Hopeless Is Hot in Hollywood

Silent-era gems will be shipped back home

(NEWSER) - Films Hollywood thought had been lost forever have been discovered buried deep in New Zealand's national archives. The 75 rare silent films are like a "time capsule of American film production from the 1910s and 1920s," said a statement from the US National Film Preservation Foundation. The finds include the 1927 film Upstream from legendary Western director John Ford and an early Clara Bow drama, the Telegraph reports. Only some 15% of Ford's 60 silent-era films are believed to have survived. More»

Eternal Sunshine and Lord of the Rings tie for second

(NEWSER) - Back in the day, P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood wasn't even unanimously considered the best film of 2007. But it comes out on top in Gawker 's aggregation of critics’ “Best Films of the Decade” lists, “its straw in the whole damn cinema’s milkshake.” In a sweep of “best of” lists on the Web, the site awarded a point each time a film was included. Just one point behind Blood—with 12 votes apiece—are Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the Lord of the Rings series. More»

Latest 'Twilight' entry enjoys 3rd-biggest weekend ever

(NEWSER) - In the third-largest weekend debut ever, The Twilight Saga: New Moon rang up $140.7 million, riding records for a midnight opening and a single day to totals trailing only The Dark Knight and Spider-Man. Audiences were four-fifths female, with the remaining 20% mostly teen boys, USA Today reports. The Blind Side outperformed expectations, doing $34.5 million. Precious fell out of the top five but remained in the top 10, taking in $11 million. The top five: More»

(NEWSER) - Posters of President Obama in Heath Ledger-like Joker makeup from The Dark Knight with a caption reading “Socialism” have sprung up in Los Angeles and Atlanta, the Daily Contributor reports. Similar posters online have the caption “why so socialist?” The guerilla art attacks, not yet claimed by any group, seem to be a reaction to Obama’s plan to reform the health-care system. More»

(NEWSER) - Warner Brothers restructured last year to focus on producing blockbusters like The Dark Knight, and now the studio is waiting to see if the move pays off with Watchmen, the Financial Times reports. Warner can finance a slew of films with profits from one “tent pole” movie. “The obvious thing we’re going to take from” Dark Knight, Time Warner’s CEO said, is “more Dark Knight.” More»