Random ideas and observations that maybe aren’t enough to support a full post.
This is probably our favorite picture.
There’s a lot going on in film and TV news right now, what with the fall season heating up and the big prestige Oscar-bait rollouts like Baz Luhrman’s Australia and Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon just around the corner. In fact it’s too much to keep track of all at once, unless you really stick to the Intertubes’ news sites and of course the millions of bloggity blogs on the blogosphere. (What did we do before the advent of the blog? Discuss our opinions with friends?)
So here’s some stuff that’s been piling up in our inbox, things that maybe don’t have enough information or – more importantly – enough of our interest to merit a full posting. There’s no order of importance; we’re just offering opinions here, like all good bloggers.
Casting Depp-arture?: The Riddler
1. A bunch of rumors circulated last month that Johnny Depp was getting courted to play The Riddler if and when Warner Brothers stages a sequel to this summer’s made-more-money-than-Jesus The Dark Knight. As an alternative to Depp (who may have gotten ahead of his talent in that last Pirates sequel) we’d like to suggest someone else who can play both menacing and wacky flavors of crazy. He’s an underrated, underused veteran actor who’d bring a sense of coming full circle to two decades of Batman films. We nominate this guy as the perfect Riddler.
2. The Office season premiere was great last night (Is Holly the new Pam?), but what caught our eye in the commercial breaks was the ad for Zack and Miri Make A Porno, which almost doesn’t advertise that the film is written and directed by Kevin Smith. It’s got Seth Rogen’s and Elizabeth Banks’ faces in almost every frame, but no mention of Smith anywhere except the credits at spot’s end. Would MGM rather the public see Rogen and Banks and assume it’s a Judd Apatow production?
First lady, porn star: Banks
3. Speaking of Banks, she debuts a Texas accent as Laura Bush in the new, funnier trailer for Oliver Stone’s Dubya satire W. On which, we should mention, it looks like the director did a heckuva job. Josh Brolin has Shrub’s mannerisms bolted down, and the film’s apparent bleak wit couldn’t reach theatres at a better time. The powerhouse cast includes James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Jeffrey Wright, Toby Jones, Thandie Newtwon, Ioan Gruffudd, Scott Glenn, and Noah Wylie.
4. Why aren’t more film scholars and devotees excited about Blu-Ray? Both The Godfather and L.A. Confidential were released on the new format this week. So was Madagascar. Two steps forward, one step back.
5. October wouldn’t be the same without some low-budget horror, and Quarantine looks to be equal parts Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project. Still, the preview’s image of the guy getting sniper-shot for trying to exit the infected building was a new twist that made us jump in our seats. (Yes, putting this item next to the Madagascar animals was intentional.)
6. Continuing his unstoppable rise to guru of the Hot Topic crowd, writer-director Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy 2: The Golden Army) will release a trilogy of vampire novels written with crime novelist Chuck Hogan. The first chapter will arrive in stores next summer, no doubt accompanied by some kind of premium collector’s edition.
7. The reports saying the ratings for this past Monday’s season premiere of Heroes were down 23 percent over last year’s season opener are kind of missing the bigger picture. Shows like Heroes – and Lost, and Battlestar Galactica – can last forever with a reasonably-sized core audience that’s kept satisfied.
They... they wish they could swim, like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim: the cast of Heroes
Right now it’s the fomerly devoted fans that have to be wooed back, not the casually curious that were tuning in as was likely the case a year ago. With positive reviews steadily sweeping message boards and blogs, the show has a solid fresh start. Not for nothing, but we thought the first two episodes were pretty much exactly what they needed to be.
8. Is anyone else bothered by the new high-resolution imagery used in some current promotional images? Daniel Craig looks vaguely waxen in the new Quantum of Solace poster, and Blake Lively’s tempestuous mane comes across as brittle wire in the Gossip Girl image. For a show about rich teenagers jumping in and out of bed with one another, “lifeless” night not be the ideal connotation.
9. Finally, we’ll probably do a separate piece about the upcoming The Day The Earth Stood Still remake later on, but in the meantime we want to share the trailer now. Keanu Reeves notwithstanding, the ace cast includes Jennifer Connelly, Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, Kathy Bates, John Cleese, and Battlestar Galactica’s Aaron Douglas. As fans of the original 1951 sci-fi masterpiece, we think Keanu would’ve made a wonderful Gort the Robot; unfortunately, he’s center stage as alien herald Klaatu.
We’ll be back Monday with a review of Eagle Eye. Or, if we wake up feeling hip tomorrow, a review of Choke. Have a better weekend than you normally do.
- Michael Kabel
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