Classic Movie Update + Happy Fourth of July!

Wonder Woman Lynda Carter, wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July.

By Jason Apuzzo. • Given the recent dust-up over the new-look Wonder Woman, we thought we’d let Lynda Carter lead things off by wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July.  Lynda certainly has a way of raising everone’s spirits.  I know that just looking at the picture above has put me in a kind of patriotic fervor.

The glorious Lynda Carter.

We’ve put the entire Wonder Woman TV series in the LFM Store below for your perusal and patriotic edification.  I remember liking the show back in the day, but my sense is that’s its appeal must only be greater now.  May I be frank?  I’d rather spend hours watching Lynda Carter than Jack Bauer.  But’s that’s just me.

In any case, the show lasted for 3 seasons – all of which are gathered together in this tidy little collection.

• Turner Classic Movies has a nice run today of patriotic films.  My personal recommendations: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the highly underrated The Devil’s Disciple (has Laurence Olivier ever been better?) and Yankee Doodle Dandy.  I can’t actually watch James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy because I get too emotional.  God bless Michael Curtiz – he’s probably the greatest director ever, and nobody even knows it.   All these movies are available in the LFM Store below.

• Humphrey Bogart is coming to Blu-ray in a big way this October.  Visit the HeatVision blog at The Hollywood Reporter to read about the new Humphrey Bogart: The Essential Collection that will be coming to Blu-ray.  As the picture below illustrates, this collection is basically going to have all the best stuff Bogey did for Warner Brothers.  Plus, I believe that Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon will be released separately on Blu-ray.  You can pre-order Treasure and Maltese in the LFM Store below.

Bogart on Blu-ray.

• New York’s Film Forum is presenting a 32-film Anthony Mann retrospective from 25 June – July 15.  Mann was easily one of our greatest directors, and a personal favorite of mine.  You can read more about that film series here.  I’ve put a few Anthony Mann classics in the LFM Store below.

• Eminent film writer David Bordwell has an interesting piece up on his site now about John Ford’s work as a silent film director … and somewhat related to this, Turner Classic Movies will be doing a mini-festival on July 10th of films shot at Monument Valley, which will (obviously) include Ford’s Stagecoach, The Searchers, My Darling Clementine, Sergeant Rutledge, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.  I actually think Cheyenne Autumn is the best looking film Ford ever shot in Monument Valley, although the film is a bit tedious and left wing.  We’ve got a few Ford-Monument Valley films in the LFM Store below.

Raquel Welch as Hannie Caulder.

• Producer Elliot Kastner has died.  Kastner produced, among other films, one of my absolute all time favorites: Where Eagles Dare.  You can read the article about his life and career in Variety.  He will be missed.  Pick up Where Eagles Dare in the LFM Store below.

• Carol Reed’s Night Train to Munich is finally getting a decent DVD release (Criterion, of course), and Turner Classic Movies has a review of it.  In other news, the Arnold Schwarzenegger-John McTiernan classic Predator is coming to Blu-ray, as is a restored version of Visconti’s The Leopard – which recently had a screening at the LA Film Festival.  All these films are available in the LFM Store.

• The magnificent Greenbriar Picture Shows classic movie blog has a wonderful 2-part look at the career of Orson Welles, see here and here.  I really love what they do at that site.  For the heck of it, I’ve put one of my favorite Welles books in the LFM Store: Peter Conrad’s Orson Welles: The Stories of His Life.

• Praise be to the heavens … Raquel Welch’s Hannie Caulder is finally coming to DVD!  You can read a new DVD review of the film at Turner Classic Movies.  This film is a major cult classic and it’s a crime that it hasn’t been available except on cheap VHS copies for years.  The film stars Raquel, along with Christopher Lee and Ernest Borgnine.  You can pre-order it in the LFM Store below.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE!

Posted on July 4th, 2010 at 12:15am.

Hollywood Round-up, 7/2

"Ya gotta light?" Meet the new Spider-Man.

By Jason Apuzzo. • Brit actor Andrew Garfield has been chosen as Spider-Man, in what’s regarded by many as a surprise. I’m not even going to pretend I know who this guy is.  Bigger question: does the Spider-Man series have any gas left in the tank, with new superhero franchises sprouting every day like weeds?

• Twilight: Eclipse cast members will apparently be mingling with theatergoers around the country. This is a great idea … and also a security nightmare, which is why star Kristen Stewart has been worrying about her safety of late.  Actually, if they really want to thank fans they should just pay for their popcorn.  [$7 a bag?]

• IMAX is expanding into Russia. It’s amazing how IMAX has become a viable distribution option, especially given that nobody shoots in that format anymore.  I once was on a balloon ride in Africa with some guys shooting in IMAX and the camera package alone nearly sank the balloon.

Is it live, or is it Memorex: which ones are fake?

• Restrepo‘s Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger talk to The Wrap today about their non-political approach toward their documentary on the Afghan war.  There was a time when this was the normal approach taken by documentarians.  I actually wish more filmmakers on both the left and right took that approach today …

• … unlike Oliver Stone.  And so Maria Conchita Alonso, who seemed to appear in every film made during the 1980s, will be leading a protest outside a screening of Oliver Stone’s South of the Border tonight in Santa Monica.  I have mixed feelings about things like protests and boycotts, because they basically just deliver free publicity to the people you’re protesting – and does anybody really care about Stone anymore?  So I imagine he’s thrilled by this.  But it doesn’t change the fact that what he’s doing in this documentary glorifying Hugo Chavez is repulsive and dishonest.

• Mel Gibson’s life and career have now officially imploded. Don’t believe anyone who tells you he can recover from this.  He’s done.  And while we’re at it, Kelsey Grammar has got some major p.r. headaches coming his way, as well.  Very sorry to read all this.

• In separate incidents, Kim Kardashian recently posed next to a wax figure of herself, and Megan Fox posed with a mannequin of herself.  Our challenge to LFM readers: pick out the fakes!

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Dolly Parton is defending Miley Cyrus’ new ‘sexy’ persona, saying “we need to let her spread her wings.”  Dolly would know. 🙂

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

Posted on July 2nd, 2010 at 12:20pm.

Muslim Harry Potter Actress Assaulted by Father, Brother

Afshan Azad, of "Harry Potter" fame.

By Jason Apuzzo. Afshan Azad, the British actress best known for her role as Padma Patil in the “Harry Potter” films, has accused her Islamic father and brother of trying to kill her.  Azad is claiming she was attacked because her father and brother apparently didn’t like her boyfriend, whom she refused to stop seeing. She claims she was left beaten and bruised.  According to CNN the family is Muslim, and of Bengali descent.

Her father Abdul Azad, 54, and brother Ashraf Azad, 28, have been arrested and charged with threatening to kill her.  Ashraf Azad is also accused of assaulting his sister causing her actual bodily harm.

As part of their bail conditions, the two men are required to abide by a curfew, and not travel to London or contact an unnamed man.  You can read more about this on the Fox News website.

This is incredibly disgusting behavior, and there should be an immediate condemnation from the Hollywood filmmaking community.  As of right now, though, I’m not seeing this story mentioned anywhere in the trades.  Why do I think I know why?

LFM readers have probably noticed that we spend a lot of time here covering what might be termed ‘women’s issues,’ or otherwise spotlighting women in film and the media.  One of the reasons we do this is because the battle lines in our current War on Terror are different from where they were, for example, during the Cold War.  The War on Terror is as much a war over the freedoms of women as anything else, and these freedoms need to be asserted over and over again.  These freedoms include, but are obviously not limited to, the right of women to make choices about their romantic and sexual lives.

We will continue to follow this story as it unfolds.  By the way: we’d love to hear from all you readers right now who thought Sex and the City 2 was ‘unfair’ in its portrayal of women in Islamic society.  In the comments section of her review of Sex and the City 2, Govindini debated several readers (one a Muslim female, another a Western feminist) on this point … and we’d love to hear back from these gals now about how tolerant and open Islamic society is toward women and their ambitions.

Posted on July 2nd, 2010 at 10:32am.

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.