Three people I'll admit to being a fan of: Harvey Milk; Gus Van Sant; Sean Penn. Yet for some reason I'm not really looking forward to Van Sant's Milk, a biopic of openly gay politician Harvey Milk, in which Penn will play the title role. Mostly (and I said this when Penn was first attached) I can't see the cranky actor playing the typically smiling San Francisco city supervisor, who was assassinated by a co-worker in 1978. Sure, Penn is a terrific actor who can play nearly any kind of role. But Harvey Milk? I'll believe it when I see it. If you haven't already seen the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, and you are looking forward to Milk, you might as well save the doc to watch after seeing the Hollywood version ...

... Or, this Hollywood version, at least. There are two. The other one, titled The Mayor of Castro Street, is supposed to be directed by The Usual Suspects' Bryan Singer. But according to Variety, Mayor is stuck "in strike limbo" -- Christopher McQuarrie's script is reportedly finished but failed to be submitted pre-strike. So, Milk will definitely be the first to be filmed, and therefore will likely be the first to hit theaters. Traditionally, the first of dueling biopics wins the better box office (see Capote vs. Infamous), so Mayor may not even want to bother. Unless it gets a much better actor to play Milk -- and who knows a better actor who also resembles Milk more than Penn? As much as I dislike Penn in the role, I don't see anyone else fitting the part (I'd rather just let Times be the only Milk movie). At one point, Matt Damon was also lightly attached to Milk, but the latest news makes no mention of Damon playing assassin and fellow S.F. City Supervisor Dan White, who he would be perfect as. If he were still set to play the film's villain, I would be totally into it, but without him, I'm really fearful.

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.

Last year's best actor, according to almost everyone in America, was Philip Seymour Hoffman. This year's is Forest Whitaker. But who is the better of the two? Luckily in the U.S., critics don't have to damage their brains deciding. In London, however, critics do. Thanks to later release dates in the UK, Capote is considered a 2006 movie there. So are Good Night, and Good Luck, The Squid and the Whale and The Upside of Anger. All four are featured among the nominees for the London Film Critics Circle awards, which will be presented February 8.

At least Hoffman hasn't been pit against Toby Jones, the other portrayer of Truman Capote, in Infamous. The former is in the Actor race while the latter is recognized in the British Actor category.

Neither Capote nor Good Night, and Good Luck, both of which were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar were considered by the London critics for Film of the Year. Their five picks were limited to more current releases, including The Queen, which received the most nominations, with seven.

Is it obvious that The Queen is recognized so well by the Brits? Well, considering it is a British film, it qualifies for more categories than other top contenders for the major awards. It is the only title to be listed in the Film of the Year and British Film ("The Attenborough Award") categories and Helen Mirren has been nominated for Actress and British Actress, an honor she shares with Judi Dench. Without the double mentions, The Queen would be tied with The Last King of Scotland for five noms.

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).

After it took him 7 years to release his sophomore film, Capote, for which he was nominated for a directing Oscar, it wouldn't have been surprising to discover that Bennett Miller had no follow-up planned. Maybe he would become another one of those filmmakers who take a long time between projects. Personally, I was hoping that he'd go and do another documentary, a la The Cruise. Maybe this time he could follow his friend Sarah Vowell around on a historical vacation of some sort.

Well, he didn't have anything up and running immediately following the Oscars, but now he is about to get started on developing The Immortalist (which he will direct off a script by Dante Miller), a drama that Miller says is, "not a science fiction film, but a drama set in the very real world of those pursuing biological immortality. It's a pursuit that attracts some extremely brilliant, wealthy and influential people; it also attracts tragic figures. The story follows one such person on his disturbing foray into it." Paramount Vantage has already picked up the rights to U.S. distribution.

[via MovieWeb]

At a press event for his upcoming TV drama Shark over the weekend, James Woods was asked why he thought so many movie stars were turning up on the small screen. Though we, sadly, don't get invited to press junkets for TV shows, Ray Richmond of The Hollywood Reporter was there and took the time to transcribe Wood's typically intelligent, manic response.

Like Richmond, I adore Woods and his willingness to speak his mind; it's incredibly refreshing to find someone like that in an industry that's so carefully controlled. Though I happen to disagree with his politics, which often drive his opinions, I think he tends to be worth listening to. Basically, Woods is sick of what Hollywood is making right now. But he's not talk about Little Man, and the other things that we all think are crap. Instead, he's annoyed by award-winners like Brokeback Mountain, Transamerica and Capote, which he describes as having "sort of the same tenor and tone." More specifically, Woods believes that there's "not ... as much breadth to the imagination in the movies these days. They are very careful. Movies seem to be scared, whereas television seems to be like a teenager feeling his or her oats ... Television is more sophisticated, more dynamic, more gut-wrenching to me today than the movies." Take that, filmmaking world.

Now, granted, this is a guy busy promoting a TV series (the pilot of which which he calls "The best thing I've read in 10 years, period"), who certainly could be seen as having a very specific reason to talk down film and talk up the quality of television. What do you guys think? Does he have a point, or is he just getting attention for his current gig by talking down Hollywood?

Imagine a Spielberg film that isn't a tent-pole, either in the summer or the winter season. Imagine a Spielberg film that opens on two screens in New York City and Los Angeles before rolling out slowly to the rest of the country. Imagine a Spielberg film at Sundance. Can you possibly think of an indie film directed by Steven Spielberg, the most famous filmmaker of our time? Well, it might not be just a hypothetical idea for long, as the director of Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds has told AMC's Sunday Morning Shootout that he is interested in making smaller, lower-budget films for Dreamworks. It seems he was impressed by his competition at this year's Oscars, saying, "I would love to go off and make a picture like Capote or George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck."

Funny, I thought that Spielberg was powerful enough in Hollywood that he kinda has been making the expensive equivalent of indie films, but I guess with all his prestige, he still doesn't have complete freedom at the big studios. He claims the reason he didn't end up directing Memoirs of a Geisha (he served as producer instead) is because studio execs (at Sony, I'm guessing) wouldn't let him film it in Japanese -- and show it subtitled -- for a lower cost of $10 million. The thing is, Memoirs probably would have made more of its money back if Spielberg had gotten his way.

I think Spielberg doing smaller films is a great idea. After all, his movies are often about spectacle, but they are typically about the story first. He's one of the few who still uses special effects as a compliment to his storytelling rather than vice versa. Now, without the spectacle, he could go back to the kinds of thoughtful films he used to make. Take out the mechanical shark from Jaws, the mother ship from Close Encounters and E.T. from E.T. (I mean figuratively, not literally creating a void) and you still have excellent movies.

The episode and interview will be shown on AMC this Sunday.

I know you'll find it hard to believe if you live in the Puget Sound area, but this weekend we're scheduled for yet more rain. Like a good Seattleite, I like my rain and dark cloud cover as much as the rest of you, but even I'm starting to get excited at the occasioal glimpses of blue sky and sunshine.  As always, though, you have lots of movie options to keep you happy, and chances are whatever theater you choose, there's a coffee shop nearby to get your obligatory caffeine fix to boot.

UW Film Club 

 

This week brings us the Seattle Arab and Iranian Film Festival  (March 31-April 6), and what a lineup! The festival has some promising films lined up, including Sundance winner Iraq in Fragments, Gate of the Sun, a 278-minute epic film about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as told through the 50 year history of an uprooted Palestinian family, and documentary The Color of Olives. Check out the full schedule here.

 

 

Man, even though Mel Gibson has gone a bit nutty in his film choices recently, I sure would love to see another Road Warrior flick - so it's good news that he is delving back into the Sci-Fi world with a film called Push.

Gibson's Icon Productions is teaming up with Infinity Features (Capote) to produce and finance the film, as well as two other undetermined pics. The story is said to center around a group of American ex-pats with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities. While hiding out from U.S. intelligence agencies (who, I assume, probably want to use them to either find Osama Bin Laden or throw toasters across the room just using their eyes), the group come together to perform the one last mission that can save them from detection.

While there's no word on whether or not Gibson will actually star, it would be interesting to see him as the group's fearless leader. The film is currently in the packaging stage (Hmm, I wonder if there is a box big enough to fit Mel's ego) and should begin shooting in China next year.

This week's weather report for the lovely Puget Sount area: rain, followed by more rain, with occasional showers breaking through. Yup, it's March in Seattle. Fortunately for us, my fellow Seattleites, it's always raining film in Seattle as well. I know, 'round here we don't let a little rain stop us from getting out and doing our biking, hiking and mountain climbing, but when you get done with all that, go bask in the warm glow of the projector light and watch one of the many cool films showing around the Seattle.

UW Film Club 

Be Here to Love Me, FREE screening, Thursday, March 30 @ 7:30PM, UW, Smith 120 

UPCOMING:

Seattle Arab and Iranian Film Festival 2006, March 31-April 6 - The festival has some promising films lined up, including Sundance winner Iraq in Fragments.

 

• 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.

Thankfully, the Oscars are done for another year. We have some very interesting and astute comments from Cinematical readers on our Oscar posts:

Nobody commented on Tom Hank's really bad hairdo, but plenty of you noticed that he seemed to be saying "f***ing moron" or "f***ing idiot" as he stormed on stage to present the Best Director award. Many of our readers have speculated that his apparent anger was in response to host Jon Stewart's comment about the Brokeback Mountain screenwriters wearing jeans; others thought perhaps he was being rushed. Whatever the cause, people were rather shocked at Mr. Nice Guy Hanks using such language at the Oscars.

Well, the Oscars are over. It's been a long and often mind-numbingly boring Oscar night (especially the acceptance speeches), but we, like Jon Stewart, stuck it out until the bittersweet end. What did everyone think of Stewart as the Oscar host? I was really impressed with Stewart, myself.  I was worried the audience wouldn't be real responsive to his jokes. His brand of humor is political, highbrow and snarky, and I wondered how he would go over with a theater full of insecure movie stars. I loved the Daily Show-style bits they did in-between too, although I think the humor went over the heads of some of the stars. Reese Witherspoon got it, though - she's a smart cookie, don't let the cutesy looks fool you for a second.

Here, for your perusing pleasure, is the list of all the winners and nominees from the major categories (winners are in bold and marked with an asterisk). Give us your thoughts on Oscar night -  the winners, the losers, whose outfits you loved and hated, what you thought of Stewart as the host - whatever your thoughts are, we want to hear them.

 

Dustin Hoffman cruises up to present the award for Best Adapted Screenplay, looking cool. He hasn't changed at all. He must have gotten into Dick Clark's secret youth potion. He gives some props to the losers, which probably doesn't really help make them feel better. But thanks anyhow. If Brokeback wins this it probably won't win Best Picture. The nominees are:

Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Brokeback Mountain
Dan Futterman, Capote
Jeffrey Caine, The Constant Gardener
Josh Olson, A History of Violence
Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, Munich

Let's see who the winner is...

Yup, it's Brokeback Mountain. This is the second minor award for Brokeback Mountain. Annie Proulx is there, but the stupid cameraman pans to Ang Lee instead of her. Okay, so either Brokeback is going to pull a Return of the King and sweep everything -- or it's gonna get shut out on Best Picture and Best Director.  If Crash wins Best Original Screenplay it could still be a toss-up. Munich is getting totally shut out so far - not a good night for Spielberg.

Finally - 2:45 into the show, we get to the biggies. The nominees for best actor are:

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Terrence Howard, Hustle and Flow
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck

Hilary Swank (who, by the way, totally missed the Altman-esque dialogue in his intro - she clearly thought Streep and Tomlin were just really, really off) opens the envelope and surprises not one damn person by announcing that Hoffman wins. Again. Heath, David, Terrence, and Joaquin have grown sick of hearing the same list of thanks as they've been also-rans for the past four months, and are praying to God that he barks them this time. Sadly, he does not. All drunk talk, huh Philip?

Oh, well now he's thanking his mom and I feel bad about mocking him. She watches basketball with him! Right. I want to party with them tonight.