By Jason Apuzzo. • This weekend marks the 9-year anniversary of the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. The legacy of this horrific event is ongoing, of course – including in the cinema, over which the shadow of 9/11 continues to hover. We remember the victims of 9/11 this weekend, and honor the sacrifices of those who continue to keep America and her allies safe.
• Is Tron going political? I saw something recently that unnerved me, somewhat. In the middle of this interview with Tron star Bruce Boxleitner, Boxleitner (who played Tron in the original film, and who also appears in the new film) indicates that in the new film the software corporation ENCOM (from the original movie) has morphed into a weapons contractor, a development against which Jeff Bridge’s character Kevin Flynn will apparently be struggling. Oh boy. I’m hoping this doesn’t go where I think it might go … I will really go ballistic, so to speak, if this film bashes defense contractors who are currently helping us fight our war, and giving us the technological edge we need to fight the kind of cave-dwelling primitives who hit us on 9/11. Please Disney, do not go there.
In other Tron news, a 30 minute sneak preview of Tron will be shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival on October 23rd; and there’s a new poster out for the film featuring Olivia Wilde. This is the poster I would probably have on my dorm room wall if I was still a freshman in college. I’m not a freshman, though, so instead I have a poster of Tura Satana.
• In other sci-fi news, Liam Neeson has jumped aboard the cast of Battleship. He will apparently be playing an admiral. Neeson’s presence significantly enhances the prestige-value of this project – which needs it, frankly, because a lot of people are scratching their heads about a $200 million Hasbro adaptation. Also, the LA Times has an interesting new article out about the indie-sci fi film Monsters; James Cameron is claiming he won’t be tweaking his cut of Avatar any more (why would he? he’ll be releasing 3 different cuts of the film in the span of one year); there are some laughable set photos coming out from Captain America (that film is looking bad to me); and there are some very cool set photos out of Mad Men’s January Jones in the new X-Men: First Class flick. I’m loving the retro-60s-go-go vibe of this outfit. Plus the fur hat.
• As I write this, I don’t know whether this psychotic Florida pastor is going to be burning any Korans on the anniversary of 9/11, but it’s worth mentioning in the context of this website that Angelina Jolie has strongly condemned the proposed conflagration while she’s in Pakistan helping with flood relief. Jolie seems to be playing the role that, as I understand it, Hillary Clinton was supposed to be playing as our Secretary of State. That’s fine with me, by the way – I prefer Jolie, although Hillary has a certain flinty resolve I’ve reluctantly come to respect over the years. Anyway, I’m hoping this guy doesn’t burn anything – other than perhaps Ron Artest’s driver’s license.
• Inception is apparently very popular in China, which doesn’t surprise me since it’s a movie that romanticizes brainwashing. Which reminds me, by the way, that Google’s Sergey Brin is saying that he wants Google to be “the third half of your brain” … which is technically impossible, if you think about it.
• Roger Ebert is relaunching his show. LFM’s own Govindini Murty was one of the many guests who substituted for Roger during his extended health struggles. We wish him the best.
• Obama’s celebrity base is apparently peeved at him … for not being left-wing enough. What were they expecting? His most passionate cause is himself. We don’t know whether Martin Sheen is among those naysayers, but ol’ Marty did recently proclaim “God forgive me for playing a Republican!” in his son Emelio Estevez’s new film project. [Sigh.] God will forgive him, but I may not.
• I was glad to see that the CW’s new cheerleader melodrama Hellcats debuted to solid numbers, while the CIA-bashing Nikita’s bow was only so-so. I won’t belabor the point – you know what my gripes are on this subject. Besides which: there really aren’t enough shows on TV that explore the hard-knocks world of cheerleading the way Hellcats does.
• I’m very pleased to see Martin Scorsese sticking up for Elia Kazan in Scorsese’s new documentary about the great director. It’s time that the ghosts of the HUAC era give way to the realization of what a superb and accomplished director Kazan was. On the Waterfront is one of my all-time favorite films. I live that film every damn day, frankly. Also a relative of mine was in it.
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks has been cast in a new indie thriller called Drive, about a Hollywood stunt-driver who moonlights as a driver for underworld criminals. Do I need to supply the punch line here? Drive‘s suddenly got some real curves!
And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood.
Posted on September 10th, 2010 at 8:52pm.
I’ve got a couple specific points of praise here:
1. Thanks for writing the truth about defense contractors. Their contribution to our war effort should be acknowledged. It will be very disappointing if Disney takes this lazy course of action with Tron.
2. Jason, you could be the first writer I’ve ever read that referred to HUAC rather than the misused “McCarthyism”. Your clarity is appreciated, and it says a lot about the intellectual level of the content here.
Also, On The Waterfront is in my top five, and also tops my Bluray wish list. Kazan was indeed a wonderful filmmaker, and his accomplishments and contributions to the industry should never be overlooked.
Finally, I kind of liked the Captain America pics. My instincts may tell me otherwise, but I’m not hating the direction of the film. I like the director and screenwriters, and some of the things that were said about the story haven’t really offended me like I thought they would.
Vince, I can’t thank you enough – your words are very kind. We put a lot of hard work into this site, and we’re all very appreciative when folks notice. The work goes into the details, which is why I’m so glad you notice them.
I’ll tell you what: I’ll hold out some hope for Captain America. I like the fact that they’re setting it in the past, actually, and I’m hoping that the director’s previously reported remarks don’t bear much relevance to the finished product … which often happens, actually.
Walt Disney would never have put up with this crap. He was a true patriot who fought communist influence in Hollywood’s unions. Don’t these people know their own history?!
No, Powder, unfortunately they don’t. Nor, I suspect, would they care very much even if they did. You can’t imagine how it pained me to report this stuff, because I really want this film to be satisfying – I’ve even held out hopes that it will be a kind of anti-Avatar. We’ll see how all this develops …
Walt Disney would never have put up with this crap.
True. Nevertheless, if you were paying attention during the Eisner CEO period, Disney corp went left quite often. Their PC animation offerings, such as Mulan, Pocahontas ( the 2d animation version of AVATAR), Brother Bear, Tarzan, Hunchback and Atlantis were in your face left culture movies. Robert Iger has taken over from Eisner but his campaign contributions are to folks like Harry Reid, Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer and Cris Dodd. So don’t expect to see Rush Limbaugh on the Mickey Mouse club soon and yes, bashing those eeeeevil defense contractors will undoubtedly be on the menu.
Last point: Maybe the lefty culture from top Disney management explains this:
http://www.uproxx.com/feature/2010/07/a-guide-to-disneys-horrible-female-role-models-feat-photo-evidence/
All good points, K. My LFM colleague David Ross has often railed over the Eisner era and the changes it brought to Disney culture, and now it appears things may continue along those lines. I was hoping that the influence of Pixar might have changed matters somewhat.
I’m of two minds with the whole “defense contractor” thing, Tron notwithstanding.
One one hand, it’s easy for a screenwriter because you don’t have to explain anything – it’s a large corporation with thousands of employees and money and technology and R&D facilities so you can do anything and the audience will buy it: fancy weapons, countless henchmen, etc. And badmouthing a “weapons contractor” doesn’t quite have the same effect as badmouthing a country or a religion or a race of people. (And I realize for every one Blackwater, there are two companies who’ve never gotten into trouble).
On the other hand, yeah, it’d be nice to see a movie where the hero works for a Lockheed-type corporation. I can’t recall the last movie that did something like that (though we’ll always have Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne).
I’m pretty middle of the road but I frequently post on a center-right blog that covers movies now and then and they did an article on this subject: http://commentarama.blogspot.com/2010/04/why-hollywood-loves-corporate-bad-guys.html
Thanks, Scott – we appreciate your thoughts on this and I’ll check out the article.
they attack on america again