A film crew for controversial documentarian Michael Moore was in Wilkes-Barre, PA last week, conducting interviews for what is presumed to be his upcoming, untitled documentary. The crew were interviewing people who were involved in the recent Luzerne County Courthouse scandal involving county judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. accepting $2.6 million from two privately owned juvenile detention centers in exchange for helping secure county contracts worth $30 million.

Moore was not present during the shooting.

Up until now, all we knew about Moore’s film was that it was to be “a look at the global financial crisis and the U.S. economy during the transition between the incoming Obama Administration and the outgoing Bush Administration,” as its IMDb logline puts it.

It is understandable that the scandal, which made national news when it broke earlier this year, is something that Moore would be interested. Private prisons have certainly been a growing business over the last ten years, thanks in part to the ongoing Republican drive to pare down the size of government, outsourcing certain services to the private sector.

Ciaveralla and another Luzerne County judge, Michael Conahan, are currently awaiting trial after admitting that they convicted hundreds of juvenile defendants and sentancing them to privately run detention facilities in exchange for kickbacks. The two are currently facing up to seven years in prison, while a class action law suit is being organized on behalf of the children falsely convicted.

Privately run prisons have come under fire in recent years over their treatment of prisoners. One such company, the Geo Group, has come under fire for inmate deaths at several of its facilities.

Thanks to FBOL contributor John Gibbon for the tip on this story. Additional source material from the Hazleton (Pa) Standard Speaker.

They aren’t official studio pics, but the first photos of Megan Fox in wardrobe on the set for the upcoming western comic book adaptation Jonah Hex have surfaced over at Movie Grab.

Under the direction of former PIXAR animaor Jimmy Hayward, Jonah Hex tells the story of a former Confederate soldier who roams the old West as a gun for hire. Josh Brolin will be in the title role with Fox opposite him as Hex’s gun-wielding prostitute love interest Leila.

Head on over to Movie Grab for more pics.

Bodies flew through air, slid along the ground and moved between each other in with uncanny precision while a fast paced, swingin’ jazz tune thundered on the soundtrack. For many moviegoers who had come to theaters to see the Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson comedy Hellzapoppin’ in 1941, the dance routine was their first exposure to the exciting new jazz dance known as lindy hop. To generations of fans and practitioners of the dance who came after, it would be considered the greatest lindy hop routine ever choreographed.

Frankie Manning, the man who choreographed the routine as artistic director of the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers dance troupe, passed away this morning in New York City, just a few weeks shy of his 95th birthday.

Although born in Jacksonville, Florida, Manning grew up in New York City. As a teen, he began going to many of the dance halls in Harlem, demonstrating an ability to quickly learn moves of the other dancers and creating new one of his own. In 1935, he worked with his partner Frieda Washington to create the first “air step” or aerial. The pair kept the move a secret, finally unveiling it to win a dance contest at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom.

That same year, Savoy bouncer Herbert White organized several of the Savoy’s best dancers into the performance group Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, with Manning being the one who would choreograph a majority of their routines. The group toured extensively and appeared on Broadway. Demand for their performances became so great, that White would send out numerous groups all under the same name. One group, without Manning, appeared in the Marx Brothers’ 1937 classic A Day At The Races as part of the musical number “Who Dat Man?”

Shortly after the filming of the Hellzapoppin’ routine, see below, Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers disbanded as many male members of the group, Manning included, were being inducted into the Army to fight World War II. Manning served in the South Pacific. After the war, he formed the dance group the Congeroos, which toured from 1947 to 1955. The group made one film appearance, the 1948 musical Killer Diller, where they danced to “Basie’s Boogie” performed by Andy Kirk’s orchestra.

After the dissolution of the Congeroos, Manning retired from performing, going to work for the New York City post office for three decades. He would return to dancing in 1986 when he was approached by Lindy Hop enthusiasts who wanted to learn the dance from one its originators. Manning soon found himself teaching to a new generation of dancers around the world. He also provided choreography for the dance hall scenes in Spike Lee’s 2000 film Malcolm X. He also was one of the Tony award winning choreographers of the Broadway musical Black And Blue.

On a more personal note, this news has incredibly saddened me. After film, one of the great loves of my life is swing dancing. I have had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Manning a few times over the last decade or so at a couple of different workshops and dance events. He was always an energetic instructor and someone who loved what he was doing.

It has been over a year since Peter Jackson wrapped principal photography on his adaptation of Alice Siebold’s The Lovely Bones. Since then, we have not heard much about the film, with the exceptioon of its release being continuously pushed back. Earlier this week, we finally got a look at some of the key characters in the film courtesy of the latest issue of the British genre magazine Empire.

First up is a look at Mark Wahlberg and Saoirse Ronan, who play father and daughter.

The plot of the film gets moving when Saoirse’s character is murdered by her family’s neighbor and she watches how her family attempts to deal with her death.

Susan Sarandon also appears in the film as Saoirse’s character’s grandmother.

USA Today also scored the first look at the muderous neighbor, played by Stanley Tucci. OK, it’s not much of a clear look, but I still find the photo stunning and perhaps an indication of the look that Jackson is going for.

And if these aren’t enough for you, we have a set of pictures taken of one of the Philadelphia suburbs used for location shooting here.

Via SlashFilm.

Yesterday, we told you about Robert Rodriguez announcing that he was adding Predators, a revitalization of the Predator franchise, and wondered when he was going to find time to do all the projects he has been talking about.

Well, today we can tell you that he’ll be getting one of those planned projects quickly out of the way, as Variety has announced that Rodriguez will start filming Machete- a full-length film of the fake trailer he created for his 2007 collaboration with Quentin Tarantino, Grindhouse – this June in Austin. (You can see the original NSFW faux trailer below.)

Joining Rodriquez as co-director is his long time editorial partner Ethan Maniquis. The film, Rodriguez’s first non-studio film since his debut, El Mariachi, is being produced by Rodriguez, Rick Schwartz of Overnight Productions and Aaron Kaufman.

Danny Trejo, whom routinely appears in Rodriguez’s films, will star as an ex-Mexican Federale hiding out as a day worker in Texas who is hired to assassinate a Senator only to be double-crossed. Presumably Jeff Fahey and Cheech Marin, who both figured predominately in the mock trailer, will be back as well.

As a fan of Rodriguez’s films and of the faux Machete trailer that kicked off the whole Grindhouse theatrical experience, I am glad that he’s finally getting around to making the complete film. When Grindhouse first came out, there had been some talk of making it an ongoing type of project, with different directors contributing either a new low-budget explitation picture or fake trailer to subsequent Grindhouse sequel double-features. Some of those faux-trailers would then be developed into full blown features based on audience reaction. Unfortunately, with the box office receipts for Grindhouse being less than what was hoped for, the plan for Grindhouse sequels was quickly abandoned. A pity, as I also wanted to see full length films for two other faux trailers that were part of Grindhouse- Edgar Wright’s Don’t and Rob Zombie’s Werewolf Women Of The SS (with Nick Cage as Fu Manchu!).

Presumably, this will be a quick shoot before Rodriguez gets into work on Nerveracker, which is due for a summer 2010 release. Hopefully, he’ll keep the Grindhouse visual conceit and Machete will look like an old, 70s-era action/exploitation flick, complete with film scratches and  bad splices.

1. Obsessed (Sony / Screen Gems, 2,514 Theaters, 105 Minutes, Rated PG-13): You have got to hand it to Beyonce, she keep trying. Obviously, someone in Hollywood thinks she has the potential to be a star. So they shove her into comedies like Austin Powers: Goldmember and Pink Panther 2 or big Oscar-Grabbing Musical epics like Cadillac Records or Dreamgirls. Yet, film stardom seems to escape her. Now, they are trying her in an erotic thriller (Although, is a PG-13 erotic thriller really an erotic thriller?).

Beyonce plays the Anne Archer role in this film, but replace the typical “Oh God, why is this happening to me?” with “Hell no, this is not going to happen to me.

Could an archaic film genre be the film that breaks Beyonce’s film career wide open? I don’t think so, but who knows.

2. Fighting (Rogue Pictures, 2,310 Theaters, 105 Minutes, Rated PG-13): This might be just me, but does this movie seem to be the most depressing movie of all time?

I’m only going by the ads, but this is what it seems like, a down on his luck man finds the only way he can make a living is to fight on an underground fight circuit. If he doesn’t win, he doesn’t get paid. And the rest of the movie is him getting his head handed to him.

I don’t know how accurate that is, but if it’s correct, this film could be Rocky for nihilists. Who wants to spend and hour and a half watching a mopey looking guy getting his butt kicked with no way of things getting any better? Not me.

3. The Soloist (Paramount /DreamWorks, 2,024 Theaters, 109 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Several months ago, this film was all set to be released and Oscar buzz was high. Now, it’s sequeaking out as the in the least amount of theaters of the weekend at a time of year Oscar voters often forget. What happened?

Well, I don’t know for sure, but probably a test screening that the audience hated and a bunch of rewrites and re-edits. Which would be strange because this is supposed to be based on a true story.

All this raises concern, and the fact that its being released during an Oscar dead zone isn’t the only reason why it might not get any Oscar nominations.

Robert Rodriguez is a shark of a film maker. I think that he believes that if he ever stops moving, he’ll drown.

Among the many projects that the Austin-based director has in various stages of development, he has just added a new title- Predators. During a press conference at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios, the director let loose with some information on his planned schedule for the next year or two-

I’m going to be able to shoot my upcoming Machete here, a sci-fi action film called Nervewrackers, a re-boot of the Predator series called Predators, and a couple of smaller movies called Sin City 2 and The Jetsons.

This is not the first time that Rodriguez has been associated with the Predator franchise. Back in 1996, he was developing a sequel to 1995′s Predator 2, also called Predators. That version featured the further adventures of Arnold Schwartzenegger’s character from the first Predator film.

With Nervewrackers already penciled in for a April 15, 2010 release and Warner Brothers looking for The Jetsons in 2012, is Rodriguez planning on filming Predators between the two? If so, when will he shoot Machete, a full-length version of the faux-trailer he created for 2007′s Grindhouse, or Sin City 2? And then there’s his planned comic-book adaptation Madman. And the two films he had hoped to make with girlfriend Rose McGowan in the lead- Barbarella and Red Sonja.

All I know that if there is anyone who could wash the absolutely disgusting taste of the two deplorable Alien Vs. Predator films out of our collective mouths, it could very well be Rodriguez.

Via IESB.

When an unfinished version of the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine leaked online late last month, Twentieth Century Fox studio honco Tom Rothman quickly sprung into damage control mode, claiming-

The version that went out is unfinished. It’s about 10 minutes shorter, doesn’t have key scenes, it wasn’t edited, and none of the effects shots were in any remotely final form. It’s a complete misrepresentation of the film and is deeply unfair to the people who have worked on it for years.

Now, however, it is beginning to look like the length of the leaked “rough cut” is the exact same length of the final, released version. Further more, some early internet chatter is stating that bar the unfinished effects and other technical items, Rothman’s exhortations were wrong and, for story telling purposes, the leaked version and the release version are exactly the same movie.

Those who have followed the business side of Hollywood know that the relationship between Rothman’s view of the world and the more commonly held perception of reality is often a contentious one. Genre fans have been dismayed at how comic book and science-fiction franchises have been  treated at Fox during Rothman’s tenure. Ongoing rumors state that Rothman returns that disdain, only seeing fans as nothing but cattle who will turn out for any genre movie, no matter the quality. (And to a certain extant, I will grant that he probably is right.) There’s no love lost between the two here.

Rothman has also not done his best to endear himself to the talent he employs. Dark City director Alex Proyas has stated that after making I, Robot for 20th Century Fox, he would never work for the studio again because of interference from Rothman and his “evil minions.” Babylon A.D. director Mathieu Kassovitz complained that severe corporate interefernce turned a movie that he hoped would “teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet” into “pure violence and stupidity.” The Planet Of The Apes, the two Fantastic Four films, Hitman and Alien Vs. Predator are just a few films that have also suffered from Rothman’s heavy-handed approach.

The question is not so much “Did Rothman lie?” as it is “Is anyone surprised that Rothman lied?”

It certainly would be in his interest to try and put a spin on what was rapidly turning into a public relations fiasco for the studio who was already concerned whether the film could turn a decent profit. Many fans were already turned off by the rushed and lackluster X-Men 3. Wolverine star Hugh Jackman’s last film, Australia, died a horrible, but well deserved, death at the box office. Any hoped for anticipation for the movie to be gained by having Jackman hosting the Oscars was quickly trampled under the dancing feet of too many musical numbers that evening.

I have a feeling, however, that deep down Fox maybe feels that it may have been in their best interests that the film did leak. If it flops at the box office, they can point to the leak as the reason why, never mind that maybe people stayed away out of disinterest, a poorly handled marketing campaign or bad word-of-mouth from critics. Wolverine will be sacrificed on the same alter already stained with the blood of A Man Apart, Hostel 2, Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake and Ang Lee’s Hulk. All of these were films whose poor box office receipts were blamed on internet leaks, regardless of the quality of said movies.

All poor box office receipts will do in this case will be to give Big Media lobbyists more ammunition when they start making noises for even stricter copyright legislation than the already draconian and massively flawed Digital Millenium Copyright Act. As such, we’ll see yet another round of grandmothers thrown in jail and further erroding of the concept of Fair Use.

Of course, the argument that piracy negatively impacts box office flies in the face of a movie like Taken. Having been available online since the fall of 2008 thanks to an early European release, the movie – which opened January 30 here in the States – has still pulled in just north of $218 million, according to Box Office Mojo. But as I have pointed out before, Rothman and reality aren’t always the best of friends. The last thing I expect to see from the studios is a sudden rethink about the actual quality of what it turns out and perhaps leaving the artistic side of film to those who didn’t graduate college with a degree in business.

Perhaps I am being a bit alarmist. In fact, I hope I am. I am also hoping that Wolverine is a good film. But based on an early draft of the script I’ve read and some of the early buzz, I’m not so sure that it will be. We’ll all find out next Friday at the theater. See you there.

1. Earth (Disneynature, 1,804 Theaters, 96 Minutes, Rated G): A sure sign that Summer is right around the corner is when movies start coming out on Wednesday. And since in today’s climate we can never be sure that the leaves will change or warm weather will ever arrive, this might now be all that we’ve got.

This film is like a big screen verson of the BBC documentary Planet Earth. This version focuses on the migratory patterns of three families of animals. From the look of it, Polar Bears, Whales and Elephants.

A nature documentary might not scream “summer blockbuster”, but let’s not forget that March of the Penguins was a surprise success. This film has a similar theme, but three times the animals. How could it lose?

Maxine Cooper, the actress who played Mike Hammer’s trusted secretary Velda in director Robert Aldrich’s classic 1955 film noir Kiss Me Deadly, has died in Los Angeles, CA. She was 84.

Cooper, who went by her married name of Maxine Gomberg, passed away on April 4th, according to her family.

Cooper made her screen debut in Aldrich’s film, playing the secretary to Ralph Meeker’s tough-guy private eye. Aldrich cast Cooper in the role after seeing her in a Los Angeles stage production of the play Peer Gynt.

In Kiss Me Deadly, Meeker’s two-fisted detective Mike Hammer attempts to unravel a mystery involving a hitchhiker (Cloris Leechman, also making her film debut) he picks up one evening but is killed shortly afterwards. His investigations lead to a dark conspiracy involving atomic weapons secrets.

Shortly after the film’s initial release, the ending of the film was crudely edited, possibly at the studio’s direction, to make it seem as if Hammer and Velda in the climactic explosion of a beach house rather than escaping to the nearby surf. This ending became the one predominantly seen for several decades until the detective work of film historian Glenn Erickson, who tracked down and so the restoration of Aldrich’s original ending. (You can read Erickson’s story here.)

Cooper would appear in only two other films – Autumn Leaves (1956), also directed by Aldrich, and Zero Hour! (1957), which was the basis for the spoof classic Airplane ! (1980) – before concentrating her career in television.

Shortly after appearing in Aldrich’s Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, Cooper retired from show business to concentrate on raising her family with husband writer/producer Sy Gomberg. She also helped to organize actors and studio executives’ participation in Dr. Martin Luther King’s civil rights marches and Vietnam War protests.

Via LA Times.