Frank Darabont’s The Mist is far from a flawless work: its first act relies on contrived conflict to set its ideologically (and theologically) diverse characters against each other; the basic conventions of the narrative will be overly familiar to anyone who’s seen "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street"; and, on a strictly superficial level, … Continue reading
It’s early yet, but the current critical unanimity over at Rotten Tomatoes suggests that Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis has a legitimate shot at being one of this year’s best reviewed films. Based on Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novels, Persepolis is the animated, black-and-white account of a young Iranian girl growing up amid the turmoil of the Islamic … Continue reading
As the 2007 WGA strike enters its third week, the studios are still losing the PR war; now, they’re losing movies. Though Mira Nair’s Shantaram (starring Johnny Depp) and Rob Marshall’s Nine (a big-screen rendition of the popular Broadway musical) may be acceptable (and presumably temporary) losses, their postponement comes right on the heels of … Continue reading
When last we checked in on the Harvey Milk biopic race, it appeared that Gus Van Sant was hugging the inside track with his then untitled-and-unfunded project based on a screenplay by Dustin Lance Black (best known as a staff writer for HBO’s Big Love). Well, now that script has a title (Milk), producers (Dan … Continue reading
Jonathan Mostow is about as high functioning a hack as there is working in Hollywood today; while his three major studio pictures – Breakdown, U-571 and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines – are completely anonymous, they’re just a tad more proficient in the execution than your random Hollywood programmer. Mostow has chops, and he … Continue reading
While it’s entirely plausible that Oliver Stone’s Pinkville, a sprawling ensemble drama centered on the My Lai Massacre, has been temporarily halted due to the writer-director’s inability to rewrite throughout production (with co-writer Mikko Alanne), how was this not a major consideration during the completed-last-week casting process which rounded up no fewer than six name … Continue reading
This is not the type of one-sheet that inspires a great deal of confidence. But it’s a fucking one-sheet. Why get worked up? I’m going to be extra nice to Peter Segal’s big screen transfer of Get Smart until it is released. Why? Read this ComicCon ’07 interview, and all will make sense. Actually, it … Continue reading
Katherine Heigl may be too career savvy for her own good. Oh, sure, the decision to team with director Robert Luketic and screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith on the romantic comedy The Ugly Truth is a sound one on the surface. The last time those three got together, their Legally Blonde launched Reese … Continue reading
Rogen’s off the reservation! Back in August, Devin breathlessly relayed the news (culled from AICN) that Jason Bateman had been selected as one-half of the titular duo for Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. This was good news in that we’d get more big-screen Bateman. Unfortunately, for those of us who run more … Continue reading