Are we in a golden age of sci fi and fantasy?

Before I get started today, a hearty huzzah and thanks to the Macon Film Guild for screening Todd Haynes' maddeningly entertaining "I'm Not There" (and to Camp Bacon for guiding me to the balcony for a better seat after a flat tire forced me to arrive as the opening credits were already rolling.)

Though you could certainly complain that Haynes needs an editor (and a lot less Richard Gere), if you love Bob Dylan you'll find plenty to like in this seriously unconventional biopic, which hits DVD on May 6. Cate Blanchett once again deserves all the acclaim she garnered for this, and the scenes with Heath Ledger and Charlotte Gainsbourg have an intimacy and poignancy to them we very rarely get to see on screen nowadays. My favorite moment, though, comes near the end when Christian Bale performs delivers an impassioned performance of "Pressing On," one of Dylan's gospel tunes that I just love. Anyways, see this one as soon as you can.

But, moving on the question at the top of this post, on TV at least I'd say we soon will indeed be in a golden age of both science fiction and fantasy, and we've chiefly got "Battlestar Galactica" to thank for that. But what happens when "Battlestar" is over, a sad development that will come in only 18 episodes or so?

Well, thankfully, the creators of this gem are getting right back to work. Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor have taken the reins of "Virtuality," which is being developed for Fox first as a two-hour movie to premiere in February, with plans to spin it off as a series the following fall.

The movie follows 12 astronauts who are sent on a 10-year journey to find a distant solar system. The explorers pass the time by hooking up to advanced virtual reality modules to explore self-created worlds, but find someone has downloaded a computer bug into the system - and one of them may be the saboteur. Sounds more than a little too virtual for my tastes, but from this crew I'll definitely give it a chance, especially with Martin Campbell of "Casino Royale" in talks to direct the flick.

And it should be a bonanza for people looking for entertaining ways to waste time at work, too. As part of the plot, the space voyage is funded by a reality show that features the trip being streamed back to Earth, and that "reality show" will be produced as webisodes, featuring the same cast members.

NBC first passed on this, saying it was "too sci-fi" (what the frak!?!?), but thankfully Fox seems to have more sense. In fact, Fox, which has a long criminal record of killing high-concept shows way too early, is getting in to the sci-fi/fantasy in a pretty big way this fall, also bringing us Joss Whedon's return to TV with "Dollhouse" in October and then "Boldly Going Nowhere," a sci-fi comedy from the twisted "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" crew, probably coming next winter.

Add to all that good news that another of the "Battlestar" masterminds, David Eick, is developing a series for the Sci-Fi Channel from P.D. James' "Children of Men," and you've definitely got a great time for fans of good television. Now, if we could just sick the cylons on all this reality crap ...

And something cool for fantasy fans too

It seems like forever since there's been a fantasy serial on TV smart enough to make me tune in, but that may finally change this fall.

Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert have tapped John Shiban, who toiled for seven years as a writer/producer on "The X-Files," to run their upcoming syndicated series, "Wizard's First Rule." It's based on Terry Goodkind's novel which went on to be developed into the "Sword of Truth" series of books. To be honest, I don't really know a lick about the plot of this one, but Shiban promises it will be similar - in structure at least - to what we had with "X-Files."

"There's an overarching mythology to the series, but the job of Seeker allows (the lead character) to fight evil in self-contained episodes," he said.

Though this is headed to syndication this fall, it claims to have a presence in 84 percent of U.S. markets, so definitely stay tuned.

But what about movies?

OK, I now promise that my movie funk will end this Friday (or maybe Saturday.) I'm thoroughly convinced that "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" will be a suitably funny gateway to summer and away from the mediocrity we've had thus far. To get everyone ready, here's a pretty funny clip of our hero, Jason Segel, and Russell Brand. Enjoy, and have a pleasant enough Monday. Peace out.

Don't miss a golden Macon Film Guild opportunity this weekend

I will confess that I don't turn out for the Macon Film Guild's screenings nearly as often as I should, but there is absolutely no way I'll miss this weekend's Sunday flick.

Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There," his trippy, segmented tribute to Bob Dylan, was one of the movies I desperately wanted to see in 2007 but never had the opportunity to. I didn't want to make the sacrifice of watching it on my rather minuscule TV, so thankfully the Film Guild has come to the rescue.

In what should be a really popular offering, "I'm Not There" is being screened at 2, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Douglass Theatre in downtown Macon. As an added bonus, devoted Dylanophile Larry Schlesinger, also known as the Rabbi of Temple Beth Israel and a member of the Macon City Council, will lead a discussion following the 4:30 showing. (Being a habitual loner after movies, I confess I'll probably just go to the 2 p.m. showing and think about what I just saw on the ride home.)

Though much has been made of Cate Blanchett's Oscar-nominated turn as the mystery man himself, I'm most looking forward to seeing Marcus Carl Franklin, who opens the film as "Woody Guthrie" (a young black kid, of course), and to seeing the late Heath Ledger and Charlotte Gainsbourg, because I must confess I've just had a mad crush on Charlotte ever since "La Petite Voleuse."

However, rather than hear me talk anymore about a movie I haven't seen, here are snippets from three reviewers I really like, with links to the whole review if you wish to continue reading.

First up is the Washington Post's Ann Hornaday:

The resulting film, "I'm Not There," is a fascinating exercise that, if the viewer is willing to surrender to Haynes's sometimes hermetic meditations on Dylan's life, heartily rewards the investment. Often using real-life vignettes and Dylan's own quotations as his jumping-off point, Haynes has created an antidote to the "Behind the Music" chronology and one-dimensional caricatures that too often define musical biopics, delivering an absorbing, occasionally mind-bending disquisition on how Dylan has brilliantly eluded his audience's projections. You can read more here.

Next is Dana Stevens, who revealed her own mad crush on Cate Blanchett at Slate:

Cate Blanchett is Bob Dylan: Could there be a sexier above-the-title tagline? But Haynes' casting choice functions as far more than a clever stunt. The gender reversal introduces a strangeness that makes us look at both performers through new eyes. And though you soon forget that Blanchett is a woman—her channeling of the Don't Look Back-era Dylan is that uncanny—you never for a moment forget that she, like Jude Quinn, is a performer. Blanchett shares Dylan's knack for moving audiences deeply without disclosing much of herself, and her Jude is a magnetic cipher, seductive without being likable. When a British journalist (Bruce Greenwood), intent on exposing the self-invented singer as a fraud, questions him harshly in the back seat of a limo, you don't know whose side to take: Yes, the interviewer is a reductive prig, but Jude is a self-important asshole. Blanchett conveys all of this while still keeping you wrapped around her (or is it Jude's?) little finger. Before, I thought of Cate Blanchett as a beautiful and gifted actress. After this crush-inducing performance, I'm seriously considering flying to Australia to stalk her. Read more here.

And finally, a daily stop for me, the Onion AV Club:

The more Dylan you take into I'm Not There, the more you'll get out of it. And even for the devout, Haynes' daring and reference games don't always pay off. A sequence set to the square-checks-out-the-counterculture classic "Ballad Of A Thin Man" is way too on-the-nose, moments when Dylan lyrics turn up in the dialogue clang like failed jokes, and the film doesn't so much end as slowly fade out. But the missteps don't detract from the thrilling brilliance of the filmmaking (aided by the remarkable cinematographer Ed Lachman), or dim the sense that Haynes was right in deciding that the fractions of the man would add up to more than the man himself.
A.V. Club Rating: B+ Read more here.

Well, not quite finally, because the naysayers should have their say too. Rex Reed sure must have been in a sour mood when he wrote this screed about the 2007 New York Film Festival. While I unfortunately agree with him about Wes Anderson's "Darjeeling Limited," I really liked Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding." Here's what Reed had to say about "I'm Not There" to finish off his New York Observer rant:

I cannot believe this is the Todd Haynes who topped my ten-best list in 2002 with the magnificent, unforgettable Far From Heaven. Headed for the No. 1 spot on my ten-worst list, I’m Not There is a tumultuous disappointment. Chopped and shredded into shards of avant-garde impressionism, the film is without a thread of narrative coherence. It’s a 135-minute Cobb salad, what I call jerk-off filmmaking. It desperately needs cutting, and they should use a hatchet.

Well, I guess everyone's welcome to their opinion, and in Reed's defense his piece is pretty friggin' funny. However, I'm almost certain he's wrong about "I'm Not There," so I hope to see a lot of you Maconites at the Douglass on Sunday.

In closing, rather than simply a clip from the flick, here's a fairly funny one of Rainn Wilson "auditioning" for director Todd Haynes as a bit for the most recent Spirit Awards show. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Where do you go after you're "Superbad"?

I was gonna start today by discussing Todd McFarlane's plan to piss all over "The Wizard of Oz," but I just can't bring myself to do it. Some people would name "Casablanca" and "The Birds" as the most untouchable flicks of all time, and I certainly wouldn't stop them from making that argument, but to me there's just no movie that combined amazing storytelling with virtuoso filmmaking better than "The Wizard of Oz."

OK, maybe a few words about it, but then I promise I'll quickly move on. McFarlane and Josh Olson, writer of the "History of Violence" graphic novel, are promising a "revisionist" vision, but McFarlane's quote on the subject reveals this is all really happening because he can't be bothered to come up with any more original ideas himself.

"My pitch was ‘How do we get people who went to ‘Lord of the Rings’ to embrace this?’ " McFarlane said. "I want to create (an interpretation) that has a 2007 wow factor. You’ve still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she’s much closer to the Ripley from ‘Alien’ than a helpless singing girl."

Bleah, bleah and more bleah. Enough of that. I'd much rather talk about what Greg Mottola will do now that he's crafted and unleashed the funniest movie of 2007 with "Superbad."

If you polled 100 people leaving the movie theater after a screening of "Superbad," more than half of them would guess it was directed by Judd Apatow, and the rest would probably just give you a blank stare. But, of course, it was Mr. Mottola who was responsible for this, and before it the underrated little "Daytrippers" flick and solid TV work with "Undeclared" and then "Arrested Development."

I'd love to see some of these very talented people in the Apatow camp return to TV and give us something even half as great as "Freaks and Geeks," but they're probably too recently burned by the experience to go back to it. Instead, Mottola is quickly getting back to work on movies, this time with a script he penned himself.

Giving credit where it's due, this report comes directly from the almost-always-reliable JoBlo site. According to those fine folks, Mottola's next flick will be called "Adventureland" and will be a semiautobiographical tale set in the '80s about a college grad who, as he's about to set off on a European adventure, finds himself stuck at home in Long Island because his father gets laid off. Forced to support himself, he gets a job at the local amusement park Adventureland, where comedic hijinx will surely follow.

The slightly sordid world of amusement parks should be ripe territory for fun, and Mottola also wrote the script for "Daytrippers," so I'm hoping he comes up with a winner here to keep us laughing again next summer.


Greenaway's grand vision of Rembrandt

My favorite Froggy film site, Cinempire.com, has a slew of photos up from Peter Greenaway's upcoming "Nightwatching," which starts with the creation of Rembrandt's painting "The Night Watch" to tell the story of his often turbulent private life.

Even when they're deeply flawed, Greenaway's flicks are always a visual feast, and as these photos show, this one should be no different. Martin Freeman of the UK "The Office" fame plays Rembrandt, and even if this movie is far too wild to ever turn up in my little corner of the world on the big screen, the photos can take your mind off of Wednesday for a few minutes. Click here to peruse them all and enjoy.

Two doses of trailer fun

The first is just a tease of the movie I'd have to say I'm most excited about for the fall, Todd Haynes' Dylan flick "I'm Not There." Though it doesn't show much, I like the style of it and am definitely ready for more.



Next up comes the more substantial trailer for Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream." Though much of the world has dismissed him as the aging pervert he often seems to be, Mr. Allen has been on a real winning streak of late. "Match Point" was easily one of my favorite movies of 2005, and though it was lighter than air, "Scoop" was a lot of fun.

"Cassandra's Dream," starring Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor and Tom Wilkinson, is definitely on the darker side. It's set to come out in October, and I'm hoping it has enough star power to make out here to the hinterlands. Anyways, enjoy the trailer. Peace out.