I don’t know which James Stewart-Anthony Mann western was shooting when this was taken, but I’m guessing either Winchester ’73 (’50) or Bend of the River (’52) as Stewart, born in ’08, looks like he’s in his mid 40s. You’ll notice that no less than 14 crew guys are utterly fascinated and delighted with what Stewart is saying at the moment. (Mann is sitting at Stewart’s left.) Trust me, I’ve been one of those suck-uppy guys on a set. I kind of hate myself when I’m beaming at every last quip, witticism, sage observation and smart-assed remark that a big star shares, but that’s the system. If a star farts, every crew member bends over for a good whiff. The star knows this, of course. He/she can do anything, say anything. It takes a certain je ne sais quoi to handle this kind of attention.

During a Most Violent Year interview last November I asked Oscar Isaac about the HBO miniseries Show Me A Hero, which he was shooting at the time. A period piece (late ’80s to early ’90s) based on Lisa Belkin‘s nonfiction book of the same name, Hero is about white middle-class rage over a planned public-housing development (i.e, non-white neighbors) in Yonkers, and how Nick Wasicsko (Isaac), the youngest mayor in the country, dealt with it. (Curiously, Wascisko committed suicide in ’93.) Six episodes, written by David Simon and William F. Zorzi, directed by Paul Haggis. Premiering on 8.16.15. Again, the mp3.

I have to watch each True Detective episode a couple of times to figure out what the hell is going on, and even then it helps to read a couple of online summaries and then watch a third time for good measure. Partly due to the labyrinthian plotting, partly due to the general slurring and murmuring. But hoowee, did things come alive last night or what? For the first time this year I sat up and went “whoa, whoa…wait, wait!” It began around the 45-minute mark and lasted for just about nine minutes. Easily the best action scene of this kind since the downtown L.A. firefight in Michael Mann‘s Heat (’95), which lasted about 90 seconds longer. A lot of cops and non-involved citizens went down before it was over. Those Mexican drug dealer guys (especially the baldie with the white T-shirt) are really crazy — all they want to do is waste as many cops and bystanders are possible before being killed. I didn’t believe Rachel McAdams would run after the bad-guy SUV and fire away — too reckless. In real life she would have caught a bullet or two or three.

Originally posted on 5.3: A 21st Century D.C. Comics ragtag Dirty Dozen minus three. A metaphor for comic-book culture ragtag subterraneans, livin’ tough and hard by their own flinty, scruffy-as-shit, smart-assed outlaw code…rude, used, abused, sued, yahoo’ed & tattooed. “Incarcerated supervillains acting as deniable assets for the United States government, undertaking high-risk black ops missions in exchange for commuted prison sentences” blah blah. Warner Bros. will open this David Ayer creation on 8.5.16.

Whatever happened to Terrence Malick‘s Knight of Cups? It was screened and, it has to be said, not ecstatically reviewed at last February’s Berlinale, and…well, I haven’t felt anything since. No buzz, no anticipation, no sound of humming engines…zip. What’s to say, right? Another ethereal, rhapsodic dream poem from Mr. Wackadoodle. The distributor is Broad Green Pictures. I’m guessing Cups will turn up at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival prior to a limited theatrical/peek-out VOD opening sometime next year. This is what the Malick cult has boiled down to — peek-outs, escapes, secretions.

When will Malick’s other space-trip movie, Weightless, play to audiences? I realize that principal photography began on this Austin-based musical drama in September 2012 or thereabouts, or a little less than three years ago. But it probably won’t be seen….well, who knows but sometime next year, I’m guessing, and most likely in the late summer or fall, especially if Knight of Cups doesn’t open this year, which wouldn’t surprise me.

If (I say “if”) Weightless doesn’t open until the fall of ’16, a full five years will have transpired between the earliest filming at the September 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival. That would be a kind of milestone — the first ostensibly commercial film in history to shoot with major stars and not open until they’ve all noticably aged and basically turned into slightly different people.

Variety‘s Scott Foundas has mentioned Margaret and Accidental Love (a.k.a. Nailed) as precedents. Except Accidental Love was delayed by force majeure financial factors and Margaret was held up due to differences between a director (Kenneth Lonergan) and a distributor. Weightless is the first major film to be delayed ad infinitum due to creative dithering, indecision and lettuce-leaf-tossing on the part of the director.

The genius stroke, of course, would be to release Knight of Cups and Weightless either simultaneously or closely in tandem. The fact that Christian Bale, Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett costar in both (as either the same or different characters…does it matter?) would lead to a certain intrigue. You can’t see just one, etc.

I’m presuming that James Vanderbilt‘s Truth, which Sony Pictures Classics will release sometime during the 2015 award season, will have its first showings in the early fall at one of the early September festivals — Venice, Telluride, Toronto — or at the New York Film Festival, which begins in late September. Last night I tapped out a quickie about whether Cate Blanchett‘s allegedly excellent lead performance as CBS News producer Mary Mapes will strongly compete with her already-seen-and-praised performance in Todd Haynes‘ Carol in the Best Actress realm. Who knows how SPC and The Weinstein Co., the distributor of Carol, will play their cards? A guy who’s seen Truth tells me that Blanchett’s performance is pure drillbit so it may come down to a matter of who blinks first.

One thing for sure is that when Truth starts to be seen the nutter right will dive again into that controversial, clearly flawed 60 Minutes segment and spread their usual bullshit. Aired on 9.8.04, the much-criticized segment led to the resignation of Mapes and other CBS News producers and executives in its wake, and CBS anchor Dan Rather the following year. It explored former President George W. Bush‘s dubious record of military service in the early ’70s, and leaned heavily on documents that allegedly came from the files of Bush’s commanding officer, the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian. They claimed that young Bush, then in his late 20s, swaggered around like an entitled fratboy and at one point disobeyed a direct order to take a physical.

The righties (including HE’s own Correcting Jeff) will assert that the entire segment was inaccurate or invented, and they will be dead wrong and/or lying through their teeth when they do that.