Month: October 2015

It’s nearly mid-October. Halloween pumpkins are stacked high at my local Pavillions. Yesterday I was thinking about dropping off a couple of sweaters at Holloway Cleaners. And today it’s 98 degrees with the same expected for tomorrow. Even for Los Angeles this is way out of the realm of normal. 2015 has proven to be, in fact, the hottest year on record. Which is largely the fault of China, India and American climate-change deniers (Republicans, corporate whores, hinterland yokels). I’ll tell you whose fault this definitely isn’t — i.e., mine. I sit around and write all day, and whenever I go anywhere locally I prefer my bicycle or scooter to the car.

From Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Wikipage: “Based on Seth Grahame-Smith‘s 2009 novel [and] first announced on 12.10.09 in Variety, where it was revealed that Natalie Portman would both star in the role of Elizabeth Bennet and produce, and that Lionsgate would finance and distribute.” Thud. “On 12.14.09 David O. Russell was announced as the writer and director of the film, but it was announced on 10.5.10 that Russell had left the production due to disputes with Lionsgate over the budget. The next day Portman had quit the role of Elizabeth Bennet, though she would still produce the film.” Double thud. “Following Russell’s departure, Lionsgate offered the directing reins to Mike Newell and Matt Reeves, but both declined. On 11.5.10 it was announced that director Mike White had left the film due to scheduling conflicts.” Bullshit? “In February 2011 Craig Gillespie took over as director. On 10.27, it was announced that Gillespie had left the film. At one point, both Jennifer Aniston and Rowan Atkinson were attached to the project. On 5.2.13 Lily Collins confirmed that the film was still in the works and announced that she would star in the film as a leading role. On 8.4.14 it was announced that filming would begin in September, with Lily James as Elizabeth, Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy, and Bella Heathcote as one of Elizabeth’s sisters. Jack Huston joined the cast on 8.12.14.”

Last night Truth costars Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford sat down for a Times Talk discussion with New York Times Magazine staff writer Susan Dominus, and were later joined by Dan Rather (whom Redford portrays in James Vanderbilt‘s film) and his former 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes, whose book, “Truth and Duty: The Press, The President and the Privelege of Power,” is the basis of Vanderbilt’s screenplay.

I’m credentialed. Might be cool. Two days of listening, watching, roaming around, sucking up the vibe. A Saturday debate between Ann Coulter and Cenk Uygur. A Yes Men interview with Edward Snowden. A live visit from Trevor Noah. A KCRW political debate between Robert Scheer, Patrick Milsaps and Mike Pesca. A Doris Kearns Goodwin interview. A screening of Mad As Hell, a 2014 doc about Uygur’s contentious career, plus an interview with the guy.

Steve Jobs screenwriter Aaron Sorkin offered two interesting observations about the late Steve Jobs on last night’s Charlie Rose Show. The irony is that neither view is, I feel, truly manifested or brought home by the film.

Sorkin Observation #1: “If you’re writing an anti-hero, you can’t judge that character. You have to write that character as if they’re making a case for before God why they should be allowed into heaven…you have to be that character’s lawyer.” HE response: The feeling I had about Jobs when I finished reading Sorkin’s script was “no sweetheart but what a force of nature!” while the feeling I had about Michael Fassbender‘s Jobs was “what an asshole.”

Sorkin Observation #2: “This man, deep down, felt flawed and unworthy of being liked, unworthy of being loved…and to compensate for that, had the remarkable ability to infuse these products with lovability.” Rose (echoing): “Here was a man who didn’t feel loved but was able to give lovability with products that people would love.” HE response: This is the most profound observation about Jobs that I’ve ever read or heard. It makes perfect sense. But I didn’t hear it articulated in the film, either directly or indirectly. Maybe I was nodding out or something.

Wells to Universal: “Please hint that you’re thinking about maybe platforming Joel and Ethan Coen‘s Hail Caesar! sometime in December before the wide break in February? Just for the fun of it? I’ve read the script and it’s a peach, this thing. It’ll be great to have a Coen Bros. knucklehead comedy to put on my Ten Best of 2015 list.” By the way: If you look at the cast list on the Hail, Casear! Wikipedia Page you’ll notice that Patrick Fischler, David Krumholtz and Fisher Stevens portray “Communist screenwriter[s]” and that Dolph Lundgren plays “a Soviet submarine commander.” Do the math. Wouldn’t it be a kick, hypothetically speaking, if an early ’50s Hollywood farce was predicated on the notion that HUAC, John Wayne, Cecil B. Demille, Robert Taylor, Adolphe Menjou, Gary Cooper and all the other witch-hunters were right? And that there was, in fact, a cabal of Hollywood commie screenwriters in league with Stalinist Russia, and that they were plotting to undermine American Democratic values and maybe even take over? New Beverly double-bill in July 2016: Hail Caesar! and Jay Roach‘s Trumbo.

I’ve watched this Miles Ahead teaser three times — nice vibe, feels authentic. But I’ve been listening with good headphones, and I’m telling you I can’t understand anything that Don Cheadle is saying except when he says “can we record this?” and a couple of times when he says “yeah.” His Miles voice is a little too raspy and mumbly. If this persists in the watching of the actual film in a theatre or screening room, it’ll be a problem.

Now this is one fetching Cuban cover. It looks like dessert or afternoon sex. The hot red letters, Rihanna’s intense red hair, the chipped-paint wall of beige-tan with just a touch of mustard, the almost teal-green classic car, the faded green of her outfit…beautiful. I’ll be buying this new issue of Vanity Fair today or tomorrow, and I’ll plop it down on my aged wooden chest in front of my big blue couch, and if recent tradition is any guide I’ll probably never get around to reading it. I always buy it intending to read the whole thing front to back, but somehow I never do.

I’ve been buying Vanity Fair for 30 years now. I can’t precisely pinpoint when I stopped reading it, but sometime within the last couple of years. Mainly because I’m always checking twitter or writing when I sit down at home. I used to read Vanity Fair on coast-to-coast flights but now I spend all my time online, writing or researching column stories.

On top of which the articles have began to seem a little less substantial with more of an emphasis on girly, frothy, fashiony stuff.  Or people I can’t stand to look at.  I know that I hate the all-fashion issue. I’m not saying VF has become a kind of lah-lah magazine that celebrates (or tries to instill a fascination with) wealth and fashion and loaded people who are spending their money on increasingly peculiar or arcane things. But it feels like it’s kinda going in that direction.  More and more jaded crap.

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I’ve seen Stanley Kubrick and Kirk Douglas‘s Spartacus at least 15 if not 20 times, and in all kind of formats — big-screen celluloid projection, broadcast, VHS, Criterion laser disc, DVD and the discredited 2010 “shiny” Bluray that Universal issued five years ago. (And which I somewhat shamefully half-approved of for the simple reason that it looked much better than the 480p Criterion DVD.) Two days ago Universal’s new restored Bluray arrived in the mail, and I swear to God it’s never looked this needle-sharp and natural. It’s a digital knockout, and clean as a hound’s tooth. The difference between this newbie and the 2010 version is analogous to the difference between a run-of-the-mill DVD and a Bluray of anything. It really pops. I felt as if I was watching something almost “new.”

I’m told that every frame has a full measure of grain but I can’t see so much as a single Egyptian mosquito. We all know what grainstorms can look like, and this puppy has none of that. Plus there is extra information on all four sides, and the skin tones and shades of everything look completely natural and unforced. This is the Spartacus of the Gods — robust and radiant and more wowser, I’ll bet, than it’s ever looked, even when Douglas, Kubrick and producer Edward Lewis had a final looksee before the New York premiere in November 1960.

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Respect and farewell to Kevin Corcoran, the pint-sized actor in various Walt Disney flicks and serials — Toby Tyler, Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson, Pollyanna, Adventures in Dairyland, Savage Sam — who went on to work behind the camera in various capacities. Corcorcan, 66, died two days ago from colorectal cancer in Burbank. Tough break. “Every day above ground is a good day.” — Mel Bernstein (Harris Yulin) in Brian DePalma‘s Scarface.

I know that young girl, or I knew her, I should say. Because she was me. Like Marcello Mastroianni, I left her standing on the beach a long time ago. We all do this sooner or later. Obviously not an occasion for celebration. Resignation is more like it.