I’ve got a thoroughly crazy day ahead and it’s anyone’s guess whether I’ll be posting about the Wednesday release of the new “Harry Potter” flick or any other important movie-world news tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, though, a couple of quick links to stuff that’s been going on in the film/geek-sphere of things.
* First of all, just in case you haven’t been reading, say, Cinematical, Variety, or CHUD, as was long ago prognosticated, Natalie Portman will be the love interest in the upcoming film based on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s “The Mighty Thor.” Indeed, her character will be based on one from the comic’s early days. Christopher Campbell has the blog reaction. I’m cool with it, personally.
* AICN has the (very lengthy) scoop on the comic book film from the highly underrated Matthew Vaughn (who I personally feel is much better filmmaker than his old partner, Guy Ritchie). I’m not familiar with the very odd sounding “Kick-Ass” but I’m willing to give this one a go, though I get the feeling I might wind up closing my eyes a few times as I did during the jail sequence in “Watchmen.” On the other hand, I kind that I kind of like stylish movie violence. Yeah, I’m a walking mass of contradictions.
With “Brüno” #1 at the U.S. box office, it may be time to mention that probably the first use of the word “gay” in a mainstream American film to denote something other than happiness came from an unlikely source. Director Howard Hawks is best known for films celebrating traditional masculine values, populated by tough, lovable guys and emotionally strong, super sexy women. (My DVD review of “El Dorado” starring John Wayne and Robert Mitchum covers a late example.) Epitome of movie guyness that he was, Hawks nevertheless had no problem playing with sexuality/gender roles just a bit in the 1938 screwball romantic comedy classic, “Bringing Up Baby“.
Fifteen years later, making the iconic Marilyn Monroe musical, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” Hawks, who had never made a musical, decided to have famed choreographer Jack Cole direct all the musical sequences. As far as I can tell, he was delighted to let Cole really gay it up in this famed scene featuring the ultra-hot brunette Jane Russell, who was an even bigger sex symbol at the time than Monroe and received top billing. It was a reasonably safe move because, in those very pre-gay liberation days, homosexual innuendo flew right by most audience members. Besides, with Russell around, few straight males of the time were going to notice much of anything else.
With “Public Enemies” entering its second weekend in theaters, and inspired by a brief but typically wonderful post on Myrna Loy by cinephile superstar Campaspe, a vintage trailer for the legendary last movie seen by John Dillinger just prior to his death seems fitting.
“Manhattan Melodrama” starred thirties A-listers Clark Gable and William Powell, in the first of his many films opposite Loy, but is not often seen these days in comparison to later films featuring any of the three. Nevertheless, it’s grand, ultra-corny Hollywood entertainment of the most egregious sort. (Glenn Erickson suggested the title should really be “Manhattan Fairy Tale,” and he’s not wrong.) MGM was always the studio of excess glamor and wholesome values, and they brought that even to a gangster picture. Abandon cynicism, maintain your irony, and check it out some time.
Whilst I dither over just what kind of “Bruno” related pun to put in my headline for tomorrow morning’s box office preview, Steven Zeitchik has an item that sort of defies belief in the possibilities it offers for of the potential for ribald and/or truly offensive jokes and puns, and not just the innocent fur-bound animal and classic TV sitcom-based gags Zeitchik mentions.
The script has been floating around for some time and been associated with such funnymen as Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell, but now it looks as if Mel Gibson may play the not-quite title role in “The Beaver.” It’s an edgy comedy about a man whose (presumably imaginary) friend is a beaver hand-puppet. Gibson might be a walking disaster area in many respects, but does have an underused gift for antic comedy. This could work.
Written by newcomer Kyle Killen, the comedy will team the sometimes blatantly homophobic Gibson with another director-actor, Jodie Foster, who will also costar. Did I mention I have tremendous amount of respect for Ms. Foster, as well as lifelong crush. (I like my film star infatuations on the unattainable side.) I now respect her sense of humor more than ever.
We here at Bullz-Eye always knew that we wanted to run a piece in conjunction with the release of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,” but what we didn’t know was what kind of piece it would be. We considered the matter, and we came to the conclusion that it would’ve been a little too easy to whip up a list of our favorite Hollywood wizards. In the midst of the discussion, however, an observation was raised about the film itself: what’s going to happen to these kids – Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson – after the last of the “Harry Potter” books has been adapted for the silver screen? Will they be able to rise above their roles and find work elsewhere, or are they destined to be remembered solely as Harry, Ron and Hermione? From there, we quickly began to bandy about the names of other folks who have and haven’t been able to score success in other cinematic identities, and the piece began to write itself. Ultimately, only one of our selections seemed impossible to pigeonhole as either “Forever Typecast” or “Escaped Typecasting,” and when you see that actor’s name, we think you’ll nod your head knowingly and understand exactly why we had that problem.
Here’s a sample of the piece, to hopefully tempt you into checking out the whole thing:
Mark Hamill, AKA Luke Skywalker:
Mark Hamill may not have had much in the way of cinematic credits when he was introduced to the world as Luke Skywalker, future Jedi, in “Star Wars,” but he’d sure as heck done his time on the TV circuit, appearing on everything from “The Partridge Family” to “The Streets of San Francisco,” even playing a guy named Doobie Wheeler on “The Texas Wheelers.” But when you’re the star of the greatest space opera of all time ,you’ve got to expect a certain amount of blowback, and Hamill got it in spades. Despite starring in the fondly remembered “Corvette Summer” with Annie Potts and being directed by Samuel Fuller in the critically acclaimed “The Big Red One,” things just weren’t happening for the guy outside of the “Star Wars” universe…well, unless you consider being third-billed to Kristy McNichol and Dennis Quaid in “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” to be happening, that is. Post- “Return of the Jedi,” Hamill did a few straight-to-video features before realizing that he might well find more luck off the camera and in the recording booth. Having already worked for Hanna-Barbera in the early ’70s, it was a quick transition for Hamill to return to the world of voiceover acting, and it was a move that paid off in a big way. Whether you’ve known it or not, you’ve heard his dulcet tones providing voices for “The Adventures of Batman & Robin” (The Joker), “Spider-Man” (Hobgoblin), “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (Ozai), and “Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!” (The Skeleton King), among dozens of others. Good for him, we say. But the truth of the matter remains: when you see his face, Mark Hamill is still Luke Skywalker.
Got the idea? Great! To see the rest of the feature, either click right here or on the big ol’ image below:
