Pure Style Magazine

(Relaxnews) - The veteran British actor has signed up for this upcoming picture about the New York mobster John Gotti, reveals Variety.

Anthony Hopkins, recently seen in the titular role in "Hitchcock," will be joining John Travolta and Travolta's wife Kelly Preston on the billing of this project, which has been in development for two years now. "Gotti" is about the relationship between John Gotti III (aka "Junior" Gotti), a colorful real-life Cosa Nostra boss, and his son, who wants to get away from organized crime.

Now that Nick Cassavetes and Barry Levinson have bowed out, Joe Johnston ("Captain America: The First Avenger") has agreed to direct the feature film starting this fall.

"Junior" Gotti, now a repentant ex-mobster, will assist in writing the script for the picture, which is being presented to potential financers at the 66th Cannes Festival Marché du Film.


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(Relaxnews) - Kevin Ma, a Hong Kong-based journalist and film critic for publications including Yesasia.com, hit the Cannes Film Festival for the first time this year. Attending screenings, parties and related festivities from May 15-20, he offers his take on the experience.

Relaxnews: How are you feeling about this 66th edition of the Cannes festival?
Kevin Ma: I was at the festival for the first five days, and at that point, there were no clear frontrunners.  However, there were certainly plenty of glamour and many stars, with two-to-three red carpet galas each night at the Grand Lumiere and two additional gala screenings in the Debussy for the Un Certain Regard section.

R: Did the bad weather affect the show?
KM: The rain did seem to dampen people's spirits, but once the sun returned, people were once again out and about. This is my first time in Cannes, and I'm amazed by how the entire town is literally taken over by the festival. Thousands of visitors flock to the Palais, while there always seem to be people wandering around the entrance, begging for invites to screenings. Even the commercial cinemas are used for market screenings and screenings for other programs. Cannes still remains one of the world's most renowned film festivals, and it's easy to see why, from the people there to the sheer size of it. Other than the weather, this year is certainly no exception.

R: What did you think of the Asian films selected this year?
KM: I was lucky enough to be able to catch most of the East Asian selections this year during my short time at the festival, including "Like Father Like Son," "Blind Detective," "A Touch of Sin," "Bends," and "Taipei Factory" from the Director's Fortnight program. I think that, while the filmmakers of "Taipei Factory" [an omnibus project featuring four short films by four directing duos composed of one filmmaker from Taiwan and one from overseas] and Jia Zhangke are trying to explore new territories with their new works, I saw directors like Kore-eda and Johnnie To working comfortably in familiar ground.... But I don't think any of the Asian films chosen this year will be the frontrunner in either category. They're strong contenders, but I don't think they're likely to win.

R: What do you think these films -- or the choice of these films -- indicate about the state of Asian film nowadays?
KM: I think it's a little troubling that the Competition section is still picking films by well-established auteurs. While one wonders why the fest played it safe with these choices, I'm also drawing a blank when trying to think of younger filmmakers in China and Japan who can replace these directors in the coming years. It's also interesting to note the lack of Korean filmmakers in this year's festival, especially in a year when three of its most famous names, like Kim Jee-Woon, Park Chan-Wook, and Bong Jong-Ho, are making their English-language debuts.

On the other hand, it's great that Indian and Filipino cinema are getting so much attention this year in all the sections. If this trend continues over the next few years with other festivals, it would signal quite an interesting shift in how we define Asian cinema.

R: On a more personal level, what's it like to be attending for the first time this year?
KM: I found it to be an incredible experience -- if the weather is good. As I said earlier, I am amazed by how the entire town is enveloped by the festival. I couldn't even see "The Great Gatsby" in a normal cinema! There's nothing in the world that equals the experience of lining up for an hour and a half just for the chance to walk up the steps to the Grand Lumiere and be the first audience in the world to watch some of the world's greatest films in a grand 2,000-seat cinema.

Cannes gets a lot of attention for the stars, the parties and glamour. At the same time, from the Marché du Film, you can see that Cannes is also a very vibrant market for buyers looking to bring these films to people around the world. My bag of flyers from the market is very heavy. You can tell that Cannes is truly about film at all levels. As someone from Hong Kong, which has one of the largest [non-competition] film festivals in the world, this is an eye-opening experience.

R: What is your best Cannes-related memory?
KM: I think my best memory is having to dress up with a bow tie and a suit to see "A Touch of Sin" at the Grand Lumiere. It was my first time at a gala Competition screening, and even though balcony audiences such as myself only got to walk a short distance up the red carpet, it was amazing to look back and realize that I was walking up the red carpet in one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. As a film buff -- not a film critic or a journalist -- it's pretty overwhelming.


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(Relaxnews) - Kate Hudson has landed the female lead in this film scripted by Zach Braff and his brother Adam and crowd-funded through a Kickstarter web campaign.

Zach Braff, who gained fame as Dr. John Dorian on the TV medical-comedy drama series "Scrubs," has announced Kate Hudson's attachment on the project's dedicated page on crowd-funding site Kickstarter.com. The actress will be playing the wife of a failed actor with sci-fi daydreams played by Braff.

Deep in debt, the couple can't afford to enroll their two kids in a good private school, so the father undertakes to home-school them -- a process that leads him to an understanding of the meaning of life in general and his own life in particular.

Anna Kendrick ("Up In the Air"), Mandy Patinkin ("Homeland") and Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory") will also be in the cast of "Wish I Was Here." The Kickstarter campaign for the project has another three days to run. $2.7m in funding has been raised so far from over 40,000 donors.

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(AFP) - The pants worn by actor Mark Hamill in the first Oscar-winning "Star Wars" film went under the hammer Tuesday for $36,100, according to auction house's website.

The young Jedi Knight wore the sand-colored regular Levi's pants throughout the 1977 movie, which launched the world-beating franchise by director George Lucas.

The pants had a pre-sale estimate of $70,000-$100,000, said Los Angeles auctioneer Nate D. Sanders, who called the film "one of those rare cinematic experiences that most people remember their whole lives." There were 13 bids.

The original movie, which launched the career of a young Harrison Ford, was soon followed by the equally popular "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983).

In the late 1990s, Lucas drew mixed reviews when he resurrected the blockbuster series with a prequel trilogy: "The Phantom Menace" (1999), "The Attack of the Clones" (2002) and "The Revenge of the Sith" (2005).

Walt Disney Company announced plans to revive the series in October, when it bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion. Sci-fi and action filmmaker J.J. Abrams will direct "Episode VII," scheduled for release in 2015.

(AFP) - Former motor racing champion Jackie Stewart looks back on his life and reveals he is haunted by the number of friends he lost in fatal crashes in an updated version of the 1971 film "Weekend of a Champion" shown at Cannes on Tuesday.

The original film, directed by Frank Simon and presented and produced by Roman Polanski, tells the story of the Scottish racing star's Monaco Grand Prix victory.

It has been updated by Polanski with a postscript interview with Stewart.

Polanski takes Stewart back to the same hotel room where over breakfast in his underpants in 1971, the champion demonstrated his driving technique using a match box and a racing track drawn on a table cloth.

Remembering the fatalities of those years, Stewart said before the documentary was filmed he and his wife Helen sat down and listed 57 people they knew who had died including five close friends.

He said they worked out there was a "one out of three chance that I was going to survive and two out of three that I was going to be killed".

"A terrible batting average," he tells Polanski who produced and presented Frank Simon's 1971 film in a postscript interview.

"And yet nothing was being done by the governing body, by the track owners, by the officials," he said.

The three-time Formula One world champion, who campaigned during his career for improved safety, said it took a lot of pressure from him supported by other drivers in order to get the changes that have resulted in deaths becoming rare today.

And he said he still remembered the fellow drivers who lost their lives.

"Lorenzo Bandini died here in Monaco. Not far from... this window," he said, looking out of his hotel suite.

"They never got the fire out. They tried to put the extinguishers on. Lorenzo never got out of the car. The fire just engulfed everyone.

"There was not the right equipment... and not enough people and the driver died," he said.

More than four decades later, crashes are just as spectacular as before, but deaths are rare.

When Robert Kubica crashed in 2007 at the Canadian Grand Prix, Stewart said he was convinced he could not survive.

"I was there. I thought 'he's dead', no-one can survive impacts like that (but) he was carried out on a stretcher and he walked out of the hospital the next morning."

(AFP) - Italian director Paolo Sorrentino presented a lush portrait of decadence and excess in contemporary Rome at Cannes Tuesday in a film reviewers said echoed the classic "La Dolce Vita".

"The Great Beauty" (La Grande Bellezza) tells the story of ageing writer-dandy Jep Gambardella, played by the much-praised Toni Servillo.

Orgiastic parties hosted by Jep in his fabulous rooftop flat overlooking the Colosseum only briefly interrupt his search for meaning in his twilight years, recalling themes in Federico Fellini's immortal 1960 tragicomedy.

The author of a brilliant novella in his youth, Jep now funds his lavish lifestyle collecting royalties and writing high-profile magazine interviews.

He attends absurd art openings, one of which features a young girl playing out a tantrum by throwing buckets of paint at a canvas, while his friends in the chattering classes prattle on about sex scandals.

A lifelong womaniser, the 65-year-old Jep keeps up his bed-hopping but with ever-diminishing satisfaction.

"The film simply tries to portray a poverty that is not material poverty but a different kind of poverty," Sorrentino, who won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2008 for "Il Divo" about the late Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, told reporters.

"We're not trying to judge these people but just to say that they are a symbol of our country."

The new picture won praise for its remarkable cinematography, in which Rome appears bathed in golden light by day and as a shimmering jewel by night.

It is a radical break from Sorrentino's high-concept 2011 Cannes contender "This Must Be The Place" in which Sean Penn played a Nazi-hunting 1980s pop star.

The 42-year-old director said that compared to "La Dolce Vita", his film reflected despair about conditions in today's crisis-hit Italy.

"The Italy of 'La Dolce Vita' was full of hope, an Italy that felt it was experiencing a very enthusiastic period right after the war," he said.

"Here you have the portrait of a city that symbolises a certain human condition. It doesn't reflect hope at all but rather shadows of bygone times."

Following largely positive reviews, a confident Sorrentino said "The Great Beauty" had one thing in particular in common with Fellini's most famous film.

"For obvious reasons 'La Dolce Vita' is a masterpiece and my film will become a masterpiece too," he said to applause.

"The Great Beauty" is one of 20 films vying for the Palme d'Or top prize to be presented Sunday by an all-star jury led by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg.

(AFP) - One of the oddest moments for Todd Phillips, director of the "Hangover" movies, was meeting a Zach Galifianakis lookalike on the Vegas Strip who refused to have his picture taken if not paid.

Galifianakis' hilarious bearded misfit Alan -- who takes center stage in the final installment, out this week -- has become a staple image on T shirts and tourist trinkets in Vegas, where the first blockbuster film was set in 2009.

Jobless actors dressed as "Hangover" characters, as well as more traditional movie icons, tout visitors for money to have their pictures taken outside the casinos lining the Nevada gambling capital's world-famous Strip.

"When we were scouting for 'Hangover 3' I saw some guys and I went to take a picture of them. And a Zach character turned around and said 'No free pictures'," recalled director Todd Phillips.

"I said 'I directed the movie, but I don't have my wallet.' But he refused to turn round," he said.

He was speaking ahead of the May 23 US release of "The Hangover Part 3," which takes its ill-fated heroes back to the scene of their first mayhem-fueled adventure in Sin City.

The movie, which looks set to be one of the biggest hits of the summer, returns hapless Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug to Las Vegas after they got spectacularly lost in Bangkok in the second installment in 2011

"Bridesmaids" star Melissa McCarthy joins Bradley Cooper (Phil), Ed Helms (Stu) and Justin Bartha (Doug) in a film which starts with Alan's buddies deciding to stage an "intervention" to rescue him from his demons.

Alan initially agrees, but inevitably the plan goes awry, Doug is kidnapped (as in the first two films -- "I'm a good Jewish kidnapee," says Bartha), and the other three have to turn to the crazed Asian Mr. Chow to save the day.

Unlike the previous films the plot does not include a hangover. In those, the story was "reverse engineered" starting with the hapless heroes waking up with the mother of all headaches, and trying to figure out what had happened.

In "The Hangover Part 3" Phillips says he wanted to tie up loose ends from the previous films.

"'Hangover 3' is the ultimate backwards engineering," said Phillips, explaining how fragments of plot and character which went almost unnoticed are pulled together to "resolve" the hapless friends' story once and for all.

The first two movies broke box office records, and the Oscar-nominated director would love this movie to do the same, even if it doesn't win any awards.

"If you look at the box office .. literally a hundred million people have seen (the movies) in theaters alone. That's a pretty cool thing, and I think that ultimately is a more rewarding thing than even an award," he told AFP.

For the films' stars, the blockbuster success has been spectacularly good news. "Todd has supplied me with the biggest role that any director has ever given me," said former doctor Ken Jeong, who plays Mr Chow.

Jeong, who again appears full frontal naked in the new movie -- which also sees him paragliding over the casinos of Las Vegas and plunging out of the side of a mountain -- insists he is shy.

"I'm not an exhibitionist. I'm very shy and very demure about my body, and ashamed about my body. But an actor acts. You've got to make fearless choices to be an actor."

Referring to himself, he added: "I've got nothing to brag about," and said he cleared the decision to go naked with his wife before agreeing to it with the filmmakers.

He recalled how she teasingly told him: "I guarantee 'Hangover' will be the feel good movie of the summer. I guess every guy will go home feeling good about themselves."

Galifianakis, whose character finally finds a soulmate in a hilarious scene with McCarthy, said the Emmy-winning actress's performance is "really nice for the energy of the movie."

The film ends heart-warmingly with the buddies re-united, Alan happy with his new beloved. Well, that's unless you stay past the first few closing credits, when a more typically graphic scene brings down the final curtain.

(AFP) - "Behind the Candelabra," the biopic of flamboyant entertainer Liberace that may be director Steven Soderbergh's swansong, turned the spotlight on homosexuality on Tuesday in a landmark year for gay rights.

The biggest film screening at the 12-day festival's halfway point, Soderbergh's movie has generated a huge buzz, for top-line heterosexual actors are cast in the roles of gays.

Michael Douglas turns in an eye-catching performance as the ageing Las Vegas pianist, while Matt Damon plays his handsome teenage lover, Scott Thorson.

Outrageously flashy but also a virtuoso pianist in his own right, Liberace died of AIDS in 1987 at 67 after four decades in the spotlight.

Visually, the movie is a blaze of cheesy style, from mink coats and Rolls-Royces to rhinestone jackets and the trademark candelabra that Liberace placed on his piano.

Beneath the flash, though, the film explores themes of love and trust, tinged by Liberace's narcissism and obsession with youth and by Thorson's vulnerability as a child raised by foster parents.

In one graphic scene, Liberace pushes Thorson to have plastic surgery so that he can look like the star did in his youth.

As the once-tender relationship between Liberace and Thorson fractures, it touches on the pressures on gay relationships at a time when homosexuals had to keep their identity carefully secret.

Throughout his life, Liberace outwardly declared he was a heterosexual, encouraged gossip that he was having female relationships and in the 1950s sued a British paper that insinuated otherwise.

He persisted with the facade right into the 1980s, when Thorson, by now addled by drugs and ditched by Liberace, filed a "palimony" lawsuit.

"Behind the Candelabra" is released in a historic year for gay rights. Fourteen countries, as well as 12 US states, have now legalised same-sex marriage.

"Fifty years ago, we didn't even have the Civil Rights Act in the United States -- now of course it's part of our DNA," Soderbergh told a post-screening press conference.

"So when this issue comes up, of equal rights for gays, I always think, I'm hoping, 50 years from now, we're going to be looking back on this and wonder why this was even a debate, and what took so long," he said.

"We're getting there, it's all I think moving in the right direction. But to be honest... in making the film, the socio-political aspect wasn't really on my mind, I was focused on this relationship and trying to make this relationship as believable and realistic as we could."

The film's gay theme prompted mainstream Hollywood to shy away from financing the picture, Soderbergh has said elsewhere.

As a result, he turned to the US cable TV giant HBO. Even if the movie turns out to be a hit, it will have no chance of an Oscar by screening first on television.

Clearly moved, Douglas paid tribute to Soderbergh, Damon and producer Jerry Weintraub for giving him a "beautiful gift" after his fight with throat cancer.

Both he and Damon said they had had no qualms about approaching scenes of male contact, which involved kissing and cuddling and, Damon said laughingly, an artfully fuzzy shot of his backside.

"With the security of knowing each other, of having worked with Steven before, knowing Matt, you don't have to go through that formal dance of introductions," said Douglas, who starred in Soderbergh's "Traffic".

The approach, he said wryly, was: "'We've both read the script, let's get it on, just what flavour lip balm would you like me to use?'"

Damon said he and Douglas had not hesitated at all about breaking with their image as hetero hunks -- Damon featured in the Bourne movies, and Douglas starred in "Basic Instinct" and "Fatal Attraction."

"In terms of being in bed with Michael Douglas, I now have things in common with Sharon Stone and Glenn Close," Damon quipped. "We can all now go out and trade stories."

One of actors' most popular directors, with a string of critical successes under his belt, Soderbergh leapt to prominence in 1989 where he won Cannes' Palme d'Or for "Sex, Lies and Videotape."

He also directed "Erin Brockovich" and the three "Ocean's" films.

Soderbergh refused to quell speculation that was retiring, saying, "I'm absolutely taking a break, I don't know how extended it's going to be... it's been a good run."

(Relaxnews) - Kanye West, who's grown accustomed to seeing his face on tabloid covers with his socialite partner Kim Kardashian, is gearing up for a return to center stage in the international music scene with a new studio album, "Yeezus," due out June 18. Over the past few days, rumors and conjectures have given way to some specifics divulged on TV shows and on social networks.

Three years after "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," the rapper will be putting out his latest brainchild, christened "Yeezus," on June 18. His sixth studio album to date, "Yeezus" comprises 15 tracks and features guest artists Daft Punk, Frank Ocean, DJ Skrillex and the American alternative hip hop collective Odd Future.

West has just divulged the album title and release date on Twitter. The CD cover has already been designed and has been previewed on Kim Kardashian's Instagram account.

The prolific recording artist, whose new album is one of the most eagerly awaited music releases of the year, has displayed marked prowess in seizing public attention using a whole armada of communication tools, particularly by posting information on several different social networks. This past weekend he made a splash with live performances of two titles, "New Slave" and "Black Skinhead," on American TV show "Saturday Night Live." From Friday to Sunday, the clip to his single "New Slave" was projected onto the facades of 66 buildings in ten major cities around the world, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Berlin and Paris. The locations were listed on West's official website.

Kanye West, "Yeezus," release date: June 18, Def Jam Recordings.

Site: www.kanyewest.com

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(Relaxnews) - Marseille-born journalist Alexandra Apikian is a regular at the Cannes festivities, which she's covering this year for Villa Schweppes - and for her own personal pleasure. This high-society columnist, who tweets live (@alexandrapikian) on the broadcast "Le Lab.Ô" on the French TV network France Ô, recaps her impressions so far of this year's rainy Cannes Film Festival.

Relaxnews: Nearly midway through the festival at this point, how do you feel about this year's festival?
Alexandra Apikian: It's a slightly underwhelming festival. Quite simply owing to the weather factor. That seems idiotic to everyone and we festivalgoers seem like snobs walking around saying "Oh la la, it's raining in Cannes, how awful!" But you've got to realize the Cannes Festival is not at all suited to storms and rain. All the events are held on the hotels' or private brands' beaches, whether it's the luncheons, get-togethers, parties. So that puts a damper on half the job and the parallel business. When it's pouring rain, it's not easy to draw the actors and actresses out of their hotels for an interview.

R: Has the weather put a damper on the parties, too?
AA: We really had pouring rain all weekend. The lousy weather made for slightly odd parties what with the outdoor areas closed off and the roofed-over beaches jampacked in no time. And plenty of people tussling with their umbrellas.

R: Apart from the weather, how has the Croisette reacted to the other incidents -- the jewelry theft, the shots fired?
AA: Yes, we got the whole works this year! I was over at the "Grand Journal" by the way [where a man carrying a dummy grenade and a handgun fired blanks near a makeshift TV studio on Friday, May 17]. By the end of the third day, we were like: this can't be possible! What with the weather and the crime, we're jinxed! But we're taking it all in stride with a smile. It's become a running joke between festivalgoers. It's been getting better since [Sunday], nothing's happening [laughs]. The sun's back out, but now we've got the mistral [cold northerly wind]!

R: What are your plans for the rest of your stay?
AA: I'm supposed to be leaving on Wednesday. There's the screening of the movie with Ryan Gosling ["Only God Forgives"] that night but last I heard the actor's not going to show. And if he isn't there, it doesn't matter if I miss the reception [laughs]. In the meantime, there's Mathieu Chedid who's going to make the scene. He was scheduled to make an appearance on "Grand Journal", and  a bit more of a secret but also [was]to be playing unplugged afterwards at the Villa Schweppes. Word has it Daft Punk might come too but that's still a rumor. A major band will be on the "Grand Journal" at the end of the week but that's still a secret, or else there might well be another commotion. My lips are sealed. Now that they've already had gunshots, we're going to avoid jinxing them [laughs].

R: Your best memories of Cannes?
AA: Hmm, my best memories of the festival... Er...I'm trying to remember. Last year, that was funny. When you cover the soirées, you don't always get a chance to see the films. You can't do everything. The screenings at 8 in the morning, you can generally forget about them. The only one I went to last year was the Brad Pitt ["Killing Them Softly"]. Seeing Brad Pitt a couple inches away was a minor victory at the Festival when you're still in night mode and you get up at 7 in the morning to get over there [laughs]. Afterwards you can go back to bed and rest easy, mission accomplished!

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