Another Day, Another Unnecessary Sequel: Trade Roughage 08/09/101
Plus: A new doc takes on 70s New York, and the future of 3-D.
Sony’s making a sequel to The Pink Panther. Yeah, the Steve Martin one. The one that was delayed for a year and only barely made back its production costs at the domestic box office. Judging by the cast they’ve put together (which includes Aishwarya Rai, Jean Reno and John Cleese), the studio seems to be banking on international appeal to put the franchise in the black.- Brian Lowry reviews NY77, a documentary about the emergence of punk, hip-hop and “a sexually-permissive club scene” in New York in the late 70s. The film, which was produced by Nanette Burstein and premieres on VH1 this weekend, “methodically recreates the period’s vibe — with Geraldo Rivera recalling how at Studio 54, it was ‘absolutely appropriate’ to have sex in the bathroom stalls. (Today, sadly, he can only approximate that experience via his appearances on Fox News.)”
- Motion capture effects house Mova demonstrated a new 3-D technology at SIGGRAPH this week, aimed at creating life-like models of actors’ faces. According to Mova founder Steve Perlman, the future of 3-D won’t involve plastic glasses, but will be “more like theater in the round, where you can either walk around the scene or move into the scene itself.”
- Tom Hanks and Nia Vardalos are among the complaintants in a lawsuit filed against financing company Gold Circle Films. Hanks and crew claim Gold Circle “cheated” them out of profits on My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Variety’s Janet Shprintz notes that while Wedding is “one of the most successful indie films of all time”, it’s also “spawned an extraordinary amount of litigation” — this is the third lawsuit involving Vardalos alone.
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