Cinemascope

In what looks like a virtual repeat of the Cannes Film Festival, Romania’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” took the prize for best film at The European Film Awards held this evening in Berlin. Christian Mungiu, director of “4 Months..” was named best director.
Israel’s “The Band’s Visit“, which was controversially disqualified from the foreign language Oscars in October, walked away with two major prizes: Best Actor, for Sasson Gabai. Eran Kolirin’s film also won the European Discovery Award.

Sasson Gabai (right) in The Band’s Visit

Helen Mirren won Best Actress for “The Queen”.
Fatih Akin’s “The Edge of Heaven” took home the screenplay prize, again a repeat of the Cannes award handed to him.

After the jump: the complete list of winners.

(more…)

This looks like a match made in comedy-heaven: Judd Apatow (Cinemascope’s Man of the Year), Robert Smigel (Triumph, the insult comic dog) and Adam Sandler teamed up to write a movie that doesn’t only sound silly, it reads as utter nonsense: You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. Picking up where Borat left off they mash Hebrew and Gibberish into the story of an ex-Mossad agent leaving his secret identity behind to try to find peace and quiet in New York City. A bunch of Israeli bumheads then come to his rescue when his cover is blown.

Cinemascope got hold of several pages from the screenplay for the movie that is currently being shot, with many Israeli actors in supporting roles.

Sample dialog (about Chelsea Clinton):

Yitzhak: Are you crazy? I liked Chelsea.
Everyone: I would sex Chelsea!
Aharon: She is hot. With the hair.
Oori: You seen these legs.
Yossi: You can fit a marshmallow in between the thighs.

The pages from the screenplay are after the jump.

(more…)

Give this man an Oscar nomination! Judd Apatow will be 40 on Thursday (December 6th) and it has to be said: he gave us some of the most entertaining moments of 2007. In April he brought The brilliant and sardonic The TV Set, which he produced (Jake Kasdan wrote and directed), in June he delivered Knocked Up which he wrote and directed, August brought the Apatow-produced Superbad, which is the best comedy of 2007, and December brings Apatow-Kasdan reteaming onWalk Hard. 2008 looks to be just as crowded, with Apatow producing or writing no less than five features (Drillbit Taylor, Pineapple Express, Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess With The Zohan and Will Ferrell’s Step Brothers).

Take these two polls I posted up on Poll’s Boutique and answer: which of Apatow’s 2007 projects you enjoyed the most, and which of his 2008 are you looking forward to the most?

My headline from earlier this week was picked up by Variety Online.

(note that the Israeli population in 2007 is 7 million, and not as printed erroneously in the report).