Sandra Bullock Could Make $70 Million for Soaring in ‘Gravity’

Sandra Bullock, star of the Oscar contender sci-fi survivor thriller Gravity, was paid $20 million up front for her work on the film and then promised 15% of the film's box office winnings, which is shaping up to be quite the paycheck

Sandra Bullock went to space and all she got was a $70 million payday.

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the Oscar-nominated Gravity star may make at least $70 million for Gravity, since her deal with the studio included $20 million up front and then 15% of whatever the studio makes at the box office.

It’s a more generous deal than most stars get, since it was signed in 2010 as Bullock was fresh off her Oscar win for The Blind Side, and Angelina Jolie had just dropped out of the movie.


Gravity, which is expected to make more than $750 million at the box office, is already on track to be the most profitable of this year’s Oscar-nominated movies, and may even make more money than all the other Best Picture nominees combined.

MONEY MONSTER *Movie Review*

It's rare to find a movie that entertains as much as it teaches. Most films manage to do one or the other--and sometimes, not even that well.

Jodie Foster's latest directorial release of MONEY MONSTER does both: it's entertaining while providing a deeply nuanced socially relevant story as well. Oscar winners George Clooney and Julia Roberts star in this fascinating take on redemption, big business, and how much of a song and dance routine news shows really are.

Take a look below for a full analysis of the themes and symbolism in MONEY MONSTER, along with a series of eagle-eye details to watch for. Don't worry, it's all spoiler-free...

George Clooney rips British tabloid over report fiancée’s mom against marriage

Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper apologized to George Clooney on Wednesday for alleging his fiancée’s mother opposed the marriage on religious grounds – a story Clooney called both wrong and irresponsible.

Clooney is engaged to Beirut-born London lawyer Amal Alamuddin, whose father Ramzi belongs to a prominent Druze family. The Druze are adherents of a monotheistic religion based mainly in Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

Citing unnamed family “friends,” the newspaper’s MailOnline website reported this week that her mother, Baria Alamuddin, wanted her 36-year-old daughter to marry a Druze man. It said Amal Alamuddin risked being “cast out of the community” if she wed Clooney, and claimed several women had been murdered for not abiding by strict Druze rules.

Clooney called the story “completely fabricated.”

In a statement issued to USA Today, he said Baria Alamuddin – a well-known journalist – was not Druze and “is in no way against the marriage.”

Clooney, 53, added that “to exploit religious differences where none exist is at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous.”

“We have family members all over the world, and the idea that someone would inflame any part of that world for the sole reason of selling papers should be criminal,” he said, accusing the newspaper of “inciting violence.”

The newspaper said Wednesday that the story had been “supplied in good faith by a reputable and trusted freelance journalist.”

“We accept Mr. Clooney’s assurance that the story is inaccurate and we apologize to him, Miss Amal Alamuddin and her mother, Baria, for any distress caused,” it said in a statement.

The Mail said it had removed the article from the website “and will be contacting Mr. Clooney’s representatives to discuss giving him the opportunity to set the record straight.”

The Druze are a close-knit community and rarely marry outside their sect. But some Druze have welcomed Clooney.

Walid Jumblatt, political leader of the sect in Lebanon, told The Associated Press recently that he hoped the couple would soon visit the Druze heartland.

Clooney will bring us “great publicity,” Jumblatt said. “He can make a movie about the Druze sect.”

After the Wedding: George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin in Venice

Their marriage was announced on Saturday. Will there be another wedding on Monday?

 

VENICE, Italy—The Venetian early Sunday morning is a delightful respite from the usual bustle and activity that clogs the city’s narrow streets. Venetians sip their coffee in quiet squares and walk their dogs along the waterfront with nary a tourist in sight. And the morning after the fantastical wedding of George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin was no different, with one exception — the curious confusion around what just happened.

The Clooney wedding did, indeed, take place Saturday night, complete with raucous applause heard from the seven-star Aman Hotel on the Grand Canal at 8:18 when the couple apparently said their vows and sealed their fate in front of former Rome mayor Walter Veltroni. The nuptials reportedly took place under a ceiling of rose petals, surrounded by 100 or more of their close friends and family.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour was the first guest to arrive, no doubt to protect her investment of the exclusive rights to the wedding photos. A string of teak-hulled water taxis soon followed, each with a special flag with “A & G” on the back and each with a collection of stars waving at the clickity crowds of paparazzi lining the bridges and jetties across from the grand Aman Hotel. Regular canal traffic was unhindered, but one vaporetto waterbus looked like it might tip right over as all the passengers leaned to one side to catch a view of the spectacle.

Some stars, like Bill Murray and Cindy Crawford, stood outside near the boatmen, taking in the view of the purpley sunset over the Floating City. Others, like Matt Damon and Bono, stayed hidden inside the cabins, waving only when they disembarked into the privacy tunnel erected in front of the Aman hotel. When Clooney’s taxi, appropriately named “Amore,” arrived, it was surrounded by around 30 press boats that briefly clogged the canal as two hapless police boats tried to break up the gridlock. Gondolas bounced in their wake.

For days, Venetians have been warned that access to the waterfront near the Rialto Bridge in front of the town hall would be closed from noon to 2 p.m. on Monday for the Clooney wedding. That closure still stands, even though no one is quite sure just what will happen now that Clooney and Alamuddin have tied the knot. Will it be a simple matter of the newlyweds depositing their marriage certificate? Or will there be yet one more ceremony to mark what has become a celebratory and fitting end to Clooney’s long-cherished bachelorhood? No matter: On Monday, Venetian unionists promise to come out to hijack the moment and protest the city’s job cuts and corruption woes in front of the world’s press.

At some point tomorrow, the wedding party will have ended and life will go back to normal for the couple—and Venice. There is no word on where or when the Clooneys might honeymoon, but the power couple surely will have to get back to work. Clooney is in preproduction on three movies, and recently bought the rights to Nick Davis’ “Hack Attack,” about the British media phone-hacking scandal.

Alamuddin, 36, has a pressing work schedule back in London as well. Clooney once quipped that he was “marrying up” and a quick glance at her CV proves him right. The Oxford-trained human rights lawyer, who is also an author and activist, has represented such noteworthy clients as Enron, Arthur Anderson, Julian Assange, and former Ukraine prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She is a regular at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights for her varied clients. She is also involved in the question of using drones for counter-terrorism and she was a special adviser to Kofi Annan when he served as Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and Arab League on Syria.

The couple met in Italy at a meeting about utilizing satellites over Syria. Clooney heads the Satellite Sentinel Project, which monitors human rights abuses. The newlyweds have vowed never to spend more than two weeks apart, and will split their time between London and Los Angeles.