The Drive soundtrack is rocketing up the iTunes charts, says Hollywood Reporter‘s Lindsay Powers. It was at #7 over the weekend and at #5 this morning. Some Twitter guy reportedly wrote that “listening to the Drive soundtrack actually makes you 40% cooler than you were before,” etc. The truth? Even I have downloaded College’s “A Real Hero.” The album is purchasable on iTunes for $9.99 or can be bought on CD on 9.27.

Here’s to Sony Classics‘ Michael Barker and Tom Bernard and their ongoing celebration of the company’s 20th anniversary, which more or less kicked off in Toronto. I’ve been dealing with them since the early ’90s. As far as I’m concerned there’s no team with a more intelligent or well-measured approach, and no finer brand in the indie realm (dependent or otherwise). I especially love Barker-Bernard for their long alliance with Pedro Almodovar.

David Poland‘s video interview works pretty well, I think. I don’t have any Jihadist qualms about posting his stuff, so here it is and best wishes to Sony Classics — a company that has been good to me all along.

A German Bluray (Region 2) of William Wellman‘s The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) has been out since late August. A bit on the nose at times, but one of Wellman’s finest. Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Harry Morgan and Anthony Quinn gave career-best performances. Criterion would have done better to issue a Bluray of this (especially in view of Arthur C. Miller‘s moody, Gregg Toland-like cinematography) than that atrocious grainstorm Stageocach.

So when’s the Region 1 Bluray of this 20th Century Fox classic coming out, Schawn Belston or James Finn? What other black and white westerns should be on Bluray? Red River, High Noon, The Gunfighter and what else?

Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings has announced that Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service will, “in a few weeks,” be re-named Qwikster while the movie-streaming service will retain the Netflix name. The “qwik,” of course, is a variation of the “quik” in Nestle’s Quik, which I subsisted on for years as a kid. So it’s that blended with Flixter.

Last night Albert Nobbs star-producer Glenn Close was handed the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Donostia Award, which was basically a tribute to her long career. This will be the general Academy thinking or impetus if she’s nominated for a Best Actress Oscar early next year. Nobbs director Rodrigo Garcia presented the award during a ceremony in Donosta-San Sebastian‘s Kursaal Auditorium.

[Posted on 9.19.11] Last night Jett, his roommate Sonya and I caught a 7:50 pm screening of Drive at Brooklyn’s UA Court Street Stadium plex. My second viewing. Great film.

I hit the smallish bathroom after it ended — two urinals and a toilet stall with six or seven guys lined up. I should have bailed right then and there, but I was looking for a little sit-down action and wasn’t sure of my options.

A guy left the stall and a 30something black dude took ownership and, like, didn’t come out. Three, four minutes. Five minutes. Six. Could he be undergoing self-administered surgery? Filling out a mortgage application?

Then, still on the pot, he began talking to his girlfriend on his cell, flirting with her, settling in. “How ya doin’? Movie’s over…yeah. You wanna eat somethin’?,” etc.

If I had any balls I would have knocked on the stall door and, just like Tom Cruise in Collateral, said, “Yo, homey!” I didn’t, of course. I just stood and waited like a sap, listening to this jetkoff go on and on. The idea of showing consideration to others simply wasn’t occuring to him.

I’ll be attending an invitational screening of George Clooney‘s The Ides of March at the Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday. If I happen to hit the bathroom after it ends I can absolutely guarantee that nobody will sit in a toilet stall for several minutes, ignoring the fact that several others are waiting, while chit-chatting with a girl. I’ll put $100 on this right now. I’ll bet anything.

A rhetorical, non-litigious claim is being made by author James J. Braddock (a.k.a. Josep K. Knezevic) that Angelia Jolie used the basic plot bones of his book, The Soul Shattering, in her script of In The Land of Blood Honey, an upcoming Serb-Bosnian war drama that she’s directed.

Angelina Jolie directing In The Land of Blood and Honey.

Based on the myriad horrors of the Serb-Bosnian conflict and partly set in a Serb-run concentration camp, Jolie’s plot is a variation on the Romeo and Juliet/West Side Story disparate-lovers theme.

Braddock is claiming there are crucial similarities between his book and Jolie’s script. But history can’t be copyrighted, these assertions are difficult to prove, story theft claims are as common as mosquitoes, if Braddock really had a case he’d almost certainly be suing, and William Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet centuries ago.

But if you read Braddock’s statement, you’ll at least get a clear idea of what the specific plot particulars are in Jolie’s film. That, for me, is the interesting part.

Jolie’s film costars Goran Kostic and Zana Marjanovic as the lovers, Serb and Muslim respectively, with Rade Serbedzija as Kostic’s Serb father.

Film District will release the Graham King-produced film on 12.23.11.

Watchers of Terrence Malick, the most media-averse film auteur of all time, know that fluid moving footage has never been captured of Malick working on a set…never. So this 3-minute video sequence, captured yesterday by Johnny Garcia, of Malick and Christian Bale shooting a tracking shot of Bale roaming around an outdoor concert for some mystery project is historic.

Garcia even caught Bale and Malick turning in his general direction and smiling. Really amazing. This is almost as exciting as foootage of a Himalayan Yeti smiling and waving at a camera. The rare footage is almost analogous, I feel, to Vivian Kubrick‘s footage of Stanley Kubrick shooting The Shining.

The video shows at a glance that the bearded, shades-wearing, safari-hat-wearing Malick is highly energetic and animated as he explains what he wants Bale to do. It’s also clear that he’s about 5’10” or so, maybe even 5’9″. (I somehow always imagined that Malick was a bit taller than that…don’t ask why.)

(l.) Terrence Malick (in hat and shades), (right-middle) Christian Bale.

Boxoffice.com had projected Rod Lurie‘s Straw Dogs to earn about $8 milion this weekend, but it’s only going to do about $5 million. Game over. The Alexander Skarsgard buff factor wasn’t enough to trump the iffy reviews and I don’t know what else. Female moviegoer concerns or intuitions about the rape scene? You tell me.

The audience winners of the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival have been announced, and the top winner is Nadine Labaki‘s Where Do We Go Now?. I didn’t see it, and I’m trying to remember if anyone even talked about this film during the festival. Asghar Farhadi‘s A Separation and Ken Scott‘s Starbuck were the feature runner-ups.

Jon Shenk‘s The Island President won the People’s Choice Award For Documentary. Bess Kargman‘s First Position and Cameron Crowe‘s Pearl Jam Twenty. The Midnight Madness award went to Gareth Huw Evans‘ The Raid; Adam Wingard‘s You’re Next and Bobcat Goldthwait‘s God Bless America.

So as of Tuesday, 9.20, In Contention‘s Kris Tapley will be folded into Hitfix and banging out his stuff (along with Guy Lodge). So where are the “Tapley Is Coming!” come-ons, or the easy-to-spot In Contention bullet logo? Right now the Hitfix main page (which emphasizes an undigestive orange-and-blue color scheme) has the usual links to the usual cheezwhiz stories and promotions…and zip about Tapley. Can you imagine adding a big-name columnist to your site and actually keeping this news hidden from casual visitors?

Presumably the In Contention link will appear alongside Drew McWeeny‘s Motion Captured and Greg Ellwood‘s Awards Campaign within the MOVIES drop-down menu. What kind of entertainment site puts its star columnists — i.e., writers who attract readers with an I.Q. north of 85, especially among industry and media types — inside a closet that you need to access with a drop-down menu?

If I was suddenly hired to run Hitfix, the man/woman who designed this site would be fired and out the door so fast that a wind-and-suction effect would scatter loose paper.

I’ve always hated the Hitfix design. It’s indecisively busy and scattered and inelegant. And that godawful orange! One look and you want to leave. It makes you feel as if you’ve walked into a store in Syracuse that sells used hockey outfits and other sporting uniforms. Tapley’s impending arrival has simply reminded me of this.

DVD Beaver’s Gary Tooze is calling the Ben-Hur Bluray “VERY impressive…I was blown away. Obviously from a 65mm film source [and] reportedly restored frame-by-frame…a 1080p in all its glory and around a 2.75:1 aspect ratio. Even things like the ‘Overture’ title are visually inspiring. Many scenes…appear truly overwhelming. The Blu-ray transfer brings Ben-Hur to another level of home theater appreciation…WOW!”

8K scan of 65mm elements, 2.76 to 1 aspect ratio, etc.

Concern: With the much higher resolution I would imagine that the shots of the miniaturized ships and little-doll-solders on board during the sea-battle sequence will be more evident (i.e., more embarassing) than ever Nitpick: Everyone knows that the perfect-world aspect ratio of this Camera 65 presentation is 2.76 to 1, so why does Tooze call it 2.75?

Here’s an early August piece I ran about the Ben-Hur aspect ratio issue.

“We keep you alive to row this ship….row well and live.”

I’ll finally be seeing this film on a big screen in the full 2.76 to 1 aspect ratio (projected at 4K) via
the New York Film Festival screening on Saturday, 10.1.