The problem here, obviously, is that a werewolfy-type guy half-based on the creature played by Michael Landon in I Was a Teenaged Werewolf and half-based on Kim Hunter‘s character in Planet of the Apes has nothing to do with anything. Seriously, what is this? I like the final shot though.
One of the Tribeca Film Festival’s “Meet the Filmmakers” sessions at the Soho Apple store will feature Natalie Portman (appearing on Friday, 4.24 at 3:30 pm) talking about an “entertainment web project” of some sort. Update: Portman “will join Christine Aylward on the stage of the Apple Store, SoHo, to discuss their new web project, ‘MakingOf’ — a site that promises to transform the way people view, enjoy, and participate in entertainment.”
Portman fan site webmaster Darren Buser sent along a possible indication in this 5.8.07 Gawker item. Her project may involve viral web marketing and the possible participation of Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Or not.
The Soho Apple store “Meet the Filmmaker” program schedule: Wednesday, 4.22, 7 pm — Spike Lee (Passing Strange, Kobe Doin’ Work). Friday, 4.24, 3:30 pm — Portman. Friday, 4.24, 5:00 pm — Dan Fogler (Hysterical Psycho). 4.24, 5:00 pm — Lee Daniels (Precious).
Saturday, 4.25, 4 pm — So Yong Kim (Treeless Mountain), Bradley Rust Gray (Exploding Girl). Sunday, 4.26, 5:00 p.m. — Connor McPherson (The Eclipse).
Monday, 4.27, 5:00 p.m. — Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Carlos Cuaron (Rudo Y Cursi). 4.27, 6:30 p.m. — Gabriel Noble (P-Star Rising). 4.27, 8:00 p.m. — Atom Egoyan (Adoration).
Tuesday, 4.28, 6:30 p.m. — Eric Bana (Love the Beast). Thursday, 4.30, 5:00 p.m. — Kirby Dick (Outrage). Friday, 5.1, 7:00 p.m. — Nia Vardalos and Donald Petrie (My Life in Ruins)
Yesterday 20th Century Fox sent out a release condemning Roger Friedman‘s two-day-old review on Fox 411 of the illegal Wolverine work print — a review which has since been taken down but is still accessible here.
“We’ve just been made aware that Roger Friedman, a freelance columnist who writes Fox 411 on Foxnews.com — an entirely separate company from 20th Century Fox — watched on the internet and reviewed a stolen and unfinished version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” the release said (according to Hitfix’s Drew McWeeny). “This behavior is reprehensible and we condemn this act categorically — whether the review is good or bad.”
Friedman downloaded the work print last Wednesday night and yes, praised what he saw (particularly David Benioff‘s “streamlined” screenplay). He said the uncompleted special effects “didn’t take away from the film at all” although “a couple of times it was possible to see the harnesses on the actors.”
If Wolverine ends up suffering serious damage from the piracy (and I say “if”), it’ll be due to the pre-release online buzz and not from any prospective revenue loss due to people who’ve seen it online not paying to see it in theatres. The word so far has not been ecstatic — let’s face it — and Friedman probably reasoned he was doing 20th Century Fox a favor by posting his thumbs-up reaction.
He decided to review it, he wrote, because “the cat is out of the bag and the genie is out of the bottle” and therefore, he felt, the questions of legality were moot because “there’s no turning back.”
He said that “obviously someone who had access to a print uploaded the film onto this website, [which] begs several questions about security. Time to round up the usual suspects! Let’s hope by now it’s gone.”
I have an acute aversion to illegal downloads in all senses of the term — ethical, practical, aesthetic, political. Friedman shouldn’t have gone there, but, as noted, he probably had a notion that his positive reaction to the film would have some kind of upside effect and that Fox resultantly wouldn’t freak out. But they did.
The curious thing is that all of this broke yesterday when the Friedman piece in question was up as of early Thursday morning. You’d think 20th Century Fox would have gotten its response out that same day…no?
The correct phraseology when it comes to cats and bags, by the way, is “cat’s in the bag and the bag’s in the river.” That’s straight from the typewriter of Clifford Odets in his rewritten screenplay for Sweet Smell of Success.
The generic synopsis for Todd Phillips‘ The Hangover (Warner Bros., 6.5.09): “A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him.” Cinematical’s Peter Green wrote that the trailer looks “like Old School with more alcohol.”
A “dunot” is a unique brand of French pastry, created in 1974 by world-renowned French chef Paul Bocuse. Some U.S. restaurants offered it for a period in the mid ’70s, but for whatever reason it never caught on with the public. Today it has all but disappeared.
From a selection of Murray Close film-set photos allegedly being shown for the first time at Proud Camden gallery from now until 6.7.09. (I say allegedly because there’s no mention of a Close show on the Proud Camden site.)
Today’s scholastic exercise to is to sift through Eugene Hernandez, Brian Brooks, Peter Knegt and Andy Lauer‘s “Cannes Wish List” piece on Indiewire and try and pick out the titles that weren’t mentioned in Mike Goodridge‘s Cannes forecast article in Screen International than ran seven weeks ago.
Sidenote: Atom Egoyan‘s Chloe just wrapped so it’ll be quite the feat if it plays in Cannes six weeks hence.
“I’m already paying fees to RealD for the systems. I’m paying to put in the silver screens and I’m paying to train employees to run the product. For 20th Century Fox To come in at this point and say they aren’t going to pay for the glasses [for showings of the 3D Ice age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs] while saying they all the upside of the revenue, is ridiculous.” — A “angry exhibitor” speaking to Entertainment Weekly‘s Nicole Sperling two days ago at Showest. (Supplying glasses to exhibitors for a single 3D feature costs the distributor about $1 million.)
Last night I was introduced to Vincent Pastore (a.k.a. “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero from The Sopranos) at the Rescue Me after-party at the Times Square Hard Rock cafe. Nice guy but his hand was thick and smallish and dry — it felt like coarse sandpaper. Vincent explained right away that he was showing the Hard Rock’s historical displays — i.e., guitars and costumes used by famous musicians — to a young dark-haired lady he was with.
The girl, who spoke with a borough accent, was slightly overdressed and in her mid to late 20s, said she was “very interested [in the displays] because I don’t know anything about rock ‘n’ roll. I only know about disco.”
Right away I cocked my head. “But disco was thirty years ago,” I said. “Yeah, but my parents were only into disco,” she replied, “so that’s all I know about.”
First, what kind of cast-iron blinders do you have to be wearing to only know about the kind of music that your parents were into during the Jimmy Carter administration? And two, who admits to mixed company that their parents’ taste in music has not only defined their interests but also kept them from having any curiosity about other forms of music for their entire life?
Noting that N.Y. Times readers have offered to donate money to keep the struggling (one could say staggering) publication alive, executive editor Bill Keller, speaking yesterday at Stanford University, said that “saving the New York Times now ranks with saving Darfur as a high-minded cause.”
President Obama playfully fucks with reporter from the Times of India at a press conference held yesterday.
