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Tuesday, January 28, 2014 at 3:00PM AV Club Sad Keanu Doll
Empire JJ Abrams on the secrecy of his Star Wars sequels
Empire 25 different covers celebrating X-Men: Days of Future Past. I hate the cinematic interpretation of Quicksilver already... but they never do right by my favorite characters (see also Storm). And I didn't realize Sunspot was in this but they cast a Mexican actor to play an African-Brazilian?
Playbill Brokeback Mountain: The Opera debuts today in Madrid
US Magazine Charlize Theron & Sean Penn holding hands. The rumors are true. So that's a good excuse to relisten to...
That Film Experience Podcast in which we fantasized about same-year Oscar couples
Variety The Great Gatsby sweeps the technical prizes at the first half of the Australian Oscars. They announce the headline categories Thursday
Guardian Johnny Depp receiving an award from the Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild
Post Script Sundance Sales
Ah, Sundance. My wrap up index post is coming late tonight but I enjoyed reading Vulture's takeaways and loved talking up the Sundance favorites with Guy Lodge on the podcast. I was also reading this piece about the non-spectular but steady sales at Sundance and a list of titles from the festival which now have distributors via Sound on Sight and I found both frustrating. I don't know if the latter list is 100% accurate (it's tough to keep track and did they ignore pre-sold films? If you know of a 100% complete list let me know) but it's frustrating. Only 20 deals were made? So naturally the great majority of films didn't sell. Some of them have easily saleable elements -- like oh, Anne Hathaway! --and in some cases are much stronger than some on the films that sold. I'm aware that in this day and age of DIY distribution, VOD, and [insert latest trend here] not selling to a major distributor is not a death knell, just as being picked up is not always a godsend (some films that have distribution curiously never make it to screens or arrive years later when the buzz has gone ice cold). The three films I most wish had been picked up are:
- Blind -Norwegian films rarely make a dent at the arthouse but it's so good
- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night -Glenn loved it and it sounds like a must-see curio
- Appropriate Behavior -in the comic subgenre of sexually impulsive twentysomething New York lady in a tailspin it's superior to Obvious Child which did sell.
Exit Music
Here's Vin Diesel dancing to Katy Perry (!) and grabbing his crotch a lot. Two things that are worth doing when one tops
the dvd charts.
He would be in big trouble if he was asked to "lipsynch for your life"... but wouldn't he be an awesome guest on RuPaul's Drag Race? Make it happen, Ru.
Reader Comments (17)
Re: Smackdown '03
http://thedissolve.com/features/performance-review/375-renee-zellweger-delivered-an-acclaimed-divisive-pe/
The Empire X-Men article links to the Brokeback Mountain article.
On the Empire X-Men: Days of Future Past movie:
Poster 1: Kinda cool, but it's hard to mess up giant bleeping robots.
Poster 2: Your 14-year-old and out of date aesthetic "approach" is showing.
Poster 3: Oh look, it's a geriatric version of Gizmo from the Teen Titans cartoon.
Poster 4: Stryker, again? You're REALLY desperate to relive old glories, aren't you? Couldn't you have had this as one of the last poster reveals?
Poster 5: Dinklage does look cool. It's probably better he fought to be in a superhero movie from the adapters that AREN'T a scorched earth persona non grata.
Poster 6: Can someone get JLaw some coffee?
Poster 7: You can't say he doesn't kinda look like a young Kelsey Grammer.
Poster 8: Your 14-year-old and out of date aesthetic "approach" is REALLY showing.
Poster 9: Fassbender looks into it and engaged at least.
Poster 10: Oh, crap, young Professor X just watched Traffic. Everybody run! Who knows what a psychic with a headache is capable of!?
Poster 11: Hugh Jackman, he's still holding on.
Poster 12: Bryan Singer, wants you to still remember he did The Usual Suspects.
Poster 13: Is that really supposed to evoke the classic blue and yellow look? Because, it's not working.
Poster 14: And it's gonna be a long, long ti...oh, wait, wrong Star Trek alumnus.
Poster 15: Ian McKellan. Still awesome.
Poster 16: Halle Berry is still Storm? Even though she was NEVER good and they could use the time travel shenanigans to explain a recasting?
Poster 17: Annnnnnd she's been cut. This was a stupid choice to reveal.
Poster 18: I was wrong, this movie's aesthetic style isn't 14 years old, it's 22 years old.
Poster 19: She looks like she's impersonating the look Steve Martin gave to communicate that he's simultaneously brimming with self confidence and yet completely lost in his first stab at Jacques Clouseau.
Poster 20: I've already said my piece.
Poster 21: FINE. Something with a brighter shade of green, people. I get comic book outfits are "too skimpy" on a lot of female characters, but this unified style makes characters blend together.
Poster 22: Imagine what it would look like if you cut off the character's head. You MIGHT be able to identify gender, but you wouldn't be able to identify anything else.
Poster 23: Duuuuuuuuuude! Big guns are totally a superpower! (sorry, but I just couldn't help the 90s Kid pop in joke.)
Poster 24: Scowling. Exactly what people want from a superhero adaptation these days.
Poster 25: Is that from the future or the DC Cinematic Trainwreck's Krypton?
Happy Christmas is listed as having distribution in that piece. Joe Swanberg has to be big enough, in the indie sense, to get his films distributed by now.
Joe Swanberg indeed told me (when I accosted him at a bus stop) that HAPPY CHRISTMAS was sold before the festival.
Oh my God, okay...so I totally didn't catch that there was another line of text there. All I read was:
"Here's Vin Diesel dancing to Katy Perry (!) and grabbing his crotch a lot. Two things that are worth doing when one tops..."
I was about to scream "Nathaniel" and clutch the proverbial pearls in scandalized horror. Got it. When one tops...the DVD charts. I'm with you now.
"Blind" sounds good; I hope I get to see it. Scandinavian film feels as though it's having a renaissance, but it never really went away. I guess it's the Trier factor. For me, more Joachim than Lars.
John T -- fixed.
The Pretentious - haha
Glenn -oops. i shall fix
I don't think I've seen Sean Penn smile like that. I would too if I was with Charlize Theron, which is high praise since I like guys.
I think JJ Abrams whole need for the magic box or whatever secrets he has in production is one of the worst trends of blockbusters/TV. Often it is unnecessary, such as the alien design in Super 8 (contrast to the superior Attack the Block that never hid its creatures in the marketing) or that Cumberbatch was playing Khan. It's actually one of the negative attributes that sprung to mind immediately after he was named director of Star Wars. Disney, owner of so many franchises and the same people who signed off on showing Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier in costume on a magazine cover, is going to let him play big secrets. Many people know the infinite possibilities of a new Star Wars universe so he has that advantage but I remain a skeptic in how he moves this franchise. I still thought
Was Vin Diesel auditioning for "Reddick the Musical"?
Vin Diesel doing a rendition of Queen Beyonce's ultra sexy Grammy performance of "Drunken Love" is the appropriate caption. I loved it!
Vin Diesel doing a rendition of Queen BEYONCE's ultra sexy Grammy performance of "Drunk in Love" would be the appropriate caption. I loved it!
The Pretentious Know It All: I read that Vin Diesel caption the same way. Ha.
Nathaniel, I thought you might find this interesting: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/28/american-hustle-is-overrated.html
I saw Tom Randle (at the time Thomas Randle) sing The Magic Flute in England. He was shirtless for much of the opera which was very nice I must say. BUT, this was back in the late 80s. Jack Twist shouldn't really be grandpa aged, should he? :-) But hey, I'm the same age, so it's quite nice that he has taken on the Jake Gyllenhall role!
You should give me a shout out on the next podcast. Would make my life
Vin Diesel sucks at everything.