Movie Make-out

Variety’s Peter Bart Uses Hancock to Call Out the Film Ratings Board
Stating that the Will Smith movie’s violent content was arguably far worse than the gross-out sexual innuendo humor in The Love Guru, Bart brings up the notion that once again, indie films are given the shaft when it comes to fair treatment and states, “Given all the inconsistencies of their rulings, they’d probably turn out to be a bunch of former IRS accountants.” Um, burn?

Eddie Murphy Misses Own Movie Premiere
The Meet Dave star was said to be off shooting for his next movie, A Thousand Words. Funny that, though… Dave’s director Brian Robbins is also the director for Words and he managed to make it to the premiere. Best part? Nikki Finke says she’s got sources that say it was Murphy who wanted a big premiere to happen in the first place. Of course, Murphy’s people are denying this, but c’mon…

OMG! Yahoo Gets Into the Fame-Gossip Game
Click that above link only if you want to sear your retinas.

From Nikki Finke over at Deadline Hollywood comes the most recent missives between, around, and betwixt the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) groups. Let’s summarize in a much more simpler way, shall we?

AMPTP: Yo, SAG? We totally wanna make deal with you, which is why we’re telling you that if you just ratify the contract, we’ll make give you retroactive back pay to July 1. Fer sure! But listen up, if you don’t ratify the contract by August 15, we’re going to make you wait till your next pay period. And considering that some of you might not actually be working actors, who knows when that will be? (Ed. Note: They didn’t say that in the statement, but everybody’s thinking it.) Listen, we’re giving you $250 million more and actually trying to do something about this new-fangled Intarweb thing, so just freaking ratify it already, would ya?

SAG: Chill out, dudes. We wanna talk to you guys in person rather than jump the gun and let the media vultures pick apart our statements like they are probably already doing right now.

AMPTP: Oh, and btw, California state legislators? We totally did our part in giving the SAG folks fair demands and time frames and whatnot, and if this draws out any longer, it’s totally their fault, not ours. Neener-neener!

SAG: Fuck that! It’s so totally not a fair enough deal, and we totally don’t like the fact that the meanie-head producers are trying to diss us to you O benevolent legislators who we may want to turn to later on. It’s their fault for not giving us every single thing we asked for, and if there is a slowdown in one of California’s biggest exports, it’s because they’re not negotiating with us and giving us everything we want.

Update: Variety reports that SAG nixed the final offer and is also refusing to send it to its 120,000 members for a vote. They did, however, also present a counter-offer.

The AMPTP responded — and I paraphrase — “Dude, we’re just giving you what we gave the writer dudes, the director dudes, and the TV and radio dudes, so why you film folks gotta give us such problems? It’s totally your fault if you make this bad economy even worse for us Hollywood folks.”

No word yet on what the next step is going to be.

A very cool article on The Dark Knight returning to — and fuckin’ up — my home town of Chicago has gone up at The Hollywood Reporter (via Reuters). Or, rather, the measures they took to not fuck up my home town while they used locations from it to help construct their own, realistic take on Gotham City.

On “casting” Chicago as Gotham, Nolan says:

When people choose to stylize a city, they draw from one particular age of architecture, which for us didn’t make sense. Real cities have a tremendous mix of architecture; they combine all eras. In this film, we favor modernism compared to the last film. We still have a great mix of buildings and a realistic mix of buildings. But we decided to favor modernism because a lot of the story is set in the civic locations.… It’s a nice balance between keeping the audience aesthetically engaged with the film but feeling more real, feeling more contemporary.

The candy factory they mention in the article, by the way, was just an office building by the old Brach’s factory on the west side of Chicago. Although this has nothing to do with The Dark Knight, a source close to me… ahem… recently wandered through a couple of the remaining buildings (which will be torn down soon to make way for some warehouse bullshit instead of a new high school) and snapped some photos, which are up at my Flickr page.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, The Dark Knight will be in theaters on July 18th. All. Day. Long. (In some places, literally.)

In sadder news, The Hollywood Reporter has crunched some numbers and suggests that an Incredible Hulk sequel is unlikely (despite proclaiming it a “smash” last month); its projected $250–260 million global take is apparently a bit short of the mark, which is a damn shame, since I loved the Louis Leterrier/Ed Norton reboot. Maybe this new one will do significantly better than the original on DVD and change some minds over at Marvel — it should, considering its overal reception by both fans and critics has been much more positive than the Ang Lee Hulk.

Unlike the recent empty, “in negotiations” casting chatter about Platinum’s Cowboys vs. Aliens, Variety reports that Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, Zodiac) has “committed” to star in Guy Ritchie’s upcoming Sherlock Holmes flick for Warner Bros. The film begins shooting in October.

Ritchie revised the Sherlock Holmes script by Anthony Peckham (The Human Factor, to be directed by Clint Eastwood), which is based on both the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and an upcoming comic book of the same title, and will showcase a bit more physicality than we’ve seen in previous versions, although the character was an amateur boxer (excuse me: “pugilist”) and fencer in the original stories, so this is kind of a nice nod to the source material… unless, you know, they get a little too carried away with it.

Another Sherlock Holmes film is also heading to production around the same time — an as-yet-untitled comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell as Holmes and Watson, respectively, which is being written by Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) for producers Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller. UPDATE (7/20/08): In a chat with Coming Soon, Ferrell was “not quite ready to confirm his role as Mr. Watson” in this comedic take. “We’re still trying to figure that out in a way, so I haven’t really thought about that much,” he told the news site, with the site adding that “Sony may have announced it somewhat prematurely.”

The Variety article mentions that after starring opposite Jamie Foxx in Joe Wright’s adaptation of The Soloist, RDJ will “reprise his Tony Stark role in Iron Man 2 for Marvel Studios and Paramount, with Jon Favreau directing” — which was the first I’d read of Favreau’s being on the sequel — but that annoying bitch over at Deadline Hollywood Daily seems to think so, too, so… I dunno. We’ll know when something official gets announced.

UPDATE: IESB.net is posturing a little about having “broken” this story before Finke, which is a bit inaccurate. While Favreau did tell them recently (on the red carpet at the Hellboy 2 premiere) “it’s going to work out, I have a feeling,” “we’re working it all out” is not concrete and is not the same as Finke’s article’s “have reached a deal” (emphasis mine). Sorry, IESB. I think she’s a stupid waste of flesh, too (especially for calling Favreau an “asshole” for simply answering a question honestly), but she’s got you here.

Related post: Jon Favreau still not signed for Iron Man 2

A pretty fuckin’ funny trailer for a mock documentary called Rain of Madness, about the making of the Tropic Thunder movie within a movie, clearing riffing on the Apocalypse Now doc Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, has gone up at Apple. No definite word on whether they’re actually making this “making of” or where it would appear if they are, but I’m guessing they are, and that it’ll be on the DVD release. You can find a recent, international trailer for Tropic Thunder at the film’s UK website, too, with a teeny bit more footage than what we’ve seen in the previous domestic trailers.

ComingSoon has an exclusive red band trailer for the Quentin Tarantino-produced motorcycle gang schlockfest, Hell Ride. Written and directed by Larry Bishop, the film centers on “The Gent” (Michael Madsen), Pistolero (Bishop), and Comanche (Six Feet Under’s Eric Balfour) as a trio of outlaws out for revenge against a gang called the 666ers. It looks like there’s plenty of gratuitous violence and nudity to satisfy any teenage boy, but whether the script is funny enough or the action is directed with enough style to satisfy anybody else is kind of up in the air. Vinnie Jones, Dennis Hopper, and David Carradine co-star. Hell Ride rides into theaters on August 8.

Aaaand, lastly, an engaging and… well, beautiful trailer for a documentary called Beautiful Losers is up at the film’s official site. It’s described as:

Beautiful Losers celebrates the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural movements of a generation. In the early 1990’s a loose-knit group of likeminded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery.… Starring a selection of artists who are considered leaders within this culture, Beautiful Losers focuses on the telling of personal stories…speaking to themes of what happens when the outside becomes “in” as it explores the creative ethos connecting these artists and today’s youth.

Beautiful Losers hits NYC on August 8, and LA on August 29.

Related posts: Trailer Watch: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead, Tropic Thunder full trailer, Children of Huang Shi (updated); CONTROVERSY! Robert Downey, Jr., wears crackaface in Tropic Thunder, Trailer Watch: Tropic Thunder teaser, Foot Fist Way; also, there are idiots on the internet

Hollywood Reporter breaks the news that Rawson Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) has convinced Warner Brothers to let him write, produce and direct the long-running fantasy comic Elfquest for the big screen. Although the director’s adaptation of Michael Chabon’s The Mysteries of Pittsburgh didn’t manage to find distribution at Sundance (but did manage to generate a few negative reviews), it shows he’s willing… if not necessarily able… to do something other than mainstream comedies. It has not been determined whether this will be a live-action or animated film.

Hollywood Reporter also broke that one of my favorite not-nearly-as-great-as-I-thought-it-was-when-I-was-a-kid movies, John Milius’ Commies-Invade-American pic Red Dawn is getting remade for the new millennium, for MGM. Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye, Disturbia) is set to write the adaptation, which will update the tale for a “post-9/11 world” somehow. Hm. The only exciting part of this news is that Dan Bradley is set to direct; Bradley was a “second unit director and/or stunt coordinator on The Bourne Ultimatum, Spider-Man 3 and the forthcoming Quantum of Solace,” so you know the action will be good… if nothing else.

The same Hollywood Reporter article also casually drops that MGM’s Darren Aronofsky met with the studio about the upcoming RoboCop reboot. “Meetings” don’t mean anything, but how fucking weird would that be?! (EDIT: I naively thought the other news sites wouldn’t run with this info, because it’s not fucking news until he signs, but sure enough, they’ve all seemed to explode that little sentence fragment into several paragraphs of fanwank. Christ.)

Quentin Tarantino talks a lot about his upcoming projects — so much so that it’s hard to take him seriously sometimes. But his World War 2 “epic,” Inglorious Bastards (very loosely based on the 1977 Italian original) is currently looking for financing and aiming for an October shoot, in light of his long-time producers’ financial woes. Weinstein and Lawrence Bender are still producing, but the money will have to come from outside the Weinsteins for the first time in Tarantino’s career.

Related posts: Quick Cuts: More Funny People, Red, RoboCop, Turok

EW: The Effect of Heath Ledger’s Death on The Dark Knight’s Advertising
Very typical piece that is super-respectful of Ledger, tries to find humor in poking fun at Michael Caine’s portrayal of Alfred, and really doesn’t go into the tough decisions that the marketing team had to make because apparently, even they don’t want to talk about Ledger’s death. Then again, only nuts like me are into learning about marketing decisions.

EW: The 25 Faces of Eddie Murphy
Looking through this overview of Murphy’s career makes me realize that:
a) I’ve seen and liked more Eddie Murphy movies that I thought I did
b) The only one I haven’t seen yet that I want to see is Dreamgirls
Readers are encouraged to vote on their favorite characters of his. Currently, the highest score goes to Shrek and its sequels and the lowest score is for The Adventures of Pluto Nash.

Wilshire & Washington: LA’s Outfest 2008 to Feature Political Programming
Only briefly talks Saturday’s political panel which will feature a Democratic California state senator, an Obama campaigner, and someone from Courage Campaign talking about gay and lesbian rights. Doesn’t mention anything about the actual films in the festival, which include a heart-warmer about a 15-year old’s introduction to politics and Dan Butler (Bulldog from TV’s Frasier)’s growing love for Karl Rove, the latter of which I really want to see now.