Nothing hurts the credibility of the film blogosphere like bad rumors. Not even supercilious comments from Armond White or Peter Bart (before he gave in and started blogging himself) have cut so deep as the embarrassment of believing word about an E.T. sequel, Daniel Radcliffe being cast as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit or Megan Fox signing on to play Wonder Woman.
In the past 24 hours the film blogosphere experienced what I believe to be the worst movie rumor of all time: a “supported” claim by MarketSaw that George Lucas is planning a new Star Wars trilogy that would be shot in digital 3-D and directed by such prestigious filmmakers as Lucas buds Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. Fortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of people fooled and the rumor was debunked right away, but it still made me slap my forehead to see so many sites running the story, even if to comment on how unlikely it sounded or to relay its lack of truth.
Of course, by featuring the topic for this Bloggery post, I’m contributing to the unfortunate attention the rumor is receiving. But with a week left before SpoutBlog discontinues original content, I figure it’s more important than ever to focus on what’s wrong with the movie blogs, so others are able to fluorish.
To add my own two cents to the concept behind the rumor, though, I’d just like to say that nobody should ever be excited about the idea of either Spielberg or Coppola helming a Star Wars movie. We’re already aware that the former can make a terrible flick out of Lucas’ writing, and you must realize that Coppola’s installment would be more Captain EO (a 3-D movie co-written by Lucas) than The Godfather. Or, worse, like Jack in outer space.
Check out the other film blogs’ coverage of and response to this ridiculous hoax after the jump:
…Read more
We feel really bad about spotlighting Michael Jackson in three spots on our “Creepiest Kids’ Movies List” yesterday. If we had known he was going to die of cardiac arrest within hours of that post’s publication, we would have maybe limited his presence to one included film, if any at all.
To make up for the dishonor, we now would like to spotlight the connection he had to cinema through his collaborations with great filmmakers. Due to his talent, success and financial status, he was able to work with a number of important directors, both in movies and in music videos. Some were already prominent when MJ hired them; others were strictly music videomakers who would go on to significant feature filmmaking careers. Some collaborations were also better than others, so we’ve ranked them in order from worst to best.
…Read more
This post has been updated to reflect the fact that Michael Jackson, according to all major media outlets, has died.
Earlier today, David Poland wrote a post titled Death is the Ultimate Disinfectant, in which he noted that most of those memorializing Farrah Fawcett (whose death was announced earlier today) have conveniently chosen to forget “more than a decade of bad public behavior and questions about mental health.” One can only imagine what kind of “disinfectant” will be needed in the coming days, now that it has been confirmed that Michael Jackson has indeed died.
Though mainstream media outlets initially reported that the performer (and, arguably, the inspiration for the kind of gawking that the modern gossip monster has risen to accommodate) had gone into cardiac arrest, the LA Times, and virtually everyone else, are now reporting that Michael Jackson has died. MSNBC announced the news by breaking into a report about how, just last week, Jackson was training with Lou Ferrigno.
Last fall, I wrote a piece on Michael Jackson Thrill the World, an event Alamo Drafthouse in Austin that combined a boozy sing-a-long to Jackson’s epic videos with a “Thriller” dance lesson. As, I wrote then, “Watch three or more Michael Jackson videos back-to-back-to-back and, whatever you think of the man or his music, it’s impossible to deny that no pop star has ever really tried to top him in terms of sheer scope. And even when he’s very, very bad, he’s compelling.” On that note, let’s revisit one of his many collaborations with legendary filmmakers after the jump.
…Read more
