Category: Articles

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.


LFM Review: Winter’s Bone – It’s Safe to Go Back to the Art House

Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter's Bone."

[LFM welcomes a new contributor today, Patricia Ducey, an LA-based screenwriter and film essayist whose work we’ve admired over the years.  Her screenplay on Germany’s Baader-Meinhof gang was a finalist in the 2006 Liberty Film Festival screenplay contest.  We’re glad to have her on board.]

By Patricia Ducey. Winter’s Bone (written by Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini, directed by Debra Granik; see the trailer here) garnered the Sundance Film Festival’s top award this year and received near universal critical praise, especially for young actress Jennifer Lawrence as the central character of Ree Dolly. Some have called Winter’s Bone a crime story, a western, a quest, or even a ‘country noir’—a definition that Daniel Woodrell, author of the original novel, might quibble with – but noir seems accurate enough.  The film has a chilly atmosphere, shot in the relentless gray of winter, in perpetual twilight filtered through bare-limbed trees. We sense there are dark secrets in these hundred-year-old woods that are about to be disturbed.

The film introduces us to teenager Ree Dolly and her web of extended kin who eke out an existence in the Missouri Ozarks with a little ranching and a lot of ‘cookin’ (methamphetamine production). Ree is the sole provider for her two younger siblings and a nearly catatonic mother, since her father Jessup has run out on his bail bond when faced with a long stretch in prison for drug offenses. If Jessup doesn’t show up for his sentencing in one week’s time, the bondsman will take the ranch as collateral – and Ree and the family will be homeless.

A survivor.

A cinematic set-up like this usually prompts an “uh-oh” for anyone hoping for more than another cringe-inducing anthropological foray into the backwoods. Kudos to writer/director Debra Granik, though, for taking pains to avoid the usual stereotypes of flyover country in several key aspects of the story, especially in Ree’s complex character.

Ree may be desperate for money, all right, but she reaches neither for the government teat nor for the family business of ‘cookin’ – the easiest ways to make a quick buck – because she does not see her or her family as victims of society entitled to an easy way out. Instead she sets out to find Jessup, dead or alive, and bring him back to justice. Ree has little but her own sense of honor and family duty to carry her, but that’s enough.

When Ree runs into the wall of silence from the local drug dealers (most of them are Dolly relations), she decides to enlist in the Army instead for the $40,000 bonus. The local Army recruiter, surprisingly, is presented as a sympathetic character: he probes her motives and actually talks her out of enlisting.  He counsels Ree that she needs a better reason than the money to enlist, and it may be best to tend to her family for now.  Watch closely for an early scene depicting the ROTC and the baby-tending classes at the high school.  A PA announcement for college advising plays over the ‘two bad choices’ visual, indicating that the military here is a choice – not a dead end. Continue reading LFM Review: Winter’s Bone – It’s Safe to Go Back to the Art House

Explorations of Free Speech and Alienation: Two Short Films on Iran

By Govindini Murty. Today we commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Iran democracy protests.  I’ll be commenting at greater length later on some of the fine recent films by Iranian filmmakers that have explored Iran’s current social and political issues.  For now, though, I wanted to show you two interesting short films on Iran.

The first film, titled Iran: A Nation of Bloggers, is a fast-paced, informative two minute short about how Iranians have embraced blogging in order to express themselves freely to the rest of the world.  It was directed by Aaron Chiesa as a project for the Vancouver Film School.  (I have fond memories of Vancouver Film School from my early days as an actress when I was living in Vancouver, as I acted in some of the school’s short films.)  The short features striking animation reminiscent of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (in fact, I think a couple of shots were used from Persepolis) – and a catchy, exotic, pop-music sound track.  You can watch Iran: A Nation of Bloggers above.

The second film is Exile Paranoia, a ten minute short by Iranian filmmaker Nassrin Nasser.  The film explores in a haunting, meditative manner Nasser’s own feelings of alienation and confusion as she seeks to get a visa/passport to leave Iran and come to the West.  Exile Paranoia moves at a dreamlike pace that is the opposite of Iran: A Nation of Bloggers, but I like the contrast.  And while Iran: A Nation of Bloggers features black and white animation done in the radical-chic, populist style that dates back to Soviet constructivist art (and that was most recently seen in Obama’s “Hope” poster), Exile Paranoia is a softer, more intimate film that explores one woman’s emotions in a poetic, understated style.  I like the subtle use of color in Exile Paranoia – from white to cream to green to blue – and the dream-like, computer-composited shots of night-time Tehran.  I also find it interesting to see a brief glimpse of life from the viewpoint of an Iranian woman filmmaker.  Whether I would agree with her feelings about the West or not (the one Western male in the film is portrayed as a cold jerk, but maybe that’s just what this filmmaker has experienced), it’s still interesting to see life from her viewpoint.

Posted on June 29th, 2010 at 9:26pm.