TWC plans appeal of 'Bully' rating

The Weinstein Co. plans to appeal the MPAA's decision to assign an R rating to its upcoming docu "Bully," from filmmaker Lee Hirsch. TWC said the R rating was assigned on the basis of "some language." "As a result, 'Bully' could not be screened in U.S. middle and high schools, where it might otherwise reach a mass national audience of students and be used as a tool to stop an epidemic of physical, psychological and emotional violence," the company said. TWC co-chairman Harvey Weinstein will appeal the rating at the MPAA's Sherman Oaks screening room on Thursday. He'll be joined by Alex Libby, one of the bullied children in the film. "Bully" is set for release on March 30. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

Oscar: Awards Season Frenzy Hits A Pinnacle At WGA and ACE. Is The End In Sight?

When the awards season kicked into gear at Telluride and Toronto it appeared the movie to beat was going to be Fox Searchlight’s The Descendants, but then along came the big momentum for the little-silent-movie-that-could, The Artist , and that was all she wrote — that is until this last weekend before ballots are due on Tuesday. Descendants has been on a tear these last few days, almost seeming to say ‘it ain’t over til it’s over’. With significant victories for Best Adapted Screenplay at the WGA awards Sunday night preceded by the prestigious USC Scripter Award and Best Drama Feature Editing win at the ACE Eddie awards Saturday , not to mention writer/director Alexander Payne’s special award from ACE, you have a pretty impressive haul. But is it too late to turn around the momentum of The Artist? After all, ballots are due at PriceWaterhouseCoopers by Tuesday at 5pm, and with the President’s Day holiday on Monday slowing postal delivery the only way to getballots in on time is to have them hand- delivered. Still one major rival nominee (and loser at WGA) told me it was such a reliefnot to have to hear the name of The Artist called Sunday night at WGA (it was ineligible for nominations since it was not produced under guild auspices). However the two big screenplay winners at BAFTA the week before, The Artist and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,although ineligible for WGA are up for Oscars next week. They could upset the apple cart and veer fromtraditonsince even though WGA winners can be predictive of Oscar winners, it usually is just one out of two that repeat due to the fact that the writers unionmakes so many non-union films ineligible. But in my view both of tonight’s big scripting winners at the ceremony held simultaneously on both coasts (Zooey Deschanel and Joel McHale were hosts at the Hollywood Palladium), Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris and The Descendants would appear to hang on to front runner status in their respective writing categoriesat the Oscars. Yes, if there is an Oscar sweep for The Artist that can easily include original screenplay but it seems more likely the Academy will want to spread the wealth and award a personal favorite, Midnight In Paris. It is doubtful that the WGA ceremony, coming as late as it does in the season , has any direct impact on the final vote but it appears the two voting bodies may be of like mind this year. And this weekend’s myriad awards shows brought especially good news for Descendant’s helmer AlexanderPayne who received the ACE’s special filmmaker award, saw his longtime editor Kevin Tent take a surprise Eddie for editing The Descendants (Hugo veteran Thelma Schoonmaker was thought to be the winner) and on top of all that, won the USC Scripter award. When I caught up with him at the Beverly Hilton Saturday night still celebrating the ACE wins 40 minutes after the show ended, I gave Payne the happy news that he had just won the USC Scripter Award. He seemedpleased, but in a unique moment that shows just how long awards season can be he then asked me, “Okay , what is the USC Scripter Award”? Hey, it’s not easy keeping up with every award you win, especially when you are on a roll like Payne is right now. At any rate he was thrilled to bag two honors in one night and then follow it up on Sunday with yet another. It puts Descendants back in front runner postion for the Adapted Screenplay Oscar and adds some intrigue in the late innings of the race. The American Cinema Editors , which hand out the Eddies ,is the one guild that most closely resembles the actual voting pool of the Oscars and pound for pound have by far the biggest crossover of members in common. Statistically speaking an editing nomination is a must if you have serious Best Picture aspirations and the win by Descendants, which also has an Oscar nod in the category, is important. The Eddie victory is tempered by the Eddiewin of The Artistfor director Michel Hazanavicius and Anne-SophieBionin the comedy or musical editing category so the two will be going head to head at the Oscars with both having the added bonus of Eddie triumphs. Hazanavicius has really been running non-stopthis season and had just arrived from Paris hours before the ceremony Saturday. He goes back right away for the Cesar awards being held next Friday night and then hops a plane back to L.A for the Oscars Sunday, and hopefully the Independent Spirit Awards Saturday afternoon in Santa Monica, but he expressed doubt that he , wife and Best Supporting Actress nominee Berenice Bejo, star Jean Dujardin and producer Thomas Langmann will even make it back in time to the Indie Spirits. He said whatever happens he is very grateful to Harvey Weinsteinfor the whole experience of this awards season. He said Harveydid not cut a frame of The Artist before releasing it in America (depsite a sometimes-bad rap for fiddling with films). Solo at the Eddies,he said he sent Bejo and their newborn (she gave birth in September at the beginning of the season) to a spa in the south of France for some much needed rest before the last leg of this marathon run towards Oscar. One audience member in attendance for both WGA and Eddie awards shows told me the speeches were so good it’s a shame these ceremonies didn’t take place a month ago so they could have maximum impact on the Oscar vote. Indeed Payne made a truly great acceptance speech at the Eddiesdrolly observing, “when they called me up to receive this, I asked them: ‘who passed it up’?”And there was one after another great speechat the WGA Sunday especiallyfrom The Help’s Tate Taylor who won the Guild’s Paul Selvin award and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) who took the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award and delivered aterrific speech (one that NY Times Film Critic Manogla Dargis won’t want to hear)that was preceded by a brilliantly wry and funny David Fincher taped intro. The best acceptance of the night though was not from the movie side but rather TV’s Modern Family which in winning Best Comedy Series gave each of its writers a chance to put a “downer” on their victory. Creator Steve Levitan never fails to preside over the best awards acceptance speeches in the business. The two long-overdue writingawards for AMC’s riveting Breaking Bad were also nice to see. The Cinema Audio Society awards (Hugo got the big movie prize) and Golden Reel awards for Sound Editing were also given out this weekend. The last major Guild craft ceremony is Tuesday for the costume designers and then it is on to Oscar and an end to all this madness.

Amazing Spider-Guy Clip Online

Peter Parker declined access!The advertising campaign for your Amazing Spider-Guy is becoming arrived, using the huge, multi-country footage screening as well as other trailers, photos and posters online. The very first full clip has turned up, which is full of whatever you might expect within the adventures of Peter Parker. Take a look below.Everything, clearly, supposing you expect him to appear inside the lanky kind of Andrew Garfield being hassled in to Gwen Stacey's building by an officious Noo Yawk doorman (carried out by John Scurti, which has usually been found engaging in danger alongside fellow Amazing Spider-Guy actor Denis Leary on TV's Save Me).Yes, if you're wanting for explosions, web-slinging, roaring lizard monsters or perhaps the lovely Emma Stone as Gwen, you're best searching in a clip again. Still, it's a very good sign in the humour which will explain the film.This footage first sprang around the film's viral site, that's been encouraging graffiti artists (okay, it's just a stunt) and promises more goodies later on. Hopefully that will include more tantalising footage.And when you really need to start to see the whole film in one sitting, you will have to delay until This summer time 4. Your day we declare our independence! From... the lack of ability to start to see the Amazing Spider-Guy in cinemas. So that's nice.

Bassist Michael Davis dies at 68

Michael Davis, the bassist of influential late sixties rock-band MC5, has died of liver failure, his wife mentioned Saturday. He was 68.Davis died at Enloe Clinic in Chico, Calif., on Friday mid-day carrying out a month-extended hospitalization for liver disease, mentioned Angela Davis.Born on June 5, 1943, the bassist acquired attention inside the revolutionary Detroit band MC5 after which carried out in the version in the group referred to as DKT-MC5 with former MC5 people Wayne Kramer on guitar and Dennis Thompson on drums.The first MC5 rose to prominence from 1964 to 1972, making waves with incendiary anti-establishment lyrics together with a blistering early-punk appear, beginning utilizing their first album "Take away the Jams," released in 1969.A looked for-after bassist in addition to producer, Davis was likely to remain in Belgium now recording with punk rock music artist Sonny Vincent, mentioned Davis' wife.Davis stood a scare in 2006 because he hurt his inside a motorbike accident around the La freeway. He later co-founded the non-profit Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music teaching programs in public areas schools.In the last few years, Davis also returned with a adoration for painting, fostered because he first examined fine arts at Wayne Condition College in Michigan. He dropped in the type in 1964 to see music, but started studying art again recently in Or and California, while using goal of finishing his bachelor's degree in fine arts.Davis is managed to get by his wife, their three sons, together with a daughter in the previous marriage. Memorial plans were pending, mentioned Angela Davis. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Lynton in your thoughts Broadcasting Board

The brand new the new sony Pictures Entertainment Boss Michael Lynton will lead the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the organization that overseas all U.S. government worldwide broadcasting like the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.Lynton was named interim presiding governor in the board following a departure of Walter Isaacson, its chairman because this summer time, 2010. Leader Obama has yet to appoint a completely new chairman."It is a pleasure to make use of this multitalented, bipartisan board, plus an recognition being selected to help lead the company,In . Lynton mentioned in the statement. "We are each dedicated to the reason behind creating this agency the most effective it might be. With this various talents and diverse abilities, many of us bring something for the table."Lynton is really a part of the board's governance committee, and also the appointment for the board was confirmed with the Senate in summer season, 2010. Contact Ted Manley at ted.manley@variety.com

Ford Won't Maintain New Edge Runner

Whispers flatly declined by production co.This is among people tales where we update around the rumour that made an appearance so tenuous that individuals didn't bother to report it to start with. However when you saw reviews a week ago that Harrison Ford reaches predicts return as Deckard, you can now safely ignore them. Production company Alcon Entertainment has flat-out told Deadline that, whatever Ridley Scott's new Edge Runner calculates being, Harrison Ford most likely won't keeping it.Scott had already mentioned this beautiful without any reason several several days ago, and given Ford's well-known antipathy for your film (he didn't showed up at enjoy it like the relaxation around the world), the potential for the actor's participation always made an appearance remote at best. But Alcon's Andrew Kosove reiterates using a reasonably strident, "It's absolutely patently false that there are been any discussion about Harrison Ford in Edge Runner.""That which you are trying associated with Ridley now's have the painstaking technique of trying to interrupt the trunk from the story, determine the direction we will accept movie and uncover a author to function about it,In . he describes. "The casting in the movie could not be further out of your minds now. It's like asking as can make paradise red-colored-colored or blue. There is no discussion relating to this.InchKosove appeared to become keen to fret that, because so many have surmised, Scott is not planning anything as being a conventional follow-up to his 1982 classic. "What Ridley's doing in Prometheusis an excellent template that we're trying to complete,Inch Kosove states. "He created something having a association for the original Alien, but lives alone just like a standalone movie."Just what relating to this "probablyInch? "Just before being aware of what we will probably do, I suppose you are able to say yes, [Ford] could [return]," Kosove confesses. "But it's most unlikely.Inch

David Alan Grier Shrugs Off 'Porgy and Bess' Row

NY (AP) David Alan Grier has a gentle message for anyone who is getting all hot and bothered thinking that he's helping ruin an American masterpiece."Relax. Let it go," he says. "We're not killing it. We're just doing our version."The actor and comedian is currently starring as Sporting Life in a reworked version of the Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" on Broadway following a controversial out-of-town tryout this fall near Boston.The creative team, with the blessing of the creators' estates, condensed the four-hour opera into a two-and-one-half-hour musical, eliminated a lot of the repetitiveness and tried to deepen the characters. Their effort generated headlines when purists including Stephen Sondheim complained that a musical treasure was being corrupted."We just want people to be propelled by the story and the music," Grier says. "It's not like we made a deal with the estate to destroy all previous versions and burn down all the opera houses. They will continue to do it and it will continue to live and be interpreted. That's what keeps classical works like this alive."It's the fifth time on Broadway for this Yale School of Drama graduate best known for his scathing wit and his four seasons aboard the groundbreaking sketch comedy TV show "In Living Color."The 55-year-old didn't expect to return to Broadway so soon after appearing in David Mamet's "Race" in 2010, but he had never been in "Porgy and Bess" and thought the new version was going to be "historic."He emailed the American Repertory Theater's Diane Paulus, who was directing the adaptation by Suzan-Lori Parks and Deidre L. Murray. Grier, who knew Paulus from a workshop of her "Best of Both Worlds," wanted to play Sporting Life, the drug-pusher and pimp portrayed in the original Broadway production by Cab Calloway and in the film version by Sammy Davis Jr.Grier impressed the team by holding his own alongside lead actors Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis, and singing two songs: the funny, upbeat "It Ain't Necessarily So" and the teasing, seductive "There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon.""I would sit in the back the theater with my musical director and my choreographer. He'd start singing and we'd all look at each other and our jaws would drop. It's a performance that's blossomed," says Paulus."He's been the most incredible company member for this show. He's cracked a joke at every perfect and imperfect moment and made us all laugh. He's a famous name and yet he's right there in the trenches with everyone like the way Audra and Norm are."To get into character, Grier learned all he could about the 1930s in South Carolina, went back to the original notes left by the show's creators, listened to Ella Fitzgerald scat and watched documentaries of pimps. He also drew on his roots growing up in Detroit and watching pimps decked out in colorful clothes stroll down 12th Street."It was like an urban ballet," he says.The controversy over the show didn't scare him off: It made him even more excited. The show moved over the winter from the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass, to Broadway's Richard Rogers Theatre, opening in January to generally positive reviews."I don't want to be in a production that everyone says, 'Did you open? Did you close? Oh, I didn't see it. Good thing you did it just the way it's always been done,'" Grier says. "No, I want to be in a production that's exciting and gets people talking."Grier laughs that when "Porgy and Bess" first opened in 1935, opera buffs were incensed by what some considered a crass monstrosity: George Gershwin wasn't considered a bona fide opera writer, the show's melting of jazz and blues into a classical European art form was highly unusual, and few thought black singers could fully succeed at singing opera. Over the years, though, it became an opera masterpiece."So when we open, now there are all these opera purists who say, 'Oh no, it's nothing BUT grand opera. You have to do it ONLY the way grand opera must be done,'" he says. "The exciting thing is everyone feels they own it."Grier, who lives in Los Angeles, has found time to see as much Broadway as he can, including "Venus in Fur" and "Jerusalem." At "Follies," he was happy to see other people dance. "It was so great to sit in the audience and not be performing," he says, laughing. "I was going, 'Wow, that was a big number! I bet they're tired now.'"As for reviews, he doesn't sweat them. He recalls the reaction his Broadway debut got in 1981 when he played Jackie Robinson in "The First." One reviewer said Grier was perfect in the role. Another said he was terrible."So I had them framed right next to each other on my wall and above my bed because that sums it up one terrible, one perfect," he says. "My shoulders are broad. This is the career I've chosen. You are judged publicly."Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. By Mark Kennedy January 31, 2012 "Porgy and Bess" PHOTO CREDIT Michael J. Lutch NY (AP) David Alan Grier has a gentle message for anyone who is getting all hot and bothered thinking that he's helping ruin an American masterpiece."Relax. Let it go," he says. "We're not killing it. We're just doing our version."The actor and comedian is currently starring as Sporting Life in a reworked version of the Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" on Broadway following a controversial out-of-town tryout this fall near Boston.The creative team, with the blessing of the creators' estates, condensed the four-hour opera into a two-and-one-half-hour musical, eliminated a lot of the repetitiveness and tried to deepen the characters. Their effort generated headlines when purists including Stephen Sondheim complained that a musical treasure was being corrupted."We just want people to be propelled by the story and the music," Grier says. "It's not like we made a deal with the estate to destroy all previous versions and burn down all the opera houses. They will continue to do it and it will continue to live and be interpreted. That's what keeps classical works like this alive."It's the fifth time on Broadway for this Yale School of Drama graduate best known for his scathing wit and his four seasons aboard the groundbreaking sketch comedy TV show "In Living Color."The 55-year-old didn't expect to return to Broadway so soon after appearing in David Mamet's "Race" in 2010, but he had never been in "Porgy and Bess" and thought the new version was going to be "historic."He emailed the American Repertory Theater's Diane Paulus, who was directing the adaptation by Suzan-Lori Parks and Deidre L. Murray. Grier, who knew Paulus from a workshop of her "Best of Both Worlds," wanted to play Sporting Life, the drug-pusher and pimp portrayed in the original Broadway production by Cab Calloway and in the film version by Sammy Davis Jr.Grier impressed the team by holding his own alongside lead actors Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis, and singing two songs: the funny, upbeat "It Ain't Necessarily So" and the teasing, seductive "There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon.""I would sit in the back the theater with my musical director and my choreographer. He'd start singing and we'd all look at each other and our jaws would drop. It's a performance that's blossomed," says Paulus."He's been the most incredible company member for this show. He's cracked a joke at every perfect and imperfect moment and made us all laugh. He's a famous name and yet he's right there in the trenches with everyone like the way Audra and Norm are."To get into character, Grier learned all he could about the 1930s in South Carolina, went back to the original notes left by the show's creators, listened to Ella Fitzgerald scat and watched documentaries of pimps. He also drew on his roots growing up in Detroit and watching pimps decked out in colorful clothes stroll down 12th Street."It was like an urban ballet," he says.The controversy over the show didn't scare him off: It made him even more excited. The show moved over the winter from the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass, to Broadway's Richard Rogers Theatre, opening in January to generally positive reviews."I don't want to be in a production that everyone says, 'Did you open? Did you close? Oh, I didn't see it. Good thing you did it just the way it's always been done,'" Grier says. "No, I want to be in a production that's exciting and gets people talking."Grier laughs that when "Porgy and Bess" first opened in 1935, opera buffs were incensed by what some considered a crass monstrosity: George Gershwin wasn't considered a bona fide opera writer, the show's melting of jazz and blues into a classical European art form was highly unusual, and few thought black singers could fully succeed at singing opera. Over the years, though, it became an opera masterpiece."So when we open, now there are all these opera purists who say, 'Oh no, it's nothing BUT grand opera. You have to do it ONLY the way grand opera must be done,'" he says. "The exciting thing is everyone feels they own it."Grier, who lives in Los Angeles, has found time to see as much Broadway as he can, including "Venus in Fur" and "Jerusalem." At "Follies," he was happy to see other people dance. "It was so great to sit in the audience and not be performing," he says, laughing. "I was going, 'Wow, that was a big number! I bet they're tired now.'"As for reviews, he doesn't sweat them. He recalls the reaction his Broadway debut got in 1981 when he played Jackie Robinson in "The First." One reviewer said Grier was perfect in the role. Another said he was terrible."So I had them framed right next to each other on my wall and above my bed because that sums it up one terrible, one perfect," he says. "My shoulders are broad. This is the career I've chosen. You are judged publicly."Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.