The project marks the first Hollywood production to be filmed here since the outbreak of the intifada.
Remarkable.
This is yet another version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, but the twist involves the conflict of love between a "beautiful Palestinian doctor," Jula, and Romy, a "young Jewish man," from America. If you ask my opinion, that is just ripe; I couldn't think of a better contemporary setting to place this story in:
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life...
And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
I'm hopeful. I wonder if Mitchell has the sensitivity for such a politically charged epic.
I found some interesting pictures that look fairly official from Art Coordinator Tanya Preminger. I'm fairly certain the bus explosion and riot settings are not real, but man do they have the look of authenticity.
I saw the indie Intellectual Property at the Newport Beach Film Festival this last weekend, a psychological thriller/horror set during the early years of the Cold War. Now clearly I am biased in my opinion since I know people who worked on it, and I've gotten "dirt" along the way. I find it difficult to remove myself sometimes from things that seem a little close, i.e., I worked on Think Tank and I have a clear bias on that one. (I think it's great!) So I am of two opinions. First, in some respects I look at it as a good first attempt for this director (Nicholas Peterson) and Writer (Hansen Smith). I wanted desperately to cheer them on. I wanted to believe the film was going to be terrific, and parts of it were. For example, I thought the concept was terrific, and there were plenty of moments throughout the film I thought were more than intriguing. I also loved the art direction. I thought this was one of the stronger components of the film: props and set design, lighting and composition.
However, that said, I thought there were significant enough problems with the film as to sour the whole experience. The main problem was the amount of gore present. Something rather horrific happens about 1/3 into the film, and in the Q&A after the film, Peterson let us know that was intentionally meant to be "cool." I could hardly agree with his assessment. It's too bad, too, because I want to be supportive. I actually think if the gore was removed (it was pretty nasty at points), and just implied, this would have been a fine first film. Not extraordinary, but not bad at all.
In any case, there was one highly redeeming quality. The music was terrific! I talked with the composer, Jasper Randall, afterward and tried to pick his brain as to his influences. (He said he didn't have any and I said I didn't believe him.) He was very friendly, talked about how he used almost all the budget and didn't pocket nearly any of it so he could get a bonafied Hollywood union orchestra, including the likes of a reputable cellist who has done academy-nominated material. (Most everyone loved the soundtrack I noticed, and some asked where and when it would be available.)
An old friend of mine recently bloggethed on a film, Yard Sale, "which recently had its world premiere at the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City," also recently played locally (here in L.A.), and drat it, I missed it! Another friend of mine worked on it, too, though she hadn't told me much about it. Still!
I really liked the contrasting concept (as evident from the site's trailer) of making room for the baby vs. the obvious content of the movie based on the title.
Or wait...did they mean they were going to sell the baby at a yard sale! "How much for adoption?"
In any case, I'm sure I'll have my comeuppance for not being told about it in time. ;)
Not exactly in the tradition of what I usually cover, but who said that was all I planned on covering? In any case, the following American Express advertisement is of the sort and in the direction I've long thought advertisers should go.
Superstar comedian Jack Black hosts the special two-and-a-half-hour World Broadcast Premiere of School of Rock Friday, May 5 (8:00-10:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Black talks about his favorite School of Rock scenes, reminisces about shooting the box office smash and, as an added Cinco de Mayo bonus, rolls out the World Premiere trailer of his new Paramount Pictures film, Nacho Libre.
"While you're checking out School of Rock, I'll drop in throughout the night with a special look at my new movie 'Nacho Libre.' Now that's just a night of good TV," said Black.
Sometimes I get gut feelings about what the "next big thing" is going to be in the film world, and I'm often correct. For example, I was fairly confident that Nappy D. would have it's huge underground following, when I first heard about the film in the pre-days leading right up to Sundance. (Of course, I never predicted it would be quite as big as it was.) My thoughts at the time were that we were ripe for another Better-Off-Dead- or Ferris-Beuler-type film that would stick like glue to it's nerdy following. Turns out there are just more nerds these days, I suppose.
I'm also predicting Nacho Libre will do fairly well. Perhaps not quite as well as Napolean (it's a hard one to beat), but I think there will be a big enough draw. And here again, I had a gut feeling on a certain type of film that seems to have come to pass. I actually had a screenplay idea that was similar enough to Nacho Libre that I now have to rework it so it doesn't just seem like I stole the idea. Which I've already managed to do. Just the same, it was similar enough and I had a feeling that such a genre or type of film was coming. Voila!
And all this coming at the hands of Hess. Well, now he's managed to be in tune with another prediction/gut feeling of mine. If you get to the end of this article, you'll know what I mean. Of course, I've seen and heard about this kind of thing happening all the time in Hollywood. It's sometimes called "jumping on the band wagon," and it's sometimes just called the "collective conscience." You know, that great database in the sky that we somehow all connect into on some level. But I'm not saying anything more on my next prediction because I'd just hate to jinx it now. :)
That all aside, I thought this was just brilliant (from Hess's mouth):
The best moment was the final shot of Jack Black. Our entire crew was from Mexico, and we had 500 Mexican extras in Jack's final shot.
As Jack left, the whole crowd started to chant for him. He did a jig, and the crowd went nuts. Jack ended up going back to his trailer and bawling his eyes out because of how sad he was that it was all over.
We all were sad that it was over; the whole spirit of the crew was something so special that I don't know if I'll ever experience it again.
This is one of the reasons I can see Nacho being successful. It has a soul. I think we may be surprised at the demographic that decides to come out and watch it.
I really appreciated and enjoyed this post by political pundit Hugh Hewitt on Flight 93 (also called United 93), the new film about one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. [Correction: post was on Hewitt's blog, but was posted by Mary Katharine Ham.]
Hewitt relates something most telling:
I know the movie has a lot of people talking about whether it's appropriate to make money off the story of 9/11, if we're being exploited emotionally, if we're ready for a movie like this. [But] I didn't feel like the movie was exploitative.
It makes one wonder what's so different about films made about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, or WWII and Nazi-occupied Germany.
I just finished watching a film last night, Intellectual Property, set during the Cold War. (I will post a follow-up entry on I.P.) [Follow posted here.] For a little history check, the Cold War was so called because no direct fighting occurred between the United States and the Soviet Union. Rather, there were arms races, embargos, espionage, etc., all a brace or show of muscle, power, dominance. (Incidentally, the terms "third world" refer to countries uninvolved, for the most part, in such arms races.)
Its important that we compare the Cold War era and our age of Terrorism. For one, I think we sometimes forget the crackpot theories and outright suspicion and paranoia that prevailed all the way up to the days of those infamous words, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" (I still remember the exhilarating feeling I had turning on the television two years later to see that wall crumbling away.) Some of this paranoia still exists, and its even been turned and converted into new angst regarding terrorism. Again we seem to face outright mania. History repeats itself. We fight.
Director Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004)) comments on the film:
The terrible dilemma those passengers faced is the same we have been struggling with ever since. Do we sit passively and hope this all turns out okay? Or do we fight back and strike at them before they strike at us? And what will be the consequences if we do?
Flight 93 shows us the very instigation of our retaliation against terrorists. I'm anxious to watch it. I wonder that it's not a stark reminder of what is just and right in our struggles. And what is not right.
Intellectual Property, Nick Peterson's first feature film, premieres on the West Coast this weekend. For more information, check Lisabella's blog (see link on the right) and the film's website.
Moving McCallister, Ben Gourley's first screenplay and Andrew Black's second feature, seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet. The film certainly includes a few more-or-less familiar faces, such as Rutger Hauer, Mila Kunis, Peter Jason, and one of our own (who is perhaps only somewhat familiar because he actually appears to look different in certain images). There was some initial buzz, largely generated by some misleading words out of the mouth of Kunis, quoted in this MTV Article dated May 6, 2005: "...Moving McAllister, Kunis said, will debut at next year's Sundance Film Festival..." I'm fairly certain it never played. I wouldn't mind being corrected. Rather, I'm lead to think Kunis was stating something she hoped was true. In any case, the hype seems to have faded.
But speaking of Heder, whose hype only seems to grow, one witness pipes up (registration required): "...[I have seen] about 30 minutes of unedited footage of the [Moving McCallister]...I see all these comments that Jon Heder is a bad actor and can only act like his character in ND but he is totally different and actually funnier in this movie."
The fun thing about being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the preoccupation so many have regarding Mormons and polygamy. In my experience with the inquisition, I usually just laugh with others or inform the misinformed of our modern habit of defining marriage between a man and a woman...not two...or three. Of course, the really smart and respectful outsiders observe how long ago it was we ceased the practice of polygamy. Granted, Mormons have a unique and sometimes bewildering historical narrative. But what gets me now is a certain new strange preoccupation with polygamy among members of the Mormon Church (I am Mormon, to be sure), largely due to HBO's made-for-television Big Love, even though the show's opening disclaimer disaffiliates practicing Latter-day Saints from so-called polygamist practicing families. (The words "so-called" deserve a whole notha' post, but it ain't gonna happen here. I'll let you know when that happens.) (Seeing that wonderful image above helps me understand the preoccupation so well.) Specifically, I've noticed this preoccupation on certain Yahoo! groups I regular, which I'm sure the reader will be able to find if they just do a few searches.
Oh, and another very strange preoccupation? Here is a disturbing Yahoo! group. Note the intro: "We welcome everyone from GLBT folks, to mormons, to poly folks, to libertarians into this group. Perhaps we can all work together for a change, to end marriage tyranny." Now how is that for maligned? The "whole notha' post" I was talking about will certainly bubble up from time to time, I'm sure.
I'm kind of enamored with one of the latest short films (titled Noggin) to come out of BYU'sanimation department. I think the creativity behind some of the characters is just fabulous. The artwork reminds me distinctly of a childhood book my family had growing up, full of fantastic illustrations of giants. They were mostly rugged images, very earthy. I remember one particular favorite where the giant was part of a mountain. I believe that giant was slumbering, and had grown over with moss, and become like unto a great mountain.
In any case illustrations from Noggin such as this one remind me of that old book. (The exact title of the book seems to have slipped my mind, unfortunately.)
You can see some very rudimentary clips of Nogginhere.
And here are some other fun animations coming out of BYU's animation department.
And this has nothing to do with animation, and perhaps not giants, but I find it very lively.
This article out of Arizona paints one of the more personable accounts I've seen of rising star Jon Heder. It is a little winsome on his potential future status, comparing him to the likes of Tom Hanks, but I think another article portrays something truer.
And, for the record, another Heder movie is in the works. Also here. And here. And what's with American Fork? Any ins anyone? That one hits close to Mormie home. "Yikes!"
Niad Management, "a full service management company providing sound business and career advice for [a] stable of Hollywood writers, directors and actors," invests itself (among other personalities playing big roles) in the talent of several Mormons. These include the likes of Eric (Smith) Artell, Orson Scott Card, and (from what I've heard) Brian Petersen & Crew. This is probably due to the fact that founder Wendi Niad, a former ICM agent, employs an LDS personal assistant, or so a little bug told me.
Petersen has a little pet project, the Albright Academy, purportedly repped through Niad, that started out as a bunch of guys sitting around with too much time on their hands and evolved over the past two-or-so years into a bonafied...uh...well...a rumored pilot is in development. I've always enjoyed this crew's sense of humor and particular wit. Check out these clips to see what I mean.
I know this is a little bit old, but KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, a popular LA-based music radio show hosted by Nic Harcourt, featured Greg Whiteley on his New York Doll. It's a really fun listen.
I hadn't realized that Jon Gries plays a role, since he's decidely absent from imdb's list of Sasquatch characters. Perhaps it's only a cameo. In any case, I can tell he's going to be fun. The music is great too.
