Whoo boy, it’s become an incredibly boring Friday afternoon in terms of any interesting film news. Time for a short-cuts like piece to cap off the end of the day.
Julie Taymor is calling her “Spider-Man” musical (which will feature music by U2’s Bono and the Edge) a “circus rock-‘n’-roll drama.” The villains in the musical will be Green Goblin, Carnage, Electro, Rhino, Swarm, Lizard and an invented character named Swiss Miss. Uh… ok. Apparently actor-singer Reeves Carney, who plays in Johnny Lang’s band, is “the leading contender” to play Broadway’s Peter Parker. [Vulture/NYPost]
According to the always specious Contact Music (i.e., don’t always believe what you read), “Two Lovers,” director James Gray was kinda pissed at Joaquin Phoenix for his inept performance on David Letterman in February and failing to promote the little indie film (which was actually pretty good and could have used the help. [Contact Music]
A teasers and two posters for Bong Joon Ho’s upcoming film, “Mother.” [Twitch]
A. O. Scott (the New York Times) and Richard Brody (the New Yorker) got into a spat over Ramin Bahrani’s indie film, “Goodbye Solo” (Scott loved it and effu’d; Brody scoffed at his gushing; Scott slapped back) proving even grown men who write for venerable print outlets can be as childish and idiotic as regular bloggers. [Spout]
From a subway drama to a train drama, Tony Scott like’s being on some kind of tracks apparently. He’s currently wrapping up a remake of “The Taking of Pelham 123,” and is now taking on an “action train drama” for Twentieth Century Fox called “Unstoppable.”We’ll admit the trailer for ‘Pelham’ looks much better on the big screen and it was thankfully, mostly free of Scott’s obnoxious stylistic tics, but we remain skeptical until he digs himself out of director jail and he’s been in deep these last few years. [THR]
Jon Favreau has been posting pictures of Sam Rockwell in character from “Iron Man 2.” It amounts to slicked back hair, a cardigan sweater (presumably not part of the ensemble) and dark glasses. [MTV] TMZ has images of Mickey Rourke sporting a new weavy-‘do for the villain he plays, reportedly a mix of the characters Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo.
Screenwriter turned director William Monahan (“The Departed,” 20 million other upcoming projects) has written the script for “The Essex,” and is in talks to direct. It’s a historical ship drama chronicling sea battles against the British during the War of 1812. [Variety]
“500 Days Of Summer” will open North Carolina’s 11th Annual The RiverRun International Film Festival. [IndieWire]
To the four people that care. We saw the Michael Mann “Public Enemies” trailer on the big screen last weekend when we went to see “Duplicity,” and yes, while we were initially disappointed by the decision to shoot digi for a 1930s period piece, it looks way less grainy and like shit on the big screen. Dare we say it look pretty good.
A different kind of Enemy. Evidently there’s a new graphic novel based on the seminal hip-hop group Public Enemy. Apparently there’s interest in Hollywood. It comes from anonymous tipsters so take with a grain of salt. [MTV]
This might be the worst “exclusive” we’ve seen in weeks. We feel weird even linking to it.
Ridley Scott says James Cameron’s “Avatar” and the technological headway he has made, has inspired him to make “Forever War” in 3D. We’ll admit with a title like “Forever War,” we barely know what that project is and it’s probably like “Kingdom of Heaven”– i.e., the semi-rare Ridely Scott project we don’t really care for. [FirstShowing]