Author: Jason Apuzzo

Jason Apuzzo is co-Editor of Libertas Film Magazine.

Hollywood Round-up, 7/1 + Happy Birthday Olivia de Havilland!

The lovely Olivia de Havilland.

By Jason Apuzzo. • Twilight: Eclipse is breaking more box office records. Biggest 3rd Screening on a Summer Wednesday after 2pm with the Temperature over 70, etc.  There’s also an interesting story over at The Wrap about how the Twilight films cost relatively little to make ($50 mil production budget, $50 mil marketing), although the price of these films is going up as the kids morph into expensive stars.

I’ve said it before here and will say it again: whatever you think of these films (and yes, we’ll be reviewing the new one shortly), they’re going to be paradigm shifters as Hollywood slowly weans itself off expensive fanboy fare.  It’s just becoming too expensive for the industry to keep Harry Knowles and his army of Rugrats happy.

• There’s a rumor going around about Johnny Depp starring as Dr. Who. I’m not a fan of Depp’s, and never have been – but this might actually be perfect casting.  Or will they pick Adrien Brody?

• Here’s Restropo‘s Sebastian Junger commenting on the General McChrystal situation. I think Junger’s take on it is pretty sensible.  Takeaway: military guys should steer clear from Rolling Stone reporters.

Tired of them yet?

•There’s a lot of debate going around about who’s to blame for Knight and Day.  The industry seems to be treating the film as a kind of human rights atrocity, roughly on a par with Darfur.  Patrick Goldstein’s readers are saying it’s Cruise’s fault. Blogger Vadim Rizov, whom I’m reading a lot lately, is also asking a question I ask all the time: why is everyone so eager to crucify Cruise? It’s a sensible question.  Here’s the answer: it’s dangerous to be too successful in Hollywood over a long period of time.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Happy Birthday Olivia de Havilland!  Turner Classic Movies is showing her films all day long.  Besides being one of the cinema’s greatest stars, Olivia was half of what is in my opinion the most charming and romantic screen couple ever when she was paired with Errol Flynn.  [Footnote: it’s still amazing to me that the similarly talented and ravishing Joan Fontaine is Olivia’s sister.  They were raised together in the Bay Area, near San Jose.  Both of them, I’m happy to report, are still lovely and active today.]  We wish Olivia the very best on her big day!

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood.

Posted on July 1st, 2010 at 1:31pm.

The New, Un-American Wonder Woman?

The new-look Wonder Woman.

By Jason Apuzzo. There’s a budding controversy right now that DC Comics’ newly redesigned look for Wonder Woman has ironed-out her All American look, all in preparation for the inevitable debut of a Wonder Woman movie franchise.  Fox News is fueling the controversy, and even Nikki Finke doesn’t like the new look for the character – and is furious at DC head Diane Nelson for letting it happen.

Fox News is calling the new Wonder Woman look ‘globalized’ (!), citing the replacement of her signature American flag briefs with skintight black leggings.  Here’s what DC Comics says about dropping the flag motif from Wonder Woman’s iconic briefs [my new favorite phrase: ‘iconic briefs’]:

“We at DC Comics are exceedingly proud of Wonder Woman’s heritage and Superman’s heritage as iconic symbols of American patriotism … Suggestions that any costume changes within their 70 plus years of rich storytelling come at the expense of this heritage are unfounded. The latest evolution of Wonder Woman’s iconic costume is a central part of the latest comic book storyline.  All of the classic symbols – patriotic (stars, eagle) and heroic (lasso, bracelets) – are ever-present. We encourage Wonder Woman fans to stay tuned.”

Pretty good corporatese, there.  Translation: We’re keeping our options open, fearing a backlash but also eager to open our future Wonder Woman franchise in Beijing and Dubai.

Is this inevitable?

I must admit that when I first saw this redesign yesterday in The New York Times, it did not immediately scream out ‘un-American’ to me.  Actually what I noticed the most was the impressive size of Wonder Woman’s … well, let’s just leave that alone.  [For what it’s worth, Lynda Carter was apparently a 36C-25-35.]  Otherwise I think the leggings look sleek, dangerous, and will keep Wonder Woman from getting scuffed-up when she’s tangling with … evil American defense contractors?  BP executives?  Wall Street hedge fund managers?  Or whomever politically correct evildoers DC has in mind for her to fight.  Certainly we know that terrorists will not be on that list.

The key thing to understand about the new wave of superheroes – whether Superman, Batman, the X-Men, or whomever – is that they don’t really fight for “truth, justice and the American way” any more.  We all know how retro and passé that’s become in enlightened Hollywood circles.

Proper superheroes nowadays fight for themselves.  They fight in order to fulfill their own personal destiny – and to look cool in their costumes while showing off their powers.  Basically they’re narcissists.  The key thing for superheroes to do in the modern era is to look fabulous, and advance their careers.  And that’s why we already know where this new Wonder Woman series is going, don’t we?  [See fan-generated Megan Fox poster to the right.]

By comparison, let’s take a long, loving look at the costume worn by Lynda Carter when she was breaking fanboy hearts back in the 1970s as Wonder Woman on television.  [I may be looking at this picture for hours, actually.]

Do we have any doubts whatsoever about where this Wonder Woman stood on country on patriotism?  I don’t think so.

Lynda Carter: 36C-25-35, Irish-Mexican ... and 100% American.

Note to LFM readers: I absolutely love this controversy, and will be following each line and curve of it closely.  Symbols do matter, especially when they’re clothed in patriotic bustiers. [On this point, by the way, I want to recommend Govindini’s recent post on the new ‘military chic’ trend in fashion.]

Wonder Woman is an interesting superhero – perhaps the most interesting from a psychological point of view.  Bringing this bullwhip-cracking supervixen to the big screen is going to be an interesting process for DC, one that will force them to confront some provocative issues, not all of which are political.

In order to make this character work, and to ensure a long-running and profitable film series, the creators of the inevitable Wonder Woman film franchise are going to need to explore female psychology with at least a fraction of the energy they typically spend on male psychology – something I have doubts about them being able to do, frankly.  [Otherwise they’re just going to be left with vacuous titilation – so to speak – which is basically all Catwoman was.]

And, of course, the new Wonder Woman is going to have to look fabulous – and probably change her outfits a few times … because that’s what women do.

We’ll be watching here at LFM.

Posted on July 1st, 2010 at 11:35am.

Hollywood Round-up, 6/30 + Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher?

The new dominant film audience?

By Jason Apuzzo. • Twilight: Eclipse netted $30 million last night at the domestic box office, and I am now really angry at Congress for nixing movie futures trading.  My retirement would’ve been set by this morning.  And just imagine if I’d rolled my winnings into a double-down bet against Last Airbender?  Fat city.

We’ll have our Twilight review up soon. The film is apparently headed for about a $180 million haul by Monday, which is genuinely astonishing.  The long-term, macro-significance of the Twilight franchise is going to be to eat away at the current fanboy dominance of the cinema – and it’s about time, frankly.

• Talk about an odd career niche: Andy Serkis has been ‘cast’ as the lead ape in the Planet of the Apes prequel/reboot/preboot.  Serkis played Kong and Gollum for Peter Jackson.  The man has absolutely locked down all major simian roles for himself, and apparently has no competitors.  Can a Curious George reboot be far off?

Danny Kaye as Walter Mitty.

• A teaser trailer for Paranormal Activity 2 is out. News flash: this stuff works only once, guys.  You’ll need to deliver more than a barking dog by the time this one comes out.

• Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski will apparently be taking a crack at a remake of Danny Kaye’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Just don’t cast Adrien Brody.

• Now The Last Airbender is getting hammered for its bad 3D conversion. Btw, is Larry King available in 3D?

• A new movie about the young Barack Obama has opened in Indonesia. According to the director, audiences will have the opportunity to “see Obama eating chicken satay.”  I love chicken satay.  I might see this film.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … the key line of Christopher Nolan’s recent, lengthy interview with The New York Times comes from actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt : “It’s just not that common that someone as creatively inspired as Chris just gets carte blanche to do whatever the hell he wants … Anything he can think of — anything — he got to do it.”  Those are not lines one wants in print if a film fails.

Margaret Thatcher.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

[UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter is saying today that Meryl Streep is in talks to reteam with her Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd for Thatcher, a biopic of Margaret Thatcher.  Jim Broadbent is apparently also in talks to play Margaret Thatcher’s husband, Denis.

The film is being developed by Pathe and BBC Films. Mamma Mia!, by the way, did a whopping $600 million worldwide in 2008.  We’ll keep an eye on this story as it develops.

The Iron Lady was of course one of Britain’s greatest Prime Ministers, and a genuine hero of the Cold War.  So we hope they don’t screw this one up.]

Posted on June 30th, 2010 at 5:19pm.

Is the New Spider-Man in Red Dawn?

"Red Dawn"'s Josh Hutcherson: the new Spider-Man?

By Jason Apuzzo. We know that actor Josh Hutcherson is in the forthcoming remake of Red Dawn … but has Hutcherson also been just cast as Spider-Man, for Sony’s forthcoming reboot of that franchise?   Blue Sky Disney is reporting that Hutcherson has already accepted an offer from Sony to take the role.

Meanwhile, in an interview today with ComingSoon.net, Hutcherson had a few interesting things to say about Red Dawn:

“I don’t know when it’s coming out, but it was such an amazing shoot and the action is so good, but MGM is just making sure they have everything set and ready before they release it, which is good actually. They really care about this movie, which is nice to see, and they want to make sure they have all their ducks in a row before they just throw it out there. They want to make sure they have the right marketing campaign set up and everything.”

“It’s definitely more modern,” he said of the remake, which is following the current summer trend for ’80s remakes. “It has the same idea about a group of teens fighting against an entire army, which is hard and definitely fictional, but they have the same characters and the same heart that the original had. This time, the Chinese are invading instead of the Russians to modernize it a little bit, so yeah, it’s just a modernized version of the original.”

This certainly confirms what we’ve been told about the project by an executive at MGM.  Spider-Man and Tom Cruise’s son Connor fighting Chinese communists in the Pacific Northwest(!).  This really should be something – at least it will be more interesting than The Last Airbender, right?  We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.

[Major update to this post here.]

Posted on June 30th, 2010 at 3:22pm.


Hollywood Round-up, 6/29 + Happy Birthday Ray Harryhausen!

From Ray Harryhausen's "20 Million Miles to Earth."

By Jason Apuzzo. • Happy 90th Birthday, Ray Harryhausen!  Ray’s an acquaintance of ours, and we want to wish him all the best on his big day.  Ray’s birthday happens to coincide with a new exhibit of his work at London’s National Film Museum, and today’s announcement by the UK’s National Media Museum that they’ll eventually be receiving Ray’s collection of memorabilia from his career.

The great Ray Harryhausen.

Anyone who’s ever met Ray or worked with him knows what a consummate gentleman he is, and also how warm and generous he is in giving of his time and knowledge to younger generations of filmmakers and movie fans.  Ray’s place in the history of cinema is special: he is, in effect, the creator of the modern fantasy genre – a genre he needed to create almost single-handedly in order to bring his unique vision to the world.  The technical sophistication of Ray’s work is matched only by the breadth of his vision, which encompasses not only ancient mythology but modern science fiction.  He’s one of the absolutely essential figures in cinema history.

Tributes to Ray are pouring in today, and you can see them collected at MUBI.  Congratulations, Ray!

• The trailer is out for the next 2 Harry Potter films that will be wrapping up that series … but it isn’t nearly as good as the trailer for the new Japanese film Space Battleship Yamato!

• Confirming what we’ve reported here before, Tommy Lee Jones has joined the Captain America cast, apparently as Col. Chester Phillips.  Is this to make up for Valley of Ellah?

• The “Christopher Nolan’s Inception is the ‘smart’ alternative to summer pap” meme is gaining steam in advance of the film’s likely-to-be disappointing performance at the summer box office.  What a farce.  Once again audiences will be insulted by critics in order to protect a director’s reputation.  Btw, what’s Inception done exactly to so swiftly merit this ‘smart’ sobriquet?  All the ads actually show of the film are explosions.  Maybe they should market this film as ‘The Thinking Man’s A-Team.’

• It’s circle-the-wagons-time around Team Cruise, as one Fox executive falls on his sword to protect Tom, post Knight and Day. I’m also seeing some meaningless chatter on-line right now about a potential Top Gun sequel, but those rumors are old and long-debunked.  The reality is that Cruise has got nothing left in the tank right now beyond the Mission Impossible franchise.  We’ll see if he can reinvent himself again, or else find himself doing cop movies.

• M. Night Shyamalan is taking heat over the racially insensitive casting of his Last Airbender, and the reality is that Hollywood filmmakers are going to continue taking heat on this until they stop second-guessing who the American audience will ‘accept’ in major roles.  Have any of these guys noticed how multi-ethnic America is right now?  Do we really still need white people to ‘sell’ films domestically?

• Check today’s The Wrap to find out where the Hollywood money is going this political season. Funny that Bob Iger is giving money to Jerry Brown, given that Meg Whitman interviewed for Iger’s current job.

• New Malaysian TV show looks for Malaysia’s Next Top Young Imam. Reality TV for the rest of the world.  But is it as good as “Basketball Wives”?

Authentic Russian supermodel.

• Twilight‘s Kristen Stewart is debuting her new red hair just prior to her film’s launch.  I’ve always had mixed feelings about redheads, but I’m rolling with this.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Fox News does some hard news reporting today on the seedier aspects of recruiting Russian supermodels. Who knew?  So here at LFM we’re taking the occasion of posting a picture of former Russian supermodel, Bond girl and Centurion star Olga Kurylenko – just to provide some needed news context to Fox’s story.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

Posted on June 29th, 2010 at 2:49pm.

China Salt-Free? Jolie’s Salt Banned in China

By Jason Apuzzo. Over at Hollywood Elsewhere, Jeffrey Wells is reporting that the People’s Republic of China is currently refusing distribution for the upcoming Angelina Jolie/Phillip Noyce/Sony actioner, Salt.  As Wells puts it, this is:

… [n]ot one of those “scenes must be removed before your film is allowed to play in China” problems, but a “sorry, but no amount of edits will satisfy us” problem. Meaning that Salt is apparently cinema non grata in that country until further notice – no theatrical bookings, no DVDs, no Blurays.  Which, of course, means a huge opportunity for Chinese video pirates and a huge potential loss for Sony Pictures.

As I recall, Wells is tight with Salt director Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger), so I’m assuming this story is kosher.

I’m laughing at all this because Sony just did a gigantic co-production with China on Karate Kid – and went so far as to grant the Chinese communists limited editorial control of that film’s content.  Presumably Sony agreed to this in order to grease the rails for future Sony products making their way into China … and now the Chinese have predictably stabbed Sony in the back, now that their travelogue-propaganda piece Karate Kid is already out in theaters.

This is why American filmmakers should never give in to the Chinese communist regime, or to any tyrannical regime when they demand editorial control.  Tough luck, Sony!  You can always film in Tehran, Pyongyang – or maybe just West LA.

Btw, Jolie’s doing an anodyne interview in Vanity Fair right now.  She’s still one of the sexiest women in Hollywood, but a decade of weirdness has taken its toll and frankly she’s looking a little hard …

Posted on June 29th, 2010 at 1:09pm.