‘Superbad’ Scores Again
The raunchy teenage sex romp “Superbad,” starring Michael Cera, Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as high school friends on a quest for alcohol and girls, held the top spot at the box office for the second consecutive weekend, grossing $18 million and upping the film’s cumulative gross to $68.6 million in 10 days, according to estimates released yesterday by the box office tracking company Media by Numbers. The summer has been superhot for Hollywood, as the overall box office reached a record $4 billion, beating the 2004 record of $3.95 billion with one more weekend to go before summer is over. This weekend alone the top 12 movies took in $90.2 million, an increase of 7 percent over the same weekend in 2006. The thriller “The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal) moved up from last weekend, rising to second place from third with an estimated haul of $12.4 million in its fourth week of release, and a cumulative take of $185 million in four weeks. Swapping places with “Bourne,” the comedy “Rush Hour 3” (New Line), starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, dropped to third place with $12.3 million for the weekend and $109 million overall in three weeks. Rounding out the top five were two new releases, “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” (Universal), the Rowan Atkinson comedy, which made $10.1 million, and the action film “War” (Lionsgate), with Jet Li and Jason Statham, which took in $10 million.
Another Prize
For ‘The Road’
Cormac McCarthy has been awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction for his novel “The Road,” the BBC reported. The prize was announced at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Saturday, and Mr. McCarthy was not in attendance. Mr. McCarthy’s 10th novel, the story of a father and son in a postapocalyptic world, also won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In Edinburgh, Byron Rogers won in the biography category for his book “The Man Who Went Into the West: The Life of R. S. Thomas,” about the Welsh poet. In announcing the awards Judge Professor Colin Nicholson of the University of Edinburgh said both books were “destined to become classics in their respective genres.” The University of Edinburgh began awarding the two prizes in 1919, and past winners include D. H. Lawrence and E. M. Forster.
Sarajevo Film Festival Awards
A Turkish film about the fear of God overwhelming a true believer caught up in a powerful religious group was chosen as the best movie at the 13th Sarajevo Film Festival, Reuters reported. “Takva: A Man’s Fear of God,” directed by Ozer Kiziltan, won the Heart of Sarajevo award, which comes with a prize of 25,000 euros ($34,100). A jury led by the British actor Jeremy Irons made the decision, and the award was presented at the festival’s closing night ceremony Saturday. In the film a pious Istanbul man leads a solitary life until a religious group recruits him to work as a rent collector. His new job, which thrusts him into the modern world, tests his religious devotion. The seven-day festival included screenings of more than 170 feature films, shorts and documentaries.
Orchestra Exchange Program
The Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra of Germany, led by the conductor Hermann Baeumer, will perform a program of Beethoven and Brahms in Tehran on Wednesday and Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The visit is part of an exchange program between the two nations, and follows a concert by the Tehran Symphony Orchestra last year in Osnabrück. “It’s a very small step in improving relations between the people in the two countries,” said Michael Dreyer, the head of Osnabrück’s Morgenland Festival, which played host to last year’s visitors from Iran. The female German musicians will observe Iranian law and wear headscarves.
So Bad They’re Good
Tom O’Horgan, who directed the original production of “Hair,” almost 40 years ago, will be honored at the opening night of the second annual Bad Plays Festival, which runs Sept. 10 to 30 at the Players Theater on Macdougal Street in Greenwich Village. The three-week festival, presented by NY Artists Unlimited (nyartists.org), comprises plays intended to be so bad — meaning irreverent, satirical and bawdy — that they are, it’s hoped, quite good.
Second-Chance Showings
For the second year the New York International Fringe Festival, which ended yesterday after 16 days and 200 productions, will be followed by the FringeNYC Encore Series, offering quick revivals of selected shows. Starting on Thursday 12 of the festival’s productions will be presented in rotating repertory at SoHo Playhouse and the Bleecker Street Theater through Sept. 16. Among those chosen for remounting are “Hillary Agonistes,” by Nick Salamone and starring Priscilla Barnes of the sitcom “Three’s Company,” as Hillary Clinton, and “Bombs in Your Mouth,” a comedy about dysfunctional half-siblings who reunite after their father’s death. The full lineup and schedule for the series will be posted at fringenyc-encoreseries.com.
Pavarotti Goes Home
Luciano Pavarotti was released from a hospital in his hometown, Modena, Italy, on Saturday after more than two weeks of treatment and testing since he was admitted with a high fever on Aug. 8, the BBC reported. Mr. Pavarotti, 71, underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer last July, and has not been seen in public since. At the time, he was in the midst of a farewell tour and had hoped to continue the tour this year, but so far his health has not allowed him back onstage.
Pie Show
Joe Carlucci, the owner of Famous Joe’s, a Danbury, Conn., pizzeria, is also a “pizza acrobat” and will demonstrate his singular way with a hunk of dough on Saturday on the corner of Mulberry and Broome Streets in Little Italy. In a 40-minute performance set to Italian folk music, Mr. Carlucci, who won a gold medal at the “Squadra Acrobatica” Pizza Olympics in Salsomaggiore, Italy, in both 2006 and 2007, will perform gymnastics while balancing and tossing several pies. Footnotes
The Off Broadway “Frankenstein” coming this fall — not to be confused with the Mel Brooks monster musical “Young Frankenstein” — has some new cast members. Joining the previously announced Hunter Foster (“Urinetown”) as Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the mad scientist, are Steve Blanchard (“Beauty and the Beast”) as the monster and Christiane Noll (“Jekyll & Hyde”) as Frankenstein’s wife, Elizabeth. The new musical, inspired by Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, will begin performances at 37 Arts on Oct. 10. ... The collective 12 Playwrights Inc., better known as 13P, will next present “Have You Seen Steve Steven?,” by Ann Marie Healy, beginning Sept. 15 at the East 14th Street Theater in the East Village. Ms. Healy’s comic drama, to be directed by Anne Kauffman (“The Thugs”), is about a Midwestern teenager whose life and sense of reality are knocked out of whack by what starts as a seemingly normal visit from a neighbor.
