Bits for the Day

At last, as we approach its long-delayed release next month both in America and at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, comes the second trailer for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and it looks quite beautiful. Directed by Australia's Andrew Dominik following his very different Chopper and starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck (who with this and Gone, Baby, Gone is up for a good couple of months), the movie has been put through the studio wringer but emerged reportedly intact thanks to its escape to limited release on the arthouse circuit after executives saw a film more akin to Terrence Malick than the Unforgiven-style bonanza they were expecting. Pitt and Dominik reportedly dug their heels in against mass cuts and succeeded in a nice change of pace.

The film's underdog status and the Malick comparisons, plus the haunting teaser trailer released 18 months ago, have made me eager to see this, and the new trailer confirms those suspicions. Watch it just for the snapshots of Roger Deakins's stunning cinematography which offers some startlingly evocative images - no wonder he's the Coen Brothers' preferred choice. Pitt and Affleck appear to be on great form, and we get a glimpse into the dynamics and themes that the film will be tapping into, although what this film will ultimately be is still a mystery. Snippets can also be heard of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis's score, no doubt hired because of their stellar work on The Proposition, and how exciting it is to have more scoring work from them so soon.

Download a hi-def version at Movie-List (which you simply MUST if you're able) or a small in-browser version at Coming Soon courtesy of AOL, where you can also find links to the teaser trailer. The above poster, also just released, is also thanks to Coming Soon.



Lotsa great trailers for y'all (no sign of the promised Southland Tales one yet though, sadly).

- the redband trailer (ie. for 18 years and over with violence and cussin') for the Coens's No Country for Old Men, from the official site. Thanks to Film Ick for the direct download link - you'll need Shockwave Player.

- the full trailer for Hitman, the video game adaptation starring Timothy Olyphant, from IGN. It looks fairly unremarkable, but apparently the script is quite exceptional, surprisingly so for any gun-toting movie these days, especially one directed by a Luc Besson protege (Xavier Gens). And Olyphant is always good value.

- the substantial Comicon trailer for Beowulf, in super hi-res Quicktime or not-so-good Flash, once again thanks to Film Ick (from the film's official site), who dutifully provide direct download links for virtually everything. This one's actually a Redband trailer, but I don't see why since the movie's PG-13. I won't be watching this though as I want to save as much of Beowulf for the big screen as I can, even if it turns out to be crummy. But it's there for them 'oose wants it.

- the UK trailer for Ridley Scott's American Gangster with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, and it's a LOT more enticing than the American one from a couple of months ago, despite the blatant lifting of a song that Jackie Brown arguably made its own and the fairly manipulative use of choral music in the second half. And this is the first regular trailer I've seen in a long time with swearing. Interestink.... So yes, go. Hopefully this is Ridley Scott back on his A-game, and Crowe and Washington facing off should be a lot cooler this time than it was in Virtuosity. Thanks to Empire and yet again to Film Ick.



IESB is reporting that Smallville star Tom Welling will play Superman in the Justice League film - oh PLEASE. The guy makes an okay teenaged Clark Kent in a mediocre TV show, but even I'd make a better big-screen Superman than this guy. Brandon Routh didn't have a boatload of charisma, but at least he kinda sold Superman's statuesque awe. I don't believe Welling could, and he just brings too much baggage with him from the show. Plus, I really don't want to see him play the nerdy Kent persona - it'd be too painful. Perhaps the studio is in such a rush to get this thing made that they want to forgo the lengthy search to find another decent Superman that they're just going to cast the nearest existing approximation who doesn't already have a film series.

See, if IESB is on the money, the silver lining in this is that Justice League is thankfully considered an entirely separate affair to the Batman and Superman franchises - those films will continue unscathed, although like Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan ain't too happy about it, the LA Times says.

That article is actually a great examination of the pre-strike environment in Hollywood right now (with a slideshow of likely and iffy projects grouped by studio), where studios are frantically trying to get films made before June 30, 2008. Contracts with the Directors' and Screen Actors' Guild then expire and a strike may occur due to a number of factors, new home entertainment technology revenues being one of the principal ones. I've actually misreported this strike before - it's not just the Writers' Guild. Their contract ends in October, but writers will likely keep working until June so the three talent guilds can strike together for more clout, so this could be massive. The next few months should prove fascinating...



Stephen Sommers, director of the Mummy films and Van Helsing, is helming G.I. Joe. Oh yay.



Kevin Smith is directing an episode of Battlestar Galactica! That sure came out of nowhere (although he's very publicly a fan of the show. So are Robin Williams and Quentin Tarantino, by the way, who have both stopped cast members in the street to gush about the show). Any publicity from the move is only good, but he's quite the square peg in Battlestar's round hole. Not only is his style ill-suited to the show (he readily admits that he's not visually adept), but he hasn't been producing stellar work lately, as I have bitched elsewhere on this blog. Still, I'm sure they won't let him screw the show over. And if he delivers, then I'll be singing his praises.



As has been reported by a relative of Frank and Brian Herbert on the official Dunenovels.com forums for a while, legal negotiations have been going on to try and allow a new Dune film to be made! The studio has initiated the process with the estate, and while understandably few details are provided or known, much of the difficulty may lie with extricating the rights from the de Laurentiis family (if they still own them, that is, although I do recall that the mini-series came about because the producer was told in the late 90s that the movie rights were still off-limits). This is still a long way from happening, but a recent post by Byron indicates that a deal is forthcoming, if not a greenlight. A prominent director at a studio is apparently a huge fan, and given the appetite for epics, a Dune film may have a better reception today than it did, if they don't OD on the weirdness and market it as a good ol' action epic, elements of which it actually has in surprising abundance. Despite the idiosyncratic world that Herbert created, Dune is largely an archetypal, very human story.

Thing is, very few directors are attached to a studio in an entrenched capacity these days. Most move from place to place depending on the project. Could the director be Steven Spielberg, given his role in Dreamworks - recently bought by Paramount - who was instrumental in securing The Lovely Bones for the studio and insisted that Paramount restore The Godfather films so that the original negative was not lost? It could, naturally, be anyone with a multi-film deal, and I doubt Spielberg would be willing to undertake such a massive project this late in his career that he didn't originate himself - he does, after all, have original SF film Interstellar in development, with Jonathan Nolan scripting, plus the Abraham Lincoln film to get done. But who the hell knows? He may want to produce it.

Regardless, a Dune movie would have a huge uphill battle to get made, so there's no point raising a single hope yet. But as I discussed in my review of the two mini-series a while back, a new Dune movie could yield the definitive cinematic take on the book, and modern technology would help enormously.

Check out that entire forum thread for more information and implication. Thanks to Byron for sharing the information with us Dune fans.



A cool MTV video piece about comics writer Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina), with a few famous people singing the modest guy's praises as Y approaches the big screen with Disturbia's D.J. Caruso at the helm. Vaughan deserves all the praise he gets, and every bit of intelligent attention that comics get from the mainstream is very welcome.

They have a nice article on Vaughan too, where a quoted fan suggestion blew me away - as good as the very-keen Shia LeBeouf would be as Yorick, Ryan Gosling is absolutely PERFECT for the role! I was trying to think who looked like Yorick as well as could match his temperament, and Gosling certainly does. He's a more suitable age too. Rarely has an actor fit a part so well - make it happen, D.J. Caruso! Check it out - he IS Yorick.


It must be done!



Noah Forrest has an excellent preview of the choice prestige flicks coming out before the end of the year. He's right - Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood will be a must-see, without a doubt.



Ang Lee's forthcoming spy flick Lust, Caution, starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Joan Chen, has been rated NC-17 (essentially X) by the MPAA..... and Focus Features is fine with it. Say what?! Distributors usually contest the NC-17, or cut it down to an R, or release it unrated. But Focus are fine with it, which is refreshing, even though many cinemas and cinema chains will refuse to show the film due to the rating. Kudos for your conviction, James Schamus and Focus.



Carla Gugino notches up another role, taking the female lead in Jon Avnet's serial killer flick Righteous Kill, starring Pacino and De Niro. Worrying though is the addition of 50 Cent, who apparently was as bad in Get Rich or Die Tryin' as Eminem was surprisingly good in 8 Mile. Yegads...



A correction to my last Bits entry: Josh Olson and Todd McFarlane's Oz project will actually bear no relation to McFarlane's macabre and controversial range of toys. He wrote in to The Beat to make this clear.



Morgan Freeman reports that the film of Arthur C. Clarke's novel Rendezvous with Rama that he's been trying to get off the ground with David Fincher for years is still a going proposition for them, but studios still won't bite. Cerebral SF is still not a major moneymaker, after all, as sad as that is. Still, at least they continue to try.



Frank Miller's The Spirit has set a release date of January 16, 2009.



For a final bit of craziness, Christian Bale has said while promoting 3:10 to Yuma (almost certainly as a joke) that co-star Russell Crowe will cameo in The Dark Knight. Almost certainly a joke, but it's an interesting proposition rather than a ludicrous one (depending on the role), so it's not a great joke. Could it be? Probably not.

Bits for the Day

[NOTE: despite the detail in which Lost is discussed, there are NO spoilers for the third season, so read on safely. You've got about as much idea as those of us who've seen the finale about where these characters are coming from.]

- TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reports that The Wire's Lance Reddick (seen above as the rather dour Cedric Daniels) will be joining the cast of Lost next season! He'll play the recurring part of Arthur Stevens (Daniels, Stevens... trippy), an intimidating corporate recruiter, whatever that means in Lost terms. A Dharma recruiter perhaps? Regardless, casting anyone from The Wire is a decision in a show's best interest, as that group of actors is uniformly excellent. Reddick should be a good foil for Michael Emerson, if they share scenes together, although hopefully his role here will be a bit looser than that of Daniels.

Lost has been demonstrating a lot of casting savvy in the last couple of seasons, casting nearly all the women of Deadwood in supporting roles, Oz's Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Mr. Eko, stage actor Emerson as Ben/ry, and the hypnotically cool Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet. Long may it continue.

Alas though, Kristen Bell will NOT be joining Lost. Instead, she'll be on Heroes, bizarrely enough. Although I would take issue with why on earth she would pick the lesser of the two mainstream genre shows, this is a finite role of around 13 eps versus the likely open-ended Charlotte role on Lost and she's allegedly in major demand post-Veronica Mars, so a shorter role is more viable (and Hawaii is quite a move/commute).

She'll be playing Elle, a superpowered personage with ties to HRG/Noah Bennett and Peter's disappearance. Bell is a stellar addition to any cast, . She speaks to Ausiello about her Heroes role and why she turned down Lost here.

Finally, Rush Hour and X-Men 3 actor Ken Leung will join Lost in a mysterious recurring role that current Lost scoop magnet Ausiello claims is known only to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. He turned heads with a deep yet occasionally manic guest starring turn in the final season of The Sopranos, and is likewise a solid addition. It's a relief that even without the cachet it enjoyed in its first season, Lost can still attract quality actors.

Still to be cast are Charlotte and a mathematician named Russell.



- the Justice League movie is gaining rapid steam. IESB says that George Miller is locked in as the director, and that casting begins as early as next week. Here's the thing though... this isn't Justice League as a showcase for second-tier DC superheroes. Batman and Superman are front-and-centre in this movie, yet Christian Bale and Brandon Routh WON'T be playing them. Moviehole reports that although they will continue to essay those roles in their solo films (implying that a JL film is NOT cancelling out a Superman Returns sequel), the roles will be cast anew for the Miller film.

Say what?!! This is sorta like Sean Connery playing James Bond in Never Say Never Again, except these will be new actors and all the films are from the same studio, which is both less and more baffling. I'd rather they leave Bats and Supes out entirely, and of the three options, recasting them while they are still in their own film series must be the worst.

At the 3:10 to Yuma junket, Bale appears frustrated with the Justice League project, wishing that they would wait until Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is complete. He unambiguously states that he has not been approached for the film, nor is he interested. There has been speculation about whether Bale and Routh's multi-film contracts include an option for a crossover film, but Warner Bros. look to not be even bothering to exercise it.

Also, Ryan Reynolds (Blade Trinity, Smokin' Aces), speaking to MTV, seems to know more than he's letting on about the project. He was the favourite for the role of The Flash when David Goyer was attached to write and direct, and he wanted it to boot. The film has since been assigned to the hacktastic Shawn Levy (A Night at the Museum), but Warner may be looking to Reynolds again for the Justice League film, which, like Thor, is being fast-tracked for a summer 2009 release.

Expect a lot of news on this in the coming weeks. Leaving aside concerns regarding the existing films, a Justice League film could be very impressive, as long as they don't rush it. Like Thor, this could have a dazzling, mythological scope, but given how quickly the script was bashed together, we have reason for caution. I'm no DC man, but Grant Morrison's run on JLA was a conceptual hyperdrive of spectacularly inventive and staggeringly epic story. If they draw on that run, and can balance the multitude of solo-movie-worthy heroes in a satisfying fashion, then this could be great. Miller (the luckiest surname in Hollywood, BTW) is certainly a stellar director, and Reynolds would make a tremendous Flash, so fingers crossed.

[Incidentally, a Justice League movie would inevitably feature Wonder Woman, especially if it's going to the lengths of including the already cinematically-established Batman and Superman. I wonder how all this ties into the studio's rejection of Joss Whedon's take on the character...]



- Frank Miller scores again with Eva Mendes (Hitch, Ghost Rider, Training Day) joining The Spirit as the love of the hero's life, and Samuel L. Jackson confirmed as the villain. Sin City has obviously done a great deal for the man's cred.



- IGN reported a while ago Russell Crowe is allegedly being courted for the villain role in JJ Abrams's Star Trek film. Fat chance, really, but stranger things have happened. IGN is usually a lot more reliable than, say, the English tabloids. At the 3:10 to Yuma junket yesterday, Crowe was inscrutable about the proposition. Big surprise.



- director Jon Favreau reports that the Comicon Iron Man footage will soon appear online in HD quality, although some of us saw a videotaped copy on YouTube before it was promptly yanked by the studio. I normally avoid such recordings, but Iron Man wasn't a huge priority for me and I was curious to see what all the fuss that weekend was about. After that (blurry) footage, knowing that every action shot but one were achieved practically, ie. without CGI, I'm much more excited, although Robert Downey Jr. in the lead and the rest of that cast meant I was fairly keen already, really.



- occasionally Australia gets damn lucky in the DVD department, and it's a pleasure to discover that Blade Runner is one of those times. We'll not only be getting the Final Cut release on December 5, a full 13 days before the American release, but the complete 5-disc set will be available both with and sans briefcase, meaning that about $100 can be lopped off the price for those like me who don't give a crap about toys and collectible shite, whereas American fans must make do with a 4-disc set or fork out for the briefcase. Thank you Warner Home Video Australia for not dicking us around.



- Wizard of Oz "re-imaginings" are everywhere. First Gregory Maguire's witch-centric novel Wicked! and the resulting stage show, then the forthcoming Sci-Fi Channel mini-series Tin Man starring Zooey Deschanel and Alan Cumming ("a sometimes psychedelic, often twisted and always bizarre take on The Wizard of Oz", according to the IMDB), and now the in-development feature film produced by Todd McFarlane based on his rather demented Twisted World of Oz range of action figures (thanks to CHUD for the info).

McFarlane's meritless involvement (his creative record has not been stellar, or existent, over the last decade) is countered somewhat by the very talented Josh Olson (A History of Violence) writing the script. Tentatively titled Oz (although that will almost certainly change if HBO has anything to say about it), the film may, interestingly, be more of a sequel than a remake, according to Olson. Another stab at Return to Oz, perhaps? Oh, that twisted nightmare from our childhoods is a source of much joy for the nostalgic among us....



- news from ages ago that I forgot to report. Chris Mulkey (Twin Peaks's Hank Jennings) will be joining the cast of Friday Night Lights for its second season. Not sure whether it's in a regular or recurring capacity. HANK!



- the trailer (24 MB), at last, for Todd Haynes's Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There, featuring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, and Marcus Carl Franklin, all as Dylan. Fascinating.

AT LAST!!

Thank god for that - I was going mental with my not-seeing of it. No definite release date, but it will almost certainly be out in Region 1 by the end of the year.

Thanks to TVShowsonDVD.com.

Live Free or Die Hard

“Less isn’t more. More is more.” – James Cameron

That infamous statement came to mind in the final reel of Live Free or Die Hard - known by the comparatively anemic title Die Hard 4.0 outside of America - as I watched Bruce Willis do battle with an F35 fighter jet in a devastated semi-trailer while the freeway collapsed around him. In today’s era of CGI-assisted excess, I’m surprised that Cameron’s extravagant philosophy hasn’t occurred to me more often. But something in Willis’s “ordinary guy” here pulling off jaw-droppingly superhuman feats while shrugging off horrendous near-misses and wounds gave it more relevance than I’ve observed in a while. The goal of the genre-less action film today - surprisingly rare commodity though it now is – has become to tease the limits of destructive potential, both human and property, while paying less heed to whether the sequences are nail-biting or exhilarating. More has indeed become more.

The Die Hard series itself serves as an ideal case study for this. The original 1988 film – rightly hailed as an action classic – prided itself on thrusting Bruce Willis’s amiable everyman into an action scenario not unlike the many that moviegoers had been enjoying over the last decade, but with the high-concept of confining the action to a single high-rise. John McClane was a stronger conduit for our own escapism than we’d seen in a long time – even Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and Indiana Jones were too cocky and innately skilled to be relatable as well as likeable – and so the already spectacular action sequences and storyline were garnished with a sense of wonder.

Nearly twenty years later, Live Free or Die Hard bears the weight of the innovation – good and otherwise – in blockbuster filmmaking. Two sequels were offered in the interim, but neither scaled the heights of the original, especially since Willis was beginning to occupy the superhuman action man territory dominated by Stallone and Schwarzenegger (Planet Hollywood symbolised this). Although Willis never lost his natural charm, McClane became less of a neophyte as he racked up ever-grander experiences.

The fourth film sensibly acknowledges this by offering us Justin Long’s fugitive hacker Matt Farrell as a new conduit. Being a novice at risking his life, he views McClane with a befuddled awe at how he can comprehend and react effectively to the chaos thrown at them. While this helps, the film still goes to great lengths to test McClane, to the point where he can so clearly survive anything that the tension vanishes. That F35 face-off is visually impressive and laugh-out-loud outlandish, but carries no threat since we’ve already seen him negotiate a shoot-out around a four-wheel drive dangling down an elevator shaft after just having the snot kicked out of him. Although McClane bleeds and Farrell points it out, his endurance and victory are never in doubt.

But Live Free wants its cake and eats it too. It wants the spectacle but also to milk McClane’s 80s origins and current age for all they are worth. The mass-scale computer terrorism threat is a perfect counterpoint to McClane’s wilfully old-fashioned ways, and the script tips its hat to the abundance of martial arts action since the last 1995 installment by pitting Willis against some serious “kung fu shit”, which he angrily endures before shutting it down by bodyslamming Maggie Q from behind and throwing her into some shelves – old school.

The storyline is perfectly serviceable and refreshingly engaged with real possibilities. Mark Bomback and Doug Richardson retrofitted the script for the Die Hard franchise from an original by David Marconi that was based on a Wired article about the potential for a virtual terrorist attack on the US. Live Free depicts such an attack and somehow manages to place New York detective John McClane in a key position without inducing groans, which warrants respect.

McClane’s contrast with Samuel L. Jackson’s reluctant accomplice was beneficial to Die Hard with a Vengeance, but works especially well here since Long’s character represents today’s technologically-adept youth. Considering that some of the audience for this film were only toddlers when the third film came out, the inclusion pays dividends, and Long and Willis’s chemistry is fun. Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant is sufficiently cold and menacing as the architect of the grand plot, channelling a dark and driven version of Seth Bullock, but he’s no classic. The rest of the cast is nothing special, but they nonetheless deliver a far less infuriating series of performances than in director Len Wiseman’s inert Underworld series. Live Free or Die Hard is vastly superior to the disgracefully unwatchable first film in that series (I never subjected myself to the second), but they do share a lack of spirit. The fourth Die Hard entertains, but is nothing to rave about, although Willis is as effortlessly appealing as ever. He will always be one-note but has yet to be dull, and the Die Hard series can say the same.

Bits for the last several days

New reviews are coming, I promise. Look for them over the weekend. In the meantime, permit me to be a complacent arse and catch up on news. There has been a lot, after all.

- John from Cincinnati has indeed been cancelled, a mere day after its finale aired - HBO had obviously made that decision a few weeks before. Milch is clearly still in HBO's good books though - and they in his - as he's already got a new series deal set up there. His next show will be set in the 1970s and follow a Vietnam veteran who becomes a cop, based on the experiences of long-time writing colleague Bill Clark. It's curious that HBO - so reticent about making a cop show before David Simon finally convinced them to make The Wire - is plumbing that well again. I'd wager though that like Deadwood wasn't really a Western, this won't really be a cop show. Just like The Wire too, actually.

What this means for the Deadwood movies is unknown. However, cast member Jim Beaver posted the following earlier this month on alt.tv.deadwood:

"As of a couple of weeks ago, Milch was having talks with HBO about more
Deadwood, in some form or another. I don't know the result of those talks.
I talked to McShane yesterday and he says he keeps HBO constantly updated on
his schedule in order to make sure they know when he's available, and he
said Olyphant does the same thing. Ian said he'd come back "in a
heartbeat." His prediction: It would be very smart of HBO to bring it
back, but who knows?"

It's very encouraging to know that Milch is still interested, and especially that McShane and Olyphant are still passionate about doing more despite their myriad movie work. They're the two key returning players, so let's hope that their interest syncs up with their schedules.

- several new pictures from The Dark Knight leaked today via a Brazillian fan site. Allegedly screencaps from the Wizard World Chicago exclusive trailer (and some quite awkward ones at that), the pictures are fairly interesting but not particularly revealing. We get some good glimpses of Heath Ledger in action, but only footage is going to demonstrate where that performance is going.

At the panel, Gary Oldman piped up by noting that Ledger's performance is extraordinary. Oldman's not the kind of actor to give undeserved kudos, so the word is good. Ledger himself was not there, no doubt to continue to keep the Joker a mystery. Bale, Eckhart, and Christopher Nolan were though, along with writers David Goyer and Christopher Nolan. Bale reportedly received a pandemonium of applause, and the group's efforts clearly made up for their cruddy convention contributions for Begins.

Today's leak, among other things, is evidence of the quite furious hunger fans have to know more about this film. Nolan's take seems to have inspired an unusual kind of passion, even for a comic book film. Plus, Batman seems to be the coolest of the superheroes to younger adults given its darker psychological undertones and greater embrace of the gothic, the bizarre, and the grotesque. And I don't think it's any coincidence that the character has spawned several seminal comic books and graphic novels. For all of Superman's influence, his notable comics have been surprisingly few. Batman, on the other hand, has been built further on further on the strength of individual works rather than the blanket effect of his mere existence.

Anyway, enough of that. Is it me or does Christian Bale look surprisingly thin in these pictures?

- Scarlett Johansson has been cast as the femme fatale in Frank Miller's adaptation of Will Eisner's The Spirit. Combined with Samuel L. Jackson's now-confirmed participation as the villain, this has gone from an esoteric niche project from indie studio Lionsgate to a major Hollywood movie. I'm skeptical about whether the public will embrace such an old-school superhero - The Shadow and The Phantom tanked - but maybe the climate is better for such a film now.

- following their recruitment of Star Trek's George Takei in the first season, Heroes will feature Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) in a recurring role in season two.

- Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard, Underworld) will direct New Line's remake of John Carpenter's Escape from New York, starring 300's Gerard Butler.

- the LA Times has clarified the Comicon implication that Edward Norton has written the Incredible Hulk script. Marvel Films head Kevin Feige explains that writer Zak Penn was unavailable to revise his script when director Louis Leterrier felt it needed more work. Knowing this, Norton offered to do the revisions as part of his deal, no doubt to tailor it more to his sensibilities. Feige claims that Norton is a strong enough writer that he'd work with him in any case. We'll see how it turns out on screen. (The link is to Coming Soon, as LA Times requires registration unavailable outside of America. Credit has been given though, obviously).

- David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) is in talks to direct a new film version of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. Initially announced by MTV as a done deal, Gaiman later clarified on his blog that they are only discussing the project with the director. Still, not a bad choice, if 30 Days of Night ends up delivering the goods.

- and in sad Gaiman news, Stardust has failed at the box office, opening in the fourth spot and being bodyslammed by Rush Hour 3, even when that picture didn't meet expectations either. It may have legs from word of mouth, but general consensus is that Paramount botched the marketing and it didn't have a chance anyway. A real shame, as Stardust looks to be one of the gems of the summer (we have to wait until September in Australia).

I hope this doesn't jeopardise future Gaiman screen adaptations, particularly Death and Me, directed by Gaiman himself from his Death: The High Cost of Living mini-series. With Shia LaBeouf unofficially attached to the co-leading role - he's gone around the studios pitching with Gaiman - it may get greenlit regardless, we hope.

- talking of Stardust, director Matthew Vaughn has been announced as helmer of Marvel Studios' self-financed Thor movie, which has kinda come out of nowhere. Accepted wisdom is that Marvel want to get it shot before the expected Writers' Guild strike next year, with production on Thor beginning at the end of the year from a raved-about script by Mark Protosevich (the upcoming Will Smith vehicle I am Legend).

It would be a shame if, after leaving X-Men 3 because of the insanely rushed schedule, if Vaughn has to endure another one for his next Marvel project. With its vast mythological scope, Thor can't be rushed, although thankfully Protosevich's script is reportedly epic and classy according to AICN's Harry Knowles (although take that with a grain of salt, as Harry is a little unreliable in his tastes these days...)

Shortly thereafter, rumours abounded that Marvel and Vaughn are clashing over casting, with the company wanting wrestler, Blade: Trinity cast member, and frequent fanboy dream pick Triple H in the lead, according to CHUD. Vaughn is understandably reluctant, and IESB reported soon after that new Punisher Ray Stevenson's Rome co-star Kevin McKidd is up for the role. Could this be Vaughn's preferred choice (it's certainly a good one)? Or is the whole thing bollocks? Doesn't Kevin McKidd have a new drama series on next month? With Thor's reported schedule, all should become clear soon enough.

[Hee - in their script review, IESB rates Thor "a Conan the Barbarian out of a possible X-Men 2, or 7 stars out of 10". Sublime.]

- Carla Gugino (Sin City) will play Sally Jupiter, Laurie's mother, in Watchmen. Initially I balked, but then remembered that Sally has quite a few scenes at Gugino's age, so the casting makes sense.

- HBO has ordered a full first season of Alan Ball's vampire drama True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire novel series. It's another odd choice for HBO, given that vampire shows have been done a lot (and continue to be with this year's Moonlight) and they have traditionally offered more offbeat programming. But Alan Ball's name will carry a lot of sway, and it stars Anna Paquin, who I heart, so perhaps this has a shot at non-cancellation. But nothing is safe on HBO anymore.

- in a move that will surprise no-one, a Voltron movie is now in development, although it may not just be due to Transformers. Many fans very tenuously speculated that JJ Abrams' Cloverfield was in fact a Voltron movie, so perhaps this reminded suits about the property. Voltron joins Thundercats and GI Joe as 80s cartoons set for big-screen adaptations. Sigh...

- the remake onslaught continues apace: this time it's Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. However, this one looks a little bit creative. Shield writer Kurt Sutter will write and direct a modern film noir version of the story called Awaken the Dragon, about a "lone FBI agent who pursues a rogue Shaolin monk into the bloody world of underground martial arts clubs." [Thanks to Coming Soon.]

- Paul Giamatti is thankfully still keen to play Philip K. Dick in the planned biopic, made with the involvement of Dick's children. He says the script is now being written, and he would be absolutely ideal. For the record, Paul Giamatti is one of my absolute favourite actors at the moment. The guy is relatable as all get-out and picks great material.

- The Olive Branch goeth: New Line is back in discussions with Peter Jackson regarding The Hobbit, although things are obviously still far from final. Given New Line's cruddy record post-Rings and head Bob Shaye's shabby reputation in the industry, perhaps he's being pressure to mend fences with Jackson so a potential moneymaking flick isn't scuppered.

- Good God. The Pink Panther 2 not only exists, it's attracted a respectable cast. They've snagged Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina, Aishwarya Rai, and JOHN BLOODY CLEESE!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!!! JOHN, WHAT THE HELL?!!

- amazing... Jurassic Park IV, with its bizarre gun-toting dinosaur plot, is actually beginning casting from a script by The Departed's William Monahan and indie god John Sayles. Everything about this project is absolutely nuts, with Monahan and Sayles's involvement narrowly taking the prize for most nutty, if only because they came up with that batshit concept in the first place. Laura Dern is rumoured to return, but not Sam Neill.

- after Rosario Dawson was forced to bolt the role written for her in Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Jason Bateman may be in talks for the Zack role. Hopefully the sublime Bateman can restore a bit of wit and charm to Smith's work.

- Unlikely Rumour Alert: Katie Holmes may be pursuing the lead in Wonder Woman because - get this - Tom Cruise is in Germany filming Valkyrie and thus unable to muscle his way into determining her career choices. Groan... Since the project is in the next best thing to turnaround after they booted Joss Whedon, I doubt they'd be thinking about casting just yet, and certainly not a Tabloid Bullshit magnet like Katie Holmes.

- Roland Emmerich will helm a remake (but of course) of 1966 sci-fi cheeseball flick Fantastic Voyage. Wasn't it already remade as Innerspace? But hell, that was the 80s, and as The Hitcher proved, that decade has now had its remake guard rails taken away. Some sanity has prevailed as the 90s thankfully still have theirs.

- there's a rumour going around that Alex Proyas will direct the Doctor Strange movie that Marvel is quietly shopping around. I'm afraid I can't remember the source - my apologies. It does make sense though, as the talented Proyas has no projects on the horizon and was allegedly courted for the Silver Surfer, but refused to work for Fox again after his painful experiences with chief Tom Rothman on I, Robot. But Dr. Strange, if memory serves, is part of Marvel's self-financed stable, so he wouldn't have to worry about Fox or any other major studio. He's a great choice for that particular property too.

- British variant Action Man is being included in the mooted GI Joe film for maximum international interest, and IESB reports that Jason Statham is being mulled to play him, of course. This is in addition to the producers approaching Mark Wahlberg some months back for the main role. Time will tell.

- [Wow, I should read IESB more often, despite accusations that it's just a shill for Fox. They end their script review of Y: The Last Man with the following:

"I give this film a The Stand - missing Blue Oyster Cult's song "Don't Fear the Reaper" out of a possible The Stand with "Don't Fear the Reaper" with more cowbell and no John Landis cameo, or 9 stars out of 10. "

Delightful!!]

- Richard Belzer has achieved something oddly impressive by carrying his John Munch character from Homicide: Life on the Street to a total of nine television series, namely Law and Order, Law and Order: Trial by Jury, The X-Files, The Simpsons, Arrested Development, The Beat, Sesame Street, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, on which he has been a regular since the show began. Anyway, he's now adding a tenth by appearing in the fifth season of The Wire, back in the Baltimore stomping ground of Munch's first show, which was based on Wire creator David Simon's book Homicide. Full circle.

Nice an' all, but I'm shocked that Simon has agreed to this having been so dedicated to The Wire's separation from TV's frequently commercially motivated intertextuality and self-reflexivity to the point where he's made the gag reel verboten until the final season's DVD. That he would allow a character from myriad other shows to cameo on The Wire's intensively constructed, meticulous world seems baffling, and will appear very jarring even if Munch only appears for a scene. Harmless, but weird.

Whew. That's it for now. I hope you are massively enlightened and otherwise spent. Look for reviews of Inland Empire and Amazing Grace this weekend.

Bits for the Day

- there's a rumour going around that Kristen Bell is up for a regular role on Lost next season, following the cancellation of Veronica Mars. Granted, all TV Guide's Michael Ausiello knows is that the producers have her in mind, but whether they'll approach her and whether she'd accept is a different question. She'd be a tremendous asset to any show with her formidable presence and wit, but I'm skeptical as to whether she'd take on another series so soon, and a supporting part on a long-established series to boot. But if it does happen, I'd be thrilled.

- Eighteen-year-old Anton Yelchin (Road to Perdition, House of D) will be playing Chekov in the new Star Trek movie. Fans are confused as to how Chekov can be in a prequel when he only joined the crew in the second season. But come on guys, a true prequel would mean using that original series bridge set, and there's no way in hell that that's going to happen. This must be more of a retcon/reboot than people are assuming. A full-on prequel is just implausible. But then, Leonard Nimoy is back too.... It's all very confusing.

- an in-house Warner Bros. promotional document reveals that six Batman anime short films will be released on DVD prior to The Dark Knight next year, Animatrix-style. It's a sensible move and will get the Batman fanboys hot and foamy, and it's clearly worthwhile after both the Matrix sequels and The Chronicles of Riddick did likewise, and look how they turned out. Seeing Batman done in an anime style, cliched as it has become for Hollywood to anime-ise things, will be thrilling, especially since superb comic scribe Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets and a terrific Batman arc) and A History of Violence screenwriter Josh Olson are involved. Can't wait.

- Jesus, the rumour that Ridley Scott was going to make a Monopoly movie is actually true! WTF?! It appears to be just a twinkle in his eye at this point, and perhaps some good comedic mileage could be wrested from the concept, especially if the plot involves giant dogs and thimbles terrorising London.

- George Miller (Mad Max, Happy Feet) is strongly rumoured to be directing Warners' rapidly developed Justice League movie. A good choice - they've clearly learned from hiring Nolan rather than Pitof. But will it be made? The back-and-forth about this movie versus a Superman sequel is getting tiresome. Let's just decide, guys, yeah?

- in the least surprising news ever, a Warcraft movie is on the slate for 2009. Expect it to be the highest-grossing video game movie ever, by far (unless the Halo film actually gets made). I know absolutely nothing about the game and intend to keep it that way not being a gamer, but if this ends up being a genuinely decent rather than hopelessly derivative fantasy flick then it's win-win. And check out this gorgeous concept art, which you've glimpsed above.
I find the mass obsession with World of Warcraft quite fascinating based on how spectacularly uninteresting it looks and the head-crushingly derivative fantasy tropes it contains ("Duskwood", "Dreadsteeds" et al). I'm tempted into making a kneejerk reaction but will refrain since I've never played it and am in no fair position to damn it. I did enjoy Devin Faraci's description though: "This isn't a game, it's an obsessive-compulsive disorder."

- John from Cincinnati's renewal chances are looking grim. If this means that the Deadwood movies get made (HBO says it's an either/or proposition), or even a return of the series (massively unlikely as that is), then I'll be happy. But if not - and even it so - it will be sad to lose this diverting bit of strangeness, especially as it begins to coalesce as the season ends. This will mark the first time that HBO has cancelled a drama after its first season. Factoring in the cancellations of Deadwood, Rome, and Carnivale, not to mention The Comeback and Lucky Louie (although I hear they were mercy killings), HBO is looking more like a regular network every day.

- Stardust director Matthew Vaughan introduced a screening of the film via recording at famous geek haunt The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas by apologising for leaving X-Men 3 in the hands of Brett Ratner. GOLD!

- I'm fairly disheartened with Ian McShane's post-Deadwood choices. The guy's one of the very finest actors around today, yet he's appearing in the woeful looking The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (yes, that's now the full title. Hollywood needs a colonoscopy - pardon the bad joke) spouting cookie-cutter dialogue, and now he's signed on to Paul W.S. Anderson's remake of Roger Corman's Death Race with Jason Statham and Tyrese Gibson. Sure, Joan Allen's in it too, but she doesn't quite tip it into respectable territory. Instead, her joining adds more fuel to the WTF fire. Come on Ian, you could be doing some really solid dramas with the rep you have. Well, unless he's less well-liked in the industry than his acclaim suggests. Who knows. Just make sure you're back for the Deadwood movies.

- JJ Abrams pal Tom Cruise may cameo in Star Trek as Captain Christopher Pike. Makes sense, looks kinda like him. Will it, won't it? Who knows. Could, couldn't, anything's possible. Just so y'all know.

- DID YOU KNOW: Gary Oldman was offered the role of the big villain in the seventh season of 24? Oldman naturally turned it down. Even if the show was on a critical high it'd still be implausible given his mainstream resuscitation with two big franchises, but after the alleged bellyflop that was season 6, they were nuts to even try.

And I am very pleased to report that I'll be seeing David Lynch's new film, Inland Empire, this Sunday thanks to the Brisbane International Film Festival. Although it was released in the US in December last year, it won't be released in Australia properly until the end of this year. It'll be glorious to see a new Lynch freakout with a full cinema of fellow neophytes. I've heard it likened to the final act of Mulholland Drive stretched out to three hours. I predict a restless sleep on Sunday night... Look for a review early next week.

The Simpsons Movie

No current TV show’s decline has been more disheartening than that of The Simpsons. After the giddy heights of a solid eight years of nigh-flawless comedy, Matt Groening’s seminal creation gradually disappeared into itself, constantly feeding off its own freshness until it became a doddering, erratic, tuneless mess. Every episode became a race to the finish line, with actors phoning in rapidly paced lines with no enthusiasm, which was hardly surprising given that the jokes had been largely reduced to grunting noises and pointless asides. The show would continue to take potshots at culture and politics, but never made any points that the audience hadn’t observed long ago. Although the show’s writers happily proclaimed that the show was as good as it ever was, the lights had clearly gone down on the great comedy of the 1990s.

A Simpsons movie should logically have come during that critical and cultural peak, but to their credit, the writers waited until they could give it the attention it required. Despite this commitment and the return of many of the original writers, such as the great George Meyer and John Swartzwelder, I had no excitement for the Simpsons’ big-screen debut. The plot was kept secret until opening, and there were no early reviews to whet or kill the appetite. Given their very public delusions about the show’s evergreen nature, I suspected that the writers had merely churned out a bigger-scale version of their weekly disappointments.

Then I was sitting in the cinema starting to laugh. A lot. Perhaps the amusement was amplified by shock at its existence, but there was still little doubt: The Simpsons Movie is absolutely a return to the show’s glory years, a miraculous recapturing of what once made the show a masterpiece. It’s not perfect, with some lazy writing still sneaking in, but this movie, ironically enough, is largely the TV show that so many of us used to love.

In case the plot hasn’t been revealed to you since the release, I won’t unfurl it here. However, the stock rationale that the plot isn’t important is refreshingly unnecessary. One of the many surprising things about The Simpsons Movie is that it is actually an honest-to-God movie, with a script committed to delivering an emotional arc across a three-act structure. Even the most random setpieces play a role in later developments. The writers have also wisely exploited the broader canvass, telling a story with a large visual and geographic scale. Being animated, The Simpsons never had any problem taking regular jaunts around the world or staging massive explosions, but the transitions between locales spurred by emotional developments make the scope much more epic.

Thankfully though, the script doesn’t merely create that scope and consider its job as a movie complete. Its most impressive aspect is that it resurrects the heartfelt characterisation that was the unsung hero of the early seasons, which is now virtually gone. Character developments didn’t used to be superfluous plot devices in this show; you really felt them, even while laughing at them. The episode where Bart desperately tries to redeem himself in Marge’s eyes after he is caught shoplifting is still one of the most touching sitcom episodes of the last decade (and it’s a cartoon to boot). Executive producer and occasional film director James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, As Good as it Gets) is credited with insisting that emotion be part of the show’s makeup, and he was right to even if it seemed passé. A major factor in the popularity of The Simpsons is arguably our attachment to the characters, not just our love of the jokes.

The movie script – to which Brooks contributes – plunges headfirst into the relationships that the show has created over the years, doing what the best TV-show movies do and reflecting on what has come before and suggesting that change is necessary. Homer is the film’s protagonist, and his arc hinges on an epiphany about his two-decade streak of oblivious selfishness, both to solve the movie’s plot dilemma and to save his relationships. A speech by Marge (you’ll know the one) probably ranks as the single most poignant moment in the show’s entire history, partly because it counts on our investment in these very basically rendered but well drawn people. Incidentally Brooks – directing the voice cast for the first time since the early seasons – demanded over one hundred takes of this scene from Julie Kavner, confirming the devoted, perhaps fanatical attention to performance (I should mention that the film’s overall director is David Silverman, a veteran of the series and co-director of Pixar’s Monsters Inc. He transforms a sitcom into a movie with aplomb in yet another instance of old blood bringing back the old juice).

Pretty heady stuff for The Simpsons Movie, right? But worry not, this isn’t Homer via Merchant/Ivory. The characterisation is merged seamlessly with the true determinant of a successful Simpsons outing: it’s incredibly funny. Not as many jokes are crammed in per minute as the current episodes, but that’s all the better. The pacing of script, animation, and performance has been dialled back to the show’s early years, giving the gags room to breathe and the setpieces more time to wind up for massive payoff. There are still flat non-sequiturs and moments of hackneyed buffoonery to be found - such as the fishing and eye-hammering bits seen in the trailers - but they are few and far between. Some motifs that appear clichéd or overbearing (such as Homer bonding with a pig) are actually mined beautifully, and depart at just the right moment before they become laboured.

Spider-Pig, as he’s become known, is a perfect example of how throwaway ingredients suddenly become pivotal. Homer’s blasé care of the pig actually precipitates the entire plot, although that particular incident is wilfully ridiculous. Given the script’s dedication to being a cohesive movie, these lazy plot turns are less forgivable than in disposable weekly installments. More extreme and thus logical measures for Homer to screw up could easily have been found, and his solution at the climax too is nonsense on an operatic scale. But even on the big screen, The Simpsons shouldn’t demand rigourous scrutiny, so even the nitpickers shouldn’t object to these plot holes. And that climax looks amazing.

But cohesiveness is just one of the pillars of The Simpsons Movie; enthusiasm is another. The producers have mustered a passion and a commitment for the film version that has been missing from the show. Even if next season continues on the same ambivalent trajectory, this film stands as one last reminder of how rewarding and entertaining The Simpsons has been, and its perhaps brief return is most welcome.

The End of History

When addressing the new live-action Bratz movie (yes, it exists), it's sorely tempting to passionately rant about the doll/cartoon/random product phenomenon's disgraceful encouragement of materialism, consumer hunger, and premature sexualisation in pre-teen girls, and how thankfully right and left are united in their disgust at the corporate exploitation and development of a hollow, superficial lifestyle that expects girls to put out and shut up, all except for the vultures making money off of this crap and the parents who foolishly buy it for their kids without even considering the connotations thereof.

But this is a film blog, not a platform for moralising, so instead let's just point and laugh at the hapless film 'adaptation' currently enjoying a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, courtesy of a delightfully sane bunch of film critics.

Now, is anyone else astonished that they managed to find an actual human who looked exactly like a Bratz character? Observe the implausible facial contours to be found on the movie poster:



Jeez, they must have combed the country for her. Or are girls actually getting plastic surgery to look like Bratz? If Daddy's given them the standard-issue credit card, then anything's possible.

And the following quotations nicely sum up the critical reaction to this cinematic abomination (starring Jon Voight!). If I had confidence that no-one I email would get the wrong idea, I'd add them as my permanent signature - they slay me.

"Bratz is like being raped by MySpace." - Josh Tyler, Cinema Blend

"This is why the terrorists hate us." - Nathan Rabin, The Onion AV Club

Amen, gentlemen, amen. If you take your children to this film, please reconsider the direction of your lives.

[I realise now that I'm judging the film without having seen it, which is exactly what I deplore about cretins who roar that a film must be banned for reputedly offensive content without seeing frame one. But I like to think that we know enough about the Bratz phenomenon walking down the aisles of our department stores to justifably cast a skeptical eye on this crass product-pimping bit of celluloid. If this actually had some artistic aspirations, or wasn't trying to desperate shoehorn in a moral to the staunchly amoral Bratz ethos ("like, totally talk to some dorks and stuff!"), then maybe it deserves the benefit of the doubt. But I would venture to say it it doesn't. Call me rash.]

Bits for the Day

- The Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition specs are here! (shame about that title) And they're better than we could have reasonably hoped for. Not only do we have a feature-length doco and 4 deleted scenes, but the Georgia Coffee commercials, the Saturday Night Live skits with Kyle MacLachlan as Cooper, a map of the town featuring video of the locations as they exist today, and more. Some will complain about the Lynch-standard lack of commentaries and the horrible cover art (which is allegedly official now), but who cares - this is more than we ever expected in the limbo years waiting for season 2. Good for you, Paramount.



- Charles de Lauzirika gives a great interview about the work undertaken on Blade Runner: The Final Cut and its massive DVD set. I can see why Warner Bros. has the number one reputation with DVD fans - they even paid to license the temp music used back in 1981 for the workprint. That's keen.



- Frank Miller has cast the quite young Gabriel Macht as Will Eisner's The Spirit for his film adaptation. Conforming to a well-worn pattern, Macht has a supporting role in a filmed yet still upcoming movie (Whiteout) and has been snapped up as a lead in this project. I know The Spirit only by reputation. I've read a few strips but they didn't wow me. I think that engrained classics like Eisner's early work need to be read quite thoroughly before they begin to be appreciated.



- the premier yet strangely unnamed fansite for The Wire has scored three on-set cast interviews. Wendell Pierce (Bunk) gives some great insight about the show's dichotomous reception within the industry; Clarke Peters (Lester) offers some rare thoughts (probably rare though because these actors barely ever get asked for interviews, sadly); and Dominic West (McNulty) is highly amusing in an unusually Wire-centric discussion. Observe:

JK: "300" certainly should have changed how you're viewed by Hollywood. That was a big hit.
DW: Yes it was. I suppose that marked my transition from sort of "drunk boy friend" to "evil rapist," which is a natural transition, I suppose.

And on a more serious note:

DW: I thought season 4 was really in a different league, even for The Wire. It really elevated it. It really has taken television to a deeper level, [even though] that may be a bit pretentious to say.

ARGH!!! Release the DVD, HBO!! I'm dying here!



- in that interview, West implies that Zack Snyder has asked him to take a role in Watchmen following their 300 collaboration, and that West is going to get back to him about it. Since the interview was conducted on July 26, he likely wasn't up for one of the roles recently announced. I'm racking my brain trying to think of what West might be considered for....
Woah, just realised - Captain Metropolis! A dozier West would be ideal for the hapless leader of the original Minutemen, who receives a demoralising reality check from the Comedian. Google- Image-Search-him and tell me he's not suitable for it, Watchmen fans. You heard it here first! (well, only sorta. Technicality!)



- Michelle Rodriguez (Lost) and Stephen Lang have joined the cast of James Cameron's Avatar. With this role Rodriguez just about justifies her movie-star insistence to only work on Lost for one season; appearing in Uwe Boll's Bloodrayne certainly didn't do the job. By the way, if Beowulf fails to meet expectations this November (and I pray that it does meet and surpass them), I hereby wager that fanboy critics will immediately shift their gaze to Avatar as the proof of the performance-capture pudding. No doubt.



- Michael Imperioli (Chris-ta-PHUH from The Sopranos) has joined the cast of Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones as the detective investigating the murder that kicks off the story. Jackson's assembling an astonishing cast here, indicating that his artistic reputation in Hollywood is undiminished.

Incidentially, I love how, going back to the Lord of the Rings, Jackson has not only brought in obvious, stellar names, but real out-of-the-box people as well. For every Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett, there was a Sean Astin and a Brad Dourif. You had Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody in King Kong, and then there was Jack Black and Kyle Chandler. And now we have awards darlings Rachel Weisz and Ryan Gosling... and Stanley Tucci and Michael Imperioli. Love it.

BTW, don't be surprised if his role as the killer utterly revitalises Tucci's career following a spate of bland, disposable roles, Forest Whitaker-style. Once again, you heard it here first. :D



- Tim Minear, AKA The Unluckiest Showrunner in TV, gives a very insightful interview looking back on his work on Angel. It's been a while since I've seen any of the show, and now I think back to it, it strikes me as strangely out-of-phase with the years in which it was made, along with Buffy. Those shows were genuinely ahead of their time, and that feels more justified as time passes.

The indisputable proof of this is Heroes, a mainstream success that happens to tell stories in precisely the same fashion as Buffy and Angel, intermingling plot and character in a grand, serialised story. Heroes really does feel like the child of those show, except its parents did the job far better. Lost owes a lot to Whedon's shows as well, but it's more stately and has found its own voice. Heroes, to my mind, is a sugarcoated, mainstream approximation of a prior cult phenomenon. Even the cinematography looks the same.

I do enjoy the show, and I'm not accusing them of plagiarism (except with regard to Watchmen). I'm rather voicing my realisation about the massive influence that the Buffyverse has had not just on cult properties, but on the zeitgeist. People have been saying so for a long time but I think the proof is really here now. Thoughts, folks?



- Jeez, the flood of bankable supporting and indie actors landing TV series gigs has hit a new high. Not content with snagging Holly Hunter for Saving Grace, basic cable network TNT have now signed William H. Macy for a comedy-drama pilot about a pillar of the community who moonlights as a criminal (that concept will be decided in the execution, I tell ya what). As strong an advocate as I am of TV's potential, movie actors seem almost too quick to jump ship - Macy was in Wild Hogs, for goodness's sake, which was a massive hit, and he's a go-to low-budget and supporting player. The paradigm continues to shift....



[PS: The above image was the first Google Image Search result for 'Twin Peaks'. Talk about awesome luck. It was too good not to use. Apologies for its freakiness. Frank Silva is officially the scariest man ever.]

Bits for the Day

Sunday provided very little news at Comicon, so let's press on with the other notable news and links from the week thus far.

But first though, a tip of the hat to the legendary Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, who both passed away on Monday within hours of each other. What a day for film... Rest in peace, gentlemen.

Ain't It Cool and CHUD score the only one-on-one interviews with Zack Snyder following his appearance at Comicon. Not too much revealed, but Snyder's clearly a very self-aware, switched-on guy. Watchmen needs that, so it's encouraging. And the American R-rating appears to have been a godsend in more ways than one, as the studio have largely left Snyder alone since committing to it. Granted, he has less money to work with, but non-interference is key, especially when they openly confess to not understanding the project.

The film of Hunter S. Thompson's early novel The Rum Diary is finally moving ahead, with Johnny Depp starring as long planned, reprising his role as, essentially, Thompson, although his character's name this time is Paul Kemp rather than Raoul Duke. Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I) is scripting and directing.

The pleasantly 70s-esque poster for We Own the Night is here. The early trailer looked horribly formulaic, but trailers often do.

Twin Peaks Archive speaks to Matt Haley, artist of the aborted season three graphic novel project, and includes some astonishing pencil artwork. The Laura picture is an uncanny combination of modern Marvel heroine art (think Terry Dodson) and Sheryl Lee's exact likeness. And I want that picture of BOB on my wall. Haley also reveals some choice morsels about where the third season would have gone, both on television and in comic form since staff writer Robert Engels was tapped to script. Some of the ideas sound decidedly ropey though. Perhaps the show was right to go out when it did. As frustrating as that cliffhanger is, it also leaves us with a profound and indelible image that any continuation would have an uphill battle to deal with in a satisfying manner.

Warren Ellis gives a typically cantankerous and hilarious interview to Publishers Weekly about his comics work and his first novel. A sample: "You people believe you gained your independence from us. That’s actually a joke. We invented America because we didn’t have television."

Some purty character posters for The Golden Compass can be found at IGN, although they don't do a very good job at conveying the darker tone of this story. I shouldn't be surprised about that though.

An article about the legendary French comic artist Moebius and the documentary he has inspired. I'm gagging to read an actual Moebius comic (surprisingly hard to find) and see this doco to learn more.

Jeff Smith discusses his follow-up to Bone, the SF comic RASL.

Francis Lawrence (Constantine, the upcoming I am Legend) will direct an Eastern-flavoured take on Snow White called Snow and the Seven, about a British girl being raised in 19th century Hong Kong who comes to be trained by Shaolin monks to destroy an evil force. I guess the monks are the dwarves because otherwise there's no link to Snow White, and that could be pretty offensive, now I think of it. Shall reserve judgement for now though, naturally. And at least it's not some lame update/remake as everything in Hollywood is these days. The fact that it's set when and where it is suggests that there are more creative juices in this one than other projects of its ilk.

Ridley Scott is interested in a Blade Runner sequel...... PleasegodnoRidleyshutupnownotgoodidealet'smoveonnow.