Monday, June 07, 2010

Links, Episode #3,002,038

/Film Jamie Bell may have just been cast as the new Spider-Man. Ah, I knew Marc Webb had good taste (with (500) Days of Summer as evidence)
Trespass Magazine Glenn interviews movie poster maestro Jeremy Saunders, who designed this year's fb gold medal winner for poster (Antichrist).
Little Gold Men Sandra Bullock sapphic smooches, part two.
The TV Addict Katharine Heigl's career killer Killers ?


Deviant Art a fan made poster for The Avengers. This movie will have to give blind men back their sight and maybe part oceans to live up to fanboy expectations.
Movie|Line Luke Evans is on "the Verge". He also wants to star in a film version of Miss Saigon so good on him.
Towleroad Apparently Elton John is going to perform at Rush Limbaugh's wedding. Money may be the reason but it's not like Elton needs any more of it. What a traitor. I've only ever bought two Elton John records in my lifetime but now I'm wishing I hadn't given him a lone dime.
OMG "Make Homosexuals Marry" Actors Justin Long & Mike White tie the knot excruciatingly tight in this campaign vid.
Newsweek on Italy Porn Movies like Eat Pray Love and I Am Love

And finally, I really must take a moment to thank all the cinephile angels involved in the Film Preservation Blogathon. Blogs can be a powerful force for good. The funds raised during that blog-a-thon are being used to restore two silent films. The first is a western named The Sergeant (1910) which is an incredible 100 years old.
...one of the earliest surviving narratives shot on location in Yosemite Valley. The one-reeler shows the magnificent terrain prior to the creation of the National Park Service, when U.S. Army cavalry troops kept order, and it is the military presence that provides the backdrop for the story.
The second is from 1912, another western called The Better Man. That blog-a-thon which was hosted by Marilyn Ferdinand and Self Styled Siren is still taking donations so maybe a third film can be saved! It's a worthy cause if you have the cash.

Hollywood's millionaires and its behemoth corporations could do a lot more to preserve old films -- imagine how many silents could be saved if like one single day's profits (or hell even one showing's) from any of those soulless blockbusters were so directed -- but at least we have devoted cinephiles and government funding helping to preserve cinematic history.

21 comments:

Kyle said...

Like I said elsewhere, it's time for movie studios to realize, much like Megan Fox, this Katherine Heigl as a headlining star thing ain't happening

Philip said...

There's really no place to post this and I really want to share it because I think it's pretty hilarious

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFicqklGuB0

James T said...

Philip, almost everybody has seen it by now. :p

And yes, it's brilliant!

NoNo said...

The Elton John bit is surprising to say the least. Et tu, Rocket Man?

Well, if Katherine Heigl is insistent on being a Rom/Com queen she should:

1. Be More Likeable (That's pretty much the main requirement.)

2. Stop playing the same role.

3. Start making better films.

She produces so she has no excuse for 2 and 3.

Philip said...

Lol, I should've figured...better safe than sorry though because it sure is brilliant! :D

RJ said...

I still believe that 'The Avengers' will never be made. Just thinking about all the money and scheduling that has to come together ... this sounds to me like a project that will be in development hell before it's cancelled.

/3rtfu11 said...

Something tells me Sandra Bullock will “earn” another Academy nomination.

Jorge Rodrigues said...

Can I just take a moment to savour this?

Suck it Heigl. She could be SO successful... But although she doesn't look like a dumb blonde, she is one. That temper... That trashy mouth... That superiority... Oh she annoys me so.

She won TONS of money in Grey's Anatomy and an Emmy (if she held that tongue last year, she'd have two, because what she did last year on Grey's with her cancer storyline was the most compelling dramatic story arc I saw on TV in 2008-09) but that was not enough for her. With all the controversy she created and the back-and-forth this season she DECIDED she wanted out of her contract.

She decided to trash her first movie hit, Knocked Up, and then does The Ugly Truth - and of course it flops - which is like 10x worse.

And when you think that the time-off from Greys gave her some time to think... she makes this god-awful comedy with talent-less Ashton Kutcher.


Oh Katherine, I love you, but you are so STUPID. Pull it together woman!

Volvagia said...

Not surprising. Culturally, we have no taste buds. I'm an all alt, all the time kind of guy. (A whirlwind of Beck and the White Stripes, Fellini, Bergman and Murnau, Pynchon, DFW and old literature, as well as Oscar nominee comfort food, which sadly counts as among those things in today's culture.)

KTibbs617 said...

Italy porn. Ha! But the simple reality, Italy IS magical. It's my happy place, I just wish people didn't use it as a "cure all" I want to see someone travel there that doesn't hate their "real" life. Take me back to the days of La Loren.

The Siren said...

Thanks so much for the link to the blogathon and the kind words; they are much appreciated!

Glenn Dunks said...

Jorge, The Ugly Truth didn't flop (which is frightening, really).

As a Katherine fan since her work on Roswell I want her to succeed. $16mil for Killers with terrible reviews is nothing to scoff at. Why is that movie a "career killer" and yet, yet again, nobody's mentioning the male-oriented movie Get Him to the Greek? That made only $1.5mil more and yet I'm sure Jonah Hill (despite being morbidly obese and not funny) will continue to get work.

Yawn. It's ridiculous.

NATHANIEL R said...

Glenn -- well you know the rules about box office performance. Men can have several flops before they're "over" but women better have a hit every time.

it's Hollywood's weird math.

Kyle said...

Glenn and Nathaniel

"Get him to the Greek" didn't flop with critics, and in this post-Rotten Tomatoes, just about everyone has access to the internet age, critical response matters almost as much as box office take.

Killers flopped on both ends.

Jorge Rodrigues said...

Glenn, regarding The Ugly Truth, I consider that a movie flops when it doesn't get good reviews and not in box-office terms because there are A LOT of awful movies that make a ton of money (and rom-coms always make money...). So for me the movie flopped, whereas Knocked Up got good reviews AND good box-office.


I also want her to succeed, but I fear she keeps mining her way up. She won an Emmy, she was in two great series (well, Grey's was one in the beginning... and it is still one sometimes...), she got her breakthrough movie role and she produces (!), people like her (not so much since the Grey's debocle but still) and she is gorgeous AND she is blonde (!) so why won't she pick better roles and better projects?!


But you and Nathaniel are right, it's so stupid to talk about "career killer" projects... People love overreactions. God. One person that looks a bit lost is Tom Cruise. Hey Tom, get a grip man! Movies could use the man who starred in Magnolia, Jerry Maguire, Born on the 4th of July, Vanilla Sky, Rain Man, Risky Business... Get a better agent!

The Jaded Armchair Reviewer said...

I support Jamie Bell playing Spider-Ma. He can smile like a school boy and play moody like somebody hiding a double life.

Glenn Dunks said...

But, the thing is, it's DEFINITELY people's dislike of Heigl that fuels this talk on. Nobody seems to think Cameron Diaz's career is over because The Box was such a giant failure. Instead, she now has a movie with Tom Cruise. In fact, Cameron Diaz is a perfect example of somehow forging a career in the face of movies that routinely get massacred by critics and don't even always do well at the box office.

Jorge, sadly casting agents and "Hollywood" in general doesn't care about whether a movie flops with critics, only if it flops at the box office.

Jorge Rodrigues said...

Yeah I know you're right. And about Cameron Diaz too :D

NATHANIEL R said...

Glenn -- i agree that Heigl's prickly personality definitely will make all of this harder for her.

I'm all for supporting women labelled as "difficult" since that's often just such a sexist tag, but i'd be much more likely to support her if she actually made decent movies. She needs to stop making sexist movies if she objects to being in them. Especially since she's producing. It's like "are you even aware of all the contradictions in the way you present yourself?"

but i agree that she's talented.

but her movies are so awful i'm losing patience.

Glenn said...

The Ugly Truth was indeed dreadful, but I liked 27 Dresses a great deal. Other than that she hasn't really had the chance to do much outside of her TV commitments. Now that that's over she might be able to make something with more substance? I hope say, at least.

ejaz14357 said...

it's time for movie studios to realize, much like Megan Fox, this Katherine Heigl as a headlining star thing ain't happening