News

With Hilary Clinton announcing her candidacy for the 2016 presidential nomination, Hollywood, like the rest the nation has taken notice. If elected Hillary Rodham Clinton would, of course, become the first female president of the United States.

Shady gangsters, witty femme fatales and cynical private eyes: “Noir City”, The 17th Annual Festival of Film Noir is currently under way at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The Opening Night film Woman on the Run (1950) starring Ann Sheridan was restored last year with funds from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s charitable trust.

When The Fast and the Furious first hit theaters, it was the year 2001, no one at Universal dared to think that the movie was franchise material. Yes, illegal street racing was an original and appealing concept, but how far could you push what even its producers considered a B-movie? On top of that, there were no major stars, the biggest names being Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster.

What happens when two comedians and a pair of divas walk into a spaceship? Well, if the ship happens to be made by the CGI maestros at DreamWorks, you end up with the biggest opening for animated film so far in 2015. Home, featuring the vocal talents of Jim Parsons, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez, and Rihanna topped the North American box office with a $54 million take in its domestic debut.

The HFPA got a peek under the hood of the massive operation that is a James Bond production, traveling to Mexico City, the location for the elaborate opening sequence of the upcoming Spectre. As is a 007 tradition, the intricate action scene which opens the movie takes place on the backdrop of an exotic festival, in this case a Day of the Dead parade and festival in the Zocalo, the capital city’s grand central square.

The HFPA got a peek under the hood of the massive operation that is a James Bond production, traveling to Mexico City, the location for the elaborate opening sequence of the upcoming Spectre. As is a 007 tradition, the intricate action scene which opens the movie takes place on the backdrop of an exotic festival, in this case a Day of the Dead parade and festival in the Zocalo, the capital city’s grand central square.

This weekend’s top new releases each reprised increasingly recycled genres with varying degrees of success. Insurgent, in which Shailene Woodley plays an exceptionally gifted teenager who is forced to take the weight of the world on her shoulders in order to save her dystopian society from further misery, opened in the United States to a comfortable $54 million.

As happens every March, there is no missing the fact that the film festival has come to town – Las Palmas, that is the capital city of the Canary Islands. The billboards are ubiquitous and the local newspapers follow every screening in the 10-day event with the same coverage that any Hollywood movie would get.

From New York to Nuremburg, Tallinn to Tianjin, Cuzco to Kuala Lumpur and throughout the towns and cities of 32 nations between them, Cinderella took center stage. Combined domestic and international revenues reached an outstanding $132.

In a slow weekend at the U. S.