"Big Eyes" = "Ed Wood"?

email this story
read comments (31)
post a comment

Big Eyes, announced last night by Variety's Michael Fleming as the forthcoming "directing debut" of renowned screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, will be in fact their second stab at feature directing. Their first was a commercial wipeout called Screwed ('00), which was a pretty good piece on paper (i.e., an inventively plotted and certainly unpredictable script) and didn't deserve the curses that fell upon it.

I haven't read Big Eyes, a biopic of famed painter Margaret Keane (to be played by Kate Hudson) "whose distinctive creations featuring big-eyed children became one of art's first mass-market success stories in the 1950s." But given the withering contempt for Keane's paintings in the art world and their general reputation as a mass-market joke (i.e., right next to those black velvet paintings that were so richly lampooned in the original 1979 version of The In-Laws), how can Big Eyes be anything but a portrait of a laughably mediocre artist a la Ed Wood?

Fleming's story, written without the slightest indication that he's in on the joke, says that Alexander and Karaszewski's drama "covers Keane's personal awakening at the onset of the feminist movement, leading to a lawsuit she filed against her husband, Walter, who claimed credit for her works."

Wednesday morning shakeout<< previous | next >>Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 6, 2008 at 7:52 AM

comment #1

JHRussell says ...

Oh please please, will Matt McConnaghey play Walter?

Someone will need to explain the appeal of Kate Hudson to me again. I forget...

Posted by JHRussell at February 6, 2008 8:28 AM

comment #2

Sean says ...

'Screwed' is the worst movie I have ever seen which got a theatrical release. ('Going Overboard' with Adam Sandler is the only movie I have seen which is worse.)

Posted by Sean at February 6, 2008 8:32 AM

comment #3

Heleno says ...

Hang on, Ed Wood was mediocre? I thought the point was he was properly bad.

Posted by Heleno at February 6, 2008 8:43 AM

comment #4

PerfectTommy says ...

This is a fun story. I think I remember hearing about how the husband and wife both claimed to have painted these hideous things. So when they when they divorced, they had a paint off in court. In the right hands, this could be fun.

Posted by PerfectTommy at February 6, 2008 8:43 AM

comment #5

Sean says ...

Heleno - the only artists Jeff thinks are bad are popular ones. Since Ed Wood is not popular, he can only be as bad as "mediocre"; he's inherently better than, say, Spielberg, because less people think he's any good.

Posted by Sean at February 6, 2008 8:45 AM

comment #6

PerfectTommy says ...

Looking at the previous post, it looks like a had too much "fun". My fear is that even if they made a good film of this story, even a great film, would it be worth the danger of a Keane Big Eyed Kid Painting Revival?

Posted by PerfectTommy at February 6, 2008 8:48 AM

comment #7

corey3rd says ...

the husband broke his hands in order to avoid having to paint in front of the judge.

Posted by corey3rd at February 6, 2008 8:49 AM

comment #8

le corbeau says ...

Oh, sure, they make this but where's the Fletcher Hanks movie?

Posted by le corbeau at February 6, 2008 8:56 AM

comment #9

PerfectTommy says ...

Or a salute to a truly great artist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs_Playing_Poker

Posted by PerfectTommy at February 6, 2008 9:04 AM

comment #10

actionman says ...

I truly cannot stand Kate Hudson.

Posted by actionman at February 6, 2008 9:14 AM

comment #11

Don Murphy says ...

The true Keane story is actually fascinating- the HUSBAND claimed to have painted them. Margaret sued and in court the guy was told to paint one. He could not. I doubt it is proto feminist but those guys should make it brilliant and awesome. Even with Kate Hudson.

--------
IRON MAN
from the director of ZATHURA

Posted by Don Murphy at February 6, 2008 9:24 AM

comment #12

p.Vice says ...

Is it just me or does Kate Hudson seem an unusual choice to play a Jehovah's Witness?

Posted by p.Vice at February 6, 2008 9:24 AM

comment #13

lazarus says ...

What about Thomas Kincaid: Painter of Light? That guy doesn't deserve a biopic? Every melonhead that buys his paintings from Home Shopping Network will waddle out to see that one. $50 million, easy.

Tom Arnold in an Oscar-nominated tour-de-force.

Posted by lazarus at February 6, 2008 9:42 AM

comment #14

Bocephus says ...

Joke now, Lazarus, sarcasm will always catch up to you when you are talking about stupid, stupid movies.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0999872/

And during this horrible instance of imdb-digging, however brave it might have been on my part, I discovered that Kinkaide painted backgrounds for one of my favorite Ralph Bakshi movies, Fire and Ice.

Posted by Bocephus at February 6, 2008 9:52 AM

comment #15

le corbeau says ...

PETER O'TOOLE?

That's got to be the biggest embarassment for him since Supergirl.

That said, there's no denying Kinkade's popularity-- I was in some arty little vacation town once and a local store was excitedly trumpeting a personal appearance by Kinkade's... brother.

Unfortunately I already had tickets to see John Grisham's dentist, or I would have touched the robe of the great man's brother myself.

Posted by le corbeau at February 6, 2008 10:08 AM

comment #16

Joe Leydon says ...

Alas, no: Screwed sucked. It really did.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117780946.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0

Posted by Joe Leydon at February 6, 2008 10:13 AM

comment #17

Walter Sobchak says ...

How about some love for the artist of the above illustration, and that would be a cooler-than person named Sas Christian. (no relation to hippy christian on this sight).
She does funky cool pop-surrealist variations on the old big-eye look as described above.
The illustration you see here is called "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning". Check out more of her stuff at http://www.hotboxdesigns.com/

Is Wells a fan? Nice choice of pix.

Posted by Walter Sobchak at February 6, 2008 10:20 AM

comment #18

lazarus says ...

Bocephus: I don't know what's sadder, that a Kincaid movie had already been made, that you either heard of it before or checked IMDB assuming one existed, or that I recognized the kid that played him from Gilmore Girls.

Posted by lazarus at February 6, 2008 10:33 AM

comment #19

christian says ...

Anime wouldn't exist without Keane.

Posted by christian at February 6, 2008 10:35 AM

comment #20

Sean says ...

Joe - I have to disagree with your review of 'Screwed'. You say ""Screwed" provides only a few random laughs". I assume you're bending over backwards to say something nice, because there was nothing close to funny in that movie. I still have nightmares about Danny Devito's character.

Posted by Sean at February 6, 2008 10:35 AM

comment #21

Bocephus says ...

I actually saw it on the "Upcoming" sidebar on this site during the holiday season. What's more surprising to me is that it was pushed back, I imagine it would have made a great double feature with Sweeny Todd.

Posted by Bocephus at February 6, 2008 11:07 AM

comment #22

Craptastic says ...

And featuring Christina Ricci as "The Painting"

Posted by Craptastic at February 6, 2008 11:34 AM

comment #23

lazarus says ...

Craptastic: Bulls-eye.

Posted by lazarus at February 6, 2008 11:57 AM

comment #24

Edward says ...

I so wanted to say something rude and inappropriate about Christina Ricci as the painting, but I won't...

Posted by Edward at February 6, 2008 12:53 PM

comment #25

Terry McCarty says ...

Jeffrey wrote:
Their first was a commercial wipeout called Screwed ('00), which was a pretty good piece on paper (i.e., an inventively plotted and certainly unpredictable script) and didn't deserve the curses that fell upon it.

I'm guessing one curse was Robert Simonds.

Posted by Terry McCarty at February 6, 2008 1:16 PM

comment #26

corey3rd says ...

he only declared he couldn't paint because of a shoulder injury. Although having him break his hands during a bathroom break in the courthouse would be more cinematic.

preferred Screwed when it was called Ballbusted.

Posted by corey3rd at February 6, 2008 1:21 PM

comment #27

jeffmcm says ...

I was going to say something moderately nice about Screwed but then I realized I was thinking of the Norm Macdonald vehicle Dirty Work.

Never mind.

Don Murphy, please give it a break. Why do you hate Jon Favreau?

Posted by jeffmcm at February 6, 2008 2:20 PM

comment #28

Movie fan09 says ...

I always preferred Dirty Work

http://imdb.com/title/tt0120654/

sure it was tacky..but when the classic Norm McDonald bits came up ('note to self',etc) it was pure genius.

Posted by Movie fan09 at February 6, 2008 8:01 PM

comment #29

Terry McCarty says ...

DIRTY WORK proved you could round up Norm, then-sidekick Artie Lange, Chevy Chase, Don Rickles, Christopher McDonald, Jack Warden, Adam Sandler and Chris Farley and--by partial virtue of Bob Saget's "direction"--come up with an almost totally unfunny comedy.

Posted by Terry McCarty at February 6, 2008 10:39 PM

comment #30

Breedlove says ...

Norm in 'Dirty Work' as he's leaving prison, where he's been repeatedly gang-raped: "It's the lack of respect that hurts the most. Well, except for that other thing..."

Posted by Breedlove at February 7, 2008 6:29 AM

comment #31