Rooftop is screening a night of animated films for the Animation Block Party this Friday at 8pm on the lawn of Automotive High School (next to McCarren).

Venue: On the lawn of Automotive High School
Address: 50 Bedford Ave. @ North 13th St. (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
Directions: L to Bedford Ave. or G to Nassau Ave.
Rain: In the event of rain the show will be held indoors at the same location
8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Live music by Teengirl Fantasy, presented by Sound Fix Records
9:00PM: Film
10:30PM: Filmmaker Q & A
11:30PM-1:00AM: After-party: Open Bar at Matchless (557 Manhattan Ave. @ Driggs) Courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner
Tickets: $9 at the door or online
Presented in partnership with: 5 Gum ® , Cinereach, New York magazine, City Council Member David Yassky & Automotive High School

You can get tickets here, or just head over and comment on this facebook status for a chance at winning two tickets to the screening!

The Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective has a screening event at the Music Hall of Williamsburg this Friday night based entirely around the impending apocalypse. It’s called: The End!

There will be an apocalyptic screening of 20 short films produced by members of the collective and a special live performance by The Midnight Masses (features members of Dragon of Zynth and Trail of Dead).

After the jump, check out the promo video which absolutely confirms my suspicions that Bedford Walks was entirely organized by The Zombie Union to create an apocalyptic harvesting field for braaaaians..

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by Dave Thomas

Humpday
Comedy continues to dominate, with Big New Releases from Sacha Baron Cohen and Judd Apatow, though Harry Potter will pwn the month.
July 3
PUBLIC ENEMIES
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) vs. John Dillinger (Johnny Depp).
WILL IT SUCK?
Gotta say I agree with the choice of director. Michael Mann (who co-writes) made his bones on cops and robbers. One of his co-writers, Ann Biderman, also has some good crime under her belt (Primal Fear, Copycat). Cast doesn’t exactly suck, with Billy Crudup, Marion Cotillard, Rory Cochrane and Lili Taylor thrown into the mix.
Early buzz is good.
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
It’s Purvis vs. Dillinger, not Batman vs. Jack Sparrow. Ice Age will pull any demo that might otherwise make that mistake. $78mil.
———————————————————————
ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
In case you were wondering, yes, they do have a plausible explanation for dinosaurs being around during the Ice Age. Well, an explanation, anyway.
WILL IT SUCK?
Co-director of the original and director of the sequel is back, along with writers from the original plus Simpsons vet Mike Reiss. So there’s hope. Also Simon Pegg joins the voice cast, and that’s always fun.
Early buzz is meh.
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Ice Age movies are only getting bigger grosses, but this is the first time they’ve launched in the summer. 2nd frame of Transformers is nothing to sneeze at, but at least there’s a cushion of a weekend before Harry Potter hits. $205mil.
———————————————————————
I HATE VALENTINE’S DAY
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
How to Lose a Guy in Five Dates
WILL IT SUCK?
Wasn’t Nia Vardolos just in a romantic comedy? This one has more in common with Big Fat Greek however, given that she wrote it and co-stars with her Greek co-star John Corbett. Also her directorial debut. And how they kept Judah Friedlander out of the trailer is beyond me. Vardolos penning the screenplay tips the odds in favor of not suck.

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Meet Gooby! [via]

Rooftop Films‘ first Williamsburg show of the season is tomorrow night, with a special “carnival-like screening event” of No Impact Man on the lawn of Automotive High School, hosted in part by The Fledgling Fund. No Impact Man is a documentary directed by Laura Gabbert & Justin Schein which follows a local family with global implications, as they challenge themselves to make no environmental impact for one whole year.
Here’s a bit more on the carnival-like aspect of the event:

The lawn of Automotive High School will host a celebration of environmentally-friendly activities, as Rooftop Films and The Fledgling Fund utilize the screening of No Impact Man to engage audience members in making environmentally-friendly lifestyle commitments . There will be information about local foods, opportunities to volunteer in local environmental projects, composting demonstrations, ideas about reusing old products, and a demonstration of biodiesel cars from the students of our hosts at Automotive High School. Audience members who make personal video pledges to change aspects of their lifestyles will be entered into a raffle to win various prizes. The Hungry March Band, New York’s legendary political street brass march band will help create a festive atmosphere as they perform in the anarchic style that has become their trademark.

Buy tickets here, or if you’re feeling lucky visit our Facebook page and comment on our most recent update mentioning Rooftop Films for your chance at a pair of tickets.
Doors are at 7 tomorrow night (thurs), Sound Fix Records presents live music by The Hungry March Band at 8, the film is at 9 and the after-party is an open bar at Matchless (557 Manhattan Ave. @ Driggs) Courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner.
[photo via]

The L Magazine’s Summerscreen film series in McCarren Park announced their lineup today and yup, we’ve got zombies! And Jim Carrey. This year marks the film’s first year out of the pool, and it looks like they’re setting up at the ball fields closest to Turkey’s Nest in McCarren Park.

The films will be shown at dusk on Wednesday nights starting July 8th and area restaurants will be on hand to sell food and beverages. Admittance is absolutely free.
This year’s lineup of films includes:
July 8: Reality Bites
July 15: Evil Dead 2
July 22: 24 Hour Party People
July 29: Wild at Heart
August 5: Fame
August 12: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

More info at summerscreen.org.
[Photo by the conklins on flickr.]

It looks like Debbie Gibson’s career is going awesome:

[thanks Derek]

I’m actually pretty excited about seeing Larry David star in a Woody Allen film. Plus it’s great to see Allen back in New York. From The Observer

“It used to be Diane Keaton with me—she always used to tell me, ‘I’m terrible, I’m awful, I can’t do it, you should get someone else.’ And she was always brilliant. Well, Larry is like this,” said Woody Allen via telephone from his Upper East Side apartment last week. The 73-year-old director was discussing his new movie Whatever Works.
‚”I gave him every opportunity to get someone else, [said David]. I was kind of uncomfortable. I was out of my comfort zone,” he said. Then he laughed. ‚”Of course, the comfort zone is not very big! I take one step to the right and I’m out of my comfort zone.”
Whatever Works is Woody Allen exactly as you want your Woody Allen to be. It’s witty, dark, poignant, zany and hilarious, and showcases a New York filtered through the Allen lens as we’ve never seen it before. Meaning, forget the Upper East Side! This film creeps through the crooked and narrow streets of the Lower East Side and Chinatown, knishes to hanging chickens.
And as for Mr. David … he indeed pulls it off and then some playing Boris Yellnikoff, a half-suicidal almost‚ÄìNobel Prize‚Äìwinning physicist who suffers from night terrors (he wakes up with strangling death screams) and minor OCD (he washes his hands and sings ‚”Happy Birthday”–twice!–in order to kill all the germs), then tosses it all away (literally) and considers the majority of Earth’s population too stupid and meaningless to even deal with.

trailer via

Rooftop Films’ opening night party is a week from today, and tickets are going, going, (almost) gone! It’s short films with a Cymbals Eat Guitars / open bar sandwich.
The deets:

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 8pm
This is What We Mean by Short Films
Opening Night
We kick off our 13th year of ‚”Underground Movies Outdoors” with short films that don’t take long to astonish, amaze and inspire.
Venue: on the roof of the Open Road Rooftop
Address: 350 Grand Street @ Essex (Lower East Side, Manhattan)
8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents live music by Cymbals Eat Guitars .
9:00PM: Films
11:30PM – 1:00AM: Open Bar at Fontana’s (105 Eldridge St), courtesy of Radeberger beer
Tickets: $9 at the door or online at going.com

Also, programmers have released the summer schedule through June, which includes a slew of dates around the LES and SoBro but so far only one date (Thursday, June 11) in Williamsburg! Hopefully we’ll get a few more in July and August. June at the Automotive High School is buggy, anyways…(right?).

Okay. This already wins the award for the most bizarre story of the week. First off, why the hell would Ridley Scott ask mopey rock icon Nick Cave to write a script? Why would Cave agree to said project. After agreeing to write the thing, how could Cave have thought that including a scene where Maximus battles the Vietcong with a flamethrower would be a good idea? And of course the largest elephant in the room… why in God’s name do we need Gladiator 2? Most of us are still traumatized by the steaming pile of crap that was the original.
Gone Elsewhere has been generous enough to provide a synopsis of some of the script’s highlights. After being meeting Roman Gods in the afterlife and being reincarnated, Maximus starts kicking some major ass:

Middle Eastern Battlefield: Maximus stands surrounded by hundreds of Crusaders as they battle a Muslim army. Everyone dies around him, only Maximus remains untouched.
- Europe: Maximus battles tanks in World War 2.
- Vietnam: Maximus battles Vietcong with a flamethrower.
- The Pentagon, Present Day: Maximus washing his hands in a men’s room sink. He stars at himself in the mirror… reflecting. Mordecai stands behind him… whispers: “Until eternity itself has said it’s prayers.” Maximus exits; proceeds into a large war room containing a dozen men in suits.

This sounds so bad actually, we must admit our curiosity is piqued. Thankfully, Gone Elsewhere puts things in perspective.

This is not a reflection on the quality of the piece, but I’m not really interested in seeing a sequel to Gladiator featuring elements of mythology and the supernatural. They weren’t present in the first film and they simply feel out of place here.
It’s like making an action-packed follow-up to Schindler’s List with a cryogenically-frozen Liam Neeson helping to save a doomed alien species 10,000 years in the future. Sure, there might be an interesting story there… but it doesn’t make sense given the pre-established universe.

We’re trying to locate the script, so link us up in comments if you find it!