Feature

Extras: Aug. 14

BY Philip Brown August 13, 2008 15:08

Just as the term “Bollywood” seems to be slowly sliding out of favour as shorthand for India’s massive motion picture industry, “Nollywood” is on the rise. Harbourfront helps explain how this weekend at its Hot & Spicy Food Festival with This Is Nollywood, a documentary on the low-budget, digi-cam movie-making movement that’s swept Nigeria, the rest of Africa and beyond. The free screening takes place Saturday (Aug. 16) at 5:30pm in the Studio Theatre (235 Queens Quay W). Go to www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldroutes for more info.

Quentin Tarantino has begun casting his World War II epic Inglorious Bastards. So far Brad Pitt, gore-loving Hostel director Eli Roth and The Office’s B.J. Novak have committed to appear as members of Tarantino’s merry band of GI reprobates. Leonardo DiCaprio, Nastassja Kinski and Simon Pegg are also in talks to appear but have yet to sign. Suspiciously absent from this eclectic group is the usual reclaimed ’70s relic or two (or, in the case of Death Proof, their offspring). The movie is set to start shooting Oct. 13, so there’s still time. We seem to recall that Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner looked pretty good in uniform…

Soul legend Isaac Hayes died at home last Sunday while on the treadmill. A prime mover behind the Stax label’s Memphis sound in the ’60s, the complicated man is best remembered for his Shaft theme song and for voicing Chef on South Park — and less so for his commitment to Scientology, which led to his leaving the controversial cartoon in 2006 because it mocked his church. Still, we like to believe that right now in some hereafter Hayes is at work on his next album, Hot Buttered Thetan.

Knocked from the headlines by the Olympics, Georgia, John Edwards and Downsview, The Dark Knight nevertheless continues its box office reign, finishing first for the fourth straight weekend with $26 million. The movie’s total is now at $441,628,497, third on the all-time North American chart. Pineapple Express opened strong on Wednesday but cooled over the weekend with $22.4 million ($40.5 million total). The Mummy sequel took third place with $16.4 million.

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