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Jam Master Jay Gets His Biopic. Trade Roughage 01/29/09

Christopher Campbell
By Christopher Campbell posted 9 months ago
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  • At least three SpoutBlog commenters will be happy to learn that Notorious screenwriter Cheo Hodari Coker is next adapting Bill Adler’s book on Run DMC, Tougher Than Leather. Two weeks ago, when I responded to the Biggie Smalls biopic with a list of 5 Dead Rappers Who Need a Biopic, I excluded Run DMC’s Jam Master Jay on account he was a DJ, not a rapper. But SpoutBlog readers nevertheless pointed out my error and suggested he and his group get a biopic anyway.
  • Another screenwriter goes from one bio to another: A Mighty Heart scribe John Orloff is next scripting the Ian Fleming film Fleming.
  • Two of this year’s Oscar nominees are teaming up for a movie that certainly won’t garner them future Academy attention: Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy will rewrite the existing draft of the Amy Adams vehicle Leap Day, a lame-sounding romantic comedy that should appropriately only play in theaters on February 29, 2012 and then disappear for at least four years.
  • Who knew Bicycle Thieves screenwriter Suso D’Amico is still alive? The 94-year-old Oscar-nominee will receive the WGA’s inaugural Jean Renoir Award next month and will be celebrated at the WGA Awards, held February 7. Thank goodness she can finally belong to a club that would honor Diablo Cody before recognizing one of the greatest female screenwriters of all time.
  • Twenty years late, Ron Howard’s Parenthood is being adapted into an hour-long TV series for NBC. The network previously aired a short-lived TV version of the film in 1990 (it starred a young Leonardo DiCaprio in the young Joaquin Phoenix role), but this new show will have more time to focus on parenting challenges in “this post-Facebook, post-iPod world.”
  • If there are any big Chronicles of Narnia fans left out there, you’re going to get your third movie after all.
James Bond: Blu-ray, Bond Blu-ray

James Bond: Blu-ray, Bond Blu-ray

Kevin Kelly
By Kevin Kelly posted 1 year ago
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Daniel Craig’s James Bond in Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale might eschew gadgets in lieu of a hard punch to the nose, but it’s hard to argue that the best Bond gadget in recent years isn’t the invention of the Blu-ray DVD. Now the classic Bond films have started appearing in the format with upgraded images, sound, and a slew of special features. Casino Royale was previously released on DVD as one of Sony’s first “must have” discs to show off your Blu-ray player (which was probably a Sony PlayStation3), but now they’re visiting a smattering of different Bonds in this first release.

As I’ve learned in my adult life, there are sometimes those moments that you realize you’re probably unhealthily obsessed with something. For me, that moment came when I was seriously considering purchasing a $2,999 framed collage featuring signatures of all the actors who had played James Bond in the “official” movies, along with various playing cards, casino chips, photos and what not. I ultimately had to pass on it, and my wallet was grateful after the fact.

Thankfully there are much more affordable ways to feed this obsession, some of which can be documented in the series of Bondcasts that I used to host with Athena Stamos at Cinematical. One of those ways has been collecting the James Bond movies on DVD. There have been not one, nor two, but now three different collections of Bond issued on DVD, and while I really miss the menu screens from the first set, (”Please activate your remote control to activate the Goldfinger Special Edition DVD” — complete with an extremely Bondian gadgetlike interface), you can’t argue that Blu-ray is definitely giving the previous James Bond films a shot in the arm.

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James Bond: Beyond Ian Fleming

James Bond: Beyond Ian Fleming

Kevin Kelly
By Kevin Kelly posted 1 year ago
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Ian Fleming would have been 100 years old in May of this year, but he sadly passed away in 1964 at the age of 56. He published 11 different James Bond novels after creating the character in 1953’s Casino Royale, and also published two collections of James Bond short stories. However, his most famous character has lived on despite the death of the creator, and after 22 movies he shows no signs of slowing down. Here’s a look at the ways in which Bond has continued to exist in the book world through different several different writers, reboots, and reimaginings.

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