Ok, where did this come from and how long is it before David Gordon Green becomes a superstar director? Fox has picked up Good Vibes, a pilot presentation for a half-hour animated comedy that centers on two high school surfer dudes living near the beach in California.

Green is writing the project and will exec produce, along with Good Humor TV's Tom Werner and Mike Clements and animator Brad Ableson.

A new trailer for Baz Luhrmann's Australia, starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. This film is looking less and less like the straight up epic I had thought it to be and more along the lines of Luhrmann's other films (Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge!), just in a different setting. I am also sort of digging the faux Explosions in the Sky music accompanying this footage. It shouldn't work but it sort of does.



UPDATE: I can't tell if that is actually Explosions in the Sky on the soundtrack or just some imitation.

UPDATE 2: It is Explosions. This via The Playlist.

Ha! Today is the day of trailers featuring random music that I actually can spot all by myself without someone else telling me. Here, in this latest clip from Baz Luhrmann’s sprawling pre-World War Two epic of gorgeous proportions "Australia," featuring my absolute favourite instrumental band of all time Explosions In The Sky's “The Only Moment We’re Alone," and their songs were also featured in the film version of “Friday Night Lights.” When I heard the track, I thought had it playing on iTunes in the background, but I guess whoever compiled the trailer just has good taste. “Australia” opens in cinemas on the 26th of November, and I am just about popping out of my skin with anticipation.

The trailer for Seven Pounds, starring Will Smith and directed by his The Pursuit of Happyness helmer Gabriele Muccino. This trailer doesn't really make clear what the story is but it does use that wonderful music from the end of Michael Bay's The Island, which was also used in the trailer for The Golden Age last year.

Here is some comic book film news I can get behind, Kenneth Branagh is negotiating to direct Thor.

Branagh made one of the all time great (if not greatest) Shakespeare adaptations with his version of Hamlet, not to mention the also wonderful Henry V. From what I know about Thor, it is somewhat Shakespearean by design. Here is what the Wiki page says about the character:

The Marvel version of Thor is noble and very self-assured, sometimes to the point of arrogance. Thor's father Odin decides his son needs to be taught humility and consequently places Thor (without memories of godhood) into the body and memories of an existing, partially disabled human medical student, Donald Blake. After becoming a doctor and thoroughly believing himself to be the young surgeon Blake, he later discovers Thor's disguised hammer and learns to change back and forth into the Thunder God. The real Blake's persona remains elsewhere until many years later, after Odin becomes satisfied of Thor's humility and lifts the spell, thereby removing the need for a mortal alter ego. The mortal experience, however, shapes Thor into an honorable and courteous individual, who is loyal to all comrades.

Sounds like it could have come straight out of the Bard's notebook. Right?

A new trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Another great Paul Newman movie ending.

One of the all time greats, Paul Newman, has died. I just re-watched The Color of Money, his Oscar winning role, last weekend. This was an actor too great to be measured by winning an award though. One of the most charismatic screen icons, the moment he entered the frame the film became more interesting. The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, The Verdict, The Color of Money, Road to Perdition, and these are just off the top of my head. The man was a legend. I don't like to think about him being gone though. I want to picture his last moments like the ending of Butch Cassidy. Trapped and surrounded, making one last run towards freedom and then frozen in an immortal freeze frame.

Roger Ebert has a great, long, and lightly edited transcript on his website or an interview with Spike Lee. Lee's new film, Miracle at St. Anna, comes out this weekend and this is the main topic but Ebert and Lee also go into his history as a filmmaker, the history or black soldiers, and many other tangents. It's a fascinating read.

Cloverfield (still much better than it probably had any right to be) director Matt Reeves has been hired to write and direct a remake of Let the Right One In.

Tomas Alfredson's original Swedish vampire film of the same name tells the story of a young boy who befriends a girl who happens to be a vampire. Hammer acquired the English-language remake rights when Alfredson's picture won rave reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival. It is supposed to be the type of film that crosses over genre lines from not just being a great horror film but an all out great film.

Rachel McAdams will star opposite Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes.

McAdams plays Holmes' enigmatic love interest, Irene Adler, a character who appeared in Doyle's 1891 "A Scandal in Bohemia."

Best poster of the year?

A new trailer for Oliver Stone's W, film I am anticipating more and more with each passing day.

How do you extend a franchise when your main character dies at the end of the film (except in the much better alternate cut? You make a prequel.
Warner Bros. his planning a prequel to the Will Smith starrer "I Am Legend.

The plan is for Smith to reprise his role as scientist Robert Neville, with Francis Lawrence returning to direct.

The prequel will chronicle the final days of humanity in New York before a man-made virus caused a plague that left Smith’s character the lone survivor among a mutated mob in the city.

Yesterday at some sort of Disney event, it was announced that not only had Johnny Depp been cast in as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland film and as Tonto in The Lone Ranger (he is part Cherokee) but also to return as Jack Sparrow in a 4th Pirates film. Read more details on all this here.

Gil Cates is out as the producer of the Oscars and the Dreamgirls team of producer Laurence Mark and writer-director Bill Condon are in. This is great, while I wasn't the biggest fan of Dreamgirls, at least it was visually interesting. Cates for the past few years has been using questionable tactics (putting music behind the speeches a few years ago) and worst of all, his productions had become boring.

Angelina's gonna eat that kid.

A not so great trailer for the Notorious B.I.G biopic, Notorious, starring Jamal Woolard as Biggie and Derek Luke as Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs.

You can now download the new Michael Moore film, Slacker Uprising, for free at the film's website. I haven't got a chance to watch it but plan on trying to over the weekend.

I also forgot to update on this. Sometime ago I mentioned that No End in Sight would be up on youtube. That time has passed but the Oscar nominated film is still there and will be until the coming presidential elections.

For no other reason than it just popped in my head.

This is one hell of a trailer for Sundance winner, Ballast. Gritty and beautiful without a hint of musc and minimal dialogue, this immediately feels like something different and new.

Discovered this via The Playlist, Summit Entertainment has a page on their website devoted to Terrence Malick's next film, Tree of Life. Anyone that if familiar with Malick's history of making movies knows it is a bit of a miracle anytime he decides to make a film. This film has now wrapped and is being released sometime next fall. The page also has the first synopsis (below) of the film, which stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.

Our picture is a cosmic epic, a hymn to life.

We trace the evolution of an eleven-year-old boy in the Midwest, Jack, one of three brothers. At first all seems marvelous to the child. He sees as his mother does, with the eyes of his soul. She represents the way of love and mercy, where the father tries to teach his son the world's way, of putting oneself first. Each parent contends for his allegiance, and Jack must reconcile their claims. The picture darkens as he has his first glimpses of sickness, suffering and death. The world, once a thing of glory, becomes a labyrinth.

Framing this story is that of adult Jack, a lost soul in a modern world, seeking to discover amid the changing scenes of time that which does not change: the eternal scheme of which we are a part. When he sees all that has gone into our world's preparation, each thing appears a miracle — precious, incomparable. Jack, with his new understanding, is able to forgive his father and take his first steps on the path of life.

The story ends in hope, acknowledging the beauty and joy in all things, in the everyday and above all in the family -- our first school -- the only place that most of us learn the truth about the world and ourselves, or discover life's single most important lesson, of unselfish love.

Man on Wire

Man on Wire is an engrossing, inspiring, and at times frightening (if you are scared of heights, as I am) documentary, probably the best one I have seen in some time. The film tells the true story of Philippe Petit, a French wire-walker, who crossed eight times on a tight-wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center on Aug. 7, 1974.

Made with with a surprising amount of footage from the planning stages all the way to the actual event, the film also splices in reenacted footage as well as present day interviews. What seems like a straight forward story continues to become more and more interesting as the event draws closer and the stakes are raised to a surprising degree.

I went into this film knowing very little of the subject, just a brief synopsis and seeing the trailer once. I was enraptured from the moment it started, showing a reenactment of how the crew broke into the WTC, is has as much excitement as the best thrillers or bank heist pictures. There is also a beautiful sequence early on in the film showing the beginning stages of the buildings being built, split screen with photos of young Philippe growing up. No voice over, just the images and wonderful music that plays throughout the story. It is moments like this (and there are many more but I really don't want to give anything away) that makes this the wonderful work of art is is.

Woody Allen, being political.

“It would be a very, very terrible thing for the United States in many, many ways,” he said.

Democratic hopeful Obama, Allen said, is “so much better” than Republican rival 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.”

Here is the full list of Emmy winners from last nights broadcast. Glad 30 Rock won so many awards, really haven't seen any of the other winners.

* Outstanding Drama Series — Mad Men
* Outstanding Comedy Series — 30 Rock
* Outstanding Lead Actress, Comedy Series — Tina Fey, 30 Rock
* Outstanding Lead Actor, Drama Series — Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
* Outstanding Lead Actress, Drama Series — Glenn Close, Damages
* Outstanding Lead Actor, Comedy Series — Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
* Outstanding Lead Actor, Miniseries — Paul Giamatti, John Adams
* Outstanding Lead Actress, Miniseries — Laura Linney, John Adams
* Outstanding Writing Drama Series — Matthew Weiner, Mad Men
* Outstanding Directing Drama Series — Greg Yaitanes, House
* Outstanding Writing, Comedy Series — Tina Fey, 30 Rock
* Outstanding Director, Comedy series — Barry Sonnenfeld, Pushing Daisies
* Outstanding Miniseries — John Adams
* Outstanding Writing, Miniseries/Movie — Kirk Ellis, John Adams
* Outstanding Directing, Miniseries/Movie — Jay Roach, Recount
* Outstanding Supporting Actress, Miniseries - Eileen Atkins, Cranford
* Outstanding Supporting Actor, Miniseries — Tom Wilkinson, John Adams
* Outstanding Made for Television Movie — Recount
* Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series - Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
* Outstanding Supporting Actor, Drama - Zeljko Ivanek, Damages
* Outstanding Supporting Actress, Comedy - Jean Smart, Samantha Who
* Outstanding Supporting Actor, Comedy - Jeremy Piven, Entourage
* Outstanding Guest Actress, Drama Series — Cynthia Nixon, Law & Order
* Outstanding Guest Actor, Drama Series — Glynn Turman, In Treatment
* Outstanding Guest Actress, Comedy Series — Kathryne Joosten, Desperate Housewives
* Outstanding Guest Actor, Comedy Series — Tim Conway, 30 Rock
* Outstanding Individual Performance, Comedy Special - Don Rickles
* Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Program - The Daily Show
* Outstanding Writing, Variety, Music, or Comedy Program - The Colbert Report
* Outstanding Director, Variety, Music, or Comedy Program - Louis J. Horvitz (Oscars)
* Outstanding Reality Show Host — Jeff Probst
* Outstanding Reality-Competition Series — The Amazing Race
* Special Commemorative Emmy for Tommy Smothers — Writing, Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

The trailer for Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road, a film that no matter what will probably be compared to Mad Men just because of the time period.

I just posted last week about how great of an actor Nicolas Cage is even though he makes a ton of bad movies. It was beginning to look like he was coming back around to being in quality pictures again, starring in Werner Herzog and Roman Polanski directed films that should come out next year. Now it looks like he is returning to the dark side. He is reteaming with Dominic Sena, the director of his 2000 action remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, for a new movie called Season of the Witch (which was the original title for Scorsese's Mean Streets). The film chronicles the journey of 14th century knights transporting a girl suspected of being the witch responsible for spreading the Black Plague.

Guess who is hosting SNL tonight.

Stephen Chow, one of Asia's most popular box-office draws as the award-winning star and director of such films as Kung Fu Hustle, CJ7, and Shaolin Soccer, will direct Seth Rogen and star opposite him as Kato in comic book adaptation The Green Hornet.

Dr. Dog - Lola's 9/12/08 from You and Yours on Vimeo.

EW.com has really gone downhill. While it was never much of a movie centric site, they at least would have new castings and reviews on their main page and it was a sort of one stop shop to catch up with a little pop culture news. Now they seem to have become obsessed with generating web traffic and to artificially rise their viewer numbers by providing nothing but lists that you must click through individually. Now don't get me wrong, I love lists. Love to read them, love to write them, love everything about them. But these lists aren't even in any order, just randomly chosen and the subjects leave a little something to be desired. A sampling of today's selection: 15 greatest Emmy moments, 20 dumbest TV shows ever, 16 great election-year movies, 13 movie dresses that impress, and 28 wacky TV/movie neighbors. I wish I was making those last two up but I'm not. This is what it has come to.

Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman and Faizon Love are all joining Couples Retreat, a Favreau-scripted, Peter Billingsley (Ralphie from A Christmas Story!) directed comedy.

The story, which Vaughn came up with, follows four couples who go to a tropical island resort. While one couple is there to work on their marriage, the others are there to play but soon discover that participation in the resort’s couples therapy is not optional.

Jude Law will more than likely join Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes, the drama that Guy Ritchie is directing. Law will play play Watson, the super-sleuth's sidekick.

I have never even seen a Guy Ritchie film so I don't know how excited I am about this, despite being a big Downey Jr. fan. I really wish they would let Law play Watson as his character Gigolo Joe from A.I. Get that teddy bear from that film too.

NOTE: This video is horrible but it was the best I could find of A.I. on youtube.

Roger Ebert has added Spike Jonze's Adaptation to his list of Great Movies. I re-watched this recently and had forgot how good it really is. Always being a huge fan of the film, I was surprised to be reminded of all the sadness that is plaguing Charlie's solitary life as a writer, as well as many of the other characters in the film. Not that this is a downbeat film by any means, its a hilarious comedy, mixed with a thriller (in the third act, at least), mixed with about five or six other things I don't even know how to describe. My favorite passage from the review doesn't have much to do with the film, instead it focuses on how great Nicolas Cage can be. I know he can be really bad, horrible even, but when he is on he is fantastic.

There are often lists of the great living male movie stars: De Niro, Nicholson and Pacino, usually. How often do you see the name of Nicolas Cage? He should always be up there. He's daring and fearless in his choice of roles, and unafraid to crawl out on a limb, saw it off and remain suspended in air. No one else can project inner trembling so effectively. Recall the opening scenes in "Leaving Las Vegas." See him in Scorsese's "Bringing Out the Dead." Think of the title character in "The Weather Man." Watch him melting down in "Adaptation." And then remember that he can also do a parachuting Elvis impersonator ("Honeymoon in Vegas"), a wild rock 'n' roller ("Wild at Heart"), a lovesick one-handed baker ("Moonstruck"), a straight-arrow Secret Service agent ("Guarding Tess") and on and on.

He always seems so earnest. However improbable his character, he never winks at the audience. He is committed to the character with every atom and plays him as if he were him. His success in making Charlie Kaufman a neurotic mess and Donald Kaufman a carefree success story, in the same movie, comes largely from this gift. There are slight cosmetic differences between the two: Charlie usually needs a shave, Donald has a little more hair. But the real reason we can tell the twins apart, even when they're in the same trick shot, comes from within: Cage can tell them apart. He is always Charlie when he plays Charlie, always Donald when he plays Donald. Look and see.

I know none of this is really that relevant but I have been on a Roger Ebert wave lately. I am currently reading his book on Scorsese ("Scorsese by Ebert," was there ever a simpler title?) and just picked up his earlier book Alone in the Dark.

I found this over at Hype Beast and really thought it was a fake. What in the world would this man be doing with that man? Apparently it is from a 2007 September photo shoot for Vibe Magazine that was shot by Terry Richardson (that's him on the left). I wonder if Obama is a big fan of Terryworld?

I have never even heard of this movie but The Playlist just posted this trailer and an A+ review of it and it looks fantastic. Titled Voy A Explotar (I'm Gonna Explode), the review draws comparisons to Jean Luc Godard's films and this trailer does make it seem very much like an homage to Band of Outsiders.

I know this trailer is too big for this page but when you try to mess with the sizing the whole file screws up.

The funny and melancholy trailer for Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York. You can see a higher quality version over at Yahoo.

Burn After Reading

A good, not great Coen Brothers comedy full of goofball characters and just a hint of sadness. Looking more like a spy picture than screwball comedy, this is the type of film that grows a little in your mind when thinking back on it. All of the actors are perfectly cast, and this being the Coen's the plot takes twists and turns that one can never anticipate. I probably needs a few more viewings to fully wrap my head around the labyrinth plot and to catch all the jokes.

NOTE: The Carter Burwell score is very reminiscent of his Being John Malkovich music, which as you can guess, also stars John Malkovich.

NOTE 2: I had a much better, well thought out review written when the internet unexpectedly quit and I lost all of it. I may get into the film again later but I have a headache now and really don't feel like writing the whole thing again.

Ben Affleck will rewrite, direct and star in The Town, an adaptation of the Chuck Hogan novel "The Prince of Thieves."

Affleck will play a career thief who becomes smitten by the manager of a bank.

The project would be based in Charlestown, Mass., a gritty blue-collar Boston suburb similar to the one that Affleck captured in his pretty great directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton. Fey pretty much looks exactly like Palin (or should that be the other way around?)and has nailed the candidate's accent.

After posting the trailer for The Changeling, Clint Eastwood's latest film, I thought back to his teaser trailer for Mystic River. One simple helicopter shot towards a bar that will have terrible actions take place at it late in the story, all while Eastwood's raspy voice narrates. Perfect.

George Clooney loves all star casts. Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges are in negotiations to star opposite Clooney in the The men Who Star at Goats, which Grant Heslov is directing from a script by Peter Straughan.

Based on the book by the Guardian columnist Jon Ronson, "Goats" is set in Iraq and centers on Bob Wilton (McGregor), a desperate reporter who stumbles upon the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney), who claims to be a former secret U.S. military psychic soldier who was re¬activated post-9/11.

"Goats" chronicles the two men's travels through Iraq and offers glimpses into the supposedly real secret Army unit tasked with creating soldiers with paranormal powers.

Bridges will play Bill Django, the founder of the psychic soldier program and Lyn's mentor. Spacey will play Larry Hooper, a former psychic soldier who is running a prison camp in Iraq.

I guess this is the final, MPAA approved poster for Zack and Miri Make a Porno that is actually better than the banned one.

The trailer for Clint Eastwood's next, The Changeling. He also has another film coming out at the end of this year in Gran Torino but little information is known about that. This one stars Angelina Jolie as a woman whose kidnapped son is returned but she realizes the child is not hers.

Awards Daily just posted a list of the Top Ten Best Pictures since 1980 and it inspired me to make the same list with my own picks. While their list deals with the impact the selected films had on the Academy mine is just a list of preference. These are my favorite films from the group of winners.

10. Rain Man - There were better movies to place right here (Amadeus, Silence of the Lambs, Platoon) but this is one of those movies that I can't help but watch when it is on television. Dustin Hoffman won the Oscar for best actor but go back and watch it, Tom Cruise has the much harder role.

9. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - I can never decided if this is my favorite of the trilogy, if I had to pick right now I would go with The Fellowship of the Ring. Taken as a whole, the trilogy would be much higher on the list.

8. American Beauty - From the first year in my life that I really started following movies, 1999. The best year for films before last years group of masterpieces. Its not my favorite film from that year but it was one of those select films that really felt like brand new group of talent was taking over Hollywood.

7. Forrest Gump - I don't think this would have been on the list if I hadn't re-watched it recently. I had forgot how funny it was and by the time the film is coming to an end I was so wrapped up in it that I was convinced the Academy was right in picking this over Pulp Fiction or The Shawshank Redemption in 1994. Now if I re-watch those films soon I might change my mind but just listen to this and tell me it isn't funny. This film gets a bad rap from everyone endlessly quoting it and some of the quotes entering the lexicon of our speech. Watched now with you hardly even notice any of those moments.

6. Million Dollar Baby - I can still remember seeing this in the theater and there wasn't one word uttered in the final 30 minutes of the film.

5. Dances With Wolves - Another film that gets a bad rap because it beat Goodfellas for best picture and Kevin Costner beat Martin Scoresese for best director. While Goodfellas is the better film this one is also really, really good.

4. No Country for Old Men - I've said this numerous times before but this is a perfect film.

3. Unforgiven - The second western on my list and the second film directed by Clint Eastwood. This is what announced Eastwood as a top tier filmmaker.

2. The Departed - My favorite film of two years ago.

1. Schindler's List - Was there really any other choice? This is one of the greatest films of all time. Way too important and way too amazing not to put as the top of this list.

I'm not sure where this originated but I found it via The Huffington Post. It's Spike Lee's latest spouting off about his feud with Clint Eastwood over the lack of black actors in Eastwood's World War II films and how he will probably never win an Oscar. He goes on to mention the 1989 Oscars that was won by Driving Miss Daisy while his Do the Right Thing was only nominated for best original screenplay. By all means Do the Right Thing is a masterpiece and really a cultural landmark when it comes to motion pictures but I do take some issue with what he says about the film that went onto win best picture.

"Nobody is watching motherfucking Driving Miss Daisy today. Do The Right Thing is being taught in classes at major universities and high schools all over the world. That's how you're supposed to test art. Does the work stand up?"

I take issue with this because I still watch Driving Miss Daisy. Every time its on TV. I really do. I love the film. The problem with this is that Spike is exactly right. His film is a masterpiece and like I said above, important to the culture while Driving Miss Daisy is just a damn solid film. Man, I love Spike Lee.

And now a poster.

Via In Contention.

I am posting this for Emily. Damon has a great quote in here about how it is like "a really bad Disney movie."

Last week we had Milk and now another fantastic trailer is released. This one for Joe Wright's The Soloist, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. Wright made one of last years best films (despite what some people think!) with Atonement, which had one of the all time great unbroken tracking shot in film history. This appears, while covering somewhat traditional territory, to be in the upper tier of this year's releases.

Steven Soderbergh will direct a biopic about Liberace with Michael Douglas to play the flamboyant musician.

Richard LaGravanese is writing the script.

Soderbergh is in discussions with Matt Damon to play Scott Thorson, who sued Liberace in 1982 for $113 million in palimony, claiming he was the entertainer’s companion for five years. Even though Liberace never wavered from career-long denials that he was gay, Thorson reportedly settled for $95,000 in 1986.

Liberace died in 1987 of complications from AIDS at age 67.

Soderbergh will next direct The Girlfriend Experience, about high priced call girl, and has already finished The Informant, also with Matt Damon.

I got this from True Hoop (via the Rockets official site. It's not much but it lets you know that Rafer Alston (the teams starting point guard and streetball legend) has terrible taste in movies.

JCF: What are some of the best movies you’ve seen this summer?

RA: I saw Street Kings. Vantage Point was good. Dark Knight was great. Step Brothers was funny…

JCF: Chuck really liked Tropic Thunder.

RA: I saw that, it was cool. But, you know, it seemed like you already knew what was going to happen.

JCF: Did it change your opinion of Tom Cruise at all?

RA: (laughs) No, he was cool.

JCF: But still crazy…

RA: (laughs) Yeah. Anyway, I think I’m going to try and see the new Nicolas Cage movie Bangkok today or tomorrow…

NBC shows will once again be available on iTunes. This isn't that big of a deal now that something like Hulu is out there, where you can watch most of your favorite shows the day after broadcast and for free. I guess its good that you can put new seasons onto your ipod though.

IFC has secured the U.S. distribution rights to Steven Soderbergh’s Che. It will be released wide in January after an Oscar qualifying run in late December. Why this is exciting to me is it means it will also be available on IFC's Video on Demand service, which my cable provider subscribes to. By no means would I want to watch this at home on TV but if it is not released in my area at least I will have the means to see it. This service is the only way I was able to see Paranoid Park earlier and the year and part of My Winnipeg recently, as neither of these films were ever released in the DFW area (or at least I as unaware of them being so).

The problem here comes in temptation. If the film is available with the on demand service while it is making its qualifying run, will I be able to hold out to seeing it on the big screen? It is a good problem to have, as at least now I can guarantee I will be seeing this highly anticipated film some time this year or early next.

I love large black print against a white background. That is one small reason I am excited to see the film Hunger, the film follows life in the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland with an interpretation of the highly emotive events surrounding the 1981 IRA Hunger Strike, led by Bobby Sands. The minimalist trailer uses the graphics in between beautiful images from the film. It tells you nothing about the story but its engrossing all the same.

It is also provides a look at Michael Fassbender, who was recently cast in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards.

I wondered yesterday how James Franco could play Allen Ginsberg in the upcoming biopic Howl. Now CHUD has posted the story along with an image from the cover of Howl. Not exactly looking like Franco, but much closer than the usually long bearded and bald Ginsberg I am used to seeing.

Wes Anderson is set to write My Best Friend, a remake of the 2006 Patrice Leconte-directed French comedy Mon meilleur ami. Anderson is also eyeing the project as a directing vehicle.

The French film starred Daniel Auteuil as a cranky antiques dealer who learns at a dinner with his closest acquaintances that none of them really like him because of his harsh manner and selfishness. When his business partner bets him a valuable vase that he can't produce a best friend, the dealer tries to get an amiable cab driver to pose as his buddy.

This seems a bit like an odd choice for Anderson as all of his other scripts have been entirely original. Then again, he did just do an adaptation (The Fantastic Mr. Fox) so maybe this will be the project that knocks him out of that creative repetition he has been in since, oh, Bottle Rocket.

A new, very good, trailer for Quantum of Solace has shown up at the film's official site. I did a little research (by research I mean putting the words into google) to try and figure out what that title means.

quan·tum (kwntm)
n. pl. quan·ta (-t)
1. A quantity or amount.
2. A specified portion.
3. Something that can be counted or measured.
4. Physics
a. The smallest amount of a physical quantity that can exist independently, especially a discrete quantity of electromagnetic radiation.
b. This amount of energy regarded as a unit.


so·lace
\ˈsä-ləs also ˈsō-\
Function:
transitive verb
Inflected Form(s):
so·laced; so·lac·ing
Date:
13th century

1: to give solace to : console2 a: to make cheerful b: amuse3: allay, soothe
— so·lace·ment Listen to the pronunciation of solacement \-mənt\ noun
— so·lac·er noun

So there you have it, summed up it basically means an amount of console. Why couldn't they just have named the film that?

AMC's SciFi Scanner talked to Star Trek director J.J. Abrams, who explained why you won't see William Shatner reprising the role of Captain James T. Kirk. I have to say, its a pretty valid reason.

Q: How do you react to William Shatner's ire at not having a role in the movie?

A: It was very tricky. We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing, but the truth is, it didn't quite feel right. The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn't want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the Trek canon and consistency of storytelling. It's funny -- a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon. Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that.

I had never heard of this film before today but apparently it is getting close to starting production with a solid cast. David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker and Paul Rudd will join James Franco as Allen Ginsberg in the beatnik biopic Howl.

Documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman will make their narrative writing, producing and directing debut with the 1950s-era tale, focusing on the obscenity trial launched to censor Ginsberg's groundbreaking book-length poem.

Among the real-life characters featured in the film are prosecuting attorney Ralph McIntosh (Strathairn), Judge Clayton Horn (Alda), prosecution witness Professor David Kirk (Daniels), radio personality and prosecution witness Gail Potter (Parker) and literary critic and defense witness Luther Nichols (Rudd).

I can't think of any other great beat writer films. The only thing that comes to mind is Beat, a film I have never seen but they always have multiple copies of at Half Price Books. I am also having a hard time picturing Franco as Ginsberg. David Cross did a great job of playing him in last years I'm Not There. While Cross isn't quite the actor that Franco is, he certainly had the appearance down.

A nifty promotional poster promoting the Toronto screen of Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, which just won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the Venice Film Festival.

Randall Wallace (Braveheart, a film I have still never seen all of) will write The Last Pharaoh, a drama crafted as a vehicle for Will Smith to play Taharqa, the pharaoh who battled Assyrian invaders in ancient Egypt.

The film will focus on his battles with Assyrian leader Esarhaddon starting in 677 B.C.

Without a trailer released yet, here is the first footage of Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, starring Micky Rourke. The clip also features a short interview with Aronofsky and a very strange looking Rourke. The Wrestler is currently getting rave reviews at the Toronto and Venice film festivals, especially Rourke's performance.

A clip from Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles, with Zac Efron and Christian McKay as the titular director.

This looks like one of those Miramax releases from the mid '90s you would see on the shelves of Blockbuster and never consider watching. Also, what is the deal with the spacing between Rachel and Getting Married?

Michael Moore is going to release his next film online. Slacker Uprising follows Moore’s 62-city tour during the 2004 election to rally young voters. It will be available for three weeks as a free download to North American residents, beginning Sept. 23.

Now this is a hell of a trailer. Gus Van Zant directs the biopic about the life and death of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California, stars Sean Penn, Brolin, Hirsch, Diego Luna and James Franco. See it in HD over at the apple site.

The banned in the United States Zack and Miri poster.



UPDATE: Graphic designers love surrounding Seth Rogen with green. Also, The bottom is a basically the exact same poster (at least infers the same thing) that was not banned in the U.S.

A couple of things you should know about this red band trailer for Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno: It's not funny. I laughed once at Craig Robinson but he always makes me laugh. It is ripping off Judd Apatow down to the Justin Long cameo and The 40 Year Old Virgin style title cards. Smith still can't leave the Star Wars references out of his movies.

I've fully enjoyed one Kevin Smith film to date (Chasing Amy) but here is the sad thing; I'll end up seeing this whenever its released. Why? I have no idea.

The man with the golden voice is dead. Don LaFontaine, the movie-trailer announcer guy who voiced cliches thousands of times over the past 33 years ("in a world where..."), died yesterday at age 68.

Til Schweiger (who was pretty great in SLC Punk!) has also landed a role in Quentin Tarantino's World War II movie Inglorious Bastards.

I've posted about this so many times I'm not sure if I should get into story details again. It is assumed that Schweiger will play one of the Bastards with a German background.