A Scene From Where The Wild Things Are

Can somebody please tell me if this is a legitimate clip or not? It... certainly... looks like it. And that certainly sounds like Benicio... and... well, it was a nice surprise to find it in my e-mail, let me tell you.

Yeah, let's face it. It is real. At the very least it was a real test. I love the suit. Spread the word.

I'm still very busy, working away on a couple of BIG film projects and teaching, teaching, teaching. I'm thinking of bringing back film ick as a weekly podcast... sound like a good idea? Where should I host it?

And... I don't know what to say about Heath Ledger. Sorry. I don't know what to say at all. But I'm obviously incredibly pleased that The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is going to be completed.

[EDIT: I'm now told this clip was a test shot in the summer of 2005 in Griffith Park. And that's not the final Max, but Griffin Armstorff who improvised everything you see him do here. Presumably, Benicio Del Toro was then given dialogue to match the improv lines, but it's also fairly clear that the basic scene outline was probably preplanned first of all. On top of everything else, I think we can expect the finished film to look even better than this does]

Hiatus

film ick is going on hiatus. We will return on Monday 29th October with... some new ideas and new ways of doing things. Most of these will be behind the scenes, so up front, it'll still be the devil you know. More or less.

And, no - I'm not going on holiday.

And once these wrinkles are ironed out, we'll be back in business 24/7. Yep - all film ick, all the time.

What Is Josh Tyler's Problem?

Josh Tyler at CinemaBlend doesn't like film ick and has plenty of bad things to say about me. I think this all started when I caught him stealing stories from this site a year or so ago.

What is his problem? Why is he saying I am 'disreputable' exactly? I don't report any more rumour rather than confirmed news than he does, for example - and I always contextualise it as rumour, I always tell you where the story comes from. And what did I say about that Southland Tales clip? That I'd been e-mailed it and I had parked it on a Sendspace page. Which is absolutely true, to the letter. Go read that story for the full picture, if you must.

He doesn't have a valid complaint here, but I'm not going to leave his sniping unchecked. I guess he just still feels bitter about being caught stealing, maybe?

The film ick Fight Back

Another experiment for you.

I'm seeting up a very simple, stripped down Blogger-powered blog called The film ick Fightback. You'll see that it's absolutely empty at the moment but, potentially, it could become film ick's ever present shadow.

If you want an account to post to it, let me know and I'll set it up for you. All you'll need is a Google or Gmail account. And if you want to design the blog, or make any changes to the format, I can probably give you that access too.

The idea is, a good handful of people will get accounts and use the the blog to post their responses to stories featured on the film ick main page. No matter what you have to say, you can say it there and know that many film ick readers will see it.

What's more, I'll include links to good Fightback pieces in Minesweepers.

There's only one rule: you must use film ick stories as your starting points and you must include a link to the original film ick story in your piece. Other than that, it's a blank slate. It's your soapbox.

I want to create some debate, some conversation, and bring together the film ick readership into something a little more community shaped.

ickBook

Sledge, enterprising as ever, has set up a film ick profile on Facebook. Be our friend. And give us hints and tips on how to best use Facebook for film ick business.

Digging Our Scene

Further to adding the Stumbleupon button, we've now added a Digg control so you can Digg the stories you read on film ick. Anything else we need to be doing that we're not?

Stumbleupon Us

As you'll see, a new film ick experiment is underway. Next to the headline of every item is a Stumbleupon icon. If you like the story, click on it - this will help other people find it too, including those who have never even heard of film ick. You end up looking cool, too, because you become their gateway to a piece of news they're going to get a kick out of.

Of course, you'll need to be a member of Stumbleupon but I dare say most of you are. It's a Web 2.0 world and this ol' blog is just living in it. I don't even have a 'proper' MySpace page, wouldn't you know.

Thanks to any of you who chose to support our stories in this way.