Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[Gemini Cricket]

"Flushed Away"
I thought it was pretty good.
Worth a Netflix rent in the future...
Ian McKellan was fun and Jean Reno steals the show.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

The Prestige.

If I hadn't read the book, I might have loved the movie. Instead, I loved the book and thought the movie was pretty okay, coulda been better. Performances were stellar. And I liked some of the additions, changes. Overall, I'll stick with the read.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

So, I rented GOLD RUSH, since I haven't seen it.

I was pretty dissapointed in the whole DVD release. It wasn't the original version but one that was fixed up with sound, music and an overdub by Chaplin that was pretty cheesy. I would have much rather have seen the original version with the cards rather than having the naration. It very distracting.

I give this "version" 4 Bornieo's out of 10

[Snowflake]

This has been floating around for the last few years, but here it rears its ugly and totally unecessary head once again....UGH. So few things are perfect and I consider this film to be one of them.

Hopefully the newly revised and modernized script will be sufficient to remove it from the original screen adaptation. Of course , this has to get through all the production hoops first before it gets in front of the cameras.

HD Reporter



Picturehouse finds room for remake of 'Women'
By Gregg Goldstein

Nov 9, 2006
Picturehouse has acquired all North American rights to the long-gestating remake of "The Women" from writer-director Diane English, with Meg Ryan in talks to star.

Budgeted in the $18 million range, the project is slated to begin production in March in New York and Connecticut for release during next year's holiday season or spring 2008. The Jagged Films/Inferno Distribution feature will be produced by Jagged's Victoria Pearman and Mick Jagger, Inferno's Bill Johnson and English. Inferno's Jim Seibel is serving as an exec producer.

" 'The Women' is a very exciting project for our company," Jagger said. "It's a very funny and incisive script."

English described George Cukor's original 1939 film adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce's all-female comedy as "a poison pen letter to society women." She added, "My version is more of a love letter."

In the new version, Ryan, repped by CAA, would play a contemporary Martha Stewart-style TV personality who, as in the original, discovers that her husband is cheating on her. Picturehouse president Bob Berney said he plans to market the film as a broad comedy with a wide release, adding, "I laughed out loud reading this script."

Anne Hathaway, Lisa Kudrow and Candice Bergen are among the other actresses being mentioned.

The project has been in the works since 1995, when Ryan and Julia Roberts independently asked New Line Cinema about doing a remake. The studio hired English, creator of CBS' "Murphy Brown," to pen a new screenplay for the duo, but they then moved on to other projects.

Directors such as James Brooks and Oliver Parker also were involved at various points. "(New Line co-chairman and co-CEO) Bob Shaye finally suggested that I direct about three years ago, which I always secretly hoped he'd do," English said.

In January, English bought back the rights to her screenplay along with certain remake rights for a price in the low-seven figures. Pearman, Jagger and Johnson then officially came aboard. In moving to Picturehouse, the project remains within the New Line family as Picturehouse is jointly owned by New Line and HBO.

"I've spent the better part of a decade trying to convince Hollywood that an all-female cast is a good bet," English said. "The timing on this couldn't be better, and I'm thrilled that Bob Berney and Bill Johnson recognize that."

ICM is packaging and raising financing for the project. Inferno also has been financing the film through its hedge fund facility and sales of foreign rights at the recently wrapped AFM.

The deal was brokered by Sara Rose, Picturehouse' s senior vp acquisitions, and Carolyn Blackwood, executive vp business affairs and co-productions at New Line. ICM brokered the deal with Inferno on behalf of Jagged and English.

[Gemini Cricket]

Remake of 'The Women'? Nooooooooooooo!



Saw 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' last night. I liked it. I laughed a lot.

[innerSpaceman]

I'm pretty excited about next week's release of Casino Royale - which, by all accounts, successfully returns Bond to the early Fleming/Connery mold.

This week, however, I'm hung up on a different film Royale.




Anyone ever see the Japanese cult film Battle Royale? I finally got around to renting it this week, and now I can't seem to get it out of my mind.

The premise is weird enough, but you add in typical Nipponese sensibilities, and you have one bizarro bit of filmmaking.

A Japanese middle school class is kidnapped by a disgruntled former teacher and some quasi-military outfit to participate in a sadistic survival test on a deserted Pacific island.

The kids are all fitted with permanent metal collars, loaded with GPS locators, pulse monitors, microphones ... and an explosive devise. They are given a backpack with a map of the island, a flashlight, some bread and water, and a single, random weapon which could be anything from an AK-47 to an axe to a slingshot.

They have to kill each other off, leaving only one man standing, within three days - or all the collar-bombs will go off. They must keep moving - - every hour, one of the "zones" the island is divided up into is declared a Danger Zone ... and anyone located there will have their head explode.

Every four hours, there is an announcement over the Islandwide P.A. system listing the four upcoming Danger Zones and the identities of those killed in the preceding period.


In addition to the school kids, two other "ringers" are involved in the game - older boys, high school or college age - one of whom turns out to be a good guy who helps our heros, and the other a homocidal maniac.

The kids are released one-at-a-time to the wilds of the island, and from there it's a gory Lord of the Flies sociological experiment - - Japanese style.


Pathos, horror, humor, oddballness, and lots of blood - but done in a vaguely comical style. Why are the Nipponese so weird????

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

I'm pretty excited about next week's release of Casino Royale - which, by all accounts, successfully returns Bond to the early Fleming/Connery mold.

Count me in as well!
This is the first Bond film based on a Flemming novel in eons. Don't get me wrong, that awful mess from 1967, the spoof Casino Royale is one of my guilty pleasures. But, like iSm, I'm eagerly awaiting this new Bond film. Plus, it still has Judy Dench in it

[Alex]

Early word that I'm hearing on Casino Royale is that is a mess. The verdict is split from there on whether it is a fun mess or just a mess.

As for Battle Royale I don't see anything particularly Japanese in its weirdness. I think we have produced equally odd things in this country and others (Shaun of the Dead is more overtly comedic but I think touches on several similar nerves and combines styles similarly).

The socio-economic mileau which drives the movie's initial setup is uniquely Japanese, but it is a country that has gone through some significant cultural and economic upheavals over the last century, but beyond that I don't see much uniquely Japanese in its execution.

I tried to read the manga on which the movie is based but didn't care for the artwork and eventually drifted away.

[tracilicious]

Saw Lars Von Triers' Medea last week. Didn't really care for it. I loved Dancer in the Dark, but I just didn't feel connected to any of the characters in Medea. It was just a uniquely directed movie about crappy people doing crappy things to each other.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

Borat! LMFAO.

8 Bornieo's out of 10!