August 28th, 2009
Scott Eyman of the Palm Beach Post chats with Rod Taylor, star of “The Time Machine” and “The Birds,” who believed himself retired until Quentin Tarantino rang him up.
“The Most Dangerous Man in America” will be released in September by filmmakers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith as they chronicle “Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.”
With the Toronto International Film Festival still two weeks away, the Globe and Mail has unveiled its “Mob Blog.”
Coming in September from producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, “9″ is the CGI-meets-a-stop motion-vibe feature length film from director Shane Acker based on his Academy Award-nominated short starring stitch-punks.
One Film Wonder: Michael Jackson revolutionized the small screen. In the early 1980s his videos, bursting with iconic images, became television events; they possessed a transformational popularity which shamed MTV into forever altering its playlist. Two of the greatest auteurs in American screen history directed his videos: In 1986 Francis Ford Coppola helmed “Captain EO” and in the following year Martin Scorsese filmed “Bad.” But Jackson appeared in only three feature films, two of which were a 30-second cameo as Agent M in 2002’s “Men in Black II” and a similarly tangential appearance as Agent MJ in 2004’s “Silly Movie 2″ or, as its alternately known, “Miss Castaway and the Island Girls.”
In 1978, a year prior to the release of “Off the Wall,” and before he eased not so easily down the road to superstardom, a 20-year-old Jackson starred as Scarecrow in the extravagant film adaptation of the Broadway musical, “The Wiz.” Co-starring Diana Ross as Dorothy, the loquacious Nipsey Russell as Tinman, Ted Ross as Lion and Richard Pryor in the title role, the film teamed Jackson with another directing luminary, Sidney Lumet. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards (Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design and Original Song). However, “The Wiz” was a box office disappointment as the $24 million movie earned just $13.6 million.
Posted in Beyond the Reel |
Tagged 9, Bad, Captain EO, Diana Ross, Francis Ford Coppola, Judith Ehrlich, Martin Scorsese, Men in Black II, Michael Jackson, Miss Castaway and the Island Girls, Nipsey Russell, Off the Wall, One Film Wonder, Palm Beach Post, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Pryor, Rick Goldsmith, Rod Taylor, Scott Eyman, Shane Acker, Sidney Lumet, Silly Movie 2, Ted Ross, The Birds, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The Time Machine, The Wiz, Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov, Toronto Globe and Mail, Toronto International Film Festival |
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May 22nd, 2009
Coming in August. Quentin Tarantino’s Summer Blockbuster for the Indie World.
The divisive Lars von Trier returns with his latest contentious work, “Antichrist,” and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times plays devil’s advocate as he pens a thoughtful essay on the film and the divergent reaction to the Danish enigma, which can be summed up by an enthralled First Showing’s Alex Billington exclaiming I had a blast watching this while Todd McCarthy of Variety says the auteur cuts a big fat art-film fart.
Opening on July 17, the postmodern, bittersweet love story “(500) Days of Summer” stars the adorable pair of “The Lookout”’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt and “Tin Man”’s Zooey Deschanel.
Kenneth Turan of the LA Times revels in Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” poetry while the New Zealand Herald’s Helen Barlow lauds the film as “Campion’s poetic comeback.”
One Film Wonder: “This is Spinal Tap” — the greatest mockumentary ever made — boasts not one but two one film wonders. David Kaff played the band’s loopy keyboardist, Viv Savage, and in the subsequent quarter century he has landed a half-dozen roles, mostly on Aussie telly. As the band’s latest ill-fated drummer, R.J. Parnell portrayed Mick Shrimpton with ciggy-dangling-from-the-lip rock and roll insouciance. Parnell was summarily typecast in his only other role; he was “Drummer” in 2004’s “The Devil’s Due at Midnight.” In Spinal Tap’s uproarious final credit sequence, both Savage and Shrimpton impart their succinct philosophies.
Posted in Beyond the Reel |
Tagged Alex Billington, Antichrist, Bright Star, David Kaff, Helen Barlow, Inglourious Basterds, Jane Campion, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kenneth Turan, Lars von Trier, One Film Wonder, Quentin Tarantino, R.J. Parnell, Roger Ebert, The Devil's Due at Midnight, The Lookout, This is Spinal Tap, Todd McCarthy, Zooey Deschanel |
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