Video: New “Hunger Games” trailer
The latest trailer for the anticipated film “The Hunger Games” has made its online debut.
The adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel, the first of a trilogy that has sold 16 million copies in the U.S. alone, “The Hunger Games” is one of the most eagerly awaited movies of the coming spring.
The trailer includes a clip of Elizabeth Banks as fan favorite Effie Trinket. To read my recent interview with Banks in which she talks about her current film “Man on a Ledge” as well as “The Hunger Games,” click here.
Earlier today, I posted a full roundup of the films opening in Oklahoma City theaters this winter and spring. See what’s coming besides “The Hunger Games” by clicking here.
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Video: United Filmmakers of Oklahoma hosting Independent Filmmakers Showcase Saturday
United Filmmakers of Oklahoma is hosting an Independent Filmmakers Showcase at 7 p.m. Saturday, and two representatives of the group sat down with NewsOK host Angi Bruss to talk about the fledgling group and its showcase.
UFO will show an eclectic mix of cross-genre short films and music videos. The price is $5 to see the shorts and enjoy some refreshments.
United Filmmakers of Oklahoma is an ever-expanding group of directors, writers, actors, artists, producers, crew people and volunteers in the Oklahoma City and surrounding areas that come together for the sole purpose of creating independent films.
UFO has only been in existence since April but we have grown exponentially due to taking part in public events such as Live on the Plaza and the deadCenter Film Festival. The group is working filmmakers here in Oklahoma and our fast paced meetings are brainstorming and planning sessions for a variety of diverse projects. All skill levels are welcome. Independent Filmmakers Showcase will feature UFO’s short films as well the work of our amazingly talented members.
The showcase will be hosted by Istvan Gallery, 1218 N Western in Oklahoma City. Istvan Gallery features the work of emerging and established Oklahoma artists in an atmosphere designed to be comfortable for art collectors as well as art lovers who might otherwise be intimidated by the idea of visiting an art gallery. It is a space where the public can enjoy and understand art. The Gallery features a regular roster of artists as well as special exhibits with an artist’s reception about every four months. The Istvan Gallery is host to performance events including OKC StorySlam, poetry readings, film and video and live music.
For more information, go to http://unitedfilmmakersoklahoma.webs.com.
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2012 winter-spring movie preview: “Hunger Games,” “Woman in Black,” “John Carter” among the highlights
"The Hunger Games"
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. Matthew Price of Nerdage collaborated with me on this story.
Winter-spring movie preview
From late-opening Oscar hopefuls and long-shelved comedies to 3-D blockbuster re-releases to fledgling action franchises, the crowded cinematic calendar for early 2012 offers a wide array of choices.
For film fans, the long winter and spring months can be the most confusing of the year.
Late-opening Oscar hopefuls and long-shelved comedies, 3-D blockbuster re-releases and fledgling action franchises getting a jump on the summer tentpole season all share the crowded slate. Plus, Hollywood makes room for plenty of romance for Valentine’s Day, family-friendly fare for spring break and environmentally conscious documentaries for Earth Day.
From Daniel Radcliffe’s first post-Harry Potter role in “The Woman in Black” to Pixar Animation whiz Andrew Stanton’s live-action adaptation of Edward Rice Burrough’s “John Carter,” the cinematic calendar for the first few months of 2012 has its potential bright spots. But none is burning quite so fiercely as “The Hunger Games,” the feverishly anticipated first big-screen treatment for the popular post-apocalyptic young-adult book series.
Remember, movie-goers, Hollywood often shuffles release dates for their films, so check your local movie listings before heading out to the theater.
"The Woman in Black"
Friday (today)
The former “Boy Who Lived” stars in “The Woman in Black.” Daniel Radcliffe plays a young lawyer who travels to an isolated village to settle the affairs of a recently deceased client. While working in the abandoned house, the attorney begins seeing an apparition dressed all in black. The film is based on Susan Hill’s book, which also inspired a stage play and a 1989 film.
In “Big Miracle,” John Krasinski (“Leatherheads”) and Drew Barrymore (“The Wedding Singer”) attempt to save three stranded whales in this fact-based drama co-starring Dermot Mulroney, Ted Danson and Tulsa native Tim Blake Nelson. Director Ken Kwapis (“He’s Just Not That Into You”) previously worked with Krasinski on about a dozen episodes of the U.S. “The Office,” including the pilot, and they also teamed on the romantic comedy “License to Wed.”
Three teens gain superpowers after making an amazing discovery in “Chronicle,” a found-footage thriller from director Joshua Trank, who co-wrote the screenplay with Max Landis (son of director John Landis).
In the final days before the closing of a more than 100-year-old inn, the two remaining employees (Sara Paxton and Pat Healy) are determined to prove that the hotel is haunted in “The Innkeepers.”
"Safe House"
Feb. 10
Oscar winner Denzel Washington stars as a wily former CIA fugitive, Ryan Reynolds plays the rookie agent charged with looking after him, and they end up on the run together when mercenaries attack their “Safe House” in this action-thriller co-starring Vera Farmiga, Robert Patrick and Brendan Gleeson.
Based on a true story, the romantic drama “The Vow” centers on newlyweds Leo (Channing Tatum, “Dear John”) and Paige (Rachel McAdams, “The Notebook”), whose happy life is destroyed by a car accident that puts Paige in a coma. When she awakens with no memory of her husband, Leo promises to win her heart all over again.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson takes over the lead role from Brendan Fraser in “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” the sequel to 2008’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Josh Hutcherson returns for the follow-up adventure, which also features Vanessa Hudgens, Luis Guzmán and Michael Caine.
Starting with “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace 3-D,” George Lucas brings his space fantasy prequels to theaters in three dimensions. In “Episode I,” two Jedi knights (Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson) attempt to negotiate a peaceful end to a trade dispute on the planet of Naboo. The knights are drawn into a larger conflict, and along the way discover a young man whose future will become intertwined with the Jedi order — Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd).
Feb. 14
Chris Pine and Tom Hardy star as hot-shot CIA operatives and best pals who unleash their formidable skills on each other when they learn they have fallen for the same woman (Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon) in “This Means War,” the latest action film from director McG (the “Charlie’s Angels” movies).
Dermot Mulroney braves the cold for “The Grey,” “Big Miracle”
Cast member Dermot Mulroney arrives at the premiere of "J. Edgar" during the Opening Night Gala of AFI FEST 2011 in Los Angeles, on Nov. 3, 2011. AP photo
A version of this story appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Dermot Mulroney braves the cold for “The Grey,” “Big Miracle”
The prolific actor has supporting roles in the harrowing survival thriller about marauding wolves, which was last weekend’s top movie at the box office, and the uplifting fact-based adventure about stranded whales, which opens Friday.
LOS ANGELES — Dermot Mulroney braved arctic temperatures for nearly six months to make two very different movies about man’s relationship with his fellow creatures.
In the harrowing existential thriller “The Grey,” last weekend’s top movie at the domestic box office, he plays one of a small group of plane crash survivors hunted by gray wolves through the Alaskan wilderness. In the fact-based PG-rated romantic adventure “Big Miracle,” opening today, he has a supporting role as a National Guard commander trying to rescue three gray whales stranded off the coast of Barrow, Alaska.
“I can tell you this: all the mammals that live above the 40th parallel are friends of mine, whales and wolves alike,” Mulroney said with a smile during recent interviews at the Four Seasons Hotel.
“I think I’m the northern mammal guy this season, so I’m pleased.”
While the prolific Mulroney, 48, has earned nearly 75 film and television credits since the mid-1980s, as a leading man, he is best known for the romantic comedies “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997) and “The Wedding Date” (2005). He has frequently appeared in Westerns, including 1988’s “Young Guns” and 1994’s “The Last Outlaw” and “Bad Girls.” He also has played cops in several films, including 1995’s “Copy Cat,” 2007’s “Zodiac” and 2011’s “J. Edgar,” in which he portrayed Col. Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf, an Army veteran who became the first superintendent of the New Jersey State Police and father of Gen. “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf.
Dermot Mulroney and Ted Danson appear in a scene from "Big Miracle." Universal Pictures photo
Fact-based drama
In “Big Miracle,” Mulroney plays another real-life military man, National Guard commander Col. Scott Boyer, a fictionalized version of Alaskan guardsman the late Scott Carroll. The movie is a dramatization of the true story of a family of whales that gets trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle and how their plight brings together Cold War superpowers the United States and Soviet Union for 1988’s Operation Breakthrough.
Loosely based on Thomas Rose’s 1989 book “Freeing the Whales,” “Big Miracle” stars Drew Barrymore as an animal activist and John Krasinski as her ex-boyfriend, a local news reporter.
As Boyer, Mulroney plays the colonel initially tasked with using a huge hoverbarge to puncture holes in the ice for the whales; when that fails, he recommends reaching out the USSR and asking the Soviets to use an icebreaker ship to save the massive mammals. It’s also another role with romance for Mulroney: In real life, Col. Carroll and White House executive assistant Bonnie Mersinger (Vinessa Shaw plays the character, given the fictional name Kelly Meyers) connected by phone during the mission and eventually met in person, fell in love and got married.
Director Ken Kwapis was determined to shoot “Big Miracle” entirely in Alaska. Since filming in the northernmost city in the U.S. wasn’t feasible, the production team recreated the Barrow ice field and portions of the town itself in Anchorage. Although the locals refer to Anchorage as a “banana belt” city because of its comparatively mild weather, Mulroney said the temperatures were still frigid but ultimately good preparation for making “The Grey.”
“I had just done a three-month stretch in Anchorage right before this movie on ‘Big Miracle’ … so I was the one at the rehearsals going ‘Fine. I got this. I don’t know about you and I don’t know about you, but I know how to work in the cold.’ So I did six months in zero and subzero temperatures,” he said.
From left, Dallas Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Liam Neeson and Nonso Anozie share a scene from "The Grey." Open Road Films photo
Mythical thriller
In “The Grey,” the native Virginian plays Talget, a thoughtful family man among a team of oil refinery workers that gets stranded in the far-flung Alaskan tundra after their plane crashes. Under the leadership of taciturn sharpshooter Ottway (Liam Neeson), the survivors face prowling wolves, dangerous cold and rugged terrain. For the cast and crew, making the survival drama meant enduring hip-deep snow, howling winds and 40-below-zero temperatures on an isolated mountain in British Columbia, Canada.
Getting cold and dirty in the wilderness was part of the appeal of the role, said Mulroney, who is almost unrecognizable in thick glasses and an even thicker beard in “The Grey.”
“We were all ready to do something other than the drawing-room dramas. And for me it’s the perfect combination because there are aspects of this that are dramatic, even deeply moving scenes as a part of this wild, hell-ride thriller. It’s a pretty rare combination,” Mulroney said, sitting alongside “The Grey” co-star Dallas Roberts.
“I’m not called in to go in for action movies very frequently, but I would be called in for a philosophical discourse film where you sit around and you talk about the meaning of life. This one has both, so you’re reading it thinking, ‘Is he really writing two pages for Talget on page 70? Do we really get to sit down and act?’ So all of us and probably dozens if not a hundred other actors were banging on this guy’s (director/co-writer Joe Carnahan) door to get these parts.”
While the whales in “Big Miracle” are sympathetic creatures, the wolves in “The Grey” are larger-than-life enemies. Mulroney said they are a meant to represent the big, bad wolves of lore.
“If people are somehow going to protest that we’re wolf-hating, then I think they’re looking at it the wrong way,” he said. “The film is mythic, and if there were ever a myth that we all have a sense in our core about, it’s that thing out there in the woods. You know, the Grimm Brothers made it a wolf. … James Cameron made it an alien, and (Steven) Spielberg made it a shark. This is just that and only that.”
At the end of his arctic adventures, the Los Angeles resident said he didn’t mind braving the cold for his work because it made achieving authenticity that much easier.
“I think acting is really hard, so whenever it seems like it’s easy, I’m so relieved,” he said. “You were given everything that you needed in order to feel like you were doing what it would really feel like, instead of like stretching for something … so that for an actor means it’s easy.”
-BAM
Blu-ray review: “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas”
No holiday custom goes unbesmirched, no ethnic or religious stereotype is left untapped, no boundary of good taste is untested in “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas,” the third installment in the uproarious if uneven stoner comedy series.
The series’ screenwriters, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, deserve credit for letting their characters grow up — well, sort of — which means they have more on their mind than finding the nearest burger joint where they can alleviate the munchies.
To start, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are no longer the close pals they were in their younger days. Always the more responsible of the pair, Harold has married and is trying to have a baby with the sweet and sexy Maria (Paula Garcés), plus he has moved into a fancy house in the suburbs and taken a Wall Street job. Sure, he has to dodge egg-throwing Occupy protestors when he leaves work, but his life is otherwise quiet, stable and complete with a new best pal, his fussy neighbor Todd (Tom Lennon).
Since his girlfriend Vanessa (Danneel Harris) dumped him, Kumar, meanwhile, has failed the drug test for a hospital job, befriended his much-younger horndog neighbor Adrian (Amir Blumenfeld) and is whiling his life away smoking pot in the crappy apartment he once shared with Harold. When a package addressed to Harold arrives, Kumar ventures out to the suburbs to deliver it and inadvertently torches the prized Christmas tree Harold’s frightening father-in-law (Danny Trejo) raised from a sapling.
Along with their new buddies Adrian and Todd and Todd’s toddler Ava, who will soon consume a holiday buffet of illicit drugs, Harold and Kumar go on a surrealistic quest to find a new Christmas tree, encountering a psychotic Ukrainian gangster (Elias Koteas), a popular seasonal toy called the Wafflebot, and of course, the always-debauched and hilarious Neil Patrick Harris. In the movie’s, um, high point, they even become clay animated.
The doped-up duo’s yuletide adventure doesn’t have the giddy freshness of their initial outing, 2004’s “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” but it boasts more inspired and consistent laughs than 2008’s “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.”
Bonus features: The theatrical cut and the six-minute-longer “Extra Dope Edition,” deleted scenes, comedic vignettes featuring Tom Lennon and a behind-the-scenes featurette about the claymation sequence.
— BAM
Cameron Crowe’s Leon Russell and Elton John documentary “The Union” airing tonight on HBO
“The Union,” a documentary directed by Cameron Crowe (“Almost Famous”) capturing musical legends Elton John and Lawton native Leon Russell as they collaborated on their 2010 duets album, debuts at 8 p.m. tonight on HBO, reports NewsOK TV blogger Melissa Hayer.
Here is a summary of the film, provided by HBO:
After 38 years of not seeing or speaking to Leon Russell, Elton John listens to Russellʼs greatest hits album while on safari in Africa with his partner David Furnish. He is moved to tears. Distraught at the thought that Russell – whom John considers one of his greatest musical influences – has seemingly fallen into obscurity, he vows to contact his idol and propose that they collaborate on an album together.
So begins “The Union,” an unprecedented personal look into the making of John and Russellʼs acclaimed album of the same name. Stepping into The Village studio in Los Angeles, director Cameron Crowe captures a myriad of intimate moments involving the two artists, including the first-ever filming of John composing music to lyrics written by Bernie Taupin, his longtime collaborator. Underscoring Johnʼs desire that the new album sound like one of Russellʼs classics, the film is filled with concert footage of John and Russell throughout their careers, including Johnʼs first U.S. appearance at The Troubadour in Los Angeles, a show attended by Russell.
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Wednesday Video Spotlight: Elizabeth Banks hopes for peace for North Korea – and for her “30 Rock” character Avery Jessup to turn out to be an assassin
During a recent interview in Los Angeles for her new movie “Man on a Ledge,” Elizabeth Banks chatted a bit about her reaction to the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il.
On the NBC sitcom “30 Rock,” Banks has played a recurring role as Avery Jessup, a conservative media personality who married network executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). While on assignment for NBC’s “Hot Blondes In Weird Places” initiative, Avery traveled to North Korea, where she was captured by Kim Jong-Il. Despite Jack’s attempts to rescue her, she was married off to the dictator’s son and successor, Kim Jong-un.
The storyline must have struck a chord with “30 Rock” fans because when news of Kim Jong-Il’s death broke on Dec. 18, they took to Twitter to inquire about Avery’s fate. The sheer volume of tweets prompted Banks to take to the micro-blogging site herself to address the issue:
“Appreciate all the concern over Avery Jessup’s fate now that Kim Jong-Il has died. We’re at a pivotal moment in history,” she wrote @ElizabethBanks.
In January, “30 Rock” executive producer Robert Carlock told US Weekly that Kim Jong-Il’s death will eventually be addressed on the show, but not until later in the season.
During the interview, Banks expressed her own thoughts on North Korea’s and Avery’s future.
“Here’s how I feel about it. It’s kind of crazy. Like, my hope for North Korea, of course, is that they become a more tolerant society, that they stop nuclear proliferation, that they begin trade with the outside word – and that it is revealed that Avery Jessup was an assassin,” she said with a grin.
After you enjoy the clip of Banks as Avery Jessup, please click here to read the rest of my interview with the actress.
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Elizabeth Banks balances “Man on a Ledge,” “Hunger Games” and other movie projects
Elizabeth Banks arrives at the premiere of "Man on a Ledge" in Los Angeles, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo)
A version of this story appears in Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Elizabeth Banks balances “Man on a Ledge,” “Hunger Games, other film projects
The actress also is trying out directing and producing while mothering her 10-month-old son.
LOS ANGELES — Elizabeth Banks is pulling off quite a balancing act these days, and not just because her most recent film features her venturing onto a narrow ledge 200 feet above Manhattan.
The busy actress, 37, is starring in four movies opening in theaters this year: the current action-thriller “Man on a Ledge,” the hotly anticipated post-apocalyptic book adaptation “The Hunger Games,” the star-studded pregnancy ensemble “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and the family drama “Welcome to People.” Plus, she directed a segment of the upcoming comedy shorts collection “Movie 43,” and she is producing the musical-comedy film “Pitch Perfect,” with her husband Max Handelman, with whom she has a 10-month old son, Felix.
Such an action-packed schedule seems to suit the lively Banks, who eagerly joined co-star Sam Worthington on a 21st-story shelf on the outside of the historic Roosevelt Hotel while filming “Man on a Ledge,” which opened in theaters last week.
Elizabeth Banks and Sam Worthington appear in a scene from "Man on a Ledge."
“It was great. I loved it. I’m sort of a thrill seeker in real life a little bit. I like, you know, roller coasters and trapezing and things like that, so I was really excited to do it. And it’s also kind of a gift for the actor because you don’t have to fake any of that anxiety,” Banks said with a laugh during a recent interview at the Four Seasons Hotel.
“It’s all real. Your heart is going a hundred miles an hour and your knees are buckling and you’re just having that natural fight-or-flight response, which is like your body saying, ‘What the (expletive) are you doing in this super-crazy-dangerous situation? Get out of here.’ So you know, your adrenaline’s runnin’ hot.”
While Banks only filmed on the ledge for about a day and a half — as the title character, Worthington spent most of the production out there — she found it difficult to calm down once she was back on solid ground.
“It’s 14 inches of concrete so it’s essentially like the size of your foot … and then like a couple inches and then literally a straight drop to Madison Avenue,” said Banks, who looked fetching in a pale yellow Jill Stuart dress patterned with bright red chicks.
“There was no net. There was no safety feature other than the shoestring-size wires that were attached to a building. … I like to say I’m not afraid of the heights, I’m afraid of human error and stupidity. So I’m the one who’s like ‘Is this bolt tight?’” … I’m constantly worried that like a bird’s going to fly into my face or like my coat’s gonna get caught in the window or my shoe’s gonna fall off. You know, anything’s that gonna make you fall. Because the other thing is the wire, they have it like your seatbelt so when you put the break on, it snaps back. The wire is literally if you fall off, you still fall like 4 feet before it like snaps you into whatever,” she added.
“So you really realize like if I were to just trip, like my entire life’s gonna flash before my eyes because my mind’s not gonna know that I’m attached to this wire. So I’m going off and then I’ll just be dangling over Madison Avenue.”
In “Man on a Ledge,” Banks plays Lydia Mercer, an embattled New York City police negotiator summoned to the hotel by Nick Cassidy (Worthington), a former cop wrongly imprisoned for a stealing a priceless diamond. from ruthless businessman David Englander (University of Oklahoma alumnus Ed Harris). After his daring jailbreak, Cassidy makes his stand on an exterior ledge of the Roosevelt, pleading with Lydia to believe his claims of innocence, even as she quickly realizes that that Cassidy has more in mind than just being heard.
Banks largely based her character on a real-life NYPD negotiator she met as part of her research.
“She’s Irish but had moved to Staten Island when she was 18 so she had a combo Staten Island-Irish accent, which you can imagine is amazing. Super working class, crazy cool. What I loved about her is she was really girly and she had long hair and she’s a mom and she wore like cute Banana Republic when she came to meet me. She carried a nice purse — that had her gun in it,” Banks said, laughing.
“But she had been a lifelong police officer; she joined up when she was 18 years old. She was a negotiator for five years, and she told me amazing stories that fed all of my back story. Really, my whole performance is very much based on the conversations I had with this negotiator, who is a truly incredible, cool woman. And very emotional. Takes the job really seriously and, you know, taught me a lot of really basic things,” she added.
“First and foremost of which is that jumpers jump. Meaning that, if you want to kill yourself, you go to the top of a building and you jump off. If you’re still standing there by the time I get called and I pull my pants on and I get in a taxi and I drive uptown and I go up in the elevator … like you didn’t really want to kill yourself. You probably want to be helped. The problem with that is if you then jump after I start talking to you it’s my fault; I said the wrong thing. So it’s a very intense, high-pressure job. Luckily, they have a very high success rate ‘cause, like I say, normally if you get them talking, you can usually get them in,” Banks continued.
“Her mentor, however, had someone go over on her and happen to be a fellow cop, and then that person was so affected by it that two years later they committed suicide. So when she’s recounting this story to me, she’s like hysterically crying, and of course, I was like ‘that’s my back story.’ That’s when Lydia Mercer is when she wakes up that morning, like she has lost her confidence and she’s lost the respect of her colleagues because she lost one of her own.”
Banks will next be seen on the big screen in the extreme girly-girl role of Effie Trinket, a
Elizabeth Banks plays Effie Trinket, left, and Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games."
flamboyantly costumed representative of the dystopian Capitol regime in “The Hunger Games,” the first film based on Suzanne Collins’ best-selling young-adult trilogy about Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), a poor teenager tapped to participate in a televised battle to the death.
“It’s a really faithful adaptation of the books, I think if you’ve read the books, you’re going to be really pleased ‘cause we don’t deviate very much from ‘The Hunger Games,’” she said. “The great thing about working on those films is that all the collaborators are just amazing: (director) Gary Ross, Academy Award-nominated; the hair and makeup team are Academy Award-nominated; and the costume designer is Academy Award-nominated.”
It took the team a couple of days of experimenting with wardrobe, hair styles and makeup to transform Banks into Effie, making the actress nearly unrecognizable in the process.
“I think we came up with an amazing Effie that like in my mind brought her to life. We had a true a-ha moment,” Banks said.
“They put a hat on or something and it was like “Ta-da! She’s there!’ … That became sort of the basic look and then we played with it from there. So I had about a two-hour hair and makeup every day. My nails took the longest, actually, because I wear crazy nails every day, totally different crazy nails with every outfit.”
While she will take on a dramatic role as an alcoholic mom who meets her long-lost brother (Chris Pine) for the first time in “Welcome to People,” the talented comedic actress will get another chance to create onscreen hilarity in the book-based “What to Expect,” in which she plays a militant breast-feeding advocate going through her first pregnancy.
Plus, the Massachusetts native was just cast in “Frank or Francis,” Charlie Kaufman’s musical satire about Hollywood.
“I love comedy. I don’t think that it gets the respect that it deserves when it’s done well. And it’s very addictive to make people laugh,” Banks said. “So I’ll keep trying to do that.”
-BAM
New releases for Jan. 31, 2012: “House of Night” novella, “Drive,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Leonard Cohen, Aranda
P.C. and Kristin Cast
Tulsa mother-daughter writing team P.C. and Kristin Cast have released “Lenobia’s Vow,” a new novella in their “House of Night” vampire book series.
Oklahoma City rockers Aranda have released the digital edition of their album “Stop the World.” The physical CD will be released Feb. 14. Leonard Cohen, Ringo Starr and Lana Del Rey have released new albums, while Metallica has dropped a new EP.
In the new cinematic home releases, my all-time favorite movie, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” debuted on Blu-ray today. Plus, one of my favorite movies of 2011, “Drive,” which was sadly overlooked by the Academy Awards, arrived on DVD and Blu-ray today.
Here is a list of more CDs, DVDs and books out this week, from Amazon.com and VideoETA.com:
CDs
Aranda, “Stop the World” (digital only)
Leonard Cohen, “Old Ideas.”
Ringo Starr, “Ringo 2012.”
Lana Del Rey, “Born to Die.”
Metallica, “Beyond Magnetic” EP.
“The Fresh Beat Band,” “Music from the Hit TV Show.”
Gotye, “Making Mirrors.”
New Broadway Cast, “Godspell.”
Simone Dinnerstein, “Something Almost Being Said: Music of Bach and Schubert.”
DVDs
Arthur
The Big Year
Chalet Girl
The Double
Dream House
Drive
In Time
Janie Jones
Spork
Texas Killing Fields
The Thing
Thunder Soul
To Kill a Mockingbird (Blu-ray)
Treasure Buddies
You and I
Books
Lenobia’s Vow: A House of Night Novella by P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast
Final Fantasy XIII-2: The Complete Official Guide – Collector’s Edition by Piggyback
Cupcakes, Cookies & Pie, Oh, My! by Alan Richardson, Karen Tack
Defending Jacob: A Novel by William Landay
Home Front by Kristin Hannah
White Girl Problems by Babe Walker
The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae (Cynster Sisters Trilogy) by Stephanie Laurens
How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America by Otis Webb Brawley MD, Paul Goldberg
-BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on Jan. 31, 2012: Watch Lyric Theatre’s production of “Xanadu”
Lexi Windsor stars as Kira in the Lyric Theatre production of “ Xanadu.” Photo by Keith Rinearson
Today’s featured event:
Watch the Oklahoma premiere of the musical “Xanadu,” staged by Lyric Theatre, at 7:30 tonight at Lyric at the Plaza, 1725 NW 16. Performances continue through Feb. 11.
To read The Oklahoman Fine Arts Editor Rick Rogers’ preview feature on the show, which opened last weekend, click here.
For more information, call 524-9312 or go to www.lyrictheatreokc.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
