I guess that collectively we are not finished raking over the coals of the story of Kurt Cobain. Collider recently spoke with Chicago 10 director, Brett Morgen, and found out that up next will be a 'mixed-media' doc about the reluctant rock star. Morgen is best known for the Robert Evans doc, The Kid Stays in the Picture. His follow up was the counter-culture flick, Chicago 10, which premiered at Sundance in 2007 to some decidedly mixed reviews. Still, Morgen hasn't been swayed from his trademark style, and the Cobain film will make use of animation, video, and film. Morgen told Collider that the Cobain film would make use of Cobain's personal artifacts and archival footage of the band. More importantly for fans, the film will also include some rarely seen stop-motion animation that Cobain had created.

Morgen is planning on starting the film in the next few months, and has apparently gotten the 'all-clear' from Cobain's widow, the infamous Courtney Love. Morgen's film will mark the third documentary about Cobain in 10 years (1998's Kurt and Courtney, and 2006's Kurt Cobain: About a Son). It makes you wonder what could possibly be left to say about the 'Martyr of Grunge'? As Morgen sees it, "The reason Kurt still resonates all over the world-you go anywhere all over this planet and you'll find kids who have Kurt tattooed on their arms. It's because he spoke-he was able to articulate his experiences as an alienated, disenfranchised kid and that's why I think his music is still relevant today and resonates all over the world and I think we have to make the film that's in every one of those kid's heads that represents them." I can't help but think that maybe it's about time we let Cobain rest in peace, don't you?

[via First Showing]

Page Six is trumpeting the scoop that Woody Allen and his muse Scarlett Johansson have both jumped aboard New York, I Love You, an anthology film currently in pre-production that will feature short directing efforts from several filmmakers such as Anthony Minghella and Mira Nair. Although you'd think this means that Johansson is appearing in the Woody short, the Post reports that Johansson is actually directing her own piece independent of Woody's. Details on the films in question are still forthcoming -- all that's known so far is that they will all be love stories and will of course be set in Manhattan. Johhansson has a number of acting projects lined up for the near future so this must be enough of a priority for a little re-arranging of her schedule.

The paper also reports another Johansson scoop, although this one is more of a rumor than anything else. Courtney Love is apparently seeking out Johansson to play her in a forthcoming biopic of Kurt Cobain called Heavier than Heaven. Why are outer-rim celebrities like Courtney Love and Jenna Jameson always harassing Scarlett Johansson to play them in the movies? Don't they know that she's very busy doing Woody Allen movies and period pieces? She doesn't have time for anything else. Anyway, Woody Allen is doing a round of press for his latest film, Cassandra's Dream, in the coming week so expect some enterprising reporters to pry some more details out of him about this latest turn of events.

The current issue of Entertainment Weekly features a cover story on "The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood." Last week, Monika commented on that list, stating that it's not as fun reading about smarties as it is reading about the dummies. Well, in response to EW, New York's Daily News ran its own list of the "Top 50 Dumbest People in Hollywood." Not surprisingly, sitting in the number one spot is Lindsay Lohan. An obvious choice since she's been the subject of more bad decisions -- at least that the media has concentrated on -- than any other celeb out there. Well, maybe Britney Spears (shockingly far down at #14) has made more. But Lohan has also made bad career decisions in addition to her bad personal-life decisions. Go ahead and sift through Cinematical's coverage of Lohan throughout the past year or two; I challenge you to find one smart idea she's had (entering rehab doesn't count).

Since this is a tabloid, though, the Daily News' list is hardly about career smarts. Most of the people on the list are there because of their scandals, controversies and apparently unforgivable, ongoing problems. That is how Shia LaBeouf -- who should be on EW's list more than Ben Affleck should -- can be considered dumb, despite the fact that his public drunkenness arrest has hardly dented his career. Same goes for Russell Crowe, whose phone-throwing incident was more than two years ago. Other celebs are easily agreed with: former Oscar hopeful Courtney Love; almost-threw-it-all-away-at-the-beginning actress Vanessa Hudgens; K-Fed (only #38?). Check out the rest here.

[via Fark.com]

Nirvana held on to its legacy for about a decade, but little by little their power and mystery is being stripped away. When I first started hearing their music in movies and television, it didn't bother me nearly as much as I expected it to. "All Apologies" was used brilliantly in a late episode of Six Feet Under. "Something in the Way" was put to good use for an effective scene in Jarhead. But then, it all started to fall apart. "Breed" used in Shoot 'Em Up and a baseball video game? Eight Nirvana songs used, badly, on Cold Case? Just how much heroin money does Courtney Love need? Lately, several films have dealt with the life of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Gus van Sant gave us the staggeringly boring Last Days. I'm eager to see the new documentary Kurt Cobain: About a Son. And Variety has just announced a big-screen adaptation of what many consider the definitive Cobain biography -- Charles Cross' excellent Heavier Than Heaven.

Apparently, "the producers and studio would not address whether they had locked down music rights, or the nature of the story they are trying to tell." Cobain's widow Courtney Love is listed as an executive producer, so I'd imagine they'll have pretty unlimited access to Nirvana's vaults. No director has been announced, but David Benioff will write the script. That makes me a little more comfortable with the idea, because I think he's a fantastic writer. Benioff adapted his novel The 25th Hour for Spike Lee, and that's one of my favorite films of the decade. Still, the whole thing fills me with unease. So much of this could go very wrong and further tarnish the Nirvana legacy. I wonder what they're going to do about Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl? Won't it be a little odd to see those two portrayed by actors? And since their relationship with producer Love is so strained, what if she paints them in a negative light? Ewan McGregor was rumored to play Cobain at the beginning of the year (I could see that), and something tells me Jared Leto is calling his agent as we speak. Ugh. Who would you cast?

This spring will mark the 13th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death. Considering all of the sticky stigma surrounding his relationship with Courtney Love and his subsequent death, it seems eerily fitting that news of an official Cobain biopic is rising as the unlucky 13th year arrives. There are websites dedicated towards the possibility that Kurt was murdered, and Courtney has often been likened to Yoko Ono. Whatever the truth might be, Nirvana fans are fiercely loyal and protective of the frontman, and are sure to have much to say about the upcoming biopic buzz.

Yesterday, Hollywood.com reported that Courtney Love has nabbed the film rights to Charles Cross' Heavier Than Heaven, a popular and oft-considered definitive biography of Kurt Cobain. Apparently there is news on her fansite, MoonWashedRose about the film being in the embryonic stage, but all I've found are notes on her diaries and Billy Corgan smooches. It'll be interesting to see if the flick gets off the ground, since Love has had anything but a smooth and productive life, but then again, Mel Gibson helped get her clean, so maybe she really is back on the road to Hollywood. And if this movie gets off the ground, who on earth will play them? Will Michael Pitt take an official stab at the grunge legend? Who would play Courtney? Amber Benson?

A while back we asked you to submit your film blogs to us for consideration in future Film Blog Group Hugs. And, wow! Did you ever come out in droves. I was flooded with submissions -- so many, I haven't made it through them all yet, but there are some promising blogs on my list now. Some of them, I've added to my already lengthy regular-read list, some I've put on a list for our team to pull from, and some of those, I'm pulling from today for this Blog Roundup -- consider it the best of the submissions I've had that I've managed to make it through so far. And hey, if you don't see your blog here, it doesn't mean we thought it was lame. It probably just means it's one of the 89,000 submissions I haven't had time yet to read.

(Note: I'm still looking for blogs with the following specific focuses: Pacific Northwest, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, horror, and geek. If that's you, email me your info at kim@cinematical.com).

On to the blogs!

• A People magazine reporter was arrested on Brad Pitt's property, for allegedly trying to crash Maddox Jolie's birthday party. People claims the the guy "inadvertently trespassed"; but cops say they found an email from a People editor in the reporter's car with directions to Pitt's house.
• Courtney Love fainted a couple of weeks ago - but was it heatstroke or heroin? A judge is betting that it's the latter (or some kind of narcotic, anyway), and he's ordered the sometime-actress to come to court to face allegations that she's violated her probation. Meanwhile, the gal showed up at Pam Anderson's Comedy Central roast last week, where she apparently had a little bit of topless fun.
• Lindsay Lohan has turned her family woes into a pop song. Titled either "Daughter to Father" or "Confessions of a Broken Heart", the song is reportedly "the story of a girl crying to her father, asking him why he did all this to the family, and more so, to her."
• The Colin Farrell Sex Tape will not be televised. (Or, rather, internet-ized).
• Adrien Grenier and a group of friends caused a ruckus in Central Park this weekend whilst playing Twister - a headline his Entourage character would not let pass unmocked.

 
Reader Emily has passed on a few more links re: artist Francesco Vizzoli's trailer for a remake of 70's soft-core masterpiece, Caligula. There are tons of photos at artnet, including images of stars Milla Jovovich, Helen Mirren and Gore Vidal. Actor Glenn Shadix has more photos on his blog, where he talks about his work in the film. Shadix suggests that Quentin Tarantino was cast as Caligula; as interesting as that sounds like it might be, every other source confirms that Courtney Love played the role. In his diary for ArtForum, David Rimanelli essentially makes it clear that the trailer is a stand-alone artwork (read: it advertises a feature that isn't going to be made), but still calls it Vizzoli's "best film to date." And, finally, Donatella Versace, who costumed stars as disperate as Benicio Del Toro and Karen Black (Karen Black!) for the project, discusses surmounting the challeges therein in VOGUE.