By Jason Apuzzo. • Actress Gloria Stuart of Titanic fame has died, several months after her 100th birthday. Govindini and I had the pleasure of meeting this elegant star from Hollywood’s Golden Age twice. On each occasion she was the picture of elegance and grace, and she will certainly be missed.
• Wall Street 2 took top prize at the weekend box office, with a haul of about $19 million. That’s not surprising; I think Oliver Stone crafted an entertaining and emotionally compelling film, the politics of which were relatively muted compared with what one might otherwise expect from him these days. [See my review of the film here.] One can only imagine how much better business the film might’ve done if Stone had only kept off the talk show circuit over the past week; the man truly does himself no favors.
• Details are starting to emerge about the forthcoming Clint Eastwood/Leonardo DiCaprio/J. Edgar Hoover pic, Hoover. Joaquin Phoenix may be in line to play Hoover’s unconfirmed ‘lover,’ and it seems that Hoover’s rumored homosexuality may be a significant aspect of the script; for what it’s worth in this context, incidentally, the screenwriter for Hoover also wrote Milk. And: according to the screenwriter, the film will apparently be rooted in “contradictions” between “what [Hoover] believed his history was and what his history actually was.” [Sigh. Here we go again.] I wonder whether these “contradictions” will involve threats associated with Soviet espionage in that era; I’m hoping the screenwriter doesn’t think those threats were ‘imaginary,’ the way Clooney did in Good Night, and Good Luck. Just a thought. As a footnote, by the way, John Goodman has just been cast in Kevin Smith’s forthcoming Red State, which deals with ostensive Christian intolerance toward homosexuals. Goodman seems more like Hoover than DiCaprio, to my eye.
• A “not necessarily complete” negative of Stanley Kubrick’s first feature Fear and Desire has finally been discovered, and will soon be getting the restoration/DVD treatment. Also on the Brooding Genius front, I love this recent quote from Werner Herzog:
For directors, you will never be a great director if you don’t read. I run my own film school — I call it a traveling circus, a rogue film school — and I have a mandatory reading list for those who apply. It starts with Virgil’s “Georgics.” Read it in Latin if possible. I have a short story by Hemingway; old Icelandic poetry; and, among others, the Warren Commission Report. It’s a fantastic piece of reading.
• On the Franchise front, Christopher Nolan is looking for a director for the new Superman reboot (which is actually a re-reboot); The Hobbit may be hobbled by union strife Down Under; and either Mia Wasikowska or Easy A’s Emma Stone or will be playing the female lead in the new Spider-Man reboot. [UPDATE: reader Shane points out they may actually be up for two different roles.] This seems like an easy choice to me: Emma Stone.
• On the Hot Chicks with Guns front: Resident Evil 4 is still cleaning up at the worldwide box office; Kate Beckinsdale will apparently be back for an Underworld 4; Salt’s Angelina Jolie has just began casting her indie war drama set in Bosnia; and Scarlett Johansson is apparently going to get her own ‘Black Widow’ franchise, with the character already having appeared in Iron Man 2 and in the forthcoming Avengers movie. Three thoughts on this: 1) I think it’s a great idea to wrap a franchise around the ‘Black Widow’ character, which in its original incarnation was an ex-Soviet superspy; 2) the problem is, Salt already just gave us a sexy, former Soviet female superspy, so they’ll need to go somewhere new with the material (it appears they already are, based on the 2 films Johansson has done); 3) Johansson may be pleasant to look at, but I don’t actually think she’s right for the part. The character demands somebody vampy, with a saucy personality – and I just don’t think Johansson can pull it off. In any case, we’ll see how this develops.
• As you probably know by now, Katy Perry’s recent segment for Sesame Street was cut due to what might be termed her glandular superabundance – although Sesame Street has subsequently indicated that ‘Miss Katy’ will be back again in the future, perhaps in a mu-mu. Perry has since had some fun with the whole incident, appearing on Saturday Night Live in a Sesame Street T-shirt revealing much more of the original source-material of the controversy, as it were. Having studied the original Sesame Street segment, it’s my professional opinion that it would have done no harm to America’s young lads, whatsoever! Quite the contrary, actually …
• On the Sci-Fi/Alien Invasion front, the 1962 Brit sci-fi thriller Day of the Triffids (based on the 1951 novel) is getting a remake, and in 3D. Day of the Triffids?! Of all the sci-fi classics from that era, they’re remaking Day of the Triffids?! So we’re going to get marauding, carnivorous plants coming at us in 3D. And you thought Piranha 3D was campy? Imagine Riley Steele getting devoured by a fern. In other news, Guillermo del Toro talks here and here about his forthcoming adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness that he’s doing with James Cameron. An early, highly unflattering script review of that project has already frightened me off, and nothing del Toro is saying now is making me feel like he won’t botch this – which is a shame.
• A special shout-out to the folks doing the Pioneer One webseries, the pilot of which we showed here at Libertas recently. [Special thanks to the screenwriter on that project, Josh Bernhard, for Tweeting our post.] Pioneer One just won the “Best Drama Pilot” award at the New York Television Festival. Congratulations! In quasi-related news Vladimir Mashkov has been cast as a Russian agent in Mission: Impossible 4.
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … the Michalka sisters of Torrance/the South Bay are everywhere. Yowza! AJ Michalka just got cast in J.J. Abrams’ forthcoming sci-fi alien invasion thriller Super 8, and early indications are that sister Aly’s Hellcats show on the CW is likely to get picked up for a second season. Twin cameos in the Baywatch reboot can only be a matter of time!
And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood.
Posted on September 27th, 2010 at 1:37pm.
That’s very sad about Gloria Stuart. She will be missed. I thought she was great in “Titanic.” How nice though that you were able to meet her.
As for Clint Eastwood – why is he going after conservative Americans yet again? He already tried to undermine the famous picture of the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima in “Flags of Our Fathers,” and now he’s going after J. Edgar Hoover? Why? I’m really disappointed when supposed Hollywood conservatives act like this. For this we don’t need Eastwood. George Clooney, Sean Penn, and a million other lefties will make a film like this. Why does Eastwood need to pile on?
One of the real oddities of the past 10-15 years is that Eastwood has become one of Hollywood’s go-to, reliable lefty directors. I don’t know where this came from with him, and frankly it’s depressing.
I think that’s a bit harsh, Jason. I would say his descent into lefty-dom began with ‘Mystic River’ and that came out in 2003. Spicoli must’ve cast a spell on him or something. Gran Torino seems to be an anomaly in his latter-day career.
Did you see Flags of Our Fathers? Or Million Dollar Baby? I honestly don’t think I’m being harsh here at all.
No, what I meant was that Clint’s descent began in 2003. He still made some good stuff 10 – 15 years ago.
Oh, hell yes! Of course. I misunderstood you.
Day of the Triffids?!
Okay by me as long as they invade a college spring break festival with lots of underwater scenes.
My choice for an obscure sci-fi remake would be 5 Million Years to Earth aka Quatermass and the Pitt. For those unfamiliar with the plot, it’s about the origin of mankind as a surrogate for collectivist martian grasshoppers. Every so often they have a “mind purge” and kill all the non conforming citizens. As a conservative in California, I tend to be reminded of the images in this movie on a weekly basis.
I recorded that movie a few months ago on TCM – it looked great! Haven’t watched the whole thing yet.
Just a head’s up. Jason. I think that Emma and Mia are set to play the two female leads in the Spider-man reboot, MJ and Gwen Stacy. Not entirely sure how true it is, but those are the rumors I have read. I don’t think they are competing.
I must have read that piece too quickly – thanks for the heads-up!
Off-topic here, Jason, but I’ve watched all 3 episodes of Nikita on iTunes and it’s not what you feared it would be. For one thing, it’s way more entertaining than both feature films and the previous TV series that bore the same premise. It’s actually a lot like Burn Notice, but with Maggie Q. Notwithstanding the ludicrous premise of a black-ops Division within the CIA that’s untouchable because it knows where all the bodies are buried, the episodes have all emphasized that said Division has gone rogue and are only in business for themselves. Kinda like the Democrats at how they use their postion of power to betray the people they were meant to serve. And Maggie Q’s Nikita is on a mission to bring the whole unit down by applying her smarts, skillsets and high pain tolerance. What’s not to like?
Listen, I’m glad to hear that – although the ‘rogue division’ stuff sounds a bit like a dodge. But I’ll keep all this in mind, and if I get a free moment I’ll try to grab an episode or two.
Could we PLEASE stop painting AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS as being a huge Cameron project? This is Del Toro all the way, and a movie he’s been trying to get the backing for for years. Cameron was tapped as producer to gain the fincances necessary to make Del Toro’s hard-R period piece going. This movie is Del Toro’s darling, and I for one am expecting something special.
Delvalen, I haven’t really been portraying it as a ‘huge Cameron project’ – I just mention Cameron’s involvement because it’s a relevant news hook. I agree with you, it seems like it’s definitely Del Toro’s baby – but I’m not a big fan of his, and I advise you to read that script review I linked to because it should give you pause.
The irony here is that I would actually prefer it to be a Cameron project. Lovecraft is absolutely one of my favorite writers, and this novel deserves more than it appears it’s going to be getting from Del Toro’s adaptation.
“Day of the Triffids” is a proto-zombie book. They are slow moving plants that are only dangerous in numbers, and especially if people are blind…
It was zombies before there were zombies. The book is about post-apocalyptic survival, at an incredibly early date. And it was a lot better than “On the Beach” (ugh).
Have you ever seen Navy vs. The Night Monsters? It’s somewhat similar – only it has Mamie van Doren in it.