Movie Make-out

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite shows was “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Like any good “Dukes” fan, I’ve gleefully repressed the Coy and Vance years, mostly to focus on the good clean fun of watching Bo and Luke Duke foil the corrupt mayor and become the secret justice-seekers in their county.

It’s no surprise, then, that I’d follow the post-Hazzard careers of the actors with some interest, which makes this news about John Schneider’s next feature film most unusual.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Schneider who left the show “Smallville” after its 100th episode will be starring in a movie called Doonby; the plot goes like this:

In the feature film, John Schneider stars as Sam Doonby, a happy-go-lucky drifter who takes up residence in a small Texas town but seems suspiciously immune to the misfortunes that beset the other townsfolk.

Reporter Paul Bond adds that the film will take elements from It’s a Wonderful Life and Crazy Heart to create something new; however, what it really sounds like to me what they’re doing is more in line with Being There.

Doonby will be directed by British filmmaker Peter Mackenzie, who also wrote the script, and Robert Davi will be playing the town’s sherrif. A quick search to see what other films Mackenzie had worked on brought me to the film’s website and I have to admit that based on its unsophistication, I wonder exactly how low-budget this production will be (or if that’s even the movie’s real website).

Filming will take place at Spiderwood Studios near Austin, Texas.

Woody Allen is being a little more forthcoming than usual.

According to Variety, the director has announced some of the details about his next film, Midnight in Paris, including an all-star cast. The movie will star Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, and Carla Bruni, while it appears that Michael Sheen, Tom Hiddleston, Mimi Kennedy, Kurt Fuller, and Nina Arianda will play supporting roles. Most interesting there is the involvement of Carla Bruni, French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife.

The movie is a romantic comedy following a family to Paris on business, a story about a young engaged couple who have their lives changed by the trip, and the story of a young man’s great love for the city itself which “simultaneously explores the illusion people have that a life different from their own is better.” Ambitious.

The film is being produced by Steve Tennenbaum, Jaume Roures, and Letty Aronson, part of the production team behind Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Allen’s upcoming You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.

[Editor's Note: I'm pleased to introduce my new co-editor Jillian Pullara, who will be covering games for this and the next iteration of MovieMakeout.com. And just what do I have planned? Answers, in a week or so. - TL]

I don’t think you need me to reiterate the things that Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert said about how video games aren’t art, nor do I need to validate Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik from Penny Arcade’s responses both in news post and comics form.

In fact, you don’t need me for anything, but I’m still going to opine… because I can. Because I’m a gamer, and because I’m an art enthusiast. And because I respect Mr. Ebert as an intelligent man who gives insightful reviews of movies, even if I disagree with them.

First, Roger Ebert’s opinion is not wrong. It is ill-informed, and a bit closed-minded, but it is not wrong.

To me, there are two discussions going on here, both of which refer to Mr. Ebert’s ill-informed opinion. One is understanding who gamers are, and what video games are, and the other is defining what exactly art is.

Mr. Ebert has a limited understanding of who we gamers are, and what it is we get out of video games. There are completionists, and those whose idea of enjoying a game is to beat it as quickly as possible. But there are others of us whose enjoyment in a video game comes from experiencing the game itself. Because the goal of “beat the game” is assumed, the goal is no longer “win” but “experience.”

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The Fibonacci sequence got a lot of play a few years ago, in a little book and movie called The Da Vinci Code. Personally, I’ve always had a little trouble understanding these higher mathematical concepts, but for whatever reason, this one I’ve always found easy to wrap my head around.

And then Cristobal Vila had to come along and make it into a staggeringly beautiful and complex little movie.

Nature by Numbers from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.

Ever since the Cold War broke out between the U.S. and Russia, Hollywood has had a fascination with international espionage and the CIA, a government agency whom conspiracy theorists love because they can blame them for almost everything.

New York Times magazine investigative journalist Peter Landesman is no exception, and his latest venture into film making is proof-positive of this. According to an exclusive from Jay A. Fernandez at The Hollywood Reporter, Landesman and producer Brad Weston (Bad Santa, Patriot Down) have sold a pitch to Graham King who will produce under his GK Films banner.

And even though Fernandez wasn’t able to get a logline out of them, I’m still fascinated by the idea behind the story:

“As someone who glanced against the world of spies as a journalist, I wanted to be surprised again,” Landesman said. “The operative and intelligence world is a layer cake: the deeper you go, the more covert, the more dangerous.

“The spy genre has tapped most layers, but as an investigative journalist, I began to get wind of one that remained elusive: a layer of operative and intelligence gathering that is virtually without oversight, directed by a small handful, who do things no one will hear of, occasionally at cross-purposes with agencies like the CIA. The DNA of this film is pulled from that world.”

Advising Landesman on the production as a consultant is former CIA officer Robert Grenier who during his career was assistant deputy director of the CIA for counterterrorism and an undercover field agent in Pakistan and Afghanistan, adding that extra layer of verisimilitude.

There’s just something about spies that sparks the romantic imagination because of the secret nature of their work. There’s also the fact that the work is mostly nationalistic in nature, because almost everything a spy does is done largely to promote one nation’s interests over another’s.

I remember one afternoon while I was hanging with one of the future staff writers to this blog where we had a two hour conversation/debate over how the the fictional intelligence community in “Burn Notice” works, thanks to our having finally watched the Season 3 finale (beware of possible spoilers). My point was that it didn’t make sense to me that for someone like Michael Weston who was so dedicated to their work for so long to have been so easily set up by Management and that the rest of the intelligence community truly believed that he was a bad guy just didn’t make sense at all.

To hear that an upcoming film is going to feature details about how real intelligence works and to showcase something new in a spy movie? That just makes me giddy with glee.

No word yet on whether Landesman will be writing his very first script or if they’ll tap someone else to do it.