It took six decades, but a Saskatchewan production has finally won the top prize at the Yorkton Film Festival. Silent Bombs: All for the Motherland was the big winner on the weekend at the festival in the east-central Saskatchewan city, picking up the Golden Sheaf award for Best of the Festival, as well as four [...]

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Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has withdrawn from the highly anticipated new film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, calling the decision the hardest of his life. The noted Mexican-born director made the announcement on Monday to Lord of the Rings fansite www.theonering.net. “In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for [...]

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Nikita stars Maggie Q as ‘Nikita’, Lyndsy Fonseca as ‘Alex’, Shane West as ‘Michael’, Aaron Stanford as ‘Birkhoff’, Ashton Holmes as ‘Thom’, Tiffany Hines as ‘Jaden’, Melinda Clarke as ‘Amanda’ and Xander Berkeley as ‘Percy’.

Nikita is from Warner Bros. Television in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision, with executive producers Craig Silverstein (Bones) , Danny Cannon (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) , McG (Supernatural) and Peter Johnson (Chuck) .

The Toronto-shot pilot, directed by Danny Cannon, prompted the CW network (Smallville) to pick up the show as a series.

“…When she was a deeply troubled teenager, ‘Nikita’ was rescued from death row by a secret US agency known only as ‘Division’, who faked her execution and told her she was being given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country. What they didn’t tell her was that she was being trained as a spy and assassin. Ultimately, Nikita was betrayed and her dreams shattered by the only people she thought she could trust. Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation.

“For the time being, however, Division continues to recruit and train other young people, erasing all evidence of their former lives and turning them into cold and efficient killers. One of these new recruits, ‘Alex’, is just beginning to understand what lies ahead for her and why the legendary Nikita made the desperate decision to run…”

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Accolades are beginning to pour in for actor and director Dennis Hopper, who died Saturday in Venice, Calif., from prostate cancer complications. The 74-year-old Oscar-nominated filmmaker and noted visual artist and art collector was remembered for his passion and dedication to movies and to his friends. “Dennis introduced me to the world of Pop Art [...]

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19-year-old Alice returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen’s reign of terror. (1 hr. 49 min.)

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For his fourth directorial feature in the span of two years, Clint Eastwood tells the story of a grizzled Korean War vet’s reluctant friendship with a Hmong teenage boy and his immigrant family. Set in contemporary Detroit, GRAN TORINO tackles the shifting cultural and economic landscape of not only the Motor City, but America as well. Eastwood stars as Walt Kowalski, an unabashed bigot who never heard a racial insult he didn’t love. Bitter, haunted, and full of pride, Walt refuses to abandon the neighborhood he’s lived in for decades despite its changing demographics as he clings desperately to a mindset long since out of step with the times. When his Hmong neighbor Thao tries to steal his prized muscle car as part of a gang initiation, Walt is forced to grapple with the world around him.

GRAN TORINO’s approach to the complicated issue of race relations is equal parts Archie Bunker and CRASH. That is to say, there is nothing subtle about Walt’s bigotry, yet his misanthropy knows no bounds, and Eastwood does a remarkable job of finding the humor in Walt’s equal opportunity racism. More than simply a racial morality tale, however, GRAN TORINO is about the unlikely bonds that people form to navigate the subtle complexities every day life. Like MILLION DOLLAR BABY, GRAN TORINO explores the challenging yet rich new world that can open up when individuals let down their guard, even if for just a moment. Estranged from his family and his church, and without any sense of personal peace, Walt offers all that he has to Thao and his family, namely wisdom and protection. When tragedy strikes the family, Eastwood allows a little classic Harry Callahan to poke through, but the surprising finale posits a hero that Dirty Harry would never have the guts to be. It’s a potent symbolic gesture to Eastwood’s own growth as a storyteller. (1 hr. 56 min.)

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Lawrence Talbot is a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets out to find his brother…and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.

Lawrence Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come to investigate.

As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself…one he never imagined existed.

Joe Johnston (“Jurassic Park III”) directs “The Wolfman,” and six-time Oscar-winning special effects artist Rick Baker brings his design and makeup talents to transform Del Toro into the fearsome title character. (2 hrs. 5 min.)

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When they were kids growing up together in a rough section of Boston, Jimmy Markum, Dave Boyle and Sean Devine spent their days playing stickball on the street, the way most boys did in their blue-collar neighborhood of East Buckingham. Nothing much out of the ordinary ever happened, until a moment’s decision drastically altered the course of each of their lives forever. Twenty-five years later, the three find themselves thrust back together by another tragic event–the murder of Jimmy’s 19-year-old daughter. Now a cop, Sean is assigned to the case and he and his partner are charged with unraveling the seemingly senseless crime. In the wake of the sudden and terrible loss of his child, Jimmy’s mind becomes consumed with revenge–and his own plans to find the killer. Caught up in the maelstrom is Dave, now a lost and broken man fighting to keep his demons at bay. As the investigation creeps closer to home, his wife Celeste becomes consumed by suspicion and fear, while Jimmy’s wife, Annabeth, draws her family tighter together in order to weather the storm. (2 hrs. 17 min.)

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In the wake of a painful estrangement from his daughter, boxing trainer Frankie Dunn has been unwilling to let himself get close to anyone for a very long time–then Maggie Fitzgerald walks into his gym. In a life of constant struggle, Maggie’s gotten herself this far on raw talent, unshakable focus and a tremendous force of will. But more than anything, she wants someone to believe in her. The last thing Frankie needs is that kind of responsibility– let alone that kind of risk–but won over by Maggie’s sheer determination, he begrudgingly agrees to take her on. In turns exasperating and inspiring each other, the two come to discover that they share a common spirit that transcends the pain and loss of their pasts, and they find in each other a sense of family they lost long ago. Yet, they both face a battle that will demand more heart and courage than any they’ve ever known. (2 hrs. 12 min.)

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As the film opens, Josey Wales is a simple farmer in Missouri. When a vicious band of Union Red Legs, led by Terrill (Bill McKinney), burns his home to the ground, killing his wife and son, Wales joins a gang of Confederate raiders, determined to get revenge. After the Confederacy loses the war, Wales sets out on his own, an outlaw who kills to survive. He eventually meets an old Indian (Chief Dan George, in a wonderfully sympathetic performance) and some other outcasts, and together they seek out a more peaceful existence. But Terrill continues to hunt Wales, and the simple farmer is forced to fight again. Critics did not take Clint Eastwood’s THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES seriously in 1976. Today, many consider it one of the greatest Westerns ever made. Here the West is an ugly and brutal place, as it is in Sergio Leone’s films, but this is a different kind of Eastwood hero. He has a name, a sense of humor, and a heart. Made in the shadow of Vietnam and Watergate, the film conveys a bitter distrust of government but also a longing to live in peace. Next to UNFORGIVEN, this is the most sweeping and emotionally complex of Eastwood’s Westerns. (2 hrs. 15 min.)

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