Daily

Everything I’ve been saying all along about the under-educated white rube vote (which has been steadily disputed by the conservative trolls on HE talkback) is confirmed and then some in this just-released AP-Yahoo poll.
“Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them ‘lazy, ‘violent,’ responsible for their own troubles.
“The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points.”
To repeat: “Barack Obama is facing a brick white-attitude wall. An under-educated, lower-middle-class mule-like obstinacy that has become a kind of folk legend at this point. An obstinacy that refuses to roll with the idea of a president with a permanent tan. The salt-of-the-earth bubbas and Walmart Moms are, it would seem, going to refuse to listen and dig their heels in no matter what. That is the reality, sad to say. And about as tragic as it gets.”
“It would be a disgrace and a humiliation if Barack Obama does not win,” Woody Allen told Spanish journalists at the 56th San Sebastian film festival a day and a half ago.
“It would be a very, very terrible thing for the United States in many, many ways. Obama is “so much better” than John McCain, and “represents a huge step upward from (the) incompetence and misjudgement” of the Bush administration. It would be a terrible thing if the American public was not moved to vote for him, that they actually preferred more of the same.”

The YouTube caption says this is Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell sharing the mike at a Toby Keith concert the day before yesterday — Thursday, 9.18.08 — in Albuquerque, New Mexico, while filming a pic called Crazy Heart.

I don’t know zip except that the director-writer is Scott Cooper, and that it’s based on a 1988 Thomas Cobb novel.
The Amazon synopsis reads as follows: “Singer and guitarist Bad Blake (Bridges) was once a first-rate country-and-western star, but now he’s 57, an alcoholic, a failure at four marriages, and playing in third-rate clubs. The biggest gig he can get is opening for Tommy Sweet (Maggie Gyllenhaal) when she comes to interview him and they fall in love. Her little boy, Buddy, inspires Bad to search for his own long-lost son, but there’s no happy ending there. And when Bad, hungry for a drink, loses Jean’s son, things take a downturn, despite Bad’s fling with AA.”

This is an entire month old, I just scanned it a second ago and it’s easily the funniest Photoshop piece I’ve seen in weeks. Easily. Big congrats to Jeremy Enke and Karl Jefferson. (Thanks to HE reader Bocephus.)

Kidman, Travolta, Stone by way of Bumblefuck.

“Brad Grey‘s Paramount will live or die in the next 15 months,” David Poland wrote earlier today in a riff about the completion of the Dreamworks/Reliance deal, and its aftermath.
“But do keep in mind what Par is trying to ride to success. From their press release: “Star Trek by JJ Abrams, G.I. Joe by Stephen Sommers, Transformers 2 by Michael Bay, David Fincher‘s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Jon Favreau‘s Iron Man 2.”
“Star Trek — No Star Trek film has ever cracked $150 million worldwide. There is a good chance that this new, JJ Abrams, fun and gun Trek will break that number. But the film reportedly has gone past the $150 million budget mark, meaning that $300 million worldwide is about the lowest worldwide gross the film can do and get to profit. Double the best ever for the franchise. But hey, Batman did it.
“GI Joe – A franchise that has not had the cultural significance of Transformers in recent decades, yet greenlit at $170 million.
“Transformers 2 – $200 million-plus budget, co-owned by DreamWorks (without investment) and big dollar one gross points to exec producer Steven Spielberg.
“The Curious Tale Of Benjamin Button — It may win best Picture, but with a $150 million-plus production budget and WB taking foreign, it will need Troy or Mr. & Mrs. Smith or Ocean‘s domestic numbers for Par to get close to it being a money maker.
“Iron Man 2 – Not owned by Paramount. Once again, a distribution fee only. But this too will be insanely expensive.
“Get the picture? With marketing, you’re looking at an investment of over a billion dollars on four movies next year (not including Marvel’s Iron Man 2, a 2010 title). And there are 5 other Par-only pics on the sched for next year.
“But counting the films that the studios didn’t make profit-on-production with this year (Iron Man/Indiana Jones IV/Kung-Fu Panda/Madagascar 2), their best grossing year ever, the studio might get to $1.6 billion domestic and about $1.5 billion overseas.
“If they can match this year’s numbers with next year’s movies (starting with Ben Button), they will have some profit. But let’s give Transformers 2 its $700 million again. Can any of the other movies match that? Top that?
“Taking post-theatricals into account, theatrical numbers to make breakeven on the four pictures is somewhere between $1.7 billion worldwide and $2.1 billion worldwide, depending on how big a chunk the points players take.”

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann is promoting an “Aunt Sarah’s Moose Stew Countdown Raffle.” The copy reads as follows: “For your chance to wash the taste of campaign lies out of your mouth with the savory Alaskan authenticity contained in a free can of Aunt Sarah’s Moose Stew, click here or send a mail to Countdown@msnbc.com.” It’s not a goof? Respondents will actually be sent cans of something or other with the Aunt Sarah label?

At 8:23 am this morning I posted a story about Ed Harris‘s Appaloosa not (at the time) having any scheduled critics screening in Portland and Arizona, according to info from area critics. I updated it a few hours later after hearing from the Arizona Daily Star‘s Phil Villarreal that a press screening in his area had been suddenly set up today.
And then at 4:33 pm this afternoon, an e-mail was sent to Portland-area critics by Kim Pasion of Terry Hines & Associates, the local rep for Warner Bros.
“Hi All!,” it began. “Please forgive me for the short notice. I misunderstood my directives and just realized that I need to press screen Appaloosa for you all! Uh, I know…I suck! I have set a screening next Thursday at noon. Please let me know if you can attend. Thanks!”

I’ve been trying to understand the root of my animal dislike of MSNBC’s David Gregory. The man makes me twitch with rage. It’s partly his seeming determination to make points and ask questions in his interviews that cast doubt or uncertainty upon Barack Obama, and give whatever credit he can to the John McCain side. But it’s not just that, I’ve told myself. Some indication of essence is suggested in his features. Those beady black eyes, that goofy smile, creepy mop of gray hair, monkey mouth and monkey nose.

MSNBC commentator/host David Gregory; Maurice Evans’ Dr. Zaius

Then it hit me…of course! Being a movie guy through and through, I’ve realized that all along Gregory has been strongly reminding me of Maurice Evans‘ Dr. Zaius, the orangutan defender of the faith, in Planet of the Apes. It’s not just their similar facial features, but their obstinacy. Gregory’s constant insistence on giving an open and fair hearing to the shameless mud and lies of the McCain campaign is like Zaius’s refusal to consider that Charlton Heston‘s “Bright Eyes” might be intelligent and literate.

A YouTube message from William Shatner to Star Trek director JJ Abrams, posted yesterday. Shatner is good at feigning mild-mannered, but the reason he is loved is because (a) he’s a metaphor for old-guy vitality and re-invention, and (b) because we’ve all come to believe that deep down he is a true barking loon. And in all sincerity, I worship him for that. “Namby-pamby! Now you’re negotiating!”

Uli Edel‘s Baader Meinhof Complex, the official German entry for the Best Foreign Feature Oscar that I wrote about a few days ago, will screen a week from today at Santa Monica’s Aero theatre. It’ll be presented as part of New German Film Series (9.24 through 9.28) through the sponsorship of Goethe House.

What is that razor-blade thing with the mustard-colored base sitting against Jamie Stuart’s (or some other guy’s) cheek in this NY Film Festival video? I don’t get it. I’m looking for help. Really. The slogan — “You’ve never done this before…have you?” — alludes to the nominal uniqueness of the 46th incarnation of the NYFF. (Right?) I waited all day to post this because I couldn’t figure what to say.

The Defamer guys shared my reaction to the announcement about the Zurich Film Festival giving Sylvester Stallone a Life Achievement Award. They posted a day later, but that was because they were assembling five stunning Stallone clips that are hard to argue with, much less forget.