Puss In Boots tops US box office

Despite lacking the titular S-word of its predecessors, Dreamworks Animation's Puss In Boots still performed strongly on its opening weekend, with a $34 million take putting it top of the US box office.Despite making less than half the money Shrek the Fourth made on its respective opening, Puss In Boots now holds the record for biggest Halloween weekend opening of all time, narrowly edging out Saw 3 on $33.6 million.Paranormal Activity 3 was the lone flier of the horror movie flag this Halloween, its $18.5 million take putting it in second spot. The found-footage chiller was closely followed by Justin Timberlake's sci-fi flick In Time, which made $12 million on its opening weekend.The Footloose remake added a further $5.4 million to the pot in fourth place, whilst Johnny Depp endured a disappointing reaction to labour of love The Rum Diary, which opened to just $5 million. Shawn Levy's Real Steel slumped somewhat to sixth place, only managing to add $4.7 million to its overall gross.Meanwhile, the crash-bang-wallop extravaganza of The Three Musketeers continued to perform woefully below expectations, with a paltry $3.5 million weekend dragging its overall gross to $14.8 million. "Poor marketing", cried star Milla Jovovich. "Poor film", cried everyone else. That said, it was still more than was managed by some of the more cerebral fare on offer, with The Ides Of March and Moneyball bringing in just $2.7 and $2.4 million respectively.Christian saga Courageous rounded off the top ten with a $1.8 million haul, completing a relatively slow weekend across the board. Next week sees a comedy face-off between Tower Heist and, er, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. Look forward to that one...

Trio of pics top Doha Tribeca

London-- Merzak Allouache's "Normal," Nadine Labaki's "Where Do We Go Now?" and Namir's Abdel Messeeh's "The Virgin the Copts and Me" were among the prize winners at this year's third edition of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, which wrapped on Saturday night. The five-day fest, which closed with an open air screening of Luc Besson's "The Lady," saw "Normal," a pic about a disillusioned Algerian youth in the wake of the Arab Spring, nab the Arab film competition's best narrative award while Messeeh's docu nabbed best documentary film in the Arab competish. "The Virgin, The Copts and Me" follows a French-Egyptian filmmaker travelling to Egypt to search for apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Both awards came with a $100,000 cash prize. Labaki, whose second feature pic "Where Do We Go Now?" has been selected as Lebanon's foreign language Oscar entry, walked away with the audience award at the fest.Story follows a group of Lebanese women who try to diffuse the tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village. Rania Stephan, helmer of "The Three Disappearances of Soad Honsi" and Roschdy Zem, helmer of "Omar Killed Me," took prizes for best documentary director and best narrative director respectively with both getting a $50,000 cash prize. "Omar Killed Me" thesp Sami Bouajila also won a prize for best performance in a pic and took a $15,000 cash prize. The best Arab short film prize went to "Where Are You?" by Abdulaziz Al-Nujaym while an honorable mention in the same category went to "My Father is Still a Communist - Intimate Secrets to Be Published" directed by Ahmad Ghossein. Ghossen will receive $10,000 in development services from the Doha Film Institute. Amanda Palmer, exec director of DFI said: "There are so many prestigious filmmakers here and the reason we have the festival is to discover new talent. We hope these talented people meet each other here and are able to make films together as a result."Mohammed Malas, jury prexy of the Arab narrative film competish, said that DTFF was "one of the best festivals to raise the profile of youth cinema, which will create our future."Following the screening of the closing night pic "The Lady," Brit popstar Leona Lewis performed to the crowd. Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com

Sinead OConnors Tips For Teen Daughters Showbiz Dreams

First Published: October 28, 2011 5:07 PM EDT Credit: Getty Images LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Caption Sinead OConnor performs at the The 2011 amfAR Inspiration Gala held at the Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles, on October 27, 2011Sinead OConnor has told her teenage daughter that if she wants to follow mom into show business, she may want to use an alias. Ive told her to change her name, Sinead told Access Hollywood on the red carpet at the amfAR AIDS benefit in Los Angeles on Thursday night. The protective mom added that she told her teenager who acts and sings that if she does pursue a career in musical theater, she can go so far as to slam Sinead herself. We have it worked out cause Im always worried, will she get any [grief] because shes my daughter? So I always tell her the trick is to tell everyone she hates me. Just say, Oh my God! Shes a monster, and then shell be grand, Sinead added. While she knows her daughter can sing, Sinead admitted she hopes her teen never tries out for The X Factor, especially in the UK, where Take That singer Gary Barlow serves as a judge. Hes really horrible to people. He looks at people really horribly like when they come on and Id be worried about putting her in that, she said. I dont think shed wanna do that anyway, Sinead continued. She doesnt wanna be a pop star or famous. Shes actually really shy. Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Ra.One

Shah Rukh Khan in "Ra.One" An Eros Intl. Worldwide release.Produced by Gauri Khan. Executive producers, Anil Sable, Rajan Vanmali, Swapna David, Prashant Shah. Directed by Anubhav Sinha. Screenplay, Kanika Dhillon, David Benullo, Mushtaq Sheikh, Sinha.With: Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal,Armaan Verma, Shahana Goswami.Featuring superstar Shah Rukh Khan and festooned with enough CGI ornamentation to qualify as a subcontinental Christmas tree, "Ra.One" is a frenetic, tuneful, full-throttle action-comedy that has reportedly crushed Indian presales records. Still, this videogame-themed outing seems unlikely to become a crossover hit: While South Asian auds will likely flock to a film that does what Bollywood does with a major techno bump, the aesthetics of overkill will make the result inaccessible to Westernized Americans, the campiness, as usual, muddying the translation. (Hindi, Tamil, English dialogue) One can see where helmer Anubhav Sinha (who co-wrote with three other scribes) has gone right in co-opting a number of popular themes, most notably the Frankenstein myth: Shekhar (Khan) is a London-based videogame designer whose son, Prateek (Armaan Verma), thinks he's a nerd. He is -- and doing a Michael Jackson impersonation for Prateek's friends is more likely to send the kid into therapy than to win his affection. But the boy does spark Shekhar's imagination: When he asks for a videogame with an unbeatable villain, Shekhar creates Ra.One, a derivation of a Hindu demon. But the onscreen character takes over the game, crosses the threshold between virtual and real, kills his creator and startshunting down the last player he didn't beat: Prateek. Khan, a B.O. powerhouse whose recent output includes the "Forrest Gump"-like dramedy "My Name Is Khan," never holds back here. He even does double duty, playing both Shekhar and his vidgame avatar, G.One, whom Prateek and his mother, Sonia (Kareena Kapoor), create out of the vestiges of Shekhar left on the computer. (How? Don't ask.) G.One is an emotion-free robot who must keep the young Prateek from the grips of Ra.One (played in nonvirtual form by Arjun Rampal), and the "Terminator" references start coming fast and furious. Young Verma plays Prateek rather petulantly, but as a disgruntled adolescent he's perfectly convincing. Kapoor has little do besides smile insipidly or look aghast, and most of her scenes are shot like very ambitious hair-care commercials. She and Khan both acquit themselves admirably, however, during the musical numbers, of which there are several. Along with Khan's presence, it's the effects that sell "Ra.One," and they arrive more or less nonstop. Indeed, where the film goes awry is in belaboring all the stylistic flourishes -- the extremely slo-mo, "Matrix"-style battle stuff, the defiance of physics a la "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" -- as if it were all new, which it may be to Bollywood. Rather than incorporate the technology into the story, Sinha's CG acrobatics become the equivalent of a wide receiver doing backflips in the endzone -- amusing, but beside the point. At the same time, much of the film is marked by a sense of dead air, owing to the fact that there's not a lot of story, but nevertheless, per Bollywood conventions, a lot of time to fill. One way of filling it would have been to let auds in on one of the more tantalizing lines in the film, which states that Ra.One was created out of the "10 most evil men in history." Really? Who are they?) The pic also could have explained some of its not-so-hidden messages: Introductory titles warn that smoking is bad for your health and that none of the stunts in the film should be attempted at home, and both lessons are reinforced later in the story -- all of which is great and well-intended, but seems to come out of nowhere. The film's most memorable scene features the destruction of the Chhatrapati Shivaji train station (formerly the Victoria Terminus) in Mumbai. It's a great piece of chaos, the destruction of both a real-life Indian heritage site and a remnant of the Raj. And it shows what Sinha was capable of doing with all that technology at his disposal.Camera (color), Nicola Pecorini; editors, Martin Walsh, Sanjay Sharma; music, Vishal and Shekhar; production designers, Sabu Cyril, Marcus Wookey; costume designer,Tim Flattery; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS), Anoop Dev; sound designer, Resul Pookutty; visual effects supervisors, Jeffery Klieser, Haresh Hingorani; choreographers, Ganesh Hedge, Feroz Khan; line producer, Sameer Yusuf Khan; associate producer, Sanjiv Chawla. Reviewed at AMC Empire 25,NY, Oct. 26, 2011. Running time: 146 MIN. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

IDA sets documentary nominees

By DAVE McNARY The International Documentary Assn. has tapped a quintet of titles for its feature award: "Better This World," "How to Die in Oregon," "Nostalgia for the Light," "The Redemption of General Butt Naked" and "The Tiniest Place." The IDA announced the noms Thursday. Winners will be announced Dec. 2 at the DGA in Hollywood. "Better This World" is Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega's account of two boyhood friends from Midland, Texas, who wind up arrested on terrorism charges at the 2008 Republican National Convention; "How to Die in Oregon" is Peter Richardson's portrait of what it means to die with dignity; "Nostalgia" is a personal odyssey from Chilean director Patricio Guzman; Daniele Anastasion and Eric Strauss' "Butt Naked" confronts hard questions about both the power and limits of forgiveness; and "The Tiniest Place" is Tatiana Huezo's story of an annihilated Salvadorian town. The five nominated films in the short category are "Broken Doors," Goro Toshima's look at a young, homeless couple, struggling to survive on the streets of Hollywood; Barbara Hammer's "Maya Deren's Sink," a tribute to the mother of avant-garde American film; "Minka," Davina Pardo's story about architecture, memory and the meaning of home; Sara Nesson's "Poster Girl," a portrait of an all-American high-school cheerleader turned poster girl for women in combat struggling with the debilitating effects of post-traumatic stress order; and "The Warriors of Quigang," Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon's look at villagers in a remote district of China who battle a chemical company. IDA also announced that the best feature and short award winners would again be selected by IDA's members through an innovative online viewing and voting process. The five nominees for the Continuing Series Award are "30 for 30" (ESPN Films), "American Experience" (WGBH), "The Passionate Eye" (CBC), "POV" (American Documentary Inc. and POV) and "Vanguard" (Current). Limited Series nominees are "Boomtown" (Planet Green), "If God Is Willing and the Creek Don't Rise" (HBO Documentary Films), "On Series" (Current), "Michael Feinstein's American Songbook" (PBS) and "The National Parks Project" (Discovery World HD). Nominees for the IDA Humanitas Award are "The Carrier" (Maggie Betts, director), "How to Die in Oregon" (Peter Richardson), "The Learning" (Ramona Diaz), "Position Among the Stars" (Leonard Retel Helmrich) and "The Tiniest Place" (Tatiana Huezo). Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Braveheart's Angus Macfadyen Joins Chuck as Final Villain

Angus Macfayden Scottish actor Angus Macfadyen has grew to become an associate from the cast of Chuck within the final season, TVGuide.com has confirmed. See the relaxation of current day news The Braveheart star, whose TV credits include Alias, Californication and Mislead Me, will portray Nicholas Quinn, the series' final major villain. Quinn can be a former CIA agent who's now controlling a mercenary spy organization, TVLine.com reviews. The 48-year-old actor look in 4 or 5 episodes inside the final season, which premieres Friday at 8/7c on NBC.

Alec Baldwin's New Podcast is Just as Awesome as You'd Imagine

Now hear this! No, seriously, hear this: Alec Baldwin has a new NPR podcast called Here’s the Thing, which will comprise a series of conversations with the actor’s Hollywood peers and other cultural luminaries (including “makers of public policy, critics and comedians”) about “what motivates them” and “how […] they feel about what they do” — among other things. The first episode, which you can listen to below, feature Michael Douglas and is pretty much just as awesome as you’d imagine. This is what something like Inside the Actor’s Studio should be: Raconteurial aplomb without all the sycophancy, and generosity of spirit without all the fawning deference. Baldwin’s chat a few weeks ago with Matthew Broderick was a perfect tune-up for what he’s doing here — to say nothing of Baldwin’s other sterling public-radio milestone known as “Schweddy Balls” — and I can’t really wait to hear what’s next. Highlights include drunken “Greed is good” impressions and lessons from Jack Nicholson on the set of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. And there’s so much more. Happy listening! [via WNYC]