Treebeard! Gollum! Balrog! Oliphaunt! Wargs! The Two Towers trailer has arrived, and it looks absolutely amazing…It’s a thing of beauty, and the Requiem for a Dream theme fits nicely too. I’m not sure how I feel yet about what PJ’s doing with Elrond (And where are he and Aragorn having this discussion?), but he’s earned my trust thus far. Update: Take it frame-by-frame.
Tag: Cinema
Finally Here.
Two long-awaited (at least by me) releases dropped today…the special edition DVD of Amadeus, with 20 new minutes of footage (I’ll check it out tonight), and Peter Gabriel’s much-delayed release Up. I must admit, halfway through the first track (“Darkness”) I was wondering when Pete had started hanging out with Roger Waters, but after listening to the album once through I now think it’s definitely a return to form, with “Growing Up,” the remixed “I Grieve,” and “The Barry Williams Show” currently the stand-out tracks.
Whoa.
Matrix spoilers a-plenty. Don’t read if you don’t wanna know…I mean it.
DC Down, Marvel Up.
While Superman continues to languish over at Warner Brothers, Sony gets Michael Chabon to punch up the script for The Amazing Spiderman. Since so much of Spidey’s appeal is his internal monologue, Chabon sounds like a great choice.
Screenplay of Glass.
Today Kevin Murphy blogs the trailer for Adaptation, the new film from the Being John Malkovich team of Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman. He can’t say Nicolas Cage has been much of a draw lately, but perhaps this’ll be a comeback role for the star of Raising Arizona.
Ouch.
Not to denigrate another science fiction franchise here, but the NYT has deconstructed the next Trek film, placing it squarely among the five reusable plots in the franchise. In the unforgettable words of Homer Simpson, “It’s funny because it’s true!”
Betamax and DivX Redux.
Three different formats vie to become the standard for blue laser DVD’s, expected in the market by 2005. No 8-track worries just yet – all models will be retro-compatible with red-laser DVD’s.
Carville goes Disney.
Apparently, James Carville has been cast in an upcoming Disney flick set in Appalachia. (Friends of mine from the old office confirm the story.) If he could handle King of the Hill, I’m sure he’ll do swimmingly for the Mouse.
Nobody picked Dude, Where’s My Car?
The 2002 Sight and Sound Top Ten Poll. (found by way of this Slate article.) Held once a decade, it’s worth perusing for a glimpse into the tastes that drive many film directors and critics. Unlike the Slate writer, I have no issues with Citizen Kane being No. 1, although he’s right in noting it’s a bit dubious to consider the first two Godfathers together. By that logic Godfather III should drag ’em all out of the top twenty.
Superman lives?
With Superman v. Batman falling by the wayside, WB looks to move a Superman feature instead. The good news is they’re trying to replace McG with David Fincher, Michael Mann, or Steven Soderbergh. The bad news is the screenwriter (J.J. Abrams, of Alias) wants McG.