This is the last Sunday of 2014 and I wanted to share one of my favorite Short films of the year.  Interesting Ball is bizarre and makes very little sense but it is one of the most visual and compelling shorts I have seen this year.  

Despite having no plot you can't take your eyes away from the screen.  You want to know what happens next.  Because it gets stranger and stranger as it goes on.  

Directors The Daniels have been making a name for themselves in the Music videos especially with their video for DJ Snake and Little Jon's video "Turn Down For What" which again uses bizarre visuals that just make you say WTF but you can't stop watching.  I would check out their Vimeo page for other stuff they have done.  Their video for Joywave's song "Tongues" is another must watch but beware that is very NSFW. 

"It's A Wonderful Life" has become a Christmas tradition but it hasn't always been that way.  And how did it become a tradition is an interesting tale.  
Check out the interesting story from Filmmaker IQ about the ins and outs of copyright law and how it helped "It's a Wonderful Life" cement itself as a classic.  

The Academy announced the 9 movies moving on in the Oscar race for Best Foreign Film. A few surprises as Canada's "Mommy" and Belgium's "Two Days, One Night" two movies that have been expected to be serious contenders didn't make the cut.



Here are the 9 that made the cut.



Argentina, “Wild Tales,” Damián Szifrón, director;
Estonia, “Tangerines,” Zaza Urushadze, director;
Georgia, “Corn Island,” George Ovashvili, director;
Mauritania, “Timbuktu,” Abderrahmane Sissako, director;
Netherlands, “Accused,” Paula van der Oest, director;
Poland, “Ida,” Paweł Pawlikowski, director;
Russia, “Leviathan,” Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;
Sweden, “Force Majeure,” Ruben Östlund, director;
Venezuela, “The Liberator,” Alberto Arvelo, director.

When it was first announced that North Korea would treat the release of "The Interview" as an act of war people just laughed it off. No one took it seriously.  How could a silly buddy comedy be considered an act of war.  Then someone hacked into Sony's system and stole a ton of information including emails and payroll information.  While so far there has been no connection to North Korea with the hack those responsible said that if the movie is released they will plan 9/11 attacks at places that are showing the movie.   This prompted theatre owners to cancel showtimes.  Carmike Cinemas were the first to say they will not be showing it then other chains like AMC and Regal said they would not show it.  At the end of the day the Top 5 theatre chains said they will not show it.  

With theatres saying they won't screen the movie Sony did something unprecedented and decided the best bet would be to just cancel the release altogether.  What that means for the movie is unknown.  Will it be released at a later date?

One of the options that many people have been proposing is that Sony release it on VOD.  This is something that studios have wanted to try for a long time. Will people pay to see a movie the same time it is playing in theatres.  It has worked for smaller films but never with a big budget studio movie.  With all the press about The Interview there is a good chance people want to see what all the fuss is about.  How much will people be willing to pay to see the movie at home? If no one theatre is going to show it, it might be a good time to try it.  

Besides giving terrorists what they want the question that will remain is did theatre owners just shoot themselves in the foot.  

Sony's comment
“In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release. We respect and understand our partners’ decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theater-goers.

Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale – all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like. We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.”

The National Film Registry was established in 1988 by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988.  The National Film Preservation Board picks 25 movies each year to add to the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress.  These films represent diverse genres and talent.  They are chosen based on their culturally, historically, or aesthetically significance.  Once selected they Library tries to get the best possible copy and preserve it in ideal conditions.  

This year’s 25 movies range from 1913 silent film that features black actors to 1998’s Saving Private Ryan and The Big Lebowski.  Also included is Pixar’s first computer animated short film Luxo Jr, the horror movie The House of Wax from 1953 which is considered the first 3D feature film.  

For a great look at the process check out the documentary “These Amazing Shadows” which is streaming on Netflix.  

Check out the list of additions below with the description from The Film Registry on why they were selected.  
 And for a full list of all movies on the Registry check out their website The National Film Registry.  

The first trailer for "The Walk" has arrived and it is pretty dizzying. 

 "The Walk" is about Philippe Petit who famously walked across a tight rope between the Twin Towers in 1974.  The story has already been told in the critically praised documentary "Man on a Wire" but Robert Zemeckis is giving us a feature film with some dazzling special effects.  The movie will be released in 3D and IMAX 3D and probably should not be seen by anyone that has a fear of heights or gets motion sick.  

The movie stars a very pale looking Joseph Gordon Levitt as Petit and the ever present Ben Kingsly.  Right now it is scheduled to be released October 2nd 2015.  

What do you thing? Are you looking forward to the movie.  

The Hunger Games finally got knocked out of the number one position by the Biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings.  Opening with $24.5 million is a little disappointing for a movie that has an estimated budget of $140 million.  Especially when compared to earlier in the year when Son of God opened with $25.6 million and that was basically a reedit of The History Channel’s miniseries The Bible.  Son of God also opened in 300 fewer theaters.  Not sure if it is the timing or content that hurt Exodus.  It had not so stellar reviews and it came out when the box office isn’t doing very well.  But the previous two years a Hobbit movie opened and made tons of money.  So, it is possible to make money during December with big epic spectacles.  Speaking of The Hobbit the third Hobbit movies opens this week and whatever hope Exodus had of competing is probably gone as people don’t seem that interested in in. 

Dropping to second place is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.  Slowly eroding away it will finish behind all previous installments and hard to say what that means for Mockingjay Part 2. Last week’s runner up Penquins of Madagascar dropped to 3 and hasn’t been attracting too much business itself. 

Chris Rock released a new movie to great reviews and playing in only 979 theatres made $7.2 million for a 4th place finish.  Having one of the best per screen average in the top 10 with  $7,354 it is looking good as the movie expands into more locations in the coming weeks.

Big Hero 6 and Interstellar both opened on the same day and have both been doing really well.  The both had a similar drop around 25% this week.  Meanwhile two sequels Horrible Bosses 2 and Dumb and Dumber To consider their rapid slide dropping 45% and 34% respectively. 

Two Oscar contenders round out the top 10.  The Theory of Everything increased their theater count and came in 9th with $2.5 million. The movie is looking for multiple award nominations including Picture, Actor, and Actress.  So expect it to play for a while.  Entering the top 10 after expanding from 21 to 116 theaters was Wild a movie that looks to score Reese Witherspoon her second Oscar nomination.  With a stellar average of $12,931 per theater it hopes to get strong word of mouth and maybe get a few more nominations. 

Falling out of the Top 10 was Gone Girl which remained for 10 weeks. 

The Top 10 is below

We bring you something different for our short of the week today.  As with any new technology leave it to the porn industry to turn it into something perverted.  So it was only a matter of time before porn started using drones.  
Obviously it is completely NSFW but it is not your average porn movie either.  Shot from above you get your great landscapes shots and glimpses of people having sex.  It is almost something beautiful just very natural.  
Not sure what else we can expect from drone shot porn but it is worth checking out if for no other reason just the curiosity factor.  
What do you think? 

So some how a the Sony email hack got us some information about a Marvel movie.  
The Russo Brothers who directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier and will be directing Captain America: Civil war have long been rumored to be directing Avengers: Infinity War Part I and Part II.  Thank to the Sony hack it has now been confirmed.  In an email to Amy Pascal, the head of Sony, the brothers said they will be able to direct a movie for Sony called The Gray Man in between Civil War and Infinity War. This confirmation also means that Avengers: Age of Ultron will be the last Joss Whedon directed Avengers movie (at least for now, never say never).  

Also in the emails they say they are sorry about Sony not being able to come to a deal with Marvel to let Spider-Man make an appearance in Civil War.  In the comics Spider-Man is a key part of the Civil War story line and a lot of fans were hoping to see him in the movie.  There are still rumors saying that talks are not completely done but it seems very unlikely that Sony would want to give up control of that franchise.  

This was reported by a Portuguese Website Overtice. So any one that can read Portuguese give a glance and tell me if there is anything I am missing.  

There really isn't a whole lot of new stuff here just confirmation of rumors.  
What are your thoughts?