Quentin Tarantino’s latest offering ‘Inglourious Basterds‘ has hit the screens last weekend and has already grossed in the region of $37.6m in the US. The movie is seen as a pivotal release for the recently struggling indie Weinstein Company, and will be closely followed by Halloween II, expecting to lead them into a strong fall season. It’s also good news for Universal, who split the cost of the movie and distributed it to 22 foreign territories, grossing $27.5m overseas. Those of you looking for a taster of the movie, here is the official trailer…

‘Basterds’ has made waves online, with it’s Twitter following not only growing, but Tweets from fans doing much of the word-of-mouth publicity work. Both the NY Times and LA Times declared it a roaring success, and praise has rained in for Tarantino and Weinsten.

Slightly less has been said of Brad Pitt, which is a shame as I think he really helps make the movie. I’ve always enjoyed Pitt’s characters, from ‘Fight Club’ to ‘Se7en’ to ‘Snatch’ to ‘12 Monkeys’, and I think that this film will slot right into his top five roles.

MTV have uploaded a joint interview with Pitt and Tarantino, which I thought I’d share here as a bit of background.

(Part 1 script)

(Part 2 script)

Feel free to share your thoughts on Pitt, Tarantino, ‘Basterds’, Weinstein or all of the above in our comments!

Lee Jarvis.

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This was originally posted at a UK site of the leading jobs in music, but I thought I would cross-post it here, as I think it is a great idea for a film and would like to hear some comments from our Media Match members. I recently saw a TV commercial and realised the release date is next week, so here we go!
~Lee Jarvis

Taking Woodstock is directed by Academy Award®-winner Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) with a screenplay by James Schamus (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm), based on the book Taking Woodstock by Elliot Tiber.

It’s 1969, and Elliot Tiber( played by Demetri Martin), a down-on-his-luck interior designer in Greenwich Village, New York, has to move back upstate to help his parents run their dilapidated Catskills motel, the El Monaco. The bank is about to foreclose; his father wants to burn the place down, but hasn’t paid the insurance; and Elliot is still figuring how to come out to his parents. When Elliot hears that a neighbouring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers, thinking he could drum up some much needed business for the motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbour’s farm in White Lake, NY, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life, and American culture, forever.

The film stars Demetri Martin (Important Things with Demetri Martin on Comedy Central) as Elliot Tiber, Emile Hirsch (Milk, Into the Wild), Liev Schreiber (Defiance) and Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake).

http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/taking_woodstock

http://www.facebook.com/TakingWoodstock

Release date: 28th August 2009

(original post // Thanks to Matt @ UK Music Jobs)

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Shortly before his death in January 2008, actor Heath Ledger directed a music video for the song “King Rat” by American indie rock band Modest Mouse. Released last week, the powerful yet dark video features a group of whales hunting for men to feed to baby seals. Designer Daniel Auber told The Times “it was very important for him to make a video that would make an impact. We needed to have the shock factor because if it wasn’t dark it wouldn’t be impressive, and if it wasn’t impressive nobody would think about what we are doing to wildlife in the ocean”.

King Rat

The video is available to buy at iTunes, and for the first month of release, all proceeds from the download sales will be donated to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Lee Jarvis.

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