Day: May 26, 2010

Hollywood + Indie Round-up, 5/26

Damp white people playing Persians.

By Jason Apuzzo. • Atlas Shrugged has a shoot date, but no cast.  Ayn Rand suddenly hot in Obama era.  The question is: can a Dagny Taggart franchise compete with The Green Lantern?  Only the free market will tell.

• New rumor has Tarantino interested in Dracula project.  Not enough fake blood in Hollywood for that one.

• Lewinsky scene cut from new movie about Clinton.  That’s what unrated DVD extras are for.

• HuffPo asks why Last Airbender and Prince of Persia have whitewashed, non-ethnic casts.  So nice of them to notice.  I used to worry about this stuff more until James Cameron stopped casting humans, altogether.

• Washington Post columnist compares Tony Stark to Jack Abramoff.  Which is basically why nobody reads The Washington Post.

• Six new superhero flicks to come out over summers 2011-2012: Captain America, Green Lantern, Thor, Spider-Man reboot, Batman 3, The Avengers … have we had enough of this stuff yet?  Instead of a ‘superhero,’ how about just one (1) movie about an average soldier fighting terrorists in Afghanistan.  Just one.

• AND IN MORE SERIOUS NEWS … The SilverDocs fest announced its lineup today.  Among the most interesting entries is the documentary Beyond This Place (see the trailer), which – picking up on the theme mentioned below in Govindini’s piece on Happiness Runs – is another film that takes a harsh look at the legacy of the 60’s-hippie culture.

• More details coming out now in The New York Times about Jafar Panahi’s release.  His bail was apparently (the equivalent of) $200,000.

• There’s a new Indian movie out about the Mumbai terror attacks called 26/11.  We’ll keep an eye out for that one …

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood (and independent cinema) …

Happy Birthday Duke

Big Duke.

By Jason Apuzzo. Today is John Wayne’s birthday, and we would be most remiss if we didn’t remember The Duke for a just a few moments on his big day.  John Wayne was born 103 years ago today in the small town of Winterset, Iowa.  He went on to become the most enduring, popular movie star in history and an icon of American culture worldwide.

Several years ago Govindini and I had the pleasure of meeting the Duke’s family at a screening of the newly restored, 3-D version of Hondo.  They’re delightful people and are doing a wonderful job of preserving the Duke’s legacy for future generations – we wish them the very best, and congratulations to them on this day.

As I mentioned in a Classic Movie Update post from a few days ago, there’s a lot of Duke news to report:

• There’s a 50th anniversary benefit screening of The Alamo this week at John Wayne’s birthplace, with Wayne’s daughter Aissa in attendance.  The benefit event, a fundraiser for the John Wayne Birthplace Museum and Learning Center, takes place over 2 days – May 28th and 29th.  Wayne directed The Alamo himself (with spot 2nd unit direction from John Ford) – a huge, sprawling and satisfying epic, featuring an extraordinary musical score by Dmitri Tiomkin – and The Duke considered it his most important film.  Wayne considered the film a parable of America’s place in the world as the lone outpost of freedom.  The Alamo famously went up against Kirk Douglas’ left-leaning Spartacus at the 1960 Academy Awards.  If you’re anywhere near Wayne’s birthplace of Winterset, Iowa, you should certainly catch this wonderful-looking event – and feel free to purchase your own copy of The Alamo in the LFM Store below.

• In related news, The Criterion Collection has just put out a new, restored version of the John Wayne/John Ford Classic Stagecoach on DVD and Blu-Ray.  You can buy this version in the LFM store above.

• Since I’m in the mood for it, here’s my list of Duke Wayne’s Top 5 films, all available in the LFM store above:

  1. The Searchers
  2. Stagecoach
  3. Red River
  4. Hondo (particularly in 3-D)
  5. The Alamo

Sustainable Fred and the Green Lifestyle

[Editor’s Note: this film short contains some scenes of violence.  Viewer discretion advised.]

By Jason Apuzzo. Continuing on some themes raised by Govindini in her post below “Happiness Runs, Avatar & The Reality Behind Utopian Nature Cults,” we’ve decided to bring you “Sustainable Fred.”  This is a very amusing short by filmmaker Trevor Wild about a young man who’s having a little trouble changing the world through enlightened ‘green living.’  It’s too bad he doesn’t live in Pandora.

I’m not sure today’s environmentalists always realize what kind of impression they create in the midst of their ongoing efforts to dictate how the rest of us live our daily lives (one thinks here of the extremely creepy, unfunny, totalitarian-chic ‘Green Police’ ads run by Audi during the Super Bowl).  These endlessly snotty, moralizing, insufferable do-gooders are essentially whom “Sustainable Fred” is satirizing … and without giving too much away, it’s delicious to see Fred get his comuppance late in this film.

Enjoy.  Bravo to Trevor.