Not to be outdone by Megan Fox, Christian Bale was photographed on the set of David O. Russell’s The Fighter yesterday looking extremely thin. And unlike Ms. Fox, Bale doesn’t seem to have needed a corset (though who knows what’s under that striped shirt?). Of course, after the method actor’s appearances in The Machinist and Rescue Dawn, this physical transformation is pretty tame.
Yet that doesn’t mean the online media can’t describe him as looking “crack cocaine addicted,” as Just Jared did in its posting of the pics. What, no “bulimic Batman” jokes? Oh, I guess the drug reference is more appropriate to the film in question, as Bale will be portraying former boxer Dickie Eklund, who actually was addicted to crack.
Well, appropriateness or not, let’s crack [no pun intended] some jokes. Best zingers from the film blogs can be found after the jump:
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Everyone was talking today about how Mark Wahlberg’s long-delayed boxing movie The Fighter is finally back on track now that David O. Russell has been tapped to direct and Christian Bale is set to co-star. Some have obviously noted the potential for problems during the shoot, since both new players have had their share of outbursts on film sets, but otherwise most of us are excited about Bale reteaming with the producers of 3:10 to Yuma and Russell back together with Wahlberg for their third collaboration (following the terrific Three Kings and the disappointing I Heart Huckabees).
Anyway, because I’ve been looking at viral marketing gimmicks all day long, I have a crazy idea for Paramount Pictures’ promotion of the “Irish” Mickey Ward biopic: live reality series. Let us watch as the whole thing unfolds, unedited and raw, via webcams. Will Russell and/or Bale shout at a cast or crew member? Will the film be shut down due for financial reasons (even if Reality Media has enough money, it should pretend it doesn’t, just to create drama out of Russell)? We’ll all be tuning in. And then we’ll probably also show up to see the finished product when it hits theaters, too.
Other blogger reactions to the latest Fighter news after the jump:
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I found it unnecessary yesterday to be the billionth blogger to link to the Christian Bale tirade, but today I want to roundup some of the damage control, both direct and indirect, that should hopefully water down the seemed significance of yet another recording of yet another actor having yet another bad day. Because when big media like the Daily News finds it newsworthy and gets poll results from readers believing it to be more “bad attitude” than “bad day,” it’s necessary to spin the positive and concentrate on what we should be concentrating on: the actual movie being made.
- So, first direct your attention to some cool Terminator Salvation images recently published by Wired, and specifically focus on the image of the “Hydrobot” (thanks to I Watch Stuff for spotlighting it). Is this some kind of special tribute to two of James Cameron’s other great films? And should we be on the lookout during the film for sinking ships and flying Piranhabots?
- Nikki Finke has updated her initial post with a quote from an unnamed source: “Christian and the DP are all good now. It happened. It was one isolated event. He regrets that he lost his temper.”
- 1st AD Bruce Franklin, who was somewhat involved in the incident, also defends Bale to E! News as simply having had a bad day: “He is so dedicated to the craft. I think someone is begging to make some noise about this, but I don’t think it’s fair. The art of acting is not paint by numbers, it’s an art form.”
- Similarly Terminator Salvation costar Terry Crews comes to Bale’s defense on Hollyscoop: “He is a class act! He is one of the greatest actors ever. You can catch anyone on a bad day.”
- Heckler Spray’s Stuart Heritage believes that after last year’s arrest coinciding with the release of The Dark Knight, this rant is merely Bale’s latest means of film promotion: “Christian Bale’s next movie is the Michael Mann film Public Enemies. Lord alone knows how he’s going to promote that one, but we’d wager that it’ll involve a tank of petrol, a lighter, a box of puppies and some sort of tribal dancing.”
- Rope of Silicon highlights both Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and the David O. Russell/Lily Tomlin incident as proof that blow-ups like this are not uncommon.
- Cinematical’s Scott Weinberg and William Goss have made a parody audio that shows just how common such work-related tirades can be. Yes, even bloggers have bad days.
- Of course, others are using this as an opportunity to show how perfect their own sets are. On The Today Show this morning, Matt Lauer and friends shared a similar incident involving a wandering crew member that didn’t result in bad behavior. Watch the better-than-thou display here.
- Finally, the best way to positively spin a negative story such as this? Dance remix! Check it out after the jump.
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The headline to this Hollywood Reporter story is pure provocation: “Has ThinkFilm Lost Its Mind?” The three pages that follow offer little in the way of analysis of the sanity of the studio’s recent moves; instead, Alex Ben Block contrasts angry accusations from filmmakers who claim to have been wronged by the distributor, with defensive statements from Think/Capitol Films head David Bergstein.
The big takeaway (beyond Betstain’s annoying insistence that “he has image problems because nobody in Hollywood really knows him”) is his repeated claim that he’s not really concerned with the short term profits and losses associated with theatrical releases (which probably won’t sound like news to certain filmmakers he’s worked with over the past year). Instead, he’s got his eyes on building a digital rights library that can be leveraged when the current modes of distribution and consumption become extinct. “Our business plan is not so much about the movie business,” he told Block. “It’s really to build a global digital distribution business. It’s based on the expectation that in the not too distant future most content will be delivered digitally and on-demand.”
And apparently, he’s perfectly content enraging filmmakers and creditors today in order to come out ahead of the flop on a longer timeline. More details––including details on Bergstein’s future acquisitions plans, the status of David O. Russell’s beleaguered Think production, and testimony from apparently the only Think-associated filmmaker willing to come out and defend the company’s leader––after the jump.
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Nailed, that David O. Russell film that keeps having to halt production because of THINKFilm’s financial troubles, has 
American Gangster
