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.
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.”
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.
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.
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
• 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]
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.
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.
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:
“The Vintner’s Luck,” from “Whale Rider” director Niki Caro, is one of a number of under-the-radar titles we’ve had our eyes on in the Contenders section since February. The film is described as concerning “an ambitious young peasant winemaker and his lifelong relationship with an angel as together they grapple with the sensual, the sacred and the profane in search of the perfect vintage.” Alrighty. It stars Vera Farmiga and 2002 best Actress nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes, and this being “the year of the woman,” as Guy has pointed out in the past, it’s worth passing along (thanks to reader Adam):
Over at Cinematical, Todd Gilchrist has taken on the gift that keeps on giving: moronic junket journalists and their moronic queries. In a post titled “Dumbest Questions Abound at the ‘Orphan’ Junket,” Gilchrist rattles off the top five doozies, saving this nugget for last:
1. Are you ready to be hated by America for being this sinister antichrist of this film?
How anyone could casually ask a 12-year-old this question is incomprehensible, and inexcusable. I think there are legitimate and even good ways to ask this question, such as, “are you concerned at all that people might confuse you with this character?” or “do you worry that people might react to you negatively because of how scary your character is?” Amazingly, Isabelle Fuhrman managed to come up with the perfect answer, and provide the junket’s highest point just when it seemed like it was at its lowest:
“If America hates me, then I’ve done my job,” she said. “That’s the point of the movie!”
She should have then punched said journalist in the mouth, but there’s time.
Like the rest of the web geek world, I guess, I’m gearing up for this year’s San Diego Comic Con International, which begins with preview night on Wednesday.
All eyes, of course, are on Thursday’s slew of events, a treasure trove of goodies that made for a ton of Sophie’s choices when putting together my personal schedule. I’ll definitely be at the Disney panel, with glimpses of Robert Zemeckis’s “A Christmas Carol” in 3D and a taste of Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” among other things. Speaking of 3D, perhaps the most anticipated panel will be James Camerons “Avatar” event. I’m definitely looking forward to that, but the likely crowd of humanity that will be doing same? Not so much. Trying to wrangle some VIP consideration as we speak.
The Peter Jackson-produced “District 9” isn’t as high on my to-do list as most, but I’ll probably park it for Paramount’s “Iron Man 2” Panel on Saturday. The film just wrapped a 72-day shoot over the weekend, by the way. Warner Bros. also has a panel, on Friday, but Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are” is the only thing that has me interested there. Focus Features also plans a considerable presence with “Coraline” (the Blu-ray and DVD of which hits shelves tomorrow) and “9.”
Oh, and Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” I suppose I should check that out.
Totally off topic, but an announcement landed in the inbox this morning concerning the upcoming release of “It’s Gary Shandling’s Show” on DVD. This isn’t “The Larry Sanders Show,” mind you, which was big on HBO for a number of years, but the 20-year-old original sitcom the actor starred in long ago. I used to watch it along with “The Tracy Ullman Show,” “In Living Color,” “Married…with Children” and “The Simpson” back when Fox had a powerhouse prime time line-up.
Anyway, it dug up memories so I thought I’d share. The opening theme song always cracked me up: “This is the theme to Gary’s show, the opening theme to Gary’s show, this is the music that you hear as you watch the credits.” Brilliant.
(Full press release on the forthcoming DVD release after the jump.)
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon walk. But I’m having trouble drumming up any real feeling about that since it really hasn’t meant a damn thing since. We never went back with any real initiative, the space program has stalled for the most part and never seems to break any new barriers and, yeah, I actually put some level of stock into the idea that we never went there in the first place.
Don’t get pissy with me. I guess we could look at the tapes again. Oh, wait. NASA “lost” them and “probably taped over” them. That ought to get the conspiracy theorists’ hearts racing.
But seriously, I can’t say the occasion is particularly moving. It doesn’t feel like it has meant anything in the grander scheme. The “ours is bigger than yours” mentality that drove us to seek out a moon-landing in the first place doesn’t really register these days. Maybe I’d feel different if I were there, in the moment, feeling the vibe, etc. But from this perch, it’s not moving the needle. Just me.
Don’t tell Buzz Aldrin, though:
The occasion is marked by outlet after outlet this week. In the pages of The New York Times, John Strausbaugh writes up the centuries-old fascination with a moon landing in fiction, fables and film that preceded the Apollo 11 mission, while Jeffrey Kluger has the Time Magazine cover story (with some peripheral discussion on the conspiracy theory stuff).
(More fun after the jump.)
• Edgar Arce talks “The Cove” with documentarian Louie Psihoyos. [Latino Review]
• With Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” on the brain, Saul Austerlitz takes a look at the “dramedy” through the years. [Chicago Tribune]
• Meanwhile, Patrick Goldstein looks at the mystifying missed opportunity of the film’s one-sheet. [The Big Picture]
