More DVDs to Hit Shelves on Sunday Instead of Tuesday

We wondered a couple of weeks ago why in the wide, wide world of sports the Kung Fu Panda DVD was being released on a Sunday instead of the more traditional Tuesday. It seemed odd because it fell between Election Day and Veteran's Day, which I guess could be hindrances, but is making it available when people don't know to look for it a better approach?

Hollywood might think so. Video Business reports that Paramount and Sony might do away with the big Tuesday releases, going instead with a practice that carries the annoying name "Alterna-dates." Paramount is keeping an eye on Sunday. This makes sense from one perspective, if you're going to make it an industry standard: It's easier to advertise. You know how you get the Best Buy circular and it has smokin' deals on movies...that you have to wait 48 hours to buy? Now you won't have to, if the studios see good returns on their first few batch of Sunday DVD releases.

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Keira's 'Last Night' Makes Next Move

Keira Knightley is aware that it's the 21st century, and to prove it, the radiant star of such period dramas as Atonement, Pride and Prejudice, and The Duchess, is starring in Last Night, which centers on a married couple (Keira and Sam Worthington) who spend a night apart and are tempted by external forces. He's on a business trip with a colleague (Eva Mendes) and she bumps into an old boyfriend (Guilliaume Canet). This story is more than a cheap excuse to publish another photo of Knightley to improve our property values, although I'll be the first to admit that it is a pretty valid excuse. And enjoy the pic. There is news about this movie, however. It's looking more and more like Miramax will acquire distribution rights for the film, the rookie effort for screenwriter Massy Tadjedin. The studio is in the "low seven figures" ballpark to take over distribution duties on the film, according to Variety. Miramax would also work the film in a few territories in the international market, including South Africa, Australia, Latin America, Brazil, and the United Kingdom, where Knightley does most of her damage as a box office star.But she won't stay grounded in the present for long: Knightley will soon play Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald in The Beautiful and the Damned and is part of a very impressive ensemble for a new version of King Lear.

'In Bruges' Tops British Independent Film Awards Nominees

Last Friday, we presented all the nominees for the Gotham Independent Film Awards, and today, we're going across the pond for the British Independent Film Awards. In Bruges, which has been my top film of the year since February, is one of two films to earn seven nominations; Hunger joins it at the top of the heap.

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are both nominees in the Best Actor category, Ralph Fiennes is deservedly nominated for both In Bruges and The Duchess as a supporting actor, and Martin McDonagh is doubly nominated, for Best Debut Director and for his fantastic In Bruges script.Seriously, rent that damn movie. I have no idea why Focus Features wanted to release the movie so badly and then held it to a total of 232 theaters in the United States. Overseas, the film made over $20 million but here in the U.S., it could only bring in $7.8 million. What an absolute waste.

Of the nominated films I've seen, I can't disagree with any of them. The Duchess has great performances, Man on Wire is one of the five best movies I've seen all year, so even though it's a documentary, its inclusion among the Best British Independent Film nominees is justified, the kids in Son of Rambow were great, and Sally Hawkins definitely belongs in any discussion including the words "Best Actress" this year.

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Movie Review - 'The Duchess'

The Duchess Starring Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, and Hayley Atwell Directed by Saul Dibb Rated PG-13

When Keira Knightley burst onto the scene five years ago, not many people thought we were looking at The Next Big Thing, but in that short time, the 23-year-old Knightley has become an incredibly bankable female movie star (Forbes ranks her as the second-highest earning actress) and she has done so while taking on some challenging roles. Unlike a lot of actors in her age group, Knightley has not strictly been a blockbuster girl, nor has she frittered away her talent making forgettable romantic comedies. Indeed, outside of the Pirates of Caribbean trilogy, nearly every role she has taken brings a certain amount of risk, and they're the films most young movie stars would avoid, because they aren't potential franchises.She picked up an Oscar nomination for Pride and Prejudice, astutely chose to work with director Joe Wright again last year in Atonement, and now we find her going toe-to-toe with Ralph Fiennes and Charlotte Rampling in The Duchess. If nothing else, she deserves credit for not being another Kate Hudson.Of her more serious work, Knightley is more the centerpiece in The Duchess than anywhere else. She brings to Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, an elegance you'd expect from both character and performer, and while she falls short of mesmerizing, Knightley is more than up to the task at hand, and is often jarringly good. She is aided by everything around her, from the work of Fiennes as her philandering husband and Hayley Atwell as the woman in question to the sumptuous costumes and pitch-perfect production design by Michael O'Connor and Michael Carlin, respectively. Fiennes provides his finest performance in the past few years, which would shrink a lot of actors by comparison, but Knightley meets him head-on in every confrontation.Historically, Georgiana became well-known throughout the United Kingdom for a great many things: Her fashion and style, her political and literary attachments, her gambling addiction, and her troubled and dysfunctional relationship with her husband. In her husband's feverish quest to sire a male heir, Georgiana had numerous miscarriages (she is depicted in the film as being pregnant some seven times in five years). This struggle may have led him to stray in their marriage, although he was likely to have done so either way.Georgiana did not divorce, and the relationship became even stranger after she finally gave birth to a son. But although The Duchess has a good story, looks the part, and features two memorable performances, it's all a little unsatisfying. It's not a bad film, certainly, but it's also not one of the year's best. There isn't one thing that has a negative impact on the movie, and there aren't dozens. It just feels obligatory in a way. Strangely, it's really not that common a story, so expressing what feels empty about the experience is hard to do. There's nothing dreadful here and maybe there's just no epiphany, either; perhaps it's that we expect costume dramas to look and behave a certain way and this one does is exactly that.Chalk it up to just not being the movie it should be, even with Knightley's unassailable performance.

Keira is Done Playing 'Pirates'

Prescient. That's how I'd describe MTV's Q & A with The Duchess star Keira Knightley about her most famous corseted role. I saw this footage over a week ago, and at the time, it didn't hit the news radar: "Oh, Keira says she's done with Pirates movies." Now, however, that's a different story. No, Knightley hasn't changed her tune. But Disney apparently has. Johnny Depp's representatives acknowledged yesterday that, yes, Depp's appearance in Captain Jack garb at the Disney "Hey, Look at Us and Enjoy the Free Food" preview this week did signal that he's climbing aboard the Black Pearl again. That's in addition to the official confirmation that he'll be involved in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and the big shocker that he'll play Tonto in The Lone Ranger. If Depp's signed on, we're definitely going to have a Pirates 4. So Keira Knightley saying no thanks (in essence) means that Captain Jack will probably be without Elizabeth Swann and the Orlando Bloom character nobody really cares about. Probably for the best, actually. Does that mean Captain Jack and Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush)? Let's hope. And more Keith Richards? Let's hope not. Here's Keira's official stance, made a few days before the announcement. She sounds pretty definitive, so I wouldn't bank on her coming back. And for the record, Knightley's The Duchess is in a few theaters across the country right now.