News and Events

“Knight and Day’’ opens Friday and gives her and Cruise another crack at each other. The new playing field appears to be level. It’s a comedy. He grins and runs and cracks some jokes. She gawks and laughs and waves her arms in ecstasy. That is the Diaz way. This is the rare beauty who’s made a career out of being a dork.

Three of Boston’s best hospitals – Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Boston – get prime-time exposure in the new series “Boston Med,” premiering Thursday at 10 p.m. on WCVB, Ch. 5.

The screams coming from behind the Coolidge Corner Theatre on a recent Saturday night weren’t the blood-curdling kind. They were more like the raucous howls that greet rock stars, which is pretty much what it looked like when Tommy Wiseau, the writer, director, producer, and star of “The Room,’’ materialized to press the flesh before a midnight screening of his film. “Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!’’ chanted the throngs, waving their cellphones and jockeying for a chance to take a picture with the man responsible for what many believe is the worst movie ever made.

Dennis and Falmouth would like people to know they are open for business … the movie business, that is. Both have developed Web pages promoting their attractiveness as potential film sites and promising assistance with the permitting process if film crews need to shut down roads or work on public property. The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce also maintains a similar site, www.filmoncapecod.com, that promotes the entire region.

In the second episode of “Boston Med,’’ a cardiothoracic surgeon at Children’s Hospital Boston makes this matter-of-fact assertion: “It’s a tough situation, but it’s not hopeless, and if anybody can fix it, we can.’’ He is describing a particular case: a baby born with a rare heart abnormality whose father, a US soldier, has returned from Iraq for the surgery. But his words also reflect the core assumption at the heart of “Boston Med,’’ an eight-part ABC News documentary series that premieres June 24.

Tom had a helluva time in the Hub making the pic. Cruise told Entertainment Weekly he and his fam had their best Halloween ever in Boston, because the Hollywood heavy, his bride Katie Holmes, daughter Suri, and Tom’s kids Connor and Isabella, roamed the streets of Beacon Hill – in costume – and no one recognized them!

With beaches, sunshine, and a summer party atmosphere, it isn’t difficult to lure visitors, even film buffs who plan on spending lots of time in the dark, to Cape Cod. But the Provincetown and Nantucket film festivals raised the bar early on: both consistently deliver impressive and eclectic events worthy of the towns’ artistic and bohemian traditions.

Despite the prevalence of sprawling multiplexes and the eternal appeal of Hollywood blockbusters, the area hosts a number of smaller movie houses showing lesser-known independent films, including the Capitol Theatre in Arlington, the West Newton Cinema, the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, the Embassy Cinema in Waltham, and Maynard’s Fine Arts Theatre.

The company announced Tuesday that a reorganization has resulted in an amicable split with Kirkpatrick, a co-founder of Plymouth Rock Studios. Kirkpatrick will stay on as head of Rock Entertainment, a separate organization concentrating on movie making, television, social networking and education. When the studio is built – completion could come before the end of 2012 – Rock Entertainment would be able to lease space for its productions.

Plymouth Rock Studios, the real estate arm in charge of building the production facility and leasing its space, and Rock Entertainment, the creative arm of that endeavor, are no longer affiliated and will not have any direct ownership or management influence over each other. David Kirkpatrick, CEO of Rock Entertainment, said yesterday’s announced split formalized a division that had been made between the real estate team and the creative members of the venture. “Now it’s really focused on being infrastructure, but that’s critical,’’ Kirkpatrick said. “You need the railroad tracks to run the trains.’’

Dedham High School looked more like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Wednesday, May 19 night as students and their friends and families celebrated at the fifth Annual Dedham High School Media Film Festival.

If so much of movie-industry success combines talent and luck, Stephen Kijak’s luck is that he’s talented. The New Bedford native is sitting on a rooftop from which you can see the Mediterranean, basking in his moment at the world’s biggest film festival. His hourlong documentary, “Stones in Exile,’’ arrives on DVD in June. It premiered with a lot of hoopla last week at a sold-out screening in the Director’s Fortnight program of the Cannes Film Festival.

An amendment in next year’s state budget would create a website that would publish reports detailing which companies receive tax credits, how much the tax credit is for and the date it is issued. Some in the business community say the requirement unfairly focuses on businesses and could be a slippery slope toward giving out confidential tax and trade information.

As film season returns this year, city officials are more prepared to handle the onslaught. Officials studied best practices of permitting from New York and Los Angeles after streamlining the process by gathering representatives from various departments for weekly meetings.

The number of Emerson graduates who have not only found work in the entertainment industry, but are wielding significant influence, has exploded in the worlds of television, film, the Web, and publishing. And the biggest reason is the willingness of the big-name graduates of the small liberal arts college to take care of their own. It’s gotten to the point where they have started jokingly referring to their network as the Emerson mafia.

Harvard film student Andrew Wesman was on a Utah road trip over spring break with his best friend, Ian Carr, when they stopped to take pictures in Zion National Park. An e-mail popped up on Wesman’s iPhone: The renowned Cannes Film Festival in France had accepted Wesman’s senior thesis, a low-budget, 21-minute narrative film called “Shelley.’’ His tuxedoed presence was requested on the red carpet on May 21.

Natick homegal Ari Graynor starts shooting Anna Faris’ made-in-Boston romantic comedy “What’s Your Number?” today. But that career rush can’t compare to the day she went to Priscilla of Boston to get fitted for three onscreen wedding gowns! The film, which co-stars Sudbury homey Chris Evans, revolves around Ari’s faux wedding. It seems Faris’ character doesn’t want to go to her sister’s wedding alone, so she revisits each of her past paramours – and there are many – to see if she missed her Mr. Right. Hilarity, as you can imagine, ensues.

GROWN UPS – Shot in Massachusetts in 2009. Opens nationwide on June 25, 2010. FOR MORE BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FROM THE FILMING OF ADAM SANDLER’S MOVIE GROWN UPS –DURING THE SUMMER …

August 2009 – ENTHUSIASTIC YOUNG FANS TRACK DOWN ADAM SANDLER SHOOTING GROWN UPS IN ESSEX, MASSACHUSETTS. May 19, 2009 – FANS SHOW AUTOGRAPHS FROM ADAM SANDLER AND OTHERS FILMING GROWN …

When David Salzberg’s friends called him “Hollywood” as he was growing up in Walpole and in the area, it was more-or-less a derogatory moniker. Nowadays, that has all changed. With the release of “The Perfect Game” earlier this month, Salzberg, a Hollywood mainstay, earned his first executive producer film credit.
Based on the true story written by W. William Winokur, “The Perfect Game” follows a group of poor young boys from Monterey, Mexico in 1957 who dreamed of playing baseball in uniform. With the help of a local priest (played by Cheech Marin) the boys realize that dream and much, much more.