'Ceremony' stands Off Broadway

"Looking at Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays," an amount of short plays about same-sex matrimony, has arranged an empty-ended run that opens in October within the Minetta Lane Theater. The anthology of just one-functions -- by authors including Neil LaBute, Paul Rudnick, Doug Wright and Moises Kaufman -- preemed last season as numerous benefit occasions in L.A. The Gotham version, produced by Joan Stein and Richard Frankel, may have a rotating cast of star thesps in the reading through through-style presentation. Jose Rivera, Jordan Harrison, Wendy MacLeod, Jeffrey Hatcher and Joe Keenan offer composed vignettes for your evening. Stuart Ross helms the show, that's produced by John Shnipper. Producers plan to donate some in the Off Broadway B.O. to marriage equality orgs. The production's rotating cast structure recalls the model for "Love, Loss and A Few Things I Used," the current Off Broadway outing that has produced out a long-term of nearly couple of years getting a regularly re-energized cast list together with a femme-centric appeal. A youthful Off Broadway show about another topical problem, the dying penalty-focused docuplay "The Exonerated," also attracted attention getting an identical casting strategy. Initial roster of stars for "Ceremony" remains being introduced. Production begins previews March. 18 before an March. 24 opening. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com

Toronto 2011: 'The Raid' Starts Midnight Madness on a Butt-Kicking Note

Toronto Film Festival Wow, what a kick-off. Literally and figuratively. The Raid opened the Midnight Madness portion of the Toronto International Film Festival early Friday, and if you love action movies, you cannot miss this movie. The film comes from Indonesia and tells the story of a SWAT team that becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster, armed with two highly violent martial arts killers and an army of machete-swinging, machine gun-toting dealers and thugs. That simple logline betrays all the amazing and inventive sequences using the Indonesian fighting form called silat that were put into this by writer-director Gareth Huw Evans, who's not even Asian. He's a Welsh filmmaker that married a woman of Indonesian-Japanese descent and found himself immersed in the Indonesian film scene. Quite simply, this movie is a whole mess of bone-crunching, face-pummeling, throat-slicing and fist-pounding awesomeness. The midnight screening had people cheering, wincing and shaking their heads in disbelief. The Toronto event attracted agents and managers scoping out the movie out and Evans, who during the Q&A said his writing process consisted of penning the script in English, having it translated, getting actors to do a read-through, revising it to incorporate Indonesian lingo, then letting actors finding their comfort level with his words. Fights took two to three months to choreograph and days to shoot. A climactic throw-down between three men in one room took six minutes of screen time but eight days to film. Another sequence, a blood-rushing hallway fight featuring batons and knives and machetes, took a full three days to shoot. Yells of "Action!" then "Cut!" were sometimes followed by the cry "Medic!" although most injuries were small-scale (though by no means pain-free). Evans made the Asian action movie Merantau as his first film and many of the team carried over into Raid. Iko Uwais, who speaks no English, starred in both. Yayan Ruhian was a fight choreographer in Merantau but in Raid plays the memorable martial arts maven Mad Dog. One new face, Joe Taslim, was a member of the Indonesdian Judo national team who contacted the director via facebook and wanted to be in a movie. The audience during the Q&A praised the movie for not having fights be one-sided, or having the good guys come out unscathed, as happens in many other Asian action movies. And one even praised the filmmakers for making the main character a Muslim action hero. Uwais' character is shown in the beginning making his prayers but Evans said "there was no political intent. It's just part of Iko's culture and part of Indonesia. And it just shows how he mentally prepared for the mission." Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions preemptively picked up the domestic rights to the movie but has not yet revealed a release plan. Email: Borys.Kit@thr.com Twitter: @Borys_Kit Toronto International Film Festival

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5 Leading Ladies Fall Into Line to Woo Tom Cruise

Oh that lucky Tom Cruise. Not just has he behaved opposite a number of Hollywood's most attractive leading ladies, he's dated and married a number of them too (See Cruise Ladies, Past and offer: Oh, the Horror!). Despite the fact that his career may wax and wane, the boyish actor still draws the women. Witness his latest endeavor, the Universal sci-fi thriller formerly entitled 'Oblivion' that's now known as 'Horizons.' A group of hot Hollywood stars are arranging to co-star with Cruise within the Frederick Kosinski ('Tron: Legacy') project. Based on Variety, Jessica Chastain, Olivia Wilde, Brit Marling, Noomi Rapace and Olga Kurylenko are testing Saturday -- though other medication is still in mind. The film happens inside a future by which an alien race has basically destroyed humanity. Cruise plays Jack, a drone repairman who lives within the clouds over the Earth and periodically travels towards the planet to correct the robots that safeguard human remains from further attacks. You will find two female leads within the story -- Julia, Jack's girlfriend prior to the alien invasion, and Victoria, Jack's right-hands lady and lover who watches his when he's on repair missions. Cruise is keeping busy: His 'Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol' opens this holidays, he's just wrapped a supporting role in 'Rock Of Ages' and he's on the point of begin focus on the crime thriller 'One Shot.' William Monahan and Karl Gadjusek authored the 'Horizon' script according to Kosinski's approaching graphic novel Michael Arndt ('Little Miss Sunshine') lately did a polish. Universal has set a This summer 19, 2013, release date for that film.

Dan Aykroyd Still Pushing Ghostbusters 3

'We have an excellent script.... 'You have to hand it to Dan Aykroyd... The man is tenacious. Just when you thought the Ghostbusters 3 info-grapevine had shrivelled again, up he pops with some new details and a hint that the movie might finally have its cameras cranking by next spring. Talking on Dennis Miller's radio show, Aykroyd admitted that the big sticking point (the world knows him as Bill Murray) might have to be sacrificed if the new GB outing is to move forward. Unless he can be convinced, of course.... "Yes, we will be doing the movie and hopefully with Mr. Murray," he said. "That is our hope. We have an excellent script. What we have to remember is that Ghostbusters is bigger than any one component, although Billy was absolutely the lead and contributive to it in a massive way, as was the director and Harold (Ramis), myself and Sigourney (Weaver). The concept is much larger than any individual role and the promise of Ghostbusters 3 is that we get to hand the equipment and the franchise down to new blood. And he wasn't just talking about the apparently active status of development. He also dropped a few extra details about the storyline, though admittedly nothing you couldn't have figured out from all the talk of a new generation. My character, Ray, is now blind in one eye and can't drive the Cadillac, he says, He's got a bad knee and can't carry the packs.... Egon is too large to get into the harness. We need young blood and that's the promise. We're gonna hand it to a new generation. So, given how many rumours have floated out there about possible new recruits, does he have anyone in mind? I like this guy Matthew Gray Gubler from the Criminal Minds show. But there's going to be a casting. We're going to see everyone that wants to do it. We're going to need.... three guys and a young woman. Though Aykroyd is a man in a position to know more about the movie's status than many others, there's still the small matter of zero official announcements and few other rumblings having turned out to be anywhere near accurate. And until there's actually a press release out there confirming that the Ghostbusters really are back, we'll leave all this locked up in the Rumour Containment Facility for now, and hope Walter Peck doesn't happen along to make us turn the power off...

David

A David the Movie production. Produced by Julian Schwartz, Joel Fendelan, Patrick Daly, Maz Jobraini. Executive producer, Stephanie Levy, Andrew Cohen, Jason Dubin. Co-producer, Yuta Silverman. Directed, edited by Joel Fendelman. Screenplay, Fendelman, Patrick Daly.With: Maz Jobrani, Muatasem Mishal, Binyomin Shtaynberger, Dina Shihabi, Gamze Ceylon, Michael Golden, Daniel Luttway, Markus Goldberg, Jared Kirsch, David Mandelbaum, Noam Wienberg. (English, Arabic, Hebrew dialogue)Bridging one of the world's defining sociopolitical rifts one 11-year-old at a time, quietly engaging indie "David" brings charm, sympathy and understatement to its microcosmic story of a young Muslim Brooklynite whose circumstances lead him to pass as Jewish. First feature for director/co-scenarist Joel Fendelman is a middleweight drama that wears its modesty to its advantage, lending a potentially contrived tale a solid grounding in docu-style location capture and the protag's naive p.o.v. Sole U.S. entry in Montreal's main competition has upbeat prospects for further fest travel, limited theatrical exposure and home-format sales. Daud (Muatasem Mishal) is fortunate, perhaps, but also rather burdened in being the only son of devout, conservative imam Ahmed (Maz Jobrani), who takes his community and family responsibilities equally seriously. As a result, Daud is expected not just to do well in school, but also to tutor other children at the mosque. He has no apparent playmates, or any playtime for that matter. Taking his little sister to the park one day, he notices a group of kids who accidentally leave a book behind. They follow the group to a yeshiva, where Daud balks, scared by his father's casual pronouncement that "Jews don't like Arabs." Rather than enter, he simply drops the book in a mailbox outside, later realizing to his horror that he's swapped his grandfather's precious Koran with the other boy's Talmud. Stealing back into the school another day, he spies the tome on a rabbi's desk, but before he can grab it, he gets swept into class as a presumably tardy student. Identifying himself as "David," he keeps coming back, awaiting another opportunity to access the rabbi's frequently locked office. Meanwhile, he's fascinated by the boisterous, participatory methods of the teacher (Noam Wienberg) and delighted when some of the kids introduce him to basketball, and he soon gains his first best friend when an assignment pairs him with Yoav (Binyomin Shtaynberger). Inevitably, however, this innocent ruse is going to be exposed, and look very bad. On another conflicted front, Daud's older sister, Aishah (Dina Shihabi), wins a scholarship to study computer engineering at Stanford. But Ahmed is hardly about to let a daughter traipse off into a secular world 3,000 miles away. Script by Fendelman and Patrick Daly has a few credibility gaps: Given how closely his time and responsibilities are monitored, it seems unlikely Daud's parents (Gamze Ceylon plays the warm mother) wouldn't notice his long absences much sooner. And it's a bit of a stretch that outgoing Yoav would choose a best mate who's fairly withdrawn and must be introduced to every game or pastime. Nonetheless, "David's" many small virtues add up to a winning whole, its message of cultural reconciliation presented sans preachiness, melodrama, easy answers or sweeping generalities. Non-pro juvenile performers are very good, while comedian Jobrani (best known as co-founder of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour) is excellent as the rather mirthless but well-intentioned dad. Kid's-eye view of Gotham life is just right, design and tech contributions apt in their crisp simplicity.Camera (color, HD-to-DCP), Robbie Renfrow; music, Gil Talmi; production designer, Shruti Parekh; sound designer, Rick Secen; assistant director, Kevin Hartmann. Reviewed at Montreal World Film Festival (competing), Aug. 19, 2011. Running time: 80 MIN. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

VIDEO: Ryan Gosling Street Fight Videographer Vividly Recalls the Actor's Heroic Act

On Monday, the Internet learned that real human being Ryan Gosling had joined the ranks of hero after breaking up a New York City street fight. (“Street fight.”) Many questions remained after watching the shaky video evidence, though, and the guys over at OMGICU.com tracked down Gosling street fight videographer Valerie Herrera to get to the bottom of the incident. “There were guys fighting over a painting,” Herrera said when asked how things started. “One guy just kinda walked up to the other one and just took the painting and walked off. So he was like, ‘You’re going to have to pay for that.’ They started fighting and then they started fighting in the middle of the street.” Per the crafty camerawoman, the incident took place on June 24, nearly one month before Gosling co-starred in Crazy, Stupid, Love. “Yeah, I kinda forgot about the video and then I just posted it,” she said of the time lapse. “I’ll be honest. I didn’t exactly know who [Ryan Gosling] was.” Despite the fact that the camera cut off abruptly when the men walked out of the middle of the street, Herrera says the incident didn’t end there. “Ryan took [the two men] to the corner and asked them what happened. [The artist] explained to him, ‘This guy stole my painting.’ So [Ryan] said, ‘Okay, how can we fix this? How much was the painting?’ [The artist] said, ‘It’s $10.’ So [Ryan] dug into his wallet, took out a twenty, gave it to [the artist] and said, ‘Will this settle his debt now?’ [The artist] said, ‘Yeah, he’s free to go.’ […] They all walked their separate ways and that’s it.” As for whether it was staged, the videographer didn’t think so. “No, you can literally tell that he did that out of the kindness of his heart.” Aww. [OMGICU.com via Vulture]

Miramax Starting Movie Streaming Service on Facebook

Who's prepared to take more time on Facebook? Miramax is starting a film streaming service, known as Miramax eXperience, for Mark Zuckerberg's company. Based on paidContent, the studio intentions of initially delivering 20 game titles that Facebook customers will have the ability to rent for 48 hrs (10 game titles is going to be open to people within the U.K. and Poultry). Obviously, the service will not be free. You'll have to dole out 30 credits (the same as $3) to look at films like 'Chicago,' 'Cold Mountain' and 'Good Will Hunting.' Facebook also wanted to really make it obvious this deal might not be only at Miramax, and much more galleries might be jumping about the streaming bandwagon. "We are speaking to any or all the film galleries," stated Serta Rose, Facebook Vice president of Close ties and Platform Marketing. "One thing Miramax contacted us about was the idea of having the ability to buy on Facebook watching on other platforms." Additionally for their desktop computer, customers will have the ability to stream movies via iPad as well as on Google TV. Would everyone watch streaming movies on Facebook? [via THR and paidContent]