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  • Studios could care less about Terry Gilliam’s ‘Parnassus’

    Terry GilliamNick Plowman points us today to a Hollywood Reporter story (and really, we needed the heads up in this case…anyone reading THR anymore?) painting director Terry Gilliam’s latest film as a “tough sell.”

    Of course, the film in question, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” contains Heath Ledger’s swan song performance.

    Here’s the Reporter’s Steven Zeitchik:

    For U.S. distributors, the quirky Terry Gilliam film — centering on parallel worlds, a theater troupe and a devil-dealing 1,000-year-old doctor — presents a conundrum. On the one hand, it’s a chance for the history-making opportunity — not to mention a marketing coup — of releasing Ledger’s last movie.

    But it also comes with challenges that lately have followed the stubbornly noncommercial Gilliam. The director has been behind a series of boxoffice flops and hasn’t had a hit since “Twelve Monkeys” in 1995. Buyers who might otherwise be willing to shell out for a Ledger film are holding back.

    “In this market, unless I have a reason to think a movie like this is going to be a slam dunk I’m not going to take a flyer on it, even with Heath Ledger,” one distribution executive said. One specialty exec added few execs at his company had been tracking it.

    And Plowman’s sharp reply:

    Whenever a Terry Gilliam film is released, it’s a risky affair. They are never quite box-office or critical hits, and even the supernatural would rather he stayed away from the medium of film as well. He hasn’t had a hit since 1995…

    And you know what?  So be it.  Penance for Gilliam’s asinine comments from last month if you ask me.  Ledger lives on in infamy with “The Dark Knight.”  Given Gilliam’s track record as of late, “Parnassus” could be a blight on that legacy.

  • POLL: ‘Tropic’ thoughts?

    I’m out of town this week, family stuff, in and out, so an easy poll this time around (and, admittedly, a rather thin one…back on my ‘A’ game next week, I swear).

    Tell us what you thought of Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder,” which has been embraced by critics more than I anticipated.

    By the way, it seems most readers are anticipating a Best Picture nod for “The Dark Knight,” but it was awfully close throughout the week.

  • 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…)

  • Jet plane

    I’m in the air for the rest of the day.  Heading back east for some family goings-on, wedding particulars, etc.  See you on the other side…

  • Still funny

  • 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…)

  • Bravo

    Michael PhelpsI think there are plenty of arguments against “greatest Olympian of all time.” The nature of swimming events amplifies the amount of shots a competitor has at gold medals. And the striking differences between all events demands a subjectivity for each.

    But the Michael Phelps story at this year’s Olympic games in Beijing is one of those heart-warming things that gives you an excuse to smile in the dark recesses of the day-to-day grind. Eight gold medals. A new benchmark amid countless world records.

    Bravo, sir. Bravo for the memories, however telegraphed the achievement seemed to become in recent weeks. For the U.S. or for the world itself, healthy competition and accomplishments such as these are they’re own kind of healing. What a story.

  • “You know it would have happened eventually without the rough house.”

  • 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…