“Shia is a young Wall Street trader who’s engaged to be married to Gekko’s estranged daughter. Shia wants to be a major player, but his mentor unexpectedly kills himself, and Shia thinks a stock-shorting worldwide hedge fund manager is responsible. Shia seeks revenge on this villain, to be played by No Country For Old Men Supporting Actor Oscar-winner Javier Bardem. So Shia goes to Gordon saying, ‘I need your help’, and makes a Faustian deal with Gekko who in return wants Shia’s help getting back with the daughter. From then on, it’s ‘antagonism’ for everyone, my insider says.” — Nikki Finke’s summary of Wall Street 2. Creative title! They should stick with Stephen Schiff‘s Money Never Sleeps.

My favorite features in the just-arrived Woodstock Bluray package: (1) the buckskin-covered holding box (complete with evenly-cut fringe); (2) the circular iron-on patch; and (c) a hard-cardboard replica of a three-day ticket for the August 1969 event, which cost $24. No time to watch but it’s great so far.

From the sheet: Amazon-exclusive bonus disc with never-before-seen performance footage in hi-def from Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish plus three bonus featurettes; 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition includes: (a) Lucite display with images from the festival; (b) 60-page commemorative LIFE Magazine reprint; (c) Iron-on Woodstock patch; (d) Woodstock fact sheet; (e) reproductions of festival memorabilia, including handwritten notes and a three-day ticket; (f) New retrospective: The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Story of the Sixties and Woodstock.

Plus Woodstock: Untold Stories: Over two hours of never-before-seen musical performances by Joan Baez, Paul Butterfield, Canned Heat, Joe Cocker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Mountain, Santana, Sha Na Na, the Who and Johnny Winter (exclusive to Blu-ray — customize your own Woodstock playlist); (h) Woodstock: From Festival to Feature: comprehensive featurette gallery chronicling the festival and the filming from start to finish, interwoven with interviews from Martin Scorsese, Grace Slick, director Michael Wadleigh, Woodstock Festival executive producer Michael Lang, and more; (i) Enhanced BD-Live bonus features.

Variety‘s Dave McNary reported today that Paul Haggis has written and will soon direct a thriller called The Next Three Days. It’s a remake of Fred Cavaye‘s Pour Elle, a December ’08 French release which costarred Diane Kruger and Vincent Lindon.

Lionsgate has acquired remake rights from Wild Bunch and Fidelite Films. Haggis and Michael Nozik will produce The Next Three Days through their production company Highway 61 Films, along with Marc Missonnier and Olivier Delbosc of Fidelite Films. Shooting will start in August.

An IMDB synopsis of Pour Elle reads as follows: “Lisa (Kruger) and Julien (Lindon) are married and leading a happy uneventful life with their son Oscar (Lancelot Roch). But their life radically changes when the police comes to arrest Lisa on murder charges. She’s sentenced to 20 years in the slammer. Convinced of his wife’s innocence, Julien decides to act [but] how far will he be willing to go for her?”

Jonathan Spuij from the Netherlands reports that he “just read something incredible. Pathe cinemas has just opened up a text-number to where you can send a complaint during a film about anything that’s bothering you during the show, be it the wrong ratio, mice or someone using his mobile anything can be reported and they’ll come and fix it asap.

“An example of the site [HE note — no link was provided and I couldn’t find a site that explains the text-complaint option] even mentions that you can send a text too when there are ‘people on row 11 who just won’t shut up.’

“Do you happen to know if there’s an American cinema chain that has already has such a service? I read it and I still can’t believe this really exists. Oh and the best part — there’s no additional costs for the texts, just what your carrier charges you. Brilliant, huh?”

“Not necessarily that surprising, but industry polling for Michael Bay‘s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount, 6.24) is hinting that the highly anticipated sequel is already on a record-setting pace,” reports HitFix’s Gregory Ellwood. “Based on the data HitFix was provided, Revenge of the Fallen is on track to challenge The Dark Knight‘s 5-day record of $203 million last summer.

“The picture has mammoth interest with moviegoers of all ages and is so strong among younger males that it would easily have a massive opening if Paramount Pictures decided to open it tomorrow. Additionally, the overall numbers for men are off the charts with three-quarters of all respondents saying they are more than interested in seeing the movie.

“In terms of record setting openings, it’s worth noting Revenge of the Fallen debuts on a Wednesday while Dark Knight‘s record run began with a Friday (or Thursday night) debut. Comparably, the largest Wednesday 5-day gross on record is 2004’s Spider-Man 2‘s $152 million which Revenge of the Fallen should easily shatter.

“The first Transformers opened on Thursday, July 3, 2007 and took in $98.7 million over the 4-day Fourth of July holiday weekend.”

Last week Machine Project in Echo Park showed Daniel Martinco‘s “15-minute meticulously re-spliced creation in a never-ending loop that transforms a moment” from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan “into one of anguish (or snickering for the the audience) into a meditation, maybe even a mantra. This below clip “doesn’t begin to do justice to the size, sound and hypnotic power of the real thing.” — from an LA Weekly piece that appeared last Thursday.

Screenings of The Hangover this evening plus a gala screening at the DGA theatre for Nurse Jackie, the new Showtime series, plus an after-event. (Resulting in a regretful blowoff of a special sneak screening of Food Inc. at the Angelika Film Center.) Tomorrow night a Film Society of Lincoln Center evening screening of Michael Wadleigh‘s Woodstock plus a Taking of Pelham 123 press screening. The New York premiere of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi‘s Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love plus an after-event plus a Woodstock Bluray press event and party the same day. Plus a second screening of Whatever Works. And and and….

Leo likes greyhounds and Antonio Villaraigosa like news anchors — where’s the harm? Nice pedicure, by the way. No offense, but she sounds like she’s about a quarter-of-an-inch deep, if that.

The following IMDB post about Greg Mottola‘s Paul, which starts filming later this month, is apparently legit: “A comedy about being an alien in America, even if you’re not from outer space. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jason Bateman Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig and Sigourney Weaver costarring. Directed by Mottola, written by Pegg and Frost, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner producing, Universal distributing, etc.

Paul is the story of Graham Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost), two sci-fi enthusiasts from the UK, who alight from a visit to San Diego Comic Con to Nevada’s Area 51 for a spot of UFO tourism. But their trip takes a “sudden and dramatic turn when the boys happen upon a crashed government vehicle containing an alien called Paul (voiced by Rogen),” blah blah. They embark upon an adventure,” blah blah. Struggling to help Paul get ET-home while trying to stay ahead of the tenacious government operative, Agent Lorenzo Zoil (Bateman) and Ruth’s zealous, shotgun-toting, bible-bashing father,” blah blah.

Paul will film in the San Diego and Santa Fe areas from June until August.

Here’s a basic view shared by certain people I know: “The sea is calm, you said. Peaceful. Calm above but below a world of gliding monsters, preying on their fellows, murderers all of them. Only the strongest teeth survive. And who’s to tell me it’s any different here on board or yonder, on dry land?” I’m not arguing this perception, but I abhor the manner and tendencies of those who live and act and behave by this view alone. For they are the dark men, the reactionaries, the weak sisters, the conservatives, the fearful, the militant Israelis and Ebenezer Scrooge’s of this realm. Name the film that this mp3 is from — the film, the year, the actor, the original author, etc.