This is from MTV. The site seems to be getting pretty good movie exclusive news but I hate the way it is written with the "So and so told me" in almost every story. I wish the news was just reported, that makes it sound more like gossip than facts.

For years, Anderson fans have grumbled about the crappy treatment his first film has received on DVD. The bare bones presentation of “Bottle Rocket” has been all the more galling considering the loving care his subsequent films have gotted as part of the Criterion Collection.

Well, grumble no more. Wes told me, “We’ve just begun work with the Criterion Collection to do ‘Bottle Rocket’ on a new DVD that’s going to have all kinds of stuff. There’s a lot of ‘Bottle Rocket’ that was on the cutting room floor, so we have a lot to work with on that one.”

I stole this from Hollywood Elsewhere. It's David Letterman interviewing Paris Hilton, well, not so much interviewing her as barraging Paris with questions about jail and her trying not to answer. It's probably the funniest interview I have seen in some time.

He also has a line towards the end that rivals his "sea monkey" line from Cabin Boy in "I'll buy you a parakeet!"

A scene from Dan in Real Life.

Zoetrope Argentina, director Francis Ford Coppola's newly formed production company, was robbed Wednesday evening says Reuters.

Five armed thieves entered the building and took cameras and computers, including Coppola's personal laptop, which contained drafts of the screenplay for "Tetro," his upcoming film slated to begin production in Buenos Aires next year.

The film tells the story of rival Italian-Argentine artistic families, and will star Matt Dillon. Local reports say that Coppola is offering a reward for the laptop's return. An employee received minor injuries during the robbery, Coppola was not present.

I don't usually get upset about people remaking movies. Most of the time they are just bad remakes or bad horror movies and I generally don't pay any attention to them. Well, this one is a little different. IGN is reporting that Sony Pictures is developing a remake of The Karate Kid that will be produced by Will Smith's Overbook Entertainment and Jerry Weintraub.

Will's 9-year-old son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith ("The Pursuit of Happyness") is apparently attached to star in the remake.

To be honest, The Karate Kid probably isn't thought of as a classic but that doesn't change my view of it. The movie is perfect for what it is and I don't see any way that it can be improved upon. Hell, when it was released in 1984 Pat Morita was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar and Roger Ebert gave the movie 4 stars. Are they really going to do a remake of this and include the crane kick? Wouldn't that be too cliche in this day and age? Can't they just come up with an original martial arts themed movie? Granted, this is just a rumor at the moment and I really hope it stays this way. Here is the closing of that 1984 Roger Ebert review.

Macchio is an unusual, interesting choice for Daniel. He's not the basic handsome Hollywood teenager but a thin, tall, intense kid with a way of seeming to talk to himself. His delivery always sounds natural, even offhand; he never seems to be reading a line. He's a good, sound, interesting lead, but the movie really belongs to Pat Morita, an actor who has been around a long time (he was Arnold on "Happy Days") without ever having a role anywhere near this good. Morita makes Miyagi into an example of applied serenity. In a couple of scenes where he has to face down a hostile karate coach, Miyagi's words are so carefully chosen they don't give the other guy any excuse to get violent; Miyagi uses the language as carefully as his hands or arms to ward off blows and gain an advantage. It's refreshing to see a completely original character like this old man. THE KARATE KID is a sleeper with a title that gives you the wrong idea: It's one of 1984's best movies.

The first somewhat review of There Will Be Blood has shown up from Variety and I have to say it is quite postitive. Here are some excerpts.

The secret closing-night film of Fantastic Fest 3 in Austin, Texas, on Thursday night turned out to be the first public screening of Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood." Certain to be rewarded with year-end accolades, Anderson's film is a true American saga - one that rivals "Giant" and "Citizen Kane" in our popular lore as origin stories about how we came to be the people we are. In "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," it's not the gold that destroys men's souls but greed; in "There Will Be Blood," the commodity that drives the greed is oil.

Daniel Day-Lewis is at his brilliant best as the story's Daniel Plainview, a man whose humanity diminishes as his fortunes increase. Never an exemplar of human kindness, Plainview becomes truly monstrous by film's end. Spanning three decades from 1898 to 1927, the approximately two hour and 40-minute film begins and ends with Plainview as a solitary figure. In fact, the first 15 minutes pass without any dialogue. Community is merely a useful tool for getting what Plainview wants and needs. Another constant nuisance is religion and false piety, represented by the character, Eli Sunday, played by Paul Dano. That the film stars none of the director's recurring repertory of actors is another intriguing element that lends a fresh sense to the undertaking.

Essential to the success of the movie is the original score by Jonny Greenwood, the Radiohead guitarist and BBC composer in residence. In addition to some uniquely haunting orchestral arrangements, there's this insistent string motif that sounds like the buzzing of an insect inside one's head, a sound that grows louder and more unavoidably distressing whenever soulless events are about to occur. Greenwood's astonishing score is sure to be one of the most remarked-on aspects of the movie.

These pictures aren't very important and I am too lazy to actually upload them here, but follow this link to see photos from the Sex and the City movie. I guess the only reason I am posting this is to alert you to a condition it seems Jennifer Hudson shares with Scarlett Johansson. Neither one of them closes their mouths when they act.

According to MTV Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman are joining Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated feature, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. More info from the site:

“It will take a couple years to do the animating,” said Anderson, adding that they are about to record the voices. As for the animation, “It’s stop-motion. It’s like ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ or those Christmas specials. These [characters] have fur, so it’s not like claymation.”

“The settings will be very natural. We want to use real trees and real sand, but it’s all miniature,” he said.

I like that in between narrative projects Martin Scorsese is making musical documentaries. He already has the great No Direction Home: Bob Dylan released and early next year we will get to see Shine a Light, the Rolling Stones documentary. Now he is working on one about George Harrison. The Harrison family will supply materials from its archive to help tell the story of the guitarist's Beatles career as well has his later years, which included a successful solo music career and movie production — Harrison's Handmade Films made Monty Python's Life of Brian and Time Bandits, among others. Scorsese will also focus on Harrison's Eastern spiritual pursuits. Surviving Beatles bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will likely participate, as well as the Beatles' Apple Records, which counts Olivia Harrison as a partner. The documentary will be constructed for theatrical release with interviews and early production set to begin later this year.

You can now download the Wes Anderson short, Hotel Chevalier, for free from itunes.

The movie is actually perfect in it's own way. Anderson seems to use all of his usual tricksbut still tell a simple and emotionally honest story. Instead of of falling back onto quirk he just lets the story and characters dictate how the film plays out.

In the Valley of Elah

I am surprised that this movie isn't getting talked about more. I knew very little about it going in and don't even think I had seen one television spot. Writer/Director Paul Haggis has made a better film than the Oscar winning Crash (his last effort). This film sums up perfectly a certain feeling about war without being too heavy handed. It isn't just talking about this war, but all wars in general. While it provides certain answers to questions, it leaves other open. These characters are just as confused as we are about how certain situations arise.

Tommy Lee Jones is the master of minimalist acting. Every word seems carefully chosen and he can do more with his eyes than most actors could do with a five minute monologue. In this film it isn't so much what he does say as when he says it. He carries this part police procedural, part post-war drama on his shoulders, he is in almost every scene and even though the subject matter is dour we light up every time we see him.

Not that Jones is the only actor that delivers great performances. Charlize Theron and Susan Surandon are both first-rate in their respective roles. It was nice to see Theron's character not be a cliche. She never develops a romantic interest like so many other movies would have given her. She is just trying to raise her son and go about her job, which honestly she isn't even that great at, she is just determined. James Franco, Josh Brolin, and Jason Patric also all do good work in their small roles.

This film has a certain pace that once you become accustomed to it will almost put you in a trance. Not that it is slow but it takes it's time to tell the story. It doesn't feel like all these loose ends are tied up in a matter of hours, we see the days pass and the fatigue it adds to these characters.

The award for the biggest Saul Bass ripoff poster goes to...



That being said, it's better than 90% of other movie posters.

This is The Simpsons season 19 show intro. It catches everyone up as to what happened after the events of the movie. And yes, it does feature the return of Spider-Pig.

Morgan Freeman has been attached to play Nelson Mandela for as long as I can remember and now it looks like he might get one of his old working partners to finally make the movie. Clint Eastwood is considering directing The Human Factor, which is about how the 1995 Rugby World Cup helped heal post-apartheid race relations in South Africa. Set immediately after the fall of apartheid, when Mandela was released from prison and became president, the film is an adaptation of the John Carlin book The Human Factor: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed the World. Matt Damon is considering a role as the rugby team's captain. Morgan and Eastwood previously two worked together previously on the Eastwood-directed Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. Freeman and McCreary traveled to South Africa last spring to get Mandela's blessing on the project. Eastwood next directs The Changeling, which stars Angelina Jolie

Kids that talk during movies don't grow out of this trend, they just grow into adults that talk during movies.

Some information about the Coen Brother's next movie (after No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading) has surfaced, here are the details taken from Film Jerk:

"A Serious Man" will focus on Larry Gopnik, a Jewish college professor in the Midwest during the 1960s. Larry starts to question the value of life when he discovers his wife wants a divorce (she is also probably getting it on with one of the neighbors). He also has trouble with his children stealing money out of his wallet (his son is buying weed, while his daughter is saving for plastic surgery) and his deadbeat brother, who has moved in because he neither has the cash nor the maturity to live on his own. Add to that the hostile anonymous notes he keeps receiving which threaten his tenure at school, the grad student who will get a passing grade from Larry by any means necessary (who may or may not be the person leaving the threatening letters) and the hot neighbor who bedevils Larry with her nude sunbathing, and there is little wonder why Larry seeks to solve his existential issues from men of God whom he hopes will help him to become an austere and devoted man.

It is not known who may star as Larry or the members of his family, but there are places where we could see some familiar Coen Brother collaborators. John Goodman could be a good fit for the next door neighbor Gar Brandt, although with Gar's buzzcut, he might remind people too much of the much beloved Walter Sobchak. And why not Frances McDormand for Mimi, the friend of Larry's who helps her friend to visit the wise old men.

Focus Features is expected to release the film in the early months of 2009.

Another article, this one on what it is like to live in Wes Anderson's world. It's a good read, shedding light on the detailed obsessed director but this passage sort of sums up everything that is right and wrong artistically with Anderson.

His talent, in other words, has become his trust fund. But one gets the impression that even Anderson, these days, can find living in Wes’s world a bit claustrophobic. I first met him on a bright, windy afternoon in Venice, two days after Darjeeling had been screened for the public for the first time. With Schwartzman and Coppola, we were waiting for a water taxi to shuttle us off to lunch at an outdoor café. At one point Anderson complimented Schwartzman’s new sunglasses, and then suddenly turned to me, concerned with how I would interpret the seemingly banal exchange. “Oh God, I bet that’s the first line of your piece, isn’t it?” Anderson said. “Wes Anderson, notorious for his attention to detail, carefully observes the black retro sunglasses that the young Schwartzman has pulled from his pocket …” Later, when a breeze picked up during our meal, he turned up the collar on his seersucker suit and again quoted from the article he was writing in his head: “Anderson then pensively turns up the collar of his blazer, pulling it tight around his skinny frame to cover the monogrammed dress shirt underneath …” Pause. Laughter. “I’m sorry, man,” he then said. “I’m in a weird mood these days.”

I really need to get on George Clooney's Christmas gift list. This is
from an article at Scotsman.com and when speaking about the influences for his upcoming film Michael Clayton this bit of information came out.

As a gift to friends for Christmas last year, he gave DVDs of his 100 favourite films from 1964 to 1976. "You look at these films and you find at least ten films a year that are masterpieces and the people who were making them were Hollywood studios," he continues. "They just don't make those films any more; you couldn't come anyway near that today. Michael Clayton was offered to a studio, but they simply wouldn't touch it."

They also talk a bit about his other upcoming films.

Clooney's next directorial outing, the romcom Leatherheads, which is set in the world of 1920s American football, where the owner of a professional team (Clooney) drafts a strait-laced college sensation (John Krasinski from the US version of The Office), and finds his new coach falling for his fiancée (Renée Zellweger). Throwing the ball around each day on set has seen the actor lose around 20lbs (9kg). "I was playing football every day," he says. "I was a little thinner about three months ago. I almost weighed what I weighed in high school. If you play football every day, you just get your butt kicked."

"I'm working with Brad right now on this Coen brothers movie," he says, "which kills me, because he's going to steal the movie and I'm going to murder him! Honestly, though, I don't like the idea of competing; it's a weird thing, but you try not to compete in art. It always seems kind of strange. I could never do the things that Brad does. I mean, here's the guy that made Johnny Suede!"

Starting Wednesday, the Wes Anderson directed short film Hotel Chevalier will be available as a free download on Apple's iTunes Web site. The short is a prequel of sorts that was made a year before The Darjeeling Limited even began filming. It takes place entirely in the Paris hotel room of Jason Schwartzman's character and includes information that later becomes relevant in Darjeeling. You can read more info on the film and release here.

Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac will star together in the comedy Soul Men. The pair will play two former backup soul singers who haven't spoken to each other in 20 years but reluctantly agree to travel together for a tribute performance in honor of their recently deceased band leader. The actors will dance and sing for the roles. The producers are attempting to acquire access to the Stax Records catalog for the movie. This sounds like it could be really good and funny or just completely plain, it probably all hinges on who they hire for a director.

I really like the fact that Jason Bateman is getting a variety of movie roles these days. I knew he would be offered more comedies after starring in Arrested Development but I never thought he would be starring along side Bradd Pitt and Edward Norton in a political drama or playing a bomb expert in a thriller/action movie (The Kingdom). Anway, Bateman is the latest addition to the cast of the Kevin Macdonald-directed adaptation of the British miniseries State of Play. The story centers on a newspaper's investigation of the murder of a girlfriend of a fast-rising congressman (Norton). Pitt plays the former campaign manager of the politician who spearheads the paper's investigation, and Bateman plays one of the key reporters chasing the story. Bateman will next be seen in the Peter Berg-directed Universal drama The Kingdom, followed by the Zack Helm-directed Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, and the Jason Reitman-directed Juno. Universal is also developing Remarkable Fellows, a Bateman pitch that is being written and directed by Joe Carnahan

This is from a NY Mag titled Ten Directors Who Could Make an Even Unsexier Sex Movie Than Quentin Tarantino. The article came to fruition because of a quote that appeared in Page Six from Tarantino. He said he would like to make "a cool sex movie that would take place in Stockholm, with a couple of Americans visiting a couple of Swedish friends … just going out drinking, having a good time, hooking up." Now this movie will probably never come to pass. Tarantino spends more time talking about movies he wants to make than actually making movies. The article isn't that funny but my favorite section is the vision they have for the Mel Gibson directed sex movie.

"It would take place in ancient Egypt, be performed completely in hieroglyphics, and consist of 117 minutes of a slave being beaten to death."

Win and Emmy and star in a Steven Spielberg movie. Newsweek reports that Sally Field has joined the Steven Spielberg-directed Abraham Lincoln, starring Liam Neeson in the title role. Field will play Mary Todd, wife of the 16th U.S. president.

Another Darjeeling Limited clip.

The domestic trailer for Control.

A clip from The Darjeeling Limited that, well, looks like a Wes Anderson movie.

From the New York Times. Click the image to view a larger version.

Here is a neat website with a commercial by Michel Gondry and a making of said commercial.

Here is a trailer that makes little sense from the director of one of the most overrated movies of the past ten years. (In full disclosure, I did like the directors first movie when I originally saw it and even bought it on DVD. It was only upon multiple viewings that I decided that it really didn't add up to anything.)

Brad Pitt will star alongside Mark Wahlberg in “The Fighter,” a drama about boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward and his path to become world lightweight champion. Pitt will replace Matt Damon.

Pitt will play Dicky Eklund, Mickey’s half-brother and a talented fighter who once went the distance with Sugar Ray Leonard in a title fight but then turned to crime and landed in prison. He turned his life around and helped his underperforming brother to a remarkable run that led to the world title.

Scott Silver is working on the latest draft of the script, and the film will be directed by Darren Aronofsky. I guess this is sort of a make up for Pitt dropping out of Aronofsky's last film, The Fountain. I'm a little disappointed about Damon dropping out though, I wanted to see him and Wahlberg reunite again after The Departed.

The first publicity photo from the Sex in the City movie has shown up online. I would say I don't care but then again I have seen pretty much every episode since season 2 (including the horrible series finale).

You know how it seems that every british actor or actress will eventually show up in one of the Harry Potter movies? Well, eventually every working actress in Hollywood will be cast in this movie. Bette Midler, Carrie Fisher, Cloris Leachman, Lynn Whitfield, Joanna Gleason, Ana Gasteyer, and Debi Mazar have joined The Women, the Diane English-directed remake of the 1939 comedy. The actresses join already-cast Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Candice Bergen, who play friends who discover that one of them is being cheated on by her husband. The movie has an entirely female cast, as did the George Cukor-directed original.

I'm not even sure what this next bit of news means or how it could have come about but it seems that Jay-Z is recording an album of new songs inspired by the upcoming movie American Gangster. The project is being described as a ''concept album'' and will be released in November. He has already recorded nine tracks, with most of them inspired by a specific scene in the movie. The hip-hop mogul quietly began work on the album over the past few weeks after he saw a screening of the Ridley Scott directed film, in which Denzel Washington portrays Frank Lucas, an early 1970s Harlem heroin kingpin. He tells The New York Times that he thinks fans will be struck by movie's portrayal of a black man reaching such heights of success, even on the wrong side of the law, much like the Al Pacino antiheroes Tony Montana and Michael Corleone. ''It was like I was watching the film, and putting it on pause, and giving a back story to the story,'' he said of the record. Producer Brian Grazer initially asked Jay-Z to do the soundtrack, but the rapper instead offered to make his own album released in conjunction with the film.

Here is the new trailer for Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf. I still don't know what to think about this movie. All the trailers so far have made it look more like a video game than a movie and this one does it even more so with the bad rock music that comes in towards the end. My hope is that it is just hard to capture this movie in 2D (it will be released in 3D) and once viewed in the form originally meant it will look amazing. Even though The Polar Express has its detractors (many of them) I though watching it in 3D on the Imax was was one of the more visually spectacular movies I have ever seen.

New Yorker illustration by Zohar Lazar.

Ryan Reynolds and Kristen Stewart are joining Jesse Eisenberg in Adventureland, from writer/director Greg Mottola (Superbad).

The 1987-set story follows an uptight recent college grad (Eisenberg) who is forced to take a degrading minimum-wage job at the local amusement park when he realizes he can't afford his dream European tour. The experience helps him to loosen up a bit as he finds first love, forms new friendships and emerges with a newfound sense of maturity just in time to enter the real world in the fall.

Reynolds will play an aspiring rock star and the icon of cool to all the kids working at the park. Stewart will play the romantic lead, a tomboy who also works at the park.

This is good news. Process Media has bought feature rights to Dave Eggers' novel "You Shall Know Our Velocity!" and signed Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl, episodes of Freaks and Geeks, Six Feet Under, The Office) to direct.

Process has hired Wells Tower, recipient of the Paris Review Discovery Prize, to adapt. The story centers on two childhood friends who come upon a large sum of money and embark on a weeklong around-the-world journey to give it away. I have no idea how they will adapt this, this is an epic, sprawling narrative that doesn't really fit into a three act structures. Either way, it is good to see Arteta making another movie.

If anyone can translate this website it would be gladly appreciated.

Slash film has posted a series of Wes Anderson directed AT&T commercials. One of them is posted below.

Okay, one more criterion relase to show here. This one is for Gus Van Sant's Mala Noche. I know very little about this film, basically just the plot outline. This is actually the first artwork or images I have ever seen from it. I didn't even know it existed until a few weeks ago when I was reading an article about Van Sant's career. Below is the info on the film from the Criterion website, click here for the specs from the DVD. I can't say if this movie is worth seeing or not since I haven't seen it. I am interested though, most of Van Sant's early work is really great.

With its low budget and lush black-and-white imagery, Gus Van Sant's debut feature Mala Noche heralded an idiosyncratic, provocative new voice in American independent film. Set in Van Sant's hometown of Portland, Oregon, the film evokes a world of transient workers, dead-end day-shifters, and bars and seedy apartments bathed in a profound nighttime, as it follows a romantic deadbeat with a wayward crush on a handsome Mexican immigrant. Mala Noche was an important prelude to the New Queer Cinema of the nineties and is a fascinating time capsule from a time and place that continues to haunt its director's work.

Click here for more info on the release.

I'm not sure if I have posted this before or not. If I have, here it is again.

Below is the trailer for Juno. The film just recently played at the Toronto Festival and most of the reviews I have read said that it could be this years Little Miss Sunshine. I really didn't know anything about this movie until about a week ago and now it has become one of my most anticipated movies of the year.

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An article about how David Gordon Green is becoming the new Judd Apatow, just on a much smaller scale.

This is a excerpt of a Seth Rogen interview from the Guardian. (I'll have to fix the html when I get home, Safari won't allow it.)

Rogen now has five movies in the pipeline, some of them leftover voicework he snagged before this summer turned his life upside-down, but also another, Pineapple Express, based on a Rogen- Goldberg script and directed by ... "Why, indie darling David Gordon Green, of course!" laughs Rogen. The man who gave us All the Real Girls and George Washington has helmed their script about a sour pothead (Rogen) and his overfriendly dealer (Freaks/Spiderman alumnus James Franco) who go on the run after witnessing a murder. A super-violent action-movie-cum-pothead-comedy by an art-house director? "I know! When I watch it I just think, 'I can't believe they let us make this!' I can't believe people actually like it, too."

The Apatow-Rogen comedy machine is so backed up, however, that Pineapple Express, though complete, won't be seen until next summer. As a teaser, Rogen leaves me with one nugget: "I guess what Judd Apatow is to me, is what Terrence Malick is to David Gordon Green. They're just good friends. And David said to me the other day, 'Guess what Terrence Malick's favourite movie of the last 10 years is?'"

What?

"Zoolander! He knows every word, watches it every week. Which just goes to show, you never can predict these things." And Rogen shakes hands, says goodbye, swivels on his heel, and walks out into the ever-brightening limelight.

From Ain't it Cool, Benicio Del Toro in a make up test for The Wolfman.

Director Terry Zwigoff (Bad Santa, Art School Confidential) will direct the comedy The $40,000 Man. The story is about a legendary astronaut who is rebuilt by the government after a bad accident to be a bionic man — but on a measly budget of $40,000. Johnathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (yes, Sam Weir from Freaks and Geeks) wrote the original script, and Zwigoff will team with Dan Clowes for the remake. Zwigoff and Clowes earned Oscar nominations for best adapted screenplay for their collaboration on 2001's Ghost World, the Zwigoff-directed movie adaptation of Clowes' graphic novel of the same name. (Hollywood Reporter)

EW has posted a list of who should/will win the Emmy's. I actually don't know who deserves these awards and would just end up voting for anyone involved with The Office, Entourage, Lost, or The Sopraonos. Either way, I love reading crap like this.

Yahoo has the trailer up for Rob Reiner's The Bucket List, the story of two terminally ill men try to fulfill a wish list known as "The Bucket List" before each kicks the bucket. This could turn out to be the worst movie of the year (and it may with Reiner's recent track record) but I would still have to see it since it stars Jack Nicholson and Moran Freeman, two of the greatest actors of any generation.

Ricky Gervais will take on the starring role in "This Side of the Truth."

Gervais had committed to co-direct the comedy with his co-writer Matt Robinson. This will be Gervais' feature directing debut and first major project since wrapping the HBO series "Extras," which begins its third season on Dec. 18. Gervais is nominated for four Emmys for the comedy.

"This Side of the Truth" is set in a contemporary world where no one has ever lied. Gervais will play a performer who tells the first lie and harnesses its power for personal gain.

"My character works in the film industry, where actors are really readers who tell completely factual stories," Gervais said. "My character's a loser who's about to lose his job, and who's lumbering through the 1300s. All he's got to work with is the Black Death. But once he lies and pretends he's found lost stories, he becomes the greatest storyteller in the world."

I'm at work right now so I just sort of copied and pasted that from Variety. I have no idea what this will be like but with Gervais involved I'm quite optimistic.

This is one of the worst posters I have seen this year. I guess they were going for some kind of flag design but it looks like someone just slapped another poster down in the bottom right hand corner.

The New York Times is reporting tha the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is expected to bring back Jon Stewart as the host of next years Oscars. Stewart hosted the awards in 2006 and did a wonderful job. I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed though. I may be in the minority but I was really hoping that they would bring back Ellen DeGeneres who I thought was the funniest host since Steve Martin (I would but Stewart second on that list). Oh well, at least it isn't Whoopi Goldberg.

IGN has posted the teaser trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth. The film is about, well, it doesn't matter what it is about. It's a new film from Francis Ford Coppola that he isn't making just to get out of bankruptcy and that should be enough of a reason to see it. After all, this is the man that brought us The Rain People, The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather II, and Apocalypse Now all in a row. No other filmmaker has had a succession of movies like that. He also made one of my favorite movies for the 80's, Rumble Fish.

3:10 to Yuma

I saw this film this last Friday and haven't had the desire to write about it yet. Not because it's bad, it is actually very good, but because I don't think anything I say will convince anyone to see this. This is a Western and you probably already know if you like those or don't.

This isn't a post modern take, Yuma fully embraces the genre and stays within its confines. Like a lot of other great Westerns the film basically boils down to being about morals more than anything else. Sure you get pistols and horses but the movie is basically about being good or evil, with a surprising amount of gray area.

The movie contains two wonderful central performances from Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, plus a violent and intense supporting one from Ben Foster. It is filled with action but it is essential to the story and never gets in the way of the smaller, quieter moment. There is a scene towards the end of the movie where the two main characters just speak to one another in a hotel room. It is just the two men buying time and trying to figure the other one out. The way it is written and acted it is as thrilling as any of the shoot outs in the film. That is what basically makes the movie, two men alone together and trying to stay alive.

Screen Daily reports that Roman Polanski will no longer direct the epic drama Pompeii due to scheduling conflicts.

The site says that the director pulled out after Summit International indicated it may have to postpone principal photography in Europe next summer due to concerns over a possible industry strike.

On one hand I'm disappointed about this. I wanted to see what Polanski could do with a big(er) budget disaster film. On the other, I really want Polanski to make more personal, smaller films. These are the ones that always turn out best for him.

I have no opinion about this either way but Jennifer Hudson is joining the cast of the Sex and the City movie. The Academy Award-winning actress (Dreamgirls) has been cast to play an assistant to Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw in the big-screen version. The movie follows the show's four main characters four years after the series ended. I'm not sold on Hudson as an actor and didn't think she deserved the Oscar last year. Not that I think she was bad in Dreamgirls, I just don't think she was that good.

I really hope this is true. While I was reading this book I kept trying to picture actors that could play the main role (I had already read it was going to be a movie). The two people that kept coming to mind was Christian Bale and Viggo Mortensen. Anyway, a rep for Viggo Mortensen confirms that the Lord of the Rings star is in early talks to star in the big-screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's best-selling The Road. The story, about a man and his young son traveling through a desperate, post-apocalyptic world, is being adapted by Joe Penhall (Enduring Love). Aussie John Hillcoat, who helmed last year's down-under Western The Proposition (one of my favorite movies from last year), will direct.

I saw this commercial earlier today and thought it was really well made. Turns out it was directed by Michael Mann. If the music sounds familiar it's because it is the score from The Last of the Mohicans, also directed by Mann.

Apple has the trailer up for next summer's Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Daniels, Gwyneth Paltrow and directed by John Favreau. I wouldn't normally be excited or interested in an Iron Man movie (I know next to nothing about the character) but with talent like that involved you have to assume that they are doing something right. The trailer is actually really good, even though it contains the most obvious musical cue in the history of trailers.

Sean Penn will play gay 1970s politician Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant's biopic of the first openly gay prominent elected official. Matt Damon is attached to play Milk's assassin, Dan White, who shot the San Francisco city supervisor along with Mayor George Moscone in 1978. After serving five years of a seven-year sentence, White committed suicide in 1985. I guess this is good news, it sounds like Van Sant is getting back to making a "real" movie after his recent minimalist efforts (Gerry, Elephant, Last Days, Paranoid Park).

So the VMAs were tonight, I wasn't watching the show but apparently Shia Lebouf was there and let slip that the new Indiana Jones movie would be titled Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I don't know what that means or what they are searching for but it's nice to have a title finally.

Yahoo has posted another trailer for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It isn't quite as good as the last one, this one more concerned with the plot than the dreamlike quality of the last one. You do get your first view of Paul Schneider in this clip and, surprisingly enough, James Carville.

I think it takes a lot to shock me when it comes to seeing explicit violence or sex in movies or television but I have to be honest that I was quite surprised that the new HBO drama Tell Me You Love Me shows balls. This has to be the first time (outside of maybe Caligula or the Weatherford High School classic Learning Curve) that testicles have played such a predominant role in mainstream entertainment.

Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg's Saturday Night Live collaboration, Dick in a Box, won an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics at Saturday's Creative Arts Primetime Emmys. I know this means nothing but I like the fact that we live in a country where something called Dick in a Box wins awards. I would sort of like to know what the other nominees for this category was but I am too lazy to try and find them online.

According to the credits in the There Will Be Blood trailer Jonny Greenwood is doing the score, not Jon Brion who has worked on all the other P.T. Anderson movies.

Just came from seeing 3:10 to Yuma (more on that later) and my biggest surprise (well, second biggest. There is a cameo in Yuma that was pretty damn surprising) was that there was a full length There Will Be Blood trailer that played before it. I was really excited to be able to come home and watch this in all it's HD glory but the only place the trailer is online is at myspace. It is definitely worth viewing, even in the crappy format. The film looks like it could be the next great American epic and Daniel Day-Lewis looks terrific in the clip.

UPDATE: Apparently the trailer has been removed from the link above. Try this one.

I was re-watching Marie Antoinette for the fist time since I had seen in the theater last year. I realize a lot of people still haven't seen it, thinking it to be a boring period piece. I had forgotten how good the movie is, it's basically Lost in Translation in Versailles. Below is a clip that basically sums up the entire feeling of the movie.

I came across this on cable earlier and had no idea that Waylon Jennings was in this movie. Probably because the last time I saw this I had no idea who Waylon Jennings was. On a side note, Van Dyke Parks co-wrote the score to the movie.

Here is a slightly different, more fleshed out (and funnier) trailer for the music biopic spoof, Walk Hard.

Last night I watched Live Free or Die on DVD (the film is in no way connected to the new Die Hard) and had an enjoyable enough time. The film seems to get better as it goes along and everything is tied together in a creative and not predictable way. The main problem I had was with the main character of Rugged. He is essentially playing the same character that Vincent Gallo played in Buffalo '66 but the filmmakers never let the audience get in anyway involved with him. It's all surface and one note. The best part, of course, was Paul Schneider as Lagrand. His character isn't all quite there and Schneider gets to steal every scene he is in. It was also nice to see Michael Rapaport is good in a low-key performance that explains itself as the movie progresses.

Here is the trailer for the film.

What do a bunch of British actors and one American superstar have in common? Well, nothing really other than they are all starring in Valkyrie together. I sort of hope that the filmmakers go the Last Temptation of Christ route here and be damned with accents and let the actors speak in their normal voices. If you are going to do in English and not German what does it matter? I doubt that will be the case though, I'm fully expecting a movie full of fake German accents when this opens next year. Anyway, here is a group picture of all the actors.

This is the best commercial I have seen in ages.

A little while back Awards Daily held a poll to see what the readers of the sites favorite movies were from 1996-2006. I'm actually surprised with the number one pick and really have no argument with. I was disappointed that Sideways didn't even make the list. Oh well, I guess I should have voted. To see the full list clickhere/

I know I posted the test version of this that leaked onto the internet sometime ago but here is the final poster.

Seems the Wes Anderson short Hotel Chavalier will not be shown in theaters before The Darjeeling Limited. Even though the short is thematically linked to the full movie it will only be shown at other festivals and on the internet before eventually showing up on the DVD. I have always like the idea of the short playing before the movie, sort of a hipster version of the cartoons that play before Pixar films.

This is taken from Jeffery Wells' Hollywood Elsewhere but I agree with it whole heartedly.

The process that refines raw life into art is often necessarily harsh. And one thing that seems to work against good art or well-crafted entertainment is when the artist-filmmaker has chosen to absorb life from within the comfort of a protected membrane and is thereby absorbing less of the stuff that tends to inform and clarify and lead to some droppings of insight. It follows, therefore, that an artist who's been through an especially rough and traumatic patch is on some level better positioned to create something richer and fuller than one who's been gliding along on his own fumes.

Nothing too earthshaking in this, but it does, I believe, cast light upon the situation of Owen Wilson and his longtime collaborator Wes Anderson, as well as, accor- ding to Venice Film Festival reviewers, the "smug", "airless", "chilly," "under glass" and "self-satisfied" element that colors The Darjeeling Limited (Fox Searchlight, 9.29), which Anderson directed and co-wrote and Wilson costars in.

Put bluntly and at the risk of sounding insensitive, Wilson's recent attempted- suicide trauma may very well -- in the long run, at least -- make him a better artist, a better actor and a much funnier man. (Anderson's comment during a Venice Film Festival press conference that the recovering Wilson has "been making us laugh" indicates an admirable rock-out attitude.) Lying crumpled at the bottom of a dark pit does wonders for your game if you can climb out of it. Ask any artist who's been there.

Perhaps Wilson's near-tragedy will rub off on his good pal Anderson (how could it not?) but what this obviously gifted director-writer with the carefully-tailored suits seems to desperately need -- and his critics have been saying this for years, beginning with the faint disappointments of The Royal Tennenbaums -- is to somehow climb out of his fastidiously maintained Wes-zone (i.e., "Andersonville") and open himself up for more of the rough and tumble.

I'm not saying Anderson is necessarily leading a bloodless life (he's very tough and exacting, and can get pretty damn angry when rubbed the wrong way). And I'm not suggesting that he try to become someone else. Wes has obviously found a highly developed style and a sensibility of his own, and it would be folly to veer away from this in any drastic way. (Jacques Tati was Jacques Tati, Luis Bunuel was Luis Bunuel, etc.) At the same time Anderson needs to...I don't know, do something.

Maybe there's no remedy. Maybe we're all just stuck in our grooves and that's that. What's that Jean Anouilh line from Becket? "I'm afraid we can only do, absurdly, what it has been given to us to do. Right to the end."

What do I know about all this? Not that much. But I know -- remember -- Wes a little bit, and I know people who know him.

Working with Wilson again on screenplays might help. (Although I've been told that Wilson's writing-discipline issues may have gotten in the way of this in the past.) The general consensus seems to be that the somewhat stilted, self-enclosed qualities have seemed more pronounced in The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited, which Wilson didn't co-write. Another thing to consider might be to focus more on two- or three-character stories (a la Rushmore) rather than ensembles.

Paul Schrader told me in an early '80s interview that the two things that tend to kick your art up to the next level are (a) a jarring episode that turns your head around and reorders your thinking and (b) a mentoring by or a collaboration with someone you trust sufficiently to allow for experimentation and growth. Anderson has now had a taste of the former, and there's nothing stopping him from at least attempting the latter.

Below are the first two images and plot description from Jason Reitman’s (Thank You For Smoking) Juno, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival.

Ellen Page stars as Juno (also the film’s title), a whip-smart teen confronting an unplanned pregnancy by her classmate Bleeker (Michael Cera). With the help of her hot best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), Juno finds her unborn child a “perfect” set of parents: an affluent suburban couple, Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), longing to adopt. Luckily, Juno has the total support of her parents (JK Simmons and Allison Janney) as she faces some tough decisions, flirts with adulthood and ultimately figures out where she belongs.

I somehow came across the the official Stanley Kubrick website tonight and became excited by the prospect of Kubrick's plans for his unfilmed Napoleon script to be published. As I continued to read this story I realized that it was from 2002 and there was little hope five years later for it to actually be released. Intrigued I came across this story from Salon.com about the same film that went into great detail about the film. I could recap what it says but there is much too many interesting details about the preproduction and eventual downfall of the film in the article. Towards the end they actually give a little insight into what the actual script is like, even describing a few scenes.

An old man stumbles from a house, brandishing a pitchfork and babbling insanely. Napoleon's soldiers laugh at him, until the old man runs through a soldier with his pitchfork. An officer executes the old man with a pistol, but in the act of doing so blows off the hand of one of his own soldiers.

Marching 1,000 miles home through a terrible winter, Napoleon's army becomes "a starving, feverish mob, without purpose." Then follows an incredible scene in a Russian village, in which officers and soldiers try to fend off the winter freeze by squashing themselves into a tiny house with their horses. They blockade themselves in to stop the other soldiers left outside to die from fighting their way in. But then a fire breaks out and those inside are unable to escape the flames. Other men rush forward from where they have been huddling in an open field to warm themselves, and cook horsemeat on the ends of their swords.

They also end their article with a quote from Kubrick about his planned vision for the film.

"There's a weird disparity between the sheer visual and organizational beauty of the historical battles and their human consequences," Kubrick said. "It's rather like watching two golden eagles soaring through the sky from a distance; they may be tearing a dove to pieces, but if you are far enough away the scene is still beautiful."

While I was trying to find out if I had spelled Jason Schwartzman's name correctly in the last post (I hadn't) I came across this interview with him from a fan site. I'm not sure if the Q & A is from somewhere else or just for the site but the some of it is posted below. To read the rest click here.

Q: You wrote “The Darjeeling Limited” with Wes Anderson and your cousin Roman Coppola. Where did the idea come from?

A: Years ago, Wes said to me, “I’d like to do a movie about brothers on a train,” and he wanted me to be one of the brothers. We ended up living together in Paris when he was promoting “The Life Aquatic” and I was filming “Marie Antoinette,” and the story crystallized. We’d walk around and tell each other stories about our lives, and we’d ask each other what these brothers were doing on the train and where they were going. It felt like a murder mystery that we were trying to figure out.

Q: What was the co-writing process like?

A: Wes was in Paris and I was in Los Angeles with Roman, and we would do these three-to five-hour conference calls every morning where we’d brainstorm ideas and concepts. Wes would type up scenes, and we’d read them over the phone, acting them out and making notes. After about three weeks of doing that, we’d fly to wherever Wes was and we’d all stay together for another three weeks, sitting in a room together and writing.

Q: Were there any challenges to shooting the film on location in India?

A: I wouldn’t call them challenges, but one of the great things about India is the feeling that anything can happen. I think it’s foolish to go into a foreign country with your cameras and expect to control it. I remember Wes saying that if we ask for a red car and tomorrow they show up with a blue truck, we’re going to shoot the blue truck. It was unpredictable, and that’s the beauty of the place.

Q: Did you feel the same spiritual presence that the characters in the movie did?

A: It would be difficult to walk around India and not feel moved or changed. Religion there is not just something that people do once a week. It’s a constant in every minute of their lives. I loved it because we were always hearing people singing religious songs, music playing out of speakers, yelling, horns honking - it’s an audio extravaganza.

Q: It was nice to see you as the cool, brooding ladies’ man instead of your usual nebbish. How much of the character Jack comes from your own personality?

A: Jack and I are different in that I have a tendency to try to make things comfortable if there’s an intense or quiet moment, and I like to ask a lot of questions. Jack is content to just sit there and observe. He’s very quiet and still. But I have two brothers myself and I understand how fortunate it is to have them and to love them, and how hard it can be sometimes. And obviously, the brooding ladies’ man thing comes so easy to me. [laughs]

Q: Why is Jack always barefoot?

A: In the short [test] film we shot, he wasn’t wearing shoes because he was in a hotel room, and we liked the look of him wearing a suit with no shoes. When we got to India, everyone was trying on shoes and Wes said, “How about no shoes for you?” I was nervous at first because I didn’t want to step on a piece of glass or something. Later I was talking to these Jains - it’s a religion over there - and the hard core Jains never wear shoes because they don’t want to step on any animals or bugs. It forces you to consider each step you take.

Also, here is a still from the short film that plays before The Darjeeling Limited called Hotel Chevalier. It stars Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman.

Richard Corliss has posted the first review of Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited which is playing at the Venice Film Festival. Below is an excerpt from it, click here to read the whole thing. It sounds like Anderson is relying on his old trademarks again, that can either be a good thing or not. I want him to try new things and grow as a filmmaker, then again, I really like all of his movies.

In his elaborate visual construct, virtually every shot is followed by with the camera point-of-view shifted 90 or 180 degrees -- which is geometrically groovy, no question, but pretty quickly predictable. Same goes for his stories, which rely on gifted people behaving goofily. Anderson has the attitude for comedy, but not the aptitude. His films are museum artifacts of what someone thought could be funny. They're airless. Movies under glass.

"[Owen] Wilson has appeared in all five of Anderson's feature films (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and the new one) and co-wrote the first three -- the ones I prefer in the the director's oeuvre. The Darjeeling script is by Anderson, Schwartzman and Roman Coppola (Francis' son, Sofia's brother) and it doesn't add luster to anyone's reputation.

"The Darjeeling program includes a related 13-min. film, Hotel Chevalier. Schwartzman's Jack seems uneasy when he gets a call from an ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman) who insists on showing up in his swank hotel room. He draws a bubble bath for her. They flirt and parry and wind up in bed, exchanging dialogue that we hear again, at the end of Darjeeling, as part of a story Jack has written.

"It's a beguiling vignette that, as Closer and My Blueberry Nights did, shows Portman as a comic actress in fresh bloom. I wish that she, and some of the feeling and wit of the short film, had been in the long one.