By Jason Apuzzo. • Red finished only second at the box office this past weekend, and I would be more pleased about that if it weren’t for the fact that Jackass 3D finished at #1, taking in some $50 million. I can’t even begin to describe how depressing that is. Silver lining: at least we won’t have to hear more bloviating about how Willis and Stallone have ‘revived the action genre.’
• Easily the juiciest rumor out of Hollywood late last week was the potential pairing of Angelina Jolie and James Cameron on a huge, 3D Cleopatra biopic epic – with the project to be based on Stacy Schiff’s book, Cleopatra: A Life. There are about a thousand different things I could say on this subject, but here’s what holds me back: the fact that James Cameron (or one of his many doubles) is currently attached to about a 1000 different projects right now, so who knows whether this particular one will ever happen? I’ve otherwise embedded a video above of Stacy Schiff describing her biography of Cleopatra. There are several concerns I have about her approach – perhaps you can guess them? – but there’s not much more to say, really, until this proposed Jolie-Cameron pairing becomes an actual, going concern. [Jolie, incidentally, just got her film permit back to shoot her indie film drama in Bosnia.] Also: I can only imagine how impatient Fox’s executives must be right now regarding their Avatar sequels …
• Brigitte Bardot is back in the news. Bardot is thinking of running for President of France, because Nicholas Sarkozy apparently hasn’t kept his promise to crack down on the ritual Islamic practice of slaughtering animals for halal meat (!). She also thinks Carla Bruni is “as beautiful as she is badly brought up,” and that Sarah Palin is “disconcertingly stupid.” Ouch. I’ve always been a big fan of BB – what male isn’t? – but there’s such a thing as retiring gracefully, and BB perhaps should think about more elegantly easing her way off the stage …
In the spirit of 3D film projects centered around glamorous women, however, I’ve put up a 3D picture of France’s great blonde for our readers’ general delectation. You’ll need your red/blue anaglyphic 3D glasses to enjoy this picture properly.
• In other news on the Political front, Oliver Stone does another interview about Wall Street 2; Shia LaBeouf is apparently interested in playing Lee Atwater in College Republicans; Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s The Accordian just opened the Abu Dhabi Film Festival; and McG apparently wants to do a movie about Christopher Columbus. McG?! This improbable project would apparently be done “300-style” and would be funded by Virgin’s Richard Branson, who must a lot of money to burn. [Sigh.]
• It now seems that the Christian audience did not go out in droves to see Disney’s Secretariat. This doesn’t surprise me, because there’s actually very little Christian content in the film. As I’ve said before, Disney really should’ve marketed this film more to women.
• Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films have finally been greenlit, and there are already casting rumors floating around. You know what I’m even more interested in seeing, though? A little Norwegian indie flick called The Troll Hunter that just got picked up for distribution by Magnolia and is getting all sorts of buzz. I’ve embedded the trailer below – it’s looks cheeky, provocative and thrilling.
We’ve been covering these little indie sci-fi bootstrap projects for months here at Libertas – whether it’s Monsters or Skyline or Iron Sky or The Mercury Men or The Third Letter or Pioneer One. This is clearly the new wave, the next mode in which indie filmmakers are breaking through to the mainstream, and sometimes dealing with controversial subjects. Check out the trailer below – it’s a hoot.
• On the Superhero front, the new Christopher Nolan/Zack Snyder Superman will apparently be an ‘origins’ story (yawn), and there’s no confirmation that General Zod will appear at all. Snyder is also talking about some of the boffo action sequences planned for his latest project with Frank Miller, Xerxes, which is the 300 ‘prequel.’ Also: The Lizard will apparently be the new villain for Spider-Man, and there are some new stills out for the forthcoming Conan movie that’s currently being retro-fitted into 3D.
• I’m very excited about Apocalypse Now coming to Blu-ray. Check out this LA Times article for some of the interesting new elements included in the set.
• As usual there’s a lot of news on the Sci-Fi/Alien Invasion front. We may have a Cowboys & Aliens trailer by Christmas; Luc Besson says his massive new sci-fi project will be like The Fifth Element “to the power of ten”; Sigourney Weaver may be back for Avatar 2; there’s another new behind-the-scenes look at Skyline; someone’s now going to be doing what’s described as an ‘Area 51 comedy’; there are interesting rumors circulating about Guillermo del Toro’s potential involvement in a huge, creature-invasion project (a lá Monsters) called Pacific Rim, which may or may not morph into the Godzilla reboot; a new poster for the Disney/Robert Zemeckis Mars Needs Moms is out; some great pictures from the new The Making of the Empire Strikes Back book are now online; and, unfortunately, Alec Baldwin has just been cast in Men in Black 3D – making it even less likely that I’ll be seeing that film. [When will people in Hollywood understand how roundly despised he is?]
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … there were some big developments on Mad Men this past weekend – which we won’t spoil now, but will deal with later on in the week here at Libertas – but for now we wanted to take a look at actress Jessica Paré, who apparently will be a very busy woman on the show next season …
And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood.
Posted on October 18th, 2010 at 8:09pm.
I think the Fox executives need to temper their desire for an Avatar sequel. I don’t think it can repeat the original’s box office. Most everyone I heard that went to see it said the graphics were unbelievable and there was just so much rich detail but when I asked them about the story they just kind of shrugged. I told them Pixar movies have great graphics and rich details, but you get a great story thrown in for no extra charge. They didn’t like that. Avatar fanboys are already equally as loyal as Star Wars and Star Trek. Amazing, or sad depending on whether or not you worry that the world is eventually going to run out of mothers’ basements for them to inhabit.
I think Xerxes is bound to be the most controversial film in quite some time. His Man-God arrogance is going to be an interesting story regardless, but against the backdrop of USA’s own Man-God Obama, it’s going to be doubly interesting. If Miller delivers for freedom loving people everywhere like he did with 300, be prepared to defend Xerxes against charges of racism and claims of being part of the Birther movement. In other words, the same thing you have to defend any right leaning movie from! Hmm, gives me an idea for a blog post…
On Avatar: Cameron is really dragging the sequels out, and even he has already said they may not arrive until 2014 or later. What he doesn’t seem to grasp is that George Lucas and Peter Jackson needed to keep up punishing schedules in order to deliver their sequels on time. Cameron has never actually had to do that, for all the many projects he’s done. Of course, Lucas and Jackson already knew where their stories were going; I’m not sure if that’s true for Cameron.
On Xerxes: it seems that project is on Snyder’s back-burner, now that he has Superman to do. It’s a pity, actually, because I’d much prefer seeing Xerxes to another Superman reboot.
At least Brigitte Bardot isn’t going quietly! I don’t exactly agree with her, but there’s something about having the moxie to say you’re going to run for President of France. I mean, why not? Who would have thought five years ago that Carla Bruni would be First Lady of France? It’ll at least shake things up if Bardot runs, that’s for sure. And look at all the great publicity it’s already getting her!
Whatever else, France certainly seems colorful these days – and I’d happily trade First Ladies.
Carla Bruni may be vastly more attractive, but if the fate of America ever hinges on the ability of the first lady to open a pickle jar, you’ll be glad that Michelle Obama is on the job.
That’s an odd way to put it, JIC. Is there some pickle jar-opening incident I’m not aware of?
Did you miss my joke, or am I missing yours?
I assumed it was a joke … but I was also wondering whether there was some specific, odd thing that Bruni had done lately … because sometimes she does those things. 🙂
“There are several concerns I have about her approach – perhaps you can guess them?”
The emphasis on sexuality…?
What we have here are three issues, as far as I’m concerned:
1) A trendy impulse toward historical revisionism.
2) A tedious desire to ‘de-romanticize’ Cleopatra’s sexual allure, which is in large measure why we remain fascinated by her in the first place.
3) This weird notion that Cleopatra was trying to ‘protect’ Egypt from Rome, when in fact all she was trying to do was protect her own rulership of Egypt. The author seems weirdly unfazed by the fact that Egypt was a monarchy while Rome was, at least nominally, still democratic.
Yeah, all history framed in colonialism and anti-Western terms.