Tuesday, March 06, 2007

L.A. Confidential 2?

Until I read a rather confusing report about it this morning on my favorite froggie film site, Cinempire.com, I had no idea they were even considering a "L.A. Confidential 2."

A little reading of Joe Carnahan's blog has cleared things up a bit, but not much. Carnahan is at work on "White Jazz," the fourth installment in James Ellroy's L.A. true-crime saga. Though I had little time at all for Carnahan's "Smokin' Aces," he has George Clooney on board for this tale of police corruption, so I'm keeping my hopes up.

According to Carnahan, however, he was recently contacted about the beginning of work on a "L.A. Confidential 2" which would bring back director Curtis Hanson, screenwriter Brian Helgeland, and actors Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce. I don't know about you, but that just brings a smile to my face.

As it sits right now, Ellroy is in the Carnahan camp working on the screenplay for "White Jazz," and Helgeland would apparently come up with a script for "L.A. Confidential 2" that picks up where the first one left off.

I'm not sure how any of this will pan out, since the two movies would have to share some characters, but another "L.A. Confidential" from the original team is definitely news that gets my day off to a good start.


DVD pick of the week:

Though they've slowed down over the years, Matt Stone and Trey Parker haven't lost any of their satiric touch with "South Park." Today on DVD comes the 14 episodes from 2005's season nine.

As usual, they offer hardly any extras at all, but you do get great episodes like "Best Friends Forever," a truly tasteless take on the Terry Schiavo political scrum, and "Trapped in the Closet," which took on Tom Cruise and Scientology. I'll definitely be taking a detour on my way home to pick this up.

Runners up:

Borat: This would have made pick of the week, but just a few deleted scenes as the extras has me convinced a "special edition" is right around the corner. Hold onto your money for now.

Fast Food Nation: This one never played anywhere near my little corner of the world during its theatrical run, so I'll definitely be renting Richard Linklater's latest.

And that's about it as far as I can see. A pretty slow week for DVDs. Peace out.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to agree that "Fast Food Nation" is one of my picks for the week. Not a fantastic movie but certainly better that some of the craptacular stuff out there this week.

Reel Fanatic said...

I'm looking forward to it, Marina .. I read the book, and I can't really picture it being fictionalized, so I'll be curious if and how Linklater was able to pull it off

Unknown said...

Well I didn't hold off "Borat" and was pleasantly surprised that the film was much better than I thought it would be. I actually preferred the 30 minutes of deleted scenes to some included in the film, so thought it was good value. I don't think we'll ever see a commentary from Sacha Baron Cohen - he prefers to keep things close to his chest, so I'm not so sure there'll be a Special Edition.

Here in the UK it's been a good week for DVDs and I'm finding there aren't enough hours in the day. This week over here saw "The History Boys", "The Host" and "Down in the Valley" released on DVD. All highly enjoyable in my view.

Fritz said...

I'm eager to see how White Jazz aka L.A. Confidential 2 translates to the big screen. White Jazz is the fourth book in James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet series, which is a fantastic series. I've already read the first two books, The Black Dahlia (superb book, so-so movie) and The Big Nowhere, the latter of which prominently featured the larger-than-life character Dudley Smith, ably portrayed by James Cromwell in the film version of L.A. Confidential. I'm almost finished reading the book L.A. Confidential right now, and it's far more grand and epic than the movie was (with quite a lot of liberties taken in the film adaptation, I might add). If the book White Jazz is anything like its predecessors, then the film adaptation should be extraordinary . . . provided of course that it doesn't flounder like The Black Dahlia did.

Id it is said...

Since there was a lull on the DVD front, I checked out this 1951 movie, 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', and I was impressed. The movie is about a visitor from outer space to our world back then that was not as tech savy as it is now.

Reel Fanatic said...

Thanks for the heads up on Borat, Ian .. it does indeed sound like it's well worth a rental at least.

I have to admit I've only read "The Black Dahlia" in Ellroy's series, mc hamme, and I liked it so much that there was no way I could ever bring myself to see the movie ... I look forward to both what Carnahan can do with White Jazz and what Hanson and co. can do with their own new chapter

Eaglewing said...

I'm definately excited about a true sequel to LA Confidential. Can't wait for White Jazz as well, as I love those types of movies, but a LA Confidential 2 with the same director, writer, and actors would be great. Just so long as they come up with as good a story as the first one.

Haven't seen Smokin' Aces, though I want to (on DVD), but Carnahan's Narc was a great and gritty little crime film, so I hold out hope he can pull off a '50s police corruption saga. Clooney as the tough cop in a film noir could get interesting though...

Reel Fanatic said...

I'm definitely with you on Narc, Eaglewing ... just a great little police flick ...I pretty much detested Smokin Aces, but I would never tell anyone not to see it

Spidey/Tato said...

L.A confidential 2?
id like to see guy pearce on the screen again...since memento and count of monte cristo i havent sen anythin from him worth watchin...and the return of the ensemble

Reel Fanatic said...

I can't remember the last time I've seen him either, couch 'tato ... I'm sure he's worked since Memento, but I couldn't possibly tell you in what

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