Remember that 1998 movie adaptation of the old British TV show The Avengers, starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman? Me neither, but set artist Stephen Morahan does — if only because he was reminded after working on this week's Marvel blockbuster of the same name: "[I]t looks a bit odd on your resume. So, I made this before, now it's something completely different. And when you talk about it, people don't even know about the other film. it didn't do very well. I mean, that's another big difference, too. The original Avengers was a big flop. It bombed." [Huffington Post]
Avengers fans, fear not! You'll find no spoilers for this Friday's big tentpole herein. Just know this: You're going to want to stay through the end credits for the expected post-credits bonus scenes that Marvel Studios are known to slide into their films, because The Avengers reportedly contains not one, but two of 'em. Looks like Robert Downey Jr. wasn't lying about filming the day after the premiere! (Wait, does that mean Joss led us all astray?) Oh, fine. If you can't stand the not knowing, bang it here for details. [@thefilmcynic, SuperheroHype]
No, not the Cowboy (though OK, him, too): "[S]ave for a darkly funny murder that wouldn’t feel out of place in a seedier Coen Brothers’ film, most of the Mulholland Dr.'s humor comes from one character: Adam Kesher, a hotshot Hollywood director. [...] Justin Theroux plays Kesher with a brash confidence that begs for comeuppance. This character allows for the film to take on the aforementioned negative aspects of Hollywood with a smile; while it pains the audience to see the innocent protagonist Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) put through the ringer, it’s far more delightful to watch the arrogant Kesher undergo similar abuse. Los Angeles remains a terrible place throughout the film, but when the less sympathetic Kesher takes the spotlight, Mulholland Dr. transforms from a dark drama into a dark comedy." [Splitsider]
Not this again: "The eye behind such films as No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James, [Roger] Deakins takes Bond into the digital age. Mendes promises his darker tone will bleed directly over to the physical look of the movie. 'I've worked with Roger twice [on Jarhead and Revolutionary Road], so I feel very comfortable in that relationship. There's a shorthand. You look at each other and know what you're thinking. He's a true artist. Right from the start of directing, I realized the most important two relationships were with my leading actors and the director of photography. You'll see in the teaser trailer that it has a very distinct look that does have elements of noir and British '60s. It's very English — a lot is set in England.'" [Hollywood.com]
All the fuss over Spike Lee's Oldboy remake star search can finally be put to rest, it seems — though who could have predicted that South African actor Sharlto Copley would've landed the plum co-starring lead opposite Josh Brolin? According to Deadline, the District 9 star, most recently seen bursting out of the woodwork every now and then as the manic "Howling Mad" Murdock in 2010's The A-Team, has nabbed the key role of Adrian Pryce, Oldboy's villain and "a mysterious billionaire trying to destroy the life of Joe Douchett (Brolin)." Bold move, Spike. But does Copley fit the bill (and, more importantly: Can he hold his own against Brolin)? [Deadline]
Get excited: "After eight years, the Australian actor Paul Hogan, best known for his Crocodile Dundee movies, has resolved his dispute with the authorities there, who said he and his former manager, John Cornell, owed $156 million in unpaid taxes and penalties dating to the 1980s heyday of the film series. [...] As the settlement was announced Mr. Hogan’s lawyer, Andrew Robinson, criticized the tax inquiry as a waste of taxpayers’ money, saying it may have cost more than $20 million. He also suggested that Mr. Hogan, who has largely been inactive in recent years, might soon be back with a new project. 'Who knows, now that this monkey is off his back?' Mr. Robinson said." [NYT]
"[I]f I had to stand up in front of students and justify the real-world utility of a Film Studies major, I'd say, "OK, maybe if you want to be in the industry you can bust your ass and end up as an assistant in the marketing department for Pixar. Maybe you'll even get health insurance. But we're moving into a service economy, and most of you will end up working at Wal-Mart, and the way that Film Studies will be useful to you will be when you try to pick up someone in a bar, you'll have something to talk about, because everybody likes to talk about movies." Your move, Gary Ross. [Vetoxa via Looker]
While officials in Kazakhstan were initially perturbed by Borat and the adventures of Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh journalist in America, now one leader has thanked the filmmakers for a subsequent boost in tourism to the former Soviet republic. "With the release of this film, the number of visas issued by Kazakhstan grew tenfold," Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov told the nation's parliament. "I am grateful to Borat for helping attract tourists to Kazakhstan." Very nice! [IMDb, AFP]
"He's full of praise for Ricky Gervais, but he's never seen the American version of The Office. 'I can't, there's no point. Ricky's truly was done like a documentary. In the States they can't go there. They've got to light it brighter, and the camera can't move in quite the same way because the audience won't stand for that. [...] It's a horrible way of using the device. They're using a device that they don't truly understand. And I'm not a fan of kind of doing something. Do it or don't do it. If you're going to do a fake documentary, make it a fake documentary. Have the balls to just do it that way.'" [The Guardian]
"There's this expression that it's written three times: during the script, when you're filming it and when you're editing it. And I believe that's wrong. I think it's written once, in editing — and everything is clay for that. And I wanted to learn about it — I thought it would be neat. It's like learning to play the piano and I need a lot of clay. And I thought if I did one movie out of these three ... whatever. [...] But I'm never going to show it to anyone. So I think that's why they were cool with it. By the way: It doesn't make fun of Star Wars at all." Also: Close Encounters is apparently Grace's next. Now you know. [Huffington Post]
Exciting news for Gina Carano fans: According to a THR report, the Haywire star/former MMA fighter is in talks to join the cast of Justin Lin's Fast & Furious 6. Carano would play a member of the Diplomatic Security Agent working under Dwayne Johnson's agent Luke Hobbs, who was last seen in the post-credits of Fast 5 sniffing out the trail of Dominic Toretto & Co. Details on the plot are still under wraps, but give how the last sequel ended it doesn't seem too far-fetched to hope for a potential... girl fight, if you will, between Carano's character and a certain franchise favorite. Do you believe in fighting ghosts? [THR]
Where have you read this before? "In December, Paramount made the unconventional decision to release Ghost Protocol exclusively in IMAX theaters five days before broadening its release. The move, which Mr. Bird advocated, helped catapult the film to the No. 1 spot when it went wide the following week on the way to becoming the highest-grossing Mission Impossible installment yet. For Mr. Bird, the point is that the typical multiplex theater lacks excitement. When he was young, he says 'if you wanted to see a brand new movie, the only way was to see it perfectly projected in a really big theater with the bulb turned all the way up and an attentive projectionist.'" Adds Christopher Nolan: "These were cameras that had been to the top of Mount Everest, to the bottom of the ocean and into outer space, but people thought we couldn't make a feature film. It was absurd." [WSJ]
After two and a half years running Disney, during which time the Mouse House released hits like Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, The Muppets, and The Help -- but also a string of disappointments topped by last month's quarter-billion dollar bomb John Carter -- studio head Rich Ross is out. "The best people need to be in the right jobs, in roles they are passionate about, doing work that leverages the full range of their abilities," Ross said in a statement. "It's one of the leadership lessons I've learned during my career, and it's something I've been giving a great deal of thought to as I look at the challenges and opportunities ahead... I no longer believe the Chairman role is the right professional fit for me." [Deadline]
"[M]y history is dotted with shameful unfinisheds. The Great Gatsby? I put it down in eighth grade and haven’t picked it up again. Should I not be saying this? Will I be sent away somewhere awful? I often don’t finish books, even ones that I like." Pfffft, it's totally fine, Lena — that's why they're making another movie of it! Also: This reminds me, I should probably finish watching Tiny Furniture at some point. [NYT]
Yikes: "Meenakshi Thapar, 26, who had appeared in the Indian horror film 404 last year, met [...] two aspiring actors who allegedly later killed her on the set of her latest film, Heroine. [...] According to police, her ‘fellow actors’ warned her mother they would force her daughter to take part in pornography films if their demands were not met. Her mother paid 60,000 Rupees [$1,152] into her daughter’s account for her kidnappers to withdraw, but she was allegedly killed soon after. She was strangled to death, beheaded, and her body was dumped at two different sites as her killers made their way back to Mumbai. Her torso was dumped in a water tank and her head thrown out of the bus window in a bag on the road to Mumbai." [Telegraph via THR]
