So here I am, minding my own business, reading through Capone's take on AICN's recent Butt-Numb-A-Thon 24-hour movie festival, and I come upon this paragraph:"TRICK ’R TREAT— Set for release next Halloween, this horror anthology with many interconnected characters and storylines is loads of fun courtesy of writer and first-time director Michael Dougherty (who wrote SUPERMAN RETURNS and X2, and sat through the entire BNAT experience). The Dylan Baker story in which he plays a school principal who engages in some sickening pumpkin carving behavior was my personal favorite, but Brian Cox’s turn as the grumpy old man taunted by a creepy kid in a costume that strikes him as a bit too familiar is also extremely fun. The scariest story involves a groups of kids going to what they claim is a haunted quarry. It’s good to know that next October at least one decent scare film will be making the rounds. Dougherty’s Q&A after the screening was also loads of fun."
One of my most favorite bands, Okkervil River, has put a free EP online as a holiday gift to us all. You can download it right over here. Sayeth the band (via BV):"Golden Opportunities, an album of covers, is available now for free from this website. We recorded these songs at radio stations, at shows, in peoples' apartments, in hotel stairways. They were done here and there all around the United States and Europe, with the eventual intention of being rounded up in this collection. You can download artwork for the album from this site for making a physical copy of the CD packaging.
We hope everyone has a good holiday season."
--- First 0ff, a very happy birthday to the super-talented Wendie Malick, without whom I'd have never slogged through countless hours of the television program Just Shoot Me for whatever hysterical bon-mots Nina Van Horn would spout. Did y'all catch the True Hollywood Story episode all about her character? One of the funniest half hours ever produced for TV, period."Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has decided to switch projects and will next shoot the film noir "Broken Hugs," starring Penelope Cruz.... According to Almodovar, "Broken Hugs" (Los Abrazos Rotos) will feature Cruz, Blanca Portillo and Lluis Homar.
"As for Penelope, I'm going to delve into one of her little-known facets," Almodovar said of the Spanish actress, who was nominated for an Oscar for best actress for her role in his most recent film, "Volver." "This won't be a comedy, but humor will be present."
Almodovar, always reluctant to give details about his films in advance, said he will start preparation on the film in January. The script, which he said is his longest ever, tells of a "crazy love.""
--- There's a video interview between Fall It 
Because, for whatever reason (cough The Film Experience's new holiday banner cough), I've got Jarhead on the brain today, and also no gratuitous Jake is ever a bad thing, here are some fond reminisces of one of The Finest Scenes Captured On Celluloid. Seriously, it's basically knocked the Odessa Steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin into the dumpster. If I ever taught a film class it would be on whatever the fuck cinematic technique bullshit I could crow on about that Sam Mendes might've used - the allegorical or political ramifications of the Santa Hat could also work - as an excuse to watch this scene over and over again; that much is for certain. Man, I'd be the Bestest Prof Ever.
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When I awoke this morning, it was from a dream that today was the day that I finally received my Radiohead In Rainbows disc-box. It was a lovely dream, consisting basically of me subtly caressing the box's cover. Heaven.
I suppose, after the Harry Potter mania that engulfed the world this past Summer, it's not wholly unreasonable that I've taken a bit of a Potter-related respite and scrubbed my brains of thoughts of House Elves and Gay Wizards and what not, but I still feel sorta shameful that today's release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix onto DVD has arrived with no fanfare on my part.
"Nicolas Cage is set to star in Knowing, a thriller to be directed by Alex Proyas. Summit Entertainment will fully finance and distribute the pic, which begins production March 17 in Melbourne, according to Variety. Cage will play a teacher who examines the contents of a time capsule unearthed at his son's elementary school. Startling predictions in the time capsule that have already come true lead him to believe the world is going to end at the close of the week and that he and his son are somehow involved in the destruction."
"It's just such a classic, and the imagery is so surreal... I don't know; I've never seen a version where I feel like they got it all. It's a series of weird adventures, and to try to do it where it works as a movie will be interesting."
Burton will also produce the adaptation, which will use both live action and performance-capture animation.
"The stories are like drugs for children, you know?" Burton said. "It's like, 'Whoa, man.' The imagery, they've never quite nailed making it compelling as a full story. So I think it's an interesting challenge to direct."
He's had to have seen Jan Svankmajer's Alice, right? That's the best adaptation, and uses stop-motion and live-action mixed up, and really ought to be the angle Burton goes towards.
Gregg Araki's Smiley Face
Starring Anna Faris, John Krasinski and Danny Masterson
New Screwball Stoner Comedy
From the Director of Mysterious Skin
Opens Wednesday, December 26 at IFC Center
SMILEY FACE, Gregg Araki's new slapstick stoner farce, opens Wednesday, December 26 at IFC Center for a two-week engagement.
"The Ruins, the botanical thriller from Dreamworks, has moved up a week from April 11th 2008 to the very crowded April 4th.
Funny Games, the Warner Independent horror-thriller starring Naomi Watts and Tim Roth, has been pushed from February 15th 2008 to March 14th, leaving The Spiderwick Chronicles as the only film coming out on the 15th, as the other wide-releases will come out a day before on the 14th."
Oh how I love it when Roger Ebert gets angry. Since his illness, it's seemed as if he's been giving a lot of 4 star reviews, so this was nice to read; prove he's still got the fire in his belly. Here he is reviewing Guy Ritchie's latest mess, Revolver:"Some of the acting is better than the film deserves. Make that all of the acting. Actually, the film stock itself is better than the film deserves. You know when sometimes a film catches fire inside a projector? If it happened with this one, I suspect the audience might cheer.".
Dust Kidman Fidgety Daemons Balloons Not-Church Bears Craig's-Beard And Snug-Tweed-Pants Lyra Blimp Hot-Witch Flying Jaw Smackdown Hug The Monkey Happy-Ending?
Mr. Yorke worked on many of the songs in the Rose and Crown. “I sit there, on the way in, because it’s a really nice little table,” he said, pointing. “And then I get out my scraps of paper and I line them up. I need to put them into my book because they’re just scraps of paper, and I’m going to lose them unless I do it. So am I writing here? Probably. I don’t know yet. I’m just collating information. This is a nice, relaxing thing to do, and it also keeps your mind tuned in to the whole thing. And you see things you didn’t know.”
.
.
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Ahem. So I saw "Critical Darling, Fall 2007 Edition" Juno last evening and my reaction seems to have followed the base critical consensus - that it's a wobbly little thing for the first 30 minutes or so, but once it hits it's stride it's a lovely little thing all the same. I did have two caveats about the movie: First off, the overly precious soundtrack was overdone to the point of annoyance. Way too much cutesy balladeering overlaying everything. It worked wonderfully in the final scene, though.
I was not an Arrested Development watcher (Stop yelling at me!), but after the one-two punch of watching Superbad on Wednesday and Juno last night, I'm of the mind at this moment that he's aces. There wasn't a moment when he was on-screen in Juno that felt anything less than totally genuine. When he and Page were together the movie just clicked - their scenes were absolutely perfect. It was like the movie took a moment to breathe in Cera's presence - his awkward half-, no, quarter-grins, his fumbled sweetness - yeah, if you can't tell, I just about think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread now.
Even though I haven't mentioned Radiohead since Monday, it doesn't mean they haven't been on my mind. Hells bells, I've been hanging out over at the atease boards about 75% of my time. I still haven't gotten my disc-box, but fingers crossed it'll come soon.
"The End of The Beginning
Hello Everyone,
The download area that is “In Rainbows” will be shutting its doors on the 10th December 2007.
A big thank you to everyone who came and downloaded the music. It’s been the most positive thing we’ve done and we hope you shared the experience with others.
The discbox will still be available from the w.a.s.t.e store here until they have all gone. We then have no plans to make further stock.
For those of you who wish to buy In Rainbows in the usual way, it will be available on CD/Vinyl and download from traditional outlets from the 31st December 2007.
The record will be released by TBD Records in North America and XL Recordings for the rest of the world.
Thanks for everything."
And finally, and perhaps of the most interest to the bulk of MNPP-readers: Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood? It leaked online today. Where might you find it, you ask? Hmm....
"I am gonna give you the best blow J.
With my mouth."
Return To House On Haunted Hill. I know what you're thinking. Watch what? Huh? Sprechen sie Englisch bitte? Yes, there's a sequel to 1999's House on Haunted Hill, and shockingly - as if its damning lack of a much-needed "The" within its title wasn't clue enough - it's TERRIBLE. Not in an entertaining way; just in a terrible way. However, as happens with so many horror films, there is one moment, one tiny ray of sunshine, held within. It is this kernel that I always imagine gets these otherwise-awful movies made in the first place; that balls-to-the-wall crazy-shit moment that explodes off the page and sells the story to the suits, the director, whomever, and gets the movie slapped onto celluloid like so much cinematic baloney.
Humina humina indeed! Not that it matters. Not that any of it matters! You've seen all you need to see here, my friends. Now forget this movie even exists. Rent the original remake (that phrase - original remake - is designed to make my brain explode). It was way better than this dreck. For one, it had Famke "Kicks Ass, Takes Names" Janssen slurring her way into High Camp Heaven. And that, my loves, beats a bloated Eric Palladino any day.
I didn't write much about my first reaction because I wanted to give it another chance (echoes of my silence on No Country For Old Men there, huh? I'm getting to it!), but here's where I stood with my first Southland go-round: very funny in parts. For one, Sarah Michelle Gellar, as I have previously expressed, is awesome - every time Krysta Now is on-screen the whole movie just lights up. Richard Kelly was obviously working from experience here; he knows this woman, and SMG knows this woman, and her every moment is a giddy delight. The rest of the cast was hit-or-miss; how I could leave a movie that features Beth Grant and not have a single "Beth Grant giggle-fest" strike me in retrospect is... it's blasphemy! And I felt she was wasted. Bai Ling flitted around amusingly; she's a special effect unto herself. None of anything made any sense, and one scene just seemed to sidle up beside the next in the sloppiest of manners. I did admire the movie for just... going for it, ya know? In this age of movies being filtered through a thousand different test-groups and having anything interesting and unique whittled down to nothing, here was a movie that was just a big ol' disaster, going everywhere, in every direction... so I admired that, but the experience of sitting through it the first time through was... painful. What was funny fell between the cracks of its insanity.
What of our Do Dump Marry trio? Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Justin Timberlake still didn't 100% work for me, but I found Seann William Scott much more affecting with a second viewing; especially once one "gets" (as in what the film's really about, under the 17 layers of storytelling artifice) his character. (Sidenote: Scott's buzzed-head/beard combo has officially branded him highly fuckable on the fuckable scale.) I know Johnson was supposed to be unhinged but his twiddling-finger schtick seemed, well, schticky. I kept feeling like he was looking at me in the audience and admitting he had no idea what was going on either, unlike say how SMG just jumped right in and went with it. (He looked great, though.) Justin Timberlake... gah he just never fails to get on my nerves. His voice-over was slightly less annoying and his musical sequence felt a little less jarring this time, though, and... well, I don't really want to explain the movie here - if you have seen it and would like to discuss what it's about, head on to the comments! - but let's just say that as things began to fall into place - and I do think that, as this second viewing finished, I've actually really got a total handle on what the eff was going on, for real, like I get it! I win prizes, right? - so as things fell into place, Timberlake and Scott's characters made a world of more sense, in the context in which they fit, which once you "get" the movie will make sense. If that makes sense.
--- Faith No More - The final issue of Brian K. Vaughn's arc in the Buffy: Season 8 comics, dealing with Faith the Vampire Slayer, hits the stores today. Will our girl prove (once again) her worth? Always with the muddied moral compass, Faith! These past couple of issues have been prime stuff, though; I hope all y'all who profess to be Buffy fans have been partaking too.
--- Milk Got - Three actors are circling roles in Gus Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic - Josh Brolin as Milk's rival and killer; Emile Hirsch as a young gay activist; and James Franco (seen at left; I seem to be coming around on Franco suddenly) as Milk's boyfriend. Sean Penn's playing Milk. It's been shameful the way I've dodged most of Van Sant's recent work; the last one I saw was Elephant and I scarcely remember it. But this cast, and this subject, is drawing me in, I do believe.
"I'd go totally nude. I've got nothing to hide, and after all, we ask the girls to reveal almost all, so why not the men?"
Francis Lawrence, the man who directed Constantine and the upcoming I Am Legend, appears to have his sights set on adapting Chuck Palahniuk's book Survivor next. From an interview with Collider (via Cinematical):
"... there’s a couple of things I’m working on. I’m working on a book “Survivor” by Chuck Palahniuk that I’m working on with a friend. It’s a great book. I love that book. So we’ve been working on that."
What this does bring to mind, however, is that Palahniuk's book Choke has already been made into a movie but... where is it? I need to see what it's deal is. Hold the phone!
--- Champagne Wishes and Bamber-Towel Dreams - You could be the lucky owner of one of three towels that have cradled Jamie Bamber's nethers. This is one of those times in my life when I curse not being incredibly wealthy. Well really, if I were incredibly wealthy I'd just pay to cradle Jamie Bamber's nethers myself, but the towels are going for charity - specifically, something about sending pencils to studios in support of the striking writers - so a good cause could benefit from my dirty exploitative thoughts, too. Yay charity!
Just a heads-up: I'm having a really really difficult time focusing on anything other than the fact the the second CD of Radiohead's In Rainbows - the CD that's part of the $80 disc-box - has leaked online this morning. Everyone who ordered the disc-box - myself included - got an email yesterday saying that the package was sent out but could take as long as 18 days. I have yet to figure out if this was Radiohead fucking with us or not. But they said they were sending it by boat, because they're goddamned hippies, some carbon footprint bullshit seems possible. Anyway, if you can't tell, my head is... preoccupied... with this nonsense. People in the UK have already gotten their disc-boxes this morning and it's apparently made it's way online. I will totally download it because if I have to wait 18 days for my actual copy... well, there's no way in hell I'll wait 18 days to hear it, basically. I'm not a Nazi about the quality of the rip so I don't care if I hear it in a lesser version first, since when I do get my actual copy I'll hear it the way it's supposed to sound, "loss-less" as the music geeks say. And ya see? This is why I'm posting - a warning, a "hey, JA's a little out of his mind right now," so my not posting this morning makes sense to y'all. I'm posting to show you why I'm not posting! It all makes sense! Anyway, I've got 27% of my Disc 2 download right now, and I'm going to go stare at the bar as it grows. I'll be back later, hopefully with a shred of sanity of dignity or anything not quite so pathetic attached. Bye!"Name something in a horror movie that frightens you or makes you squirm but doesn’t seem to scare anyone else you know."
"He's just a human being.".
--- The Golden Compass is playing on 800 screens for a sneak preview tomorrow night at 7pm... you can see if it's near you at this link (found via Cinematical). I already had plans tomorrow night of the unbreakable sort, so I cannot attend... [insert cursing the gods here].
I don't know why it'd not occurred to me in the past, but after once again laughing my ass of at last night's episode of Pushing Daisies I decided to read up on the show's creator - as well as the co-creator of one of my favorite shows ever, Wonderfalls - Bryan Fuller. See, in last night's episode when, for a second week in a row, a Hitchcock-riff presented itself - Molly Shannon as Tippi Hedren being attacked by gulls had me rolling on the floor - I realized that Bryan Fuller is... what's the word? A Genius? God? (No offense to the boyfriend but) The Perfect Man?"I never really fancied myself a writer. I was a huge, huge “Star Trek” fan, and I didn’t want to be a television writer as much as I wanted to be a “Star Trek” writer. And so I went to film school, and that was a very eye opening experience. Because I originally fancied myself as a director. And when I got there, it was just so technical. There were F-stops. And it was more than my delicate little brain could handle."
"And the very real fact, unfortunately, is that homosexuality makes people uncomfortable. As much as we’ve had “Will and Grace” and the loathsome “Queer as Folk.”... I do see the purpose that "Queer as Folk" serves. There is a chance for people to look around and say “Okay, there are gay people all around us.” But for me, I hated all the gay people on the show. If anything, I would be the character in the parking lot with the baseball bat. They were all, down the line, just loathsome people and I really resented them being at the forefront representing homosexual culture when they were all so reprehensible."
Bryan Fuller on one of the inspirations for Pushing Daisies and his preoccupation with death (via B,BC):"This is going to sound awful, but some of my fondest memories as a child were going to funerals because that was sort of a very social event and I got to see lots of cousins that I didn’t normally see every day. And they weren’t as sick of my shit as my immediate family, so it was easier to talk to them about TV and movies and things that I was sort of fanatical about. They would sort of put up with it. So I always had good experiences at funerals...
I’m really curious about what happens next? People talk about near death experiences. And what is it that they see? Is it a bright light? Is it the Care Bear Village?"
Bryan Fuller on the amazing Katie Finneran, who was hysterical as Jaye's gay sister Sharon on Wonderfalls (via AfterEllen, 3/04):
"She just sings on screen. She has impeccable comic timing, and is just a brilliant actress across the board. Also, she had a part in Night of the Living Dead as part of the zombie barbeque. If you get eaten by a zombie in a horror movie, I'm in love with you."
"Todd [Holland, co-creator of Wonderfalls] and I are both openly gay, and I think we feel a responsibility to having gay characters on shows we create. I had a gay character (George's father) on Dead Like Me, and unfortunately after I left that show they made the character straight, which I did not appreciate and frankly, thought was really shitty. But that was just one of many things about that situation that was uncool...
[Sharon]’s a very conflicted character, one of those Log Cabin Republicans. We have a line in one of the episodes where she’s a part of the Conservative Ladies of America and her sister accuses her of using the Republican Party as a lesbian dating service. It’s a different angle that will give us a richer context and help you understand why someone who is so politically conservative might still be in the closet...
In the second season, however, we'll be able to explore those ideas more freely. There are things that happen in the first season, for example, that are setting up huge character arcs for Sharon in the second season. Huge! We have so many big things coming for Sharon -- we're going to be seeing a lot of the lesbian lawyer in the second season."
"I was raised with some fucked Catholic shit."
Bryan Fuller on why Wonderfalls maybe didn't find an audience (also via SG):
"ABC launched Lost and Desperate Housewives like summer movie blockbusters. Most networks will choose one or two shows to get behind and spend that money on. Wonderfalls was not one of those shows because they didn’t think it had those things that would appeal to a mass audience. It wasn’t boobies on the beach. I wish they had got behind Wonderfalls a tenth of how they got behind North Shore. They didn’t see the commercial appeal because our main character, while stunningly beautiful, was a bit of a tomboy. She was never in dress and although you did see her perfect stomach with a bare midriff. With the advertising, we weren’t like “Don’t you want to fuck Caroline Dhavernas?”"
Bryan Fuller on casting Diana Scarwid (who played Christina in Mommie Dearest) as Jaye's mother in Wonderfalls (also via SG):
"A friend of mine was asking me if I was fag enough to ask Diana Scarwid about Mommie Dearest and I said, no, but I was definitely fag enough to ask her about Psycho 3. She sort of stared at me when I went “Remember when you pushed that nun down the bell tower at the beginning?” She just said, stop talking."
"I’m occasionally stoned on the marijuana but that’s as deviant as I get as far as substances. I think it’s that weird things interest me. Weird shit comes out of my mouth which may seem like genius to some people but it’s just weird."
"Platinum Dunes' Friday the 13th project. What do you label it? Remake? Re-launch?
After speaking to a source close to the project who wishes to stay outside of the spotlight (for now), we're striking the former term out of future reports on the film.
"It's not a remake," says our insider. Don't even expect an origin tale - as some production listings around Hollywood are pegging it as. Imagine if there was a story to be told somewhere between parts two and four, just add water (from Camp Crystal Lake, duh), insert a leaner, meaner, faster Jason Voorhees, set to "blend" and you've got the recipe for what Dunes, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift and director Marcus Nispel got cookin'."
This whole "leaner, meaner, faster" nonsense is giving me Rob Zombie's Halloween inspired shivers, too. Jason's about the quick slice-n-dice, the slow lumbering build-up and the jump scare; he's not about seventeen-minute long torture scenes. Let's hope they remember the spirit of fun inherent to the series - these were never ever meant to be taken at any level of seriousness - and don't make it an ugly mess.
"You and I are gonna be the greatest musical manager team
since Jessica Simpson and her father
only you and I get to mreow and they can't,
'cause it's illegal. I looked it up."
.
"Scientists are saying the future
is going to be far more futuristic
than they originally predicted."
"Universal Pictures is planning a biopic of 60's American gridiron legend Joe Namath with Jake Gyllenhaal to play the Hall of Fame quarterback reports Variety.
Namath was the first football player to achieve real rock-star status. The Pennsylvania kid scored a record salary and became a sensation on the field, in nightclubs and on Madison Avenue as the first star to become a magnet for commercials.
His success was a key factor in paving the way to a merger between the then two football leagues and helped establish football as a TV sport.
David Hollander will write the script once the writers strike is over. Gyllenhall, currently filming Jim Sheridan's "Brothers," is next committed to an untitled Doug Liman sci-fi thriller."
"Ultimately, while I don't think the movie is great, I really admire Slaughter and what he is trying to do here, and I think this movie is worth seeing... but this film may be trying to do too many things in too short a span. It is, at once, campy, thrilling, horrific, silly, irreverent, shocking, socially conscious, rebellious, proudly irresponsible, perverted, and too tame... and that is a lot for one 73 minute movie to embody."
continually believe whatever they're told by complete strangers? Everyone behaves like a total moron constantly so the threadbare plot can creak forward with all the urgency of my grandmother putting together a puzzle. Blah blah blah. I'm to the point now where I hope Kristen is killed in next week's "shocking" mid-season finale so I can stop watching altogether. And I'm sure y'all hope it happens too so y'all can stop listening to me bitch. It's win-win!
2 - The Mist --- Hrm, do I have a poison touch or what? It's starting to feel like all the films I really can't get enough of are doomed. Grindhouse flopped, this flopped, half a dozen horror movies are leaping like a deranged Q-bert around the calendar thwarting my expectant eyes. Run from me in horror, producers! I doom your movies by being interested in them! Ahem. So, box-office-woes aside, I mostly dug Frank Darabont's The Mist. I have a few issues with it - namely, for a film I was wetting my bed nightly in anticipation for, I never really fell in love with it like I'd wanted to. The word the boyfriend and I kept coming back to was "solid" - it was all there, what I'd wanted, but it never truly added up to something that knocked me on my ass like I'd hoped. This sounds harsher than I mean it to - I liked the film, I did. I just didn't love it, which I could've if something - something I haven't quite put my finger on yet - had gone differently. As for the much-discussed ending - which is a big change from the story - I can't go ballistic like my pal Sean did - oh how he did - because somehow I'd seen all of the film's trailers and not once beforehand noticed that they included spoilery shots about the ending. So... that didn't ruin it for me. But my reaction still suffered from the same flatness - I liked it, in theory; I liked what Darabont chose to do and where he took the story, but it never knocked the wind out of me like it should've. I suspect my feelings about the film might be summed up by what Sean said while speaking of the ending:
"... we haven't really gotten to know these characters beyond their stock roles. Unlike the comparable units in the first two George Romero Dead movies, for example, none of these five has done anything surprising, nor have they grown and changed from the people we first met, really. They're just there, so this horrible ending that befalls them is just there too."
"They probably sit around on the floor with wine and cheese
and mispronounce allegorical and didacticism."
"Interesting news was discovered today over at USA Today where an article revealed the killer in Paramount Pictures' The Ruins, which will completely shock, and excite you! Directed by Carter Smith, the film is looking at an April 11 release. Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Caitlin Stasey and Joe Anderson all star. Read on for the article."
"Many viewers and reviewers will try to find deeper meaning in The Mist -- the initial mistfall's chaos evoking the morning of 9-11, the subsequent decision to hole up in the store evoking Katrina evacuees, the conflict between Jane and Harden emblematic of some large-scale conflict in the American psyche played out in miniature. But to paraphrase Dr. Freud -- or maybe Dr. Frankenstein -- sometimes a monster is just a monster. King's story dates back to 1980, first year of the Reagan presidency, like Loverboy's first record and Rubik's cube; it's held up a lot better, though, especially after Darabont's polish and presentation. Both King and Darabont know that sometimes a monster's just a monster; what they also know, and prove with The Mist, is that in the hands of talented people behind and in front of the camera, sometimes 'just' a monster is more than enough."
"“I wanted to make as realistic movie as I could,” he explained. “If you look at a classic horror movie like ‘The Exorcist,’ part of what makes it so scary is that it feels so damn real. If you add a layer of too much hysterical, theatrical reality, then audiences take it less seriously. But if you play it for absolute reality, then the dread and the horror — which is why we go to horror movies in the first place — is reinforced.”.
Mr. King added: “I also like that the effects were not C.G.I. They did it with old-fashioned stop action, and the whole thing feels like it has a relation to average American emotional life. You miss that in ‘Death Proof,’ ‘Hostel,’ ‘Saw.’ But this is set in a supermarket, for Pete’s sake. It’s more like ‘Twilight Zone.’”
"The egg hatched....
and a hundred baby spiders came out...
and they ate her."
"David R. Ellis is coming back to New Line for more death, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The director has signed to direct and develop "Final Destination 4," the latest installment of New Line's popular horror series, which the studio plans to shoot in 3-D.
The premise of the series is that even if you cheat death once, a force that is death itself will stalk you until it finishes what is started, usually in a gruesome fashion. While plot details for "FD4" are being kept under wraps, the movie will stand alone: It will feature new teens facing new forms of death.
The script was written by Eric Bress, who co-wrote "Final Destination 2."Ellis directed the second installment, which was praised for its elaborately orchestrated killings. New Line's Richard Brener and Walter Hamada are overseeing the project, which has no start date.
The "Final Destination" films have been solid performers for New Line since they debuted in 2000. The first film grossed $53.3 million, the 2003 sequel made $46.5 million and the third, released in 2006, collected $54 million. The movies usually are made for at least half that and do well on home video."
"But make no mistake, the culprits will be fingered..
I will finger the culprits."
"We're planning on doing more stuff, including action figures, depending on what the demand is."
"When the producer Alix Madigan and I sat down to go through our list of potential "Janes" and Anna Faris's name came up, that was it. She was my first and only choice. "Jane" is an incredibly challenging role in the sense that she is onscreen virtually every frame of the film and as a character she does a lot of not so bright things. Anna has an absoulutely uncanny likeability about her - you root for her no matter what. I seriously don't think there's any other actress out there who could have pulled this film off. It is much much harder than Anna makes it look. I rank Anna right up there with the Lucille Balls and Carole Lombards in her amazing comic gifts and timing. The movie would be impossible without her and I'm forever grateful for her taking on the challenge."
"Funny lady Molly Shannon ("Saturday Night Live")... is making a guest appearance on the November 28 episode of ABC's whimsical procedural "Pushing Daisies" titled "Bitter Sweets."...
A vindictive taffy shop owner (Shannon as Dilly Balsam) sets up shop down the street from The Pie Hole, determined to drive Ned out of business by any means necessary. Writer/actor Michael White ("The School of Rock," "The Good Girl") guest stars as Dilly's brother, Billy."
