You may not have heard of Bo Burnham yet, but the 18 year-old (virgin?) Youtube comedian/songwriter is soon to hit it big. Unlike most people his age, who are worrying about their college classes and trying to hit 5th base, Burnham is soon to work with comedy's best friend, Judd Apatow.
Burnham earned a decent following on Youtube (49th Most Subscribed - All Time) and has taken the initiative to write a screenplay that utilizes his creative/offensive ("like handi-capped porn") lyrics. "I'm writing the main character as named Bo, so that's a not-so-subtle hint I want to be in it," said Burnham, "I don't know who else would perform my songs [in the movie]." He's a charismatic kid who is extremely clever with his words and would do very well in a self-penned project.
Burnham's calling his screenplay an anti-"High School Musical," even though he made sure to broadcast that it is NOT a parody of the tween sensation.
Burnham met up with Judd Apatow at Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy fest this past July. Apatow wasn't available for comment due to the commencement of filming for "Funny People," but his PR agency confirmed that the two are in a working relationship.
Apatow has put his trust in the hands of a youth before. He hired Seth Rogen to write three episodes of "Undeclared" when he was only 18.
You can check out all 13 of his videos here, but for now we will leave you with our favorite...[Wired]
"Sunshine Cleaning" is a dramedy starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin and Steve Zahn that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year, and fell off the theatrical radar all together. It tells the story about a 30-something maid Rose (Adams) who learns that she can make more money in the crime scene than she can as a domestic worker, and she recruits her sister Norah (Blunt) to create their very own cleaning company, “Sunshine Cleaning.”
Todd McCarthywhined in his review and compared it to “Little Miss Sunshine,” I mean how could he not the are both of the same genre, share Alan Arkin and have the word ‘Sunshine’ in the title, saying that it comes short of achieving the same level of excellence “Little Miss Sunshine” did.
But he says something else about Amy Adams, half the reason I want to see the film in the first place the other half being Blunt, “Still, the film is in good measure saved by the leads, especially Adams, who proves once again what a sparkling, irresistible screen presence she has. So energizing and uplifting is she that considerable interest attends the test of her ability to perform scenes of doubt and despair (she can), and no matter her character's previous decade of drudge work, Adams leaves no doubt that Rose will find a way to prevail in the end.” The film is currently set for release in 2009, with the exact date to be announced.
This post is courtesy of our friends at Fataculture.
Rodrigo Garcia’s (“Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her,” “Nine Lives”) $4.5 million female-focused ensemble drama, which he has been working on for seven years, focusing on the intersecting storylines of a fifty-year-old woman, the daughter she gave up for adoption, and a black woman who wants to adopt a baby, can count its lucky stars. Garcia’s cha cha cha friends, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu, are set to produce the film, currently in the casting stages, for Focus Features and without them there was a very good chance it would never see the light of day. Cha cha cha’s first production will be a soccer drama “Rudo y Cursi” starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. Filming for “Mother and Child" is set to begin in LA in late December or January, and Garcia’s first major studio film “Passengers,” starring Anne Hathaway, is set to open this month. The only thing I am wondering is, are there any other men in Mexico involved in the film industry and when are these big shots going to learn to delegate? Sure there are good and all, but a little diversity wouldn't hurt. [THR]
This post is courtesy of our friends at Fataculture.
As many have already noted, this weekend is crazy crowded at the Box-Office, but a lot of it looks like fucking abysmal dreck.
Ok, there's no major films per se, but the they're all mid level studio or high level indies (they're called "specialty pictures") that probably won't generate huge box-office numbers but are all basically in competition with one-another.
More than likely, some dumb-down studio film like "Eagle Eye" will stay at the top of the box-office by default. But no, actually what's predicted to win? Oh god, the inanity of it is perfectly priceless for this country, "Beverly Hills Chihuahua,"starring voice actors Jaime Lee Curtis and George Lopez as tiny Mexican dogs in L.A. is expected to top the box-office. Lord have mercy on all our souls.
Here's what else doesn't have a chance at competing with this film.
"Appaloosa" - Ed Harris' Western withViggoMortensen has a solid, 75% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, but buzz for the film seems to have dissipated after TIFF. We haven't seen it, but maybe next weekend if we're free. "Ballast" - Lance Hammer's poetically fragmented look at Mississippi looks tremendous and has a positive 80% rating. We missed our screening. This weekend hopefully. Super anticipating at the moment. For anyone that thinks Hammer is heavily influenced by the Dardenne brothers ("L’Enfant," "La Promesse") in this film, the director is the first to admit it. "My debt to them doesn’t stop at the aesthetic, either. Their movies gave me the courage to attempt things that I never would have done otherwise," Hammer told Time Out this week. "Religulous" - Larry Charles/ Bill Maher's anti-religion docu screed was heavy-handed, insultingly manipulative, and super dismissive of other viewpoints but some still got off on its partisan laughs. It's got a 65% RT rating. "Rachel Getting Married" - Everyone loves this we swear. It has an 80% rating, but we found Hathaway mostly overrated, super shrill and her pathologically self-involved character was completely unlikable. Demme did capture the chaos and mania of wedding preparation well, but the cinéma vérité look felt out of his element. What's worse is a plot construct revealed in the middle of the film which kind of reveals why Hathaway is so damaged seemed like, well a cheap plot construct doled out whenever we needed to turn on the waterworks from her character. We weren't convinced of this one at all. Also, was it the just the ugliest mish-mash of cultures wedding? It was like a Kwanza eyesore. "Blindness" - Pagels said this film had no bark or bite and fell short of most recent post-apocalyptic films. It has a dismal 38% rating which is probably the worst critical drubbing director Fernando Meirelles has ever received. "Flash Of Genius" - Reviews are mixed. It has a 59% rating, and the idea of watching a guy (the hyper annoying Greg Kinnear) who invented the windshield wiper is about as appealing as an enema. "Nick And Norah's Infinite Playlist"- a wannabe John Hughes teen flick that starts out with lots of charm which evaporates around the second half. It then turns on its Indie-rock lite mangina to fulfill all the cliches of teen comedies and we checked out. "How To Lose Friends And Alienate People" - The memoir whence it came, Toby Young's sharp and bitingly satirical look at the celebrity magazine industry (Vanity Fair) is excellent, but apparently this one is downright retarded. Reviews are at 42% rating and we may just have to wait for video, because it looks like tripe. Time Out says the film "sends up celebrity journalism with the same glee that The Devil Wears Prada used to go after fashion mags (ugh). But How to Lose is light on satire and heavy on exactly the kind of Hollywood gloss that Young mocked as a journalist, even as he lived off it." Ouch, yeah. We couldn't stomach this, we're sure. Simon Peggcan be a real wanker sometimes and he looks like he's doing a buffoonish slapstick routine throughout. "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" - Dogs of L.A., how can this one miss? Governor Palin and her Main Street mentally handicappedfamily will be at this one for sure. Toast her for us while you're there, oh yeah, eh?
If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. This appears to be the Marvel motto when it comes to film adaptations of their comics that turned out to be ass (see "The Hulk"). Or at least the motto for those that own their properties.
Tom Rothman, a 20th Century Fox co-chairman, talked about a "Daredevil" reboot to IESB.net And it's not the first time Fox has mentioned a reboot for that commercially successful, but critically maligned franchise-that-never was. "A Daredevil... reboot, is something we are thinking very seriously about," he said noting that his studio still owns the right to the comic book character.
"We've got all the rights. And yes, I think that the thing the Hulk showed although, it did what it did, is that it is possible, that if you really do it right the audience will give you a second chance. That it is possible. And I think that you see that when they did Batman Begins, the first Nolan movie, that you can have made some mistakes along the way or movies that the audience wasn't that crazy about and then given the proper amount of time and the right creative vision behind it, you can, to use your word, reboot."
Eh, we suppose it could work. You can't get much worse than the laughable original "Daredevil," with Ben Affleck. We're pretty sure the indignity of that clownish Bullseyecharacter is what sent Colin Farrell hurtling towards substance abuse and rehab.
If you couldn't tell by our half-written review of Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," we were having problems articulating what we didn't like about it. We slept on it a bit and have a few more thoughts to complete a "review." It was by no means terrible; it's solid filmmaking and definitely meticulously crafted with a lot of attention to detail. But after a while it felt rote, by-the-numbers drama and almost a little soulless.
Eastwood can make these pictures in his sleep at this point and he does, having essentially made the exact same mood and manner of drama about four or five times in a row now. Artists are generally scolded for this, but Eastwood is generally celebrated for this cinematic repetition.
Another major issue we had was the tone of the "heroes and villains" in the story. Perhaps its by proxy of the setting, the late 1920s where the LAPD was so corrupt they could get away with murder (literally), but the nature of their outrageous nefariousness and unbelievable actions and excuses in the story (returning a different child to Angelina Jolie's mother character after she's lost her child and insisting its hers) made the division seem very black and white.
While the police, the bad guys here, didn't have oily moustaches that they defiantly twirled at the hapless and helpless protagonist, it wasn't much further from that idea which was pretty annoying. Perhaps it fits the tone and attitudes of people back then, but these days, we're (generally) accustomed to good and evil characters with shades of grey and here the shadow and light was cast pretty precisely.
Karina at Spoutblog saw the film yesterday too and she wrote up some thoughts that we agree with too, but she's a little bit harsher on the film than we were.
"The evil detective (Jeffrey Donovan) can’t figure out if the ensuing scandal means he should have an Irish accent or not," this makes us chuckle. She's right, his accent vacillated all over.
"Eastwood can’t help but indefinitely extend the misery," she writes of the film's exorbitant length which we also complained about yesterday. While she's a little harsh here, there's some elements of truth when she says the film is a "cheap-looking Lifetime movie that eventually turns into an “And justice for all!” episode of SVU." We'd never say it looked cheap, the cinematography, art direction and all that was solid, but the "Lifetime" feel and outraged tipping of the scales mien was definitely apparent.
Jolie was good, but all and all [B-].
Here's Eastwood talking about the character Christine Collins at the New York Film Festival Q&A and what we know of what happened to her after the film ends.
Watch: Eastwood Talks Trying To Avoid "Melodrama" And "Sensationalism" In Changeling
It's been rumored for some time now that Isabelle Huppert would be cast in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards," for some time now, but it was mostly message board chatter (that did appear informed, but...) so we steered clear of it until now.
Huppert would obviously play, Madame Mimieux, the French patrician doyenne of the cinematheque who takes the young protagonist Shosanna in when no one will take her.
It's a brilliant casting choice and her icy demeanor would have been absolutely perfect for the role (we wish we would have thought of it). Would have.
According to the French press (via the ever-watchful eye of Tarantino archives) Huppert had been cast in the role (also confirmed in another French publication), but was then promptly fired because of her "diva" behavior. QT archives says she was shitcanned after she" failed to show up at meetings and took too long to answer." The French Yahoo article also says Tarantino was "disgusted" with her behavior and chose to go seek out another actress instead of dealing with her B.S. Evidently, not "very enthusiastic" about the role, she apparently missed one meeting with the director entirely and then arrived to the second one late and when offered the role took too long to respond with a yay or nay (PS our mom's speaks French and double checked for us and confirmed, thanks to Julien from Allocine as well).
Too bad, she woulda been fantastic. QT is apparently still on the hunt for the last major piece of the casting puzzle.
Christian Berkel Joins Cast Military training for "Inglorious Basterds" evidently started on September 25. German actors Gedeon Burkhardtand the great Christian Berkel have joined the cast as well. Berkel is famous for playing evil Nazis and appeared as one recently in "Valkyrie" and "Miracle At Saint Anna" (He was also in the very excellent, "Blackbook"). He surely has a role as one of the more senior German commandants that Colonel Hans Landa (the main villain) reports to.
According to French press L'Exress, Melanie Laurent (Shosanna) is in Los Angeles, where she's actually learning to operate an old school film projector (her character would take over for the Madame at some point and run the cinematheque). Wait, she had to come to L.A. for that? Weird.
Other French actors once rumored for parts include Romain Duris (the lead in "Moliere"), Vincent Cassel (the 'Ocean 12-13' films and "Irreversible")andJohnny Hallyday (a french iconic Elvis-like singer), but it appears none of them are in the film.
We reported that the Mickey Rourke and Joseph Gordon-Levitt thriller, "Killshot," was finally being releasedon October 20th, after years of delays from the Weinsteins. The film, directed by John Madden ("Shakespeare in Love"), stars a couple in the witness protection program (Diane Lane and Thomas Jane) who are being hunted by two hitmen (Gordon-Levitt and Rourke), it is based off the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name, was shot in 2003 and has had numerous release dates, of which none have actually materialized (Tarantinois a loose exec-producer - he lent his name for cache, nothing more it seems).
Earlier this year the Weinsteins had actually set it for an October 2oth release date, but has recently been pulled from that slot and will likely not come out until early 2009, if at all. Since the Weinsteins are having massive troubles with their distributors lately it doesn't seem to far-fetched to think this thing would get shelved again. But what is surprising is that it stars Rourke, who is soon to be the comeback story of the year, with this performance as a wash-up professional wrestler in "The Wrestler." One would assume the struggling Weinsteins would be doing all they can to use this film to capitalize on Rourke's comeback.
The film has next to nothing as far as buzz goes, and isn't getting much love from the public so far, but we still think it looks like it could be a decent genre-thriller, not to mention how badass Rourke and Gordon-Levitt look in the trailer. We just hope this thing actually gets a release sometime in 2009.
R&B singer Chris Brown is gonna go"Bone Deep" and rapper T.I. will be joining him. Kinda sounds salacious, urban version of "Brokeback Mountain," no? Ahh, we wish. It's a heist film co-starring Paul Walker, Michael Ealy, T.I., Hayden ChristensenandIdris Elba (Stringer Bell!). "Me and all my guys who are the bank robbers are trying to survive without getting blown up in a hotel room." Wait, a bunch of guys getting blown? Oh blown up. Nevermind...[MTV]
Remember the dark electro-duo Adult. from Detroit? They put out a pretty great collection of singles out in 2002 called Resuscitation that we really dug and have continued to put out good work since. Well, the duo - Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperis - have apparently written, directed and produced their own experimental silent horror film called "Decampment," and it's premiering in New York on October 16 at Film Anthology.
The film debuted at the Detroit Institute of Art in May where the band providing the score live at the event.
"Decampment" was filmed entirely in Michigan and evidently examines Adult.'s obsession with an overlooked aesthetic they call "Midwestern horror." A limited edition trilogy of 7"s was released on Adult.'s Ersatz Audio label in conjunction with the film's release.
The Sam Rockwell comedy directed by Clark Gregg, "Choke," fucking crashed (choked?) at the box office last weekend. So what has Chuck Palahniuk (who wrote the book which the movie is based off of) dreamt up to get asses in seats and drum up some publicity for the film? A dubious idea that basically says, if you can get as many of your friends into "Choke" this weekend, you can appear in Palahniuk's next novel or at least have a character named after you. Smells like a desperate ploy. This weekend is even more crowded than last weekend was a the box-office so we wish this fishy plan the best of luck. [Vulture]
Speaking to MTV for the first time about the role, Meyers was naturally "thrilled" to have been chosen for the role. Man, he really dodged a career-killing bullet there. "I can't believe I got the call, to be honest with you. It's one of those unbelievable, magical calls that you get," Meyers marveled.
So yeah, call and thank him or thank Apatow, Mr. Meyers. Either way, Meyers is like a pig in shit. "I am so thrilled. I have spoken [with Tarantino]. Our conversations are supposed to be, like, 20-minute check-ins, and we end up speaking for three hours just about different films that we love."
If you haven't already read the "Inglorious Bastards" script, Meyers describes his character for you, but just remember it's basically a cameo and he's only on screen for about seven pages. "I get to play a British general," Myers said of the military mastermind he plays who dreams up Operation Kino; the plan to infiltrate the Nazis in occupied French. "I get to be in a World War II movie, which has been my goal since I think I was, like, 6 years old. And I get to play one of those brainiac British generals."
A reported nightmare to work with on his own projects, maybe this good fortune will change Meyers attitude.
You've probably read by now that Shia LaBeouf was injured on the set of "Transformer 2." No, it wasn't his car accident that almost destroyed his hand. It was another incident on the set of the film which unfortunately did not result in the young, insufferably ubiquitous stars death. "He is fine — he was back shooting a couple hours later," a producer of the film said. "He loves doing his own stunts, and that wasn't a stunt, actually. It was just one of those things where a prop nicked him."
Apparently the injury was an eyelid one, which required several stitches. We shouldn't lose hope though Michael Bay sets are dangerous and there's still time to do away with the lead. [MTV]
Now that "Watchmen" has been set for a 2 hour and 43 minute cut (so far anyhow), we feel comfortable (heh, now you do, convenient!) showing this interview clip we did with TalkingHeadTV about why we felt the Zack Snyder film would never get a three-hour theatrical cut. We won that bet by17 minutes. ;) Whew. We're a little arrogant and dismissive in this interview, we think, but we were having a crotchety day (what else is new). It was done about a month ago or longer. As TalkingHeadTV writes, "ThePlaylist says he will bet money with any fan site that a 3-hour Watchmen film will never be theatrically released." It's a funny little interview. Take me with a grain of salt. Oh and if you're curious all our interviews with TalkingHead TV are here. They've interviewed us about a lot of film subjects including "Where The Wild Things Are," Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York," "Inglorious Bastards" and more.
EW has a scene from Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," starring Angelina Jolie. The L.A. Times has many new photos. [EW/The Envelope]
"Nothing But The Truth," The Rod Lurie-directed Valerie Plame-like justice drama starring Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga now has a release date of December 19. We saw the film at the Toronto Film Festival and we liked it, but we didn't love it. Still, Beckinsale does have a strong shot at an Oscar nod as the classic-drama mode of this film will appeal to Oscar voters. [InContention]
Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Rachel McAdams are all officially down for Guy Ritchie's hopefully-a-franchise version of "Sherlock Holmes," right? But are more casting surprises (and interesting names?) soon to be announced? [MTV]
Mac users will finally get access to Netflix Instant Watch next year. Fucking finally is right, we didn't buy that piece of shit laptop for nothing. [Netflixblog] Zack Snyder has revealed his '300' prequel plans. The story will evidently focus on the character of Dilios, played by David Wenham in the original. One can assume it will be about 3000 times more homoerotic then the first one if Snyder is planning on topping himself (ha!) [FirstShowing]
God, Kanye West is the worst. "What Kanye said to me the first time [we met was], ‘I'm the black Larry David,' " director Larry Charles ("Borat," "Religulous" "Curb Your Enthusiam") told Coming Soon.
How Kanye is anyhow remotely like the black version of Larry David is beyond us and obviously only to be inexplicably reasoned in the koo-koo mind of the arrogant rapper, but whatever. Apparently West is doing some HBO show with Charles that is notthe animated Muppets-likeshow that was mentioned recently.
Charles says the show (which he's already shot a pilot for) will be like "Curb Your Enthusiam" meet Kanye's ego. Ugh. We can't wait for that trainwreck. But it does sound like HBO is on the fence about the project.
"It's kind of improvised about the situations and stuff. It was really good, but again I think it was too hardcore for HBO. Also, HBO's management shifted, but HBO doesn't have a good track record when it comes to black shows and I felt like that may have had something to do with it also. I don't see a lot of shows about that experience at all. This was very entertaining and we showed it to a lot of people. People gave it a very good response and it seems to be on the shelf right now. The management has shifted at HBO so we're waiting to see. Sue Naegle has taken over and I want to show it to her and see how she responds to it."
Charles also noted that he's working on a project with Owen Wilson and hippie-guru listener/producer Rick Rubin. Hmm, possibly smells like a rock biopic, no?
We all remember the long-gestating Mötley Crüe biopic, "The Dirt," that's been in development for over six years. Last we heard the Crüe themselves were pissed at MTV Films for having never gotten the film off the ground and wanted to take back project and shop it around to another studio.
Once attached to the film was director Larry Charles ("Religulous," "Borat"), but according to an interview with Coming Soon (via Slash), said he doesn't know what's happening with the film and he sounds like he's no longer attached to it. It sounds like studio politics and absorption/collapse fallout left the film by the wayside. Charles notes that he also thought the film would only work at a NC-17 rating.
"The Motley Crue thing I was really into and I did a lot of work on it. I wrote a pass on the script and everything, but it was at MTV Films which then got swallowed by Paramount Vantage which then got swallowed by Paramount. All those people were gone that developed it and it got put to the side, so I don't know what's going to happen to it. Also my thing about that which was that I felt it had to be an NC-17 movie, and I thought, 'Well that would be ballsy to do. When was the last time they had a mainstream NC-17 movie?' That'd be a good idea.' "
But yeah, no. No major studio is going to take on an NC-17 movie and certainly not in the film/financial climate we're in these days. Charles also hilariously shat on the Los Angeles rockers and threw them under the bus.
"Motley Crüe is a crappy band but [Neil Strauss] wrote a really epic book about them. It's really fascinating. What's good about it is how hardcore it is. They've killed people, they've hurt people, they've crippled people, they've done all kinds of crazy things. You'd have to show that for real and I think there was a little bit of reticence about doing that ultimately. But for me, I would do it if it could be done the proper way. If it's going to be sanitized then they don't need me to do it. They could find somebody else to do that."
Don't necessarily assume that means the end of this film project, the Crüe are hot to get this thing made, especially Nikki Sixx, so while it might take a few years to get back in their hands, they seem pretty driven to get that story told on screen in some shape or form come hell or high water. It might be a few years though. Sixx did say in September 2007, that the band and the film producers would not be seeking an NC-17 rating on the film so perhaps he and Charles disagreed on the final tone for a few years now.
Remember the Wu-Tang Clan documentary, "Rock The Bells," that basically tracked the insanity and difficulty that was trying to reunite all the mercurial and unpredictable Wu-Tang players on the same stage for one night in 2004?
Well, apparently there's another Wu-banger in the works. It's called, "Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan" directed by Gerald K. Barclay who's credits include working as an archivist on Nick Broomfield's controversial documentary, "Tupac & Biggie" from 2002. Is it great? Well, it's not getting a theatrical release which is telling, but it looks like a lot of fun at least.
The doc airs repeatedly on BET between November 13-6 before its DVD release on the 18th. And with pearls ofOl' Dirty Bastard genius like, "“Hawaii is the real, real, real bomb. It’s the macadamia nut. The lava alone make my dick hard. I ain’t even seen no lava, but I know that they got lava bitches here,” you know at the very least it'll be entertaining. Love live the Wu.
We're a day or so behind on the "Watchmen" update. Many bloggers and journalists (around 60 people in total) were invited to a preview of the film in Los Angeles earlier this week that featured footage from the film, plus an appearance by Zack Snyder.
Essentially, it's more pre-press on Warner Brothers part to get journos more interested and apparently it worked hook line and sinker as not only did the usual suspects show up, the sci-fi comic inclined like SlashFilm and First Showing, but people like the New York Times and Variety also showed their faces not wanting to miss out. In short, everyone seems excited about Watchmen.
We just finished the Alex Tse updated version of the script which we thought was decent, but it surely didn't blow us away in any capacity. We'll get into that more later. Onto the updates that this kinda meet-n'-greet delivered.
Twenty five minutes of footage was shown from the film which seemed to impress (some were positively glowing). The big news that came out of the Q&A with Snyder is that the film currently rests at a 2 hour and forty three minute cut, which is pretty great considering that's essentially the length "The Dark Knight" was, but if falls short of the three hour mark Snyder once promised (which is great, cause we don't publicly lose face or lose any public bets ;). Snyder said this length will probably be the final length come March (lawsuit aside), but who knows. Still, there's no major reason to doubt him, but it could still change.
Snyder also said he wouldn't be involved in any prequel or sequel should Warner Bros. be so ridiculous to make one (the original graphic novel by Alan Moore doesn't include material for either; so motivations for either idea is purely capitalistic, so it's wise for Snyder to wash his hands of any of that kind of nonsense).
The next talking point is the next trailer which will apparently be unveiled before the upcoming James Bond film, "Quantum Of Solace" in November.
Snyder also noted that they are "working on a version of the film that implements the "Tales of the Black Freighter" story from the comic into the actual movie," wrote First Showing. 'Freighter being a running sub-story through the original graphic novel that acts as a sort of metaphorical Greek chorus throughout the book, but note, no version of the script (there's two out there, and we've read most of both and all of the latest version) contains any elements of the 'Freighter' story so perhaps this is something Snyder - always trying to remain faithful to the source material - might have injected himself or hired someone to write scenes for.
The New York Times notes that one of the judges on the "Watchmen" lawsuit, digs what he's seen. "Federal judge Gary A. Fees said he had already seen a trailer for the film and liked it 'a lot' ," wrote the Times.
The same Judge also noted if Fox wins the lawsuit, they're probably going to block the film's release. “If they win, they’re going to get an injunction, in all likelihood.”
When asked about the litigation, Snyder said. "If they wanted to come and stop us, I guess they would. But they haven’t yet.”
Even Anne Thompson seems to be down with Watchmen. "The visuals are stunning. With Watchmen, he’s created a faithful adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel that will satisfy fans. The characters pop off the screen."
She notes that the original book gets a little "too cerebral," at times (which is kind of true) and that Snyder "added more action," which means Tse's script could have changed because it too remains pretty faithful to the story line of "Watchmen," without going into many of its tangents (like the 'Freighter' story).
Granted, we haven't seenDavid Zucker's ("Airplane!") new left wing satire film that sends up Michael Moore and "bleeding heart liberals," "An American Carol," but god, really, does anyone need to? It looks like a fucking joke. A farce of a film and Zucker used to be involved in some wonderfully silly films back in the day (the "Airplane!" series and "Top Secret," still rule, especially the latter). But my lord, this film looks beyond pathetic (it hasn't even screened for critics and has a LOL-worthy N/A rating on Rotten Tomatoes cause the publicists are keeping it away from people with a half a brain (critics) and no one's going to bother seeing it this weekend anyhow.
"James Woods makes a joke in the movie where he says: "You know, Michael [Moore], people who like your movies don't actually go to movies." I don't know if this will actually get a conservative audience to come out. I do think that it's the most radical movie of this kind that's been made—left or right. I don't think even JFK was as politicized as this."
Ha, what a laugh. Good luck at the box-office this weekend coming in 20th. Oh and guys, fire who ever made your poster, it's terribly un-enticing even to the most staunch Republican movie enthusiast. PS, has James Woods career fallen so low? Looks like it. We suppose its fitting that it's opening up the same weekend as left-wing leaning religious screed, Bill Maher's "Religulous" (which isn't very good either).
One of our biggest beefs withsome film blogs is the lack of critical faculties and the 'hey-we-like-everything' nature that seems pervasive with people just happy to be invited to something for free. More of an accumulative observation than it is an outright attack, it's disconcerting to note how oftenCinematical is at the lead of such trespasses. Whenever we see a review for some tepid and toothless comedy ("The Promotion" from earlier this year comes to mind), that we've barely heard of, more often than not the quote used on the poster or weekly ad comes from this AOL blog.
Case in point this new movie, "Just Buried" with fairly decent stars Jay Baruchel (an Judd Apatow mainstay) and Rose Byrne ("Marie Antoinette" and often found in the films of Danny Boyle). We hadn't heard lick one of this movie until we opened Time Out New York yesterday and we're assuming you haven't either. It's opening up in one theater in New York (Village East Cinemas) and reviews and awareness of the film are virtually non-existent. Turns out it's a Canadian indie with very little to no mainstream press attached to it outside of some of the larger sized Toronto publications (The Star and The Globe & Mail). 9 out of 10 times if a film opens up in New York and L.A. 90% of the critics in those city haven't heard of it, there's a reason. And it's simple: because it sucks and no one is working it hard (or at all) and its essentially be buried with a small, requisite release. But who's quote is highlighted in the ad? We might of guessed. There's only one and it's Cinematical of course. "A dark comedy that combines romance and homicide into one tasty confection. Fast-paced witty, clever and diverting. Winning performances."
Of course press quotes are generally frankenstiened and edited frpm reviews, reduced to their lowest-common denominator in the favor a film, but we just knew when we saw the ad (wait, what film is this??" Jay Baruchel??) that the quote was coming from Cinematical. So we ask: do these guys love everything? Maybe we need to track a little closer, but on the surface, it seems pretty eye-brow raising and queer as we've seen it time and time again.
Will Ozzie cinematographer Mandy Walker be nominated for an Oscar for her seemingly gorgeous work on BazLuhrmann's upcoming epic, "Australia"? We say seemingly because we've all only seen the (beautiful) trailer, but by god, just based on that arresting, lush and striking work, we'd practically say yes, she's a lock for a nod. The two films of the year left that we are dying to see are "Milk" and "Australia," and this little featurette about the photography of Luhrmann's film gives us all the more reason to anticipate the amazing-looking picture. We can't wait for this one. We're skeptical about something like this getting nominated, but if it's deserving, we hope it reaps a ton of nods. [ed. Ok, the above shot is Annie Leibovitz, but still, you get the, ahem, picture]. It's also nice to see a female D.P. You don't see a lot of them.
We just got back from our "day before the release" screening of "Blindness." Having received mixed reviews, Fernando Meirelles's latest ("City of God") isn't as terrible as some say, but it's not very good either. The positive aspects of the film aren't enough to outweigh the unfavorable second half of the film. The main thing going against the picture are its similarities to superior post-apocalyptic films such as "28 Days Later" and "Children of Men." When comparing the three films (which one can't help but do here), "Blindness" can't help but fall short. The threat of an epidemic of blindness is not nearly as scary or harrowing on screen as the infection in '28 Days' (Not the Sandra Bullock film) and the infertility in 'Children.'
Based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, the film follows a doctor's wife (Julianne Moore) who becomes the only person with the ability to see in a town where everyone is struck with a mysterious case of sudden blindness. She feigns illness in order to take care of her husband (Mark Ruffalo) as her surrounding community breaks down into chaos and disorder.
Strong performances are given by Moore, Ruffalo, and especially Gael García Bernal. The real surprise though, is the "thief" played by Don McKellar. Not only does he deliver a deliciously dark and funny portrayal, the Canadian multi-hyphenate also wrote the screenplay for the film. He has been acting for years now, but we hope he gets more notice from this role, because he is super deserving of some good material. (Maybe he should write it?)
Meirelles movie is also about 20 minutes too long. At one point, we thought it was going to end with a hokey "Who gives a fuck? We're blind!" ending, but surprisingly, the film kept going, moving to a different ending, not necessarily better, but not worse either.
The score, composed by Marco Antônio Guimarães, (or is it Uakti?) is sparse yet appropriate. Thinking back, the music only pops up at a few points in the film.
Like 'Children,' "Blindness" never explains why the epidemic has come about. All you know is that the white blindness is contagious. Unlike these dystopian films though, "Blindness" doesn't really make you worry about the safety of the characters, because the "good guys" have one up on the "bad guys." Julianne Moore can see, so what can a blind guy with a gun really do? Not even during the disturbing (in a bad way) scenes of sexual assault (as if there's a good way) did we fear for the characters.
"Blindness" isn't tracking well with critics, and will not likely get good word of mouth from the average movie goer. Scenes of rape, in the middle of the film, including the words "Can I suck on your nipples?" spoken by the extremely creepy Maury Chaykin may destroy any word of mouth the film deserves. That is where the film started to go down hill which is a significant reason why we don't like it. [C-]
PS, the first five minutes of "Blindess" are up on Yahoo. You can watch it below.
When Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler" was first announced, we were in absolute disbelief. We thought it was almost a practical joke because the concept seemed ridiculous. In fact, we semi-seriously assumed it was a comedy and probably based off the 'what if?' life of '80s WWF star Randy "Macho Man" Savage (given that the name of the character in the film is Randy "The Ram" Robinson, and Mickey Rourke's and his striking resemblance, we still think there's something to this).
The other element that had us convinced the film was a comedy was the fact that it was written by former The Onion, Editor-In-Chief, Rob Siegel. He wrote "The Onion" movie which we've never seen, but it went straight to video and is reportedly pretty bad.
Called a "seriocomic, existentialist wrestling drama," by the New York Film Festival folks, "The Wrestler" is funny and a lot funnier on the screen that it is on the page, but it's heartfelt nature and brutal wrestling scenes make it something far beyond a drama. And it's a well-written script.
So much so that it's got a very strong shot at a Best Screenwriting Nomination this year (Charlie Kaufman wrote himself out of the category this year with 'Synecdoche,' frankly, or at least with what's on screen - but actually the screenplay to that is great, we digress...)
So we posit: Will screenwriter Rob Siegel, be the first Onion alumni member to be nominated for an Academy Award? Yeah, we'd bet on it.
The trailer for "Let The Right One In" has hit the web. The Swedish vampire film that seems to have captivated our geek buddies at Slashfilm (said with affection, because of them we want to see it now) and hey it's not an American horror film so it's probably not crap just for that fact (it will certainly take international players to breathe life into painfully predictable notes of horror anytime soon).
Terrorized by bullies, lonely 12-year-old Oskar befriends a new neighbor, a mysterious young girl whose arrival coincides with a series of gruesome deaths and attacks. Though Oskar realizes that she's a vampire, his friendship with her is stronger than his fear.
During the "Changeling" Q&A at the New York Film Festival, one blogger had the cojones to ask a tangential question not related toClint Eastwood's drama starring Angelina Jolie, but about his political status. A lot of groans and exasperated sighs were heard from the audience (and maybe even ours), but it is an election year and it's right around the corner. What could have been a trainwreck part of the Q&A actually turned out to be a pretty interesting answer. Formerly a registered Republican, Eastwood said he's no longer down with the party. In fact, he sounded unconvinced and delusional with both parties and said he hadn't been very active in politics and said he was a registered member of the Libertarian party, which is pretty fitting if you think of the Lone Wolf-like characters of Eastwood's Spaghetti Western and action bad-boy days.
"Yes, I started out as a Republican in 1951 as a young twenty one year old in the army. I wanted to vote for Dwight Eisenhower, because like all politicians promising a lot of things, he was promising we'd go to Korea and end [that] war," Eastwood said of his early political leanings. "That's a brief history," he chuckled.
"But the Republican party, like the Democratic parties have changed dramatically in the fifty-some years I've been involved in [politics], so I've drifted to more of a Libertarian point of view.... The leave everyone alone and let's not overregulate [concept] was very appealing to a guy like myself who grew up in the '30s and watched my parents struggle in the depression."
"Nowadays, everyone is promising anything, that's the only way you can get elected," he said sounding skeptical. "You have to promise to give people all kinds of stuff, like cars, it's like an Oprah show... It's kind of perverted politics as far as I'm concerned. Whether Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama... whatever happens, who knows... It's a very confusing world we're in."
Confusing indeed. But still, you can't waste your vote on a party that doesn't really have a say, right? America certainly needs to do away with the two-party system, but in the meantime vote Obama or stop reading our blog (if we knew you'd vote McCain, we'd add a filter that would block you). Ok, that's our political digression for the year. Btw, Eastwood said he wouldn't be giving up acting which some made into headlines, but duh, he already starred in a movie this year that he's directing called, "Gran Torino," so what made you think he stopped?
Check about 2:13 into the video for Clint's thoughts on his politics. PS, it's interesting to note that Eastwood was on The Daily Show last night, but Jon Stewart failed to talk politics with him at all. Or at least, from what we saw. Many of us were still buzzing about from the VP debate. Without getting into it too much Palin's woman-of-the-people shtick worries us as it plays in Middle America well. Who cares if she's an idiot. They're not looking for that.
Everyone's pumping out there "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist," reviews because the Peter Sollet film comes out tomorrow. We like and enjoy all the principal players, Michael Cera, Sollet and also have a veritable crush on Kat Dennings, but let's face it. The bottom line of this movie is it aspires to be a great John Hughes-like teen comedy and by that measure fails. It's not terrible, but it's mostly disposable. Our full review (we saw it around the Toronto Film Festival) can be read here. Currently, 'Infinite Playlist, sits at a mostly divided 58% at Rotten Tomatoes. The indie-centric music is also pretty forgettable "Now That's What I Call Indie-Rock"-lite. Time Out New York has a great and cutting dig at the film. "Unless you believe that Death Cab for Cutie’s lyrics really speak to your life, 'Nick and Norah’s' charms are frustratingly finite." That made us totally lol, Hughes for the emo mallrat set.
For more info: The Playlistmasthead and its members. Or you can email us tips or submit a scoop.
Plot Synopsis
The Playlist is a film site that sometimes places an emphasis on film soundtracks and movie music, when applicable, but we're also just a regular cinema-obsessed website that covers regular film news, writes reviews, tracks dvd releases, etc. Secondarily, The Playlist is the official home to the kind of now-dormant Playlist Soundtrack Series.
Tips & News
Feel free to email us with soundtrack tips, regular film news and movie-music related stories or related topics you'd like covered. We're also always looking for contributors so let me know if you're interested.
You may not have heard of Bo Burnham yet, but the 18 year-old (virgin?) Youtube comedian/songwriter is soon to hit it big. Unlike most people his age, who are worrying about their college classes and trying to hit 5th base, Burnham is soon to work with comedy's best friend, Judd Apatow.
Posts
