The New York Times has published a excerpts from the diary that writer/director Woody Allen kept while shooting his latest film Vicki Christina Barcelona in Spain. Here’s one short extract-
Offered role to Scarlett Johansson. Said before she could accept, script must be approved by her agent, then by her mother, with whom she’s close. Following that it must be approved by her agent’s mother. In middle of negotiation she changed agents — then changed mothers. She’s gifted but can be a handful.
Needless to say, the style of the whole piece harkens back to Allen’s short stories and essays he wrote in the 1960s and 70s which were collected in the books Getting Even, Without Feathers and Side Effects. A fun, Friday afternoon read.
Premiering this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival is Danny Boyle’s latest, Slumdog Millionaire. Set in India, it tells the story of an 18-year old orphan (Dev Patel) from the slulms of Mumbai who goes on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, ultimately winning the grand prize. Of course, this raises suspicions as to how a kid from the streets could know so much. the film is based on the book Q&A by Vikas Swarup.
In anticipation of its Telluride bow this weekend, Fox Searchlight has sent out a couple of photos from the film, which are in the gallery below. (Click to get the full picture.)
CNN has graced us with a short clip from Oliver Stone’s upcoming George W. Bush bio-pic W, featuring the scene where a young Bush (Josh Brolin) mets his future wife Laura Welch (Elizabeth Banks) at a backyard cookout. What do you think?
1. Babylon A.D. (3,390 Theaters, 90 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Yes, the Labor Day weekend. The unofficial end to summer. The time when kids prepare to go to school. And when Hollywood dumps the last of their summer rejects on us before they bring out the Oscar and Holiday films.
This film seems to be one Fox kind of abandoned. I might have seen an ad on TV for it once, maybe? At least not as many times as the ads for the other two movies released today.
After reading this, it might be a case almost like when a man finds a woman attractive, invites her into his life, and then immediately begins changing everything about her to match up with his ideal. Then, when he’s done with the make over, he realizes that he’s not attracted to her anymore and sends her on her way.
As for the movie itself, it seems like a more dour version of The Fifth Element. Like we need that.
2. Disaster Movie (2,642 Theaters, 90 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Okay, let’s go over this again. I’ll tell you the same thing I told you when Meet the Spartans came out. You didn’t listen to me then and that movie opened at number one. Hopefully, you’ll listen to me now.
Do not go and see this movie.
Seriously. This film is made by the same guys who made Date Movie, the completely awful Epic Movie, and the aforementioned Spartans. So you are 100% guaranteed that this film will suck.
Give the price of your ticket to charity. Give it to a homeless guy. Just throw the money out your car window. Either way, the cash will be better spent.
Yes, I do like some of the actors in the movie. That’s not enough. Yes, there is a wrestling scene between Kim Kardasian and Carmen Electra. But it won’t be as good as you imagine and it will be too short to matter in the hour and a half of awful you’ll have to sit through (besides, you can find it online so you don’t have to see the movie at all).
Please do not see this film. I will lose all respect for you if you do.
3. College (2,123 Theaters, 94 Minutes, Rated R): Wow. All three of the movies released today are around an hour and a half long. You can see all three in the same day and be home in time to cry yourself to sleep.
Yeah, I thought the TV ads for this film were pretty daring. No, not for the racy content. But for comparing itself to Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, and American Pie, essentially stating that it was the college comedy of the 2000s. Wait a tic, wasn’t Old School released in 2003? Yes. Yes it was. And Accepted was released in 2006. You know what that makes you, College? At best, the Delta House, How I Got Into College and PCU of the 2000s.
The plot focuses on three High School seniors who visit the local college, supposedly on a fact finding trip, and become engrossed in sex, beer and rowdiness. I go to college and, darn it, it just isn’t like that. For me at least.
There will now be a brief moment’s pause so everyone can ask themselves, “Who’s he?”
Well, a trip over to the IMDB shows us that he has directed episodes of the reality series Queer Eye For The Straight Guy and The Agency as well as the 2005 Singapore gangster film One Last Dance. He is also working on developing a big screen adaptation of the classic David Carradine television series Kung Fu, though I doubt the IMDb’s insistance that it is actually in production at this time.
There will now be another brief moment’s pause so everyone can ask themselves, “How did he get the job?”
Don’t ask me. I would think that a studio looking for someone to helm a live-action adaptation of a popular 1980s cartoon series about a giant robot would go with someone with a bit of experience handling big budget action films. Of course, Michael Bay is currently occupied, but I am sure there are quite a few others in Hollywood equally up to the task. Perhaps Makowski has some rather compromising of a studio executive in a nun’s outfit sharing some affection with a three-legged goat. More likely, One Last Dance is a stylish bit of filmmaking that has somehow been overlooked. Hard to tell, though, as it is not available on DVD. No word as to when Voltron will go into production.
If you happen to be in central Ohio this weekend, you may want to swing by the town of Mansfield for their Shawshank Redemptionreunion weekend. It was 15 years ago that the Hollywood production, lead by stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, descended upon their tow, attracted by the prospect of using the Mansfield Reformatory prison for a bulk of the shooting. Other locations used in the film include the Wyandot County Courthouse and nearby Malabar Farm.
According to an article in the Plains Dealer, none of the film’s main stars are expected to attend. Instead the weekend is for the locals who worked on the film and anyone else who wants to walk the cell blocks and other locations where the film was made. You can find more information at the event’s website.
There are those who say that visiting a location used in a movie breaks the illusion of reality that the film creates. I find the opposite to be true. I have repeatedly stood at various filming locations and in my mind’s eye, replayed the scenes shot there, suddenly gaining a more vibrant reality as those scenes run in my mind. And, for a brief moment, I can also see myself in the film. I have been in the Red Bank, New Jersey convenience store used by Kevin Smith in Clerks and been treated poorly by the counter help. I have stood outside the Ghostbustersfirehouse in New York, have expecting to see Ecto-1 come screaming out of the bay door on its way to a call. I have stood outside the Upper West Side apartment of Holly Golightly and the The House On 92nd Street on the Upper East Side, wondering what was going on behind their doors. When I walk by City Hall in downtown Philadelphia, I can’t help but look up to see if there are any lions on the roof as there were in Twelve Monkeys.
And perhaps this weekend, some folks will walk through an old prison in Ohio and make a similar connection.
George Clooney is in talks to star in Jason Reitman’s next film, an adaptation of Walter Kirn’s novel Up In The Air. Clooney will play a cut-throat corporate downsizer who is consummed with getting the most airline frequent flyer miles he can.
Although the film will be Reitman’s followup to last fall’s surprise hit Juno, it is a project that the writer/director has been working on for some time. He first started working on the adaptation back in 2003, but set the project aside after he read Diablo Cody’s screenplay Juno and decided to make that his follow up to his 2005 debut Thank You For Smoking.
Since the success of Juno, Reitman has served as a producer on Cody’s follow-up screenplay, Jennifer’s Body, which is being directed by Karyn Kusama.
So says Bruce Campbell about returning to the Evil Deadfranchise, which launched both his and director Sam Raimi’s careers back in the 1980s. Last month at the San Diego ComicCon, Raimi stated that he and his full-time brother and part-time writing collaborator were gearing up to work on a draft for a fourth installment of the cult classic series that sees Campbell’s hapless Ash fighting off legions of the undead.
Seeing that the last installment of the film was 1992′s Army Of Darkness, Campbell acknowledged in a recent interview with MTV Movie Blog that Ash strapping on the chainsaw and loading up the boom-stick again will take into account his advancing age.
Sam gets to hide behind the camera. I can’t. But I think he’s planning on factoring that in. As like a major factor. It’d be a major liability, you know Ash runs out of breath or his back goes out and [stuff] like that. I mean I just blew my hamstring fighting a stunt guy for Burn Notice, the show that I’m doing now. So there’s a little bit of truth to all of that!
But while other aging action heroes who have returned to the silver screen have carted along younger sidekicks – We’re looking at you Shia, – Campbell says that Ash won’t be so encumbered.
I think the audience would be insulted if you did, because then you feel this obvious pressure to appeal. The beauty of the Evil Dead movies is that you’re only appealing to one demographic and that’s people who like horror movies. And you just have to please them. You don’t have to appeal to the studio. You’re already pleasing them by giving them part 4.
And while Raimi is now considered one of Hollywood’s more in demand directors thanks to the financial success of the Spider-Man franchise, Campbell thinks it would be best if a new Evil Dead film would return to its low-budget, low-tech roots.
I mean if we were really smart [though], we’d go back to a handheld movie and shoot it in 16mm and find someplace in the middle of nowhere. And have a crew of 10 people. If we were smart.
If you didn’t get enough of The Incredible Hulk this summer as he smashed his way through theaters, you can now have him smashing through your own living room on October 12, when the Marvel Comics superhero adaptation hits DVD and Blu-Ray retailers’ shelves.
Universal has put together a pretty good package for both formats, though Blu-Ray owners will get a few extras that won’t be available on the standard DVD release.
Both editions will have an unspecified number of deleted scenes, chief among them, the film’s alternate opening. You may recall that this opening was set in the arctic where a despondent Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) was set to commit suicide rather than allow his alter-ego the Hulk to continue to rampage. Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier stated that in this scene, we would have seen another of the easter eggs that are being scattered through Marvel’s films to help set up an eventual Avengers team film. Additionally, there will be five behind-the-scenes featurettes and an audio commentary track from Leterrier. Each version will also come with a digital copy of the film that can ripped to use on a PC, Mac or iPod.
The Blu-Ray release has several additional features accessed through U Control, which allow the viewer access to additional information without interrupting the film itself and BD-Live features including chat and video clip sharing.
Frank Darabont’s next film, Law Abiding Citizen, will be shot entirely on location this fall in Philadelphia.
The story centers on a string of murders taking place across the city being masterminded by psycopathic genius who is locked behind bars. Gerard Butler will star as the prosecutor responsible for the psychopath’s incarceration who is racing against time to stop him.
Exciting news for those of anyone who is a follower of Darabont’s work and for any film fan living in the Philadelphia area. And if you’re like me, someone who lives in the Philadelphia area and is a fan of Darabont’s movies, it is a double win!
Philadelphia and the surrounding region has certainly seen its fair share of film and television production recently, with numerous smaller projects as well as bigger productions like M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, which was released this past summer, and the upcoming Marley And Me, Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones and Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen all having used the area for location shooting. Looking towards the future, Shyamalan is currently planning on shooting his next film, Avatar: The Last Airbender, in the area and talk continues to circulate about a full-fledged production studio being built in the near future.
We’ll keep you posted on the production as the fall rolls on.
