Ok, a lot some of this is old, old news. We were gone for awhile and let’s face it, lots of little news passed us by. Here’s what we tracked in brief (and the Xzibit news is spankin’ new).
Xzibit Joins Stones “Pinkville”
Looks like all that “Pimp My Ride” work paid off. Oliver Stone’s going back to Vietman for a drama about the 1968 My Lai Massacre, in which more than 500 people — mostly women, children and the elderly — were killed by U.S. soldiers. Xzibit joins Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum and Woody Harrelson.[Hollywood Reporter]
New Terrance Malick Film Scores Sean Penn and Heath Ledger
Recluse auteur Malick’s (“Days of Heaven,” The Thin Red Line”) long-gestating “Tree of Life” was once set to star with “The New World” star Colin Farrell, but that kid is no longer in the picture. Filming is supposed to start in March. [Hollywood Reporter]
Hostel Douchebag Director Was Inspired By Dead Kennedys
Eli Roth, the date rape olympian behind Oscar-winning torture porn films says he was given a lot of early inspiration by punk rock and namely, the Dead Kennedys. “I listen to punk rock all the time,” he says. “Growing up, I was really into Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Sex Pistols and the Misfits ’cause that stuff broke all the rules.” I bet he believes he breaks all those rules too. Roth says he sees a strong correlation between punk rock and horror and says he’d love to hire Henry Rollins in one of his films one day. Congratulations.[Spinner]
The Swedes Think Wes Anderson Is A Genius (What Would Bergman Think?)
Wes Anderson will be awarded the Stockholm film festival’s Visionary Award for his humane and humorous portrayals of lonely people. Anderson’s offbeat comedies have created “unique and stylized universes inhabited by characters searching for something to search for,” the prize citation said. “Through his visionary filmmaking, Anderson has given a modern face to the classic auteur,” organizers added. The award will be presented during the Nov. 15-25 Stockholm Film Festival. [Associated Press]
“Saw IV” Blood Drive Not Totally Useless
The only good thing the Saw franchise ever did for humanity and filmgoers was putting on a blood drive. This publicity stunt paid off, this movie has made a shit-ton of money this year, over $58 million so far. [Yahoo]
Matt Dillon Will Get The Blues
What does one follow “You Me and Dupree” with? How about playing a blues legend. Dillon is is final negotiations to play Leonard Chess, the legendary founder of the South Side Chicago blues label Chess Records, in Sony/BMG Film’s “Cadillac Records.” [Hollywood Reporter]
Kubrick DVDs Not Perfect, Kinda Flawed
After years of shitty editions, Stanley Kubrick’s ouevre, or some of it anyhow (5 classics including “2001: A Space Odyssey”), is back on DVD in a sorta-kinda deluxe version. The problem is Kubrick figured most of films would eventually only be shown, and therefore ruined on TV, so he shot them in the aspect ratio of TV [probably one of the biggest blunders and auteur miscalculations in the history of cinema]. So some Kubrick films you will never seen in a widescreen format [major, major shame]. What Kubrick failed to anticipate before his 1999 death was the transition to HDTV—on a modern rectangular TV, the original squarish video transfers of The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut would fill only the center of the frame, flanked by black bars. Owners of recently manufactured TVs don’t mind watching 1940s classics that way, but the knowledge that Kubrick’s later works had been projected widescreen in U.S. theaters frustrated some movie buffs. [Time OutNY]
‘Darjeeling’ Mysteries Revealed
Ok, remember when we ourselves said that the ‘Darjeeling’ brothers must have been named after the family members of the film’s three writers (Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman)? Well, we were mostly right. Owen Wilson’s character Francis Whitman was named after Roman’s father Francis Ford Coppola, Schwartzman’s character was named after his father Jack. And as for Adrien Brody’s character Peter, the family member we were unsure of (and that seemed to have no paternal relations to Anderson)? Turns out Wes named the character after erudite cineaste Peter Bogdanovich (what self-respecting nu-auteur doesn’t love this ascot wearing egghead?) [USA Today]
