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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC3mxWFtNjE[/youtube]
If the kids at my daughter’s elementary school are any indication, Wall-E is going to be GIGANTIC. My daughter already seems to have a “relationship” with the cartoon character and has inserted his name into various songs, like the HSM2 song, Fabulous: “Wall-E needs a little fabulous, is that so wrong?” They’re already dying to see the movie, more than any other. Here is a little Wall-E for your weekend pleasure. Source: ONTD.
Oh, with so much bad news around it’s nice to get a little good news. Yes, after weeks of trashing by many a fanboy blog, and even a Manohla Dargis pan, Sex and the City has defied expectations, as Fantasy Mogul’s Steve Mason reports, and made a whopping $27 mil opening night and is headed for a $70 mil opening weekend. That makes it on track to become the highest grossing “chick flick” ever.
And who said women couldn’t open movies? As a sidenote, I watched Knocked Up for the first time last night and it was much like Juno in that it was an unbearable, agonizing first hour to sit through – I kept thinking silently to myself, “Judd Apatow is a talentless hack.” But right about the time to the two dudes headed to Vegas to shroom it started to turn around for me. Yes, I acknowledge that this is because the boys started acting like human beings but also, the movie just got better once the gay jokes stopped. Is Judd Apatow a closet case or what? Why are all of his movies about sucking balls, sucking dick, gay this, gay that – he can’t seem to put a bunch of manboys together in a room without the jokes be about being gay. What’s up with that? Anyway, the point is, a movie like that can make shitloads of money and no one (besides me, of course) passes judgment. But Sex and the City has garnered more shit from the manboy/fanboy faction on the web such as I’ve never seen. Do they hate women or what? Maybe they like women but only if those women fit into their idea of what’s sexy, like Natalie Portman in an indie movie, no offense, Natalie. To the manboy/fanboy faction, women seem to exist either to kick ass but have no brains or else function as their unattainable/attainable dream date.
I will see Sex and the City so I can’t really comment on the film itself. But the site Women and Hollywood has tackled the issue head-on, speaking to female bloggers, film execs, and critics on the potential for Sex and the City to make big box office bucks with their piece, Women’s Cultural Moment.
Why does it seem like every cover Angelina does is a news event practically? But especially this one. Ange takes the July cover of VF to prepare for the opening of Wanted and eventually Changeling (The Exchange?). Source: Just Jared.
Another gem dug up by ONTD, the Coens’ Burn After Reading trailer. Looks funny, especially Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand. Once Clooney and Tilda show up it’s starts to feel like an Ocean’s 11 movie. But who cares; it’s still going to be a spectacular experience:
ONTD points us to the IMDb news that the actor both Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro were “thinking of” is none other than AD heart throb James McAvoy:
“A number of names have been doing the rounds, including Daniel Radcliffe and Jack Black, but James (McAvoy) is the one the film’s bosses really want.They’re expected to have talks soon so hopefully it could be confirmed in the not too distant future.”
The Hot One would be perfect for it if not for this.
Yes, this would make him a HUGE star but it would come at a cost. He may be forever The Hobbit and unable to shake it. Yes, it would be the chance of a lifetime to work with Mr. Del Toro but I’m not sure I would advise him to take this. Then again, what do I know? Nothing, that’s what. I’m sure Mr. McAvoy knows better what is right for him and what isn’t.
(Spoiler alert)
I thought you would all enjoy this review by a ten year-old classmate of my daughter’s. She has written it as part of a newspaper we’re putting together:
We all love Indy I mean, what’s not to love? First of all, there’s the hat. The hat is awesome and it can’t be Indiana Jones without the hat. Number two, the whip. It helped Indy with, well, pretty much everything. Number three, the theme song. It’s catchy, it can be annoying but I love it anyway. Now number four, the most important one, the movies. The movies are funny. action packed and just plain cool! The 1,2,3 rocked and I recently saw the fourth. It was pretty good but it wasn’t the best one. I don’t think it was very Indiana Jonesy . I mean, what are Aliens doing in an Indiana Jones movie! You have got to be kidding me. Indiana Jones (played by Harrisan Ford) is back and ready to go on one of his adventures. He meets a boy on the way called Mutt (played by Shia LaBeouf) who accompanies him on the way to find the crystal skull. Oohhhhh scary. Anyway I thought it was okay, good, fine, pretty darn good, nevermind. So if you want my advice go see the movie and decide for yourself.
After being pulled from Christian Dior ads in China, the company and Stone released a statement of apology, Stone said:
“Due to my inappropriate words and acts during the interview, I feel deeply sorry and sad about hurting Chinese people,” Stone said in the statement. “I am willing to take part in the relief work of China’s earthquake, and wholly devote myself to helping affected Chinese people.”
It means a lot that she’s acknowledged her behavior, I think, as I’m always telling my ten year-old. What more can you do but apologize and try to make amends?
Cinematical posted this Peter Jackson/Guillermo Del Toro snippet about the casting of the young Bilbo:
That doesn’t mean they aren’t hard at work trying to find the main hobbit himself. Says Del Toro: “We are writing based on [Ian Holm's performance], but other than that, we have ideas [of who could play him]. I can tell you that it’s down to a few names that we all agree upon. And that our first choice …completely, magically, we said the same name. All of us!”
Any time I try to think of any actor for anything I see Ryan Gosling. It ain’t going to be Ryan Gosling. So who could play a young Ian Holm of the popular actors today? I mean, someone who wasn’t already in the LOTR series? Cinematical thinks Martin Freedman.
That’s a good choice. Jamie Bell is also a good choice. But what about the kid from Finding Neverland? Freddie Highmore? He’s around 16. Does that make him too young to play Bilbo? There’s always Emile Hirsch. Shia? Zac?
In the flurry of last year’s hurried Oscar season, it seemed that The Painted Veil was kind of lost in the shuffle. The film seemed to have been screened too late. Many who saw it absolutely loved it. It took me a while to catch up with the film. Usually if it doesn’t have significant buzz or a motivated publicist it won’t get covered in the race. With so many blogs, so many activists, a publicist who can navigate the web these days is all-important. At any rate, not blaming the publicists for the lack of award attention on The Painted Veil. After watching the film I see now why it was a non-starter.
EW points us to this Asylum piece that takes issue with some of the things that don’t make sense in Indy 4. For my money, the three waterfalls part was where I scratched my head, not just because they never could have survived the third one but because it lacked dramatic tension. They could have done more with it. What they lost with that, though, they made up for with the great red ant sequence, the best thing about the movie, imo.
Believable: Archaeologists Can Be Total Horndogs
Sure, as a professor, Indy wears a bowtie and acts mild-mannered, but if you’re looking for a lifetime of monogamy, don’t marry someone who spends months on end at remote sites with a gaggle of worshipful students. Marion shoulda known.Unbelievable: Being Caught Without a Pencil
OK, the scene where Indy tore into a mummy with his bare hands raised an eyebrow, but I almost fell out of my seat when he turned to his sidekick Mutt and asked to borrow a knife. Not even completely incompetent archaeologists go anywhere without a multi-purpose knife and a pen and paper (and maybe even a measuring tape) to at least make a basic record of what they find. It got even worse in a later scene when the archaeologist had to borrow a freakin’ pencil. What’s Indy carrying in his shoulder bag — a change of undies and some trail mix?
Another look at The Road at the NY Times by Charles McGrath:
“What’s moving and shocking about McCarthy’s book is that it’s so believable,” Mr. Hillcoat said. “So what we wanted is a kind of heightened realism, as opposed to the ‘Mad Max’ thing, which is all about high concept and spectacle. We’re trying to avoid the clichés of apocalypse and make this more like a natural disaster.” He imagined the characters less as “Mad Max”-ian freaks outfitted in outlandish biker wear, he added, than as homeless people. They wear scavenged, ill-fitting clothing and layers of plastic bags for insulation.
The script for “The Road,” by Joe Penhall, is for the most part extremely faithful to Mr. McCarthy’s story of a father and son traveling alone through this blighted landscape and trying to keep alive the idea of goodness and civilization — the fire, they call it. The script does enlarge and develop in flashback the role of the man’s wife (played by Charlize Theron), who disappears quite early from the novel, choosing suicide rather than what she imagines will be starvation or worse. And of course the script lacks Mr. McCarthy’s heightened, almost biblical narrative style.
Lots of good stuff in the piece, including how Viggo Mortensen stayed in character all day and how they found the kid (an Australian) to play the boy. Link via FirstShowing.net.
Katie Rich at Cinemablend has compiled a Sex and City geomap (I am not entirely certain whether this is an advertorial tie-in or just an organic story, either way…) that shows their readers exactly where the gals found themselves in Manhattan at various points during the show and film. Rich gives better “real life” options to visiting the famous locales, like Sarah Jessica Parker’s own residence rather than the stoop used for Carrie Bradshaw.
The SATC Angle: The show’s production actually used about five different stoops over its lifetime, but this was the one used most frequently, and the one that’s a stop on the infamous Sex and the City bus tour. You’ve seen Carrie trip up it, flounce down it, chat with Big and other boyfriends on it. You can’t actually sit on it– the residents have put up a chain discouraging rubberneckers just like yourself– but photos are possible. Be discreet about it though– the West Village is still just about the nicest neighborhood in New York, and you don’t want to go about ruining it, now do you? I have no idea if this spot will actually be used in the movie, but I’d say odds are good. What would a Carrie outfit be if you couldn’t see her emerge from her front door wearing it?
The Better, Real-Life Option: Like I said, you can’t sit on this stoop any more, and seriously, don’t even try. Perry Street, and most of the other streets in the neighborhood, feature rows and rows of buildings with stoops where you can probably rest for a minute or two without getting into too much trouble. One spot you probably can’t sit, though: Sarah Jessica Parker’s house, just around the corner on Charles Street. Something tells me she’s got a security detail that would make fast work of you, tired feet or not.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcRiAytaD6w[/youtube]
I guess it was just idle speculation that had Sharon Stone on the top of the smart list. I interviewed her once, actually, and found her to be a very engaging conversationalist. But to come out with something like:
“I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else,” Stone said Thursday during a Cannes Film Festival red-carpet interview with Hong Kong’s Cable Entertainment News. “And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice that the bad things happen to you?”
It isn’t exactly awards related (although if she were up for an Oscar today this would throw cold water on it in a hurry) but since we have such an international readership here at Awards Daily I thought I would take this opportunity to apologize for Sharon Stone since she has not been able to do so yet (but she will, oh yes, she will). This video shows Stone, obviously having knocked back a short snort or two before the interview. Only the zealots among us would ever blame a people for a natural disaster. And to blame the Chinese people, 70,000 of whom have perished in this earthquake, for the actions of the Chinese government? Now there’s an admirable God? Uh….Logic, Ms. Stone, use Logic. I don’t care if the Dalai Lama is a “good friend” or not. Oh, and I’m sure His Holiness has changed his number by now.
On the bright side, you can’t buy this kind of publicity.
ONTD provided the link and video.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59t2CDA2JEY[/youtube]
Recount aired over the weekend and it’s possible that will be up for some Emmy love, perhaps for Kevin Spacey for actor, but especially Laura Dern as Katherine Harris, that awful Bush patsy who helped tilt the election in Bush’s favor. Dern is great in the part and never seems to be passing judgment on the woman, which is key when good people play bad people. She avoided caricature (although the above clip makes it look more like an SNL clip). Of course, this film is the democrats’ take, though they do attempt to tell the story from the other side. When the highest court in the land intervenes in an unprecedented move to block the recount, that’s when things get really ugly. We already saw Scalia defend those actions on “Sixty Minutes” so we know there is another truth out there for people who hate democrats.
ONTD posted pics (from Entertainment Weekly’s First Look and another magazine) of The Road (the bleak, unforgettable Cormac McCarthy novel) starring Viggo Mortensen. Viggo looks a lot more soulful than I imagined the character looking. And I have mixed feelings about seeing this book put to film in the first place since much of the power of it is in the simple way McCarthy describes most things and the complex way the reader imagines it. On the other hand, it’s Viggo. To quote Bob Dylan, “I’ll see him in anything so I’ll stand in line.”
