Truman Capote Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Another day, another George Lucas related kerfluffle. There's an, um, interesting new character in Star Wars: The Clone Wars named Zero Ziro the Hutt. He's purple, covered in sky blue tattoos, sports a peacock feather behind his squashy head, and really digs Cher.

Ok, I made that last one up, but only just barely. Because according to MTV, Jabba's uncle, Ziro the Hutt "is a gay stereotype that makes what Jar Jar Binks represented to the island of Jamaica look subtle by comparison." It's not his look, design, or movements that push him into iffy waters, but the voice: Ziro speaks like Truman Capote.

Why? Because Lucas insisted on it. Director Dave Filoni was one of many among the crew that was caught off guard by the request. "Ziro, Jabba's uncle, originally spoke in Hutt-ese, like Jabba and then he had a different sluggish voice just like Jabba, and then George one day was watching it and said 'I want him to sound like Truman Capote.' He actually said that and we were like 'Wow!' It's a hybrid of it but the inspiration is definitely there on Capote. It's one of those things that takes him from being an interesting character and I think really does put him over the top and does something. He's a favorite among the crew here."

I bet there are some real hardcore fans of A Nightmare on Elm Street who bought a house on Elm Street in their own town just to have that association. But if they wanted to be a REAL hardcore fan, they'd get a place on N. Genesee Avenue. More specifically, they'd get the place at 1428 N. Genesee Avenue in Los Angeles. For those of us who don't know everything Freddy Krueger, that address is the location of the house used in the Nightmare films, otherwise known as "Nancy's house." It has 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a pool and a fireplace. And it is selling for just under $2 million. The ad for the home says it's a bit of a fixer (must be all the damage from Freddy) but "with some work this could be your Family Dream House." Right. Because the kids are really going to love living there. Of course, there are some twisted people out there, and I can envision a fan-couple moving in with their young daughters, who they make play jump rope on the front walkway.

As for anyone looking for a creepy home with a little more space, there's also the Clutter Home in Holcomb, Kansas. This home is available through a private auction and has the added creepiness factor of actually being a multiple murder site. Yes, I think it was featured in In Cold Blood (but maybe not in Capote or Infamous). However more than being a movie location, it's where the Clutter family were killed in the middle of the night by Perry Smith and Richard Hickcock. This "beautiful" property has 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and, "ample space for the children to work on 4-H projects and school activities."

Whichever of these you choose, you should start packing right away, because with Halloween right around the corner, you'll definitely want to do something extra scary for the trick-or-treaters (actually, the Clutter home probably isn't a popular trick-or-treat stop unless the Holcomb kids have good legs and not much interest in filling their candy bags).

I live in Austin, Texas, where the autumn film festival season starts around the third week of September and doesn't let up until nearly November. Therefore, when the weather finally starts to cool off a bit, I tend to look forward to watching obscure and little-known films at Fantastic Fest, aGLIFF, and Austin Film Festival (plus maybe Cinematexas if I can squeeze it in). However, I can think of a few new releases due in theaters this fall that I can't wait to see:

• Tideland -- Ever since the Terry Gilliam movie debuted at Toronto last year -- no, even before that, when Jeff Bridges posted still photos he took on the set of the film to his personal site -- I have been dying to see Tideland. I don't care how many of you saw it already and thought it was stinky. I liked The Brothers Grimm, so obviously I'm not going to necessarily be in sync with the popular taste on Gilliam films. Also, I love Bridges when he's in cool stuff and not scary Hollywood product.
• Infamous (or whatever they're calling it this week) -- "The other Truman Capote movie" was shot in Austin a couple of years ago and I've been intrigued ever since. It's directed by Douglas McGrath, who adapted and directed one of my favorite Jane Austen adaptations, Emma, and also co-wrote the screenplay for one of the funnier Woody Allen film's of the past 10 years, Bullets Over Broadway.
• Fast Food Nation -- I saw an early trailer and a clip from this film when Richard Linklater spoke to a UT class I was auditing in the spring. I also visited a postproduction garage sale on the Austin Studios lot last year for a film called "Coyote" and found out it was the code name for Fast Food Nation. I'm very curious to see how Linklater transformed a nonfiction book (that kept me from bringing raw ground meat into my house for a year) into a narrative film.

For more of Cinematical's Fall Preview, see: Erik's Picks and Scott's Picks.

I've tried as hard as conceivably possible to avoid this story because it's about as lame as a story can get: Daniel Craig, my fantasy-husband and your future James Bond, has been caught kissin' a man -- specifically, Truman Capote, in the latest Capote biopic, Infamous. As we are all likely aware, Mr. Craig will play the role of Perry Smith, one of the duo of killers Capote interviews as the subject for his book, In Cold Blood. This news has turned up everywhere, absurdly.

Basically, I'm of the opinion that Mr. Craig may kiss whomever he wants and take whichever movie roles he'd like, regardless of what the script calls for him to do with his lips. Frankly, I love him and he can do no wrong. What totally upsets me is that none of these articles acknowledges that this is not the first time Mr. Craig has kissed another man onscreen, and by failing to acknowledge this, all these cheesy gossip rags have overlooked an excellent, important film of Mr. Craig's - 2004's Enduring Love. Maybe this latest kiss is catching all the flak because Craig's character entered into it voluntrily, unlike his kiss in Love with Rhys Ifans, which came at the tensest moment in the film. But Craig's character in Love is the Devil certainly voluntarily submits to a love affair with British painter Francis Bacon, played by Derek Jacobi. I've never seen Love is the Devil, but I think you get the idea that Enduring Love is highly recommended.

Here we are at Day Three of Telluride already. Only one more day of fun and film at 10,000 feet to go before I'm off to Toronto. Today was beautiful in Telluride, absolutely perfect for sitting outside to interview Venus director Roger Michell during an afternoon screening of his film. Michell was every bit as delightful in person as he seems in his Q&As. He was due to take off right after the post-show Q&A to get his kids back to London in time for school tomorrow, before heading to Toronto himself to promote the film there. I'll have the interview up as soon as I have enough spare minutes to get it transcribed.

After the interview, I had a little time before I needed to queue up for the screening of Infamous at the Galaxy, so I headed down to Main Street (aka Colorado Street), the heart of Telluride, to score a sandwich to eat in line. On my way back to the Galaxy, I found a nice little coffee shop, where I got a lovely triple-shot latte -- just what I needed to boost me through the afternoon and evening. Finally got into the Galaxy after waiting in the queue forever. It's a neat theater: They convert the elementary school gymnasium into a full-fledged theater by covering everything in black velvet drapes and bringing in lots of cool neon galaxy-themed art. I enjoyed Infamous more than I expected to. I wasn't sure the world needed two films about Truman Capote in as many years, but the film was well-done and well-acted, with Sandra Bullock putting in a particularly strong performance as Capote's childhood friend, Pulitzer prize-winning author Nelle Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird). I love To Kill a Mockingbird, but I had no idea that Lee based the character of Dil on Capote. I know, I'm probably the only person on the planet who didn't know that. That's okay. You learn all kinds of unexpected things at film festivals.

While throwing together this week's Trailer Park, I couldn't help but think back to one of my favorite Wonder Years episodes. See, I was a fanatical Wonder Years fan growing up. I don't think there will ever be another set of characters from a television show with whom I connect with so well. That's right, Kevin Arnold is, and will always be, my childhood hero. Admit it, you're right there with me.

Okay, so if you, like me, are a huge fan of The Wonder Years, then you should immediately remember the episode in question upon reading the following sentence: "Give me some men who are stout-hearted men, who will fight for the right they adore." Did you get it? Glee Club? Season 3, episode 16? A classic! Anyway, the following films are all about men -- stout-hearted men -- who stand up for what they believe in and refuse to give up until the job is done. Well, except, one of them is a tad on the feminine side ... but he's still driven by his passion to succeed. And that's what counts. Welcome to this week's Trailer Park:

• Capote - Truman Capote spent five years researching In Cold Blood - the book that would be his last - and sophomore director Bennett Miller's film is a telling and rather literate fly-on-the-wall dramatization of that time. The biggest appeal is Philip Seymour Hoffman's bravura Oscar-winning performance as the eccentric author, which he takes beyond mere affectation and into full-on obsession as Capote's research into the 1959 murders of a Kansas family consumes him in every way. It is nice to see professional seether Catherine Keener in another nice-gal role, here as Capote friend and soon-to-be To Kill A Mockingbird scribe (Nell) Harper Lee. Miller and writer Dan Futterman (adapting Gerald Clarke's book) do not quite commit to a direction for the story, and humanizing killer Perry Smith (a dependable Clifton Collins Jr.) is time unwisely spent, though Hoffman, who also produced, sees that we remember the film for other reasons.

According to a post at The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz Blog, everyone associated with Douglas McGrath's Infamous is hoping that Philip Seymour Hoffman is a loser at Sunday's Oscar ceremony. Why? Well, Infamous is also about Truman Capote's relationship with killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, albeit from a slightly different angle (it's based on George Plimpton's book about said relationship, whereas Capote's source is a book by Gerald Clarke).

McGrath's film, which will be hit theaters in New York and LA in October, stars Toby Jones as Capote, Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee, and Daniel Craig, that bit of Bond-y goodness, as Smith. Also appearing in the film (and supposedly hating on Hoffman) are an array of stars, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Sigourney Weaver and Isabella Rossellini. But here's what I don't get: why would a Hoffman loss be better for Infamous than a win? It's not as if the movie won't get distribution if he wins, or something - Warner Independent Pictures already has the rights. And Capote's profile couldn't possibly get any higher, so the competition won't be anything new. I'm not sure I buy this whole "they want Hoffman to looooooose!" angle.