Wednesday, 23 May 2012 13:20

Written by Barbara Vancheri

"The Hunger Games" will arrive on DVD, Blu-ray, on demand and digital download Aug. 18.

The two-disc Blu-ray and two-disc DVD will have more than three hours of bonus materials including an  eight-part documentary, "The World is Watching: Making of The Hunger Games."

Other special features will include a sit-down conversation with director Gary Ross as well as numerous featurettes that examine the global success of the books, the creation of the control room in the film and the filmmakers' motivation behind creating new scenes that were not in the book plus much more.

The Blu-ray set will contain an additional exclusive feature, "Preparing for the Games: A Director's Process," which looks at the progression of taking three key scenes from the book to the screen.

Fans will be able to pre-order the Blu-ray disc and DVD, starting on May 25, for $39.99 and $30.98, respectively.

Plans call for a midnight launch in August, which is what "Twilight" did.

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Tuesday, 22 May 2012 20:10

Written by Barbara Vancheri

More images from "The Dark Knight Rises," from its Facebook page. Below, Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy.

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Tuesday, 22 May 2012 19:45

Written by Barbara Vancheri

Here's the latest poster for "The Dark Knight Rises" — this one in spectacular color.

"A Fire Will Rise" is the tagline across the top, with Christian Bale as Batman against crumbling buildings and the fiery outline of a bat. The previous designs were equally striking, although in black and white.

"The Dark Knight Rises," filmed partially in Pittsburgh, opens on July 20.

Tuesday, 22 May 2012 18:01

Written by Barbara Vancheri

Pittsburgh will be front and center in "Won't Back Down," the Viola Davis-Maggie Gyllenhaal movie shot here a year ago and scheduled for theatrical release Sept. 28.

The trailer shows Gyllenhaal and young Emily Alyn Lind as her daughter on the incline climbing toward Mt. Washington and scenes apparently set in the Hill District. A bar boasts a Pittsburgh Penguins logo while Gyllenhaal's character has a Pittsburgh Steelers flag in her apartment.

She is the mother of a girl who cannot read — and whose bored, ineffective teacher appears to lock her in a janitor's closet. Is that not a lawsuit and news expose waiting to happen? She asks Davis, herself the mother of a son who's struggling, "You wanna take over the school with me?"

Gyllenhaal is the spunky one who says, "I can tell you being poor sucks and my kid can't read" and "Have you heard about those mothers who lift one-ton trucks off their babies? They're nothing compared to me."

Davis, meanwhile, says, "My mom used to say, what are you going to do with your one and only life?"

Reform a school, apparently, in a movie inspired by actual events. Inspired means liberties have been taken; based on actual events is much closer to the truth.

Cast also includes Holly Hunter, Bill Nunn, Oscar Isaac, Rosie Perez and Ving Rhames.