Category: News/Opinion

Watch HBO’s For Neda Now

By Jason Apuzzo. In June of 2009, at the height of last summer’s anti-government protests in Iran, an innocent bystander named Neda Agha-Soltan was shot by a Basij (government-backed) militiaman thug named Abbas Kargar Javid.  Soltan died shortly thereafter, her death captured on video by several protesters armed with cell phones.  The videos soon went viral, and aided by Twitter and other social media immediately became the source of a worldwide scandal that threatened to bring down the Iranian regime.

This evening HBO is presenting a documentary by Antony Thomas telling Neda’s story, which is perforce the story of the aborted revolution of last summer.  The documentary is called For Neda, and HBO has wisely made it available on YouTube so that anyone can see it.  We’ve embedded the English-language version of the documentary above, but it’s also available in Farsi and in Arabic.

Neda Agha-Soltan.

Many of you reading this site are probably already familiar with the circumstances of this story, which received massive worldwide attention last year.  Suffice it to say that due to both her beauty – and what we now know to be her inner character, and force of conviction – Neda has become an extremely potent symbol for those who wish to bring down the awful regime that currently rules Iran.  For Neda finally brings out the woman behind the symbol – feisty, independent and complex.  It’s important that her full story be told.  As an aside, it is certainly no consolation to her friends and family, but I hope it brings them some inner satisfaction that Neda continues to haunt the current regime – a regime bent on effacing the role of women in society and all that women represent: love, compassion, beauty, life itself.

It’s worth mentioning that Neda was a fledgling member of Iran’s burgeoning underground music scene – a world captured with poignancy and vitality in director Bahman Ghobadi’s recent film No One Knows About Persian Cats (see the LFM review here).  For Neda makes clear, as Persian Cats did in its different way, that women like Neda Agha-Soltan are part of a younger generation that has mentally and emotionally checked-out of contemporary Iran, even while they’re still living there – a development that is both encouraging … and tragic.

The most compelling review that I’ve read of For Neda comes (not surprisingly) from The Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz, who writes:

“The power of Antony Thomas’s documentary has all to do with its focus: the rage of a modern people—educated, ambitious, accomplished and now consigned to life under a regime whose enforcement of Islamic law governs every aspect of life. Surrounding Neda’s story is that larger one, related with unforgettable eloquence …”

We hope you find the documentary rewarding, and we congratulate HBO for airing it.  Let’s all hope for a better future for Iran, so that such tragic stories as Neda’s need never be repeated again.

Posted on June 14th, 2010 at 11:28pm.

Hollywood Round-up, 6/14

A sequel in the works?

By Jason Apuzzo. • Karate Kid was tops at the box office over the weekend, trouncing The A-Team by over $30 million in the battle of the 80’s remakes. Somewhere in the great beyond Pat Morita is smiling … and George Peppard just chomped down on his cigar a little harder.

• Is the legendary agency CAA coming to an end? Deadline Hollywood reports that CAA’s partners may be cashing out and selling the powerhouse agency. Somewhere in the great beyond Lew Wasserman is making some phone calls … (to former client Ronald Reagan?)

• Liam Neeson indicates there may be a sequel coming to Taken, his quasi-right wing smash thriller. In this one they should kidnap Helen Thomas.

• With all roads in Hollywood currently passing through Sam Worthington’s appointment calendar, the producers of Clash of the Titans 2 may start shooting their film as early as January, likely in order to give Worthington space to work on the Avatar sequel later next year.

The Clash sequel will not only have new screenwriters, but also a new director – and a plotline involving Hades smuggling weapons to Hamas.

• … and in related news, The New York Times’ A.O. Scott laments Hollywood’s endless remakes and sequelizing.  We feel his pain.  Latest bizarre phenomenon: the ‘reboot’ (i.e., when studios fake amnesia about pre-existing franchises – as with The Hulk, Batman Returns, or the forthcoming Fantastic Four reboot).  Latest reboot news has Sony floating casting choices for the new Spider-Man. Philosophical question: how do you promote a ‘new’ franchise while pretending the previous, highly lucrative one doesn’t exist?  (Have DiCaprio steal the audience’s memory?)

Nolan talks 3D.

• Christopher Nolan talks 3D. In a nutshell: he doesn’t like it, or at least he doesn’t like the current incarnations of it.  Nonetheless, he expects to use it in the future due to studio demands.  Nolan prefers that 3D develop into a more robust post-production option, rather than having to shoot natively in 3D.  He’s also concerned about losing light levels once 3D glasses are put on.  These are all reasonable concerns, but I think Cameron put most of them to bed with Avatar.  Inception apparently was tested for 3D, but they decided not to do it due to time demands in post-production.  No word from Nolan on his miracle-cure for the Superman franchise.

• LA Times’ Patrick Goldstein asks whether Samuel Jackson’s straight-to-DVD terror-thriller Unthinkable is the hottest movie you’ve never heard of.  We covered this issue here at LFM a few weeks ago.  It is striking to me that this film didn’t get a theatrical release, and since people seem to be downloading it so much right now my thinking is that the distributors really blew it on this one.  Wouldn’t be the first time.

• Jennifer Garner may be joining Nick Nolte in a remake of Arthur. I’m sure Nolte can handle the drinking part of the role, but the humor?

Gemma Ward, Disney's new mermaid.

• Megan Fox has a big interview forthcoming in the magazine Interview, in which she’s asked mostly about herself, and is photographed in provocative situations with a mannequin designed to look like … herself.  And you know what?  If you’re Megan Fox you can get away with it.  [Kudos on the Louise Brooks hair, by the way.]

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … supermodel Gemma Ward has been cast to play a mermaid in Disney’s forthcoming Pirates of the Caribbean 4, provided she can keep BP’s oil off her scales.

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

Posted on June 14, 2010 at 3:36pm.

The New Atlas Shrugged Movie: Parable of the Obama/Tea Party Era?

By Jason Apuzzo. It took 53 years and Obama to get Atlas Shrugged into production.

That’s at least my impression of today’s news from Variety that the long-gestating adaptation of Ayn Rand’s landmark novel Atlas Shrugged (published in 1957) has finally gone into production as a $5 million indie feature, produced by John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow.

Variety reports: “Cameras began rolling over the weekend on a five-week shoot for Atlas Shrugged Part One with Paul Johansson directing from Brian Patrick O’Toole’s script. Aglialoro would have lost the feature rights if the film wasn’t in production by Saturday.”

There will apparently also be at least one more ‘installment’ of Atlas Shrugged filmed, as the producers have expressed the desire to break-up Rand’s massive novel into several parts.

Director Paul Johansson (“One Tree Hill”) will also be portraying lead character John Galt, while the plum role of Dagny Taggart will be going to TV’s Taylor Schilling (“Mercy”).  Check out the Variety article for more details – among which are the casting of Michael Lerner and director Nick Cassavetes.

The last time I wrote about this story was on the old version of Libertas back in 2007, when the project had Angelina Jolie attached as Dagny Taggart, in what was supposed to be a Lionsgate production produced by Howard & Karen Baldwin and Geyer Kosinski, featuring a Randall Wallace script.  All of that’s gone now, and the new project is apparently being funded by John Aglialoro, who is the CEO of Cybex – the producer of exercise equipment.  I’m thinking everyone in the cast will be in good shape.

Actor/Director Paul Johansson.

I’m sure that everyone involved in the project would call it a coincidence, but it’s fascinating to me that this project – which has been developed in fits and starts at least since the 1970’s – would finally come to life in an era when … America’s most productive citizens are feeling the squeeze of government taxation and regulation more than ever, and more industries are being nationalized.  Because that’s essentially what Atlas Shrugged is about: how America’s most productive citizens essentially decide to ‘drop out’ of productive life, after feeling the bite of excessive exploitation by the government.

What also fascinates me is that the project is not coming to life as some studio-backed, behemoth production starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz (ahem).  It’s being made essentially as a scrappy indie production by people who are obviously passionate about the film’s message.  [I know some of you are saying: a $5 million budget is ‘scrappy’?  It certainly is if you’re trying to shoot Atlas Shrugged!] Isn’t this perfectly reflective of the current Tea Party phenomenon?  A phenomenon whereby regular citizens working outside the usual channels harness their passion to hit the streets and make things happen.

I want to wish the makers of Atlas Shrugged the best in their production.  My sense is that they’ve got a challenging road ahead, due to the complexity of their project.  But I’m glad producers John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow decided not to ‘drop out’ themselves, but to instead pull together what resources they have and bring this extraordinary novel to life.

ADDITIONAL ASIDE: LFM Contributor David Ross adds: “Resurgent collectivism has made Ayn Rand more relevant than ever. According to the Ayn Rand Institute , Atlas Shrugged is selling as never before, with some 500,000 copies flying off the shelves in 2009, and annual sales of Rand’s four novels topping one million for the first time ever.

“Here’s Rand, in all her rebarbative glory, toying with the slickly shallow Mike Wallace: Rand-Wallace YouTube interview Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.”

Posted on June 14th, 2010 at 10:50am.

Classic Movie Update, 6/13

Raquel.

By Jason Apuzzo. • The biggest classic movie news by far this week was the discovery in New Zealand of a treasure trove of silent films thought previously lost, including a print of John Ford’s film, Upstream.  LFM contributor Jennifer Baldwin covered this story yesterday, including the fundraising efforts of the movie-blogging community toward film preservation.  Check Jennifer’s post for full details on these efforts, as well as links if you wish to contribute.  You can also read more about the New Zealand discovery and ongoing preservation efforts in The New York Times or in The LA Times.

• The New York Times also did a joint review of the new autobiographies out by Raquel Welch and Pam Grier – Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage and Pam’s Foxy: My Life in Three Acts.  These two extraordinary ladies were the top cult movie heroines of their era, although Raquel’s career also crossed over into big mainstream faire.  Raquel recently had some electrifying appearances on Fox News (especially her hilarious interview with Neil Cavuto), and also guest hosted on Turner Classic Movies a few months ago.  Both of these ladies are still going strong, looking fabulous, and are dispensing a lot of good advice to the young women of today.  And can we all agree that Beyond the Cleavage is easily the greatest title ever?  (Surpassing even Russ Meyer’s 3-volume autobiography, A Clean Breast.)  You can buy both Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage and Foxy: My Life in Three Acts in the LFM Store below, along with some of Raquel and Pam’s best films.

• A new Charlie Chan box set is out from Turner Classic Movies.  Pick up a copy in the LFM Store below.

• Can it be 35 years since Jaws came out?  Apparently it is.  Next week marks the 35th anniversary of Jaws’ release!  I still remember seeing the film with my grandmother when it came out … and I still think it’s the best non-Indiana Jones film Spielberg’s ever made, with really nothing surpassing it as a thriller except maybe Hitchcock’s Psycho.  Jaws and Star Wars together are probably the greatest summer movies of all time, films that really defined the moviegoing era of the 1970’s.  There’s a documentary that’s been making the rounds the last few years called The Shark is Still Working about the making of Jaws and the film’s impact on our culture, and the doc just had a screening yesterday at the Portland Underground Film Festival.  Best wishes to the filmmakers on that, and Happy 35th to Jaws.  You can buy a copy of Jaws in the LFM Store above.

• AND FINALLY … Andy Warhol’s classic print of Elizabeth Taylor has gone up for sale. I have a bid in but it’s probably on the low side …

Posted on June 13th, 2010 at 3:51pm.

Weekend Hollywood Round-up, 6/12

More "Twilight" for Kristen Stewart.

By Jason Apuzzo. • BP decides to purchase Kevin Costner oil separator. Costner officially wins MOST HELPFUL CELEBRITY IN THE GULF sweepstakes.  James Cameron goes home sulking to clean his pool using underwater robots.  Costner still hasn’t been paid by BP yet, even though he’s been promised money.  As a Hollywood actor, he should be used to that.

• The Karate Kid leading The A-Team by wide margin at weekend box office. Battle of the 80’s remakes.  Heads may roll over at Fox due to the ongoing A-Team debacle; pic had 11 writers, over 10 years in development.  Sort of like Hillary’s presidential campaign.

• Twilight: Breaking Dawn will be broken into two movies … for the same reason the final ‘Harry Potter’ novel is being broken down into two movies: they’ll make more money, and they’ll fit better into the overhead storage bins on Delta.

• Meg Whitman being outpaced by Jerry Brown in raising Hollywood money, even though Meg was once a senior Disney executive. This is only happening because Jerry used to be such a hot development exec at Marvel.

• Batman 3 may start filming in March 2011, although neither the script nor a cast has been finalized.  Rumors flying that the new villain will be Helen Thomas.

• Clash of the Titans 2 has a new pair of screenwriters. Before they write a word, they should read this post so that the original story isn’t wrecked any further.

Kristina and Karissa Shannon.

• Sam Raimi has been approached to direct a Wizard of Oz prequel for Disney, to compete with two other Oz-related projects developing at Warner Brothers.  Why is the faraway, fantasy land of Oz suddenly so popular in Obama era?

• Celebrity mistresses are really cashing in these days, according to Fox News. Btw, is there an iPhone app for Tiger mistresses?

• Sofia Coppola’s next film, Somewhere, will likely show at the Venice Film Festival, and will feature an eclectic cast that will include Stephen Dorff, Michelle Monaghan, Benicio del Toro and twin Playboy Bunnies Karissa and Kristina Shannon.  I’ll watch anything Sofia does.  Looking forward to this film!  Will there be an accompanying Coppola wine?

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … a group of French psychiatrists have concluded that Darth Vader must’ve suffered from ‘borderline personality disorder.’ That’s part of Darth’s problem, but those Sith robes are also so restrictive around the waist …

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

Posted on June 12, 2010 at 7:26pm.

Island of Lost Films

By Jennifer Baldwin. For classic movie cinephiles, the discovery of old films once thought to be lost is one of the more thrilling aspects of our fandom. There are so many silent-era films that have been lost to the twin scourges of time and neglect that when a new discovery is made — such as the case with the recently discovered print of METROPOLIS containing footage previously thought lost — it’s the cinema equivalent of an archeologist discovering artifacts from a forgotten civilization.

Back in the day — before film preservation was finally acknowledged as a worthwhile historical enterprise — silent films and other older movies that were past their “sell date” were deemed to have no commercial value by the film studios (and were often dangerous to store, since the nitrate film stock used in the silent era is so highly flammable), and so these films were often left alone to deteriorate and die or were even melted down on purpose in order to extract the silver from the emulsion. Thousands of films are believed to be lost to history thanks to the ravages of time and neglect.

But these are exciting times. Not only the recent discovery of the lost METROPOLIS footage in Argentina, but now, a discovery in the New Zealand Film Archive of dozens of American films from the early part of the twentieth century, including a once-thought-lost John Ford silent feature called UPSTREAM (It’s a backstage drama! From John Ford!). Seventy-five of these rediscovered films are en-route to the U.S. right now for preservation and restoration.

If you love old movies as well as history, this is awesome news. But I’m not just writing about this because it’s awesome news. I’m writing about this because I want conservative movie lovers to get involved. Actually, I’m sure there are plenty of conservative movie lovers already involved but I just wanted to see if I could get even more conservatives involved because I believe it’s a cause that we on the Right should and need to be involved in.

Why film preservation? What’s so conservative about that? Well, the most obvious answer is actually the best one:  since conservatives are usually pretty keen on preserving and respecting our cultural heritage they should also be pretty keen on helping to restore and keep alive historical artifacts like old films. It’s as simple as that. These films are part of our history and as conservatives we claim to respect history and want to preserve American culture – well, here’s our chance.

Part of our mission here at LFM is to celebrate and promote cinema and the arts – and what better way for those of us on the Right to do this than by contributing to film preservation?

But conservative movie lovers should get involved in preservation efforts not only because it’s a good thing to do, but also as a way to show that conservatives are interested in culture in a positive way and not just as a means to score political points. I might be a little unfair in this critique of conservatives – because there ARE conservatives out there writing and commenting on film and culture that do it intelligently and with great love and enthusiasm – but there has also been a tendency for conservatives on the internet and elsewhere to simply bash Hollywood and retreat from the mainstream culture.

Standing up for our cultural past means more than just wistfully saying “I wish they still made movies like that today!” It means actually supporting and championing those cultural objects from days gone by. It means putting your money where your wistful heart is. There are opportunities now for ordinary film lovers to help save and preserve older films. Continue reading Island of Lost Films