Wes Anderson: Absentee Director

Fur flies on 'Mr. Fox' -- latimes.com

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Sony Prepares To Pick Up Doctor Parnassus

VARIETY: 'Parnassus' finds Stateside buyer

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The Walking Dead: Coming To AMC?

VARIETY: Frank Darabont circles zombies
AMC attacks comic series adaptation - By CYNTHIA LITTLETON Posted: Tue., Aug. 11, 2009, 8:00pm PT

AMC is venturing into zombie-drama territory with multi-hyphenate Frank Darabont.

Cabler is close to finalizing one of the richest development deals ever with Darabont to write and direct a series adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel series "The Walking Dead," penned by Robert Kirkman. Gale Anne Hurd of Valhalla Motion Pictures and David Alpert of Circle of Confusion are also on board to exec produce.

Project is set among a group of zombie survivors of an apocalypse who are led by a police officer, Rick Grimes, in search of a safe place to live. Numerous editions of the "Walking Dead" graphic novels have been published since 2003.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

'70s Flashback: 'Squeaky' Fromme To Be Freed

CNN: After 34 years, Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme to be released
By Ashley Hayes - updated 2:45 p.m. EDT, Wed August 5, 2009

(CNN) -- The president she once pointed a gun at has been dead for nearly three years, and her longtime idol and leader, Charles Manson, remains in prison.

However, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme is about to get her first taste of real freedom in more than three decades.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Fromme, now 60, is set to be released on parole August 16.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Article ©2009 CNN. Photo by Vernon Merritt III, ©Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.

John Hughes, 1950 - 2009

VARIETY: Director John Hughes dies at 59 - by Pat Saperstein

"John Hughes, who captured the zeitgeist of 1980s teen life as writer-director of The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles and produced and scripted family hits such as Home Alone, died Thursday of a heart attack in Manhattan while taking a walk. He was 59.

After an impressive string of hits -- Home Alone is one of the top-grossing live-action comedies of all time -- Hughes, who never won a major show business award, stopped directing in 1991 and virtually retired from filmmaking a few years later, working on his farm in northern Illinois."

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Siegel Heirs Lose Latest Superman Lawsuit

VARIETY: Warner Bros. wins 'Superman' case
Siegel heirs can only pursue DC Comics profits
By DAVE MCNARY - Posted: Wed., Jul. 8, 2009, 7:15pm PT

Warner Bros. and DC Comics have won a favorable ruling in the suit filed by the heirs of "Superman" co-creator Jerome Siegel.

In a decision announced Wednesday, U.S. Judge District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson found that the license fees the studio paid to corporate sibling DC Comics didn't represent "sweetheart" deals as they weren't below fair market value. That means the heirs will be able seek profits only from DC Comics -- which earned $13.6 million from Warner Bros. for the 2006 release of "Superman Returns" -- rather than from Warner Bros. as well.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Superman ©DC Comics.

Article excerpt ©REI.

Micheal Jackson Dies At 50

VARIETY: Michael Jackson Dies - King of Pop suffered heart attack in Los Angeles
by Pat Saperstein - 2:09 pm PT

Michael Jackson, the worldwide pop sensation was pronounced dead Thursday afternoon. He was 50.

According to reports on the Los Angeles Times' web site, Jackson was rushed midday Thursday from his home to a Los Angeles hospital, where he could not be revived.

Jackson was attempting a comeback after years of tabloid headlines, most notably his trial and acquittal on child molestation charges. He had been scheduled to perform 50 sell-out concerts at London's 02 arena from next week to March 2010.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

First Stills From Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland

slashfilm.com has a few beautiful stills from Tim Burton's new version of Alice In Wonderland. There's some pictures of the main characters, as well as a couple of pieces of concept art.

I feel confident that the film will look amazing, but Alice is such an episodic story that it's going to be a tough nut to crack. It sounds like this film (like many Burton adaptations) will be taking a lot of liberties:

"... the film is actually a sequel to the original story, and follows Alice, now 17 years old, as she escapes from a snooty party and follows a white rabbit down a hole, back to Wonderland. The White Rabbit is convinced that he has the right girl, the one who had visited the magical land ten years prior. But Alice doesn’t remember her past visit to Wonderland."

We'll see... check out the links and enjoy!

Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures, Yahoo! Movies and slashfilm.com.

LA Gossip Examiner: Tom Hanks - Will produce, direct and star in 3D animated Woody Woodpecker film?

LA GOSSIP EXAMINER: Tom Hanks - Will produce, direct and star in 3D animated Woody Woodpecker film?

I highly doubt this is true, but it's the weirdest rumor I've run across in a while!

Comic book cover scan from sawlady.com.
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Nichols At MoMA

NYTIMES.COM: Mike Nichols, Master of Invisibility
By CHARLES McGRATH -- Published: April 10, 2009
Photo by Tony Cenicola

MIKE NICHOLS, the subject of a two-week retrospective starting Tuesday at the Museum of Modern Art, is not an obvious choice for a place as artsy and highbrow as the MoMA film department. MoMA retrospectives tend to be awarded to brooding European auteurs — Milos Forman was the last one, and Bernardo Bertolucci is scheduled for next year — and not to commercial Hollywood directors who include on their résumé pop hits like “Working Girl,” “The Birdcage” and, just recently, “Charlie Wilson’s War.”

Except for a puzzling string of duds in the mid-’70s, almost all of Mr. Nichols’s movies have made money, and a few, like “The Graduate” and “Carnal Knowledge,” have been recognized as cultural landmarks. But because of their commercial shimmer, their way of eliciting exceptional performances by top-of-the-line stars, it’s sometimes hard to say what makes a Nichols movie a Nichols movie. They seem like vehicles for actors, not the director, whose stamp is in leaving almost no trace of himself.

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To read the rest of the article, click here.

It's interesting... I would've thought that "The Graduate", "Who's Afraid Of Virgina Woolf?" and "Carnal Knowledge" alone would have sufficient highbrow cachet to merit a MoMA retrospective. But they still made too much money? Sheesh!

"The King" Draws The Prisoner!

Until about a week ago, I'd had no idea that this Prisoner comic existed! It makes sense that the tone and content of the show would appeal to him. The comic was never completed, but it's still interesting to see bits of Portmeirion and Number Six as seen through Kirby's eyes.

There's two great blog posts about this already, so I'll just link you to them - pages at hyperdave's Datajunkie blog, and more pages (with an analysis) by Charles Hatfield at twomorrows.com. Enjoy!

Thanks to The Jack Kirby Collector magazine, hyperdave, Charles Hatfield, amctv.com, and Karen Prell for the tip-off!

Be seeing you.

Ground Control To Major Tom (Mason)

VARIETY: Tom Hanks circles 'Major' toy story
Universal developing live-action 'Matt Mason'
By MICHAEL FLEMING - Posted: Tue., Mar. 24, 2009, 8:00pm PT

Universal will develop "Major Matt Mason," a live-action feature based on the vintage Mattel action figure. Pic will be developed as a star vehicle for Tom Hanks, and Graham Yost will write the script.

Playtone partners Hanks and Gary Goetzman will produce.

The toy line originated in 1966; Mason led an astronaut team that worked on the moon and lived in a space station. The toy was a hit in the buildup to the first manned moon mission. Mattel retired the line in the 1970s.
To read the rest of the article, click here.

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"Apollo 13" and "From The Earth To The Moon" covered this terrain, but hey, if I could do more astronaut movies, I would too!

Dick Tracy Locked Up In Warren Beatty's House?

AWN.COM: Beatty Sued Over Dick Tracy Rights
REUTERS - March 23, 2009

In an effort to regain the motion picture and TV rights to DICK TRACY, Tribune Media Services is suing Warren Beatty, reports REUTERS. In papers filed last week, Tribune states that Beatty "wrongly claims" the rights exclusively.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

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If Beatty hasn't done anything with the property in over ten years, he might want to consider selling it back to Tribune (though if the larger company's bankrupt, that doesn't really work). I guess it depends on whether or not Tribune Media Services sold Beatty all of the "Tracy" rights exclusively and indefinitely.

I'm assuming that Tribune wants the property back so they can try and generate revenue, though they'll have to dig deeper into the hole in order to get some cash coming in. I really like the comic strip, but how many fans of it are left at this point?

EXX-TERRR-MINN-AAAATE--

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK: Dr. Who Dalek found in pond
Last Updated: 8:34AM GMT
04 Mar 2009 - Photo by SOLENT

The group had already fished out an old table football game and a skateboard when they bumped into the Dalek head, which was covered in weeds.

Sales executive Marc Oakland was pushing a rake around the bed of the shallow pool when he found the object with its distinctive eye stalk.

The 42-year-old said: "I'd just shifted a tree branch with my foot when I noticed something dark and round slowly coming up to the surface.

"I got the shock of my life when a Dalek head bobbed up right in front of me."

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Doesn't this feel like the ending of a time-loop Dalek story? Dude, smash that thing before it reactivates!

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Farewell, Travel View-Master Reels

GOOGLENEWS.COM: View-Master 3-D travel reels head into the sunset
By DOUG WHITEMAN

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Amber LaPointe's introduction to one of the country's greatest tourist attractions came from small square pictures on a white wheel.

"It was like you could look into a world away," said the 28-year-old from Toledo, Ohio. "My only image of the Grand Canyon was from the View-Master."

The iconic reels of tourist attractions, often packaged with a clunky plastic viewer and first sold to promote 3-D photography, are ending their 70-year run after years of diminishing sales.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Double Oscar Winner Not Exactly A Fan

THE INDEPENDENT: Forgotten golden girl of the Oscars
In the 1930s Luise Rainer won Best Actress Oscars in successive years. Gerard Gilbert meets a movie legend
Friday, 20 February 2009

One former Academy Award winner who won't be watching the Oscars this Sunday – and not just because she is almost deaf and no longer bothers with television – is the 99-year-old actress Luise Rainer. "All that ballyhoo... all these long speeches, thanking the grandparents and the great-grandparents... No, I find it very boring", she says in her German-accented English. You can only feel thankful that Rainer was spared Kate Winslet's simpering breakdown at the Golden Globes last month.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Bloom County Heading Your Way. All Of It.

IDWPUBLISHING.COM: Bloom County Library to Collect Entire Run of Classic American Comic Strip - San Diego, February 4, 2009

IDW Publishing is pleased to announce the forthcoming release of The Bloom County Library. Beginning in October 2009, each of the five volumes will collect nearly two years worth of daily and Sunday strips, in chronological order. This will be the very first time that many of these comic strips have been collected, and the first time in a beautifully designed, hardcover format. The books will be part of IDW's Library of American Comics imprint, and designed by Eisner Award-winner Dean Mullaney.

"Fans have pestered me for years," said Berkeley Breathed, "for this ultimate BloomCounty collection in that polite, respectful badgering way that only fans can manage. Thank God I can now tell them something better than just 'please remove your tent from my lawn.' I can say, 'It's coming!"

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Production Begins On Secret Of The Unicorn

VARIETY: Bell, Craig to star in 'Tintin'
Steven Spielberg sets cast for trilogy
By TATIANA SIEGEL - Posted: Mon., Jan. 26, 2009, 3:45pm PT

Steven Spielberg has set his cast for "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn," the first installment in the 3-D motion-capture trilogy that Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment are co-financing.

"Billy Elliot" thesp Jamie Bell will star as the titular character, an intrepid young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure. Daniel Craig will co-star as the nefarious Red Rackham.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

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Refresh my memory here. Is "Secret of the Unicorn" a title of one of the original books, or is "Red Rackham's Treasure" being adapted under a different title?

Another Tom & Jerry Movie On The Way

VARIETY: Tom and Jerry head to the bigscreen
Warner Bros. playing cat and mouse game
By MARC GRASER - Posted: Wed., Jan. 21, 2009, 9:00pm PT

Warner Bros. is turning to Tom and Jerry to create its own "Alvin and the Chipmunks"-like family franchise.

Plans are to bring the constantly warring cat and mouse to life as CG characters that run around in live-action settings.

Studio-based Dan Lin, currently producing the upcoming "Sherlock Holmes" and exec producer on "Terminator: Salvation," will adapt the classic Hanna-Barbera property as an origin story that reveals how Tom and Jerry first meet and form their rivalry before getting lost in Chicago and reluctantly working together during an arduous journey home.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Watchmen Legal Wrinkles Ironed Out

VARIETY: WB, Fox make deal for 'Watchmen'
Warner to open superhero film March 6
By MICHAEL FLEMING, DAVE MCNARY
Posted: Thurs., Jan. 15, 2009, 7:33pm PT

Warner Bros. and Fox have settled their very public battle over "Watchmen." A deal has been hammered out that that gives WB some face-saving points, but which gives Fox the equivalent of a movie star’s gross participation.

Warner Bros. gets the right to open its superhero pic on March 6 as planned, and Fox's logo will not be on the film, sources said.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Salinger At Ninety

NY TIMES: Still Paging Mr. Salinger
By CHARLES MCGRATH
Published: December 30, 2008

On Thursday, J. D. Salinger turns 90. There probably won’t be a party, or if there is we’ll never know. For more than 50 years Mr. Salinger has lived in seclusion in the small town of Cornish, N.H. For a while it used to be a journalistic sport for newspapers and magazines to send reporters up to Cornish in hopes of a sighting, or at least a quotation from a garrulous local, but Mr. Salinger hasn’t been photographed in decades now and the neighbors have all clammed up. He’s been so secretive he makes Thomas Pynchon seem like a gadabout.

Mr. Salinger’s disappearing act has succeeded so well, in fact, that it may be hard for readers who aren’t middle-aged to appreciate what a sensation he once caused.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Jack and Ben Shut Down, Layoff At Laika

OREGONLIVE.COM: Laika lays off 65, shelves CG film
by Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian
Wednesday December 17, 2008, 2:29 PM

Laika, Phil Knight's Portland animation studio, laid off 65 people today as it pulled the plug on a long-gestating film.

"Jack and Ben's Animated Adventure" was a computer-generated feature once slated to be Laika's second film. The first movie, a stop-motion picture called "Coraline," is due in theaters Feb. 6.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

What If... Brad Bird Had Directed The Spirit?

LA TIMES: 'The Spirit' movie that could have been
by Steven Paul Leiva - 11:55 AM PT, Dec 12 2008

For every movie that makes it to the screen, there are a thousand projects that fall to the wayside. Later this month, "The Spirit," finally, hits theaters after plenty of failed attempts. Steven Paul Leiva was a key figure in one of those failed attempts and in this guest essay for Hero Complex he talks about the film that could have been.

Frank Miller’s film version of Will Eisner’s innovative 1940s comic book, “The Spirit” opens on Christmas Day. It will be stylistic and hyper-visual, a hoped-for perfect melding of film and “sequential art,” a term coined by Eisner. What it will not be, however, is revolutionary. Comic book movies are now the meat and potatoes -- not to mention several side vegetables -- of Hollywood. And even its green screen, scene-simulation style is just part of a Miller continuum that started with “Sin City.”

But if the world had turned a little differently, if fate had been a little kinder, a “Spirit” feature film would have debuted in the 1980s that would not only have been revolutionary but -- those of us involved in it were convinced -- a huge hit, possibly the first $100 million-grossing animated feature. And the futures of such filmmakers as Brad Bird, Gary Kurtz, John Musker and John Lasseter might have taken alternative paths.

For the rest of the article, click here.

Thanks to Cartoon Brew for the tip!

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.