* Plenty of festival happenings up are in the offing up in Toronto, the most high profile of which is the famously award-savvy Weinstein Company’s pick, for a reported $1-2 million, of “A Single Man.” This is a sort of film that would be strictly art-house fare, and low profile art-house fare at that, if it weren’t also potential Oscar fare. From fashion designer-turned director Tom Ford, it’s a drama about a college professor (Colin Firth) dealing with the death of his lover over the course of a single day in 1960s Los Angeles. The film also stars Julianne Moore and Matthew Goode (Adrian Veidt in “Watchmen“) and is based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, the openly gay mid-century English-born writer whose stories about Wiemar-era Berlin eventually became “I Am a Camera” by playwright John van Druten, which eventually became the movie and stage musicals, “Cabaret.” Varietyhas the details along with more about the activity surrounding a number of other new movies.
The most interesting of these to me is “Harry Brown,” which stars Michael Caine in a film that’s going to be plugged, probably inaccurately, as the Brit “Gran Torino.” I’ve always liked Caine’s movie work, but he became something of a personal hero of mine while I was researching a Bullz-Eye look back at his career not so long ago. If you’ve never seen the original version of “Get Carter,” it’s important to know Caine is capable of being at least twice as tough as Mr. Eastwood or just about anyone else this side of Lee Marvin. That’s largely because he’s an extremely disciplined film actor and also probably partly because his pre-stardom life was, really and truly, no picnic. The man’s known grinding poverty, serious action in the Korean War, and the down and dirty truth of crime in his native London. His acting only gets better as such relatively recent films as “The Quiet American” and “Children of Men” proves. This one really has my attention.
* The new head of DC Entertainment, Diane Nelson, made her rep partly as the manager of the Harry Potter “brand” for Warner Brothers. No word on whether and/or how much she was involved, but Warners is annoucing a deal with the Universal Orlando Resort for a Harry Potter theme park. Nikki Finke has the press release and videos showing the basic layout (it’s essentially Hogsmeade, the town adjacent to Hogwarts from the books and movies), as well as plugs from Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson.
In honor of the late actor who passed away earlier, here’s a really famous scene from “Ghost” that no doubt made a lot of of dates go just a little bit better back in 1990.
Fans of Mr. Swayze will want to be sure and check out our earlier post from Will Harris, Remembering Patrick Swayze.
I’ve been just a bit distracted and sleepy today and didn’t even hear about Kanye West’s little display at the VMA’s last night until just now. Of course, I’m strictly a movie blogger, more or less, so I don’t have to weigh in on — or even watch — last night’s no doubt mega-embarrassing spectacle. A small mercy. Also, as I started to write this, we got the very sad news of the passing of film and television star Patrick Swayze from pancreatic cancer. Just below this post, Will Harris remembers him in high style.
Fortunately, not everything going on today is as really bad or really sad. Still, because I’m an irresponsible member of the media, I’m going to lead with the bad.
* In political blogging, it’s common to refer to something called Godwin’s Law. The original version simply held that the longer an online discussion went on, the greater the possibility, or near certainty, that someone would invoke Hitler or Nazis. Over time, however, it’s use has extended and inapt Nazi/Hitler comparisons are held up for ridicule on Godwin grounds. Quoth the Wikipidians:
Godwin’s Law applies especially to inappropriate, inordinate, or hyperbolic comparisons…Whether it applies to humorous use or references to oneself is open to interpretation, since this would not be a fallacious attack against a debate opponent.
Well, I don’t think she was being particularly humorous (I guess you could call that the “Soup Nazi exception”), so I have to say that Megan Fox was definitely somewhere in Godwin’s Law territory when she compared controversial blockbuster director Michael Bay to, yes, Hitler last week. Now, I’m anything but a Michael Bay admirer, but on his long list of unfortunate qualities as a public figure, “genocidal mad man” simply isn’t there. He belongs in movie jail, not the Hague.
Anyhow, that would have been the end of it, but unnamed members of Michael Bay’s crew have, for whatever reason, gotten into the act and have written an unnecessary but nevertheless rather hilarious attack on Ms. Fox, which you can read all of over at Nikki Finke’s place. Apparently wanting to keep the peace with Fox, Michael Bay has gotten into the act to distance himself from the crew comments. He refers to Megan Fox’s “crazy quips.” I don’t think he understands what the word “quip” actually means. I guess he belongs in word usage jail, also.
* Casting stories can get tedious, but awhile back I made a big deal about the casting of Taiwanese singer-kick-butt martial artist Jay Chou in Seth Rogen’s upcoming “The Green Hornet.” Now, the movie is starting to look even more fun with the placement of Christoph Waltz in the role of the bad guy. Waltz, of course, is the multilingual German TV actor turned international flavor of the month with his universally lauded, thoroughly enjoyable performance as the “Jew Hunter,” Col. Hans Landa, in “Inglourious Basterds.”
Not since Alan Rickman damn near stole “Die Hard” from Bruce Willis has a previously unknown actor playing a villain — particularly a more or less completely unredeemable villain — gotten anything resembling this kind of attention. Even Rickman didn’t get anywhere near this much praise, as important as he was to the massive success of that borderline-classic action flick.
It’s safe to say we’ll be hearing from Waltz a lot. I just hope he can find some really good leading man roles, too. If anyone deserves to suddenly become a full-on international superstar at age 52, he might be the guy.
* I’ve been guilty of ignoring the Toronto International Film Festival (aka TIFF). The favorite major festival of geeky cinephiles (a rep that was perhaps harmed slightly by a kerfluffle this year over blogger press credentials) is now well underway. The high profile films this year include Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” which wowed ’em at the Telluride Film Festival just a few days back, and the Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man.” Anne Thompson and Karina Longworth are covering their ends of the festival very nicely.
Those who read Premium Hollywood know that I have a tendency to discuss the deaths of celebrities by remembering what they meant to me, and when I heard that Patrick Swayze died, my mind immediately went back to January 2009. Obviously, Swayze’s cancer diagnosis had led everyone to fear the worst about him, but I think I’m safe in saying that most of were rooting for him to beat the disease, and when it was announced that he was going to be starring in A&E’s new crime drama, “The Beast,” I don’t know about you, but that was a moment where I was, like, “Yeah! That’s so Swayze of him to say, ‘Screw the cancer, it’s time to get to work.”
I’d hoped to get a phoner with him in the midst of the press blitz for “The Beast,” but due to his treatment, he’d limited the majority of his media time to E-mail interviews and the one-off Barbara Walters conversation, so I immediately sat down and tried to come up with a list of 15 thoughtful, intelligent questions which covered his entire career rather than just shit like, “Could Dalton kick Bodhi’s ass?” I was damned proud of what I came up with, and I promptly sent them off to the publicist. Not long after that, I learned that Swayze was going to be attending the TCA press tour in order to help promote the show, and since I still hadn’t gotten my responses back, I found myself venturing into my usual naive optimism, thinking, “Hey, maybe I can get the answers to these questions in person!” Instead, we arrived at the panel to find ourselves with an unfortunate scoop: Swayze would not be in attendance, owing to the fact that he had checked himself into the hospital for observation after having contracted pneumonia. Rumors immediately circulated that Swayze was on death’s door, that the end was nigh. Me, I immediately felt like an asshole, because – for better or worse – the first thought that came to my mind was the incredibly selfish, “Oh, man, now I’ll never get those questions answered…”
And I didn’t. But it’s a testament to Swayze’s reputation as a tough guy that he managed to battle back from the pneumonia and fight the cancer for another nine months, and anyone who’s lost someone to cancer knows that, after a fight that long and hard, his departure was one well earned.
As I looked back over Swayze’s work to put together this piece, I realized that the reason I’d had that selfish thought upon learning that he wouldn’t be making it to the TCA panel was that I really, really liked Patrick Swayze. I didn’t necessarily love every movie he ever made, but there was just something about the guy that was cool and likable and yet still pretty damned bad-ass, but…well, I don’t believe that the term “big-brothery” actually appears in the dictionary, but that’s how I saw the guy. (It probably stems back to my having seen “The Outsiders” during my formative years.) And if truth be told, I don’t think Swayze ever actually saw my questions. He always seemed like the kind of guy who, if he had read them, would’ve written back and said, “Say, buddy, you actually put a lot of thought into these, didn’t you? You know, I really appreciate that!”
Damn, now I’m starting to get depressed…and if you’re a Swayze fan, too, then you’re probably already there with me, so let’s look back at ten classic quotes from ten of the man’s most memorable films and just think about the legacy he left us.
10.“Boy, you just discovered the oldest sexual position in the book: the foolish position. You just got to remember, your brains are between your ears and not your legs.” – Ernie “Slam” Webster, “Grandview U.S.A.”
9.“I don’t give a shit where I play as long as I go number one in the draft and I sign the biggest contract I can. I’ve been busting my ass in this league for four years, and I’m gonna get what’s coming to me.” – Derek Sutton, “Youngblood”
8.“Son, it breaks my heart to say this, but I believe you are a very troubled and confused young man. I believe you are searching for the answers in all the wrong places.” – Jim Cunningham, “Donnie Darko”
7.“Well, pumpkins, it comes down to that age-old decision: style…or substance?” – Veda Boheme, “To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar”
6.“I love you, Molly. I’ve always loved you.” – Sam Wheat, “Ghost”
5.“It’s kind of strange, isn’t it? How the mountains pay us no attention at all. You laugh or you cry, the wind just keeps on blowing.” – Jed Eckert, “Red Dawn”
4.“Listen, with your brains and grades, you could get a scholarship, and we could put you through college, ain’t that right, Soda? But you’re livin’ in a vaccuum, Pony, and you’re gonna have to cut it out. You just don’t stop living because you lose somebody. I thought you knew that. And anytime you don’t like the way I’m running things around here, you can just get out, all right?” – Darrel Curtis, “The Outsiders”
3. “I’m gonna do my kind of dancin’ with a great partner, who’s not only a terrific dancer; somebody who’s taught me that there are people willing to stand up for other people no matter what it costs them; somebody who’s taught me about the kind of person I wanna be.” – Johnny Castle, “Dirty Dancing”
2.“All you have to do is follow three simple rules. One, never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Two, take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it’s absolutely necessary. And three, be nice.” – Dalton, “Road House”
1. “If you want the ultimate, you’ve got to be willing to pay the ultimate price. It’s not tragic to die doing what you love.” – Bodhi, “Point Break”
An item about a possible casting choice I missed last week, as per Cinematical’s Elisabeth Rappe:
At first glance, [Jeff] Bridges seems a pretty offbeat choice for Rooster Cogburn [in the Coen Brother’s planned remake of 1969’s “True Grit“]. But having just rewatched the John Wayne original last week, I think it might just be casting heaven. Rooster is a killer, but he’s also a fall down drunk, full of sarcastic quips, and surprisingly tender-hearted.
Why not? Bridges is, after all, an actor even if he’s rarely played someone you could call a bad-ass. Below, a comparison –and since the second video is from “The Big Lebowski” you can safely trust that it is NSFW for language, including an ethnic epithet along with a world of painful f-bombs.
* The new head of DC Entertainment, Diane Nelson, made her rep partly as the manager of the Harry Potter “brand” for Warner Brothers. No word on whether and/or how much she was involved, but Warners is annoucing a deal with the Universal Orlando Resort for a Harry Potter theme park. Nikki Finke has the press release and videos showing the basic layout (it’s essentially Hogsmeade, the town adjacent to Hogwarts from the books and movies), as well as plugs from Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson.
