Having recently seen Speed Racer I now feel the need to write about two of my favorite writers/ producers/ directors. The Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, has a pretty good list of films both as writers and producers. Although they only have relatively few films between them (15 as writers, 9 as producers, and 8 as directors) you’ll be surprised at the number of awards they have earned, although I’d say that if you saw any of their films you shouldn’t be surprised at all. In fact so far they’ve already been nominated 9 times for various awards and won 6 out of the 5 nominations.

Films and video games done by the Wachowski Brothers include:

Speed Racer (2008) - writers, producers, and directors
V for Vendetta (2005) - writers, producers
The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005 - video game) - writers, directors
The Matrix Online (2005 - video game) - writers, directors
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) - writers, executive producers, and directors
Enter the Matrix (2003 - video game) - writers, directors
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) - writers, executive producers, and directors
The Animatrix (2003) - segment writers; producers
The Matrix (1999) - writers, producers, and directors
Bound (1996) - writers, executive producers, and directors
Assassins (1995) - writers

They are also producers of a film currently filming - Ninja Assassin.

The mark of the Wachowski brothers are one-of-a-kind surreal films that somehow feel familiar and believable. From machines taking over the world to race car drivers winning a fixed race the recurring theme is changing the world despite impossible odds. Hmmm. Sounds corny? Somehow the Wachowski brothers put it together to make it far from corny. Cool beans its another Wachowski film in the making!

Last week’s box office closed with the Forbidden Kingdom earning the top spot at $7.55 million. I still haven’t seen the movie though I look forward to seeing Jackie Chan and Jet Li together in a blockbuster movie. Being a huge fan of both action stars I sure wouldn’t miss this one.

Garnering the number two spot was Forgetting Sarah Marshall ($5.92 million). Tagged as the ultimate romantic disaster movie I wasn’t really planning on seeing the movie but after seeing the high rating it got on IMDB I just might see it.

Other movies to make it to the top ten are Prom Night ($3.45 m), 88 Minutes ($2.33 m), 21 ($1.8 m), Nim’s Island ($1,5 m), Street Kings ($1.3 m), Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed ($1.2 m), Dr Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, and Leather (tied at $925k).

So far I have only seen 88 Minutes and Street Kings. Although Street Kings was more fast-paced I preferred 88 Minutes a lot more. Street Kings lacked depth and had some really cheesy lines plus you can guess the bad guy very early on. 88 Minutes on the other hand had some slow moments in the beginning but the twist was pretty good and threw me off from my original suspect a few times. Truthfully though I had no real big basis for my original suspect to be the killer other than the person is a pretty big actor/actress (not telling so I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it yet!) and so thought that the person would have a big role.

So I guess that’s it for last week’s box office. Got lots of movies to watch this week so I can tell you all about them on my next box office recap.

First they brought comic book heroes like the Fantastic Four, Spiderman and X-men. Then it was Transformers.

Clearly, Hollywood was tapping into the childhood icons of the thirty-something movie goers, and the latest “epic” is Astro Boy, a computer animated feature from Imagi Studios.

But to hook in the young viewers, the studio brought in Highmore, who has appeared in Spiderwick Chronicles, The Golden COmpass, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

A star studded and absolutely glamorous affair, the 64th annual Golden Globe Awards had everyone who is anyone in Hollywood seated at the tables. It was the first major award show to be held for the year and honored some fine shows indeed.

The guests arrived wearing mainly black and white, plus a few metallic ones. Some of the best dressed celebrities for the night include Jennifer Love Hewitt, Penelope Cruz, Renee Zellweger, Eva Langoria and Reese Witherspoon. Hilary Swank had a really eye catching jeweled flower hair accessory that did wonders to make up for her simple black dress.

Hugh Laurie’s wish for a Dolce & Gabana acceptance speech brought some laughs as did Clint Eastwood’s repeating part of Jennifer Hudson’s acceptance speech. As expected Jennifer Hudson took home the best supporting actress award for her part in Dreamgirls. Best Supporting Actor went to Eddie Murphy, also for Dreamgirls. This was a first for both of them. Meryl Streep took home the Best Actress award for her role as the boss from hell in The Devil Wears Prada. Best Motion Picture went to Babel.

Looks like Hollywood is indeed off to a good start in 2007.

[tags] Golden Globe Awards,Red carpet,best dressed, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Meryl Streep, Babel, Hugh Laurie [/tags]

Actors have to put up with a lot of things - from a loss of privacy, long working hours, ridiculously high pay, screaming fans and of course, the papparazzi. Never did Hugh Grant expect though that he would end up in handcuffs with a fan though. Grant was at the premiere of his new movie, Music and Lyrics, in Amsterdam. Suddenly a Dutch reporter, Cielke Sijben, slipped handcuffs on the actor - talk about new accessories.

Grant handled it well. He simply continued to stroll down the red carpet as if nothing happened. The fire department managed to separate him from his companion in about ten minutes though he had to wear his new bracelet throughout the premiere.

As for the Dutch reporter, Sibjen is said to have been placed in police custody immediately after being separated from Grant. A Dutch website, RadioBitches, reports that the 22 year old joined the Dutch TV Network 101 TV in 2006.

It has been customary for most celebrities to come from a certain point of origin. This point of origin where they originally came from would usually be the immediate foundation of their illustrious career. For Beyonce Knowles, she will always be best known for being a part of the famous singing group Destiny�s Child.

Outside the obvious talent in singing, her beauty and looks are other assets that make Beyonce a diva in her own right. In 2001, the group decided to try out solo careers and this surely became the opportunity for Beyonce Giselle Knowles to shine. Her natural talent in music since age seven sprung to new heights and this can be seen with her various accomplishments when she ventured out into stardom on her own.

Among her accomplishments included that of her first hit single �Work It Out�. She also gained prominence when she became the first African-American female artist and second woman ever to win the annual ASCAP Pop Songwriter of the Year Award. She has also appeared in the big screen in movies such as Austin Powers: Goldmember in 2002 and The Pink Panther in 2006.

[tags]Beyonce Knowles, destiny’s child, diva[/tags]

Originally making waves as a professional wrestler of the World Wrestling Entertainment, the Rock has obviously made the right choice in jumping to Hollywood and trying out his acting skills on the big screen. The Rock, also known as Dwayne Douglas Johnson, is a third generation wrestler who has quite a following in the wrestling industry. His father was another famous wrestler during his time, Rocky Johnson.

The Rock made waves of being a colorful and animated wrestler in the WWE, holding the championship belt on several occasion. While everyone knows that everything is scripted, this has helped hone the Rock�s skills and allowing him to take it to the big screen. He was soon offered various roles in mini-sitcoms until his first motion picture debut on the Scorpion King catapulted his on-screen value leading to other lead roles. Other major roles that he has starred in include that of Walking Tall, The Rundown and the last of which was Doom.

[tags]wwe, wrestling, the rock, wrestlemania, raw, smackdown, scorpion king[/tags]

Popular action star Mel Gibson has been often faced criticism for the movies that he has produced and it seems that the trend will continue to go on. After facing some violent reactions towards “Passion of the Christ” where he was severely questioned for its basis, he is at it again with his new film “Apocalypto”.

Apparently, Gibson was entertaining questions at the California State University when one professor from the Central American studies, Alicia Estrada questioned the misrepresentation of the Mayan culture from the movie. Gibson traded words with Estrada who was later on escorted out for her supposed misconduct and heckling barbs at the famed Hollywood actor-producer.

If there is one thing that differs from acting and directing, it is that of consistency with the races to which Gibson has been catering to. Known to be one of the hot male actors of his time in such flicks as “Lethal Weapon” and “The Patriot”, Gibson has been always the center of controversy with his film releases.

[tags]mel gibson, apocalypto, lethal weapon[/tags]

Used to be when a movie doesn’t do well in the box office, production houses shrug their shoulders and move on to the next film. Apparently those days are gone. Now they sue the author of the book on which they based the movie - at least that’s what mogul Philip Anschutz has done.

Anschutz has taken Clive Cussler to court over the disappointing results of the production “Sahara“. He says that Cussler did not live up to his side of the contract. Cussler publicly put down the movie causing viewers to lose interest in the film and he also exaggerated how many copies of the book were actually sold. All of this resulting in the poor performance of the film.

Cussler has countersued. He says that Anchutz did not follow his recommendations in either script revision or casting. He also says that the poor performance of the film reflects badly on his other works.

In reality we all know that one has little effect on the other. Many books are great but translate poorly into films just as the good performance of a film does not guarantee instant popularity of any book though it can boost its ratings a bit.

So who is reaping the benefit of all this? The lawyers. No matter who wins, the lawyers will bring home very fat paychecks.

We’ve had the story of Robinhood told any number of ways. It’s been made into plays, there are cartoon versions of it - Disney’s version even uses animals, and of course there are the movie versions. Who can forget Kevin Costner’s Robinhood: Prince of Thieves or the comedy version Robinhood Men In Tights.

Always though the story has been about the thief and the sheriff is the evil villain. As we all know however there are two sides to any story and at last a version is in the works from the opposite point of view. This time the sheriff is the star of the show.

The film is called Nottingham and it will star the gorgeous Russell Crowe as the Sheriff of Nottingham. He’s getting quite a hefty fee to play this part; $20 million against 20% according to CanMag.com. This film will reunite Crowe with Imagine Entertainment. He previously worked under their banner with Cinderella Man and a Beautiful Mind.

The film is produced by Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment.