The Moviefone Blog

Bradley Cooper is Rumored Frontrunner to Play The Flash

Simon Abrams — 2010-10-11T16:32:00+00:00

Recent news about Zack Snyder being tapped to direct an upcoming cinematic Superman reboot has gotten us thinking: With Marvel's major tentpole projects all building towards a major 'Avengers' movie, what's next for DC? Not one to leave us in the dark for long, Deadline Hollywood already has word that one of the next super-franchises in the works for DC will be 'The Flash'. Deadline's head columnist Nikki Finke reports that a new script for the project will be handed in for studio execs' approval some time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. DC writer Marc Guggenheim and screenwriter Michael Green (writer on 12 episodes of the superb and sorely missed 'Kings') are writing the script in question and Greg Berlanti, director of 'Life As We Know It,' contributed to the story. Berlanti may also direct the film.

The news of a new 'Flash' story is interesting as the property had previously moved ahead with David Goyer at the helm, as both director and writer had tentative plans for Ryan Reynolds to star. That project fell through five years ago, though, and with Reynolds starring in at least two 'Green Lantern' movies and maybe even a 'Deadpool' spin-off, it's highly doubtful (some would say impossible) that Reynolds will star. Who then will step into Reynolds', ahem, shoes? Moviehole speculates that Bradley Cooper, star of the recent 'The A-Team' reboot and 'The Hangover,' is a likely candidate. Cooper, as Moviehole reported, was a name that was bounced around to play Green Lantern for a while before Reynolds got the job.

What say you? Would Cooper make a good Flash? More of a Barry Allen than a Wally West, maybe? Speak your mind in the comments section, Flash fans.

Surprise! 'The Secret in Their Eyes' to Get an American Remake

Simon Abrams — 2010-10-07T18:20:00+00:00

The L.A. Times' blog 24 Frames reports that an American remake of the Argentinian period thriller 'The Secret in Their Eyes' is being prepped. Director Juan Jose Campanella, director of 17 episodes of 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' and five episodes of 'House,' won the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture this past year for 'The Secret in Their Eyes,' beating out Michael Haneke's 'The White Ribbon' and Jacques Audiard's 'A Prophet.' The film' follows a decades-old murder mystery that lawyer protagonists pursue through cold case evidence and eye-witnesses' recollections.

The trouble with remaking 'The Secret in Their Eyes' will mainly be, as the Times' Steven Zeitchik pointed out, a problem of figuring out a way to translate the political payoff of the film into an American story. Much of the plot can be moved piecemeal without much difficulty, but there are elements specific to Argentinean history. It sort of reminds of how David Fincher decided to shoot 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' in Sweden (with English-speaking actors), where the original was based, instead of re-locating it to the United States.

Then again, as Zeitchik points out, a couple of Best Foreign Film winners, like 'The Lives of Others,' have previously been optioned to be remade in America but have never progressed beyond that point. It'd be a challenge for whoever were to adapt the film, and in light of Campanella's history as a television director, it wouldn't be that surprising to see him helm the remake too ... if it ever gets that far, that is.

Have you seen the film? Do you think it could be remade for an American audience?

'Red Eagle' Trailer: Thailand's Version of 'The Dark Knight'

Simon Abrams — 2010-10-06T16:20:00+00:00

Thailand will prove it can kick a little superhero ass too when it debuts 'Red Eagle', the latest (and potentially) final film by Wisit Sasanatieng, director of the eye-popping "Pad Thai western" 'Tears of the Black Tiger.' Sasantieng. An immensely talented pop artist whose visual styles have lent themselves to several visually playful TV commercials and a handful of equally wonderful feature films, he's announced that he'll likely retire after directing the superhero flick.' 'Red Eagle' is a re-invention of the titular Thai superhero, whose franchise was most popular in the 1950s-1970s. The feature then is in the vein of Christopher Nolan's Bat-movies in that it re-invents the character for a new audience.

The trailer for 'Red Eagle' is a blast, full of the kind of visual flair that reminds us that comic book characters are flamboyant and serious. The violence looks about as over the top as other recent Thai actioners, but the fact that there's some hints of comic book surrealism in the trailer (can you say laser eyebeams?) make that typical severity go down nice and easy. Check out the plot synopsis and trailer for 'Red Eagle' after the break.

The official plot synopsis:

A nuclear power plant is about to be commissioned upon the signing of corrupt and power hungry politicians. The citizens are in frenzy, as they oppose this plan but they cannot do a thing about it. And so, a hero was born, chasing down the criminals and the corrupt, killing of whatever threatens the city's well being. He leaves a card with his name simply as "THE RED EAGLE". However, the hero becomes the hunted, when the politicians send out their best defense, known as "THE BLACK DEMON".

[via io9]

'Superman' Update: Story Details, Script Issues and Who the Studio Really Wanted as Director

Simon Abrams — 2010-10-06T11:46:00+00:00

With the net now abuzz with talk about 'Dawn of the Dead' director Zack Snyder having been tapped to direct 'Superman: Man of Steel', the upcoming 'Superman' reboot, news is hitting fast about which director Warner Bros. really wanted before they eventually settled on Snyder.

New York Mag's Vulture blog reports that 'The Fountain' director Darren Aronofsky was nearly handed the job until he learned that the studio opted to go with Snyder. Aronofsky was reportedly very interested in the original idea for the project (the one we assume was pitched by Christopher Nolan and David Goyer) -- where Clark Kent has to decide whether or not he wants to be Superman while traveling the world as a journalist.

We're not sure how close that storyline is to what's currently on the page, or what will eventually hit screens, but it definitely sounds like a more modern take on the iconic superhero -- one that would allow room for current political events and an indecisive Superman who's desparately trying to contemplate whether he should step in or stay away and let people deal with their own problems.

Upon learning he wasn't going to land the gig, Aronofsky -- who, on paper, seems like a much better fit for this sort of material -- started eyeing other new projects, which apparently includes Marvel Studios' 'Wolverine 2' and the WB property 'Tales from the Gangster Squad', which Ben Affleck just recently turned down (he also turned down 'Superman' too).

What's interesting to note, however, is that according to Vulture's sources, part of the reason why Snyder was chosen was because Goyer's submitted script was "rushed" and more than a little sloppy, but delivered on time:

"We're told by knowledgeable insiders the reason Warner Bros. picked Snyder for Man of Steel is that the script by David Goyer was rushed, is still a bit of a mess, and that Warner Bros. needs someone who won't spend months or even years trying to get it just right (i.e., Aronofsky), because time is the one thing they don't have: The studio must have a new Superman movie in production by 2011 or they'll be subject to potential lawsuits by the heirs of the superhero's creators."

Unfortunately, that sounds like the studio said no to Aronofsky because he's a guy who likes to take his time on things in order to get it right. Warner Bros. seems like they want to get it right, though they're more concerned with getting it done ... on time, and perhaps all those delays and problems Aronofsky had on the big-budgeted 'Fountain' are still coming back to haunt him. Vulture goes on to say that Snyder was effectively the studio's shotgun choice, a high-profile guy they had to tap now simply because they wanted to get the ball rolling.

What say you, fine folks: Would Aronofsky have been a better choice?

Disney's Version of 'The Avengers' to Come with 'Magic Kingdom' Movie?

Simon Abrams — 2010-10-05T09:28:00+00:00

Variety reports that Disneyland is now scrambling to assemble what the studio is calling their version of The Avengers. Meaning: with films like 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'The Haunted Mansion' having already been made from films (the latter is also working on a re-do with Guillermo del Toro producing), the studio is now interested in creating a film that could bring all of their other films together, while centering it on Disney's iconic Magic Kingdom.

The project is tentatively called 'The Magic Kingdom', and weirdly enough 'Battlestar Galactica' creator Ronald D. Moore (I know, the remake, not the original -- but still, it's an entity unto itself, damn it) had a go at the project, having written a full script for the film. Then again, Disney execs are reportedly still seeking a screenwriter to continue work on the script; one that may need to focus more on a story that works in all these other characters. The vibe they're going for is one that's similar to the 'Night at the Museum' films.

That having been said, 'The Magic Kingdom' is not a top priority at Disney right now but it is something that is being seriously thought about. Instead, execs have other projects on the front-burners, like 'Tron: Legacy' in December, as well as film version of Disney rides like 'Jungle Cruise', 'Tomorrowland' and the previously mentioned 'Pirates 4' and 'Haunted Mansion' projects. Plus, if Disney is going to work in multiple characters -- like Mickey, Donald, Goofy, etc -- they're going to want to move slowly and carefully as to not put out a film that hurts these characters' images in any way.

Will it happen? Probably. When? We don't know yet. Could you see something like this working for Disney?

Variety's article also mentioned that Disney apparently has more weird and interesting projects based on theme park rides headed down the pipe, though who knows when or even if they'll happen. They mention that Guillermo del Toro is tapped to direct a Haunted Mansion movie, but as of now and that David Fincher is helming a new 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea adaptation. There are apparently also scripts based on the rides Jungle Cruise and Tomorrowland in various stages of development. Still, I kind of wish Ron Moore's Magical Kingdom was still on the table.

'Men in Black III' Casting News: Here Comes Emma Thompson

Simon Abrams — 2010-10-01T16:20:00+00:00

From 'Nanny McPhee Returns' to 'Men in Black III'? Apparently so.

According to Variety, Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson is in talks to co-star in the third installment of the 'Men in Black' movie franchise, in which she would play Agent Oh, a "MIB agent from the '60s monitoring a prison break."

Franchise veterans Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are set to reprise their roles as Agents Jay and Kay in the film, which has Agent Jay time-traveling back to the '60s to enlist the help of a younger K, played by Josh Brolin ('Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'). According to the report, 'Flight of the Conchords' star Jemaine Clement is in talks to play the film's villain.

If cast, Thompson would make a welcome addition to the franchise. If the 'Nanny McPhee' movies proved anything, it's that the Oscar-winning star of such classics as 'Howard's End,' 'The Remains of the Day' and 'Love Actually' still has plenty of comedic flair. Hopefully, 'MIB III' will give her the right outlet to use her skills. (If anything, I hope they give her a pair of sunglasses to rock.)

The film will be helmed by director Barry Sonnenfeld -- his first theatrical release since 2006's 'Runaway Vacation' -- from a script by 'Angels and Demons' scribe David Koepp.

'Men in Black III' hits theaters on May 25, 2012, in 3-D.

Fans Re-create 'Mad Max' During Badass Burning Man-Like Desert Festival

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-30T17:05:00+00:00

Well I'd heard of island re-enactments of Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner but this is...well, pretty awesome in its own right too. According to Jalopnik, October 22-24 is Wasteland Weekend, a three-day event where people can dress up like their favorite Mad Maxcharacters and head down to the Southern California desert to pay homage to all three Mad Max movies. While it's unclear how the festival works or what parts of what movies will be re-enacted -- I doubt people really want to be stuck re-enacting Beyond Thunderdome for more than an hour or two at most -- the idea sounds, conceptually, either like a lot of fun or like it will be the worst kind of Cosplaying. I hope it doesn't but fear it will license fans to indulge their mean streaks to the point where the fact that they're hanging around a real geographic location called Barter Town makes them think they can act like a post-apocalyptic @$$hole. Then again, it could be a blast, full of alcohol (Adults only! sez the press release), scantily clad ladies and lots of manly screaming.

Strangely enough, the press release for Wasteland Weekend says nothing about tying in with the upcoming fourth Mad Max movie, Fury Road, which is gearing up for production. There isn't even a hint of it, which means this might be more about the dressing up and blowing fire than it is about the movies. It's a strange choice, but hey -- if you're around Southern Cali and are a big Road Warrior fan, check this out. We've posted a commercial for the event and the press release after the jump. (And if you go, we totally want video!)

Wasteland Weekend is a three-day post-apocalyptic party in the desert. Friday, October 22nd to Sunday, October 24th 2010.

Join the hundreds of fans coming from all over the the United States (and beyond) to gather in the Southern California desert. Set up camp at our wasteland compound, surrounded by specially-built sets. Costumes are required and post-apocalyptic campsites and vehicles are encouraged. Live for three days in a world pulled straight out of the Mad Max movies, beyond the grip of so-called civilization.

Top DJs from all over will provide the soundtrack, fire dancers and bonfires will light up the night, and modified vehicles will shake the earth with their engines. Don't miss it! Tickets on sale now.

This is an ADULTS ONLY event.

'Enter the Void' Director Gaspar Noe Talks Sex, Drugs and Cinema

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-29T20:03:00+00:00

(Pictured right: Gaspar Noe and Simon Abrams. Photo taken by Susan Norget)

Though writer/director Gaspar Noé is probably most well-known for the graphic and seemingly interminable rape scene in Irreversible, his second feature, it's very hard to make charges of being a provocateur stick. The man's intuitive style of filmmaking and fascination with the interplay between corporeality, taboos and the afterlife precludes the assumption that he is knowingly trying to push your buttons. Enter the Void, his trippy third feature, continues in that tradition, focusing on the risqué relationship between Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) and his estranged sister Linda (Paz de la Huerta).

Enter the Void is, amongst other things: a 161 minute-long hallucinogenic trip, a love story, a roller coaster ride, a ghost story, a very loose memoirs, an homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey and a further extension of Noé's career-long exploration of the role of rough sex in a Buddhist-inspired cycle of reincarnation. I spoke with Noé recently to talk about the film, the difference between the director's cut and the theatrical cut of Void and what his favorite hard drug is.

It's interesting to see how you structure Oscar's thoughts in Enter the Void because, as in Irreversible, we're so immersed in the protagonist's point-of-view. How does that affect the way you wrote the character (in your script)?

Noé: I didn't really write the character; his name is Oscar, which is really close to Gaspar. I started by using my own name for the main character but then, because the movie's not really autobiographical. I thought it could be tricky because people might assume that's about my life and it's not about my life, although I know many people who are like the main character. I was (however) considering putting my own voice in the French-dubbed version. I dropped that idea because now, I'm 46 and my voice doesn't sound anymore like a twenty year-old kid.

I didn't write the character-I just put some of my personal obsessions. I guess when I was 18, 19 I was a lot like that character, mainly obsessed with partying, dancing, drinking, getting laid. The guy's inconsequential. He's not a losers and he's certainly not a winner. He's just trying to party and do his best and be helpful to his sister, even though he's not only obsessed with helping his sister. The character is not heroic, not anti-heroic. He even has sex with the mother of one of his best friends. Which is not a thing I would do in personal life.

He's inconsequential. In movies, usually, people are good or bad. There are so many cases in American cinema where you have the good guys, the bad guys and if you make the bad guys win at the end, they would say that it's a transgressive movie because it doesn't fit into the normal rules of what a narrative should be. In this case, no one is really good and no one is really bad. They're just somewhere in between their desires and their frustrations.

Because he's inconsequential and you've (previously) said (during interviews) that you were drawn to the actor (Nathaniel Brown) that plays Oscar because of his physical appearance, because he resembles you, it seems like the actors were chosen more for their physique than what they were expected to emote. They don't really show us their emotions-it's more of a holistic experience. We see things spread out in front of us and are forced to understand things from that perspective. Would you say that's fair and if so, did it affect the way you cast the film?

Noé: Actually, when I cast my movies, I don't care if my actors are professional actors or not. You film with whoever looks good on your TV set and who does not. I needed someone who could cry on demand, who could scream on demand, for the part of Linda. I'm very happy that I was able to find Paz de la Huerta to play Linda. But when it comes to Nathan, who plays Oscar or Cyril (Roy), who plays Alex, his friend, or the guy who played the drug dealer-they had never been in front of a camera their whole lives. They're great onscreen. You cast people for what they are, for how good their response is on the screen. You never know in advance how people will perform and see how they look. Some people are very schematic, some people are not.

De le Huerta's ability to cry on demand speaks to how crucial her reactive role in the film is. She has to react to Oscar's character; she's his foil, in many ways. I feel like there's a special emphasis placed on her role because you conflated the two characters (Linda and Oscar) by the end. How do you think that corresponds with the way that, as in all over your films, the taboo of having the two have sex and the taboo of the father-daughter relationship in I Stand Alone and the rape scene in Irreversible-how does that speak to the necessity of relationships that society would otherwise frown upon?

Noé: Before being a brother, before being a father, before being whatever-a woman is a woman. There's a lot of incest and homosexuality and whatever among cats. Society's main way to make their people stronger over a long term and there are ways to make prevent people from behaving as their genetic code. Incest is actually not banned legally; incest is like a taboo but there are no laws saying a brother cannot have sex with his sister after the age of consent.

In this movie, yeah, you feel there's some kind of...pre-incestuous energy between the two characters, yeah, because they lost their parents but when you come down to it, they play with the idea that one day, they'll think about it (having sex). There's a scene where she is naked in front of a mirror-that's not in the original script. That came a lot from Paz on the set. She's very exhibitionist, very playful. "What if my tits are outside when I'm talking to my brother?" I made different shots, some with her tits outside and some not, so that brings some complexity to the characters that otherwise would be very cartoonish. Once again, nothing really happens but you think, "Maybe some day, the brother and the sister will..." I don't see any evil in that. They're young and playful.

It's not only not evil (in the film) but the acts that break these taboos are treated like essential acts. They allow the characters to transcend their purely physical life and maybe go beyond to something afterwards. Maybe it's "the Void," maybe it's something heavenly-it's (always) something beyond Earth and human perception. But at the same time, those taboos consume them and drive them into the physical. Could you unpack that philosophy a little more?

Noé: I don't know that I'm transgressing any taboos with this movie, not even...I would say maybe the end of I Stand Alone is more transgressive with the father have a love story with his daughter. But it's not going to happen; it's just inside his head that it's going to happen. Nothing happens that tells you he's really going to make it.

When you make movies, you have to have fun. Whatever I thought was fun to put in this movie, I put in. There's so much energy that, at the end it's a serious project, but the movie itself is not that serious. It's an invented story with invented characters. The movie's more conceptual. It's more like building a trippy roller coast for a major audience than trying to portray seriously what the human experience is.

That idea of a lighter touch reminds me: at the end of Irreversible, before you show us a poster of 2001(: A Space Odyssey), there are two shots of a film poster for an old Captain Marvel film. What role does that play (in the film)?

Noé: (laughs) That's in there because I liked the image. It's not a reference, it's not an homage-I just liked that poster, to have pretty posters. I also think there's a pretty poster of...what's it's name? An old movie that takes place in Greece with skeletons fighting (Editor's Note: The film in question is Jason and the Argonauts). I saw that movie when I was four years old and my parents were living in New York. I saw it on TV and was amazed by the skeletons fighting. That's maybe the first memory of a movie I have ever. That poster, 2001: A Space Odyssey all had a sense to it but that Captain Marvel is there just because I love the graphics.

It seems like your artistic process is almost instinctive or stream of conscious.

Noé: You have to be both analytical and very distinctive. Whatever is human onscreen-I let people use their own words but when you're shooting with cranes, going to add visual effects in post-production, you better know exactly what you're doing. Because otherwise you go back to the editing room with materials you cannot edit or you cannot rearrange in post-production. That's why, even if the movie is all about drugs, during pre-production and production, I never did any kind of drugs. I needed all my brain to work properly in order to make this movie.

What's your favorite hard drug?

Noé: My favorite hard drug? (pause) I would say it's hard. MDMA (aka: Ecstasy). I never did Xanax, I never did Valium or things like that but MDMA. I like it because it puts you in a good mood but also because I'm very paranoid in real life so if I smoke joints I turn even more paranoid and I don't enjoy it at all. The problem with MDMA is that it has a secondary effect that's really unfriendly. I would say mushrooms. I would say maybe mushrooms, in a small amount but just in the beginning when you start. Mushrooms, in very small amounts. Oh and also alcohol. I like wine. I would say my main drug is alcohol.

I'm curious about what you said about post-production and how you can't change things after a point because you had to for the theatrical release here in America. I've heard that the dreams that were changed for the (US) theatrical cut are the dream sequence...

Noé: The movie wasn't changed for the theatrical cut. What happened was I signed a contract that said that if the movie went over two hours and 20 minutes, I would do a reduced version that would be under two hours and 20 minutes. When I finished the the movie, it was two hours and 35 minutes. I found a solution that pleased everybody: the movie could be shown with all nine reels or you could pull out reel number seven and you don't notice that anything is missing. You deliver the nine reels and in some countries, they show reels # 1-6 and then 8-9. I think the version that's going to be released here is the eight reel version. I recognize that as mine. I can't say that there's one director's cut and one producer's cut. I edited both and I like them both. Really, the shorter version is even more dramatic because the part that's missing from the long version doesn't contain any violence, any sex. It's mostly (a) trippy, sad reel. Maybe the short version is more transgressive.

What's on that reel?

Noé: (SPOILERS) He wakes up in the morgue and he thinks he's alive but he's dead and his sister, his friends say, "No, man, you're not you, you're not Oscar. You're a zombie." He looks in the mirror and sees the face of his father instead of his face and Alex says, "No, c'mon, man. You never came back to life. You're dead, you've been cremated. You're just dreaming that you're alive." And the we go to that astral vision where he comes out from that urn where his ashes are inside his sister's apartment and she throws his ashes into the sink and the camera gets into the sink. And that's where we see some weird kind of insects. And then the camera comes out-this part of the movie happens after the abortion scene. Whatever happens after the abortion scene and before the scene in the cemetery is no longer there. Actually, when I proposed that solution to the producers, they told me they thought it was never going to work.

Your films, to a large extent, deal with the limitations of what can be represented on film and how it affects what you're seeing. How do you feel people watching pornography interact with the images that they're seeing?

Noé: People who watch porn? I don't know, I watch porn and I never notice it. Porn is porn, a documentary is a documentary, a commercial on TV is a commercial on TV. I don't know who are the people that watch porn. All my friends have seen porn but it all depends on what time you go back, if you have pay TV. You can get bored by porn because it's always done the same way. In my movies, there were love scenes but it would be stupid to shoot a love scene by simulating it. Some things are simulated but if you have to show the dick, show the dick. If it's erect, it's erect. I don't see what the problem is to show a hand or a face or to show an erected penis. What's the issue?

D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus on French Pastry, Documentary Filmmaking, Bob Dylan and Richard Nixon

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-22T12:00:00+00:00

The films of D.A. Pennebaker, now 85 years old, comprise one of the most formidable oeuvres of any non-fiction filmmaker. While concert documentaries like 'Don't Look Back' (1967), 'Monterey Pop' (1968) and 'Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars' (1973) are probably Pennebaker's most famous works, recent collaborations with wife Chris Hegedus, like 'The War Room' (1993) and 'Startup.com' (2001), have proven the durability of their brand of cinema vérité filmmaking.

Making roughly a film per year, Pennebaker and Hegedus have collaborated on numerous documentaries with their signature unobtrusive "fly on the wall" approach to filming. It allows them to better capture their subjects in their environment, reserving judgment for the editing room afterwards.

Pennebaker and Hegedus' new collaboration is 'Kings of Pastry' (2009), a new vérité doc that follows Jacquy Pfeiffer, a Chicago-based French pastry chef and founder of the French Pastry School in Chicago. Pfeiffer covets a celebratory collar awarded to winners of the famous Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France) award for craftsmanship in pastry. Competition for the collar is so fierce that it's a nigh-Olympic three-day event that, in some cases, requires knowledge of complex mathematics and even basic engineering. I sat down with Pennebaker and Hegedus recently at their office on Manhattan's upper west side to talk about filming Pfeiffer, how the two filmmakers work together and any number of films that the couple never made.

How did you get approached about 'Kings of Pastry?'

Hegedus: We heard about the project from a friend of ours, Flora Lazar, who went to the French pastry school in Chicago. She told us about the two French chefs competing for this collar that they wear on their jacket and this bizarre epic pastry competition. We had just finished a film and were looking for another project and it seemed interesting, so we flew out to Chicago and met Jacquy and Sebastien (Canonne) and looked at the French pastry school, which was really an amazing place.

The contest was so interesting to us because it's not a 'Top Chef' food show -- it's a 100-year old contest, almost, and it covers a lot of different arts and fields. It's really to honor and elevate and recognize the craft fields. The competition is unbelievably grueling. People train their whole lives for it so it has incredible tension and passion behind it.

Pennebaker: Of course, we didn't know any of that at the beginning. Our friend had told us that she had taken this course at what was probably the only French pastry school in this country. She told us about how one of the teachers was going to go into this thing and we went out to meet him. His partner -- the two of them ran this school -- had gone in and won and he didn't. Right away, I thought: "There's some drama here; we should see what's going to happen." We asked if we could go with him to France, because he was going to France to practice awhile on French (ingredients). The things the French use, the flour, are a little different from here. Whatever it was, he had to spend time there rehearsing, as it were. We thought, "We'll go along and see." And as always happens, you get drawn into that lobster trap and then you can't get out.

Part of the hook behind 'Kings of Pastry' seems to be the sheer novelty of the tension that these chefs undergo for the project. Is there an American equivalent or something that you think is comparable for Americans, foodies or otherwise?

Hegedus: I don't know if it's a foody thing, but it's almost an Olympic kind of thing. It's a real challenge and you think, "Oh, pastry. Anyone can make a cream puff." But they're not just making cream puffs, they're making these huge sugar sculptures and engineering and mathematics and all sorts of skills. Jacquy took glass-blowing to learn how to do some of the things he was going to use for his sugar sculpture. I think, because it's a life's goal, it's more like an Olympic competition than a food competition.

In France, things aren't driven, or at least the French culinary industry, isn't so much driven by a celebrity-based system like here. You don't get a movie star to come in with you on your restaurant. The only way you could move up in your field and get recognition was to win at this competition. It's interesting that while they compete for excellence, we compete for celebrity and money (laughs), in a sense. It's a totally different ideology.

Pennebaker: Here you just win a prize or a place for that night. But there you get accepted to a kind of club. Not just one person wins: They forever wear that collar and it goes on indefinitely.

Hegedus: Especially wearing the collar. They always say that the real work happens after you've won the collar because you have to live up to it for the rest of your life. You have to be excellent all the time. That's a real responsibility, but it's something they like. That aspect of teaching and mentoring is also a big part of that.

Tell us about Jacquy Pfeiffer. How would you describe him now that you've been so thoroughly immersed in his world?

Hegedus: The moment we met Jacquy, I thought he was interesting. We watched him at the school and some of the pastries that he was doing were sort of amazing. Then we went to lunch and he told us about how every night, when he's going to sleep, his wife wakes him up to tell him that the competition's been canceled because he has these nightmares about it. I thought, "Wow, this guy -- this is really important to him."

Pennebaker: When you see somebody that's as good at something as Jacquy was -- he was as good a person at putting things together and cooking things as I've ever seen -- when he seems somewhat nervous, or even frightened about putting his skills to the test, that's interesting.

How did you share responsibilities from shooting to post for this film?

Pennebaker: We don't. It's whoever's nearest the closet, opens the door. She's mastered (editing software) Final Cut, which I only know how to do the other version of (laughs) -- I don't even know what it's called anymore.

Hegedus: Avid.

Pennebaker: Avid! I didn't make the jump and so that means I have to sit and watch, which is very frustrating at times. You want to get in there and change something, I have to say, "Please?" (everyone laughs) And sometimes she says, "Fuck you!" So it's not as simple as it appears. But somehow, in some way that confounds us both, we do manage to work together on everything even though she may have me shooting the camera, I'm watching her shooting the camera.

Hegedus: And eating the pastries.

Pennebaker: And eating the pastries. But our ideas do somehow meld up in thin air. It's hard for either of us to say, "I made that film, wake up!" She has made films by herself, totally and in this case, she shot most of this film. In many instances, if you were making a commercial film, you'd say, "Chris, you're the person who shot the film, so you're the person who really made the film." But it isn't always the case. Working together, you're thinking together. It confounds me a little bit how this works, too, because often we're strangling each other at the editing table trying to make our wishes known. But it comes out; we kind of figure it out, I don't know how.

Hegedus: We pretty much shoot our films together in some way or another. In the old days, these were our very first cameras (pictured above), kind of our "his and hers" 16mm movie cameras (laughs).

Pennebaker: That's right, his and hers: mine is red and her's is green. Those are hand-made cameras, our early equipment.

It seems like much of your films' footage are essentially shaped into a cohesive portrait in post-production. Is that fair?

Pennebaker: You mean in editing. Oh yeah. That's where you make the film.

Hegedus: It's how you're going to tell a story. The way you tell a story is premised on two things:To try to be truthful to what happened and to deal with the limitations of your footage, which are always enormous. When we shot film, it was 10 minutes long and each reel was $200, so you wouldn't be shooting a lot. You were always running out so you had certain limitations when you're making a story like 'The War Room,' which we shot on 16mm. Now we could shoot and shoot and shoot in this day and age [with digital], but you still have limitations.

While at the competition, as I was saying, we were the first people to witness this competition and film it so they were very nervous about it. Restrictions were that every single day that we shot, they would review whether they would let us in the next day. It was just Penny (Pennebaker), myself and Nick Doob, who we partnered with on several different films. By the third day, they said, "Ok, we'll kill you if you bump into anybody while they're moving any of their products or sculptures to the display table. So you can stand," and they actually taped a little square box about that big (torso-sized). "And that's where you can stand ..."

And you managed to stay in that designated area?

Hegedus: Yes. We had to stay in that little box to shoot the thing and ...

Pennebaker: The original ruling was nobody had ever actually filmed it and nobody actually had been allowed to watch it. We didn't really have permission (to shoot) until we got there. Finally, one of the people from the school who we knew, Jacquy's partner, he went and said we were harmless and wouldn't do anything.

Hegedus: That has to do with how you shape your story. On the first few days, I did a couple of interviews with the judges that you see (in the film) hanging around, but it was a lot of translating. At one point I had them speak English and they spoke English so poorly that they weren't interesting enough to put in. I had never watched this competition, so I didn't know what would happen. And everyone, as you can see (in the film) is totally quiet with the exception of their mixers. Nobody is talking to each other while everything else is going on. The form suited itself to be somewhat musical and I had put aside from the beginning this Django Reinhardt music I loved, so I just started editing with it and decided to use it as a structure to film around different days.

How do you think documentary filmmaking has changed its focus and its choice of subjects? Has it changed at all?

Pennebaker: Well, I think it's changed but it's like the hour hand on a clock. It's hard to read. You don't notice it but I think, in the beginning, I was part of a group of people -- I knew there was going to be five or six of us who wanted to make films but it never occurred to us that we could go to California and join the filmmaking society. So we were making a kind of New York version of the Hollywood film world. It's like an Off-Broadway version of a Broadway show. It's the Broadway show, but it's not really. Everybody knows the difference. There were four of five people that were making documentaries like 'The Quiet One' and they got some recognition: They played in a theater for a week and that was it. Everybody would write about 'em, everybody knew about 'em in that business, but they never got any real viewing around the country.

Then, little by little, I went and worked with (Robert) Drew at Life (magazine). The idea there was for Life to start making films that would be sort of like their stills were from the '30s and '40s, which were candid views of life and what was going on. But you needed a camera that was quiet, that could shoot sync -- which is to say you could shoot dialogue with -- to walk around in the streets with people, to ride buses with them or go in the desert with them -- there was no such camera.

[So we] put together a camera that was synchronous, that was quieter, it was portable. That changed the documentary to something that then could go outside and really start viewing the world. And there were a number of people that did that. I got more interested in actually finding people or situations in which you would use real people instead of actors, but you would do stories just like Hollywood stories. So they were not too different from Hollywood movies except that what they call the production value was zero.

It was so bad that when I took one of the first ones I did, which was the (Bob) Dylan film, 'Don't Look Back,' people didn't want to look at the second reel. They said it was too ratty-looking. "We don't want that in our theater!" I could see that was a problem but at the same time, from having shown it around at various places around the country -- I would get invited to show it at some library or school -- I knew there was an interest in it. I knew there was an audience for it but I didn't know how to get to them.

Then a guy came to me who owned a string of porn houses around the middle West; they were called "The Art Theater Guild," which I always thought was a good name for a porn operation. And he said, "Somebody told me you have a film I should look at." I was ready to show it to anybody because I'd spent four, five months trying to get a distributor to even look at it. He came in and said, "You know, it's exactly what I'm looking for: it looks like a porn film, but it's not. I'm going to put it in the Presidio," which turned out to be one of the big porn houses in San Francisco.. I thought it was a big movie theater. So I said, "Great," and it ran there for a year before we had even opened it in New York. In a way, that film probably couldn't have been distributed under a normal situation.

But from then on, we toured a lot around the country and abroad at a retinue of theaters. So when we did 'Monterey (Pop),' we had places it could be shown at. We distributed both of them ourselves. And that changed a lot of the thinking about the documentary. Because suddenly it became a film that you could distribute like a normal film.

Hegedus: That having been said, the distribution model has come a long way since then. I think it's in a total flux, as you must know covering the movie industry now. Nobody really knows what's going to happen with streaming and the Internet. Nobody knows what the (business) model's going to be for theaters. In some ways, we haven't learned very much from the music industry, who had this challenge earlier in terms of pirating on the Internet.

Things have really changed in that way and on a storytelling way. The medium once was very exclusive. Hardly any people could film and now, everybody can film, and cultures can film themselves, which is, I think, wonderful. I saw a film last year -- I've been on the jury of quite a few different festivals lately -- I saw some Mexican film about some indigenous Mexican tribe that takes a lot of cocaine and psychedelics as part of their religion. They (the filmmakers) gave the camera to them because they (the subjects) didn't want the filmmaker to see or be there for their ritual, but they actually gave it to them and filmed the whole thing themselves. It's interesting that it's gone to that degree and that area. I think short pieces of film on the Internet that become so wildly successful to a viewership of strange human relationships are really interesting.

Pennebaker: The big change -- when we did 'The War Room,' we did that on film, but when we did 'Startup(.com),' we shot on video. We would blow it up on 35(mm film) and all the labs would figure out a way to make a really good 35mm print from your video but you still had to have 35 prints. For any kind of national distribution, you had to be ready with 25, 35 prints, which is not cheap. Now you can have a video, almost with a DVD and most theaters can run it. So for the documentary film, you don't have to go into the terrible film cost exactly. But they still have the problem of promoting it and advertising it. And you're stuck running it in a theater, praying for good word of mouth and maybe some blogs if you're lucky.

Is there a figure you wanted to follow but never got access to or never got around to doing?

Pennebaker: Yeah, I wanted to do something with Nixon after he retired, as it were. I went to the head of the Republican Party, and knew some people connected with the Republican Party, but everyone assumed I was going to knock him. Which I didn't intend to do at all. He wasn't my favorite person in the world, but I wanted to do Thanksgiving dinner with Nixon and his relatives. I thought it would just be a marvelous thing to do straight. I had talked with somebody who had been to a family affair with him and they said that what was fascinating was here's this guy who knows more about what's going on in the world than any living creature and he has his own aunt saying, "Now Dick, don't worry about it. Just tell me what we're having for dinner." And I thought it'd be marvelous to see him deal with that because he could be a very charming person. I was told. I wanted to see that because he was going out as a villain, which always seemed to me a little before-the-fact.

I don't know why, but I've always thought, because you (Hegedus) have filmed Jimi Hendrix and you've filmed Bob Dylan and David Bowie, that you two would have been perfect to film Frank Zappa performing.

Pennebaker: I talked with Zappa about it. He was very protective of his public persona. If you did it, he'd want to edit it. I used to get notes from him about things. He was interesting, you're right. It was also on the other coast and the way it worked -- it was so hard. For instance, I started a project with (Robert) Kennedy, which was going to end just as he got into the White House. We talked about it and I actually filmed quite a bit of it before he was just going into the Senate and after he got into the Senate. But I couldn't keep up with him when he was doing his thing, going to California and running for president, then on the road. I had to abandon that. Well, I'm happy that I did because I would have hated to have been there when he got shot. That would have been really hard.

'Heartbreaker' Star Romain Duris on Crying and Dirty Dancing with Vanessa Paradis

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-10T21:32:00+00:00

With Heartbreaker, French star Romain Duris continues to capitalize on his image as a young and very talented pop star. He first came to US audiences' attention in melodramas like Cedric Klapisch's L'Auberge Espagnole and Jacques Audiard's The Beat My Heart Skipped and has since proven himself to be a versatile performer that, like American superstars like Johnny Depp, chooses his projects very carefully (his performance in Christophe Honore's Dans Paris is wonderfully nuanced). Having just starred as the titular comic book antihero Arsene Lupin, Duris stars in Heartbreaker as a man hired to break people up, specifically women that don't yet know that they're not really in love with their boyfriends/fiancés. I had a thoughtful chat with Duris about his self-image and how he makes himself cry.

Cinematical: There's a great running gag in Heartbreaker where you make a terrible grimace whenever your character needs to cry (on command). How do you cry on film normally?

Roman Duris: Exactly the same (way).

Cinematical: Really? You just make a...

Duris: (laughs) No, no. To be honest, I used to. I didn't do any school of theater so I have no method. For my first few movies, yes, when the director asked me to cry for something, I was like, "Fuck! Shit, how can I cry? I can't!" It's strange-I wasn't an actor so I think I did the same (thing). I had to put my face in a physical way to help the tears (come out). I was joking about that with (Heartbreaker) director Pascal Chaumeil when we spoke about this strange face he's (Duris's character) going to make. I said, "I know exactly what I can do. I'm going to give you that and you'll tell me if it's ok for you or not." So it was natural for me because it came from...yes...

Cinematical: Parts of the film similarly feel like they're making fun of yourself, or at least your onscreen persona in that someone that isn't so physically imposing could be such a ladykiller, like a caricature of a Don Juan that can instantly seduce someone. Were you thinking of that when you did the role? Are you conscious of your self-image when you act?

Duris: Yes. I think I want to be present in a scene, charismatic. But I don't think more than that. I just know it. I know in my life how to be discreet and simple so yes, I have this conscious(ness) but I think everybody is.

Cinematical: Do you think being pegged as this handsome young Casanova ever backfired against you when you were trying out for a role or otherwise professionally?

Duris: You know, I don't think about that. They don't tell me, "Ok, you're handsome, play that." For me, I'm...I'm...playing the characters from the inside each time, even in Heartbreaker. I was afraid about the way of being able to seduce anybody and being a James Bond of seduction I was afraid about that, trying to understand what was inside.

I spoke with Pascal Chaumeil and we added some details to show the character's fragility and doubts about the way to seduce others.

Cinematical: Did you bring any personal experience to the role in that way?

Duris: To the role? (long pause) No, I don't think so.

Cinematical: Do you watch footage of yourself while you shoot?

Duris: It depends, sometimes. It depends on the movie, maybe on the director. Sometimes I'm checking on the takes to see some things but...maybe the question of trust with the director. Sometimes I have the need to go check. I'm not sure it's a good thing though.

Cinematical: Checking yourself?

Duris: Yes. (pause) During the shoot, if you watch the footage, it forces you to become a spectator instead of acting.

Cinematical: Has there been a recent instance where you felt you needed to go back and watch because, as you said, you didn't feel confidence in a director? Like on Arsene Lupin or something else recently?

Duris: Yes. You're totally right. During Arsene Lupin, yes. It's funny that you talk about that...but I don't want to talk about that. But yes, exactly in this movie. Maybe because it was a movie with a lot of things in each shot, a lot of people, a lot of action, big production. I wanted to look about what I was doing. (pauses) No, no, I don't want to say something. I trust him in a way so it's not a question of trust. It's question of...I don't know. But you're right. You're right, in this movie I had to check. Klapisch? Klapisch, no. Klapisch I trust totally. And I don't want to check at all (in that case). "You pick what you want."

Cinematical: You must have a pretty rabid fanbase in France. Any crazy stories about stalkers?

Duris: No, it's ok, it's very kind. It's strange because it's not that natural. I'm still not used to being recognized. I have a way of living, I think, very simply so it's totally contradictory. Sometimes, it's strange but it's always kind and nice. It's just a question of availability but it's never anyone aggressive stalking me.

Cinematical: You did an interview recently where you said that your role in Heartbreaker greatly expanded your visibility and the way people recognize you and how now, it's more older women (laughs).

Duris: Yes! Of course, older and younger. I had a funny experience when I was putting some gas in my car in the middle of France, nowhere. There was a family and in the family, it's usually the young girl who is 20 years old or 16 years old that recognizes me. But I realized that the little guy, 12 years old, the guy, 40 years old, the dad 60 years old, 65, I don't know, all said: "Yes, we know you." So it was funny for me. "Wow, this is new."

Cinematical: It's funny that Arsene Lupin and Heartbreaker were made in such close proximity to one another as they're the two biggest roles you've undertaken of late and they're such polar opposites.

Duris: You think so?

Cinematical: Just in terms of their (respective) genres, yes and their audiences. One's an action film and one's a very light-hearted romance. Do you think there's a big difference between taking one type of role on than the other? Do you anticipate one is harder than the other?

Duris: (long pause) I don't know. Yes, maybe because it's lighter or...I don't know if it's because it's lighter or if it's because it's destiny to touch a lot of people. I don't know but yes, maybe, I need to know quickly which way I'm going to play the character. I need to have confidence, yes, to feel confidence in a way even if it's a bad movie at the end. In lighter films, I need to feel like I need to know right away what's going to be my role, how I'm going to play the character, just to know what's being expected of me, even if the movie's not to my taste so I can get something good out of it.

Cinematical: Do you think you get more satisfaction out of one over the other? Because it sounds like there is a varying degree (of satisfaction) depending on if it's a heavier or a lighter role.

Duris: No. I need both, I think. I need both. I need to jump.

Cinematical: How did you feel when you found out you had to match Patrick Swayze's famous dance scene from Dirty Dancing?

Duris: It was fun, a lot of fun. We love to dance with (co-star) Vanessa (Paradis). Of course it was difficult but a lot of pleasure. It was natural and more recreation than serious work. So it was great, a lot of great memories. Yes, technically we weren't perfect or entirely ready but I think that there's some grace from us but somewhere and it helps when you feel that when you do scenes like that.

Cinematical: Who would you say is your favorite cinematic man's man of all time?

Duris: Al Pacino, I think. Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon. The way he's totally leading his character. When he goes out of the bank, outside when he speaks to everybody, wow, I feel something very strong. Nobody can arrest the process of his character. He's totally everywhere. I love Al Pacino, I think he's wonderful. But I think Americans (above all). I think Americans because, I don't know. In France...Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Gabin...you know Jean Gabin?

Cinematical: Yeah.

Duris: Or (Swiss actor) Michel Simon. Because it's impossible to respond, I'll say Al Pacino.

Cinematical: Have you ever felt like taking a bigger hand in creating your role, like bringing a project together by writing or directing or possibly producing?

Duris: And play at the same time? No. I don't know if I'm able to do that. I need to be (pauses) cold, by another universe, another director's universe. It helps me to try to be different. If I'm somewhere in the process, if I wrote the script-it sounds strange for me. In the same way that to call somebody to say, "I love your cinema, I want to play in your movie with you." It's strange for me to do that. I need to be cold, I think. It helps me to be different and it's motivating me. It's part of the process.

Heartbreaker opens today at select theaters nation-wide.

Martin Scorsese's 15 Favorite Gangster Flicks

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-09T20:15:00+00:00

I guess it was inevitable that somebody should ask Martin Scorsese, a man whose reputation was made and is still probably widely typified by his crime stories, to come up with a list of his favorite gangster movies. The Daily Beast did just that and while it's easy to see why, it looks like Scorsese is a big Jimmy Cagney fan. Being a voracious film fan, many of the titles on Scorsese's list are not your typical mob fare (Sorry, no Godfather to be found). But there is The Public Enemy, my favorite Cagney role and probably one of my favorite gangster movies of all time, at the top of Scorsese's chronological list.

While it would be hard to imagine Scorsese submitting a dull survey, it's nice to see that he's putting his curatorial powers to good use. After Cagney roles like White Heat and The Roaring Twenties, there are a good number of titles you probably wouldn't have heard of otherwise like Pete Kelly's Blues and Force of Evil, which Scorsese says "had as great an impact on me as Citizen Kane or On the Waterfront.". It's also nice to see recognition for already acknowledged (but still hardly mainstream) works like Alberto Lattuada's Mafioso, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Doulos and especially John Boorman's superlative Point Blank. Check out the list here and get your Netflix queues revved up.

Judd Apatow Switches Gears; Now Working on Female-Centric Projects

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-09T18:45:00+00:00

Collider has word that Judd Apatow will collaborate with up-and-coming writer/director Lena Dunham on an upcoming tv pilot for HBO. Dunham plans on writing, directing and starring in what will likely be a semi-autobiographical series. Her most recent feature, Tiny Furniture, got great word-of-mouth from SXSW and won the "Best Narrative Feature" prize. The news comes as a bit of a surprise to some because, well, Dunham's a girl and Apatow's comedies typically treat women like comedic foils for their boy-men protags.

Then again, having seen Tiny Furniture, I can say that though Dunham is in fact a lady, her style of comedy/drama is probably more in-sync with Apatow's than most people might think. Tiny Furniture is a semi-autobiographical indie that roughly follows Dunham's post-grad slump after she moved home and was unable to find work or a normal romantic relationship (mumblecore darling Alex Karpovsky plays one of her two love interests but it's assumed he's stringing her along). In other words: it's a movie about growing up and learning to accept new social responsibilities. How does this not sound like a Judd Apatow comedy?

Apatow has in the past been accused of being a misogynist and it's easy to see why, though I'd probably call him more of a sexist than a misogynist. His women characters have needs just as much as the men do but they rarely are afforded the same opportunities to screw up and have a good time like Apatow's stable of guy comedians are.

Apatow is however working to change that image: he's producing a chick flick romcom called The Bridesmaids starring Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig, who also wrote the script. Apatow's wife Leslie Mann is set to star in the upcoming Business Trip, though probably not in a role comparable to something Seth Rogen or Jonah Hill might normally play for Apatow. Dunham will also help to change that perception, though I don't think she'll be joining in some of the more frathouse-oriented gags of Apatow's boys. Though honestly, I think that might be a great way for her to branch out from her semi-autobiographical material into uncharted and probably more challenging material for her. I look forward to her first dick joke.

Don't Trust Opening Weekends: 'Kick-Ass' Wasn't a Bomb After All

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-08T09:03:00+00:00

On Sunday, the New York Times featured a disheartening article about this summer's bigger winners and losers. For example, the Times's Brooks Barnes points out that while many thought that Kick-Ass's failure to break the bank during its first week in theaters meant it was an unmitigated dud, the fact is that the adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s "mature," ultra-cynical super-yarn was a pretty big hit. To recap: Lionsgate Entertainment picked up the film for $15 million and projected it would make $30 million domestically during its opening weekend. The film only made approximately $20 million in that time, sending off all kinds of premature alarms. But the film has made $97 million worldwide and is estimated to sell 2 million copies once it hits dvd, blu-ray and is made available for purchase via online media outlets like Itunes.

Barnes's piece uses Kick-Ass's slow-but-steady success to point out how prognostication of a film's success really doesn't depend so much on its opening weekend anymore. There's no real speculation as to why that is in the piece, probably because it's a tough phenomenon to pin down: it's not just the home video market that's making up for lost revenue, it's an endurance test in theaters as well. On the one hand, How to Train Your Dragon made a lot of money opening weekend and even more money later over the course of the summer, grossing a total $497 million. On the other, Date Night flopped during its opening weekend but made out rather nicely in the long run, earning $152 million.

The part of Barnes's article that makes me very sad indeed is its final paragraphs, in which it's said with no uncertainty that in all likelihood, box office duds like Jonah Hex and Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World "have little chance of ever becoming profitable." This is especially disappointing in the latter case, as it's arguably the best big budget studio film of the season. I also kind of am upset that Hex has no chance either, if for no other reason that it means that a director's cut dvd of the film, one with the footage from Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's original script, is not coming soon to Best Buy anytime soon. I'd argue that the hype surrounding Kick-Ass just had more momentum than the buzz around Pilgrim or Hex but again, who knows? Maybe Barnes is wrong and there's still hope for Scott Pilgrim. I hope so.

Neil Gaiman's 'Sandman' Gets Optioned ... Again

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-05T11:03:00+00:00

Big news if you're a Neil Gaiman fan or even just someone that got into comics because of the man: Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision Blog reported on Wednesday that Warner Brothers has optioned Gaiman's Sandman comics for a tv series. The series is, at present, scheduled to be helmed by Supernatural creator Eric Kripke.

This is a story that's been a long time coming. Originally, Gaiman's seminal comic series was supposed to be turned into a movie in the mid-'90s. Warner Brothers had the rights and word was Killing Zoe director Roger Avary would direct with a script from Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who later co-wrote Small Soldiers and the first and second Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. But the project never happened, partially because Gaiman thought the script he was handed, after numerous rewrites, was terrible. According to Wikipedia, the script was so bad, it was partially responsible for Gaiman's decision to give up writing stories about Morpheus, the titular King of Dreams, and the Endless, his immortal family.

Before Kripke, who has a very good reputation (never seen Supernatural but have read very positive things everywhere from the intanetz to academic texts), Sandman was supposedly set to be turned into an HBO show with James Mangold involved but the project stalled terminally and now Kripke's got his shot.

While the news has me piqued (Sandman was one of the big tiles that helped me get back into comics in middle school alongside Stormwatch and Preacher), I really have to adopt the wait-and-see approach. If Kripke's adaptation fails, it'll be a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen-sized failure. If it succeeds, even modestly, it will be the next big thing. But again: it may not even get that far. Fingers crossed and all but I'm not holding my breath. In all likelihood, we'll see the film version of Death: The High Cost of Living, a spin-off comic Gaiman wrote featuring Dream's sister Death, that Gaiman has been working on for years now. But even that is a bit iffy.

Buzz: Sofia Coppola's 'Somewhere' Features "Breakthrough Performance" from Stephen Dorff

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-04T14:02:00+00:00

Indiewire's Anne Thompson has an early report from the Venice Film Festival on Sofia Coppola's new movie, Somewhere, and boy does it sound promising. Though Thompson's piece is mostly an account of Coppola's career to present, she is astute enough to provide us with a thematic link between Lost in Translation -- which, as Thompson champions, is probably Coppola's best -- Marie Antoinette -- a very satisfying little-big film if you can embrace its affect -- and Somewhere: they all star "wealthy, pampered and sequestered celebrity who is trapped and bored."

In Somewhere, Stephen Dorff plays Marco, an actor and truant father that's just getting used to his newfound life of decadence and boredom. If this were anyone other than Sofia Coppola, I'd say that that's automatically a boring subject but knowing that she can pull off stories about unhappy attractive, rich people, I'm actually pretty excited to see Thompson's clipped but strong praise for the film. In particular, there's one line in the review that stands out as its Thompson's most gushing line in the piece: "These are breakthrough roles for both Dorff and (Elle) Fanning."

I'm not that surprised to see praise of Elle Fanning: people were talking about her giving a "true break-through performance" for Phoebe in Wonderland so it's hardly surprising that she'll get more attention and praise now that she's in a bigger (and probably better) film. No, what's surprising is that Dorff has gotten his day in the sun. I mean, Mickey Rourke's performance in The Wrestler proved that a bad boy actor can turn his image around and do serious films and get high praise for it. But man, is it hard to wrap my mind around the idea of Dorff, the guy from Blade, Cecil B. Demented, Alone in the Dark and Space Truckers. I know he was in Public Enemies but I only know this because IMDB is my friend. Looking forward to seeing Cecil himself give what could be an award-winning performance.

Watch This: Trailer for 'Hobo with a Shotgun'

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-04T12:02:00+00:00

In 2007, Robert Rodriguez hosted a grindhouse-themed trailer contest at SXSW. The first prize winner would get enough money to take their imaginary film and turn it into a big(ger)-budget feature film. Jason Eisener was last year's winner. His trailer was for a high-concept film, which he had already made a low-budget version of, to end them all: Hobo with a Shotgun. The best part about this project: Rutger Hauer is the titular hobo. Oh yes.

A trailer for the feature-length film has surfaced already and boy does it look like...Rutger Hauer with a shotgun. A compliment, I assure you. Watching a haunted Hauer tell a maternity ward full of newborns what life is going to be like for them and how they'll have to become junkies or prostitutes if they plan on living in the area is pretty priceless. Then again, I'm not so sure about the rest of the trailer. Check out the trailer after the break.

Apart from the fact that the film's post-apocalyptic setting looks like it were designed by the guy that did the art design for Batman and Robin, I'm just not sure if I want a feature film about a concept as gonzo as, well, a film about a homeless man with a pump-action shotgun. The joke will probably wear thin pretty quickly but then again, I haven't seen Rodriguez's Machete, another grindhouse-trailer-turned-film. I'll see Hobo regardless because hot damn, Rutger Hauer playing a bad-ass again, but the project looks pretty thin from the outset.

'Kick-Ass 2' Will Happen, But Is It Worth It?

Simon Abrams — 2010-09-01T14:15:00+00:00

Comic book writer Mark Millar has once again made himself look like a prat while promoting himself and his work in public. Millar, the writer of the comic Kick-Ass, Wanted, Superman: Red Son and The Authority, which is still probably his best work, has told Richard Bacon on his most recent BBC Radio Five Live show (via Bleeding Cool) that there will indeed be a sequel to Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass movie adaptation. This news comes as a surprise considering how lackluster Kick-Ass was at the box office, in spite of some massive hype preceding its release (I won't say fanboy if you won't). Millar said:

"The estimate is [Kick-Ass] will do 100 to 150 million on DVD based on the American sales, you know, so it'll end up making a quarter of a billion on a 28 million investment. So It should be okay. So the sequel's greenlit, we can go ahead and do the follow up now, you know. The first made so much compared to what it cost it would be crazy not to."

Millar also went on to put down director Vaugh by "out(ing) Matthew Vaughn as a friend of David Cameron and a director of some Conservative Party Political Broadcasts." I'm not sure why he had to mention this but knowing who's talking, I doubt he had a legit reason at any point.

Millar's got a major ego, constantly spouting off about how daring and visionary his comics are, half-jokingly, while treating shock and potty-mouthed provocation like the next big thing in comics (He called Wanted the next Watchmen, but when readers called him on that hyperbolic statement, he backtracked and claimed he meant in terms of the scale and world he was building. Readers rightly still protested.). He's the comic book equivalent of a rockstar with a humongoid ego and all the attention the movie adaptations of Wanted and Kick-Ass have given him have clearly gone to his head.

Millar continued to hype himself up in the interview by name-dropping Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt as actors he'd love to see star in Tony Scott's adaptation of Millar's Nemesis, about an anti-Bruce Wayne costumed criminal.

"Tony Scott, brother of Ridley Scott... I just got a call from him, literally about a month ago... it was one of those very surreal things. This is a $150 million budget... he said 'Who do you fancy for it?'... I said 'I dunno, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp' so he said 'That's good, we'll give them a call.'"

But that all sounds like a bunch of wish-list stuff, and until Tony Scott pipes up, we'll leave it at that.

But what about Kick-Ass 2? Is it necessary? Would you see it? Or should Millar focus on the adaptations of his other comics?

'Mad Max: Fury Road' to Include 130 Cars and Bikes, and 298 Stunts?

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-30T14:35:00+00:00

Transmoto Motor Bike Magazine (via Moviehole) has word from stuntman Cameron Taylor that Mad Max: Fury Road, the upcoming follow-up to Max Max: Beyond Thunder Dome, will feature "130 cars and bikes and 298 stunts!"

Let that sink in a second: 298 stunts. I don't even know what that means. Is there a stunt every 20 seconds? Is that all Max Max: Fury Road is -- one long avant garde montage sequence with motorbikes jumping and crashing and driving and steering and careening and revving? Like Zabriskie Point's ending but a feature-length film featuring non-stop car chases?

There are many things that both confuse and excite me about Mad Max: Fury Road. The fact that a stuntman is seriously talking about 298 stunts in what at most should be a 2 1/2 hour film is just one of them. Fury Road is not supposed to be a reboot of the Max Max franchise: several sources say it will in fact be a direct(ish) sequel to Beyond Thunder Dome. There isn't a big age gap between Mel Gibson, star of the last three Mad Max movies, and Tom Hardy, the new Max: Mel was 29 when he filmed Beyond Thunder Dome while Hardy is 33 now. But I'll be damned if Mel doesn't look older.

The other weird thing is that, according to Moviehole, Transmoto took down their piece with Taylor 24 hours after they put it up. Moviehole speculates that it might be because Taylor obliquely talks about getting good money for the gig or possibly the fact that he says how many cars are in the film. I tend to think he mis-spoke when he said 298 (!!!) stunts in a single film. I mean, did John Woo even have that many in his 3 1/2 hour director's cut of MI: 2? I tend to doubt it but honestly, I'm not sure how many stunts go into a single chase sequence.

Happy Birthday, Paul Reubens!

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-27T19:45:00+00:00

Today, Paul Reubens, most famous for creating, writing and starring as Pee-Wee Herman, turns 58 years old. Which means that today's secret word is: birthday! I bought my ticket for opening night of his upcoming Broadway show as Herman months ago as I wasn't in LA when he revived the character for a new live comedy routine at Club Nokia. Reubens's Pee-Wee's Playhouse has given me a lot of happy childhood memories but even beyond that, Reubens has always played some of my favorite supporting comedic roles. Celebrate his birthday with some quotes from his films and TV roles. Guess where the quotes are from and see the answers after the break.

"Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is a lighter incarnation, but is certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots as the tortured avenger, crying out for mommy and daddy." And besides, those Easter bunnies looked really scary, right?"

"I can't feel my ass! I can't feel my ass!"

"God, I don't give a --k if you sing mother--king Kumbaya. Just get the --k out there. We have a contract by grace of George --king Washington, you mother--king --king --cks."

"Equilateral or isosceles?"

"Well, it all started when I was just 13 years of age. One day, while walking with some friends, I accidentally cut the cheese. Well, in my adolescent awkwardness, I blamed it on an old gypsy woman who happened to be passing by. Big mistake! The gypsy woman placed a curse upon my head. Because I smelled it, she decreed I would forevermore be he who dealt it!"

"I love that story."

"Duh, Vance! You'd think I never went to agricultural junior college!"

"You ruined my new jacket! Kill him a lot!"

"I call it: the hot dog tree, because...it's a hot dog tree."

"I do not leak, you leak!"

"You don't wanna get mixed up with a guy like me. I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel."

"It's like you're unraveling a big cable-knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting..."

"I bought this pen one hour before my bike was stolen. Why? What's the significance? I don't know!"

"Meka leka hi, meka hiney ho!"
-------------------------------------------------------------

"Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is a lighter incarnation, but is certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots as the tortured avenger, crying out for mommy and daddy." And besides, those Easter bunnies looked really scary, right?" (Batman: The Brave and the Bold)

"I can't feel my ass! I can't feel my ass!" (Mystery Men)

"God, I don't give a --k if you sing mother--king Kumbaya. Just get the --k out there. We have a contract by grace of George --king Washington, you mother--king --king --cks." (The Tripper)

"Equilateral or isosceles?" (Mystery Men)

"Well, it all started when I was just 13 years of age. One day, while walking with some friends, I accidentally cut the cheese. Well, in my adolescent awkwardness, I blamed it on an old gypsy woman who happened to be passing by. Big mistake! The gypsy woman placed a curse upon my head. Because I smelled it, she decreed I would forevermore be he who dealt it!" (Mystery Men)

"I love that story." (Pee-Wee's Playhouse)

"Duh, Vance! You'd think I never went to agricultural junior college!" (Big Top Pee-Wee)

"You ruined my new jacket! Kill him a lot!" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

"I call it: the hot dog tree, because...it's a hot dog tree." (Big Top Pee-Wee)

"I do not leak, you leak!" (Flight of the Navigator)

"You don't wanna get mixed up with a guy like me. I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel." (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure)

"It's like you're unraveling a big cable-knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting..." (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure)

"I bought this pen one hour before my bike was stolen. Why? What's the significance? I don't know!" (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure)

"Meka leka hi, meka hiney ho!" (Pee-Wee's Playhouse)

Share your favorite Reubens' quotes or stories in the comments section.

Angelina Jolie to Play a Murdering Ex-Con in 'Unforgiven'

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-26T18:10:00+00:00

Deadline Hollywood recently broke word that producer Graham King is looking to cast Angelina Jolie in a remake of the dramatic British mini-series Unforgiven. King has recently collaborated with Jolie on The Tourist, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's follow-up to the superb Academy Award-winning The Lives of Others. Jolie would star in the lead female role as a prisoner just coming out of prison after serving a 15-year stretch for killing two policemen. Screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie is set to script the film; McQuarrie just scripted X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2, co-wrote The Tourist and wrote the script for Bryan Singer's Valkyrie. No director is attached to the Unforgiven remake yet, however.

This is an interesting move for Jolie because, as Deadline points out, she doesn't take on assignments until there's a script for her to look at. This suggests that Jolie is forming a relationship with King akin to the one that Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Dicaprio have of late (King produced three of the four recent Dicaprio/Scorsese collabs; everything except Shutter Island). King is certainly a heavy-hitter and it looks like he's trying to make himself out to be the new Hollywood answer to the Weinstein brothers -- the fact that von Donnersmarck was immediately courted after The Lives of Others shows that King felt that he wanted to work with him immediately and the cast behind The Tourist (Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell and Timothy Dalton) shows that King's got pull. I'd be very curious to hear how this project works out as Jolie was terrific in Michael Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart, even if she was wearing brownface.

R.I.P.: Satoshi Kon (1963-2010)? (Confirmed)

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-24T16:03:00+00:00

Rumors started to circulate around Twitter today that anime luminary Satoshi Kon, director of such truly brilliant films as Millennium Actress and Paprika, has died at the age of 47. One of the first reports came in from Takeda Yasuhiro, a founding member of Gainax, the animation studio most famous for producing Neon Genesis Evangelion. Now both Ani-Gamers and Anime Reel is reporting that the above tweet is most likely true and while confirmation will have to wait until it's daytime in Japan, Anime Reel writes that other sources have confirmed Yasuhiro's claim, including Masao Maruyama, president of Madhouse Studios (Note: Maruyama didn't say Kon died explicitly, just that a major filmmaker had passed away). According to Anime-Gamers' source, Kon died of cancer.

There's still a chance that this could just be a nasty and rather inexplicable rumor but it looks less and less likely. We will update you if the situation changes and as more news becomes available.

Kon was a brilliant filmmaker. His works are vital and revolutionary for their visions of lucid dreaming and the way psychosis bleeds over into the waking world. If he has indeed died, the world has lost a bright artist in the prime of his career. I wrote about Kon for the New York Press when most of his body of work screened at the Film Society at Lincoln Center. I also interviewed him at Twitch around the same time. Share your information or your condolences in the comments section. Very sad news, if it's true.

{Editor's note: 5:35pm -- It seems that this sad news is indeed true. The Cinematical team sends its condolences to Satoshi Kon's family, friends, and fans.}

Monday Night Poll: What Was the Best Summer Blockuster of 2010?

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-23T22:32:00+00:00

While films like Piranha 3D prove that the summer season still has a few good weeks left in it, the fact remains: summer's gone and the blockbuster season is about to give way to the transitional fall season and then another Oscar-bait winter. That means it's time to step back and survey which summer blockbusters are worth remembering. Some box office winners were pretty lousy and some losers were pretty terrific (for all of my reservations about it, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was pretty fun). Overall a lot of usual suspects made money--another Pixar smash, a highly-anticipated Christopher Nolan film, a Twilight film -- and, in general, animation dominated (I'm very happy to see that Despicable Me did well in the shadow of Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon did pretty good business too with a very solid $212 million, though it won't be included here since it came out at the end of March).

But which summer blockbuster was your favorite and why? Choose from the 10 highest grossing films of the season after the jump and tell us why you picked them in the comments section.

View Poll

Bryan Singer Talks 'X-Men: First Class' Villains, Setting and More

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-21T13:02:00+00:00

Boy, news about the new X-Men movies sure is coming in at an alarming pace these days, isn't it? Producer Bryan Singer, who you may know as the guy that walked away from the X-Men franchise and made a rather good but poorly received Superman movie, talked with Harry Knowles at Ain't Cool News about the upcoming X-Men: First Class film amidst the latest flurry of casting announcements. Singer deserves a lot of respect for walking away from the franchise like he did and for not backing down during his contract negotiations when he was in talks to direct X3: The Last Stand, and while Valkyrie was pretty lousy, I'm inclined to give the guy the benefit of the doubt as even that stinker has its moments (the pivotal bomb scene in Valkyrie was very well-paced, even if we all knew what was going to happen). This news accordingly comes from a source I'm automatically more inclined to pay attention to.

Here are some highlights from his chat with Harry Knowles:

The film will take place in the '60s so as to mirror the civil rights movement and better contextualize the characters' struggle to either segregate themselves or fit in. It should be noted however that in the original comics Stan Lee and then Roy Thomas wrote, the X-Men never tried to fit in with society. They pretty much kept to themselves in their mansion in Westchester, protecting humanity from themselves from afar for fear of fearful retaliation from the people that they're protecting. They would go into Greenwich Village every now and then to enjoy the Bohemian lifestyle, but that's as integrated as the X-Men got.

The movie will feature more "comic bookish" costumes and will not be a "conventional FIRST CLASS story. Phew. I can't be the only one that hates rote origin story template stories. Also: the leather costumes for the X-Men really stink, so that's very good news. I mean, when people complained about how the costumes for the Thor movie looked like Cosplayers outfits, I thought that was a good thing. Because they're superheroes, for cripes sake, not spies or models or whatever it is those silly leather outfits were going for. They fly. They shoot lasers out of their eyes. They pop metal claws out of their hands. Yellow and blue uniforms are probably the least garish thing about these guys.

More after the jump.

The Hellfire Club will be the villains of the film, with January Jones as Emma Frost and Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw. This actually isn't a bad idea. They've already shown us the introduction of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in the first three X-Men films and as Singer and Knowles point out, there's a funny, "(Hugh) Hefner era" quality to the Hellfire Club, making them perfectly dated villains.

Characters in the film: Azazel, Moira McTaggert (Rose Byrne), Beast (Nicholas Hault), Darwin, Raven Darkholme, Banshee, Havok, Mystique, Xavier, a lady version of Angel. None of these surprise me more than Azazel. I mean, really, a Chuck Austen character in an X-Men movie? I can't be the only one that used to think of Austen as the worst writer in the business back when he was still writing at Marvel and before he absconded from the field to write Worldwatch, that softcore porn comic of Stormwatch. I do like the idea of seeing Darwin though. Peter David has been writing an excellent version of his character in X-Factor, the only X-title I buy.

But what say you, gentle reader? Any surprises? Any disappointments? Any strong reactions either way?

Cinephile Poll: What's Your Favorite "Lost" Movie?

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-20T18:48:00+00:00

Every so often, we're reminded that filmmakers that we know and love, whose work we feel like we've seen cover-to-cover, have made films that we didn't know existed until now. These "lost movies" just randomly appear as blips on our radar until we actually have access to see them, as most likely that's why they've fallen through the cracks for one reason or another.

This week, I was reminded that John Carpenter made a made-for-tv movie called Elvis in 1979 starring Kurt Russell. The film is apparently 2 1/2 hours long and for a while, you could only see it on YouTube, which is nobody's idea of a good time. Thankfully, as MUBI's David Hudson diligently reports, a new R2 dvd of the film has just been released.

This got me to thinking: what about the other films, the one's that just aren't available legitimately anywhere? What's the "lost movie" you're most dying to see? Vote after the break and if you choose "Other," be sure to tell us why and what you wanted to vote for in the Comments section. I know the list is very specific to my tastes but who knows? Maybe it will get you thinking.

Seth Rogen Wants to 'Boo U.'

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-19T18:48:00+00:00

Using Seth Rogen as a voice actor is one of those gloriously counter-intuitive decisions that's almost but not quite as inexplicable as using Jerry Seinfeld's nasal voice in Bee Movie. Obviously Rogen's roles in Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda and Monsters Vs. Aliens were both not leading men and Seinfeld's in Bee Movie was played for yuks but think about it--these guys are being paid as "voice talents." I mean, Rogen sounds like the lead singer of a certain hardcore band whose name rhymes with "Bucked Pup" (don't believe me? I dare you to listen to track 2 on The Chemistry of Common Life and not think of Seth Rogen. I double dare you.).

Well apparently Rogen is lending his "voice talents" to a new Dreamworks animated movie to be helmed by Igor director Tony Leondis called Boo U. The Holly wood Reporter's Heat Vision Blog reports that, as the title suggests, the film follows "a ghost who must return to ghost school to learn how to be a better spook."

Boo U. is just one of sixteen voice-acting credits has to his name after the two aforementioned Dreamworks projects, Horton Hears a Who!, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Shrek 3, an episode of The Simpsons, the Kung Fu Panda video game, two episodes of Family Guy, three Monsters Vs. Aliens tie-ins, Paul, the upcoming Nick Frost/Simon Pegg nerdy buddy movie, the upcoming Kung Fu Panda sequel The Kaboom of Doom, which is slated for a May 2011 release date.

Man, kids can't get enough of this guy, can they? Well if they like that, then they should definitely listen to The Chemistry of Common Life. I bet they'll take to it like ducks to water.

Revisiting the Case of 'Capturing the Friedmans'

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-18T17:15:00+00:00

Viewers of the Oscar-winning documentary Capturing the Friedmans will likely remember that Jesse Friedman, the son of Arnold Friedman, was accused and convicted in 1988 of molesting 13 children at a computer class in Great Neck, New York. It's pretty hard to forget the Friedmans' harrowing case as presented by Capturing the Friedmans, which points out that much of the case against the Friedmans' was based on the testimony of easily manipulated kids that were encouraged to testify against the Friedmans. It's a case that led to both Arnold and Jesse's conviction and eventually to Arnold's suicide in prison.

Now Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice plans on revisiting the case that probably wrongfully convicted Jesse Friedman, now 40 years old and paroled in 2001. According to the Huffington Post, Rice's decision "comes a day after a federal appeals court criticized police, prosecutors and the judge who handled the case against Arnold and Jesse Friedman." Jesse Friedman's latest appeal was rejected on technical grounds as a judge ruled that, "The record here suggests 'a reasonable likelihood' that Jesse Friedman was wrongfully convicted...the police, prosecutors and the judge did everything they could to coerce a guilty plea and avoid a trial."

On a personal note, I have to say that this news is more surreal than anything else. The case is a rather old one and though I live in Great Neck, the Friedmans' story doesn't circulate much near me anymore. This might be because I live on the border between Long Island and Queens and hence only technically live in Great Neck but more likely it's because nobody wants to talk about the case anymore.

I've only lived in Great Neck for seven years so I can't tell you how reaction to the Friedmans has changed over much time but I can say that the documentary Capturing the Friedmans was a much-needed way for the community to come to terms with what happened. I think it helped a lot to see the case addressed however as it more than likely has always been at the back of the minds of many older residents. And hopefully, if Jesse Friedman does have his sentence overturned, the stigma that surrounds the case, especially because of Arnold Friedman's suicide, will be significantly decreased.

Has Old Man De Niro Become Softy Italian Man De Niro?

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-17T19:45:00+00:00

Variety just announced that Robert De Niro will star in the third installment in the wildly popular Italian romantic comedy Manual of Love series. While none of the entries in the series have been released in the US, both were big hits in the domestic box office, featuring big local comedians like Carlo Verdone.

For those that don't have an interest in contemporary Italian cinema, it should be noted that the Italian film industry is notoriously insular. Meaning not only is it not surprising that most Americans are only hearing of this franchise now that Travis Bickle has joined the cast of the third entry, but also that neither Manuale D'Amore 3 nor its two predecessors will ever likely be released States-side.

This means that producers and studio executives consider these film's style of comedy to be too provincial, whatever that means, and hence just don't want to take a chance on a potentially receptive new market here in America. Also De Niro will speak Italian for the role naturally, as pretty much everything in English language is dubbed into Italian in Italy, save for the junky reality shows on MTV Italia (I don't know why this is but it's very strange to watch Next in English with Italian subtitles).

That part of Variety's announcement is to be expected. What's interesting is the idea that De Niro is involved in the project. This is the second role after the recent remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's Everybody's Fine, also based on an Italian romantic comedy, where De Niro plays a lonely old widower who presumably takes a chance on love in his old age. Obviously I can't generalize and say that perhaps old man De Niro has accepted his age and gotten tired of macho roles--the man is clearly holding a gun in the Machete trailer but then again, though he looks like he's playing a politician that curses more often than he actually gets his hands dirty. But maybe De Niro is becoming a softy in his old age. Anyone see and strongly like/dislike the American remake of Everybody's Fine? Sam Rockwell was in it, fer cripes sake!

Which is the Best 'The Social Network' Trailer Parody?

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-17T12:03:00+00:00

Looks like the good people of the internet are already hard at work spoofing The Social Network, the upcoming David Fincher/Aaron Sorkin collaboration about Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and the legal battles over who originally created Facebook. It's a strange and very amusing thing to see people so creatively (not sarcasm; these trailer parodies are pretty fun) send up something that hasn't even come out. It signals that now that the Inception meme has created a demand for new DIY movie parodies. And lo, the internet provides what the internet seeks.

After the break, take a look at some parodies of The Social Network's gorgeous trailer, y'know, the one where the Children of the Corn sing Radiohead? Each one is themed around a different popular website, like eBay or Twitter. Each one is funny in their one way. But which one is the best send-up? Find out after the break.
If the parody trailers below are any indication, the characteristic things that people remember from The Social Network trailer are: creepy Radiohead cover, the line of dialogue about putting the college experience online, the line about 22,000 hits, the swarm of accusations Zuckerberg faces and the arbitration scene at the end of the trailer.

eBay: The best thing about this parody trailer is the way that the Zuckerberg stand-in is accused of abetting in the sale of crappy pop culture artifacts, like a VHS tape of Cool Runnings. That dig alone is better than any joke about negative feedback.

Myspace: This is probably my favorite parody, though it spoofs the Social Network teaser instead of the trailer. The gag about "22,00...friends," Spam-bots, Photo Bucket, New Metal bands...it's all there.

Twitter: This one is frequently very funny but so snide in the way it scoffs at the very concept of Twitter. It's probably my second favorite of the bunch but it's just so obnoxious at times. And the "Creep" parody song isn't very funny.

YouTube: Mostly an undistinguished spoof, except for the scene with Keyboard Cat. More of that kind of specific humor would've been welcome.

Affleck and Weisz Join Terence Malick's Next Project

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-14T13:03:00+00:00

Seems like even director Terence Malick has gotten so antsy working on Tree of Life, his much-anticipated and characteristically much-delayed new film, that he's moved on to casting his next project. The Wrap has word that Ben Affleck and Rachel Weisz have just been cast in Malick's as-yet-untitled next project. The project was initially announced at this year's Berlin Film Festival where it was described as a "powerful and moving love story."

Though rumors about Affleck being cast in the projected started spreading earlier this week, his agents have not officially confirmed with The Wrap that he has been cast in the film. Weisz's agents, on the other hand, have confirmed her involvement. Which doesn't mean that she could be in the film one minute and out the next. Christian Bale was initially tapped for what The Wrap surmises is the role Affleck will now be playing. Other cast members announced at Berlin include Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko.

It's very weird to think of a new Malick project in its nascence before another one that's been gestating for years now hasn't even been released. Malick's a noted perfectionist and with recent work like The New World backing him up, it's no wonder why people give him ample room to work with. Still: are we ever going to see Tree of Life? How many tweaks can the man make?

Warner Bros. Trying to Kill Fox's 'Deadpool' Movie?

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-12T20:35:00+00:00

The astute folks at Den of Geek pointed out that one of the main reasons why we've heard from Warner Brothers that plans for a sequel to The Green Lantern are already in the works is that they want to lock down their star Ryan Reynolds so he can't move on and do a Deadpool movie afterwards. Though the first Green Lantern movie won't be released until June of 2011, a rumor recently started to circulate that, since studio execs were so please with the footage they'd seen from the first film, two more entries in the Green Lantern movie franchise might be in the works.

That rumor was given weight recently when Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix scribe Michael Goldenberg was officially hired by Warner Bros. to write the script for Green Lantern 2. The move is pretty audacious considering that the first film could be a dud, leaving the studio dead in the water with two more entries of a flaccid franchise to go.

There are two other possible reasons for this eager show of confidence in the project. One reason is, as Den of Geek's Simon Brew speculates, the studios want to snag star Ryan Reynolds for a sequel before Fox can get a potential Deadpool spin-off movie off the ground. Rumors are already flying that Robert Rodriguez will direct a Deadpool film scripted by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who recently co-wrote zomcom misfire Zombieland (sorry, it had to be said). With a script for Green Lantern 2 done, the studio can add one more incentive for Reynolds to stick around: proof that they're as serious about the franchise as they want him to be.

The second reason is that Warner Brothers sees what Marvel Studios has done by creating a sense of continuity in their comic book adaptation and is finally realizing that they too need to do something similar. This doesn't mean that we're likely to see Green Lantern pop up in Christopher Nolan's as-yet-untitled third Batman movie but the idea of establishing a three-part saga is an interesting step in that direction. Wonder if they'll keep Casino Royale director Martin Campbell around for a second or even a third Green Lantern.

David O. Russell Just Can't Catch a Break: From 'Nailed' to 'Zombies'

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-12T12:03:00+00:00

I Heart Huckabees' director David O. Russell really just can't catch a break. Or more accurately, his reputation, his current actions on-set and some things that he (gasp) can't control have conspired against him so that he can't catch a break. He's gone from being attached to one dead-in-the-water project stuck in post-production to another that's been in pre-production for months. Production on Russell's latest film Nailed has notoriously shut down four times now and has left some of its crew members, actors James Caan included, feeling alienated.

Russell officially quit Nailed in July. At the time, the Hollywood Reporter announced that producers Douc Wick and Lucy Fisher "were being to cut their fees in half," presumably by financier Ronald Tutor, who owns the rights to Nailed.

It's officially been in post-production for months now. It's a political spoof that deals with healthcare and based on Russell's last film and the production woes, it's impossible to know what kind of tone the film will take now that Russell has out-and-out disowned it and a second director is coming in to pinch-hit.

So where does he go from there? Bleeding Cool broke word yesterday that though he has been attached at various points to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, the PS3 action adventure game, that's no longer the case. It would've been a very strange choice for him but one that might have been so far out of his usual spastic sensibility that it would've done him a lot of good.

Now, Russell is again attached to direct Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The project, which Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's Darko Studios was set to produce, got a star and a new producer in Natalie Portman last December. Russell was officially tapped to direct the project at that time but it hasn't moved forward since then until now. but According to Portman, Russell has turned in a script for the project and it might finally start shooting early next year.

Russell is a perfect fit for Zombies considering that the original novel is only sporadically funny, its novelty wearing out after a while until the next gross-out zed-centric scene. Russell has that crazy, unsound energy that such a project would need to keep things moving and consistently funny. Or just flat out terrible. Either way, I don't think I'm alone in saying that the news is kind of inspired, even though I don't think I Heart Huckabees is that good. Here's hoping Nailed surfaces soon and, more importantly, that it's worth a damn.

For our last report on the Austen Zombie flick, check here.

Mike Tyson Only Did 'The Hangover' to Score More Drugs

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-11T18:02:00+00:00

If you didn't know anything about ex-heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson except that he bit a man's ear off, sounds like a crazy hobo and has a big tattoo on his face, you're probably one of many people that lost interest in Tyson's story in the late '90s. Director James Toback recently tried to change that attitude by re-introducing Tyson to the world in his documentary feature Tysonas a contrite motormouth that hasn't changed over-night into an "angelic" brute but rather something else entirely. From my review of Tyson:

"When discussing his fragile mind-set after his release from prison, Tyson says, 'I didn't think I was an animal.' The inflection in that sentence, putting a stress on "an animal" suggests that he's responding to a question of whether or not he felt like one, showing how Toback is, to some extent leading his subject. But for the most part, Tyson appears to be more than happy to be lead in that small way. His reflective stance is both candid and calculating, a mix of confession and tell-all autobiography. He's setting the record straight, even if that only means legitimizing and not excusing his anger. In his own words: 'I'll be trash and I'll be scum but I'll be angelic scum.'"

Well, looks like Tyson just squandered all the potential good will that Tyson garnered him, not to mention his cameo in The Hangover, which at the time seemed to prove that he could make fun of himself without sounding like a loon. Tyson recently told Sports Radio Interviews that he "was doing that to support my drug habit:"

"I was doing that to supply my drug habit. I'm sorry I'm coming at you guys like this... I said, 'Wow, This is going to be really good. We're going to sell this stuff on 42nd street on bootleg and make a lot of money.' This is my best thinking on drugs... It wasn't that way. It was an international success."

I have no idea what that means, though it sounds like crazy-but-candid Mike Tyson just said that he was planning on bootlegging his own work for drug money. After talking outside of school like that, I doubt he'll be asked back for The Hangover 2 (though he's claimed on more than one occasion that there is a part for him and he will return for the sequel). Another gem from the interview is when he's asked what the worst part about weighing 350 pounds was:

"It was hard to wipe my butt... I was sweating like some kind of guy from a moon project or something."

Again, no clue what that means but good god. Read more soundbite-worthy crazy candid quotes here.

Which Marvel Comic Should Be Adapted Next?

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-10T21:45:00+00:00

In case you missed it: Matthew Vaughn, director of Kick-Ass, Layer Cake and the upcoming X-Men: First Class has declared that comic books have been "mined to death" when it comes to film adaptations. He might be right. But in all likelihood, that sounds like doomsaying from someone that hasn't had the success he might have liked working with Marvel Studios (remember when he was working on X3: The Last Stand? Because I do!).

Hot on the heels of that news, Marvel Studios' chief Kevin Feige talked with MTV News to throw some potential project titles around. Stuff like The Runaways, Dr. Strange, even Guardians of the Galaxy.

Which begs the question: What Marvel series would you want to see adapted to the big screen next? As always, if you select "Other," tell us what you had in mind in the comments section.

Interview: 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed' Star Gemma Arterton

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-06T20:45:00+00:00

Actress Gemma Arterton has thus far had a very weird year at the movies. It's a year that has most accentuated the disparity between the image she'd like to project to her audience and the one she mostly has thus far. Having previously broken through to mainstream attention with British pop comedy St. Trinian's, Arterton has starred in both the Clash of the Titans remake and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time video game adaptation. She's also starred in The Disappearance of Alice Creed, a gritty B-movie. In the film, Arterton ditches her more glamorous roles and throws herself into a character that spends most of the film tied up screaming for help.

Alice Creed has been kidnapped by a couple of ex-cons, played by a towering Eddie Marsan and a very good Martin Compston, with a meticulous plan to ransom her and get away scot-free. Arterton talked to Cinematical recently about why The Disappearance of Alice Creed is the kind of role she wants to gravitate more towards and what it's like to be yelled at by Marsan, most famous as the "Enn raa haa" driving instructor from Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky.

Cinematical: There's a great incongruity between that glamorous, blockbuster-type role that you have in Clash of the Titans and...

Gemma Arterton: Prince of Persia.

Cinematical: Yes. (both laugh)

Arterton: It's all right. They're both the same, really (laughs).

Cinematical: And then you have The Disappearance of Alice Creed, which is decidedly...more sleazy. It (also) seems much more down-to-earth comparatively. How did you get involved with the project?

Arterton: I had just finished making Prince of Persia and it was Christmas. I'd been at it for six months and I kind of lost the will to live because I just...felt like I hadn't exercised my acting ability because it's an action movie, y'know? That goes without saying. I got sent this script from the casting director of Alice Creed. I read it and I thought: 'Wow, this is great, this is my kind of movie.' Which may shock some people considering the movies I've been in.

I read it and it reminded me of a (Michael) Haneke kind of feel, its tightness and its darkness. Haneke's one of my favorite directors so I said, 'I really want to meet for it.' And J (Blakeson) the director said, 'Mmm, I don't really want to play out this because she's too pop.' He told me this later. I went into this and he was quite doubtful that I could do it and I read a scene for him, a quite heavy scene and he offered me the part on the spot. It wasn't later until I knew he wasn't sure I was right for it. That was exactly the reason why I wanted to do it, because I didn't want people to think I couldn't do it.

I also needed to know if I could. I was worried. I needed to challenge myself and test myself. I got a bit like, 'What is acting again?' I felt like I hadn't properly done it for a while. I did something in the UK which nobody's seen here--and I just needed to test myself and I loved it. When I got cast in it, I was thrilled. It was so liberating. As you know, the film's a low-budget movie with three actors, 30 people in the crew, one set pretty much, we shot in sequence--it was opposite to anything else I'd done. We shot in a month. We were churning out scenes like that (snaps her fingers), 2 or 3 scenes a day. And they were long scenes and heavy. There was no pansying around. There were no frill, no special effects to support the film in case the acting was bad. It was just--what it was. It was the most satisfying job I'd done even though it was the most grueling. It took it's toll on me--I was really exhausted by the end of it. I felt like I was properly working, felt like I was earning my money (laughs).

Cinematical: Is the UK film you were alluding to possibly St. Trinian's?

Arterton: No, no, no. It wasn't a film, it was a TV series called Tess of the D'Ubervilles. That was the one I was proud of. I always feel like I'm justifying my career when I talk about things like this but I feel like I've started to--it's only now, since doing Alice Creed, actually that it's started to go the I've wanted it to go. The first couple of years were just trying to get work (laughs). And then kind of being taken along this road and going, 'Why the hell am I on this train? (laughs) This isn't what I wanted to do.'

I took myself and I said, 'No, I'm going to do this,' and (so) I did Alice Creed. It was the best decision I made. Now I've got directors, people I never thought would want to work with me because I was too pop or whatever, saying, 'I saw Alice Creed and want you to do this.' It's been brilliant, a great decision. I always thought it was going to be a film that not many people were going to like and I was quite happy about that (laughs). It's good to be films that people don't like.

Cinematical: Absolutely. When you first read the script for The Disappearance of Alice Creed, what did you think of the character you were going to play?

Arterton: My original impulse was: feral. She's not perfect as well, which is why I liked her. She's not a goody, she's not a baddy. She's not a victim but she is at the beginning. That's the clever thing about the script as well--you don't know who's the hero. And I liked the fact that you don't know if she's lying half the time. That's an amazing thing to act as well. I love acting lying.

I started reading it and I thought at first, 'Woman is hand-cuffed to bed' and thought, 'What the fuck is this? I don't want to play a woman that is hand-cuffed to bed.' And that's what she's called for the first fifteen pages and it isn't until we hear her name, Alice, that we know that she's a person. Ok, so she's a person. Then it develops and she shows that she has this amazing quality to make things happen, to change scenarios no matter what, in a situation of terror, not freezing and thinking, thinking, thinking. I liked that about her; I thought it was admirable. I think she's a heroine but imperfect, really flawed. I like that. It wasn't really the role that I was drawn to though. It was the film in general.

Cinematical: You did mention thought that the role is essentially a woman defined as 'woman handcuffed to bed.' It must've been so grueling to play that character considering how much of the film revolves around you being put upon by these two other characters...

Arterton: Yeah, you're right, it was awful to film but completely necessary. We needed to see her really mistreated and humiliated and scared. She thinks she's going to be raped; she thinks she's going to be murdered. And that's what justifies her to do what she does later on in the film. People always talk about those things because I suppose they're controversial but they're not controversial in Europe. In European film, it's just part of the film. To me, it was part of the film and that's how I treated it as well. And that's how I treated it. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. I was really worried about the acting side (laughs). I was just petrified that I wasn't going to be do it each day. 'Oh fuck, I've got that fucking full-on scene now and I don't even know how I'm going to do it.'

But actually it was the actors I was working with and the director and everyone I was working with that helped me do it. Everyone was so passionated about it because it's this tiny film and J got really good quality cast and crew. He got people together that were that not for any other reason than they wanted to make it. That was the best thing about making this movie, having made blockbusters.

There was no intention to make money with this film. It was never going to be a blockbuster so there was this pressure that was alleviated. We were free to do what we wanted to do, to an extent. We could only have two 'cunts' in the film because it's an 18 (the British equivalent of an R rating) (laughs). Oh no, one and that's mine. You can only have this amount of whatever but that was the only limitation, really. I felt so free because, God, when you have to make $200 million budget back, of course people are going to be freaking out about it. But thee was never about that here. Everyone was just really into it.

Cinematical: How did you get back into that mindset day-in and day-out? It has to be a real--not just a chore but a real--

Arterton: It grinds you down, it really does. I've never been in a situation where I've been terrified or even close to anything like that. I would get myself into a state and I mean like a physical state. I made sure that I felt claustrophobic and restrained because that created a fear in me. Or I'd listen to music which would make me feel nervous or on edge and then I'd do a scene with that feeling inside but I wouldn't try--I would never do anything from personal experience. I end up incorporating personal experience but in this film, I couldn't. It was all to do with the actors, the other actors and that was what made it--every day when I freaked out about not being able to do the scene, the other actors would come in, Eddie and Martin and they would enable it to work (laughs). Because they'd give me everything they had and I'd give them everything I had and then (claps her hands together) it worked. I think it's a lesson for acting, in a way. It's all about the other person.

Cinematical: What was it like being yelled at by Eddie Marsan?

Arterton: Petrifying. Honestly, I've never worked with anyone who actually made me feel like I wasn't acting. I really felt petrified. He's a really lovely guy, I don't know if you've met him; he's really gentle and sweet and then he'll just turn on (laughs) like fucking hell, full-on.

I remember one day we were doing that scene where he's going (lowers her voice), 'Tell me, tell me.' And he's punching me--he actually punched me by accident because it was a really close stunt punch. And he actually did punch me. I was in shock but I was hand-cuffed so I couldn't do anything. Everyone freaked out because this was the worst nightmare on-set (come true): Gemma's gonna get hurt. So everyone freaked out and I was a bit like, 'Whoa.' And J said, 'Well, we won't shoot.' Eddie was absolutely devastated (laughs), so devastated. 'I can't continue, I've got to give it a rest.'

But then we hadn't completed the scene so the next day, we had to pick it up from 'Tell me, tell me' (laughs). Because I remembered the feeling of being punched in the nose, I was so petrified of him actually going to do it again. In the scene, I really am scared and he runs to the other side of the room and then (gets up from her seat and fakes a sudden attack) runs at me like that and I went (screams) to the other side of the bed and I was so convinced that he was going to get me. I was so convinced. I love that as well, that he didn't budge. He went for it, he didn't relent.

As soon as cut was said, he would really try and make sure I was ok. He would (snaps her fingers) snap right out of it. He's an amazing actor in that respect because he can (laughs), he can just go in and out. Another scene where he flabbergasted me was at the end when he's saying, 'Danny, my boy...' It was heart-breaking. Unbelievable actor; I really learned a lot from him. But yeah, he is terrifying as well (laughs).

Cinematical: I can imagine. If you had to choose another role like this over, say, a sequel to Clash of the Titans, would you do it?

Arterton: Yeah. In a heartbeat. That's where my heart is. I'm not condemning those movies because I'm in them and people love them and I love them as well sometimes. But this is it for me, this is what it's about. This is acting. I though do say that anyone that can make dodgy scripts come to life in some sort of life is a really good actor, even though they may not look it. Sometimes some of the scripts you receive...I mean, God. Even the greats can't make them good but we have to (laughs). But this sort of thing is what I love, what I love doing.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed comes out today in NYC and select other cities tomorrow, August 6th.

Here's What a Movie Starring an 'Internet Sensation" Looks Like

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-06T17:15:00+00:00

So I'm not sure if I'm just completely out of touch or if this is just a real generation gap thing but allow me to say: I feel old right now. Very, very old. Nickelodeon Films has just released a trailer (watch it after the jump) for a movie simply title Fred: The Movie, and I have no one idea who or what that person is. For anyone single, over 18 and not living at home with younger siblings, this must be like hearing about Justin Bieber and Hannah Montana second-hand all over again.

The difference between those prepackaged phenomenons and this is that Fred is a genuwine YouTube hit: 15 year-old Lucas Cruikshank, also known as "Fred, Internet Sensation," has posted videos on the YouTubes of a character named Fred Figglehorn, whose antics range from not taking his medication to careening around his house and talking about his "family problems." It's a very weird concept and I can't entirely get my head around it -- he looks like he's just freaking out on camera; I assume his act is that he's a caricature of other hyper information age teens with problems just like them? Maybe?

But Cruikshank's videos consistently get, without exaggeration, millions of hits each time. The kid apparently speaks to some part of the pre-teen soul I have never even heard of. The trailer for Fred: the Movie makes Fred's celebrity at least a little more understandable in that it shows him to be the internet equivalent of a junior stand-up comedian given free reign to make his schtick a feature-length film. I don't predict that'll work as very few comedians who have actually spent years honing their craft have been able to stretch that kind of material into, y'know, a movie worth watching. Then again, I'm not the target audience.

Here's a test: watch the trailer below with a tween and note how they react while watching it. Then, ask them what exactly you're looking at. I'm sure the answer will be enlightening. Be sure to share in the comments if you have a tween on tap and can get fast answers. I mean, Cruikshank is already in production with a second movie called Emo Boy in which he plays a character named "Emo Boy." So old. So very, very old.

Ridley Scott's 'The Forever War' Gets a 'Blade Runner' Screenwriter

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-04T10:02:00+00:00

Author Joe Haldeman just announced on his Livejournal that the film adaptation of his excellent The Forever War, a science fiction novel that serves as an allegory for the Vietnam War, now has a screenwriter attached to it. Now, for the sake of context, director Ridley Scott has been threatening to make an adaptation of The Forever War for, uh, a while (Must! Resist! Obvious Pun!) and with this announcement, it looks like the film may finally be moving forward.

Though he only obliquely alludes to it, Haldeman says that the film's script will be written by someone " with good credits--like, Unforgiven." That could only mean David Webb Peoples, the sole credited screenwriter of Clint Eastwood's inimitable and much-ballyhooed western.

It's interesting, though hardly shocking, that Haldeman should isolate Webb's most prestigious solo screenwriting credit. I mean, he's not likely to name-drop Paul W.S. Anderson's Soldier, Peoples's most recent script, solo or otherwise (I like Soldier but c'mon, the script isn't what makes it fun, y'know?), though it probably has more in common with The Forever War than Unforgiven does. No what's interesting is Haldeman's emphasized a solo credit over one of the films Peoples's has collaborated on with others, like, say, 12 Monkeys or even Scott's Blade Runner. Makes me think that he's really pulling for this guy to make a good adaptation.

Which is a little surprising given the little tidbit he lets loose in his Livejournal entry next, namely the fact that he was never approached to write a script for the film: "Incidentally, I wasn't asked to submit a screenplay, though I've been a member

of the Writers Guild for almost thirty years and have solid production credits. No surprise. They don't want the book's author saying 'Hold it! I wrote the book, and that's not the way it goes.'"

Not for nothing, but Haldeman, an experienced and talented prose writer on his own terms, is also the screenwriter of Robot Jox (yet another reason why he deserves accolades, pats on the back, money beyond his wildest dreams, etc.) but hasn't worked on a script since then. That was 20 years ago. Admittedly, that's probably not a factor in this decision. More likely Haldeman is right in speculating that they don't want too many chefs in the kitchen, especially not one who can claim a trump card as big as original authorial intent like Haldeman can. Stinks that the project (which is on its fourth draft, mind you) may already be dictated by a need to be simple instead of smart and, like, complicated.

'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2' Sets Release Date

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-03T16:16:00+00:00

A press release went out today announcing that The Twilight Saga: Break Dawn, Part 2 is slated for a November 16, 2012 release date. This means that people fearing the end of the world come December of that year have nothing to fear and can rest easy knowing that the world may indeed end but they will have seen Bella give birth to a ... well, that would be telling, wouldn't it?

In all seriousness, though, this announcement makes it seem as if the film series, whose last two parts will be directed by Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls, Candyman 2), is so cocky that it's determined to drag out its franchise for as long as it can. Compare Summit Entertainment's release strategy with Warner Brothers' plans for the last two film installments of Harry Potter. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is slated for a November 19, 2010 release date while Part 2 is scheduled to come out July 15, 2011. Breaking Dawn, Part 1, on the other hand, comes out November 18th, 2011.

Cocky? Maybe. But consider this: As it stands, the summer of 2012 will see The Avengers, Spider-Man and Batman 3 all hit theaters within a three-month span. Summit may be cocky, but they also may be wanting to stay the hell away from those three blockbusters ... and, well, we don't blame them. What about you?

Bizarre Marketing Campaign for Joaquin Phoenix Doc Kicks Off

Simon Abrams — 2010-08-02T15:15:00+00:00

According to a piece at Indiewire, the new Casey Affleck-directed mockumentary I'm Still Here: ~~the Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix~~* has started its ad campaign with some graffiti spotted in the Chelsea area of downtown Manhattan. The "mysterious" graffiti consists of a stencil of Joaquin Phoenix's head with crazy hair and shades sans mention of the film's title or what the images are for.

This kind of advertising tactic isn't that remarkable when you think about it -- I mean, even the Omen remake used a street-level ad campaign to get attention, marking parts of the Lower East Side with the number "666" sprayed in a circular pattern. It's actually even a little groanworthy considering that it's an attempt to give Affleck's mock-doc a faux-street art feel. We get it, it's guerrilla art. Nyuk nyuk, ha ha. And this is coming from someone that got a kick out of Joaquin's performance on Letterman.

What I'm more interested in regarding the Indiewire piece is the mention that Affleck is being sued for sexual harassment by cinematographer Magdalena Gorka. Gorka claims that Affleck groped her, was generally unpleasant around the set and didn't pay her and eventually removed her credit from the film after she quit. Affleck's lawyer says that Gorka's claims are "fishy" and wonders why she hasn't made a stink about these allegations until now. Which itself should be a no-brainer: more attention thanks to Affleck's movie, obviously. Just because she knows how to get attention doesn't mean her claim is necessarily false. In any case, read more about the suit here and check out the graffiti here. I'm Still Here: the Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix is slated to come out September 10th.

(* Correction: The film's title is simply I'm Not There.)

Darkseid is Coming ... to 'Smallville?!'

Simon Abrams — 2010-07-29T13:11:00+00:00

Heat Vision Blog recently spread the word that, according to Smallville producers, Darkseid will be the main bad guy in the show's final season. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Tom Welling will be directing an episode and sure, sure, sure, so will Justin Hartley but, c'mon, who cares about that stuff when we know that Darkseid is going to be in Smallville? How weird, unusual and exciting is that, huh?!

Many of you reading this might ask: "What's a Darkseid and how does it affect the Superman movie series?!" Well, I'll tell you! About the former. I don't know how it'll affect the latter. I'm hoping that David Goyer and Christopher Nolan's Superman idea is "edgy' and "dark." Not because I think it'd be good but because there's a good chance that Darkseid might show up in it. This guy is one bad mofo. Anyway! Here's a handy tip sheet telling you all about Darkseid. After the jump.

Darkseid is one of two elder gods. He's the evil twin to Highfather, who rules over New Genesis. Darkseid rules over Apokalips, a planet run by slaves and Parademons.
Darkseid's @$$-ugly son, Orion, was raised on New Genesis. D
Darkseid can shoot lasers out of his eyes called Omega Beams. These beams can basically do whatever writers want them to do. Back when the Superman: The Animated Series cartoon was just hitting its stride, the Omega Beams were able to incinerate everything in their path. Recently, in the impressive but kind of pointless and very confusing Final Crisis, the Omega Beams killed Batman. But not really. He's still alive. Just traveling back through time as a living bomb that will detonate when it reaches the 21st century. Cool or confusing? Why not both?!
Darkseid was created by writer/artist/holy fool Jack Kirby as part of a series called The Fourth World, whose characters infrequently pop up in Superman titles. Because Superman is as close as the DCU comes to a god and Darkseid is one of the "New Gods." What's the difference between a "New God" and an old one? Omega Beams, clearly.
Did we mention that there are Parademons on Apokalips? Because that's just how Darkseid rolls.
"New Gods" travel around via sentient teleportation devices called "Mother Boxes" that open up "Boom Tubes" between locations. Beats commuting, I'm sure.

With a lidda bit of luck, some of Kirby's original mythology will make its way into the TV show. I can't imagine finding a budget for something like Apokalips would be easy. But hey! Live-action Darkseid! Neat, right? Would you want Darkseid as the villain in the Superman movie, or are there a lot of other villains you'd rather see first?

Watch This: Zach Galifiniakis & Steve Carell in "Between Two Ferns"

Simon Abrams — 2010-07-29T12:25:00+00:00

This Friday, Dinner for Schmucks, Jay Roach's remake of the already unfunny French comedy The Dinner Game, comes out. Dinner for Schmucks stars Paul Rudd and Steve Carell and follows a young white-collar jerk's attempt to get a promotion and impress his girlfriend by using an "idiot" (Carell) to impress his boss. Like it's source material, it's a rather obnoxious comedy, but this time around it tries to shame characters in the film for laughing at "idiots" in spite of the fact that that's exactly what the audience came to the theater to do. Where's Michael Haneke when you need him?!

In any case, Carell and co-star Zach Galifianakis, who are genuinely funny and worth watching in Dinner for Schmucks, came out with another of Galifianakis's short and sweet "Between Two Ferns" segments. "Between Two Ferns," for the uninitiated, is a very awkward talk show that Galifianakis does with fellow comedians and stars. His character in these skits is very similar to his persona in his stand-up material, very klutzy, kinda low-brow and emotionally manic. Carell similarly mocks himself by acting like a hoity-toity narcissist dissatisfied with the way his career has gone. (Dig that Evan Almighty crack!)

Before I show this clip to you, which I think is superior to Dinner for Schmucks (why yes, I do prefer Granny Smith apples to clementines), allow me to point out this line from my Dinner for Schmucks review which kinda, sorta anticipates my response to such a "hypothetical film" as the one Carell and Galifianakis just made:

"But with material this thoughtlessly cloying and bloated, they would have been better served if they were locked in a room together and allowed to improv a story with a couple of handheld cameras for two hours. The end product of that hypothetical comedy might not be more consistent than Dinner for Schmucks, but it'd almost certainly be a better comedy."

And it is. And on that note, check out the "Between Two Ferns" skit in question....

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Steve Carell from Between Two Ferns