Barbie's Best Accessory: Bright Pink Lawyers

Matty Mattel may pick up quite an entourage soon:

"In the battle of the doll makers, the house that Barbie built won a sweeping court victory Thursday, accessories and all.

A federal jury found that a Mattel Inc. designer created the lucrative Bratz doll concept while he worked at Mattel under an exclusivity contract.

It was a scathing defeat for MGA Entertainment Inc., which introduced the dolls -- known for big heads, pouty lips and bare-midriff outfits -- in 2001."

To read the rest of David Colker's LA Times article, click here.

Barbie Takes Bratz To Court

Apparently, the originator of the wildly successful Bratz doll line was still under contract with Mattel when Barbie's controversial rival was created. Naturally, with so much at stake, the claim is going to court:

"The tiny, fake fur was flying as the Barbie-Bratz court battle wrapped up Thursday, with toy industry giant Mattel Inc. and upstart MGA Entertainment Inc. both claiming ownership of the hugely successful Bratz line of dolls.

MGA, which seven years ago debuted the saucy Bratz doll, has maintained from the May 27 start of the trial that Mattel was trying to unfairly stomp out competition to its faltering Barbie empire.

"For 40 years Barbie was the only doll in town," Tom Nolan, lawyer for Van Nuys-based MGA, said in his closing argument. "And then Bratz came in and knocked her off her pedestal."

Mattel, headquartered in El Segundo, sued in 2004, claiming that Bratz -- known for hip-hugging outfits and bare midriffs that have given some parents fits -- were secretly created by one of its own Barbie designers, Carter Bryant, even though he had an exclusivity contract with the company."

Read the rest of David Colker's LA Times article here.

In Memoriam

Soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.

Name * Rank * Date of death * Age * Home


Alicea, Rivera Rafael Angel * Ssg, Army * 02-05 * 30 * Bayamon, PR

Allmon, William Elliott * Sgt, Army * 04-12 * 25 * Ardmore, OK

Alvarez, Conrad * Sgt, Army * 02-20 * 22 * Big Spring, TX

Anderson, Joshua Roland * Spc, Army * 01-03 * 24 * Jordan, MN

Anderson, Phillip Reid * Sgt, Army * 03-10 * 28 * Everett, WA

Ault, Jesse Adam * Ssg, Army * 04-09 * 28 * Dublin, VA

Baez, Miguel Angel III * Cpl, Army * 02-05 * 32 * Bonaire, GA

Barrett, Chad Alan * Ssg, Army * 02-02 * 35 * Saltville, VA

Bennett, Durrell Lavoy * Cpl, Army * 03-29 * 22 * Spanaway, WA

Birkman, Tracy Renee * Sgt, Army * 01-25 * 41 * New Castle, VA

Bishop, John Thomas * Pfc, Army * 04-23 * 22 * Gaylord, MI

Bitton, Albert * Cpl, Army * 02-20 * 20 * Chicago, IL

Blystone, Ronald Carl * Ssg, Army * 04-23 * 34 * Springfield, MO

Bolander, Bryan Eugene * Ssg, Army * 04-29 * 26 * Bakersfield, CA

Bradley, Juantrea Tyrone * Ssg, Army * 03-12 * 28 * Greenville, NC

Brosh, Benjamin Keith * Cpl, Army * 04-18 * 22 * Colorado Springs, CO

Brown, Jason Logan * Ssg, Army * 04-17 * 29 * Magnolia, TX

Brown, Lerando Junior * Sgt, Army * 03-15 * 27 * Gulfport, MS

To see the full list, click here.

Blogging: A Cautionary Tale (Excerpts)

"Back in 2006, when I was 24, my life was cozy and safe. I had just been promoted to associate editor at the publishing house where I’d been working since I graduated from college, and I was living with my boyfriend, Henry, and two cats in a grubby but spacious two-bedroom apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I spent most of my free time sitting with Henry in our cheery yellow living room on our stained Ikea couch, watching TV. And almost every day I updated my year-old blog, Emily Magazine, to let a few hundred people know what I was reading and watching and thinking about...

...The anecdotes I posted on Emily Magazine occasionally featured Henry, whom my readers knew as a lovably bumbling character, a bassist in a fledgling noise-rock band who said unexpectedly insightful things about the contestants on “Project Runway” and then wondered aloud whether we had any snacks. I didn’t write about him often, but when I did, I’d quote his best jokes or tell stories about vacationing with his family.

Henry, seemingly alone among our generation, went out of his way to keep his online presence minimal. Now that we’ve broken up, I appreciate this about him — it’s pretty much impossible to torture myself by Google-stalking him. But back then, what this meant was that he was never particularly thrilled to be written about. Sometimes he was enraged.

Once, I made fun of Henry for referring to “Project Runway” as “Project Gayway.” He worried that “people” — the shadowy, semi-imaginary people who read my blog and didn’t know Henry well enough to know that he wasn’t a homophobe — would be offended. He insisted that I take down the offending post and watched as I sat at my desk in our bedroom, slowly, grudgingly making the keystrokes necessary to delete what I’d written. As I sat there staring into the screen at the reflection of Henry standing behind me, I burst into tears. And then we were pacing, screaming at each other, through every room of our apartment, facing off with wild eyes and clenched jaws...

...As Henry and I fought, I kept coming back to the idea that I had a right to say whatever I wanted. I don’t think I understood then that I could be right about being free to express myself but wrong about my right to make that self-expression public in a permanent way. I described my feelings in the language of empowerment: I was being creative, and Henry wanted to shut me up. His point of view was just as extreme: I wasn’t generously sharing my thoughts; I was compulsively seeking gratification from strangers at the expense of the feelings of someone I actually knew and loved. I told him that writing, especially writing about myself and my surroundings, was a fundamental part of my personality, and that if he wanted to remain in my life, he would need to reconcile himself to being part of the world I described.

After a standoff, he conceded that I should be allowed to put the post back up. As he sulked in the other room, I retyped what I’d written, feeling vindicated but slightly queasy for reasons I didn’t quite understand yet."

Photo by Elinor Carucci.

To read the rest of Emily Gould's NY Times Magazine article, click here.

A Methodical Construction Of Sprawling Adventure

"LONDON — Any writer who has struggled to 'do the words' would take heart from the self-effacing assessment written for himself by Ian Fleming, the raffish Englishman born 100 years ago this month who became one of the most successful authors of his time through the creation of the world’s best-loved spy, James Bond.

Fleming died in 1964, at 56, of complications from pleurisy after playing a round of golf in Oxfordshire though he had a heavy cold. But the real culprits were years of smoking up to 80 cigarettes a day, and a fondness for drink. Perhaps because of the difficulty he found in resisting life’s indulgences, he adopted a strict writing routine in his last 12 years, the period in which he wrote more than a dozen Bond novels that spawned the multibillion-dollar film franchise.

Rising early for a swim in the aquamarine waters in the cove below his idyllic Jamaican retreat, Goldeneye, Fleming tapped away at his Remington portable typewriter with six fingers for three hours in the morning and an hour in the afternoon — 2,000 words a day, a completed novel in two months, all the while keeping up the sybaritic lifestyle that led Noël Coward, a frequent guest at Goldeneye and no puritan himself, to describe the Fleming household as 'golden ear, nose and throat.'”

Photo: Horst Tappe/Hulton Archive — Getty Images

To read the rest of John F. Burns' NY Times article, click here.

California Supreme Court Approves Same-Sex Marriages

SAN FRANCISCO — Gay and lesbian couples in San Francisco rejoiced Thursday over a California Supreme Court decision affirming their right to marry even as political leaders on both sides of the issue girded for an extended fight in the courts and at the ballot box.

“It’s just amazing to feel like I am a full citizen — I am not a second-class citizen,” said Christmas Laubrile, a nurse, who was with her partner, Alice Heimsoth. “I don’t have to sit in the back of the bus, and I don’t have to take second best.”

Among those celebrating were Gavin Newsom, the city’s mayor, who had set off a fair amount of the national debate over gay marriage in 2004 when he ordered the county clerk to issue licenses to same-sex couples. More than 4,000 couples married, though those unions were later invalidated by lower court decisions.

“What a day for San Francisco, what a day for California, what a day for America, what a day for equality,” Mr. Newsom said before a crowd of several hundred jubilant supporters at San Francisco City Hall.

Photo by Jim Wilson.

To read the rest of Jesse McKinley's NY Times article, click here.

Remake OTD: The Bad Lieutenant

"Nicolas Cage will star in an updated version of 1992's 'The Bad Lieutenant' with Werner Herzog directing, Edward R. Pressman producing and Avi Lerner's Nu Image/Millenium Films financing.

Project, also called 'The Bad Lieutenant,' is due to be announced at Cannes. Production will start in late summer.

The original pic, also produced by Pressman, starred Harvey Keitel and was directed by Abel Ferrara from a screenplay by Ferrara and Zoe Lund. That pic received an NC-17 rating with the depraved title character heavily involved in drugs, gambling, sex and stealing while a New York police officer."

To read the rest of Dave McNary's Variety article, click here.

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Well, you know, there's a franchise there.

Fraggle Movie Moves Forward

"The Weinstein Co. will turn the Jim Henson series 'Fraggle Rock' into a live-action musical feature.

Cory Edwards, who directed the animated 'Hoodwinked!' for TWC, will helm the picture and write the screenplay. The Jim Henson Co. will produce and TWC will distribute.

Just like the series, the film will be populated by a mix of human characters and Fraggle Rock puppets. TWC co-chair Harvey Weinstein, who has been steering his company more aggressively into the family film arena, made the marriage with Lisa Henson, who runs JHC with her co-CEO brother, Brian Henson."

If you want to read the rest of Michael Fleming's Variety article, click here.

Chris Wedge Throws Hat In Live-Action Ring

"Ice Age" helmer Chris Wedge has signed on to direct Brian Selznick's magic-themed children's novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" for Graham King's GK Films, Johnny Depp's Infinitum Nihil and Warner Bros.

"The Aviator" scribe John Logan has been tapped to pen the adaptation.

King and Infinitum Nihil's Christi Dembrowski will produce the live-action film, which centers on an orphaned boy who secretly lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station and looks after the clocks. He gets caught up in a mystery adventure when he attempts to repair a mechanical man.

To read more of Tatiana Siegel's Variety article, click here.

David Silverman Directing For Disney

"David Silverman, who most recently helmed 'The Simpsons Movie,' has signed on to develop and direct 'The Pet,' a live-action sci-fi family comedy for Disney. Scott Rudin and Craig Perry are producing."

To read the rest of Borys Kit and Gregg Goldstein's THR article, click here. Photo by Ronnie Del Carmen.

Congratulations, David! Have fun!

Things That Read Like Onion Articles, But Aren't Dept.

"'My Beautiful Mommy' is aimed at kids ages four to seven and features a plastic surgeon named Dr. Michael (a musclebound superhero type) and a girl whose mother gets a tummy tuck, a nose job and breast implants. Before her surgery the mom explains that she is getting a smaller tummy: 'You see, as I got older, my body stretched and I couldn't fit into my clothes anymore. Dr. Michael is going to help fix that and make me feel better.' Mom comes home looking like a slightly bruised Barbie doll with demure bandages on her nose and around her waist.

The text doesn't mention the breast augmentation, but the illustrations intentionally show Mom's breasts to be fuller and higher. 'I tried to skirt that issue in the text itself,' says Salzhauer. 'The tummy lends itself to an easy explanation to the children: extra skin and can't fit into your clothes. The breasts might be a stretch for a six-year-old.'

The book doesn't explain exactly why the mother is redoing her nose post-pregnancy. Nonetheless, Mom reassures her little girl that the new nose won't just look 'different, my dear—prettier!'"

To read the rest of Karen Springen's Newsweek article, click here

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While I kinda-sorta understand the intention of explaining your hospital visit rather than simply disappearing for a while, there's something about introducing a child to more body image issues (and surgical options) to the four-to-seven set that just seems... wrong.

I think they should change the name of the book to, "Mommy Needs This, Jane". Here's some suggestions for additional page captions:

* Daddy talks with the new secretary a lot.
* Daddy's team leader was pretty, too, but her shirt needed more buttons.
* Daddy's DVDs were weird. Jane had never seen girls like these before.
* Mommy was very quiet. She looked in the mirror all day.
* Doctor Tucker gave Mommy some papers. She signed them really fast.
* He explained to Jane that to make Mommy pretty again, that he had to make her a little sick.
* Mommy's face was different. But it wasn't good-different this time.

Here's a preview of the sequel, "Dick Is Small":

* Daddy looked nervous. Wouldn't Dick rather play with the bigger truck if he could pick?, he said. Well, girls feel that way, too.

Dave Barclay Interview

"Films like Star Wars, Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal were graced with the inventive and imaginative characters brought to life by Dave Barclay. Carole Bouchard had a chance to talk to the puppet master about his unique career.

Now that he has embraced new technology like motion capture, CG and real-time digital puppeteering, he is definitely pioneering an exciting future for a craft that injects real and unique personality into storytelling."

To read the rest of Carole Bouchard's CG Channel interview with my buddy Dave, click here!

Awww!

"What's black and white and warm all over? A penguin in a wetsuit, naturally. Sounds like a joke, but it's quite serious for biologists at the California Academy of Sciences, who had a wetsuit created for an African penguin to help him get back in the swim of things.

Pierre, a venerable 25 years old, was going bald, which left him with an embarrassingly exposed, pale pink behind.

Unlike marine mammals, which have a layer of blubber to keep them warm, penguins rely on their waterproof feathers. Without them, Pierre was unwilling to plunge into the academy's penguin tank and ended up shivering on the sidelines while his 19 peers played in the water.

'He was cold; he would shake,' said Pam Schaller, a senior aquatic biologist at the academy."
To read the rest of Michelle Locke's MSNBC article, click here.

Del Toro To Direct Hobbit Films

"In a major step forward on 'The Hobbit,' Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct the New Line-MGM tentpole and its sequel.

The widely expected announcement -- which had been rumored for several weeks -- came Thursday afternoon jointly from exec producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich, and Mary Parent, newly named chief of MGM’s Worldwide Motion Picture Group.

Del Toro’s moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and Weta production teams. He’ll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel dealing with the 60-year period between 'The Hobbit' and 'The Fellowship of the Ring,' the first of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy."

To read the rest of Dave McNary's Variety article, click here.

Daniel Myrick: Success As Librating Force

“The Blair Witch Project,” the cult hit released in 1999, ends without ending, but the viewer is pretty sure that what follows after the abrupt camera cut is quite grim. And one of the people who never seemed to make it back from those dark, awful woods was Daniel Myrick, the film’s co-director.

Mr. Myrick spurned the Hollywood blandishments that came his way in the film’s aftermath, instead charting his own course, including a few straight-to-video projects that did not remotely approach the culture-tilting or commercial impact of “Blair Witch,” his first feature. But despite the jokes — and articles — about “The Curse of the Blair Witch,” Mr. Myrick never became frantic about the next big thing.

To read the rest of David Carr's New York Times article, click here.

Remake OTD: The Fury

Fox 2000 is set to bring Brian De Palma’s “The Fury” back to the bigscreen.

The label has tapped Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman to pen a contemporary reimagining of the 1978 supernatural horror film.

New version will center on a young man with heightened kinetic powers who is abducted by the government in order to take advantage of his special gifts.

To read the rest of Tatiana Siegel's Variety article, click here.

Mighty Atom Gains Weight

"Forget the svelte little feller capable of soaring through the skies and 100,000 horsepower strength: the roly-poly latest incarnation of Japan's most famous cartoon character of all is more like LardAss-tro Boy, according to Shukan Shincho (4/10).

In a collaboration with decorated illustrator Lily Franky, Tezuka Productions has produced a version of Astro Boy (known as 'Mighty Atom' in Japan) with fleshy jowls and a belly that wouldn't look out of place on Japan's other icons, sumo wrestlers."

Read the rest of Ryann Connell's Manichi Daily News article here.

Joe Simon, 94, Appearing At New York Comic Con

“'Living legend' is how Joe Simon is categorized on the list of special guests appearing at the New York Comic Con at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center this weekend. Mr. Simon, 94, has a different take on it. 'I call it the old-geezer table,' he said during a recent interview at his Midtown Manhattan apartment.

Mr. Simon will take part in the 'Legends Behind the Comic Books' panel at 3 p.m. on Friday, one of numerous events planned at the convention, a three-day celebration of all things comics.

Mr. Simon earned the 'legend' title with his partner Jack Kirby by creating Captain America, the superhero who arrived in December 1940, just in time to play a patriotic foil to the Axis powers. The cover of the first issue even has the good captain socking Hitler in the jaw.

For Mr. Simon and Mr. Kirby, though, the biggest blow came when they were dismissed from the series, which had been selling a million copies a month, in a dispute over royalties. The team moved to Detective Comics (today DC Comics), but Captain America stayed with Timely, the forerunner of Marvel Comics.

It’s a tale worthy of its own comic (and one of many inspirations for Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'): On the frontier of a new industry, writers and artists creating scores of characters, but publishers profiting from them."

To read the rest of George Gene Gustine's New York Times article, click here.

And Then There Were None: Ollie Johnston, 1912 - 2008

Ollie Johnston, the last of Walt Disney's legendary animators dubbed "The Nine Old Men", died today at the age of ninety-six. His work has inspired legions of animators, cartoonists and fans alike.

Condolences to his friends and family.

UPDATE: If you'd like to read Charles Solomon's New York Times obituary for Mr. Johnston, click here.

Roger Ebert Retires From Television

"WHAT is film criticism? This may sound like a lofty philosophical question, but I suspect to most people it has a down-to-earth, empirical answer. Film criticism is two guys (and usually it is guys) arguing: shifting in their seats, rolling their eyes, pointing fingers and interrupting, and every now and then agreeing. Or that’s the way it looks on television at least.

One of the guys who made it look that way, who made the crazy idea that movie critics could thrive on TV seem like a no-brainer, recently announced his departure from the airwaves. On April 1 Roger Ebert published a letter to readers of The Chicago Sun-Times that was essentially a farewell to the long-running, widely syndicated weekly program that has made him not simply the best-known movie reviewer in America, but the virtual embodiment of this curious profession.

But the real news in Mr. Ebert’s letter was his return to regular written criticism. A recurrence of cancer of the salivary gland in the summer of 2006 might have left him unable to speak — a problem recent surgery failed to solve — but he has hardly lost his voice."

To read the rest of A. O. Scott's article, click here.

Photo by Associated Press.

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Isn't that picture fantastic? It really kicks my already overactive nostalgia into overdrive!

Copyright Law Under Siege

"As an artist, you have to read this article or you could lose everything you've ever created!

An Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of time, or by lack of proper registration. In the same way that an orphaned child loses the protection of his or her parents, your creative work can become an orphan for others to use without your permission.

Currently, you don't have to register your artwork to own the copyright. You own a copyright as soon as you create something. International law also supports this. Right now, registration allows you to sue for damages, in addition to fair value.

What makes me so MAD about this new legislation is that it legalizes THEFT! The only people who benefit from this are those who want to make use of our creative works without paying for them and large companies who will run the new private copyright registries.

These registries are companies that you would be forced to pay in order to register every single image, photo, sketch or creative work.

It is currently against international law to coerce people to register their work for copyright because there are so many inherent problems with it. But because big business can push through laws in the United States, our country is about to break with the rest of the world, again, and take your rights away.

With the tens of millions of photos and pieces of artwork created each year, the bounty for forcing everyone to pay a registration fee would be enormous. We lose our rights and our creations, and someone else makes money at our expense.

This includes every sketch, painting, photo, sculpture, drawing, video, song and every other type of creative endeavor. All of it is at risk!"

To find out more, read the rest of Mark Simon's AWN article here.

Illustration by Jon Hofferman.

UPDATE: It's worth double-checking, but I've heard that this is old news - that the bill has been voted down already. Can anyone confirm that?

Remake OTD: Wuthering Heights

"Natalie Portman is attached as the lead in a new film version of 'Wuthering Heights.'

Olivia Hetreed ('Girl With a Pearl Earring') wrote the script.

The most recent bigscreen adaptation of Emily Bronte's classic matched Ralph Fiennes with Juliette Binoche, but the Goldwyn release grossed just $624,643 in 1989."

Read the rest of Dade Hayes' Variety article here.

Remake OTD: Stanno Tutti Bene/Everybody's Fine

"Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell are set to star in the Kirk Jones-directed 'Everybody's Fine.'

The remake of the Giuseppe Tornatore film 'Stanno Tutti Bene' was written by Jones. He came aboard when the redo was first set up by Hollywood Gang Prods. and Cecchi Gori USA (Daily Variety, March 16, 2006).

De Niro will play a widower who realizes that his deceased wife was his only connection to his children. He decides on a whim to take a road trip to reconnect with each of his grown kids, discovering that their lives are far from perfect."

To read the rest of Micheal Fleming's article, click here.

Remake OTD: Short Circuit

"Dimension Films is rewiring 'Short Circuit,' acquiring rights to remake the 1986 film.

S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, who created the characters and wrote both 'Short Circuit' films, have been hired to write the remake. David Foster and Ryan E. Heppe will produce with John Hyde."

Read the rest of the article here.

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Wow, the eighties are back with a vengeance! I guess 'Saturn 3' will be next.

Sooner Or Later, Everyone Remakes Rick's

"It is one of the greatest films of Hollywood's golden era, a triple Oscar-winning classic with electrifyingly charismatic stars and a script bursting with memorable lines.

But now Madonna has stunned the movie industry with plans to remake Casablanca – and this time set it in Iraq.

The singer, whose previous film career has been littered with critical and commercial turkeys, is also planning to take the lead role of Ilsa Lund, which originally made a star of Ingrid Bergman."

Read the rest of the Daily Mail article here.

Al Jaffee, Still Folding In

"If you were young at any time in the last 44 years, you know the fold-in: the feature on the inside of Mad’s back cover that poses a question whose answer is found by folding the page in thirds. September 1978: “What colorful fantastic creature is still being exploited even after it has wiggled and died?” A picture of a garish butterfly, folded, becomes an equally garish Elvis.

The fold-ins these days are as full of youth culture as ever. (March 2008: “What major star has recently admitted receiving illegal career-damaging human growth injections?” And a picture that looks as if it’s going to be Roger Clemens folds to become Jamie Lynn Spears, pregnant.) So the first thing that strikes you when Mr. Jaffee greets you at the door of his studio on the East Side of Manhattan is his age. This man, still credibly negotiating the milieu of teenagers, is 87."

-- Neil Genzlinger, from his New York Times article. Read the rest here!

Photo by Librado Romero.

PS - Be sure and try the cool interactive fold-in retrospective!

The Evidence Of D.B. Cooper?

"The worn parachute that children found while playing on their family’s property in rural southwestern Washington this month may be the one that D. B. Cooper used on that mysterious night in 1971 when he carried out what the authorities call the only unsolved hijacking in United States history.

Then again, maybe not." -- William Yardley, NY Times

If you're as curious as I was, you can read the rest of the article here.

David Lean's Centenary

"And so we are left with a galling irony: on March 25th, almost none of us will see “Lawrence” on the big screen. That is its natural habitat—the only place, you might say, where its proud and leonine presence has any meaning. Anything more cramped is a cage, as Jon Stewart showed during this year’s Oscar ceremony. At one point, we found him gazing at his iPhone. “I’m watching ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’ It’s just awesome,” he said, adding, “To really appreciate it, you have to see it in the wide screen.” And he turned the phone on its side. Deserts of vast eternity, reduced to three inches by two." -- Anthony Lane

Read the whole article here.

Where Is John Hughes?

"JOHN HUGHES hasn't set foot in Hollywood for years, but his influence has never been more potent. The king of 1980s comedy, Hughes now qualifies as something of a Howard Hughes-style recluse -- he doesn't have an agent, doesn't give interviews and lives far away, somewhere in Chicago's sprawling North Shore suburbs where most of his films were set."

I'm not the biggest fan of his films, but this is an interesting article. Read the rest of it here.

"They're Young, They're Beautiful, They Kill People"

"I was arguing with Jack Warner about 'Bonnie and Clyde,' and he said to me, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine, kid, that's your opinion.' Then he says, 'You have your opinion, but you do know whose name is up on the water tower, right?' So I said, 'Yeah, hey, look, it's got my initials!' "

-- Warren Beatty, qouted from Geoff Boucher's great LA Times article about the genesis and impact of Bonnie & Clyde. Read it here!

Remake OTD: The Wolfman

"...with this film, when I first found out they were going to do it, I went and talked to somebody I know at Universal. I said, 'You've got to let me do this! I'll do some really cool stuff.'"

-- Rick Baker, on campaigning to do makeup on Joe Johnston's The Wolfman.

There's a great interview at ew.com with preview photos. Check it out!

Scott Pilgrim Movie On The Way

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Cera ponders 'Life' with Universal
By Borys Kit - March 19, 2008

Michael Cera is in final negotiations to star in "Scott Pilgrim's Little Life" for Universal.

Edgar Wright is directing the adventure romance, which is being produced by Marc Platt and Eric Gitter. Wright and Nina Park also are producing.

"Life" tells the story of a young slacker (Cera) who meets the woman of his dreams but finds that he can only win her heart by battling and defeating her seven evil ex-boyfriends.

The project is based on the Oni Press graphic novel "Scott Pilgrim Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life," written by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Michael Bacall and Wright wrote the screenplay.

Cera and Wright had mutual admiration for each other's work, which manifested itself when Wright stepped in to act alongside Cera and Jonah Hill in a viral promo for "Superbad"; Wright acted as a snarky interviewer to an exasperated Cera and Hill.

The studio is eyeing a fall start.

Cera is filming the Judd Apatow-produced "Year One" with Jack Black. He next shoots "Youth in Revolt" for Dimension, with Miguel Arteta directing.

He is repped by Paradigm, Thruline Entertainment and attorney Jamie Feldman.

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Congratulations, Mr. O'Malley! A "Pilgrim" movie could be a lot of fun!

Thanks to I Watch Stuff! for the tip-off.

Lost Sleeping Beauty Art Comes Home

"A Japanese university plans to return about 250 pieces of original animation art to the Walt Disney Company that were mislaid in storage after traveling to Japan nearly five decades ago.

Disney said that the art — cels, backgrounds, preliminary paintings and storyboard sketches — was part of a collection that was handpicked by Walt Disney himself. It was sent to Japan in 1960 for a touring exhibition timed to the opening of the film 'Sleeping Beauty.' The exhibition opened at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo in May of that year and traveled to 16 other stores throughout Japan."

To read the rest of Charles Solomon's article, click here.

Remake OTD: Dune