bomb Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When I woke up this morning, the wife (as almost any New Yorker does) had on NY1 for all the latest news, weather and traffic updates. I don't know about you, but there's just something about hearing "sunny skies" coupled with "at least two people are dead from the shooting" that gets me all set to go at 7am. While still slightly comatose, I remembered hearing something about an explosion near Madison Square Garden -- but thought nothing of it, as random explosions have become quite the daily norm here. It wasn't until halfway through the day that I realized this explosion was pretty big news, and that it occurred right outside a studio owned by actor Michael Imperioli (aka Christopher from The Sopranos). My first reaction: "Holy crap, did someone just try to whack Christopher ... like, for real?"

Studio Dante, as it's called, is described as "an unexpected jewel-box that was built to house progressive new plays," so says The Hollywood Reporter (via the studio's official website). After realizing that the bomb went off at 1am, and that it was pretty safe to say Imperioli was nowhere near the place at that time, I took comfort in knowing the actor wasn't harmed. And neither was anyone else, apparently, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg stated that the bomb, which was "some kind of small explosive device," blew out "windows of a van parked in front of the building, and thankfully no one was injured." Apartments in and around the area were evacuated, and as of now terrorism has not been ruled out (although I can't imagine Imperioli would be an enticing target for them). Now that everyone is safe, I guess it's time to figure out why in the world someone would detonate a device in that area. Heck if I know ... maybe they're still pissed about that mysterious final episode.

Now here's an amusing little story, courtesy of Dangerous Devin Faraci over at CHUD.com ...

You know how we always spend so much time poring over the box office numbers, arguing with friends about how profitable a big movie might be, and scanning the year-end tallies to see which flicks were the most popular? Well here's a funny little flipside: Last February 25, inside of one Texas movie theater, a movie called Zyzzyx Road was released. The flick stars Tom Sizemore, Katherine Heigl and executive producer Leo Grillo.

So what makes this obscure little indie worthy of special mention? How about it made 30 bucks during its entire theatrical run. 30 bucks! That's like 3.5 tickets sold, or maybe 6.5 if that one theater happened to be a discount-rate movie-house. Can this be accurate? It sure looks like Faraci did his research, so I believe it, but ... 6 tickets? Yowch. Obviously this was a direct-to-video piece that had to hit at least one theater to accommodate a few contractual clauses, but jeez, less than 10 tickets sold in 6 days? For the record, Zyzzyx Road was written and directed by John Penney, he of Legend of the Mummy, The Contaminated Man and Return of the Living Dead Part 3, and John probably learned himself a pretty valuable lesson here: No matter how low-budget or Sizemore-laden your movie might be, give it a title that people can actually, y'know, pronounce. I don't hear many people saying "Hey, let's go see that zaxxazisz movie! I bet it's awesome!"

After reading this amusing story I was reminded of another indie flick that did so poorly in a limited release that it actually inspired a few magazine articles: Eric Red's Cohen and Tate (starring Roy Scheider and Adam Baldwin), which was released to 75 theaters in early 1989, only to earn about $64,000 in the process. Needless to say, Cohen and Tate is freakin' Titanic compared to Zyzzyx Road -- but now I kinda wanna see it!

I think we are all used to a little scandal with our celebrities; a couch jump here, a nip-slip there and even the odd racist tirade. But a trial in India surrounding Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt has them all beat.

Just days after having one his films chosen as an eligible Foreign Selection for the Oscars (Lage raho Munnabhai), Sanjay Dutt has been convicted for his role in a wave of bombings that swept the city of Mumbai, India in 1993. Over 250 people were killed during the blasts, and families have waited over 13 years to see the accused brought to trial. Dutt was a one of Bollywood's most respected stars and this story has gripped India for weeks now. Dutt was accused of criminal conspiracy under the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, and possession of illegal arms under the Arms Act. Dutt was found guilty of the firearm possession, but acquitted of all other charges.

The bombings had been linked to Indian organized crime, which has long been rumored to be connected to the entertainment business. The Indian film industry is the biggest in the world in terms of the number of films produced and tickets sold. So if you are unfamiliar with the Bollywood phenomenon, this is the equivalent of Jack Nicholson going on a bombing rampage in downtown LA -- it's that big. It's not over yet though, as Dutt is still out on bail and is awaiting sentencing on December 19.