A woman who claims she was a literary scout for Maverick Films and that she discovered "Twilight" and "The Lightning Thief" as possibilities for feature films says that she hasn't been paid what she's owed for the two -- "Twilight," obviously, went on to become a huge success. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nanette Shipley has only been given a small part of what she's owed: more ›

Opening up the UCLA Live dance series for 2010/11 season is the local contemporary company, Helios Dance Theater, led by choreographer Laura Gorenstein Miller. The group is the first Los Angeles-based troupe to grace the Royce Hall stage in a decade and they will premiere the seasonally-inspired Beautiful Monsters this Saturday night! more ›

As someone who had used Facebook since its inception, only to participate in Quit Facebook Day earlier this year, I'm very interested in The Social Network. It's a rare peek into the real world behind our augmented reality, with plenty to "like": David Fincher as director, Aaron Sorkin as writer and Jesse Eisenberg as "the CEO, bitch!" himself, Mark Zuckerberg. The film has a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics comparing it to Citizen Kane, There Will Be Blood & The Godfather. Freakonomics aims for a similar pedigree with its documentary all-star squad: Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Seth Gordon (King of Kong), Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) and Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight) tackle abortion, education, offbeat baby names and cheating sumo wrestlers through statistical vignettes, but there may be too many cooks in the kitchen. more ›

Titus Andronicus, one of William Shakespeare's earliest tragedies, is influenced by Greek mythology. Violence? Check. Human sacrifice? Check. Revenge? Check. Lust and sex? Check and double-check. In the Grand Guignol tradition, Titus Andronicus is a brutal, yet successful Roman general who's been away for 10 years fighting their dreaded enemies, the Goths. more ›

Bear witness to loads of laughs as the cult of comedy continues at Cinefamily! Friday, celebrate 40 years of National Lampoon (the National Lampoon of Harvard days, NOT the National Lampoon of Dorm Daze) with side-splitting satires Lemmings... more ›

Jesus H. Christ might have turned water into wine, but Maynard James Keenan goes for the hard stuff in Blood Into Wine, uncorking this weekend at Laemmle's... more ›

Things are getting interesting in Lawndale (for once!). Years ago the city spent millions on redeveloping Hawthorne Boulevard. That included adding garlic plants to the medians, which was not only part of the project's cost, it cost residents and shoppers to endure an unpleasant stink. Nevertheless, the city council is now looking into spending $35,000 to have the plants removed. more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: "Attack of the Show" (Live from CES in Vegas), "SoCal Connected" (marijuana in SoCal), "American Chopper" (Paul Jr. pays a visit!), "Celebrity Rehab", Conan, Ferguson (Steven Wright!!) and/or Fallon (John Oliver!!) more ›

A fun bit of trivia for film snobs & martial arts fans: Jackie Chan's Supercop was originally released on laserdisc by the prestigious Criterion Collection. The Nuart pays tribute to this cinematic masterwork with a midnight screening on Friday. The New Beverly features fellow Criterion alum, Krysztof Kieslowski, with two out of Three Colors, and the Aero has yet another with a Citizen Kane replay. For Overlooked Auteurs, visit the Cinefamily for a deadly double featuring director Ted Kotcheff (who? Mr. Rambo: First Blood & Weekend At Bernie's, that's who!). more ›

Polish your fangs and hide your garlic--today is the start of Vampire-Con, which is "the world’s first convention, devoted to everything vampire." With events scheduled throughout the weekend to thrill, entertain, and enlighten, enthusiasts can satisfy their blood-lust by attending films, discussions, and a ball. more ›

We are all lucky enough to live in a region rich in arts, especially theatre. And Pasadena has one of the strongest presences around with its Playhouse District, which includes the Boston Court Performing Arts Center (follow them on Twitter) where a new world premiere play, Courting Vampires, opened this earlier this month. more ›

At 5 p.m. last Tuesday, the line for the True Blood panel at PaleyFest snaked around the Cinerama Dome toward the Arclight entrance. Many of the predominantly female fans of the HBO series had been camped out since early afternoon, traveling from as far as Texas and New York. more ›

HBO's new series True Blood is based on the series of books by Charlaine Harris, about a world where vampires have emerged from the shadows to claim equal rights in human society, prompted by the invention of a synthetic blood drink that removes their need to hunt humans. In this world, vampires are exciting and intriguing, dangerous but sexy, and their blood has enjoyable drug-like effects on humans, so we now have people who actively try to seduce vampires, and even people who attack them to drain their blood and sell it. The story is set in a small imaginary town in Louisiana called Bon Temps (as in Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez), and features a bleached-blond Anna Paquin as Sookie, a young waitress with the inexplicable ability to read minds, who falls in love with Stephen Moyer's chivalrous, brooding vampire named Bill. Yes, Bill. It beats Sookie... more ›

Twilight is the first installment in the series of the same name that has generated an upcoming motion picture, as well as borderline hysteria in the hearts of mostly female teens and adults alike. After watching two or three friends get sucked into the madness (and only one of them a fan of teen fiction), an investigation seemed called for. The movie trailer looked decent; the fantasy of hot-vampire-falls-for-ordinary-girl was not totally unappealing. more ›

It’s not every day the media mirror, which clearly can’t get enough of our fair burg, shines itself clearly on what we really are…A SWARMING PIT OF VAMPIRES! more ›