The Link Squad

The Film Stage Gangster Squad, with its machine gun in the movie theater moment -- already revealed in the trailer --  may be delayed or reedited now in the wake of Aurora Colorado tragedy. (I figured this was coming)
i09 Lt Ellen Ripley and Child, painted. Other sci-fi women also iconized. 
Telegraph RIP Actor Simon Ward of The Tudors, Three Musketeers, Supergirl, and Young Winston fame. He was 70 years old.
Rope of Silicon is wondering about the Oscar chances of Beasts of the Southern Wild now that it's expanded well.

My New Plaid Pants Quote of the Day via The House of Kermit
Pajiba Dustin recounts his single most humiliating experience as a critic. Curse you, Taylor Lautner!
The Broadway Blog celebrates musical theater's belters: Sutton, Babs, Lupone and more
Hollywood Elsewhere has lunch with the Criterion Blurays of Rosemary's Baby and Sunday Bloody Sunday
Vanity Fair says goodbye to The Dark Knight Trilogy with a behind the scenes slideshow 
Vulture looks at the dissolution of the TomKat marriage
NPR this is sweet, actor Donald Faison (Clueless, Scrubs) on the movie he has seen a million times: The Empire Strikes Back
The Film Doctor discusses The Dark Knight Rises with a film major at Waffle House. Cheese, eggs, raisin toast, and spoilers.

P.S. Yes, yes. I did start a review myself and I hope to have it up today but I'm moving in slo-mo this week.

Mass Shooting at "The Dark Knight Rises" Midnight Show, Colorado

Woke up to terrible news about a man entering a midnight screening of the new Batman in a gas mask and rifle, threw out a cannister of hissing gass and opened fire. Horrifying news. Every time I click on a news link the number of dead rises. (Here's an interesting snapshot of how public news like this travels in real time.)

So sad that for each new gun massacre there is not a new gun control law. We never learn. 

News Update: 12 confirmed dead and 51 more injured. Suspect James Eagan Holmes surrendered to police.
Related: Christopher Nolan's statement and The Atlantic's fine essay on the matter.

Same Link Time Same Link Channel

Matt's Movies Harvey Weinstein is talking up movies he had nothing to do with and is not distributing. "Is this some sort of reverse psychology marketing strategy?"
Towleroad a filthy gay love song for Joseph Gordon-Levitt 
/Film Anthony Mackie could be up for the Falcon role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We could end up with two Hurt Locker guys in The Avengers 2

Press Play has a smart piece on the new Sigourney Weaver Clintonesque drama Political Animals.
Salon on the "adorable nihilism" of Bunheads with Sutton Foster. I keep wondering if I should write about this show. Are any of you watching? 
The Advocate on Bollywood's problem with gay characters
Cinema Styles warns us not to be alarmed by all the media pieces telling us that today's generation doesn't care about old movies.

It's Batman's World...
Interiors Film Journal analyzes the physical space of The Dark Knight's opening bank robbery. I love the concept behind this monthly journal.
Joblo compares the five actors who've put on the bat cowl to date
Hello Tailor isn't excited about The Dark Knight Rises for Catwoman-related reasons and here's why...  

Remember a few years ago when I just couldn't stomach the absolute blurb whore hysteria for The Dark Knight and posted things like this which pissed people off.

 I'm having a slightly easier time with The Dark Knight Rises (at least until I see it) partially because I'm too busy to contemplate and fully absorb the "Greatest! Movie!! Of !!! All!!!! Times!!!! [sic]" (yes, even the 'Of' gets exclamation points because... hysteria!). The huge undulating waves of excitement and attendant mob with pitchforks anger towards brave dissenters have already started again. Cheeky Eric D. Snider posted a fake negative satirical review, which was pulled before I could read it but it apparently ended by acknowledging that he hadn't seen the movie and that he was conducting a social experiment. The  fanboys aneurysms proved his shooting-fish-in-a-barrel point. RT freaked out and banned him from the site. Death threats for an authentic  negative review by Marshall Fine and both sane and über self-serious handwringing over the fake one ensued.

It's gonna get crazier. Especially once Awards Season rolls around. Steel yourself Gothamites.

The only thing I care about is Anne Hathaway's Catwoman. Bring it Hathaway. But perhaps you should steer clear of La Pfeiffer on your way to brought.

gifs via

Curio: The Dark Knight Rises, Posterized

Alexa here. It seems like anticipation for The Dark Knight Rises has been going on for years. With it has come an inevitable stream of fan poster designs that recently broke into a flood. (Riding the wave is Mondo, the indie press affiliated with Austin's Alamo Drafthouse, which recently showcased some Dark Knight Rises posters at Comic-con, including this stunner by Olly Moss.) I've been reveling in my own excitement (yes, I have my tickets already) by sifting through the multitudes to choose my favorites. The lack of strong designs featuring Hathaway's Selina Kyle has been disappointing; I'm hoping this will change once the film is released.  Here's what I've culled from the masses.

Design by Paul Shipper.

Pulp version by Shaun Watson.Click for more...

Click to read more ...

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.