ARAb StAtES diSMAyEd At WESt'S cOMPlAcENcy - Kuwait Times

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
Actor Robert Downey Jr (center) who plays Tony Stark in the “Iron Man” movies, gives a thumbs-up as
he rings the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange. — AP
‘Iron Man 3’ blasts off
US blockbuster season
Man 3” is expected to launch
America’s summer blockbuster season
with a bang this weekend, hav-
“Iron
ing already taken global box offices by
storm, industry analysts say. Robert
Downey Jr returns as the metal-suited
Marvel superhero, in a sequel to the last
“Iron Man” movie in 2010, but also playing
off the back of last year’s comic-book mega
hit “The Avengers,” which also featured
him. The film, starring Gwyneth Paltrow
and Ben Kingsley as well, has already made
nearly $200 million around the world in the
last week, and could earn a similar sum in
its first weekend in North America.
“The summer firework show has already
begun for most of the world. Disney’s cash
rocket... is expected to light up the box
office with $165 million,” said Jeff Bock,
box office analyst at industry tracker
Exhibitor Relations. That may be short of
the best opening weekend box office ever
— $207 million for “The Avengers”-but it
would be the biggest “Iron Man” debut
after $98 million for the first one in 2008
and the second three years ago. Downey
Jr was in suitably relaxed mood when promoting
the movie recently ahead of its US
release, bantering with Paltrow, whose
character’s teasing romance with his reaches
new levels in this movie.
“These guys are wimps, okay? The suit is
not that bad,” Paltrow said after Downey Jr
and metal-clad co-star Don Cheadle complained
about how heavy their suits were,
and how much they had to wear them on
set compared to Paltrow. The “Iron Man”
star shot back: “And Gwyneth by the way,
she did come in and she was having a ball,
and her kids were there and she was in
rockin’ shape, so it was all nice and easy. I
think she wore it once or twice. “It’s an
accumulative issue,” he joked at a Beverly
Hills press conference, before acknowledging:
“I admit, we’re wimps.”
In the new movie, Tony Stark, his billionaire
playboy character who transforms
himself into “Iron Man,” faces formidable
terrorist The Mandarin, played by Kingsley.
There are two baddies in all, with Anglo-
Australian actor Guy Pearce playing evil
scientist Aldrich Killian, who has developed
a fluid that can turn people into superhuman
mutants.
“These movies are only ever as good as
their bad guys,” said Downey Jr, paying
tribute to his co-stars-who in turn heaped
praise on the US star actor, who makes fun
of his past problems with drugs and the
law. “The truth is that these movies work
Spielberg to direct
‘American Sniper’
Steven Spielberg has his sights set
on his next project, a movie about
former Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle.
A spokeswoman for DreamWorks Studios
says the filmmaker will direct Bradley
Cooper in an adaptation of the best-selling
book “American Sniper.” “Spread”
screenwriter Jason Hall wrote the script
based on the autobiography of Kyle, who
was killed along with a friend earlier this
year while at a North Texas gun range. An
Iraq war veteran who they were trying to
help deal with PTSD is charged with the
killings. Kyle is considered to be the
deadliest sniper in US military history. At
the time of his death, he was working on
another book, “American Gun: A History
of the US in Ten Firearms.” The film will
be a co-production of DreamWorks and
Warner Bros. — AP
because Robert has a really big picture creative
mind about what these movies
should feel like,” said Paltrow. “He is
always asking... how can we make it feel
like something we care about, and we
want to watch.
So I think... that’s why the movies keep
working, and they’re not a weaker carbon
copy of the one before.” Box office analyst
Bock noted that in China, “Iron Man 3”
made $21.5 million in just one day, a
record he said-compared to $18 million
taken by “The Avengers” there over two
days last summer.
“In fact, ‘Iron Man 3,’ straight out of the
gate, may be the top movie of the summer,”
he told AFP, adding that it was “definitely
playing like a pseudo-sequel to” last
year’s “The Avengers.” So will there be an
“Iron Man 4?” “We never could have
known what and who was going to come
together for the third Iron Man. Usually,
the third of anything struggles to even
meet the first two, let alone the first one,”
said Downey Jr. “So in all earnestness,
things are very much in flux right now.
Marvel has their plans and we’re all living
and growing, so we’ll see what happens,”
he added. “The future, as usual, is uncertain.”
— AFP
In this file photo, actor Bradley Cooper
attends the premiere of Focus
Features’ “The Place Beyond The
Pines” at the Landmark Sunshine
Theater in New York. — AP
Video shows Reese
Witherspoon’s arrest
Adashboard-camera video of Reese Witherspoon’s
recent disorderly-conduct arrest provides a rare
glimpse of one of Hollywood’s best-known actresses
unfiltered as she takes on a no-nonsense Georgia state
trooper following her husband’s traffic stop. In video of
the April 19 early-morning incident in Atlanta, posted
Thursday by the website TMZ, the 37-year-old actress
seeks to intercede as her husband is being administered a
field sobriety test by the trooper. Trooper First Class J
Pyland tells Witherspoon to stay in the couple’s vehicle no
fewer than five times. For her part, Witherspoon is equally
determined to get out and engage him, even at one point
feigning pregnancy and saying she needs to use the bathroom.
When the trooper starts to arrest her, she lets loose.
Witherspoon turns to yell at him while being handcuffed
and accuses the trooper of harassment, at one point
prompting him to warn her, “You fight me, I promise you
...” Witherspoon’s husband, Hollywood agent Jim Toth,
mostly observes the exchange, but tries to calm her after
the trooper’s warning about resisting arrest.
TMZ posted the video from the trooper’s vehicle hours
after Witherspoon appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning
America” to apologize for her behavior. In her first sitdown
interview about the arrest, the Oscar-winning
actress and mother of three said she had “one too many”
glasses of wine, and panicked after she and her husband
were pulled over. “I have no idea what I was saying that
night,” she said. “I literally panicked. I said all kinds of crazy
things. I told them I was pregnant. I’m not pregnant.”
The police report states Witherspoon asked the trooper,
“Do you know my name?” and added, “You’re about to
find out who I am.” The video shows the situation quickly
escalating. In one video clip, the trooper appears to be
examining Toth when Witherspoon, out of view, starts to
get out of her vehicle. “Ma’am, get back in that car,” the
trooper tells her. She apologizes, and asks if she can say
something. “No ma’am,” he says, “get back in that car. I’m
not going to repeat myself again.”
Later, when Witherspoon continues to try to intervene,
the trooper handcuffs her. “You better not arrest me! Are
you kidding me?” she asks. “Nope,” he responds. She
protests again, “I’m an American citizen!” The trooper
leans toward her and says he told her to stay in the car.
She repeats “This is beyond!” She turns to yell at the trooper
as he’s handcuffing her and he raises his chin and warns
her against resisting arrest.
As Witherspoon is taken out of view, she can be heard
asking, “Do you know my name sir?” When he says he
doesn’t need to, she asks, “You don’t need to know my
name?” He says “Not quite yet,” and she adds, “Oh really.
OK, you’re about to find out who I am.” The trooper
responds, “That’s fine. I’m not real worried about you,
ma’am. I done told you how things worked. You want to
get out and get up in my investigation, that’s OK.” As the
trooper returns to Toth, he tells him, “I tried.”
Toth says “I’m sorry,” and the trooper adds, “I absolutely
100 percent tried.” Toth then tries to put some distance
between him and his wife’s outburst. “I had nothing to do
with that,” Toth tells the trooper. “I know,” he responds.
Toth was charged with drunken driving and is due in court
May 23. Witherspoon faces a May 22 court hearing on the
disorderly conduct charge.
Shortly after her jail release, the star of hit movies such
as “Walk The Line,” “Legally Blonde,” “Sweet Home
Alabama” and “Election” issued a statement saying there
was “no excuse” for her behavior. “I was disrespectful to
the officer who was just doing his job. The words I used
that night definitely do not reflect who I am. I have nothing
but respect for the police and I am very sorry for my
behavior.”
Two lawyers for Witherspoon, one in Los Angeles and
one in Atlanta, did not immediately return calls from
The Associated Press seeking comment Thursday. “There
are so many lessons learned,” she told ABC on Thursday.
“When a police officer tells you to stay in the car, you
stay in the car,” she said. “I learned that for sure. I
learned a lot.” — AP