Hasta La Creative!

If this Oscar campaign for James Franco is successful, it could mark the first time a boobs-and-bongs flick gets anywhere near the uptight Academy Awards.

Franco, recently seen getting his handsome face punched in for a Comedy Central roast promo, is now the star of some "For your consideration" ads for Spring Breakers, a movie that most Academy voters likely (wisely) skipped. Even so, distributor A24 is asking them to "Consider this shit"—meaning, think about giving Franco a nomination for best supporting actor for his work as gun-toting, cornrow-wearing, rapper-drug dealer Alien. Critics called the flick misogynistic and leering, part sellout and satire, though most major reviews singled out Franco as a bright spot amid a bevy of bikini-clad former Disney babes.

Franco, who was previously nominated for 127 Hours, seems OK with the campaign, telling the Today show on Monday: "My favorite movie that I've done this year is 'Spring Breakers.' And they're doing an … Oscar campaign for it. … I wanted to put that out there for Harmony Korine, the director."

Maybe he could reprise the movie's musical number at the Oscars. Franco as Alien at a white grand piano singing a Britney Spears ballad with his girl posse dancing around in pink ski masks—that sure would bring the gangsta. And it would be more entertaining than his last trip to the show.

You should seriously consider this shit pic.twitter.com/8xCDvCGnlB

— A24 (@A24Films) September 3, 2013

Prankvertising can be annoying. Aggressively messing with people for questionable purposes is, after all, obnoxious behavior. But when it promotes something that is intended itself to be scary, it can be irresistible.

In that vein, Thinkmodo is getting rather good at public horror-movie stunts. First, it got a creepy chick to literally bend over backwards in a beauty salon for The Last Exorcism Part II. Now, it gets another creepy chick to show off freaky telekinetic superpowers in a coffee shop for Carrie—the upcoming horror film based on Stephen King's 1974 novel.

The looks on the patrons' faces are priceless. (For a change, it's not difficult to imagine these are real people, rather than actors.) Not insignificantly, the stunt ties seamlessly into the product, too—terrifying people also happens to be the point of the movie. 

And there's a levity here, too—unlike, say, stunts for flat-screen TVs that make you think the world is ending.

The company Prologue did the title sequence for “The Fifth Estate,” a movie about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

Clerks auteur Kevin Smith is planning a project that moviegoers can really sink their teeth into. The proposed film is called Tusk, and it's based on an elaborate (and thankfully bogus) roommate-wanted ad placed in June by prankster Chris Parkinson from Brighton, England. Parkinson wrote that he was pining away for his deceased walrus pal, Gregory, offering free rent to anyone willing to wear a walrus costume and make walrus noises for a couple of hours each day. (What, no complimentary bucket of chum for breakfast?)

Smith explains his creative vision in a Hollywood Reporter blog post: "I began reconstructing the whole thing as an old British Hammer horror film, in which a mad scientist intends to sew some hapless lodger into counterfeit blubber, creating a chimera in an effort to answer the ultimate riddle, 'Is man, indeed, a walrus at heart?'" It's a question we've all pondered at one time or another, that's for sure.

With ads forming the nexus of art and commerce, and many modern movies packed with product placements anyway, it's high time an ad served as the basis for a motion picture. That Parkinson's ad was both real and fake—placed as paid media, but still a work of "fiction"—makes the whole Tusk concept even more deliciously post-modern and ironic. And even if the movie never gets made, the story's generating plenty of publicity for Smith and everyone associated with the project.

Which bring us to Justin Long, who the director wants as the guy in the walrus suit. Such casting strengthens Tusk's adland ties, as Long famously portrayed the Mac in Apple's benchmark "Get a Mac" campaign.

Judging by Long's response to Smith's proposal, the actor's pretty stoked: "I don't know what to say … I'm nauseated, I'm terrified, I'm thoroughly confused in the most entertained way. I'm in. I'm definitely in. I didn't think Ed Gein and Boxing Helena would ever fuck and have a more deranged baby. You are a twisted imaginative talented motherfucker and I'd love to go on this trip with you.'"

Hmm, blubber, whiskers … you know, Smith could just play the walrus himself.

Or maybe John Hodgman's available. Goo goo g'joob!

The agreement with RatPac-Dune Entertainment could help finance as many as 75 films.

Solomon Northup told a story of escaping from slavery in 1853, and for decades scholars have been trying to untangle the truth of his account.

Spend a broiling hot summer on the streets of South Central L.A., a time grimly known to locals as "the killing season," to document some former gang bangers who now try to make peace? That's the idea behind LTO: License to Operate, a documentary from Culver City, Calif.-based ad and marketing agency Omelet and production partner Foundation Content. The project, now in Kickstarter mode to raise money for postproduction and music, started when Omelet, Foundation and director James Lipetzky shot a promotional video for nonprofit group A Better LA. Deciding there was a larger story to tell about former gang leaders working to stop violence and rebuild communities, Omelet and private investors ponied up money to get a full-length film off the ground. Omelet, an indie shop whose clients include blue-chippers like AT&T, Microsoft and Sony, wanted to shed light on inner-city gang crime and the dent that can be made when former gang members turn into peace ambassadors. They plan to finish the movie by October, with distribution still to be determined and the $50,000 Kickstarter goal still to be reached.

CREDITS
Omelet Producers and Creative Leads:
President, Chief Content Officer: Steven Amato
EVP Content and Development: Mike Wallen
Chairman, CEO, Executive Producer: Don Kurz

Foundation Content Credits
Executive Producer: Samantha Hart
Director: James Lipetzky
Associate Producers: Stacy Paris, Matthew Goodhue

For the first time in nine years, Disney will not release its annual Pixar movie. The gap has led to a flurry of new opening dates for Disney movies.

The studio said Ms. Rowling would become a screenwriter, working on an adaptation of her “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”