Month: July 2007

Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff explaining his call for a gay boycott of Adam Shankman‘s Hairspray to Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly a while back. The beef is about star John Travolta‘s affiliation with Scientology, which Naff feels has been injurious and insulting to gay interests by offering gay-to- straight therapy sessions.

I don’t like quoting from WENN, but Hairspray director Adam Shankman is quoted by the British news org as being “astonished” that Naff “has made the dumbest claims on the entire planet. Everybody involved in Hairspray — all the creators are gay. So John has no problem with people being gay — me, the writers, composer, John Waters…all gay. John’s personal beliefs never walked onto my set. I never heard the word Scientology.”

It’s looking more likely that the one-page Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows summary and final-chapter spoiler site that I linked to but didn’t discuss yesterday is legit, except (I won’t mention any particulars) for statements about a certain character biting the dust.

Some other guy (or maybe it’s the same dude from yesterday) has posted almost the entire book online. The links went dead about an hour ago — the Potter lawyers are clearly hard at work. Someone also posted an assortment of big-plot-turn links — this one is still active. The only chapter missing in today’s posting is the epilogue, which seemed to be revealed in yesterday’s posting.
In a N.Y. Times story by Mokoto Rich about the online spolings (i.e., titled “New Potter Book May Have Made Its Way to Web” and posted at 2:38 pm this afternoon), it says that “Kyle Good, a spokeswoman for Scholastic, the book’s United States publisher, said that she was aware of at least three different versions of the file ‘that look very convincing’ with what she described as ‘conflicting content.'”
As HE reader James Hammell summarizes, “This is either a fantastic disinform- ation campaign from the publisher, an excellent and unprecedented hoax, or totally legit.” Not that photographing and posting pages from a not-yet-released book is “legit” — he means a genuine theft from the true-blue Hallows.

The Toronto Film Festival will, of course, be showing the latest from Canadian filmmakers, but my keenest anticipations are for David Cronenberg Eastern Promises, Denys Arcand‘s Days of Darkness (which I missed at Cannes), Francois Girard‘s Silk, Roger Spottiswoode‘s Shake Hands with the Devil and Daniel Lanois‘ Here Is What Is.

Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts in David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises

Missing in Michael Fleming‘s Variety story about Town House, a film that Once director John Carney will begin shooting in January for Fox 2000, is that it’s fundamentally about a character grappling with agorahobia, i.e., a fear of open spaces.

Doug Wright‘s script is an adaptation of Tish Coen‘s recently released book. Coehn’s story unfolds in Boston; Fleming reported that the film “will shoot on the East Coast.” Does that mean New London? Asbury Park? Does Carney have a problem with Beantown, or was Fleming just writing the story under a hard deadline?
Here’s an Amazon/Booklist summary: “The son of a legendary rock musician, Jack Madigan (an Irishman!) has been living off his father’s royalties for years, but things are looking dire as the money runs out. His wife has already left, unable to deal with Jack’s refusal to confront his agoraphobia; his teenage son, who avidly embraces 1970s clothing because ‘uncool is the new cool,” may relocate to California with his mom..
“But Jack’s once magnificent Boston townhouse, now crumbling around him, is being repossessed by the bank. Even his work as a color consultant — he has been tinkering for years with a formula for the perfect white–is failing to provide the funds he so desperately needs. His only hope is the charming but hopelessly inept realtor assigned to sell the house. With the help of the little girl next door, whose dream is to become an Olympic skater, Jack suddenly finds himself motivated to face his greatest fear — stepping outside of his house.
“Rising above its obvious, overly tidy plotting, this highly readable first novel offers plenty of sardonic humor and a cast of endearing eccentrics.”

Rotten Tomatoes has compiled a Midyear Report with an ’07 Best Reviewed Movies list, and the top ten are Ratatouille, Away From Her, Once, Knocked Up, Hot Fuzz, Sicko, The Host, Zodiac, Waitress (Waitress?) and The Lookout (really?).
The top ’07 releases in Metacritic’s list of All-Time Best Reviewed Films is also Ratatouille, but the second best-reviewed is Charles Burnett‘s Killer of Sheep, and the fifth best reviewed is Jafar Panahi‘s Offside, “a smart comedy illustrating the fight for women’s rights in Iran” which Sony Classics opened in March.
The second, third and fourth best-reviewed ’07 Metacritic films are Once, Away From Her and Knocked Up.

L.A. Times reporter Robert Welkos has written that Brad Bird‘s Ratatouille “probably won’t be in the running” for a Best Picture Oscar as opposed to one for Best Animated Feature, which it has a good shot at. What am I missing here? What critical criteria would have to be surpassed for an animated feature to leapfrog out of its own category and into the running for a regular Best Picture Oscar? Implicit in Welkos’ piece is a notion that a Best Animated Feature Oscar is a second-tier honor. Media by Numbers analyst Paul Dergarabedian supports this by saying “there’s an innate bias against animated films [by Oscar voters]…they are perceived as being for kids.” What kind of beer are these guys drinking? The last time an animated feature was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar was when Beauty and the Beast managed it in 1991 — 16 years ago. It’s not happening again. Forget it.

Yesterday Deadline Hollywood Daily‘s Nikki Finke posted an admittedly “incomplete” list of Hollywood political contributors to the campaigns of Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Rudy Giuliani, etc. Finke’s source is CNN Political Research Director Robert Yoon. It’s okay for a fast amusement scan, but I like the Newsmeat figures better. They have Adam Sandler down as a Giuliani contributor (along with David Zucker, Brad Grey, Kelsey Gramer and Ben Stein) but not Yoon. Yoon has Tom Hanks down as a HIlary suppporter and so does Newsmeat (he gave her $2100 in ’06) but the latter also lists Hanks as a $2500 Obama contributor as of last March. A lot of industry conributors cover their bases by giving to more than one candidate.

The Chicago Film Critics Association has reportedly (per Radar‘s Adam K. Raymond) instituted a coverage boycott against Fox releases (i.e., no features, profiles, and interviews — just film reviews) over unequal access to screenings and/or “being shut out of screenings entirely” by local Fox publicists.

Except I asked about this last week, and was told by a 20th Century Fox spokesperson on Friday, 7.13, that Fox publicist Chris Petrikin had connected with CFCA spokeserson Dan Gire and “they had a good chat,” “we see their side and they see ours,” and “they are not going to continue this crusade against us.”
The nub of the matter is that Fox publicists are irate and freaking over review- embargo breaking by online critics and columnists, and that honcho Breena Camden has decided to get tough all over. This way no one in upper management can say she’s not taking strong action, but these restrictive measures are very sweeping and bludgeon-y.
Another indication of Fox’s extremely guarded screening policy is their decision to screen The Simpsons Movie for onliners on Thursday, 7.26 — the night before the nationwide opening. No other studio has done this to myknowledge — they either don’t screen dicey films or they screen them two or three days before opening. Fox also stipulatd that no plus-ones will be allowed to attend the 7.26 screening.
Fox’s message is basically “we don’t trust you and we really don’t trust your friends.” Obviously they don’t want early reviews because it’s the Wild West out there, etc., but the Simpsons brand skews older and smarter and could presumably benefit from early-ish reviews from the right people.
I suggested to Fox publicity that they should decide who among the onliners has behaved fairly and honorably (I have never burned them on a review embargo) and isolate these people and give them the courtesy of earlier screenings. My understanding is that this approach is being looked at with a degree of receptivity.

I was told this morning that Dimension’s senior production vp Steve Barnett and director of development and production Alex Franklin are thinking about following production president Richard Saperstein out the door.
If the Barnett-Franklin story is true, this would leave Dimension honcho Bob Weinstein with no L.A. production execs, no creative presence…headless for the time being. No comment so far from Weinstein/ Dimension publicity staffers in Manhattan, so I called Franklin’s L.A. office. Franklin picked up and said that (a) he and Barnett are involved “in an ongoing situation that we’re all trying to resolve,” (b) that things are “up in the air” and (c) that he hopes to have his situation “resolved later this week.”
A non-Dimension production exec said this morning that Franklin is “walking for sure. They have an option on him but he told them in no uncertain terms he isn’t interested in staying. All I keep hearing are rumors that they [i.e., the Weinstein brothers] are running severely low on money.”
Saperstein’s departure was heatedly denied last week by Weinstein Co. spokes- persons, but “rumors continued to race around the industry that Saperstein had indeed been fired but that TWC was trying to figure out a way to avoid paying out a lengthy contract,” according to Variety columnist Michael Fleming.)
A Weinstein Co. spokesperson would only say that Barnett and Franklin “are employees at The Weinstein Company.”

I don’t have a comprehensive tally of all the Welcome Back, Potter spoofs have appeared over the years. I know there was one that ran on SNL in ’02. This one is British-produced (Dawn Patrol Prods., apparently) and droll and, for me, freshly funny.

Wow…the finale of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book has already been spoiled. Apparently. I’m not at all sure but that’s how it appears. I mean, this zendurl.com saboteur has posted precise and exacting summaries plus photos of the final chapter pages — an epilogue that lasts nine pages and takes place “Nineteen Years Later.” Thanks to HE reader Peyton Westlake. I won’t reveal anything but if you’re so inclined…

A three-week-old interview report by Louis CK about the Catholic Church. Before jumping to any conclusions, understand that Louis was raised Catholic. Bitter, angry, funny…and the ending is perfect.