Bruno Archives - The Playlist

Carter Burwell’s “Where The Wild Things Are” & “The Blind Side” Scores Disqualified For Oscar

Kevin Jagernauth — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:26:00 +0000

Well, you win some and you lose some. We had previously celebrated when Karen O’s “All Is Love” got an 11th hour addition to the Oscar shortlist for Best Song when Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” was – depending on who you ask – disqualified or retracted for consideration as it was not written specifically for “Hannah Montana: The Movie.”

Unfortunately, Carter Burwell won’t get his shot at Oscar this year, as the Academy has ruled that the overall soundtrack for “Where The Wild Things Are” is too heavily blended with Karen O’s pop tunes.

Continue reading Carter Burwell’s “Where The Wild Things Are” & “The Blind Side” Scores Disqualified For Oscar at The Playlist.

For Your Consideration With A Straight Face: ‘Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen’ For Best Picture & ‘Brüno’; Plus More FYC From The Studios

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:41:00 +0000

Today many are noting, some making a fuss, that that Warner Bros. are pushing “The Hangover” for Best Picture consideration in ads that are running on Variety (see below). However, it’s not really that odd. Studios typically campaign beyond their reach and hell, it’s a 10 film Best Picture race so of course they’re going to try and push hard for films that might not normally get Best Pic Oscar consideration.

On their For Your Consideration site, Warner Bros.

Continue reading For Your Consideration With A Straight Face: ‘Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen’ For Best Picture & ‘Brüno’; Plus More FYC From The Studios at The Playlist.

‘Brüno’ Deleted Scenes: Pete Rose & LaToya Jackson

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:07:00 +0000

Last week we mentioned that the LaToya Jackson scene cut out of the theatrical version of “Brüno” earlier this summer out of respect for the Jackson family — the King of Pop had dies just days earlier — would be reinstated for the DVD as a deleted scene.

The DVD arrives in stores on Nov. 17 and now both the aforementioned Jackson clip and one in a similar setting featuring disgraced ex-baseball star Pete Rose are available for your viewing pleasure.

Continue reading ‘Brüno’ Deleted Scenes: Pete Rose & LaToya Jackson at The Playlist.

Excised Scene Mocking Latoya Jackson Returns For The ‘Brüno’ DVD

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:35:00 +0000

Now that the world has finally stopped mourning the death of Michael Jackson (because they’re celebrating with his dance movie!), it’s apparently OK now for Sacha Baron Cohen to make fun of LaToya Jackson once more.

You’ll recall right before the release of “Brüno,” the 50-year-old King of Pop passed away (have they figured out what killed him yet aside from child molesters remorse?), so Universal quickly pulled the scene in the picture that mocked LaToya, “out of respect for Jackson’s family.”

To refresh your memory.

Continue reading Excised Scene Mocking Latoya Jackson Returns For The ‘Brüno’ DVD at The Playlist.

Facing The Firing Squad At Universal Studios- Two Troubled Execs Give Last Words

Gabe Toro — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:06:00 +0000

The LA Times recently posted an intriguing interview with Universal Pictures chairmen Mark Shmuger and David Linde where the two candidly threw themselves under the bus for the studio’s recent unwise decisions and lackluster summer. In addition to not getting the heat they had hoped for with “Bruno” and “Public Enemies,” they lost quite a bit of money on “Land of the Lost” and their latest, “Funny People,” spent only two weeks in the box office top ten.

Continue reading Facing The Firing Squad At Universal Studios- Two Troubled Execs Give Last Words at The Playlist.

Universal Wanted To Cut ‘Funny People’ By 30 Minutes?

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:04:00 +0000

Sharon Waxman’s at it again, but this time it seems a bit more plausible. You’ll remember she reported that The Weinstein Company wanted to trim 40 minutes of “Inglourious Basterds,” and that report turned out to be totally false (even though, “bloggers” seemed to catch the brunt of that error for some reason).

Now she’s saying (via Jeff Wells) Universal, some of the head’s of which are evidently in trouble, wanted to cut 30 minutes of the picture, which seems understandable because a) Universal is not having a great summer, “Bruno,” way underperformed as did “Public Enemies,” even if it does have legs and b) this film is too long at 2 hours and 26 minutes.

Continue reading Universal Wanted To Cut ‘Funny People’ By 30 Minutes? at The Playlist.

Weekend Box Office: Kiddie And Adult Fare Rule In Atypical Summer Period

Gabe Toro — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:59:00 +0000

The Jerry Bruckheimer brand sure knows hits. Dipping his toes into the kiddie world, he achieved another number one hit with “G-Force.” The 3D guinea pig action picture netted $32.2 million over the weekend, outpacing last weekend’s champ “Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince.” The boy wizard fell off a sharp 61% (gee, it must be Twitter’s/MySpace’s/Skype’s fault) but was still close behind with $30 million, bringing its two week total to $222 million domestic, with undoubtedly more overseas.

Continue reading Weekend Box Office: Kiddie And Adult Fare Rule In Atypical Summer Period at The Playlist.

Did The Twitter Effect Kill ‘Brüno’?

Spencer Martin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:45:00 +0000

Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times’ recently pondered the unprecedented drop off that Sacha Baron Cohen‘s latest attempt to expose the absurd behavior in everyday American life, “Brüno” experienced during its second week at the box-office. Its 73% fall in its second week is the steepest drop for a movie this year, and certainly something the suits over at Universal were not expecting from one of their more heavily marketed features.

Continue reading Did The Twitter Effect Kill ‘Brüno’? at The Playlist.

Bruce Lee Biopics Approved By Siblings, Sam Worthington Joins ‘The Candidate’

Simon Dang — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:50:00 +0000

Bruce Lee’s siblings have given the go-ahead for a Chinese company to develop a series of biographical films of the martial arts star. The film’s producer added: “There will be kung fu … But more importantly, we want to portray the real Bruce Lee. What is the real Bruce Lee like? He was very humorous. He was very obedient to his parents. He was very kind to his family,”” Bruce Lee, the dramedy? [THR]

Morgan Spurlock is teaming with Dark Horse to create a graphic novel companion to his 2004 film “Super Size Me.” Titled “Supersized: Strange Tales From a Fast Food Culture,” the novel will be written by Spurlock and feature bizarre stories about the U.S.’s obsession with fast food that weren’t seen in the film while still hoping to make a point about health and nutrition.

Continue reading Bruce Lee Biopics Approved By Siblings, Sam Worthington Joins ‘The Candidate’ at The Playlist.

Weekend Box Office: ‘Harry Potter’ Breaks Open The Kitty; ‘Bruno’ Shits The Bed

Gabe Toro — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:22:00 +0000

It was no surprise that, with a wide-open marketplace and strong word-of-mouth, that the “Harry Potter” juggernaut would continue. It didn’t do “Transformers” business, but it still smashed along at a $159.7 million five day weekend and a $79.5 three day, top-heavy with the biggest midnight screenings in blockbuster history. The core audience hasn’t seen Potter on the big screen for more than a year, so they were certainly hungry, but it’s hard to be too enthusiastic about future prospects given this is the sixth film in the series, and never destined to earn new fans.

Continue reading Weekend Box Office: ‘Harry Potter’ Breaks Open The Kitty; ‘Bruno’ Shits The Bed at The Playlist.

Weekend Box Office- ‘Bruno’ At The Top

Gabe Toro — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:24:00 +0000

Defying many who thought the gay content would be “too much” for certain audiences, Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno” debuted at the top spot with an impressive $30 million haul. Sociological ramifications? Eh. “Bruno” proves only what we already knew, that some people still love laughing at gay people, with a select few appreciating the joys of laughing with them. Is there a real life suggestion that homosexuality, because it remains somewhat taboo, should be accepted primarily as a source of humor for both gays and straights?

Continue reading Weekend Box Office- ‘Bruno’ At The Top at The Playlist.

In Theaters: ‘Bruno,’ ‘I Love You, Beth Cooper,’ ‘Soul Power’ & ‘Humpday’

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Depending on your perspective, this is either a fairly good, or fairly mediocre box-office weekend. We’ll have to disagree with the former for the most part, but perhaps that’s just us. Although it was dubbed a “tie” last weekend, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” did eventually out perform “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” by about just over half a million dollars. But there’s probably no way either of them can hang onto the top spot this weekend (though holding onto #2 still seems reasonable consider the so-so offerings).

Continue reading In Theaters: ‘Bruno,’ ‘I Love You, Beth Cooper,’ ‘Soul Power’ & ‘Humpday’ at The Playlist.

Aubrey Plaza And Brie Larson In ‘Scott Pilgrim,’ More Megan Fox In ‘Jennifer’s Body,’ Teaser For Ricky Gervais’ ‘Cemetery Junction

Simon Dang — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Here’s a look at Aubrey Plaza and Brie Larson as Julie Powers and Natalie “Envy” Adams in “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.” Powers is the on and off bitchy girlfriend of protagonist Pilgrim’s bandmate, Stephen Stills (Mark Webber), while Adams is the ex-girlfriend of Pilgrim’s who now leads the band The Clash At Demonhead — who will be stood in for by Canadian synth-rockers Metric. [EdgarWrightHere]

Edgar Wright still hopes to one day return to his adaptation of the Marvel comic book property, “Ant-Man.” ” ‘Ant-Man’ is something I need to return to.

Continue reading Aubrey Plaza And Brie Larson In ‘Scott Pilgrim,’ More Megan Fox In ‘Jennifer’s Body,’ Teaser For Ricky Gervais’ ‘Cemetery Junction at The Playlist.

The Playlist’s July Summer Preview

Jared Weiss — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:47:00 +0000

You know the drill here. We here at The Playlist did a summer preview of the films arriving in May and June, so here’s July. There’s a lot of interesting pictures dropping this month. Take a look.

JULY 3
“The Girl from Monaco”
This is the first of writer-director Anne Fontaine’s two films to hit the U.S. this year (the other is “Coco Before Chanel,” starring Audrey Tatou), the movie will likely appeal to anyone excited by the phrase “French sex comedy.” It appears to have a relatively standard romcom love triangle: a lawyer, a bodyguard, and a bimbo of a girl with a history.

Continue reading The Playlist’s July Summer Preview at The Playlist.

Original ‘Brüno’ Ending Climaxed With Gay Bashing Scene?

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:38:00 +0000

We hate to give The Wrap’s National Inquirer-style reporting any ink or credence, but perhaps their articles that said Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Brüno” was softened and made more “gay friendly” were somewhere on the money? Then again, their reports were revealed to be nothing more than printing random emails, but still, this one can’t be overlooked.

Movieline is reporting that the original ending of Brüno featured a “brutal gay bashing played out for laughs.”

Apparently a cut screened in February to industry people was far more biting than the tame, “We Are The World”- esque singalong with celebrities like Bono and Coldplay’s Chris Martin that now closes out the film — which we singled out as being a “toothless and with-a-whimpering conclusion” in our review.The film does feature a cage-match UFC championship scenes, which we’ve discussed at length, and evidently the film ended shortly after that moment in the Feb cut.

Continue reading Original ‘Brüno’ Ending Climaxed With Gay Bashing Scene? at The Playlist.

Celine Dion Song Replaces Elton John Track In “Brüno”

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:42:00 +0000

While we didn’t love “Brüno,” a mildly funny film with a lot of fleeting and forgettable laughs, one scene in particular we did rather like — filled with the incisive social commentary we were hoping for — was the “Straight Dave” Ultimate Fighting Championship face-off scene (detailed here at length).

As we reported earlier this month, the scene originally included Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” originally from “The Lion King,” but either Disney and seemingly John himself pulled the song from the scene perhaps fearing the sequence was too outrageous.

Continue reading Celine Dion Song Replaces Elton John Track In “Brüno” at The Playlist.

‘Brüno’ Is Mostly Forgettable, Without Sharp, Satircial Bite

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:20:00 +0000

Considering just how uproariously funny and excruciatingly outrageous the footage of “Brüno” that screened at SXSW was — not to mention how it went over with audiences; like a carpetbomb of positive blog buzz — it’s almost shocking to discover just how tame and forgettable the laughs of the final film product are.

While frequently diverting, marginally amusing and occasionally just plain funny, “Brüno” also contains ephemeral laughs that do not possess the hysterically subversive or arresting qualities hinted at in Austin back in March.

Continue reading ‘Brüno’ Is Mostly Forgettable, Without Sharp, Satircial Bite at The Playlist.

Offending LaToya Jackson Scene Pulled From ‘Brüno’ After Michael’s Untimely Death

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:05:00 +0000

Obviously there’s an outpouring of grief, or at least media attention and coverage, over the death of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop who died yesterday at the age of 50 after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home in L.A. And despite years of ridiculing Jackson, now that he has died, it’s apparently verboten to act Un-PC-like and Universal is reacting quickly.

Since we’re in movie world, the first thing we thought when we heard the news of Jackson’s death was an “uh oh,” for Sacha Baron Cohen.

Continue reading Offending LaToya Jackson Scene Pulled From ‘Brüno’ After Michael’s Untimely Death at The Playlist.

Mia Wasikowska And Matt Lucas In ‘Alice In Wonderland,’ Allison Anders To Mount Comeback? Terrence Malick’s ‘The Tree Of Life’ Bamboozles Actor

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Two more images from Tim Burton’s “Alice In Wonderland” have been unveiled. This time its Alice herself, played by Mia Wasikowska, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum, played by Matt Lucas of “Little Britain” fame. [RopesOfSilicon]

French soft rockers Air have composed the soundtrack to Chinese visual artist Yi Zhou’s short film “The Dream of Yi.” The group have also just announced plans for their sixth album to be titled, Love 2, coming out later this year around early October.

Continue reading Mia Wasikowska And Matt Lucas In ‘Alice In Wonderland,’ Allison Anders To Mount Comeback? Terrence Malick’s ‘The Tree Of Life’ Bamboozles Actor at The Playlist.

Updated – File Under B.S.? “Gay Friendly” Reshoots Made On ‘Brüno’?

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:05:00 +0000

Update: Ha, yes. We called this one. Looks like The Wrap is just printing random emails with an agenda as their “source”? The same email that Nikki Finke published as well as her “insider”? Jesus Christ . Kudos to Movieline to revealing this one and illustrating the transparency of both sites, “reporting.”

Movieline: “Mystery Emailer Unites Nikki Finke and Sharon Waxman In Bruno Smear”

Previously: Let’s face it, the gay community is very worried about Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Brüno,”; how it’s going to be perceived, how it’s going to be received and if it’s going to be the “minstrel show” they think it’s going to be and sets gay rights back into the stone ages.

Continue reading Updated – File Under B.S.? “Gay Friendly” Reshoots Made On ‘Brüno’? at The Playlist.

Denied: Elton John Refuses To Let ‘Brüno’ Use “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” From ‘The Lion King’

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:32:00 +0000

Elton John is friends with Eminem so he gets “playing characters” in art and statement-driven satire, right? [photos in this piece from GQ]

Hmm…. When we saw footage of Sacha Baron Cohen’s paralytically funny, “Brüno” at SXSW (or at least the 20-something minutes of footage we saw was that funny, we can’t speak to the whole thing yet), there was one scene that was set in an Ultimate Fighting Championship face-off match.

We wrote, “At this point in the film, Cohen’s once ostentatiously homosexual reporter has turned militaristically heterosexual and has created a UFC-like show called “Dave’s MAX Out,” giving us our first peek at Straight Dave, the newly invented Brüno.

Continue reading Denied: Elton John Refuses To Let ‘Brüno’ Use “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” From ‘The Lion King’ at The Playlist.

Early Brüno Buzz, Twitter, Reviews & Concern

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:37:00 +0000

The U.K. Sun have posted the first review of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Brüno,” a film that has been buzzing in the media and not all of it has been positive (and oh yeah, Cohen is on the cover of GQ nude this month).

Let’s start with the Sun. “The Nazi leader [Adolf Hitler] gets a mention every five minutes,” and the review is pretty much off and running.
“To say Brüno makes uncomfortable viewing is an understatement of Battle of Britain proportions.

Continue reading Early Brüno Buzz, Twitter, Reviews & Concern at The Playlist.

Shia Labeouf Not Interested In D.J. Caruso’s ‘Y: The Last Man,’ Sam Raimi Was Offered ‘Star Trek’ Helm, Three ‘Bruno’ TV Spots Debut

Simon Dang — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:28:00 +0000

Despite being forever linked to the role, Shia LaBeouf has revealed that he is not interested in taking up the lead role in D.J. Caruso’s proposed adaptation of “Y: The Last Man” as he feels the protagonist Yorick is too similar to Sam Witwicky in “Transformers.” Right, because his career thus far has been all about diversity, right? Still geeks looking forward to this one are kind of in disappointed shock. [Coming Soon]

Sam Raimi was reportedly offered the director’s chair for the new “Star Trek” franchise before “the [J.J.

Continue reading Shia Labeouf Not Interested In D.J. Caruso’s ‘Y: The Last Man,’ Sam Raimi Was Offered ‘Star Trek’ Helm, Three ‘Bruno’ TV Spots Debut at The Playlist.

Shocker: Eminem Apparently In On The Brüno Joke

Rodrigo Perez — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:07:00 +0000

Head comedy writer for the MTV Movie Awards, Scott Aukerman said on his blog that “the Brüno/Eminem incident was staged” according to EW /L.A. Times (here’s the moment in case you missed it). However, the post has now been pulled. You can figure out from there what that means.

Yesterday in the aftermath of the event, many assumed the stunt was half-staged with Em’s angry response being real (perhaps a gag btwn MTV and Sacha Baron Cohen, but with Em not fully aware how far it would go), but EW says, the moment was done with “Eminem’s consent and participation.”

You’re crushed, we can tell.

Continue reading Shocker: Eminem Apparently In On The Brüno Joke at The Playlist.

Jonah Hill’s ’21 Jump Street’ To Be ‘Bad Boys’ Meets ‘John Hughes’

Gabe Toro — Thu, 28 May 2009 01:20:00 +0000

A year has passed since Jonah Hill’s announced involvement with a bigscreen adaptation of the hit show “21 Jump Street.” That sort of hiatus suggests a project is dead, but not so, says Hill. Speaking to Complex, he says that the approach will be comedic, but not necessarily a departure from the source.

Says Hill: “Yeah, if you look at the opening episode of ‘21 Jump Street,’ you see a man looking at a picture of a cop holding a little boy’s hand, and you hear a crazy saxophone solo, and you pan up and it’s Johnny Depp looking at the picture playing the crazy saxophone solo.

Continue reading Jonah Hill’s ’21 Jump Street’ To Be ‘Bad Boys’ Meets ‘John Hughes’ at The Playlist.