Link Out Your Dead

My New Plaid Pants a funny exchange between David Cronenberg and Robert Pattinson regarding Cosmopolis' prostrate exam scene
Pajiba 7 performances that changed our minds about actors this year
Movie|Line hey girl, it's the Ryan Gosling coloring book 
Serious Film chooses his Oscar ballot for Best Actor if the awards were only once an... ever. 

Hollywood Robert Pattinson will play TE Lawrence (of Arabia) in a new movie about Gertrud Bell which will star Naomi Watts. She's really, suddenly, fighting for that Oscar again what with all these biopic roles.
Movies Now A Mary Pickford revival is on the way
Arts Beat Raiders of the Lost Ark gets a week on IMAX screens in September. Yay! That'll be fun.

Sad News About Dead Projects
/Film says that Eastern Promises 2 is probably dead. Ugh. I so needed more Viggo as Nicolai in my life. I really did. 
Empire Henry Selick, who did such an excellent job shepherding Coraline to the screen had been working on another stop motion film for Disney. They've pulled the plug. God, hadn't they seen Coraline or The Nightmare Before X-Mas? This man is an amazing talent.

Happy News About Dead Projects
Finally Fox has turned the rights to Daredevil back over to Marvel (who'd like all their characters back, thank you) after not getting it together for a reboot (Joe Carnahan had been mapping one out). Daredevil was obviously Fox's sacrificial lamb because they didn't want to give anything Fantastic Four related back and (contractual) time was running out on both properties. It's really too bad that Marvel can't get all their characters back because they're better at the superhero movie making than the other studios are. Plus, imagine the crossover possibilities. This might be shortsighted on Fox's behalf though because Daredevil is not a bad franchise concept at all. It was just that Fox did a T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E job translating it to screens, with horrible casting, horrible movie making, horrible visualization of Daredevil's radar (he's a blind superhero, remember) and horrible everything. Worse yet they sullied the property by pissing away its best story arc on a subpar movie. The Daredevil vs. Bullseye vs. Elektra arc was nothing short of classic scary exciting unnerving in Frank Miller's hands in the comic books. On screen not so much... or rather not at all. If I were in charge (lol. I'm *so* not!) I'd give up trying to reboot Daredevil as a movie but relaunch him with a TV series, part legal procedural, part organized crime drama, part superheroics.  You'd only get to Bullseye and Elektra once the series had found its voice and sure footing because you don't wanna be fucking that storyline up; it's gold.

Linkland Express

The Onion "Katie Holmes Glad She Can Finally Practice Scientology in Peace." Hee!
The Advocate has a historical interview piece on the making of the gay drama Making Love (1982) a landmark movie for Hollywood. I had NO idea that Kate Jackson was originally set to play Meryl Streep's role in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). Crazy huh?
My New Plaid Pants Gratuitous Harrison Ford. I totally forgot to celebrate Mr. Indiana Jones while the rest of the internet was doing so. Like most people who were alive during the 70s and 80s I kind of love him. JA's post has some really fun young Harrison photos. How have I never seen Frantic?
First Showing Daniel Radcliffe will star in Horns, adapted from Joe Hill's novel 

EW has a gallery of the "50 best movies you've never seen" but I've seen 20 of them so they lie! That said some of those are awfully good pictures like the two Lukas Moodyson films Together (2000) and Lilja 4Ever (2002) and the recent Fish Tank (2009). My 30 unseen do include a few I've always meant to watch.
PopWatch The Eisner Awards, aka the comic book Oscars were given out in San Diego. A big day for Marvel's blind superhero Daredevil who was always pretty great in the comics but was pretty terrible when he hit the big screen...
Battle Pug was the winner for best digital comic so that one is easy to check out.
Salon Andrew O'Hehir revisits Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, two films he had issues with, on the eve of the release of, well, you know...

Spielberg and Zanuck on the set of JAWSFinally, RIP to legendary film producer Richard D. Zanuck who died on Friday at the age of 77. I can't even remotely say that I love his filmography given that Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Alice in Wonderland (2010) -- two pictures which caused me great personal pain via their Oscar and Box Office might -- are chief among his hits. But I have to tip my hat for his efforts to champion a then unknown Steven Spielberg in the 1970s. Perhaps it was Spielberg's destiny to become the world's most popular filmmaker and no one person could have changed that. But if anyone could be thanked for getting Spielberg started beyond the man himself, it would be Zanuck. He basically launched the young filmmaker with the one two punch of Sugarland Express (1974) and mega-hit Jaws (1975), Spielberg's first two theatrical releases.

Oscar Trivia Confusion: According to the New York Times, Zanuch also holds a peculiar Oscar record. He's reportedly the only son of a Best Picture Oscar winner (his father was legendary film producer Darryl F. Zanuck) to win Best Picture himself (for Driving Miss Daisy). But according to the IMDb, Zanuck Sr. never won the Best Picture Oscar though his AMPAS track record is nothing to dismiss given that he has three Irving Thalbergs. 

Cinema de Gym: 'Daredevil'

Kurt here. For those of you just tuning in, Cinema de Gym is an experimental series in which I give my two cents on movies that play in an in-house theater at my local gym, where I'm attempting to shed "writer's pounds." Instead of seats, this screening room has treadmills and such, and plays a daily film on a loop. For the first installment, we chatted about Barry Levinson's Bandits. Today, inspired by Nathaniel's "Mutant Week," the subject is Daredevil, the 2003 handicapped-hero flick and the third big comic book movie of the Aughts (following, of course, X-Men and Spider-Man).

This is an easy movie to belittle for a whole mess of reasons. Box office clout be damned, Ben Affleck makes for an unwieldy superhero, especially since he was nowhere near his lean Town physique when this film was shot (directing just literally takes it outta ya, I suppose). That he looked a lot older than 30 at the time certainly didn't help matters, and both age and unwieldiness compounded the secondhand discomfort of that red leather suit, which, frankly, wasn't worth the poor cows' hides.

Then there was the silliness of Colin Farrell's Bullseye who, however well cast, would be one of the first of many counterproductively-comical superbaddies, saddled with meta lines like, "I want a bloody costume."

Farrell as Bullseye, Garner as Elektra

But I hardly count this among the worst of our last decade of superhero cinema, as the subsequent years would give us beauts like Jonah Hex, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and, oh yes, Elektra. Before the spinoff, I thought Jennifer Garner excelled as Daredevil's sai-wielding vigilantess, balancing sex appeal with girl-next-doorness and fitting much more nicely into her S&M gear than future hubby Ben. She certainly has this movie, not Alias, to thank for her big-screen career.

Moving on, I'm with Roger Ebert in regard to the film's visual f/x, which the uncannily prolific critic championed heartily upon the film's release. In a movie of fickle success, writer/director Mark Steven Johnson – whose own professional fickleness we'll get to in a sec – finds some handsome ways to envision the tricky nature of hero Matt Murdock's powers, which are akin to Sonar in that the blind crime fighter can "see" sound vibrations. Specifically, a scene in which Elektra stands in the rain so Matt can see her face via droplet sound waves is quite purdy, if overtly digital.

Matt Murdock. No relation to Scott Summers.The thing with Cinema de Gym is, I only see 15- to 30-minute snippets of the film in question (depending on the day's endurance level), so I ought to discuss the segment. What I saw of Daredevil was in fact a lot of down time – the slower bits in which Matt chats with his co-worker and Hollywood-prescribed best bud, played by future Iron Man helmer Jon Favreau. Matt, a lawyer, has a built-in taste for justice, but that's not all that interesting. What I liked were curious details about his handicap, like how he folds bills of different denominations in different ways, so as to feel the correct amount. I remembered that part from first viewing, and saw it again in my gym segment.

About Mark Steven Johnson, the guy's got a really odd filmography, penning a grab bag of screenplays and directing a few of them to all-over-the-map results. In the '90s, he wrote the Grumpy Old Men movies, Simon Birch and Jack Frost (the Michael Keaton weepie, not the straight-to-video slasher), then did Daredevil before writing and directing...Ghost Rider and When In Rome.

[Pause] ...whoa.

At a recent party, someone told me he felt Daredevil was the movie that shaped the superhero film as we now know it. I'm not sure about that, but it certainly seems to have been a tipping point for its director.

Conclusions?

1. Ben Affleck is wise to have not returned to comic book cinema (assuming it would have had him back).
2. If nothing else, mediocre superhero movies can lead to loving, lasting Hollywood marriages.
3. Supporting parts in superhero flicks can give actors the comic book director's bug. (Might the long-awaited Wonder Woman be helmed by Thor's Kat Dennings?)
4. I'm suddenly dying to see what Mark Steven Johnson does next, and I imagine he's open to suggestions. The floor is yours, TFE readers.

linker like me

Did you see last night's Glee "Original Song"? I always feel so melancholy at Regionals episodes because I know that means no Glee for awhile. For a show I often actively dislike on account of lazy writing, wasted opportunities and ridiculously unnecessary pandering (People loved the show before it started pandering to them! Why bend over backwards to worry about what people might like now?), sometimes the show makes it really hard for me to pretend that I don't just love it, warts and all. So many highlights in this one, from Brittany's always dependable split second deadpan "favorite song: my headband" to a rare Mercedes showcase "Hell to the No" to a gay kiss played emphatically and without apology, to the return of undergirding themes (Rachel's future completely obvious stardom versus small town limitations) to that killer joyous finale "Loser Like Me" in which the kids learn the age old oppressed minority trick of turning insults into empowering F-you pride. Anyway, loved it. I still wish that show I loved last year about small town Broadway geeks trying to find their voices would come back but the new now old Glee is still great cathartic fun when it remembers to be.

Gold Derby on Mark Wahlberg's dreams of The Fighter Mickey Ward 2. Some sound-Oscar-reasoning from Wahlberg's Fighter alter ego Mickey Ward.
Awards Daily Natural Selection (feature) and Dragonslayer (documentary) win jury hearts at SXSW
Just Jared Seann William Scott taking care of personal and health matters in treatment. Best wishes. I think he's adorable even if he has way too many consonants in his name.
Movie|Line Ewwwww. They're rebooting Daredevil now?
Playbill Kathleen Turner (nearly back on Broadway in High) will be interviewed in the Times Talk series in May. Tickets available.
Movie|Line bizarre lengthy Tarzan audition tape
Gordon and the Whale Hey, if Alessadro Nivola gets Michael Fassbender's cast offs, maybe Fassbender should say no a little more often? I love them both but Nivola has been way too neglected and I don't want Fassy to burn out.

Beatrice Dalle and Jean-Hugues Anglade in BETTY BLUE

Acidemic "Beatrice Dalle My What Big Teeth You Have." Beatrice is on my mind as I just watched this newish french flick Domain where she is typically vivid and dangerous feeling, even while simply strolling through a park or ordering a glass of wine.  Have you ever seen Betty Blue? Still one of the craziest movies ever to snag a Best Foreign Film Oscar nom.
Towleroad Remember that story about Jake Gyllenhaal being photographed in a men's room at SXSW. It's been animated. (The transformation into Jack Twist is a funny touch.)
Serious Film revisits Viggo Mortensen's Oscar worthy work in A History of Violence.