New Year, New Movie: We have your first look at  Stephen Elliott’s directorial debut, Cherry with James Franco, Heather Graham, Dev Patel and Ashley Hinshaw (Chronicle)

Official synopsis:

“Eighteen-year-old Angelina works at a launderette and is determined to make something of her life. After earning a bit of cash posing for nude photos she uses the money to escape her white trash background and dysfunctional family and run off to San Francisco with her best pal. After several jobs she gradually drifts into San Francisco’s porn industry where, using the moniker Cherry, her naïve yet sexy aura soon brings her success and the opportunity to explore her own sexuality. This self-confident young woman also has to cope with the many prejudices that exist for someone in her line of work; a lawyer who wants to ‘save’ her turns out to have problems with addiction. Finally, she finds an understanding friend and partner in her director, who has similar problems with her own lover. Before long, Angelina decides to try her hand at directing her own porn film.
In his cinematic debut, director Stephen Elliott’s creates a portrait of a young woman in search of herself and her place in the world that is devoid of false morality and voyeurism and approaches its myth-laden topic of porn with a gaze that is fresh and dispassionate.”

The film was cowritten by Elliott and Loralei Lee, an ex-porn star (as well as graduate of NYU film school). Hinshaw, stars as Angelina, with Franco as a cocaine-addicted lawyer. Heather Graham stars as an adult film star-turned-director. Dev Patel plays Angelina’s best friend and Lili Taylor plays her mother.

Cherry will screen at the Berlinale on February 14 and will hopefully be picked up for distribution. We’ll bring you news as soon as we have it. A trailer can be found at German site critic.de (it's in English). For now, enjoy the pics!

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I’m sure that once this movie comes out there will be no end to hotel references along the lines of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel earns 4 stars” etc etc. Not having seen the thing in its entirety, I can’t yet say. I can say, however, that ever since I saw the trailer in a theater, I’ve wanted to see the film. Directed by John Madden, who won an Oscar for Shakepeare in Love, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel “follows a group of British retirees who decide to ‘outsource’ their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel and bolstered with visions of a life of leisure, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self. Though the new environment is less luxurious than imagined, they are forever transformed by their shared experiences, discovering that life and love can begin again when you let go of the past.”

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is based on the novel “These Foolish Things” by Deborah Moggach (who wrote the screenplay for 2005’s Pride & Prejudice). The screenplay is by writer/director Ol Parker (I wish he’d write something good for his wife, Thandie Newton) and boasts a cast of brilliant thespians of a certain age that includes Dame Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton (so good on “Downton Abbey”), Dame Maggie Smith, Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup. It also appears to give Dev Patel his best role since Slumdog Millionaire.

Take a look at the trailer and see if you’re not completely charmed.

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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opens in the UK on 24^th February and May 4 in the US and Canada.

Jackson Rathbone poses with Nicola Peltz and Dev Patel at the photocall for their film The Last Airbender in Paris. Director M. Night Shyamalan was also in attendance because if the actors get to go to Paris you know the director is going too!

This movie is not getting good reviews at all by both critics and movie goers alike.  I’m hearing that although it says it’s 3D there are very few spots where 3D exists. I don’t know how true this is as I am going by what I have read from people I don’t know, but if that’s the case that sucks big time.  Why advertise it’s 3D if it isn’t an entire movie of 3D right?

Have you seen the movie? Will you go and see it?

Pictures after the break

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Real life lovas Dev Patel and Freida Pinto strike a post on the red carpet of last night’s premiere of The Last Airbender which took place in New York. The show’s writer and director M. Night Shyamalan was also there along with Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz.

The trailers look cool to me but the movie is not getting good reviews at all. However we can’t always go by that, can we? The plot of the movie as described by imdb:

The story follows the adventures of Aang, a young successor to a long line of Avatars, who must put his childhood ways aside and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations.

Matt Goldberg at Collider.com really hate this moving stating:

I hate everything about M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender.  I hate that it’s racist.  I hate that it takes a great, easy-to-adapt show and completely disrespects the material.  I hate the performances.  I hate the special effects.  I hate the borderline non-existent 3D that serves only to jack up ticket prices.  I hate the lack of imagination.  I hate the embarrassingly bad script that would be laughed out of a Screenwriting 101 class. I hate the consequences if this movie is a success at the box office.  I hate the consequences if it fails at the box office.  I hate that this movie exists.  And “hate” isn’t a strong enough word.

Wow. Do you think Matt hates the movie? Will you be going to see it?

Pictures after the break

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Freida Pinto and Dev Patel pose as they attend the 18th Annual BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles last night .  Danny Boyle, the director of the movie they met on, Slumdog Millionaire, had no idea there were sparks between the two:

“I was a bit surprised at first, but then those things tend to pass me by!… I’m delighted for them, they seem to be real soulmates and I’m sure more than that. I’m very happy for them – it seems lovely.”

Danny received the John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence last night. Other winners included  Colin Firth who won the Humanitarian Award, Emily Blunt the British Artist of the Year, Kirk Douglas the Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment and Robert De Niro picked up the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film.

Besides the winners, Claire Danes and Amy Adams attended and are pictured.

Pictures after the break

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Russell Brand meets some friends for lunch in Los Angeles and mommy likes his pipes

Samantha Ronson buys some party lites at Rite-Aid in Los Angeles

Freida Pinto and Dev Patel shop at Liberty in London, England and look adorable while doing so

Hugh Jackman and family spend some quality retail time in SoHo

Matthew McConaughey looks happy as he leaves a gym in Malibu

Click on thumbnails to enlarge

Photos:  WENN.com