Year: 2006

“I can watch the world through Michelangelo Antonioni ‘s eyes forever. He is the greatest stylist of the modern era, and The Passenger may be my favorite film,” David Thomson has written in The Guardian . “It’s the one I think of offering whenever people ask that question. And they ask a lot.

“No, it’s not in my top ten, but sometimes I think [The Passenger is the one I like the best, by which I fear I mean it’s the film I’d most like to be in, instead of just watching.” Dream-projecting ourselves into films we really like is what many — most — of us do, I think, when we’re really taken by them. And when we’re watching films that we respect or admire but aren’t that into, that’s all we’re doing — watching from our side of the window. Every time I’ve re-watched any of Antonioni’s five or six greatest — La Notte, Blow-Up , L’eclisse, Il Grido, L’Avventura — I’ve felt this exact same urge to dissolve into a spectral cellluloid spirit, and disappear into the world of these films and wander around and maybe never come back. What would it be like to hang around in an Antonioni film after the movie is “over”? Mesmerizing, I would think. But what if a malicious side of this fantasy manifests? This is obviously Purple Rose of Cairo idea (and probably some Japanese horror-film director’s also), but what other films have readers wanted to literally dissolve into? The reason Mia Farrow leaves the physical realm is that she desperately wants to belong to the world of those silver-toned, champagne-sipping sophisticates in the film she’s been watching in that 1984 Woody Allen film, but what if films were to reach out and kidnap this or that audience member at random (or, better, for a reason) and suck them body-and-soul into their worlds, whether they want to be absorbed or not? Complete this sentence: ‘I can think of nothing more torturous than to be forcibly vacuumed into the realm of [the name of the film].” My Personal Worst along these lines: 20th Century Fox’s Dallas movie, with or without Jennifer Lopez in it.

I decided several months ago that Martin Scorsese ‘s The Departed will be his best film since Goodfellas because of the urban grit, cops-and-mob-guys milieu. It should be, I mean, or has the best chance to be, given the home-turf factor. And now along comes this AICN early-bird review, which is a melancholy pan, the guy obviously heartsick about what he feels obliged to pass along. There’s only one thing to do (and it’s not hard), which is to slip into denial about it and stay that way until…

The CAA team is saying adios to the I.M. Pei building that reflected the vision of former agency chief Mike Ovitz, and ICM will soon be gone from that green-stone-and-tinted-glass fortress on Wilshire Blvd…and they’re both moving into new digs in Century City, and not far from each other. All signifying some kind of primal generational need to say “that was then, this is now.” As former agent Lou Pitt tells N.Y. Times reporter Sharon Waxman, “When you pick up and move from someplace, it’s often more than just to find space…when you move, you redefine yourself…it gives you a chance to start fresh.”

This feels like yesterday’s papers, but a source “very close” to Tom Cruise has told Slate‘s Kim Masters that “he’s teetering on the brink of a certain kind of trouble that no star like him has ever been in before.” Cruise’s films always cost a bundle, and “the weak performance M:I3 is enough to give any studio pause,” Masters writes. “Meanwhile, Cruise’s production deal with Paramount expires in a few weeks. Negotiations to renew are not, as yet, under way. Without big, profitable movies starring Cruise, the deal is far too rich to be justified. One marketing executive speaks for many in saying, ‘He needs to go away.’ The idea is that Cruise should stay out of sight for at least a year, allowing time to get over what one prominent agent calls ‘the cootie factor .’ Apparently Cruise does not grasp the cootie factor and has no plans to take a break. And the agent says it would be very hard for his reps, at this delicate moment, to explain the situation to him. ‘He’s in a zone that he’s never been in and it’s their job to make sure he feels the positive light,’ he says. Another source close to the star agrees. ‘You’ve got to be very careful in conversations with him,’ he says. ‘Tom is not ever going to face facts.'” But if he reads Masters’ column, he’ll at least be semi-primed for that dreaded conversation…or so, I gather, went the rationale among Masters’ sources when they decided to lay things bare in a public forum. For what it’s worth I sussed this one out a month ago, and said towards the end of the piece that “if Cruise is smart (and he is), he can damage control his way out of this, to some extent. Just downplay the weirdo stuff and focus on the work, the work, the work. Next up (according to what I’ve read): the Glenn Ford role in James Mangold‘s remake of 3:10 to Yuma, and (according to the IMDB) the role of renegade American pilot Billy Fiske in Michael Mann ‘s The Few. Onward and upward. He’ll earn a bit less, but what’s that? This is a crisis but also a big opportunity for the guy. He’s begun one of those life passages that can lead, with the right attitude, to non-material riches.”

Another surprisingly good opening on top of the $38 million earned last weekend by The Break-Up: John Moore’s The Omen , which was critically trashed and wasn’t expected to do more than $7 million or so on its demonic Tuesday opener (the 6.6.06 date being the whole reason it was made in the first place), took in $12.5 million yesterday. I saw it last night at the AMC 15 in Century City in a 280-seat house…maybe 30 or 35 seats unfilled. I studied the faces as best I could in the dark, but it seemed to be overwhelmingly an under-25 crowd . I saw maybe two or three couples in their late 20s and early 30s. It’s not a bad film, this thing. If you can get past the fact that it’s nearly a scene-by-scene re-do of the Richard Donner original, and if Liev Schreiber’s really weird nose and cheekbones aren’t too much of a bother, it’s a reasonably satisfying thriller that’s way above the level of stuff like Hostel. I said to myself about two-thirds of the way through, “This is better than the original.” It’s not looking for voltage from cheap or vulgar shock tricks, for the most part. It`delivers at least three good shock moments. (Maybe four.) The hell with Schreiber’s nose — he’s a superb actor with one of the great baritone voices in movies today. Julia Styles holds her own nicely, and Mia Farrow is eerily fine as little creep Damien’s evil nanny (plus she has a great death scene). The high-grade supporting cast, David Thewlis and Pete Postelthwaite especially — give it a classy veneer. And I couldn’t help but admire the craft in Jonathan Sela‘s photography and Marco Beltrami‘s newly scored music on top of Jerry goldsmith’s classic “Ave Santani” , which I loved hearing loud and strong from the big-screen speakers. The only element I didn’t like was Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Damien. Like Donner before him, Moore doesn’t seem to understand that it’s ten times more creepy for a supposedly demonic monster to look like a wholesome, free-spirited, upbeat atttitude kid — with just a hint of ugliness flickering somewhere deep in his eyes. Davey-Fitzpatrick, wearing a total of one expression through the entire film, is a dull little demon.

Here’s a good sign-of-the-times story by the L.A. Times Josh Friedman about online sports-betting sites taking in some fairly decent coin each weekend from taking bets on Hollywood box-office . “By putting their money where their entertainment hunches are, [betting-minded moviegoers] are turning the weekend box-office derby — once followed mainly by studio executives and accountants — into a participatory sport,” Friedman writes. “Online entertainment betting, originally a novelty aimed at hyping the sports books during Oscar season, is on the rise. World Sports Exchange, which runs a gambling site at wsex.com, reports that its movie wagering volume jumped 26% last year. These days, the site takes $25,000 to $50,000 worth of bets on each weekend’s box-office results.”

“I’m been suffering the tortures of the damned, sir…tortures of the damned.” — Alex (Malcolm McDowell) to prison minister in Stanley Kubrick‘s A Clockwork Orange.

I’m sorry, but this is mildly amusing. Not the Tropicana tie-in as much as someone on the food chain not saying to someone else, “I’m not saying this is a huge deal because it’s not…it’s nothing…but the other side of the coin is that it’s mainly going to give journalists who’ve already responded to the Advocate cover (like the L.A. Times John Horn) something to snicker at. So why do it?” (The source of the image is Manhattan Offender, by way of Defamer.)

Less amusing is a note from an exhibitor friend telling me that Superman Returns has a “confirmed duration of 158 minutes.”

“At 7:56 am on Wednesday, 6.8.06, Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere put himself and his site (www.hollywood-elsewhere.com) in full compliance with U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act by submitting to a demand from Time Inc. Deputy General Counsel Nicholas J. Jollymore, received this morning at 7:45 am, to remove a photo of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Shiloh Nouvel that People magazine paid $4.1 million to publish “exclusively,” so to speak.”

I’ve been sent a convincing-looking copy of Margery Simkin ‘s casting breakdown for James Cameron‘s Project 880, which will apparently begin shooting in Los Angeles sometime in November. Simkin’s sheet offers the following plotline: “In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves not only at odds with the Na’vi but also with each other.” The characters besides Jake are Neytiri (young female lead, “exotic” in some way or another), Grace (a “mentor” figure, already cast), Norm (mid 20s, second-lead type, a scientist), Akwey (a Na’vi), Tsu’Tey (another Na’vi), Quaritchy (seasoned, middle-aged American Colonel), Selfridge (40ish station supervisor..charismatic), and Trudy Chacon (tough, serious ex-Marine who has has an unlikely relationship with Norm).

I saw the link on Hollywood Wiretap, but the story about Seth Mnookin‘s story in a soon-to-sell issue of Vanity Fair that delves into allegations of plagiarism by Dan Brown in the writing of best-selling “The DaVinci Code” is on the website Editor & Publisher. The charge is that Brown appropriated portions of his novel from Lewis Perdue‘s “Daughter of God”….oops. Kind of a movie-plot spoiler just mentioning that title.