I Am Link

--- I've been waiting for news of Michael Haneke's remake of his own already-brilliant 1997 film Funny Games - the new version starring Naomi Watts and Tim Roth as parents beseiged by two strangers at their vacation home - but this was not the news I was expecting. From the film's producer, Linda Moran, at JoBlo:

"It is literally a shot-for-shot remake... so we haven’t changed the ending or anything like that... We actually had blueprints from the house that was used in the original, and we went on a soundstage and built a set that matched those proportions exactly. Then we had to go out and find an exterior that would work as well. We shot in the Hamptons, at Shelter Island and southern Long Island. You’ll probably find that the look will be different; the compositions probably won’t be changed much, but since Darius Khondji (SE7EN) shot it and he’s such a great cinematographer, the images are going to be a little more lush, where the original is really dark-looking."

So basically, I'm guessing the only reason this has been made is to get losers who refuse to read subtitles to see it? I mean, I am of course curious to see Watts' and Roth's takes on the material, and Khondji's a wonderful cinematographer, and honestly I'd follow Haneke off a bridge at this point... so yeah, I'm not the person to criticize this. I'll watch it a thousand times over most likely.

JB also states that the film is out January 18th, 2008, so mark your calendars! So far away, though!

--- The guns are out already - seems everybody's gunning for Spider-Man 3 to be the first flop of Summer already. There are some reviews over at AICN (choice quote: "Plus Bryce Dallas Howard's Gwen is so strikingly beautiful and utterly sweet, she kind of makes Dunst look like a grumpy wet dog in this film.") as well as at EW, that point to this being the weakest-script Raimi's worked with so far, though they do seem to still argue that the action scenes are top-notch... just what comes between is decidedly not. Hrm. We'll see Saturday!

--- Hollywood Hot Property Joseph Gordon-Levitt has signed on for his next pic, which mainly interests me because it was penned by American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis. From THR:

"Joseph Gordon-Levitt is attached as the romantic lead in producer Darren Star's directorial debut "The Frog King," both projects coming from the new Intermedia-backed sales and distribution outfit IM Global... "King," produced by Intermedia and GreeneStreet Films and written by Bret Easton Ellis, Gordon-Levitt plays a ne'er-do-well assistant editor whose penchant for messing up threatens a relationship with his dream girlfriend."

--- In things I was too distracted by Marlon Brando's wet T-shirt to write yesterday, I forgot to mention to y'all that Tori Amos' new album came out. Shame, shame, me. So yeah - head on to the store and pick up American Doll Posse now, ya scamps. I've already listened to it more times than I have her last album, The Beekeeper. Here's a good review at The New Yorker - choice quote:

"“American Doll Posse” is aggressive and, occasionally, overstated; Amos fans who have complained that they haven’t heard from “the real Tori” in a while will be relieved. In the past three years, Amos has released only one complete album, “The Beekeeper” (2005), which buried her natural vigor under music that occasionally incorporated gospel and R. & B. but in the end was lax and weirdly docile. “American Doll Posse” returns to her music of the nineties: fired-up songs centered on the piano, her robust singing, a rhythm section, and loud guitar playing more indebted to the seventies than to the ohs."

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