Thinking of having a picnic or a bizarre and unexplained transmogrification this afternoon in LA? On his website, filmmaker David Lynch offers a daily weather report in Quicktime. (Via Incoming Signals.)
Category: Fanboy
Fall of the Mutants.
Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn is off X-3, citing the hectic production schedule. That’s too bad…I was looking forward to seeing what he did with the franchise.
Crazed and Lost >
Two links of note courtesy of other fine blogs: LinkMachineGo points the way to online scans of Dave Sim’s Cerebus notebooks, and Fresh Hell discovers Lost reconceived as an Infocom game. I only caught the first episode, but perhaps the mystery creature is a lurking grue…?
V for Vitiated?
As creator Alan Moore removes his name from the forthcoming V for Vendetta film, word leaks back that the Wachowskis’ shooting script substitutes Moore’s characters for Matrix 2/3-style ponderousness. Hmm. Well, perhaps they’ll tighten it up on set (and at least there’s still the possibility of Watchmen, if Paramount will get their act together.)
In the Company of Pagans.
AICN obtains the teaser poster for Neil LaBute’s update of The Wicker Man, starring Nicolas Cage in the Edward Woodward role. Still no word on who’s playing Christopher Lee’s Lord Summerisle.
Sith Sense.
“The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities, some considered to be…unnatural.” Along those lines, Darth Vader has an uncanny knack for reading minds (with the aid of the Burger Moff) in this decent online version of Twenty Questions. (Via Tessa.)
She, Robot-Maker.
“Watching the original ‘Star Wars’ movie as a mathematically inclined 11-year-old, Helen Greiner dreamed of someday creating a robot like the heroic R2-D2. After enduring plenty of lean years chasing that elusive vision as a co-founder of iRobot Corp., Greiner can now boast a product that whirs and chirps much like the character she to this day calls her ‘personal hero.’” The Globe profiles iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner, whose company boasts Roomba, Scooba, and the Packbot, a military minesweeper that, if Greiner has her druthers, won’t be breaking Asimov’s First Law anytime soon.
One More Crusade.
Moving a long-awaited project closer out of development hell, George Lucas approves the new Indy IV script. If Harrison Ford also approves, Indy IV could get a 2006 start, after Spielberg finishes both Vengeance, his Munich Olympics film with Eric Bana and Daniel Craig, and his Liam Neeson Lincoln biopic, based on a forthcoming book by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Whither Skull Island?
While doing some link maintenance over on the ancient casting call page — It’s clear the heyday of celebrity fan sites has passed, by the way — I was surprised to find this great shot of Kong in New York on the official Andy Serkis website. The big guy looks kinda lonely and homesick, eh? Update: Oops, never mind. This appears to be a fan-made wallpaper, and isn’t actually from the film.
On War, Violence, and other Grimm Matters.
In this weekend’s movie bin, yet another new look at Stephen Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and a higher quality version of the trailer for David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence that premiered at Cannes last week. And, further into the future, the one-sheet for Terry Gilliam’s return, The Brothers Grimm, makes it online. Along with Heath Ledger, Matt Damon, and the lovely Monica Bellucci, Grimm also includes Peter Stormare and Jonathan Pryce. Seeing Sam Lowry back in the Gilliam-verse should be worth the price of admission by itself.