Comment On Why We Are Happy To Be Caught In A Web Of Movie Remakes

Sarah Silverman and Owen Wilson kicked off YouTube's seven-day comedy extravaganza – and David Brent is displaying his guitar skills. We're aiming to cover the lotReading this on mobile? Click here to viewIt's YouTube Comedy Week, as anyone who looks at advertising on the side of London buses will know. For the rest of this week, we can expect videos and performances posted at the online video channel by the cream of American and British standup. Stars include Sarah Silverman, Andy Samberg (star of BBC3's Cuckoo and the Stateside favourite Saturday Night Live), Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and more, alongside a host of internet comedy names, including the Onion and Epic Rap Battles of History. It is "the biggest single comedy event in history", says Justin Gayner, executive producer of Comedy Week in the UK, citing YouTube's one billion monthly users.The event launched last night New York time with the Big Live Comedy Show, a streamed floorshow featuring the likes of Tim and Eric and Edinburgh Fringe favourite and 30 Rock writer Hannibal Buress. Sarah Silverman hosted, feigning giddiness at the "totally unregulated" freedoms afforded her by performing exclusively for the internet. "I thought it would be funny to see how far we can go without any consequences," she says, before pretending to slit the throat of a production assistant and stab co-host Seth Rogen in the guts.Reading this on mobile? Click here to viewThe highest profile among this morning's YouTube Comedy Week releases, of course, is Learn Guitar with David Brent, the first of a series in which Ricky Gervais revives the most indelible of his alter egos. Other Brit comedy stars to be featured over the week include David Mitchell and, er, Jamie Oliver. "There are going to be some amazing surprises during the week," according to the pre-publicity, which included this video of Arnold Schwarzenegger ("what you didn't know was, I'm a big fan of comedy") being exaggeratedly manly for laughs. We're aiming to cover the lot, so watch this space for the latest on Youtube Comedy Week – and let us know the best (and worst) of what you've discovered out there too.ComedyComedySarah SilvermanRicky GervaisJamie OliverSeth RogenDavid MitchellOwen WilsonArnold SchwarzeneggerBrian Loganguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Spaniard will play Mario Sepúlveda, public face of the 33 men involved in 2010 mining accident, in Patricia Riggen's new filmAntonio Banderas will play Mario Sepúlveda, who became the public face of the 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days three years ago, according to Deadline.The 33, the latest film to document the miners' story, will be the official version of the tale. It has been put together with the exclusive co-operation of the men involved in the incident.Martin Sheen and Rodrigo Santoro will also star in the film, which will be directed by Patricia Riggen (La Misma Luna) from a screenplay by Mikko Alanne and José Rivera. She expects to shoot in the autumn, once the film has secured investment at this year's Cannes film festival.The rescue of the miners, who became trapped more than half a mile underground, was carried out by a Chile-led international taskforce and was watched by more than a billion people. Sepúlveda became known to the world as the ebullient host of regular video journals sent to the surface by the miners, earning the nickname "Super Mario".Santoro will star as the group's second-in-command, Florencio Ávalos. Due to his youth and good health, the 31-year-old was selected as the first miner to ride the rescue capsule to the surface in case of complications during the 15-minute ascent.It is not clear at this stage whether Sheen, who had a Spanish father and was born Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez, will also star as one of the miners.Riggen's project follows a 2010 film about the Chilean miners entitled The 33 of San José. Spanish director Antonio Recio's little-seen movie emerged on DVD in a handful of European countries not long after the events it documented.Antonio BanderasDramaUnited StatesChilean miners rescueChileBen Childguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The sun finally came back to a windy and rainy Cannes but the weather clearly couldn’t stop the non-stop parties , premieres , deals and hype for which this festival is famous. And despite the rain on Saturday the turnout for Lionsgate’s big Catching Fire bash was wall to wall at Baoli Beach with everyone including star Jennifer Lawrence crowded into the large tent. One exec there actually was happy with the monsoon-like  conditions. “The rain probably kept 30% of our RSVPs away which is probably good because i don’t know how we could have squeezed them in,” he said. With everyone drying out Sunday there seemed to be even more party hopping than usual. At the crowded Participant Films party at the Carlton , Focus Features CEO James Schamus was accepting congratulations on his re-upping at the company. I have rarely heard him wax more eloquently about a film than Focus’ recent pickup of The Dallas Buyers Club , the movie where Matthew McConaughey lost about 50 pounds to play an early AIDS victim. It’s not dated yet according to Schamus but is planned  for Fall sometime. “It’s just a bloodbath trying to pick the right date in that period but this movie is extraordinary. I just so admire what Matthew has been doing with his career in the last couple of years between Magic Mike, Killer Joe, The Paperboy, Mud  and now this. You know me . I don’t rave like this a lot but he really knocks this one out of the park. It is the performance of a lifetime,”  he says of the actor in a film that is sure to be a main focus of the Focus awards season plans. Across the street at Millennium’s party for James Franco, the star was chatting up buyers on two future films for the company including Good People in which he stars and another called Garden Of Last Days in which he stars and directs, just as he has done for As I Lay Dying, an Un Certain Regard entry premiering tonight. He’s a busy guy , and if that wasn’t enough he also co-stars in Oscar winning writer /director Paul Haggis’  ambitious and daring new love story, Third Person which was being sold to foreign buyers here. Fully financed by Belgian company Corsan, Haggis told me he thinks it is his best work to date ” and I usually don’t like anything I do” said the man who directed Crash  and In The Valley Of Elah and has also written movies like Million Dollar Baby, Flags Of Our Fathers  and James Bond movies Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace . Haggis wasn’t even coming to Cannes but just decided to “stop by” over the weekend on his way to London for post-production work on the film. He needs to hire a composer and still do some shooting in Paris on the multi-story film which also stars Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis , Olivia Wilde, Adrien Brody, Kim Basinger and Maria Bello. Even in the rough assemblage Haggis showed me on his Mac in his Carlton suite , it’s clear this is a challenging and fearless adult drama, the kind studios don’t make anymore, almost european in it style and very personal. “I like to write about things I don’t understand and slowly these three stories about relationships evolved. It took me two and a half years to write, 6 days a week , 8 hours a day often getting it wrong. Its very similar to Crash in that it took a long time to percolate…Every question these characters are grappliing with are questions I have grappled with and they play them out for me.  And if it was going to be a really complex story like this I wanted to set it in beautiful locations so that you have that respite and the fun and the romance that just took you away and then keeps slamming you in the face, ” he said of the film shot largely in Rome. Neeson, Wilde and Kunis have the juiciest roles and really run with it.  Haggis hopes to find a U.S. distributor in time to premiere it at a festival, most likely Toronto in September where Crash  got launched. If possible he’d like to get it out before the end of the year but that depends. Strong stuff indeed and Haggis says some distribs might be “scared” but he’s forging on. That’s what people do in Cannes to sell their wares. At the Weinstein Company  Party Sunday  at Baoli Beach Tim Burton was talking about his latest project , a first collaboration with Weinstein , called Big Eyes from a screenplay by his Ed Wood writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karasewski and another offbeat true life story.Earlier in the day I had moderated a panel for buyers with Burton and co-star (and jury member) Christoph Waltz who plays Walter Keane to Amy Adams’ Margaret Keane in the story of the rocky relationship of  husband and wife who created the infamous Big Eyes mass-produced art work in the 50′s and 60′s. Burton shoots this summer in Vancouver and it’s a smaller-scaled film he is looking forward to doing for a change. Perhaps the most relaxed and intimate party over the weekend was the one at Canal Plus following Sunday night’s triumphant premiere of the Coen Brothers’  latest , Inside Llewyn Davis. After what I am told was an enthusiastic 6 1/2 minute standing ovation for the film , the Coens and their cast were in a mood to celebrate. The film which will be released December 6th by CBS Films in the U.S, should definitely be another Oscar contender for the multi-Oscared pair . CBS chief Leslie Moonves (there with wife Julie Chen) was over the moon about the reception here to the movie as he chatted with me at the party. In fact  he said he’s really happy with the CBS Films slate in general including the May 31 release The Kings Of Summer,  and the upcoming November comedy, Last Vegas , a kind of senior citizen Hangover starring Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas and Morgan Freeman which Moonves says is a winner. “It is for everyone 20 to 80 , just a really fun movie people will love”. He pointed to CBS Films President Terry Press, also in Cannes for the premiere , for putting the film company on the right track. Co-star John Goodman wasn’t at the party but had flown directly from the Los Angeles set of Monuments Men to walk the red carpet, see the film and then get right back on a plane to L.A. Absent was another scene-stealing star of ILD, the cat. Actually I am told it was 6 cats used overall.  Star Oscar Isaac , who will be a Best Actor contender for his revelatory work in the film, was telling me he got scratched  under the eye by one of them who was strapped to him for a run down the subway steps. “What cat tied to a human being is going to be happy about that?”  he said of his frisky co-stars even though he wasn’t sure whether it was Darryl, Gerald or the others whose names he couldn’t remember. One CBS Films exec at the party said the collective cat was “this year’s Uggie” (the Jack Terrier star of The Artist).

Mongrel Media has been on a shopping spree this fest acquiring all Canadian rights on competition titles Inside Llewyn Davis and Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grande Bellezza. Its latest pickup is competition entry Blue Is The Warmest Color from director Abdellatif Kechiche. The movie premieres here on Thursday. Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos star in the lesbian coming of age story. Mongrel is planning a 2014 release. Easternlight, the specialty label of Arclight Films has sold myriad territories on Jet Li-starrer Badges Of Fury. Zhang Wen, who was in the recent Chinese box office smash Journey To The West, co-stars. Sales include the U.S. (Well Go), Australia/New Zealand, Germany, Hong Kong, Greece, Italy, Japan, Latin America, Spain and Turkey. The detective action comedy opens in China in June. Stealth Indie, which focuses on commercial genre from British and European talent, has come aboard three new films set to shoot at the end of July. The Hatching is a creature horror pic about man-eating crocodiles set on the Somerset moors to be shot by commercials and documentary director, Michael Anderson. Greg Davies (The Inbetweeners Movie), Thomas Turgoose and Sylvia Syms star. Repercussion is a blackly comic thriller starring Joseph Millson as a reluctant hold-up man, on the run. Sarah-Jane Potts (Kinky Boots) also stars. John Langridge directs. Finally, crime thriller The King’s Men is set in world of underground poker. Capital Films is producing. John Hannah, Martin McCann and Katrina Cas star. Schuman Hoque is director. Bobby Paunescu and Jared Underwood’s Solar Entertainment Group is partnering with Romanian real estate entrepreneur Dragos Savulescu to launch Solar Studios. The Bucharest-based facility will take over what was formerly known as Kentauros Studios, which Savulescu recently acquired. It will also align with Paunescu’s Mandragora Studios to become one of the biggest full service studios in Europe. Veteran cinematographer Viorel Sergovici will run Solar Studios.

This is Movie Jail, a unique maximum security prison that houses some of the worst writers, directors, actors and producers from Hollywood and beyond. Their crimes? The offenses vary from convict to convict but most of these inmates have contributed negatively to the film world to some capacity and his or her misdeeds have covered a long enough period of time that the authorities had to intervene. In each column a Read More