In Contention

Category: Daily

  • New ‘Button’ TV spot

    A new spot for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” popped up on the Olympics last night.  There’s a rather sub-par clip of the commercial up on YouTube.  Hopefully something better will land soon.

    Eric Roth’s screenplay, by the way, is an out and out masterpiece.  I’ll be reviewing it in this space a week from tomorrow.  I was floored.  If David Fincher can come close to expressing those words on the screen, it’ll have to be considered one of the year’s best films.

    Here’s the spot:

    Anne Thompson, meanwhile, is stirring the shit with some comments out of the studio regarding a lengthy cut from Fincher:

    The early word on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: again, David Fincher has handed in a movie to Paramount that is quite long. That hurt his last pic for Paramount, Zodiac. This film is polished to a fine sheen, I understand. The word from one viewer: “shiny.”

    Well, there is always the old agage: “No good film is too long, no bad film is short enough.”  We’ll see, but the script is 160 pages (that could admittedly use some paring down), so it’s not like the studio didn’t know what it was getting in to here.

  • Putting the Bat on the couch

    So this is the weekend that the Bat proved stronger than the Force. You’ve surely heard by now that “The Dark Knight” is officially the second-highest grosser of all time in the US, with only “Titanic” sitting above it. Thrilled as I am to see “Star Wars” knocked down a peg, I have to say I never saw this coming. I knew the film would be big – I’m not a moron, I like to think – but I’m still at a loss to explain just what about the film has connected with the public on such a monumental level.

    So is The Sunday Times, it seems. In an interesting piece, journalist Christopher Goodwin poses a number of theories, but can’t really pin it down. (Can anyone?) He covers the obvious angles – the repeated fanboy viewings, the Heath Ledger angle bringing in an unusually broad audience for the genre – but ultimately thinks it comes down to something less tangible than that. Citing the film’s zeitgeisty qualities, he states:

    The film has become a touchstone, beguiling audiences with what appears to be popular, comic-book entertainment, but explores some of the most critical social and ethical issues we face today — in particular, the issues being wrestled with by countries, notably America, fighting the “war on terror”. As those who have seen it will know, The Dark Knight explicitly examines how far it is permissible for individuals and society to go in the fight against “evil”.

    Nothing new there, really. The political resonance of the film in today’s climate has been discussed ad nauseum, something Goodwin emphasises as he quotes extensively from critics such as Richard Corliss and Kyle Smith. For the sake of balance, he also pulls from Andrew Klavan’s perverse conservative reading of the film (covered by Kris here), wherein Klavan called the film “a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W Bush in this time of terror and war.”

    (more…)

  • Can ‘Revolutionary Road’ be too good for film?

    It’s a slow month for news, so I understand that film bloggers’ minds can wander. I sympathize with that. But even taking that into account, Jeff Wells’ recent post outlining his doubts over the upcoming ‘Revolutionary Road’ struck me as pretty tenuous. Wells’ essential argument is that the film’s stumbling block looks to be the sheer brilliance of Richard Yates’ source novel:

    The more formidable the reputation of the book that’s been made for the big screen, the greater the odds that the film will have problems of one kind or another. The motto, in short, is that it’s not the beauty of the prose but the strength of the bones that counts.

    Truthfully or not, fairly or unfairly, that’s the general belief. And given this, it’s hard not to feel a little queasy about Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road,” the forthcoming Leonardo DiCaprio-Kate Winslet drama that’s based upon Richard Yates’ hugely respected novel about suburban middle-class malaise in the 1950s.

    In response, let me begin by offering offer a subjective, by-no-means comprehensive selection of exceptions to Wells’ stated theory – literary adaptations that are in equal proportion of greatness to their source material. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” for one. “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” is another. “To Kill a Mockingbird” was okay, and “A Clockwork Orange” didn’t totally suck either. “The Grapes of Wrath,” “LA Confidential,” “Tess,” “Trainspotting,” “Kes,” “Howards End” … you get the idea.

    (more…)

  • Going gently

    I’ve made the decision to quietly retire from combating whimsical notions that “The Dark Knight” will be nominated for Best Picture.  It makes me feel like a grumpy old man and you can only fight the same two or three tired and hollow supporting arguments so many times before you realize people have blinders on.

  • Palahniuk gets lost in wishful thinking

    Bad news for everyone who got excited when Chuck Palahniuk blabbed to the BBC that Radiohead were composing the score for “Choke.” Seems Palahniuk himself got a bit overexcited when he said:

    Clark Gregg … knew that I’d written “Choke” while listening to “Pablo Honey,” with “Creep,” over and over and over. So Clark got Radiohead to contribute a song; to write a song for the very end of the movie, the final credits. Apparently Radiohead liked the movie so much, they’ve written the score, most of the ambient music throughout it. So it’s “Choke” – with the music of Radiohead.

    It’s a sweet story. Pity it’s not really true. Radiohead have categorically denied that they’ve written the score. Though there will indeed be a Radiohead song over the end credits, it’s not an original composition but a track from last year’s “In Rainbows” album. (“Reckoner,” to be precise.)

    So anyone hoping the Academy might be presented with an opportunity to make up for this year’s Jonny Greenwood fumble – as if – will have to keep waiting.

    (On a side note, The Guardian caught the film at last week’s Locarno festival and deems it “amiably shambolic (and) oddly soft-centred.” Check out their festival wrap-up here.)

  • New (ish) ‘Australia’ images

    This page of “Australia” images is a Movie City News exclusive, though at least two of the pics have been on the net in some form for a while (including the saucy rain shot that’s been sitting cropped on our buzz page for some time).  In any case, these look to be an initial set of teaser posters for the film:

    Australia posters

    I dig it.  The first shot of Hugh Jackman is the more fetching, though.  Fox is gearing up a major campaign for this film, which will likely have the full power of the studio behind it, what with Searchlight’s apparent off-year.  I’m looking forward to it, but with an odd sense of anxiety.

  • Kevin Smith sees ‘Watchmen’…and LOVES it.

    Kevin SmithFrom the writer/director’s MySpace blog (via /Film):

    I saw “Watchmen.” It’s fucking astounding. The Non-Disclosure Agreement I signed prevents me from saying much, but I can spout the following with complete joygasmic enthusiasm: Snyder and Co. have pulled it off.

    Remember that feeling of watching “Sin City” on the big screen and being blown away by what a faithful translation of the source material it was, in terms of both content and visuals? Triple that, and you’ll come close to watching “Watchmen.” Even Alan Moore might be surprised at how close the movie is to the book. March can’t come soon enough.

    I think it’s fair to say that if the movie was shite, Smith wouldn’t be singing its praises.  Not that he’d be ripping it apart, he’d probably just abstain from commenting.  He never misses an opportunity to talk shit about Tim Burton’s “Batman,” so this news has me jacked.

    And no, I’m no Smith fanboy.  I hate…just about every single one of his movies.  But he’s a stand-up guy when it comes to commentary.

  • NYT Mag talks to Penélope Cruz

    Lynn Hirschberg from The New York Times Magazine sat down recently with “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” star Penélope Cruz for TMagazine (the NYT fashion mag).  It’s another one of those slick black and white jobs like the “Pineapple Express” interviews from last week.

    The first half she spends talking about her relationship with director Pedro Almodóvar.  They’ve just finished up production on “Los Abrazos Rotos,” their fourth film together.  Then she gets into Woody and “Vicky.”  Apparently “Deconstructing Harry” is her favorite Allen flick.

    She’s so infectious.  Have a look (though the black-on-black makes for a strange floating head thing):

  • Amazing

    I didn’t notice this until today, but it looks like “The Dark Knight” leap-frogged “Pineapple Express” on Tuesday, the first non-weekend day it has over-earned the stoner comedy over the past week and a half.  And it’s been on top of it since.  It’s also nipping at the heels of the “Tropic Thunder” daily take at the moment.

    Stunning.

    Saturday is the day, by the way, that the film knocks “Star Wars” down a notch on the domestic chart.  Unless it can manage $6.5 million tomorrow (which is certainly possible).

  • Ken Turan’s video review of ‘Vicky’

    Huh? I just came across this at Awards Daily, but it seems that Kenneth Turan is doing video reviews now. The first one (well, the first one I’ve seen, anyway) is for Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

    Turan liked the film, though he considers it “only sporadically entertaining.” But the real story here has to be the bastardization of Turan’s art form. A 60 second one-off? I guess it’s fine since it accompanies the full review, but I gotta say, kinda odd.

    And ease up on the head room, cameraman.

  • DOH!

    Cover of Entertainment Weekly's 2008 Fall Movie Preview

  • Greengrass isn’t up for ‘Chicago 7’ after all

    Well that’s a bummer. It turns out the “timing didn’t work out” for director Paul Greengrass on the DreamWorks film “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” The director has confirmed as much with CHUD’s Devin Faraci.

    We can dream, I suppose…

  • Fitzgerald’s agonizing beauty

    Cover of The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonI sat down last night to spend a half-hour with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”  It’s been ages since I first gave the story a look and I don’t even think I ever read it throughout until yesterday, but the measured simplicity of it all was striking.

    I don’t count myself one of Fitzgerald’s followers.  I don’t find myself attuned with whatever it is that makes legions of readers consider “The Great Gatsby” to be the greatest American novel, for instance.  I typically find myself leaning toward Hemingway’s brand of the mundane instead, but that’s neither here nor there.

    The structure of “Button” is what stuck out to me.  The strange sort of insight into the stages of one’s life and how Fitzgerald flipped those notions on its ear is incredibly effective.  By the last page, I had that knotted feeling in my stomach, the kind you get after you know you just experienced something that is much more than yourself.  The truth apparent in the final moments, the skewed vision of a life at its end, it was almost too much.

    And I imagine Eric Roth’s adaptation is just as in tune with these notions, albeit in an expanded (well…greatly expanded) format.

    Additionally, the trailer for the film seemed to carry across a similar structure that stuck out to me the moment I saw.  I didn’t know how to address it at the time but reading the original work last night hammered it home.

    All things considered, I think “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” might be my most anticipated film of the upcoming Oscar season.  It seems the easy choice, the obvious one.  No one can argue with the apparent artistry on display from what we’ve seen so far and I find myself watering at the mouth the more I consider its potential.

    I also find myself thankful that a guy as savy and complex as Roth is the one to take the story to adapt the tale for the screen.  Of course he would.

    Roth’s screenplay wil be reviewed here at “Page to Screen” on Tuesday, August 25.

  • Jackie Earle Haley unmasked on set of ‘Watchmen’

    It’s no secret that, despite some nay-saying and general anxiety about Zack Snyder’s upcoming “Watchmen,” I have been on board since we first caught a glimpse of the trailer back in July. I got the sense that Snyder’s visual style might be strangely suited to the material in a surprising sort of way that could make it fresh for even the die hard fans.

    And indeed, when that first still was released almost a year ago, I began to nurture an affinity for the look of the production.

    Anyway, I came across this G4 behind-the-scenes look at the film recently and my excitement level kicked it up a notch.

    The most surprising inclusion was an interview with Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley, who takes on the iconic role of Rorschach (a.k.a. Walter Kovacs) in the film. We get our first look at Haley’s look behind the mask and I have to say they stuck the landing. Take a look:

    (from left) Walter Kovacs in Alan Moore\'s Watchmen and Jackie Earle Haley on the set of the film

    Here’s what Haley had to say about Snyder’s approach to the material:

    It’s awesome. The guys is absolutely prepared…he’s previsualized the whole movie. He’s got amazing storyboards. He’s got wonderful depth and understanding for the characters, for the story, for the symbolism. Just everything.

    I’ll be honest. I haven’t come across one piece of news that has turned me off of this production yet. I just hope the inevitable truncation of the graphic novel doesn’t put fanboys up in arms. I’ve never been of the unreasonable mind that portions of the book could be abbreviated or composited.

    And Snyder’s already having a tough time whittling down what he did decide to include. So he’s certainly not out to make it a Cliff’s Notes version from the start.

  • New ‘W’ posters: “A life misunderestimated?”

    The folks at Film School Rejects stumbled across a couple of new teaser posters for Oliver Stone’s “W” recently. They were sent in from a reader who scoped them out on the streets of Denver and they feature the tagline “A life misunderestimated.”

    Interesting. I like the one on the right a lot:

    W posters

  • Oh yeah, the ‘Half-Blood’ bump

    Michael Gambon in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceI received the press release regarding Warner Bros. pushing “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” to 2009 earlier today when I was out and about. And frankly, four hours later, it had already slipped my mind.

    So what does this mean in the awards landscape? I’m not sure, since WB isn’t one of the awards-obsessive studios that makes decisions based only on “the season.”

    Maybe the movie is crap and needs some work. Maybe the studio smells blood after “The Dark Knight” and feels that “Terminator Salvation” isn’t enough of an ace in the hole next summer. I don’t know. But the wizard’s out of the derby now and that frees up some budget dollars for “Knight” and “Body of Lies.”

    That’s all I’m saying…

    Anyway, bravo to Steve Kloves for whoring it out on seven straight projects after an artistic showcase like “Wonder Boys.” The checks must be substantial. And his cut-and-paste function must be wearing out by now.

  • Is ‘Basterds’ [sic] developing the worst cast ever?

    Mike MyersThe on-going saga of Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards” seems to be one fumble after another as far as I can tell.

    It makes you wonder why Brad Pitt would slum it in a screenplay this abysmal to begin with, but he’s finding himself on screen with Eli Roth of all people. Simon Pegg is a hell of a comedic commodity on some level, but he’s painfully out of place here.

    Meanwhile, B.J. Novak is a heck of a writer and pulls some stellar weight on NBC’s “The Office,” but he’s quite a distracting addition to the cast, while the rumors that Adam Sandler was on deck made me want to shoot myself in the face. Twice.

    And now I’m hearing that Mike Myers has been cast in this farce of an ensemble from the master of exploiting any and everything around him……eesh.

    Apparently this will be a small role — nothing major. Expect Variety to reveal that bit of info later this evening, FYI.

    (UPDATE, 6:00 p.m.: And on cue, the trade does just that. According to Michael Fleming, “Myers will play British Gen. Ed Fenech, a military mastermind who takes part in hatching a plot to wipe out Nazi leaders.”)

    Anyway, hey — who am I to say? Maybe this is the greatest blend of “talent” ever assembled and I’m just out to lunch. Maybe this will be a full-blown masterpiece of comedic absurdity. Maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt…

  • ‘Batman 3’ poster…

    Okay, so it’s fan made. But it’s pretty friggin’ sweet:

    Fan made poster for The Dark Knight sequel

    Oh, and by the way: Hahahahahaha!

    (Courtesty: /Film)