The Dark Knight

Can this humble site's review, three weeks after release, possibly enhance the cultural conversation about the year's biggest film, and the most pop-culturally significant since The Lord of the Rings and perhaps even Titanic?

Damn straight it can, as you’ll see.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

In cinematic times past, particularly during the dominance of the auteur in the 1970s, the line between commercial filmmaking and artistry was blurred if not invisible. As much as I deplore reactionary film criticism, it is undeniable that before the proliferation of special effects and digitally assisted technology, audiences were more content with just a good story, solid characterisation, or suspense than they are now. Sensory engorgement – be it with effects, rapid editing, or the scale of carnage or coarseness - is now a prerequisite for a major box-office take, and while some financially successful films of quality manage to use that facility to their advantage (The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix, for example), the divide between consumer-oriented and creatively-focused filmmaking is very wide.

Bits for the Last Two Weeks

Reviews are forthcoming, I swear. Look for Inland Empire, Ratatouille, and Stardust very soon.

In stunning news, fantasy author Robert Jordan has passed away from a rare form of cancer called cardiac amyloidosis. I'd known that Jordan (whose real name is James Rigney Jr.) had been diagnosed with the disease early last year, but was under the impression that his health was improving. Tragically, it has not, and both the man and his series have been lost. Jordan was working on the twelfth and final volume of his Wheel of Time series, which began in 1990 and was set to conclude in 2009. Understandably, no plans have been announced yet for how the series will end, but perhaps an acceptable conclusion can be offered given his progress with A Memory of Light. But of course, condolences first and foremost to Mr. Jordan's family and friends at the end of a courageous and debilitating fight.

Although I parted ways with the series after the ninth volume, I hoped to one day catch up with the grand conclusion of a story I had invested so much time in. Maybe that can still occur, eventually.



The Emmy Awards have been announced, and the results have been as mixed a bag as the nominations. I failed to vent my anger at the noms in July, both because I would be beating a dead horse and because I feel that I should be accustomed to the Television Academy continually failing to see further than its own nose. It can't be blamed, as the system is inherently flawed: to entrust the adjudication of a medium's best to a body of busy voters who cannot possibly see everything there is to offer - either more than a sample episode or at all - is akin to ignoring half the lanes in an Olympic swimming championship. Emmy voting is a grotesque hybrid of a popularity contest and deranged idiosyncrasy. Whereas handing the awards over to TV critics would be a decidedly problematic idea for an academy designed to bestow industry recognition of its own, at least they have the time and critical faculties to evaluate the majority of what's out there.

As it stands, Deadwood, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Friday Night Lights, and The Shield continue to be shut out of virtually all major categories (the former two completely, despite being by far the best television had to offer in the last or any year). In the meantime, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, House, and Boston Legal hog the limelight with demented grins as if they've just successfully bribed every single Emmy voter, while The Wire, the most acclaimed show in a decade, receives nothing, and the cancelled Deadwood - abandoned in the awards campaign by HBO following its cancellation - follows up a Best Drama and Actor nomination for its second season with sweet FA despite no drop in quality.

No doubt this just sounds like bitter whining that my favourites didn't get any attention from the grown-ups, but a quick survey of critical response to the Emmys shows that I'm not alone. And even if you're not impassioned about them, I utterly defy you to tell me that Grey's Anatomy is more worthy of recognition as a drama series than The Wire, or even that Heroes is better at what it does than Lost. Heroes is the zeitgeist, so it gets the nom - that doesn't make it right or worthy, especially since if the Emmys are about rewarding quality, then it should be implicit that such a goal entail shining a spotlight on underappreciated shows of quality. It occasionally does - the first season win by Arrested Development for Best Comedy, for example - but most of the time this farce is, as I said, a popularity contest.

Oh well, we know better. And at least one Best Drama nomination was semi-deserved: The Sopranos. Its final season was the best since its third, and its win on Sunday night was at least the best of a not-so-great bunch. And in a lovely twist, Terry O'Quinn won Best Supporting Actor for his role of John Locke in Lost, which felt like lovely vindication that genre shows can indeed have good actors, and Ricky Gervais won Best Comedy Actor for Extras!

And the very presence of creative nominations for Battlestar Galactica - Best Writing in a Drama Series for Ron Moore for the two-hour season premiere, and Best Directing for Felix Alcala for the jaw-dropping "Exodus Part 2" - was a wonderful surprise back in July and a kernel of hope for the institution that it can hear what's going on outside for time to time. Could Battlestar's final season yield a cathartic Emmy blitz? Doubtful, but we can hope, or perhaps the point is, it doesn't matter.

The Southland Tales trailer is finally here, and it’s an intoxicating if impenetrable melange of imagery and ideas. The editing is stunningly good, and hopefully master trailer-makers aren’t being employed to dress up a failure. There has been much speculation about whether Kelly’s extensive work on the film could possibly redeem a film regarded as unsalvageable at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where a workprint was screened to the derision of most. A round-up of the response can be read here.

However, prolific and savvy Village Voice critic J. Hoberman lavished praise, and Donnie Darko was slammed at Sundance too. Hopefully Southland Tales is an underappreciated gem, or if it was dross at Cannes, that Kelly has saved it. Whatever happens, this looks to be a film of uncommon ambition and vision, and should be given a break on those terms alone.

Also, as you'll have seen above, Cinematical premiered the final one-sheet for Southland Tales too a couple of weeks ago and it’s a nifty bit of art. It’s floating heads yet again, but at least does something a little more creative with them, and the whole thing is a nice symbolic distortion of the American flag, which is allegedly the film in a nutshell. At least some thought went into this one.

And the LA Times has a terrific article on Kelly’s post-Cannes travails with the film.

There’s been ominous talk that Sci-Fi will split up the 20-episode fourth season of Battlestar Galactica, not with a month or two hiatus, but a year, with the second half being held over for early 2009. Ron Moore has confirmed that executives are discussing the option, and the combined factors of their sole prestige project soon departing and the imminent talent strike would certainly make stretching out Battlestar an attractive prospect. But a ten-episode season is pretty measly even by cable standards, so let’s hope they don’t.

James Hibberd of TV Week (not the Aussie rag of the same name, thankfully) has a good piece covering virtually all matters Battlestar with comments from Moore, where he confirms the discussions. Hibberd also reveals that Sci-Fi are considering bringing the Caprica spin-off out of mothballs. So keen are they to maintain their relationship with the in-demand Moore – who recently signed a huge deal with NBC Universal and has a couple of movie scripts in development - that they may greenlight the prequel drama set before the first Cylon War. They also speculate that its earthbound setting (pardon the irony) and lighter tone may attract a bigger audience than the original series.

SyFy Portal's Michael Hinman writes further about the strike's impact on Galactica and Caprica, and quotes a source's very salient point: delaying a show despite irritating its fans and filming a completed script (as Caprica's pilot is), however risky both moves may be, is better than having nothing to broadcast that year at all.

And Entertainment Weekly has a preview article of Battlestar Galactica: Razor.

The inevitable film version of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning novel The Road is gaining traction, with previously announced director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) and his producers in talks with Viggo Mortensen to star and Dimension Films to distribute. Mortensen hasn’t yet signed, but he’d be absolutely ideal for the part, although I fear for Hillcoat in having to make such a rigourously non-commercial film for the Weinsteins (they took their Dimension imprint with them from Miramax to The Weinstein Company).

But the stories of interference emanating from their new company have been slim to nil; even Todd Haynes is working with them again on I’m Not There after being shamelessly messed about on Velvet Goldmine. Perhaps being the underdog once again has mellowed them, and their promotional savvy could help a movie so bleak that it may struggle even to gain kudos from more conservative critics. But if Hillcoat and Mortensen make it – and they are both perfectly suited to it – then it has a good chance of being a seminal film.

Shooting for The Road will begin in January, so it’s snuck in as pre-strike project. In that vein, FilmJerk published a very interesting list that has been circulating Hollywood of 300 projects that the various studios are endeavouring to get made before the curtain falls on the industry for a while next June (and who knows for how long...). Some notable flicks that either haven’t been mentioned at all or for a while:

- Torso, directed by David Fincher, based on Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko’s graphic novel about Elliot Ness investigating the true-life Cleveland Torso serial murders (I know, I’m mystified why Fincher would tackle serial killers yet again after providing two such worthy and distinct takes on the topic in Seven and Zodiac. Perhaps he’s found a third. Fincher doing 1930s noir is a delicious prospect though).

- a new Gulliver's Travels films? Would that play?

- Life of Pi, a film of Yann Martel's novel directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie).

- a new Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) film, currently untitled.

- The Birdcage 2? I Dream of Jeannie? Ugh...

- Scott Pilgrim, directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), based on Bryan O'Malley's comic. Haven't heard about this for a while.

- both The Voyage of the Dawn Treader AND The Silver Chair before the strike? Seriously?

- Brad Bird moves into live action with 1906, about the San Francisco earthquake of that year, based on the fictionalised account by James Dalessandro. Bird is brilliant - sign me up. Didn't know this was coming so soon.



The worst-kept secret is out: George Miller will be directing Justice League (although Variety says he's only in final talks) and Batman and Superman will be recast. Motion-capture was considered, but they likely won't go that way. IESB says that Tom Welling is now out of the running to graduate to full Superman status - no tears here - and that Ryan Gosling is much desired for Batman - good bloody luck though. Plus, they hear that Superman: The Man of Steel has been postponed indefinitely. That makes more sense than whatever else we were hearing.


YES! Cynthia Watros will be making multiple appearances as Libby in the fourth season of Lost, presumably in flashbacks. The recurring status presumably means that her intriguing habit of popping up in completely unrelated backstories will continue. It's terrific that the writers will be able to resolve this particular A-bomb of mystery from the show's past (and hopefully they can justify why she was written out so suddenly with so little exposure up to that point, but I doubt it). With the return of Harold Perrineau's Michael too, there seems to be much t crossing and i dotting happening in the Lost offices. Thank goodness again for the end-date declaration.


While reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I was utterly convinced that Jim Broadbent must play Slughorn. Rarely have I been do determined to see an actor be cast in a role - he was just too perfect. I didn't see it mooted elsewhere - Bob Hoskins was linked to the role a while ago. And who will be playing Slughorn? Jim bloody Broadbent!! Ah, sweet vindication. Gloating has occurred offline.


Check out the gorgeous poster for Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The full trailer was also prematurely put on MySpace before being yanked, but a copy managed to get on to YouTube. There are a couple of copies of not great quality, so check them out if you're really keen. Expect an official Quicktime version soon-ish. It's not an earth-shattering trailer, but it is enticing, and it's so nice to have Day-Lewis back, and in such a meaty role. Plus, the material seems wonderfully timely.


Giovanni Ribisi has joined James Cameron's Avatar. I like that Cameron hasn't had to cast big names for this. The studio is sensibly relying on Cameron's name to draw the crowds (although I'm sure they had to be coaxed into that though, as ever).


Full circle time: Brad Pitt will be replacing the very busy Matt Damon in Darren Aronofsky's The Fighter, playing Mark Wahlberg's brother in the period boxing drama. Pitt famously left the first incarnation of The Fountain, which led the studio to abandon the project and production having to be shut down. Pitt and Aronofsky are presumably on good enough terms to reunite for this, and expect Pitt to stick around this time: walking out on a director twice is bad press that any star would want to avoid.



Matthew McConaughey will replace Owen Wilson in comedy Tropic Thunder following the actor's recent suicide attempt. He joins an amazing cast, including Stiller (who is also directing), Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Justin Theroux, Steve Coogan, and Nick Nolte.


Zoe Saldana will play Uhura in JJ Abrams's Star Trek. With this and Avatar, she's got some big projects coming out. Ironically, Star Trek will be released first, despite Saldana having been filming Avatar for months.


Brad Pitt and Edward Norton will reteam for State of Play, director Kevin McDonald's (The Last King of Scotland) adaptation of the massively acclaimed BBC political mini-series starring David Morrisey and John Simm and written by Paul Abbott (Shameless). Pitt and Norton were a dynamite on-screen team in Fight Club, so this has gone from very promising to must-see status. The script is by the suddenly ubiquitous Matthew Michael Carnahan, writer of The Kingdom, Lions for Lambs, and brother Joe's forthcoming White Jazz.


The Steven Spielberg-produced TNT mini-series version of Stephen King's fantasy novel The Talisman has been put on hold due to budgetary issues. Will it be made? And if not, will it return to film development where it originated?


Jon Stewart will host the 2008 Academy Awards.


It just had to happen: Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal will play siblings in Jim Sheridan's Brothers, the remake of Susanna Bier's Danish film about a man sent to fight in Afghanistan and his prodigal brother caring for his family. After Get Rich or Die Tryin' bombed, Sheridan could use a break, and it's nice that he was able to snag two such big stars, even if it is for another bloody remake. But setting the story in America will naturally add an interesting new dimension to the story.


This is GOLD. Mark Romanek is finally following up One Hour Photo with a new version of The Wolf Man for Universal, with Benicio del Toro in the lead and Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven) penning the script. Romanek says in an email to Harry Knowles (at the below link) that this project and Ed Wood are the two that makeup supremo Rick Baker has wanted to see made in his career, so naturally he's on board to transform del Toro into the monster.

Check out this picture of Del Toro play-throttling Baker at AICN. Note that this is without makeup or hair extensions.

WOAH!

Il est perfect, non? That is a staggeringly cool expression - del Toro was clearly born for this role. As Knowles says, imagine what he'll look like with makeup! I was wondering how this film will differ from An American Werewolf in London, which Baker also provided makeup for, but a quick search reveals that it will be set in Victorian England.

Holy cow - Victoriana + del Toro + Romanek + Baker + Walker = a monster movie I'm actually rabid for. It comes out in early 2009. With Watchmen, Avatar, and this, the first half of that year is looking incredible.


Not satisfied with the obnoxious glut of medical and legal shows on TV? Law and Order mogul Dick Wolf is here to help, with a new "medical-legal hybrid"! Oh WHEE!!


Not deterred by Pathfinder's implosion, Hollywood is giving the Vikings another go. Ryan Phillipe, Abby Cornish, and Sean Bean will star in Menno Meyjes's Last Battle Dreamer, about the Viking invasion of Britain. I have trouble picturing Phillippe as a Viking, but this could be cool. Could be woeful.


AMC has renewed the excellent Mad Men, about advertising executives in 1960 (it's much more interesting than that sounds), for a second season. Good news, since this is the closest that basic cable has come to the tone and sensibility of an HBO show. No surprise that Sopranos veteran Matthew Weiner is the creator.


I missed this when it was put up in July: Wizard Magazine arranged a roundtable conversation about Watchmen between Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, comic movie veteran David Goyer, and comics writers Brian K. Vaughan and Ed Brubaker. Great reading.


The second season Twin Peaks soundtrack is finally on its way. To be released on October 23 (the same day as the Galactica season 3 soundtrack - a good day or what!), it reportedly features unreleased cues from the pilot, season one, and Fire Walk with Me. A nicely lengthy track listing can be seen at Dugpa.


Pissed off with Warner's disinclination to do much for the DVD of The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky has released his own commentary track on his website, which should be a very insightful listen. It's already proven massively popular. Yet another reason for me to get the Fountain DVD when it finally comes out to buy in Australia next month.


And lastly, things may be happening with the HBO Preacher series. The last we heard, the uninspiring team of Mark Steven Johnson (Ghost Rider) and Howard Deutch (Grumpy Old Men) were at the helm. Then recently, there were whispers that Robert Rodriguez had been approached to direct the pilot and perhaps subsequent episodes. Now CHUD is reporting that HBO may be looking for an all-star roster of major directors, and that Deutch is out but Johnson is still in (writer Garth Ennis is apparently happy enough with his work so far though).

Check out who they're looking to attract to helm episodes: Brian de Palma (!), David Cronenberg, Danny Boyle, Alex Proyas, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later), plus Rodriguez.

Wowzers... will they succeed? The series has yet to be greenlit even for production of a pilot, but things are happening. HBO seems to want to do this. I'm still struggling to see the point of a rigourously faithful remake though, and am baffled as to how they plan to avoid the shitstorm of controversy they'll attract if they throw everything in there - this comic is often just FILTHY. Perhaps the all-star director roster is an attempt to convey its respectability despite appearances that may be to the contrary.

Plus, I don't think this is the kind of shows that critics will go for, in which case they wouldn't have that line of defence for the content. It will be a major love it or hate it proposition, especially since the pathos and heart of the series doesn't really kick in until the second half of the comic's run. We shall see.


TRAILERVILLE

- Iron Man!!!! This is essentially the Comicon preview, and it looks fantastic. A great cast and a nice take on tricky material. And seeing Iron Man fly is the kind of thing that makes comic-book movies worthwhile - it looks far more interesting and exciting in motion than on the page.

- the second non-redband Beowulf trailer.

- indie drama set in a very dull afterlife, Wristcutters: A Love Story. Looks just great.

- Jason Reitman's follow-up to Thank You for Smoking, Juno, starring Ellen Page (Hard Candy), Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, and Jennifer Garner. This looks really nice.

- a tantalising trailer for Heroes season two, which starts on Monday.

Bits for the Day/Week

[Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, and Edward James Olmos at the premiere of Blade Runner: The Final Cut at the Venice Film Festival. Picture courtesy Reuters.]

Blade Runner: The Final Cut has premiered in Venice, and Ridley Scott's been his typically forthcoming/cranky self, declaring that science fiction cinema is dead because nothing new is being done, and that movies on mobile phones are a massive detriment to the nature of cinema.

While I agree with him on the latter point, I think the former is a little miserly. Originality is pretty tough after all, and while he should be hard on blatant, thoughtless imitation, he shouldn't decry the SF films that are really trying, like Children of Men, Sunshine, The Fountain, and A Scanner Darkly. The Guardian has a gentle retort that takes similar opposition.



The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has begun screening for critics and at the Venice Film Festival, and the reaction is polarised. Emanuel Levy and Variety's Todd McCarthy adore it and proclaim it a masterpiece, as do others yet to publish complete reviews, yet David Poland and The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt find it an underwhelming, pretentious mess. It's probably too Malickian to have a decent shot at the Oscars, but this is clearly not a misfire, rather a film so elusive that it divides opinion.

A second trailer has also appeared shortly after the first, and it's an ideal encapsulation of how a film can be marketed in completely different ways. Whereas the trailer posted last week is contemplative and soulful, the new one positions the film as a Western thriller. Not since The Weather Man have I seen such a markedly inaccurate promotion for a film, if the advance word about it is to be believed. It's a safe assumption that one of these trailers is for the arthouses, the other for the megaplexes, if the studio deigns to open it wider into them.



The Wire has wrapped filming on its fifth and final season, and The Washington Post has a terrific article and a poignant video of the last day on the set, with comments from David Simon and members of the cast. Although I'm lucky enough to have two whole seasons of this masterwork still to savour, it's nonetheless a shame that this show is ending, albeit a triumph that it garnered the full five seasons that Simon wished for. I think it will be many years before this show is fully appreciated by the many who would have if they had merely known of it.

Incidentally, I'd suspected that the fifth season theme of the media would produce a new character to anchor the exploration, like Carcetti in season 3 and the four kids in season 4, and this article reveals him, and it's nice to hear that he'll be played by Clooney repertory player Tom McCarthy, from Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck, and writer/director of The Station Agent. Good snag, Wire.



AICN's Moriarty has some portents about what the hell the new Star Trek movie is about. Don't read if you want to remain utterly pure, but there's nothing hugely spoilery except in a conceptual way. Just think Ultimate... [And CHUD's Jeremy Smith has had confirmation that this is indeed the plot, or part of it. It's an interesting move, but I have to tenatively agree with Devin's editorial - we don't need any anchoring to the past franchise if you're just going to reboot it anyway. But then, it's also nicely audacious.]



There's ominous talk from cast members at a convention that Sci-Fi will be splitting up the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica, with 10 episodes to air early in 2008 and 10 held over until early 2009!! It makes a kind of sense to get the most critical love for the longest time, but a lot of people are going to be pissed off too - it's fairly tight. Not yet confirmed, though.

And also, vote for the cover for the DVD of the "Razor" BSG TV movie, if you give a crap. I picked the C. Sadly, as I discovered, the "exclusive clip" you get as reward for your efforts won't play if you're outside America. Nuts.



The new Lost cast members are: Ken Leung (Rush Hour, The Sopranos), Lance Reddick (The Wire), Jeremy Davies (Solaris, Saving Private Ryan), Jeff Fahey (The Lawnmower Man), and Rebecca Mader (er... dunno).

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse speak to Entertainment Weekly's Lost guru Jeff Jensen about the new additions here. Fahey sounds like an interesting guy. He only acts occasionally, which explains his patchy filmography. Instead, he recently ran an orphanage in Afghanistan!



Oliver Stone is returning to Vietnam with Pinkville, a film about the My Lai massacre and subsequent inquiries and scandals, to star Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum. It's set up at Cruise/Wagner's new United Artists, which will soon face its first test with the release of Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs.


Time for this week's episode of Jack's Persistent Delusional Hopes: After a disheartening August 20 blog post recounting a demoralising chat with David Milch, Deadwood actor W. Earl Brown (Dan Dority) offered a little hope to Remote Access, and encouraging news that even the in-demand Ian McShane and Timothy Olyphant are keen as mustard for more Deadwood. While the prospect is highly tenuous and only comes from one source, for Deadwood salivators like myself, it's better than nowt, and things do seem to be happening; from a subsequent, brighter conversation with Milch, Brown speculated that "the next couple of weeks should let us know for sure".

Like Brown, I also had the naive hope that with John from Cincinnati capsizing, Deadwood's chances would be much brighter, but I shouldn't be surprised that this is not necessarily the case. HBO seems to be far more business-oriented these days, increasingly resembling the networks in its programming decisions even through subscribers, not advertisers, provide their revenue. And that's just in the case of the movies. If the series were mooted to return (as Brown still has hope for, curiously, and I can't help but irrationally root for), the original financial problems that led to its demise likely remain, now with the added factor of a renewal seeming like a step back, a capitulation for all concerned.

However, HBO is facing a major image problem at the moment, with its commercial and critical successes dropping like flies while rival Showtime reaps the rewards, to the point where The Guardian and The New York Times have published articles on its woes ("HBO-ver is a popular catch-cry in the industry). Perhaps the proper return of the last moderate commercial and massive critical success it had whose creator actually wants it to return could rehabilitate its reputation. The question would be whether the move would be likened to a renaissance, a triumphant heeding of the people's wishes or a resuscitation, a warming-over of past glories.

Regardless, this show still gets talked about a lot, surprisingly so for a show cancelled over a year ago. And I'm currently watching the show for the first substantial time since it ended (I have yet to re-watch the third season), and it's only reminded me how this show leaves absolutely everything - save The Wire - in the dust. It has fully exposed for me how John from Cincinnati did not just fail to match Milch's predecessor, but it never came close.

Deadwood was a finely crafted, exquisite jewel laden with beautiful coarseness and a pulsing, vibrant soul. I think HBO could do a lot worse than bring it back. Continuing down its current path clearly isn't working for them. Hopefully the next couple of weeks will yield something.



Sky One and AMC's remake of The Prisoner isn't happening. I was in a wait-and-see posture, but am shedding absolutely no tears.



The first review in English that I'm aware of of the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.



The New York Times on the long delay of John Turturro's musical comedy Romance and Cigarettes, with James Gandolfini and Kate Winslet.



There's a feature-length documentary out called The Pixar Story. WANT!



Keanu Reeves will be playing humanoid alien messenger Klaatu in the remake of Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still, to be directed by Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose).

....

GODDAMN REMAKES!!!!!! For the love of God, leave them alone.



The budgetary disputes and studio bafflement about Watchmen clearly haven't soured Warner executives on Zack Snyder: they've signed him to direct a new version of The Illustrated Man, an anthology film based on the stories of Ray Bradbury, to be produced by Frank Darabont (who's still trying to get his version of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 off the ground). Anthologies are usually commercial poison - will this one change that course?



Brandon Routh has work! Yes, the unthinkable has happened. Gregor Jordan has returned from post-Ned Kelly respite/exile to direct The Informers, a intersecting drama based on short stories by Bret Easton Ellis that will star Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, and Routh... as a vampire! Interestink. The interweaving ensemble drama is very old-hat right now, but vampires and Ellis source material should give the genre a much-needed and hopefully satisfying creative enema. And Jordan's Buffalo Soldiers was really good.



Newsarama has a serialised chapter from premier comics scholar Douglas Wolk's new book Reading Comics, which could be quite the authoritative text for the foreseeable future. The chapter focuses on Grant Morrison, particularly The Invisibles and Seven Soldiers - a nice coincidence since Morrison is bloody fantastic if utterly mad.

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.