Day: December 8, 2010

Invasion Alert!: Christina Hendricks, Michael Bay & Even Pauley Perette Join the Invasion!

By Jason Apuzzo. • Tron is approaching, a wave that’s looking smaller as it approaches shore. The film is tracking poorly; it’s also getting mixed reviews thus far (see here and here) … oh, and the total cost of the film, with marketing? Apparently around $320 million. Plus, people are starting to scratch their heads about the fact that this is the debut feature for the film’s director, Joseph Kosinski (see interviews with him here and here), whose background is in architecture and design rather than in drama or literature – you know, those old-fashioned disciplines that involve human beings.

Boomer New Age morality tale?

So, what are we about to get here with Tron? I’m guessing something stylish and dull – with a dash of retro-liberalism (of the anti-corporate variety) to keep the Boomers happy. (Incidentally, there’s some speculation that this new film may already be subtly setting up the corporate villain for the sequel … )

In the meantime, Olivia Wilde continues to flaunt herself (see here), and otherwise make herself out to be the face of the production. As annoying as she is, that’s probably a good idea given how flat Garrett Hedlund seems, and how spaced-out Jeff Bridges seems in his interviews about the film (see here). Somewhat more fun are the Daft Punk guys, whose “Derezzed” video just hit.

More sinister, however, are inferences from several people (see here and here) that Disney is psuedo-suppressing access to the charming, old version of Tron while the new film gets its marketing binge. That’s certainly an ironic development for a movie that’s supposedly a sub rosa critique of ‘fascism’ and enforced sameness. (In fairness, the old film just got remastered and will be getting a Blu-ray release in 2011.)

Incidentally, whatever happened to that Path to 9/11 DVD, Disney?

Beau Garrett in "Tron: Legacy." Maybe she knows where Disney's "Path to 9/11" DVD went.

• Michael Bay is coming out of his cocoon as he finishes Transformers 3. He’s talking to the media about the film now (see here and here), he’s allowing people to visit the set, and is now saying that he loves working in 3D. Also, a teaser trailer is coming, and there’s a new poster out for the film.

I’m not sure how much juice the Transformers series still has, really, but we’ll probably learn something from that trailer. Footnote: Megan Fox is really seeming out-of-sight/out-of-mind right now.

• Nobody’s hitting the panic button yet, but the Cowboys & Aliens trailer did not go over well – not just with me, but apparently with test audiences who laughed at it, thinking the film was a comedy. Ouch. Anyway, the production team is now suddenly doing a lot of interviews (here’s Favreau) and allowing set visits (see here and here), but questions are still being raised about whether this picture is going to work.

Also, Nikki Finke noticed today that the one-sheet for Dreamworks’ Cowboys & Aliens looks a lot like the one-sheet Dreamworks’ other alien invasion thriller, I Am Number 4. Oops.

They’ve since put out a new poster, although it still has the same feel.

I’m getting bad vibes about this project. Cowboys right now is looking like one of those All Star teams in basketball or baseball that looks great on paper but doesn’t play well. We’ll see.

• Ridley’s Scott’s Alien prequels have been pushed back to 2013 and 2014. What’s more annoying, however, is that Olivia Wilde is suddenly in the mix to play the lead. PLEASE STOP CASTING THIS PERSON. She’s already in Tron, Cowboys & Aliens and the Logan’s Run knockoff Now (which also just halted production) … and now Alien? Look, I haven’t seen Tron yet but I’ve seen enough of House to know that she’s not that good, besides which she’s almost as abrasive as Natalie Portman.

The new poster for "Apollo 18."

• I Am Bored by I Am Number 4, but it’s marketing binge has begun. This alien invader thriller – also from Michael Bay – has a new poster, the film will apparently be converted to IMAX (why?), and there are new interviews out with the director (here) and babes Teresa Palmer (here) and Dianna Agron (here). Basically this looks like another movie about a WASP teenage guy with Special Powers. Never seen that before.

• In other Alien Invasion News & Notes: The Thing has a new release date (October 14th), and there’s a new interview out with the film’s director, Matthijs van Heijningen; Pauley Perette will be playing a girl from Mars in Girl from Mars; Guillermo del Toro provides an update on At the Mountains of Madness (produced by James Cameron); SPOILER WARNING … this may be what the alien looks like in J.J. Abrams’ Super 8; a production still has been leaked for The Darkest Hour; Star Trek’s screenwriters claim they’ve broken the next story; new set photos are out for Judge Dredd 3D; District 9′s Neill Blomkamp is going forward with a mysterious sci-fi project called Elysium; Alex Proyas is going to do a big new sci-fi spectacle called Amp; a Red Faction movie is coming to the SyFy channel; Mars Needs Moms has a new trailer out; Apollo 18 has a poster out already; there’s a big new Avatar exhibition in Seattle (see here and here);  and author Jonathan Lethem takes a look back at John Carpenter’s 1988 alien invasion thriller, They Live. Whew.

• On the Creature Invasion Front: Troll Hunter will be having its world premiere at Sundance; besides having one of the greatest titles in the history of the cinema, Piranha 3DD now also has a release date (September 16th); and David Ellis’ untitled 3D shark thriller recently got picked up for distribution. So there you go: sharks, piranhas and trolls.

• In the time since our last Invasion Alert! we’ve lost the great Leslie Nielsen from Forbidden Planet. Our condolences to his family; he certainly will be missed.

• On the Home Video Front, some classics from Roger Corman are finally coming to DVD: Not of this Earth, War of the Satellites and Attack of the Crab Monsters (not as bad as it sounds). Also: have I told you people that I caved and bought the whole first season of the new V? I’m definitely enjoying it thus far (here, by the way, is a review of the Complete Season 1 on DVD).

• It was both funny and sad to read about the Skyline guys’ surprised reaction to the torrent of abuse that film received on-line. Apparently they couldn’t understand all the trash-talking because, as they put it, “Brett Ratner liked it!”

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … I finally got around to watching the sci-fi music video “The Ghost Inside” that Christina Hendricks did this summer (see below). It’s a little odd, and slow … but it’s got Christina Hendricks in it as a robot with detachable parts, so how bad could it be – right?

And that’s what’s happening today on the Alien Invasion Front!

Posted on December 8th, 2010 at 9:06pm.

Bunnies Under Communism! The Oscar Nominated Rabbit à la Berlin + Nurith Aviv’s Loss

By Joe Bendel. Was it possible to thrive under Communism? Yes, for a short while, if you happened to be a rabbit in East Berlin. But their salad days did not last forever. In a story too strange not to be true, a population of rabbits temporarily flourished in the green belt running down the center of the despised Berlin Wall. Part nature documentary and part parable, directors Bartek Konopka and Piotr Rosolowski offer a truly original perspective on the Communist experience through the eyes of those East German bunnies in Rabbit à la Berlin (trailer above), a 2009 Academy Award nominee for best documentary short, which opens today in New York as part of a double bill of short docs examining Twentieth Century German history.

During the immediate post-war years, a hearty band of rabbits survived by raiding the garden patches on Potsdamer Platz. Much to their supposed surprise, sheltering walls were suddenly erected around them in 1961. With a nice grassy run, plenty of shade, and precious little human contact the whiskered critters made like rabbits and multiplied. The East German guards even began adopting them to help pass the time.

However, for many West Berliners, especially artists, the rabbits’ ability to burrow beneath the walls made them symbols of something greater—coyote tricksters for their divided age. Then, as escape attempts became more frequent and daring, the rabbits’ peaceful lives were upturned. Their lush grass was destroyed so that fugitive footsteps would be easier to track in the dirt beneath. Formerly their protectors, the guards declared open season on the rabbits, like a red army of Elmer Fudds.

One of Rabbit’s many surprises is the extent and quality of archival film capturing Berlin rabbits in their former environment. Credible simply as a wildlife film (even featuring the smoothly placid narration of Krystyna Czubówna, a well-known Polish voice-over artist for nature docs), it also has a slyly subversive sensibility, particularly when it incorporates news footage of the likes of Fidel Castro and Yassir Arafat come to gawk approvingly at the Wall. Wistful without being nostalgic, it is one of the more inventive and entertaining documentaries to reach theaters this year.

A meditation on the Holocaust.

While the fate of the Berlin Wall rabbit warren is not widely known outside of Germany, the Holocaust and its implications are certainly well established terrain for documentarians. Yet, French-Israeli filmmaker Nurith Aviv finds fresh insights in Loss. Returning to her father’s ancestral home of Berlin, Aviv explores the cultural and scientific losses Germany imposed on itself through the Holocaust.

While relatively conventional in her approach, Aviv superimposes interviews with four prominent Berliners and a vintage television appearance by Hannah Arrendt over sights seen from the S-Bahn train as it makes its way through the city. It makes the talking heads more visually dynamic, and also gives viewers a good feeling for the still-grim looking city.

Frankly, the fifty minute Rabbit was robbed at last year’s Oscars. Highly recommended, it is unquestionably the main event of Film Forum’s Berlin documentary double feature. That said, the thirty minute Loss is also a thoughtful film worth seeing in tandem with Rabbit. Both screen together at New York’s Film Forum, beginning today (12/8).

Posted December 8th, 2010 at 2:07pm.

TSA Targets Baywatch’s Donna Derrico for ‘Full Body Scan,’ Khloe Kardashian for Pat Down! Who’s Next?

Former "Baywatch" star Donna Derrico, targeted by the TSA.

By Jason Apuzzo. Former Baywatch babe Donna Derrico, who once posed for Playboy, is apparently angry that she was subjected to a full body scan at LAX airport.

Libertas readers should free to conduct their own ‘full body scan’ of Ms. Derrico above (an extra service we provide here at Libertas). She certainly looks dangerous, doesn’t she?

Well, she’s also hopping mad. According to Fox News:

After being subjected to the scan by TSA agents at Los Angeles International Airport, “I noticed that the male TSA agent who had pulled me out of line was smiling and whispering with two other TSA agents and glancing at me,” D’Errico told AOL News. “I was outraged.”

D’Errico also fumed over the fact that the TSA agent, who did not give her the option of getting a pat-down search instead, had said that the reason she was selected was ” ‘Because you caught my eye, and they’ — pointing to the other passengers — ‘didn’t,’ ” she said.

I’ll bet! But that’s not all. We also learn today that Khloe Kardashian recently received what might be termed an ‘overzealous’ pat-down at the airport. Since the Kardashian sisters don’t generally mind flaunting themselves in public, one can only imagine how ‘aggressive’ this probe of her person must’ve been.

Bar Refaeli, in front of Southwest Airlines' "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition" plane.

So the question now is, who will the TSA likely be targeting next? I have some concerns on this front.

For example, I happened to read recently that Leonardo DiCaprio has been doing a lot flying back-and-forth lately to Israel, possibly as a prelude to marrying Israeli model Bar Refaeli (who, by the way, once dated Baywatch dude David Charvet)

Leo would be wise to keep an eye on his girlfriend (not a strenuous task), who – given the TSA’s current threat assessments – may be wanting to give Ms. Refaeli a very thorough examination. After all, she certainly seems to fit the TSA’s current ‘threat profile’!

By the way, don’t you all feel safer?

Posted on December 8th, 2010 at 1:39pm.