Knowing how many fans he had here and elsewhere, I thought I’d devote this Saturday to a few iconic moments. First, from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
Month: August 2009 (Page 24 of 33)
A couple of loosely related items today:
* Via Jeff Giles, and Nikki Finke, comes this true life tale of heroic derring do by “Bourne” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” director Doug Liman and producer Avram Ludwig.
The event won’t hurt Liman’s personal rep, which a polite person could call “eccentric,” but this seems like a good time to mention he’s not the only Hollywood fashioner of action myths to be involved in real life heroism. Jimmy Stewart is regarded as a real-life war hero for service in World War II, where he flew over twenty combat missions and, much more recently, Werner Herzog helped River Phoenix escape from a car wreck. Okay, that’s not really on the same scale as Stewart, and it doesn’t really sound like Herzog was in any danger, but given his background, Herzog is definitely the working director I’d most want around in a dangerous situation. I’m sure there are better examples, but I can’t think of them right now.
* I wouldn’t be surprised if nobody reading this has ever heard of “Rocket Robin Hood” (actually, knowing Will Harris, he probably watched the entire run of this obscure late sixties cartoon series last Wednesday night). Steven Zeitchik reports that a new, futuristic but far more earthbound Robin Hood may be coming up, alongside the more traditional Robin Hood variation already in production directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
He’s made some great movies in past decades, but Scott has never been known for his light touch. As far as I’m concerned, he’ll have a helluva time topping this.
Love him or hate him, it’s hard not feel something during his take on America’s health care companies. Never have I heard words spoken so eloquently on this issue that is so divisive. It’s a shame that people have turned off Bill Maher in the past because he’s crossed a line or spoken so adamantly against one of their views that they retreat towards a safer form of commentary. True, “The Daily Show” might have you laughing harder, but it’s lost that edge over the years that once made it so captivating. I remember when Comedy Central used to tout the show as “irrelevant” and “controversial,” but the show show is mere husk of its former self. The most compelling by far is “Real Time,” which seems somehow to have escaped the attention of young America.
Since I began watching a year ago, I’ve been saying it’s the best thing HBO has in their lineup. Like other talk shows, the schedule is privy to bouts of hiatus because of Maher’s stand-up schedule. Neverthless, new episodes are run throughout the year as it’s obvious this is what Maher enjoys the most. What’s great about the show is that Maher feels like he’s accomplishing something by being engaging.
I think people often forget that you don’t have to like the host. In the past, I thought Maher was smug, wordy, and unfunny. Well, he is smug, but I think that’s part of his appeal. Over time, I realized that I wasn’t tuning in for the jokes. I was tuning in because of his panel discussions and most importantly, his closing arguments. Interspersed with humor, the show’s final minutes are so passionate at times that I can’t help but actually listening instead of mindlessly taking in language. Also, I don’t mean “passion” as in “speaking loudly with force.” When I say “passion,” I mean that Maher feels like he cares about this species in a way that his erudition can actually motivate us to change. That praise is putting him in quite a position of authority, I know, but really, where else are you going to turn to on television to feel motivated about issues? “The Daily Show” abandoned that mission statement a long time ago and it’s obvious that the pundit shows on MSNBC and CNN aren’t very inspiring. Maher’s show is the opposite.
How about this for a New Rule: Not everything in America has to make a profit. It used to be that there were some services and institutions so vital to our nation that they were exempt from market pressures. Some things we just didn’t do for money. The United States always defined capitalism, but it didn’t used to define us. But now it’s becoming all that we are.
Hard to feel offended by anyone but the health care companies in that statement. So, give “Real Time” a shot, even if you hate the host.
“Real Time” airs Fridays at 10 PM on HBO.
So says Sony and Nikki Finke.
And he can sing.
He can do the other thing, too.
I didn’t see Taiwanese pop-star turned actor/martial artist Jay Chou in “Curse of the Golden Flower,” but if he can hold his own with Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat (though I understand his Asian reviews were less supportive than English-language critics), I think he can manage Nicolas Cage‘s sure-to-be-nuts villain and Seth Rogen’s jokey Green Hornet.
Screenrant has some more.
After FX’s executive session, I managed to catch up with network president John Landgraf and ask him about the status of the series based on Brian Michael Bendis’s “Powers.” Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much more forward motion since Bendis broke the news about the adaptation during the New York Comic-Con in February.
“It’s in development,” Landgraf reconfirmed. “We’ve seen a draft of the script, we’ve given the notes on it, and we’re waiting on another draft. But I liked it.”
If you’re wondering, Landgraf has read the original source material, and he’s aware of the challenge inherent in transforming it from the page to the tube.
“You saw this also with ‘Watchmen’ when it came out,” he said. “You’re making a property, you’re trying to figure out how to take something from a comic book into a TV show, you’re trying to make something that both satisfies the hardcore fans of the property, the story, and the characters, but also has the ability to introduce a new, broader audience to it. That’s really hard to do. That’s always a struggle, I think, when you’re working with a well-respected graphic novel. So that’s what we’re working on right now.”
Landgraf also spoke to “The Riches,” which he selected as the show during his time with FX that he most wished had taken off, acknowledging that there had indeed been a very real chance for the series to earn a third season.
“The ratings did fall off a lot in Season 2,” Landgraf admitted, “and yet we still thought long and hard. It was a very close choice and a very difficult choice, because it’s hard to say goodbye to that kind of quality. And to see what Dmitri Lipkin has gone on and done with ‘Hung’ on HBO…we knew we had a real talent on our hands, and those are some of the hardest choices that you have to make.”
One suspects it was probably even harder once Eddie Izzard began trumpeting how he was prepared to continue doing “The Riches” for many years to come.
“He was ready,” Landgraf agreed, “and there was a journey for those characters that was a journey that *I* really wanted to see, one that I thought was just a really sound, really inspired idea beyond Season 2…which, unfortunately, was the last one we did. But at the end of the day, we just felt like we had to make room for something else.”
Given that interest, would Landgraf be willing to revisit “The Riches” for an FX movie?
“I would never say never.”
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