Undaunted by the disseminated to death videos of David O. Russell verbally assaulting Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees (find ’em yourself), Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel have bravely committed to starring in the director’s next feature, Nailed. Good for them. I want more David O. Russell movies, and I don’t care … Continue reading
It’s always nice to see that Fred Schepisi is still working, even though the veteran of the Australian New Wave hasn’t fully connected with a piece of material since 1993’s Six Degrees of Separation. At his best, he can be a master of widescreen composition (he worked wonders with his Canadian locales in Roxanne); at … Continue reading
Damn those killjoys at Disney marketing! They’ve dropped the year’s most inspiringly nonsensical piece of dialogue from the latest National Treasure: Book of Secrets theatrical trailer, and subbed in the following: "A man only has one lifetime, but history can remember you forever." Really? You’ve gone from "What is it about treasure that makes history … Continue reading
In a rare show of confidence/hubris, Miramax (and Paramount Vantage) kicked off last night’s Los Angeles press screening of the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men with a brand new theatrical trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. At first, I thought it was a terrible idea; though I’m amped to see … Continue reading
And now… the downside of work stoppages. Were it not for the stupid charity of Sony’s Amy Pascal, we might’ve been done with Nora Ephron as a director seven years ago. And were the town behaving normally, even the stupid charity of Ms. Pascal might’ve proved insufficient to parole Ephron from Director Jail, where she … Continue reading
No, Patrick Marber has not been commissioned to make another vicious mess of male/female relationships (though that’d be fine by me so long as he issues a written apology for Notes on a Scandal). Matter of fact, he has nothing to do with Duplicity, a Universal Pictures drama that will re-team the attractively antagonistic pair … Continue reading
There’s still no telling whether Sam Raimi will return for his fourth Spider-Man movie, but if he does, I’ve a feeling he’ll be working from the franchise’s best screenplay yet. Judging from this year’s excellent Zodiac and his spot-on adaptation of Richard A. Clarke’s Against All Enemies (which Robert Redford is currently set to direct), … Continue reading
If ever a foreign filmmaker were destined to succeed in today’s Hollywood, it’s Timur Bekmambetov. His goofy, good-versus-evil light shows, Night Watch and Day Watch, were shameless major studio tryouts; they were calibrated to catch the eye of execs hungry for a stylist with zero qualms about selling out. Though Bekmambetov’s films may heavily mimic … Continue reading
I’m beginning to think Universal is having some serious tone issues with Charlie Wilson’s War. A few weeks ago, we got our first look at Mike Nichols’s big December release about the titular Texas congressman’s vigorous efforts to fund the Mujahadeen’s jihad against the encroaching Soviet Union, and it looked… okay. Today, we get our … Continue reading