Horror and Kevin Smith? Doesn’t sound right. The words “profoundly awful idea” may even apply. I’ve previously suggested his writing suggested a GenX Who’s Afraid of Viriginia Woolf, which I know he has in him. And here’s a new pitch: a 150-minute My Dinner with Andre with Jason Mewes and I-don’t-know-who-else. Maybe Kevin, maybe somebody else playing Mewes’ old friend, maybe an actress playing a hot date, maybe Nick Nolte playing his dad. Shot in a restaurant like Andre, with nothing but closeups and two-shots and just dialogue, dialogue, dialogue.

Something needs to be explained about the new Fox Home Video Star Wars double-disc DVD (out 9.12), which will include both the original 1977 version plus the digitally reworked, extra-scenes version that Lucas created in the ’90s. Even though the DVD jacket displays a big golden “IV” in the background plus that rejiggered ’90s title — “Stars Wars: A New Hope — that Lucas created back in the Clinton years, the opening yellow credit crawl seen at the beginning of the brand-new, spiffed-up ’77 version will simply say “STAR WARS” and then go into the storybook crawl. The words “A NEW HOPE” will not appear. Just wanted to make that clear.

This 8.6.06 Australian Herald Sun piece doesn’t put much on the table, but it’s reporting that 19 years ago Mel Gibson expressed some form of roundabout verbal support for the Australian League of Rights. The group is described by reporter Lincoln Wright as “a far-right group notorious for its anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial.” (Gibson reportedly campaigned for “a friend” [named] Rob Taylor, who is described as having “stood unsuccessfully for the northern Victorian federal seat of Indi,” although Taylor’s ties to the Australian League of Rights group, if any, aren’t remotely explained.) The story strikes me as a bit thin, but there may be a whiff of truth in it.

I always miss good movies at Sundance, every time, and one I missed last January is an intimate relationship drama called Off the Black. Directed and written by James Ponsoldt, the film has no website (a mistake) but ThinkFilm is releasing it on 12.1.06. I can’t seem to find a nice, tight little one-line description but it has something do with a high-school umpire (played by Nick Nolte) and a screwed-up kid (Trevor Morgan) and the kid’s not-very-nurturing father (Tim Hutton ).

I’m particularly interested because I’m a big Nolte fan (I thought he should have gotten more attention last year for his suporting performance in The Beautiful Country) and because I’ve been hearing that Off The Black might turn into a Best Actor Oscar shot for the guy in a small-time, limited-ad-budget, little-Oscar-campaign-that-could sort of way. Like Felicity Huffman managed to do with Transamerica, and Laura Linney managed with You Can Count on Me….one of those deals.
A guy named Matt Park wrote me this morning saying “this is the best performance Nolte has ever delivered. He said something about he and his girlfriend being choked up when the lights came up at the Eccles but you have to watch that stuff. Nolte’s umpire, he wrote, is “rough, vulgar, hilarious…he breaks your heart. And the film manages to be honest and emotional and funny without ever being overly sentimental. It felt like some of my favorite flicks from the 70’s.”
I’ve had to remind myself three times so far that Ponsoldt’s film isn’t called Into the Black. It’s a funny title. It doesn’t seem to “say” anything.
I’m going to be seeing it in two or three days, but the trades apparently liked it and so did MCN’s Stu Van Airsdale, and I’m wondering if anyone’s who’s seen it since has any reactions to share.

I filed “Apocalypto Later ” about 15 hours ago, and I’ve since read all the responses and elicited some new thoughts and the consensus, boiled down, seems to be this: Americans are not the media, and are fairly racist deep-down and don’t really care that much about Mel’s anti-Semitic rant so don’t worry about any negative reactions to the film, especially with some people apparently being more inclined to see Apocaylpto because of this episode.

The other factor is that unless Gibson himself asks for a release-date delay, Touchstone, the film’s distributor, is pretty much obliged to be supportive of Apocaylpto because not being supportive sends the wrong message to other filmmakers, and so the film will probably come out on 12.8 and that’s that.
Repeating for clarity’s sake: this seems to be a “consensus” view, okay? It’s not necessarily my own view that Americans are racist — it’s what people are telling me. Got it?
An industry consultant says that Apocalypto “is so out there” — foreign language, exotic Mayan culture backdrop, guys in loincloths and face-paint carrying spears — “that it won’t be a true test of Gibson’s popularity waning or waxing. I doubt most of America will punish Mel for anti-Semitic remarks as most of them are bigots themselves. This is a very bigoted country.
“Before this happened Apocalypto was a marketing challenge, to say the least. There’s a question about the film not having a strong villain, and without that you don’t have a strong hero figure. So how do you get people to see this movie? People don’t go to see the best foreign-language fims in this country, so I wonder how you’re going to get them to come see this one except…you have to wonder, you really do have to wonder…if it was sold as ‘this is the film Hollywood Jews don’t want you to see….if you want to see more Jesus films, go see this one.'”
The Touchstone situation is this: (a) The studio has a close relationship with Gibson dating back to Ransom , and yet the company at large does not; (b) Unless Gison asks them to delay the release date (which is possible), or corporate gets queasy (also possible), it’s doubtful that Touchstone will blink or do anything that looks unsupportive; and (c) The campaign will be much trickier now, but that will be the case anyway with a March of April ’07 release date since the press will resurrect the anti-Semitic drama no matter what.
And finally, I want to make sure everyone considers an idea floated by reader Nate West — an envelope-pushing comedy called Meet the Rabbis that you just know everyone would want to see, no question. The basic plot involves an aging, drunken movie star who blows up his career with a stunning racist tirade. Then he’s forced to attend sensitivity sessions with two rabbis played by Ben Stiller and Steve Carell. Of course, the funny part is that deep down he really does hate Jews. Even funnier is that his public doesn’t much mind that he hates Jews, because either they don’t know any or they hate them too.
In all seriousness, if Gibson, Stiller and Carell were to make this film — and of course, if it turned out to be as dark and funny as the premise suggests — Gibson’s troubles would be over. He would be totally in the clear…but the film wouldn’t work if Gibson didn’t play himself as bluntly and candidly as he probably really is, deep-down.

Apocalypto Later

The Mel Gibson mess seems to be getting heavier all around, like fog. People will eventually get sick of it, but they’ll never forget about it. I’ve gotten used to the idea of news stories flaring brightly for a week or two and then going away, but there’s something deeper and skunkier about this one. Fame lasts 15 minutes; memories of racial hatred tend to linger a bit longer.
And that probably means that Gibson’s Apocalypto (Disney, 12.8) may have to push back its release date. April ’07, I’m thinking. Maybe. I don’t know. I’d like to hear opinions. But I’m starting to think that bumping it makes sense.

Mel Gibson giving direction during shooting of Apocalypto (Touchstone, 12.8)

There are lots of indications out there about how deep-seated the public’s anger at Gibson may be over his reported anti-Semitic blurtings, but the thing that got me was a story about Gibson’s troubles (“Mel to Pay?”) in the News & Notes section of this week’s Entertainment Weekly.
I don’t remember any story in this section ever drawing a hard moral line in the sand. Views and attitudes are hinted at left and right every week, but never in a declarative, plain-spoken way. But right after saying that attempts at rehabbing Gibson’s image (including “the Official Talk Show Contrition Tour””) are probably in the works, writer Daniel Fierman concludes with these words: “We’re here to tell you it’s not going to work — at least right now. The violence of Gibson’s [anti-Semitic] words won’t allow it.”
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The words “we’re here to tell you” tells me something is going on. Anything that goads EW editors into growing a pair and actually allowing something to be said in their magazine is a significant seismic indicator. And I’m starting to think there’s no way Disney’s Touchstone division can put Apocalypto (12.8) into theatres only four months from now.
The pre-release p.r. campaign would obviously have to begin sometime around mid October, and no matter how many Larry King and Diane Sawyer confessionals Gibson does on the tube (and he’ll probably have to wait until late September or early October to do these or he’ll look too craven), any Apocalypto interview he gives will turn into a referendum on racism.
I strongly doubt that the Gibson moral rehab effort can work if it’s hurried along. And I doubt it can be managed successfully (if it can be managed at all) over the next two months.

The public needs to chill about this, and the media needs to get sick of writing about it. We all know that as long as editors and reporters think there’s any juice in this story, they’ll keep hammering. Everyone has to get completely bored of dissing Mel-the-bigot — it’s the only way — and that can only be achieved through endless repetition.
The Gibson thing will cool down naturally by the end of this month, but it’ll spark up again like a wounded panther if and when the Apocalypto campaign starts up in the mid fall.
I have an idea that if Touchstone pushes Apocalypto back and lets the boiling water cool down, it’ll be less difficult to release it in early April, or possibly late March. Or maybe a bit earlier. I’m not sure. People are going to bring up anti- Semitism no matter when Apocalypto comes out, but they’ll probably be a bit more tired of it six or seven or eight months from now.
I’m leaving film fanatics like myself out of the equation. I’d much rather see Apocalypto sooner than later. Gibson is a nervy hard-core filmmaker, and I’ve been reading all along that he’s got something to say about parallels between ancient Mayan culture and our own. My vote, personally, is open it sooner, not later. But I’m from Mars.
I was talking with some guys in a video store last night about Apocalypto‘s release, and one guy in his early 40s said he thinks the Malibu racism thing will increase interest in people wanting to see it, and that nobody will give that much of a damn in four months’ time.
I suspect this may be a minority view, but what does everyone think?

Jon Finch speaking the “cure her of that…sweet oblivious antidote” speech from Roman Polanski‘s Macbeth (1971), and also the “tomorrow and tomorrow” speech. For the nurturing.

I guess Warner Bros. really doesn’t want any advance word on The Wicker Man (9.1). Critic Steve Murray of the Atlanta Constitution says “they’re not screening it for critics. At least in Atlanta. Got the word here Friday from the local publicist that the screening will be 10 p.m. on Thursday, 8.31 — the night before it opens.”

I can’t believe this is a quality issue, not with director-writer Neil LaBute at the helm. He’s a shrewd writer, a pro-level director and no schlockhound. It must be about WB not wanting any kind of hint passed along about the Wicker plot, particularly the ending.

The last time I checked New Line Cinema was planning on doing the same thing with Snakes on a Plane — no screenings until 10 pm on Thursday, 8.17, the night before it opens. I’m guessing New Line publicity is going to arrange gratis passes for critics. It should be a rockin’ experience, especially getting home at midnight and having to write the review so it’s up the next morning.

This story by London Times correspondent John Harlow says that executors of Brando’s estate “including [Pheonix Pictures honcho] Mike Medavoy…are raising money by licensing Brando products including…a semi-fictional documentary called Citizen Brando.” The semi-doc, formerly called Brando and Brando, is about a Tunisian “boy” who traveled to the U.S. to meet Brando. Directed by Ridha Behi, it is said to be a partly fictionalized doc about Behi’s friendship with Brando.
Hold on….what about that series of acting-class videos called Lying for a Living, which Brando and director Tony Kaye partnered on roughly four years ago? It’s basically shows Brando giving acting lessons to an audience of mostly non-pros with drop-by’s (according to this and that news account) from Robin Williams, Michael Jackson, Nick Nolte, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn. Surely all the tapes that were shot of the Lying sessions (one of which I almost gained admittance to) can be asembled into some kind of shape? Two or three calls to Medavoy last week and two chats with his personal publicist Howard Brandy provided no answers.

N.Y. Times Ed Leibowitz asks if it’s “better to mimic or transcend” famous figures you’re playing in a movie? Uhmm…the best way is try and do both, no? All I know is, any piece using a photo of Kirsten Dunst as Marie-Antoinette (as she appears in Sofia Coppola‘s film) is an automatic turn-off. It doesn’t open until 10.20, but Marie-Antoinette is already fixed in people’s heads as this year’s Memoirs of a Geisha…if that. It may do some business with young women who aren’t that deep, and it’ll probably pick up some tech nomninations (costumes, production, design, makeup).

I didn’t mention the sad 63% drop suffered by Miami Vice this weekend, but obviously not enough people agreed with critics that the dense aroma of that film — the visual “fumes,” as I put it two or three weeks ago — more than made up for a not-that-great story and an emotional current that could have been stronger. It’ll be a push for Vice to reach $60 million domestic, which won’t cover prints and marketing. The Vice shortfall may not prove as much of a bath for Universal as Poseidon was for Warner Bros., but it’s in that vicinity. I don’t know what this means as far as Mann’s next film is concerned, but having to work with less money is never a bad thing creatively. Look at what Scorsese did with After Hours and The Last Temptation of Christ during his late ’80s down period.