John Carter Vs... ?

In tribute to my friend JA who always gives good lulz with "which is hotter"... a few loincloth-offs (hmmm) between John Carter (reviewed) and his screen ancestors. You decide.

Criss-cross sci-fantasy menswear

poll by twiigs.com

 
excuse my typo there. Sean Connery. I'd fix it but then the poll would reset to zero. We can't have that and you know what I meant.

Emergency gun-manning in the desert whilst wearing only reddish loinclothes and boots!

poll by twiigs.com

Face paint and/or face blood* is a must have when calling your troops to war!

poll by twiigs.com

 *They bleed blue on Barsoom, bitches.

Hello, I Must Be Linking

/Film Chris Hemsworth on the set of Ron Howard's Rush about race car drivers
Flavorwire Fun stories from Joss Whedon's SXSW Talk: The Avengers, Buffy, TV versus film, and more.
Ultra Culture puts 2012 releases thus far through the wonderful "Bechdel Test" in which a movie must have more than 1 female character and they must talk to each other... about something other than a man). Naturally most of them fail.

My Modern Met just incredible "Star Wars Identity" posters. I wish other films would inspire the kind of enduring creativity this franchise does from people... because given the developments of the past 30 years our global worship of this franchise is just, well, embarrassing.
THR Hello I Must Be Going, a hit at Sundance starring Melanie Lynskey (yay!), is getting a theatrical release later this year.
Wow Report ouch! (NSFW) A nasty accident for a son of a movie superstar. Guess who?
Movie|Line Tom Cruise is the latest star being talked up to play opposite Beyoncé in the A Star is Born. If it weren't a Clint Eastwood picture I'd assume this movie was never happening but since it's a Clint Eastwood picture some male star is eventually going to bite before Blue Ivy is old enough to take the role from Mama.

Oh look. It's Javier Bardem on the set of Skyfall. With blonde hair? 

Villains just can't be trusted with hair dye.

And I kept forgetting to post the Genie Award winners but Awards Daily did that duty. Here's Viggo Mortensen accepting Best Supporting Actor for A Dangerous Method. Good pick, Genie. He was great in that movie. Not that greatness is surprising these days from Viggo.

Viggo. Viggo. Viggo.

Laura Linky

MovieFone records history: live blogging the midnight showing of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in 3D.
Gawker and other outlets on the shocking appearance of Macauley Culkin. That's a lot of weight lost since the Mila Kunis days. Not that that breakup had anything to do with it. Sorry. My mind wandered.
ESPN Page 2 Rising actor Michael B Jordan on his color blind casting in Chronicle and his time with Friday Night Lights
Vulture Channing Tatum. The Cameron Diaz of Men?
24 Frames celebrities bitching about Oscar snubs
Playbill Lea Michele may reprise her breakthrough role for a Spring Awakening movie

Happy Birthday to 'The Face'
My New Plaid Pants celebrates the long strange enlightening career of Laura Dern, or "The Face" as we like to call her.
Nick's Flick Picks will also be celebrating her. But which movie? I keep refreshing my screen but nothing is there yet. Hurrrrryyyyyyy

... as soon as I typed the header up top, I realized you'd be thinking of The Lovely Laura Linney™ instead so, whaddya know, Nick provides there, too.  He wrote a provocative personal review of The Laramie Project, which features one of Linney's performances he hadn't seen. She's part of that telefilm's grand mosaic of real characters as a woman who can't comprehend the meaning of "hate crime". It's a must read if you remember where you were when you heard the news about Matthew Shepard all those long years ago.

Ten Lauras We Love ...

1. The Face
2. The Lovely Laura Linney
3. Laura Elena Haring whispering "Mulholland Drive" hypnotically
4. Laura (1944)
5. "Laura" by the Scissor Sisters,
6. "Laura Holt" on Remington Steele
7. "Laura" in Pariah
8. Lara Croft (what? that counts, right?)
9. Laura "Gloria" Branigan (*sniffle)
10. ...and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Sometimes. But she can be annoying.

No I don't know why we just went there either but go with it. We believe in following trains of thoughts especially when they spill right over into the c-o-m-m-e-n-t-s

Curio: Costumes, Designed

Alexa here. As I've been on a bit of a clothes-buying binge the last few days (Pats and Eddy were a less-than-subliminal influence), I thought of John Woo for my curio post this week.  No, not that John Woo; this John is an illustrator living in Hong Kong with a bit of a thing for Star Wars and fashion.  John makes illustrations of film characters dressed in the likes of Junya Watanabe, Comme des Garcons, and Band of Outsiders.  There is a J. Peterman vibe to the illustrations that I find hilarious. (Sidenote: remember when J. Peterman had all those Titanic-inspired items? Yeah, I bought the necklace. My only excuse is I was much, much younger then.) Here are some samples; you can buy prints at John's etsy shop.

Click for more, including Edward Scissorhands and T-1000...

Click to read more ...

John Williams Heading Toward Oscar Nomination #46

John Williams © Chad Batka, New York TimesIn the long history of the Academy Awards, only one man can claim more nominations than composer John Williams. And that man, long gone, is now less a man and rather more like a symbol, a legend, an industry, a way of life. 

John Williams never opened a theme park and his name is decidedly less distinctive that "Walt Disney" but he's also inextricably embedded in our popular culture. In a very literal way John Williams has scored our collective dreams and adventures for over a half century now. Though the movies of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are hardly his only playground in terms of beloved movies, they're probably the scores that people think of first. (The fan tribute video below provides a thorough overview of just that.)

After an unusually long break from features the much celebrated composer is now back at work. He's got three new Spielberg movies on the way (The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln) and he could be celebrating his 80th birthday in February as a 46 or even 47 time Oscar nominee. Take that, Streep, with your piddly 16 nominations!

Tribute to John Williams, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas from whoispablo on Vimeo.

Do you think John Williams (45 nominations / 5 wins) will finally break his nomination tie with Oscar's other most awarded composer Alfred Newman (45 nominations / 9 wins) this January. Either War Horse or TinTin could do it. But will it be both? 

Related
Oscar Predictions - Aural Categories
Recent New York Times Interview
Awards Daily posted pieces from the Tintin score