Is there an honest mistake on the Indiana Jones IV teaser poster? Or should we take it at face value as a sneaky, perhaps confusing, clue that was meant to undermine some recent rumours?
Compare the following screen-cap from Raiders of the Lost Ark and the poster itself - clicking on either to enlarge it.
So. What do you think?
I know a couple of people either close-ish to Indiana Jones IV or very close to people very close to Indiana Jones IV but, by and large, they're not talking. And when they are talking, they are talking pretty cryptically and with strict non-disclosure terms attached. There's no other way to put it: it sucks.
But I can read between the lines, and I can tell certain things for myself, and I can make the odd educated guess and... sometimes, I can get lucky and hear something nobody knows I heard though it's typically about white goods or some such trivia.
But, honestly, compared to the sources Chud have, say, I've got nothing. Zilch. Nada.
Which makes it all the more amazing to me that I have the little crumb I'm about to offer you.
John Hurt has been playing coy about his role in the film. I think I know why. Now, it seems that Hurt is playing Abner Ravenwood, the father of Karen Allen's character - not as otherwise rumoured, Albert Einstein.
Was all of this Abner Ravenwood action in the script just a few months ago? Doesn't look like it. So, what happened? Where did he get such a decent part from?
As far as I can tell from the silly grins, non committal comments and constant hushing, Abner Ravenwood has been given all of the material originally intended for Henry Jones Sr. I'm not sure if he even existed before the contingency was cooked up to ensure the film would survive a Connery refusal.
John Hurt is, quite literally, the daddy now.
I'm going to keep asking questions, and see what else I can dig up. One of you will break... won't you? Please?
Two Beowulf pictures have turned up in a new LA Times piece. I'll pop them at the bottom of the post.
[EDIT: And now better versions have turned, up so I put them even further down. These new versions seem to show Zemeckis' framing, which was quite a thrill. Thanks to all of you who mailed them over]
The LA Times discuss the film at length, though defininetly not from the viewpoint of having seen the whole thing because it's some ways from being complete. Here's a hit-list of their intriguing tidbits (not all new news, and many of the points probably not quite true, but it is nice to see them compiled) and, sadly, it isn't all good news:
- The film is "a minimum of PG-13". Honestly, the script was definitely R-rated, so I was surprised and disappointed to hear "the producer and director purged the script of foul language, used an array of blood colors ranging from crimson to green and dreamed up gravity-defying nude scenes." Gaiman misses the swearing, and says so.
- Grendels mother's feet appear like "sharp stilettos merged with bestial hooves".
- Beowulf battles Grendel in the nude but "Beowulf's naughty bits are obfuscated by random objects in the foreground", a la Austin Powers, but not for (deliberate) laughs.
- The characters age from teenagers to septugenarians, courtesy of the CG skins on their motion captured skeletons.
- Neil Gaiman said of Crispin Glover's casting: "Then we got on the subject of Crispin. Bob said he would never work with him again because he never hit his mark and didn't understand how scenes cut together. But as he went on, you could see Bob realizing that was completely irrelevant if Crispin was in a motion-capture suit covered in dots, every move recorded."
- Oh, and mentioned here only as a curiosity, we learn that Ray Winstone's character in Indiana Jones IV is called Mac.
There's a glimpse of one shot from Indiana Jones IV in the latest video podcast. I've captured it and put it below so you can discuss its merits - or lack thereof? - in the comments. Maybe it contains clues (What are they looking at? What are they wearing? Where are they? Can you see the Parasite? Or a Regular Cherry Slusho?). Maybe you find it formally interesting. Or maybe I'm over-estimating the vigour and rigour of the Indiana Jones fanbase.
On the other hand, you could download the whole of the second Indy video podcast and see some props, members of the crew, bits of gear and comedy T-shirts.
I'm currently watching Popworld in which they are playing Mark Ronson and Lily Allen's cover of Oh My God by The Kaiser Chiefs. The video is a flagrant rip off of Who Framed Roger Rabbit but, to be frank, nowhere nearly as good. It might be designed as an homage, it could be taken as an insult.
- Jeffrey Wells quoted J J Abrams directly on the whole Cloverfield issue, but then altered his post a little. Abrams became re-identified an anonymous person in Abrams' team, and a quick find-and-replace turned all of the first person "I"s in the piece to "he"s. Sometimes with comedic effect: "he've", for example. Tee hee.
- Incidentally, Abrams cannibalised Felicity for the idea of Cloverfield. The episode Docuventary was shot in a similar style, using all of the camcorder gimmickery.
- What's more, there's a new picture on the 1-18-08 site, time stamped five minutes before the first.
- A good chunk of the Comic-Con schedule has been unveiled. Max Brooks and George Romero having a chat? A programme of Pixar shorts - no doubt to unveil the DVD? The Golden Compass piggybacking on Shoot 'Em Up? Josss Whedon with 'a few surprises'? Yes, yes, yes and yes.
- A brilliant piece on Pixar designer Jason Deamer is up at the CG Society site.
- Yahoo have a slideshow of four new Fred Claus posters. I swear I can see little Jimmy Krankie in two of them.
- There's more one-set video from Indiana Jones IV doing the rounds, plus a few spoilers and spoiler clarifications.
- According to Coca-Cola (yep), European cinemas are suffering from very high staff turnovers. Anybody want me to manage their cinema for them? Or work in their programming department? I could be persuaded.
- The Haiti film industry is booming.
And now Fergie is singing on a commerical. Eurgh.
In an interview with the New Haven Register, Frank Marshall seems to confirm that there's no CG work in Indiana Jones IV at all:
Steven is very aware of the process and we're not cheating with CG at all. It keeps the B movie feel.
What? Will this mean there's not even going to be any compositing done by computer? If so, that's a terrible idea. A computer composited image is much, much better than anything done optically. Well - certainly if you compare the best CG composite and the best optical composite.
I'm hoping this is a quote taken out of context and Marshall was referring to a specific sequence in the film. Not using the best available techniques as part of a stylistic conceit, certainly on a film that seeks to appeal to a wide audience and not alienate anybody, is the cinematic equivalent of cutting off your own nose to spite your face - and while I agree that practical effects might be the best available technique, I draw the line at compositing the images, as I said.
- The new Sony Pictures Podcast is up on YouTube. Plenty of I Know Who Killed Me footage, followed by Daddy Day Camp and, finally, Superbad. I'm holding out hope for just the one of those, I'm afraid...
- MTV have spoken to Kevin James about I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and One Nation Under Bob.
- Just to clarify: The Valkyrie crew have been banned from the Benderblock building but they are receiving plenty of other support from the German film community. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck said the film "would do more to promote Germany's image than 10 World Cup soccer championships could ever do".
- Spike Lee has been talking up his next, Miracle at St. Anna.
- Nathan Fillion may well be joining Desperate Housewives too - as Dana Delaney's husband.
- Murdoch's digital-terrestrial pay service here in the UK may come to PCs as well as set-top boxes.
- Cinematical have a first look at the new Invasion poster. It's certainly nothing special.
- Seems like Andrew Divoff is going to be in Indiana Jones IV. Perhaps. I saw the link at JoBlo.
- Douglas Pipes has been recording his score for Trick'r Treat.
- The Guardian have profiled MoviePol, an online 'virtual cinema' that will offer new distribution possibilities to unlucky filmmakers, and if we're lucky, some real gems for the audience. Fingers crossed...
Welcome to Tuesday morning, GMT and an act of Movie Minesweeping as procrastination.
- AintItCool have published a very heartening statement from George Romero. Romero who, I have to admit, was critically missing from my list of 100 directors. Shame on me.
- According to the LA Daily News quite an astonishing list of lookylikeys is being sought for Snyder's Watchmen: Nixon, Kissinger, H R Haldeman, Ted Koppel, John McLaughlin, Annie Liebovitz, Lennon and Ono, Castro, Einstein, Norman Rockwell, JFK and Jackie, Warhol, Mao Tze Tung and Larry King.
- Has an upcoming location for the Indiana Jones IV shoot been discovered? Well, it seems likely - but, er... so what? It's not a very telling detail at all.
- An alarming little piece of a Google-owned corporate blog kicked off a furore this weekend. The post criticised Michael Moore's Sicko at the same time as encouraging health care companies to buy targeted ads that would ambush Google users searching for details on the film. This was quite clearly against Google's desired reputation as a neutral information outlet - and after a whole heap of fuss, the author of the post had to issue a retraction. Her politics aside (they're obviously very different from my own) I think she's done something very bad here and a simple retraction just isn't enough. Frankly, I'd like to see her fired.
- Magnolia have revealed their launch strategies for cheap 'indie comedies' Cashback and Closing Escrow.
- Disney Animator and Director Art Stevens has died, aged 92.
- The offical Saw IV synopsis and cast list have been unveiled. I've heard rumours that Saw V is to be the last and that it has been, broadly at least, been plotted already - and in a way that will wrap up the whole shebang quite conclusively. I'm asking around and will report any findings worth sharing.
- So, Kylie Minogue is to appear in the Christmas Dr. Who and that's been all over the news here for twelve hours or so - but less high-profile was the casting of Keeley Hawes in Ashes to Ashes, the Life on Mars sequel. I gave a pretty detailed break down of the show's premise a couple of months back and it sounds from that description that Ms. Hawes will play DCI Alex Drake.
- There's a casting call out for the young girl lead in Nowhereland.
- There are more Resident Evil: Extinction pictures doing the rounds.
- Maddy Gaiman has announced a December 2008 release date for the Hellboy 2 DVD. Bless.
- We don't know for sure that The Mayor of Castro Street is to come before Superman Returns Again, but it does seem fairly likely.
- Young @ Heart played on TV here last year - now it's getting a US theatrical release. It's a documentary about a bunch of old folk singing pop songs. It wasn't very good, but I absolutely loved it.
- The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has declined Oliver Stones offer to make a doucumentary about him. The President's media advisor said "It is right that this person is considered part of the opposition in the U.S., but opposition in the US is a part of the Great Satan".
- Brian Hill is to turn this weekend's Live Earth event into a feature for Jeff Skoll's Participant Productions.
- Dana Delaney might turn up in Desperate Housewives - finally, after a string of offers stretching back before the show went into production. Previously, they wanted her for Bree but (obviously) she passed on that one... so, how about Bree's 'Conservative Republican' sister? Seems like she might bite.
- Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf will screen in 3D at IMAX venues as well as over 1000 digital screens across the US so, really, you have no excuse. Also, some posters for the film have been revealed, and they're quite striking in their way.
- Joel Siegel has passed away. A former roommate of Terry Gilliam and long time film critic, he recently became infamous for his walk-out protest during a screening of Clerks 2.
- Slate have a nice slideshow on 'the secrets of Brad Bird'.
- Penny Marsall is going back to the diamond (Is that apt slang? I don't know anything about sport at all) with a film about Effra Manley, the first woman inducted into the Baseball hall of fame. Apparently, Hilary Swank and Demi Moore are front runners for the lead.
- Liam Neeson is set to star in Richard Eyre's The Other Man opposite Juliette Binoche. Charles Wood has co-written the script with Eyre. I'm keen to see who will shoot this - Eyre has a great taste in cinematographers.
- Roland Emmerich's 10000 BC had pretty much fallen off of the radar, but MTV just picked up a blip.
- The Weinsteins have got their oar in the waters of Korean animation too, now.
- The Sun have spuriously misinterpreted Daniel Craig to suggest he's quitting Bond after the next film.
- Latino Review have Sam Raimi weighing up two options: The Grays or No Man's Land. They each feature alien invaders in some fashion or another.
- A paparazzi snap of Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf together on the Indiana Jones set has been unveiled.
- Jason O'Mara has taken the lead role in Life On Mars US.
- Kristen Bell has been snapped on the set of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, in which she stars with Russell Brand. Yes, that Russell Brand.
- The MPAA have filed law suits against two sites that help pirates do their dirty bidding.
- Jim Carrey's Sober Buddies seems to be in slightly bad taste.
- This is hilarious, and disturbing, and (almost definitely) not true : a Paris Hilton biopic is in development, to star Lindsay Lohan and with a Britney Spears soundtrack.
And I'm going to publish this now and then make moves on a second Minesweeper in a couple of minutes. I've got a pile of things to get through, but I don't want to keep this post hanging any longer.
See Spielberg, Lucas, champagne, jeeps, cars, beards, peaked caps.... and not much else. Download the first Indiana Jones IV video podcast now.
This is going to take me most of the morning, most likely. I must really love you - all of you.
- SuperHeroHype have a cast line-up photo from Iron Man, weird, posed thing that it is.
- Is there to be a woman president on the 2008 season of 24?
- Uwe Boll's Bloodrayne 2 has been denied an R rating by the MPAA. So, whatever it is, it is also more 'adult' than, say, Hostel 2.
- Thor Freudenthal is to direct family film of Lois Duncan's Hotel For Dogs from an adaptation by Jeff Lowell.
- Wes Craven is suing Pauly Shore. That's one dream team we'll never see work together then. I hope Alexander Payne and Carrot Top get to collaborate before some kind of legal entanglement wrecks my dreams there too.
- Stephen King doesn't like the idea of Captivity. Neither does he like Kubrick's The Shining. At least he gives some idea of what upset him about The Shining, whereas Captivity apparently just 'goes too far'. Oh - and he's wrong. Kubricks' film is leaps and bounds ahead of the original book.
- Len Wiseman wants to direct Wolverine. The only thing keeping pen from paper must be the wait for Die Hard 4's opening numbers.
- MTV have some Shaw Bros. clips that are probably very worth watching, including one with commentary by Quentin Tarantino - but I don't know for sure as I'm in the UK, so they won't work for me. Sigh.
- The transfer of Criterion's Berlin Alexanderplatz set has met criticism, but has been easily, and conclusively defended.
- The Princess and the Frog's story reels run to 90 minutes and have been well received. Apparently, the film has a twist ending... place your bets now.
- Mamoru Oshii's next film is to be The Sky Crawlers, adapted from Hiroshi Mori's books. The anti-war fantasy features hothoused teen soldiers sent to die in wars that exist only to entertain. Oshii promises a love story in the midst of the satire and action.
- Enchanted is being seen as the starting point for a new franchise.
- Alex Cox has turned his unprodcued Repo Man sequel script, Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday into a comic book. I saw the link at TheBeat.
- Michael Bay wasn't a Transformers fan before taking the job. Of course not - but I wonder if this has rankled some fanboys?
- Daniel Benmayor's PSP commerical is like Peter Pan meets Parkour. I foudn the link at Feed.
- Openin casting calls are being held for two youthful roles in Harry Potter 6.
- Angela Bassett will star as Brenda, a Chicago single mother, in the next Tyler Perry film, Meet the Browns.
- Amy Adams is in negotiations to take the key role in John Patrick Shanley's film of his own play, Doubt. Her character is to get caught up in a tense, angry confrontation between those played by Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
- CAA mailboy Ben Dey pitched the comedy Coma Boy to Brian Grazer, and now it's to be a film.
- Lee Hall is adapting the Children of the Lamp books for Dreamworks. They're fantastical family sagas revolving around a dynasty of genies.
- Howard Deutch is to direct Bachelor No. 2, with Kate Hudson and Dane Cook in the lead roles.
- Suzie Templeton's Peter and the Wolf nabbed the big prizes at Annecy. See her previous film, Stanley and Dog for a (reputedly far less impressive, but impressive nonetheless) taste of her stop-motion skills.
- IESB have noted that John Carter of Mars is to be live action but feature animation. That's like almost every genre film these days, surely? Shot in live action, augmented with CG?
- The Scarecrow has been snapped on the Dark Knight set. So that settles that. Apparently.
- Just to be clear: Frank Miller isn't necessarily directing Trouble is My Middle Name. TheBeat wanted to make that absolutely clear.
- The NC17 rating for Hatchet has been overturned.
- Timothy Olyphant and Xavier Gens have given a Hitman interview.
- John Krasinski seems to be up for the Fletch role. So, what about Joshua Jackson?
- Alicia Keys' Big Pita, Little Pita are to produce Catfish, the story of the woman behind the biggest strike in US history.
- Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl is now set up to be a film from the Montecito Production Co.
- The Weinsteins are coughing up for a series of English language, made-in-Hong-Kong action films. Apparently, wire work will be kept to a minimum - and I know somebody who will be pleased about that.
- Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby are adapting Cowboys and Aliens into a feature script.
- My Zinc Bed is to star Uma Thurman, Paddy Considine and Jonathan Pryce - three out of three, I'd say. Anthony Page is to direct while David Hare is writing from his own play.
- Satoshi Kon has spoken to The Washington Post. Read it.
- Indiana Jones is headed to Hawaii.
- Images of an Alien/Predator combo turned up online. Not from Aliens vs. Predator 2, as it happens, but just a fake.
- Eddie Murphy is the father of Mel Brown's baby after all. What a surprise.
- You can watch Robot Chicken's Star Wars special with video commentary now.
- The Young Ones is returning to DVD, with new bonus features.
- David Strathairn is to appear in the American Tale of Two Sisters.
And, yes, I was right, this took hours.
No, I'm not getting married today. But I am going to a wedding, and filming it too. So, I'm in a real rush - but I can't not update at all today, can I? No. So, here's a very rapid Movie Minesweeper to try and keep things relatively smoothly running.
- SuperHeroHype have the final Transformers one sheet. I was going to see the film today, but that wedding interfered. I'll survive.
- The first image of Harrison Ford in costume for the new Indiana Jones shows that his dress sense hasn't altered much.
- Morgan Freeman is to play Nelson Mandela. It was only a matter of time.
- Variety have published their 2007 list of hot screenwriters to watch. I spotted two that were, previously, actors on Buffy the Vampire Slayer but I wouldn't be surprised if you told me there were more.
- Sharon Morrill, the mastermind behind Disney's direct-to-DVD operations, has lost her job. Ostensibly, it's because of the delays and spiralling costs of Tinkerbell, but seeing as Tinkerbell seems to be the first of these projects to finally start going right, it's really because of everything else. She has done quite a bit of damage, if you ask me, and she really should have to carry the can.
- There's even more evidence that a Sex and the City movie is coming.
- A deliberately obscure and mysterious Saw IV still has turned up.
- Terence Stamp is now in Wanted too. I understand it's not a huge part (fans of the comic probably know which role I'm getting at).
- Only one witness to Cillian Murphy on the Dark Knight set? Hmmmm. I'm not saying the Scarecrow isn't in the film, just that this is no more proof of his appearance than all these dappy e-mails I've received are of Edward Nygma turning up. I'm shrugging at both, though, to be honest.
- Woody Allen and William Friedkin are to direct opera.
- Tonight, He Comes is being retitled John Hancock. Not sure about either of those. How about An Alan Smithee Movie 2?
- Apparently, James Marsters is to appear in the next series of Torchwood - presumably before knuckling down to write the script that will make him one of 2008's hot screenwriters.
- MTV have secured a much nicer version of the Where the Wild Things Are still.
- The Munchkins are getting a star on Hollywood's walk of fame. Just one star - to share. Is there some sort of height-to-star ratio that we don't know about? I'd get the man from the lollipop guild on the case, this simply can't be fair.
I've just found out the UK press screening of Transformers coincides with a Wedding I not only have to attend, I have to 'film'. Very disappointing.
Here's a small-ish Minesweeper update to take my mind off of the disappointment.
- Michael Apted has signed on to direct Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Where were those Neil Burger rumours coming from? And where did they vanish to?
- Zac Efron's debut star vehicle is Seventeen, pitched as Big in reverse and written by Bringing Down the House's Jason Filardi. Which only reminds me how much I love Big and don't like Bringing Down the House at all. Interestingly, Efron is already making weak excuses for his non-involvement in Haunted High School Musical in the mini-interview. Why can't people just be honest about their real motivations?
- The Ridley Scott/Monopoly story has been bouncing around for at least nine days. I didn't buy it then, and I don't buy it now. Though I do know exactly how it could work and... actually, I've just cracked it. A great idea for a Monopoly movie. Hmmmm.... I'll probably have forgotten it by morning, but at least I won't be so cynical about the movie now. Probably.
- Melvil Poupaud is to play a race commentator in Speed Racer.
- SlashFilm has saved our memories and imaginations the bother by putting John Lennon and Yoko Ono alongside Dane Cook and Jessica Alba.
- Jim Broadbent has confirmed his Indy IV role - a Professor at Yale. Teeny cameo? I hope not.
- Talking of that Jones boy, MTV have the first look at Lego Indy. Tee and indeed hee.
- The AV Club have spoken to Joe Dante. Read it.
- The estate of Dr. Seuss have refused to sanction the name Sam I Am for Christina Applegate's new show. The replacement? Samanth Be Good. Better.
- Paul Reubens has a role in Todd Solondz' new film. That strikes me as a perfect combination.
- This all comes from Variety: Harvey Keitel, Willem Dafoe, Bruno Ganz and Valeria Golino (three and a half out of four is pretty grand) are to star in Theo Angelopoulos' Dust of Time. Meanwhile, Susan Nettlebeck has cast Gillian Anderson and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in Helen.
- Disney aren't the only US animation house forging alliances in India. Time Warner are also up to the same trick.
- Principal photography is underway on the next Indiana Jones film, the one about the City of Gods. To celebrate, the official site has posted a video clip of Shia LaBeouf talking about his love for the series, which you can download directly. On a similar note, I thought I had a good source to check out the 'Jim Broadbent in Indiana Jones' story AintItCool ran, but so far, no reply...
- ComingSoon believe that Tim Burton is off of Ripley's Believe It or Not! and a new director is being sought for the project. This is the damage wrought by a Steve Oedekerk script, I believe. Expect the Tom Shadyac announcement soon. And I'm only half kidding.
- Freaks and Geeks writer John Francis Daley has co-written The $40,000 Man with Jonathan Goldstein, and now New Line have purchased it. The weak-sounding spoof reimagines the Six Million Dollar Man on a much lower budget. After inflation is taken into account, this is one heck of a scale-down. In fact, I'd have thought any surgery performed at that sort of cost would be life threatening.
- Michael Buckley's The Sisters Grimm books are to be films. Film one will combine books one, two and three which is likely to make for bumpy structure (and disappointing box office, if Lemony Snicket is a credible witness). The plot involves female descendants of the famous Brothers on a quest to find their missing parents.
- Brad Bird seems keen on an Incredibles sequel. That makes eight hundred and twenty nine million and one of us.
- Matt O'Neil's spec script Bull Rush has been picked up by Newmarket Films. The title is an awful pun, seeing as the film is about a hedge-fund dabbler getting involved in exciting, adrenalising games of street football.
- Eddie Izzard, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy have all joined the cast of Valkyrie. Superb.
- Todd Phillips and Jack Black are developing Man-Witch at Warners. The comedy (yeah, really - it's a comedy) revolves around a school teacher who joins a coven and finds he's the only guy. That's the Todd Phi... er, sorry Jack Black role. Silly me. Phillips, of course, is set to direct. The script should virtually write itself, but Jay Reiss is picking up the pen to help it along.
- Variety's Liz Smith is hyping Aline and Wolfe, the script about...er... Aline and Wolfe. Aline Bernstein and Tom Wolfe. She offers an 'Iris meets A Beautiful Mind' comparision. One out of two ain't great.
- In the same paragraph, she mentions Madonna directing the short Filth and Wisdom, but comments that Madge isn't acting in it. All of my info states that, actually, she is.
- Beyond Wild Hogs 2 and Old Dogs 1, what beckons Walt Becker? Mild Frogs 3? Nope - something called My Samurai about an American businessman who helps out a homeless Japanese gentlemen only for this vagrant to reveal he is the last in a long line of Samurai and pledge his eternal loyalty to the businessman. Tim Allen as the businessman?
- Tyrese Gibson seems to believe his Luke Cage engagement is coming, and fast.
- Italian State Attorneys are investigating The Da Vinci Code on the grounds that it might be proven 'religiously obscene'. Church and state, eh? What a wonderful combination.
- Silvio Berlusconi is planning to write a screenplay.
- Elijah Kelley has had talks about playing Sammy Davis Jr., and now he's talking about those talks. Just about.
- J T Petty has given a good Burrowers interview. Sounds like Faces of Death may have stalled, however.
- Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective is to get a sequel.
- John Waters has spoken out in defence of John Travolta's casting in Hairspray (as well as generally praising the film overall). Previously, Travolta had been knocked in the press, essentially for being a scientologist taking on a 'gay' role. The argument revolves around three contentions: that scientology is a homophobic religion; that prejudice on value of religion is suitable whereas on value of sexuality is not; that a drag role is a 'gay role'.
- The Gold-label full-series Twin Peaks box set seems to be on the cards for late October.
- British animators came out on top at Annecy.
- Salim and Mara Brock Akil like to keep it in the family. After collaborating on CW's Girlfriends, they've now set up a feature with the Weinsteins' condescendingly named 'urban' project sidebar, 'Our Stories Films'. The film is about a woman jilted at the altar who becomes a kind of detective to help other women ensure their partners won't be doing the dirty on them.
- As well as pimping Halo branded tat, Fox's merchandising army are also out to exploit Walden Media properties... but the Narnia films, for example, don't come under this agreement, being based at Disney.
- A sequel to The Host is on the fast track. Expect a completely different roll of credits.
- Atonement is to open the Venice fest with I'm Not There, There Will Be Blood, Cassandra's Dream, These Times, Planet Terror and Lust, Caution all looking likely to screen also.
- Antonio Banderas is eyeing a deal that will make him an animation producer.
- Annete Bening is going Broadway next spring, taking a starring role in Joanna Murray-Smith's The Female of the Species. That will make for a nice round 20 year gap in her Broadway career.
- Ashton Kutcher vehicle Father's Day is set up to go at Columbia. So far, it is only a pitch from scriptwriters Ian Deitchman and Kristin Robinson, but one day it will be a 'comedy'.
- Elijah Kelley is to star in Party Up, a comedy about teenagers going to great lengths to have a party. Hmmmm.
- Elizabeth Kostova's Vampire yarn The Historian is at last making moves towards the multiplex. Caleb Kane is to write the screenplay adaptation. The book's reputation appears to be somewhat uneven, but if Interview With the Vampire can make for a film as good as it did, there's always hope.
- Spain is to be hit by a one-day cinema strike next Monday. It looks as if the protest is aimed at a new draft law that cinema owners say has failed to take their needs into consideration.
- Grayson T. Boucher is to star in Ball Don't Lie, a drama about a teen basketball player and his tough life. The law of averages has so far kept films about teen basketball players with easy lives away from the silver screen, but sooner or later, their day will come. Losts Emili De Ravin is also to appear.
- Neil Labute has cast Patrick Wilson in Lakeview Terrace.
- Danny DeVito's next is to be No Place Like Home. He'll play a retired Fireman (really? Isn't there a minimum height mandate?) who kidnaps his wife so that his twenty-something sons will have to fend for themselves and become discouraged from living at home. If she doesn't divorce him after that I'm gonna throw popcorn at the screen. What's the odds on him getting bedbound and needing her to wait on him hand, foot and finger?
- Matt Madden and Tom Hart are re-enacting The Five Obstructions with comic strips and not short films. I found the link at The Beat.
- Two Can Play That Game is to get a sequel called... Three Can Play That Game. Saucy. Vivica A. Fox is to star and produce.
- Disney defecter Nina Jacobson now has her first Dreamworks project on the calendar. Dominion is about the human leader of the world's first robosoldier platoon. She said "It's a film that will require a real visionary director, and it's a project that has a lot of big-movie elements" - I'll swing with the 'elements' but there's a good chance she won't get anywhere near a visionary director with this one. Not a real one, anyway.
- The Occasionally Interesting Anti-Adventures of an Unnamed Girl is a) a Wizard of Oz derivative set up at Disney and b) due a name change. This title seems like a producer-grabbing tactic like Untitled Teenage Sex Comedy That Can Be Made For Under $10 Million That Most Readers Will Probably Hate But I Think You Will Love, the original name on the American Pie frontcover.
- The IESB have a deal with Doug Jones. You send them your questions, he'll answer some of them.
- Mikael Halfstrom is expecting his entire back catalogue to get American remakes.
- Shatner.
- War Inc. is only War Inc. outside of the US. In the US, it will be called Brand Hauser. Is that tantamount to calling all Americans thick? Or just many Americans? Or not at all?
- MovieWeb have spoken to Gianni Nunnari about Ronin and Silence. I'll place my chips on neither of those ever being produced.
- Rumer Willis, Bruce Willis and Mischa Barton have been cast in The Sophomore. It revolves around a sinsiter conspiracy at a Catholic school. In my experience, Catholic schools are sinsiter conspiracies, given form in stone and flesh - so this must be doubly sinister.
- Mike Myers has told The Telegraph that his Keith Moon biopic will start shooting in January.
- Four old Rko creepy-crawlers are to be remade by Evolution Entertainment.
- Robert Mark Kamen is to write the upcoming Gatchaman film.
- Nurse Laverne of Scrubs is to return as... Nurse Shirley, her twin sister. Boom boom.
- Eli Roth is taking the rest of the year to write a pile of scripts, and Cell won't shoot until next spring. At least then he'll have a series of screenplays ready to go.
- Jeff Lieberman's brilliant Blue Sunshine is returning to DVD in August but, this time, the disc will be hosted by Elvira. Why? To promote her upcoming find-a-new-goth-glamour-girl reality show.
- Spy Kid Alexa Vega has been cast in Repo! The Genetic Opera. Will it really be an opera?
- Godzilla 3D.
- A trailer for Control has turned up on YouTube.
- Al Pacino has recorded a podcast for Time in which he answers readers' questions. How Doug Jones.
- Kellogs' movie tie-in marketing may be approaching the final curtain.
- Pat Eaton-Robb tried out to be an extra in Indiana Jones 4.
- Angelina Jolie's lawyer has been blamed for the recent attempts to stifle freedom of the press around A Mighty Heart.
- The R1 US Bubba Ho-Tep DVD is being reissued, and the disc specs will remain exactly the same. However, the packaging has changed. Yep, just the packaging. Now it looks like a Vegas-era Elvis jumpsuit. Is this just a cynical ploy, or a cynical ploy that is also being used to judge potential interest in Bubba Nosferatu?
- Channel 4 are to import and screen the US sitcom Big Bang Theory.
- Blue Underground are making September 25th Argento day for DVD lovers. They'll be
