux” is a sea of calm in the recent crop of over the top animated noisefests. In a world where animated movies are created to satisfy marketing initiatives for drive through kids toys at fast food burger joints, “Desperaux” stands out in the crowd. It carries a message about overcoming the odds and blazing your own path. It also drives its point home that very good things do come in small packages.