Weekend Newsreel: February 3, 2006

Compiled by the FilmBuffOnLine.com staff

     Brokeback Mountain Leads Oscar Nominations: Ang Lee’s gay cowboy drama Brokeback Mountain snagged 8 Academy Award nominations this week. You can read FilmbuffOnLine’s complete coverage here.

     NY Times Square Theater Closes: With the closing of the Times Square Lowes State in Manhattan last Friday, what was once the nation’s premier movie going district has now been consigned to the history books. The closing of the four screen complex in a sub-basement of the Virgin Megastore on Broadway at 45th Street coincides with the purchase of Lowes by AMC, the second-largest movie theater chain in the country. At one time the Times Square area – Broadway and Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 47th Streets – was home to over a dozen movie palaces including the Paramount, The Roxy, the Capitol, The Rivoli and others. Even during New York City’s economic downturn during the 1970s, the movie theaters still held sway in Times Square. However, the revitalization of the area over the last two decades have raised real-estate values to such an amount that the theaters could no longer turn a profit.

     Enron Doc Takes Writers Guild Award: Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, the documentary feature charting the downfall of energy conglomerate, has won the Writers Guild Award for best documentary screenplay. You can read the complete FilmBuffOnLine coverage here.

     Deja View: Warner Brothers have announced plans for a remake of the 1944 suspense classic Gaslight. The new film will be directed by British director Joe Wright, who helmed the recent adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. British scripter Abi Morgan will pen the screenplay, transposing the story from its original Victorian London setting to contemporary California. . .

In Remembrance

Moss Mabry- The Academy Award-nominated costume designer has passed away at age 87.

Opening This Week

February 3

• FAQs (LA)- website

• A Good Woman

• Manderlay (LA)

• Something New- website

• Suits On The Loose (limited)

• The Tenants (NY)- website

• The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (limited)- website

• The Tollbooth (NY)- website

• Trudell (SF)- website

• What The Bleep!? Down The Rabbit Hole (limited)- website

• When A Stranger Calls- website

• The World's Fastest Indian (limited)- website