Even the weirder artists of the twentieth century have been attracted to the allure of Hollywood filmmaking, and Salvador Dali was no exception. In the fall of 1941, the surrealist painter hosted a masquerade party at Pebble Beach during one of his regular visits to the town. Called "Surrealism Night in An Enchanted Forest," the fundraising event, intended to assist European refugee artists, brought out a number of stars, including Bob Hope and Ginger Rogers. It was here, the story goes, that Dali became attached to a major studio production called Moontide. The great German emigre Fritz Lang was hired to direct the movie, and asked Dali to create a three-minute nightmare sequence for the film. Unfortunately, after the incident at Pearl Harbor later that year, Twentieth Century Fox deemed the project too bleak. Lang was replaced, and Dali's nightmare sequence went with him.

Although inspired by the movies, Dali didn't always have the easiest time making them. He would get another chance to inject his hallucinatory vision into American cinema with the hypnosis scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, but it's his unrealized projects that truly indicate the scope of the painter's ambition. So many ideas, such little time. Dali: Painting and Film, a breathtakingly unique exhibit currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, surveys Dali's completed cinematic works in addition to tidbits from the ones that never came to fruition. Marvelously structured to show how his paintings were intentionally cinematic, the exhibit contains all the obvious highlights from Dali's movie career alongside lesser-known productions. The importance in film history of his collaborations with Luis Bunuel remain uncontested; two large screens in separate rooms showing Un Chien Andalou (where the opening eye splicing retains its original gross-out impact) and L'Age D'Or attest to that. Fewer visitors, however, might know about Dali's collaboration with the Marx Brothers on a deliriously strange movie that sounded too good to be true.

I imagine that the posthumous completion of Destino sent many a studio into a creative flurry. "Salvador Dali! Why didn't we think of it before! Let's get a movie in the works!" Then, of course, the idea spread through a billion little tentacles and we ended up with what Christopher Campbell said last year was 9 projects. Some have petered off, some have stayed around, and one seems to have nabbed its superstar.

The New Zealand Herald says that Johnny Depp is holding auditions to find screenwriters for the Peter Rawley-produced Dali picture. (When CC wrote about it last year, Rawley was trying to woo Depp.) In what I would call the best casting move in eons, Depp will star as Dali, and is scavenging the earth for the right writer. A source told the publication that Depp is "open to working with anyone -- from housewives to pensioners -- if the script is right."

Meanwhile, it also looks like the Al Pacino and Peter O'Toole pics are still in the works. Now, I completely get Depp as Dali, and think that's as good as you can get for the epic artist. I would also bet that O'Toole could pull off something funky, but Pacino? It almost sounds like a joke. Nevertheless, this might just pull me out of my distaste for back-to-back biopics on the same person. Stay tuned!

[via Ace Showbiz]

One of the most amazing things I've ever seen was Destino, the short, unfinished animated film collaboration between Salvador Dali and Walt Disney. Financial concerns during World War II had brought an end to the project, letting it lie forgotten for many decades. In 2003, nephew Roy rediscovered the project, finished it, and released it to a number of festivals like Toronto's Worldwide Short Film Fest, which is where I saw it. Just imagine the old-school, artistic touch of Disney merged with Dali's surrealist eye.

Over a year ago, the film was on its way to DVD as part of the Legacy Collection, but the release date came and went. Now the Disney Blog has posted the disc's new release date, which was part of a recent announcement. It seems that now the film will be part of Disney's Treasures collection. Each release -- Destino, Chronological Donald, Volume 4, and Dr Syn, Alias the Scarecrow -- are hosted by Leonard Maltin and will get a 2-Disc DVD on November 11. Of course, this is Disney we're talking about, so the release will be limited.

Those crazy artists, always experimenting sexually. Big deal. Nothing new. Right? Oh wait, the idea still has people intrigued. Remember those lesbian scenes in Frida? Of course you do -- they're the only reason you watched the film. But will you be as interested in seeing a young Salvador Dalí make it with a man, specifically Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, as you were in seeing Salma Hayek kiss Ashley Judd? A UK-Spain production must be hoping so; it not only has the distinction of being about the 100th Dalí film in the works right now, but it also describes itself as the "racy" and "sexy" one, and will likely be released into the public reception as "the gay Dalí movie".
According to Guardian Unlimited, the film is titled Little Ashes, named for one of Dalí's paintings, and it isn't exactly based on any definite evidence. In fact, Dalí reportedly acknowledged being the object of Lorca's homosexual affection multiple times, but denied they ever became physical and insisted that he continually rejected the poet. However, the film's screenwriter, Philippa Goslett, stands by her depiction of the events. She claims to have done enough research to believe that the men consummated in some way. The way the script apparently shows it, as far as Guardian Unlimited relays it, is Dalí wants to have sex with Lorca but can't and then ends up merely acting as a voyeur, watching while Lorca sleeps with a woman.

Little Ashes is apparently done shooting, having been filmed primarily in Barcelona on a low budget of £1.4 million (roughly $2.9 million -- I think). Paul Morrison (Solomon and Gaenor) directed the film, with Robert Pattinson, best known as "Cedric Diggory" in the Harry Potter movies, playing Dalí. Spanish newcomer Javier Beltran is Lorca and Matthew McNulty (Control) portrays a young Luis Buñuel. On a related yet personal note, I must address to all my friends that this news will have no impact on my long-decided plan to go as Dalí for Halloween this year (I'm broke, and it's cheap -- you only need a long mustache and a suit!).

If you grew up in or around New York and spent any time in the city's Museum of Natural History, you were probably baffled by Night at the Museum, which portrayed the landmark so loosely that it was totally unrecognizable. If you had to choose whether to bet that the museum was storing mermaids in a secret room (as in Splash) or resembled much of the interiors of the Shawn Levy-directed, Ben Stiller-starred comedy, you might have better odds with the former (it could be storing mermaids, but it definitely does not look like it does in NATM). Fortunately for us in the Big Apple, Night at the Museum 2 will take place in another location. In an interview with IGN, screenwriters Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon revealed this bit of info, though they couldn't divulge the actual museum we'll be seeing in the sequel (like Erik, I'd love to see a Salvador Dalí exhibit -- please put Stiller in Figueres' Teatre-Museu Dalí). Aside from this tiny leak, the duo, who wrote this next week's release Balls of Fury, could only share that it will be funnier than the original, which they also wrote, and that it would have "big new characters."

Of course, Robin Williams is reportedly signed on for the sequel, so the new museum will have to have its own Teddy Roosevelt statue -- unless Stiller's character takes the other one with him, which I doubt could happen. Despite the all the historical inaccuracies -- Attila the Hun obviously confused with Genghis Khan -- and the fact that it was obviously not shot inside the real Museum of Natural History, I didn't despise the first Night at the Museum. It sure was stupid, but I kinda enjoyed the miniature Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan, and I love a geriatric villain, especially when one of them is played by Mickey Rooney. Most of all, though, I appreciate the fact that it got kids more interested in the real museum, which saw a huge boost in ticket sales following the movie's success. It almost makes up for the inaccuracies that kids likely found out the real history and science by visiting the real place. Hopefully Garant and Lennon do better research for whatever museum they're tackling for part 2.

Check out IGN's video after the jump.

When we first told you about a Salvador Dalí biopic in the works, the project was to be helmed by Simon West (Con Air). Ten months later, we got more news on the film, which had seemingly replaced West with Andrew Niccol (Gattaca). But now it seems we may have been discussing two different pictures. According to producer Peter Rawley (1975's Ransom), there was once nine projects in the works based on the surrealist's life. Now there are only four (known about), including Rawley's Dalí, which so far has a script by Philippe Mora (Howling III) and for which Rawley is trying to woo Johnny Depp to play the title role. According to the producer, Dalí will also be about the artist's whole life -- unlike the other films, which he claims are more about Dalí's wife and art-dealers -- and will be shot in Barcelona and Prague as soon as a cast is in place.

The latest Hollywood actor to play a famous painter is Jared Padalecki, who has been cast as still-living artist Thomas Kinkade (aka "Painter of Light"). Though he probably won't go down in cinematic history like Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh, Jeffrey Wright as Basquiat or (yet to be seen) Al Pacino as Dalí, Padalecki will be supported by a possibly memorable performance from the great Peter O'Toole, who will play the artist Glen Wessler, a mentor to the young Kinkade. He will also have the benefit of playing the artist in a trilogy. After the first movie, The Christmas Cottage, which follows Kinkade as a teen on the verge of deciding to become an artist, there will be two more pics portraying the artist as a young man (unless Lionsgate plans to wait years between movies and use Padalecki a la Jean-Pierre Léaud -- which I doubt).

When the news was out that Lionsgate would make a movie based on Thomas Kinkade's painting The Christmas Cottage, I had thought the artwork was simply serving as inspiration for a fictional holiday movie set in the depicted wintry home (Yawn). Now that I know the movie actually focuses on the life of Kinkade I am no more interested, but it at least makes more sense to me. Living commercial artists, especially those as commercial as Kinkade, aren't very worthy of biopic treatment, but Kinkade is so popular that it could attract a lot of his fans. I must point out, though, that as popular as Gustav Klimt is these days (ever been in a female art student's dorm/apartment?), his recent biopic has not been a big success. So, Lionsgate has to do a good job of getting people in seats for Cottage, particularly if they hope for there to be audiences for its two sequels (which paintings will be used for those titles?).

I've never seen any animated short as charming or epically beautiful as Destino. Granted, the short film wasn't simply an animation feat but the collaboration of two historic names -- Salvador Dali and Walt Disney. It makes sense, really. Dali was a man known for creating fluidity on canvas with his surrealist paintings. Disney was a man known for his animated vision. Obviously, bringing the pair together would result in an epic moving picture, and it did -- although it took sixty years to come together.

Before the father of Mickey ever concocted the idea to animate my personal favorite, Sleeping Beauty, with the use of real artists, Disney had teamed with Dali to create Destino. It was the pairing of two visionaries, one that soon became a financial burden and scrapped during World War II. In 2000, the dormant project was revived by Walt's nephew, Roy, and finished by French animator Dominique Monfrey. It was nominated for an Oscar that it should've won, and aired at a number of short film festivals in 2003 and 2004.

I have no idea what has taken so long, but the film is now getting its British premiere at the Tate Modern in London, as part of the Dali & Film exhibition -- running from June 1 to September 9. If you've entertained the possibility of travelling to the British Isles this year, that will be the time to do it. Even after multiple screenings and Oscar nods, the film still hasn't been widely released.* So, unless you're patient enough to keep waiting -- maybe another 60 years -- now's the time to go and see it.

*Thank you, Mike, for the heads up on the DVD. There won't be a 60-year wait, but feel free to ignore this if you want an excuse to travel to London. And thanks to Lisa, who rightly pointed out that Roy's a nephew, and not a son. -MB

When we first reported the news of a biopic about Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali, it was Simon West who was supposedly going to be sitting in the director's chair . Fortunately, it seems West has moved on and a director with far more talent and vision has stepped in to tell the story. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Andrew Niccol, writer/director of Gattica and Lord of War, is attached to helm Dali & I: The Surreal Story for Room 9 Entertainment and producers David O. Sacks, Daniel Brunt and Michael R. Newman.

The film, based on the book Dali and I by Stan Lauyssens, is being adapted by John Salvati (with Niccol doing a re-write himself) and will focus on Dali's later life from the 1960s to the 1980s. During this time, Dali achieved a great deal of commercial success but his painting output declined as his focus turned more towards money and flamboyant behavior. The story will be told through the eyes of Lauyssens, a young art dealer, who knew the artist during that time and became his close friend.

To be honest, I can't think of a director more suited to tell this story than Andrew Niccol. With him in the director's chair, I feel this film is in good hands. Of course, the other very important element that can make-or-break this film is who will be playing the role of Salvador Dali. At the moment, there's no word from producers or the director on potential casting. However, that won't stop me from making a few suggestions (as I often do).

For me, one potential Dali is the terrific Joaquim de Almeida who has distinguished himself in films such as Clear and Present Danger and the underrated Thanks to Gravity. Another potential Dali is Javier Bardem who has had an impressive career thus far in films like The Dancer Upstairs and Collateral. Finally, no list for this role would be complete without the exceptional Benicio Del Toro -- who would actually be my first choice. Del Toro would do a fantastic job and if you put him and Niccol together, this film has a real chance. That's the movie I would like to see. Andrew, I know we haven't spoken in awhile but are you listening?

What do you think of my casting choices?

Director Simon West, whose recent projects include The General's Daughter, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and remake of the moment, When a Stranger Calls, is hoping to go in a very different direction in the near future: he's planning a movie about surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. The film will have a rather massive scope, covering Dali's life from his teenage years to his death at the age of 84, and focusing on his "incredible and romantic life story." Though the movie is still in the talking stages (West describes it as "getting very close"), the director is already fantasizing about his cast, and he claims that "There are a couple of Spanish actors that are interested." While it's not clear that they're the ones with whom he has talked, West goes on to specifically mention Antonio Banderas and Javier Bardem as possible stars.

Despite what seems like a small potential audience for such a film, West insists that it will in fact have broad appeal: "I believe in getting as many people to go and see rather than deliberately trying to make it for a small audience. Like Amadeus [meets] Moulin Rouge.” Whoa. So, melting clocks, but with songs?

[via Moviehole]