George Clooney and Sandra Bullock will open the Venice Film Festival this summer. Their movie “Gravity,” directed by Alfonso Cuaron, will get a lot of international press on opening night, August 28th. Bullock will be coming off her big hit, “The Heat.” Clooney is finishing up his “Monuments Men” for Christmas release with Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon. Gravity is a Warner Bros. release for October 4th unless someone questions the title. People may confuse it with either the 2010 or 2012 TV pilot…
…Hi ho. “The Lone Ranger” made $2 million on Tuesday night in midnight showings. That’s not very good. Get ready because when the box office figures arrive tomorrow afternoon, it’s going to get worse. “Lone Ranger” is up to around 25% on RottenTomatoes. This morning, all the New York papers panned it. So now it’s just a question of whether marketing can overcome reviews…
...The original slackers from early TV are finally on DVD. Shout Factory has just released a complete box set of “The Many of Loves of Dobie Gillis,” written and created by Woody Allen’s favorite writer, the late great comic genius Max Shulman. Dwayne Hickman and Bob Denver- pre “Gilligan’s Island”– star as Dobie and his beatnik pal Maynard G. Krebs. Don’t kid yourself– they were the forerunners of Richie and Fonzie and dozens of other similar characters on TV after that. The shows hold up beautifully. They are subversively funny, very sarcastic, and quite the opposite of what you might expect from the pre-Beatles 1960s. STAR ALERT: Both Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld got their starts on “Dobie Gillis.” Plus there are lots of extras in this box set. http://www.shoutfactory.com/?q=node/217376
