Sometime-Moldy Peach Adam Green talks to Gothamist about promoting the Juno soundtrack by playing The View: “They gave me a year’s supply of Café Bustelo for playing. Anyways I got a check for $900 with Mickey Mouse’s head printed on it. Me and my girlfriend couldn’t figure out why Disney was sending me money. It turns out that they own The View. But I’m glad that they don’t censor what Whoopie says.”
FEARnet presents its list of Top 10 MILFS. “But don’t worry, were not talking incestuous mother-f-ing action here: we’re talking FEARnet MILFs!…the Moms I Like to FEAR!” It’s a lot better than it sounds. Via Tisch FIlm Review.
Above: a frame from Amy Winehouse’s attempt to remake Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend. J/K!
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Two films that came together under the shadow of Heath Ledger's death are expected to be big with buyers. Also: details about Terrence Malick's TREE OF LIFE! Sort of!
In a story published online last night, Variety’s Sharon Swart named the 15 films across both the Cannes Film Festival and the Cannes market that are expected to attract the most attention from buyers. At least one of the titles, Steve McQueen’s Hunger, has been bought in the hours since the story hit the website. At least one more, described as a “martial arts fantasy actioner, currently shooting in Romania…[starring] Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore and Japanese popstar Gackt,” sounds unspeakably (but not necessarily unsaleably) ridiculous.
Two more of the films on Swart’s list are related in that they were made the focus of unexpected and unwanted attention in January by the death of Heath Ledger.
Behold the best in movie marketing over the past year.
The 9th Annual Golden Trailer Awards were held in Los Angeles last night with what seems like a thousand winners announced in all sorts of categories representing movie marketing. There were awards for trailers, TV spots and posters divided up by genre (comedy, drama, horror, independent, etc.) and technical achievement (sound editing, motion graphics, etc.). While having too many categories can lead to questions of consistency — how does The Dark Knightbeat out Iron Manfor Best Action trailer but the latter film wins the Summer 2008 Blockbuster award? — it’s interesting to know which film’s ad employs the best music (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and which has the best voice-over (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford).
Regarding Jesse James‘ win, though, I have to wonder how a film’s marketing can be so great if it doesn’t actually bring in an audience. In addition to its trailer being honored, its poster also won in the Best Drama category. Plus (and this is me just being picky), isn’t awarding the trailer’s voice-over a bit unfair considering it just utilizes part of Hugh Ross’ narration from the actual film? To me, this category should probably be honoring those “In a world … ” trailer voice-over guys. Nonetheless, I do love the trailer and the film and so I’ve included it for repeat viewing above.
Of course I understand that the Golden Trailers are more an honoring of craft than of successfulness. Still, if the trailer for In Brugesand the stencil poster for Ramboare the most original works in film marketing in the past year, we need some new designers right away.
Check out the list of winners and nominees after the jump
That improbable release date quoted in the Entertainment Weekly story about W? Variety has confirmed it. Apparently, Lionsgate is all set to release Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush movie on October 17…even though it’s not even going to begin shooting until May 12. I’m sure it’s technically possible to finish casting, shoot, edit and promote an ensemble cast biopic about the president of the United States in five months (actually, I’m not sure, but I’ll give Stone the benefit of the doubt). I’m just not sure such a total rush job is really the best breeding ground for a great work of political criticism. Hope I’m wrong!
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Screen Daily reports that the sequel to Donnie Darko, which begins shooting on May 18, will be looking for international buyers in the Cannes Market. Wait, back up––there’s a sequel to Donnie Darko? Yeah, and Richard Kelly, who is quietly working on a mainstream horror film in the aftermath of Southland Tales, has nothing to do with it. S. Darko will focus on Donnie’s youngest sister, played as she was in the earlier film by Daviegh Chase, and will catch up with the character seven years after her brothers death, when she and a friend embark on “a roadtrip to Los Angeles when they are plagued by bizarre visions.” So presumably, her commitment to Sparkle Motion will not be an issue. The film, which will be helmed by Nightstalker director Chris Fisher, has apparently already secured U.S. distribution through Fox.
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A day after learning and announcing that his job at Premiere.com had been eliminated, Glenn Kenny has already set up a new personal blog, free of association with Premiere/Hachette. Well, sort of: the subtitle on the TypePad blog is, currently, “Film writer Glenn Kenny’s own bought-and-paid-for-blog, thank you very goddamn much.” The title-title is Some Came Running, and in the first entry, Kenny explains what he hopes to do with it: “Consider this space the drunken boat we stand in, trying to pull either and/or both of these figures in. Not to be loopy, or maudlin, or anything. Just a fancy way of saying…let’s hang, my friends.”
Related: “Hachette has always been an abortion of a magazine company,” writes Nick Denton at Gawker.
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You've been looking at Jessica Alba for years. Now it's her turn to look back.
If there’s one actress working today who best reinforces the theories of Lauren Mulvey, it’s Jessica Alba. And she encourages the male gaze by maintaining a career centered on playing eye candy, whether she’s having her skirt ripped off to expose her underwear (Good Luck Chuck), spending the majority of a film wearing a bikini (Into the Blue), playing a stripper (Sin City), being used to invoke jealousy (Meet Bill) or invoking erectile gags out of Mike Myers (The Love Guru). Perhaps someone should write a lengthy article on the myriad ways in which Alba relates to feminist film theory. I think her role as Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Fourmovies and her blind character from The Eye (who identifies herself with the dead woman whose eyes she acquires) can each inspire a few interesting theses.
Obviously Alba is aware of the male gaze and may in fact be controlling it. It’s possible even that her participation in the online staring contest at ibeatyou.com is a matter of ironic reflexivity. Watch the clip of her first-place-winning stare and you’ll understand what I mean. It’s like she’s welcoming our lustful eye and then seemingly returning the gaze, hypnotizing us into thinking she desires us, too. Certainly there are a number of men out there becoming simultaneously turned on and disturbed by this video. And hopefully there are some feminist critics taking notes on it as well.
Your Blogger is having some computer issues this morning. While I get sorted, check out this blog post from Roger Ebert , in which he ponders the never ending Democratic primary in cinematic terms. “It must have been a species of torture for the anchors at CNN, who seemed caught in a Groundhog Day loop… The problem with a screenplay based on these events is that there would be a merciless sameness.” That quote brought to mind two things. First, this has probably been done already, but someone should do some kind of linguistic/historical study, charting the evolution of references to that movie as a universally identified synonym for eternal recurrence. Also: YouTube! The above clip, Groundhog Day in 5 Seconds, which reduces the Bill Murray classic to nothing but merciless sameness.
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Computer generated super machines run by conflicted heroes tethered to ladies who just can’t quit them–summer has arrived. And we’re loving it. Iron Man won the democratic primaries this week by staying away from controversy. The Marvel Universe will change how business gets done in Hollywood and Speed Racer is… different. Like Warhol making out with Walt Disney.
That improbable release date quoted in 
A day after learning and 
