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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Saturday
- June 30, 2001
- A.I. has $10 Million Friday
Opening
- BBFC Orders Tomb
Raider Edits for U.K. Moviegoers
- Final Fantasy Premiere Set
for Monday
- News Link of the Day
- Fantasia 2000 - So-So Sorcery
 A.I.
has $10 Million Friday Opening
(by digitalmediafx.com) Steven Spielberg's disturbing AI
movie had a huge $10 million Friday opening. While the opening
was strong, it fell short of several films this year including
Shrek, Pearl Harbor, The Mummy Returns, The Fast and the Furious,
and Hannibal).
AI made $10.1
million in 3,242 theaters and will likely have grossed over $32
million by the end of the weekend.
After rave
reviews by Newsweek and Time Magazine surfaced weeks ago, newer
reviews of AI began taking a more mixed tone to the film
with some high-profile publications like The Washington Post and
San Francisco Chronicle giving the film negative reviews. The
main conflict amongst critics is that neither the late Stanley
Kubrick's vision was realized or Steven Spielberg vision. By trying
to create a "Stanley Kubrick" movie Spielberg mixed
two vastly different director styles (his and Kubrick's) to instead
create a disjointed, yet fascinating, film.
In other Friday
box office news, Doctor Doolittle 2 brought in $4.5 million,
Tomb Raider brought in $2.8 million, Atlantis brought
in $2.2 million, and Shrek brought in $2.0 million.
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BBFC Orders
Tomb Raider Edits for UK Audience
(by digitalmediafx.com) Tomb Raider has been edited
for UK audiences at the demand of the British Board of Film Classification
(BBFC), the U.K.'s governing film agency (the equivalent of the
MPAA in the U.S.). If the filmmakers had refused to make the requested
edits then the film would have been slapped with a "15 certificate"
rating, alienating much of the film's potential audience from
seeing the movie (those 15 and under).
The BBFC expressed
concern over several violent scenes, mostly ones involving knives.
Paramount Pictures has made the requested edits in time for the
July 6 release of the film in the UK
Here's the
BBFC's explanation:
"Company
chose to significantly reduce sight of a flick knife in several
scenes, removing in particular material which appeared to glamorize
the weapon , in order to achieve a 12. An uncut 15 was available
to the distributor. The distributor also sought and was given
advice during post-production which resulted in a reduction in
violence in the final fight sequence (including the complete removal
of a headbutt) prior to formal submission."
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Final Fantasy
Premiere Set for Monday
(by digitalmediafx.com) The world premiere of Final Fantasy:
The Spirits Within will take place this Monday in Hollywood at
the Mann Bruin Theater. Being released by Columbia Pictures and
Square Pictures, the movie has been rated PG-13 by the Motion
Picture Association of America. Hironobu Sakaguchi directs from
an original screenplay written by Al Reinert and Jeff Vintar.
The story was by Hironobu Sakaguchi, also the creator of the Final
Fantasy games. Motonori Sakakibara co-directs. The film features
the voices of actors Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin,
Ming-Na, Ving Rhames, Donald Sutherland and James Woods, among
others. Sakaguchi, Jun Aida and Chris Lee are producers.
The movie
is being released nationally on July 11.
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News Link
of the Day - Spielberg’s AI Faces Big Marketing
Hurdles
According
to MSNBC:
"The
difficulty facing Warner Bros. in marketing Steven Spielberg’s
new movie AI: Artificial Intelligence can best be understood
in the mangled words of NBC’s 'Today' co-host Matt Lauer.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Lauer and partner Katie Couric were bantering
on the air about movies when Mr. Lauer referred to 'A-One'—
mistaking the title of the movie about a robot boy who longs to
become real for the name of a popular steak sauce. It’s a
worrisome sign for a movie studio when its big summer movie is
confused for a condiment…"
Click
here for the full story.
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