By Jason Apuzzo. • It’s been a great week for Russian spies. Yesterday here in LA we had the Salt premiere (see here and here). A lot of big names showed up to this premiere – including the estimable patriarch of the Jolie/Voight family, Jon Voight; I wasn’t aware, incidentally, that Russian model Olya Zueva had snuck her way onto the cast of Salt – an added attraction, clearly. But word also comes today that in her ongoing rush to cash-in on her notoriety, Russian (not so super-)spy Anna Chapman may have some exciting new opportunities opening up for herself in the entertainment world. Ahem.
Without giving anything away, let’s just say this new job opportunity of hers gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘sleeper agent.’
• Is über-Producer Jerry Bruckheimer losing his mojo? Wags are wondering whether 4 straight flops in a row may be jeopardizing Bruckheimer’s relationship to Disney. My guess? Jerry’s fine, because this is still coming out next year.
• Do we finally have a universal digital video platform? The creators of UltraViolet certainly hope so as that format finally debuts in public today. I’m still skeptical about this, and have about a million technical questions regarding how transitioning to this new platform/codec is going to play out. The basic problem here, as far as whether this platform will actually take hold, is that people are always going to want to innovate and come up with something better – and no industry consortium (no matter how powerful) can shut that process down.
• The Star Trek sequel should be shooting by next summer, although there’s still no script. The next film will apparently be bigger and more thematically ambitious than the first. I’ve been a little concerned about noises from the screenwriters that the next film may be more ‘socially relevant’ than the first one, which I enjoyed very much. We all know what ‘socially relevant’ usually means these days (“Get out of Iraq!!!”) … here’s hoping they don’t go there.
• According to imdb’s estimable readers, Christopher Nolan’s Inception is the 3rd greatest movie of all time! [Citizen Kane, by comparison, weighs in at only #36.] And you’re wondering why some of us don’t like Mr. Nolan’s fanboys dumbing down standards of excellence? Still, the adults continue to weigh-in negatively on Inception. The latest today comes from Nolan’s own backyard in the UK Guardian. The title of their article on Nolan says it all: “The Emperor Has No Clothes.” Money quote: “Christopher Nolan’s films are full of big ideas hinting at deep profundities. But are we investing meaning where it isn’t?” Answer: yes.
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … with Russian spies and Russian mistresses all over the media, we thought we’d take a quick look at Olya Zueva, the Russian model appearing in the new spy thriller, Salt. We try to stay on theme, here.
And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …
Posted on July 20th, 2010 at 7:08pm.
Apple isn’t even a part of the UltraViolet group yet, so I don’t know how they can claim that they are a “universal” format.
Yes, Blinkered, that is probably going to become a big issue. Until they resolve that, I assume they would need 3rd party apps to have UltraViolet content play on iPhones or iPads.
Why is Kristin Cavallari at a SALT premiere?
Things like that just sort of happen in LA, Nick. Thanks for commenting.
olya can spy on me! jolie not so much.