Don't worry, I'm not going to go off on a tangent here about how things were better in my day, but I will say that watching the whacked out 80's incarnation of Flash Gordon is one of my favorite childhood memories (I can hear the strains of Queen's theme song as I type this). So you can imagine I wasn't exactly thrilled with the news that the man behind the 'swashbuckling bomb' Sahara had signed to direct an update of the classic sci-fi story. Variety reports that Sony has won the bidding war for the rights to make a live-action film based on Alex Raymond's original comic strip with Breck Eisner at the helm.

In the original story, "Flash was a handsome polo player who is kidnapped and taken to the planet Mongo. He is pitted against an evil ruler named Ming the Merciless." Some of the other incarnations of Flash included making him a football player, and a hover-boarding teen in the 90's (um, OK). In 2007, the Sci-Fi channel also attempted to reboot the series with Eric Johnson in the lead, but the series was canceled shortly after.

Believe me, I know the 1980 film was a total flop, and most of it looked like it was conceived on a mushroom trip. But how you can say no to flying hawk men, Timothy Dalton dressed like Robin Hood while in a fight to the death, and Max Von Sydow in a skull cap?

Starting tonight and running through December 17th, Edgar Wright is taking control of the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, is programming a festival of his favorite movies, and it's a wonderful and eclectic bunch. He's calling the fest "The Wright Stuff," (also the name of a universally beloved screenwriting column on this very site), and he will be on hand to introduce several screenings with special guests. As always at the New Beverly, one of Los Angeles' absolute treasures, every screening is a double feature.

I'll just tell you about the screenings with special guests, all of which start at 7:30. But don't forget to check the website for all show dates and times. Tonight, Edgar and songwriter Paul Williams will kick off the event with two musicals -- Bugsy Malone and Brian DePalma's Phantom of the Paradise. December 5th, the first feature is Flash Gordon, with special guest (and ex-Bond) Timothy Dalton. The second feature is Mario Bava's Danger Diabolik, introduced by Edgar and the great Joe Dante. On December 7th, Edgar will introduce The Last Boy Scout and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with one of the finest action screenplay writers of our time -- Shane Black. December 10 is John Landis' An American Werewolf in London and Tremors (which I spouted my love for here). Landis will help Wright introduce his film. December 12th is Top Secret! (almost as funny as Airplane and The Naked Gun, in my opinion) and Woody Allen's Bananas, with David Zucker on hand. December 14th is the Roger Ebert - penned Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and Head, hosted by Wright and Micky Dolenz of The Monkees. And on December 16th, Wright will introduce Evil Dead 2 and an all time favorite of mine -- the Coen Brothers' Raising Arizona.

Here is a press release from Edgar with his thoughts on the included films. If you live in the Los Angeles area, there's really no excuse to miss this. See you there!

James Bond -- when played by Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and now Daniel Craig (and a bit less so when played by Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby) -- has long been the gold stanard by which all other cinematic spies have been judged. He's smooth, aloof, quick-witted and charming. Guys want to be like him and women with names like Pussy Galore want to sleep with him. But these days, 007 has some serious competition from a more reserved, grittier and -- dare we say -- more likeable amnesiac spy named Jason Bourne (Matt Damon).

When The Bourne Identity came along in 2002, it pretty much reinvented the action-spy genre, placing its hero, Jason Bourne, squarely in the real world (where things like Bond's invisible car do not exist) and dealing with the unheard of (in the Bond world, at least) issues of moral accountability, character metamorphosis and even vulnerability. Clearly influenced by his neophyte rival, a new Bond was born in 2006's Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig stepping into the tux of a more down-to-earth, relatable and gadget-free 007. Even so, the gap between these two men remains enormous.

From the cars they drive to the villains they battle to the way they fight to the women they bed, Moviefone compares the two most badass spies ever to grace a movie screen in a Jason Bourne vs. James Bond gallery. Check it out and then tell us: Who do you think is the more super spy?

[Update! We had some problems with our RSS feed and iTunes subscription links below. All has been fixed. Happy listening!]

Bondcast is back! This episode Athena Stamos of CommanderBond.net and I talk about the aftermath of the Casino Royale DVD release and head to a screening party. We also cover our favorite Bond girls, although we both learned that it is very hard to choose just one. Athena takes us through the list of actors that were considered for the role before the mantle went to Daniel Craig.

Since they didn't include one with the recent release, we'll soon be bringing you our own feature-length Casino Royale commentary that you can play along at home with your copy of the film (or without it, if you have an extremely active imagination.) Upcoming interviews on the show include actress Lana Wood who played Plenty O'Toole in Diamonds Are Forever, and John Cox, who runs YoungBondDossier.com, a great source for James Bond news and information in the literary world.

Here are a few tidbits that, even with our vast Bond knowledge, we didn't have at our fingertips during the podcast. When we refer to the post, you can glance here for the points we're talking about.

• England got the Region 2 DVD release of Casino Royale earlier this week (3/19), while the States got the Region 1 discs last week (3/13). Sort of ironic that we get Britain's superspy in our homes before they do.
• CommanderBond reports that after battling with The Secret, Casino Royale has indeed ended up as #1 on the DVD sales charts.
• Pussy Galore's bevy of flying beauties is the eponymous 'Pussy Galore's Flying Circus.' An interesting fact is that while the group is comprised solely of women, it was actually men wearing blonde wigs. Yow.
• Robbie Coltrane portrayed Valentin Zukovsky in both GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough. Plus, he also plays Hagrid in the Harry Potter films. The guy is versatile.
• The Tudors actually premieres on Showtime on April 1st.

Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us for the next Bondcast!


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During the run-up to Daniel Craig's casting as James Bond, I was fervently hoping that the producers would go in a different direction and give Scottish actor Dougray Scott a chance. He would have been the leanest, meanest Bond since Timothy Dalton, I thought, and still think -- although I was pleasantly surprised by Craig's performance. Scott also infamously missed the boat on Wolverine, barely losing the part to Hugh Jackman. Luckily, he isn't being completely ignored by Hollywood -- IGN reported yesterday that director Luc Besson has said Scott will co-star in the long-awaited movie-version of the Hitman game. Timothy Olyphant stars in Hitman as Agent 47, an assassin who works for a shady outfit called The Agency.

According to what IGN was picked up, Scott will play the antagonist who pursues Olyphant throughout the film. Production on Hitman is scheduled to begin this month in Prague. Cinematical recently spoke to Olyphant and touched on what his hopes for Hitman are -- you can read that here. He'll next be seen in the fourth Die Hard installment, Live Free or Die Hard, while Scott's next project may be the mystery drama The Last Chapter.

Our pals over at Commanderbond.net -- you'll be seeing a lot more of them on Cinematical soon -- are linking to an interesting and somewhat odd interview with Timothy Dalton on the BBC morning show 'This Morning.' The hosts begin the Dalton segment by having Dalton watch extended clips of The Living Daylights and License to Kill, and then commenting that "you were watching that very intently," as if trying to evoke some kind of nostalgic response from the poor guy. Next, they ask him for a comment on Daniel Craig's take on the role, which he's more than happy to give. "I think he's great -- I think the movie, Casino Royale, is terrific," he says. "It's a huge leap forward, and I like him a lot. I tried [his emphasis] to bring the movies back to something that was more like Ian Fleming and he's gone further, and I love that."

Then -- this is the odd part -- the interviewer compares Dalton's Bond and Daniel Craig's Bond favorably and states that "history has been very kind" to Dalton's interpretation. It has? Of course I know that some people swear by Timothy Dalton's two Bond films, but I think it would be a big stretch to say that either of those films were roaring successes, or that they are undergoing some kind of critical renaissance. Does Dalton think his performance was 'ahead of its time?' "Well, everybody has their own point of view. You can't expect everyone to agree. I'm happy with what I did. I'm very pleased, you know, so what else can I say?" After that, the interviewers quickly get on to the business at hand, Dalton's role in the upcoming film, Hot Fuzz.

I won't keep it a secret from anyone: I couldn't care less about James Bond. Maybe I'm not a man's man. Maybe I'm not a proper film critic. Maybe I just don't have the time to watch all the 007 movies in order to convince myself that they're not all the same. Whatever the reason for my disinterest in the series, the painful truth is that I'm completely lost when it comes to discussing Bond. This could be why I don't hang out with a lot of movie geeks. Or, more likely, why they don't hang out with me.

It would make sense for my disinterest in Bond to extend to the films that parody the character and the series. Sure, I appreciate a good spoof, but there's not much enjoyment for me in a joke I don't get. So, just as I don't have a desire to watch the Scary Movie franchise because I don't watch the horror movies it makes fun of, I probably wouldn't like a concentrated spoof of the Bond franchise. Luckily for me, most Bond parodies aren't strictly a series of specific jokes and gags that I don't understand. They typically have something more to offer. And those that I can appreciate and enjoy are due to my having a general, pop-cultural knowledge of Bond films, a taste for simple satire and a preference for liberal, anarchic and random humor.

So, I've made a list of ways in which Bond has been spoofed that are accessible to the non-Bond-fan. There are others out there, from pornographic parodies to obscure foreign takes on the character, but I'll let the real 007 aficionados seek out every spoof out there. ...

Today's odds and ends:

• Hands up, who wants to spend some time expanding their minds with David Lynch? For a fee of just over $100, the experience can be yours: nested on a campus in Indiana Iowa, you and other Lynch-ites can spend a weekend enjoying organic vegetarian food, listening to the man himself talk about Filmmaking, Consciousness, and the Creative Process, and learning about "Samadhi: the fourth major state of consciousness." Did I mention the food? [via Pop Candy]

• I've already updated you a couple of times about the ever-expanding cast of Hot Fuzz, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's follow-up to Shaun of the Dead and, over the past 24 hours, that cast has completely exploded with much-loved British talent. In addition to the recently-announced Timothy Dalton and Jim Broadbent, a slew of others including Steve Coogan, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, and Edward "The Equalizer" Woodward have been confirmed. Whether they're do more in the movie than just stop in and say hello is, of course, anyone's guess.

• John Cusack, apparently tired of making a lot of money for annoying me (and being loved by the whole rest of the world), is taking a very, very indie turn with Grace is Gone, which he'll produce and star in as a man whose military wife is killed in Iraq. After learning of her death, he takes their two daughters on a cross-country road trip that is sure to feature lots of sugary sweetness, combined with hard lessons absorbed with a smile. I can't wait.
  

We reported a few months ago that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (the geniuses who gave us Shaun of the Dead) were hard at work on Hot Fuzz, his follow up film. According to Pegg, Fuzz is "like a British Shane Black movie," in which he was set to star alongside Nick Frost (Shaun's Ed) as "mismatched cops who team up in a West Country backwater." Now, though, it sounds as if Pegg's statement may have been misunderstood by the press - Moviehole is reporting that, while he (and Frost, presumably) will indeed appear in the film, the lead roles will in fact be played by ex-Bond Timothy Dalton and Jim Broadbent. Sounds good to me - both men are incredibly talented, and it would be a treat to see Dalton doing clever comedy. The movie is set to begin filming soon, so hopefully we'll have some answers sooner than later.

Meanwhile, from another corner of the internet comes a rumor about Spike Jonze's eager-anticipated (or maybe that's just me) live-action Where the Wild Things Are adaptation: Better Than Fudge reports that Catherine Keener told Charlie Rose that she's been cast as Max's mother, and will be acting alongside puppets created by Jim Henson's studio. Again, promising news (at least the Henson part) - if it's true.