Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Politics

And the battle continues. In the beginning of March, I posted about how the Canadian government is looking to increase restrictions on which films get tax credits -- all to keep money from those lowest-of-low sorts of movies -- you know, the ones with "gratuitous violence, significant sexual content that lacks an educational purpose, or denigration of an identifiable group." Under those terms, it would mean any action film or thriller, most films that discuss sex, and any comedy that teases well, anyone.

Now those within the industry are fighting back. The CBC reports that Sarah Polley, the actress and filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated Away From Her, and others in the industry have descended on Ottawa to have their say. Polley says: "It's the job of artists to provoke and to challenge. Part of the responsibility of being an artist is to create work that will inspire dialogue, suggest that people examine their long-held positions and, yes, occasionally offend in order to do so." Meanwhile, the Conservative Party of Canada issued a press release reportedly attacking Polley's political ties and stating that artists shouldn't tell "hard-working Canadians" how tax dollars should be spent.

Oh, the neverending and never resolved wars with taxation and censorship. Won't we ever learn?

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Pretty slim pickings this week: Hands down the best movie in town is 45 years old: Jean-luc Godard's "Contempt," at the Brattle. If you've never seen prime 60s Godard on the big screen, this is the one to go for, and it's in a brand new print that shows off every aching frame of its Technicolor wide-screen visuals. Bardot's backside and Godard's esthetic self-flagellation have never seemed so majestic.

Other than that, Wesley likes the new Iraq-themed doc "Body of War" very much. And there's a whole bunch of passable but not very successful entertainments clogging up the multiplexes: Another cute, harmless (and there's the problem) Ryan Reynolds comedy-drama, "Chaos Theory"; another heavy-breathing David Ayer nasty-cops thriller, "Street Kings," starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker; a pleasantly shallow French Riviera comedy with Audrey Tautou, "Priceless." Avoid the turgid "Dark Matter," about a Chinese grad student going psycho in American academia, even if Meryl Streep is in it (in a smallish role). As for "Prom Night," which didn't screen for critics -- well, you're on your own there.

Nice round-up at the Museum of Fine Arts of the rock docs of Murray Lerner through April 20 -- tonight you can see his very fine "Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who," while tomorrow at 3 pm is the first of five screenings of Lerner's latest, "The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival," which compiles footage of Dylan's 1963-1965 transformation from folkie sensation to thermonuclear rock and roller.

One last thing: Starting Monday, BU hosts the first Boston Muslim Film Festival -- a good idea with a strong group of films you won't find anywhere else.

Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek

Here's something for you Justice League fans to chew on, and wonder what might have been. Jason Reitman revealed on Howard Stern that he was offered the director's chair for Justice League Is Mortal, and turned it down. Let's hear from the man himself, thanks to Slashfilm:

"I had to sign something, they send me the script and it comes on this spy paper which cant be xeroxed. They have a time when I have to have the script back to them and the script is fine and I could be spending ... What am I going to do with Justice League of America? So, basically I'll make a movie that is not as good as X-Men, then I'll be the guy who made a movie not as good as X-Men." Later in the show, he revealed that he would have been given a budget of $150 million.

Continue reading Jason Reitman Turned Down 'Justice League'

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This just in: the decidedly odd couple of Shia LeBoeuf and Julie Christie will appear together in a segment of the upcoming anthology film "New York, I Love You" that was penned by Anthony Minghella before his unexpected death last month. The Hollywood Reporter has the details.

Minghella was intending to direct as well; "Elizabeth" helmer Shekhar Kapur has stepped in to take his place.

Currently filming, the film's a spin-off of the recent omnibus "Paris, Je T'aime," which unloosed 18 directors (and a lot of actors) on 18 stories set in the City of Light. It's a franchise now, apparently, with entries spotlighting Shanghai, South America, and Africa to follow in due time.

The directors for the segments in "New York, I Love You" -- I do hope they've got the rights to the great LCD Soundsystem song of that name -- are an art-house dream: Mira Nair ("The Namesake"), Fatih Akin ("Head-On"), Yvan Attal ("Happily Ever After"), Andrei Zvyagintsev ("The Return"), Joshua Marston ("Maria Full of Grace"). Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson will both be making their directing debuts; Portman has already fallen afoul of the local Hasidic community by casting one of their own as her husband (he was pressured to quit).

The most intriguing part of the Minghella-penned segment -- in which movie legend Christie and Indiana Jones plaything LeBeouf are cast as two people who meet in a hotel that is "between worlds" -- is that someone compares it to the director's early masterpiece "Truly, Madly, Deeply." Okay, count me in.

Filed under: RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

Unlike The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Heath Ledger completed his scenes for The Dark Knight before his shocking death. But one of the first questions to pop up in the aftermath was how this would affect the film -- could viewers stomach his portrayal in the same way? It's impossible to eradicate thoughts of his death from the mind as the news continues to grow and audiences finally break through the doors to see for themselves.

However, according to Cinema Blend, there have already been screenings, and they've presented problems for the dark and sure-to-be-awesome film. One scene in particular has been bothering audiences to the point that it might be completely removed from the film.

Hit the jump to find out more, but move on if you want no details about the brief scene.

Continue reading Will Some of Heath's Joker Scenes Be... Bagged?

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Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Columns, Film Clips

One of my favorite bloggers, Jim Emerson, gives Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells a virtual bitchslap for a recent post Wells made on his favorite topic: how he doesn't believe guys who look "normal" (i.e., to him, fat and ugly) really score with beautiful women. In a post last month titled "Eclipse of the Hunk," Wells starts off by talking about the opening of the Judd Apatow-produced Forgetting Sarah Marshall, then goes on to mourn the loss of sexy, buff leading men and the success of Judd Apatow's films, in which dorky guys like Seth Rogen and Jason Segel get the hot chicks. Emerson excerpts my favorite quote from Wells piece:

"Taking their place are guys who look like real guys, which means almost never slender or buffed, and frequently chunky, overweight or obese. And usually with roundish faces with half-hearted beard growth, hair on their backs, man-boobs with tit hairs, blemishes, and always horribly dressed -- open-collared plaid dress shirts, low-thread-count T-shirts with lame-ass slogans or promotions on the chest, long shorts and sandals (or flip-flops), monkey feet, unpedicured toenails."

Continue reading Film Clips: Where are the Movies Where Unattractive Women Score Hot Guys?

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Filed under: Sports, Celebrities and Controversy

No, this isn't an acting gig for the two directors, nor is it a new collaborative effort to come after a little Zack and Miri porno. It is actual, real-life sports blogging. Yahoo/AP reports that both Jason Reitman and Kevin Smith will join The Hills' Lauren Conrad, and country music star Dierks Bentley to write blogs professing their love of hockey for the National Hockey League's website. This is cool and all, but where's Mike Myers?

Well, at least there's the Juno director and a man who loves watching kids say "aboot." Reitman says: "I'd come to really love the game and I was just a little upset because I felt there was more of an opportunity, for particularly Americans, to know about the game and follow the game." For the director, who is a fan of two teams that didn't make the playoffs (the Canucks and the Kings), he plans to "write a kind of mythical blog about what the Canucks and Kings would be doing had they still been in. In my version, for the first time in NHL history, the Canucks and the Kings will be the first two Western conference teams to actually meet in the Stanley Cup finals." There is no word on what Smith's plans for the blog are, but considering the fact that the filmmaker is an old-school blogger, it should be fun.

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The Canadian film website Movies Online has come up with a list of Top 20 Feel-Bad Movies of the Past 20 Years, and it's worth chewing over. Of course the wrist-slitters at both ends of the list are Canadian, but they've got "Jesus' Son" in there (Billy Crudup as a heroin addict and the best title ever taken from a Velvet Underground song) and "Igby Goes Down," which is an underrated movie even if it's not a colossal bummer. "Lilya 4-Ever," about a teenage sex slave? Essential to a list of this type and, sadly, also essential viewing.

But, sheesh, where's the work of Todd Solondz -- grim masterpieces like "Welcome to the Dollhouse" and "Happiness"? Talk about bleak. Or Tim Blake Nelson's "The Grey Zone," a death-camp movie that never lets up? And, while we're at it, where's either version of Michael Haneke's "Funny Games"? If the aim is to beat an audience into cowering submission, you can't do better. Except maybe a Michael Bay movie.

It's also notable that it's a list of the last 20 years, which leaves out the New Hollywood of the 1970s -- how convenient. Downer dramas like "The Parallax View," "The King of Marvin Gardens" (photo above, and, yes, that's Jack Nicholson), and, hell, "Chinatown" would overwhelm this group like a tsunami.

Your own choices for the biggest movie bummer ever? Send 'em on in.

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Exhibition

It's official! Harry Potter, otherwise known as Daniel Radcliffe, is heading to Broadway. Back in September of last year, I posted about the Brit's plans to reprise his starring role in Equus on Broadway, dropping trou for a whole new set of fans. Now Yahoo has confirmed it.

The young actor will make his Broadway debut on September 5 of this year, in previews for a limited, 22-week run that will stretch from September 25 to February 8 of 2009. Yes, folks, that means he'll be in New York City as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hits theaters. I'm thinking that the chances for a big premiere in the Big Apple are pretty darned good -- and just think -- if you book tickets for the play around November 2, you can have a double Radcliffe whammy!

Thea Sharrock is directing the play, which is based on the true story of a troubled young man who blinds horses with a metal hoof pick. Richard Griffiths (who plays Uncle Vernon in the Potter franchise) will also reprise his role as the psychiatrist who treats Radcliffe's troubled lead. Now the question becomes: Will Daniel's nudity and smoking create an uproar here as well? He is now 18, so that should stop some of the skin qualms, but the Big Apple certainly isn't the most smoke-friendly city these days.

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Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Trailers and Clips

You might remember how the other day Cinematical and FEARnet writer Scott Weinberg clued us all in to an interview FEARnet conducted with the infamous director Uwe Boll. Shortly after our post hit, it quickly made its way all over the web -- with thousands upon thousands of people signing a petition to stop Boll from making anymore movies. See, in the interview he said he'd stop if the petition was signed by one million people. Not sure if he knew this at the time, but the internet loves a challenge.

Well, now, Boll has put out a video asking fans to start up a pro-Boll petition. Oh yes, and he wants one million folks to sign that as well. I love this guy -- hearing him, he sounds like the bizarro Arnold Schwarzenegger. Why does he want you to sign a pro-Boll petition? Well, because -- and I quote -- he's "not a f**king retard like Michael Bay or other people running around in the business ... or Eli Roth making the same sh**ty movies over and over again. If you really look at my movies, you will see my real genius."

He's definitely a unique individual -- I'll give him that. Then again, this could be wonderful promotion for his next film Postal, which comes out in May. Hmmm ... maybe Boll is a genius. Check out his scathing video message after the jump (and, yes, it's probably NSFW).

[Thanks Anthony]

Continue reading Uwe Boll Trashes Michael Bay, Eli Roth and Anti-Boll Petition

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