Actually, before we get into any of that, there's great news out there today for fans of "Mad Men," and given what all's been happening in the past few weeks, we certainly need some.
In the latest small step in its plan for world domination, it seems that Netflix has paid almost $1 million per episode to begin streaming the first four seasons of "Mad Men" beginning July 27. Yeah, I'll watch that. Even better, the site has also scooped up the syndication rights for the next three upcoming seasons too, taking us to the planned end of Matthew Weiner's run for the show. Bully.
And after that tidbit today, I've got a quartet of clips, starting with, if not the best, certainly the funniest one. A warning, however: everything you need to know about this clip is in its title: "Danny McBride & David Gordon Green talk monster balls." It's even more foul than that, thankfully (in fact, I wouldn't just watch this with headphones at work - it's visually raunchy too, so be careful). Actually, this is the first great movie weekend of the year. Since I'm going to see the Braves and Phillies on Sunday, I'm gonna try and squeeze in a double feature of "Hanna" and either "Arthur" or "Your Highness" on Saturday, leaving the left out one and "Soul Surfer" for next weekend. Four movies I want to see in one weekend? Nirvana. Enjoy the clip.
Next up comes a TV spot for J.J. Abrams' "Super 8," set to drop June 10. Few movies in recent memory have managed to change my opinion so much with its preview clips. I've gone from not much interested at all to wanting to see this, mostly because of the kids making movies angle, so here's hoping it doesn't disappoint. Enjoy.
HBO has been on more than a bit of a roll lately. I haven't watched "Mildred Pierce" yet, but simply because I'm saving all five episodes to watch all at once. I did, however, watch that Douglass McGrath documentary about Jerry Weintraub that aired Monday night, "His Way," and that was a minor delight. And better than all that, "Game of Thrones," with at least the pilot directed by the great Thomas McCarthy, is finally set to begin April 17 (on a Sunday, naturally.) If, like me, you really can't wait that long, however, you can watch the first 14 minutes or so below. You're welcome.
And finally today, definitely saving the silliest for last, I sincerely hope that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stan Lee know just how funny this is, because it really does look like the height of cheese. Below is the full trailer for their "The Governator," coming to some kind of TV in 2012, apparently. "Enjoy," and have a perfectly endurable Wednesday. Peace out.
I didn't bother to see "Mars Needs Moms," not because the idea of martians kidnapping and killing little kids' moms offended me, but just because I found something better to do (spend the weekend with mi hermano for a couple of epicly good Baseball Project shows.)
It seems, however, that that simple act of ignoring may have been my little part (and probably yours, since I don't think anyone went to see that) in stopping something much more insidious.
Robert Zemeckis, a producer of "Mars Needs Moms," had been plotting a digital remake of "Yellow Submarine," I guess just because he has the technological skills to do such a thing and, well, maybe he's just bored. Well, luckily, it seems the complete failure of "Mars Needs Moms" has led Disney to put the kibosh on that before it really got off the ground. Bully to that.
Another remake that is almost finished has apparently had a late and rather funny change of villainy in hopes of expanding its box office take.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that MGM is changing the villains in "Red Dawn" from Chinese to North Korean in order to keep its access to the humongous Chinese box office. Take a second to let it sink in just how funny that is. The studio is apparently, though not terribly surprisingly, still looking for a distributor for the movie starring Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Connor Cruise and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Per the L.A. Times, the changes will cost less than $1 million and will "involve changing an opening sequence summarizing the story's fictional backdrop, re-editing two scenes and using digital technology to transform many Chinese symbols to Korean." Priceless. Actually, I think that might be enough to get me to at least watch this on DVD to see how many accidental Chinese symbols remain.
And in a final word about remakes before a couple of fun videos, it seems that Netflix is making a "bold" movie into "original" programming by paying $100 million or so for David Fincher and Kevin Spacey's remake of the sublime UK TV series "House of Cards." Quotations added by me and fully intended to be facetious.
To acquire the show, which I assume it will then lease to a TV network, Netflix has agreed upfront to a two season, 26 episode commitment, but I really can't see how in the world this is going to catch on.
If you've never seen the original, it stars the late and truly great Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart, aka F.U., an enterprising Conservative politician who rises through the British Parliament from chief whip all the way to prime minister through increasingly and comically evil means. I just don't see how Spacey or anyone else will be able to pull off his unique brand of malevolence as its translated across the pond.
But only a sucker would bet against Netflix, which now has a rather amazing 61 percent of the streaming content on the Internet (and I must say I've been thoroughly enjoying its all six seasons of "The Larry Sanders Show" - TV perfection.) Stay tuned to find out if this turns out as well as just about everything else Netflix has laid its hands on.
OK, after all that today, all I have is a couple of videos. First up comes the comedy duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost taking a break from the set of "Paul" to do a fairly funny "Star Wars" send-up for the folks at College Humor. All the early reviews I've seen so far "Paul" indicate that Greg Mottola's movie will deliver broad sci-fi laughs when it his theaters Friday, so I'm certainly in. Enjoy the video, then stick around for one more.
Finally today, courtesy of Yahoo, here are the first five minutes of "Source Code," director Duncan Jones' follow-up to his sci-fi gem "Moon," which is set to hit theaters April 1. I suppose if you don't know what exactly Jake Gyllenhaal's character is supposed to stop in this flick, the end of this clip is a bit of a spoiler, but since it happens in the first five minutes, I really don't think it can be much of one. I've decided I'll be going to see this flick, which also stars Michelle Monaghan. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly endurable Wednesday. Peace out.
You know, no matter how hard it gets to do so, I still do try, even as a now certified middle-age curmudgeon, to look for the good things in life, so let's start there before I unleash what I'll warn you now will be a well-boiled pot of bile.
I, like I assume all subscribers, got an e-mail yesterday from Netflix, and as far as that goes at least, I'm now streaming only, for just $7.99 a month, and that's just fine with me. If there's a new release, I guess I'll just Red Box or maybe even buy it, and that's gonna have to do, because having all the TV and increasing movie content to stream directly to my TV was just too much to resist (and was, of course, Netflix's rather ingenious plan all along).
One thing I will, however, spring for on beautiful blu-ray are the movies of Hayao Miyazaki, and beginning in March with "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind," Disney will hopefully be bringing all the Studio Ghibli titles to the format. I'm sure that I will at least buy my two favorites, "Porco Rosso" and "Kiki's Delivery Service," as soon as I get the chance, and maybe more too.
When I first bought my blu-ray player (and only after my DVD player finally died - yes, I fear all change), Movie Mom Nell Minow suggested I buy a Pixar movie, because animation in particular just looks amazing on blu-ray. For me, that meant "Ratatouille," of course, and she was right, so I can't wait to see how great Miyazaki's best works will look.
And to keep the good vibes going before the "Buffy" bile, there are few subgenres of movies I love more than boxing flicks, and it seems a potentially great one is now in the works. Gael Garcia Bernal of "Y Tu Mama Tambien" fame has signed on to play boxer Roberto Duran in a flick called "Hands of Stone," and Al Pacino is "circling" the role of his trainer, Ray Arecel.
Even though that surely means Pacino will spend the entire movie yelling at him, that should still be rather amazing to watch. Someone named Jonathan Jakubowicz will write and direct the flick, which will apparently focus on the "No Mas" fight, in which, after getting rather soundly battered by Sugar Ray Leonard, Duran simply uttered those words and walked out of the ring forever. Bring it on!
OK, enough of the good vibes until today's video clips, because there's evil afoot that must be stamped out immediately. I first heard of a possible "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" "reboot" (whatever the hell that means) a few years ago, and was hoping that, since it dropped off the radar for a while, that simply wretched idea was dead.
No way. Unable to resist an obviously "Twilight"-inspired cash grab, Warner Brothers has apparently now hired an actress named Whit Anderson (whose three-movie resume contained nothing I've ever seen) to write a "Buffy" movie.
If you were a fan of the TV show, just let that craptastic idea settle in for a moment before I explain how it only gets worse from here. Charles Roven, who is producing this monstrosity, had this to say in a press release:
“While this is not your high-school Buffy, she’ll be just as witty, tough and sexy as we all remember her to be.”
So, Buffy won't be in high school. Since I'll never see this, fair enough. But just in case you ever happen to, know this: There also won't be any of the characters we all loved from the series. That means no Giles, Willow, Xander, Spike, Angel, Oz, Cordelia, Anya or even Dawn (always the weakest link to me.)
And, of course, there won't be any Joss Whedon, who created the show in the first place. So, if he's not involved, who is the real villain here? Well, it's apparently co-"creators" Fran and Kaz Kuzui, who had a big role in the fairly funny movie that preceded the TV show, and have held on to the rights all these years. Fran Kuzui directed the original "Buffy" movie, but beyond their "executive producers" credit, the duo had nothing at all to do with the TV show.
Whedon, for his part, has moved on to bigger (but not necessarily better) things with his "Avengers" movie, so I can certainly understand his fairly measured response to this when he was contacted by Kristin Dos Santos of E! Here's what he had to say:
Kristin, I'm glad you asked for my thoughts on the announcement of Buffy the cinema film. This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths - just because they can't think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself.
Obviously I have strong, mixed emotions about something like this. My first reaction upon hearing who was writing it was, "Whit Stillman AND Wes Anderson? This is gonna be the most sardonically adorable movie EVER." Apparently I was misinformed. Then I thought, "I'll make a mint! This is worth more than all my Toy Story residuals combined!" Apparently I am seldom informed of anything. And possibly a little slow. But seriously, are vampires even popular any more?
I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don't love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I'm also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly. I can't wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill. I can, however, take this time to announce that I'm making a Batman movie. Because there's a franchise that truly needs updating. So look for The Dark Knight Rises Way Earlier Than That Other One And Also More Cheaply And In Toronto, rebooting into a theater near you.
Leave me to my pain! Sincerely, Joss Whedon.
Not terribly surprisingly, very witty stuff, and certainly much funnier than anything that will spring from this abominable endeavour. I will, out of morbid curiosity if nothing else, dutifully report who gets the "honor" of playing the new Buffy once this all comes together, but for now, let's just move on, because life is indeed too short for so much bitterness.
OK, now for much better stuff, on to a couple of videos full of nothing but good vibes. I'm hoping that the presence of Natalie Portman will be enough to elevate Darren Aronofsky's sure-to-be-epicly-twisted ballerina tale "Black Swan" to a release wide enough to reach my little corner of the world when it finally comes out Dec. 3. In the meantime, there's this music video containing clips from the film, which also stars Mila Kunis. Enjoy.
And even better than that, for something which much more poetically expresses my exact reaction when I first saw all that "Buffy" crap, why not four minutes of something that needs no further explanation than its title, "Nicolas Cage Loses His Shit"? I'll only say that, while this proves exactly why Cage, while never quite a master thespian, is still often very fun to watch, please watch this with headphones if you're at work, because it is indeed just as profane as you could possible imagine. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.
Before we get into any of that, a bit of bad business for people like me who have become at least partly addicted to those Redbox machines at your local grocery stores.
Since I have a Netflix account, I should surely just be satisfied with that, but far too often I get to the weekend with no new movies in hand and have to give into the Redbox siren. Well, and I guess we shouldn't surprised, knowing that they have us (or at least me) in their grasp, the folks behind this enterprise are at least testing a rate rise.
There's no word on when or if this might go national, but Redbox is now testing out raises (from $1.00) to $1.50 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, $1.25 in Modesto, Calif., and $1.15 in Spokane, Wash., and Miami/West Palm Beach, Fla. Nothing but sinister news there ... stay tuned.
OK, as promised today, it's all about good, bad and simply crazy news about what I at least consider comedy, so here goes.
Let's start, of course, with the crazy. It seems that although "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" did fairly well in its midnight run (only smashing all possible records with $30 million or so), certain young viewers did object to what came before it.
Though its merely a teaser trailer and by all accounts not terribly creepy at all, Cinemark theaters in Texas have pulled the "Paranormal Activity 2" trailer because viewers who were simply there to enjoy some Team Edward vs. Team Jacob action found it to be too scary.
Now, having been scarred for life by "The Blair Witch Project," I made a vow to never watch any more "found footage" horror movies, and therefore haven't seen the first "Paranormal Activity," but just the thought that 30 or so shadowy seconds from the sequel's trailer would be too much for "Twilight" viewers to take is nothing but funny to me.
OK, now on to the good, and if you're a fan of Pee Wee Herman (and if you're not, why not?), I should really say great. It seems that Paul Reubens has come up with a script for a new Pee Wee Herman movie, and has somehow managed to hook Judd Apatow to produce it, meaning this will probably really happen, and fairly fast.
All that's known so far about the plot for this, which is already booked at Universal, is that it will have Pee Wee going on some kind of road trip. No word yet on who would direct this (though I can't imagine it could possibly be Tim Burton), but I'd probably be happy watching Pee Wee simply eat a bowl of Cheerios, so bring it on!
And in a bit of tangential good comedy news, it seems that IFC (which I unfortunately don't get on my cable) has picked up the rights to what are still Apatow's two best creations, the single-season TV shows "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared." The only surprise in that news for me was that it's taken so long for this to happen, since "Freaks" is without exaggeration simply one of the best TV shows ever made (and certainly the best one-season-only show), and "Undeclared" is in its own way almost as good.
"Freaks and Geeks" will premiere on IFC this Friday at 11 p.m., and then run there weekly, with encore airings Mondays at the same time. "Undeclared" will follow sometime this fall, and in the best news of all of this, there will be an episode that never managed to make it to the air before the show was canceled after only 17 episodes. If you've somehow never seen either of these and get IFC, just trust me and tune in.
And I guess the comedy troika today wouldn't be complete without the bad (if inevitable), so here goes: Starz has canceled the seriously funny "Party Down" after only two seasons. The show about wannabe actors who work at a catering company was created by "Veronica Mars" mastermind Rob Thomas and Paul Rudd, and has starred (before many of them moved on to shows watched by many more people) Jane Lynch, Adam Scott, Lizzy Caplan and even "Freaks and Geeks" vet and veryfunnyguy Martin Starr.
I've been enjoying the second season on Netflix, but once I finally get around to the finale, probably this weekend, I guess I'll join a fairly select group. It seems that only 74,000 people tuned in for the finale when it aired on Starz, giving the show a rather unsensational 0.0 rating (ouch). R.I.P., "Party Down."
But enough of that bad news. The only other thing I have today, before a welcome sneak peek at episode three of the new run of "Futurama," is two intriguing bits of casting news.
Going back to his movie roots in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," Sean Penn is in negotiations to produce, and I'd have to assume star in, a biopic about surfing icon Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz and his family.
And in a sure bit of Oscar bait, Meryl Streep is eyeing the lead role in "Thatcher," which would of course be a biopic about the former British Prime Minister. In another bit of good casting news for this potential flick, Jim Broadbent is likely to play Thatcher's husband, Denis, who I would have to assume spent plenty of time simply saying "yes, dear."
The movie would center on the 17 days in 1982 leading up the Falklands War. As soon as this all comes together, I suppose we should just go ahead and give her the little statue in advance.
And where better to end today than with a clip from the third new episode of "Futurama," coming to Comedy Central Thursday at 10 p.m. Although the first episode last week was much funnier than the second, they both were imbued with that familiar and fun "Futurama" spirit, so I'm looking forward to the whole new season. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.
The rumored day that Hulu goes to pay-per-view is almost here as the TV-online service is previewing its subscription service - Hulu Plus - and for so many reasons it's pretty much predestined to fail.
Before I get into why, here are the specs. Hulu Plus will offer content not available on the free site, including full current seasons of certain shows, plus all the past seasons of shows like "Glee" and "House" (those were the two most often mentioned in the write up I saw, so I suppose Fox is full in here.)
OK, fair enough, but does anyone else see the huge problem here? If you subscribe to Netflix, as I do, you probably well know that, for the same $9.99 price tag (I think - it may have gone up without me noticing), you can get not only the two or three movies at a time mailed to your house, but also a seemingly always-increasing library of TV shows you can watch on your computer (sound familiar?).
Even better than that is that, in perusing the offerings in the latter category, they certainly seem tailor-made to my tastes. I've recently enjoyed past seasons of "30 Rock," "The Office," "Friday Night Lights" and even somehow "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" too. Perhaps best of all, they have the current season of "Party Down" for all of you who don't get Starz, and even without Jane Lynch, that show is almost as wickedly funny as it was in season one.
So, if you can get Netflix's movie library (supplemented very well by the documentary offerings of Docurama) plus its TV on DVD content via computer content, why in the world would you pay the same price for simply the TV offerings, and surely not as much content at that?
The only thing that stood out in the Hulu press release is that you can stream content to your cell phone. Wow. Now if I ever a) feel the need to buy a cell phone or b) want to watch TV on a screen so small it will make my eyes bleed, I know where to go.
OK, enough of that. There has to be some actual good movie news out there today, right? Yes, and it starts with Martin Scorsese's adaptation of one of my favorite books by Brian Selznick, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret."
As production starts this week on that December 2011 flick, it's just been announced that Jude Law and Reel Fanatic fave Ray Winstone have joined an impressive cast that already included Sacha Baron Cohen, Sir Ben Kingsley, Hit-Girl Chloe Moretz and Asa Butterfield (who had the misfortune of starring in the simply dreadful "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" - meh.)
The story itself is about an orphaned boy (Butterfield) who's living in the walls of a Paris train station, where an encounter with a broken-down machine leads him into the world of silent filmmaker George Méliès (Kingsley) and his automatons. Baron Cohen will play the station inspector and Moretz the young female lead, but nothing is known yet about the roles Law or Winstone play.
Even if this is being filmed in 3-D (why in the world?), it's still easily one the movies I'm most looking forward to for 2011.
And in one more bit of news before we get into the videos which, yes, feature a rant from John Cleese, there's a music biopic in the works that has caught my eye.
How do you spark interest in this fairly tired genre? Well casting a great actress or actor to play an interesting subject is certainly the best way. Casting Chiwetel Ejiofor to play Fela Kuti (which has so far only happened in my overactive imagination) would certainly be one way, as would casting Peter Sarsgaard to play bluegrass legend Bill Monroe, which has actually just happened in the real world.
I really can't see the kids en masse getting into bluegrass, but Sarsgaard is easily one of my favorite actors (witness his truly skeevy performance in "An Education" for the most reason example of why), and this aging dude digs that high and lonesome sound, so count me as intrigued by this.
OK, since there's no World Cup futbol until Friday morning, how better to fill the void than this classic rant from John Cleese about the differences between futbol and American football? I love the latter far too much, and unlike Cleese find it to be plenty full of creativity, but there's no denying that this clip, which I found in the latest Roger Ebert Club newsletter, brings the funny. Enjoy.
Until I found out otherwise yesterday, I just assumed that no one would dare open opposite "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," but it seems that one M. Night Shyamalan is brave and foolish enough to enter that fight with "The Last Airbender." And, I have to say, even though M. Night has now delivered more stinkers than winners, he'll still be getting my movie money (in 2-D) this weekend, partly because I love the Nickelodeon "Avatar: The Last Airbender" series it's at least loosely based on, and just out of sheer curiosity. To get ready for it, enjoy this clip of the Slumdog Millionaire engaging in a battle of the elements with some young lady whose name I don't know.
And finally, in what might be - even with John Cleese included - a case of saving the best for last, here are the first five minutes of "The Disappearance of Alice Creed," a crime drama set to drop in at least some American cities in early August. As you'll see from the clip below, it stars Reel Fanatic fave Eddie Marsan as one of two ex-cons who plot to kidnap the daughter of a rich businessman. This could easily devolve into your average torture porn, especially with the rather beguiling Gemma Arterton playing the victim, but judging from the methodical nature of the beginning (I can't do anything about the script at the bottom - sorry), I think director J. Blakeson is up to a lot more than that here. Enjoy, and have a perfectly endurable Wednesday. Peace out.
When I was very young, my father brought home a little movie called "Spinal Tap," and I have never been the same since. Along with being a movie junkie and a devoted fan of the hapless Baltimore Orioles, I have recently returned to the town I grew up in, Salisbury, MD., to work for The Daily Times newspaper.
