Actor Jeremy Piven, who plays the role of an ambitious Hollywood agent called Ari Gold on HBO’s “Entourage”, will play a used-car liquidator in a new comedy movie titled “The Goods: The Don Ready Story”.
The new comedy will represent also the first comedy the Paramount Vantage studio has approved under its deal with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Gary Sanchez Productions.
Jeremy Piven will play a guy who has been hired to save a struggling car dealership during a Fourth of July weekend sale.
The comedy will be directed by Neal Brennan and has been written by Andy Stock and Rick Stempson. Neal Brennan has been the writer, producer and director of Comedy Central’s Emmy-nominated “Chappelle’s Show” with Dave Chappelle.
Actor Jeremy Piven has won till present an Emmy award and has been also nominated for two Golden Globes for his role from HBO’s “Entourage”. The actor will next star in Peter Berg’s political drama “The Kingdom”. He has also recently completed production on Guy Ritchie’s “RocknRolla”.

“A Man’s Fear of God” (“Takva”) is the Turkish movie directed by filmmaker Ozer Kiziltan hat has won the top award at the 13th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival. The movie tells about the fear that overwhelms a true believer when he is caught up in religious corruption.
“A Man’s Fear of God” has won at the closing ceremony from Saturday night the top prize called the Heart of Sarajevo and 25,000 Euros. The movie tells the story of a Muslim true believer, whose life changes when a powerful religious group recruits him as a rent collector and throws him this way into the modern outside world. But the brand new job will put his devotion to the test and the man’s fear of God starts to drive him mad.
“When you think of fear, when fear brings you close to losing your mind, it’s just as if the fear eats away at your soul.” – has said the Turkish-born German co-producer Fatih Akin, who co-produced the movie and has received the Heart of Sarajevo Award on behalf of his crew.
Fatih Akin has also said they haven’t expected the award, when he has argued why the team behind the movie had already left Sarajevo.
However, at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival the Turkish movies have dominated the in Balkan’s greatest movie competition, as three Turkish movie have been included in the contest. At the Best Actress category it has been also a Turkish actress who has won. Saadet Isil Aksoy has been awarded at this category for her role from “Egg”, a movie directed by Semih Kaplanoglu.
“I’m from Titov Veles”, a Macedonian movie by Teona Strugar-Mitevska, has won the Special Jury award at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival.

Two out of the total of 22 movies competing at this year’s Venice Film Festival will feature the Iraq War theme. This way the cinematographic event will have a major political weight.
The two movies are “In the Valley of Elah” and “Redacted”. The former is a movie directed by Paul Haggis and starring the star actors Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. The movie is inspired by the real-life murder of a young soldier who returned to the United States from Iraq.
“Redacted”, on the other hand, was directed by Brian De Palma and tells the story of a United States’ army unite that persecutes an Iraqi family and is also examining the way the media cover the conflict.
The fact that two of the 22 movies competing at the Venice Film Festival are about the Iraq war, as well as the speed with which the war events has made it to the big screen are told by the film critics to reflect Hollywood’s general opposition against the war from Iraq, as well as the new technology that makes film-making faster than ever.
However, some other critics prefer still to wait. For example, Jay Weissberg, who is a critic with the trade publication “Variety”, has said: “What is coming out now works with an immediate emotional impact, but I’m really interested in what’s going to come out (on the Iraq war) in 15 years’ time or so.”
Also in the Venice Film Festival’s competition are movies such as “Michael Clayton”, a movie starring famous actor George Clooney as a fixer that does a major corporation’s dirty work; “Il Dolce e L’Amaro”, an Italian movie about the mafia; “Heya Fawda”, which is an Egyptian movie that investigates the police’s brutality and other movies from different countries.
The annual popular film festival will open on the Lido waterfront on Wednesday and will end on the 8th of September. The Venice Film Festival represents one of the major international film festivals of the world. It also represents an early marker ahead of the Academy Awards ceremony from February.

Although homosexuality is not officially banned under Indonesia’s law, the Q! Film Festival has faced violent opposition in its early years and not only. However, the Indonesian gay film festival is to enter its six year now, despite the protests of the members of a hardline Islamic group that are trying to stop the gay movies’ screenings from theaters.
So, on Friday a colorful flamboyant crowd has opened the week-long Q! Film Festival. The people that are members of the audience have dressed in colorful clothes, wigs, fish-net stockings and other such clothing elements. The festival has opened in Jakarta, although homosexuality is still a taboo subject in the country where 85% of the 220 million people are Muslim.
However, after the fall of President Suharto from 1998 a way for greater freedom of speech has been paved and this fact has eventually allowed topics such as homosexuality to be more openly explored in arts.
“The festival has provided some sort of impetus for the gay rights movement in Indonesia, and has enabled many issues to surface.” – has said John Badalu, the organizer of the Q! Film Festival.
In 2007 the Indonesian cinema has celebrated also four years since the creation of the first Indonesian film with a gay theme. This movie was “Arisan”, which was made in 2003 and was a film telling the story of a woman trapped in a troubled marriage that is attracted to a young gay executive.
However, since 2003 many other movies on the gay theme have been made and the Q! Film Festival has become one of the greatest gay film festivals from Asia. It features about 80 movies from different countries including Germany, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. The movies deal also with different topics related to homosexuality such as sexual abuse or HIV/AIDS.
“People have not shied from showing homosexuality in Indonesian cinema. […] It has been well-received so far. Many straight movies have also touched on the delicate issue of homosexuality, without many realizing it.” – has also said John Badalu, the organizer of the Q! Film Festival.

The famous director John Singleton has been involved in a tragic car crash. The director who has been nominated for two Academy Awards back in 1991 for his film “Boyz N the Hood” has been driving his car when he hit a Los Angeles woman that eventually died.
The director’s car hit on Thursday night Constance Lee, who was 57 years old, as the woman was crossing a Los Angeles street outside the crosswalk. The woman, however, has died only few hours after the car crash, on Friday.
John Singleton is 39 years old and he hasn’t been under the influence of alcohol or drugs, as the police spokesperson has confirmed, adding also that “He immediately stopped his car and waited for police.”
John Singleton has been nominated at the writing and directing categories for the Academy Awards back in 1991 for his movie “Boyz N the Hood”. He has directed also other box office hit movies such as “Shaft” and has produced movies such as “Hustle and Flow”.

The Bosnian movie “It’s Hard to Be Nice” has opened the 13th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, which has represented the biggest celebration festival of the Balkan cinema.
Many movies from Bosnia, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey have been competing for this year’s 25,000 Euro Heart of Sarajevo award. The famous Oscar-winning British actor Jeremy Irons is the jury’s head at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival.
The festival’s film selector Elma Tataragic has said that at this year’s edition the movie proposed as projects at the festival’s CineLink co-production market in previous years will be finally shown during this year’s edition.
“We have finally fulfilled our dream - that authors propose and develop their projects at CineLink, find co-producers there, complete the films and show them at the festival.” – has said Tataragic.
However, “It’s Hard to Be Nice”, realized by the Sarajevo movie director Srdjan Vuletic, has been one of the movie from this year’s contest that were developed and co-produced through CineLink. “I have made many useful contacts through CineLink and the festival can regard the film partly as its own project.” – has said the director of “It’s Hard to Be Nice”, Srdjan Vuletic.
“It’s Hard to Be Nice” has been coproduced by Bosnia, Serbia, Slovenia, Germany and Britain, and tells the story of a man who is trying to escape the criminal milieu in which he lives. He also tries to keep his family together, as he is always looking for the good, not the evil, from himself and the others.
The director of “It’s Hard to Be Nice”, Srdjan Vuletic, has praised his movie as a “totally positive film”.
Another CineLink assisted movie is “I Am from Titov Veles”, which was realized by the Macedonian director Teona Mitevska and co-produced by Macedonia, Belgium, Slovenia and France, and others.

The veteran of the popular “American Pie” comedy actor Jason Biggs will join the cast for another comedy titled “Bachelor No. 2”. He will this way join actors Dane Cook and Kate Hudson.
The story within the new romantic comedy focuses on Tank, played by Dane Cook, who is master of seducing women. He is also a professional “Bachelor No. 2”, as his job is to help the dumped boyfriends. When the guys have been dumped, they call Tank and he must take their ex-girlfriends out on the worst date of their lives, so that they could return running to their initial boyfriends.
But Tank’s best friend, Dustin, played by Jason Biggs, will also need his help. Tank will find himself twisted between loyalty to his job and his best friend, but also his desire to become “Bachelor No. 1”. This problem appears, obviously, because of the girlfriend, played by Kate Hudson.
Lizzy Caplan (“The Class”) has also been announced of having joined the cast as the roommate of Kate Hudson’s character. Also famous actor Alec Baldwin will star in the Lionsgate movie, which is already shooting in Boston.
Howard Deutch will be the director of the new romantic comedy.

The famous actors Nicole Kidman and Ralph Fiennes have been announced to have joined forces for a new Nazi drama movie. Although Kidman’s most recent movie, “The Invasion”, hasn’t reached the expectations, maybe the new Nazi movie will be a hit, as it will be written by David Hare, who directed her to an Academy Award through “The Hours”.
“The Reader” represents however a long-gestating project that is based on Bernhard Schlink’s international best-seller. The Weinstein Co.’s movie will be directed by Stephen Daldry and it is to start filming in the upcoming month.
The story within “The Reader” is set in postwar Germany and it focuses on Michael Berg, who is 15 years old he starts a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He has never learned much about her, and as she will one day disappear, it seems likely for him to never see her again.
But to his horror he will discover that she has been in fact a defendant in a Nazi war crimes trial and it will soon become clear that the woman is guilty of an unspeakable crime.
Nicole Kidman’s latest credits are “The Invasion”, which is in theaters now, and upcoming “Margot at the Wedding”, “The Golden Compass” and “Australia”.
Ralph Fiennes is also currently in theaters with “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, where he plays Lord Voldermort.

The actor Jamie Foxx is to return to the genre that has won him an Oscar. The former “Ray” star has just joined the cast for “The Soloist”, which is a musical biopic that “Pride and Prejudice” Joe Wright is to direct from DreamWorks.
The movie will focus on the real story of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, who is a homeless musician with schizophrenia but who dreams of playing at Walt Disney Concert Hall and it has been inspired by a 12-part series of articles written by the Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez.
Jamie Foxx is a classically trained musician and actor who has won an Oscar at the Best Actor category for his playing Ray Charles in “Ray”. He has also recently teamed with DreamWorks for “Dreamgirls”.
His recent credits include the upcoming Middle East-set thriller “The Kingdom”.

Four actors have been already announced as being set to star in the supernatural thriller “Push”. These are Chris Evans, Camilla Belle, Djimon Hounsou and child star actress Dakota Fanning.
“Push” is an independently produced movie that tells the story of a group of young American expatriates wit telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities who have to hide from the United States’ government agency in Hong Kong. They have to use their different powers and to remain together in trying to escape the division’s control.
“Lucky Number Slevin” Paul McGuigan will be the director of the new movie, which is set to start shooting in Hong Kong in fall.
Chris Evans has recently starred in the “Fantastic Four” movies, Djimon Hounsou has been nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role from “Blood Diamond” and Dakota Fanning’s one of the latest movie was “Charlotte’s Web”. Camilla Belle has been known from “When a Stranger Calls”.