Watch This: If Marty McFly Couldn't Resist His Mother (or Himself)
Filed under: Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
One of the great things about time travel science fiction is its ability to pose a number of "what if?" situations. What if you went back and killed Hitler? What if you were on a nuclear aircraft carrier and found yourself back on December 6, 1941 and could save Pearl Harbor from being destroyed? What if you were on a date with your mom and she put the moves on you ... and you couldn't say no? College Humor has a new video that asks, "what if Marty McFly had sex with his mom in Back to the Future?" It takes the creepiness of Lorraine's attraction to her son to a new level, but it also raises the Oedipal themes of the classic movie above and beyond subtext. But the video doesn't stop at incest. There's also an exploration of the oft-posed hypothetical, "if you could have sex with yourself, would you?" The question is dealt with by way of a threesome involving Marty, his mom, and another Marty.
2011 Will Not Feature a Summer Pixar Film?
Filed under: Animation, Disney, Exhibition, Newsstand
I don't know about you, but I've really come to look forward to that time in May or June when Pixar releases their annual animated tale. It's like regardless of what big franchises are launching, rebooting, remaking or sequalizing during those summer months, we know that no matter what Pixar will give us something to smile at; something that's sure to make us feel all warm and cuddly inside as if a tasty bowl of soup magically found its way into our stomachs while the movie was playing.
That may all change when it comes to the summer of 2011, though, as Walt Disney has announced a release date change for Cars 2, from June 24th, 2011 to December of 2011. The announcement came during the company's first quarter earnings call on Tuesday, and it's the third release date the film has been given so far (after originally posting a 2012 date, then moving to summer 2011). Moving Cars 2 leaves a hole in the June 24th slot, though studios will be careful with what they put there seeing as The Green Lantern is right before it (on June 17th) and Transformers 3 is right after (on
However, Disney was planning to release their fairytale The Bear and the Bow in December of 2011, so Cars 2 moving means Bear and the Bow will most likely shift too. Where will it shift? We don't know. Obviously there's a small outside chance it will take that June 24th spot, but rarely do animated films move up their release since folks behind the scenes need that time to finish piecing the film together. In all likliehood, that means we're not getting a Disney/Pixar animated film over the summer of 2011, and, yes, I'm a little sad inside right now. You?
[via Coming Soon]
Tron's Joseph Kosinski Reveals His Plans For 'The Black Hole'
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Disney, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
When Disney announced plans to remake The Black Hole, it seemed as though fans came out of the woodwork. A lot of people really, really love the original (it even attracted new fans like our William Goss) which definitely makes it touchy ground for a remake. So, you might be interested to know what Joseph Kosinski has in mind for it. The Tron: Legacy director dished on the super secret plot to MTV and the plans are intriguingly dark. The film won't be a sequel or a prequel, but it won't be a shot-for-shot remake, either. It will be a "reimagining" that incorporates modern science and knowledge of black holes, but will keep the iconic and nightmarish elements from the first film. "I saw The Black Hole as a little kid," said Kosinski. "What sticks out most is the robot Maximilian. The blades and the vicious killing of Anthony Perkins. That freaked me out and that's definitely going to be an element that will be preserved. The design of the Cygnus ship is one of the most iconic spaceships ever put to film. From a conceptual point of view, we know so much more about black holes now, the crazy things that go on as you approach them due to the intense gravitational pull and the effects on time and space. All that could provide us with some really cool film if we embrace it in a hard science way."
Disney and hard science aren't two ideas that really go together, but then I was surprised by the level of sex and mayhem that went on in Pirates of the Caribbean. Perhaps The Black Hole will really be allowed to question free will, the nature of reality and consciousness. With killer robots. That might be a remake worth watching.
Tom Hanks and Nia Vardalos ... Together Again
Just last month we learned that Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts were reteaming for a new comedy called Larry Crowne, about "a man forced to reinvent himself and find a new career as he navigates the second act of his life." Tom Hanks wrote the script, and is gearing up to direct -- his first feature since That Thing You Do! all the way back in 1996. But there's a little more to the story, it seems.Deadline Hollywood reports that Universal has grabbed the domestic distribution rights to the feature, and attached along with this news is the following tidbit: "Tom also wrote the screenplay with Nia Vardalos. (He hatched the idea in 2006 under the title of Talk of the Town, he got a first draft from Nia Vardalos.)" Since then, the pair have been working on the script together. You might remember, that he and Vardalos go back some years -- he produced My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Connie and Carla, and executive produced the recent My Life in Ruins.
I'm not sure why she was left out of initial reports, but it's going to be interesting to see how people react to the new news. Does it make you less interested since she's had a heck of time with her career lately? Or, could this be her Sherlock Holmes? That one did wonders for Guy Ritchie's once flailing career.
SXSW 2010 Announces Its Panels
Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Horror, SXSW, Quentin Tarantino, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Just last week, the South by Southwest Film Festival revealed the majority of its 2010 line-up, and now they've announced the guests scheduled to attend for their always-informative panels.Jeffrey Tambor is returning with his popular Acting Workshop; Michel Gondry will turn up for a conversation about his work to date and his latest documentary, A Thorn in the Heart (playing there); David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) will talk about his role in the success of HBO's "Eastbound and Down"; and the casts of Kick-Ass and MacGruber will each host a panel about their respective films.
I'd be remiss if I omitted two of the panels in particular: One sees our own Scott Weinberg moderating a horror panel attended by the likes of Ti West, Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth, Matt Reeves and Ruben Fleischer, while another sees our own Erik Childress taking to task hyperbole in film criticism. We don't want to shamelessly promote either of them, obviously, but I will just say that I've heard Erik's will be "the best panel of the year" and "a total laugh riot!"
So... take that for what you will. Check out descriptions of the fest's main panels after the jump, and the rest over on their official website.
Cinematical Seven: Down in New Orleans
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Cinematical Seven
It's been a long weekend in New Orleans. I traveled over here for reasons that have nothing to do with Mardi Gras or football, and ended up sucked into a weekend where the main -- the only -- activity in this city had to do with the Superbowl and parades. Oh, yeah, there was also a big mayoral election, but it rated only a small banner on the newspaper's front page above a giant photo of Drew Brees.
I've always felt New Orleans deserves better movies than the ones in which it's portrayed. In movies and on TV, "New Orleans" rarely strays from the French Quarter, which is about a foot away from swamps and Cajuns, where everyone talks in hideous accents and eats nothing but gumbo and beignets. Doesn't anyone realize that New Orleanians sound like they're from Brooklyn, not Georgia? The police force is nothing but corrupt, and the city is riddled with prostitution and drug lords. Also, Mardi Gras occurs practically every weekend.
But even though those stereotypes abound, the last couple of years have been good for "The City That Care Forgot" in feature films. I liked both The Princess and the Frog and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, admittedly for entirely different reasons. And while I wasn't much enamored with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for the most part I liked the way the city of New Orleans was portrayed in the film. I've found seven feature films set in the New Orleans area for you to enjoy -- I didn't include the 2009 movies mentioned above because they're not on DVD yet (though Ben Button is). I do believe the New Orleans Saints have never appeared in a film, but I suspect that will change fairly soon.
The Geek Beat: Great Geek Romances
Filed under: The Geek Beat
It's an ongoing joke that fans of anything geeky (D&D, comic books, video games, sci-fi, runes, mythology, The History Channel) lacks a love life. You know the stereotype. So, is it coincidence that some of the very best couples are found in the geek genre? Are they trying to let all those lonely nerds get a glimpse of the good life? Or is it just that uncertain futures, alternate universes, galaxies far far away, or splash page bound stories lend themselves to bigger and gutsier stories? After all, sci-fi, fantasy, and superhero stories tend to break gender barriers in all sorts of ways. Women were packing superpowers and weapons in genre stories a lot sooner than they were on big or small screens.
As to why that is, maybe it has something to do with the origin of sci-fi, fantasy, and comic books. Sci-fi, comics, and fantasy inherited the old mythologies of Homer and King Arthur, where people expected great highs and lows to everything their heroes and heroines did. If lovers weren't tragically separated or punished for their sins, and there wasn't a lot of sword fighting and slaughter in between, then everyone was bored. Nowadays, you can't have heroes who are gone for decades and battle trolls unless you're in a particular section of Blockbuster or Barnes and Noble, because it's just not thought to be very serious stuff. (Unless you're a literature professor. Then you know better.)
What is Your Favorite Elias Koteas Role?
Filed under: Fandom
There is an actor I didn't mention in my For Love of Unknown Actors post last July, one who is criminally underused and under appreciated on the cinematic scene, and who has acted in over 60 films -- Elias Koteas. I've had him on the brain for days, ever since THR's Risky Business Blog posted a piece called "Put Elias Koteas in your movie, now" on Friday.
These words sent me into a Koteas tailspin: "He's the kind of actor that lives so close to the skin of the character that he gives off those blurry heatwaves you see above a hot blacktop." This. I've been enamored with the actor since his second feature film in 1987, the John Hughes romance Some Kind of Wonderful. And while he's been in an impressive array of films since, usually finding more of the spotlight in Canadian features like Crash and Exotica, I doubt mainstream audiences know him as anything but that kinda-familiar bald guy, or Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I love all the fleeting, cinematic glimpses of Koteas, but my favorite always remains the first I ever saw: Duncan in Some Kind of Wonderful.
"Lost" John Williams Score Makes CD Debut
Filed under: Fandom, Home Entertainment
Assume for a moment that John Williams has sold more movie scores on CD than any other composer, though Maurice Jarre, James Horner and Ennio Morricone are certainly contenders too. Williams has on his resume all the Star Wars movies, all the Indiana Jones movies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. The Extra-terrestrial, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Jaws, Superman and Saving Private Ryan. He even has scored more obscure items like Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye and Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot. He has won five Oscars and has been nominated -- no kidding -- more than 40 times. Now, just imagine that this Elvis Presley of composers, this Beatles of composers, has had one major composition that was never released on CD. That would be like, say Rubber Soul or From Elvis in Memphis being unavailable.It's true. There's one elusive score in Williams' impressive discography that has previously escaped collectors, until now. It's understandable that the score for John Frankenheimer's thriller Black Sunday might have disappeared in that watershed year of 1977, when Williams also composed Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Now Film Score Monthly has announced the official release, available for order through their website. This is a limited release of only 10,000 copies, and the site warns against waiting. The CD runs 64 minutes and features the complete score in chronological order, plus some outtakes. There are audio samples available on the site, and it's a wonderfully ominous, suspenseful score, far more controlled than some of Williams' later works.
Peter Bogdanovich Moves from Meows to Barbies and Manson
Filed under: Comedy, Deals, Scripts
It's been eons since we've gotten a Peter Bogdanovich tale. Aside from some TV work and his Tom Petty documentary in 2007, there hasn't been a big-screen feature since he dug into William Randolph Hearst's dirty laundry with The Cat's Meow in 2001. And before that, The Thing Called Love in 1993. No finishing Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind (he stated last month that he didn't think editing the film would ever be possible), and no code cracking. But finally, The Hollywood Reporter posts that he will write and direct an adaptation of Kurt Anderson's novel Turn of the Century.If anything should reinvigorate the feature career of the man who helmed Paper Moon, The Last Picture Show, and Mask, and bring in a new audience, this is it. The book is a modern social satire oft-compared to Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. Written in 1999, the novel follows the MacTiers in the year 2000, "a Manhattan power couple with three kids who are managing their troubled marriage in a world where BarbieWorld has opened in Vegas and Charles Manson's parole hearing is live on TV." George has produced a series called NARCS, which mixes real drug busts with snappy scripts, while wife Lizzie is a software entrepreneur who created a "force-feedback technology," which is part of an alternative history game that senses fear. "Dinner time!" is announced room to room via e-mail, Lizzie's guilt over voting for Rudy Giuliani leads her to hand out $5's in penance, and there's a Jimmy Smits/J-Lo revolution in Mexico.
Bogdanovich isn't the first name I would think of to helm a technology-ridden modern satire like this, so I'm dying to see what he makes of it. Should things continue as planned, the film will shoot next spring in New York.
2011 Will Not Feature a Summer Pixar Film?
Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams Reunite for 'Mission Impossible 4'
'Big Top Pee-Wee': The Original Benicio Del Toro Wolfman
Spin-ematical: New on DVD and Blu-ray for 2/9
Watch This: Brilliant Oscar-Nominated Short 'Logorama'
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