By Jason Apuzzo. • Patricia Neal has passed away, at age 84. What a great star she was. I actually just saw her recently on the big screen at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, where they were showing The Day the Earth Stood Still. Patricia Neal appeared in so many of my favorite films, including In Harm’s Way, The Fountainhead, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Face in the Crowd, Operation Pacific and on and on … and of course, everybody remembers her (rightly) for Hud. Neal had the same kind of urbane, sexy, flinty-yet-romantic persona that Betty Bacall had in her prime, and she will be deeply missed.
We don’t have women nowadays on film, so much as overgrown girls. Neal and Bacall are arguably the last of their kind.
• We’ve been talking a lot about science fiction here lately, and now some interesting news comes out today from George Lucas about the ultimate sci-fi franchise: Star Wars. Apparently work on the much-anticipated live action Star Wars TV series has ground to a halt due to challenges associated with the sheer scale of the series.
According to George:
The live action TV show is kind of on hold because we have scripts, but we don’t know how to do them. They literally are Star Wars, only we’re going to have to try to do them at a tenth the cost. And it’s a huge challenge, a lot bigger than what we thought it was gonna be.
On the one hand this is disappointing, because this is a series that a lot of us have been looking forward to. On the other hand, I’m glad that they’re being ambitious with the storyline. Knowing the way the folks at Lucasfilm are, they will probably be developing an innovative new palette of technologies in order to make this series affordable. We’ll be watching this story as it develops in months to come.
• In other sci-fi related news, James Cameron talks to MTV about the future of the Avatar series (he’s working on the Avatar novel right now, and may shoot Avatar 2-3 back-to-back; it’s extraordinary to me that he believes the fans of Avatar actually read); the indie sci-fi invasion film Skyline has a new teaser website; Cloverfield director Matt Reeves says Cloverfield 2 is still a possibility (the first film had strong 9/11 overtones, incidentally, and was one of the first films – along with Indy 4 – to kick off the latest alien craze); the alien invasion thriller The Darkest Hour has had its shooting shut down due to ongoing fires outside Moscow; and there’s some fun casting news today concerning the ongoing alien invasion series V.
I can hardly believe that in my recent writings about the new wave of alien invasion films/TV shows, I actually forgot to mention V! One of the reasons this is such a glaring omission is that V (both in the original and the new miniseries) manages to harness the alien invasion theme to political commentary about America’s potential drift toward authoritarianism. I’ve actually read Kenneth Johnson’s 2008 V novel, which could not be more obvious in its criticism of current trends in liberal governance. (The novel even features a hilarious, narcissistic San Francisco mayor based quite blatantly on Gavin Newsom … who has an affair with a Beyoncé look-alike.) I haven’t seen much of the new TV series – which was thought by many to offer a sub rosa critique of the Obama Administration – but the series seems to depart rather dramatically from the novel in its plotline, and appears to be more along the lines of a straight-forward reboot of the original TV show.
In any case, these trends in sci-fi continue, and we’ll be keeping an eye on them here at LFM … especially when the new season of V revs up later this year. Btw, if more aliens looked like Laura Vandervoort, would we really mind being devoured by them?
• The Other Guys won top honors at the box office this past weekend. There was recently a debate over whether The Other Guys offers a critique of Wall Street crony capitalism. Unfortunately the price of my entry into this debate is too high: namely, having to actually see the film.
• Recently freed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi will be on the jury for the forthcoming Venice Film Festival, which is very good news. I’m wondering what he’ll think of The Black Swan. Talk about a film that couldn’t be made in Iran …
• Are we tapped out on superhero movies? [Answer: yes.] That’s the question asked in the LA Times, ironically enough, by the director of the forthcoming X-Men: First Class. [This is the one featuring Jennifer Stewart as Mystique, btw.] Whether we are or aren’t, of course, we’re going to get more such films thrown at us. Today comes news that Green Lantern 2 already has a screenwriter, and Batman 3 may be shooting extensively in New Orleans. In related not-so-super hero news, Tom Cruise is going to be taking a paycut for Mission: Impossible 4, and Ving Rhames has confirmed his participation in that film, as well. Yawn.
• There’s a new poster out for Piranha 3D. Yummy.
• There are some fun pictures out today of Rachel Zoe, riffing off her endless repetition of the phrase “I die.” Click on over to Harper’s Bazaar for more. LFM is, like, absolutely beyond being in favor of The Rachel Zoe Project.
• DAILY PSYCHO REPORT: The new Maggie Thatcher biopic with Meryl Streep is apparently going to be a full-on, unvarnished hit job on The Iron Lady, exploiting even her recent dementia … and I’m totally disgusted with Streep and her participation in what appears to be an ugly, nakedly propagandistic project. I can only assume Streep has no conscience whatsoever, and like so many recent celebrities is simply surrendering her career – now that it’s on the down side – to tendentious partisan hackery.
Somewhat related, Keith Olbermann is apparently out of NBC’s Football Night in America (hooray!) … ironic in that he’s been forced into retirement sooner than Brett Favre; the Wachowski brothers’ bizarre new Iraq war project will apparently be titled Cobalt Neutral 9; and Spike Lee is now peddling more conspiracy theories … this time about the BP oil spill. Personally I think all the oil from that spill’s been channelled into Adrian Grenier’s hair. Which reminds me, there will probably be an Entourage movie once that series is over.
• The great Debbie Reynolds has been cast as Katherine Heigl’s grandmother in One For the Money, in which Heigl will be playing … a bounty hunter. [Sigh.] Is Heigl choosing her roles by way of a Ouija board these days?
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Carla Bruni has been offered a role on CSI, which would be just about the only reason to watch that show, nowadays.
And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …
Posted on August 9th, 2010 at 2:40pm.
Very sorry to hear about Patricia Neal’s passing. She will be greatly missed. She was fantastic in “The Fountainhead” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” two of the roles I best remember her in. Few people could have pulled off those roles the way she did. Patricia Neal was an amazing mixture of classy, sexy, and intelligent. And who can forget that amazing voice.
I forgot to comment on the rest of the post. I am really disgusted by this hit job movie on Maggie Thatcher. Why can’t they leave her alone when she is old and ill? This is beyond creepy of Meryl Streep and really crosses the line of all decency and ethics. I am never watching another of her movies again. This is why I can’t be part of the left. They are just cruel and sadistic to those they disagree with.
Prehistoric Woman: I agree with you that this film is a completely disgusting way to treat Maggie Thatcher. Whether the people in the film industry agree with her politics or not, she should be treated as a human being, not as some dehumanized hate-object for the left to pour their abuse on. They treat serial killers with more sympathy than they treat conservative leaders like Thatcher.
However, I also have to say this: if conservatives put more effort into supporting the artists and filmmakers who could counter garbage like this, then we wouldn’t be in such a bad cultural situation. All day long Jason and the rest of us here at LFM work to promote films and filmmakers that support freedom and democracy and that criticize Communism, Islam-Fascism, and totalitarianism of all kinds – “Salt,” “Mao’s Last Dancer,” “Four Lions, “Farewell,” etc. – and yet these films get almost no support in the right wing media. The left will just keep on making horrible movies like this Thatcher hit-job until the right finally starts supporting artists and filmmakers who offer a different view.
The trailer for Mao’s Last Dancer was amazing! I can’t wait for the movie.
Heigl’s choice is pretty smart if it works. The movie is based on a series of books by Janet Evanovich. They have sold 75 million copies and this movie is based on the first which was on the best sellers list for like ever. There are 16 books in the series and her character isn’t some kind of all action hero by any means. Could be a smart move if the movie is decent and does well. The books have a huge following and could be a franchise.
Kel, believe me – I’m glad to hear all this, and I hope it works for her.
Patricia Neal is a Favorite Actress for my family. We actually had a tradition of watching the Homecoming (The Walton’s) at Christmas. I’m originally from Kentucky and she reminds me a great deal of the type of women that I knew growing up, in regard to her physicality and speech patterns.
I saw The Other Guys this weekend. You’re a smart man Jason, taking a nap or contemplating the sleep patterns of cats is more productive use of your time. (Hollywood’s losing streak continues. This truly is the worst year for Hollywood.) I won’t go into all the problems with this movie but two things deserve mentioning. First the movie actually looked like it was filmed on the cheap and the sound was muddled. I acknowledge that it could have been the theater (MAJOR CHAIN). Then of course the controversy over the end credits. Interesting statistics and facts. Love to read them again but WITHOUT the movie!
Yeah, that movie just looked awful. I refused to review it, indulge in the ‘controversy,’ whatever. I can’t believe the stuff that gets made these days.
Tough news about “Star Wars,” but I’m sure Lucas will figure it out. He always does.
The Thatcher story is SO demoralizing. How perverse are these people? Anything I own with Streep is now going into the trash.
I like V a lot! It sure seems like a comment on today’s creepy, soft authoritarianism. Did you see the scene where Anna crushes one of her embryos with her own hand, teaching her daughter to play hardball? If this wasn’t a comment on abortion, I don’t know what is.