Next up in our 2009 VMA director spotlight is Marc Webb, who is also up for a Moonman in the Best Direction category. Webb has been in the game since the late '90s, though he only recently made the jump into feature film directing. His "(500) Days of Summer," starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, scored a lot of buzz at Sundance earlier this year and has continued to score well with critics since its August 7 release.
For Sunday night's 2009 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, Webb hopes to pick up a statue for his work directing the video for Green Day's "21 Guns." Check out that video below and hit the jump to compare it with some footage for "(500) Days."
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1. "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince." ($79.5 million)
2. "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" ($17.7 million)
3. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" ($13.8 million)
4. "Bruno" ($8.4 million)
5. "The Hangover" ($8.3 million)
Box office successes! If there is such a cheesy spell, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" doesn't need it because fan devotion and critical enthusiasm has been enough this summer. The film has cast a spell over audiences, with $79.5 million earned so far this weekend, bringing the five day total to $159.7 million. For those not keeping score at home, this is the best debut yet for any Harry Potter installment yet. Read more...
Well you're not getting. As you might expect, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" dominated the poll numbers this week, picking up 95% of your votes. Poor "(500) Days of Summer" -- a great movie -- fell behind even the week's limited releases. In fairness, the "limited release" category rounds up several movies into one vote, but I feel bad that the Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Zooey Deschanel-led quirky comedy gets a raw deal in facing off against "Potter" this week.
There's not much else to say. Your votes have spoken, and loudly. "Potter" is on track to have a record-setting five-day opening. And bear in mind that it's already broken midnight opening and 24 hour records all around the world.
Remember, I want your "Harry Potter" reviews! Record yourself with a webcam -- remember that Xbox Live Vision and PlayStation Eye cameras work too -- and post the footage to Your MTV. I'll run the best of what we get with next week's box office poll. Just make sure to tag your post with "Review - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." I intend to carry this idea forward into future weeks, so don't stress if you can't get a review up this week; there'll be plenty more to come!
FROM MTV.COM: "(500) Days of Summer" is a sparkling first feature by former music-video director Marc Webb, and it looks nothing like what you'd dread: It's light and airy and filled with surprises. The picture was written by two hot up-and-comers, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who clearly know more about life than what's taught in screenwriting courses. And while what they've created is a love story, it's a love story of an unusual sort. As a voiceover tells us at the beginning of the film, "This is not a love story."
The picture could be pigeonholed as a romantic comedy, but it's not about finding the right person — it's about finding the wrong one. It's also about the pitfalls of euphoric infatuation: how it misguides us, while at the same time driving away the object of our desire, who, inexplicably, doesn't share our heart-bursting love jones.
Continue reading '(500) Days Of Summer': Crazy Love, By Kurt Loder
Having scored considerable praise during its run at Sundance, "500 Days of Summer" is coming to theaters and we've got an exclusive first look at the quirky romantic comedy. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young professional who falls for co-worker, Zooey Deschanel, and chronicles the journey through their relationship.
Watch the clip below to see how they first meet, and how it was love at first sight.
If you read the results of last week's Box Office Poll then you know that the indie offerings of "Humpday," "Blood: The Last Vampire," "Soul Power" and "Moon" just barely edged out the weeks top-line offerings: "Brüno" and "I Love You, Beth Cooper." The box office figures told a different story of course, but "Brüno"'s $30 million take isn't particularly impressive as compared to the summer blockbusters that preceded it -- like "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" -- and follow it.
Summer blockbusters like this week's all-but-guaranteed poll winner "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." I think we all know how the majority of your votes will be cast. Really, the fun part of this week's Box Office Poll will be seeing just how badly "Potter" trounces the competition. Read more...
“500 Days of Summer” is one of those indie gems that has been building momentum since Sundance and, in the clip below, you’ll catch a glimpse at why; On beyond a great script and no small amount of style, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel share a chemistry that would make you believe that they’ve been working together for years. Doubly surprising is finding out that they have.
“We’ve known each other for almost ten years,” Zooey told MTV News, citing a little-known project called “Manic” in 2001 that brought the pair together. They became fast friends, just as Joseph was leaving acting for awhile to go back to school and Zooey was leaving school to go back to acting.
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It's been some time since we heard anything about Brett Easton Ellis' script adaptation of Adam Davies' 2002 novel The Frog King, which is set to star Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Now, the "500 Days of Summer" star reveals to MTV News that the project isn't exactly moving forward.
"That movie's having logistical troubles," says Gordon-Levitt, "It's not worth writing about at this point." Fine Joseph. We won't.
Despite the abysmal reviews and box office take of Easton Ellis' "The Informers" last month, his American Psycho cred is still serving him well, as there are several adaptations of his other work in development. Read more...
Zooey Deschanel is more than an adorable actress who told me she liked my sweater after I interviewered her a few days ago. Like that? It's called subtlety. Yes, Ms. Deschanel is so much more. She can sing. She starred in my favorite movie at Sundance this year, "500 Days of Summer," and perhaps most importantly for this blog entry, she's pretty damn photogenic. Click here to see the entire Photo Booth gallery, featuring photos by John Krasinski, Kristen Stewart, Spike Lee and dozens of others.
In "500 Days of Summer, a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy, stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play loves who drift in and out of each other's lives. So what is there real view on romanticism? We asked them here at Sundance, which you can see below. And then click here to watch all of our celebrity Sundance interviews with everyone from Kristen Stewart to Spike Lee.
