Industry

Pixar has a pretty good idea what it feels like to be number one: that’s the spot each of their films has opened at since Toy Story. But if coming second means collecting $91 million (just below Toy Story 3’s record $110 million) while surpassing Avatar for the most successful opening for a non-sequel, you would still be justified in feeling like a winner.

As the star of the expected box-office hit of the summer, Jurassic World, 35-year old Chris Pratt is on a roll. But he’s staying humble.

This was supposed to be the week in which Spy faced off against Entourage: an action-comedy pic with Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law as two inept spies against Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Jeremy Piven and the boys of the successful HBO series now promoted to the big screen. But there was no competition.

The Lobster by Greek iconoclast Yorgos Lanthimos won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film, which was acquired for distribution by Alchemy, marks the latest success in the director’s singular canon of the absurd.

Australian actor Matt Levett has been named the seventh recipient of the Australians in Film Heath Ledger Scholarship, which fosters the education and career development of emerging Australian actors within the United States. The 31-year-old actor, whose credits in Australia include the popular series A Place Called Home and the recent award-winning mini-series Devil’s Playground, arrived in Los Angeles on the weekend as one of 20 finalists but didn’t find out he was the winner until he got a call from Kim Ledger, Heath’s father and Patron of the HLS endowment, late Sunday night.

San Andreas has no aliens, no monsters and no superheroes. Just Mother Nature in all its fearsome fury, in the form of devastating earthquakes that bring total devastation to Nevada first, then L.

Los Angeles.  Being number one is always good, and better than being number two or ending up even lower.

In George Miller’s supercharged dystopian action epic Tom Hardy takes over Road Warrior duties from Mel Gibson but the most brilliant idea may have been pairing him with Charlize Theron’s fierce Imperator Furiosa. The two lone warriors form what is surely the most fearsome man/woman team to ever tear up a desert road.

A better selection than in the recent past, gridlock on the Croisette and a ridiculous scandal that should not have been. This year’s selecting and programming committee ought to be applauded for a number of reasons.