A six-day-old draft of Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained arrived in my inbox this morning. I haven’t read much but it has the same old Kentucky-yokel misspellings (to Tarantino the plural of the word “dragon” is “dragon’s”), the same racial bluntness that was in Pulp Fiction (the word “nigger,” etc.) and it’s 168 pages. Figure a good two and half hours. Who’s gonna tell QT to compress or cut it down?
I love that our Secretary of State is the kind of person who doesn’t sit impassively but reacts emotionally when she sees, feels or senses violent activity. I mean, you can tell from Hillary Clinton‘s hand-over-mouth gesture that something hairy was going on when this photo was snapped during the White House national security team’s “live-time” witnessing of Sunday’s attack upon Osama Bin Laden‘s Pakistan compound.
Hillary, in short, reacted like an average cultivated woman with a normal civilized aversion to violence. And that’s cool. I want a person who’s somewhat appalled by violence representing this country’s interests in diplomatic realms, and not some frosty Dick Cheney-like macho prick. Notice how none of the guys in the room are batting an eye. Joe Biden could be looking at a football game. President Obama is apparently reacting in some clenched way to what he’s watching or hearing, but he’s keeping his cool.
I have one observation. Remember how Hillary presented herself during the ’08 primary campaign again Senator Obama? As the governmentally experienced tough-ass who could handle scary foreign-policy problems at 3 am, and hinting that the inexperienced Obama might not be as cool, calm and collected as she when push comes to diplomatic shove?
I’ve done a little follow-upping on Mike Fleming‘s 5.2 Deadline story about Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal‘s Kill Bin Laden project, which they’ve been working on since ’09 if not earlier.
Oscar-winning Hurt Locker screenwriter-producer Mark Boal and I had dinner in downtown Manhattan a couple of years ago, and as we said goodbye he mentioned he was off to meet some commandos about something or other. That was the Bin Laden project.
The casting of Joel Edgerton, the 36 year-old Australian actor who played Stanley Kowalski opposite Cate Blanchett‘s Blanche DuBois in the BAM stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, is “probable but not done,” a production source told me this morning.
The title of the Biggy-Boal-Bin Laden project “is probably not Kill bin Laden,” he says. “Not sure. We have another title idea but don’t want to say yet.”
Boal “has been following the hunt for Bin Laden closely,” the source says, “and of course, the script will naturally incorporate” last night’s announcement about bin Laden’s death, he informs.
Shooting locations are not finally determined, but the project would presumably be shot in locations that could simulate Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan, etc.
When will the Biggy-Boal-Bin Laden project begin shooting? Pretty damn quickly, I would think. Today if not yesterday. This is supposed to be the lower-budget quickie, mind, that Biggy-Boal were looking to do before the bigger-budgeted Triple Frontier flick.
Fleming wrote that while the film “isn’t specifically about the Al Qaeda leader,” Biggy-Boal “certainly [have] a celebratory ending to that dramatic story” with last night’s announcement that U.S. troops have killed Bin Laden.
Fleming also mentioned that he’s “heard that Megan Ellison, daughter of Oracle chief Larry Ellison, is ready to fund it.”
The second-to-last Oscar Poker before Sasha Stone and I fly to Cannes, etc. (I was wrong in describing this weekend’s Oscar Poker as the last domestic one for a while — we’ll be recording #33 here in Los Angeles next Saturday. and #34 in Cannes.) Here’s a non-iTunes, stand-alone link.
So Osama bin Laden didn’t quite live to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11, which is only four months and 11 days from now. Tip of the hat to the Navy Seals guys who reportedly put bullets in him…or whatever. That’s all I can muster at this juncture. This is a very, very big death. Can we go home now?
“President Obama’s announcement late Sunday that Osama bin Laden had been killed delivered not only a long-awaited prize to the United States, but also a significant victory for Mr. Obama, whose foreign policy has been the subject of persistent criticism by his rivals,” wrote N.Y. Times reporter Jeff Zeleny.
“The development is almost certainly one of the most significant and defining moments yet in his presidency. It allows Mr. Obama to claim the biggest national security victory in a decade — something that eluded President George W. Bush for nearly eight years — and instantly burnishes his foreign policy credentials at a time when he has been questioned on his decisions on the Middle East.”
“Mr. President, look at your hair! If it gets any whiter the Tea Party is going to endorse it.” Look at Trump’s reactions — a grumpy dick.
As I was re-watching Reds yesterday, it occured to me that Patton Oswalt bears a bit more resemblance to the real John Reed than Warren Beatty did in 1981. I’m not saying Beatty’s performance doesn’t work or that Oswalt could have pulled it off if he’d time-tripped back to the late ’70s and been cast by Beatty, etc. I’m saying Beatty resembled Reed as much as young Peter O’Toole resembled the real T.E Lawrence.
(l.) John Reed, Louise Bryant; (center) Patton Oswalt; (r.) Warren Beatty as John Reed in Reds.
It’s a tough deal with three grandchildren of Muammar el-Qaddafi‘s along with his son having been killed yesterday in Tripoli, but war is cruel. As you sow so shall you reap. Qaddafi is a fiend and an insect and must be exterminated. Forgive me but NATO didn’t kill his grandchildren — he did.
Justin Lin‘s Fast Five, a movie that is nothing but ludicrous, high-throttle macho crap with ass-play undercurrents and an absolute devotion to blocking engagement and believability among guys like myself, is expected to earn $86.5 million by this evening and $165 million worldwide. It’s the right package that arrived at the right time, okay…and an emergency shipment of anti-depressants is being messengered to the Movie Godz, who are stumbling around and moaning and crashing into walls as we speak.
A powerful image can yield a thousand words. I’d say there’s at least 500 words to be typed or spewed or otherwise thrown around in response to this photo of SNL‘s Seth Meyers and whatsername at last night’s White House Correspondents’ dinner in Washington, D.C.
I find the “s” in Meyers’ name needless and bothersome. He should be called Seth Meyer. Anyone can change their last name at the drop of a hat. Didn’t Keith Richard drop an “s” from his last name at one point in time, or add an “s” or something?
A week ago an anonymous IMDB guy claimed to have seen The Tree of Life and posted some reactions. Dismiss him if you want (his writing is awkward and he doesn’t punctuate like he should), but some of his impressions square with what I’ve heard elsewhere (i.e., Sean Penn not really being in it much and barely speaking a line of dialogue) so there’s reason to half-consider this.
Here, also, is an apparent review, originally written in French by “Julien,” a contributor to Les Echos Du Cinema.
Spoiler-sensitive types are advised to PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION before reading these excerpts from the IMDB guy’s review:
“I’m a fan of Malick’s other works, including The New World. What separates [The Tree of Life] from that and his other works is the way the story is told. I’d say this is by far his most unconventional as far as storytelling goes.
“Brad Pitt is excellent in it. But it’s not a full-bodied lead performance worthy of an Oscar. It’s more of a supporting role to Sean Penn‘s character as a younger boy.
“This movie will be very polarizing, in the same way Antichrist was.
“No title sequence. Opens with a bible quote.
“The dinosaur sequence involves two of them — one lying on the ground while the the other approaches and places its foot on top of it’s head.
“It’s far less of a narrative story than I was expecting and more of a tone poem in the vein of Tarkovksy‘s work. Tonally, it feels a bit like the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey with a tiny bit of Darren Aronofsky‘s The Fountain and a tiny bit of Benjamin Button.
“But at the same time, it is nothing like those [films]. I really admire that this thing got made considering who’s involved. Plus it’s a fucking art film with CGI dinosaurs! I found it so audacious.
“It’s structure is also very unique. Near the start, it beautifully transitions into the beginning of time space scenes, dinosaurs, animals evolving into the animals we are today and perfectly weaves back into the story with Brad Pitt and family. These scenes play out in a strangely jarring way which felt slightly hypnotic to me.
“As I said, it’s more tone poem than straightforward narrative so it felt as if I was watching a collection of memories and/or small moments in their lives. Unfortunately, this also was a downside for me [as] I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. There was a distance there. I will say that the whispering multi-narrators got a little tiresome after a while, crossing into self parody for Malick. What they say and how they say it will be a part of where the polarizing views will happen. Some will see that part as self important hogwash.
“My last problem is that of Sean Penn’s character. He isn’t in it as much as one would expect and hardly has a line of dialogue. He just vacantly stares while reflecting on his past with his father.
“Maybe I’m missing a larger point here but I found the movie as a whole to be impenetrable in what exactly it’s trying to say. And is 2.5 hours too much of an indulgence a director can give themselves to say it?” [Wells interjection: 138 minutes might feel long to this or that viewer, but it obviously isn’t two and a half hours.]
“It is certainly something that I have been processing over the last couple nights and it has gotten better in my head, it’s so unique that it thrown me off in having a clear opinion of it. I take that as a good sign. I can’t wait to see it again.”
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