News and Events

Brad Pitt hit Lansdowne Street yesterday to film scenes for “Moneyball” – but if the script stays true to the book, the Boston Red Sox will not look as good onscreen as the Hollywood uber hunk!

This weekend, “The Social Network,” David Fincher’s film adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s 2009 non-fiction novel “The Accidental Billionaires” about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, became the third Massachusetts-made film this year to open nationally as the No. 1 movie in America–a new state record.

Facebook movie “The Social Network” found millions of friends in theaters during the weekend, taking in $23 million and earning the No. 1 spot at box offices, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

The movie opens this weekend to rave reviews from critics. For some people who were there during the website’s launch at Harvard University in 2003 to 2004, though, “The Social Network’’ is more than a cinematic revisiting of events and personalities.

“The Social Network” begins in 2003 with a scene set in Somerville’s Thirsty Scholar Pub. Zuckerberg insults Boston University, frets about getting into one of Harvard’s exclusive clubs and gets dumped by his BU student girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara, the new Lisbeth Salander).

‘The Social Network’’ opens with a scene — already justly celebrated — in which a college-age couple sits in a darkened Cambridge restaurant and discusses their relationship. It’s not going well for the guy, a weedy, focused sort named Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) who talks as if he’s trying to break the sound barrier and assumes his girlfriend, Erica (Rooney Mara), will keep up. She doesn’t, and after a while her eyes go dead and she’s not his girlfriend anymore.

Helping Powderhouse Productions make the most of their media, Avid has provided the openness and collaborative capability the company now employs to get the most done in the shortest time …

Fenway Park will get the Tinseltown treatment once again when Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” flick films at the old ballyard Oct. 4-6. “Moneyball,” which stars Brad Pitt, is based on Michael Lewis’ bestseller about Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane, who built a winning team with now- Red Sox stats man Bill James, computer analytics and very little cash.

With its impeccable pedigree and movie-star good looks, Harvard is cinematic shorthand for academic excellence. But most of the movies that say they take place at Harvard — including “The Social Network” — don’t. Since 1970, Harvard has had a policy of not allowing film crews on its campus, and filmmakers have had to find clever strategies to depict the Ivy League school.

The Boston Herald’s TrackGals, Laura Raposa & Gayle Fee, interview Ben Affleck and the cast of THE TOWN on the red carpet at FENWAY PARK.

This weekend, Ben Affleck’s heist thriller “The Town” became the sixth Massachusetts-made film since 2007 to open nationally as the No. 1 movie in America.

The Hollywood spotlight will shine on Harvard in “The Social Network,” the highly anticipated Facebook movie that goes behind the ivy-covered walls to chronicle the birth of the massive online Friendfest. The flick, due out Oct. 1, is based on a book by Boston author Ben Mezrich about the origin of Facebook in a Harvard dorm room by alienated computer nerd Mark Zuckerberg.

The new Ben Affleck film “The Town’’ portrays the region as a haven for bank thieves, who pull off dramatic robberies donning masks with guns blazing, but the reality is far from colorful. It turns out the region isn’t “the bank robbery capital of America,’’ as the movie posters proclaim. Massachusetts ranked eighth in robberies per resident last year, down from number one in 2008. And most real-life bank robberies are more mundane.

Actress Melissa Leo isn’t prone to hyperbole, so when she says “The Fighter’’ is a “great motion picture,’’ she means it. Leo, who plays Micky Ward’s mom in director David O. Russell’s biopic of the Lowell-bred boxer, says the movie is beyond memorable. (“The Fighter’’ is due out in December.)

Ben Affleck’s Boston bank-robber tale is not only a contender for one of the 10 Best Picture nominations, but could land a nod in an acting category as well. “Either Jon Hamm or Jeremy Renner could easily end up in the Supporting Actor category,” said BoxOffice.com editor Phil Contrino, citing the film’s robust ticket sales.

Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” (made in Massachusetts) is one of the most financially successful films ever made. Not only that, it is one of the most widely decorated films ever made, collecting three Oscars as well as ranking highly on hundreds of top films lists including being named as one of the top 100 films ever made by Total Film, the 5th best film ever made by Empire, and the 48th best film ever made by the American Film Institute. Read more to discover the ten reasons why it deserves all the praise it gets.

Ben Affleck made off with a bigger-than-expected haul at the weekend box office in North America on Sunday as his heist thriller “The Town” surprised observers with a strong No. 1 opening.

According to Nikki Finke’s ”Deadline Hollywood” website, the Charlestown-set crime drama “The Town” is the surprise winner of Friday’s box office with a predicted $8.5 million gross.

It’s easy to see why Ben Affleck cast George “Slaine” Carroll Jr. as a shady character in “Gone Baby Gone.” Or why Affleck hired him to play a Charlestown bank robber in his new movie “The Town.” The 6-foot-tall Dorchester-born rapper is an intimidating physical presence with a raspy grumble of a voice flavored with a thick Boston accent.

When Ben Affleck needed to add some brawn to his shoot-’em-up flick “The Town,” he hired real-life Townie Dennis McLaughlin. McLaughlin, a 6-foot-2, 300-pound, fourth-generation longshoreman from the square mile, plays Rusty, henchman to actor Pete Postlethwaite’s (“In the Name of the Father”) villain Fergus Colm.