Paramount has put a nice twist on Friday’s press junket for Martin Scorsese’s forthcoming “Shutter Island.” The studio is inviting Twitter users to submit questions to Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio using the #AskLeo and #AskScorsese hash tags. The director and star will each answer five questions, and next week, the selected queries will be retweeted with a link to a video of them answering the question, and a shoutout to the person who asked it. Not bad. While we hope they get some real questions, this is a press junket, and we won’t be surprised if its softball stuff they’re given to answer.
In related Scorsese news, in a CBC Radio interview with Giles Martin (Beatles’ producer George Martin’s son) yesterday, he mentioned that he’s heading to New York this week to continue work on the director’s still untitled George Harrison documentary. He mentioned that it should be wrapped up by May. No direct quotes, sorry as we just caught the tail end of this interview by sheer chance.
Remember Disney’s synergized ad blitz for “Nine” late last fall? Well, the media giant is at it again, and for one week starting on January 31st, you can expect to find “Alice In Wonderland” promo material across Disney’s entire spectrum of channels. 60-second exclusive first look spots will be created and tailored for each participating channel. So, if you’re a fan of “Desperate Housewives,” “The Bachelor,” “Greek,” “The Parent Trap” or plan on watching the NFL Pro Bowl or the Lakers/Nuggets game, then you’re in a for treat. All of this “will culminate in a spectacular Super Bowl spot” on February 7th entitled “Tick Tock.” We wouldn’t be caught dead watching any of these shows, and we don’t particularly care for football (we’re film nerds, deal with it) so we’ll just have to wait for all this stuff to finds its way online.
Jay Mohr has joined the cast of Clint Eastwood’s supernatural drama “Hereafter.” The film in which a death interconnects three lives has been shooting since last fall in a variety of locations including San Francisco where they are currently. We’ve read the script and if Mohr is getting the part we think he’s getting, it’s not very big. That said, it’s a nice left field choice for the comedian.
Finally, China has named a mountain in honor of James Cameron’s massive ego film, “Avatar.” In the Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, the The Southern Sky Column will now be known as the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain. The local government has also adopted the motto, “Pandora is far but Zhangjiajie is near,” and are now offering guided tours to spots that supposedly served as inspiration for Pandora. But wait – wasn’t the film effectively banned in the country? I guess that doesn’t matter when geeks are handing over their money to you.