Chicago is My Home

29
Sep

Sean Phillips, Director of ‘Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure,’ Coming to Chicago on Oct. 4

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Documentary

Sean Phillips, director of the new National Geographic film “Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure,” will be in Chicago on Oct. 4 and 5 to promote his new film. The 3D picture premieres on Oct. 5 at the IMAX at Chicago’s Navy Pier.

The documentary, which is narrated by Tony Award-winning actor Liev Schreiber, includes an original score by longtime musical collaborators Richard Evans, David Rhodes and Peter Gabriel.

Its design is to take audiences on a journey into the relatively unexplored world of the “other dinosaurs”: the reptiles that lived beneath the water. The film is funded in part through a grant from the National Science Foundation.

29
Sep

Confirmed: Indie Thriller Filming Now in Chicago is Titled ‘Root of All Evil’

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Independent Film

Because there has been confusion about the title for this indie thriller, I am now conclusively confirming that “Root of All Evil” is the official title for this Sean Bean picture, which is filming now in Chicago. “The Cache” is its working title.

I learned this at about 4:30 p.m. on Friday when leaving my office. Crew set up directly outside my office on Ravenswood about three blocks south of Irving Park. I spoke with several people there to confirm the film’s official title.

A car was on a rig with lighting. The film stars Sean Bean from “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hitcher”.

29
Sep

Scoop: Chicago Indie Film ‘Chicago Overcoat’ Adds Armand Assante to Cast Roster

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Independent Film

Chicago indie film “Chicago Overcoat” has fittingly added Armand Assante (“Fatal Instinct,” “Judge Dredd”) to its cast roster as a mob boss, according to “Chicago Overcoat” casting director Chris Charles.

“Chicago Overcoat” is slated to film in Chicago from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30.

26
Sep

HollywoodChicago.com Segment to Air on Outside the Loop Radio, WLUW 88.7-FM on Sept. 28

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Radio

HollwoodChicago.com publisher Adam Fendelman and senior staff writer Dustin Levell will be featured on Outside the Loop Radio (“Chicago’s Almost Above-Ground Audio Magazine”) on Friday, Sept. 28.

Produced weekly in a sound booth by radio veterans Mike Stephen and Andy Hermann, OTL recently released its one-year edition.

This week, Stephen and Hermann recorded a segment with Fendelman and Levell that will appear on OTL’s site on Friday. It will also air on independent community radio station WLUW 88.7-FM Chicago.

The WLUW broadcast can be heard at 6 p.m. Chicago time on Friday. If you miss the broadcast, it will be archived online and posted to HollywoodChicago.com.

26
Sep

Chicago’s Allison Silverman Named Executive Producer of Comedy Central’s ‘The Colbert Report’

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Celebrity News, Comedy, Film, Independent Film

Allison Silverman, a former iO Theater and Boom Chicago comedy favorite, has been named the executive producer of Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central, according to a Sept. 26 report by Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Allison is a rare combination of funny, kind and intelligent. Unfortunately, in her new job, two of those have to go,” Colbert jested in his announcement of Silverman’s new gig.

In other Zwecker news and for additional coverage of Chicago indie thriller “Root of All Evil,” Sean Bean from “The Lord of the Rings” recently drank it up with cast and crew at Rockit in Chicago to wrap up filming.

Zwecker also touched on the Chicago connection surrounding the controversy with the film adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel “The Kite Runner”. The film version will open this year’s Chicago International Film Festival on Oct. 4.

Finally, Zwecker says Chicago’s Bernie Mac is banding together with Samuel L. Jackson in the film “Soul Men,” which is a comedy about two former soul music legends.

25
Sep

Unidentified Special Effects Technician For ‘The Dark Knight’ Dies in Crash

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Film

An unidentified special effects technician for “The Dark Knight,” which has filmed primarily in Chicago, died on Monday in a 4×4 crash outside London.

“Warner Bros. and the entire cast and crew of ‘The Dark Knight’ are deeply saddened by this tragedy. Their hearts and prayers go out to the family and loved ones of the deceased,” a Warner Bros. spokeswoman told Sky News.

Warner Bros. says the crew member was killed when a truck carrying a camera platform collided into a tree. Sky News says the truck was following a stunt vehicle that was believed to be the Batmobile.

The accident took place during a dummy run at a racetrack near Chertsey, which is south of London, according to Warner Bros. Filming wasn’t taking place and no actors were involved in the accident.

Britain’s Health & Safety Executive is investigating the accident.

25
Sep

Roger Ebert Bests Maher, O’Reilly; Named America’s Most Influential Pundit By Forbes

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Celebrity News, Film

Forbes has just named Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times the most influential pundit in America.

Of course, the Chicago Sun-Times on Sept. 25 was all over it. Maureen O’Donnell reports:

Bill Maher must think it’s politically incorrect. Bill O’Reilly must be spinning in that no-spin zone.

Roger Ebert … bested them and others to be named the most influential pundit in America by Forbes magazine.

Forbes analyzed market research on more than 60 top pundits in current events, entertainment, law, politics and sports.

Ebert “appeals to 70 percent of the demographic and [his] long career makes him well known to well over half the population,” wrote Forbes’ Tom Van Riper.

The magazine’s list of top pundits is “very impressive company,” Ebert said by e-mail.

[He added:] “It never occurred to me anyone would make such a survey. I never thought of myself as a pundit. Maybe it means movies are more popular than politics and non-partisan.”

The Sept. 24 Forbes story can be found here.

24
Sep

Wes Anderson Short ‘Hotel Chevalier’ to Premiere at Four Apple Stores on Sept. 25

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Celebrity News, Film

I learned on Monday that Wes Anderson’s short film “Hotel Chevalier” (part one of “The Darjeeling Limited”) will exclusively premiere in four select Apple stores on Tuesday, Sept. 25.

Writer and director Anderson, actor Jason Schwartzman and actress Natalie Portman will appear in the New York Apple store in SoHo to introduce the film and host a short Q&A following the screening.

At 9 p.m. that evening, “The Darjeeling Limited” co-writer Roman Coppola will introduce the short at the Apple store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

The after-hours events will also take place at the Third Street Promenade Apple store in Santa Monica, Calif. and the Apple store in San Francisco’s Union Square.

Starring Schwartzman and Portman, “Hotel Chevalier” is a short film set in a hotel room in France. It is the brief coda to a doomed romance and the prologue to “The Darjeeling Limited”.

19
Sep

Opening of Trump Tower in Chicago Delayed Two Months

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Real Estate

The opening of the Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago is being delayed two months over concerns that amenities (i.e. the bar and restaurant facilities) won’t be ready by the end of the year.

19
Sep

Theater: ‘Cymbeline’ a Priceless Stallion Amid Field of Praiseworthy Equestrians

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Theater

CHICAGO – If you frequent Chicago performances with a typical ticket price between $10 and $30, “Cymbeline” at Chicago Shakes on Navy Pier is nothing short of a priceless stallion amid a field of praiseworthy equestrians.

For $54 to $70 per head, you’re instead deluged with an ocular and audible affair you won’t quickly convert into a “been there, done that” gig.

“Its adventurous nature and epic sweep capture the entirety of the human experience,” said Chicago Shakespeare Theater founder and “Cymbeline” artistic director Barbara Gaines.

The dark fairy tale of love, fidelity, deception, magic potions, second chances and unbridled jealousy packs an apt dosage of humor with a titular king, a defiant daughter, woodsy scenes and, of course, impersonating the opposite sex. It’s all tragically typical Bill.

One of Shakespeare’s late romances, what might be tagged a tragedy in actuality most certainly is a comedy. Said more modernly, “Cymbeline” is a “tragi-comedy”.

Those immersed in his legend are already well aware of the language that is entirely his own. Those unfamiliar might take until halfway through this 160-minute performance for Shakespearean words like “’twixt” to naturally translate into “between”.

Also, if it weren’t for exquisite vocal articulation, the beanstalk-tall stage would have surely posed much more of a problem in understanding the dialogue.

While a god descending from the heavens with a bolt of lightning certainly wouldn’t have been possible without such a stage’s grandeur, the king-size space comes at the cost of a loss of eye-locking intimacy.

Speckled from tip to toe with an elaborate sound, lighting and fly system, though, even from the back you’d be remiss to miss all the emotion-packed spitting.

With seven Chicago Shakespeare Theater performances between 2007 and 2008 and an approximate budget of $13 million, “Cymbeline” is a multimillion-dollar production delivering a first-rate performance of one of Shakespeare’s more predictable scripts.

While it was once deemed exceptionally laudable, the esteem for “Cymbeline” has floundered over the past century.

Some maintain that the play is an “instance of Shakespeare amusing himself and spinning absurd tales with no serious intent”. Be that or the contrary, Gaines and her crew deliver superlatively.

“Cymbeline” runs through Nov. 11 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at various times every day but Monday. Tickets cost $54 to $70.

By Adam Fendelman
Publisher
HollywoodChicago.com