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.

'And That's The Way It Is'

Walter Cronkite, the iconic face and voice of television news for generations, died yesterday from complications of dementia. He was 92.

Like many people my age for whom television was no longer a novelty but a fixture, 'Uncle Walter' was a news anchor in the truest sense of the word - he simply was the evening news. He was called 'The most trusted man in America', and that was certainly true for me.

The office of president was called into question when I was nine years old, but in my eyes Walter Cronkite's integrity and professionalism were ironclad throughout his entire life. For him, a breach of etiquette meant a break in his voice when he announced that President Kennedy had been shot.

He has been called one of the first celebrity anchormen, and while he certainly was one of (if not the) most recognizable and beloved figures on television, it was clear that there was years of news reporting behind his objective presence.

His oft-mimicked delivery was as iconic as those of Walter Winchell or Edward R. Murrow. His reassuring presence was a sincere comfort in troubled times, and when he retired in 1981, television was never quite the same for me. I'm grateful that I was able to experience some old-school news anchoring - and reporting - at its best.

"... And that's the way it is... July eighteenth, two thousand nine."

So long, Uncle Walter. You'll be missed.

Photo: ©CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images. Painfully cropped by me.
For the NY Times obituary, click here.
For the LA Times obituary, click here.

Happy Beaver And Jim Carrey - Only On The Internet

A friend of mine tipped me off to this /film article about a potential Jim Carry vehicle called The Beaver, in which he'd play a " troubled... CEO of a stalling toy company" who begins to channel his voice through a beaver puppet that he finds. The writer of the post, Brendon Connelly, gave me a nice shout-out and link to this blog. Thanks, Brendon!

Thanks also to Craig Cassidy, who tipped me off about this article. Thanks, Craig!

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!

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.

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.

Happy Beaver Post At Montrealvinyl.com!

Frenchie (creator of toy blog montrealvinyl.com) contacted me through Flickr and asked for a small write-up about my toy projects past and present. It's online now - check it out. Right now, I'm the third post down from the top. Thanks, Frenchie!