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October 14, 2008
[movies] The Way Movies Were in the Seventies



September 25, 2008
[movies] Trailer to Synecdoche … Charlie Kaufman’s new film … ‘There are millions of people in the world. And none of those people is an extra. They’re all leads in their own stories.’ [via Fimoculous]
September 22, 2008
[funny] The Onion – EPA Shuts Down Local Ghost-Entrapment Business‘Though its incarcerated employees were unavailable for comment, the company released a statement denying any wrongdoing. The statement also repudiated claims that those associated with the spectral-entrapment operation were afraid of any individual ghost, and went on to say that the act of capturing said ghosts simply made them “feel good.” Despite being a relatively new discipline, specter reclamation, more popularly referred to as “phantom-busting,” has enjoyed enormous success in recent weeks due to a massive increase in paranormal phenomena in the New York area.’
September 8, 2008
[movies] Frost/Nixon Trailer … for Ron Howard’s new film on the famous interview starring Michael Sheen as David Frost … ‘Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.’ [via Ghost in the Machine]
September 2, 2008
[movies] Ten Truly Underrated Sci-Fi Movies‘Ten bucks says that Silent Running is Al Gore’s favorite sci-fi film.’
August 14, 2008
[comics] Watchmen Movie Poster Comparison … compare the recent movie posters with Dave Gibbon’s original posters for the comic … ‘Who Watches the Watchmen?’
July 28, 2008
[movies] WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars … Wired on War Games‘Leonard Goldberg, the producer, shows me some footage they’d shot — it was a scene with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy going into his bedroom, early in the movie, and he shows her how he can change her grades on his computer. She freaks out and leaves. And I’m looking at this and thinking, “What’s wrong here?” Driving home that night, I realized what it was. I stopped the car, found a phone booth, and called Leonard. “I know what the problem is!” I said. “They’re not having any fun!” These kids were treating this as if they’re involved in some dark and evil terrorist conspiracy. If I could change somebody’s grades on the computer, I’d be peeing in my pants with excitement to show it to some girl. And the girl would be excited about it!’
July 26, 2008
[movies] The Shining (with Robots)‘The famous tricycle scene re-created with a tribot and a couple femisapiens.’
July 22, 2008
[batman] Meanwhile, in London… Police Arrest Batman … [part of the Evening Standard Headline Crisis 2008]

Police Arrest Batman

July 17, 2008
[movies] The letters of Stanley Kubrick … Kubrick on Full Metal Jacket: ‘My intention was not to relish violence for its own sake but to emphasise the reality of both the training process undergone by the recruits and the war situation in which they found themselves. A crucial aspect of this process is the use of language to dehumanise the young men. This had to be presented in a totally truthful way otherwise I would have compromised the reality of the story. I make no apology for taking such an approach. Full Metal Jacket offers no easy moral or political answers. It is not intended to be either pro-war or anti-war. It is concerned with the way things are.’
July 8, 2008
[blogs] The Documentary Blog‘Welcome to The Documentary Blog, a website created by and for documentary fans and filmmakers. Our goal is to become your quintessential source for news and reviews pertaining specifically to documentary films. Our regular ‘features’ will focus on filmmakers, style, and hopefully provide insight into the process of documentary filmmaking.’ [via Metafilter]
July 7, 2008
[kubrick] Amazing Promotion Film for More4’s Stanley Kubrick Season … a 65 second one-take tracking shot following Kubrick’s point-of-view as he walks through the set of The Shining … ‘Your Script, Mr Kubrick.’
July 5, 2008
[comics] Heroes … Ex-comics writer Gerry Conway on work for hire in comics and how he feels about not being credited as one of the creators of the Punisher or for the use of his ideas in the Spider-man movies… ‘So, to put it bluntly, I got nothing for either Punisher film, and nothing for my stories being adapted for the Spider-Man movies. I didn’t even get credit for creating the Punisher, or for the use of my story material in Spider-Man. Honestly, I didn’t expect that I would. I’m not happy about the fact, but I’m resigned to it. I accept the reality of how the business operated when I wrote those stories…’
July 4, 2008
[movies] One Storyboard from The Shining showing Kubrick’s meticulous and controlling eye for detail … ‘THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO DO IT REPEAT NO OTHER WAY exercise the greatest care as the compositional effect of a different path might be BAD BAD BAD’
June 30, 2008
[kubrick] Stanley Kubrick – 79 – Male – Hertfordshire, St. Albans … wonderful profile of Kubrick on MySpace of all places … ‘By Barry Lyndon (1975) a pattern in Kubrick’s later work emerges: his leading men are either blank slates or over-the-top psychotics.’ [via Kottke]
June 18, 2008
[movies] The Video Nasty Project … this blog will watch all 73 original video nasties so you don’t have to … ‘The plot is basic Frankenstein stuff. A mad surgeon replaces his terminally ill son’s heart with that of a gorilla, which transforms him into a half-man, half ape creature – or at least a man in cracked, slathered on makeup who makes silly growling noises.’ [via Metafilter]
June 15, 2008
[movies] ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ props, from The Shining … these pages from Jack’s “novel” are taken from The Kubrick Archive‘The annotation noted how there is still some conjecture as to whether Kubrick had every individual page typed, or they were photocopied. Some of these pages looked typed. Others didn’t.’ [via Daring Fireball]
May 12, 2008
[007] The name’s Ronson, Jon Ronson … Ronson follows one of the journeys of James Bond …

I phone Zoe Watkins at the Ian Fleming Centre, the literary estate. She’s known within Bond circles for having an encyclopedic knowledge of the books.

“I want to recreate a great Bond journey,” I say. “I want to take a passage from one of the novels and assiduously match Bond car for car, road for road, meal for meal, drink for drink, hotel for hotel.”

“What a wonderful idea,” she says. “But which journey do you want to recreate?”

“I dunno,” I shrug. “One in Moonraker?”

“Moonraker is basically a drive from London to Margate,” Zoe says. “Fleming’s fans were disappointed by the absence of exotic locations.”

May 2, 2008
[movies] Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001 Diary … the diary entries concern the time he spent working with Stanley Kubrick on 2001 …‘July 9. Spent much of afternoon teaching Stanley how to use the slide rule — he’s fascinated.’
April 15, 2008
[apollo] Hollywood Hunts Star to Play First Man on the Moon‘[Neil] Armstrong was 38 when he and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. Matt Damon, star of the Bourne trilogy, will be 38 this year, while Eric Bana, whose credits include Hulk and the next Star Trek movie, is 39. Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jake Gyllenhaal could also be in the running.’
April 6, 2008
[movies] Throwing bones in the air as 2001 turns 40 … looking back at Kubrick’s 2001 … Roger Ebert: ‘The fascinating thing about this film is that it fails on the human level but succeeds magnificently on a cosmic scale.’ [via Metafilter]
April 3, 2008
[movies] Spaced Duo Savour Sweet Taste of Success‘[Edgar] Wright, 33, is working on two films in the US: Scott Pilgrim vs The World and an adaptation of the Marvel comic book character Ant-Man.’
March 31, 2008
[films] Recovering Reality … More from Errol Morris on Abu Ghraib … [via Kottke]

‘When Brent Pack talks about [Gilligan’s treatment] as being standard operating procedure, I find that a powerful and odd moment. He’s sincere, he’s not a bad guy, and yet he’s telling us something that is actually surreal and disturbing—even more so because he’s not a bad guy, because he’s being sincere. Or just seeing Lyndie England and how devastated she was by all of this. I’m moved by it. Call me crazy, but I am. She gives this final speech, which to me is so sad, about how maybe the whole world is just backstabbing and lying. You’ve got all of these players caught in this strange drama. The perversity of it all.’

March 26, 2008
[movies] From hell … Joe Queenan on the worst movies of all time … ‘While it may disappoint those who welcome my occasionally unconventional opinions, I am firmly in the camp that believes that Heaven’s Gate is the worst movie ever made. For my money, none of these other films can hold a candle to Michael Cimino’s 1980 apocalyptic disaster. This is a movie that destroyed the director’s career. This is a movie that lost so much money it literally drove a major American studio out of business. This is a movie about Harvard-educated gunslingers who face off against eastern European sodbusters in an epic struggle for the soul of America. This is a movie that stars Isabelle Huppert as a shotgun-toting cowgirl. This is a movie in which Jeff Bridges pukes while mounted on roller skates. This is a movie that has five minutes of uninterrupted fiddle-playing by a fiddler who is also mounted on roller skates. This is a movie that defies belief.’
March 23, 2008
[movies] Errol Morris talks with Werner Herzog‘If everything was planned, it would be dreadful. If everything was unplanned, it would be equally dreadful. Cinema exists because there are elements of both in everything. There are elements of both in documentary. There are elements of both in feature filmmaking. It’s what makes, I think, photography and filmmaking of interest. Despite all of our efforts to control something, the world is much, much more powerful than us, and more deranged even than us.’
February 21, 2008
[comics] Warner Bros revs up live action Akira‘The Times suggests that Akira purists may not be entirely happy with the fact that the story is set in New Manhattan, rather than the futuristic Tokyo of the original Manga classic.’
February 17, 2008
[movies] Happy Groundhog Day! — Jaime Zawinkski wonders how many days Bill Murray re-lived in Groundhog Day‘Between days #21 and #22, he memorized the entire Jeopardy show, which would take at least a few viewings. It’s possible he did that while learning piano, or French.’
February 14, 2008
[doco] True Films – 200 Documentaries You Must See Before You Die — a PDF E-Book on documentaries written by Kevin Kelly now available as a free download.
February 13, 2008
[comics] V Vs Scientology — interesting comment on the Forbidden Planet Blog about V for Vendetta masks used at recent protests against Scientology … ‘V masks have been a tremendous bestseller for us for a while, now I am starting to understand why!’
December 14, 2007
[movies] Blade Runner: Final Cut Review — nice comprehensive review of Blade Runner: Final Cut‘Back in 1982, actress Joanna Cassidy wasn’t allowed to do the stunt where Zhora crashes through the window panes. But if you watch the film closely, especially now in high-definition, it’s painfully obvious that it’s a stuntwoman in those shots. So Cassidy was brought back in, dressed in her original costume, and was shot on a greenscreen stage, going through the same movements as the stuntwoman. Her face and body angles were matched to those of the stuntwoman’s frame by frame. Cassidy’s head was then digitally inserted over the stuntwoman’s, and the resulting image was blended, color-corrected and matched seamlessly. So now, when you see Zhora crash through the glass, it’s actually Zhora all the way through. The result is amazing.’
December 10, 2007
[movies] What’s new in Blade Runner: The Final Cut? — contains some spoilers … ‘In the scene where Batty confronts Tyrell, the line, “I want more life, fucker” has been replaced with “I want more life, father”.’ [via linkbunnies.org]
December 5, 2007
[funny] Arnold Shares his Deepest Feelings — yet another of those amusingly weird YTMND pages. [via linkbunnies.org]
December 2, 2007
[comics] The Ha Ha Ha Times — nicely done viral promo site for the new Batman film. Metafilter has more links: Marketing the Bat.
November 22, 2007
[evil] Ask Mefi: What fictional evil has great corporate branding?‘OCP, Omni Consumer Products. From Robocop.’
October 31, 2007
[horror] Battle of the bloodsuckers — Who’s the best Dracula – Christopher Lee or Max Schreck? …

I have met Count Dracula. The real one. Some years ago, while researching an article about Transylvania, I was introduced to the charming and erudite man who was heir to the region spoken of in Bram Stoker’s book. Having been exiled to Germany with his family throughout the Ceausescu years, the authentic count had returned to reclaim his legacy, and was in the process of restoring his baronial castle, which nestled in the shadow of the Carpathian mountains.

He recounted how, in 1992, while still fighting to reclaim his birthright, he’d wandered into a cinema showing Francis Ford Coppola’s awkwardly titled Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He watched the perverted version of his heritage on screen with a growing sense of frustration. When Gary Oldman, playing Dracula, introduced himself with the line, “I am Vlad, prince of Szekely”, the real count could contain himself no longer. He stood up and shouted across the auditorium: “No, you are not! I am!”

October 22, 2007
[funny] Entire Precinct Made Up Of Loose Cannons

‘The officers’ darkest moment reportedly came in November 1992, when they shot and killed three dozen children who darted out of a dark alley holding toy guns. Following the incident, Henderson traveled to the San Pedro, CA marina where all 34 officers docked their houseboats. He found them passed out with bottles of Wild Turkey in their left hands and .44-caliber Magnum handguns in their right.

“I dragged every one of those sorry bastards into the shower myself, brewed 28 gallons of coffee, and made them drink it. By the time I was done, it was 3 a.m. and I was completely exhausted, but I got them back on the right track,” Henderson said.’

October 7, 2007
[movies] The Real Deal — an exhaustive examination of all the various versions of Blade Runner and a look at what’s different in the Final Cut [via Feeling Listless] …

Scott’s final cut — was painstakingly assembled from original elements, including the original 65mm negative. De Lauzirika has been working on it over a seven-year period. “And this time, Ridley approved every single thing that went into it — every single cut, every single effect,” he says. “We’re right back to square one,” Galvao says of The Final Cut elements. “We scanned the cut negative, plus the negatives we dug out of vaults in England, here at Warner Bros., and [co-executive producer] Jerry Perenchio’s vault as well. We went through and viewed every frame of every roll that we could find.” “Honestly, I got to go through 977 boxes and cans of mag, IP, INs, 65mm visual effects comps, 35mm original dailies … everything ever printed,” de Lauzirika says.

October 1, 2007
[movies] Ridley Scott Has Finally Created the Blade Runner He Always Imagined — Ridley Scott on the absolutely, positively, Final Cut of Blade Runner‘The director’s cut removed the voice-over and that silly ending and put in the unicorn daydream, but the disc didn’t look that great. And it should look great, because Blade Runner at the time was pretty formidable — it’s pretty formidable even now, actually. A lot of people don’t notice whether they’re watching something beautifully technical or not, but it’s important to me. So that always got in the way of the director’s cut being the final version. I think it’s final now because I’ve done all the nips and tucks and tidied up one or two of the visual areas that we couldn’t do properly at the time because we didn’t have the technology.’
September 9, 2007
[movies] In the Shadow of the Moon — trailer for a documentary about the Apollo Moon Missions.
July 30, 2007
[film] $78 million of red ink? — eye-opening analysis of the costs and losses incurred by the film Sahara‘The documents, obtained by The Times, provide a rare behind-the-curtain peek at the thousands of expenditures that drain the budget of a major motion picture. The line items cover such things as “local bribes” within the Kingdom of Morocco and the salaries and “star perks” paid to Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz. Movie budgets are one of the last remaining secrets in the entertainment business, typically known to only high-level executives, senior producers and accountants…’ [via Metafilter]
July 10, 2007
[movies] The Veidt Method — viral marketing campaign for the Watchmen movie‘Latest News: President and C.E.O. Adrian Veidt interviewed in latest edition of Nova Express – on newsstands now!’ [via plasticbag.org]
July 4, 2007
[films] Hello, come in, do have a nibble — Interesting interview with Dennis Hopper‘He certainly isn’t in the mood to discuss any of the half a dozen films he is due to appear in this year, a roster which is due to include a performance in Speed 3, even though I have plenty of questions about that. Surely his character Howard Payne died in a decapitation incident in the last reel of Speed 1? “It’s a river of shit,” he tells me pleasantly but firmly, “from which I have tried to extract some gold.”‘
June 22, 2007
[quotes] Grouphug.us: ‘In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max’s toupee and I glued it on my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog…When my mom sent me to the summer camp for fat kids and then they served lunch I went nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out…But the worst thing I ever done — I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa — and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life.’
June 21, 2007
[comics] Scans from Jack Kirby’s Comic Adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey — spotted on scans_daily – it really looks like Kirby was having a blast with this one…

panels from Jack Kirby's comic adaptation of 2001

April 16, 2007
[comics] A Script Review of Grant Morrison’s We3 — a look at Morrison’s script for New Line Cinema’s adaptation of We3‘Much of the film is a long chase, a blend between one of Disney’s Fantastic Journey films and, perhaps, The Iron Giant by way of Robocop or another hard, gristle-strewn actionaer. It is also a brilliant and incisive exploration of freedom, instinct, will the universe’s natural orders… and the desire to identify yourself as an individual.’
March 19, 2007
[film] Color Me Kubrick Trailer — John Malkovitch and Jim Davidson… together at last! ‘For months Alan Conway, a perfect stranger, passed himself off as one of the greatest film directors of all time, Stanley Kubrick. Conway knew nothing of the filmmaker or his films, but this didn’t prevent him from using and abusing the credulity of those who thought they had come in contact with the mythical and equally discreet director.’
March 10, 2007
[movies] Tom Cruise’s Starring Role in Watchmen Narrowly Averted‘I asked him point blank about Cruise, and he confirmed that he and Tom had been talking about it. A lot. But that now it looked like Cruise would not be appearing in the film. “He was interested,” Snyder confirmed to me. “I did talk to him about it for a while.” And would the role he wanted be Ozymandias? “That would be the role,” Snyder said.’
March 2, 2007
[movies] Long Flicks: to Cut or Not to Cut?‘Some critics thought Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” or Robert De Niro’s “The Good Shepherd” – both clocking in at about two hours, 40 minutes – would have been greatly improved at closer to two hours. But who’s going to tell Scorsese or De Niro to chop 30 minutes?’
February 15, 2007
[movies] Crichton’s Closet of Tech Horrors — Wired looks at the films Michael Crichton directed in the 70’s and 80’s… ‘The movies are filled with high-concept ideas, purple dialogue, supremely creepy moments and nifty gadgetry. They are both implausible, sometimes to the point of being ridiculous, and a few degrees too earnest. And the primary weapon for the bad guys — doctors, computer programmers, robotics experts — is technological know-how. Now Crichton positions himself as an authority on global warming and enters the policy-making slipstream, advising President Bush and testifying at a congressional hearing on the nuances of climate change.’
February 6, 2007
[movies] RoboCop, PhD — According to Wired Peter Weller is getting a PhD in Italian Renaissance Art History … ‘This is no vanity degree; Weller teaches courses, writes papers, and is doggedly climbing the academic ladder. Buckaroo Banzai, the polymath who was arguably Weller’s most famous character — acclaimed neurosurgeon, race car driver, particle physicist, and, of course, rock star — would be proud.’ [via Ghost in the Machine]