3-D's sweeping the land! This week we've had almost non-stop news of projects to be filmed in the process (Spy Hunter, Popeye, Buck Rogers, Gulliver's Travels, Narnia), discussion of movies that're being converted (Clash Of The Titans , Sucker Punch) and the retro-stereoscoping of other recent hits (Titanic , 300). Three-dimensionality's even been in the gaming, TV, fashion-action film and religious broadcasting news, too. It's the wave of the future I tells ya! But also the past. Around the time we hear that Woody Allen's Untitled Spring 2011 Project will be filmed in the process, I'm betting there will begin a flurry of conversions of actual classics. As Anthony Lane wrote in The New Yorker recently, it's hard to not be curious about what Casablanca might look like in 3-D. But, apart from that and dead-certs (The Wizard Of Oz , Star Wars , Lord Of The Rings) what other hits (and a few box-office misses) would be too hard to resist watching with the glasses on?
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Leonard Nimoy begins a long and prosperous life, though his singing career tribbles us still. Plus, tough guy James Caan comes out swinging, the Best Picture that almost wasn't, and the sci-fi cultists of Heaven's Gate reach for the stars.
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· Anderson Cooper may swim with Great Whites, but he'll probably want to shore up that life insurance policy for his four-part Scientology investigation. [Wrap]
· It's not entirely clear who to pity more in this lookalike situation. Probably Travolta. [Daily What]
· Lips Together, Teeth Apart canceled due to what Megan Mullally's doctor calls "acute mercurial poisoning." [Deadline]
· Wired's Joshua Bearman profiles master thief, Gerald Blanchard, who Jeff Wells thinks is a movie waiting to happen. [Wired]
· Anaheim wants your fanboy dollars. [/Film]
· Puppies eating ice cream. [Buzz Feed]
This morning, Movieline regretfully reported that after The Hills' upcoming sixth season, the MTV standby will join a pantheon of television shows canceled long before their time like Sports Night, Arrested Development and Guiding Light. But instead of thinking about the fauxality-free nights in our future, Movieline pays homage to The Hills cast members who have given us some of the best nights of carefully-staged MTV drama of our lives and the sleazy men who have earned each of our heroines' digitally inserted tears.
After the jump, Movieline time travels back to 2006, when a pre-op Heidi used something called "free will" to navigate a Spencer-less Hills and Lauren taught impressionable teenage girls that it's alright to sacrifice your career for boys with drunk-driving records.
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A representative from the Tribeca Film Festival has issued this statement in response to GLAAD's campaign to have the "transploitation" film Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives barred from screening:
"The filmmakers provided a copy of this film to GLAAD in February, and for weeks the organization had been supportive to the filmmakers. In fact, GLAAD representatives advised the film's producer, director and cast on how to describe the film to its core constituency."
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The "Holy Crap, They Want That Director For Breaking Dawn?" roundelay took another wild spin this afternoon as Stephen Daldry was reportedly added to the group of filmmakers short-listed for the climactic Twilight Saga entry. He joins a formidable crop of talent rumored in one way or another to close the franchise, including Sofia Coppola, Gus Van Sant and Bill Condon. What's to make of all of this? Well, that's where Movieline's Oddsmaking Dept. comes in.
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The writing was on the wall, and now it's in print: Discovery Communications -- in particular, TLC -- has acquired worldwide rights to the eight-hour docuseries Sarah Palin's Alaska, which will cost more than $1 million an episode as it explores the 49th state. That's over twice the cost of most other TLC series episodes, which range from $200,000 to $400,000. A&E, the other interested network, dropped out days ago. Catch your breath and ready yourself for the nauseating quote from producer Mark Burnett.
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To paraphrase Jason London's character in Dazed and Confused, "All I'm saying is, if I ever start referring to these as the best movies of my life -- remind me to kill myself." With Hot Tub Time Machine, director Steve Pink manages to connect self-conscious cinematic nostalgia to the middle-aged anomie London warns against with rowdy affection, avoiding the trap of earnest emulation that Cop Out, its recent comrade in homage, fell into. A fully committed spoof of the high concept, factory-farmed comedies of the 80s, Hot Tub goes under some pretty deep cover, glossing over big plot and pacing bumps with its proudly cruddy, in-joke attitude. Produced by a high priest of 80s effluvia (and a couple of genuine classics), John Cusack confirms his imprimatur by starring in the film. One of its genuine pleasures is watching him once again balance seriously generic, frankly sophomoric material with his sober wit and goofy, shaggy grace.
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Mere nanoseconds after their second-season premieres, Showtime's Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara have been renewed for third seasons. Nurse Jackie premiered to a 13% increased viewership over its series debut, while Tara's new numbers mirrored its impressive premiere. Can we expect crossover promotion in the next year? Nurse Jackie successfully sedates all of Tara's "alters" except Buck, who she fancies for a roll in the linens? Emmy nominations all around.
[Zap2It]
It's time to herald the return of a beloved Movieline feature: the Hollywood Kids. Longtime fans of this publication will recall it as being the deliciously dishy corner of our previous print incarnation. But for today's Twitterized, OCD-afflicted youth, we've decided to both streamline it -- it's now just one, single Hollywood Kid -- and dispense completely with the tedious printed word in favor of a far easier-to-digest, video-blog format. And best of all? A bona fide gossip legend will be bringing it to you every week! It's none other than the man, the myth, the Village Voice columnist, the fragrance: Michael Musto, ladies and gentlemen.
RELEASE THE KRAKEN!
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Apparently the groundbreaking concept of Flop Insurance hasn't quite caught on with the lobbying arm of Hollywood. The MPAA has officially asked regulators in Washington to prevent the opening of a futures exchange based on domestic box-office receipts, which it says would effectively legalize gambling on one of America's most volatile marketplaces. And frankly, studios have enough to contend with these days without having to worry about whether Harvey Weinstein covered the spread on The Company Men.
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GLAAD is a funny little organization, on the one hand these self-appointed sentries for positive representation of gays in media, on the other a kind of nutless institution reluctant to get their Pradas dirty on the way to the awards show by, say, recognizing important but confrontational work like Kirby Dick's Outrage. It's baffling, really, when you then consider where they do choose to pick their battles.
Consider today's "call to action" against the Tribeca Film Festival, what essentially boils down to a campaign to have a particular selection -- a self-described "transploitation" film from writer/director Israel Luna called Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives -- removed from the program. Here's an excerpt from their takedown:
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John Singleton will officially join Catherine Hardwicke, Robert Rodriguez, Garry Marshall, Chris Weitz, David Slade and the handful of others in that elite Hollywood directors' club who've had the honor of saying, "OK, Taylor, let's do it again, but gimme a little more." He'll direct Taylor Lautner in the thriller Abduction, set to shoot this summer in Pittsburgh before production begins on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. Better luck next time, Ericson Core. [Deadline]
At the Movies may have spewed its last appraisals, but our careers in revisiting its reviews on YouTube has just begun. The Firefox vistas remain bright! Categorized by the films discussed in each clip, here are five dialogues from various At the Movies's eras, with appearances from Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper, the two Bens (in a very brief cameo), Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott.
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· And here we have a teaser poster for the third season of True Blood. I don't see Alexander Skarsgard anywhere on this. Click for bigger.
· Fallen angel Katherine Heigl takes responsibility for her bad reputation in EW: "I allowed myself to be perceived [as ungrateful] because I was being whiny and I was griping and because I made these snarky comments...I'm just so disappointed in myself that I allowed it to slip. I let myself demean something that was actually very beautiful and very important."
· Tom Cruise and Reese Witherspoon might play a rodeo champ and a country queen in the upcoming Paper Wings. We'll let you guess who's doing what role.
· John Corbett is apologizing for his big Sex and the City 2 lie to us. Too little too late, John!
· Says James Franco in his new short fiction story: "I wish I was Mexican, or Hebrew, I mean Jewish, I mean Israeli, or Mexican Jewish, or Mexican Jewish gay, because it can be so boring being you sometimes, and if you were the most special thing like that, it could be really great." Indeed.
