So what exactly was Sean Penn doing at Coachella this weekend? Shilling the virtues of “Dirty Hands Caravan,” a biodiesel cross-country bus trip he plans to today, arriving in New Orleans on May 4 (like we thought). The government can’t do it,” Penn said about the environment. “They can’t save this thing.” According to the AP his his “pleas were received with some applause but little enthusiasm.” [Associated Press]
While they won’t appear at Cannes 2008, the Coen Brothers’ next film, the CIA comedy “Burn After Reading,” starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand will open the 65th Annual Venice Film Festival on August 27 (the festival runs until September 6). [Reuters]
Did Heath Ledger once diss Phillip Seymour Hoffman about winning an Oscar? A New York Times book review article seems to think so, New York Magazine’s blog remains highly skeptical. [Vulture]
Jason Bateman will star in Mike Judge’s next directorial feature-length comedy, “Extract.” Also written by Judge, the film will see a return to an “Office Space”-like setting and evidently explores what it’s like to be the boss when everything seems to be shifting around you. Some are already hoping that Miramax treats the film better than 20th Century Fox treated “Idiocracy” (they gave it a straight to Video/DVD release), but we’ll remind everyone that outside an amusing premise and a funny first fifteen minutes, that movie kind of sucked, irony-loving cult audience be damned. [Variety]
Angelo Badalamenti (longtime David Lynch composer) and Dario Marianelli (winner of a 2008 Oscar for Best Score with “Atonement”) will be guests of honor at the World Soundtrack Awards which will close out the Ghent Film Festival on Oct. 18. Badalamenti will come with Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Siouxsie Sioux and Beth Rowley, both of whom will perform songs from “The Edge of Love,” the forthcoming biopic on Dylan Thomas by John Maybury. [Variety]
Watch: Sean Penn At Coachella