'Black Snake Moan' Comes to Blu-ray, HD DVD
Wed May 02, 2007 at 12:01 AM ET
High-Def Digest (Snugglefish Media)

Paramount Home Entertainment has announced that the Samuel L. Jackson-Christina Ricci erotic drama 'Black Snake Moan' will make its Blu-ray and HD DVD debut this June.

The down 'n' dirty flick from 'Hustle & Flow' director Craig Brewer paid homage to the gritty exploitation flicks of the '70s, although it found few takers during its recent theatrical release.

Paramount plans on givinbg the flick a boost on high-def, bestowing the "special edition" banner on the title when it hits Blu-ray and HD DVD day-and-date with standard DVD release on June 26.

No specs yet, but the disc comes billed as boasting plenty of supplemental features, so we'll certainly keep you posted as more news comes in.

In the meantime, we've added 'Black Snake Moan' to both our Blu-ray Release Schedule and our HD DVD Release under June 26, where it joins Brewer's 'Hustle & Flow,' which Paramount announced for next-gen release last month.

Source : High-Def Digest

Ricci's nude delusion
May 01, 2007 10:00pm
Sunday Times

CHRISTINA Ricci got into the mood to play a nymphomaniac in her new film by parading around the film set naked.

CHRISTINA Ricci paraded around naked on the set of her new film. The star, who plays nymphomaniac Rae in Black Snake Moan, got into character by stripping off in front of the cast and crew. Christina said: "I needed to lose any sort of self-consciousness because I feel sometimes you can see self-consciousness in a performance when somebody is naked or in a nude scene. I really needed for that not to be there, so to help me I stayed the way I would be for the scene all the time - in order to get the crew really used to seeing me that way. Not only was I comfortable, but I could look at anybody's face and see they were comfortable."

Sure they were Christina - if thinking "Don't look down, Don't look down" while trying to listen to what you were saying is comfortable.

Source : The Sunday Times.

Ricci on Awareness Drive on Rape
The Himalayan Times.

Actress Christina Ricci is going to represent Rape, Abuse and Incest network when she meets with the US Congress to discuss ways to raise awareness on rape, this month.

The 'Black Snake Moan' star, who revealed that she gets enraged by the rampant crime, said that rape is a more horrible offence than murder because it leaves behind living victims.

She added that there should be zero tolerance towards rape.

"Our society is running rampant with these victims who desperately need treatment. Murder is a horrible crime but with rape you leave living victims. There should be zero tolerance for that kind of behaviour, zero," Contactmusic quoted her, as saying.

Ricci also emphasised on re-victimisation of rape victims, for a person raped as a child is five times more likely to be raped as an adult.

The actress also said that an adult victim is 40 pct likely to be avictim of the crime again.

"The rate of revictimisation is a huge problem. A woman that is raped as a child is five times more likely to be raped as an adult. An adult rape victim is 40 per cent more likely to be raped again in her lifetime," she added.

The 27-year-old said that the statistics turns her blood cold and she gets really angry.

"When I read those statistics, my blood went cold. I just couldn't be more angry about it," she said.

Source : The Himalayan Times

Christina Ricci's Partying Epiphany
02/May/2007 - Starpulse

Christina Ricci was already bored of partying by the time she hit the legal drinking age of 21, because she had been boozing for years. The Monster actress reached her landmark age in 2001 and was already tired of the New York bar scene. She is now tee-total.

The 27-year-old explains, "The reason I don't feel the need to go out to clubs and parties any more is we did it so hardcore, especially living in New York as a teenager."

"From the age of 16 to 20-something, we did whatever the hell we wanted. By the time I was legal to drink, I had had so many wild nights, it was like, 'Really, now I'm legal?'"

Source : Starpulse

Ricci goes racing
Posted Apr 24th 2007 10:51AM by Damon Lavrinc
Autoblog

The movie magnates of Hollywood may actually be bringing something to the silver screen that has the distinct possibility of not sucking away our lives and our hard earned cash. Brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski of Matrix and V for Vendetta fame are taking on a series that serves as one of our first motoring memories. That's right kiddies, a live action version of Speed Racer.

Warner Bros and Village Roadshow have enlisted the acting talents of John Goodman and Susan Sarandon as Speed's parents, while the oh-so-delectable Christina Ricci will be playing his devoted love interest, Trixie. And she can drive too.

The iconic anime, originally created by Tatsuo Yoshida, will be recreated in typical Wachowski style, including Speed's whip: the Mach 5. We can't wait until it hits theaters May 9th, next year.

Source : Autoblog

All great reviews for Ricci "BSM"

" But it is Ricci who will be remembered when all else about the film has been forgotten. Her large oval face dominating her tiny body, which is exceptionally thin around the waist, Ricci is clad in scanty cutoffs, panties, midriff-baring shirts at most and often less. Here she is a feral animal, a force of nature, a wild thing with a ferocious physicality and a sexuality like Vesuvius in its prime. Her Rae is Eros unplugged, unquenchable, inexhaustible. Fascinating, scary and entirely debauched, Rae is the sort of female creature who has been seen onscreen many times before, but rarely, or perhaps never, so bluntly portrayed in a Hollywood studio film. "

Variety: http://www.variety.com/

" As the cloudy-hearted Lazarus, Jackson has all the gravity and darkness you expect from him, but "Black Snake Moan" really belongs to Ricci. Rae moves through the movie like a weather system or a small but angry wild animal, spitting bile and invective wherever she goes. During and after the opening credits, she gives a trucker the finger and invites a street heckler to "kiss my Rebel coochie, *beep* She's playing a compulsive nymphomaniac and is nearly naked for most of the film, but the extraordinary thing about Ricci's performance is how non-exploitative and unprurient it is. "

Salon: http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2007/01/26/sundance_5/

" Ricci fully throws herself in this dirty blonde, white trash, volcanic nympho, who spends nearly the whole movie in only panties and in (and out) of a half shirt. "Girl got a itch... She got that sickness... She goes crazy..." Does she ever! Rae gets these spells that knock her over, and she desperately needs to "get *beep* up", in all senses of the phrase, to wash out the things that are haunting her. The worst part is that she's found a healthier way to find solace, in the love she shares with her boyfriend (Justin Timberlake), but when he goes out of town (he's in the National Guard, possibly bound for Iraq), the fever takes over again."

Montreal Film Journal: http://www.montrealfilmjournal.com/review.asp?R=R0001080

" As a white trash sex bomb, Ricci gives one of her strongest performances in a long time."

Emmanuel Levy: http://emanuellevy.com/article.php?articleID=4665

" Rae's dilemma (which is dramatized by Ricci in a truly electric performance)"

Premiere: http://www.premiere.com/moviereviews/3532/black-snake-moan.html

Black Snake Moan
Bottom Line: White trash, the town tramp, good Negroes and the healing power of the blues are among the cliches in this agitated Southern melodrama.
By Kirk Honeycutt , Jan 28, 2007 - The Hollywood Reporter

(CAUTION : SPOILERS )

PARK CITY -- She's a backwoods nymphomaniac, and he's a Southern-fried cuckold, and together they make one very odd couple in "Black Snake Moan." This ludicrous Southern melodrama with over-the-top performances from Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci and Justin Timberlake is so convinced of its own righteousness that it almost makes a damn good comedy. Certainly the image of Ricci wearing panties and a peek-a-boo top getting dragged around by Jackson tugging on a chain wrapped around her tiny waist is one any publisher of '50s dime novels would have loved for a book cover if only he dared.

Screenwriter-director Craig Brewer likes to make films about how music can heal people, and he got away with some pretty ludicrous fantasies about pimps and whores in his last film, "Hustle & Flow," thanks to the music and winning performances. The blues music in "Moan" is superfine, but my oh my, what to make of the ripe Southern cliches and this absurd story. The film is so jaw-dropping awful that it just might become a boxoffice hit. The cast certainly is a plus as long as no one minds that Jackson sings and Timberlake doesn't.

Ricci plays Rae, the tramp of a Southern town who has somehow snared an understanding guy in Ronnie (Timberlake). But when he ships off to boot camp despite her protests, she reverts to form in about five minutes. She gives herself to a local criminal, swallows heroic amounts of booze and drugs, plays football in the rain wearing only panties and shoulder pads, gets raped while smashed and is finally beaten and left for dead on a country road by Ronnie's best friend.

She is discovered, unconscious and bleeding, by Lazarus (Jackson), a man who once played the blues but is now living them, his wife having just walked out on him to shack up with his brother. Don't you just love the Old South?
Anyway, Lazarus takes it in his head to cure this woman of her wickedness. Oh yes, he does, praise the Lord. He chains that woman to a rusty old radiator, where he means to drive the devil out of her by quoting scripture.

Seems she gets these spells that start in her head and work their way down to her crotch. When she goes into heat like this, only intercourse with the nearest male can relieve her suffering. But Lazarus recognizes this infirmity to be not wantonness but child abuse and lost love. Dr. Phil, watch out!

He drags into this dicey situation a preacher (John Cothran) and then an innocent boy (David Banner). Rae screws the innocent boy, but she does listen a mite to the preacher. Then Lazarus unchains her and takes her to a juke joint, where his blues-playing has her dancin' and rubbin' against men and women. But she really is better now and realizes all she wants is Ronnie.

What's this? Ronnie is back in town! Seems he has anxiety attacks all the time, so the Army sent him home. But when he finds his gal singing the blues with old Lazarus in his farmhouse, Ronnie pulls a gun. Good thing he never saw those chains.

Brewer throws in a forgettable subplot involving Lazarus' growing affection for a local pharmacist (S. Epatha Merkerson), but this is weak tea compared to the main story's moonshine. There is a good fight scene, though, between Rae and her white-trash mother (Kim Richards).

Even this synopsis can't capture the overheated writing, acting and imagery. This is a world in which everyone solves their immediate problems with sex or violence -- or violent sex. It's a movie in which the leads shamelessly overplay the melodrama. And it has a director who fails to put his faith solely in the music he claims to adore. When Jackson gets around to singing the title song, for instance, he does so in his farmhouse one night as lightning and thunder crash all around him outside as if God were playing backup.

Cinematographer Amelia Vincent, in her second collaboration with Brewer and third with Jackson, makes Keith Brian Burns' interior sets burn with the fever of sin and redemption while the countryside and backwater town feel bucolic and ominous. And those costumes by Paul A. Simmons surely do belong on that dime novel cover.

BLACK SNAKE MOAN
Paramount Vantage
New Deal Prods./Southern Cross the Dog Prods.
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Craig Brewer
Producer: John Singleton, Stephanie Allain
Director of photography: Amelia Vincent
Production designer: Keith Brian Burns
Music: Scott Bomar
Costume designer: Paul A. Simmons
Editor: Billy Cox
Cast:
Lazarus: Samuel L. Jackson
Rae: Christina Ricci
Ronnie: Justin Timberlake
Angela: S. Epatha Merkerson
Preacher R.L.: John Cothran
Gil: Michael Raymond-James
Sandy: Kim Richards
Tehronne: David Banner
MPAA rating: R
Running time: 115 minutes

Source : The Hollywood Reporter

Beyond the Multiplex
Christina Ricci wows opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Justin Timberlake in the exhilarating "Black Snake Moan." Plus: The film stubborn Bush supporters need to see.
By Andrew O'Hehir - SALOM.COM

Jan. 26, 2007 | PARK CITY, Utah -- Samuel L. Jackson and Justin Timberlake both promised the audience they're not giving up their day jobs (or swapping careers). Christina Ricci's comments were more of the gosh, gee-whiz, glad-to-be-here variety, but she looked smashing in a form-fitting Audrey Hepburn-style gray sweater-dress. That's about twice as much clothing as she wears at any point in writer-director Craig Brewer's richly lurid Southern melodrama, "Black Snake Moan," which premiered here on Wednesday night before a packed, ecstatic house of 1,200 people in the Eccles Theatre.

Tickets for the "Black Snake Moan" premiere were commodities much sought after and bargained over this week at Sundance. It's difficult to calculate a film's merits while enveloped in celebrity endorphins and the clicking of a thousand camera phones, but let's just say the audience turned up determined to have a good time and was not disappointed. Given its cast, its title and its outrageous premise, Brewer's movie would have had little trouble garnering media attention with or without Sundance, but his breakthrough hit "Hustle & Flow" was launched here two years ago, and he seemed genuinely thrilled to be back.

Before we got to all the multiracial, good-natured Memphis joshing and gushing sincerity of the onstage Q&A session ("Justin, what challenges do you face in making the transition from singer to actor?"), we all sat attentively through a two-hour movie. It was pretty damn good! A memorable work of art? Well, I'm not so sure about that. It's more an ingenious and stylish entertainment, "Pulp Fiction" with a Southern accent and a heart of gold, driven by both love of the Lord and a certain affection for the other fella. Any movie in which Jackson plays a guy who keeps the town slut chained to his radiator, wearing nothing but a Rebel flag T-shirt and a pair of panties, has got a different tradition than "art" in view.

Like everybody else here, I couldn't help thinking about the instructive similarities -- and even more instructive differences -- between this film and the much-derided "Hounddog," Sundance's biggest stink bomb to date. Both pictures are drawing from the same deep well, trying to create something new from the mythic materials of the rural South: race, sex, sin, redemption and the blues. But "Hounddog" gets stuck in a depressive poker-faced realism (that never actually feels real), while "Black Snake Moan," through sheer pulpy outrageousness, through its reverence for both the sacred and the profane, is more powerful, more dangerous and, paradoxically, closer to real life.

Let's get back to those chains. Yes, it's true that Lazarus (Jackson), an embittered sharecropper and semiretired bluesman whose wife has run off with his brother, keeps Rae (Ricci), a girl known throughout the county for her generosity, chained up and padlocked in his house for much of the film. It isn't quite what you think. The key to melodrama is to invent outlandish situations and play them straight, giving the characters as much dignity and integrity as you can. Lazarus has the purest of intentions toward Rae -- better than any other guy in town, anyway -- and when he finally unlocks her, it's not clear how much she wants to leave.

As the cloudy-hearted Lazarus, Jackson has all the gravity and darkness you expect from him, but "Black Snake Moan" really belongs to Ricci. Rae moves through the movie like a weather system or a small but angry wild animal, spitting bile and invective wherever she goes. During and after the opening credits, she gives a trucker the finger and invites a street heckler to "kiss my Rebel coochie, faggot." She's playing a compulsive nymphomaniac and is nearly naked for most of the film, but the extraordinary thing about Ricci's performance is how non-exploitative and unprurient it is.

Some viewers will doubtless disagree, but I see no misogyny at the heart of "Black Snake Moan." It depicts a misogynist society, one that has beaten, shamed and victimized Rae all her life. But if that society has warped Rae's self-image, it has not vanquished her spirit. Both she and Lazarus may be trapped in dime-novel situations, separately and together, but they nonetheless are complicated, fleshed-out characters, marred by self-hatred and stiffened by pride.

Rae's fiancé, Ronnie (Timberlake, who gives a straightforward, unaffected performance), has gone off to the Army and presumably to Iraq. Rae loves him, but when it comes to other guys she literally can't help herself. She seems to be overcome by physical seizures of lust, desires she doesn't welcome but can't control.

Rae and Lazarus find each other at a point when both badly need someone. They're haunted by bad memories and bent on self-destruction. She assumes he just wants what every man wants from her; he believes God has made him the instrument of her salvation. They're both partly right and partly wrong, but let's not go any deeper than that. Except to point out that Jackson sings and plays a couple of convincing and truly evil blues numbers, including the title song, performed during a lightning storm as Ricci's Rae clings to his knee, wide-eyed.

I don't know whether "Black Snake Moan" is really an independent film, or even what that question means at this point. But it's a true rarity, a picture made for grown-ups that combines vibrant, color-drenched cinematography (by Amelia Vincent), grand narrative ambitions and a desire to thrill. There are a few undercooked characters (Timberlake's among them) and some bits of canned dirty-South color. Then again, this isn't meant to be a gravy-stained depiction of life below the Mason-Dixon exactly as it is today. Instead, it's a blast of energy, an exhilarating pop culture moment that combines (as Brewer says) a drive-in aesthetic and deep mythological roots. Hell, yeah.

Source : ©2007 Salon Media Group

GaraLog
Comments about things that amuse or outrage me; periodic installments of stories or memories; what I'm reading, watching or listening to
by Gara LaMarche - January 25, 2007

As for Sundance, for a first-timer, Una nails it pretty well, and I will probably leave to her the color commentary and stick more or less with the films. I don't know why Black Snake Moan is only now premiering, since I think I've seen the trailer for it a number of times in the past year. But like Una, I liked it pretty much. Samuel Jackson always delivers -- in this case, he plays a pretty mean blues, and learned the guitar for the performance. I thought Justin Timberlake acquitted himself pretty well, and may just have a Marky Mark-kind of career ahead of him. Christina Ricci was incredible. I've never much cared for her Goth characters, but as a little Southern spitfire she showed some amazing spunk. She's supposed to be a sex addict (brought on by childhood abuse) who Jackson's character finds unconscious on the road outside his house and when he finds out about her tendencies -- and for complicated reasons of his own -- he decides to chain her to his radiator to "fix" her. Since she spends most of the movie in a torn t-shirt and panties (when she's wearing clothes at all), the movie tries to have it both ways, titillating while uplifting. But overall it was a good night at the movies.

Source : GaraLog

Sundance: Blogs briefs
The Salt Lake Tribune - Article Last Updated: 01/26/2007 03:29:00 AM MST

Singing Samuel: The Wednesday evening premiere at the Eccles Theatre of "Black Snake Moan" was attended by Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake and producer John Singleton. At the Q&A, Jackson said that while he had fun singing blues in the film, he doesn't plan on making a new career out of it. Then he added, "But I'll see you at the Grammys next year."

Source :The Salt Lake Tribune

Timberlake, Ricci, Samuel L. Jackson Spill Secrets Of 'Black Snake Moan'
MTV
By Larry Carroll - Jan 25 2007 12:36 PM EST

PARK CITY, Utah — They're three very big stars with three very distinct personalities. From Samuel L. Jackson's icy-cool stare to Justin Timberlake's boy-next-door charm to Christina Ricci's indie-darling goth-girl mystique, you'd probably never expect them to appear in the same movie. As they appeared in the same room for an interview at the Sundance Film Festival, however, the three shared more laughs and memories than a family reunion.

Just before attending the premiere of their sexy Southern drama "Black Snake Moan," the disparate trio dished about chaining people to radiators, their golfing skills and the crucial difference between popping and locking.

MTV: "Black Snake Moan" is a movie about a man (Jackson) who forces redemption on a promiscuous young woman (Ricci) by chaining her to his radiator and keeping her away from her boyfriend (Timberlake). What did you guys find so distinctive about this script?

Samuel L. Jackson: The redemptive quality of the characters, and the journeys that they took that were very genuine, human and Southern gothic. It was something that people hadn't seen before.

Christina Ricci: I really fell in love with the characters. I loved Rae from the moment I read the script, and I just felt so much for her. She's a girl that I've seen before, because of the well-established connection between childhood sexual abuse and wild promiscuity as an adult. And these things aren't really treated as something that needs help. I saw her in a lot of other people — and I loved her, and I wanted to protect her.

Justin Timberlake: I am shameless, was looking for work and performed many sexual favors to get this job. [He laughs.]

Jackson: That'll be written everywhere. That'll be all over the Internet tomorrow.

MTV: Tell me what you expected from the other two coming into it — and then what they were really like.

Ricci: I didn't know what to expect, really. When I was 14, I was obsessed with "Pulp Fiction" and wanted to be Sam Jackson, so I had no idea how badass he was gonna be. I was a little intimidated, but then he liked me, so it was OK. And then Justin just completely surprised me.

Jackson: He was on time, he knew his lines and was willing to subject himself to being number three or four on the cast list. Who knew?

Timberlake: I was obviously intimidated by both of them. But I find it interesting, the perception that comes along with someone like myself, or someone in my field, coming into a film, especially a film like this — indie, a smaller budget. I equally had my own perceptions. I didn't know what to expect from Christina, but I've known Sam. We get along because we're both golf fanatics, and we've played Pro-Ams [competitions] together.

MTV: Who's better?

Timberlake: It depends on what day.

[Jackson gives Timberlake a long stare.]

Timberlake: OK, Sam. [He laughs.]

Jackson: Christina, I knew, was coming with deep commitment. I'd watched her work, and we'd known each other socially; we have the same agent. I expected her to dive into this and be great, and it was a joy to watch her transform and to be able to share that space, trust her and allow her to trust me to do the things we had to do to make this story real. I totally expected Justin to come in and be professional. The great thing about this movie is we were doing it near his home, and he was in a place that was familiar. Even though he's playing a character nowhere near the person he is, he's got a lot of fortitude to come in and show the vulnerability that this character has. Guys always want to be tough in movies. And to come in and break down and have fear — and to share that fear with someone — that's a difficult thing for a guy to do.

Ricci: Yeah, I was really impressed too, that you didn't pick a vanity project.

Timberlake: Oh, I have plenty of vanity projects, sweetheart. [He laughs.]

MTV: And how brave is Christina? Would either one of you guys be willing to do a movie where you'd be chained to a radiator half-naked?

Jackson: I have one of those at home, actually.

Timberlake: Yeah, that's not for you guys to know about. [He laughs.] No, there were some scenes where literally I became enchanted watching Christina in this film. There's so many layers to what she has created in this character.

MTV: Christina, people are calling this the bravest performance of your career. Do you agree?

Ricci: I think so, yeah. It was a lot to take on at first. I'd never been to the South, and this character deals with pain, and she's such a polar opposite of me and how I deal with things. But I had so much sympathy for her that I really wanted to understand her. To be able to understand, to fall into somebody that isn't yourself and fall so deeply ... I gave everything to this performance. I hope it comes across that way.

MTV: Every great movie has to have that one classic scene, whether it's the Titanic flipping over, or Butch and Sundance jumping off the cliff. Pick the one scene in this movie that you can't wait for the world to see.

Ricci: This is purely out of vanity, but the scene in the juke joint where I'm dancing. Because [director] Craig [Brewer] made it look like I can actually dance.

Timberlake: It is pretty iconic. There's a lot of symbolism with the chain to the radiator, and so many iconic scenes with Christina in the film. But for me, it's not every day that you get to hold a gun to Sam Jackson's head ...

Jackson: And get away with it. [He laughs.] I like the scene in the house when she finally convinces me to play [music] for her, and I tell her the story of my wife and we actually perform "Black Snake Moan" in the house. That's a pretty moving moment where we really connect.

MTV: Christina, you dance in this movie, and Sam, you sing in this movie. Did either of you ask Justin for some pointers?

Ricci: I did — and he wouldn't teach me!

Timberlake: We had a little lesson. We had a little hip-hop lesson! She comes up to me on the set, she says, "Justin, will you teach me how to pop and lock?" [He laughs.]

Ricci: Which, apparently, is not a proper term!

Timberlake: So I said, "Well the first thing I need to teach you is that popping and locking are two completely different things." The closest references I could come up with for popping was like, "Beat Street," and the closest thing I could come up with for locking was ["What's Happening!!" character] Rerun! And I think she got the picture. She doesn't need any help from me; she's hot enough in the movie anyway.

MTV: Now that you guys are up here at Sundance, have you been able to ski or snowboard?

Timberlake: That's all I've been doing actually, for the last three days, is snowboarding.

Jackson: And I'm black. So, no. [He laughs.]

Source : MTV

Sundance noncompetitive lineup unveiled - Festival announces final selection of films.

By Mark Olsen, The Envelope November 30, 2006

The lineup for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival was rounded out today with the announcement of the selections in the Premiere, Spectrum, Park City At Midnight, From The Sundance Collection and New Frontier sections.

Alongside the previously announced opening night film "Chicago 10," screening in Park City, Utah, the Opening Night Gala in Salt Lake City will be "Away From Her," the feature directing debut from actress Sarah Polley. The Closing Night film will be "Life Support," directed by Nelson George.

The 17 films in the Premiere section are some of the most obviously high-profile offerings in the festival. They include the world premieres of such films as "Chapter 27," a look at John Lennon's assassin Mark David Chapman starring Jared Leto and Lindsay Lohan, "Black Snake Moan," the latest from "Hustle and Flow" director Craig Brewer starring Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson, and also "The Good Night," written and directed by Jake Paltrow and starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Penelope Cruz. (Yes, the Paltrows are brother and sister.)

Also notable among the Premieres are the feature directing debuts of two well-regarded screenwriters, Mike White with "Year of the Dog" and John August with "The Nines."

The Spectrum selections are 24 out-of-competition dramatic and documentary films, among them Sundance veterans Tom DiCillo with "Delirious," Hal Hartley with "Fay Grimm," and Steve Buscemi with "Interview." Also screening in the section will be "Angel-A" from French director Luc Besson and U.K. film "Red Road" from director Andrea Arnold. "Waitress" from Adrienne Shelly, the veteran actress and filmmaker who was recently killed in New York City, will also screen.

Park City At Midnight will feature such out-there offerings as "It is Fine! Everything is Fine." from director Crispin Hellion Glover, "Smiley Face," the latest from filmmaker Gregg Araki, and "The Ten," from comedian David Wain.

Previously know as Frontier, the section know referred to as New Frontier includes experimental work, most notably the U.S. premiere of "Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait," focusing on a single soccer match played by now-notorious French superstar Zinedine Zidane and featuring a soundtrack the includes Scottish minimalist indie-rockers Mogwai.

Retrospective screenings will be held of underground classics "River's Edge" and "X: The Unheard Music" as part of the From The Sundance Collection section.

Source : The Envelope

Toronto Film Festival: Christina Ricci flares her big (not pig) eyes at Reese Witherspoon, who re-accepts her Oscar.
Bruce Newman, 08:30 PM in Bruce Newman, Movies & DVDs
San Jose Mercury News - CA, USA

I don’t believe I have ever been aligned more perfectly in the sight-line of one movie star while she was giving the stinkeye to another movie star than I was at the end of Friday night’s world premiere of “Penelope,” a fable about a girl born with a pig nose. As the applause in the enormous hall swelled and a spotlight hit the box next to the one in which I was sitting with a bunch of agents, who had spent the movie answering emails on their BlackBerries, the light fell upon the picture’s star, Christina Ricci — the title oinker — as if she were a pig caught in the headlights.

Frozen there, Ricci felt an arm knife out of the darkness and push her to her feet, where upon she waved to her adoring public like Evita Peron. Then she looked down the length of that prodding arm, and hissed affectionately at her co-star and producer, Reese Witherspoon, “I can’t believe you made me stand up!”

Then Ricci, who is more of an indie queen than a real Hollywood diva, plopped back down in her seat. But a moment later, Samuel L. Jackson — who seemed to be there as Ricci’s friend (he isn’t in the movie) -- coiled his arm around her shoulder like a snake and forced her to stand up and take another bow. It was actually kind of touching to see someone famous so embarrassed at the fuss that was being made over her.

“Penelope” has its moments, but it’s here without a distributor and very little about its over-long story of a girl who is born with a pig’s snout — it’s all about having one’s character tested, you see — cries out for serious Oscar consideration. Witherspoon, whose introduction on stage before the film took note of the best actress award she won last spring, said, “I’m just buzzing because nobody ever called me ‘Oscar award winner’ before.”

Source : The Mercury News

Christina Ricci: 'I still audition'
By Associated Press / Pantagraph Publishing Co.

She co-starred with Charlize Theron in “Monster’’ and Johnny Depp in "Sleepy Hollow." But Christina Ricci says she still auditions for movies.

Ricci, 26, fought hard for the role of anxiety-ridden Rae, a victim of childhood sexual abuse, in "Black Snake Moan," written and directed by Craig Brewer (writer/director of "Hustle & Flow"). Samuel L. Jackson co-stars as Lazarus, a farmer and blues musician who tries to help her.

She is chained half-naked to a radiator throughout much of the film, due for release in February.

"... my agent started inundating Craig Brewer with photo shoots I had done that are pure sex shots," Ricci says with a laugh in an interview in the September issue of Premiere magazine.

"I have to say that I still audition for movies," she says. "I don’t really have as much control over my career as others would like to pretend that I do."

As for huge commercial stardom, Ricci, whose screen credits also include roles in "The Addams Family," "Buffalo ‘66" and "The Opposite of Sex," says: "I don’t think that’s ever going to happen for me."

She tells the magazine: "My agent will pull up a picture of me blond, fat, thin, whatever. I know that had I been thinner at the time when my indie movies were hitting, I could’ve been in a much better position in my career, but I kind of like where I am."

Her upcoming films include the ensemble war drama "Home of the Brave" and the fairy tale "Penelope," about a girl cursed with a pig’s nose who must learn to love herself to overcome her affliction.

Source : Bloomington Pantagraph - IL, USA

Creative Arts Emmys Get Star Power
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/9/2006 11:31:00 AM

The Creative Arts Emmys, which is kind of like Gummo, the forgotten Marx Brother, of awards presentations, could be giving the prime time show a run for its money.

Among the just-announced presenters are Jennifer Garner, ex of Alias, Christina Ricci, currently of Grey's Anatomy, Melina Kanakaredes of CSI: NY; and Bradley Whitford and Timothy Busfield, both from new drama, Studio 60 On Sunset.

The awards, all 73 of them, usually get only a brief mention in the prime time broadcast and the introduction of the two prime acting categories that are part of the Creative Arts ceremony, but for the past few years it has also had its own TV venue, E!, and this year boasts hip hosts Penn & Teller.

The Aug. 19 awards presentation will get a two-hour telecast Aug. 26 on E!, the night before the prime time Emmy awards airs live. The Creative Arts Emmy show is produced by Spike Jones Jr., that features a lineup of prime stars handing out awards in categories like guest actor, makeup, casting, titles, theme music, and more, as well as statues for engineering and interactive media, which are handed out at the same time.

Source : Reed Business Information

Brewer's 'Black Snake Moan' hibernates till February
By John Beifuss / August 5, 2006
Copyright 2006 - commercialappeal.com

The 2006 movie calendar apparently isn't big enough for two Samuel L. Jackson snakes.

"Black Snake Moan" - writer-director Craig Brewer's eagerly anticipated followup to the Oscar-winning "Hustle & Flow" - has been bumped to February from its original release date of Sept. 15, in part because the imminent horror thriller "Snakes on a Plane" has such a tight squeeze on the pop culture zeitgeist that a second Sam Jackson snake film might get lost in the underbrush.

Even so, snakes of a slither hiss together: The trailer for "Black Snake Moan" will be attached to about 1,500 prints of "Snakes on a Plane," meaning that many moviegoers who join the mile-high horror club also will be among the first to see footage of Jackson in his R.L. Burnside haircut; seminude, chained-to-a-radiator Christina Ricci in her abbreviated Rebel flag T-shirt; and other provocative images from Brewer's film.

"Black Snake Moan" - in which Jackson plays a God-fearing bluesman named Lazarus who takes extreme measures to help a sexually promiscuous young white girl (Ricci) conquer her demons - is now set to open Feb. 17. "Snakes on a Plane" opens Aug. 18.

Thanks to an active Internet cult attracted to the movie's tell-it-like-it-is title and to the entertainment value promised by the thought of the trash-talking Jackson kicking a whole lot of snake butt (if snakes had butts), New Line Cinema's "Snakes on a Plane" has become "one of the strangest, most revealing pop phenomena in years," according to Entertain-ment Weekly, which this week put Jackson (and a snake) on its cover.

The movie has inspired fan-created parodies, T-shirts, songs and a popular Web site, snakesonablog.com -- a genuine snake-in-the-grassroots response that "is threatening to revolutionize the rules of marketing for the do-it-yourself digital era," according to Entertainment Weekly.

"Sam is going to be very taxed after 'Snakes on a Plane,' and the press is going to be very taxed on him," said Brewer, 34, the Memphis filmmaker whose "Hustle & Flow" earned a Best Original Song Oscar and a Best Actor nomination for Terrence Howard. "So instead of fighting for screen time and press attention so close to 'Snakes on a Plane,' we're using that time to promote 'Black Snake Moan.'

"This is a very interesting and exciting character that Sam has made, and everybody wants to be sure it finds the audience it deserves," Brewer said.

The date switch also makes it possible for "Black Snake Moan" to screen out of competition in January at the Sundance Film Festival. Sundance officials have screened the film, and are eager to show it, if details can be worked out between Paramount and the festival.

A Sundance screening would mark a triumphant return to Park City, Utah for Brewer and "Black Snake"/"Hustle & Flow" producers Stephanie Allain and John Singleton. At the 2005 Sundance festival, "Hustle & Flow" won the Audience Award for favorite film and was bought by Paramount -- after a fierce bidding war -- for $9 million.

A Sundance screening would be mutually beneficial: Appearances by Jackson, Ricci and co-star Justin Timberlake would enhance the festival's already high star wattage, and festival buzz could help build excitement for the film among critics and adult audiences, who may be wary of the film's volatile sexual and racial content.

Brewer said another reason "Black Snake Moan" was bumped to the winter is that test screenings for the movie indicate that "one of its key markets is going to be college kids, and you can't really market movies to them in September when they're getting back to school."

"Black Snake Moan" was shot last fall, mostly in rural Tennessee, on a budget of about $13 million. The cast includes Tony-winning Memphis-born actress Adriane Lenox, Mississippi rapper David Banner and Emmy-winning actress S. Epatha Merkerson.

The movie will be released by Paramount Vantage, the new name for Paramount Classics, the "prestige" division of Paramount Pictures. The film is part of the three-picture deal Paramount made with Singleton at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

Wherever "Black Snake Moan" has its official debut, Brewer said he still wants to host a lavish Memphis premiere, similar to the "Hustle & Flow" premiere in July of 2005 that was attended by most of the movie's stars.

Source : commercialappeal.com

Today in Unexpected Marketing: Black Snake Moan Trailer with SOAP
Posted Aug 5th 2006 7:05PM by Martha Fischer
Cinematical

When release dates are pushed back more than a week or so, I immediately get nervous. Unless the move is into December, so the short-attention-spanned Academy members will remember the film, my assumption is that there's something wrong with the movie, and the distributor is trying to either hide it, or put it up against competition so bad that audiences will have no choice but to see it. In the case of Black Snake Moan, however, I actually buy the explanation for the move: Craig Brewer's potentially controversial follow-up to Hustle & Flow stars Samuel L. Jackson, whose name you can't mention these days without thinking of Snakes on a Plane. Since Black Snake Moan is a reportedly very serious film about "a young nymphomaniac (Christina Ricci) who has to be 'cured' by an older bluesman (Lazarus, played by Jackson)," it's understandable that Paramount would want to distance it from the goofy, badass buzz that's been generated by SOAP.

Though the release of Black Snake Moan has consequently been moved from September 15 (only a month after the SOAP open) to February 17, its trailer will nevertheless be attached to about 1500 prints of that film, which makes one wonder how much distance will actually be achieved. It also makes one wonder what the hell Paramount is thinking. When I see a movie theatrically, I can tell with, say, 90% accuracy if I've made a terrible mistake just by watching the previews that are shown beforehand -- trailers pretty reliably share a tone and audience with the feature to which they're attached. Black Snake Moan and SOAP? Not so freaking much. It's very odd -- Paramount seems to be running from the SOAP connection while simultaneously trying to ride the Jackson buzz to boost the Black Snake Moan. It'll be interesting to see if this has a positive effect on the film's eventually box office; I'm guessing no.

Source: Cinematical

DeGENERES TURNS SERIOUS TO COMBAT AIDS
News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)
2006-07-19 10:24:18 -

Funny woman ELLEN DeGENERES turned serious with girlfriend PORTIA DI ROSSI at the weekend (15JUL06) when they co-hosted a star-studded Hollywood African AIDS fundraiser.

Another celebrity couple, HEATH LEDGER and MICHELLE WILLIAMS, CHRISTINA RICCI and former ER star NOAH WYLE were among the guests, who helped to raise $400,000 (£222,200) at the charity poolside party.

DeGeneres was thrilled with the cash raised and insists it will all go to aiding the health crisis in Uganda: "Every 15 seconds a child is orphaned by AIDS. These people are losing their homes, they have no medical supplies."

Source : PR-inside

Salma Seeks Help for Voiceless Women
June 23, 2006

Thursday marked a night of sexy, sleek and sophisticated starlets in Los Angeles, as Eva Longoria, Mischa Barton and Molly Sims all strutted their Dolce and Gabbana best.

The stars checked into the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel's newly revamped penthouse as the Dolce and Gabbana honored the sultry Salma Hayek and the Salma Hayek Foundation.

"It's all for women's rights," she revealed.

This leading lady is a force to be reckoned with, as famous friends including Nicole Richie and Christina Ricci filled the room. Salma seized her moment, drawing attention to the ongoing violence against women in the Mexican border town of Juarez.

"It gives me an opportunity tonight to show a couple of videos that can show what is happening in Juarez," Salma said. "With the 400 women that have been brutally raped and tortured and mutilated and killed."

"I was just in Mexico with her; she's a real leader," actress Jane Fonda said of Hayek. "She's been working hard and speaking out and has been very brave on this issue."

Now Hollywood is drawing even more attention to Juarez in Jennifer Lopez's new movie "Bordertown." In the flick, she plays a reporter investigating the mysterious murders.

"We are demanding justice for these women," Hayek promised. "This cannot be happening. We are not going to look the other way."

Billing itself as "the world's most dangerous film festival," the eighth annual CineVegas film festival -- June 9-17 at the Palms -- lives up to its billing with opening- and closing-night attractions focusing on sex and drugs, if not rock 'n' roll.

Mega-previews come to Cannes Festival
By Robert W. Welkos / LOS ANGELES TIMES
(Original publication: May 20, 2006)

Director Irwin Winkler describes it as "a rough cut of a work in progress."

The veteran Hollywood filmmaker is at the Cannes Film Festival to showcase 38 minutes of his new film, "Home of the Brave." The independent film stars Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Biel and rapper 50 Cent as U.S. National Guard troops readjusting to life back home after enduring the physical and emotional toll of war in Iraq.

The film won't be finished for months. But Winkler hopes that the early exposure will pique interest.

"I wanted to expose the film to the media and some foreign distributors. Cannes gives you that opportunity. We could show the film to buyers [in Hollywood] or anywhere else, but we just want to get the word out about the film, get people talking about it. We think the subject is something on everybody's mind."

Cannes may be many things to many people, from cinéastes looking for the latest cutting-edge director to celebrities cavorting on the red carpet. But increasingly, studios and independent distributors see the festival on the Riviera as a platform for launching their unfinished films.

"Home of the Brave" is one of three unfinished productions that will preview footage. The other two are roughly 20 minutes of Bill Condon's "Dreamgirls" and a 20-minute preview of Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center."

Thierry Frémaux, Cannes' artistic director, said he is happy that filmmakers want to showcase footage of their working projects at the festival.

"It's good for everybody," he added. "It can be great for a filmmaker and to the audience, it's getting the first impression of a film that is just in the editing room. I think that is something free, something very open."

Screenings of works-in-progress are unusual at Cannes, but not unheard of. Sometimes they serve as a tribute of sorts, other times they are an attempt to reverse a tide of negativity. Of course, there's always the risk it will backfire.

When the festival held a midnight screening last year of footage from horror director George A. Romero's "Land of the Dead," the atmosphere "was very casual, very warm," Frémaux recalled. "Everybody stood up, welcoming George."

In 2002, the festival invited director Martin Scorsese to screen a portion of his unfinished "Gangs of New York." A poor trailer had left film buffs wondering what Scorsese had wrought. The decision to screen footage including entire scenes at Cannes helped change opinions in some corners, because it offered context the trailer did not convey.

Perhaps the best example of how Cannes can be used to leverage interest in an upcoming film came in 2001, when New Line Cinema arrived with 26 minutes of its still-to-be-released trilogy "The Lord of the Rings."

New Line invited the world's entertainment press to see the footage and meet director Peter Jackson and his cast. It spent $2 million transforming a hilltop castle outside Cannes into an elaborate replica of Hobbiton from J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy books — and more than 1,000 guests greeted by black-clad riders and led into a world of orcs, hobbits and elves.

"The red carpet took up half the mountain," recalled Rolf Mittweg, president and COO of worldwide distribution and marketing for New Line. "The presentation became the turning point for the buzz on the film."

Winkler's "Home of the Brave" is the story of National Guard troops fighting in Iraq who are demobilized and must reassimilate into civilian life back in their home state of Washington. Biel plays a single mom and teacher who loses a hand in a battle. Jackson is a battlefield doctor, and 50 Cent is an emotionally traumatized soldier.

Due out later this year, the film will inevitably raise comparison to other dramas about returning vets, such as the World War II vets in the 1946 film "The Best Years of Our Lives" or Vietnam vets in 1978's "Coming Home" and "The Deer Hunter."

Early screening can also provide valuable feedback. With "World Trade Center," Stone's cinematic take on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Paramount Pictures can gauge how overseas audiences will react to the film, said Cannes attendee and veteran entertainment attorney Peter Dekom.

"I think it's a fact that it's an American subject and that we are really sensitive to it," Dekom said, "and so we are wondering, 'Does the rest of the world care?'"

Also, Dekom notes, he'll make news.

This year, DreamWorks is returning with roughly 20 minutes of footage from "Dreamgirls." Dekom believes DreamWorks wants to show an unfinished "Dreamgirls" at Cannes in part to create "European buzz."

The film, about a singing trio from Chicago, "is not something that will inherently play in the [European] marketplace," Dekom observed. In that respect, the screening is a bit of a gamble. "It could backfire. It could create strong, negative buzz."

Source : The Journal News

Ricci, Witherspoon don fancy dresses in 'Penelope'
Zee News - London (May15, 2006)

'Penelope', a small film with a big-name cast, takes a modern look at fairytale magic. The shooting of the film recently wrapped up in London.

The film stars Christina Ricci in the title role. Suffering from a family curse, Penelope sports a pig´s nose, which she can only get rid of through learning to accept herself and by finding love.

"It´s all about sort of self acceptance and not hating yourself. But mostly, I think, beyond all that, we are just trying to make a really gorgeous, entertaining film. A fantasy. I mean, this story takes place very much inside a kind of a created, surrealistic, kind of world. So, hopefully people will just get wrapped up in the fantasy of all of it," Ricci explained.

The story comes from screenwriter Leslie Caveny, also behind TV-series ´Everybody Loves Raymond´. Caveny says she is on a mission with the story.

"All my life I was looking for a kind of reversed Beauty and the Beast because I thought we had plenty of stories out there that proved once again that women will love men no matter what, they accept them with all their flaws. So, I thought we could use a little switching of the gender there," she said.

Director Mark Palansky is making his feature film debut with Penelope.

The young director assisted on Hollywood blockbusters Pearl Harbor, The Amityville Horror and The Island, but it was his fantasy short, which caught the attention of Witherspoon and her business partner Jennifer Simpson.

Palansky said despite having Ricci and Witherspoon, two big Hollywood names attached to the project, this was a comfortable, yet challenging debut for him.

"This is certainly a low budget film. It certainly has been a struggle with the amount that is in the script and the detail and the amount of cast and all the different sets. It`s quite complex in that way. I sort of see that as a challenge and it`s fun because you can creatively solve problems or at least try to. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can`t," he said.

The director was full of praise for Ricci, his leading lady, whom he said fitted the title role perfectly, and whose character shone through the challenging part.

"Her eyes are very special, you know. She`s got really special eyes. And a character that is in a prosthetic for most of the time, they really have to emote quite a lot through the rest of their face. And it was important to me to put her in a piece that wasn`t going to cover up Christina Ricci," Palansky said.

Ricci, who has been acting since childhood, making her screen debut in Mermaids in 1990, made her name with films like Addams Family, The Ice Storm and Sleepy Hollow. Recently, however, she has been making smaller, low budget films and was last seen in Monster, in a challenging role opposite Charlize Theron, who went on to win an Oscar for her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos.

"I haven`t at all decided to take myself out of the mainstream. They are making a lot more movies at a cost these days. Which is kind of great because it allows people to really the artistic freedom to do what they want to with a story. I think there are just a lot more movies being made at a cost," said Ricci.

Playing opposite Ricci is James McAvoy, best known for grim British television series `Shameless`. The young actor said working opposite Ricci was easy.

"Christina has been unbelievable, every day, every scene. She`s there working the whole time, working and producing really good work. She has been doing this longer than anyone I know. She`s been doing it for about twenty years. And her experience is just not to be trampled with. She`s something special," he said.

The film`s final scenes were filmed just days after Witherspoon`s Oscar victory. But according to her co-actors, the mood on the set had not changed after the boss was given a new title to her name.

"She`s the executive producer on this so she is the boss. So, you know, nobody messes with Reese. And she`s got her husband here so you doubly don`t want to mess with Reese, otherwise you`ll have him beating you up. Other than that it`s been fine. Everybody`s just been very pleased for her and tiny bit kind of like, `wow, wow, you won an Oscar," said McAvoy.

Ricci, who has now starred next to two Oscar-winners, said witnessing her co-actors triumph was comforting and reassuring.

"It`s great to see people who work really hard get the accolades they deserve. Working with Charlize (Theron) and seeing how much she put into that role and how hard she worked every single day, it`s great to see people awarded for that kind of work and I`ve know Reese for a long time and I know she`s worked really hard for years and years and she deserves it. It`s really sort of reaffirming to see people who deserve it getting the nod."

Source : Zee News ©

Ricci's Los Feliz Home On Market For $3.1 Million
MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. - Apr 23, 2006 9:10 am US/Pacific

(CBS) LOS ANGELES Actress Christina Ricci is selling her three-story Lloyd Wright-designed home in Los Feliz. The house, remodeled by Diane Keaton, is currently on the market for $3.1 million.

Lloyd Wright and his more famous father designed the Samuel-Novarro house, a Los Angeles historic-cultural monument situated in the exclusive Oaks neighborhood.

The house was built for Louis Samuel, a business manager to silent-film star Ramon Novarro. Samuel sold the house to Novarro shortly after it was completed in 1928.

Keaton owned the house during the 1990's and renovated the property. "It's a piece of Los Angeles architectural history", said Ricci.

Many of the indoor spaces in the home have adjoining outdoor spaces, like a deck off the master bedroom, overlooking the pool, typical of Lloyd Wright's style.

Samantha Cooper of Sotheby's International Realty, Pacific Palisades has the listing.

The home of the late Eddie Alpert in Pacific Palisades' Tony Amalfi Rim neighborhood sold near the $8.5 million asking price. Alpert, the star in "Green Acres" died in May 2005 at age 99.

The 1933 Monterey Colonial 5-bedroom home was considered a tear-down property in the area.

Actress Kate Jackson purchased a Sherman Oaks home from Steve Levesque of Luck Media & Marketing, who purchased the home from model-actress Natasha Henstridge.

Jackson forked over less than $1.1 million for the three-bedroom, two-bath home, complete with a breakfast room, den, pool and spa. The second floor consists only of the master suite, with a sitting room and an outside area with fireplace.

Levesque sold the house since he is expanding his Beverly Hills-based music and entertainment business to include Las Vegas.

Jackson, one of the original "Charlie's Angels" also made an appearance in the TV series "Third Watch".

Source : CBS.com

Hollywood's One Remaining Taboo Found in 'Black Snake Moan'
By ROSS JOHNSON - Published: April 23, 2006
The New York Times Company

IF Craig Brewer hoped to shock with his "Black Snake Moan," the filmmaker got what he wanted last month when visitors to Paramount's dubbing stage 28 watched a five-minute clip from his work in progress.

What caused a jolt wasn't just the arresting image of a gold-toothed Samuel L. Jackson growling out a profane rendition of the blues classic "Staggerlee," recorded live in a raucous Memphis juke joint. It was Christina Ricci, the lily-white alternative film princess, her torn lip a welt of red, her dirty blond hair tossed from side to side, grinding her sweat-drenched body against black men and women on the dance floor as Jackson looked on from the stage.

Hollywood, which has often stepped cautiously around the subject of interracial sex, is definitely doing something different with "Black Snake Moan" — which includes a sequence that finds the nearly nude Ms. Ricci chained in Mr. Jackson's kitchen.

The film, a tour through the intricacies of Southern sex and music, reunites Mr. Brewer, its writer and director, with the cinematographer Amy Vincent and the editor Billy Fox, all of whom worked on last year's "Hustle & Flow."

For the 34-year-old Mr. Brewer, who sticks close to Memphis with his wife and young child when he's not casting his films in Hollywood or showing them on the lot, it represents a breakthrough of sorts: he is working directly with Paramount Classics, the studio's specialty division, after making his first two features on the independent circuit.

And for Paramount, the film amounts to a grab for perhaps the most elusive and highly coveted asset in contemporary show business — pop culture credibility. Mr. Brewer contends that his credibility is home-grown.

"I go to places in Memphis like the juke joint in 'Black Snake,' " Mr. Brewer said as he drove across the Paramount lot in late March. "Everybody, whether they're black or white, is just all over each other. It's like an orgy."

"Hustle & Flow" rocked the 2005 Sundance Film Festival with its tale of a weary black pimp in Memphis seeking salvation through rap music. Six months later, Paramount Classics, the specialty-film division of Paramount Pictures, spent tens of millions of dollars promoting the July 2005 theatrical release, which drew a young audience — though one not as large as the studio hoped — looking for urban grit and great music. But it also left many African-Americans, especially women, feeling that the racial politics of the film created by Mr. Brewer, a white man, was all wrong.

"Martin and Malcolm are surely turning in their graves," wrote Erin Aubry Kaplan in the LA Weekly, a Los Angeles alternative paper. Of the film's central character, Djay, played by Terrence Howard, Stanley Crouch wrote in The New York Daily News: "The pimp is airbrushed and carries himself like just another ignorant Negro trying to get above the bottom."

(The New York Times took a more moderate position in its review: "It's hard to hate a movie that falls so completely for its own hustle," A. O. Scott wrote.)

Still, "Hustle" boosted Paramount's fortunes at the Academy Awards this year, when Mr. Howard was nominated as best actor, and the film's signature anthem, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," from the Memphis group Three 6 Mafia, became the first rap song to win an Oscar for best original song.

With "Black Snake Moan," Mr. Brewer sticks close to his turf, though the story line and musical genre shift. Mr. Jackson plays an elderly bluesman who at one point chains a young, promiscuous woman, Ms. Ricci's character, to a radiator in a Mississippi Delta shack — all part of a tense, spiritual confrontation to exorcise her sexual-addiction demons. The Memphis native and pop idol Justin Timberlake, a cousin of Mr. Brewer, plays Ms. Ricci's jilted boyfriend.

Though "Black Snake Moan" does not yet have a release date, Mr. Brewer is already struggling with what he sees as misperceptions about its sexual dynamics. "It's not about Sam Jackson curing Christina of nymphomania," Mr. Brewer groaned after a reporter read a description of the film that has been posted on numerous Web sites.

"Nymphomania is not a clinical term; it's just something people throw out about women who are promiscuous," Mr. Brewer said. He added, "People want and go after sex, but that's not something that's always a fun and pleasurable ride."

Stephanie Allain, Mr. Brewer's partner in the production company Southern Cross the Dog and the producer of both "Hustle" and "Black Snake Moan," acknowledged that the filmmaker "likes to push thi