After a much-deserved two year break in between mammoth productions, Peter Jackson is taking his first, tentative steps toward directing again by shopping his take on Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones around to the studios. As someone who had little use for King Kong, I think this is great news; at his best, Jackson is … Continue reading
You’ve no doubt heard the big news by now, but for those of you who’ve been laying low after killing your ex-wife, here’s the short version: Live Free or Die Hard is the Biggest Movie in the Blogosphere!!! Not since Nikki Finke blew the cover off the Spider-Man 3/Sony Internal Tracking Data story has the … Continue reading
I’m not up on my Sara Gran, but I do know my Roman Polanski, and, aside from having the good sense to say no to a champagne/lude cocktail, I’m well aware that the master filmmaker did the crazy-bitch-gets-worked-up-over-nothing subgenre to perfection with Repulsion. But there must be something to Gran’s novel, Come Closer, which Miramax … Continue reading
Remember all that talk of Blood Meridian being Ridley Scott’s next film after Penetration aka Body of Lies? Forget about it. Now that he’s attached himself to Ethan Reiff’s and Cyris Voris’s Nottingham, a revisionist retelling of the Robin Hood legend intended as a star vehicle for Russell Crowe (as the not-so-bad-after-all Sheriff of Nottingham), … Continue reading
Bill Condon does not lack for humbleness. Though the Academy Award winning screenwriter of Gods and Monsters and the shoulda-been Academy Award nominated director of Dreamgirls must have considerable reserves of confidence stored away somewhere (how else does one manage the combustible egos of Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles and Eddie Murphy on the same movie), … Continue reading
Opie Cunningham, director of the greatest film ever made starring Matthew McConaughey and Jenna Elfman (EDtv), has done the prudent thing and cast Frank Langella to reprise his role as former President Richard M. Nixon in his big screen adaptation of Nixon/Frost, a new play by Peter Morgan currently wowing audiences on Broadway (starring Langella … Continue reading
Jack Valenti, hero and villain to the American film industry, died today at the age of eighty-five, three years after releasing his viselike grip on the Motion Picture Association of America. I hope he enjoyed his brief retirement, but I’ll hazard a guess and assume he missed the day-to-day bare-knuckle brawling with Congressmen, studio chiefs, … Continue reading
One of the most intriguing films of 2005 is shaping up to be one of the most promising remakes of 2008. Yes, even better than All of Me. Susanne Bier’s Brothers (fancy Dutch title: Brødre) was a punishing tale of a family torn apart by the return of a husband/father/soldier assumed dead after being captured … Continue reading
The depressing irony of Adam Shankman producing an All of Me remake with Queen Latifah in the Lily Tomlin role is that I guarantee you their number one choice for the Steve Martin role is Steve Martin. Desperately searching for a new Peter Jackson after Bob Shaye pissed the first one off with the company’s … Continue reading
The Crop: The Dirty Dozen The Studio: Warner Brothers The Director: ? The Producers: Joel Silver The Writer: Scott Rosenberg, Andre Nemec and Josh Applebaum The Actors: None attached. The Premise: The journalist daughter of a supermarket magnate gets kidnapped in Pakistan by a band of bloodthirsty terrorists. After a failed Navy Seal rescue ups … Continue reading