Category: News

Variety has reported that Oliver Stone is set to make another 9/11 film. After World Trade Center (which got a lot of unfair flak from certain UK critics) he is slated to direct Jawbreaker, which focuses on the immediate military response to the terror attacks on September 11th.

The trade paper says:

After steering clear of political controversy with 9/11 heroism tale “World Trade Center,” Oliver Stone and Paramount Pictures are venturing into edgier territory with “Jawbreaker.” Pic will focus on America’s response to the terrorist attacks with the invasion of Afghanistan and hunt for 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden.

Cyrus Nowrasteh, whose most recent credit was the controversial ABC miniseries “The Path to 9/11,” is set to write a second draft of “Jawbreaker.” Script is based in part on a memoir of the same name by Gary Berntsen, the CIA’s pointman during the invasion, who coordinated the efforts of the CIA and Special Operations Forces to end Taliban rule.

Stone and Par bought the book months ago and kept it hush-hush so that “World Trade Center” could open unencumbered in the U.S. and overseas. A first draft was written by Ralph Pezzullo, who co-wrote “Jawbreaker” with Bernsten.

With “World Trade Center” on track to gross upward of $125 million worldwide, Par was eager to take the subject to its next logical step.

Is Stone going to make a 9/11 trilogy in the same way that he made three films (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven and Earth) about Vietnam?

What are your thoughts?

> Slashfilm on the news
> Oliver Stone at the IMDb

Roger Ebert has been off ill for a few months but penned a note from rehab a couple of days ago describing his time in recovery and his plans to return to active duty.

He has also posted his first review since the summer. Check out his take on The Queen at RogerEbert.com

Get well soon Roger.

> Roger Ebert’s official site
> Wikipedia entry for the famous Chicago Sun Times critic

Guardian Film has a list of actors who were considered for roles they didn’t get:

There is a famous example:

Tom Selleck (Indiana Jones): Selleck declined because of his commitments to Magnum PI. The part went to Harrison Ford.

A more recent one:

Ben Affleck (Brokeback Mountain): One of the actors whom director Ang Lee talked to about starring in the love story between two ranch-hands. The part went to Heath Ledger.

And two that get the head spinning:

Kevin Costner (The Matrix): Costner was apparently considered for the role of Neo (seriously). The part went to Keanu Reeves.

Chevy Chase (American Beauty):Turned down the lead role of Lester. Jeff Daniels was also considered for it. The part went to Kevin Spacey.

They also link to website that has many, many more examples. (Link via Movie City News)

> Guardian article
> The Top 25 Rejected Movie Roles at NotStarring.com

It seems that someone in Kazakhstan is determined to fight back against the Borat movie. TMZ reports that their government has taken out an expensive ad in the New York Times in order to counteract the movie:

It might not be coming out until November, but the upcoming film “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a faux-Kazakh buffoon, is making Kazakhstan deeply nervous about its national image — so much so that the country’s government took out a pricey four-page full-color ad in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune today.
The special four-page insert entitled “Kazakhstan in the 21st Century” features a photo of the country’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev on its front page shaking hands with President George W. Bush — good timing, considering that Nazarbayev is scheduled to be at the White House this coming Friday.

And the thirteen articles contained within propagandize broadly over such topics as “Transforming the mixed blessing of a nuclear legacy” and “Petroleum players seek their fortune in the City of London” (that’s what it says, folks).The ad likely cost somewhere around $300,000 – $400,000 to run; Kazakhstan’s per capita income was approximately $7,500, according to 2004 estimates.

Don’t they get that this is just going to give the film more publicity?

> The Guardian on Kazakhstan’s PR offensive
> Wikipedia entry for Borat
> Borat at Myspace

ComingSoon has posted 5 high-res images from the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It is the fifth film in the series and opens in the UK & US on Friday 13th July next year.

> IMDb entry for the Order of the Phoenix
> Wikipedia entry for the film
> Excellent Harry Potter fansite The Leaky Cauldron also has the images and a lot more besides

Entertainment Weekly have a piece by Steve Daly on the status of the possible live action film of The Hobbit. It seems that it is still along way off (if indeed it ever happens):

Over eight grueling years, Peter Jackson turned J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings into a multibillion-dollar franchise. So you’d think that New Line, the studio that financed the LOTR juggernaut (and an EW sister company), would have long since locked up plans to adapt The Hobbit, Tolkien’s juvenile-flavored preamble to the trilogy. But a long-simmering rights imbroglio has precluded the movie from coming to fruition — by Jackson or anyone else.

Happily, that conflict seemed to be clearing up last week, when the story broke that MGM — owner of the distribution rights to The Hobbit, but not the rights to the motion picture, which is the property of New Line—was prepared to finance a new film and wanted Jackson to direct. There was just one catch: According to Jackson, nobody at MGM has actually called him. Ever.

”It’s been three years since we delivered The Return of the King, ”says the 44-year-old filmmaker. ”In all that time, nobody’s ever spoken to us about The Hobbit…. We haven’t been thinking about The Hobbit because there’s no point getting excited if [New Line and MGM] don’t have the rights sorted out.” Instead, Jackson has turned to overseeing other projects, including exec-producing a movie version of the videogame smash Halo, remaking the WWII flying story The Dam Busters (to be directed by LOTR computer-animation expert Christian Rivers), adapting the fantasy book series Temeraire, and helping out with special-effects work on James Cameron’s 3-D opus Avatar.

Jackson also discusses the studio politics that have hampered the project:

”The politics between New Line and MGM have never been shared with us. MGM seemingly wants to partner on the film, but I think New Line would rather buy MGM out and run the movie themselves.” New Line had no comment at press time, while MGM wouldn’t discuss any negotiations with Jackson, only issuing a statement to say that his LOTR success ”makes him the first and most ideal choice for directing The Hobbit.”

And he also wonders why MGM are courting him in public rather than just picking up the phone and getting in touch with him directly:

In the meantime, Jackson seems puzzled that MGM should court him publicly, but not privately. ”I don’t want to complain,” he says. ”It’s nice to wake up and turn on the Internet and see that you’re being considered for a movie. But it is kind of curious. I guess I’ll just keep watching the Net and see if there’s any more news.”

I wouldn’t hold your breath for this one.

> The original story at Entertainment Weekly
> The Hobbit at Wikipedia
> A site campaigning for The Hobbit to get made

The great Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist has passed away at the age of 83.

Mattias Karen of the AP reports:

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Oscar-winning filmmaker Sven Nykvist, who was legendary director Ingmar Bergman’s cinematographer of choice, died Wednesday after a long illness, his son said. He was 83.

Nykvist died at a nursing home where he was being treated for aphasia, a form of dementia, said his son, Carl-Gustaf Nykvist.

Nykvist won Academy Awards for best cinematography for the Bergman films “Cries and Whispers” in 1973 and “Fanny and Alexander” in 1982.

Nykvist’s sense of lighting and camera work made him a favorite of Bergman’s after their first collaboration on the 1954 movie “Sawdust and Tinsel,” which began a partnership that lasted nearly 30 years.

His work on films such as Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence and Persona added a rich mood and tone which was unmistakable and gave much of Bergman’s work its signature look and feel.

But perhaps the film that stands out most for me is Cries and Whispers. The striking use of colour (in stark contrast to the black and white of his earlier work with Bergman) stays with you long after that remarkable film has ended. It is still a film I would urge anyone to see.

Later in his career he worked with Bergman disciple Woody Allen on Crimes and Misdemeanors (arguably Allen’s last truly great film) and on Lasse Hallestrom’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?

But it is his collaborations with the Swedish maestro which he will be remembered for. As Gary Morris of the Bright Lights Film Journal has noted it was:

…one of the key collaborations in modern cinema.

Of that there can be no doubt.

> AP news report on the death of Sven Nykvist
> Sven Nykvist at the IMDb
> Wikipedia entry for Ingmar Bergman
> Article on Nykvist’s contribution to Bergman’s work at Ingmar Bergman Face to Face
> Peter Cowie’s essay on Cries and Whispers at the Criterion Collection
> Movie Masterworks on Persona

The Toronto Film Festival is over and the winners are:

People’s Choice Award
Bella directed by Alejandro Monteverde

Fipresci Critics Prize
Death of a President directed by Gabriel Range

Discovery Award
Reprise directed by Joachim Trier

Visions Swarovski Cultural Innovation Award
Takva – A Man’s Fear of God directed by Ozer Kiziltan

Best Canadian First Feature Award
Sur la trace d’Igor Rizzi (“On the Trail of Igor Rizzi”) directed by Noel Mitrani

Toronto City Award for Best Canadian Film
Manufactured Landscapes directed by Jennifer Baichwal

Short Cuts Canada Award
Les Jours (“The Days”) directed by Maxime Giroux

Some Oscar hopefuls appear to have gone the way of The Human Stain and Elizabethtown. Reuters reports on the high profile misfires this year:

Critics and film buffs at the festival, which ended on Saturday, took special aim at Steven Zaillian’s “All the King’s Men,” starring Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet. Several major reviewers declared their disappointment in the most controversial film at the festival, “Death of a President,” a fictional documentary about the assassination of President George W. Bush.

But international critics at the festival did give the film an award, citing its audacity.”The last few years at the festival, we saw massive bombs like ‘Elizabethtown’ and ‘The Human Stain,’ movies that came in with glowing expectations and just bombed,” said Tom O’Neil, show business awards columnist for The Envelope.com.

“But ‘All the King’s Men’ was nuclear, because it dared to remake an Oscar best picture winner of 1949 and it had a galaxy of superstars performing very badly,” he added. Penn plays Willie Stark, an idealistic politician who rises from the poverty of the Great Depression to become governor of Louisiana, but then gives in to corruption. Todd McCarthy, a critic for Daily Variety, called the film “overstuffed and fatally miscast,” and said in a review the movie “never comes to life.”

Other disappointments included Christopher N. Rowley’s “Bonneville,” starring Kathy Bates, Joan Allen and Jessica Lange in a road-trip flick. “It had huge expectations, but massive disappointment. It looked like a made-for-Lifetime TV movie,” said O’Neil. Ken Loach’s “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, proved to be a letdown in Toronto, with members of the audience walking out of the screening.

Ridley Scott’s “A Good Year” which stars Russell Crowe in a feel-good movie, also fell short of expectations. Crowe plays a cocky financier who inherits a vineyard estate in France. Initially he plans to sell it but then falls in love with it. “It wasn’t panned, but it wasn’t beloved. People enjoyed watching it, but it just didn’t live up to the greatness you expect from a Ridley Scott-Russell Crowe combo,” said O’Neil.

Anne Thompson in her Toronto wrap at Risky Biz Blog thinks that the highlight was Borat:

Borat killed. Nothing else came close.

Catch a Fire, Venus, Last King of Scotland, Little Children, Babel, Volver, and The Lives Of Others continued on track for Oscars. Pan’s Labyrinth was another fave here, and could be a Mexican entry.

Marc Forster’s Stranger than Fiction could get into the race if the critics like it enough—I heard some mixed response. It’s fabulously written and acted and very funny and even suspenseful. Will Ferrell is well cast as the schlumpy dull accountant who falls for earthy baker Maggie Gyllenhaal, who along with Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman could win a supporting nom.

It’s hard to say what will happen with For Your Consideration, Infamous, Breaking and Entering, Bobby; all were met with mixed responses. For Your Consideration seemed to me like another trip to a tired old well; Infamous is stuck with being the second film about Truman Capote but should be seen; Breaking and Entering is Anthony Minghella all over: it’s well made and smart and the actors are good but it leaves you outside somehow, looking in. I’m wondering why I have such ambivalent feelings about Jude Law. Due to a deadline, I missed my Bobby screening last night.

Among the new films, The Fountain, All the King’s Men and A Good Year all disappointed. All the King’s Men I have yet to see, but the press and industry people wondered what movie Steve Zaillian really wanted to make. If it had been good it would have come out last year, basically.

I don’t think Borat has any chance of Oscars but it is hilarious. I saw it this week and my laughter was heightened by a couple of audience members not finding anything amusing about it whatsoever.

> Official site of the Toronto Film Festival
> Cinematical’s coverage of the festival
> BBC News on Bella’s win at Toronto

Slashfilm is reporting that a “Terminator 4” may be be in the works:

MGM has announced that over the next few years, they will release half a dozen huge tentpole films in the $200 million budget range, one which will be likely be Terminator 4.
Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t expected to return in anything more than a cameo. The original plan was to introduce a totally new Terminator.

“We did have to think about a new franchise character. He couldn’t carry the movies anymore. So that caused us to have, I think, a pretty novel approach about what the new terminator would be like, screenwriter John Brancato told Latino Review in 2004. “Again, they made me actually sign things that I would not leak. As much as I would like to brag about the script, I can’t really tell you.”

Rumored Terminator replacements over the last couple years have included: Ralph Moeller, The Rock and Orlando Bloom (Seriously. This must have been before Elizabethtown hit the fan). But with Arnold’s political career possibly coming close to an end, things may change. I’m sure it’s very possible to rewrite Arnold back into the story.

Terminator 3 stars Claire Danes and Nick Stahl are not expected to return for the fourth film.”None of the cast is coming back,” Stahl told SciFi Wire in early 2005. “The T4 story is changing conceptually. I believe it’s a jump to the future, so my character will be quite a bit older. That’s all that I know. So I’m not coming back, which is a drag.”

I think any Terminator film is a while off unless they completely reinvent it (e.g. set it in the future with a whole new cast of characters).

> Fan made posters for “Terminator 4”
> The Terminator series at Wikipedia

Aint It Cool News has posted an image of what it thinks may be the new KITT in the forthcoming Knight Rider movie.

The classic KITT from the TV series:

The ‘new’ KITT: 

A Photoshop hoax or the real deal?

> Cinema Blend on the new film
> IMDb entry for the Knight Rider film
> Wikipedia on the TV series

In an interview with ComingSoon.net about his role in forthcoming film The Last Kiss, Zach Braff says that he may be in a new big screen version of 80s cult comedy Fletch:

Besides working on “Scrubs”, Braff has been rumored to play Fletch in Fletch Won, which predates the first seven books in the series, and follows the early days of the title character’s journalism career as a junior reporter in his 20’s working at the News-Tribune.

“I don’t know. Bill Lawrence is definitely writing and directing ‘Fletch,’ and there’s a good chance I’ll do it. I’ve just got to talk to Uncle Harvey…I was the one who told Harvey he should hire Bill. Bill’s a huge Fletch fan. The books aren’t as wacky and silly as the Chevy Chase movies were, so there was talk for awhile of going back to the books and not having that level of comedy in them, and Bill and I both disagreed.

“That’s what made the movie so great. It’s one of the most quoted movies ever, especially by guys. Why would you not tap back into what’s funny about that? Definitely go back to the books ’cause the books are brilliant, but we want to still make it a comedy. Bill uses the great analogy of ‘Beverley Hills Cop.’ He’s like, ‘If you look at ‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ some people think it’s one of the funniest comedies ever, but it’s an action movie with great adventure and real stakes,’ and he wants to do that with ‘Fletch.’ The books have real stakes and real action in them, but they also have some of the funniest, witty dialogue ever written.”

Another remake? I’m not so sure this is a wise move. They would have to put a genuinely interesting and clever twist on the original. What do you think?

> Zach Braff at the IMDb
> Wikipedia on Fletch

The LA Times reported yesterday that Universal could lose as much as $30 million on Miami Vice:

General Electric Co. was counting on “Miami Vice” to sizzle at the box office this summer. But fizzle is closer to the truth.

At a cost of at least $235 million to make and market, the remake of the iconic 1980s TV cop show was the biggest bet of the year for the company’s studio Universal Pictures. During an earnings call with financial analysts in July, GE’s chief financial officer singled out the stylish crime drama as a coming bright spot for the third quarter.

That could leave GE backpedaling on Wall Street: Universal Pictures could lose as much as $30 million on the picture, according to sources who asked not to be named because movie finances are closely guarded.

A little more than a month after its debut, “Miami Vice” has grossed only $63 million at the U.S. box office. An abrupt fall-off in attendance has dimmed the prospect that the film could muster $100 million in domestic receipts, as Universal had projected.

Ouch. It is a disappointing story in a number of ways. Michael Mann is still a great director but the film fell between two stools. It bore little resemblance to the TV show, so alienated the retro crowd hoping for some 80s nostalgia and for the mass audience it was fairly dark and complex for a big summer release.

As a film it certainly has its merits but it seems like the studio wanted one film and Mann wanted to make another. Plus, talent costs and difficulties on the set sent the budget much higher than expected. All these problems contributed to its disappointing financial performance but let’s hope Mann is still given a big canvas on which to make films.

> Original story at the LA Times
> Wikipedia entry for Miami Vice remake
> Slate article on the troubled production

UK digital channel More4 is going to screen Death of a President next month and will make its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 10th. Written and directed by Gabriel Range it is a fictional film done in the style of a documentary about the assassination of the current US president. Media Guardian reports:

Digital channel More4 will court controversy once again this autumn with a fictional piece, shot as a documentary, about the assassination of the US president, George Bush.

Death of a President seems certain to cause a furore on the other side of the Atlantic when it is premiered at the Toronto film festival next month. In the UK the 90-minute film will be broadcast first on Channel 4’s digital service in October.

The drama takes the form of a fictional documentary looking back at the assassination of Mr Bush in October 2007, after he has delivered a speech to business leaders in Chicago.

When Mr Bush arrives in the city he is confronted by a massive demonstration against the Iraq war and is gunned down by a sniper as he leaves the venue. The hunt for Mr Bush’s killer focuses on a Syrian-born man, Jamal Abu Zikri.

Death of a President will use a combination of archive footage, CGI special effects and scripted scenes.

It sounds an interesting an idea for a film but it is bound to cause a major stink in the US, particularly on the right side of the political spectrum. That said More4 is a an excellent channel that screens a lot of good stuff (watch out for the war strand next week, especially the excellent HBO doc Baghdad ER) so I don’t think it will be the kind of exploitative propaganda right wing bloggers are bound to pigeon hole it as. But we shall see.

> IMDb entry for writer-director Gabriel Range
> The official press release for the Toronto premiere at The Hot Blog
> Adam Sherwin of The Times reports on the film
> Offical site for More 4

Joseph Stefano, the man who wrote the screenplay for the Hitchcock classic Psycho, has passed away. This report from the AP:

Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and was co-creator of television’s science fiction anthology series “The Outer Limits,” has died. He was 84.

Stefano died Aug. 25 at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center, funeral director Elaine Munoz said. The cause of death wasn’t disclosed.

> IMDB entry for Joseph Stefano
> Wikipedia entry for Stefano
> Interview about Psycho with Steve Biodrowski

This week on the Movie-Cast we take a look at two big cinema releases: Owen Wilson’s latest comedy vehicle You, Me and Dupree and Pedro Almodovar’s latest film Volver.

Our DVD picks are the Caddyshack boxset and an overlooked drama from 1989 called Jacknife which stars Robert De Niro and Ed Harris.

The website of the week is Cinematical.

> Download the Movie Cast from Creation Podcasts

Aint It Cool has some “work in progress” pictures of Megatron from the new Transformers movie (for the unitiated he’s the main villain).

A face shot:

and the full figure:

For more photos go to Aint it Coo for the full story: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=24276

> More information on Megatron at Wikipedia
> Official Site for the new Transformers film

Tom Cruise will not be making any more films at Paramount after Sumner Redstone (the octogenarian overlord at parent company Viacom) publicly announced the split on Tuesday, saying to the Wall Street Journal that:

“His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount”

Could he possibly be referring to the couch jumping antics on Oprah and the bizarre Today show interview last year where Cruise talked about Scientology, antidepressants and Brooke Shields instead of the Paramount film he was promoting at the time? Lo and behold, the LA Times reports:

For more than a year, Cruise’s public outbursts have made headlines and sparked speculation that one of Hollywood’s most bankable figures might be tarnishing his image.

In a series of unrelated incidents, Cruise publicly denounced Brooke Shields last year for taking antidepressants, jumped up and down on a couch during “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and proclaimed his love for fiancee Katie Holmes, and jabbed an accusing finger at Matt Lauer on the “Today” show as he lectured his host on the evils of Ritalin, a stimulant used to treat attention deficit disorder.

At the same time, Cruise’s increasingly vocal advocacy of Scientology has drawn attention to his faith — at times colliding with his career. “His religion has become very important in his life, to the point that it may overshadow his career,” said a person close to the situation.

Another perspective comes from Red Herring which discusses how different websites are racing to cash in on the story:

The stakes in the race to get the dope on Mr. Cruise’s departure will be high. On the one side are sites with a distinct Web 2.0 sensibility that rely on tipsters and contributors to move quickly; on the other, tabloid publishers with hardened cadres of celebrity reporters.

Momentum is on the side of the newcomers. PopSugar has reportedly received $2.5 million in venture funding. Celebrity web sites like TMZ, partly owned by media conglomerate Time Warner, are breaking news ahead of the tabloids. Some of these web sites are also bringing tricks like community editing and an endless array of interactive forums from blogs and geeky web sites like Slashdot and Digg to a mainstream audience.

The new economics of content also mean web sites will hash out Mr. Cruise’s situation endlessly. Viacom chief Sumner Redstone’s finger-wagging statement that Mr. Cruise’s “recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount” was splashed all over the blogosphere, with many a blogger crowing about how they had predicted that erratic behavior would get the star fired eventually.

But couch jumping and new media meltdown aside, I think people are getting ahead of themselves here. Yes, Cruise was expensive. His antics last year were ill-advised (to say the least) but his films have made Viacom a lot of money over the years (over $2.5 billion) and to dump him in this way seems a tad disrespectful. Perhaps Redstone wants to send out a sign that deals with stars like Cruise are not worth it in an age were questionable behaviour can be so widely disseminated and ridiculed on blogs, TV shows and all kinds of new media. Perhaps we are entering an era where big deals with stars like Cruise are pushed aside in favour of investment in more profitable low cost franchises like the Saw films.

> Nikki Finke at The Huffington Post urges Cruise to sue Sumner Redstone
> Anne Thompson at The Hollywood Reporter with the details of the Cruise Paramount split

And here, just to lighten the mood, is a very funny re-edit of the Oprah interview with Cruise intercut with her lambasting author James Frey (the guy who wrote a memoir that turned out to be fiction even though he didn’t initially admit that). Anyway the editing is spot on:

68tMUFo7Qu4

Paris Hilton is not someone I’d normally write about but her new channel on YouTube is probably significant in how media figures (be they actors, singers or celebrities) market themselves and their products to an audience. From her point of view its a very smart move – not only will she get a ton of hits but it will be a cost effective way of communicating with her fans an also with the ever expanding base of YouTube users. For those who don’t like her I imagine there will be a lot of Paris Hilton spoofs and goofs (like that popular Shakira “My Hips Don’t Lie” video) but all that is just adding to the Hilton brand.

It is also interesting to note that Fox’s popular TV drama Prison Break is advertising on the banner at the top of the page to tie in with the opening of their second season. My guess is that they paid a significant chunk of change for the honour. But although Paris is a big celebrity, the main thing to note here is how popular and effective You Tube has become. A lot of doubters moan about the quality of the videos, question how they are going to monetise their ever growing traffic, how it’s all just a Web 2.0 phenomenon and “not a real business”. But they have a user base that many “real businesses” would die for and if they play their cards right (admittedly a big “if”) they could reap some spectacular rewards.

For me it is very clear why YouTube has accelerated past other video sites like iFilm and Google Video. It is easier to use, doesn’t have annoying ads, has better features and therefore has got more users and (hey presto!) more content. I used to watch trailers on sites like Apple’s trailers section but I got sick of waiting for high quality QuickTime files to load on a broadband connection. YouTube is just quicker, more convenient and works in places where QuickTime isn’t installed. At the moment it is a huge online library of all sorts of video clips but it could become a serious rival to sites like MySpace if they allowed people to add photos and MP3s to their user profiles alongside the videos. Getting someone like Paris Hilton on board as a user might seem like a gimmick but it may well point to a more interesting trend.

Instead of big film or TV stars promoting their latest projects on TV chat shows, they could setup a YouTube profile and communicate directly with their fans like Peter Jackson did during the filming of King Kong. From a filmmaker’s point of view, you would be getting access to a bigger audience and from a film studios perspective you could gauge reactions and views in a way that you simply couldn’t with more traditional media outlets. For more independent, word of mouth films, the benefits are plain to see. In fact, it could impact the film and TV industry in the same way MySpace has affected the music industry. So, for now, the Paris Hilton YouTube channel might just be an ad for her latest album, but it could also signify the beginning of something a lot bigger in how music, films and TV shows promote themselves in the future.

> Paris Hilton at YouTube
> Techcrunch on whether Paris can boost YouTube
> The Times on the new developments at You Tube
> Reuters with a report on YouTube’s “brand advertising”
> CNET with a more tech-savvy take on the Paris at YouTube
> Peter Jackson’s production diaries for King Kong

See Paris greet her fans here:

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The Guardian reports today that Paul Giamatti will star in a bio-pic of sci-writer Philip K Dick:

Paul Giamatti, star of Lady in the Water and Sideways, is playing the writer. Giamatti, a lifelong Dick fan, is also co-producing the film under his own banner, Touchy Feely Films. A director has yet to be named, but the film will be written by British screenwriter Tony Grisoni, no stranger to the subjects of drugs and paranoia after his work on Terry Gilliam’s film Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. Grisoni is planning to weave elements of Dick’s fiction, particularly his last, unfinished novel The Owl in Daylight, into the story of his life. “I’m not really interested in the literal truth,” he says.

“We’ve been trying to get this to happen for at least the last three years,” says Laura Leslie, Dick’s eldest daughter and one of the film’s producers. “We knew it was going to happen, but we wanted it to be something that was more multifaceted, not just, ‘Let’s focus on this guy’s five wives and the drugs.’ It’s going to be non-traditional. It’s about the creativity and not the events.”

> Official Site for Philip K Dick
> More about Philip K Dick at Wikipedia
> Paul Giamatti at the IMDb

UK film magazine Empire are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the start of the Indiana Jones trilogy with a commerative issue. They recently caught up with original producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg. George has some rather worrying news for fans:

“We’re basically going to do The Phantom Menace”, says Lucas (stay with him here, he’s making a point). People’s expectations are way higher than you can deliver. You could just get killed for the whole thing…We would do it for fun and just take the hit with the critics and the fans…But nobody wants to get into it unless they are really happy with it”.

And he goes on:

“I discovered a McGuffin,” continues Lucas, still reluctant to name said McGuffin. “I told the guys about it and they were a little dubious about it, but it’s the best one we’ve ever found… Unfortunately, it was a little too ‘connected’ for the others. They were afraid of what the critics would think. They said, “Can’t we do it with a different McGuffin? Can’t we do this?” and I said “No”. So we pottered around with that for a couple of years. And then Harrison really wanted to do it and Steve said, “Okay”. I said, “We’ll have to go back to that original MacGuffin and take out the offending parts of it and we’ll still use that area of the supernatural do deal with it”.

Spielberg says:

“Hopefully it will be different in all the right ways and the same in all the familiar ways”.

Just don’t do it guys. Instead of rehashing and tainting the originals why not create a totally new character and surprise us with a completely different trilogy for the modern age?

> Official site for the Indiana Jones trilogy
> IMDb entry for Indiana Jones 4

Cracked.com has a very entertaining list of The 5 Most Obviously Drug-Fuelled TV Appearences Ever and You Tube has posted them as videos on their site.

My personal favourite is James Brown on an LA TV show called “Sonya”:

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although Klaus Kinski runs him close:

PWYYzOW6GGo

> More Klaus Kinkski videos at You Tube
 

Yahoo Movies has a list of which Transformers will be in the new film version next year:

Here’s the list of Transformers that will appear in the movie, as announced by the film’s screenwriters here on Yahoo! Movies.

Autobots  
Optimus Prime
Bumblebee
Jazz
Ratchet
Ironhide

Decepticons
Megatron
Starscream
Brawl
Bonecrusher
Skorpinok
Frenzy
Blackout
Barricade

Directed by Michael Bay, it is scheduled for a July 4th release.

> Official site for the new Transformers movie
> Wikipedia entry for Transformers
> Greg’s Preview of the film on Yahoo Movies with the latest developments

Sad news to report. Character Bruno Kirby has passed away after complications arising from leukemia. This report from the AP:

Bruno Kirby, a veteran character actor who costarred in “When Harry Met Sally,” “City Slickers” and many other films, has died at age 57, his wife said Tuesday. Kirby died Monday in Los Angeles from complications related to leukemia, according to a statement from his wife, Lynn Sellers. He had recently been diagnosed with the disease.

Probably best known for his supporting roles in City Slickers and When Harry Met Sally, he also appeared in The Godfather II (as Young Clemenza) and – most memorably for me – as Tommy Pischedda, the frustrated Sinatra-loving chaffeur in This is Spinal Tap.

> IMDb entry
> Wikipedia entry

Variety recently speculated about the possibility of another Superman film after Superman Returns didn’t do the business Warner Bros was expecting this summer. Pamela McClintock writes:

Warner Bros. Pictures execs are mulling whether to go ahead with a planned sequel and ink another deal with director Bryan Singer. The film is not such a blockbuster that a follow-up is inevitable — but not such a disappointment that a sequel would be ludicrous. After all, the first “Austin Powers” pic was a modest hit that begat two huge grossers.

Word on the Warners lot is that the studio is trying to lock down a deal with Singer for a sequel. Many speculate that WB has invested too much time and money to walk away. What’s more, the film fuels a number of Time Warner outlets, including homevid, ancillaries and merchandising — even subsid DC Comics.

Warners and co-financing partner Legendary Pictures have a shot at breaking even on “Superman” once all the revenue streams are accounted for, but it’s going to be a long, tough haul.

Personally, I’d like to see another Superman film from Bryan Singer but I have a feeling that the final decision may well rest with the performance of the current film on DVD. Although there were certain problems with it (e.g. the casting of Kate Bosworth wasn’t quite right, Singer’s late arrival to the project) I was puzzled by some of the negative reactions. Brandon Routh was convincing as Clark Kent/Kal-El, the action setpieces were handled superbly and the reworked score from John Ottman was nicely judged. For most of its running time it was far more engaging than other summer blockbusters like The Da Vinci Code, Pirates 2 or Mission: Impossible 3.

It cost a huge amount because the various attempts to get it made stalled time and time again but Singer still demonstrated that he is very adept at handling action, character and special effects on a large scale. In hindsight it was a mistake to open so near to Pirates and – despite being a familiar excuse in Hollywood – the marketing was a mess. The posters and trailers just didn’t have the right impact and when a superhero film gets bogged down in bogus internet chatter about his sexuality, then someone somewhere has not been doing their job right.

But if there is going to be another Superman film then Singer should definitely be at the helm (X-Men 2 was a great example of a sequel expanding and improving on the original film) and perhaps he chould be bolder with the character and the universe surrounding the Man of Steel. Instead of the usual mad-plot-to-rule-the-world from Lex Luthor and the obligatory threat of Kryptonite, it would be interesting to see genuinely new threats and challenges for the Superman. They will have to weave in a key plot strand from the current film but that could work to the film’s advantage. If its bolder and a little more inventive then Warner Bros could well make up for its disappointing summer at the box office.

> CHUD with some thoughts on a Superman sequel
> Reviews at Metacritic for Superman Returns (it is hard to square these with the financial performance of the film)
> Box Office Mojo with all the numbers for Superman Returns
> Jeff Wells has some radical opinions for the sequel

James Earl Jones provided the famous voice for Darth Vader in Star Wars. However, this video from the clever folks at akjak.com features scenes of the Sith Lord that have been re-edited in a highly amusing way. They have used audio clips from other James Earl Jones films and remixed them with footage from Star Wars. The result is absolutley hilarious.

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Those rumours about Heath Ledger look to be true after all. According to Hollywood Elsewhere the Australian actor will play The Joker in the next Batman film. Christopher Nolan returns to direct and it will be called The Dark Knight. Despite not being a huge fan of his work prior to Brokeback Mountain, his performance in that film demonstrated that he was not only willing to take risks but that he could really act.

Some people already seem to have reservations but as long as Nolan preserves the tone of Batman Begins I think this could be inspired casting. The title of the new film suggests it may be influenced by Frank Miller’s Dark Knight comics and Alan Moore’s Batman: The Killing Joke. It will certainly be interesting to see how it all works out.

> The Movie Blog has mixed feelings
> Devon Faraci from C.H.U.D on the new film
> Wikipedia on The Dark Knight
> Batman On Film report the news

Mel Gibson was arrested early on Friday morning in Malibu after driving under the influence. The entertainment site TMZ recently posted what it said were four pages from the original arrest report, which quoted Gibson as issuing a “barrage of anti-Semitic remarks” to the arresting officers.

He has issued an apology but where this leaves his career is anyone’s guess. His new film Apocalypto is out in December and given the current turmoil in the Middle East added to the controversy that raged over The Passion of the Christ, the timing could not be worse.

> Sandra Cohen of the AP reports on where this might leave his career
> The LA Times speculates as to whether the LAPD tried to give Gibson preferential treatment
> Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily refutes the idea of a police cover up and also looks
at the incident in the context of Gibson’s recent history
> Timothy Noah at Slate has no doubt as to what he thinks of Gibson and analyses screenshots of the leaked report

According to The Smoking Gun it would appear Lindsay Lohan’s social life is getting in the way of her latest film, Georgia Rule. The producer sent this letter to her:

> The Washington Post with more on the story
> Defamer chip in with their angle

If you hadn’t already noticed Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man’s Chest has stormed the US box office and is doing similar business abroad. The question on any sane person lips has to be: “WHY…?!?!”

> Brandon Gray at Box Office Mojo weighs in with all the stats
> Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily writes an interesting piece on why the huge box office treasure trove has not exactly impressed Wall Street
> The Guardian chimes in with the UK angle