stars, sex and nudity buzz : 09/20/2012

What a transformation! Margot Robbie goes from dressing gown to seductive mini dress as she films The Wolf Of Wall Street
Relaxing in her dressing gown and slippers between takes, Margot Robbie gave no hint of the transformation to come.

But as she slipped into a little black dress that revealed her endless legs the blonde underwent a not so major transformation into a sexy div.

She plays Leonardo Dicaprio's love interest in the forthcoming eighties period drama Wolf On Wall Street.
Shooting in Brooklyn on Monday, Margot donned an eighties tube minidress for her role, complete with period stiletto heels.

This the first major feature role for the Australian born actress, who was previously a regular on the soap Neighbours.

Margot also starred on the ABC series Pan Am in 2011 and also recently began filming the Richard Curtis feature comedy About Time for universal.

In the movie, which is slated to appear in cinemas next year, DiCaprio plays Long Island penny stockbroker Jordon Belfort, who served 20 months in prison for refusing to cooperate in a massive 1990s securities fraud case.

The case involved widespread corruption on Wall Street and in the corporate banking world, including mob infiltration.

The controversial film is already causing a stir for its brazen use of sex and vice to sell its story, with prostitution and cocaine use central to its plot.

Previous reports cited Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey shooting with several naked brunette strippers at soon-to-open drag bar Lucky Cheng’s, on West 52nd Street in Manhattan.

Yet such scenes seem tame compared to others in the film. A source told the New York Daily News: 'Leo will be partying hard and celebrating his marriage.'

The source adds that: 'All the actors will be prepared to snort lines and do plenty of drugs that night. There’s so much drug use, they will not be welcomed back to Anguilla.'

According to the Daily News, director Martin Scorsese and crew searched for weeks before settling on a Hamptons house that could be styled to look like the Caribbean island Anguilla’s Malliouhana Hotel.

Casting for the 250 actors needed to portray 'upscale beach wedding guest types' started a month ago.

The male actors chosen were asked to grow out their beards and hair, while the women will be decked out in floral and ruffle dresses.

'They want to depict an over-the-top crazy wedding with lots of outrageous people running around': claimed the NYC paper.

We've Read The Script For The Wolf Of Wall Street — Here Are The 15 Scenes We Can't Wait To See

Linette Lopez

We get very excited anytime there's a new Wall Street moving coming up. The sheer suspense of waiting to see who is cast, where it's shot... well, what's better?
Reading the script early — that's better.
We've now obtained a copy of The Wolf of Wall Street script, written Terence Winter. The movie is being directed by Martin Scorsese, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, and is based on the autobiography of Wall Street castaway, Jordan Belfort.
Back in the 1990s, Belfort ran Stratton-Oakmont, a Long Island based pump and dump that found itself on top of the Wall Street world. Think: Drugs, hookers, parties with performing midgets.
And then it all came crashing down. Belfort went to jail for 20 months and lost everything.
We think you'll agree that this is a movie worth watching, and here are some of the moments that we think will make it really sing.

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The movie opens with a very professional commercial about Belfort's firm, and then goes into a scene of he and his brokers having a dwarf throwing contest.

According to the script, classical music plays as "a conservative group of smiling ethnically diverse actors surrounding their young chairman Jordan Belfort" pose through a Gene Hackman voice-over. Then you head to Stratton-Oakmont headquarters and 700 20-something stockbroker bros are chanting and throwing around dollars bills to see who can throw a cape-clad dwarf into a dollar sign bulls-eye.
Jordan is being played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

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More chaos: Jordan's first day in the bullpen L.F. Rothschild in 1980s suspender wearing Wall Street.

Jordan walks in and is immediately berated by his supervisor, Scott Mollen, who tells him he'll be "the connector" calling 500 clients all day. "You are lower than f*cking pond scum," Mollen tells him. Luckily, Belfort also meets Danny Porush (played by Jonah Hill), Mollen's much more polished superior. "F*ck him," he tells Jordan, "I'm senior broker here and he's just a worthless piker. Let's grab lunch later."
And then then the opening bell rings as Porush yells, "Let's f*ck!" And the race begins — brokers dial like crazy and everyone is screaming — it's the sound of greed, says Jordan's voice-over.

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At lunch, Danny and Jordan have a martini drinking contest until one of them passes out.

They're at a high-end restaurant and Danny is doing coke from a spoon when the Maitre'D comes over. He tells him: "Here's the game plan Luis. Bring us two Absolute martinis straight up. Precisely seven and half minutes later you deliver those you'll deliver two more, then two more after five minutes until one of us passes out."
Jordan says he doesn't drink and tries, and fails, to order a 7-Up.

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Jordan passes the Series 7 and becomes a broker, but his first day happens to be October 19th,1987 — Black Monday.

There's silence on the floor, dread one everyone's face, and Jordan's voice-over tells us that Rothchilds closed in a month. 

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Jordan gets Danny to come work with him at a penny stock brokerage over steaks at Peter Luger.

You know how we feel about Peter Luger. After Rothchilds, Jordan lands a job at a shady penny stock brokerage where his professional skill makes him serious money. His commission is 50%.
"I was a trained Pitbull in a company of lap dogs," Jordan says.
After making $94,000 in one month, he convinces Danny to work with him. Eventually, Danny is so good that when Jordan starts Stratton-Oakmont, he makes Danny a minority partner.

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Jordan figures out how to sell penny stocks to rich people and teaches his team to do the same with an awesome presentation about urgency.

This could be the movie's "greed is good" moment if DiCaprio delivers this monologue right. Picture a bunch of brokers in the Marriot as Jordan gives them this fired-up speech:

"Gentlemen, it's a new day. The clients we've done after in the past — they're done. We will now target exclusively the wealthiest one percent of Americans. The methods we've used — over. Loud, obnoxious sales hype is worthless with these people. In military terms it's like carpet-bombing — noise, menacing, and only marginally effective. As Stratton brokers you will be laser-guided smart bombs aimed at high-priority targets. You will establish an initial relationship with your clients selling only blue chip stocks — then and only then will you attempt to sell the pink sheets, where the real money is..."

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Stratton-Oakmont grows to over 100 employees and makes $28.7 million in penny stocks. Jordan basically has a ticker tape parade in the office.

There's a college marching band dressed only in their hats and underwear, baton-twirlers, confetti, clowns, gymnasts, champagne and hors d' oeuvres...and of course, strippers.

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Stratton-Oakmont blows up and becomes so wild that Jordan has to declare the office a sex free zone from 9 AM to 7 PM.

What we're looking forward to in this scene is the memo Jordan writes to inform his employees of the new rule. Inside a red circle, two "anatomically correct stick figures f*ck doggy-style, a red line slashing through them," says the script. 

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Jordan's wife catches him in a limo with his mistress, Nadine.

Jordan meet the blond, leggy Nadine (played by Margot Robbie) at a party at his Westhampton house. They become inseparable. One night they're riding around in Jordan's limo. He's doing shots of vodka from glass in Nadine's breasts, and suddenly his wife Denise opens the door.

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Jordan and co. beat the living daylights out of Patrick, his butler, after Nadine catches him having an orgy in Jordan's apartment.

She also accuses him of stealing $50,000 in cash and jewelry. The guys beat him senseless and almost throw him over a balcony. Eventually, Jordan calls the police and then pays them $1,000 each to beat Patrick.

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The FBI is in Jordan's office investigating his trading records as he pulls off an IPO scam.

Jordan and his friend Todd plot how they'll make a truck-load off of a company called Arncliffe National's IPO. Todd will buy low and sell at certain point while Stratton brokers unload the stock on their clients. Meanwhile, FBI agents are pouring over the firm's trading records in a conference room that Jordan has bugged. He even turns off the heat to make the agents as cold and uncomfortable as possible.
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Jordan proposes to Nadine and has his engagement party in Vegas. Stratton brokers and hookers are flown in from everywhere.

The party is insane, obviously — limos, champagne etc. The best part, though, is that Jordan describes three kinds of hookers; Blue chips, NASDAQs, and pink sheets (penny stocks). The guys get in a little trouble with the pink sheet pimps, and they clash with some of the NYPD and Vegas police Jordan hired as security for the party.
The party cost him $2 million, he says.
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Jordan and Nadine actually have sex on piles of money.

Jordan and the real Nadine.

No really, stacks of $20,000 to $50,000. 

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Jordan gives his guys another rousing speech when Stratton lands the Steve Madden IPO.

Here's DiCaprio's other shot at Wall Street monologue fame:

I want everybody to look down. See that little black box in front of you? It's called a telephone...All you have to do is pick up that phone and speak the words I've taught you and it will make you richer than the most powerful CEO in the country. And I don't care if you graduated from Harvard or f*cking Bumf*ck University or never got past the f*cking fourth grade...And if anyone here thinks I'm crazy, get the f*ck out of here and get a job at McDonald's because that's where you f*cking belong... Be aggressive. Be ferocious. Be telephone f*cking terrorists."

Obviously, the brokers go nuts.

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Eventually Jordan is caught by the FBI, strikes a deal, and wears a wire to work.

We can only imagine that this scene is going to be amazing to shoot. Tons of intensity. Jordan says that he feels like an absolutely "piece of sh*t" as he walks through the trading floor, but he does try to save Danny. While they're in a meeting he shows Danny a sheet of paper that says — "Don't incriminate yourself. I'm wearing a wire."
But Danny eventually gives him up.

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Exclusive: blood and bad language in NSFW “WRONG TURN 5” trailer

The crazed mutant hillbillies of the WRONG TURN franchise tend to speak through violent actions rather than words, but the trailer for their latest sequel, WRONG TURN 5: BLOODLINES, offers up a choice profanity in addition to blood and guts to make it not safe for work. It’s a Fango exclusive you can see after the jump.

In this installment, written and directed by series veteran Declan O'Brien, HELLRAISER veteran Doug Bradley joins the fun as Maynard, a backwoods denizen who shelters the deformed killers as they prey on attendees of a Mountain Festival. The unrated DVD and Blu-ray/DVD combo arrive October 23 from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; see the details here.
The trailer is here

 

 

 

 

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Melissa George Stars in HUNTED Drama Series, Debuting on Cinemax, 10/19

From "The X-Files" writer and producer Frank Spotnitz comes HUNTED, an eight-episode drama series set in the world of international espionage. Golden Globe nominee Melissa George (HBO's "In Treatment") stars as Sam Hunter, a skilled, gutsy operative for Byzantium, a secretive private firm involved in global intelligence and espionage. After surviving an attempt on her life that may have been orchestrated by members of her own team, she returns to work, but doesn't know who to trust. Shot on location in Europe, the primetime suspense show debuts FRIDAY, OCT. 19 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT) on CINEMAX.

The cast of HUNTED also includes Adam Rayner ("Hawthorne," "Dragon Age: Redemption"), Stephen Dillane (HBO's "Game of Thrones" and "John Adams"), Stephen Campbell Moore ("The Bank Job," "The History Boys"), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ("Lost," CINEMAX's "Strike Back"), Morven Christie ("The Sinking of the Laconia"), Lex Shrapnel ("Captain America: The First Avenger"), Indira Varma ("Human Target," HBO's "Rome"), Dhaffer L'Abidine ("Sex and the City 2") and Patrick Malahide ("Billy Elliot," HBO's "Five Days").

In addition to Frank Spotnitz, who wrote four episodes and co-wrote another episode, writers on the series include Simon Allen ("M.I. High"), Smita Bhide ("The Blue Tower") and Christian Spurrier ("MI-5"), who each wrote one episode, and Amira El Nemr ("Luther"), who co-wrote one episode.
Directors for the series include SJ Clarkson ("Life on Mars"), Daniel Percival (co-executive producer of season one of the CINEMAX series "Strike Back"), James Strong ("Downton Abbey") and Alrick Riley ("MI-5"), each of whom directed two episodes.

The executive producers are Frank Spotnitz, Kudos' Alison Jackson, Jane Featherstone and Stephen Garrett; Christopher Aird and Polly Hill executive produce for BBC One; Eliza Mellor produces.
HUNTED is produced by Kudos Film and Television ("MI-5," "Life on Mars") in association with Big Light Productions for CINEMAX and BBC One.

HUNTED marks the second recent original primetime series on CINEMAX, following last year's Emmy(R)-nominated hit action drama "Strike Back," which was the first original primetime series on the network in more than 15 years, and is currently in its second season. The third original CINEMAX series to debut will be "Banshee," which is executive produced by Alan Ball (HBO's "True Blood") and slated to debut in Jan. 2013.

HUNTED follows two primary story lines: Sam Hunter's journey to discover who is behind the attempt on her life and Byzantium's mission itself, both of which have larger implications. As the story unfolds, it becomes hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Uncertain of its clients' motives, the Byzantium team often finds itself working in a gray area, forcing Sam to operate in complete secrecy for her own safety.
Frank Spotnitz envisioned HUNTED as a complex international thriller, noting, "I love the spy genre. It's one of my all-time favorite things. I grew up watching so many spy movies and shows. Because the viewing choices have never been greater on television, no longer does the work have to be homogenized the way it used to. It has allowed writers and producers to do really interesting, sophisticated work. I think that television's never been better than it is today because of that - because of the freedom you have as a creator."

As he researched the background for his characters, he was intrigued to find real firms and people to inspire the show's stories and people.
"I was working on the character of Sam and her moral complexity when I discovered that there were all these private security firms," Spotnitz reveals. "I didn't know that there are actually thousands of these private spy agencies around the world. They draw their personnel largely from special forces and government spy agencies. They are really interesting because their operatives aren't told who their clients are, and I realized I haven't seen that before in movies or TV.
"I first met a woman who had worked for a private security firm. She is nothing like Sam's character, but in terms of her biography, she is pretty much like Sam, and has done the kind of work that Sam does. She's a very attractive young woman who worked for the British government and then worked for a private security firm after serving in Afghanistan. After that, I met a number of operatives from different security firms in London."

"You don't want to cross Sam," says Melissa George of her character. "She is still the firm's best operative, but since the attempt on her life, any trust she had for the firm and her co-workers is gone. That is why she is so determined to go back to work and face her team - she really believes that one of them is behind it. She is a very complicated person and not easy to get to know."

Sam's troubled childhood not only figures into the mystery of the series, but is key to understanding George's portrayal of her character. Spotnitz observes, "What happened to her as a child has helped make her who she is, and that has made her very good at what she does. You have to believe she has that strength, you have to believe she has that intelligence, and you have to believe she is beautiful enough to be the type of woman that could go and seduce these men."

Embodyingboth strength and vulnerability, Sam is a contradiction. These characteristics make her an asset to the team, allowing her the flexibility to maneuver within her missions and adapt to the circumstances she encounters.

George underwent rigorous physical training for the role, including instruction in martial arts techniques used for hand-to-hand combat, weapons disarming and high-impact blows. She learned the Keysi fighting method, which focuses on self-defense by studying natural instincts and evolving modern urban environments, and was previously showcased in the feature film "The Bourne Supremacy."

"The training for HUNTED was the hardest thing I think I will ever experience," George recounts. "Frank was adamant on having an actress who will go the distance and fight for real - if I couldn't physically do it, we wouldn't shoot it. I learned Keysi, a technique of realistic street fighting that employs moves that are very basic, but deadly. I have never in my life felt more adrenaline than when we do the fight scenes. I don't sleep the night before, and I'm anxious to make Sam as skilled as she is written on the page. For the first time, I forgot about me and was purely fighting for my life as Sam. I don't want to be an actress for hire and pretend; Sam is so wonderfully layered and deserves whoever portrays her to do her justice. I think I actually want to be her."

She continues, "When the trauma of her past resurfaces, it sends her down a certain path. In many ways, she identifies with Eddie, the child she is tutoring in her mission. Because of their similar experiences, he has a huge effect on her that she wasn't anticipating. She struggles with caring too much, which can be a liability in her business."

From the top operative who can make or break a mission and the team leader whose personal life is in sharp contrast to his work life, to the boss who has no trouble reconciling his missions with the goals of his questionable clients and the new member who is less comfortable with the morally ambiguous situations they face, the characters on HUNTED offer different perspectives on the story.

"Each member of the team has a distinct point of view about what they do," Spotnitz explains. "The boss, Rupert Keel, refuses to judge his clients, thereby avoiding any morality associated with it. New team member Ian Fowkes is somewhat like us, discovering the true nature of the work bit-by-bit. He calls certain things into question, like many of us would."

For more on the series, please visit facebook.com/huntedmax, Twitter @Cinemax #Hunted and youtube.com/Cinemax.

October's episodes:
Episode #1: "Mort" Debut date: FRIDAY, OCT. 19 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT) Other CINEMAX playdates: Oct. 19 (11:00 p.m., midnight), 20 (9:00 p.m., 11:50 p.m.), 21 (12:45 p.m., 11:00 p.m.), 22 (11:50 p.m.), 23 (12:20 a.m.), 24 (8:00 p.m.) and 31 (7:00 p.m.), and Nov. 7 (6:00 p.m.), 14 (5:00 p.m.), 21 (4:00 p.m.) and 28 (3:00 p.m.) Sam Hunter (Melissa George), an operative for the elite private intelligence and security firm Byzantium, is finishing a mission in Tangier when an attempt on her life leaves her critically injured. Not knowing who tried to kill her, she disappears to a remote location to recover, regroup and retrain. Returning to work unannounced nearly a year later, Sam surprises her co-workers, who are suspicious about her disappearance, especially Aidan Marsh (Adam Rayner), her secret lover. Her bosses, Rupert Keel (Stephen Dillane) and Deacon Crane (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), retain doubts about her, but need their best agent for an important new assignment. The team devises a plan to have Sam infiltrate a family headed by powerful millionaire Jack Turner (Patrick Malahide), a man with a criminal past whose ambitions are at odds with Byzantium's secret client. Written by Frank Spotnitz; directed by SJ Clarkson.

Episode #2: "LB" Debut date: FRIDAY, OCT. 26 (10:00-11:00 p.m.) Other CINEMAX playdates: Oct. 26 (11:30 p.m.), 27 (9:00 p.m., 11:45 p.m.), 28 (12:45 p.m.), 29 (11:40 p.m.), 30 (1:15 a.m.) and 31 (8:00 p.m.), and Nov. 7 (7:00p.m.), 14 (6:00 p.m.), 21 (5:00 p.m.) and 28 (4:00 p.m.) Brought into the household by Turner's son Stephen (Stephen Campbell Moore) to tutor his son Edward (Oscar Kennedy), Sam and the team continue surveillance of Jack Turner's secret activities. They know that he is bidding for a multi-billion dollar dam in Pakistan, but his true motives elude them. Meanwhile, team members Zoe Morgan (Morven Christie) and Ian Fowkes (Lex Shrapnel) track a briefcase that was delivered to Turner. Written by Frank Spotnitz; directed by SJ Clarkson.

* There should be some nudity on every other episode. Melissa George will likely show her tits. Just bit cautious no thanks to other Cinemax show 'Strike Back' outsourcing all the nudes to fairly unknown German talents. Someone in charge should give Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje a sex scene. Poor guy deserves to suck on some hot Euro tits. Do love to be provoked by IR sex fest.

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It's A Wrap! Principal Photography For Troma's Return to Class of Nuke 'Em High Is Over

by bnizzle 

Troma aficionados, and lovers of filth we just got wind of some very exciting news today regarding Troma's latest endeavor into filmmaking. Read on for all the details.

Greetings from Tromaville! Troma Entertainment is proud to announce that principal photography has wrapped on Return to Class of Nuke 'Em High, directed by the one and only Lloyd Kaufman.

Produced in association with STARZ Media, Return to Class of Nuke 'Em High is a satirical sci-fi comedy concerning idealistic students, overcoming bullying, and love triumphing over prejudice. The themes are in the same vein as other classics such as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Carrie, seen through the unique vision of the Troma Team.

Welcome to Tromaville High School where, unfortunately, the glee club has mutated into hideous Cretins. Chrissy and Lauren, two innocent lovers/bloggers, must fight not only mutants and monsters but also the evil Tromorganic Foodstuffs Conglomerate. Will they save Tromaville High School and the world?

* posted about the movie before. Use the search to find additional info.

Anyway both female leads (and barely wetting their feet in the biz) Catherine Corcoran and Asta Paredes will have make their nude debuts in extensive boobs, ass and one of them even goes full frontal (this is TROMA production after all). 

20-years old Ms.Corcoran is a Philly girl now based in New York. With her natural C-sized tits and bubble butt, Cathy will light up the C-grade horror with her sex/nude scenes.



25-years old Asta Maria Paredes is making her starring debut and she is equally gorgeous with nice chesticles on a petite frame. Possible a pot-head looking at her resume and late entry into film-world.

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'Twin Peaks' Alum Sherilyn Fenn Sets Up House in 'Magic City'

Starz's period drama Magic City has found a new asset for Danny Huston's mob boss.Twin Peaks alum Sherilyn Fenn has joined the swelling second season cast of the Jeffrey Dean Morgan period drama, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.

Fenn (Gilmore Girls) will play Madame Renee, a beautiful former call-girl who runs a brothel that Huston's Ben Diamond financially backs. She's described as being a tough woman who can hold her own against "The Butcher" and proves to be one of his most valuable assets.

* was hoping for a much younger actress in the role. No offense to Ms.Fenn but she is now 47. Sagging tits and all. But if Helen Hunt is brave enough to do it so can Sherilyn. Likely Fenn and Elene Satine will play off each other - sharing the nudity - in the brothel.


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Boardwalk Empire's Meg Chambers Steedle 

We talk with Northwestern grad Meg Chambers Steedle, who is turning heads on the HBO hit show Boardwalk Empire!

She is a North Carolina native who graduated from Northwestern University's School of Communications in 2008. She landed her first on-camera role on ABC's crime drama "Body of Proof" (playing a student athlete who murdered a fellow member of her lacrosse team). Now she is on HBO's hit show Boardwalk Empire.


* she needs to improve her diction on the show. The mild southern accent and her emphasizing certain words is garbling up some of the lines. Maybe first-episode jitters.

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Universal Takes Over Editing '47 Ronin' As Director Carl Erik Rinsch Removed; Studio Adds Love Scene, Dialogue and More

Jay-Z may have 99 problems, but you can bet he's glad "47 Ronin" ain't one. Universal's big budget samurai flick starring Keanu Reeves, Rinko Kikuchi and rounded out with a mostly Japanese cast has seen its problems displayed through ever changing release dates. Originally slated to open on November 21st of this year, it was optimistically bumped to February 8, 2013 back in the spring. But it seems as though concerns around the picture grew worse and the studio decided they need more time, as the picture has now been pegged with a Christmas Day slot next year. Whether it will hold or not remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain: director Carl Erik Rinsch's relationship with the movie is now over.

The Wrap reports that following recent reshoots in London, Rinsch has been removed from the editing suite and Universal co-chairwoman Donna Langley is now supervising as the film gets cut. According to one of the trade's sources, the movie has been a "nightmare," with the budget reportedly soaring to $225 million (though Universal says the movie is still on budget at $175 million). But it seems Rinsch being booted was a long time coming, and perhaps this serves as a cautionary tale about the risks of assigning first-time directors to expensive blockbusters.

Apparently, a veteran of shooting commercials, Rinsch "buckled" under the weight of carrying the movie that tells the story of the titular 47 warriors who, following the forced seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment) of their master after assaulting a court official, seek revenge on those who caused his death. The director couldn't be fired as DGA guidelines state a helmer must at least finish physical production, but Universal apparently "micromanaged" the reshoots, and were unsatisfied with the overall approach. Causing a particular rift was a climatic scene that the studio didn't feel featured Reeves enough, with the one week of reshoots essentially being done to get more closeups of the actor. Not only that, a love scene and more dialogue were added in an effort to make Reeves more of a presence in the picture.

This is quite a fall for Rinsch who arrived in Hollywood with a blaze of buzz surrounding him as a hot director within Tony Scott's commercial house RSA, and caused a Hollywood bidding war with his short film "The Gift" (watch here). And while first time filmmakers being given the keys to big tentpoles is a familiar practice, the "47 Ronin" situation certainly highlights what can happen when the helmer simply can't make the transition. And of course, the blame can't land entirely on Rinsch's shoulders either -- surely the studio knew the script they had and saw what was coming together in preproduction, so one has to wonder why they would decide at such a late stage to toss in a romance.

Of course, what kind of final shape the picture will take is anyone's guess. One has to remember that it was only last fall that editing room rumors swirled around "Dredd 3D," only for it to emerge as a geek favorite this year. And clearly, Universal is making sure they have as much time as they need to get the picture into presentable shape. But, the opposite is also true and sometimes you can try everything possible to fix a turkey...only for it to still be a turkey. Will the Christmas 2013 release date hold? Can Universal right the ship on this one? Well, if we were in their shoes, our first plan would be to prepare a helluva presentation for Comic-Con next summer in an effort to shift the momentum and keep the financial black eye on this one from getting more swollen. But what happens next is anyone's guess.

* There is no way the studio will go for R-rating with that kind of budget. But if you're doing a samurai actioner, stylish blood-letting is a requirement. 

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Netflix CFO: Company Won't Need to Raise Money Near-Term Despite Content Spending
"We will evaluate this based on the portfolio and how it is performing," David Wells tells the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference about the online streaming company's original content strategy.

Netflix doesn't expect to have to raise more money in the near future, CFO David Wells told an investor conference in New York on Wednesday.

Last November, the video-streaming and DVD subscription service agreed to sell $400 million in stock and convertible notes to bolster its cash on hand. Wells said he "felt better" after making the transaction. Since then, Netflix has spent big on new content rights deals as well as getting into the arena of original production on shows like House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Hemlock Grove and the new season of Arrested Development. The spending spree has led some analysts to speculate that the company would need to raise more money and dilute its stock, but Wells told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference there aren't any plans for that at the moment.

Acknowledging that "there is an open question about originals," and how much cash will be needed, Wells also portrayed the foray into original programming as an experiment that will need further study. "We are taking a measured approach," he said. "We will evaluate this based on the portfolio and how it is performing."

In response to a later question about what might keep costs down, Wells said there was a healthy supply of content suppliers, that content was to some degree "fungible," and that "there isn't content we have to have."

In the past two years, Netflix has seen a big change in the types of content popular on its streaming service. Whereas once as much as 70 percent of viewing was tied to movies and 30 percent to TV shows, now the figures are reversed. Wells says he doesn't expect the integration of original programming to further accelerate a move to serial dramas and comedies, and believes that it is important to have a range of fare from indie films to documentaries to bolster satisfaction among "behavioral clusters," or niche audiences.

At the conference, Wells also acknowledged that the DVD delivery business has passed its peak. He says that some folks, including film aficionados and those in rural areas will still be attracted to the physical product. "We want to preserve a high quality service," he says about that aspect of the business, which has traditionally been one of the company's most profitable. "We don't anticipate that it will grow," he adds.
Long-term, despite the attention that platforms like Amazon Prime have been getting thanks to rich rights deals, he sees "TV Everywhere" as the greater competitive threat. He points to the U.K. as an example, where Netflix entered the market in January and competed against Amazon. "They had a much more established brand," he says. "In seven months, we are ahead of them. It may be that Sky is a bigger competitor in the grand scheme of things."

Wells also told the audience that the churn rate has stabilized and that Netflix prefers to think about net subscriber additions. As for those signing up, he says a third of those who are re-joining Netflix. "There's a 40 percent chance that someone who leaves the service will come back," he says.

There's one thing, though, that Netflix hasn't been able to yet figure out. Wells acknowledged that the recommendation engine isn't perfect, particularly when it comes to adapting itself to multiple members of a household who may each have vastly different tastes.

Blaming the complexity of humanity, he commented, "It’s frustrating to mathematicians that you still get a better recommendation at a cocktail party than the engine (we use)."

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* Please watch this........ 

A Comedian Silences A Room For 9 Minutes. It's Not An Awkward Silence.

Rollie Williams

Comedians spend years honing their stage persona, but when all-star comic Anthony Griffith tells the story of his life as a comedian and as a father, not even he can keep it together. To be honest, I couldn't either when I watched this video. It's so important to remember that the people we idolize aren't the two-dimensional, easily digestible caricatures that we see of them in the media. I've seen some breakdowns before, and this was the first one that felt real.

ORIGINAL: By The Moth, an organization dedicated to the art of storytelling. Found on its YouTube page. If you're feeling sad, you can check out some of Anthony Griffith's funnier material.

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Nude Models Bare All

Zoe Wray September 19, 2012 Around Campus

“The human form is a very complex form [through which] to study light and value and volume… every drawing lesson you could possible desire to teach a student could be taught by that subject.” Such is the reason, according to Logan Grider, Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Swarthmore, for the Life Drawing Studio Art course and its employed student models, including Nicholas Witchey ’15 and Jae-hyun ’15. Through the use of student models, which Grider emphasizes as “crucial” to the class, students learn to push past the notions in their heads of what human figures look like and to see the uniqueness of forms found in each and every individual.

Using live figures that are actually present in the class is vital because if the students only drew from photographs, they would not be able to “constantly reevaluate what they’re looking at, because it’s always in a state of flux,” explained Grider. “What we’re all fighting against in the world is just seeing sameness.” By the end of the course, Grider hopes that students have a refreshed visual perspective of the world that demonstrates sensitivity to the fluctuations of figures. The class isn’t about technique, about achieving depictive perfection of the eyebrow; in fact, Grider approaches the class with the idea that “technique is a filter you put between yourself and the subject. Everything has to adhere to that filter, and, in my opinion, that makes for less interesting drawings because there’s always something that’s sacrificed to the filter, in order to make it the way that you were taught.”

With this in mind, it becomes clear that the availability of student models isn’t just a nice accoutrement, but a vital, indispensable resource for this course and the education of visual arts in its entirety. Intuitively, it seems like the imperativeness of live models would lead the Studio Art department to seek out professional models. As it turns out, however, professional models are less reliable than student models; with the competition of downtown Philadelphia universities clamoring for models, it was often smarter for the professional models, who typically lived in Philadelphia, to ignore Swarthmore College in favor of closer institutions.

Student models Nicholas Witchey ’15, who plans to major in Art History, and Jae-hyun Oh ’15, who intends to major in Psychology and Education, offered their perspectives in two separate interviews on the course and their choice to model.

Q: So why did you decide that you wanted to model?
Nicholas: The week before I got back to campus, I was talking to my parents and they said, “Nick, you should get an on-campus job this semester,” and so I got to campus and we all got the email with the application for nude modeling and I thought, “Well if I’m going to get an on-campus job, why not get paid to lay around naked? That wasn’t all the thought that was going through my head. But another big reason was that I actually feel very insecure about my own body, and I thought that doing that, the modeling for an art class, would possibly be a really good experience for me, just throwing myself in the deep end and putting myself out there and having a class of students look at my body.
Jae-hyun: Most if not all of the extracurricular activities that I do are somehow connected to either psychology or education, and so as much as I love them, I feel like I needed a different perspective of looking at things because I acquired such a frame of mind from those disciplines that anything I look at, I think about them. So I thought I needed some kind of change and then I saw the [modeling] ad and I thought it was fascinating.

Q: Did you have any prior modeling experience?
Nicholas: No.
Jae-hyun: I had some experiences back in Korea but not in here [the United States]. I am a novel writer, and I myself illustrate and design my novels through an internship at the official publishing company, and I use myself as a model to illustrate. I mostly ask other people to take pictures of me. They can be professional or amateur photo-takers, it just kind of depends.

Q: How do you think the student modeling for Swarthmore is going to be different from what you did before?
Jae-hyun: In South Korea, there is this notion about nudity that is different from expected, because you would think that since South Korea is kind of a rigid, Asian, Confucianist society nobody will even want to discuss it. But actually, we are much more comfortable than Americans that I’ve seen about going to the public bathrooms together and stripping their clothes off when the same-gender people watch. Hundreds of women would get naked together and it’s not awkward at all, although we wouldn’t verbally discuss it. So when I came here I felt more awkward having to drape my towels every time I go to the bathroom because that wouldn’t be necessary in Korea. I feel like that gave me recognition of how culture can give a very different perspective about the body and now that I’m in a different culture, I can see how culturally ingrained I was. So I feel like that part of this student modeling experience will make me look at my body and think about how people look at my body differently.

Q: Do you think that people in America are more insecure and have more body image issues than people in Korea?
Jae-hyun: Maybe I’m biased, but from what I’ve seen so far, American culture generally more often sexualizes the nudity whereas in Korea, it’s just a body that doesn’t have clothes on.

Q: Do you think this has to do with the way that advertisements are? Because it seems like fashion advertisements in America aren’t about making people look beautiful, but about making them look sexy.
Jae-hyun: I agree that people’s bodies, especially women’s, are sexualized and viewed as objects that are not their own.

Q: What was your first modeling session for the class like?
Nicholas: The class goes from 8:30 to 11:10 a.m. and I get there at 8:45. I modeled for four sessions, each about half an hour with breaks. I was terrified when I got there the morning of. I borrowed a robe from a friend because I don’t have a robe and I didn’t want to be just walking around nude at the breaks. The way it’s set up is that the art students have all their easels huddled around me and the place for posing is a makeshift table with some drapery on it in the corner of the room. So I walked into the modeling area and just dropped my robe which at that point wasn’t really terrifying anymore; I was already naked in front of these students and getting up on the table and staying in the same place. What I thought was going to be the hard part of it was actually the easy part because it’s not as if they’re staring at you and judging your body, I mean, they’re art students and they’re really there for their own edification and you’re just there to help them with them. The actual hard part of it is the physical part; it’s pretty physically demanding to stay in one shape for that long.

Q: Being an art historian, what perspective does that give you on your modeling experience?
Nicholas: Right now I’m focusing on Ancient Greek and Early Medieval art, and so it’s so interesting to be in a classroom environment that feels very sort of Renaissance-inspired, like “Let’s draw naturalistically, let’s get the human figure,” when that’s sort of different from what I’m studying. And there is this interesting debate in the art history world about the relative merits of classical versus expressive art. So it’s interesting to see what we teach in our art classes, because of course it’s important to understand the human figure in that medium. Picasso was amazing at drawing naturalistically before he moved on to more abstract art.

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