Year: 2006

“I had lived my life believing two things — that pain should not be sought, but, by the same token, it should never be avoided, because there is a lesson in facing adversity. Having gone through that experience, I can attest, in a non-masochistic way, that pain is a great teacher. I don’t relish it, but I learn from it. I always say, even as an ex-Catholic, that God sends the letter, but not the dictionary. You need to forge your own dictionary.” — Pan’s Labyrinth director-writer Guillermo del Toro, speaking to The Guardian‘s Mark Kermode.

The highlights of Russell Crowe‘s “60 Minutes’ interview with Steve Kroft are all here. Fascinating stuff — you can’t just watch one clip. I liked Crowe’s statement that in Australia, the phone-throwing thing would have been resolved “with an apology and a handshake.” You know…the way John Wayne would’ve handled the after-effects of a fist fight in a John Ford film.

But in the world we’re contendng with over here (and this is HE speaking, not Crowe)…a world filled with manly hotel employees who say “whatever” when a customer has a problem and then run to their attorneys looking for a cash set- tlement to help them get over the shock of their little-bitch attitude coming right back at them, things are different.

On or about 6.1.06, when I was posting my daily material from a wi-fi cafe in Montmartre, I reported that Andrew Dominik‘s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford — i.e., Brad Pitt‘s other ’06 movie besides Babel — would not be released by Warner Bros. on the then-posted date 9.15.056, but rather some time in early 2007. This meant that some reconfiguring was going on and Team Jesse needed time to fix certain problems, etc.

Now comes a Kevin Williamson piece in the Calgary Sun reporting that the fillm’s “ambiguous” ’07 release date (not…it’s always been February or March) has been clarified by producer Tony Scott as February ’07. (I called a Warner Bros. p.r. rep for a precise date — she didn’t pick up.) Scott told Williamson that “we have to be careful how we market it because it’s like a Terrence Malick film. But it’s really good and Brad’s terrific in it — he just gets better with age.”
Pitt, naturally, plays the title character. His costars include the always-creepy Casey Affleck (as Ford), Sam Rockwell, Sam Shepard, Mary-Louise Parker and Zooey Deschanel.

“Hollywood is in the midst of a strategic shift,” N.Y. Times reporter Laura Holson writes for the Monday, 11.6 issue. “The average cost to make and market a movie has skyrocketed — to $96.2 million last year, from $54.1 million in 1995 — while lucrative DVD sales have flattened. Major film studios are fending off illegal piracy, which industry executives say accounted for $1.3 billion in lost revenue in the United States last year.
“The growth of new media threatens to undermine traditional businesses, while studios are flummoxed about how to take advantage of the new opportunities they represent. And movies and TV also face tough new competition from video games and online social networking sites. Even cellphones have become a favorite diversion among the young.
“As in so many other show business debates, money and control are at the heart of the matter. And without solutions to these problems in sight, relations between talent and the studios are more strained than ever.”

Empire is reporting that Spike Lee is in negotiations to direct a sequel to Inside Man — excellent news. Lee is said to be “already working with the original screenwriter Russell Gurwitz.” Insufficient details! This is truly a nothing item. It’s getting late, all right.

More reactions to Daniel Craig‘s James Bond, of a generally more positive nature than views spouted by “Manhattan Movie Guy” and assembled by the BBC. The London Times has said that Craig “is up there with the best — he combines Sean Connery‘s athleticism and cocksure swagger with Timothy Dalton‘s thrilling undercurrent of stone-cold cruelty.”

“Don’t quote me but Casino Royale is James Bland. And very long. Lots of cool little moments don’t deliver what America will want. And Daniel Craig isn’t Bond. He’s Jason Bourne in five years.” — Hotshot Manhattan movie guy who gets around and sees everything.

The N.Y. Times‘ David Carr — a.k.a. “the Bagger” — is back in action and making the claim that Oscar heat is somehow hotter in Manhattan than Los Angeles, and that Gotham Oscar campaign publicists cater more egregiously to movie journalists than L.A. flacks, some of whom say “no” or “later” or “let me get into it” or take an awful long time to return calls.

Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who stepped in and made Tom Cruise look alive and well by offering an overhead and development cost deal just a few days after Cruise was booted off the Paramount lot by Sumner Redstone, looks like he may be interested in funding movies for the new United Artists stakeholder,” blah, blah.

Casino Royale (Columbia, 11.17) screened in London last night (Saturday, 11.4) and the Telegraph has run some reactions. “It’s terrific,” said one critic. “This is going to be the prequel to all other Bonds. There are a lot of fans who prefer either Moore or Connery but Daniel Craig could be better. This is the story of how Bond got started, before he became 007. Craig is such a good actor…he plays Bond as strong but emotionally vulnerable. For the first time you see his sensitive side.”
“The flm begins in black-and-white, but then goes to color. There is no sexual innuendo in this film; Craig’s Bond is more sophisticated than that. And the filmmakers have been sure to show the consequences of violence — he bleeds. Craig depicts a character who is tough and gritty and while the plot of good versus evil is the same, there is no Miss Moneypenny. If Bond has been a role-model for playboys across the generations, Craig’s 007 is not only interested in seduction. He falls deeply in love with his Vesper Lynd (Eva Green).”