Okay, that’s all from me until later today. I’m off to Comic-Con. Play nice. Consider this an open thread.
Category: Daily
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Searchlight backs Bridges’s “performance of a lifetime”
When I first began compiling my Oscar nomination predictions back in May, I took a wild-card Best Actor punt on Jeff Bridges in a little, then distributor-less indie called “Crazy Heart.”In truth, I had little basis for the guess other than the strong reputation of the 1987 source novel, and the fact that Bridges is surely one of the most sorely Oscar-overdue actors in the business. Like Ed Harris, he’s one of those dependable American stalwarts, well-liked by all, who you think must win at some point, but rarely land roles showy enough for the winner’s circle.
“Crazy Heart,” however, gives Bridges the opportunity to play a washed-up, alcoholic country singer seeking to get his life and career back on track — now just count the Oscar hooks in that sentence. How can he lose?
So I was interested to see my idea given at least some credence by Fox Searchlight, who recently acquired global rights to the film for a seven-figure sum.
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The intersection, nay, collision of art and commerce
This morning has been quite the disenchanting read on the internet. Everywhere I turn, it’s all the same content: “Nightmare on Elm Street” set visit reports, ogling nothing images released from “Iron Man 2,” Comic-Con preparations with the requisite trappings, “OMG, Sam Raimi’s gonna direct ‘World of Warcraft,’” etc. Bleak indeed. It seems to be an ever-growing symptom of the net as studios, more than ever, understand how to use various outlets as an extended mouthpiece.That mini-rant out of the way (apologies for that), I was nevertheless excited to stumble across — shock and awe — some intriguing exclusive content. Over at Filmonic, the discussion of the economy’s affect on studio decisions has reared its head in the form of a retrospective on David Fincher’s trials and tribulations putting together “Alien 3” at 20th Century Fox. It’s a nice summation of what went down (for the most part), with particular emphasis on the lingering anxiety over how today’s environment will hinder some of the talented new filmmakers in our midst.
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Blind attack
The imminent release of “Antichrist” on this side of the pond has prompted some amusing journalism, as outraged critics make flustered pleas for a return to tighter censorship. (Apparently, adults over the age of 18 can’t be trusted to make their own viewing choices.)Of course, they’re obliviously playing into Lars Von Trier’s hands by publicising the film so generously — thanks to them, even my less cine-literate friends have now expressed interest in seeing it.
Unsurprisingly, the most hilarious tirade against the film comes from that bastion of little-Englander conservatism, the Daily Mail, in which self-proclaimed “libertarian” Christopher Hart strikes down upon the film with great vengeance and furious anger, even calling for it to be banned, and only briefly pausing to admit he hasn’t actually seen it:
You do not need to see Lars von Trier’s Antichrist to know how revolting it is.I haven’t seen it myself, nor shall I – and I speak as a broad-minded arts critic, strongly libertarian in tendency. But merely reading about Antichrist is stomach-turning, and enough to form a judgment.
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7/22 Web Round-up
• John Campea rattles off a list of the six movies he’d love to see but that will never happen. [The Movie Blog]• Patrick Goldstein translates Bob Weinstein’s classified in search of a new assistant. [The Big Picture]
• Chloe Fox talks to “The Ugly Truth” star Gerard Butler about “mixing the rough with the smooth.” [Daily Telegraph]
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Tim Burton gallery unveiled at official site
One of the more eagerly anticipated participants at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International is Tim Burton, making his first ever appearance. Burton will be on hand Thursday to unveil footage from next spring’s “Alice in Wonderland” and again Friday as producer of Shane Acker’s “9.”Additionally, there are a ton of Batman events scheduled in the wake of the popular and critical success of “The Dark Knight,” but also to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the theatrical release of Burton’s original film. The filmmaker isn’t scheduled for those events in any capacity, but matched with the also in-attendance Henry Selick (director of Burton’s “A Nightmare Before Christmas” but heading to San Diego for the DVD/Blu-ray release of “Coraline”), it all makes for the most Burton-esque Con yet.
With that in mind, “The Official Tim Burton Gallery” has finally been unveiled over at the director’s official website. There are a number of images in a pair of rooms you can virtually browse (with Burton character Stain Boy serving as a guide of sorts). It’s all in preparation for an upcoming hardcover, the details of which you can find, along with a few personal favorite images, after the jump.
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‘Bronson’ poster
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Nothing…going…on…
Just Comic-Con prep. And I really just am not interested in the “TR2N” viral stuff, but I did come across this IMDb tweet regarding Norman Jewison’s birthday. As I mentioned recently, I’ve been buried in Mark Harris’s “Pictures at a Revolution,” so Jewison’s “In the Heat of the Night” has been very much on the brain. So…Happy 83rd to one of the good guys.
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What’s “unfilmable” now?
In the wake of “Watchmen,” adapted from a notoriously dense piece of popular culture and a nut some think Zack Snyder and company finally cracked this year, Scott Thill at WIRED Magazine is asking what else is out there that’s also “unfilmable.” I personally think the idea of something being “unfilmable” is bullshit. Perhaps as far as faithful adaptation goes, maybe, but cinema is a medium with nearly limitless possibilities, so if you can’t dive in and creatively bridge the gap, you have no business trying to do so in the first place. That’s my view, anyway.The WIRED list includes a number of the usual suspects, two of them being graphic novels that I would hesitate to consider all that difficult when it comes to adapting this stuff (Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman”). Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” tops the user generated rankings, perplexingly. It’s a sci-fi heavy collective, though, so maybe fanboys are just protecting their own.
One of the choices, which gets some dedicated copy, is a challenge I’d love to see some intrepid filmmaker take on — William Gibson’s cyberpunk-birthing “Neuromancer.”
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Women on top
It’s been a couple of months since I discussed the notion of 2009 being a watershed year for female filmmakers at the Oscars, and it’s a possibility that seems to be gaining traction. Sasha Stone recently responded to a post of mine by toying with the slogan “year of the woman,” while a new post by indieWIRE’s Peter Knegt continues the discussion.Like me, Knegt fancies the chances of Lone Scherfig and Jane Campion in the race, but his chief interest at the moment is in Kathryn Bigelow, whose film “The Hurt Locker” he declares “the biggest news to hit this year’s race,” based principally on the unexpected strength of its critical reception:
Coming off a well-received run in the festival circuit, most expected Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” would find some good reviews and perhaps even make a bit of money. But “Locker” didn’t just find good reviews, it found ecstatic ones … And while judging its promising $2.2 million-and-counting – after four weeks and without going over 100 screens – is still premature, “Locker” is certainly exceeding financial expectations thus far.
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Zen pulp, Michael Mann, part four
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Remembering 1999, the movie year that was
Last year I dedicated one of the first formal installments of The Lists to the films of 1999, one of the most electrifying slate of films to come along since Hollywood’s epic 1939 peak 60 years prior. There was an embarrassment of riches, truly, great work from the classic masters, eye-opening new work from future masters and everything in between.There was exceptional independent filmmaking on display as well as impressive studio offerings. Envelope-pushing was the norm while formulaic studies also seemed curiously refined. As the century drew to a close, it seemed, in some ways, that 1999 would come to represent everything that made the medium so special for its first 100 hundred years.
Over at Movie City News, Noah Forrest has dedicated a new column to the discussion. He can be forgiven, I think, for twisting in the winds of indecision when it comes to pegging a personal best film from 1999, but he also offers a number of other superlatives to honor the films and performances from the year.
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‘Alice’ trailer on the way
From Disney:Be the First to See the ALICE IN WONDERLAND Teaser Trailer!
The Loyal Subjects of the Red Queen, the Loyal Subjects of the White Queen, and the Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter are all building armies on Facebook. The fan page with the biggest army at 4PM PDT on Thursday, July 23 will get to see an exclusive new trailer from Disney’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND before anyone else.
So be sure to log onto Facebook and choose a side.
The Loyal Subjects of the Red Queen: www.facebook.com/RedQueenSubjects
The Loyal Subjects of the White Queen: www.facebook.com/WhiteQueenSubjects
The Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter: www.facebook.com/MadHatterSubjects -
7/21 Web Round-up
• The forthcoming release of “Julie & Julia” delays author Julie Powell’s follow-up book. [New York Observer]• Seth Rogen takes “Entourage” (which is slowly jumping the shark this season) and its creators to task. [Movieline]
• Going to Comic-Con? Download the official iPhone app. [Apple]
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An evening with Clint Mansell
It has been a very long time since I sat myself down in a wooden pew, but I think it’s safe to say that the last church recital I attended didn’t begin with a speech by a rebel auteur from Brooklyn, didn’t involve any electric guitars, and it certainly wasn’t accompanied by video imagery of Mickey Rourke. But then, the last church recital I attended wasn’t by Clint Mansell.A short stroll from my home in quiet North London, the Union Chapel is a converted (but still active) Victorian church that moonlights as an alternative music venue — perhaps the city’s loveliest — and tonight it played home to the extraordinary film composer and his musical cohorts.
A cosy, candle-lit suburban chapel may seem a slightly odd setting for an evening that was largely devoted to the considerably harsher screen worlds of Darren Aronofsky, whose Mansell-penned film scores formed the bulk of the evening’s program, but it quickly proved a comfortable one.
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Crooks
The facts: My high speed internet service is provided by Charter Communications. I have a monthly bill of $69.98 (which is already too much for the service I receive, but that is neither here nor there). I am offered a higher speed for a 30-day free trial. I am told if I am not happy with the service to call when I receive my bill and the fee will be removed. I accept the service. I am unhappy with the service, which is neither faster nor slower than the service I already had. The bill arrives. I call Charter Communications and ask to have the service removed and to revert back to my former service. I am told I will no longer receive the grandfathered rate of $69.98 and will instead have to pay $74.98 because I have removed and added a service. I argue that I was told my bill would revert to the same service and same fee. I get nowhere with my perfectly reasonable argument. The conclusion one comes to is that Charter Communications is exploiting a loophole by playing games such as these with long-standing customers in order to squeeze a few measly extra bucks per month out of them. If you have a choice of internet providers, my suggestion is to stay as far away from Charter Communications as possible. I will certainly be taking my business elsewhere.
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Wishing Adam Yauch a speedy recovery
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch (aka MCA) has been diagnosed with cancer in his salivary gland. We at In Contention wish him a fast and speedy recovery following his upcoming surgery.
A lifelong Beasties fan I may be (I’ve seen them live twice here in LA), but Yauch is also a hero to the independent film community. His cinema division Oscilloscope Pictures is a welcome haven amid studio dominance. And in its maiden year, the distribution wing gave us two of 2008’s most intriguing films, “Dear Zachary” (which landed on my top 10 list) and “Wendy and Lucy” (which landed on Guy’s). Here is a great NY Times profile on Yauch and Oscilloscope from September of last year.
Yauch announced his ailment alongside fellow Beastie Adam Horowitz (aka Adrock) in a video message on the group’s official website. He did so with trademark levity. Again, get well soon:
