Peter Jackson
Documentary 'Long Live the King' doesn't do Kong justice
Over the course of his venerable career King Kong has battled mythological creatures, scaled skyscrapers and once had a soft spot for a blond. Now his outsized contribution to cinema is assessed in “Long Live the King.”
Focusing extensively on the 1933 original, which was discovered by subsequent generations via many a small-screen movie marathon, the documentary by Frank Dietz and Trish Geiger is big on enthusiasm though it ultimately lacks depth.
While the original film has influenced the assembled aging film and TV industry fanboys, “Gremlins” director Joe Dante, “The Walking Dead” makeup whiz Greg Nicotero and “Simpsons” writer Dana Gould among them, subsequent spawn of...
Related "Peter Jackson" Articles
Documentary 'Long Live the King' doesn't do Kong justice
Over the course of his venerable career King Kong has battled mythological creatures, scaled skyscrapers and once had a soft spot for a blond. Now his outsized contribution to cinema is assessed in “Long Live the King.”
Focusing extensively on the...
The newest location for L.A.'s bank to the stars? A storefront in a Crenshaw strip mall
City National Bank, L.A.’s “bank to the stars,” has branches in Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Westlake Village and — coming soon — a location in a Crenshaw Boulevard strip mall storefront currently occupied by a payday lender.
It’s uncharted...
Accidental movie star Sharlto Copley on his gonzo career and keeping things surreal in 'Free Fire'
In the Martin Scorsese-produced shoot ’em up “Free Fire,” South African actor Sharlto Copley plays Vern, a narcissistic gunrunner in a polyester suit who’s prone to a certain behavioral grandiloquence. He describes himself as a “rare and mysterious pearl”...
'Kong' conquers 'Logan' at the box office
In the box office war among beasts, Wolverine, in his second week, was no match for the return of King Kong.
“Kong: Skull Island,” from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, pulled in an estimated $61 million in the U.S. and Canada. The film performed...
'Kong' vs. 'Logan': Monkey business beats out the Wolverine
Fangs and hairy, chest-pounding fists took the lead over razor-sharp claws on Friday as “Kong: Skull Island” roared out of the gate with an opening day estimated box-office take of $20.23 million, nearly double the amount logged at the outset of the...
The Hendrix-fueled vision that led Jordan Vogt-Roberts to take 'Kong: Skull Island' to the Vietnam era
The first thing you notice about Jordan Vogt-Roberts when you meet him is his monster of a beard.
A jet-black carpet that rolls ZZ Top-style nearly down to his belly button, the filmmaker’s prodigious facial hair might strike you at first as some...
'Kong: Skull Island' poised for $50-million opening as studios take a monster franchise gamble
A war among beasts will play out at multiplexes this weekend as Hollywood’s long-enduring ape king tries to smack down a Wolverine.
“Kong: Skull Island,” the new monster movie from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, is expected to gross $45 million...
Sure, there are spaceships and aliens, but the sounds for 'Arrival' were kept natural
Director Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” may be an alien movie, but you won’t hear the sounds of warp speed, Martian death rays or beeping robots in it, say supervising sound editor Sylvain Bellemare and re-recording mixer Bernard Gariépy Strobl.
“Denis...
Ang Lee's moving, muddled 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' tells an Iraq War soldier's story
“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” Ang Lee’s ambitious, uneven and heroically idiosyncratic new movie, follows a U.S. Army unit on a premature victory tour during the early days of the Iraq War. A few days before their redeployment, the men of Bravo Squad...
NYFF: Ang Lee's war film 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' divides audiences. But are traditional assessments beside the point?
Throughout the day at the New York Film Festival on Friday — at a media breakfast, at the intro to his premiere, at a post-screening Q&A — Ang Lee expressed deep anxiety about taking the wraps off his latest work.
The multiple Oscar winner had directed...
Viggo Mortensen goes 'extreme' in 'Captain Fantastic' (and clears up that Peter Jackson CGI thing)
Since breaking through to stardom as Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Viggo Mortensen has largely spurned the blockbuster route in favor of more idiosyncratic fare like David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises.” It’s...
New releases: Tina Fey’s ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ and Romanian road picture 'Aferim!' hit DVD and Blu-ray
New on Blu-ray:
“Aferim!” (Big World DVD, $29.95; Blu-ray, $34.95)
One of the best-reviewed films of 2016, the black-and-white Romanian road picture “Aferim!” takes an unusual approach to a harsh bit of Eastern European history. Set in 1835, the...
For the traditional theatrical window, the lines continue to blur
It's a debate that has raged in the movie business since the era of VHS tapes — how long should studios wait between releasing their movies in theaters and putting them out on home video?
The issue of "windowing" releases has long been one of the...
Locarno Film Festival to give producing prize to Participant Media CEO David Linde
The Locarno Film Festival will give its 2016 tribute award for independent producers, the Premio Raimondo Rezzonico, to David Linde, chief executive of Participant Media.
Running this year from August 3-13 in Locarno, Switzerland, the festival has...
CinemaCon: J.J. Abrams says movie theater owners 'have to adapt'
In front of thousands of cinema owners on Monday night, one of the most powerful filmmakers in Hollywood said the theatrical experience may soon be a thing of the past.
OK, he wasn’t quite that harsh. But J.J. Abrams did urge the crowd at CinemaCon —...
Will Napster co-founder Sean Parker's Screening Room disrupt the film industry?
Sean Parker stood in front of a whiteboard at Napster's dingy offices in San Mateo, Calif., and mapped out a hoped-for future for the besieged music file-sharing service.
It was late at night, and amid the detritus of discarded pizza boxes, a group of...
Published in Los Angeles Times on April 07, 2016 — Print headline: "COMPANY TOWN - Sean Parker's disruption - Napster co-founder takes on the film industry with Screening Room home-video service"
Cop thriller 'Baskin' turns into imaginative gore-fest horror film
Turkish director Can Evrenol's debut feature "Baskin" starts out as a gamy cop thriller then takes a hard right turn into horror. The pacing is slack and the splatter excessive, but this twisted cross-genre exercise should be red meat to gore-hounds.
...
Published in Los Angeles Times on April 01, 2016 — Print headline: "Barbarity takes over cop thriller - `BASKIN'"
The director and stars of 'Batman v Superman' on what we can expect from the R-rated 'Ultimate Cut'
Say what you will about "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (and people have said plenty), at 2 hours and a 33 minutes — packing in three of the comic-book realm's biggest icons, a psychotic supervillain, a giant alien monster and more plot threads...
European theater owners join those rejecting Sean Parker's controversial Screening Room service
The trade group representing European movie theater owners has rejected a proposed in-home film-screening service from technology investor Sean Parker.
Parker, an entrepreneur who served as Facebook's first president, is pitching a home-video service...
Why theater owners are rejecting Sean Parker's controversial Screening Room
Tech entrepreneur and Napster co-founder Sean Parker wants to shake up the movie industry, and theater owners are not pleased.
The investor known for his key roles in Facebook, Napster and Spotify is working on a home-video service that will give people...