by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Already the Los Angeles Film Festival, now 17 years old, is acting like a teenager. First, last night they opened BERNIE, the much-anticipated Jack Black-Shirley MacLaine starrer by Richard Linklater so fast that anybody who made it from the parking structure in time felt lucky. PS, There's a dead guy in it. Then, they are calling it a "Festival Village," like some Olympians may wander in confused, drawn in by universally familiar si...

   Kung Fu Panda Sydney Red Carpet Premiere: Eva Rinaldi Photography Hollywood hit Sydney - AussieWood tonight, thanks to Jack Black and Lucy Liu, who star in Kung Fu Panda 2. Black was super animated and friendly, while Liu was quicker paced with the news media and fans. As you may have figured, it's their voices, not their faces or bodies that you will see in the flick, but both are likely to share more of themselves via a directors cut DVD of the film in the coming mon...

Richard Linklater, the American indie cult director behind such hits as SLACKER, DAZED AND CONFUSED, BEFORE SUNRISE and last year's ME AND ORSON WELLES, has announced that his next project will be the dark comedy BERNIE. Jack Black, who starred in Linklater's audience pleaser SCHOOL OF ROCK, is onboard again for the film, which also co-stars cinema icon Shirley MacLaine. BERNIE is set in the small town of Carthage, Texas and follows a Renaissance man-community leader-morticia...

  by Marla Lewin We will be attending another Shorts Film Fest this time here in Los Angeles. They proclaim themselves to be the largest short film festival in the world with 285 film screenings and 9 days of educational panels, interactive and entertaining events. Their host venue is the Laemmle Sunset 5 Theaters located at 8000 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood CA 90046. They tell me that the festival has quickly become the industry standard for showcasing and awarding undiscov...

As the Kung Fu Panda’s entourage struck the city for its Sydney Film Festival Australian premiere last Monday night, I waited in watchful expectation among the media pack on the red carpet, reciting all the Confucius wisdom I could remember, to mentally prepare myself  to ask ‘The Hard Questions’.  The Paramount Pictures PR whispered to me quietly as if a secret aside “this is the Dreamworks CEO, do you have a question?”  And there heading towards me, first in the Kung Fu Panda PR a...