Category: 1. Jason Apuzzo

By Jason Apuzzo. • Our friend Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times ran an interesting piece yesterday on the matter of The Expendables splitting opinion among conservatives, mentioning how both I and my colleague Kyle Smith reacted negatively to the film.  As always, I appreciate Patrick’s readership of Libertas.

I’m as surprised as anyone right now to be denigrating one of Stallone’s films and talking up a (semi-)competing picture by Angelina Jolie.  This isn’t exactly what I expected at the outset of the summer, to say the least.  But we try to stick to the content of films here at Libertas, and to what messages films convey, rather than to individual star personalities.  I think it’s very dangerous to get caught up in the personalities of stars, unless those stars remain disciplined and consistent in terms of what projects they choose.  Since the decline of the old studio system, such stars are actually rather few and far between.

Stallone, to me, chose a distasteful storyline (at least with respect to the villain) around which to launch his career comeback – whereas I was very pleasantly surprised by what Jolie did with Salt.  And for me it really ends there: with the films, and what they convey about our country and the spirit of freedom which it still embodies.  As a side note, I think the business of equating masculine male action stars with patriotism is fine, so long as those stars happen to be fighting on our side.

• We like Frank Miller here at Libertas, and Frank is apparently collaborating with Evan Rachel Wood and Chris Evans on a big new ad campaign for Gucci products.  Check out the teaser for the ad campaign below.  It looks fun.

• California has apparently run out of film tax credits. Don’t you just love this?  The California Film Commission has already allocated the entirety of its $100 million in tax credits available this year to 30 projects, and now has a waiting list of 45 projects.  According to the LA Times:

“The demand is far exceeding the supply,” said California Film Commission Executive Director Amy Lemisch. “We ran out on the first day of funding.”

The program, enacted last year to stem the flight of production from California, provides a 20% to 25% tax credit on qualified production expenses that can be applied to offset state income or sales tax liabilities. Although limited in scope compared with what other states offer — the incentive doesn’t cover talent costs and excludes commercials, for example — it has been popular, especially among independent filmmakers.

As an indie filmmaker myself, I can tell you that the production situation here in this state is lousy.  Basically nobody wants to film around here unless they have to, and unfortunately most indie productions have to.  Having a Governor in office who was once a motion picture star himself was supposed to help this, but as we know … [Sigh.]

• Hawaii Five-O star Scott Caan (son of James) was apparently injured on-set performing a stunt the other day – he blew out his knee (torn ACL) – and had to be flown back to LA for surgery.  Caan plays “Danno” Williams in the series reboot.  Our best to him with his recovery.  Hopefully he heals faster than Andrew Bynum.

This is actually a good sign.  You know why?  Because if dudes are blowing out their knees on-set, that means they’re filming some serious action on this show.  Things are looking up.

• Some internal memos apparently just got leaked out of Paramount, and we now know what projects are currently in that studio’s pipeline.  Among the projects leaked were: A Baywatch movie (hooray! what took so long? lack of blondes in LA?); a Nevada Smith remake (how do you top Steve McQueen? or Karl Malden, for that matter?), and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Dictator, in which he supposedly plays a deposed foreign dictator who gets lost in the United States.  That last project could be hilarious if it’s done properly.

True story about Nevada Smith: apparently Indiana Jones was originally supposed to be named ‘Indiana Smith,’ but Spielberg changed the name to ‘Jones’ because he was afraid audiences would confuse Indy with the McQueen character.

[Are you reading a word I’m saying here, or are you just looking at the picture to the left?  Just checking.]

• Hollywood is apparently very afraid of the new Google TV initiative, as Google expands the reach of its media empire-in-the-making.  The new Google TV technology is the latest effort, following on the heels of Apple TV, to combine TV with the internet.  Personally I think the entertainment industry is far too worried about this.  I see no evidence suggesting that there’s a public demand for this fusion of TV and internet right now, until such a fusion becomes much more fluid than it currently is.  Also on the tech front today: apparently James Cameron has been assisting NASA as they plan to put a 3D camera on Mars.

• Ernest Borgnine will be receiving a lifetime achievement award from SAG. Congratulations, Borgie!  It was a pleasure for Govindini and I to meet him a few years back.  He had such a powerful handshake (at age 90!) that my hand is still recovering.  Borgie’s just as vital and colorful as ever, and has undoubtedly enjoyed one of the great cinema careers of all time.  Not bad for an Italian kid from North Haven. 🙂

• And while on the subject of fellow Italian Americans, Lady Gaga’s producer claims that her next album will be “shocking, shocking, shocking!” Note that he doesn’t say, “good, good, good!”  By the way, Gaga might want to read this new article over at MacLeans, entitled, “Outraged Moms, Trashy Daughters.”

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Mad Men’s January Jones has apparently been signed to play Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class, a character described as a “gorgeous mutant with telepathic powers.”  I think that was my impression of Vanna White when I was a teenager.

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

Posted on August 18th, 2010 at 4:12pm.

By Jason Apuzzo. • Several important industry sites (including Anne Thompson’s blog and The Wrap) are suddenly making the point today of how overlooked Angelina Jolie is as an action star, and how we should welcome having more female action stars, even explicitly comparing the box office performance of Salt to The Expendables. Glad to see people getting on board with this one.

In the meantime, buzz is already starting to build about the possibility of a ‘Salt 2′ (which would be the perfect Cold War title, btw).  Apparently everybody’s ready to go on that, including Jolie and director Phillip Noyce.  All Sony’s waiting for is to see Salt’s overseas performance, and to that end Jolie just premiered the film in London and in Paris.  I must say, I haven’t seen a star do this kind of world tour (Moscow, Tokyo, London, Paris, even Comic-Con) in quite a while … let’s hope it pays off.

To Libertas readers who haven’t seen Salt yet, go see it!  Everybody’s all but saying that if the box office on this film goes a little bit higher, there will be a sequel … which we can presume will feature Angelina Jolie hunting communist infiltrators here in the U.S.  And we want that, right? It’s likely to be better than whatever Stallone’s planning for his next Expendables.  [I was glad to see, by the way, that my colleague Kyle Smith didn’t like The Expendables, either.]   In related Jolie news today, Jolie is urging people to continue donating aid relief to Pakistan, and denying rumors that she will soon be playing Marilyn Monroe.  She apparently has a full schedule.

• David Fincher’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo adaptation has been cast, and the lead’s going to be played by newcomer Rooney Mara (who’s in Fincher’s The Social Network). Daniel Craig co-stars. I haven’t commented on this project yet because I’m still figuring out what I think about it. Beyond that, I know little about Ms. Mara, other than that she’s part of the wonderful Mara family that owns football’s New York Giants. Stay tuned for more on this subject later.

• Obama apparently just alienated half of Los Angeles yesterday, including a healthy portion of his elite Hollywood donor base.  This was due to his motorcade bringing most of West Los Angeles’ traffic to a complete standstill, the ultimate no-no out here.  Heavy-hitter industry columnists like the LA Times’ Patrick Goldstein and The Wrap’s Hunter Walker felt compelled to chastise Obama on this whole mess, and there are even calls for an investigation.  Plus, we’re now learning that Barbra Streisand and Jeffrey Katzenberg were no-shows at the Obama fundraiser that was the pretext for The President’s visit, even though Streisand and Katzenberg were co-hosts for the fundraiser itself.  Unreal.  [If you want to read more about the fundraising dinner, see here and here.]

Here’s what’s happening: Obama is looking weak, unaccomplished and self-absorbed right now.  And it’s all catching up to him.  I also notice very few younger people among the guests listed for this event.  Obama’s even weaker out here than I thought.

• Fox is apparently planning to recycle some of its excess film prints and trailers into polyester clothing – which seems just about right to me. I volunteer to be on the selection committee picking out the films on that one.  Tooth Fairy, anyone?

• I was very disappointed not to catch Gareth Edwards’ indie alien invasion flick Monsters when it showed at the recent LA Film Festival.  Part of the problem was that they didn’t even have a trailer for it at that time.  Well, some new trailers are now available for the film, including this one below:

This is looking pretty interesting, although I’m not seeing anything especially fresh or original here – just good execution of a simple idea.  We’ll keep an eye on this one – it’s already looking better than Skyline.  By the way, Monsters was made largely using only a 5-person crew. Fantastic.

• Examples of films with no heat around them right now: Oliver Stone’s Wall Street 2 (see here), and geek films like Scott Pilgrim (see here).  Glad to see this.  Another film that has no heat with me personally, although a lot of other people seem excited about it (including The Venice Film Festival, where it’s debuting) is the Darren Aronofsky/Natalie Portman ballet thriller, The Black Swan.  A new trailer came out today for that film and … how do I put this politely? … Ms. Portman still can’t act.  I’m sorry but Natalie Portman at this point is really looking like a pretty face who’s given chance after chance but still can’t quite put a compelling character over.

• There’s a ton of sci-fi news today.  First of all, James Cameron does a lengthy interview (see here) in which he discusses Avatar: Special Edition, the remastering of Aliens, and Battle Angel (a potential forthcoming project).  He also discusses working with Guillermo del Toro on adapting Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness (see here for that segment).  He also does another interview today in which he discusses what he learned from screening Avatar to native tribesmen in the Amazon.  So what did he learn?  Apparently down in the Amazon they favor non-violent resolutions to their problems, rather than Cameron’s preferred bloodbath approach (as when American soldiers get shot to pieces at the end of Avatar).  Isn’t that perfect?  The natives apparently aren’t all that restless.  The irony is so thick there you can cut it with a chainsaw.

The weirdest sci-fi news of the day: because the guys behind the aliens-invade-LA thriller Skyline also did visual effects for Sony’s aliens-invade-LA thriller Battle: Los Angeles … Sony may sue them for conflict of interest.  Amazing.  I think this is a bad idea that Sony’s floating – they should retract this plan immediately, because it’s going to really alienate potential fans.  So to speak.  It’s a classic David vs. Goliath situation that Sony will inevitably lose, much like the alien invaders in their film.

Finally, some photos have leaked of some of the new vehicles in the forthcoming Mad Max: Fury Road, The Thing remake has a new poster, Rose Byrne is in talks to appear in X-Men: First Class, and the cast of Piranha 3D does a hilarious (if somewhat raw) video today explaining why their film should be in Oscar contention.  I must say: the marketing for this cheeky little fish thriller has been perfect.  Can’t wait to see it.

• Are you a fan of JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater?  I certainly am.  He’s being offered a reality TV series, apparently, and has already hired a publicist … and in his honor you’ve got to read this list from the College Crunch people of “The Top 10 Greatest Movie Meltdowns Ever.” My only quibbles with this list are that Howard Beale in Network isn’t #1 … and where’s Al Pacino in And Justice For All?  “No, you’re out of order!!!”  Another favorite of mine is Michael Douglas’ Falling Down, and the Paddy Chayefsky/George C. Scott masterpiece The Hospital.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Victoria’s Secret model, actress and wife of Andy Roddick Brooklyn Decker has just been cast in Universal’s huge new adaptation of Battleship.  She’ll apparently be playing the film’s love interest, a character described as being able to “surf, fight, dance and crush the NY Times crossword puzzle.”  The character has also apparently “driven a motorcycle around the world twice.”  It’s amazing what gals need to have on their resumé nowadays just to be a love interest.  I would think her other attributes would’ve more or less closed the deal on this one.

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

Posted on August 1tth, 2010 at 8:57pm.

By Jason Apuzzo. • As you probably know by now, The Expendables was tops at the box-office this past weekend … yet still didn’t have quite as as big an opening weekend as Angelina Jolie’s Salt (we posted below on this comparison here).

The two films are worth comparing because one features a nasty, anti-CIA plotline featuring Eric Roberts as an ex-CIA drugrunner who waterboards women; Jolie’s film paints a much more flattering picture of the CIA and our intelligence services in general, besides being completely pro-American.

What’s more, The Expendables was supposed to be the film that revived the male action genre that – so the argument goes – has been stolen away, or something, by gals like Jolie.  Yet Jolie on her own managed to outgross Stallone & his many friends (Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Statham, et al) … which effectively puts the nail in the coffin on that argument, at least among men who are secure enough in their own masculinity to enjoy watching women do action movies.  Ahem.

This is also a major wake-up call on the whole matter of who the real stars actually are, nowadays.

Another interesting footnote to the weekend was how badly Scott Pilgrim did (only $10 mil).  Nerdy fanboy fare not playing well these days due to extreme over-saturation in the marketplace.

• The other big news out of the weekend is that Star Wars – the entire film series – is finally coming to Blu-ray in the fall of 2011. [See here and here.]  The Star Wars films will apparently be coming out all at once, in one big set featuring “extensive special features – including documentaries, vintage behind-the-scenes moments, interviews, retrospectives and never-before-seen footage from the Lucasfilm archives.”

This is great news – exactly what Blu-ray was made for.  The announcement was made in Orlando this weekend at Star Wars Celebration V, where George Lucas also showed something really delightful: a deleted scene/moment from Return of the Jedi, in which we see Luke building his new lightsaber … as Vader tries to lure him to the dark side.  It was apparently supposed to be the first image we see of Luke in the film, but was cut from Jedi at the very last minute.  Judging from the audience’s reaction to the clip at Celebration, I think George perhaps should have kept it in!  It certainly gives Luke a darker edge, and echoes nicely in Hayden Christensen’s characterization in the prequel trilogy.  Here’s the clip:

[UPDATE: YouTube has taken the clip down, citing a Lucasfilm copyright claim.  I saw the clip before it was removed: it was wonderful.  Looking forward to the Blu-ray.]

• In somewhat related news, Variety has an article out today about how 3D may save Blu-ray, a medium that many people believe has only had a so-so debut.

To the extent that Blu-ray is having a problem right now, I think it has more to do with two factors: 1) asking the public to undertake a major format shift during a bad econony; 2) the lack of blockbuster films (see directly above) on the Blu-ray format to motivate such a shift.  Blu-ray is still basically a medium for aficionados, but there really aren’t enough movies for aficionados being released at the moment.  Star Wars will be filling one gap in that area, but we need a lot more classics of that variety before people start to switch en masse.

You know what sold me on Blu-ray?  The Searchers.

• In other sci-fi news, James Cameron will (appropriately) be spending his birthday underwater in a Russian lake, he’ll also be helping to plant a million trees for Earth Day, and the new trailer is out for the forthcoming Avatar: Special Edition.  Cameron’s life seems to be a blur of rain forests, digital creatures, underwater dives and green activism nowadays.  Can you imagine how envious Gore must be right now?

• Speaking of which, Obama’s in Hollywood right now looking for campaign money.  [See here and here.]  I’m actually surprised, reading about his visit, how relatively few industry players – particularly of the younger variety – are showing up to see him.  It’s interesting how people are cooling out here right now toward The One, without saying it out loud …

• In what may have been her final interview, actress Patricia Neal lauded Ronald Reagan as a “generous” actor and a “very good” President.  Neal was a class act, and I think The Gipper was her kind of guy – not unlike other strong, masculine co-stars of hers like The Duke and Gary Cooper.  She was the coolest.  She’ll be missed.

• I had a very interesting debate in the comments section recently with a reader named Mr. Rational on the subject of Christopher Nolan and his films.  In light of that debate I wanted to mention an interesting piece over at MUBI comparing Nolan’s Inception to the Anthony Mann/Kirk Douglas classic, The Heroes of Telemark.  [The two films share something unusual in common.]  The writer, Doug Dibbern, comes down very much in favor of Mann’s film.  In somewhat related news, we wanted to wish Kirk Douglas’ talented son Michael the very best as he begins treatment for a tumor.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … the verdict is in.  Legendary Beach Boy Brian Wilson has come down in favor of Katy Perry’s “California Gurls,” which riffs (to some extent) off The Beach Boys’ original classic, “California Girls.”  Btw, the New York Post has a big feature on Perry today, covering her early career struggles in the Christian music scene.  She was actually temping just a few years ago, so good for her.

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

[UPDATE: Special thanks to our friend Patrick Goldstein at The LA Times for linking to this piece.]

Posted on August 16th, 2010 at 2:51pm.

By Jason Apuzzo. Isn’t this funny, as well as satisfying. In a head-to-head comparison of their opening weekend totals (see here and here), Angelina Jolie’s pro-American, anti-communist Salt beat Sly Stallone’s CIA-trashing/women-waterboarding The Expendables by the slender margin of $36 million (Salt) to $35 million (Expendables).

Fabulous.

In box office terms, that means that Sly Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Steve Austin and a nasty storyline weren’t worth quite as much as Angelina Jolie and a little patriotism.

How refreshing.  [And by the way, Salt did that against much tougher competition.]

To celebrate, I’ve picked out one of the tastier pictures of Jolie from the Moscow Salt premiere (there are many).  She’s certainly a lot better to look at than Stallone, isn’t she?

If any of you think I enjoy knocking Stallone by the way, I most certainly don’t.  But when you trash your own country – and portray our intelligence agents as drug peddling, waterboarding torturers of women – then that’s the treatment you’re going to get here at Libertas.  We’re not Hollywood star/celebrity suck-ups here.  You can find enough of that on other sites.

I’d like Stallone to explain his depiction of the CIA in The Expendables to the widow of CIA agent and former Atlanta narcotics detective Scott Roberson, who was killed earlier this year in Afghanistan while working for the Agency.  [Roberson was one of seven CIA agents killed in the same bomb blast in January.] The timing of his death was deeply tragic; the 39 year-old Roberson never got to meet his child, born in February to his surviving wife Molly, who now lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.  You can hear more about Roberson’s life here.  In its own way, Roberson’s life was a quiet and elegant rebuke to the hateful image Stallone is peddling in his film.

Posted on August 16th, 2010 at 10:38am.