Watercooler: How I Met Your Shocker

How I Met Your Mother Whoa. Did not see that coming!Last night, How I Met Your Mother served up a Thanksgiving episode that was juicy for sure, but way more about the sides than the main course. Typical, right?Centered on Lily and Marshall's decision to move to Long Island, the outing's biggest laughs actually came from the subplot about Barney and Ted's plan to cut women out of the equation and raise an adopted kid as "bro-parents." While the guys admitted it was a crazy idea, Ted did make some sense when he complained that he's waited a long time to meet someone to start a family with and "keeps not meeting them." (We feel your pain, bud. Step it up!) Plus the goofiness of the gag also gave out-and-proud father of twins Neil Patrick Harris the chance to have some cheeky fun at the expense of straight dudes who worry about being perceived as gay if they're seen with babies and another guy. Well played, sir. And so true.But it was the minor bits featuring Robin's escalating discomfort with her friends' possible relocation that blossomed into a deliciously unexpected twist. All along, it seemed like she was bent because Lily and Marshall are more city folk than suburbanites. Since she's typically bossy and judgmental, we just assumed it was Robin being Robin. So imagine our surprise when she finally came clean with Barney - after locking herself in one of the Eriksens' future home's three bathrooms - that her reason for wanting them to stay in NY was because she's pregnant. Um... what?!Guess Ted isn't the only one who has some 'splaining to do to his future children. But who will be the daddy in Robin's inevitable "How I Met You Father" speech? Boring Kevin or the clearly ready-for-a-family Barney? After all, they did share more than just a cab ride a few weeks ago. Let us know what you think in the comments below!Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

Hugo: Film Review

A passionate brief for film preservation wrapped in a fanciful tale of childhood intrigue and adventure, Hugo dazzlingly conjoins the earliest days of cinema with the very latest big-screen technology. At once Martin Scorsese's least characteristic film and his most deeply felt, this opulent adaptation of Brian Selznick's extensively illustrated novel is ostensibly a children's and family film, albeit one that will play best to sophisticated kids and culturally inclined adults. Paramount has no choice but to go for broke by selling this most ingenious of 3D movies to the widest possible public, hoping that critical acclaim and novelty value will pique the curiosity of all audiences. All the same, it remains something of a tricky proposition commercially.our editor recommendsThe Dreams of Martin ScorseseVIDEO: James Cameron and Martin Scorsese on Hugo's 3D Special EffectsMartin Scorsese Talks 'Hugo,' Recurring Nightmares and How His 12-Year-Old Rules the RoostMartin Scorseses 'Hugo' Chosen For Royal Film Performance 2011Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo': New Trailer Released (Video) PHOTOS: Martin Scorsese On Set Like so many of the most popular and enduring fictions centered on children, from Dickens to Harry Potter, this one is about orphans and castoffs, kids who must scheme, fight and resist authority to make their way in life. With exceptional imagination, first Selznick and now Scorsese and scenarist John Logan have found a way to connect their resourceful leading characters with one of the great early figures of cinema, Georges Melies, most famous as the originator of the science fiction film with his 1902 A Trip to the Moon and, perhaps more significantly, the first man to recognize the connection between the cinema and dreams. In an incidental moment that alone justifies the entire recent resurgence of 3D, Scorsese recreates the legendary presentation of the Lumiere brothers' 1897 Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, at which audiences flinched in horror as a train filmed coming into a station appeared to be headed right at them, in a way that astonishingly captures the reaction the brief clip was described as having created. For anyone remotely interested in film history, Hugo must be seen in 3D if only for this interlude, which the director and cinematographer Robert Richardson have pulled off through an impeccably precise combination of framing and timing. PHOTOS: Martin Scorsese: Into the Past The richness of detail and evident care that has been extended to all aspects of the production are of a sort possible only when a top director has a free hand to do everything he or she feels is necessary to entirely fulfill a project's ambitions. As has been seen all too many times, this sort of carte blanche has its pitfalls in indulgence, extravagance and waste. In this case, however, the obvious expenditures of time, care and money would seem to have been devoted to matters directly connected to Scorsese's overriding obsessions with film - the particulars of its creation, manner of presentation, the nature of the people who make it, its importance to the inner lives of those who love it and preservation both of film itself and the reputations of its practitioners. By contrast, the film's faults have more to do with less exalted issues such as slight overlength, a certain repetitiveness and the evident fact that Scorsese is not a great director of physical comedy. The eponymous orphan here is Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), a prepubescent youngster who, after the death of his beloved father (Jude Law in flashback), is grudgingly taken under wing by a dissolute uncle (Ray Winstone) who tends to the complicated system of clocks at one of Paris' major train stations, circa 1931 (as specified in Selznick's book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, although not in the film). The labyrinth of gears, cranks, shafts and stairs that comprise this hidden chamber is explored in an extraordinary shot that winds up through it, and when the old man expires, Hugo, with nowhere else to go, surreptitiously takes charge of the clocks, unbeknownst to the vigilant station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen). THR COVER STORY: The Dreams of Martin Scorsese When the coast is clear, Hugo slips out of a wall grating to snatch something to eat and runs afoul of a sour old man (Ben Kingsley) who tends a toy shop in the station. He also meets another station dweller, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), who's been raised by the old man, her godfather, and his wife. A precocious lass who, in a nice invention of Logan's, likes to use big words, Isabelle is a bookworm with bright eyes and a wonderful smile who has no complaints except that her protectors won't permit her to see movies. Hugo remedies this by taking her to a showing of Safety Last, famous for the image of Harold Lloyd dangling over the streets of Los Angeles from a clock. Thus is born a new cinephile. Having found his first friend, Hugo dares to bring Isabelle to his private lair, albeit with an ulterior motive; a heart-shaped key she wears around her neck looks like just what he needs to activate his primary inheritance from his father, an elaborate, unfinished automaton he's been tinkering with that he suspects might provide him with vital information. VIDEO: 'Hugo' Q&A: James Cameron & Martin Scorsese The upshot is that Isabelle's guardian is none other than Melies, the film pioneer thought to have died during World War I. Embittered and forgotten, Melies destroyed his own work, melting the celluloid down to be used as heels for women's shoes, and the children, in league with an early film historian (Michael Stuhlbarg) set about engineering the resurrection of the old gent's reputation, while also restoring his sense of purpose in life. This impulse to recognize and rehabilitate a filmmaker and his work lies at the core of Hugo and has perhaps never before been so lovingly and extensively expressed in a narrative feature. As the film pushes into its second hour, Scorsese and his team imaginatively and exactingly recreate the shooting of scenes from several notable Melies films, replicating the extraordinary sets, costumes and "special effects" they employed, and which often featured the director's wife Jeanne (Helen McCrory). A particular point is made of how Melies' films were hand-colored, frame by frame, the results of which are vividly rendered through the fortuitous recent Lobster Films color restoration of A Trip to the Moon. In related contexts, many other silent films - some famous, others not so much - are sampled in an enormously expressive but admirably disciplined manner. Compared to Scorsese's fundamental achievement in so eloquently articulating his abiding passion in a fictional context, the melodrama surrounding Hugo's precarious existence in the station and his persistent, if easily distracted, pursuit by the station inspector feels overextended and indulged. The kid-in-peril interludes feel both obligatory, as something to potentially engage younger audiences, and padded to give more screen time to Cohen, who delivers an arch performance that is faintly amusing and slightly off-key. The director works overtime to give the station scenes cinematic life, letting the camera loose to prowl amid hordes of extras and dense scenic detail, but overkill eventually sets in after one or two too many chases. An under-two-hour running time should have been a goal. One aspect that takes a bit getting used to is the across-the-board use of British accents by the, admittedly, mostly English cast for characters who are all French. It was a perfectly pragmatic decision, in the end, as having the actors employ French accents would likely have proved annoying and universal American accents would have been no more logical than British ones; it's probably just the vast difference in speech and temperament on opposite sides of the Channel that somewhat jars. Although he ultimately comes through with a winning performance, Butterfield, previously seen in Son of Rambow and The Wolfman, seems a bit stiff and uncertain in the early-going; there are scenes in which he seems over-manipulated, right down to the slightest gestures and the direction of his glances. By contrast, Moretz (Kick-Ass, Let Me In), with her beaming warmth and great smile, is captivating as a girl who leaps at the chance for some adventure outside of books. Refusing to sentimentalize, Kingsley catches both the deeply submerged hurt and eventual pride of an artist long but not forever erased from history, while McCrory invigorates as his younger wife, who first protects but then crucially helps liberate his secret. The film's craft and technical achievements are of the highest order, combining to create an immaculate present to film lovers everywhere. It would be hard to say enough on behalf of Richardson's cinematography, Dante Ferretti's production design, Sandy Powell's costumes, Rob Legato's extensive visual effects, Thelma Schoonmaker's editing, Howard Shore's almost constant score and the army of technical experts who made all of Scorsese's perfectionist wishes come true. One amusing detail is that the view from Hugo's clock tower seems to vary in height from scene to scene, as judged in relation to the Eiffel Tower across the city; at times it's level with the second deck of the landmark, at others is even with the very top and at least once provides a perspective actually looking down upon it. A work of great imagination indeed. Opens: Nov. 23 (Paramount) Production: GK Films, Infinitum Nihil Cast: Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, Helen McCrory, Michael Stuhlbarg, Frances de la Tour, Richard Griffiths, Jude Law Director: Martin Scorsese Screenwriter: John Logan, based on the novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick Producers: Graham King, Tim Headington, Martin Scorsese, Johnny Depp Executive producers: Emma Tillinger Koskoff, David Crockett, Georgia Kacandes, Christi Dembrowski, Barbara De Fina Director of photography: Robert Richardson Production designer: Dante Ferretti Costume designer: Sandy Powell Visual effects supervisor: Rob Legato Editor: Thelma Schoonmaker Music: Howard Shore PG rating, 130 minutes Martin Scorsese Hugo

David Finchers Se7en Scribe Andrew Kevin Walker Joins 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

EXCLUSIVE: They certainly made a lasting impression with Se7en. Now, screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker has come aboard to work on the20,000 League Under the Sea script for director David Fincher. Disney has been trying to find a compelling way to bring back the Jules Verne story of Captain Nemo as he creates his warship Nautilus. Given their previous dark collaboration, it will be interesting to see their vision for a Disney film based on the very first live action picture made by Walt Disney back in 1954. Disney famously bet his studio on a film best remembered for the giant squid scene. It became the second highest grossing film that year, won three Oscars and became the basis for a Disney theme park attraction. Walker, whose scripting credits also include Sleepy Hollow and The Wolfman, is repped by CAA. Fincher, who next releases The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has several potential next projects, and he has long been attached to Cleopatra at Sony with Angelina Jolie and producer Scott Rudin.

Silence is golden for 'Artist's' maestro

'The Artist'There's retro, after which there's "The Artist." Shot in B&W, with little dialogue, in france they period piece in regards to a '20 quiet film star whose career collapses using the creation of talkies was predictably an audience-pleaser and critical success at Cannes this season (Jean Dujardin within the title role won lead actor). And because of the unusual and surprising visual options produced by author-director Michel Hazanavicius, a lot of the film's success rests using its lush orchestral score composed by Ludovic Bource, a score also assigned with driving forward a tale that's lacking of dialogue.But Bource, who's obtained all from the director's films since 1999's "Mes amis," states he wasn't surprised when Hazanavicius requested him to compose for any quiet film. "We first spoken about carrying this out ten years approximately ago -- however i was amazed at precisely how moving and romantic it's,Inch he recalls. "It is his tribute towards the great quiet movies and company directors like Fritz Lang and Hitchcock, and also the old movie-making methods for Hollywood."As the film, that was shot on location in L.A., is occur the late '20s and early '30s, the composer and director required their inspiration from the much wider era. "We took in to numerous differing people, from Max Steiner and Charlie Chaplin to Bernard Hermann and Franz Waxman, in addition to returning to any or all the truly amazing 1800s romantic composers like Brahms," Bource states. One interlude within the movie is modified from Hermann.Soaking in most the Hollywood and classical best assisted the composer grapple using the primary challenge -- "getting a good primary theme that will help tell the storyline for that audience." It had not been easy, confesses Bource, who recorded the score in The city with 80 music artists in the Flanders Philharmonic. "I am not been trained in symphonic music, therefore it would be a large education for me personally.InchBource wasn't around the set, but submerged themself in dailies, "and so i might be inspired through the images, after which I'd write motifs and concepts, and some and then leave others." As always, the happy couple labored carefully throughout editing: "Michel was always altering the cues," Bource states. "1 week we'd possess a block of sequences eight minutes lengthy, not much later he'd let me know he'd just cut three minutes out. I was always refining." Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Breaking Beginning To Debut Up To $125M

EXCLUSIVE: The worldwide rollout begins Wednesday. However I’ve just found that an interior Summit Entertainment estimate puts a few days ago’s domestic opening of Breaking Beginning Part 1 at $110 millionto $125 million. That can make this 4th film within the Twilight Saga franchise the second greatest weekend debut since thestudio started making Stephenie Meyer’s vampireromance books into films –behind just the Twilight follow up New Moon. [UPDATE: Rival galleries think Summit is lowballing and expect Breaking Beginning to debut to $142+M.] And don't forget this can be a female-driven 2D movie. It’s the three dimensional fanboy-driven movies which have been so hurt by slouching box office recently. Once more, the newestinstallment is going to be delivering into a lot more than 4,061 locations in The United States.No quantity of theaters yet noted for the night time opening Thursday. Because the franchise started, Twilight opened up locally to $69.6M in 2008, New Moon to $142.8M last year,Over shadow to $64.8M this year. For your day and date worldwide rollout, here’s the discharge schedule: November 16th Belgium, France, Italia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Sweden, Europe November 17th – Australia, Argentina, Bahrain, Bolivia, Chile, CIS, Croatia, Czech, Denmark, Egypt, A holiday in greece, Hungary, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, Nz, Norwegian, Oman, Peru, Portugal, Qatar, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, The country, UAE, Ukraine November 18th – Aruba, South america, Bulgaria, Colombia, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Philippines, Belgium, Romania, Taiwan, Poultry, Uruguay, Venezuela, West Indies, United kingdom. (Previous: YIKES! Twilight Fans Already Arranging For Breaking Beginning Premiere)

Darren Aronofsky NSFW Anti-Meth Advertisements: This Can Ruin Your Entire Day [VIDEO]

I have always stated that 'Requiem for any Dream' could be used as the very best anti-drug PSA ever. "Kids, avoid drugs or you'll finish track of your arm compromised off, or become senile, or have to sell the body for sex." (Spoiler alert?) Granted, this plan of action most likely wouldn't work -- parents aren't likely to provide the Suitable for their kids' school to screen the unrated drug drama -- but, there's finally a similar. 'Requiem' director Darren Aronofsky just launched a number of anti-very meth advertisements, and, boy: could they be absurd. With one of these advertisements, there's you don't need to request permission for 'Requiem' -- you are able to show students these rather. The 3 happen to be embedded below. Watch at the own risk -- they are a little unsettling and mostly NSFW. [via NYMag] [Photo: YouTube] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook

'Polisse' posts strong French box office

'Polisse'Competing against heavyweights like "The AssistanceInch and "The Adventures of Tintin" in the French box office having a local pic about cops your child-protection agency may appear just like a bad marketing decision, but that is precisely what actress-switched-helmer Maiwenn drawn served by "Polisse."Created by Alain Attal's L'ensemble des Productions du Tresor having a $7 million budget, "Polisse" was launched on March. 19 and remained on the top from the box office for 2 days, grossing a 8.a million ($11.a million) through November. 2. Mars Distribution launched the pic on 400 prints it bending its first-week gross in the second sesh."We did not expect 'Polisse' being this type of mainstream hit in France, but we've got an indication it might be extremely popular as we observed the enthusiasm of local audiences who have been attending premieres throughout France," Attal states.Offered by Wild Bunch worldwide, the film continues to be acquired by Sundance Chooses within the U.S., too as with other major areas. "Polisse" also presold to Canal Plus and Franco-German internet Arte, and was acquired by commercial internet M6. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Five selected for Variety Home Ing. Hall of Fame

Best To Buy Boss John Dunn, Electronic Devices Assn. prexy and Boss Gary Shapiro and Manufacturers of America are among the 2010 inductees in to the Variety Home Theatre Hall of Fame. Also entering the hall this season would be the "Harry Potter" film franchise and Hastings Entertainment prexy and Boss John Marmaduke. The 31st honours dinner gala in the Beverly Hillsides Hotel on 12 ,. 5 may benefit non profit organizations selected through the inductees. Dunn continues to be with Best To Buy for two-and-a-half decades, beginning as store clerk. Manufacturers of America is a leader within the vidgame biz since the development of the Manufacturers Entertainment System some two-and-a-half decades ago. Shapiro continues to be an advocate for top-def TV, three dimensional along with other home theatre improvements as mind from the trade org that signifies 2,000 electronic devices firms and produces the customer Electronics Show. The "Harry Potter" film series has produced $5.1 billion home based entertainment and vidgame items for Warner Bros., in addition to driving Blu-ray sales. Marmaduke has brought the Hastings Entertainment retail chain and it is forerunners since 1976. "These inductees demonstrate all that's exciting about home theatre because it moves from the flat experience to three dimensional, from the passive experience for an interactive adventure and from hard goods to some revenue-growing mixture of physical, digital, mobile along with other models that offer elevated convenience and value towards the entertainment consumer," stated Variety posting director Linda Buckley-Bruno. -- Variety Staff Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com