FilmStew.com: LatestHeadlines

Lead Man Talking

05/14/2008

Approaching a Cannes press conference as if it were a Larry King Live appearance, Jury President Sean Penn gets things off to a semi-serious start.

Boll Sets His Sights on Sudan

05/14/2008

Perhaps the last person one would expect to be following in the activist footsteps of Clooney, Cheadle and Farrow is a filmmaker being petitioned to call it quits.

A Kentucky Survivor

05/13/2008

Although it’s been on the boards for several years now, a movie about the remarkable life of an historic bus crash victim appears to finally be moving forward.

He’s Super-Khali-Fragilistic

05/13/2008

After small roles in The Longest Yard and this summer’s Get Smart, a freak of Indian nature and WWE marketing is ready for his Bollywood close-up.

"Battleship Potemkin" Baby Steps

05/13/2008

An old school filmmaker and new world technology have been brought together for a unique movie theater lobby exhibition in Russia.

Some Pros and Comic-Con's

07/31/2006

In the wake of yet another four-day San Diego smorgasbord celebrating anything that can be turned into an action figure or costume, we take a look at some of the highs (Kapow!) and lows (Kaboom!).

Singer Surveys "Superman"

06/27/2006

In paying homage to the Richard Donner films, filmmaker Bryan Singer managed to include everything except the Krypton kitchen sink.

Beauty and the Regular Guy

06/21/2006

It’s not just the broad theme of Ashton Kutcher’s reality TV series. The onscreen pairing of great-looking young gals with average Joe's is a Hollywood movie trend reoccurring once again.

A Bigger "Bang"

06/05/2006

With next week’s DVD release of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang sure to finally bring this acerbic film the audience it deserves, we sample the rat-tat-tat-tat chemistry of Kilmer Kilmer, Downey Downey.

Blondes Have More Trophy Ware

05/02/2006

Officially, it was called the US Weekly Hot Hollywood Awards. Unofficially, it looked a lot like a bevy of blonde babes and the shorter male B-Listers who love them.

Enthralled by "The Fall"

05/12/2008

David Fincher and Spike Jonze are to be congratulated for trying to help bring attention of a film our critic thinks is the best of the year so far.

Not Quite Up to "Speed"

05/09/2008

Even though Speed Racer has the crazed look and feel of a Hunter S. Thompson hallucination, it’s ultimately nothing more than a gonzo copout.

Socking It to "Summerland"

05/08/2008

On the cusp of another summer TV season filled with reality, Tori Spelling is not among those who think it has her dad Aaron spinning in his grave.

A Pair of Very Personal Debuts

05/07/2008

For documentary filmmakers Irene Taylor Brodsky and Ben Byer, an intimate personal knowledge of disability and disease has translated into success on the film festival circuit.

Better Romcom Than "Red"

05/02/2008

After several successful attempts at subverting genre with the theme of masculine amorality, playwright-filmmaker David Mamet falls flat on the mat with Redbelt.

Potential Cannes Wildcards

05/13/2008

There are two Cannes film festivals; the one on paper and the one on the Croisette. Each year, much hyped films crash and burn while others screening out of competition sneak up on everybody to claim the lion’s share of major buzz (positive or negative). Here’s a look at a half-dozen possible candidates for the latter category.

Tyson [Un Certain Regard] : Somehow, the marriage of filmmaker James Toback and boxer Mike Tyson seems pre-ordained, bringing together a pair of individuals who – for better or worse – have played by their own rules and been variously abused by The Man (Hollywood and Don King, respectively). If done right, Toback’s 90-minute documentary portrait of Iron Mike could distill America’s obsession with celebrity, sex and violence into one hell of a cinematic punch.

Chelsea on the Rocks [Special Screenings]: With today’s baffling news that Nicolas Cage is planning to star in Werner Herzog’s remake of Bad Lieutenant, there is this other documentary, made by the maker of that original 1992 film, Abel Ferrara. Like L.A.’s Chateau Marmont, New York’s Chelsea Hotel is a strange portal through which many artists of many different stripes have traveled. And let’s face it; any film that brings together Milos Forman and Grace Jones has wildcard written all over it.

Surveillance [Out of Competition]: Fifteen years after Boxing Helena - that’s right, I said 15 years - Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David, returns with her sophomore effort. Julia Ormond and Bill Pullman star as a pair of Federal agents investigating a string of roadside murders. Ms. Lynch turned 40 last month, and in a few days, she will either be making good on her birthday wish (alongside the current redemptive power of James Frey’s new book Bright Shiny Morning) or suffering the unkindest cut of 400 more critical blows.

Tokyo! [Un Certain Regard]: This trio of short films wrapped around the narrative hook of the Japanese city (and shot there) brings together a pair of Frenchmen, Michel Gondry and Leo Carax, with Korean director Joon Ho Bong. On the surface, it is Carax’s “Merde” that seems to have the best shot at immortality, all about a city-terrorizing individual dubbed “The Creature of the Sewers.” Overall, think New York Stories on ‘shrooms.

Los Bastardos [Un Certain Regard]: Like the previous L.A.-set, Mexican made movie Star Maps, this one has a automatic leg up with the west coast cognescenti because of the subject matter. In this case, it’s a story that ties into the sight of the day laborers who hang around every Home Depot in Los Angeles, including the one near the Paramount studio lot. From the synopsis, it sounds like protagonists Jesus and Fausto get into it with their richer, white bosses for the day, meaning this film has the potential to perfectly encapsulate about a half-dozen of the more vexing socioeconomic issues currently plaguing the U.S.

Wolke 9 [Un Certain Regard]: A German sex film that translates as Cloud Nine, directed by a woman and essentially taking a pair of recent films by Roger Michell (Venus, The Mother) one step further. It’s about a married woman in her mid-60’s who falls in lust with a 76-year-old man. Cannes has a long history of buzzing about films offering explicit sex scenes, and by the sound of it, this one could soon be jumping into that pile.

Memo to Tom Cruise

05/09/2008

If, in the space of a few years, Robert Downey Jr. can segue from the laboratory of Dr. Kozak in 2006’s The Shaggy Dog to that of Tony Stark in Iron Man, there’s hope for any free-falling 40’s male Hollywood star. But whereas Downey Jr. had to put behind him years of alcohol and drug abuse, a veritable common currency among today’s stars, you must erase the stigma of something much trickier – a ridiculed religion.

Granted, you don’t have nearly the same kind of insouciance that Downey Jr. does. Watching him for example this week on Jimmy Kimmel Live, during which he endlessly poked fun at the fact that one big weekend has transformed him into a perceived Tinseltown “genius,” makes it apparent that his current Paramount cabaret act is no Method trick. In your case, the million-dollar smile and still stunning good looks are no longer enough. Following a nicely done presenter appearance at this year’s Academy Awards, you’ve now kicked off your full battle plan for A-list recovery, but there’s still lots of work to be done. So here’s a look at the items you’ve already covered, and the ones I think you still need to check off.

#1: Sit down with Oprah and try to wash away the memory of the couch incident as well as apologize to Brooke Shields, explain Matt Lauer and just briefly touch on that leaked 2004 Scientology video. Check.

#2: Get Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone to publicly state that bygones are now bygones, and that if it came to pass, he would be more than happy to sign the checks for M:I:IV. Check.

#3: Revamp the official TomCruise.com website, gussying it up with the latest bells and whistles and, more importantly, begin using its messaging powers as a direct and regenerative connection with your fans. Check.

#4: Make a hilarious cameo in a movie starring Robert Downey Jr., and – to maximize the bulls eye in this post-post-post-modern world - make it a parody of Sumner Redstone, in a movie that the mogul’s own damn studio financed. Check (Tropic Thunder).

#5: Contact fellow Scientologist Paul Haggis and ask, “What have you got for me?”

#6: Track down Jerry Maguire guru Cameron Crowe and beg him to write another romantic comedy vehicle for you.

#7: Contact fellow Scientologists Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley and start working on them for a late years Elvis movie. The right approach and tone to Graceland could lead to a fourth trip to Oscarland.

#8: Pick up the phone and chat with Mel Gibson about a possible buddy cop movie or some sort of wink-wink action flick. A summer 2010 kick-off actioner with this pairing could do for you what the titanium suit did for Downey Jr..

#9: Figure out how to address the next wave of goofy Internet Scientology gossip, which looks to revolve around your – and perhaps Katie’s – extremely stringent diet. You might just want to have your chef pick out the favorite recipe now and book an appearance on Rachael Ray for right around the time when Tropic Thunder hits theaters this August.

#10: Do whatever you have to do to make your upcoming World War II Valkyrie movie palatable. The buzz is already bad, but now that you’ve got fans’ attention, it’s up to you, Bryan and Paula to re-edit, reshoot and market in a way that avoids at all costs a crash and burn at the 2009 box office. Because that will, in one weekend, pretty much undo all the hard work leading up to that point.

The "Daily Show" Deluge

05/07/2008

Over here, Stephen Colbert has been voted the “Internet Person of the Year” by the Webby Awards. Over there, Rob Corrdry - after a solid bit of supporting work in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay - is getting ready to do the same this weekend in What Happens in Vegas… and later this year in the Justin Long Indian casino comedy Patriotville. Then there is of course Get Smart, Steve Carell’s big June 20th summer gambit.

And let’s not forget Lewis Black, whose acerbic commentaries on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart paved the way for his own Comedy Central series Root of All Evil, a six-episode curio that debuted in March. Or Ed Helms, who jumped to NBC’s version of The Office. Wait, there’s more.

When The Rocker world premieres at the upcoming Los Angeles Film Festival, among the onscreen talent will be Demetri Martin, whose work last year on The Daily Show has also led to the upcoming Comedy Central program Important Things with Demetri Martin. Meanwhile, former show producer Ben Karlin, as part of a new overall deal with HBO, has optioned for feature film treatment a New Yorker article about a billionaire who paid $500,000 for a bottle of wine that may or may not have been once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

It all adds up to Stewart’s operation being the most reliable minter of male comedic talent this side of Saturday Night Live. A most ironic development, given the fact that Stewart essentially crashed and burned as a feature film actor (whenever the moment calls for it, he is wont to bring up 2002’s Death to Smoochy).

Whereas the pinnacle of a male stand-up comic’s career was once appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, it is now without a doubt scoring a spot on The Daily Show, a winner of five consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Comedy, Music or Variety Series. And by producing The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and that upcoming Martin sketch comedy through his Busboy Productions, Stewart is along the way following in the very lucrative footsteps of David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants.

We’re not even halfway through 2008, but when you throw in the Oscars gig, Tom Brokaw saying he’s fine with the kids today getting their news from The Daily Show and the indelible imprint the Stewart-Colbert combo are putting on the most important Presidential election in a generation, it all adds up to a career year for someone who glided into the picture as "Rollerblader" in the 1994 Steve Martin comedy Mixed Nuts. And nowhere is Stewart’s eye for talent more obvious than in the form of Colbert, who is much more than just the “Internet Person of the Year.” He is in fact currently the funniest damn person on the planet.

Made in Japan

05/05/2008

Regardless of what you think about Speed Racer, the film’s most notable element is arguably the fact that this is the first time a Japanese TV series has been imported for the American big screen. And if Warner Bros has anything to do with it, its big May 9th release will also help cement anime on the lot as a new, profitable J.K. Rowling-like source of family entertainments.

Whereas the four U.S. TV networks continue to heavily rely on Americanized versions of UK and European game show and reality hits, spreading now to Latin America with Fox’s Moment of Truth, it’s rather odd that the garish TV sensibilities of the Empire of the Sun have failed so far to click with the garish sensibilities of Hollywood execs. Other than Iron Chef, the only other really notable North American Japanese TV import is the Canadian series Dragon’s Den, which hews closely to the kind of panel-pitch thing Donnie Deutsch regularly presides over on his CNBC program The Big Idea. (Perhaps compounding the great cultural divide is ABC’s summer offering I Survived a Japanese Game Show, which simply sends American contestants over there.)

There are a few other Tokyo boob tube traces here and there – the cancelled Spike TV series Most Extreme Elimination Challenge and the 2006 ABC-TV offering Master of Champions - but Speed Racer, coming on the heels of much horror and the unofficial Godzilla remake Cloverfield, is aiming to push things in a decidedly non-R rated direction. Warner Bros. is certainly a believer in the Japanese animation concept; the studio is already at work on its second anime-driven effort, 2009’s Gatchaman, about a teenage superhero team that battles Galactor. They’re also looking at a movie based on the 1988 anime movie Akira, a project that has been rumored to have been dangled in the Leonardo DiCaprio direction.

For now, it’s all about Speed Racer, a film that I for one – in the recent company of my eight-year-old son – was absolutely bowled over by. Helping implant the franchise into the minds of my and everyone else’s offspring will be the Nicktoons Network companion piece Speed Racer: The Next Generation, along with of course the reams of prominently displayed toy merchandise.

In terms of remade Japanese family fare, Speed Racer’s closest cousin is the 2006 Disney film Eight Below. Just as the Emile Hirsch flick owes its storyline to the 1967-1968 TV series Mahha GoGoGo, the Paul Walker sled dog movie was a remake of the 1983 Japanese film Nakyoku monogatari. (A very lucrative one at that; it grossed $120 million in theaters before becoming a monster on DVD.)

Of course, if Speed Racer really hits it out of the park, it will have a chance of following in the fumes of the two all-time greatest examples of Japanese-American family-friendly cinematic collaboration: The Magnificient Seven (1960) and George Lucas’ Star Wars, which sourced respectively Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954) and The Hidden Fortress (1958).

Then again, this could all be cancelled out if The Weinstein Co. proceeds with its plans for a 2009 remake of The Seven Samurai. To quote the title of the most recent post, at press time, on that film’s IMDB page: ‘NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.’

Tony Stark's Media Empire

04/30/2008

In today’s conglomerate-owned world of print, online, radio and TV outlets, there is no such thing anymore as “conflict of interest.” Instead, it’s all about “confluence of interest.”

On Monday’s edition of The Late Show with David Letterman, the bespectacled host raved with uncharacteristic abandon about Iron Man, the movie that is about to kick off the 2008 summer season. A short time later on the same program, it was on to the business of interviewing the film’s co-star Gwyneth Paltrow, who said she had not yet seen the film because Paramount, perhaps fearful of her video piracy tendencies, had refused to surrender a DVD screener. The next night, Tuesday, it was titular star Robert Downey Jr.’s turn to sit down with Dave.

If Iron Man performs the way it is expected to - both here and overseas - chances are the second and third quarter Viacom stock dividends will benefit handsomely as a result, and, by default, stock option incentivized employees like Letterman. The idea of a Viacom brand name product being hawked all across its media verticals is nothing new, but each year, the machinery seems to get just that much more well-oiled, so much so that it’s easy to forget that William Randolph Hearst has been replaced by the likes of Sumner Redstone and Rupert Murdoch.

In addition to CBS, Viacom avenues being used to drive home the Iron Man media message include cable TV stations MTV, VH1, UPN, BET , Comedy Central and Spike; pay cable channels Showtime, Flix, The Movie Channel and Logo; Internet sites iFilm.com, MTV.com and GameTrailers.com; billboard company Viacom Outdoor; and radio station group Infiniti Broadcasting. About the only thing missing is Redstone himself, walking up and down Melrose Ave. wearing a two-sided ad panel.

Expect the same drill in support of Paramount’s two other big summer releases, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Love Guru. In the case of the latter, for example, MTV.com got an early jump start on things, publishing a flattering interview of star Mike Myers several weeks back. Just ahead of Myers being tapped as the host of this year’s MTV Movie Awards.

Unless you pay particular attention to M&A’s (mergers and acquisitions), it’s easy to forget just how far the Viacom tentacles extend. For example, we all by now pretty much know that ET, Inside Edition and the executive offices of Paramount Pictures are just a few steps from each other on the studio lot. But how many of us realize that Oprah Winfrey is now semi-owned by Viacom, via its acquisition of King World Productions? (All of a sudden, Tom Cruise’s upcoming two-part interview on the show takes on a whole new purposeful meaning. As in, let’s see if you can fix what you broke enough to allow for a M:I:IV.)

There aren’t too many good anagrams that can be gleaned from re-arranging the words Iron Man, but one of them is a text message worthy spelling of harmony. As in, a super hero and his corporate cousins working in perfect “armonni.”

The Paris Hilton Experience

05/15/2008

At a hotel in Beverly Hills, our reporter endures the four seasons of press junket hell: astonishment, bemusement, embarrassment and shame.

The Dynamics of "KateModern"

05/13/2008

A million and a half weekly viewers may not sound like much, but for San Francisco based social networking site Bebo.com, those numbers are huge.

A Double Dose of Non-Fiction

05/09/2008

Standard Operating Procedure and a new book of photographs taken on the sets of Errol Morris documentaries confirm that the filmmaker will do whatever he feels he needs to so as to get the uncomfortable message across.

The "Kingdom" of Maria Bello

05/06/2008

A decade and a half into her illustrious career, Maria Bello has finally caught up with the spirit of the Steven Spielberg adventure that inspired her to become an actress.

No Fan of the Method

05/02/2008

Dropping in on the San Francisco International Film Festival for a tribute and awards ceremony, British filmmaker Mike Leigh remains committed to the idea of actors referring to their characters in the third person.