the link i live in

Animation Magazine Have you heard that Steve Jobs wanted Aaron Sorkin to write a Pixar movie? It's be more interesting if he wrote a movie about Pixar. How would his sharp sometimes cynical wit mesh with Pixar's self-promoted internal cheer as the happiest workplace on earth?
Towleroad I say a few words about Pedro Almodóvar's latest
IndieWire interviews Elena Anaya on her role in The Skin I Live In. *mild spoiler alert*
New York Times "The Formula of Melodrama" brought on by Almodóvar's gripping The Skin I Live In.
My New Plaid Pants more pics from the set of Steven Soderbergh's flesh fest Magic Mike plus JA's hilarious commentary. 

Gold Derby finds fun elected trivia about Meryl Streep's upcoming nomination for The Iron Lady (what do you mean "if") 
Awards Daily pontificates about Olivia Colman's Oscar chances for Tyrannosaur. I saw the movie much earlier this year and she is brilliant in it. 
Culture Map Austin Kristen O'Brien shares memories of George Harrison, whose back in the cultural ether (not that the Beatles ever leave it) given Martin Scorsese's documentary. Love this bit about Madonna and Shanghai Surprise (which Harrison provided music for) of all things.

On this last visit to Friar Park we met first to view footage from the film Shanghai Surprise. I joined Dad to watch the dailies with Harrison and the principal actors in the film, Madonna and Sean Penn. After the screening, we went back to Friar Park for dinner. However, before dinner was served, we gathered in the TV room so that Madonna could get Harrison’s feedback on her latest as-yet-unreleased video. It was "Live to Tell," and she shyly played it for all of us, looking earnestly to George for his approval. After the video we watched The Muppet Show, and I remember thinking it was funny, but yet perfectly natural, to be sitting here with Madonna laughing over Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog.

CBR has a list of unproduced superhero movie screenplays that might make good comic books. Though I knew that Tim Burton and Michelle Pfeiffer wanted to do a Catwoman movie after Batman Returns... I didn't realize that an actual screenplay was turned in (and rejected). Either that or I've just forgotten to block out the pain. 
Keyframe Nick, Timothy and Kevin (three of my four favorite Chicagoans) are arguing over the Chicago Festival fare in this ongoing conversation including The Kid With a Bike, Miss Bala, My Week With Marilyn, and The Artist, and Melancholia. I'm happy to see Nick appreciated Melancholia as much as I did. Where is my review? Funny you should ask. Why am I procrastinating it so? 

Finally, if you're young musical theater performer type -- I know TFE has readers of that persuasion -- you might want to consider auditioning for The Glee Project Season Two. In the past I've always been violently opposed to reality shows which cast productions of anything. Casting should not be a democracy. It should be left to the experts or the people who have to work with the people that are auditioning. I had NO intention of watching this show but I stumbled on it one day and was surprised at how interesting it was. The audience couldn't vote (yay!) and it became this behind the scenes expose (albeit heavily edited and undoubtedly self-censoring) of how show creators react to talent who would love to work with them, and what does or doesn't factor into their hiring decisions. It reminds you of how true it is that talent will only get you so far (i.e. a foot in the door) but there are so many intangibles in showbiz.

Yes, No, Maybe So: "The Avengers"

It's finally here, he says robotically. Nearly every day is Avengers day online with paparazzi shots, interviews, stills, clips, posters, and whatnot, so the trailer just means that this is a Tuesday. But we must mark the occasion. It's how we do. And if "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" are going to assemble, we'll be there for roll call.

There can be only one... CHRIS.

The movie pits the collected superheroes against Loki (Tom Hiddleston) who holds the cosmic cube that The Red Skull lost (I think? Someone get me a "previously on" clip reel) because we have to braid the individual stories of the most recent Marvel movies (Thor and Captain America) back together with the two Iron Man movies where Nick Fury (who didn't get his own movie) was collecting heroes. They're even yanking The Incredible Hulk back in to the mix though surely nobody remembers dangly story threads from ye olden times of 2008. The only thing I remember from that movie was that Edward Norton lived in the jungle and then they poisoned the air so he turned green and lept through a glass walkway until he landed on a grassy field where he fought tanks until it was rainy and time to snuggle with Liv Tyler who was married to Phil Dunphy??? And somewhere in there was Tim Roth playing with chemicals and his own body? I can't remember. I'm guessing it won't be important because they save Mark Ruffalo (Hulk #3) for that mandatory "surprise the trailer isn't over!" joke tag at the end.

YES NO MAYBE SO breakdown and the actual trailer after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Hollywood Awards 2011. Something For Everyone (& the Fanboys)

The annual pubicity stunt that is the Hollywood Film Festival Awards have been announced. The ceremony will take place on October 24th, 2011. No publicity is bad publicity so this is good news for all of the recipients, especially since in most cases they are blocking some direct competition from picking up the very same free publicity. (Not that publicity is free but... oh never mind.) Just for fun I've included the past two years of recipients in italics below this year's honor so you can gauge their general behavior (which is erratic in terms of titles of awards, number of recipients, and whether it has any reflection of general awards season hoopla).

A professional working actor for the past 23 years and a famous one for the past 16 wins "BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR" (Hee!)

Hollywood Career Achievement Award: GLENN CLOSE - Albert Nobbs
2010 -Sylvester Stallone; 2009 - 
Hollywood Actor Award: no one announced yet
2010 -Robert Duvall -Get Low; 2009: Robert DeNiro -Everybody's Fine
Hollywood Director of the Year: no one announced yet 
2010 Tom Hooper -The King's Speech; 2009 Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
Hollywood Actress Award:MICHELLE WILLIAMS - My Week with Marilyn
2010 - Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right; 2009 -Hilary Swank -Amelia 
Hollywood Supporting Actor Award: CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER - Beginners
2010- Sam Rockwell, Conviction; 2009 -Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterdss 
Hollywood Supporting Actress Award: CAREY MULLIGAN - Shame
2010- Helena Bonham-Carter, The King's Speech; 2009 -Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Hollywood Breakthrough Actor Award: JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT - 50/50
2010- Andrew Garfield, The Social Network; 2009 - Jeremy Renner The Hurt Locker; 
Hollywood Breakthrough Actress Award: JESSICA CHASTAIN - The Tree of Life; The Help; Take Shelter; Coriolanus
2010 - Mia Wasikowska; 2009-Carey Mulligan
New Hollywood Award: FELICITY JONES -  Like Crazy
*** strange note *** According to the IMDb Felicity Jones won this prize last year, too, for the same film. But there is no "New Hollywood" prize for 2010 listed on the Hollywood Film Festival Site; 2009 Gabby Sidibe, Precious
Hollywood Ensemble Cast Award: "THE HELP" CAST 
2010: "The Social Network" Cast; 2009: n/a
Hollywood Screenwriter Award: DIABLO CODY -Young Adult
2010: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network; 2009 Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber -500 Days of Summer
Hollywood Breakthrough Director Award: MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS - The Artist
2010 -n/a; 2009 -n/a
Hollywood Producer Award: LETTY ARONSON - Midnight in Paris
2010: Danny Boyle & Christian Colson 127 Hours, 2009 Ryan Cavanaugh (not sure which movie. he had several) 
Hollywood Cinematographer Award: EMMANUEL LUBEZSKI - The Tree of Life
2010 Wally Pfister -Inception; 2009 Roger Deakins -A Serious Man
Hollywood Film Composer Award: ALBERTO IGLESIAS - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
2010 Hans Zimmer -Inception;
Hollywood Editor Award: STEPHEN MIRRIONE - The Ides of March
2010 Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter -The Social Network; 2009-Dana Glauberman - Up in the Air
Hollywood Production Designer Award: JAMES J. MURAKAMI - J. Edgar
Hollywood Visual Effects Award: "TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON" - Scott Farrar
2010 Iron Man 2; 2009 -n/a
Hollywood Animation Award: "RANGO" directed by Gore Verbinski
2010: Toy Story 3; 2009 -n/a
Hollywood Comedy Award: no one announced yet 
2010 Zach Galifianakis; 2009: Bradley Cooper (they're working their way through the entire cast of The Hangover)
Hollywood Spotlight Awards: SHAILENE WOODLEY - The Descendants
2010: Mila Kunis, Milla Jovovich, Leighton Meester, and Noomi Rapace; 2009 Paul Schneider and Melanie Lynskey  

Their "Movie of the Year" prize (won by Inception last year and Star Trek the year before) you can vote on yourself since they do this in conjunction with Yahoo Movies. The nominees are...

• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Cowboys & Aliens
• Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part Two
• The Help
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
• Rango
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Super 8
• Transformers Dark of the Moon
• X-Men First Class

Movie of the Year is short for Fanboy Film of the Year since, despite the weird anomaly of The Help, they go strictly boy-appeal f/x driven blockbusters. They lean that way so hard that they're willing to toss out a big hit like Bridesmaids in order to include a movie virtually nobody likes to drive the target-audience point home (hi, Cowboys and Aliens!). 

"Link, I Am Your Father"

This doesn't need an entire post to itself but if you haven't heard you should know that SHAME, the eagerly awaited Hunger follow up from visionary Steve McQueen will open on December 2nd. That's the one that stars the naked raw talents known as Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Yay! I'd tell you that I'm seeing it this week but the press screenings at NYFF this year have been more difficult than in past years... so I plan to see it this week.

LINKS
Rope of Silicon has first pic of Russell Crowe as Superman's father in Man of Steel. I get why the capes are that muted color but it's still weird to think of SuperPeople with muted color palette costumes.
Movie|Line Awesome inimitable director/personality Werner Herzog will play the villain in the Tom Cruise vehicle One Shot. As TFE's unsung hero Michael put so well on twitter "The only thing that would make that Werner Herzog news cooler is if he's playing Werner Herzog."
Hollywood and Fine  on the shifts of star generations and how that plays into The Ides of March with Ryan Gosling vs. George Clooney. It's a smart piece though some of the claims are suspect (like DeNiro and Pacino still having great work in them...uhhhh)  
MNPP Luke Evans Seven Times 

The House Next Door Jaime N Christley is a dissenting voice on Mexico's critic's darling Miss Bala 
Frankly My Dear.... War Horse newbie Jeremy Irvine already has his follow up picture. He'll be in the umpteenth Great Expectations adaptation. This one for director Mike Newell.

Vanity Fair Johnny Depp is the new cover boy and apparently he hates being photographed (uhhhh) and he says yes to all the stupid money for his kids (Uhhhh... what kids need $300 million dollars? Isn't becoming  a hack really for your kid's kid's grandchildren at this point? $300 million for the Pirates franchise alone.) Unsolicited advice: Take a challenging role soon, maybe by a new visionary writer/director who nobody would think to bankroll without you, do it for scale and rediscover your gift. Just sayin'. 
Antagony and Ecstasy Mr Brayton, one of the best critics on the net and a twentysomething cancer survivor, reviews the twentysomething cancer comedy 50/50.

Today's Recommended Watch
The making of that infamous nippley The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo poster set to the film's score. 

DiLinkrio

© Phil NotoKeyframe a look back at the multiple Tilda Swintons of Teknolust
The Siren and Sunset Gun on Gene Tierney in Leave Her To Heaven 
World of Wonder gossiping about Will Smith and Jada Pinkett's breakup which they're denying (for now)
IndieWire has a chart of the top ten lesbian-centric box office hits: The Hours and Heavenly Creatures -- two films we like to talk about! -- bookend the chart. It's a remarkably high quality top ten all told. 

⬅ Your Nice New Outfit This is wonderful. The artist Phil Noto imagines society page coverage of superhero parties involving The Avengers and X-Men and the like allegedly shot by Ant-Man himself, Hank Pym. [P.S. If you're wondering why I always try to mention names of artists and such it's because I hate it when people don't get credit for their work. I wish the internet would respect province more... I just found out that my "Dead Wives Club" poster mockup which was satirizing Leonardo DiCaprio's career has finally taken off on tumblr and yet I wasn't credited for creating the joke or for making the poster. Sad face me.]

Zimbio Thelma & Louise has a 20th anniversary Academy screening in LA. Sadly Susan Sarandon didn't show. So it was basically Thelma & Nope, Just Thelma. This is even worse than last week when Pfeiffer wasn't at the Scarface thing.
Just Jared Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio in training on the set of The Great Gatsby.

Frankly My Dear... Speaking of Leo. He's lined up his 5th collaboration with Martin Scorsese. They'll remake The Gambler (1974) together. If you're keeping track DeNiro and Scorsese made 8 films together. DiCaprio seems determined to overthrow him in the Scorsese History.