I had heard a couple of weeks ago that Bennett Miller, director of The Cruise and Capote, had directed a short film that was to be shown at the Oscars. The short apparently included interviews from “regular filmgoers.” I know that at least two known film bloggers were interviewed for it, including one who has contributed to SpoutBlog (not me). But as the show stretched into its third hour and nothing resembling what I had heard about the Miller short had yet shown on the broadcast, I started to wonder about its fate. I Twittered to that effect, and I got a private email in response from someone close to the production of the short (and not one of those interviewees, I assure you):
People at Radical Media (the producer) said it wasn’t great - too many old white men - more Mickey Rooney than Mickey Rourke - apparently it got cut…Also, as of Friday night they thought it was in, I don’t know who or when the decision to cut it was made. That being said, the show was 4 hours without so…
I had heard that the short had been set to open the show; I was personally surprised when the telecast started with Hugh Jackman on stage, just because that seemed extraordinarily abrupt in comparison to the montages that have opened the show in years past. The New York Times reports that the Miller short was seen in the Kodak Theater, but didn’t make it to telecast. Did you see it? Do you have any idea why it wasn’t shown to TV audiences? Please let us know.
UPDATE: I’m now hearing that four clips were cut hours before broadcast, as producers calculated the show would run 40 minutes over if they left them in. More details as they come in, until I stop caring…
UPDATE 2:40 PM: The short film is embedded above, via Vanity Fair. Looks like none of our blogger friends made the celebrity-studded final cut, but Jay and Mark Duplass did.
After flocking to theaters for the PG-rated Paul Blart: Mall Cop, is America ready for the R-rated version? That will be decided when Jody Hill’s Observe and Report hits theaters this April (and before that, SXSW next month). Starring Seth Rogen in the Kevin James role, the later of “the dueling mall cop movies” has a new NSFW red-band trailer, and it has all the Blart-haters on the net (many of whom probably didn’t see the movie) all excited. Never mind if Observe will be better (it will be for those who prefer a lot of F-bombs in their comedies), the real question is whether or not a darker, raunchier version of a movie that’s already a box office hit will in turn be a flop. Especially in these times of speculating that audiences want more hopeful yet more mindless entertainment. Considering Observe seems almost like a bridge between Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Taken, which took the box office top spot away from Blart a few weeks ago, it’s plausible that this could actually be Rogen’s biggest hit yet.
After the jump, check out the trailer and what people around the blogosphere are saying about it: …Read more
It was shut out of the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature, but Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, now playing in New York City, could easily inspire a Hollywood film about the life of its heroic subject. And that dramatic version could potentially garner multiple Academy Award nominations. It wouldn’t be the first time a figure documented in a nonfiction film was later portrayed in an Oscar-nominated movie. In fact, one of this year’s Best Picture contenders, Milk, is almost like a remake of the 1984 Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk.
To carry on the tradition, we’ve selected nine nonfiction films in addition to Blessed is the Match that would make great dramatic features. …Read more
Earlier this year, I thought that it was way too late for a Sex and the Citymovie. But then it made a ton of cash, so I guess I was wrong. Still, I’m going to continue similarly thinking it’s too late for another X-Filesmovie. And even if I’m proven wrong and the masses get out to theaters this weekend in search of the truth, I’ll keep on believing that X-Files: I Want to Believeis way past its time.
To celebrate Mulder and Scully’s tardiness, here are 10 other movies that came out too late:
The Godfather Part III(Released in: 1990; Should have been released in: 1976) - Never mind the fact that had this third installment been made years earlier, Sofia Coppola wouldn’t have been cast and therefore wouldn’t have given her terribly infamous performance. The more important matter is that sequels arriving more than a decade after the previous installment are almost always doomed. The longer the wait, the higher the expectations, and the greater the disappointment. Of course, not everyone agrees that it was also too late for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Live Free or Die Hard, Rambo, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, etc. …Read more
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
filmcouch-114
After flocking to theaters for the PG-rated Paul Blart: Mall Cop, is America ready for the R-rated version? That will be decided when Jody Hill’s Observe and Report hits theaters this April (and before that, SXSW next month). Starring Seth Rogen in the Kevin James role, the later of “the dueling mall cop movies” has a new NSFW red-band trailer, and it has all the Blart-haters on the net (many of whom probably didn’t see the movie) all excited. Never mind if Observe will be better (it will be for those who prefer a lot of F-bombs in their comedies), the real question is whether or not a darker, raunchier version of a movie that’s already a box office hit will in turn be a flop. Especially in these times of speculating that audiences want more hopeful yet more mindless entertainment. Considering Observe seems almost like a bridge between Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Taken, which took the box office top spot away from Blart a few weeks ago, it’s plausible that this could actually be Rogen’s biggest hit yet.
