Tackling the Magic Kingdom

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JA from MNPP here. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times yesterday Jon Favreau opened up about why he's not doing the third Iron Man film (Nat mentioned it yesterday), and in so doing this tid-bit presented itself:

"Favreau is set to direct “Magic Kingdom,” which the 44-year-old filmmaker described as a family fantasy adventure that will tap into the vintage Disney creations that “loomed so large in the imagination” of his generation. Favreau said that [David] Fincher ... will direct the studio’s ”20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” a Jules Verne bookshelf classic that is closely associated with Disney after the landmark 1954 film and the submarine theme-park ride, and Disney confirmed that to be the case. [Guillermo] Del Toro had already been announced as director of a new “Haunted Mansion” film."

That's right - David Fincher, currently swallowing whole every critic's prize in sight for his little Facebook movie, might be making a movie about a giant squid squatting on a submarine next.

Well after his adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo that is, which he's currently in the middle of filming. What does this mean for his adaptation of the French graphic novel The Killer that he's been attached to? Or his forever-gestating Rendezvous With Rama?

And what does this mean about the Disney live-action film in general? They seem to be putting at least some of that Pirates of the Caribbean and Pixar money to good use, hiring smart people and throwing them into curious projects. (Unless it's the fourth Pirates movie we're talking about; that's just desperate.) I'm dying to know what a David Fincher 20,000 Leagues would look and feel like. Or Del Toro's take on The Haunted Mansion, sure to be bursting at the seams with fantastic beasties.

But my real question now is how long until they hire David Lynch to make a Space Mountain movie? Because that's when shit gets real.

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Link Catches Us (As We Catch Up)

The Fighter
In Contention Sports Illustrated names The Fighter "the best sports movie of the decade." I guess they're using that 2001-2010 definition. Hate that. I like to end with the 9s.
Low Resolution Speaking of The Fighter. Check out Joe Reid's awesome post "The Art of the Skank"


Cartoons
Milo oh, this is lovely. Toy Story 3 by the numbers. Tons of infographic pleasure... if thinking about how bank accounts of Pixar executives gives you pleasure that is.
The Exploding Kinetoscope FYC: Arguments for the Extermination of the Human Race. (Wow, someone hates Shrek even more than I do!)
EW Inside Movies Anne Hathaway knows her awards history. Texts Jake Gyllenhaal on his first Golden Globe nom. (Even I had forgotten that he wasn't nominated there for Brokeback)
Blog Next Door What the Disney villains teach us.

Mackie & Washington. Yay.

Randomness
Invisible Woman asks you to see Night Catches Us starring Kerry Washington and Anthony Mackie. We plan to, yes we do. Soon.
popbytes Oprah Winfrey must be stopped; Hugh Jackman injured
Salon "Why is Disney hiding the original Tron?"
Little Gold Men the Coen Bros talk to Vanity Fair about True Grit

The Social Network
Remember when everyone was writing about that movie nonstop? It's happening again. Scanners does a comparison with Carlos, another richly layered movie winning critics prizes, and Nick at Nick's Flick Picks has shared ten intriguing thoughts in two parts.The Toronto Film Critics Association just gave it another "best of the year" citation.

Year in Review
Vulture "25 Best Performances That Won't Win Oscars" from Tom Hardy (Inception) to Alexander Siddig (Cairo Time). It's a great list overall but totally spoiled by two little girls, one of whom was genuinely great in another movie this year, so why not make it that one (Yes, Mia Wasikowska's The Kids Are All Right performance is > Alice In Wonderland times 1,000,000)
Twitter "The 10 Most Powerful Tweets of 2010" from Haiti relief to Conan O'Brien half-assed
10 Best and 10 Worst from one of our favorite critics Tim Robey at the Telegraph.

Finally... 

Remember way way back (ok, only two years ago) when I invited you to the wedding of "Boobs & Abs". They've split. Yes, The Green Lantern and The Black Widow are divorcing.  Speaking of Scarlett Johannson, Jon Favreau is leaving the Iron Man franchise. Given that ScarJo's performances feel more listless than ever these last few years, how about Sofia Coppola for Iron Man 3's directors chair. Maybe the fanboys wouldn't appreciate it but at least they'd get some great shots of Black Widow's ass. Plus that f/x related scene in Coppola's Somewhere, with Stephen Dorff interminably stuck in the makeup chair, is one of the best moments in that inside Hollywood movie.

Iron Baby... and Other Babies

Have you seen this Iron Baby trailer? Kids these days. They got tech skills in diapers.



Confession: I went to see Babies last weekend while I was in Boston. My girl Amy suggested it.

Amy and me in NYC --->

We tried not to weep copiously into our popcorn bucket since we are both barren through circumstance (i.e. single or gay). Babies wasn't exactly a documentary so much as four parallel home movies without commentary other than perhaps what you're projecting on to it. I have nothing to add to the New Yorker's review which is brill. This moment David Denby singles out had us roaring:

I detected only one satirical sally: The San Francisco baby, Hattie, and her mother attend some sort of New Age group-parenting session. The mothers, raising their arms in supplication, sing a ghastly hymn to the earth, at which point Hattie heads for the door.

Boy did Hattie want out of the room! Boston audiences approved.

Our other favorite shared bit in the movie was the Japanese baby Mari's absolute hissy fit whenever she so much as looked at the pieces of a peg and hole game. So so funny... a total drama queen in training. Have any of you seen it yet? It's already one of the most successful docs ever. But maybe you'll avoid it like the plague. The Boyfriend mock screamed when the trailer played in front of a movie some months ago. Dramatically placed title cards "BABIES... ARE... COMING" will sound like a threat to the child averse.

When Amy and I exited the theater we spontaneously began quoting Holly Hunter by way of Raising Arizona.

You go right back up there and get me a toddler.
I need a baby, Hi. They got more than they can handle.
I want that baby, Hi.
[sobbing] ILOVEHIMSOMUCH

Holly Hunter is magic. The End.
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A Link is Born

Instructables build an Iron Man arc reactor of your own
SF Gate "Is this the end of Downey Jr's greatness?" interesting peace from Mick LaSalle on taking up residents in franchises.
/Film yet another shortening of the theatrical release to home viewing window. The end is nigh and...
David Poland, always in touch with the business end, responds to this FCC ruling


flick filosopher 'damn those high society film critics!' I love it when MaryAnn gets pissed off at stupid people
Just Jared with new Inception poster and stills
Only the Cinema pays tribute to the just departed cinematographer William Lubtchansky (RIP)
Cinematical Rachel Weisz on the upcoming gender bending body horror film Invisible X
MNPP gets excited 'bout the new Gregg Araki movie Kaboom

Finally, I don't know how I missed this news in April (but then again that month. argh) but A Star is Born has been reborn again. If you've never seen this grand Judy Garland musical epic, you MUST mark June 22nd on your calendar and get the Blu-Ray of the restoration (from the original negative). Sadly, though,there's still a big chunk of it missing from the 1954 chainsaw edit it got when distributors complained that the film was too long. Damn you Hollywood powers-that-be (at the time), damn you retroactively!

I love what Robert Osbourne of TCM says

"As effective as Judy Garland is singing 'The Man That Got Away' in any medium, there's nothing like seeing her singing that song three stories tall, in Technicolor."

I can only imagine. I've only seen it on DVD and it's already one of my top five favorite song performances in the history of the cinema.

Iron Men

Last week, we prepped for the summer movie season by pondering good times at the multiplex with summer playthings Tony Stark and Carrie Bradshaw (Sold Separately!). Sarah Jessica Parker will make us wait as Carrie is fashionably late; Three more weeks until she flicks her witty tongue, tosses that glorious mane, and buys several more pairs of shoes. Robert Downey Jr's billionaire weapons manufacturer, on the other hand, has already returned. With IRON MAN 2 playing to sold out crowds everywhere there's no more wondering what the summer movie season will look like.

Not that it was ever anything like a secret what Iron Man 2 would offer up. This blockbuster's shiny surface reflects Hollywood's sequel mandate back at us. Their answer is always 'more! more! more!' before anyone has asked a question.

Read the rest at Towleroad

Return and report... Did you like the movie's more more more credo? And how about Mickey Rourke's post-Wrestler turn?
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Link Reactor

Salon "Superheroes Suck" a great piece on the problematic popular genre by Matt Zoller Seitz
Atlantic "3 Things Glee Does Wrong" an excellent take on the chinks in Glee's delightful armor. Are you listening show runners? This is spot on
i09 The villain of Iron Man 2 is Tony Stark. Discuss
The Hollywood Reporter a porn biopic for Lindsay Lohan. This could either be the comeback of "yes I can act" or a very very bad move. Hard to tell


Film Freak Central "the perils of Dirk the Daring" wow. i was just thinking about this 80s cartoon videogame the other day.
The Playlist first pic of Chloe Moretz as the vampire in the misbegotten remake Let Me In
Deadline NY Kristen Wiig options Clown Girl. Sounds intriguing
fourfour 'old people getting high' a gif wall from It's Complicated
i09 production art and casting demands for John Carter of Mars

Finally, you really should read this heinous homophobic article on Newsweek about the inability of gay actors to sell straight roles. Yeah, I guess Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift and god knows how many others never gave any performances that were worth a damn. The article is mostly about today's out actors and it does them a terrible disservice. Where's the respect? Make sure to read the comments section though. The ever wonderful Kristen Chenoweth shows up to tell Newsweek what's what about her gay co-stars and gay actors in general.

Summer Diva: Tony or Carrie?

Click on the photo to go to my Summer Preview @ Towleroad...

Mr Stark and Ms Bradshaw. Summer arrives

Where I ask important questions like...

• Carrie Bradshaw or Tony Stark: Which narcissistic diva in shiny clothing are you anxious to spend time with again?
  
• Barely legal hairless teen werewolf or "Face" with a hairy bod?

Summer brings out the real deep questions, people! Answer them.
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Yes, No, Maybe So: Sex & the City & Iron Mans 2

As y'all know, I am not terribly good at simplicity. I can't just post a trailer. I gotta have an angle (charitable view) or a gimmick (uncharitable view) in order to have at it. Otherwise I fear I'll be absorbed into that Borg-like group internet mind that exists only to offer movie studios free publicity. So what to do with trailers? I used to resent them. I spent a lot of 2009 worrying about our All Foreplay/No Sex internet movie culture. 95% of movie discussions these days take place before anyone ever sees the movie in question. The discussion ends on the movie's opening weekend. Doesn't anyone wanna have sex with the movies anymore?

Speaking of Sex...

I didn't even realize this until both of these teasers premiered this past week or so but 2010's upcoming summer movie season is basically an elaborately expensive time machine designed to transport us back exactly two years to May 2008 when Tony Stark and Carrie Bradshaw played bookend egotist divas. They're both coming back to open and close the month of May again.

Which film are you salivating for?

While I blame our trailer-happy YouTube culture for this 'all foreplay' problem, I have decided to simply accept it and share and thus (hopefully) manage my expectations for new movies with a simple yes, no, maybe so.

Sex & the City 2

Yes. Sarah Jessica Parker is a babe*. She's only gotten more divalicious with age and the opening of this trailer, with the iconic Carrie Bradshaw emerging from her impossibly lux apartment building with pristine white dress and gold shades is such a money shot. Even better, SJP caps it with Carrie's trademark tongue check followed by hair toss. Love it.

*I don't even care how gay that makes me sound, haters!

No. But then there's the suggestion that we're going to spend the whole movie in the Sahara. Sometimes you do just have to get away with the girls but must you go so far? Did they learn nothing for those episodes in California? Manhattan is the fifth girl. And the best one.

Maybe So. Even if this movie is totally unnecessary I still can't wait to see the clothes*.

*I still don't care!

Yes. Robert Downey Jr & Gwyneth Paltrow had fine chemistry in the first. More Pepper, please. This kiss-off "you complete me" banter is totally endearing even though it's a little smug/ obnoxious. Kind of like RDJ as Tony Stark.
No. I'm excited that Mickey Rourke has a career again (God, the Wrestler was so good). But I don't get this busy/ugly Whiplash costume. Are those orange harem pants?
Maybe So. Metallic special effects mayhem. Entirely thrilling or too repetitive for words?

Those were my immediate responses. Yours? Do share... even if your feelings are as contradictory and carefully managed as mine.

Bonus points to whoever can accurately comment-guess how little screen time Scarlett Johansson is actually going to have as the Black Widow. You know how those superhero franchises like to load up on excellent comic book characters only to do virtually nothing with them once they show up onscreen. Care to guess? Unfortunately we won't be able to name the winner until May.

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Link Widow

Final Girl on the Sorority Row movie poster. Too funny
Noh Way on Away We Go by way of Auntie Mame. Good stuff (though I disagree that Maggie Gyllenhaal's scene is the best in the movie. If anything it's the worst scene in the movie -- though well portrayed by Gyllenhaal -- betraying the movies ridiculous and ugly superiority complex towards half of the lives it happens to glance at)
Times an article on Skin's problems finding distribution (Reminder: that's the movie wherein Sophie Okonedo is a black girl with white parents in Apartheid era South Africa)
Movies Kick Ass revisits Judy Holliday's controversial Oscar win for Born Yesterday


Forces of Geek and a zillion other blogs have posted the new Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow photos from Iron Man 2. Straight boys confuse me so much sometimes. This comment isn't about Forces of Geek (who don't comment themselves) but about the tone of the posts on a bajillion other blogs. Almost all the fanboy/moviegeek sites had previously complained that Scarjo was miscast and I very much agreed. Now, suddenly, everyone is on board because she's well... hot. How is this a revelation? Had they never seen Scarlett Johansson before?
Cinema Blend Russell Brand takes over for the Easter Bunny in I Hop? How bizarre. My first job ever was playing the Easter Bunny at the mall. And now I'm not joking. So I feel a special affinity.
Fin de Cinema more titles announced for Toronto including Kristin Scott Thomas and Sergi Lopez in Partir
Coming Soon Stephen Chow pulls out of Green Hornet. Is that movie ever going to get made?
The House Next Door has a great interview with one of the directors of Battlestar Galactica

The 13th Link

Arts and Crafts
Underwire Tim Burton gets a MoMA show
<--- IZ Reloaded A "six" puppet. Ohhhh, now I miss Battlestar Galactica. No fair.

More on Up
Filmbo has issues with it (great post title, Filmbo)
By Ken Levine a review of Up. I link to this primarily because I'm always heartened by actual movie/tv industry professionals who believe in the award worthiness of non-traditional awards material. Even if I don't personally think Up is Pixar's best (I already know I'm going to be sad about WALL•E's Best Picture snub for many years), it'd be so swell if people stopped ghettoizing animation.

Randomness
Topless Robot Mickey Rourke as Whiplash in Iron Man 2. Oooh, this is the busiest costume I've seen since the last Britney or Janet concert. Me no likey. Me no likey at all. The movie is already crowded with characters. Don't crowd us further with busy costumes!
Vulture presents the 'Top Ten Greatest Multiple Role Performances'. I hesitated to link. Their entire list is pointless because no way can any such list ignore Miranda Richardson in Spider and have credibility. So decreeth the film bitch.

Miranda Richardson in Spider -- her best work (and that's saying a lot)

Buzz Sugar Viola Davis to join the cast of The United States of Tara
Some Came Running Adam Lambert and... uh... Rex Reed? oh my
Risky Business Lance Armstrong biopic to pedal forward
Go Fug Yourselves says "mais non!" to French Elle with Scarlett Johansson
Kenneth in the (212) and MSNBC reminisce about John Travolta as Pellham opens

A Stake To Everyone's Hearts Involved!
NY Post Megan Fox in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer reboot? OK. It's now official: I hate her.

Sequel Madness

I love that Hollywood plans ahead for years and that the internet dutifully hangs on every corporate decision. There's always an internet flurry of excitement about it... as if we're all purchasing calendars for 2011,2012,2013 and circling dates. We eagerly pretend that we're planning our social calendars around it.

I barely know what I'm doing next week.

That said, I love Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies... so when the teaser poster hit today I did imagine myself lined up on May 6th two years from now, I admit. This despite my feeling that franchises should quit while they're ahead. Q: How do you top Spider-Man 2? A: You don't. You just quit and move on to another project. Even if Hollywood wants to live on a diet of superheroes alone there are still hundreds of them that are awaiting celluloid treatment.

I love superheroes as much as anyone (ok, slightly less I guess... I mean, I won't buy tickets to just anything) but sometimes I wish that Hollywood would get crazier about it and make sequels not just to blockbuster but to interesting movies of all genres.

Wouldn't you kind of like to see a sequel to that trippy indie Primer (the one with the homemade time travelling machine -- remember that)? Or check back in with Emily from The Devil Wears Prada presumably still one stomach flu away from her ideal weight? She was a scream and the film wasn't about her. Emily Blunt is a bigger star now so... why not?

I'd totally be up for a threequel to In the Mood For Love and 2046, wouldn't you? And though I'm positive it's not fashionable to say, I even think it might be cool to check back in on Juno and Paulie at some point to see how they're doing. Most good movies are better left alone but then... there's always Before Sunset to disprove the notion that return trips are unavoidably shallow retreads.

Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.

Damn that movie was great.

But maybe the obstacle to most non-franchise genre properties spawning sequels is that really good movies feel so complete as is... For instance, I feel like I know EXACTLY what happens in the imaginary Vicky Christina New York. It seems so clear to me what that summer in Barcelona did and didn't do for Rebecca Hall and Scarlet Johannson.

P.S.

Vera Drake: Jailbreak !
October 12th, 2012 at theaters everywhere.
Clear your calendars. Pass it on.

Alice's Wonderlink

Playbill the cast of Broadway's Addams Family musical adaptation is announced. Bebe Neuwirth is such a great choice for Morticia. Not happy about Gomez.
Cinematical Hedy Lamarr by way of Rachel Weisz?
Esquire First official (rave) review of The Road. Apparently they've added voiceover since I saw it.
Bad and Ugly Iron Man 2 @ Randy's Donuts
If Charlie Parker... the statuesque Julie Newmar


Pink is the New Blog Megan Fox on the High School Musical franchise. If Megan Fox were half as interesting onscreen as she is in sound bites I would be a major fan. ......Sadly, she's not.
Pixar see the latest UP -isode in beautiful quicktime. People with irrational love of chocolate (I am one of said people) will particularly enjoy. I have this weird thing with Pixar movies in that I'm never excited before they arrive but then I'm thrilled to be watching them once they do.

And finally I don't know whether to praise or diss Underwire for pointing to this trippy image generating site YoooouuuTuuube and this clip "Alice" which is all kinds of cool if you're into the general hallucinatory potential of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. You can plug other YouTube clips in too, so naturally I had to try my girls Madonna, Michelle, and Nicole. Basically this is the latest way to waste hours (literally) of your life on the internet.

Versus

Nathaniel is back. C'est moi. I need to thank JA from MNPP for filling in for me yesterday. JA is dipped in a vat of awesome. Love him. Much more from me in a few hours but for now enjoy this awesome Iron Man vs. Bruce Lee stop motion short.



Although...

If we're playing to The Film Experience base I think we need something more along the lines of "Catwoman versus Lt. Ellen Ripley". Or maybe "Carol White vs. Cathy Whitaker" --would they just stare absently at each other or have a crying jag face/off ???

Cathy: My hair. I experimented. Do you like it?

Carol: Oh god Cathy... is that hairspray?

Yes, someone make those short films! Or do I have to do everything?
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Linkigan

I'm still in Michigan and mostly offweb. But I have a bit of time to kill between obligations and I desperately need the distraction. Here are some posts I'm using to feed escapist urges.


popbytes interviews Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters.
and your little blog, too lists classics still waiting for DVD debuts.
EW's popwatch on Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man.
Reverse Shot who knew that Little Children would turn out so divisive?
IDLRZ thoughts on a bunch of October movies.
Pen15 Club on Kristin Chenowith vs. Aaron Sorkin. I coulda lived without the diss on my Chen' who IS a star of stage (at least) but I knew nothing of this story so I was mighty interested to read it.
Low Resolution Hilarious Fall Movie Preview. Plus I get name checked 5 times: "Nathaniel" "Bening freaks" "fans of Brad Pitt" "Pedro's numerous and none-too-quiet partisans" and "fans of man" --ha ha. See how many time you get mentioned!

I also whiled away some time recently watching this great nonsensical Flash series "I Love Egg" which is deeply pleasureable if you find yourself needing to stop thinking and just be amused / surprised / delighted.