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TARANTINO WINS THE WAR Inglourious Basterdsblitzed the box office over the weekend, taking in $38.1 million, an exceptional amount for the second half of August, normally regarded as one of the quietest periods of the year. It was also the best opening for director Quentin Tarantino, surpassing his previous best, Kill Bill Vol. 2($25.1 million) by 52 percent. Other new films, however, had disappointing ticket sales. Robert Rodriguez’s family film Shorts debuted with $6....

SLUMDOG FILMMAKERS RESPOND TO INDIAN PROTESTS The producer and the director of Slumdog Millionaire, which currently appears to have the inside track in the Oscar race, have responded to growing protests in India of the film – and particularly of the title. In an interview with Reuters, director Danny Boyle said that such protests were “part of the fabric of life in India … For us, ‘slumdog’ was always a very affectionate term because … it was a hybrid, a mixture of underdog and rooting for the underdog, and obviously he comes from the slums....

DE FACTO STRIKE? WHAT DE FACTO STRIKE? A spokesman for the semi-official group that coordinates the issuance of production permits for location shooting in Los Angeles has taken issue with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which said that the impasse in negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild had led to a “de facto strike” in Hollywood that had virtually shut down motion picture production. Todd Lindgren of FilmL....

WEB NOT CUTTING OLYMPICS’ AUDIENCE The record TV ratings of the Beijing Olympics during their first week despite intensive online coverage may dispel the general notion that the Internet poses a threat to broadcasters, advertising representatives attending the Games have told the International Herald Tribune. “People have always been talking about how digital media will take away audiences from TV,” Chris Reitermann, president of the Chinese unit of OgilvyOne, a direct marketing agency, told the newspaper....

FOX NEWS FINALLY GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS Ending months of speculation, News Corp announced Thursday that it plans to launch Fox Business Channel before the end of the year. Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News, will oversee the new channel while Neil Cavuto will oversee content as managing editor. Reacting to the announcement, Susan Nathan, a senior exec at the Universal McCann ad agency in New York, told Bloomberg News: “My gut says, ‘What, are they kidding?...

Any kid of the 1980s and early 1990s knows what it was like to get your hands on the most sought after action figures based on the biggest cartoons of the decade, such as He-Man and the Masters of The Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Real Ghostbusters and more. There was nothing like holding one of those barely 4 inches tall figures in your hands and making it act out as many of your favourite scenes as its five joints would allow....

Supernatural is resurrecting Kurt Fuller’s Angel Zachariah for its landmark 300th episode. The news comes after it was recently announced that Jeffrey Dean Morgan is also returning to play Sam and Dean’s dad. Morgan hasn’t been on the hit show since a brief voice cameo in Season 3 after sacrificing himself to save Dean’s life in Season 2. Other than the cameos and the title, Lebanon, not much else is clear about what will happen for the 300th episode extravaganza, but it looks like it’s going to be pretty big and fans are probably starting to get even more excited than they were previously....

In celebration of Family Guy: Volume 3 hitting DVD shelves today, we’re giving away copies to some lucky readers of our site! Heading up the eclectic “Family Guy” household is Peter Griffin, a big, boisterous, lovable oaf who isn’t afraid to say what’s on his freakin’ mind – usually the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. He lives in Quahog, Rhode Island with his wife, Lois, and their three children – Chris, Meg and Stewie, a brilliant, sadistic baby bent on destroying the world....

The Bad Guys, newly released in theaters, has received many positive reviews from audiences and critics alike. The animated crime comedy film is based on Aaron Blabey’s Scholastic books series for children of the same name. It marks French animator Pierre Perifel’s directorial debut. The screenplay is written by Etan Cohen, who also serves as an executive producer along with Blabey and Patrick Hughes. Emmy-award-winning English songwriter and composer Daniel Pemberton has composed the film’s score....

10 Martyrs The Weinstein Company Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs is one of the most violent of all the New French Extremity films, and because of this it has a strong loyal cult following. The movie begins with a violent home invasion and things just degenerate from that point, as we learn of two friends who were abused as children. They are caught by a sinister organization where one of girls is taken and tortured for an extended time, only to end things in an indescribable fashion that is quite a shocking surprise....

The creators of Smallville have been treating the fans to guest appearances from one comic hero or another fairly consistently since the fourth season of the show. It began with Aquaman’s guest appearance, followed shortly by Cyborg and the Flash. Last season, Green Arrow and the Martian Manhunter became semi-regular cast members, and this season Lauren Vandervoot has joined the cast as Kara - the future Supergirl. According to KryptonSite, Episode 7....

MovieWeb goes behind the scenes with the creators of the film and the new feature lush Sin City DVD! Movie PictureSin City is one of those films that if nothing else, has moved the whole argument of digital film vs. traditional film a giant leap forward. Taking place in a world conceived by Frank Miller and brought to life by the prolific and cutting edge directorial style of Robert Rodriguez, this 1940s styled, noirish tale of cops, crooks, strippers and ladies of the night is surprisingly suited for the new digital frontier Rodriguez and Miller are traveling through....

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever looks like the biggest Marvel release of 2022, and that means the path to Black Panther 3 already seems to be opening up. Director Ryan Coogler has already provided the MCU with two huge hits and now would love to be able to continue his own Marvel journey with the next installment of the Black Panther saga and beyond. Due to the unexpected death of star Chadwick Boseman, the sequel to 2018’s Black Panther did not follow its original storyline, which would have focussed on T’Challa adjusting to life in Wakanda after losing five years to the Blip....

Pulp Fiction star and frequent Quentin Tarantino collaborator Samuel L. Jackson has challenged the recent words of the Oscar winning director and his belief that there are no more movie stars. Earlier this month, Tarantino referred to the “Marvel-ization of Hollywood” and declared that the likes of Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth are not movie stars. Instead, it’s Captain America and Thor who are the stars. Well, Jackson does not agree....

Satyajit Ray is certainly a lesser-known name among western film audiences. Born in 1921 in the Indian city of Kolkata, Ray directed a total of 36 films in his lifetime. These 36 films span an extensive cinematic depth, ranging from groundbreaking genre work to grounded, humanistic tales that convey complex lessons about the universal human experience. The auteur found success and recognition in world cinema from his very first film Pather Panchali....

A new set of images from the filming of the upcoming horror sequel, Scream 6, reveals the return of franchise staple Courteney Cox. Shared by People, the images find Cox reprising the role of Gale Weathers, who will once again face off with the slasher killer known as Ghostface. Rather than fear, she must just be feeling irritation with the constant reappearances of Ghostface by now. Initially introduced in an antagonistic role in the first Scream way, way back in 1996, Gale Weathers started life as an ambitious, strong-willed journalist and writer....

A new trailer and poster Larry and Andy Wachowski’s Ninja Assassin has gone online just in time for this year’s Comic-Con. Take a look! Raizo (Rain) is one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them…and vanishes....

You can relive the adventures of your favorite British detective on Baker Street on DVD and Blu-ray this March. Sherlock Holmes will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 30. The film will be released in a standard DVD ($28.98 SRP), a special edition DVD and a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack ($35.99 SRP). You can take a look at the standard DVD cover art and the special features below. The film stars Robert Downey Jr....

Showtime has given a pilot production order to Roadies, a comedy that follows the day-to-day life of a successful rock tour as seen through the eyes of music’s unsung background players - the crew members who help get the show on the road. Cameron Crowe, who won an Oscar for brilliantly chronicling the highs and lows of rock and roll life as witnessed by a Rolling Stone magazine cub reporter in his semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous, wrote and will direct the one-hour pilot (for a potential half-hour series)....

It seems that there has been no secret made about Christina Ricci’s roles as Miss Thornhill in Netflix’s Wednesday. Despite this, there seems to be a lot of people who are only now realizing that the Nevermore Academy teacher previously played the role of Wednesday in 1991’s The Addams Family and its 1993 sequel. The 90s movies have become one the most popular iterations of the family put on screen, and the cast, including Ricci, became synonymous with the characters....