Western movie character actor Harry Carey Jr. dies at 91

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES | Fri Dec 28, 2012 10:56pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran character actor Harry Carey Jr., who appeared in scores of television shows and films including nine of famed movie director John Ford's classic Hollywood Westerns, has died at age 91, his family said on Friday.

Carey, a frequent supporting player in films starring John Wayne, died peacefully of natural causes on Thursday morning in the seaside town of Santa Barbara, California, surrounded by family members, said his daughter, Melinda Carey.

"No cancer or nothing, he just got old," she said of her father, who is survived by his wife of 68 years, Marilyn, and three adult children.

Carey's more notable big-screen credits included a co-starring role with John Wayne in Ford's 1948 outlaw film "3 Godfathers," the role of a young cavalry officer in Ford's 1949 western "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," also with Wayne, and a turn decades later in a saloon scene in the 1990 sci-fi comedy "Back to the Future Part III."

In all, he made 11 movie appearances with Wayne.

Among other Ford-directed films in which Carey appeared were "The Searchers" (1956), "Wagon Master" (1950) and "Rio Grande" (1950).

In addition to a prodigious movie career that encompassed more than 90 films, Carey was a fixture on television during an era when westerns proliferated on the small screen, popping up in various character roles on such prime-time hits as "Bonanza," "Gunsmoke" and "Wagon Train" in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the 1950s, he had a recurring role in "The Adventures of Spin and Marty," a series of TV shorts that aired as part of "The Mickey Mouse Club."

Carey was born in 1921, the son of silent film star Harry Carey and his wife, Olive, who also was an actress.

The young Carey was raised among cattle and horses on his parents' 1,000-acre ranch in California's Santa Clarita Valley, north of Los Angeles, and he earned the nickname "Dobe" because his hair color was the hue of the ranch's reddish adobe clay. Even late in life, he went by that nickname.

THE JOHN FORD STOCK COMPANY

The family's affiliation with Ford dated back to the director's earliest westerns, with Carey's father appearing in some of Ford's silent films in 1917.

During World War Two, the younger Carey worked with Ford on training and propaganda films for the U.S. military. He went on to become a regular performer, along with his father, in the John Ford Stock Company - actors and crew members who Ford used repeatedly in his films. Carey Jr. was reported to be the last surviving member of Ford's stock company.

Carey's first feature collaboration with Ford in "3 Godfathers," playing the Abilene Kid, saw Carey, Wayne and Mexican-born actor Pedro Armendariz co-star as cattle rustlers and bank robbers who care for an orphaned baby boy while dodging the law. Carey's father starred in the original 1919 version, also directed by Ford.

Carey began his association with Wayne in another 1948 release, the classic Howard Hawks Western movie "Red River," which also starred the elder Carey, though father and son had no scenes together.

Among Carey's last screen appearances were his turn as a U.S. marshal in the 1993 film "Tombstone," which starred Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell, and a supporting role in the 1997 TV movie "Last Stand at Saber River," which starred Tom Selleck.

The Carey family ranch, which was visited over the years by Wayne and fellow actors William S. Hart and Gary Cooper, has been turned into a Los Angeles County historic park called Tesoro Adobe.

Laurene Weste, city councilwoman in Santa Clarita, said Carey Jr. remains a beloved figure in the area where the family ranch was once so prominent. "He was just a wonderful, loving, kind, down-to-Earth man," she said.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Will Dunham)

View the original article here

"Les Miserables" movie relies on close-ups for emotional punch

Actors Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Amanda Seyfried and director Tom Hooper (L-R) pose for photographers as they arrive for the world premiere of ''Les Miserables'' in London December 5, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK | Fri Dec 21, 2012 12:06pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - For British director Tom Hooper, the key to turning "Les Miserables" from the wildly popular stage musical to a cinematic experience both sweeping and intimate, was all in the close-up.

The stage musical has left audiences around the world wiping away tears with its themes of justice, redemption and romantic and familial love. So bringing it to life on screen for fans and filmgoers was "hugely daunting," Hooper says.

Still, the Oscar-winning director of "The King's Speech," was ambitious, wanting to offer even more of the "intense emotional experience" that has kept fans returning to various stage productions since "Les Miserables" made its English language debut 27 years ago.

"I felt very aware of the fact that so many millions of people hold this close to their hearts and would probably sit in the cinemas in complete fear," Hooper told reporters about his big screen take on the tale of French revolutionaries rising up against powerful forces.

Movie stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway were all put through an intense audition and rehearsal process, to make sure they could sing take after take, live, with cameras positioned right in their face.

It also features a large ensemble including Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne, as well as Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter who lead the comic relief song, "Master of the House."

"I thought the great weapon in my arsenal was the close up, because the one thing on stage that you can't enjoy is the detail of what is going on in people's faces as they are singing," Hooper said. "I felt (that) having to do a meditation on the human face was by far the best way to bring out the emotion of the songs."

That tactic may or may not have paid off for a movie that is seen as one of the front runners for Oscar awards in February. Early screenings of the film that opens on Christmas Day have moved some audiences. Critics have praised the performances, but given the movie as a whole less than top marks.

The movie reunites the same team that worked on the original musical, including French composer Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyricist Alain Boublil, and English language adapter Herbert Kretzmer. It adds one original song to the existing show, which includes the well-known "I Dreamed a Dream".

Jackman plays petty thief Jean Valjean, the protagonist of the story based on French writer Victor Hugo's epic 1862 historical novel "Les Miserables." Valjean transforms himself into a respected businessman but struggles for decades to escape the clutches of his nemesis, police inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), and along the way encounters factory worker Fantine (Anne Hathaway).

TIMELY MESSAGE

Inspired by films such as 1991's "The Commitments," singing was filmed live rather than later recorded in a studio to give the movie a more authentic feel.

Hathaway lost 25 pounds (11.3 kg) for the role and cut her long brown hair. She spent six months perfecting the task of crying and singing at the same time for "I Dreamed a Dream" and is a hot favorite for a best supporting actress Oscar.

In a twist of fate, Hooper had initially seen Hathaway singing to Jackman a boisterous version of the "Les Miserables" song "On My Own" at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, just when he was trying to decide whether to direct the film and was thinking about casting.

"I was sitting there, going: 'There is something very strange happening'," he joked. "Whatever happened, it certainly worked, because I ended up casting both of them."

Hooper said he took his inspiration mostly from Hugo's novel rather than any one stage production, and thus saw Crowe's Javert more as a "deeply honorable" character than a simplistic "bad guy" as portrayed in some productions.

The time also felt right, he said, to bring the story to a larger audience on the big screen.

"There are so many people hurting around the world because of social, economic, inequality and inequity. There is such anger against the system," he said, "whether it's the protests on Wall Street or in London at St Paul's, or the seismic shifts happening in the Middle East."

"'Les Miserables' is the great advocate of the dispossessed," Hooper said. "It teaches you the way to collective action is through passionate engagement with the people around you. It starts with love for the person next to you."

(Editing by Jill Serjeant and David Storey)

View the original article here

Comedienne Rebel Wilson to host MTV Movie Awards

LOS ANGELES | Thu Dec 20, 2012 11:50pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Pitch Perfect" star Rebel Wilson will host the 2013 MTV Movie Awards and give a new drama-infused spin to the annual ceremony, the cable television channel said on Thursday.

Wilson, 28, will play host and star by acting in a satirical narrative throughout the April 14 awards show in Los Angeles.

The Australian comedienne who appeared in the 2011 comedy hit "Bridesmaids," gave a sneak peak of the show in a promotional trailer (at MovieAwards.MTV.com.) in which she plays a stone-faced hostage hiding a candy bar in her mouth for a necessary snack.

The trailer hints at a possible role for Wilson's real-life roommate, British actor Matt Lucas, who plays Wilson's captor.

The MTV Movie Awards offer a zany take on Hollywood's usual buttoned-up, black tuxedo and gown awards season.

MTV hands out golden popcorn-shaped trophies in categories such as "best kiss" and "best fight." The awards categories pay respect to blockbuster hits likely to be overlooked by industry stalwarts the Oscars and Golden Globes.

Previous hosts include Lindsay Lohan, Mike Myers and Jimmy Fallon.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; editing by Philip Barbara)

View the original article here

Bin Laden movie "Zero Dark Thirty" arrives, mired in controversy

Director and producer of the movie Kathryn Bigelow waves at the premiere of ''Zero Dark Thirty''at the Dolby theatre in Hollywood, California December 10, 2012. The movie opens in the U.S. on January 11.

Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK | Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:13pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow could have made a testosterone-fueled shoot-'em-up Hollywood version of the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden.

Instead, she and screenwriter Mark Boal turned "Zero Dark Thirty" into a more complex look at the decade-long hunt for the al Qaeda leader, including a frank presentation of U.S. torture and previously undisclosed details of the mission to hunt down the man behind the September 11 attacks.

When the film opens in limited U.S. release on Wednesday, Bigelow and Boal want audiences to disregard a year of controversies, including claims, which they have denied, that the film makers were leaked classified information.

"It's about a look inside the intelligence community. The strength and power and courage and dedication and tenacity and vulnerability of these women and men," Bigelow, 61, told Reuters in a joint interview with Boal.

Bigelow won an Academy Award in 2010 for "The Hurt Locker," about U.S. army bomb disposal experts in Iraq. She says her latest movie puts the audience at the center of the quest to find bin Laden, and gives a perspective of the U.S. intelligence community and how its methods changed in the years following the September 11 attacks.

"It's a controversial topic, it's a topic that has been endlessly politicized. The film has been mischaracterized for a year and a half and we would love it if people would go and see it and judge for themselves," Boal said.

The action thriller has emerged as an Oscar front-runner after picking up multiple early awards and nominations from Hollywood groups.

FROM TORA BORA TO ABBOTTABAD

When bin Laden was killed by Navy commandos in May 2011, Bigelow was only months away from shooting a film about the failed bid to find him in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan during the U.S.-led invasion a decade earlier.

She quickly revised the project.

"Zero Dark Thirty" opens not long after the September 11 attacks with graphic scenes of interrogation, including water boarding, sexual humiliation and a detainee being forced into a box.

It stars Jessica Chastain as a CIA officer called "Maya" who uses intelligence gleaned from brutal interrogations, electronic surveillance and old-fashioned spying to track down bin Laden through his use of couriers.

The opening scenes of torture, which are seen in the movie as yielding both correct and false information from prisoners, have inflamed debate in the United States.

Bigelow and Boal said the film is not meant to pass judgment - positive or negative - on such interrogation. "What we are trying to show, is that it (torture) happened. Which I think is not that controversial," said Boal.

"It's obviously an ongoing debate. It's a debate within the community of people who are experts and I am sure that debate will continue for many years," he added.

Bigelow points out that much of the second half of the film shows agents using other methods such as electronic surveillance.

The movie shifts between locations, including secret CIA centers in foreign countries known as Black sites, the Pakistan city of Islamabad and Camp Chapman, in Khost, Afghanistan. It is not meant to be an accurate depiction of all the players involved in hunting the al Qaeda leader, Bigelow and Boal said.

REAL AND COMPOSITE CHARACTERS

Instead, it tells the story through the eyes of Maya, fresh-faced and not long in the field, battling security threats, CIA bureaucracy and unsupportive bosses to eventually track bin Laden to his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

"She is based on a real person, and there are other people who also contributed who are not represented, whose work I hope is reflected in her character - it's a character in a movie and not a documentary," Boal said.

"I wanted to put the audience in the perspective of those people, those men and women on the ground who are conducting this hunt," said Bigelow. "It's ten years compressed into two plus hours...But it's really the rhythm of the hunt that creates the rhythm of the movie."

Chastain told Reuters in an interview that the woman she portrays is still active. The Washington Post has reported that the agent is now in her thirties, remains undercover and while receiving the agency's highest medal, was denied a promotion.

Boal, a freelance journalist turned screenwriter who won a best screenplay Oscar for "The Hurt Locker", would not elaborate except to say that the agent was "a real person."

"I spoke to a number of people, I gathered as many first hand accounts as I could," he said. He has denied being leaked, or asking for, any classified material.

Early reviews of the film, which will be released more widely on January 11, have been positive, especially for Bigelow's sense of pacing and suspense. The Hollywood Reporter said it "could well be the most impressive film Bigelow has made, as well as possibly her most personal."

(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant and David Storey)

View the original article here