| Twilight saga sucks up People's Choice awards Vampire franchise wins four trophies including favourite movie, while Johnny Depp and Sandra Bullock are named favourite actor and actress respectivelyThe Oscar voters will have their say in March, but last night it was the turn of the average moviegoer to vote, vote, vote for the best films and actors of the past 12 months. And the average moviegoer, it transpires, likes the Twilight movies, Johnny Depp and Sandra Bullock.No doubt reflecting its broad-based, popular appeal, the Twilight saga emerged as the overall champion at the 2010 People's Choice awards last night, winning for favourite movie and favourite franchise. Stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were named favourite on-screen team, while supporting actor Taylor Lautner picked up the award for "breakout movie actor".Elsewhere, Sandra Bullock was named favourite actress thanks to her turn in The Proposal, while Public Enemies star Johnny Depp won the favourite actor prize. Presenting the gong, Sacha Baron Cohen paid tribute to the Pirates of the Caribbean mainstay. "He singlehandedly made being a pirate fashionable again," Baron Cohen told the audience. "Which is great unless you're sailing an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia."The other categories made a good show of covering the bases, with Hugh Jackman named favourite action star and Jim Carrey winning the sister award for comedy. Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds won the independent film award, while the Pixar animation Up was selected as favourite family film. The winners were decided after an estimated 60m votes were cast online.The People's Choice awards were established in 1975 to honour mainstream movies and actors who might otherwise be passed over by the Oscars. The Sting won the inaugural award for favourite film, while Barbra Streisand and John Wayne were named favourite actor and actress.TwilightAwards and prizesJohnny DeppSandra BullockRobert PattinsonHugh JackmanJim CarreyQuentin TarantinoXan Brooksguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Lesbian Tila's Twitter baby rant TILA Tequila has posted a series of Twitter messages hinting she is carrying heiress's baby. news.com.au |
What the scrapped Metal Gear Solid film adaptation tells us | Stuart Heritage For the first time ever, the movie industry needs the video games business more than the other way round. Here are four rules to making game-to-movie transfers workIf I told you that the producer behind Ghost Rider and The Love Guru was turning Metal Gear Solid into a film, chances are that hardly any of you would pay much attention. It's obviously such a bad idea that giving it even a nanosecond of contemplation would be a tragic waste of effort.That is because video game movies are horrible. Uniformly horrible. They're nasty, cheap cash-ins dreamed up by the sort of creatively bankrupt huckster who refers to everyone born after 1975 as "kid" and approved by cash-hungry game developers who couldn't give a fig about quality. Everyone knows that. That's why we ignore them.But here's the thing – this week it was announced that the Metal Gear Solid movie has been scrapped. And not because the producer had a change of heart, either. Quite the opposite. According to Michael de Luca, the producer in question, the film died because, "The franchise being as big as it is kind of helps the movie. I'm not sure the movie does the same thing for the game."In other words, Konami hit the brakes because it doesn't want its franchise to be tarnished by a cruddy film. Metal Gear Solid already is the mainstream – it doesn't need the cultural validation of being turned into a cack-handed Keanu Reeves vehicle by the bloke behind The Love Guru. The message is simple – this is the first time in history that movies have needed video games more than games need movies.In future it seems likely that movie producers with an eye on a video game adaptation will only get the film made if they can convince developers it'll be good. How to do this? Simple – here are the four golden rules of making a video game movie:1) Steer clear of Beat 'Em UpsIt's been proved time and time again that you can't wring much of a story from a game about people punching each other in the mouth, so don't bother. Yes, they can get away with that sort of thing in Hong Kong, but the Hong Kong film industry never cast Kylie Minogue as a high-kicking UN soldier in a leotard, did it?2) Never set the game in the real worldImagine that your protagonist is renowned in his native land for his ability to trample on tortoises. Transport him into the real world and this talent makes him a barbaric monster. So, to undo your mistake, you replace the tortoise-trampling with so much wordy exposition about dinosaurs and reverse evolution that you keep your hero out of his iconic costume for an entire hour. Congratulations, you've just made Super Mario Bros, a film about a sweater-wearing Bob Hoskins talking to an animatronic dinosaur head.3) Never hire Uwe BollOne of the reasons that videogame movies are so maligned is because the adaptations of House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, Far Cry and Postal are regarded to be some of the worst films ever made. Uwe Boll directed all of them. Who the heck is Uwe Boll, you say? God, I envy you.4) Ignore the game completelyPrince of Persia looks set to become one of the biggest movies of the year, and yet it's based on a video game. Why? Because it barely references the game at all. Watch the trailer and you'll think you're watching a bad Pirates of the Caribbean rip-off, not a bad video game adaptation. Maybe that's the key after all – just rip off Pirates of the Caribbean as much as possible.Am I missing anything? What else should be taken into consideration before a video game gets turned into a film?GamesStuart Heritageguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Avatar reportedly too hot a property for China censors Patriotic biopic of Confucius to replace blockbuster that draws parallels officials fear may cause unrest, report saysChina is to pull the plug on screenings of Avatar at most cinemas and replace the Golden Globe-winning film with a patriotic biopic on the life of Confucius, according to reports.Hong Kong's Apple Daily said the state-run China Film Group has ordered cinemas across China to stop showing the 2D version of the film and to show only the 3D edition, amid concerns from China's censors that it could cause unrest. Because there are so few 3D cinemas on the mainland, the order effectively prevents general distribution of the James Cameron blockbuster.Parallels have reportedly been drawn between the plight of the Na'vi, who face the threat of eviction from their woodland home, and those in China vulnerable to displacement by predatory property developers.Bloggers are speculating about the toll Avatar could inflict on home-grown films. The Confucius picture is directed by Hu Mei and stars Chow Yun-fat as the sage."The Central Publicity Department is said to have issued an order to the media prohibiting it from hyping up Avatar," the newspaper said.The film opened on 4 January to queues across the country, with Imax cinemas said to be booked for weeks ahead. It was due to run until 28 February, including over Chinese new year. Instead, the reports said, the 2D version will close on 23 January.According to one reputable blog, the Wuxi Big World Cineplex posted the following notice to its website: "China Film Group Company and the distribution network have given notice that Avatar (all versions) will close immediately on 23 January all across the country! We ask your understanding! Viewers who have purchased tickets for the 23rd and the 24th may obtain a refund from the box office before the 22nd! To satisfy the viewing needs of the audience, the cinema will add midnight showings from the 21st and 22nd. Grab them quickly!"The posting was later taken down, with the China News Agency, which spoke to the cinema, saying it had been an error. The 2D Avatar was to close on the 23rd but 3D showing would continue.ChinaJames CameronFilm industryCensorshipCaroline Daviesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
British film satire on suicide bombers launched in US Chris Morris's Four Lions – about Muslim suicide bombers in Britain – premiered at the Sundance film festival last nightChris Morris, the humorist whose past TV programmes have triggered controversy, has made a film about a group of British suicide bombers. Four Lions, which was partially funded by Film4, was screened last night at the Sundance film festival in Utah.The film culminates in scenes in which four young suicide bombers dressed in bird costumes question their motives at the last minute, causing chaos at the London marathon.Morris is known to have worked on little else over the last five years, during which he rejected the opportunity to pursue other TV and film projects. The 44-year-old satirist does not appear in the film, but provides a voiceover at its conclusion."Chris has spent an incredible amount of time immersing himself in Islam, terror and counter-terror," a friend told the Observer. "He has toured Britain and met dozens of radicals, ex-radicals, academics, journalists and British Asians. He sat in on high-profile terror trials for weeks, read the key texts and recent books, has gone to innumerable Âpublic meetings, met community groups, and made it his business to educate himself on the nature of fundamentalism."In 2007, writing in the Observer, Morris took author Martin Amis to task for "railing" against Muslims and suggested that "the way out of this mess (and it is a mess, fuelled by ignorance, stupidity, prejudice and weapons) is to clarify and discriminate rather than hurl abuse at anything that goes near a mosque".A colleague of Morris said: "Its target is ideology, and what happens when people are gripped by something that they have debased and abstracted to the point of insanity. That's when the trouble starts."Four Lions is released in Britain later this year.Channel 4Sundance film festivalguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |