Hurricane Irene: New Yorkers Respond to the Hype

Hurricane Irene gradually moved its in place the new england Saturday evening, and met New You are able to each morning like a tropical storm. The town that never sleeps was methodically shut lower through the night-subway from service, building elevators turn off expecting major flooding over the island. Even though some were affected with energy black outs and flooded cellars ., New Yorkers were left feeling a mixture of feelings because the storm passed: grateful, disappointed, bored. Much like they did following the earthquake the 2009 week, individuals are taking to twitter and facebook to talk about their personal accounts.our editor recommendsBox Office Report: Hurricane Irene Takes $25 Mil Bite From Box OfficeHurricane Irene Will get a Twitter Handle New mother and daughter ofDonald Trump,Ivanka Trump,tweeted: "During my daughter's 6 days of existence, she's already experienced an#earthquake& a#hurricane! In the end this, the typical thunderstorm should feel pretty unadventurous. Meghan Blalock, a author from Alabama who now lives in New york city,tweeted: "Only NYers would complain about#Irenenot being large + bad enough. A hurricane ain't a brand new Coen siblings film. It's easier to feel nothing." Hurricane Irene: All Broadway Performances Canceled A Few Days Ago Bethenny Frankel apparently couldn't sleep with the storm in the Hamptons, and reported that the tree which was knocked over got the energy in her own home. She also tweeted photos of the lifeguard stand that were blown miles from it's original just right the beach: "Holy ballshttp://twitpic.com/6cmsgz." Others overlooked the recommendation of Mayor Michael Bloomberg to remain inside and tweeted pictures from downtown Manhattan, now slightly underwater: Julie Shapiro learned that Water Street within the Financial Disrict was living as much as it's title. She tweeted a photograph: "Water Street. Literally.yfrog.com/h3r3hupj." STORY: Hurricane Irene Will get a Twitter Personality Christina Dalit walked outdoors of her apartment building at 23rd Street and Avenue C in Manhattan and located several trees have been uprooted. She started tweetingpictures from the mess: "Oh, hey...this happened.yfrog.com/h0w0fkaj#Irene." On facebook, musicianKyle Saulnierreactedto an earlier are convinced that just one person remained without electricity in Manhattan: "NY1 reviews ONE (1) customer without energy in Manhattan. Really, men? One? In the event that's true, THAT'S your story immediately.Inch Alec Baldwin, who just moved right into a new apartment in Soho together with his girlfriend, Hilaria Thomas, 27, apparently lost electricity, among another minor storm damage he experienced. He tweeted, "Plenty of braches lower. No flooding. 1 window blew from sun room. Only issue is energy's out. I'm able to't play Mayor's Hurricane Bunker on Wii." STORY: Earthquake: Twitter Customers Discovered Tremors Seconds Before Feeling Them Comedian Jim Gaffigan, however, tweeted the storm did not meet the hype: "Hey@apluskthat Hurricane Irene was the very best episode of "Punk'd" ever." Hari Kunzru adopted suit on his twitter: "BREAKING#Irenerevealed as viral marketing stunt by Duracell, Mag-lite andPolandSpring." Comedian Andy Borowitz tweeted a jab at both Weather Funnel and Fox News: "When the Weather Funnel manages to lose anymore credibility it will likely be Fox.#irene." Related Subjects Alec Baldwin Bethenny Frankel Hurricane Irene

HAMMOND: Clooney, Clint And Spielberg Try To Put Major Studios Back Into The Thick Of Oscar Race

Last week we looked at potential Oscar contenders already released in the first eight months of 2011 (see Woody Allen, Brad Pitt, ‘The Help’ And Cast Among Early 2011 Oscar Contenders; Can They Hang On?), but as any pundit worth their prognosticator cardwill tell you, the game is really played out in the final four months, where the lion’s share of major eventualnominees will open and flourish on their way to the playoffs at the guilds, Globes and critics awards and the finals at the Kodak theatre on Feb. 26. So with the all-important official start of awards season kicking off next week in Venice and Telluride, followed closely by the Toronto International Film Festival beginning Sept. 8, here is the next installment of my early preseasonprimer for the likely contenders. Just keep in mind most of these films are still largely unseen, so take it all with a grain of salt. Once the moviesactually are viewed, the landscape can change dramatically, and of course there is always that possibility of a real sleeper coming out of nowhere, landing a distribution deal and opening before the end of the year. First up, a look at what the major studios have in store. In recent years, the majors have been largely upstaged in the final vote by those upstart indies. Last year, The Weinstein Co’s The King’s Speech rode a surprise victory at the Producers Guild Awards all the way to a Best Pic Oscar win over the majors’ strong money betsThe Social Network (Sony),TheFighter and True Grit (Paramount)and Toy Story 3 (Disney).In2009, Summit’s little-war-film-that-could, The Hurt Locker, had the smallest gross of any Best Picture winner ever but stillran over the biggest entry ever from a major, 20th CenturyFox’s Avatar,the most successful film of all time. Nevertheless, the rule of 10 nominees in effect for both those years certainly benefitted the majors in landing them four of the Best Pic slots in 2010 and five the previous year. Even though the Academy has now tweaked that rule to create a scenario in which anywhere from five to 10 pics can be nominated, the majors for the most part have an exceptionally strong fall slate and should remain a factor as one of themtries to reclaim the crown last given to a pure major studio release in 2006 to Warner Bros’The Departed. And though major studios seem more obsessed in creating money-minting tentpoles these days than bathing in Oscar glory, the ego still flies on the lots and majors would like those front-row seats at the Kodak just as much as Harvey Weinstein. Note: Independents owned by majors like Fox Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics and Focus will be included in the next installment looking at indie contenders. This one is just for the big boys. Warner Bros Kicking off Warners’ fall season Sept. 9 and before that at the Venice Film Festival is Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, a serious thriller looking at the fight to stop a major virus outbreak killing millions around the world. Although Warners is just hoping it grabs the grown-up audience and makes some nice change, it could move up in the pantheon of studio Oscar hopefuls if it makes a big impact and gets editorial interest off the entertainment pages. Warners’ two biggest bets for a fall awards splash are the Nov. 9 releaseJ. Edgar and Dec. 25 biggieExtremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The latter is a post-9/11 drama with serious Oscar cred in stars Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock and director Stephen Daldry, whose first three films –Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader — each landed him a Best Director Oscar nod, a nearly unprecedented perfect track record. As for J. Edgar, it stars three-time Best Actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio, was written by Milk’s Oscar-winning scripter Dustin Lance Black and directed by four-time winner Clint Eastwood, who with Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby has two previous Warner Bros Best Pictures under his belt. Couple that with subject matter revolving around a biographical portrait of the controversial FBI director and you have the stuff Oscar voters usually eat up — on paper at least. After weak Academy showings with Gran Torino, Invictus and Hereafter, the prolific Clint could be due for another dance with Oscar. The studio also hopes to be back in the animation race this year with the sequel to its 2006 winnerHappy Feet Two, which bowsNov. 18. DISNEY/DREAMWORKS Other than The Muppets (Nov. 23), which is not likely to garner serious awards attention, Disney’s best bets are invested in their new partnership with DreamWorks, which already opened The Help to great box office and Oscar buzz and has one more giant contender slated for Dec. 28: Steven Spielberg’s screen adaptation of the Tony-winning Best PlayWar Horse, an irresistible boy-and-his-horse story set in World War I and seemingly tailor-made for Spielberg’s talents. The trick will be to make the film as magical in its own way as the still-sold-out NY show iswith its astonishing life-sizedpuppetry. The trailer is promising, and the film is already on the tip of every Oscarpundit’s tongue. 20th Century Fox In recent years, Fox has seen most of the Oscar glory in the company go to their indie division Fox Searchlight. Then there was the tremendous disappointment two years ago when Avatar lost to The Hurt Locker in a pretty bitter contest despite public niceties by the ex-Mr. and Mrs. James Cameron. If buzz starting to come from all corners of the lot is any indication (and who knows if it is at this point), Big Foxcould be on the comeback trail after coming up zero last year. Cameron Crowe’sWe Bought A Zoo, in which Matt Damon plays a man recovering from the death of his wife by revitalizing a rundown zoo, has all the elements of a family feel-good film to warm the Academy’s heart. Or so it would seem, which is a good thing since the talented Crowe hasn’t been a contender since winning Best Original Screenplay in 2000 for Almost Famous. Paramount Paramount surprised pundits by skipping the fall fest circuit with Jason Reitman’s new dark comedy/dramaYoung Adult starring Charlize Theron, once again toning down the glamour for what I am told could be an Oscar-bait role. With Reitman’s Oscar-winning Juno scripter Diablo Cody again writing, the two-time directing nominee may be contending again, but Paramount is holding it back until closer to its Dec. 9 release, a strategy that worked just fine for both of their late-inningBest Pic nominees last year, The Fighter and True Grit. By peaking so early at Telluride and Toronto and given early front-runner status, Reitman’s Up In The Air had a hard time maintaining momentum over the long course of the season. This strategy could be a smart one, pegged closer to actual Oscar voting. Par also has Martin Scorsese’s 3D debut, the live-action boy-and-his-robot storyHugo, which uncharacteristically provides a real departure for the Oscar-winning director by bringing him fully into the realm of family movies. Even though voters tend to shun fantasy flicks, attention must be paid because it’s Scorsese, although despite Par’s best campaign efforts last year the Academy paid no attention to his biggest moneymaker ever, Shutter Island, but that came out in Oscar’s no-man’s-land of February. Hugo is set for Nov. 23. Then there is the small Sundance pickup, Like Crazy, aunique love story set on opposite sides of the world in London and L.A. as Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones try to keep the sparks alive despite all sorts of obstacles. This is the kind of tiny film voters will need to discover on their own, or at least Paramount needs to make them think that’s the case. The studio, which already has two animated films in the race in homegrown Rango and DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 2, will try to add two more to completely dominate: another DWA sequel, Puss In Boots, the first spin-off from Shrek, and Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson’s first entry into the genre, the 3D performance capture CGI adaptation of Belgian artist Herge’s popular The Adventures of Tintin, which has a look reportedly very faithful to the originals. Sony Pictures Sony is a partner on Spielberg’s Adventures of Tin Tin as well, distributing internationally where the property is much better known. The studio has its own domestic animated entry this fall with Arthur Christmas, a holiday-themed ‘toon that I hear fromat least one animation uber-expertcould be a real spoiler in that race. We’ll see. On the live-action front, Sony is coming back strong with a slate of potential contenders to avenge its Social Network Best Picture loss,starting withNetwork director David Fincher’sapparently very intenseEnglish-language version of the Swedish phenomenonThe Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. That doesn’t get unveiled until Dec. 21. Sony’s three other hopefuls are all hitting the fall fest circuit beginning with the Venice fest opening ofGeorge Clooney’s political dramaThe Ides of March co-starring Ryan Gosling. Buzz is already major on this Oct. 7 release, and Clooney is an Academy darling (and justa few weeks later, he’s back starring in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants). Brad Pitt, who has earned some Oscar talk earlier in the year for The Tree of Life, is back in the baseball yarnMoneyball, which debuts at Toronto and will try to overcome Oscar’s aversion to most things baseball. Soderbergh was originally to direct but came to a parting of the ways with Sony and Capote’s Bennett Miller took over. Finally there’s RolandEmmerich’s 17th century costume dramaAnonymous, opening Oct. 28 butplaying Toronto first. It already sounds like a front-runner for Costumes at least. Universal The studio is apparentlyleaving its heavy Oscar lifting this yearto indie division Focus and in fact handedthem Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, their one bona fide contender this fall. That isunless Oscar show producer Brett Ratner can convince the studio to do a campaign for his Ben Stiller/Eddie MurphyNovember releaseTower Heist. Coming Next: A look at the Fall Indie contenders.

'Apes' gold coin changing 'Potter' still miracle

Bowing in only 25 marketplaces, twentieth century Fox's "Rise from the Planet from the Apes" collected a remarkable $23.8 million in the overseas box office within the August. 5-7 weekend. Still was not able to obtain within hailing distance of Warners' "Harry Potter and also the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," which required within an astonishing $63.a million in the 4th week of wide play at foreign wickets."Potter" was increased greatly with a record-setting debut in China, in which the pic made $26.5 million in four days, repping Warners greatest opening ever for the reason that territory. Thanks mostly to China, "Part 2" dropped a tiny 5% overall.By August. 8, "Part 2" has cumed $801.5 million worldwide, surpassing "Pirates from the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" ($798.5 million) being 2011's greatest-grossing release. Locally, the "Potter" finale arrived at $344.8 million (also tops this year) by August. 8, for any global cume of $1.146 billion -Making "Part 2" the 3rd-greatest worldwide grosser ever behind "Avatar" and "Titanic."Fox's "Apes" did not swing to record-setting levels, however the franchise reboot still handled to achieve the very best in the majority of the areas it performed in, including Russia, Australia, The country and Taiwan, which repped the film's only top-15 marketplaces in the debut.In Russia, "Apes" published $5.two million, adopted carefully by Oz and The country, in which the pic collected $5.a million each. Pic's No. 4 market, Taiwan, led $1.3 million from 110 screens -- a substantially more compact screen count compared to every other top marketplace for "Apes."The country would be a particular coup for that Fox pic: "Apes" bending what "Captain America: The Very First Avenger" bowed to ($2.5 million) that same weekend within the territory.Overall, "Apes" got on a reduced start than Fox's earlier summer time franchise reboot, "X-Males: Top Class,Inch which bowed day-and-date in 55 marketplaces for any total of $61 million.It's unlikely "Apes" might find similar overseas results as "Top Class,Inch which cumed $206 million, especially because the newer pic includes a shorter summer time window.However with less new summer time tentpoles skedded to bow within the coming days, "Apes" will also tight on competition than "X-Males" did after it bowed June 3. "Apes" grows in the second frame to 17 additional marketplaces, including France, Germany and also the U.K.The new sony had considerable success with "The Smurfs," which broadened to 35 new areas in the second overseas outing."Smurfs," which collected $4 million from The country only in the opening weekend, totalled $47.9 million to have an worldwide cume of $55.5 million after two days. That's encouraging news for The new sony, particularly as "Smurfs" outperformed another live action-toon hybrid, "Alivin and also the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," in marketplaces like France and Germany.In Gaul, "Smurfs" made $5.9 million, beating "Alvin 2" by 20%, while German auds paid out nearly two times just as much overall ($5.4 million) for "Smurfs" because they did the "Chipmunks" bow.Latin America was another blue-ribbon region for "Smurfs," with top market South america adding $6.7 million with an impressive $21,000 per-screen average, in front of the 2010 characters "Cars 2" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" by 26% and 38%, correspondingly. In Mexico, "Smurfs" first showed to $5.5 million, almost 70% much better than that territory's second-place film.The solid overseas start -- combined using its domestic perf -- motivated The new sony to maneuver forward on the "Smurfs" follow up, that the studio has dated for August. 2, 2013.For now, however, "Smurfs" must have another solid weekend at worldwide wickets, broadening to major three dimensional marketplaces including China, Russia, Columbia and also the U.K.Emilio Mayorga in Barcelona, Erectile dysfunction Meza in Berlin, David Hayhurst in Paris, Nick Vivarelli in Rome and Mark Schilling in Tokyo, japan led for this report. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com