Monday, December 14th, 2009

One may wonder how these four images comes together, but you soon will. I'll begin by saying that one of my favorite movies of all time is Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich, written by the enigmatic Charlie Kaufman. Kaufman's writing style on that film has been referenced in the cinema blogsphere twice today, and I must say, if we have to endure the copying of styles, it should definitely be that of Kaufman's. The first reference to the 1999 quirky classic comes the way of a Los Angeles Times article on the recent winner of the Hollywood Black List top spot, an annual ranking of the best screenplays yet to make it to the silver screen, The Muppet Man. The script is by an unknown by the name of Christopher Weekes, and is concerns the life of Muppet creator Jim Henson, but takes a more fantastical Kaufman-esque route that I think we would all generally identify as Henson's broad imagination would have seen things. Sadly, the article nearly confirms that the entry will stay on the Black List, as The Jim Henson Company would prefer a straightforward biopic on the ingenious man behind the felt creatures we all know and love.

Second on the list of Kaufman references comes the way of a Cinematical article on Tobey Maguire's future projects, particularly a film called Prisoners of Trebek, a surreal tale of a Jeopardy! contestant finding love during the show, with Alex Trebek taking a similar role to that of John Malkovich in the aforementioned Kaufman flick. Sounds absolutely incredible.

The article does not stop there though. It also links to a Latino Review story on how Maguire's agency is also in talks with Guillermo del Toro and the team behind The Hobbit to play the role of Bilbo Baggins. I have to say, I don't think anybody will be gung ho about the possible addition of Maguire, but I must say, if a person I am against has to get the role, at least I can be rest assured that Maguire actually has the ability to act. He kept the nerd audience at bay with a decent turn as Peter Parker, but more prominently showed his skills in the 2000 dramedy Wonder Boys. I am still personally pulling for a choice I saw offered up on a message board sometime back, Martin Freeman, most famous for his role in the British version of The Office, or to American audiences as Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

In some more very intriguing news/rumors that deserves a full post on its topic alone, Pajiba has thrown David O. Russell (still known to me as the guy that directed the incestuous comic romance Spanking the Monkey) as the possible director for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Even more amazing than that, during one my nights spent playing Madden 10 instead of blogging, it was announced that Natalie Portman will be producing and starring in the big screen version of the eccentric read.

Finally, if all of that news/rumor mill hasn't been enough to quench your thirst for the day, here is possibly the most kick ass video of all time from Back to the Future Part III, where Verne, one of Doc Brown's children, manages to sneak in a somewhat suggestive gesture in the background that just took roughly nineteen years to find and garner its own YouTube video. Enjoy.

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Strolling around the Interwebs and found this gem of a picture. Hope it brightened your day as it did mine.

The big news of the day comes courtesy of an MTV interview with Natalie Portman, in which the actress spilled the news that Kat Dennings was cast in Thor. Kenneth Branaugh's adaptation of the iconic Marvel character is already shaping up a nice cast and Dennings is just the latest name to be thrown into the pot, along with Portman, Anthony Hopkins and Chris Hemsworth thus far. The big question this arises is what character Dennings will play. The article ends with the speculation that she could step into the shoes of The Enchantress.

Finally, it should be no surprise to anyone how this weekend's box office returned. The Twilight Saga: New Moon easily took the number one spot garnering nearly $143 million. The teen vampire flick broke the midnight showing record set by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince set earlier this year, and the opening day record set by last year's The Dark Knight. However, fortunately for all of us movie nerds, Chris Weitz' installment in the Twilight franchise fell short of breaking The Dark Knight's weekend record.

Sunday, November 15th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Hotel Chevalier)

I've been slacking on blogging again due to school *sigh*. I know, I know, I need to get my priorities straight. Anyhow, to be quite brief tonight, in honor of Wes Anderson's new film The Fantastic Mr. Fox debuting this past weekend, although nowhere remotely close to my home theater, I thought I would take a look at Anderson's beautiful short film Hotel Chevalier.

The film acts as a prologue, and had its theatrical debut alongside Anderson's most underrated film of his career, 2007's The Darjeeling Limited. The storyline of the film is simply the character Jack, whom is called and visited by his ex-girlfriend, in which they engage into a tiny bit of non-explicit promiscuity and we assume it is the end of their relationship, ending with the couple taking a view of Paris. Jack is played by Anderson regular, the incredible Jason Schwartzman and his ex is portrayed by the stunning and amazing Natalie Portman. It's minimal, offbeat, beautiful and perfectly coupled with the feature film that follows. The only thing in my opinion keeping Hotel Chevalier from gaining the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is that the Academy disqualified the film for being released on the Internet before its theatrical run, as Anderson first released the films as an iTunes exclusive. Anyhow, please enjoy, unfortunately in two parts, Hotel Chevalier.

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

'Tis late, and I wasn't blogging due to being engrossed with The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. I will very openly admit how much I hate the NBA, but with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird being guests, the little boy in me was entranced. Anyhoo, instead of boring you, dear readers, with news for another night, since I am anxiously looking forward to tomorrow, as we are going to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day with a bonfire after I get off work, I will leave you with a scene from V for Vendetta... it's A Christmas Story for Guy Fawkes Day.

P.S. Since I will most likely not be blogging tomorrow, at least if the day goes anything like I am hoping, I will also leave a bit of a parting gift. Christopher Walken, he's an actor so it is relevant to the blog in my mind, recently recited the lyrics of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.


Also, because I'm giddy, and in that rare, crazed Walken mood, here he is in one of the greatest music videos of all time, "Weapon of Choice"... directed by Spike Jonze (director of Where the Wild Things Are and Being John Malkovich)... further relevance for the blog.

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

A huge movie news day to be so late in the week. First, the cinema blogsphere has been in utter turmoil since the trailer for James Cameron's upcoming sci-fi opus Avatar debuted this morning. The high quality Apple trailer has had problems all day, and now, the version I seen before work courtesy of TrailerAddict is no longer working. So, in the coming days, as soon as I find a trailer that I can embed, I'll put it on my blog. Anyhow, the big question of the day is, did the trailer hold the impact that the buzz had made all of us anticipate? Cinematical's Erik Davis has a nice article about that topic. I feel that it keeps the buzz. It looked incredible and kept most of the story elements from us. We're still left in the dark, with just a smidgeon of visuals. I hope it stays that way, leaving us completely shocked with whatever Cameron gives us on the big screen in December.

Aside from not being able to access the Avatar trailer, the day was by no means short on movie previews, with CNN Video posting this premiere of the trailer for Michael Moore's latest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story.


The Hollywood Reporter named the future scribes for the feature film Shazam! adaptation. Most blogs I went to today talked more of actor-turned-writer Billy Birch being part of the project, but I am more satisfied with the fact that his co-writer on the script will be Geoff Johns, a famed comic book writer that has worked with both DC and Marvel Comics. He is most famous for the work done with characters such as The Green Lantern, The Flash, Booster Gold, Hawkman, the Teen Titans, Batman and The Avengers. Oddly missing from that list is Captain Marvel, the hero of the Shazam! series. I'm not sure if Johns ever covered Billy Batson's alter ego in his work on the JLA comics or in his Infinite Crisis work, but it is always comforting to have an actual comics guy working on the screenplay.

ScriptShadow, a Blogspot account that reviews Hollywood scripts has come across Darren Aronofsky's upcoming effort Black Swan. I didn't read the entire review, as anybody that is even a casual fan of Aronofsky knows, you want to be left in the dark on the first viewing. With that said, you can't really go anywhere online today without finding out something on the script, and that is an included sex scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis' characters. Not just any sex scene at that, but an "angry aggressive" sex scene. I just hope not to be hit by any masturbation juices from the surrounding seats whilst watching the movie in theaters.

Yesterday, I touched on a bit of anger stemming from a potential Dirty Dancing remake. Today, via Variety, there is talk of a reimagining of the trippy animated Beatles cartoon Yellow Submarine. The film is to be put in the capable hands of Robert Zemeckis, through Walt Disney Studios, using his motion capture technology employed in the upcoming A Christmas Carol. The fact that Zemeckis is behind this still doesn't make me hate the idea any less. The movie works because it is trippy. If the Blue Meanies look like actual blue monsters, I refuse to watch it. I'm all for a reason to get The Beatles music back into the mainstream, a la the new Rock Band game, but is ruining a classic, that as far as I'm concerned isn't dated, the answer?

I won't be able to blog tomorrow as I have to work the graveyard shift. I'll be back on Saturday, but since I will not get to talk about it tomorrow, do not forget to go see Inglourious Basterds if you have the chance. I will more than likely have to wait until Saturday. Quentin Tarantino's film is really the only good thing coming to theaters this week. Robert Rodriguez has a film, in the same week as Tarantino. That would usually be reason to celebrate, but Rodriguez' flick is for kids, a film called Shorts that seem sub-par and as insufferably bad as his Spy Kids stuff. There is also about six other films that look watchable at first glance, but will all probably go unseen by me that I will not get into.

A rather long post, so I will end with the new trailer for Joe Johnston's The Wolfman. Quite good, enjoy.

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Well, thus begins the week of movie blogging after the San Diego Comic Con. With the endless news flowing out with feverish fluidity that made every blogger out there, be it the big timers at Cinematical or AICN, or the nobodies like myself whom, with giggly ecstasy write about our passion of cinema to a handful of readers if that, it makes the week after seem completely dead and void of any real news. But before we put the conventions of all conventions behind us, MaximumPC has a huge 600+ picture gallery of the excellent cosplay that went down. The one pictured, admittedly has more to do with the fact that somebody actually cosplayed as PedoBear than anything in the movie blogsphere, although to make it relevant, I found him sexually badgering some of the Disney movie princesses, in which the cosplayers could be of questionable age.

On to some news... the biggest of the day is the shock that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince didn't take the box office for the second straight weekend. I don't think anyone expected the live action/CGI combination of hamster secret agents in G-Force could outdo the absolutely massive and fanatic fanbase of the highly anticipated sixth Potter film. Completely mind-boggling. On a lighter shock for myself, The Ugly Truth beat out Orphan for the third spot. I just didn't see a lackluster romantic comedy that has been panned making more money than a horror film that good or bad, had a bit of a draw. So, what do you think for next week? Will Funny People take the top spot? Will Half-Blood Prince not take a huge drop from this week, and capture it again? Or will G-Force get two weeks as number one over these other blockbuster events? Let's hope against that last one at least.

MTV's movie blog has a bit of a surprising casting rumor. MTV had an interview with Robert Rodriguez about his upcoming film Machete, in which the director wouldn't confirm or debunk the rumors earlier this month about the possible casting of Robert De Niro and Jonah Hill, but added another name to the already motley crew of possibilities with Lindsay Lohan. The controversial tabloid grabbing actress was said to have a role waiting if she wanted to partake. How could Lohan not take it? She would be perfect for an exploitation film, as her acting wouldn't be on a spotlight, and is one of the few ways she could rejuvenate the minuscule film career she has left. But then again, do we want this? Couldn't Rodriguez, even if he thought he needed a publicity stunt, go elsewhere for someone that has already been in films that are more suited to the exploitation fan's tastes? Who knows.

Finally, The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Mila Kunis has been cast in Darren Aronofsky's upcoming supernatural story of dueling ballerinas, Black Swan, with Kunis taking the villainous role, that has been hinted might actually just be part of the main character's sub conscience. That main character has already been confirmed to be Natalie Portman. Excited about Aronofsky's latest head trip yet? I'll have to admit that I wasn't as hot about The Fountain as everyone else, although I absolutely love Requiem for a Dream, Pi and The Wrestler. I don't think there is any denying however, that even if I don't deem the movie a classic, it will certainly be worth a view.

P.S. I may or may not post tomorrow. I am going to King's Island just outside of Cincinnati. Since the park isn't owned by Paramount any longer, I don't think I'll find anything pertaining to my blog, but I will look diligently for nougat of something to post on here.

Monday, July 13th, 2009

This past March, I was averaging around 80% of all conversation being devoted to the Zack Snyder-directed adaptation of Alan Moore's classic graphic novel Watchmen. A lot of people I spoke to decided to dislike the film because of the change in the story's ending, although since it kept the central themes of Moore's writings, and the fact that the first 150 or so minutes of the film was nearly spot on perfect, it more than forgave the ending of a film that I feel is the best of the year, thus far. Notice that I put "nearly" spot on up there. Well, that's because the few things that Snyder did leave out for the theatrical version have either been teased or promised for the director's cut of the DVD, due out July 21st. Of course, one of the main events of the buy will be the deleted scene of Hollis Mason's murder, which shockingly, Warner Brothers has released on the Internet. Unfortunately, WB has disabled embedding of the clip, so here is the link for the YouTube video. Enjoy the clip, because like the rest of the film, it is unbelievably perfect.

Speaking of Snyder, I read a while back that he was shockingly going to put out his first PG-13 film with Sucker Punch, described in a previous Cinematical article as "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns". However, the chances of achieving the rating has just got slimmer as the blogsphere has been all abuzz due to a Metro UK story claiming that newly confirmed star of High School Musical fame Vanessa Hudgens will "strip naked" in the film.

Remember after it was announced that Raja Gosnell would take over a live-action version of The Smurfs, I said God hated Hanna-Barbera? Well, it was announced today, via Variety, that the wonderful cartoon Hong Kong Phooey will be next in-line for the live action/CGI hybrid silver screen fix, directed by Alex Zamm, whose last picture was the direct-to-video Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts. So yeah, that statement is now official.

Yesterday we took a look at a very impressive fan film in Ashes to Ashes (check it out if you already haven't). Today, Cinematical ran a story on the mother of all fan films, 472 people breaking up Star Wars into 15-second intervals, to make a hodgepodge mesh of different styles and interpretations of the film. Headed up by Casey Pugh, this could be ingenious, or the worst idea ever. Either way, it will certainly be interesting.

Natalie Portman was announced to be the big screen version of Jane Foster, the love interest of Thor. I'm not extremely knowledgeable on the Thor comics, so I don't know if this is a good call or not, but I quite love Portman, so it could definitely be worse.

Bruno took home the top of the box office this weekend. I have been trying to distance myself from reviews, in fear that I may ruin some of the better jokes. The sad thing is, I fear that with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince dominating this weekend, my local theater might just decide that it isn't even worth toying with anymore, as the second week intake up against the upcoming blockbuster will certainly be pitiable compared to this week.

And finally, speaking of the newest installation of the Harry Potter series, I will not be blogging tomorrow as I am to head out of town to a decent theater to take in the midnight showing. I will be back on Tuesday, probably with plenty of rants, and maybe with something a little special I can dig up as an offering for my absence.