All Links Day
Friday, November 1, 2013 at 12:00PM Grantland Mark Harris on 12 Years a Slave and the Best Actor race
/Film Jonas Cuaron made a short film that will be a DVD extra for Gravity. It takes place on earth during one scene in the movie.
Coming Soon The Addams Family getting a reboot. But I'm okay with this news since it's animated. If you're going to remake something, it's fine if you can do it in a new way.
Deadline Dustin Hoffman and Kathy Bates for the musical education drama Boychoir
Shortlist Sandra Bullock extends the Feuding with Streep joke from their 2009 Oscar war
Popnography Sir Ian McKellens super short gay sitcom Vicious coming to American tv, also getting second season
Controversies
The Switch has an interesting update on what's going on with copyright extension laws. I do so hope the internet finds a way to collectively fight back because the laws are ridiculous. So many things that should be in the public domain are not
The Wrap the ongoing drama over Ender's Game and the Orson Scott Card boycott. All reports, including this one, which seems thorough end up being kind of misleading. Apparently true: he has no profit participation or creative input; Not true: he will not make a dime on this. Fact: He already made those dimes, years ago when the deal was signed. I wish people would point this out instead of pretending/saying he makes no money from this movie. He makes no "new" money, sure other than the rise in book sales, but Hollywood already paid him and probably handsomely. So yes he does profit from the movie.
Halloween Hangover
I know I know. Halloween is over and as with all things people celebrate with excess you're probably a little relieved. But just in case it's your favorite holiday and you need a little hair of the dog, check out these horror-themed treats 'round the web...
Jessica Alba and friends as The Witches of Eastwick! Her best performance ever? (from her Instagram account)
Slant ranks the best "final girls"
Empire famous horror film child stars all grown up from Haley Joel Osment to Daveigh Chase
MNPP's hilarious "ways not to die" series gets a pervy Halloween Sssssss (1973) edition
Pajiba Miley Cyrus is smarter than Julianne Hough (the proof is in the costuming)
Cinema Blend chooses 9 movies that deserve to ascend into "halloween classics"
i09 the best halloween costumes from 'round the internet (I love the Peter Pan couples costume so much!)
Reader Comments (20)
The Slant link is the same as the Cinema Blend link. Just letting you know. :)
Ditto, Nat!
Cher was created simply to be imitated.
Love Stevie Wonder Woman
Nat: A full blown boycott of this film only really makes sense if Card actually negotiated for a percentage of the ticket sales. He didn't, so this makes no sense. THE BOOKS are certainly persona non grata, now, if you disagree with giving money to someone with his debatable views, but the film selling or not selling tickets won't affect his bank balance. If they didn't want the studio giving money to him, there should have been pickets outside the studio with signs reading "Buy the film rights only after his death!" and other similar statements.
Nat: And yes, I know that if people actually made those signs and did that picketing campaigns and the studio listened every time, it'd probably be 2033 or later instead of this year that we saw an actual Ender's Game movie. But that's the kind of action that would have stripped Card's pockets, not this stupid attempt at boycotting the film after the studio money has already passed hands to him.
Animated, but can it be you know, hand-drawn? Mr. Peabody and Sherman being computer-animated has made me searing mad. Granted it would an unenviable task to give somebody the job of recreated Addams' illustrations but Don Hertzfeldt cannot be the only person putting out hand-drawn animation these days. I can't accept that!
Food for thought: A film sequel to Ender's Game will positive effect Card's book sales.
I dunno, I kinda think Jessica looks more like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance in that picture.
That Mark Harris piece is a great read. I laughed out loud at his suffer-meter. And his description of Redford is right on the mark. I've always liked him as a movie star, but I never thought he should have been nominated for The Sting. This latest performance could work for the reasons Harris stated. I think the pinnacle of movie star-persona working as character narrative would be Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. And he should have won the Oscar.
The whole discussion about OSC making or not making more money over Ender's Game box office misses a huge point. He got paid for Ender's Game ONLY. Hollywood + franchises = <3, right? If EG succeeds, he will definitely make more money when he sells the rights to the godawful sequels. And this time it probably will involve the back end percentage.
I"m with Pitry. While boycotting this film won't hurt his pocket book now, it will send the message to the studios that there is no money to be made from him and that will resonate louder than any other statement.
" I've always liked him as a movie star, but I never thought he should have been nominated for The Sting."
Should've been for The Way We Were which was out that year so my opinion is that the Academy picked one performance from him in an undeniable year, which was the one in the Best Picture winner.
Where were the boycotts for Polanski's and Woody Allen's films? I guess pedophilia is not that important.
Hi CMG, ita he's much better in TWWW. And he was having one of those Greer Garson-42/Ingrid Bergman-45/William Holden-50/Humphrey Bogart-54/Julie Christie-65/Audrey Hepburn-67/Jessica Lange-82/Emma Thompson-93/Leo DiCaprio-06 years.
Is that Holland Roden from Teen Wolf in that Witches of Eastwick photo in the Sarandon role because **drooling**.
vicious is quite possibly the worst television show i have ever suffered through (admittedly, if it improved after its dreadful first episode i will never know). are you being served seems more modern than this piece of dreck
I'm proud of myself for not being able to decipher which of the four is actually Jessica Alba. (Long live the Witches of E!)
Love that piece by Mark Harris. Don't agree with him on everything in it, but it's the first critique of 12 Years A Slave that I've read that seems substantial and not just reactionary silliness. Makes me reassess my own opinion, and even better, it makes me want to go back and watch the movie again to see it with new eyes. That's why he's so great for Oscar coverage--the man cares about the movies first.
Absolutely love Mark Harris' points on 12 Years A Slave—I loved the movie, but agree that the movie didn't necessarily go very far in challenging viewpoints of comfortable white liberals. What makes racism persist isn't necessarily the malevolence of Evil People like the Paul Dano character or straight-up insane Michael Fassbender character, but normal people who casually defend the status quo or rationalize harmful, dehumanizing behavior by claiming that the intent behind it is perfectly innocuous or are completely unaware of their own behavior at all. That's why I liked the Benedict Cumberbatch character, but in general I would have liked to see fewer hammy Paul Danos and more straight-up racist whites in the North.