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16 Blocks' Richard Wenk Sets up a Heist at Overture

30 June 2009 | From ioncinema | See recent ioncinema news

- Overture Films are looking to be a part of Richard Wenk's heist job. The Hollywood Reporter reports that State Street Pictures' George Tillman Jr. (a producer who also happens to be a director as recently witnessed with Notorious) has sold the pitch to the indie distributor. No plot details were revealed but Wenk last wrote the screenplay 16 Blocks which Richard Donner directed. The untitled heist pic Tillman and Robert Teitel from State Street are producing with Richard Arlook, who manages Wenk. Matt Pritzker is executive producing and Rene Rigal is overseeing for State Street....

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Overture Films Picks Up Untitled Heist Pitch

29 June 2009 6:17 PM, PDT | From MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news

Overture Films has picked up Richard Wenk's twist-laden untitled heist pitch with plans for a feature film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film was brought to Overture by State Street Pictures, the shingle run by director-producer George Tillman Jr. (Notorious). Tillman and Robert Teitel from State Street are producing with Richard Arlook, who manages Wenk. Matt Pritzker is executive producing and Rene Rigal is overseeing for State Street.

No production date has been set.

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Notorious Blu-ray Review -- Dellamorte reviews the story of Christopher 'Biggie Smalls' Wallace

1 May 2009 | From Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news

Written by Andre Dellamorte The Tupac Shakur Bios were –all things – quick out the gate. So was the flood of posthumous material. For a while there his legacy was inescapable. And he’s still a strong figure in the community. But if you go out to a club, and you want it to explode, you play “Juicy.” Or “Party and Bullshit.” Or “Hypnotize.” Though Tupac has a couple of songs, crowds still go crazy for Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace, or as his albums refer to him, The Notorious B.I.G. And now there’s a bio-pic. It’s not much of a movie, and director George Tillman Jr. follows the playbook of the bio-pic formula (there’s even helicopter shots of cities), but Jamal Woolard does capture the swagger and grace of Wallace. Raised by his mother Volletta (Angela Bassett, too good for this material, but in fine form

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Blu-Ray Review: Legendary Rap Icon Given Standard Biopic Treatment in ‘Notorious’

29 April 2009 7:43 PM, PDT | From HollywoodChicago.com | See recent HollywoodChicago.com news

Chicago – Biggie Smalls deserves better than ‘Notorious’. It’s not that there’s anything drastically wrong with this reasonably well-made and very well-performed biopic but it’s a by-the-numbers, predictable film about an icon who was simply one of the best that ever lived. The ‘Big Poppa’ who could ‘Hypnotize’ with his rhymes should have more than an average biopic.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0 The problem with “Notorious” is simple - if you care enough about The Notorious B.I.G. to watch a movie about his life than you will learn absolutely nothing from the film. It hits all of the major points - his drug-dealing youth, supportive mother, relationships with Faith Evans and Lil Kim, partnership with Puff Daddy, rivalry with Tupac, the two shootings, roll credits. There’s not enough edge for a man who brought so much to his flow and not enough surprises for a man who

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adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

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Notorious Movie Poster 2

26 January 2009 3:30 AM, PST | From toxicshock.tv | See recent toxicshock news

Fox Searchlight Pictures released another brand new movie poster from the upcoming film “Notorious” by director George Tillman Jr. (Men of Honor, Soul Food) and starring Angela Bassett (Mama Black Widow), Anthony Mackie (Eagle Eye, Desert Flower), Derek Luke (Madea Goes to Jail), Naturi Naughton and Jamal Woolard as Notorious B.I.G. Synopsis: Notorious is the story of Christopher Wallace who, through raw talent and sheer determination, transforms himself from a Brooklyn street hustler to become the greatest rapper of all time, The Notorious B.I.G. This story charts his meteoric rise to fame and his refusal to succumb to expectation. Produced by Voletta Wallace (Big’s mother), Wayne Barrowman and Mark Pitts (Big’s [...]

Brian Corder

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Review: "Notorious"

22 January 2009 10:23 PM, PST | From screeninglog.com | See recent screeninglog news

Seen on: January 17, 2009

The players: Director: George Tillman Jr., Writers: Cheo Hodari Coker, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Cast: Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith

Facts of interest: George Tillman Jr. also directed "Men of Honor."

The plot: Follows the life and career of Christopher Wallace, who's also known as Notorious B.I.G.

Our quick thoughts: No dream was too big for Christopher “Biggie” Wallace (Jamal Woolard), a Brooklyn boy who abandoned his drug-dealing habits to pursue his dream of a career as a hip-hop artist. George Tillman Jr’s intriguing biopic “Notorious” recounts the short but eventful life of the influential musician, who quickly rose to fame but ended up losing his life in a tragic shooting at the young age of 24.

Franck Tabouring

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Notorious Review

20 January 2009 12:56 AM, PST | From newsinfilm.com | See recent newsinfilm news

Notorious may be decent memorial disc to include in a Biggie Smalls master anthology, but as a movie and a biopic it misses the beat.  It follows the same cliche path of other music figures, while selectively editing the dramatic or controversial from the life of Christopher Wallace/The Notorious B.I.G./Biggie Smalls.  Without the major bumps of true life conflict the film feels flat and uninspired, like a rap video trumping only the fine things money can buy.

The excellent cast can’t be faulted for the film’s familiar rise and fall character arc.  Oscar-nominated Angela Bassett is a tearful single mother struggling to teach her only son how to be a good man.  Equal time is also given to new actress Naturi Naughton, who is also particularly good as Lil’ Kim, the fiery, foul-mouthed rapper whose tumultuous relationship with Biggie made her career.  Derek Luke

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Jeff Leins

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'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' Captures Holiday Box Office

19 January 2009 6:39 PM, PST | From Aceshowbiz | See recent Aceshowbiz news

"Paul Blart: Mall Cop" keeps digging gold at the box office chart over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. After nailing the #1 slot of the three-day weekend box office, the Kevin James' latest comedy movie secures the revenue chart's top spot, hauling in $39.2 million over the four-day weekend.

According to Rentrak, with the nearly $40 million bow, "Paul Blart" easily becomes the second-best January opening behind "Cloverfield", which raked in $46.1 million over the four-day Mlk weekend in 2008. Produced for $26 million, the PG-comedy has earlier landed atop the North American box office with $31.8 million over the three-day weekend.

While the top ten box office movies stay firm at their three-day weekend positions, all of them get a boost on the ticket sales following the Mlk holiday. Second place "Gran Torino", which pulled in $22 million during the normal weekend, collected nearly $4 million more with $25.6 million. "My Bloody Valentine 3-D", in addition,

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AceShowbiz.com

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'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' Is Three-Day Weekend Box Office King

18 January 2009 6:12 PM, PST | From Aceshowbiz | See recent Aceshowbiz news

"Paul Blart: Mall Cop" has presented an impressive opening weekend at the North American box office. Knocking down Clint Eastwood's drama "Gran Torino" from the #1 position and exceeding expectations, the Kevin James' PG-rated comedy pulled in an estimated $33.8 million over the three-day weekend.

Having an even appeal to basically everybody, the movie about a bumbling security guard who takes on a gang of thieves were watched by those under and over the age 25 with the percentage of 56% to those under 25 and 44% to those over 25. Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony, also claimed that the movie is expected to reach $40 million over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday by the end of Monday, January 19.

"We had a lot of screenings as well as tracking that was good on it. We were hopeful we could do in the range of $25 million for four days and that would have

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AceShowbiz.com

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Notorious

18 January 2009 10:37 AM, PST | From The Scorecard Review | See recent Scorecard Review news

Notorious Directed by: George Tillman Jr. Cast: Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Naturi Naughton Running Time: 2 hours Rating: R Plot: Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace (Woolard) – who, in just a few short years, shot from the tough streets of Brooklyn to the heights of hip-hop legend. Who’s It For? This is not a re-release or remake of the 1946 film Notorious, so Alfred Hitchcock fans shouldn't get too excited. This is a standard bio-pic, set in the hip hop world. Expectations: I am a fringe R&B fan, just knowing the hits of 50-Cent, Kanye West, and Eminem. I thought this was a good of way as any to get immersed into the life of Biggie Smalls. Scorecard (0-10) Actors: Jamal Woolard as Christopher 'Biggie' Wallace: He's got the 'big' part down. Woolard is a large man that

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Notorious

16 January 2009 2:29 PM, PST | From Pastemagazine.com | See recent PasteMagazine news

Release Date: Jan. 16 Director: George Tillman Jr.

Writers: Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker

Cinematographer: Michael Grady

Starring: Jamal Woolard, Derek Luke, Angela Bassett, Anthony Mackie

Studio/Run Time: Fox Searchlight Pictures, 100 mins.

Despite how few truly great music biopics there are, it’s a genre that never seems to lag in terms of prolificacy. But it’s also notoriously difficult to do right, since getting the support of an artist’s fans almost certainly precludes telling a truly dramatic story, especially without reducing the entirety of an artist’s career to a small set of highs and lows. Notorious retells the story of Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., in this typical fashion, though with perhaps a slight caveat. In the world of Notorious, everything  Biggie did is a peak, leading to a film that his hero worshipers might enjoy, but one that ends up on the screen cold and flat.

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Hip-Hop at the Movies

16 January 2009 9:15 AM, PST | From Reelzchannel.com | See recent ReelzChannel news

"I said a hip-hop, the hippie, the hippie to the hip-hip-hop, a you don't stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie, say up jumped the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat." Now after reading those lines you either think I've lost my mind or you started singing along with "Now what you hear is not a test!" The lyrics, of course, are from Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," which took the music scene by storm and first brought rap music into the mainstream in 1979.

Now, 30 years later, rap is far from the fad everyone tried to dismiss it as. While disco, new wave and grunge have come and gone, hip-hop has flourished and become a viable popular music form. And over the years, the genre has moved beyond music and into movie theaters, starting with the classic Wild Style in 1983. This weekend sees the release

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Jeff Otto

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The Weekend Ahead - Paramount unleashes "Dogs," "Defiance" expands.

16 January 2009 1:08 AM, PST | From Movie Jungle | See recent Movie Jungle news

Pooches should bark up solid numbers for Paramount Pictures. The family comedy “Hotel for Dogs” unspools into 3,271 venues and stars Emma Roberts, Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Dillon and Johnny Simmons. Thor Freudenthal (“Motel”) directs from the screenplay by Jeff Lowell based on the novel written by Lois Duncan. We rated and review the film as average. Pic goes against Lionsgate’s horror remake “My Bloody Valentine 3-D,” directed by Patrick Lussier, opens in 2,534 venues. Lussier is well experienced in the editing field horror-wise with work in “Dracula 2000,” “Cursed,” “Red Eye,” “White Noise 2: The Light” and the most recent “The Eye” English adaptation starring Jessica Alba. Also trying their luck in 3,144 locations will be Sony’s “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” helmed by Steve Carr (“Are We Done Yet?” and “Rebound”) from the screenplay by star Kevin James and Nick Bakay. Adam Sandler produces the film via his Happy Madison Productions.

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Movie Review - 'Notorious'

15 January 2009 11:21 PM, PST | From GetTheBigPicture.net | See recent Get The Big Picture news

Notorious

Starring Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, and Derek Luke

Directed by George Tillman Jr.

Rated R

Christopher Wallace became better known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, but he had to start somewhere. That somewhere was the streets of Brooklyn, where the young Wallace saw more potential selling drugs than in school, and when his luck as a dealer ran out, he began to take his rhymes more seriously.

Released from jail at the age of 19, Wallace adopted the name Biggie Smalls, and caught the attention of a young music executive named Sean Combs. If the story only went that far, it would be compelling enough.

But Notorious and the the biography of B.I.G. has a few more chapters. Music was a major component, and you can understand his influence by running through the songs in the film. Women played probably the most significant role in his life,

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Colin Boyd

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Berlinale 09: More competition and Panorama titles

15 January 2009 11:42 AM, PST | From QuietEarth.us | See recent QuietEarth news

With the addition of the following 26 titles (14 of which have been invited), the competition section is almost completed. You'll notice the kid with wings flick Ricky by Francois Ozon that we reported on earlier. Also having it's world premier is Mitchell Lichtenstein's (Teeth) newest film Happy Tears which sounds nothing it's predecessor (a genre piece) as it's a family drama.

You can check out the list after the break.

Competition (some out)

Cheri UK

By Stephen Frears (The Queen, Dangerous Liaisons)

With Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Rupert Friend, Felicity Jones

World premiere

Darbareye Elly (About Elly) Iran

By Asghar Farhadi (Fireworks Wednesday)

With Golshifteh Farahani, Taraneh Alidousti, Mani Haghighi

World premiere

Deutschland 09 Germany - Out of Competition

Compilation film by Fatih Akin, Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker, Sylke Enders, Dominik Graf, Romuald Karmakar, Nicolette Krebitz, Isabelle Stever, Hans Steinbichler, Hans Weingartner, Christoph Hochhäusler, Dani Levy and Angela Schanelec

World

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New "Notorious" video clips and interview clips!

13 January 2009 9:27 AM, PST | From Movie Jungle | See recent Movie Jungle news

Movie Jungle has new clips as well as interview clips from Fox Searchlight's drama "Notorious," starring Jamal "Gravy" Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith, Naturi Naughton, Dennis White and Julia Pace Mitchell. George Tillman Jr. ("Nothing Like the Holidays," "Beauty Shop") directs the biography from the writing by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker. In just a few short years, Notorious B.I.G. rose from the streets of Brooklyn to become one of the most influential hip hop artists...

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New "Notorious" video clips and interview clips!

13 January 2009 9:27 AM, PST | From Movie Jungle | See recent Movie Jungle news

Movie Jungle has new clips as well as interview clips from Fox Searchlight's drama "Notorious," starring Jamal "Gravy" Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith, Naturi Naughton, Dennis White and Julia Pace Mitchell. George Tillman Jr. ("Nothing Like the Holidays," "Beauty Shop") directs the biography from the writing by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker. In just a few short years, Notorious B.I.G. rose from the streets of Brooklyn to become one of the most influential hip hop artists...

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New "Notorious" video clips and interview clips!

13 January 2009 9:27 AM, PST | From Movie Jungle | See recent Movie Jungle news

Movie Jungle has new clips as well as interview clips from Fox Searchlight's drama "Notorious," starring Jamal "Gravy" Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith, Naturi Naughton, Dennis White and Julia Pace Mitchell. George Tillman Jr. ("Nothing Like the Holidays," "Beauty Shop") directs the biography from the writing by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker. In just a few short years, Notorious B.I.G. rose from the streets of Brooklyn to become one of the most influential hip hop artists of all time. B.I.G. was a gifted storyteller; his narratives about violent life on the streets were told with a gritty, objective realism that won him enormous respect and credibility. His stories were universal and gave a voice to his generation. . See more videos for "Notorious" here  

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New "Notorious" video clips and interview clips!

13 January 2009 9:27 AM, PST | From Movie Jungle | See recent Movie Jungle news

Movie Jungle has new clips as well as interview clips from Fox Searchlight's drama "Notorious," starring Jamal "Gravy" Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith, Naturi Naughton, Dennis White and Julia Pace Mitchell. George Tillman Jr. ("Nothing Like the Holidays," "Beauty Shop") directs the biography from the writing by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker. In just a few short years, Notorious B.I.G. rose from the streets of Brooklyn to become one of the most influential hip hop artists...

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Opening This Week: Bollywood kung fu, Biggie Smalls and 3-D slashers

12 January 2009 2:29 PM, PST | From ifc.com | See recent IFC news

By Neil Pedley

Anyone not waiting on a ski lift (or screening) with bated breath in Utah can spend their time picking through a hodgepodge of some of the finest examples of genre excess you're likely to find. Bollywood goes to China, the slasher film goes 3D and the people behind "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" make zero effort not to telegraph what will likely end up the lamest rhyming gag ever.

"Chandni Chowk to China"

Warner Bros looks to establish a foothold in Bollywood with this action comedy, the first of a three-picture deal with Indian outfit People Tree Films. Directed by Nikhil Advani, "Chandni Chowk to China" is billed as the first Bollywood kung-fu comedy, a marriage of the traditional song-and-dance set-pieces with the underdog saga of a short order cook-turned-kung-fu master that owes that owes more than a nod to Stephen Chow. Akshay Kumar stars as Sidhu, a

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Neil Pedley

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2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2002

1-20 of 23 articles from 2009   « Prev | Next »

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