EPIX Premiere of “Amar’e Stoudemire IN THE MOMENT”

Amar’e Stoudemire, power forward for the New York Knicks, is a force both on and off the court and one of the most recognizable athletes in the country. While his story about dedication and perseverance to the game of basketball is fascinating to watch, it isn’t the most surprising part of the EPIX Original Documentary Amar’e Stoudemire: In The Moment. Rather, it’s the background of his story that truly makes the film something to behold – including honest perspective on a tough upbringing, an intimate view into his everyday devotion to his family, and candid conversations about staying positive in the face of setback, something EPIX took to heart.

With the documentary done and ready to go, all hands were on deck for promotion, and then roughly one month before its premiere, Amar’e suffered a knee injury that would sideline him from the game for an indefinite period of time. The question before EPIX was what to do with a documentary chronicling Stoudemire’s goal to win a championship when he was now injured. Without any time to waste, the decision was made to reenter production and stick with the original premiere date, April 19, the eve of the playoffs. The result was an even more honest film – giving fans the whole story of Amar’e’s commitment through a very recent surgery and rehab process, and allow viewers to watch his story unfold in real time as Amar’e works to get back on the court in time to help the Knicks prevail in the Playoffs.

All the hard work paid off, with tremendous response and fanfare for Amar’e and EPIX with a major premiere event in NYC with Amar’e and other Knicks in attendance, including Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler, Chris Copeland and Iman Shumpert.  As fans wait for the return of Amar’e, we’re right there with them cheering on the Knicks.

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From Will Ferrell accepting the Comedic Genius Award to Ted vs Channing Tatum for Best Shirtless Performance, Hollywood will be convening for a can’t-miss show this Sunday, April 14, at the MTV Movie Awards. With talent ranging from host Rebel Wilson to Brad Pitt (presenting movie of the year!), plus comedians like Seth Rogen and Melissa McCarthy, the awards show promises to be “epic.” Ahead of the show this weekend, MTV Movie Awards EP Jesse Ignjatovic walked us through some of its big moments, as well as the overall creative vision for this year’s show, which he describes as “big and blockbuster.”

Can you tell me a bit about your creative vision for the show?

JI: This year we moved the show up from the first week of June to first week of April to get ahead of summer movie season. The Movie Awards – unlike a lot of other awards show – is about what’s coming as much as it’s about the previous year. Getting ahead of films like Fast and Furious and Iron Man to get excited about what’s coming next influenced the creative.

We wanted to give the show a blockbuster feel. Everything you watch will be “epic” – everything is going to have scale. We’re building big excitement around every moment and every film.

Each show, you put together these very elaborate spectacle presentations (such as last year’s Prometheus or this year’s Star Trek Into Darkness scenic). Can you tell me a little about how that will play out this year?

JI: We create a visual moment tied to a moment from the film – we take a visual moment from the film to the turbine stage, a big open stage where we can create any sort of scenic. For the Star Trek presentation, the cast will come through the rubble. We partner with the movie studios in terms of accessing the visuals we want to use, but on our side we create the scenic. This year we’ll have Fast & Furious, Star Trek Into Darkness and an epic intro for Catching Fire.

How do you tailor the show to the host?

What’s great is that we went to Rebel [Wilson] early, at the end of last year – we had our approach in terms of creative for this year’s. We’re like minds and she really grabbed onto it and took into her amazing comedic direction. The second you tune in, you see how she’s made her mark. She’s taken it to another level, especially with a big opening number which is so exciting for us. But she really keeps her foot to the pedal throughout, with lots of great comedic moments. She’s the perfect heroine for the show.

What’s the difference in production for MTV’s Video Music Awards versus the Movie Awards?

One’s tied to music, and one’s tied to film, so you get a special opportunity to work closely with a lot of that movie talent. A lot our comedic moments or on-stage moments are tied to talent having ideas. It’s fun to conceptualize those ideas and what those can be.

For the VMAs, we have to think about how we are going to stage an amazing performance – we put on 8-10 big numbers. For this show, we have two musical performances and the opportunity to create big, watercooler moments on stage. It’s a different beast, similar though in terms of production value and thought.

As for the musical performances we’ll have: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are a big energetic artist and their single is an anthem, so I think they fit perfectly into what we’re doing with the blockbuster theme. They also get the whole room involved. Macklemore has an energy that comes forward. We haven’t seen them in a big scale performance yet so we’re excited to do that.

And Selena Gomez was an obvious choice – tied to film, a huge artist, and also tied to Spring Breakers. We’ll have her performing her new single on the stage for the first time – and of course our audience loves her.

Increasingly, there’s a pressure to bring “funny” to the show – do you feel that pressure?

The Movie Awards have always had that irreverent comedic angle, so I think the pressure is the drive to live up to that and surpass it however possible. This year with the host we have in Rebel, I feel like it’s going to feel like those historic awards shows. Can we bring those moments so that people are talking about it throughout the show and afterward? I think we have the opportunity to have that kind of show.

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It was a sad day for both the industry and the country yesterday, when we lost one of our greats with the passing of Roger Ebert. Ebert was a trusted and esteemed film critic, journalist and writer, or, as Jon Stewart introduced him when he appeared on The Daily Show in 2006: “the film expert, the analyst, the man.”

We’re remembering Ebert by revisiting that appearance (see clip above). My favorite part is when a nervous Jon Stewart tell Ebert he’s worried about hosting the upcoming Oscars. “How badly am I going to get burned?” he asks. True to form, Ebert gives Stewart a dose of candor (his trademark honesty — “Jack Nicholson is going to be staring right up at you”) before reassuring him that it was going to go well (his trademark humanity): “You’re funny, you’re smart, you’re good.”

Ebert was influential, thought-provoking, prolific (over the past year, he had written more than 300 reviews) and the only film critic to win a Pulitzer. He never stopped. Though not born into the digital generation, he was agile on social media, a frequent blogger with a tremendous social media following.

Just days before he died (and 46 years after he became the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times), he announced that he was taking a “leave of presence.”

“What in the world is a leave of presence?” he wrote. “It means I am not going away.”

Indeed. His words, his books, his indelible impact live on. Thanks for dedicating your life to the industry, Mr. Ebert.  You will be missed.

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Here’s a holiday gift for those Star Trek fans looking for a glimpse of Paramount’s upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness.  The second film in J.J. Abrams reboot of the franchise hits theaters in May 2013, but excitement is already building, as audiences learn more about the upcoming blockbuster. If this sneak peek gets you looking for more, the first nine minutes of the movie will preview at 500 IMAX theatres starting Dec. 14.

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Surprise guest Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and Paramount Chairman and CEO Brad Grey (from left) at the “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” special screening and Q&A on Sept. 13 at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, CA. (Photo: Peter Wintersteller/ABImages)

Employees at the Paramount Pictures lot were treated to a screening of the newly re-mastered Raiders of the Lost Ark, with special appearances by director Steve Spielberg and Harrison Ford. Before a standing room-only theater, Chairman and CEO Brad Grey began the evening by calling the iconic film a “true classic for the world and for our industry” and praising Spielberg as “one of the great storytellers.”

The audience of more than 500 was on its feet as the famed filmmaker took the stage to talk with Grey about the film’s earliest days when Spielberg, executive producer George Lucas and writer Lawrence Kasdan spent three days holed up in a San Fernando Valley home to write what would become the first of four blockbuster Indiana Jones films.

“What was fun about making Raiders was that there had never been anything like it before; we were just making it up,” said Spielberg.  “We had no idea whether anybody would come see this movie.”

They did, and to-date, the franchise has earned nearly $2 billion.

As Grey and Spielberg discussed a shoot in Tunisia, Indy himself made a surprise appearance and delighted the audience with stories from the set.

Steven Spielberg and Paramount Chairman and CEO Brad Grey (Photo: Peter Wintersteller/ABImages)

“It was a wonderful character on paper and it became a more interesting character, I think, during the process,” said Ford.  “Give a guy a hat, a leather jacket and a whip and there’s not a hell of a lot more you have to do.”

The employee screening was part of Paramount’s Rewind Screening Series, a celebration of the studio’s films and filmmakers, and coincided with this week’s Blu-ray release of the newly re-mastered Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie series.

“It was a wonderful character on paper and it became a more interesting character, I think, during the process,” said Ford.  “Give a guy a hat, a leather jacket and a whip and there’s not a hell of a lot more you have to do.”

The employee screening was part of Paramount’s Rewind Screening Series, a celebration of the studio’s films and filmmakers, and coincided with this week’s Blu-ray release of the newly re-mastered Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie series.

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The press day featured a Q&A with Ben Burtt, who created many of the iconic sound effects heard in the Star Wars franchise, and Dennis Muren, eight-time Oscar winner for Best Visual Effects.

Fans of the one and only whip-cracking, treasure-hunting, globe-trotting archaeology professor are in for a big-screen treat in the coming weeks. Raiders of the Lost Ark, the cinematic classic that introduced the world to Indiana Jones, will debut in IMAX for the first time ever beginning Sept. 7. The film has been completely restored for the one-week release and subsequent Blu-ray debut. “When I saw the stunning quality of the picture and heard the enhanced sound in an IMAX theatre, I was quite literally blown away and hope that audiences will enjoy the experience as much as I did,” said director Steven Spielberg. The full franchise, INDIANA JONES: The Complete Adventures, comes out on Blu-ray Sept. 18.

In conjunction with the upcoming releases, Paramount Home Media escorted a group of lucky journalists and bloggers to Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas’ famously low-profile headquarters and workplace located in the Northern California countryside. The Archives at the ranch holds memorabilia from some of the most iconic film franchises in history. The visitors were encouraged to unearth props from all four Indiana Jones movies, including the Arc of the Covenant and Holy Grail.

The press day also featured a Q&A with Ben Burtt, who created many of the iconic sound effects heard in the Star Wars franchise, and Dennis Muren, eight-time Oscar winner for Best Visual Effects.  Burtt and Muren worked alongside Spielberg in restoring Raiders of the Lost Ark. Check out the video below for their comments. 

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More than 5,000 Katy Perry fans turned out for a live concert and the worldwide premiere of her upcoming 3D concert film KATY PERRY: PART OF ME at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood this week.After strutting down a hot pink carpet, Perry treated the audience, which packed a closed Hollywood Boulevard and included fans Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen, to performances of her hit songs Firework, Teenage Dream, Hot and Cold and Part of Me, among others.  The concert was part of the Pepsi/Billboard Summer Beats Concert Series.

“I started with this little ole song in 2008,” Perry said as the sounds of her first hit, “I Kissed a Girl,” played over the speakers. “I never thought I’d be shutting down Hollywood Boulevard.”

Full event coverage in the news wrap below.

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Many of J.J. Abrams’ films are cloaked in secrecy, and Star Trek was no exception.

The film began with a script printed on silver paper that couldn’t be photocopied. The paper was reflective and impossible to read with the lights on so it had to be read in the dark. This was the first and only script that I’ve read with the lights off.

J.J. had a unique vision and wanted moviegoers to experience aspects of Star Trek’s world yet to be explored. For instance, the distinctive setting for the engine rooms and deep bowels of the U.S.S. Enterprise was shot at the Budweiser plant in Van Nuys, California. The plant had these great stretches of catwalks and futuristic looking vats that allowed Scotty’s world to come to life.

When shooting the film’s dynamic jump scene [on Paramount’s backlot], actors Chris Pine and John Cho spent days suspended on wires, spinning in circles to capture the most realistic feel of falling from the Romulan drilling platform to the planet Vulcan. It was physically challenging and at times a bit nauseating for the actors, who were both great sports. Still needing some good close ups of the fall, but lacking the wherewithal to put the actors back up on the wires, J.J. and his team came up with an idea.

It was the last day of photography and they set up a truly unique shot at Paramount’s Blue Sky Tank, which is about 75 feet high. With a wind machine aimed at them and a camera shooting from atop, Pine and Cho stood on a giant mirrored disc, grabbed on to one another and spun in circles as they said their lines. The disc reflecting the blue sky above created this odd, yet incredible optical illusion – it was an amazing moment as they truly looked like they were falling.

The Star Trek sequel will premiere in 2013.

Lee Rosenthal is President of Physical Production for Paramount Pictures. His career has spanned the production of all the Star Trek films since 1994, and the Mission: Impossible and Paranormal Activity franchises, among others.

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Richard Gere was the guest of honor at a recent screening of An Officer and a Gentleman at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in New York City, as part of a celebration for Paramount’s Centennial and the film’s 30th Anniversary. The evening was hosted by Dave Karger, senior writer, Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, and included a special, post-screening conversation with the actor.

“I haven’t seen this film since we made it,” Gere said. “To watch it here this evening with my wife Carey is a very emotional experience.”

The film, which has long been known as a classic crowd-pleaser, had the mathematics of its success broken down by movie history guru, Karger. He pointed out that the true test of a movie’s “legs” is how many times over it grosses what it made in its opening weekend. The higher the number, the better it hangs on week after week. For example, The Twilight Saga: New Moon made only two times what it made in its opening weekend, earning a 2. For Titanic, generally considered the gold standard for a movie with legs, that number is 20.

For An Officer and a Gentleman, that number jumps to 25, as the film ultimately grossed 25 times what it made in its opening weekend, which is almost unheard of and signals a true word-of-mouth phenomenon, according to Karger.

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In the summer of 1912, Paramount’s visionary founder, Adolph Zukor, laid the groundwork for the company when he premiered Queen Elizabeth, one of the first full-length dramas shown in the United States.  Today, Paramount is one of America’s oldest major motion picture studios and the only one that continues to call Hollywood its home.

It has been an amazing century that began in the Nickelodeon days and has continued through the advent of sound, film noir, New Hollywood realism and the motion-capture 3-D achievements of today. Paramount has filled the screen with entertaining and iconic pictures, from Wings, which won the very first Academy Award® for a film, to some of the most successful movies and franchises of all time in The Godfather, Mission: Impossible and Transformers.

Paramount films have touched, entertained and inspired audiences around the world for a century and that’s a wonderful accomplishment.  Films like The Ten Commandments, Sullivan’s Travels and Sunset Boulevard endure as classics; Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Harold and Maude and Footloose defined generations; and Rosemary’s Baby paved the way for the future audiences of Paranormal Activity.

The studio has excelled at developing some of the most renowned actors and actresses and has fostered relationships with some of the most creative visionaries and filmmakers of all time.  Many of these film legends were present at our historic 100th Anniversary photo shoot on the Paramount Lot earlier this year, which represented our extraordinary past, present and future.

Passing through the signature gates to the Paramount Lot, I am reminded of the company’s rich history and how fortunate we are to be doing the work that we do.  I am grateful to everyone on the Paramount team, and the entire Viacom family, for their work and commitment to bringing audiences the very best in entertainment.

Brad Grey is Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures.

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